//------------------------------// // Confrontation // Story: Reaper: Grand Charade // by Ise no Kami //------------------------------// "Well, it appears my daughter has brought us some guests," Charade noted, viewing surveillance footage of his manor from the dark confines of his underground bunker. He hadn't planned on having these girls walk right into his hands, but now that they were here, he might as well take care of them. Then his eyes were drawn to the feed from his study, and he noticed that the entrance to his bunker was wide open. Suddenly panicked, he checked the underground cameras, and saw Shimmer and Trixie poking around his lab. "That's gonna be a problem," Azrael noted behind him. "Yes it is," Charade replied with the obvious, pointing to Shimmer on the screen. "Take care of it." "Right," Azrael responded, a slight hint of melancholy in his voice. "What should I do about your daughter?" Charade paused, his eyes closed. "Don't hurt her." "Roger that." Azrael backed out of the room to follow the kill order. My dear Trixie, Charade ruminated. I'm sorry you had to see all of this. I just hope you realize that everything I've done was for you. A few moments later, a white flash shot across one of the monitors, and the whole camera system went dead. Startled by the whole display, Charade pulled out a radio to check in with his servant. "Azrael! What's going on out there!?" he demanded. "Sorry, boss," Azrael apologized. "Thought I saw someone, and I got a bit carried away." Just as Charade opened his mouth to chastise his servant, one of the monitors suddenly sparked back to life. Perhaps some of the fried wiring had fallen into place and reconnected. On the screen was an empty surveillance view of his front lawn. Empty, that is, save for one new visitor. Charade smiled. It looks like things might get interesting. Daniel burst through the manor doors, startling Rainbow and Applejack and causing both to immediately die in their game. He was just as surprised to see them as they were to see him. As they explained their circumstances to the grim reaper, his surprise turned to dread. "You girls need to get out of here now," he warned them. "Are you kidding me!?" Rainbow argued. "We're doing this again? What, we can't trust Trixie, either?" "Apparently not," Daniel answered. "From what I've heard, Azrael was last seen coming in here. Even if that's not the case, I couldn't keep that info away from the feds. Those government goons are gonna be here any minute. Now, where are the others?" "Right here," a shaken Trixie answered from the balcony, the other four girls behind her. "He's right. You all need to leave now." "Wait, where's Shimmer?" Daniel noticed. Trixie looked away. "Shimmer and I...found something. My father has some sort of secret lab in the basement." She cringed. "Shimmer sent me back up to make sure you all left, but I'm pretty sure she's still down there." "What the hay is she thinking!?" Rainbow blurted out, storming up the steps. "Whatever's down there, there's no way she's taking it on alone! Right? Who's with me?" The other girls, minus Trixie, all simply nodded and followed after her down the hall. "You idiots!" Daniel shouted after them, making one giant leap from the ground floor to the balcony. "That's my job!" He ran after the girls, readying himself for whatever waited ahead. Shimmer opened a door, and found herself in a very peculiar room. Various apparatus lined the walls on the half closer to her. Many of them held vials of a shimmering white liquid, a physical form of pure magic. The other half of the room was covered in crystal. The large crystal sheet spread over the machines in the room and consumed them, as if it was attacking them. In the center of the room, a crystal pillar connected the sheets on the floor and ceiling. While the crystal sheets shimmered, this pillar seemed to shine with its own brilliant light. "Impressive, isn't it?" Shimmer jumped as Azrael entered the room. "You... Stay back, you monster!" Shimmer warned him. "Harsh," Azrael replied, looking away. He let silence fall upon the room, and then spoke again. "If that's truly what you think of me, then why are you here?" Shimmer cocked an eyebrow. "Last night, you bore witness to a monster that played a part in turning your world upside down. Now that monster stands before you. So what are you gonna do?" Shimmer stared him down, channeled all her anger and fear toward the boy who betrayed her, and pulled out her fire axe. Even as she readied herself to fight, she trembled. "Ah, I see," Azrael noted, closing his eyes. "That's what I thought." With a scream, Shimmer rushed him, and drove the axe into his shoulder. He didn't flinch, or react in any way. With one look, she could see the pain in his eyes, yet he didn't move. For whatever reason, he had allowed this, as if he thought she needed this. She started to break down in tears. "For what it's worth," Azrael began after a silent pause, "I'm sorry. I didn't want to hurt you or Daniel, but I had a job to do. When I saw you after the battle, though, how shaken up and scared you were at what I had done, and how much Daniel was struggling to cling to his life... I couldn't stand it. I...I couldn't bear to hurt you any more than I had. So don't worry; you're going to be fine." He reached out to comfort Shimmer... ...and she smacked his hand away. "Don't touch me, you...you creep!" She yelled in anger. "...I understand." Azrael told her somberly, lowering his arm. "A simple apology won't earn your trust." "It will certainly take more than that to win back mine." Azrael hadn't even had time to react to Charade's voice before the magician thrust a card through his back. He pushed his servant aside before using his magic to make the card explode, forcing Azrael to the ground. "W...why...?" "In case you forgot, I specifically told you to eliminate the intruder. Ah, but it seems you had no intention of doing that, now did you?" He stomped hard on Azrael's injured back. "You knew exactly what you were doing when you blew out the security grid. A shame that you didn't do a thorough job. You missed a camera that showed a new guest arriving, and I was on my way to greet him personally when I came across this." As if on cue, the door behind Shimmer opened wide. Rainbow rushed through, followed by Daniel and the other girls. The grim reaper gave Charade a death stare when he noticed the magician's presence. "'Speak of the devil, and he doth appear,'" Charade quoted in response. "Welcome to my home, reaper." Daniel said nothing, but astral mist spread out from his hand as he summoned his scythe. "Oh, guess we're already going there, are we?" Charade responded. "Pity. I would have loved to have a good little chat with the boy who effortlessly killed Baphomet." As he said this, he walked over to the crystal pillar. "What is all of this?" Twilight asked as she got a good look at the crystallized room. Charade frowned. "This was once the source of my power. Years ago, I came across this place, a spot where magic from another world poured into this one. When I got close, I was given what power I have. I believe you all know what I did with that power. The magician business was good to me...but then I was gifted with a beautiful daughter. I didn't want to simply expose her to the magic like I was. No, I wanted to make sure I gave her as much power as possible. I had amassed more than enough money to build this great facility on top of the magic well, and once it was finished, I got to work." "So, the bodies..." Shimmer realized, but trailed off. "Yes, my experiments didn't exactly go well. The subjects I collected reacted violently to the magic I pumped into their systems. Most of them died within seconds of the procedure's beginning...most of them. Eventually, I managed to create two...half-successes." "Whad'ya mean a 'half' success?" Applejack asked. "Baphomet and Azrael were certainly powerful, but there were...side effects. Baphomet completely lost his sanity as a result of his transformation, and I'm afraid the procedure robbed this traitor of his memories prior to the experiment." As he said this, he threw another card at Azrael. It flew right by his face as he was getting up. "I couldn't subject my precious daughter to my procedure if the cost was still so great. Sadly, I was unable to continue my experiments. As I was finally making my breakthroughs, the magic well began to dry up. Just as I feared I would lose the most important component of my work, magic surged back through the well...only this time, it fought back. The magic crystallized the room, sealing the well off completely. I no longer had magic to use for my experiments..." He reached into his pocket and pulled out Twilight's pendant. "That's when I found out I could take yours. I'll admit, it's not much compared to what I've taken from this well in the past, but it should let me work with another subject or two." "You son of a-!" Daniel roared, finally speaking up as he pointed his scythe toward the magician. "Do other people's lives mean nothing to you!?" "All that matters to me is my dear daughter," Charade admitted, tipping his hat with his free hand. "So long as I can give her the true power of magic, I'll gladly sacrifice as many people as I have to until I get this procedure right. At least, that was the plan...until you showed up, reaper. You showed up out of nowhere and decided to oppose me, and since I can't trust Azrael to take out a target anymore..." He positioned his thumb to flip the pendant open. "...I have no choice but to use the magic I worked so hard to collect to combat you." "No you don't!" Before Charade could open the pendant, Daniel rushed forward, and plunged his scythe blade into the trinket. Everyone only had a second or two to be shocked before the cracks in the pendant started shooting out white energy. "Well, now you've done it," Charade sighed. With nowhere else to go, the magic inside the pendant burst out like shrapnel from a bomb. While the explosion didn't seem to harm the people there, it blew the crystal cap off the magic well, which in turn released all the magic that had been pent up within it. This larger magic explosion ripped the facility and the mansion above to shreds, and made the land around the site barren. Everyone who was there was blown into the sky and sent flying for miles. Daniel, in particular, tried in vain to hold on to anchored pieces of the wreck before the force catapulted him into the great blue sky. Shortly after the explosion died down, a bunch of black government vans pulled up to the disaster site. Lockheart got out of the leading van, and approached the wreckage. Where the crystallized well had been, there was now a massive hole, within which lay the void between dimensions. The void let out a strange light, and as Lockheart approached it, the light enveloped her. She ponied up, and light emanated from her hand. "Uh, Ma'am?" one of her agents asked, confused and disturbed by his bosses transformation. "Set up a perimeter, and get a base set up here," she ordered, ignoring her officer's query. "This thing poses a bigger threat than the incidents we were sent here to stop. We need to put a lid on it now." "...understood, Ma'am," the agent replied, heading off to relay the order. Lockheart stared into the abyss. What happened here is proof enough of the dangers of magic, she thought. We can't let this force go uncontained. Not ever.