A/N: Hey guys, this is Dave and i'm back for another chapter of Blazblue Advent. Man, that test is hard for me and i'm glad i able to write you guys some chapters so hope you enjoy it. And as for the last chapter's question, i hope you guys make the right choice after the month and vote rightfully so the next arc can go right once i'm finish this, which only needs one more chapter and some gasp before it's done. Without futher ado, let us begin!
The mistakes of present and past
Ragna and Buckfire are running through the stair case of NOL, getting closer to Terumi as they go. Ragna start to feel irritated of it while Buckfire snorts in anger of this as the aura of instenst around them suddenly disappear.
'Hmp, looks like Brother and Makoto able to put Jin off after all. It's worth it, at least.' Buckfire thought brightfully as they reached near to the rooftop now.
"Oh finally, it's over." Ragna says while still breathing as he and Buckfire prepares their weapon for an ambush to come and once they look around, the two saw an pillar of black stand in the middle and there's also a man standing infront of the pillar as well, looks like waiting for the two.
"Well now, someone sure took their damn sweet time getting here. Though. I guess you showed up earlier than I was expecting." A famrlliar voice taunt them, feeling impaintent abit about his time here.
"Terumi," Ragna said simply, trying to control his anger. Rushing him now would be suicidal, so the two opted to stay back until he could find a weak point or catch their tormentor off guard as Buckfire ask "What the hell have you done to Noel, you jerk?"
"Huh, Noel…" Hazama said mockingly. "Can't say I know anyone by that name. Let me think for a moment. Noel, Noel… Oh, do you mean Mu by chance? Oh, that explains the error. You two and that littlesubhuman bitchstill call her by that name don't you? DON'T YOU!? Do either of you have even the SLIGHTEST idea what blondie really is?!"
"I dunno; a Murakumo unit?" Ragna answered, as he and Buckfire rolling their eyes at this stupid question.
"SHE'S A MURAKU-! …Okay, when and how?" Terumi asked, excited at first but frustated once he heard what he thought was right.
"You think we're a complete idiots?!" Ragna shouted while Buckfire glare angrily at the snake, their rage are start threatening to over boil as Ragna answer "Every Murakumo unit I've fought has in some way resembles Saya and Noel's no different! If you think we wouldn't have caught onto a dick move like that, you're sorely mistaken!"
"Yeah, using the same trick will make a magic trick less surprising than usual and that is why i able to figure it out too. You off all people should know that stuff, Terumi." Buckfire taunts with a smirk on his face.
"Oh, I see… You're all proud of yourself now that you've solved that little puzzle! Arrogant bastards!" Hazama says in anger as he held a glare at Ragna and Buckfire before muttering under his breath. "What the hell's going on? Raggy's never figured it out before, never! And this isn't even Takamagahara's influence either and how colud Bucky able to know magic tricks when it barely exist…"
"Quit muttering to yourself, you freak…" Ragna sighed as he and Buckfire slowly started to close the distance between them and Terumi.
(Cue 'Silent Scream' from BlazBlue Chrono Phantasma Extend)
"Aw!" Terumi stated. "How cute! The little puppies wants to play with uncle Hazzy. Now that is just adorable! What, do you two want to do play fetch?! Or would you rather roll over and play de-!?"
Right when Hazama thought Ragna and Buckfire was close enough to attempt to an attack, they prepared himself to start the fight. However, Ragna and Buckfire gave Hazama the worst insult he could ever face in his entire life; the Grim Reaper and the Gazelloid simply walked past the NOL captain, completely ignoring him.
"-ad…?" Hazama barely finished, standing still for a moment. He slowly turned and Ragna raising his sword and Buckfire raising his arms, preparing to strike the column.
"So Noel's in, whatever this thing is huh?" Ragna asked.
"Seems like it, let's destroy it now." Buckfire says, prepare to destroy the cocoon once and for all to free Noel.
"YOU PIECES OF SHITS! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU BOTH DOING IGNORING ME!?" Hazama ask in anger. Now Hazama was the one seething with anger of this mockery.
Ragna turned his head so that its side faced his opponent, a smug grin covering his face as he ask "Sorry… you say something?"
"OUROBOROS YOU JACKASSES!" Hazama yelled as he sent out his Nox Nyctores's chain to impale both Ragna and Buckfire.
Ragna swung Blood-Scythe to deflect the chain before rushing at Hazama while Buckfire fires his arrows to stop them in time and charge in as well. Their blades met with Hazama's butterfly knife and the three blades clashed. Ragna tried to deliver a crippling punch to Terumi's gut, but his attack was deflected from Hazama's knee, given Buckfire the chance to round house kicked Hazama.
"Venom Sword!" Hazama shouted once recovered from the kick as a blur of dark green energy erupted from his hand to strike Ragna and Buckfire. Quickly as he could, Ragna brought a magic barrier into existence and attempted to block the attack while Buckfire tried counter it quickly. Hazama then took the opportunity to sweep both of their feets beneath him. "SERPENTS INFERNAL RAPTURE!" he yelled as he delivered a bone shattering kicks to the two's chest, sending them into the air. "HUNGRY COILS!" Hazama caught the two mid-air with Ouroboros and threw both into the pillar.
Ragna held onto his sword as he painfully fell from the pillar landing on the ground while Buckfire been knocked out of this, fainting from heavy damage. Hazama sent out Ouroboros for another attack, but the Reaper was ready. He dodged the attack and lunged forward. "HELL'S FANG!" Ragna yelled as his fist connected with Hazama's face. When his opponent tried to counterattack Ragna had already prepared his next move. "GAUNTLET HADES!" he yelled as he somersaulted over Hazama and delivered a kick to the back of his head. Ragna brought his sword down on his long-time tormentor, drawing blood before smashing him away with his sword.
Hazama rolled on the ground for a moment before bringing himself to his feet. "So you wanna play do ya!? Okay Raggy, you've had your fun now let's hear you SCREAM! "
"Get out of my way you asshole! Restriction 666 Released! Dimensional Interference Force Field Deployed!" Ragna froze as he realized Hazama was mimicking him "What are you-!"
Hazama, no Terumi, gave a shrill chorus of laughter. "Code S.O.L.! BlazBlue Activate!" A green ring appeared around him as he continued laughing. "This is why you can't beat me Raggy. I can shut down that little toy of yours and there's nothing you can do to stop it!"
"How do you have a BlazBlue!?" Ragna yelled before he was bound by green chains. "What the-!"
"ETERNAL COILS OF THE DRAGON SERPENT!" Terumi yelled before using Ouroboros to grapple Ragna towards him and cut him countless time with his knives. Terumi then created five glowing snake-like magic surges behind him. "LET ME SHOW WHAT THE CREATOR OF BLAZBLUE CAN DO!" he yelled as the snakes slammed into Ragna sending him flying.
Ragna landed hard on the ground and coughed up blood. "Damn… it…"
"Wow, you sure talk a big game and know how to disappoint, but I guess you always did have more bark than bite you stupid mutt. Looks like this shift is back on track once again!" Hazama taunts Ragna.
"Like a friend once said 'It's never over until the very end', so don't think it's over yet Terumi." Ragna says as he slowly attempted to bring himself to his knees. His healing factor was starting to take effect, but Terumi's attacks had been just too much for him.
"Ragna!" he heard a voice shout, he turned and saw his new friend without Buckfire's brother at all in his sight.
(End song)
"MAKOTO, RUN! GET OUT OF HERE!" Ragna shouts, ignore Bifrost's absence.
"The hell I am! We're getting out of this mess together!" Makoto says, eager to help the two.
"Blegh, I hate sappy moments like this, oh well," Terumi said before trying to act surprised. "But wait. That means that I outmanned, oh what to do, what to do. Oh, Kusanagiiiiii!" Hazama says as the cocoon opens to reveal Noel appear but with a diffrent look on her.
"Noel!" Makoto screamed in shock. The girl once known as Noel Vermillion did nothing to acknowledge her. She just kept staring ahead wearing that blank expression.
"Wrong name bitch!" Terumi yelled as he sent Ouroboros towards Makoto. Ragna intervened to deflect what attacks he could, but the rest impaled his chest as he grunted in the pain as he fell to his knees. "Protecting NOL agents!? Shit Rags, the old man wasn't wrong, you are unpredictable this time around! Hey Kusanagi, I think I can take these three no problem, go and kill Amaterasu for me, kay?"
"Affirmative," Kusanagi said in a lifeless, monotone voice. She then summoned her sword and transformed into her Murakumo stage before flying off towards the lower levels.
"Makoto." Ragna says, barely managed to make out. "Get out of here now. I'll stall him, but you need to go after Noel, the three of us won't be able to do anything if he able to succes his job, so I need you to go understand?"
The part that broke Makoto's heart the most was that she did understand. She knew that if she wanted to help Noel, she'd have to leave her close friends behind her to pursuit Noel. "Whatever you both do, don't die, I don't want to lose you two." she begged with tears in her eyes before running. Surprisingly, Terumi decided to let her go.
"Okay, so you're just gonna die here after all, just to let miss acorn brains over there run off? Man, I was hoping for something a little more exciting, but I guess Rachel did say something about you… oh what was it, single digit IQ? I think that's right. Glad I left her alone in the dark, I wonder how much she's gonna cry when she find out you're dead?" Ragna glared at Terumi before smirking and rising to full height.
"Who says I'm dying here?" Terumi scowled at Ragna's cockiness. "I'm not dead yet, but I know one thing. The single thing I was able to do right in my life was save Makoto and Buckfire. I saved the two from that Puppet Master and I'll save them from you as well! Don't you get it Terumi!? I'm not going through the pain of losing anyone again! I'M THROUGH WITH LOSING TO YOU!"
"So little Raggy decided to grow up," Terumi said with a very annoyed sneer. "LIKE I GIVE A DAMN!" He shouted as several chain whipped around him cutting deep into Ragna. The Grim Reaper could only grunt through the pain and attempt to stay on his feet. "YOU THINK YOU CAN STAND UP TO ME! YOU KNOW WHAT?! THIS ISN'T FUN ANYMORE! DIE! DIE! DIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
Terumi sent out a final Ouroboros attack towards Ragna to end his life, but the attack never hit home.
"Rag…na…" came the weak, dying call from the blonde Murakumo unit who had taken the hit.
"Nu?!" Ragna gasped in shock once he realise what Lambada is been controlled.
"OH, YOU WANT TO GET IN MY WAY!? DIE WITH HIM!" Terumi screams as he shot out several blades to impale the two, but Lambda turned her body and took the full force of the attack. Her bladed petals fell to the ground as she fell back into Ragna's arms. Despite her fatal wound, she had to talk to him.
"Ra-a-a-Ragna, Nu is… so sorry for… what she did to you… at the Cauldron. S-s-s-so sorry. C-c-c-could you ever f-f-forgive Nu!" Nu speaks in Lambada's body.
"Don't you dare! DON'T YOU DARE ASK THAT!" Ragna shouted at her. "I'm getting you out of this, just hang on!" Lambda put her hand to the side of Ragna's face in comforting way. She had started glowing; slowly beginning to fade.
"P-p-please Ragna… don't ever give up… it's part of why… Nu loved you," Lambda barely managed to finish before glowing brightened and she started to vanish at a faster rate. Despite the mountains high altitude, it started to rain on the top of the NOL branch. Ragna slowly leaned towards Nu.
"Lambda, Nu, whoever you are, I don't care. I forgive you." Ragna says.
The Murakumo unit died with a smile.
Lambda's golden remain slowly started to be absorbed into Ragna, who held his head in shame. Even though he had been almost killed by both of those Murakumo units, he couldn't stand the fact that they'd both died because of him. It was… it was bullshit!
"Aw… gonna cry your eyes out Raggy?" Hazama laughed at Ragna's misfortune before looking up into the sky. "Though I guess you got lucky with this storm, you can cry to your heart's content and nobody can tell that they're your tears and call you a wuss. Oh, wait… I TOTALLY CAN YOU WUSS!" When Ragna only continued to hold his head in his shame, Terumi decided to insult him further.
"No reaction, oh that's no good, what can I do to make you feel alive again? Oh, I know, maybe I can have some fun with that Beastkin. I have the perfect strategy, I'll ambush her out of nowhere, but I won't kill her, no not yet. First come the torture, physical first, then I'll do a mental and that's where were gonna start havin' fun. Then, after I've added a little rape to the equation, I can give her back to you, just in time to have her die in your arms and once i'm done with her, i'll do it to everyone that care for you until there's nothing left for you once and for all." Terumi says saddistically to Ragna, unknown of what's to come out of it as Bifrost able to make up here after resting while Buckfire able to snap his consious once again to see what happened during his absence.
(Cue 'Monster' From Skillet)
SNAP! A noise can be heard, making The two Pseuderoids flinch once they realize where it came from. Ragna's been enduring pain alot from his time by Terumi so much times that it reaches his limit point of anger right now.
"TERUMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!" Ragna roared at the top of his lungs. In a split second he was in front of Terumi, who was only dazed by his speed, something he didn't expect this at all but thought that he would use the Idea Link to beat him like the other shifts. Ragna's fist connected with Terumi's face as Ragna smashed his head into the ground very hard.
"What the hell!" Terumi yelled in shock as Ragna grabbed him by the collar. The Grim Reaper was blind with fury as he proceeded to rapidly smash his fist into the bastards face, making the two Pseuderoids shock of what they just saw as Buckfire went to Bifrost to look with his own eyes.
"Are you seeing what i'm seeing right now, Brother?" Bifrost asked in shock as Buckfire nods at this in shock as well. They bellive that Ragna can beat Terumi with little trouble, but they didn't expect him to beat the snake cold-blooded like this as Terumi groans "Gah!" before Ragna grabbed his leg and whipped Terumi from the air to the ground again and again. Then Ragna used Blood-Scythe to slash Terumi countless times. Each of this hit coated in Soul Eater only making Ragna stronger and healing him from the battle.
"Hey you two." Ragna says while slashing Terumi as he turns to the two Pseuderoids before ask "Would you want a piece of Terumi or not?".
Once Ragna saw the two nod at this, he says "Well then, have fun." as he threw Terumi into the two as Buckfire uppercuts Terumi up before Rocketed with his legs on fire and doing multiple fire kicks to Terumi as hard as he could before deliver a strong fire kick, which makes Terumi went into Bifrost's jaws as the ice Pseuderoid chews him as hard as he can once Terumi was in Bifrost's bite range before spits out the NOL captian at the wall. When Terumi hit the walls, a moment later he felt himself getting pierced and froze everywhere into it except the head. He opened his swollen eyes and see that Ragna and Buckfire had impaled him by throwing Lambda's petals into his chest while Bifrost fires off his icicles fangs to Terumi, freeze him completely except the head.
(End song or continue if you want.)
"Hmp, you say that we can't beat you before hand. Well then, the ties has change now." Buckfire says, wanting to kill Terumi right now but can't once he figure out during his time as a mole that he and Noel are life link together; meaning if you kill one, the other will die as well.
"Yeah, be cocky and you'll lose eventually sooner or later, no matter how strong you are." Bifrost says savagely with a smirk at how one of the Six Heroes can't defeat this at all.
"I may not be able to kill you because of that damn life link, but I swear to god, the second you move at my friends or anyone i care on that matter, I'LL MURDER YOU SO PAINFULLY YOU'LL HAVE TO BEG ME TO FINISH YOU ONCE AND FOR DAMN ALL!" Ragna screams in rage, making the two Pseuderoids looks in worried of their friend's rage.
"I think lesson here is do not piss Ragna off like Terumi did or else, things will go worse or screwed up for those who did that." Bifrost says in fear a bit, which Buckfire nods at this immideatly in fear of this as well.
Terumi didn't even have the strength to belittle Ragna, Buckfire and Bifrost. He could only watch as Ragna reset his sword while the other two dust themselves out and the trio ran towards the cauldron as he thought 'What's going on, I can't feel Takamagahara or Amaterasu at all. Damn it Rags... what the hell did you do to beat me easily without counting the other two to help you!?'.
"That should be everything." Litchi says as she set the bandages she had just been using onto a table while Mattrex sits on the other side, watching them with a groan look after sometimes of they just arrived to the clinic.
"Thank you Miss Litchi." Carl says as he jumped off of the hospital bed and gave a polite bow. His previous wounds had been fully bandaged. Due to the effect of the drug he had taken, he didn't have as many wounds that needed tending to but Litchi insisted on going over the wounds she had seen him with before. Carl took his hat from beside where he had been sitting on the bed and set it back on his head. "I'm sorry I can't stay for any longer. Because of what my father said, I really need to find some information about…" he trailed off for a moment, looking down at the floor. "…Ignis."
Litchi's expression softened at the end of his statement while Mattrex was more anger by the man but sad to the two siblings as well. First his sister and now his mother. The boy had already lived through a lot and now had to endure more. Litchi and maybe Mattrex admired his courage and how he had managed to manage with everything being forced upon him.
"That's okay, I really shouldn't keep you any longer than I have. I know how important this is for you." Litchi says as she placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder before continue "If there's anything I can help you with, feel free to ask me."
"Actually, I was just about to ask you both before I left some questions." Carl says as he turned to Litchi first and readjusted his glasses before asked "My father said he had help building Ignis from some people called Kokonoe and Roy and also said you worked with Kokonoe at one point. Could you tell me where I can find them or how I can contact them?"
Litchi stiffened at the mention of the second name. "You… won't be able to find Roy" she said in a quite voice before continue with little tears on her eyes "He's… he's gone and I don't know where he is at all." She didn't want to involve Carl in what she was going through. Her previous statement was something she didn't want to say. To her, it sounded like she had given up on him but she felt that it was the only way to keep it to herself and not involve anyone else while Mattrex sads on the inside but face normal, heard his boss talk about the blob before at one point.
She shook her head as she went on to try to answer the rest of his question. Telling him about how to contact Kokonoe might not be such a good idea. She would most likely brush him off and ignore him or she might show an interest in Nirvana and try to take it away from him. Then again, she didn't know the exact relation between her and Relius other than the fact that they worked together. If she knew of the inhumane experiments Relius had performed, she might consider helping Carl with the information he was looking for.
"Kokonoe works for Sector Seven." Litchi answered after taking her thoughts into account. "It's not easy to get hold of her. She's almost always working and it's hard to catch her attention. Your best chance would be to find Tager. You know, The Red Devil."
"Yeah, or else you may never find her once again for it but good luck with that, you're gonna need it if you want to find the Devil and convice him to meet her." Mattrex says, covering the fact that the Devil's also here after Buckfire and Makoto brought him here, in a diffrent room from where they all at right now, which he able to see when he went to the bathroom a while ago.
"Alright, i'll make sure to get under it and thanks for your answer, Litchi." Carl says with a smile before turn to Mattrex "And as for you, my father told me you have crossed path him a few times with your boss, can you tell me who you work for so i can contact this person for some information?"
Mattrex stays quiet for a minute, thinking of what to say now. On one hand, He doesn't want to let the kid met his boss at all beacuse of the unknown background in this world that the Pseuderoid had and he would research the hell out of him once he realize what his boss truly is but on the other hand, he doesn't want to lie to the kid so he decide to give him the smallest clue he can think of.
"My boss, you won't able to find him at one place at all beacuse he always world travel and he also sometimes travel to random diffrent cities to help people so, no, i can't help you contact him at all." Mattrex answer calmly, making use of the smallest information he knows his boss for in this world.
"I see." Carl says, understand the Maverick's word as he took note of both him and Litchi's hesitation when he mentioned Roy and Mattrex's boss name to them. He initially wanted to press the two further for information about the two but he could sense that they genuinely didn't want to talk about them anymore. After learning about Kokonoe, he nodded as he says "That sounds simple enough. I just need to get her to listen to me somehow and it may work. Thank you for the information."
"You're welcome." Litchi smiled. "Just try not to do anything too dangerous, alright?"
"I'll be fine as long as I have Sis with me" Carl says as he looked over to Nirvana. The marionette lumbered over to his side.
"Okay but promise to look out for her as well." Litchi added in response. Carl smiled and nodded. He was glad that Litchi treated Ada as a person and not just a marionette.
"Yeah or else, she will be not in good shape on the next battle, get that in mind for another time or else, you'll fall eventually sooner or later." Mattrex warns Carl seriously, understand what's the kid has to go through his life and feel symphaty for the Boy.
"I promise." Carl says as he reached for his hat and put it back on. Before he opened the door to exit, he turned back to the two and bowed before says "Well, I should be leaving. Thank you for everything Miss Litchi and Mr Mattrex. Ada's very grateful too."
"You're both welcome." Litchi and Mattrex says in unsion as they waved farewell to the duo as they left the and After sometime they left, Litchi and Matttex sat down, both rested their head on a hand and sighed. Litchi felt so drained after what she had been through in the past few hours. All she wanted to do was mull everything over once more and think of where she should go next. Mattrex on the other hand felt want to dissapear for the day but without his boss around, he can't do that just yet so he has to wait eventually until Vulturon comes back.
"Hazama was right." Litchi murmured, making Mattrex looks at her in confusion of what she just said. "I'm back to where I started with not much to work on." Still, she took solace in that doing so, she stayed far away from what he planned to do and the chances of him actually fulfilling his side of the bargain appeared slim.
"Yeah, i can see why you said that but at least you don't follow the dark path at all, so that's good at least." Mattrex says in understand of what she just said, trying to cheer her on. He can see a part of himself in her body, making a mistake that will cause them something much more than what they get but diffrent that Litchi changes ber mind while the Maverick doesn't change at all about his mistake that cause him his life in his original world.
"Yeah, i guess you can say that." Litchi says, smilling a bit before asked "By the way, how did Vulturon able to summon you easily like before?".
"Unfortunatly, i can't answer that until Boss give me a permision to do so." Mattrex answer seriously, remember his vow in the deal he and Vulturon make about loyalty in the PseudoSpace before accept the chance to able to live through his boss now.
"I see, well good night then." Litchi yawned as she close her clinic and went to bed first.
"Yeah, night Litchi." Mattrex says with a calm face before standing up and walk to Tager's room, open the door to find the Red Devil with less cuts than before as he ask at the pressence of the Maverick "Why are you here, Dinosaur?".
"I'm just here to make sure you're alright through those injuries, that's all." Mattrex answer peacefully as the two goodnights to each other before Mattrex close the door and went to the couches of the Clinic, think about what he had done to able to been given another chance to feel alive while starring down at his right arm.
'Hmp, looks like i trust people is actually worth it than before. Looks like i make a mistake all those time ago when i thought that they came for my life is wrong after all.' Mattrex thought back of the time he used to own an illegal weapons warehouse and doesn't trust the Maverick hunters X and Zero to give them the Booster engine while gripping his right arm in regret for a while as he finally went to sleep, dreaming about what could happen in the near future while Litchi on the other hand, thought a bit about what to do with Roy before decides to work with it tomorrow as she close her eyes, think of another way to cure Arakune.
A/N: And that will be the end of this chapter. Honestly, when i write this one, i need to make sure everything is good to read so hope you enjoy it as the reward after a long wait. If you wonder i decide to make the first part of the chapter about beating Terumi up or the second part about the mistake, it's to relate the facts that has been go through the chapter before hand so that you guys can feel symphaty about the mistakes that people make in their time like Mattrex's one like said before. And about that question that i asked on the last chapter, it's still going on until i write the finale of this arc and the time gasp before the next arc comes so, make your decision quickly beacuse time isn't forever. See you guys another time!