Disclaimers: If I were to own it, I'd probably decide it'd be fun to mess up their lives and make Krad cross dress at least once in his long lifetime (gets stabbed)
Warnings: Confusing, pointless, badly written (well, that's what I think) and Krad talks to With… like a person… for some reason…
Other: Bleah… is there anything I can say? It's a confusing piece of writing and, well, you don't really hear much about the fighting. Oh well, whatever.
000
"When they meet again, something more terrifying and evil will awaken. Something long since sealed away will break free: leaving death and destruction in its wake. Will they be able to handle it again? Or is this the end of the road?"
Phase Nine: Things Can Happen (without ones' notice on it)
"You seem to be pretty… knowing about everything at the moment," Krad commented, raising an eyebrow, "Do you have any idea on what's going on at the moment?"
Both Satoshi and Daisuke exchanged bewildered glances at this, wondering why in the name of hell was the blonde talking to With now? Well, as the demon-rabbit-bunny-like-creature seemed to be going all hyperactive and incredibly worried, they might have thought as much.
Dark, being as bored as he was and hating the idea of being cooped in a room that was, well it wasn't small, but being stuck anywhere was enough to get on his nerves and he was being very loud about it. It seemed to be part of his character/personality… it was amazing that no one had honestly tried to kill him before now.
And no, they were not about to try now. Maybe… sometime in the near future would do.
Daisuke, having completely recovered, paced the room to get rid of some of his excess nervous energy. That and he was thinking over the little conversation he had just had with Satoshi before both Dark and Krad had burst into the room; without knocking again, it would seem.
"Kyuu! Kyu kyu kyu kyu kyu!" was all the rabbit could say and continuously bounced up and down on the bed, waving his arms (well, paws) wildly, as if it was enough to tell them exactly what he wanted to say. But, as it was, they had no clue, and Krad demanding knowing what was going on wasn't helping matters.
Add that with Dark's complaining and there was just a whole lot of chaos and the readiness of painful headaches and pain. A lot of it, one might have to add before it got too far.
Satoshi was the one suffering the most, it would seem.
Trying to block out one person talking was one thing, and sure, he could do that fine without any problem, but having two people talking and one demon making a hell of a lot of noise, it was just painful.
"You okay?" the redhead asked, noticing the vampire's discomfort. The blunette shrugged slightly at this, trying hard not to crack under the annoying pressure he knew he'd have to live with while he was traveling with them.
"It could be worse, I suppose," he muttered in reply, "I could be back home, having to hear everyone in the family lecturing me about not being a proper vampire and all."
"Oi, Daisuke," Krad snapped, turning to face the two, "do you have any idea what your familiar is trying to say? Or it this just another plead for food or attention or something?"
Scratching the back of his head, he daemon tamer walked over to With and caught the creature in mid-jump. Holding him up to eye-level, Daisuke blinked, "Well, With?"
"Kyuu… kyuu kyuuuuu kyu," With inclined his head and blinked back, flapping his ears around.
"… I really have to get myself a familiar that can communicate without just one word," the redhead decided out loud, before turning back to the others; Dark had finally been gagged by Krad, who had threatened to kill him if he kept complaining, was now sulking by the corner. "It seems that there's been some sort of unbalance or something. And seeing as this is With we're talking about, it has to do something about a… gate?"
"The Gate?" Krad looked over to Dark, who shrugged.
"Well, it has to be something big," Daisuke fell silent, thinking about it for a moment, "and whatever it is, it's coming this way. I wonder how the other monsters are handling it out there…"
The blonde suddenly snorted, cutting him short. "Krad?"
"Great, I knew that this was going to happen," she ranted, "But I was hoping against everything else that they would be stupid enough and too out of whack to work out what's actually going on."
Dark pulled his gag off, finally getting what she was saying, "You mean… they've already found us out?.!"
"Seems so."
"Damn."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. But the question remains… what are we supposed to do?" she looked around to the other three, waiting for suggestions, it seemed.
Satoshi shook his head, "It's still going to be hours before it becomes night and I doubt we'll be able to stay hidden until then. I'm assuming that's what the others are trying to do?"
"Of course," nodded Daisuke, "But even if they are all specialized Daemon tamers and all, I don't think even they'll be able to control any sort of large force, especially seeing as they aren't really… human."
Frowning at this, Krad muttered something under her breath, "That could be a real problem…" she raised her voice, "The question is how capable are summoned daemons against magical forces?"
"We'll probably find out sooner or later," Dark looked around the room, as the window had already been closed and curtains drawn inwards, "of course I've noticed that sooner seems to be before later these days… Until then, why don't we see if there's any other way out of here. I have no intention of standing around like a sitting duck."
"Or chicken."
He turned to face the blonde who had just said that, "What?"
"Oh… nothing," she shrugged nonchalantly.
"Right…"
000
Running a hand through her hair, Aine gnawed the edges of her sleeve, frowning slightly as they stood around the large fountain that was still spouting water like it was supposed to do.
"So are you totally sure that we'll be able to keep them away? I mean, come on, by the sounds of it, it's an incredibly large force coming after us."
"We can summon more than they can call, remember?" Armel commented lightly, swinging the rapier he had picked up during their run down to the garden. He seemed annoyed with the setback and seemed to want to get back to his work soon. Aine elbowed him cheerfully.
"Aw… come on, what can be better than fighting back armed forces of scary, scary people that I don't know what they actually are," a sigh, "we all know you love killing dangerous and reckless monsters for a living, but this is important. Daisuke's counting on us." She gave him a shove.
Alethea shushed them, "I'm trying to concentrate. Give me a moment."
"Hey hey hey, why are we all standing around this fountain, anyway?" demanded Aine, who was clearly beginning to get impatient with all the standing and the doing nothing and so forth. "Shouldn't we be doing something more… useful? Like, you know…"
"You don't know what you're talking about, do you?" Armel raised an eyebrow as he continued to swing his weapon, "Well, whatever. I'll be over at the front in case they decide to come that way."
As he left, the short haired girl continued to bounce on the balls of her feet impatiently and completely and utterly annoying her sister and remaining brother in the process. "Come on, come on, come on…"
"Shut up, Aine," grated Argentine between clenched teeth; he looked ready to strangle the girl. "If you don't pipe down now…"
"Summon something to shut me up again and I'll send something after you, Argie."
"…" Argentine's eye twitched just slightly – a sure sign of fragmenting patience – and spun on his heel, and headed towards the inside of the house, "I'm sure three of us will be enough to hold them off."
"Where are you going?" stopping, Alethea raised an eyebrow at this, watching him as he walked off.
"Hm… later. We'll have to talk about it later."
They both watched as he walked off as well, and then exchanged bewildered looks before shrugging it out. By the sounds of the concentrated marching, the people they were about to be forced to hold off were coming soon.
Aine rolled her eyes, "Well, here we go."
000
He waved his rapier lightly, smirking with interest as he saw a small column of people approaching their home. Residents that lived around them just watched warily as they allowed them to pass by. Armel inclined his hair as he brushed his hair back with his free hair coolly.
"Never thought too much about it, but they're weird looking. Never seen an army this… small," he said to himself, "but there's no way in hell that I'm going to allow them into access with this house. This is going to be painful."
000
The last thing that the other four, currently pondering in the room, expected was Argentine bursting into the room. "You guys really need to get out of here. Now."
"And you only worked it out now?" Dark lay on the ground, staring blankly at the ceiling and occasionally tapping his head with the hilt of his dagger. "Of course, the only thing we know at the moment is blowing up the place and creating an underground passageway or something."
"You're in luck then, because that's the way you'll be going," he waved over to them, "unless you hate the dark or something…"
Krad stood up, brushing her cloak and rearranging her broadsword, "We could be worse off. The last thing I need is formal titles again; it's the absolute worse. Oh, won't they arrest your or something for denying them entrance?"
With a snort, the sandy-blonde-haired man shook his head, "They can't follow with laws like that; especially if they're not even in their own world, if you get my drift. Besides, the Delvin family has a tradition of being rather brutal to intruders and people who weren't invited along by someone known…"
"All in all, you're a sadist," offered Daisuke helpfully, grinning over at his former mentor, who sighed.
"You're lucky you used to be a student of mine… even if it was at a young age. If anyone else… aside from family or maybe your sister…"
"Hey, it's a good sadisity…"
Satoshi blinked, "You're making up random words now."
"Improvising?"
"Hm…"
"So where are we walking off to this time, then?" asked Dark, seeing as the two younger males were now making more or less no sense on the matter and With had given up bouncing around and was just sprawled on the bed like a stuffed animal.
"Just follow me."
They did as they were told, mostly having to note such instruction as "don't step on that step unless you want to be electrocuted" and "ignore the trip wire" or "keep to this side unless you want to have arrows flying at your head".
Daisuke ducked under a large beam that seemed to have collapsed on itself and was at an odd angle as they entered what could only be described as the dead part of the house; leading to the basement, cellars, etc. "Argentine-kun, when did you decide to start booby-trapping the place?"
He turned briefly at this, flicking at a piece of dust that seemed to be suspended in mid-air, and shrugged, "A year ago, I think. And I do believe that it was all Alethea's idea, in an attempt to keep Aine from getting into trouble. Although after that crazy girl got around to reading about how to make traps… it's a little dangerous if you don't know your way around."
"Nice, but I honestly can't see anything at the moment," grumbled Krad's voice somewhere behind them.
"Come on, then," Dark replied, and then there was an indignant yelp and then a slap… "What was that for!"
"Don't just try to grab people's hands while they had no idea where they're going!"
"I can see just fine! Come on!"
"No! My eyes'll adjust! ... Eventually."
"Krad, honestly, you have to stop acting like that otherwise I'll be dead before the week is through."
"That's your fault, not mine."
There was a moment of grumbling and then sullen silence.
"Argentine-kun… are you actually able to see? Because I'm having trouble at the moment…" the redhead trailed off when he felt a hand take his own behind him and then identified Satoshi's voice.
"There really isn't much here, unless you like seeing cobwebs and spiders… and corpses."
"Say what?" Dark asked, and if anyone else had been able to see properly, they would have picked the purple-haired guy's grin off at an instant. Then again, being the irrational guy he was and all, they shouldn't have expected any less.
There was a snort up at the very front, "We don't have corpses around here. And even if we did, they'd just be skeletons in the end."
"… So where are we headed anyway?"
"We're almost there…" Argentine began muttered, pointing at particular door-looking-vibes, "Bathroom, bathroom, dressing room, clothes storage room… ah, here we go. This should be the one to lead you out of town. I have no idea on where it ends up taking you, but it should be okay."
"I'm beginning to wonder if I'll ever be able to trust what another male says," Krad sighed, as both herself and Daisuke couldn't see a thing still and had to be more or less led off by Dark and Satoshi.
"Be careful either way." Argentine told them as they walked onwards without him. "And tell Daichi to stop trying to send snakes after her enemies; they're bound to bite her first."
Daisuke laughed nervously at this, unable to see the bewildered glances that the others shot at one another (or at the wall, as was Krad's case) and knew that he was blushing. Hey, sister twin or not, he wasn't exactly the boss of her and whatever she chose to do was entirely her choice and he really had no say on it; unless he had something really against it, of course.
"So where do you think this place leads to, then?" Dark asked sometime later, as they just walked on, and on, and on, and on into the… well, nothingness, it seemed. Although it was becoming obvious that it was getting annoyingly cold and there seemed to be no end to it.
"Who knows, but we have to take our chances on it, don't we? Nothing more unless you want me to blast a hole into the ceiling… why are we still walking in the dark!" the blonde suddenly seemed to explode and there was a yelp from Daisuke before a flickering ball of light came to life. Krad huffed in annoyance, "I knew I should have done this before… you two okay?"
It was clear that the redhead had cannoned into the vampire and the two had fallen over after the blonde finally just snapped for five seconds. Both were sprawled on the rocky floor and Dark sniggered while Krad just blinked.
"That's got to hurt."
With nodded silently from the top of Daisuke's head.
"Ow… that's bright, you know," the redhead whined slightly as he sat up and only then noticed their position, "Ah! Satoshi-kun, are you alright?"
"I've had worse, remember."
Dark blinked, "'Satoshi-kun'? Care to enlighten me to when this began? Or are you two…" Krad placed her free hand over his mouth to keep him quiet.
"Walk now; talk later. I hate the feeling of this place; too creepy and quiet," and as if to prove her point, her voice bounced and echoed eerily around them. Dark shrugged at this, but decided not to question her decision.
They continued on their way in silence, although the constant sound of dripping water was something that they couldn't block out, even if they wanted to. Part of them did, seeing as the noise was bound to make them partly insane, but the other part just decided that it was better that than in complete and utterly eerie silence.
"Look!" ignoring the startled glares and yelps and Krad's frown, Dark pointed forwards, as if they couldn't see, "I see the light at the end of the tunnel!"
"Very original, I'm sure," snorted Satoshi. "We're not blind, you know."
"Ha ha ha… whatever."
"Dark, stop acting like a child and come on. This is bound to be something."
"O… kay… what the?"
000
"Well, you see," Alethea began courteously; both Aine and herself confronted by an odd number of soldiers, "you're trespassing on private grounds at the moment, sirs, and unless you have a former appointment arranged, we can't allow you entrance."
"I suggest you change your mind about that," barked one of the soldiers, drawing his sword and pointing it dangerously close to her throat, but one – suspected to be the captain – batted it away and bowed to her.
"Do forgive him, dear lady. He's a bit… ignorant. But we are here on royal orders and must go. You see… we lost some of our own down in this world a few years back and we have been commanded by both the queen and king of the Sun and Moon kingdom to bring them back as soon as we got word of their position. It's merely from the goodness of their hearts."
Aine raised her eyebrows at this, "Is that so? Well, like my sister said; you can't come in without an arranged appointment. And this is the backyard, might I add. I do believe you'll have to pay for wrecking innocent hedges?"
"Innocent?" spluttered another figure, who was trying to wrestle what looked like vines off their neck. "This thing is strangling me!"
"Well, you shouldn't have forced your way in here then."
There was the sound of an explosion from where the front door was located and the two girls passed knowing glances, "Armel."
"Okay then," Aine said conversationally, cracking her knuckles, "it looks like you people aren't about to leave soon, so why don't we do it for you?" She flipped out her dagger – which had been concealed in the sleeve of her shirt – and smirked.
All Alethea could really do was shake her head as she pulled out her own summoning gear, "I'm beginning to wonder if being sadistic runs in the family."
"Oh, come on, sis, you know it's fun."
"That's the problem, isn't it?"
With a shrug, they watched with amusement as the small party of soldiers made their way towards them, seeing as they weren't about to allow them to pass anytime soon.
Of course, whether magical-soldiers-not-exactly-human against summoned-monsters-from-who-knew-where had a conclusion, no one would truly know; and not for a long time, at that.
000
(cough) I can't help but think that this has been a really, really… badly-written chapter. Wheee--! (runs into a wall) Well, at least that's out of the way now and I can think of other things. Mainly… what happens next.
Yeah, for some reason they have an underground pathway to someplace and people are fighting and… I don't even know what kind of race Krad and Dark are, really. o.O They're like… human but not. And there was the chicken mention for some reason. Don't ask why.
Mria: Glad you liked the Christmas thing, it was a rather random thing because I wanted something for the season but couldn't find the time oO Well, it's only really loosely based, because I have no idea where this is really going anymore. I'll probably add more later, if I see fit XD We'll probably find out in a couple of chapters. Dark and Krad can't run away forever ;)
ginny brenn: Hrm… that's a good idea, actually (insert evil smirk here) Daichi's the over reactive sort, so that's for sure. Thanks for the reviews-!