Overcoming Destiny

"Talking"

'Thinking'

"Wireless communications"

Ch 23

Shadows ghosted through the halls of the castle in Tristain. The door to a room along the hall was opened and closed with just a whisper of sound. On the far end of the large sparsely furnished room sat a rather plain but still large four poster bed with the curtains drawn, off to the side was a plain wardrobe next to a plain vanity. The shadows ignored everything else but the curtained bed. As the curtains were opened the shadows were hit by another group of shadows. Candles and lanterns were ignited revealing the holders of the light to be a group of Imps. The groups of shadows were revealed to be assassins clothed in dark colors being held down by a few more Imps.

"What do we do with them?" One of the Imps asked glaring down at the assassin she was holding.

"Take them for questioning. I'm sure you will be able to get more accurate information than us." Henrietta ordered as she exited the wardrobe that had a bed set up on its floor.

"I think that should be all of them for now, so if you want you can sleep in your actual bed tonight." The Imp that was in charge told her. "I know for a fact that can't be comfortable and we need you well rested to be able to make rational decisions."

"Yes. That would be best." Henrietta agreed blearily as she practically collapsed the tension from the last few days catching up to her.

"Easy there. We don't want to keep you safe only to have you injure yourself on the floor." The male Imp stated catching Henrietta before she hit the floor.

"Thank you, Kairyu." Henrietta said kissing him on the cheek.

Kairyu spluttered in shock at that getting the now sleeping Henrietta into her bed.

"Well now. Aren't you special." A teammate said teasingly as Kairyu tucked Henrietta in before standing back up.

"You lucky dog you."

"When's the wedding?" One of his female teammates asked sweetly.

"Kaguya please stop." Kairyu mumbled as he drug his hand down his face.

"Oh come now. don't you know? A girl's kisses are very important to her." Kaguya giggled as she held her cheeks and wiggled her body in ecstasy.

"Now that's just disturbing." One of the other guys stated.

"Kaguya just how old are you?" Kairyu asked. "You look like you could be sixteen. But we know that, that doesn't mean anything."

"I'm eternally fifteen." Kaguya stated as she gave a victory sign.

All of the guys groaned as they hung their heads before disappearing back into the shadows.

OOooOO

"Smith I know that Titania asked us and Dad to lead the covert assault on Albion's forces since we have the most experience as guerrilla commanders. But what the blue blazes are you doing?" Sinon asked her fiancé whom appeared to be trying to dig a tunnel as she adjusted the massive rifle slung over her shoulder.

"What does it look like, I'm digging a tunnel network to sneak behind enemy lines. They'll never see it coming." Smith said proudly.

"Sinon either knock some sense into him or I will." Logan said scratching the back of his neck in irritation.

Sinon looked over at the group of Fae that had volunteered for this operation before sighing. "It may not make sense to you but it keeps him busy and out of our hair. Which I would be appreciative of for awhile."

"Are we sure he's not part mole he's pretty far down there." Logan commented as Smith came back to where they could see him.

"Yeah don't mind me. I'll just dig my useless hole while y'all go off and save the world." Smith said as he went back down the mine shaft. "I could use some more lumber to shore up tunnel 5 though! If it's not too much trouble." He finished with a casual shrug.

Everyone present blinked in surprise at that declaration while Sinon groaned scratching an ear in thought. "Dad you've worked as a lumber jack before. Care to make use of a couple of guys to help you while I take care of our objective?"

"I could do that." Logan answered shrugging. "Give us a little bit to track down a few axes."

"What about your claws? Wouldn't those work better? I mean they can cut through steel after all." Smith asked innocently suddenly next to Logan.

Logan's first reaction was to cut off Smith's right arm in surprise before stopping himself from going further.

"Aaaaaah! My arm! He cut off me arm!" Smith cried holding the stump before looking closer at it. "Wait. Shouldn't it be bleeding more? That's barely a teaspoon. It's supposed to be spurting blood like no tomorrow right?" Smith asked looking at Sinon questioningly.

"With all the bellyaching you were just doing you should be dead by now from blood loss." Sinon answered as the other Fae with them had stumbled back in fright.

"That means..." Smith sat there for a moment contemplating before raising his remaining arm in realization. "I inherited my dad's mutation!" He walked over to the tunnel and shouted down into it. "Alright boys. Give me a couple days and I'll be back as good as new!"

"You sure you don't want me to cut him up to relieve a little stress?" Logan asked his daughter pleadingly.

Sinon answered by unslinging the rifle off her shoulder. "Dad I know you'd recover, and I know you know what this baby can do, so don't make me use it on you." She answered with a look of annoyed tolerance before disappearing into the surrounding forest as she held the rifle to allow her to not hit the trees.

Logan blinked at the blunt reply before turning to the group at the edge of the clearing. "You two stay." Logan ordered the two gnomes before ordering the rest. "The rest of you follow Sinon and for the love of God stay quiet."

"Isn't she adorable." Smith asked looking after Sinon.

"You stay out of this." Logan growled at his soon to be son-in-law.

"Who me? I could take you with one arm. The little one." Smith said waving the stump with the little infant arm on it that started growing on it.

Logan dragged his hands down his face in exasperation. "Why me?"

"Well who else would it be?" Smith asked innocently.

Logan just groaned in resignation before wisely shutting up.

OOooOO

"Natsumi you really need to think about hiring assistants." Kirito observed as he waited for said Catsy to pack his order of potions.

"But I enjoy doing the work. And if I hire someone I have to train them, then pay them, then give them raises, then-" Natsumi said starting up a rant only to be interrupted by Kirito.

"You know as well as I do that we're short on healers and herbalist." Kirito said.

"Well I guess I could teach them then let them start up their own shops. Actually that'd work better competition makes for good busin-." Natsumi began only to be interrupted Kirito.

"Who said anything about your apprentices starting their own shops?" Kirito asked confused.

"Why not? You know you're not making much sense, first you want me to train people now you want-." Natsumi was interrupted by the door to her shop slamming open.

"Sir we're ready!" Kirito's assistant yelled as he entered.

"Then help me with these." Kirito ordered as he picked up a box and went out the door with it hoping the others were able to get something accomplished today.

"Good bye! See you next time!" Natsumi called after them, before realizing Kirito had bailed. "Wait! Get back here! I'm not finished with you yet!" She yelled angrily after the disappearing Spriggans. She covered her mouth a second later turning a little green. "Lunch wants to make a reappearance." She mumbled as she ran back into her shop.

OOooOO

The rest of the Spriggans were spread throughout their district foraging for supplies.

"What's that?" A young female spriggan asked worriedly as the ground started shaking.

"If I'm not mistaken, I do believe that we may have stumbled on the boss." Her foraging companion answered flatly.

Wide eyed the teen keyed the radio they all carried on them at all times. "Chipmunk 12 Code black, I repeat Code black, need back up immediately. Over."

"Confirmed Chipmunk 12 combat team in route eta five minutes. Over."

"Well nothing for it then." The shorter of the two stated shrugging.

"Woah that is one big Wyvern." The one with the radio observed as the grey beast revealed itself.

"Usagi take this seriously." The shorter of the two stated as she prepped their weapons.

"I am taking this seriously!" Usagi yelled as the ground shook again as the wyvern took to the air heading for them. "Help me Ami." Usagi squeaked out pitifully.

"I still don't know how you convinced me that this was a good idea!" Ami said sighing as she grabbed her frozen friend before taking flight dodging fire blasts.

"Which one!" Usagi yelled as she wrenched her way out of Ami's grip as she took her sword and actually tried to damage their opponent.

"Oh I don't know." Ami started as she flew a short distance away trying to take advantage of her bow. "How about we start with how in the heck we're friends to begin with!"

"You were looking all lonely when I rescued you from that empty table!" Usagi yelled as she dodged the wyvern's claws only to be looking directly into it's gaping maw. "Ach Ami save me!" She called as she scrambled away.

Ami released an arrow that had explosives attached to it directly into the Wyvern's open mouth before continuing. "I appreciate the gesture, but if I didn't know better I would say that you're such a fan of Sailor Moon that you couldn't resist finding friends with the same names!"

After the resulting explosion Ami flew over and picked up the dizzy girl. "Please stop the spinning Ami I'm going to puke."

"Pull yourself together Usagi!" Ami yelled frantically before stopping and slowly turning seeing the Wyvern's open maw behind her noting that she could see fire starting to ignite in its mouth. "How can it end this way I haven't even had a boyfriend yet!" She wailed in mental agony not able to summon up the strength to do much more than hover. As she wailed about the injustice of it all she watched as the Wyvern's head got pushed to the side saving her from being barbecued. "Eh?" Ami asked in shock as she was thrown back by the shock-wave as a red dragon collided with the wyvern that was easily three times it's size.

"Don't worry we're here to help." A small Catsy called as she flew over to them being trailed by a small blue feathered dragon stopping their tumbling.

"You're S-S-S-Silica the sister of the Black Swordsman." Ami stuttered out surprised at still being alive.

"And you're in the way." Silica answered flatly as she drug the duo away from the fight as they heard a crack that sounded like an explosion as the Wyvern was hit by a concussive blast of air. This attack landed as a slightly smaller and leaner blue dragon entered the fight assisting the red dragon, allowing him to land on the forest floor with a crash as he bit into an outcropping of rock chewing it slightly and swallowing.

"Thinker move!" The red dragon bellowed before expelling the recently ingested rock igniting them on fire ripping holes in the Wyvern's wing sails causing the membrane to rip, breaking a finger as the spray went by.

The injured Wyvern retaliated by bathing the red dragon in flames as Ami and the recently recovered Usagi shrieked in fear at the sight.

"Klein you okay?!" Thinker yelled as he body slammed the Wyvern taking it to the forest floor.

You could hear loud cracks as Klein back winged hard blowing out the majority of the fire. "What? Did you forget what one of my elements is?!" Klein answered jovially as he took to the air.

"No I didn't forget but you hit the ground pretty hard." Thinker commented blasting the Wyvern with a stream of water right after.

"Yes, well I'm still trying to learn control over my other elements." Klein shot back before dive bombing the Wyvern hitting a split second after Thinker dodged away. The Wyvern screeched in pain and fury as it attempted to to dislodge the dragon of its back.

"Woah that was brutal." Silica commented to herself wincing as Klein broke the Wyvern's neck by biting it followed by him roaring in victory. "And of course he had to do it even after I asked him not to." She groaned her ears laid back in annoyance. "Home base this is the combat team Alpha the Boss is down send out clean up crew over." Silica said into her radio.

"Copy that, clean up crew scrambling, good job to your team Silica."

Ami and Usagi watched in awe while Thinker shrank back into human form. "That's it I'm beat." He said collapsing onto his back.

"Oh come on." Klein said with a rumbling laugh. "That wasn't that long of a flight."

"Give me a break you haven't been hiding your nature for the better part of a decade Klein." Thinker shot back covering his face with his arm.

"Well Thinker now that you don't have to hide don't you think it would be a good idea to build up your endurance in that form?" Silica asked jokingly as she landed close to the duo.

"I've been in hiding for so long that I've never really spent a lot of time in my dragon form." Thinker explained as he sat up. "I was lucky enough that I wasn't stuck more than a year in it."

"Well now that you're not hiding it, you need to build up that bodies physical attributes." Silica added.

"That would be wise." Klein said nodding his head laying down in front his two companions. "You don't have to stay away." He called to the two Spriggans.

"Oh that's ok we need to get back to work as it is." Usagi called pushing Ami away.

"You know you want to." Ami mused looking over her shoulder with a grin.

Usagi wailed in defeat as she seemed to teleport in front of Klein her eyes sparkling like stars. "That was so cool. How hard is it to become a dragon? Is it similar to the race change feature in other games? How long can you hold that form?" Usagi started spouting much to Klein's surprise.

"Uh well?" Klein started trying to figure out how to answer.

"At the moment you don't need to know all of the finer details. Just know that no this isn't a game anymore, please try to remember that because you did agree to this as it is." Silica interjected taking over where Klein was failing. A half hour later found Ami and Usagi leaving the trio, Usagi with a thoughtful look on her face.

"Well I have other duties I could be taking care of so we ought to get out of here." Thinker said after a minute of watching the pair go before transforming and taking off.

"Yeah sounds good." Klein said as he watched the other dragon go before giving Silica an amused look. "Want a ride back to Arrun seeing as this is the end of our shift?"

"I could since you're offering." Silica answered shrugging as she flew up and settled where his neck met his shoulders. "Home my noble steed." Silica stated an impish grin on her face Pina copying her with a squeak as the little dragon stood on Silica's head. Klein rolled his eyes as he grumbled with a laugh knowing he walked into that.