1.23-
In retrospect, taunting the strongest cape in the city wasn't my brightest moment. It had worked though. Lung had all his attention on Allfather and me. He wasn't going to interrupt Runechild. And considering that she was almost certainly speaking to her homicidal sister Black Kaze, she needed all the privacy I could give her.
It just meant that now Allfather and I were facing the remaining might of the ABB, with the added handicap of having the critically injured Krieg in the room.
"Come on dragon!" Allfather yelled. "HORRIDO!"
He came in with a blade in each hand, and smashed into Lung with a noise like a car crash. Bakuda and Oni Lee were forced to dive aside as the two brutes went careening through the doors into the foyer. A second later, Allfather came flying back to rebound off the remaining pocket door, shattering it to splinters. The impact barely slowed him. Before the dust had even hit the floor, he was back in action, swords whirring around him like angry hornets.
Lung's retaliatory burst of fire was hot enough that I felt it. Forty feet away. As a ghost. The foyer lit bright orange for a moment before Allfather tackled Lung again. They went thundering out of sight, shaking the house with the force of their combat.
I had my own concerns though. Krieg was hurt, probably dying. I needed to get him out of the house, get him to a doctor as soon as possible. I wasn't being a Good Samaritan here, I reserved that for people like Runechild. Krieg? I loathed him. He was all Allfather's negative aspects, minus his charm. But I needed Krieg. He was my in to the Empire. We had a deal, and I wouldn't be the one to break it.
Now I just had to get him past the entire ABB while keeping him from bleeding to death.
The entrance to the dining room was currently blocked by Bakuda and Oni Lee, but there were two other doors. A side hall perpendicular to the entrance led to the kitchen and Runechild, with another door at the far end of the room leading elsewhere.
I crouched, pulled Krieg's arm over my shoulder, and stood. Or tried to. Good God, he was heavy. Being a ghost didn't make me any stronger. I strained, and barely managed to lift his upper body off the floor. The wood was wet beneath him, soaked with his blood. I jerked, trying to get him moving. Once I started, I could build momentum and-
Krieg's jacket slipped out of my grasp and he hit the floor with a meaty thud. I winced as Krieg moaned with pain, but didn't wake up.
"Valkyrie!"
I turned my attention back to the remaining ABB capes just in time for Bakuda to raise her grenade launcher. She jerked her head at Lee.
"Go back up Lung, I can handle Bloody Mary here."
Oni Lee nodded to her. A moment later, a cacophony of machinegun fire started up across the house. It was only when Lee crumbled into ash that I realized that he'd already teleported.
Bakuda scoffed and kicked Lee's ashes, "Don't need a fucking babysitter." She turned to speak to me, raising her voice to be heard over the gunfire, "And you... Your friend must have a death wish, going up against Lung like that." She let the barrel of her launcher play over us. "You're not going anywhere soon, so why don't you fill me in on some things?"
An obvious threat. There was close to two-thirds of the dining room between us. Miles too far to move before she fired. Krieg was basically a big, stationary target, and I wasn't much better.
"Don't want to talk to me?" She shrugged, feigning hurt. "Maybe I'll just start shooting now, wipe out your friend."
I bit my lip. Damn it.
I summoned Michael between Bakuda and myself, blocking her line of fire. The drain was immediate and noticeable, like submerging my hands in ice water. Michael didn't waver though. His body was mine, his movements mine. I forced him to stand tall and confident.
He spoke my words, our voice a chorus. "What?"
"Ah!" Bakuda's body language indicated joy, even if her respirator stripped all the emotion out. "She talks! Valkyrie, was it? Tell me, what in the world did you do to piss Black Kaze off?"
Michael shrugged for me. "It's a long story."
She laughed flatly, "This is a hostage sitch. I've got time."
I glanced up. Bakuda hadn't moved away from the door. She was holding her distance from us. Probably so she could shoot freely if she needed to.
I started dragging Krieg away, letting Michael hold Bakuda's attention. The Nazi cape wasn't getting any lighter, and his jacket was hard to get a grip on. This time, I tried holding his arms and dragging him like a flour sack. It wasn't any easier. The dining room floor was scattered with wrecked furniture and broken wood. His coat caught and hitched every foot or so, and he was leaving a distressingly long line of blood in the dust.
"Stop moving!" Bakuda snapped.
Michael raised his hands defensively and took a casual step the side to block any possible shots from her. He was distracting me nearly as much as Bakuda. I hadn't quite mastered controlling him. He could act autonomously or follow my orders, but taking direct control of him took more effort. The multi-tasking kept tripping me up. It was like trying to write with both hands at the same time.
Splitting my focus took concentration that I couldn't spare. I itched, felt the phantom force of Bakuda's glare, but didn't look up. The fragments I could glean through Michael's eyes told me that Bakuda was still at the front of the room, pacing back and forth angrily.
"Good to know that I'm less interesting than Captain Corpse there," Bakuda huffed. "Last warning, Valkyrie."
"I, uh, have a question," I said. "What made you bring a grenade launcher to a fist fight?"
Said grenade launcher was suddenly pointed directly at me. Not Michael. Me.
"Are you calling me stupid?" Bakuda hissed. "Because-"
Holy shit did she have a short fuse.
"No!" I interrupted. It was hard to sound earnest with our voice, but I tried my hardest. The distraction made me drop Krieg again. The front of his coat was sticky, the makeshift bandages I'd applied were soaked through entirely. His wound had opened up while I moved him.
"No no no," I continued. "I just - it seems like a hazard. Like there's a good chance of friendly fire."
Bakuda's grenade launcher remained pointed at me. She was actually quivering with anger.
I backpedaled frantically, "That's not me calling you stupid! It's just…" Michael waved his hands vaguely. "A grenade launcher!"
Bakuda stared for a long, terrifying moment. Any second, I knew she was going to pull the trigger. Krieg would die. I would probably die also. It would be over. I had no way to avoid a-
I blinked.
But I did.
Michael and I grinned. And then I returned his shard to my power. In his place, I called my secret weapon.
"Skidmark! Barrier now!"
The Merchant cape came into existence with his cape flaring. He glanced back at me, shot me a yellow-toothed grin, and turned back to Bakuda.
"Nice fucking try!" She shouted.
They moved like gunslingers, blurring into motion at the same instant. Skidmark slapped his palm into the floor, color flaring around it like an oil slick. Bakuda pressed her grenade launcher to her shoulder and fired. The sound was unbelievably quiet, barely audible over the sound of gunfire.
Shunk.
For a moment, we all stared at the sight.
The grenade hung in the air, spinning forward in slow motion. Skidmark had caught it. Dropped a barrier barely two feet square. As I stared, he pulled his hands back, elongating the strip. The grenade round spun on.
Bakuda fired twice more. The rounds whirled into Skidmark's barrier, boring along behind their predecessor.
Skidmark slapped down more barriers, overlapping the first, spreading the patch with each. He forced line after line down, turned the streak so dark it was almost black. And then the first grenade slid backward, slowly at first, moving faster with every inch. The other two followed close behind, reversing their trajectory in midair.
"Dodge this!" Skidmark howled.
He slammed down one final barrier. Bakuda had barely a second to fling herself to the side before the grenades shot back at her, rocketing out into the foyer.
The explosion that followed brought with it a burst of arctic air. The dividing wall frosted over, and then cracked down the center from the snap freeze. A second later, a wave of flame finished the job that Lung had started, the ice shrieking as it flash-fried. The third explosion came as a blinding flare of silver light.
I blinked away spots to find the foyer transformed. The dividing wall was gone, broken to pieces by the blasts. What remained was a landscape of crystal. Bakuda's grenade had covered the foyer with a thick growth of sharp, mirror-bright crystal. It paled in comparison to what my shards looked like, but I couldn't deny that it was beautiful in a terrifying way.
Bakuda staggered to her feet, loose snow and ash falling away from her clothes. She was making an odd, rasping noise, like something caught in a fan belt. It took me a moment to realize that she was panting, clutching her leg as she stood. She turned, and I saw that she'd gotten caught in the blast. Her left leg was stiff, frosted, and bits of her hair were singed. After a moment, she leaned over, pulled her mask up and vomited in the corner.
I got to my feet. I'd finish this now.
"It's about time you got your shit together," Skidmark muttered.
He moved to stand at my shoulder, his thin hands clenching and unclenching as he eyed Bakuda. "Got any more orders you want to give? Cotton to pick, maybe kiss your feet?"
We stared at each other for a moment before he grinned again.
"I'm just fucking with you! Don't be so goddamn serious all the time, little bitch."
I managed a small smile. He couldn't see it behind my scarf, but I thought he got the idea.
"Sorry," I said. "Can you-"
I staggered, and Skidmark caught me.
He frowned. "What's wrong, kid?"
His words swam down through a haze, barely understandable.
Cold.
I was cold; frozen to the elbow, my vitality trickling away to feed my ghosts. Cold was a bad sign. It meant that I'd over-extended; gone past a limit and started spending the same energy that let me exist.
"I've got too many of you," I gasped. "Go, I'll call you again soon."
With a thought, Skidmark's shard returned to my well. He faded, giving me a one-finger salute as he went. At once, my thoughts kicked back into full motion, and the feeling of icy cold creeping up my limbs ground to a crawl. The song drifted back into background noise.
The loss hadn't stopped entirely though. It continued to flow down my two remaining bonds. Barely a hair to Runechild, while Allfather's kept spiking as he took injuries. And I couldn't return either of them. Not without bringing Lung, Lee, and possibly Black Kaze down on my head.
I had a time limit. A ticking clock measured in seconds of my life.
Across the room, Bakuda straightened up, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.
"Think you're… think you're funny?" She wheezed. "Sh-shooting it back at me? Laugh it up. It only worked once."
She began fumbling for her grenade launcher. It hung on a sling at her side, but she was having trouble holding it, her hands shaking as she moved.
I glanced back, Krieg lay limp and still behind me. He'd looked half-dead before. Now he just looked dead. Only the lack of reaction from his shard told me he was still alive. I wasn't the only one on a time limit here.
The dining room was massive, but not so large that I couldn't make it to Bakuda in time. I took off, scattering dust in my wake. Skidmark's barrier shimmered up ahead, but I didn't falter. I couldn't navigate it like he could, but I didn't have to.
I was halfway when I suddenly stumbled, my limbs shaking with the effort of running. Keeping Skidmark out had cost me too much. Ahead, Bakuda raised her weapon, the barrel wavering back and forth drunkenly. I staggered on, forcing myself to keep moving.
Can't do this alone.
"Skid, back me up!"
He came out in a heartbeat, moving alongside me.
"Quit fucking around and speedball that bitch!" he yelled.
With a snap of his fingers, a streak shot down the room, extended through his previous strips, aimed directly at Bakuda. And then he forged two steps ahead and grabbed my wrist. He stopped, pivoted, and then swung me into the speed strip like a rag doll. The instant I was in motion, I unsummoned him.
Hitting the strip was like stepping onto a rocket. I shot forward, moving so fast that I lost my balance and went flying, screaming all the while. I couldn't manage a battle cry like Allfather, but I did my best.
"Hooorrrriiidoooo!"
Bakuda steadied her weapon, but she was too slow. I slammed into her like a missile. We tumbled into the foyer and rolled to a halt on a pile of crystallized debris. I landed heavily, partially atop Bakuda, and my hand-wrapping tore as it caught on a crystal spike. Bakuda shrieked metallically as we landed, the force of the impact scraping her across the rough crystal.
She was winded, panting behind her mask, but she seemed to channel her pain into sheer anger. I'd barely steadied myself when she started writhing under me, trying to get free. She clawed and ripped at my clothes, her fingers passing harmlessly through my insubstantial form.
Intangibility was finally coming in handy. Using my costume as a medium meant that I could touch her, but not vice versa. And there was nothing she could do about it. Even when she punched me squarely in the face, I barely felt it. The force transmitted through my scarf and rocked my head backward, but there was no pain. Pain was for the living.
The transparency in my limbs was still rising, but I was moving now; ready, thrumming along with the song. I could ignore the unnatural lethargy the energy loss had caused and let the momentum of the fight carry me.
"Get the fuck off me!" Bakuda yelled.
I punched her in the face, my knuckles clanging against her mask. Bakuda swore again, and then hooked her fingers into the front of my dress. At the same time, she wrapped her legs around me and rolled. Suddenly I was on the bottom, with the furious cape above me.
"Nazi cunt!"
She caught my throat with one hand, went to work pounding me with the other. Her blows were clumsy, more what I expected from myself than a supervillain, but each one knocked off a little sliver of my energy. Her force came through just enough to damage my body, force it to heal.
Her next punch slammed the back of my head into the floor. I deflected her fist with my elbow and then grabbed at her mask. My fingers caught her respirator and I yanked it askew. Bakuda started flailing wildly; trying to fix her mask at the same time she was hitting me.
I couldn't get my legs up to roll like she had. Instead, I knocked her arm away, and threw a punch of my own. Bakuda gave a muffled cry as I connected with her exposed chin. She fell back, clutching her face. I kicked free from her, knocking her against the shattered remains of the wall.
"Dammit, you-" Bakuda snarled. "Lee! Lee, back me up!"
She had to yell to be heard over the cacophony coming from across the house. I wasn't sure if Lee would even be able to hear her, but I still felt a rush of panic. Oni Lee would kill Krieg. There was no debating that.
"Shut up!" I shouted. She couldn't hear me.
"Lee!"
I kicked out at her again. Bakuda twisted to the side and scrambled away. Her grenade launcher lay a few feet away.
"No you don't!" I yelled.
I rolled to a crouch and dove at her like an animal. For the second time that day, I slammed into her. My hand-wrap ripped entirely this time, came away from my hand in loose strips. My now bare hand phased through her and I lost my grip. Bakuda shoved me away, going for her launcher again.
I needed to stop her. Fast and hard.
I snagged the back of her vest with my good hand and pulled. She clutched at the crystal growth, trying to claw her way forward. It meant that she wasn't looking when I drew Allfather's knife from my belt. I dragged her back and lunged at the same time. We fell in a tangle, grappling on the floor again. Her blows were wild, but also weak, slowed by exhaustion and pain. She tried to roll again, but I straddled her, forced her back down.
"Get off!" Bakuda cried.
But this time, I had the knife in my off-hand. I couldn't touch her without my glove, but I could touch the knife, and with it-
"Don't move," I growled.
She still couldn't hear me, but the knife to her throat made my point better than any words could. Bakuda froze.
"You haven't got the guts, Valkyrie," she panted.
She swallowed, and red beaded against the knife blade. I stared down at her.
Now what?
I could… I could kill her. End it here. I'd be free to get Krieg out, with a new ghost to boot.
A second bead of blood joined the first.
Bakuda adjusted her mask with one hand, moving slowly and non-threateningly. She shifted it until she could see again; her eyes narrowed with hate behind her red lenses.
Another ghost meant another contract. Another shade. Another sliver of life restored to me. Another step closer to Dad…
Elsewhere in the house, I could hear the clamor of Lung and Lee going at it with Allfather. Their fighting didn't overpower the song though. It continued on, humming away in tune with my shard, calling for me. A wordless promise of what I'd gain. That I could come back some day, and all I had to do was take.
"You're not a killer," Bakuda rasped. "Just a jumped up Nazi piece of shit." She laughed viciously as her hand went to her vest and settled on a grenade. "I'll take this whole fucking house with me."
I'd just have to kill her first.
I tensed my fingers around the knife. Took a deep, meaningless breath.
I'd do it for Dad.
And what would he think?
The thought ached in my chest. He wouldn't think anything. He was in a coma because of… because of the Trio. And Bakuda was far worse than them. Could I let her walk away, let her do to others what was done to me?
What was the benefit to letting her live?
Her hand clenched around the grenade. My hands were shaking almost as much as hers; the knife quivering, touching her skin, pulling away. But why? Why were they shaking?
This felt… it felt right. Completely and utterly right. Perfectly natural to have a knife to her throat. To do more. To take.
And that… that was a red flag. It shouldn't feel this good to murder someone. There was a disconnect. A line at which I should, met I know this is wrong. Morality against instinct.
No.
"No," I repeated aloud.
Dad had taught me better than this. I might not feel it, but I damn well knew what was right and what wasn't.
I turned the flat of the knife to Bakuda's throat. She went still for a moment, and then let out a rasping laugh.
"Called it."
I leaned back, but didn't release my hold on her. Instead, I called Michael.
Bakuda's eyes went wide behind her mask as the shade loomed over her. For the briefest instant, I saw the bottom of his foot reflected in her goggles. And then Michael stomped her head into the floor. I stomped her into the floor. Felt the lenses break under my heel.
I caught her vest and pulled her up, looked her in the eye. She was limp, muttering something distorted by pain and blood, made totally incomprehensible by her respirator. I pushed, and she leaned back bonelessly, her head lolling, at the perfect angle for Michael.
For once, he moved in perfect synchrony to my will. He raised his fist high and brought it down like a meteor. The blow shattered his knuckles against Bakuda's mask and propelled the back of her skull into the floor with a sickening crunch.
She stayed down.
I managed a small smile. That was a happy medium. One that would satisfy Dad. Merciful didn't mean stupid, after all.
Michael had to help me up. His hand was mending by the time I stood, the smoke that formed his fingers shifting until they were fixed. Even shades had their limits, it seemed.
I let him go immediately after. Summoning him had cost me, and letting him heal had added to it. Every minute meant more of my stock depleted to fuel Runechild and Allfather. As it was, I felt like my limbs had been replaced with frozen lead. The cold had spread alarmingly far, extending its icy fingers into my chest.
I stumbled back into the dining room. Krieg lay sprawled across the floor where I'd left him. His bandages were soaked through, the blood oozing out to cut fresh tracks across his dusty coat. Any second now, I expected to hear his song. It was an outright miracle he hadn't bled to death while I was fighting Bakuda.
"C'mon," I said.
He couldn't hear me, and for once, I was glad.
I rewrapped my hand with strips from my sleeve. They didn't fit quite the same, but I couldn't lift Krieg without both hands. Lifting him earned a groan of pain, but he didn't wake. I could only drag him like before and even that was an ordeal. I was getting weaker by the moment.
Krieg's blood trail formed a u-turn as I dragged him back toward the foyer. Skidmark's strip wasn't far from where Krieg lay, and would help me make better time. The crystals would probably tear the hell out of his coat, but I didn't know any other way out of the house. Once we-
I paused, mid-step.
Allfather was getting closer. A lot closer, very quickly.
The house shook, and the sound of breaking wood carried to me. The realization of what was about to happen occurred too slowly. With a thunderous crash, the wall burst apart in a shower of plaster and wood, and Allfather and Lung exploded through like a pair of runaway trains.
Lung skidded to a halt, his claws cutting furrows into the floor. He was massive; close to twice Allfather's height and still growing, his head brushing the ceiling.
Allfather wasn't backing up - Lung had hold of him and had bludgeoned him through the wall. He had one of Allfather's arms pinned, but the Nazi ghost had the other free to slash at every part of Lung he could reach. He drove a knife into Lung's eye, and Lung bellowed with pain, hurling Allfather aside. Allfather hit the opposite wall and landed hard; his armor scorched and steaming, parts glowing cherry red.
Lung turned, his burning gaze settling on me, one eye a weeping, bleeding socket. There was no trace of the man I'd seen before- he was all dragon now.
And then he roared. This wasn't the roar of pain from a moment ago – this was primal, inhuman; something that cut straight to the most primitive parts of my brain to wrap them in a blind panic.
I lifted Krieg, heaving him forward with desperate strength. Skidmark's strip was only a few feet away. Cold fear overpowered even the chill of energy loss. Lung was coming!
Michael blinked in, both of us straining to lob Krieg forward onto the strip. Behind me, Lung barreled forward, unfaltering even as Allfather fired sword after sword into his body.
I pushed, and Krieg hit the strip and went spinning away. I turned, just in time for Lung to fill the world.
The room spun, whirling madly on its axis. There was a flash of peeling ceiling below, and then the floor rushed up to meet me. I landed hard enough to bounce, and came down face-first.
Something was burning. I could smell the smoke. There was heat again, but I barely felt heat anymore. The cold dwarfed it. More now; my energy slipping away to fix my body.
"…rie! Valkyrie, get up!"
I pulled my face out of the floor. Lung had knocked me the length of the dining room. A little further and I'd have had a face full of crystal shards. A few feet away, Krieg slid by, still unconscious, on Skidmark's speed strip. It was a ridiculous sight. Surreal, even. Like a Nazi Roomba. But it was good. I'd gotten him out of the path of danger.
And now I just had to worry about Lung.
"Valkyrie!"
Allfather's shout brought me back to reality. I forced myself to one knee and surveyed the fight. Allfather had recovered and was making his retreat. Wait - that wasn't right. Allfather was deliberately holding his distance. The array of swords orbiting him forced Lung to walk into a meat grinder if he wanted to attack.
"I'm up!" I yelled. "Krieg's out of the way."
"Good!"
The rest of Allfather's response turned into a grunt as Lung earned a brutal downward slice to the arm. Hot, steaming blood spattered the floor, and Lung drew back, his forearm gashed to the bone.
Allfather rushed in, taking advantage of the opening. His swords whirled into motion like a chainsaw, sending scales and gore flying as they shredded into Lung. Lung held up his injured arm, letting it take the blows. Steel met flesh, and steel won. Lung's forearm went spinning across the floor, fully severed. It didn't stop Lung for a second. He waded forward, ignoring Allfather's blades to close in on him.
"Go!" Allfather bellowed.
I didn't hesitate. Allfather was in his element here. I wasn't going to be much help against Lung. Krieg was my main concern; he was depending on me.
I hurried out of the dining room into the foyer. Krieg lay in a heap where Skidmark's strip had flung him. His hat had fallen off at some point, and his face was ashen beneath his mask. If Runechild didn't settle whatever she was doing in the next few minutes, I was recalling her, contract or no. With her power, I could evacuate Krieg in moments.
The front door was gone- Allfather had kicked it off earlier, and Bakuda's grenades had left the frame a scorched husk. And-
Bakuda.
A glance across the foyer confirmed it. The ABB bomber was gone. Come to think of it, where was Oni Lee? Had he grabbed Bakuda? She was probably still unconscious, but his absence wasn't a good sign. The last time he'd disappeared, he'd come back with reinforcements.
All the more reason to get the hell out of here.
I took a final glance back. Allfather was surrounded by so many swords I could barely see him through the vortex of spinning metal. He screamed something raw and wordless, and Lung answered with his own roar. I turned away, dragging Krieg, the sound of clashing metal following behind me.
Leaving the house was like stepping into another world. The field of tall grass rustled in the wind, the sky slate gray but cloudless. It was unbelievable that there wasn't something more- some outward sign that there was a battle going on just inside. I'd have settled for sirens in the distance. The police or the Protectorate would be a welcome sight compared to what I was facing.
I heaved Krieg across the trash-strewn porch and down the front stairs. He thumped on the stairs, and I took them as fast as I could before heading back into the grass. A trail of bent leaves marked my path from earlier, and I took it in reverse.
Around us, signs of Black Kaze's rampage remained like landmarks; bloodied grass, dirt churned to mud, scraps of cloth caught on leaves. The path I was following- now traced with Krieg's blood as I dragged him, looked identical; just another bit of carnage in the middle of a battlefield.
And there was nowhere to go. No escaping. The closest house was the one Oni Lee and I had stood on that overlooked the field, at least a quarter-mile away. A quarter-mile of empty field, with no cover to speak of.
"Runechild, where are you?!"
If we lived through this, I was buying a cell phone. One for each fucking ghost if I had to.
Energy burst down my bond to Allfather. More than at any point so far- he was hurt badly. But I was running on empty, cold all the way through. Murmuring a silent apology, I choked down our bond, forced the energy to the barest thread. Allfather wouldn't be able to heal now, but it was him or me.
I hauled faster, stumbling with the burden behind me, so cold I expected to see my breath. I was getting tired - I was getting tired. That shouldn't even be possible. I forced through it, every step an ordeal. Just as I started to find my momentum, Krieg jerked to a halt and I tripped. He was caught in the grass, his long coat tangled in the stalks.
"C'mon!" I gasped. "C'mon!"
Pulling harder only made him groan with pain. I scrambled back to untangle him. The ragged edges of his coat were snarled with creeping vines and thorny brush. One look, and I knew I'd never get him free in time. Not with the way Lung seemed to be man-handling Allfather. Instead, I planted my foot on Krieg's coat and pulled on it with all my might. One by one, the fine silver buttons of his coat popped off. I yanked his coat open, began pulling his arms free. Just a little more. Just a little more and-
My fingers passed through his arm.
My wrappings had slipped, fallen away to reveal my hands. They were past cold; numb and clumsy. I could see the grass through them. I was going transparent; so far gone I couldn't even stay solid.
I rewrapped my hand, and took hold of Krieg again.
My hand slipped.
The wrappings hung free, dangling from my wrist.
They hadn't come off. They'd fallen through my hand.
I was losing my substance.
"Hey Valkyrie!" It was a hateful, artificial voice I knew too well.
Bakuda stood on the porch, leaning heavily against Oni Lee. Her mask was dented, one of the lenses missing. The demon-masked cape didn't look much better than she did. His combat vest was slick with blood, and makeshift bandages wrapped around his arms and belly. Bakuda seemed to be supporting him as much as he was her.
Oni Lee was behind this. They hadn't been there when I'd come out. He'd taken her away, revived her, and come back.
"Catch!" Bakuda shouted.
And then she heaved her grenade launcher up.
I had a terrible instant of realization.
She waited. She waited until I looked.
Ghosts came at my call- Michael and Skidmark, standing between me and her. Something inside me broke, screaming at the violation.
Four at once. Spikes of ice jabbed through my body, the very fabric of my being wavering. My energy didn't drain. This was a dam breaking, my lifeblood pouring out, spilling down the bond to them.
"Block it!"
Bakuda fired.
Michael died first, hurling himself forward to take the shot. The grenade hit him head on and exploded in a burst of emerald green flame. Skidmark turned to throw down a streak beneath us. It hit the grass and fizzled out, useless on the irregular surface. He died a half-second later as the blast consumed him. And then-
It stopped.
The explosion had expanded to the size of a car, and then impossibly, stopped there. It was like Bakuda had made a sun. I was a good ten feet away, but the heat was like standing next to a blast furnace. The sphere rippled, and then a burst of scorching heat expanded around it. The grass didn't burn- it skipped burning and turned to ash in a heartbeat.
I seized Krieg and started pulling him away. We made it three steps before I lost my grip. The wrappings on my good hand- the only reason I could touch Krieg, were sinking into my skin. I readjusted- Had to get him away.
Another step. Bakuda was laughing in the background. Krieg's skin was red and raw, blistering.
No. no. no.
Another surge of heat ripped through the air. My clothes heated, and then further. Black spots bloomed on my dress and sleeves, expanding. Meaningless. It was just a dress. As long as I could grab Krieg, I was-
My hand came away again. The wrappings were falling through, my body too insubstantial to hold them. Throwing my ghosts away had cost me too much - energy I hadn't gotten back.
No no no no!
I couldn't readjust my wrappings. I needed working hands to do that.
What was I supposed to do?!
Krieg's coat was smoking, little tongues of flame appearing at the edges.
Had to do something.
I threw myself across Krieg just as the sun ignited for the third time. It flared, turned the world white, searing my eyes. The wave of heat swept over me, setting the grass and brush alight. My dress was burning away. Beneath me, Krieg's mask was charring, any exposed skin searing. I put a hand over his face, but it was useless. My wrappings were crumbling to ash between my fingers. I wasn't enough to shield him. Nothing corporeal. Just cloth.
And then, just as suddenly as it had come, the sun collapsed in on itself, fading away to nothing.
I blinked, trying to clear the blizzard of black spots across my eyes.
Slowly, my vision cleared, and I had to force myself to look down, to see what I knew was there.
Krieg was limp, his coat burning in spots, his face a mess of burnt flesh and melted mask.
The fires were beginning to blaze in earnest now, spreading through the dry grass and sending up plumes of thick smoke. Bakuda walked through the haze, leaning on Oni Lee as she came.
"Christ, you're like a cockroach," she said. "The C60 didn't do shit to you, did it? But I got him at least. That's-" Bakuda's laugh turned into a ragged cough. "A start. Thought I was losing my touch."
Soot flaked off my dress as I moved. My right side, closest to the blast, had flash-burned to a stiff black husk. I had my knife, but how was I supposed to use it? My hands were barely visible now, little more than patches of rippling space. The loss was spreading up my arms, and I could feel an odd instability in my legs that had to be the same.
Now what?
Krieg was going to die. Nobody walked away with wounds like this. I could barely move, let alone carry him.
It was over.
The two capes stopped a dozen feet away, skirting the edge of the blast radius.
"Who gives a shit though?" Bakuda said flatly. "Krieg, he's nobody. You- I'm gonna make sure that all anyone remembers about you, Valkyrie, is how badly you died. I don't need Lee's help for that. You're gonna be a fucking monument to what happens to anyone who fucks with me."
She separated from Oni Lee, limping forward on her own. The teleporter stalked to the side, keeping his line of sight to me clear. Either one would be too much to handle.
Time to cut our losses and go. Leave this nightmare behind.
"Ready or not, Runechild."
I reached out to her shard to pull her back, but she was already in motion.
With a pop, the tiny superheroine appeared before me, hand in hand with a dark-haired woman.
"Valkyrie! What happened?!" Runechild bent to help me up.
I winced at her. "Is that Black Kaze? Runechild, what-"
Our hands met.
(contract complete)
The change began at once. Runechild started losing her color, her skin turning black and smoky. Black Kaze started screaming, Bakuda was yelling hoarsely, but I ignored them.
Runechild's shard was resonating with mine, our bond shifting. With every second, my sense of her grew stronger, feelings growing where there had been only a dull awareness before.
Runechild's color faded away, and then her detail. Her edges became indistinct, wisps of shadow streaming off her skin like smoke. She was weeping, crying out to Black Kaze in Japanese. Her sister answered in kind, her words shrill, hands clutching at Runechild, trying to push away the change.
The shift crested, the darkness rising in inky fingers up Runechild's face. She spoke one last time to Black Kaze, and then it was over, the shadows blanketing her skin completely. Her eyes shut for a moment, and when they reopened, they were dark, the irises the only spot of color left on her.
I reached along the bond to her, trying to catch hold of the fading spark that was Runechild. Words didn't translate along our bond, nor did feelings, but I tried all the same.
You found her.
I hoped she heard me.
And then there was life.
The reward of a contract completed. It came on like a bomb, my senses so strong they hurt. Suddenly, I could feel the chilly wind on my skin, the charred grass prickling and jabbing at my bare flesh. I inhaled, tasting the scent of burning grass and smoke. Even coughing felt amazing. The feeling of breathing- in, out, in, out…
My knees hit the ground, the hot earth burning them. Runechild sagged, caught in Black Kaze's arms.
And there-
I touched a trembling hand to my chest. My heart was beating, warm blood flowing through my veins.
Someone yelled something. I ignored it, taking in the deluge of feeling that was hitting me. I was breathing. My blood flowed. I could touch and feel and smell and it-was-AMAZING.
A hand seized the front of my dress and heaved me up.
"Valkyrie!" Black Kaze screamed in my face.
Her grip was cutting off my air.
"Bring her back! Bring her back, damn you!"
She slapped me, shook me.
Please, let her do it more. Even pain was incredible.
Please-
The world went cold around me. Just as suddenly as it had come, the ecstasy ended. I blinked once, tears rolling down my cheeks.
Dead again.
It was like going blind, deaf, and numb all at once. I was more now though- just the barest fraction more, in some way. A tiny step closer to a true resurrection. It didn't take the sting out of losing those feelings. Not even close.
Slowly, I refocused on the world, wiped away my tears. My gaze settled on the small, dark shape standing a few feet away.
Glowing brown eyes looked back at me from under a smoky hood. She was frowning, her hands knotted in her cloak.
My worries about feelings and life were suddenly distant; washed away by reality.
Because beside Runechild, with the barrel of a pistol against her temple, was Bakuda.
"Kaze, get out of the way," Bakuda said.
Black Kaze went still.
"Let go of my sister."
"Your sister is dead," Bakuda said in the tone of someone explaining something very obvious. "Lung told me. She-" Bakuda coughed wetly, actually leaning on Runechild for support. "Sh-she died ages ago. It's why you're such a sorry drunk."
Black Kaze turned around, hand on her sword, her whole body tight with barely restrained violence. Oni Lee stepped up, flanking Bakuda. The sub machinegun in his hand didn't rise; he held it at his waist, a warning.
"She's gone," I said. Runechild repeated my words. Her voice was the same as Michael's now. Choral; mine, hers, and Michael's voices all speaking from one mouth.
Black Kaze flinched as though I'd struck her.
"Nori, I- please don't say that," she said. "I'll find a way to fix this."
"I don't give a fuck," Bakuda snapped. "Get out of the way so I can get rid of that Nazi bitch. Your sister's one of her ghosts, you deal with her."
The muzzle of her pistol dug into Runechild's temple, and I winced. I could feel every bit of cold steel touching her.
The smallest spark would set them off.
"Valkyrie, fix her," Black Kaze said, half-turning to me. "Bring her- bring her back."
Her fingers were twitching, drumming rapidly on her sword hilt.
"Dammit Kaze!" Bakuda groaned. "She's dead. Gone."
Oni Lee added his opinion, "The girl is unimportant. Lung wanted Valkyrie taken alive. Neither of you will do anything."
I was stuck; too weak to flee with Krieg. But I couldn't just sit here and let them decide how they were going to kill him.
The smallest spark...
I reached out and touched Runechild's shard, took control of her.
I was going to hell for this.
"Setsu," Runechild whimpered. "Bakuda's hurting me. Help me!"
Black Kaze's went wide, an expression of utter fury slowly etching itself into every line in her face.
"Nori," she whispered, deadly quiet. "Close your eyes. I don't want you to see this."
"Kaze, don't!" Lee barked.
"Shut up, brat!" Bakuda hissed. She jammed her gun against Runechild's head. "Kaze, don't push me."
The standoff stretched out for one long, tense moment. Once again, I was the one to break it.
"Runechild, time to go!" I shouted.
The little shade's head snapped up to look at me. With a pop, she was at my side, teleported to my stack of runecards. I grabbed her hand and seized Krieg with my other.
Bakuda took a step back, suddenly hostage-less. "Kaze, I'm serious, I'll-"
Black Kaze's face twisted into a feral grin.
"Die."
She drew, just as Bakuda aimed her pistol, but it was Oni Lee who moved first. He lunged and grabbed Bakuda. She disappeared, just in time for Black Kaze to move.
A step forward, and then-
She stopped behind Lee.
There was no in-between. She simply was elsewhere.
I stared. For a split second, there was a line, a row of ethereal Black Kazes stretched from where she'd begun to where she'd gone. They shifted and twisted, but none moved from their place in the line. Those closest to Lee struck out, cutting into him with their swords, digging their nails into his flesh like animals.
The Lee- a clone- disintegrated into ash. The real Lee had reappeared across the field with Bakuda. She seemed to be struggling with him as he tried to drag her away.
Black Kaze turned to look back at us. And then her eyes narrowed, focused on me.
"I won't let you take her from me."
Those few words scared me more than anything Bakuda had said all day. My little gamble had backfired – Kaze was going to save her sister from Bakuda, me, and anyone else who got in her way.
"Runechild, evac now!" I yelled.
Runechild hesitated, looking back and forth between me and her sister.
"Runechild!"
"Her name is Nori," Black Kaze said, still speaking in the same deadly quiet monotone. "And I will not let you have her."
She began walking toward us, slow at first, but picking up speed as she came. It was like having Lung come at me all over again. Only now I was too weak, too drained to run, cold dragging me down like chains.
"Nori, please," I whispered. "I don't know how much of you is left, but you know that that-"
Black Kaze closed within ten feet, wading through the grass with furious, unflinching strides. At my feet, Krieg groaned, coughed, and then groaned again. He was waking up.
Shit shit shit!
"Noriko!" I yelled.
She looked at me and then her sister. And then she held out a hand to Black Kaze.
The woman's face lit up, her charge slowing down.
"Nori, oh Nori, I knew you were there."
Panic drove me, cutting away logical thoughts of escape or rescue. Instinct defaulted.
I took hold of Runechild's arm and bent to grab Krieg.
And then I took control.
The little shade exploded into action, moving under my will. She fanned her stack of cards and threw them straight up. The cards whirled like paper snow, scattering far and wide across the field as the wind caught them.
Her totality bloomed in the back of my mind; a little knot encompassing not just her senses, but also her power. I focused, and her power unfolded. It was like a map - dozens of little points arrayed around me, marking runecards that she'd drawn.
We moved.
Our first teleport dropped us barely a dozen feet away, just in time to see Black Kaze, her face contorted with rage, drawing her sword.
"Valkyrie!"
I threw us into a blind teleport, reaching for any point I could get. We came out a dozen feet to the right. Black Kaze stood where we had, the grass torn to pieces where we'd been. She turned and came at us in half a second. Not a teleport, but a screaming charge.
Pop- we came out across the field, next to a rusting basketball hoop. Black Kaze was a tiny figure across the grass, spinning frantically, trying to locate us.
"Lee, Lee!"
A voice from behind made me turn. Bakuda crouched in the grass, just a few feet behind us. She had her back against a scrub tree, clutching her injured leg. She screamed for Lee again, and I reached out to Runechild, but not before Bakuda had raised her pistol.
The shot was deafening up close, loud enough to send nearby birds into flight. The bullet passed through me- ripped a hole in my scarf and exited out the back of my hood, narrowly missing Krieg.
I didn't think. A bullet to the face didn't allow for thought.
Pop.
We dropped a few feet to the side. Bakuda re-aimed easily and fired again. Oni Lee appeared from nowhere to grab her, and she disappeared.
The sight made me want to laugh. They were doing the same thing I was- a teleporter moving a cripple. The clone Lee glanced at me, but I was already pulling on Runechild's power.
Pop- we landed at Black Kaze's side. She turned, her eyes wide, but we were already moving again. Pop- into a sticker bush, the runecard caught on the thorns. Thirty feet away, Black Kaze moved fast enough to slice Bakuda's gun in half before Lee teleported her. Pop- dangerously close to the blaze now spreading across the field. I spared Krieg a worried glance, but he was about as burned as he could get.
Pop- we came in two feet behind Bakuda and Lee. Lee was doing the shooting now, firing his SMG at Black Kaze. Bakuda was stumbling, hanging off Lee as he moved. I drove a kick into the back of her injured leg and it folded. She went down screaming with pain and rage. Lee turned awkwardly, trying to aim at us with Bakuda weighing him down, but we blinked away.
Runechild's power was humming, resonating with mine. I didn't have the knack of it- it was like moving without moving- the sort of internal lurch that I imagined apparition to be like. But we were moving blindly. I couldn't keep track of her cards in my head. Each one I moved to, I memorized, but there were so many.
I forced the teleports, blinking faster and faster through the cards, trying desperately to map them out, find one that would take us away. I couldn't run; couldn't drag Krieg like this. I needed Runechild's powers to get out.
Grass, grass, bush, Bakuda screaming, into the fire; the runecard burning up seconds after we blinked to it, grass, grass-
Pop- Runechild's teleport threw us out near the edge of the field. We were on the opposite side of the fire now, and huge columns of smoke choked off the sky. The flames were spreading rapidly, fueled by the wind and grass. The house was sending up its own plume of smoke as well. Allfather's fight with Lung had started more fires inside.
I re-checked Allfather's shard. He was barely there, as low on energy as I was. Gaining Runechild had helped a little; I wasn't losing tangibility, but I wasn't regaining my strength either.
A noise like a train whistle cut through my examination. A blast that had to be one of Bakuda's grenades ripped through the field like a missile, tearing up a swathe of grass the width of a road and sending the debris showering across the field. I caught a glimpse of Black Kaze through the flames. She stalked onward, still in pursuit of Bakuda.
I withdrew my stack of runecards from a pocket. They were bent, burnt at the edges, but still intact. The edge of the field was only about thirty yards away.
I tossed the first card. The wind caught it and carried it on. We blinked to it, closer to the edge now. I repeated the action, enough in tune with Runechild that we moved seamlessly toward the edge.
With each teleport, a little glimmer of hope rose in me. Just a little more. Just a little more and we'd be out. Away from this nightmare.
The little bit of levity gave me the push I needed to teleport Krieg the last couple feet to the road. The neighboring houses were shabby, but I could see a few faces pressed against windows. People in Brockton Bay had enough good sense to know when not to get involved.
A black car came down a side street and turned onto the one I was on. I waved frantically, using both arms. No way in hell were they going to stop, not for a ghost and a Nazi. I'd steal it if I had to - anything to get away from the ABB.
The car came to a screeching halt. The fleet of cars that came around the corner behind it stopped as well. After a moment, doors started swinging open, and a horde of people climbed out of the cars. But my attention was riveted on the first car in the convoy.
The man who stepped out of the back was tall, sheathed in armor. He looked like Allfather except sharper, his armor elaborately decorated with spikes and blades. The Sauron to Allfather's Black Knight. Two women, both blonde bombshells in winged helmets, moved to his sides, looking for all the world like my namesake. There were other capes leaving cars as well; some I knew, Victor and Othala, Stormtiger and Cricket, and some I didn't. They were followed by a crowd of non-costumed thugs, all in red or black, and all holding weapons.
I let Krieg fall at my feet.
The Empire had arrived.
SPEAKSPEAKSPEAKSPEAKSPEAK
This is the final chapter of the story. I apologize for ending on a cliffhanger, but it needed to end here.
While this story was still running, I spent nearly a month writing and rewriting the next chapter before I finally decided that it wasn't working out and just ended the whole thing. Basically everything after the rally was a slog for me to write, and while we got some great feels out of Noriko's story, it was still very half-baked. Taylor's character was very floaty and OOC from canon, and her plot was stapled together in the loosest ways.
I had rough ideas of how to finish out the arc, ending with an Allfather/Kaiser fight, and Allfather finding peace, but it would have taken months of work, and I just wasn't enjoying the story any longer. My initial lack of planning on the story, a consequence of being a first try at this fanfiction thing, doomed it from the beginning.
I built my house on sand, and it fell apart.
Thank you for reading, and I hope you will stay tuned for installments of my next story, Yearning.