IM TRASH. IM SO SORRY. I have been trying to update every other Tuesday and I got super swamped and now I have given you a late chapter. I'm just going to go wallow in misery in the corner ... it's bad enough I played Life is Strange Episode 5 last night -and now my life no longer has meaning.
She doesn't know how she got here. She can still feel the cold floor of the underwater facility she had been in; she can still taste the rot on her breath. One second she was on her knees, lurching in pain, but safe in her brother's arms, and the next she's here…
She can't breathe. She swears she can't breathe. She can't move her body either, not out of pain, but out of an immense sense of numbness and a tingling sensation, akin to anxiety, tapping insistently at the front of her brain. And for several moments, she ruminates on the thought of being dead -the thought of her pulse slowing to a stop. Who would be the first to find her? Would it be Joey? How would he react? She doesn't want to think about that part, only the strange warmth and that sense of peace in the everlasting darkness…
"'Everlasting darkness'?" a scornful voice interrupts. It's deep and guttural, but also smooth and oddly soothing. She hears a rumbling chuckle that causes her entire body to quiver like a harp string as she tries to understand what's going on. "I wouldn't give up so soon. If I were a good person, I'd tell you that people are counting on you -but I'm not."
All at once, the light comes back and she feels like her head's just been pulled out of the water. She can't see him clearly, the stranger with the deep voice -just a bright light and a mess of colors that dance chaotically around before her eyes. She's off-balance and the only thing around her giving her a sense of the space around her was the clawed hand holding her forearm so firmly it hurt.
The colors slow to a stop and she now realizes that the one who saved her could hardly be called human. Though his body looks human enough -albeit gargantuan in size -half of his face is covered in a terrifying mask and what she can see is a large mouth, stuck in a permanent grimace of long teeth that are yellow and cracked, but could probably still bite through her whole arm if he wished it. Of course, she isn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth (in quite the literal sense), so she sucks up her fears and straightens her back.
"Good to see you have your focus back." The rough and stretched lips growl. "Now, I can take the Warden alone, but I can't babysit you while I do it. Can you open your third eye?"
Serenity is taken aback, her hand moving immediately to the spot on her forehead where she had once indeed uncovered a third eye, but how would this creature know about it? "I… I don't remember how I opened it the first time," she admits timidly, her eyes darting away from her savior to look around the plain. Speaking of the Warden -she can't see her anywhere.
Her companion lets out a sigh and pushes Serenity back. "Figure it out. Fast." The creature's wings, which she only just notices, spread out. The dark, leathery appendages look like the sort of thing you would see on a demon prince from a fairy tale; only these were real -or as real as she could call this place. Could she really trust him? Something in her gut tells her she shouldn't, but now isn't the time for such speculation.
She knows that the previous time she opened her third eye, someone had been with her. Peten. However, he had been the one to open it for her; could she really do it on her own? Judging by the situation, it seems like she'll have to do it on her own regardless of whether or not she actually believes she can -so what's the harm in trying, right?
She nods swiftly and steps back against a nearby tree, closing her eyes and trying to remember how the world looked with her third eye. She can remember how limited her vision was, but also how bright and clear it was, like observing the world for the first time through a polished lens. Maybe that is the very emotion she needs to be concentrating on.
The stranger lets out a sigh that sounds a lot like relief, however, between her temples, there is a sensation that is a lot less like relief. She has forgotten the pain that came with opening her third eye and the throbbing of her temples is the harsh reminder and the beckoner as a scream tears through her throat, her hands grasping her head. She feels hard, solid extremities, like horns, growing from her head and feels the muscles in her forehead stretch and shift beneath her skin. She doesn't dare move her hands over the eye just as she's beginning to see through it.
"That's more like it. Now, get out of here," he orders. He doesn't look at her, his head turning slowly on its axis, examining the horizon for any signs of the Warden.
"Not without Ryou," she retorts defiantly, moving to rush towards the incapacitated boy.
She feels her body snap backwards in the direction of the stranger. "Now, any other day, I'd tell you that trusting me is the worst thing you could ever do, but trust me on this, Serenity Wheeler: if you take him out of here before he's finished his sentence, you'll kill him more surely than anything this place could shit out."
Her heart catches in her chest and she struggles in his grasp, tugging at the fabric of the emerald dress that had draped itself over her body. His sentence? What does that even mean? "B-But -"
"Just go," he hisses. "I'll watch over the brat, but you need to get out of here."
Reluctantly and perhaps a little bit out of fear of the monstrous glare that the stranger had sent her way, she stumbles away from him, dashing past a few trees. God, they all look the same and she feels like her heart is beating faster with every step she takes. She vaguely remembers having the ability to fly, but her mind isn't quite up to dealing with that as well. One step at a time. One foot in front of the other. She doesn't exactly know where she's going, but she knows that the farther she gets away from whatever that thing was, the better.
In her haste, she doesn't even feel herself collide with something hard and fall bottom-first to the ground. Winded, she reaches behind her and tries to hoist herself off of the dirt, and as she does so, she gives the person she crashed into a once-over. She's tall, a woman she recognizes, but whose name she had never learned.
"Serenity?" the woman acknowledges and Serenity can tell that those green eyes are cautiously observing the extra organ on her brow. "Are you… alright?"
Serenity nods carefully, brushing the woman's uncomfortable gaze aside and helping her up as she gets to her feet. "Yeah, but Ryou…"
Before either of them can get another word in, they're joined by two others. "You found her!" one of the others exclaims, coming to a stop beside the woman. He's also someone who had been on the blimp, but Serenity doesn't know his name either.
Peten is the third one to meet her, looking as glib (if not more glib) as the day they had first met. His arms are crossed over his chest and one of his hands dangles over the crook of his elbow, his fingers twirling idly in place. She's not certain when those three had gotten acquainted, but it's not really the time to question them about it, "Well, that's all well and good, but if Serenity's here, then where's the Warden?"
She instinctively turns around, her torso facing the direction that she came from, where she had left the mysterious creature that had saved her. She's not quite certain how Peten had figured out that she had been facing the Warden earlier, but she doesn't linger on the thought for very long. "She must be back where I left her… with that… guy?" she answers him timidly. She isn't sure if that was the right word to use, but the creature had spoken to her and his features seemed somewhat humanoid.
"Uh… a guy?" Peten inquires.
"A kinda scary guy…" she elaborates, starting to wonder if perhaps 'creature' was the right word after all.
He's silent for a moment and Serenity immediately feels like she's done something wrong, but before she can make a fool of herself trying to exonerate herself for a verbal crime that may or may not have committed, he spoke again. "He wasn't by any chance very big -big muscles, big wings, big ego... kind of an asshole?"
For a moment, Serenity deliberates, mostly on the last point, but eventually affirms. "I think so."
Peten uncrosses his arms and puts his hands on his hips, letting out a very long sigh as he slouches over in defeat. "This is not good. Not good at all… He shouldn't be here… Not… Not yet."
"'Not yet'?" the unfamiliar black haired boy repeats, narrowing his eyes. "You ever going to explain anything or are you planning on being this confusing every time you talk to us?"
Peten shrugs, twirling around once before heading in the direction Serenity indicated. "Surely, being an enigma must be my endearing character trait, right?"
The boy scowls and refrains from spitting out a snide remark. Once Peten is gone, he says, "He got what he came for and we found Serenity. So let's rescue Lorna and get out of here."
"Wait! Who are you people? A-and rescue?" Serenity gasps, not certain if she's heard correctly.
"Ah sorry. I'm Zephyr and she's Sun," he reaches out to shake her hand and upon being met with stark rejection in that regard, he lets out a nervous series of laughs before explaining, "W-Well, we left her with an angry Dark Magician… and I don't know how badly that Dark Magic Attack's gonna mess her up before she needs miraculous intervention."
"But that's Yugi's monster!" she cries out. "Why would he -"
"Peten," the woman, Sun, interrupts in a low voice, and everything is suddenly clear to Serenity. Of course it was the shady-looking clown.
Their trek back towards the Solitude's battered entrance is halted by a stern voice and a hooded duo. By the looks on her companions' faces, they definitely aren't friendlies. "Not so fast!" one of them orders, a hand on her hip.
"Who are you?" Zephyr demands, stepping to the front of the group. "Why do you keep coming after us?"
The second hood strikes a pose. "To protect the world from devastation -" he begins to recite before being struck on the back of the head by the other.
"Wrong anime, moron," she scolds. With a sigh, she examines the group closely before announcing, "Lorna's not here. Where is she?"
"What so you can get to her? Not a chance." Zephyr straightens his back and narrows his eyes at the strangers.
Ignoring him, the first one speaks again. "You there." She sticks out her gloved hand towards Sun, leading her to tense up and glower quietly. "Where's Lorna?"
There is a single beat between the stranger's inquiry and Sun's words, enough time to build an entire mountain of anxiety in Zephyr's chest waiting on his friend's answer -and she picks the wrong one. "She's over by the entrance, fighting Dark Magician."
Under the first hood, they see a smirk. "She's all yours, Horatio."
The second hood, Horatio, doesn't bother responding before running off to find Lorna, but that's the least of Zephyr and Serenity's concerns as they both have looks of shock and distaste directed at Sun.
"You ratted her out!" Zephyr roars. "What were you thinking?"
The remaining hooded figure lets out a high pitched cackle. "Don't know what she's thinking, but I'm thinking you and I have a bone to pick." She abruptly faces Sun and says, "Watch the kid for me, would you? I wouldn't want her running around in a place like this without adult supervision."
A silent nod is all that Sun offers before grabbing Serenity by the neck and holding her back. "N-No! Let me go!" Serenity shrieks, fighting furiously against her hold.
"Now, why don't I introduce myself before we get to business?" She unbuttons the cloak she had over her body and lets it drop, revealing a heavy-looking battle suit, covered in pouches and pockets, but nothing as eye-catching as the full set of artillery on her utility belt. "The name is Ophelia, and you're about to pay for what you did to Viola."
Lorna can feel her eyes watering, unsure whether it's due to her fear or due to the wind picking up speed and blowing the dry and scratchy dirt into her face. She faces Dark Magician, holding out her arms in a shielding position and hoping something -anything -would happen. She tries to give herself a pep-talk, but coming from herself, it isn't very effective.
She wonders what happened to the confidence she had earlier; can she somehow tap into it? She knows that it shouldn't be this difficult, although the dull and unimpressive sparks coming from her fingertips are telling a different story. "C'mon…" she snarls, snapping and waving her hands desperately. "For once, just give me something."
Dark Magician holds his staff at the ready and begins forming a spell; she can't hear the words he's mumbling over the howling of the wind, but she knows it's bad. The pointed tip of the staff starts to glow and it lowers to point menacingly at Lorna. She figures it's too late to get back on his good side and keeps her arms steady in front of her torso.
He doesn't say anything as he holds his staff almost hesitantly. His eyes are unreadable and his mouth is set in a tight line, but something about his demeanor told of a sense of sorrow, which made the inevitable thrust of his staff all the more terrifying.
Quicker than her eyes can see, he leaps forth, plunging his weapon as he does, while Lorna braces herself for the pain, only to be met with a loud clang accompanied by several vibrations resonating through her skin. She has slid almost a foot back, but somehow she's still on her feet. She opens one of her eyelids, which she only just realizes she had closed, and looks at the sleek rod now clasped between her fingers. The long handle is a dim bronze color that faintly reflected the grey landscape around them, and the tip is a sharp looking blade with intricate carvings decorating its outline. It had absorbed all the damage from Dark Magician's attack.
She only wastes a single moment ogling her new weapon before she pushes back against the magician and forces a meter's distance between herself and her opponent. He doesn't waste any time either, charging up another attack and rising up off the ground. Anticipating his next move, Lorna grips her lance tightly and swings it to defend herself. They go back and forth like this for what seems like forever, each deafening clang adding to the blooming ache in her forearm.
"Th-That all you got?" she grunts under the weight of his attack, her heart's palpitations thundering in her ear and her nerves steadily increasing in severity. After a brief mental countdown, she eases her pressure on Dark Magician and ducks below his elevated feet, striking his unprotected back with the sharp end of the lance while he struggles to regain balance. The weapon goes through him, but far too easily than she had expected it to.
A hand tightly grips her neck and the flash of purple she sees when she attempts to turn her head quells any doubts she had about the figure she had just stabbed. "You're one of his, aren't you? The seven departed."
"I. Don't. Know. What. You're. Talking. About." she struggles to say, losing what precious oxygen she's managed to gather as she does.
"Maybe this will jog your memory!" he cries, contempt dripping from every syllable, as he swings Lorna and tosses her at a dead tree, watching her small body crash and drop to the ground like a rag doll.
She yelps in pain as the ash grey bark collides with the side of her head, cracking the hard exterior of her headgear. She groans and pulls the obsolete and uncomfortable apparel off, throwing it aside before getting back up. She watches wearily as he starts moving towards her; she wishes she hadn't dropped her lance.
"Stay back," she whispers. Her palms sweat over the white dirt and her shoulders vibrate steadily against the tree. "Why are you doing this?"
"The man you're assisting wishes to bring ruin and destruction onto the world of the living, effectively destroying all the other worlds as well," he responded stiffly, inching closer and holding his rod low. "He seeks to bring back an ancient evil -older than both you and me. To that end, he's brought seven different spirits back from the dead and kept them in limbo. He did not pose a threat until you brought him here –to the Solitude. The only way to stop him now is to destroy his tools."
"'Tools'..." she repeats under her breath, turning her face to the ground and trying to make the world around her stop shaking. He means me. He means Zephyr and Sun… even Malik.
"You were never supposed to come back, Lori" A new voice interrupts their confrontation; out of the corner of her eye, Lorna can see someone tall wearing a black hood. He starts towards them slowly, parting the thick coating of tension in the atmosphere like the Red Sea.
"This isn't your fight, Guardian," Dark Magician warns, pointing his staff at the stranger and then back at Lorna. "Leave. Now."
The Guardian doesn't pay him any mind, continuing his approach with an apparent nonchalance. "Or what?" he asks, raising his palm into the air. "Stand down, Dark Magician. I'll handle her."
She glares weakly at the newcomer, panting lightly and trying to ignore the throbbing in her arms. "I'm not a thing!" she hollers raspily. "I'm not an abomination. I'm a person. I don't deserve this," she adds, her voice sinking back into her throat dejectedly midway through the last sentence.
"I know," the Guardian says in a surprisingly soft tone. "I'm going to take you home, okay?" Dark Magician takes an abrupt step back just as the Guardian approaches.
"Home?" Her eyes are lifeless and her voice toneless.
The man lowers his hood back and kneels at her side. "Lori, look it's me." He's not particularly familiar, but there's something about the curly jet black hair, parted unevenly, and his honey-colored eyes. His thin lips and the shape of his nose… Something clicks inside of her.
"'Lori'?" she tastes the name on her tongue and is hit with a rush of nostalgia, dripping from the corners of her sore, red eyes. "Kenny?"
"Yeah," he affirms, keeping his eyes on her own unwaveringly. "I… uh… grew up," he offers in order to satisfy the impossibly puzzled grimace on her face. He reaches over to help her up. "Let's get you out of here, okay?"
"N-No!" she protests, avoiding his hands. "You're a Guardian."
Ken bites his lip and sighs. "Do you even know what the Guardians are? We're not the bad guys! We're just trying to make things right."
"I know Viola tried to kill me," she states dryly.
"You're already dead, Lori," he shoots back. "You can't come back to life. There's no way for this to work out well for anyone involved."
This isn't new information to her, but her eyes still widen when she hears it. Perhaps it had never occurred to her before this moment, however she knows that her fear of death never eased after she learned of her own unfortunate fate. "But I'm back," she argues, knowing exactly how pathetic she sounds. "And I don't want to die."
"Oh, jeez, Lori…"
Serenity runs her nails desperately over Sun's arm, trying to escape from her grasp. She gasps for breath as the arm tightens around her neck. She roughly jerks her head back, hitting Sun squarely in the jaw and causing the chokehold to weaken just enough for Serenity to force her head through the gap and out of captivity.
"Stop!" Sun bellows, running after Serenity and closing in with great speed.
Serenity breathes hard, dashing away and trying to find a way to get a weapon in her hands. How had she managed to bring out the silver bow and arrows last time? She ran through the small gap between two trees, hoping it would slow down her pursuer if at least a tiny bit. Still no silver bow, though…
A frustrated shriek follows after Serenity. "Stop running!" It sounds almost like a ghostly wail -and perhaps that's not too far off considering the circumstances.
Serenity's heart is in her throat, her hands already numb with fear, and she's surprised that she can even keep up her pace when the muscles in her legs are threatening to fail her as well. Her vision is clouded and her eyes are beginning to leak, burning in the chilly, dry air, so much so that she can barely see where she's going anymore. All the while, her terror is eating at her -the fear that she'll end up running herself into a circle and straight back into captivity -so when a pair of strong arms displace her tiny body, she lets out a shrill scream and frantically throws kicks at her assailant.
"Calm down! I'm here to help!" The voice that comes at her is certainly not Sun's and while that should have made her calm down, the fact that it's not the least bit familiar makes the alarms in her head blare even louder than before. She can't even see his face, since it's almost completely covered by a polished gold helmet, matching the golden armor that covered the rest of his body.
"Stop!" she squeals, nearly losing her voice at the back of her throat. "Stop it! LET ME GO!"
"Shh. Shh!" the strange boy covers Serenity's mouth with his clawed gauntlet, using his other arm to hoist her into the air and dash off. "I can't explain, but you need to trust me."
Zephyr leers at his opponent. "Horatio… Viola… Ophelia, huh? I'm betting those aren't your real names, are they? So are you Guardians running some sort of Shakespeare theme?" He stretches out his arms lightly and cracks the joints in his neck. He can feel his skin start to prickle and burn, his attire starting to morph into thick leather armor while two crimson blades, each of them almost two feet long, attach themselves to his left wrist. Gradually, the bones in his feet begin to pop and elongate, hardening into sharp talons. Bringing with it a pain that nearly throws him to his knees, his back tears open, his shoulder blades shooting out and unfolding, revealing a pair of bright red wings, darkened by his own blood. Straightening up immediately after his transmogrification, he brings his unarmed fist over to his brow to wipe away the sweat that had formed. "It doesn't matter either way. There's no way you're taking me down."
Ophelia's lips stretch in a smug smile, reaching down into her belt with both hands and pulling out a pair of identical pistols from among the dozens of weapons weighing her down. They looked strange, almost like they were each made out of solid diamond, with streaks of neon colors circulating through the barrels. "Nice to see you're dressed for the occasion. Do you want me to bury with or without the tacky red wings?"
He chortles and flexes his back, lifting his body into the air. "Depends," he replies, grinning and revealing a row of sharpened teeth. "Do you think those Buzz Lightyear collectibles are gonna make a scratch on me?"
She sends one single shot through the feathers on his left wing; it brushes against his skin and dislodges a couple of feathers. "Looks like they just did."
He scowls at her and feels a feral screech make its way through his throat. He belts it out at her like a warning before diving at her, aiming his blades at her head. "Die, bitch!"
"After you!" she grunts, ducking and watching him somersault in the air, doubling back at her with superhuman agility. She lifts one pistol to block his next blow, sending hot sparks flying into the atmosphere around them. With her other arm, she holds the barrel of her second gun against his stomach and begins shooting in quick succession. By the third shot, he is nearly five yards away from her.
He swerves to the side, avoiding her swift shots, his hand holding his stomach in agony. Only one shot has managed to go through the leather, and it's currently lodged in his lower abdomen. He can feel warm blood stain his hands and glares at Ophelia. After realizing that he's going to bleed regardless, he moves both of his arms to his side, his hands balled up tight, and flaps his wings with all his strength. The wind is already racing due to the storm and the beating of wings turns it into a vengeful tornado.
Ophelia barely avoids a flying tree branch and winces to keep the suspended dirt out from shooting into her eyes like microscopic bullets. With her vision impaired, Zephyr dives towards her and plunges his blades into her shoulder, using her shock to disarm her before prying her off of the weapon and sending her flying into a nearby stone structure. It cracks loudly upon impact and shatters.
He holds one wing over his face to keep the debris caught by the storm from being flung at him. When the feathered appendage moves back again, the dust has blown away and he can see Ophelia again. She appears no worse for wear, dusting off the top of her blonde buzz cut and pulling out a new weapon. This one is a long-barreled shotgun that seems to be made of a similar material as her previous weapons but with a dull violet tint to it.
"Time to stop fucking around," she announces, aiming at Zephyr with a wink.
He can see her struggling to keep straight face; no doubt the pain from her wound is killing her. He grins back. He's been itching for a postmortem workout.
A lot of stuff happened in this chapter and I just hope you could follow all that... The end is nigh... and all that jazz.. Next chapter is also not Lorna -because there's way too many POV's to make it about Lorna honestly. It will be called "Caelestis II"
You guys are going to hate me for more than just late updates when this is all over.