BM - Chapter 6 - A Fiery Confrontation

"Kiara calm down-" Calliope backed away from her in the dark hallway. The only source of light was the dim blue glow and small flame Kiara held. She aggressively followed Calliope and got aggressively close.

"What the fuck is going on here? You know something!" she yelled harshly at her friend. Amelia turned her head to look over at Calliope as well.

"Explain," she forced through her closed lips. Vocalizing anything right now brings the risk of throwing up for her.

"We need to get to the Crystal." Calliope tries to move past Kiara, but is shoved backwards.

"No, you're going to explain this now!" Kiara didn't let up. Calliope looked away from her and stared at the blue light.

"You were going to learn about this when you got your memories back. I didn't want to have to be the person to explain this to you." Kiara just stared at her, the flame in her had reflecting off of her eyes. "Those slash marks are from Reaper scythes. It seems like they are responsible for the damage here and the lack of Phoenixes."

"But they're immortal! Phoenixes can't die!" Amelia yelled out.

"By normal means, yes, they are completely immortal. But a Reaper's scythe isn't normal. It tears the soul to pieces to bring them to the Underworld. If a Phoenix is hit by it, they will be brought to the Underworld just like any other mortal."

"But why would they attack them?" Kiara asked, refusing to back off.

"Reapers used to hunt Phoenixes. It was the highest honor they could be given. I think they found this island and hunted them down in a scramble to be recognized."

Kiara stared blankly at Calliope.

"You were the Phoenix I wanted to kill." Calliope dropped her gaze down to her hands.

"I-I'll be back," Kiara said quickly before dashing out of the hallway. The blue glow became the only source of light. Amelia and Calliope stood in the darkness in silence. Kiara's footsteps descended the stairs and out of earshot.

"Talk about hiding things…" Amelia took a dig at the Reaper. Calliope looked up and even in the darkness, her eyes glowed red with rage. She lunged at Amelia who attempted to let the Reaper phase through her.

But Calliope slammed her into the wall, pinning her against it.

"What the hell!" she yelled out of shock. The wind was almost knocked out of her by the hit. Calliope got close to her and stared deep into her soul.

"Don't be surprised, Watson. I am not the same as the mortals you have fought before." Calliope's voice had the slightest bit of rage in it.

"Y-you shouldn't be exempt from the laws of time…" Amelia wheezed out. She struggled to break free, trying to find the timeline where she wasn't being held. But none of them seemed to exist. The Reaper was grabbing and holding her in every timeline.

"My actions are absolute. There is no timeline where you didn't get hit, so you can not Destabilize to cause that outcome to happen here!" Amelia stopped struggling and stared in terror at the Reaper. She could die here.

"Th-that's just not possible!" Amelia tried to find anything around her that could be used as a weapon. A loose brick or rock would do, but she knew it was hopeless. She was just denying the reality in front of her. The reality that she was completely powerless against Calliope.

"Unfortunately for you, it is. Reapers don't affect time like mortal beings such as you and Kiara! We are completely different." Amelia finally noticed how cold Calliope's touch felt.

"So that's why you're so cold all the time. You literally aren't alive."

"Correct," Calliope threw Amelia to the ground. She landed and had the wind fully knocked out of her. "Kiara! We are doing this now!" she yelled across the building. Calliope then picked up the collapsed Amelia by her shirt and dragged her down the hall to the blue room.

She wouldn't make it all the way.

A rumbling from the walls around them made her stop. She looked around and began to feel slightly warm.

"Oh fuck…" she said under her breath. By throwing Amelia around so aggressively, she had accidentally set off the defenses of the Hatchery.

Fire began to roar from vents just above them. She blocked one of the streams from hitting Amelia directly. She still needed the other girl alive.

"You really screwed this one up…" Amelia wheezed out. Calliope couldn't refute that one. She swung her scythe up at the vent in order to destroy it.

A flaming blade shot out from the vent and severed her arm right above the elbow. A few more impaled her in the legs and torso. She tried her best to shield Amelia from them.

"Are you still making it hard for me to Destabilize?" Amelia coughed out.

"No, of course not!" Calliope said as she yanked out the blades. "Shit, these are going to keep me from regenerating properly…"

"Well I can't. Something is stopping me!"

"The Crystal is affecting you. It is probably acting like a temporal anchor." Amelia continued to focus on finding an outcome where she wasn't being cooked. When she felt the tiniest inkling of one, she grabbed onto it with all of her willpower.

"There, I got it…" she said as quickly as she could. Any disturbance would break her focus and cause her to be roasted. The flames above them reached their full intensity.

"Why haven't there been any more blades?" Calliope thought out loud. She moved to try and recover her arm. Another blade pierced her torso. "Fuck that was close…"

"They seem to be motion activated. Don't move too fast," Amelia analyzed the attacks. Calliope followed this advice and slowly reached for her arm and scythe. Judging from how no more blades were fired, Amelia's assumption had been true. She picked up her arm and tried to reattach it. Slowly, the two pieces stuck together like glue.

"That'll have to do." The Light magic forming the blades made it harder to regenerate, but it was still possible.

"Got any ideas on how to get out of here?" Amelia asked. Calliope stayed perfectly still just over top of Amelia. If she moved, flaming blades would shoot out and possibly hit her in the wrong spot. That would leave Amelia incredibly vulnerable.

"We need to wait for Kiara," she decided. Amelia sighed and continued to focus on just staying Destabilized. It was a shitty, terrible waiting game, but one they had to play for now.

"Are these blades actually a threat to you?" Amelia tried to pass the time with a question. Calliope initially didn't want to answer, but it would be better than nothing.

"They do. Right where you would expect a mortal heart to be, my Reaper soul is located. If it is pierced, I will be sent back to the Underworld for a while." The flames were becoming unbearably hot, beginning to actually melt Calliope's body. Even though she didn't feel pain, it was making her very uncomfortable.

"How long is a while?"

"It would be a few hours up here." Her rebirth wouldn't take as long as Kiara's, but it would still be very bad in this situation. Amelia would surely die.

"I think I can move…" Amelia said before attempting to pick herself up off the ground. She hissed and dropped back down. Her Destabilization had worn off slightly, making her feel the intense heat around her. "Jeez, how can you stand that?"

"As long as it doesn't hit my soul, I will be fine." She felt her reattached arm begin to slip off. She reached around and began to hold it in place. They really needed-

"Calli!" Kiara screamed. It was about time.

"Kiara, redirect these flames so Watson can get out of here!" Calliope commanded. Kiara ran over and tried her best to move the flames elsewhere. In doing so, a blade shot out from a vent. Kiara blocked it with her shield, but more started to come through.

"Don't move too much. If you are still they won't fire anymore," Amelia said, trying her best to help in her current situation. Kiara followed her advice and after a few more shots, the blades stopped.

"Calli, can you try to cover the vents with shadows at the same time I move the fire?" Calliope nodded. Kiara slowly moved her hands and mumbled something. The flame directly above them began to tilt away. Calliope rotated her wrist and a shadow closed over the vent, sealing the fire inside.

"Now move Watson!" she shouted. Amelia sprang up from the ground, ignoring the heat of the air around her. She dove towards the end of the hallway, towards safety.

But the shadow wouldn't hold.

A blade cut through, moving straight for Amelia's back. She didn't even have time to turn and see it. There was no way she would be able to dodge it.

Kiara dashed towards Amelia as fast as she could. Calliope tried to pull the shadow back over top to prevent any more blades from shooting out. It was a race now, between the Phoenix and the flaming blade.

Kiara would win, but just barely.

She grabbed Amelia and turned around, letting the blade strike her instead. It cut into her body and started to roast her internal organs. These were meant to kill Reapers, so a mortal stood no chance against them.

Calliope made her dash to safety, tackling Amelia and Kiara along the way. Once they were all out of the flaming deathtrap of a hallway, she closed the entrance with the strongest shadows she could.

"Man… this kinda hurts…" Kiara coughed up some blood.

"Damn it… Sorry Kiara…" Calliope apologized. "I couldn't keep-"

"D-don't talk… a-about that…" Kiara wheezed. The blade was almost burnt out, but Kiara was too far gone by this point. "Y-y-you have… a-a l-l-lot of explain-n-ning… to do…"

Kiara's body turned to ash.

"Sh-she'll be fine, right?" Amelia looked up at Calliope. The Reaper was busy staring into the pile of ash, trying to wrestle with her own mind over what just happened.

"Yeah…" was the only word she could say. Amelia collapsed back onto the ground, hissing in pain as the burns met the cold floor. A rumbling began to emanate from the walls around them.

"What do we do now…?" she asked quietly. Calliope pulled a shadow bubble over top of them, successfully blocking the fire that began to spit into this room, too.

"You need to get medical attention," she said. Amelia rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, no sh-shit sherlock." Calliope crouched down next to her.

"Do you think you can move?" Amelia shook her head on the ground. The adrenaline had worn off by now, so any movement she made sent sharp pains across her body. The burns were bad, but not life threatening just yet.

"N-nope… Plus, that fire looks really angry…" Amelia took deep breaths, trying her best to stay conscious. That task was becoming harder by the second.

"There is only one way I can think of to get us both out of here, but you might not make it," Calliope said, pacing around the small space inside the bubble. Amelia laughed, seizing up and flinching from the pain it caused.

"I w-won't make it if I stay here… Let's go…" she said, her vision beginning to fade into darkness. Calliope sighed and gripped the air, letting her scythe materialize. Amelia would have thought that it was cool if she wasn't trying to keep herself alive.

Calliope swore as she swung the scythe down. Amelia prepared to be reaped, but the strike missed her.

The Reaper planted her scythe into the ground just next to them, creating a massive gouge in the floor. Wisps of flames began to peek through the shadow bubble, threatening the break through at any moment.

"I hope you survive a trip through the Underworld, Watson. Our mission is not done yet." Amelia felt herself begin to sink into the ground. Her body turned to a dark goop and the heat from her burns began to fade away.

Amelia Watson passed out just as she arrived in the Underworld.

Author's Note: I am not that happy with how this chapter came out. I've done a few revisions on it already, but I can never seem to get it to the place that I want. There's just something missing and I can't find it.

Anyways just a little clarification, Phoenix's bodies are still mortal and they only turn to ash when they die a natural death. It is a part of the way they regenerate since a rotting corpse wouldn't be the nicest thing to be reborn into. If a Reaper were to reap their soul, that would not happen. They wouldn't die a natural death, so a body would be left behind this time. Think of it like they died too fast to turn to ash.

Calliope and Amelia's mutual hatred finally explode, leading to a clash. The whole fight could be seen as the undoing of the group. Thankfully, they were able to survive, but will they be able to come to terms and make amends before it is too late?

Technically, we're now caught up with AO3, however there is going to be a new chapter tomorrow. After that, this will become weekly. It has been a fun ride, I enjoyed it a lot!

Next Chapter: Atlantis

Any feedback/criticism is appreciated!