Rachel's eyes slowly opened to the smell of something wonderful. It was the dinner that Valkenhayn and Mariela had prepared for the entire group. "Mom, are you awake? It's time to eat! I hope you like it, Valkenhayn and I tried are best to make it as delicious as possible." Valkenhayn nodded his head reasurring Rachel that he did most of the cooking. Rachel stood up from her chair and proceeded to walk to the dining table. "I do look foward to how your cooking skills have progressed child." Mariela sat next to her mother, a little worried about what she will say about her cooking. The food spread was large, almost covering the entire table.
It all looked delicious, although looks could be decieving. A bowl of fish soup layed in front of Rachel, it was one of her favorite dishes. "I made that mom, I hope you like it." Mariela said nervously. Rachel took a fine silver spoon and proceeded to taste the broth. She always eat with a keen sense of elegance. She swallowed the food and looked at Mariela, "My my, you have been practicing indeed. Valkenhayn you have done an excellent job in teaching her, my thanks. Mariela grew a bit annoyed, she felt as if though Rachel was complimenting Valkenhayn rather than her. "Hmph!" Mariela pouted. "Dad would say I did a great job..." Rachel took a sip of tea, "Your father's idea of a fine meal is a bone with meat hanging off of it." Mariela turned her head to face the other way. Rachel placed her hand on top of hers, causing Mariela to turn to look at her. "He would be proud of you."
It had grown late, Noel had given the guest room to Rachel and Mariela. Valkenhayn stayed awake and vigilant outside of their room. Mariela couldn't sleep, too many thoughts were racing through her head. She turned to look at her mother and noticed she was still awake as well. She seemed lost in thoughts herself. "Mom?" Rachel turned to look at her, "what is it Mariela, are you still not asleep? Not enough sleep will ruin your skin!" Mariela grabbed her face and rubbed her cheeks together. "It's fine! See!" Rachel turned to look outside the window, "stubborn girl." Mariela tugged at her mother's sleeve, "you never finished the story you were telling me before. I'd like to hear how it ends." Rachel turned to look at her daughter, "oh? Did I not finish telling you?" Mariela grew annoyed, "No! You never finished it!" Rachel loved teasing her daughter, Mariela reminded her so much of Ragna, she took to teasing her in the same fashion. "Where did I leave off?" Rachel asked. Mariela tried her best to recount the last thing she had said, "I think you two we're in a cabin in the woods, you were sick and Dad took you there." Rachel nodded in agreement, "ah yes, that's right, well then..."
Rachel opted to skip the events that had happened between her and Ragna after she had sucked his blood and had collapsed from bringing him back to life. She decided to continue her story towards the conclusion, this after all, was all that Mariela needed to know. Her time with Ragna was for her and her alone.
Ragna walked into the cabin, Rachel was sitting in the table drinking tea, "Well I managed to catch a shit load of fish, man they we're really biting today." Rachel looked at Ragna and nodded, "my you certainly do have your uses, and here I thought you we're incapable of doing a single thing." Ragna walked passed her and started to gut the fish to prepare for the evening dinner. "How are you feeling today?" Ragna asked, concerend about Rachel's well being. Rachel didn't turn to look at him but simply answered, "A lot better than the week before, I suppose I have you to thank for that." Ragna chuckled a little bit, Rachel thanking him, it would of been unthinkable before. "Rachel, how long has it been since we've been here? I stopped counting after 3 months." Rachel took another sip of tea and started to think, "6 months, and 25 days." Ragna stabbed the knife he was using on the cutting wood. "That long..., Jin...Noel...Master...damn it I'm sorry." He pulled out a chair and sat next to Rachel. "This place is fucked up, no matter what direction we go we always end up back at this cabin. North, South, West, East, makes no Goddamn difference." Rachel without saying a word got up and headed straight for the Bathroom. Ragna could hear her throwing up, she had been doing that a lot lately. He looked out the window, "Alright you son of a bitch, I've had enough of this place, I'm gonna pull you out of the fucking whole your hiding in."
Night had fallen, Ragna had prepared the fish he had caught into a nice presentable dish for Rachel and himself. "Not bad if I do say so myself! Hell even I'm surprised it came out so well this time." Ragna was admiring his own cooking for once, he really did try his best each time. He had only one plate with a couple of sides. Rachel on the other hand had 3 plates of food sitting in front of her. She didn't nececarily like his cooking, but she was hungry and didn't care how horrible it tasted. After the meal Rachel decided to go to sleep early, she had a trying week coupled with the amount of food she had just eaten had been too much. Ragna decided that tonight was the night, he would confront the Phantom in the shadows.
Making sure Rachel was asleep he snuck out of the cabin to persue the darkness. He found a nice spot that had no trees only grass, a good place for a fight he thought. "Hey asshole, I know your there, why don't you just come out and face me. If you want me dead now's the perfect time to do it, stop hiding and come at me, I ain't running away come get me." Ragna continued to provoke the Phantom to appear and fight him. The Phantom however stood motionless in the shadows looking at Ragna. He could sense the presense but was not sure exactly were it was, reckless as he is he took his sword and flung it in a random direction. It stabbed the Phantom in the midsection."Found you!" He stood and raised his right arm, "Restriction 666 released, dimensional interuption imaginary number formed, Blazblue activate!" He ran straight at the Phantom who was still trying to pry Ragna's sword out of its stomach.
The Phantom could feel the power of the Azure and the danger that it was in. It could only muster enough strength to teleport a few meters behind Ragna to avoid his attack. It flung its arms towards Ragna and cast a binding spell that threw him to the ground with tremendous force. "Damn! You piece of shit!" Ragna yelled at it, cursing it's name. "Because of you! Because of you my friends are dead! I should of been there! I should of killed Terumi!" The Phantom didn't say a word, it motioned it's arms towards the sky, a great ball of energy on the tip of its finger was growing bigger and bigger. Ragna never one to fear death looked at it straight on, "Sorry Rachel.." All of the sudden a bolt of powerful lighting stuck at the Phantom with such force that even Ragna felt it's heat from a distance. His sword stuck to the Phantom had made an excellent lighting Rod.
The Phantom fail to it's knees, it turned around to look at the young girl who's feature resembled that of a rabbit. "I'm disappointed in you Ragna, shocking I know. I thought you had grown stronger, but maybe I was too optimistic about your abilities." Ragna staring at Rachel couldn't believe she was insulting him given the situation. "Damn it Rabbit! If your gonna help me then help me, I don't need a lecture right now." Rachel, visibly weaker, was trying her best to stand on her own two feet. "Quiet you pervert, let me handle this." Ragna's eyes grew big, "Pervert! What the hell?!" Rachel's gaze fixed on the Phantom, "I'm rather tired of this place, the novelty of it wore off quite some time ago. Time for you to take us back. Sword Iris!" Lighting shot from the sky again and hit the Phantom square on.
Each time the Phantom tried to cast a spell Rachel would hit it with a burst of powerful lighting. The Phantom was getting visibly weaker with each blast. The ground around them started to shake, the sky started to vibrate like drops of water. Ragna's bindings were starting to weaken, he managed to break free and leaped at the injured Phantom. He grabbed the hilt of his sword and pulled it out with little effort. He slashed the Phantom from top to bottom, the power of his Azure magnifying the damage. "Die you piece of shit!" As the Phantom fell to the floor it disintegrated into dust. And with that the world around them broke into pieces and shattered.
They found themselves back in the very room with Jin, Noel, and Hazama.
Ragna was confused and couldn't believe his eyes, he was back face to face with Hazama. Hazama looked annoyed, but then started to laugh maniacally. "Well well well, look who's back folks! I guess the Phantom was no match for you puppy. Well that's not fair, you didn't really fight the Phantom, you fought an illusion that the Phantom created just for the two of you." Ragna grasped his sword, "You son of a bitch!"