Leaves in a Windy Mind

by Shadow Master

(Drabbles, multiple crossovers) Decided to resurrect my old habit of putting any new crossover plot ideas into Drabble form rather than jump right into a full fledged story. Hope it'll help me focus on my in progress works and not get distracted. Please vote for the ones you want to see continued either as a Drabble or a true story.

19. A Devil in the Shadows

"A Devil in the Shadows" By Shadow Master

(BtVS/Devil May Cry Universe/Eminence in Shadow)

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted materials contained herein. They are the rightful property of their respective creators and/or associated companies. I make no profit from this whatsoever and I have no intention of changing that at any point in the future. I write because it's fun and because there are those who find reading my stories enjoyable. Therefore please refrain from taking any legal action against me because I am nowhere near wealthy enough to make such proceedings worth the fees the high priced lawyers will bill you for.

Note: Got this idea after seeing the anime series 'The Eminence in Shadow' and while the show is hammy and isekai's starting to become a worn out theme amongst new anime it was still fun. Naturally I tried to think of how best to insert Xander into this verse and how to make it amusing as well as exciting and well I came up with this. It's a bit of a rocky start I'll admit but to be honest there are only so many openings the BtVS universe gives me for taking a character from there and plopping it down someplace else. This in my mind was the most feasible that didn't require that a reader completely hit pause on their brain's higher reasoning functions for a few paragraphs. If you feel differently please submit a summary of how it could've been done better in your review.

Note 2: As usual positive reviews will be greatly appreciated, constructive criticism will be considered but not necessarily acted on and negative/bashing/venomous/trolling/hateful/hurtful/antagonistic reviews will either be ignored outright or burned as fuel to keep things going. I am not asking for EVERYONE to like my work because even the professionals know that that is impossible. However I refuse to let negative reviews by people just looking to take a hatchet to my work control what I write, how I write or even if I write. You don't like my stories? You don't have to read them if you don't want to and you are free to find something else. However don't think for an instant that any degree of review bombing, hurtful words or just plain asshole behaviour is going to get me to give up.

Now that that is all handled….ON WITH THE SHOW!

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A Devil in the Shadows

---

The Offices of the B.C.H.C

A Level of Existence Above the Multiverse

"What's this Alice?" He asked glancing at what'd just been placed on his desk before directing his gaze at the woman before him.

"Last minute N.S.D that needs handling before the end of the cycle." Alice replied with a bit of sympathy.

"Do you not SEE what I have on my plate already?" He asked with a bit of exasperation pointing at three thick folders within arm's reach, "Some people from the six-one-six district showed up in my area and I'm up to my waist in patchwork, retcons and figuring out which excuses haven't been used in the last dozen or so cycles."

"Ouch. Sorry to hear that Bob. Had to deal with some from Earth-789's a little while back." Alice said with a wince, "They're bad but the six-one-sixers are definitely a handful."

"It's pretty much to be expected of people from that neck of the woods." He said with a shrug, "They've got looser rules when it comes to hopping between realities than anywhere else. Maybe if that changed it'd mean less trouble for us but the odds of that happening…"

"…zero. The district managers over there just LOVE seeing the sparks fly whenever someone decided to stray from their zone." Alice said finishing things for him, "Still this file comes straight from Chuck. He wants it worked and completed before the end of the cycle."

"But that's not a lot of time." He said picking up the file and opening it up, "What soul could be so important that someone'd put a rush order on it."

When he saw the contents of the file though it made sense.

A terrible sense and one that left a bit of bitterness in his mouth.

Him.

When people use the term 'cosmic accident' they usually refer to big events or flashy phenomena that had odds so thoroughly against them happening that no one could explain HOW the odds had been beaten. Everything from a scientist gaining superpowers when the process that gifted them should've killed the person to an unfathomable convergence of variables giving birth to a being of unparalleled power. However there are other instances of cosmic accidents that often get overlooked because they were fairly ordinary looking or written off as something mediocre. In most cases they happen when something or someone completely breaks away from the thread of destiny that had manifested the moment they came into being. Like trains on a train track all that existed followed the rails along a set path towards a set destination and even if it looked like there were multiple possibilities there wasn't. From the moment each thing came into being they possessed certain inherent characteristics that limited the paths they could go down. When added to the variables inherent in their environment as well as the other things around them that reduced the paths more until there was only one path left.

For living beings with sentience they often possessed the illusion of a limitless future with hard work and resolve being the only things necessary.

The truth though was that there was no true choice.

Then once in a long while there were people like the one in this file.

People who for whatever reason managed to break from their set path and like a sickness tended to affect others to cause lesser breaks to occur. Some could be managed with a few life changing moments guiding these people to places where they could do nothing to affect the the world around them. Others did away with themselves without any outside help. A select few however had to be eliminated from the tapestry of their reality before they reached a point where they'd cause it to collapse.

In the case of this one, Xander Harris, he had enough personality flaws and insecurities that he was among the sort that could be managed. They had after all managed to do so with quite a few Xander Harris variants in other realities until each of them died at the hands of one demon or another. In this specific one's case the script was to have him be a support character to one of the champions for a little over ten years before perishing in a way to bolster the champion's fighting spirit. A martyr of sorts that would serve to motivate the right people to continue fighting the eternal battle in spite of the hardships that awaited them.

However according to this file the Xander Harris it spoke of had been unexpectedly been killed from a blow that should've only knocked him out. The scenario had been that Angel the vampire with a soul would pretend to turn into Angelus and side with the traitorous Slayer Faith who had thrown her lot in with Mayor Wilkins. A random encounter with Harris was supposed to conclude with a punch just strong enough to knock him out but due to the neck hitting the curb at the wrong angle had in fact snapped the spine resulting in death. Whether it was due to their talking or the sounds of Sunnydale muffling the noise neither the souled vampire or the fallen Slayer heard anything to make them understand the truth of what'd happened.

It was due to this that the file had wound up on his desk.

Normally the soul would just get thrown into the cycle of reincarnation for its native reality but a note in the file from Chuck forbid this from being done. The note stated that this Xander Harris had been red flagged due to the manner of his death and thus needed to be dealt with. It didn't take a genius to figure out what lay between the lines.

They wanted this Xander Harris to be given the standard relocation treatment.

It was a commonly used method for dealing with individuals who'd died in a way not scripted for them and often proved useful in balancing out other realities. He vaguely recalled how on certain realities it was a popular genre of animated series to do something similar albeit with a few inaccuracies. In some cases yesterday the soul was placed in a reality to become the hero in order to reign in dark elements that were destabilizing the reality but in others the relocated person was given the role of villain. Some worlds tended to settle into periods of stagnation that if not dealt with would lead to ruin so a 'rock' needed to be thrown at it to get it moving again. That rock could be anything but for relocation of a soul it'd mean being the villain that created hardship and suffering forcing the people of the reality to better themselves in order to survive.

"Fine." He said with a sigh, "I'll get this done as quickly as I can but it's not going to be anything fancy."

"Don't think it needs to be. Chuck just wants it all tied up before his next big meeting with his buddies." Alice said not sounding too worried.

"I doubt he thinks of any of them as 'buddies'. More like rivals who occasionally get together for drinks." He said with a smirk, "See you tomorrow Alice."

"See ya." Alice said before heading away no doubt to get her things before heading home for the night.

Not that there was anything approaching night or day in the pocket dimension they lived in but there was a passage of time that such terms helped them keep straight.

~Now…what do we have available in the vacancies?~ He thought bringing up the list of realities currently out of balance and the roles available in each one, ~Hmmm…looks like everybody's been busy. Not a large selection this time around.~

It wasn't entirely surprising since like businesses in the realities dominated by humans there were periods where rare things rose to become common for awhile before dropping once more. As a result he had only a handful of possibilities to work with and thus needed to find something that'd work as a passable fit for a Xander Harris soul. Anything would really do to be honest but there was an element of soul compatibility to take into account to ensure everything wouldn't fall to pieces.

It was only after five minutes of perusal that he found a possibility that made him smile with humour and his instincts nod that it was the best choice. Indeed when taking the soul's previous life into account you'd almost think it karma that this choice would be available to him at this precise moment. Without hesitation he began the process of assigning this role to the soul of Xander Harris almost chuckling at how it'd turn out in the end. There were a few details attached to the role but he just randomly made some choices before sending it down to Dave in the packaging and shipping department. They were the ones charged with placing the soul to be relocated in its new body as well as adding any needed extras to allow for optimum insertion. Once that was done it'd be sent to the destination reality with no idea that there'd been a brief stop between their native reality and their new one.

Not his best work but based on the file and what Alice had told him it didn't sound like Chuck cared about quality this time around. Expediency was the name of the game and he'd done just that.

~Hope you like your new life Xander Harris.~ He thought amused smile still firmly on his face, ~You're going to have to deal with it potentially for a VERY long time.~

---

Packaging and Shipping Department

BEEP! BEEP!

"Huh? A dispatch this late in the cycle." Dave said looking up from his 'Multiverse Today' magazine before slothfully moving over to his station.

It wasn't a very exciting job for him but everyone had their role to play in the grand scheme of things. Besides he enjoyed having his peace and quiet since it allowed him to peruse the various diversions of the multiverse uninterrupted. Indeed almost no one physically showed up here so long as he did his job in an efficient as well as expeditious manner.

"Hmmm…work from Bob." He muttered looking over the paperwork, "Looks like he half-assed it though. Not my problem. If this is what the paperwork says then this would be what he would do and if trouble starts it'll be on Bob's head not mine."

With skill and speed born of doing this for countless years he summoned the soul from storage before prepping it for transition and travel. On the plus side Bob's paperwork would free up some space that had been occupied in accessory storage for quite awhile so that'd make Eddie happy. Ever was the man complaining about how he continued to get stuff but was running out of places to put it that wouldn't look like a pile of stuff in the corner. You would think that infinite storage space would be part of the benefits of the man's job but management found that to be an impractical use of resources. Instead they went with something more cost effective and practical even though it put strain on their subordinates.

"There. Soul accessorized and prepped for multiversal travel." He said before bringing up the navigation program and bringing up the list of destinations.

It didn't take him long to find the reality Bob had chosen but when he tried to select it an error kept popping up.

"Damn 'upgrades'! They say it's supposed to make things easier but all it does is gum up the works on me!" He grumbled after going through the tips that were supposed to help him work around the problem but to no avail.

Knowing that the marking on the paperwork indicated that this needed to be done soon he decided to take a little initiative and choose a destination all his own. What was the worst thing they could do? Fire him? He'd be fine with that but he doubted that they would. He'd been here too long, knew the department too well and finding a replacement that was up to the job would be too much work for them.

Perusing through the most recent relocations he managed to find one that was done recently to a reality that fit most of the criteria Bob's original choice possessed save a few. The thing that locked it with him was that there'd been a relocation recently to that reality and as such there was still a lingering spectral link to it. This would facilitate establishing a connection with it rather than building everything from the ground up like he normally would. With a grunt of approval he selected the reality and much like he'd been expecting the decision was accepted by the system.

A moment later data began to flow in about that world, its inhabitants, its culture and most importantly a list of receptacles for the soul he was about to send there. Babies about to be born, life forms approaching death or who had died but their body was still fit for habitation. One of the benefits of existing outside of the multiverse proper was that they had more leeway for insertions like this. Instead of having seconds to act he had more than a few minutes to peruse the possibilities before choosing one that matched Bob's requirements the closest.

"Typical. I get a break and wind up getting a crap list." He muttered finding nothing on the list that'd be a good match, "Animal, animal, old geezer with not much time left anyhow and of course it just keeps getting worse."

In the end he'd decided to go with a body that would be able to make the best use of the accessories attached to the soul. His station allowed him to simulate what would happen if the soul were to be matched to the highlighted body so it only took him a little while to find the one that scored the highest in compatibility both with the soul as well as the accessories. Taking a look at the soul's previous life summary that included a picture and then looking at the image of the new body it'd be squeezed into he barely blinked before finalizing the selection. He'd seen every sort of pairing between a soul and a body there was so this wasn't the oddest combo by far that he'd been responsible for.

With one final press of a button the soul was sent into the in between point between realities on a direct course for the destination reality as well as the body in question.

The body that was even now losing its connection to the soul that'd been born to it due to a foolish obsession.

---

Within the Velgalta Empire

The Mountains Outside of Madlid

Xander's POV

Pain.

Pain was what awoke him from the fog of unconsciousness and BOY was it one helluva wakeup call. It was enough for him to sit up in the blink of an eye but this only inflamed the pain further causing muscles to tighten, his back to arch and for it to be impossible for even a sound to leave his lips. Indeed he was only just able to get air into his lungs to keep himself from suffocating or losing consciousness but it was a mixed blessing since getting KOed would've saved him from the pain. Indeed the agony had gotten to the point where he was afraid that his heart would pop from how hard it was beating but then it all came to an end.

The pain had exhausted itself and was withdrawing back into whatever pit it'd come from even though his body throbbed even with it gone. It left phantom sensations throughout that made it difficult to discern how he was doing health-wise so instead of that he tried to recall how he'd gotten into this state in the first place. He remembered…walking down the street in Sunnydale…seeing Deadboy and Fatih who'd been missing for awhile…running up to them to let them know what was going on…then…then…

…then he was pretty sure Deadboy clocked him one in the jaw hard enough to knock him out.

Or at least that's what he assumed had happened since everything had gone black soon after he'd been punched.

~Funny…my jaw's the only thing that isn't throbbing right now.~ He thought reaching up to rub his jaw.

He froze as the feel of the fingers on his jaw was way different from what was normal for him with the only thing that even felt close was the feeling of calluses. Putting his hand out in front of him he could immediately tell that the hand as well as the arm it was attached to didn't belong to him but for an odd combo of reasons. For one thing it only took a look to tell that they were arms you'd expect to see on a woman rather than a man and for another the muscle tone looked different from what he knew to be his. For a guy that wasn't on any sport team, didn't do weights and only barely ate properly he'd never had the sort of muscles most girls swooned over. While these were the arms of a woman you could tell that the muscles had been honed through years of exercises and not the sort aimed at keeping your percentage of body fat to a minimum.

No the muscles were those honed by one intent on preparing for combat.

How did he know this? Because thanks to the soldier memories from Halloween he knew the difference between fitness muscles and warrior muscles.

Daring to look down he found that it was not just his arms that weren't the right shape or girth according to his memories making him wonder how the hell this had happened to him.

Deciding to look away from the source of his confusion he took notice of the fact that the room he was in didn't match anything he was familiar with either. The closest resemblance he could think of was some sort of cross between a wizard's laboratory and a morgue given that there were multiple tables with what looked to be corpses on them. Of different races, genders and ages but all of them to one degree or another showed signs of being examined, experimented on or just cut open for autopsy. Looking down again quickly he sighed in relief when he couldn't see a single open wound, needle puncture mark and definitely no exposed organs.

~Now that I think about it maybe that's why I was hurting so bad before.~ He thought swinging his legs over the side of the table he'd been on, ~Maybe that was my body healing itself somehow.~

Healing wasn't always painless after all and if it was done at high speed the agony might well get amplified quite a bit.

"Well first things first before figuring out what the hell happened is getting some fucking clothes on." He said only somewhat thrown by the female voice to come from his lips, "No way am going anywhere naked."

Looking about the room for anything that might fit him he was disappointed to only find what looked like one of those hospital gowns patients are forced to wear. He knew he was probably expecting too much for there to be a pair of pants and a shirt in a lab like this but it definitely would've been less breezy. With only a bit of clumsiness he managed to get it on and using what looked to be a strap made sure there wouldn't be any accidents in the future he was properly covered up. It had long been a concern of his whenever he'd been put in one that he'd wind up mooning someone or more specifically a Scooby. Willow of course had explained that the reason for the gown's design was to protect modesty while at the same time giving the doctors easier access to the places they might need to examine.

That and probably so they could insert and remove the catheter easier.

He couldn't help but shiver a bit at the imagery.

With clothing resolved he walked towards the door to find out where he was and hopefully how he'd gotten there in a body that definitely didn't belong to him. About halfway there though he realized that anyone willing to do stuff like this to humanoid beings who were probably sentient like humans probably wouldn't be overly helpful. In fact they'd probably bring them right back here to find answers for their own agendas rather than anything beneficial for him.

He'd try it the peaceful way but in the event that failed him he'd need a weapon of some kind to fight his way past them. Looking about the room he found plenty of what could be considered surgical tools but none of them had the sort of range he'd prefer. Looking around even more his eyes eventually fell upon what looked to be a decoration shield hanging on the wall with two swords crossed behind it. He'd seen several in movies but with most of those the swords had been welded in place making the whole thing little more than a shield with a sword hilt welded to it at two points. Walking over to it she reached for one of the sword hilts and upon gripping it tried to pull it out the way it looked like it'd go to get free.

Imagine his surprise when the sword not only came out with only a little resistance but he couldn't spot anything on the blade indicating it'd been welded in place. It puzzled him for all of three seconds before he figured that it'd intentionally been made to look like an ornament but was in fact a concealed weapon in case it turned out to be needed. That meant whoever lived here had enemies that could pay them a visit and wanted to be less than obvious about being prepared for it.

"Whatever." He said before giving the weapon a few practice swings.

He didn't like the fact that the sword was lighter than he'd been expecting since he was fairly sure that it meant the blade was made up of lighter metals. Lighter metal meant that it'd be less durable running the risk of it bending or perhaps even breaking if hit hard enough by an enemy's weapon. Was this in fact ornamental after all or had it been designed this way to allow for faster attacks? If it was the latter then it'd be up to him moving to evade attacks before dealing out some of his own attacks.

~I'll have to make the first two or three be all I need.~ He thought resuming his walk to the door, ~Anything more than that and the advantage of them underestimating me will be all burned up.~

It was why he often went with the tackle and stake approach with vamps since there were some things that would work on anyone as long as you had surprise on your side.

A speedy escape from wherever this place was would probably be a good idea if getting answers turned out to be a waste of time. A running battle would hopefully keep the number of people who'd see how completely amateurish he was with a sword to a minimum plus getting bogged down anywhere would be an instant loss situation. Take them down fast or do enough get them out of the way so he could make it past them to close the distance between himself and freedom.

With plan in mind she pulled open the door that quite frankly looked like it'd been made at the turn of the previous century but almost recoiled as a smell assaulted his nose. He didn't know if it was that something had been done to enhance his sense of smell or if the smell was merely that potent but it was revolting nonetheless. Bringing up a hand to cover his nose he did his best to breath only through his mouth but sadly that only meant that he soon had a foul taste in his mouth. Stepping through the door to see what precisely the source of the stink was he found himself paralyzed in shock at what his eyes beheld.

Up and down the hallway he now found himself in were dungeon cells upon dungeon cells numbering at least a dozen if not double that. It was all too befitting of a historical movie with an elite team of consultants brought in to assure accuracy of the setting. However it was what lay within the cells that he could see and what his eyes told him was leaking out of them that traumatized him the most.

Inside the cells were girls of various ages ranging from five or six years of age all the way to the late twenties if he was any judge. More than that they appeared to be of different races ranging from human to elf to various animal-people making it clear he wasn't in his own world. Any race capable of sustaining itself wouldn't be able to hide itself from all eyes and he knew of no sign that science had advanced to the point of creating artificial races. Their existence was part of the shock that frozen him in place but the lion's share of it was the state of those within the cells before him. Clad only in dirty gowns like the one he'd found many looked like someone had thought merely dumping a bucket of water over their heads counted as cleaning them. There were also signs of experimentation on their visible skin from needle marks to incisions to stitches as well as a few other things he wouldn't have been surprised to see on a hospital patient.

But it was the look in their eyes, every single one of them, that brought his shock into unshakable crystal clarity.

Like most nerds he'd seen various depictions in both cartoons and comic books of a character's eyes going from being like the lens of a camera to something devoid of life. The obvious implication being that when the character's eyes are reflective of light like a camera lens then they are alive or at least their soul is shining but when the shining disappears the soul is dead. A character can have the latter eyes and their body still be alive but the soul would only barely remain attached to it leaving nothing to stand out to be recognized.

Of the girls and women who saw him easily a third of them had but a grain of light left in their eyes while the rest were clearly circling the drain. Only three or so were probably fresh arrivals still looking like civvies and quivering because their soul still struggled to understand, to accept or choose. Only those that still had hope in their soul and had yet to be desensitized to the horror they found themselves in looked like those three did.

~What the fuck is this?!~ He thought as control began to seep back into his body, ~This looks like what you'd expect Doc Mengele's lab to have! This is what you'd see a demon scientist working with!~

All the things he'd seen since siding with Buffy and G-Man paled compared to this making him wonder if the darkness of his reality went this deep as well. For a moment fear began to creep into his soul but then he remembered his oath and he silenced the fear or at least contained it deep inside a vault within his mind. Fear in and of itself wasn't a bad thing so long as you controlled it rather than allowing it to control you. Fear was what alerted you to danger, what caused you to retreat from things that could harm you and as any teenager knew fear could be fun in the right circumstances.

In this case however fear would only lead to mistakes and given how little he had to work with he couldn't afford to make many of those. Stepping with strength into the hallway he looked for the nearest exit and once found began to make his way to it hoping it lead out into the open air.

"Don't go!"

The cry stopped him from taking another step but at the same time he didn't turn around to see who'd spoken lest his heart compels him to act.

"Let us out! We need to get out of this place!"

"Yes! Set us free! We can help you!"

His treacherous mind began to think on such words to weigh their veracity and calculate if the gains would outweigh the risks. Having more people would help with obstacles that could get in his way and act as decoys drawing fire from whatever forces might try to keep them here. So long as he did nothing to single himself out of the crowd as a target and remained just another face in the crowd he could make it out alone. If he was lucky the people or demons or whatever behind all this wouldn't care if one or two people made it out and at best would send a token force to pursue.

That was something he could handle.

At the same time letting out a large group of people would increase the odds of the place going into security lockdown before he got within sight of the exit. Trying to control such a group to get the best results would be next to impossible without giving them a powerful incentive to obey. He knew nothing of them and they knew nothing of him with the only thing binding them together being a desire to escape this place in order to go someplace better. The only thing letting them go would do would be to sow chaos and with chaos there was no telling if he'd benefit or get screwed.

"Mommy…I want to…see…Mommy!"

This statement could only have come from one of the younger prisoners and it was then that he knew just walking out the door was no longer an option for him. Regardless of the pros and cons, in defiance of common sense, he couldn't turn his back on such an innocent cry from one so young.

"I am utterly stupid." He muttered before turning around to look for a set of keys or some mechanism that'd open the cells.

Gazing about he couldn't see the sort of mechanical controls used in a place like Alcatraz that he'd seen in a documentary on TV so that hinted at keys being the way to go. The smart move would be to keep the keys on the jailor and not leave them in the cell block hanging on a hook. While it didn't look like they had much to work with he'd seen enough movies to know that options can come from the most unassuming of sources. Leaving the keys to the cells within eyesight of the prisoners was to invite attempts to acquire them and escape with it only being a matter of time before one of the prisoners succeeded.

Which was why he could only conclude that the people running the show here were careless, arrogant or just plain stupid because he did indeed find the keys he sought hanging on a hook in the far corner of the cell block. Walking up to them slowly he looked all about for any signs of traps or something that hinted that he was being suckered. The closer he got to the keys without seeing anything the more antsy he got but when he finally lifted the keys off the hook without anything bad happening he couldn't help but be disappointed. While he didn't want to be jailed or anything he did have a bare minimum standard when it came to who could jail him.

This?

This was subpar and there was no getting around it.

With a momentary frown of distaste she went over to the nearest cell before going through the keys until he found the one to unlock the door. Once inside she had to do a bit more experimenting to find the keys to the chains they had on them but thankfully the size of the keyholes on the chains cut down some of the possibilities.

~Apparently whoever runs this place bought his chains in bulk.~ He thought finding that a key that unlocked one set of chains was capable of unlocking others as well, ~Good for me and them but no so good for him or her.~

It took a little over ten minutes before he had all the cell doors open and all the chains off of the prisoners but he knew that that didn't mean much. Until they were all outside and away from wherever they were all he'd done was provide a chance at some exercise and maybe some comfort. Leaving the last cell he walked to the door that'd officially get this escape underway before looking over his shoulder.

"I'm not promising you anything. Not your safety, not your freedom and not your future." He said plainly and honestly, "All I'm giving you is a chance. What you do with it from here on out is up to you. Me? I'm getting out of here and anyone who gets in my way is going to have a VERY bad day."

With that he pushed the door open, gripped his sword in preparation for battle and left the horror he'd discovered behind him. The castle-esque architecture didn't end making him wonder at just what level this reality currently was to have dungeons and chains but no sign of technology. Was he in some knights and princesses reality? Maybe some magic thrown about for flavouring? If so then hallways were bottlenecks for getting zapped and in more open areas staying on the move was going to be the only thing keeping her from being made extra crispy.

A medieval world also meant metal armour so he'd have to aim his hits at the joints, armpits and neck if he wanted to do any good whatsoever.

~Maybe if I had a buster sword and could swing it around like Cloud I could chop through metal armour but this is more like a letter opener compared to that blade.~ He thought choosing a random direction since there was no sign of one being better than the other.

Behind him he could hear the sound of others pitter-pattering behind him and knew that the former prisoners had decided to follow him. Were they looking for protection? Did they think he knew more than he did about getting out of here? Or was fear causing them to cling to the only source of strength they knew of? Whatever the case he wouldn't go out of his way to protect them or rush to their rescue and it wasn't because he was heartless but instead it was because he knew he'd only make things worse. He had nowhere near the training or gear to pull a Batman covering for all of them while at the same time making progress towards freedom.

If an amateur like him tried he'd only screw things up and at best get himself killed along with everyone else. At worst any survivors would be thrown back into the dungeon to await further experimentation that'd probably be more painful than necessary to teach them a lesson about the consequences of trying to escape.

Better to focus on his own escape and leave them to their own devices.

His movements were swift but as silent as he could make them keeping his ears sharp for any sign of trouble around the next corner or close to an intersection ahead. It was definitely amateur hour efforts but it was still better than literally walking right into the enemy and being the one surprised rather than the one doing the surprising. It was when he reached the top of a flight of stone stairs and stood before a heavy door that he heard what sounded like talking on the other side. Listening carefully he could make out only two voices muffled as they were by the door so hopefully there were at most four on the other side with only half of them being chatty.

~Doubt the hinges on this thing have been greased in a while so slipping it open slowly isn't gonna happen.~ He thought bringing his blade up, ~Better to bash through and take as many as I can down in the first few seconds.~

Shock would cause however many were left to hesitate hopefully giving him the opening he needed to settle things.

One…and…two…and THREE!

Twisting the doorknob he slammed all the weight of his new body into the door letting go once he sensed that momentum was steadily rising. The first hostile he saw looked like a secret society member with a plate that had the Celtic trinity knot keeping the man's hooded cloak in place. With a sheathed sword at the hip and a patch of cloth covering everything below the nose there was not a single bit of metal armour to be seen. Were these guys that confident that they couldn't be so much as scratched or were they too low level to be given proper armour? In any case he didn't question it further but instead went with what Giles had called the swiftest move a swordsman could make: the thrust. Aiming for where the heart would be for a human and hoping that he humans of this reality had organs in the same place he thrust the tip of his sword as swiftly as possible.

He was a bit surprised when it actually succeeded.

Beginners luck probably.

Pulling the sword back out once he was sure three inches of penetration had been attained before turning to where he suspected that the other speakers could be found. Much to his surprise there was only one other instead of the three he'd anticipated making him wonder just how important this location was. Still he didn't let his thoughts slow him even a little pushing off his left foot to propel himself at this second guard but his strike would not be the same. Repeating yourself made you predictable and that caused people to lose sooner or later. Instead he feigned a thrust before shifting to the side so as to force the foe to do a backhand swing if the guy wanted to hit anything. When he saw the signs of that happening he remembered another thing that G-Man had tried to teach Buffy: the amount of time it usually took a sword swing to reach full speed. If allowed to build up momentum a blade was dangerous but if you intercepted it before it could do so and parry it off to the side a stronger foe could be defeated.

That is what he did his best to put into practice.

It mostly worked but the margin of error was quite a bit smaller than he would've liked it to be. Still when the man was thrown off balance by the move he got under the guy's guard and executed a slash meant to cut deep into flesh. He just put a lot of power and speed into it so that when the blade impacted on flesh it'd slide across any bones it failed to cut through. In the end the guy suffered a serious wound that a medieval society would be helpless to heal thereby making death something soon to happen.

"Amazing…you killed them." One of the prisoners behind him said in amazement, "In seconds."

"It's nothing to be amazed about. They were caught by surprise and had their guards down to begin with." He said looking for signs of where best to go next, "Don't expect it to stay that way."

Feeling a breeze on his skin coming from the right he turned in that direction since a breeze often meant an open window or door leading outside. He moved at an even swifter rate than before since he knew it'd only be a matter of time before someone learned of those he'd killed. That would put the entire facility on alert and he wanted to at least be halfway out before that happened.

The closer he was to the exit the better the odds the enemy would be unable to cut down the rest of the prisoners in time to prevent his escape.

---

Upper Levels of the Compound

"What are the latest results of the experiment?" A bald man asked looking out the window at the mountainous landscape.

"Sadly it was another failure." A educated looking man replied from a few feet behind, "The subject lasted longer than the others but in the end the power proved to be too much. I plan on conducting the autopsy this afternoon to learn what I can."

"A pity. I had such expectations for her given her pedigree but I suppose trying to create another Olivier is not so easy." The bald man said with a sigh, "As far as our organization might have come since that time reliably and consistently producing such warriors eludes us."

"Science often slogs at a slow pace milord." The educated man said with an understanding tone, "But we will prevail in time. I am sure of it."

"Hopefully not too much time Doctor." The bald man said turning to face his conversation friend, "The Knights of Round can be patient when something is worth their while but punish those who waste their resources with nothing to show for it."

"I…I am aware of that." Doctor said with an undercurrent of fear, "I assure you I will be as expeditious as possible with my work while not sacrificing accuracy."

"See that you do. It would be tiresome to find a replacement of superior qualifications." The bald man said before turning back to the window.

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

"Enter." The bald man said without turning around.

"Pardon the intrusion milord but there's been a…development inside the castle." The hooded guard said from bended knee just inside the door.

"What sort of development?" The bald man asked with mild interest.

"Somehow the prisoners held in the lowest dungeons have escaped from their cells." The guard replied sounding like he expected to be killed out of hand, "They are led by a snow haired elf girl."

"A snow haired elf girl…could it be the one that came to us?" The bald man asked with increased increased interest.

"Impossible! I was there when she died at the end of the experiment." Doctor exclaimed in denial, "The number of ruptured veins and damage to her nervous system made survival impossible never mind recovery sufficient to lead any sort of escape."

"Unless your experiment had an unanticipated and delayed reaction." The bald man said turning halfway towards the guard, "Experiments can often produce unexpected results but not necessarily undesirable ones. How far have they progressed?"

"By now they've likely reached the last staircase to ground level." The guard replied promptly likely hoping that he wouldn't be killed now, "The commander is positioning forces to manipulate them into the grand dining room before surrounding and recapturing them. He believes that if he congests certain hallways they will avoid them because of their lack of strength."

"A sound plan. Return to him and make it clear that I care not what happens to the other subjects but the snow haired elf girl is to be taken alive." The bald man ordered in an absolute manner, "I wish to know how she managed to survive the latest experiment and if the method can be of use to us."

"By your command milord." The guard said before leaving the room to carry out his orders.

"It would seem that fate has chosen to smile upon you doctor." The bald man said with a small grin, "Prepare your examination table and remember not to waste the opportunity that has been presented to you."

"Never sir. As a loyal servant of our organization and as a scientist it would be sacrilegious to waste an opportunity for advancement such as this." Doctor said reverently for the things he served.

"Indeed it would be." The bald man turning back to his view.

---

Xander's POV

"Not good." He muttered drawing back from the corner he'd just peeked around.

They'd been making good progress despite the size of their group with surprise proving invaluable in putting down any guards encountered along the way. However once they reached what he believed to be the ground floor despite the lack of windows the guard problem became more pronounced. Instead of a pair or three standing in the hallways they'd repeatedly come across groups of six or more all of whom were better equipped than those dealt with before. Fighting them head-on was way too risky so he'd been looking for the least protected route in the hopes of squeezing through a crack to get free of this place.

However it was looking like that wouldn't be possible.

Bad luck or evidence of enemy action?

Knowing how his life usually went it was probably both.

If the ones who ran the show here were indeed aware of the jailbreak then this was obviously an effort to force them into in spot to either be killed or recaptured. If so then it wouldn't matter if they refused to move or chose to move in the direction desired of them. The noose would still close in around them just the same.

~We need a place with a fixed number of ways in and out that we can manage.~ He thought deciding to head down where the guards likely wanted them go, ~Problem with that is that I have no idea where a room like that is!~

Working alongside G-Man and Buffy might've expanded his know-how when it came to ancient things that existed pre-electricity but castle construction and layout wasn't covered. If there were things that were universal to EVERY castle of this type and he knew the basics of this type of castle then MAYBE he'd be able to manage something. Since he didn't there was only one thing he could do that might throw a wrench into the plans of the guards that at the very least would buy them a few more minutes of life.

Time enough to think up another plan that'd work better.

When his eyes came upon large double doors meant to look impressive his instincts told him that the room beyond would likely be just as big. It didn't completely fit but he believed that the bigger the door the bigger the room on the other side since it'd be a poor design choice to put a huge door on a broom closet. A room that was big would be good for corralling them and fit a larger number of guards for the killing or capturing. Probably those inside would wait until most of them were inside and near the centre before those in the hallways would close in and finish the circle of no escape.

They couldn't let that happen or they'd be finished.

To him that left but one choice.

"I need two of you who know how to use a sword best to follow me in." He said turning to those behind him, "The rest form up around those who can't fight and keep them safe. We're going in hard and fast so don't fall behind!"

He could see the uncertainty on their faces but on some he could see the steel of resolve forming in their eyes and that was encouraging. When a cat lady and what he figured might be a fox girl came up alongside him he knew they would follow and so he'd do his best to lead. Bringing up his blade he steeled himself for what was likely to come and then with all the fiery resolve that'd been born the night that Jesse had been staked by his own hands he charged. With the momentum and strength in his charge he knocked the doors wide open and in an instant spotted the door on the other side of the room.

THAT would be his destination.

Altering his course he did the best he could to navigate around the furniture in the room in a way that wouldn't slow him down and just like he'd been expecting guards emerged. From the looks of things though none of them expected his charge and were not moving perfectly in synch with each other. Seeing one that looked to be better equipped than the others near the door he leapt onto a table before using it as a springboard just like he'd done in gym class. To his surprise he got more air than he'd been expecting but he no longer had doubts as to whether or not he'd reach his target. Switching his sword into a more downward stabbing position he angled the blade so that it'd pierce through what looked to be the weakest part of the man's armour.

Worry spiked when the man began to raise his own blade though whether it was to defend or counter attack he didn't know. What he did know was that he couldn't afford to get tied up with the guy for more than a few seconds or he'd get swarmed by the Guards on either side of her target. Repositioning his left leg a bit as soon as he was within reach he lashed out with kick at the shoulder of the arm holding the sword. It didn't have much power behind it but the point wasn't to do damage but rather to push the weapon coming up off course away from his body. It was totally a 'pull it outta his ass' sort of move but when he felt the blade barely touch his skin even as his own sword buried itself inch by increasing inch in the man's shoulder.

Using his other leg he pushed off the man's falling body in a forward roll that successfully put him behind the other guards. As soon as he was back on his feet he attacked once more aiming at the closest guard using a thrust attack before yanking it out and spinning into a slash aimed at the guy to the right. It was by this point that the two that had followed him in finally reached striking distance of the guards. Thanks to the shocking move he'd pulled off, both the reckless charge and the killing of their leader, the guards were off balance making it easy for the duo to land a killing blow on their first targets. Seeing them focus on the guards to the right of him he chose to handle those on the left in order to pry an opening for the group falling in behind him.

Even if he didn't want to be responsible for them, even if he wanted to use them as distractions for his own escape, they were worth more alive than dead at the moment. If they died too swiftly he wouldn't make it out the door and the more guards that wound up dead the less that would be sent out in pursuit.

This was purely a strategic decision.

Really.

And it almost worked…

…up until he sensed a spike of danger behind him that had his finely honed danger senses from Sunnydale surge forward. Turning to face the threat would take too much time and if it was pinging his Spidey senses this much the threat was powerful so even blocking the attack might be possible. Thus instead he dove forward with all the speed he could muster calling upon the lingering soldier memories inside of him to roll in such a way so as to be able to get back to his feet.

His heart skipped a beat at how close it sounded like he'd come to getting his back carved open by a blade but using the distance he'd gained he whirled around to face an intimidating sight.

He'd been wrong.

He'd presumed his initial target had been the leader of the group, the strongest and therefore once that guy was dead the rest would be thrown off balance.

He'd been mistaken.

THIS man, this warrior in full plate armour, was the strongest of those set against him and no surprise attack would be enough to see him safely to victory.

"You surprise me she-elf." A booming voice said from within the armour, "You struck me as the poised and refined sort that preferred to defeat her foes with finesse. Charging in recklessly with quick and brutal strikes is out of character. Did the good doctor's efforts change you so much?"

He didn't say anything but rather brought his sword up in preparation for renewed conflict but his mind did ponder what had been said. From what he'd heard just now it sounded like instead of his body being transformed into what it was now his soul in fact had been placed inside another person's body. Considering the state of the others in that laboratory it wasn't that big of a stretch to say that whoever the she-elf had been experimented on and had perished making room for his soul to slide right on in. It was even feasible that the pain he'd felt was the elf lady's body healing at an accelerated rate from whatever state it'd been in when he'd arrived to 'take possession'.

~But if my soul is here in this body…what's happened to my old body?~ He thought his heart becoming quite disturbed at the possibilities.

Had it simply fallen into a coma or…or had it died once his soul had left?

He didn't know, he had no way of knowing and his lack of details was quickly swallowing up his thoughts like the tide coming in at a beach.

That would explain why it was when he picked up on fast moving motion in front of him his reactions were just a little slower than they should've been.

The first swing of the war axe in the armoured man's hand was barely deflected off to the side, the second sent him stumbling backwards even an ominous noise came from his sword and next came a thrust with the clear intent of plunging the spike at the top of the axe hilt into him. In a move of desperation he put his sword in between the blade of the axe and the spike bringing every bit of strength he had to the task of keeping himself safe. As it was while he did stock the thrust the shaking that happened between the axe and the sword made it clear that the immobilization was far from steady.

"You struggle well if not uselessly she-elf." The armoured man said not sounding stressed at all, "Your kind have never been known for your physical strength. Your arms will tire long before mine will…but fortunately I don't think I'll have to wait that long! RAGH!"

With that bellow of exertion something very bad happened.

KRSH!

The sword that he'd been using since leaving the lab in the dungeons broke and before he could do anything the spike pierced through his shoulder even as he was pushed into the wall behind him. Pain exploded from the point of piercing and it didn't go away even as her shoulder continued protest its mistreatment.

"Consider yourself fortunate that I'm under orders to capture you alive." The armoured man said with some amusement, "A pity the other trash that followed you here cannot make the same claim. Instead all you have done is lead them to their deaths. Hope you enjoy the show!"

Wincing with a flair up of pain he couldn't help but look to the others in the hopes of seeing something to refute the asshole's claim. His stomach began to descend though when he saw that while they were struggling valiantly the escapees were just too outnumbered and outmatched. Even the two that had been considered the most experienced with swordplay were beginning to feel pressured enough that their confidence was being eroded away with every exchange.

He'd screwed up.

Screwed up and everyone was going to pay the price with him being sent back to that lab to undergo torture 'for science'.

He wanted to fight, to struggle and overcome the future coming his way through sheer force of will. It'd been this way when people told him he'd inevitably wind up like Tony and it'd been like this when Giles or Buffy told him that a normal person couldn't fight the night. However with his sword destroyed and his shoulder pinned to the wall the only path he could see before him was tearing the latter free from the spike seriously injuring himself and even then he wouldn't have anything with which to turn the tide. No weapon, no skill and no mojo capable of pushing back a small army in a single move.

And thus did determination meet the wall that it could not break through…

…or did it?

---

The Realm of the Mind and the Soul

"Is this really all there is to you?"

A voice in the void both cold and superior echoed through the air.

"What else is there? I have no weapon that can knock all these assholes on their asses. My skills are barely above amateur level. This isn't a movie where the hero can beat the odds just 'cause his will is stronger than anything the bad guys have." He said not having enough incentive to look for the source of the voice.

"Foolishness. Foolishness. Might determines everything but at the root of might is strength of will." The cold voice said like the owner was looking down at him, "Do you think the heroes of old won just because they had powerful weapons or formidable skills? No. Neither of those things would've done any good without the will and the intelligence to use them both."

"Then I guess you're right. I'm not all that smart and my willpower's pretty much spent." He said feeling that whoever was speaking had overestimated what was available, "Even if I got a badass weapon and knew how to use it I'd still probably lose."

"You think heroes are perfect? Hooo have you got it wrong." A more carefree and emotive voice said within the void, "Every hero has a weakness of some kind. A flaw that keeps them from being perfect. But that's what makes them special! You think people could relate to someone that was better than them in every way? Nah! No one would watch a movie where the hero was already good to go fight the demon lord or whatever the story is. It's seeing the hero start small and grow into being what everyone needs that people buy tickets for."

"Heh…if this was a movie then we'd be seconds away from me uncorking some great power and completely turning things around." He said admitting to himself that movies centred around a hero did have certain necessities in order to be successful, "But that only happens because it's scripted to happen. Real life…is not like that. Bad things happen to good people. Good things happen to bad people. Horrors, tragedies and injustices dot the world from one end to another. The laws of the world don't bend just because you want them to."

"It's not about the laws of the world or real life. It's about choice." The carefree voice said becoming partially serious, "Strength of any kind comes from choice. Those laws you think are so important? They only have strength because you've decided to give it to them. This is old news to you and you know it. You knew it when you decided you'd become a better person than your dad and you knew it when you found out that monsters are real. For both of them you gave the rules of life a big fuck you and made your own choice. You ready to make another and stand by it?"

He didn't know what to say about that because there was a ring of truth to the words. So many things only happened because you let them happen. Things people tell you is impossible only stays that way until someone proves otherwise. It might take years, decades or even centuries but impossibilities had a track record of being made possible when the right person came up with a solution.

Was he giving in too soon? Could he still win if his will was strong enough?

"What are you ready to accept though? What are you prepared to take on? Prepared to give up?" Another voice said making him think of some heroic ranger or some meat cleaver sword wielding death god, "Even if your soul wants it there's still gonna be a price tag."

True.

He'd been through enough research sessions with the Scoobies to know that whether it was white magic or black magic nothing happened if you didn't pony up payment first. In the case of magic that called on another being for the desired result you needed to pay the specified price first. A soul, precious possession, flesh or something else was the usual toll that needed to be paid. More than that several of Giles' books implied that sometimes the payment was up to discretion of the being supplying the power.

What sort of price would need to be paid to gain what he needed now?

Looking up and seeing monochrome statues of the prisoners he'd freed and led into this room seeking freedom he wondered what sort of lives they'd had before winding up here. Were they civvies, homeless people or minor nobility? Was there a princess of some nation here? Whatever they'd been before being brought here he'd seen nothing to make him believe that they deserved to die or dragged back to become lab rats. Given enough time he could easily see that he could get to know them and find it ridiculously unacceptable that they be killed or experimented on.

If that was so…and he was being presented with the means to prevent that…saying no would be something Tony would do. That asshole only cared about himself and would never do anything that didn't benefit him in some way to a sizeable degree.

The thought that he'd take so much as a step towards being like Tony was enough to make him feel ill.

For him, for the sort of person he wanted to become, there was only one choice he could live with.

"To live up to my name I'll do whatever I have to do. Where do I sign?" He asked finding all doubt burn away to ashes within him.

"You already have kid." The carefree voice replied sounding happy.

"Prepare yourself to receive power unlike anything you've ever felt before." The cold voice said ominously.

"Trust me. It's going to be one wild ride." The heroic ranger said like he was talking about an impressive amusement park attraction, "See ya around Xander."

His mind paused at that final statement and he almost managed to ask the expected question but got interrupted rather forcefully.

From both the void around him and what felt like within him energy rose up suffusing him with a sensation that he honestly had nothing to compare it to.

In the end only one word came to mind and felt SO right.

JACKPOT!

---

Knight Commander Barnabas's POV

~It is so satisfying to see the trash accept their place in the world.~ He thought looking at the she-elf who looked to have lost all delusions of changing her future.

While he might not know why the Doctor wanted this one taken alive he still had more than enough leeway with those orders to have a bit of fun. Alive after all only meant that the she-elf's heart be beating, the lungs breathing and no injuries that couldn't be stitched up in no time at all. Having honed his skills as a knight over years of training and decades of battle he had supreme confidence that he could satisfy his bloodlust without violating his orders.

For now though he would bask in the despair and defeat of the she-elf in front of him before adding to her misery physically even as his subordinates finished off the rest of the trash. None of them were necessary to the Doctor's work and could be replaced easily enough via many of their organizations agents throughout the world. A benefit he supposed of having existed for centuries allowing for their tendrils of influence to spread to all levels of society.

"AAHHH!" Came a cry of pain from behind him letting him know that one of the trash had just received a serious wound.

"Music to my ears she-elf." He said maliciously with a grin, "But then maybe it's an acquired taste."

When he didn't receive any response he frowned as he wondered if she'd lost consciousness since she last spoke. Tormenting her wouldn't be half as fun if he couldn't get a reaction out of the she-elf. So to either wake the girl up or to get the reaction he wanted he savagely pulled the spike of his axe out of the she-elf's shoulder letting blood fly and the body dropping to the knees.

Nothing.

No exclamation of pain.

"Come now girl." He said starting to get a bit irritated, "Don't go falling asleep on me!"

Bringing his axe back for another blow he took care to ensure that the girl would be hit with the side of the blade rather than the cutting edge. With one final flare of irritation he swung his weapon down at the girl's side…

…only to find himself and everyone within twenty feet blasted through the air as though hit with the shockwave of a powerful attack. Pushing himself into a sitting position where he'd landed after being knocked into the air he shook his head to clear the fog he felt within before looking back the way he'd come. When he did his brain was afflicted once more but not by fog but rather by growing incomprehension.

Why?

Because rising from the floor as though it was not entirely of her own will was the she-elf radiating an aura of light that was a mix of blue as well as crimson. Indeed the light even looked to be pulsing as though in time with the she-elf's own heartbeat but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't explain what he was seeing. He'd seen countless examples of warriors tapping into their magic enough to affect the world around them or to enhance the destructive potential of their weapon but those cases had always appeared more like an eruption of energy.

This was NOT erupting.

It was pulsing.

And the pulsing was growing in frequency until with a loud exclamation of exertion the she-elf arched her back even as the light jumped to near blinding levels forcing him to look away. When the light disappeared and his eyes shook off the spots of colour the flash had caused in them he looked back he began to wonder if he'd somehow become the recipient of a mind altering compound.

Before the flash had occurred forcing him to look away the she-elf had been clad in a green gown with a leather strap around the waist and blood staining the left side of it. Now though there was no sign of blood of any kind and the garments could not be called a gown by any stretch of the imagination. Instead he saw brown boots, dark green pants possessing a scale pattern, crimson fingerless gloves, a black sleeveless vest and a blue long coat with crimson lining on the inside. What caught his attention after he got over the clothes though was what the she-elf now had in her left hand because he was certain it'd never been in the room prior to right now.

Looking to be a little under fifty inches from tip to hilt guard was a sword that judging by the sheath had a curved blade possessing gold wrapping around the hilt with black ornaments. He'd never seen anything like it in his entire life and his career had shown him weapons both forged by mortal hands as well as the artifacts unearthed by the organization over the centuries. Others might be fooled into thinking that it was an ordinary blade but he could not ignore the part of him whispered to him that it was anything but ordinary. Nevertheless he had his orders and until he got a bigger reason to go against them he would do his duty.

"Impressive. Let's see if it's impressive enough." He said bringing his axe up ready to be swung.

Deciding not to play around this time he attacked with all the speed, strength and skill that he possessed before bringing the axe down with the intent of separating the sword arm from the body. It would be a tad more excessive than what his superior likely intended but so long as he acted quickly to bandage the stump the she-elf would not bleed out. Indeed they would be able to get the subject back to the lab and the Doctor could see more effectively to her injuries than him. If the experiments being done were anything like the others he knew of then so long as the blood kept flowing within the she-elf a lost limb would not matter.

However then something happened that he did not expect.

With about as much effort as one would expect from lifting a heavy pillow over ones head the she-elf brought her weapon up to intercept his strike…

…and stopped it without so much as a tremor reverberating through her arm.

"Feeling impressed yet?" The she-elf asked before pushing his axe back the way it came and thrusting the pommel of her blade into his stomach.

HARD.

He could feel the metal plate covering his stomach being rapidly pushed inwards even as he was propelled through the air for a full five seconds.

Why five seconds?

Because before the sixth second could tick over he slammed into something a tad more durable than a body clad in armour both of which were honed for battle.

He had a feeling it was the stone wall of the room.

It took him a few moments to get his wind back but as he breathed he quickly found that the damage done to his armour was impeding his ability to breath. With necessity driving him he swiftly reached for the edge of the plate before undoing the strap tying it to his body before throwing it away to take a nice deep breath. Once done he looked forward to reassess the situation and figure out if he could still turn things around to fulfill his orders.

"AAAHHHH!"

"UUGGHH!"

"AAIIIEEEE!"

Seeing as how the she-elf somehow seemed to be appearing and disappearing about the room slashing open the bodies of every subordinate that was within reach. It didn't seem possible that anything could move fast enough to be mistaken for teleportation but the power to disappear from one spot only to reappear in another was the stuff of fantasy. Never in the organizations history, the history that he knew of at least, had teleportation ever been attempted or proven to be a feasibility. Yet here before him he was seeing the she-elf go from one side of the room to another laying waste to forces that should've been too much to be overcome.

What could he do?

How could he stop this?

The answer was nothing and he couldn't.

He had lost his opportunity for victory the moment he had chosen to indulge in his sadistic tendencies by having his prey watch those who'd followed her be slaughtered.

If there was one thing that was sure to spark a fire within the snow haired elf girl it was the sight of evil being committed by monsters in human skin.

And it was a fire that burned HOT enough to leave NOTHNG of the darkness behind.

Not…a single…shadow…

---

The Upper Levels of the Compound/Castle

The Archival Study

"Well now…isn't this interesting." The bald man said with mild intrigue as he looked out the window, "It would seem that the world hasn't grown so dull that I cannot be surprised anymore."

"I will admit that this…development…has exceeded my projections…if only by a little." Doctor said with mixed feelings, "However should we not dispatch our remaining forces to contain them? I would think that our organization would be…displeased…if we allowed so many subjects to escape our 'custody'."

"To what end Doctor? Our special subject has already proven herself capable of decimating large numbers of our loyal Dark Knights in a matter of minutes." The bald man said as though it was all elementary, "Of those who remain alive none of them are superior to those who have already been slain. No I think it would be a waste of manpower to dispatch a pursuit force."

"Then what shall we do?" Doctor asked unable to find fault with the logic.

"Given the options available to a group their size and the injuries suffered by the survivors they will not stray far for the immediate future. Most likely they will travel to Maldid." The bald man replied with a tone of consideration, "As such I will notify our comrades of the development and their likely destination so that the loose ends might be dealt with and the special subject apprehended. As for you my good Doctor I suggest you review all your work on the young she-elf. I am certain the Knights of the Round will be most interested in learning how she was gifted with such power as well as how she might be subdued should she prove to be a problem."

"I shall work on nothing else until I have the answers they desire." Doctor said with enthusiasm towards the task.

With those words the doctor left leaving only the bald man to continue to look out the window at the shrinking forms of the escaped test subjects. While this would be interesting enough to his fellow members by itself he knew the true significance of this development. Much like his friend Mordred he knew that there were countless other worlds out there beyond their comprehension commonly referred to as Realms. These worlds orbited around each other spinning like tops until one day they collided creating rifts that connected the struck worlds resulting in contamination of a sort. Mordred believed that this world was not the one that humanity, Elves and the Therianthropes evolved on nor was magic a naturally occurring phenomena. All of the races and magic itself came to this world as a result of a collision between two or more worlds and remained likely due to the rifts closing before their work could be undone.

Needless to say the organization was quite interested in new arrivals both to see if they could benefit from the unknown elements or to determine if they need to be eradicated.

His mentor had certainly been interested in such things and had in her possession an artifact quite well suited to such an agenda. It wasn't meant for battle or controlling the masses but rather its purpose was to detect otherworldly energies and give off a blue glow proportionally bright to the potency of the energy. Better than that it would not react the same way to exposure to the same energy twice making it all but certain that when it lit up it was something altogether new.

Thus it was understandable when not once but twice did it light up within the last hour or two that he knew he had discovered something truly wondrous.

He knew not if it happened as the result of the Doctor's efforts or if something else entirely had brought about such miraculous occurrences but he was determined to find the answers. If he could ascertain the truth before any other member of the Cult and submit his findings he would be guaranteed a position as one of the Rounds especially if the special subject could be made to obey him.

It almost proved to be enough to make him chuckle with greed but the failings of his mentor were etched into his memories causing such impulses to be restrained.

Many a member of the Cult had allowed their ambition to exceed their grasp and had fallen from grace with some being fatal falls.

Not him.

He had plans and he would allow no one, not even himself, to undermine them.

~Enjoy your freedom Viessa while you have it.~ He thought remembering the she-elf's name, ~You are alone and the Spatafora name no longer shields you as it once did. You made sure of that by your own choices.~

Hours ago he had thought Viessa like those who gave their ambition too much free reign but after the bloodbath he was close to admitting that he might just have assumed too much. Somehow, against all odds, the she-elf had gained more from the Doctor's experiments than any other test subject since the 'Hero' Olivier had been created. The question that had him concerned though was this: had Viessa fully utilized her new power or was there more waiting beneath the surface?

That was the true reason why he'd chosen not to expend his remaining forces pursuing the escapees.

Why should he lose more of his assets when he can allow his rivals in the Cult take the losses for him? He need only be there to be responsible for the decisive blow so he could take credit for her capture and all the benefits that followed.

Power might be important within the cult but it was cunning and intelligence that allowed one to ascend to a chair set aside for a Knight of the Round.

---

The City of Maldid

Velgalta Empire

A Week Later

"How are the wounded?" Asked the elf who was not an elf after the door had closed.

"Their wounds have been seen to but the next few days will tell who will ultimately survive." She replied with discipline standing before the one that had freed them from a future of pain and death.

While she had not resigned herself to that fate entirely before their liberator had appeared the number of plans she could put her faith in had dwindled to but a handful. Her captors had taken everything from her and only provided a simple gown to preserve her modesty though she doubted that they had any honourable intentions where the 'gift' was concerned. Cloth of any sort was a poor match against the metal bars and the guards always came in numbers too great for her to fight by herself.

And that was assuming that she somehow managed to remove the chains they put on her INSIDE the dungeon cell when she wasn't being injected with liquids she knew not the nature of.

In all of her time imagining how freedom might be returned to her she had never thought it would come from a she-elf fresh from the anti-healer's laboratory. Yet that was what transpired and even though doubts had lingered little by little they were dispelled with each obstacle that had been overcome. Guards? The she-elf killed them with speed, cunning and precision. Navigating the corridors of the castle? Through logic and wisely interpreting various clues they made their way up out of the dungeon into the castle proper. It had given her hope that they just might be able to escape the castle and perhaps find their way back to their families.

She should've known better than to hope for too much.

It'd been when they'd charged their way into what looked to be a grand dining hall that it'd all fallen to pieces. Despite the daring attempt to break through the other side of the encirclement it swiftly became clear that the bold tactic would not be enough to see them through. Nevertheless she'd done her best to fight with a sword that'd she'd taken from a slain guard to fight for her freedom and later her very survival. She'd used every combat skill taught to her clan of cat therianthropes to stay alive even as other prisoners were cut down without mercy all around her. It'd gotten so bad that her goal had transformed from 'regain her freedom' to 'die in a way befitting one of her tribe'.

Then it'd happened.

A blast of power unlike any magic she'd born witness to all in the room were shaken for it did not feel like any magic born of people or artifact. It pulsed from the she-elf before her and when it ended with one final push that to her eyes had been akin to a rebirth for gone was the fellow captive, gone was the liberator, replaced by something…different.

Something strong.

A strength that was proven again and again as either individually or in groups those that sought to kill them were instead cut down themselves. Many who still breathed now only did so because the she-elf before her saved them from a fatal blow that had been seconds away from landing. Not everyone was saved though some she had known barely for a week while others had been in the cell with her for months. Through pain, sorrow and loss bonds had formed between them so she felt their passing as keenly as any from her tribe.

She was a practical sort though and knew that it would be better to focus on the living rather than the dead.

"We'll do everything we can to save as many as we can but we have to be ready to move on sooner instead of later." The she-elf said with graveness that was warranted, "Our 'hosts' aren't just going to forget about us. We need to get outside of the area they plan on searching as soon as we can."

That made sense and thinking on it for a few minutes she found herself agreeing with the urgency of this course of action. They had barely survived the fight in the castle and that was against a relatively small number of foes within a dining room. If assailed with even greater numbers who were not encumbered by a confined space and a cover story provided to allow for the use of artifacts the only one who would survive would be the young woman before her.

"If that is the case then we will need supplies." She said pointing out a key factor, "We were fortunate to find that unoccupied cabin on our way to Maldid in order to clothe many of our group. However we will need more clothes, food and a method of transporting everyone."

Indeed while she expected everyone to be able to walk she did not believe that they would walk or even run fast enough to get outside the area their captors would search for them. Also some of their group were from either the Kingdom of Midgar or Oriana so they would need to feed them until they succeeded in returning them home. Sadly they had no funds to their name and definitely not enough to match the costs of such a venture.

"Don't worry. I already have an idea about that." The she-elf said with a mild smirk, "In fact I think it'll only take a little searching to find what we need."

The skepticism must have shown on her face because the smirk only grew into a smile.

"In any big city like this there'll always be people who do things and have things the law says is wrong." The she-elf explained sounding quite confident, "I think we can show these people that if you do bad things to others then bad things'll happen to you."

"You wish to take what we need from the criminals of this city?" She asked having mild trouble accepting this idea.

"Criminals deal in things people need don't they?" The she-elf asked rhetorically downgrading back to a smirk, "We find out where they store their merchandise, we take what we need and deal with anyone who gets in our way. We leave the same night and by the time anyone realizes what's happened we'll be too far away to get caught."

"And what of the other criminals?" She asked pointing out a very real possibility, "They will have a problem with us stealing their 'merchandise'."

"Maybe. But how will they know who took their merchandise if there is no one left alive to tell them what happened." The she-elf said with a colder tone of voice, "No witnesses means no one to tell anyone who comes looking who stole what. Kinda makes it hard to know who to chase after."

Ruthless.

Cold blooded.

Yet it would preserve the secret of who committed the theft and if they left Maldid the same night they could have anywhere from twelve hours to two days lead time. It would all come down to how swiftly an investigation was carried out by either the police or the criminals before sending out pursuers after whoever they believed were responsible. Ideally it would be nice if they could cross the border into another kingdom before any large scale action was taken but she would be satisfied if they could reach being two days from Maldid before trouble began.

"I will ask if any in our group are familiar with crime in the Velgalta Empire." She said already knowing of a few who might know what they needed, "With luck we should have a few possible targets by this evening."

"Good. We'll need to confirm that at least one of them is a storehouse and how many guards are around before we attack. Mistakes will only make our job harder." The she-elf said with a nod, "Once we have our target we'll assemble a strike team while the rest get ready to leave. They will need to be ready to get onto the carriages the second we pull up in front of the building."

"They will be milady." She said with a bow before turning to see to her tasks.

"Alessia. My name is Alessia not 'milady'." The she-elf corrected before more than three steps were taken, "And so that no one connects you to this crime I'll call you 'Freya' from here on out until we're out of Maldid."

"As you wish Alessia." She said making sure to not forget this in the future.

With no further words to be said she left the room to find those needed to locate their targets as soon as possible. They had already taken up a great deal of their time just tending to their wounded and recovering their strength from the journey to the city. The longer they remained in the city the more likely all avenues of escape would be blocked off leaving them trapped within the city limits.

She would never permit herself to be captured again.

She would never allow her freedom to be stolen again.

NEVER!

---

Twenty Hours Later

Xander aka Alessia's POV

~Still not sure why I decided to use an alias but there's no harm in it so whatever.~ He thought looking across the street to a fairly standard business building, ~Gotta stay focused on what matters.~

From what he could see the building wasn't designed for customers to come in and out especially with the large doors lined up with a turn off from the main road. Everything he saw did make it look like a storage building albeit one made pre-electricity and probably pre-heavy machinery. He could see the lights of candles or oil lamps on the inside so people were definitely present but there was no way to know how many. The most positive thing about it though was that the large doors were just big enough for a good size carriage to pass through without much difficulty. The biggest possible problem was that he was assuming there'd be carriages ready for use inside instead of just merchandise.

Nothing he'd seen since coming to the city had him believing that the Empire had car engines of any sort so that meant horse drawn carriages.

The problem with that though was that he had no idea if businesses stored such methods of transportation in buildings like this or someplace separate.

That was why he'd sent three members of the team Freya had selected to 'borrow' the same number of horse/carriage combos from nearby locations. Discretely of course with zero commotion so that no one thought something was amiss. A tall order maybe but every second they were able to buy, bribe or steal where no one in the city thought anything was amiss was another speck of lead time they'd have.

And he was a greedy guy…er…elf…girl…WHATEVER…so he wanted as much time as possible.

Hearing noise from behind him he turned halfway towards it and saw Freya rising from a drop indicating she'd arrived from the nearby rooftop. She'd sent Freya along with the four others that weren't on carriage detail to case the building from other sides to see what they could see. She'd been serious when she'd told the cat woman that there could be no witnesses to survive their attack and to do that they needed to know precisely how many people were in the building. If they missed even ONE that was a loose end that could tip off the wrong people too soon and make getting out of the Empire that much harder.

"What's the count up to?" He asked turning back to the building.

"Seventeen. Five on each floor and three that are on the move almost constantly." Freya replied coming to a stop beside her.

"Armed?" He asked wanting to know which ones would need to be taken out first.

"Mostly swords though the three that move from floor to floor have single shot pistols holstered at their sides." Freya replied not sounding too worried.

"They die first. We'll have our hands full enough with the rest without risking getting shot." He said unwilling to risk getting killed or being forced to leave a body behind.

The people that Freya had chosen might be the more capable than the rest but he had no idea whether or not they'd be able to keep it together if someone died. Would they stick to the plan? Would they insist on killing the one who'd killed a member of the group? Would they crumble to the floor crying or frozen in fear? He didn't know. The fact that they'd survived the mess back at the castle was a sign in their favour but that was with freedom overriding any fears or stresses. THIS…this would be attacking people for the purposes of theft with freedom a lot closer than it'd been back in the castle.

Less distraction pressure meant more room for thinking and feeling and less determination to go around left a lot of leeway for bad choices.

"Any word from those 'borrowing' carriages?" He asked hoping that the other part of the plan worked out.

"Two have been found and are ready to be 'borrowed'." Freya replied with momentary annoyance, "The last…might be harder to borrow without drawing attention to it."

In order words it would either be protected or have witnesses within eyesight of the carriage. Did they dare risk it? After a few moments thought he determined that it was worth the risk. Two carriages would be enough to carry the survivors but they needed the third one for the supplies they'd need to survive long enough to acquire more. Without it they'd be making stops at every village, town or city along the way to restock giving any pursuers more time to catch up. Speed was key right now so the fewer stops they had to make the further they'd get and the better their odds of escaping their pursuers.

"No choice. We need it for the supplies." He said with a little reluctance.

"As I expected. The others will go to the location of the third to act both as distraction and a means of blending in." Freya said showing that she was thinking one step ahead.

"Then it's time to take what we need and do what we must." He said with the oversized katana he'd somehow come into possession of during the fight in the castle hidden from view.

He still wasn't entirely sure WHAT had happened between being stabbed with the spike of an axe and getting his new makeover but considering he'd been shit out of luck before being reinvented he wasn't complaining.

Much.

Wearing a hooded cloak he strode forth with Freya following a few steps behind merging with the flow of sidewalk traffic in order to blend into the crowd. From there it only took some civilian navigating to cross the street and then make their way to the smaller door to the right of the one that the carriages would be entering through. Once he stood in front of it he took a mental deep breath to calm himself down since he had no desire to reveal just how much he was planning things by the seat of his pants. He had no experience with things like this and was pulling on things from movies, TV shows and Buffy's approach to raiding vamp nests.

Not the best sources but it was all he had.

Using the pommel of his blade he knocked on the door three times loud enough that he was sure that he'd been heard by someone within. A minute later the door partly opened to reveal your standard gangster thug keeping one arm behind the door and both eyes with suspicion floating in them.

"Never seen either of you before." The guy said impatiently, "Whattaya want?"

"We were sent by Kiryu-dono." He replied professionally but out of respect for the guy's boss not him, "We have been asked to transport an item of great value inside to a new location."

"Yeah? What?" The thug asked showing no sign of budging from his position.

"A box of importance whose contents we were not told of." He replied trying to play up the angle of being an ignorant courier.

"We were told that this would grant us entry." Freya said before bringing a hand out from beneath her cloak.

In the cat woman's hand was at first case a simple medallion but apparently it was proof of membership in the crime organization. According to what he'd been told one of the people sent out to find targets had managed to pick-pocket it from a genuine member of the organization. While it would've been nice to gain an understanding of the crime family's architecture and hierarchy to increase the accuracy of the deception but they didn't have that kind of time.

Hopefully they hadn't failed so soon after they began.

"Huh. No one told me anything about a transfer." The thug said expression not changing, "Whatever. Come on in."

The thug opened the door wider to allow them entry but he noticed that the man still had one arm hidden behind the door which he found suspicious. Had they really passed the first hurdle or had they been found out with the thug just wanting to dispose of them out of view of the pedestrians? When he heard the door close behind them he knew that they'd reached the point of no return so he quieted his fears and did his best to put his mind in 'the zone'. When the sound of steel scraping reached his ears he knew that the jig was up and so there was only one thing left to do.

"Don't know how ya got that Pass girlies but you an cap'n Goda are gonna have a nice long chat about it." The thug said doing a passable job of sounding threatening.

Honestly he'd heard better from a newly risen fledgling vampire.

Still the statement made it clear that their cover story had just died and there was little point to keeping it going. Indeed the only thing left to do was make sure that this thug didn't let the rest of his friends in on what was about to happen. With all the skill and speed he was capable of scraping up he stepped to the side while at the same time drawing his blade to perform a move from Iaijutsu that he'd seen demonstrated on a TV show. He aimed the strike for the part of the torso containing the most vital organs and out of the corner of his eyes he saw Freya drawing her own sword and thrusting it forward. Trusting that the cat woman wouldn't swing in a way that would interfere with his own slash he remained committed to his strike.

As a result not only were the organs of the thug cut in half but a single thrust of Freya's blade pierced the man's throat obliterating the guy's ability to make any sort of noise from his mouth. Death came soon after though whether this was because of the sudden drop in both blood and blood pressure or the damage done to vital organs it was anyone's guess. With a flick of the blade at a speed and with strength no human could match he flung the blood from his sword entirely before returning the blade to its sheath. Bringing the weapon back beneath the cloak he wore he began to walk with steady and casual steps forward both for dramatic effect but also to give those who heard him no reason to think that there was anything to worry about. The longer they could keep the remaining thugs from realizing just how serious their situation was the higher the body count would be by the time those who remained clued in.

By now the other members of the attack team were likely infiltrating the building and if they obeyed orders would keep their kills swift and silent. It was inevitable that the thugs would eventually clue into the truth and raise a ruckus but hopefully by then their numbers would be reduced to the point where even organized resistance would be pointless. Then all that would be left would be a quick mop up operation after which they could begin loading what they needed to escape the city and later the empire.

He just hoped that…

~STOP! Do not finish that sentence Xander Harris!~ He thought to himself harshly as he swept all such ideas from his mind, ~Murphy might have a bigger hand in things here than back in Sunny-D. Just take things step by step.~

When he stepped into a much larger room containing scattered boxes, crates and containers of all sorts he counted at least eight people.

~That's quite a few steps.~ He thought taking them all in even as the thugs looked back with confusion, ~Might actually have to get a bit serious here.~

"You take the left side and I'll take the right side." He said to Freya who come up on his left side, "Good enough?"

"Good enough." Freya replied moving with purpose towards her half of the room.

A job divided can be done in half the time doing it solo would take.

Time to get down to business.

---

A Day and a Half Later

"What the fuck was that bald fucker thinking taking so long tell us about this?" Akame asked anger clearly written on her face as she poked around the interior of the storehouse, "The trail's gone ridiculously cold!"

"Even with organization involvement within the Empire it's impossible to monitor everything." Itachi replied being more efficient with his inspection, "So long as the Kiryu crime family continued to pay tribute there was no reason to give them a second glance."

"So how'd we get here then?" Akame asked turning to scowl at Itachi.

"The attack on this storehouse occurred the day before that tribute was supposed to be paid and the contents of this building made up the majority of that tribute." Itachi replied finding what looked to be the paperwork of the storehouse, "Needless to say Kiryu-dono was quick to blame whoever did this for failing to provide the necessary tribute. It was when he provided names of those that'd been assigned to safeguard it that our superiors judged it worth sending us to look into things."

"Don't see how the guards were all that hot if they're all dead now." Akame said dismissively before resuming her look about the room, "Place looks completely untouched outside. If any badasses did this it would've left more of a mess."

"All but one of them were strong prospects for the upper ranks of the Dark Knights before one piece of trouble or another sent them running." Itachi said reaching each piece of paper carefully before moving onto the next one, "They wouldn't have gone down to just anyone. Indeed to fall to without anyone outside hearing anything of value…it is something worth investigating."

"You really think this has something to do with that trash that hairless fucker let get away?" Akame asked once again showing her disdain for the local member.

"Logically it would not be smart of them to draw attention to themselves or to take on the Kiryu family with so little available to them." Itachi replied finishing with the papers before setting them down, "A far more rational course of action would be to leave behind those unable to travel as deadweight and then steal things that could be improvised into camping equipment. The wilds are big in the Empire and we have not the manpower to search it for so small a group over so much ground."

"Maybe they're just idiots the lot of them." Akame said dismissively of their quarry.

"Perhaps." Itachi said before something seemed to snag his attention, "Then again perhaps not."

Taking a few steps towards a wall that'd had a sizeable amount of debris leaning up against it he efficiently removed while taking care not to damage what lay beneath it. Once enough debris was moved he knelt down to take a closer look at what he'd only perceived the edges of before. On the surface it looked to be nothing more than slash marks from a sword but when took into account the fact that the marks were made in a steel support beam it gained value. More than that though the cut was clean, impossibly so, on a level that one would only expect from someone with a bright future as a Dark Knight. Then as though to test something Itachi extended a hand towards the slash before releasing a small amount of magic towards the surface of the slash mark.

There! It only lasted a brief moment before vanishing but none could miss the plume of blue energy escape the slash before vanishing into nothingness.

"Sonuvabitch!" Akame exclaimed realizing what this meant, "They were here."

"At the very least the prime target was here." Itachi said standing back up, "The reaction is identical to what was listed in the report."

"So the fuckers were here, stole a bunch of stuff and then took off." Akame said reigning in her anger to think and analyze, "You don't take things you don't need 'cause it'll just weigh you down. Even an idiot knows better than that. Provisions?"

"Likely. According to the paperwork there was food and clothes here along with items that could be traded for additional supplies if given to the right people." Itachi said looking about the room at the opened crates and vacant areas framed by dust, "They intend to travel a great distance and needed a means of getting to where they were going. Time was against them with the organization soon to begin hunting them."

"So they hit the first place they could think of that'd have what they wanted. Ballsy! I like it." Akame said with a feral smirk, "Still screwed up though. If they'd robbed anyone else it might've been weeks before we found out about anything."

"The subjects were acquired from across the world not just inside the Empire." Itachi said walking over to an open crate, "They probably just didn't know about the Kiryu family's connection to us or the tribute they pay us. Still it works in our favour. Given how much was taken and the estimated number of escaped subjects we can estimate the size of the carts used and from that which roads would be able to handle them. Add to that the roads with few if any inhabitants that travel them and it won't be long before we track them down."

"Why waste all that effort?" Akame asked not looking forward to the legwork, "All of them probably just want to go home. We stake out the places they come from and they'll come to us."

"That is the most obvious course of action for them to take but not the most logical." Itachi replied moving some of the crate contents around, "The most emotional amongst them might be caught that way but the smarter ones will realize the mistake in returning home. If we are to recapture them all it is best to do so while they still travel as a single group rather than divided."

"As if! The only one we need to bring back alive is that elf bitch." Akame said instantly conveying what she planned to do with the other test subjects, "The rest can feed the animals."

"That would be a waste of materials Akame." Itachi said with mild chastisement, "The organization's overall goal is paramount and we have limited number of subjects to work with in order to achieve that goal. Who can say whether or not it'll be one of the escaped subjects who might provide us with a crucial clue that will advance our work. We'll recover as many as we can but the prime subject takes priority over all."

"Tch! Whatever you say Itachi." Akame said with exasperation in her voice before she began to walk away, "Let me know when we've got something better than a needle in a haystack to work with. I'll be getting some R in."

Now it was Itachi's turn to express exasperation.

"Please try to show some restraint." Itachi said with mild imploring, "The commander won't appreciate excess expenses being utilized to cover up the mess afterwards."

"Yeah, yeah!" Akame said halfheartedly waving over her shoulder before disappearing from sight.

Not for the first time Itachi took a moment to wonder at the reasons his superiors had for partnering him with such a problematic individual

---

One Day Away From the Velgalta Empire/Oriana Kingdom Border

Xander aka Alessia's POV

~Life sure can be wacky sometimes.~ He thought looking at the assortment of survivors spread out across the lakeshore before him, ~Wacky but…nice.~

It'd taken them days to get this far but there was no disputing the fact that they were less than a day away from leaving the Empire and entering the Oriana Kingdom. Once they made it across they'd have survived the first hurdle to getting the former test subjects to safety and possibly back to their loved ones. He said possibly because he wasn't sure them going back home would be such a good idea. If there were people looking to throw them back into their jail cells it'd make sense to stake out the places they might go and that included the places the test subjects called home. Even if they managed to get them home without any prior warning he didn't like the odds of no one getting wiser that someone missing was suddenly back.

More like the people around them would get to enjoy a few days of happiness at being home again before their captors pounced to repeat their previous abduction.

He'd been thinking about the whole thing off and on since they left Maldid but to his mind getting these ladies home was not the smart move. As long as their former captors gave a damn about getting them back or killing them the ladies before him they'd never be safe or have any chance at living a normal life. Taking them right back home was pretty much the same as marching them into a grave or another holding cell. Taking them someplace else might give them more time as free people but that time could still be on a countdown timer that would end with being recaptured or killed.

Maybe, MAYBE, if the pursuit wound up dragging out too long their former captors would give up simply because there were other more easily obtainable lab rats.

Too bad he had no way of knowing that for sure since he had no idea who the captors were, what resources they had or just what the criteria were for an acceptable lab rat. For all he knew finding the right lab rat was like finding a four leaf clover, difficult if not impossible, especially in quantities large enough to gather enough scientific data. If that was the case then the villains would keep pursuing them until they succeeded in recapturing them or their deaths could be confirmed.

Confirmed…hmmm…that had possibilities.

"'Lessi! Play! Play!" Commanded a young girl who if he was right was an elf.

Keeva he believed her name was. One of the youngest of those that'd been captured by those bastards and the biggest reason to label those assholes completely evil. With chestnut hair and a sunny disposition it hadn't been long before the girl had brighten everyone's mood simply by being her usual self. He didn't know if the girl was just suppressing her trauma or was just trying to cheer the rest of them up but he approved of the effect it was having on the others.

Thus if the girl wanted to play with him for a bit he guessed he could spare the time.

What followed was everything from chasing the girl around the area to having a playful sparring match with sticks instead of swords. Naturally he didn't fight anywhere close to being serious but rather pretended to be having trouble blocking the girl's attacks before 'losing'. He made sure to switch things up from time to time of course to keep Keeva from realizing the truth but in the end it was fun for her while being amusing for him. They even picked up an audience of sorts who were enjoying the spectacle well enough.

Other members of their group who were young enough that they didn't realize it was all scripted tried to get a match with her but it only lasted for awhile before they broke for supper. With the supplies they'd stolen and others they'd picked up along the road they'd been travelling down they were able to throw together some rather interesting meals. Not five star restaurant material of course but definitely better than just throwing meat and veggies into a pot with water to make a crude stew of some sort. By their estimation of their food supply they'd have enough to make it across the border into the Oriana Kingdom and a bit further before needing to resupply. With the precious goods and amount of currency they had it wouldn't be hard to get more food but they had to spread out their supply runs as much as they could. The enemy would likely be on the lookout for purchases of large enough quantity to feed or clothe a group their size. The best way to counter that was instead of making one big purchase you made many smaller purchases spread out across as many different stores as possible so that none of them stand out in anyone's mind. With the number of people in their group who could look perfectly normal shopping it would be best to keep things to one person per store. Without any repeats it'd just look like random people buying random things for random reasons.

Completely unremarkable.

Indeed between the lot of them they'd managed to come up with some pretty decent plans for getting around undetected while seeing to the needs of each member of the group.

It wasn't quite at the level of a routine but if given another month he could see it becoming old hat for the people around him.

Taking another mouthful of the meal without looking like a slob he thought upon what he'd seen upon finally getting a chance to see his new body without any onlookers. Honestly he thought that whoever was behind his new circumstances had to be a big time anime fan because this scenario really matched some of the more popular shows that'd been brought to America. Not only was he in a girl's body that looked to be roughly the same physical age as his natural body but the pointy ears told him he was now an elf. This meshed with what had been said to him back at the castle as well as how Freya spoke to him. If her body was now like most other fictional elves it meant that he now had a much longer lifespan than any of the other races as well as a higher aptitude for magic.

Add to that the fact that his she-elf body was sexy enough to easily earn a spot in Sports Illustrated's swimsuit edition multiple years in a row and he was willing to see where this ride went.

He was sure that if he waited long enough he'd find out how he came to be here and if there was a way to get back to Sunnydale. There was more than enough evidence to support the existence of magic as well as items with a variety of different abilities called 'artifacts' so one of them surely had something to do with travelling to other worlds or swapping bodies. With the lifespan of an elf he'd have the time to look wherever he needed to as well as get the education needed to use what he found to get back home.

First though he'd do what he could to help these former prisoners find a place to live out their lives in peace. There had to be someplace off the beaten path where they could live without ever being discovered by those who saw them as nothing more than lab rats. Someplace remote enough to have little if any traffic going through it but close enough to civilization to be able to acquire through purchase what they couldn't make on their own. With the technological level of the world he was now in he was confident that there weren't as many villages, towns and cities as what existed on Earth. That meant a lot of wilderness, wild animals and places where habitation could only be done by the educated or the strong.

It'd be a LOT of work but it wasn't like he had anything else to do.

"It's almost enough to make you forget doesn't it?" A voice asked to his left.

Turning his gaze towards the source he saw it was not Freya as he'd been expecting but rather the fox therianthrope who went by the name Chizuru. With golden hair the older woman seemed to be basking in the atmosphere of dinner looking at the others as though she was committing the scene to memory. From what he'd learned the woman had known a few of the prisoners before they'd been brought to the castle but sadly she'd been the only one to survive. By mere chance the bandages and stitches from her wounds were concealed by the clothes that'd been acquired for the fox woman but you saw the truth when she walked anywhere. He imagined that this was what people were referring to when they proposed that sometimes death was better than survival.

"Nothing could ever make me forget what happened at the castle." He replied not entirely unscathed from what'd happened back then.

Sunny-D might've taken some of the edge off of the trauma from the fighting at the castle but all that meant was that he was able to be more functional and further along the recovery curve than the rest. Back home things might've been dangerous but the bad guys kept to the darkness with none of them eager to break the 'veil of nonexistence' that had people saying the supernatural or the demonic don't exist. Here? News didn't travel anywhere near as fast and he had a feeling that their former 'hosts' had a lot of pull in powerful places. Couple that with the limited resources and they were most definitely the underdogs of this situation.

The odds were different than they were back in Sunnydale and they were definitely NOT in favour of the good guys.

That being said…

"But looking back into the past just gets in the way of looking forward to a better future." He said not wanting to get bogged down in what couldn't be changed, "We can learn from it, respect it but never let it get in the way of making a better future. For you, for me and for them."

"You really think we can? Make tomorrow better than yesterday?" Chizuru asked sounding like it was a foreign concept for her.

"With every choice we make and ever action you take you can make things better." He replied with complete confidence, "With everyone here…I got a few ideas but I need to work out the details."

"Such as?" Chizuru asked looking like her curiosity had been aroused.

"Well…I don't think we can just take everyone back to their homes." He replied keeping his voice low so that the fox therianthrope would be the only one to hear him, "If the people from the castle are running after us they might send people to where they think we'll go. Back to home and family and friends. We could be going right into a trap. A trap we might not see until it's too late."

"What would you have us do instead?" She asked her interest remaining.

"Find a place the enemy would never think about. A place people don't go very often." He replied trying to sound more sure than he actually felt, "Someplace we can all get a rough start but a good one. It'd be the last thing anyone would expect."

"An idea but worrying without details. Founding a fresh settlement takes money and resources." She said pointing out the biggest flaw, "One we have some of but the other we have none. Using the former to gain the latter will stand out especially since we don't look like settlers."

True.

Taking in the group before him none of them looked like they were looking to found a village or even build a small assortment of houses. At most they might be able to pull off the image of a group of people on a religious pilgrimage. Thinking on the problem he tried to think of something more workable.

"Then we try to find an abandoned settlement. Not completely impossible to live in just in need of some repairs." He proposed his confidence growing, "If anyone asks we can say we were sent ahead of our 'husbands' to get the rebuilding started. Someone comes later and asks where they are we make up excuses that make sense and aren't suspicious. If things look like the lie isn't going to last much longer we put together a sad story about how the men were killed by bandits or something on the way to the new settlement."

"Possible. There are towns and villages that were abandoned for reasons that are no longer relevant." She said seemingly liking this idea, "So long as no one else has laid claim to them it could work. However it will need to be someplace that hasn't been abandoned for more than three or four decades. Any more and it would be smarter to build a home from the ground up."

He didn't disagree with her.

Buildings tended to rot and fall to pieces without regular upkeep and that would likely be even truer in a world like this pre-industrial revolution one. He very much doubted that they had anything but the crudest of waterproofing methods or other methods of protecting the buildings from the elements or the passage of time. Still there was a decent enough chance of finding one so he decided to go with it.

"Maybe a village with a mine nearby that doesn't have anything left to give." He said considering how to make the idea work, "Maybe offer to take it off the hands of whoever is still living there for enough coin to start over someplace else."

"Then it appears as though we have a plan." She said smiling with more than interest, "However I would wait until we cross into the Oriana Kingdom before asking questions. Best not leave clues for our pursuers to find."

He nodded at this and so the conversation with the fox Therionthrope came to an end.

He just hoped that malevolent forces didn't bring their journey to a violent end.

---

Late Afternoon the Next Day

Freya's POV

"There. The border station between the Velgalta Empire and the Oriana Kingdom." She said pointing to the fortified structures ahead, "As you can see the two realms are not on the best of terms with each other. It is not yet at the point where crossing the border will be impossible for us but we must do nothing to arouse their suspicions. War there might not be but they will be on the look out for spies."

"Then we must hide our weapons on the carriages and have nothing on us that would look out of place." Alessia said looking at the buildings as they got closer, "Keep them from sight but not buried so deep that we won't be able to get to them quick if we need them."

With a nod she took her blade off and threw it into a barrel just behind her before placing the lid on top. The barrel was empty so she didn't believe she needed to worry about the blade being damaged and with a trick she'd learned from her brother the lid would not easily come off. With any luck those who inspected it would think it a sealed barrel and not attempt to force it open. She knew she would not need to worry about Alessia's blade for it was magical and could appear then disappear as the she-elf willed it. A part of her was curious about where it came from and how her liberator had come to possess it but she did not give this part the freedom to move. She knew better than most the value of secrets and the peril of prying into the affairs of others. It was partly how she'd come to be captured and transported to the castle to be poked and cut and pierced for the ambitions of a madman. If it became truly important, something that imperilled the entire group she would press the matter but not before.

"Hide your weapons!" She yelled back to the others, "Someplace secret but close enough for you to get to them if you need them! Quickly!

They could not stop the carriages to better hide the weapons because they were now within sight of the border station. It would be suspicious if approaching carriages suddenly stopped, their occupants do something and then resume advancing on the station. Even just quickly stashing it as they were might've been seen by the guards at the station even if only just. From this point until they were safely in the Oriana Kingdom they would need to behave completely normal and do nothing to make it look as though something suspicious was going on.

She was a little worried that some of their group would not be able to manage that but it was too late to back out now.

It took a little over ten minutes for the caravan of three carriages to reach the border station and as expected the Dark Knights stationed there moved to take up ready positions. It wasn't a sign that they suspected something since it was only prudent to take precautions in case something WAS discovered to be amiss.

"State your name and reasons for crossing the border." The most experienced of the Dark Knights demanded not looking like he'd settle for anything less.

"We are travellers from the south." She replied believing she would be able to better bluff the Knights than Alessia, "We seek to travel to the Kingdom of Oriana to begin our lives anew."

"And why can you not do so within the Empire?" The experienced Knight asked eyes narrowing a bit.

"Sadly our homes were destroyed in an avalanche and what you see in these carts is all that could be salvaged." She replied doing her best to put the right emotions on her face, "We have attempted to find homes on our journey here but the cost of housing all of us would be more than we can afford. It is our hope that the Kingdom of Oriana, known for valuing artistic talent above all else, might be willing to show flexibility in the cost of living for us."

It is true that the kingdom of Oriana was known for its reverence of the arts and it did not matter what race you were or what class you were so long as you had artistic talent. The nobility of the kingdom saw every work of art as a status symbol and the same could be said of any artist they were the patron of. As such it was not unfeasible that one or all members of the caravan could possess some artistic talent or could be of use to an artist either as models or simply staff members.

The Knight looked over each member of the caravan that he could see without taking a step forward no doubt evaluating their looks in order to judge if the story was true. Fortunately for them the majority of the ladies and girls in their group were above average in the looks department with the little girls being quite cute. In the end when nothing happened she took this to mean that that they still had a chance.

"I will need to review your identity papers." The Knight said seemingly determined to do all his duty required him to.

Admirable but also troublesome since most Knights she'd encountered only seemed to what was necessary rather than anything more.

Fortunately she had anticipated this while they had been in Maldid and when they looted the storehouse she'd located a consignment of forged paperwork. Knowing it'd be useful she had taken all that could be matched with the members of their group and as luck would have it Chizuru had some skill as a scribe. With only a little work the documents had successfully modified so as to not look suspicious but also to not stand out as being forgeries. Perhaps an expert who was trained to identify forgeries would be able to tell that they were fake but to your average Knight it would be too bizarre for one of them to detect the truth.

Taking the paperwork from the pouch at her side she handed it to the Knight for inspection seeing this as the final hurdle to them getting across the border.

"It would seem that all is in order." The Knight said five minutes later before handing the paperwork back, "Safe journey to you all."

With those words the Knight turned to those manning the gate before giving a gesture that was followed by the gate obstructing their path being opened. Letting a bit of relief flow through her veins Alessia spurred the horses into action once more getting their caravan going forward. A part of her warned not to assume anything until they'd officially entered Kingdom of Oriana territory but she'd be lying if she claimed that a feeling of victory did not dwell within her.

As they were just passing through the gate of the border station something happened that did not bode well. Ahead of them, formerly hidden by the door of the gate was a woman of scarlet hair clad in the clothes of a Dark Knight of no small rank. Over the woman's shoulder she could see a two handed hilt poking up but she couldn't determine if it belonged to an axe or a great sword. What cause concern and wariness to blossom within her though was the LOOK in the woman's eyes for it spoke of barely contained bloodlust. Even though the expression on the woman's face was calm and composed she could tell that it was merely a mask.

"Sadly Knight Captain these travellers are person's of interest to the Seven Blades." The woman said making it impossible for any carriage to get past her, "They cannot be allowed to leave Velgalta."

Looking back at the Knight Captain she could see fear being barely kept in check behind a mask of professionalism. It implied that the red haired woman was capable of terrifying action and only because of the 'she is on the same side as us' belief kept the man steady.

"Aid us in their apprehension and a commendation will be placed in each of your records." Another voice said from the right of the woman.

This was soon revealed to be a man of dark hair and a face that looked to be little more than carved stone with how little emotion was showing. This one was far more reserved than the woman but no less imposing a shield on one arm and a sword in the other.

This proved to be the tipping point for the border station guards as they no doubt found it preferable to be on the side of the ones they feared and a reward was a nice bonus. As one the Dark Knights began to encircle the caravan pulling their swords from their sheathes or pointing their spears towards the carriages. Throwing her eyes about she looked to see if there was any weakness they could exploit or a part of the circle that they could charge through with the carriages if given the chance. Sadly by her estimation they'd be at sword point before they could turn the carriages around and she had little doubt that the two who barred the way forward were strong. Either they possessed artifacts of terrible strength, an abundance of magic or quite a bit of skill.

They would cut down the horses long before they made it past them and many would die after when they attempted to muster a defence.

No.

If they were to stand any chance of survival swords must drawn and guards needed to be raised and she was not the only one to think so. With a shifting of the carriage Alessia jumped off the carriage to land on the ground before moving towards the powerful duo with steady steps. However when she expected the long slender curved blade she was surprised when instead a massive longsword appeared in the she-elf's right hand. It had a double edged blade, a single spike at its pommel and a skeletal aesthetic around the guard with a metal skull at the centre of the hilguard. To her eyes it looked to be too big for an elf with Allessia's build but she saw no sign of strain in the right arm nor any waver in the she-elf's gait.

"Ya know…while it's nice to hear people are interested in me I'm afraid I've got plans and they involve going forward not back." Allessia said casually showing little concern towards those before her, "Normally this'd be the part where we throw threats around, posture a bit and stuff. Still I'm not the most patient so howsabout we just skip right to the good part. That work for ya?"

This seemed to put cracks in the expression of the redhead allowing bits of bloodlust to leak through but the man by her side didn't seem to want this to degrade further.

"Think before you take another step. You are outnumbered and facing skilled Dark Knights along with myself and my partner Akame." The emotionless man warned firmly, "Even if some of you have skill with a blade death or suffering will be the only outcome of a struggle. Surrender and you will not be harmed."

The redhead looked to find this amusing as though she was privy to a private joke.

"Sorry but it's a rule of mine not to do what liars say." Alessia said her voice losing some of its casualness, "So let's get this party started!"

Then, in the blink of an eye, Alessia went from a relaxed posture to shooting across the gap between herself and the shield carrying man at superhuman speed. It wasn't quite at the same speed as back at the castle with the slimmer curved sword but it was still almost more than her eyes could perceive. Nevertheless the emotionless man proved quick enough to bring his shield up in time to keep from getting impaled but when the two objects connected the man still got pushed back over two dozen feet. More than that she could see signs of damage to the shield but the fact that there was any appeared to surprise both the man as well as the redhead.

"Nice block! Now try some of THIS!" Alessia declared as a crimson energy wrapped itself around the longsword before the she-elf.

Then with a bit of dexterity and speed the grip on the longsword switched to blade down before a slash was executed sending an arc of red energy flying towards the man blocking their path. The attack tore a groove through the ground with ease but this time instead of using the shield to block the man moved to evade the energy attack allowing it to pass right by him.

There was no third attack to follow because it was at this point that the redhead of the pair chose to jump in revealing that her weapon was indeed a large sword albeit wider than the one Alessia wielded. Even though it proved to be a surprise attack Alessia was about to bring her sword up to block the strike but this time there was a bit of a tremor as strength met strength.

"You have NO idea how happy you're making me!" Akame yelled her bloodlust now on full display, "I thought this was going to be just a huge snore! Nothing but a bunch of trash needing to be swept up! But YOU…fighting YOU is going to be FUN!"

"I'm hearing big talk but let's see if can keep up with my tempo!" Alessia said finally pushing Akame away to land a dozen steps back, "Nothing worse than a dance partner that gets worn out too fast!"

With the opening exchanges done she felt confident that the she-elf could handle the two in front but she was not ignorant of the Dark Knights surrounding them. As quickly as she could she stood up, pulled off the lid of the barrel before pulling her sword out and discarding the sheathe in a single smooth move.

"Rise up! Protect yourself!" She declared before leaping from the carriage to engage the nearest Dark Knight.

She hoped that the others knew that this was not a fight to kill all the Dark Knights but rather to buy time for Alessia to kill the two barring their path. Once that was done they'd give one final push to the Dark Knights before getting back on the carriages riding off as fast as they could in the hopes that they wouldn't be followed. An altercation at the border was one thing but sending Velgalta's forces into the Kingdom of Oriana would escalate things much too far and would only raise a great many questions.

All they needed was more time and she would see that they got it.

Nor matter what.

---

Xander aka Alessia's POV

~Why is it I can talk the talk but walking the walk is where I start stressing?~ He thought even as he ducked beneath a swing from Akame before pivoting away from her partner's attempt to strike.

It'd all felt so natural when the longsword in his hand appeared instead of the big katana that he'd just gone with the flow of it all. It'd worked out well enough back at the castle so he'd thought that the same thing would happen here but there was one difference that he'd overlooked. Back at the castle he'd only been facing one opponent with the power as well as the skill to be a real challenge to him. Now? Now he was facing two and their weapons had special abilities that the head guard back at the castle didn't have available to him. Sure he'd proven that the sword he wielded had powers as well but that didn't change that this was a two on one situation.

Still he was managing for the time being but that wasn't good enough. He needed to take them down before the people he wished to protect got in over their heads.

The redhead near as he could tell was your typical bloodthirsty psycho who lived to fight but the guy was more the soulless agent type all precision and efficiency. It was a pairing of opposites that some would think would self-destruct the partnership but given how well they were fighting together against him they'd clearly been doing it awhile. Was it pressure from their bosses that forced them to get along or did they team up better than logic said they should? Whatever the case he was being kept on his toes with VERY little room for screw ups with bits of his jacket already having slice marks in it.

~Gotta figure out a way to do better.~ He thought unleashing two quick slashes of the sort that released the arcs of crimson energy at the deadly duo to buy himself some room, ~Can't set them up to shoot each other 'cause they don't have guns plus I think they're smart enough to see through that.~

He felt a tingle inside of himself when he thought the word and it wasn't something that could be considered normal by any means. In the midst of fighting he didn't know if he had the time to chase a long shot but his instincts had kept him alive thus far so before he could think himself out of it he acted on the tingle. Hooking his longsword on something built into his coat's back he reached with both hands to something that FELT like it'd be found at the waist above his ass. Only when twin lights, one white while the other was akin to a blacklight from the seventies, manifested did he know his gamble had paid off and grinned when his fingers wrapped around familiar shapes.

"You're both pretty good. I might even go so far as to say I underestimated your abilities." He said with a smirk before drawing his new weapons from behind his back, "Time for things to get a little crazy!"

With a single fluid motion he brought forth twin M1911 handguns, one of dark metal while the other was made of a shiny silver metal, both obviously customized in various ways. Thanks to his soldier possession he knew how to use them even if the lingering memories about duel wielding weren't as detailed as those using one at a time.

Before his enemies could do more than widen their eyes in surprise he began pulling the trigger aiming for their bodies since his possession remnants advised against going for the head or the limbs. Sure it looked cool to do so in the movies and if he'd had more real experience with the handguns he might try it but for right now he needed guaranteed hits. Pulling the triggers on his guns as fast as he could he managed to score a few hits on both his foes but not ones severe enough to take them out of the fight much less kill them. Not surprising since most of the guns he'd seen in this world were more along the lines of the single shot pistols that existed back home prior to the invention of the first revolver pistol. Both of his foes were likely trained and conditioned to expect an enemy to have to take time to reload after a single shot so coming under fire from multiple successive shots would've been a surprise.

Too bad they were good enough to adapt quickly and soon began maneuvering better to avoid each successive shot.

On the plus side he was quick to find out that these new handguns were different from the normal M1911 models in that neither were limited to just seven rounds per magazine. In fact he'd long since exceeded that number but a shot never failed to fire when he pulled the trigger so he could only presume that the bullets were magical in nature. He couldn't feel a drain on his energy so he could only presume that forming the 'bullets' did not cost all that much in terms of magic. He could probably keep shooting for hours before he began to notice a drain but he had no intention of testing this right now.

Moving with the speed he possessed he tried to find an angle and an opportunity to deal either of them a debilitating shot.

They adapted quickly, he could give them both that, but his shots were proving to be enough to keep either of them from getting close enough to land a blow of their own. Even the man with the shield was unable to simply raise his protection and bulldoze his way through since each shot carried with it more force than one would expect. His bullets so far didn't have the power behind them to knock the man on his ass but neither did the man have the strength to keep moving forward in spite of them. For all intents and purposes it looked as though he had both the man and the red haired woman in a stalemate but that was not good enough for him.

So he decided to try something that just might get him where he wanted to go in the time he felt that he had available to him.

Feeling the power within him he began to consciously send it into each handgun but concentrated it rather than let it take the shape of a normal bullet. For five seconds longer than he'd been doing up until now he let the energy build up within his weapons until he was satisfied before taking aim at the shield bearer. As expected the man brought it into a position to block the shot and even strengthen his defence since both barrels were aimed at him.

It would avail him not.

Firing as many shots as he could with the accumulated magical energy he watched with happiness as each shot either succeeded in striking the damaged spot his sword had hit earlier or the area around it. Under such a barrage it was inevitable that the shield would break and so swiftly was it done that the man holding it barely had time to do anything. That anything turned out to be maneuvering his body away from the shield just as it shattered so that the only part of him harmed was the arm the mental implement had been held in.

Though harmed was a bit of an understatement seeing as how the arm got chunks blown from it that made one wonder when it'd be detached from the main body.

He wasn't able to finish the job though since by pointing both handguns at one foe he naturally gave the second enemy a chance to close the distance. With a single move he holstered the handgun in his right hand before dodging to the side to gain enough time to once more bring forth the longsword at his back. Once it was before him he once more implemented the move he recalled Giles trying to teach Buffy about parrying a sword swing. The first attempt with the large sword was flawed but it did open up an opportunity for him to bring the silver handgun in his left hand up to fire off a shot. The next time he did it he'd made some adjustments that allowed it to do better and when the third time occurred he had enough of a grasp of the technique that the chance factor was manageable.

Now all he needed to do was get the redhead into a position where the woman wouldn't be able to evade the shots from his left hand and finish her. Even if he did no more damage than he'd done to Akame's partner it should be enough to give him and his group a chance to flee. It was a fact after all that with bleeding wounds you only had a set amount of time before you lost consciousness and even less time after that before you died. Sure bandaging or applying pressure to the wound helped buy time but unless the wound was stitched up or the loss of blood was stopped some other way death was the inevitable outcome.

Unless these two were completely off their rockers they'd back off once they were injured badly enough that death was a real possibility.

A chance came a moment later when he brought his handgun up causing Akame to anticipate what was to come and immediately begin to dodge the expected shot. However with speed that up until now had been used for maneuvering across the battlefield he swiftly repositioned his feet so that he could bring the longsword around to intercept the dodge. Impressively enough Akame was able to bring her huge sword to block the strike and like most arrogant warriors the redhead believed she'd come out on top.

~Idiot.~ He thought before reorienting the handgun in his left hand to point the barrel underneath his right armpit and pulled the trigger.

BANG!

"ARRGGH!" The redhead cried out as the shot pierced through his jacket and impacted on her stomach.

While Akame was fast enough to dodge his shots when she saw them coming and was in a position to maneuver in this case the woman was deprived of both. By using his coat as cover the woman didn't know the shot was coming until she heard the bang and at such close range there'd been no time to dodge it. Add to that the fact that the woman's dodge had her momentarily airborne there was nothing to push off of to change directions. With such factors in play there was only one result that could be born into reality.

Bringing his body around to face Akame he prepared himself to fire off more shots in order to build upon the existing wound and finish the fight.

He expected to see her stumbling backwards. He thought there'd be a look of shock on her face at being shot. He was sure she would be in no position to keep fighting.

He was wrong.

Even with a bloody hole in her stomach she'd barely taken two steps backward. Instead of shock the fact that she'd been seriously injured appeared to only enflame her bloodlust. With speed that had to have been bolstered by a surge in adrenaline the gap between them was erased allowing the redhead to grab his right wrist. With skill he hadn't seen coming she managed to twist his wrist in such a way that he unintentionally loosened his grip on the hilt. Though not enough to cause him to drop the longsword it did prove to be enough to allow Akame to pilfer his weapon from his grasp.

"You've given me such a wonderful present!" Akame exclaimed before dropping her own blade in order to grasp his with both hands, "Allow me to return the favour!"

He saw the attack coming, felt the surge in magical energy coming from his foe and though he pushed off the ground to evade backwards it was not enough. He knew what it felt like to have a weapon pierce clear through him thanks to the spiked axe back at the castle but that was worlds away from having a longsword run through your stomach. Shock reverberated within him as a natural response to the traumatic injury and even though he knew his current she-elf body was more durable than most he could not believe that it was durable enough to survive this. Without a doubt his plan had been turned back on him since now he was the one with a serious injury who needed to retreat.

Sadly even as he tried to move with the same energy as before his body acted sluggishly resulting in him being unable to dodge when Akame kicked the pommel of his sword knocking him onto his back. The pain that spiked from his body as the impact caused the sword to shift thus causing even more damage cleared his mind somewhat and seemed to return some liveliness to his body.

It wouldn't last though.

It was likely adrenaline running through his own body that was keeping the bulk of the pain the wound was causing at bay. Eventually it would ebb and he'd be crippled by the agony. If somehow he got the sword out and emergency treatment was applied it might be possible for a full recovery after a few weeks but he didn't think Akame would be in the mood for letting that happen.

"Too bad. That was the most fun I've had in years." Akame said with a sort of satisfaction one might expect after good sex, "After swatting so many flies I'd almost given up hope on finding a worthwhile opponent."

"An opponent we were supposed to bring back ALIVE Akame." The former shield bearer said walking up to his partner.

Peripherally he was aware that while bandaged up with ripped strips from what had been a cloak the arm that had been shot up looked to be in better condition than it should've been. The arm should've been visibly misshapen even with the strips of cloth wrapped around it but there was barely oddities to be seen to his eyes.

Odd.

"Don't worry Itachi! A bitch that can fight this good isn't gonna die from a simple hole to the gut." Akame said not sounding worried in the least, "Besides she'll be much more manageable now. As long as we get her back to the labs while she's still breathing it's all good."

"Then we'd better help the Knights finish off the other subjects." Itachi said looking to where a battle still sounded like it was ongoing, "Time is running out."

"Won't take but a second." Akame said with malicious confidence, "Wait here like a good little plaything she-elf! We'll be back for you after we decorate the border station with the guts of your friends!"

It was all falling apart.

ALL OF IT!

He'd attempted to step out of his usual place as the support member of a heroes team and help those that had been treated like lab rats. Not necessarily as a hero but rather as someone who had power enough to ensure their safety on the journey to their new home. He'd proven to himself back at the castle that he now possessed a power beyond what the knights there could handle. He'd done it again at the storehouse and this had given him confidence in his ability to see his current adventure through to its desired conclusion.

The vision he'd witnessed, the one with the three voices that came from three men, had convinced her that by agreeing she would have at least fifty-fifty odds of success.

And where did that get him?

On the ground with his own sword impaled through his stomach.

Bleeding out!

DEFEATED!

He wanted to rage, to rebel against his current circumstances and force into existence a future he could at least tolerate.

But he couldn't.

Injured as he was, encumbered as he was, even if he used both handguns they would take away energy that was likely being used by his new body to stay alive. He'd only be hastening his descent towards death and look all the more stupid for making such a mistake.

"You really going to fall asleep like this kid?" A voice asked that he hadn't heard since the castle, "You're going to miss out on a lot of fun."

"It would seem that she cannot handle the power properly." The cold condescending voice from the vision said as though it was right behind her, "It was a waste to even give her this much. Perhaps we should take it back before others can study it."

"No. She still has a chance to change this." The third voice of the triumvirate from the vision in the castle said in opposition, "There is still the 'change'…though I think she'll need more than just an Arm or a fancy aura."

"You sure about that?" The devil may care voice asked from a position just a few steps from her feet, "We grew up with our power and had time to get used to it even before we Awoke. Could be more than she can handle."

"Maybe…or maybe she'll surprise you." The Third said with passion, "You've seen the same things I have inside her. How many times should she have died? Instead she's here and getting into trouble. I'm willing to bet on her one more time. Are you?"

"Heh…what the hell…I'm up for another roll of the dice!" The devil may care voice said with excitement, "Either she'll adapt or it'll turn her into Dustbuster food. No matter what happens it's problem solved. You game bro?"

"Don't call me 'bro'." The icy one replied clearly disliking the abbreviation of 'brother', "So long as no one gains access to our birthright without our consent I will allow it."

"You hear that kid? You're getting another shot at a gold medal!" The devil may care voice said that implied an insufferable smirk, "So make sure that when those two are eating dirt at your feet you say just one thing to the both of them."

"What…?" He asked speaking up for the first time since the trio showed up.

"Jackpot!"

---

Itachi's POV

~Akame is always such a hassle when her blood heats up.~ He thought proceeding with sword in hand to where the Dark Knights of the border station still hadn't settled things, ~But every time I've brought up being reassigned to someone more levelheaded it's rejected.~

The reason given most often was that despite their differing temperaments they were an ideal match for partnership within the organization due to their respective specialities. Personally he believed he was paired with her because his specialities gave him the best chance of reigning her in if she got too fiery on a mission. There had been a few flare ups since they first became partners and he had been able to keep them from creating too big a mess but that didn't mean he liked any of them. He always got the impression that the only reason he succeeded was because the woman didn't have a large enough incentive to push her luck. Just like she'd said to the she-elf: she has been fighting flies for so long. Akame has had nothing she could sink her teeth into in terms of an opponent before now and so all the times he'd reigned her in she just hadn't had a good enough reason to test the boundaries set by the Cult.

~Hopefully this fight will be enough to satisfy her for a few months.~ He thought preparing to use what strength he had left to put an end to the violence.

"I wonder if any of these fleas can put up-" Akame said looking like she was about to do the same as him.

Only they both stopped when a wave of power erupted behind them unlike anything they'd felt before.

While neither of them had been ranked highly enough to get to see the power of a member of the Knights of Round he had witnessed the power of subordinates only a few levels below them. Each time he'd witnessed them employing their power or boosting it with the red pills they'd been provided with he'd always felt like a mouse standing before a dragon. It'd taken everything he'd had to maintain his composure during those moments and act in a manner befitting an agent of his rank. The power he'd felt in those moments had possessed a…flavour…that he was able to sense and use to differentiate one person's power from another's. It was one of his specialities that had his superiors assign him missions like this along with his aptitude for arcane forensics.

Both qualities of his made it clear to him that the energy he now sensed was unlike the power wielded by most Dark Knights and did not match the power of the red pills. It was akin to comparing the food invented by one country to the meals created by a nation on the other side of the planet. Different ingredients, different methods of preparation and perhaps a special way of eating the food.

More than that though there was a quality to it that defied description for there was nothing in his memory that matched it.

Whirling around to view the source he swiftly came to regret it for what his eyes beheld and what his instincts were yelling to him unbalanced everything within him.

Wrapped in lingering remnants of energy both blue and red was not something that could be considered human by conventional definitions. The snow white hair that had once almost reached the she-elf's shoulders had somehow been twisted and transformed into horns that wrapped around her head like a crown or coronet. Her coat that had once looked to have been made from the finest of fabrics now to him looked to be intricately woven sword tips of red, black and blue metal. The pants were now more akin to skin tight pants made from lizard skin or at least that was what most would say if they did not see the clawed toes of each foot and the lack of bottoms for each leg of the 'pants'. Looking to the hands though he could see significant changes from before looking more reptilian-esque with claws for fingernails. Both transitioned in colour from blue at the spot closest to the elbow to golden orange at the fingertips. On the left arm though there existed a sheath of scales with a hilt sticking out of it that matched the description he'd been given of the one wielded at the castle facility. Another blade, one not in the she-elf's right hand at the moment could be seen peaking out from behind her head reminding him of some of the single edged swords he'd seen.

What he saw before him now was no she-elf but rather a demon of war risen from the depths of hell to slay all who stood in its way.

And right now…that was him along with Akame.

Never in his life did he wish that he'd been overlooked by the organization more than at this precise moment.

---

Mitsugoshi Company, Midgar Kingdom

Executive Committee Board Room

Three Weeks Later

Alpha's POV

"Is there anything new to report?" She asked setting aside the pieces of paper outlining their recent findings on instructor Zenon Griffy of the Midgar Academy for Dark Knights.

As part of their efforts to better prepare for Shadow-sama's future plans and the fact that he would be attending the Academy soon she'd ordered information acquired on those with a position of strength within the school. It had been proven through their research that the Cult often placed members in places of power or influence in order to control the world at large. Everything from leading members of a community to business owners to the military and government. Given the prestigious nature of the Midgar Academy for Dark Knights and the fact that the students came from all classes of society it would be an opportunity to influence the next generation.

That was something the Cult would not have overlooked or passed up given the nature of their uncovered activities.

Thus in order to ensure that Shadow-sama didn't walk into a place potentially infested with Cult operatives they were working diligently to identify potential enemies. If they could uncover concrete proof that a teacher or student was a member of the Cult they would be sure to inform the leader of Shadow Garden as soon as he arrived. If they merely suspected the person of having ties with the Cult they would be kept under surveillance but they wouldn't mention it to Shadow-sama.

No sense tarnishing a person's reputation without solid evidence.

"There is one thing." Epsilon replied before distributing some paperwork to the assembled Seven Shadows, "As you know I've been using resources to find out just how far the Cult's influence in other kingdoms and countries. Two weeks ago one of our sources in the Velgalta Empire witnessed a large number of Dark Knights being brought to a hospital in her town. She inquired as much as she dared and learned that with the exception of two all the Dark Knights being submitted for treatment were assigned to a border station."

"Interesting but what does it have to do with the cult? It could've just been bandits or some people from the Lawless City." Beta said hoping for greater elaboration.

"The connection to the cult is that two exceptions mentioned were Akame of the Bloody Fields and Itachi the Monolith." Epsilon replied holding up two pieces of paper showing pictures that all present recognized.

As was only prudent whenever they raided a Cult stronghold to locate as many records as possible in case some important piece of intelligence could be found. They didn't always get anything worthwhile since while arrogant the Cult was competent enough to burn their files if there was a chance of them falling into enemy hands. Nevertheless they had acquired some files a portion of which contained information on Cult members though none of them were a part of the Knight of Rounds. Two of the files belonged to Akame of the Bloody Fields and Itachi the Monolith who were classified as a cross between investigators and enforcers. From what their files implied the duo were usually sent to deal with people who crossed the Cult but couldn't be dealt with using their various pawns.

No member of Shadow Garden had fought either agent of the Cult but the information in their files did imply strength and skill comparable to the upper ranks of Dark Knights worldwide.

"Were your sources able to determine who the two agents were pursuing?" She asked knowing that whoever was responsible might be someone they'd face in the future.

"The source that witnessed their arrival at the hospital wasn't able to probe for much more information without arousing suspicion. What she did find out was that both of them had been severely injured with Itachi coming close to having an arm amputated." Epsilon replied with a bit of disappointment, "Akame also received what looked to be a shot from a rifle but the damage was greater than normal. It was only when I contacted our other sources in the Empire that things started to clear up."

With these words Epsilon set aside some pieces of paper in front of her while prompting the rest to do the same. When done all were looking at information focused on the capital city of the Empire Madlid with a storehouse found there.

"A little over ten days prior there was an attack and theft on a storehouse belonging to the Kiryu crime family. Seventeen guards were killed and two thirds of the contents of the storehouse were stolen." Epsilon explained as some of those present read through the files themselves, "The Kiryu crime family is one of three dominant criminal factions in Madlid. Based on our files on them they mostly act as a source of funds and expendable manpower for the Cult. Given that the theft happened in a single night with no one aware of it until more than a day later means either a larger group of people or a small one of significant capability were responsible."

Two Cult enforcers hospitalized along with a large group of Dark Knights.

A theft happening deeper into the Empire implying an origin point for the attackers.

Ominous indeed and one with a possible explanation.

"One or more Possessed may be responsible." She said voicing what the others were likely thinking.

"I can see how you could think that but how could they have cured themselves?" Zeta asked trying to resolve the conflict going on in her mind, "Only Shadow-sama, you and Epsilon can cure the Possessed. The Cult's been trying for years and has pretty much given up."

"If it wasn't us who cured the Possessed and not the Cult that would imply a third party might be responsible." Beta said sounding as though she was working her way through the logic, "Just because we are the only ones to cure the Possessed that doesn't mean someone else couldn't devise their own method."

"If you're right then these cured Possessed are powerful enough to defeat Dark Knights and hospitalize two of the Cult's enforcers." Gamma said the concern being felt evident, "Any idea where they are now?"

"Given that the incident happened at a border station connecting the Empire with the Kingdom of Oriana I'd say they're somewhere in the kingdom right now." Epsilon replied sounding mostly sure of her answer, "Since the fight at the border station none of my contacts in the Kingdom of Oriana have heard of anything that might be connected. If it really is a group of cured Possessed they're in hiding at the moment."

"They won't stay that way forever and the Cult's not going to leave them be you can be damn sure of that." Zeta said sounding ready to take action, "I can lead a reconnaissance team into the Kingdom of Oriana to find them."

"And once you do find them?" She asked willing to let Zeta lay it all out.

"Find out their intentions and invite them to join Shadow Garden of course." Zeta replied as though it was obvious, "If they're strong enough to take out a bunch of Dark Knights and two Cult enforcers they're as good as any of our recruits. Besides if we don't the Cult'll catch up to them eventually and either kill'em or drag them back to their labs. If this does mean that there's a new means of curing Possessed we can't let the Cult learn what it is."

True.

If the Cult gained a reliable means of curing the Possessed their combat potential would amplify exponentially with the number of survivors of their experiments going up substantially. Shadow Garden was a young organization whereas the Cult had been around for centuries rising in power, wealth and influence. Their one advantage was that the number of quality warriors in Shadow Garden outweighed what the Cult could field and their small size made it harder for their enemies to find never mind confront. However if the Cult's number of powerful agents drastically increased they would be able to cover much more ground and Shadow Garden would not have such an easy time claiming victory.

Nevertheless…

"Very well. Take your team and find the ones responsible for this new development." She said taking charge as Director of Shadow Garden, "Once you've found them make contact and determine their intentions going forward. As to inviting them to join Shadow Garden…make the offer but do not force them to choose what we would prefer. We are not the Cult and their right to choose will be respected. Just be honest with them about what they will be facing should they decline the offer to join."

Yes.

They could not become like the Cult and forcibly take people into their ranks against their will. However at the same time they needed to educate those they found on what their future held without the backing of Shadow Garden and its resources. The Cult would never stop chasing them down and the more times the group successfully evaded capture or death the more resources the Cult would deploy against them. Eventually the numbers would be too great or a plan would be devised to render what strength the targeted group had useless. At least with Shadow Garden they would have a sanctuary in the ancient capital of Alexandria and under Lamda's supervision would be trained to reach the pinnacle of their abilities.

Unless something unforeseen happened joining Shadow Garden was the wisest course of action for the group being pursued by the Cult.

"Understood. I'll gather a team and we will leave within twenty-four hours." Zeta said with only a moment's pause.

"Then if there is nothing more to be said this meeting is adjourned." Alpha said looking each member of the Seven Shadows in the eyes.

She hoped that this new group of possibly cured Possessed would join them. If they were already strong enough to defeat two Cult enforcers and a group of Dark Knights it would mean reduced training under Lamda allowing them to be deployed on missions sooner. While Shadow Garden was proving successful in its actions against the Cult thus far she knew that there would be a larger and far more open confrontation in the future. The sooner they could even out the difference in strength between Shadow Garden and the Cult the more likely they would emerge victorious in that confrontation.

And with that victory the purpose of Shadow Garden would be fulfilled.

She could think of no better way to repay Shadow-sama for all that he had done for them than to help make his dream a reality.