Chapter 33 – Send in the Clowns

Sai Summers / Death the Kid

Sai

There was a second roar, and the wall to Justin and mine's left exploded outward. Parts of wooden crates and dust started to rain down.

Liz's fear was loud enough for all to hear. "Ahh...Kid!"

I could hear yelling, but from which man I wasn't certain. "Sai! Stay down!"

I hide back inside of my Weapon form for a moment, but either way it was impossible to see through the dust and debris.

I saw nothing, but after a few moments I felt rhythmic movement. Justin was running and the rhythm was the pounding of his feet on the loose ground. After a few moments, I was able to see again. It was then I realized we were alone.

I wiggled in place, shifting in Justin's hand. "Oh no you don't, I see what you're trying to do." I complained.

Justin kept running. "Like I said, he's back up for this assignment. I need him to keep whatever's following us occupied."

I shifted back to my human form, caused Justin to come to a sudden stop. It was either that, or having him fall over me, as I had landed stooped over on the ground in front of him.

Justin's balance was offset and he wavered in place. "Sai! What are you doing?!"

I looked up at him. "You left him behind on purpose!"

Justin huffed several times and came to a stand-still. "No, I didn't. Like I said…"

I shut my eyes tight and hung my head. "I don't care what you said! It's what you didn't say! You did that on purpose because you two can't get along!"

He exhaled noisily. "You're letting your emotions get in the way. I taught you better than that."

I half stood and prepared to run from him. Justin grabbed me by the shoulders and held me down. He was obviously serious.

"If I had said that, you would have refused to change, wouldn't you?"

"Maybe I should have." I muttered.

I could hear his voice behind me, his vocals rushed. "Sai, think about it. He'll be in more danger if he has to protect you, too."

He's right, I'm not thinking about this the right way.

His eyes were soft. "Sai, please. Just listen to me, for once." He pleaded, offering his hand. "You can go back to being angry at me later, alright?"

I huffed. "Alright." I took his hand and shifted back to sickle mode. "Let's do this."

***

Kid

"Kid…" Liz whined. Her voice reverberated in my right ear.

With Justin and Sai gone I was left to deal with one of the reasons people kept disappearing. I kept firing, and it kept coming closer. While still on the ground, the monster was twice my height.

"What is it, Liz? This isn't a particularly good time…"

A box to our left exploded in shards of wood. I jumped and kicked back a half dozen feet and clouds of dust rose from the ground.

"Clowns….I hate clowns…" She muttered.

It moved about like a crab on three legs. It wore a white mask and had a white body, with blue stripes down one of the legs it tottered on. Its right arm ended in a gaping, sawtooth lined jaw that appeared capable of ripping limbs from bodies.

The monster swiped at the wall and a section of duct work flew at me. I flung my right arm up, and the metal bounced off of Liz's Weapon form. "Now is not the time, Liz!"

I returned fire. There was something strange about these monsters. The way the bullets ricochet…the noise…its just a machine…

"But…" Liz whined.

I felt both my eyes and voice expand as I went back to firing. "Shut up, Liz!"

Patty started to giggle, and Liz's voice was tiny. "Sorry Kid."

I sighed. You aren't the only one who hates clowns…

***

Sai

There was no real entrance. The main building of the factory was worse than the outside walls. But the inside was…more like a deserted circus ring.

"Justin! What's that?"

There was a blue and white star-patterned ball in the middle of the room. A bronze, sword-like object was sticking out of it on one side.

He walked up to the ball. It nearly came up to his waist. "This…I believe is what we are looking for."

I could hear shuffling noises.

But what are you looking for…?

I was confused. "Justin, what did you say? I think there…"

He was examining the ball, running his hands over the surface and examining where the oversized-key was inserted. "What's did you say?"

I looked around in the darkness. "Didn't you hear that?"

"No." He didn't seem interested in my issues at the moment. Or maybe it was because he couldn't hear, or…there were too many options in a strange place like this.

The voice came again. You rely on others a lot, don't you…?

"No I don't!" I yelled, shutting me eyes. I had assumed it was Justin.

No response. Justin couldn't hear me. It couldn't have been hi.

I realized it was the voice of little girl. You expect other people to save you…

There was movement behind me and I turned around in the darkness.

It was a little version of me, standing in a spotlight. It was like finding Little Kid again, except it felt like a less positive experience. It was stressed in a simple black dress with its hair down. My ribbons were missing on it. This was me from a time when they didn't exist.

It looked like me, but its presence didn't feel like me. It was like looking in the mirror and seeing someone else.

"What's going on?" I asked.

Its lips moves, but he sound didn't seem to come from it. It simply echoed in the darkness. You expect other people to protect you…

Those words made me bitter. "No I don't."

The Little Me took a step forward and the spotlight moved with it. I was looking down at it, as it looked up at me. Then why do you act weak, when you are strong…?

***

Kid

Standing above the machine on the inner wall, I had gained an advantage on the attacking machine. It continued to swipe at me, but it didn't seem able to climb the wall itself. The material was lose and fell on its head comically at it struggled to reach the sisters and I.

"Kid! Look!" Patty shouted. Her words rung out. "It's making a hole like I did!"

Liz sounded angry. "Don't be proud of that now!"

I had an obvious problem. I had backed the robot against the wall of the factory, but in firing I had leveled a part of the wall, opening a hole.

I wish I knew where they were…they may be in danger if this thing gets away from me…

At my right was a higher part of the wall. I was able to take a clean leap upwards, putting us farther from the clown. I was able to see behind the clown and into the building.

Justin, and Sai as a sickle, was in the clown's shadow; and Justin appeared oblivious of the roar of the machine.

***

Sai

The Little Me appeared to want an answer. Well?

I went on the defensive. "I'm not acting weak. I'm recovering."

The only things that need recovering now are the men in your wake…

The red and black sawtooth-patterned kama appeared in my hands. "Shut up!" The kama burned my hands. I flicked them and the kama disappeared.

An image of Justin appear in the spotlight behind Little Me. Its mouth moved, but the voice was more of an echo. Is that the best you can do…?

My eyes stung. "What do you care?! You're the one who abandoned me!"

Its mouth moved. Do you remember what I told you the day I left?

I huffed. "No. Why should I care?!" I yelled.

The image of Justin turned around and started to walk away in the darkness. You've spent so much time being angry you don't even remember why I left…

I looked up. I couldn't remember for some reason. "No, wait! Then tell me if it's so important!" I yelled at the specter.

Light appeared from below, and the darkness around me and Little Me blew away. The ground below was now purple water that rippled. There was finally a horizon, at which the sky was a dark purple. It lightened at it moved up, and when I looked up, I found it ending in a pure white above my head.

I looked ahead again. Justin was still walking ahead of me. "Wait!"

The image of Justin crumpled and blew away in a breeze that didn't seem to exist outside of that point in space.

For a moment I was alone. The silence was so heavy I could hear the rushing of blood inside of my head.

The water rippled from my left. I looked in the direction it spawned from, and the image of Justin reappeared facing me. You're angry and you don't even know why…

I huffed several times. "I'm angry because you left me there!"

He said: I left you so you would move on! And blew away again.

I concentrated and the image of the sickle form I had been previously appeared in my hand. "Stop that!"

The water rippled, and I turned. Justin had rematerialized behind me. It is easier to do that here because this is the inside of your soul. The specter shifted several feet to its left in a blink of an eye. What is keeping you from doing it on the outside?

I didn't know the answer.

The vision of Justin stared me down. You're holding onto the past. You want things to stop changing, don't you? You want to hide in a Weapon form, don't you?

I held the sickle at my waist, and bent over it in anger. "That's not true!"

The vision of Justin blew away once more. You're afraid no one will like you if they saw you they way you are now…that's why you're hiding your abilities…

I stopped and looked up. What was stopping me…? What is my limit now? The water below me glowed. I have to be willing to push myself. I have to move forward. Even if my old abilities are dead, that doesn't mean I've lost anything.

That was it. I was refusing to accept the changes in me.

"I will accept whatever I have to, to go into the future with those around me." I muttered.

I saw images of my friends and family in my head. People who were counting on me to me as much as I could.

The sickle glowed and the staff lengthened. The support handle shrunk and disappeared into the handle. The blade grew thicker and longer. The staff was black and matte, and the blade was the traditional sawtooth pattern in black and purple.

I was a full-sized scythe, finally.

***

Kid

Over the roar of the mechanical clowns I could hear Justin yelling. His words were muffled, but I could make out him yelling Sai's name. "Come on Sai, this isn't the time for this!"

I jumped over a pile of broken crates. I pushed him at the shoulder, gaining his attention. "Justin! What's wrong?"

He was shaking Sai's Weapon form, and knocked the end of the sickly on a large blue and white ball in the room. "She's unresponsive."

I raised an eyebrow at him, and looking in the sheen of the sickle. I could see a dim version of her form, but she didn't appear to be fully there. Like I would respond if someone was doing that to me…

There was a secluded corner behind an entanglement of ductwork. "Put her over…!" I started to suggest, pointing. Justin jogged towards the corner, having figured out what my thinking was.

I was unable to finish my sentence, however. My words were cut off by a swipe from the mechanical clown's oversized hand, tossing me back a near dozen feet. It ripped the front of my jacket, and several of the buttons scattered.

I was now only a few feet from the wall behind me.

"Darn you!" I hissed.

It swung at me again, but this time it had no where to throw me back into and I had no where to escape to. I threw up my right arm to protect my face, but it wasn't the machine's target. It ripped at my left arm, and blood spurted from any number of punctures. My arm went limp, and even though I knew it was there, I could barely feel it.

"Kid!" Patty yelled.

Her Weapon form in my left hand started to glow as I tried to retain my hold on her Weapon in my damaged hand. "Don't change!" I yelled.

Shots rang out as Justin returned and started to fire at the clown's head, a revolver having appeared in his hand. It drew the clown's attention, and gave me a moment to jump from my position.

Having come around to the machine's right I lifted both arms and fired. Upon pulled the trigger on the left, blood ran out from my arm and puddle below. It was unpleasant, but it was do-able. I just needed it to stay attached.

***

Sai

I was finally released from the inside of the darkness of my soul and reappeared in the real world again with a flash of purple light. I was sitting on the ground. "Sorry guys. I didn't mean to keep you waiting."

When the brightness of the flash cleared from my eyes, I realized there was no response. I was in a corner away from the action. "Justin? Kid?"

I crawled out from behind a rack of ductwork. "Guys?"

Looking around the corner I noticed the machine clown. Ugh…don't really want to go out there…what do I do…?

Justin and Kid were engaged in fighting. I saw Kid eye me for a moment, and then return to shooting. "Justin!" I yelled.

He looked over at her swiftly, jumped back several feet, and extended his arm. "Come on!"

I nodded, shifting my form again. "Right!"

***

Kid

A flash appeared from the right, and reformed in Justin's hands as an oversized scythe appeared in his hands. He swung it in a circle twice, and brought the blade down and to his right.

The clown's attention was drawn on Justin and Sai and it halted attacking. For a moment nothing moved.

Justin's voice was low despite the noise. "Kid…prepare to charge your Death Cannon."

I stood still. "It'll garner its attention."

He stared straight ahead. "I'm going to cause a distraction."

I didn't have much choice. This was the one shot I was going to get. "Alright."

"Sai…?" He whispered.

It was nearly impossible to hear her, even in the quiet. "Yes…"

"Ready?" Justin whispered.

"Yes." Her voice was firm.

Justin lifted Sai above his head with a roar, and threw her at the wall at our right. The clown stormed several steps in her direction. Before landing in the wall, Sai shifted back to her human form and bounced off it and down to the floor. When she hit the floor, a smaller version of the scythe appeared in her hands, and she used it by slashing at the clown's neck, leaving it partially embedded.

I only had a moment, as she was backed against the wall. I started to charge the Cannon, and blood seeped from my arm, and down the barrel. Over the sight of the blood, I was having trouble focusing. I wasn't used to hemorrhaging this much.

"Kid!" Liz yelled. "We're ready!"

I looked up and through the scope for the weapon in my eye.

"Kid! Hurry!" Justin yelled. There was slight panic in his eyes.

Sai's near my line of fire…I realized.

I could barely hear her over the rush of blood in my ears. She must have known I'd be shooting at her. "Kid, fire!" She shouted, looking down.

I was so involved in ejecting the barrels I missed the flash of light. That might have been a good thing considering my level of worry.

***

Sai

As the debris settled out of the air, I noticed dark spots in the ground. I followed the trail of blood led to wear Kid was standing. "Kid…why are you bleeding so hard?!" I asked in shock.

Kid was pulling on the rags of his left jack and shirt sleeve with his right hand. Tufts of soaked wool and silk came off in his hand. He examined them for a moment, and then let them drop to the ground. He repeated the process a number of times. "It's a jagged cut; it doesn't heal nearly as fast. This may need medical treatment…or at least bandaging…it's somewhat messy." His voice was flat.

My brow furrowed in worry. "You might make it worse doing that. Maybe you should leave it covered." I started to reach for his arm, but he stepped to the side.

He smiled, but it was unconvincing. "I'll be fine. Meet me back at Shibusen." He started to walk back to where the clown had burst through the wall. Liz and Patty appeared to be waiting for him.

I wanted to sulk about the idea of going back without him, but it wasn't the right time. "Alright."

Justin put a hand on my left shoulder. "He'll be fine Sai. Let his partners take care of him."

Partners…no. I will find my own way to do this…

I slapped his hand away. "If you have time to be condescending, you can go get the stupid sword-thing out of the ball finally so we can all go home."