Turn 19: The Seven Sage's Final Desolation
Location: Opelucid City
Time: 9:32 AM September 18th
Condition: Cloudy
The klunking of metal hitting metal rung through the streets. Kallen managed to stay off an attack with her dagger. "The hell?" she cried as the shadow leapt back.
She and Guren had been fighting the Shadow Triad and their pokémon for some time now with only little success as it was three to one. This was nothing more to her then an annoying distraction as her goal was to find and help Rosa fight off whoever it was she was fighting. She couldn't imagine whoever they were they'd be tougher then these Shadows.
"Guren, Flamethrower!" Kallen commanded.
Guren swooped down unleashing a flurry of flames burning both Bisharp and Zangetsu as they were the remaining pokémon that they had left. The Bisharps were knocked out but Zangetsu still clung to life.
Before the battle could continue, though, the entire city began to shake and an intense shockwave gushed past them at terminal velocity as a bright light conquered the battlefield. They all turned to face the light to see a giant explosion of blue fire and electricity; it was a terrifying display of power and beauty.
Kallen took the opportunity to have Guren attack knocking Zangetsu out. The shadows looked as though they were about to attempt an escape before Guren swept them off their feet with his tail which then whipped back and knocked them unconscious too.
"Alright let's get going Guren." Kallen got on his back before they started off. They weaved through the buildings seamlessly before they happened upon a shocking sight. En, Zack, and Tianzi were gathered tearfully around a figure in a small puddle of blood.
Kallen shuttered at the sight and decided to investigate. She covered her mouth to refrain from gasping or crying at the horrific sight. In the center of the puddle of blood was Rosa. There was so much blood Kallen almost puked at the sight.
Blake, Cross, and Gidra walked into the street. Once Blake saw it he immediately ran up to Rosa and grabbed hold of her. It didn't seem to matter to him that his uniform was becoming soaked in her blood. He held onto her head and began to weep uncontrollably
"No." He shouted. "Commander, speak to me!"
Rosa's eyes weakly opened up a little to see Blake crying over her. She almost looked like she was smiling up at him as he cradled her head in his arms. Seeing a glimmer of hope Blake smiled back and grabbed Rosa's ice cold hand. "Someone bring a medic!"
"I'll go!" Kallen volunteered mounting Guren before setting off.
Cross kneeled on next to Rosa sadly and grabbed her other hand. He was much less obviously affected but he was holding back the tears as much as he could. "Rosa, we're going to get you help, so just hold on alright."
Rosa was so glad that they were both here; she wished Chris was also here but he was gone for whatever reason. As she looked up at their concerned faces she had a sudden realization on what she wanted her last words to be. It was something that her mother and grandmother said as their last words.
"Rosa," Cross began. "Even though we didn't always see eye to eye, I want you to know that I've always respected you, that's why I followed you. The thing that I regret most above all else was even thinking about leaving your side."
"Rosa." Blake called her by her first name since the day they met. "Please, you can't die. I love you!"
She couldn't speak, her throat had been cut but she still carried enough strength to perhaps move her lips. Cross and Blake both watched intently at her lips as they moved, even though they couldn't hear her voice they could distinctively make out what she was trying to say. It was a simple message that made Blake tear up more when he heard it in his head. "Be—strong."
Rosa lifted up her hand and placed it on Blake's cheek reassuringly to refocus his attention as she repeated it. "Be strong, Blake." She kind of wished she hadn't when she dropped her arm and realized that she had just got her blood on his face. She might have been embarrassed or felt her cheeks warm up if she wasn't so completely numb all over.
She then turned and repeated the words specifically to the other kneeling over her. "Be strong, Cross."
"I will," Cross told her. "I make a vow to you from this day forth to always be strong for you."
Cross had accepted the fact that this would probably be Rosa's last moments on earth. He wanted to honor that and reassure her that her death would not have been meaningless. Blake on the other hand seemed to be trying to deny this truth, trying to will her to survive this.
Kallen had arrived with a doctor, Cross and everyone back up. Rosa still seemed slightly conscious so there was still the possibility that she might survive with proper medical attention. Xingke and Jiang ran up to the scene and Jiang started to tear up at the very sight.
"You?" Kallen readied herself for a fight.
"No, Kallen." Blake halted her.
"The only reason I did the Sage's was because they kept Jiang in prison and threatened to kill her if I ever spoke out against them." Xingke explained gesturing to the girl who was weeping in his arms. "Thanks to the bravery of your friend I am now free of their control."
The ground around them started to shake once again. This time emerging from the ground was a giant flying ship with a Pseudo-Victorian look about it with rows and long tall sails. It seemed to be heading outside of the city as if leaving the battlefield.
"Jiang, I want you to look after Rosa," Xingke told her while holding her chin.
"Alright." Jiang nodded.
"Your friend may yet be avenged." Xingke pointed up at the flying ship. "Quickly to the Plasma Frigate."
Xingke let Shen Hu out of his poké-ball and grabbed on to one of his arms and gestured for Cross to grab on too. Kallen mounted Guren. Shen Hu then turned his cannon around and activated the burn drive to use the cannon like a jetpack.
"Sky drop Guren." Kallen order. Guren grabbed hold of Gidra and they all started flying up towards the Plasma Frigate.
Shen Hu landed on the deck of the ship. Immediately after Cross and Xingke got off it X-scissored a nearby opponent and started to go through whatever resistance they met. Suddenly dropping in and causing the hole ship to shake was Ghidra who almost broke through the haul entirely.
As the two mowed down the minimal resistance as it was Kallen and Guren swooped down into the ship. She looked around until she happened upon a dark room with a desk with a large chair behind it. There were several screens depicting every facet of the battlefield and the light they radiated made it impossible to see if there was even anyone in the chair.
"You must be Kallen." She heard Ghetsis' calm controlling voice.
"What are you doing?" Kallen questioned. "You'd run and hide while you men burn beneath you?"
"I feel no remorse for doing so; they are all insects beneath me anyways." Ghetsis leaned forward making himself slightly more visible.
"You can't just leave them behind, they're your men." Kallen pointed out. "They trust you to lead them and always fight alongside them."
"Why should I care about them? I've done it a dozen times before. You think this is the first or even the second organization I've made to seek out world domination?" Ghetsis laughed at her hysterically. "I just come back with a new face, a new leader, a new ideal to strive towards and hundreds of weak minded people continue to flock under me. It has run in the family since before you were born."
"N, Colress, the Seven Sages?" Kallen asked.
"All just pawns for my game of world domination. Why do you think it is that I'm never the face of my own organizations?" Ghetsis asked.
"So you have the chance to move on to the next one?" Kallen asked. "You're an arrogant monster."
Ghetsis laughed again. "Monster? Only fools see the world as monsters and men. They are all just tools for the gods to use to their own ends."
"And you see yourself as one of these gods?" Kallen seemed disgusted the more they spoke.
"Of course." Ghetsis shrugged. "What are you going to do about it?"
"Did you get all that?" Kallen asked.
"Every word of it." A voice called from Kallen's transceiver. "And so did everyone in Opelucid City."
Ghetsis' eye widened at the sudden realization that he had been duped to revealing his plan to the entire world. He stood up, slamming his fists into his desk. Ghetsis then cursed Kallen. "You wretched, insignificant, little creature!"
Ghetsis then released his pokémon and prepared for battle. Ghetsis' pokémon consisted of a Cofagrigas, Seismitoad, Eelectross, Toxicroak, and a Hydreigon. "Tear her to pieces!"
"What are we going to do?" One sage asked.
"Calm down, we're miles up, no one's going to be able to do anything about it." As the other sage was speaking, suddenly crashing in through a window was Xingke holding onto Shen Hu.
Xingke let go of Shen Hu and leapt onto the table they all had situated themselves around. He glared at them as they all gasped at his more than dramatic entrance before he drew his sword.
All at once it seemed the six of the sages in the room began to stir and make a break for anywhere away from Xingke while he jumped down and started to make mincemeat out of the lot of them. As they were all pretty much just old men in robes none of them got very far before Xingke took the sword to them.
After inspecting each of them to make sure they were all dead Xingke ripped off a piece of one of their robes and cleaned his blade of their blood before sheathing it. The entire ship seemed to shake.
"That came from the deck." Xingke took note of before grabbed hold of Shen Hu again. "What's going on up there?"
They set off and Shen Hu climbed up the haul of the ship with his blades until they reached the deck. He then saw what the ruckus was all about. Kallen, Cross, several grunts of Black Plasma and their pokémon were fighting Ghetsis and his pokémon.
"Shen Hu, end this fight with Techno Blast." Xingke ordered. Shen Hu then fired a powerful beam from his cannon and in a single attack it seemed all of Ghetsis' pokémon were defeated.
"No!" Ghetsis cried while backing up away from the ship full of people surrounding him. "This cannot be. You cannot kill me!"
He didn't even notice it when he was at the very edge of the ship. He slipped and began to fall before he managed to grab hold of the ledge. He held on with both arms and looked down to see his cane fall into the relative abyss below him.
Xingke then stepped up to the edge and looked down while drawing his sword. "Who's beneath whom now?"
"Curse you Xingke, Curse you Lelouch, curse you Kallen, curse you all!" Ghetsis cried before Xingke turned and kicked him in the face forcing him to let go. They could hear his screams all the way down.
"The Seven Sages are dead!" Xingke lifted his sword triumphant. "And Team Plasma is once again united under one banner."
CC dug her claws into the road as she skidded back through the street from the force of the last attack that Albion used. "Don't worry Lelouch, I'm still in this." CC reassured him.
"Lelouch." He heard Kallen's voice from his transceiver.
"I'm kind of in the middle of something." Lelouch told her.
"We did it though, just as you planned. Team Plasma's been reunited." Kallen almost sounded like she was congratulating him.
"Excellent, circle around my position, with any luck we'll also be able to defeat Suzaku today as well."
"Lelouch!" CC drew his attention to the battle at hand. She was staying back a fusion flare with her protect.
"Alright then parry him with zen headbutt before roosting!" Lelouch commanded.
"Albion, keep up the pressure and unleash dragon pulse!" Suzaku told hm.
CC leapt forwards and thrust her head into Albion's chest knocking him back and parrying him for a moment. She then leapt back landing on the ground healing herself a little bit. Even then Lelouch could see it didn't do much, now their health was even again.
A shadow cast over them hardly to the notice of either combatant which made it even darker in the overcast around the city. Suzaku looked up to see the Plasma Frigate directly above them. Swooping down was Gidra, Shen Hu, and Guren with their trainers on their backs.
Several more grunts from all around the city began to surround Suzaku and Albion. They were surrounded.
Before Lelouch could order him to surrender four major presences emerge as if from nowhere. Pile driving through a throng of grunts and their pokémon was a Terrakion. Riding it was Alder. "That's it, tear through their ranks Tristan!"
A Keldeo tore through a building before slamming a few pokémon into the ground with his sword. Iris followed closely behind. "Way to go Mordred."
Hitting a throng of pokémon into nearby wall was Lancelot being ridden by Kyouhei. "Lelouch, surrender now!"
Galloping up next to Suzaku and Albion, while slashing through numerous opponents, was Virizion. Leaping from her back was Hilda. "Guinevere and I are with you Suzaku."
"It's the Knight of the Round!"