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Chapter Two: Wings
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If one were to travel north of New York City, a very strange building could be found. It's a large medieval European-style castle. Red banners hang from its walls, with some very risqué images printed on them. Over the entrance to the castle hangs a sign that reads "Brothel at the End of the World."
Inside of the castle sits a young woman who appears to be in her late teens or early twenty on a golden throne reading a book. She's about 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighs about 130 lbs with golden blonde hair and sky blue eyes. The throne room is decorated with a profusion of flowers, beautiful marble statues, and a fountain depicting three women bathing. All around the room women of various sizes, shapes, races and species in various kinds of clothes sit around talking, playing games, or napping.
This woman is named Babylon, the self-proclaimed Queen of the Whores. Before Halloween her name had been Barbie Patterson. She was a homeless teenage girl selling her body to get by. She had been molested by her stepfather from the time she was ten years old. At fifteen she finally had enough and ran away to New York City because she had no where to go.
On Halloween she found a toy crown someone had thrown and she put it on, joking with a customer that she was the all powerful Queen of the Whores, inspired by the various fantasy novels she had read as an escape from her life.
When the Event struck she became infused with immense magical power and a sense of pride and self-respect she had never had before. She took the name Babylon, after the biblical Whore of Babylon mentioned in the Book of Revelation, as a sign of her new status. She used her magic to help her fellow prostitutes escape from the city. They traveled north until she reached a spot that felt "right" and used her power to build her castle. She dubbed it the "Brothel at the End of the World" because it really did seem like the world had ended.
She put powerful wards on the castle to keep the monsters away, but that allow her customers in. The Brothel has become a haven for those working there, and many women who were previously not prostitutes have been willing to take up the oldest profession in the world in exchange for good food and a safe place to live.
Since money has become useless in this post-apocalyptic world, Babylon only accepts objects of great power and objects of great beauty in exchange for her girls' services. Her collection of the former is enough to make any Evil Overlord green with envy.
Babylon looks up to see someone walking into the throne room. It's a handsome young man with long red hair and blue eyes. He's wearing a white headband, a pink vest, white pants with a white belt, white boots with gold on the toes, black gloves with pink on the back that reach over his elbow, a golden pendant with a red jewel on his neck and a sword sheathed on his belt.
He seems to be practically drooling surrounded by so many beautiful women.
"Greetings" says Babylon.
"Why, hello there, hunny."
"How may I help you, Mr…?"
"The name's Zelos Wilder and I was just wondering how much it would be for a night with a couple of these lovely hunnies."
"Well, Mr. Wilder, how about that that lovely jewel?"
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"We are all rowing the boat of fate
The waves keep on coming and we can't escape
But if we ever get lost on our way
The waves would guide you through another day"
"Deidara, I swear if you do not stop singing, I'm going to orb you straight into the sky," says an irritated Paige Matthews.
"But, I'm bored-un. I haven't got to blow anything up forever and we've passed so many monsters-un."
"Be glad," interrupts Solomon, "I don't know if all four of would be enough to take on some of the things we've seen."
Paige silently agrees. When Deidara had finished their boat, Paige had cast a modified version of the spell she and her sisters had used to disguise themselves when the world and the underworld thought they were dead. That spell had made them look like other people, but the modified spell made the raft and everyone on it look like drifting debris.
Deidara pouts and begins talking to Higoi (who is currently flopping around on the boat and probably would've died had he been a regular fish) in Japanese, perhaps not realizing Solomon and Presea can understand him.
"So Solomon, you're kind of like a vampire, right? And you had a queen?" asks Paige
"Yes, why do you ask?"
"One time I was turned into a vampire, but I turned back when the vampire queen was killed. I was just wondering how they compare because my queen was evil."
"I suppose some people might consider Diva evil, but I think she was just troubled. The man who found her looked her away in a tower and performed experiments on her while he treated her twin sister like a princess. He didn't even give the poor girl a name. It made her childlike with a complete disregard for human life, but I think if she had just been able to have a family like she wanted, then she would've left the humans alone."
Paige understands what it's like to need family and feels a pang of sympathy for her.
"I sense danger," says Presea.
Everyone tenses and looks around immediately. A strange dense fog begins to creep into the area. Suddenly they all begin to feel cold. A feeling begins creeping up their bodies, except for Presea, who remains unaffected. The feeling is a sense of sadness and hopelessness. As the fog grows denser, the feeling begins to consume Solomon, Deidara and Paige.
Out of the fog, an army of shapes float over the water. They all appear human in shape, but are nearly ten feet tall. They are covered in black cloaks, except for their hands.
Presea quickly grabs her axe, Solomon transforms his hand into a blade, Paige quickly begins searching the Book of Shadows for a spell, and Deidara has the mouths in his hands start preparing some clay.
"Dementors. Harry Potter novel series. Affiliation: Evil. Threat Level: Extreme."
As the creatures approach the boat, Paige, Solomon, and Deidara begin to find it hard to stand, even to breath. Soul crushing depression begins to cloud their minds. Deidara is the first to completely collapse.
He remembers his death at the hands of Sasuke Uchiha, his art completely beaten. He remembers how he was forced to blow himself up with his ultimate technique in order to kill the brat, failing and being forever denied of vengeance on Itachi Uchiha. The memory plays itself over and over again until Deidara thinks he'll go insane.
Solomon is next to collapse. He remembers being forced to kill his chevalier brother Martin 1945 under orders from his older brother Amshel. He remembers helping his beloved Saya kill his brother Karl in 2006 again under orders from Amshel. He remembers finally dying in an alley after accidentally being stabbed by Saya's blood coated sword. He wishes he could die all over again.
Paige is the last to collapse. She remembers the car wreck that killed her parents, being helpless to save them from the flaming vehicle. She would've died with them if her powers hadn't suddenly saved her by orbing her out of the car. It's like all her thoughts are clouded in a black shadow.
Presea, having her emotions suppressed by her Cruxis Crystal, is not affected, but knows logically that her chances of success are virtually zero. She suspects that if she had the Diablos, a cursed axe that is one of a set of cursed weapons known as the Devil's Arms that grow stronger by killing monsters, her chances would be better as it has some kind of dark power. She also suspects if she could use Light magic like her half-elf companion Raine or angelic magic like Collette the Chosen One she could fight them. However, she has neither of those.
Yet still she doesn't feel fear. Mostly because her emotions are suppressed, but also because she knows the Dementors probably can't sense her since she doesn't feel happiness. Yet she feels something akin to disappointment at her inability to defeat them even with her Cruxis Crystal enhanced Slayer powers.
The Dementors slowly come to a stop and Presea turns to see why. Around Paige is an aura of white light. The aura coalesces around her back and forms a pair of angelic wings made of orbs. The wings stretch skyward and then surround the boat like a barrier. The Dementors back away a little, though do not retreat.
Inside of Paige's mind a battle is being waged. Her sad memories are being overcome by the hope she feels that she will be reunited with her sisters. As her hope grows stronger, she begins to feel warmth return to her body.
She stands up and her wings grow brighter and the Dementors move back a little farther from the light. A spell comes out of her mouth before she even knows it:
"Fiends who in darkness dwell
By my light your evil I dispel
And cast you all into Hell!"
A few of the Dementors explode into clouds that look like spores, but without the Power of Three Paige isn't strong enough kill many of them. The remaining Dementors emit an unholy sound that chills even Presea. Paige had done something nothing in their world could do: she killed one their kind.
All at once, they charge at the wing barrier. Their decayed hands try to reach the witch through the barrier, only to be burned and eventually pushed back. Paige repeats the spell, causing more to explode, whipping them into a greater frenzy. They try to push their entire bodies through her wings. Several of them almost make it, only to be blown up by Paige's spell.
Solomon and Deidara stand up, beginning to recover, but can only watch as Paige deals with the foul menaces.
"You can do it-un!"
"You're doing an excellent job, Paige," adds Solomon.
Paige smiles at them, but the truth is she is beginning to tire already. She's never been forced to use her magic like this and it's putting a big strain on her.
Her wings begin to dim and small trickle of blood comes out of her nose. Her knees buckles and she falls onto her hands and knees. She pants heavily and she continues reciting the spell.
Solomon and Deidara both run to her side to support her, both looking concerned.
"Are you okay(-un)?" the two blonds say at the same time.
She nods in response, "You guys just better pray to whatever gods you can think of that we get out of this alive."
"Okay-un!" Deidara yells, stretching his hands skyward, "Mighty Jashin-sama, I promise to offer you 1,000 infidels if you get us out of this!"
Solomon had never put much faith in religion, but he hopes against hope that there are gods watching over them in this world.
The cold chill begins to return as the Dementors slam themselves against the dimming barrier. Paige is looking very pale, she's breathing harder, and blood is still flowing from her nose. Finally, the barrier explodes outward and dissipates, temporarily pushing the Dementors back. Paige falls forward, caught by Solomon and Deidara.
"I'm sorry," she whispers and loses consciousness.
"You did fine-un."
Without the protective barrier, they are again exposed to the Dementor's power. Deidara doesn't care, he's running on pure anger and adrenaline, becoming serious for once.
"Protect her Solomon-un," he says, "I'm going to show these things my art-un."
"With my life," Solomon swears.
"You cannot succeed," says Presea.
"I have to. I can't allow myself to be killed before I prove the power of my art-un."
The Dementors seem to regain their sense and immediately charge again. They are met by hastily formed clay birds that explode upon coming in contact with them. The birds don't outright kill them, but the chakra infused in them can harm them and knock them backward. This is because chakra is a combination of physical and spiritual energy. The spiritual energy is what allows it to hurt creatures like Dementors and burn the flesh of vampires just like crosses and holy water. It can't do what Paige's magic can, but it's better than nothing.
Realizing that he can hurt these beasts, Deidara smirks and concentrates chakra on his feet and runs out on the water. Deidara is used to fighting at a distance, but he really doesn't have much choice now. He runs quickly through crowd, releasing shapeless globs of clay from the mouths on his hands that explode when he's barely out of the way.
Two of the Dementors put down their hoods downs, apparently intent on sucking out his soul. The ninja looks in disgust at their hideous, eyeless faces that have a hole where the mouth should be. He grabs their faces, ignoring the chill that shots through his entire body, and releases clay into their mouths. Their heads explode and the decapitated bodies sink underwater.
He manages to launch few mostly formed birds at the surrounding creatures, but has to resort to mostly formless blobs as they get closer. He attempts to create some more birds now that he's pushed them back, but quickly realizes he's out of clay. He reaches for some more, only for a decayed hand to grab his arm. More hands grab him before he can react and he feels like his body is full of ice.
His anger begins to cool as he begins to fall into darkness. He doesn't even notice as the first Dementor leans forward, face exposed, to suck out his soul.
"Eliminate!"
The Dementor is enveloped in purple light and is vaporized. Deidara begins to feel better as several more shouts of "Eliminate!" ring out and the Dementors around him are consumed by purple light.
Deidara looks up to see a Japanese man in his twenties standing about 5 feet 9 inches tall with hair that comes to his shoulders and a large pair of dark purple, feathery wings. He's wearing a business suit and holding a black book. Every time he shouts eliminate, a beam of purple light shoots from the book.
Another figure joins him. This one is a blonde, 16-year old girl standing 5 feet 2 inches with blue eyes wearing an odd white top outlined in blue and blue pants and a necklace with a jewel similar to Presea's. She's flying on pink energy wings that are in sections, but almost resemble butterfly wings.
"Oh holy one," the girl says, "cast thy purifying light on these unclean souls. Judgment!"
Beams of light fall from the sky, striking the Dementors. On impact they form spheres of light that consume them on impact.
The pair beginning taking out the Dementors as Deidara watches, stunned. The Dementors begin to retreat after most of them had been killed.
The two newcomers fly over to the boat and land as Deidara returns. They retract their wings. The girl runs to hug Presea.
"Presea, it's so good to see you!" she says.
"You know her?" asks Solomon.
"Colette Brunel. Tales of Symphonia video game. Species: Human Angel. Affiliation: Good. Threat Level: None."
"I am Teru Mikami," the man introduces himself.
"Teru Mikami. Death Note anime. Species: formerly human, possibly shinigami now. Affiliation: Ambiguous. Threat Level: Unknown."
"I'm sorry it took us so long to get here," says Colette, "but now we can take you to our colony."
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I realize I've been using a lot of Tales of Symphonia characters, so if you're not familiar with it, go to www(dot)aselia(dot)wikia(dot)com, it has a lot of info on all the characters and the game. Wikipedia is a good place for other series if you're not familiar with them.
I'm still accepting ideas if you have them.
