Edited 9/14/19
A/N: I- Honestly, somehow this chapter got lost in the story process... If you're reading this post 9/14, you'll notice this chapter has been updated. I skipped an entire chapter that is somewhat necessary and vital to this story.
I completed this chapter, like, back in April... dang, man...
How the flipping seven wonders of this world did I skip this chapter?
I blame April Fool's day...
As always I do not own To-Love Ru, Rito, Lala, Black Cat, etc, etc, disclaimer disclaimed...
"Beautiful Dreamer"
Calpris Minora-β
Orbital Station
"To what do I owe the self proclaimed head of the galaxy contacting we few remaining of the Shadow Chapter, formerly of Talhain Triumvirate?" a voice states to a recipient sent over the trans-galactic communications network, their face framed in darkness, and visage hidden by the shadows, "Surely you did not call to offer your help in returning us to our former glory..." In the view screen, the figure of King Gid Deviluke, sitting on his throne, laughs before becoming a serious expression.
"No, faceless one, I do not dabble with the dark when the corruption I can see is enough to turn my stomach," Gid replies quite harsh, but truthfully of the corruption within Talha's borders, "I have called to ask safe passage into your so-called 'holy land' inside the Dark Sea, Calpris Minora-"
"No, now unless you have something important discuss, then, I am afraid I must insist that you forgo your usual political propaganda in this case, King of Deviluke," the faceless shadow retorts, before the King could even finish his sentence, much to the clear irritation of the latter, "The Talhain Galaxy is ruled by the Assassins Guild, the Shadow Chapter in turn has been given absolute right to control the border of the Dark Sea and all pilgrimages to Calpris." The figure leans in towards the transceiver, and Gid could just tell it was smiling behind its mask. "No one may go or enter without the Triumvirate's approval; not even you, 'm'lord'," they say, "Do not approach our space with your vessels, or we will be forced to repel you from our borders." At that they cut off communication with the King of Deviluke, as another person stepped out from the shadows to reveal themselves.
"Do you think that was wise, resisting the King of Deviluke like that?" a young woman asks, adjusting her glasses and holding out an information device for her superior, "You are the Voice of the council, the Ears listen to your wisdom, and the Eyes themselves see your words in action..." The woman removes and takes her bosses informal robe, which had hidden their face and expressions from the King of Deviluke on purpose, before walking over to a mirror where a full face mask sits upon a dummies head.
"And, if I were to allow any self proclaimed 'King', into our most holiest of sites, I would have no reason to disallow the common masses their pilgrimages," the Voice states in rebuttal, as the attendant grabs the mask from its pedestal and slips it over their head, "I am the Voice, which means my words carry weight heavier than any King, and the secrets we each keep, both from ourselves and our peoples, are more dangerous than you yet realize, apprentice." Adjusting things here and there to make it comfortable, the reflective mask hid their face entirely from view, obscuring their physical features and sex from the casual onlooker, and would then begin overlaying their voice with one that makes it seem both male and female when activated. It was there that the apprentice helped them into the cloak, which was large enough to hide their remaining physical features from view, as it did for their other two compatriots.
"Now," the Voice says, their tone changing as the masks effects begin to alter their true voice with one that is both male and female, a flat undertone warbling through both, "Tell me of the ship we have detected..."
"It is an unknown classification, not registered in the Talhain Assassin's Guild's database, but that could mean it is extra galactic in origin, perhaps a visitor from another galaxy," the apprentice states, as she follows her boss out of the room and through a long and winding corridor, a different path scheduled to be taken each day to ensure none of the three main inhabitants of this building ever cross paths on accident, "Signal identifier tags it as the Lunatique but no ship is listed in the registry database under that name, so it could be a bounty hunter's, or a stolen ship."
"No; not the Lunatique," the Voice states, as it approaches a pair of majestic wooden doors, pausing before going to open the heavy barriers to her destination, "Azenda, the former Tyrant, she once spoke of going for revenge on that vessel's captain... something about a 'public humiliation'..." A smile formed on their face, underneath their mask "Perhaps our 'dear' sister has decided to return home, then, after all..." That person continues to stay still in their steps, as if pondering something before making their decision, "Permit them to land, and we will decide then." The woman bows in recognition, before opening the door for her boss, and the two entered into a large and spacious courtroom.
Two other occupants of the room, as well as their attendants, stand at the seat of judgment, as their third member takes their place as head of the triumvirate. "All assembled may take their places," another attendant states, a large man that had already been standing before a throng of people, "The listening Ear will hear even your meekest plea, the impartial Eye shall cast it's gaze upon both sides, while the judicious Voice shall pass final judgment upon your cases." Raising a hand to the three, who stand at equal height atop a tall podium, the Voice raises its own hand in turn.
"The first case shall be heard!" the Voice states, as a devious smile crept up underneath their masked visage, "Rejoice, and let your words be heard by the Triumvirate!"
Edge of the 'Dark Sea' region
Talha Galaxy's seventh arm
"This is suspicious as heck," Black Cat states out loud, what the others are already thinking, "They didn't even let us hail them and explain the situation out."
"It is quite likely we were expected," Yami replies monotonously, as she notices Azenda in the corner of her eye, "Quite a coincidence, isn't it?" Four pairs of eyes turn to look over at the woman, whose back is turned to them as she stares out into the inky blackness before them, a thumbnail in her mouth as her anxiety rises.
"There are no coincidences when it comes to the Triumvirate," Azeda confesses, as she scowls while noticing her dirty habit, "They knew I would be returning, like some simpering dog returning home for a scolding by its master..." Noting the hostility in her voice rising as she speaks frantically, they all step back to give her some space. "The Triumvirate, and that blasted Seer of their's..." her disgruntled rage turns into mumbling as she turns to Yami to stare at her with a face of irritation, "They mocked me, you know, for leaving the only real home I ever knew, since I had already came back defeated after the first time you and I had faced off, Golden Darkness." Yami's eyes opened in surprise as Azenda towers over the younger girl, getting all up in her face, before the stressed, former assassin steps back and rubs a growing crease in her forehead.
"Ladies, ladies, I know we are all just a little on edge, but come on," Kuro states, as he steps between the two girls and draws their attention to himself, "We needed access to the Dark Sea, they let us in, Gid couldn't get it for us, but Azenda, you being here helped us immensely..." He turns to Azenda. "If you were not here, the Triumvirate wouldn't have given us a second thought, so thank you, for bearing with us; we all know how difficult it is to face our past..." Kuro looks grim for a moment, as Yami stills at those words as well, but he brightens up and turns back to Yami, "We need to figure out what that crazy dream of yours was about, and if we aren't too late, ensure that the Anarchist's Beryl is still safely secured by the Triumvirate."
At that Mea clears her throat, turning three pairs of eyes to the front of the ship, where she had been watching over the controls and monitors for the Lunatique's AI. "Estimated time of arrival is three hours, people," Red Headed Mea states with an amused smile, "If you all can keep it together until we land planet side, I believe we can all stretch our legs and work our stress out."
Yami and Kuro break away from Azenda, both heading for the front of the ship, while Mea goes to join Azenda in the comfortable center of the ship. Azenda was busying herself making a snack out of some food, while Mea chose to lounge across a couch that had been bolted to the floor, near the table. When Azenda sat down to eat her hastily prepared snack, she was getting stared at by the bored TRANS weapon, whose head was upside down as she stared at the frankly irritated former assassin.
"What?" Azenda finally asked, as Mea turned over onto her stomach , "What is with you?" Mea just smiled, as she kicked her feet up and propped up her head, like a normal high school girl who learned something juicy and was about to excitedly share the details with her friend.
"Nothing much, just curious," Mea responds with a sly grin, "You had to have some reason you left such a cushy life behind, after all, I couldn't imagine little orphan Azenda being kicked out for bad behavior and becoming an assassin queen just for the laughs." Azenda sighs, quickly realizing the girl wasn't going to leave her alone, not any time soon, at least.
"Very well, if you desire to know, then know that the Shadow Chapter is not an organization one makes a commitment to lightly, and usually it is one held for life," Azenda begins, "It is the children, whom are gathered by the chapter from all over Talha, that become the inheritors of the secrets of the past..."
On a cold, stone floor, a young, broken girl dressed up in rags is seen kneeling, bloodied, bruised and weeping over her mothers cooling corpse, as a man with a metal rod and the stink of alcohol is shouting to the winds about the crying child in the nearby room, telling it to shut up. Before the man can lumber, a drunken, slovenly mess seeking in anger to silence the child, the young girl throws herself upon the man to keep him from hurting her newborn sister, until the man raises the metal rod to bring it down on the girl another time. It was in that confusion, and the darkness of the open window, that the sudden and loud crack resounds through the room, as something grabs the rod out of the darkness, and tugs the man through the open window. The sound of his body hitting the street below, a three story fall, is muted, as a shadowed figure creeps in from the darkness and stands tall and inhuman, in front of a shocked and frightened child, who had just witnessed her father's 'accidental' death. Before she could say anything, the masked figure put a hand to the girls mouth, before gently grabbing her in a pair of arms and wrapping her in a discarded blanket.
Before she could protest, the mewling of a frightened infant cries out from the next room and draws the attention of her savior. Leaving her for what seemed like mere seconds, the shadowed figure quickly returns with an infant child swaddled in her arms, before approaching her and taking her by the hand.
The figure had escaped with the both into the cold, damp night, the little girl shivering in the thin rags and blanket all the while she ran through puddles of water while being tugged and urged on by the large, warm hand that dwarfed her own. It was the whip at her savior's side that drew her eyes, as she fled into that dark, a damp, unknown future ahead of her.
"Years later I had become a young woman, and the baby, a young and curious child," Azenda continued, "The assassin, my former savior, had long since left us in the care of a Shadow Chapter orphanage on one of the outlier worlds." She looked over to Mea, who was enraptured by the story Azenda was weaving for her. "There isn't much else to tell, honestly, beyond this," she states, "One day a very powerful, very wise man came and took my last family member away from me, while I was kicking and screaming, trying to get them back." Azenda's face turns hard at that, and Mea notices the grip on her whip tighten. "I had a family there, the people loved me and I them, but when the Shadow Chapter took my brother away; I left there a broken girl with vengeance in my heart, was eventually found by my Master, and then joined the Talhain Assassin's Guild from there," she ends her story, "When I became the Tyrant Queen, I used what power I had to approach Calpris Minora, and they refused to tell me anything about what happened to my brother, but they took the opportunity to break my last illusion about them."
Mea was curious, but she didn't let it show, as Azenda spilled her story. "They explained that they had hired the assassin to kill my family and retrieve my brother, alone, and that he had failed his mission when he had sent us to an orphanage," Azenda finally finishes, a sad smile on her face, "Apparently he had a rule about targets with children, and he had broken his own rules when he learned that the order hadn't been overly truthful in their request; that man had tried to give me some happiness with my brother before he was taken away from me... I never could really hate him."
"Zagine, Zagine Axelox, my old Chronos master," Kuro suddenly states in a soft voice, surprising both Azenda and Mea from the cockpit of the spaceship, "He told me once he had botched a job about some kidnapper in Talha, but skipped the galaxy when he learned the truth; always said he wouldn't make that same mistake again when he was teaching me how to bring out Number XII's full potential... guess he was wrong then, too." Kuro doesn't elaborate anymore, but Azenda gets up and shakes off the past, just like that.
"As it was, that was long ago, perhaps this time I can get the answers I have always been searching for," Azenda states with a smile, as Mea stands up as well, "Even if it's just punching the bastards who stole my brother away, I'll find my contentment soon enough."
"Good, because we're here," Yami states, as she steps into the room with the others, followed by the Lunatique's AI, that jagged smile and eyes following it's master like a lovesick puppy, "The Lunatique is in standard orbit over the planet, and the observation station the Triumvirate uses is a shuttle ride away..." She looks around the room at her companions, as they all look at her for their orders now, as she was chosen by King Gid to lead this group on their expedition.
"It's funny," Kuro interrupts as he passes by a window looking upon both the station and the world below, "Doesn't look much like a planet; it almost seems closer in size to a moon." Everyone looked at him in annoyance at the interruption, Yami especially, so he put up his hands in defeat. "Alright, alright, sorry for trying to break the tension," Kuro retorts in jest, "It was just an observation."
"I know everyone is anxious, I'm the last person to be reassuring all of you that everything is going to go all right, but this rag-tag group of ours: former assassin's, former sweepers, killers with more blood on our hands than we could ever hope to atone for," she starts off, before sighing, "I'm a weapon, my sister's are too, and you both, Kuro and Azenda, know how easy it is to become the person people paint you out to be..." Kuro nods, while Azenda puts a hand on her left arm and squeezes it. "We can't be those people right now, we didn't ask to be heroes, but the King, multiple galaxies, needs us to ensure this weapon doesn't fall into the wrong hands," Yami states, trying her best to encourage them all, "If it comes down to it, Mea, Kuro, I expect you to both to fight, I will too, but before that; Azenda..." Yami turns to Azenda, swallowing as she does so, composing herself. "I know you don't have the best feelings around this place; it was both your home, and the place that took your family away, but I need your help to be as diplomatic as possible, before we end up in a bloodbath for both sides," Yami states with confidence, as Azenda nods with a wry, yet unsure, smile, "The galaxy is waiting, so let's see what we can do..."
"Request denied," the Voice responded, as Azenda stood before the tribunal of three, horror dawning on her face, as the others watched with similar expressions behind her, "The Party consisting of: Azenda the former Tyrant, Red Headed Mea, the infamous Black Cat of the former inter-galactic organization Chronos, and the living weapon, the planet killer, Golden Darkness, has been barred from entering the most Holy of sites upon Calpris Minora's shores." Three blank faced masks looked impassively over the assembled crowd of people, as whispers broke out among the courtrooms at the impossibly fast decision between the three fair and righteous judges. "Upon the secondary matter regarding Azenda, the former Tyrant queen, and her request to ascertain the whereabouts of her younger brother, Sh-"
Creak
The metal pillar looked broken, crumpled from a massive dent in the smooth metal surface. Yami, Kuro, and Azenda, along with the rest of the room, all looked back at Mea, whose hair had reacted to her emotions as she watched this farce of a trial go on. She had put her own smaller dent into the wall from her fist, so it was only natural that her hair had reacted as well under the influence of her growing irritation. "Why don't you just tell us the truth, huh!" Mea bursts out, her anger clearly showing on her face, "You didn't bring us here with any intention of letting us go through with our issue, this was all just a circus act so you could get Azenda here,and rub the fact you didn't have the balls to do what she did..." Azenda looks down hearted as she gripped the edge of the railing while listening to Mea's outburst, while both Kuro and Yami go to hold her back, but Mea slaps the man's hands away and steps forward next to Azenda. "She left you all behind in this crazy religion based on ancient beliefs and lies, came back to find answers about her family, but all she got was a wall of theocracy," Mea states in anger, "She just wanted to know if he was alive, and all you did was bring her here to shoot that down, because you were mad some big shot in another galaxy threatened you and you just wanted to rub your secrets all up in his face..." At that a loud banging was heard, as a large sphere was hit against the Triumvirates desk.
"Your childish actions aside, nothing will change this council's judgment," the Voice announces, as Mea crosses her arms, "The Ears have listened, the Eyes have judged, and our decision has been spoken aloud to the entire court..." Azenda puts a hand to Mea's arm, as the red head was about to spit out another fiery rant, when the double doors that the Triumvirate had entered from, opened and silenced the whole court our of surprise.
From the massive doorway, a new figure emerged from the shadows of the hallway, dressed in a simple purple robe with no visual features, as their face was obscured by bandages by some horrible accident or otherwise. From the backside a cascading waterfall of hair is spilling up, behind, and down their back, as they walk past the group to stand before the triumvirate. "You, you are not allowed to leave your post..." the Voice begins to say in outrage at the interruption, "You must return to your duties, now-"
"I am sorry I was not quicker," the voice flatly states, interrupting the Voice with a simple raise of their hand, causing them to falter out of surprise, "But the situation was foreseen that you would not allow them to enter, and as such necessitated my arrival to expedite their journey with utmost haste and importance." The Voice visually tightened up at the back talk they were receiving from what looked to be a child or young teen.
"I do not care for your tone, child, but we do not need your counsel in making this decision, our verdict has been very clear..."
"I was not referring to you as one holding the authority in this situation, loud and magnificent Voice," the child replies, bowing their head, "The Eyes and Ears, too, have a say in this as well; but I must also inform you that this request comes, not from I, but from the original Seer." AT that the three judges visually stiffen at that, as the Voice turns to look from the child to the men and women behind them.
"These... blood soaked heathens?" the Voice states in indignation, as they raise a pointed finger to where Azenda stands, "She alone has rejected the faith, become a murder and tyrant unsuitable for these holy grounds; how dare you overstep your bounds, child, and claim the Seer himself decreed that they should enter our most holy site..." Before they could finish, another door opened, and this time a group of security officers appeared and surrounded Azenda, Mea, Yami, and Kuro. "Guards, take this child back to the holy land, and throw these miscreants into holding cells until I can contact the proper authorities to take them away..." the Voice states, as a pair of guards step to each side of the Triumvirate's exposed sides, "They are greedy cutthroats and pirates, willing to steal our holy treasure and coerce our own apprentice Seer into believing their lies..." They raised the spears in their hands and brought them up to cross them over their prisoner.
The Voice was shocked, feeling the two blades of the guards spears against their throat, as the child, the apprentice Seer, speaks again. "Attendant Amira has informed us of your, less than welcoming intentions for the King of Deviluke's own appointed privateers," the apprentice Seer states, "She has also informed us of your backdoor dealings with, not only the Talhain Assassin's Guild, but also colluding with a known terrorist cell to promise them entry into Calpris Minora, in exchange for wealthy beyond measure." As the guards roughly grab the Voice and bring them before the apprentice, the apprentice removes the mirrored helmet from the Voice and looks at them in shame. "One such as you, Dame Cleo, should have never taken your appointment, if you would so willing sell out the chapter in your pettiness and greed," the apprentice states, as they strip the robe from her body, revealing her true form, "Take her away to the holding cells, pending trial for her excommunication."
To Azenda, who had a host of enemies and nobles angered by her actions, she recognized the woman as one whose fiance she had murdered after taking a job from a jealous noble who then used cunning and wit to take the man's land and power, stripping his wife-to-be of any inheritance. She watched as the woman stared in contempt at her, as she was dragged away by the guards. It was then that the Ears and Eyes drew attention back to themselves, with a hit from their gavel.
"It is... apparent, that Dame Cleo has been taking bribes for some time, and our impartial voice has sown all of our past judgments with seeds of doubt, now," the Ears state, as they turn to the group of Azenda and the others, "If this is the Seer's will, then by all means accompany the apprentice to Calpris Minora; this is our judgment." Azenda perked up, as the Eyes turn to face her.
"Of your matter, regarding your brother, we cannot state," the Eyes answer, in the same flat tone, though noticeably one holding more sympathy than Dame Cleo's, "We- we truly, do not know; our appointments to this trinity has each occurred sporadically within the past five years, the others have since perished who would have known more..." Her face falls at that revelation, but it is Yami, whom approaches her with a sympathetic squeeze of the shoulder. Azenda tears up, before wiping her face dry, and joining the others as they follow the apprentice where he may go.
Calpris Minora-β
Upon their arrival, through a small shuttle craft that took the five down to the planet, the apprentice stood at the exit and turned back to stare them all down. "Fair warning, your only one: once we exit this craft, and before we head into the temple, you will be subjected to a test of fortitude; each of you will face a different trial," the apprentice states, while looking around the room at each of the members, "It will not stop until you overcome it, or fail trying; should you fail it, you will be returned to the station under a strict vow silence of what you saw and experienced, or else you will be imprisoned without trial." Each looked to each other and nodded,and followed the apprentice out of the shuttle and onto the planet.
As they exited the shuttle, they noticed the weather was rough and growing worse, as a chill in the air grew despite the warm, noon time sun, with the ground beginning to steam in protest from the sudden change in temperature. After a few minutes of walking in the densely growing fog, an impressive shadow began to form in front of them, and a massive castle sized temple was seen rising from the ground. Yami followed the apprentice, with Azenda by her side, as the others followed behind them. Once they reached the bottom of the temple's summit, where the entrance to the interior of the castle lay, the apprentice stood at the entrance to look back upon those that followed him.
"Well, I see we've lost two of your friends already," the apprentice states, as he looks back to see only Yami and Azenda standing before him, "It seems the castles defenses were much more... effective than I first thought." Yami and Azenda both look back, to see no trace of Mea or Kuro behind them, which puts the both of them on edge as they turn back to see the apprentice smiling beneath his bandage wrapped face. "Do not worry, I will search them out once you enter," he states, gesturing for them to enter, as he opens the doors for them, "I will ascertain to their safety, and return them to the shuttle, if necessary." Yami goes to turn her hand into a blade, as if to threaten him, only for Azenda to cross an arm over her and step forward.
"I will go with you, then, and ensure they are fine, Golden Darkness," Azenda states with a cold tone directed at the apprentice, "See to this 'Seer', ascertain the safety of the device, and then we will meet up at the shuttle, all together." Yami hesitates, not quite sure as to what she should do, but she nods in response, and returns her hands to her side and enters the building, the doors closing with a loud creak behind her.
Azenda follows the boy for a bit away from the castle, then takes her whip from her side and grips it tightly. The boy-apprentice stops in his tracks, turning around while merely staring at her while she unwinds her weapon from her hip. "Do you really need to do this here and now?" the boy states with a tone of irritation, as he crosses his arms, "Fine then." He lifts up his hands, causing Azenda to tense up, before she realizes that he is merely removing the bandages from his face. As they fall away from around his neck, Azenda widens her eyes in response.
"Shi-," Azenda states in surprise, "Shiki?" Silver hair spilling out, freed from constraint, framing pink hued eyes and an all too familiar smirk that would have mirrored her own.
"Hello, dear sister," Shiki responds, "Should we have a chat?"
"Onee-chan... Kuro... Azenda?" Mea calls out from within the thick and obscuring fog. She had just been following her sister and their friends, when the fog grew too thick to see, and she had lost track of them when things started to go downhill.
"Yami-Onee?" Mea called out, as she noticed a flash of golden hair in the corner of her eyes, "Big sis?" As Mea turned around to see who was there, she found the last person she expected in front of her, staring at her with what could only be called utter contempt. "Nana?" Mea asks in confusion, as she looks around to see her, but finds nothing but puddles of water and mud in the grassy knolls surrounding them both.
"Don't 'Hi' me, you monster!" Nana snarls back, "Why didn't you come back, when we needed you the most!" Mea took a step back, like a slap to the face. "You weren't there, Mea, you didn't stop her when she lost control," Nana continues, as she aggressively steps forward to get into Mea's face, "Where were you when Adam took my sisters life away?"
"Azenda, Golden Darkness, Red-Headed Mea?" Kuro asks aloud, as he stumbles through the fog and growing field of weeds, "Can anyone...hear..me?" He trails off as he breaks through the wall of fog, into an open, sunset filled sky and a clearing full of unopened blossoms. 'Daylillies,' he thought to himself, as the name of the flowers crossed his mind, 'Saya's favorite...' Everything about this scene was odd to him the closer he looked, as he noticed that beyond the closed yellow flowers, the land turned into one out of some hellish nightmare, filled with craggy rocks and an endless desert wasteland, and broken stones that looked like massive thorns sprouting from the ground that surrounded the clearing. But it was what was sitting in the middle of this clearing that disturbed him, as the artificial light from the satellite above began to wane and the blossoms began to open in the shadowed sky.
A stone altar, a massive circle of intricately laid bricks, overgrown and disturbed by unknown lengths of time of growth from the yellow flowers. The flowers appeared to have been displacing many of the bricks with their roots, yet left it mostly intact enough for him to stare in wonder at the sight before him within its circumference. Eleven depressions, some filled with shards and lengthy pieces of crystals, some six inches high, while another was practically a broken pillar four feet across and cracked at its base. Yet among them, at the very center of all of them, was a single crystal pillar four feet across, a deep red, the color of blood, yet within the very heart of the crystal was black stain, an impurity that was impossible to see while within the crystal prism. Then Kuro noticed that the shadowy blob shifted. A blurry hand print was pressed against the crystals surface.
With Yami
Walking within the large temple, which was lit by eerie red crystals that lined the ceiling, lighting up when she drew nearer to them, and alighting her path into the depths of the ruins. As she walked deeper into the ruins, she felt something shift and stir within her. Every cell of her body, the nanomachines that made up her form, were buzzing with an energy, a power that resonated deep within her and made her flush with every step. It was like a fever, raging through her body as she traveled down broken floors and down crumbling stone staircases, only finding sweet relief in the dank and damp cold growing as she descended into the heart of the massive castle.
When she finally reached a pair of massive, wood and steel framed doors, she used every ounce of her control to shift her hair into massive hands she could use to push open the decrepit doors that likely weighed a ton together. As if breaking through the last barrier with her opening of the doors, Yami felt a wave of energy that seemed to crash over her without hesitation, that knocked her to her feet. She wasn't sure if it was an electromagnetic pulse designed to disable her nanites, or what, but the sudden heaviness of her limbs coupled together with the burning sensation, left her winded as she collapsed to the floor in a daze. In a feverish haze, she couldn't tell if someone was approaching her or not from within the castle, or having followed in after her, but the appearance of a well dressed man in front of her was a surprise, as she looked up from the ground to see the man smoking cigarette in a white suite.
"Hey there kid," the man with one orange eye and an eyepatch stated, as he crouched down to look at her, "Let me help you with that." She tried to move, in vain, as the man grabbed her by one arm while huffing a cloud of smoke into her face, to her disgust, while helping her move to a sitting position. "Don't worry, I don't have an untoward intentions," he exclaims, as he adjusts the red tie he was wearing over his blue shirt, and then takes a drag from his cigarette butt and flicking it onto the ground and smashing it with the heel of his shiny, black, dress shoes, "EMP was meant to short out anyone with weapons, don'tknow how it affected you though..." After a few seconds, the numbness passed and she could feel the burning sensation leave her body, as if her system had regulated itself back down to safer levels.
"Who are you?" Yami asked the man, who merely smiled cryptically in response, "I thought I was sent here to meet a seer?" He moves a hand up to his hat, and takes it off, before crossing it over his body and bowing.
"That's me, milady," he says with a chuckle, "I am the enigmatic Seer of Calpris Minora, at your service, princess." He straightens up with a smile. "I guess you could say it was fortunate I met you here," the Seer states as he motions to the room, "Welcome to my humble abode, where the only thing I care about is being kept safe, here, and out of harms way... so now, you can go!" As he moves to sweep her out of the room, all the while a calm smile on his face as he pushes her out to the door, she couldn't help but notice the trio of giant statues that hold up the room, a giant crystal chandelier at the center of the three, each of the three statues stretching out their hands to keep it suspended in the air.
"What is this place?" Yami states, as she slips past him to get a better look at the room, "This isn't anything like what I imagined..." The man sighed while dragging his hand through his hair, after taking off his hat, and letting it fall to the ground as he walked to intercept the young woman.
"I'm afraid that doesn't matter, princess," the man answers, as he goes to put a hand on her shoulder, "Pretty young girls like you shouldn't get involved with an old and musty tomb like this..." Yami ignores his words, as she looks up at the red crystal and the three massive statues that hold it up, and turns back to the man.
"Tell me, what is the Anarchists Beryl?" Yami asks, as she stares up at the crystal, firmly standing in place as the Seer stands there, his smile turning into a frown at her questions, "I heard the original owners of these ruins were tasked with guarding this mystical object by 'god' themselves; yet I have also heard it be called a weapon, one man made, and wholly destructive in power..."
The Seer sighs yet again, at the stubborn girls personality, before covering his face with his hands and dragging them down over his face with a glistening trail left in his wake. "Many have asked that question and left disappointed upon hearing the answer," the Seer relates in defeat, slumping his shoulders, "If you listen to my tale, I shall explain the history of this universe as simple as I can, and who 'god' was to those ancient peoples..."
Once, long ago, twelve ancient beings descended upon a newborn universe in hopes of shaping it into one filled with life, love, and satisfaction. These twelve descended upon a single planet that hosted the perfect conditions for life, and though lacking corporeal form, they could interact with this world just long enough to create suitable bodies for themselves, that could be used to cultivate this planet and make it habitable for them and their resulting creations. Using their knowledge to create a single crystalline object that harmonized with the highly energized, infant universe, they created the first terraforming device, capable of turning an inhospitable planet into one that was habitable.
They used this device, creating simple servants that could harvest and convert the materials of this universe while inhabiting ships created to travel a quickly expanding universe to do so. These were the first Host of the Ancient Ones, a species with infinite potential written into their DNA, and a limitless life span, though in exchange each lacked the intelligence that could constitute a 'soul' of sorts. Simple though they were, the beings were quick to utilize this Host to begin the harvest of materials, and in so doing left Seeds of Life scattered across the universe, waiting to be cultivated and awakened by the Host upon their return to the planet. These Seeds would measure the potential of planets, and create life forms capable of maintaining and balancing these worlds with their powers, and upon their awakening, the Host species would be transformed by their Seed into the perfect life form, capable of surviving whatever was thrown at them upon the world they found themselves. In creating the Seeds and the Host of life, the Ancient Ones believed their rule would be eternal.
Unbeknownst to them, one of their kind had betrayed them all, and managed to collect a few scattered souls from their previous world, whose chances at life were either cut too short, or were taken from them. Upon the creation of the second Host, who would inherit the new universal order, this great betrayer would infect the simple creatures with those fractured and scattered wills, a collection of beings that, given a second chance, would alter the grand destiny planned out for them by the Ancient Ones.
Fortunately the others learned of this betrayal, and while they could not upend the plans of this one without ending the chance for life to flourish, they could transfer the fractured new life to a planet whose future was known to all: a primitive mud ball, third planet from its sun, one whose chaotic orbit would ensure it would be plagued by endless shifting disasters that would wipe out the monsters before they could ever become a threat. And so it was with that the Ancient Ones imprisoned their brethren inside a crystal tomb, forever to remain undisturbed, while they could take the remainder of the second Host to the stars with them, and sleep an eternal slumber of their own making, until they could awaken to a new world.
Before they did so, they encased their misbegotten brethren inside the very crystal structure that had preserved their lives into this new world and created their bodies, and stripped them of their power in the process. This they encased within the crystal above us, hoping one day the Betrayer would repent, or upon the discovery of a worthy inheritor, it could be passed to the one who was worthy.
Or so the story goes.
Fast forward to a time, some mere six thousand years ago, when life across the universe entered its peak, and a galactic Host stretches across the stars. The so-called 'Anarchists Beryl' was discovered on the tenth world of a distant star, paradoxically capable of supporting life despite being the furthest from its sun, while another world held a primitive society already in its grasp. Those who discover this world, the remainder of the First Host who still rove the stars collecting a certain rare metal, materials for their long since slumbering masters, decide to take this item for themselves. For the first time since their creation, something resembling a disagreement arises between the remainder of the fleet, a mere seventeen ships in total, and it requires something of a delegation between all seventeen to end it. The Host realize that if they removed their master's creation from this world, the lives of the twin planet of the Tenth would be not only upset, but potentially ended by a massive gravitational shift that would drown the world. And so one of their numbers decides to remain upon the twin, volunteering to preserve a number of the infant society in their ship until danger had passed, and upon release, join their masters in eternal slumber beneath the surface of this planet for all of the remainder of their immortal days.
And with that passing of the duty to the one, the remaining sixteen decided to save the ones the first could not, and spread themselves amongst the stars where the remainder of their brethren awaited their return. Thirteen of their kind would do this, while the remaining three would take the first ships propulsion systems, and turn the tenth planet into one that could travel the stars. Out of their own greed, the remaining three ships choose a place so remote, it would hopefully be millennia, wherein they could study the secrets of their masters technology and their descendants would go on to inherit their masters legacy.
But this was impossible.
For in each Seed of Life, a tiny bit of something else was genetically implanted within each being born from these seeds: the inability to fully realize the power the Ancient Ones left behind in their slumber.
And so the Talhain people, upon discovering their right to rule was inherently flawed, abandoned the ways of old and forged a life free of their masters touch, within the deadly Talha Galaxy, which had gone untouched due to high concentrations of unstable Dark Matter.
The Triumvirate, and the Seer, in their great shame remained behind to watch over this world, and its secret tomb, as the rest of the galaxy forgot of their existence, including their own people. Until the Great Galactic War raged, and the balance of power shifted across the universe with the coming of those who sought the Beryl's great and unfathomable power...
"-And so I have remained the Seer, the guardian of the Crystal Tomb of the great Betrayer, and judge of all those who have sought it out," the Seer ends his tale, "And you, Yami, Golden Darkness, one who has treaded the edge of light and shadow, have been judged by being exposed to your greatest fears, and surpassing them." At that the man steps away from Yami and bows to her, as he removes his eye patch to reveal a discolored, green eye beneath its cloth. "I touched your mind from within the void, and still you did not turn back," the Seer states with a smile, "The Anarchist's Beryl, and its power, shall become yours to do with as you please, if you accept it." He waves his hands outwards with a smile, while centered directly below the crystal being held aloft, and with his movements the sleeping castle begins to stir as Yami watches transfixed by the lowering crystal spiral.
The Seer's face was obscured by shadow, a smile stretched across, with a faint glint of magenta light reflected off his.
With Mea
"What are you talking about Nana-chi?" Mea cries out, as she covers her ears from the confusing accusations from the older woman's mouth, "What happened, who is Adam, what does this have to do with your sisters?" The other woman slunk up to the living weapon and grabbed her by the arm, dragging her hand away from her ears so she could listen to the words she was about to speak.
"Yami lost control; don't pretend you don't remember when she let that monster out and Darkness consumed all life on the Earth with her power?" Nana spits out in a fury, "None of you returned, not Black Cat, nor you, nor Azenda; just that demon queen with her horde of those terrible monsters that ate through every brick, wood, and metal object in their way, before they moved to feast on flesh and blood and bone." Mea slaps her friends hand away, trying to break the Devilukean's hold on her, as she stared on in horror while reading her friends face and emotions to see what raw grief was scarred across her surface. "We thought Rito and Lala would come back and save us, but Lala came back alone, and too late to stop what had been started," Nana continued to harshly criticize Mea, as the younger red head took the chance to wrap her hair like chains around the younger Devilukean to immobilize her long enough to tap into her psyche and figure out what was going on. With a single strand of hair planted at the base of her neck, Mea gasped as she plunged into the darkness of her friends mind.
Mea was practically naked inside her friends mindscape, openly exposing herself to raw emotions as she felt swept away, swallowed up by the feelings of rage, hatred, disgust, confusion, and distrust while struggling to break through layers of mental defenses to find the core memory that was causing this tiff between her friend and herself. Perhaps reconciling the two, would be enough to snap her out of the haze of red she was immersed in. Finding the right memory was tricky, but the confusion, the hurt, and the betrayal was raw, powerful, and a beacon she could follow like a light in the dark, until she broke through the last defenses, metaphorically shattering it like a glass window.
"You're not Nana-hime!" Mea states in dawning horror, as the image of her friend melts away, to reveal nothing but an empty shadow, "Who are you?" The black mass shifted itself to mirror Mea's shape, before opening poisonous eyes, a maw of purplish darkness twisted into the shape of a gaping smile, that caused Mea to shudder at the emptiness she felt from it.
"I'm your worst nightmare," the shadow finally responded, in a tinny, echoing voice that was a distortion of her own, "All the bad things you've done come back on your head...such delicious guilt you feel, little girl!" As Mea watched, the shadow seemed to reach into its own mouth, slowly pulling out a menacing, and disgusting, purple blade that looked like slimy, oily, and yet sticky-black, like hot tar. "You shouldn't have come here, little girl," the shadow of Mea taunts, "You fell right into his trap." Mea imagined her own hair into a blade, and prepared herself to wield it.
"Shut up and fight." The shadow cackled, and swung at her.
With Azenda
"What happened to you?" Azenda asks, as she stands a few feet apart from her newly discovered brother, "You've... grown, so much..." With tears in her eyes, at finally finding her lost little brother, she goes forward to hug him. Putting both arms around him, she feels him stiffen up in her grasp. "I thought I lost you forever," Azenda cries softly into his broad shoulders, "When that man took you away, I was afraid I would never get a chance to see you again."
Shiki smiled, slightly so, as he raised his arms to gently hug her back. "It's alright, sister," Shiki states, as he opens his eyes to stare out into the fog that was quickly growing thicker to swallow up the castle, "Everything will be over with shortly..." Azenda opens her eyes as he speaks those cryptic words, and sighs as she pulls away from him.
"You're right, everything will be over soon," she states, sniffling as she tries to wipe the tears from her face, eyes turning puffy and red from her crying, "I'm so sorry I couldn't save you too." With that she grasped her whip and removed it, unwinding it as she took another step back from her brother. "So tell me, Shiki," she states, as her face hardens and grips her whip tighter, "What the hell are you?" Shiki's eyes sparkle as he meets hers, as he blinks, and a second pair of eyelids close over his own.
"Dear 'sister', you should have killed me when you had the chance," Shiki states calmly, as he puts his hands up to his face in a swift, clawing motion, "But now it's too late for all of you; by our master's decree..." His face comes apart as he tears the skin of a boy away, to reveal a monster in his skin. A silver wig falls off, as a segmented tail unwinds itself, a mandible with a maw of sharp teeth behind it is revealed, as the monsters segmented joints and exo-skeleton are revealed to the air, the disguise of her brother totally cast off. "Now it is too late, as shed my flesh-shell for the master," the monster states, "Prepare yourself as I feast on your bone-grrk-"
With a cold and swift jerk, the spiny end of her whip is digging itself into the still-soft shell of the insect, as the freshly poisoned barbs break through into the monster insects blood. "Talking was your mistake," Azenda states, as she grabs another end of her whip and pulls sharply to constrict her opponent, "not mine." In a burst of yellow-green, the insects compound eyes exploded, as its neck and head were severed from its still twitching corpse. Striking the body with her poison tipped whip, she ensured its was dead by then taking its own scythe tipped tail and plunging it into the insects own armor, as the final twitches ceased as she dug her own heel into the tip to ensure its demise.
"I already knew I would be too late, for you and for me," Azenda states, as she turns to the massive castle-temple, and sighs, "but Echidna never told me it would lead to this." As she collapses to the ground, she waits for whatever is to come to happen, resigned to her fate.
With Kuro
Kuro stood transfixed by the strange crystal formation, among a dozen others broken ones, why was it this one alone that was left. He ignored that question, for now, when he noticed the movement within the crystal, and with it a realization that someone, or some thing, was trapped inside it. So he did the first thing that came to his mind, when he pulled out his Number XII and took aim with his weapon. A shot, then two, then four, and then Kuro realized that normal armaments were having no effect on the crystal exterior.
Stepping up to the crystal, he took his hand and knocked as hard as he could against the surface of the adamant mineral, and felt like he could break his nanite-enhanced hand after just a few punches. "Alright... I don't know id you can hear me in there, or if I'm even making the right choice, but stay as low as you can," he calls into the crystal surface, "I'm going to try something." Pulling his weapon up to focus at what should be a weaker point at the top, he loaded a subsonic charge and took aim at the crystalline facet. Feeling the recoil as he pulled the trigger, the blast wave screamed around him as the channeled force of the compressed sound energy was set to rupture the toughest of diamonds with a glance from such a devastating auditory attack.
When the dust cleared, Kuro noted the sound wave had carved a path towards and around the crystal base, a deep mark that showed its clear hit. Yet the blood red crystal didn't even show a hint of damage, not from his regular bullets, nor one made of compressed sound. It was then that a frustrated Kuro had decided to take yet another look at the crystal, as he allowed his weapon to cool from the force of the previous attack and the spirit energy had charged it with to keep the orichalcum weapon from bursting his own eardrums. Putting a hand to the crystalline facet, to observe it and ensure he wasn't imagining it, he felt the smoothness of the untouched surface, and realized that whatever it was that this foreign substance was made from, it would take more than just something physical or insubstantial...
He had one bullet that could do it...
'No...' he thought, 'That is not a bullet to be used lightly, and I only have enough for one shot...' He had to think this through again. Bullets bounced off of it... Shaking it apart with shots of compressed sound didn't even crack its surface... He didn't know enough about the intricacies of crystals a geologist would. Puling his hand off of the crystal, he felt something arc between his body and the pillar itself. Blinking, as he realized it was a smallest of jolts of static electricity, he wondered how it had even happened.
'Wait...' Kuro realized, as he stared at his own hand, wondering if that something he had flowing inside of his blood was enough to conduct a mild charge between the crystal and himself, "Could I utilize that..." Taking a hollow bullet he used to charge with his own energy, he decided to do something drastic he had never before thought of doing.
Taking a breath, he used his techniques to draw, not only the energy from his body, but the stuff flowing through his veins that had granted him a second chance. Taking a few paces back to get a better grip on recoil and safety from debris that could be shot back at him, Kuro concentrates and tries to imagine how this new bullet would react with the orichalcum in his weapon, how his mystic energy would flow and intermix with the nanites, a purely scientific creation. Both were normally things that would be at odds, an unseen, binding energy and a unnatural, manmade creation, could not always interact properly without intermediaries or out of design, such as his weapon; but forging a bullet that required both ideologies to work in tandem...
"I can make it work," he told himself confidently, as he felt the heat of his bullet rising, even as he loaded it into the chamber of his gun, using his weapon as a focal point for both the nanites and the energy to settle into, "So lets beat the odds..." He felt his spiritual energy being channeled into the weapon, as beads of sweat poured from his brow and his palms, he felt the charge of static build up alongside his heartbeat, his brain accelerating as it calculated the odds, his hands growing numb as two energies collided, until he could take no more and pulled the trigger.
[Hollow Spirit Bullet]-
[Piezoelectric-Nanite, Load]-
[Railgun]!
A single shot rang out, an explosion and kickback that drained Kuro, much like when he first fought Yami in her Darkness form, and yet at the same time he felt it was different. With barely a scratch on himself or Hades, he watched the results of his gamble pan out, with the winds of change turning his path towards a new direction for once. As the dust settled, no longer was Kuro a youthful teenager, as he was after Yami had saved him, he was now the younger man restored to an aged yet wiser form he had once had. It had seemed the nanites had been depleted from his form, and returned his body to the way it once was. It was then that he felt his right arm get stabbed a thousand times over with shards of glass and a burning flash of fiery numbness.
"Aragggh," he gasped, as he grabbed his right shoulder with his left arm, feeling trickles of blood and charred pieces of his jacket beneath his touch, "Damn it..." He honestly expected his hand to go numb, and figured his arm must be shattered from the force of the blast, but he expected the adrenaline rush to last long enough to dull the pain until he got safely back to the Lunatique. But for his arm to be numb from the blast alone, the static charge must have shredded his nerves and the nanites all in one blast, meaning he was likely going to be worse off than he actually felt. "I didn't want it to happen like this," Kuro states, as he gradually collapses to his knees from the pain and the blood loss, "It's suppos-hnnggh-to mean something..."
The dust from his blast was finally settling, he heard more than saw someone walking through the crystals debris. Obviously whatever it was he had damaged, whoever it was he had just saved, had managed to see him collapse within the field of cast off debris. It wasn't much, but he was happy that he had at least done something for someone. Until he saw them lean over to pick up his weapon, which had miraculously kept itself from being blasted to slag like it had before, only to fall into this mans hands. "N-no-" he managed to croak out through his raw throat, which was slowly losing feeling along with everything else, "Ss-top." The person, dressed in black and tan, takes the weapon in their hands and looks it over with disinterest, before opening its chamber and emptying its contents onto the floor.
"Don't worry, Black Cat, everything's going to be alright," the man, as he then takes a piece of crystal from the ground and plays with it in his hand, "We can make sure the Doctor fixes that hand up for you again, just like before..." Taking that same piece of the crystal, he turns it around and uses its sharper end to dig into the weapon, next to the number emblazoned on it. "Looks like its lucky number thirteen, for you..." the figure says with a smile, as he loads the crystal piece into the barrel, "Times sure have changed, eh Heartnett?" He doesn't even flinch as he shoots Kuro point blank in the chest. "This world needed you to be a better hero..." the man says as he walks back towards the shattered crystal to gather more pieces, "Time to end this farce, once and for all."
Yami
A rumbling is felt, a thrumming in the walls and floors beneath Yami's feet, as the decrepit stone begins to crumble from the force of impact. As the Seer lifts his hands to the crystal chandelier, it begins to roil, as if the crystal was trying to liquefy and change its state of matter. Like a water droplet falling from the crystal, the red seemed to drain from its crystal prison, as it coalesced into a gravity defying ball of mercurial-like liquid that gently floated down to sit between the awaiting Seer's hands. "And with this, Yami-san," the Seer states, as he draws it down and offers it to her, "I offer you the choice to ascend to a higher calling..." He passes it into her reach, as her own hands feel some invisible force settle between her grasp of the object, as if waiting for her to take it.
"With this power, you can undo the damage to this universe; you can fix every mistake you have ever done, and bring a new age of peace," the Seer says in glee, as he watches her contemplate, "Take it and all your cares, your worries, will be over, no more doubt, no more self-loathing, free to love themselves; you can save everyone, my darling Eve." His eyes flash from dichromatic to a bright pink in both, before returning to normal. "No one would have to worry about hate, or war, or differences, you know," he croons, as he steps around her while she remains transfixed by the morphing ball of semi-liquid, red energy, "No more pain, or death, everyone can have the chance to live life to the full; and always smile, because there is no anxiety in Paradise."
Something flashed in her eyes, a single hint of recognition in them as he spoke, but she ignored him, even as his features began to morph from that kindly, older man, to a younger child whose features were unrecognizable. "Take it, my dear," he whispers, golden hair and pink eyes no longer hidden from her view, as he smiles and gets closer to her, "This is your destiny, you were made to be a weapon of war; why not become an instrument of everlasting peace?" The boy smiled, as he offered the girl this gift.
"I- I-" she goes to close her hands around the red sphere of light, as if hypnotized by its gentle glow. It slips out of her grasp, instead blooming like a flower and spreading out, as if it was alive, and began to surround her neck like a halo of red. Morphing and twisting into a heliacal pattern, it began to contract towards her exposed neck as the vibrant maroon of Yami's eyes dull and her arms fall limply to her sides, without a protest.
"Good, good," the blonde boy states, with nary a hint of remorse, "Give in, and it will all be over soon... be stained red by my Master, repent your sins, and return to your rightful place, our darling Eve."
With Mea
The shadow stilled, faltered as if something had shifted, had stumbled its attack, as Mea parried its sloppy attack. "Too late, too late, too late," the shadow began to mutter to itself, as it put its free hand to its face, and fell to the floor inside the mindscape created by the psycho-dive, "She's too late." Mea quickly took advantage of its distraction to immobilize her opponent psychically, as Mea then drew closer to her shadow to stand before it as its blade fell from the ensnared hand.
"What's going on, who are you?" Mea orders, as she turns her own blade below the creatures neck, and prepares to cut into it, "Why were you pretending to be Nana, why were you try to distract me?" She gasped out while within the psycho-dive, as a familiar wave of all-consuming blackness hit her like a brick wall. "There...I've felt this...before," Mea speaks out, as she begins to sweat, as the taxing effort of holding back this unruly shadow was beginning to put a strain on her power, "My master, she had this same blackness-will; this... same...feeling of loneliness." As she decided to make one final attack on this shapeless, muttering foe, she targeted the feelings with a will of her own that she had cultivated. Mea poured her heart, her memories, the love for her sisters, for her friends, the good times, the bad, and with a single strand of hair turning from a bright crimson to a burning, hot-white, she struck with a purpose only she could relate too.
The single hair went straight for the heart of the shadowy copy, and as it struck, the being finally broke free from its utterances both internal and external to do only one thing.
"AGGGRRRAHIEEEEEE!" the shadow screeched, both in the mind and outside it, as the burning white lance, not only pierced the shadows with its light, but burned it away and replaced it with all the memories and love she could muster into that shot. As if piercing the creatures heart wasn't just enough, Mea attempted to wrap it with an all fulfilling love that she could share with her, as the shadows warbled and began to be burned away. The heartbeat filled resonated with that feeling love, and replaced that skin of evil with the exposed flesh of the hidden source of those mismanaged feelings. What was left was someone who could have passed for Mea's double, as she drew her closer and was able to see an astounding familiarity. Break off the psycho-dive, she returned to reality to find herself in much the same position.
Unconsciously she had brought her into her arms, gently as she did so, and released the ironclad grip of her hair from the double.
Gone was the visage of Nana, and the evil and exaggerated double of herself; now, the girl in her arms had shorter hair, a three bead hairpin keeping blonde bangs from falling into her eyes that reminded her of her own braid, and a slim physique that reminded her somewhat of own young body, if a little thinner in other areas. This strange girls eyes fluttered open once, then again, as if she were awaking from a dream. 'Or rather a nightmare,' Mea thought to herself. Setting the girl down onto the dewy grass, using her own lap as a pillow for the others head, she sat there while waiting for her to fully awaken.
"Sousuke?" steely gray eyes meet a dark blue gaze, as the girl mumbles to herself what Mea assumes is a name, as she watches the girls face morph into panic, "No! You aren't Futagami... and you aren't ID!" She pushes herself off of Mea, standing up and away, looking around as she basically scans the entire area around them. "Where am I?" the woman states, as she looks confused and afraid, and then back at an equally confused Mea, before the girls face becomes one filled with sorrow and sadness, "This isn't home...is it?" The girl suddenly started to cry, as if a dam had burst. As if that weren't enough, the tears the girl had begun to cry did not dissipate as they fell from her eyes, but began to fall upwards against the force of gravity and collect around the her.
Mea took a step forward, as if to help her and figure out was going on, but the girls tears burst as she opened her own eyes, as if it was an unconscious act. "Are- are you alright?" Mea tried to ask, but the girl suddenly turned away from where the two of them stood, and stared out into space beyond the thick fog.
"I'm too late..." the girl cryptically stated, as she took an uncertain step forward, then another, before she suddenly collapsed to the ground, "Someone... is falling... into..." The strange girl didn't have much more to say as a dozen shadows erupted from the ground, all forming arms and hands that grabbed the tearful girl by the throat, by her legs, her hands, and Mea could do nothing as she escaped a few that came after her. She transformed her hair into blasters and shot the one that tried to grab her by the heel, then took to the sky to take out another five that came from below her own position. The girl had managed to break free, just long enough to turn to Mea and cry out words she couldn't hear over gunfire, yet the actions and tears were enough to realize it was a plea; though whether it was for herself or another, Mea could not tell. But she was too late, as the shadows pulled the girl into the ground; Mea realized if she was too late to save this stranger, then no doubt it would be far too late to save her friends.
Earth
Lunar Orbit
Dark side of the moon
Two Days Later
A rippling in space and time, as warp folds open and deposit two ships above the surface of the Earths satellite. Both are relatively ancient warships, long since decommissioned for battles by their original military state, the ships had since been retrofitted to compete with modern-day counterparts at the behest of their new owner, who had then upgraded them with superior warp-fold engines; forgotten technology that not even the King of Deviluke knew how to utilize.
"You're father will be severely disappointed in you, if he knew you stole this technology from the Chelidane, inside the Devil's Playground," Doctor Ryouko Mikado states, as she stands next to the ships new captain, who was standing at the head of the bridge, where a view port looked over the Earth from just beyond the rim of the moon, "Not that I'm complaining on the quick trip back home."
Lala didn't bother to respond to the Doctor's ill-mannered joke, as she laid her right hand on the window, her gauntlet clacking against the transparent fixture as she pressed her palm against it. "It's not the same anymore; without him here, a scolding from my father is worth ignoring, with what we both know now," Lala states without much emotion, "The Galactic Police were infiltrated by Solgam, who instigated the plan to pressure my Father into isolating the earth, the Anarchist Beryl was a fools quest, and the mastermind has been on Earth, all this time, and he wanted myself and Rito out of the way, and sent my fiancee to his death..." She scratches the surface of the glass paneling with her gauntlet, much to the surprise and terror of Mikado, who really hoped to not be depressurized anytime soon. "Solgam's plan is coming to fruition on Earth, and no one knows it's going down on an out of the way, backwards planet like this," Lala states, turning back to Mikado, "The Isolation Capsule is less than three days away, being towed by a corrupt government agency that doesn't even realize they are being played; and the person who could have been key to stopping it was sent to his death inside a black hole."
"So what are you going to do about it, Princess?"
"I'm going to make sure his sacrifice wasn't for nothing."
A/N: I am kicking myself for somehow forgetting this chapter... Check out my new poll on my page, and let me know if I was just an idiot and forgot to post this, or let me know if I Had posted this, and had just took it down and replaced it at some point.
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