Section 5

Gon was in the infirmary of the arena. He was unconscious and in critical condition, but stable. Killua was sitting by him. Raiden and Garnet stood outside of the room. Raiden said, "That was a major loss. How are we gonna do the plan now?"

Garnet said, "I don't know. Something in that arena caused them to start acting out."

Raiden said, "So now unless they go all out, the Winds can make them kill each other regardless."

Zoro walked up and asked, "How is he?"

Garnet held him from going in. She said, "I know what happened wasn't your fault. But it's not a good idea for him to see you right now."

Zoro nodded, knowing what Garnet said was true. He also said, "Have either of you seen Ruby and Azula? They went out together but haven't met up with the rest of us yet."

Raiden simply said, "Aw crap..."

Zoro said, "I'll take that as a no."

Killua walked out. He neglected to look up at Zoro, and said, "I feel him...He's here..."

Garnet and Raiden looked at each other and nodded.

Raiden turned to Zoro and said, "Let's gather the rest of the group. Hopefully we'll find Ruby and Azula when the fight starts."

Raiden and Zoro left. Garnet turned and knelt down to Killua asking, "How are you holding up?"

Killua said, "He's doing fine. They stitched him up and used some plasma tech to sear the wounds shut. Now we're just waiting for him to wake up."

Garnet said, "How are YOU holding up?"

Killua said, "I'll be fine. I know something happened to the two of them. And I know the Imperator is to blame. So when we kill him, I'm going to be the one to rip his heart out."

Garnet said, "Scary. But alright. Let's pull it together."

Killua said, "I wish that pompous princess was still here. I could use a charge up to max out my Godspeed."

Garnet chuckled and said, "No need."

She held her hands out, grasping Killua's hands. A powerful electrical current shot out through her hands and into Killua's body. He didn't react to it, but felt his body warm up from the charge. After a few seconds Garnet released her grip. She asked again, "NOW how are you feeling?"

Electricity crackled in his fingers and he smiled as he said, "Ready."

The Imperator's Phantom hovered above the arena to the awe of the audience. It hovered beside the viewing platform, and he seemed to walk on air as he entered the door on the side.

Entering the room he saw Ruby, tied up by Mistral's drones one of its hands over her mouth. Sundowner said, "Welcome. Hope the flight wasn't too bad."

The Imperator said, "Before Azula, I slept through most of it."

Monsoon said, "Surprised you still came here considering what's about to happen."

The Imperator said, "The explosion isn't much to worry about for any of us. The fight that follows I'm even less worried about. Especially with this new...recruit."

Ruby's eyes widened. The Imperator brandished one of his gas masks and approached her. Mistral had her drone remove its hand from her mouth as the Imperator placed the mask over it.

It activated and with one breath, Ruby was under his control.

The Imperator said, "Now we wait. Who's up next to fight?"

Sundowner said, "Killua and Sasuke."

"Oh. So one of the brats about to ambush us. Guess that means Sasuke will be waiting quite a while."

In the halls leading to the viewing platform Killua and Bakugo approached. They came across a pair of Sangheili, one of which said, "You're not allowed to..."

He was cut off by Killua rushing to attack him with a strike to the chin and the other with a kick to the knee, bringing him to his knees before being hit on the top of the head with a mighty axe kick.

Bakugo kept moving his arms in a fast circular motion, working up a sweat in his hands to build up in his grenade gauntlets. They came across the door. The two nodded to each other and Killua kicked the door down. Bakugo aimed his grenade gauntlet inside the room, but as he pulled the pin, three things caught his attention.

First was the Imperator's lack of reaction.

Second was Ruby standing next to him, with a mask over her face.

Third was the Imperator saying, "It's about time you showed up."

It was too late for him to process it all as the gauntlet activated. This triggered a glorious fireball, exploding outwards and covering the whole platform sending the Winds, the Imperator and Ruby flying out of the room. The explosion scared the crowd and they began vacating the arena in a panic. The Honorbound and tournament fighters stayed. One by one the villains landed.

The Imperator twisted his body in midair nonchalantly with his arms behind his back, and casually landing on the ground, seemingly slowing his descent as he fell.

Sundowner crashed into the ground, grinding on one of his shields which exploded, sending him flying up as he slid against the ground.

Monsoon disconnected into pieces. His feet slammed into the ground, and the pieces connected to each other reforming his body.

Mistral threw her spear into the ground, then slid down the angle of the spear and into the ground, reducing her impact.

Naruto held his hands together, and two clones appeared on the ground in a puff of smoke, catching him.

Ruby turned into a pile of rose petals that flashed towards the ground before reforming into her.

One by one the fighters ran into the arena. Bakugo and Killua jumped from the viewing platform, Killua using the lightning form of godspeed to soften the landing and Bakugo slowing his descent with explosions from his hands. Killua rushed the Imperator first, shooting towards him with a lightning fast kick. The Imperator blocked the attack with simply his arms, pushed back by the force but physically unaffected. He leapt off, flashing behind the Imperator to deliver another strike. The Imperator held his hand up, and a purple hexagonal shield appeared, blocking Killua's attack as lightning deflected against it. Killua began flashing and attacking the Imperator from every angle, and he kept reforming a new shield for each angle of attack.

While Killua attacked the Imperator, Bakugo squared up to face the Winds.

Sundowner was first to attack, charging with his swords forward, but he was stopped by Garnet, grabbing his swords with her gauntlets. She headbutt him through his shields, then kicked him to one side of the arena.

Naruto was attacked by Sasuke, and the two dueled, Naruto swinging a kunai as Sasuke blocked with his sword. Even in spite of his one arm, he kept pace with Naruto well. He found an opening and kicked him into another corner.

Monsoon was attacked by Zoro, who began swinging at him. He disconnected his body, each piece unhooking from the body as necessary to evade Zoro's swipes. Zoro jumped over him blocking coming sai strikes to draw him towards the other Winds.

Mistral and Ruby were both attacked by Bismuth. She said, "Ruby?! What are you doing?"

Ruby didn't answer, activating her sniper scythe and firing it at Bismuth. Raiden jumped in front of her, deflecting each shot.

Garnet said, "Now we know what happened to her! But where is Azula?"

Raiden said, "Son of a bitch! She sold us out."

Sundowner recovered and began attacking Garnet once again. Raiden continued blocking Ruby's shots.

Bakugo yelled, "Well where is she?"

Azula dove in, screaming, "I'm right here!" She kicked the ground, erupting a wave of fire that was sent hurtling towards Bakugo. He jumped out of the way evading the fire.

The Imperator took special note of this while blocking Killua's attacks.

Finally Edward came in. He kicked Mistral down, then he clapped his hands together then slapped the arena, shifting it into walls to divide the battles:

Edward Elric vs. Mistral

Sasuke vs. Naruto

Zoro vs. Monsoon

Bakugo vs. Azula

Garnet vs. Sundowner

Raiden vs. Ruby

And finally: Sanji, Bismuth, and Killua vs. the Imperator

In their side of the arena, Edward was dueling with Mistral. He clapped his hands together, forming a blade over his metallic arm. She began poking and stabbing at him with his spear rapidly, which he kept blocking with his blade hand. He was surprised at her strength, his shoulder beginning to hurt from the force his arm was taking from the strikes.

He ducked one strike and rushed beneath her spear to begin an attack on her body. She threw her many arms around her gut, blocking the coming stab with the back of her hand. With a wave of said hand, Edward was sent hurtling off her body. He quickly recovered and was back on the defensive. The blades met and pressed against each other as the two stared each other down,

Mistral said, "I'm not surprised you were so easily bested by a child."

Edward already knew where it was going.

"Don't say it...", he said.

"After all...", Mistral continued.

"Don't say it!", he repeated.

"You are about as tall as a child!", Mistral smiled as she said it. Another fuse blew in Edward's brain, and he went on the offensive, swinging wildly, clapping his hands and shifting pillars and blades from the walls around him in a nonstop attack.

Mistral casually twirled the staff around her, her many arms giving her speed and control to deflect every attack with little issue. Edward suddenly surprised her through the dust of the debris, successfully slicing her staff right down the middle. The arms that formed it fell to the floor limp, leaving her with the many arms still attached to her body.

With her two front arms she grabbed Edward's coming stab between her palms. With one swift motion, she snapped the blade off of his arm. He ducked down and swept his metallic leg, successfully knocking Mistral off her footing. But with her back arms she quickly restabilized herself, grabbing and slamming Edward to the ground. She picked up the blade ends of her staff, wielding them as daggers. Edward used his arm to try and block the attacks but was quickly overwhelmed. One blade struck true directly into his stomach. He fell to his knees, bleeding out slowly. Mistral sighed and said, "I would kill you now, but the Imperator has plans for you."

He coughed and said, "You bastards aren't gonna win this..."

She tussled his hair and said, "Keep on believing that little alchemist." She then sat to wait for the other fights to conclude while Edward sat hunched over his stomach.

Sasuke clashed with Naruto. He held his sword in a reverse grip, blocking the kunai attacks Naruto threw his way.

Sasuke said, "I know you're still in there Naruto! I know you're still in there too, Kurama!"

Sasuke had no problem blocking Naruto's attacks but thought to himself, why isn't he using any of his sage forms or his 9 tails mode? That scythe girl had no problem using powers...unless this control is keeping Kurama locked up.

Naruto kicked Sasuke back and began summoning clones of himself in a puff of smoke. One by one they attacked him. He activated his purple eye, known as the byakugan. This gave him full 360 view of the entire arena, easily evading and attacking every clone and cutting through them. They disappeared into smoke, dying with each cut. But it didn't take long for their numbers to start becoming difficult to contend with. A kick to the back here. A cut to the cheek there. Sasuke held back from using his powers to avoid harming Naruto but couldn't sustain the fight for very long due to his missing arm.

Sasuke focused his sight on the real Naruto and rushed forward, swinging his blade towards him horizontally. Naruto ducked as far back as he could and the tip of the sword grazed his mask, scratching it just under his chin. Naruto stumbled back after barely evading the sword swipe. When he felt his body for wounds, he found none. Relieved, he turned to see Sasuke had already disappeared.

Bakugo and Azula bounced around exchanging streams of fire and explosions. Bakugo kept trying to close the distance, but Azula kept her distance, kicking and sending crescent blades of fire. Bakugo was barely ducking to avoid them while closing in. Each of them knew the other's moves from their previous arena fights. But Azula had greater control than Bakugo's ferocity.

Bakugo jumped above and landed on the wall high above Azula's head. He jumped down, twisting and twirling. The speed of the spin collected oxygen particles in a vaccum all around him. He placed his hands toward Azula who smiled.

Bakugo shouted, "HOWITZER IMPACT!"

He let out a small explosion, which ignited the oxygen particles around him, and let off an enormous explosive blasts. Azula held out her fingers and opened her mouth, and the inferno flew into her mouth and finger tips, absorbing into her body. Bakugo's eyes widened as she screamed, unleashing the fire towards Bakugo. He covered his face but was knocked back by the white hot dragon's breath Azula shots, and the rest of his body was enveloped.

Ruby was firing shots at Raiden, who easily deflected the shots with his sword. He charged her, blocking coming scythe strikes by swinging his sword against them. One swipe struck his sword, the impact reverberating through his arm. He ducked back against another strike, a bullet firing from the end and grazing his forehead. He barely had time to register the pain before Ruby was on the offensive. He kept clashing against her scythe, constantly pushing it out of the way of his head to avoid the coming bullets.

Garnet was using her gauntlets to block Sundowner's blades. She had no trouble doing this, but Sundowner didn't take long to switch up his attacks. He swatted her away with a swing of his explosive shields, sending her flying into the wall. She recovered and leapt back leaping around Sundowner to find a proper angle of attack, but his shields were firmly locked around his body, making finding an angle of attack impossible. She jumped over him to try and strike at his head, and he angled the shields as necessary. Garnet feinted this attack, dropping down to strike him in the stomach. He smiled, dashing forward to stab Garnet through the stomach with his blades, stopping her attempted attack. With one swift motion he swung his blades outward, and her body poofed.

Her gemstones plopped harmlessly to the ground.

Zoro was swinging at Monsoon, his swings passing harmlessly through Monsoon's disconnecting and magnetized body. He disconnected his body into two parts: his legs and his upper body. The legs slid behind Zoro and began kicking at him while his floating torso attacked from the other side. Zoro twirled and twisted his swords all around him, blocking kicks and sai strikes. Though the twirl of blades left Monsoon unharmed he was unable to find an angle to strike Zoro.

His frustration grew as he finally charged into the tornado, and one of Zoro's swords cut into the mask over his eyes. This disabled his body's magnetism, forming them together. Zoro spotted this and charged him with his swords out.

Monsoon was in a daze from the blow to the head and Zoro shouted, "Three sword style:"

He cut through Monsoon in the blink of an eye as he shouted, "ONIGIRI!"

The slice tore through Monsoon's assembled chest, leaving three massive marks across his chest that spurted blood as he fell unconscious.

Sanji and Bismuth readied for battle while Killua continued relentlessly assaulting the Imperator. Sanji smiled, having planned with Killua earlier.

Killua jumped back then forward, the Imperator erecting a shield in front of him. Killua instead zipped towards the ground, then jumped past and above his shield delivering a savage uppercut.

Sanji saw his moment and rushed in as well.

"Coming in, kid!", he shouted. Killua looked back and nodded, maintaining his serious composure.

The two began attacking the Imperator from opposite angles. Both of them flashing back and forth past each other at lightning speeds, delivering many blows to the stunned Imperator.

An uppercut to the chin from Killua was complimented with a kick to the back from Sanji.

A straight kick to the side from Sanji was followed by a over head double fist slam from Killua.

Over and over they continued this assault. Finally Killua was in prime position to deliver his final rush.

With another uppercut, he stayed afloat, face to to face with the Imperator as he delivered what seemed like thousands of punches and kicks to his face. Shockwaves shook the stadium from the force of his attacks. To outsiders from miles away, it sounded like a machine gun.

He disappeared from the Imperator's sightline, giving him only a split second to avoid Bismuth concluding the assault, transforming her hand into a massive hammer and preparing to smash him into the wall.

It connected, sending him rocketing back into that wall. She slammed him a few more times, denting the wall and creating a small Imperator shaped crater. He finally fell to the ground, seemingly unconscious.

Bismuth said, "Huh. That was...surprisingly easy..."

Killua nodded. He unsheathed his claws, preparing to tear out the Imperator's heart. He slowly walked up to him.

Sanji said, "That seemed a bit...too easy. Let's hope everyone else is having as good luck as we are."

Killua said, "This is for Gon."

The Imperator's eyes opened, and took on a startling change. They turned completely black with only a tiny white pupil in each of them. They turned towards Killua as he growled, "Impudent, ungrateful, BRAT!"

He shot up and launched towards Killua faster than he could react, slamming his fist into his stomach and launching him back. Killua was able to redirect some nen shielding to cover his body, but the blow still took the wind out of him.

The Imperator barely gave the trio a chance to recover before attacking them. He began moving faster than they could track. He went for Bismuth first, his clawed armor scratching at her body. Sanji tried to rush and stop him but he replicated Killua's attack against her, striking rapidly from many angles. He finally jumped over grabbing her by the head. With one twist, her body was poofed.

He switched targets to Sanji going for a strike to the head. Sanji narrowly evaded the blow, his swing taking off some of his hair.

The Imperator grabbed him and threw him into the air.

Darkness tendrils sprouted from his body, wrapping Sanji and slamming him back into the floor.

While he did this, Killua tried to attack him again taking advantage of his momentary stillness, flashing around him at lightning speeds. But the Imperator saw through his pattern from before, grabbing him out of the air. He held him in two hands then threw him up, headbutting him in mid air to send him higher then kicking him in the stomach to send him further in the air. He jumped up, performing a double handed slam to send him back into the floor, beating him.

He slowly descended, landing gracefully. His eyes returned to normal. He said, "Pardon me. Sometimes the beast inside can get a bit...agitated."

Killua coughed, weakened as he said, "You knew this would happen. But you stepped right in anyway?"

The Imperator said, "Yes. I did. Because I was in need of more recruits. You wish to kill me because someone else hurt your friend indirectly caused by another person who worked for me that did this entirely of their own accord. You cling to an ideal that if you beat the "big bad guy" that will save the world and make everything nice. Trust me...it's never that easy. My heroic resolve is far greater than yours, Killua. I have something bigger in mind that will actually save the world. And you and your friends are going to help me. But first..."

He sent the two tendrils in his back outwards, slamming through walls and appearing in the parts of the arena where Zoro and Raiden were fighting. He grabbed the two of them, pulling Zoro from Monsoon's body and Raiden from his fight with Ruby, causing them both to drop their swords. He lifted them in the air then slammed his fist against the wall. The force caused them to crack then slowly crumble, allowing him to see the aftermath.

Mistral looking over Edward, hunched over his stomach in pain.

Sundowner standing over Garnet's gems.

Ruby sheathing her scythe.

Naruto sheathing his kunai.

Monsoon's body.

Azula standing over Bakugo's burnt, yet still living, body.

The Imperator turned to Azula and said, "That was impressive what you did."

Azula said, "Think nothing of it."

He said, "No. I misjudged you. In more ways than one. After our talk, I peered into your world. Saw your story. You're more than I gave you credit for. You're just a victim. Like me..."

Azula was somewhat taken aback by this.

The Imperator said, "You wanted to know about Project: Azathoth. I will tell you. Under the stipulation that you don't leave Abraxas until it's done."

Azula nodded with a smile.

The Imperator said, "Also understand that if you try anything...you die. But before that, first order of business."

The Imperator brandished more gas masks.

Raiden's eyes widened. Killua crawled over to the Imperator as they talked, and grabbed his leg. With the last of his strength he shot lightning into him, sending shocks that damaged him and caused the Darkness tendrils to retract.

Zoro was damaged by the lightning, stunning him, but Raiden wasn't. He began burning through the last of his power reserves, boosting his speed to godlike levels. He grabbed Sanji and Bismuth & Garnet's gems, with the time he had. Then made his escape.

The Imperator looked at who vanished and said, "Well...that's a shame. I could've really used those guys. I suppose we'll just stick to what we have."

Azula said, "You're not even concerned they'll warn the Honorbound what happened here?"

The Imperator said, "Tell them what? That our forces only grow stronger? That I'm this close to getting what I want? It's not a warning. It's a last gasp for help."

Killua saw the masks but was still happy at least some of them got away. He prayed they'd help Gon before the Imperator could find him.

Gon was in his hospital bed. He was waking up, his wounds nearly healed, accelerated thanks to his nen. He awoke to see Sasuke standing over him.

Sasuke simply said, "We need to go. NOW."