Defeat, my Defeat, my deathless courage,
You and I shall laugh together with the storm,
And together we shall dig graves for all that die in us,
And we shall stand in the sun with a will,
And we shall be dangerous.
-From 'Defeat' by Kahlil Gibran
It was far, far too early for things to have started already, but there was no other explanation for it. Alongside the others, Hiraga quickly gathered up his weapons and didn't even bother with a coat as they scrambled outside, following others both in and out of their team who had heard the noises and were streaming out.
"Come, come over this way, it will be safe over here," he heard Ririsa and Memora saying. "You need to come over here."
The two girls were herding a group of sleepy, grumpy looking seniors over to the central courtyards while Tiro and Stella tried to get others to the gardens and looked fearfully at the sky which writhed with black curling shadows, almost snake-like in their form. But those were no snakes, and definitely not the work of any of the reptilian lot, not if it was Theo's group who was battling with them.
He hadn't expected the quiet, history-loving boy to be quite so adept with his sword but there he was, thrusting and parrying in quick-footed movements, managing to fend off most of the blows, but the shadow had tendrils and as Theo chopped at some, a few more started to snake behind him. Quickly, Hiraga withdrew one of his blades and broke away from his group of friends to slash at them, coughing as some dissipated and others tickled his nose before disappearing.
Startled, Theo turned around.
"Thanks, sempai," he said, even as he turned to fend off another blow. "But you can't help us with this."
"Wh-what do you mean?"
Before he could hear the answer though, he was almost knocked back as Theo raised his sword and then swung it forward, aiming to hit the head of the shadow, something that Hiraga didn't fully understand until he realised that some of the shadows had solidified into a person-shape, wispy at the edges but filling in with colour. Red hair, one blue eye and one green. More unusually, a crown of golden flowers. Nonetheless, it was recognisable as Theo, and when he spotted Ezra also fighting a shadow that looked like him he thought he understood. More or less, anyway.
"Please!" Theo gritted out as he attempted to fend off another blow. "Just go, make sure that what we planned still happens!"
Hiraga hesitated and then ran, calling out to his friends.
"Leave them!"
"But…" Starri gasped as she caught up. "They can't possibly fight on their own!"
"Did you see?" he asked. "What the shadows were doing?"
"N-no?"
"I did," Lucy said, shielding her eyes from the wind. "Why do the shadows look like them? Are they…you know…are they dark, too?"
Hiraga shook his head. He looked around and saw that the VYPERS had come out, Ani fully transformed and the others strapping their supplies to her back before climbing on themselves. The Gardening Club had also come out with their bags of prepared soil, rushing over to the river and to the section of the forest. And in the meantime, shadows whipped around them, stirred up by a thundering wind as inky clouds darkened the rumbling sky.
I wonder, how long are we waiting? He asked. It shouldn't have happened like this. But none of them had had any inkling that the shadows they'd all seen from time to time had had anything to do with one of their own. The kids hadn't breathed a word, they'd just clung together and carried on, eager to help and friendly with most others. He'd assumed that, and their closeness, was all that there was to them but this…
When Haze and A stumbled into focus, battling their own shadow-doubles, Hiraga had to hold Will back from charging forward. Will spluttered and tried to yank free before pleading:
"They can't fight them off by themselves, look how big-"
"I know, I know," Hiraga said roughly. "But it's their fight."
Will's face was anguished, and Hiraga held onto his sleeve tightly to prevent him from breaking away anyway. Even so, his hands itched as they waited and watched. Itched with the need to help, and when Ezra's black-branch sword started to buckle under the strain of holding off a bodily blow from his shadow-double's axe he was all too ready to just decide oh screw it and charge forward anyway. But then he saw Ani take off into the sky, and new figures stream out through the doors.
"What are you doing?" the staff demanded, almost in unison (but not quite). "Get back inside, now!"
Hiraga let go of Will's sleeve, nodded at him and then turned to nod at the others.
It was time.
…
It was a battlefield.
Delilah wasn't sure how it had become a battlefield but it had been. When the staff had come out they had all gone to explain, to try and lead them over but they hadn't listened, instead brandishing weapons and spells. The crowd had been so large and pulsing and loud Delilah hadn't been able to tell who'd lashed out first, who had turned this from a mob into a fight but it hardly mattered now, not when it had become a battlefield. The wind blowing and the storm rumbling acted as fuel for both, as if the darkness of the clouds was seeping into them, too.
Delilah knew she was supposed to be helping, but her hands shook too hard and rather than jump in and fight back she just kept running, dodging groups. Professor Yanovi was making vines grow from the ground, restraining students and as Delilah ran past Julka, her foot got caught in a vine and she pitched forward abruptly. Putting her hands out to brace herself, she felt the vine rip away from the ground but as she tried to get up Professor Keno suddenly stumbled in front of her and she almost crashed into his back. She tried to scramble back, but it seemed that mercifully he had not noticed her, and as she used her spear as a crutch to get up properly this time she watched Professors Keno, Reoni, Lucifel and Nyamai confronting a small group led by Will. Naturally, Will stepped forward, placing himself between them, straining as he held off a star-encrusted chain wielded by Professor Reoni.
"We can't," Will pleaded. "We're sorry, but you need to go where we're taking you. We don't want to hurt you, either, not really but we need to do this!"
The four professors paused at this, and sized him up only to startle when suddenly, Professor Nyamai darted out, dagger in her hand glowing as she aimed low. Will managed to dodge out of the way and rolling across the ground as his friends scattered. Professor Nyamai growled and darted at him again and the two scuffled. Delilah watched, stricken until she saw something feral glint in Professor Nyamai's eyes as Will was knocked flat to the ground. Yelling, she charged forward, thrusting her spear between them and knocking Professor Nyamai's dagger clear away before then using the spear to prise her away from Will.
Professor Nyamai squawked as she fell flat on her back, and Delilah readied her spear, barely paying attention as Will managed to get up, thanking her as he rushed away.
"Are…are you trying to kill us or something?" she asked, incredulously.
"Yes!" Delilah burst out. "I mean…no…yes, yes, but…"
The runecaster's face contorted in a snarl but then she turned slightly, spotting something else and abruptly rushing off. Delilah stared for a moment, but sensed a presence behind her and whirled around to see Professor Yanovi, striding across with a bow and arrow. Delilah couldn't tell who she was aiming at but it didn't matter, before she could become too scared and unable to move again, she threw herself at the professor, pushing her to the ground and then reaching out to push the arrow away.
"Stop!" she yelled. "Don't hurt us!"
"We don't have a choice!" Professor Yanovi said. "You're endangering yourselves and you're endangering everyone else!"
"That's not…"
As Professor Yanovi tried to get up Delilah leaned forward, trying to use her weight to keep her down. If she couldn't move, then she'd have to listen, right? Right? Delilah struggled to get breath.
"We didn't want this to become a fight-"
Delilah's explanation was cut off as she felt herself yanked off of Professor Yanovi, both her hands dragged roughly behind her and held in place.
"You're trying to kill us," Professor Arianna said from behind her. "I'm hearing it from your mind and everybody else's- you're trying to kill us! You're trying to destroy this school!"
Delilah tried in vain to tug away from Professor Arianna's hands, to turn and face her but her grip was stronger than she'd imagined and it was in vain. Nonetheless she kept protesting wordlessly, trying to pull away and all the while around her chaos reigned. Noises layered, and although everyone was at least still conscious and moving she started to smell blood. Only a little, but she was sure she'd never ever be able to not notice the smell of blood. The scent only made her kick harder, but this made Professor Arianna pull her backwards, close to her chest so as to pin her there.
Still, she kept trying, renewing her efforts when she saw lingering threads of black shadows come by. Professor Arianna dragged her back and out of the way, and then out of nowhere Professor Cinnabuns appeared and slashed them away with his sword, but as he turned to cut the others he paused and stared as new figures stumbled onto the ground. His eyes widened in horror and he sheathed his sword before running off, waving his arms and calling out.
"You can't be here! Go back, it's too dangerous!"
Delilah didn't understand until she saw that the figures were none other than Angela, Char, Sera and Kay, all of them wide-eyed, biting their lips as they took in the chaos but still carrying on regardless.
"You guys!" Delilah called out. "You guys, go back!"
It did not seem as if any of the four girls had heard her as they strode towards Professor Cinnabuns, having noticed him at least.
"What's happening? Why are you all fighting?" Char demanded. "You're not meant to be fighting! Didn't anyone explain?"
"Look, sweethearts, I know you want to help your friends but this…this isn't the sort of fight you're meant to be in-"
"But there isn't meant to be a fight at all!" Angela exclaimed. "This…we're only trying to help! We figured out what's happening, that's why we're here!"
Professor Cinnabun's forehead crinkled at this, but he continued trying to shepherd them back while the girls continued to plead and argue, though none of them tried to strike. When both Professors Nyamai and Yanovi tried to intervene Professor Cinnabuns waved them away, clearly determined that the non-magical girls did not get caught up in a fight. Professor Arianna also called out to him, but he ignored her too, barely even looking her way. But the argument just kept going and going in circles, during which Delilah kept trying to kick or wriggle her way free, until finally Professor Cinnabuns said:
"Look, this isn't your responsibility. This was never meant to be your school but while you are here you need to be kept safe, and putting students as vulnerable as you in harm's way, no matter what you may or may not know about this is not something that I am going to allow."
"Harm's way. I think it's a bit late for that."
Sera's low growl and wild-eyed glare made Professor Cinnabuns falter for a moment. Even Delilah flinched.
"Wh-what do you mean, honey?" Professor Cinnabuns' asked.
"Whose fault do you think it is that we're here in the first place?"
"Um…."
Sera's eyes flashed and then suddenly she darted forward and began to pummel Professor Cinnabuns with her fists, screaming over and over:
"It's your fault!"
Angela, Char and Kay tried to pull Sera away, flicking terrified glances at some of the other fights occurring but Sera elbowed them all away, continuing to hit at Professor Cinnabuns as she ranted, her voice rising over the wind as tears rolled down her face:
"It's all your fault! All yours, yours, yours, all of you! All your fault! If it wasn't for you and your immortality magic we wouldn't be here and we'd all still be together and everything would be fine! It's all your fault! Your fault, your fault, your fault!"
On and on Sera repeated this, thumping at Professor Cinnabuns' chest so relentlessly that he seemed only able to stumble backwards, eventually tripping over a stone and landing on his back. This didn't deter the angry girl, who just knelt over him, still yelling and hitting him. Seeing her so unrestrainedly anguished made something crumble in Delilah and she slumped, letting her own tears come:
"I don't want to be a killer!" she wailed. "I don't want to do this to you or anyone but we have to, don't you see we have to? We…"
She knew exactly what to say, the lines they'd all rehearsed to say to get the school's staff to listen to them but they all drowned under the force of her tears as she wept and wept. Being held like this hurt, it really hurt, and these boots pinched her toes and they didn't even match her outfit properly and it wasn't meant to be like this…it was supposed to be orderly and easy, they weren't meant to be dodging lightning bolts and weird shadow-cloud things and-
Delilah gasped as the grip on her wrists loosened long enough for her to be roughly spun around to face Professor Arianna, who then grabbed them again, holding her arms high in front of her as if about to cuff them. Her eyes blazed, but in a more measured way this time.
"Your thoughts are racing, I can't get a grip on them. Are you trying to tell me something?"
"Yes!" Delilah managed to gasp. "I am, I…please, it hurts."
Delilah whimpered but the professor's grip didn't loosen again as the fire in her gaze banked and she considered her speculatively. She seemed impervious to Delilah's tears and whimpering, which unsettled her but not enough to make her feel able to take a breath and stop. She felt incapable of doing anything more than crying now, and she hated herself for it but surely if ever there was a time to cry it was now.
And it's not as if it means I'm not brave, right? I'm here now, aren't I? I decided to put on these clothes to come and get everything into place even though I knew there'd be some resistance. Besides, Ariadne was brave and she cried, and that other pretty girl has been crying a lot but she's brave too.
"W-we are trying to kill you, b-b-but not for bad reasons like those….those… other two girls! It's to save us, we all put our heads together and fi-figured it out and we just needed you to get to the forest because that's…that's…."
Delilah gulped, sniffed, kept weeping. Professor Arianna stared impassively and Delilah tried desperately to speak again but every time she took a breath more tears spilled.
"I….please it's…your sister…we know about the immortality pact from your sister…."
Professor Arianna's eyes widened, and abruptly she let go of Delilah. Crying out as she hit the ground, she cowered, awaiting a demand for an explanation. But it didn't come. Indeed, all of a sudden some of the noise seemed to have hushed. She couldn't even hear Sera beating Professor Cinnabuns and it didn't seem as if anything could have stopped her. Slowly, Delilah got up and saw that everyone had stopped in their tracks, staring in one particular direction, so she looked over too and what she saw made her heart stop.
Eve, her Evie was walking across the field right to the centre, her hair loose and whipping around her head, black and gold cloak fluttering and ripped. She dragged Professor Snow with her, her hands tied with the piece of cloth that had been ripped from said cloak as she stared unblinking, pretty eyes dulled but still doing nothing to conceal the terror there. Then again, no matter how much mind she had lost, how could she not be scared?
Eve was holding her scythe to her throat, after all.
…
Samu held on tightly to the back of Aerin's shirt with one hand, trying his best not to throw up. Now is not the time to discover I get travel-sick while flying, he scolded himself. Not if I want to show that I belong here as much as everyone else does. He took in a deep breath and looked around him, holding the key as it continued to glow and hum. Its vibrations were so violent that he struggled to hold onto it, though Ani's unsteady motions did not particularly help either.
"Alright, we're on the path we took last time!" Ruby called out.
"The containment barrier's stopping here as well…Ani, go a little higher, then we'll be above it."
Ani grunted but she did indeed swoop higher and Samu clutched Aerin's shirt a bit tighter, closing his eyes tightly for a moment until Ani's flying smoothed out just a little bit. Warily, he opened his eyes and looked down and saw that the thin iridescent wall that formed the containment barrier had stopped. From up here, the colours that all wove together seemed brighter and he gazed at them, mesmerised.
"Do you see, Samu, these colours?" Aerin said. "How beautiful they are? It's because of what we are that we can see them like that, that we know these colours exist. This is what our reptile magic gives us."
Samu became aware of someone looking at him and he glanced up to see that Aerin was looking over her shoulder at him. She didn't smile, precisely, but her expression softened out as she asked:
"You're alright?"
"Mhm, I'm alright. This key is really making my hand tickle tho….oh."
"What is it?" Aerin's gaze immediately sharpened. "What's wrong?"
"The key's gone quiet." He said. "Well, not completely quiet but…"
He held it up, and Aerin, Ruby and Asu peered at it in confusion.
"Stop a moment, Ani." Ruby commanded.
"What? Why?"
"The key's quietened…and if we're right about it being able to track them then that means they might not be at the floating gardens."
Ani huffed as if to argue but then she did stop in the air, head lifted.
"Do you hear that?"
"Hear what? The wind? The thunder?" Asu asked.
"Shut up and listen."
Dumbstruck, they did just that. Samu couldn't pick out any new sounds amongst all the cacophony, and he didn't dare look down properly. But after a few moments, he heard a new sort of rumbling the hairs on the back of his neck started to tingle, just as Ani abruptly flapped her wings and spun around to begin flying in the opposite direction. Samu squawked, pressing himself against Aerin's back as the others shrieked.
"Ani, what the hell?" Aerin yelled.
"There's another dragon out there!"
"What? And you're taking us right to the dragon? Why?"
Ani ignored this and kept flying. At first, Samu kept his eyes shut and his body pressed close to Aerin's, but then he felt his hand tickling again and slowly straightened to see that the key was glowing brighter than ever. The new rumbling was louder now, directly beneath them and after swallowing, Samu looked down.
A dragon was emerging from the mountains.
It was large and grey, and looked as if it had been carved from the mountain ranges themselves. Or maybe, the mountain was made from the dragon? Samu blinked at that thought and then put it aside as he observed the dragon's sleepy blue eyes as it unfurled to its full length and flew towards them, the motion of its wings creating a new breeze that almost blew them all away, the remainder of the mountain crumbling far below.
"Hold onto me, Samu!" Aerin commanded. "Hold onto me!"
"I…I am! Ah!"
"Samu!"
"It's okay, Aerin-sempai, I'm okay…but the key, it…"
All he could do was watch in astonishment as the key flew towards the dragon, impervious to the different winds blowing in all directions and then rose higher, only to be grabbed by a gloved hand that made it go quiet. Samu felt his breath catch in his throat as the dragon finally came to a stop beside them and they were able to see Headmaster Cher and Headmistress Hades riding on its back.
Neither of them acknowledged Samu or his group in any way initially, instead looking at the key that Headmistress Hades was now holding.
"I knew we'd lost one of the master keys back then." Headmaster Cher remarked.
"Yes," Headmistress Hades agreed. "You did. I'm surprised that it didn't make its way back to us earlier but then again…"
She looked up at them finally, her eyes taking on a coin-bright gleam as she assessed them:
"Perhaps this was the exact right time for it to turn up. I take it you are searching for us?"
"We are." Ruby said.
"And you need us to come with you." She stated.
"We do."
"Well, we were coming back anyway, weren't we?" Headmaster Cher said. "The time has come for that. Or rather…the time for us to stay away has run out."
The headmaster and headmistress exchanged looks and then turned back to them all. It was Headmistress Hades who spoke then:
"Alright then. Lead the way."
…
Eve laughed as she dragged Professor Snow out further into the crowd, her grip on her scythe tight as she held it even closer to the disoriented professor's neck and lifted her up further so that her feet dangled off the ground. She laughed not because she enjoyed this, or even that she enjoyed the reactions of the others around them (well, not all of them anyway) but because she needed them to think that. Not just the professors, but the other students too. They cared, that's what they'd all concluded, despite everything the professors cared about them all. And because of that most of them had concluded that they would first try to talk reasonably, to plead with them to hear them out but the arrival of the shadows had put a stop to all that.
Besides, it was stupid. Before the professors had ever been their professors they'd been soldiers, for crying out loud. Soldiers who had no doubt done all sorts of brutal things in order to survive and win. Eve knew a thing or two about that despite having never stepped on a battlefield. She had to admit though, that the others had been partially correct in their assessment, going by the way their arrival had been enough to halt everything. And she had been banking on that-all she was doing was exploiting both the brutal side and the caring side. If both sides were in conflict, they'd never get anywhere, and then they'd have to stand down. And it was more likely the staff would believe in it if the other students were horrified. Nothing else was going to work.
If the others hated her for what she was doing, then so be it. She didn't think that any of them really particularly cared for her, and there was nobody whose opinion she really valued anymore.
"E-Evie?"
Eve could see Delilah out of the corner of her eye, now standing freely on the ground, and turned away from her. Still holding Professor Snow up, she adjusted her grip on her scythe and held its blade to her throat.
"Please!" Professor Mshrupo called out. "Let go of her!"
"Let go of her now."
This colder command and all its implied threat came from Professor Keno who stepped forward, standing slightly in front of Professor Mshrupo with a spear in one hand, a spell forming in his other outstretched hands. A number of the other professors had left the students they'd been struggling against and also stepped forward. Eve edged the blade closer.
"Attack me, and I will slit her throat. And then it will be too late for you."
Eve laughed again, concentrating on stretching her smile to be as malevolent as she could make it. A mask was perfect for a time such as this, but she had to use what she had. They had to believe that she didn't care.
Surely it's not such a stretch for them to think it, she thought, when it was they who thought we were all so dangerous that we had to be banished and forgotten. And as for everybody else…
"Eve-sempai!" she heard one of Ariadne's friends call out. "What are you doing?"
"Eve, stop it! Let her go, she's really scared!" Delilah cried out.
"Yes, let her go, please," Professor Mshrupo pleaded. "She doesn't understand anymore!"
"Oh, I think she does."
In all fairness, when Eve realised that there was a missing professor and had snuck back in to break into the offices, Professor Snow clearly hadn't understood anything, huddled under the table as she was, cuddling a ragdoll as if she had regressed to her long-ago childhood. When she'd looked up, her eyes had been cloudy before Eve had yanked her out by the shoulders. But it was as Eve had ripped her cloak in order to tie Professor Snow's hands (having nothing more suitable on her and not wanting to waste time looking) that something had sparked there briefly as she'd met Eve's eyes, nodding once. It had slipped away though, as easily as the ragdoll had slipped from her hands when Eve had finished tying her and started to march her out. Eve was making a point of not looking at Professor Snow's face now but the last glimpse she'd seen had shown her nothing but emptiness once again.
It was not as if it mattered either way now.
"If she dies now, it will be too late," she told them. "You will all die anyway, but you can do so and still save us all. Or, you can die a futile death and know that you failed. Which one will it be?"
Utter silence, apart from the ever-angry storm. The professors and faculty who were facing her down all gave each other uncomfortable looks and then they turned. Professor Cinnabuns had managed to get Sera off of him, although she still knelt nearby glaring at him. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair before he blinked rapidly. Then, clearly, he said:
"Let's go with them."
"Cinn!" Professor Reoni gasped.
"I think he's right," Professor Shippa called across. "We don't know what's going on, but we need to at least hear them out."
"But that's-"
"We know what to do if it turns out our faith is misplaced. But we need to place that faith in them in the first place to discover whether that's the case or not. Is that not why even here and now, we still trust each other?"
Shippa didn't wait to see anybody's reactions to this, instead turning to Eve and ordering:
"Let her go, now. We're cooperating. We're all cooperating."
Something flickered in his eyes and Eve frowned at him, but he caught this and nodded at her, before turning to nod at the others. Slowly, across the grounds, she saw the other dispersed staff members let go of or stand down from the students they were facing. Eve pushed Snow away, turning away so she didn't have to see the professor stumble right into Professor Mshrupo's arms and whimper about wanting to 'go home', only to see Delilah staring right at her with her mouth open and eyes glittering, the tear tracks down her cheeks mixed with dirt and therefore standing out against her skin.
Something hurt, right under her heart, but Eve clamped the feeling down.
"Come on," she said. "We need to go."
And then she turned away, telling herself that she didn't care.
…
There wasn't enough time.
Not just because a storm was brewing, its fizzing heart hovering right over the forest, near to where they had agreed to carry out the killings. Not just because the storm had whipped up the shadows of A and her friends. But because it was time.
Elly's time had come.
It was possible that she had mistaken this for something else, because it was not as if Hades' (just Hades, this time, because she didn't have the time to waste on any honorifics, not even in her own head) had actually told her what it would feel like when her borrowed time began to reach its end. But she was sure that she wasn't mistaken, that she knew what was happening. Underneath her clothes she could feel the part of her chest where the knife had gone in start to throb again and she could feel herself getting emptier. Tired, wobblier.
There was no time.
But she needed to act as though there was time, she couldn't falter now. All she had to really do was talk. Indeed, she'd relished the moment where they would lay out what they'd realised in front of all the staff and make them realise that they'd been cornered. Or maybe not cornered as such, but that it was up. Like the satisfying conclusion to a mystery novel (she figured she should have at least one big reveal moment in her short life). It wasn't going to happen now, she just knew it, but still.
Oh, you absolute idiots, she silently raged at A and her friends. I should have just outed you! This is…
As the staff were shepherded across by the students, Void reached up and cast a protective spell, as did a number of the others.
"You need to stand here." Kyouki told her, gesturing to one of the circles of soil set up.
"I…" Void's forehead creased. "What are you all doing?"
"We'll explain soon," Elly said. "But just…the soil. Please."
She looked up at the sky, hoping that Ruby and the others would soon arrive with Cher and Hades, and her eyes drifted to the storm. If that's Kagami, then…concentrating hard, she felt her hands tingle with a spell as in her mind, she pushed. Not to go as far as to ask, can you hear me, but to sense if there was a mind left there at all. A moment went by, and then she felt a little push-back herself.
There's not time, her own thoughts echoed in her head, there's no time, there's no….wait. Wait. Kagami, is that you? Can you hear me? Hear us? Her breath caught in her throat as for a moment, the wind hushed and the darkness above seemed to stare at her. A moment, and then another, and then….
=Yes.=
She sensed the beginnings of a spell somewhere behind her and whipped around to glare at Cinnabuns, Shippa, Rynacel and Lucifel, hands outstretched and electric blue sparks forming at their fingertips.
"Wait!" she snapped. "Just wait a moment! That's Kagami!"
"We know that!" Lucifel snapped. "She's the cause of this!"
I can't…I can't…
They were her feelings, but they were Kagami's too. That sense of everything leaching out of them both, the shakes that they had to hold in. But at least she had a body and could clench her fists and place her feet more firmly on the ground. Kagami was up there, formless, with no body or core to call her own, only blackness that curled in and out of itself, straining against the protective shield that Void had put up, straining against the effort of holding it there. Elly found herself briefly wondering if they had seen A and the others, if they understood that they hadn't been told the full story.
"Hold on for a moment, Kagami." She urged. "They'll understand soon, and we have a plan to end this in the way you always wanted…"
No time…no time…
The spell unleashed and hit the cloud in the middle, sending sparks of darkness flying everywhere and an inhuman howl ringing out across the sky. The cloud contracted for a moment and then expanded, wilder and pulsating rapidly, its pain bleeding out blackly against the white of the sky. Elly watched in horror as the four professors worked up to another blast of magic and knew that she had to stop it, had to stop it somehow. Her mind scrambled and scrambled until suddenly she burst out:
"Sing the song! One of you guys, sing the song!"
"You what?" someone called back, although she couldn't tell who.
"The Nymph's Requiem. Until Cher and Hades get here they need to understand!"
"And how exactly do you think singing the Nymph's Requiem in her presence is going to fix things?" Keno demanded. "Have we really failed you all? Are you corrupted too, like those other girls?"
"You need to listen," Elly snapped back. "And really listen. Arianna, use your abilities."
Elly could see Arianna debate whether to scold her for not addressing them properly but then she locked eyes with her, and sent a thought to her mind.
=Did you name yourself for my sister?=
=I did.=
=Very well then.=
"Elly, why won't you sing?" someone asked.
Because I need the breath to see this moment through! But she couldn't tell any of them that, not yet. The sight of them-the six main members of the Gardening Club with the soil, standing by to make sure the ashes went into the soil. Aki, Lucy, Koda, a few of the other VYPERs high up in the trees with flame throwers at the ready. Asuka, Sasi, Mist, Lidia, Hiraga and Cain holding Shi-shoku, their hands gloved up. Sado and Judas and Howl behind them just in case they dropped it, while Robyn hovered nearby ready to prepare them all for death. And then everybody else, dotted around as backup, ready to push the staff back if they tried to escape. She couldn't tell any of them that she was dying. They couldn't waver, not now. So she gritted her teeth and was about to repeat the over when all of a sudden she heard Julka's voice, wavering but as strong as she would always remember it, starting the song:
"The dark will be meek, for it is the light that they seek."
Mist joined in with the next line:
"As bright as the day, deceived by the one I would never betray..."
As they always did, the emotions swirled, and Elly listened. Really listened, with all she had left in her being. Listened as Robyn had, and found herself bought to tears as Robyn had been as the weight of history both false and true settled on her shoulders. She lifted her head up as if to force the tears back into her eyes as a few more voices joined in:
"In the darkness, where there is clarity."
Elly imagined herself as a child hiding under her bed, flinching from her parents' harsh voices, squeezing herself in a corner, reading tome after tome after tome just for a reason to escape. That horrible, horrible day when she'd seen the documents that had told her the truth of who she was. Kagami hadn't wanted things like that, she knew. She had never wanted it, never imagined that if she lost control that this was how the world would be eras later.
"I ascend with the moon and stars behind me. Waiting patiently for the end of this blasphemy."
There was only silence as Elly stood there, still with her head turned up. Water dripped onto her face and she thought at first it was more of her own tears but then she realised that it was rain, and specifically only from the black cloud that was Kagami's essence.
Elly held up her hand for a moment, capturing the few raindrop-tears before she drew that hand to her chest, right over where it was now hurting harder than ever and she looked directly at the staff.
"Do you see?" she asked them. "Do you understand now?"
"I think so."
Shippa's voice calm, a deliberate flatness to it.
"In truth, even with what we have found out ourselves, there was much that we didn't know, that has been hidden from us. This world isn't what we thought it would be…."
Shippa had been looking around at the other staff as he spoke but he paused suddenly, and Elly couldn't see his facial expression or who he was staring at. Frowning, she peered around him to see that Yanovi was kneeling, filtering some of the soil through her fingers thoughtfully while Jae and Kyouki looked at her somewhat anxiously.
"I recognise this soil," Yanovi murmured. "Why do I recognise this soil?"
There was a tense silence before eventually Jae cleared his throat and answered:
"It's the same as the soil that the Angel Tree grows in."
Yanovi sucked in a breath as she lowered her head again, now tracing patterns within the soil. A moment went by, and then with a smile in her voice she said:
"That was the only time I ever mixed soil such as this. You really are clever children, aren't you?"
Slowly, carefully, she got up, dusting down her skirt. Jae and Kyouki both kept watching her, both still looking slightly worried.
"It was a complete accident, you know," Yanovi went on. "What that soil ended up being for. But I suppose it is a good answer to what you're planning to do with us-"
Yanovi's words interrupted by another sudden gust, almost knocking them all off their feet as a shadow loomed. The cloud vibrated and crackled slightly, and then became alive with a black electricity, seeming to try to retract but also heading towards it. Elly sheltered her eyes and stared to see that the new arrival was…
A giant rock?
She barely had time to process it before she heard a familiar voice raspy with exhaustion rattle off a string of words in what she assumed was an Ancient Language. The giant rock thing swooped closer to the ground and Elly realised it was in fact a dragon when two people slipped off of it. As they did so, another much smaller dragon that was instantly recognisable as Ani swooped down to let Ruby, Samu, Aerin and Asu down before hovering by a tree. The giant rock dragon then flew back up into the air, higher, stopping just under the black cloud as if to shelter them from it. Kagami's cloud snapped, contracting and expanding over and over rapidly, its motions perfectly timed with her own heartrate.
No, no, no, her feelings and Kagami's screamed. No, no, no.
"She's scared!" Elly managed to utter aloud. "She's scared!"
"Kagami, I'm not going to hurt you. Not anymore."
There was something strange about Cher's voice, and not just the fact that he, too, was reaching his limit. He barely looked like a person, but then again he'd always been more than just a person, hadn't he? Elly looked up at the cloud.
=Please= she murmured in her head. =Please, I'll make sure you're alright. It will be over soon anyway.=
"Move the dragon away, a little bit." She ordered.
"We need shelter, she's out of control-" Cher insisted.
"I don't think you really have the right to say that, do you?" Void asked mildly. "From what we know…you pushed her to that point. Nonetheless…"
They looked up worriedly at the cloud, which still pulsated violently until eventually Cher sighed and closed his eyes, and muttered something indecipherable as he looked up at the giant rock dragon. Immediately, it flew off a little, hovering by the side. Hissing noises came from the cloud but eventually they subsided, though it kept flickering. The giant rock dragon, for its part, just stared impassively, flapping its wings very, very slightly.
"So….." Ruby exhaled. "Storytime, then?"
Elly let out a breath of her own, trying not to wince at how it rattled her chest and she nodded. Ruby narrowed her eyes at her but didn't press the issue. Instead, she indicated to the other three to stand by her, directly between those holding the weapon and the staff in formation. Hades turned to face them, clearly helping Cher to move as well, and it looked for all the world as if the staff were in a procession once more, ready to face down an enemy. Once they were ready, Ruby took a deep breath:
"Listen here, listen now…"
And the story flowed, weaving its magic around them as surely as a length of silk. Word by word the story of Kagami's anguish, of Akari's failure to understand and how that in different ways the sisters had failed each other over and over again. The story of how the way Akari had dealt with that had condemned her sister forevermore, and how that had changed things. The story of how finally after all these centuries the rift could be fixed, how they needed to return to the land, to stop being what they were. Word by word, the story built up, its spell stretched taut around and across them and the sky grew quiet again as they all listened.
It lingered, even as the story ended softly, softly.
"That's…I loved this world, so much. I still do."
Again, there was that undertone and the realisation of what it was hit Elly physically and she felt as if she was underwater. That's Akari. One way or another, that's Akari, just as it's obvious the cloud is Kagami. I suppose I'm a believer now. Don't think Mum and Dad will be pleased about this, though. If she had the capacity to laugh at that thought, she would have, but it was taking all she had to listen to Cher.
"You are right. I betrayed her…"
Cher paused, flicked a glance to the sky.
"I betrayed you. I did betray you Kagami, but it was not for the sake of betraying you. I thought I was doing what was needed for the people and by the time I realised what had been done it was too late."
"You knew what she had told you though, that you could not exist in bodies any longer, otherwise your essences would fuse together and overwhelm the world. "
This came from Arianna, eyes blazing but expression frosty. She didn't falter even when Cher sucked a breath in and glanced over at her.
"You knew. And all this time, you knew, and you didn't do anything, because you didn't like it."
"That's…"
"Not wanting to believe that you could harm the world you loved wasn't all that there was to it though, was it?"
Elly hadn't expected Quiet to speak and she glared at him. Didn't he realise, there wasn't time for this? She'd been wondering the same too, or at least something similar just as she had been wondering so many things. But as these tiny little rages burst within her, to her utter surprise she saw Quiet regard her closely and nod slowly as if he had sensed her thoughts. He mouthed I'm sorry at her and then returned his attention to Cher:
"I'm not sure if there's any point in hashing it all out here and now, we need to get started. But still, I know that it's easier to sustain a lie when parts of it are rooted in the truth. I want to know though-why this body?"
The smile that flickered across Cher's ravaged face at this question was softer than his usual smile, and Elly wondered if it was his, or if it was Akari's. Elly shook the thought away and watched as all sorts of emotions flickered over Cher's face before he answered in the same Akari-undertoned voice:
"I looked across his fate and saw her."
Cher lifted a hand and put it on Hades' shoulder. She stared at him unblinkingly as he then turned back to the other staff with a great effort and gestured to them all. With another Sense Emotion spell, she could feel little bits of his heart breaking off and crumbling away as wary, angry or stricken expressions stared back.
"And I saw them, too. I didn't see how any of them would tie together, what would happen, but I saw them. I… after all this, after making things such that I would be the only one worshipped, that still wasn't enough. It was not the same as being precious. And even though it was my own envy that ensured I'd lost that, I wanted to have it again. I wanted another chance at treasuring and being treasured in kind. That singular kind of love, in whatever form it'd come in. And I did end up precious to you all, didn't I? One way or another? I did, right?"
Cher paused for a moment, but when he tried to speak Hades shook her head and put a finger to his lips before speaking:
"Do you remember when we first met?"
Her eyes were slightly wet and her lips curved upwards, but sadly. His expression was much the same as he answered, his voice his own this time:
"Of course I do. I asked you for your name, and you said something to the effect of 'do you not have one of your own, now?'"
"And then you told me that yes, you did and that you knew full well that I knew-because I did, I had heard whispers of you even before that day. But then…then you said, 'I thought perhaps I could keep it safe for you', didn't you?"
"Not the finest example of my humour, admittedly."
"No. But you really weren't afraid of me, were you?"
"As I will always say, I never have been afraid of you. Never been afraid when I've been with you. Even now…"
Hades smile wobbled at this and she briefly leaned over, her forehead touching Cher's. They stayed like that for only a brief moment before Hades straightened and swept her gaze across the students, the staff, the sky. Eventually, her eyes settled back on Elly and once again she was all coldness.
"Are you sure that this is the right answer?" she asked. "The pact we made was for the purpose of safeguarding. Kawaakari Academy is a conduit of magic, channelled through us. If Kagami is channelled through us too, then she will be balanced through the building. I urge you to reconsider-"
"No, you're wrong!" Robyn burst out before Elly could protest.
Robyn blushed slightly when Hades turned her icy gaze on her, but she continued:
"With all due respect, you're wrong. That amount of power was never meant to be held by a person, or by people. It's…after the time spent bringing the world up, you-Goddess Akari, that is- needed to let go and return the power to the land. There is only so long that such power can remain contained in bodies before it tries to pull itself all back together and destroy everything in the process."
"Do you even understand what power it is you're talking about?" Hades demanded.
"Hades, we gave them information." Shippa said quietly. "And there is plenty that they discovered for themselves."
Hades nodded briefly as if to acknowledge this before she continued:
"I do not know how it is you're capable of holding that right now," she inclined her head towards the group holding up Shi-shoku. "or how you found it, although I have ideas. But you are young and more importantly mortal-"
"You asked! All of you asked!" Angela cried out suddenly. "While the headmaster and headmistress were away you lot asked for our help, and Elly told us that they bought her back because they needed her help and all of ours. You cannot turn back on that just because you do not like the solution!"
Ohhh boy. Hades clearly didn't like that as she stood taller and glared over at Angela.
"This is not-"
"Don't say that we don't know anything! You asked us to know!" she continued. "You asked us, and even though we're just here because of some imbalance in the magic throwing us off course, we've been a part of this! Right from the beginning we've been a part of this, caught up in your arrogance and belief that you must be right because you're you!"
Hades flinched and her eyes flashed. Kagami's cloud pulsated, pain spilling further and making the sky darker. Hades' expression darkened in sync and she reached up as if to strike but unexpectedly, Cher put a hand on her shoulder.
"It is true," he said slowly. "That nothing we have done is working."
He paused, and then tried to continue, but whatever words he had came out in a shuddery breath and he closed his eyes briefly. Hades immediately pulled her hand away and steadied him, the anguish clear on her face. Some of the other staff started to step forward, only to be stopped by the students nearest.
"But-"Professor Reoni protested.
"You need to stay here, please." Starri said. "Please."
The only noise in the next few moments was the sound of the wind, the distant shouts of the other students in the school being carried across on it. The cloud above them continued pulsing, louder and louder. A flash of lightning snaked out across the sky and the giant dragon roared in agony. Ani too struggled to keep her balance in the air, wings flapping, but managed to grab a nearby tree and dig her claws into it, breathing heavily. As people screamed, Elly gritted her teeth, another wave of exhaustion hitting her and making her chest feel heavier, woolly with pain. Emotions crashed over her, including Kagami's:
I can't do it, I can't do it.
More flashes of lightning, drops of rain as if weeping in horror, a few distant crashes and thuds. Birds squawked and shrieked as they rose up in a cloud of their own, their flapping wings adding a new urgency. The giant rock dragon roared again and gulped in a breath as if ready to fire at Kagami's cloud, which only made her contract and expand, contract and expand, a heartrate going out of control. Cher looked up and barked out a few words to the dragon, making it retreat further before he then looked back at Hades and the rest of the staff. Over the wind, he had to yell to make himself heard but nonetheless he managed it:
"Alright, alright, we…what do you all say, comrades?"
A moment or two of silent communication, and then Keno spoke up, slow and careful:
"Deep down, we understood this to be true, even before your lies were revealed to us."
Shippa nodded at this and added:
"Thinking about how this year and the last have turned out, and taking into account that Snow is deteriorating fast and we won't be able to help her anymore, this is all we can do. The pact may have helped back in times of war, but it was always volatile and already weakened by the time we won and now…it has been over three hundred years. Three hundred years, and with how embedded we are in the world, the harm will not be restricted to us."
The world, Elly wondered. What on earth's happening with the world? How funny it was that here they were all were in the process of saving it and yet she had completely forgotten about those parts of it that were outside of the gate. She watched as the other staff nodded slowly, though some looked doubtful. Snow, of course, didn't seem as if she was present in her body at all and with a pang Elly remembered the first day of school. How, when she'd registered and shared her preferred name the old joke of 'cookies for Cookie' had somehow not seemed so old when it had come from her, so delighted the professor had been when the joke had occurred to her.
"I agree."
"Nyamai?" Cher and Hades asked in unison.
Clearly, they had not been expecting Nyamai in particular to so readily agree, and it was just as clear that the diminutive professor was not impressed with their surprise as she crossed her arms and glowered:
"What? Shippy-boy's right, it's time to let go, I think. Sealing away all memory of those chess kids to protect everyone else from the Overseer's meddling didn't work. Hell, we should have realised something wasn't working when we realised an Overseer had been able to meddle with our students in the first place. Another student turned out to be related to some of the worst heretics we faced back in the War and we weren't able to prevent the things they did in Kagami's name. The school's made some of the other students sick. Just…that's it. We're defeated. It's over, so let's just surrender."
"Nyamai, you're being ridiculous." Lucifel said.
Nyamai scoffed as she tugged her hair out of the two bunches she wore it in, shaking her head vigorously and rubbing her head a few times before staring unseeingly, somewhere in the distance. Somehow, with her hair down she ended up looking younger than she usually did. A moment passed before her focus snapped back and she looked directly at Cher and Hades and said:
"I'm tired. Aren't you?"
Another look was exchanged between all of them before some of them nodded. They talked briefly in an Ancient Language. Looking this way and that, she noticed Yanovi in particular pointing out the soil around their feet and the Gardening Club members. Despite the thickness in her voice as it wrapped around the unfamiliar syllables, Elly could sense the pride coming off of the words, how this feeling was matched by some of the things that some of the other professors (Cinnabuns, Shippa, Kenta) said in response. Arianna remained angry, repeatedly mentioning Rielle's name, and some others (Lucifel, Void, Reoni, Hiromi) persisted in their doubts until gradually it was worn away, and all that was left was weariness.
As she'd hoped, as they'd all hoped, they had come to the conclusion that they had hoped for. Cher and Hades nodded at them, and abruptly said something that sounded like an order. Almost immediately, the other staff saluted them, and they saluted back before Hades glanced back over at all the students and addressed them:
"Alright. Alright, we'll do this. But we want to know…"
Some of Hades' iciness melted away and for the first time Elly could imagine her as she must have been a long time ago, in the time before the Great War, when she too had still been young and mortal. Newly beloved, dreaming of a future, growing two new lives of her own. You must be tired too, right? Elly wondered, though not directly at Hades. You chose this, and him, and them over and over even when everything was turned upside down. But you must be tired too.
"We want to know…" Cinnabuns finished for her, looking teary himself. "If you'll forgive us."
Now it was their turn to all silently look at each other, waiting for an answer. Eventually, it was Maria who spoke up:
"I don't know about forgiveness, but we can remember that you're more than the worst things you've done. After all, if I want that to be true of myself then it must be true of you, too."
With that said, there seemed to be nothing more to talk about. Or rather, there was. There were so many questions Elly had about everything that had happened, but there wasn't the time. There just wasn't the time. The cloud had quietened now, knowing that the end was coming but still begging them all to hurry. Silently so, but the plea could be heard if they listened properly.
And we are listening, now.
Robyn stepped forward with her preparations and approached Cher and Hades first with a bottle.
"It isn't a sedative, because you need to be conscious-"
"Is that not an unnecessary step?" Arianna asked.
Robyn paused and peered over Cher's shoulder at Arianna. Her expression remained soft and thoughtful as she replied:
"When Rielle showed me her death, I felt it as if it were my own."
She did not elaborate, but she did not need to. Silently, she went around to give everyone their doses of the pain relief. Arianna had been right, it was unnecessary. But when they had been making their plans, Robyn had insisted and refused to budge. This, apparently, had been her line in the sand and nothing would have compelled her to cross it. So she did this, and then smeared their lips with the Last Taste mixture, hung the chains of different leaves and herbs that she'd determined would help send them over safely. Then she stepped back and nodded first at Elly and everyone else.
Alright, here it is. As they had planned, she counted down as if this were a race:
"Ready!"
Ruby and Asu stepped off to one side, Aerin and Samu on the other. The group holding Shi-shoku shuffled forward carefully and loaded the first of the arrows in before holding it up in the right position. Those who were in charge of the soil made sure it was packed around all the staff member's feet properly, while others who had been keeping watch stepped forward and cast the protective spells they all practised, with the ocean-sky symbol pulsing in the middle of them.
"Set!"
The giant rock dragon, following a short command from Cher, flew away and disappeared so that Ani could fly into place, still battling against the wind. Everyone in the trees lit their torches and flame throwers and waited. All the staff looked straight ahead, cloaks and hair and other parts of their clothing whipping in the wind, ready to face their deaths full-on. Some of them cried, a few held hands. Mshrupo and Reoni hugged a still-empty-looking Snow between them. Cher leant heavily against Hades, struggling to keep his eyes open. But all of them were brave, unflinching.
Elly could see why-all those clusters of love that she'd seen in Rielle's memories, gathering together to form something bigger. She wondered if that would be enough to help them get through this, their final moments and the pain that couldn't be soothed away by final kindnesses. Perhaps it wasn't, and wouldn't ever be. Yet, it would have to do. Not just for the ones about to die, but for the ones living too.
=I'm sorry. = she sent, not knowing who it was she was really talking to, or if in fact someone was sending that thought to her.
=I am, too. = came the reply, though she didn't know whether it was a response to her or a response she was sending.
But of course, that didn't matter either. Elly looked at them all once more, all the things she'd wanted to know and say dying as if to pave the way for her own end. Then, she closed her eyes, took a deep breath and yelled:
"GO!"