Chapter 16: THE STAIRCASE

The train crossed the clouds, the forests and the plains, each terrain merely lasting the blink of an eye, and approached the spiral staircase tunel that crossed time and space, it was an entrance and possible exit from this world. The rabbit hole. Then the train derailed, its locomotive tumbling out of the inexistent lines and its remaining couple cards smashing against it. Pushing it forward to further crash against the base of the great stone stairwell and be wrecked by the unmoving structure raising up to the skies.

Once the dust settled and he managed to regain his awareness, Gray got out of the wreckage. He had tried to reach the first cart and locomotive but Aria had blocked it, leaving him no choice but to try and climb towards the roof by getting out of the windows. Once realizing the imminent collision, he had no choice but to bunker down in an aisle seat with his back towards the front of the train and his arms arms protecting his head. He survived, but the wound on his chest opened by Joker had stretched out by flying debris and ripped out metal.

After climbing his way from the crash and trying to cover his own wound with whatever rag was around from the train pieces, he saw himself at the barren terrain that was the edge of the world and at the bottom of the stairs. The entrance to the tunnel contains the stone staircase that seemed to rise endely to the sky while the darkness going down was blocked by galaxy force. The stairs themselves went up in rounds interrupted by terraces every few levels and from inside it all lead up to an aperture full of light.

He looked around, still dazed. He was barely alive. But Aria … she was on the train! Trying to find the front cart, he found only a trail of blood that moved away from the derailed train and moved up the stairs. Thankfully it wasn't much, but it was continuous enough to be followed. She was clearly already climbing the stairs.

There was no time to waste. He began running as he could, but hurt as he was, he would not reach her in time at this pace. He was already on the second terrace space and he could not even see her. So, instead of trying to run up the stairs he looked to the border of the center of the staircase that was only a sure fall down. He was the lizard, and thanks to the connector and then the big bursts of mana earlier on, he felt his role strengthened greatly in its core. He was wounded and tired but he was desperate and if it failed then he would lose her and then wither away anyways. So he took a leap of faith and ran to the edge of the terrace and jumped.

The jump had been higher and longer than he had managed before. And then he felt it was the right moment, just when he was starting to fall, he jumped again and felt as if his feet had touched something solid as to propel him again towards the next terrace. He extended his hands and almost managed to grab the edge, barely touching it as the momentum tossed him under the construction, where he touched the underside of it and landed on the underside of it exactly like a lizard. He grinned and then crawled back up, knowing that he could skip rounding the staircase.

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Aria was doing the best she could to move fast and climb the stairs, holding herself by forcing her suit to wrap tightly over her wounds as she stumbled forward and up. She could see the light above in merely a few rounds of stairs. She would be finally free of this damn world soon.

"Aria!"

Gray's nearing voice startled her, making her fall on the steps before she forced herself off. She approached the edge to see the damn holder double jumping his way up. "Dammit!" She began climbing again, as fast as she could while taking out the remaining uzi on her meager combat gear.

Not really knowing what to say, Gray screamed. "You saved me, so now take care of me, I'm your responsibility!" While tightly clutching his injury and trying to stop bleeding so much he kept on approaching, but hearing no response he prepared for the worst, knowing that she wouldn't stop to chat peacefully nor did he have time for it with this wound.

The click of a magazine later, a burst of gunfire hit in Gray's general direction. He jumped away from the steps of the stair sand towards the wall and then once more to the underside of the stairs above. Aria's shots couldn't reach him there but he had no idea where she was or how fast she was climbing up. He forced himself into using his abilities to climb up another level. No shots were heard, and then he took the risk of climbing back on the stairs, only to see the movement of a gun right in front of him. In a split second he used his knife to hit the gun away, both the small submachine gun and knife falling down and away from the hands of their users. While he had managed to avoid her aim and shoot, he did not avoid a round kick. He managed to grab and roll on the stairs, but the kick had clearly been meant to toss him down to his doom.

With the lack of blood starting to get him, he began laughing. "Is that how you take responsibility, Aria? Finishing me off? What a way to interpret my words."

Aria didn't respond. She grabbed her remaining defensive item. She turned around and tossed a flash grenade behind while unsheathing her forearm blades, trying to run up the rest of the way.

He recognized her tactic from one of her companion's memories and took to the floor with his arms over his head to protect himself from the blinding flash and counted some agonizing seconds for it to pass. She was already up ahead again.

Burning away even more of his life and energy, he took a double jump once more, crawling on the upper stairs of her position and then dropping over her. She moved back, almost stumbling on her step but evading and slashing forward and out with her blade, cutting over his already hurt chest and creating a bleeding X on his flesh.

He flopped back, ignoring the slash and kicking her. Aria began falling down the stairs and he jumped over her before the fall could break her neck…or so he tried before she managed to twist her arm, almost dislocating her shoulder, to stop her rolling fall and be face up to met his gut with her knee, immediately trying to wrestle him and toss him out of the edge of the stairs.

"Aria stop! Look! I..!" Gray tried to immobilize her with his bigger body and weight, but she was not giving up. When a little jolt made her pause, he managed to trap her limbs as the little lizard connector crawled from her body and onto his neck. He laughed, panting and practically bleeding over her. "Don't you think it would be more of a challenge to keep me alive and manage to escape than killing me?"

She tried biting out his throat, but he pulled back head just enough to avoid that. Yet another trick he had seen her use in her partner's memories.

"It doesn't matter." She hissed, panting too. "I'll kill you if you don't kill me and you, this world, or mine, will kill me anyways." Aria decided to bet and prepared to create a magnetic field, using the remaining energy in all her devices and suit, trying to catch him in the small area around her.

"Give me a chance - I only need one to…!" Gray began, speaking through labored breaths before the hard hit of the discharge electrocuted him, making his clock flicked for a moment. The assassin's body spasmed as his eyes rolled back, falling unconscious.

Aria couldn't enjoy her victory. She fell too as all her batteries finally drained out and stopped supporting her. She tossed him aside and looked at him. He was clearly dying and she had no reason to do anything to save the stupid holder…the stupid holder that was not her partner and that her AI had used tog et her out of the nightmare realm, implanting on him fake memories from Andrick, her real partner that had died what seemed to be so long ago. Her gaze tightened, looking up and seeing the end of the tunnel so close and so far. The scent of blood was on her nostrils and she could feel blood dripping out of her too. She too was bleeding and not in any good condition to even try to crawl all the remaining way up. But she still had her potion. A chance for one last miracle.

The lizard tattoo remained fixed and still on the assassin's neck. She was sure it would crawl after her if she tried going away. She could try to erase its existence or modify it with her potion of hearts, but she had been planning to use it to enhance the key of the way to cross away to her death … not that it mattered. If she kept on bleeding or got a heavy wound here, there was no help and no way or time to reach any place with medic assistance. She didn't have much time either, she was about to collapse too so she better act.

Trying to use her own forearm blades to stab herself would be too difficult considering that she would need to un-suit and still connect to the components to get them to unsheath … not to mention they wouldn't have neither a hilt or her arm or suit's support to be properly wielded to stab herself … but those were not the only blades available. She took a look at the fallen holder and made the effort to move him face up to search for the myriad of knives he always loaded himself with. One half hidden in his boot caught her attention. It was the poisoned one that he had spit on. A deadly poison.

After failing at managing a grin she took out the blade to see it still had the poison coat, truly amazing. The lizard's poison surely was a unique and deadly weapon that she could use. She wouldn't even need to bother trying to go back up her world, so she could still use her potion for something else.

It wasn't as if he would be able to reach anywhere even if he were to be healed and awaked, and once the poison was in her system she was done for. She was not using her potion for anything else but not using it was a waste too, right?

With a shaking hand she took out her potion of hearts and kept it in her mouth. "For non-existent times sake." Aria made a little cheering motion. She leaned down to close her lips over his mouth to pass him the potion, focusing her intent on healing him, maybe fixing his role or whatever, just to heal him was enough. After using her hand over his throat to force him to swallow, she closed her eyes and stabbed herself with his dagger, almost immediately feeling her muscles contracting and her body becoming tense and paralized. A moment later, she let go of her conscience and fell over.

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