Finals: One World, One Fate

Author's Notes: This is it, the big bad villain of the story finally makes her first permanent appearance. M.'s movelist has been added to the website under the Single Entries page (the webpage for Colliding Worlds, as always, can be found in my author's profile). Read it, then send me e-mails about how cheap/overpowered she is compared to - well, anyone, basically. No flames, please. I know you guys are still reading this even if no one's bothered to drop a review.

Osaka, Japan
Four days have passed

"The final is tomorrow," Captain Commando remarked matter-of-factly. "This wait is killing me."

"Look on the bright side," Ruby Heart called back, "no one has vanished yet."

Commando nodded as he glanced out a window at his back, where Sagat and Ryu occupied themselves training in the outdoor gym. From another chair, Samantha McGrath studied the two warriors with a thoughtful gaze. Commando stood up and began to pace around, watched by the two women. Alone in a corner of the room, Strider Hiryu polished his weapons with a soft, silken cloth. "That's almost worse," Commando continued. "Samantha's still here, the World Warrior team is still present ... it feels ... I dunno, how do you describe it?"

"Like the calm before the nor'easter," Ruby supplied.

"Exactly. The past few days have been quiet. Too quiet, in fact ... I wonder if our tournament host has a nasty surprise planned for us?" Commando stroked his chin thoughtfully. While lost in thought, someone placed a cup of tea in his hand and he nearly drank it before he realized what he was doing. "Oh, thank you, Regina. Didn't see you coming in. Say, how much can you tell us about Marin?"

Regina smiled as she placed a tray of teacups on the table in the lounge. A delicious aroma wafted from each of them and Commando felt his stomach lurch; he'd been so nervous that he'd forgotten to eat anything in the past dozen hours. Imagine how his old squadmates would laugh if they found that out! "Between the two of us," Regina began, "Marin has always been the stronger one. I tend to avoid conflict; Marin tries to negotiate a peaceful settlement whenever possible, but she won't shy away from force if it becomes necessary. But my sister and I get along very well despite being fundamentally different in personality. I know that, should anything threaten me, it will first have to go through Marin, and that is no easy task. Is that what you wished to know, captain?"

"That's very informative, certainly," Commando said, "but not what I wanted. You know, of course, that Marin plainly stated that the winners of the tournament would face her in the finals. What I want to know is how she fights. Surely you've seen her in action before?"

Regina tilted her head to one side as she seated herself on the floor, hugging her knees to her chest. "My sister ... there is something you should know, captain. It is exceedingly rare for a god or goddess to fight against a mortal - we consider it beneath our dignity and something of a disgrace. Normally, we would dispatch an angel or an Einherjar for the task, but ... obviously, my sister considers this a matter of great enough importance that she is willing to swallow her pride and see to it herself. Please understand, captain - even in a contest of pure skill and no power, I very doubt that you could defeat her. My sister has honed her arts all of her life - I myself could destroy this world in a heartbeat, but I could not stand up to her. Of course, she and I both prefer not to resort to force except when necessary."

"If she's really that powerful," Commando wanted to know, "why would she bother with a show like this?"

Regina paused. "The gods help those who help themselves - I can aid you, captain, but you must first be willing to try. If I had to guess, I would think that my sister is testing you to see if you're willing to fight your hardest against her. I've never known for her to ask any more than a person put his heart behind his effort, and she takes care of the rest. Captain, try not to worry over whether you can defeat her or not. You can't win, but she won't ask you to. I refuse to believe that my sister would become anyone's enemy."

"You really believe that?" Ruby Heart asked from another corner. "Didn't you say that this was all guesswork at best, and that you really had no idea what Marin intended? Maybe I'm being too suspicious here, but when someone kidnaps people that I know left and right, I have to assume that she might not be the most friendly of strangers." No one had disappeared in the past few days, but if anything that only made them all more tense. Kirina had trouble sleeping at night, Samantha looked completely distraught, and even Sagat and Hiryu felt the situation weighing down on them. Gill was not present to argue away their emotions - come to think of it, no one except Regina had seen him after the semifinals match.

"That ... I can't explain," Regina answered after a long silence. "I have implicit trust in Marin, but I suppose it's only natural for you to have your suspicions. But my sister really is a great person once you get to know her."

"I beg to differ." Captain Commando nearly jumped out of his seat with surprise, instinctively swinging around with a head-level strike that his wits failed to recall in time. His arm lanced out and Dadallent calmly blocked it; the resulting loss of balance caused Commando to fall over and land on the carpeted floor. Commando picked himself up warily, keeping his eyes fixed on Dadallent. How had the Chaos Prince managed to come within half a meter of him, and all silently no less? A quick glance confirmed that Ruby and Samantha seemed equally surprised, but Regina and Hiryu had displayed no reaction at all. Hiryu kept a lone, murderous eye on Dadallent, but he remained still.

"You were sentenced for your crimes, nothing more," Regina said to Dadallent.

"I was young, foolish, and filled with ambition, goddess. What did I know?" Dadallent stood very still, piercing the entire room with his unseeing gaze. Reflexively Commando found himself sinking into a fighting stance - Dadallent never seemed to cast off that threatening aura of his. Still, even the captain had to admit that the more he saw Dadallent and Regina together, the more that the Chaos Prince intrigued him. It was obvious that the man had a connection with the goddess that stretched very far back; Commando wondered what it could be. Behind Commando, Samantha's hand had curled into a fist, but like Hiryu she made no move.

"You know how I feel about your whole situation, Dadallent," Regina continued. "If I had had my way, you wouldn't suffer like this right now. But you asked my sister, not me, to judge you. Foolish man - you wanted to be cursed then, didn't you? I don't have the authority to lift it, you know."

"I have accepted my fate," Dadallent replied. "Enough of me. Have you thought over what I said to you?"

"Yes, and I'm really, really torn. I still don't understand what you're talking about, Dadallent, and if you don't tell me straight out, then I'm afraid I never will. But I have decided." Regina abruptly stood up and motioned to the others in the room. "I know now what I must do. Would the rest of you please wait for me in my room? There's something I need to do before tomorrow's event - and call Ryu and Sagat, please." Commando saluted and they filed out, leaving Regina and the Chaos Prince behind in the solitary room. Regina waited a few minutes after they had vanished before she addressed Dadallent. "Can I be honest with you? I'm afraid - I'm terribly afraid. I don't know what Marin will do and I can't predict the future. All I ever wanted was to make friends here, but now that I have ... I - I don't think that I'm strong enough to do this!"

"Strength?" Dadallent reflected thoughtfully. "What is strength? I understand the idea of strength, and thus I can say that you are far stronger than you know, goddess. My strength springs from the fist, but yours comes from your heart. Which of us is truly mightier than the other?"

"From the heart ...? It's true that I've always disliked fighting, but ... what should I do?"

"I can point the way, but you must walk it."

"You sound just like Marin, saying that," Regina replied, and she giggled a little. They began to walk together, slowly, out of the room and into the corridors where the staff shivered as Dadallent stalked by. "To be frank, I was quite surprised to meet you here. It has been ten thousand years since you were exiled from Dacia, hasn't it? Would you like to return there after all this is over?"

"You would never consent to it, goddess, if you understood me. Marin's curse made me a killer and that is all I am, all that is left of the once-proud prince." They rounded a corner and entered the long hallways that branched off to the individual rooms. "I murdered your angel without mercy. You are not a warrior, so I won't waste your time with a challenge - but, when all this is over, I want to try my strength against your sister. She ought to provide something of a challenge; killing these poor excuses for opponents grows tiring."

"You may get your chance sooner than you expect." Dadallent opened the door for Regina and she stepped into her room. Sparsely furnished and quite simple, it nonetheless exuded a tranquil aura of peace and contentment. Regina counted the faces present: seven in all, excluding herself and the Chaos Prince. Both of the teams that had participated in the semifinals were present, as was the Phantom captain Samantha McGrath. Quiet conversation died down as Regina seated herself on her bed. She spoke only after a long moment of composing herself and began, "My friends, I asked you here for a reason. I do not know what my sister wants to do and I cannot guess, so as a safety precaution, I want to soulbind each of you to an angel."

Heads turned at that statement as the silence of the room gave way to murmuring and speculation. What did Regina mean? She held up a hand and the assembled warriors quieted again. "Soulbinding involves joining two souls together. When I bind an angel to you, she will sense the world through your eyes and your minds will be joined together. Doing this will dramatically increase both your physical and spiritual power. But I don't want to seem as if I'm forcing this on you; if there's anyone who doesn't want to do this, I understand. Either you or your angel may release the bind at any time. Let's see ... there are seven of you, unless you also want to do this, Dadallent?"

He shook his head and replied, "I fight by my own strength alone."

"So be it. Show yourselves, angels." They materialized out of thin air in an instant - seven all told, all women, all of them dressed in the white and blue silk uniforms of the divine armies. Each angel stood tall and physically perfect, but there were wide variations in their appearances. Regina smiled and introduced them. "Ladies and gentlemen, meet my angels: Raine, Jacqueline, Kara, Misty, Sophia, Constance, and Rynn. Angels, these are the final contestants in Marin's tournament: Strider Hiryu, Samantha McGrath, Ryu, Kirina Houshi, Sagat, Ruby Heart, and Captain Commando. And over there in the corner is someone you already know." Dadallent sketched a cursory bow and the others were not at all reassured by the looks the angels sent his way.

"Choose an angel, each of you, and hold your palms to hers," Regina instructed. "And don't be alarmed; soulbinding requires a considerable amount of power to effect. Now, in order for this to work, both participants must be fully willing to do this. Try to relax; this won't hurt. Concentrate only on your partner." So saying, Regina closed her eyes and clasped her hands together as her aura suddenly seemed to awaken, temporarily blinding all of them. Kirina and Ruby Heart shivered at the enormous cascade of power that seemed to wrap around them; compared to it, the mightiest hurricane in the world was but a drop of water next to the ocean, and yet it was a gentle and soothing energy that sang as it entwined each person with his or her angel. A pair of translucent wings, filled with light, sprang out of Regina's back as a golden aura enveloped her. That same aura encompassed all of them; there was a brilliant flash of light, a sensation of a hot wind tearing through one's body, and then it was over.

Ryu picked himself up and glanced in the mirror. Physically he looked no different, but already his senses were expanding - his vision and hearing greatly improved, and he could sense many more shining spirits in the same room as well as a tainted soul where Dadallent stood. Perhaps he was both faster and stronger; certainly his body felt as though it brimmed with energy, and he knew instinctively that his angel Rynn provided him with a direct channel to divine power.

"Regina!"

Ryu's head whipped around; Commando had let out a startled cry, and now he understood why. Dadallent knelt at the foot of Regina's bed, supporting her head on his shoulder as he carefully laid her still form in a more comfortable position on the mattress. Blood trickled out of her mouth and into the Chaos Prince's uniform; Dadallent staunched the flow by pressing his bright red scarf to Regina's lips. Then he propped her head up on a pillow and drew a pair of blankets over her. Regina looked unnervingly pale. With nearly all the color drained from her face and her breath almost nonexistent, anyone could have mistaken her for a corpse.

"What happened?" Commando demanded. "Dadallent, did you -"

"She overextended herself," Dadallent answered matter-of-factly. "She wanted to give your soulbinds as many advantages as possible, and overtaxed herself quite severely. Her life is in no danger, but she will require time to recover, as well as quiet and solitude. The exit is that way." He pointed to the door and the others exited slowly, he himself withdrawing last from the room and locking the door. The other warriors filed away to the main plaza, but Dadallent himself stalked off in the opposite direction - or would have, had not Ryu turned around and caught up with him. "Yes, Ryu?"

"Tell me, Dadallent - now that I've been soulbound, what's to prevent me from avenging Master Gouken's death on you right here?"

"You're welcome to try, if you wish," Dadallent replied without turning around, though he did stop walking. "At the same time, realize this, Ryu. I have seen the goddess Marin before; if in case you need to face her tomorrow, you will need all of your strength and much more. Don't be foolish, Ryu. Even soulbound to Rynn, you are still not quite a match for me. Find me after tomorrow's event if you are still alive. You are not a true warrior, but I was never picky about opponents at any rate."

"Not a true warrior ...?" Ryu echoed venomously.

Dadallent laughed; it was a harsh, derisive laugh that struck at Ryu like a physical blow. "Don't fool yourself, Ryu. The true warrior fights with his own strength alone and accepts no aid from anyone. You rely on your angel's power through your soulbinding and thus you are not a true warrior."

"I did this because, much as I love the fight itself, I still have a conscience. The world needs me, Dadallent, and so I will fight for my friends. I'm not afraid to borrow power to do so, if it will improve my chances at a victory. That's the essential difference between us, Chaos Prince - you care for nothing and no one other than yourself, but I care. I will fight for my friends, even if it means forfeiting my status as a 'true' warrior."

"And that is why you will never be a match for me, Ryu," Dadallent said. He did not snarl, or threaten, or spit out the words. He simply said them as he resuming his steady stride down the hallways.

"Which of us is really better than the other?" Ryu called after him.

Osaka, Japan
One day has passed

"This is it, ladies and gentlemen!" Jin Saotome screamed. The sun shone down from its zenith over Osaka Dome; despite the fact that he had been hollering for the past two hours during the preliminary shows, Jin's voice sounded as robust as ever. "That worthless rat Kagami has disappeared, so I will be the sole commentator today! It's the finals match! Can you feel the excitement, the anticipation, the tension crackling in the air!? This is it, people! Today we find out the identity behind the mysterious host M.! And if it's another mad dictator bent on world domination, I'm gonna punch him into the stratosphere with Blodia!"

The stadium glittered in the sunlight. Every bleacher had been jam-packed to overflowing, with half again as many spectators watching from the sidelines. And the video sets surrounding the entire field were simply massive; it was, after all, a world-wide broadcast. Standing in the center of it all, Captain Commando experienced simultaneous feelings of elation and wariness. Elation, because they had finally done it - the Neo Commando Squad was the best team in the tournament. Wariness, because they were about to run against the host of the tournament, the one person on whom the Federation had no files at all. From the moment that his team appeared in the doorway, jubilant crowds had liberally showered them with confetti and cheers. Samantha and the World Warrior team watched from the sidelines, carefully concealed in the arena; as for Dadallent, no one had seen him after the soulbinding ritual.

Meanwhile, Jedah Dohma consulted an expensive gold pocketwatch and grumbled to himself. "It is almost time," he remarked to Commando and Ruby. "No sign of Gill anywhere. I wonder what he could possibly be doing?"

"Haven't heard a word from him," Commando answered. He might've said more, but just then the event began.

Light, seven times more brilliant than any star could shine, cascaded down into the arena from above. Commando instinctively put up an arm, but to his amazement the light seemed to penetrate straight through it. Even stranger, it did not harm his eyes and he clearly saw through his scarlet shades that everywhere people were equally surprised. The beam of light stopped at the edge of the arena's pit, effectively separating himself and his team from the massed spectators. What a warm and gentle light ... and, once he thought about it, a familiar one. Wasn't this the same light that had illuminated McGrath's titanic battle against Akuma?

If so, that was bad news.

But it was not Commando who was attacked; rather, Jedah Dohma suddenly screamed as a shaft of light, brighter than all the rest, shot down from the heavens and formed a cone around him. He thrashed wildly for a horrible second before he was lifted clear off the ground, a parchment of paper congealing underneath his body. Commando rushed forward, reaching for the distressed vampire's hand; yet for all that the light seemed intangible, it might as well have been solid steel. Commando's glove slipped off harmlessly. Jedah screamed incoherently, indeed a pitiable sight, and Commando could only stare in morbid horror as the vampire was pulled down into the scroll. Bloodstained runes appeared on its surface as he was pulled in, and once he had vanished into the scroll, all that remained was an agonized image beating against the bloody locks that imprisoned his soul. Then the paper abruptly rolled up as golden threads appeared and wrapped themselves around it, sealing it with three glittering seals.

"What is going on here?!" Ruby Heart asked in a trembling voice.

Commando had no idea of what to say. An answer appeared anyways; something brushed against his uniform and Commando glanced down to see a feather gliding gently to the ground. As the captain looked up, he saw her for the first time. Even without Regina's visions, there could be no mistaking the description. Flaming scarlet hair, brilliant blue eyes, a pair of wings that shone with all the colors of the rainbow ... Marin descended like a true goddess, landing lightly in front of them. She knelt as the divine light died away, leaving only a golden curtain surrounding the arena. She reached down and picked up Jedah's scroll; as Commando watched, it seemed to ... melt ... into her hand. Once it had dissolved to nothing, Marin stood upright again and looked at him directly, her light-filled wings slowly fading into oblivion. The expression on her face was not unkind.

"Greetings," she spoke, and she smiled as she bowed. "I am Marin, the host of this tournament. It is an honor to make your acquaintance." Dimly Commando became aware of a commotion in the crowd, though he had no idea whether it was chaos or jubilation. Though he nodded courteously in reply, Marin's capture of Jedah had only served to increase his wariness. Before he could make the proper introductions, however, Strider pushed past him and halted in front of Marin, weapons at the ready.

"Where are our friends?" he demanded roughly. "Where's Chan?!"

"Your friends are safe, Hiryu," she answered, folding both of her hands in front of her heart. "I have held them securely for you. Fear not, they will come to no harm." She waved as Samantha McGrath and the World Warriors approached from the side entrance. "I summoned you here for a special purpose. First, I must restore what I have taken."

She nodded at Samantha and the Phantom leader staggered somewhat as her memories of that ill-fated chase through Osaka came flooding back. Samantha stared at Marin and whispered, "Why?"

"You have a peculiar quality about you, Samantha," Marin answered. "You are not completely mortal. In you flows the blood of the dragonkind, though it is weak and diluted. I wished to ascertain this for myself; my sincerest apologies for what I did."

"And Ernest?"

"He is safe though absent, as are your other friends." When Samantha nodded her understanding, Marin turned to the World Warriors, but none of them posed a question. Marin paused for a moment. When it became clear that none of them had any more to say, she pressed ahead. "Surely you must wonder why I have called you to this place. I am the goddess Marin and I require your assistance. First, I wish to see your strength. Do not restrain yourselves - fight with all your strength against me, all of you. Show me why you succeeded where so many others have failed. Begin when you are prepared, and fear not - no harm shall befall you or your companions should you fail." So saying, Marin sketched a curtsy and vanished, reappearing at the edge of the arena, far away from the center. She wore a tight, form-fitting uniform similar to the type that Regina's angels had sported, only hers was far more elaborate. Yet in spite of its intricate ornamentation, it was clearly built to allow her to move in any direction with freedom and speed. She folded her hands beneath her breasts and nodded to the warriors.

At a signal from Commando, the Neo Commandos began to spread out in a wide semicircle. The World Warriors, on the other hand, wasted no time. "Let's do this," Kirina said.

"I'm with you," Ryu agreed as he placed his palms alongside his daughter's outstretched hands, standing behind her.

"Here we go," Sagat breathed. He clenched his fists as he stood behind Ryu and pressed them against the hands of his teammates. It was the deadly configuration that had destroyed M. Bison in a single, grand attack. Only that this time, with three angels attached to each warrior, the resulting attack promised to prove far more potent. Energy gathered and three voices blended into one mighty shout. "Obliterate!"

The brilliant, sun-like sphere that marked the Fatal Obliterator coalesced into their hands, only that instead of a small, softball-sized fireball, this time it emerged as a sphere nearly the size of the three warriors combined. It blasted off towards Marin with the speed of a bullet, eating up the distance between them at an incredible rate. The light from the energy ball made it almost impossible to see, so brightly did it shine. Seeking out its target, it found her at the edge of the arena and homed in with lethal accuracy. Marin casually lifted a hand and knocked it away, where it struck the gold curtains and washed out harmlessly along them.

Ryu stared; they all did. An attack many times more powerful than the one that had destroyed Bison, and Marin had simply batted it away like an annoying mosquito? Before they had quite recovered from the shock, Marin pointed a finger at them and a small lance of energy appeared on its tip. It did not look impressive by any standard - even Dan's Gadouken was larger - but Ryu felt the energy contained in that small energy spear and his body turned completely cold with dread. Was this the true power of a goddess, so far above his own that no comparison was possible? "We can't stop that," he whispered hoarsely to his teammates.

Marin released the bolt; Ryu and his teammates jumped to the side, but it struck before they had landed and exploded all around them, engulfing them in a massive wash of energy. Kirina and Sagat landed heavily, both of them rendered unconscious by the attack; as for Ryu, he struggled to keep his eyes open and saw the other four warriors rush in on Marin from four different directions. Completely unfazed, the goddess met each one head-on. A minute's worth of fighting ensued, but then Marin broke free from the press. As Ryu watched, he saw to his horror that Ruby Heart had already been knocked out. Ryu could only rage against his own helplessness; no doubt Marin's attack on him would have proven fatal were he not soulbound to the angel Rynn, and even then his body had been battered into submission. Mentally, he felt Rynn strain against the pain as she struggled to absorb it from him.

Commando projected his enormous Captain Sword high above his head and brought it crashing down, but Marin raised an arm and caught it easily enough. Commando strained; Marin retaliated by seizing the beam of energy with her other hand. She swung around and pulled hard, levering Commando around over her head before bringing him crashing into the ground. Nor did it end there; Marin sent a wave of energy skimming along the ground and it blasted through Commando, throwing him after thirty meters backwards to land heavily upon Ryu. Samantha and Strider converged on Marin, but though they approached her from opposite sides, she kept them at bay. Strider's blade flashed in the brilliant noontime sun as he and Samantha struck at their dangerous opponent, but Marin somehow managed to parry each attack as it came out. She must be at least as skilled as Dadallent ... perhaps even as skilled as McGrath, Ryu thought hazily.

They traded sixty or seventy attacks before Marin seemed to find an opening; she struck Samantha in the stomach and the Phantom leader flew backwards, crashing heavily into the ground where she stayed motionless. Now it was down to Marin against the Strider, where anyone could see that the latter was horribly outmatched. Strider moved with superhuman speed enhanced by the power of his angel, yet he could not so much as touch the goddess. Marin caught the Cypher blade in her hands and executed a fancy backflip kick, knocking it cleanly out of Strider's hands. A ball of energy formed in her right palm, but she suddenly aborted the attack and instead jumped straight up, clearing the ground by a healthy twenty or thirty meters. Nor was she a moment too swift; instantly an enormous metallic arm rammed through the space that she had just cleared. Floating in midair, Marin turned and saw where it came from. An oversized war robot had somehow appeared in the arena, and even from his position in the dust Ryu could hear its pilot screaming orders and obloquy.

Jin Saotome had arrived.

Marin sighed. "You cannot always have a machine fight in your place, human," she said softly, though the words echoed through the air. A pair of gatling guns appeared in front of the pilot's seat and Jin released them in an instant, showering Marin with bullets. For her part, Marin continued to soar in the sky as the bullets ricocheted harmlessly off a shield that surrounded her. Jin must have made a sudden change in his decision on how to approach the battle, for the rain of bullets suddenly stopped. Blodia drew its titanic fist back, wound up, and unleashed a punch aimed straight at Marin. It struck squarely and true.

Except that it did not have the desired effect. Marin did not move so much as an inch from her vantage point in the air; Blodia's arm trembled with the force of the impact, then it slowly began to rattle. From the pilot's seat, Jin screamed in anger and frustration as multiple armor failures began to register from all over his machine. Blodia shook even more intensely. Right in front of Jin's disbelieving eyes, a massive finger joint broke apart and dropped down to the arena grounds. Then another, and an armor plate, and yet another, until Blodia began to fall apart. Cursing profusely, Jin struck the eject button and propelled himself into the air, landing softly on the ground as his retrorockets kicked into gear. Behind him, Blodia fell apart into a massive heap of junk metal.

Marin also landed; when she did, Jin and Strider converged on her simultaneously, but Marin simply knelt and touched a finger to the ground. When she did, an enormous energy explosion tore through the center of the arena and rapidly spread out until it had engulfed the entire arena, blasting through everything in its path. Ryu's last conscious sight was of the massive shockwave ramming into him. Jin, blasted against the golden curtains that seemed to stop everything, slumped down to the ground with blood streaming from his head. Only Strider grimly held on to his consciousness, mainly by the sheer force of his will. He slowly raised his head as he heard the sound of footsteps, but even that simple motion taxed his body to its fullest. Every last cell was wracked with pain and he felt as though he were burning from within; the agony of it made his sight uncertain.

Marin knelt down by the fallen ninja and raised his head. Exhausted and battered as he was, Strider was still taken completely by surprise to see only compassion in those beautiful blue eyes. As she touched him, he caught a glimpse of her vitality and her power. He felt her strength through her touch and it was then that he realized just how much of herself Marin had held back during the all too brief battle. Her voice, when she spoke, sounded like a crystal clear stream laced with a musical lilt. "Is that all, Hiryu? Did I not restrain myself sufficiently? Or have you surrendered all will to fight?" Her voice hardened as she projected it all over the entire stadium. It held no heat but much iron and at that moment she projected all the inexorable will of a goddess. "That cannot be the extent of your strength! Stand up and fight, I command you!"

Unseen vitality flooded into the battered warriors as they rose; wounds knit up right before their eyes, withered flesh healed, and broken bones mended. They stared at her, amazed. For her part, Marin withdrew to the center of the arena before she spoke again. "I have judged you too harshly," she said, "and I will restrain myself more. Come, do not hesitate to injure me."

None of the warriors needed a second bidding and they converged upon Marin from eight different sides. Strider was swiftest and he reached her first, but his initial attack was swept aside and when Marin struck back her fist nearly broke one of his bones. Pain again lanced through him; Ryu fired a Hadouken at her, but Marin simply absorbed the attack with no consequence to show from it. Ryu and Jin together reached close-combat distance, only that Marin held all three of them at bay. However swift they were, she was still faster, and the attacks that came from outside seemed to have no effect on her. Ryu finally managed to land a heavy Shoryuken into her, but Marin recovered in midair and lashed out with a kick on the way down, knocking Jin out of the fight.

Sagat joined in, he and Ryu striving to bring the battle as close to Marin as possible, but she would have none of it. She kept each of them at an arm's distance despite all efforts to close the gap; when Strider lashed out with a long-range strike, Marin somehow managed to rush in underneath the attack with impossible speed and put him into a takedown, driving all the breath out of his body with a strike into the stomach. Sagat rammed a knee into her temple from behind and Marin reeled, but she recovered even as Samantha continued with a powerful Minerva kick into the chin. Marin struck at Sagat with an open palmed punch; he blocked it, but guard crushed anyways and flew back a good ten meters under the force of the attack. Ryu feinted to the side as Commando and Kirina stepped in to fight; from the sidelines, Ruby Heart offered as much support as she could, but even a beginner could see that her magic was useless against the power of a goddess. Commando struck the ground with a powerful Collider that blasted through Marin; completely unaffected, she knocked him into the air with an uppercut and then swung her back leg around, driving him into the ground with her heel. Just then something tore into her back and Marin gasped, more from surprise than pain. She wheeled around to see Kirina holding a very distinctive sword, etched with half-forgotten Latin phrases. The goddess recognized her own blood dripping off the edge of one of the blades and healed herself, but the pain that had seared into her spirit still remained. There could be no doubt it was Regina's own weapon, INRI, conceived of by the Almighty Himself. Kirina swung again and Marin dodged; though she had never faced INRI in battle before, plainly any touch from that blade proved deadly at best. Kirina lunged forward with a strike and Marin sidestepped it, taking the opportunity to kick the sword out of her hands while simultaneously stuffing a kick from Ryu before it could come out. Kirina ran to recover her blade and Marin held up a hand. "Enough! I tire of this charade, it is time for you to join your friends! Vacuo Vitalis!"

Marin held up her right hand and clenched it into a fist as a pair of night-black wings erupted from her back, giving her the appearance of a sinister angel. Her face hardened into an expression of total concentration as reality itself shattered and broke away, to be replaced by an all-encompassing nothingness. Light, color, and sound vanished, ceasing to have any meaning. Instead, absolute blackness filled the entire arena and Ryu cast one wild glance around. He could see nothing beyond the broken and battered forms of his comrades and the goddess herself, but immense power converged upon Marin where she stood. Then the Void tilted - how, he could not tell - and Ryu felt an invisible and irresistible force sweep him up in its grasp. He tried desperately to move, unsure if direction even had meaning in this darkness beyond darkness, and like the proverbial fly caught in the spider's web could do nothing. The invisible current swept each of his friends up and pulled each of them inexorably inwards to ... to ... to Marin's clenched fist. Ryu felt his body shrink as the Void drew him inwards and by the time the first of his companions vanished into Marin's hand he stood no taller than the height of her pupils. The last trails of the Void pulled inwards and took him along. Ryu vanished into nothingness as sweet darkness welcomed him into a different world.