Chapter 15: Blood and Water
White seagulls and black crows flocked and fluttered in the sky over the abandoned port. In the red light of the sinking sun, the scavenger birds squawked and squabbled to claim the best seats on the steel beams for themselves. As scattered zombies staggered and crawled amidst the containers below, the birds anchored themselves to the best perches from which they could swoop onto the crawling carrion once it had truly expired. The beady-eyed onlookers watched from the rusted corners of the shipping containers, from the heights of the towering cranes, from the swaying antennae of the docked ships, and from the rounded rooftop of the old warehouse.
The Blaze Ballista crashed through the sliding warehouse door, and Copen and Zeno rushed through the splintered opening. Having followed their only lead to the port, the two had gotten a lock on the septimal signature, made quick work of a few straggling zombies and Eden soldiers, and followed Copen's sensors to the warehouse they had just breached.
Only the entrance that Copen had just made allowed any light into the dank, creaky building; even the windows were blacked out. On account of that deep darkness, the sanguine glow of many more sinister capsules lining the walls only stained the scene more deeply. The two kept their guns up as they scanned the dark for any sign of their target; Copen's eyes were better suited to the task than Zeno's.
"Think that reading could have just come from all these capsules being in one place?" Zeno said.
Copen, however, had tilted his head back toward the ceiling. There, his cyber eye discerned a silhouette hanging upside-down from the rafters.
"Nope," he answered.
Before Zeno could ask what he meant, Copen had already launched a photon beam like a pink flare through the ceiling. Startled by the sudden fireworks, Zeno turned and tried to follow the obscured movements of Copen's target darting among the rafters. When the hostile dropped to the center of the floor, Zeno trained his sights on them and began to squeeze the trigger.
He hesitated, however, when the thin beams of light falling through the holes Copen had shot in the roof revealed the hostile to be of a much more childlike frame than expected. Knowing that Copen wouldn't show the same hesitation, Zeno batted down his ally's shooting arm, causing the shot to leave a burnt spot on the floor where it fell between them.
"Check your fire, dude!" Zeno said. "That's just a kid!"
"Who are you calling 'kid,' punk?" a shrill voice said.
The 'kid' in question raised up and straightened her open coat. A spiked collar which wouldn't have been out of place in a punk rock getup encircled her neck; her glaring, red eyes and the scowling lips beneath them were drawn in lines equally as sharp.
"That would be Gibril," Copen said, "the 'bloodsucking brat' I mentioned earlier."
"I didn't think you meant that literally," Zeno said. "Wait, this isn't one of those thousand-year-old loli situations is it?"
"Nope," Gibril said. "I'm just ahead of the game when it comes to bloodshed."
"Don't be fooled, Zeno," Copen said. "This one's every bit the monster you were expecting."
"You're sure?" Zeno said. "I'm pretty sure I've got a kid her age."
"Would you two shut your traps already?" Gibril said. "I can only take so much idiot banter at this time of night."
"Had a feeling it was past your bedtime," Copen said.
"And I've got a feeling it's past your expiration date, old man!" Gibril said. "Seriously, what are you two still doing here? You both lost to Summeragi way back in the day."
"I could say the same of you," Copen said.
"Yeah, yeah. Keep yapping," Gibril said.
She summoned a grimoire, the Eden equivalent of a glaive, to her hand and let it fall open. A cloud of evanescent butterflies burst from the pages and swarmed around her. Her fanged smile flashed through the glowing insects lighting on her one by one.
"The night's still young for me," Gibril said.
The shining butterflies combined into a blinding glare and lifted into the air. The light cracked and shattered like a broken chrysalis, revealing the black cloak fluttering like wings around Gibril's iron armor. She looked down with piercing eyes and a vicious sawtooth grin.
"Let's get this bloodbath started!" she snarled.
All at once, several blood capsules split open and unleashed a crimson deluge. Rather than spilling on the floor, the blood, as if flowing through invisible arteries, funneled into the air and swirled around Gibril. Copen and Zeno opened fire, but the scarlet spiral caught their shots like an iron dome.
With a flex of her fingers, Gibril coagulated the blood shield into a ring of spheres and blasted them throughout the building. Copen and Zeno evaded the bloody hailstorm, but wherever the spheres impacted the floor or walls, a crimson pool left a deep stain. Popping up from their combat rolls, Copen and Zeno rattled off another burst, but the bullets and beams only glanced off Gibril's armor as she whooshed to the side.
Trailing her flight path, a line of dripping guillotines formed and spiraled like thrown axes toward the two shooters. Zeno moved to dodge, but when he stepped too close to one of the blood pools, an iron blade erupted from it and came a mere hairbreadth from skewering him. Similar spikes extended like switchblades from the stains on the walls, forcing Zeno to bend and twist between them with motions he was barely flexible enough to still perform.
Luckily for Zeno, most of Gibril's attention was still focused on Copen. Copen batted aside a flying guillotine with his shield and returned fire, but Gibril darted like a bat among the rafters. Unable to get a bead on her, Copen deployed the Flesh Eater and unleashed a swarm of ravenous insects toward the ceiling. The bloodflies surrounded Gibril, but she shaped her blood reserve into a pair of rotating fans which chewed down the insects like a meat grinder.
As soon as the swarm was exterminated, Gibril turned the blades on her opponents and sent the fans grinding like a pair of buzzsaws through the lower walls. Copen boosted and Zeno grappled to the upper balconies, narrowly avoiding the iron razors. As soon as the duo gained their footing, however, Gibril channeled her power into the blood capsules on the top floor.
Gigantic blades exploded from the capsules and pierced the opposite walls, criss-crossing the entire warehouse in a network of deadly metal. Copen and Zeno had only just avoided being pinned to the walls when they heard the metallic creak of the damaged building beginning to buckle. The floor shifted as Gibril cackled and crashed out of the upper windows.
The light from the broken window shone like a red exit sign above. With the warehouse starting to crash down, Zeno activated his mag boots to run on the tilted footing while Copen used his jets to precisely maneuver through the sharp-edged network. As Copen launched from the flat side of one of the blades, Zeno fired his grapple, but it came just short of the high window. Copen, however, caught the line with his free hand and rocketed out of the narrow opening with Zeno in tow.
The building crashed down, sending a reverberating cacophony of banging metal throughout the port and raising a cloud of dust. When the ocean breeze blew the cloud aside, Copen and Zeno looked up to see Gibril seated casually on one of the steel beams surrounding the containers. A line of crows flanked her as accessories to her mocking grin while the sky burned red behind her.
"You just don't know when to quit, do ya'?" she said.
"Quitting isn't in my DNA," Copen answered.
Zeno couldn't quite say the same.
"Age hasn't taught you much, has it?" Gibril said. "I see your floaty little friend didn't join us. That what he's here for?"
"I'm here to put an end to you," Zeno answered.
Gibril snorted as she floated to her feet.
"You haven't impressed me, yet, chump," she said, "but who knows? 2v1 might turn out to be a fair fight."
"Then allow me to turn the tide."
Everyone's eyes shifted toward the new voice. A wave struck the dock, spraying salty foam onto rusty metal. The wave's crest, overflowing onto the dock, carried a man with a stately posture onto the land before sweeping back over his feet. The shimmering rays of the dying sun skipped across the water to reveal an already transformed adept holding a harp. His armor fit him like a wetsuit, partly black, and partly pearlescent white. A seashell-pink helm covered his head, and spikes of the same color protruded from his arms, striking the image of a merman's fins. A serene smile, smooth as a siren's song, spanned his lips.
"Milas," Copen said.
The waterlogged sun sat halfway above the horizon between Copen and Zeno, each of whom faced one of the Eden adepts.
"I'm honored to be recognized," Milas said. "Although, I can't say I recall our meeting in my previous life."
"I faced an illusion of you on the way to your two-faced master," Copen said. "It didn't hold me back long."
"Ah," Milas said. "Then I trust Zhonda represented my beliefs well enough."
Milas's melodious voice blended with the lapping waves, but Gibril's interrupted it like grating metal.
"I didn't ask for your help, Milas!" she said.
"I had no intention of offering it," Milas answered. "I simply couldn't bear to miss the sunset on my beloved ocean after so long apart from her."
Milas strummed his harp in honor of the moment. The strings receded into the harp's frame, and he attached it behind his hips where it hung like a tail.
"Of course," he said, "now that I've shared this display of the water's beauty, I'd be remiss to not give you a taste of her power."
"An ecoterrorist, huh?" Zeno said. "You'd really spill an ocean of blood over a few fish?"
"So long as the world is covered in waves," Milas answered.
"Just control your instincts, shark boy," Gibril said. "Mr. High-and-Mighty here is my kill."
Copen and Zeno raised their weapons, Copen to Gibril and Zeno to Milas.
"'You split open the sea by your power, you broke the heads of the monster in the waters,'" Copen said.
"What are you on about?" Zeno said.
"It's in the Bible you heathen," Copen said.
"Specific pull, but amen, bro," Zeno said.
[Red Sun - Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance OST]
Gibril formed an iron maiden behind Copen to try and trap him while Milas brought a tidal wave over the docks to crash onto Zeno. Both of them, however, anticipated the attacks and eagerly moved to engage their targets; Copen rocketed straight toward Gibril, and Zeno used his grapple to swing around a light pole.
The birds scattered as Gibril leapt back from Copen's advance. As soon as Copen set foot on the steel beam, Gibril, having mixed some of her blood solution into the beam, twisted part of it into a pair of jaws to chomp Copen from either side. Copen, unphased, wedged his shield between the metal fangs and used it like a bipod for the Border. The photons he fired struck a glancing blow to Gibril's shoulder, but she moved too erratically for Copen to do any real damage before her counterattack.
Gibril slung a bloody guillotine to chop Copen in half, but he fired the EX Gear's jets which, after grinding out of the metal vice, lifted him high enough to evade both attacks with a quick split. Dodging another metal spike, Copen dove to the side and fired the Blaze Ballista, but the explosions struck nothing but air.
"Free aim is getting me nowhere," Copen thought. "I need to get a tag on her."
Zeno rolled after his swing and fired off a long burst of lead at Milas. Milas, however, kept one hand behind his back and shielded himself with a wall of standing water. The bullets that didn't shatter on impact stalled to a gentle drift in water, leaving a trail of bubbles in their path. Milas casually pushed one of the floating rounds aside with his finger and rolled the wall of water as a wave toward Zeno who escaped with his grapple once again.
"He'll flood me out if we stay on the docks," Zeno thought. "Better get to high ground."
Copen's jets flared behind him as he leapt across the beams, boxes, buildings, and boats in pursuit of Gibril. Though he evaded her attacks and shot back all throughout the chase, she remained just out of his reach.
"You used to be faster than this, old timer!" she taunted him. "Age finally catching up to you?"
"Not as quickly as your sins are catching you," Copen said.
Zeno positioned himself on a stack of containers and fired back, but Milas surfed toward him on a current of water and leapt onto a stack of equal height. The ejected casings pinged off the metal containers as Zeno dumped the rest of his magazine, but Milas intercepted the rounds by encircling himself with a miniature whirlpool. From behind the rippling swirl, he smiled cockily and raised his harp.
"Have it your way, bud," Zeno said.
Immediately, Zeno launched a grenade at the edge of the whirlpool and blew the vortex apart. The violent spray splashed onto Zeno's glasses while heavier drops crashed down, but Zeno's eye stayed focused as he drew the Border for a precision shot.
However, as soon as the hammer began to draw back, Milas plucked his harp strings, causing the flying droplets to coagulate into several floating spheres around Zeno. With another note, Milas bid the hanging drops to blast toward Zeno as high pressure arrows.
Zeno rolled away from the liquid projectiles, but Milas surrounded him with another trio of condensed spheres to cut off his escape angles. Remembering that the Border's rounds could disperse septimal fields, Zeno shot two of the spheres, blowing them apart before they could shoot him; he leaned away from the remaining stream.
Milas's song ended with one more high note, spawning a firing line in front of Zeno. Rather than attempting to disperse the spheres, Zeno quickly fired between them and backflipped off the edge of the container. The high-pressure streams skimmed Zeno's clothes as he vaulted over them, and the bullet ricocheted off Milas's harp, taking a chip out of both it and the fin-spike on his right forearm. Zeno landed behind the top container with a thud.
Copen was in hot pursuit as Gibril flew even higher into the air. He spied a sequence of steel beams and containers hanging from the cranes. Using the mast of a ship as his starting point, he boosted between the hanging objects like a staircase to his target.
Seeing what he was up to, Gibril splashed a line of blood orbs against the nearest hanging beam and took control of it. She cut the cable it was hanging from and slung it at Copen like a humongous javelin. Copen, however, properly shifted his flight path and stepped off the steel spear even as it whooshed by him. He readied a special weapon while the beam punctured the deck of a ship below.
While Zeno was reloading his weapons, Milas's voice washed over the air.
"I don't believe we've been acquainted," he called out. "What may I call you during this brief passing of our ships?"
"Name's Zeno," he answered. "Milas, right? I'll make sure you get buried at sea."
"Then I promise you the same honor," Milas called back. "For what cause do you fight, friend?"
"Do I even need one?" Zeno said. "It's life or death out here. And I don't plan on lettin' you freaks drag anyone else under."
"That is unfortunate, Zeno," Milas said. "The cause of the many is prone to pollution. Even so, survival is an instinct of nature; you may be worthy prey yet!"
Zeno heard a whizzing sound from his right and caught something in the corner of his eye. Milas's harp was spinning like a thrown blade as it veered on a path toward Zeno's neck. He ducked just in time to keep it from chopping off anything more than a few strands of hair while it scraped the container's metal doors. The harp boomeranged back around the container.
Copen's final dash brought him just close enough to Gibril to let him catch her foot with a lash of the Tangle Nexus and pull himself toward her. He crashed with spiral force against her iron armor, applying a targeting mark as he did so. As soon as she recovered from the attack, Gibril retaliated with a flying drop kick to Copen's shield, pushing him back, but Copen activated his hover jets and unleashed a salvo of homing photons from the Border II. Gibril attempted to evade as before, but the projectiles made a sharp turn and nailed her in the side.
Zeno, assuming that the boomerang blade was headed back toward its wielder, aimed around the side of the container. However, Milas, who was standing against the opposite side of the same container, did not catch the weapon in his hand. Instead, he stretched out a spear, the shaft of which had been collapsed on his back, and allowed the tip to pass through a hole in the harp's base. The two weapons locked together, combining into a trident. Immediately, Milas formed a liquid typhoon around himself, rising high into the air before plunging the trident toward Zeno.
Gibril, having felt the sting of the Border's photons, raised a bloody swirl to defend herself, but Copen, having predicted her response, changed his revolver's firing mode. Aiming manually once more, he blasted a purple Greed Snatcher straight through the scarlet shield.
Gibril clutched her gut and immediately dropped out of the sky. As soon as she plummeted past him, Copen turned his boosters downward and rocketed after her. Before either of them hit the ground, Copen cocked back the EX Gear and punched Gibril with meteoric force, accelerating their collision course.
As soon as their weapons struck the ground, both Copen and Milas unleashed the Trident Geyser simultaneously, spawning three-pronged aquatic explosions that blew their targets back. A dust (and asbestos) cloud arose from the scaffolding that collapsed onto Gibril while Zeno banged against the top of a lower container and rolled.
Clutching his ribs, Zeno crawled to his feet when he noticed something was missing. His rifle lay precariously at the container's edge; Milas's attack must have broken the strap. Zeno scrambled for his weapon, but Milas leapt from the container above and shoved his trident's points like iron bars between Zeno's hand and the gun.
"Not the most elegant weapon, is it?" Milas said. "I hope you have something more civilized up your sleeve."
With that remark, Milas kicked the rifle away and pulled his trident out of the metal. Zeno, who was on his knee, stood up and drew a knife.
"That will do," Milas said. "Let us dance."
Milas touched his weapon to his opposite shoulder as a combative salute. Zeno quickly returned the gesture. Milas held his trident in one hand, its prongs pointed down while the shaft rested on his shoulder; his other hand rested against his hip. Zeno held his knife ready for a thrust. Their blades glimmered as they stood evenly apart.
Copen was watching from atop a steel beam when the scaffolding on top of Gibril exploded out from her. Squatting casually, he met her eyes when she looked up. Copen could practically see the flames of rage flashing in her irises once she recognized that he had turned the tables on her.
"You think I'm gonna let you hurt me, you white-haired son of a bitch?" she said. "I'm the one who deals out the pain! Me!"
"Not once I'm done with you," Copen said.
Gibril immediately levitated high enough to make Copen look up at her again.
"I'm gonna take my time bleeding you dry," she said, "and once you're nothing but shriveled-up husk, I'll get Elise to resurrect your pathetic excuse of a corpse so I can kill you again and again!"
"'The leech has two daughters. Give, give, they cry,'" Copen said.
"Wh-what is that even supposed to mean?" Gibril said.
"It means I'm getting sick of your monster act," Copen said. "You're no more frightening than a mosquito I'm about to swat."
"The hell did you just call me?" Gibril said.
"Sorry, I couldn't hear you over the annoying buzz," Copen said.
"You little– Oh, that is it!" Gibril said.
She dropped onto the beam with Copen. As soon as she had her footing, her cloak and the pieces of armor beneath separated from her and floated in the air before reattaching in a different configuration. Her head was now uncovered, and her shoulder plates locked to her hands instead. She crossed her arms low.
"Not only am I using your head as a bowling ball," she snarled, "your limbs are the pins!"
Iron claws, still radiating the crimson of the blood that formed them, erupted from Gibril's new gauntlets. She ground them against one another as she rose up with a murderous scream. Copen smirked and activated his bayonet.
Zeno eyed Milas carefully. There was no hint of fear in Milas's face. Zeno feinted to check his reaction. Milas twitched in response, but maintained his stance. Zeno had come up against several melee weapons in the hands of other adepts or soldiers in his day; a trident was not one of them.
The knife flashed in a silver streak as Zeno made a backhand cut toward Milas's weapon hand. Milas, however, grabbed the trident with his other hand and blocked Zeno's strike with the shaft. He turned the trident points toward Zeno's stomach and made a quick thrust which Zeno only evaded by turning quickly to the side. Zeno struck with his elbow, snapping Milas's head back.
Zeno pressed his attack, but nearly ran himself onto the trident when he did so. Before Milas could pierce him, Zeno grabbed the trident behind the head to push it away. Milas, however, overpowered him well enough to thrust the trident between his legs and bash the shaft against his skull, nearly knocking Zeno on his back.
While Zeno barely kept his balance, Milas came in for a heavy, two-handed thrust. Before Zeno could quite tell which direction Milas was coming from, Zeno made a quick snatching motion, pulling the trident off-course with the link his touch had made to it. With Milas knocked off balance, Zeno plunged the knife toward his neck. Milas, however, spun around with a backhand strike, catching the knife with his arm-fin just before his knuckles slammed against Zeno's jaw.
Gibril made a beeline straight for Copen's throat. He raised the Gorgon Gaze to stop her in her tracks, but the instant Copen raised the muzzle, Gibril sprung into the air so quickly that the afterimage fooled even Copen's cyber eye for a split second. Her talons plummeted toward Copen like a screeching bird of prey, but he raised his shield just in time to keep them from slicing him open.
The moment Gibril's claws scraped off the shield, her posture changed from that of a swooping falcon to a crouching tiger. She lunged forward, claws flailing ferally. Copen could nearly taste the acrid iron as he leaned between the lethal swipes and deflected them with shield or blade, backpedalling all the while. In his previous encounter with Gibril, Copen had been much more mobile, but his current gear required him to stand his ground, a condition he was failing to meet.
Zeno found himself on his knees again, but before he could turn around, Milas was pulling him up with the trident shaft against Zeno's throat. He could feel the pressure from the wet weapon threatening to snap his neck. In a desperate maneuver, Zeno used his mag boots to kick off the container in front of him and flip over Milas, breaking free from the chokehold.
Zeno plunged the knife into Milas's shoulder, prompting the first cry of pain Zeno had drawn from his opponent. Even so, Milas quickly spun around and swung his weapon. Zeno, however, ducked the swing and countered with a rib-rocking gut punch.
As soon as Milas doubled forward, Zeno grabbed him by the neck and, using his septima to apply extra force, slammed him against the container behind him. Immediately, Zeno pressed his sidearm to Milas's side and banged three rounds straight through him, an utterly lethal attack against nearly anyone, but not an adept of Milas's caliber. Before the trigger could be pulled a fourth time, Milas's fist blindsided Zeno, knocking him clear off the side of the container.
Gibril's claws scratched a scar into Copen's armor, but his continued evasion kept them from breaching the breastplate. Emboldened by the taste of blood, Gibril went for Copen's throat with her own fangs. Copen, however, saw his chance to plant his foot and bar her advance with his shield pushed to her neck. Gibril's left claw reached around the shield, but Copen batted it away with a bayonet swipe to her palm followed by a shot to her leg. The moment her knee buckled, Copen pushed her away with a heavy metal boot against her ironclad chest.
Zeno, who had just fallen from a container onto the concrete, straightened his bruised jaw and glasses before recovering his dropped sidearm. Milas, still on a container stack above, was clutching his side as he leaned forward with clenched teeth and burning eyes. Doubtless, his wounds shot tearing pains through him with every breath.
He turned his wrathful gaze toward Zeno and cocked back his trident like a javelin. Zeno knew that another .45 round wouldn't be enough to stop the ensuing attack, so he launched his grapple to a hanging container instead. The trident hit with an explosive splash just behind Zeno.
Gibril, who had just slid back to a screeching halt, charged at Copen once more. He, too, charged to face her head on. Before they clashed, however, Copen skillfully flipped over Gibril's slash with an unexpectedly acrobatic twist and cut her back with the extended bayonet. Gibril winced enough to indicate that the blade had struck true, but she was far from letting up her assault.
As soon as Copen was back on the ground, he fired a Greed Snatcher at Gibril, but she evaded the shot by leaping from the beam onto a nearby container. Immediately, Copen shifted his stance and charged up the Lazy Laser. The torrent of energy burst into a portal and emerged to Gibril's side; she ducked it by crouching on all fours.
When the beam came back from another angle, Gibril responded with a sequence of sharp-angled dodges and dashes like those of a darting squirrel while the laser blasted out of portal after portal. She leapt from box to box and beam to beam until, finally, she pounced from one of the cranes and threaded the needle through the laser network. She flew toward Copen like a speeding bullet and stuck a heavy cut across his face.
Copen flew back off the beam and bounced across a wide stack of metal containers. He stood with difficulty as Gibril began to circle him like a hyena. The red light of his busted cyber eye flared from his sidelong glare.
"Knew that didn't feel like skin and bone," she said. "Guess you really are made of sterner stuff than I thought."
"It's carbon fiber, mostly," Copen said. "Nothing you could get a hold of."
"Thought you took pride in your 'human' flesh," Gibril said. "Old bones weren't holding up anymore?"
"'The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak,'" Copen said.
"When I'm through, they'll both be…. Wait. Is that the Bible?" Gibril said. "Have you been doing that this whole time?"
"For the Word is sharper than any two-edged sword," Copen answered.
Gibril immediately dashed straight up to Copen's face and hooked his shield with her claw.
"I've heard enough of your self-righteous bull!" she said.
Copen tried to shoot around the shield, but to his surprise, Gibril rammed her other hand right onto the bayonet and grabbed the gun by its barrel. A twitchy grin rose up one side of her face.
"You and Milas and Zhonda can talk all you want about your 'cause' or 'ideals,'" Gibril said, "but I see it in your eyes; we're all cold-blooded murderers! I'm the only one with the will to take pride in it!"
Gibril was twisting the gun away from her, bringing her claws closer to Copen's neck as she did so. He didn't have enough strength to quite resist the motion.
"And you know why?" Gibril continued. "Because the apex predator answers to no one."
Zeno's fingers clamped onto the edge of the hanging container. He turned to return fire on Milas, but when he looked, Milas had disappeared, seemingly abandoning his trident to nurse his wounds. With no target to aim at, Zeno clambered the rest of the way on top of the container.
Zeno scanned for his target from his new perch, but instead, he caught sight of Copen and Gibril in deadlock. Seeing his ally in danger, Zeno took aim with the Border, but one of the cranes obstructed his line of fire. Considering the obstacle, Zeno gauged the distance and changed his firing stance. He pulled back the hammer as he pointed the gun behind him, pushed up his glasses, and lightly pressured the trigger. All at once, he swung the gun around and fired mid-swing.
As soon as the bullet exited the barrel, it swerved on a curved flight path, bypassed the crane, and struck Gibril square in the back. Gibril gasped and lost her footing, an opening Copen was ready to take. Immediately, he twisted the barrel and punched a Greed Snatcher into her arm, further depleting her strength. He freed himself from her grasp with a ferocious headbut and cocked back the EX Gear.
"'As iron sharpens iron…,'" Copen said.
The X at the shield's center flashed crimson, and both muzzles came uncovered. The front muzzle emitted a red liquid which solidified into an iron stake while the back muzzle pulled it back like a piston, converting the shield into a pile bunker. Gibril's eyes widened in recognition of her own septima.
"Fang Driver!" Copen said.
With all his might, Copen punched the stake straight against Gibril's chest just as the piston released, driving the septimal iron into her with such ludicrous force that it triggered an explosion on impact. The blast rattled all the crane cables in the vicinity as Gibril went flying like a shell out of a cannon and crashed right through the hull of a cargo ship.
Zeno pumped his fist in celebration of his assist's success. When he returned to searching for his own opponent, however, he realized that the trident was gone. Immediately, there came the roar of a mounting wave from the docks. The moment Zeno turned to look at it, Milas burst like a geyser from the foaming crest. Zeno raised the Border to fire, but instead of attacking head-on, Milas grabbed the cable Zeno's footing was hanging from, swung around it, and hammered both of his feet into Zeno's back.
The crushing kick knocked Zeno all the way onto the deck of a docked ship where he crashed and tumbled. The Border clattered across the deck. Before Zeno even attempted to get up, he used his septima to retrieve the Border. However, as the revolver slid across the salty deck, Milas planted his trident like a flag on the deck, pinning the gun by the trigger guard.
His bones shaken, Zeno scrambled to one knee and pulled his sidearm. Five rounds popped off before the slide hung back, but Milas blocked them by calling a huge wave over the side of the ship. Before Zeno could reload, Milas rushed through the foamy spray and shoulder-checked Zeno against the mast. The air fled his lungs in an instant, and the moment that Milas pushed off of him, Zeno dropped to his hands and knees.
"Are you aware of what kind of ship this is?" Milas said. "It's a research vessel, otherwise known as a whaling ship."
"Like I give a damn," Zeno said.
Zeno pulled another throwing knife from his leg brace, but Milas immediately caught his arm and twisted the blade out of his hand.
"And that's just the problem, isn't it?" Milas said.
Milas punched Zeno again, sending his glasses skidding across the deck as Zeno flopped onto it himself.
Copen caught his breath while he watched Gibril struggling to climb back out of the her shaped hole he had just blasted her through.
"You son of a bitch," she said. "You son of a bitch! You sonuvabitch!"
"You may have been right about me," Copen said. "I've made most of my decisions based on who I thought should die, not who I thought should live. But, right now, I know where I stand: on the line between the living and dying."
"Oh, screw you," Gibril said. "You've spent your whole life talking yourself into thinking you're right, but your tongue won't save you anymore when I rip it out of your head!"
"All I mean to say is," Copen said, "thanks for making this easy."
"I have had enough!" Gibril said. "Forget Elise. Forget Eden. Forget my life! I am teaching you a new level of pain!"
Gibril formed an iron maiden around herself and, without hesitation, slammed it shut. Blood, her blood, seeped from its eyes and poured from the seams. Claws erupted from the torturous device and rent it open. The trap exploded outward, revealing the vermillion aura staining the air around Gibril's screaming silhouette while a deluge of blood rushed to the sky and hung like a looming storm cloud.
Milas's sloshing steps drew closer to Zeno.
"Humanity is the greatest monster known to nature," Milas said. "Whatever is alive and beautiful, they prey upon it, ravage it, and spoil it, even should 'it' be one of their own kind. No one gave a damn about us adepts, did they? And so, your QUILL and my Eden found their reasons to fight."
Before Zeno could climb back to his feet, Milas kicked him onto his back and stood on his chest.
"Defending the defenceless," Milas said. "It was a noble enough cause. Unfortunately, that Summeragi mark tells me that your loyalties weren't nearly as noble."
"You don't know anything about–"
Milas picked Zeno up by his throat and pushed him against the railing.
"I know that I am a man of my word," Milas said, "and I made you a promise that I intend to keep."
A swirl of water formed at Zeno's feet and twisted around his body. The currents lifted him over the ship's edge and hung him above the waves.
"Let your heart be at peace, my wayward friend," Milas said. "I return you now to the sea, accepting of all that is and can be."
The waters shaped into a bubble around Zeno and closed off above his head, both submerging and suspending him. Milas turned and began to walk away.
"Even of traitors," he muttered.
Copen, seeing Zeno's predicament, turned to break off from Gibril, but she solidified the crimson cloud above their heads into an iron cage and slammed down its walls around them both. Milas joined as a spectator atop the steel trap.
"Oh, no you don't," Gibril said. "You've had this one coming for a long, long time!"
"It would seem that your coffin has been nailed, my friend," Milas added.
"The weapon may be formed, but it won't prosper," Copen said.
"Stop doing that!" Gibril said.
"If I were silent, the stones would cry out," Copen said.
Immediately, Gibril's septima spiked. Milas decided to join her.
Running nature's course,
Steel shall cleanse impurity
In oceans of blood.
"Crimson Tide!" they both cried.
Gibril sprung to the ceiling and, from there, began to dash erratically throughout the cage.
"Die! Die! Die!" she screamed.
While Copen avoided any of her attacks that came directly for him, he recognized that the bloody handprints she was leaving on the walls were setting up the same trap she had used in the warehouse. Just when Copen thought he had found a safe spot in the pattern, however, a current of suspended water formed across the ceiling, and a water clone of Milas leapt out of it with trident in hand.
Deducing that Milas's attack would be the less devastating of the two, Copen attempted to shield himself from it with the Glacier Wall, but the ensuing geyser from the clone was still powerful enough to break through the ice. At the same time, giant blades erupted from each of the spots Gibril had touched. The geyser blew Copen back against the wall, scraping one of the blades on the way, but his armor kept it from tearing into his skin.
Copen activated prevasion as he climbed back to his feet. Without Lola's flashfield or his more mobile armor, Copen was already at a disadvantage against Gibril's Iron Maiden, but with Milas's Ichor added to the mix, he was undeniably in a death trap. If he could only outlast Gibril's desperation mode, he could take her out of the picture, but with Milas's interference…. He had to figure something out. Prevasion would buy him time. Only, Zeno's time would run out first.
Zeno was drowning. He struggled, flailing his arms and legs in an effort to swim out of the bubble or break its surface tension, but the water shifted and morphed around him such that, no matter how he stretched or stroked, he never drew any closer to the surface. He could see it right there in front of him: the surface, life, hope, but he might as well have been at the bottom of the ocean, far as he was from getting any air.
His lungs screamed to him, a tightening, burning pain in his gut. He needed to breathe, and soon. Maybe he was trying too hard. Perhaps, he was just wasting his energy, and he would be better off waiting for Copen to save him. He stilled himself (aside from his lungs), and looked around for Copen. The rippling water distorted his view like a trick mirror, but no illusion could have hidden the giant, metal cage that had fallen around Copen; clearly, he wasn't coming.
The moment that slim hope left him, Zeno's lungs crushed all the more. He had to fight. Even if it was just panic, it was something: action, struggle, some flicker of life. He flailed like a capsized bug. He felt like his stomach was collapsing into his chest cavity. He was lightheaded. His vision grew blurrier and dimmer. His movements slowed. It was getting dark.
That was it. That was all he had. He went limp. All he could do was float. The dark was thicker. He couldn't even see his hand anymore. Then, out of the dark, there came a light, like the sun above the waves. And within the light, there was memory.
The stars were dim that night. Zeno had gotten out of bed. The softness of mattress and pillow had been no comfort, so he exchanged them for hard, stone steps from which he gazed at the faint lights. The night air was bristled with cold, but he had not bothered to put a shirt on. The shiver running through him was not a response of his skin but rather, of his stomach which was, itself, responding to his thoughts.
"Zeno?"
Zeno turned to see Moniqua standing behind him in her nightgown. Her belly had recently begun to bulge enough to impede her movement. He had been careful not to disturb her sleep.
"I was just thinking," Zeno said. "That's all."
She laid her hand on his shoulder.
"You're going to make a fine father," she said. "That help?"
"A little," Zeno said.
Moniqua tilted her head. She hadn't quite reached the heart of the problem. She braced on Zeno, and he helped her sit down. His eyes lingered on her stomach.
"I just… keep thinking about the world she's gonna grow up in," Zeno said. "I…I only see it getting worse. The whole QUILL movement was built on hope, the hope that we could change things, make a better world. Now, I…I don't know if I believe that anymore. I think we failed, Moniqua. I'll never be able to give that to her."
Zeno had to snort to keep his nose from dripping. His eyes weren't far from spilling over either. Moniqua looked at him for a long time. He looked back. Her face was a blank page, giving no words, only accepting them. After a while, she took hold of his hand and slipped it under her nightgown where she pressed it flat to the skin of her belly.
"The best world we can have," she said, "is the one with you in it."
Warm water fell down his cheek. Warmer still was the heat of Moniqua's stomach to his palm. For her to have felt so hot to him, his hand must have been freezing to her. That she didn't shrink away, that she pressed his hand so close that those frozen needles could only stick the whole way into her, it meant the world to him.
"I'll be here," he choked out. "I promise."
And then, the stars faded, and it was dark again.
The bubbles burst from Zeno's mouth as his eyes shot open. His septima spiked, causing his latest heartbeat to pulse through the water like an earthquake. He reached with the last of himself, reached with body, mind, and soul. He felt something. The tips of his fingers had brushed something. He redoubled his effort and felt his nails sink into something like clay. He clawed at it, pulling with the full force of his septima.
Something tore. And then, he saw it: a hole in the water, the size of a handbreadth, flooding with undistorted light. He thrust his fist forward, fired his grapple line, and blacked out.
A sudden jolt restarted his heart and forced the water out of his lungs. He coughed, and it stung the hell out of his throat, but he couldn't help but suck the air like a vacuum, though it felt like swallowing knives he had to cough back out. Eventually, he started breathing. In and out. In and out.
He was knocking against the side of the ship, dangling from his grapple line. He had made it. He lived. But his duty wasn't done. Slowly, the line began to pull him up.
Copen's prevasion system whooshed him away from Gibril's claw dive before he boosted away from another water clone of his own volition. However, immediately after Copen's second evasion, Gibril triggered her blade trap to impale him from multiple directions. Once again, the prevasion system pushed Copen to the only proper escape angle, but depleted the last dash bullit in the process. His suit ejected the empty shells. He was out of time and resources.
Zeno climbed over the railing next to a winch and rolled onto the deck. With effort, he climbed to his feet and reclaimed the Border. While he made his way toward a better shooting position, he stumbled into a box, accidentally knocking it open. It was filled with harpoons. Apparently, Milas's assessment of the ship had been correct. It gave him an idea.
Like sharks in the water, both Gibril and Milas flashed their teeth at Copen while they readied their final assault. All the while, Copen was charging up Doppler Desire; his last option was to face them head-on. Gibril couldn't have had much left. Perhaps, he could at least take blood for blood.
"Watch your head," Zeno said.
Copen was shocked to hear Zeno's voice, but before he could make any remark, he heard a shot from the Border, the crack of which he would recognize at any distance. It was followed by a metallic ping which both Gibril and Milas heard as well. All three of them looked up through the iron barred ceiling that Gibril was hanging from just in time to see the broken chain holding the heavy container above them snap.
Milas dove away from the falling guillotine which buckled the ceiling before sliding off, but Gibril pounced straight for Copen. Copen, having fully charged his own attack, rocketed toward her as well. However, instead of clashing with Gibril, Copen adjusted his angle to slide right past her and slammed straight into the compromised ceiling. The metal broke, and he burst out of the cage.
Milas, seeing that Zeno was still alive, moved to finish the job. He took up his trident and dove into a rising wave. Zeno, who was standing defiantly on the deck, holstered his revolver and gripped a harpoon tight in his hand. Milas, knowing full well that the mere fishing spear couldn't hope to overcome his crashing wave, laughed at Zeno's insolence. Zeno, however, spread his feet, raised two fingers on his left hand, and cocked back the harpoon in his right.
Copen had scarcely found his footing atop the containers of the nearest ship before Gibril, screaming bloody murder, burst from the iron cage herself. Her eyes snapped to him like a heatseeker, and the crimson aura surrounding her streaked like a blood trail as she pounced from the cage. Copen stood his ground while she tore toward him on all fours, gashing the metal with every feral stride closer.
The wave rose high over the ship's deck and over Zeno while Milas raised his trident to spear him from within. The water wall fell like a giant fist, but Zeno took a deep breath and reached out with his left hand. The moment the first droplet came in contact with his fingertip, a narrow part, like a trench in the seafloor, divided the water. Milas had no time to register what was happening before Zeno slung the trident through the last few inches of unparted water straight into Milas's stomach.
Gibril pounced at Copen like a leaping tiger. Their red eyes locked. A sudden pain in Gibril's chest twisted her body. At the same time, the aura surrounding her vanished. Copen took a small step aside, and she went tumbling across the metal surfaces.
The remainder of the wave knocked Zeno down, but he quickly sat up. Milas, however, was floundering with the harpoon's head sticking out of his back. Immediately, Zeno launched his grapple and hooked it to the winch controls, the cable of which he had tied the harpoon's rope to. He snatched the lever, and the winch dragged Milas violently over the railing before hanging him upside down.
Copen watched Gibril with disdain as she hacked up blood.
"G-goddammit," Gibril cried between coughs.
"'Teach us to number our days,'" Copen said.
Copen looked out over the towering metal structures of the port and the skyscrapers of the city beyond. He sighed, paying little attention to Gibril's feeble efforts to crawl toward him.
"You know," Copen said, "you could have used your power to build something: a foundation to lift someone up, a shield to protect them. But, instead, you just used it to drain them."
Copen turned and began to walk away.
"You're no apex predator," he said. "Just another parasite."
Gibril froze and shook with fury. Every ounce of rage left in her rose up like a sudden combustion. She got a foot back on the ground.
Milas clutched the harpoon from which he was hanging and strained to reach his fallen trident. Zeno, however, stepped forward and planted his foot on it. The white revolver hung from his hand.
"Looks like I'm a man of my word after all," Zeno said.
He raised the gun to Milas's forhead and pulled back the hammer.
"Hasta la vista."
Copen had already pulled back the hammer before Gibril flung herself at him with the last of her strength. He turned, crouched down, cut the shield under her, and flipped her over him. She slammed onto her back and immediately found herself staring straight up the Border's barrel.
Two shots rang out back-to-back, and two skulls split open. After the blood ran for a moment, both of the adepts' glaives dissolved and their bodies dissipated, but not before Zeno had pushed the winch lever, dropping Milas's body back into the sea. No sound remained but the cawing crows and the rolling waves.
While Zeno was gathering his dropped gear, Copen's footsteps came clanking next to him.
"How did you get out of that?" Copen said.
"I don't know," Zeno, looking at his hand, said. "My septima's never moved a liquid like that. I just knew what I had to do, and something changed."
"Intriguing," Copen said. "Well, I'm sorry I wasn't there to help you myself…. I'm glad you made it."
Zeno looked up in surprise. He had expected Copen to berate him for getting trapped in the first place, certainly not to express gratitude. Copen's face was turned such that only his busted cyber eye was in clear view. Funnily enough, Zeno felt like he could see more of the man in Copen, even if he was only looking an inch deeper into the machine of him.
Copen looked toward the sky then back at the datapad on his wrist.
"Would you look at that," he said.
"What's up?" Zeno said.
"Their septima readings aren't just dissipating," Copen said. "They're moving somewhere. That kid will want to see this."
So, Copen radioed Shiron and began to explain the situation. Zeno, however, turned his radio to a different channel.
"Sheeps 3… hon?" he said.
Zeno heard a slight sigh. Part relief, part exasperation.
"Go ahead, Zeno," Moniqua said.
"It's nothing," Zeno said. "Just… wanted to hear your voice."
Footnotes
1. Psalm 74:13.
2. Proverbs 30:15
3. Matthew 26:41
4. Hebrews 4:12 (paraphrase)
5. Proverbs 27:17
6. Isaiah 54:17 (paraphrase)
7. Luke 19:40 (paraphrase)
8. Psalm 90:12
Author's Note
I'm publishing this chapter right before Christmas, so I would like to take a moment to address my readers. Firstly, I am extremely grateful for all of you, and I would like to offer a special thanks to everyone who has been a follower since the early days of this story, particularly if you came back after the delay between chapters 5 and 6. I also want to offer a special thanks for every chapter review (shoutout to Xanafied4929).
Obviously, I receive no financial benefit from any of this, and I'm not under the illusion that writing fanfiction is more than a tiny part of my life's purpose. However, any thought-out review, positive or critical, is a great encouragement to me. Your engagement tells me that I have given some audience, however small or niche, something worth thinking about. I believe that there is purpose in you, so I believe there is purpose in giving you something good. Thank you all for receiving it.
Both beginning this long fanfiction and sticking to it have been steps of faith for me. I have a bachelor's degree in writing, so I can't completely escape the pressure to write something "real," something that will be published and earn money for me. However, I firmly believe that writing this story has provided me with better training than anything I did in my four years of college. Furthermore, it has greatly helped me to consider my own focus and priority in writing: that I write not for monetary success or self aggrandizement but, instead, to honor my Lord Jesus Christ simply by doing the best I can to make something good with the ability he has given me.
Considering the quality of my work, I think there have been some hiccups in terms of pacing, which, if they have gone unnoticed so far, will likely be observed in some of the coming chapters. These flaws emerge simply because this is an extremely complex story for me, the likes of which I would not dare to attempt in a proper novel. While I do have a firm grasp of the overall plot to the end, the details of how exactly I tell that plot mostly emerge on a chapter by chapter basis.
I had intended to insert a small section of both Kirin's and Nori's plotline in this chapter, but clearly, it ended up being rather long for that. This is to say, I have by no means forgotten those parts of the story and will make them the focus of the next few chapters. Additionally, I intend for this story to remain my main project until its completion, so stay tuned.
Once again, I offer everyone my sincere gratitude. Truly, thank you.
Merry Christmas.