Disclaimer: I do not own YYH or it's characters. I do own Angela, Star, and the twins. I own the Darkness, the shadow creatures, the zombie queen, and the Crimson Force. I also own Kaen. Though I'm not going to go into details about her.
Legend:
-Thought-
-Telepathy-
/Flashbacks/
/Dream/Visions/
Noise
Empathy/feelings
Chapter Fifteen
The air was quiet and tense, like the calm before a storm. Over three hundred demons and SDF soldiers stood before the ruins of a stadium. A slight wind blew up the loose dry dirt around them, every now and then causing dust devils of every size.
A woman stood out of the army. She wore loose black pants and a black t-shirt with the sleeves cut off. Her ashy hair was pulled back into a tight braid to keep it out of her face where it could possibly obscure her vision. Her emerald eyes flashed menacingly as she waited for the fallen ones. Close behind her stood a tall man with ruby red hair and cold green eyes wearing a long yellow robe over a loose white shirt and loose white pants. To his left stood a tall dark haired man with flashing mahogany eyes that wore a denim jacket over a white t-shirt and blue jeans. To his left stood a short woman with long red hair and equally flashing brown eyes, wearing a tight white shirt and black jeans. To her left stood a tall man with short curly light red hair and small dark eyes. He wore a long white jacket and white pants. Instead of wearing a shirt, his abdomen was wrapped in bandages. Behind them stood a woman with short orange hair flipped over to her left side. The man to her right had long black hair, six ears and seven horns. Behind them stood a line of six prominent figures. A tall red haired man with a single horn, a short man with ice blue hair, a tall man with a blue mohawk, a child-like demon with brown hair and three stars under his left eye, a man with long blue hair and a tall man with short blonde hair. Behind them stood the rest of the army. All wore grim faces, all knowing their chances of survival, yet intent to stay and battle the oncoming war. None would even dare to let the thoughts of fleeing enter their minds. These were their worlds and they were going to fight for them to the death.
Angela didn't even glance back when she shouted. "Get ready!" They all turned their eyes to the bruised clouds and sky above them, seeing a glowering red glow add a bloody taint to the violet, ruby and indigo cloudy sky.
Nine bloody orbs crashed to the ground, blasting rocks and debris over the 'good' army. However the debris disapated or bounced off of the large golden light shield. Before the smoke cleared a clear evil laughter rang from the center of the crater caused by the pods encompassing the last of the Fallen Twelve. Angela glared coldly into the smoke as nine figures emerged from the pods and walked forward, led by a tall lean figure. Those in the army that had not seen the twins inwardly gasped at the horrifying figures, and those that had were still nauseated by them. They had bloody bodies that had skin either melting and falling off or burned black against pulsing muscles with equally bloody and burned wings that protruded from their shoulderblades, a disgusting form suited for only the most evil of hearts.
The tall one laughed again, a strangely clear laugh that came from a lipless mouth and bleeding throat. "So. The little queen has somehow managed to come back to fulfill the prophecy. Tsk, I hope you didn't believe that the prophecy meant you would win." He shook his gruesome head. "Poor queen. Look how far you have fallen. Now you are a mere mortal, living in the wastes of humanity. Such a far cry from the delicate, pampered lifestyle of a royal Angel."
Angela continued to stare coldly at Seir, saying in a clear emotionless voice, "I may be mortal and human, but I have not fallen. I have found that, if anything, I am stronger now, tempered and strengthened by 'humanity'. Humanity, a term not meant as a degrading sneer towards mortal humans, but a term meant to describe humility, honor, bravery, strength, love, and a respect for life. This 'humanity' can be found in almost everything that lives. Except for you and the rest of the Fallen Twelve. You, who have indulged in the darkest desires of evil, shall never know humanity." She didn't even bat an eye while she said this. She said it calmly, without any hint of the hatred she felt for this creature that stood before her. Or any hint of the pity she felt for him and the rest of the Fallen Twelve. "You are the ones that have fallen so far from the very being of Angels. I banished you, not out of hate or disgust, but out of fear for what you could do to the worlds. I did it because I had to. You gave me no choice Seir. You and the rest of the Fallen Twelve chose your fate. The moment you decided to over take the worlds you sealed your doom."
Seir laughed once, clearly. "My dear majesty, if indeed you banished me and my colleagues because of our threat to the worlds, why did you not banish yourself. Do you not see the threat you cause the worlds." Angela's eyes narrowed. He continued smoothly, "It was you who made me this way. Do you not remember? You once told me to go find something to enjoy myself with and leave you alone. You hurt me deeply, but I followed your orders and invited my friends to join me. The day you told me to leave, you sealed the fate of the worlds and the Angels. If anyone should be banished due to their threat or harm to the worlds it should be you, my queen, my love."
Angela stiffened as memory came flooding back to her, of how Seir, barely nine hundred years her senior, had tried to court her, but she, sensing something odd about him, had refused him, saying 'Go away Seir, go find something to entertain your desires with, just leave me be. I want nothing to do with you.' She had been about eight hundred years old and foolish, such as the way with adolescent girls.
Seir smiled, watching her face crumple as she realized that he was right. He beckoned to her, his voice haunting as he called to her. "Come here Angela. Come here my love. I will forgive you. Come into my arms."
Kurama saw Angela's eyes become glazed as she stiffly started to walk towards Seir, caught within his deceptive spell. Kurama jumped in front of her and held her back, shouting to the army, "Now! Attack!"
Seir snarled. He raised his arms and called out, his voice booming. "Come to me, my dead army! Come, answer the call of you master! Fight!" A dead deafening silence fell around the living army. As if tied to invisible strings that were abruptly jerked up, fifteen hundred zombies and fifteen zombie queens burst out of the ground, instantly surrounding the living army.
Kurama, noticing Angela's eyes were still glazed, slapped her and shook her out of the spell as he called for Touya. The ice haired man ran over, taking Angela's hand. Kurama shook the woman again, looking into her eyes as they cleared. "Angela? Which plan are you going to go with?" he asked gently; they had come up with two plans to deal with the zombies.
She looked at him hard. "Plan B then A."
Kurama looked surprised. "Won't that use up too much energy?"
Angela shook her head. "It doesn't matter, we need to get rid of the zombes with as few casualties as we can manage."
Kurama nodded, then turned to the army. "Formation! Plan B then A!" The order was passed to everyone, so if they hadn't heard his voice they still got the order.
Everyone formed a tight circle around Angela and Touya, preparing for plan B. Angela, though crowded, stood out alone. She closed her eyes, tapped into her fury at the desecration of the dead, and concentrated hard. Everyone felt a tremor pass below their firmly braced feet. When the tremor reached the outside circle, it erupted into a full fledged wave of earth, spreading in a circle from the living army to knock the feet out from under the zombies. Angela didn't even wait for the earthquake to stop before she charge the air around the zombies to such a height that one could see sparks of electricity pop in the air. Then she threw her head back and screamed, the wave shock of thunder passed over everyone as close to half of the zombies were incinerated by the explosive lightening show.
Seir and the rest of the Crimson Force were awed and slightly scared by the power that their ex-queen possesed. Seir quickly regained his wits, shouting to his army to attack. Almost as quick as the lightening, the remaining zombies closed the gap left by the electric blast and started to attack.
Touya quickly grabbed Angela's hand and a freezing air enveloped them, then spread to the outer circle of fighters to rest on the oncoming zombies. Half of the zombies, those closest to the circle of fighters froze instantly. Touya opened his eyes, indicating that they did as much as they could.
Mukuro nodded saying, "Well I think we can handle close to three hundred and eighty zombies." She shouted to her army. "Att-!"
Angela grabbed her arm, shaking her head. "I can handle one more trick." She then concentrated on the power within her that controled fire. "Mukuro, have some of your fire starters set a few of the zombies ablaze, I'll do the rest." Mukuro nodded and telepathically ordered her fire starters at the edge of their circle to do as Angela had said. She watched the woman's face as Angela smirked. "Perfect," she said quietly. The fires set on the zombies quickly spread like wild fire on a dry wheat field, pushed by some unseen force.
Seir saw it and quickly shouted a litany of the Angels' ancient language, arms raised to the heavy clouds above them. The clouds rumbled in response and opened up, letting go of it's liquid burden, quickly drowning the fire as quickly as it had started.
Angela cursed and looked at Mukuro. "I'm sorry. I couldn't do it."
Mukuro patted the girl's shoulder. "You did enough. We're now down to one-eighth of the original army. We now outnumber them. We can take it from here." She telepathically and physically shouted to her army. "ATTACK!"
The army responded instantly, jumping to action, moving outward from their circle to meet the thin line of zombies head on. While the ground army dealt with the zombies, the flyers quickly zipped to the zombie queens, carrying the stronger fighters to battle the fifteen rotting queens. Mukuro was among them, quickly exterminating two surprised queens before she had even landed, cutting the slices in the space across the zombie queens, cutting them in half. A fire starter followed her lead and turned them into ashes to make sure they would not be getting up again. Cheers greeted them as several handfulls of zombies accompanied their queens in the afterlife that they had been ripped from.
Jin spotted a lone zombie queen and looked down at his partner. "Ready Kaen?"
The red haired and red eyed female fire demon looked up at him. "Sure, do you have to ask," she growled.
Jin smiled. -I guess all fire demons have short fuses,- he thought as they flew down towards the zombie queen. Cheers erupted as they landed, indicating another zombie queen had met an ashy end. As Jin dropped the girl he immediately started to attack. "Tornado Fist!" he shouted as he punched in the air, a small and violent twister forming from his fist to hit the zombie queen in the chest. She snarled, turning towards the tall red headed wind master.
Kaen, using her speed, appeared behind the queen and yelled, "Fire Bomb!" A firey explosion hit the queen in the back, setting her ablaze. As she fell to the ground to douse out the fire, Kaen yelled again. "Infernal Flame!" The ground beneath the queen erupted, spewing forth fire from the pits of hell, instantly incinerating the decaying queen.
Angela heard more erruption of cheers as handful after handful of zombies turned to ash. She lifted slightly into the air to see over the heads of the small group of fighters that surrounded her. What she saw disturbed her. She had expected the Crimson Force to show signs of worry and fear as their army was so easily being destroyed. But what she saw was the exact opposite. They didn't seem perturbed in the least. They had joined hands, smirking, or as close as they could get to smirking with their melted or lipless mouths. -What are they doing?- she asked herself.
As if knowing she was watching, they all turned their faces to her, eyes glowing like coal embers in a dying fire. Angela gasped, her gut telling her to act quickly. She did as ordered and shouted telepathically to the shielders to cast their shields around their partners as she cast her own large bubble shield around as many of the fighters as she could, thankful that they had paired the flyer-fighter pairs like the shielder-fighter pairs, one that could fly and one that could fight, cast fire or could shield, each pair accompanied by a pair with either a shielder or a fire starter, depending on what the first pair could do. Mukuro was quickly embraced by her flyer/shielder while the fire/shielder and flyer pair next to her crouched down together, both pairs shielded as best as possible against what was coming. Jin was just as quickly grabbed by Kaen and brought close to be surrounded by her fire shield. Star, Yusuke and the majority of the DT gang were just outside of Angela's shield. Star screamed for them and as many others to get close to her. She grabbed a crystal hanging from a silver chain around her neck and closed her eyes, whispering to herself. A blue sphere surrounded her and close to fifteen fighters.
All around shielders followed Angela's order as quickly as possible. Most were quick enough to cast their shields as a dark bloody light fell around them. Those that had not cast the shields quick enough could be heard as their voices rose in a chorus of immense and excrutiating pain. Everyone closed their eyes and ears tight against the sight and sound of the torture of their comrades. Long the pain went on before death was merciful to free them. When the air around them became silent in the wake of mass death, they dared to open their eyes. Everyone gasped at the bloody skinless corpses that were spread around them. A good quarter of their army now laid in the embrace of merciful death. Angela cried, once again she had failed to prevent the death of others due to her irresponsible lack of noticing sooner what the Crimson Force had been planning.
Kurama saw her and hugged her shoulders, saying softly, "They died with honor, remember, they said they would willingly go to hell if that was what it cost to protect the worlds. Don't take their deaths on your shoulders. But instead of hell, they'll go to heaven." Angela nodded.
Mukuro landed next to them. "That attack also destroyed their army. Let's get ready for the real battle," she said grimly, then shouted, "Formation!"