Author's Note:
Friends and fellow Bombermaniacs, I feel compelled to warn you that in my and Sora G. Silverwind's twisting of the Bomberman canon, some things you may not understand or comprehend in this fic. But that's okay, read it anyway.
As this fic was written for a birthday present (very belatedly) to Sora G. Silverwind, I dedicate this fic to her as the one who got me into the fandom in the first place, and for being 'round to bounce ideas of all the time. And, for sending me the Yousei Teikoku music that got me in the mood for this.
So, special thanks to Sora, Yousei Teikoku, and Hudson, for creating this awesome game (which I do not own, nor the characters within!).
Part 1
Everything was falling apart. Everything, coming apart at the seams.
It should've been routine. It should've been no different from the hundreds of other raids, missions, visits to alien planets and alien forces that would love nothing more than to rip them to pieces with their bare hands.
She ran, fists winging one ahead of the other as if she could will herself to go faster if she just put enough energy into it. Her booted feet clumpclumped on the soft, deceptively innocent pink soil of Kaos, and it was with tear-filled eyes that she looked up a kaleidoscope pastel sky, hurt, betrayal and disbelief speaking to the heavens above.
And still behind she could hear the faint shattering of stone, crushed by a blade of merciless crystal, a blade wielded by hands that she had once loved. The same hands that had brushed her hair and caressed her cheek, that had caught her when she stumbled and fell, that playfully seemed to have a mind of their own at times, those same hands were now turned against her, every cell of their being bent on killing her.
She remembered the blade itself, as she glimpsed it just before she took her parting shot and ran. A blade that ran with a variety of colours: angry crimson, electric green, and a melancholic blue – the blood of her shipmates, her friends, and her family for years. She had not seen them slain, but she had heard their dying cries on the wind – and no more voices answered her when she called out for help!, help!. All gone, all slain by the hand of her own loved one.
She had seen his eyes before she ran, just a single glimpse, a second in time gone before it could be recognized, hidden behind the too-wide brim of that ridiculous hat of his. Eyes normally the most coolest, iciest blue, one that showed every grace and refinement and dignity that was his trademark, but with a kind of fragility that had always made her love him so much.
Those eyes were now gone, replaced with a furor of red – the red of blood, the red of rage, the red of agony – mirroring what she felt as she looked into the eyes she had once loved, and saw no love returned there.
"I'll take great pleasure in devouring you, my love! Come to me, and let me wrap you in my embrace!"
The words rang in her head as she still ran on, sobs tearing from her throat with all the vehemence and despair the mouse must feel before the cat eats up the final moments of the mouse's life, and then ends it.
Her tears flowed freely now, drops of crystal in the angry violet light of Kaos' sun, drops of crystal that shone against the red river of her hair, her crimson tresses that she loved so much, flowing, cascading behind her, seeming to be breeze made physical as they blew in the rushing winds as she ran.
And still, the constant crushing, crashing, cacophony of stone shattered behind came to her – louder now, closer, and more hurried, as if the pursuer was infatuated with the thought of the kill and eager to achieve it.
Where, where had things gone wrong?
But that, alas, she knew all too well.
"Don't touch it, Rukifellth!" she said, hanging back worried as he strode forward.
He paused and looked back over his shoulder, playfulness mingling with love in his eyes. "Whyever not? It is what we came for, correct? The "black diamond" the letter spoke of. It's right here." He gestured to the cradle the jewel was caught in. The 'trees' of Kaos, which really were more akin to coral somehow growing on land, wrapped around the stone in a whirling embrace, cradling it as an object most precious on the tip of its fingers. The stone itself was just as the mysterious letter spoke of – tear-dropped shape, and indeed formed of the most purest and clear black diamond she had ever seen. And it seemed to shine from within of its own light.
Lilith hung back, uncertain, torn between waiting and the finding of the treasure. If they took it, it would most certainly make them rich beyond their wildest imaginings. "We should wait for the others," she said anxiously.
Rukifellth laughed. "You want this just as much as I, Lilith. I'll tell you what," he said, as he began to reach for the Stone. "With the fortune we make from this, dear one, I'll buy you a new dress to replace your old one – I am sorry about spilling that soup, by the way."
And then his hand clasped the Stone.
The earth rumbled as she ran on, the almost laughably colourful landscape of Kaos spread around her. She scanned the horizon and the land around her, looking through tears to try to find any sign of a landmark that would mark the way to the ship.
The rumbling intensified, and sudden the ground not ten feet in front of her suddenly shot up, roaring against the sky with the protest of stone-on-stone. She skidded to a stop, crashing against the stone of Kaos, grating her arm as if it were put through a cheese-scraper. Wincing, she turned and putting her back against the wall, drew her laser pistol with shaking hands.
There was a pause.
And then the comical-looking mountain of stone to her left exploded into fragments as he drove straight through the centre with a slash of his blade; cloak rippling in the wind and brimmed hat still pulled low.
"Why do you run, Lilith? Here, stop and let me kiss your tender lips. Or, better yet, let me slice them off so that I may kiss them whenever I wish!" The monster screamed, and throwing back his head, laughed long and loud, but the sound was of grotesquity.
Shrapnel flew high into the air and fell all around him, and she screamed, and began to fire.
He dodged and waved almost effortlessly through all her shots – she had never seen anyone move that fast! - until one of them scored across his chest, just brushing past the accursed black stone that still he clutched there. His lungs gave forth an ear-splitting shriek and for a moment he shivered in the air as if gripped by a chill, and the sword drooped in his hand.
He was helpless. She centred her pistol on him with the practice ease of one who had done so countless times, but her sight of him double-blurred with her tears, and her finger shook on the trigger. Her heart screamed at herWhat are you doing? while her mind screamed Put him out of his misery!
But, Fate dealt her a third option.
Just then, out of the corner of her eye she saw a section of the cliff behind her grumble, and down the exposed passage she saw one of the coral trees, tied with a yellow scarf – one of the ones they had tied to mark the way back to the ship. "Thank Mihaele for plainshift!" she cried, and hoped the volatile surface of Kaos wouldn't decide to change again anytime soon. She fired one more shot and then ran, the cliff wall just reforming behind her.
She ran down the passage, whirling around the corner just as the resounding crash of stone splintering rang forth. Lungs burning, she ran as fast as she could – though no matter how fast she ran, she could not outrun the sound of mad laughter behind her.
The cliffs fell away into open plain, a garden of small corals, and there, like a jewel of black regularity on this colourful hell, the Silverwind sat.
She began to run frantically towards it, dodging through bushes and past halls – but stopped short when she saw a woman, dark-skinned with a robe as pure as white, her hair the selfsame colour. And yet, even as her back was turned to her, it seemed that she was staring through the strange woman, that she was a mere film of life over this desolate planet.
The message had said Kaos was uninhabited. Nonetheless, she screamed in desperation: "Hey! Help! I'll do anything, pay any price, do whatever you want! Just help me now!"
The woman started and began to turn. She caught a glimpse of the woman's eyes, as dark as the nighttime sky flecked with stars, and deep as wells, and then suddenly she disappeared.
She shook her head and blinked her eyes and began to run again, spurred by laughter closing in quickly on her heels. Without reason, it suddenly seemed she had greater energy, and the land began to blur by quicker as she reached speeds she had never even dreamed of, and as she leapt, she covered great stretches of rose-coloured stone in single bounds. She would've laughed – but remembering his face, how it changed, was enough to kill her mirth.
The laughter died away behind her, and in no time at all, she reached the ship. She simply willed herself to stop and she did, kicking up an enormous cloud of dust. Dizzied, she whirled and raced for the opening of the ship, where Anmama Touk was throwing aside her book and jumping to her feet. Of Bjork, her mentor, there was no sight.
"Lilith, girl! What's wrong?"
"Everything! Where's Bjork?"
"He went looking for y'all after no one came back," Anmama said, and worry began to show in her eyes. "Why?"
After no one came back. The words tore like barbs in her mind, and she bit back a sob. So either everyone was dead, or they were still out there with that thing.
What thing? What happened?
"What happened?" Mama pressed, the gills that lined her head flaring.
There was a screech as Rukifellth drew his blade and clutching the diamond to his chest with his free hand, lunged at her, his eyes burning brilliantly red.
"Hah! I knew you'd turn on her one day, Rukifellth!" a voice rang out. "Have at you!" She saw Saliza Tan'ket, the ship's pilot, leap from a stone outcropping, sword drawn. The salamander-like man whipped his tail through the air, drawing in air through his skull-holes, and guided his sword straight towards Rukifellth's heart.
"Fool." A voice she no longer recognized as Rukifellth's spoke as he turned, blue-hair flying out onto the air. He met Saliza's attack with a blurred parry and immediately counterattacked even as he was driven back by the force of Saliza's charge. They duelled fiercely as the stone wall behind them closed in, and Lilith had not seen the like of it in any training session she had seen them engage in – two rivals, masters of the sword.
It was a blur of parry and riposte, counterstroke and countersix, a whirlwind of attacks where each strike became a parry and each defence became an attack. The very air between them distorted with the speed of their weapons, and then with horror she saw Saliza's blade knocked aside – and then they crashed into the stone, driving through the soft stone of Kaos and sending forth a cloud of dust.
When Rukifellth emerged, it was with blue blood on his blade. "Come, my love. Be the first sacrifice on the altar of my resurrection."
She began to run.
She finished relaying the events to Mama after a short while more, and she took one look at her tear-streaked face and said. "We have to leave them, or kill him," she said bitterly. "Sometimes in life, you have to swallow the pill of bitterness and gather up what's left."
"Mama," she said desperately. "We have to leave. There's no other choice. We'll come back for everyone soon, I promise."
"But the others-" Mama protested.
"Saliza's dead!" she cried. "I saw him killed with my own eyes! I am the Captain of this vessel and I say lift off!"
Mama's eyes hardened. "As you wish," she said curtly. But her eyes spoke a different story. You just don't want to kill him. "I'll pilot the ship." Without another word, she turned and disappeared into the hold of the ship.
Once she was gone, she turned and stared out of the pink world, the hell of Kaos that had brought them so much death and ruin. Why, why had they ever followed that letter?
"Come back," she urged the world. "Come back, everyone, I don't want to leave you."
But her only response was a black dot that appeared over the hills, flying closer and closer with each passing moment. She could see the violet glint of the sun off his blade from her, turning it into a indigo star – beautiful. But ultimately, deadly, dark, and evil.
The ship hummed to life as he drew nearer at a frightening pace. She could see his cerulean hair, discoloured by the light of the hellish sun. The engines kicked in and the door began to draw upwards, to seal the ship in.
As her view of Kaos diminished, she could see how close he was. Had they taken any more time, he would've reached them. She stared defiantly into his eyes, her own trembling ones into burning, merciless red.
"I will save you, Rukifellth," she promised. "Someday." There was love in her tone as the door closed, sealing them off from each other.
He cursed his body's limitations as he stared up at the rising ship. There went his way to escape this blasted prison he had been on for the last few eons, and with it, that girl…
A slow smile spread across his features. There wasn't any reason he could let them have a happy ending, was there? No, none at all..
He raised his sword in the air, resting it on his forearm, with the tip pointed precisely at the rising vessel. Shadow energy began to gather around him, funnelling into the crystal basis of his sword, and he silently gloried in his newfound body. In all respects, it was largely inferior to his, but it had its advantages.
Where the shadow gathered at the tip, it turned to gold and pulsated, waxing into a ball of energy. He prepared to unleash it.
Attracted by the sound of the humming engines, Renma stepped onto the field. The ship's gunner, who wore loose-pebbled skin of a purple-blue-pink blend and a heedful of tentacles, immediately took in the rising ship and the charging sword with a sharpshooters eyes. He trusted, respected Rukifellth, just as he'd trust any other of his shipmates – even Lilith. He drew his laser pistol and shot, just as the sword beam unleashed.
The laser travelled with perfect accuracy and hit the tip of the sword. It refracted harmlessly off the crystal, but knocked it off course. The beam of energy lanced into the sky – and missed.
Rukifellth-who-was-not turned around, irritated. He flicked his sword through the air and marched towards his former shipmate, careful to keep the diamond protected behind his back. "You will pay for that. Had I more time, infidel, I would make you scream and moan at the once for pain and for pleasure. Fortunately for you, I do not."
Renma was not so easily intimated, and quickly drew his other laser pistol from the leather holster crossed over his hips. He crossed his guns in front of him and looked down the sights, his eyes and fingers unmoving. "Eat this," he said, and began firing rapidly, each shot aimed expertly for his heart.
… but he faltered back in shock as Rukifellth, a grimace of pain and irritation on his face, simply shrugged off the attacks, even as they scorched through his body and ripped out the other side. Renma could see inside this monster – but instead of blood, there was a seething miasma of black energy.
"… W-what are you?" Renma said, as stood face to face with the beast.
Those would be his final words.
"Send my regards to Mihaele," he said, and buried his sword hilt-deep in Renma's gaping mouth.
He wiped the blood off on the body, and turning, frowned as he saw the ship was merely a sparkle in the sky. No matter. They were still dead in a matter of seconds.
From a bloodstained sheath tucked behind his cloak, Rukifellth drew a weapon Lilith would've recognized as Saliza's. Rukifellth raised it in his other hand, and clenching his fist around the blood, transmuted it into pure energy, which gathered and hummed around his blade as before. From his waist, he unclasped a belt of throwing daggers – they had belonged to an old man with a strong resemblance to the swordsman. He had killed him without a thought, and now the daggers went to feed his spell – to destroy the survivors. It was too perfect.
Once more, Rukifellth took aim.
After several moments, he knew the attack was ready. He unleashed it.
An arc of pure dark energy lanced towards the receding dot.
There was a pause.
And then the vessel burst into a glorious nova.
Rukifellth smiled, and pulled out the communicator he carried with him at all times. He punched in an SOS code, and set it to broadcast. Then began patiently waiting.
The first ship that ventured in, was his.
Short minutes before…
On board, as Lilith paced worriedly about the ship, distraught with guilt. Mama sat at the pilot's console, hurriedly charting them a course to Get the Hell Out of Here.
But even as she did so… she got the tingling, insistent feeling that something was wrong. Before she even turned her head to look at the screen projecting the pink-and-violet image of Kaos, she knew it.
She didn't have to see the plasmatic star that shone from the spot on the planet they had left to know they were in danger. Didn't have to see the way the thermal sensors were skyrocketing in the readout from that spot to know they were about to be attacked.
With an outer calm that belied her inner turmoil, Anmama Touk, who had once been the bartender at a Higehige-dan base when she was younger, who had loved a man and then seen him taken from her… she rose from her pilot's seat and walked back to Lilith, grabbing Bjork's belt of knives as she went by – the other one he had taken with him. She grabbed the redheaded pirate captain by the arm and led her into the depths of the vessel – thankfully, it was a small one, and so it did not take long. And all the way, she was talking softly.
"Lilith, there may be a problem with the ship, something we might've damaged in landing. I just have to fly around a little and make sure everything's okay, but I don't want to risk you, Captain. So if you don't mind, we'll put you in an escape pod for a little bit so you don't get hurt."
Lilith allowed herself to be sheparded along. "Okay… but-"
"No buts!" Mama said, and she forced herself to put a smile on her face. "You're the most important crew member, Lilith, so we can't leave you. Here, I even brought you Bjork's daggers," she said, and her smile quailed a bit. Another good man she loved, gone. "I'm sure he'd want you to have them." She said, and pushed Lilith into the escape pod with them, and hurriedly shut the door and pressed Eject.
She listened for the faint Whoosh of the capsule being launched, and then ran as fast as she could back to the deck, and picked up the mic.
"Attention, crew. This is Anmama Touk speaking – we've suffered heavy losses on the planet Kaos – the gunner, pilot, navigator, and captain are all lost, and we have reason to believe that the ship is about to be destroyed. You have been nothing but noble in your service to pirates such as ourselves, and it has been a pleasure serving with you all. And now, if you will, please join me in final prayer to Mihaele and her Knights…"
It was around when Lilith realized that the ship hadn't had a rough landing at all, that Saliza was a flawless pilot, far too much so for an amateur mistake like that… it was around then that she realized something was wrong.
She leapt to her feet and pressed her face to the window – just in time to be rocked back into her seat as a beam of energy impacted the ship, which exploded in nova. The shockwave pressed her against the cold steel and single chair of the round escape capsule, as the black sky outside transformed into a burning inferno of scarlets, yellows, midnights and violets as the engines ruptured, causing a second explosion which reduced the great ship into a mere cinder.
"Mama!" Lilith cried, staggering up and staring disbelievingly at the debris – all which remained of her surviving friends, her ship, her life. She began to sob again anew, and sank into the chair.
She would remain distraught for many more hours, but eventually, her natural instinct for survival kicked in, and she stood shakily to her feet. Strangely, she didn't feel as bad as she should've – it was almost as if a soft voice was there, speaking into her ear and reassuring her, a comforting blanket wrapped around her body, like a mother's touch.
In just one short day, everything in her life had been taken, torn up, and thrown out. Only two things remained to anchor her to her previous life.
One was the belt of daggers she still clutched. Bjork's. The man who had taken her in from a young age, cared for her, introduced her to Rukifellth when he came by on a routine inspection on behalf of his family, and had been as shocked as the rest of them when Rukifellth declared he did not want to return, and was joining them. Her constant mentor, a man who was almost a father to her.
The second was Rukifellth himself. She blamed herself for leading the ship to that damned crystal, for deciding to follow the letter. She had gotten the man she loved turned into a monster, a monster who slaughtered everything she had ever known.
She buried her face in her hands. Ultimately, she was responsible for everything, then.
She drew one of Bjork's daggers – small, merely six inches long, but perfectly balanced and perfect for throwing.
She contemplated taking that dagger and slitting her throat. Just putting an end to it as any respectable Captain should, going to with the ship, and with her sins. With everything she had done wrong.
For a moment, she almost did it. The blade was halfway to her throat when it froze, as she realized no, she couldn't do it. Not yet.
Not until she had saved Rukifellth, could she even think of suicide. So long as he was still in thrall of that damned crystal. Until he was back to the man he was.
And when he was, could she really leave him just as he returned?
No, she decided, she wasn't going to kill herself. Not now, not ever.
But, it wouldn't be the same Lilith who would rescue him. This Lilith was flawed, was a failure – after today, she would be a new woman.
And even as she thought this, something in her seemed to spark, and from her hand a golden glow spread to the dagger and wrapped around it before sinking in, lending it a strange, ethereal light. She brought it up to her eyes, wondering, and couldn't tell if it was of steel or of light.
It was a sign.
With her free hand, Lilith reached behind her head and gathered her hair together, as if she were to put it in a ponytail. It had been her pride and joy, her vanity – it reached down to the small of her back, a perfect waterfall cascade of crimson.
She reached behind with the knife and cut it off.
She sheathed the dagger and stood, her hair falling now to just above her shoulders. A new look of determination she wore on her face. Her fingers opened and let fall the cut strands of her hair, which one by one drifted like feathers to the floor.
Someday, she would save him.
She had sworn it, and this would be proof and reminder of that oath.
Someday, she would save him.