I honestly think the last chapter was one of my best. I don't know, what do you guys think?
Enjoy!
"...What? A size comparison?"
"Yeah, can you do it?"
"O-Of course I can, but..."
"Then there's no time to waste is there?" Ken frowned at these words. He didn't know why Nashi wanted to know the size difference between Magnolia and Silverridge, but he had no choice but to trust her.
"..Right." he said, sitting down. "I'll get back to you in maybe, ten minutes."
"Alright...Ken?"
"Yeah?"
"...Thanks." Ken smiled at her thanks.
"Everyone needs to hear it at some point." he replied. "Now get going, we have a city to save." He heard Nashi grumble affirmatively, and he severed their connection, moving on to calculate the sizes of the two cities.
"...What just happened?" Ken heard Mami ask behind him.
"...I think Ken just saved us." Elise whispered. "It sounded like Nashi was about to give up."
"She was." Ken confirmed, shocking everyone that he wasn't too focused on his work to reply. "She couldn't calm down when she thought she'd failed to save everyone in Magnolia."
"That bastard." Taro hissed. "Of all things to aim for, it would be the Fairy Tail guild hall."
"It's a shot from left field seeing as there are a lot less destructive ways to go about getting revenge on someone." Akio replied, wiping his hair from his eyes. "We were thinking way bigger, so it never crossed our minds."
"So now what?" Elise demanded. "What's Nashi trying now?"
"I couldn't tell you." Ken replied quietly, tapping away on his Archive. "But we have no choice but to trust her decisions." There was silence across the bridge of the Christina before the door slammed open, causing everyone inside to jump. Turning in his seat, Ken saw Ultear and Simon storming aboard.
"Guys!" Ultear shouted. "Apocalypse is aiming for...!"
"Magnolia, we know." Mami replied, making both of them freeze in place.
"H-How..." Simon started.
"Ken triangulated the coordinates of the launch." Elise replied, her guildmates now noticing she was awake. "That's how we found out."
"O-Oh..." Ultear said, allowing her flailing arms to fall down to her sides. "So...Now what?"
"We wait." Mami replied, and Simon raised an eyebrow.
"Wait for what?" He demanded, his arms crossed. "Apocalypse is still out there, we have no idea where, and the launch could start at any..."
"Nashi went after him." Mami interrupted, causing both Ultear and Simon to gape in surprise. "That's how Ken got the coordinates." Ultear and Simon stood still for a moment, stunned.
"She..." Simon started, eyes wide.
"Nashi's..." Ultear started. Before she could finish her sentence, Ultear dashed across the room, connected with Mami and pinned her against the wall, all in a manner of a few seconds. "Why in the name of God would you let her go after him alone?! She's hurt!" Pure rage flowed from Ultear's eyes, making Mami squeak.
"N-No we didn't!" She shouted, holding her arms up in an attempt to calm Ultear down. "S-She escaped without us knowing!"
"Where is she?" Simon demanded. He seemed calm, but rage was flowing from him as well. Ken knew this was about to go south if someone didn't do something.
"We don't know." Taro responded, sweat dripping from his forehead. "She slipped away too fast."
"Can you track her then?" Simon replied. "Like you did for Apocalypse?"
"We'd need her magical signature for that." Akio supplied. "Which we don't have unless any of you were attacked by her in the last twenty-four hours." Simon clicked his tongue in irritation and looked out the window of the bridge, Ultear still holding Mami against the wall with her forearm.
"W-We have no choice but to trust her." Mami sad in a small voice, seemingly directed at the angry girl holding her. "The launch sequence has begun, and she's the only one close enough too..."
"I need some air." Ultear hissed, releasing Mami and striding towards the open door in one swift movement. Once she got outside, she slammed her fist against the wall. "Fuck!" She roared. She disappeared towards the back of the Christina, and silence once again fell upon the bridge.
"Well then." Elise said, sitting back. "That was intense." No one else spoke, all wrapped up in their own turmoil. Ken sighed and turned around, continuing the work Nashi had asked him to do.
"Where are the others, then?" Simon finally asked.
"Still out there." Akio said. "Judging from the explosions recently, in a fight." Simon sighed.
"And you, Elise?" He asked, making Elise grumble incoherently.
"I guess I'm alright." She said. "I wanted to go out and help, but Mami said I was more hurt than I thought, and I wouldn't last."
"...Did she now..."
"Yeah. But other than that I'm just peachy. Was my beating that bad, Simon?"
"Huh? Oh, that. I don't know why, but Apocalypse really gave it to you after you lost consciousness. I'm surprised you look so good." Ken smiled to himself at this exchange. He felt terrible that they were exploiting Elise's memory programming to keep her contained, but they didn't have a choice. Any member of Phantom Dove could've caused her to fall unconscious again at random, the risk had been to great.
"Well, whatever." Elise said. Judging from her tone, she'd been hoping Simon didn't catch on to Mami's trickery and she could slip away. Thankfully Simon wasn't that stupid. "I'd probably be done by now anyway."
"Or your opponent would've run away." Simon replied. "They seem to like that."
"Probably because actually getting defeated serves no purpose." Mami said. "All they needed to go was keep you guys away from Apocalypse, and they technically already failed." Simon didn't reply, and Ken sighed, pausing his work.
"If you want," he said, entering the conversation, "I could try and make contact with the others." Turning, Ken saw Simon nod.
"Please do, this is pretty important."
Drake leaned against the wall of the sewer next to Winter, watching As Quintus rolled around in front of them, freaking out.
"Is he sane?" Winter asked, leaning closer to him to whisper her question like Quintus could still hear them. Drake was also tempted to tell her she smelled like shit, but he held it in.
"I'm not sure." he replied. "Going deaf suddenly would probably suck." Winter nodded in agreement as Quintus wailed.
"I can't hear!" The man shrieked. "I..I...!"
"What do we do?" Winter asked, louder this time. "We can't ask him anything if he can't hear us." Drake frowned and nodded, knowing she was right. Drake had noting around him that would help him to get Quintus to talk. Thinking hard, Drake got an idea.
"Retrieve him." He said, nodding at Quintus, "I got an idea." Winter stood and walked over to the freaked out man as Drake cleared a spot on the floor. Winter struggled with him for a bit before she dragged him over and slammed him onto his knees in front of Drake. Drake noticed tears coming from Quintus' face. Drake leaned forward and slapped Quintus a few times, making the man look up.
"What?!" he wailed. "I can't hear you!" Drake brought forth poison onto his hand and gestured to the ground. Quintus followed his hand, and Drake used his poison to write, 'Can you answer out questions?'. The poison lingered in the shape of the letters for a bit before fading, making Quintus look back up. "I-I don't know anything, I told you."
"He did say that." Winter agreed. Drake pressed his mouth into a thin line and wrote, "Than what use are you?' on the floor. Quintus laughed.
"I'm not any use." he replied. "You might as well kill me." Drake rolled his eyes and wrote, 'What is Apocalypse trying to accomplish?' Quintus gave no rely, just stared right into Drake's eyes. Drake glared right back, not even considering giving up. After a moment, Quintus sighed. "Kill me." he whispered. "I don't want to live like this. I don't want to be deaf for the rest of my life."
"He really mustn't know." Winter reasoned with a sigh. "Great." Drake shrugged and stood, cracking his back.
"Let him go." He said to Winter, who released her rough grasp on Quintus. "if he really doesn't know, he's no use."
"Do we, uh...?" Winter asked. Drake smirked as he looked down at the suffering Quintus.
"Nah." he said, "Let him suffer." Winter only nodded curtly, and Drake knelt back down in front of Quintus, who looked up. Drake poisoned his hand and put it to the ground.
'I'm sure you'll love learning sign language.'
Quintus glared at the writing as it disappeared. He started to shake violently as Drake stood and pointed towards one of the now opened pathways away from the chamber.
"Let's get the hell out of here and find Apocalypse." he told Winter. "We're wasting our time."
"...WAIT!" Quintus shouted, causing both Drake and Winter to stop on their way down the tunnel. "Please...have mercy...Just kill me!" Drake smirked and just kept walking, Winter not to far behind him. Drake didn't want to admit to using his sound magic to listen to Quintus wail uselessly, but he did. That man had been involved with the original Phantom Dove incident, so Drake felt no compassion for him at all.
"What do we do now?" Winter asked as they proceeded through the now lighter, though still dimly light, sewers. "We need to find Apocalypse." Drake sighed as he ran his hand through his wet hair, trying to come up with an answer.
"I don't know." he answered truthfully. "I suppose we could..."
"Drake? Winter?" Drake raised an eyebrow and looked around, Winter doing the same.
"Ken?" Winter asked. "Was that you?"
"Yeah, it's me. Where are you guys? The signal had a hard time reaching you."
"Uh..." Drake said. "In the sewers."
"Wha...Why?"
"We tracked a Phantom Dove guy here. He knew nothing, but he's no longer a problem." As if to punctuate Drake's remark, he heard Quintus wail again. "So, what's up? Find anything?"
"...More than you know. Get back to the Christina you two, this situation is a lot more dire than you thought."
"Why?" Winter asked. "Did you find out what Apocalypse is aiming for?" Ken remained silent, and Drake frowned.
"Ken?" He asked warily. "What's wrong?" After more silence, Ken sighed.
"Just get back here, fast."
As Damien broke free of the frozen attack, he noticed something.
He knew what he was doing.
He wasn't viewing Shuichi and Terra through someone else's eyes, they were his own. As he raised an arm to stare at it, he knew he was the one who'd raised it and he was the one who'd moved his eyes to scan the appendage.
He was in control.
that did not deter him however. He'd been 'in control' against Taisho as well, but he'd lost it after a while. Terra looked terrified, and Shuichi did as well.
"What's the matter?" Damien hissed, his voice a mixture of his and Vantros' as usual.
"W-Where the hell did you...!?" Shuichi tried, words not forming. "Your takeover is Xisplate, isn't it?!" Damien laughed, an icy sound that sent chills down his opponents spines.
"Does it seem so?" he asked, smirking. "I don't know how well you know your Lords, but this isn't Xisplate." Shuichi growled, and Damien turned his attention on Terra. "Don't worry Terra, I got this."
"You say that, b-but..." Terra whimpered, still forced to stand still by Shuichi. Damien heard a sigh, and he turned to find Xisplate still standing next to him.
"Yes?" He asked, and the demon looked over at him.
"Get this over with." Xisplate advised.
"No no, hold up." Damien said. "Will I be able to control this form, or not?" Xisplate regarded Damien as coldly as if he was the ice demon before sighing.
"Theoretically, you may be okay." Xisplate replied. "I am the strongest of the twelve Lords. The others have their strengths and weaknesses no matter how you cut it, but I am always on top. It may be my sheer power that prevents you from complete control. But this form." Xisplate closed his eyes. "You'll probably be fine." Damien smirked and turned his attention back to the battlefield.
"That was all I need to hear." Launching himself forward, Damien blocked Terra's fist and blew her back with an icy attack, which also slowed her movements considerably. Damien did his best to prevent doing a lot of damage to her, which was pretty hard to do all things considered.
Kill her!
Destroy her!
Damien almost laughed. Of course the voices of the damned would speak to him, that much he recalled from battling Taisho. However, as oppose to before, the voices felt less powerful or angry, making it much easier to pay attention. Easily dodging Shuichi's attempt at making Terra punch him, he grabbed his friends fist and tossed her over his head. He aimed at her and blasted her with ice.
Terra froze solid and dropped to the ground.
The dull thud of her frozen body made Shuichi flinch. Damien grinned.
"Now what?" he asked. "Your puppet's frozen." Shuichi looked up fearfully, but didn't have the courage to reply. Damien took a step forward, and Shuichi a step back.
"N-Now Damien, let's be civil here." Shuichi tried.
"No thanks." Damien replied, dark ice forming in his palms. "I think I'll just end you now."
"O-Oh come on, surely you need something."
"You told me you aren't after the cannon, I doubt you have anything good to share with me." Shuichi flinched at this, and Damien grinned. "Now, how could this pathetic display be a Demon Lord?"
"Not every Lord is a killing machine, Damien" Shuichi replied. "Some just need to be exploited the right way. had you been with more than one person, things would be going quite differently right now."
"Would they now?" Damien asked, raising his hands. "Now, what was Taisho's end game spell called again?" He'd been asking himself, but he saw Shuichi paling. "I think it was Blizzard something..." As he charged the spell he knew perfectly well, he saw Shuichi pull out a small device. The other demon smiled, and put the device away.
"Well, go on then." Shuichi said quietly. "Finish this up."
"Gladly." Damien hissed. "Blizzard Crusher!"
When Terra defrosted, Damien was smiling at her.
"Sorry." He said, offering her a hand. "Are you cold?"
"Y-Yeah." Terra agreed, leaning into Damien for warmth. "Like death." Damien chuckled and allowed her to warm herself against him, before she started looking around. "Where's that Shuichi guy?"
"Over there." Looking over, Terra saw a smoldering mess of rags and human flesh. She assumed that was Shuichi.
"Is he dead?" She asked weakly.
"No." Damien replied. "He's just in a near dead state. He'll be alright soon enough." Terra rubbed her arms to regain feeling in them as Damien walked over to Shuichi, shifting around.
"What are you looking for?" She asked through her shivers. Damien shrugged.
"Right before I blew him away, he pulled this little thing out." Damien turned and showed her the lacrima device. "I wanted to know what it said that made him give up so easily."
"Huh?"
"I was expecting more a struggle, honestly." Damien answered. "the second you froze up he just stopped trying." Terra nodded in understanding and made his way to him as he booted the small thing up. Before she got there, Damien's eye's widened and he sat back, staring at it in shock.
"What?" She asked. "What's the matter?"
"Oh God..." Damien whispered. "That's his angle."
"What? What's going on?"
"..."We have to hurry back." Damien spoke quickly, grabbing Terra's still frigid body and pulling her along. "This is bad. Really bad."
"Why? What's the matter?"
"..."
"...?"
Nashi slowly peeked around the corner, making sure that Apocalypse wasn't there. Once she was certain she was safe, at least for the moment, she proceeded down the hallway quietly. She had no idea where the halls went, but she knew what she was looking for. It was only a matter of time before she found it.
"Nashi, I've finished the comparison." Nashi jumped a bit as Ken spoke to her, but she smiled.
"And? What did you find?"
"Well, give or take a mile, it's basically the same." Nashi nodded with a smile. That was exactly what she wanted to hear.
"Thanks. That's all I needed. Are the others back?"
"Simon and Ultear are. They're worried about you." Nashi chuckled softly.
"Tell them I'm okay. And not to worry, I'll end this soon enough."
Yeah alright...Nashi?"
"Yeah?" Nashi waited as Ken took a deep breath.
"Just what the hell are you planning?" Why do you need to know the differences?" Nashi only continued to smile as he asked her this. To her, it seemed obvious.
"Just think about it, Ken." She replied quietly as she checked another corner. "Why would I want to know that?"
"I don't know."
"Well, think." Nashi replied stopping to relax for a moment. "Why would I want to know the size difference between Apocalypse's target and this city?" Ken remained silent for a minute, before he gasped.
"Are...Are you going to make the cannon self-destruct?!"
Oh! Aha! Sorry about just wrapping up Damien's fight like that, but as you may have guessed, no one is at the center of this arc more than Nashi and Apocalypse.
I hope you enjoyed, leave a review! Let's try and get eight!