Things you need to have read to understand this chapter: Crimson (general background), In the Shadows (again, general background) Twists of Fate (because I said so)

Really lazy disclaimer of Doom: (forgot the italics yet? Good...)
Urby doesn't own ToS. And good thing too.
Hey!
It's true.
That wasn't nice!
That's true too. But who cares?
Don't tell me...
And that's true too.

Marion grinned, and did a happy jig.

"This is the challenge the Brigade's been waiting for!"

"Glad to hear it," Dragon cackled. "Can you start tomorrow evening, meow?"

"Hell! The Brigade will be ready by tonight! Meow!" Marion dashed off.

"Good. On to more pressing matters," Dragon stomped down the hall. "Everything's coming together, meow...I love that feeling!"

He made is way to the mess hall, where the majority of his Katz and Desian forces were gathered. He stopped, wondering how in the world he would get their attention.

Use your charisma. You're the boss!

He stood on a large rock and simply stared at everyone's backs. Sooner or later, they realized his presence and turned around slowly. It was a trick he learned somewhere.

Oh, the wonders of being an evil warlord!

"If you're here, you're not on duty, is that so?" he began in a normal voice, but even those in the back nodded.

"Well. In that case, meow, we will be attacking Sybak at dawn. Be ready!" he leaped off the ledge and stormed off. There was a quiet murmur of noise in the mess hall as everyone filed out to get their gear.

"Dragon?" Auburn ran to catch up to him. "Why are we going so far to Sybak? I mean, the Penguinists don't hang out there, do they, meow?"

"I guess I can trust you," Dragon hopped on his throne. "How much do you know about The Weapon?"

"Not much," Auburn admitted. "It's supposed to be this grand ould thing that will solve all our problems, meow?"

"It's not a thing," Dragon grinned, playing with a mouse that happened to happen by the armrest of his throne. "Part of it's a monster...part of it's a spirit...and part of it's a person."

Auburn waited for Dragon to explain, but he was so absorbed in mauling the mouse with one hand, with that oh-so-smug expression he always wore when he knew something others didn't, and you always had to ask him, and he'd just mess around with you for a few minutes, and finally tell you whatever it was.

"So...? Why are there so many parts?"

"Aha, that's the million-gald question," Dragon decided he was bored with the mouse and eased it down into his mouth. "You see-the monster we have...right here," he reached over and grabbed Shadow. "See, she's the base-" he swallowed- "for The Weapon. The body, meow. See?"

Auburn nodded.

"The spirit-hmmm, you familiar with all the Summon Spirits, meow? Name them, boy." He waved idly.

"Let's see!" Auburn played along with Dragon's good humor, counting off his fingers. "Efreet, Undine, the Sylphs, Celsius-"

"She's hot."

"Even though she's made of ice..."

"She's still hot."

"Anyway-so, where was I...Volt, Luna and Aska, Shadow, Maxwell, Origin, and Gnome."

"He's kickass."

"Whatever you say, sire."

"That all, meow?"

"Yes, I think so, meow."

"You're wrong," Dragon grinned, rolling a bit in his throne with laughter.

"What?" Auburn cried. "That was all ten! Well, there's that Summon Spirit of Heart, too..."

"One last one," Dragon had found another mouse.

"I don't know what it is, then," Auburn sighed.

"No? Well, that's no surprise. It's been locked away for quite some time now. It is known sometimes as 'The Beast of Blood'...ring any bells?"

"No, meow."

"Well, meow!" Dragon snorted, swinging the mouse around by the tail. "That's a shame-I'm talking about the Summon Crimson."

"Crimson?" Auburn tipped his head.

"Yep. You see, there's two parts to 'im-think Luna and Aska, boy-and he's the...engine of The Weapon."

"I see. He brings the power to it?"

"Exactly, boy." Dragon began squeezing his mouse, watching gleefully as it coughed and sputtered for air.

"And the person? What does it do?"

"Ahhh-the final part," Dragon sighed, pouting as the mouse gave a last gasp and perished. "Pity-I thought it would last longer, meow-you see, the person sort of binds it all together, per se. Without 'er, we couldn't bring the engine and the body together. The key, eh?"

"Right. Monster body, spirit engine, and human key. So...you know who the human is, meow?"

"Of course I do," Dragon picked up Shadow from where she lay on the stone table. "She's her soulsib-I do believe her name is Colette Brunel or something. You're going to see her again-isn't that exciting?"

Shadow looked at him with an empty look. She mumbled some nonsense and passed out.

"That still doesn't explain why we're going to Sybak..."

"You'll see," Dragon crunched his mouse. "Oh, you'll see..."

The Brigade stole away silently, because, as Marion would say, "It's just what we do."

"This is the place! Now everyone, shut your gobs! You know your positions, you know what you gotta do, you know how'ta do it, and you know what I'm going to do to you if you don't do it right! So...you guys ready?"

The Brigade nodded.

"Alright people. Let's make some fireworks! Meow!"

The Katz slinked in quietly, taking their places.

"Arnold! Now!" Marion commanded.

The Katz named Arnold (well, his full name was Benedict Arnold the really-stupid-number, but we're leaving that out) saluted and accidentally-on-purpose knocked over a vase. Or something that makes a noise when you break it. I would have said bomb, but who in their right mind would keep a bomb in their house...anyway, moving on...

"What was that?" a sleepy voice yawned.

Colette got up to investigate, stretching her wings a little.

"Maria?" she called out softly, but she saw a little Katz instead. "What are you doing here?"

Now, Arnold was incredibly small, and also incredibly cute. He looked up at Colette with the best innocent look he could muster.

And he could muster a very innocent look, mind.

"Gotcha!" a Katz cackled, knocking her over rather suddenly. "McClellan! Use that teleport thing of yours!"

"What?" Colette yawped in surprise. It was the last thing she was going to say for the rest of the night.

McClellan grinned and the entire Brigade vanished. The only trace they anything was ever there was one of Colette's feathers, which floated oh-so-gently down.

And, well, the vase.

Garnet shook Azure.

"Hey, hey! It's a brand new day! You gotta get up, yey! And stud-ay! And in bed you lay! 'Coz you lay-zay!"

"Shut up."

"Hiss."

Azure rolled off the bed and grabbed her study book as she made her way down to the mess hall. This is shaping up...

There was a hoard of Katz and Desians already at the mess hall, making an absolute mess of things and generally terrifying the students.

"Now look here, meow!" a particularly large Katz with a lashing tail growled, having cornered a teacher with a scimitar. "Tell me-who here knows of MAYA?"

"We don't have anything called MAYA on campus!" the teacher insisted. "What does it stand for, anyway?"

"It doesn't stand for anything," Azure said sleepily. "It's just this really big machine..."

"Azure!" Garnet hissed, squeezing her arm. "You fool!"

The big Katz turned on them, impossibly close to gutting their throats.

"So you know of MAYA, eh? Be good girls and show Dragon where it is, meow."

...To be a very bad day...

Dragon danced, oh, everything was so perfect, they had MAYA, they had Shadow, Marion's Brigade were returning, and their Summoner Katz would come back any minute with that Summon Spirit in tow.

"DRAGON," Verti said. "A KATZ WISHES TO SPEAK WITH YOU..."

"Very well," Dragon waved them in. It was his Summoner. Splendid.

"So...?" Dragon sensed there was something wrong. The Katz didn't hold himself up right, he smelled of anxiety.

The Katz gulped. "I'm sorry...there was nothing at the seal, meow..."

Dragon stared for what seemed to be an eternity at the Katz in front of him.

"Forgive me, sire..." the Katz shrunk down.

"It's not your fault," Dragon sighed. "Crimson is known to have multiple seals, anyway. That's just too bad-Verti!" he turned to the doll-Katz. "Tell me the location of the next seal."

"LONGITUDE X, LATITUDE Y," Verti replied simply.

"That means-" Dragon consulted a map on the wall. "Oh, gods!" he rambled off in a string of colorful curses.

"What is it?" the Summoner asked, scratching an ear.

"The last seal-it's in the Penguinist Base! This is an outrage!"

He began to shred some pieces of paper nearby.

"DRAGON. THAT KATZINIST CHILD...WHAT WAS HER NUMBER?"

"Sixty-three," Dragon snapped, not wanting to be interrupted in his shredding moment. "Wait...Verti, you're a genius!" he led the doll-Katz through a few steps of an Indian jig. "We won't have to do any work after all!"

"Unless the Penguinists are so stupid they don't know what she can do," the Summoner Katz offered.

"Shut up! I'm in the middle of an Indian jig here-why spoil a good mood?"

"DRAGON...DRAGON...PLEASE STOP..."

"Ruby!" Sam hugged the Katzinist. "You're okay!"

"They didn't abuse me or anything," Ruby blinked. "But it's good to be home, anyway."

"Boss, sir!" Sam called the Head Penguinist over. "This is Ruby...the Katzinist I was talking about."

"Is that so?" the Head Penguinist knelt to Ruby's height and muzzed up her hair. "Did you have a number, child?"

"Yeah," Ruby chewed on her hand. "Sixty-three."

"Six...three?" the Head Penguinist blinked. "Can...do you see weird colors sometimes?"

"Yep!" Ruby nodded. "They're mana flows!"

"Perfect," the Head Penguinist rubbed his flippers together, smiling warmly. "How well can you see them?"

"Really well," Ruby smiled. "I see them everywhere."

"Really!" the Head Penguinist shook his head. "Wow. Just...wow."

"Why?" Ruby noshed on her tail this time.

"Well, you see, there's this seal on this mountain. Supposedly, there's a spirit there, but we're not sure. I'll show you..."

"Boss!" a purple Penguinist panted. "Katz! A lot of them!"

"Damn," the Head Penguinist sighed. "Well, I'll have to wait. I'm sorry."

"It's okay," Ruby waved, now completely alone. All the Penguinists had left for the field.

"I wish Byruu was here."

A few hours earlier...

"Hey Dragon! We just got word from the Fifth battalion! Once assembled, we can launch an attack at the Penguinists!" A Desian reported, saluting.

"Oh...really?" Dragon was currently having a drink with Auburn, the Summoner Katz, and Verti. Well, Verti wasn't drinking, but they'd tried to get him to. "You go do that if you want, meow."

"What?" the Desian coughed in surprise. Dragon had never missed an occasion to kill some Penguinists.

"The war with them is over," Dragon explained, hiccupping. "The war with every...hic...one else 'z just begun. 'Z soon as we build that dang weapon, that iz."

"DRAGON," Verti said. "IT WOULD BE MORE EFFECTIVE TO DISTRACT THEM WHILE SIXTY-THREE FINDS THE SPIRIT..."

"Dangit, yer right," Dragon said after another pull at his drink. "Here, kid, have a beer-you deserve it, meohic. As for you!" he pointed at the Desian and missed by a few inches, "go and kick some Penguinist ass. 'Coz I said so!"

Byruu meandered the familiar tunnels, humming. The sound of her feet and her voice carried around the walls, making them sound a little eerie. Ah well. No one went through these tunnels except her and any guests she deemed worthy.

She paused by her grandmother's 'door'. Oh well. Might as well.

"Good morning!" she poked in brightly.

"Oh! You likkle scoundral! Yew almost scared me out uf my skeen! Was in a nice likkle nap, too." The Oracle grumbled.

"Sorry," Byruu lied. "Anyway, mew! Got any cookies?"

"Bah! Why would I share such zings with yew? Ungrateful likkle kitten!"

Byruu looked over at an open volume of the Oracle's scribblings and looked at it. "Say, when is the war gonna end?"

"End? It ended about five meenites ago."

Byruu whirled. "What? Then...then...that altar wing thing! How long after the end was that?"

"Hmmm? Some...day and a half, why?"

Byruu blinked. This wasn't good. Not good at all.

Earlier she had gone to Iselia again to say hi. See the sights. Breathe the fresh air. Okay, she was just there for the pie.

When she arrived at the Irving (so we shall assume for now) house, there was no trace of her friend. Only Lloyd. Oh, Lloyd looked ready to break down. Or slice a few heads off. In any order, really. To him, it probably didn't matter.

The only thing he had left of her was a note from Marion's Brigade. Byruu had given him a heads-up on the Katz and Penguinist war, to try and explain her disappearance.

But both of them knew it didn't explain a single thing.

Why would anyone want to get their hands on a weakened angel, anyway? For a Katz and Penguinist war?

Whatever the reason, they probably were not going to give her back in a day and a half.