Outcasts and Outlaws
Volume 3, Chapter 22
Kane's Battle
Opening Music: https/youtu.be/jOz5mHKWaQ8 [GATE OP 1]
(Music starts)
(Note: Characters listed next show up at the same time as the letters in the video)
(Shows Yang)
(Shows Jim)
(Shows Irileth)
(Shows Kane)
(Shows Mars)
(Shows Damien)
(Shows Ruby)
(Shows Connor)
(Quickly shows the letters of the title)
OUTCASTS AND OUTLAWS (Shows Connor walking down the corridor of Beacon)
Toku ni nani mo nozomu koto (Connor looks behind him)
nante nai!
(Ruby is behind him)
Minihodo wa shite
(She smiles at him) iru sa!
(Yang comes out of her room) Sonna boku de sae mo
(She pretends to be grumpy but let's out a small smile)
oku no hou ni!
(Shows Irileth in the arena facing away)
Yuzuritakunai
(She spins around and faces forward)
ikou geedo wa
(Attacks with her dual energy whips)
arurashii!
(Shows Stephane walking away from the arena)
Mamorutte angai to
(He scowls angrily)
muzukashii ne!
(Shows Mars raising his fist into the air)
Aki-
(Shows Kane charging into battle) -ra-
(Shows Jim punching with his metal arm)
-meru
(Shows combat air ships leaving Beacon) wake ja nai kedo!
(The air ships arrive at the naval platform)
Aoi sora no hate
(Everyone jumps down from the air ships and lands on the naval platform)
tsunagatta machi no yukue
(They walk towards the soldiers) Kitto teki to wakari
(The soldiers fire at them)
aenai
(The team fires their semblances) dakedo
(Their semblances take out the soldiers)
iin ja nai!
(Shows Mars using Mystic State) Hirata tobira wa
(Shows Kane surrounded by dark clouds)
subete o kaete
(Shows Jim's muscles growing stronger)
yuku!
(Shows Daryl standing on the roof watching the battle)
Sora no akatsuki no you ni!
(Shows Michael in flying around in his dragon exo-suit)
Oh wow wow! (Shows Michelle teleport behind Irileth and Kane and swing her twin-blade at them) Oh wow wow!
(Shows Wolf slicing at Jim, Yang and Stephane with his claws)
Oh wow wow!
(Shows Jorge firing a chain gun at Mars and Damien)
Oh wow wow!
(Shows Mars, Connor, Jim and Kane trying to push a tank back) Oh wow wow!
(Shows Michael, Michelle, Wolf and Jorge)
(Shows Mars and Damien)
(Shows Yang, Jim and Stephane) (Shows Kane and Irileth)
(Shows Connor and Ruby)
(Shows them all cheering in a line)
The battle had only just begun, and yet it raged fiercely.
"Bastard!" Connor shouted at his opponent, Michael, as he threw a golden light enveloped punch. Michael was easily able to block the hit by crossing the metal exoskeleton arms over his chest defensively, then pushed them out to knock Connor back. "Son of a bitch!" Connor cursed, Michael continuing to ignore the insults one after the other.
In the centre of the platform, Wolf had once again activated his invisibility as Stephane stood ready in front of Yang, who had Jim leaning on her to stand up straight. Just in time, Stephane sharply turned around to stop a claw from digging into Yang's face, the claw then vanishing back into nothingness. The three of them all backed up, forming a circle to cover all their sides as Stephane tried to think of a way they could track him.
Meanwhile Mars and Damien kept up their barrier as the bullets from Jorge's machine gun stormed towards endlessly. Mars knew the shield would fail soon, their aura wasn't enough to keep it up forever. Just as he thought that a second bullet whizzed past him, scraping his ankle and drawing blood, a sign that they wouldn't be able to hold out that way for long.
Kane and Irileth were the ones most at risk at that time though, Isabella hadn't let up her attack for even one second and it was making her extremely difficult to deal with. Every time Kane tried to strike her, she teleported out of way and reappeared behind him or to his side, making he so he couldn't react fast enough to to block her, so Irileth had to jump in to save him. Unfortunately Isabella would then simply teleport away from Irileth's attack and reappear near her, meaning Kane would have to protect her, starting the cycle all over again. Kane knew that without Irileth with him he would likely be dead, but if the cycle kept being repeated, eventually they'd grow tired and get hurt. On top of that, using his semblance was dangerous, as there was a significant chance he could hit his allies with it by mistake. Plus he needed to save his aura for the later battle against the leader of it all, Daryl.
Once again Isabella teleported to his side and he attempted to hit her, and once again she teleported only to be targeted by Irileth. When she teleported away from that attack however, she appeared at an angle behind Kane that Irileth couldn't reach, making it impossible for her to save him. She was learning quickly.
With no time to turn and block, Kane gave in and slammed his hand down on the ground, releasing the dark clouds of his semblance. The clouds spread out in a blast radius around him, forcing Isabella to teleport away. This time she acted differently however, kneeling on one knee at a safe distance instead of trying to overwhelm the pair with a flurry of attacks, suggesting that Kane's semblance at been enough to at least temporarily ward her off.
Kane and Irileth then stood in a back to back formation, covering all their sides in case Isabella tried to teleport to one of their blind spots. "You still doing ok?" Irileth asked Kane, glancing down at his damaged knee and blood stained coat.
After a brief silence, making Irileth think he wasn't going to answer. Whilst still looking at Isabella in front of him, he then responded, "You should just go, I handle this. You help Connor."
"Screw that, I'm not going anywhere!" Irileth snapped back at him, annoyed at the mere thought. "Connor can fight for himself, she'll kill you if I'm not here to help!"
"This isn't a game!" Kane angrily responded. "Go before you get hurt!"
Just as he mentioned that, Isabella had snapped out of her unmoving state and teleported in front of Irileth. She slashed forward with her twin-blade, Irileth countering with her energy whips but the enemy teleporting before the blow landed. Isabella then reappeared to the side of Irileth, Kane turning around to hit her with his scythes. Of course she teleported again, but this time was directly behind Irileth. Kane had no time to react before one end Isabella's blade was slashed down Irileth's back, blood spurting out behind her and all over Isabella's face and armour.
Feeling a sudden surge of anger as Irileth fell to her knees, Kane charged up dark clouds in his hands and shot a blast of them at Isabella. Once again she teleported out of the way and reappeared to Kane's side, slashing her blade his way. To her surprise, instead of trying block the hit, Kane grabbed the blade with his hand. It cut deeply into his palm, dark blood leaking out over the steel, but Kane didn't let go. His dark clouds snaked down his arm and across the blade, holding it in place.
Suddenly becoming wary of Kane, Isabella charged up her aura to attempt a teleport, but her face filled with shock and confusion as she found she couldn't. "What have you done to me?" She questioned in a slightly posh voice, speaking for the first time in their fight. "Why can't I teleport?"
"A better question would be why you can in the first place, since you're not supposed to have a semblance." Kane snarled back at her, his eyes filled with dark fury as he gripped the blade tighter and stopped her from escaping. He then noticed the steel cage on her back, that inside it carried two big storage tanks. He had wondered what was inside those containers, since all four of the generals carried them, now he's figured it out. "Those cylinders you all carry on your back, they're how you have semblances." He theorised. "Somehow, they create artificial semblances and the tanks are there to fill you with aura. If they were gone, you wouldn't be able to teleport and your allies would lose their powers too."
"You're a clever one, aren't you?" Isabella mockingly replied, pushing more on her blade in an attempt to cut it through Kane's hand, but the black clouds held her back. "Knowing that won't do you any good though, Master Daryl wants you dead and so it shall be done."
Kane then took a quick glance back at Irileth, seeing she was on her knees and bleeding profusely, but still breathing. For now, she was alive but he needed to finish it quickly. The aura tanks would be his first target and he knew exactly how he'd destroy them. "Irileth!" He called out to her, still struggling to keep Isabella at bay with his semblance. "Can you move?"
"I...I think so..." Irileth weakly mumbled, managing to push herself up to her feet while wincing from the cut on her back. From Kane's observations it wasn't terribly deep, she'd survive. What he was worried about was the amount of blood she was losing, he wasn't sure how long she had until she would pass out.
"You need to get out of here, listen to me this time!" He urged her, feeling the grip of his dark clouds on Isabella's blade starting to slip as she pushed it closer to his face.
"Hell...no..." Irileth still argued, falling to her knees again and crawling over to where Kane was locked in his power struggle with Isabella. "I'm not...about to...go...anywhere...without you..."
"Why the hell not? Get to safety!" Kane ordered her, growing angry at her stubbornness as he felt the steel sword digging deeper into his hand.
By that point Irileth had reached Kane, still crawling on her hands and knees, her face looking extremely pale. She held onto Kane's back, wrapping her arms around him...and kissed him on the cheek. Feeling the affectionate peck, Kane looked over his shoulder at her and whilst somehow not blushing or acting at all embarrassed, snapped at her, "Why the hell did you do that?!"
"I did it because I love you..." Irileth told him, her voice becoming weaker as her eyelids dropped and her grip on consciousness started to leave her. "I've loved you...since we were kids. We were...there for each other...all the time. I missed you..." Before she finished, her eyes closed and she slumped off of Kane's back, landing on her back on the cold metal ground. Her face was becoming whiter as the blood continued to flow from her open wound, Kane completely helpless whilst still struggling with Isabella.
Not wasting a moment after Irileth had stopped moving, Kane reached his hand into the inside pocket of his black coat, his expression turning to a furious scowl. When he pulled out his hand, he held in it the Kalos Crystal clone Damien had given him, the one use only version that he had created in a lab. Isabella instantly recognised it and her face immediately became filled with even more wariness and even a little fear.
"I had planned to save this for your boss..." Kane snarled at her through gritted teeth as his dark clouds intensified and his fury rose beyond what it had ever before. "But I'll make an exception, so that I can kill you for what you've done!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the tiny crystal in his hand began to glow, the light quickly shining stronger and shooting off forked purple lighting all around. Kane held on tight to the crystal and closed his eyes.
[Stop Music]
When he opened his eyes he saw that he was within the realm of Kalos, it was exactly as Connor had described it, absolutely white and barren apart from one structure. A stone wall many metres high, with a green runic circle engraved on to it between two supporting pillars, and on top of it sat Kalos himself.
"Well, this is interesting..." Kalos boomed down to Kane in his omnipresent voice, dangling his legs over the edge of the stone wall as he perched on it as usual. "I didn't think you'd be the one to call me, I am surprised...but pleasantly."
"I didn't think I'd see you either." Kane replied sternly, his emotions still high from what had just happened on the battlefield. "Aren't you supposed to be in Connor's head?"
"That is simply a temporary posting, due to the fact that he possesses my almighty crystal." Kalos explained, elevating himself above Kane with his words even as he did so. "It would seem however that even when a clone crystal is used, I am summoned and required to heed its call. Well...not required, if I wanted to I could let you die, but I'm in a particularly good mood today. I have much enjoyed conversing with Miss Ruby Rose."
"You really are up your own arse, aren't you?" Kane scoffed, unimpressed by the speech.
"If that is what you wish to think of me, then so be it. I have no reason to make you obey me." Kalos responded calmly, ignoring the insult Kane had throw at him. "I assume you are here because you seek the divine power of the crystal?"
"That's right, I need to kill that bitch." Kane answered, scowled at the thought of his female opponent.
"Such language is...unnecessary." Kalos casually scolded, again calmly addressing Kane. "But it is of no consequence, I shall grant you the divine power of my crystal, as long as you hand me a chunk of your aura when your engagement with the lady is completed."
"Yeah, as long as you give me long enough to tear her limb from limb for what she's done." Kane snarled back up at him, directing his anger towards the only other being present. "Come on!" He then shouted impatiently. "Give it to me!"
"Silly mortal..." Kalos muttered to himself as the white landscape was covered by a blinding light. "Anger is for the weak, my power comes from something more..."
Music: https/youtu.be/bB_Qpt7TqLM
[Fairy Tail OST- Kurogane]
Back in the land of mortals, Kane's dark clouds suddenly intensified and exploded outwards, blasting Isabella backwards. She flipped through the air for a few seconds and then landed on perfectly on her feet, sticking her blade in the ground to stop herself sliding backwards. She looked up at Kane, in fright of what was happening to him, knowing how much his power had grown.
As she watched, the dark clouds around Kane moulded and transformed, creating shapes around him. A dark cloud mask covered his face, more dark clouds covered his arms like armour, even more circling around him and clinging to his back like a cape. The last of the clouds gathered in his right hand, shifting into the shape of a longsword.
"Now I've reached the potential of my Titan powers..." Kane announced, snarling at Isabella angrily as Irileth remained unconscious on the ground. "This is...Knight State!"
"Knight State or not, you can't win if you can't hit me! I'll teleport away from all your clouds!" Isabella reminded him, still confident she could avoid all of his attacks.
"That's where you're wrong." Kane threateningly told her, holding his free hand up in front of him. Right as he said so, Isabella noticed a pressure building on her back and looked over her shoulder to see dark clouds. A tiny cluster had appeared attached to the aura tanks that were powering her artificial semblance of teleportation, and was growing rapidly. "My dark clouds are more powerful than ever now, they'll consume you." Kane warned her menacingly as the clouds came to cover her entire backpack. "Once they crush your aura tanks, no more teleporting for you."
Seeing the worry in Isabella's eyes, he then clenched his fist. As he did so the cluster of dark clouds on her back exploded outwards, crushing her aura tanks. She screeched in pain as the clouds seared against her back, the force of them tearing right through her armour and leaving it in tatters. She fell to her knees as her backpack turned to ash, her teleportation ability no more as she grasped the handle of her twin-blade ever tighter.
Kane wasted no time watching her suffer, he dashed forward with his dark cloud sword in hand and slashed it towards her. She reacted quickly, bringing her own weapon up to block it, only for it to be shattered in many small pieces as as soon as Kane's own sword hit it. He then grabbed her shirt under what was left of her armour, and roughly threw her away from him. She smashed into the metal ground hard, rolling around before stopping and laying there, hurt.
Kane still didn't stop however, he had more in him. He jumped high into the air, building up his dark clouds all around him as he went. He then hovered in the air held up by his clouds as they formed into a massive black storm above him. By this point Isabella had started to get up, and Kane scowled down at her with more anger, wanting her to never rise again. He thrust his sword forward in the air, and when he did so meteor like clusters of his black clouds rained down from the storm above him as he yelled, "DARK RAIN!"
The clusters all hit the ground around Isabella like like mighty meteorites, exploding outwards with unbelievable force and brutality. After only a couple of seconds Isabella was lost in the chaos, no sign of her seek by anyone. Connor saw how well Kane's fight was now going and grinned as Michael called out Isabella's name. Mars and Damien looked behind them and also grinned at the carnage, Jorge slowing his gunfire out of shock. Even Wolf came out of his invisible state to gawp at the sight of it.
[Stop Music]
When the dust died down, Isabella was on her hands and knees, coughing and covered in bruises. Blood dropped from her right arm, which had been crumpled like a paper ball by the force of the attack. Kane was surprised she had survived, but that wouldn't be the case for much longer.
"Why...?" Isabella mumbled, weak and almost defeated. "Why...do you fight us? We are only protecting the world from criminal scum by Master Daryl's word, by his way. Why would you go so far to destroy us?"
Music: https/youtu.be/kIwmrk7LoDk
[Fairy Tail OST- Main Theme]
"Why?" Kane repeated, gritting his teeth as he prepared for the final attack. "Because you hurt people...you hurt my friends...you hurt Irileth..." He then dramatically stuck his hand up in the air above his head, calling upon his semblance one more time. As he concentrated his power, the dark clouds assembled, the cluster growing and growing until it took the form of an enormous black cloud sword. The sword was stories tall and thick too, looking big enough to stop a giant, but blunt like a hammer. "The reason I'm fighting you..." Kane then concluded. "Is because you're sick in the head!"
He then brought his hand forward and downwards in front of him, the great-sword above him obeying his commands and swinging downwards at his enemy. In a flash it crushed Isabella underneath itself, her body crumpling underneath its weight.
[Stop Music]
As the dark clouds all then dispersed, Kane stood hunched over slightly, feeling the effect going into Knight State had on his body. He then felt a sudden pang of pain as his aura was sucked out of him by Kalos, keeping up his part of the deal, and collapsed to the ground in exhaustion.
At about the same time, Ruby sat holding her knees up to her chest in the white landscape of Connor's mind. She had been watching the fighting through Connor's eyes and seen all that had happened. She had seen Irileth, Jim and Stephane all being hurt and now she was wallowing in sadness and fear for their lives. She had known the mission would be dangerous, but this was beyond what she had anticipated.
After a brief flash of light, Kalos reappeared on top of the stone wall he always say on. Not too long ago he had told Ruby that Kane had activated his Kalos Crystal and that he must go and converse with him. Ruby had then watched as Kane took down his opponent and fell to the ground after having his energy sapped from him. "Well, that was certainly an interesting venture." Kalos stated as he carelessly dangled his legs over the edge of the wall he perched on like always. "You weren't lonely without me, were you Miss Rose?"
Still sitting in the same position, Ruby quietly mumbled, "Is he going to be ok? He fell over after he won."
"I assure you, he will be quite fine." Kalos responded. "Just a case of minor aura exhaustion, he'll be up soon enough."
As Ruby hugged herself tighter hoping Connor would be alright, Kalos muttered to himself, "He is such a good source of energy for me...I won't drain him just yet."
Ending Music: https/youtu.be/KruXhNuindw [Naruto Shippuden OP 3 V2]
(Shows Damien on the left and Connor on the right)
Habata itara
(Shows Damien's flintlock pistol and Connor's Katana)
modoranai to itte!
(Shows Connor's eye, then Damien's eye, then Ruby's eye with a tear)
Mezashita no wa
(Shows Connor on his knees in front of a shadowy figure)
aoi aoi no sora!
OUTLAWS AND OUTLAWS
(Shows Connor falling through the sky towards the naval platform) Kanashimi wa mada obeorarezu! Setsunasa wa ima tsukami
(Shows Connor floating next to Damien)
hajimete! Anata e to daku kono kanjou mo!
(Shows Ruby holding her hands to her chest)
Ima kotoba ni kawatte iku!
(Shows Jim with Stephane and Yang)
Michi naru sekai
(Shows Kane with Irileth)
no yume kara
(Shows Mars with Damien) mezamete!
(Goes back to Connor falling through the sky)
Kono hane wo hiroge
(He straightens himself mid-air and his fists glow with the golden light of his semblance)
tobitatsu!
(Shows the four generals in a circle)
Habata itara modoranai to itte! (Shows Mars, Jim, Connor and Kane)
Mezashita no wa
(Shows Mars and Damien fighting Jorge)
aoi aoi no sora!
(Kane and Irileth fire their semblances at Isabella) Tsukinuketara
(Shows Jim, Stephane and Yang fighting Wolf)
mitsukara to shitte! Furikiri
(Connor throws a punch at Michael)
hodo
(Shows Connor fist fighting Michael)
aoi aoi ano sora!
(Shows the four generals together) Aoi aoi
(Shows Daryl with a shadowy figure)
ano sora!
(Shows Connor standing up)
Aoi aoi ano sora!
(Shows the Beacon team standing on the naval platform in front of Daryl, the shadowy figure, and the four generals)
END
