Sturm und Drang
I am not sure if this chapter is interesting or not. I will leave that decision to the readers, feel free to review it giving me your impressions.
(…)
(…)
Tethe'alla. Meltokio.
Decus was running in the streets of Meltokio from side to side without really knowing where he was going. He had always had a bad sense of orientation, and the fact that almost all the houses looked the same didn't make it easier for him. From the rich district to the slums, from the slums to the half class neighbourhood and from the half class neighbourhood to the slums again, it was beginning to get annoying.
"You must be kidding me!" He said as he stopped to take a break and breathe some air.
To make it worse, everybody in the town was giving him weird looks. Probably because he had no one else other than Seles Wilder, the only sister of the Chosen, over his shoulder. Luckily for him he was disguised as Lloyd Irving so anyone could recognize him.
"Idiot!" Alice shouted when she found him. "What are you doing there! Over here!"
Decus stopped, leaving a trail of dust under his feet and quickly ran towards his beloved who was landing with Aramis in an apparently unfrequented street.
"Why did it take you so long!" Alice asked annoyed as she helped Decus to put the unconscious body of Seles over Aramis.
"This town is a labyrinth. All the streets are the same!" He explained to his mate.
"Meh, you just have no sense of orientation."
Decus climbed over Aramis, took a handle that was hanging down from the saddle, and put one foot into other that was below.
"I swear to you Alice," Decus continued as Aramis took flight. "This town was made with the purpose of confusing newcomers."
"Whatever, let's just get out of here. Did you make sure that people saw you as Lloyd?"
"Of course my dear!"
"Don't call me that while you are in that form." Alice complained, disgusted by the sight of the brown haired swordsman. "I can't stand that guy. Just imagining him calling me dear makes me feel like vomiting."
"Oh yeah. Sorry, I completely forgot about that." Effortlessly using Solum's Core, he recovered his normal body. "Do I look better now my dear?"
"Just as bad as usual."
"I will take that as a compliment." He said smiling.
"Are you so dumb that you can't even understand an insult?" He just smiled at her as if everything was right. As if anything she could say to him would ever change his mind, or his heart. "You are a lost cause." She sighed.
Tethe'alla. Cape Fortress.
Alice entered followed by Decus, who was carrying the unconscious body of their hostage in the ruined fortress that once was the hub of the Vanguard activities. Alice didn't know why Brute choose that ruined place as the hub of the Vanguard. Even if the dependences of the leaders of the divisions were fine the rest of the building was crashing under its own foundations. Thank Martel they eventually moved to a better place.
Their mission was easy. Kidnap the sister of the Chosen and carry her to their old fortress along with the Core. And using her as a bait Marta won't have any other option than give them Ratatosk's Core.
"Wha- What!" The pink-haired girl said, recovering consciousness. "Where am I?"
Her voice sounded sleepy and by the way she was looking around it seemed that she didn't know what was going on.
"We have kidnapped you to use you as in an exchange-" but his speech was soon cut off by a sharp poke in his stomach.
"Decus! What kind of secret agent are you!" Alice asked, quite annoyed. "You aren't supposed to talk with the hostages."
"Oh- Yeah, I apologize for that."
Decus and Alice finally reached a big chamber decorated the same as the rest of the building. Decus took carefully the body of the girl that he had been carrying and sat her on a high stone step.
Seles was still holding her head trying to recover from the trance. Decus came close to her, curious as to her state. She looked at him and then suddenly went backwards, covering her face (as well as nose) with her hand.
"Hahaha!" Decus laughed proudly. "Another victim of my beauty! But I am sorry, little girl, even if I find you cute you can't be compared to my dearest Alice."
"What are you talking about?" Seles asked, recovering her position.
"Don't worry little princess. Even though I know that you won't ever know someone as beautiful and charming as me I'm quite sure that you will find someone for you."
"Oh my, You are a smelly version of my brother."
"Hehehe. Sure he is." Alice said while she cleaned the dust of her clothes, not really playing attention to Seles.
Seles turned the look to the girl. Yellow dress, white-blonde hair, a crimson belt attached at her leg, yellow eyes... "AAAAH! Y- you- you-" She repeated, scared and unable to finish her sentence as she pointed to Alice with a finger. "You are that girl! The sadist! Alice of the Vanguard!"
"Hey!" Decus protested annoyed. "Don't you dare use a disrespectful word such as 'sadist' when you talk about my lovely Alice! She is the kindest girl in the world!"
"Shut it, Dumbo." She looked to the pink haired girl, and with a kind smile she put the tip of her toy rapier under the chin of the young Seles. "And you- Could you please tell me who am I?"
Seles was scared, she had heard histories about her, about how she was able to flay completely the whole body of a person with only a few swings of her whip.
"You- You are Alice." She answered, scared. "The leader of the fighting squadron of the Vanguard."
Alice lifted her toy rapier in a threatening position. Seles closed her eyes and covered her face ready to receive the incoming pain. But it never came. Instead, Alice patted her head softly.
"Good girl, good girl." She said as if she was talking to an obedient dog. "It seems that my reputation precedes me."
Decus couldn't help but give a jealous look at the young girl.
"What- What do you plan to do to me?" She asked, unsure. "Will you- Will you drink my blood?" As soon as she asked she became scared again, she didn't know where that question came from, but she was sure that it wasn't a good idea to ask her that.
Luckily for her, Alice was in good mood. "Drink your blood? Why should I drink your blood?"
"I have- I have heard rumours."
"What kind of rumours?" She asked, intrigued.
Afraid of what could happen to her if she didn't answer, Seles decided to say what she had heard about her. "I- I have heard that you are older than how you claim to be and that you kill young virgins girls to drink their blood and keep your youth!"
Alice became red. "What! I am as young as I claim to be! Who is babbling all then no sense about me? I am the Cute Little Alice!" The tone of her voice changed into a childish one as she said the last three words.
"Alice-" Decus stood up and walked towards Alice.
Seles watched the mad girl with fear. If she wanted to get out of that situation without any scratch she should better say something flattering to her.
"Of course you're not." Seles said trying to look friendly, "That's what other people say about you. Not me! I don't believe those lies!" She lied. "You are a cute little girl."
Alice turned her face to Seles, and ruthlessly she whipped the face of the young girl. "Don't ever try to fool me. I'm not an idiot that you can buy with nice words." She looked to Decus. "And you! Don't take a further step."
Decus lowered his head and sat at his place.
Seles rubbed her pained face. She had paid for her hypocrisy, it was obvious that she wasn't going to win anything with nice words so she should better shut up and try to avoid any conversation with that girl. It was at that moment when she noticed something. Behind a pillar a familiar swords man dressed in a red suit was making indications to her to stay quiet. Lloyd seemed to be waiting to the best moment to ambush them both. She smiled and waited.
Decus and Alice didn't know what was coming to them. In any moment Lloyd would step out from the shadows and kill her kidnapers before they were able to know what happened.
"You two!" Lloyd shouted "Free Seles right now!"
Seles looked open-mouthed Lloyd who wasted the perfect chance to rescue her and finish them.
"Lloyd! What is he doing here!" Alice exclaimed, putting herself behind Seles and using her as a human shield. "Anyway, this is perfect! We will take his Cores too."
"Like I would let you!" Without wasting more words, Lloyd unsheathed his swords and ran towards them, ready to fight.
"Decus, finish him!" Alice commanded as she put her whip under Seles' chin.
Decus took the two swords he used to commit all the murders in Palmacosata and Flanoir, and parried Lloyd's first attack. He would have preferred to use his own sword and fight him in his own style but he couldn't reach his Iron-Maiden in time so he would have to deal with it. But it didn't take him a lot of time to notice that if he kept fighting Lloyd in his own style he was going to lose. He was able to defend himself, but Lloyd was too fast for him and he wasn't really used to fighting with two swords. Murder a helpless person was one thing, fight a skilled sword man other.
"If I lose, his next target will be Alice." Decus thought as he barely dodged another attack. "Alice is a good fighter, but without her pets she doesn't have any distraction when she casts her spells. I have to do something."
"Stop defending yourself and attack, idiot!" Alice shouted impatiently. "It seems that I have to do it all by myself! May the merciless embrace of frost-" But she was forced to interrupt the incarnation of her spell to stop Seles, who tried to run away. "Stay quiet, damn brat!"
"I can't help Decus if I can't concentrate." She thought as she watched the fight helplessly, she hated to feel useless.
Decus had an idea and using Solum's Core, took Lloyd's shape.
"So I was right!" Lloyd exclaimed, struggling against Decus' swords. "You were the one who killed all those innocent people! I will make you pay for that!"
"Innocent people? What nonsense! There are no innocent people in this world!" Then he put his plan into action."Did you know what was the best part?" Decus asked, chucking. "The look on their faces before they were killed by their hero."
"Bastard!"
Decus ran away to other chamber followed by an irate Lloyd. "At least I will be able to keep him away from Alice!"
"Don't run away!" Lloyd shouted, following him.
"What are you doing Dumbo-Decus!" Alice shouted. "Fight! Damn coward! Fight!" Every word pierced Decus heart like a sharp dragger but he had to keep Lloyd as far as he could from her.
Alice didn't understand why Decus suddenly decided to run away. He wasn't the kind of person who ran away, not anymore anyway. She decided to follow him to see what was going on, though Seles didn't collaborate as much as she would have liked to, and it took her more time than necessary. Once she reached the chamber, she saw three expected visitants asking things to Decus. Marta, Emil and Zelos were already there.
Using Seles as a hostage and threatening to wound her badly forced Marta to give her their Cores. Sure, it wouldn't be as fun as get them by force after killing them, but she would get want she wanted. But as was usual to her, things never worked as she planed, and just in the moment she lowered her guard for a second as Marta came to give The Cores, Sheena came out from nowhere and pushed her hard enough to throw her to the ground. When she stood up, scratching her head, she only saw how Sheena and Colette were taking her hostage. She couldn't lose her, she wasn't prepared to stand other of Richter's rants about her failures. Besides, at that moment, that useless girl was the only thing stopping the so-called heroes of regeneration to attack them. But she hurried so much to catch the girl that didn't notice how her steps were followed by almost all the gang. Luckily for her, even if she didn't notice, her back was being saved by Decus, who was fast enough to stop Zelos, Emil and Marta.
"Don't you dare interfere with my little beautiful Alice!" He said using his Iron-Maiden to help him block the path.
"Who's going to stop us?" Zelos confidently asked. "You can't even put on cologne without screwing it up!"
"Who you think you are to give advice about colognes?" Decus shouted annoyed. "Look at yourself. Pink? That's so last year. You have no fashion sense at all! You have no right to criticize my cologne!"
"Tasteless? This is silk you know! You wouldn't recognize fashion sense even if it slapped you in front of your face." Then Zelos began to describe Decus' clothes. "A white jacked with black feathers, a t-shirt that shows your chest, black gloves, a golden bracelet, black pants, a belt tied to the leg, sneakers- Oh, and the best part, a dog leash. Do you call that fashion sense? You're a freak!"
"It's called nonconformist style!" Decus said, blushing and readjusting the leash. "And Alice loves it!"
"Haha! Do you mean that girl that told you to shut up a few seconds ago?" Zelos taunted. "You are blind."
"You know nothing about us!"
"You are just jealous because I can get as many girls as I want, and you can't even get one."
"Alice is much more than one of your groupies. A novel pimp like you would never understand someone as pure as her!"
"Is that so?" Zelos asked rhetorically. "If I remember well she told me that she was going to do me a favour." He said, winking an eye to make him notice the double meaning of the quote. "Didn't she, Marta?"
Marta nodded, ashamed.
Decus opened his Iron-Maiden and took out his enormous sword. "I will finish you for that lie! No one speaks ill about my dear Alice and leaves alive."
But it seemed that Zelos hasn't finished yet. "Is that your sword? Are you trying to compensate for anything? No wonder why she prefers me."
"Shut up!" Decus screamed, strongly gripping his sword. "You are just like them! But I'm not weak anymore! I won't let you insult my pride!"
Then without alert, Emil appeared behind him. "You are mine!" But Decus reacted faster than he expected to and parried his attack. "How could he move so fast with such a heavy sword?"
"Attacking from behind in the middle of a conversation! How impolite!" Decus said, noticing that his eyes were no longer green, but red. "I see; Richter was right about you."
Emil jumped backwards and began to charge energy in his sword. "I have no reason to give explanations to scum like you. THIS IS OVER!" And with those words he waved his sword in the air releasing a ball of energy. Decus tried to block with his sword. "It's useless," the ball exploded at the contact against Decus' sword releasing an enormous amount of energy. The dust cloud it raised along with the wind forced everyone to close their eyes and cover their faces. If Decus had survived that he would be too badly wounded to keep fighting.
When the dust cloud rested they couldn't believe what they saw. Decus was still standing over his own feet in the same defensive position he took that seconds ago was used to protect himself from the attack.
"Impossible. Even if he blocked it, it's impossible." Emil said in disbelief.
But soon his suspects became real. Decus drop his sword and fell over his own knees unable to stand up anymore.
"Aaaaaaaah!" Decus shouted, full of rage. He had been defeated in one blow. He felt pathetic. He wasn't able to keep his word, he wasn't able to protect Alice.
Emil approached Decus and pushed him backwards using his feet. He wanted answers and he was going to get them no matter what. But then, when he was about to begin the interrogation he noticed something on the ground, a picture. Moved by the curiosity he knelt and took it. His blood began to boil when he saw who was in that picture, it was no one other than Alice, and for some reason she seemed quite happy.
"Give it to me." Decus managed to say from the ground, lifting a trembling arm. "Give it back to me."
(…)
Decus was waiting for Alice to come, after all it was an special day, it was their anniversary, and every year they celebrated the day they met each other. And they have been secretly celebrating it every year since they met each other twelve years ago.
Finally Alice came, and he, as always, was waiting for her with a big smile. But she didn't seem happy. It wasn't as if she had been going with a big smile to their last anniversaries, but her annoyed face was unusual. He soon discovered the reason of her annoyance- at just a few steps backwards was Marta smiling proudly.
"Alice! Did something wrong happen?"
Alice didn't answer him. She just kept walking and ignored Decus, who followed her to her chamber.
"Damn spoiled brat! Bunch of idiots!" Alice shouted as soon as she entered in her room, closing the door behind her and almost hitting Decus with it. "Who thinks she is to giver orders to me!" She complained, lying on the couch.
"Did something happen with Marta?" Decus asked, taking a seat close to her but keeping the distances.
"She is always in my way! She is powerless and yet she is always interfering. She has no right to interfere. Spoiled brat- If her father wasn't the commander she would be licking her own tears under my feet right now." She clenched her fists. "It was a routine day in Asgard when a guy began to speak ill about the Vanguard. I couldn't let him do whatever he wanted and so I hit him over and over again until other guy pushed me. He pushed me! Who the hell he thought he was! My soldiers took him quickly and then I called all the town to show them what happens to those who attack me. I ordered to execute the guy. But my stupid soldiers didn't seem to like the idea at all so I took the crossbow from one of them and shoot myself the arrow. You should have seen their faces… It was priceless, but I missed. And just when I was about to shoot the second arrow Mart-Mart come from nowhere and put herself between me and the guy. I should have killed her and say that it was a mistake."
"I see- But you shouldn't worry about it that much." Decus said as he waited like a waiter next to the table. "She is powerless after all, one day something will happen, and then, she won't be ready as we are."
"I know, I just wish I had a chance to do it myself. I want her to know how pathetic she is. It's not fair that she has more authority than me without doing anything to get it! I hate her and that idiot of her father."
"Alice." Decus took her tea set and filled a cup for her. "This is our anniversary. You shouldn't worry about meaningless things like Marta." Decus said, smiling to her. "You are a powerful girl that has all you want because of your own effort and nothing will ever change that, not Brute, Marta or the Vanguard."
"I guess you're right for once- Did you make cakes?" She asked as she added three sugar tablespoons.
Decus smiled and put a plate full of heart-shaped cakes over the table.
Alice began to eat the cakes, not without breaking each sweet in a half before ate it.
"Well, what have you bought me?" She asked as she took a sip of tea. "The sooner we end with this the better."
Decus took out a box with a pink tie and gave it to her. Alice tore the bundle completely and opened the box. Inside it, it has two golden bracelets. She loved them, but she wasn't going to show her appreciation.
"What's this?" She asked, taking one and putting it on her wrist.
"It's a golden handcuff." Decus said, smiling and putting the other on his wrist. "It means that whatever you do, wherever you go, I will be always with you, no matter what."
It looked lovely, and she really liked it. To know that she could count on someone else no matter what was almost unbelievable, but if there was a person that could keep that it was Decus. But then again, her fears got in the way. "Meh, at least it's made of gold. I'm sure I will be able to sell it for a good price." She said still wearing it and taking a closer look. "Well, now it's time for my present. Close your eyes."
Decus closed his eyes impatiently, waiting for his present. He wished it was a kiss in the lips. That would have been the best present she could give to him. But instead he felt something being tightened around his neck. Once she finished, she told him to open his eyes. He turned back to look himself to a mirror. She had tied a blue dog leash around his neck. It looked wonderful.
"It fits you, don't you think?" She said smiling.
"Sure it does."
"Anyway, I have to punish my soldiers. You could aid me with the punishment. Just stay back, do only what I tell you to do, and don't mention anything about this. I think people are getting the wrong idea about us. "
"That we are quite close?" Decus said following her with a smile in his mouth.
"Exactly! And I don't want anyone to get to wrong idea. We are not that close. Lets go Decus."
An hour later, a soldier was lying over the ground, his back full of open wounds and Alice standing over him with her whip dripping in blood. All the soldiers looked scared of the scene. They were to afraid to do anything but tremble. The last one who opened his mouth was lying KO over the ground by due to a Decus punch for interrupting Alice. She called it discipline, but it clearly was torture.
"Well, well, well," Alice said, smiling like a little girl who was having fun. "I hope that everything is clear now. You have no will. You don't think for yourself. You are here to do what I want you to do. Follow these steps and everything will be fine. But if you don't, well, Accidents happen."
Decus smiled happily, he always smiled happily when he saw her like that, happy. He liked to see her happy. Back in the time, at the orphanage, she almost never smiled. Tears were constantly running down her face back then; her parents were dead, and everybody abused and insulted her just for being alive, just for being born. That was the reason why he liked to see her smile, for whatever reason it was, it didn't matter, he just didn't want to see her sad ever again. And that's why he appreciated those few moments like the last drops of a summer rain. Because she deserved her happiness.
He took his camera and took a picture of her when she looked towards him. Alice didn't seem to mind it.
She then got off the back of the soldier. "Now be good boys and carry this waste of soldier to the nursing before I decide to feed him to my pets."
She waited until the last soldier left to talk to Decus.
"What are you doing with that picture? Putting it in your useless charm?" In her voice could be detected the selfish feeling of having to have someone that couldn't life without her.
"I think I will keep it to myself to remember this day." Decus said smiling. "Your smile will give me strength."
"You are insane." Alice left and began to walk away. It didn't take her a lot to notice that Decus wasn't following her. She turned her head and saw him putting her picture in a pocket of his jacket. "Aren't you going to come Decus?"
"Uh?"
"I still want to drink some tea and eat some sweets."
"Oh! Of course. My humblest apologies Alice." Decus said bowing. "When you arrive, I will have it all ready for you."
(…)
"Please," Decus begged as he used his last forces to sit and support his back against the wall. "Give it back to me."
"Why should I want this disgusting picture? This girl makes me sick!" And with those words he threw the picture away and burned it.
Decus tried to rise up but the pain didn't let him. He crawled to take the burning picture. He tried to extinguish the fire, but it was too late, the upper part of the picture, her face, her smile, was gone, burned.
Decus lowered his face and made a choked noise, a noise that wasn't unnoticed by Ratatosk.
"Oh my. Don't tell me that you're going to cry."
"Emil!" Marta said.
Decus, ashamed covered his face and kept crying.
"What a baby boy!" Ratatosk said, smiling. "I'm even ashamed to beat someone as pathetic as you."
"Emil! He's been defeated, you don't need to do that!" Marta said, feeling sorry for Decus.
"He is a murderer!" Ratatosk shouted. "And I'm not done with him." Then he looked to Decus. "And that's nothing." Decus could hear the voice of all the kids of the orphanage as Emil talked to him. "Once we take that bitch we will show her what is good! She will regret the day she was born."
"EMIL!" Marta shouted angry. "STOP IT! WE ARE NOT LIKE THEM!"
"He killed my parents!" Ratatosk shouted to Marta. "He deserves whatever happens to him. And so does that bitch!"
Concentrating on the rant, no one noticed Decus, whose tears of sadness had become tears of rage. With one hand he took his sword, and with the other grabbed the ground under him as he slowly lifted himself up. All the room began to heat up. It became so hot so suddenly that it was impossible not to notice that something was wrong.
Ratatosk locked to Decus who was upright looking to the ground. "Do you still want more?" He asked.
Marta didn't like what was going on.
Zelos looked to the ground. "What!" The ground bellow him was beginning to crack, a purple burning gas was coming from the ground cracking the soil to spread out.
Soon the purple mist that it had formed began to whirl round Decus feet.
"What the hell is that?" Ratatosk thought. "That's not Solum's power. No Centurion has this power. What the hell is this?"
"EMIL!" Marta shouted scared. She saw that once in the past. "RUN!"
"I'm not going to-" His answer was cut when he heard a loud scream coming behind him. He was barely able to dodge the vertical slash that was followed by a horizontal one which he parried, sending him flying against the wall.
He lifted his head to see Decus running towards him screaming with all his lungs. Decus took the sword with both hands and gripped it strongly, even if it only made him to hold it tighter. Using all his forces he made a circular blow that cracked the wall were Ratatosk was supported. Ratatosk dodged the lethal blow, throwing himself sideways and falling over his shoulder. He watched in horror the broken wall.
"Impossible." Ratatosk thought, scared. "A mere human can't have that power!"
"I WON'T LET ANYONE HURT ALICE!" Decus screamed, launching two diagonal cuts meant more to threaten than to wound.
Ratatosk got up and jumped backwards, taking a defensive position. He knew that parrying Decus' sword wasn't a good idea but the pressure didn't let him think of a better plot.
Decus blew quickly his sword three times horizontally, almost managing to disarm Ratatosk and making him lose balance, giving Decus an open spot. He lifted his sword and concentrated his last forces in a last vertical blow. As a last resort Ratatosk used his power to try to counter Decus' attack. And it worked, he managed to parry his attack and began a duel of swords, but Decus had such a strength that it forced him to kneel over one leg.
Ratatosk's sword began to crack. "Damn!"
The purple mist began to whirl around Decus' feet once again.
Ratatosk looked into his eyes. Two cold eyes in pain that longed for revenge.
"ALICEEE!"
A purple column of fire rose up, taking both inside and shattering the Cape fortress' roof as illuminated the hall with a pink blinding light.
Marta tried to run towards Emil. "Emil!" But was intercepted by Zelos who tried to protect them both with his shield.
"Are you crazy!"
She didn't answer. She escaped from Zelos' protective embrace behind his shield and began to cast an incarnation.
"Gods of healing, bless those that stand before you. Grant me the righteous power to vanquish evil! RADIANT ROAR!"
An intense spark of light fused with the purple column of fire that disappeared in a few seconds, revealing two bodies. But only one of them had aid at that moment.
"Emil! Are you okay!" Marta asked as she began to heal his wounds.
"Thank you Marta." Emil said, lifting himself up with help from Zelos. He was clearly much better than Decus, who was still trying to stand up, thanks to Marta's mystic arte.
Decus cursed himself. After all he wasn't able to defeat Emil and he had lost Glacies' Core. If they managed to reach Alice she would be in serious problems. He couldn't avoid them, but chuckle. There he was, at the mercy of his enemies along with the person whose parents were killed by him and he was thinking about Alice. He really must be as idiot as Alice said.
But before his enemies were able to put one more finger over him Richter attacked and decided to recover the Core.
"Decus! Leave." He ordered.
"Thank you."
(…)
Alice was in troubles, in real ones. She had managed to reach Seles, but soon almost all the heroes of regeneration managed to reach her, and now she was at a big numeric disadvantage. She had been careless, and now she was paying her mistake. She was in an impasse and her enemies were coming closer to her. She had managed to keep it cool and calm, but that was just an act. She didn't want them to know that she had fear, because if they would be able to notice her fear they would attack her without doubts. She had to make them think that she still had an ace in the hole. The smallest error in her act and she would pay for it.
They were advancing slowly in a defensive stance. Alice stepped backwards while she tried to threaten them. But she didn't know for how long her void threats and her apparent self-confidence would last.
"It's over Alice!" Lloyd shouted to her. "There is no escape and you are surrounded."
"Oh my, what am I going to do?" She said in a childish voice. "Would a hero like you wound a defenceless little girl like me?"
"Your tricks are useless, Alice of the Vanguard! I know who you are, and you won't trick me with that. Give us your cores and you might leave this place alive."
Alice frowned, annoyed. Even if it was obvious, her 'cute little girl' acting usually worked enough to make people think twice about do anything against her. This time it didn't. Things couldn't be worse, everything was going on as planned. But she was wrong, it could be worse. Zelos, Emil and Marta arrived.
If they were there, that could only mean that Decus had been defeated or worse. A chill crossed her back as the worst possible scenario crossed her mind, but she soon removed those thoughts from her mind. Decus was too stubborn to let himself be killed by two brats and the Chosen. And she still had a real problem to keep thinking about.
She was surrounded by the entire gang. She needed a miracle. If she believed in Martel she would have asked for a guardian angel to show up and help her, but the thought of asking something like that to an imaginary god in a situation like that was dumb. But thenÉ
"Someone's coming!" One of them said looking upstairs.
Alice looked where they all were looking and smiled. Martel had a weird sense of humour if she existed, it was no one else than Decus and he didn't come alone, he had brought Aramis with himself. She graved the stirrup of the saddle and with the aid of Aramis she landed in the safest spot, aside Decus. She knew that if anything happened, Decus would get in the way.
But it wasn't over, if Mart-Mart was there it meant that she still had Ratatosk's Core with her.
"Mart-Mart, come back to the Vanguard. If you bring back Ratatosk's core, Commander Brute will forgive you." Alice said, trying to convince her. "If you're able to see him of course, because as soon as you come with us I will open your skull against a rock and take it by force." She thought.
"No way! I'll never go back! I took Ratatosk's core on purpose to stop Daddy's foolish ambition once and for all."
That annoyed Alice. "Nobody likes a strong willed little girl." It seemed that she wasn't going to convince her by words, and trying to fight all of them to get it was a suicide strategy, a fun show to watch if she had some soldiers along with her, but she didn't have any. "All right, Decus, let's go." She commanded to him even if she wasn't his superior.
"I'll follow you to the end of the world!" He said, giving a last glance to Emil and the rest of the group.
"Why did it take you so long to come?" Alice asked, trying to sound annoyed to hide the worry.
"You already know the answer, don't you my dear?" Decus said, closing his eyes and smiling proudly. "The hero always arrive in the last second."
"…" Alice gave him an unimpressed gaze.
"It would have broken the dramatic climax!" He tried to justify.
"…" The unimpressed gaze got colder.
"I-"
"…" Colder.
"Okay, okay. I lost the fight against those three and I couldn't leave until Richter came to help me."
"Did Richter help you? Great! Now I will have to stand his gaze of superiority once again."
"I am sorry- I did my best, but I couldn't win and I lost Glacies' Core."
"Did you lose it?" Alice asked alarmed.
"Yeah, but I doubt it matters. Does it matter? I mean- All we want is Ratatosk's Core. We only want the rest of the Cores to keep Brute busy until we can betray him. The loss of a Core isn't an issue at all is it?"
"When you lost the core- Did you feel anything weird?" Alice asked, trying her best not to sound worried.
"Of course not." Richter said from behind them. "But you two failed again."
Alice gave him a death gaze. "Again? I saw Marta quite alive, did something stop you from killing her?" She said as she climbed on Aramis.
"That's not your duty. You had to get Ratatosk's Core. I wonder if this alliance does worth it. You two haven't done anything useful for me yet. I hope that you don't fail me again."
Alice frowned. It annoyed her more than anything else to have to stand his haughtiness over and over again, as if he was better than her. But if she wanted to get ultimate power she had to stand it. Even if she hated to admit it, he was a powerful ally.
"It was my fault, not Alice's. I am the only one to blame." Decus intervened, taking all the blame to avoid Alice being ashamed.
"You have no pride." Richter said harshly.
"I can't let something so superfluous get in the way."
That quote seemed to annoy Richter more than expected. He had been put in his place by Decus and that made Alice smile.
"Whatever. Just don't repeat it again." He said, trying to keep it cool.
"I won't." Decus finished, giving him a military salute.
"Climb on, Decus." She said smiling to her loyal partner who climbed on Aramis. "There is no place for you here Richter, you will have to walk." She said as she left the place flying on the beast along with Decus. "Sorry for 'failing' you again. I won't repeat it." She said as she left, enjoying Richter's enraged face. "Ha, ha, Have a fun trip."
Decus looked at her smile and took out his pocket camera, zoomed in on her face and took a picture.
Perfect!
(…)
Special thanks to Tomoko for giving me the main idea to do this chapter.