A/N: Well, here we are again. I just realized that, instead of updating this every other Sunday like I'd been intending, it's actually been updating every other Saturday. Which, I suppose, doesn't really matter. In any case, we are here, and it is update time.
I'm happy to say that I have two new reviewers. (Yes, I do check my reviews every chance I get, just to read them or to see if I've gotten any more. What's more, I check my email every day. I like writing my fanfiction and I'm anxious to know what other people think of it.) candinaru25 and Vortex Inferno, welcome, and I hope I can continue to impress you.
Also, as a final note, this chapter was sort of pointless. I just needed a way to let my brain finally bleed out what it could until my writer's block let up. It served that purpose, therefore this is nearly 100% BS and none of the characters introduced here will make a future appearance.
Warning: The story is getting more and more A/U. The major enemies throughout the anime/manga will remain, but circumstances and certain details will be changed.
Disclaimer: The fun about this sentence is that you don't realize it doesn't say anything until you've finished reading it. Also, I don't own Dragonball Z or Harry Potter. I write for fun, not profit. So don't sue me, kthxbai.
"This" - is dialogue.
'This' - is thought.
This - is emphasis, in place of CAPSLOCK.
This - is a memory/flashback.
MagicKi Chapter 11
Be Strong, Be True, Be Brave
Last
"Yes, Gohan, you are. I promise," Ron said firmly, and then he sensed something moving the water behind and beneath them, and a bolt of panic pierced his mind for the first time since the storm had started in earnest. He swam fiercely for the raft, which didn't seem to be getting any closer. He got them to it eventually, though, and pushed Gohan onto the raft and pulled himself up. With one arm, he held Gohan close to him, and with his free hand he grabbed the edge of the raft and held on for all he was worth. 'I won't break my promise to Gohan. I will get him safely to his mother.'
xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx
Now
Gohan's eyes cracked blearily open. 'Where…am I?' he thought, slightly dazed. He managed to hold off his daze in the blaze of sunlight that was piercing his eyelids, but the question still remained as to where he was, and it was the only question that ran through his mind.
He turned his head, and had to squint his already nearly-shut eyes. The light that was already highly uncomfortable became an unbearable battering ram that mercilessly pounded Gohan's unaccustomed eyes, making him gasp as he squeezed his eyes shut so tightly that tears started to fall. Eventually, he managed to open his eyes enough without feeling like they were on fire to see that he was staring at a reflection of light. A reflection of light that was moving gently.
Gohan bolted up, then gasped and clutched the sides of his head as his temples throbbed. He remembered what had happened, though. He and Ron had built a raft and tried to sail on it, then it had started raining, and then the storm had hit full-force…
"Uncle Ron!" Gohan cried as he stood up, ignoring the pounding in his head and the aching of his limbs and every muscle in his body. "Uncle Ron, where are you?" he called, his head swinging around. Then, he stopped; he hurt too badly. He remembered something that Mr. Piccolo had taught him, when dealing with huge amounts of pain that felt like too much to handle.
"Roll under the pain, and then rise up above it, Gohan!" the voice shouted in his mind, and Gohan shut his eyes and let the pain overwhelm him. Only after he'd done so did he realize that the pain wasn't really that bad. It lessened significantly, enough that Gohan could look around with his eyes open and not have to clutch his head every second. 'Stupid brain,' he thought absently.
"Hey!" Gohan spun around, looking around again, spotting his Power Pole miraculously whole and lying on the sand. He picked it up and held it in a defensive stance as two kids came up to him.
"What's your name, kid?" one of the kids asked, his voice sounding as suspicious as Gohan felt.
"My name's Gohan," Gohan replied, eyeing both of them. "What are yours?"
"My name's Rom," one of them, the one who had asked Gohan his name, said.
"And mine's Chiko," the other said happily. Gohan watched that one warily, even as Chiko continued, "What brings you here?"
"I was on a raft in a storm," Gohan said, looking down, suddenly embarrassed. "It fell apart, and then my Uncle Ron told me that he'd keep me safe…"
"How old is this 'Uncle Ron' of yours?" Rom asked, voice suddenly hard.
"He's 17...I think," Gohan replied. "Why?"
"That makes him an adult," Rom told him, fists clenching. "Adults are good-for-nothings. Liars. Sneaks. Cheats."
"And they're totally not cool!" Chiko piped up, but silenced under a quelling look from Rom. Gohan looked from Rom to Chiko and back again, eyebrows raised.
"What are you talking about?" he asked. "Adults keep you safe from bad people, and keep you fed and sheltered. They take care of you."
"You, apparently, have a lot to learn, Gohan," Rom said, shaking his head. "C'mon," he said, and Gohan made to follow him, but suddenly screamed. "What, what is it?!" Rom asked, alarmed, but Gohan's eyes only rolled backward into his head, and he fell backward.
xXxXxXxXxXxXxXx
"Hey!" A slap resounded across the enclosed room, followed by a deep groan. Said groan came from a redhead who'd just been slapped back into consciousness…literally. Seconds passed, then another slap came, followed by another groan.
A third slap sounded, then a voice grumbled, "I'm awake! Now stop slapping me! Honestly…"
"What's your name?"
Ron opened his eyes to get his bearings and found himself in a rather starkly furnished room, containing only a bed (which he was lying on), a chair (which had someone sitting in it), a table (which had a lamp and a few magazines on it), and a ceiling fan (which was off). The walls were whitewashed, and there was only one window, directly across from Ron, and it was covered with black cloth, making it rather dark in the room. He looked around blearily, and his eyes alighted on another person, the one who'd slapped him repeatedly.
"I won't ask again. What. Is. Your. Name?" the person said sternly, and Ron's eyebrows raised in spite of himself.
"Name's Ron," he said shortly, moving to sit up. The person moved backward quickly, and Ron followed the person's movements closely. "What's yours?"
"…I can't tell you that."
Ron rolled his eyes. "Well, I Can't Tell You That, it's been a pleasure meeting you. What about your comrade over there? Is his name I'm Not Allowed To Say?" A hand descended, seemingly from nowhere, but Ron caught the person's wrist in his own, growling. "No more of that," he muttered, while the person struggled to get away.
Ron watched amusedly for a second, then let the person's wrist go. He (or she) stumbled into the table, falling over it and landing hard on the floor. The other person stood up immediately to help the first person up, while Ron looked appropriately worried.
"Shouldn't you apologize?" the first person demanded, and Ron shrugged.
"I don't see why, I Can't Tell You That," he replied. "Since you are, after all, the one who brought me to this dark place and felt the need to slap me awake. Twice. And a third time even after you knew I was conscious. So, no, I don't think that I should."
"Typical," the voice muttered, and Ron narrowed his eyes.
"What gender are you?" he asked suddenly.
"Female," the other person replied, unwillingly startled into an answer to such a sudden question. Ron nodded; it had been her tone of voice that had given her away. His mother, Molly Weasley, said the word "typical" a lot, and in that exact same tone. At the thought of his mother, Ron felt an unexpected pang of homesickness.
"Hey? What's your issue?" the girl asked him suddenly. Ron shook himself, but didn't reply. "Well, if you aren't going to talk, then maybe you'll listen," the girl continued after a few moments.
"See, we're all members of a group called Luz en una Tiempo de Oscuridad (1), or LTO. We have a lot of holdings in this city, and we haven't ever had many problems with other people. Yet…" she paused. "A new group is rising. They call themselves Nos Peleamos la Luz (2), or NPL. They've started taking over holdings we've had for time out of mind.
"We try to fight back, but it's to no avail every time. NPL is dangerous, and they're willing to use anything they can in order to make us back down. So now we're enlisting your help, whether you want to help us or not."
Ron responded to that, rather vehemently. "You make it sound like you're involved in some sort of corporate scheme. I wasn't born yesterday, you know. I know what you're talking about. And no, I don't want any part of your gang warfare," he said derisively.
"Perhaps you didn't hear me correctly," the girl said, and Ron sensed her lean forward slightly. "You will help us, whether you want to or not."
"And perhaps you didn't hear me correctly," Ron shot back. "I'll not take part in anything that is not my business or doesn't actually need me to help. You can't make me help you, so the sooner you let me go, the better." 'I hope it's really, really soon,' he thought. 'I need to find Gohan.'
"Here, let me help you to understand this," the girl said, leaning forward even more, so that Ron could actually feel her breath on his face. "If you don't help us take back what's ours from NPL, we'll be forced to massacre all of them, regardless of whether or not we want to."
"Why should I care who you massacre?" Ron asked dismissively.
"Because NPL…isn't your average group."
xXxXxXxXxXxXxXx
Gohan's eyes cracked open, but this time it was different. This time, there was no pounding in his head, no glaring light, no pain. In fact, he felt better than he had in a long time, since his father had died. 'Daddy…' he thought sadly, but he was torn from his ruminations by a voice that said, "Gohan? You're up?"
"Yeah…" he replied, confused. 'How long have I been…Wait. I don't even know what happened, or where I am. Where's Ron?!' "Where am I?"
"You're in the headquarters of We Fight the Light," the boy, whose name Gohan remembered was Chiko, said happily. "Or WFL, for short."
"What is the 'Light'?" Gohan asked, interested in spite of himself.
'Perhaps I shouldn't have mentioned it,' Gohan thought as Chiko's face grew uncharacteristically grim. "The Light are the adults. They call themselves Light in a Time of Darkness. They like to pretend that they're all saints and angels who do nothing wrong. They've been around a lot longer than we have. Their leader is someone who calls herself the 'Lady of the Light'."
"But what does this have to do with you?" Gohan asked, scratching his head.
At this question, Chiko fell silent for a time, then said quietly, "The reason we fight against LTD isn't for me to tell you. To find that out, you'd need to talk to Pigero, the leader of WFL. He's the one who gathered all us orphans together so that we could fight back. Because, without him and WFL, LTD would've picked all of us off a long time ago."
"What do you mean?" Gohan asked, slightly shocked.
Chiko bit his lip and said, "That's something else that Pigero will have to tell you. I'm sorry that I can't explain more, but…"
"It's fine, I guess," Gohan replied with a shrug. He hopped out of the bed he'd been resting on to find that his Power Pole had been placed by the head of the bed. He picked it up and spun it in his hands, relishing the feel of wielding it after what seemed like years, yet in actuality had only been a couple of days. He noticed Chiko watching him as he spun the Power Pole with something in his eyes that seemed…greedy. Unsettled, Gohan held the pole like a staff and started walking, and said, "Show me to Pigero."
Chiko nodded, once again cheery, and they walked out of the room Gohan had been resting in into a larger room that lacked windows at all. It looked to Gohan a bit like a storage warehouse. His thoughts were confirmed a second later as Chiko said, "This is the main meeting room for WFL. We do all our big planning here, and most of our major discussions. Things that don't require much attention are either handled by Pigero or a joint committee consisting of Pigero, Rom, and myself." This last bit was said with a large amount of pride, Gohan noted with a smile.
"What kinds of things are handled by this committee?" Gohan asked, and Chiko seemed only too happy to reply as they continued walking.
"Like I said, it's mostly things that don't require that much attention by a larger portion of WFL. Things like whether or not announcements will be made, what the Theme Word will be, things like that."
"Theme Word?" Gohan asked. He clearly wanted to keep Chiko talking, but Chiko seemed to be the only one who truly believed that Gohan actually wanted to know all about We Fight the Light.
"Well, it's this thing that we do mostly to keep the members on their toes," Chiko replied. "See, what we do is pick a word. Any word, it doesn't matter. It could be as simple as 'an', or as complicated as 'antidisestablishmentarianism'. Anyway, once the word is picked, certain people are told what the word is. We also pick the people who will know at random. If someone happens to use the word, then the Watcher tells Pigero, Rom, or me, and we prank that person. It goes on until someone figures out the word and says, 'I believe that the Theme Word is…' and then fills in with whatever word he or she believes we've picked. Once they've guessed right, we pick a new one, and it starts all over again."
"That sounds like fun," Gohan commented.
"Oh, it really is," Chiko said with a grin. Then, he stopped walking and pointed to an opening. "That's where Pigero usually is. You can go right ahead in. Just remember to be courteous, and you'll be fine, okay?"
Gohan nodded, not really paying attention; he'd already put one foot into the room on the other side of the opening. With an absent wave, he walked completely into the room, leaving Chiko behind.
As he walked down the corridor that ended in a door, he heard voices. He stopped moving and listened, curious as to what could be being discussed in such a private setting.
"No, Pigero, we can't do that! We must not. You promised it would never come to that."
"I don't have a choice, Rom. If I could find a way around this without breaking any promises that I've made, I would, believe you me. But we've tried everything. We've tried public and private negotiations, we've tried taking things by force to get their attention, we've tried going to the police. The negotiations always fall through because they don't deign to send a delegate, taking things by force only makes them retaliate more fiercely, and the police won't listen to a bunch of orphans. So what do you propose we do?"
"Pigero, declaring a war on them won't solve the issue. I'm sure if we continue attempting to compromise - "
"The time for compromises passed when they sent an assassin to take out our messenger," Pigero said quietly, his voice full of a mixture of sadness and rage. "Nothing else will work. I've spent a long time and enormous amounts of effort on this organization. I've taught myself to read and speak at a level higher than most adults can speak at, and I've taught you and Chiko as much as I know."
"Pigero, sir, I know what you've put into this," Rom replied. "But going to battle with them will only lead to a mass killing spree on both sides, with both sides taking too many casualties. This would be a fight to the death, and I don't think either side would win in the end."
"Regardless of the consequences, it must be done, Rom. We made a plan like this as a last resort, in case nothing else worked to get them to back off. Nothing else has worked. It's time to bring the Light to justice, and this is the best way that I know how."
There was no reply, but Gohan had heard all that he'd needed to. He turned around and made to leave, but as he took a step, a voice called out, "Whoever's there, I know you're listening, but I don't know who you are. I would suggest that, if you value your life, you make yourself known immediately."
Silently cursing his luck and Pigero's apparent omniscience, Gohan walked the rest of the way down the corridor and pushed open the door to find Pigero sitting behind his desk and Rom in a chair off to one side, looking at Gohan in a slightly wary fashion. "Gohan?" he asked, standing up slowly.
"Oh, so this is the person you found on the beach?" Pigero asked, apparently deciding to forego his suspicion for interest as he studied Gohan. "Hm…He may just do. He may just do very well. Gohan, was it? Why don't you take a seat? We can have a chat about what you're doing here, and about We Fight the Light."
"I know enough about WFL, and I don't think I really want to know what you have in store for me, if it has anything to do with this war you and Rom were talking about," Gohan replied, and watched as Pigero's face tightened.
"Look here, Gohan," Rom said in an authoritative manner. "You will help us in this. Otherwise, we will kill you."
Gohan's mouth dropped in spite of himself. "Why would you need to kill me if I didn't fight with you?"
"Because in times like this," Pigero said quietly, "You're either with us…or you're with them. If you can't prove your loyalty to WFL, we will kill you. We can't trust that you won't go to LTD with the information you heard and betray us."
Gohan frowned and bit his bottom lip. 'I don't really want to do this…It would involve killing a lot of people. I can't kill in cold blood!' "None of this is even my business!" He hadn't realized he'd said that out loud, but apparently he had, because Pigero replied solemnly,
"With your eavesdropping, you've made it your business. Now make your choice. Fight with us, or die."
xXxXxXxXxXxXxXx
"What?!" Ron exploded, shooting up out of the chair he'd been sitting in. "No! There is no way in hell that I will fight children!"
"You will help us put them down, or we will kill them all," the girl replied. "We've given you enough time to make your choice. Now make it."
"Why are you so dead-set on taking a bunch of children down?" Ron asked roughly. "What, you can't take on a gang your own age, so you go for one that's half it?"
"Watch it," the girl hissed dangerously. "You don't know what they've done to us."
"Then why don't you tell me, Ms. Kid Killer?" Ron asked, eyes blazing in a fit of temper. "Tell me what on earth would possess you to believe that children would have to be killed?"
"They are impertinent beasts!" the girl replied wildly. "They are uncivilized, they have no organization, and yet they think they have the authority to bring us to heel! I will not stand for it. They have tried to send messengers. We have rejected them. They persisted. We killed one of their messengers. They stopped trying to negotiate, but then they resorted to killing our members and taking their holdings by force! They even went to the police!" She said this as though she couldn't imagine why NPL would do such a thing.
'Wouldn't be because you were stupid enough to reject any chance of diplomacy, would it, you condescending woman?' Ron thought, but did not say. What he did say was, "So…they're trying to get you to recognize them as their own group, and not something to be dominated?"
"Precisely!" the girl replied, sounding pleased that Ron had finally seemed to catch on. "We have been here much longer than they. We have more of a right than they do to anything in this city. And yet they storm in and…and…" Apparently, the "outrage" came to be too much for the girl, because she started to splutter wordlessly, yet even her splutters seemed full of rage.
Ron rolled his eyes. 'How stupid can people possibly be?' he thought, but, again, did not say. Instead, he said, "You know, you're right." 'I can't believe I'm doing this,' he thought as he continued. "I would be glad to fight beside you and take down those impertinent beasts."
"You will?!" the girl asked excitedly. 'She's much less mature when she thinks she's getting what she wants,' Ron thought as he nodded. "Wonderful! In that case, you can call me Lali."
"Lolly?" Ron asked, eyebrow raised.
"No, not 'lolly'! Lali! There's a difference!" Lali replied haughtily. Ron rolled his eyes again, and nodded. 'Maybe Gohan will be with them, and we can get out of here.'
xXxXxXxXxXxXxXx
"But what are they doing that's so horrible?" Gohan asked in a desperate attempt to buy time to think.
Rom and Pigero both went eerily still, and neither answered for a time. Finally, Rom looked to Pigero, who sighed and said, "Gohan…You're going to want to sit down, honestly. This is going to be…ugly."
"I'd rather stand, if you don't mind…sir," Gohan shot back, adding on the "sir" almost as an afterthought.
Pigero nodded and said, "Fine. Now…
"My life as an orphan started when I was around seven. Both my parents were killed in a car accident. I was thrown out of the house we'd lived in, because I obviously, being seven, couldn't pay for a house. No matter that I was seven years old, newly orphaned, and had no next of kin within forty miles of the city.
"I wandered around a lot that first year as an orphan. I knew how to read basic sentences, and could speak well enough so that people wouldn't think I was mentally handicapped. As time passed, I had to teach myself to read, which you heard me tell Rom.
"More time passed, and, eventually, I stumbled across a group of kids, some my age, a couple a bit older, the rest of them much, much younger living in an abandoned movie theatre. They called it the Estrella (3), though I'm not at all sure that that was the theatre's actual name. In any case, the oldest kids obviously were in charge, and everyone else looked up to them. They were like celebrities…or gods, in the eyes of those kids." Pigero paused, and his jaw clenched. "It only made it all the more devastating when LTD made their first move.
"One night, the older kids and I, who I'd discovered each were only two years older than I was, were up after the younger ones had all gone to sleep. We were keeping watch, but we were careless. If we hadn't been, if we'd been more vigilant, maybe we wouldn't have been taken by surprise.
"A squad of about four came from nowhere and had hit two people in the temple. They collapsed within a second, and within three more, all but two were unconscious. One was the true leader of the group of kids in the theatre. The other was me. He looked at me, the leader did, and said, 'Watch over these kids, Pigero. Whatever you do, my father must not win.' Then I heard what sounded like something being blown out of a blowgun, and he collapsed.
"I lifted my head defiantly to look at who had done this, and found a girl looking me in the face. 'Why are you doing this?' I asked. She just shook her head and said in reply, 'Our cause is too great for minds like yours to comprehend.' Then, her hand flashed out and had chopped my jugular. The world went black in an instant."
Gohan had been listening quietly up to this point, but when Pigero stopped, he said, "Pigero, sir, I understand why you'd want revenge for that, but why such drastic measures?"
"Because when the world quit being black, all the children were gone from the theatre. And left behind was a note that said, 'For the greater good of all, we take these rebellious ingrates. Don't worry about what will happen to them; the world won't be plagued by them for much longer.' With the note was a map that had a large red X on it, marking a place where I could go if I was determined to save who I could. Needless to say, I went immediately.
"What happened when I got there haunts me still," Pigero said, clenching his hands. Gohan swallowed, and thought, 'He's so strong…so brave, even to pursue these people that had taken him down so easily. He stayed true to people he'd only just met. I don't know if I can be like that.' But Pigero was still talking, and Gohan had to work to bring himself out of his self-doubts.
"The squad of four that had knocked us all unconscious was there, and so were Rom and Chiko, though at the time, they were drugged with a drug that I don't know of. Still don't, as a matter of fact, and Rom and Chiko don't remember." At this, an expression crossed Rom's face that told Gohan that Rom had probably remembered what drug he'd been subdued with, and had refrained from telling Pigero. 'Maybe because he figured Pigero would do something drastic in order to avenge him, even though Rom seems fine,' Gohan thought, then sternly reminded himself that the relationship between Rom and Pigero was none of his business.
"The girl who'd knocked me unconscious said, 'You actually came, you foolish child. Well, I suppose I expected no less. From a child, anyway.' The way she said 'child', in that malicious voice, it made me really mad. Before I'd gone, I'd filled up some balloons. Some with water, others with a watered-down acid."
"Acid?" Gohan asked before he could stop himself. "Why would you use acid?"
"Because I had few other options left," Pigero said, and his voice was implacable. "The water balloons were meant to be a distraction anyway. The ones with water in them were purely for distraction. The ones with the acidic water in them would be for self-defense. I was trying to protect myself and not make it too obvious."
Gohan didn't like it at all, but he nodded, and Pigero continued. "In any case, I raised my hand with a water balloon in it - full of water - and she attacked. I threw the balloon purely out of reflex, and it hit her in the face. It wasn't until after she started screaming that I realized that I'd held up the wrong balloon, and she ended up with a faceful of acid. Even watered down, it was corrosive enough to eat at her eyes and the skin around her eye sockets.
"I was horrified and fascinated in spite of myself, and it took a loud shout from one of the others who'd accompanied the girl to break myself from the trance I was in at the sight of her flesh bubbling slowly away, leaving bone glistening there in the sunlight. Then, I grabbed Rom and Chiko and ran. It was hard going at first, but I guess the activity pumped the blood enough that it diluted from their bloodstream, and soon we were really running, leaving our pursuers in the dust." With that, Pigero turned to look at Rom expectantly, and Rom sighed.
"Well," Rom said, taking up where Pigero had left off, "After we got away, Pigero immediately took us back to the Estrella, and demanded to know what had happened. We told him…" Rom suddenly choked, and Gohan frowned.
"Rom, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to," Gohan said. "I've heard enough that I would fight with you regardless of the reasons."
"But you need to know," Rom said. "You need to know the full extent of the horrors they'd tried to subject Chiko and I to, and to the others who weren't lucky enough to get away. The only two who got away with Pigero were…Chiko and I. The others…" A tear fell down Rom's cheek. "They didn't get away, not before LTD had had a chance to…punish them, as they called it. I became an orphan with my brother. He didn't escape. But I saw his body as we ran out of that place. He was for the most part unharmed, except I could see his eyes. They were glassy, and the inside of his gaping mouth was black as night. He had no teeth, and the part of his throat that I could see was as black as his mouth.
"They made him drink acid until he died. They didn't need to mutilate him any further than they already had internally." Rom started to sob, and Pigero hugged him while Gohan held down the urge to dry heave.
"That isn't right," he finally said. "I'm going to help you. We'll get LTD back for what they did to your brother and all those kids."
Pigero nodded, looking fiercely triumphant, though Rom still looked miserable at the thought of his long-dead brother. Suddenly, Chiko ran into the room, saying, "Rom! Pigero! Gohan! It's LTD! They're here!"
xXxXxXxXxXxXxXx
Ron stood with Lali, looking at the NPL headquarters. He had to work hard to act unimpressed so that Lali wouldn't suspect him of anything other than being totally committed to this heinous plot of hers. Something about getting revenge on those "brigands" for "what they did to my poor sister". Ron honestly didn't care to get himself any further involved in this, and was simply looking for Gohan. The way he saw it, if Gohan would be anywhere, he'd be among people his age or closer to it than Ron, if he couldn't find Ron.
"When do we go in?" he asked Lali, who made a rude shushing noise at him in reply. "Don't shush me," Ron said indignantly, though he said it more quietly than his previous question. "Answer my question," he said. "When do we go in and get this over with?"
Lali looked at him, eyes narrowed. "It shouldn't matter, since we're going to take them all down," she said suspiciously, and Ron nodded.
"You're right, you're right. Sorry. I'm just…anxious, that's all," he said, and Lali nodded in understanding.
"I know how you feel; I can hardly believe we're finally doing this, either." Ron rolled his eyes when Lali turned so that she couldn't see him. 'Her stupidity never ceases to amaze me,' he thought, then cowered. An alarm had started to sound, and Lali said, "That's their stupid call! They're getting ready to fight back! Are we going to let them?!"
A resounding chorus of "No!" sounded in response, and they swarmed the entrance to the warehouse, and began banging on the doors to try and break them down.
xXxXxXxXxXxXxXx
Gohan stood with Rom, Chiko, and Pigero and watched the doors to the warehouse shake as the members of LTD rammed into them with nothing more than their shoulders. That alone spoke of their numbers. "How long will those hold?" Gohan asked Pigero.
"About three more minutes, with the way they're going," Pigero answered. "Those doors aren't made of concrete, only wood." He started pacing, giving instructions to those who had guns. Only the oldest of them had guns. The others had slingshots and things of that sort. Gohan could see that those wouldn't do much good, but he could also see that WFL was going to try anyway. And he would try with them. He would be strong, he would be true to them because they had brought him away from danger and allowed him to heal further, he would be brave because he knew that his dad and Ron would expect no less from him.
The doors cracked again, and then broke.
The fight had begun.
xXxXxXxXxXxXxXx
Ron could hardly hear himself think in all the noise of guns on both sides, along with the whistling sounds of slingshots hurling Merlin-knows-what at the members of LTO. He could tell that it was nothing pleasant, and ducked as he heard a gunshot. He looked behind him and saw a member of LTO standing there with a dazed look on his face, jaw going slack as he fell forward with a bloody hole in his forehead.
He sighed and shook his head, and pulled out his wand. Thanking his luck y stars that Draco had insisted they all master nonverbal magic, he shot wordless Stunners as rapidly as he could, red beams leaving his wandtip almost ceaselessly.
He was so caught up in Stunning that he didn't see the bullet coming toward him until it was almost too late. Without thinking, Ron brought up his hand, only thinking that he didn't want the bullet to pierce him. He looked away so quickly he didn't see a slight shimmer follow his hand, and didn't see the bullet blast in the opposite direction, catching one of the kids in his right eye, making him fall backward immediately, without a sound. Instantly, another kid was there to take his place, shooting his gun with reckless abandon, face streaked with tears.
Suddenly, he heard Lali say, "Grenades…launch!"
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Gohan shot a ki beam from his fingertip and watched as it went straight through the man in front of him, piercing a hole in the middle of his chest. The man made an odd sound, and fell backward, impeding the progress of about five other men. Gohan brought out his Power Pole and brought it in a wide arc, catching all five across the face. They all fell with five identical thuds, and Gohan leapt over them, Power Pole seeming to absorb light and blood as it broke bones and moved swiftly through the mass of LTD members.
As far as he could tell, WFL was holding their own against LTD, and doing it better than Gohan had expected. He himself was doing a fair amount of incapacitating, and was putting all the emotions and memories away in a box that he would open later. Already, he could feel the emotions tucking away, and leaving him better able to function.
"Grenades…launch!" And, just like that, everyone lost in a blaze of light, sound, and fire. Gohan brought up a shield made of his ki and watched from behind it, protected, as people caught fire or were thrown against the walls of the warehouse. Not even their screams could be heard in the roar of the grenades, nor could they be heard afterward, because of the ringing in everyone's ears. They could all hear their own screams, though.
The fight had just become something no one had expected.
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Ron immediately brought up a Prosantego (4), and put up a Macro Shield behind it, wrapping both around him. The shields both held, though Ron could sense the Prosantego start to buckle. 'Come on…' he thought desperately, and then the blast had faded, and Ron could see what the grenades had left behind. It made him nearly sick.
Everywhere, people were screaming; Ron could hear them as he brought his shields down. Those who weren't were moaning or entirely silent…too silent. Ron ignored the silent ones as best he could, and walked around to those who were making noise. Noise was a sign of life. But even as Ron started checking around him for those who weren't so badly injured as to be able to stand and move on their own, more and more people fell silent. Ron realized with a sharp and bitter pang that he wouldn't be save many, if any, of these people. All because of Lali and her blasted call for grenades. 'If she hurt Gohan…' Ron thought savagely. 'She'd better hope she's already dead, otherwise I'll kill her myself.'
It was then that he saw three things. One was the last person who was hurt finally fall silent. Another was Gohan standing over two bodies, trying to shake them without being too forceful. The third was Lali looking down and pointing her gun at someone, who Ron surmised to be the leader of NPL and was pointing his gun right back at her, though he had to point his upwards.
He moved toward Gohan, intending to get there quietly, but stopped short when he heard Lali and the boy talking.
"You blinded my sister, you ungrateful hellspawn!"
"You killed countless children and my closest friend's brother."
"Only because they deserved it!"
"Why? What did they do that would merit their deaths?"
"They don't have to do anything! It's enough that they exist and try to steal things from my father, when he worked so hard to acquire those things fair and square!"
"…You are a stupid woman, and I will be glad to kill you." Ron could tell Gohan intended to interfere, and sent a wordless Body-Bind at him before he knew what was happening. Gohan froze, and his eyes flicked toward Ron, registering two things: happiness at seeing Ron alive, and anger that he would let both people die.
Ron closed his eyes, and barely flinched when two gunshots sounded, one a split second after the other. He opened them to see Lali and the boy both fall. "Pigero!" Gohan called out, drawing Ron's attention. Apparently, his anger and pain had been enough to break Ron's Body-Bind, and he ran toward the two now-collapsed people, paying no heed to Lali. "Pigero!" he called out again, and the body only shook once, twice, thrice. Then, it went limp, and Gohan started to cry.
Ron moved then, and scooped Gohan up. Gohan went willingly enough. "Shh, Gohan," Ron said.
"Ron, he's gone. Who's going to look after the orphans now?" Gohan asked haltingly, in between sobs.
"I don't know, Gohan. I'm so glad you're safe."
"I'm happy you're okay, too, Uncle Ron," Gohan said, hands fisting in Ron's shirt as he buried his face in Ron's chest. Ron sighed, and his head snapped up as he heard police sirens start to wail. After making sure Gohan had his Power Pole and that he had his own wand, Ron spun on the spot and Apparated.
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A/N II: This...was not a fun chapter to write. I actually had a block concerning it that lasted nearly five weeks. I just couldn't write it. In actuality, I couldn't write much of anything, not without asphyxiating. Anyway, here's the chapter, and, review please. Let me know what you think.
(1) - This is Spanish. The translation is "Light in a Time of Darkness". Therefore, LTD and LTO are one and the same.
(2) - This is Spanish. The translation is "We Fight the Light". Therefore, WFL and NPL are one and the same.
(3) - This is Spanish. The translation is "Star", and I got the idea from The Thief Lord, a story by Cornelia Funke in which a group of orphans lived in an abandoned theatre in Venice.
(4) - Prosantego is the third most powerful Shield Charm, more powerful than a Protenego, yet still two levels below a Promacrotego. The last level of Shield Charms should make itself known soon enough.
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