Woohooo! Two words: FINAL CHAPTER! Been waiting so long to finally get to this point, this battle!
Gingka: Hyper much?
Me: YUSH! Anyway, the song for this chapter is "Rise" by Skillet. As to the poem thing I put at the end of the last chapter for all of you to think about, it's going to be explained in the end AN. Enjoy!
"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the-" Guider was abruptly cut off by an explosion that filled the stadium, kicking up dust. A few people in the crowd screamed as the DNA bladers entered, led by the giant robotic body of Doji. They filled the stadium floor, looking menacingly up at everyone in the stadium.
"From now on, no tournaments are to be held here without our permission." Doji thundered. "The DNA is taking over control."
Tsubasa, standing in his special box above the stands, clenched his fists and growled. "Kenta?"
"On it. Come on guys, let's show them what we've got." Kenta turned and strode determinedly out of the room, headed for the nearest staircase. The remaining six Legendary Bladers, as well as Benkei, Tsubasa, Wang Hu Zhong, and the younger bladers followed.
"Doji, you creep! Kenta yelled from the top of the stands.
"Well, if it isn't Hagane's little friends, or should I say, former friends." Doji sneered.
"Can it." Aguma growled, raising his launcher. "We know that you convinced him to join you so that you wouldn't hurt us, so shut up!"
"And what if I don't?"
"We're already going to defeat you. You may have killed Gingka, but the rest of us are still here. And we will not give up until we have taken you down." Yuki said.
"Your words will only motivate us to defeat you faster." King said.
"That's what I thought." Doji smirked. "But, I don't suppose you were counting on me bringing a few of my old friends, now were you?"
Dynamis narrowed his eyes as several new bladers appeared on the stadium floor. One in particular caught his eye, wearing ancient-style clothing in white and purple. Angry red eyes stared up at him. The older bladers gasped in realization, while the younger looked confused.
"All of them are here…" Titi whispered.
"Rago." Aguma snarled.
"And Pluto, Cycnus, Herschel, Keyser…" Dynamis muttered.
"Damian, Ziggurat, Jack…" Benkei growled.
"Even Reiji, the Kumade brothers, Sodo twins, Busujima, they're all here! Every last blader that Gingka has ever had to stop, they're all here!" Kenta exclaimed.
"Save one, but Ryuga wouldn't fight with Doji and he's sorta…" Tsubasa trailed off.
"Don't remind me." Kenta muttered.
"Well then? Do you dare fight, or are you going to admit that you can't and just let us do this the easy way?" Doji challenged.
In response, all of the Legendary Bladers raised their launchers in unison.
"We fight. We fight as one, and we fight to show you that evil can never truly triumph against good. Not only that, but we fight to punish you for what you did to Gingka. You will pay by being defeated."
The crowd and the younger bladers were all shocked at the determined words of the Legendary Bladers.
"Very well then. Take your demise the hard way." Doji chuckled, as all of the DNA bladers raised their launchers as well.
"Let it rip!" Everyone called at once.
Several people in the crowd screamed as several explosions burst forth.
"Behold what Rago can now do." Doji cackled as the Nemesis blader raised his arms above his head and glowed dark purple. A sudden shockwave of energy sent the Legendary Bladers flying back.
"Let's get in there! Eagle!" Tsubasa called.
"Bull!" Benkei launched.
"Ifrit!" Zero and his friends also launched into the fray.
"Rago absorbed so much of Nemesis's power that he can now be considered the god of destruction himself!" Doji cackled as dark beys flew and clashed with light beys, while dark power flooded the stadium, attacking everyone it reached.
"We… Have to stop… Rago…" Kenta grunted, pushing back the darkness as best as he could with his Legend Aura.
"We don't have the ability to use Zeus's Barrier. We're missing half of the required bladers." Aguma reminded.
"Then we do it the way Gingka did it." Kenta growled. "Everyone?"
The others nodded. "We attack together, behind Kenta."
"Did you guys hear that?" Benkei asked the younger bladers, who nodded.
One by one, each bey broke away from the opponent it was fighting and darted towards the center, falling into formation behind Sagittario. Despite Rago's darkness, the beys all flashed brilliantly, glowing in their various colors. Red, gold, violet, fuchsia, green, orange, and blue flashed around the stadium.
"Go!" The bladers yelled in unison.
The DNA bladers growled and pursued.
"Kerbecs! Hades Gate!"
"Don't get caught in it!" Tsubasa warned as the doors opened and chains flew out.
"You will all die!" Rago roared, flaring his darkness and enveloping the entire stadium.
"Not today!" several voices said, as the light returned, Hades' Gate slamming shut.
"Sagittario!" Kenta called as his bey landed in front of him.
"What are you fools doing?!" A familiar voice roared as a tornado whipped the air around everyone into a frenzy.
"Kyoya!" Benkei exclaimed as the greenette stepped into view.
"Can it. No time." Kyoya growled.
"We're finishing this. We're finishing it here and now." Ryo said, stepping up behind Kyoya and launching.
Doji cackled evilly. "You're all here. Time to initiate the final strike."
"You can't." Ryo said.
"Can't I now?" Doji cackled.
"Your missiles have been disabled, to put it simply." Kyoya said.
The DNA bladers froze. All of them looked confused, although some were looking at Doji in confusion, while others were looking at Kyoya in confusion.
"How did you know about that?" Doji growled.
Everyone who wasn't a DNA blader gasped in shock.
"What missiles?!" Tsubasa demanded.
"Oh please, how else would we be able to convince Hagane that we really could hurt all of you if he didn't comply with our orders?" Argo sneered.
"Ha! As if you could disable them." Doji cackled. "I'll just activate them now and destroy you all!"
Silence fell. Kyoya and Ryo looked smug, while Madoka was clearly trying not to laugh. Half of the DNA bladers looked smug, while the other half, who had not known about the missiles, looked frightened. Damian was nowhere to be seen, the ominous black doors of his Hades' Gate still hovering menacingly in midair.
"Then how will you escape? If you can get away from your missiles, we can too!" Aguma shouted, breaking the silence for a moment.
"You…. How?" Doji growled at Kyoya, who merely smirked.
"Leone!"
"Damian! Pull them all in!" Doji roared in anger. "Pull them in and destroy them!"
Rago grinned evilly, flaring his dark powers to their fullest extent. Screams could be heard echoing. The Legendary Bladers and their allies gasped and pushed back as hard as they could, but to no avail. They felt as if they were being slowly suffocated. The gates of Hades eventually opened and they were all dragged inside.
"Where are we?!" Zero and his friends huddled together in fear at the sight of the forbidding landscape.
"Come on… Where are you?" Kyoya growled, looking around.
"Look out!" Kenta called as Kerbecs whipped its chains back and forth.
"You're all so pathetic!" Damian shouted, standing above them in the air just behind Kerbecs. The other DNA bladers, minus Rago and Doji, soon appeared.
"Sss, you will all be defeated by the DNA." Reiji hissed maniacally.
"Nice try, sending in someone to keep me from grabbing all of you initially, but it didn't work." Damian cackled, pointing to a cloaked figure laying on the ground. "If you really wanted to defeat me, you should have come yourself, Tategami."
Kyoya growled, then smirked. "We're all here. You've got a problem." he said, glowing green.
"No, we have victory!" Argo snarled as Dynamis went over to check on the cloaked figure.
"You alright?" The Jupiter blader asked quietly, one ear tuned into the taunting conversation going on between the DNA bladers and his own allies. He reached out one gloved hand and touched the shoulder of the blader, who began trying to push himself to his feet. Dynamis grabbed his arm and helped him up.
"Dy..namis…?"
The Jupiter blader gasped at the familiar voice. He had predicted Nemesis, the Star Fragment's arrival, and many other things, but there was no way that he could have predicted this.
"Gingka…" Dynamis breathed, staring in shock at the redhead in front of him. With a trembling hand, he reached up and pulled the hood off Gingka's head. Fear flashed in the Pegasus blader's eyes for a split second before they again steeled into determination.
"We have a battle to win." Gingka muttered.
"As allies, once again." Dynamis extended a hand. Gingka paused for a moment before a slight smile appeared on his face and he took Dynamis's hand, shaking it firmly.
"As allies." Gingka said, before turning to Damian, who was still busy taunting Kyoya.
"Damian! This fight isn't over yet!" the redhead yelled.
A collective gasp rose from the other bladers, both DNA and non-DNA, as they turned slowly to look towards the source of the familiar voice.
"G-Gingka?" Kenta stammered.
Argo growled. "Impossible!"
"Pegasus!" Gingka called in response, attacking.
"Gingka, over here!" Ryo called.
Gingka hesitated for a moment.
"They won't welcome you back. You attacked them, hurt them even!" Argo thundered. "Our agreement still stands!"
"You shut up! If he wants to come back and join us, he can!" Benkei shouted.
"And if he does, then you die!" Argo snapped.
"No, they won't." Gingka said, stepping towards the others slowly.
"We showed you exactly how we would kill them." Argo growled.
Gingka took another step, his eyes focused on the other Legendary Bladers. Dynamis had already rejoined them. Kenta smiled and held out a slightly trembling hand towards the redhead.
"We'll do it! Doji has the remote control!" Argo shouted.
Gingka stepped between the DNA bladers and the others, his eyes blazing.
"Kyoya and I blew up your headquarters before coming here." he said in an ice-cold tone. "You have no further threats to throw at me. I never truly was on your side, and I. Never. Will. Be."
"Finally." Ryo breathed.
Kyoya smirked. "That's more like the Gingka we know."
"You have nothing, Argo!" Gingka shouted.
"Neither do you!" Argo shot back.
"You're wrong!" Aguma thundered, stepping forwards and putting a hand on Gingka's shoulder, almost in a protective manner. The redhead looked up slightly, tensing.
"He's got us." Aguma growled, glowing purple as Gingka glowed blue.
Everyone standing behind the two nodded in confirmation, their respective auras appearing around them. Beams of light shot from each blader, connecting their auras to Gingka's. The redhead let out a sharp gasp, nearly falling over before catching his balance and widening his stance. He stood motionless for a few moments, his long bangs falling unrestricted over his face and hiding it from view. The others watched him, slightly tense as the blue glow slowly, but surely expanded until it engulfed them all.
"Like I said." Gingka raised his head and looked Argo directly in the eye. The DNA executive tensed in shock at the blue light shining behind the redhead's eyes.
"You. Have. Nothing." Gingka growled.
"But… We broke you. You were dead." Argo snarled.
"You thought I was dead." Gingka snapped. "I wasn't. Thanks to my dad and Koma Village friends, I was able to recover. Thanks to Kyoya and Madoka, I was able to return, and now, thanks to everyone behind me… I'm able to defeat you, once and for all."
"So you think." Argo growled.
"So I know." Gingka smirked. "Even when you first convinced me to supposedly join you, I never used my full power. It was blocked, thanks to you beginning to crumble the bonds that are the real source of mine and Pegasus's power. But now…" Gingka closed his eyes for a few moments before snapping them open as they glowed blue. "I have it all back! Pegasus!"
The winged horse rose into the air with a whinny, as the dark, fiery landscape around the group changed into a beautiful scene with multiple glowing galaxies. The spirits within the beys of every blader present appeared.
"You wanted power? Here's true power!" Gingka shouted. All of the other bladers gasped as Gingka slipped one foot into the stirrup and mounted Pegasus as if it were the most natural thing in the world to do. The younger bladers were especially surprised, as none of them had even thought that such an action would be possible.
"Let's go, Pegasus." Gingka smiled and patted the neck of the armored horse, which whinnied fiercely in response.
"Kira." Gingka singled out the pastel-haired blader in an instant.
"What?" Kira growled back.
"You never really did have control of Pegasus. Nobody can control it. In the sense of controlling, even I can't."
Everyone gasped at this, many of them looking confused.
"It's not a master and slave relationship." Gingka continued, patting Pegasus once again as the horse tossed its head. "It's more like a friendship. That's why Pegasus listens to me at all. Now." the Legendary Blader leaned forwards, intertwining his fingers with Pegasus's mane and whispering something into the ear of the horse. In a flash of light, the two were soaring above the others, as a thick cloud of glowing blue energy began to grow.
"Now!" Kyoya roared, pointing at the nearest DNA blader, which happened to be the Sodo twins. Leone pounced on the twin fire and ice figures, which soon disappeared, indicating their quick defeat.
"Pathetic." Kyoya growled.
"Sagittario!" Kenta grinned at Reiji, who hissed in displeasure and ordered Serpent to strike. However, the centaur's flaming arrows soon pinned the cobra down, causing it and Reiji to disappear.
One by one, Gingka's allies attacked. Many of them took down the weaker DNA bladers, of which there were hundreds. In the meantime, the energy cloud created by Gingka and Pegasus grew larger and larger, bolts of light flashing within it as the two hovered. Gingka's eyes were closed in concentration as he listened to the battle below, a slight smirk growing on his lips as he listened to the DNA bladers being defeated one by one.
"Alright Pegasus… We're almost there." the redhead whispered. Pegasus snorted in confirmation.
"Now… That's it." Gingka broke into a wide grin and leaned forwards slightly.
"Gingka's making an attack run!" Aguma called in warning as Pegasus tucked its wings back and dove, heading straight for the three-headed dog that stood in its way.
"Pegasus, Cosmic Nova!" Gingka whooped.
"His most powerful move? Overexcited much?" Ryo and Kyoya glanced at each other and swetdropped as Kerbecs was blown away in an explosion.
"Whoa!" the younger bladers yelled. "Awesome!"
Gingka and Pegasus made a wide circle at full gallop before returning to the energy cloud they had created.
"We're not finished yet!" Gingka grinned in excitement. "Now, Pegasus! Special move!"
In response, the winged horse reared back, throwing its head back and spreading its wings to their fullest extent behind it. It held this position for several moments, drawing in all of the energy from the cloud just above it before thrusting both head and wings forwards. This movement resulted in a strong downdraft, which was accompanied by bolts of pure energy that flashed across the field.
"Lightning Strike Storm!" Gingka shouted, somehow managing to keep his seat despite the sudden movement that Pegasus had just accomplished.
The DNA bladers broke into chaos as lightning flashed, defeating them one by one. Some tried to run. Others stood, staring in awe before they were struck down. Gingka's friends ducked, bracing themselves for imminent attacks, but those attacks never came. The entire area around them was engulfed in white light before the familiar surroundings of the stadium appeared around them once more.
"This ends here and now, Doji!" Gingka shouted, still mounted on Pegasus.
"Impossible!" Doji shouted.
Rago merely growled and attacked.
"Guys!" Gingka called, as Pegasus landed and galloped in a circle.
"Zeus's Barrier!" the Seasonal Bladers called, automatically getting into position.
"No!" Rago growled as his power was drained and he disappeared.
"One last time, Pegasus!" Gingka called, as he and the winged horse soared into the air, gathering energy.
"Lightning Strike Storm!"
"Gahh!" Doji yelled out as his robotic body was destroyed.
Pegasus landed neatly, whinnying in triumph as Gingka dismounted.
"We did it, Pegasus." Gingka smiled, placing one hand on the nose of the winged horse, who snorted, breathing softly through his fingers.
"We…" Gingka gasped lightly as his eyes rolled back and he slumped forwards.
"Gingka!" the others yelped, rushing over to him, but Pegasus had already caught the redhead on its nose and lowered him to the ground carefully. The horse then tucked its legs underneath it and laid down next to Gingka, laying its head next to his protectively before folding its wings, closing its eyes, and fading away.
"Gingka?"
"Mmmnnn…"
"Giiiingkaaa?"
Gingka gasped sharply and sat up.
"Gingkie!" Titi exclaimed, hugging the redhead tightly.
"Titi…" Gingka whispered before hugging back. "I'm sorry…"
"No apologizing. We're just glad to have you back." Kenta said, smiling and hugging Gingka as well. Soon enough, the redhead was enveloped in a group hug of all of his friends, both new and old.
"But… I…" Gingka began.
"Shh. You did all you could to protect us, and we were just too blind to see it." Kenta said.
Gingka sighed, a few tears falling from his eyes as he smiled.
"Thank you…" he whispered, closing his eyes and enjoying the warmth of all of his friends.
We were all smiling. Warmth filled our hearts. Bonds once broken had been restored. The enemy thought to be victorious had been defeated. What had been broken under the weight of the world had been repaired under the same. Gingka had been lost, struck down by Doji, and destroyed, seemingly beyond all hope. Yet, he had been found, helped back up, and restored, beyond all that any of us had thought possible. We had thought for a while, that from the beginning, he was not one of us. We thought that perhaps he had never truly been one of us, despite all that he had done before. Yet we were wrong. We should have trusted him more. We didn't, and it nearly cost him his life. But now we know one thing for sure, one thing that we learned through all of this, is that no matter what… He is…
One of us.
And so I conclude another story... I'M ON A ROLL! WOOHOO! Like, seriously though. I've got at least three more ideas in my head right this instant, and I'm sure there are more if I think about them. One of those three ideas was hinted at in the last chapter. So, since I'm finishing a story, it's time to announce the next project! And just because I want to, I'm putting that poem here. (Ha! Wasn't related to NOOU like some of you thought. Don't worry, you're alright. Would have been interesting if I'd incorporated another twist into this, but I didn't.)
No matter who or what or where or when, beware the Eye of the Storm.
No matter land or sea or day or night, beware the Eye of the Storm.
Human or alien, living or dead, beware the Eye of the Storm.
Friend or foe, wherever you go, beware the Eye of the Storm.
While tales are told of silver and gold, beware the Eye of the Storm.
Where songs are sung by many a tongue, beware the Eye of the Storm.
Many have fought it, many have fallen. Beware the Eye of the Storm.
To some it brings hope, to others doom, beware the Eye of the Storm.
Some sing praise, while others curse, beware the Eye of the Storm.
The form familiar, and yet it's not, beware the Eye of the Storm.
It soars in the air and darts through the clouds, beware the Eye of the Storm.
It fires and destroys, both ships and convoys, beware the Eye of the Storm.
So, wherever you go, you always will know, beware the Eye of the Storm.
No matter where you go, you can always know… To Beware the Eye of the Storm.
On that note, be prepared for my next project, "Eye of the Storm." You have just read the first lines of it in the italics above. ;) The cover art is on my DeviantArt, for anyone who wants to see it early. I may or may not post it this weekend, partially depending on if I can finish the first chapter. Galaxy out!