Guest: Thank you! ^_^ I appreciate the review~!
Hello world! I hope you enjoy this long chapter... Final Battle is finally starting for real, and...wow. It's a lot to absorb, even after writing and proofreading it a gajillion times. Have fun?
Light
Nephilim's door opened silently, and familiar footsteps approached her. She curled around herself, too hungry and fatigued to sit up and acknowledge her father's presence.
"Neph." His voice surprised her. Stern, but not angry as she had expected. "Get up."
Truethorn hardly had enough power left to even speak. Even so, the Blade lent Nephilim a trickle more of strength. Just enough for her to push herself to a sitting position. Her arms shook and her infected wrist burned as she steadied herself and looked hesitantly into his eyes.
Overlord stood over her, hands clasped behind his back, eyes unreadable. "Gather your things," he said. "We're leaving."
"What?" Her voice came out as a thirsty croak.
"I'm destroying this place," Overlord said. "Pack what you need, and wait for me at the infirmary."
Leaving? Nephilim struggled to wrap her mind around the concept. She had been here her whole life. Her father had never once mentioned leaving. She'd just assumed that Overlord would stay here forever and…
Well, perhaps she'd erred in thinking that her father did not have any greater ambitions.
"Yes, Father," she said. Though she had no idea how she was going to manage packing her things and walking out of here without fainting. Or worse.
As if reading her mind- Overlord had a way of doing that- he laid his hands on her shoulders. White light emanated from a pouch at his waist and coagulated around Nephilim's many wounds and bruises, healing them. Her wrist felt chillingly cold for a few throbbing heartbeats, then warmed, all pain gone. She couldn't help a relieved sigh.
"I'll have some food sent to you," Overlord said. "In the meantime, get to work. I want you aboveground in fifteen minutes."
"Yes, Father," Nephilim said again, and stood. She clutched the bedpost as her knees buckled- yes, she was healed, but she was still weak- and she felt Truethorn dredge up the last of its power.
Stop it, she said, watching silently as Overlord turned and left the room. Stop it, Truethorn, Please, don't use any more of your power on me. You'll be gone until the moon comes back. Don't… She couldn't figure out why she was suddenly crying. Or why her mind had suddenly given her a picture of Merv.
…Don't leave me alone.
Kai was further away from Besai and the others than he had originally thought. It took him a solid fifteen minutes of hard running before he even caught the trail of the stone warriors pursuing them. Another ten before he heard the voices of the soldiers, the interspersed clangs of metal, and the cries of wounded men. He prayed none of the latter were his comrades: how terrible would it be to have arrived only a minute too late to save them?
He crested a small hill and saw them, his feet faltering. The sheer number of stone warriors left him breathless. His eyes flitted frantically as he panted, trying to pick out his companions somewhere in the horde. What if they're already… He silenced the thought.
Using Moonsong's powers he found the minds of Jay, Cole, and Ronin in the mess ahead of him. Pixal was there, too, he assumed, because he saw Suki flying low over their heads, occasionally diving to attack the solders' faces before flying out of reach.
Master, look.
Kai's attention was drawn to a pile of large rocks on the other side of the battle, on a shallow slope. A yellow portal snapped open in the air higher on the hill. About two dozen stone warriors stepped out and approached a cluster of rocks. After a quick sweep he saw Besai hiding there, along with a few others. He didn't waste time figuring out who.
Oh, no you don't, Kai thought with a growl, dashing forward. Some stone warriors on the outskirts of the battle ring noticed him, but he cut them down, never breaking stride.
His feet were a blur as he ascended the shallow slope. His body dared to tell him then that he was tired and should probably rest soon. But in his mind he felt Besai's panic- and, when he broadened his perception, the panic of the others hiding with her- and the fatigue was drowned in a wash of adrenaline.
Those poor bastards didn't know what hit them. Kai cut straight into the stone warriors, slashing anything his Blade touched.
Kai remembered Cole saying something about his stab wound from Nephilim's Blade hurting him more than it should have. The same principle apparently held true for these soldiers, because each let out gut-wrenching cries of pain as they were wounded. Overlord had thrown them into the battle without preparing them for what they would face, and that confusion and betrayal was clear in their expressions as they cradled bleeding arms or limped out of Kai's reach, fleeing down the hill and into the trees.
One, however, ran in the opposite direction of the rest, going over the crest of the hill and disappearing on the other side. Kai let it go; he couldn't follow it at the present with all these other enemies before him.
As Kai whirled to attack a stone warrior that had tried to get him from the side, he caught sight of Besai. Unlike the others, she did not cower in the rocks. Instead she stood tall, a look on her face Kai could only describe as…relief.
Are you okay? he asked her through his Blade, stabbing this stone warrior's side. The man rolled down the hill, painting the stones red with his blood, and lay at the bottom, unmoving.
…Yes, Besai answered after a moment. Should I get take the others and run?
"No," Kai answered out loud, breathlessly. Bad idea. No, he said again. Stay close to me. Where is your Blade?
Pixal has it, she answered.
Kai was momentarily infuriated with Pixal for taking away Besai's only form of self-defense. But even if he didn't agree, he could understand the Nindroid's reasoning: she was unquestionably the better fighter of the two.
Still, if Kai hadn't gotten to Besai when he did…
The thought was enough to make Kai scream. He did so, swinging his Blade gracefully around, feet twisting by rote as he faced his final opponent: a tall stone warrior with eyes as gray as his scowling face. The Blade cut the soldier's thigh. With a very unmanly wail the stone warrior stumbled backwards, lost his balance, and rolled down the hill to land beside his companion.
That was it, Kai thought triumphantly, breathing hard as he turned to face Besai again. Besai, he said, you'll never guess what I… The rest of the thought faded as he realized his mistake.
A stone warrior- the same one that had crested the hill moments earlier- stood behind Besai on the rocks, one hand fixed around her throat. The other gripped his sword, buried up to the hilt in her back. Jutting from her belly, his long, double-edged sword shined crimson in a flash of lightning overhead. The beast had cut straight through her.
Besai stared at Kai, looking more surprised than hurt for half a heartbeat. Then she gasped, her expression twisting horribly.
Kai's Blade slipped from his fingers. Moonsong's Gem flared in alarm at the sight.
Besai exhaled a tortured cry as the stone warrior's sword twisted in her gut. Then the sword was pulled free. Her legs buckled, and she was left hanging by his hand around her neck, her back pressed to his chest. Blood drenched her dress.
The stone warrior smiled and said to Kai: "You had a blind spot."
A blind spot? Kai's mind reeled as he remembered Genesan. Smoke, death, and the strip of cloth tied to the tree.
And Ahlie, trapped in the stone warrior's arms just as Besai was now. The stone warrior was raising his sword to cut Besai's throat.
An anguished, feminine cry rose from behind the stone warrior, accompanied by a string of incoherent words in the Dark Tongue.
"Sarnai!"
Kai watched dumbly as Merv rose to her feet and grabbed the stone warrior by his hair, jerking him backward. The stupefied soldier's head smacked the rocks. He blinked, appearing unharmed. But he had released his grip on Besai.
Kai pulled himself from his trance and picked up his Blade. Screaming his throat raw with more pain and rage than even he had thought himself able to conjure before this time, he drove the Blade through the stone warrior's heart.
Blood, sweat, and the sharp singing of Cole's Blade as he stabbed a stone warrior that had stepped into his reach. Not a fatal wound, but it drove the solder back nonetheless.
He, Pixal, Jay, and Ronin stood with their backs pressed together, feeling small in the midst of the hundred-plus stone warriors that surrounded them, staying just out of reach of their Blades. Cries of fury from the soldiers left Cole's ears ringing as he and his companions slowly circled, trying to formulate a strategy.
"They're afraid of you," Pixal noted. She was the only one who was not breathless. Ronin and Jay seemed to rely solely on adrenaline to keep them on their staggering feet. And Cole…well, he could fight for a while yet before he reached their level of exhaustion. The problem was, by that time, the others would probably be on the ground.
"Yeah," Jay added to Pixal's statement. He stood next to Cole, his eyes darting to and fro as he tried to keep many enemies in his line of sight as possible. "They know that we're outnumbered, and that if they all attacked at once we wouldn't be able to do much damage. But you…"
"They can't kill me," Cole said through gritted teeth. The scent of blood was strong in his nostrils. If something didn't change soon, he knew he would snap again, and possibly harm his companions. "But I can't kill them, either."
"Wh…what are you talking about?" Ronin panted. He held his sword in a defensive position as a stone warrior lunged for him. He was clearly the weakest link, having no Blade to attack with. The swords clashed, and Ronin grunted.
Cole whirled and stabbed his Blade into the stone warrior's shoulder. The soldier stumbled back and was swallowed by the masses, dropping its sword. Ronin picked it up. He looked a little more confident with two weapons, and he spun them in his hands, snarling at the stone warriors. This one-eyed man was no amateur. If only he had Blades in place of swords. Then maybe they'd stand a chance.
"Cole!" Ronin pressed. "What do you mean? You guys have Blades! Of course you can kill them."
"Let me rephrase that," Cole said, staring at the blood dripping from Raindancer nervously. "I won't kill them. My bloodlust…I could kill you, too."
"But if you don't kill them, they'll kill us, too," Pixal argued.
"I hate to say it, but Cole kind of has a point," Jay said. He leaped high into the air to avoid a low swing from a sword, then descended and did a spinning kick, whirling the stone warrior around and slashing his back. "These guys are just slaves. They have no control over their actions. To be honest, each of them are probably more innocent than all of us combined."
"Jay," Pixal groaned, "now is not the time to start questioning our justification in killing these creatures. They're hardly even animals."
"Excuse you," Cole grumbled. He was pointedly ignored by the Nindroid. "I've overcome my Transformed compulsions, and they could too, if they tried. But they haven't."
"But they're innocent!" Jay insisted. "Using your logic, we can say that it would be perfectly reasonable to go to Overlord's brothels and slaughter all of his slaves."
"Those women aren't the ones out here with the big knives," Pixal said. "It's called self-defense, Jay. These guys struck first. So we can wound- or kill- them if we need to."
Jay fell silent. They pushed back a few more daring stone warriors.
"So…what's the plan?" Ronin asked at last. His tone told them what they already knew: there was no plan. They could continue to stand here, picking these guys off one by one, but the strategy would eventually fail them. Overlord would catch on to what was happening- if he hadn't already- and urge them into a full assault, despite Cole's invincibility. His three companions would die. Then Overlord could come and pick Cole off himself. Or send in a few stone warriors with actual Blades to do it for him.
Their second option was to attack the stone warriors head-on. Cole could have done it if he was by himself, but he had to stay close to the others and protect them.
FIGHT!
The voice pressed against Cole's mind so suddenly that he nearly dropped his Blade.
Overlord was in his head again. But how? He'd thought that was over!
The same voice seemed to have manifested in the other solders' heads as well, because they charged like a great wall of water released from a dam, bearing down on him and his companions before they could so much as blink.
Cole's first thought was to keep a strong hold of his Blade as he was thrown to the ground.
His second was to push himself back onto his feet and attempt to hold back this surge of enemies.
Fight! Fight, and kill!
Cole focused on suppressing Overlord's tempting voice. He needed to keep his wits about him: if he gave in, it would all be over. He might not win himself back a second time. Even so, the two strongly conflicting desires paralyzed him for a heartbeat.
A heartbeat was all that the stone warriors needed to shove him back into the wet gravel again. The sound of his skin against the stones grated in his ears.
Where were the others? Cole didn't dare hope they were faring half as well as he. Ronin has that healing Gem. He can heal their wounds. But for how long?
As if in response to Cole's musing about Gems, Raindancer began to glow. Cole suppressed it with a panicked thought, its light burning his hand.
The stone warriors shied back.
A plan hatched in Cole's head. He nearly smiled with relief. There was a way out of this after all.
Take the Blade, Overlord snapped. Take it. Now!
A slight grin lit up Cole's face as he shrank the Blade into a tiny knife and hid it in his palm. It sliced his skin, but he ignored the sharp pain. You were hoping I wouldn't figure it out, weren't you? He waited for a reply, but got none. He wondered if Overlord could even hear him, or if the communication was one-way. But if he had been able to see Cole's quick and accidental burst of light, that meant he must be able to at least see through at least one stone warrior's eyes. He could see Cole's grim smile.
You can't win, Cole said as he grunted, his face planted in the sand by stone warriors who hacked at him with their swords, hindering him, but not hurting. Cole held out his hand, exposing the Blade, ordering it to flash a blinding flare of light. It did, and every stone warrior stumbled back, hiding their faces from the burning light. Many dropped their weapons.
What are you doing? Overlord asked. He chuckled amusedly, but Cole knew there had to be some fear in his eyes, wherever he was hiding and organizing his troops. Just save yourself, Dark Knight. Leave them and run. You can't protect them anyway; you never could, and you never will.
Don't hurt yourself with that useless light. RUN!
Cole trembled in pain as his body was engulfed in the light. Was he on fire? Or was the light entering his parted lips like a spray of water, drowning him?
It's hurting you! Overlord shouted. Turn that off. Can't you feel it? It's going to kill you!
Shaking, Cole managed to rise to his feet, feeling as though his skin was melting from his bones like molten glass. He held the Blade high, allowing its light to streak across the terrified faces of every stone warrior in sight. The light was so bright and so hot that it caused the rain droplets, heavy as they were, to evaporate before they hit the ground, covering the area in a thick mist. Cole felt certain that the Blade had melted his hand by now, though he didn't look up to check.
The light shone through- or perhaps within- the mist boldly, swirling in hazy circles as it brushed against the skins of the stone warriors.
But Cole was not done. He pushed the light further, until even his eyes burned. He thought that having his eyeballs gouged out with red-hot knives would have been gentler than what his Blade was doing right then. But he felt Overlord's agitation grow. A single stone warrior- likely driven only by Overlord's sheer rage- lunged for Cole.
But the Dark Knight had no intention of giving up: because if Overlord didn't want him to do it, then it had to be the right choice. He clocked the stone warrior on the side of the head with his elbow; it fell without a fight, too overcome by the pain of Raindancer's light.
Satisfied, Cole turned back to his task. He inhaled deeply, taking in a lungful of the light-infused mist, and whispered:
"Heal."
Ronin hardly found the time to breathe as he was swarmed by the stone warrior horde. Jay and Pixal managed to stay on their feet: Jay had forgone his hesitance to fight as he flew into the air, protecting Pixal and Ronin from above, growing his Blade long enough to attack the stone warriors just a few inches outside the reach of their own swords.
Pixal had a more difficult time on the ground with Besai's short Blade, attacking at close range, counting on Suki and Jay to watch her back. The bird flapped its wings and slashed its long claws against anyone who attacked her from behind, hindering them until Pixal could deal with them.
Ronin could use his swords to protect himself, but not to attack. It was all he could do to avoid the stone warriors' weapons as he kept his eye on Jay, watching him for injuries. If he got hurt Ronin would do all he could to help with his Gem. That's why he'd stayed down here instead of fleeing with the women and Wu in the first place.
But he and Pixal seemed to have it covered pretty well, and Ronin was quickly forced to focus on his own dilemmas as stone warriors began to direct their attention toward him, pressing against him on all sides, slashing at him with their swords.
Maybe I should have thought this through a little better, he thought, ducking under a swing. He leaped back as Jay slashed his Blade across several solders' heads at once, giving Ronin a second to breathe before another wave pressed over the bodies of their fallen comrades. This is hardly fair. If only I…
Ronin noticed a flicker of light ahead. Jay and Pixal noticed it too, and they paused as around them the stone warriors' attacks came to an abrupt halt. They shifted uncomfortably, looking ready to bolt into the trees.
"Cole," Jay said. He reached out his hands to Pixal and Ronin and, with a heavy grunt, flew them both over the stone warriors. They crash-landed in a copse of trees about a hundred yards off. Jay's face seemed redder from his few moments carrying them than during all of their fighting, and he gasped voluminously for breath.
"I…I've never done that…before," he apologized, accepting Pixal's hand up.
"Guys," Ronin said, peeking around the narrow trees to stare at the growing light in the center of the battlefield. It grew too bright to look at and he turned around, blinking dark spots out of his eye. "What's going on?"
"Cole's Blade," Pixal explained. "It produces a light that makes the stone warriors afraid."
"Why didn't he do this sooner?" Ronin asked. "Could've saved us a lot of trouble…"
"He's a stone warrior," Pixal said dryly. "It must have taken a lot of courage to do what he's doing, considering what he's been fighting in his mind in the middle of all this bloody conflict. I'm surprised he did it at all. Though, for your sakes, I won't say I'm not grateful."
Jay dropped on his seat next to Ronin, back to the light, closing his eyes as he continued wheezing. "You…don't look too g-good, Ronin."
Ronin looked down on himself in the growing light. He hadn't even noticed until now, but he was bleeding out of a deep gash in his arm. When had that happened? He tore a length of cloth from his shirt and tied it clumsily with his good hand, grabbing one end between his teeth as he tightened the knot.
"Why not just heal yourself with your Gem?" Pixal asked. She knelt to help him apply the makeshift bandage properly.
"It's not that big of a deal," he said. "I need to conserve my power in case Jay needs it today."
"You've got to take care of yourself," Jay said. "Come on. Use the Gem."
"No," Ronin snapped, a little harsher than he'd intended. The conversation ended.
Above them, the rain turned to a drizzling mist. The air became uncomfortably warm and muggy as Cole's Blade continued to reach into the deepest, darkest corners of the shallow valley and bring them to light.
"Will Cole be okay?" Jay asked, drawing his arms around himself. Everything was far too quiet after all the deafening tumult of battle mere moments ago. "I don't know why stone warriors are so afraid of that light. What if it…"
"I thought I heard Wu say something about it being a healing Gem, like mine," Ronin said. "Though, my Gem can't make light like this."
"I'm sure he'll be fine," Pixal said. As a Nindroid, she was able to tolerate the intense light better than the others, so she stood and watched as the light reached its crescendo. Ronin covered his eye, red spots swelling in his vision.
"This isn't the first time he's made his Blade-" Pixal's voice cut off abruptly.
A few seconds later the light was gone. It happened so fast that for a moment Ronin was afraid that he'd gone blind. He blinked in the blackness until his vision trickled back, spotty. He looked to Jay and Pixal.
They were gone.
Ronin leaped to his feet, whirling in a full circle. The rain was falling in thick torrents again, cooling the air, thinning the mist. "Jay!" he called. "Pixal!" He tried to find their tracks, but the ridiculously heavy rain had already smudged them. Useless. He ran in a circle again, then left the copse, skidding to a halt as soon as he could see through the mist. He stared at the hundred stone warriors, all laying prone on the ground.
Or…maybe it wasn't right to call them stone warriors anymore.
Men and boys, all of them. The ground beneath them was dark with what Ronin assumed was the expelled alloys from their skin, a powder that stuck to their wet hands as they rose one by one to their knees, staring at their arms, legs, and hands.
A healing Blade, Ronin thought, wonder momentarily overcoming his alarm at Jay and Pixal being missing.
"Ronin," a soft voice spoke next to him, and he jumped.
"Cole," he breathed, examining the strange face before him. "Hosts, you scared me."
Cole looked so…different without the stone skin. The former Dark Knight touched his own hands, seeming unable to believe the change. His face had lost that hard scowl that had always been present as a stone warrior. His eyes seemed deeper. Older.
"Welcome back," Ronin said. Lightning lit up the sky around them. "Did Pixal and Jay come to you? They were with me, but disappeared while you were…healing."
Cole frowned, shaking his head. "Maybe they ran away from something."
"You think they would have warned me if that were the case," Ronin reasoned. He recalled how Pixal's comment had cut off right before the light disappeared. "Something isn't right here. Cole! Are you paying attention to me?"
Cole fixed his gaze on the hill Besai and the others had fled to. "I hear voices," he said, pulling on Ronin's injured arm. He realized what he'd done and jerked back, apologetically. "Come on."
Ronin followed him to the hill, grateful that, at least for the moment, his body was allowing him to forget that it was no longer at its prime. If I survive until tomorrow, he thought as they scrabbled the slippery, rocky slope, I am going to be more sore than I've ever been in my… His jaw dropped open at the sight below him.
"Kai!" Cole exclaimed, running the remaining distance to where Kai and Merv knelt on the rocks, the ground around them mottled in different shades of red.
Oh, Hosts. I shouldn't have left them… Ronin slipped his Gem from a pocket in his vest as he followed Cole. He dropped to his knees next to Kai. "What happened?" he asked, examining Besai's awful wound. Thunder rolled overhead.
Kai raised his head, disoriented. He'd been engrossed in his attempt to staunch the wound. Besai was awake, barely. She murmured things to Kai, but he didn't seem to be listening.
"Ronin," Kai said quickly, voice cracking in his distress. "Cole. I… It's my fault…"
"No, no," Ronin said, setting a hand on Kai's shoulder. The poor boy was trembling. Gah! Why is it that every time it seems we've gotten ahead of Overlord, he does something like this? "I'm sure it isn't. What can we do to help? Is anyone else injured?"
Kai blinked and looked around as if it was the first time he'd considered that anyone else could be hurt. Not that Ronin blamed him. "Um…Sage is over there. Not sure what happened to Wu."
He disappeared, too? Ronin's blood ran cold. Just like Jay and Pixal. What's going on?
Cole must have assumed he could be of no help here, because he left the scene to comfort Sage who, Ronin now noticed, was steadily crying off to his right.
"What can I do to help?" Ronin asked again, holding up the Gem. He would have time to find their missing companions later; right now, Besai needed them.
Kai looked this close to snatching the Gem from Ronin's palm. He abstained, swallowing. He looked terrible, bloodied bruises disfiguring his face. What, had he gotten in a fist fight with a stone warrior? Ronin discreetly used a pinch of the Gem's power to reduce the swelling: the pain had to be very distracting.
"It's on both sides," Kai said, gesturing to Besai's wound. "He…he twisted the sword before pulling it out. Her intestines were cut, and…it's everywhere. I need to get the waste out before I can even think about closing the wound."
Now that Kai had mentioned it, Ronin could smell it. The faint but unmistakable rank of…well, feces. He was no doctor, but he could guess that leaving that junk in Besai's body could cause major infections down the road.
Besai whispered something that neither of them could hear. She grabbed Kai's arm- her skin was as pale as the whites of her eyes- and spoke a little louder. "Kai…th-the…"
"Shh," Kai said, touching her cheek. Were those tears in his eyes, or was that just the rain? "Save your strength. We're going to fix you."
"Kai," Besai said again, insistently, her blue eyes round and pleading. She was going into shock. "The…baby."
The realization widened Kai's moist brown eyes. He shook his head. Looked at the wound in his wife's belly. Up at her face again, lips parted as he tried to say something. All that came out was a feeble groan.
Ronin could hardly bear to watch. Just the other day he'd felt the baby's heartbeat through his Gem: tiny, but strong.
Now dead. Or about to be, if something wasn't done soon.
Please, God, Ronin prayed, eye upturned. There has to be a way to at least save her.
And then it came to him.
"Cole!" Ronin shouted. "We need your Blade!"
Cole looked at him in confusion. But he stood from where he'd been sitting with Sage and pulled his Blade free from his belt. "I don't think my Blade can heal wounds, if that's what you're thinking," he said. "Like Wu said. It just purifies things."
"That's good enough for me. Kai, tell him what needs to go."
Kai blinked dumbly. "Go?"
"The waste! The things that need to leave her body so you can heal the wound!"
Kai closed his eyes for a moment, seeming to compose himself. He murmured a few words under his breath. Then his eyes opened, a touch calmer and more confident. He pointed with only slightly shaky hands. "You see that dark waste?"
"The stuff with the chunks in it? Yeah," Cole said, starting a tiny light in Raindancer's Gem. He began to guide it toward the wound, but paused. "Um…I don't know how Raindancer will remove it."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, will my Blade just decimate it? Or will it extract it somehow? Do I need to pull the waste upward so it comes out of her belly, or push it downward, so it escapes through the uh…hole in her back?"
"Pull," Ronin said. "That way we can see what's going on. Do it!"
Cole did, guiding the light down into the wound. After frowning for a moment- and making several different strained expressions- Ronin guessed what the problem was and helped him out.
"Make motions with your hands," Ronin suggested. "It's easier to visualize in your mind what you want the power to do."
Cole nodded and took a deep breath, brow creasing, and cupped his hand. He made a motion as if to scoop water from a bucket. When that did nothing, he spread his fingers and did the same motion, raking upward. The light followed his gestures.
Besai whimpered, fingers clenching around Kai's arm. Her eyes already looked cloudy. How much longer did she have? Not more than a couple of minutes, if they didn't hurry. How was she still conscious through this pain?
"I can feel it," Cole said. "But it's slippery, unlike the alloys in a stone warrior's skin. I can't get the power to sort the waste from the blood and tissue." Then, in a quieter voice: "I should have practiced with this power last night… If I'd known I would use it…"
"You can do it," Ronin said. "I know you can. Come on. Try again."
Cole bit his lip and touched the wound with a tentative finger. "Okay…" he murmured, pulling back, using both hands this time as he drew more light from his Blade. He inhaled. Exhaled. Bent a finger on each hand experimentally, the light still following his gestures.
Then, so fast that Ronin dared not blink and miss it, Cole made wide motions with his arms: down, palms raised in a scooping motion, then straight up, fingers splayed.
Besai screamed.
"It's hurting her!" Merv exclaimed, and Kai simultaneously cried out in alarm. "Stop it, Cole! Stop-"
"Merv," Ronin said. "Look."
The waste was slowly rising up, spilling over her skin, where the rain then quickly washed it away. Merv fell silent, though Besai continued to wail. Poor girl. If only they had something to help with the pain.
Cole's frown intensified as his fingers curled, gathering almost into fists. The wind lashed his hair.
Kai held Besai's hand, whispering soothing words to her, always keeping one anxious eye on Cole's progress. Kai was doing considerably well; Ronin knew that if he and Tina had been in the same predicament, he'd be far less calm.
Kai…calm. Now that Ronin thought of it, Kai seemed a lot more collected than earlier that day when he'd tried to drag Besai from the cave. What had changed?
At last, Cole lowered his hands, breathless. The light dissipated, and he looked up at Kai. "Anything else?"
"It's…done?" Kai didn't seem ready to believe it. He released Besai's hand to examine the wound. Confusion and relief played his face simultaneously. He nodded. "Um…dirt. Can you-"
"Already done," Cole said.
"…Thank you. That's it. Ronin, the Gem?"
"I don't know how to heal things like this," Ronin admitted. "My specialty is the…superficial wounds. So you can do this." He held out the Gem. "Same basic principle as Cole's, I suppose. Guide the light, make motions with your…"
Kai was already at work, intense concentration adding wrinkles to his forehead and tightening his jaw. And his fingers- the fingers of the artist and surgeon that he was- were steady, all previous nervousness gone, or at least suppressed with disciplined practice. One hand dug deftly into the wound, examining parts and holding them together before his other hand guided the Gem's light to heal the incisions.
It took him hardly longer than a minute to close the wound, leaving nothing but a scar behind. Ronin assumed it looked the same on her back.
Besai breathed a little easier, though she still looked pale as the corpse she would have become if not for their intervention.
Dropping the Gem in the rocks, Kai took Besai into his arms and wept in her hair.
"T-the baby?" Besai cried weakly.
"I don't know," Kai admitted. "I did what I could. But…he cut through your womb. I healed that, and your cord is fine, but if his sword cut the baby… Gems can't bring back what's already gone."
"Who cut her?" Cole demanded.
When Kai did not immediately answer, Merv spoke in a shaky voice. "It…it was a stone warrior. He snuck up behind us. And…he said something about a blind spot."
"Overlord," Cole growled. He took a deep breath and spoke again, standing. "I didn't realize it before today, but Overlord can see inside the minds of stone warriors, not just remotely control them. He can see through our eyes, hear with our ears…" He looked down. "Overlord may have been using me to spy on you since my Transformation."
"You did not know," Sage assured him, touching his side.
"But what about Besai?" Merv asked. She trembled as she came forward to kneel beside Ronin. "Is she healed? And the baby…"
An idea occurred to Ronin. He searched the stones until he found his Gem. He pressed it to Besai's belly.
"What are you-" Kai began, but Ronin hushed him.
"Shh!"
There it is… Ronin exhaled as the Gem began to throb with light in his palm. He took Besai's cold, trembling hand and gave her the Gem. "Do you feel that?" he asked.
Besai's fingers closed around the Gem. Her crying stilled as she watched the white stone faintly pulse through her fingers. "What ees that?" she asked.
Ronin took Kai's hand- larger, warmer- and placed it over Besai's.
"That's the baby," he said, tears in his voice. Gah. He was not a teary guy, but… "Good job, Kai. Do you feel it, too? The baby's heart is strong. A little agitated, understandably, but strong. You did good." His voice wavered near the end.
Kai stared with wonder, opening Besai's fingers a little so he could touch the Gem directly. It pulsed unsteadily, but the longer they all watched it, the more it seemed to settle into a gentle, stable rhythm.
Kai began to cry again.
Merv reached out her hand tentatively, touching the Gem. "It's amazing," she breathed. "Sage… Come look."
As everyone gathered close, laughing softly in relief, Ronin looked around the rocks, frowning worriedly. "Did Jay and Pixal come by?" he asked.
"No," Sage said. "And I do not know where Wu went. He disappeared when that light from Cole's Blade came."
"That's what happened to the others, too," Ronin said, looking at Cole.
Cole raised his hands, shaking his head. "It wasn't any fault of mine, or my Blade." He stood and looked over the crest of the hill, pulling his lips into a thin line. Down below, the former Transformed men looked lost, wandering like cattle across the valley.
"We should do something for them," Sage said.
"No," Cole answered. "We have no time. And they aren't harming anyone by being out here. If we defeat Overlord, we can come back later and help them."
The silence following Cole's proclamation affirmed that everyone agreed, however unwillingly, that this was best.
"We need to come up with a new plan," Cole said at last. "Breaking Overlord's Blades and Gems isn't going to work anymore, obviously. He must have seen through our ploy with sending Nephilim back."
"And it's impossible to hide," Kai added. Reluctantly he gave the Gem back to Ronin, and it stopped pulsing. "Overlord sent stone warriors after you strategically. He somehow knows exactly where each of us are, and can send stone warriors after us at will."
"It's been quiet, though, since Cole used his power," Sage observed. She looked at him- at his skin, particularly his face and hands- numbly. She seemed in too much shock to properly convey her feelings about his change.
"Overlord didn't want me to figure out Raindancer's power," Cole said. "So now that I know, he's going to be a lot more cautious about how he attacks so he doesn't lose any more men. He'll…" He paused, turning in a circle, searching the horizon.
"He'll what?" Ronin asked. "What are you saying?"
Cole's fists clenched. "I'm saying that I hope I'm not right," he said, pointing to the distant cliffs in the east, barely visible over the tops of the tall trees.
"Sunseeker," Sage murmured. "Do you think he used that Blade to take Jay, Wu, and Pixal there while we were distracted?"
"It makes sense," Cole said. "Knowing that I can use my power, he's decided to separate us. He'll pick us off one by one." He continued after a moment of silence. "And, knowing what we do about the Patriarchs, it would be poetic justice to take them there."
A foreboding thought. To the side, Merv paled and looked to Kai. They were all thinking the same thing.
"Jay is alive," Kai said after a moment. If he noticed the way the others were surveying him, he did not show it. "I don't know about Pixal or Wu. I can't feel Nindroids. And Wu is just…gone."
"You can feel Jay?" Cole said incredulously.
"Well, don't act like it's any stranger of a power than Raindancer's," Kai grumbled. "And how else was I supposed to find you guys? I tracked Besai's thoughts." He pointed east. "You're right. At least Jay is on the cliffs."
"That's too far away for us to be of any use to them," Ronin noted reluctantly. "What should we do?" His blood chilled. "And…what does it mean when you can't find someone? What happened to Wu?"
Kai's silence spoke volumes. Ronin was momentarily overcome with emotion, but he shoved it down. He wouldn't count Wu among the dead until he'd seen the body.
"Can you feel where Overlord is, too?" Cole asked Kai. "Can you get into his mind?"
Kai hesitated. "I'm sure I could," he said. "But I'd rather not." He closed his eyes, still holding Besai's weakened body in his arms. "I can see Pixal and Overlord through Jay's eyes," he said. "They're fighting."
"What about Wu?" Ronin asked.
Kai shook his head.
"Okay." Cole nodded curtly. "As much as I hate to leave them behind, this is the perfect opportunity to finish what we came here for."
"You mean…destroy the Blades?" Ronin asked.
Another nod.
Ronin bit the inside of his lip with a furrowed frown. "Jay's up there," he said. "I can't leave him. He doesn't stand a chance."
"It will take hours to make it back to the cliffs," Cole argued. "We're much closer to Overlord's keep. We have a better chance of saving Jay and the others if we carry out the plan."
"Hold up." Ronin stood. "I'm having second thoughts about this whole thing. I mean, Overlord as a Gem? It was just a thought! I have no proof! With Jay up there, and Wu who knows where, I don't think it's worth the gamble anymore." He grabbed Cole's shoulder. The former Dark Knight flinched, but Ronin did not let go. "Cole, for all we know, Overlord wants us to go to his fortress. Any number of things could be waiting for us in there."
"Like Tina?" Cole asked quietly, brushing Ronin's hand from his shoulder. "Ronin, if you don't want to help us, at least follow us to the compound. You can find Tina there and escape on your own. But I have to do this."
"I never said I was giving up on you guys!" Ronin exclaimed indignantly. "Tina is important, but right now I'm trying to save Jay! He's the one in the most danger right now! I… We can't lose him."
Cole regarded him pensively. Things were quiet for a long moment. Too long, considering the urgency of the situation.
"Then come choose a Blade," Cole said. "Maybe Overlord has another Gem or Blade like Sunseeker you can use to get to Jay."
Ronin clenched his jaw. It irked him how calm Cole was about this whole situation. But he was right. There was no way Ronin could get to Jay in time without a Blade. One like Sunseeker, or maybe even Stormstrider.
Cole saw the defeat in Ronin's eyes and dipped his head in a final nod. "Let's go," he said, a hand on Sage's back. "Besai, can you stand?"
"No," Kai said crisply. "She shouldn't be doing anything but resting right now. She's lost too much blood."
"I'm okay," Besai said in a feeble voice that struggled to be heard over the wind. She sat up on Kai's lap and held out an arm to her sister. Merv obligingly helped her to her feet, supporting much of her younger sister's weight with an arm under her shoulders.
Even so, Besai could not keep her knees from buckling. Kai was up in an instant, scooping her into his arms.
"Let's get some water at the river," Merv said, pulling hair from Besai's eyes as she gasped painfully for breath. "Then we can go on."
There was no easy way for Pixal to explain what happened as Cole's Blade produced that light. One moment she was standing, watching as the stone warriors fell around him, overcome by that white glow that, mysteriously, was so painful to them.
And then the next moment there was a hand on her arm, pulling her backwards. Before she could manage a word of protest she was swallowed by a tingling field of yellow light. Sunseeker, was all she managed to think before the yellow light disappeared. Everything felt too dark for a moment; the mechanics in Pixal's eyes struggled to compensate for the sudden change. Her vision slowly returned.
She stood at the top of a cliff overlooking the ocean. Strong wind billowed her cloak. Turning her head, she looked to the owner of the hand that had captured her.
Overlord.
With a furious howl Pixal pulled herself free and punched his face.
Overlord stumbled back a step, green eyes dark with rage. His nose, twisted and bleeding, straightened itself as he used power from what Pixal assumed was a Gem like Ronin's to heal it.
Jay stepped up beside Pixal. He'd come through the portal too, then. In his left hand Stormstrider's Gem shimmered the same glaring blue as his eyes. Though his clothing was whipping in the wind, his body seemed unaffected, hovering unmovable inches above the ground. Even his hair was still, lying in wet auburn curls around his pale, scowling face.
For a moment Pixal stood awestruck by his intimidating presence. Was this really the scraggy, emotionally distressed boy that she and Merv had cared for after escaping Overlord's dungeons just over a week ago?
A Blade grew in Overlord's hand, the inscriptions along its length flickering like purple flames. He snarled at the two of them, much like the wild dog Pixal had encountered days earlier. "Are you ready to lose your other leg, Keith?" he asked.
Pixal drew Besai's Blade from her cloak and held it out, mortified to find that her hands were shaking.
Wordlessly, Jay narrowed his eyes at Overlord. He seemed to be trying to remember something.
Overlord caught the look and charged, Blade pulled back for a mighty swing.
Jay stepped to the side, avoiding it. He silently continued his observation as Overlord corrected himself.
Jay isn't afraid, Pixal realized. Why is that?
Overlord spun and attacked with more speed. This time, Jay brought up his Blade to block it, sparks fizzling in the rain.
"Kyle said he knew your weakness," Jay said, leaping high to avoid a sudden separation of his legs from his torso. He stayed in the sky, looking down on his opponent. His eyes flitted to Pixal, then back to Overlord. "He said he knew how to defeat you."
"There is no way for you to defeat me!" Overlord screamed. He ascended into the air, coming face-to-face with Jay. White lightning flashed overhead. "Don't you understand? I have been since the beginning of the world! I will be forevermore!"
He can fly, too! Pixal took a step back, staring up through the rain, more amazed than scared for a moment. He must have a Gem for that as well. What else did he have that they didn't know about?
Jay seemed equally surprised. He dropped back down to the earth beside Pixal, boots splashing in the mud. He seemed to consider something, eyes darting to the side. Then he turned to face Overlord, who still floated in the air.
"Kai said you were afraid," Jay said. "That you killed Kyle because he got too close to the truth."
"Lies!" Overlord hit the ground with a thundering crash and, without missing a beat, ran for Jay again. Jay held up his Blade to block, and-
At the last possible second Overlord veered away from Jay, setting his malicious gaze on Pixal. A mechanical heartbeat later his hand looped around her waist, yanking her close before plunging his Blade through her breast.
Back arching spasmodically, Pixal's chin tilted toward the sky. Everything seemed to slow as she watched a spread of lightning flash across it, illuminating the clouds for a long, strangely beautiful moment before disappearing.
"You're such a pretty girl," Overlord whispered in her ear, slowly- agonizingly pulling his Blade from her chest. "Such a waste…" His grip loosened on her spasming body, and he let her fall at his feet. She tried to rise, but he felled her again with a brutal kick. Her pain sensors told her to stay still; the damage was too severe to move much.
"Pixal!" Jay's eyes rounded with horror.
Overlord regarded him with a smug, malignant grin. "You wanted my weakness?" he asked, shrinking his Blade into a knife the span of his hand. "There it is."
From deep within Jay's chest arose a cry seemed to rattle Pixal's frame. Tears in his eyes, he lifted his Blade to attack.
Overlord must have tapped into a Gem with powers like Jay's again. Because the moment Jay came close, the older man ducked with superhuman speed, flourished his Blade, and drove it into Jay's ribcage.
If time had slowed before, it now came to a complete halt. The rain, the thunder, and the wind all ceased. Heavy raindrops seemed to freeze in midair. Jay's eyes locked on Pixal's, pained and confused.
Then Overlord pulled his Blade free, lifted Jay's body above his head, and threw him over the edge of the cliff.
Pixal cried out, crawling the short- but also far too long- distance to the cliff's edge, looking over. Her lips parted in a silent exclamation as, far below, Jay's body fell, eventually breaking against the rocks at the bottom.
No…
Pixal's face twisted with pain that she hadn't believed was possible to feel until this moment. Futilely she raised a hand over the cliff's edge, tears spilling from her eyes as her fingers passed over Jay's tiny, still form far below.
Had they really been sitting down there together only yesterday, laughing into the wind about moon-cursed barnacles?
Had I really thought that I could escape this fate? An image of Lloyd passed through her mind, and her fingers balled into fists above Jay's body, as if she were trying to grab him. Rescue him, as she had been unable to rescue Lloyd.
"I'm out of time," Overlord said. He had the gall to yawn as he came up next to Pixal and nudged her with the toe of his boot. When she did nothing to resist- really, what could she have done against this creature?- he kicked her again, harder, sending her flying over the edge.
The wind whipped Pixal's body in a manner much like a leaf fallen from a tree, and she did not try to resist its pushes and pulls. Many times her body smacked against the cliff face, cracking things inside her body, peeling back her skin.
A tree, Pixal thought as she fell. We're all leaves on a great tree. Lloyd's has fallen…Jay's has fallen…and mine is…
Her eyes closed. All of this because I wanted to make a statement to Father by joining Cyrus.
Hosts, she had been so selfish. Right up until the end, she'd done nothing but serve her own self-interests, at the cost of everything she'd dared to hold dear.
…I deserve this, was the last thought to cross her mind before her body smacked the rocks, and she knew no more.
Hosts consume me, I deserve this.
Gah, this was... Wow. This is a lot to take in. Kira V. suggested saving this last scene for the next chapter, but hey, we needed an intense cliffhanger... Right?
So much happened and I have no idea where I should start! Like... Besai! Ronin! JAY! PIXAL! You two in particular were not supposed to do that! D:
And Neph. I know I say this every chapter but...man, that girl.
I...don't have much more to say. Except that I hope you will review? Oh, and I set up a Twitter account! The link is on my profile. Not sure how frequently I'll be on it, but I you like, go and follow me. I'll be posting status updates and possibly other goodies for y'all. Have a good rest of your month, and God bless! :)