Moving Shadow
James scanned through the information at breakneck speed while Damien noticed Kota and his team along with Yuno enter.
"Is it okay to bring a civilian here?" asked Damien.
"I wanted to help that's why I insisted on being part of this rescue", said Yuno "If what you're suggesting is true, then you'll need all the help you can get in rescuing the children."
"How much did you tell her?" snarled Damien to Kota who buckled under the gaze.
"What does it matter now?" asked Emil in a stately manner "Our goal is the rescuing of all the innocent lives held in that base. As such the more people we have the better".
As he said that, Lindow and the rest of his team arrived. With all members of the team present, James began the briefing.
The information that he dug up on Rachel was two-fold; first was Magnolia compass. On the surface it was an orphanage that gave children the tools they needed to go out into the world. But the truth is that Rachel had secretly been performing experiments on the children, injecting them with varying strains of a virus she made from oracle cells. Even after Magnolia compass closed down later on, reports indicate that her work on children has not stopped. To what end though James honestly stated he did not know.
"It's the second part that you all should be interested in", said Damien while James moved to the second item on his list; Romeo's death.
After thorough investigation and plenty of digging from Shio and James, they managed to find that the gate which the Marduk entered was made to open by means of hacking. It traced back to an external source which they found was inside Friar. Considering Romeo's personality, one by one they eliminated all the possible culprits till only two remained.
"Thanks to this, we have been authorized by the directors from on high to arrest and detain the Claudius sisters till a full investigation can be done. When we reach friar, we'll be splitting up into two teams. Team will will perform the arrest while team two starts the rescue".
"Based on what we know about Friar, our best guess is that the children are in the lower levels of the base, close to where the god arc soldiers are being made. Team two will proceed to free the children while team one will arrest Rachel and Leah."
"Team one will consist only of Damien and myself. The rest of you are on team two", he said and continued the briefing with a little mention that they should have their guard up at all times. There was every possibility that Rachel knew they were coming. With that said, the meeting was dismissed and the teams started preparing.
None of them said anything or voiced their doubts for good reason. Given how skilled the two were at dealing with aragami when separated, the two could easily overcome any threats when working together. Alisa later found the two in James' room and was surprised to see the pair checking a pair of loaded pistols before holstering it. She then noticed the knives and grenades they carried, prompting the question "Are you two preparing for an arrest or storming a fort?"
"The former but it's safe to be prepared for the latter", replied James, setting a set of knives in his shirt before putting on his jacket.
"Oh come on James, they're both humans. You don't need to take that many precautions".
"Sorry Alisa but I have to agree with James on this one", said Damien "From the moment I arrived, that Rachel's always given me a bad vibe. This only proves that I was right".
James looked at himself in the mirror, possibly to ensure that his weapons were concealed. Once that was confirmed, he looked to Alisa and asked her if she was ready to which she nodded in agreement.
The trio then headed to the lounge where all the teams had gathered. Shio informed James that she'd be heading to the base on Cliff's back and would be carrying James and Damien's god arc in case things got bad. After that, they boarded the helicopters and headed to Friar.
(note, all the following events happen at the same time)
"What are you doing Julius?" asked Rachel looking confusedly at Julius who now had a few suitcases packed and was about to close the last one.
"I'm moving to the Far East branch. I can continue my research there while also hunting aragami", he said closing the suitcase "This venture has caused me to go down a dark road Rachel and it's time I turn around before it's too late".
"But what about your infection?" she asked slowly wheeling herself towards him.
"I'll tell them about it right away and undergo the necessary treatment."
"But they'll confine you Julius. They'll keep you away from me and force you to undergo all kinds of tests".
"If that's how it should be Rachel then that's fine with me", he said not noticing how dark Rachel's expression had become.
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"Thank god you're here", said Fran in relief upon seeing Ciel followed by the team along with cradle and the first unit. Fran then yelped out in shock when she saw cliff appearing but Ciel told her that she shouldn't be scared.
"Its on our side?" asked Fran after getting the brief explanation "And vanguard's alive?"
"We can talk about all that stuff later", urged Gil "Where are the kids?"
Snapping back to reality, Fran led the teams to the room where the kids were being kept. She carefully turned off the monitors so that the medical implements shoved into their bodies could be removed without causing any trouble.
"Damn it", said Lindow, looking at the child he held in his arms as he, Alisa and Soma headed to one of the trucks that Sakaki brought to take the kids.
"What's wrong?"
"This kid's about the same age as Ren. I can't believe someone would do this to them".
"Hey, now is not the time for revenge Lindow", said Soma "First we rescue the kids, then we make that woman pay".
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"See out of everyone in the world, James and I get really pissed off when we find people using children for experiments", said Damien walking the room while James had Leah Claudius pinned against a wall, his right arm digging into her neck while he pointed a gun to her head with his other hand.
"As things stand you're in deep shit here boss lady. Fenrir's top brass will crucify you to the media if it means saving their skins. You'll never be allowed anywhere near lab so the only chance you have at any redemption right now is telling us what your sister has planned".
Leah would then yell out in terror when James fired a bullet into the ceiling.
"Fair warning, my comrade here is not known for being patient. His trigger finger gets real itchy around people like you", added Damien casually "Hey James, how about shooting her in the foot to loosen her lips, I'll let you decide which one".
"Ok, ok I'll talk I swear, just let me down", said Leah who looked like she was about to cry. James and Damien looked at each other with the latter shaking his head.
"Tell us everything and then we'll let you go", stated Damien.
"She wants to start the apocalypse, that's what everything's been about. She was using Magnolia compass to find a candidate suitable enough to become the singularity."
James unknowingly let her go upon hearing those words. Leah slumped to the floor but dared not to move for fear of him reacting.
"You know what she's talking about?" asked Damien
"The singularity…" he replied pausing as he turned to Damien "Is very, very bad. We cannot let that little demon go through with her plans".
"Where is she?" he asked to Leah who looked away.
"WHERE IS SHE?" barked Damien firing a bullet that was only a few centimeters from her face.
"She went to Julius' room to try and stop him from leaving", she screamed as the whole place started to shake.
The two of them looked at each other and realized they had no time to waste. Damien headed to the stairs while James knocked out Leah then carried her on his back and followed Damien.
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"What's going on now?" shouted Kota as he and the others could struggled to stand up because of the earthquake.
"You think it's an earthquake?" asked Alisa to Soma who shook his head.
"It's starting", said Shio while lines of energy started forming on her body, shocking everyone that saw this "The end of all things, the destroyer is coming."
"Oh damn it", hissed Kota "Please don't tell me…"
"A devouring apocalypse", said Alisa and Kota wailed at the response
"Whoa, whoa hold on a second here", said Gil "What the hell's a devouring Apocalypse?"
"Bad news", said Soma "It's the thing that my old man tried to do a few years ago. Lindow, grab Shio and let's get the hell out of here".
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"It seems that you are too late to stop this", said Rachel with a cold smile while stroking the unconscious and glowing body of Julius who's head rested on her lap. "Though I had to hasten some of my plans a little, in the end it was all worth it".
"You talk too much", said Damien as he and James both pointed their guns at her and fired. The bullets that should have riddled her face were instead stopped by an invisible force.
"The hell?"
"How kind of you Julius to protect your mother from these evil children", she said looking lovingly at Julius "Sorry to say this boys but its time for you to leave. My Julius and I have a lot of catching up to do".
Damien took a step forward but James grabbed him by the arm, wordlessly communicating that they had to go. The teen growled angrily at the circumstances before departing.
"We're bringing him back", said Damien as they leapt off three flights of stairs, landing easily on the ground.
"Damn right", said his cousin
"And I get first crack at Rachel's smug face", added Damien.
The duo quickly made their way down to the lower levels where they met up with the others and proceeded to help. Damien was carrying a child when he noticed a monstrous looking aragami suddenly barreling towards him on all fours. Damien stood his ground, getting ready to dodge the first strike but the aragami's path was impeded when James appeared from the side, punching it in the face and sending it back a good distance.
Damien stood agape, wondering how his cousin was able to pull off a truly superhuman feat like that.
"The hell are you doing there with your trap wide open?" barked James to him "Get out of here now."
"What about you?" he shouted as the aragami slowly got to its feet.
In response to the question, James stretched his left hand out as if waiting for something. Damien turned in the direction of the exit and saw something thin shoot past him at incredible speeds. He was even more surprised to see James catch the speeding object with his extended arm.
"Whoa when did you get here?" asked Lindow then let out a loud yell of surprise when he saw the aragami that looked like a patchwork of metal and flesh.
"Ass kicking now answers later", said James running forward and attacking with a wide slash, forcing the aragami to move back instead of attack "I'll buy you time to get the kids out."
AN: oh sweet we're getting to the end of the first arc. More action to come so stay tuned.
