Abel took a long wide swipe at his brother, which Cain naturally deflected the attack as he flipped backwards. Just as Cain got to his feet, Abel began madly swirling his scythe above Cain's head. A slice of blonde hair floated to the ground. Cain started to sprint forward.
"You're angry…" Cain laughed between heavy breaths. His laughter was cut short when Abel suddenly got in front of him and Abel slammed the handle end of his scythe into Cain's chest. Cain was sent flying across the room. The blonde Crusnik slammed into one of the metal pillars of the airship, denting the metal piece nearly in half. Cain resumed laughing as he brushed the dirt off his shoulders, "This will be fun…"
The silver-haired Crusnik glanced over his shoulder at Tenchi, who was paralyzed with fear. "Get her out of here!" he yelled before he rushed at Cain again.
Cain meekly blocked his brother's attack, which sent him sliding on his back across the floor. Lying on his back slightly stunned and staring at the ceiling, Cain saw his brother falling towards him with his red scythe raised above his head. Quickly, Cain rolled away from the attack. The scythe barely caught the edge of Cain's sleeve. "I think you are trying to kill me!" Cain laughed in a high pitch tone as he lept to his feet.
Abel went in for another attack, which Cain easily deflected to the side and landed a sucker punch across Abel's pale face. With a quick flap of his black feathered wings, Abel moved safely away from Cain's reach.
Finally able to find the strength to move his feet, Tenchi bolted towards Ryoko. While the bothers battled nearby, he dropped to his knees and slid across the metal floor for the last few feet – avoiding the blades of the scythes. He scooped up the space pirate's bloodied, fragile body and carried her away from the center of the battle field. She coughed up blood on his shirt but he did not seem to notice. "I've got you Ryoko…" he whispered.
Esther helped Tenchi manipulate Ryoko's body to sit with her back against the ship's wall once they were safely away from the battle field. The space pirate's head rolled down and the whites of her eyes were showing.
"Wake up Ryoko!" Tenchi grabbed her face with both of his hands and lifted her head to make direct eye contact. "I still need you…"
Coming to her senses for a moment, Ryoko stared past Tenchi to see Abel fighting his brother. At first their details were sharp but they slowly progressed to blurs of black and silver against white and blonde. Keep with it Ryoko, she mentally shook herself.
Her yellow eyes drifted over to Gunslinger's body lying on the ground several hundred feet away. She swore she saw something red flash at her from Tres' broken right eye piece. "Tres…" Ryoko mumbled in a confused tone.
Esther glanced over her shoulder at the droid. "Is he still alive, Ryoko?" the redhead stood up and started to move towards his body.
"Y-yes," Ryoko coughed up more blood.
Tenchi used the edge of his shirt sleeve to dab the blood away from her lips. "You shouldn't talk Ryoko," he whispered softly. This can't be the end…
"Just…l-like old..d times," the space pirate tried to give Tenchi a smile.
Wiping away a tear from his cheek, Tenchi smiled back at her. "Yeah…just like old times."
Esther knelt down next to Father Tres' body to get a closer look. Her heart raced with excitement when she saw the red light emanating from his right eye focus on her delicate face. "He's still functioning!" she attempted to lift his body but it was too heavy. "Tenchi come help me with him!"
"I..m f-fine," Ryoko weakly gave him a thumbs up signal. As she listened to him promise that he would come right back, the space pirate leaned her head back. Forming simple thoughts was becoming a harder task. Her vision would come and go. And for some reason, Ryoko was starting to hear voices that she knew weren't there.
Something had made a loud popping noise off to her left, but the space pirate chose to ignore it.
"Looks like I just showed up at the right time…"
Ryoko coughed half of a laugh when she recognized the voice. Am I hallucinating as I am dying? Rolling her head gingerly over her shoulder, the space pirate made out a blurry white face with bright pink hair. Great…I am fucking hallucinating. "Your-r f-face i-s not the…last t-thing-g I wan-t t-o see be-fore I fucking die…W-Washu," she grumbled sourly.
Washu folded her arms across her chest smugly, "I'm going to make an educated guess that this world doesn't have any sake…"
"Washu?!" Tenchi couldn't believe that the crazy scientist had suddenly appeared out of thin air. "Your timing couldn't have been any better," he laid Tres' nonfunctional body next to Ryoko. Embracing Washu, Tenchi wrapped both arms around her tightly and lifted her off the ground.
"Okay! Okay! You can revel in the magnitude of my brilliance another time-" Washu straightened her shirt and cleared her throat once she was back on the ground. She spotted the damaged body of Father Tres next to Ryoko. "Advanced technology in this world," she mused.
"Fix-h-im Was-hu," Ryoko bit her lip from the pain as she took in a long deep breath.
Washu gave Ryoko a long hard look, "The android can wait." She began digging into her lab coat pocket to find a small metal syringe gun filled with white liquid.
"What is that…?" Tenchi asked quietly.
"Oh-this?" Washu beamed, "Just a new invention I am trying out!"
Ryoko glared at Washu, You and your fucking inventions are what caused this entire problem in the first place…
The metal ground quaked. Washu, Tenchi, Esther, and Ryoko tumbled over each other with a loud thump. "They are still attacking us-" Tenchi started to say as the entire airship shook violently.
"They have no idea that we are on the ship…" Esther suddenly realized. They braced themselves from another blast sent by the Iron Maiden. Esther was separated from the rest of the group by the third blast.
"You have to get to the control room at tell them to stop firing-" Tenchi yelled over at Esther, "or we are all dead!"
Awkwardly climbing to her feet, Esther set her determined eyes on the broken control room directly above them. Silently she prayed that all of the Hunters had been destroyed. Taking in a deep breath, the red-haired queen made a mad dash.
"W-ash-u will s-stay," Ryoko winced in pain as Tenchi helped straighten her back out. "Go with h-her…" the tone in the space pirate's voice made Tenchi think twice about questioning her. Nodding, Tenchi sprinted after Esther. "Ah!" Ryoko cried out when Washu injected her thigh with the white liquid.
The mad scientist rolled her eyes, "It's not the worst thing I have done to you." True…Ryoko thought bitterly to herself. "Now let me take a look at that cute android," Washu rubbed her hands together and snapped on her goggles.
Climbing up the stairs to the control room was a lot harder than it looked. Esther had to brace herself and hold onto the metal hand railings every time the Iron Maiden fired. By the time she reached the top of the staircase, she was almost out of breath. Shattered glass crunched underneath her shoes as she entered the control room. Esther was ready to vomit from all of the blood spilled. Covering her mouth, Esther gingerly made her way over to the control panels.
Whistles and flashing lights were going off at rapid speed. Esther had no clue at what they meant. She searched for something that looked like a communication device. Her eyes fell upon the decapitated body of Issak – his right hand was clutching a speaker.
Working up the mental courage, Esther tried to pull the dead vampire's hand off the speaker. Rigor mortis was already setting in – making it much more difficult for Esther. She tugged with all of her might to get Issak's hand away. Once his hand finally let go, Esther lost her balance and toppled backwards. She landed into something soft. Slowly lifting her head up, Esther stared at a masked Hunter.
Just as she was about to scream, Tenchi came bolting up the staircase and body slammed into the vampire. Esther moved out of the way just in time. Tenchi then slammed the vampire's masked face into the control panel a few times. Once it was stunned, the human grabbed a piece of glass and drove it through the back of its neck. The Hunter's body twitched twice and then stopped.
"Do you know how to work this thing?" Tenchi asked from over his shoulder. He was keeping a close eye on the monster – he wanted to make certain it was dead.
"I-I think so," Esther regained her composure quickly. She tried pressing a few buttons until a red light on the speaker phone came on. "Hello? Hello?" Esther called out on the speaker.
Abel whipped his red scythe behind his back and struck at his brother with unthinkable speed. Cain blocked the attack, but was forced backwards into a corner from the blow.
"Are you growing tired Cain?" Abel growled in a dark voice with his eyes glowing blood red. The priest knew that Ryoko's energy had its limits. The crystal had sucked her dry and now Cain was just surviving on his own remaining strength.
"Brother," Cain said with a smile, "The only thing I grow tired of is your love for these pathetic humans." His smile quickly faded as he ran at Abel full speed. He swiped at the priest's face with his own scythe.
Abel dodged the attack by side-stepping to the right. As Cain continued to move past his brother, he watched out the corner of his eye Abel raising the red scythe once more.
Catching the point of his scythe in the center of Cain's left hand, Abel gave a strong jerk on his end of the scythe. Cain was lifted into the air, immediately flung over Abel's shoulder, and slammed back-first into the metal floor. Without missing a step, the silver-haired priest turned around with his pistol aimed at Cain's forehead. "May God forgive you brother, because I never will," Abel said as he pulled the trigger.
Esther slapped the space pirate's pale cheeks to stay awake. "C'mon Ryoko! Keep talking to me!" The red-haired beauty's face was severely blurred; all Ryoko could see were blended hues of red, blue, and tan. "What is your favorite color?"
Trying to stay focused to answer the simple question was the hardest task, let alone saying it out loud. "R-red," she chuckled once at her response. "I-I've been losing…lots of that c-olor…"
"Affirmative," said Gunslinger as he peered over Esther's shoulder. The entire right side of Tres' face was smashed in. "From the blood patterns you have lost-"
"Shut the fuck up Tres!" Abel snapped in a distressed tone of voice off in the distance. "Help me get this damn tank running – now!"
Abel…Swearing? Ryoko tried to lift up her head but failed. Is this what it feels like to die slowly? She stared at the ceiling of the airship; it was just a smeared brown. Well at least Ayeka will be pleased to have Tenchi all to herself…
"Tenchi – come here…" the silver-haired priest ordered in a rush.
Abel again. A faint smile stretched across her bruised and bloodied face. What a strange, bumbling priest that one is. I don't know how he manages to keep his head on straight sometimes. He is definitely peculiar…and fascinating…and sweet… Ryoko felt a pang in her chest. I wish I had more time with you.
"I think we need to get off this thing-" Tenchi glanced at the control system to see flashing red lights in an unknown language to him, "-now."
Ryoko felt something warm wrap around her. She narrowed her yellow eyes to see red eyes staring back at her. Hey, I was just thinking about you… the space pirate simply smiled at Abel.
Abel lifted Ryoko into his arms with a solemn look in his red eyes. "You're a fool…" he whispered to her softly.
"Sometimes…" Ryoko coughed.
Author's note: Just graduated from veterinary medicine. Hence the delay in updating. Sorry guys. One more chapter after this.
4/4/16: Decided that I left some things unfinished. Trying to tie up loose ends on this story.