Chapter 39 "Competition or War"
~ PRUDENTIAN PLAINS, just outside the captured Dosilla City ~
"This had better be good," General Gollach harumphed as he and his Blade Newt made the scene. "We were in the middle of a most exquisite Pinot Gormoir."
"I'm sorry, I only wanted to, y'know, point out that your boys are tearin' up the Titan!" Nia stepped forward to them with conviction, prompting me to keep up by her side.
"My sincerest apologies," he feigned, terribly, enjoying her agitation, "I shall tell them to play nice."
"What happened to my Titan tanks?" Newt examined the Archelons. "Did you do that, Nia?"
"H-how… do you know my name?" my disquieted Blade switched to defense.
"Special Inquisitor Càidh must've told them," I whispered to her. "Look, Gollach, you can drop the act. You know what you've done, and whether or not your superiors authorized you to do it, we cannot allow you and your men to continue." He continued to stare at us with his wiry smile, perhaps contemplating if it was worth dragging out the pretenses to squeeze a few more reactions out of us. We were weary as it was, having fought Ardainian soldiers across the plains all day.
"Right, then." General Gollach, experienced and decorated that he was, knew when enough was enough. Nimble like a man half his age, he removed his coat and cap and brandished Newt's katana, it's sheath shining in the late afternoon light. "We tried to make this easy for you. We let you walk free after you trespassed our grounds. We even waited for you to leave before we proceeded so that you wouldn't have to die at our hands."
"Th-thanks…" I nearly laughed at his gall. "It's really hard to find folks who care these days."
"Squad, hup!" he addressed his men without turning around. "Formation, line! Take aim!" All of the remaining mercs' common Blades put up their barriers, while Nia powered up her scimitar which hadn't left my hands since we'd entered the fray. "Fire!"
"Go!" I shouted back to her as we lunged at General Gollach, unintendedly taking his call as our cue to attack, too. The Ardainian boss, now enhanced by his Blade's ether, blocked me hit-for-hit. (Not bad, old man… but we're not doing this for fun.)
We kept up our swordplay for a lot longer than I'd expected from him, especially considering he'd only resonated with Newt at the beginning of the year. Despite his impressive agility, a pattern became apparent to me, and eventually I anticipated his swing in time to catch him at the wrist and fling the katana away.
"Gah!" The adversarial Ardainian knelt in throbbing pain as I held the scimitar to his head. One glance around the field revealed that his gunners had been knocked out by the mercs, one of whom retrieved Newt's katana.
"General Gollach of Mor Ardain, I hereby place you under citizen's arrest for terrorizing the good people of Prudentia," I felt empowered to use such vernacular. Opting for silence, he climbed to his feet and simply smiled. (If he thinks he can unnerve me by acting like I don't have the upper-hand, then he's got another thing coming.)
"Newt, my dear," he calmly addressed her, "I think it's time."
"Good," Nia pouted behind me, "maybe we can wrap this up before din-"
"Hoo-rah!" Newt abruptly blared and wrapped her arms around herself as a cloud of smoke shrouded her muscly figure. Simultaneously, her katana reddened with heat, causing the merc to drop it like a hot potato.
"What… the…?" My partner and I were both in shock and horror. Stepping out with swagger, Newt now posed a pair of floating, disembodied arms… giant, inexplicable, and aflame. Like a conductor, she moved her own arms such that their corresponding giant variants picked up the katana and proceeded to unsheathe it. "Rem!" Nia reactivated her Blade barrier, remembering what'd happened the first time she'd fought Newt.
"Behold!" The new star of the show unleashed her fiery explosion, blowing back all of the mercs in the vicinity. Even though we were protected by Nia's Blade barrier, the heat from the blast still singed us to an undelightful crisp.
"How on Alrest…?" Nia discreetly reallocated some of her power to heal me whilst keeping her guard up.
"I told you I'd be better," Newt grinned, putting her weapon away after one usage. "I've spent the last few months training, testing my abilities, and even discovering some new ones." I continued to gawk at her new growths, my mind unable to wrap itself around the physical plausibility of these disembodiments, let alone the act of controlling them.
"This isn't a game!" my partner blasted back. "This was never a game!"
"But I trained for this moment," the musclebound Blade continued her self-praise, "to make my comeback and earn your respect."
"Respect? You said that you couldn't be enemies with us," I recalled the time the two Blades shook hands, "yet here you've attacked us and destroyed our land."
"We're not enemies," she argued, feebly, "we're competitors!"
"Did you not hear me?!" My burnt Blade was fuming. "There is no competition! People are gettin' hurt!"
"Collateral damage is to be expected in the battle of Blades," Newt put a military spin on it, "especially with this kind of firepower."
"Have you seriously not seen what's been going on out 'ere?" Nia was incredulous with Newt's ambivalence. "Your dumb war has affected the entire Titan!"
"I've seen," she looked away, eventually turning to her driver. "Sometimes, it is… necessary… in times of war."
"Wait, now you admit it's war?" my partner threw her hands down. "Do you even know what you're talkin' about?"
"Absolutely!" Newt forced confidence back into her voice, only to follow it up with further indecision. "Sir?"
"War is… a messy thing." General Gollach's sinister smile had never left his face, like it was painted on.
"Yes, indeed!" his Blade faced us again. "War is messy for those who aren't as powerful as us, the two greatest Blades this Titan has ever seen!"
"What… are you… talkin'…?" Nia rubbed both sides of her face, completely lost in the illogic.
"He's puppeteering her," I explained privately, "ensuring that her goal is close enough to his so that he can use her to advance his raid."
"Like… a really bad influence?" she whispered back. "Newt, what do you want, competition or war? They're not the same thing."
"Mmm…" Newt started to fret, feeling hot under her cap.
"It matters not," General Gollach answered for her. "What matters is that this land will be ours and you two sealed your fates by getting in our way."
"At least he's not feigning ignorance anymore," I sighed as I gripped Nia's scimitar tightly again. "Whether or not Newt is ignorant to the war, we must subdue her and liberate Dosilla."
"Agreed," my Blade and I were in-sync, her power enveloping me for another round.
"Hey now!" Newt backstepped, her giant arms mimicking the animated reactions of her normal ones.
"Hmph! Seems like these cretins eagerly wish to die by our hands," General Gollach chuffed, tilting his head toward his Blade, "er… by your hands, that is."
"Sir?" she eyed him attentively.
"Execute them, that is an order," he tightened his lips.
"Not a chance!" My strength had recovered enough to launch a hefty strike at Newt who blocked it with her giant palms, again conducted by her normal hands. It became quite apparent that she no longer needed her katana as her new ability was sufficient enough to keep us in check. General Gollach's confidence in her remained solid throughout, so much that he didn't even watch us battle after another minute. Instead, he chose to survey the situation around us, particularly in his downed soldiers. (Where does he think he's going?)
"Rem, pay attention!" Nia scolded me, noticing my sloppiness.
"I am… the better Blade, now!" Newt squealed between attacks. "I am better… than both of you…" She began to move her arms in differing ways which broke her pattern and made it difficult for me to find an opening. Eventually, I was the one who was left wide open as one hand intercepted me in the air, finally forcing a change in strategy.
"Nia!" I shouted to my partner on the ground and tossed her scimitar to her.
"Gotchya!" The catty Blade pounced on the opportunity and sprayed a powerful, searing shot from the tip of her weapon to the exposed abdomen of the rival. The impact of her fall was enough to get the casual general to pay attention again.
"Not bad… not bad…" Newt quickly pulled herself up and fixed her cap, not wishing to look weak in front of her driver. "A bath is nice now and then."
"Did you get her?" I conferred with Nia, regarding her special trick which won her the last battle between the two of them.
"She'll be drained in a minute," she confirmed as she passed her scimitar back to me. "Just keep her busy and we've got it made."
"You got it." My body ached from being active all day, but I did as she instructed. I didn't need to break past the giant limbs anymore, so long as the host-Blade succumbed to Nia's degenerative manipulation. "Any moment now… she'll fall…" except that, after five minutes, the adversary still hadn't.
"Wha…?" Nia tried to hide her befuddlement as she continued to feed me her ether. Soon, it was I who struggled to keep up, the exhaustion of fighting settling in.
"You're slowing down!" Newt noticed it, too, turning her open-palmed blocks into close-fisted punches. One slip of my foot on the wet grass was all it took, and the big, menacing hand landed the biggest single blow I'd ever experienced. My mouth gaped wide, but I couldn't produce a sound of pain, my entire being stunned unresponsive.
"Rem!" Twice now Nia cried out my name during this sordid scene, wasting no time in coming to my aid with her blessed healing.
"She's a… healer Blade?" General Gollach quietly observed from his distance. "So, Douglas wasn't pulling my leg, after all. She really did save him and Brighid in Teddim."
"Cast your driver aside," Newt approached us, her sharp eyes locked onto Nia's. "It's you whom I really want to impress."
"How dare you suggest…?" My partner wrapped her arms around me, not that it increased her output any. Until now, her ability to heal was the one thing that she hadn't made known to either Newt or Gollach, the latter of whom began to brainstorm with this revelation.
"Ugh… thank you, so much," I regained feeling to my body, the uncomfortable sensation of needles to my hands and feet notwithstanding. Without her, I surely would've been maimed for life.
"Should we retreat?" Nia considered, having accepted that her last-ditch effort was in vain.
"Don't let 'em escape!" the general suddenly called out.
"Sir?" Newt was just as surprised as we were.
"Grab 'em!" he hollered again, motioning with his own hands. "Grab 'em now or else I'll…"
"Sir, yes sir!" she complied before he could dole out his threat. In one sweep, Nia and I were scooped off the ground and crunched under the biceps of the disembodied arms. "Awaiting further commandments, sir!" The militaristic Blade stood with her own arms crossed.
"Good…" Crafty old Gollach walked confidently to us, purposefully kicking away my Ardainian shield like it was a heap of offensive rubbish. "I've made a change in plans."
"Let us go!" Nia writhed while I struggled to keep from choking, the flames from atop the disembodied limbs warming the back of our heads.
"You… are a feisty one," he focused on her. "And yet, you've got that special aura about you, one that could come in handy."
"And w-what makes you think… I'm gonna help you?" she retorted, a little short of breath herself.
"Newt, press the Prudentian," the general ordered the captain.
"Y-yes sir…" Newt sounded unsure of his altered plan but continued to obey him, squeezing the air out of my lungs until I lost consciousness.
I don't know for how long I was out, but when I was able to open my eyes again, I saw that all of the riflemen were back on their feet, standing freshly at attention. Peering across Newt, I observed Nia with one arm free, healing the general before trying to spit in his face.
"Lovely," he showed his teeth, having successfully coerced Nia into revitalizing his group by threatening to kill me through asphyxiation.
"That's it, I'm spent," she heaved, her arm falling limp against the bulging bicep.
"What now, sir?" Newt crossed her arms again, making sure the healer was snug again.
"We have lost a large portion of our force, but we now have our greatest threat neutralized," the general assessed the situation. "Unfortunately, due to our decrease in manpower, we'll have to settle for guarding Dosilla tonight. For now, let us retreat to Iradell before more pesky mercenaries show up."
"Aye!" she turned about-face, swinging us dizzily in the process.
"Squad, hup! Forward, march!" Like the leader that he was, General Gollach proudly paraded us out of the plains, through Dosilla to a round of applause from the reserve, and finally to their village and base of operations.
~ IRADELL ~
It was dark, but I recognized the shifty village. Just as we'd previewed from peeking through the tarpaulin-covered, chain-link fence months prior, all of the buildings that Chief Reynold and the Solly Mercs had prepared for them had been converted into army barracks. (Are we about to be held captive in our own teammates' handiwork?)
"Rem?" Nia tried to kick me with her dangling foot before our wrists and ankles were shackled within Newt's hold. "Are you still awake?"
"Yeah…" but I was feeling dreadfully wiped out.
"Silence!" cried the boss, who ordered his men to open a large, sliding door to reveal a full-house of captured Prudentians, including Dosilla's guardsmen and a few of our missing mercs. "Right, in you go!"
"M-me?" Newt looked and sounded betrayed.
"Of course! Captives like them need brawn like you to keep them detained!" he angled his reasoning to tickle her vanity. "Make sure they do not escape, lest you face the consequences."
"Where are you going, sir?" she asked as the door started to slide back, darkening the chamber.
"BA inbound, due to report," his response was partially coded. "Right! Men, to your stations!" The riflemen whom Nia had healed lined themselves against the wall opposite of ours as the man in charge disappeared behind the door.
"BA?" Nia looked toward Newt.
"That's Brionac Alpha, our branch in Mor…" she started to clarify before gasping at her lapse in responsibility. "Ahem, remain quiet if you… uh, know what's good for you!"
"Brionac?" This one name alone cleared up so much for me.
"I said be quiet!" our unconfident captor snapped.
"C'mon, Newt, it's us," my partner tried to appeal to her. "You have to know that this is wrong."
"Wrong?" Newt alternated wrinkle-browed looks between Nia and me.
"Yeah, the Brionac are a radical faction of the Ardainian army, bent on leading the empire through illegitimate, violent means," I explained, "although they've never gone beyond borders before." The fact that General Gollach and his men had been Brionac all along almost brought me relief, if not for the tight spot in which we currently found ourselves. Whilst making conversation, I noticed that the riflemen-turned-watchmen were all staring intently at us. "You lot! I recognize the stench. You're the ones who stalked us, aren't you?" Riled by the attention, they aimed their rifles at me, but I didn't back down. "Take off your masks! I want to see your faces!"
"Yeah!" Nia ganged up on them with me, despite our smaller numbers. "I healed your sorry arses, after all!" The watchmen exchanged contemplative glances amongst each other for a decent minute before they obliged, one after another.
"Y-you… and…" my voice trailed off as I scanned their lineup. "You stalked us in Hagan… and you were in the gallery… and you two were the ones who went to camp and…"
"They're all here," my partner summed it up for me. "It's all… too perfect."
"Doubtless they knew we'd leave the Titan," I connected the dots to Gollach's earlier statement about waiting for us to be out of the way. It seemed unconceivable that a war could break out on our account, yet here we were. "You know, Nia, I suppose we should take it as a compliment… that they initially wanted us gone because they saw you as too great an obstacle."
"Hard to take it that way, now," she grumbled, shaking her chains once for emphasis. "Newt, how on Alrest did you… er, manage this?"
"I told you, months of training," her flame of pride rekindled, though she didn't quite answer the question. "I lost to you last time due to lack of stamina, but not this time!"
"Uh-huh…" Nia seemed content to let Newt continue to believe it. "Surely your arms must be getting tired by now, though…"
"I'm not letting you go," the muscly Blade caught on. "I can't let you go. I can't… disobey my driver."
"Your driver is using you," I leveled with her. "You want to be impressive, which is fine, but he wants to be oppressive, and he needs you for that."
"I'm not letting you go," she repeated, trying to ignore me.
"He's woven your ardor for physical strength and self-improvement into his plans for domination. It's like what Nia said earlier, competition and war aren't the same thing." Whether or not my reasoning was registering with her, Newt held fast in her faithfulness to her driver.
"That's… that's enough," her giant limbs gave us a small, warning squeeze, "you've had your fun, so please be quiet!"
"Newt?" Nia wriggled back in response.
"Please be qui-" our captor cut herself off when we started to hear the rumbling of footsteps outside. Seconds later, the door slid open at the hands of General Gollach, accompanied by an additional troupe of soldiers. Curiously, these particular men were all lightly dusted in sand and grit, flavors common to Mor Ardain. (The BA, I presume?)
"Good news!" he exclaimed with a single clap. "Seems we have a use for you which means you don't have to die tonight!"
"You're much too kind," I wisecracked, although I worried about what he had in mind.
"Sir!" Newt straightened up, unwittingly choking us for a second.
"Five paces forward! Present the prisoners!" the general reassumed his militaristic persona.
"Sir, yes sir!" she likewise reassumed hers.
"Blade, Nia," he called my Blade by name for the first time.
"General Nuisance," Nia addressed him back.
"Flattering… amusing, actually, but hardly original," his usual wiry smile carved itself into his face once more. "Your services will be needed."
"I'm not serving you again," she glared at him, ears flattened out.
"Oh, yes you will. Newt, if you please?" he turned to the captain, expectantly.
"Yes sir…" her bulging bicep clamped me down for another round of torture.
"Stop!" my partner wailed, desperately trying to lunge for me.
"I think you understand the terms well enough, by now," General Gollach cast his glinting gaze on her as sweat dripped down her neck. "You deny any man of mine a full heal, your driver gets crushed to death. Simple as that!"
"You flamin' piece of…" Tears started to streak down her face as well. "I told you, I'm spent… I can't…"
"Not to worry," he stepped back with his palms up, exaggeratedly. "The ride to Mor Ardain is a long one. You'll have enough time to rest up before you take care of our men out there."
"Sir, what about me?" Newt reentered the one-sided negotiation.
"Congratulations! You have been promoted to Desert Captain!" the sarcastic general made up on the spot. "Take them aboard the ship and give them a nice home at our Ardainian camp. Ol' Douglas and his blue-flamed floozy have been an ill wind of the desert storm. Our men could use a pep in their step."
"You wish for me to leave?" she sounded betrayed for the second time tonight. "What about you?"
"We've removed Prudentia's greatest weapon and currently have their prized city well within our bounds," he reviewed his accomplishments. "We can manage. Now then, right turn, report to warship! On the double!"
"Y-yes, sir!" Newt swallowed hard and marched in line with the dusty soldiers, with Nia and I still in her grasp.
"Rem?" my resigned Blade checked on me again.
"I-I'm… still here." My body hurt all over, with little hope of receiving her aid the way things were going.
The path to the Iradell port was as dark as the night, apart from the distant streetlamps and the Blades' ether marks. A place of fun, frolic, and free food when Nia and I toured it with the Gormotti boys eleven days ago, the port was now outfitted as an additional base for Gollach's Brionac branch. There was only one ship down by the docks, presumably the one waiting for us. As we were carried past the garage stalls, we heard the faint cries of prisoners inside. (Are those the rest of our missing mercs?)
"Hey…" Nia's weathered voice got my attention one last time before we boarded. "No matter what happens…"
"I know." I wanted so badly to reach over and hold her hand. "We'll be together through it all." It occurred to me that Gollach could've easily left me behind, or worse, offed me and taken Nia's core crystal for himself, but I thought better than to ponder it aloud. Whether or not it was an oversight, we were both destined for Mor Ardain, a Titan which I never wanted to visit again…
…as slaves of war, no less.