CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Betrayals
Stepping into the world of ice, everyone bypassed the traitors to their kin, attempting to ignore those who had everything but their heads below the water.
As usual, Rin was rather out of it compared to Madi and Sabre, who didn't seem to mind the revelation of Sariel's death. They figured it was definitely justified, but since Rin trusted Samael's every word, she was completely torn.
"Should we say something? Like, explain what happened?" Kasumi asked.
"I'm not going to," Vince replied, "Gunstringer, can you do it?"
"I don't think she's gonna talk ta me, or the miko after learnin' that we both—"
"Sounds more like you're afraid to." Reimu interrupted, smiling.
"A-afraid? What do ya mean by that? An' why are ya smilin', miko?"
"Maybe because someone has a crush."
Gunstringer turned to Caela, who was smiling more than Reimu. Some of the Microsoft characters who heard that raised their eyebrows in surprise, with Vince and Kazooie starting to giggle. Gunstringer's head whipped around several times, seeing everyone looking at him. "N-n-now see here, hombres….."
"What are you talking about?" Rin floated near when she saw all of them huddled.
The Gunstringer nearly jumped out of his boots. "Uh, well, we were, uh…."
"We were saying that Gunstringer and Reimu owe you an explanation about Sariel." Caela backed up to give them room, much to Gunstringer's dismay.
Reimu pulled him forward. "Come on, if both of us talk, it'll make it easier." She leaned in close. "It might even make other things more easy, wink, wink." The Gunstringer really wanted to knock down Reimu, but he was already in enough potential hot water with Rin, so he had to let it go and hide his embarrassment for now.
—
The Sleeping Princess warped to Samael's location, nearly collapsing. Both he and Lumine were taken by surprise, while Wizzro began contemplating upon the sight of her. "Whoa, I take it even with Gabe and Uri's help, you couldn't do much to hold them back?" Samael asked, not even bothering to help her up.
"They are coming…"
"Yeah, I figured. Welp! Better get in places, everyone! You too, Dark Champ."
"What? But Natalie—"
"You can protect her later, and let her know what's going on."
"She needs to get home!"
Samael was growing more irritated with this. They needed the Dark Champion to help, being that he was capable of having people die to their worst fears. He didn't betray his own brother for nothing. "Listen, I like the cutie too, but Sleeping Princess is hurt also! Can you take her place for a little while? Maybe ask her to watch Natalie!"
"Me? Watch one of them? If you dare stick me with one of those things…."
"See? Natalie will be in danger if I leave her side! She needs me to protect her!"
"OK, fine, how about this? Sleeping Princess, if you lay a finger on the cutie, you'll painfully hear from me personally! Happy now?"
The Dark Champion still didn't trust the circumstances, but was willing to trust in Samael's threat, especially when the Sleeping Princess started grumbling in a reluctant manner. He turned and started to join with Lumine and Wizzro. After he was out of hearing range, Samael leaned into Sleeping Princess's ear.
"The redhead is a cutie, but she might be a little cuter as a sacrifice, don't you think?" The Sleeping Princess started to smile gleefully. "The Dark Champion has become a liability, and he needs to be snapped out of it. And our incoming opponents need to have their spirits crushed. So maybe when they get here, their little friend just happens to, 'get hurt'? Maybe that'll remind everyone who are the good guys and the bad guys."
The Sleeping Princess stood up, walking slowly to where Natalie was to while regaining her strength. When she entered, she saw that Natalie now had enough strength to prop herself up a little on her arms. "Are the others really coming?"
"Yes, they really are quite persistent, literally braving all of Hell to get here."
"That makes me a little glad. Even though I want nothing to do with them anymore, we'll all be able to get home, while you get back Bleu."
The Sleeping Princess could only grin to herself, enjoying Natalie's clueless innocence while imagining the looks of agony on all their faces, wishing that they would get here sooner, just to see them all die inside.
Rin couldn't believe her ears. "Wha-what? He was involved in a conspiracy against Gamindustri? So you had to kill him?"
"It was more like we had no choice. In a sense, L.O.G. was our true enemy, Sariel and the others were in our way. We had to go through them to get to him."
"So L.O.G. was the real cause of - but Samael made it sound like - "
Rin looked like she was about to lose all sense of everything. Her truth was shattered, finally realizing what they were dealing with. She almost fainted, but the Gunstringer caught her. "It didn't really have ta happen that way. If the fight was like the ones we had on our way here, he might still be alive. But he wouldn't bother ta talk, leavin' only two choices, lose him, or lose the world. Ya can blame us if ya want, but we had ta do what we had ta."
Rin then surprised everyone by wrapping her arms around Gunstringer and crying. "W-what am I supposed to believe in? Everything seems to have a hidden side, and I'm always getting lied to."
"You can try ta believe in us now, and in everyone in Gamindustri. Some of us may have not have had a game in years, but we still fight the good fight, working forward for the future, for everyone." Rin stopped crying, gave a small smile, and hugged the Gunstringer a little tighter before continuing to walk ahead to where Samael and the others were, finally ready to give him a piece of her mind.
Reimu and Kazooie had to hide their giggling while Conker and Vince gave Gunstringer a thumbs up. The Gunstringer was tempted to get his pistols out, but he knew he couldn't ruin the mood.
After the moment, everyone kept moving. Toon Link nearly saw Chancellor Cole, completely frozen over for his betrayal of Princess Zelda in one of the timelines. It was almost ironic, he was put below Malladus, implicating that his sins were somehow greater than the demon's.
Viktor was there, which only Nick recognized, his sins being obvious and managing to surpass greed. Kirby constantly looked around, thinking he would find Marx again, but it seemed that after a couple of years ago, he was destroyed for good.
Before they could look at anyone else, a voice greeted them. "Hello there, intruders! Gonna stop you while you're ahead, because I can't have you running too far." Flying towards everyone was the rather short angel himself, Samael, accompanied by Lumine, the Dark Champion, and Wizzro.
Dr. Nefarious and Scervo were first to react. "Lumine!? You don't mean to say it's true, do you!?" Nefarious shouted, hoping that the reason was not one of complete betrayal. Lumine tried to look pitiful at first, as if worrying about his position.
"Nefarious, I had no intention of betrayal, it was that they offered me to push things a little more forward. You could help too, in all of this—"
"That is a lie." Lawrence stated, firmly.
"What?" Lumine's expression instantly darkened.
"Butler, what ye be talkin' about?" Scervo questioned.
"Lumine, if you truly wanted Nefarious in on this, you would have contacted him immediately, or made mentions of it. Not to mention, you got Mercury out of Planeptune according to the 'squishies', then dropped off the moment she was harmed." Lawrence explained. "If your friends knew we were coming down, you also would have visited us sooner as well. Do you not find that just a bit odd, you are the one trying to win us over?"
Gritting his teeth, Lumine tried to calm down, while everyone else was impressed with Lawrence being able to figure him out. "Honestly, I was wary of you from the start, and warned Nefarious. Not much I could do, in my position. I really should have stopped you though, for what you clearly had done to Mercury."
"Y-you… you didn't really, did you?" Dr. Nefarious became a mix of angry, yet fearful, once he saw Lumine's smile.
"She had some hardware I wanted. A flimsy badnik, made to be the CPU of robots? Nefarious, you could have given that power to yourself even, but you were far too idiotic. Though, maybe you couldn't handle the thought. Both because of your limitations, and because Mercury reminds you of someone else?"
Nefarious completely froze. He wanted to scream, but was too stunned at Lumine for knowing about that. "So you want to take this for me and show everyone your new form with the hardware you stole, Lumine? I mean, that's fine, keep them all occupied. I get to deal with the murderers though." Samael grinned.
"Ah, so it was you," Zarok grumbled, "you're the one who—"
"Told Gallowmere's King that you did some shady stuff? Yep."
"And you're proud of this?"
"It was funny to watch."
Pit, Dark Pit, and Bayonetta definitely wanted to be in on going against Samael. As did Zarok obviously, and strangely enough, Sir Daniel, indicating that he wasn't happy that he was the reason for his untimely death. Morrigan, Laharl, and Valvatorez were curious about this fellow Makai resident, while Sabre stepped forward too.
Rin tried to stop Reimu and the Gunstringer from doing anything too rash, but everything was spiraling out of control so fast, especially when Samael saw Reimu. "Oh! There you are, shrine maiden. You know, out of everyone, I think I hate your guts the most, for what happened to Sariel and Konngara."
"I know he was your friend, but surely you're aware that he—"
"I'm aware? I think it's you who should be aware, that you murdered my own son."
The hateful looks on Sir Daniel and Zarok were instantly wiped off, replaced by pure shock. The Gunstringer felt even more guilt biting him when he heard those words, and Reimu was too stunned to say a word.
"S-son!?" Rin gasped, hands trembling.
"But… yer puny!" The Gunstringer pointed out.
"He looks like my age, at best!" Pit agreed.
"I've been around for centuries, before any of you were born." Samael sighed. "I just… look cute and dainty, I know."
Sabre was the only one besides Bayonetta who didn't seem to react much to the new information. "I already knew, I overheard your conversation with the Sleeping Princess once. If anything, it only made me lose a lot of my trust for you. You're taking the same path of destruction over your kin, in the same way Randorn would." He shook his head, although, Bayonetta had a different thought in mind.
"I think you tried to brush off the shrine maiden's words, so I shall finish her sentence. Were you not aware of Sariel working with the Lord of Games?" Bayonetta questioned, knowing that this one was some kind of master in manipulation.
"Of course I know about it, who do you think told him to get involved with tha— oops!"
Everyone just stopped for a moment as Samael clasped his hand over his mouth. It took a few moments for the shock to fully sink in.
"What the…."
"He did….."
"He knew….."
"What the Hell, man?"
"Well, guess there's no more point in this stupid farce, now is there, you simpletons?"
Regaining his composure, Samael started to look more sinister. "Yes, I was the one who sent Sariel to join up with L.O.G. I'll admit, I didn't quite expect his death to happen during the battle, but truth be told, trash deserves to be disposed of." The shock just kept piling up as he started cackling. "I guess it's good thing I never told that trash the truth of our relationship! I was never even interested in a kid anyway! It was just that there was this succubus I hung around with in my younger days, and next thing you know, I'm a father!"
Morrigan took a little offense to that, but she knew that some of the others had a greater right to be enraged. "I was forced to take the brat in. So I played along. And he turned out to be a really convenient tool! If it wasn't for him, I would have been the one to die the battle for Gamindustri! I actually have him frozen in a special place in the ice so I can do some taunting in my alone time!"
The outsiders felt their glows intensify from having their tempers flare up. Most of the characters started to have really itchy trigger fingers. But none were as itchy as the Gunstringer's, who was worried about what he would say next. "Some of those morons that I fed my story to, you know, like El Diablo and those two other angels, they ate every word I said. It's so easy to believe a sob story with a cute face like this. But none of them had such a delicious, idiotic reaction as you!"
He pointed at Rin, who was about to lose all light in her eyes. She didn't move, didn't speak, only stood there and listened as her world was shattered. "You saw me as a guardian angel, a savior who you would gladly hand the world over, one who would bring you eternal happiness. In fact, I heard you referred to me as your boyfriend, right? Haha… HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Your feelings really ran that deep? For such a stupid lie? I've had several women before you that fell for my words, who could do much better! I almost don't want to kill you, so I can look at that hopeless, despair-filled face forever! And it'll be your own fault for believing me! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Rin fell to her knees, a second later an intense, almost ghostly wail coming from her lips. Her sadness filled the room, threatening to shatter everyone's eardrums like the way he shattered her heart. Only one thing broke through the screams.
BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
Samael was able to dodge the shots easily. Rin looked up in shock to see the Gunstringer reloading. "Ya just crossed the line, buckeroo, and I'm going to collect."
"We're going to collect." Zarok stepped forward to everyone's surprise. "I know, I haven't been the poster boy of kindness, but even I wouldn't go this low. I just wanted to rule the land with an undead army, but to sacrifice even your own son, you almost make me feel ashamed to be a villain."
"Count me in too." Caela stepped next to Rin and Gunstringer. "I won't let you get away with this. I made it part of my lifestyle to defend Xbox characters, and I'm not going to let this up."
"Ooooooooo, such loyalty. Hey Nefarious, if you knew stuff like this before, maybe Mercury and that other one wouldn't be scrap metal right now - woah!" Lumine twisted to avoid some incoming Buzz Blades, which was a bit difficult as they could come back a few times like a boomerang. Nefarious turned expecting to see Ratchet, but saw Nick instead. "You, you're defending me?"
"Don't get me wrong, I'm still mad about what happened to Noire and Uni. But you're still a Playstation character, and I won't let anyone badmouth them. Besides, can't have you guys showing me up, now can I?" He gave a smile at Caela and Michael, the three of them knowing that defending their consoles in this way was the right way to do it. Madi and Sabre readied themselves. "I knew something wasn't right, and now I'm going to make you pay for what you did."
"I went against the ones who should have been my family, but they were made into my enemies, by you playing with my feelings. You won't play with another life again." Samael cackled again, amused to see such contorted feelings and rage.
Nick cleared his throat. "Just one thing before we fight." He turned to the Dark Champion. "Hey, Champ - "
"Dark Champion."
"Whatever. Look, how's our friend doing? She'd better be all right."
"She's fine. She's resting now, recovering after she got severely drained - "
"Drained?"
"Not forcefully, she was giving us her energy willingly to help our plans. But we're done and she's resting now."
"She was basically a power source to you?"
"No, she wasn't - "
"No, of course she wasn't, she was much more important than that. Why do you think we have someone as powerful as the Sleeping Princess guarding her?"
The outsiders turned in shock to Samael's smug face. "WHAT?! That psycho was left alone with her? Did you not know she hates us with a vengeance?"
"Of course I knew! That's why she's more than welcome to attack her!"
"Wait, what do you say, Samael - "
Samael threw the Dark Champion to the floor. "Look, punk, ever since that girl got here, you've been getting soft. You let that brat get under your skin and now we might be paying the price. That's why the Sleeping Princess will deal with her, to bring you back to your senses, and put you all into despair! But she's not going to do it until you get there so you can see! But I don't know, she looked really mad, last I saw her…"
"How could you do this to Natalie? After everything she did for us?"
"Still with the boy scout act? This risk of emotional weakness is why we froze up your brother in the first place!"
The outsiders' hearts sank as their last hope was crushed. Michael was the first to talk. "You mean…..it was you….the entire time?"
Caela wished that they could still be lying. "So no wonder the 'Eternal' Champion was so insistent on taking her away." Both of them turned to Nick, worried about how he was going to react.
Nick was shaking, unable to control his anger. "Just one more question. The only way we can proceed is through you, right?"
"That is how this works. What, so dependant on cheat codes you forgot how a real level works?"
"No, just checking. But if that's the case…." Nick exploded in glow, turning his arms to equip a pair of fully charged Razor Claws, the glow surrounding him like a fiery battle aura.
"I'M MAKING THIS FIGHT UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL!"
He lunged forward, going for the Dark Champion first, leaving him no choice but to defend himself. The others followed suit, charging forward to realize their anger on their opponents. Madi, Sabre, Gunstringer, and Reimu stayed behind to cover Rin, who was now at a near catatonic state. Samael could only laugh and laugh.
"Yes, this is true entertainment! Let the carnage begin!" Flipping part of his hair out of his face, Samael's pupils became slits, showing off his forked tongue, and taking out a spellcard. "Absolute Chaos: Apocalyptic Flood!" He hissed, fangs also showing now, his true colors being completely revealed.
Several lasers, having a blue, ice-like color filled the area. Wizzro was rather confused. This was a bit evil, even for the twisted wizard such as him. But he liked to fight on the side that won, so it didn't matter much. But, with both Natalie and the Sleeping Princess somewhat weakened, he continued wondering about them, rather than doing anything else.
It wasn't like help was needed right now either, as the ice-blue lasers clouded around everyone, moving slowly, then disappearing as more clusters of them formed. On top of this, Lumine's body began to shift and transform, looking a bit like a heavily equipped and armored angel.
Mega Man began firing at Lumine, attempting to avoid the lasers, only to find that his Mega Buster did nothing. "Your feeble, ancient weapons can't do anything against me." Lumine taunted, prompting the likes of Shulk, Samus, Fox, and Wolf to try and get a scratch on him also.
Nothing worked, making Lumine chuckle again. "As I said, my technology is too advanced. Combined with the fact I am now a CPU for robots, practically a god compared to you, I cannot be harmed." The tips of his wings began to glow, firing four, separate lasers at the ground where his attackers stood.
"Cannot be harmed?" Lumine turned to see a disbelieving Caela. "If you're supposed to be packing the same heat as Mercury, then hate to break it to you, but you can still take damage."
"You're welcome to try, but that is only if you can even touch me!" His lasers concentrated fire on her and Michael, making them duck for cover. "You faced Mercury, right? How did you beat her?"
"Basically, hit her hard. But when I faced her I wasn't alone. Nick helped out. But when I think about it both that time and the previous time he faced her he was fighting for something. To the point where he was basically charged from his emotions and fury."
"OK, that makes a little sense, his temper putting in that extra omph, and he's plenty mad now, but he's attacking someone else now." Michael pointed at Nick who was still slashing at the Dark Champion. Oddly enough, the Dark Champion didn't seem to counterattack, only block and evade. "Let me try something." Caela ran to Nick.
"Hey Nick!" Nick paused as he had the Dark Champion on his back, Razor Claws at his throat. "I know you're steamed and all, but we really need your help in taking out Lumine." Nick didn't talk, he just gave a look that said, "Why should I?". "When Lumine gets beaten, we'll get closer to Natalie. And don't you think it'll be better if Natalie deals with the jerk that's been tricking her all this time?" Nick thought a bit on what she said, before forming a wicked grin. He summoned some chains to quickly tie up the Dark Champion, before turning to Caela. "OK, who needs to become scrap metal again?"
Michael figured turning into Mega Man X would have been the solution considering their opponent, which he did, then began firing the Green Spinner at Lumine, which did a bit of damage. Caela became Axl, firing the Ice Gatling, against him. Finally, Nick became Zero, and tried to use the Enkoujin, a fiery dive attack.
"Ngh, that's a rather nasty surprise, turning into the ones who had defeated me. I should have expected this." Lumine grunted, as their assault was so far the only one capable of leaving a mark on him. "Though be careful, 'Axl', last time I was defeated, I struck you." Caela shuddered at the thought of Lumine trying to take her down with him, and was now a little wary of what she should do in her current form.
As the three of them put effort into taking out Lumine, Samael hissed again, annoyed how he became a great focus. Thankfully, the lasers did their job quite a bit, and there was a short cool down moment, as he unleashed bullets made of ice at those before him. "Traitor Sign: Assassination of Caesar!" He called out, making several, sharp-looking bullets, target everyone.
It was one thing for the bullets to be made up of magic energy, but this was a bit much. Maybe not for Reimu, but considering Samael enjoyed breaking the rules, she was worried. This was something that looked like it was design to do what was on the card: assassinate them.
Some were able to dodge the spikes that targeted them, a few weren't to lucky and got scratched. Samael noticed, and began laughing as he flew around, despite the fact he was being chased around by Morrigan and Pit. Madi started to wince, seeing that a whole circle of spikes were about to pierce their group. Reimu and Sabre had no choice but to get out of the way, and so did Madi.
"Cherry pie— I mean, Rin! Y'all gotta move!" The Gunstringer tried to move the broken down Rin, but her eyes were still empty. He was almost tempted to just take the hit for Rin, which probably wouldn't mean much actually, being that he was already dead.
But that was when she finally lifted her head. A single tear dripped from Rin's right eye, rolling down her cheek, as she pulled a card from the pocket of her dress.
"Wind Sign: Divine Breeze!"
A vast majority of the bullets were blown away, but not much damage was done to Samael himself from the bomb. Noticing her clear out some of his deadly patterns, he looked down at Rin. "What's this now? You finally grew a spine or something?" She didn't answer, as Samael could probably tell what she was thinking by just reading her face. "I see, well since we're through and all, I don't mind giving you one last kiss goodbye…"
He then reached for another spellcard, flicking his tongue at her. "The kiss of a traitor, that is!" Samael cackled, reading it out, to summon both spikes and an icy rain. "Traitor Sign: Judas Kiss!"
Now knowing she wanted real justice more than anything, Rin joined the battle. The others simply watched her start to fire projectile-talisman at the angel, joined by Reimu, who was using homing amulets. On the other side, with Lumine again, he felt himself cornered, but still calm as ever.
"You continue doing damage to me, I'm actually impressed." He murmured, making electrical bolts move past the three of them. Rather than dodging them the way as intended, Nick, Michael, and Caela changed back to their spectral forms. "Any more of this, and I will have to use 'that' particular attack. I'm sure that would be simple enough for you three,
"However, I don't think you can handle it, with Mercury's hardware also inside of me." Every mention of Mercury drove Dr. Nefarious up a wall, like Lumine was constantly taunting him with the fact he lost her. He wanted to hurt Lumine, but knew it wasn't possible, with the state the reploid was in.
The area darkened, and Lumine's eyes flashed. "Paradise Lost!" He shouted. Caela and Nick trembled, knowing that this was Lumine's ridiculously overpowered mode. They had to be fast, and defeat him, otherwise he would wipe out nearly everyone.
"It's no use for any of you." Lumine said, as Nick changed into Zero again, and swung the Z-Saber at him, only for him to swiftly vanish, and appear behind Caela. "I am the God of Robots, the one that generations will bow down to. I will be the sole, remaining CPU—"
"Candidate."
Lumine, Nick, Michael, Caela, and many others turned to see who had entered the icy battlefield.
Sonic was the most baffled out of everyone. "Dr. Eggman!?"