Chapter 9: Omicron, Terumi, Yosuke

"All systems green, 4 unidentified subjects confirmed." The voice didn't sound like her, not really, it sounded more, robotic. Naoto gently stepped off the pod as her current small white cape fluttered around her frame. Her eyes were empty looking and her face was emotionless.

"Um, Naoto? Can you hear us?" Kanji asked slowly as Naoto stood in front of them.

"Subjects identified, Weiss Schee: Huntress, Yukiko Amagi: Persona User, Kanji Tatsumi: Persona User, Kajun Faycott: Only known data: Former NOL Military Academy Student." Naoto listed in an oddly robotic voice. Her eyes scanning them and the environment. Kanji took a careful step forward.

"Naoto? It's us, your friends." Kanji said as he walked up to her, he saw her eyes, they were not normal, they looked, empty.

"Name: Naoto Shirogane, False. My name is Omicron-14." Naoto said, Kanji took a step back from the answer. Did they brainwash her or something? Why was she talking like a freaking robot?

"Energy levels rising, threat level: rising. Identified subjects: intruders, engaging combat mode." As soon as Naoto finished her sentence, a coffin like case fell behind her, she fell inside and a flash momentarily blinded them. Once their vision was regained, Naoto was now wearing a dark blue skintight suit, weird metal leggings hid her legs and feet and long gauntlets covered her arms. Her back was also covered in a silvery and gold colored metallic armor, it covered her back fully and lightly spread to the front, forming a small metal breastplate and a codpiece. Her eyes were covered by a smooth round dark and light blue visor and a metallic headpiece wrapped around her head and silvery metal strips flowed in long ribbons behind her head*. Six levitating swords flew to each side of her back like wings. Her form floated above the ground, showing them how she could fly.

"Current mission, eliminate intruders." Naoto said as she jumped up. Sending the swords flying towards them, Kajun summoned her magic formula and made a shield to block the swords. she grabbed Kanji and ducked behind a set of tables. Weiss and Yukiko also seeking cover from the barrage of swords.

"What is wrong with Naoto?!" Kanji exclaimed, more in confusion than to anyone in particular. Kajun sighed.

"Based on the data I found while trying to wake her up. Relius tried to turn her into a Detonator, much like what he did to his wife Ignis. Ovet half of her body is now metal and machine. I don't know what his end goal is, but he's trying to make her similar to the Event Weapon Nirvana. He even has plans to give her an Event Weapon, one he calls Rem Gravibus. she's mostly metal now, I'm not sure how much of her is still human. Even if we launched a rescue mission the day you arrived, it would've been too late. Her modifications process was finished a few days before you guys arrived. From what I managed to find, he was in the process of testing her, seeing if she is able to become a Detonator like Ignis, I will say we got lucky. If we gotten here anytime sooner, she would either no longer be human, or dead. I'm afraid the only way to save her is to somehow shut her down and take her to Kokonoe. Even then, we might have to erase her memories in order to prevent her from crazy." Kajun explained. Kanji just looked at her horrified as he tried to process the information.

"But it is possible her personality can return if she's with someone who was close to her." Kajun said, it was a slim possibility, but it was their only option, if Kanji and his friends wanted the Naoto they knew back. The tables suddenly flew away and Kajun summoned another Ars shield to block the sudden barrage of swords. Naoto's face hidden by the visor.

"Naoto! You need to wake up! Persona!" Kanji summoned his persona and it made an attack at Naoto. She quickly reeled in her swords and used them as a shield to protect herself from the attack, causing her skid back as a result. Weiss leaped forward wirh her rapier, summoning glyphs in order to out maneuver Naoto's swords. The latter shot her swords at the huntress, forming a circle and shooting them forward like a machine gun. Weiss quickly pulled up glyphs to act both as a launch pad and a shield to dodge the blades. Weiss summoned a series of glyphs and ice swords shot out, each one perfectly parrying each other.

"Don't hurt her!" Kanji exclaimed as he ran forward, his persona was mostly strength, equalling blunt force, considering Naoto's new form, she could take a punch, she was pretty tough even before being brainwashed. Swords however? No, sharp enough and it'll cut and puncture skin.

"I'll try, but she seems certain to hurt us." Weiss said as she summoned small snowflake glyphs and sent them forward, causing icy mist explosions to hit Naoto. She raised her rapier and charged forward, maybe the visor hiding Naoto's eyes are what's controlling the swords. Weiss ran forward, twirling around the swords, making closer to to Naoto, Weiss jumped up and aimed her blade at the visor. Before it could make contact, Naoto moved her body and jumped, her body moving as Weiss's rapier shot past her, she looked up as Naoto kicked Weiss in the chest and sent her into the wall. Yukiko raised her fan.

"Persona!" in a flurry of fire and cherry blossoms, Yukiko's persona materialized and a burst of flame shot past Naoto's form, causing the girl to grunt as the swords scattered. Naoto quickly flew away from the flames and redirected the blades toward Yukiko. Weiss quickly jumped in front of her and summoned a glyph to block the attack. Kanji ran up, trying to find something in order to at least restrain her, if she's part machine, than trying to tear anything out forcefully could end badly. Yukiko sent another burst of fire before her persona vanished, forcing Naoto to move quickly, using her swords as a shield to fan the heat away from her body. Kanji was able to jump her and knocked her to the ground, dodging the swords as they tried to stab him. Naoto quickly kneed him and shot upward again, making the blades circle and create a machine gun like action as the swords shot at him. Weiss quickly made a glyph and slid him out of the way. Kajun ran forward.

"Let's see if Taro's training worked." Kajun spread her hands and slipped on a thin pair of white fingerless gloved. In an instant several thin strings emerged and manipulated by the gloves. Kajun twisted her body and the strings quickly bound Naoto's form. The faint clicking and scratching of metal sounding ever so slightly. Naoto remained still as her swords were also suspended.

"Find a way to deactivate her, these strings may not survive for long." Kajun said as she held onto the strings with a tight grip. Kanji and Weiss went to see and Yukiko walked up to Naoto, who seemed to be pulled against her makeshift binds.

"Naoto-kun, it's me, Amagi, do you remember? You were very embarrassed when we were at the hotsprings." Yukiko said with a small chuckle as she walked slowly toward her friend. Naoto merely remained silent as the strings because to echo with strain. Kajun kept a tight grip on the strings, but her grip was struggling. Weiss was looking through the monitor, trying to find anything, while Kanji was trying to find a weak spot in order to knock her unconscious.

"You were also nervous when we did that beauty pageant. Or how scared you were when you faced your shadow? Naoto, you're our Detective Prince, you always helped us and made us a better team. You are you, regardless of your appearance, please." Yukiko said, she reached out to reach her visor, hopefully attempt to remove it. Only for the swords to vibrate, and in an instant, the strings broke. The sound of strings cutting through air reverberated as the strings flashed. Yukiko jumped back as Weiss' white glyphs flashed before her and shielded her from the blades.

"We need to find a way to restraint her more permanently fast. Considering her power level, I don't think ice would do anything." Weiss said as she made another glyph, they needed an answer fast. Her team and herself fought may grimm and enemies before, but nothing on this scale. Not only does Naoto move in a way that was more robotic than enemies she's used to, but also that she didn't fight in a combat style. She simply remained still a good deal of the time, moving only her arms to control the swords and maneuver when necessary to dodge.

"Naoto! You need to snap out of it!" Kanji suddenly yelled as he grabbed a nearby chair and attempted to tangle Naoto in it by throwing it over her head. The swords shattered it before it reached her and he latched onto her like a sloth. Naoto flew around in a sporadic movement as she tried to get Kanji off. Kajun and Weiss summoning shields to prevent him from getting stabbed by the swords. Yukiko looked around before a light went off in her head.

"Kanji! Use your persona's power to shut her down! If her body has metal, your lightninf should start a reaction!" Yukiko said, Kanji nodded.

"Persona!" Kanji shouted, the dark form of Take-Mikazuchi. The persona sent a bolt of electricity at Naoto's form just as Kanji jumped off her to avoid the caused her to scream briefly for fall to the ground. Her swords also deactivated and fell to the ground with a loud clang. Kajun took a brief sigh of relief as she fell to the ground.

"Just in time, this place is running out of Seithr for me to use. I have enough to cast a restraining Ars Magus on her. Let's get her out of here and meet up with the others before Hazama apprehends them." Kajun sighed as she started to cast her spell. Kanji looked at Naoto's downed form and frowned, a mix between sadness and anger. What did that bastard do to her? She was mostly machine now? Before he could say anything a sword suddenly shot up and shot past Kajun, slicing her arm and went towards Naoto. Kajun stopped her casting to hold her bleeding arm. Naoto woke up again, she summoned her swords and made them spin in a circle with a flower like pattern.

"Elimination of targets, nullified, mission override." Naoto said an orb of light suddenly exploded from the center and everything went white.

After a few seconds, the light faded away. Naoto looked around the room and found everyone unconscious. Whatever was in that blast knocked them out cold.

"Current mission active, target status changed eliminate: false, nullify: true. Retreat if not concluded within ten minutes." with that, Naoto left the room, leaving the others unconscious on the ground.

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"Oh c'mon, you brats gonna have more than that!" Terumi cackled as he dodged attack after attack and fighting them with Ouroboros and his knives. Linne scowled and ran up, swinging her larger blade at Terumi. Terumi used his black chain to blocked the strike and kicked Linne in the chest, sending her back. Kokonoe launched forward as she pulled out an electrified staff, glowing with energy. The sparks scattered as it continued to hit the ground from Terumi's counter attack. She spun the staff, causing it to recoil and shrink, she quickly pocketed it and pulled out a drill hammer of sorts, the blade began to buzz as she swung at Terumi, causing sparks to fly whenever the tool got into contact with the chain. She ducked under his attack and kicked him in the abdomen, making him skid back. Linne ran past Kokonoe and dealt a series of kicks and strikes at Terumi. Much to her annoyance, her strikes did very little to Terumi's form.

Ruby was trying to push the memories from the field out of her head. Hazama was threat, he did this to Hyde, to her friends, and he looked so, gleeful about it. She fired her weapon and the bullet hit Terumi in the chest, much to her surprise, he laughed again. the bullet bounced to the ground, and he stood uninjured.

"Finally you little brat decided to join the fight. Decided not to leave it all up to your friends? Now let's have some more fun." Terumi launched past the others and his knife shined in the dim light. He was fast, Ruby activated her semblance in order to dodge, she pulled her weapon again and fired at Terumi, only to see the bullets do no damage. What was with him? Some kind of forcefield or strong skin? She was firing sniper bullets they should have at least made him bleed. He wasn't like a grim either, how was he human? Forgetting the gun, she opened up her weapon to reveal it's scythe form.

"Now that's more like it!" Terumi cackled as he charged at her. Ouroboros shot towards her and she used Crescent Rose to block the attack. She skid back from the impact and launched forward herself. Bringing the blade down ready to cut Terumi's arm off. He swung up his knife to block it, surprising Ruby that the knife didn't break from sheer pressure. He launched her back, making her twirl her scythe and have the blade dig itself into the ground, herself balancing on it. Terumi ran at her, quickly glancing at the walls of the hallway, Ruby fired her weapon, launched into the wall, activating her semblance she quickly bounced from wall to wall, successfully confusing Terumi enough to land a solid kick onto his back shoving him down. Ruby quickly looked around and was relieved that Linne ushered Yuzuriha and Hyde further away from the fight. The brunette in birth launched forward and kneed Terumi in the chin as he was getting up, sending him back, another hit was dealt by Kokonoe to his chest. He stood up with a grin when he landed.

"Man you brats are fun. Definitely more entertaining than good old Raggy." Terumi said as he stood up, much to Ruby and Linne's confusion, he seemed mostly unharmed. Wasting no time Ruby launched forward again with her semblance, a trail of rose petals behind her, she swung her scythe and the blade hooked Terumi in the chest, shooting him further back. Terumi reacted quickly sending Ouroboros and wrapping around Kokonoe's waist, pulling her towards him as he pulled himself forward. Leaping up, he kicked Kokonoe in her back, sending her to the ground as he used her as a launch pad. Ruby, still worried that her weapon didn't even scratch him save his clothes, ran forward with Linne. The two speeding girls performed Ruby's zig-zag move across the walls again, Terumi was prepared though. Using Ouroboros to create a semi-shield of sorts, he blocked the blows from their blades, he quickly pulled the chain back, grabbed Linne by her sleeve and kneed her in the gut, making her let out a strained cough as the blow threw her back.

Ruby took the opportunity Terumi gave her from his action with Linne to deal a blow from her scythe onto his neck, much to her horror, it didn't do anything, like he was made of stone or something. As much as she figured blows to his body, bullet or otherwise wouldn't do anything, she expected a blow to the neck would've done at least something.

"So you finally decided to use a killing blow? Not bad, but try harder next time, you need more than that to kill me." Terumi said, he whipped out one of his knives and shot at her. She dodged just in time so the blade only cut her cheek. She jumped back and got her weapon ready with a sniper shot loaded. She was in a sort of crouched position as she took deep breaths. Her aura was getting low, Terumi smiled and came at her again, both knives drawn. Ruby used her shot to launch herself back to put more distance between them, she dug her blade into the ground and began to fire shot after shot at Terumi. He dodged and continued to get closer, once he got close, Ruby angled her weapon and shot downward, making the blade launch and spin, she quickly maneuvered the blade to trip Terumi and jump up, sending a good kick into his chest. Terumi got back up again, laughing as he came at her again, she saw a flash of black and green as Ouroboros shot past her, slicing her left arm. The pain made her flinch, allowing Terumi the time to perform the same move he did on Linne, kneeing her in the stomach and tossing her back.

"That was fun! Let's make things interesting." Terumi said, he replaced the fedora and Hazama came back out, the hair fell and his eyes close, once again with a sly instead of sadistic smile. Kokonoe slowly got back up and tried to charge him from behind. He turned around and launched Ouroboros.

Hazama wrapped his chain around Kokonoe's ankle and preformed a similar move to what he did to Blake and Chie. Swinging her back and into Linne as the other girl got back up, causing them to crash into each other and skid back into the wall. As Ruby was distracted both by the pain in her body and by the sight of her friends getting flung back like ragdolls, she didn't register Yuzuriha's warning in time.

"RUBY! LOOK-" her warning came too late as Ruby felt a presence behind her. a hand quickly wrapped around her throat, lifting her up into the air. Another hand yanking Cresent Rose out of her hands and tossing it to the ground with a loud clatter. Her feet dangled above the ground as her airways were getting restricted.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, this is why you don't let kids fight." Hazama said cooly. Linne got up from her crash with Kokonoe with a grunt and glared at him.

"Do anything, and I'll snap her cute little neck in two." Hazama said. Ruby gasped for air as Hazama briefly tightened his grip.

"Hazama, why?" Ruby croaked out, as she pulled at his hand. This wasn't the one who helped her back then. He seemed so nice, was it truly that easy for him to act?

"You poor innocent, ignorant child. I only helped you back then because I didn't want to be on the receiving end of that scythe you cuddle with. Besides, I have been itching for a fight. However, it was a one time thing, while your skills are impressive for someone your age, you are still a child." Linne tried to slowly get up only for Hazama to snap his neck in her direction . Quickly tightening his grip on Ruby again, causing her to gulp. Linne froze in place, if looks could kill, her glare would've killed Hazama and Terumi ten times over.

"I said don't move. Even trapped in a little body won't stop immortals from breaking the rules." Hazama sighed.

"No matter, considering I want to avoid some unnecessary squabbling. How about we make a deal?" Hazama asked, Kokonoe glared at him.

"And what kind of deal does a bastard like you have to offer?" Kokonoe hissed.

"Simple, we trade. Give me back our boy Hyde, and I'll let go of Miss Rose." Hazama suggested, Ruby croaked under his grip. Yuzuriha stayed where she was and instinctively held Hyde's form closer to her. His breathing was more steady now, he was just sleeping.

"Don't, I'm not, letting that, happen..." Ruby gasped, Hazama raised an eyebrow.

"Much like a selfless hero in the books. You're willing to give your life on a gamble with the most impossible odds. This is why a child like you shouldn't be messing around in the adults' affairs. How about this, I take Hyde Kido, and I wipe you and your teammates memories? You won't remember anything about the Phantom Field, and I still have a one-way ticket back to your home of Remnant. Your lives will be unaltered, and not get mixed up in all the adult business, you will return back to the children you're supposed to be. What do you think Miss Rose?" Hazama asked.

Ruby didn't know what to think, or even if she wanted to think. Everything was a blur, everything seemed off. She glanced over at Hyde's form being protectively cradled by Yuzuriha's arms. He looked so, defenseless, dressed in nothing but that white robe, thin, and pale. He wasn't like the Hyde she met in the Phantom Field. Not to mention how important he was to the people around him. She didn't want to die, she didn't want to make her father, Uncle Qrow, her sister, suffer, she doesn't want to vanish like her mother. Yet, it wouldn't be right just to let them have Hyde again, not after they spent over a month trying to find him. What could she do?

"Accept it." Kokonoe's voice broke through the tense air bluntly.

"What?" Linne breathed, Yuzuriha looked at Kokonoe with a confused and horrified look. Ruby felt confused herself. What?

"It's an unfavorable situation, but either way Relius and Terumi need Hyde alive. Ruby Rose however, Relius wouldn't have a use or an experiment to perform on her. These are our two choices; either we sacrifice Ruby in order to save Hyde, one person dies so the other can live. Or, we let them have Hyde and save Ruby, one person is taken away so the other can go free, in short, they're both alive. It's up to Rose to decide whether or not she wants her team and herself to continue to be wrapped in this mess." Kokonoe said, she hated negotiating with someone like Hazama. She hated having to give Hyde back, but it's the best case scenario, they can plan another rescue mission at some point.

"But didn't you say that letting them use his power could spell death for this world?!" Linne exclaimed, utterly baffled by Kokonoe's response. She can't be serious, can she? As much as she didn't want Ruby to die, surely there was another way than just accepting a deal from that shady bastard. Hazama raised an eyebrow in interest.

"Oh? So you already figured it out. That we planned on using his power to help achieve the Imperator's goal? To replace the need for the Azure Grimoire. Relius already found many similarities between his energy and that of the Black Beast, not to mention how his weapon is in so many ways like a Nox Nyctores." Hazama said.

Yuzuriha watched as the scene unfolded before her, still having a death grip on Hyde's form. she needed to do something, surely they can figure something out. She may not have much time, but she wasn't a guardian for show.

"Just wait here for a little bit Hyde." Yuzuriha whispered softly as she gently released Hyde and layed him down on the ground. She slowly stood up, trying not to catch their attention. With a breath she grabbed her katana.

"Second form..." Yuzuriha said to herself. She readied herself.

"Bloom!" In a flash, Yuzuriha vanished, and Hazama was hit in his side hard, he let out a grunt and dropped Ruby. She quickly scrambled away and grabbed Crescent Rose again. Hazama looked up to see Yuzuriha with her sword sheathed again, ready for another strike.

"Ah, so the shrine maiden finally joins the fight as well." Hazama said with a smile, he had hardly any time to react as Linne launched at him with her blades. He barely dodged in time as the smaller blade cut off a bit of his hair. Kokonoe wasted none as she was also on him and managed to kick him in the chest.

"Ruby! Get Hyde out of here, at least somewhere safe." Yuzuriha said, Ruby wanted to protest, but considering the circumstances, even she knew they didn't have the time, even with her semblance. She nodded, tucked her weapon away and in a flash of rose petals, vanished from the scene with Hyde.

"Well then, don't hold back now." Hazama said, Linne, Kokonoe, and Yuzuriha got ready to fight. Suddenly Hazama clicked something near his ear, a communicator.

"What? You can't handle them or something? Oh, I see, well that is mighty interesting. Certainly." Hazama said, smiling even bigger.

"Well ladies, I'm afraid I must depart, Relius needs some help in some testing. I'll be taking my leave." Hazama said, he dropped something and in a blinding flash resonated throughout the halls and they covered their eyes instinctively to protect themselves from the flash. Once the lights dimmed, Hazama was gone.

"Damn it! That bastard. Yuzuriha, go after and make sure Ruby gets out safe with Hyde, see if you can check on others if you see them. We'll go after the bastard." Kokonoe said.

"Can you be sure we can beat them? I mean, all four of us had trouble with him alone. As much as I want to say we can defeat him, it doesn't fall in our favor." Linne said, her body still aching from the fight.

"Trust me, I have my doubts, but it's not like we have much of a choice, fighting him head on. He's a lot stronger than I thought, I'm afraid our mission may have to change, Relius is a strong opponent, not to mention his doll, Ignis, that thing is powerful, and no doubt has been upgraded. At the very least, we need to make sure Ragna and his Azure Grimoire are not defeated and taken. This rescue mission has turned into a survival mission." Kokonoe explained, Linne sighed, she was right, their opponents are powerful, and if they can even beat him, Relius would be a whole other problem.

"Alright, let's go then." Linne said as the three split, Yuzuriha running in the direction of Ruby and Hyde. Kokonoe and Linne ran in the direction of where Hazama ran off.

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Chie jumped as Yosuke launched at her with his kunai. Chie tried to punch him, only for him to dodge with illogical speed and shot to her side, in and instant, Chie felt an immense pressure and pain in her side as she was hurled across the hall.

"Chie!" Yu called out as Yosuke changed targets and changed focus to him. The dead look in his eyes make Yu very uncomfortable, he should never have that look.

"Persona!" Yu shouted as Izagani materialized once again and shot at his friend. A small attack should be enough to knock him out. Yosuke dodged the attack and shot a kunai through the persona as it quickly vanished from reality. Blake ran ahead and threw her grapple at him, trying to tangle him up. He quickly jump up with reflexes Yu never thought Yosuke would bother learning. He quickly dodged the grapple and threw a kunai at Blake with scary accuracy, her having barely enough time as the weapon grazed her shoulder. Blake ran up and used her semblance as a diversion. When he was distracted by the copy, she ducked and elbowed him in the stomach, causing him to skid back. Chie ran past her in an attempt to knock Yosuke unconscious. She charged forward and threw of series of punches that would weaken and hopefully knock Yosuke out. He blocked each blow with his arms and weapons, throwing off the uniform cloak to distract her, when she was distracted from the sudden flare of black, he tripped her and threw her back a good few feet. Yu joined in, and tried to punch him, he didn't want to use his katana in fear he might injure him. It would be another minute or so until he could summon Izanagi again.

"Partner! You need to wake up!" Yu shouted as they grappled with each other. Yosuke was able to grab his arm and threw him down the hall, landing near Chie. Blake ran up, her grapple open once again, she made another diversion and managed to kick Yosuke in the back. He recoiled, but responded, he turned around and swung his leg, tripped Blake a bit. She rebounded and propelled herself off the walls, charging at Yosuke, she shot out her grapple in an attempt to restrain him. Yosuke moved his form and avoided the ribbon, he leaped up and maneuvered around the grapple. He jumped and found himself above her. Blake's eyes wided as he jumped and slashed at her waist with the tip of his kunai. A small spurt of blood stained her clothing as she held the wound and landed. He managed to cut the left side of her waist.

"Those moves, he is intending to kill us. We need to be careful." Blake said, as she blocked another attack with her wider sword. Yu sheathed his katana, Yosuke was still human after all, just, not himself. Just blunt force should be enough, Chie knew that too. The two of them charged forward, Blake saw and followed suit, even with her injury, she ran up and with Chie, grabbed Yosuke in a grapple each of them holding onto his arms with a death grip. They forced him down as he struggled in their grasps. Yu walked up to him and looked at his glowing green tinted eyes. Even through whatever mind control Hazama and this 'Phantom' have put on his friend, he could still see fear and concern flash behind the screen.

"Yosuke, whatever it is, you need to fight it, I, no, we believe in you, remember partner?" Yu asked, Yosuke just looked at him, his face still mainly emotionless except for the angered and strained look from struggling against Chie and Blake's grasp.

"Yosuke... you idiot... come back..." Chie strained as she held onto his arm, the material of the NOL uniform felt so foreign and not normal for her, it wasn't something Yosuke would wear for sure.

"Yosuke, wake up partner." Yu said as he continued to stare in Yosuke's eyes, he saw something. Very briefly, only a flash.

"Guys...please...run..." Yosuke's strained out before going limp. His eyes opened once again, this time, glowing more vibrantly and his eyes now completely opaque green. With a swift movement he forced himself back, the unexpected movement made Chie and Blake loosen their grip enough for Yosuke to yank his arms out and kick the girls away. He rasied his kunai and quickly rebounded, making a slash at Yu, he quickly blocked the weapon with his sword the two lock in on each other and Yosuke's face was once again emotionless. the two exchanged blows as Chie and Blake looked for an opening. Once Yu put enough distance between them, Chie summoned her persona and it shot forward with a trail of ice. It managed to nail a blow in Yosuke's side, sending him into the wall. Yosuke stood up,one could say he was unaffected, but the wounds on his body and tattered uniform said otherwise.

"This, that mind control. Hazama doesn't care, he ordered him to eliminate us, and he won't stop even if his life is on the line. He may be weaker now, but he won't stop and only worsen his wounds. We need to either find a way to restrain him, or run." Blake said as she readied her grapple. Those were their options, hopefully restraining him now would make things easier. Only for Yosuke to stop, his body stiffened, like he was a statue. He stood for a moment before turning and running away. Much to their confusion.

"Hey! Yosuke! Get back here!" Chie quickly gave chase, Blake and Yu following close behind. Yu hopes that Kanji's group is having better luck.

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Ragna grunted as Relius used a mechanical arm to send a punch into his gut. Ragna swung his sword and blocked another attack.

"Give it up already you bastard!" Ragna yelled, as he attacked him. Relius dodging and blocking each attack with minor difficulties.

"I will not, my research is almost complete. I won't let you brats get in the way. " Relius said, he summoned a drill and nearly put a hole in Ragna if he didn't block with his sword. Ragna shoved the drill back, causing Relius to stumble as they continued to exchange blows.

"Kid! Remember, that stuff is as dangerous as a sword, be careful!" Gordeau shouted as Yang and himself dodged the attacks Ignis wss making. Gordeau never thought he would see a machine using Void Red. This was bad, considering the size of her claws, they were stuck playing a game of cat and mouse as obstacles around them keep getting shredded to bits from the ribbons of energy.

I got it! We can't lose here! We need to find a weak spot." Yang called out as she shot a few blasts from her gauntlets before jumping back to avoid the attack.

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Holy moly that was almost 6k words O_o

*Look at the headdress of Yachiyo from the mobile game Magia Record, that's basically what it looks like.

I forget how many words fight scenes can take up. Hope you guys enjoyed part 2 of the rescue operation. Let me know what you think and if there are any character power edits I need to make for things to be more accurate. Also for a potential question thar may come up since I mentioned it here (kinda) the event also takes place in a sort of merging of the 'true' Blazblue ending in Cross Tag and the 'bad' ending. Just as a heads up if anyone is wondering. Also, holy crap I had a lot of fun with Terumi/Hazama fight. considering it's like 65% of the chapter I think. More things will be expanded on next week, and me trying to piece together as much logic I can for the scenarios I have. Thank you for reading, and I would love to hear what you think ;)

Updated playlist:

Kanji, Kajun, Yukiko, and Weiss vs Naoto/Omicron-14: Imperial Code (Noel vs Jin theme)

OR

Survivor (Fanmade Nu-13 theme)

Ruby, Linne, and Kokonoe vs Terumi/Hazama: Gluttony Fang (Hazama's theme)

OR

Confliction (Fanmade Kazuma theme)

Yu, Blake, and Chie vs Yosuke: Silent Scream (Terumi's theme)

OR

Effort (Fanmade Battle theme)

Ragna, Yang, and Gordeau vs Relius and Ignis: Plastic Night (Relius' theme) or Rushing Heart (Gordeau's theme)

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For some reason, the site does not like direct links, so look for the themes, they go by the title i mentioned and look for the youtube channel 'Kiku Ichimonji'

I seriously recommend checking out that channel's other fanmade themes, cause more will be appearing in the playlist. Hope you enjoy :) see you guys next time. Also I personally see 'Confliction' as a very good, if not perfect 'Ruby vs Hazama' theme, it just feels like it fits. It fits so well in my brain.