This chapter also reveals a set of characters. I own all but SE charries. ~Kikue
Chapter Seven: Revelations on Both Spectrums… The Ultimate War Begins?
… Somewhere in Draeona …
A young girl passed by a cell in the upper floor of the Heisn basement; she carried a tray that held a bowl filled with gumbo and a cup of water. She walked down the hall and stopped at the only cell filled with a living body, struggling to not look. Its soul was almost too dim to feel in the air.… and it was her turn to keep watch. She had long and fluffy mouse brown hair that went down to her hips, soft grey eyes that looked like faded charcoal, and freckles painted across her face; with young, highly acute senses, she knew something was wrong. The vibrations that emanated from the chamber behind her were unearthly and sorrowful. She didn't want to turn around, because the feeling in her gut told her she wouldn't like what she saw. When she did anyway, she had to catch her breath in order not to scream.
…Back at Shibusen…
The girl turned on her heels. "Maka," she said without asking her name, "you and your friends are looking for Dalia. Am I wrong?"
"Yes. Half wrong. We're also looking for Deion Nivera. Do you know them?"
She bent over backwards until her poofy pigtails dangled away from her face. "Yeah. They're my comrades and family by adoption." She smiled. "Do you know how you got here?" They all shook their heads. "Dalia and Deion are similar at heart, they can't completely control certain aspects of their powers. Especially when they access Caishe, the original Demon form that looks like a cloud or a shadow. Follow me."
The group of students got to the tree line and a gold translucent wall appeared around the school building. Meaghan said that it was a spell from the Draeonan goddess of Protection and Truth: Zhavie. (If I start to use Dræona, don't get confused. It's still the same spelling D-R-A-E-O-N-A. Thank you.)
She guided them to a large cabin outside the edge of a camp and told them to wait at the door. "Lena! Los estudiantes estan aquí, como que te digas un momento pasado!"
"Muchas Gracias," the hispanic called.
Meaghan turned back to them. "She's getting Dad and Uncle Arthur."
Monty walked out, surprising the gang. The other man had sparks coming off the tips of his hair as if he had been electrocuted or something, bright blue eyes that matched the color of his blonde hair's dyed tips, and a rather pale complexion compared to Monty's skin tone. His attire made him look less terrifying than his height did, he dressed like a gamer dork.
Monty spoke up. "Thanks bug," he said, tousling Meaghan's hair. "So glad you kids weren't hurt. And before you say anything, I had nothing to do with this. Merely a fluke." He smiled gently. "The kids found Deion earlier. He's asleep. Though Dalia's watch isn't transmitting, and her aura's being blocked by something so I can't find her."
"Pardon my interruption, sir. But how can you know what, um… aura… is whose?" Kid asked, trying to be as precise as possible. "And is it like seeing souls?"
"I'm no Seer, but I am a Seeker. I'm limited to what I can see of people. Meg and Deion-however-can see souls and such as colors and trails." He pulls up another panel from his computer-watch and a woman's face appears onscreen.
The kids were a bit slow as they all realized that Monty had said they found Deion but Dalia was missing. Black Star immediately then pushed through the crowd and proclaimed with great confidence, "I'll find her! It can't be a challenge for someone as awesome as me!" His naturally self-involved egoist personality was apparent throughout the entirety of the house. No one objected his offer to search for Dalia because they all knew that even though he may have been pompous, he had the skills to find her.
Black Star obviously knew nothing of how Draeona was laid out, but he refused to take Meg's help; Dalia was his friend, even if she did hang out with a criminal... or was it ex-criminal?
He dashed through miles and miles of forest with no prevail. He wouldn't give up though, he could do things most others couldn't. He was proud of that fact. "Tsubaki, think we can find this Castle place a lot easier? He said that the Master of Dark Illusions could know where Dalia is."
"It's possible. Maybe I can stretch your shadow so that way we should be able to see it." She lifted him up until he stood high above the treetops towards the clouds, sight ability improved somewhat. "See anything?"
"Not yet." He said. "Just a bunch of trees and hills…" He saw it rather droll and unappealing how it was the same in all directions. "Let's keep going. We're gotta find this place."
They continued to jump along and suddenly Black Star's face got slammed into a wall. Ouch… He struggled to peel himself from the wall, and when he did-alas-he fell onto something and bounced off to the ground. "What the hell? That was weird…"
"Hello! What goes there!" a girl calls through the draping leaves. "You must have fallen off of my safety canopy." She offered a lace-gloved hand to him. "I hope you're not hurt."
He didn't understand this girl, she was gentle to someone with a sword and such a great popularity rating. He stood up. "Do you know my friend named Dalia and where I can find this High Castle thing?"
"Heisn? Oh! That's here. And I might know where Dalia is, though I don't know if it's actually her," the girl responded quietly. "I'm Emary, (Em-ree) and I live here full time with my Dad. My mom's a real freak show. Don't ever say I said that! Okay?" She was very hyper and scared in her tone.
Tsubaki transformed to her human form. "Do you think you could take us to her? To Dalia?" When Emary replied with a yes, they were taken to the depths of the castle: the Dungeon.
While the kids were waiting back at the city of Tumbletown, Patti went to go meet the people, they weren't very interesting unless if they made stuff float like telekinesis out blew something up with pyrokinesis. In the time afterwards, Meg (who turned out to be a gymnast and a taekwondo black belt) showed the group around, and as they passed a room in one of the buildings they heard music come from behind its cracked door. They all stopped almost at once as they heard the piano playing; it couldn't have been Soul playing, but it also couldn't have been a musical prodigy if they were a wizard or a demon, right?
Meg turned her head, "Huh? Oh, I guess you found Andy. He loves music, his own special way of communication."
The others either looked or glanced at Soul. "Hey, don't look at me. I don't play that crap. Plus I'm not all that good."
Meg almost looked sorry, and she was. "You guys can listen. He won't care. He's played a few concerts before and people just absolutely love it. He takes a swing at combining seemingly incompatible music genres to create his own."
The music played with a very fast pace at the piano, an extreme rate practically impossible to track, in order to match the sounds of "speed rap" and hip-hop combos; the keys were hardly touched, and Soul knew this because of the light echoes from the keyboard; subtle humming could be heard from a distance in the room until the music abruptly stopped and footsteps went towards the door. A strawberry-blonde walked through the door, almost slamming into Soul, with stereophones on his head.
"Didn't we already see him when you were introducing us to your group?"
"What on Earth are you talking about? I've never seen you before," Andy said, rubbing the back of his head. His voice wasn't raised at all. "Sorry I almost ran into you dude. Are you guys the new recruits or something Sarsa was talking about earlier?" They shook their heads. "Oh. Sorry then. I didn't mean to disturb the tour… I'm Andrew Saunders. you can call me Andy if you want."
Soul heard the beats of Slipknot and Breaking Benjamin coming from his headphones that hung around his neck. Heavy metal, huh? "I got a question for ya. You were playing classical music on the keyboard, but you're listening to heavy metal. How is that physically possible unless you're a wizard?"
"I'm a wizard, yes, but music comes natural. Been doin' it since I was a squirt in the city. And it's just simply training your mind to take in multiple signals at once."
"Hey, Andy, have you seen Dahl by any chance since you're here?"
"Nope, sorry Megs. Not a streak."
"Damn it…" With Anine having capture of the Dark princess and no way to find her, the battle between world's had begun because she sided with Kishin Asura.
A hole was blown into a nearby wall and all the heads turned except Meg's, whose hands had a soft, orangey pink, sparkling ribbon of light floating around them; she had her eyes closed and her breath stilled. "I don't need to look to know who you are. Now why are you disrupting my school?"
The gang of meisters and weapons armed themselves against the opponent standing on the pile of rubble. She smiled with bloodlust. "What do you mean, your school? Everyone is allowed access here, despite your poor excuse of a security system."
"Where is Dalia?" Maka asked.
"Now why would I tell you that? Isn't it true that villains never reveal their hostages?"
"Shut up and just tell us where she is and we might not hurt you too badly."
Kid looked at Haile closely, and for some reason it bugged him that she was symmetrically perfect, flawless, which was unlike him with his obsession about symmetry. He peered closer: her shirt was torn in multiple different places spread unevenly throughout her torso with varying fringe amounts; she had lost one of her gloves; and her bangs were falling out of her braid at random angles. She was using some sort of spell to trick them into thinking she was completely unharmed-and with Deion not using Soul as a medium any longer, she was lying through her teeth-and make it seem as if she were impervious.
It was like Free's spatial magic. She could deceive them easily. So did that mean that the shadow creature was a fraud as well?
"You really think you can hurt me? How cute. You actually think you have a chance. If my own kin can't handle the immense power within me, what gives you the right to think you, a mere ragtag bunch of mortals and one immortal have even a fighting chance?" She sped towards them and stopped two inches from Soul's scythe blade. "I thought you had some sort of intelligence. It almost surprises me that I was wrong. Almost." She jabbed her elbow into Maka's chest, sending her barrelling into Kid and the Thompson sisters. "Pathetic little morsels…"
She went for a slash, finding herself being stopped by a black blade sinking into her skin; unfazed she pulls back and jerks her head. "Ah, the yappy one with an ego bigger than his body. you've returned from the castle, I presume?"
Black Star's eyes were different, their color had changed, and he was ready for a fight. "You'll pay. She didn't deserve that pain."
"I disagree." She blasted him through the hole in the wall and created an indent in the one on the other side of the inner courtyard. "They're weaklings. Saps. Nothing but pieces of useless scrap," she said levelly, unmoved by his determination. "I'm surprised she could feel pain with all that giggling she does."
"Tsubaki, Demon Sword mode." As soon as he had said that, markings covered his entire body in swirls and spike-patterns. Maka and Soul noticed a change in Meg's stance, it was more protective and defensive until she started running; she ran sideways along the wall, leapt off and flipped herself over to have her feet touch the arched ceiling, and created a ring of blue fire around the two battlers (with the assistance of Andy) while hovering in the air.
Maka could see their souls linked to one another's as they held the ring, the souls were different wavelengths harmonizing to create a new one-a unique method similar yet unlike their resonance chain techniques-speaking on the same terms of vibrations.
The fire was transparent but highly dangerous to the outsiders, so they were advised to stand away from it. But why they sealed Black Star off from them in this fight was of what Maka was curious. She looked to Black Star, his wavelength was off as well: it was filled with some sort of controlled fury ready to burst from Tsubaki's weapon mode.
Haile wouldn't deflect his slices and yet she couldn't attack. No one knew what happened to their overly pompous friend, but they somehow knew he was winning.
~END CHAPTER SEVEN~
