Alright, I'm back after another week, on time and ready with a new chapter. Hope you guys like it!
CHAPTER 13: Unforgiven
"What did you say?" Heath said, his voice quiet but the fury easily detectable. He gathered tendrils of shadow around him, staring directly at Squire. "Your friend? That quincy is your friend?" He chuckled darkly. "That's great. Hilarious. And I take it that you're friends with the sinigami there too, huh?" he roared.
Squire stared calmly at his former ally. "Not in the slightest." he said. The shadowmans eyes narrowed. "I still dislike shinigami. I don't hate them anymore, but you can't change how you feel about someone that easily." Squire shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe I'll be friends with them one day. Maybe I'll never see them again. What I do know, is that David is more of a friend to me than you, or Damian ever were to me." He shifted his stance, getting ready to fight. "So back off, or I'll remind you who the strongest fullbringer is." The two opponents stared each other down, neither one making a move.
Meanwhile, Nick had no idea what to make of the situation. He decided that the best course of action was to let the guitarist, Squire I think his name was, deal with the shadowman. After all, I'm exhausted from dragging David out of that warehouse he thought. And there's apparently one more opponent to face after this. He crept back towards the cabin.
"Where do you think you're going?" Heath roared, sending his tendrils flying towards the wounded shinigami. Nick ran back into the safety of the cottage, the tendrils smashing into the door behind him, tearing into the wood.
Squire let loose another bolt of lightning, shredding the tendrils. Heath hissed in discomfort, but showed less signs of pain than the last time. Squire stared back at his opponent. "Face it Heath, you can't win." he said. "I command the one thing that you can't beat. Light." He threw more bolts at Heath, who put up a shield of darkness. The bolts collided with the shield, shattering it before dissipating.
Heath was livid. "You think just because you can make some fancy light show, you can beat me?" he roared. "Don't make me laugh! You haven't even seen the beginning of my power! FALL INTO BLACK!" He clutched at the necklace, which poured out even more shadow. It swirled around him and spread across the clearing like a black fog. The only place left unaffected was a small circle within Squire's glow. The shadowman smiled. Squire's eyes went wide with shock as Heath faded down into the fog.
Squire looked around in alarm. He sent some bolts out into the fog, but the paths they cut disappeared quickly. A dark chuckle rose from the fog. "See, it's like I said. You haven't seen all of what my fullbring can do Squire. Is till have some tricks up my sleeve. But you?" A spear of darkness shot out and peirced through the teens shoulder. He cried out in shock before quickly returning fire in the direction the spear had come from. The bolts carved through the fog, but there was nothing there. The voice chuckled again. "Like I said. You only have the one card. It's a good card, don't get me wrong. But it's not one that can win you this game."
More tendrils shot out, looking to skewer the teen from all directions. Squire lept back, barely dodging the attack. The tendrils stopped in midair and changed direction, chasing after the fullbringer. He destroyed a few with bolts from his guitar but he had to roll out of the way of the rest. Once again, they changed direction and this time Squire had nowhere to run. Three more spears grazed him, one in the side and one on each of his legs. He let off a burst of light which destroyed the spears, though the wounds remained. The one to his side was the worst, almost hitting his internal organs.
Squire stood holding his side and searching the fog around him. The aura of light around him faded and disappeared, letting the fog come in closer. When he say this, he let go of his wound and grasped his guitar, strumming out a new beat. The light returned, and the fog receded. However, Squire winced in pain, his side bleeding profusely with no way to stop it.
The fog snickered again. "Seems like your ability has it's weakpoints just like anything else Squire." it sneered. "If you don't cover that wound, your in for some trouble. I wonder how long you'll last." it giggled at the thought, more tendrils rising from the darkness. Before they could strike, bolts shot out and shattered them. The voice stopped giggling.
"Yeah, I've got to keep playing to keep my light show going." Squire said. "But even with this wound I've got more than enough juice to take you down." The fullbringer played even faster on the guitar, weaving a meledy that spread throughout the clearing. The aura around him grew larger with each passing second, sparks of electricity snapping off of him irregularly. The fog receeded, backing away from the light that poured off of Squire.
"Let's see you get away from this one." he shouted, whirling his arm around to hit one last note. As the guitar blared, lightning shot out form Squire in all directions, cutting swiftly through the fog. There was nowhere to hide, and one of the bolts found Heath, striking him in the chest. What was left of the fog settled close to the ground, not even trying to reconnect. Squire swayed and fell onto his knees, clutching his wound, all light gone. He watched Heath fall back as he caught his breath. "How'd you like that you fucking coward?" he panted.
"I wouldn't know Squire, it didn't hit me." Heath said. Another spear of darkness peirced Squire through the stomach, shattering his guitar. The teens eyes went wide with shock and as the tendril removed itself from him, he twisted and glared over his shoulder. There stood Heath, the fog rolling into him and the necklace he wore.
"B-but how?" Squire croaked, looking back at the Heath he had impaled. He gasped as it turned into fog itself and flowed across the ground like the rest.
"A simple thing really." the shadowman said. "I merely created the image of me with the dog around you. The truth is, I am the fog. I am the darkness. And you are merely a loser whose fullbring is broken." He rose his hand, shadows twisting around it to form a point. "Now perish."
As he struck, Heath noticed two things, both he dismissed as nothing to worry about. One, Squire was smiling, and saying something. Heath couldn't make out the words, but he didn't care. The battle was over and that little snot was going to die, by his hand. The other thing, was a faint sound, soft and with a beat.
Before the blade of darkness could hit him, lightning crackled into life, surrounding the youth protectively. The shadowman recoiled back, shrieking in pain. Squire stood and turned, snatching the necklace Heath wore on his neck. With all of his remaining strength, he ripped it off.
The shadowman screamed as he returned to his normal form, all shadows and darkness he had used flowing back into the necklace. Heath fell to his knees, barely conciouss. He looked up at Squire, eyes desperatly searching for an answer. "Your fullbring..." he rasped. "I destroyed it. So how? How did you survive!?"
Squire glared down at the man in the dirt. "You made a mistake. You and the others." he said, slowly and clearly. "You all assumed that since I carried my guitar around that it was my fullbring. That the guitar was the thing I loved most. In truth, it was just a guitar." Squire whislted a quick tune, the electricity sparking to life briefly around him. "It's music. Music itself is my fullbring. And that is something that no one can ever take away from me. Unlike yours."
Squire promptly grasped the necklace in both hands and yanked, breaking it into pieces. The center of it, a circular silver pendant, bounced off of the ground, springing open. Inside was a picture of a woman, beautiful and smiling. Heath stared at the picture, remembering his old life with the wife he loved. Before meeting Damian. Before gaining his powers. Before the accident. Back when he was last truly happy. "I...I've never been the same since that day." he whispered.
Squire raised his arm up. "~Never free, never me. So I dub the unforgiven~" he sang in a slow beat. He brought his arm down and a bolt of lightning came with it, killing the downed fullbringer instantly. The aura of lightning faded away and Squire fell back. Before he hit the ground, he was caught by Nick. He glanced up at the shinigami. "Any particular reason you're touching me shinigami?" he spat.
"Yeah, I'm not your biggest fan either, but you did just save my bacon so forgive me if I feel obligated to keep you from bleeding out." Nick grunted, dragging the exhausted fullbringer back into the cabin. He set him up in a spare bedroom he had found. Laying him on the bed, Nick started the process of healing him with kido. The fullbringer kept trying to get up, causing Nick to eventually hit him in the head with the hilt of his zanpaktou. "Keep still will ya? I'm not that great at this healing crap, so it's on you if I fuck up one of your organs." he snapped. Realising he had knocked out the teen, he sighed and continued his work.
After a few hours, Squire was stable enough that Nick felt he could stop. Stretching, Nick left the room and found David awake in the hallway. "What happened?" he asked.
"Well, we got out of the warehouse, but I ended up having to carry you through the forest. Found this cabin, thought it would be a good shelter. News flash, it wasn't. Shadow guy followed us but we were saved by, get this, the guitarist. He's in the other room there." Nick explained, pointing over his shoulder to the room behind him.
David blinked slowly, staring at Nick. "Huh. How about that." he said. As he started walking, the door to the cabin burst open. Faster than Nick could react, David had his bow out and pointed at the intruders.
"Put that away dumbass, not like it could hurt me anyway." Ace spat, muscling his way into the now crowded hallway. He had something with him and when Nick looked he spotted Justin being dragged by the leg.
"Hey Nick." the shinigami waved weakly. "Won my fight."
Ace snorted. "Yeah, we all won our fight Justin. It's just that we won without getting the shit kicked out of us." Justin mumbled some kind of comeback but Ace either didn't hear him or didn't care. The white-haired giant turned to Nick. "So, what's going on? Mission accomplished?"
They all moved into the main room of the cabin, sitting (or in Justins case, lying limply) in chairs around a table while Nick got the other two up to speed. "So, with the girl, the mimic, Padre, and shadowbitch out there, plus Squire in the other room, we're at four fullbringers accounted for. Is that all of them?" Ace asked David.
The quincy shook his head. "There's one more. I never got a glimpse of him, but they all talked about a leader. Someone named Damian."
"What if Damian was the shadow guy? Or the priest Ace apparently killed?" Justin suggested weakly.
"No, Squire called the shadow one Heath or something. And David's seen the priest before." Nick said. He put his fist to his chin in thought. "Okay, we need to find this last guy since he's the leader and if we let him go he'll probably do the same thing again. Also, we need to move because I have no idea whose house this is but they can't be happy about a bleeding guy in one of their beds."
"Actually, this is my house." David piped up. The three shinigami slowly turned their heads towards him, each with an expression of shock. "Well, you never asked. This is where I took Squire after the library thing. We talked and I let him leave. That's probably why he was here tonight. Looking to talk again."
"Ooookay, that's one problem gone I guess." Nick said. Turning back to the others he said "Whose ready to go on a patrol?"
Justin groaned and put his head down on the table. Ace shook his head. "Sorry bro, I'm in better shape than Justin, but I got tossed around pretty good by Padre."
Nick looked at David who also shook his head. "Sorry, I'm still tired from the warehouse." he said. Nick sighed.
"Alright. I guess I'm the only one whose ready to go. Don't wait up for me." he said, standing and striding out the door, ready to finish this mission once and for all.
And another one bites the dust. Only one more battle left in the Fullbringer Arc and then we get to move on to my personal favorite part of this story. No spoilers, but it's gonna be awesome. On another note, anyone wondering what song Squire was singing at the end of his fight, it's "The Unforgiven" by Metallica. As always, please rate and review and I'll see you all next week. Peace =P