Author's Note: Woah! Just managed to have this done exactly for Halloween because I put myself to work at it the entire evening. Anyway, first some review responses

edboy4926: The witchblade was destroyed at the end of the anime series, so Masane is pretty much weaponless, though the cloneblades still posses their copies and Reina could eventually build more if she were to have the right equipment and materials.

makoto88: The sapuris of the specters are sealed alongside of their owners and can't be transfered to another user unless the specters are freed first. There's only one set of sapuri armor I know off that has no user and can be freely given by Hades to a chosen champion. Perhaps a second one, depends… I will need to re-read the lost canvas gaiden before I can give a definitive answer.

Also, it is clear you haven't read much stories of mine if you are complaining about my pacing, those who read my stories know I usually write slow burns. This is because I tend to pay a lot of attention to the little details and the world-building, you need to have patience.

But sometimes it happens to me what some of the greatest writers tend to talk about regarding the characters themselves taking control of the story away from the author and turning the writer simply into the medium in which their actions will be carved into letters. That is why at times I end up going on tangents I didn't intially considered when thinking on the chart flow each chapter is supposed to take, but I digress…

At any rate, Happy Halloween! Here's your present you ingrates so let's get to it already!

Disclaimer: I own nothing; copyrights to the different series and/or franchises that appear in this fic belong to their respective owners.

THIS CHAPTER IS UPLOADED ON THE 31/10/2021

Prologue

IN THE COMPANY OF THE DEAD

Part 4

"What the hell is that...!?" A pretty blue haired buxom woman in black uniform and miniskirt with white waistcoat and black overcoat exclaimed as she glanced in alarm towards the central tower lying atop of the city, numbers and readings fast forwarding in the iris and pupil of her right eye.

After being dismissed front the side of their Lord Faust, the three Saber Marionettes, Tigress, Luchs and Panther were left with nothing to do but wander aimlessly, heartbroken from the abandonment of their Master. They simply walked the lands of Terra 2 in their grief without any clear direction in mind. It was then that they suddenly appeared inside this strange city of white Marble and stumbled upon another Marionette who introduced herself as Android 21; who told them that she just like them had no idea where she was since according to the last memory in her databanks, she had recently been destroyed.

Lucky her…

Not really caring where they were or what the deal with the strange Marionette was, the Sabers allowed 21 to join their group as they kept walking dispassionately through the streets of the white city. That is until an impressive surge of foreign energy blasted all of a sudden from the direction of the central tower that dominated upon the entire city with such an intensity that even the limited scanning capacity of Panther was able to quickly pick up on it.

Obviously, the three Saber Marionettes were immediately pulled out of their funk and alert after such unexpected development.

"You girls also picked up on whatever that was…!?" 21 inquired with great apprehension as she fearfully glanced in the direction of the central tower.

The three Sabers exchange a glance between themselves before nodding resolutely. "Guess there's no choice but to go and check out what's behind that particular stunt…?" Panther commented as she and her sisters got on the move.

21 sighed in a slump. "I was afraid any of you would say that…" She stated less than enthused, before starting trailing after the three Sabers despite her qualms.

!

BB was observing through the screen of her interface how the four dolls were making their way towards the central tower without any prompting and decided to leave them to her devices since they seemed capable enough to find their way on their own. Many of the other groups seemed they would require much closer attention after all.

!

Lucy didn't know where she was, the last thing she remembered was pleading for Kouta to fulfill his promise and end her life before she became a mass murderer on a global scale, to stop The Voice before it could end the human race. Only to at last depart from the world of the living after reminding Kouta of the place where they first met as children, promising that one day they would meet there again.

And then she appeared on this city of white houses and marble pillars, completely dumbfounded as to how she got here as she pressed her back upon the base of a fountain in the middle of a small plaza surrounded by buildings, accessible only through nearby narrow corridors that crisscrossed through the entire city. Was this heaven? If so, what is she doing here in the first place? She should have been sent straight to hell after all the pain, all the suffering and the people she killed…

As she kept pondering on the situation, she found herself in, the Diclonius queen detected three shadows walk past in front of her, one of them stopping in its tracks to address her.

"Child…? What are you doing there sitting on the floor?" A female voice suddenly spoke.

Lucy glanced up with lifeless eyes and was surprised to see a green-skinned horned woman with elegant facial features and lime-eyes, who was dressed completely in black robes with purple interior and was carrying a wooden staff with a glowing green jewel at the top as a cane…

"You're… You're not human…!?" Lucy blurted out as she blinked in bewilderment, saying the first thing that ran through her head due to the impression.

"Oh, please do not compare me with those mammals…" The horned woman replied with a dignified shake of her long neck before gesturing towards Lucy's own horns. "Besides… You should not be pointing fingers at other people's body features, considering your own peculiarities…."

"I—I'm sorry…" Lucy apologized, bringing her hands to her horns to hide them from view before lowering her gaze in dejection curling upon herself into a little ball the best she could.

The tall horned woman in black just sighed before speaking again. "I assume from your reaction that humans must have done you wrong in the past…?" She inquired, causing Lucy to poke an eye out through her pink bangs in curiosity due to the accuracy of the statement.

Before the robed woman could elaborate, a new female voice was heard coming from further down the road. "Maleficent, why are you stopping? Is something the matter…?"

Lucy glanced in the direction of the voice, only to discover a black-winged gray-haired woman in a revealing skin tight red gown with a plunging neckline that left her neck, chest, stomach and abdomen exposed, and only covered the frontal part of her breasts. A black collar extended down from her neckline to her waist, serving as the junction of her black feathered wings. The top of her hair was done in the shape of horns thanks to a headdress with hair jewelry that she wore, reminding Lucy of the horns from an ox as a couple of silver bangs fell down to her sides to frame her face. She also sported a gold necklace and earrings to compliment her ornamentation.

The Diclonius queen glimpsed down, taking notice of the lined patterned tattoos spread through the woman's entire body and the long red sleeves of her dress that ended up joining with her purple taloned hands. Further down where the train of her dress dragged along the floor, Lucy realized that the winged woman had no shoes, walking completely barefooted with feet and toenails that resembled the paws and claws of some beast. It was clear this woman was not human either.

The now identified Maleficent waved in dismissal at the newcomer. "Nothing that I would believe will be of particular interest to someone of your stature my dear Ultimecia… Just some lost scared child, that seems to have some unpleasant past history with humans…." The black horned woman affably answered.

Ultimecia stared down with a focused gaze upon the small dwindled form of Lucy, her sinister yellow eyes ringed in purple eyeshadow causing a chill to run down Lucy's core. This woman was scary… "Oh…? But I do think this new find to be quite interesting… Please, do tell more…?" She inquired with frightening interest.

"Just what kind of child is she in the first place? A faunus…? No… I have never before seen extra animal features in a Faunus similar like those that this girl has…" A third voice spoke, trailing after Ultimecia. It was an albino woman in long short-sleeved black robes of skin and hair both of a complete white chalky pallor. Thick dark purple veins could be seen pulsating on every single visible inch of her body and a black-diamond shaped marking laid right in the middle of her forehead. Her hair was styled in a large bun with six offshoots wrapped together in Obsidian ornaments.

Again, this woman too exuded an air of foreign inhumanity the likes Lucy had never felt before. Her complete black eyes with red irises being a major factor of that.

"Patience, Salem. I was just about to inquire further on this child's identity…" Maleficent replied before turning towards Lucy again. "Now, now dear girl… Tell us… What is your name…?" The green-skinned woman inquired with a seemingly kind smile.

"…" Lucy didn't immediately respond as she remained on the floor curled upon herself while regarding the green woman with her only visible eye between her cotton-candy pink bangs. But eventually, her own curiosity won out and she managed to whisper a response under her breath. "…!..."

Obviously, that was a less than ideal volume even for someone with inhuman hearing like Maleficent. "I'm sorry, what was that…? I'm afraid you will have to speak louder if you want yourself to be heard my dear girl…" She entreated.

Lucy hesitated for a moment, but quickly offered a much better response. "Lucy… My name is Lucy…" She spoke louder though in a still quiet tone of voice.

"Lucy…" Maleficent repeated, tasting the name on her crimson lips. "Now that is a pretty name, for a pretty girl like you… So, tell us Lucy, what are you doing all by yourself alone on this abandoned alleyway…?" The horned woman inquired continuing with her seemingly considerate disposition as she gestured to their immediate surroundings. A narrow-cobbled street between white-marble buildings.

"I… Don't know where I am…?" The pink haired Diclonius timidly answered.

"You don't know where you are…? Good gracious… Then that means you are in the same boat as us. For your see my dear Lucy, we too have no idea where we are… All three of us just suddenly appeared on different parts of this marble city after undergoing certain… Complications back on our own realms…" Maleficent stated with a smile

"…?..." Lucy seemed intrigued by that statement. "I don't think any of you are from Earth… Are you from another world…?" She shyly inquired, thinking about the variety of mangas and TV shows she saw on Kouta's home.

Maleficent's smile widened further. "Ah…! So, you are aware of the existence of other worlds! Then this will make it easier to explain my dear girl… Yes Lucy, we all are each from a different world, and we suddenly found ourselves stranded on this place without any previous notice. We were just minding our own business one minute and the next, POOF! We were here without any kind of idea of what happened." The green-skinned woman explained with elaborate gestures before quieting down and assuming a thinking pose. "So, back to my previous question… What have humans done to you for you to have such a reaction?"

Lucy flinched at that question curling upon herself even more, taking a few moments to collect herself before she could offer any answer. "I don't like humans… They're evil…" The Diclonius queen offered with obvious loathing.

The three sinister women standing in front of the girl found that answer very interesting. "Oh? And why is that…?" Ultimecia inquired.

"…!... They did horrible things to me… They hurt me… They tried to kill me! Because of my horns! Because I was different!" As the pink-haired girl kept speaking, it was clear she was becoming more and more agitated with each consecutive word, a certain ominous hum began to be clearly heard in the air. "THEY ARE CRUEL AND MEAN AND PETTY! THEY TORMENTED ME! THEY WANTED TO LOCK ME AND TURN ME INTO A SLAVE! THEY BEAT ME WHEN I TRIED TO REFUSE! THEY SENT THEIR ARMIES AFTER ME AFTER I ESCAPED! THEY WANTED TO KILL ME!"

CRUNCH!

A wide section of the cobbled ground suddenly disappeared, a spacious crater taking its place as if by magic. There was nothing in sight that could explain how this was possible.

SMASH!

PRACK!

Visible shocks and impacts began to rain all around, entire wings from the nearby buildings were blown away as if struck by an invisible force. The fountain where Lucy was leaning on suddenly disappeared as if flattened by a giant hand from above. The interest of the three sinister women witnessing such unnatural spectacle rose into greater heights with each passing second.

"SO, I KILLED THEM INSTEAD…!" Lucy declared with a last display of her supernatural power that saw the entire ground of the plaza exploding outward as if struck by a massive weight. Through it all, her three listeners simply watched the spectacle, unperturbed by the destruction happening around them.

Once her little tantrum was done, and Lucy felt herself spent as she drew heavy breaths through her small frame, did Maleficent decided to address her again. "I see… Yes, I suppose all those are good reasons as any to hate humans… And you are correct my sweet little girl, humans can be quite the devious evil creatures. Always distrustful of those who are different from them and fearful of what they do not understand, wanting to either control anything that they deem outside their norm or destroy it if they can't. It seems clear enough to me what happened to you…" The horned woman said as Lucy's only visible eye focused on her, the optical nerve having lost all traces of timidity and having turned instead into a frigid orb of smoldering hatred.

Maleficent smiled affably and offered a hand for the pink-haired girl to take. "But I digress… This is no place for a young lady to be on her lonesome… Come with us, we will never be so crass as to treat you unfairly just for being different, unlike humans... Take my hand, and I promise you, no nasty human will ever lay a finger on you again…" The green-skinned woman assured in a honey-dripping sweet voice.

Lucy just stared at the offered extremity for a long time, not saying anything. But eventually, having nothing else to lose, she decided to accept and reached towards Maleficent's hand with her own. "Okay…"

"Excellent, my dear girl…" The horned woman smiled.

All of a sudden, once Lucy was back on her feet, a peculiar musical tone began to play all over their surroundings, coming from both everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

BGM: (Fate Extra CCC – BB Channel) watch?v=6MjIwlfVRXM

"Broadcasting from the seat of power of the god of the underworld himself! It's your favorite and terrible goddess from Outer Space, BB-Chan!" The image of a happy-go-lucky plum haired girl wearing a red ribbon declared from a holographic window that suddenly appeared floating in mid-air.

Obviously, the four females watching the bizarre spectacle where understandably weary of this new interloper. "What is the meaning of this interruption!?" A less than amused Salem demanded.

The self-declared BB was unfazed by the looks of hostility being thrown in her direction. "Hello there, my little piggies… Looks to me you are a bit lost, perhaps I could be of some help…?" The plum-haired girl said with a less than encouraging smile.

"You girl! Do you know where we are or how we got here!?" Ultimecia demanded in a rather cold and intimidating tone of voice.

BB, however, kept smiling without a care in the world. "You are currently in the marvelous magical transportation device known as the Noah's Ark, the newly-commanded seat of power of my master, the handsome and magnanimous Hades… God of the underworld…"

"Hades…!" Maleficent exclaimed with a look of revulsion, remembering the blue-skinned deity that had previously been part of her council of evil before being defeated by that loathsome boy, Sora.

"Indeed!" BB declared in a peppy tone. "If any of you had a little case of foot on the grave before arriving here… That is to say; you were truly and completely dead, only to now found yourselves back to life. Well, that's because of him! So, make sure to give him your thanks when you meet him…"

Lucy blinked in surprised at that. "Hades is the reason as to why I'm no longer dead…?"

Maleficent turned and looked at Lucy with considering eyes at that revelation.

"Yup…" BB simply replied, emphasizing the P before proceeding with her explanation. "As to the why you were brought in here or for what reason, well… You will have to personally ask Milord Hades for an answer." The Plum haired girl innocently said, sticking her tongue from the side of her mouth for a moment as if saying 'What else can be done?'.

"Where can we find this Hades…?" Salem inquired, ignoring the strange girl's mannerisms. As if in response a trail of glowing arrows suddenly appeared, marking the way between the narrow alleyways.

"Milord Hades awaits inside the central tower that overlooks all of the city, just follow the arrows if you wish to get there. Oh? I almost forgot, there are many other stragglers like you who have also appeared on this Ark seemingly out of nowhere. As if by magic! So be some dearies and pick up anyone you might find in the way and bring them with you on the way to the tower, otherwise some unpleasant things might happen…" The girl BB informed with her eternally smug happy face.

"How can we trust that anything you've just told us is true…?" Maleficent questioned with undisguised suspicion.

"Well… It's not like you have many choices to pick from in the first place, isn't it?" The plum-haired girl retorted with a shit-eating grin before her image winked out of existence. Leaving a rather glowering dark fairy behind.

"Seems to me we now have only one path to follow…" Ultimecia simply said before following the direction marked by the floating arrows, the rest of her companions following after her soon after.

!

Kuvira scowled as she stumbled upon another dead-end, she had been trying to get out these damn alleyways for the past thirty minutes or so and still she hadn't the least idea of just were she was. She had just boarded the armored transport in chains as a prisoner after being defeated by Avatar Korra and all her plans coming crashing down in flames.

Only for the Sato-mobile to crash all of a sudden, forcing her to crawl her way out of the wrecked vehicle and realize she was stranded in a strange city of white marble. After taking care of her bonds she decided to explore this city to see if she could find a landmark or something else that could tell her where she was, only to realize she was lost after the third time she stumbled upon a dead-end.

Kuvira sighed, crossing her arms and tapping a foot in an attempt to calm down, it would not do to lose her composure while in a foreign place. As she was pondering over what alleyway she should venture into now, the faint sounds of distant sobbing reached her ears, catching her by surprise for a second. Only for her to sprint into a run in the direction of the cries, turning back from where she came and entering the first opening she could find amidst the marble buildings, attempting to find a path that would lead her to the origin of the weeping. And when no visible path was available, she tried to forge her own by breaking inside nearby buildings via door kicking and jumping out second-floor windows.

Eventually, she arrived at a small amphitheater where she found a young fire-nation girl chained to the floor and crying loudly for all the heavens to hear while breathing columns of azure flames from her mouth in impotent rage. As she began to approach the restrained girl, it didn't take long for the young woman to take notice of her.

"What are you looking at you Earth-nation peasant!? Coming to gloat at the suffering of your betters!? You filthy monkeys would have done nothing but keep rolling in the mud you live in until we from the fire nation came to elevate you all from your miserable existence! And this is the thanks that we got for our generosity!? Betrayal!" The girl raged, spit flying from her mouth giving her a rather crazed look like some-kind of frenzied beast.

Kuvira wasn't impressed by the insults and simply crossed her arms as she raised a single eyebrow at the chained girl. "I don't know who you are girl, but it seems to me you are in quite the predicament. Perhaps I would be inclined to help you out if you were to tone it down a little with the ethnic insults…"

"Do not mock me!" The shackled girl exclaimed, breathing a stream of blue fire in Kuvira's general direction which failed to reach her due to the distance, making the Earth General feel a pang of irritation. "You must think me stupid to believe such cheap lies will work on me! You Earth rebels had the gall of aiding the Avatar and his friends into assaulting my castle and send that southern-tribe hick to oppose me and chain me to this place! Father should have gone with the idea of burning your entire nation to the ground a lot sooner instead of waiting for the Sozin's comet arrival!" She spat with visible hate.

That last bit caught Kuvira by surprise, the only time she knows of that the Earth Nation was in danger of being burned into cinders by the Fire Nation was during Avatar Aang's youth at the end of the hundred-year war. A stern expression fell upon Kuvira's face, quite intimidating despite her loose unkempt hair. "Who are you…!?" She demanded with all her authority as an Army Commander.

It seemed that despite her apparent deranged state, the girl could still detect a dangerous enemy to be tread carefully when she saw one. She locked eyes with Kuvira with a smoldering glare of her own, before trying to get back on her feet and assume a commanding bearing the best she could despite her chains. "I am Fire Lord Azula! Daughter of Phoenix King Ozai, the supreme ruler of the world!" She declared proudly without the barest hint of hesitation.

Kuvira was shocked at hearing such unbelievable revelation. "That's impossible! The sister of former Fire Lord Zuko has been missing for more than seven decades!"

Azula growled at hearing her brother's name, blue flames blazing between her teeth. "Do not say the name of that traitor in my presence! Damn you Zuzu! This is all your fault! You've wasted no time to steal my title from me!" She raged, yanking at her chain as she violently jerked side to side.

Before Kuvira said anything, an entire section of the surrounding buildings disappeared in a loud explosion of dust and masonry as the thunderclap of a resounding impact left her eardrums deaf for a moment.

VROOOOM!

Both benders turned immediately to see what the hell had been that, only to catch a glimpse among the dust clouds of two figures engaged in savage sword combat. All of a sudden, a giant wall of ice appeared out of nowhere, propelling both figures into the air and leaving their features in full display.

The first was a long blue-haired well-endowed woman dressed in a white military uniform with black-accents, miniskirt, hat, long black sleeves and long white high-heeled boots that reached all the way to her thighs. The woman had a strange red mark right under her collarbone and her weapon of choice was a rapier. Her opponent was a long-gray haired, lithe yet still attractive woman with her head tied in a high ponytail dressed in a completely black military uniform with matching miniskirt, brown belt over her hips, black high-heels with black stockings, black-fingerless gloves and an open gray-Haori over her shoulders taking the function of a cape. Her weapon of choice being a Katana.

Both women quickly exchanged sword slashes while mid-air before locking swords in a contest of will as they plowed into the ground right in front of the two benders, breaking the marble tiles of the floor due to the sheer strength of the impact. The two swordswomen held matching deranged grins, revealing how much they were enjoying their little deadly dance.

"Well, well… I wasn't expecting for you to be such an entertaining opponent, stranger. It is quite the pleasant surprise to find someone skillful enough to keep up with me, not many can boast over such an accomplishment." The white clad blue-haired woman said as she kept locking swords with her opponent, the two of them now in the ground.

The gray-haired woman with matching demented smile chuckled. "I should be saying the same thing to you, took the words right out of my mouth... There are not many opponents who I can cross swords with that can last long against me when I go all out… Especially when it is a human… Never heard about one of your species being able to physically match a Sekirei in combat. You impress me greatly outsider, I hope you keep making things fun in this little bout of ours." She stated with burning excitement.

"Ku,ku,ku…. A woman after my own heart… Let's see if you can actually carve it out of my beating chest…" The blue haired woman cackled in manic joy before turning solemn for a moment. "The name is Esdeath by the way…" She declared as their blades remained in perfect balance, pressing against each other.

"Karasuba… Pleasure to meet you…" Said the black-clad woman with a toothy grin.

Esdeath smiled again. "Now that the introductions are out of the way, how about we resume our duel…?"

"Yes… Let's…"

As the two swordswomen backed away from each other as if by an unseen signal, only to rush head-first together again with their blades at the ready to deliver their next attack, their little engagement was interrupted by the less than amused screech of the still chained Azula.

"What in the name of the spirits are you two peasants doing!?" The disgraced princess demanded as the two blades of the two deranged women meet again, releasing a loud thunderclap due to the sheer strength of the blow. Both swordswomen turned with empty looks of unfamiliarity, as if staring at a weird bug that had suddenly decided to get in their way.

After a single glance at the chained girl both combatants simply dismissed her from their attention and proceeded to continue with their duel without a single word, needless to say, Azula was less than enthused by such blatant disrespect.

"Do not ignore me you worms! Do you have any idea who I am!?" The fire princess exclaimed, her fists burning with an Azure flame before she launched a fiery projectile towards the two battling swordswomen despite her bonds, a testament of her great skill.

As the two monochromatic dressed women kept exchanging attacks, the blue stream of fire smashed into their location, only to be stopped at the last second by a wall of ice sprouting from the ground, causing the lance of fire to detonate and cover the two combatants in boiling steam. Now that certainly caught the attention of the two swordswomen.

As the steam dissipated, Azula was able to easily notice the two now quiet women standing still and staring right at her with an unnerving focus. The fire princess felt a small shiver run down her spine; she recognized the look that the women sported. It was the look of a predator, a true Alpha that stood over all others by right of conquest and blood. Azula began to consider that maybe she had made a mistake in interfering in their fight, though she wasn't in any way in a sound state of mind after what she just had went through to be making any kind of rational decision.

A tense silence fell upon the devastated Amphitheatre as Esdeath and Karasuba did nothing but stare at Azula with a look of murderous promise. When finally, Esdeath spoke, it was with a voice cold enough to freeze anyone's blood inside their veins. "Little girl… You shouldn't interfere in the fight between two predators…"

"Lest you get your head bitten off in the process…" Karasuba finished for the blunette woman, keeping a gelid gaze of her own upon the chained girl.

Azula didn't want to admit it but these two strange women intimidated greatly, however, her pride as Princess and Fire Lord of the Fire Nation wouldn't let her to back down at the first sign of danger. She was about to retort when all of a sudden, a gloved hand covered her mouth to keep her from speaking, making her yelp in surprise. The fire princess immediately glanced to her right and discovered that Kuvira was responsible for her new inability to speak as the Earth general kept her left hand enclosed around Azula's jaw while staring with steely determination at the two swordswomen in front of her, pointedly ignoring the squeals of protestation that Azula threw in her direction.

"Who are you two!? What is the meaning of all this pointless destruction!?" She demanded with all her authority as army commander behind her words, not daring to show a single sign of weakness in front of these two strangers since she correctly guessed she and the self-declared Azula were now embroiled in an exceptionally dangerous situation.

The two swordswomen glanced in Kuvira's direction, immediately taking notice of her uniform and metallic protections over her arms and shoulders despite the disheveled look of her long black hair. They then turned towards Azula again, noticing her bindings and the chain that kept her shackled to the floor before glancing towards Kuvira again.

"Oh? I'm sorry, did we interrupt something…?" Karasuba said in a mocking tone, gesturing towards Azula's bonds.

"Such a sloppy work… Don't you know it is a guard's duty to teach their prisoners how to keep their mouth shut! This gross lack of commitment would be punished severely under my command…" Esdeath declared with a derisive scowl.

Kuvira scowled in response. "This girl is not my prisoner; I have only just met her. And even if she was, I would never take advice on the treatment of prisoners from the likes of you two…" She spat back towards the two swordswomen.

Karasuba smiled placidly at that. "You have guts, I like that… It will be so satisfying to see them spilled into the ground." She declared with a manic expression, reveling her white pearly teeth as she bared the steel of her Katana at the ready.

Esdeath matched the black-clad woman's smile with one of her own. "Karasuba, is right… You do have the look of someone who will be quite entertaining to fight. Would you care for a round with us to test the edge of our swords? Consider it a compensation for interrupting our play time…" The Blunette with the white hat declared taking a stance with her rapier.

Kuvira remained impasse as the two swordswomen prepared to attack her. "It doesn't seem as if I have much of a choice do I…?" She rhetorically asked.

Karasuba shook her head in a negative, still smiling. "Not really…" She said, before launching herself towards Kuvira in a burst of impressive speed, Esdeath following close on her heels with her own blade.

Both Azula and Kuvira were utterly caught by surprise by the display of unnatural quickness capable of traversing entire yards in fractions of a second. Kuvira only had time for her eyes to widen in shock before Karasuba was already upon her, slashing with her Katana towards her torso. It was only her instincts honed by years of training that saved her, as she immediately lashed forward with an open palm and instantly stopped Karasuba's sword in cold thanks to her metal bending, followed then by Esdeath who also had her Rapier halting in its movement all of a sudden and unwilling to be budged regardless of what she tried.

Both swordswomen were flabbergasted by this unexpected development, no matter how much they pulled at the handles of their swords, both blades refused to move. They were quick to pinpoint the source of this mystery by seeing Kuvira keeping her arms and hands outstretched open.

"You… This is your doing somehow?" Karasuba accused, not amused in the least for having her kill denied.

Kuvira scoffed before gesturing with her hands and separating both of her arms away from each other, causing the blades of the trapped swords to bend into malformed shapes, rendering the weapon useless before being ripped away from their owner's grasp and being tossed away as so much as discarded trash. Joining her arms together again, plates from the metal armor covering Kuvira's arms began to separate and float around her as she kept gesturing with her hands, only for the small metallic pieces to surge forwards towards the two swordswomen like flying razors.

The two aggressors immediately jumped back, getting out of range of the impromptu cutting edges long before they pose any danger, putting some distance from their would-be victim to re-plan their offensive. "I liked that sword…" Karasuba simply exclaimed with an unamused face as she stared towards Kuvira.

Esdeath chuckled. "Fu… It seems this little bout of ours would prove even more interesting than what I had first thought, I like that…" She declared with unhinged excitement.

Karasuba smiled at that comment. "You are correct, my dear Esdeath. But what a nuisance it will be having to fight without a sword?" She dramatically complained before simply shrugging her shoulders. "Oh well, there's nothing to be done about it. It's been some time since I've had to fight barehanded, I'm afraid I have become a little rusty… It is a good thing I've never had any objection about getting my hands dirty, and they do say it is healthy to go back to the basics from time to time…" She declared as she began to crack her knuckles in anticipation.

"No need to resort to such boorish methods if you don't feel like it, Karasuba. Lucky for me, and for you…. I'm never without a weapon thanks to my control over ice…" Esdeath said with a smile before she raised a hand in front of her and Ice began to coalesce into existence over it, taking the form of her rapier that she took hold of from the handle. She then proceeded to create a second weapon made of ice in the shape of Karasuba's Katana, which she then proceeded to hand over at the Black-clad Sekirei.

"Oh? Now that's a neat trick, thank you very much…" Karasuba said in gratitude before grasping the replacement weapon.

Kuvira was not amused as she saw her aggressors arming themselves again and getting ready for a second assault, thinking quickly, she addressed Azula without taking her eyes off from the two swordswomen. "Girl… Do you know how to fight?" She demanded in a no-nonsense tone.

Azula glared at the Earth General for a moment due to the clear lack of reverence, but ultimately decided to ignore breach in decorum and focus her attention on the two clear present dangers. "Yes… I know how to fight! A princess of the Fire Nation needs to show she is worthy of her station by crushing all her enemies through her own strength alone…" She simply stated become tense at the expectancy of imminent violence.

"Well then… Let us hope your strength is enough to see us out of this mess…" Kuvira replied before raising a hand and closing her first suddenly, causing the chains restraining Azula to shatter and fall to the ground in a broken heap.

The Fire princess offered no thanks as she rubbed her wrists and slowly rose to her feet, wordlessly walking besides Kuvira before taking as combat stance, her hands igniting in Azure flames. "Hmmph… I suppose I can deign myself to lend you a hand after the assistance you've given me, besides… I've never said no when it comes to teaching a lesson to losers like these two…"

"Don't get cocky and get ready! Here they come…!" Kuvira exclaimed, taking a stance of her own.

Both Esdeath and Karasuba's smiles stretched to unnatural lengths, giving them a rather sinister appearance. A sudden silent stillness fell upon the devastated amphitheater as the two opposing duos stared at each other for a moment, and just when both sides finally sprang into action with the desire to clash against each other in the middle of the field, did a strange musical tune unexpectedly began to sound all around the combatants that brought their momentums to a sudden halt.

BGM: (Fate Extra CCC – BB Channel) watch?v=6MjIwlfVRXM

"It is the inhumanly beautiful, dead drop gorgeous, and all-powerful from beyond the deepest recesses of the universe, BB-chan! Talking to you from the central tower of this floating ark…" A plum-haired girl wearing a red ribbon declared with outrageous happiness as a floating screen suddenly appeared showing her face. Obviously the four expectant combatants were caught completely flat-footed by this unforeseen interruption.

"What the…?" Kuvira exclaimed but had no time to say anything else as the self-declared BB continued with her announcement.

"Now… What exactly are you two little sows think you are doing by causing all this destruction to the Ark of my -admittedly handsome- lord Hades?" BB demanded, turning towards both Esdeath and Karasuba with a tut-tut demeanor.

"Who are you? And why are you interrupting us, can't you see we are busy!?" Esdeath retorted unamused, gesturing towards the two benders in front of her.

BB simply sighed over-dramatically as response. "Ah, why must you humans always have to show a lack of capacity for listening… Every time I dare myself to hope for a modicum of intelligence from your species of lowly primates, you waste no time into doing something to prove me wrong. Shows me that I shouldn't have any expectation about you lot in the first place." She said as she shook her head in a helpless expression.

Karasuba felt particularly insulted by that. "Hey! Don't smear me with the rest of these humans! I am not a member of their frail species!" She complained out loud.

Esdeath turned towards her newest rival/frenemy with a look of intrigue. "Really? You're truly not human? I thought you were just being elitist?"

BB opened her eyes, showing them having turn into a bioluminescent red, like two pinpoint lasers that focused upon the form of Karasuba. "You speak the truth… You are not human like the rest of this helpless piggies, and yet you have no qualms in lowering yourself to their level and frolic in the mud with the rest of them. Kind of sad to see someone abandon their dignity so readily in my opinion…" The plum-haired girl said in a derisive tone.

Karasuba scowled, before lashing towards the projection with her ice Katana, unsurprisingly doing nothing as the cold blade simply passed through the hologram without doing anything. "Bold words coming from someone too afraid to face us in person!"

The red-eyed girl inside the screen outright laughed at the Sekirei's accusation. "Oh please… You dumb sword-heads are so far below me that I don't need to bother into personally making my way to meet you in order to deal with the lot of you… Case in point…" BB smiled, before black shadows began to bleed into reality right under the swordswomen feet, catching them by surprise and enveloping their forms completely.

The shadows were like some kind of oily substance that flowed under its own volition, Karasuba and Esdeath tried to resist the encroaching shadows with their ice swords, but just like fighting real water it did absolutely nothing. Even Esdeath's Ice powers were useless as the shadows simply broke through any freezing barrier without effort. Suddenly, from within the confines of the flowing darkness, scarlet-red tentacles with black cores lashed out and caught every single one of the two swordswomen's limbs in their slimy vice. Again, trying to resist against these bodyless feelers was useless as the ice weapons simply shattered upon their rock-hard obsidian hides. Both fight-crazy women where now thinking that things were not funny anymore.

"Hey! What gives!? What is the meaning of this!?" Karasuba exclaimed as she struggled to escape from the crushing grip that the tentacles had on her limbs, only for efforts to prove futile no manner how much of her strength she tried to employ. The tentacle's grasp tightened and began to pull at her extremities as she laid suspended in the air, causing her bones to creak at the sudden strain like somekind of improvised rack.

"Let us go!" Esdeath demanded as she gritted her teeth, her limbs also being stretched to their very limits. She hadn't had the chance to freeze time due to the attack having caught her completely by surprise and so quick in immobilizing her, trying to use her trump card now would be just a wasted effort as her strength too is proving insufficient in breaking the gripping vice of the tentacles.

"Now let us set some ground rules my little piggies…" BB ominously said with a wicked grin as her tentacles raised the two captured women closer to her projected screen. "I will not tolerate a couple of dunderheads like you to cause so much pointless destruction to the property of my beloved Lord Hades! So, either the two of you calm the fuck down and stop breaking things with your tantrums, or I'll have my little friends here defile you to your innermost recesses before tearing you apart from the inside like a bloated sow!" The plum-haired girl threatened as the tentacles holding the two swordswomen aloft pulled at their limbs even further, causing them more pain and spreading their legs open before another mass of darkness appeared beneath their nethers from which countless tentacles writhed with violent anticipation. Some reaching out high and slowly making their way up the two captured women's thighs and under their skirts to make it perfectly clear just in what kind of danger the both of them were right about now.

Both expressions in Karasuba's and Esdeath's face darkened at the implied threat, neither of them ever having expected to one day find themselves in this kind of situation. The expressions in Azula's and Kuvira's faces weren't any better as they showed outright disgust, but they weren't keen in lifting a single finger for their former assailants as they correctly concluded that this weird shit was way over their heads and wished to take no part in it less they too found themselves in such a precarious position. Self-preservation at its finest.

Esdeath grunted in irritation, seeing no way out of her current situation, so she decided to go for stalling tactics until an opportunity to free herself could be gleamed. "Tsk…! Just who is this Lord Hades that makes you carry such a high torch for him…?" She inquired.

BB's demeanor immediately did an 180o, turning from a sadistic blood-thirsty fiend to a carefree smitten young maiden in love, she even began to twirl a strand of her hair between her fingers. "Oh, well… I would not say I am carrying a torch for him, per se… (Te-he) Though I admit he is quite unbelievable handsome. I mean I'm not the sort of girl that's usually into pretty girly boys but I have to admit there's something truly captivating when he focuses those cold bottomless eyes of his upon you, it feels as if he could strip your entire being bare with his sight alone, leaving you incapable of keeping anything hidden from him as he drinks in your naked figure like a man dying of thirst before ravaging and devouring you whole in a single bite… Waaaa~ I feel my entire body shiver every time he looks at me with those eyes…" The plum-haired girl declared with a flustered expression as she hugged herself and rocked herself side to side. Her small audience was understandably rather put off by her sudden change in demeanor, WTF expressions in the faces of every single individual watching her.

Karasuba and Esdeath shared a flat look between themselves at whatever the hell this was. "We are about to be raped to death by a dumb airheaded girl! Just how the hell is that we got to this point?" She asked to her fellow swordswoman. "This is not how I expected my second death in the afterlife would be…"

Esdeath simply nodded sagely at the words of the Sekirei. "I hear you, I too thought at first after I met you that this was supposed to be some sort of warrior's paradise in which the souls of those who died in the battlefield would be locked in eternal combat against each other until the end of time, fighting and dying only to rise again and be struck down once more in a perpetual cycle of brutality and bloodshed…" She confessed with some regret seeping in her voice.

Karasuba just gave a nod of her own in kind. "It would have been so beautiful…"

"I know…" The blunette agreed.

A vein popped on BB's brow at being so blatantly ignored, freezing her smile and causing a tick on the corner of her mouth. "Rude!" She complained, before causing her tentacles to increase the strain on her captive's limbs and redirecting the attention of the two swordswomen back unto her. "Let's get one thing clear my little naughty piglets, this is no afterlife… Yes, you both died, but! You were allowed to return to the world of the living thanks to the kindness of my dear compassionate Lord Hades, who took pity on you and decided raise you back into life rather than leaving your cold corpses strewn in some back alleyway... And this is the gratitude you show him!? Running about like savage monkeys and causing destruction inside his city, it seems to me a little punishment is in need of being enforced…" The girl said in a sweet threatening voice, causing the mass of tentacles beneath the two trapped swordswomen to stir even more.

Karasuba bit her lip as she tried to endure the pain in her limbs before shouting to address BB. "Nhhhh… And why would Hades do that!? What does he want from us!?" She demanded.

BB's eyes lit up red again, but instead of being out of anger, a look of consideration fell upon her face. "Finally, you are starting to make the right questions. You sure took your sweet time…" She said before the mass of swirling tentacles underneath her captives disappeared from whence, they came, and she slowly began to lower the two swordswomen back into the ground, but without releasing them yet.

"You two are incredibly lucky that Milord Hades wishes for you to remain unharmed until your inevitable meeting with him, if it wasn't for that I would have let my little slimy friends loose to have some fun with you. So I suggest you better start moving your asses and begin making your way towards where Milord Hades is waiting, otherwise…" A lone tentacle appeared from a blob of darkness and slowly slithered to gently caress the faces of the two captive women before fading away, Esdeath and Karasuba unsurprisingly found the wet touch of the disjoined limb disgusting, BB then turned to look at the two benders.

"The same goes for you two… Go meet Milord Hades at once and try not to get sidetracked, otherwise I will have my tentacles hunt you down and have their way with you. Oh? And if you find some other strangers wandering about, do be a dear and make sure to bring them with you…" BB ordered in a dismissive manner, like a queen ordering her lowly slaves. "Now begone with you! And remember, I will be watching your progress very closely…" She commanded as she at last released her captives and the window with her image fizzled out.

Esdeath grimaced as she landed on the ground none too gently and started rubbing her manhandled limbs to return some feeling into them. She and Karasuba said nothing as they attempted to recover from their ordeal, once they were done, they simply stood there and glared at the two benders in front of them. Azula and Kuvira returned the stare, still not trusting the two battle crazed swordswomen despite BB's threats, eventually the Earth general let out a tired sigh and turned around to blatantly walk out from any possible conflict without a care.

Azula was stumped by such behavior. "Where do you think you're going?" She demanded.

Kuvira just shrugged. "We need to find this Hades that BB girl told us to meet. I don't know you, but I'm not feeling in the mood of running away from some disgusting tentacles trying to rape me, that's not how I want to spend the rest of my day."

Azula would have liked to retort, but she had to concede the Metal bender had a point. "Yeah, I have nothing to say to that…"

Karasuba scoffed. "Do any of you have aby idea where are we supposed to go? That damned BB threaten us thoroughly all right, but I didn't heard not a single hint at any moment about which direction we are supposed to take in the first place." She complained, just for a line of glowing arrows to suddenly appear, marking the correct path to take.

Kuvira just blinked. "Well… I guess that's settles it…" She stated before starting to follow the arrows soon after, the other three suspicious females in their uneasy truce following after her promptly enough.

Another chapter, more new character introductions and reveals, now to work on the next segment. Ah! It is the never ending story, as soon as you finish and upload a chapter, you have to immediately start on the next one. If you think the intros are taking too long, you have to admit some characters, personality wise will simple not join of their own volition without some confrontation first. It will be too OCC if I were to simply show everybody already happily together, in some cases I can wave away the story of their initial meeting since they look so appropiate together, but in other cases I can't. At any rate…

As always, leave a review and tell me what you think. Recommend this story to your friends, and visit my Pa- t. re-on if you feel like tossing a coin my way and I'll read you all next time…