We back, taking our time like we do nowadays. Take your time 2020.
Also I may be dropping some important info this chapter. Pay attention!
Enjoy!
"Should we really have left Jason alone back there?" Takara asked weakly as she ran along with Drake and Luna.
"He'll be fine," Drake replied, Philotis' effect having worn off already. "We have to place our faith in him."
"But we know he's not that strong right now..." Luna murmured quietly. Drake was quiet for a moment before speaking.
"...He'll be fine," the man repeated.
Takara could only hope that was true.
"I shouldn't have to warn you, Jason, but I remind you again that Apate will try to kill you."
"...No shit?" Jason asked weakly as he got up from his knees, having dodged Apate's prior attack. From what he could see, his sister wasn't under any form of exterior control. She was acting quickly and fluidly, which probably ruled out telepathic manipulation. She was also being quiet, which probably had to do with her being a Broken. She'd been tortured just as others had, to the point where any kind of self-identity disappearing. Nashi had just barely avoided succumbing to that pain, but Sarah had never been given that chance.
No, this wasn't Sarah.
This, at the current moment, was not his sister. It was Apate, the Child of Nyx, trying to kill him. And he needed to stop thinking as though she was anything but.
But was that enough?
He was not near strong enough to fight right now. Even before, he'd just barely been able to fight Eris off, and he doubted she was even trying. Could he defeat his sister?
No, he couldn't be negative. Sarah was in bad shape as well. She'd been near starved and tortured for a decade. She was in even worse shape that him.
"Did you want to know why Hades placed her in the Ignis Ward?" Philotis asked from across the path.
"Stop talking already," Jason hissed angrily. Philotis only smiled warmly and reached over to Apate, stroking the girls cheek affectionately.
"The heat from the magma makes this ward extremely dangerous long term," she said lightly as she traced her index finger down Apate's jawbone. "Makes people hallucinate and think all sorts of things. Who knows how many times Apate's been forced to watch you die?"
Jason felt his stomach drop.
"...What?" He asked weakly. Philotis' evil yet warm smile only widened.
"I'm just saying," she replied, "people hallucinate all sorts of things. Maybe she saw her parents, maybe she didn't. Maybe she was seeing something random, maybe she didn't. Or, maybe, she watched you be murdered over and over again until she snapped like a twig."
It was too specific to be a guess, that much was clear. Jason clenched his fists angrily as he tried to control himself. All this time, his sister had been underneath his feet. All this time, she'd been tortured even worse than he and forced to snap. To become Apate.
"Oh, by the way," Philotis said, "Don't try and break her out of it. She's been broken for years at this point. To break her free of this now would leave her a shell of who she used to be. No trace of 'Sarah' remains. Only Apate does." Jason didn't want to believe that. He wanted to believe that if he tried hard enough he could break her out of it, but he knew that wasn't true. The Broken in Tartarus had been tried before, and they never reverted to who they used to be. Apate was no exception.
"She speaks the truth," Apate said, "I am Apate, and no one else." Jason already knew that, so why...?
No!
He shook his head and avoided his gaze, trying not to meet his sisters gaze. He knew full well what this was. If the Children and Hades hadn't changed what she represented, than it was still lies and deceit. Which meant he couldn't trust a word out of her mouth. Or could he? What was lies and what was true? Is this what if felt like to be against him?
"I'll be going now," Philotis said as she turned to go through the door the others had gone through, "have fun with your sister, Dolos!" With this the redhead left, and Jason gritted his teeth. He didn't have the guts to kill his sister, nor did he have the strength to beat her. How has he supposed to get out of this?
He dodged as Apate jumped towards him, her spinning kick missing him. She stood and spun again, using the leftover momentum from her jump to attack again. Jason just barely got his face out of the way in time, her foot narrowly avoided his temple. Rearing back, Jason split himself into four and separated around the hallway, encircling his sister. Apate watched as many as she could, doing her best to avoid being snuck up on by the real him.
Jason commanded the left-most duplicate to attack, coming in with a swift punch. Apate blocked on instinct, but the duplicate faded through her as the punch was about to connect. With Apate distracted, he came from the right and kicked her in the sternum, sending her to the ground. She recovered quickly and stood, facing him, emotionless. The copies and him encircled her again, waiting for an opening.
That was, until, Apate also split into four.
"Perhaps you forgot, Dolos," Apate said, "but we're both spirits of deceit and trickery. You can't outdo someone who knows your tricks." So she was able to identify him as Dolos, was she? Just how far had they driven her psyche that she separated him and Dolos?
"Same goes for you," he replied as he faced off against one of the four Apate's. "You won't be able to beat me."
"That's not the goal, anyway," she replied. "So let's see, Dolos. Let's see who can lie better."
"Mare Impulsum!" Poseidon watched as Hades dodged his attack, the torrential water hitting and breaking open more of the office walls. The man just regarded him quietly, an annoying grin on his face. He raised his obsidian staff, aiming the serpent directly at him.
"Osculum est mortis," Hades spoke. The serpents spat a massive sphere of black energy. It emanated cold and evil, but Poseidon was able to swat in aside with a wave. Hades fired a few more of these blasts, but all were blocked. As the fourth was shot, Hades slammed the staff into the ground and said, "Hastam de ossa."
A massive spear of bone shot out of the ground, it's shaft made from arm and leg bones while it's tip seemed to be a massive rib. Again, Poseidon smacked it away with his trident.
"Your magic disgusts me," he said to Hades, "So vile and evil." Hades rolled his eyes.
"Yeah yours sucks too," Hades replied, "It gets my clothes all wet. My suit is soaked!" Poseidon gritted his teeth at this, aiming his trident at the man. From the three tips shot massive torrents of water, which encircled one another endlessly as they shot after Hades. Hades used his own staff to knock it away.
"You know, for someone so intent on killing me," Hades said, "you sure aren't trying all that hard. What's the matter? Getting cold feet?"
No, Poseidon thought, I'm just trying to find out how the hell I'm going to beat you and your sickening magic. Even after spending so many years as his ally, Poseidon knew nothing about Hades or his magic. All he knew was that Hades practised magic that wasn't magic a human should have been using. It's deathly sick feeling, the structures of bones, it all rubbed him the wrong way.
With a wave of his staff, Hades summoned skeletons out of the ground. There was at least a dozen of them at first, but the numbers were multiplying rapidly. Poseidon quickly flooded the room, the waves crashing into the skeletons and destroying them. Hades, however, was standing on a pyre of bones once more.
"You know what I think it is, Poseidon?" Hades said, "I think you're lost. You don't know what to do, or how to beat me. At most, you plan on stalling me until Fairy Tail has rescue the girl right?"
"Shut your mouth..."
"Because you have no idea why I want her, but you know you don't want me to have her." Hades continued as he ran an index finger across the serpent on his staff. "So you're willing to keep me here and prevent me from getting to them. Is that it?"
"Shut up!" Poseidon replied as he shot another torrent of water at him. His eyes widened as Hades used his bare hand to smack it away.
"You should listen when people are talking, old man," Hades said coldly. "May I continue?" Poseidon said nothing. If Hades gave him any indication as to what was happening, it would be good right? Hades smirked.
"Aha, there it is," he said, "You want to know what I'm up too, right? If I can give you anything that can help you or the Fairies. Ha! It doesn't matter. Cause guess what, Poseidon?"
What happened next chilled Poseidon to the bone.
"I sent Eris and Nemesis to Fairy Tail to get them captured," he said, "I wanted them to open the gates for Fairy Tail. I initiated this jailbreak. Oh, but why would I do that? Don't I want the girl?" Hades evil smirk somehow darkened.
"I already got what I wanted from her," he said. "And now, I need to let Fairy Tail take her away." Poseidon stared at him, not sure what to say. What could you say when someone gives you such a plan outright?
"Why?" He finally asked angrily. "Why do you want Fairy Tail to win?" Hades laughed.
"Don't they always win anyway?!" He asked as the laugh became maniacal. "Wouldn't this just be the status quo? But no, you know me better than that, don't you, Poseidon? You know by now it's not that simple. Let me answer that question with a question; What would happen if they found out Nashi and Luna both existed That they had been split?"
"...I don't understand."
"Of course you don't! No one except me does! And that's the genius of it. Right now, they're all caught up in it. They don't know which one had a hand in it, do they? But they'll know once Fairy Tail gets them. See, this place can't be seen by those things. They can't see into Tartarus! So, once both girls are out, what will happen? What will the Twelve think about that?! Surely knowing that two of them had a hand in breaking their most sacred law will cause them to descend into chaos!"
"What the fuck are you talking about?!" Poseidon shouted angrily, his trident vibrating with magic. "Speak some sense, you god damn devil worshipper!" Hades laughed again, wickedly and evilly.
"Yes, yes!" Hades replied, "You're so close yet so far, Poseidon! Come on, what's my plan?! Why am I doing this?!"
"I don't know!" Poseidon roared angrily. "But you know what I do know?! That I am going to kill you! Right here, right now I will not let you raise the King!" He raised his trident above his head, causing it to glow. "I call upon the power of the sea! I ask that it imbue me with the strength to defeat my foes! My name with become Neptune! I will become an unstoppable tsunami and wash away my opposition!"
The magic flowed into him even within the hell that was Tartarus. His clothes were covered by armour coloured black and blue. The energy buzzed in his head, and he aimed the trident at Hades.
"You will perish here! Your plan ends here! You will go no further!" Hades just scoffed.
"I wonder which of us you're referring to."
Had anyone else been present in the Ignis Wing of Tartarus, they would have seen complete and utter chaos. Countless copies of a blonde woman, Apate, were attacking the significantly less numerous copies of Jason, all of them fizzling and flying all over the tight corridor. Several attacks from the real versions of the siblings broke open the rock pathway, revealing the light and heat from the magma below. A copy of Jason kicked a copy of Apate in the head, who fizzled and disappeared. An Apate punched a Jason in the gut, who fizzled but managed to sock the same Apate in the mouth before they both disappeared.
And somewhere amidst this chaos, the two real siblings fought as well, trying their damnedest to find the other. They did not disappear when hit, the copies instead fizzling when trying to attack. The other usually caught sight of this and tried to attack, but by then the other would have swapped with another copy.
However, this could not go on forever.
Both Apate and Jason may have both been imprisoned for years, but Apate had always been stronger than him. Even now, over a decade later, Jason was struggling to keep up. He summoned less copies than his sister, he could only swap between them so many times, and he could feel his stomach turning violently. He was going to throw up soon. He could feel what little he'd eaten prior to the jailbreak threatening to come up. He dodged an Apate and when another hit him in the back ,he swapped with another of his ten remaining copies before Apate found him. Vertigo assaulted his senses now, causing him to stumbled and fall to his knees. He attempted a switch, but he couldn't. His magic would not come out. This was bad. He felt his copies slowly fade away, leaving only himself and multiple Apate's.
"That was disappointing," Apate said, "I was hoping my first mission would be more exciting."
"Sorry to disappoint you," Jason hissed as he spat bile off to the side of the corridor. "I'm not in the best shape these days."
"I can tell," she said. "Well, I'll knock you out now. No use in killing you, Hades said it wasn't necessary."
"And why would he say that?" Jason asked as he turned to look at her.
"Don't ask me," Apate replied as she walked up to him as her copies faded away. "It's not my position to ask. I just do as I'm told." Jason gritted his teeth as his sister approached him, intend on knocking him out. He couldn't let this happen, he had to beat her, or at least get away. The others might need him!"
"Sarah..." He tried weakly, getting to one knee as he tried to stand. "Y-You don't have to do this. You're stronger than them; stronger than Hades!"
"Call me my name," she said coldly.
"I did," Jason said. "Your name is Sarah! I'm your little brother Jason, remember? Don't you remember what you saw Zeus was willing to do? The disgust you felt?! Remember what they were willing to do?!" Apate's face didn't even flinch.
"Master Zeus was a man who dragged me off the street and gave me purpose," she said, "His death breaks my heart. I will avenge it in any way Hades deems necessary."
"Is that why you and your like betray the other Olympians?" Jason demanded. "Why Poseidon is fighting Hades right now?!"
"Poseidon and the others are weak," she said, "Hades is the only one willing to do what is necessary."
"Sarah..." Jason didn't know what to say. She'd barely even flinched when he'd told her any of that. Maybe Philotis was right. Maybe it wasn't possible to save her.
No. He couldn't believe that. He was going to save her. He couldn't let Hades and the rest of the Children use her like this.
"I don't know how horribly they've treated you," he said weakly, "But I'm going to save you Sarah. I won't let Hades use you like this. You're my big sister. The only person who meant anything to me."
"Anything else?" Apate asked. Jason grimaced as she knelt down and grabbed him by the collar of this shirt, readying her fist.
"Yeah," he said, "I love you, big sister." He used to say that to her all the time before they'd been ripped apart. And, surprisingly, it had an effect.
Apate paused and flinched in irritation, rubbing the bridge of her nose and muttering to herself. He couldn't hear her, but he thought her muttering about an headache.
"I told you not to call me that," she hissed, anger evident in her voice. "Go to sleep, little one."
Apate would never know, but she too used to say that to him.
It hadn't taken all that long for Drake, Luna and Takara to happen across the only cell in the hallway. It was at the very end of the hall, and it's large metal door lay slightly ajar as if to beckon them inside.
"What should we expect?" Takara asked weakly. Drake activated his sound magic, and his heart skipped a beat.
"She's alone," he reported, "Strapped to some metal bars. Let's get in there!"
"The door is open," Luna said weakly, "Shouldn't be carefu-?"
Drake ignored them and grabbed the door, flinging it open. There, in the center of the room, Nashi was strapped to the bars as he'd said. They rushed into the room and Drake used his strength to rip the metal from Nashi's wrists, causing her to fall into his arms. He stared down at her in awe. Her hair was shorter, her face gaunt and thing, and her body frail, but it was definitely her. Nashi. Their Nashi.
Luna, too, seemed to be in awe. She reached out slowly and traced a finger down Nashi's cheekbone, tears gathering in her eyes.
"...We need to tell the others," Drake said slowly, "We can get her out of here now, so we can save-?!"
Nashi's eyes snapped open.
Drake looked down at her in surprise, seeing her looking at him. Her eyes were as brown as chocolate, but surprisingly vacant. As if she was staring at something far away.
"N-Nashi?" He asked. She said nothing, simply watching him.
Then, her left eye flooded with a dark red colour.
Her left side began to darken. She grew a horn, her forearm grew dark and her hand grew talons. She pushed out of his grasp and fell to her knees, gasping.
"Nashi?" He asked as he reached for her. "END? Is that you? What are you-?"
He was grabbed from behind and tugged to his feet, Takara as well. Looking back, Drake saw Luna had a horrified expression on her face.
"What?" He asked her weakly. Luna just looked back, scared.
"END isn't controlling her," she said weakly. "She told me...That isn't Nashi." At first Drake made a face, but it dawned on him in seconds.
Back on Mt. Olympus, Zeus had controlled Luna via a program uploaded to her head, made by Athena.
Who was to say Hades didn't know how to do that?
His suspicions were confirmed within seconds.
Nashi stood and squared off against them, her left side engulfed by END's power. She was saying nothing, but Drake heard her muscles tensing. She took a defensive stance, and her left eye scanned them. Drake knew what Hades was doing now, letting them so close to her.
"He's going to make her fight us off," he whispered.
Sibling vs sibling, God vs God, END Nashi vs...? I wonder. I hope you all enjoyed, leave a review! Let's try and get five!
Chapter 364: Hell Realised