A/N: Sorry for the long wait, my life has gotten extremely busy and as a result I haven't had much time to devote to writing, if any. But without any further adu, here is chapter 19!

Chapter 19: The Other Side

Ina stirred at the sudden flare of powerful magic, in the back of her mind where her instincts were more eldritch than human she was prepared to defend herself if need be. However, something about that magic felt off, there was… two other signatures mixed in and it was right outside the building she was in. The Priestess slowly got out of her bed and made her way to the nearby window and looked out through the curtains onto the destroyed street.

She could see three figures, one of which was Amelia but the other two were foreign to her. The first was a tall woman with orange hair and a sword on her hip, next to her was a slightly taller woman in a black cloak and hood with a scythe on her back. Ina frowned, didn't Amelia say this place was deserted? And why were they where that magic signature was? She shook her head, "Amelia what are you up to?"

Her blood ran cold when the pink haired woman's gaze found hers, despite the curtains blocking the majority of the street. It wasn't a passing glance either, it was prolonged and the woman tilted her head in curiosity, before she turned her attention back towards Amelia.

Ina frowned when the blonde glanced over her shoulder towards her window before she turned back to the two and guided them to the door of the building they were taking sanctuary in. The priestess' frown deepened, this all seemed off, it had for a while now. Regardless, Ina shook it off and made her way out of her room and toward the front, better to meet the guests sooner than later.

In the few moments Ina took to leave the bedroom and entered the hall the trio had already entered the building. A deeper feminine voice spoke, "Amelia, where are we?"

The priestess slowed her approach and put more effort into listening in on the words being spoken.

"We're at a safehouse of mine, Calli" Amelia answered, "Don't worry about Reine, she'll be fine a Reaper and a Phoenix are more important that a single peafowl, besides she'll most likely lay low."

"What happened here?" A higher voice spoke, "It looks like a warzone."

Amelia was silent for a second, "That's because it was, Atlantis came through and invaded the city, the siege lasted for almost a whole year, it's also the perfect place for me to hide out from the Council!"

Ina narrowed her eyes, hide out from the Council? Weren't they their allies?

"How can you be so sure," The deeper voice, Calli, said, "Not even death can compare to the power of a single member of the council, what makes you so sure?"

"Because the one person who could find me, isn't looking in the right place." Amelia said, a smile was in her voice.

It was that moment in with Ina decided to let out a loud fake yawn and come around the corner, "A-amelia? Who are these two?"

"These two are Mori Calliope," she gestured to the pink haired woman and then to the woman with orange hair, "And Takanashi Kiara."

Ina bowed her head slightly, "Nice to meet you two, I'm Ninomae Ina'nis."

"Nice to meet you," Kiara said with a smile.

Calli's frown deepened and she glanced at Amelia for a moment before she grabbed her scythe and began to make her way to the door, "What Kiara said."

Amelia crossed her arms, "Where are you going?"

"To make sure we're not followed." The woman growled out, she didn't wait for a response from the other three.

Ina glanced at Kiara and Amelia in confusion, "Um…"

"She's like that sometimes," Kiara shrugged, "Probably angry at her performance in the fight."

"Fight?" Ina asked.

"With the-"

"Some bandits," Amelia interrupted, the priestess didn't miss the glance she made to the phoenix, "There were some bandits I encountered on patrol, these two were doing good until reinforcements arrived, they're gonna stay here until I can be sure the coast is clear."

Ina did her best to smile, "Okay, it'll be nice having some new company."

Amelia smiled, "I'll get Kiara settled in and will do the same for Calli once she cools off, how about you head back to bed."

Ina nodded, "Okay, see you in the morning."

The moment she turned around her smile vanished. The entire conversation had felt off, Amelia had been lying to her, Kiara had lied to her, Calli had been angry at something more than a few bandits. Those two were something else, Kiara was definitely a phoenix, Ina knew that kind of magic well enough to tell, so if the bandit story was real they would have had to be some particularly well equipped bandits. As for Calli, she wasn't sure what she was, the feel of the magic that surrounded her was… cold. She shivered at the thought. Which brought her to her next thought, what was Amelia hiding from her?

She glanced over her shoulder at the door Amelia hadn't let her go through and frowned, could that be the key to all this? She wasn't sure. For a moment she turned to face the door, but she shook her head and made her way back toward her original path. She didn't want to see what was behind that door when Amelia was here. She didn't know what she was capable of.

She sighed when she entered her room, "What a ni-"

A cold hand covered her mouth and pulled her away from the door, which closed on its own. A moment later a subtle wave of magic filled the room and the hands let go of Ina, who took a few steps forward and whirled around to face the person who had grabbed her and met the gaze of Calliope Mori, who watched her with a small frown, "You're the High Priestess of the Ancient One's aren't you."

The priestess frowned and took a step away from Calli, "How do you know that?"

"I'm a reaper," Calli answered, "I help ferry souls to the underworld, I can recognize your magic from previous times your cult was… active."

The insinuation there was clear, the cult had existed for thousands of years, it wouldn't surprise her if the cult had gotten involved in something much more violent in the past, especially if there were Reapers involved. Nonetheless, Ina watched the Reaper with a frown, "What did you want to talk to me about?"

"What are your plans with Amelia?" The Reaper asked.

The priestess' frown deepened, how much could she trust Calli? She wasn't sure, but she needed to give her an answer, "Amelia and I were given a task by the council, but we've been here for a day or so."

"Do you know where 'here' is?" The Reaper asked.

"To be honest I don't," Ina sighed, "I woke up after I communed with the Ancient Ones on New Troy, since then Amelia's been gone scouting for a ship for us to continue on our journey, but she came back with you two."

An alarmed expression pulled at the Reaper's face and she glanced over her shoulder at the door and frowned before she turned back to Ina, "Something isn't right about this place, I can tell there was a lot of death here, not too mention how Amelia's been giving us very little information this whole time."

The suspicion from the conversation Ina had heard earlier returned and she crossed her arms, "Earlier Amelia mentioned hiding out from the council, what happened?"

"We didn't fight them willingly if that's what you're asking," Calli answered, but when Ina's gaze held hers she sighed and continued to speak, "Kiara and I are part of the Tori Resistance, a group fighting for the freedom of the Tori under control of the Atlantean Empire, Amelia promised to help us as long as we helped her as well. So far she's held up her half of the deal, we managed to take several ships right from underneath the nose of the Atlanteans and attempted to take a high-value target from a ship commanded by Agemen Bloop, an ally of ours, but the interference of another Atlantean ship forced us to retreat," Calli sighed and leaned against the wall, "After that, we met with Amelia and formed a gameplan to assist her, we were told the target but I didn't realize it was the harbinger of Chaos until it was too late if it wasn't for Amelia using her magic we would have probably lost."

"Magic?" Ina cut in, "Amelia doesn't have magic."

"Yes she does," Calli nodded, "She uses time magic with the help of a watch."

Ina felt her blood run cold. The watch that Ina had noticed, the one that seemed to have come out of nowhere was her source of magic. She didn't have it prior to being here, how long has she had it. She started to pace around the room before she turned to face Calli once more, "How long have you been working with Amelia?"

"Probably a year if I had to take a guess," Calliope said, "But we met her and her network in person about a month and a half ago,."

"Who was in this network?" Ina pressed.

Calli tensed slightly but answered nonetheless, "Besides Kiara and I, Agemen Bloop, there was Moriarty, the guy who leads the Conglomerate on New London and Dido-"

Ina stopped pacing, "That can't be possible."

"It is," Calli nodded, "I was there, you can ask Kiara she'll say the same thing."

The priestess was silent for a moment. She turned her gaze toward the sole window in the room and put the inside of her cheek, "Did she have the watch, at the meeting."

"That's how she got us to the meeting from where we met up," Calli confidently answered, "She was hiding her identity from the other members of the group, but if I had to guess the only one who did know would probably be Dido."

Ina bit the inside of her cheek again, the Amelia she was dealing with wasn't her Amelia. She should have trusted her gut more! She should have tried to get away! The Priestess walked over to her bed and sat down with a sigh, but soon enough her gaze returned to the Reaper and curiosity pulled at the back of her mind, "Why are you telling me all this?"

"Because I want Kiara to succeed," Calli shrugged, "I want to help the Tori people rise up from the ashes and regain their lost kingdom, return to Toriheim and make it habitable again. I thought that Watson would be able to give us that, but fighting the council isn't something that will end well for us."

"I remember how they ended the war with Atlantis, "Ina said, images of an entire fleet being wiped from existence flashed through her mind, "They won't let you and Kiara get the drop on them a second time."

"Exactly," Calli said, "Which is why we need to make our move tomorrow."

Ina was blindsided by the sudden change, "What?"

"I assume that she has something dampening your senses because I can sense a council member in this building," Calli said, "I'm not sure which but the members of the council all have the same ancient feel to them as Thanatos and I can sense it on the other side of the building from us."

Ina remembered the door that Amelia had kept her from opening and she frowned, "I think I know where."

"Good," Calli nodded, "Tonight I'll talk to Kiara and get her on our side, tomorrow we'll keep Amelia distracted while you free that member and get her help to escape this place."

Ina walked over to Calli and extended her hand, "For good luck!"

Calli nodded and shook her hand, "See you tomorrow morning."

After their talk Ina laid in bed, her brain dreaming up dozens of scenarios in how the next morning would play out. She hoped it would go perfectly, but knowing her luck, and how stubborn Amelia could be, it probably wouldn't play out that way. She didn't know how long she had been here, she didn't know were here was, and she didn't know how powerful this Amelia was. All she knew was that Amelia had lied and manipulated her, she needed to escape and free the Council member she had captured. Otherwise only the Ancient Ones would know what she had in store for them all.

…..

Ina didn't know when she fell asleep, but she woke up with a start, a nightmare that called out her name, almost as if searching for her had inadvertently thrown her into the waking world, and with it into danger. She glanced over her shoulder and saw that Amelia's spot in the bed was empty, but showed signs that it had been used. With a slight frown and sigh, Ina got dressed in the clothes she had worn when she communed with the Ancient Ones and made her way to the door.

It was now or never.

She took a breath and slowly turned the doorknob, the hallway was quiet but the priestess could hear the echoes of conversation and something that sounded like wood smacking together. That pulled at Ina's curiosity but she smothered it for the time being and made her way toward the other side of the building, where Amelia's secrets would be revealed and she would find out the truth.

As she made her way forward the sounds from earlier grew louder and became apparent that they originated from the entryway of the building, right where she would need to walk through. Much like the prior night the priestess made her way forward slowly and pressed herself against the wall to glance around it.

She found Amelia and Kiara crossing blades of wood in a mock dual, the phoenix was currently on the offensive and clearly had the advantage. Amelia, who had her back to Ina was backtracking in a vain attempt to hold out against the onslaught she was facing. That's when Ina glanced to the side and saw Calli watching the fight with a slight frown pulling at her lips, suddenly Calli met Ina's gaze and gave a slight nod before she returned her attention to the fight.

With the signal given Ina quickly made her way across to the other hallway, not once did the fight slow down or stop and it seemed that they were indeed keeping the blonde busy. That left Ina with enough time to speed down the hallway and arrive at the door Amelia had kept her from back when she first awoke, she put a hand on the doorknob, took a breath and entered the room.

She immediately felt a chill go up her back, Ina made her way into the crowded mess of tables and chemistry equipment she had never seen before. Judging by the different liquids with different reactions there was some sort of experiment going on. Then her eyes turned towards the back of the room and her heart dropped. Next to Amelia's desk, tied down to a chair, was a brunette woman with owl feathers in her hair. Ina knelt in front of the woman and waited for a moment, when she saw her chest rise when she took a breath she managed to pull together a small smile. It was washed away when she noticed the bandages on her arms, over her veins.

The priestess got to her feet and made her way over to the desk and took a moment to look through the notes. They were in a script that she couldn't read, it was a mix of Atlantean and Eldritch characters, but she could make out that there was some experimentation going on thanks to the numerous notes in the margins and questions that had been crossed out. Ina glanced backwards toward the chemical reactions taking place behind her, then to the syringes on the desk and felt a chill go up her spine.

She made her way to the woman's side and slowly put her hand over her shoulder, then reached out with her magic to get a good read on the woman's condition. She felt the familiar wave of eldritch magic wash over her and the woman, she felt it form ripples over her wounds and reached out to the Ancient Ones to learn what she could. She heard them respond with whispers in the back of her mind, there was something wrong within the girl, a presence of something the Ancient Ones knew didn't belong to her, but otherwise she would live. Ina let out a sigh of relief, but felt something whisper to her, slightly louder than before, something calling her away from the building. It was an echo of her name and it made her frown, what could it mean?

Before she could ponder that thought the door to the room slammed open and Ina whirled around, only for her gaze to meet Amelia's. Her blue eyes were filled with a fury that Ina had never seen before, she felt a slight presence of magic as well, something that Ina hoped she wouldn't need to face, "H-hey Amelia, how's your morning been?"

"Don't try and talk your way out of this," Amelia growled back as she walked further into the room, "You shouldn't have come into this room, you won't understand."

"Then help me too!" Ina responded, she felt the magic presence grow larger and began to call on her own magic in case she needed it, "Who is this? What are you doing to her?"

"She's an enemy," Amelia answered, stepping behind a table with a dozen filled syringes, "Trust me, that's all you have to do, let me worry about her."

Ina frowned and glanced at the open door behind Amelia, "What happened to Calli and Kiara?"

"They went out for patrol," Amelia answered, "Please Ina, just trust me."

Ina opened her mouth to respond but a sudden rise in the magic pressure in the room caused her words to get caught in her throat. Behind Amelia the shadows on the wall moved outward and took the shape of a scythe then swung down at Amelia's neck.

Before it could reach her however, Amelia ducked out of the way and spun around, sending her heel into the stomach of the shadow. Calli emerged from the shadow from the force of the kick and was sent her flying into a nearby table, the noise shattering glass filled the room as Ina slowly pulled the unconscious women to her feet.

"Ina don't you get it," Amelia made her way through the shattered glass toward the priestess, "The council is a threat!"

The blonde reached out toward Ina, who took her free hand and channeled her magic into her palm and sent a powerful wave of magic through the room. Everything from paper to chemistry sets to the tables themselves were thrown to the other side of the room, Amelia herself was thrown off her feet and had to cradle herself to avoid all the flying glass.

"Stay away from me!" Ina's voice boomed with Eldritch magic as she watched Amelia slowly push herself to her feet, "You are not my Amelia, you're nothing more than a fake!"

Without waiting for a response, Ina sent a second wave of magic toward Amelia, but this time there was no connection! The priestess saw the blonde fade from the space she had just been in, not even a millisecond later she felt a familiar magical presence behind her!

"Now Ina, there's no need for tha-"

A fireball streaked past Ina's cheek and slammed into the wall behind her, the wall to shattered from the power of the strike, but once more Amelia had blinked out of existence!

"Where'd she go?!" Kiara growled.

Two gunshots from the opposite corner rang out and Ina watched them hurl towards her! Her eyes widened in fear, but a shadowy form took shape in front of her and absorbed the hits. Calli, now completely formed, glanced over her shoulder towards Ina, "Get out of here!"

Ina ducked behind calli as another gunshot rang out, "Where do I go?"

"Go out that hole, then get the fuck out of here!" Calli growled and charged into battle.

Ina watched as Amelia managed to dodge all of Kiara's thrusts and evade Calli's wide swings, but she knew she had to tear her eyes away and made her way out of the building with the unconscious girl in her arms. She turned and ran down the streets as fast as she could, the sounds of combat growing more and more intense, despite the distance she was gaining.

Then something inside her stirred, a feeling that she hasn't felt since the ritual to make her the priestess was interrupted.

She could feel her mind make out echoes of the Ancient Ones, they were calling her to one of their temples, to a place she could use for safety! She smiled and followed the whispers, at the very least it would allow her to commune with the Ancient Ones and plan her next moves!

Behind her she could hear the echoes of battle and magic, in front of her she weaved her way through a maze of ruins and abandoned buildings. There were destroyed tanks, the skeletons of both Atlantean and Human soldiers, crashed starships and more signs of a climactic battle strewn about. Ina ignored it all, her only task was to help the injured council member out of there and make her way towards where the Ancient Ones were calling her towards!

She rounded a corner and stumbled on her footing for a moment, a city wall blocked her path. She glanced up and down its length and saw that it stretched out in either direction for miles, probably along the entire length of the city! Something caught her eye, a bronze rectangle of some sort sat at the base of the wall a little further down, was it a plaque of some sort?

She made her way over and used her free hand to brush away the layer if dirt and dust on top before she read what it said, "Happy Valley international City limits, the wall that encircles the city are all that remains of the dome that covered Happy Valley and was removed in 2337," Her eyes went wide, "When the Mars Terraforming Project was completed."

They had been on Mars?

They had been on Mars this entire time?!

She glanced over her shoulder at the direction she had come from, there was smoke in the distance from the fight. She bit her lip and turned her gaze back to the plaque and then the wall, she needed to move and sooner than later! She closed her eyes and focused her magic at the base of the wall, she felt the Ancient Ones tear holes in reality and send tentacles through those tears. She willed them to take the shape she demanded and when she opened her eyes once more she found a pseudo stairwell of tentacles that lead up to the wall, she smiled and kept moving.

She climbed the stairs and made her way over the top of the wall, luckily for her the former dome had a slope on the other side that she was able to walk down with the injured girl in tow. With the last bastion of civilization overcome Ina glanced out at the wasteland before her, a red desert extended out as far as the eye could see, but the Ancient Ones still pulled at her, so she would put her faith in them.

She made her way forward, for how long she didn't know.

Progress was slow with someone unconscious leaning on her, but Ina kept walking. Her legs burned from the effort and she was covered in sweat from the heat Sol radiated onto the deserts of Mars, but she kept going. With each step the whispers from the Ancient Ones grew louder and she got more confident in her choice! Her steps slowly felt heavier, each step sunk just a bit deeper than before, but she kept moving forwards!

Her next step landed in something hard but it then gave way, the priestess cursed under her breath and felt her foot sink further into whatever hole had been created from footsteps. She attempted to readjust only for a second hole to appear, this time she didn't have time to react as the floor below her fell apart and she felt herself fall into an underground cavern!

Ina glared at the ground and frowned, "Crap!" It was nothing more than hard stone!

She focused her magic the best she could and formed a slope out of tentacles, and the unconscious girl slammed into the slope and rolled onto the cold stone floor. Ina winced but pushed herself back onto her feet before she turned her gaze towards the injured girl once more. Not much had changed, she was covered in coarse red sand but she was otherwise fine from what Ina could tell.

The priestess made her way over and picked the girl up once again and after a moment of searching realized that the only way forward was to go deeper into the cavern, she sighed, "Alright, let's do this."

It was dark and dank, the air was stale and full of enough dust that Ina was forced to use magic to filter the air she and her injured companion breathed in. The cavern itself was more of a tunnel upon closer inspection, it had intricate carvings along the wall, Ina decided to slow down and run a hand over the carvings. The shape was familiar to her, she held up her palm and let a small fireball form the light revealing what she hadn't seen with her own eyes.

It was old Atlantean.

"What was Atlantis doing on Mars?" She looked around the cavern, she could hear a faint waterfall in the distance, "Did they build this place?"

She felt something stir within her and frowned at the feeling, but nevertheless decided to push on. As she moved she noticed more and more Atlantean script as well as a few dust covered skeletons, ones wearing Atlantean style armor. Nearby a heap of bones of some unknown creature had an Atlantean plasma spear slammed through it. The signs of battle kept growing, magic burns on the walls, broken armor, snapped spears, arrowheads. In a corner of the tunnel a pile of Atlantean armor laid, shattered and covered in dried blood, her frown deepened but she kept moving.

By now the sound of the waterfall was almost deafening and when she turned yet another corner she found herself standing on a stage of sorts, bones of more soldiers littered the area except for a circle in the center that held a singular podium. At the rear of the stage was a large Aquamarine statue that was of a humanoid figure, but they had long slender hands with claws for nails and a head with tentacles resembling a beard.

She tilted her head, "Is that…" She felt the Ancient Ones stir at the back if her mind and her frown deepened, "The Great Dreamer?"

A sense of confirmation swept over her and her body shook from the intensity, her gaze moved to the podium and she noticed a singular book. Her feet moved in their own.

…na…

A familiar voice called out to her, the Ancient Ones recognized it as well if the sense of familiarity was anything to go by.

She reached the podium and brought her hand to the book, her mind searched for the will of the Ancient Ones, they had brought her here for what?

…ere are you… na…

She fliped through several pages of the book, her mind desperately searching for something that she didn't know, she needed to know what information this book had for her!

… where…

She moved pages so fast she heard them rip!

… are…

This was taking too long! She cursed under her breath and held her hand over the book and focused her magic yet again!

… you…

The Ancient Ones flooded her magic with their desires, the pages flew by in mere seconds until they stopped!

… Ina?...

"R'lyeh…" Ina answered, "I'm at R'lyeh… the holy city of the Ancient Ones."

She felt a wave of magic form behind her and turned around to just in time to see a wormhole materialize. Without a moment's hesitation a arm reached out and pulled both Ina and the unconscious woman into the wormhole, into darkness.

A/N: I hope you all enjoyed it, i have the remaining chapters more or less planned out at this point, but with how busy life is I'm not how long it will take me to write them!

Also I had a reference to a show in this chapter with the Name Happy Valley, if you know where it's from feel free to comment!

Anyway thanks for reading and I'll see you all next time!