Act XXIV
Sven jumps out of his sleep and sees Kaylee's body, the blood has dried around her but she still looks terrible. "Sven! You're back up, are you feeling any better?" Sven looks to see who the owner of the voice is. "Hyun? You're still alive! What's up man?" Sven shakes Hyun's hand but jumps back immediately. "Jeez, you're freezing man." Hyun shrugs. "I feel fine." Sven suddenly remembers how he had been knocked out. "Did you see who punched me?" "That was me, there was something wrong with you, you looked possessed or something. Like James did at the police station, and you tried to attack me!" Sven looks to the ground and puts his hand onto his head as he shakes it. "What…? I thought that I dealt with her." Hyun sighs. "Whatever, don't worry about it, you seem fine now. What happened here?" He makes a motion towards Kaylee's body with his head. "I couldn't save her, Adam killed her." "Adam did it? He'll pay." "Not yet Hyun, Diablo is coming to this exact spot soon, we need to fight him." "Oh, great, what good timing." Hyun sighs. "I've been walking since you disappeared, I'm beat. At least I managed to get a new weapon…" Hyun waves around a sword he took from one of the dead infected. Sven ignores him and walks up to Kaylee's body. "If only I had been a little bit quicker." He rolls Kaylee off of her stomach and onto her back. "She looks so peaceful still. If she had fallen onto her back to begin with, I'd think that Adam had missed." Hyun walks up to Sven and puts his hand onto his shoulder. "It's not your fault Sven. It's Adam's fault, and the fault of the evils. We can't bring her back, but we can avenge her death." Sven holds back tears. "I'll make sure that they pay." "Who is going to pay, boy?" Sven frowns and gets to his feet. "Diablo, you are going to be the next to go." Diablo laughs. "Of course, come on and attack." Sven holds his sword up and glares at Diablo. "Nothing will stop me from avenging her death!" He rushes at Diablo, the sword raised above his head. As Sven reaches him, Diablo gives a quick kick to his stomach. Sven stumbles backwards. The sword begins to give off the dark aura again. "I will not lose!" Sven makes a quick horizontal slash at Diablo with his sword. Diablo jumps over the blade and punches Sven in the face while in the air. Sven falls to the ground. "Damnit…" Sven feels his anger rising, the aura begins to travel up his arm again. He jumps back up to his feet and seems to move with speed that he hadn't had before. "Die!" Diablo steps to the side but finds another sword coming at him, which slices off his arm at the shoulder. "Sven, don't fight alone. We'll do it together!" Diablo takes a couple of steps back, holding the stub of his arm. Sven feels his anger fade away, the aura returns to just the sword and he smiles. "Thank you Hyun, let's take him down." Diablo removes his hand from the bloody stub of his arm and aims it at Sven. "I won't lose!" A stream of red lightning comes from Diablo's fingers but Sven quickly runs to the side and avoids it as Hyun runs in and gives the final blow. He jams the sword into Diablo's chest, pulls it back out and cuts off his head. Diablo's body falls limp onto the ground and Hyun lets out a sigh of relief. "We're done here, we should get to the plane and find the next evil." "We can't. We don't know how to fly a plane, we need Lile, and…" Sven stares at Kaylee's lifeless body and Hyun does the same. They remain that way, silently, until a sound is heard in the bushes. "What was that?" The figure limps out of the shrubs, breathing heavily and holding what remains of her arm. She limps slowly towards Diablo's body. "Whoa, what happened? Hyun, now's our chance to take it down!" Hyun and Sven rush at the figure with their swords raised. When they get close, they're tossed backwards and the figure doesn't even flinch. "What was that?" "It has some kind of force field." The figure reaches Diablo's corpse and lets go of her arm, pure black blood spills out onto the ground. She shoves her hand into Diablo's chest and pulls out his heart. She shoves it into her mouth and swallows it whole. She immediately begins screaming with pain, her arm seems to regenerate entirely, and the darkness recedes along both her arms and legs now. She begins to laugh, slowly at first, but it chills Sven and Hyun to the bone. Diablo's blood slowly drips from her mouth and she begins to speak. "I suggest that you run, mortals. I'll give you a head start as thanks for slaying Diablo for me." Sven quickly gets to his feet and puts Kaylee's body over his shoulder. "Hyun, let's go!" Hyun gets up and joins Sven, they run past the trees and bushes, into the desert that Hyun had just crossed. They can hear the woman's evil laugh from behind which causes them to run faster than they had ever run before, scared for their lives. "She's gonna catch us! There's no way we'll get back to the plane in time!" "Well we can't just give up, come on!" "Sven…" Sven stops immediately. "Hello?" Hyun stops and looks at Sven. "Come on! What're you doing?" "Sven, put me down please." "Kaylee?" Sven carefully lays Kaylee's body on the ground. It remains unmoving. "Hyun, come here. I think she's alive!" Hyun runs up to Sven. "You're crazy! Look at her, she's covered in holes and blood, she's not breathing, her heart isn't beating, how could she be alive?" "Sven, hold my hand and have Hyun hold the other." "She just talked!" Her mouth didn't move Sven, she's dead." "She wants us to hold her hands." "What?" "Just do it!" Hyun sighs. "We're dead." He walks up to Kaylee and holds one of her hands, Sven holds the other. The area seems to fade away and then the city and the plane seem to appear in front of them. Hyun let's go, staring in amazement. "How?" Sven picks Kaylee up and holds her in his arms. "She's alive."
- - -
"You failed." Andrew sighs. "It's not my fault, he broke my sword." Adam shakes his head slowly. "I at least killed off one of them." "I won't stand for failure, don't try to make excuses." "C'mon, give us another chance, we can do it." "If you failed once, what makes you think that you won't fail again?" "Well, we could try bringing a couple more infected with us." "…And you want me to supply the infected." "Yeah." "Get out of my sight. Rest and try once more. If you fail again, consider yourselves dead." The Outcast throws two new swords at Andrew's feet. "These ones won't break." Andrew picks up the swords, leaving behind the original two. They both bow and exit the room.
- - -
"OK, how do we make it go?" With those words, the plane lurches forward and begins to move. Sven and Hyun move to the cockpit. Sven places Kaylee's body into the back seat and buckles the seat belt. Hyun and Sven get into the pilot and co-pilot seat and also buckle themselves up. The plane takes off immediately after. "Do you think she's going to catch us?" Hyun shakes his head. "I hope not." "Where do you think Lile is taking us next?" "Who knows? Only five possibilities I guess."
- - -
Adam and Andrew sit on the front steps of the Outcast's lair. Adam massages the gash on his back. "Man, he got me real good." Andrew stares at one of the new swords, holding the blade in front of his face. He seems hypnotized. "Uh-huh." Adam stands up and walks down the steps. He stops and realizes that Andrew isn't moving. "C'mon!" "Uh-huh." Adam walks up to Andrew and punches him in the side of the head. Andrew jumps up and lowers his sword. "Huh? What's going on?" "We're going, pay attention." Adam begins walking again, this time Andrew follows. "Do we even know where they're going next?" "You should, I do." "…And who are we going with?" Adam sighs. "The Mistress of Pain. Seriously, do you pay attention at all?" Andrew shrugs. "Apparently not." "Whatever, let's go. We're meeting the Mistress at the airport." Andrew nods and runs after Adam as they head once more towards the airport.
- - -
Sven wakes up and looks slowly around. He had been sleeping for a long time considering he had slept just before the infecteds had attacked him. Hyun is still resting and Kaylee, of course, remains dead in the back seat. He yawns, unbuckles his seatbelt and stands up. It's dark out again. "We must have been flying for a long time." He stares outside, thinking about the last time they were in the plane. When they had almost been killed. He wonders why the figure hadn't followed them this time and why Kaylee was only talking to him. Everything seems so jumbled up and confusing. He pulls out his sword and looks at it. Why had James given it to him, and was it really safe to be using it? More questions seem to be rising than answers. Sven sighs and sits back in his chair, placing his sword on the ground. "Whatever, let's just get all of this over with."
- - -
"When are we going? I'm tired of waiting!" "Quiet boy, we're going in a second. I'm from ten thousand years in the past and I'm expected to fly this? I'm sure neither of you even have the ability to do so." Adam shrugs. "Nope, no idea." The Mistress groans and sits in the pilot's seat. "Well, sit down. We're going, I hope." Much to the Mistress' surprise, the plane takes off without trouble. "This will be a long trip, I hope you mortals can manage the boredom. Andrew shrugs. "I'm sure we'll manage."
- - -
Sven kneels in front of Kaylee, staring at her. "I know that you're alive, get up!" "Sven, don't." Hyun stands up from his chair and shakes his head sadly at Sven. "She's dead, you need to accept that." Sven gets an angry tone in his voice. "No, you're wrong! Kaylee, get up, prove him wrong!" "She's dead!" Sven jumps up to his feet and looks at Hyun. "Shut up!" He swings at Hyun, but Hyun sidesteps and he falls to the ground. "Sven, she's dead…" "Damnit…" Sven gets back to his feet and kneels again in front of Kaylee. "It's my fault." "No it isn't." Sven grabs his sword from the floor beside him. "Yes it is!" Sven points the sword at his chest. "I killed her and the only way to fix things is for me to kill myself too!" "Sven, what the Hell!? Wait!" Sven tries to push the sword through his chest but finds that something is holding his arm. "Sven, no…" Sven looks up, Kaylee is holding his arm, smiling. "It's OK Sven, I'm not dead." "Kaylee, I…" Sven lets the sword drop to the ground and hugs Kaylee tightly as he begins to cry. "I broke my promise, Kaylee. I told you that nothing bad would happen to you, but I couldn't stop it, I just-" "I'm here now, aren't I?" "Yeah, but-" "Sven, it's alright, I forgive you. There's no need to kill yourself." "I'm sorry…" "It's OK." "Dude, are you alright?" Sven snaps back to reality, Kaylee remains dead in the seat, his sword is on the floor again and tears cover his face. He stands up and smiles. "She's alive Hyun, she's alive."
- - -
"It's getting light out again." "Oh, is it really? I didn't notice." The Mistress sighs and Andrew shrugs. "Whatever. How much longer do you think we'll be?" "One or two hours." "Seriously? Awesome!" "Yeah, just stay out of my way when we land." "Uh-huh." Andrew stands up and stretches his arms. "I have things to get done anyway."
- - -
"Hyun, we're landing!" Hyun snaps out of a daydream and stares out the front window. "Hey, you're right. Any idea where we are?" "Nope, looks like Lile's avoiding landing in a city this time." "Smart." Sven glances over at Kaylee and then looks back out the window. "We can't just leave her on the plane." Hyun sighs. "She's de-" "I'll carry her with me." "Wouldn't that be suspicious?" "I'll say that she's sleeping." "Her clothes are covered in blood." "I'll get her new clothes." "From where?" "I don't know, I'll find some." Hyun pauses for a moment. "Fine Hya, but if we get arrested again, we might not be as lucky as the last time." "I know." Hyun shakes his head. "Fine." With that word, the plane comes to a stop on the ground. "Let's go."
- - -
"Sit down, we're landing." "About time." Adam and Andrew sit down and put on their seatbelts. Within five minutes, the plane lands safely on the ground. "Alright, see ya, we have stuff to do." Andrew rushes out of the plane and Adam follows quickly after. The Mistress lets out a sigh of relief. "About time. Now, let's get started."
- - -
Hyun and Sven reach a house after about a half hour later, it seems to be a farm of some sort. Clothes hang on a line outside of the house. "Quickly, change them." Hyun looks away and Sven quickly changes Kaylee into bloodless clothes. "Iie!" Sven looks around. "Huh?" "Iie, iie!" The door to the house swings open and a woman rushes out. "Watashi no fuku o suwate kudasai ne!" "What'd she say?" Sven shrugs. "I don't know." The woman waves her arms frantically at them and looks angry. "Maybe we should go." Sven picks up Kaylee and begins to run towards the city, Hyun follows. The woman begins to chase them but runs out of breath after a minute. "B-baka…baka!" Hyun and Sven both laugh. "I know that one. Looks like we're in Japan!"
- - -
"Japan, huh?" Andrew looks around the city and the people moving busily around him. Adam sighs. "You really did forget where we were going, didn't you." Andrew shrugs. "Uh-huh." Adam shakes his head and changes the subject. "Think they're here yet?" "No idea, they probably landed outside the city so that they wouldn't be arrested again." "Probably." Adam sighs. "I guess we're the ones who will be doing the waiting this time."
- - -
"So, how's your Japanese Sven? You took three years of it, didn't you?" Sven groans. "Yeah, but…" "Whatever, it shouldn't matter much." Hyun and Sven have reached the city. "Well, I'll try I guess. Uh, sumimasen, er, oni o mimashita ka?" The man stares strangely at Sven, wondering if he's serious. "Iie, mimasen yo." The man walks away with a confused look on his face. "So?" "I asked if he's seen a demon, he said no." Hyun sighs. "Everyone's gonna think we're a couple of crazy meats if you ask questions like that." Sven shrugs. "My vocab is sort of limited, y'know?" Sven spots another man coming by. "Konnichiwa, boku no namae wa Sven desu." Sven reaches his hand out to shake the man's hand, but he just walks right by. "Maybe they're afraid of the dead body we're carrying around." Sven looks at the body of Kaylee lying on the sidewalk near his feet. Sven spots a girl coming up to them now. "Sumimasen, eigo o hanashite dekimasu ka?" "Yes I do. Are you foreigners?" "Yes, have you seen a de-" Hyun gives Sven a sharp kick to the leg. "I mean, have you seen anything odd around here lately?" The woman looks at the swords that both Hyun and Sven are carrying and then at Kaylee lying on the ground. "Well…" "Besides us." "Well, there were these two American boys. One had two machine guns and the other had two swords." "Adam and Andrew. Anything else?" "Well, there are rumors of a demon, a woman with long claws. They say that she came on a plane from America." Hyun stares at the girl, surprised. Sven smiles. "Exactly who we're looking for. We've come to kill that demon, and those two boys you mentioned, they're trying to stop us." "I see. May I come along?" "Um, well, it's dangerous. What can you do?" Before Sven can blink, the woman is behind him, holding his arms with one hand and holding a dagger to his throat with the other. "I'll have a fighting chance." The girl smiles and Sven speaks shakily. "Alright, you're in. What's your name?" "I'm Emiko, you?" "I'm Sven, this is Hyun." Emiko lets go of Sven and stands in front of the two boys. "What about her?" She looks down at Kaylee's body. "She's um-" "She's dead." "Her name is Kaylee." Emiko raises an eyebrow. "What was that Hyun?" "Nothing, never mind." Emiko leans over the body to examine the face more closely. "Hey! I know her!" "What? You do?" She ignores Sven and checks Kaylee's heart beat. "Why's her heart beating so slowly? Is she sick?" "No, she's…de- wait, what? She has a heartbeat?" "Yeah, it's slow, but it's definitely there. Why wouldn't she?" Sven can't stop himself from laughing happily. "I knew it! I knew she was still alive!" The people who were on the street walk away quickly to avoid the strange sight.
- - -
"That girl earlier, was that Emiko?" Adam shrugs. "I think so." "Why was she watching us so closely? Do you think she recognized us?" "Maybe, it's been a while though. Does it matter?" "Not really. When do you think we'll find them?" Adam shrugs. "We don't even know if they're in the city yet." They both hear a voice in their heads. "Emiko has joined them. I want you to kill her as well." "Man, kill one and another appears." "And Kaylee isn't dead, you must be more thorough." "What!? I covered her in bullets, no way!" "You were too slow, Lile was able to save her." "Oh, c'mon!" Adam yells at the air and Andrew shakes his head. "Maybe we'll need to get some help too."
- - -
"How do we find the demon anyway?" "Well, Kaylee usually tells us. She can't really do it now though, so we're sort of stuck." "I see. That's boring." Emiko sighs. Sven pushes a rock around with his foot. "No kidding, but I guess it's better than dying." "We won't die." "Whatever." "Is there anything that we're waiting for?" "Well, the demon, it can take over human minds. When people start to suddenly try eating our flesh, we'll know that it's nearby." "Zombies, huh? That's about all that's been on T.V. for like a week. First North America, then South America. I've heard that South America is back to normal, no zombies at least. So Japan is next?" "Not just Japan, but Asia entirely. There's one demon taking over each continent. We've already killed the one in South America, that's why things are back to normal there." "So, this whole thing revolves around you three and those demons. Who would've known all of this was so simple?" "Well, there's a little more to it. Like I said before, those two kids, Adam and Andrew, they're after us. They were sent by the demons to stop us from ruining their plan. Then there's this one other person, I don't know whose side he's on." "A pure black figure that looks like a woman and goes against every law of science that you can think of?" "Um, yeah. Where'd you hear about him?" "There was footage of it in South America, it was standing near the body of another demon, laughing. There were dead bodies all over the ground and there were two people who ran from it. In fact, I think…they were the two of you." Sven stares at Emiko, even more surprised than before. "That was right before we left for Japan. Who got that on tape? There's no way he survived?" "He died less than a minute after he began filming. There wasn't a mark on his body, he seemed to have just dropped dead." "I see…well, this thing, it attacks everything it sees, us, the demons, random people. It's on a side of it's own" "It's James." Sven gets a strange feeling of fear in his gut. "What?" "I knew as soon as I saw it, its James. What happened to him?" "How do you know James?" "I'm not from Japan, I live in the U.S., I'm only here for about a year. I went to school with him, I was a sophomore." "So you really do know Kaylee?" "Yeah, we're friends. Why would I lie?" Sven shrugs. "Just though that it was a little weird, that's all." "You know, you never answered my question. What happened to James?" "It's hard to explain. I'm not even entirely sure myself. As far as I can see, an evil spirit has taken over his body. Its only goal it seems is to kill everything." "Worse than the demons?" "Much worse, it's on a side of its own and unlike the zombification, what it does can't be undone." "Right." "Worse than that, it keeps gaining power and we can't even get close to it as it is." "I see, so we avoid it at all costs, correct?" "Exactly." Suddenly they hear people screaming, and soon after, people are rushing past them. "Oni!" The man who Sven had talked to earlier pushes past him. "Is it coming?" Sven feels a cool blade against his throat. "What are you doing?" "We can't allow you to kill the demon Sven, you know that." "Andrew, what about Hyun and Emiko? They'll stop you." "No, that's taken care of." Adam stands with one gun pointed at each Emiko and Hyun. "What about Kaylee then?" Andrew glances at Kaylee's body. "I don't think she'll be a problem." Sven moves quickly while Andrew is looking down. He pulls his sword out and uses it to push Andrew's blade away. He then turns around to face Andrew. Adam quickly moves one of his guns from Emiko to Sven. Emiko jumps up and stabs Adam in the back with her dagger. "Damnit!" Andrew runs at Emiko but Hyun jumps up and puts his sword to his chest. Sven holds his to Adam's. "We're gonna need some help after all." Adam and Andrew disappear. Everyone puts away their weapons and looks around. All of the people are gone. "There goes our lead."