Chapter 28: The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste

The skirmish between Plagueis and Gabriel and Saturn hadn't gone far from where it had started. The two Aurians had him surrounded on both sides so he wouldn't be able to sneak away into the busier part of town.

Plagueis swerved around, eyeing the two with his hands wiggling menacingly beneath his sleeves. Gabriel moved in slowly while Saturn had a hand in her pocket.

The samurai waited until his foe's eyes were on his ally and then moved in to strike. One swift slice towards the head was evaded by the enemy treating his blade like a limbo bar and wiggling away towards the right.

But that is where Saturn had stuck a motion sensor bomb. The moment it started clicking it counted down quickly to zero, giving the worm little time to scurry forward out of the way before he wound up a slice of germ toast.

From there he ducked under another of Gabriel's swings and slowed down a fair distance away from his foes. Hunched over, he seemed to be smiling under his own shadow.

"Yes yes I'm beginning to get a sense of how you two function. Your bloodtypes, your health, even how much you sweat..." With the way he wiggled around in joy it made Saturn not want to eat gelatin for a while after this.

"Hehehe!" She propped up her glasses to give them the old shine and her lips quivered into a fine smirk, if she did say so herself, "You think you've figured us out but that's not gonna help you, because I'VE figured YOU out!"

Plagueis went completely still and chuckled, "A battle of the minds is it then? Silly little phlegm...I am always ten steps ahead of-"

He suddenly jerked upright and both Gabriel and Saturn flinched. There was a huge spike in power in the distance, and then it, along with the ill feeling in the air, simply vanished entirely.

"N-Nooooo...!" Plagueis gurgled, trying, struggling, to be anything more than quiet about this.

Saturn turned to the right and saw a dome of aura in the distance disappear, "Oh! Looks like the fight over there went swimmingly!"

"Lady Auris..." Gabriel breathed a sigh of relief, a reprieve short lived, as it was disturbed by the sound of Plagueis' bashing his head back and forth against the ground.

"GAAAAAH! First the castle, then Kahnihilator, and now Ankhan'tur?!" He wrenched his body upright and looked like his body would pop right out of his coat any second, "Impossible impossible! How could you short-lived beasts possibly have bested the Terror of Decay?!"

"Seems you don't understand us after all," Gabriel took a slight bit of pleasure in remarking, and brandished his sword at the enemy, "You can still retreat. You could feed your master your own fear as compensation for your failure."

"Don't you dare look down on me..." Plagueis seemed to take great offense to that, "Feed him...my fear? Feed him? Again...? Again...?! His appetite is insatiable! H-He'd drain me dry if I went back to him now!"

"Then it seems you only have one choice." Gabriel retorted with a wily smirk.

Saturn crossed her arms and proclaimed, "Time to admit defeat and let us strike you down! Don't worry, we'll try to make it quick and flashy."

"Oh spare me the droll heroics..." Plagueis stood fully upright and wiggled the fear from his body, "I will not stop until this whole city screams. And yours...will be the biggest of them all."

Gabriel put his blade in the sheath and bent down slightly with one eye closed, "There'll be no trickery from you. Farewell."

He unsheathed his blade in the blink of an eye and a slash of pure air flew at his foe. The coated man was suddenly grazing the side of the attack, and chuckling as Gabriel looked mildly surprised.

"There is no tricks at play here, my power is a natural part of me..." He then zipped forward and tried forcing his needles into Gabriel's face. The samurai couldn't believe that he almost failed to block him with his katana.

"For you see, much like a germ..." A slimy drool ushered out onto his collar, "I adapt."

Meanwhile, Kairi continued to sprint throughout the streets in pursuit of any monsters she could find. The numbers were thinning but that didn't mean anything. She had to keep her senses sharp, but all this running she wasn't used to doing was beginning to tire her out.

"Just don't think about the sweat" and "Ignore the leg cramps" were repeating in her head to keep her going. And getting distracted about that familiar energy source wasn't doing her any favors either.

"That...that was mom's aura. First I sensed Venus, then something...terrible...now I don't sense anyone at all," Kairi frowned, "I-I'm sure everything's fine but...maybe I should go over there. Venus...she's just a child, she shouldn't be fighting-"

Three gargoyles crash landed in front of her and she dug her heels down to stop momentarily. She didn't need this right now.

"Grrr...! Out of my way!" She swung her staff back with a tight grip and then thrust forward, crushing through the midsection of two gargoyles. The last one grabbed it at the tip and held it back.

It then took its spear and aimed it at her face. Kairi fiercely opened her eyes and put all her strength towards forcing her staff out of its grip.

"Yo, heads up!" Jupiter's voice suddenly rang out a warning perhaps a second too late, leaving Kairi nearly losing her head to a thrown bat monster.

The gargoyle's waist and chest were lost and the rest might as well be stone dust in the wind. Though for good measure, Jupiter dropped down and smashed its head under both feet.

Kairi hopped away coughing a few times, while Jupiter clapped her hands together and proudly proclaimed, "And that makes 400!"

"Ha...ha..." Kairi took a moment to catch her breath while Jupiter pumped her fist in celebration. Mars could be seen hopping along the rooftops close by, masterfully evading the onslaught of a dozen monsters and picking off each one as he could.

"Well Mr. Desert Wind? How many have you gotten?!" Jupiter hollered.

Mars flipped forward and whipped his nunchucks through half a dozen monsters like a sawblade. When he landed he bounded back on one foot and replied, "400, after I take these guys out."

He zipped away from one of the bat monsters' claw strikes and then struck it hard in the head. Jupiter clicked her tongue and grunted once in irritation. She then looked over her shoulder and cocked a smile.

"Hey Kairi, think you could slow down a bit for me?"

"...W...wuh...?"

"Ah never mind," Jupiter waved her hand back then crunched her fists together, "Guess I just gotta work faster!"

"The city's swarming with monsters and you're...competing for points?" Kairi hung her head with a heavy sigh, "Where do you get that much confidence from?"

"Eh, it comes with experience," Was the short and simple answer, "By the way I was trying to warn you earlier...There's some unique looking monsters out there, probably a little tougher than the rest."

"Yeah...I think Venus and my mom were fighting one?"

"Was that what that was? Shoot, that could've been an extra ten points!"

Kairi stared at her with a totally blank look.

"Anyways, just giving the heads-up! If you run into any of them, save 'em for me!" Then she leaped off to shoulder tackle a bat monster right out of Sancturia.

"...I got a break, so why do I feel even more exhausted now?" Kairi took one last breath and then ran ahead through the streets.

She saw a few other Aurians, primarily the adults, combating the monsters too. A lack of corpses or even blood helped keep her thinking straight. Jupiter and Mars worked tirelessly in the distance.

"We can make it through this...this time, without Mew's help..." A burst of determination picked up her speed and carried her forward, where she took down a few wolves hounding some children.

"Get back inside!" She told them before continuing on her way.

Around the corner she saw a few more Aurians standing together and fighting...another Aurian? Or so it appeared. The one attacking looked like his weapon was being pulled together the others without him putting up any resistance.

And when one of the ones on defense raised their weapon, their arm was suddenly pulled down and they got cut in the face by their fellow man's blade.

"What's going on?" Kairi hurried to investigate.

Right as the assailant's blade thrust towards their friends' chest, Kairi tackled them with her shoulder and sent them careening towards the ground, dislodging the blade from their hand.

"Sorry about that!" She said as she stopped and faced ahead.

"Y-You came just in time...! This thing...!"

The Aurian's warning fell on deaf ears as Kairi widened her eyes immensely at the sight of...a giant rubik's cube floating in the air. It bobbed around with a pulsating, psychedelic aura colored like ivory.

"What the HELL is that?!" She exclaimed.

"01000011 01101111 01101110 01110100 01110010 01101111 01101100" Appeared over the cube's "face" multiple times.

"W-We don't know! We tried attacking it but the next thing we knew our arms and legs weren't working right!" The Aurian behind her remarked.

She looked over to the Aurian she knocked down and murmured, "I can see that."

She gripped her staff tightly and hollered back, "Well?! Don't stand around! Get out of here and let me handle this!"

"Go right ahead! I ain't dying to a fucking rubik's cube!" That same Aurian ran away without hesitation, and the others soon followed.

A part of Kairi wanted to call them chickens, but honestly, it was hard to blame them. With a calm sigh she looked to this strange cube and hunched down in a fighting pose.

"Sounds like you're not much of a talker," She went for her Angel Drive and confidently proclaimed, "Which is fine by me!"

The cube's left side turned down and Kairi's arm pulled away from the bracelet and before her waist, dragging the rest of her body down with it.

"Whoa what?!" Kairi tried to pull herself back up but the cube then turned its left side up and her hand flew up into the bottom of her chin, forcing her teeth together.

"Kch...! So that's what was going on!" Kairi hopped away, imagining that the cube had a range of influence. But right before she landed the cube's bottom section rotated left, and her right leg swung that way and made her lose balance when she landed.

"Ooof!" She puffed upon hitting her back. And then she rushed upright, only for the cube to swing in the other direction and make her trip up again.

"Ok you know what?!" She slapped her Angel Drive mid-fall and the explosion of light aura during her transformation kept her from hitting the ground.

She then floated upright and rushed the cube as a streak of light. Thus, the cube started moving even faster, turning its middle segment to the right as Kairi swung her staff.

Kairi's waist turned that way and her staff blew right past the cube entirely. The middle segment then swung left and forced her waist the other way, which was a real twisting blow to her insides.

"Guh...!"

The face of the cube twisted upside-down and Kairi flipped around. Everything was happening so fast that her attempt to descend resulted in her smashing her head against the ground and collapsing on her back yet again.

She flared her eyes open and internally declared in frustration, "Am I being ragdolled by a damn cube?!"

"No," She closed her eyes and tried to relax, "No. Don't lose focus. Just breathe, and..."

She slowly lifted herself up and the cube moved its vertical midsection downward. Kairi's head was thus swiftly pulled down between her legs.

"...GRRR!" She stood up with a burst of speed and whipped around with a dangerous amount of aura prepped to explode in her staff.

Hitting the cube as hard as she could set off a bright burst bigger than it, pushing it a dozen feet away.

"01101111 01110111" Appeared over its body.

She then summoned blades of light and rammed them into the cube's body, refilling them as they broke. The cube then turned its upper segment to the right and Kairi found her head twisted that way, breaking her concentration.

The cube moved left, and the sheer whiplash of Kairi's neck was killer on her spine and gave her a headache. She grit her teeth and tried turning to leap, the cube made her trip over herself again.

Seeing as this was about the fourth time now that had happened, maybe it was time to try something else. As Kairi attempted to stand, the cube twisted its right side up and made her hit her jaw with her staff.

"I can barely get a hit on this thing!" After besting Gravitus and holding her own against Justek, would she really have to bust out the Neo Drive to beat something barely stronger than a mook?!

"Come on Kairi, you can do better than this," She could hear Mew's voice in her head and he was being nonchalant about the situation as always, "Remember what I taught you? Victory's not always about being stronger than your opponent."

The message wasn't the same as she remembered it but it was close enough. But what she didn't know is why she used his voice to remind herself of that.

"Ugh, he's right..." She bemoaned, "Let me think...Different body parts are affected by the way the cube moves. As long as it can hit my head I can't concentrate on attacking it."

"..." Thus, there was an alternative, "But if I used an attack that didn't require my concentration..."

While the cube seemed to not be paying attention, Kairi quickly tapped her Beast Tamer Drive and used its power to create a large falcon.

The cube turned itself to slam her elbow against the ground, where she heard a crack in her bones. She grit her teeth and exclaimed, "GO!"

The falcon screeched and rammed itself against the cube. The cube twisted itself in various directions but the falcon continued to strike away unimpeded.

"Knew it! It can't affect anything without a mind!" And in the cube's confusion, Kairi safely got up and cracked a cocky smirk.

"Hehehe! Gotcha now!" She took her staff into its whip form and started wildly flailing at it with all her strength. Between the many lashes and the falcon's talons strikes, the cube was quickly getting overwhelmed.

Its aura fired out in spurts and its body jerked around, moving further away slowly. Kairi recalled her bird to her side and pumped her fist near her chest.

"Real-life rubik's cube are enough of a pain as is! Go down!"

The cube's sides started twisting around rapidly at randomly. In a matter of seconds its "puzzle" was finished, upon which it went completely still and one set of numbers appeared all over its body in blood red.

"01001101 01110101 01110010 01100100 01100101 01110010"

All its smaller cubes shrunk and pushed away from the main body. Kairi felt an unease in her gut as the atmosphere around her starting revolting against itself, twisting itself in both shape and colors around where the cube once was.

What was left behind was a void that appeared to exist both two-dimensionally and three-dimensionally and the same time. With its presence alone the world reshaped into a nightmarish realm of garish greens, yellow, and purples.

Did it move? Or was it moving the world?

Looking at it induces seizures.

What does it exist to do?

Kairi tried to close her eyes but was refused the chance to do so. The warping edged closer, screaming incoherent babble so quickly that all she heard was a long, high-pitched sound.

"A...AHHH!" She found herself screaming. Right? That was her scream? Yes, of course. You're not insane.

She could smell her own head cracking open. Mmmm, beautiful gray matter. Want a taste? There'll be plenty to share with your 12 sisters.

You're so fucked up.

An embrace of arms should treat you well, should you accept it.

Yes

Yes

Let it wrap around your neck, and wring all those bad thoughts free. Nice...and slowly.

Seek a door with a /9/.

"Get your grubby self outta my sister's head right now!"

The warped figure received a blast to itself and Kairi suddenly gasped out loudly, begging for air. She gripped her neck and breathed in and out, as someone walked up beside her.

It was Shina, wearing her Gunslinger Drive and pointing a one-handed shotgun straight ahead.

"S-Shina? Are you...r-real?"

She flicked a smile towards her and said, "Of course! Why'd you even ask such a silly question?!"

"Wha...D-Does she not see what's going on here?"

Shina pointed her gun back at the warp and it started twisting the world violently around itself. Kairi bit her teeth down and exclaimed, "G-Get outta here!"

Shina arched her brows and didn't budge as the warp put its best foot forward and assailed her with its twistedness. Shina flashed a smirk, then blasted the warp again with a harder blast. The warp stretched out in recoil.

"Sorry to disappoint ya, but if that's yer best," She held up her other arm and created two SMGs, "It doesn't compare to the worst I've dealt with!"

She repeatedly bombarded the warp with hundreds upon hundreds of bullets as Kairi stood by dropping her jaw in awe.

Shina then dropped her guns and slapped her Valkyrie Drive, using her freed hands to grip the holy sword tight before her waist.

"C'mon sis, lets hit 'em with a tag-team strike!"

Kairi picked up her jaw and shook her head, then gave a firm nod and touched her Angel Drive, hopping on up beside her sister.

"You got it!"

By then all the bullets had finished blowing up on the warp. Now they faced they wrath of two sisters attacking in unison. They widened their eyes with weapons drawn back, then passed each other while delivering a diagonal attack through the warp.

"Sisterly Divine Heaven's Strike!" Shina exclaimed as somewhere, Saturn shed a tear of joy.

The slanted holy cross ripped through the warp and caused it to spasm out of control. With one last low-pitched screech, it disintegrated into nothingness, returning the perception of reality back to normal.

Shina turned and gave her fallen foe a thumbs-up while lugging her sword over her back, "Hehehe! Shoulda known better than to tangle with the terrible twosome!"

Kairi bonked her on the head and she recoiled with a mutter of "Owie!" As she rubbed her head she asked, "What the heck's that for sis?"

"What the hell are you thinking?! There's monsters everywhere!" Kairi proclaimed with red, frustrated cheeks.

"Uhhhh, isn't that exactly why I oughta be out an about?" Shina said, innocently whistling to herself.

"And your BABY?!" Kairi flailed her arms down at Shina's stomach and she looked down with only a mild hint of shame.

"Ha...hahaha...I-I mean I saved your life so couldn't you cut me some slack?"

"I didn't..." Kairi tried moving closer but her eyes started looking hazed over and her body collapsed right into Shina's arms.

"Oof! Gotcha sis!" She said with a giggle.

Kairi grabbed Shina's arms and tried to prop herself back up, "I...I got to keep going..."

"Nuh-uh!" Shina firmly shook her head, "That strange monster really took a lot outta ya. I think its time you relaxed sis."

"But-"

"No buts!" Shina barked with a pleasant tone and patted her sis on the back, "Your friends are handling things just fine."

Suddenly, Kairi was hoisted up in a bridal carry position on her sister's arms, her cheeks becoming rosy red in the process.

"C'mon, let your big sis take care of ya. When you wake up in the morning, the world'll still be around!"

There wasn't really any point in objecting when she didn't even have the strength to move. She gave one quiet groan, then settled back into her sister's arms as she walked through the streets, with monsters being punched through the air above them by Jupiter and Mars.

"I just hope Mew's not in any danger..."She mumbled aloud.

"Him? Nah, he's probably doing just fine!"

Mew's House...

Mew was stuck in the mountainside bleeding from cuts in his chest. His expression was flat out of amusement to share.

"..." He looked to the right and saw Lunis enduring the brunt of her brother's rampage. But as it turns out small knives weren't very good at holding back a giant sword no matter how sharp they are.

Then Joe Dark was out there missing that weird pale-faced girl completely, and was doing some weird flinching like he had a rat in his clothes.

Grimmley soon hopped on top of him, breathing down with his sick, bloodthirsty vapor breath, and chuckled.

"Where is your confidence now, little Overlord?"

Mew raised his shoulders and sighed, "When this is over, I'm really gonna chew Joe out for this..."

Grimmley took a stab at Mew's chest but he sped out of the impact crater and kicked the werewolf into it from behind. On the hop back he grabbed his katana and tried to slash him too.

Grimmley flipped around hunched on all fours and lunged straight into Mew's blade to bite down on it. Then he tried jabbing his knives into Mew's open wounds.

Mew swung him off towards the other mountainside and glided away, taking the opportunity to gather energy and deliver a few swift slashes at the werewolf.

The werewolf timed his leaps to slip under them and edge closer, where he lunged up at Mew's legs. Mew waited until the last second to punt his foe in the jaw.

Grimmley flipped safely onto his hind legs and Mew dropped to the ground straight ahead of him.

Grimmley rubbed his smiling jaw and guffawed, "Hahaha...Why do you restrain yourself in chains?"

Mew arched his brows and rolled his eyes, "Oh boy what's he gonna say now?"

"I can sense your fighting spirit. It burns inside, but you keep it dull like an ember..." Grimmley wagged his knives up towards his face, "Does your lust for battle...scare you?"

Mew grimaced, which did not go unnoticed.

"Hehe...Peace is dull. We can only derive pleasure from constant battle," Grimmley hung his bloody knives up, boasting the many lives they have taken in his name, "Don't consider this a mercy call. I will kill you no matter what. But you should stop lying to yourself, and accept the beast within...!"

Mew closed his eyes and breathed a long, heavy sigh, "I could give in to my bloodlust..."

He opened his eyes with a fierce, yet somehow calm glare, "But I won't. And that difference is what makes me stronger than you."

Grimmley dropped his claws to the ground and shook his head, "Humanity always finds a way to disappoint me. Your kind is only useful for sport!"

He lunged straight at Mew and drove his claws down upon his left shoulder. As the flesh was breached Mew raised his katana to keep it from going further.

"Tsk...!" Mew struggled through the pain to close his eyes and try to relax himself. Taking a slow breath, he could feel his strength growing just enough to start pushing the werewolf's knives up.

With one powerful shove he knocked Grimmley on his back and then forced a hand over the scars on his shoulder.

"Come on then..." Mew flashed a wild grin, "I'll make this the greatest game of your life!"

Meanwhile, Joe Dark darted at Alura only to run into a phantom. The "real" Alura floated off the right with her hand limply raised.

His movements were stalled by an entanglement of bright rosy thorns enveloping his body. Of course they weren't real, but his mind didn't want to agree with his body on that. He struggled, grunting with heavy exertion, but the binds would not break.

Alura coldly tossed a couple of her spears into his body and they "impaled" through his gut. He bit his teeth down and a sudden burst of adrenaline gave him the extra strength to break through the thorns with dark energy.

He held an arm over the invisible wound in his gut and flared his eyes open while charging at Alura with a punch. She vanished again, but this time he turned around and fired a dark blast where she appeared again.

But it didn't matter. She wasn't real, again. Joe curled his fist and flipped back around, finding her floating loftily in the air with no trace of feeling in her eyes.

"Quit running already." He muttered with disdain.

"You know a lot about running away, Joe Dark." She responded, her words a literal stab to Joe Dark's heart.

"Ghhh...!" He clutched his chest, squeezing his fist, and filling it with darkness.

"If I hit you, you will die." He warned, softening his words as best he could.

"You'll never hit me," Alura stated with confidence unbecoming of her demure stature, "You shall wander my labyrinth until you fall, Joe Dark."

"Tsk...! You'd take the risk of dying over answering my damn question?!" He exclaimed through gritted teeth.

"I do what father requires of me." She replied stoically.

He swung his head towards Dracula postured smugly by his lonesome and glared at him in utter disdain, "No father should demand that of their child...!"

He then looked back at the pale-faced girl. In response, she threw another "spear" towards him. He caught it out of the air beside his face and crushed it without hesitation. Alura's face visibly flinched.

"My body is in agony...My mind feels like its on fire..." Joe Dark grit his teeth until his whole body was left trembling, and the darkness expunged from his fist, "I-I shouldn't give a damn what happens to this girl but...But..."

He closed his mouth and swallowed slowly. Those lost, wandering eyes the girl stared at him with...He couldn't get them out of his head.

"Must I save her...if I'm to ever save myself?" He looked her straight in those "same" eyes and held his palm out, "I will escape your labyrinth...And drag you out of yours too!"

It was incredible that anyone could hear each other speak when Solaris was smashing apart the ground with eruptions in his attempt to strike Lunis.

Lunis hesitated to back off. Never before had she seen her brother's deranged, bloodthirsty look from her own perspective. And it was terrifying. He shot a smirk through the towering flames and the hot crimson heat gave his face extra malice, and made his teeth look jagged and unclean.

With every push closer Solaris laughed louder and louder, his voice sounding not from his lungs, but from the crackling of hellfire around him.

"Are you just going to keep running?!" He smashed the ground and flung hot ash towards his sister's face. She ran away, bumping her back into the barrier she had erected, eliciting a look of worry from her.

"Your friends can't save you now!" He gripped his blade in both hands and swung at her with all his strength. A wide swathe of fire ripped the whole barrier asunder, and sent her flying half a mile away into a higher part of the mountain range.

And he leaped right on over to meet her, stabbing his sword into the ground while hunch over like a gremlin, "No one can, sister..."

Lunis' knees were shaking from the raw power of her brother's wrath. She slowly crossed her arms below her face and gripped her knives tight.

"I...I don't need their help..." Tears were rolling down her firmed cheeks, and she arched her brows in a glare, "T-This is my fight brother...I'll stop you, and end our family's pain once and for all!"

Next Time: Children of the Stars