Yua was looking around the abandoned village with Shirayuki following close behind her.
Talulah and W had been in one of the buildings for some time, more than likely discussing the upcoming battle plan against Nine and Reunion, so Yua decided to look around the village to see how they could defend against Nine's forces.
The lung didn't know how many people Nine had under her command, but she could guess that even with all the dissent she had, it could still be several hundred. "I hope those people W said would help will arrive soon, if they don't show up we won't last long, I'll die, Shirayuki will die, W will die, and aunt Talulah...she will die as well. All of this would have been for nothing." The lung sadly pondered to herself.
Yua didn't want Talulah to die. She had put her original mission of fighting the seaborn on hold for this. The lung knew she couldn't let her aunt die or die herself here. If that happened, the dark future she came from would happen again, and that terrified her.
Shirayuki could see her charge was struggling with difficult thoughts, so she decided to ask the white-haired lung what was wrong, "Young Madam, what troubles you?" Yua turned to look at the ninja and replied, "Shirayuki, I'm going to be honest with you. I'm scared, scared of failing here. I can't afford to fail here, not when I am so close. I can't let Talulah die. Even with what she has done in the past, she can't die. I know what it will do to Ch'en." Yua told Shirayuki.
The ninja was confused. She didn't understand what Yua was going on about, "You are rambling right now, Young Madam. Talulah is an enemy of Madam Ch'en. Her organisation caused much harm in Lungman. If it wasn't for Rhodes Island, a lot more lives would have been lost. Why have we come here anyway, Young Madam? We shouldn't be helping someone who used to be the leader of Reunion. I know I am your bodyguard, but I don't feel comfortable helping Talulah." Shirayuki told her charge she did not like the fact they were helping the draco.
Yua could understand why Shirayuki thought like this; Ch'en had told her multiple times in the future what happened when Reunion attacked Lungmen.
Yua, however, saw the effects of what had happened to her aunt, which affected her mother. Ch'en tried to keep up a front that it didn't affect her, but Yua knew differently...
The lung also suspected that because of what had happened to her aunt, it played a part in why Ch'en was so protective of her. Her father vanishing, and several years later, Yua nearly dying due to her originium arts were the final straws for the blue-haired lung.
Shirayuki didn't know the whole situation. This reminded Yua that this wasn't the Shirayuki she knew in the future. "Should I tell her?" Yua questioned herself. "No, I need to tell her. I know Shirayuki won't tell a soul; she always kept my secrets, even from her mother, if I told her to do so. I'm going to tell her; she has to know what's going on." Yua took a moment to compose herself. Once she was ready, Yua decided to tell Shirayuki the truth on why she was here.
"Shirayuki, what I'm about to tell you is the truth. I know it will sound like I'm crazy, but you must believe me." Yua told Shirayuki.
Shirayuki nodded and looked at Yua. This was the signal that she was paying full attention to what Yua was going to say.
Yua took a deep breath to steady herself before she spoke to the ninja, "Shirayuki, I am from the future. A future that has been destroyed. I have been sent back to prevent that future from happening again. The people who sent me back were Doctor Kal'tsit and my mother...Ch'en." Shirayuki took a few seconds to register what Yua said.
When the ninja registered what Yua said, her eyes widened, and she realized what that indicated about the lung. "If what the young madam is saying is true, that means that she is the daughter of the doctor and madam Ch'en! And Talulah is madam Ch'en's sister, so the young madam is Talulah's niece! No wonder she wants to help her! But what kind of future does she come from? How did she get here?! And how do the doctor and madam Ch'en get together?! And does she know me in the future?! I have so many questions!" Shirayuki's mind was completely blown by what Yua had said.
Yua could see her bodyguard was struggling to make any sense of what she said, and Yua couldn't blame her.
If she was in the same position, the white-haired would admit she would find this difficult to believe as well. "Shirayuki, I know this is hard to believe, I know you may have a lot of questions. But believe me, this is the truth. It's not as outlandish as you think." Yua told Shirayuki to believe what she was saying.
A voice from behind Yua spoke up to confirm Yua was telling the truth, "I know it's not outlandish or a lie, if I hadn't seen the proof myself Yua... Or should I say my dear niece." Yua turned pale when she heard the voice behind her.
When the lung turned around, she could see her aunt and W behind her, and the draco was holding her locket that held the photo of herself and her parents. "W! What have you done! What have you told her!" The lung shouted at the sarkaz. She was furious with what W had done, telling Shirayuki was difficult enough. Yua didn't want anyone else to know.
Talulah held her hand out to silence her niece from ranting any further. The draco wanted to explain why W had shown her the locket. "Silence Yua! W showed me this for a reason. She showed me this so I could see why you came here. I couldn't trust someone who appeared out of the blue to help me for no reason. I found it suspicious. But when W showed me this, I thought it was some kind of joke. W explained that you were from the future and my sisters daughter. And what you have just said confirmed that this photo is real." When Talulah told Yua the reason W showed her the photo she calmed down, while she still wasn't happy that she did it, the white-haired lung could at least understand it was needed to gain her aunts trust.
Talulah looked at the photo again and then looked at Yua, "So, my dear sister has a family and a daughter with the doctor of Rhodes Island. It's still hard to believe, but looking at this photo, she seems happy. Tell me, Yua, I'm curious, what's Ch'en like in the future if you don't mind me asking." The draco asked her niece about her sister in the future.
Yua was hesitant to talk about the future Ch'en or even the future in general. While she did love her mother, the lung had too many bad memories of the future.
Talulah could sense that her niece didn't want to talk about her sister in the future. It must have brought up memories that she didn't want to be reminded of.
So Talulah decided to ask Yua about her sister in the present, "Very well Yua, I can see talking about the future makes you uncomfortable, so instead I want to know how Ch'en is doing at Rhodes Island. Is she doing well?"
Yua felt better after talking about her mother in the present. So she answered her aunt's question, "She is fine. I know her and my father are getting closer. I kept an eye on them when they had a date not too long ago." Talulah nodded at her niece's answer and then decided to ask another question, "I see. Yua, does your mother know that you are her daughter? Or your father, the doctor? Have you told either of them that you are from the future?"
Yua responded, "No. My father knows that I am his daughter, but he doesn't know that I am from the future. I told him that I used to live in Lungman with my mother, who passed away. As for my mother, she doesn't know that I am her daughter or from the future. She only knows that I am my father's child. I haven't told either of them I'm from the future because I don't want them to get involved in my mission." Talulah had a sad look on her face when her niece told her this. The draco decided to give her niece some advice.
"Yua, I want you to listen to me. I want you to tell your parents who you really are and where you came from. They have a right to know the truth. If we don't make it through this, how cruel do you think that will be? My sister would have lost her child without knowing who you are, and your father will only know the lie you have told him. So please, Yua. I know I'm not the right person to say this, but do the right thing. If we do make it out of this, I beg you to tell them. They can help with whatever your mission is; you don't have to go through it alone." Talulah told the lung.
The atmosphere around them all of a sudden had turned heavy; nobody knew what to say after what Talulah told her niece.
Even W couldn't think of a sarcastic quip to say...
The four individuals remained in complete silence, mulling over Talulah's words to Yua. Yua took a long time to think about what her aunt said and came to a conclusion: "Aunt Talulah is right. I can't hide the truth from them anymore. Mother and Father deserve to know. And I don't have to complete my mission alone anymore; they can help. I know they will help. If we make it through this, I'll tell them everything. Mother, father, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for the lies and hiding everything from you. I will make this right." Yua promised herself and her parents.
Yua then spoke to Talulah, "Okay, I promise to tell them Aunt Talulah." The lung realised what she had said and brought her hands to her face, she was going to apologise to Talulah for calling her aunt.
The draco, however, smiled, "It's fine, Yua. There's no need to apologise. After all, I am your aunt. If anything, I'm more than happy to be called that... my niece." Both the draco and the lung smiled at each other, acknowledging each other as family.
A sound of what sounded like vehicles in the distance broke the atmosphere between the four. When they looked in the direction where the sound was coming from, all of them could see a large dust cloud getting closer in the distance.
W realised it couldn't be her people. They wouldn't be able to make such a large dust cloud with the number of people she had, "It's Nine and Reunion! They know where we are! And it's just us four! We can't take on that many people!" Talulah could see the distress in her old comrade.
She ordered W and Shirayuki to fall back inside a building to give her, and Yua ranged support. Talulah told Yua that they would meet up with the incoming Nine and her Reunion members.
Talulah wanted to try to speak with Nine to hopefully end this peacefully, though the draco suspected it would be futile. But Talulah had family here now. She didn't want Yua to fight if possible. But if Nine was hell-bent on killing her, the draco had a sickening feeling Yua would be a target of hers as well for helping her.
The dust cloud got closer and closer to the abandoned village, and Talulah and Yua could see many vehicles approaching their position. "Dammit! Nine must have three to four hundred people with her! She must be serious about wanting to kill me! I don't want any more violence! Too many people have died because of me! I can't let Yua end up dead as well!" Talulah grimly thought to herself.
The vehicles got closer and closer until they came to a stop not too far from Talulah and Yua. The passenger door of the lead vehicle opened and out stepped a red-haired female pythia.
When the pythia locked eyes with Talulah, a grin appeared on her face. The pythia then walked forward until she was within speaking range with Talulah. The pythia then stopped and addressed Talulah, "Well, hello, Talulah. Long time no see. You haven't forgotten me, have you?"
Talulah had a scowl on her face when the pythia spoke to her, "No, Nine I haven't. How could I forget the fight we had?" She replied.
Nine let out a small chuckle, "Good to see you remember that. Anyway, I'm not here for a friendly chat. Talulah, your existence is a threat to me. Some of my members want you back in charge, but I've had to deal with many headaches because of you. I am in charge now, not you. I will show all of Terra that the infected will no longer be denied. We will be seen as equals, whether they like it or not. I will lead Reunion to our goal. We will crush all those who oppose us. You on the other hand are a reminder of failure, a failure to achieve our goal. I don't want Reunion to be led by failure. As long as you are alive, that is all what will come to our enemies' minds, failure. So I'm going to get rid of you and achieve our aim."
Yua listened to what Nine had said and she was angry, while the lung sympathized with the plight of the infected, she didn't agree that attacking and killing innocent people was the right or just thing to do.
It would only make others fear the infected more. It wouldn't do any good; it would only end in more bloodshed.
Yua wanted to stop Nine right there and then, she was just about to draw her sword, but her aunt noticed what Yua was about to do out of the corner of her eye and held out her arm to stop her.
Talulah then took a few steps to get closer to Nine to try to reason with her. "Nine, it doesn't have to be this way. I don't want to fight. I don't want to lead Reunion anymore. If you're going to do what you say you're going to do, it will only end in suffering. You will make the same mistakes I made. I didn't want Reunion to be like this. I created Reunion to show people that they didn't have to fear us. That we weren't the enemy. But I made so many mistakes, caused so much death and destruction, and let a madman lead me to ruin. If you do this, it will only happen again. People will fear us even more. We don't need to fight. If you truly want to show others that the infected deserve to be equals, then don't do this. No more blood needs to be spilt by this organization's hands. Please, Nine, I beg you." Talulah tried pleading with her fellow infected.
The pythia scoffed at the draco's plea, "So it's not just failure Reunion will be led by if you are in charge again... but weakness as well. This is why the infected have suffered at the hands of others; we can't let someone like you lead us. If we all have your mindset, the people of Terra will continue to make us suffer. Well, I'm not going to let that happen, Talulah. It stops now. Our suffering ends now, and you along with it." Nine said with venom present in her voice.
Many Reunion members then got out of their vehicles with weapons drawn. Both aunt and niece could see all the Reunion members with their weapons and got their own ready. Nine seeing that Talulah and whoever was next to her was ready to fight ordered her members to kill the pair, with a battle cry, Reunion charged at Yua and Talulah.
Seeing the Reunion members charge at them, Talulah waved her arm, and a huge wall of fire appeared between them and Reunion, which stopped the oncoming charge in its tracks. This gave time for Yua and Talulah to retreat back near the village so W and Shirayuki would be in range to give them support.
Looking at the wall of fire, Yua asked, "What did you do, Aunt Talulah? How did you do it?" Talulah replied, "That's my originium arts. I've done that to give us time, but it won't stay up long. When the fire dies out, they will come for us. Be ready." While Yua was in awe of her aunt's power, the lung knew she had to focus on the task at hand: people would be coming to kill them when the fire died down.
She couldn't afford to be distracted when she and her aunt would be fighting for their lives.
After a few minutes, the fire died out, and a horde of Reunion members were heading right towards them. Seeing the oncoming threat, W launched a grenade from one of her weapons, and Shirayuki threw her shuriken towards the enemies.
Talulah and Yua then looked at each other and nodded; then they charged at the oncoming Reunion fighters, knowing they couldn't fail for if they did many more lives would be lost in the future. With the sounds of roars from both of them, the battle had truly begun...