A/N: We're working out way to the end here, probably only a handful more chapters, I'm debating if I want to start a new crossover, go back to my long standing history-timeline thing, start a Vampyr fiction (I blame halloween season for the worsening of my vampire addiction), or if I want to finally start going back and updating some of my older fictions, cleaning them up and moving some over to AO3… hmm… choices…
Disclaimer: Beep Beep booooooop! This is your warning! This person does not own either of these franchises and gains only personal satisfaction from this! Beep Beep booooop!
Higher Plane
Upon opening her eyes at the lantern, Katherine rocketed to her feet, looking around for Nero. Not seeing him materializing next to the lantern meant he'd either survived that arcane strike or her compatriot was gone for good. She hoped it was the former, she'd take the hit to her pride if only to have a partner to walk down this nightmarish road together with. Thankfully the path down toward where they'd been fighting was rather direct and there were few things blocking her path as she dashed as quickly as she could. As she passed by the room in which she'd died she paused long enough to tell that another door had been opened and darted through, taking the stairs two at a time, starting to hear the howls of the madman and the angry shouts of Nero. The fact that his shouts were less words and more just sheer anger didn't bode well, she hoped that she didn't have to fight him off when the madman was no longer a problem… Rounding a corner in time to see Nero crack a blue glowing fist into the man's gut was heavily satisfying however.
The scholar doubled over with an 'oof' sound, slowly rising to his feet, a mad grin spread across his face. He giggled, gibberish falling from his lips the same as the spittle.
"Grant us eyes… grant us eyes, plant eyes on our brains to cleanse our beastly idiocy." as he spoke, he began to raise his hands once more, up above his head, in an attempt to cast that arcane meteor shower again. Katherine darted forward, blades already split and in hand, sliding into the madman's chest like a hot knife through butter. He looked at her then, really seeming to see her for the first time, shock painted on his face even as a spatter of blood burst from his mouth. A whine pitched out of the back of his throat when Katherine yanked the blades from his body. He stumbled back, collapsing on one knee.
"Now I'm waking up…" he whined "I'll forget everything…" collapsing finally down onto his back and his last breath wheezing out of blood-filled lungs. Katherine clamped down on the surge of bloodlust that fired through her, she'd only fought for a brief span since awakening, but getting the final blow like that was always exhilarating. She looked over at Nero who was shaking the haze of the fight from his own eyes, he took a singular deep breath and then nodded at her.
"Thanks for that, whatever the hell that spell thing was was not fun to get hit by the first time around. I'm not even sure if I could've dodged it." he said, glancing at the corpse of the man they'd just fought. When he wasn't raving or casting spells at them he was actually rather unassuming, a pale, scrawny scholar who'd had too much of the cosmos poured into his mind. Katherine lit the lantern nearby and said softly
"Is it bad that far too much of his ramblings made perfect sense to me?"
"What all the gibberish that he was spouting out? I could make sense of bits and pieces. If he wasn't so dead set on killing us, I'm sure that we could've made sense of more of it, it seemed like it… corrupted him somehow." the partial devil said, yanking back on the crank to lower a bridge that seemed to lead forward in their current path.
"The perspective of the Great Ones often makes the familiar seem alien." Katherine said over the grinding of gears and chains. Nero glanced at her, something unknowable passing behind his eyes.
"Yeah I think I get that, like some higher plane bullshit, sounds like some of the stuff that the Order would get into when trying to study the strange pseudo-space that some devil's can put weapons in. Crazy physics stuff that goes way beyond me." Nero shrugged and the Hunter said nothing, most of the things that he'd just mentioned were not places or studies she was familiar with but that was alright. Nero always seemed more comfortable when he was able to speak of home, sad and longing for sure but she was plenty willing to be a listener and let him express his homesickness in passing remarks and wistful words.
-Devil's Hunt-
Seeing the results of the School's experiments, kept alive and twisted by the Nightmare, turned Katherine's stomach in a way that the blood and gore no longer could. Creatures fused together that should never have been able to be so… Monsters that stared them down with more eyes than should belong to any living creature. The Hunter only hoped that their waking world counterparts had died on the operating table, not forced to live out the sick existence that they were seeing. Dispatching more shadows the pair of them stopped before a large archway.
"I believe our journey is coming to a culmination here." Katherine said. Nero shot her a deadpan look
"A blind man could've told you that. This," he gestured at the archway "just absolutely screams 'you're about to fight something big and evil and unknowable'. Y'know someday I'd like to walk into a plaza, or a large amphitheater and not be attacked by the biggest thing in an area." he grumbled. Katherine huffed at that, he did have a point, for all of its mysteries, some parts of this Nightmare were awfully predictable. The wailing of a newborn could be heard as they walked slowly forward. The Hunter wasn't sure how she knew that it was a newborn and not just a baby and tried not to dwell on it. The noise was something that had been ringing in the background for a while now, something that Katherine felt uneasy about; the calcified stone she'd pulled from the Queen in the depths of the dungeon weighing heavily in her coat pocket now and she felt her heart sink as they walked forward toward the carriage that sat ominously in the middle of the stony clearing. They had barely cleared the archway when… something… fell from the sky. Katherine hadn't been watching to see what plane it had descended from but it curled protectively around the carriage before looking up at them with a face unviewable by mere mortals.
The Hunter took a deep breath, twirling her Blades once, the form of this creature was on the very edge of her awareness. It was a protector, she knew that much, and the cries of the infant and the carriage were more than enough to gather insight into what it was protecting. She would take no pleasure in this fight…
Perhaps to those who were unaccustomed to fighting, to the mere beasts of this Nightmare, this creature would pose a challenge. But between the pair of them… Both of them were well experienced fighters, had fought things much bigger and much worse than this creature that swung at them wildly with bladed arms and twirled when that wasn't enough and died on the blades of the hunters when that too was not enough. It collapsed to the ground in a pile of cloth and feathers, physical body still difficult to perceive upon death.
Nero walked up to the carriage, trepidation and curiosity warring on his face.
"It's empty." he said hesitantly, looking up at the sky, obviously searching for a source to the sourceless wailing. Katherine paused, reached into her coat, and walking forward, gently set the calcified remains into the carriage. It was a horrific sight to see, but it felt like the right thing to do, a way to correct a wrong committed long ago. The wailing faded away, the carriage… disappearing from sight and a lantern remaining in its place.
"I don't believe that this Nightmare is truly stable any longer." she said, lighting the lantern with a small click.
"Or maybe it will fade into a gentler dream." Nero said beside her, putting a hand on her shoulder. "We should go back to the Dream, I don't know why but I have a sinking feeling about it." he said, Katherine nodded and knelt, the tiny messengers accepting her request for the closest thing she had to a home and pulling her through the layers of the worlds.
-Devil's Hunt-
Upon opening her eyes in the Dream a sense of dread fell over her heart. The Workshop… the safe haven that had equipped and taught and sheltered herself and Nero was alight, burning brightly, the heat enough that Katherine could feel it from where she stood. She ran forward, thinking to grab some of the more valuable items from its shelves, to ensure that Gherman was not trapped inside but once in the building… The heat dissipated, the roar of the fire ceased, it was like the outward appearance mattered none at all to the space within. Katherine pulled the mask from her face, exiting the building once more to see Nero, having shaken the effects of stepping between realities, start rushing forward.
"This is no longer a safe haven." she said, putting an arm on his chest. He stopped and looked at her in confusion.
"Yeah, it's on fucking fire! Aren't you worried about the stuff inside?" He was about to push through her when she shook her head
"It remains a workshop, but not a place of rest." Katherine said simply. He gave her a look of concern and pushed past her into the building. He needed to see for himself and that was fine, Katherine approached the Doll, who looked down at her pleasantly.
"Good hunter, you have come… Dawn will soon break… This night and this dream will end, Gehrman awaits you, at the foot of the great tree. Go on good hunter." she said gently, hands still clasped together, still as placid as ever. Katherine tilted her head, she'd seen the tree through the gate, but it seemed a closed off place in the Dream, forbidden to her. Why was Gherman asking her in now? Nero was still inspecting the mystery of the Workshop but she knew he would follow her in his own time. She walked down the cobbled path to the open field and large tree that the Doll had mentioned. True to her words, Gehrman sat below it, staring out at the expanse of nothing that stretched in all directions from the Hunter's Dream. He looked up at her as she approached, eyes weary as he began to speak. Katherine had the strangest impression that he'd done this before.
"Good Hunter, you've done well, the night is near its end. Now I will show you mercy. You will die, forget the dream, and awake under the morning sun. You will be freed from this terrible Hunter's Dream." he said. The Hunter looked back the way she'd come, then back to the old man before her.
"What about Nero? What will become of him?" she asked
"The devil has earned his peace just as you have Good Hunter, he will receive the same offer." he said gently, the briefest smile passing over his face. Katherine nodded, she would miss the partial devil but he deserved the opportunity to go home, to forget this horrible nightmare.
"Kneel." he commanded. She obeyed, bowing her head forward as she heard the old man stand and the clink-scratch of an equally old weapon being drawn. For all the knowledge that she'd gained, all the sight she had, this was not something she wanted to see coming… She closed her eyes, ready to wake up…
A/N: Okay so this chapter is shorter because… well this is the most opportune transition point and the next chapter will likely be the last so
Till next time,
-Winged Element