"Where are they?" A certain ancient feline was thinking to herself while looking at the video feed in the command centre of Rhodes Island. The command centre was buzzing with activity, many high-ranking officers from both Laterano's army and the remnants of the Iberian military were communicating with their troops on the ground. They were doing their best to coordinate the battle against the seaborn. Now they were at a stalemate, the combined efforts of Rhodes Island, the Iberian military, and Laterano's army had halted the seaborns path of destruction for the time being.
But it wouldn't stay like that forever...
Rhodes Island, the Iberians, and the army from Laterano were taking casualties. They needed to break through the seaborn horde and soon. Otherwise, the seaborn would begin pushing them back. During the battle, Ch'en's group had come under heavy attack. Kal'tsit had seen this on the video feed and ordered Rhodes Island to provide assistance to the group. The pharmaceutical company had managed to save the blue-haired lungs team, but now they had disappeared during the fighting.
The ancient feline was looking through the video feed being broadcasted from the drones observing the battle, but currently she was unable to locate them. Kal'tsit was beginning to fear the worst, if they had died in the fighting then this battle was pointless. Skadi's seaborn would soon overrun the defenders and destroy Iberia. No doubt the future aegir would then move on to other nations. Kal'tsit didn't want to even begin to imagine that, "No, they can't be dead. They have to be somewhere...I just need to find them." The ancient feline wasn't going to give up on Ch'en and her group. Kal'tsit carried on searching for any sign of Ch'en or the others, this battle hadn't been lost just yet...
Just as Kal'tsit was searching for any sign of Ch'en or her group, someone else was doing the same. But this person had horrible intentions for the blue-haired lungs group. The future Skadi also wanted to find them, but her goal was to kill all of them except Ch'en and her future daughter, Yua. The future aegir wanted to kill the pair of lungs personally, Ch'en was her arch enemy. In Yua's timeline, Skadi believed that the blue-haired lung had stolen what was rightfully hers...the doctor of Rhodes Island.
The future aegir could never forgive the blue-haired lung for her transgression against her. Even though Skadi had killed the Ch'en from her timeline, the future aegir wasn't satisfied. In her mind, the death she had given the blue-haired lung was too lenient, too merciful. The future Skadi was willing to put that behind her if she managed to capture the heart of this timelines doctor. But, the blue-haired lung from this timeline had gotten too close to the doctor. All that hatred from before returned ten-fold, the future Skadi wanted to make sure this timelines Ch'en suffered for trying to steal the doctor away from her again.
The future aegir would admit that she had made a mistake sparing the blue-haired lung when she attacked Rhodes Island. But her main priority at the time was getting the doctor away from the pharmaceutical company so they could finally be together. Skadi believed that her seaborn would kill Ch'en at their leisure when she ordered them to attack Terra.
That had proven to be a costly error...
Now Rhodes Island was leading the fightback against her kin, no doubt the plan of the pharmaceutical company was to rescue the doctor and stop her. The future aegir tightened her fist as she was looking through the eyes of her seaborn kin, unable to locate the group of the blue-haired lung. "I cannot wait to get my hands on you, Ch'en Hui-Chieh! You and your disgusting spawn! Both of you will suffer for this! The doctor is mine! Nobody else's! All of my planning, all of my manipulation will not go to waste! I will not lose him again to the likes of you!" The future Skadi cursed both Ch'en and her future daughter.
Speaking of the white-haired lung, the future aegir realised she had made another colossal error letting her live this long and letting her escape to the past, "Yua, it was a mistake not going after you sooner! I should have killed you years ago! I should have made sure you were dead when I threw you into that river! Your meddling has nearly ruined everything! This time, I will make sure you are dead! You will never be able to meddle in my affairs again when I am done with you and your harlot of a mother!" The future Skadi promised herself that both lungs would truly suffer when they were in her grasp.
With this in mind, the future aegir carried on her search for Ch'en and her team...
"Damn! This place is crawling with seaborn! We should be able to take them, but as soon as they see us every one of these monsters will head straight for us! We need to let Ch'en know the situation. Andreana, let's head back." Fiammetta whispered to her comrade next to her. The aegir woman nodded and the two quickly and quietly began to head back to the location of the others without being detected.
Both the liberi and the aegir had been tasked by Ch'en to do some reconnaissance at a shipyard. The plan was to get to the islands that Ulpianus had mentioned to everyone. But for that they needed a boat to get to their destination. Irene had informed every one of the location of a shipyard not too far away when they had escaped from the fighting when the seaborn horde descended upon them. Ch'en ordered both Fiammetta and Andreana to check the area out while the rest of them took shelter to check their wounds from the battle. The two were to report back when they had carried out their recon of the shipyard.
In an abandoned building not too far from the shipyard, Ch'en and her group were currently waiting for Fiammetta and Andreana to return from their reconnaissance. Everyone in her group had checked each other for wounds, thankfully no one had been injured seriously during their escape. The blue-haired lung looked around and could see everyone patiently waiting for their comrades to return. Ch'en then looked towards Yua, the blue-haired lung could see her future daughter talking to Amiya. Ch'en was worried about her future daughter and decided to walk over to the pair.
"Are you sure you are okay, Yua?" Amiya asked her sister with concern clearly present in her voice. "I'm fine, thank you, Amiya. I'm more worried about father, and what Skadi is doing to him. What if she has killed him? What then? Even if we stop her...all of this would have been for nothing." Yua relayed what was concerning her to the cautus. Amiya was about to protest her sister's thoughts, but in the end she couldn't. The cautus began to fear for the doctors safety as well.
Amiya could easily imagine that the future Skadi would kill the doctor, he would never love her. Especially after everything that the future aegir had done to Yua, Ch'en, and herself. "The doctor would never love Skadi after all of that. But what would she do to him? Would she kill him just to spite Ch'en? If she can't have him, then no one can?" Amiya could see that scenario happening. The cautus could see the future aegir would kill the doctor purely for revenge against Ch'en and Yua if she couldn't have him for herself.
The blue-haired lung then appeared in front of Yua and Amiya. Neither the white-haired lung or the cautus expected Ch'en to suddenly appear in front of them, "Mother! Where did you come from?! What are you doing here?!" Yua was clearly startled by her mother's sudden appearance. "I just came to check on you and Amiya. Sorry for startling you. How are you both holding up?! Are you both okay? Are either of you injured?" Ch'en asked the pair with concern.
"We are fine, mother. Thank you for asking. Me and Amiya are more worried about father. We are worried that Skadi will kill him. Or what if she already has? What if we are too late? I never found out what happened to him in my timeline. I don't want to lose him again." Yua relayed her concerns to her mother. Ch'en could understand what her daughter was feeling, the blue-haired lung wouldn't lie that she was also concerned about the man she loved being in the grasp of the Skadi that had destroyed her future daughter's timeline.
Ch'en then quickly looked towards Amiya and could see the same look of concern on her face. "These two, they are so worried. I can't blame them. I feel exactly the same. But we will save the doctor! I'm sure we can! Don't worry doctor, we will save you soon!" Ch'en wasn't going to give up. The blue-haired lung believed that the man she loved was still alive. Ch'en intended to make sure it stayed that way.
"Yua, Amiya, listen to me. We are going to save the doctor! It's not over yet! I'm not going to give Skadi the chance to hurt him! I promise you both that! Don't you give up just yet!" Ch'en reassured the cautus and her future daughter that they would save the doctor, they couldn't give up just yet. Yua and Amiya could see the resolve the blue-haired lung had, they began to feel the same resolve Ch'en did. "Mother's right! We can't give up!" The white-haired lung thought to herself.
Just then, everyone in the building could hear others arriving at their location. The group had their weapons ready thinking the seaborn had found them. But everyone relaxed when they saw that it was Fiammetta and Andreana that had arrived. "Fiammetta, Andreana, what's the situation at the shipyard? How many seaborn are there?" Ch'en asked while walking up towards the pair. "Not good, Ch'en. It's crawling with seaborn. We should be able to beat them, but every single seaborn will be coming right for us as soon as we attack." Andreana was the one who delivered the grim news.
Nobody looked pleased at hearing this news, alerting the seaborn to the groups location was the last thing anyone wanted. "I see." Ch'en said then turned to face Irene, "Irene, are there any other shipyards nearby? I'd rather not have to fight anymore seaborn if we can help it. We don't have time, the longer we fight the seaborn, sooner or later they will begin to push us back. We can't hold them off forever."
"No, Madam Ch'en. The next nearest shipyard is several miles away. We won't make it through the horde. Looks like fighting the seaborn and taking a ship from here is the only option that we have." The liberi responded to the blue-haired lung with the unfortunate news. Ch'en cursed under her breath when she heard this, time was against them. They didn't have long before the seaborn would overrun Rhodes Island, the army from Laterano, and the Iberians. Ch'en would have wanted a different solution to getting to the islands, but it seems the group had no other choice...
Everyone looked towards the blue-haired lung, "Ch'en, whatever you decide to do, I will follow you. You are my sister, I'm not going to abandon you." Talulah reassured her sister that whatever she decided, she would follow her. Ch'en looked towards the draco, then towards everyone else. They all had the same look on their faces that told the blue-haired lung they would all follow her orders. "Very well, we attack. As soon as we can, we grab a boat big enough and get to the islands as quickly as we can. We need to act fast, the whole horde will come down on us as soon as they know where we are. Everyone understand?" The blue-haired lung told everyone her plan.
Everyone agreed with the plan. As soon as they were ready, the group left the building they had been hiding in and began to head towards the shipyard...
Kal'tsit was still trying to locate Ch'en's group. The ancient feline was constantly switching the feeds from the drones that were observing the battle in hopes of locating the blue-haired lung and her team. Eventually, Kal'tsit managed to find the group battling a large group of seaborn at a shipyard, "There they are! They are going to need help! The seaborn will be heading right for them!" Kal'tsit knew that the horde of seaborn would be heading right for Ch'en's location and immediately ordered everyone available operator to head to her location.
Kal'tsit was right, looking at the feed the ancient feline could see many seaborn heading for the shipyard where the blue-haired lungs team was fighting. Thankfully, every nearby operator was also heading in the same direction. The ancient feline hoped that the other operators could buy Ch'en and her group enough time to carry out whatever plan they had.
The fighting around the shipyard was fierce, the seaborn the group was fighting against were incredibly aggressive. Ch'en and the others could tell that the seaborn were intending to tear them to pieces. But, the blue-haired lung and the others were standing firm against the vicious assault. They had no intention of dying here, everyone was using all of their strength and skill to overpower the horde and get to their destination.
More operators from Rhodes Island soon arrived on the scene, this only emboldened Ch'en and the others in their battle, "Everyone, keep fighting through them! We have to get to the islands! Nobody give up! We can do this!" Ch'en was screaming at her comrades to carry on fighting. Every seaborn that fell before them meant they were closer to their objective. More and more seaborn fell, the group was slowly getting closer to the shipyard. Eventually, the group managed to force an opening through the horde. Everyone could see the opening and began to head inside the shipyard to find a vessel they could use to get to the islands.
Yua was the furthest away from the opening when she had noticed it. The white-haired lung began to disengage from the fighting and started to run towards the shipyard to join the others. Yua however, had made a grave mistake turning her back on the enemy. One of the seaborn had begun chasing the white-haired lung to stop her from escaping. When it was close enough, it pounced on Yua and pinned her down to the ground. The white-haired lung could feel the seaborn monster on her back and tried her best to escape its grasp, but to no avail. Other seaborn could see the captured white-haired lung and also pounced on her to prevent her escape, "Somebody! Anybody! Help!" The white-haired lung screamed in fear.
Ch'en and everyone else heard Yua's scream. When the blue-haired lung saw the horrifying situation her future daughter was in, her blood ran cold. "Oh no! Yua! Don't worry Yua! I'm coming!" Ch'en screamed as she ran back to rescue her future daughter. However, as the blue-haired lung was running towards Yua, other seaborn began to block her path, 'Get out my way! All of you! I won't let you hurt her! I don't care how many of you I have to cut down! You are not stopping me from saving my daughter!!" Ch'en wasn't going to let the seaborn kill her future daughter, the blue-haired lung struck down every seaborn monster that was in her path with extreme prejudice. Ch'en was going to save her daughter, or die trying.
Talulah and the others followed the blue-haired lung when she ran off to rescue Yua. The draco was terrified of what would was happening to her sister and niece. More and more seaborn had quickly descended on the area, they were starting to overrun the group and the Rhodes Island operators that had arrived to help. Talulah couldn't see where her relatives were in the chaos, the draco was focused on fighting the seaborn that were doing everything in their power to kill her.
Everyone else was struggling with the seaborn horde, even Ulpianus was having to fight desperately just to survive...the situation was looking bleak for Rhodes Island.
Ch'en could see that more seaborn had pounced on Yua. Ch'en couldn't see her daughter through the mass of seaborn that had surrounded her, "Yua! Yua!" The blue-haired lung screamed in fear, fear that they had killed her future daughter. No response came, Ch'en truly began to believe that her future daughter had truly died this time.
Just then, a flash of blood red began to poke through the mass of seaborn. Ch'en didn't know what it was, but after a few seconds the blue-haired felt a small vibration in the air. All of the seaborn that had surrounded Yua then suddenly went limp, they had stopped moving. The pile of presumably dead seaborn then began to fall, and Yua stood tall. The white-haired lung was basked in a brilliant glow of bright blood red as she stood up, "Is this...Yua's originium arts? What does it feel hot all of a sudden? And is the wind getting faster? What's going on?"
Ch'en couldn't understand phenomenon that was currently happening, The blue-haired lung hadn't seen her daughter's power for herself. Ch'en had only heard it described to her from her sister. But looking at it now, Ch'en was mesmerised by what she was seeing, "Now I understand why Yua got herself infected...so she could use this power." Everything began to click into place for the blue-haired lung on why her future daughter got herself infected. Lungs and draco's had a connection to fire, but something about this was different. Just as Yua herself was different from other lungs, she was unique...Just like this power.
The blood red glow coming from Yua drew the attention of everyone on the battlefield. Those who had never seen the white-haired lungs power before were just as mesmerised as Ch'en. Mostima, Fiammetta, and Talulah however, knew what was coming, "Everybody! Get down! Right now!" The blue-haired sankta bellowed out to everyone. Nobody knew what was going on but did as Mostima shouted and quickly fell to the floor.
Seconds later, Yua then let off the biggest shockwave she had every managed to let off. The shockwave then struck everyone seaborn in the area. Within seconds, everyone single seaborn unfortunate enough to be caught in the blast was dead. Just like before, they had all been burnt from the inside out. When the shockwave dissipated, everyone stood up and looked around at the expected carnage. But, to everyone's surprise the area itself hadn't been damaged by Yua's attack. The only things that were damaged were the seaborn, they were all about bunch of corpses.
Everyone then looked at the white-haired lung who was beginning to power down. The area began to cool down again and the winds began to slow down as well. When the blood red glow had completely disappeared from Yua, Ch'en ran up to her future daughter and hugged her incredibly tightly, "Thank the gods you are alright, Yua. I thought I lost you." The voice of the blue-haired lung broke slightly when she spoke to her daughter.
"I'm fine, mother. I'm just glad we all made it." Yua replied to her clearly upset mother, doing her best to reassure the blue-haired lung. Ch'en then quickly began to check her future daughter to see if she had any serious injuries, the blue-haired lung wasn't going to take any chances after such a terrifying experience. Yua was about to tell Ch'en that she was fine, but quickly decided against it. The white-haired lung could tell her mother was clearly shaken and was doing this for her own reassurance more than anything.
Once Ch'en was satisfied that Yua was fine the two then walked on over to the rest of the group that had gathered at the entrance of the shipyard. Ulpianus was the one to greet the duo, "I thank you for your aid, Yua. What you did saved us all. But we cannot stay here for much longer. More seaborn will no doubt be heading our way, we will need to leave. If you are both ready, there is a ship big enough to take us to the islands. I expect when we arrive the church of the deep will be waiting for us. Be ready for another fight, I suspect Skadi will have warned her followers we are coming. Be ready for anything they will throw at us, these fanatics are more than willing to die for their God." Ulpianus warned the pair of lungs of what they should expect to face when they got to the islands.
Yua and Ch'en nodded, both mother and daughter expected that Skadi was going to throw everything she had at them. The future aegir was not going to give up the doctor easily, if at all. The Rhodes Island operators in the area then bid the group farewell before heading back to join their comrades in the battle against the bulk of the seaborn horde. Once the operators had left, everyone in Ch'en's group then boarded the boat that was big enough for them and began to sail out towards the sea.
In her ancient temple, the future Skadi was pacing around in a somewhat nervous fashion. The future aegir had witnessed what had happened through the eyes of her kin, something had clearly shaken her to her core, or rather, someone. "That power, what is it with Yua's power? That is no ordinary originium arts. This fire, this heat, this is no ordinary fire. My kin, I felt your pain. I felt your suffering. I felt your suffering. Just like before. Yua, what are you? Why does your power scare me so much? I made a mistake, I should have killed you long before you became a threat. I should have killed you when you were in the womb, you are too dangerous. I cannot let you live. All this time, I thought your harlot of a mother was the biggest threat. But I see now I was mistaken." The future Skadi was pondering over Yua's originium arts.
For years, the future aegir believed that Ch'en was the biggest threat that would come between herself and the doctor. But after feeling the pain and suffering that her kin had felt when Yua let off her shockwave, the future Skadi now knew that it was her daughter who was the real threat.
Yua was too dangerous to be allowed to live any longer...
Skadi was regretting not going after her sooner, the power of the white-haired lung was not normal. The future aegir could feel her own seaborn cells quiver at the thought of Yua's fire burning her from the inside out. While the future Skadi knew that she had Ishar-Mla's protection, if she ever lost it, Yua would certainly have the power to kill her. "Yua has to die! She needs to die! At any cost!" The future Skadi knew that the white-haired lung needed to die, "My followers, my kin. Kill Yua! Do whatever it takes! She must die!!" The future Skadi telepathically screamed to both her followers and her seaborn kin.
After sending out her order, the future Skadi then looked towards the doctor who was still on the alter. She then walked up to him and gently caressed the cheek of the sleeping alien man, "We are almost there, doctor. Soon it will only be us in this world. A world that we can shape in our image. Nobody will come between us ever again."
"Just you and me...forever."