Episode 186: Surmounting Doubt
Gloriosa was mostly pleased with the progress made in getting Camp Everfree back in order. Ultimately she understood that it’d be a very long time before anything resembling “normal” was even on the table for her and her brother, but at least her home was not only finally repaired of the damage incurred during the cascade of battles that had taken place, but with Gaia’s influence things were, in her mind, improved from what they were before.
Gaia’s Hollow powers had already naturally been inclined towards the control and guidance of nature’s elements, and Gloriosa’s Fullbring only enhanced this now that they were both one and the same being. It’d made renovations quite the breeze. She’d not only repaired the camp buildings, but expanded upon them and naturalized them to a degree. Each building was larger, but now also built within seemingly natural earthen mounds covered in trees and beautiful bushes sporting flowers of all colors. She’d added quite a bit of interior decorating, so the interiors of the buildings had tree roots and vines as natural growths forming support pillars and tables and chairs looked more molded from the trees than crudely carved.
And the lake was back. She’d made a point of filling it back in, ensuring the crystal clear waters now shone brightly across where they’d once been. The addition of the giant tree to the center of the lake was certainly picturesque, quite otherworldly in the way its humongous roots formed bridges across parts of the lake.
“You do realize that anybody we actually get to come to camp here is going to wonder why this place looks like a literal fantasy fairy groove, right?” Timber asked as Gaia finished the last touches on an expanded dock that was essentially grown from one large tree root spread out into several branches, with lamp posts grown from the root itself under the guidance of her power.
“Oh let them ask questions and wonder, brother. It’ll add to the camp’s mystique,” she replied with a cheeky smile, eyes glowing green as she waved her hands to finish the last curled, fey lamp post. “I, for one, intend to lean into the whole magical force of nature thing I have going on.”
She didn’t fail to notice Timber’s moment of uneasy shifting on his feet before simple acceptance bowed his head, “Guess it’ll still be awhile before we’ve got to worry about guests anyway. Heh, at least finances aren’t going to be an issue anymore. Twilight’s being really generous about that.”
“Ah, had a talk with her, have we?”
“Barely,” Timber said, shrugging, “That girl is way busier than any teenager ought to be, but not like I can judge, considering the crap she’s dealing with. Even just talking to her for five minutes about funding for the camp was enough to tell me she’s ten kinds of distracted. I couldn’t even say a proper thank you for all she did to help us out.”
“Perhaps that’s for the best,” Gloriosa said, taking her brother’s hand and gesturing with the others all around them at the restored Camp Everfree, “Focus on the home we have, rather than on a girl who’s worlds apart from you, Timber.”
“Yeesh, sis, reading into things, much?” Timber said, managing a half hearted grin, “Sure, I think she’s cute, and feel I still owe her for saving my life, but it’s not like I’m pinning over here.”
“You very much are. A sister knows these things.”
“Oh come off it. Just because you’re now merged with some ancient Hollow with thousands of years of experience doesn’t mean you suddenly know everything. I barely know Twilight, won’t be getting a lot of chances to get to know her, and am basically under house arrest by you because you think I’m going to break if I step two feet outside of the camp. Which, by the way, is totally hypocritical of you considering you were at that summit meeting that got attacked...”
He wasn’t able to keep his own worry out of his voice as he stared at her with harsh brotherly concern, and Gloriosa felt a brief conflict between herself as Gaia, who found this whole affair quite unnecessary, and herself as Gloriosa who couldn’t just toss her brother’s words aside. Seamless as the blend between her two selves was, it could still cause a bit of a headache when there was disagreement over how to handle things.
“It was a difficult situation, but we got through it just fine, Timber. You needn’t worry about us so much. And you’re not under ‘house arrest’, I just... I’d prefer it if you didn’t wander into the city without at least taking one of my flowers with you so I can keep an eye on things.”
“Which you know what, fine, I’d be stupid to ignore how dangerous things still are, so I don’t begrudge you that, sis, but still wish we could have a proper talk about what we’re going to do now. It’s all nice to pretend we’re going to just keep running the camp, but we both know that’s not really what’s going on. We’ve got a portal to another dimension sitting in the middle of our lake crying out loud!”
“A portal that hasn’t done anything yet,” Gloriosa pointed out, and then immediately flinched when she felt a sudden surge of energies coming precisely from the lake, at the exact location of the portal.
Timber winced too, and that bothered Gloriosa, because she knew that he’d been affected by his brief exposure to magic and Hollow power when she, during her less than stable mental breakdown after her initial merging, had tried to alter him. He hadn’t exhibited any powers, but his sensitivity to spiritual and magical energies was apparent, especially now that he clearly sensed the same thing she just had as his eyes widened and stared towards the tree in the middle of the lake.
“What’s that?”
“I don’t know,” she said, “But I’m going to go check it out. You stay here. Or better yet, get inside-”
Her words were barely out when there was an incredible rush of air, and a shadow flickered overhead, and also around them. Two spiritual pressures, both of equal intensity if fairly different flavors. Gloriosa looked up while holding out a protective arm in front of her brother, seeing the descent of a house sized avian being. The bird sported a long peacock tail of green and blue which continued on to a sapphire body that flickered on and off with shimmering jade lights. Its long neck ended in a thin, feminine bird’s face with wide, jewel blue eyes and a sharp black beak like a spear. The bird’s wings shared the peacock coloring of her tail, and they stirred the air with a hot wind as she landed on one side of Gloriosa and Timber.
Right on the other side stalked a wolf with dark blue fur, nearly as tall as the bird, bearing white runic markings across her sleek body. Amber eyes glared at the bird, but looked with faint respect towards Gloriosa before the wolf bowed her head and opened salivating jaws to speak.
“We had heard Gaia Everfree was restored. I greet you in the name of my High Chieftain, Fenris.”
“Asena,” Gloriosa said, memories from Gaia’s days now flooding her, “I confess I was not expecting emissaries from the Beast Realm, but I welcome you, nonetheless. And Simurgh, I see you are well.”
The giant sapphire bird made a clicking noise, speaking in a light, airy tone, “Well indeed, and I greet you as well in the name of my High Chieftain, Quetzalcoatl. I apologize for any startelment we may have caused. I was generous in allowing my much slower, land bound companion to set our pace.”
The wolf, Asena, licked the air and her ears twitched, “Set the pace, indeed. You stopped every other league to indulge in drink and revelry while we’re about our High Chieftain’s business, you lush of a lark.”
“First of all it was every ten leagues. I limit myself. Secondly, if you weren’t such a dry, uptight traveling companion I wouldn’t have needed to engage in some refreshment to keep myself from going mad. We made it in good time, so I don’t need to hear your complaints.”
Timber, looking between the two massive creatures while doing his best not to go pale and pass out, whispered to Gloriosa, “Do you, er, I mean Gaia, know these guys?”
“In a manner of speaking,” Gloriosa replied. Gaia was among the few Hollows with any real personal contact with the Beast Realm, and it was hard not to know the heralds for two of the High Chieftains. She cleared her throat to interrupt the bickering and spoke louder, “What business do you both have in the living realm? It isn’t often both of you are sent on the same errand.”
“ ‘Tis no errand,” said Asena, “This is a summoning.”
Simurgh bent her head low, cocked to one side so one eye could focus upon Gloriosa, “We know the serpents of the Sea Tribe stir. Dragons of his cult have entered this realm. Servants of the fallen Clans have soiled this very ground.”
Gloriosa bristled slightly, remembering the creatures from the Beast Realm, including a hydra, that had caused her campers no shortage of terror. “I have wondered why denizens of your realm have been coming here. What is this about, you two?”
“Ragnarok,” Simurgh said, “That madness has gripped our kin once more, and this time the High Chieftains mean to put an end to it for good. The Fates have been consulted, and a course of action decided. The Daughters of the Dragon and Wolf must come home to their Clans, and it has been seen that warriors of harmony accompany them.”
“We know of the Bifrost Road that leads to the realm of Asgard,” said Asena, “The spark of Ragnarok stirs there, as well, and if this flame is to be put out, the way must be cleared. We have been sent to find the Daughters of the Dragon and Wolf, along with their warrior entourage, so we may escort them to the Convocation of Clans at the base of Yggdrasil.”
“Are you following any of this, sis?” asked Timber, and he gulped as Simurgh adjusted her head, which was about three times his size, to peer closely at him.
“What is this small human male doing here, Gaia?”
Gloriosa stepped in front of the bird and let just enough reiatsu flow out of her that her eyes filled in green and it got Simurgh to take a step back, “This is my brother, and I’ll thank you to perhaps explain yourselves more thoroughly to others besides myself. Your ‘Daughters of the Dragon and Wolf’ aren’t here, but back in Soul Society. As for their warriors of harmony... well they’re a tad indisposed at the moment as well, considering half of them are in Hueco Mundo right now.”
“So we’ve... come at a bad time?” asked Asena, somehow managing to look abashed as a giant wolf, and giving Simurgh an accusatory glance. Simurgh partially hid her face behind a wing, coughing.
“Well, I may have taken a bit too long with some of our drinking stops. Is there perhaps a place we can wait for them to become available? Ragnarok is a bit... urgent. Not the kind of thing that can really wait.”
“It’ll have to,” Gloriosa said, “But I can take you to Discord’s. But do try to shift into less conspicuous shapes before we go there, please? It’s in the middle of a human city.”
----------
“You two didn’t have to come with us. In fact, pretty sure the boss lady might straight up have my head on a pike if anything happened to either of you,” Di Roy said to the two ladies following along behind him and Gaw as they made their way to one of the entrances to the Warrens. This particular entrance was an old bolt-hole that was situated in Torch’s territory. Di Roy figured the chances of them being seen by any of Guto’s people was low, here, given Torch’s horde was being doubly protective of their area ever since Ember was returned to them.
As vassals of Adagio, of course, he and Gaw had passes to go as they pleased, and more than a few of Torch’s people greeted them warmly as they went by. Granted, the two following them were given somewhat more wary looks if only because Lament still had a reputation, but no one tried to stop Roka and Fenice, either.
Fenice responded first, voice heated, “I’ve literally got nothing better to do, and watching our father pace and brood was kind of getting on my last nerve.”
“Be kind to him,” Roka said, smiling in understanding at her adoptive sister, “Everything has been an adjustment since he reunited with the rest of his family.”
Di Roy wasn’t the best at reading people, but it wasn’t as if he had to be to see the way Fenice’s walk was stiff as a cat being carried to a bath. Her voice would have been snappish, but she controlled it for Roka, turning it into something vaguely softer. “I know. I’m... happy for him, you know? But he’s clearly not having an easy time with this, and it bugs me I can’t do anything about it. I know he’s worried, and I’m basically stuck watching him worry, only his version of worrying is getting eerily quiet, pacing around his orchard, and occasionally vanishing for random blocks of time.”
“He’s visiting the Apple farm, Fenice,” Roka said, and after a moment added, “He doesn’t know how to stitch us together. His two families. He’s working on it.”
“Doesn’t help that we’ve got the ever looming threat of the higher Espada finding out about his... condition, and dropping on us like a ton of angry, violent bricks,” Fenice grunted, fingering the medallion that was her Fullbring’s catalyst, “And no offense to Adagio, but this alliance of hers still isn’t strong enough for us to take them on.”
“I feel very strong,” Gaw said, hammering a fist to her chest for emphasis. Di Roy cleared his throat and patted her on the shoulder, which earned a growl and a nip at his hand which was only half hearted.
“Yes, Gaw, we’re totally more buff now. You’ve filled out, I’ve gotten shiner. Pretty sure we might be shoe-ins for Number Ten if we wanted it, but, uh, yeah that’s a far cry from tackling the head honchos. Heck, I’m still not one hundred percent convinced we can take Guto, Hydia, and Grogar’s little power bloc, but I think we’re on a collision course with them anyway,” Di Roy said, scratching his shark-bone helmet mask as he shook his head, “Man, I hope Thorax is okay. That dude is one of the few people around here with the smarts to work out halfway decent plans besides the boss lady. If he’s in trouble, we’re all in trouble.”
“He’s not that strong,” Gaw said, then scratched her head, making a sniffing noise, “But he also is important to Adagio. So I suppose we save him.”
“Hey, is it just me, or are you getting better at talking?” Di Roy asked, and she grunted at him, which simply caused Di Roy to look back at Fenice and Roka, “I’m not crazy, right? She’s talking way better than she was a month ago?”
“Don’t tease her for making progress, Di Roy,” Roka stated with an encouraging nod towards Gaw, who continued to somewhat wilt and grumble under the scrutiny. Fenice, less interested in banter, simply groaned a bit.
“Is this entrance nearby yet? Looks to me like we’re talking and walking towards literally nothing!”
“Relax, flamebrand. Ember told me right where it was, and if I’m any good at judging distances, which I am, it should be right about... here!” Di Roy declared, stomping his foot on a patch of sand that gave a hollow thump from the impact. With a self-satisfied laugh he knelt down and brushed away more sand to reveal a stone slab with a small rope handle. He hauled it open, revealing a straight drop down into darkness.
“Ladies first?” he asked Gaw, who unsheathed her Zanpaktou and stretched her arms before leaping down without any hint of hesitation. Di Roy looked to Fenice and Roka, holding the door open. Fenice patted her sister’s arm and went next, the faint green of Bringer Light trailing from her feet as she floated down in a controlled fall. Roka went next, nodding politely to Di Roy, who then jumped down with the stone door slab being hauled closed behind him.
The shaft went down nearly four dozen feet, and opened into one of many interconnecting tunnels within the Warrens. Their destination was Thorax’s underground club, which Di Roy had the idea of checking first. Granted, Adagio had already sent their missing messenger there, so it wasn’t like a great leap of logic to check the location or anything. Di Roy certainly didn’t know what to expect, because anything could have happened. Some asshole Arrancar could have gotten hungry and chowed down on the messenger before they even got to deliver it to Thorax.
Still, Di Roy’s gut was telling him something else was up. The Hollows, lesser or otherwise, who served Adagio wore distinctly styled punk clothing to make it clear they were part of the Sixth Espada’s horde, so someone would have to be either stupid to screw with one of her messengers... or intentionally out to attack Adagio.
So Di Roy’s money was on Guto’s alliance being responsible, as it was the simplest explanation. Wouldn’t be that hard to keep watch on known hangouts like Thorax’s club to intercept any of Adagio’s people. Option two was more worrying, which would be something was going on on Chrysalis' end, and Di Roy wanted zero part of having to deal with any of the Second Espada’s schemes. Guto’s people he felt they could handle. That crazy bitch was on a whole different level of “Nope”. Even Thorax was someone Di Roy was pretty leery of, despite Adagio’s clear approval of the guy. Whatever Thorax’s overtures to wanting to do his own thing, Di Roy didn’t trust that if it came down to it that Thorax would choose to go against his nutty mother.
Their route towards Thorax’s club took several winding paths, and Di Roy heard movement in a larger tunnel ahead and motioned for the rest to halt as they rounded a bend near a four way junction. Slowly he shifted and leaned so he could peek, with Gaw shuffling low to peek around just below him. Roka and Fenice stayed back, but Roka’s closed eyes suggested she was heavily focusing on her Pesquisa to sense what was ahead.
The sound of movement turned out to be a whole troop of Bushwoolies. The odd, white fur balls with mouths filled with serrated teeth also sported stubby but strong arms and legs, and there were scores of them hauling platforms laden down with tarp covered shapes, most larger than a truck. Di Roy watched as this convoy hauled about ten of these past the junction before it ended, and he glanced back at his companions and whispered, “The heck is that about?”
“Hairy little things aren’t normal here,” Gaw said, sniffing, “Their scent is new, not part of the older tunnels.”
“She’s right,” Roka said, “Bushwoolies normally don’t come down into the Warrens. They serve Catrina and only Catrina. The Smooze was here until his disappearance, and now Chrysalis’ forces control the Warren factories.”
“Something here stinks,” Di Roy said, thinking for a moment, “Let’s follow them.”
“What about Thorax?” Gaw asked, and Di Roy waved a hand at her.
“We’ll still check his place out, but I’m thinking this is tied to that, somehow. I want to see what’s under those tarps and where they’re being taken.”
“Hey, if there’s something screwy going on down there, I’m all for busting the lid off of it,” said Fenice, “I think you’re right that this is probably why your messenger went missing.”
They proceeded with more caution, but fortunately the Bushwoolies were not difficult to follow. As long as he and the others kept their spiritual pressure low, it would’ve taken a focused search with Pesquisa to sense them. The strange fuzzy beasts didn’t have apparent eyes, but Di Roy figured that was less important than the fact that they were so focused on where they were going that however they went about seeing, they weren’t really checking behind them. The whole convoy seemed relaxed, in fact, and the Bushwoolies chartered among themselves in a strange, mish mash of guttural words and clicks that didn’t sound like any Di Roy could grasp, but clearly meant something to the Bushwoolies. Sadly this meant none of their banter yielded any clues, but Di Roy figured they’d see what this was about soon enough.
The heat, smoky scents, and general humidity of the factories was getting more prevalent, making it pretty clear where the convoy was going.
“Anyone else feeling as if there’s too much reiatsu up ahead?” whispered Fenice. “Last time we were down here I wasn’t sensing so many different spiritual pressures.”
“Yes,” said Roka, her one exposed eye closed in focus, “There’s much more energy in general than I ever recall sensing before, either when I lived down here or our more recent ventures.”
“We’ll get a gander at what’s up soon enough,” Di Roy told them, but he couldn’t deny that he was starting to get nervous. A part of him wanted to call this off and return to Adagio, but knew it’d disappoint the boss lady if they came back with barely a scrap of information other than ‘something weird was going down’. His survival instincts were yelling at him that they were walking into a dangerous situation, but dammit Adagio had been generous enough to share the power of that Seed with him and Gaw! It was time they earned their keep and proved to Adagio that the faith she’d placed in her vassals was actually worth something.
Fear now properly wrangled, he led them along, keeping just out of sight of the Bushwoolies, who continued to be oblivious to the fact that they were being followed. The at first distant sense of many overlapping reiatsu signatures now grew much more dense and pervasive. This was accompanied by an obvious and rapid change in the Warrens’ architecture. Di Roy first saw it as a few small pipes and odd conduits built into the wall, but soon this expanded into large sections of the ceiling and even floor sporting an odd techno-industrial feel as stone was replaced with metal and a network of strange conduits.
There was spiritual energy inside these conduits, humming ever so slightly if Di Roy touched them. He sensed that the energy was flowing both to and from the direction they were going, as if some conduits were ferrying power in while others were ferrying it out. Odd, but also convenient, since the extra auras of reiatsu make it even easier for the group to mask their own as they snuck along.
While the group all shared confused looks concerning the nature of the conduits, the Bushwoolie convoy exited into an opening that led to one of the giant underground caverns where the old factories Smooze once operated had existed. ‘Had’ being the operative term. Sneaking up to the lip of the huge ledge of metal that formed a catwalk that expanded to either side of them, it was plain to see that these caverns had undergone an extensive renovation in Smooze’s absence. The factories were completely redone and enlarged, brimming with strange devices and spinning coils of energy that covered their exteriors, while those same conduits built into the ceilings, walls, and floors, hooked up to the factories like a network of tree roots. Aside from the metal reworking, there was now a series of black resin secretions that formed new walls, and most notably a series of pens that lined in neat rows between the factories.
Chrysalis’ army of drones were flitting about everywhere, coming in and out of the renovated factories. They were stockpiling strange resin cases near the pens, or moving boxes of materials being brought in from other tunnels into the factories themselves. Everything was coated in a wash of flickering green lights as the factories spewed this odd light from every barred window or half open metal door, and aside from the buzz of energy or the grinding of machinery, there was a continuous low series of pained howls that Di Roy recognized as distinctly Hollow coming from within the factories.
Gaw’s nose wrinkled instantly and a low growl built in her throat, “Everything smells terrible.”
That was a mild way of putting it. Di Roy had been covering his nose and mouth as well, noting that the air had a horrid, chemical stink to it. “No kidding. What the heck did Chrysalis’ people do to this place? Smooze was a walking pile of puke and didn’t make his factories look or smell so damn creepy.”
“I don’t know if Chrysalis alone is responsible for this,” Roka said, eyes scanning the area carefully, “Look.”
It took Di Roy a few seconds to notice what Roka was pointing out, but his spine shivered when he saw them. These Hollows were near impossible to mistake, for their bodies were built up into meaty hulks with implanted metal limbs, or grossly bloated muscle grafts, or had entirely new limbs sewn or bolted onto their bodies like a madman’s toy collection.
“Grogar...” Di Roy said under his breath, “Damn bastard must have helped Chrysalis renovate everything down here. But the hell are they manufacturing? Not just clothes and furniture like Smooze used to, that’s for freakin’ certain.”
“Get down!” Fenice hissed, pointing as she hit the deck herself, laying so that she could only just barely peek over the lip of the catwalk. The others followed suit, also following her gaze, and Di Roy found himself gulping.
Grogar was here. The old, leather skinned Espada had walked out of one of the factories, striding around like he owned the place. Seeing the Bushwoolies arriving with their loads, Grogar approached them with swift, impatient strides. His voice rang out like a paper rasp across the chamber. “Hurry up you confounded evolutionary reprobates! I’ve been waiting for your shipment for over an hour! If Catrina doesn’t want her servants returned to her with my installed improvements, she’d best send faster ones next time. No, no, stop your worthless groveling! I’ve no time to experiment on your corpses today, so just set those down over there.”
The Bushwoolies, jittering in fear among themselves, rapidly obeyed and set down their payloads along the side of the resin pens. By now Di Roy noticed most of those ones were covered by tarps, but there was something moving underneath many of them. As the Bushwoollies turned and waited, Grogar approached one of the pallets that had been brought in, and he removed the cloth covering of what lay underneath.
Di Roy strained to see, but his eyes narrowed at the sight of what looked like a Hollow laying on the pallet. Not dead, but rather insensate, as if drugged. Not a lesser Hollow, either, but what looked like an Adjuchas-class. Were all of the pallets carrying those?
Grogar muttered something, but Di Roy couldn’t hear what he was saying now that he wasn’t yelling. He just stood and waved off the Bushwoollies while shouting back towards the factory doors, “Get these candidates into Stage One processing immediately!”
At his command, a pair of his modified Hollow servants came trundling out of the factory and began hauling the pallets inside, while Grogar looked on with a pleased expression. Suddenly Di Roy could hear what the Espada was saying, and glanced down to notice a small reishi thread hovering near him, and then Roka giving him a nod as she held up her hand with the extended threads, another one of which she’d sent floating down towards the factory grounds.
“Only thirty units produced thus far,” Grogar’s voice, now picked up by Roka’s thread and transferred up to the group, “I suppose I should be pleased, but that damn human girl ruined my main lab. I had twice as many ready Stage Ones finished! All incinerated, along with weeks of research. It’s been a royal pain in the backside trying to recoup the loss.”
There was a pause. Was he having some kind of long distance conversation with someone? Di Roy didn’t see anyone else down there. Given who this was, it wasn’t hard to imagine Grogar probably had devices to talk over a long distance. He paused for a good while before he responded to whatever the other person had just said.
“No, I can’t. Three Stage Twos are all we have to work with. Oh shut it! I’m a genius, not a miracle worker! The destruction of my main lab was a blow I cannot simply undo. Be glad we have what we do. Forty percent of our forces will have the new armaments, but no more than that. ...No, Adagio Dazzle will not be a factor. She had never been a factor. Oh, but you enjoy the idea of her playing her games, don’t you? Sorry to disappoint, but I’m certain she’ll learn her place once the plan is in full swing. That, or destroy herself in pointless struggle. Either way, she’s an experiment that has outlived the usefulness of her data. Now cease bothering me while I am working. Tell Lord Tirek that I will be ready by the deadline. As for the Stage Three... well, no need for him to know about that, is there? Not when we both know you intended it for yourself, yes?”
Grogar’s voice faded, for he’d walked back into the depths of one of the factories, and Roka was not going to risk extending her threads any further, lest they be discovered. For a minute or silence no one in the group said anything, but eventually Gaw said, “Adagio will want to know. But we must first find her male.”
Di Roy let out a puff of a grunt, “Yeah I have no idea what we just heard, but it all sounds bad to me. As for Thorax, I’ll give up human world junk food for a month if that dude isn’t somehow tied up in this crap. Either he’s a part of it, or he found out about it, and got caught by his mommy dearest before he could tell Adagio.”
“Still need to find him,” Gaw pointed out, and her nose wrinkled further, “This place is too smelly to make it easy, but if he was down here, I can pick up his scent.”
“That was the plan for the club,” Di Roy said, “I still say we check there first, then try to work our way around. We don’t find his trail anywhere down here, we go back to Adagio to tell her what we’ve found. This shit is too important to wait, I’m thinking.”
“Then let’s get moving, fast.” said Fenice, scooting away from the edge of the catwalk so she could stand without easily being seen by anyone below. However just as she did so, she was yanked up with sudden force from behind and thrown to the left, hurled like a sack right into the wall alongside the catwalk on the left. The impact left a decent crater, but Fenice had instinctively activated her Fullbring and hardened herself against the impact. She was still partially stunned with the air knocked out of her as she landed on one knee. From her pendant a blaze of molten lava poured forth, forming her claymore, while the others all stood and spun to face their attacker.
“If you’re looking for my brother, he’s under house arrest.”
Pharynx stood in the opening of the tunnel they’d come out of earlier, his towering bulk of dark skinned muscle all but acting as the world’s largest roadblock as his meaty arms crossed in front of him. Di Roy let out a profuse swear, kicking himself for carelessness. The same pervasive spirit energies filling the air from the factories that let him and the group sneak up undetected also worked both ways; letting others more easily sneak up on them. On top of that, the chemical scents from the factories probably masked Pharynx's smell from Gaw's keen nose.
Everyone turned to face him as Pharynx's bored holes at the three Arrancar and one human girl, and he certainly didn’t look intimidated by their numbers as he growled, “And unfortunately for you lot, my mother has given me clear orders to deal with any intruders who don’t belong down here.”
Gaw growled back, already drawing her curved Zanpaktou, while Di Roy put a hand on his own, more hesitant to attack. He was all too aware the second a fight started, there was a whole damn army of Hollows down in the factories who would be on top of them in minutes. The general aura of conflicting spirit energies from the factories may have helped them hide up until now, and it would probably mask the first few moments of a fight, but if Pharynx got serious, Di Roy knew they’d have to get serious too, and there was no way the lackeys down below wouldn’t take notice.
“Hold up a sec,” he said, playing for time and information, “Why’s Thorax under house arrest?”
Pharynx’s insanely square and manly jaw clenched slightly at the question, “He openly defied our mother’s instructions. He ought to have known how that would turn out. He’s lucky she favors him so much that a little... incapacitation is all that happened. That poisonous wench you serve can forget it if she thinks she can use my brother against his own family, that’s for damn sure.”
Di Roy got the distinct feeling that Pharynx was not totally in the loop, himself. It sounded like he was following Chrysalis’ orders without much question, unlike his more independent thinking brother. He also was probably misconstruing the nature of Adagio and Thorax’s relationship. Maybe. Di Roy wasn’t one hundred percent sure if the boss lady and Thorax didn’t have something going on that was beyond professional, but it was rather hard to tell with the way Thorax joked around with and toyed with just about everyone, and Adagio kept her cards so close to the chest that she could probably juggle multiple relationships without anyone noticing. Kind of a moot point at the moment with the towering, muscle bound roadblock that was Pharynx standing in front of him, barring their path out of here.
Pharynx’s reiatsu was heating up, becoming a visible aura of mixed vermillion red and deep lavender purple that steamed off of his body as he reached behind his back. There, he grasped the shaft of his glaive shaped Zanpaktou, leveling the polearm with its long, curved blade head towards them.
“Now, if you surrender quietly, I might be inclined to see if mother wants to keep any of you alive.”
“Are you certain you wish to engage in combat with us?” asked Roka, showing no sign if she was intimidated or not as she kept her hands calmly folded in front of her, “If my sister and I went missing, how do you think our father would respond?”
Pharynx snorted in bleak amusement, “Why should I care? If the Lament wishes to challenge the territory of the Second Espada, he is welcome to make the attempt.”
“Yeah, sounds like we’re done with the talky portion of this,” Di Roy said with a shrug, “Gaw! Violence time! You and me, we make an opening for Roka and Fenice to beat feet out of here!”
“Gladly!” Gaw all but growled with eagerness for action dripping from her voice. She vanished in a Sonido of such force it actually bent and twisted the catwalk underneath her as she flung herself at Pharynx. Her inwardly curved blade spun as she did, turning herself into a vertical saw of slashing motion. Pharynx met the headlong attack with equal speed and ferocity, twisting his glaive and slashing up with strength that ripped through the ground before smashing the polearm’s blade into Gaw’s.
The air shivered with power, and Di Roy couldn’t even tell which was stronger, Gaw’s sawing attack, or Pharynx’s cleaving counterblow, but both attacks sent the combatants reeling back after a booming blossom of sparks. Gaw hit the ground, clawed hands and feet ripping long furrows in the ground until she was flung off the catwalk and had to skid across the air instead.
Pharynx was shoved into the side of the tunnel wall, cracking the stone, but it didn’t even slow him down as he charged out, aiming for Roka.
Di Roy wasn’t having any of that, and got in front of Roka with a quick Sonido while shouting, “Get moving already, you two!”
He raised his sharktooth blade just in time to block a punishing downward cleave from Pharynx’s glaive, and struggled not to get forced down to his knees. He knew he was stronger than he’d been before eating part of the Seed, but it was still utterly ridiculous how physically powerful Pharynx was. Di Roy knew that Chrysalis' special kids weren’t normal Arrancar, but it was still a whole different thing to feel the power behind those corded muscles and sense the surging waves of murderous reiatsu rising inside Pharynx.
This guy could readily be an Espada. Thorax probably could, too. The only reason they weren’t, it seemed, was because it served Chrysalis’ purposes more to keep them closer to hand. Could he and Gaw win? Di Roy couldn’t tell. Neither he or Gaw had really cut loose after the Seed. All he knew was, do or die, they had to buy Roka and Fenice a chance to-
Lava speared forward in a hose-like burst, and with searing heat struck Pharynx in the right side. The bubbling heat caused him to let out a clear grunt of pain, even as his aura of spirit energy protected him from the worst of the scalding lava hosing. Fenice followed her blast of lava with a roaring charge, thrusting her claymore in front of her and trying to pierce Pharynx’s side. He side stepped away from it, but Fenice used her Fullbring to step off the ground at high speed and turned her thrust into a spinning slash that Pharynx had to block. Even as he did so, stopping the claymore dead, a splashing wave of magma shot out of the blade and tried to encase him.
He dodged upwards, flipping and slashing with his glaive. Dark, purple reiatsu formed around the blade and slashed out at Fenice in an arc, but before it could make contact scores of silvery threads of reishi slashed through the air and cut the arc of destructive power apart. This caused a series of smaller detonations, but all were mostly harmless as Roka, still controlling her reishi threads, held her hands up and ready to send them on the attack.
“We’re not going anywhere,” said Fenice to Di Roy, “Right sis?”
“Indeed,” replied Roka, “The four of us will escape together, or not at all. I believe our combined strength is enough to deal with this man.”
“It isn’t him I’m most worried about,” Di Roy said, glancing back to see Gaw was leaping back to the catwalk to join them, but by now there was a stir amid the Hollows working around the factories. Both the Bushwoolies and a number of Grogar’s altered servants were now looking up towards them.
“We stay here too long and we’re gonna get surrounded. Or worse, Grogar will notice the noise and show up.”
“Then we rip this one apart fast,” said Gaw, “And run over his corpse!”
Pharynx, having landing from his flip right in the middle of the exit tunnel, just readied his glaive with a daring smirk and used one hand to make a ‘come on’ gesture at the four of them, “Go ahead and try.”
----------
Despite Celestia’s words, there was a lot that needed to be done before Clover would assume the full duties as the Thirteenth Division’s Captain. The Soul Society was still in an emergency situation, and any official transfers of power would still have to wait until after Scorpan’s funeral. As such Clover had at least a few days to acclimate herself to the idea, and prepare as she wished. The Thirteenth Division had already been informed of the decision, so Clover was forced to deal with the awkward sensation of having many familiar faces suddenly giving her far more deference than she was used to as she left the barracks. Before she left, she did ask the Third Seat, Inkwell, if she could be provided a set of Division regulations and roster, so she could at least start familiarizing herself with it, which had only taken a mere half hour.
Then Clover had all but fled, while trying to at least make her exit with some dignity.
She needed clear air to get her head on straight, and she was worried about her friends back in Canterlot City. Word had already been sent about Scorpan, but Clover was concerned over what the girls’ next move was going to be, especially with Sunset in such a state. While Sunset may have grown well past Clover in terms of power, it didn’t change that in Clover’s mind she was still partly responsible for “training” Sunset as a Substitute Soul Reaper. With Hokori no Hikari damaged, and Sunset likely to want to talk with her Zanpaktou directly, Clover wanted to be there to at least provide moral support.
Besides all that, the atmosphere in Soul Society was far too tense for her to really think properly. It was as if everything was now a reminder of the wretched truth Zero Division had handed down; that the entirety of what the Soul Reapers existed for was built on a foundation of falsehoods. Clover didn’t know how much the other Captains would even allow to get out, about that. Would Celestia, upon assuming the mantle of Captain Commander, share the whole truth of things with all Soul Reapers?
Was that even the correct thing to do? If things felt tense now, then disclosing the full truth might well burn everything down. Mass desertions, or outright rioting might take place. Rebellion on a scale much worse than what happened when Celestia and Luna had been imprisoned. The truth could gut Soul Society and the Gotei 13 far worse than any Arrancar or Quincy invasion could.
Yet somewhere deep in Clover’s gut, she knew the truth should be told.
Just like the truth of Hitsuyo-Aku and Xcution had needed to come out in regards to her friends, and she’d dug to bring that information to them, there had to be some kind of foundation of truth and principles in regards to the Soul Society as well.
If the lie could destroy them, then they had to somehow learn to deal with that lie and in whatever aftermath came after, build a new set of foundations based on truth.
...But was she anywhere near strong enough to help with building such new foundations? In her heart, she still felt utterly out of her depth. Doubt dogged her every thought. So much so she barely felt Meadowbrook’s reiatsu until he was nearly right next to her. She had reached the long walkway up to the Senkaimon Gate tower by the time she turned and gave a brief yelp of surprise at Meadowbrook, who gave off a bemused laugh at her reaction.
“Head in the clouds, soon-to-be Captain?”
“Y-you heard about that already? I assume Captain Starswirl told you?” asked, flushed with that fresh feeling of doubt and the sense of how absurd it seemed that she was being promoted to such a position. She expected some level of teasing from Meadowbrook, but instead there was just an air of satisfaction from his knowing smile.
“Of course he did. I’m going to have to work out who’ll be the new Third Seat after you, you know? It’s going to be a loss, given you’ve got way more skill at managing the research teams, but I’ll just have to adjust.”
“I’m not sure I was ever all that skilled,” she said, but he shook his head with vigor.
“Nonsense. Why do you think you kept getting tapped as a sub at the Academy? Why do you think Starswirl fully backed you being the mentor to the Substitute Soul Reaper when Sunset Shimmer first gained her powers? Honestly I’m shocked you never even thought of transferring to the Thirteenth Division. It was clear even to me your talents were suited there.”
Clover now felt like maybe he was getting to the teasing, and gave him a light, only half hearted glare, “I joined Twelfth Division because I enjoyed helping with research, and the pursuit of knowledge. My Zanpaktou is literally named ‘Knowledge’. As much as this promotion is an honor, I almost feel like you and Captain Starswirl are shuffling me off.”
“Hah, nothing could be further from the truth! Personally I’d like to keep you around, but bottom line is that you’re probably among the only people qualified to even try taking on the Thirteenth Division Captainship,” Meadowbrook replied, and it was then that Clover noticed he’d been carrying something, a rectangular object wrapped in a black cloth and tied with string.
Ignoring it for the moment, she tried to shrug off his praise and began to resume her walk up the long walkway towards the Senkaimon Gate tower. He followed her pace, while she said, “I don’t know about that at all, Lieutenant. Putting questions of my power aside, or even my ability to do the administrative work of the role... I don’t know how I feel about Soul Society right now.”
“I had a feeling. You’ve been avoiding the Division labs, and spending as much time as you can in the human world, then this sudden loss of the Captain Commander. Everyone is wondering about the details and gossip is spreading fast. Most just know it was another Soul Reaper that killed the Old Man, and everyone can guess the only ones capable of that are them. Zero Division.”
Clover frowned deeply, “You know I can’t say anything, right?”
“I’m aware. But you do know more, because you must have been at the summit. I won’t ask, but I can guess a lot from the way you look. Things are bad, really bad. I’ve never seen you look this lost, and I know it isn’t just doubt over becoming a Captain.”
Meadowbrook’s words were gentle, but had a sharp point hidden in them that Clover recognized as his own signal that he had deduced the reasons she was so unsteady and filled with doubts. She remained silent, unable to say anything, or rather not really trusting herself not to blurt out the truth, which she wasn’t authorized to say. And a part of her was angry at herself for still feeling the kind of loyalty to Soul Society that’d keep her silent. Why shouldn’t she just blurt the truth? Go yell it from every tower and street corner? Didn’t everyone deserve to know?
Why did she still have faith in a system that had been built on lies?
But it wasn’t the system she had faith in, was it? It was the people in it, whether good leaders like Celestia, or honest peers like Meadwobrook, it struck Clover that Soul Society was filled with decent people who cared far more for the principles Soul Society was supposedly built on than the deceivers who created the system in the first place.
And, ultimately, Clover believed Sunset Shimmer and her friends would bring all of those lies crashing down, along with Zero Division.
“You’re right, Meadowbrook. It’s bad. Worse than any scenario you could imagine,” she said, but then forced herself to take a calming breath and bring out a smile, however shallow it may be, “But while I can’t tell you the details, I can tell you that I believe we’re going to get through it. And the Substitute Soul Reaper I trained, and the girls from the living world I befriended, will be the ones to set things right, as long as we all do what we can to back them up. That, more than anything else, is why I’ll be trying my best as Thirteenth Division’s new Captain.”
Meadowbrook cracked a satisfied smile and held up the package he’d been carrying, “Then I’ll call my pep talk a rousing success! On top of that, I didn’t just pop up out of nowhere for no good reason. Kido Corps Chief Puddinghead came by the labs looking for you, and then when I told him you were elsewhere he shoved this package at me and commanded I deliver it to you ‘with the speed of terror at the miffed wrath of Puddinghead’. Given I prefer not to have my body fried by storms of lightning or frozen in eternal ice, I decided to track you down.”
Clover felt a cold sweat break out on her forehead as she now knew the origin of the dubious package. Much as she was grateful to the Kido Corps Chief for his intensive training course, she still wondered just how close she came to not surviving it! Just what could that frightful tempest of a Kido master be sending her? With all the air of someone picking up a poisonous spider, she took the package from Meadowbrook and opened it.
As the cloth fell away, it revealed a wooden case with a letter scroll attached to it. Gulping, she opened the letter first, unfurling the scroll and reading the bombastically written kanji within.
“Dear acceptably adequate student,
Rejoice! Kiss the ground in gratitude, for I, the ever magnanimous Puddinghead, have decreed you to be worthy of my further attention! Not personal attention, as I’m very busy and have other things to be doing than looking over your shoulders, girl, but you showed sufficient intelligence and competence for me to believe you’re actually capable of surviving having your soft brain meats stuffed with further knowledge of my epic Kido! Contained within this case, which is carved out of mahogany I might add, are a selection of training scrolls for my rare, limited edition, one of a kind, totally mind blowing Kido spells designed by me, the greatest Kido savant of this or any other age! Beware, small girlish pupil, for to undertake learning these spells is to put your very soul into the pits of Hell! Figurative Hell, because real Hell apparently got trademarked by those unoriginal bastards in Zero Division. Losers. So this is my very own, special deluxe Puddinghead Training Hell, which is better than the normal Hell in every way... in terms of PAIN and TERROR for those too weak to learn these spells. But you’re not weak, are you? No, I hear you’re being promoted to Captain. Very nice for you I’m sure, but we both know learning more of my spells is by far the greater honor. Now then, I can just imagine your uncontainable excitement at the prospect of risking life, limb, and sanity to learn these spells, do don’t let me keep you. Go on then, shoo, get to learning, girl, and don’t let me catch you dead without having learned them!”
To say that Clover was struck dumb, and more than a tad intimidated, was an understatement. She rolled up the scroll and tucked it into her robes, still sweating as she took the case and tucked it under her arm, “Oh my... I’ve really stepped in it with that man.”
“Should I even ask?” inquired Meadowbrook.
Clover just gave him a nervous smile and said, “Well let me put it to you like this, either I’m going to survive what’s in this case, after which I can probably assume I can handle the Captain role as well as anyone else, or I’ll very likely be dead and hence not have to worry about it. Either way, doubts solved.”
----------
Adagio had not sat on her hands in regards to the underground water tunnels that ran beneath Las Noches. With direct access to the new lake that had appeared when she’d evolved into a Vasto Lorde, she’d taken the time to carve out new tunnels and ensure she had a decent sized network that let her get around as she pleased. It also was handy for the development of the whole indoor plumbing situation, or lack thereof, that Las Noches had issues with. More importantly, it meant that when the Coalition embassy had been chosen, she’d already grasped the value of having a tunnel that led directly to it. If she’d known Fluttershy was coming earlier, she could have met her at the embassy, but as it stood it was still useful to transfer their planning session over there in an unseen manner.
Adagio left Dumbell and Usagi with instructions to keep watch for Gaw and Di Roy’s return from their mission to seek out Thorax, then took Fluttershy and Gilda down to a chamber below the foundations of Las Noches’ wall. The chamber was essentially a big underground reservoir that Adagio had created with the aid of her vassals, which fed a public bath house next door, the exterior swimming pond, and several drinking areas for her people to use. The reservoir itself was also what hid several underwater tunnels she used to get into the larger network, and with simple water control it was easy for her to form a bubble to carry herself, Fluttershy, and Gilda along.
No tunnel went had been built into the embassy, given it was only just established, but no time like the present. It wasn’t as if carving through sand and stone with high pressure water jets was hard. For now she didn’t mind of Guto knew Fluttershy and Gilda had met with her, but she wanted to maintain some deniability by at least not strutting right into the embassy in the open, especially if this whole plan was going to involve the Quincy. For all Sunset Shimmer’ ambitions of using her Coalition to forge a newfound peace, Adagio doubted the animosity between Hollows and their adversaries was going away anytime soon. But then again, it didn’t necessarily have to all at once. Gradual changes could be encouraged with the right... pressures applied. Of course she had to survive long enough to get into a position to apply those pressures.
At least getting into the embassy was easy, coming at it from underground.
Adagio admitted to taking some genuine satisfaction at seeing the unnerved incredulity on Gilda’s face as the other Arrancar watched her work. Adagio was using her power to create an air bubble around herself, Gilda, and Fluttershy, while generating a series of extremely pressurized, cutting discs of water around them that dug through the ground as readily as a blow torch through ice.
“Geeze you are such a damn show off,” Gilda groused, watching Adagio work, to which Adagio spread a pleased smirk towards her.
“It’s okay, Gilda,” said Fluttershy, patting Gilda’s arm, “Adagio has her specialties, as do you. You’ll be very important to helping us get to Fleur de Lis.”
“Only because I know the damn interior of Guto’s tower so well,” Gilda said, “I can’t really afford to have it publicly known I’m helping you guys any more than Adagio can. Wish we’d avoided running into those jerks on the way to Adagio’s place.”
While technically true, Adagio was already thinking along parallel lines and making plans, “Don’t concern yourself too much with that. I already have an idea or two on how to handle that. We need to lean into the opportunities Sunset’s embassy presents and take advantage of Las Noches’ obsessive culture of might making right.”
“I don’t get what you mean,” Gilda said, and Adagio tried so very hard not to look like she was condescending to the burlier woman. Gilda was willing to be helpful, and making an effort. Adagio figured she ought to do the same.
“I’ll explain in full once we’ve all the participants in the same room. If all goes well, you and I will come off smelling like roses, while Guto gets to be embarrassed again. Or dead, depending on how things go. I trust that won’t be an issue for you?”
Adagio could readily read the shudder of emotions playing over Gilda, from the clenching hands, the thinned out lips pressed hard enough to go pale, and the quick intake of breath. There was a lot of anger and fear rippling through Gilda in equal measure, but she nodded, face stone. “I’ve cut ties. Mostly. There’s a few who’re with him I don’t... want to see hurt, but I’m not about to crumble under sentimental bullshit either. If Guto’s got to go down, he goes down, along with anyone who’s still standing with him. Just... not really sure how you plan to pull this off without this whole Quincy business screwing us over.”
“Patience,” Adagio said, and felt the solid flooring above her giving way as her cutting sphere of water finally finished tunneling upwards into what she assumed to be one of the rooms of the embassy.
The water burst out of the ground and Adagio let it dissipate and slow into a harmless splash as she hopped up, and almost immediately had to raise an arm to catch a massive, absurdly colorful and pink hammer smashing down at her head. She felt not only a strong impact that her immense might halted, albeit with a numbing sensation, but a burst of odd reiatsu that suddenly turned her left arm into a springy noodle!
Leaping backwards, Adagio landed in the chamber, grunting annoyance as her left arm just sort of flopped about for a moment like rubber before her own reiatsu pushed back against the odd effect on it. Her arm made a loud, ridiculous ‘sproing’ noise as it popped back to normal, and she was left looking at her assailant in vast irritation while Fluttershy and Gilda crawled out of the hole in the ground.
“Seriously, Pinkie Pie? Are your senses such mush you didn’t recognize my reiatsu as I tunneled in?”
Pinkie Pie, holding her hammer over her shoulder, blinked a few times at Adagio, then noticed Fluttershy and Gilda. “Huuuuuh? Oh! Wow, so that’s what your spirit energy feels like, Daggie?”
Adagio’s eyebrow twitched, “Don’t call me that, please.”
“Ahaha! Sorry, I guess that was Sonata’s thing, huh? But nope, didn’t recognize you at all! We’ve like, never hung out since you got all Hollowy and cool. Just felt a whole bunch of weird Hollow energy surging up from below, breaking into the embassy, and I was all like ‘Should I keep playing pinball or go check out that intruder situation?’”
“Wait, what do you mean you don’t know what my energy feels like!? I was at Everfree, you dolt! I fought Luna at full power!” Adagio argued, but Fluttershy was fast to cut in.
“It’s not that odd, really. We were all busy with so many things, I doubt Pinkie Pie was really paying attention to every reiatsu that was around that day. For example, I know that Applejack’s father was there, too, but I’m not sure I could pick his rieatsu out from other Hollows. Not unless I spent a lot more time around him.”
“Ugh, fine, I suppose that’s fair. Still, be more careful with that hammer. I don’t need it doing anything weird to me. I swear your power is the strangest among you.”
“Thanks!”
“I wasn’t compli...you know, never mind. Where is Twilight and her Quincy? I’d like to get down to business, not shoot the breeze.”
The chamber they were in was spacious, and shaped with one wall being semi-circular, curving between two straight walls, like a one-quarter slice of a pie. It was furnished like a college dorm’s break room, with couches arranged around a TV, a foosball table set in one corner, a pinball machine in another, and the walls lined with counters bearing a fridge, microwave, and cabinets no doubt filled with enough junk food to satisfy a small army of teenagers. It was almost painfully mundane for being in the middle of Las Noches, but Adagio certainly felt it vibed with Sunset and her friends.
There were doorways on either wall, one of which opened to reveal Twilight Sparkle, who looked at those gathered with knowing expectation. “Ah, good, that was you I was sensing, Adagio. And...”
Her eyes slid towards Gilda, and Adagio sensed a brief, chilling sensation from Twilight’s reiatsu. It didn’t last long, but for a moment Twilight’s eyes were utterly obscured by the glint of her glasses, her voice gaining a flinty edge. “Gilda. Interesting. Well, please, follow me and I’ll introduce you formally to my team, and we can begin.”
She vanished back into the room she’d opened the door from, and Adagio glanced at Gilda, “You know, I’d nearly forgotten you and her had some history.”
“What of it?” Gilda said, arms firmly crossing over her chest, mouth twisted in defensive ire, “It was war, people get killed. I’m not sorry for doing what’s normal in a fight. If she or her Quincy pals want to give me guff over killing one of them, they can shove it right up their...”
She trailed off at Fluttershy’s look, the other girl not wearing any judgment on her features, merely a serene and soothing gaze that met Gilda’s eyes and didn’t blink. Gilda did, however, blinking and looking away from Fluttershy’s intensity. “Whatever, I won’t make beef over it if they don’t, you know?”
“I understand, Gilda,” Fluttershy said, “Just also try to understand them, too, okay? Just like you didn’t ask to be made into a ruthless warrior by Guto, they didn’t really ask to be born as Quincy and raised in a not-so-dissimilar culture of warfare. You were both raised to see the other as enemies. That has to start changing somewhere, however slowly.”
“Don’t see why it’s got to be me to do it,” Gilda muttered, “I suck at this stuff.”
“It’s easier than you’d think,” said Pinkie Pie, her eyes having shifted briefly to a bright yellow instead of baby blue, “It’s all about learning to go with the flow instead of trying to force things. Pinks and me were at odds forever, until we learned to mesh.”
Her eyes snapped back to blue and Pinkie giggled, scratching her head, “Aw, we weren’t that at odds, Mena, but it does feel great having you back in my head. You’re like my comfort pillow with teeth.”
Gilda looked at Pinkie with a faint sense of confusion mixed with horror, but Adagio passed her, saying, “Don’t think so hard about what the crazy pink one says. I don’t. As for Twilight and her Quincy team, I merely ask that you try not to fight with them for now. Now let’s not keep them waiting.”
Passing through the doorway, they found themselves in another similarly shaped pie-slice chamber, although this one was notable because it had two levels, with a stone stairwell carved into the circular side of the wall that led up to a ledge that overlooked the rest of the room, with multiple small columns helping keep the ledge up. Beneath the ledge was a set of desks with adjoining filing cabinets and computers on them. The rest of the ground floor had sets of waiting chairs like one might find in a doctor’s office, along with customary water cooler and table of magazines. Adagio had to wonder if Discord or someone else was choosing this set up, but it gave off a serious office air. Up on the second story ledge there was a long, sleek black conference table that was curved just like the ledge was, and within the concave portion of the table was a large, high-tech looking projector screen that was essentially one big pane of glass framed in marble that was etched with kanji symbols. A Soul Reaper device, probably, given the kanji, Adagio surmised. The conference table was otherwise surrounded by a set of tall, black office chairs, and there were several laptop computers set on the table itself, one of which was connected to the big screen display via several cables.
Up on the ledge, at the conference table, Twilight was joined by the Quincy girls that Adagio recognized from vague memories of the attack on the cadets that felt as if it had happened so long ago.
There was already a heated atmosphere among these Quincy as Adagio, Gilda, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie all entered the room. A freckles, yellow skinned girl with magenta hair bearing a green streak, tied in a high ponytail, had one hand slammed on the table while waving the other hand at Twilight, not quite shouting, “Are you goddamn kidding me!? Why the hell are we working with her!?”
Seated nearby at one of the comfortable looking high backed office chairs situated around the table, a girl with short cropped purple and pink streaked hair, along with light blue skin, was far less loud than her compatriot but wasn’t hiding her bothered grimace. “Can’t say I’m a fan of this development, either, Twilight.”
“I understand,” said Twilight, eyes shifting around the table where others in Quincy uniforms were seated. Adagio noted that only one of them was an older woman, while the rest were girls Twilight’s age. The woman had a skin tone similar to the girl who last spoke, which briefly made Adagio wonder if there was a family relation, but she decided against it as there was little else the two shared in features. Twilight continued to speak as Adagio and the rest came up the stairs to the ledge, her voice carrying a weight of authority that Adagio was still getting used to hearing from the girl.
“I haven’t forgotten Gilda’s actions, but we have a mission to accomplish that is too important to allow personal feelings to interfere with. Indigo Zap...” Twilight looked at the girl at the furthest part of the conference table from the stairs, who rather than sitting was awkwardly pacing. Adagio noticed that while this girl’s legs were covered by her uniform, there was a faint clacking sound from them with each step she took.
“Yeah...?” Indigo said, eyes shifting uneasily towards Twilight, and notably trying not to look towards Gilda.
“Will you be okay? I can let you sit this one out, if you need to.”
It was hard for Adagio to tell if Twilight was being kind or harsh. There was a simple frankness to Twilight’s words. She wasn’t judging Indigo. Just laying out that if Indigo wasn’t comfortable being on a mission with Gilda, there was an option to opt out.
Indigo Zap paused, the clack of her legs going silent. She closed her eyes and took a very deep, slow breath, before forcing herself to open her eyes and look directly at Gilda.
Gilda stared back, arms crossed, saying nothing, but there was a visible discomfort in her eyes that looked as if they wanted to look away.
Finally Indigo turned and took a seat at the table, “I’m in, Twilight. If she’s got to be here for whatever reason, I can deal. Don’t like it, but I can deal. Let’s just get this done and go home with Fleur.”
“You sure you feelin’ that, Indigo?” asked a girl fidgeting across the table from her, one Adagio felt was on a similar wavelength to Pinkie Pie or Sonata, given the way she kept looking like she wanted to bounce out of her seat, “I mean, your legs...”
“Got cut off. Yeah, Lemon, I freakin’ know. I’m using these, admittedly bitchin’, artificial legs Twi was cool enough to make for me, but not like complaining is going to fix anything. She’s here, we’ve got to live with it.”
“Not to mention what happened to that poor McColt girl,” said Sunny, but Gilda at that point went up to the table and plopped down in one of the seats, her bulk making the chair seem almost comically small by comparison.
“You all finished?” Gilda said, “Need me to recap it all in detail? Yeah, I tried to kill all of you. Beat the shit out of most of you. Took the blue haired chick’s legs, and blew up some other chick whose name I never bothered learning. You want me to apologize? Would that fix anything? Undo it? Don’t answer; we all know it wouldn’t. We were fighting on opposite sides of a war, and you all would’ve killed me if you could’ve, right? Well... things change. Not a lot, but enough that I’m here not as an enemy. You’re planning to bust out one of your own from Guto’s tower, a place I know the ins and outs of. My help might mean the difference between pulling this off without a hitch, or a fight where even more of you scrawny chicks will end up dead. Don’t want that help? Fine, I can leave. I’m only here because Adagio’s proven she’s smarter than me and probably has a decent plan, and Fluttershy... asked for my help. That’s it. Don’t like it? Cool, I don’t care.”
There was silence for a few moments, before Indigo Zap, still glaring, but also showing... well not a smile but rather barred teeth, “Wow, you’re way more long winded than I remember. Did you rehearse that speech or something?”
Gilda flipped her off, “Kiss my ass.”
“Rather kick it, but since you’re here as an ally this time around, I’ll hold off,” Indigo replied, returning the finger, “And if you do know the area we’ve got to infiltrate, I’m not stupid enough to say no to the help.”
“Good...” Gilda said, looking around almost plaintively towards Adagio and Twilight, clearly wanting to move on from this awkward part of the conversation.
Adagio coughed politely and gestured towards the open seats, “Let’s all just sit down and start getting to the meat of this, before anything comes along to derail the situation further.”
“Oh! We’re not arguing anymore?” Pinkie said, eating popcorn that she had acquired form places unknown, and she just as rapidly returned to the ether by tossing it over her shoulder and leaping the table to land on a chair, swiveling around on the chair, “Cool beans, we can start the planning! Do we have figurines and a battle map to work with?”
“I think we’ll probably be using the screen, Pinkie,” said Fluttershy, far more calmly sitting down next to her energetic friend. Twilight nodded to Adagio to take a chair towards the center of the table that she then also took a seat next to.
“First off, let me handle a full round of introductions, just so we’re all familiar with each other,” Twilight said, and one by one introduced Sour Sweet, Lemon Zest, Sunny Flare, Indigo Zap, and Sugarcoat, the last of which had kept very quiet while observing the brief argument that had taken place. Adagio noticed Sugarcoat sat at Twilight’s other side, and was sporting an impressive looking visor that covered her eyes. It struck Adagio that the girl may well be seeing more with that visor than she could have with her natural eyes, and it was almost unnerving to not be entirely sure where Sugarcoat was looking at any given moment. The last person introduced was the older woman, Cinch, and upon her introduction she inclined her head towards Adagio, having been giving her a rather sizing up look up until then.
“Sternritter W, a pleasure,” Cinch said, “I’ll be remaining here in the embassy for the most part, but I’ll be your exit strategy for this operation.”
Adagio kept her face carefully neutral. The last intel she had was that the former Sternritter W, Gladmane, was the ‘Weight’, but she knew from the information she’d garnered from Twilight that Schrifts didn’t stay the same between new wielders.
“And what, pray tell, is your ‘W’ representative of?”
“The ‘Window’,” Cinch said, shrugging, “No real reason to hide it, considering I’ll be using my Schrift to extract the infiltration team. It appears to be the only reason I’m here.”
“As mundane as it may sound, Cinch’s presence is critical,” Twilight said, “As she can not only extract us from Guto’s tower quickly, but also remove our presence from Las Noches itself in such a manner that we shouldn’t leave behind any significant evidence we were even here.”
“I’d like to know precisely how it works, as it might change my own plans to a degree,” Adagio said, “But first let’s establish the basics of this whole affair. I trust this screen set up here isn’t merely for decoration?”
“Of course not,” Twilight replied, and Adagio watched as she opened up the laptop that was hooked up to the giant display screen, and began to work at the keys. The big screen lit up and shared the laptop’s own screen, showing Twilight pulling up several exterior photographs in high definition of Guto’s territory. It showed the tall tower of his horde’s “aerie”, with several key points highlighted in vibrant blue with information text boxes next to them.
“Thanks to Sugarcoat’s X-Ray, we’ve been able to obtain a fair amount of intel on the target location. Called the ‘Aerie’, this is the stronghold of the current Seventh Espada, Guto. However as you can see here, there is an expansive camp of tents surrounding the tower that contains a fair number of Arrancar from an allied Espada, the Eighth, Hydia.”
At a keystroke the photos were replaced by a three dimensional model of the tower and surrounding area, upon which a blue dot appeared about two thirds of the way up the tower where it blinked rapidly. “Because of the tracer that Fluttershy helped place on Fleur, we can track her location. Most of her time is spent on this floor, the eleventh, although from my observations she is often moved to areas beneath the tower.”
“The X-Ray has a limit on how much material I can see through at once,” Sugarcoat admitted, “But being able to transmit myself through solid matter allowed me to get close and see that the tower has several basement floors. Looked like a lot of storage and some kind of arena.”
“That’s where Guto makes new prospective warriors fight it out,” Gilda said, face sour, “Along with other bloodsports when he’s bored. It’s popular, too, so if you guys move at the right time, a lot of warriors might be down in the basement level instead of up in the tower or amid those camps.”
“Uh, that’s great and all,” said Lemon Zest, “But why can’t we just have Sugarcoat ghost her way through this whole mess and snatch away Fleur before any Arrancar know what’s up?”
Sugarcoat shook her head, “It’s not that simple. Using the X-Ray gives off spiritual pressure. At a distance I can mask it, but the tower floors are too small for that to work. I try to slip through the floors and walls, and any Arrancar with halfway decent Pesquisa will sense my Quincy reiatsu. If nothing else, we know Guto keeps Fleur close almost all the time, and i doubt I’d get close without him noticing. I sure as heck don’t count my chances of taking him down alone very high.”
“But you can, like, take people with you, right?” Lemon Zest said, prompting a sigh from Sugarcoat.
“I can only bring one or two people with me when I ‘ghost’ through stuff. Sorry, the X-Ray will be handy in spots here, but it can’t solve all of our problems. Too many Arrancar, too many variables.”
“But as Gilda just pointed out, if there’s some manner of event occurring in that arena, then we can potentially empty out a good portion of the tower,” said Twilight, who then tapped the rim of her glasses in thought, “Hmm, but wouldn’t Guto also attend any such event himself? You did just say he enjoys bloodsport.”
“Yeah,” said Gilda, “If anything big is going on down there, he’d be there too. Probably with his pet Quincy. Also wouldn’t put it past Hydia, if she’s hanging out with her horde.”
“Why are those two chilling with their armies camped out together anyway?” asked Sour Sweet, “It’s damn inconvenient.”
“They’re putting pressure on my territory,” answered Adagio, “And I suspect preparing some manner of nasty surprise for me. Which is partially why I’m so willing to aid you girls in this matter, as I’d like to act first and put Guto and Hydia on the defensive before they can spring whatever they have planned for me.”
“So your conundrum is working out how to separate Fleur de Lis from Guto long enough to even enact an extraction while dealing with an area far more saturated with enemy forces than originally anticipated,” Cinch said, her narrow features showing an unpleasant smile at the description of the scenario, her own eyes gazing past her glasses inquisitive at Twilight, “I do wonder how you plan to solve this particular puzzle?”
“Geh, don’t act like you’re not involved in this,” Sunny Flare said, but Twilight held up a hand to quiet her.
“Cinch is merely pointing out that her role in this is already decided as the extraction method. Ultimately whatever plan we come up with, nothing for her actually changes. The real challenge before us is just as she just described. We need a way to get inside without detection, a way to get Fleur away from Guto’s side, and then a way to secure the time to extract, and all preferably without being discovered and allowing this to turn into a battle.”
“How much of a time limit are you constrained by?” Adagio asked, “If we needed a day?”
Twilight shot a questioning look at Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, the former of which offered a smile, “You have the run of the embassy, so you can stay hidden here as long as you need.”
“Then I’d say we can take at least a few days, if that’s what’s needed,” Twilight said, “But why, Adagio? Do you have something specific in mind?”
“As it happens, Fluttershy and I already came up with an idea, although now that I know more of the pieces I have to work with I can amend the plan somewhat,” Adagio said, “I’d just like to also have a bit of time so the people I’ve sent out can return with information on a fri-”
She caught herself before she used the ‘F’ word and amended it to, “-ally of mine.”
Adagio didn’t think her face was coloring, but she was certainly annoyed by the way Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie both gave her knowing smiles and laughed quietly between themselves. She glared, but without much force. She supposed she was glad that Sunset Shimmer wasn’t here, at least, to hear that slip up. It’d be mortifying to think the bacon head would lord it over her that she might be letting any of this friendship stuff infect her perfectly pragmatic mindset.
“Ahem,” said Twilight, “I don’t think a day’s wait will hurt. Indeed it just gives us time to refine our plan, and if this, er, ‘ally’ of yours is important then I imagine it’d benefit us to wait to hear word about them.”
“Thank you,” Adagio said, also trying to suppress a small icicle of worry inside her. She wanted Thorax to be okay, and it bothered her that the desire for that extended beyond the fact that Thorax was a useful ally who could also potentially help with the present situation. She just didn’t like that he’d been out of contact, and was all too aware of how many things could have gone wrong. Worse, she had a bad feeling that even sending her two strongest vassals out, something may have gone wrong for Di Roy and Gaw as well.