Chapter 5
The pair moved along in silence, following the trail of broken branches and disturbed bushes, slowly catching up on the fleeing Jun. Scamp was watching him closely, gauging him and his actions. She wasn’t enjoying the vibe he was giving off, but she was trying to give him at least the benefit of the doubt. This courtesy was only due to his connection to Lance and the original book, as most others she would have put under the lamp by this point.
“We’re getting close,” Frederic announced as they heard the sounds of distant crashing. Jun seems.
“Question,” Scamp suddenly said, causing him to slow momentarily.
“Yes?” he asked, quickly recovering and moving forward at a steady pace.
“The dimension you were trapped in,” she began carefully. “Why did the Watcher put you there?”
“I couldn’t tell you,” he admitted with a sigh. “I never even got to see the guy after he sent us there.”
“It’s just a bit strange he sent you and the others to a different dimension, instead of adding you to his collection,” she pressed, a nonchalant tone to her voice. “Just not his M.O.”
“I really don’t have an answer here. He wanted Lance, not us.”
“Then he’d have killed you,” she added, stepping over a fallen tree. “He wasn’t the kind of foe to mess around.”
“You don’t trust me, do you?” Frederic asked, not slowing down.
“I do not,” she confirmed plainly.
“What can I do to gain your trust?” he said as he turned his gaze to her.
“Want the quick way? Let me into your head to view your memories,” she replied, side eying him hard.
He frowned, but gave a nod. “Okay. We can have Twilight do the spell when we get-”
“Can’t you do the spell?” she asked, her lip curling into a sly smile. “If I remember correctly, Lance has said you could cast it with ease.”
“I don’t think we should do it out here while hunting for a murderous clone,” he countered, but she just shrugged.
“I’ll risk it.”
He clicked his tongue as he started to say something, but an angry yell from up ahead drew his attention. “Hold that thought!” he exclaimed as he rushed down the newly created path.
Scamp narrowed her eyes as she ran after him, his responses not helping his case at all.
They came into a clearing to find Jun punching a lone tree, seeming to be taking his frustrations out.
“Jun!” Scamp called out to him, causing him to stop and turn to them.
His angry expression melted when he saw her, but reignited when he looked at Frederic.
“Scamp, you gotta listen to me, he’s not-” he started to say but he suddenly rocketed towards her and attempted to attack her with an outstretched hoof.
With practiced ease she deflected his attack and allowed him to sail past her, not attacking him. “Hm,” she turned to face him, squaring up with him. “Jun. Tell me exactly what this is about.”
He started to talk, but he launched for her yet again. This time Frederic jumped between them and made a few slices as he flew past, removing one of his front legs and cutting his throat again.
Jun hit the ground and rolled a few times before catching himself, seeming extremely frustrated.
“I got you, Scamp,” Frederic declared, giving her a wink.
“How about you stop ‘helping’ and let me handle this,” she said with a hint of anger in her voice as she dashed towards Jun, who remained where he was and held his remaining foreleg up.
Coming to a stop before him, she grabbed his foreleg and held it firmly. “Now’s your chance, Jun. Speak.”
A gurgling sound escaped his lips as he used a wing to point at his throat.
“Okay. Take your time recovering,” she said, not letting him go and turning them so she could watch Frederic as well.
“Scamp,” Frederic called out.
“What?” she asked, keeping her eyes on both of them.
“I think the best course of action would be to finish him off right here and now. He’s always been a major threat to us in the past, he’ll-”
“Let me handle this,” she interrupted him, watching as the wounds slowly healed, taking note that they were taking longer than they normally did.
“I am, but I’m offering you the best solution to this new threat. Jun will never-”
“Frederic, if you want me to trust you,” she snapped, turning her attention to him. “Then you need to let me handle this the way-” a sharp pain caused her to stop talking as she grunted loudly, turning her eye back to a shocked Jun, his suddenly fully regenerated foreleg outstretched and gripping her now broken wing.
She reacted on instinct as she punched him in the face, sending him skidding back as she sprang back, trying to access her damage.
Jun jumped up and started to move back towards her, but she stopped him with a glare. “Do not move! No one move!” she bellowed, her anger bursting forth as she grimaced at the feeling of her left wing hanging loosely at her side.
“Scamp! Are you-” Frederic started to say, stepping towards her, but she pointed her good wing at him, her eye ablaze with fury.
“I said do not move!” she roared, stopping him in his tracks. “I do not know what the fuck is going on here, but we’re not moving till I figure it out!”
Coughing violently, Jun looked at her, “S-Scamp, I didn’t-”
“Silence for one minute!” she demanded, trying to reel in the situation. This situation had taken a turn and she needed a moment to regain her composure. She’d let her guard down, and now she wasn’t so sure what was going on. Jun seemed to be under some kind of outside influence, but she wasn’t sure if it was from Frederic or Lilith.
“I’m always the fucking bad guy!” Jun exclaimed as he suddenly spun around and took off running into the forest again.
“Jun, freeze!” she yelled, but he continued forward. “Damn it!”
“I got him,” Frederic declared as he took off after him.
“No, you freeze as well!” she ordered, but he just threw a salute towards her and continued after the fleeing Jun.
Gritting her teeth, she knew she needed to chase after them to make sure neither of them killed the other. There were questions she needed answered, and having either of them dead would not help her in the slightest.
Jun led them on a chase through the forest, staying just ahead of them Frederic didn’t seem to be trying to catch up, as he kept pace with Scamp. She kept her attention on him, as her suspicions of him had increased dramatically at this point.
They began to go uphill as Jun tore through anything in his past.
“What is your plan?” Frederic asked as they continued upward.
“My plan?” she hissed. “When we catch up to him both of you are calming down and we are teleporting back to town, then we’ll figure this out with the others.”
“Sounds good to me,” he said with a nod. “I’m sorry if I’ve been difficult, I just do not like being attacked like this. Jun is an old enemy of mine and there’s a lot of history between us.”
“Mhm,” she mumbled back, keeping her eye on him.
Finally they reached the top, where Jun came to a halt right at the edge of a cliff, with a steep fall before him with nothing but forest below.
“Jun, stop,” Scamp ordered as they neared him.
“Scamp, Frederic is the bad guy here, not me!” he yelled as he backed up to the ledge. “I’m being framed.”
“If that’s true,” Scamp said firmly, watching Frederic’s reaction. He remained stoic. “Then lay down and let us take you back to town. We’ll sort everything out then.”
“No one will believe me!”
“If what you say is true, I’m willing to hear you out,” Scamp assured him. “I’ll have them check your memories.”
“You promise?” he asked, his shoulders slumping slightly.
“I promise,” she replied, causing him to start to smile. Then without warning he seemed to spring backward and rocket away into the forest below.
“Damn it!” she cursed as she took a few steps forward, watching him disappear into the trees below. Then she cursed again as she realized she’d taken her eyes off of Frederic.
Spinning around, she found herself face to face with a floating orb.
“So close, Scamp,” Frederic chuckled as the orb began to flash. “Biggest threat my ass.” His smirk slowly faded however as Scamp remained standing, her furious eye locked with his. The orb flashed a few more times as he tried to use it against her, but nothing seemed to happen as she suddenly hit it with her metal hoof, causing it to shatter into tiny shards of glass. A yelp escaped him as he stumbled back.
“So that’s what you did? Mind controlled Lacy?” she snarled, stepping towards him. “I knew there was something up with you.”
“Now, Scamp,” he began, but she pounced on him, taking him to the ground in an instant. Despite his larger size, she was much more skilled than him and she quickly subdued him, holding his hooves behind his back as she pressed his face into the dirt.
“Fuck me, you’re a strong one,” she grunted as he fought against her. “Stop resisting!” she yelled as she elbowed the back of his head. His horn began to glow as a few items appeared around them, but she instantly grabbed his horn with her metal hand and jerked it violently, breaking it at the base.
A loud scream filled the air as Frederic began to thrash about violently, the items dropping around them.
“If you don’t stop, I’m not liable for-” she began, but she suddenly stopped talking as she froze in place.
“You bitch!” Frederic yelled as she shoved her frozen form to the side and rolled to his hooves, grabbing at his stub of a horn. “My horn?!” he roared, his wing holding a runed item in its grasp.
Scamp’s eye was locked on him, confusion mixed in with the anger.
“Fuck!” he yelled out again as he paced around. He then held up the item in his wings grasp. “I bet you’re wondering what the hell just happened, huh?!” he asked angrily as he stepped up to her, waving the item in front of her face. “Well you just made me waste the only one I had! Say hello to being paralyzed for the next five hours!”
He then began to hit her repeatedly, cursing loudly as he did so. “Not that it matters!” he yelled as he continued his ruthless attack. “You won't be alive for it anyways!”
Once he was satisfied, he hefted her up with his hooves and threw her over the cliff's edge.
“For good fucking measure,” he growled as he grabbed one of the items on the ground and twisted it, causing it to glow. He pointed it downward, causing a massive ball of energy to shoot straight down after her.
He couldn’t see if it hit her, so he kept firing it, destroying the entire forest below him. Once he was sure she and possibly Jun were dealt with, he grabbed a second item and tossed it over the ledge. He then teleported away, and moments later a massive explosion destroyed the forest below, and the cliff they’d been on.