Chapter Thirty Six: Rage Defeated
”So, our first fight is with our older brother huh? Hmm… seems like we’ve got our work cut out for us.”
Lapis and Melodrain gazed at Rage and his almighty power. His power clearly outclassed either one of the two standing before him, but together they were just about equal. Rage roared furriously before he charged.
”Oh? Eager to fight so soon are we. I’ll happily oblige!” Lapis leaped into the air, using her wings to fly at Rage’s head. Melodrain rolled his eyes before he followed his sister in the same fashion. Rage attempted to fire a shot out them, but the two fusions dodged, not at all impressed with his fighting skill.
”Is that the best he’s got? How pathetic.”
”To be fair Melo, he has been fighting a lot of battles all at once, both physically and mentally. I’m pretty sure Dad is giving him a hard time in the mindscape. Plus he’s been fighting Ruby and the others, so of course he’s weak now. A shame too, I wanted to have some fun.”
Melodrain shook his head and held out his hand, a medieval style long sword appearing which he grabbed and held in both hands. Lapis smirked and clenched her metal claw into a fist while a pulling a glowing blue whip out of nowhere in her organic hand and snapping it in anticipation.
Lapis looked to Melodrain who nodded before allowing his sister to have the first charge at their opponent. As Rage threw a punch at the cyborg, Lapis dodged to the side before falling onto the arm, running along up until she came to the dragon head that tried to blast her with blood red fire. She swung her whip which stretched like rubber until it was completely wrapped around Rages neck. She pulled the whip back causing Rages head to fly towards her, she held her robotic arm back before bringing it forward with blinding speeds, punching Rage right in the snout and causing hot blood to erupt from the creatures nose.
Lapis took to the skies and gave a thumbs up to Melodrain. ”Hmph, let's get this over with.”
Melodrain readied his sword before swinging it with great force, causing the slash to fly towards Rage, cutting him deeply and causing more blood to erupt from the wound. Melodrain continued to send sword slashes towards his opponent before shooting towards Rage and sinking his blade into the dragon's chest. He then began to run down the body of the beast with the blade still in its flesh, cutting it open before he jumped off and used his free hand to fire a blast of grey energy into the beasts body through the open wound, cause a great deal of internal damage.
”Geez bro, do you gotta be so brutal when fighting? It's our Dad in there y’know?”
Melodrain flew up to his sister's side and stared down at the now shaking Rage. ”There's no time to play with the enemy Lapis, you know that the damage isn't going to affect father and this beast will not show us any mercy, why should we?”
The two turned their heads to the injured Rage, who gave out a mighty roar before he put his claw over his arm cannon and began to build up energy, his body beginning to emit a dark red aura.
He levelled his cannon and unleashed a gigantic wave of energy their way. They both put their weapons away and held out their hands, meeting the blast head on. While being pushed back a little they managed to stop the wave from flying further. Their hands glowed their respective colours and poured their energy into the blast before sending it back at Rage, burning his skin and slamming him face first into the ground.
”Ready to finish this bro?” Lapis received a nod from Melodrain who took out his sword while she changed her metal hand into a blaster and aimed it at the large creature.
As Melodrain got close enough to take the finishing blow Rage raised his head and swallowed him whole. Lapis stopped charging up energy in fear of hitting her brother if she fired through Rage.
As the beast got to its feet and held the large bleeding gash on its torso he jutted to the side and grunted in pain. Soon he was being thrown around wildly and began coughing up large amounts of blood before Melodrain burst out of his chest covered in blood and stomach acids that pushed his clothing and skin slightly. He quickly shook it off and turned to Rage before looking to Lapis and nodding.
Lapis smirked and returned her arm to its normal mode before floating down to her brother and taking his hand. Their eyes glowed as their hands joined, sending their energy into the others bodies. They then held their free hands up and a large gall of grey and blue energy began to form above them.
”Let's finish this.” They both glared at Rage before throwing their hands forward, the ball of energy shining brightly before splitting into hundreds of arrow shaped spears. The two began to send the spears flying into Rage, each causing an explosion of magic as they hit rapidly.
Ruby watched as the stream of arrows began to wear Rage down until the last spear hit him in the eye on his chest with a huge blast.
Lapis and Melodrain landed beside Ruby as they watched Rage fall to the ground defeated. With one last weak roar he closed his eyes and fell limp. His body turned black, Epidemic and Nathan began to separate. Lapis and Melodrain disappeared in a flash of light and the two sets of twins fell on their rears, exhaustion evident on their faces. As Epidemic separated from Rage the twins turned into black liquid and joined back onto their brother, their bodies now together again.
Rage floated into the air slightly as the body began to shift again. Soon it formed into the huge warbot that had been possessed which then landed back on the ground with a loud clang. ”Dad!” Ruby ran over to her father and climbed up onto his huge body. She climbed up to his eye and began looking him over for any signs of damage. ”Dad wake up!”
Nathan's eye flickered back to life and he shifted slightly. “Ow...my head...what the...what the hell happened?” Ruby sighed in relief and hugged the huge warbots eye. “R-Ruby? Is that you? What's going on? Where's...Sapphire and...Lyric?”
“NATHAN!!!” Nathan looked up to see Sonata flying towards him. She landed beside Ruby and hugged his eye. “Oh thank Faust you're alright.”
Nathan just gave a weak chuckle and reached his hand up behind the two. “Heh, you and I both know it will take a hell of a lot more than this to kill me Nata.”
Sapphire and Lyric walked up to the unconscious Epidemic, allowing their mother and older sister to attend to their father. Sapphire just glared at him for almost stealing her father from her while Lyric stood in thought, trying to figure out what had caused so much anger and hate to be contained in a single living being.
”Well, that's that I guess. I wish I could have been the one to blast him, but I guess there's been enough fighting today...You alright bro?” Sapphire asked in concern as she saw Lyrics expression.
”I don't get it…” He began. ”How can one person harbour so much negativity, it's like he's made of anger or something.”
’Well… he kind of is.’ Lyric heard Amnesia say in his mind, a small connection from the fusion remaining.
”Huh? What do you mean?”
’Exactly what I said. Epidemic is the combined form of me and Plague. We first formed him when a villain had hurt our Dad. We thought he was dead, and were so overtaken by anger that Epidemic woke up. He’s been around ever since.’ Lyric looked at Sapphire then back at Epidemic.
”Really? But doesn’t that mean he’s always angry?”
’No, most of the time he’s calm, but kind of scary. He’s cold, cruel, but he loves us.’
”Huh. I guess that’s neat.” Lyric paused. ”But, why’d he attack in the first place?”
’Probably to protect Plague and me. He’s actually really overprotective. If we get hurt by something badly enough, like enough to make us scared or cry, he goes into a rage, destroying whatever caused us pain. I think when we got hit by that massive attack, he assumed the worst and completely lost it. He was probably destroying everything because he blamed all of you for us getting hurt.’ Lyric looked to Epidemic again. This was their fault? Lyric had noticed that Epidemic appeared when Sapphire thought she had destroyed Plague and Amnesia, so he knew they were somehow connected. But that big, ferocious monster was just a by product of his pain and sorrow at the thought of losing them? That made Lyric feel a little bad. Epidemic wasn’t a monster, he was just angry because he had thought he had lost his siblings. Lyric knew if that happened to him, he would probably go into a full blown rage too.
Lyric was about to say something, but then Nathan walked over. He was about to make sure Lyric was okay, but then he saw Epidemic. He immediately leveled his arm cannon and prepared to fire. Ruby was about to jump in front of Epidemic and tell him to stop, but she came to a halt as she saw Nathan lower his cannon slightly. “Those kids from earlier...the ones I had hurt...they're in this guy right?” He asked with shame in his voice.
He looked to Ruby who nodded in response.
He sighed and lowered his gun. “If there weren't children inside of him right now I'd have killed him already...just get his ass out of here, I'm tired of displaced coming into this world and causing havoc.” Nathan turned around and began walking away to try and cool off and hold back his urge to destroy the one who had harmed his children and put his eggs in danger.
Epidemic split apart and became Plague and Amnesia once more, before the two watched him walk off silently. They could already feel Epidemic, Patron, and Psychotic recovering. How long it would take them to recover was anyone’s guess. The two just looked to Ruby questioningly, curious as to what Nathan had meant by his last statement.
”He's had bad experiences with Displaced before, the last one to come here caused a lot of damage. He's not exactly trusting of beings from the void, he even destroyed his own token to stay clear of the multiverse.” She explained with a saddened expression. ”He was willing to give the multiverse another chance by going to your parents wedding, but I think this incident has just caused him to resent displaced even further.”
“But the only reason Epidemic came out in the first place was because Sapphire attacked us!”
Everyone went silent as Nathan stopped as he heard Plague. He slowly turned around and glared at Sapphire who flinched under her father's gaze. “What?” Nathan began to walk towards his daughter with anger in his eye. “You mean that this is all because you jumped the gun and attacked someone!?”
Ruby grabbed Lyrics shoulder and began to lead him and the other twins away from Nathan.
“What were you thinking Sapphire?! I thought we talked about this!” He scolded as he glared down at her with his huge size.
”I was just trying to protect the eggs-”
“And in doing so you put them in even more danger!” Nathan countered angrily. “What exactly did these two children do to provoke you?!” Sapphire remained silent for a moment, sweat drops appearing on her forehead as s he was shaking in fear. “Nothing, they did nothing, right?! For God's sake Sapphire I thought you had more self control than this! I know you were just looking out for your unborn brothers and sisters, but you should have known better! Just like when you tried to destroy the Everfree to protect the eggs!”
Nathan sighed and rubbed his face with his hand as Sonata flew up and rested on his shoulder. “He's right Sapphire, you should have known better.”
Sapphire stuttered while looking around, trying to find some way out of her situation, but came up short. She looked in front of her and saw Nathan's hand open on the ground. “Give me your guns, now.” He commanded in a lower tone. He wasn't enraged or filled with hatred towards Sapphire, he was just angry and disappointed in her. “Give them to me now Sapphire, until you can learn more self control, you cannot be trusted with such firepower, especially not the RYNO 2.”
With tears in her eyes, Sapphire handed over her weapons. Nathan took them and put them in his inventory. He stood up, still giving her that same look.
“We’ll talk about this more in a bit young lady.” Nathan looked out to the destroyed town. “Great, now I need to fix this mess.”
The group slowly began to walk back to Ponyville to see the damage their attack had caused. A lot of ponies were injured, many in the hospital. Plague and Amnesia looked around at the destroyed town. They felt so bad, destruction on this scale was something that their family was supposed to prevent, not cause. Suddenly, they felt Epidemic wake up. No words needed to be spoken, as he looked through the Twin’s memories to see what had happened. He looked at the town through the Twins eyes. Then, he fused them together.
At first Nathan immediately prepared for another fight, but Epidemic ignored him. He walked around the town, looking at the destroyed buildings and everything that he had done. The lives that he had ruined, the ponies he had hurt. He knew he needed to fix this, as much as he could anyways.
So he did.
Although he had just barely recovered, he went to each pony that was missing a limb, and sacrificed a portion of his own body to replace it. Legs were given back, wings were returned, horns were repaired. After he made sure everypony that needed it had their limbs back, he collapsed once more, now going into a deeper recovery, but resting peacefully knowing he had done what he could. He split into the Twins once more and walked back to the small group, who were all amazed at what had just occurred.
“What… did he just?” Nathan was stunned. He had seen this guy cause so much destruction, and he didn’t give a damn about the aftermath. And yet, he had just given back to those that suffered because of it.
“Whenever we go into that Rage mode, Epidemic always repairs the permanent damage he did to those that didn’t really deserve it.” Nathan was impressed, and felt a little better about Epidemic now. If he ever lost it like that, and would do what he could to heal those caught in the crossfire, then he was okay with Nathan.
“Hmm, I see. So, why’d you two come here in the first place? If it wasn’t to attack then why?” Amnesia shrugged.
“We don’t know. We just got randomly summoned here.”
“I believe that would partly be my fault.” Everyone turned to a skeleton with a black cape, and a red gem holding it in place. He also had a black staff with a mini Tirek skull on it, and a black spear tip on the bottom. “I was hoping to send the Twins here to get everyone acquainted before the wedding. You can all see how spectacularly that went.”
“Um… and you are?”
“Huh? Oh, right! My name is Marx, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you Nathan. I’m the displacer of Alduin, the guy who’s getting married tomorrow. I am so sorry about all of this. Had I known a fight would have broken out, I would have stayed away. But, I wanted you to at least meet someone before you went to the wedding so I sent the Twins. And, as you can see, that plan quickly went south once everyone started breaking out the laser beams.” Nathan nodded in understanding.
“Oh, I see. Well, it would have been nice if you had warned us so none of this would have ever happened.”
“Yeah, probably should have. Well, since everything seems to be back in order, I’ll take these two home now. We’ll see you all at the wedding!” Marx snapped his fingers and a portal appeared, which he entered, and Plague and Amnesia began saying their goodbyes. Plague simply waved and hopped in, but Amnesia went for a more personal goodbye from Lyric.
“I suppose that this is goodbye for now.” Lyric nodded.
”Uh huh.”
“So, guess I’ll see you at the wedding?”
”Yep.” Amnesia nodded. She looked like she was about to leave, when she stopped.
“H-Hey, Lyric?”
”Y-Yeah?” Amnesia looked a little hesitant, before she suddenly moved forward and kissed him on the cheek. She then ran to the portal, blushing heavily before she turned around, waved, then hopped in. The portal closed, leaving Lyric shocked, as he slowly brought up a hand to his cheek, blushing just as badly as the girl who had kissed him.
Nathan just looked to Lyric in shock, he noticed his timid son's reaction to the kiss and he chuckled with Sonata who had also witnessed the adorable sight. “Remind you of anyone Sonata?” The huge warbot asked his fiancé as he lifted up a broken house.
“Hmm?”
“I remember that was what you did to me in the centuries before Starswirl sealed you and your sisters in the human world.”
Sonata just sighed happily at the memory and then looked back to her blushing son who was completely still and wide eyed. “Well, at least something good came out of this mess.”
“Yeah...speaking of messes, what do you think we should do about Sapphire?”
“I thought you were going to lecture her or something.” Sonata said while looking at her partner in confusion.
“You and I both know that I'm not a very responsible parent, I'm the one that wants to have fun, I'm not really good in these situations...but I think that both of us need to be on this before it gets worse.” Nathan piled up a large stack of useless debris and melted it all down with his Lava Gun.
“She's still young, she's still experiencing the world. She's only been alive for a few weeks since you beat that Nightmare Fuel. She's learning as she goes, and from what I've seen her do so far, I think she'll learn to control herself after this event.” Sonata turned to look at Lyric who was standing with hearts in his eyes as Ruby tried to snap him out of his trance. “Just like Lyric will learn to be brave.”
“You know, I think you're right.”
“I'm always right.”
Nathan just laughed and looked to his son, he had seen everything during the fight with Rage. He saw his timid son stand up for his loved ones and fight with a passion in his heart, a drive to protect. He saw a little bit of himself in Lyric, which he should considering he was made of his positive energy. He closed his eye and remembered to when he was facing off against Phoenix to defend Sonata from their attacks. “Looks like Lyric’s taking after his old man.”
“You're not old silly, your human form is thirty five and you'll stay that way.” Sonata scolded.
“Sonata, I'm over five thousand years old by now, I think it's safe to say I'm old at this point.”
“So am I, are you calling me old too?”
“No honey, you're still as young and beautiful as ever.” Nathan answered carefully.
“Hmph, good answer.”
Meanwhile
Auldin looked around the castle with a confused expression. He couldn't find the twins anywhere and they needed to start preparing for the next day. “Where did those two get off too?”
Suddenly a portal opened up in front of him and Marx and Plague jumped out of it, followed by the blushing Amnesia a few moments later.
“There you are. I was worried for a second there.” Auldin just looked to Amnesia, her face was still red. “Um, Amnesia, are you alright? You look flushed.”
Amnesia remained quiet while Plague just shook his head. “She met this boy named Lyric in the world Marx had brought us to.”
Auldin just looked to his daughter in surprise. After a few moments though...his fatherly instincts started to kick in. “Did she now?”
Marx shook his head and knocked Auldin with his staff. “Don't you go psycho dad on us. I have to deal with enough overbearing parents with Vivi always complaining about Symbols death.”
Auldin rubbed the back of his head nervously and chuckled. “Yeah, sorry. So, kids, tell me about the world you visited.” Both of the children looked hesitant to answer. “What happened?”
“Rage happened...I wanted the displaced of that world to be introduced to others from the Chaos Family before the wedding, but one thing led to another and a lot of damage was caused to their Ponyville.” Marx answers dryly. “Don't worry, no one was killed and the damage is being repaired, there's no bad blood between us and the displaced in that world.”
Auldin just groaned and facewinged. “I really need to find a way to be brought with these two whenever they get summoned. Maybe I should go apologise to the displaced in that world for the trouble caused.”
“He and his family will be attending the wedding tomorrow, you can do it then. Right now, I think your brother needs your help in Metal Sonic's world, something just isn't right there and I can feel Xrams presence.”
“I've been wondering why I couldn't reach Gale or Lisa, I'll go see what's going on.” With that Marx opened up a portal for Alduin and the dragon walked into it, ready to face whatever was waiting for him.