Well, seeing as Leviathan and Harpuia didn't get a lot of screentime lately, I've decided to put some in the beginning of this chapter, enjoy!
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Guardian HQ
Zero and X enter the room the room as they take off their helmets. "Alright, we've defeated all the Irregulars in the area. Anything else we can do?"
"Well, that was the last Irregular sighting. We'll keep you two notified if anything comes up." X and Zero nod as they head off to their rooms.
"Hey, X, do you ever get the feeling that something big is about to happen soon?" X thinks back to when he was activated and ponders the thought.
"Actually, I've had that feeling a lot of times in the past, and most of the time, Sigma always make it come true. Why do you ask?"
"I've been having that feeling a lot lately."
"Oh, well something big is always going to happen. That, you can be sure of." Zero gets up and leaves the room. "Going to spend some quality time with Ciel?"
"Jealous?"
"Not of you." Zero sticks his tongue out at X and leaves the room as X looks around the room. Let's see what to do now… Guess I'll just go and grab myself a bite until the next Irregular sighting.
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Harpuia's Room
A soft knock on the door is heard as Harpuia drops his pen. "The door's unlocked." Leviathan comes in as Harpuia puts his pen down again on the paper.
Leviathan goes up to Harpuia's desk to see what he is doing as she tosses her long turquoise hair out of the way. "Doing paperwork again? You're not in Neo Arcadia anymore. You shouldn't feel compelled to do it."
"Somebody has to. Prairie and the others are stressed right now and need a lot of help." Harpuia pauses as he puts the pen down. "Did you come here to help?"
"No. I just thought that we should spend some quality time together with all the fuss right now." Leviathan looks at Harpuia for a moment. "Why don't you take your helmet off? It can't be too comfortable wearing it all the time."
"I need to be prepared in case anything unexpected happens. It doesn't really make much of a difference for me anyways."
"Come on, Harpy, take it off. I've never even seen you without your helmet, and we've been together for years." Harpuia sighs as he raises his hand up to remove the helmet. He lifts it up as strands of emerald and jade hair fall out.
Leviathan stares at Harpuia's hair after he finishes removing the helmet, making him feel nervous. "Is there something wrong?"
"Nothing, I just didn't expect it to look like that." Leviathan smiles and Harpuia grabs his pen again. Leviathan stops Harpuia by gripping his hand. "You can do that later, right now, you should just relax."
Harpuia barely stands up before Leviathan grabs him by the wrist and drags him to a nearby trans-server. "Wait! Where are we going?"
"You'll see."
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Harpuia warps into an unfamiliar territory as he looks around. "Levi, where are you?" Harpuia looks around for a while but couldn't find the cerulean reploid. I hope she's okay…
Before Harpuia could react, a hand knocks him off balance and he finds himself in a cold pond. "Who's there?" Harpuia hears a familiar laugh and relaxes. "I know it's you, Levi, come out."
Leviathan comes out and dives into the pond as well. Harpuia tries to bring up his hands to defend himself against the ice cold water, but Leviathan still manages to splash him. "You've got my hair all wet!"
"And it's about to get wetter." Leviathan splashes some cold water onto Harpuia as he tries to swim away. Being an airborne reploid, Harpuia fails miserably as another cold torrent of water attacks him.
Leviathan continues with her assault as Harpuia swims for his life. Harpuia attempts to splash some water at Leviathan as well, but she dives under the water and avoids it. Where is she?
Harpuia looks around but finds no signs of Leviathan. A cold splash of water hits him from behind, sending his face plummeting into the water.
Harpuia swallows a few gulps before managing to lift his face up. Harpuia takes a dive and disappears into the water as Leviathan looks amused. "Seeing as how I'm better than you at this, I'll give you ten seconds to hide."
After patiently waiting, Leviathan dives down and searches for the emerald reploid. Let's see… If I were Harpuia, were would I be? Leviathan feels two arms around her and realizes the answer to her question too late.
Harpuia brings Leviathan up into the air as she tries to struggle. "Put me down! I demand to be back in the water!" Harpuia decides to comply with her request and drops her down. Leviathan swims up to the surface and tries to toss water at the green reploid in the sky but finds her attempts futile.
After running out of breath, Leviathan climbs back up to the land as Harpuia goes down as well. "Had enough yet? You seem to have some trouble breathing."
Before Harpuia could react, Leviathan grabs onto the back of his head and pulls him towards her. Their two lips meet as Harpuia's eyes widen at the unexpected movement. The two of them close their eyes as they deepen the kiss.
Her lips are sweet like before. I missed this scent so much… Leviathan's hair blows in Harpuia's face as Harpuia takes in the scent of her lips. Leviathan pushes Harpuia down to the ground during the kiss. After about a full minute, she ends it.
"Who did you say had trouble breathing, Harpuia?" Leviathan smiles as she goes back to the trans-server, slowly followed by Harpuia as he tries to catch his breath.
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Harpuia sighs as he looks at the enormous amount of papers that seem to have grown since he's been here. He sits down and gets his pen ready, but is surprised to find another knock on the door.
Leviathan comes in with a chair and her blue pen as Harpuia stares in awe. Leviathan just calmly takes a seat beside Harpuia and takes half the papers from the pile. "Come on, let's finish this quickly."
"You're doing… paperwork? You always managed to find a way to avoid it when we were back in Neo Arcadia."
"Well, I want you to have more free time so we can be together more often. Come on, I want to finish this by evening." Harpuia nods as he works on his pile, finding the soft clicks from beside him to be very comforting.
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Commander's Room
"Have there been any Irregular activities lately?" Prairie looks at the other Guardians as they all shake their heads. Prairie looks at the monitors in the room as she notices a red dot. She quickly grabs the intercom.
"X, Zero, Vent, Aile, Harpuia, Leviathan, and Fefnir. Please report to the Commander's Room immediately." After waiting for a few moments, Zero and Ciel finally enter the room as everyone else waits.
"Alright, what's the problem?"
"There's a signal coming from near here. We've cross referenced it with our archives, it's Yuriskah's."
"Wait, why do you need all of us to take care of one person?" Aile thinks back to her last encounter with Yuriskah. "He may be strong, but I don't think it requires all seven of us to fight him."
Prairie looks at the other five people in the room. "The signal's coming from the only part of Ragnarok still remotely intact." Aile and Vent seem completely unaware of the name as the other five reploids stand in shock.
"We have to hurry! Whatever he's planning, it's going to be dangerous if it involves that!" Zero motions for the others to follow him as Prairie quickly shows him the coordinates. The seven of them leave the area as Prairie and Ciel look at them go.
"Do you think they'll be okay, Sis?"
"I'm positive they will be, don't worry about it. After all, they've all been through tougher things, right?"
"Yeah, I hope so."
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Ragnarok Remains
The seven of them reach an end with a narrow passageway as Fefnir tries to blast the opening apart. "It's no use, this thing won't budge!"
"Wait! I and Vent can fit through this place in our human forms." The two humans look at the five reploids for their opinions.
"Alright, but just be careful. I don't want to explain to Ciel if any of you gets hurt." Zero leaves the area. "The rest of us should separate and contact the others if they find another opening.
Vent and Aile nod at each other as they enter the narrow passageway into the remains of Ragnarok. "Wow, this place is old! I wonder what Yuriskah can possibly want here…"
Vent looks around the room to find moss covering the walls of the place. The floor seems to have sunk into the ground as he looks down to find dirt.
"Yeah, but keep alert. The others seem to have been surprised to hear the name of this place… I wonder what exactly happened here…"
Vent and Aile continue to follow the hallway and pause when they hear the footsteps of someone else. Aile motions Vent to be quiet and mouths the words "It's him."
They wait for a moment until they're sure that it's Yuriskah before they follow the humanoid. Before long, they reach a huge open space and Yuriskah turns to face the two of them.
"Did you honestly think that I didn't notice the two of you?" Yuriskah extends his hand out to reveal a biometal. "I guess it doesn't matter what you do, my goal is almost within reach."
"Whatever you're up to, we won't let it happen! Enough people have already suffered." Vent gets out a biometal as well.
"Aile, Vent, come in!" Their communicator turns on as they hear Prairie's voice.
"Yeah, we're here. What is it?"
"Our radars have detected another source of energy headed in your direction. It's Shademan!" Just as Prairie finishes her sentence, Vent and Aile are sent flying back by a wave of sound.
"Looks like you are here after all, Yuriskah." Shademan appears from the shadows as Vent and Aile attempt to stand up.
"Rock-on!" The two of them change into Model X and then they each fire a charged shot at Shademan. Shademan seems to just deflect the first two attacks by spreading out his wings.
"Now!" The two of them unleash another barrage of charged shots right after, catching Shademan off guard and knocking him down. "I think we've got him…"
"Don't get in the way, humans!" Shademan stands back up again his arms stretch out, slashing at both Vent and Aile. "Crush Noise!"
A deafening noise attacks the two chosen ones, sending them rolling to the wall. It's no good, he's too powerful for the two of us. Aile tries to stand back up, but reverts back to her human form and collapses.
Is this really where it ends? I guess defeating Serpent didn't prove to be as much of an accomplishment as I thought it did… Vent reverts back to his human form as well and collapses. Shademan turns his attention to the remaining chosen one.
"How did you manage to find out that I was here?" Yuriskah looks at Shademan as he walks forward.
"You left something back at our base before you left and I had it analyzed. Everything makes sense now. Why you brought us back, how you even know us."
"I almost feel flattered that you came all this way just to stop me. You must really think of me as a threat."
"I don't know how much a threat you would pose, but if you're plan succeeds it will certainly complicate things for us." Shademan prepares for battle as Yuriskah does the same thing.
"I won't let you stop me, I've worked far too long to get here. Nothing can stop me from find what I need."
"We'll just see about that, Yuriskah…" Shademan pauses for a moment. "Or do you prefer the name Forte?"
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How many of you guys saw that one coming? I hope it answers some of your questions towards Yuriskah and what happened to Forte. If you guys still don't get it, it pretty much means Yuriskah IS Forte.