Happy Birthday to me! And a very happy un-birthday to all of you as well! It's been a very long time, but I'm finally here, and the action is really going to kick in!

For my birthday present to myself, I'm finally finishing this story! Every Monday, at an indeterminate time, I'll post a new chapter of The Citadel of the Onis until we're finished. Then, after that, I'll post a birthday PTA Undertale chapter, and then, I'll do something big, something I've been looking forward to doing for a while. It's not a story, but it involves all of the stories I've posted on this site! Get excited (please)!

I won't keep you waiting anymore. See you at the bottom of the page for notes and anything else that comes to my mind!


Chapter 11: Being Reunited


Surprisingly or unsurprisingly, the citadel was as blank and empty as all of the houses they'd entered in the town below. The hallway was round, and decently lit by the openings on the outer wall identical to the one they had entered; however, it seemed to be growing foggy outside. It was getting harder and harder to see the moat they had crossed.

Vet found that the emptiness irritated her, but less in an angry way and more in a "when is something going to jump out at us" way. The brave chatter had died down after Brittany and Casey's rousing call to action. This citadel… it seemed to drain sound and color from everything inside its walls. She was almost certain that her vision had gone monochrome.

Finally, they reached a double door; tall, rounded at the top, and made of something that wasn't quite wood, but not quite stone, either. Vet wondered if it was petrified wood.

"Well," Brittany's voice broke the silence, "I suppose that's the real entrance to the citadel." She pointed to the outer opening opposite the door. "We may very well have entered this place from the rear."

"How were we supposed to know?" The Artist grumbled. "They all look the same!"

"That doesn't matter now." Brittany slowly put her hand against the door, flinching just slightly. The Vet couldn't blame her. Given how boobytrapped their entire adventure into the Oni's dimension had been, she wouldn't have been surprised if the door was electrified. "We've found our entry point, and that's what matters." She turned to look over the group. "Anything could be beyond this door. Be prepared."

Everyone quickly began to ready their weapons. Vet held her pistol close, finger hovering just over the safety switch. Brittany took a deep breath, and Casey held her hand. They both reached for a handle of the double doors. They nodded, then began to pull them open. They revealed…

Nothing.

Another empty hallway, leading to a few black metal doors with barred windows on either side. Not a single sign that monsters lived in these walls.

Brittany breathed out slowly. "That was better than I thought."

Casey tentatively reached for the closest metal door, giving Brittany a look of certainty before pushing it open easily. "It's empty, it 'tis," she announced. "Can't quite put my finger on what it's supposed to be. It 'as to 'ave a purpose though, eh? I've got a feelin' it does…"

Brittany gestured for her to come out, and Vet peered in for herself. True to Casey's word, it was empty, but Vet couldn't help but agree: this room had to have a point to it. Considering that they were dealing with monsters, she supposed to could be something beyond her comprehension as a human being.

Dear Lord, what if there wasn't anything in this castle? The Author had been gone for two whole weeks; was she starving the whole time? Oh, was Vet going to have a few words with the woman that had taken her sister…

"Regardless of what the purpose of these rooms is," Brittany said, interrupting the Vet's thoughts, "it's entirely possible that there could be a clue in here somewhere." She peered through each door's window briefly before reaching the end of the hall. "There's another hall here," she announced. "It looks like there's a flight of stairs, as well. It might be best if we split up again."

The groups were made quickly, and everyone set off to explore. The Vet had been grouped with Brittany, Casey, the Artist, Damien, Alexandre, and a medical officer named Preston, who looked a lot like Poland. Lovino Vargas was also with them.

"Vet?" Vet blinked and saw Brittany looking in her direction. "Everything alright?"

Trying to look casual, Vet leaned close and asked quietly, "You know this kind of feels like a trap, right?"

Brittany paused, then nodded. "I agree, but I'm not sure what we'll find and when. At this point, the best we can do is stay with our groups and be prepared."

Vet wasn't sure she agreed entirely, but nodded anyway.

Brittany and Casey led their group and a few more groups up the stairs, which led to yet another hallway that seemed to circle around like the previous two, and yet another flight of stairs. Letting the rest of the groups descend upon this second-floor hallway, Vet's group headed up the next flight of stairs they came across.

The Vet finally noticed that the color pallet of this floor was different from the previous ones; a vaguely brown color now that sat at an ugly spot between gray and yellow. The metal doors—of which there seemed to be an infinite number—were still black with barred windows peeking in.

Casey pushed open another door and stepped inside. Lovino stood outside the room with Preston (for some reason, he refused to be alone with Alexandre), and the rest of the group went inside. To the Vet's surprise, there was something in this room, though she couldn't tell what it was. It looked vaguely like a black metal statue of a plant, with branches that lay flat in certain spots while reaching upward in other spots. It reminded her vaguely of an abstract art piece; something that could potentially have a function, but was mostly there to look different. It certainly got everyone's heads spinning with possibilities.

"Maybe it's a chair?" The Artist offered. She, Casey, and Alexandre were studying the object intently while Brittany, the Vet, and Damien scoured the rest of the room.

"Dunno," Casey replied, "'aven't seen an Oni small enough to fit 'ere… Maybe it's like a cat tree?"

"Ils seraient encore plus petits," Alexandre pointed out.

"Didn't understand a word a that, but you're probably right." Casey sighed regretfully.

"If you're quite finished, love," Brittany interrupted tiredly, "Damien, the Vet, and I have turned up empty handed. Again."

"This is taking forever!" Lovino grumped as they exited the room. "We've searched the entire hallway, and nothing's come up about my brother or the Author!"

"Yeah, he's got a point," Preston nodded. "If there are clues in this place, they wouldn't be that well-hidden, would they?

"Unless they were trying to stall us…" Brittany mused.

"Exactement," Alexandre piped up. Lovino shuddered.

Damien gave him a weird look. "Why are you so scared of Alexandre, again?"

"I don't trust the French," Lovino stated matter-of-factly.

Alexandre rolled his eyes. "T'es débile."

"He insulted me; I just know it—"

"Enough." Brittany rubbed her temples. "You've all brought up a valuable point, though. These empty rooms may be a distraction. We'll stop trying to remove every brick to look for something, but keep your eyes sharp!"

They speed walked down the hall to the next set of stairs, with Lovino keeping a distance from Alexandre, who stuck his tongue out at the country whenever he wasn't looking.

Vet would have honestly liked to enjoy the little shenanigans in her group, but her nerves were getting more and more antsy.

"She'll be fine," the Artist whispered. Vet turned to ask her why she was whispering, but saw that the Artist seemed to be talking to herself. At least she wasn't the only one deathly afraid for her sister's wellbeing.

The next floor was almost a head rush with how different it was.

"We might be close," Brittany said as they looked down the rough black bricked hallway. The doors seemed to blend into the walls, resulting in them almost skipping a few rooms. The purpose of these rooms was also more obvious.

"Prison cells," Damien noted. "If either of them was going to be kept somewhere, it'd be here."

The Vet eyed a set of chains tied to the wall and shivered. The fact that there were so many cells must have meant that they were all used at some point… or were going to be used, very soon.

"Casey, love, you missed—" Brittany began, but Casey waved her off gently. Casey had wandered ahead of the group, passing a few doors before stopping in front of one. The Vet couldn't see what distinguished this room from any of the others.

"'Ere," Casey murmured, almost too quietly to be heard. "There's somethin' 'ere. Or there was, more like."

Lovino hurried next to her. "Was it my brother?"

Casey furrowed her brow. "Can't say for sure…"

"Then let's find out." Preston reached for the door handle.

"Wait!" Casey cried. The Vet's heart leapt into her throat. "This room isn't right."

"What do you mean?" Damien asked, readying his wok.

"Ah don't think there's anyone in 'ere," Casey said slowly, "but ah think somethin' bad 'appened in this room, it did."

The suspense was getting to be too much for the Vet. She cocked her gun and shoved the door open.

"Vet, wait—!"

The smell was like running into a wall. Vet swallowed hard and covered her nose before forcing herself to go further in. It was almost exactly like the previous rooms, though there were no chains on the walls, and a single, square window with thick black bars looked out into a sea of thick fog. The others trickled in behind the Vet.

"Mon Dieu," Alexandre grunted, "quelle est cette odeur?"

The Vet recognized it, vaguely. A very faint, chemical smell that reminded her of when she worked as a technician at her local animal hospital. Cleaning supplies, but they either weren't very high quality or were simply overwhelmed by the other scent. The other scent, the main scent, was somehow both fresh and rotten, not so much tickling her gag reflex as yanking on it with metallic fists.

"Artist, stop!" Preston said suddenly. The Artist stopped walking forward, her foot partially raised mid step. "…I think that's blood."

The Artist immediately stumbled back, wheezing heavily. Damien tried to guide her out of the room, but she pushed him away, shaking her head and leaning against the wall near the door.

True to Preston's word, the black brick floor was stained an even darker black with something that could only be the source of the smell. The Vet looked at it, eyes watering. If there was both old and new blood in this room, that meant that someone had to have been bleeding over the course of a period of time… To her immense relief, if anyone else had come to the same conclusion she had, they didn't say anything.

"I'll call up the other cult members," Brittany said to no one in particular. "Feliciano and the Author must be close—"

A sudden roar nearly blew out the Vet's eardrums. The Artist cried out and stumbled away from the door.

"Confound it," Brittany snarled, "we've been trapped!" The Vet turned to see a gray Oni, long necked and emotionless, staring back at them from the outside of the room. Brittany drew her katana and flipped her book open to a well-worn page. "Come on—!"

The Oni turned and ran out of sight.

"…They never run without a fight," Lovino muttered to himself.

"Never," Brittany agreed. "We might not be trapped just yet. Let's follow, but keep a distance; who knows what it's planning."

They all stumbled out of the room, the Artist gasping for breath that didn't smell putrid. The Vet saw the Oni watching them from down the hallway for a split second before it disappeared again, likely up another flight of stairs. "Watch your step," she announced, keeping a careful hand on her gun as she followed the monster.

As they ran, the monster seemed to pause on occasion, as if it were checking to see if they were still following it. Brittany's word of caution led to Vet slowing down, just enough that she was still keeping a steady jog as she spoke with Brittany. "Thoughts, Brittany?"

Brittany matched her speed. "It's definitely leading us somewhere, but the questions are where and why? My only thought is that it's an ambush."

"Then why follow along?" The Vet slowed to a quick walking speed.

"Um, Vet?" The Artist asked. "Should we, I don't know, be moving a little faster?"

"I want to try something."

"This isn't the time—"

Just as the Vet thought, the Oni reappeared ahead of them, its neutral expression changing into one of annoyance. The Vet stopped completely and set her hands on her hips. "Where are you taking us?"

"Ah, Vet," Brittany mumbled. "I really don't think trying to talk to it—"

"Well?" The Vet stomped her foot. "I'm waiting for an answer!"

The Oni roared and sprang upon them. Gun in hand, the Vet easily aimed and fired, slowing the thing down. The Artist, Casey, and Alexandre pulled out their weapons and followed suit, bringing the approaching monster to a crawl. Damien and Preston stood near Lovino as a shield, and Brittany held up the book and shouted in a different language. In a flash of white, the heavily bleeding monster turned to dust.

The Vet had only ever fought Onis in relatively open spaces, so the close quarters of the Citadel hall brought forth the scent of somehow curdled oil. It was bad, but somehow not as bad as where the Author had been held. The oil slowly evaporated away. Small blessings, Vet thought.

"What now?" The Artist asked. "I can barely remember how many turns we might have made to follow this thing. I didn't even know there were turns in this place! How do we get back?"

"Do we want to go back?" Damien asked. "Maybe I'm biased, but I've got a feeling that we won't find much else in there."

"We can't exactly keep going forward," Preston pointed out. "The whole point of fighting the Oni just now was so that it couldn't lead us into a trap. If we keep going as we were, we'll trap ourselves!"

"CHIGI!" Lovino screeched. "We're running out of time! We need to make a choice!"

"I get the feelin' it's about to be made for us," Casey said suddenly.

Brittany looked at her. "What do you—?"

"Run-run-run-RUN-RUN—!" A stampede of cult members barreled forward from seemingly nowhere, rushing past them in a mix of panicked shouts and firing bullets. The Vet turned to see a horde of Onis in varying colors running at them, snarling and drooling with their fangs bared.

With no other choice, Vet's group turned and raced after the rest of the cult, Brittany shouting for everyone to bloody calm down and fight. Her shouts fell on deaf ears, it seemed, since no one stopped for much more than to fire a bullet randomly at the monsters.

A straggling group would occasionally appear from a branching hall (when had those started appearing?), followed by even more Onis. "They're herding us like sheep!" The Vet shouted.

"I noticed!" Brittany yelled back. "I said CALM DOWN-!"

The Vet stumbled, but caught herself to keep going, but not before she noticed a change in the floor from stone black bricks to smooth gold marble. "Wait, it's a trap—!"

A pair of huge, metal doors slammed behind her, startling the whole group into turning around. The Onis had trapped them in… what was this place?

The whole room came in varying shades of gold, with elegant pillars supporting a huge, rounded ceiling far above. An obnoxiously grand stair case led down to what looked almost like a ballroom.

"This might be the highest point in the Citadel," Ludwig noted. All of the countries had reunited, as well as friends that hadn't been in the same group as each other.

It does seem fit for a queen, Vet thought.

"Lovi, wait!" Antonio called, which when Vet noticed Lovino barreling down the stairs, somehow not tripping over his own feet. The other countries were quick to follow, voicing concern noisily. She watched as they ran towards the middle of the ballroom below—

Dear God.

Feliciano Vargas was bloody, beaten, and chained to some sort of alter, but thankfully recognizable. His lip was bleeding from different spots, and there were dark purple bruises everywhere that his torn shirt and jacket didn't hide. A noticeable stain on his side suggested that his ribs had been broken, possibly through the skin. The countries were speaking to him, but it was difficult to tell from this distance if he was even conscious.

The Artist cried out suddenly, leaping down the stairs to the point she was practically flying. She raced past the countries towards—

The Vet blinked, and she was speeding past the Artist, determined to reach the other alter first. With a horrifically unfunny *donk*, she and the Artist slammed into was felt like invisible glass. Despite seeing stars, she was quick to return to her feet, leaning against the barrier and smacking it with her fist feebly.

The Author lay before her… but wasn't her.

It couldn't have been her.

Freckled skin had turn smooth and gray, not a blemish to be seen except on her face. What could only be described as tear tracks stretched down her cheeks, down past her mouth and out toward her neck and ears; black and tacky-looking, like tar. Her hair was the same strawberry red as before, though the ends were frayed and broken as if she'd been tearing at it, and her poor hair curls were bent crudely, disturbingly. The thin white dress was pretty, but so very unlike what her sister would normally wear that it seemed like an insult. She was barefoot, nails stained black and dark red, and a pair of golden bracelets adorned her wrists. Her glasses were missing. She couldn't see without her glasses.

The Artist was blubbering next to her, desperate attempts to wake the Author mixed with choking sobs. Vaguely, the Vet noticed that the rest of the cult had joined them, some gathered around Feliciano while others hovered near the Author.

Brittany and Casey stood on the Vet's other side. Casey's face was buried in Brittany's chest to repress her tears. "It's okay," Brittany whispered, seeming to try to convince herself more than Casey. "It'll be okay… there's got to be a way to save them."

"I'm afraid that's impossible, my dears."

The Vet turned slowly, slower than everyone else. Her fists clenched tighter.

The woman at the top of the stairs smiled down at them sweetly. "You've reunited with your friends at last; congratulations."


A cliffhanger! Again?! In my fanfic?! It's more likely than you think.

Meeting back up with the Vet and the Artist! Emotional rollercoasters for everyone! They mostly go down, though.

Featuring Brittany and Casey, the third official pairing in my series (points if you can figure out what the first two official pairings are- here's a hint: they were specifically mentioned in The Author, The Rogues, and The Oni)! What would their ship name be? I kind of like the idea of "Cassidy", even if it's not a perfect match with their names. Let me know if you have any ideas of your own; I'd love to hear them!

Alexandre and Damien make another appearance, and we're introduced to someone new... or are we? Remember that Poland-looking kid from the Cult of Veneziano? Yeah, it turns out he has a name: Preston! I don't know his last name, and maybe he doesn't need one. I mean, Casey doesn't have an official last name, either. It's just a weird habit of mine to only sometimes hand out last names.

I really roughed Feliciano up, didn't I? Yeah, I'm bad, keep it coming, let me hear it from all of the Italy fans how mean I am to him.

Oh no. Who is this mysterious woman on the stairs. She's probably nice. Definitely. She congratulated them on reuniting; so that's got to mean she's a nice, motherly lady.

...Yeah no, prepare for hurt.

Anyway, I'm going to post this now and get ready for next Monday. Please, PLEASE let me know what you all thought of this chapter, and stick around to see the next one a week from now. Until then!