One World: Many Souls
Chapter 61: A Family's Love
Third Person Point of View:
Silke had been gone from the mansion for only a few hours. She'd been away from it only long enough to check on the hidden army Luke and Mettaton had prepared in a separate location of theirs. Many of the people had been given orders to follow their normal patterns and live their lives except when they were notified by Luke to move. Silke saw the intense size of the army and knew that it was a reasonable number. If they were able to grow it more and use those children they'd been training for the last decade or so, it might have been enough along with the four of them and her staff to finally attack.
Small efforts had been made here or there, but mostly to test the waters and see what would happen. Silke wasn't too worried about those, so long as her subordinates listened to her orders and watched their body count. We couldn't afford to have too many people dying on them, it was something that would make the region even more alert, and what could be worse, if it was noticed that things were happening close to her area, Angel may make an appearance herself. That would be horrible for Silke if that happened.
So imagine her surprise when she came home from the meeting she had to see her home entirely closed off and in flames from down on the coast. Seeing her private road cut off was the first sign and seeing fire trucks blocking the way... something had happened.
Telling her driver to move them to a remote location, Silke decided the first thing was to check in with everyone and see what happened. Silke pulled out her cell phone and called the only other female on her team.
"My, my darling, we'd only just seen each other."
Mettaton's voice on the other end didn't reveal anything, so Silke sighed at that.
"My mansion has been blocked off, don't return to it."
"What now? Are you kidding me?" Those words actually seemed to ruffle Mettaton's features a bit, wheezing and whirling sounds could be heard from the other side. "But my alarms never went off... Hold on, let me check the security footage. Luke! Get your ass over here! Trouble's coming!"
"What's going on? Did something die up your ass?" The male chuckled before he went silent, perhaps at the face Mettaton was making. Silke wouldn't know, nor did she care.
"The house was raided!" Mettaton came to the conclusion after a few short moments of silence on the line. "It would seem that the main branch may have caught on, darling. Arial Terians was leading the charge and managed to break all the children out. It would seem our only saving grace is Dr. Baldeth appears to have self-destructed that core science project he was working on. It took out the entire manor, along with the Arial and one other inside. I'll start researching reports now to see if she's been counted as dead."
"You've gotta be shitting me?!" Luke hissed out while looking over whatever it was that Mettaton was seeing. "Boss, if they took out our base and took the kids, it won't be long until they start looking for you. We gotta move."
"Agreed." Silke commented softly. She spoke to her driver once more and he began the ride to another location. "The plans are being set into motion early. How soon can you two mobilize and start taking out those stupid kids?"
"We just need a day, two max to get everyone ready." Silke could hear the clenching of Luke's fists while he spoke, the grinding of his teeth was rather loud in her ear. "I'll attack the castle. I'll send a smaller group with Mettaton to see if we can take out some of those other brats."
"That sounds rather lovely darling. I know exactly where and when to go at the same time as you to 'meet' my son." Mettaton's voice was haunting while typing could be heard from the other side of the line. "I'll send you what footage I was able to capture before I lost signal, darling. We'll hit them where it hurts."
"Good." Silke looked at her computer calendar, seeing that it was the third of the month. "Check in with me no later than the morning of the fifth. Until then, radio silence. I'm heading to the top of Mount Ebbot. I'll be waiting to hear of your success."
She cut the line with them before throwing the cell phone she was using out the window. She couldn't be tracked. Things weren't going to plan and she'd have to figure out later why they were. But she had to escape. She couldn't let Angel find her.
Because she knew that without help, Angel Terians could never be taken down.
Angel's Point of View:
The news didn't really hit me well. I felt frozen for what felt like that of a long time. Both Sans and I were alone with Calibri who stood there as I read the report. I had no choice but to leave the care of all siblings to the hands of Calibri, calling Eras home for a family emergency before rushing out the door to the hospital noted in the report.
I'd never been to the northern city of Kaltes since I was young. Not since before Silke's parents died in a fire when she was young. She was older than myself, but I'd heard she had an older sister as well, but the records of her were purged from what I'd heard. The girl ran away from home, and Silke didn't allow anyone to keep a record of her sister.
Something I found odd at the time, but nothing that was coming to the front of my mind in those moments as I thought of my baby girl.
Sans nor I had the energy to do anything. It felt like the world moved around us as we were moved to the hospital where Arial's body was kept. Our drivers took us to the location of the hospital and I saw that everyone parted like the sea as we walked. Enya took care of everything as we moved forward, though it felt like we weren't moving at all.
Those long hallways of white felt like they were suffocating us. Sans' hand was tightly gripped in mine as we moved. We could barely look up from the floor as we were led deeper and deeper. Below the floors down to where the morgue was kept. The air felt colder, and there was a smell that I didn't want to think about as I came down. It sent a small shiver down my spine. It wasn't like I was unfamiliar with death. My uncle's life had been on my hands for years until I could let that go. But this... this was different. It was my first baby girl. My firecracker. My brave one. The one of all of us who just wanted to help other people. That's all she wanted. It's what made her smile.
Memories of her just poured through my mind as I slowly moved. From when she was born almost in Alphys' bathroom during my second birthday party above since the end of the underground kingdom. The early memories of when she hung from the ceiling when she discovered her magic as a toddler. When she was a little girl and always wanted to eat yummy food I and her uncle made her. The days when she was eagerly training with her aunt in the backyard and truly showing her strength as a member of House Terians... The day she came home with a family in tow who needed my help when she was working for the police station. The day I found out she wanted to join the army...
She and Lexi had always been close friends. I thought of her as tears slid down my face approaching the glass. While we waited for an assistant to let us into the morgue, I thought of Lexi's parents. They would be devastated to learn of what their daughter went through, and the guilt that would be on her soul... it was highly possible Arial protected her instead of herself when the bomb went off...
I blinked and my vision focused on a body that was rolled into the center of the morgue's examination room. Sitting there on a table, the body was covered in a sheet before we approached, but the color I could already see through the sheet, the black patches of charred remains that stained the sheet from the underside. Small patches of red I could see through it just barely. That's how badly I could see the body was distorted by the blast.
My fingers rested against the glass before the examiner walked over to the door, unlocked it, and welcomed us inside. "Mrs. and Mr. Terians. I'll spare you the apologies as I'm sure you'd rather get this over with. Please help us verify that this is Commander Arial Terians' body."
I was numb as I moved forward. Nodding to the male while Sans trailed in behind me. We approached the body and stood carefully beside it, watching the stained blanket and it was pulled back for us to see.
The carnage was rather horrid. It was easy to see which areas of the body were protected more so than the others. The chest and head were a common place where the chains would coat to protect the most vital areas of the body in times of need. But the blast must have been even too much for them as it appeared certain parts of them were more burned compared to others. The limbs were almost entirely gone, bones almost reduced entirely to ash. Some of them were in separate pieces set carefully beside the rest of the body. The dog tags melded right with the skin that somehow still had Arial's name partially visible. The skull didn't look like it was damaged much, though it looked almost thinner than Papyrus when I looked at it-
Pausing at that thought, an insane amount of emotions passed through me. Bewilderment was first as I squeezed Sans' hand, and he almost came to life in those moments as our eyes met.
"Darling... do you see what I see?"
Sans carefully looked over what was before us. Trying to notice what I did, he looked to where my hand was almost by the skull before us. Focusing on it, his eye sockets became very wide.
Other emotions flew through us in those moments. Surprise, and perhaps there was a reasonable amount of hope we felt as we saw the key feature that made us think this wasn't our daughter.
"This isn't my daughter. The skull size isn't right." Standing up straight with newfound determination, I narrowed my eyes at the examiner who actually appeared a bit surprised at my comment. "Where is the one who survived?"
Screeching echoed in the room before I could get an answer. The sound of it reacted so loudly to the walls that the furniture was moving. "Code Silver, I repeat, Code Silver. ICU room one-oh-four. I repeat, Code Silver in ICU room one-oh-four."
"Code Silver, hey!" I turned back to the male with us who was holding onto the table to prevent the body from being knocked over. "What does that code mean?"
"It's a hostile person with a weapon!" They responded quickly. "And that room number is where the other person is!"
I raced to look to my husband whose eye was already glowing. "Sans!"
"Oh it, Angel!"
In a flash of blue, we were gone back to the lobby where we'd been before. People darted out of the way who saw us appear and my magic activated to part them away while we moved. We needed to get to the ICU ward where she was being held.
Our Arial was alive, and needed our help.
Arial's Point of View:
"Ari... you have to wake up! Please... you have to! They're coming for you! Arial! Move!"
My eyes shot awake. The blackness in my vision was strong as I struggled to see past the bright lights above my head and the pristine colored walls. My head tried to move, but it only made the spots worse in my vision when I tired.
But I could see something dark in color moving toward me. I could barely see the outlines, but they were dressed in black. They weren't calling out to me. I couldn't see their faces.
"Attack Ari! They have weapons!"
My breathing got heavy as my magic activated. I could hear loud beeping around me as my magic came to life, creating a barrier around me to keep the supposed attackers at bay. I had to get my bearings to see what I was doing.
"What in the world are you doing! You're not allowed in here!"
It was a new voice I heard. My eyes instantly trying to look to them. All I could see was blue and yellow. A nurse? Was that was I was seeing?
"Get away from our patient! You need to leave right now! I've called security!"
I blinked away the haze, my vision slowly coming to me as the woman's face came in much clearer and four men were surrounding my bed with the nurse backing away. I could hear my heart monitor beeping loudly next to me. Was my heart truly that stressed? Or was that...
Lexi?
"Attack them! They're trying to kill you!" I could hear her voice almost as clear as day until I could feel myself coming to and her voice was fading. "Protect yourself and our spark. I'll help where I can."
"L-lexi?" My voice was broken when I spoke out, trying to call for her as I couldn't hear her voice anymore.
"Shit, she's awake!"
"Kill her!"
My eyes were finally wide open to the five attackers in the room, though only four were on me and one went for the nurse calling for help. I could hear someone calling a code silver or something over the intercom and an alarm was going off. It hurt my ears and I raced to cover them.
But... something felt weird...
One man attacked me and I threw out my right hand, magic responding instantly to hurl him backward into the wall of the hospital. His head cracked under the force of my throw. His blood splattered all over the wall before he fell in a heap in the corner. I was... stronger?
My eyes filtered then to the hand I had out. My hand... it was... it was bone... My hand was vacant of its flesh, blood and veins...
Was this part of me being part skeleton?
And then the past came back to me... the explosion... It took us both along with that doctor... and my strength... it's because my soul wasn't the only one attached to me anymore... I could feel it. Lexi... her soul attached to me...
She died... I wasn't able to save her...
My magic lashed out then. I realized she was gone, I screamed. The anguish took over my soul as the other four bodies were hurled away from me.
Crushed at the fact of what happened, I crushed them.
The men who came after me crumpled under my magic literally exploded at the pressure I put onto them. Contorted and pulverized into minced meat, my hospital room was a war zone by the time that I could think clearly and see the five littered bodies around me.
The nurse who had called for help stood frozen in fear at the entrance of my room. The door tried to close before her, but due to a mush pile of flesh in the way, it kept hitting it, moving the blood all over the floor by the entrance.
"ARIAL!"
Shoving the nurse out of the way so I could no longer see her. I could see my mother step into the doorway. She took precious seconds for her and my father who held her hand to look at the carnage around them before their gazes focused on me. I struggled to move much physically, but I lifted my hand to reach for her.
"Mom...? Dad...?"
"My baby bone!"
My mother flew at me. Jumping over all the blood, she landed in my bed to hug me tightly. My father teleported to the bed and in a flash of blue, he was all over me as well.
"Oh shit... Ari... we were so worried, Kiddo..."
"Dad... Mom... is..." I struggled to get the words out while in their arms. "Is Lexi...?"
My parents went quiet at that, but they refused to let me go. "I'm sorry, baby bone..."
"I'm still here..." Her words were like a whisper in the back of my mind. "I'm not leaving you... and neither is our little one..."
I shot up in my bed at that. Both my parents watched me hesitantly, pulling back for whatever I needed.
"Ari?" My mother cupped my face. "What's wrong?"
"I... I hear Lexi... and... and she s-says... we h-have a-a little o-one..."
"Shh... shh... hush Ari, it's okay..." My mother attempted to sooth me while so many emotions went through me that I couldn't tell what I was feeling. "Get some rest. Mom and Dad are going to stay with you. Okay? We'll be right here baby bone. You sleep, and talk with Lexi."
I wanted to fight it, but with my mother and father there, I finally felt myself relaxing. I was still so tired. Everything still hurt... It got dark... and I felt myself slipping away into a blackness, like I'd leaned back and just... free fell...
Witch's Note:
(Halloween let out a breath of frustration as she stood about in the command center with the last of the troops heading to the surface. She would be the last to leave and make sure their trail couldn't be picked up on, or send out any other messages to others.)
(In the time of the last week she was working on that, talking to Sunset, and relaying what she said about Mystic Boy, was concerning. Halloween hadn't said much about Chara, for the shadows surrounding her in their world. Perhaps this Chara that Mystic Boy was attached to or served for power was one of another dimension. But Halloween knew that it wasn't the one from hers.)
(That she was very certain of.)
(Shadow and Chaos had laid waste to much along the way to the old base, leaving a sea of destruction in their wake. Mystic Boy had vanished, and many of her other members were on the march. She was worried for Dasansi and his crew, but she could hardly give a moment to worry for them as they knew what they were getting into. They offered their services, and there was hardly any more she could do for them.)
(It was time to march.)
(Halloween began the process of leaving the base herself. She was the last to leave after giving final orders to the few that remained behind that weren't battle ready or needed to be there for a second wave if able. She stepped into the submarine by herself and commanded it to move to the surface. Armed with weapons and magic, Halloween swallowed deeply at the lump in her throat.)
Halloween Witch: I'm on my way, Mystic. Update me one what's going on. I'll be joining you shortly.
March, and march, and march...
The battle has begun...
Sticky little fingers to be cut off from the base...
Follow it to the source...
Let them crumble before us...
Shrink before the power...
We will rise...
We will be... determined...