Episode 54: A Showdown of Ice and Fire
A short while ago...
The crystal still water of the pool upon which the Central 46 building was built rippled under a deep tremor. The ripples came in gradually growing increments of intensity, and soon the air around the cylindrical building began to shimmer with a opaque field of force upon which densely woven scripts of kanji floated like kites. These thick wards were meant to hold off the assaults of powerful spiritual beings, designed with defeating the attacks of even the most powerful of Hollows. Of course every ward has limits on what it can take, no matter how much time or energy was put into its construction. Given time even the most powerful ward can be worn down and breached.
For even a Captain of the Gotei 13 it should have taken days to batter down the emergency wards of Central 46.
Captain Commander Scorpan did it inside of half an hour.
A cleaving wave of sharpened, supreme spiritual pressure tore through the wall of the Central 46 building, slamming into the exterior layers of the emergency wards in a pulsing shudder of white light. Another wave collided with the wards a second later, making the pillar of protective energy flash like crystal under sunlight. A hairline fracture cracked its way down the length of the wards with the sound of a glacier groaning. Finally, one last titanic blow tore into the weakened point in the wards, and a vortex of raw spirit energy ripped through the wards in a cascade that parted the pool of water and smashed through the surrounding courtyard wall beyond.
The wards continued to crack, flaring with destabilizing energies until it burst apart. Smoke and dust trailed up from the torn out hole in the wall of Central 46, and Scorpan stood there, frowning deeply as he dusted himself off.
“That took entirely too much time.” the elderly Soul Reaper grumbled.
“But far faster than I predicted.” Starswirl said at his side, “I’ll have to remind myself to try to upgrade those wards when we get around to erecting them again.”
“Not important right now.” Scorpan said as he closed his eyes and focused his senses, stretching out to feel out all the conflicting reiatsu in Seireitei. There was a ludicrous amount of clashing spiritual pressures it was difficult even for him to sort it all out. He was able to get a general picture of things, but the details were almost impossible to discern. He knew a large scale battle was taking place in the main fortress, consisting of hundreds of lower ranked Soul Reapers, but the spiritual pressures of at least six Captains all stood out like bonfires among crowds of lesser candles. He also sensed a clash of spiritual energies on the Sokyoku Hill, several of which felt strong enough to be Captains or very close to it.
A seething growl of frustration escaped him as he said, “Starswirl, go to Sokyoku Hill and find out who battles there. I shall go subdue the fighting inside headquarters.”
Bushy brows raised upon Starswirl’s brow, “Perhaps we should both go to Sokyoku Hill. If our real enemy is there we may catch them by surprise. They’ve already stolen the Queen’s Key from our Treasury. If they escape with it-”
“I know, Starswirl. That’s why I need you to go there and if possible stall the enemy. But I must go and put an end to the fighting among our own people. I am the only one who can.”
That was the reason for his frustration, the knowledge that he couldn’t afford to immediately go to Sokyoku Hill. He had to subdue the fighting between his own subordinates first, otherwise there might not be much of a Gotei 13 left to salvage by the end of the day.
----------
Explosions of Kido spells pelted the central fortress courtyard, a line of Sixth and Seventh Division Soul Reapers holding the upper balconies while Silverstar led a cluster of his own people in a charge across the open courtyard. This was their second push, their first having been held back by the determined defenders, but Silverstar had expected this spot to be a tough nut to crack. The courtyard was designed to be a choke point, and the hardest area to break through in the fortress. With only a steep set of stairs leading into it and surrounded on all sides by fortified balconies and thick gates most enemies trying to take the fortress would be facing a painful challenge, at best.
Fortunately Silverstar knew this and the initial push had just been to probe the defenses and how they’d been organized. Clearly the attack had disorganized the Divisions defending the fortress, because the Kido being used to pelt the courtyard weren’t coordinated, but were rather a hodgepodge of Hado and Bakudo that didn’t focus fire or work together well. On the other hand Silverstar had organized this second push expertly with his fellow Tenth Division members.
“Stay tight folks! First rank get those barriers up!”
The first line of Soul Reapers in the group all raised their hands, chanting together. “Bakudo Number Ten: Hagane Kibo!” (Steel Scales)
Shimmering discs of yellow force swirled around the upraised hands, forming a line of shields against the oncoming storm of exploding Kido. The barriers shook under the blows, but they diffused most of the destructive Kido. There were still explosions that shattered parts of the courtyard and sent chips of rock cutting into the charging group, and Silverstar saw several fall to such shrapnel, the wounded quickly pulled back by other comrades to be taken back down the stairs where members of Fourth Division waited to heal injuries. Halfway through the courtyard he raised his Zanpaktou towards the left flank balconies.
“To the left! Bind ‘em up!”
He joined in the chanting this time as those not busy keeping the shields up started a new set of Kido spells. These were more varied, each Soul Reaper chanting their best binding Kido, which varied in strength among them. Silverstar himself wasn’t that skilled with Kido, but even he could pull off a decently high level one.
“Bakudo Number Sixty One: Rikojokoro!”
A swarm of binding spells flew up into the balcony area, golden chains and ropes of light wrapping up some Soul Reapers while others were bound by iron rods, flying lines of silver cloth, or encasing pyramids of light. Silverstar’s own Kido snapped around one Reaper with six sheets of impaling energy, paralyzing them. The barrage lessened the Kido raining down on the unit from the balconies and made it easier for those carrying the shields to defend their brethren as they advanced towards the far gate. As they did so Silverstar waved his Zanpaktou, signaling a second unit waiting at the stairs to start their own advance.
This unit came on hard, not only unleashing destructive Kido from their front rank, but many Soul Reapers having already released their Zanpaktou to the Shikai state. Various elemental blasts and bolts from Kido were joined by numerous eclectic attacks from Zanpaktou that devastated the defenders on the right flank. Silverstar had put those with more offensive Zanpaktou in the second unit to add to their striking power as they hit the defenders hard on the right flank while those on the left were still bound up and unable to provide support. The result was a momentary pause in the storm of defending Kido spells that had made getting at one of the gates so difficult.
“Move it people!” Silverstar shouted, surging to the head of his unit and brandishing his Zanpaktou, “Right up to the gate!”
As they made a final charge across the last few yards, he held his Zanpaktou out and spoke firmly. ”Dig your heels in; Boseki.” (Tombstone)
Pale blue light surged up his blade, transforming it into a broad and curved calvary saber with a silver hilt. With the last steps of his charge he swung the Zanpaktou and the courtyard around him buckled. The stone slabs of the courtyard obeyed the commands of his Zanpaktou and several of them lifted up to fly like battering rams into the gate as he and his comrades reached it.
The gates held firm, even as other Soul Reapers added their own Zanpaktou to the assault, some blasting it with battering air currents, while another unleashed a spray of corrosive liquid on the thick wood gate doors. The gates were made from not only thick wood, but wood specifically treated to be resistant to spiritual powers, and further reinforced to be stronger than many steel doors from the living world. Silverstar knew it’d take time to batter it down. If his people could keep the defenders off balance for a time longer, however, he was sure they could get inside.
He was about to try pulling up more of the courtyard to form a bigger battering ram when Silverstar blinked and suddenly found himself unable to move. Abruptly nobody was. Nobody could. It was impossible to move when an ocean of crushing spiritual pressure was pushing down on every single Soul Reaper in the courtyard like a giant hand.
Silverstar struggled to even turn his head to look back at the stairs leading up to the courtyard. He saw many Soul Reapers on either side of the fight were already dropped to their knees. Some unintentionally, simply due to the massive spiritual pressure pressing down on them, others very intentionally in respect to the man walking calmly to the center that was seconds ago a battlefield.
Silverstar gulped and bowed deeply to Scorpan, who looked left and right at the damaged courtyard with a deep frown on his craggy brown features.
“This fighting shall end now.” Scorpan said plainly. “I order everyone present to sheath their blades and attend to the wounded. Do not make me repeat this order.”
“C-Captain Commander, sir.” Silverstar managed to choke out, “The Captains...”
“I will see to them. You have your orders, Lieutenant. All of you have your orders.” Scorpan said, his voice not raised much above a whisper yet somehow carrying with the intensity of a thunder crack to every Soul Reaper present.
Then he vanished. Silverstar didn’t even sense him leave, but he found he could move now. Despite this the courtyard was deathly silent for a moment as everyone present looked around at each other. Some still looked as if they wanted to fight, but none were foolish or crazy enough to go against the Captain Commander, and most simply looked equal parts frightened or relieved that the Gotei 13s Commander was here and taking charge of matters.
Silverstar just wondered if Scorpan was in time to keep the other Captains from killing each other.
----------
One didn’t have to look hard to see where at least two Captains of the Gotei 13 were battling it out. The number of smashed out holes in fortress walls or crushed sections of floor made it look as if a pair of hundred meter tall titans were clashing rather than two person-sized individuals. Sweet Cider and Hurricane’s fight had drifted to the north end of the fortress, and the pair literally blasted out of the side of the thick stone walls, Tetsukaze’s halberd impacting off of Kizuna’s sealed blade in swirling gales of force. They both landed upon a rocky gap between fortress towers, bits of debris from the destroyed wall falling around them.
They were both breathing hard and sporting multiple wounds, including a deep cut across Hurricane’s bulky chest that dripped blood to the ground, while Sweet Cider was favoring a leg that was soaked red from a chunk taken out of her thigh. Despite their injuries neither opponent missed a beat and the moment they landed from their fall they both charged straight in at each other, Hurricane laughing boisterously as if he was having the time of his life and Sweet Cider sporting a grim scowl.
Wind force clung to Tetsukaze’s blade in sharp rivulets as he spun the halberd then slammed it down hard. Sweet Cider caught the attack on her own Zanpaktou, and kept barreling forward until her shoulder smashed into Hurricane like a cannonball. He was sent reeling back but recovered in an instant, blood dripping from his mouth as he laughed, and pulled his halberd back before then swinging it forward like a baseball bat.
A tornado of destructive wind swirled out from the strike, chewing up the ground as it made its way hurtling towards Sweet Cider with crushing force. Sweet Cider grit her teeth and raised her Zanpaktou high over her head with both hands, her spirit energy flowing around her body in a thick sheath of power before she roared and brought her sword down upon the oncoming tornado.
The ground cracked apart like eggshells from the force of the clash, but Sweet Cider held firm and turned the tornado aside, where it went on to drill into the base of another part of the fortress in a forceful explosion of wind that sent shattered stone soaring hundreds of feet into the air.
“Come now ‘Kenpachi’, how much longer will you insist on this meager foreplay?” Hurricane chuckled, twirling his halberd above his head, licking his bloodied lips. “These wounds of ours are little more than love taps and you keep holding out on me! Release your Zanpaktou and let us truly test which of us is the superior warrior!”
Sweet Cider was sorely tempted to give him what he wanted, if only to hasten wiping that grin off his face. But one glance at the area of the fortress they’d just battled through was enough proof that she was right to be holding back. Besides, she was far from convinced she couldn't take him without resorting to her Shikai. For all his hot winded attitude he was just as injured as she was, and was expending a lot more energy in the process.
She spat in his general direction and said, “Ya haven’t gotten even close ta earnin’ me fightin’ serious.”
“Oh? Still playing coy. Well, let’s see what we can do about that.”
Holding his halberd before him like a lance Hurricane tensed and widened his stance, turning sideways. Sweet Cider in turn braced herself, ignoring the burning pain in her wounded leg as she tensed her own muscles for the charge. Both combatants burst into motion simultaneously, their motion creating a backlash of force behind them that tore up the rocky ground beneath their feet. Both blades started to swing with colossal force that ripped the air as they went, slamming towards each other until-
A leathery fist intercepted Hurricane’s halberd while another similarly old, wrinkled hand caught Sweet Cider’s sword. Both Zanpaktou were halted instantly in their tracks, as if they’d struck an utterly immovable force that simply negated their motion. The ground nearly broke neatly in two, all the halted kinetic force dispersing into a cleaving line across the ground and making it split apart like a miniature canyon. Sweet Cider and Hurricane were both knocked back by the back blow of force, and both took a moment to stare in shocked astonishment.
Captain Commander Scorpan dusted his hands off, standing in mid-air over the freshly split ground, and turned sharply glaring eyes towards both of them. The old man’s reiatsu hammered down like a gavel the size of a skyscraper.
“I trust that I have both of your undivided attention?” Scorpan said in a quiet tone akin to a volcano about to hit Pompeii.
Hurricane blinked, opened his mouth... slowly closed it, then set his halberd to his side, planting the butt end into the ground and bowed his head. “Captain Commander, its good to see you’ve returned from wherever you were. As you can see the situation has gotten-”
“Shut up, Captain Hurricane.” Scorpan said simply, “We will sort out who is at fault for this mess once we deal with the immediate issue of ending this pointless fight. Right now I want you and Captain Kenpachi to stand down and go stop Blueblood and Daring Do. I sense they’re still near the main chamber. I will go subdue Thunderhooves and Cheese Sandwich. Then we are all to meet at Sokyoku Hill, where in case you were too busy to notice something is just a tad amiss.”
One could have melted iron from the heat in his voice, but that didn’t stop Sweet Cider from taking a step forward, meeting Scorpan’s gaze with an even glare of her own. “I’m all fer puttin’ an end ta this nonsense, but lemme say this first; you an’ I, we got somethin’ ta have words over later.”
She rested her Zanpaktou over her shoulder and tapped the hilt. “Chain’s off, Scorpan, an’ I ain’t the same gal from a day ago. So when all this is said an’ done, we’re talkin’ ‘bout just what ya’ll did ta me and what we’ll be doin’ ‘bout it. You n’ me got an understandin’ on that point?”
The old man suddenly looked quite a bit older as his sunken eyes met her solemnly and he gave the barest of nods. “When it is over, we shall talk. Now go, both of you. I fear we’re running out of time before our true foes complete their plans.”
----------
“Is it just me or is it unusually cold in here?” asked Rarity, her voice echoing off the unusually tall walls of the corridor she ran down alongside Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkamena, and Ditzy Doo. Both the walls and floor were made of a dark gray granite that made her feel like she was wandering within the depths of an ancient labyrinth, despite the rather uniform and straight nature of the hallway.
“Is is ‘cause that frigid witch is fightin’ Sunset right outside, ya think?” said Applejack.
“Got it in one.” said Ditzy, who was leading the group. “This building’s walls are two way blocks against sensing spiritual pressures, but to drop the temperature in here means Platinum must have gone Bankai.”
“I hope Sunset will be alright.” Fluttershy said, glancing behind them worriedly. The group reached a open, triangular shaped room where the floor dipped down some stairs to a lowered area that looked like some kind of commons with a few garishly placed plants in marble podiums around several benches and tables, many of which had strewn papers tossed around them or on the floor. Doors lined the walls to either side of them, and across the commons area was a large set of stairs branching into two paths leading up.
“Sunset’ll handle Platinum I’m thinkin’...” said Applejack, frowning at the room, seeing several overturned tables, and kneeling down to touch the ground where there were a number of gouges cut into the stone floor. “Now what all happened in here?”
Ditzy looked around briefly, eyes scrunched in suspicious scrutiny. “I was afraid of this. Starlight and her A-Team must’ve taken over the whole building. Couldn’t have been more than a few days ago, too.”
Pinkamena sniffed the air, her long tongue snaking out and licking her lips thoroughly. “Lots of gooey blood got spilled around here. There’s still old fear scent hanging in the air.”
Rarity shuddered, “Fascinating, but where did that dastardly Starlight go? I can’t sense her anywhere.”
“That cloak she’s wearing will hide her reiatsu signature.” Ditzy Doo said, “And on top of that you saw the way she appeared when she first attacked me? That was a high-end concealment Kido. She’s gotten way better since the days she was hanging with me, Discord, and your mothers.”
“So what’re ya sayin’, that we ain’t gonna find her?” Applejack asked with a scowl, “We can’t let her git away!”
“Still your mammaries gal, I didn’t say we can’t find her.” Ditzy Doo nodded towards the stairs. “I’ve already got a guess where she’s going. Remember I’ve been besties with Discy for a long time, and while Hitsuyo Aku was never my personal stomping grounds like they were his, I still know this places secrets.”
She walked over to the stairs, then took an abrupt turn to the left an approached one of the marble podiums holding a tacky plant. She gave the base of the podium a swift kick, indenting a hidden trigger inside the stone. There was a soft grinding noise as the stairs themselves flattened out into a solid surface that then slide open like a pair of doors, revealing a large metal elevator platform at the top of a slanted shaft leading down into darkness.
“The tower is filled with all the boring administration stuff, quarters for the researchers, and a few of the more tame labs for the lower key experiments going on here. But the real work is done down below.”
“Oooooh, spooky.” said Pinkie Pie, her hammer form seeming to peer down the elevator shaft, “I’m half expecting to see an umbrella logo around here.”
“Strange,” said Rarity, “I don’t see how Starlight Glimmer could have had the time to open this hidden passage and get down it. Why, the elevator is even still here!”
Clover’s face paled somewhat as she approached the elevator, nervously gripping her Zanpaktou. “Remember that she steals Zanpaktou. She could have one in her possession that allowed her to pass through objects....” Clover’s eyes closed painfully for a second as went on. “Lieutenant Meadowbrook’s, in fact, has that exact power.”
Ditzy gave Clover a sympathetic look, “If he’s alive, we’ll find him.”
Clover nodded once, her eyes opening with guarded resolve. “And if he’s not, we’ll still find him.”
The girls stepped onto the elevator, and Clover searched out the control panel on the far railing. Touching the proper button there were a set of flickering pale lights that sprang to life down the large slanted shaft and the elevator started to move down at a swift pace, taking the group into a quick descent into the unknown.
----------
Chrysalis took a very deep breath and let it out with a thin, sardonic grin. “You know I keep forgetting how well manufactured the air is in this realm. So clean. So pure. So... stale. Really, how do you put up with it?”
A dark blue shadow lanced in behind her, Luna driving her tanto blade towards Chrysalis’s neck. Chrysalis hardly paused her conversation as she sidestepped the blow, strolling casually around the bank of the lake shore that she had led Luna and Celestia to. She idly splashed a foot into the lapping lake water, nose curling. “Even the water here has this artificial cleanliness to it. Its like this whole world is just a pretty oil painting hanging in a sterile white room. Tell me, how many souls come through here on their endless journey of ‘reincarnation’ and never realize how fake it all is?”
Undeterred by Chrysalis’ easy manner Luna drove in hard with both her katana and tanto, spinning into a swift series of slashes that made her look like little more than a twisting shadow. Chrysalis was unable to simply sidestep this barrage, forced to turn her attention to Luna and respond with equally swift parries using Zecora’s Zanpaktou and her own wickedly curved blade. Still, Chrysalis looked fairly annoyed with a furrowed brow and sneer on her face.
“I’m trying to have a conversation here. The least you could do is participate or stay out of the way.”
Chrysalis switched from parrying to an instant snap kick at Luna’s side in the span of a millisecond. Luna managed to sweep an arm down to block the powerful kick, but the blow still sent her skidding back across the lake shore sands. Halting herself, she glanced to Celestia, whom she’d consequently ended up next to, and said, “Anytime you wish to join in, sister, feel free.”
“Yes, but first I want to clarify something.” Celestia said, stepping forward and taking up an ready combat stance, both her own katana held in easy grips at her side. “Chrysalis, is Zecora still alive?”
“Hmm, maaaaaybe.”
Celestia’s eyes narrowed, “Zanpaktou are born of their Soul Reapers, and die with their Soul Reapers. If you wield hers, then she must still be alive, unless Starlight Glimmer’s power somehow surpasses that basic law.”
“Ah, so you’re not truly asking out of concern for your dear friend but because you are trying to learn the extent of Starlight Glimmer’s power, yes?” Chrysalis’ laughter had an almost musical quality to it, chiming with light scorn, even as the Espada smiled in approval. “How pragmatic and devious of you, Celestia. Why ever don’t we get along better?”
Celestia’s narrowed eyed gaze remained unfazed, “The way you evade the question is answer enough. If Zecora was truly dead you’d take every chance to parade the fact in front of us, just for the cruel joy of it.”
A slim fingered hand went over Chrysalis’ heart in mock innocence, “What, you think I’d gleefully enjoy the looks on your faces if I had the rhyming idiot’s head to toss at your feet? Hmm, you know me so well, but believe it or not I have some standards. If I wanted to twist the knife in you I’d find a way to do it with a little artistry. However since you’re being such a sport I will tell you that the Captain of the Foolish Fourth Division still breathes. Starlight, for all her grand schemes, is such a little softie at heart. She gave me specific instructions not to kill anyone I didn’t have to. Heh, of course I do things my own way and I imagine if my drones did their job there’s at least a few less of those morons in your Central 46. Also a few of the weaker specimens of the Fourth Division expired before I could properly cocoon them. It's not my fault Soul Reapers are so fragile, so I hardly think Starlight can blame me for that.”
A sunbeam couldn’t have crossed the distance to Chrysalis any faster than Celestia did, both her katana crossing downwards in a paired slash meant to bisect the chatty Espada. Chrysalis’ own blades snapped up to block, and the resulting crash of spirit forged steel opened a crater beneath their feet, literal conflicting arcs of energy sparking off their swords as Chrysalis and Celestia glared at each other from inches away.
“Upset, Celestia?”
Celestia responded by pushing harder with her Zanpaktou, shoving Chrysalis away, then in a shimmer of speed moving straight back into the attack, with Luna joining her in a blue streak. The two Captains moved in tandem, crossing each others path in a dizzying pattern as they came at Chrysalis from seemingly all sides at once with supreme speed. Chrysalis’ face split with a gleeful grin as she became a black blur, meeting the super sonic assault with her own blinding movements.
Explosions dotted the lake shore in a series of huge billowing clouds of sand. The battle streaked across the lake waters, geysers of water shooting up into the air from each impact of blades as the three combatants skimmed at high speed over the glass clear lake. The water started to fall like rain as Chrysalis burst upwards, soaring into the sky above Celestia and Luna, and with a chilling laugh opened her mouth to a disturbingly wide proportion, all but unhinging her jaw.
Emerald light pooled within the Espada’s gullet, thick and bathing the whole lake in dark green radiance. Celestia, eyes wide, only exchanged one quick look with Luna, who nodded and raised her Zanpaktou just as Chrysalis unleashed her attack. A Cero blast of pure emerald death, wide as an ocean liner, shot down and impacted the center of the lake. Water boiled to vapor instantly and a monolithic blast rocketed upwards in an expanding mushroom shaped cloud. Trees along the shoreline were torn free and sent flying through the air. Water along the edges of the lake was pushed up and out like a tsunami, then largely turned to steam under the heat of the powerful Cero explosion.
Atop the expanding cloud of steam Chrysalis stood, casually spinning one of her swords in idle calm as her eyes more intensely and carefully flicked about in search of her targets.
“Come now, I know that didn’t kill either of you. Come on out and let’s keep having fun.”
Up from the surface of the steam cloud a wall of tar black shadow emerged, deadly sharp tendrils of the pitch black shadow stabbing out at Chrysalis. She turned to deflect them, twisting and turning her body out of the way of the living weapons of shadow, and then flipped in the air, putting distance between herself and the growing expanse of shadow in front of her.
The shadows parted like silk curtains, and Luna emerged from them alongside Celestia. Both sported some singe marks on their bodies, but otherwise they were unharmed, largely thanks to the freshly released Zanpaktou in Luna’s hands. The long dark forms of the twin scythes of Tsuki no Kagetsume were poised in tense, savage readiness in Luna’s grip, their large curved blades seeming to drink in the shadows around them. Celestia glanced at her sister appreciatively.
“You reaction time is as swift as ever, Lulu. Now, if you’d be so kind as to give me and Chrysalis some space?”
Luna’s eyes moved sharply over to Celestia, “You’re going to do it? I can survive your Zanpaktou, you know.”
“Yes, I know, but it's been a long time, and I’m out of practice. Just give me a minute or two to adjust to having her released again, and then rejoin the fight. Please, Luna, for my own peace of mind I need to know you're a safe distance away before I do this.”
Luna grit her teeth, but nodded stiffly, “Very well. I’ll be back soon.”
The shadows of her Shikai enveloped Luna, and then seemed to vanish from sight, dropping back into the still expanding cloud of steam from the now largely evaporated lake. Chrysalis was left watching Celestia with raised eyebrows.
“I will never grasp why you fear your own power so much, Celestia. Sending your sister away, even temporarily, while facing me? Just because you're scared your precious little sister will get hurt by your Zanpaktou?”
Celestia’s face was like chiseled, cold marble, her voice equally hard. “It's a fear I don’t expect you to understand. It's a fear born of caring for others, which is so far beyond your grasp it may as well exist in another reality.”
“Don’t be so certain of that, dear Celestia. Love is not so foreign a concept to me. Indeed I have nothing but adoration for the things love can do.” Chrysalis’s lips twisted in a rictus grin, her voice growing husky. “Love can corrupt the soul faster than any other emotion. People kill for love. Pervert themselves for love. Why, people will even betray their greatest ideals, longest held companions, and challenge the very foundations of the world as we know it... all for the sake of their love for one person. How could I not respect that kind of power? The difference between us, Celestia, is that I don’t allow love to weaken me as it does you.”
A coy look appeared on Celestia’s face, pointed as a needle. “I think such declarations are premature. Decide whether or not I’m weak after you’ve beaten me, assuming that is that you can and simply won’t go crawling away back to Hueco Mundo like a spider fleeing the flame.”
Golden light, like liquid drops from the sun, crawled up along the lengths of Celestia’s twin katana, enveloping them completely as she raised them so that the pair of blades formed a cross in front of her.
”Reduce the firmaments of creation to dust and consume the weeping ashes. Shinryu Taiyo!” (Divine Dragons of the Sun)
Light of a pale golden sheen poured off the crossed swords of her Zanpaktou in a blinding fury. Heat without form blanketed the area, evaporating the cloud of steam as all moisture seemed to just vanish from the air under a unmitigated wave of harsh warmth as the light grew into a form of expanding light that couldn’t be properly called fire, so much as living plasma. Like a writhing bubble the plasma grew, dripping white hot streams of heat that curled the air and turned the barren basin of the former river to molten rock as they fell.
Chrysalis shielded her face, but the heat and light didn’t bother her spiritually hardened body as much as it would a human’s or a lesser Soul Reaper or Hollow. Still she knew this wasn’t the Zanpaktou’s power or full form, for the writhing mass of white hot plasma was continuing to expand and transform. The plasma split into two spheres, from which wings spread in billowing blasts of heat.
Both dragons were thickly muscled forms of white and golden scales dripping with the pure plasma like they were constantly sweating drops from the core of the sun. A serpentine necks were marked by golden spikes form which jets of plasma connected in jagged bolts. The necks were mirrored by whipcord tails that curled in the air and flicked experimentally, causing a small thunder cracks as did so. Heavily muscled legs ended in fire dripping claws as large as cleavers. The twin dragons’ heads were crested with two regal horns that curved back from their skulls, and their fierce faces had a strangely feminine quality to them as their eyes flashed as pure blue plasma coronas.
Celestia stood between the twin dragons, no longer carrying any weapons in her hand. Her Zanpaktou had fully transformed into the dragons of divine fire flanking either side of her, and from the look of strain on her face as she stood there she was having to concentrate with supreme effort just to keep the dragons under control. Both dragons were around the size of dump trucks. Not ludicrously huge, but large enough, and the sheer heat coming off of them was beyond extraordinary.
Already parts of the nearby forest were bursting into fire from the exposure of the heat and the motes of plasma drifting from the dragons. Celestia, despite the near immunity to fire her Shikai gave her, still sweated bullets, though it was all through the force she had to expert to control Shinryu Taiyo. The Zanpaktou turned twin dragons bristled with unbridled destructive desire. She could hear the Zanpaktou’s two nearly identical voices hammering her skull with a powerful and haughty pair female tones.
”You let us out only to provide us such partly fare!? Bearer, your taste in humor is most displeasing. This bug shall hardly make a single morsel to us! We demand you take us to Hueco Mundo immediately, that we might deliver judgment upon all the foul souls of that realm!”
“Shinryu Taiyo,” Celestia said in a motherly tone, “Focus and don’t underestimate the ‘bug’ in front of you. She’s the Second Espada. I need you to treat this seriously.”
The giant flaming dragons both let out a growl like jet engines revving up. ”Second Espada? But she’s so tiny! Nothing that tiny should be Second anything, except Second Breakfast. We shall devour her meager soul for insulting our presence with false titles!”
“Yes, focus on her, and stop burning the rest of the countryside. Also Luna’s around, so don’t burn her either.”
”We make you no promises! The little shadow shall do well to avoid our divine wrath herself!” Shinryu Taiyo declared and both dragons spread their, rearing up their heads to stare down upon Chrysalis with heated gall. ”Does the doomed one before us possess last words to speak?”
Chrysalis looked up at the dragons with a look of impressed approval, then said with a completely straight and unconcerned tone, “Yes, just three.”
The dragons paused, then both turned their heads to regard Celestia. “Is she insane?”
Celestia shrugged, “Does it matter?”
Looking thoughtful for a moment the dragons of sun fire just nodded once then snapped their heads around, opening their maws, and then proceeded to disgorge a solar flare of burning plasma from their throats down at Chrysalis in an unrelenting torrent.
----------
Power surged like a hot furnace through Sunset’s veins and she could taste the world around her in a way she’d rarely imagined possible. Her blood pumped like molten metal, her heartbeat a rock anthem in her chest. Colors popped out vividly in her vision and she felt like she could see the very currents of the air as they were moved by the waves of heat that poured off her body. Hokori no Hikari hummed in her hands, and she could feel the energy pouring into her from the two halves of her Zanpaktou in a pure river of uplifting power that made her feel like she was flying while standing still.
She’d felt this powerful only twice before. Once while making her biggest mistake, and once while saving another from that same mistake. Now, however, there was a sense of completion within herself that felt new. The Pride of her mistake was now a purer fire, fueled by her own pure desire to be the best she could be for herself and her friends. The Light inside her was balanced by the focus of her goals, able to shield what she cared for while allowing the Pride to be the blade without holding back or regret.
The Zanpaktou might have been someone she, as a pony turned human, was never originally meant to possess, but now it was a part of her in a way as thorough and right as the magic of her homeland.
And now she was going to show Platinum just why she should have never picked a fight with the girls from Canterlot High.
Platinum was still looking at her with a mixture of disbelief and slowly growing realization when Sunset moved. The motion came so swift and natural now she barely noticed any air resistance from the speed of her movements. More than just a Flash Step, however, this move was something altogether new and part of her Bankai. Her flicker of movement was accompanied by a wash of flame and heat from her wings like the ignition of a rocket and the icy ground behind her flash melted from the heat. The speed of her Flash Step was now combined with a massive extra boost of momentum that magnified by strength of her sword strike as she flew past Platinum faster than a bullet.
Platinum dodged, or at least snapped into a Flash Step of her own, but even so the flames of Sunset’s flamberge burned a scorching mark across Platinum’s side and drew a spray of blood from a partially cauterized cut. Platinum grunted in pain and spun to follow Sunset’s movement, slashing Fuyukogo through the air. The ice around her cracked and burst upward as a literal stampede of monster truck sized horses forged of ice charged towards Sunset in an attempt to trample her to paste.
Sunset only blinked once at the stampede, getting a particular bizarre moment of homesickness at the sight before she smirked and slashed upward with her flamberge. The resulting typhoon of flame that exploded from her Zanpaktou cut out in a cleaving arc of incineration. The stampede of giant ice horses were shattered and melted as the flames cut a swath through both them and a portion of the island several dozen meters across. The flames continued on to soar out into the sky, leaving Platinum to frown at the destruction with a frustrated growl. The damage to her island started to recover, more ice covering the sizable gouge torn into it.
She turned a flashing glare towards Sunset. “Will you stop blowing holes in my island!?”
“You could always try surrendering.” Sunset suggested with an eyebrow waggle. “I mean, I’ll still pummel you into an unconscious heap, but it’ll be easier if you’re not moving.”
“Thoughtful of you, but I’ll pass. You may feel strong right now, but if this truly is Bankai you wield, then you are fresh to it, Sunset Shimmer. You don’t know how to properly control or mitigate that power. You’ll burn out before you come close to defeating me.”
To punctuate her words Platinum thrust her arm up, and the ice around her rumbled like an earthquake. Like something rising from an arctic sea, a looming form of towering height speared upwards, with Platinum standing upon the top of the armored helmet of what turned out to be a samurai warrior of dark ice that stood fifty feet tall. Sunset stared up at the ice warrior’s unflinching, cold features as it raised a giant katana and slammed it down towards her with punishing force, mimicking Platinum’s own chopping motion atop its helmet.
Sunset’s wings flared with powerful flames, thrusting her upwards with hyper-sonic speed to meet the blade of ice the size of a tree. She led with Hikari, the flared white shield of gleaming metal impacting with the giant katana of unforgiving ice like two steam locomotives colliding. Sunset felt the jarring force of the impact. Even for all her fresh power in Bankai, physics were still physics to a degree and she was blocking several dozen tons of ice hitting with the force of a literal giant. Fortunately her Bankai operated on the same basic principles as her Shikai. Blows to the shield empowered the blade and vice versa. Only the effect was magnified significantly in Bankai.
Hikari glowed like a beacon, and the flamberge of Hokori blazed to fiery new heights of intensity, the flames turning the sword into a solid bar of searing orange light. Sunset pushed hard on her shield, turning aside the solid wall of ice that was the katana and then soaring up to fly at Platinum with breakneck speed. Yet for all the ice samurai golem's massive size it could move remarkably swift, pulling back and swinging its katana upward to intercept Sunset.
However rather than block with the shield, Sunset led with Hokori this time, the blindingly bright blade’s fire unleashing upon contact with the katana of ice. Fire blasted out in a fireball large enough to detonate a small office building. The ice katana shattered and the samurai construct fell backwards, breaking apart upon the ground. Platinum leaped from the falling titan and in the same motion gestured with her sword at Sunset, smiling coldly.
All the ice shards from the broken samurai golem and its katana suddenly shifted in the air, and transmuted into a glittering array of blades that poised in the air with deadly intent as their points all aimed towards Sunset as one. Sunset tilted her head in exasperation. “Oh for the love of-”
She couldn’t finish the sentence before the cloud of several hundred ice blades of varying lengths and sizes flashed in at her, surrounding her like a sandstorm. She reacted instantly with a spinning slash that sent out a circular wave of high flames, melting dozens of the ice swords at once. More yet slashes in and Sunset held up Hikari, the winged shield flashing. The edges of the shield that were shaped like feathers suddenly sent out a flickering cloud of feathers shaped from light. These feathers moved independently to guard Sunset, glowing with protective fields of force that intercepted the ice blades as they slashed in at her.
Spotting Platinum moving with leaping bounds back towards her ice palace, Sunset slashed with Hokori to cleave a flaming path through the cloud of ice blades trying to get at her, and as her wings flared with power and sent her rocketing after the former Captain the feathers of light from her shield followed her like a flock of sparrows, blocking the shards of ice trying to skewer Sunset. The backwash of heat from her wing enhanced Flash Step broke apart or melted most the rest of the flying ice blades, and as she caught up with Platinum at the steps of her palace the glowing feathers all winked back into her shield. She couldn’t use the defensive power of the feathers for too long, as that drained power from her blade, but as a form of protection it was one of Hikari’s more versatile abilities.
Platinum had anticipated Sunset’s charge, turning to face the girl upon the first few steps leading up into her ice palace. With a mere gesture the steps heaved and twin fists of ice as large as elephants thrust out at Sunset. She thrust Hokori into one of the fists while catching the other upon Hikari. Flames burst through the flamberge, shattering the one fist down the middle, but the impact of the other fist drove her back, forcing her to drive her sword into the icy ground to stop herself. It was surprising to her. The samurai golem had seemed larger, yet those fists had hit harder... was it because Platinum was closer to her ice palace? Was the strength of the ice higher the closer to the palace Platinum was?
Well there was an easy way to test that. Rather than charge blindly in at Platinum once more, Sunset’s wings of fire jetted her up into the sky and she flew back towards the edge of the island. Turning around she saw that Platinum wasn’t following her. Smiling, Sunset called out, “What’s the matter Platinum? Aren’t you going to come after me?”
Platinum, slowly climbing the steps of her palace, cast a razor sharp look at Sunset. “It is you who should be concerned with coming after me, child.”
“I don’t know, if you’re going to park your butt in your ice shack I don’t see there anything stopping me from raining fire down on you from all the way up here.” Sunset replied, raising Hokori and allowing a spiraling tornado of flame to start rising up from the sword to gather in the air above her.
Down below Platinum took a seat upon her palace throne and looked up at the tornado of flame with a small smirk. “Go ahead, girl. Put that theory to the test.”
Sunset didn’t need any further urging, and pointed her flamberge down towards the ice palace, the thick tornado of fire moving with the blade like an extension of it. From the center of that vortex of fire a barrage of crimson red flame discs, just like the one Sunset had created earlier in the fight, flew out in a storm. The tornado got smaller with each disc of red flame, but it managed to create over a dozen before the tornado flickered out, the deadly discs flying down at Platinum in a wave of destroying heat.
Platinum responded with a regal gesture of Fuyukogo, and a castle wall twenty feet thick and twice that height sprang up over the palace’s front stairs and its throne. The barrage of flame discs impacted with the ice wall in a super-heated series of explosions. Chunks of the ice wall were blasted to steaming pieces, but it managed to protect Platinum from harm, halting Sunset’s attack. Platinum was actually impressed by the girl’s tactical acumen. She’d figured out one of the keys to her Bankai’s strength with only a few observations to gauge by. Still, Platinum was getting over her initial shock at Sunset’s Bankai, now that she felt confident again that she could hold out long enough for the girl to exhaust herself.
“This battle still belongs to me.” Platinum said as the steam cleared from her destroyed ice wall and she looked up at...
Nothing? Where was Sunset Shimmer!?
An explosion of deep blue flame from the roof of her palace caused Platinum to spring up from her throne and look up towards the roof. She saw jets of blue fire washing over the edge of the roof as her whole palace shuddered. She could feel the blow resonate in the hilt of Fuyukogo as her Zanpaktou seemed to scream in equal parts rage and pain in Platinum’s mind.
She’s attacking the palace directly!
The barrage of fiery red discs had been nothing more than a distraction. Platinum swore under her breath and made a mighty leap upwards, flashing up the pagoda tiers of her palace until she reached the very slanted top of the highest peak of the palace. There Sunset Shimmer stood upon the apex of the palace, the flamberge of Hokori planted into the roof and firing off jets of blue fire into the palace itself. Platinum could see the flames bursting out of her palace’s windows as Sunset poured them in. Sunset glanced up at Platinum, giving an innocent grin.
“Is your palace insurance paid up?” the girl quipped, and Platinum snarled in response, flying towards Sunset as ice frosted around her own body.
Sub-zero cold flowed from Platinum in a absolute current of arctic wind that swept the flames back from the roof, though the blue fire clung on hard and didn’t die even under Platinum’s frozen assault. Sunset stood under the darkly cold wind, which Platinum knew could freeze normal people to icy cores in seconds, but the girl’s body only flared with greater flames as she pulled her flamberge from the roof and turned to meet Platinum’s charge.
Atop the roof of the now burning palace of ice Fuyuoko’s blade met with Hokori’s edge in a wash of frost and flame. Platinum drove in hard, slashing and thrusting with expert precision. Which each of her attacks the roof itself buckled and erupted with shards of ice that stabbed at Sunset in a relentless flurry. Sunset smashed into the ice with her shield, which in turn allowed Hokori to burst with further flames as she effortlessly swung the flamberge in one hand to meet Platinum’s attacks. The two women became more reckless with their strikes, both eagerly seeking to gain a telling blow on the other. Even with the flames coating her and her armor protecting her Sunset felt Fuyukogo’s cold bite several times. One strike hit along an unarmored portion of her shield arm, making it harder to move Hikari to parry. Another had gouged deeply into the segmented portion of her armor around her hips, sending biting pain and cold into Sunset’s body. Yet she was giving back equal wounds to Platinum as they danced across the roof in a glittering storm of ice and fire.
By the time a burst of melting ice and dissipating flames flaring out in a wide circle around the roof marked one hard clash of blades that sent each woman skidding to opposite ends of the palace’s roof Platinum herself was showing several deep cauterized cuts across her body, including a long wound down her left arm that left the limb shaking as she held Fuyukogo with both hands. As the two of them took a moment to face each other, catching their breaths, Sunset felt the roof beneath her feet crack. Thinking it was an attack she readied herself to block with her shield, but saw that the cracks were spreading through the whole roof. In seconds the roof of the top tier of the pagoda palace collapsed.
Sunset managed to hover with her wings, floating down into the ruin of the next tier of the palace, the interior of which consisted of what looked like an expansive and ornate bedroom. What parts of it that weren’t on fire at least. Platinum gracefully landed from her own fall, despite her wounds, and the haggard looking Captain looked around at the burning room with a growing look of desperate scorn.
“Even in edifice you can’t help but destroy the things I care about. Fire represents you well, Sunset Shimmer. Consuming and destroying what’s around you indiscriminately.”
Sunset cast a brief glance around the room as well, noticing that while all as carved from ice there was a lot of personal details within the room, including a child’s crib next to the main bed. The crib was already melting away under the flames she’d hit the palace with, and Sunset didn’t miss the significance, but also met Platinum’s gaze evenly. “So what, he’s still just a child to you?”
“He is a child! One who doesn’t deserve to die in such a way!” Platinum shouted.
“I... don’t disagree. I don’t even know what’s wrong with him. But even if this sounds harsh, let me ask; as a Soul Reaper Captain isn’t death what you deal with every single day? Won’t he be reborn in the living world?”
Platinum’s scowl was deep. “Not this disease. It degrades the soul. If it finishes consuming my Pipsqueak, there will be nothing left to be reborn.”
“Sweet Celestia...” Sunset said under her breath, although Platinum seemed to misread the words as her scowl only grew.
“She is not here to help you.” Platinum venomously spat, all but foaming at the mouth at this point. She raised Fuyukogo in a threatening pose, eyes unblinking, “And I am beyond ready to put an end to this battle.”
With a gesture the walls and floors turned into something out of a crazed dungeon crawl, buzz-saw like blades, arrows, spears, smashing blocks, and every other imaginable device of death started to spring from the ice in the room. Sunset threw herself into dodging the blender of attacks, her wings creating fiery streaks and blacks of backwash force as her enhanced Flash Steps sent her careening around the room, sometimes with enough power to simply smash through the ice weapons seeking to impale or crush her. The heat corona around her body was intense, Sunset keeping it charged by blocking what attacks she could with her shield.
In the span of half a minute the room became unrecognizable trashed by broken ice and debris, not to mention all the steam from the weapons being melted by Sunset’s flames. Sunset burst from the steam right at Platinum, bringing down Hokori in a hard overhead slash. Platinum surrounding Fuyukogo in a thick sheath of black ice, meeting the attack head on. The force of the colliding blows broke the floor beneath their feet, sending both women crashing down into the next floor, then through that floor into the next one, and the next, until they both crashed through to the ground floor of the palace. This was a huge meeting chamber filled with gleaming thin walls of ice, like the paper walls and doors of a more normal dwelling, only the light bent around this ice to create a kaleidoscope of mirrored images as Platinum and Sunset crashed into the area.
A few blindingly quick exchange of blows and parries saw the two breaking off from each other, both now bleeding profusely from similar cuts across their brows that dripped hot blood across their eyes. Sunset was breathing hard now, drawing in ragged gasps. She could feel the strain her Bankai was starting to have on her body. She was matching Platinum in terms of power pound for pound, blow for blow, even in the middle of her ice palace, but in terms of stamina it was clear Platinum was the one with the advantage.
But Ditzy Doo had predicted that, and so far things had gone more or less as Sunset had figured they would. If Platinum had any tricks left, any aces up her sleeve left to play, then here in the very center of her Bankai would be the place to do it. If that happened, Sunset was confident she could counter it, because she had a trump card of her own still left in her hand.
“You know, I’m sorry your son is sick. From what I’ve heard from my friends he’s a fine kid and doesn’t deserve what’s happening to him.” Sunset said between heavy breaths, “But what even makes you think Starlight Glimmer can be trusted?”
“It doesn’t matter. She’s my son’s only chance. There is no other way.”
“Are you sure of that? How hard did you look before you took a desperate grab at betraying your own people to someone you don’t even know?”
“Enough!” Platinum’s shout cracked some of the thin ice walls in the room, and in a strange maneuver she threw Fuyukogo behind her. Sunset saw the gleaming blue tulwar spin through the air, through the huge open front doors of the palace main floor out to the platform where the throne overlooked the courtyard. The blade sunk into the throne, and in a flicker of movement Platinum retreated to the throne. Her hand gripped Fuyukogo once more, Platinum’s eyes boring into Sunset.
“I won’t have you judging me any longer. Not someone like you, who’s barely lived. You have no right to tell me what is or isn’t worth betrayal. I’d drag myself through the mud for an eternity if it meant saving my boy!”
The entire island and palace started to shake like an earthquake, and Sunset saw the ice of the palace all around her turning into swirls of pure white snow. In mere moments the palace had transformed into a swirling torrent of snow, which then flowed towards the only feature left upon the palace’s foundation; the throne. The throne and Fuyukogo itself. The snow flowed into the blade and throne, until both were bleached white. Then the throne itself shattered, sending motes of shining diamond dust into Fuyukogo, which changed shape until its blue ice blade was now a long, thin nodachi with a blade of absolutely pure white.
”Ikken Hissatsu: Shiroi Kotei no Ken.” (One Strike Annihilation: White Empress Blade)
Platinum’s body started to freeze over, her very skin turning stark white as frost crawled up and down her form. Her breath crystallized in the air and even the ice at her feet began to crack from the sudden further dip in temperature radiating off of the single, long white blade in her hands.
Sunset knew this was her chance. Platinum had abandoned the battle of attrition that would’ve secured her victory in favor of destroying Sunset with a single blow. A blow Sunset hoped... no, had to match.
So she played her own final card.
Light split long the center of Hikari’s shield, the shield itself splitting open along the center with a single groove that was perfectly sized and shaped for a particular sword. Sunset turned the shield around so that she could angle Hokori into the groove, and with a single motion slammed the flamberge into the shield so that the two merged, melding together so that the tip of the flamberge matched the tip of the shield’s phoenix head. The hilt of Hokori extended until it was long enough for Sunset to grip like the haft of a spear, the spear’s “tip” more like a giant blade formed from the merging of Hokori and Hikari.
Flames coiled around the new merged weapon, azure flames that extended to coat the weapon like a second edge. Even Sunset’s wings of fire turned to scintillating and luminous jets of blue heat that widened and spread behind her in a majestic display.
”Saishu-Tekina Hidori.” (Final Phoenix)
Both women’s powers flared up at the same instant, both drawing back their blades and striking them down at one another across the distance at the same time.
From Platinum’s pearl white blade an absolute avalanche of white disaster exploded forth, a wall like an uncompromising sandstorm of cold so vast and freezing that the air itself screamed as all moisture within it was crystallized instantly. Man or beast, organic or inorganic, anything touching that onrushing wall of white would be turned to brittle frost, a cold so overwhelming that it would seem all other elements of the earth would shatter at its touch.
All elements save for one.
From Sunset’s blade a pure cerulean phoenix of solid fire the size of a ancient roc of legend flew forth, spreading its wings and crying an air splitting challenge to the wall of icy death it rushed towards, its flames melting away everything around it as it rocketed forwards like a shard of the earth's’ molten core given form and life. It speared its flaming beak forward like a spear, its claws outstretched like a phalanx as it collided headlong into the wall of utter white cold.
Steam erupted from the point of impact as the phoenix cleaved into the torrent of cold, its flames dancing in powerful spasms around it as it dug through the freezing whiteness. Its spread wings enveloped the wall of cold, spreading it outward so that when it blasted around Sunset the cold went to either side of her, leaving a clear space where she stood. Onward the phoenix rushed, its flames flaring brighter until it burst through the wall to reach for Platinum.
Her attack defeated, one might have expected Platinum to look surprised, but rather the Captain had an expecting and ready look on her face as the phoenix of blue flame crashed through her the wall of white and speared towards her.
Sunset noticed that Platinum still had the massive white nodachi in her hands, and it was poised and ready.
Platinum thrust her blade straight into the phoenix’s breast with a single clean stroke, halting the bird of flames in its tracks.
“I wasn’t certain, but I imagined you had a final attack of your own that you’d been holding back.” Platinum said between labored breaths, “So I held back, just enough, to be ready for it... heh... you’ve lost, Sunset Shimmer.”
Sunset, breathing equally hard, fell to one knee, head bowed... but she started to laugh.
“What’s so funny, girl?”
“Oh, nothing...just... you don’t know a lot about phoenix's, do you? When they die, they have this habit of exploding.”
Platinum blinked as the phoenix she’d impaled in front of her suddenly glowed with a intense blue light, beams of energy rushing out of its cracking surface in a series of venting flames. In a split second the phoenix gave a cry that was as much one of triumph and release as it was one of death as its form exploded into a fireball of azure destruction.
From the ball of flames a few motes of flickering blue fire wafted through the air and returned to Sunset, the small streams of flame merging back into Hokori no Hikari’s combined form. The blade then separated back into sword and shield, the more plain shapes of her Shikai. That was one major downside to her final attack. It reverted her back to Shikai, so she had to make sure it would be a winning move, otherwise she’d be in trouble. She couldn’t go Bankai again for probably a day at least.
With heavy breaths and no small amount of shaking limbs she gathered her Zanpaktou and stood back up, slowly walking towards the steaming crater left by the phoenix’s final explosion.
She was somewhat scared of what she might find there. The idea of taking a life was still as repugnant to her as ever, but she had no real control over the strength of her last attack. She hadn’t gone into this fight planning to kill Platinum, but had known it could always escalate to that point and it was beyond her control.
Sunset let out a small sigh of relief when she found Platinum intact, but that relief was still joined by a bit of fear because the woman was an utter mess. Her spiritual fortitude kept her body intact, but Platinum was now missing her right arm, and much of the right side of her body and face was burned and blackened. Sunset felt a bit nauseous at the sight of the burned flesh. The smell didn’t help. Fuyukogo was lying in its sealed state a few paces away, smoking and blackened itself.
She wasn’t even sure Platinum was still alive until she saw the former Captain draw in a breath, and her one good eye flickered open.
Platinum stared at her, and Sunset saw the woman struggle to try and move, but all her body did was tremble for a moment. A unintelligible growl escaped the woman, but she couldn’t seem to do much more than twitch there as Sunset stood over her.
Then the ground started to shake as the whole island began to break apart, falling out of the sky. Sunset quickly scooped up Platinum and Fuyukogo, returning her own Zanpaktou to a sealed state and sheathing it so she had free arms to carry with. With a few flickering Flash Step leaps she moved from broken portion of ice to another, using the falling chunks like stepping stones until she reached the safety of the forest.
The remains of the island and ice palace shattered into the ground in an earth trembling series of impacts, and after a few moments all went still again, leaving Sunset carrying the barely conscious Platinum as she stood in front of the tower of Hitsuyo Aku once more.
“I...” Platinum’s voice was barely above a ragged croak. Sunset looked at the woman, whose one good eye focused on Sunset with... absolute hatred.
“I...hope... one day you... you love someone... as much as I love my son. I want you to... feel that love so that... that you know what it will feel like... to lose them.”
With those words hanging in the air like a haunting mist, Platinum fell fully unconscious, leaving Sunset standing there with a feeling of chill that had little to do with the cold in the air. However, after a moment Sunset carefully set Platinum down and with a look of fortified resolve on her face she turned to the entrance of HItsuyo Aku and rushed to catch up with her friends.