Chapter 13 - Her Daughter?
"What are you talking about? How did we never find out? Why didn't Dad tell us I have a half-sister and Jake has another cousin?" Leo demanded, but I had a feeling I knew why.
"That's because Eli himself never knew," Mom told us.
"Wait, you knew?" I demanded.
"Of course, she knew. I kept her secret about you before you found out, and she kept my secret," Elina replied. "A few months before Eli left me for Trixie, we…spent a night together," she told us. "When I knew I was pregnant with Caitlin, Eli was with Trixie. I didn't want to ruin their relationship, because we all know he would've left her do to the right thing. Caitlin Elsa Shae was born about two years before you, Jake. I raised her in a facility in this cavern, much like where Leo grew up. Kaiya protects it, so I knew it would be safe from normal attacks. Only Kaiya, Karina, and Quora knew about it. She never told Junjie because of how good friends they are," she explained. "As you saw with her eyes, she inherited a portion of my powers. She's never made the change, though…I feel so bad."
"Don't, it was my fault. I should've kept her safe," Kaiya told her.
"It's not your fault, you don't have the equipment to deal with Dark Bane yourself," Elina told her. "Now, I need to go. Brimstone's base of operations is a day's journey form here."
"Wait, you can't be serious about joining him!" I told her.
"I have to. Would you do anything if Karina's life was held in the balance? What about Emma?" she asked me.
"I would, but only as a last resort," I told her. "We will save her Elina, but not by sacrificing the Enchantresses. Without you, we have no hope of defeating Brimstone, no matter how many bombs are built. Don't forget, she's technically a Shane, too, and we Shanes help each other out."
Leo nodded. "That's right. Mark, if we went in right now, what chance would we have of reaching Brimstone without being captured?" he asked Mark.
"With our armory as it is and their numbers what they are, incredibly slim," he replied. "We have very few tubes left after the bridge, and not enough crystal."
"Try this," Mom told him, sending him a design for a strange spherical device with a pin. "It's a weapon from the surface. Can you rig it to detonate and release the crystal's energy? It probably wouldn't require big ones, Futura's could work."
Mark looked it over, nodding. "Yes. With smaller crystals, it shouldn't take as long to build, so I can have a few dozen ready by tomorrow. How many are you thinking?"
Mom smiled slightly. "Hundreds. Kord, can you have the forges start making them?"
Kord nodded. "Yeah, but we need a lot of Vitalis crystals."
"That's no problem. I have a feeling that, if this could end the war, they'd be willing to empty their reserves," I told him. "I can go there now and tell them." Mom nodded, so I hopped onto Stryder and took off, supercharging the engines to cut the time in half.
When I arrived, Mark's father was already waiting with a massive cart full of crystals. "Mark called ahead. If this means we won't lose this war, we're willing to empty our reserves. We've still plenty of them beneath the cavern."
"Thank you, your contribution is appreciated," I thanked him, hooking Stryder up to the cart. They provided an oxen Mecha Beast to help, and I sat on the top of the cart in case trouble came looking for a fight. With the two Mecha Beasts working, I made it to the base in an hour, dropping off a few dozen crystals for Mark before I went to the forges, which were already fired up and ready to go. I gave them the rest of the crystals and they started working as I raced back.
"Here's the first, try it out," Mark told me when he finished one. I tossed it into the air and it exploded on contact with the ground. It let out a bright light, and I even felt a bit of strength enter my body.
"It'll work. Is the bomb ready?" I asked him.
He nodded, gesturing to a large box. "It's rather simple, but the box prevents any shakes in transit from setting it off early. Given Brimstone's approximated power, it should weaken him enough for us to take him out."
"Good. Could you carry it into battle?" I asked him. "You and Vinyl will protect the bomb as we clear the way. When we reach him, we'll distract you long enough to plant it, and we'll steer him into it. When it weakens him, we'll kick it up a notch, and when we're ready, you, Vinyl, and I will launch Speedy, Yang, and Apollo into Ultramorph while the rest of them keep him still. Apollo says it's the only way to defeat him."
Mark nodded. "Sounds good, that is the best way. To use any of the other Gifted would remove fighters from the fight to keep him still. Now, I need time to construct some more of these devices. Go…train or something," he told me, so I went outside. Everyone else's slugs seemed to have received a slug-enhancing device from Vinyl, and the rest of mine did as well. To get used to it, I trained a bit against Leo.
"Wow, this is a whole different level," I gasped as Brisingr managed to beat Burpy in a showdown. I followed up with Speedy, but Leo managed to take him down this time with a rapid fire combo of a Jellyish and Flaringo. He followed up with Save, but I in turn replied with Yang and Brisingr, using a fusion of the two with my staff. I didn't really expect it to work but the two combined to form a dark blue Infernus with smoke instead of flames. The fusion slug managed to take down came with a Shadowkan made of dark blue flames, and defeated Leo with a Wingburst that released dark shadows. The shadows made him dizzy and fall as I claimed the victory.
"Where'd you learn that combo?" Leo demanded, returning to his feet.
I shrugged. "Intuition? Luck? Both?" I replied. "I think it'd be good if we could learn more fusions that we could use in battle for a bit more power," I added, calling over all my slugs and an Enigmo. "Can you show us slugs that will work in a fusion shot? I asked him, so he used his powers to first highlight my Forgesmelter and Dirt Urchin. I loaded them into my staff and launched them at a target. The resulting slug looked like a Dirt Urchin, but his thorns were made of magma that he launched into the target, melting through it.
"Cool," I whispered. We spent the rest of the day testing out new fusions before we turned in for the night.
"Tomorrow morning, we will leave for the Dark Bane's headquarters," Mom told us. "If we cannot rescue Caitlin by the end of the day, Brimstone will kill her, or worse. Kord, any word back from the forges?"
Kord nodded. "They've finished up the last of the Vitalis crystals and are bringing them over during the night with a Shadow Clan escort. Are you absolutely sure this will work, Jake? We're sending in all of our best fighters for a last-ditch attack. If we lose this, not only are the 99 Caverns lost, but the Eastern Caverns are lost, as well as the Surface."
I nodded. "I know. If we don't, though, Brimstone could turn Caitlin dark like Leon did to Elina," I replied. "Even though Elina says she isn't as strong as her mother, Caitlin could probably take out the rest of us, and if we gave up Elina and Quora, he'd probably turn them against us, and nobody would survive both Enchantresses going dark."
Kord nodded. "I see your point. You know, your father would be proud of who you've become. Not just Jacob Taylor, but Eli, too. He'd be happy to see who you've become and how far you've come," he told me.
I smiled, nudging his outstretched fist with my own. "Thanks, Kord. Anyway, I need to ask Mom about numbers," I told him, walking away to where my mother was looking over a table covered in papers. "Mom?" I asked her.
She looked up at me after a few seconds. Her fatigue was plain in her eyes, just as it was in a lot of ours. Taking down Blakk may have been one thing, but he wasn't a killer If we made a mistake, people would die. "Yeah, fine. What is it?" she replied, stretching.
"How many people should we take with us? Should we take all of them, or just us?" I asked her.
She sighed, looking over her papers tiredly. "Well, this is our last push, right? If we get Caitlin back, we'll have a chance to hit Brimstone and end this for good. We may as well go all-out," she replied, trying not to yawn.
"C'mon, Mom. You're no good if you're dead on your feet," I told her, helping her out of the room. She kept telling me she was fine, but I cut her off every time.
"If you stay awake all night, you could fall asleep tomorrow during the battle, and I don't want to lose you because of your own stubbornness," I told her.
She chuckled. "I guess it's a Shane trait. I see your point, kiddo. Let's go," she told me, walking to her hut. Once I was sure she was going to sleep, I left her to get in a bit more training with Apollo.
"You know, you should take your own advice and get some sleep," Emma called out from nearby when I missed a shot.
"I can't, I'm not good enough yet," I replied, loading Yang and firing. This time, though, Emma ran in and grabbed Yang before he could enter Velocimorph.
"Enough," she told me, launching a Hypnogrif to knock me out. When I woke up again, very early the next morning, I found Emma curled up against me. "Mm, good morning," she groaned as she woke up, stretching as she turned to me, kissing me lightly.
"You know, I could really get used to waking up like this," I told her, sitting up.
"I guess that's another reason to win tonight," she replied, leaving to get dressed as I got ready. I made sure all of my slugs were awake and ready to go, my blades secure on my back. I made sure to grab a few extra weapons from my chest before we gathered near the entrance with everyone else. A few hundred of us were gathered there. Some looked scared, well, most of them looked scared, but they all knew what the coming battle was about, what the stakes were, and were ready to fight for themselves, their families, and their homes. The weapons from the forges were in, and each of us in the main forces were given five, and the rest were given two or three. We even had a group of a dozen of them carrying a few dozen with strange blasters to launch them. After inspirational speeches from Mom and I, they were pumped up and ready to go, so we left for the nearest Dark Bane-controlled cavern, three away.
"We're coming upon the entrance to the cavern," Vinyl told us. "Mark, is the bomb still stable?"
He nodded, so I raised my staff into the air, signaling for a halt.
"Everyone!" I called, standing on Luke's shoulders for extra height. "Here we will face our enemy in battle! The results not only affect our lives, but those of our family, friends, and loved ones!" I glanced at Emma for a second before turning back to them. "I know that many of you are scared. Honestly, so am I, but do you know what it is that keeps me here to lead you all? It is you, each and every one of you, and your families! Some of us may lose our lives," some people shuffled around a bit, "but know that this is all to rid this land of the cursed Dark Bane! If you do not survive this battle, your names will be remembered as heroes when we win this, just as with those of you who survived. I promise this on my title as the Shane, we will win this battle! Let us go, now, and show the Dark Bane true fear!" I roared to them all. As I returned to Stryder, they all broke out into cheers as I raised my staff horizontally. "CHARGE!"
A/N: Hello, again! I know, it's surprising that another chapter's out again, and I'm sorry it's a bit shorter, but I'm on a roll and don't wanna stop. It looks like Jake has another empowering speech for everyone before they charge into the Battle for Slugterra.
As you know, I don't own Slugterra or its characters. For a list of characters and their owners, check the previous chapter.
Until next time, see ya!