Valerie nearly tripped as her mind was suddenly bombarded with images.
Wha-? Ari-
Do whatever you can to make his concentration slip! It might unlock the fandom so we could get help.
The healer blinked in surprise. How do you figure he's causing it mentally?
Wild guess, but it's the best we have.
Valerie stopped running briefly and chanced a glance backward. Order looked as though he were walking, not running, but the speed at which he was apparently travelling disagreed. The overall effect was actually quite eerie, and the healer did her best to keep her breathing steady.
But what about-
There others will be fine for now. Conservation Of Ninjutsu is in effect.
Oh thank god!
Steeling herself, Valerie took a few deep breaths, then whipped around and released four arrows in succession. At this distance, and oweing partially to the trembling of her hands, only one of the shots made contact, but Order didn't even try to bat it away. The bolt fizzled away on contact, doing no damage at all.
Shit! Now what?
"Well now," she heard Order say snidely. "Finally willing to fight me, are you?"
The goal is to surprise him, Ari said. So do something surprising!
Like what?!
Valerie scoured the area for something, anything she could use. But there were nothing but carniverous plants in every direction, and the treeline was still a good distance away. Even if she could get there before Order caught up with her - and she had no doubt in her mind that Order could catch her any time he wanted - what refuge would it offer? None.
For a split second, she felt a tickle of moving air at the back of her neck, and something very deep and instinctual screamed at her to move!, so she did, just in time to hear a faint sonic boom pass mere inches away from her right shoulder. She stared at the gash in the earth that Order's attack created, the grippers in its path sliced nearly in half and leaking clear fluid, but still straining upward, searching for food...
Without thinking, Valerie spun around and fired twice. The first energy arrow, Order batted away with ease. The second landed at the Sovereign's feet, leaving a much bigger hole that he nearly stumbled into, but caught himself and leapt lightly over it onto the next patch of pale grass.
"This irritates me," Order said as he dusted off a shoulder, and Valerie wondered if she was actually somehow getting to him before he continued, "At the mansion, your arrows at least stung a bit. Now it is as though they are nothing but a breeze."
Valerie gulped, but as the Sovereign was no longer moving towards her, she lifted her arms again and readied another arrow. Seiryu worked by using her own body as a conduit for the ambient emotional energies she naturally absorbed. Order, as uptight as he was, barely felt emotions at all, and the stray hints of superiority or annoyance he did let off did not make for powerful arrows. With little other choice, Valerie shut her eyes, this time concentrating with all her might on gathering every stray emotion within range.
Her eyes opened wide as she came across something familiar.
Wait a minute, what-?
A flurry of energy shots landed on Order and exploded on contact in a bright violet light, and they didn't come from Valerie's bow.
The healer's jaw hung loose for a moment. "You have got to be kidding me."
"Hey guys!" came a cheerful voice. "Sorry I'm late. Traffic was a nightmare."
Zero sauntered in - really, sauntered was the only word for it, with his hips canted and a smirk playing about the corners of his mouth - and hefted one blade onto his shoulder. "But seriously, a party like this, with some of my absolute faaaavorite people in the world-" (Order twitched.) "-and nobody thought to invite me?"
Valerie groaned, caught between relief and an intense urge to bang her head against the nearest wall. "Oh my god, can you be any more of a cliche?"
The clone grinned and bowed slightly. "Tis my job, miss! Not that we all haven't indulged ourselves at some point or another. Speaking of which, please don't say 'I had it under control'. I always hate it when the rescue-ee says that." It seemed he was being deliberately catty. Order's red-faced expression was bordering on apoplectic.
Valerie rolled her eyes. "Do I look like a liar to you?"
"Point. Whoa look out!" Another invisible blade of destruction had surged toward the empath out of Order's outstretched fist; Zero had picked Valerie up and pulled her out of the way just in time.
"What did I say about interference, you little traitor!" Order screeched, drawing his fist back for another attack, this time aimed at Zero himself. Zero scowled briefly and closed the distance between himself and the Sovereign in the blink of an eye.
"Hey now," he said with a fierce smirk as he knocked Order's knife of air aside, "Clearly you know I was watching, so don't pretend like I didn't hear you. You clearly said 'If any of you Society folk interferes'." Zero held out his arms in a look-at-me gesture. "Do I look like Society folk to you?"
"You are clearly no ally of mine!" Order snarled.
"You don't have allies," Zero said evenly. "Just superiors and subordinates. Forgive me if I don't want to be either."
"Then you are my enemy!" Order charged forward, feinting with one fist and hooking with the other, followed by a low, sweeping kick. Zero dodged all three motions easily, avoiding the last one with an honestly quite impressive leap, springboarding off of Order's shoulder and landing gracefully behind him.
"God, those were obvious," he commented lazily. "Has it occurred to you that you might be more flexible if you took that enormous stick out of your ass?"
"You bastard delinquent!" He charged again, faster this time, and Zero once again dodged or parried every blow, though with slightly more effort, it seemed, and he was pushed backward once again. "I will take pleasure in destroying you!"
"Yes, because that gets you off. Or do you need orders from mommy to do that, too?" The twin rapier hilts on Zero's back were suddenly (already?) in his hands, their ends lighting up in a silent hum of violet energy edged with yellow as the ethereal blades sprang to life at his command.
The battle that ensued moved faster than the eye could perceive at times. This time it was Order who closed the distance between then, opening with a variety of punches and kicks that Zero either avoided or met with his swords. Zero took every opportunity to slash and stab, using spins and circular motions to give his blows more force - the back of which Order did not hesitate to exploit. Zero only just noticed the attack on his unguarded back in time, turning the motion into a ducking roll instead and scrambling out of the way and following up with a short-range energy blast from the tip of his weapon, which sent Order skidding a short distance away, just to the very edge of the grass patch.
Valerie, who had long-since perfected the art of invisibly ninja-ing away from practically anything and was doing just that, head low to the ground and completely unnoticed, risked a glance badkward. As she turned, a silver glint caught the corner of her eye, high in the air. When she looked again, there was only blue sky, slowly darkening as the sun went lower and lower.
The beginnings of realization hit her, but Valerie shook her head clear before her tumultous questions delayed her further, and ran for the road.
Ahead, she could just make out Monika's ashen face, frantically beckoning her through the trees.
Behind, a ferocious streak of silver flame bolted down from the clouds.
-o-
Charis was working frantically at her station. Phoenixia, who had since wandered in from a mission, was helping her.
The monitor blipped, a tiny break from the regular pattern of static. Phoenixia looked up.
"Did you see that?"
Charis looked up as well. "See what?"
It blipped again. Twice. "There!" Phoenixia pointed.
In tense silence, they watched. Once. Twice. Four times. Then twice again.
"You think there's a pattern?" Charis asked.
"Maybe. If we can predict just the right moment to hammer it at its weak point..."
-o-
Zero didn't consider himself to be an expert fighter, exactly. The moves just sort of came to him, especially when he had someone on-hand to impress. Just part of being a Stu, he supposed, but any idiot could see it was a useful trait. Especially when Order was in one of his hissy fits.
"DAMN YOU!" the Sovereign shouted again as he lunged forward to punch at the empty air where Zero's head used to be. Zero didn't bother responding, but didn't stop to roll his eyes either. That one actually came rather close.
The blast of sparkling silver flame came out of nowhere and disentigrated the ground beneath their feet. Both combatants leapt reflexively into the air, away from one another and into the vibrant green leaves of the gripper plants. Zero's eyes widened as he saw the carnivorous plants approaching from below and fired half a dozen energy blasts from the tip of his sword to sear the ground mere seconds before he landed. It was not enough to kill the grippers, but it did blast the earth about a foot deep, where their "stems" narrowed considerably and he could walk on the spaces between them in relative safety. Nevertheless, the sight of the scorched ground peppered in dozens of round red "throats" that were actively writhing in pain at the loss of their upper halves was not a reassuring sight.
Order lacked Zero's quick reflexes and landed just on the edge of the grass patch, but not quite close enough. His feet were both planted solidly, but his right arm, which he had put down out of habit for balance, had plunged up to the elbow into the maw of a gripper, which immediately set about sucking the limb down further and chewing the flesh to ribbons. A sheen of sweat appeared on Order's forehead as the pain hit, and with a shakey grunt he yanked the limb free. It was not a pretty sight.
Even worse was the glare he aimed at Valerie, already an acre away, just passing through the treeline onto the road with Ari on her shoulder and Monika at her side.
A deafening screech hit them, and for a moment Zero was sure the scream came from Order, judging by the look on his face alone. But the Sovereign too looked up for the source of the sound, and gaped in genuine surprise when he saw a blinding faceted silver-white shape dive out of the sun's glare, jaws blazing.
"Forta..." Valerie whispered in awe.
The dragon of the diamond was only the size of a large horse, scarcely out of its infancy, but it was a dragon all the same, and Deltoran dragons were very protective of their land from those they deemed hostile invaders.
Zero grinned evilly, and got the hell out of the way.
-o-
Forta screamed its fury. Glittering white flames scorched the ground clear of grass and grippers alike, and only a swift kick and a slicing gust saved Order from the same fate. The residual heat came off the razed earth in waves, and for the first time, the Sovereign looked afraid.
The dragon wheeled around in the sky and turned for another pass, this time much lower. Again the blinding fire poured out of Forta's maw, blackening the earth and creating veritable shockwaves of blasting heat that even the agents could feel pushing against their backs as they ran. Again Order just barely managed to shield himself, breathless and sweating bullets from the exertion and blood loss.
"Cowardly beast," Order murmered venomously as he struggled to remain upright. "Disrespecting the rules of engagement..."
Forta turned again and pumped its wings to take it well into the sky, directly above the Sovereign. It's juvenile wings shaded the already darkened battlefield.
"Come down here before I make you-" Order hissed up at it.
The dragon dived.
The Sovereign moved.
Forta was disturbingly silent as it hit the scorched earth and didn't get up again.
Instead, it was Valerie who cried out piteously as she, too, stumbled and fell, overloaded by the striking down of a fellow dragon.
-o-
Monika moved to catch her friend, struggling under her weight and looking backward in increasing panic at Order flashstepping their way, the trail of blood from his arm giving away his next position. The Adrian-lookalike from before barrelled into the Sovereign's side out of nowhere and rolled away before he could retaliate, though not quite quick enough. With a snarl, Order executed a strange series of sharp movements, and the cutting air from his left fist slammed Zero from behind, driving him right into his blood-soaked right fist.
Zero's eyes bulged as the blow connected, and as he rolled away, curled around his soft midsection, Monika couldn't tell if the blood on his clothes was Order's or his own. Then the Sovereign turned on them.
Ari shrieked a challenge, small wings flared. Monika held Valerie tightly, swallowed her terror, and pushed.
Order stumbled as the empathic barrage hit his mind, amplifying his pain and feeding him Monika's fear. Teeth bared, he closed the gap between them. Ari was suddenly the size of a bear, but he smacked her away just as easily as the much larger diamond dragon.
And then he was lifting Valerie up by the throat with murder in his eyes.
Monika screamed -
(stained-glass windows crashing)
(fangs dripping)
(bodies littering the cold marble floor)
Order's grip on her throat relaxed as his eyes went wide in reflexive panic, and Valerie greedily sucked in air. Monika winced at the exertion, but pressed on.
Again.
(people watch in horror as those nearest to the windows are disembowled, slaughtered, even eaten. they try to get out of the building by any means necessary - making a mad dash for the doors, slicing themselves on broken glass in an attempt to climb out through the windows, trampling those too slow to get out of their way and leaving them to the slaughter in their place)
The Sovereign made a choked sound and gripped his head with his bloodied palm, doubling over -
Again!
(one of the creatures leaps toward a girl, someone i know from school, though only by face. she doesn't even have time to scream, though i swear she attempts it through what remains of her windpipe after it tears out her throat. the monster's jaw unhinges like a snake, grotesquely wide, impossibly wide, and it begins to feast. blood sprays as it does, proof that her heart still beat, and i know that, for just a moment, she was still alive as pieces of her vanished down its maw)
Valerie slipped out of his fingers into a pile of limp limbs on the ground, and a hoarse yell escaped his throat -
Once more...!
(the screams of those i love echo around me, and i am outside, valerie pulling me by the hand into a vehicle. we are taken away, and they give chase. terrie screams as something lands hard on the roof, and the surrounding forest is set ablaze. the thick, viscous shadow in the driver's seat remains, and for once i stare into it as hard as i can. pain, pain, the shadow pushes back, snarls, cuts the wheel hard to the right, we flip, and -)
Those black eyes rolled back in his head as, for a fraction of a fraction of a second, Order blacked out.
-o-
"There it is! Now!"
-o-
Order snarled as he whipped around and immediately spotted a head of flaxen hair as its owner tumbled to the ground - still conscious, but barely, and bearing a look of abject terror in her glazed-over eyes. Valerie choked out her friend's name and tasted blood. Zero scrabbled to get his legs back under him. Ari flashed between both girls rapidly, trying anything to get them to move, to retreat. None was fast enough to intercept what happened next...
The Sovereign readied a fist and pointed it at the healer. "That's it! She dies!"
...save one.
"Librarian Art 6 - Shield of Silence!"
All sound rushed out of the world as Order's blow connected only with solid air, the shockwave creating a perfect semicircular outline of the shield. At its forefront stood Adrian the Librarian; the Library's computers had hacked their way back into the fandom at last, and he had flashstepped to their location just in time.
Other agents quickly followed suit, standing between Order and his targets. Rhia tapped the edge of a frying pan at least 18 inches across into one hand threateningly. Cristoph was just behind her, ninjato raised, while Michael mimicked his stance with his own broadsword, shadows pooling eagerly at his feet. Ben stood wide and loose, fingers itching to point nuclear winter at something. Tash alighted at Adrian's side, flaming wings of the phoenix spread, Nephethys held loosely in her hand.
"Are we done here?" she asked, quiet and casual and dangerous.
Order considered as he met her gaze, though she seemed to wobble sickeningly in his blurring vision. His head throbbed in time with his arm which, he realized, had been spraying blood all over the landscape and continued to relentlessly pump it out of his body with each passing moment. Weakness from the blood loss was catching up with him, and it was beginning to show. As though summoned by the realization, one of Order's knees buckled without warning; he held himself upright, but only barely.
Tash nodded. "I think we're done," she said, and lifted Nephethys high. "Jurai-ken-"
Order was gone, plotholed away, before the strike hit.
-o-
The diamond dragon, it turned out, had razed more of the ground than suspected, and the number of plants it actually landed on were few. Those grippers that remained found the beast far too broad and tough to properly bite into. Forta bled a great deal whilst unconscious, but was not seriously hurt, and flew away without much difficulty once it realized the evil in its land was gone.
Valerie simply lay down for a long time, eyes closed, putting her mind and emotions back in order and trying not to cry from relief.
Adrian leaned down to offer her a hand. "Well done," he said as he pulled her shakily upright.
Valerie closed her eyes. Praise was the last thing she deserved. "It was Monika," she said hoarsely, rubbing her bruised throat. "She's the one who took him down."
"What?" came a shakey voice. The blonde in question had awakened, and shaking just a bit in obvious relief. "All I did was get here in time, and then..." She trailed off, eyes unfocused, before snapping upright again. "But you're safe, right? We won?"
Valerie and Adrian exchanged a glance, and the healer sagged against his shoulder. "Just..." she said finally, "You deserve the credit for this one. It couldn't have happened without you."
Michael opened up a plothole. "We'd better get to the others and finish the cleanup," he said.
One by one, the leaders and agents stepped through. As Valerie was about to follow suit, she remembered something, and glanced around hurriedly.
But of course, Zero was already gone.
-o-
Enough agents were dispatched through the newly opened plotholes to dispatch the remaining Usurped in the Os-Mine Hills, though not without considerable difficulty. It took three Scene Transitions, a Plot Device, and a blast from the Canon Cannon to get rid of most of them.
The dragon of the topaz had handily eaten the rest.
Camillia Anastasia Jessica Zara Chipatatwe'e Jenkins-Walnut was found - still in three pieces - and placed in a body bag for transport out of the fandom.
"Who is that?" Lief asked, eying the parody sue with a curious expression.
It took a long while before the healer answered. "Just someone who got caught in the crossfire of someone else's war," she answered finally. To Adrian, she added in a soft voice, "Someone should contact Camillia's author and tell him what happened."
The Librarian nodded. "I'll see what I can do."
Valerie nodded, looking away, then turned back around. "Oh! Lief, before I go, I wanted to ask you something. Marilen is your heir because she is your nearest relative on your father's side, right?"
"Yes," the king replied. It was common knowledge, after all.
"Okay. But did you ever consider the full implications of the Tale of the Masked Ones, from Josef's book?" Lief tilted his head, so Valerie continued, "If Bede is decended from Ballum, as Josef suspected, and Ballum was the brother of Adin's great-great-grandson, then would that not make Bede your nearest cousin instead of Marilen?"
The positively dumbstruck look on the king's face told the healer that he had not considered that at all. Valerie couldn't help but snicker as she opened a plothole.
"Just something to think about," she said with a grin, and stepped through.
-o-
Back at the Library, Monika was practically bent double laughing. "Is that really true?" she asked between breaths.
Valerie chuckled. "It might be that Lief's choice of an heir is taken into account. Goodness knows Bede would make a terrible king, even if he isn't a prissy ladykiller anymore. But it was never even addressed in canon, and I just wanted to bring it up. It would've been bizarre if Lief had died in the underworld in series two, and the Belt never shone for Marilen no matter how long she wore it." The healer stretched upward and yawned. "But he has kids in the end, so it's all moot point now, I guess."
Terrie rolled her eyes with a smile. "You think about things waaaay too much, Val," she said, and stepped out of the monitor room, probably off to her own rooms to take a nap. One by one, the others followed, until only Valerie and Monika were left in the room.
"So..." Monika said after a long pause. "You gonna tell me who that guy was?"
Valerie bit her lip. "...No," she said softly.
Monika nodded. "Okay then. I get it."
Valerie closed her eyes tightly. "Please understand, Mon, it's not a matter of-"
The blonde took her friend's shoulder and gave her a reassuring smile. "No, seriously, it's alright if you don't want to. He helped us, and that should be good enough."
"I will tell you someday," said the empath firmly. "I promise."
Monika smiled. "I know."
-o-
Some time later...
"You're sure about this?" Adrian asked soberly. "You don't know if he'll come after you again. He caused a big enough mess here; maybe Runoa'll rein him in. Hell, maybe he'll go back to hunting Silri for a while. That's possible, isn't it?"
Valerie did not smile. "The nature of chaos is multiple things happening at once," she said. "Order... isn't capable of that."
The Librarian regarded her with a critical eye. "Good to know you appreciate the gravity of what you're asking," he quipped, with an expression Valerie supposed was meant to be forbidding. She did her best anyway to pretend she didn't know exactly what he was feeling and why. "So I'm going to be equally serious when I say: I don't need my best healer putting herself in the line of fire. That is not a tactically sound choice to make."
"I sort of think I don't really have a choice this time," Valerie said, without expression.
"No," he agreed softly. "You don't."
AN: I had a lot of fun writing this one, even if it did take literal years to finish. Takes me back to the olden days, when you could still count the number of ACMSES fics written on your fingers, and I was still working on Full Circle with any amount of enthusiasm... ahem.
Idk if there'll be more from me, but I'm glad this is finally done. Leave a review on your way out, and lots of love to you all!