Disclaimer: I don't own Akame Ga Kill, certainty not. Aside from that, I believe we can all agree that Tatsumi belongs exclusively to Esdeath. (Yes, I was ordered to write that.)
The second part is out, and ooooh boy, you understand what I mean now? Yup, that's all I'll say. Enjoy!
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The final battle, not only to decide the fate of Fallhaven but for the fate and direction of the Civil War between the Empire and the determined Revolutionary Army.
They could've easily disbanded, fled out into the continent and disappeared quietly. Of course, they would have been hunted down mercilessly to the last man, but it would still be better than banding together in one spot to be cleanly exterminated. The Ice Queen herself had to admit she found it surprisingly courageous of them to do such a bold feat, but it would only amount to struggle, and struggle didn't look that impressive at the end of the day.
"Haaah...!" Wave knocked away an incoming cannonball, soon landing fixed to the Ice Dragon's shoulder by the feet to ensure that he would not fall off when in motion. Whenever Wave leapt away, then landed, he would be safe.
Makoto was able to influence every aspect of the Dragon from its core, fully conscious and aware. He was using the height of his power and it was growing by the second. Destroying all in its path, the majority of the Empire's forces knew better than to wander close to the beast that was currently tearing the battlefield up.
They had dealt with most of the cannon emplacements on the Outer-walls, but the ones in the far distance away from the point they had breached were still operational.
Due to the distance being great, and their movements slow. Makoto solved the issue by lining the Dragon's shoulders with extra mass of ice, creating two large pod-like structures on each shoulder. The boy's active imagination allowed him to adapt quickly, using inspiration from Fortuna and Seryu's weapons.
Wave stood in awe, as the transformation had forced him to leapt upward and land on the Ice Beasts's head.
Currently hunched over to support its weight, the Dragon lifted itself upright to acquire better survey of the dying city's vast surroundings.
Then, it'd fire.
Firing one-hundred spears of ice, per second on it's mounted armament, Makoto ensured that anyone currently operating the cannons on the other side of the city was reduced to a thick sheet of crimson.
Soon, the city's walls came loose and collapsed on themselves. He didn't finish there, either. Makoto continued to keep up the assault and soon had destroyed the other two other walls of Fallhaven. This would've allowed the enemy to escape, and flee...
If it weren't for his Mother ensuring that wasn't impossible, by any means, with the walls of ice she had created prior.
Makoto's Dragon waited patiently, waiting for any survivors to throw a stone back at it, in the form of a cannonball.
None did, everyone was dead.
When the dust clouds cleared away, Makoto dismissed the rocket-pods and allowed them to crumble away from the Dragon's shoulders. The ice fell from the beast and hit the floor below. Adding to the carnage on the streets. The boy saw everything from behind the encasement he had sealed himself in, and he felt nothing whatsoever.
No remorse for his part in destroying so many innocent lives, through his efforts to destroy the Revolutionary Army.
No fear for his life, as Night Raid roamed the area to destroy Esdeath.
No sadness for the pitiful humans that had gotten in his mother's way.
Nothing whatsoever.
It wasn't Makoto's fault, at least. For the most part, anyway. It was how he was brought up, and how he had always been since birth. Cold, quiet and clinical. In truth, Esdeath's children would adopt the same coldness as she did, they were the perfect warriors and combatants.
Adapted for murder in every way. Whilst some may call him a Monster, they'd be mistaken if they were convinced he had been this way from choice.
The choice had been stripped away from him, like his Father.
Makoto longed for nothing more than to be left in his peace with his family, and he bore hatred for anyone that would try to separate him.
"Hey, Makoto...! Are you there?" Wave asked he had been trying to get through to the boy by speaking with him. Makoto was unresponsive, requiring all of his focus to continue ensuring he stayed in control of the situation.
Whereas Makoto's dedication to the mission was resolute, Wave's had been growing shakey by the second. You could not see it, but the expression on his face underneath Grand Chariot betrayed his disgust with the way lives were being destroyed.
Wave's internal struggle was quickly interrupted when the Ice Dragon's left leg broke apart, somewhat, at the side.
Makoto tried to pull away, and crush whoever had the gall to attack him but by the time he could do so, the leg had already been broken in two. Causing the Dragon to fall forwards, and land on its hands for support.
Due to the unexpectedness of this surprise attack, Wave fell backwards from his feet, falling from the Dragon's head and soon slid all the way down it's back before achieving a sharp stop via dragging his hand along it and stabbing his fingers in to hold himself in place.
By the time, Wave had managed to gather his nerves. He realized in his panic to avoid colliding with the floor below, he had messily broken the arm used to stop himself. Whenever he used it, pain erupted throughout him. Grand Chariot helped to relieve this, but it was no miracle worker.
That was Incursio.
In the meantime, Wave tried to look around and spot the lucky one who had managed to topple the giant beast.
He didn't find anything and his mind soon wandered to where Kurome was, he just wanted to know that she was safe. She had been ordered to stall Akame, and in the event of Akame's escape, prevent it.
Whereas Wave had been ordered to stay by Makoto, and eliminate any and all threats to the boy, his life was expendable in that case. Even if he'd gladly give his life and soul for Makoto and his duty, today wasn't that day.
Nor anymore, for that matter. He belonged strictly to Kurome, and would only perish when she herself did.
He couldn't go throwing his life away in heroics anymore.
"Y'know! If you had claws like me, you'd be able to climb up things like this, easy!" Leone, currently under the effects of Lionelle, flew upward away from Wave and taunted him. Heading to the location of the Dragon's centre to destroy it completely by killing its core, Makoto.
She was unaware that Makoto served as it's core, all of the intimate knowledge of Esdeath's child had been kept strictly between Akame and the Leader of the Path of Peace.
He was open news, to the masses, but they neither knew who or what he was.
So, to Leone, she was merely fighting against an abstract dragon-creature that had been spawned from the twisted, insane mind of the Ice Queen.
That was only true with the Ice Kings, however. She had been lucky to avoid their search for commanders and viable targets, heading straight to the next large foe in her mission once she had brought the Iron Golem down.
Sadly, she had been unable to kill Seryu, despite deeply desiring it. If only Mine was still with them, then they'd wouldn't have to worry about leaving a crazed psychopath unattended on the battlefield, since she would've just been another target in Mine's scope.
Plus, Leone knew that if they were still lucky enough to have Mine with them, then Tatsumi would've have been taken either.
She knew a lot of the boy that she loved had died when Mine went missing in the forest.
What was left of him was currently being eroded away by the Ice-Bitch.
She had to hurry, pulling him away from Esdeath's grasp wasn't going to be easy but she had to do it. The alternative was much worse, killing Tatsumi to cause emotional pain to the Ice Queen was sure to succeed in its job, but that was the scary part.
It was scary to think that somebody like Esdeath would be truly affected by Tatsumi's death for it to become a viable strategy in dealing with the monster's seemingly invincible form.
What Leone didn't know, were that whilst Tatsumi's mental state suffered gradually through his prolonged exposure to Esdeath. Esdeath's own had become increasingly put under pressure by Tatsumi's constant refusal to listen, obey and go along with her orders.
An endless struggle between them. Tatsumi's mind refused to break, and Esdeath's refused to submit or compromise in the name of fairness and love.
With each crack that came, a woven strand of morality in Tatsumi's heart was undone.
Soon, Tatsumi would be no different from Esdeath.
But with Esdeath, every crack paved way for greater needs and stronger desires. The bestial instincts that led Esdeath along would begin to take heavier dominance in the woman's mind, and soon, she would not heed Tatsumi's pleads and cries for freedom from her sexual advances.
Making raping him, an all too scary reality. Esdeath had purposefully restrained and held herself back in that way, refusing the hard-wired biological urge to reproduce with a highly compatible partner.
Esdeath knew all about the ways her desires could be seen and interpreted by others, she knew that Torres had already deemed it out of character for herself to desire such, but she refused to think like that. This was perfectly in character for her. Esdeath was no means, a feminist or did she strive for feminist ideology.
She was a special case, in which she only sought her own advancement and openly deemed women that allowed themselves to be ruled by men as inferior.
Also, she saw nothing wrong with being the main provider of the "Partas Family" in which she would rule it as it's Matriarch.
Tatsumi's detractors often mocked him behind his back for his reliance on Esdeath to live, not that they knew he could easily carve a life out for himself in the wilds, thanks to his skillset.
Reaching the core, Leone saw an armoured man sealed inside the chest of the immobile Dragon. Using her instincts, she figured the Dragon was using this person as a power source to operate, willingly or not. Either way, she figured that removing him was the ideal route to take.
The Dragon had caused untold destruction on the Revolutionary's forces, by merely traversing the battlefield alone, so it had to be stopped.
Aiming a charged punch to break the thick sheet of ice, Leone was rocked and shook by a sudden activation of movement in the Dragon. It was not defeated, not yet. Rumbling loudly, select chunks of the Dragon's hide began to disconnect and fall apart into pieces.
Crashing violently into the battlefield below. Soon, the right leg collapsed and broke apart and then the head smashed into pieces.
It was literally falling apart around them. Wave took the cue, and dug into the hide once more, as it merged with his feet to keep him steady. Leone wasn't so lucky, she had to cling onto the Dragon with claws, and soon, the finale began.
Emerging from the leftover corpse of the Ice Dragon like a butterfly leaving its cocoon, Makoto shot straight to the sky.
The Ice Dragon had become an Ice Wyvern. Wings extended, and its headpiece roared powerfully. Less physically imposing than the Dragon, it wasn't any different in its hostility. Its tail grew and became a whip-like tool for destruction.
Makoto could not take a backseat any longer and was forced to show himself in the open. The back of the Wyvern was designed to be a cockpit command centre of sorts, open and wide for movement. Containing one captain's seat at the back, a large magnificent Ice Throne that Makoto was literally merged with.
Still having Incursio wrapped on his flesh.
Controlling the Wyvern's motions, and leaving himself able to act and interact with the environment but sadly exposed to harm.
He had to finish Leone here.
Meanwhile, Leone had been flung into the air when the Ice Wyvern had flapped its wings to maintain itself in the sky. Wave was standing near Makoto, spared from being tossed away by the boy's kind concern for him.
Wave, now with the chance to talk and communicate with Makoto in person, walked over towards him with the intent to stop him from going any further in his destructive crusade.
"Makoto...! Come on, let's head back to the base camp, we've done all that we can do here." Wave urged.
"No, the battle isn't over. She lives, Wave." Makoto pressed firmly. "The battle, Makoto? This is a massacre, we're killing innocents here!"
"They are not innocent, they choose to stay here. We cannot be blamed."
"Just turn this thing around...! Please, don't make me... Think about what Tatsumi, what you're Father would say?" Wave knew partly from Tatsumi that Makoto and he were in fact, Father and Son. Tatsumi had told him during their breakfast meal, and about the trip, they had gone on together.
Unlike expected, Wave immediately found himself let go from the floor's secure bindings and thrown across the cockpit by the hard motions of the Wyvern caused by Makoto's rising anger.
"Siding with the enemy, that was your first mistake." Makoto coldly, chillingly proclaimed. "Listen, I'm not siding with the Revolution-"
"Second, is bringing my Father into this... You know, Mother is greatly jealous of your friendship with him." The Ice Prince explained, in his left hand, grew a fearsomely designed longsword, with enough reach to strike Wave, made from the coldest ice that he could form. "So I suppose I will be rewarded for this, not that it matters."
Having been descending downward for a while, Leone finally collided with the floor of the Cockpit from her place in the sky. Breaking untold amounts of ice that soon reformed itself back, when she stood up.
They were quite a distance above the city of Fallhaven, any drop from this height would be lethal. Lethal enough to reduce anyone to a messy red puddle of blood and gore, flying in circles with the occasional dive and soar upward, Makoto prepared himself to take on Leone and Wave at the same time.
"...Hey, Leone." Wave sheepishly asked as she looked over. Confused, but somewhat comforted by the fact he knew her name. "I'm gonna need your help with this one if you don't mind."
"Huh, come on, wise guy. What's in it for me?" Leone chuckled, prepared in a combative stance as the Ice Prince somberly looked on from his tall throne. "I'll tell you all that I can about Tatsumi. Hell, if we get through this... I'll take you to him."
"Agreed, as long as you hold up to your end of the bargain, I'll do what I can." Leone nodded, clearly taken by Wave's words. "Good, I've realized that my Commander isn't the person that should look after him, after all."
"They're... Relationship, it's not healthy." Wave shuddered.
"ENOUGH." The Ice Prince's formerly solid composure cracked, even if he knew the relationship between his parents was less than ideal, he did not appreciate it being spoken harshly about in his presence. He'd kill anyone that so much as did so, and he would aim to do that now.
"If you're quite done talking away, my Father's place is with my Mother. You won't take him away from her..." Rising rage, Makoto's voice was echoed by Incursio, allowing him to remain intimidating even when whispering quietly.
"You won't take him away from me." Makoto threw the first stone and angrily swiped at Leone and Wave equally with his longsword. Intending to cleave them into pieces, by the half. Leone and Wave dodged it together in unison, leaping upward as the gravity did its thing and let them float with the movement.
Wave was heavier so he fell first back to the ground, and Leone came after.
Makoto's eyes fixed themselves on Wave, as he had fallen first and began striking him with his sword. Trying to stab him with it. His right arm was merged with the ice, so his left was his only offensive means of attack, for now at least. "Your fruitless struggle is pure fallacy... Built on delusion."
"Now... Suffer for that delusional way of thought."
Leone then landed and struck Makoto's armoured form with her claws. Causing little damage, the boy was still hurt but refused to let that stop him. A chunk of the Wyvern fell from its body and was sent hurling to the city below. "Gotcha! The Cat caught the cream, little boy!"
Leone cheered in victory, only to be knocked away with the broadside of the sword she had neglected to keep her eyes on. "Foolish woman, I'll end you!"
"Ouch... This kid's no slouch, jeez." Leone remarked, helped up by Wave. Who explained. "He was trained by Esdeath and Tatsumi. Stay alert."
"Yeah, no kiddin'." Leone nodded and then noticed that Wave's arm was twisted out of shape. "Hey, hold still."
"Hey, what're you-Aaagh!" Wave screamed, but soon stopped. His arm was pushed back into place, although it'd still hurt, he wouldn't be in tremendous agony now.
"Tha-" Wave leapt up, and so did Leone. Once more, Makoto's assault came at them, but with a twist. The Ice Prince had been expecting a dodge of this kind, thus soon as they leapt upward, spears upon spears of Ice came hurling directly in their way, forcing them to land or be impaled.
"There is no escape, resolve yourself of this failed narrative."
"Your stories end here, and mine is to begin." Makoto chuckled at the eclipse of his words, for once, fully enjoying himself in his fight. "The World will be mine, and mine alone. You, humans, are just the insignificant stepping stones to my destined victory. My Mother shall win this day, and we will bring the world to it's fullest potential."
"Now, FALL." The floor below Leone and Wave vanished away, causing them to fall downward, despite their attempts to cling onto anything solid to prevent this.
Makoto quickly pulled the Ice Wyvern backwards from his throne, flipping itself in backward flips to gain speed as it curled itself in a ball to lessen air drag. Descending away, it'd stop upon reaching roughly several hundred meters from the floor. Directing itself to face Leone and Wave's descending bodies, Makoto closed his eyes beneath Incursio's helmet and focused.
Many of the destroyed buildings in Fallhaven soon shook away from their foundations. Ice surrounded each doorway, window and wall, transforming them into boulders of enormous destructive power.
Now, Makoto's right arm broke free from its icy restraints and lifted upward to command the spiralling boulders of death to join him. The boy's trained eyesight spotted Leone and Wave falling at speeds, unperceivable to the average human, a hard point from his right hand's index finger later.
And the boulders blew through the wind at the same unperceivable speed. "Now... You shall feel the pain and sorrow that I have endured for years, ingrates!"
They were largely accurate, to the point, Wave could not avoid the first that came at him. Stuck square in the chest, Leone was luckier in that regard, for about two seconds before being hit herself. The boulders that missed their marks, fell back down to the surface and presumably crushed a few poor saps, too.
"Alright, that's it! Bring it! I'll do this for Kurome!" Wave refused to be knocked away and beaten. He knew what would happen if he lost, he had just attacked Makoto, Esdeath's pride and joy.
Sacrificed his entire life in the Empire, for what? Morality, or Kurome? Whatever it was, they'd be no turning back now. He knew the boy would not let this slide, or pretend it'd never happen.
It was now or never.
So, when the second on-target boulder came at him. Wave punched it back at its master with raw strength. The Wyvern took the brunt of the hit, causing it to lose its right-wing in several places.
"Pretty neat trick, Wave! Here, lemme try it, too!"
Leone followed, punching another back and letting it reach its target. Makoto began evasive maneuvres to avoid being victimized by his own strategy, darting upward to the pair from below before turning sharply, to strike them with its tail.
Young and impulsive, Makoto knew better than to be enraged by this, but he could not stop it. Leone clung unto the tail as Wave clung unto Leone's boot.
"FINE! If you prefer to wager on suicidal tactics, I will kindly oblige you!" Makoto ordered the Wyvern to perform another somersault flip to adjust itself in the air and soon, the Ice Prince aimed the flying beast to the destroyed battle-torn ground below as it flew with speed.
Intending to crash into it, taking Leone and Wave with him. In their descend, Leone ran up the beast's tail upon getting to higher ground with Wave, as it flapped its wings to pick up speed and momentum. "Whoa, that isn't a way to take a lady for a ride, boy! Slow her' down!"
"Leone, it's useless! Just hold onto something!" Wave, realizing the boy was completely serious, shouted from the tail as he hung onto it. "I can't, Wave! We're toasted if we let him crash this crazy thing! We've gotta pull him outta that chair!"
Realizing Leone's sense, too. Wave screamed internally at himself and his horrible choice, then leapt up from the tail and ran across it as the tail shook wildly. They were almost at the impact zone, and time was running out.
Seeing Leone standing in front of Makoto as the Ice Prince tried to knock her away, Wave distracted Makoto by pounding against the back of his throne with a Grand Chariot empowered punch. "Huh, what're you?!"
"Now, Leone!" Wave screamed, hoping to finally end this peacefully.
"Yeah! Say goodbye, and nightly-night, kid!" Leone charged an impacting punch, Makoto now began to try and free himself from the throne, no longer caring to control the beast but instead escape from his predicament and kill his aggressors. "You're blind and stupid if you think I'll just sit here and let you...!"
"Too late!" Leone's punch landed on its mark, square at its chest, blowing Makoto's rising body backwards through the throne and breaking it completely. His incursio would be fractured, damaged to the point, microseconds after the explosive impact Leone had seen through it.
What she saw... Emptiness, no cloth or skin behind it. The boy was fading away, and this battle had been a struggle to stay in reality and to exist.
He had lost, thanks to the combined efforts of Leone and Wave.
One, formerly a friend and a close one of his father's.
The other one, a person of interest that he bore no hatred to but only saw her death was a requirement for the future.
Realizing the Wyvern was bound to break apart, Leone and Wave exchanged glances then wordlessly leapt away to the safety of the ground, leaving the boy alone to perish away in peace.
Having risen from his fallen place, Makoto stood up and wandered aimlessly around in confusion. Even as the Wyvern tried to keep itself afloat and hovered over the city, crumbling and falling apart. Makoto continued to try and get a grasp of what had just happened.
"Did I... Just lose?" Makoto's voice was small, tiny and insignificant. "I lost... And now I'm paying for it."
"I'm fading away, and there's nothing I can do." A pain in his chest grew. Caused by exhaustion, soon Incursio left him and fell to the ground below in its sword form. Falling to his knees, Makoto reached for it, but he realized the arm that he had outstretched wasn't there anymore, so he used the other. "Dad..."
"Is this what you want for me?" Makoto questioned, as he held Incursio in his grasp. Looking at it, and asking it for advice as he had always done. "What can I do, to make you proud of me?"
"Mom... She'll find a way to solve this, I know it. I won't die here, my story isn't over..."
"I can't die here, I won't..." With the loud chaotic impact of the Ice Wyvern into Fallhaven's soil, heralded Makoto Partas's quiet departure from reality.
A slow fade out, Makoto's battle with causality had been a long one and tiring one. He had changed many things that were not meant to be changed since he had arrived, but none as damaging trying to join his parents earlier than they were meant to be. For the arguably selfish but sympathetic desire to have siblings.
Everything was going well for him, so when he felt himself fading away, he did not know why.
He'd likely never know.
Least not now.
Least not ever.
Twenty minutes earlier.
She swore the attack had landed, but when she struck, an illusionary figure of her imagination was all that was hit.
Mahapadma was completely out of the question, she had already used way too many trump cards for it to be a viable option and by the time she had successfully turned around to face Akame, she'd be dead.
Akame's blade was primed to strike Esdeath, square across the face, provided she did such. Destroying the Ice Queen's beauty, and revealing the true evil monster that laid beneath the beautiful exterior. She turned anyway, facing her defeat with dignity that was expected of her. Preferring to die with sword in hand, whilst not wholly giving up either way.
She had come way too far to simply throw in the towel, she would have Tatsumi. Nobody, not even the universe itself would deny herself of her man.
Bracing for the attack's strike, Esdeath's body halted and froze up unexpectedly.
Inches away from her face, the blade was stopped dead in its tracks. Held strongly by armoured hands, Tatsumi's hands. Appearing from thin air at the sidelines, Tatsumi's explosive force had slowed the attack down, but not stopped it. The real kicker was that Tatsumi himself had saved Esdeath from certain defeat, a killing stroke.
When Esdeath saw this, saw Tatsumi, she did not know that it'd be possible. But she fell in love with Tatsumi for a second time, her faith in him had paid off in full.
Meanwhile.
Tatsumi had been observing the battle, betting on Akame's victory, but the odds were soon shown in full.
Akame was largely outmatched, and Tatsumi knew this. But when Akame revealed an ace up her sleeve, surprising Esdeath, Tatsumi's body moved without any command from its brain. Acting purely on instinct, through the justification that Esdeath's back being turned away, meant Akame was walking aimlessly into a trap.
Not that she was about to legitimately kill Esdeath, as she was.
Holding the blade's hilt, Akame's eyes widened in betrayal and pain when they saw Tatsumi defending Esdeath. "Tatsumi...! Let go!"
"You're just too late!"
"Don't you see, he's with me now!" Esdeath used Tatsumi's distraction, to the fullest possible degree, immediately severing Akame's left arm by the shoulder. Blood spewed everywhere, Akame dropping Murasame as she fell to her knees. Taking the sword in the hand that she still had, Tatsumi immediately reconnected back to reality with Akame's loud scream of pain. "Esdeath, why?!"
"Because she's weak, Tatsumi. That's all the justification that I require! Now... Come over here, and watch Mommy as she works!" Esdeath's words highlighted the sick way that she viewed the world and the people in it. Not only that, they highlighted another way that she saw herself and Tatsumi's relationship.
In Esdeath's mind, the most important person to a growing boy would always be their Mother. This was true for Makoto, that even if he were to marry and continue their bloodline, she would always be the most important woman in his life and so on, so forth.
But, to Esdeath, she could not stomach the thought of another woman being any more important than herself to Tatsumi, thus she decided to fill that role for him.
She would become every viable role for his needs, to ensure that he never wanted anything from anyone else ever in his life.
It helped, that Tatsumi had not had a Mother growing up, so she had nobody to compete with. Memory or otherwise.
"Tatsumi, darling..."
"Don't tell me you've grown a tad deaf, get over here, now." Esdeath pressed harder than before, growing insecurity in her heart. Tatsumi meanwhile tried to struggle with the guilt coursing through him like a violent torrent of water. His eyes, hidden by Incursio, fixed on the seething scowl Akame was wearing hard on her face, as she tried to stop the blood.
"Akame... I-I didn't..." Tatsumi choked, and then Esdeath decided to stop the way things were heading before they began to leave her control. A possessive hand outstretched, reaching for Tatsumi's cape to forcefully yank him over to her side. It missed its mark, Tatsumi immediately turned around and faced Esdeath head-on. His choice made, and his hands clenched into fists.
"Tatsumi..." Esdeath's voice was small, pained but clearly confused. She hadn't even questioned, why and how he was here at all until now.
Now everything had added up, he wasn't here to save her or help her in destroying Akame and the Revolution. Tatsumi was clearly here to stop her. That realization was all that it took for Esdeath's blood to begin boiling thickly.
Suddenly, and unexpectedly, Tatsumi dropped Incursio from his body and held it in his hands. Staring into Esdeath's eyes with his own. He had removed his Imperial helmet, much earlier.
If he was going to do this, he had to establish eye contact with her.
She'd never believe him if he hid behind a mask and Tatsumi was no coward.
"Esdeath. I've tried to avoid this, but you won't stop... And I can't make you stop, I accepted the killing and the violence you do, but not the torture. I held on as long as I could, but it's come too far. You went over the line, when you decided to go after Akame and Leone, Esdeath. I can't stand by and watch this happen, nor will I be apart of it."
With that, Tatsumi tore open a chunk of his shirt on the left side and began applying medical aid to Akame, soon as it was done.
Hastily and without much precision, Tatsumi lifted Akame up in his arms, staring at Esdeath who had not spoke.
Instead, she seemed suspended in time. A blank expression on her face, as she tried to work her way through what was currently happening. Unable to understand any of it, she kept on trying to solve it internally, trying to see what had caused Tatsumi to be so unsatisfied with life under her control.
In the end, she deemed that Tatsumi was not betraying her out of horrible mistreatment, but instead, doing it of his own free will.
Which was, infinitely much worse.
"Drop the girl, Tatsumi. That is your final warning." Esdeath hissed, sword held and pointed in aggression.
"I won't, I won't let go. Not now, not ever." Tatsumi retorted, his eyes open for the first time in months.
"My first mistake was letting go, and leaving my friends to join you."
"I said, you will drop that homewrecker, now." Esdeath's voice could only be described as the definition of feminine rage at this point. "Make me, it's about time I grew a spine against you. I'll finish what Akame started, Esdeath."
"Fine, have it your way-" Esdeath prepped for a leap, but paused when Tatsumi's next words were heard.
"I'm breaking up with you." A gunshot through the beating heart, could not have compared to the pain she felt when she heard those words. Even if Esdeath did not subscribe to the narrative of "Boyfriend" and "Girlfriend" she knew what they meant. The End. The end of their relationship, the end of a love that she had craved, worked and won through effort.
Only last night, Esdeath was comfortably asleep in a comfortable bed, accompanied by Tatsumi and Makoto.
And now she had just lost that happiness.
Tears tried to form in her eyes, but she shook them away. Instead, rage formed and grew. Sanity nearing its peak, Esdeath refused to simply let Tatsumi end things between them when they were just about to begin.
She had plans in motion, big plans. She would do anything to see them through, she wanted to grow old and frail with Tatsumi, not be without him until those days came.
The future would not repeat itself.
Not only that, if they were to end now. She would fail to beat the previous record of children birthed into the world, set by her future counterpart of Makoto's time. Esdeath's heart-rate increased to the point she could only hear it beating inside her head, she could not even hear her own thoughts over it. Slowly being driven crazy by it, she had to make it stop.
She had to kill Akame, she had to reclaim her mate and force him to love her.
"Breaking up, is that what you want? No, I refuse. You're mine alone, mine, MINE." Esdeath shouted, and violently stabbed her sword into the ground, pulling it loose and stabbing it once more when she said the words of possession. "That deceiving slut resting in your hands, she won't have you, Tatsumi."
"She can't have you, you already belong to me."
"I am the only woman for you, the only one that is good enough for you, my love." Esdeath scoffed as if this was common knowledge.
"I will make you see that, even if I have to kill every last one, every last woman that so much as looks at you."
"You're crazy, Esdeath. You need help, a therapist... I can't help you, not as you are." Tatsumi shook his head strongly and breathed out.
The war continued in the background, even as they spoke. Soon, they'd need to change location to avoid being caught up in it. "You make me this way, Tatsumi. If I can't have you with me, I become so unhinged that I tend to act out of line... So, let me kill that girl."
"Stop with that already-" Tatsumi, almost shouted, and then leapt sideways to avoid an Ice Dagger aimed for Akame, thus him, too. "You'll pay for the agony you've caused me, Tatsumi. If I can't have you, then nobody can! You'll be mine, or you'll be dead either way, you belong to me!"
"Enough with the goddamn guilt-slinging...! I feel bad enough, already!" Tatsumi kept on the move, leaping from rooftop to rooftop. Incursio strapped across his back, in his scabbard. Trying to avoid Esdeath's constant barrage of Ice Spears that came at them, without pause. Chaotic and wild in their delivery, reflecting their master's current shaky mental state.
Akame did not speak, but she had a slight smile on her face. She hadn't lost consciousness but stayed silent to conserve energy.
Tatsumi clearly felt guilty for doing that to Esdeath, but he knew that if he hadn't then things would've gotten much worse on the onset. His choice was made, he'd settle the matter of Makoto for later on when he was in the clear.
He wouldn't abandon his son, but he couldn't stay with Esdeath any longer now that she had crossed the blood-red line and tried to hurt, no, actually hurt Akame.
Tatsumi settled Akame down against a wall, they had hidden inside a house for now. Having shaken Esdeath's otherwise infamous level of eyesight, she was currently right on their tail. Taking his Imperial coat off, Tatsumi threw it across Akame and activated Incursio to it's fullest degree in hopes of distracting Esdeath long enough for Akame to regain her strength.
He hid Murasame where Akame could find it, then left through the open rooftop and soon willingly met Esdeath's line of sight after leaving himself exposed in his jumps and leaps.
"Where is she, Tatsumi? Where have you hidden away that half-formed mess of a woman?" Esdeath seethed, an insane expression woven into eyes and face combined. "Somewhere that you'll never know to look, Esdeath. It's just you and me now."
"Fine then, I'll take to the challenge of hunting her down, once I've beaten you within' an inch of your life! ...It'll be easy, as long as I follow the sad blood trail." Esdeath grinned, teeth bared as she threw a boulder of ice directly at Tatsumi with a flex of the hand. "Tell me, does it deeply concern you? The very thought that she'll never be complete again, does it, my love?"
"That's enough! Why don't you put yourself in her shoes for once, Esdeath?!" Tatsumi leapt away from the first boulder then struck the second oncoming one with a punch, breaking it in pieces with his rage alone.
Tatsumi charged at Esdeath, trying to draw her attention. "What if you were the one that lost a limb, huh? If you felt that you'd never be complete again, Esdeath? What would you do then, think about it!"
"Don't say such stupid nonsense, I'll always be complete as long as I do not lose. You'll learn to love me, Tatsumi... Soon, I'll be a limb of yours that cannot live without, or cut away!" Seeing through Tatsumi's strategy, Esdeath leapt away and scowled at Tatsumi from her perch at the top of a destroyed house.
"I'd rather die than be yours again!"
"I can quite easily arrange that, you stupid misguided boy." Tossing away ranged attacks, Esdeath pounced directly at Tatsumi and crashed into him as he came at her with a leapt of his own. Smashing into him, hard enough to cause a crater to emerge at the impact site, she'd pin him to the broken floor by the thighs and restrain him there. No said no words, no smug scoff of victory as she held him down.
The fact she could not see Tatsumi's face, only hear him, was worse as it meant she had no reason to hold back against him. Her weakness for his beautiful emerald eyes would not save him now.
The emptiness she felt inside began again, accompanied by the thick beating of her heart inside her head. Esdeath's pupils dilated and became wide, she delivered a solid punch to Tatsumi's armoured chest, causing him to cough out mucus.
Then another punch, this time, to the face.
Then another to the chest, again.
This kept going until she almost wore herself out.
Each punch was delivered with a feral cry of rage from the Ice Queen, undignified rage. A hard cry of pain from Tatsumi, who felt every punch as it came. She left seconds before giving the next, to ensure he felt everything in full measure.
When she prepared to deliver one more, on the face, Tatsumi's faceplate had come undone at the side. His exposed eye itself was narrowed and determined. Esdeath hesitated long enough to allow Tatsumi enough chance to avoid the blow by moving his head to the side and pushing her off from him.
Not good with rejection, Esdeath refused to allow Tatsumi to escape. "I won't let you just throw me away!"
"Get back here, Tatsumi...! You will not leave me! I will not be left alone again!"
Esdeath followed Tatsumi by scent, not even needing to direct her head in his direction to find him. Seeing that Tatsumi wasn't fully recovered from the punches she had given him, by his stance, Esdeath finished him off by kicking him square in the chest. Knocking him from his feet, and into the sky above.
This time, she followed her prey and performed a downward kick that lacked any of the grace she had before.
Tatsumi crashed into the ground, buried by the debris from the buildings destroyed around him. He did not move, even with Incursio's modifications increasing his durability, Esdeath was monstrous in combat, especially now that she was acting on rage and not commonsense.
Still. A large part of Tatsumi felt satisfied that in the end, he hadn't allowed the love he felt for Esdeath let him watch his friends die without doing anything to stop it, in the end, he remained the same person he always knew himself as. She hadn't changed him, he was Tatsumi Matsura.
Not Tatsumi Partas, as she wanted him to be.
Rising from his place on the ground, Tatsumi refused to be beaten and thrown aside, so that Esdeath could wander off and kill Akame. "Tch... I totally forgot what a persistent bitch she can be when she's angry."
Tatsumi sighed heavily and admitted his own fatal error in judgement. "...Ok, my fault. Probably should've done the whole "It's not you, it's me." thing, really."
A sharp spear of Ice narrowly missing him, hitting the ground, was all the indication that Tatsumi needed to know that Esdeath hadn't left him. "I'll say, you've certainty bitten more than you can chew, haven't you? But don't worry, I'm here to make sure you don't choke."
"You aren't wrong there, Esdeath. I'm partly upset with myself, really." Tatsumi admitted and brushed himself off. "I'm throwing a lot away by leaving you, a comfortable bed, for instance."
Tatsumi's words invoked another quick barrage of death to come his way, avoiding it narrowly, Tatsumi returned the expression by tossing pieces of roof and debris at the Ice Queen then ducking away from the returning volley. "And you'll come to regret that same choice when you are stuck, trapped like an animal, cold in the special cell that I make for you!"
"Already told you, Esdeath! Me and tight leather collars don't mix, they're bad for my blood circulation!" Tatsumi retorted, only to find his taunts hadn't helped him, or his humour for that matter. Esdeath was in no mood for jokes, and it showed when she knocked him away flying with a blocked backhand that was simply too strong to fully defend against. "Your childish jokes aren't doing you any favours, I'd stop now before you end up with a dislocated jaw, Tatsumi...!"
Crashing through literal depressing fields of destroyed buildings, like a scene out of a shounen anime, the only reason why Tatsumi's back wasn't broken was because of Incursio. Surrounded by the corpses of civilian, Revolutionary, and Imperial alike.
Tatsumi tasted the blood in his mouth and felt the blood pour down the side of his head. Leaning against a building that he hadn't crashed through, surprisingly enough. Tatsumi's eyes observed Esdeath walking slowly over to him ominously, across the distance.
"...So, this is how it ends, huh? I thought it'd have ended ages ago... In that canyon." Tatsumi solemnly laughed at his luck, he had been spared in the canyon, only to be put into the same bad spot, once more.
"Wave's gonna appear any second now... Then he'll get me outta this."
Tatsumi knew Wave wasn't coming for him, but he liked to joke about it as if it were true, for hope's sake. "I guess in a way, this was my second chance, my chance to do things right."
"...I hope I did it right this time."
"And I burned a lot of bridges to do it, crossed plenty of bad lines to make it happen." True to his word, Tatsumi had joined the enemy of his cause and provided her with the motivation to destroy the rebellion with haste, instead of letting it recover and fester in the Empire.
He was no saint. He quietly lamented on the fate of his village, realizing that with his betrayal, they'd likely fall behind on the Imperial Taxation without Esdeath's support and be forced to work in labour camps or starve to death in the cold peaks. "If only Sayo and Ieyasu were here, you big lovable idiots... You'd know what to do."
"Haaa... Haaa...Heh."
"The flowers I left... They're probably dead, aren't they? I guess I haven't been there for a while..." Tatsumi coughed up blood, and forcefully removed Incursio's helmet from his body, tossing it aside as it knocked against the hard floor with a metallic thud. Spitting up more blood, Tatsumi's blurry vision saw Esdeath practically meters away from him now as she held her sword in hand.
If she spoke words, Tatsumi did not hear them.
His mind, elsewhere as Makoto fought with Wave and Leone in the foreground.
"You aren't just giving up, are you? Come on, we've fought for this moment!" Bulat urged Tatsumi on. "We've bled for this moment, Tatsumi. Together!"
"It isn't like you to just give up, is it? Prove me right, you're my little brother! Losing isn't just us, Tatsumi...!" Yet again, in his dire moments, Tatsumi's mind rang loudly with the voice of his dearly departed brother. He did not know if Incursio had forever tied their souls together into one, but Bulat would always come to aid Tatsumi from the grave itself.
Perhaps, if Makoto could hear the voice of his father from Incursio, the boy's willpower and confidence wouldn't be so shaky.
"...Yeah, let's do this-" Tatsumi's sudden movement, immediately caused Esdeath to act as she put him down like a dog with a single stroke of her sword. Cutting through Incursio's steel, she'd gash him across the chest and finish off with a swift impalement through the chest, near the heart. Leaving him stuck on the blade, as she kept it there.
Fully intending to use it as a pseudo shackle of agony.
Halting Tatsumi's heroic second wind, dead in its tracks, refusing to allow him that. Esdeath's eyes lingered on him, observing her former lover's pain as he struggled to remove the blade that was stuck to the very ground below him, sealing him away as blood slid down the blade's metal.
Then, she walked away to find Akame without exchanging any words, she did not know if he'd be alive when she found him once more.
Bulat's voice had died out, as he soon would do.
His eyes closed in bitter acceptance of the path laid out before him.
In suicidal confidence, Tatsumi waited till Esdeath had walked far away from him and then, took the sword powerfully by the hilt with his hands. Pulling himself into it, instead of away, like logical.
Refusing to be beaten, Tatsumi called on Tyrant for power and begged for it to heed his call of dominance, to survive. Tyrant kindly obliged him, earnestly respecting him as it's host, by granting him abilities and powers beyond any other user had experienced prior.
Bulat had not experienced the body modifications that Tatsumi had, and Makoto had it on the genetic level.
If Tatsumi's depth of power had been lesser than it was, then he'd have experienced pieces of the Dragon Danger-Beast burning through unto his flesh. If he lacked the power to stay human, then he'd be consumed but Tatsumi attained the power to evolve Incursio, naturally and without risk to one's soul.
Oddly, he had Esdeath to appreciate for that, she had trained him enough to avoid being used as Tyrant's means of exit to the soul through the Teigu.
"...Sorry, bro. Sometimes, I guess, the real power comes from making deals with the devil."
"AND I JUST MADE ONE."
A thick explosive crimson lighting surged through Fallhaven, destroying all in its path. The crimson light's power was shown by it forcibly shifting the sky from a cloudy grey tone into a blood crimson red one instead.
The thunderous emissions forced the survivors to seek shelter. Many hid away in the crashed remnants of the Ice Wyvern that had fallen, along with it's Master.
Emerging from the smoke, Tatsumi was seen. The new and improved, Tatsumi Matsura.
He pulled the rapier from his chest and dropped it as if it weighed nothing at all.
Incursio evolved to the next stage, the second stage, of its power. Losing its humanoid features, it'd no longer resemble the Imperial armour and instead be far more dragonic than before.
In fact, he'd even have a tail now. No cape, either.
Incursio's helmet had longer horns that extended from behind, where the protrusions on the armour's original helmet were. His eyes could be seen, crimson and with Tyrant's trademark, cross being woven into the left one. Scales and the like, Tatsumi's armour was still built for speed and agility above all else, but now it'd be so damn powerful that he, himself, was impressed by it.
Tatsumi's fingers, now talons, tightly clenched themselves together in a tent and flex themselves out. "Alright, let's test this bad boy out."
"It's just about time for round two, everyone!" Tatsumi roared with undeniable power in his words, and leapt skyward over to Esdeath, with blinding speed.
When she had left Tatsumi, he had been thoroughly beaten and broken. A bloody mess, through and through. It wasn't until she felt the manly explosive surge of power from Incursio that instantly caused her body to shudder thickly, to the point, she knew that she had utterly soaked her underwear and thus needed a new pair in that, she realized Tatsumi hadn't been beat, just quite yet.
"You just keep surprising me. Don't you, my, oh so wonderful, soulmate? Come to me, let me taste you." She thought, internally swooning in joy.
Heeding her call, he arrived on cue.
Tatsumi landed with a notable small crater, two or so meters away from Esdeath from behind. Immediately turning around to face her man, Esdeath would have moved to speak, but she had no chance to do so. Tatsumi's fist was already lodged in her chest and tried to come out of the other end, so surprised by this, Esdeath's cap was blown off and sent hurling into the air as she herself did so, too.
"That... Was cathartic as hell, too bad it'd likely just pissed her off." Tatsumi slowly stated, achieving the first solid hit that anyone had ever accomplished on the Ice Queen in history. Like said, Tatsumi knew the surprise attack hadn't done of anything to her aside piss her off.
But he knew one thing now, and that was that this level of power would be able to land blows against Esdeath, as long as he didn't act foolish with them.
For the first time in his life with Esdeath, he'd be taking back control against his oppressor and turning the tables.
Virtually indestructible, now. Tatsumi's previous sustained injuries remained, but even with the bleeding hole in his chest, determination allowed him to overcome the pain and power on. Deciding that he had allowed Esdeath enough rest, Tatsumi blew from the floor and landed near the impact site where she had crashed down, seeing it barren and empty. "Damn, I didn't hit her that hard..."
The waiting predator leapt from it's hiding spot and tried to take Tatsumi by surprise, she failed and her chosen prey managed to quickly blow the kicking strike with the back of his arm.
"...But not hard enough, clearly!" Tatsumi yelled in shock, acting on instinct. "YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT."
"You foolish boy, you do not know what it means to hurt me? I'll make you hurt, ten times over." The look in Esdeath's orbs were that of a woman close to the edges of insanity.
A twitch flickered in the eye to the left, uncontrolled and feral, demonstrating that she was close to her wits end with Tatsumi's antics and refusal to be put down. Striking him with a flex of the hand, sending a barrage of ice at his way.
Tatsumi didn't need to block it anymore and instead broke the ice apart with his bare hands, smashing the fixtures into cold air with raw power. "You're joking if you think that'll stop me, you're thinking about the old Tatsumi... I'm ten times better and ten times more likely to win against you!"
Realizing that Tatsumi's weakness to ice, cold and frost was completely nullified by Incursio, Esdeath decided to use more physical tactics. Slamming herself into him, and connecting her blows with his reinforced body.
Tatsumi returned the same and struck back. They'd exchange blows, blocking and parrying some, then crashing their fists into the others at the next.
Each connecting strike, tore shockwaves of power through the ruined environment, breaking away at the debris and crushing rock into dust.
"Raaaaaagh! Ha! Come on, I wanna enjoy being able to finally hit you, for once!" Tatsumi yelled, working through the pain that came with Esdeath's fist coming into contact with his chest. She showed no physical reaction to his blows, aside from cold fury and mild gasps of pain.
At this very moment in time, Tatsumi was the only person alive able to match Esdeath's level of power in any regard and whilst Akame was faster than Tatsumi.
She did not have the power to endure any of the attacks that came from the Ice Queen. "This'll be your last battle, Tatsumi. Your final bout with me, so do not hold back."
"What is it, then? Do you intend to kill me?" Tatsumi leapt back and continued their conversation. His voice echoing powerfully, thanks to Incursio. "I do not, I have need of you."
"You have need of what's in me, you mean." Tatsumi wore a crooked broken smile behind his horned helmet.
"More or less, but I can live without your combative skills... I cannot live without you."
"So, you expect me to live as some kind of pet, or a sex-slave and all that? You're deluded, I'd never allow that." Tatsumi prepared his fighting stance, fully aware of the fate that laid out for him if he fell here.
Esdeath herself stood across from him and swept away some of the astray feminine hair that had gotten rather untidy in their fight. "You forsook any reality of choice when you joined me, you're body is mine... I will do with it as I wish, for whatever I wish."
"In my village, we still require consent... Regardless of the circumstance!"
"I own your village, Tatsumi. I make the rules, laws and it is I who allows them to live."
"You seem to have forgotten that, let me remind you of its importance." Esdeath, using a variation of the same trick she had entrapped Akame with. Surrounded Tatsumi with a sheer uncountable number of ice spears, primed and ready to impale him and Incursio.
Like Akame, she allowed Tatsumi to recognize the danger that he was in, and the hopelessness of trying to escape it.
Even Akame, could not escape this trap without suffering a cut, or two.
"Shit... Just my luck."
Tatsumi spat and looked at his awful situation. Seeing no way out, Tatsumi bolstered Incursio's shell, hardening it at his most vital points but Incursio refused that notion and provided its host with an additional way out that avoided pain.
Adapting to the situation, Incursio's naked back, lacking a cape, grew and spouted fully formed wings. Encircling around him, they'd form a protective barrier that defended against the spears that came, seconds later when Esdeath's fingers clicked in rage at Tatsumi's avoidance.
She couldn't deny, however. Apart of herself were enjoying this, Tatsumi's refusal to be beaten were one of the reasons why she had fallen so in love with him. Nobody had the gall to simply refuse to be struck down, aside from him.
Blowing Esdeath back, with a swift gust of windblown from his wings as they pulled themselves loose.
Tatsumi immediately acted on instinct and took to the skies. Flying upward, with explosive acceleration. Esdeath quickly followed him, flying aided by her Teigu's levitation ability. Refusing to let him escape, and refusing to allow him wings that he could escape with.
She had to control every single aspect that was Tatsumi, she needed to have it all. These wings were a sign of refusal, of rejection, a defiant stand that he'd never allow himself to be chained down.
But Tatsumi was hers. He would only fly freely when she permitted it.
And she did not permit this.
Tatsumi's upward flight was fast, but Esdeath's much more was faster. Fueled by an uncontrolled need to possess him, she'd take ahold of his leg when she came close enough to him, freeze it solid. Then do the same to his wings, completely halting his momentum.
Tatsumi had only been in the air for about fifteen seconds, and he had picked it up surprisingly well, but he didn't count on Esdeath being able to fly as quickly.
A fatal error.
She threw him back to the ground below in a feral toss, hurt by his metaphorical rejection of her control. Tatsumi's wings tried in vain to break free of the ice, but they were too slow in which by the time they collided with the ground, they were already broken messes and mockery of wings.
Tatsumi crawled away from his crater impact site, trying in vain himself to not be taken alive. "Tch... That was uncalled for."
Esdeath landed perfectly behind the fallen Tatsumi's location, seconds later. Malicious aura, thickly radiating from her body. "I'd have made you, King of this entire world, if you so much as asked..."
" I'd have been your Queen, Tatsumi. We could have ruled so much together... Shared a family, a life and known peace like no other."
Esdeath's words caused, untold amounts of guilt in Tatsumi's mind, as intended, but she continued as Tatsumi vainly tried to crawl away as his broken wings flapped helplessly on his back.
"But you refused, refused me. I won't forgive that easily, but you will be MINE."
"You will not escape my love." At this very moment, Esdeath's heel drove itself into Tatsumi's back. Directly on his spine, she showed no mercy to him as the Ice Queen's cold possessive hands came on his wings. She would not be satisfied with merely breaking them, they could recover and renew. Esdeath had to pull them completely away from him, to ensure they would not return to grant him freedom.
She ignored Tatsumi's screams of agony, Incursio wasn't just a suit of armour anymore, he felt what it felt.
A visible tear was seen, Incursio's wings tried to struggle against the determined grip of Esdeath and failed to shake her away. She tore the first away, by this point, Tatsumi was howling in agony. Then, without any delay, began on the second one. Now Tatsumi was violently slamming his head into the ground, in attempts to focus on lesser pain by causing it himself.
The final agonized inhuman howl from Tatsumi, brought forth Esdeath's removal of the second final wing as she threw it aside without a second glance at it. Incursio closed the holes made from the forced removal of its evolutionary step.
They would not be able to grow back for a while, which was perfectly fine for Esdeath, who sought to permanently keep Tatsumi's feet on the solid ground.
"You know that I don't like hurting you, Tatsumi." Esdeath quietly admitted earnestly as she fixed his hands to the floor with Ice to prevent him from turning over. "
But apart of me, just wants to make you scream... You hurt my pride, ruined my plans with you and let my precious prey escape me."
"..Hng, I'd do it all over...Again, again and again. If that's what takes, to deny you, Esdeath." Tatsumi groaned as he tried to pull himself loose from his binds. Causing Esdeath to simply slam a heel, once more into him to suppress his struggles. "You don't quite understand who you're dealing with, do you?"
"I always get what I want, Tatsumi." Esdeath proudly affirmed, hand on hip and sword in the other. "Be it you, or anything else."
"Your petty attempts to deny me, only fuel the fire in my heart. In the end, I will be the mother of your children, you and I will be happily wed in a harmonious monogamous union. No matter how many of your bones I must break to have such happiness, I will do anything to make it happen, Tatsumi."
"Tch..." Akame scowled, as she held onto the blood-soaked makeshift bandages, Tatsumi had prepared. She could still feel the arm she had lost, even now. The pain had been brief but she knew the pain was only just beginning. Still, Tatsumi's defection had been something she didn't expect. What she didn't know either, were why Tatsumi had blocked the attack she had made on Esdeath.
The Ice Queen had been surprised as she was, to see him. And the sheer guilt in his voice, she knew that Tatsumi hadn't intended for this to happen, he was only trying to help. Shown by his current battle with the monster in white, raging on behind her. Akame had been forced to hide away when the sky turned crimson and the ground shook violently.
She powered on, hoping to reach Leone or anyone else from the Revolutionary Army that could provide aid. Even now, she was weak enough that simple footsoldiers could make short work of her.
She only came across corpses, most of the fighting had been done and all that was left was to mope up and throw the bodies to the bonfires. The main players of the battle had left and by the looks of it.
Nobody from the Revolutionary Army had made it to the Lord's Tower to evacuate.
This really is the end, isn't it? Akame thought.
She knew that Tatsumi would not be able to defeat Esdeath, only she could do that and she failed miserably.
Esdeath was correct, she had neglected training and practice to survive against the odds. Outnumbered and alone, only travelling with Leone. Least when they were with Tatsumi, he'd keep them safe from harm.
They were able to spread themselves out, and assign each other tasks to make the daily life easier. Cooking meals, and fishing in lakes. Finding meat to prepare, the good old days in Night Raid. She'd give anything to have Najenda and Susanoo back, he'd had been able to create cabins and the like within' mere hours.
Then, by some kind of miracle. She found Leone, but she wasn't alone.
She stood by Wave, a Jaeger and renown member of the Empire. Acting on instinct, Akame immediately drew Murasame with her left hand.
Murasame immediately fell to the floor and clanged loudly, then she remembered.
She had no left hand to use or left arm for that matter.
Akame pathetically reached down, and took Murasame into the one hand she had left, and watched as Leone and Wave walked over together. "Akame, glad to see you're in one pie-"
"Holy shit, what the hell happened to you?!" Leone's shock completely overrode the chance to pick up on the irony of her previous statement and instead made her sick to her stomach in horror. She almost threw up, especially considering if it were herself, Lionelle would be able to reattach the limb without any issue but she knew Akame wasn't compatible with it.
"Esdeath happened."
"The Commander... Damnit." Even Wave himself was horrified, provided everything went well between him and Kurome as it had been, Akame would be his Sister-in-law so it was natural that Wave felt concern over Akame's welfare. "We need to get you to a Doctor."
"No time, Leone. We need to evacuate, where's Kurome?" Akame asked Wave, who shook his head. "I don't know... She was ordered to stop you from escaping, but I haven't seen her... Ideally, whenever you are, she shouldn't be far off."
"...I'm right here, Wave," Kurome revealed herself from the darkness and stood by Wave. "Aaaaagh, jeezus! I told you to stop that, Kurome!"
"Sorry, you were wide open," Kurome confessed a slight smile on her face that soon died as she looked on Akame's condition. "You have an escape route, Sis?"
"I do, Kurome. We need to head for the Lord's Tower... But it's covered in Ice, we can't get inside."
"I can deal with the Ice, just watch my back." Wave answered, energetically, way more motivated now that they were escaping together as a team. "Wait, Kurome... Are you really sure about this, Esdeath won't blame you if you turn up empty-handed... In my case, I've horribly failed my mission."
"Failed, what mission?" Akame asked as she leaned against a wall. "The Ice-Bitch's kid brat is dead, Akame. We took him down together, myself and Wave."
"I feel better already." Akame coldly replied, and stood up from the wall. Walking in the direction of the frozen Lord's Tower in the distance, everyone followed the ruby-eyed killer. "Ok, we don't have much time... Tatsumi is buying some time for us, but he can't withstand Esdeath alone."
"Damn, if only I reached out to him earlier." Wave lamented, but begrudgingly nodded and knew that Esdeath would not kill Tatsumi, at least, he hoped she wouldn't. The cards were up in the table, he knew how angry his Commander could be when she did not get what she wanted, or when people got in her way.
Esdeath's current behaviour wasn't unlike an angry frustrated female beast that was determined to forcibly drag her stubborn mate back to the nest, away from the cold. She wanted to care for Tatsumi, he refused. She wanted to love him, he declined. Even so, ask yourself. Could you willingly discard your morality, for the sake of a stable future?
That's what Esdeath was offering to Tatsumi. A future, one that he could truly put faith into.
No chance, or worry.
A future devoid of concern, she held unsurmountable power in the Empire, hell, she practically controlled it as easily as she breathed air. All that Tatsumi required to give, provide were that of love. Children, and a relationship she could take pride in.
It'd be safe to say that Esdeath wouldn't have been in the situation she was in if Tatsumi was a man of lesser moral fibre. She loved that about him, to a sharp degree. His heroics were beginning to prove tiresome, and she hit the threshold today, she would no longer tolerate a Tatsumi that dreamed of a world where the Empire did not exist.
He would be forced to conform to reality or be locked away forever under lock and key.
"Whatever happened to that spunk of yours, Tatsumi? You're so ragged now!" Esdeath roared in victory, clashing blades with him. Tatsumi wielded Neutote, the former halberd having evolved to resemble a sharper spear of sorts.
Tatsumi swung it around, violently parrying and connecting with his former ex-lover's rapier longsword. "Haaah...! I haven't let down yet, and I won't against you!"
"That's the spirit, Tatsumi. Let me break you down slowly, it's not fun if I do it too quickly!"
Tatsumi ignored Esdeath's insane taunts and somersaulted away. Kicking up dust, and spinning Neutote in circles on his palm to defect the Ice Queen's oncoming icicle knives intending to impale him at his joints, to disable his movements.
They had been fighting for minutes on end, yet with Tatsumi's evolution, he had not slowed down. Incursio's natural evolution ensured that Tatsumi's body did not put itself at risk, he had trained to withstand the tremendous strain of Incursio and adapted to it.
In many ways, he had been thankful to have been crushed alive by the Death Tagool.
His entire had benefitted from being broken down into pieces and rebuilt. To think, what would happen if Tatsumi recovered from being reduced to atoms, what insane power could be attainted. His quirk for evolution and adaption was truly terrifying to behold and to think his heirs would be given that too.
His children, even if they weren't with Esdeath herself, would be powerful engines of destruction and imbued with their Father's desire to strive forward without reservation.
In many ways, Tatsumi did not need Esdeath to create powerful sons and daughters.
Unlike Esdeath, Tatsumi wasn't psychologically convinced that Esdeath was the only compatible partner for him to mate with. Least, not yet anyway, the Ice Queen had not reached that far into Tatsumi's psyche, just yet.
"Try impaling me with that spear of yours, my love...! Come on, don't you want to try it?" Esdeath's words were clearly intending, what you thought they meant, reader. "Listen, we're over! Just get it in your head, already! I don't love you!"
"You break my heart, Tatsumi. You're just playing hard to get, you'll see." Esdeath egged herself on, of course, she refused to acknowledge they were done with each other. Relationships had no end in Esdeath's book, good relationships with destined partners, anyway. They were bound forever and soon, Tatsumi would not be able to refuse the intimacy of their relationship and bond.
Children usually did that, you see.
"Now... Stay still." Esdeath's threw a fist forwards, intending to connect it with Tatsumi's face. An instant KO, with success. His body would fall backwards, unconscious even before colliding with the floor itself. No connection was made, Tatsumi's armoured body vanished into thin air before she could make it so. His presence immediately faded away at the same time, never to be felt again.
It would be as if he somebody had snatched him away, right before the Ice Queen's eyes.
With no presence to be felt in the air and no Tatsumi to be seen, she was left with literally nothing to go on.
Thing is, Tatsumi had not revealed Incursio's Trump Card to Esdeath, in which he could render himself perfectly blind from seeing eyes and senses as long as he remained perfectly still in his motion. It was a risky bet, but it had clearly paid off.
Makoto hadn't told Esdeath either for that same reason, for it'd serve him no benefit to reveal his and his Father's greatest weapon to the one that desired to take it from them.
Esdeath waited in the silence, for several seconds, before she'd pause completely in bodily motion. The Ice Queen's eyes, however, were darting everywhere, trying to search for her lost mate. Mind racing and heart-thumping in the chest, Esdeath's mind could not take it. Unable to process what exactly had just happened, that she had failed, that she had lost Tatsumi completely.
She knew that if she were not able to take Tatsumi back, to reclaim him when he had said those awful words of separation, then they'd be no taking him back.
The end would truly come, and it had.
Unable to put the required weight on her legs, Esdeath fell quickly to her knees and sank low. She held onto her longsword with each of her hands, she had stabbed it into the ground prior in rage, before beginning to process what had just transpired. Pain, anguish and sadness coursed through the lonely woman, and she did the only thing she knew she could do.
Call for her son.
Bound by blood, they shared a very special link. A mental connection and maternal bond, this had allowed Esdeath to call Makoto to her side from vast distances by merely honing unto him with it. She called for him, for her baby boy. Minutes passed, a deep longing for comfort went unanswered. She received no reply, no immediate arrival of the beauty she had created. She was alone, she called again.
Far more aggressively this time, to the point she knew that Makoto would not be able to ignore it. A sacred call from the very person who had held him in her womb, it could not be ignored without great force of will.
But he did, and it was only then that Esdeath realized what had transpired.
Makoto wasn't intentionally disobeying her and she knew that he could not, he just couldn't respond, because he literally could not.
Death or worse, that's what it meant. The full scope of the situation, the full reality, dawned brightly on the Ice Queen's mind.
A mind which broke apart into pieces, at that very moment, Wave had failed and he would pay for it.
They all would pay.
They would all die.
At this instance, nothing else mattered to the Ice Queen. She did not care for the loyalty of her troops or the lives of civilians. She would weed the weak out, and kill everything in her path. None would be spared, no mercy would be shown.
She would strip the flesh and bone from the ones that had taken him away from her. The dying screams of the weak would soothe the agony in her broken battered heart, and provide temporary relief.
To start, she would destroy the entire city of Falllhaven and it's people. Everyone in it.
For in the future, when you were asked if you knew a place called Fallhaven, you would reply with.
"What, I've never heard of a place called that?" That was Esdeath's vengeful intent, she would wipe it literally from the map and reduce it to a barren frozen wasteland if she were not quickly reunited with her darling baby and frustratingly rebellious mate. Finding the power to stand up through hatred, Esdeath did just that and lifted herself back to her feet. Sword in hand, Esdeath's stone face was a fully blank canvas, eyes hollow and glazed over like glass marble.
A relentless sudden harsh winter storm blew over Fallhaven, a region known for its grassy plains and dense forests. Snowfall began heavily, quickly turning into unstoppable blizzards. Soon, the bodies of the dead were buried in the snow. None of it touching Esdeath, for she stood in the eye of the storm.
She was the storm.
By this point, Esdeath's forces knew better than to linger and immediately began a full-scale retreat, but it was too late for the ones that were too far into the city at its centre.
They froze to death, like the rest of the trapped Revolutionaries and scared, terrified civilians.
Plenty of Esdeath's crueller forces that had elected to rape some of Fallhaven's helpless women, found themselves snapped into two from exposure along with their victims. The death toll rose with each passing second, and by the middle of the storm's duration.
The Ice Queen had managed to completely destroy every last Revolutionary in Fallhaven, no survivors aside from the Leaders that were trapped in the upper part of the Lord's Tower.
Cruel mercy, without a doubt.
The only safe area was that of the Imperial Military Camp, spared from the Ice Queen's vengeful pained wrath in hopes that Makoto had simply moved to retreat away to it.
That was the only reason, otherwise, it would not have been spared.
Esdeath's Ice Kings walked in unison and roamed the battlefield, in cracked and broken forms. They had not been destroyed or damaged by battle, but, because of a flaw in the Ice King trump card.
The flaw was true love.
The vital ingredient for power absolute.
You see, they could only function properly, when Esdeath was completely convinced that Tatsumi loved her as she did him, and when that delusion was broke apart. So did they, they relied on Tatsumi for their appearance and motion, when Esdeath's love for him was put to the test, they eroded into vapour.
They walked without purpose and direction. Immune to the cold hell around them, but breaking apart all the same.
To be honest, it was only fair.
Such a powerful weapon, to replicate the strongest male warrior in the Empire, wasn't exactly balanced and fair.
But neither were Esdeath, for that case.
One by one, they merged into the snow below their feet as they "Died." if you could say that.
The sky had lost its crimson tone and became a permanently cloudy snowstorm to reflect on the state of the person who had twisted it into this unnatural way.
Midst the carnage she caused on the outside world, Esdeath's broken fractured mind had retreated away into a place, that could only be called blissfully happy.
She closed her eyes, hoping to be relieved of the pain she felt. To be reunited with the man she loved so much, and to be happy without reservation as she had been just a single day before.
When Esdeath opened her eyes, she was somewhere else entirely. Not in the ruins of an equally ruined city, but laying in a comfortable bed, sitting upright. Resting against a pillowcase, and with a feeling of weightfulness that did not cease when she adjusted herself for comfort's sake.
A familiar voice rang out, and she immediately felt at ease. It was Tatsumi's voice, an older Tatsumi's voice.
"Hey..."
"Hey there, gorgeous. No, don't sit up... Let me get that for you." She looked at him, eyes wide.
Tatsumi was currently smiling widely, it wasn't a scowl but an earnest smile, slightly taller than she remembered him. His hair longer but neatly tied back in a stylish ponytail, and his attire dressed in the Imperial Uniform accompanied by a cap that looked as if he had stolen her own.
But she was not wearing one, instead, she was dressed in a simple blue night-gown. Tatsumi kneeled down, and adjusted her pillowcase and gently applied a hand to massage her shoulders. "You're probably feeling pretty achy, pregnancy does that as you know. And this is your third time, isn't it?"
"Heh, of course, it is. How can I possibly forget something like that."
Then the immense sense of weightfulness made sense, Esdeath immediately threw the covers away that had been concealing her stomach in warmth.
She was heavily pregnant, and when she focused her senses. A tiny heartbeat that was not her own, could be heard.
It was beautiful, she almost welled up in tears. "Rest up, it'd cause me untold pain if you were to move about as you are."
"Tatsumi, I can't..." She choked up, trying to make sense of this happiness she felt.
"Shhh, are you hungry? I just ate myself. The kids are busy with their Thursday Lessons, and I finished putting that rebel incursion down, as you asked... They were surely troublesome."
"We have the whole day and the house, well, Mansion to ourselves, whatever you need, I'm here." Tatsumi's words were dripping thickly with warm loving devotion she yearned for, the same kind that she had always showered unto him. "I just need you, and only you, stay with me."
"Hey, I was going to say that. That isn't any fair." Esdeath pulled Tatsumi close, wrapping her left hand over his neck to pull him close.
They shared a passion, yet calm kiss. Then she noticed another strange thing when she did so, a beautiful diamond was stuck to a ring on her finger on the left hand she had used. Esdeath did not care for jewellery, so this must've been a... "Looking at our wedding ring, honey?"
"Glad you like it, I put a lot of effort into finding one that matches your beauty, you know." Laying on the charm, Tatsumi had always been good with words. "So, you best appreciate it."
He laughed, then continued talking away.
"You know. It's hard to believe we've been married for three years, it's our anniversary coming up, too." Tatsumi's hands came over Esdeath's left one, gently stroking it and applying a soft kiss of love unto the ring itself.
"Do you want to do anything special for it?" Oh, she loved him so much.
Oh, so much. His words, they were perfect. They were all she wanted, plain and simple. She could almost die happy, as she was. Marriage, kids and a simple yet exciting life to live out with the man she loved the most in the world. But, before she could answer him, as she wanted.
Tatsumi stood up from his place at her bedside and held a hand up to gesture for a pause. "Hold that thought, darling. I need to go, it's almost time for me to leave."
"Leave, why do you need to leave?" Esdeath asked, for once, she sounded as if she was scared to be alone. "I totally forgot about my meeting with the new Prime Minister that we've put into the fold to replace the old one."
"That can wait, I need you here."
"Really can't, tell you what, tell me what you want to do later and we'll work something out." Tatsumi adjusted his cap and smiled warmly then stepped back. "Tatsumi."
She pressed, being rewarded with two more steps backwards. "I wish I could stay longer with you, but you see, I'm not real."
"And neither is any of this, Esdeath. This is just your heart's true desire, and you know that." In a rage, Esdeath tried to lift herself up by force, and chase him down.
But the imaginary pregnancy that she desperately wished for, refused to let such happen. "No, why, why can't this be real?! If I want it to be, why can't it?"
The idealized Tatsumi sadly removed his cap and placed it firmly against his chest as he looked on. Saddened by the words, he was about to say.
"Because I don't love you."
With that, the daydream ended and the Ice Queen embraced reality, once more.
The sad, lonely reality she had been thrown into.
A loveless world, one where she had been left alone.
Alone.
Alone.
Alone.
Don't worry, as I said. I still fiercely ship Esdeath x Tatsumi and like previously said, she wins in this fic.
But what I always wanted to ensure, is that she needs to -earn- that victory. She doesn't just have it handed to her, like most fics, she has to go through struggle and pain for it. What Esdeath wants, isn't simple to obtain, as shown in her daydream. She wants everything from Tatsumi, the whole nine yards.
But the fic is far from over yet, that I assure you! The chapters will follow a similar narrative to this one, from henceforth, until we reach another point of stability for Esdeath and Tatsumi but until then, all bets are off.
I really surprised ya, didn't I? Come on, I did, didn't I? Nah, I'm kidding really. You all saw through that fakeout in the last chapter.
Which is why I released this one, early, as to avoid milking it too excessively.
I hate cliffhangers, so I didn't want to rely on them too heavily to avoid being outed for the hypocrite that I am.
Anyhow, intentionally leaving plenty of questions unanswered for drama, hope you liked it.
Remember to rate and review, thanks!