The dark, ominous clouds began to form in rings around the Castle of the Two Sisters, the rainstorm parting around it as a swirling rift appeared over the castle's main tower. A strange beam of light shot up from the tower and into the storm's eye, inverting the coloring of the backdrop beyond it.
Trixie drove slower than normal, surveying the thin gravel path before her RV. Sunburst picked up a faint, unidentifiable distress signal and was trying to locate its source. Both were startled out of what they were doing, neither of them were expecting to see the castle suddenly come to life. Sunburst showed great concern as he looked out the passenger side window.
"Uhh... Is that good?" Trixie asked, not giving the castle anything more than a glance from the corner of her eye. She was far more focused on guiding her vehicle over the increasingly bumpy and rugged forest terrain. "Because that... Uh, that doesn't look good."
"No! No it isn't!" Sunburst stood from his seat and immediately went back to the radio by the RV's booth seats. "I'm gonna try to get a hold of Agent Sentry!"
"Yeah, do that, we're about to have a problem!"
When he tried the radio, though, he got nothing but static on Flash's frequency. On a laptop computer, he checked for the distress signal again, and found it still present.
"I think Flash is trouble... Really starting to wish Starlight would let me install a radio on her."
"The signal we're following is close to the castle anyway, right?" Trixie asked, her normally calm presentation giving way to panic as the stress mounted. "Please don't tell me we're gonna go to the spooky demon castle. I don't like the spooky demon castle!"
"No, just keep heading towards the distress signal. We'll see if we can't contact Flash later..."
-----
Inside the throne room, a huge burst of silver and gold energy was released up from the center ring. Adagio Dazzle stood at the center, watching a distressed and kneeling Luna attempting to clear her head. The Dark Sister was still being affected by the Siren's mind control, and purposefully kept her eyes away. Adagio had ample time to complete the ritual, placing the sun and moon amulets over the sword as the energy coursed through, allowing the demon realm to begin to fully open.
"You..." Luna said, gripping her head as she tried to raise her will to fight. Adagio's control did more than just strip her of her will momentarily, it made it hard to gain control of again. She was angry again, and this time for a good reason, but the more she tried to express that anger, the dizzier she got. "You think you can contain our power? By undoing this seal, you're only releasing it back to me! Sooner or later, I will destroy you..."
"Oh, I don't think so," Adagio said. She snapped her fingers, and in a swirling purple vortex, five figures suddenly materialised in the throne room, each a young woman who hosted an Element of Harmony. Unconscious, they floated in the air, aligning with their respective orbs of magic as they reabsorbed them.
"These five humans are under my control already, and once their demons rejoin them, so will the Elements of Harmony. And with you unable to interrupt me, I can activate their power whenever I please."
As she said that, each of the girls flashed in their corresponding colors, and a multicolored swirl of magic surrounded her in a wide radius, lining up with the glowing circle of the circle in the floor.
Luna's fists tightened and she managed to lift her head, glaring at Adagio through the curtain of deep blue hair over her face. Moving the rest of her body was still a struggle.
"This was your plan all along, wasn't it?" Luna slowly came to the realisation, still locked in place by Adagio's glowing red gaze.
"Well of course," Adagio said, a teasingly evil smile on her face. "The only variable was you and your human half, but as I'd hoped, that matter resolved itself."
Luna growled. "You used me!"
"Used you, just like you used Twilight Sparkle, right?" Adagio smirked, raising a hand as the rainbow magic began to form up into a beam of harmonic obliteration. "Sorry sweetie, you were always just a supporting act. There's only room for one star on this stage!"
She fell into a bout of villainous laughter, but as she did the charged spell was suddenly disrupted. The rainbow energy around her dispersed as the toothed end of a chainsaber crossed in front of Adagio's face. Starlight stood, holding her blade level with Adagio's neck, ready to get back into the fight.
"But your five minutes of spotlight are up!" Starlight declared, taking Adagio slightly aback.
Two more sword blades crossed around her, Sunset and Twilight joining in with claymore and katana, making a triangle of steel around the siren's throat.
"It's time for the diva to take her bows," Twilight said.
"Yeah, the show's over!" Sunset added. "It's curtains for you!"
Turning her head slightly, Adagio found herself looking down the barrel of Flash's handgun, and with her head surrounded by swords, she had nowhere to go. Blinking away wouldn't be an option; it wasn't true teleportation, only incredibly fast movement. As Adagio's eyes shifted, so did everyone else's; they were all waiting for Flash to also say something cool.
After a moment, he took the non-verbal cue.
"And for our next performance..." He started, keeping in line with the stage-themed remarks. "A four-piece Siren beatdown."
Sunset's eyes widened and her lips dropped a bit, impressed, while Twilight and Starlight shared looks of balanced amusement and annoyance. Even Adagio smiled a little, beginning her next egotistical tirade with a laugh and a round of sarcastic slow clapping.
"Very cute... But I believe you're all mistaken," She began, quickly reassuming a poise of dominance. "The key has been turned, and my time has just begun! Soon, a new world will be born, and I shall be it's ruler!"
The entire castle shook again, and the plate surrounding the Devil Sword lit up. The ceiling began to split, and more openings the size of the ritual circle came apart on every floor, revealing a hole straight into the sky where a circle of calm was forming in the storm overhead.
"The only thing left to do is welcome you to the show."
The platform they stood on shifted, and a beam of light shot up from the center, right up into the eye of the storm and distorting the clouds around it. The demon hunters were all thrown off balance, and Adagio quickly ducked down, becoming a blur as every sword clashed into each other above her. Moving around the Devil Sword beneath her, she swept her leg across in a wide arc, knocking the startled Twilight, Sunset, and Starlight off their feet, then continuing the rotation she kicked all three of them in separate directions, launching them all in a staggered spread towards the thrones.
Flash's gun went off behind her, but she easily leaned beneath the shot, grabbing Flash's arm and tossing him to the ground by it, twisting and dislocating it in the process. He was kicked away and rolled to a stop just outside the platform, which slowly levitated inside the beam of light. As it parted, Flash landed just short of the gap, clutching his arm in pain as he looked back up to the action.
The disk-shaped platform slowly rose, and with it the Elements and Adagio, but Luna was still on it, and a silvery magic was swirling around her again, this time brighter than before. Her emerald eyes glistened, her hair lit up even brighter, and a field of light blue magic surrounded her, her excess power radiating from her body. With the portal to the demon world open, she no longer needed her moon amulet to access her demonic form.
"The gate has opened!" Luna shouted, her voice echoing over the rushing magic around her. "My true power returns to me! Prepare to face my fury, witch!"
Luna's demonic features returned to her, this time imbued with a righteous sense of vengeance as she spread both of her wings wide, but still Adagio just shook her head.
"Mmh. No thanks."
The Dark Sister again so foolishly glared directly into her eyes, and she was again stunned, summoning her pistols to her but unable to bring herself to attack with them.
"I..." Luna grunted, struggling to control her own mind as the siren began her song again. "I..."
"Be a dear and destroy the rest of these idiots for me." Adagio commanded. Luna blinked, her magic flaring powerfully as her ethereal hair waved about in her unsteady trance. She was trying to fight, but the spell was just too much, and she lost control of her body, turning away from Adagio and scanning the room as instructed.
Suddenly, the room became hotter, and Flash felt himself sweating. There was an even louder burst of magic behind them, followed by a huge swirl of golden energy. Something was burning, he realised, and soon he saw a small column of fire shoot up from atop the platform. A resounding, unearthly voice spoke out, rumbling and roaring like a combustion engine, causing the air around them to quake and tremble as existence itself was brought to a boil.
The voice did not shout, instead, it spoke with clarity and precision, the sound like a heated knife cleanly slicing through the air.
"Release my sister."
From the edge of the floating platform, surrounded by her sparkling golden magic and cloaked in fire, Celestia rose. Her appearance rapidly shifted, her skin becoming bleach-white and her eyes blackening and becoming yellow dots more insidious than any demon seen before. Two beautiful white feathered wings burst from her back, and pieces of white-hot, orange tinged armor formed around her shoulders, chest, and head, her hair becoming a wreath of flames that built and fell with each of her tempered breaths. Unlike Luna, no abstracted manifestation of energy built up around Celestia's demonic form, instead, the air around her simply ignited.
Out of all of the demon hunters watching this show of power, Twilight was the one who recognized this form first, it was the same entity depicted in the church, Celestia's own demonic form: The True Sister of Light. As her power intensified, there was no fiery outburst, instead the flames around her shrunk, compressing into a blazing thin veil that scorched the ground in which she walked.
And walk she did, approaching Adagio with an expression and manner of stride and an aura more threatening than Nightmare Moon could've ever hoped to exude. The space around her warped from the sheer heat emanating from her body, her glowing armor radiating so much raw thermal energy that the pillar of light coming up from the platform was getting outshined, the tint into the room becoming a warm orange rather than a cooled blue. Her boots left ashen black marks on the stone beneath her feet, and yet, her overwhelming temperature did not at all affect her.
The True Sister of Light did not scowl, she instead only let out a pained and frustrated breath as her immense power replaced every other feeling with soul-searing anger. Her eyes looked directly into Adagio's, unaffected by her power as the siren tried her mind control trick on the Sister of Light. Adagio's eyes became nervous as she failed.
Celestia's eyebrows rose, showing the slightest bit of amusement. She summoned her pistols, and held both of them at the ready.
"Now."
Adagio's eyes went from worried to collected again, and she let another cool smile show through.
"Release her?" She began. "Why, I've got a better idea..."
Adagio pointed her finger forward, to Celestia, and turned back to Luna, who was still clutching her head in a desperate attempt to clear it. Once eye contact was made again though, it was all over.
"Luna, destroy your sister."
"No!" Luna shouted, but found her body disobeying her commands. The siren's spell was too powerful. "You can't..."
Celesta's eyes widened, fear disrupting her anger for a moment. "Luna..."
Adagio capitalized on that moment of disruption. She warped straight into Celestia, kicking her in the chest as Luna was overtaken. Celestia fell back over the edge, and Luna dashed off after her, punching her into the ground below as the platform ascended in full, taking Adagio and the suspended wielders of the Elements of Harmony away. As it left, two solid stone pieces filled the gaps in the ceiling, leaving a huge hole in the floor of the throne room and causing the entire tower to shake again.
Just before it did, Adagio gave her farewell.
"You two enjoy yourselves, now."
-----
Sunset scrambled to her feet, making sure she had both her sword and guns before rushing to help Flash. As the tower shook again, he rolled in place, slipping into the gap in the floor left by the ritual platform, where a long fall awaited beneath. She dove to the edge as he fell, reaching out and catching his arm just in time. He looked up, feeling an intense pain in his shoulder but hanging on desperately regardless. All of the weapons strapped to him made him considerably heavier, but it was of little consequence to Sunset's strength.
"Hang on!" She said, feeling the castle rumble once more.
"I can't..." Flash said, squeezing his eyes shut and gripping Sunset's hand with everything he could muster. "I can't move my other arm!"
Above them, Luna was launched back across the room, landing near the thrones as Celestia kicked her away.
"Luna!" She called out, readying her guns. "Don't do this!"
"I... won't..." Luna shook her head violently, but still found herself readying her guns as well. She frowned, feeling a forgein urge to fight her sister well within her again. That hatred was coming back, and it felt too real. "Do what you must, sister."
"Luna, I..." Celestia's expression softened, looking very unbefitting of a demon of her stature.
"For me, sister!" Luna's eyes darkened, and she shouted out in a mixture of anger and fear as she rocketed across the throne room, leaving a trail of silver and blue magic behind her.
Celestia grimaced. This was different. She didn't want to fight her sister before, but now, incapacitating her might be the only way to save her. In the same fashion, she jumped across the throne room, meeting the Luna in the air over the wide gap in the floor, sending out a shock wave that shook the room.
As they clashed, Luna felt her body become overtaken with her hatred once more, desperately trying to hold her defensive stance as she fought against the mind control. Celestia came close into her, her eyes still filled with a hesitation and fear for her safety. Luna's eyes replied only with a look of uncertainty before fading back into scorn. Her older sister's eyes reflected a heated frustration.
"Hold nothing back..." Luna said, struggling to resist the urge to attack again.
The Sister of Light's frustration reignited into genuine anger. She would save her sister, and the siren would pay.
Flash dangled precariously in Sunset's grip. Unable to get a better hold on him, she just decided to pull up, but to her shock Flash slipped through her fingers.
"Sunset!" He shouted, a scream of fear coming from him as he plummeted to the bottom of the tower, disappearing into the darkness before Sunset saw him hit the ground.
"Flash!" Sunset nearly considered jumping in after him, but felt another pulse of heat and a second blast blew her away from the hole. The Sisters of Light and Darkness were trading quick, powerful gun punches and kicks in the air above her, each one sending out huge waves of energy as they clashed, each of them unleashing the full extent of their thousands of years of experience upon each other. They twirled around each other, spinning and flipping and seemingly floating mid-air without even flapping their wings. They even ricocheted shots off of the walls at perfect angles, only to perfectly counter the others' bullets with another ricocheted shot.
In the flurry of attacks the Sister of Light struck a particularly powerful blow directly into her sister's guard, knocking her back and sending her into the steps near the overturned thrones. Then, with a shout of exertion across her entire body, she lunged down at the Sister of Darkness, wings spread and leaving a trail of flame behind her, twisting her body mid flight and firing both of her guns forward. The Dark Sister replied by standing her ground and firing back, their bullets moving so quickly that even as the younger demon hunters followed the bending of time, they struggled to keep up with the speed at which the Sisters exchanged their thousand gunshots.
Some of the bullets even liquified as they passed through either Sister's heated veil, splashing the other with molten lead that broke their slowed timestate and resulted in the Light Sister crashing into her younger sibling at full speed.
They tumbled over each other, a screaming, furious ball of multicolored magical energies, feathers, fists and bullets, dropping any graceful combat for immediate trading of blows, the two great demons bashing their pistols against each other and firing them off with little regard for their own protection. It was brutal and bloody, but at full power, neither of them had the option of surrendering.
Rolling to a stop, the Sister of Light found herself straddling her sister, and then proceeded to punch down on her with gun-filled hands. In response, the Sister of Darkness lifted her own pistols, deflecting the incoming punches with counter hits, returning point-blank gunshots that the Light Sister leaned back and forth around. The Dark Sister curled her body up, then kicked her older sibling up off of her, sending more bullets after her with her boot mounted pistols. Controlling her ascent with her wings, the Sister of Light fired her own bootguns, intercepting all given bullets and adding even more as her two handheld pistols aimed downward and fired in unison.
For a brief moment, they both had all four of their guns trained on the other and were perfectly countering four separate waves of bullets the other was sending out. Even in slowed time, it was nearly impossible to keep up, but eventually The Sister of Light would propel herself down and dive straight into her possessed sister. The Dark Sister put a barrier of magic around herself, but Celestia smashed right through it. It did slow her down for a moment though, just long enough for her younger sister to roll out of striking distance, only catching the residual heat wave the crashing dive attack produced.
Hopping to her feet, the Sister of Darkness came into a proper fighting stance, redirecting the Light Sister's increasingly aggressive punches and kicks as she lunged again at her, this time exchanging a proper set of gundancing techniques. Try as they might, neither of them could resist their Inner Demons demanding destruction and ruin. Celestia held on to what little semblance control she had, finding that she couldn't stop herself from fighting. Had Adagio done something to her too?
It didn't matter. She needed to get Luna away from the others before she ended up hurting one of them.
She cartwheeled over the Dark Sister's head, who brought her arms into a cross to redirect another gun punch, but as a meditated follow up Celestia drove her knee up into her sister's ribs. Catching her just beneath her chest armor, Celestia flapped her wings forward right as she made contact, creating so much velocity over such little space that a cone of compressed air formed around it, and upon ultimate collision her sister rocketed away with the ear-busting sonic boom. The tall, ornate window beyond the thrones shattered in the blast and the Dark Sister was sent hurtling through it, shooting up into the sky above the castle.
Celestia felt a sudden spike of pain in her heart, the act of striking her sister so hard knocking her out of her battlelust. Her body shivered for a moment, and she stared down at the leg she threw into that attack. The bit of her suit covering was charred black and smoldering from the impact. Fighting her sister, especially after she just reconciled with her, it felt so wrong... She cleared her hesitation, thinking about Adagio and how she would hold nothing back against her after Luna was secure.
Then, again resolute, the Sister of Light flapped her wings and followed her sister into the dark and rainy clouds.
-----
Sunset was in a state disbelief. She'd lost Flash. The drop to the bottom floor of the tower was incredibly steep, he certainly wouldn't survive a fall like that. In anger, she pounded the ground she knelt on, looking up at the Two Sisters battling in the sky through the broken throne room window. Seeing their true forms was simultaneously terrifying and awe inspiring, but given the circumstances Sunset felt more disgust than anything else. That orange haired lady was using the Dark Sister as a distraction, a pawn...
She'd used them all as pawns, she put on this entire party by tricking the rest of them into setting it up. Twilight brought the Elements of Harmony, Sunset brought the sun amulet, Nightmare Moon, or Selene, Luna—whoever it was brought the moon amulet, and Celestia brought the Devil Sword. Flash had gathered all of their friends together, leading Adagio to capture them, and Starlight... Sunset wasn't actually sure how Starlight affected the situation. She wasn't really even sure what she was doing here.
Twilight was here to defeat the Dark Sister, but that plan was now quite literally out the window. Celestia would have to do it, if anyone. Sunset saw her on her hands and knees, a disturbed look on her face as she probably tried to figure out where it all went wrong. Sunset wanted to go to her, to help her up and tell her that she still had her back, that she'd still help her clean all this up, even if she had a role in it all. They were friends, and seeing Twilight this distressed was really eating at Sunset.
Before Sunset could get back up, she suddenly scooped up her weapons and made a run for the broken window. Starlight quickly chased after her, weakly getting to her feet and calling her name. She sounded mad, but not the same kind of mad Sunset expected. It wasn't a pissed off kind of mad, it was the same hurt kind of mad Luna exhibited earlier.
"Twilight! Where are you going?"
At the top of the steps to the thrones, Twilight turned her head back, glancing over her shoulder to see her look at her former student.
"There's nothing we can do at this point, Starlight." Twilight said.
"What are you talking about?!" Starlight stopped in her tracks, looking up in confusion. "What about Dark Sister, or the demon portal?"
"I wasn't enough..." Twilight looked away, closing her eyes and speaking with great despair in her voice. "It had to be me, but I wasn't enough."
"So you're just giving up?" Starlight asked, pointing her chainsaber up at Twilight and raising her voice. "After coming all this way, you're just giving up?"
"I don't have to explain myself to you." Twilight's grip grew tighter around her sheathed katana, and she turned to face Starlight completely. "None of this even concerns you, Starlight, go home!"
"What happened to fixing your mistakes, huh?!" Starlight shouted, now with an accusing anger in her voice. "What happened to 'principle over protocol'? Or was that just a bunch of crap you made up to justify all this destruction?"
Twilight's glare intensified, but she didn't make any aggressive action. Her tone lowered as she tilted her head forward ever so slightly. "Why are you even here, Starlight?"
"The Order wants justice! If you think you can cause all of this and get away with it you've got another thing coming."
Twilight shook her head, giving a slight scoff with a dark smile. "Justice? The Order? Do you really believe in any of that?"
"How can you say that?" Starlight's disbelief showed through her anger for a moment. "The Order is my family, Twilight, our family!"
"That's what I thought too..."
Starlight's pissed off anger again broke through. Charging up the steps, Starlight whipped her chainsaber outward, but it was quickly deflected with Twilight's sheath. Without drawing her sword, she swung the sheath across as Starlight continued up the steps, but Starlight put her hand on the middle step and popped into a handstand, sweeping her feet at Twilight while ducking beneath her swing.
"You did this, Twilight! All of this is your fault!"
"Is that what you think?" Twilight jumped over Starlight's kick and stepped away, leaning forward in preparation to draw her blade. "Do you really trust the Order that much?"
Coming back to her feet, Starlight revved up her blade and swung it several more times, but Twilight suddenly had her katana drawn and was guiding it into the side of her chainsaber, deflecting her strikes without contacting the teeth.
"It doesn't matter!" Starlight caught Twilight's weapon at the hilt, and slid into a loose bind by the far ends of their swords. They didn't exert force on each other, but they kept the other's blades in check as they slowly circled each other. "I won't just stand by and let you get away with this..."
"Starlight!" Sunset finally managed to get up and rushed into the fight as well, taking a swing at Starlight with her sword as Twilight backed away. "Have you lost it?"
"She helped resurrect the Dark Sister!" Starlight replied, surprised to be crossing blades with Sunset again. "Betrayed the Order, betrayed me!"
"The Order betrayed me, Starlight..." Twilight remarked, bringing her katana around at Sunset as while she was held up with Starlight. "And stay out of this, Sunset! This isn't about you either!"
"Like hell! We're friends, Twilight!" Sunset and Twilight's swords clashed together, and Starlight drew her revolver. The purple clad demon hunter drew a pistol in her off hand and fired off a few shots just in time to intercept Starlight's firework bullets. The multicolor bursts went off between them, and allowed Sunset and Twilight a smokescreen to trade several more sword clashes behind. "I'm trying to help you!"
"I don't need help! Just leave me alone!" Twilight shouted, cutting upward into Sunset's weapon and stumbling her down the steps, just barely managing to recover as Starlight jumped into her. Twilight held her katana against the rolling teeth of the cyborg's chainsaber, but only long enough to step in close, bash the pommel of her weapon into Starlight's head and kick her away too. With them both knocked back, Twilight turned and ran for the window, jumping out of it with any hesitation.
Starlight moved to follow, but Sunset's sword blocked her path.
"I can't let you go after her," Sunset said, a stern look on her face.
"I thought we were doing this together!" Still angry, still gripping her sword tightly, Starlight got right up in Sunset's face. "Or am I suddenly not good enough again?"
"It's not that." Sunset explained, not willing to fold on this. "She's my best friend, I'm not going to let you hurt her."
"So we just let her escape? After everything she did?"
"We've got bigger fish to fry-"
"No, you have bigger fish to fry!" Starlight shoved a mechanical finger into Sunset's chest, pushing her back. "Twilight took everything from me! You see my body? I'm like this because of her!"
"So it's personal, then..." Sunset said, finally coming to the realisation.
Starlight brought her sword up and met Sunset's eyes with stubborn intensity. "It is."
"Well, sorry to disappoint, but I've got business to settle with her too." Sunset slung her sword back over her shoulder and put her free hand on her hip. "So if you want a piece of her, you're gonna have to take a piece of me first."
Starlight smirked, remembering how Sunset had also treated her like she was just slowing her down. In a way, it wasn't any different to how Twilight treated her. It thoroughly pissed her off.
"Oh, I can arrange for that." She gave her chainsaber a threatening rev, and shot Sunset a dark, battle ready smirk.
So much for working together.
-----
Flash's vision suddenly filled with a dull, white light. Last thing he remembered, the Two Sisters' true forms were awakened, and then he fell through the gap in the floor after getting his shoulder injured, and his memory went out somewhere as he plummeted to the ground. He was somewhere blue... blue and metal. His eyes wouldn't focus completely, but he made out shapes that looked like a short metal table, a sealed glass door, and an overhead ceiling light. People were walking around him, and his arms and legs were bound to something. A flat table, he was attached to a flat table angled so that he only slightly leaned backward.
His right shoulder still ached, and he was completely shirtless. As his vision and hearing came back he could better make out the two figures in this room with him. One had a blue ponytail, the other had a purple one.
Lynx and Sparrowhawk.
"Is it doing anything yet?" Sparrowhawk asked, her chipper, curious tone taking Flash's immediate attention as he watched her study him like an object. "He's waking up, but did it work?"
"We can't tell yet, the D-virus takes more time to show mutations." Lynx replied, her tone still as flat as ever. Flash saw that she was carrying a short tipped syringe, and suddenly became aware of a pain in the base of his neck. It was a sharp, pinching pain, the kind of pain he immediately associated with needles.
"But didn't Adagio say that Flash was a Type-B?" Sparrowhawk asked, a hand almost innocently drifting to her chin. Almost innocently, were the two of them not certainly conducting some sort of immoral experiment on him. "Shouldn't he transform as quickly as we did?"
"We died of external causes, Sonata." Lynx said. "Adagio said she didn't want him dead, because if he died we might not be able to control him as well."
"I dunno about that, Aria. That bullet was pretty deep inside my head."
Through gritted teeth, Lynx replied. Sparrowhawk would surely be the end of her sanity. "But it came from outside of your head, idiot..."
"I can't believe Adagio even wanted to keep him alive in the first place..." Sparrowhawk said, completely disregarding the remark. "I would've just shot him and been done with it!"
"Yeah, I don't get it either, but she just had this spur of the moment plan to give him the virus and kill him that way."
Flash eventually lifted his head and addressed them. "What... what did you put in me?"
"Demon virus!" Sparrowhawk smiled enthusiastically, as if unaware of the implied bodily horror of such a thing. "If it works, you'll get to be with us, and we'll all be a team again!"
"Great..." Flash let his head fall back, feeling the point of injection tense up from pure anxiety. "And if it doesn't work?"
"You'll die horribly and turn into a monster, like that police sergeant," Lynx said, no real inflection on her voice. "And we'll either use you to kill stuff for us or just kill you again if we can't control you."
"Where's everyone else? My friends?"
"Eh, they'll probably be okay." Lynx said. "Adagio should have them out on top of the castle now, she needs them alive to use their magic."
Flash did his best to stay calm, despite being dreadfully aware of the blood pumping through his heart being poisoned. The two Sirens in front of him probably wouldn't offer any useful information for him. He looked over their uniforms, seeing that they'd changed outfits. They now wore a bit more armor, with suits resembling old SRAPH body armor, but in their blue and purple colors.
"Geared up for something?" Flash asked, finding it strange that the two were still hanging around.
"Yeah, the labs are on high alert." Sparrowhawk said, rather nonchalantly. "Demons are trying to get in again, we've got all of our Sirens armored up and patrolling the place."
"Sending any into the castle?"
"Nah, Adagio's got that under control," Lynx said. "She took a few reprogrammed mechs with her, though. But that's not really important. We're actually here to ask you a question."
"Yeah? And what's that?" There it was. Flash knew they had a purpose here beyond injecting him with whatever-it-was.
"Your cyborg friend!" Sparrowhawk said. "She's got a ride hiding out somewhere in the Everfree... We want to go pay them a visit."
"That's too bad," Flash cooly replied, "Cause I have no idea where they are."
"Don't try and lie to us, Sentry," Lynx said. "We got a transmission from your radio of them trying to get a hold of you. You had a line to them."
"They never said where they were." Flash said. "Last I heard they were on the move."
"I don't believe you." Lynx said.
"You two look smart enough," Flash replied. "Have you tried tracing their signal?"
Lynx glanced over to Sparrowhawk. "Hit him with the taser."
The gadget mounted to Sparrowhawk's wrist sparked to life, and she gave a smile of twisted pleasure. Without firing its cable, she stabbed the prong into his side and Flash instantly felt every nerve in his body get lit on fire as all of his muscles contracted at the exact same time. He forced his eyes shut, and focused on breathing. The sensation he felt scraped hard against the ceiling his pain threshold, but as he convulsed in place he just kept himself breathing, feeling it get lighter and faster as the burning continued. After a long ten seconds, Sparrowhawk pulled the taser free, and Lynx began asking questions again.
"So you said they were on the move? Where did they come in?"
"Dunno, I was asleep."
He immediately got the taser again, this time jabbed higher up his chest. The electricity forcing his body into torment lasted a bit longer, and he found himself helplessly shaking even after it ended. His willpower was not rattled though, as Lynx would soon find after she continued her questioning.
"Sonata's into this kinda thing," Lynx said, drawing attention to her partner's gleeful, excited expression. "We can do this all day, or at least until she gets bored."
"Can't guarantee it'll jog my memory."
"You've caused all of us here a lot of problems just by still being alive," Lynx's eyes narrowed slightly as her voice roughened. "We'll do it just 'cause we feel like it."
"How humane."
"Where did you get dropped off at? Who led you here?"
"What do you mean 'who led me here'?" Flash asked, intentionally avoiding the answer. "You put all of three leaves on your bunker and called it hidden."
More tasering. Flash's heart felt like it was going to burst from his chest at this point, but he still held on through the pain. He kept his eyes open, not wanting to pass out, worried the virus might take him faster that way.
"I'm losing my patience..." Lynx said, her teeth clenched in frustration. "Talk, Sentry!"
Through loose, shallow breaths, Flash gave his stubborn reply. "What... what happened to doing this all day, h-huh?"
Overjoyed at the opportunity, Sparrowhawk went in to tase him again, but Lynx interrupted her with a shove. "Ugh, quit it, this isn't working..."
"What if we just tased him for a longer time then?"
"He'd just pass out, and then we wouldn't get anything out of him."
"But were not getting anything out of him anyway."
"Right..." Lynx thought for a moment. "We need to try something else."
"What," Flash asked, doing his best to show a spiteful smile between breaths. "Gonna go get a bigger taser?"
"Listen, Sentry." Lynx said, a sudden idea coming to her. "Here in these labs, we have a cure for the D-virus. If you tell us anything about whoever your contact is out there, we'll give it to you."
"What, and go against your boss?"
"We know they're aligned with the Order," Lynx said. "Having another organization that isn't SRAPH this close could be far worse than Adagio's little experiment failing."
Flash thought for a moment. This was a more appealing offer, but was he really going to turn over his friends in order to save himself from such a gruesome fate as their demon virus? Would it even be worth it, if otherwise he'd transform into a monster that they'd inevitably have to deal with? His immediate instinct said no, but when he thought about it again... No, no, those were his friends, they'd be done for if they got caught by a squad of Sirens. If Sunburst and Trixie weren't killed, they'd certainly be put into the same situation Flash was in now. Screw that.
Pushing his face into a glare, Flash gathered up all of the saliva he had in his mouth and spat it in Lynx's face. Unflinching, she gave her own icy glare back as she wiped her face clean.
"Sonata, have as much fun as you like with him," Lynx said, turning and leaving the small room.
Eyes widening, the siren was absolutely elated to fire up her taser and stick it into Flash's body again, holding it there just before his senses went numb, but then cutting off the current before he lost consciousness, bringing him back for a minute or so before starting the process again.
Eventually, Flash's sense of time faded, and he soon became well acquainted with the quickly blurring line between pain and numbness.