Just a quick note before I begin, Arc System's music has come under attack on YouTube due to copyright, so I'd suggest opening the song tabs first to make sure you have them without having a huge gap in the story. The songs are Awakening the Chaos II (or whatever version you can get), Worthless as the sun above the clouds (Guilty Gear 2), and The Only Thing I know for Real (Metal Gear Rising). There's also going to be an epilogue after the author's note at the end so be sure to stay for that. With that said I present to you this Arc's concluding chapter.

Fate X: CALAMITY

Noel, Bullet, and Makoto ran through Kagutsuchi, heading towards the NOL library at the top of the mountain as fast as they could. Considering that Noel's apartment was located only in the residential district that was only located halfway up, they essentially had to run up the entire other half of the mountain and the snow made the journey even more tedious when they were constantly slowed by the ice patches that continued to bar their way.

Still, they were making progress; already the ladies had made the way to the Merchant district located a floor up. They all still hoped they'd be able to catch Ragna before he'd left after destroying the NOL branch, or so they speculated.

"This way," Noel told the other girls as she changed direction and proceeded down an alley way, "It's a shortcut; we'll make it to the branch quicker if we go through here."

"Let's hope so," Bullet said as she and Makoto followed Noel. "We're going to need to hurry if we're going to catch Ragna and kick his ass to make him see sense."

"Such a foul mouth," a young voice came out of nowhere. "I can see why you and that brute are friends."

The three girls came to a quick stop and looked around. While Noel and Makoto kept their NOL coats on, Bullet got into a battle ready stance. Looking around both ends of the alleyway they saw no one.

"If you'd send your gaze skyward you'd find me rather easily," the voice said. The girls did so and they found what appeared to be a young girl floating in midair. She slowly descended and landed in front of them, leaving the three gaping.

"W-who are you?" Noel could barely stutter out.

"Someone that understands your place far better than you do," Rachel said with a haughty smile. "I suppose I should start-"

"-By leaving us alone," Bullet interrupted as she began walking down the alley way. "I've got a job to take care of."

"That job was given to you by Hakumen, correct?" Rachel's words stopped the mercenary cold. "Yes, I was there when he made the decision to ask for your assistance, but as I've just seen it seems as though your services are no longer required."

"What do you mean 'no longer required?' Hakumen brought me on to help Ragna and that's what I'm going to do!"

"Foolish girl, Hakumen requested your skills because he thought that your skills would be enough to give Ragna an advantage in his upcoming battle, which will still take place, six days early or not. The fool of a hero will never admit it, but Ragna has exceeded his expectations in growth... I suppose the three of you can take pride in that fact; from what I understand it's partly thanks to you that it was possibility."

"Proud-shmoud, we're finding Ragna!" Makoto said with authority as she glared at the young vampiress.

Rachel gave a small giggle. "My dear Beastkin…" The sudden smell of roses was noticeable in the air as the entire surrounding changed. The girls looked around blank eyed at the large rose garden they were in and the magnificent mansion off in the distance. "... did you really think that decision was yours to make?"

The NOL Branch

'Something very foul is at work here,' Hakumen thought after his first apprentice had begun his descent to Kagutsuchi's cauldron. 'I know Takamagahara would reset the system should I interfere, but I cannot help this discomforting feeling.'

He was still with Platinum in the NOL headquarters lobby, waiting should Terumi decide to show himself. Hakumen knew that his traitor of an ex-comrade would very likely try to go after Platinum first, but he himself knew that her presence her would be required. It was unnerving for him to have his two apprentices fight his battles with him, but at same time he realized this is what he'd trained them so vigorously for.

"Hey master?" he heard his second apprentice address him. "Is there a reason that you never talk about Ragna?"

'Far too many,' Hakumen thought to himself. In the end he decided to go with the tamest reason he could and lead with an obvious question. "If I had told you, how would you have felt?"

"I'd feel awesome!" Platinum said with vigor, surprising Hakumen more than a little. "If your training was able to turn Ragna the Bloodedge into the legend he is today I can't wait to see what I can do after it!"

'You… wouldn't be overwhelmed with self expectations?" Hakumen asked.

"Why would I be? I can take your training!" Platinum said proudly with a smile on her face.

'This child,' Hakumen thought to himself before giving off that low rumble that was his chuckle. 'I suppose I shouldn't underestimate her light heartedness and energy.'

"Master, don't try to laugh; it's creepy."

'...Though I suppose her bluntness leaves something to be desired,' he thought to himself before noticing a strange presence. "Hm?"

There was an odd shimmer in front of the hallway Ragna had taken to get into the elevator that would take him the cauldron below Kagutsuchi. It appeared to be a barrier of some sort. Besides his line of sight, he couldn't sense anything beyond it.

"Seems that someone wants to ensure that we don't interfere," Hakumen noted before unsheathing his sword and approaching the barrier. "EMPTY SKY-!" he began as he charged his sword with pale energy and Platinum dove for cover. "SUMMER'S ADVANCE!"

The shockwave alone from the attack was devastating; tearing away at the ground behind him, taking huge chunks out of the wall, and sending objects flying back. The energy wave itself was raw, undisputed power and slammed into the barrier with force leagues beyond that of a point blank nuclear warhead… yet the barrier remained.

"It survived," Hakumen said to himself. 'Terumi could not have created this, but then who? Takamagahara? Phantom? The Imperator? Either way, this does not bode well; if I cannot break this barrier I have doubts that the harlequin could observe past it.'

"Master?" Platinum asked with uncertainty before she saw the barrier. "What do we do now?"

For a moment Hakumen said nothing and simply stared at the wall as he resheathed Okami. He remained silent for a moment as he gathered his thoughts before addressing Platinum.

"Now we leave this to your so-called legend..."

Below Kagutsuchi (Cue Awakening the Chaos II)

"Bout damned time," Ragna grumbled to himself as the elevator doors finally opened after his long descent in the elevator. He stepped out and traversed the long hallway which took him to the Cauldron. As he stepped towards the edge the entrance to the Boundary opened and a strange device rose out from its depths. Ragna stood patiently as the device opened, revealing a girl with silver hair and a red eye patch.

"Loading… loading… loading…" the girl said a she stood still, about ten feet in front of Ragna. The Reaper didn't strike out at her; if this was going to come to a fight, he'd win his way and not by slaughtering her while her guard was down. Hakumen had taught to have pride as a warrior, and he'd keep his morals in his actions. "Load complete, Unit number 13: Nu… activated." The girl's good eye opened, which turned dreamy when she saw the man in front of her. "Ragna…"

The Grim Reaper said nothing in response.

"It's been such a long time since we've seen each other… I've missed you SO MUCH." He remained silent. "What's wrong, are you not happy to see Nu? I thought we could-"

"Cut the crap already," Ragna interrupted as he unslung Blood-Scythe from his belt. "I don't want to waste my breath talking to you. You know why I'm here, let's get it over with."

"Aw, but Nu was hoping we could talk some more…" Nu said with a sad look on her face before it turned to a creepily excited one. "But if you want to skip the foreplay, Nu guesses we can jump right in." A giant sword was impaled into the ground behind Nu, send up a giant dust cloud that blocked Ragna's vision of the girl. When the dust cleared the sword was gone and Nu was equipped in her silver battle armor equipped with floating wing arranged blades. "Come on Ragna, let's play!"

Nu created a portal behind Ragna, and a red sword emerged and went soaring towards Ragna's back. The Reaper ducked to the side to avoid the sword, and Nu used that time to send her wing blades out at Ragna, which he barely managed to guard against. Nu rushed forward towards Ragna as the blades returned to her and used to make a massive swipe. Hr jumped into the air to dodge the attack and Nu laughed as she created a massive portal like the one earlier, only this one sent out countless swords out at the Reaper. Ragna quickly switched out his sword for his submachine gun in his left hand and his shotgun in his right. sending a steady stream with the former and buckshot after buckshot with the later, effectively destroying the swords.

When he landed, Ragna continued to fire his submachine gun at Nu, but the Murakumo unit weaved back and forth to avoid the bullets, almost like she was moving faster than them. While he was barely keeping her at bay, Ragna switched his shotgun out for his sword to combat Nu as she closed the distance between the two and attacked once more with her petal blades.

Ragna countered her swing with one of his own and followed up by blasting his gun at close range. Nu was unable to dodge this attack but the stream didn't seem to do much more than send her off guard. Ragna used the opportunity to slash Nu and managed to deal some significant damage to her torso, but the Murakumo unit wasn't finished yet. Ragna put his minigun away, and prepared himself for what Nu had planned next.

"Aw Ragna, you big beast," Nu said happily as she sent a giant bladed wheel spinning on the ground. Ragna managed to swing his sword and crushed the attack, but as soon as he did he noticed that his entire body felt heavier. Seeing the Ars Magus circle on the ground, it looked like Nu had put him in some sort of slow field. Noticing the sudden shadow around him Ragna managed to bring his sword up and block the giant blade that was summoned, but unlike the other's this blade didn't dispel and Ragna was forced to fight back to avoid becoming crushed.

"Why are you fighting so hard?" Nu asked as Ragna continued to push back against the limiting blade. "Ragna, we're meant to be together. Nu… never wants to be without you..." Nu then rushed forward after sending her bladed petals toward her Ragna-senpai. "Come be with me Ragna!" she cried out, almost in desperation.

Ragna gritted his teeth as he attempted to hold the blade back with only his left arm while enduring impalement from several petal blades in his torso. He then poured energy into the BlazBlue. When the blade was just about to crush him and Nu was right next to him, he roared as he activated his Barrier Burst, sending out a wave of green energy that crushed the blade holding him down and sent Nu flying back. While she was dazed he immediately leapt into the air as his sword turned into its scythe mode and roared as he brought it down on the dazed Murakumo unit.

(End theme)

Nu screamed as her armor and wings fell to the ground around her, leaving her in only her light grey jumpsuit. Ragna retracted his weapon back into its sword form and brought it down in a violent arc that would take Nu's head off. Nu grimaced and closed her eye as she sat there, completely defenseless, but the attack never came. She slowly opened her eye and saw that Ragna was holding the blade mere inches from her face, but the look on his face seemed more annoyed than enraged.

"You really are a pain in my ass, you know that?" Ragna said with an irritated huff as he started pulling the blades out of himself, grimacing only slightly at the pain "Just stay the hell out of my way, I've got a cauldron to break." As Ragna moved the blade away from her, he saw this girl staring at him in complete fear. He sighed to himself, his conscious riddled with guilt even after she'd just tried to kill him. "... Hey, just wait here and… we'll talk after I'm finished, alright?"

She didn't say anything and merely nodded her head, but Ragna took that as a sign that she at least understood not to kill him. He headed to the cauldron and raised the sword over his head and channeled his BlazBlue's energy into the weapon. That was when he heard Nu scream from behind him.

Nu's petals had reactivated and were stabbing into the girl berserkley, each blow creating a spray of crimson blood to rush from her body. Her face no longer contained the pleasurable sadism that she had possessed during their fight, now it was twisted in agony as her own armor continued to butcher her.

"STOP IT!" Ragna yelled hopelessly as he was about to run forward, but then visions started painfully appearing in his head, immobilizing him and forcing him to fall to a knee. The images were ones he knew only too well; this was what he saw when his church burned to the ground, the moment he lost his arm, when the Matron had been killed. He couldn't move, only see as his vision phased from watching a terrible vision of the past, to Nu getting stabbed, to another vision.

'...c..n't….v…' A voice said inside his mind while Ragna's vision was completely distorted.

'what...?'

'...an't….s..…' it said again, now showing blurs in front of a roaring fire.

'No… Not that memory! S-STOP IT! I DON'T WANT TO SEE IT AGAIN!'

'You can't save anyone... you never can… and you never will...' Now the image was clear, Jin and Saya standing in front of the burning church as Ragna lay on the ground, bleeding out of the place where his arm used to be as a green spectral form laughed and mocked Ragna's fear and timidity.

The Reaper let out a scream of anguish as the blades finished impaling the now dead Murakumo unit and carried the body back into the Cauldron where it would fall into the Boundary, never to be found again. The Cauldron surged with power as the Murakumo unit passed into the other realm.

"DAMN IT!" Ragna roared in agony as he punched the floor with enough force to create a small crater. "She didn't need to die! I was letting her live!"

Another surge of power was emitted from the cauldron, Ragna turned around in disgust as a single shadow leapt from within the Boundary itself and landed in front of him with enough power to crack the concrete beneath it. Under any other circumstances Ragna might've gasped at the thing's appearance, but right now he was far too pissed to care.

(Cue Guilty Gear 2 Overture Worthless as the sun above the Clouds)

The monster was complete clad in black armor that resembled Hakumen's, however it was slightly shorter and its ponytail was blonde as opposed to silver and had red stains that looked like it might've been blood. It had broken pieces of crystal emerging from its body, and talons on each of its fingers make of a dark metal that looked like it'd been grafted into the hands. The creature stood slightly crouched over, like it was some kind of feral animal.

"Are you the bastard that did that to her?" Ragna asked aggressively as he picked up Blood-Scythe. It's only response was an inhuman roar scream as it launched itself at Ragna with talons extended. "Fine! I didn't feel like talking anyways!" Ragna roared as he met the creatures charge.

The clash of sword and claws created a storm of sparks before rushed forward and caught the monster in its mask with a devastating right hook to its helmet, blasting the figure several feet back. "Hell's-!" Ragna shouted as he lunged forward with his seither coated arm and stuck the creature again in his mask. "FANG!" he followed up with a wave of darkness which slammed against his opponent, though the armor proved to be fairly thick.

The creature didn't seem to register the attack as it countered with its right claws, which Ragna barely managed to parry, but then it's left claw made its way under Ragna's guard and slashed him across the chest. The Reaper grunted and tried to counter with a roundhouse kick, but the enigma dodged the unusually sluggish attack while slashing across Ragna's leg. As Ragna grunted from the pain, an Ars Magus circle appeared in front of him and blasted him back with dark energy.

Ragna was sent flying across the entire Cauldron and slammed into the wall with enough force to create a shallow indent. It was fortunate that Ragna had managed to keep a hold of Blood-Scythe because his opponent leapt the entire distance in a single bound with its claws ready. The Reaper put up an Ars Magus barrier in front of him, but as soon as he did it started fizzing out.

'What the hell!?' Ragna thought in annoyance as the creature destroyed the pitiful shield in a single swipe of its claws. 'SHIT!' Ragna rolled to the side to avoid the creature's next attack, good thing too as it impaled the stop on the wall where his head would have been. Ranga quickly made his way to his feet before grabbing out his shotgun and sending out a single blast to the creatures back.

'My body feels heavy and my Ars Magus didn't do crap. Damn it! I've been through worse than this! Just what the hell are those claws?!' Ragna managed to use his sword and deflect another one of the creature's impalement attacks. 'It's wearing off… but I can't move at full capacity after I get hit, so I gotta destroy those claws first!'

The creature leapt into air to perform and aerial attack on Ragna, but the Reaper swung his sword skywards and met it with an Infernal Divider. After sword and claws once again clashed the monster prepared itself to strike Ragna with another claw slash, but this time Ragna was ready. He violently struck the creature's mask with the shotgun he held in his left hand before firing a blast point blank sending it flying backwards. Before Ragna landed he put his shotgun back on his weapon belt and charged his seither into his sword.

"Dead Spike!" Ragna shouted as he sent out a surge of darkness in the shape of one of the black beast's heads. His opponent would need to guard against the attack since it wouldn't be able to dodge after just landing, which would set Ragna up for the combo he needed to win. Ragna charged seither throughout his entire body to active Rapid Cancel, before leaping into the air and pouring a huge amount of energy into his sword. He roared as he brought the sword down on the still guarding creature, who managed to guard against the attack, but at the cost of its weapons.

The creature slid back a few feet as it's claws shattered to pieces and fell to the floor around the two. "IT'S OVER! CARNAGE SCISSORS!" Ragna roared as he lunged forward at the weaponless monster to finish it off.

CLANG!

It took Ragna a moment to realize what he'd struck; a pillar of ice that had formed right in front of the creature. The ice shattered revealing inside a katana with an azure blue scabbard: Mucro Algesco Yukianesa. The creature then grabbed the sword by the scabbard in his left hand and drew the blade with its right which emitted an odd mist.

'Wait, that's the same sword from when I got my arm got cut off! Does that mean...?'

Flashback (End theme)

"OW!" the blonde youth said as he gripped his bloody leg.

"C'mon, it's just a scrape, it doesn't even look that bad," Ragna told his little brother before applying some hastily made ointment to the wound.

"It hurts brother!" he cried out as Ragna continued to apply the medicine.

Ragna smirked. "Well that's how you can tell it's working, can't risk you getting infected right? What were you doing trying to slide down the hill anyways? You were holding our laundry.'

"I was just trying to keep up with you," the injured one said told him somewhat embarrassedly.

"Hey, if I'm running too fast for you let me know next time," Ragna told him as he finished applying the ointment. "There, can you walk?" His younger brother tried to stand, but gritted his teeth in pain. "Guess not, well guess there's nothing else for it." Ragna helped his brother up and started carrying him to the church piggy back style. "I'll just come back for the clothes later."

"Sorry," the younger one said to his elder.

"Don't worry about it," Ragna said dismissively as he continued to walk. "Let's get you home."

End Flashback

Ragna could only stare at the creature in front of him. "...Jin? What the hell did they do to you!?"

"J...in…?" the creature slowly repeated with a horribly rasped voice. Even with as tortured as it sounded, Ragna could still recognize his younger brother's voice. "...Jin…"

"That's right, it's your name! Remember it!" 'Come on, I don't know what those NOL bastards did to him, but he's still got to be in there somewhere…'

'...Jin," it repeated again. "Rag… na... bro...ther…"

'He starting to remember...' "Yeah," Ragna said, lowering his sword, "I'm your older brother."

"Brother…" Jin slowly repeated again before grunting as he gripped his helmet and shuddered as if it was in pain. "Brother. Brother! BROTHER! BROTHER!"

(Cue The Only thing I know for Real)

Jin viciously slashed at Ragna with his katana blade and the Grim Reaper barely managed to block the attack and hold the blade back. "DARK ONE! DESTROYER! KILL! KILL YOU! KILL YOU! KILLYOUKILLYOUKILLYOUKILLYOUKILLYOU!"

As the air around Ragna got significantly colder he reflexively jumped back, just in time to dodge the eruption of ice that would have frozen him solid. While he was in midair Jin sent a blade made out of ice his way. Ragna managed to cut the projectile in half, but round two was just getting started.

"Tch, looks like I'm going to have to beat some sense into ya," Ragna grunted after he landed. He noticed Jin riding on an icicle towards him and blocked against it, but the attack still forced him back slightly. Jin then jumped off the Ice Car, and slashed at Ragna who again block the attack with his sword, but then large portions of ice started covering it. Ragna roared as he forced Jin back before slamming his fist into the black mask as hard as he could.

"WAKE UP ALREADY!" Ragna shouted as before he followed up by uppercutting his opponent into the air. "Gauntlet Hades!" He spun into an axe kick that landed in Jin's chest followed by a spin kick that sent him further into the air. Ragna performed a powerful swing with the blunt end of Blood-Scythe that sent his brother flying.

Jin managed to regain his footing as Ragna rushed forward with another Hell's Fang attack. Jin summoned a barrier and blocked the attack before retaliating and summoning another wall of ice. Ragna backstepped to avoid the attack, before noticing the sword of ice that was emerging out of the ground behind him. Ragna leapt into the air, barely managing to dodge before Jin's third attack broke through his first; a barrage of arrow shaped icicles. The Grim Reaper desperately guarded as best as he could with his sword, but there were just too many and several of them cut through the Reaper's sides.

As Ragna landed Jin sent out a sub-zero Ars Magus splash of cold which he barely managed to guard against with a hastily created barrier. Ragna noticed that all of the attacks Jin was using was starting to have a strain on Jin's body, already it was starting to shudder in pain. As Ragna ran forward to take advantage of the opportunity, Jin created yet another ice sword to fly at the Reaper, but this one formed much too slow. Ragna smacked the partially formed projectile and sent it spinning at his brother before rushing forward with a darkness covered fist and sending Jin flying back.

"Guh!" Jin grunted as he rolled on the floor before slowly getting up. "Bro… ther…You…" he dropped Yukianesa and gripped his helmet in pain. "ARRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGG!"

'I have to end this now! Maybe if I can just destroy that armor!' Ragna thought to himself in desperation before rushing forward with Blood-Scythe drawn. Ragna roared as he swung his sword a Jin's face. He didn't even feel any resistance he destroyed the helmet and his brother's mask shattered to the ground around him. For a moment he thought that the worst was over… but then he saw his brother's face.

(End theme)

Horrible stitches covered Jin's entire face, like he'd been opened up experimented on and then half-assedly put back together. Bits of crystal were also emerging from over his face and one of the larger pieces appeared be impaled through his left temple. His skin was so pale Ragna had to remind himself that he was looking at his brother and not a ghost from his past. His eyes were both horribly bloodshot and it didn't appear that he could blink.

"Good god…" Ragna could barely say in his despair. "What the hell was Terumi trying to do to you?"

"Brother…" Jin said, the malice and bloodlust from earlier gone. "... Are you going to… kill me?"

"What? Jin what are you sayin'?"

"Look at me," Jin said as he observed his own hands in despair. "I'm a monster…" Tears started flowing down the young man's face. "Oh yeah, I cut your arm off too… and I let that demon kill our…" He gripped his hands in hopelessness and screamed. "How the hell am I supposed to go on like this?!"

Ragna said nothing as he looked at his brother. During his adventures when he thought about Jin he was always reminded of when he'd cut his arm and the beating he was going to give him when the two would finally meet, but now Jin was right in front of him looking like he'd been through far worse than he had. Ragna had lost his arm, his home, and his family, but at least he had his master and his friends to support him. Jin most likely didn't even have that much and had to go through hideous experiments.

"...Don't worry about," Ragna told his brother, shocking Jin. "Hey, I might not have the answers now, but you're going to be alright. I promise."

"But brother, how can you say that!? You know what I've done, what I look like! and in the Ikaruga Civil War I-!" Jin faltered. "Oh my god, I can still hear the screams!"

"So they made you part of that massacre…" Ragna said darkly, his rage growing. "Hey Jin," he put a comforting hand on his brother's shoulder. Jin looked at his brother with tear filled eyes. Ragna gave his brother an assuring smile. "Let's get you home."

Jin's eyes became even more filled with tears as he stared at Ragna. "Brother…" In that next instant Ragna was violently shoved away by his brother. At first Ragna thought that it was just a matter of Jin facing his demons…

...but then he watched his younger brother get impaled in his chest, more specifically where his heart was.

Ragna's eyes widened as he watched his brother painfully cough up blood. Before he could react the odd weapon retracted and blood sprayed everywhere, coating Ragna in his own brother's crimson liquid. Jin slowly fell to the floor, and Ragna could see him smiling; he'd saved Ragna's life.

"Jin!" Ragna screamed as he dropped Blood-Scythe and rushed forward to his downed brother and held him in his arms. He charged his BlazBlue and tried pouring energy into Jin, anything he could do to keep his younger brother alive. Not only did Jin's body not react, it looked like his body was rejecting the vain attempt to heal him. Jin slowly reached up and touched Ragna's face with his left and he looked into his brother's eyes and spoke one last time.

"...Sorry… ragna… better... off… with… out...m...e..."

Then Jin's head slumped to the side, a blank and faraway look in his eyes as he let out his last breath… and died in his brother's arms.

"JIN!" Ragna cried in rage. "DAMN IT! WHY THE HELL DID YOU DIE FOR ME!? WHY!?'

(Cue UNDERTALE MEGALOVANIA)

"Aww… does little Raggy wanna cry? Does he? 'Course he does. Go on, CRY FOR ME!"

Ragna recognized that voice. He slowly put his brother on the ground and looked to where the attack had come from and saw the man responsible for everything. Losing his right arm, his traumatizing fear of ghost, the death of the woman taking care of him and the abduction of Saya… and now the slaughter of his own brother.

"So… how's the right arm treating you?" the man asked with a shit eating grin as he lifted his hat slightly to look at Ragna with his yellow eyes. "Oh right, I kind of butchered it… just like your little brother there." The man shrugged with a smile and held his hands out to his with the palms facing up and began to sing. "It's a small world after all~"

"TERUMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!" Ragna shouted with indescribable rage as he grabbed his sword off the ground and rushed towards the green haired man. The murderer merely smiled as he grabbed a set of knives out of his pocket and threw them at Ragna. The Reaper managed to block the attack as he approached Terumi and swung his blade with the intent of taking the green man's head off.

Terumi simply smiled as he leaned back and dodged the blade by a hair's breath. When Ragna brought the blade back for a second strike, he jumped back to avoid it with ease. "Yep, Terumi! That's my name… well when I'm not going by Hazama, but you know; too much trouble to remember every name." Ragna brought his sword down in another powerful arc and the ground where Terumi had been standing mere moments before became horribly cracked. The mad man then tapped his chin, faking deep thought. "What was the name of the guy I just killed again? Jack? Jasper? ...Ringo?"

"SHUT UP!" Ragna roared as he flew forward with another Hell's Fang attack, but Hazama's arm shot out and caught the fist easily. "What the-!?" Ragna started in surprise before grunting as he was pulled closer and kneed in the gut. As Ragna lurched, Hazama coated his foot in green energy and brought into upon Ragna's head with enough force to slam his body to the floor. The Grim Reaper tried to get off the ground, but Terumi's foot planted on his head held him painfully in place. Terumi gave a small maniacal giggle before drop kicking Ragna's face with his other foot sending him flying back. Ragna coughed up blood after he was imbedded in the wall for the second time.

"Whoa there tiger!" Hazama said with his usual shit-eating charm. "You keep acting like that and I actually might have to start fighting more seriously. I mean, c'mon what was the big deal anyways? So I killed your brother, hell he was going to kill you anyways! I mean did you LOOK at that monster!? Hideous!" Ragna was shaking with both rage and pain as he slowly made his way out of the wall's crevice and fell to the floor. "And that Murakumo unit? Pfft, I HAD to off her; oh Ragna this, oh Ragna that… IT WAS HELL TO WATCH DAMNIT! DO YOU UNDERSTAND HOW ANNOYING THAT GETS!" Hazama took a deep breath as he readjusted his hat. "But that's beside the point, I thought you'd thank me for being able to watch a little reverse of roles C'mon, be a sport and say-"

"I'LL MURDER YOU!" Ragna shouted as he lunged with Blood-Scythe again.

"I wanted to say 'thank you',' Hazama said in fake sorrow while he feigned wiping tears away. The Intelligence Captain nimbly dodged the attack and spun to get to behind Ragna, kicking the Grim Reaper in the back and sending him forward a few feet. "Aw you're way too predic-!"

He hadn't seen Ragna pull out his Ars Magus shotgun as he'd been kick away, so the sudden buckshot came as a surprise to him. He managed to avoid being hit by the actual blast, but his hat got a few holes in it as a result and was knocked off his head.

"YOU KILLED MY HAT!" Hazama roared as he sent an Ouroboros chain at Ragna. The Grim Reaper tried blasting the attack with his shotgun, but it didn't even slow down the attack. He then deflected the attack with his sword, but head kept coming for it. Ragna managed to succeed in bringing his blade down on the head and disrupted the attack, but then Terumi created a second flung it at Ragna, cutting across his chest and drawing a steady stream of blood. Ragna tried to cut into the second chain, but Terumi reacted his weapon and let it float around him.

"C'mon you shit head puppy," Hazama said with poison as his hair started to lose its slicked back look and began standing up. "MAKE. MY. DAY."

"I'm gonna end you, right here and now!" Ragna shouted as he charged at his tormentor. Hazama responded in kind by sending another chain at Ragna. The Reaper responded by knocking the attack away and charging straight towards his opponent. Hazama stood emotionlessly as Ragna leapt into the air with Blood-Scythe transforming into scythe mode. Terumi could strike him through the heart for a he cared, he was going to cut him in half if it killed him.

"Really? That's your best?" Hazama asked shaking his head as he flicked a hand that was glowing with green Ars magus. As Ragna got closer he saw Hazama's so called shield; his own brother's body, again impaled by an Ouroboros chain. His eyes grew wide and his blade's decent slowed. Behind the body Terumi smirked. "Idiot," then kicking the body into Ragna, attacking him with his own brother's body.

Ragna was unable to react with Jin slammed up himself, leaving him wide open. "SERPENT'S INFERNAL RAPTURE!" Despite the initial contact going through Jin's back, Ragna's gut felt the full force of the kick and was sent flying into the ceiling. "Not done yet little Raggy!" He sent a chain at Ragna which slashed against the Reaper again. "HUNGRY COILS!" Ragna was grabbed out of mid air by a second chain and sent flying through air as whipped him back into a wall. He grunted and painfully coughed up blood before slowly sliding down the wall to the ground. His entire body burned as he slowly tried to prop himself up from the wall with little result.

'D-damn it…' Ragna groaned to himself. 'I've gotta beat him I've got to…' his thoughts stopped as he cried out in pain. Hazama had impaled his knives into Ragna's torso, drawing even more blood from the Reaper. Ragna couldn't move as Terumi created long jade spikes using his Ars magus and impaled them in the Reaper's torso, effectively pinning him to the wall causing Ragna to scream in pain.

End Theme

"BOR-RING!" Terumi cheered loudly as he gave Ragna a thumbs down. "Aw man Raggy, you really know how to kill a good mood. Didn't Hakumen teach you anything?" Ragna could only grit his teeth as he stared at Terumi in hatred, unable to speak. "Kinda curious why you didn't try and go all Azure on me… wait did ol' Haku tell you about S.O.L.? And I mean my BlazBlue code by the way, not the description of your entire life."

"Sh-shuddup…" Ragna growled as best he could. "I'll…"

"You'll what?" Hazama said with a grin has got right in Ragna's face. "C'mon puppy, what do you want to do to your uncle Hazzy?"

Ragna didn't really know when to quit, when to keep quiet, when not to do things that would likely get him killed. He didn't care. Spitting his own blood in the bastard's face felt amazing, especially when being flinched away. If Ragna wasn't in constant pain he might've chuckle before slapped in the head with enough force that it would've taken a lesser man's head off.

"Rude little turd…" Hazama grumbled before sending out an Ouroboros chain and grabbing his hat back with one hand while wiping the blood off his face with another. He held his favorite fashion statement in his hands for a moment, observing the holes Ragna had put in it. "Well I guess you can be proud that you managed to hit to piece of fabric on top of my head. It is progress…" There was a jade green glow around the hat as it was repaired by Ars Magus, the hole disappearing before Ragna's eyes. "Presto! Progress gone."

Hazama smirked and put the hat back on his head as Ragna stared at him with gritted teeth. "You… sadistic… bastard…" he said before coughing.

"Oh save the drama for latter Raggy, that's not going to kill you," Hazama said before using the Ouroboros chain once again, this time using it to retrieve Jin's katana blade and bring it to his hand. "This, however, might!" he shouted as he raised the blade.

Ragna grimaced as he shut his eyes and waited for the final blow to take his life and finally end it. 'Damn it… I finally make it to your shit fest Terumi… but it's not enough… I got my little brother killed… guess this is it…' He heard the blade cut through the air and flinched, but the final blow never came. He slowly opened his eyes and saw the sadist overlooking him with an evil smile.

"PSYCHE!" Hazama shouted before smashing the katana hilt into Ragna's throat. Ragna lurched forward and started choking on his own breath. "I'm not going to kill you idiot!? I'm having way too much fun for that!" Terumi stabbed the sword into the ground between the two. "I'll let you keep this as a little reminder: I LET YOU LIVE." Ragna's rage was overflowing as Hazama rolled his sleeve back to check his watch. "Love to stay and chat more Rags, but I'm afraid I've got to get going. Big plans coming up, big plans. Hope you'll be there to see." Ragna gritted his teeth and tried with all of his might to get up or activate his BlazBlue, but with the stakes still impaled in him and his body drained of any energy, it was impossible. "Aw, you want to come with me? That is just adorable, but I'm afraid I have to leave you here. But don't worry, you'll have company. Think of it as… my Christmas gift to you."

The following events I can't describe to you, but the end result was absolutely hellish. As the madman finally vanished from Ragna's sight with sickening laughter, he could only stare in front of him, at his brother's mutilated figure impaled to a pillar by the same jade green spikes holding him down, his eye remaining unshut as his limp head rest on his shoulder and looked at Ragna… but the worst part with the two spikes that Hazama had impaled into his cheeks, forcing him into a demonic smile.

Ragna's screams echoed throughout the entire underground, but these agonizing yells couldn't scratch the surface of the rage and pain he felt inside his soul.

Takamagahara

"This is far outside our original parameters, much too far," TA said to his colleagues. "I had expected some change when the white Susanooh decided to train Ragna the Bloodedge instead of outright slay him, but Yuki Terumi's activity is much more vicious than before."

"Indeed," TC agreed. "Directly confronting Ragna the Bloodedge this early on was only given a 14% chance of occurrence, but actually fighting the Grim Reaper to this degree was less than one percent. It may be possible that we could be dealing with a Terumi that is not the same as the one in the original timeline."

"Or he could have knowledge of that timeline," TB noted. "Though the gift itself seems strange, all of the memories; ours, Rachel Alucard's, the Six Hero's, and assumedly Terumi's, they only exist to the point of the calamity trigger, to this point… We should be cautious though, no doubt Terumi has something planned."

"Agreed, which is why I've constantly observed the snake's actions. His plans seem to have-" TA was cut off in surprise. "Unthinkable! What's he trying to accomplish?!"

"He's attempting to enter by force? Shouldn't he realize the foolishness of such endeavors, our defenses are leagues above what he could ever be capable of."

As soon as TC finished speaking, space itself between the chairs began to crack as the intruder quickly overwhelmed the defenses. The entire area of nothingness began to rumble as the cracks increased.

"This is impossible!" TB shouted before space itself shattered.

"HEEEEEEEERE'S TERUMI!" the black and green spectral being shouted from the center of the circle.

"How the hell did you get in here!?" TA demanded. If anything, the ghost's smiles on seemed to get bigger.

"What, no offer to take my coat (though I don't actually have it now)? No offer for drinks? No 'hey Terumi, sorry for screwing with you so much. Please forgive us, I don't want to die?' Yeesh, you guys are dull… Anyways I got in the best way, through the front door."

"It should have been impossible for you to break through our defenses!" TB yelled.

"Aw, 'Silly Takamagahara, Impossible's for morons!' I've got magic on my side and… well let's just say that little Raggy played a BIG part in getting me here. Honestly, I don't know just HOW I'm going to thank him… Maybe I'll off that little bloodsucker and force him to look at her corpse for a few years."

"How are you suggesting you got here?" TC asked coolly with her more automated nature.

"Looks like someone's not keeping up!" Terumi laughed. "Raggy's hatred is what's keeping yours truly in this world of endless possible bullshit! The more hatred, the easier I exist, the more power I get! Don't you get it? I don't need you or Kusanagi observing me to exist anymore, now all I need is HIM TO HATE ME!"

"But that couldn't have brought you here," TC denied. "The level of hatred you'd have to receive are impossible for any individual to-" She was cut off with Terumi's laughter.

"DID YOU REALLY THINK I MURDERED HIS OWN BROTHER IN FRONT OF HIM JUST FOR THE FUN OF IT!?" Terumi shouted at the top of his lungs. "Well… it was fun, not gonna deny it, but I always have another objective to it. That's the problem with you asshats in your seats, you're never willing think creatively. Plus, you don't know human emotions. I know them inside in out, I know exactly which buttons to press to get what I want."

Terumi's raised his arms as Phantom teleported in above him. "AND WHAT I WANT NOW IS FOR YOU ALL TO GO TO HELL!" Phantom's purple spell coated the entire room, and when it was gone the shadows had disappeared. Terumi laughed for himself. "Don't worry, I'll take GOOOOOOD care of everything while you're gone! This pathetic lie of a world's going to burn to the ground and I'll be the one to start the fire!"

Terumi and Phantom vanished, leaving the three chairs standing by themselves. The end was approaching and Terumi's true designs were about to come into motion. The world was beginning to spiral into a new direction; towards such destruction that the Dark War would look little more than a child's game. And that's all this was to Terumi… just another game.

Calamity Trigger -END-

Author's Note: I don't own BlazBlue or the accompanying music. STAY TUNED FOR EPILOGUE AFTER THE AUTHOR'S NOTE!

Small FYI. I know that Megalovania wasn't in the List at the beginning, but I did include their just so I could throw a bit of a screwball.

And that ladies and gents is how I end a story ARC. This chapter took me a full two weeks to get out, so I hope it was worth it in the end. I wanted to focus on making this as good of a chapter as I could have instead of relying on getting it out first thing, so I took my time with this. Hope it shows, now time for the reviews.

Shadowedge27: A BB x DMC does sound appealing, but I've already got quite a few projects going.

Yuuki Terumi Ouroboros Master: Thanks for waiting, yeesh this chapter took a long time.

Animeandgamerlover2: I'll get to those stories soon, I promise. But as to how many girls? …I really don't know.

Blackace70: As a general tip, have Konoe be the main focus, but be sure you don't completely disregard the original cast. A large part of the story should be the interactions she has with others.

General ironox: Sorry, Ragna was a little too… pissed to do the intro.

Hudson Yang: I just do a few interesting concepts, let ARC do what they want.

Marconator360: Yeah, when Ragna has to explain himself he'll be in some hot water for sure.

Paladin9800: Well they TRIED… leave to Rachel to make things a little complicated.

Shirosaki Kizuro: I'm not sure if I'm going to have Haku at max, but he's certainly more powerful than he originally was.

It's been awesome writing this story for you guys! I'll see you around for the second Arc. Until then, Storm VII signing off!

Ciao!

A young redheaded woman walked the hallways of the NOL branch, passing by the occasional soldier who glanced at her before quickly looking away. She was already used to such actions, a life in the Zero Squadron almost guaranteed that her colleagues would fear her for the work she did. In fact if it wasn't for her position as one of the children of the Duodecim, she'd very likely been thrown insults or another form of scorn.

Eventually the young woman made it to the office she'd been asked to find. She steeled herself with a deep breath before knocking on the door.

"Captain Hazama, First Lieutenant Tsubaki Yayoi reporting. May I come in?" There was silence on the offer side, so Tsubaki waited for a moment before trying again. "Captain?"

The door opened revealing Hazama. "My apologizes miss Yayoi, I seem to have forgotten about the Ars Magus sound barriers I've had to put up to keep sound from going out of my office. Desperate times and all of that, but please come inside."

"Thank you," Tsubaki said politely as she entered.

"I'm sorry to have had to call you in on Christmas of all day, but this task is very crucial I'm afraid. No rest for the weary in the NOL I suppose," Hazama said laxly as he closed the door and walked back to his desk.

"If the threat is as important as you claimed in your message then the orders from the Imperator comes first. I can wait to spend the time I want with my family once her will is completed."

"Well then," Terumi said with a small smile. "I suppose I'll let you soldier on then." He picked up a yellow folder from his desk and dispelled the arms magus container around it. Now I should have you know that this order comes directly from the Imperator, even bearing her official seal. I should also let you know that certain… factions might not agree if they were to know that we were involved, so I'm going to have to ask you to be discrete in your mission."

"I understand," Tsubaki told him, internally wishing that Hazama would just get to the point and explain what was so important that she'd had to miss a dinner with her family. "And my mission?"

"First Lieutenant Tsubaki Yayoi," Hazama began with more authority as he read from the papers. "Your mission is to take place in the Thirteenth Hierarchical city of Kagutsuchi. Your objective is to locate and eliminate Ragna the Bloodedge."

"What?" Tsubaki asked with wide eyes. "I'm to eliminate the Grim Reaper?"

"Hey, that's what the orders say, I'm just the messenger remember?" Hazama defended. "Do you by chance know this bounty hunter personally?"

"I don't, but I've heard a lot about him from No- from two very close friends of mine."

"You don't say," Hazama said with uninterest. "Well that's unfortunate. I guess your first meeting with the man you've heard so much about will be your last."

"Captain…" Tsubaki started with uncertainty. "Why does the NOL care about this man's execution? Hasn't he aided the Library with some of the bounties he's hunted?"

"Well…" Hazama scanned over the documents in the folder before coming to one he wanted. "I suppose this should spell it out for you."

He handed the picture to Tsubaki, who took one look at it and had to fight back a horrified scream. There was Ragna the Bloodedge with his sword drawn as he appeared to be advancing toward her childhood friend who was like a brother to her, Jin Kisaragi. Jin's body was looked like it was horribly mutated and his eyes appeared to be in agony as his chest was erupting with blood.

"This picture's given us reason to believe that Ragna the Bloodedge is quite possibly be responsible for the ex-Major's disappearance after the Ikaruga Civil war. From what we can confirm it appears that Ragna's been responsible for both capturing the young major and torturing him for years. It also seems that Kisaragi managed to eventually escape his captor and fled to Kagutsuchi, but it seems as though Ragna managed to catch up with his victim and um… silence him. He may also be responsible for the string of Branch destructions up to this point, but…" Hazama noticed Tsubaki was only staring at the photo. "Are you alright Miss Yayoi?"

"I-I'm fine," Tsubaki stuttered trying to contain herself as she handed to the picture back to the Intelligence Department Captain. "I'll depart immediately."

"Very well then, and good luck Lieutenant. Ragna's proven to be pretty formidable in the past. I hope you can appreciate that and not… lose your head." But Tsubaki didn't appear to have heard him as she left his office, almost seeming to be in a daze.

Outside the office, Tsubaki walked down the hallway. She tried to push the image she'd just seen out of her head, but she couldn't. After the Ikaruga Civil War had ended, she'd used any time she wasn't currently on a job to search for Jin, but now she'd gotten the news; he was dead and had been tortured for years. She tried to contain herself as she thought about prior memories, meeting each other as children and becoming friends, studying with each other at the academy, even being one of the few people that could actually get him to laugh… but then she remembered the picture; those days were gone and Jin with them. She couldn't hold back anymore; she let out a scream and began sobbing as she leaned against the wall and cried into her hands.

Back in his office, as Terumi heard all of this he gave an evil smile before chuckling. "Aw, looks like she's heartbroken. I almost feel bad for her... OH WHO THE HELL AM I KIDDING!? I LOVE MY JOB! HeheheheheHEHEHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

NEXT ARC: The Rise of the Grim Reaper