I am also posting to let everyone know that I am essentially dead right now. I don't know if I'll be writing anything--much less fanfiction--until the semester is over. I've got a pile of Java code to write that's taller than I am and I'm still working on an essay for English. Plus I have to study for a math test the week after spring break.
This summer I'm not going to attend classes due to nothing I need being offered (goddamned budget cuts) and instead I'm going to write a fucking book. An original novel. From start to finish (minus the editing, anyway), that will be my task this summer.
So I'm not sure if any chapters of Altered Course or The Truth will get posted. If any, it will only be the former, since the chapters are short and the story is not terribly complex.
Location: Pennsylvania. It's sort of like a real state.
Age: 39
Quote:
Originally Posted by RadiantBeam
And here, we have a piece inspired by DezoPenguin's "I Didn't Know You Could Take It Literally". It feels a bit iffy to me, but maybe I'm being too critical of it. Might be because I'm not used to writing Lutecia post-Shadow arc.
In any event:
Spoiler for Growing Pains:
It was rare to see Lutecia Alphine in a bad mood.
As the closest thing she had to a regular partner, Victor Stormhawk could say with some degree of certainty that he had seen the woman in a bad mood. The problem was, when Lutecia was usually in a bad mood, it was a quiet thing; something that you could sense from her eyes and her voice, but otherwise it was usually a thing kept carefully locked away, under some form of control.
But the only thing he could figure was that today must have been really bad, because she was leaking.
Currently, she sat by herself in the cafeteria, leafing through the folder for tomorrow’s mission. The aura around her would have made even a veteran Shadow back away fearing his life. While not exactly a veteran, Victor had a decent sense of self-preservation. But he also had a secret weapon.
“Hey, Alphine.” Pulling up the chair next to her, he easily plopped down. “What’s up? You’ve been reading the same line now for five minutes.”
Lutecia didn’t respond. Victor had the distinct impression that she wanted to be left alone. Shrugging to himself, he set down his tray and reached into his bag, rummaging a bit before he pulled out the one thing he knew would break through the woman’s every defense. With no shame, he dangled the bottle of cherry Coke in front of the woman’s face and waited.
It was slow, but it happened; Lutecia’s eyes darted up, fixing on the bottle. Victor moved it lightly to the right, and her eyes followed; to the left, and once again a red gaze trailed it. Finally, grumbling, Lutecia snatched the beverage from the man’s hand and opened it, drinking it. “Very funny, Storm.”
The blonde chuckled, leaning back in his chair. Ever so slightly, the killing aura around the slim woman decreased. Slight, but noticeable. “I heard through the grapevine you missed your session this morning.”
The summoner winced, setting down the bottle. “Ah,” was her only response. Despite her best attempts to keep it quiet, it was no secret that Lutecia had been regularly seeing a therapist ever since her return from Mau Gram. For Victor, it was less of a surprise that she needed the counseling and more surprising to know she actually had a good track record of showing up for her appointments. Then again, he supposed the threat of sleeping on the couch was a big one with a girlfriend like Vivio Takamachi.
“Chief’s going to be all over you if you don’t make it up, you know.”
“I know, I know.” Lutecia grimaced. “I already called and arranged another meeting later today. I came in late, and I wanted to make up for missing the mission report.”
“What happened? Forgot to set your alarm clock last night?”
He didn’t expect her to go into details. Even now, nearly two years after her breakdown, Lutecia had a hard time fully sharing her problems and thoughts with the people around her. It was understandable; you could only repair so much damage in two years, even with a supportive lover, friends and family who cared, and a boss who bent over backwards to ensure you didn’t go back out into the field unhinged. She was improving, but it would be a long, long time before she could open herself up without any fear or hesitation.
So Victor was surprised when she slumped back in her chair and sighed, flipping the report shut. “I got into a fight with Vivio.”
“The kid?” He arched an eyebrow. “That’s rare.”
“Yeah, well. She has a temper when she gets mad enough.” As Lutecia had learned in full detail this morning. “It’s about the mission tomorrow.” The summoner sipped from her Coke, wanting to wet her throat. “She wasn’t happy that I couldn’t tell her where I was going.”
“Ahh.” That explained it, then. Full of sympathy, Victor patted Lutecia on the shoulder. “So it wasn’t your fault this time.”
A groan. “I can’t be blamed for the fact that our mission is sometimes kept under wraps. Whether she likes it or not, Vi is still a civilian. She could get the clearance if she wanted to, but it’s strictly on a need to know basis.” She blew out a long breath in frustration. “It’s not that I didn’t want to tell her. I just couldn’t.”
“I imagine she didn’t like it either way.”
Lutecia’s responding shudder was answer enough. Still sympathetic, Victor lowered his hand. With a sigh, the summoner ran a hand through her hair. “I just don’t understand her, sometimes,” she admitted at last, her voice soft.
“Well, in her defense,” Victor commented, “you have a bit of a track record when it comes to holding back details.”
Another shudder from Lutecia. No doubt the thought had already crossed her mind, and being reminded of the fact by her on-again, off-again partner didn’t help.
“I want to tell her,” she muttered, taking another long gulp from her cherry Coke. “I really do. If I could, I would.” She rubbed her eyes.
It was, Victor mused, an interesting little contradiction; Lutecia’s anger and frustration wasn’t born from the fight itself; her feelings came from her own guilt over the fact that as much as she wanted to tell Vivio, she couldn’t do it.
“… It’s annoying,” the purple-haired woman murmured at last. “The one time I want to tell Vivio what’s going on, I’m not allowed to.”
They both ignored the fact that if one followed the rules closely, she never should have told Vivio she was a Shadow in the first place; that particular line in the book tended to be more of a suggestion than a fact for the agents, and they were allowed to make their own decision on whether or not to be honest about their job with their loved ones. For everyone who chose to keep quiet about it, another was openly honest.
Dismissing the thought, Victor scooped up Lutecia’s folder. “My advice, Alphine? Crawl. Get her flowers, a stuffed animal, something. It won’t fix the fight, but it will make things a bit easier.”
Lutecia chuckled softly. “Advice from a man who’s done it a few times?”
He smirked. “I’ve had my share of arguments.”
She lifted a brow, but as with most things related to her partner’s love life that didn’t involve Celica, she didn’t ask. “Right. Flowers.”
“Just something to warm her up for when you start apologizing.”
Snorting softly, Lutecia absently capped her bottle. “I’ll think about it.” She pushed back her chair, getting to her feet. “Unfortunately, I need to go. I need to give Hawke a better reason for nearly missing the report other than ‘I got into a fight with my girlfriend’.”
…
Victor couldn’t resist.
“Alphine, question.”
“What, Storm?”
He grinned. “Did she put you on the couch?”
The brilliant blush that flooded Lutecia’s face and the strangled sound that escaped her throat was worth the bottle of cherry Coke that smacked him right in the forehead as she made her hasty escape.
Now sprawled out on the floor, he grinned up at the underside of the table, ignoring the stares and whispers aimed his way.
“I’m going to take that as a yes.”
The title is kind of a pun, mostly on the fact that even though Lutecia is starting to get better, she still has a ways to go yet. Poor Cia, she just can't win.
... the Cherry Coke product placement is strong in this one. XD
Anyway, not bad at all. A fluffy, funny little piece that serves as a worthy companion to Dezo's fluffy, funny little piece. Not a bad read at all.
And here, we have a piece inspired by DezoPenguin's "I Didn't Know You Could Take It Literally". It feels a bit iffy to me, but maybe I'm being too critical of it. Might be because I'm not used to writing Lutecia post-Shadow arc.
I take it as a positive thing that you now know enough about where you want Lutecia to be post-Shadow arc that you can write anything about her!
Spoiler for Story response turned out kind of long with wiseacre remarks...:
Quote:
The problem was, when Lutecia was usually in a bad mood, it was a quiet thing; something that you could sense from her eyes and her voice, but otherwise it was usually a thing kept carefully locked away, under some form of control.
So true...generally, she'll grit her teeth and lie through them rather than admit she's feeling down or that something is wrong. Maybe she's loosening up...?
Quote:
With no shame, he dangled the bottle of cherry Coke in front of the woman’s face and waited.
This, I think, is why Lutecia signed on so eagerly in The Truth (well, really the epilogue of false light) to the mission to help ease things for Earth to drop the "Non-Administered" from its title. An Administered World means regular shipments of cherry Coke in normal commercial trade channels!
Quote:
It was slow, but it happened; Lutecia’s eyes darted up, fixing on the bottle. Victor moved it lightly to the right, and her eyes followed; to the left, and once again a red gaze trailed it. Finally, grumbling, Lutecia snatched the beverage from the man’s hand and opened it, drinking it. “Very funny, Storm.”
*snicker* HypCokeis?
Quote:
For Victor, it was less of a surprise that she needed the counseling
I don't think that surprises anyone who's been reading the series, either.
Quote:
and more surprising to know she actually had a good track record of showing up for her appointments.
That is surprising (indeed, continuing the meta-analysis, it's surprising that you'd have her properly do that--Sora will be surprised, I know)!
Quote:
He grinned. “Did she put you on the couch?”
With all these couch gags, I'm wondering if you're starting to take another look at GrimGrimoire.
Quote:
The brilliant blush that flooded Lutecia’s face and the strangled sound that escaped her throat was worth the bottle of cherry Coke that smacked him right in the forehead as she made her hasty escape.
Now sprawled out on the floor, he grinned up at the underside of the table, ignoring the stares and whispers aimed his way.
“I’m going to take that as a yes.”
Oh, that kind of "put her on the couch."
All in all, though, a nice fic. A little sweetness, a little humor, a touch of angst, a step in the right direction in Lutecia's character progression post-"Sunrise and Shadows"-arc. I like it!
Quote:
Originally Posted by synaesthetic
I am also posting to let everyone know that I am essentially dead right now. I don't know if I'll be writing anything--much less fanfiction--until the semester is over. I've got a pile of Java code to write that's taller than I am and I'm still working on an essay for English. Plus I have to study for a math test the week after spring break.
I swear, everybody I know who's in school is getting utterly killed by college lately!
Quote:
This summer I'm not going to attend classes due to nothing I need being offered (goddamned budget cuts) and instead I'm going to write a fucking book. An original novel. From start to finish (minus the editing, anyway), that will be my task this summer.
So I'm not sure if any chapters of Altered Course or The Truth will get posted. If any, it will only be the former, since the chapters are short and the story is not terribly complex.
Good luck with that! I hope you're able to get through the complete draft as planned! (If I may ask, what genre of novel, general plotline, or other details can you share?)
...maybe by the time you're done I'll have actually gotten over my procrastination and given you a proper review for the last two chapters of false light...
With all the Cherry Coke Lutecia drinks, one does have to wonder if Beamers works for Coca-Cola...
Actually, it was originally a throw-away gag way back in "Never Confessed". Then somehow I just got into the habit of using it as Lutecia's drink of choice.
Actually, it was originally a throw-away gag way back in "Never Confessed". Then somehow I just got into the habit of using it as Lutecia's drink of choice.
Well, you have me convinced that Coca-Cola is a sponsor of NSIS (corporate expansionism gone bad).
Location: Place of rocks and trees, and trees and rocks...and water.
Age: 33
Quote:
Originally Posted by RadiantBeam
And here, we have a piece inspired by DezoPenguin's "I Didn't Know You Could Take It Literally". It feels a bit iffy to me, but maybe I'm being too critical of it. Might be because I'm not used to writing Lutecia post-Shadow arc.
In any event:
Spoiler for Growing Pains:
It was rare to see Lutecia Alphine in a bad mood.
As the closest thing she had to a regular partner, Victor Stormhawk could say with some degree of certainty that he had seen the woman in a bad mood. The problem was, when Lutecia was usually in a bad mood, it was a quiet thing; something that you could sense from her eyes and her voice, but otherwise it was usually a thing kept carefully locked away, under some form of control.
But the only thing he could figure was that today must have been really bad, because she was leaking.
Currently, she sat by herself in the cafeteria, leafing through the folder for tomorrow’s mission. The aura around her would have made even a veteran Shadow back away fearing his life. While not exactly a veteran, Victor had a decent sense of self-preservation. But he also had a secret weapon.
“Hey, Alphine.” Pulling up the chair next to her, he easily plopped down. “What’s up? You’ve been reading the same line now for five minutes.”
Lutecia didn’t respond. Victor had the distinct impression that she wanted to be left alone. Shrugging to himself, he set down his tray and reached into his bag, rummaging a bit before he pulled out the one thing he knew would break through the woman’s every defense. With no shame, he dangled the bottle of cherry Coke in front of the woman’s face and waited.
It was slow, but it happened; Lutecia’s eyes darted up, fixing on the bottle. Victor moved it lightly to the right, and her eyes followed; to the left, and once again a red gaze trailed it. Finally, grumbling, Lutecia snatched the beverage from the man’s hand and opened it, drinking it. “Very funny, Storm.”
The blonde chuckled, leaning back in his chair. Ever so slightly, the killing aura around the slim woman decreased. Slight, but noticeable. “I heard through the grapevine you missed your session this morning.”
The summoner winced, setting down the bottle. “Ah,” was her only response. Despite her best attempts to keep it quiet, it was no secret that Lutecia had been regularly seeing a therapist ever since her return from Mau Gram. For Victor, it was less of a surprise that she needed the counseling and more surprising to know she actually had a good track record of showing up for her appointments. Then again, he supposed the threat of sleeping on the couch was a big one with a girlfriend like Vivio Takamachi.
“Chief’s going to be all over you if you don’t make it up, you know.”
“I know, I know.” Lutecia grimaced. “I already called and arranged another meeting later today. I came in late, and I wanted to make up for missing the mission report.”
“What happened? Forgot to set your alarm clock last night?”
He didn’t expect her to go into details. Even now, nearly two years after her breakdown, Lutecia had a hard time fully sharing her problems and thoughts with the people around her. It was understandable; you could only repair so much damage in two years, even with a supportive lover, friends and family who cared, and a boss who bent over backwards to ensure you didn’t go back out into the field unhinged. She was improving, but it would be a long, long time before she could open herself up without any fear or hesitation.
So Victor was surprised when she slumped back in her chair and sighed, flipping the report shut. “I got into a fight with Vivio.”
“The kid?” He arched an eyebrow. “That’s rare.”
“Yeah, well. She has a temper when she gets mad enough.” As Lutecia had learned in full detail this morning. “It’s about the mission tomorrow.” The summoner sipped from her Coke, wanting to wet her throat. “She wasn’t happy that I couldn’t tell her where I was going.”
“Ahh.” That explained it, then. Full of sympathy, Victor patted Lutecia on the shoulder. “So it wasn’t your fault this time.”
A groan. “I can’t be blamed for the fact that our mission is sometimes kept under wraps. Whether she likes it or not, Vi is still a civilian. She could get the clearance if she wanted to, but it’s strictly on a need to know basis.” She blew out a long breath in frustration. “It’s not that I didn’t want to tell her. I just couldn’t.”
“I imagine she didn’t like it either way.”
Lutecia’s responding shudder was answer enough. Still sympathetic, Victor lowered his hand. With a sigh, the summoner ran a hand through her hair. “I just don’t understand her, sometimes,” she admitted at last, her voice soft.
“Well, in her defense,” Victor commented, “you have a bit of a track record when it comes to holding back details.”
Another shudder from Lutecia. No doubt the thought had already crossed her mind, and being reminded of the fact by her on-again, off-again partner didn’t help.
“I want to tell her,” she muttered, taking another long gulp from her cherry Coke. “I really do. If I could, I would.” She rubbed her eyes.
It was, Victor mused, an interesting little contradiction; Lutecia’s anger and frustration wasn’t born from the fight itself; her feelings came from her own guilt over the fact that as much as she wanted to tell Vivio, she couldn’t do it.
“… It’s annoying,” the purple-haired woman murmured at last. “The one time I want to tell Vivio what’s going on, I’m not allowed to.”
They both ignored the fact that if one followed the rules closely, she never should have told Vivio she was a Shadow in the first place; that particular line in the book tended to be more of a suggestion than a fact for the agents, and they were allowed to make their own decision on whether or not to be honest about their job with their loved ones. For everyone who chose to keep quiet about it, another was openly honest.
Dismissing the thought, Victor scooped up Lutecia’s folder. “My advice, Alphine? Crawl. Get her flowers, a stuffed animal, something. It won’t fix the fight, but it will make things a bit easier.”
Lutecia chuckled softly. “Advice from a man who’s done it a few times?”
He smirked. “I’ve had my share of arguments.”
She lifted a brow, but as with most things related to her partner’s love life that didn’t involve Celica, she didn’t ask. “Right. Flowers.”
“Just something to warm her up for when you start apologizing.”
Snorting softly, Lutecia absently capped her bottle. “I’ll think about it.” She pushed back her chair, getting to her feet. “Unfortunately, I need to go. I need to give Hawke a better reason for nearly missing the report other than ‘I got into a fight with my girlfriend’.”
…
Victor couldn’t resist.
“Alphine, question.”
“What, Storm?”
He grinned. “Did she put you on the couch?”
The brilliant blush that flooded Lutecia’s face and the strangled sound that escaped her throat was worth the bottle of cherry Coke that smacked him right in the forehead as she made her hasty escape.
Now sprawled out on the floor, he grinned up at the underside of the table, ignoring the stares and whispers aimed his way.
“I’m going to take that as a yes.”
The title is kind of a pun, mostly on the fact that even though Lutecia is starting to get better, she still has a ways to go yet. Poor Cia, she just can't win.
(Sorry for short review , studying for exams and all )
This was definitely interesting, it had a different feel than your previous works (and not just because it was less grim-dark ). It does fit the awkward tone of Lutecia trying to change her ways, so it's quite fitting to the atmosphere of the story.
Is this going to be relatively canon to your future Shadowverse stories, or is this just a separate one-shot?
Quote:
Originally Posted by synaesthetic
This summer I'm not going to attend classes due to nothing I need being offered (goddamned budget cuts) and instead I'm going to write a fucking book. An original novel. From start to finish (minus the editing, anyway), that will be my task this summer.
Good luck!
Quote:
Originally Posted by DezoPenguin
I swear, everybody I know who's in school is getting utterly killed by college lately!
Quote:
Originally Posted by yuiseppe
Well, you have me convinced that Coca-Cola is a sponsor of NSIS (corporate expansionism gone bad).
I snorted water at this XD. This begs for an omake!
Is this going to be relatively canon to your future Shadowverse stories, or is this just a separate one-shot?
Relatively canon. I know my reputation around here, and the occasional mention of a Bad End for Shadowverse, but in all honesty I'm far too attached to it to end it badly. It'll probably be hell getting there, but Lutecia and Vivio will definitely get a happy ending.
Relatively canon. I know my reputation around here, and the occasional mention of a Bad End for Shadowverse, but in all honesty I'm far too attached to it to end it badly. It'll probably be hell getting there, but Lutecia and Vivio will definitely get a happy ending.
Vivio, on the verge of death, to the body of a lifeless Lutecia:"Lu-chan, I will be with you soon...." coughs, spits blood, "t-together, forever..." Triggered a massive bomb near her as the enemy closes in, killing everyone.
~Happy ending, because this way RB won't be able to torture them anymore
For those that belittle their favorite characters, complain about pairings, complain about oversexed images. Stop, thank you.
Fear Anxiety Doubt is but a fad. The life of a fad depends entirely on the willingness to support it. Difficulty is a choice. Determination is a path. Your next great idea after your destination is the true goal.
The small mention of Vivio and Lutecia made me squeal like you would not believe.
Beyond that, though, this story left me with warm fuzzies. I'm not usually a big fan of NanoFate family stories, for some reason or another, but this one hit me in the right place and left me with a happy smile.
*adds to favorites*
Also, if you expand on Shamal and Signum's backstory, I will love you forever and ever.
How nice! I love when girls pledge that they will love me forever and ever, for whatever reasons there may be. *beaming smirk of everything rawr* =D
So... *holds up half-done SignumxShamal manuscript together with her draft of a VivioxLutecia shortie* will this together with your everlasting love win me a continuation on your rather fantastic Shadowverse stories? ;-)
Indecent blackmailing apart: RB, deathcurse and MaxwellDemon, thank you for reading =). It was a very pleasant story to write, and trust me when I tell you that reading drunk Fate can only be topped by actually writing it. I don't think I've ever snickered so much while typing before =D. I don't -think- I actually added anything new to the family story concept, just a truckload of my interpretations of how the NanoFate dynamics would evolve with years and life and a little Hayate-induced stupor. I love writing drama/romance without actually having to -write- it, so to speak.
The theme of flying however, is all mine mine mine mine mine ^_^.
Cheers
__________________
Never stop being a kid. Never stop feeling and seeing and being excited with great things like air and engines and sounds of sunlight within you. Wear your little mask if you must to protect you from the world but if you let that kid disappear you are grown up and you are dead.
— Richard Bach
"Hey, Arisa, Suzuka..." Chrono spoke up as he saw the two walk into his mom's condo. It had been a few hours since the incident at the mall and he had to give them a call to stop over. Especially since he had found out just what it was that attacked the mall.
"You said you knew what it was?" Arisa, all washed up, asked him. Arf had to stay at home, since Lina and Luna had come back and Arf offered to watch Arashi for them.
Chrono nodded and pulled the cube out of his pocket. "This thing..."
"Oooh! Let me guess!" Arisa chirped up, causing Chrono to blink in confusion before nodding cautiously. "It's some sort of Lost Logia, isn't it?" She blinked as Chrono face-faulted. "...What?"
"Nothing." Chrono muttered from the floor as he got up. "Anyway, this thing isn't a Lost Logia..." His shoulders shook softly as a grin threatened to cross his face. "It's nothing more than a Mid-Childa trash compactor."
Seeing the two younger girls suddenly face fault, he couldn't help but chuckle at them.
Getting up, Arisa suddenly was in front of Chrono, grabbing the collar of his shirt and lifting him up angrily. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT'S NOTHING MORE THAN A TRASH COMPACTOR?!" Arisa yelled in his face.
Chrono's eye twitched. "Well, like I said, it's a trash compactor. It's meant to compact old cars and machines, but then it was discovered how useful it was for construction and garbage, so it's a trash compactor and recycler."
"But... It had a body." Suzuka said softly as she looked at the thing. "How is that possible?"
"Well, it was designed to take a body like that, it makes it easier for clearing debris and then compacting it onto itself." Chrono chuckled softly. "Um, Arisa, if you don't let me go, I think Filia's going to get mad at you."
Blinking and looking past Chrono, Arisa sweat-dropped as she saw Filia, with Val by her feet, looking upset. Gulping, she released Chrono, who shook his head and turned to the blonde and smiled at her. "Um, well... Sorry."
Chrono turned back to them and shook his head, bemused. "Anyway, in case you were wondering, it was originally used on broken down machinery that couldn't even be used for scrap metal, but it was taking up too much room in junk yards. Then it was accidentally used on a condemned building, tore it down in a matter of minutes and was safer than a wrecking ball or explosives." He shrugged at their looks of disbelief. "That's the truth." He tossed the cube up into the air and grabbed it when it came down again. "Anyway, normally these things aren't very dangerous, unless they're over-loaded or damaged somehow."
"What happens if they're damaged?" Suzuka asked in concern.
"Well, then they go and find something random to destroy." Chrono tapped his chin. "If over-loaded, they go crazy and start moving faster than most people can react. So, I guess it was both this time."
"How does something from Mid-Childa end up here?" Filia asked as she knelt down to make sure that Val didn't crawl into a door and hurt himself.
Chrono shrugged at that. "If I had to guess, I'd say that it's been here since the Jewel Seeds ended up on Earth."
"Okay, so, why does it take a body and why did the body fall apart after it shut down?" Arisa looked at the thing and shuddered as she remembered the destruction.
"The body was a bit of a side-effect." Chrono shrugged at the first part of the question. "Like I said, it helped with demolition and taking care of trash. As for falling apart... It's basically recycling whatever it collects and turns old metal into new metal, though, I really don't think that'll help that mall out." Chrono chuckled softly at the looks they gave him. "Um..."
"That was a lame explanation." Suzuka muttered, getting a nod from Arisa and Filia, who had walked behind the girls while holding Val.
Chrono sighed and hung his head. "I swear that's what it was for." Oh well, at least Amy and his mom weren't around, they would probably be laughing at him right now.
"I'm home!" Amy's voice filled the condo.
"Speak of the devil and she appears." Chrono muttered as he looked up while Amy walked into the room, holding a large bag of stuff.
"Hey, did you know that the mall was destroyed today?" Amy asked them, blinking at the groans she got. "...What?"
"Never mind." The young girls said at the same time.
"Sorry, but Arisa-chan and I need to get going." Suzuka bowed and the two left quickly.
"Huh..." Amy looked at Chrono and Filia after the two were gone. "...This has been an interesting day."
"You don't know the half of it." Chrono muttered, rubbing his forehead. "I'm going to go lay down."
Watching him leave, Amy turned to Filia. "What's wrong with Chrono?"
Filia blushed and looked away, mumbling something.
"Come again?" Amy blinked when Filia turned to her and twitched.
"We were... Interrupted." To say that Filia was upset was an understatement, after all, her tail was sticking out and swishing around slightly.
Amy's eyes widened, her face went flush as she nodded. "Oh."
"Yeah." Filia nodded, twitching.
Val just looked on in confusion.
Spoiler for Dusk 20:
Days later...
"Ah, Dieci." Jail smiled as he saw his newest cyborg walk into the room. "How are the adjustments I made coming?"
Dieci rolled her right shoulder. "Feels a bit heavy to me. Maybe I am not adjusted yet."
Jail shook his head. "No, it's fine, if you have some problems with it, let me know, okay?" When she nodded, he smiled and turned to the table, which had a large blanket on top of it. "Well, I figure I might as well give you this now."
Dieci blinked as he pulled the blanket off to reveal a rather large and long cannon underneath it. Picking it up, she blinked at the weight of it. "It's lighter than I thought."
Jail chuckled at that. "Well, I didn't put a power supply into it, since your own Inherient Skill can do that just fine, so that saved on some weight. But as things stand, your training has been rather incomplete. Quattro's waiting for you at the targeting range."
"Quattro is?" Dieci blinked as Jail nodded.
"Yes, you need some personal training and what Tre is putting Sein and Cinque through isn't as applicable to you as it is to them." Dieci nodded. "However, I would suggest getting pointers on how to fight if an enemy gets close to you, just in case."
"Of course." Dieci nodded as she turned and left the room.
After she left, Jail shook his head and looked at the naked woman floating in a nearby tube, before shaking his head and snorting. "Foolish, I don't know why Quattro brought you here." Oh well, he had more things to worry about than a naked injured Bureau member.
Walking over to a nearby control panel, Jail frowned as he looked at the data the scans of his remaining cyborgs were giving him. No matter how he looked at it, the process was speeding up far too quickly for his liking. 'At this rate, all of them will be awake in less than a year.' It wasn't a bad thought, but he'd have to work hard to get their equipment done and then he had to make sure that their bodies were adjusted properly.
Sighing, Jail shook his head. "This is becoming a pain." He muttered, though he had to admit, it was interesting at least. "Still have to find the last three components." He just wished that his memories of Al Hazard were clearer. There wouldn't be any problems obtaining the Knight Valkrye Armor if he could just remember something about it.
"And Quattro's little pet project..." He shook his head. Whatever plans she had with those mechanical things wasn't really his concern. Still, they did seem more formidible than the Gadget Drones they had already.
"Why do I think I'm forgetting something?" He asked, stroking his chin in thought. Oh well, it probably wasn't important.
(---)
Uno shook her head as she looked at the baby girl. As much as she thought she knew Quattro, this went further, much further than she thought her sister was capable of. Looking at the tubes inserted into the sleeping child, she grimaced and walked over to the control panel to see just what the baby was being stuffed with.
As she read over the data, Uno's face slowly became a mask of concern. "These drugs and chemicals..." Frowning, she turned and left the girl alone. She didn't really care about the girl, but that combination had her wondering about her sister.
She nodded to Tre as the latter was carrying a knocked out Sein over her shoulder to the medical wing. "Is she okay?"
"She's fine, just hit her head instead of phasing through the wall after getting knocked down." Tre shook her head, a small smirk adorning her face, causing Uno to chuckle. "What about you?"
"I need to talk to Quattro about something." Tre looked confused, but nodded as Uno left.
A few moments later, Uno found Quattro looking on, bored, as Dieci practiced shooting some targets.
"A bit slow on that one." Quattro pointed to the one that was untouched. "Even if those blasts are really strong, it means nothing, since you'll never hit anything that moves faster than a walking pedestrian." Dieci frowned and narrowed her eyes, before firing again. "Uno, what can I do for you?"
"I want to speak to you about your current project concerning that girl." When Quattro raised an eyebrow, she elaborated. "I don't really care too much about the child, but I wonder what you're thinking. Those chemicals and drugs..."
"Ah, yes, those things." Quattro nodded, turning to her older sister fully and putting her hands on her hips, which caused the cloak she always wore to spread open fully. "Well, let me tell you this, I'd rather not... Have to deal with her being a baby any longer than I have to, so... A few drugs here and there to stimulate her growth processes should make her age to an... Appropriate age quickly enough."
Uno nodded, it made sense at least. "Very well, just make sure that she doesn't grow so fast that her body gives out on her."
"Of course." Quattro chuckled and turned back to watching Dieci. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to teach Dieci not to shoot at the holographic cows."
Uno blinked and looked at the training session to see, that yes, there were cows there, and, yes, Dieci was having trouble not shooting them. "I see..."
Quattro sighed heavily. "Dieci, you need to think, if you nuke all the cows, there won't be any milk for you in the future."
As she walked away, Uno frowned slightly. "Has Quattro's chest always been that large?"
(---)
Later...
Due grinned as she walked out the kitchen, covered head to toe in flour, milk and other stuff that Cinque wasn't sure she wanted to know. "Dinner's done!" She giggled as Cinque face-faulted. "I need a bath."
Nodding, Cinque just chuckled as Due ran off towards the baths. Knowing that Due would, in fact, strip all the way to the baths, she hurried up after her sister and quickly found the trail of food-covered clothes leading from the middle of the hall to the baths. Holding all of Due's clothes at arm's length, including her underwear, Cinque deposited them into the hamper and took a peek inside the baths to see if everything was alright.
Inside, Due was talking to Sein about a few things regarding combat and the best ways to sneak up on someone. Smiling, Cinque slipped back out.
Her family was weird, but they were still her family, and she did enjoy their company.
Spoiler for Dusk 21:
Back on the Red World...
Amelia sat at a table in one of the taverns and frowned as she looked at Lyos. The young knight shook his head. Between Zelgadis disappearing days ago, talks of peasant uprisings to the north and that mysterious woman in the cloak had her nerves on edge. "Man, if only there was a way to find out the truth about the king..." So many people had been calling him a demon and she wondered if maybe it was true.
Most of the time, rumors were just that, rumors. After all, how many people called Lina horrible things and said that she could eat the souls of anyone that annoyed her? Amelia had lost count about the sheer amount of bad things said about Lina, but her old friend was none of those things. Heck, she was married and had children now, had come back from the dead to save the world from Dark Star, so none of those things were true.
She hoped that it was the same thing with the king.
"Actually..." Lyos grinned at her. "I did some scouting around, and found a place to get into the castle without being detected." Amelia's eyes lit up and Lyos nodded. "We'll sneak in tonight." When Amelia started giggling, he blinked in confusion. "What?"
"You reminded me of Miss Lina, Mr. Lyos." Lyos gave her an annoyed look and Amelia just fell back, laughing hard.
After all, doing something like that was Lina's style.
(---)
Later that night...
"This way." Lyos hissed as the two crept along the castle grounds and towards some bushes on the side of the building. "I saw someone earlier today do this..." He stopped in front of a bush just before a large tree in the court-yard. Kneeling down, he pushed the bush to the side and to Amelia's surprise, there was a door underneath. Opening it and walking down the stairs to the murky depths below, Amelia wondered just what was in store for them this time.
Casting a quick, low-power lighting spell so they wouldn't trip over each other, the two continued on walking down the stairs before stopping at a seeming dead-end.
"That's it?" Lyos frowned as he touched the wall in front of them. "What the hell? I thought this was supposed to..." He trailed off as he heard some foot-steps on the other side of the wall. Putting his ear to it, he closed his eyes and listened to what was being said.
Or try to listen, all he heard was some muffled words, before sighing as the sound disappeared shortly after. "Well, one thing's for certain, we're somewhere..." Growling, Lyos snapped his hand out, punching the wall, and much to his and Amelia's shock, the brick he punched suddenly moved, causing the wall to move back, before sliding apart. "What the?"
"A false wall! You did it, Mr. Lyos. Come on, we need to move before it closes again." Amelia was already through the door, followed quickly by Lyos. "Now, we need to..." She trailed off as she turned the corner and crashed into a rather heavy wall.
Or something resembling a wall. "Mr. Zest!" Amelia gasped as she saw the older man.
Zest raised an eyebrow as he looked at her. "Surprised to see you here. We have a problem." When Lyos and Amelia looked at him in confusion, he clarified. "I don't think the king is who he says he is."
"What makes you say that?" Amelia asked and Zest looked behind him before looking back at her.
"I don't think that a human would talk to a shadow normally, especially one with a couple of masks for a face."
"Mazoku." Amelia muttered, catching the other two by surprise. "So there are Mazoku at work here. We'll have to be careful, even a low-ranking Mazoku is deadly." She and the other two shivered slightly, it was less noticable on Zest than on her and Lyos, but the three of them had felt it. "Mr. Zest, I think we need to leave... Probably to a place with more space?"
Nodding, Zest led the younger two to the main hall. "It's... Odd."
"What?" Lyos had to fight the urge to pull out Banisher at that moment and swing it at something.
"I haven't seen a servant all day. In fact... I almost say that someone's shifted dimensions on us without me noticing."
There was a clapping sound and Zest, Amelia and Lyos looked up to the top of a large staircase to see the king looking down at them. "I'm impressed that you figured it out, though it took you awhile..." He snapped his fingers and darkness swirled in the air, before revealing three figures. "Gio Gaia," a figure in a tattered robe appeared in mid-air, his emerald eyes gleaned brightly while his silver hair danced in the air, "Gduza", something that looked like a woman, though hunched over, with no eyes or ears on her face, appeared in mid-air, her long, black hair dangled under her, "and finally Dugld." The third swirl revealed a male wearing a black mantle and a wide-brimmed hat.
"So, you willingly sold your soul to the Mazoku, huh?" Amelia pointed at him. "Even if they are Mazoku, our love of justice will not allow you to defeat us."
"Justice, huh?" The king narrowed his eyes at Amelia. "What kind of justice would an outsider have, trying to usurp me from the throne?!" Before Amelia could say anything, he turned to his right and looked into the darkness. "I told you, didn't I?"
"Heh, well, I did find it hard to believe that someone from Seiryuun would be doing this, but I can't deny what you've shown me." A familiar male voice spoke up and three figures walked into the light.
"Luke!" Lyos growled, unsheathing Banisher as he saw Luke and Milina walk into the light.. His eyes widened as he saw the third person walk in behind them. "It... Can't..."
"Mr. Zelgadis?" Amelia gasped as she saw him look at her, his eyes were cold and emotionless, not to mention that he was in his Chimera form instead of his human form again.
Zest grimaced. They were out-numbered at least two-to-one, but something else was bothering him. The king was standing in front of something that was obscured by a large sheet, and he wasn't sure, but he felt some sort of magic eminating from behind it.
Looking at Luke, Milina leaned in close to him. "I don't trust the fact that the king is working with creatures like those." Luke nodded, he didn't either, but he figured that he and Milina could fight their way out of any problem that occurred. Holding up a hand, he grinned. "Well, sorry, but I am being paid to protect the king."
"If she's willing to apologize for trying to over-throw me, I'd be willing to let her go." The king chuckled and looked at the three Mazoku, all of which were looking at the group with interest.
"I didn't come here to cause a revolution and over-throw you." Amelia stepped forward. "I came here to make sure that the problems your country has currently are peacefully resolved, but now I see why your country is headed for civil war." She pointed at the Mazoku dramatically. "Whatever it is that they promised you, it isn't worth it." She blinked as the Mazoku started chuckling.
"My dear girl," the one introduced as Gio Gaia shook his head, "you have everything all wrong."
"Enough!" The king snapped and looked at Luke and Milina. "Deal with them or you don't get paid!"
"Fine, sorry about this, except, you know, the sorry part, because I'm not." Grinning, Luke snapped off a fireball right at the shocked princess.
Zest narrowed his eyes and got in front of Amelia, before holding up his hand, a large triangular shield appeared in front of him, causing the fireball to explode harmlessly against it.
"A barrier? That fast?" Milina muttered as Luke jumped over the railing and pulled out his sword.
"Let's see him stop this one!" His sword glowed red as he called up his spell and swung at Zest's barrier, only to blink as it was stopped cold. Turning, he smirked as he saw Lyos, his sword surrounded in water, blocking his attack. "Didn't you learn from last time?"
"Yeah, I did." Lyos grinned and swung Banisher, forcing Luke back. "He's mine."
Zest narrowed his eyes and snapped his hand out, his spear forming from the ring on his finger.
"Böe-Modus."
A moment later, Zest and his weapon were covered in a gray-silver colored metal. He wouldn't have even bothered with it normally, but the last time he saw a Mazoku, his whole world was nearly killed by the thing. Plus the fireball had taken more effort to block than he was comfortable with. Narrowing his eyes, he flew straight for the trio of Mazoku.
"Fast!" Gio Gaia gasped as Zest seemingly disappeared and reappeared in front of them, his spear swinging down at them. The three Mazoku disappeared into the shadows that surrounded them a moment before the blade would have struck them.
Grimacing, Zest turned to Zelgadis and Milina. He wasn't about to attack the king, not yet, he figured if he could take out the guards first, he could get some answers out of the king without needing to cause too much bloodshed.
He blinked as the sheet was pulled off, revealing the contents underneath. "A mirror?" He grimaced as the thing started to glow brightly.
The others in the room, except for the king, all grimaced and turned their heads away from the glow.
When it subsided, Zest looked up and his eyes widened in shock.
In front of the mirror was him... Except that he was real and not just a mere reflection. "What the?"
"Shadow Reflection Mirror." Gio Gaia spoke up, emerging from behind Milina, much to the girl's shock. "It can create a perfect replica of you, though what it creates is the opposite of the original."
Amelia gasped as she heard that. "But, that thing creates replicas that act completely opposite of the person that it copies, my sister said that it was nothing more than embarrassment for everyone involved, plus it was broken."
Gduza smirked as she formed in Amelia's shadow, her hair snapping up and wrapping around the Princess's neck, squeezing and pulling back. "We fixed those flaws." She grinned before taking her hand and jabbing it through Amelia's leg, causing the Princess to cry out in pain and fall to her knees. Looking up, she grimaced as Luke and Lyos stopped their duel to look at her angrily. Growling, she looked at Zelgadis, who had jumped over the railing and was walking towards them. "Finish her off."
"Mr. Zelgadis..." Amelia gasped out painfully, the hair was really starting to hurt with how tightly it was wrapping around her throat.
Unsheathing his sword, Zelgadis continued to walk towards Amelia. "Astral Vine." His voice was cold, emotionless, so unlike the Zelgadis that Amelia had come to know. His sword glowed red as he held it up.
"Stop!" Lyos yelled at Zelgadis. "Don't kill her!"
Zelgadis turned his sword so it was pointing down and pulled his arm back, poising to strike.
"Hurry up and finish her off!" Gduza snapped at him.
"Of course." Zelgadis said, before a small grin came to his face, much to Gudza's shock.
Which didn't last long, as the sword snapped through her skull a moment later, rendering her dead in a matter of moments.
"Impossible!" Dulgd yelled as he materialized in the air. "You were under her mind control!"
"Indeed I was." Zelgadis looked at him and smirked, his eyes narrow. "But she isn't the first one to take over my mind. After Red Priest Rezo did that to me a few years ago, I did research into mind control techniques and spells and how to counter them." Rolling his shoulder, Zelgadis rocked his head from side to side, getting some kinks out of it. "Though, I admit, it was a lot harder to do than I thought."
"Are you kidding?!" Lyos yelled at Zelgadis and stomped his foot to the ground. "I couldn't even tell it was you! You were so emotionless and..." He trailed off, blinking as Zelgadis started laughing. "What?"
"I spent years building up a reputation as a heartless demon swordsman, I think I can cut my emotions pretty well." He turned to Amelia and knelt down. "How's your leg?"
"I'll be okay." She smiled, though it was pretty obvious she was in pain.
Dulgd growled and turned to the king. "Dammit, Grau, your whole plan is falling apart!"
Twitching, the revealed Grau snapped his fingers and the Zest clone gripped the spear that he was holding and rushed at Zest. Zest grit his teeth as his spear clashed with that of his doppelganger.
"Grau?" Luke narrowed his eyes at the king. Something seemed off about all this.
"Dammit, everything's gone to hell." Grau muttered as his form shifted and his royal clothes were replaced with a more practical body suit, the slight plumpness that he had as royalty melted away, revealing a more toned face, his blue hair hung down his back as he glared at Gio Gaia and Dulgd. "Looks like we'll have to do this the hard way then."
There was a squelching sound and Milina gasped as she felt an arm push through her chest. Her eyes were wide as she felt her body go cold. "Can't." She fell to her knees, blood escaping her mouth as Dulgd smirked at his work.
"Well, that was..." A shadow appeared over him, a glowing red blade inches from his face. "You... master..."
"Ruby-Eye Blade!" Luke screamed as he slashed the Mazoku apart with one stroke. Turning to Grau, his eyes blazed in anger. "You're next!"
Grau looked on as the blazing red blade swung down at him, before he held up a hand and grinned.
Luke's eyes widened as the red blade disappeared, leaving him with a normal metal sword. "What?"
"Never seen a spell like that before, I admit, but it really doesn't matter if I can cancel it, huh?" Grau smirked and backhanded Luke down the stairs. "I am the Priest of the late Dynast Grausherra, you are nothing to me."
"A priest?" Lyos grimaced, remembering Huraker and Xellos, the two were insanely dangerous, and this guy probably wasn't any easier than they were.
Zelgadis grimaced and looked at Amelia. "Can you help her out?" Amelia nodded and got to her leg, which was no longer bleeding due to her healing spell, and flew up to Milina.
"Hang in there." Amelia said as she put her hands over the wound. She wasn't sure that she could heal this, but she had to try. "Ressurection." A white glow engulfed her hands and Milina's body as she went to work healing the injured woman.
"Aren't you all forgetting something?" A voice said, moments before a buzzing noise was heard. Lyos let out a scream as his back erupted in pain, blood flowing freely as he spun and glared at the Mazoku there. "I'm surprised you survived, after all, Miasma isn't really safe for you humans." He grinned at Lyos, who had fallen to his knees. "So, just two at full capacity, and one too busy with his clone to do anything."
(---)
Up in the air, Zest grimaced as he rushed forward, slamming his spear against his opponent's weapon. 'Why isn't this cutting through?' He wondered to himself, things were getting more and more dangerous down below, and if he didn't deal with his opponent now, he was going to have trouble if any more of his allies below fell in battle.
It was possible that his copy was granted the same armor that he was wearing. Zest's eyes narrowed as he called up his magic. The clone looked slightly confused. 'Wait, that means it doesn't...'
Swinging his spear to the side, Zest started to glow with magic, catching the attention of Grau from below.
"I don't have time to play with you." Zest growled.
"Voller Ehrgeiz."
Zest's speed suddenly tripled as he slammed into his copy with enough force that even the copy's armor wasn't enough to block the strike, allowing him to bisect his clone, before changing his directory and slamming into the area where Grau had been a mere moment ago. "Damn." Zest muttered as he stood up. Full Drive was a pain to do normally, but with the Blast Armor on, he nearly passed out from the sudden strain of that spell.
"Well, you might be interesting." Grau smirked as he floated up.
(---)
Down below, Zelgadis and Luke both held their swords up as Gio Gaia chuckled at them. "You two..." He faded into the shadows. "This will be easy."
"Really?" Luke stepped away from Zelgadis and looked around nervously. "Where..?" His eyes suddenly widened and he spun around. "Behind you!"
Swinging his sword in a large arc, Zelgadis missed with his attack, but he did force Gio Gaia into the open. "Too bad, Blam Blazer!" The naked shock on Gio Gaia's face made him smirk as the laser-like spell ripped through the Mazoku's body, tearing it asunder. "Lyos, you okay?"
Lyos shivered and shook his head. He thought he was, but whatever that Miasma was, it was causing his body to start to shut down.
"Hang on." Zelgadis knelt down by Lyos and started healing his body. When he heard some laughter, he looked up and glared at Grau, who had several black spheres around him. "You..."
"Oh, it won't be hard, three of you are badly injured, one is exhausted and two of you really can't touch me here." The Mazoku priest smirked as he saw Zest, who had cancelled his Blast Mode to stand up. "You'll die here, so, don't feel bad, you really couldn't handle a Mazoku like myself and those three, even if lower Mazoku, were still pretty dangerous." He held his hands above his head and the balls got larger. "Now... DIE!" He swung his hands forward, before stopping as his body lurched forward. "...No..." Gasping, his body started to dissolve in mid-air.
"What?" Luke asked the question, but everyone had the same question on their minds.
When the body completely dissolved, there was another body behind him, a person wearing a hooded cloak. "I thank you, for finding that traitor." The female said, before pulling her hood back and revealing her identity to the group.
"Who are you?" Luke asked as he saw the blue-haired woman. He twitched as she landed and chuckled at him. "Who?"
"My name is Dynast Sherra, Mazoku lord under Ruby-Eye Shabranigdo." She smirked at his shocked expression. She gave Zelgadis and Lyos a nod. "I don't like admitting it, but I needed help flushing that traitor out." She turned and started to fade away. "The little bastard must have fused with a human, I couldn't find his Astral signature no matter how hard I looked."
Luke just looked on confused before rushing up the stairs to check on Milina. "Is she?"
Amelia panted and smiled at him. "She'll live, but she's still badly hurt, I don't think you'll be going anywhere for awhile."
Milina rolled her eyes at Luke's worried expression. "Oh please, you act like I was going to die from that." She chuckled before wincing. "...Ow..."
Zest looked at the mirror before swinging his spear at it, shattering it into many pieces. The last thing he wanted was more clones of himself running around.
Spoiler for Comments:
Hated part 21, took me FOREVER to get it done!
Spoiler for Dusk End:
The next morning...
Amelia looked up as Zelgadis came down the stairs. "So, how are Miss Milina and Mr. Luke?" Her leg was still giving her trouble, since Lyos, who was sitting at the table, eating food, and Milina, needed healing the most. Thankfully, the only problem she had was phantom pain that was quickly dulling.
Amelia figured that by the time she was done with breakfast, her leg would be good as new.
"She'll live, though she's annoyed that Luke seemed to have turned into a mother hen in an instant." Zelgadis shook his head as he sat at the table, nodding to Zest.
"One thing that bothers me." Lyos muttered as he looked at Zelgadis, who was back in his human form. "That fight, we were getting kind of trashed, but didn't it seem to end too quickly?"
"Not every fight for your life will be an epic one." Zest spoke up. "Even if we were getting trashed, not every fight you'll end up in is something for the record books and some end rather anti-climatically." Shrugging, he stood up. "If you'll excuse me, I'm going to leave now."
"Huh?" Amelia looked at Zest in surprise as he got up from the table. "But, I thought..."
He looked at her and smiled softly. "It was enjoyable, I admit, but there are things I need to do, thank you for the experiences. I have a lot more to learn."
Amelia sighed as he left. "It feels like another adventure coming to an end, but there were no Dragon Slaves to kick the adventure off to begin with."
Zelgadis frowned. "You're right. There wasn't a single Dragon Slave in this entire adventure, no wonder it felt weird."
Amelia pouted and shook her head. "So, what are you two going to do?"
Lyos shrugged and leaned back. "Well, I think I'll head South."
"Really?" Amelia blinked and Lyos nodded.
"Yeah, being close to these mountains bothers me. Besides, I heard that there was a bandit problem to the South."
Zelgadis chuckled and nodded. "Sounds like Lina rubbed off on you somewhat. I don't know what I'll do, honestly."
"Why not come back to Seiryuun?" Amelia smiled at him. "Daddy will want to know what happened here and I wouldn't mind some company on the way home."
Zelgadis shrugged, that didn't seem like a bad idea to him. "We may need to stick around until Milina is fully healed at least."
Amelia smiled at him, he really was a kind person when he wasn't trying to bury his emotions.
(---)
On the road, Zest narrowed his eyes as he swung a bag full of various stuff over his shoulder. For some reason, he thought that he was being watched. Shrugging, he turned and continued onwards.
When he was past a hill, a slim figure walked out from behind a tree. "...Valwin, I know that you're there, come on out, you tree-smoking Shinzoku."
The large, hat-wearing Shinzoku formed in a swirl of air in front of the Mazoku Lord. "Why didn't you attack that king if you suspected he was a traitor?"
"With you watching over my every step?" Sherra grumbled at him. "Besides, I wasn't sure if he was Grau or not."
"I thought you didn't care about humans?"
"I don't." Sherra smirked at him. "But my main priority was to find that traitor, not kill random humans."
"So, what are you going to do now?" Valwin held up a small tree between his fingers.
Sherra crossed her arms under her breasts. "I've got my own things to do." She still had to consolidate her power properly, if more of her forces decided to do what Grau did, she was going to be in an unenviable position of having no subordinates.
Oh well, she would have to just figure something out on her own if that happened. She disappeared a moment later.
Valwin disappeared in a swirl of wind, wondering about the future of the worlds.
An image of the boundaries between the worlds being shattered had been bothering him lately. Whatever it was wasn't something that he knew how to handle.
He just hoped that it wasn't anything serious.
Dusk End
__________________
My fics Due to certain things, I am not here, find me over on TFF.
"Hey, Arisa, Suzuka..." Chrono spoke up as he saw the two walk into his mom's condo. It had been a few hours since the incident at the mall and he had to give them a call to stop over. Especially since he had found out just what it was that attacked the mall.
"You said you knew what it was?" Arisa, all washed up, asked him. Arf had to stay at home, since Lina and Luna had come back and Arf offered to watch Arashi for them.
Chrono nodded and pulled the cube out of his pocket. "This thing..."
"Oooh! Let me guess!" Arisa chirped up, causing Chrono to blink in confusion before nodding cautiously. "It's some sort of Lost Logia, isn't it?" She blinked as Chrono face-faulted. "...What?"
"Nothing." Chrono muttered from the floor as he got up. "Anyway, this thing isn't a Lost Logia..." His shoulders shook softly as a grin threatened to cross his face. "It's nothing more than a Mid-Childa trash compactor."
Seeing the two younger girls suddenly face fault, he couldn't help but chuckle at them.
Getting up, Arisa suddenly was in front of Chrono, grabbing the collar of his shirt and lifting him up angrily. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT'S NOTHING MORE THAN A TRASH COMPACTOR?!" Arisa yelled in his face.
Chrono's eye twitched. "Well, like I said, it's a trash compactor. It's meant to compact old cars and machines, but then it was discovered how useful it was for construction and garbage, so it's a trash compactor and recycler."
"But... It had a body." Suzuka said softly as she looked at the thing. "How is that possible?"
"Well, it was designed to take a body like that, it makes it easier for clearing debris and then compacting it onto itself." Chrono chuckled softly. "Um, Arisa, if you don't let me go, I think Filia's going to get mad at you."
Blinking and looking past Chrono, Arisa sweat-dropped as she saw Filia, with Val by her feet, looking upset. Gulping, she released Chrono, who shook his head and turned to the blonde and smiled at her. "Um, well... Sorry."
Chrono turned back to them and shook his head, bemused. "Anyway, in case you were wondering, it was originally used on broken down machinery that couldn't even be used for scrap metal, but it was taking up too much room in junk yards. Then it was accidentally used on a condemned building, tore it down in a matter of minutes and was safer than a wrecking ball or explosives." He shrugged at their looks of disbelief. "That's the truth." He tossed the cube up into the air and grabbed it when it came down again. "Anyway, normally these things aren't very dangerous, unless they're over-loaded or damaged somehow."
"What happens if they're damaged?" Suzuka asked in concern.
"Well, then they go and find something random to destroy." Chrono tapped his chin. "If over-loaded, they go crazy and start moving faster than most people can react. So, I guess it was both this time."
"How does something from Mid-Childa end up here?" Filia asked as she knelt down to make sure that Val didn't crawl into a door and hurt himself.
Chrono shrugged at that. "If I had to guess, I'd say that it's been here since the Jewel Seeds ended up on Earth."
"Okay, so, why does it take a body and why did the body fall apart after it shut down?" Arisa looked at the thing and shuddered as she remembered the destruction.
"The body was a bit of a side-effect." Chrono shrugged at the first part of the question. "Like I said, it helped with demolition and taking care of trash. As for falling apart... It's basically recycling whatever it collects and turns old metal into new metal, though, I really don't think that'll help that mall out." Chrono chuckled softly at the looks they gave him. "Um..."
"That was a lame explanation." Suzuka muttered, getting a nod from Arisa and Filia, who had walked behind the girls while holding Val.
Chrono sighed and hung his head. "I swear that's what it was for." Oh well, at least Amy and his mom weren't around, they would probably be laughing at him right now.
"I'm home!" Amy's voice filled the condo.
"Speak of the devil and she appears." Chrono muttered as he looked up while Amy walked into the room, holding a large bag of stuff.
"Hey, did you know that the mall was destroyed today?" Amy asked them, blinking at the groans she got. "...What?"
"Never mind." The young girls said at the same time.
"Sorry, but Arisa-chan and I need to get going." Suzuka bowed and the two left quickly.
"Huh..." Amy looked at Chrono and Filia after the two were gone. "...This has been an interesting day."
"You don't know the half of it." Chrono muttered, rubbing his forehead. "I'm going to go lay down."
Watching him leave, Amy turned to Filia. "What's wrong with Chrono?"
Filia blushed and looked away, mumbling something.
"Come again?" Amy blinked when Filia turned to her and twitched.
"We were... Interrupted." To say that Filia was upset was an understatement, after all, her tail was sticking out and swishing around slightly.
Amy's eyes widened, her face went flush as she nodded. "Oh."
"Yeah." Filia nodded, twitching.
Val just looked on in confusion.
Spoiler for Dusk 20:
Days later...
"Ah, Dieci." Jail smiled as he saw his newest cyborg walk into the room. "How are the adjustments I made coming?"
Dieci rolled her right shoulder. "Feels a bit heavy to me. Maybe I am not adjusted yet."
Jail shook his head. "No, it's fine, if you have some problems with it, let me know, okay?" When she nodded, he smiled and turned to the table, which had a large blanket on top of it. "Well, I figure I might as well give you this now."
Dieci blinked as he pulled the blanket off to reveal a rather large and long cannon underneath it. Picking it up, she blinked at the weight of it. "It's lighter than I thought."
Jail chuckled at that. "Well, I didn't put a power supply into it, since your own Inherient Skill can do that just fine, so that saved on some weight. But as things stand, your training has been rather incomplete. Quattro's waiting for you at the targeting range."
"Quattro is?" Dieci blinked as Jail nodded.
"Yes, you need some personal training and what Tre is putting Sein and Cinque through isn't as applicable to you as it is to them." Dieci nodded. "However, I would suggest getting pointers on how to fight if an enemy gets close to you, just in case."
"Of course." Dieci nodded as she turned and left the room.
After she left, Jail shook his head and looked at the naked woman floating in a nearby tube, before shaking his head and snorting. "Foolish, I don't know why Quattro brought you here." Oh well, he had more things to worry about than a naked injured Bureau member.
Walking over to a nearby control panel, Jail frowned as he looked at the data the scans of his remaining cyborgs were giving him. No matter how he looked at it, the process was speeding up far too quickly for his liking. 'At this rate, all of them will be awake in less than a year.' It wasn't a bad thought, but he'd have to work hard to get their equipment done and then he had to make sure that their bodies were adjusted properly.
Sighing, Jail shook his head. "This is becoming a pain." He muttered, though he had to admit, it was interesting at least. "Still have to find the last three components." He just wished that his memories of Al Hazard were clearer. There wouldn't be any problems obtaining the Knight Valkrye Armor if he could just remember something about it.
"And Quattro's little pet project..." He shook his head. Whatever plans she had with those mechanical things wasn't really his concern. Still, they did seem more formidible than the Gadget Drones they had already.
"Why do I think I'm forgetting something?" He asked, stroking his chin in thought. Oh well, it probably wasn't important.
(---)
Uno shook her head as she looked at the baby girl. As much as she thought she knew Quattro, this went further, much further than she thought her sister was capable of. Looking at the tubes inserted into the sleeping child, she grimaced and walked over to the control panel to see just what the baby was being stuffed with.
As she read over the data, Uno's face slowly became a mask of concern. "These drugs and chemicals..." Frowning, she turned and left the girl alone. She didn't really care about the girl, but that combination had her wondering about her sister.
She nodded to Tre as the latter was carrying a knocked out Sein over her shoulder to the medical wing. "Is she okay?"
"She's fine, just hit her head instead of phasing through the wall after getting knocked down." Tre shook her head, a small smirk adorning her face, causing Uno to chuckle. "What about you?"
"I need to talk to Quattro about something." Tre looked confused, but nodded as Uno left.
A few moments later, Uno found Quattro looking on, bored, as Dieci practiced shooting some targets.
"A bit slow on that one." Quattro pointed to the one that was untouched. "Even if those blasts are really strong, it means nothing, since you'll never hit anything that moves faster than a walking pedestrian." Dieci frowned and narrowed her eyes, before firing again. "Uno, what can I do for you?"
"I want to speak to you about your current project concerning that girl." When Quattro raised an eyebrow, she elaborated. "I don't really care too much about the child, but I wonder what you're thinking. Those chemicals and drugs..."
"Ah, yes, those things." Quattro nodded, turning to her older sister fully and putting her hands on her hips, which caused the cloak she always wore to spread open fully. "Well, let me tell you this, I'd rather not... Have to deal with her being a baby any longer than I have to, so... A few drugs here and there to stimulate her growth processes should make her age to an... Appropriate age quickly enough."
Uno nodded, it made sense at least. "Very well, just make sure that she doesn't grow so fast that her body gives out on her."
"Of course." Quattro chuckled and turned back to watching Dieci. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to teach Dieci not to shoot at the holographic cows."
Uno blinked and looked at the training session to see, that yes, there were cows there, and, yes, Dieci was having trouble not shooting them. "I see..."
Quattro sighed heavily. "Dieci, you need to think, if you nuke all the cows, there won't be any milk for you in the future."
As she walked away, Uno frowned slightly. "Has Quattro's chest always been that large?"
(---)
Later...
Due grinned as she walked out the kitchen, covered head to toe in flour, milk and other stuff that Cinque wasn't sure she wanted to know. "Dinner's done!" She giggled as Cinque face-faulted. "I need a bath."
Nodding, Cinque just chuckled as Due ran off towards the baths. Knowing that Due would, in fact, strip all the way to the baths, she hurried up after her sister and quickly found the trail of food-covered clothes leading from the middle of the hall to the baths. Holding all of Due's clothes at arm's length, including her underwear, Cinque deposited them into the hamper and took a peek inside the baths to see if everything was alright.
Inside, Due was talking to Sein about a few things regarding combat and the best ways to sneak up on someone. Smiling, Cinque slipped back out.
Her family was weird, but they were still her family, and she did enjoy their company.
Spoiler for Dusk 21:
Back on the Red World...
Amelia sat at a table in one of the taverns and frowned as she looked at Lyos. The young knight shook his head. Between Zelgadis disappearing days ago, talks of peasant uprisings to the north and that mysterious woman in the cloak had her nerves on edge. "Man, if only there was a way to find out the truth about the king..." So many people had been calling him a demon and she wondered if maybe it was true.
Most of the time, rumors were just that, rumors. After all, how many people called Lina horrible things and said that she could eat the souls of anyone that annoyed her? Amelia had lost count about the sheer amount of bad things said about Lina, but her old friend was none of those things. Heck, she was married and had children now, had come back from the dead to save the world from Dark Star, so none of those things were true.
She hoped that it was the same thing with the king.
"Actually..." Lyos grinned at her. "I did some scouting around, and found a place to get into the castle without being detected." Amelia's eyes lit up and Lyos nodded. "We'll sneak in tonight." When Amelia started giggling, he blinked in confusion. "What?"
"You reminded me of Miss Lina, Mr. Lyos." Lyos gave her an annoyed look and Amelia just fell back, laughing hard.
After all, doing something like that was Lina's style.
(---)
Later that night...
"This way." Lyos hissed as the two crept along the castle grounds and towards some bushes on the side of the building. "I saw someone earlier today do this..." He stopped in front of a bush just before a large tree in the court-yard. Kneeling down, he pushed the bush to the side and to Amelia's surprise, there was a door underneath. Opening it and walking down the stairs to the murky depths below, Amelia wondered just what was in store for them this time.
Casting a quick, low-power lighting spell so they wouldn't trip over each other, the two continued on walking down the stairs before stopping at a seeming dead-end.
"That's it?" Lyos frowned as he touched the wall in front of them. "What the hell? I thought this was supposed to..." He trailed off as he heard some foot-steps on the other side of the wall. Putting his ear to it, he closed his eyes and listened to what was being said.
Or try to listen, all he heard was some muffled words, before sighing as the sound disappeared shortly after. "Well, one thing's for certain, we're somewhere..." Growling, Lyos snapped his hand out, punching the wall, and much to his and Amelia's shock, the brick he punched suddenly moved, causing the wall to move back, before sliding apart. "What the?"
"A false wall! You did it, Mr. Lyos. Come on, we need to move before it closes again." Amelia was already through the door, followed quickly by Lyos. "Now, we need to..." She trailed off as she turned the corner and crashed into a rather heavy wall.
Or something resembling a wall. "Mr. Zest!" Amelia gasped as she saw the older man.
Zest raised an eyebrow as he looked at her. "Surprised to see you here. We have a problem." When Lyos and Amelia looked at him in confusion, he clarified. "I don't think the king is who he says he is."
"What makes you say that?" Amelia asked and Zest looked behind him before looking back at her.
"I don't think that a human would talk to a shadow normally, especially one with a couple of masks for a face."
"Mazoku." Amelia muttered, catching the other two by surprise. "So there are Mazoku at work here. We'll have to be careful, even a low-ranking Mazoku is deadly." She and the other two shivered slightly, it was less noticable on Zest than on her and Lyos, but the three of them had felt it. "Mr. Zest, I think we need to leave... Probably to a place with more space?"
Nodding, Zest led the younger two to the main hall. "It's... Odd."
"What?" Lyos had to fight the urge to pull out Banisher at that moment and swing it at something.
"I haven't seen a servant all day. In fact... I almost say that someone's shifted dimensions on us without me noticing."
There was a clapping sound and Zest, Amelia and Lyos looked up to the top of a large staircase to see the king looking down at them. "I'm impressed that you figured it out, though it took you awhile..." He snapped his fingers and darkness swirled in the air, before revealing three figures. "Gio Gaia," a figure in a tattered robe appeared in mid-air, his emerald eyes gleaned brightly while his silver hair danced in the air, "Gduza", something that looked like a woman, though hunched over, with no eyes or ears on her face, appeared in mid-air, her long, black hair dangled under her, "and finally Dugld." The third swirl revealed a male wearing a black mantle and a wide-brimmed hat.
"So, you willingly sold your soul to the Mazoku, huh?" Amelia pointed at him. "Even if they are Mazoku, our love of justice will not allow you to defeat us."
"Justice, huh?" The king narrowed his eyes at Amelia. "What kind of justice would an outsider have, trying to usurp me from the throne?!" Before Amelia could say anything, he turned to his right and looked into the darkness. "I told you, didn't I?"
"Heh, well, I did find it hard to believe that someone from Seiryuun would be doing this, but I can't deny what you've shown me." A familiar male voice spoke up and three figures walked into the light.
"Luke!" Lyos growled, unsheathing Banisher as he saw Luke and Milina walk into the light.. His eyes widened as he saw the third person walk in behind them. "It... Can't..."
"Mr. Zelgadis?" Amelia gasped as she saw him look at her, his eyes were cold and emotionless, not to mention that he was in his Chimera form instead of his human form again.
Zest grimaced. They were out-numbered at least two-to-one, but something else was bothering him. The king was standing in front of something that was obscured by a large sheet, and he wasn't sure, but he felt some sort of magic eminating from behind it.
Looking at Luke, Milina leaned in close to him. "I don't trust the fact that the king is working with creatures like those." Luke nodded, he didn't either, but he figured that he and Milina could fight their way out of any problem that occurred. Holding up a hand, he grinned. "Well, sorry, but I am being paid to protect the king."
"If she's willing to apologize for trying to over-throw me, I'd be willing to let her go." The king chuckled and looked at the three Mazoku, all of which were looking at the group with interest.
"I didn't come here to cause a revolution and over-throw you." Amelia stepped forward. "I came here to make sure that the problems your country has currently are peacefully resolved, but now I see why your country is headed for civil war." She pointed at the Mazoku dramatically. "Whatever it is that they promised you, it isn't worth it." She blinked as the Mazoku started chuckling.
"My dear girl," the one introduced as Gio Gaia shook his head, "you have everything all wrong."
"Enough!" The king snapped and looked at Luke and Milina. "Deal with them or you don't get paid!"
"Fine, sorry about this, except, you know, the sorry part, because I'm not." Grinning, Luke snapped off a fireball right at the shocked princess.
Zest narrowed his eyes and got in front of Amelia, before holding up his hand, a large triangular shield appeared in front of him, causing the fireball to explode harmlessly against it.
"A barrier? That fast?" Milina muttered as Luke jumped over the railing and pulled out his sword.
"Let's see him stop this one!" His sword glowed red as he called up his spell and swung at Zest's barrier, only to blink as it was stopped cold. Turning, he smirked as he saw Lyos, his sword surrounded in water, blocking his attack. "Didn't you learn from last time?"
"Yeah, I did." Lyos grinned and swung Banisher, forcing Luke back. "He's mine."
Zest narrowed his eyes and snapped his hand out, his spear forming from the ring on his finger.
"Böe-Modus."
A moment later, Zest and his weapon were covered in a gray-silver colored metal. He wouldn't have even bothered with it normally, but the last time he saw a Mazoku, his whole world was nearly killed by the thing. Plus the fireball had taken more effort to block than he was comfortable with. Narrowing his eyes, he flew straight for the trio of Mazoku.
"Fast!" Gio Gaia gasped as Zest seemingly disappeared and reappeared in front of them, his spear swinging down at them. The three Mazoku disappeared into the shadows that surrounded them a moment before the blade would have struck them.
Grimacing, Zest turned to Zelgadis and Milina. He wasn't about to attack the king, not yet, he figured if he could take out the guards first, he could get some answers out of the king without needing to cause too much bloodshed.
He blinked as the sheet was pulled off, revealing the contents underneath. "A mirror?" He grimaced as the thing started to glow brightly.
The others in the room, except for the king, all grimaced and turned their heads away from the glow.
When it subsided, Zest looked up and his eyes widened in shock.
In front of the mirror was him... Except that he was real and not just a mere reflection. "What the?"
"Shadow Reflection Mirror." Gio Gaia spoke up, emerging from behind Milina, much to the girl's shock. "It can create a perfect replica of you, though what it creates is the opposite of the original."
Amelia gasped as she heard that. "But, that thing creates replicas that act completely opposite of the person that it copies, my sister said that it was nothing more than embarrassment for everyone involved, plus it was broken."
Gduza smirked as she formed in Amelia's shadow, her hair snapping up and wrapping around the Princess's neck, squeezing and pulling back. "We fixed those flaws." She grinned before taking her hand and jabbing it through Amelia's leg, causing the Princess to cry out in pain and fall to her knees. Looking up, she grimaced as Luke and Lyos stopped their duel to look at her angrily. Growling, she looked at Zelgadis, who had jumped over the railing and was walking towards them. "Finish her off."
"Mr. Zelgadis..." Amelia gasped out painfully, the hair was really starting to hurt with how tightly it was wrapping around her throat.
Unsheathing his sword, Zelgadis continued to walk towards Amelia. "Astral Vine." His voice was cold, emotionless, so unlike the Zelgadis that Amelia had come to know. His sword glowed red as he held it up.
"Stop!" Lyos yelled at Zelgadis. "Don't kill her!"
Zelgadis turned his sword so it was pointing down and pulled his arm back, poising to strike.
"Hurry up and finish her off!" Gduza snapped at him.
"Of course." Zelgadis said, before a small grin came to his face, much to Gudza's shock.
Which didn't last long, as the sword snapped through her skull a moment later, rendering her dead in a matter of moments.
"Impossible!" Dulgd yelled as he materialized in the air. "You were under her mind control!"
"Indeed I was." Zelgadis looked at him and smirked, his eyes narrow. "But she isn't the first one to take over my mind. After Red Priest Rezo did that to me a few years ago, I did research into mind control techniques and spells and how to counter them." Rolling his shoulder, Zelgadis rocked his head from side to side, getting some kinks out of it. "Though, I admit, it was a lot harder to do than I thought."
"Are you kidding?!" Lyos yelled at Zelgadis and stomped his foot to the ground. "I couldn't even tell it was you! You were so emotionless and..." He trailed off, blinking as Zelgadis started laughing. "What?"
"I spent years building up a reputation as a heartless demon swordsman, I think I can cut my emotions pretty well." He turned to Amelia and knelt down. "How's your leg?"
"I'll be okay." She smiled, though it was pretty obvious she was in pain.
Dulgd growled and turned to the king. "Dammit, Grau, your whole plan is falling apart!"
Twitching, the revealed Grau snapped his fingers and the Zest clone gripped the spear that he was holding and rushed at Zest. Zest grit his teeth as his spear clashed with that of his doppelganger.
"Grau?" Luke narrowed his eyes at the king. Something seemed off about all this.
"Dammit, everything's gone to hell." Grau muttered as his form shifted and his royal clothes were replaced with a more practical body suit, the slight plumpness that he had as royalty melted away, revealing a more toned face, his blue hair hung down his back as he glared at Gio Gaia and Dulgd. "Looks like we'll have to do this the hard way then."
There was a squelching sound and Milina gasped as she felt an arm push through her chest. Her eyes were wide as she felt her body go cold. "Can't." She fell to her knees, blood escaping her mouth as Dulgd smirked at his work.
"Well, that was..." A shadow appeared over him, a glowing red blade inches from his face. "You... master..."
"Ruby-Eye Blade!" Luke screamed as he slashed the Mazoku apart with one stroke. Turning to Grau, his eyes blazed in anger. "You're next!"
Grau looked on as the blazing red blade swung down at him, before he held up a hand and grinned.
Luke's eyes widened as the red blade disappeared, leaving him with a normal metal sword. "What?"
"Never seen a spell like that before, I admit, but it really doesn't matter if I can cancel it, huh?" Grau smirked and backhanded Luke down the stairs. "I am the Priest of the late Dynast Grausherra, you are nothing to me."
"A priest?" Lyos grimaced, remembering Huraker and Xellos, the two were insanely dangerous, and this guy probably wasn't any easier than they were.
Zelgadis grimaced and looked at Amelia. "Can you help her out?" Amelia nodded and got to her leg, which was no longer bleeding due to her healing spell, and flew up to Milina.
"Hang in there." Amelia said as she put her hands over the wound. She wasn't sure that she could heal this, but she had to try. "Ressurection." A white glow engulfed her hands and Milina's body as she went to work healing the injured woman.
"Aren't you all forgetting something?" A voice said, moments before a buzzing noise was heard. Lyos let out a scream as his back erupted in pain, blood flowing freely as he spun and glared at the Mazoku there. "I'm surprised you survived, after all, Miasma isn't really safe for you humans." He grinned at Lyos, who had fallen to his knees. "So, just two at full capacity, and one too busy with his clone to do anything."
(---)
Up in the air, Zest grimaced as he rushed forward, slamming his spear against his opponent's weapon. 'Why isn't this cutting through?' He wondered to himself, things were getting more and more dangerous down below, and if he didn't deal with his opponent now, he was going to have trouble if any more of his allies below fell in battle.
It was possible that his copy was granted the same armor that he was wearing. Zest's eyes narrowed as he called up his magic. The clone looked slightly confused. 'Wait, that means it doesn't...'
Swinging his spear to the side, Zest started to glow with magic, catching the attention of Grau from below.
"I don't have time to play with you." Zest growled.
"Voller Ehrgeiz."
Zest's speed suddenly tripled as he slammed into his copy with enough force that even the copy's armor wasn't enough to block the strike, allowing him to bisect his clone, before changing his directory and slamming into the area where Grau had been a mere moment ago. "Damn." Zest muttered as he stood up. Full Drive was a pain to do normally, but with the Blast Armor on, he nearly passed out from the sudden strain of that spell.
"Well, you might be interesting." Grau smirked as he floated up.
(---)
Down below, Zelgadis and Luke both held their swords up as Gio Gaia chuckled at them. "You two..." He faded into the shadows. "This will be easy."
"Really?" Luke stepped away from Zelgadis and looked around nervously. "Where..?" His eyes suddenly widened and he spun around. "Behind you!"
Swinging his sword in a large arc, Zelgadis missed with his attack, but he did force Gio Gaia into the open. "Too bad, Blam Blazer!" The naked shock on Gio Gaia's face made him smirk as the laser-like spell ripped through the Mazoku's body, tearing it asunder. "Lyos, you okay?"
Lyos shivered and shook his head. He thought he was, but whatever that Miasma was, it was causing his body to start to shut down.
"Hang on." Zelgadis knelt down by Lyos and started healing his body. When he heard some laughter, he looked up and glared at Grau, who had several black spheres around him. "You..."
"Oh, it won't be hard, three of you are badly injured, one is exhausted and two of you really can't touch me here." The Mazoku priest smirked as he saw Zest, who had cancelled his Blast Mode to stand up. "You'll die here, so, don't feel bad, you really couldn't handle a Mazoku like myself and those three, even if lower Mazoku, were still pretty dangerous." He held his hands above his head and the balls got larger. "Now... DIE!" He swung his hands forward, before stopping as his body lurched forward. "...No..." Gasping, his body started to dissolve in mid-air.
"What?" Luke asked the question, but everyone had the same question on their minds.
When the body completely dissolved, there was another body behind him, a person wearing a hooded cloak. "I thank you, for finding that traitor." The female said, before pulling her hood back and revealing her identity to the group.
"Who are you?" Luke asked as he saw the blue-haired woman. He twitched as she landed and chuckled at him. "Who?"
"My name is Dynast Sherra, Mazoku lord under Ruby-Eye Shabranigdo." She smirked at his shocked expression. She gave Zelgadis and Lyos a nod. "I don't like admitting it, but I needed help flushing that traitor out." She turned and started to fade away. "The little bastard must have fused with a human, I couldn't find his Astral signature no matter how hard I looked."
Luke just looked on confused before rushing up the stairs to check on Milina. "Is she?"
Amelia panted and smiled at him. "She'll live, but she's still badly hurt, I don't think you'll be going anywhere for awhile."
Milina rolled her eyes at Luke's worried expression. "Oh please, you act like I was going to die from that." She chuckled before wincing. "...Ow..."
Zest looked at the mirror before swinging his spear at it, shattering it into many pieces. The last thing he wanted was more clones of himself running around.
Spoiler for Comments:
Hated part 21, took me FOREVER to get it done!
Spoiler for Dusk End:
The next morning...
Amelia looked up as Zelgadis came down the stairs. "So, how are Miss Milina and Mr. Luke?" Her leg was still giving her trouble, since Lyos, who was sitting at the table, eating food, and Milina, needed healing the most. Thankfully, the only problem she had was phantom pain that was quickly dulling.
Amelia figured that by the time she was done with breakfast, her leg would be good as new.
"She'll live, though she's annoyed that Luke seemed to have turned into a mother hen in an instant." Zelgadis shook his head as he sat at the table, nodding to Zest.
"One thing that bothers me." Lyos muttered as he looked at Zelgadis, who was back in his human form. "That fight, we were getting kind of trashed, but didn't it seem to end too quickly?"
"Not every fight for your life will be an epic one." Zest spoke up. "Even if we were getting trashed, not every fight you'll end up in is something for the record books and some end rather anti-climatically." Shrugging, he stood up. "If you'll excuse me, I'm going to leave now."
"Huh?" Amelia looked at Zest in surprise as he got up from the table. "But, I thought..."
He looked at her and smiled softly. "It was enjoyable, I admit, but there are things I need to do, thank you for the experiences. I have a lot more to learn."
Amelia sighed as he left. "It feels like another adventure coming to an end, but there were no Dragon Slaves to kick the adventure off to begin with."
Zelgadis frowned. "You're right. There wasn't a single Dragon Slave in this entire adventure, no wonder it felt weird."
Amelia pouted and shook her head. "So, what are you two going to do?"
Lyos shrugged and leaned back. "Well, I think I'll head South."
"Really?" Amelia blinked and Lyos nodded.
"Yeah, being close to these mountains bothers me. Besides, I heard that there was a bandit problem to the South."
Zelgadis chuckled and nodded. "Sounds like Lina rubbed off on you somewhat. I don't know what I'll do, honestly."
"Why not come back to Seiryuun?" Amelia smiled at him. "Daddy will want to know what happened here and I wouldn't mind some company on the way home."
Zelgadis shrugged, that didn't seem like a bad idea to him. "We may need to stick around until Milina is fully healed at least."
Amelia smiled at him, he really was a kind person when he wasn't trying to bury his emotions.
(---)
On the road, Zest narrowed his eyes as he swung a bag full of various stuff over his shoulder. For some reason, he thought that he was being watched. Shrugging, he turned and continued onwards.
When he was past a hill, a slim figure walked out from behind a tree. "...Valwin, I know that you're there, come on out, you tree-smoking Shinzoku."
The large, hat-wearing Shinzoku formed in a swirl of air in front of the Mazoku Lord. "Why didn't you attack that king if you suspected he was a traitor?"
"With you watching over my every step?" Sherra grumbled at him. "Besides, I wasn't sure if he was Grau or not."
"I thought you didn't care about humans?"
"I don't." Sherra smirked at him. "But my main priority was to find that traitor, not kill random humans."
"So, what are you going to do now?" Valwin held up a small tree between his fingers.
Sherra crossed her arms under her breasts. "I've got my own things to do." She still had to consolidate her power properly, if more of her forces decided to do what Grau did, she was going to be in an unenviable position of having no subordinates.
Oh well, she would have to just figure something out on her own if that happened. She disappeared a moment later.
Valwin disappeared in a swirl of wind, wondering about the future of the worlds.
An image of the boundaries between the worlds being shattered had been bothering him lately. Whatever it was wasn't something that he knew how to handle.
He just hoped that it wasn't anything serious.
Dusk End
It's about time you updated this little critter...
*pulls out Excalibur II and Ultima Weapon while summons out every unique melee weapons floating around myself*
I suggest you flee now coz i need to vent... *got an evil smirk*
and I'm not gonna dump these on ya, I'm gonna hack ya with all of it. not fatally, of course... *evil smile*
and don't tell me and Lutecia will Age progressed into a late teen to a young adult or Turn her into an exact copy of Rider(Medusa) rather being an expy called loli-rider...
__________________
Darwin's nominee are best for laughs.
MGLN "Befriending" shows love thru superior firepower (Zenryokou Zenkai!)
Gundams are your worst nightmare in the battlefield.
SRW beats all foes.
JAM Project pwns all!!!
And I can't still make fanfic without restarting from the start when new ideas comes in...
"Hey, Arisa, Suzuka..." Chrono spoke up as he saw the two walk into his mom's condo. It had been a few hours since the incident at the mall and he had to give them a call to stop over. Especially since he had found out just what it was that attacked the mall.
"You said you knew what it was?" Arisa, all washed up, asked him. Arf had to stay at home, since Lina and Luna had come back and Arf offered to watch Arashi for them.
Chrono nodded and pulled the cube out of his pocket. "This thing..."
"Oooh! Let me guess!" Arisa chirped up, causing Chrono to blink in confusion before nodding cautiously. "It's some sort of Lost Logia, isn't it?" She blinked as Chrono face-faulted. "...What?"
"Nothing." Chrono muttered from the floor as he got up. "Anyway, this thing isn't a Lost Logia..." His shoulders shook softly as a grin threatened to cross his face. "It's nothing more than a Mid-Childa trash compactor."
Seeing the two younger girls suddenly face fault, he couldn't help but chuckle at them.
Getting up, Arisa suddenly was in front of Chrono, grabbing the collar of his shirt and lifting him up angrily. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT'S NOTHING MORE THAN A TRASH COMPACTOR?!" Arisa yelled in his face.
Chrono's eye twitched. "Well, like I said, it's a trash compactor. It's meant to compact old cars and machines, but then it was discovered how useful it was for construction and garbage, so it's a trash compactor and recycler."
"But... It had a body." Suzuka said softly as she looked at the thing. "How is that possible?"
"Well, it was designed to take a body like that, it makes it easier for clearing debris and then compacting it onto itself." Chrono chuckled softly. "Um, Arisa, if you don't let me go, I think Filia's going to get mad at you."
Blinking and looking past Chrono, Arisa sweat-dropped as she saw Filia, with Val by her feet, looking upset. Gulping, she released Chrono, who shook his head and turned to the blonde and smiled at her. "Um, well... Sorry."
Chrono turned back to them and shook his head, bemused. "Anyway, in case you were wondering, it was originally used on broken down machinery that couldn't even be used for scrap metal, but it was taking up too much room in junk yards. Then it was accidentally used on a condemned building, tore it down in a matter of minutes and was safer than a wrecking ball or explosives." He shrugged at their looks of disbelief. "That's the truth." He tossed the cube up into the air and grabbed it when it came down again. "Anyway, normally these things aren't very dangerous, unless they're over-loaded or damaged somehow."
"What happens if they're damaged?" Suzuka asked in concern.
"Well, then they go and find something random to destroy." Chrono tapped his chin. "If over-loaded, they go crazy and start moving faster than most people can react. So, I guess it was both this time."
"How does something from Mid-Childa end up here?" Filia asked as she knelt down to make sure that Val didn't crawl into a door and hurt himself.
Chrono shrugged at that. "If I had to guess, I'd say that it's been here since the Jewel Seeds ended up on Earth."
"Okay, so, why does it take a body and why did the body fall apart after it shut down?" Arisa looked at the thing and shuddered as she remembered the destruction.
"The body was a bit of a side-effect." Chrono shrugged at the first part of the question. "Like I said, it helped with demolition and taking care of trash. As for falling apart... It's basically recycling whatever it collects and turns old metal into new metal, though, I really don't think that'll help that mall out." Chrono chuckled softly at the looks they gave him. "Um..."
"That was a lame explanation." Suzuka muttered, getting a nod from Arisa and Filia, who had walked behind the girls while holding Val.
Chrono sighed and hung his head. "I swear that's what it was for." Oh well, at least Amy and his mom weren't around, they would probably be laughing at him right now.
"I'm home!" Amy's voice filled the condo.
"Speak of the devil and she appears." Chrono muttered as he looked up while Amy walked into the room, holding a large bag of stuff.
"Hey, did you know that the mall was destroyed today?" Amy asked them, blinking at the groans she got. "...What?"
"Never mind." The young girls said at the same time.
"Sorry, but Arisa-chan and I need to get going." Suzuka bowed and the two left quickly.
"Huh..." Amy looked at Chrono and Filia after the two were gone. "...This has been an interesting day."
"You don't know the half of it." Chrono muttered, rubbing his forehead. "I'm going to go lay down."
Watching him leave, Amy turned to Filia. "What's wrong with Chrono?"
Filia blushed and looked away, mumbling something.
"Come again?" Amy blinked when Filia turned to her and twitched.
"We were... Interrupted." To say that Filia was upset was an understatement, after all, her tail was sticking out and swishing around slightly.
Amy's eyes widened, her face went flush as she nodded. "Oh."
"Yeah." Filia nodded, twitching.
Val just looked on in confusion.
Spoiler for Dusk 20:
Days later...
"Ah, Dieci." Jail smiled as he saw his newest cyborg walk into the room. "How are the adjustments I made coming?"
Dieci rolled her right shoulder. "Feels a bit heavy to me. Maybe I am not adjusted yet."
Jail shook his head. "No, it's fine, if you have some problems with it, let me know, okay?" When she nodded, he smiled and turned to the table, which had a large blanket on top of it. "Well, I figure I might as well give you this now."
Dieci blinked as he pulled the blanket off to reveal a rather large and long cannon underneath it. Picking it up, she blinked at the weight of it. "It's lighter than I thought."
Jail chuckled at that. "Well, I didn't put a power supply into it, since your own Inherient Skill can do that just fine, so that saved on some weight. But as things stand, your training has been rather incomplete. Quattro's waiting for you at the targeting range."
"Quattro is?" Dieci blinked as Jail nodded.
"Yes, you need some personal training and what Tre is putting Sein and Cinque through isn't as applicable to you as it is to them." Dieci nodded. "However, I would suggest getting pointers on how to fight if an enemy gets close to you, just in case."
"Of course." Dieci nodded as she turned and left the room.
After she left, Jail shook his head and looked at the naked woman floating in a nearby tube, before shaking his head and snorting. "Foolish, I don't know why Quattro brought you here." Oh well, he had more things to worry about than a naked injured Bureau member.
Walking over to a nearby control panel, Jail frowned as he looked at the data the scans of his remaining cyborgs were giving him. No matter how he looked at it, the process was speeding up far too quickly for his liking. 'At this rate, all of them will be awake in less than a year.' It wasn't a bad thought, but he'd have to work hard to get their equipment done and then he had to make sure that their bodies were adjusted properly.
Sighing, Jail shook his head. "This is becoming a pain." He muttered, though he had to admit, it was interesting at least. "Still have to find the last three components." He just wished that his memories of Al Hazard were clearer. There wouldn't be any problems obtaining the Knight Valkrye Armor if he could just remember something about it.
"And Quattro's little pet project..." He shook his head. Whatever plans she had with those mechanical things wasn't really his concern. Still, they did seem more formidible than the Gadget Drones they had already.
"Why do I think I'm forgetting something?" He asked, stroking his chin in thought. Oh well, it probably wasn't important.
(---)
Uno shook her head as she looked at the baby girl. As much as she thought she knew Quattro, this went further, much further than she thought her sister was capable of. Looking at the tubes inserted into the sleeping child, she grimaced and walked over to the control panel to see just what the baby was being stuffed with.
As she read over the data, Uno's face slowly became a mask of concern. "These drugs and chemicals..." Frowning, she turned and left the girl alone. She didn't really care about the girl, but that combination had her wondering about her sister.
She nodded to Tre as the latter was carrying a knocked out Sein over her shoulder to the medical wing. "Is she okay?"
"She's fine, just hit her head instead of phasing through the wall after getting knocked down." Tre shook her head, a small smirk adorning her face, causing Uno to chuckle. "What about you?"
"I need to talk to Quattro about something." Tre looked confused, but nodded as Uno left.
A few moments later, Uno found Quattro looking on, bored, as Dieci practiced shooting some targets.
"A bit slow on that one." Quattro pointed to the one that was untouched. "Even if those blasts are really strong, it means nothing, since you'll never hit anything that moves faster than a walking pedestrian." Dieci frowned and narrowed her eyes, before firing again. "Uno, what can I do for you?"
"I want to speak to you about your current project concerning that girl." When Quattro raised an eyebrow, she elaborated. "I don't really care too much about the child, but I wonder what you're thinking. Those chemicals and drugs..."
"Ah, yes, those things." Quattro nodded, turning to her older sister fully and putting her hands on her hips, which caused the cloak she always wore to spread open fully. "Well, let me tell you this, I'd rather not... Have to deal with her being a baby any longer than I have to, so... A few drugs here and there to stimulate her growth processes should make her age to an... Appropriate age quickly enough."
Uno nodded, it made sense at least. "Very well, just make sure that she doesn't grow so fast that her body gives out on her."
"Of course." Quattro chuckled and turned back to watching Dieci. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to teach Dieci not to shoot at the holographic cows."
Uno blinked and looked at the training session to see, that yes, there were cows there, and, yes, Dieci was having trouble not shooting them. "I see..."
Quattro sighed heavily. "Dieci, you need to think, if you nuke all the cows, there won't be any milk for you in the future."
As she walked away, Uno frowned slightly. "Has Quattro's chest always been that large?"
(---)
Later...
Due grinned as she walked out the kitchen, covered head to toe in flour, milk and other stuff that Cinque wasn't sure she wanted to know. "Dinner's done!" She giggled as Cinque face-faulted. "I need a bath."
Nodding, Cinque just chuckled as Due ran off towards the baths. Knowing that Due would, in fact, strip all the way to the baths, she hurried up after her sister and quickly found the trail of food-covered clothes leading from the middle of the hall to the baths. Holding all of Due's clothes at arm's length, including her underwear, Cinque deposited them into the hamper and took a peek inside the baths to see if everything was alright.
Inside, Due was talking to Sein about a few things regarding combat and the best ways to sneak up on someone. Smiling, Cinque slipped back out.
Her family was weird, but they were still her family, and she did enjoy their company.
Spoiler for Dusk 21:
Back on the Red World...
Amelia sat at a table in one of the taverns and frowned as she looked at Lyos. The young knight shook his head. Between Zelgadis disappearing days ago, talks of peasant uprisings to the north and that mysterious woman in the cloak had her nerves on edge. "Man, if only there was a way to find out the truth about the king..." So many people had been calling him a demon and she wondered if maybe it was true.
Most of the time, rumors were just that, rumors. After all, how many people called Lina horrible things and said that she could eat the souls of anyone that annoyed her? Amelia had lost count about the sheer amount of bad things said about Lina, but her old friend was none of those things. Heck, she was married and had children now, had come back from the dead to save the world from Dark Star, so none of those things were true.
She hoped that it was the same thing with the king.
"Actually..." Lyos grinned at her. "I did some scouting around, and found a place to get into the castle without being detected." Amelia's eyes lit up and Lyos nodded. "We'll sneak in tonight." When Amelia started giggling, he blinked in confusion. "What?"
"You reminded me of Miss Lina, Mr. Lyos." Lyos gave her an annoyed look and Amelia just fell back, laughing hard.
After all, doing something like that was Lina's style.
(---)
Later that night...
"This way." Lyos hissed as the two crept along the castle grounds and towards some bushes on the side of the building. "I saw someone earlier today do this..." He stopped in front of a bush just before a large tree in the court-yard. Kneeling down, he pushed the bush to the side and to Amelia's surprise, there was a door underneath. Opening it and walking down the stairs to the murky depths below, Amelia wondered just what was in store for them this time.
Casting a quick, low-power lighting spell so they wouldn't trip over each other, the two continued on walking down the stairs before stopping at a seeming dead-end.
"That's it?" Lyos frowned as he touched the wall in front of them. "What the hell? I thought this was supposed to..." He trailed off as he heard some foot-steps on the other side of the wall. Putting his ear to it, he closed his eyes and listened to what was being said.
Or try to listen, all he heard was some muffled words, before sighing as the sound disappeared shortly after. "Well, one thing's for certain, we're somewhere..." Growling, Lyos snapped his hand out, punching the wall, and much to his and Amelia's shock, the brick he punched suddenly moved, causing the wall to move back, before sliding apart. "What the?"
"A false wall! You did it, Mr. Lyos. Come on, we need to move before it closes again." Amelia was already through the door, followed quickly by Lyos. "Now, we need to..." She trailed off as she turned the corner and crashed into a rather heavy wall.
Or something resembling a wall. "Mr. Zest!" Amelia gasped as she saw the older man.
Zest raised an eyebrow as he looked at her. "Surprised to see you here. We have a problem." When Lyos and Amelia looked at him in confusion, he clarified. "I don't think the king is who he says he is."
"What makes you say that?" Amelia asked and Zest looked behind him before looking back at her.
"I don't think that a human would talk to a shadow normally, especially one with a couple of masks for a face."
"Mazoku." Amelia muttered, catching the other two by surprise. "So there are Mazoku at work here. We'll have to be careful, even a low-ranking Mazoku is deadly." She and the other two shivered slightly, it was less noticable on Zest than on her and Lyos, but the three of them had felt it. "Mr. Zest, I think we need to leave... Probably to a place with more space?"
Nodding, Zest led the younger two to the main hall. "It's... Odd."
"What?" Lyos had to fight the urge to pull out Banisher at that moment and swing it at something.
"I haven't seen a servant all day. In fact... I almost say that someone's shifted dimensions on us without me noticing."
There was a clapping sound and Zest, Amelia and Lyos looked up to the top of a large staircase to see the king looking down at them. "I'm impressed that you figured it out, though it took you awhile..." He snapped his fingers and darkness swirled in the air, before revealing three figures. "Gio Gaia," a figure in a tattered robe appeared in mid-air, his emerald eyes gleaned brightly while his silver hair danced in the air, "Gduza", something that looked like a woman, though hunched over, with no eyes or ears on her face, appeared in mid-air, her long, black hair dangled under her, "and finally Dugld." The third swirl revealed a male wearing a black mantle and a wide-brimmed hat.
"So, you willingly sold your soul to the Mazoku, huh?" Amelia pointed at him. "Even if they are Mazoku, our love of justice will not allow you to defeat us."
"Justice, huh?" The king narrowed his eyes at Amelia. "What kind of justice would an outsider have, trying to usurp me from the throne?!" Before Amelia could say anything, he turned to his right and looked into the darkness. "I told you, didn't I?"
"Heh, well, I did find it hard to believe that someone from Seiryuun would be doing this, but I can't deny what you've shown me." A familiar male voice spoke up and three figures walked into the light.
"Luke!" Lyos growled, unsheathing Banisher as he saw Luke and Milina walk into the light.. His eyes widened as he saw the third person walk in behind them. "It... Can't..."
"Mr. Zelgadis?" Amelia gasped as she saw him look at her, his eyes were cold and emotionless, not to mention that he was in his Chimera form instead of his human form again.
Zest grimaced. They were out-numbered at least two-to-one, but something else was bothering him. The king was standing in front of something that was obscured by a large sheet, and he wasn't sure, but he felt some sort of magic eminating from behind it.
Looking at Luke, Milina leaned in close to him. "I don't trust the fact that the king is working with creatures like those." Luke nodded, he didn't either, but he figured that he and Milina could fight their way out of any problem that occurred. Holding up a hand, he grinned. "Well, sorry, but I am being paid to protect the king."
"If she's willing to apologize for trying to over-throw me, I'd be willing to let her go." The king chuckled and looked at the three Mazoku, all of which were looking at the group with interest.
"I didn't come here to cause a revolution and over-throw you." Amelia stepped forward. "I came here to make sure that the problems your country has currently are peacefully resolved, but now I see why your country is headed for civil war." She pointed at the Mazoku dramatically. "Whatever it is that they promised you, it isn't worth it." She blinked as the Mazoku started chuckling.
"My dear girl," the one introduced as Gio Gaia shook his head, "you have everything all wrong."
"Enough!" The king snapped and looked at Luke and Milina. "Deal with them or you don't get paid!"
"Fine, sorry about this, except, you know, the sorry part, because I'm not." Grinning, Luke snapped off a fireball right at the shocked princess.
Zest narrowed his eyes and got in front of Amelia, before holding up his hand, a large triangular shield appeared in front of him, causing the fireball to explode harmlessly against it.
"A barrier? That fast?" Milina muttered as Luke jumped over the railing and pulled out his sword.
"Let's see him stop this one!" His sword glowed red as he called up his spell and swung at Zest's barrier, only to blink as it was stopped cold. Turning, he smirked as he saw Lyos, his sword surrounded in water, blocking his attack. "Didn't you learn from last time?"
"Yeah, I did." Lyos grinned and swung Banisher, forcing Luke back. "He's mine."
Zest narrowed his eyes and snapped his hand out, his spear forming from the ring on his finger.
"Böe-Modus."
A moment later, Zest and his weapon were covered in a gray-silver colored metal. He wouldn't have even bothered with it normally, but the last time he saw a Mazoku, his whole world was nearly killed by the thing. Plus the fireball had taken more effort to block than he was comfortable with. Narrowing his eyes, he flew straight for the trio of Mazoku.
"Fast!" Gio Gaia gasped as Zest seemingly disappeared and reappeared in front of them, his spear swinging down at them. The three Mazoku disappeared into the shadows that surrounded them a moment before the blade would have struck them.
Grimacing, Zest turned to Zelgadis and Milina. He wasn't about to attack the king, not yet, he figured if he could take out the guards first, he could get some answers out of the king without needing to cause too much bloodshed.
He blinked as the sheet was pulled off, revealing the contents underneath. "A mirror?" He grimaced as the thing started to glow brightly.
The others in the room, except for the king, all grimaced and turned their heads away from the glow.
When it subsided, Zest looked up and his eyes widened in shock.
In front of the mirror was him... Except that he was real and not just a mere reflection. "What the?"
"Shadow Reflection Mirror." Gio Gaia spoke up, emerging from behind Milina, much to the girl's shock. "It can create a perfect replica of you, though what it creates is the opposite of the original."
Amelia gasped as she heard that. "But, that thing creates replicas that act completely opposite of the person that it copies, my sister said that it was nothing more than embarrassment for everyone involved, plus it was broken."
Gduza smirked as she formed in Amelia's shadow, her hair snapping up and wrapping around the Princess's neck, squeezing and pulling back. "We fixed those flaws." She grinned before taking her hand and jabbing it through Amelia's leg, causing the Princess to cry out in pain and fall to her knees. Looking up, she grimaced as Luke and Lyos stopped their duel to look at her angrily. Growling, she looked at Zelgadis, who had jumped over the railing and was walking towards them. "Finish her off."
"Mr. Zelgadis..." Amelia gasped out painfully, the hair was really starting to hurt with how tightly it was wrapping around her throat.
Unsheathing his sword, Zelgadis continued to walk towards Amelia. "Astral Vine." His voice was cold, emotionless, so unlike the Zelgadis that Amelia had come to know. His sword glowed red as he held it up.
"Stop!" Lyos yelled at Zelgadis. "Don't kill her!"
Zelgadis turned his sword so it was pointing down and pulled his arm back, poising to strike.
"Hurry up and finish her off!" Gduza snapped at him.
"Of course." Zelgadis said, before a small grin came to his face, much to Gudza's shock.
Which didn't last long, as the sword snapped through her skull a moment later, rendering her dead in a matter of moments.
"Impossible!" Dulgd yelled as he materialized in the air. "You were under her mind control!"
"Indeed I was." Zelgadis looked at him and smirked, his eyes narrow. "But she isn't the first one to take over my mind. After Red Priest Rezo did that to me a few years ago, I did research into mind control techniques and spells and how to counter them." Rolling his shoulder, Zelgadis rocked his head from side to side, getting some kinks out of it. "Though, I admit, it was a lot harder to do than I thought."
"Are you kidding?!" Lyos yelled at Zelgadis and stomped his foot to the ground. "I couldn't even tell it was you! You were so emotionless and..." He trailed off, blinking as Zelgadis started laughing. "What?"
"I spent years building up a reputation as a heartless demon swordsman, I think I can cut my emotions pretty well." He turned to Amelia and knelt down. "How's your leg?"
"I'll be okay." She smiled, though it was pretty obvious she was in pain.
Dulgd growled and turned to the king. "Dammit, Grau, your whole plan is falling apart!"
Twitching, the revealed Grau snapped his fingers and the Zest clone gripped the spear that he was holding and rushed at Zest. Zest grit his teeth as his spear clashed with that of his doppelganger.
"Grau?" Luke narrowed his eyes at the king. Something seemed off about all this.
"Dammit, everything's gone to hell." Grau muttered as his form shifted and his royal clothes were replaced with a more practical body suit, the slight plumpness that he had as royalty melted away, revealing a more toned face, his blue hair hung down his back as he glared at Gio Gaia and Dulgd. "Looks like we'll have to do this the hard way then."
There was a squelching sound and Milina gasped as she felt an arm push through her chest. Her eyes were wide as she felt her body go cold. "Can't." She fell to her knees, blood escaping her mouth as Dulgd smirked at his work.
"Well, that was..." A shadow appeared over him, a glowing red blade inches from his face. "You... master..."
"Ruby-Eye Blade!" Luke screamed as he slashed the Mazoku apart with one stroke. Turning to Grau, his eyes blazed in anger. "You're next!"
Grau looked on as the blazing red blade swung down at him, before he held up a hand and grinned.
Luke's eyes widened as the red blade disappeared, leaving him with a normal metal sword. "What?"
"Never seen a spell like that before, I admit, but it really doesn't matter if I can cancel it, huh?" Grau smirked and backhanded Luke down the stairs. "I am the Priest of the late Dynast Grausherra, you are nothing to me."
"A priest?" Lyos grimaced, remembering Huraker and Xellos, the two were insanely dangerous, and this guy probably wasn't any easier than they were.
Zelgadis grimaced and looked at Amelia. "Can you help her out?" Amelia nodded and got to her leg, which was no longer bleeding due to her healing spell, and flew up to Milina.
"Hang in there." Amelia said as she put her hands over the wound. She wasn't sure that she could heal this, but she had to try. "Ressurection." A white glow engulfed her hands and Milina's body as she went to work healing the injured woman.
"Aren't you all forgetting something?" A voice said, moments before a buzzing noise was heard. Lyos let out a scream as his back erupted in pain, blood flowing freely as he spun and glared at the Mazoku there. "I'm surprised you survived, after all, Miasma isn't really safe for you humans." He grinned at Lyos, who had fallen to his knees. "So, just two at full capacity, and one too busy with his clone to do anything."
(---)
Up in the air, Zest grimaced as he rushed forward, slamming his spear against his opponent's weapon. 'Why isn't this cutting through?' He wondered to himself, things were getting more and more dangerous down below, and if he didn't deal with his opponent now, he was going to have trouble if any more of his allies below fell in battle.
It was possible that his copy was granted the same armor that he was wearing. Zest's eyes narrowed as he called up his magic. The clone looked slightly confused. 'Wait, that means it doesn't...'
Swinging his spear to the side, Zest started to glow with magic, catching the attention of Grau from below.
"I don't have time to play with you." Zest growled.
"Voller Ehrgeiz."
Zest's speed suddenly tripled as he slammed into his copy with enough force that even the copy's armor wasn't enough to block the strike, allowing him to bisect his clone, before changing his directory and slamming into the area where Grau had been a mere moment ago. "Damn." Zest muttered as he stood up. Full Drive was a pain to do normally, but with the Blast Armor on, he nearly passed out from the sudden strain of that spell.
"Well, you might be interesting." Grau smirked as he floated up.
(---)
Down below, Zelgadis and Luke both held their swords up as Gio Gaia chuckled at them. "You two..." He faded into the shadows. "This will be easy."
"Really?" Luke stepped away from Zelgadis and looked around nervously. "Where..?" His eyes suddenly widened and he spun around. "Behind you!"
Swinging his sword in a large arc, Zelgadis missed with his attack, but he did force Gio Gaia into the open. "Too bad, Blam Blazer!" The naked shock on Gio Gaia's face made him smirk as the laser-like spell ripped through the Mazoku's body, tearing it asunder. "Lyos, you okay?"
Lyos shivered and shook his head. He thought he was, but whatever that Miasma was, it was causing his body to start to shut down.
"Hang on." Zelgadis knelt down by Lyos and started healing his body. When he heard some laughter, he looked up and glared at Grau, who had several black spheres around him. "You..."
"Oh, it won't be hard, three of you are badly injured, one is exhausted and two of you really can't touch me here." The Mazoku priest smirked as he saw Zest, who had cancelled his Blast Mode to stand up. "You'll die here, so, don't feel bad, you really couldn't handle a Mazoku like myself and those three, even if lower Mazoku, were still pretty dangerous." He held his hands above his head and the balls got larger. "Now... DIE!" He swung his hands forward, before stopping as his body lurched forward. "...No..." Gasping, his body started to dissolve in mid-air.
"What?" Luke asked the question, but everyone had the same question on their minds.
When the body completely dissolved, there was another body behind him, a person wearing a hooded cloak. "I thank you, for finding that traitor." The female said, before pulling her hood back and revealing her identity to the group.
"Who are you?" Luke asked as he saw the blue-haired woman. He twitched as she landed and chuckled at him. "Who?"
"My name is Dynast Sherra, Mazoku lord under Ruby-Eye Shabranigdo." She smirked at his shocked expression. She gave Zelgadis and Lyos a nod. "I don't like admitting it, but I needed help flushing that traitor out." She turned and started to fade away. "The little bastard must have fused with a human, I couldn't find his Astral signature no matter how hard I looked."
Luke just looked on confused before rushing up the stairs to check on Milina. "Is she?"
Amelia panted and smiled at him. "She'll live, but she's still badly hurt, I don't think you'll be going anywhere for awhile."
Milina rolled her eyes at Luke's worried expression. "Oh please, you act like I was going to die from that." She chuckled before wincing. "...Ow..."
Zest looked at the mirror before swinging his spear at it, shattering it into many pieces. The last thing he wanted was more clones of himself running around.
Spoiler for Comments:
Hated part 21, took me FOREVER to get it done!
Spoiler for Dusk End:
The next morning...
Amelia looked up as Zelgadis came down the stairs. "So, how are Miss Milina and Mr. Luke?" Her leg was still giving her trouble, since Lyos, who was sitting at the table, eating food, and Milina, needed healing the most. Thankfully, the only problem she had was phantom pain that was quickly dulling.
Amelia figured that by the time she was done with breakfast, her leg would be good as new.
"She'll live, though she's annoyed that Luke seemed to have turned into a mother hen in an instant." Zelgadis shook his head as he sat at the table, nodding to Zest.
"One thing that bothers me." Lyos muttered as he looked at Zelgadis, who was back in his human form. "That fight, we were getting kind of trashed, but didn't it seem to end too quickly?"
"Not every fight for your life will be an epic one." Zest spoke up. "Even if we were getting trashed, not every fight you'll end up in is something for the record books and some end rather anti-climatically." Shrugging, he stood up. "If you'll excuse me, I'm going to leave now."
"Huh?" Amelia looked at Zest in surprise as he got up from the table. "But, I thought..."
He looked at her and smiled softly. "It was enjoyable, I admit, but there are things I need to do, thank you for the experiences. I have a lot more to learn."
Amelia sighed as he left. "It feels like another adventure coming to an end, but there were no Dragon Slaves to kick the adventure off to begin with."
Zelgadis frowned. "You're right. There wasn't a single Dragon Slave in this entire adventure, no wonder it felt weird."
Amelia pouted and shook her head. "So, what are you two going to do?"
Lyos shrugged and leaned back. "Well, I think I'll head South."
"Really?" Amelia blinked and Lyos nodded.
"Yeah, being close to these mountains bothers me. Besides, I heard that there was a bandit problem to the South."
Zelgadis chuckled and nodded. "Sounds like Lina rubbed off on you somewhat. I don't know what I'll do, honestly."
"Why not come back to Seiryuun?" Amelia smiled at him. "Daddy will want to know what happened here and I wouldn't mind some company on the way home."
Zelgadis shrugged, that didn't seem like a bad idea to him. "We may need to stick around until Milina is fully healed at least."
Amelia smiled at him, he really was a kind person when he wasn't trying to bury his emotions.
(---)
On the road, Zest narrowed his eyes as he swung a bag full of various stuff over his shoulder. For some reason, he thought that he was being watched. Shrugging, he turned and continued onwards.
When he was past a hill, a slim figure walked out from behind a tree. "...Valwin, I know that you're there, come on out, you tree-smoking Shinzoku."
The large, hat-wearing Shinzoku formed in a swirl of air in front of the Mazoku Lord. "Why didn't you attack that king if you suspected he was a traitor?"
"With you watching over my every step?" Sherra grumbled at him. "Besides, I wasn't sure if he was Grau or not."
"I thought you didn't care about humans?"
"I don't." Sherra smirked at him. "But my main priority was to find that traitor, not kill random humans."
"So, what are you going to do now?" Valwin held up a small tree between his fingers.
Sherra crossed her arms under her breasts. "I've got my own things to do." She still had to consolidate her power properly, if more of her forces decided to do what Grau did, she was going to be in an unenviable position of having no subordinates.
Oh well, she would have to just figure something out on her own if that happened. She disappeared a moment later.
Valwin disappeared in a swirl of wind, wondering about the future of the worlds.
An image of the boundaries between the worlds being shattered had been bothering him lately. Whatever it was wasn't something that he knew how to handle.
He just hoped that it wasn't anything serious.
Dusk End
Yupie, you`re back.
Nice to see that Zest overcome his sadness over "death" oh his family. Hm, seems that you decide to avoid to kill any "good guy", well we`re have RB and deathcurse for tragedy and tearjerking stuff...
Quattro/Levy plans grow more sininster with any new chapter, but it`s counterbalanced with fluffy and funny stuff from other Numbers.
So... *holds up half-done SignumxShamal manuscript together with her draft of a VivioxLutecia shortie* will this together with your everlasting love win me a continuation on your rather fantastic Shadowverse stories? ;-)
*stares* Unfortunately, you will have to talk to my muse and my school life. My muse in particular is a picky little lass. She only inspires me when I don't need to do writing and deserts me at all other times unless something catches her fancy.
Though actually, speaking of Shadowverse, I've been debating lately if maybe I should write up and post the inevitable "Vivio turns 18!" fic first, since other than a few small things, the main plot of the story isn't connected to the main Shadow plot. I feel bad leaving it for last when really, it could probably just as well stand on its own like my earlier one-shots did.
Yuuno was thankful that he and Seikou managed to execute the landing procedure safely. Atmospheric re-entry wasn’t something he was comfortable pulling off in an alien ship, even though he managed it once before on that previous world where the Materials saw those other Huckebein.
Still, the sight of this world lifted his spirits. He actually recognized the fresh green vegetation and the peaceful looking atmosphere. And spotting the housing structures up north during the landing sequence earlier had confirmed his hunch. Even if it wasn’t quite Mid-Childa yet, it would only be a four hour trip from here to Cranagan so as far as he was concerned, he got past the difficult hurdles of the journey.
“Seikou, can you let the others know that we’ll be disembarking soon?”
“Roger that.”
While the Starlight Destroyer exited the cockpit, Yuuno started making a mental list of things to do. First things first would be to inform the two people that he knew were living on this planet of his arrival. “Hello? Can you hear me?”
The response to his telepathic call came back pretty quickly. As expected, they sounded very surprised. “Yuuno-sensei…? Is that really you? How did you get here?”
“Sorry, it’s a long story. But I’ll tell you when I get there with my friends. Oh, and if you have chicken on you, that would be fantastic for keeping Rai occupied.”
“Chicken? Where did that come from? Just what is going-”
He deactivated the telepathic connection and then headed for his quarters to retrieve his things. Along the way, he saw the Fate replica easily disconnect the fridge she had stolen earlier so she could carry it with her. “Rai?”
She looked over and smiled happily. “Hi, Yuu-nii!”
“You’re… taking the whole fridge?” asked the Librarian in disbelief.
“Duh! Do you think I would leave food here to waste? Think of the Starving Armenians! Or if you want an in-universe example, the Starving Orussians!” exclaimed Material-L.
“Then where are you going to get electrical power to keep stuff cold, Ms. Smarty Pants?”
Without hesitation, she picked up the electric plug and jammed it into her right ear, causing the fridge to start humming again. “Ta-dah!”
“… … you got me there.” Seriously, what the hell? That was pretty freaky.
The Lightning Assailant merely giggled. “Hehehehe! Rai-chan one, Yuu-nii zero!”
He merely sighed under his breath. “You’ll be okay carrying that by yourself?”
“No sweat!” Complete with the V-sign from her free hand.
“If you say so.” The sound of someone else emerging from their quarters alerted him to the presence of the Lord of Darkness. “Good afternoon, Your Majesty.”
Material-D acknowledged the man with a slight nod. She seemed normal enough and back in her usual calm and graceful form. No trace of that fury that he saw back when he told her the story of Reinforce. It looked like that she had been able to deal with her emotions so that was a good sign.
“Yo, Yami-chan! It’ll be great to get outta this stuffy place, ne?”
The Hayate replica huffed upon hearing her subject address her in such a casual manner. “Call me ‘Your Majesty’! And why are you lugging that thing around?”
“How many times do I gotta tell ya to think of the Starving Armenians?” exclaimed Material-L.
“I am not going to dignify that with an answer,” grumbled Material-D. “And another thing…”
“Sorry, but I need to go get my stuff so if you’ll excuse me, ladies…” Yuuno moved past the two women so that he didn’t have to overhear their bickering. Once he got into his quarters, he checked to make sure that he had everything. If his memory served him right, he only brought some basic archaeological gear, some supplies, a notebook and his laptop so that should be all he had to get together.
Speaking of the notebook, he quickly jotted down a reminder to himself so he could set aside some time to figure out what to do with this ship since the original owners are dead and that the vessel had been essentially acquired through illegal means. Once that was done, he finished his clean up and joined the others outside.
**********
“So where are we going, Yuuno-san?”
“The place is about three kilometres north of the landing site. We’ve been walking for about fifteen minutes so it’s just a little further ahead,” answered the Librarian.
“And you choose to walk rather than fly?” asked Material-D with a hint of annoyance.
“The walking distance is not too bad and I wanted to avoid flying so that there wouldn’t be any disturbing of the natural wildlife in the area.”
“Ah… wanted to avoid random battle encounters, hm?” Apparently, Material-L’s hearing was still pretty good, even with one ear stuffed with an electric plug.
He chuckled a little. “Something like that.”
“Come to think of it, Sette-chan probably could have used some more battle practice. Get some experience points and all that.” The Fate replica looked over to the Combat Cyborg, who seemed to be lost in thought. “Sette-chan, what do you think?”
“I… have no comment.” She hadn’t been paying attention to the conversation as she had been focused on the sudden brief reaction that the microchip had a few blocks back.
“Ah, there it is!” The ladies turned to where Yuuno was pointing and saw two residential buildings up ahead. The one on the right looked like a typical multi storey house while the one of the left appeared to be more of a chalet.
“How quaint,” said Material-D in a dry tone.
“Sorry if it’s not as luxurious as you had expected but keep in mind that they practically built this place by themselves.” They made their way up to the front door of the house on the right with Yuuno being the one to press the doorbell.
A few seconds later, the door was opened by one of the inhabitants. “Yuuno-sensei, you’re… eh?”
“Sorry to drop in like this, Lutecia,” said Yuuno in an apologetic tone.
“Hello,” greeted Seikou in a polite tone as she bowed to the people who greeted them.
“We’ll be in your care… more or less,” grumbled Yami.
“And we brought some gifts! Basically, you get everything in here except the food!” exclaimed Rai before she dropped the fridge down (complete with a huge THUD) in front of a stunned Lutecia and Megane Alpine.
__________________
Thanks to 00-Raiser for hooking me up with the sig!
Though actually, speaking of Shadowverse, I've been debating lately if maybe I should write up and post the inevitable "Vivio turns 18!" fic first, since other than a few small things, the main plot of the story isn't connected to the main Shadow plot. I feel bad leaving it for last when really, it could probably just as well stand on its own like my earlier one-shots did.
O_O Do it do it do it! Come on, those two has been waiting for that crowning moment of legal sex for six years! It deserves its own piece of well-crafted storytelling!
__________________
Never stop being a kid. Never stop feeling and seeing and being excited with great things like air and engines and sounds of sunlight within you. Wear your little mask if you must to protect you from the world but if you let that kid disappear you are grown up and you are dead.
— Richard Bach
When the muse strikes she strikes. Hard. And efficiently.
Here's the first expansion to When I think About Flying, using the same timeline and events. Flying was all about Fate. Here comes Vivio. And Lutecia. And probably a few dashes of everyone else. This -can- be read as a one shot, though I recommend you make a dash through Flying before reading Trials.
This should please the few VivioxLutecia fans I remember from Flying.
The Many Trials of Vivio Takamachi-Harlaown
A Nanoha Story
Written by Shigan
Summary: Vivio's larger-than-life expectations of love backfires along with a mission, suddenly throwing Lutecia Alphine into her unsuspecting path.
Never stop being a kid. Never stop feeling and seeing and being excited with great things like air and engines and sounds of sunlight within you. Wear your little mask if you must to protect you from the world but if you let that kid disappear you are grown up and you are dead.
— Richard Bach
Yuuno was thankful that he and Seikou managed to execute the landing procedure safely. Atmospheric re-entry wasn’t something he was comfortable pulling off in an alien ship, even though he managed it once before on that previous world where the Materials saw those other Huckebein.
Still, the sight of this world lifted his spirits. He actually recognized the fresh green vegetation and the peaceful looking atmosphere. And spotting the housing structures up north during the landing sequence earlier had confirmed his hunch. Even if it wasn’t quite Mid-Childa yet, it would only be a four hour trip from here to Cranagan so as far as he was concerned, he got past the difficult hurdles of the journey.
“Seikou, can you let the others know that we’ll be disembarking soon?”
“Roger that.”
While the Starlight Destroyer exited the cockpit, Yuuno started making a mental list of things to do. First things first would be to inform the two people that he knew were living on this planet of his arrival. “Hello? Can you hear me?”
The response to his telepathic call came back pretty quickly. As expected, they sounded very surprised. “Yuuno-sensei…? Is that really you? How did you get here?”
“Sorry, it’s a long story. But I’ll tell you when I get there with my friends. Oh, and if you have chicken on you, that would be fantastic for keeping Rai occupied.”
“Chicken? Where did that come from? Just what is going-”
He deactivated the telepathic connection and then headed for his quarters to retrieve his things. Along the way, he saw the Fate replica easily disconnect the fridge she had stolen earlier so she could carry it with her. “Rai?”
She looked over and smiled happily. “Hi, Yuu-nii!”
“You’re… taking the whole fridge?” asked the Librarian in disbelief.
“Duh! Do you think I would leave food here to waste? Think of the Starving Armenians! Or if you want an in-universe example, the Starving Orussians!” exclaimed Material-L.
“Then where are you going to get electrical power to keep stuff cold, Ms. Smarty Pants?”
Without hesitation, she picked up the electric plug and jammed it into her right ear, causing the fridge to start humming again. “Ta-dah!”
“… … you got me there.” Seriously, what the hell? That was pretty freaky.
The Lightning Assailant merely giggled. “Hehehehe! Rai-chan one, Yuu-nii zero!”
He merely sighed under his breath. “You’ll be okay carrying that by yourself?”
“No sweat!” Complete with the V-sign from her free hand.
“If you say so.” The sound of someone else emerging from their quarters alerted him to the presence of the Lord of Darkness. “Good afternoon, Your Majesty.”
Material-D acknowledged the man with a slight nod. She seemed normal enough and back in her usual calm and graceful form. No trace of that fury that he saw back when he told her the story of Reinforce. It looked like that she had been able to deal with her emotions so that was a good sign.
“Yo, Yami-chan! It’ll be great to get outta this stuffy place, ne?”
The Hayate replica huffed upon hearing her subject address her in such a casual manner. “Call me ‘Your Majesty’! And why are you lugging that thing around?”
“How many times do I gotta tell ya to think of the Starving Armenians?” exclaimed Material-L.
“I am not going to dignify that with an answer,” grumbled Material-D. “And another thing…”
“Sorry, but I need to go get my stuff so if you’ll excuse me, ladies…” Yuuno moved past the two women so that he didn’t have to overhear their bickering. Once he got into his quarters, he checked to make sure that he had everything. If his memory served him right, he only brought some basic archaeological gear, some supplies, a notebook and his laptop so that should be all he had to get together.
Speaking of the notebook, he quickly jotted down a reminder to himself so he could set aside some time to figure out what to do with this ship since the original owners are dead and that the vessel had been essentially acquired through illegal means. Once that was done, he finished his clean up and joined the others outside.
**********
“So where are we going, Yuuno-san?”
“The place is about three kilometres north of the landing site. We’ve been walking for about fifteen minutes so it’s just a little further ahead,” answered the Librarian.
“And you choose to walk rather than fly?” asked Material-D with a hint of annoyance.
“The walking distance is not too bad and I wanted to avoid flying so that there wouldn’t be any disturbing of the natural wildlife in the area.”
“Ah… wanted to avoid random battle encounters, hm?” Apparently, Material-L’s hearing was still pretty good, even with one ear stuffed with an electric plug.
He chuckled a little. “Something like that.”
“Come to think of it, Sette-chan probably could have used some more battle practice. Get some experience points and all that.” The Fate replica looked over to the Combat Cyborg, who seemed to be lost in thought. “Sette-chan, what do you think?”
“I… have no comment.” She hadn’t been paying attention to the conversation as she had been focused on the sudden brief reaction that the microchip had a few blocks back.
“Ah, there it is!” The ladies turned to where Yuuno was pointing and saw two residential buildings up ahead. The one on the right looked like a typical multi storey house while the one of the left appeared to be more of a chalet.
“How quaint,” said Material-D in a dry tone.
“Sorry if it’s not as luxurious as you had expected but keep in mind that they practically built this place by themselves.” They made their way up to the front door of the house on the right with Yuuno being the one to press the doorbell.
A few seconds later, the door was opened by one of the inhabitants. “Yuuno-sensei, you’re… eh?”
“Sorry to drop in like this, Lutecia,” said Yuuno in an apologetic tone.
“Hello,” greeted Seikou in a polite tone as she bowed to the people who greeted them.
“We’ll be in your care… more or less,” grumbled Yami.
“And we brought some gifts! Basically, you get everything in here except the food!” exclaimed Rai before she dropped the fridge down (complete with a huge THUD) in front of a stunned Lutecia and Megane Alpine.
Hopefully now Yuuno will get to learn about the whole mistaken for hostage thing and how the Bureau is all ready for war.
2011-04-15, 22:59
Author
)
). It does fit the awkward tone of Lutecia trying to change her ways, so it's quite fitting to the atmosphere of the story. 
For those that belittle their favorite characters, complain about pairings, complain about oversexed images. Stop, thank you.
