Episode 28: Divergent Paths
Episode 28: Divergent Paths
The pain had become an ever present part of Adagio, and with its constant sting, time had also started to lose meaning. Her body was coated with blood, some of it her own, so much more of it shed from the endless Hollows her hated captor kept sending her way. Wounds marked her on every side, slashes and bites that left wet, red streams to sharply contrast with her alabaster white hide. Her breathing came in heavy, raspy pants, her exhaustion only held at bay by her continuous feeding.
Between each wave of opponents she had a few precious moments to devour what she could of her fallen prey. Soon enough her self disgust had turned to simple, practical relief at how she seemed to recover strength with every scrap of Hollow flesh she consumed. More than that, she felt a warm, glowing pulse of power deep within her core as she fed, and the gem glittering in the empty space of her Hollow hole shed a crimson light that told Adagio she was growing stronger.
For what little good that did her, at the moment. The arena was littered with the debris of battle. What bodies she didn’t eat had dissipated like most Hollows seemed to after being slain. Many of the stone obstacles had been damaged or outright smashed in the endless melee. When Adagio heard the grinding of more stone, seeing a door open up once more upon the wall, she groaned with the ache of moving to prepare herself for yet another wave... only to see that instead of more lesser Hollows pouring forth to fight her it was Grogar himself that strode out into the arena. His hands were clasped behind his back in a casual stance as he surveyed the area with cold, critical eyes.
“Eighteen waves cleared before reaching your limit. Acceptable. Your power is within the proper range for an Adjuchas class Hollow, though your abilities lack refinement. You appear unable to form a Cero at will, let alone to use it tactically-”
Adagio let out a enraged howl at the man and with a crimson flash a blood red beam of destructive energy unleashed itself from the center of her gem. The blast smashed in at Grogar, but the old Arrancar simply raised a hand and took the wave of energy head on, letting it explode around him. He cleared his throat and continued on, saying, “-however it’s clear that strong emotional stimulus certainly acts as a trigger for instinctive Cero use. That blast was mildly stronger than the one you used in our first encounter, and it is clear that unusual gem of yours is the focal point. My analysis of your body during today’s experiment clearly shows the gem is regulating the intake of energy you gain from consuming your fellow Hollows, and is doing so with at least eighty percent more efficiency than what I’d expect from a normal Hollow. Still, I think there’s much more yet to learn, my pet. For today my data collection is at an end and I have an errand for you to run.”
Adagio spat, some of her spittle containing blood, but she hardly cared, “Errand!? Errand!? Go find a piece of feces to choke on you damned goat!”
Grogar smiled with thin, mirthless lips, “Your defiance grows boring. Must I remind you of your place?”
He didn’t make any kind of gesture, no grand motion or spoken command. Adagio simply experienced instant and overwhelming agony without any warning, tearing through every fiber of her being. Her body arched with lances of excruciating red energy and she flopped about like a fish being tasered; her mouth open in a silent scream the entire time, lacking even the breath to make noise. What could have been minutes or hours of that pain passed before it stopped, leaving Adagio struggling to get air into her lungs. Grogar cleared his throat.
“I hope that brief reminder managed to penetrate that rather slow mind of yours. I can trigger that pain with nothing more than a thought. I can do it from quite a long distance away, and tracking you is made easy by other devices I’ve planted inside you. You belong to me, and resisting wastes what little freedom I might decide to grant you. Now if you are done being difficult, I have an errand for you to run.”
Adagio’s fangs ground together in pure frustration, bitter tears of impotent rage boiling down her cheeks. Patience, she told herself, she had to have patience. Grogar had no idea the magnitude of the mistake he was making in keeping her alive, no matter what benefits he thought he’d gain from studying her siren gem. She just had to bide her time, gain in power, gather whatever scraps of advantage she could, and wait for the right moment to strike. Some day Grogar would drop his guard. One day their positions would be reversed.
Adagio allowed herself a small, hidden smile at the notion. She had heard an old saying about revenge being best served cold. Adagio thought that perhaps she’d take a more... violently heated approach when the time came to visit vengeance upon Grogar’s despicable face.
Gathering what dignity she could she managed to float up into a baseline hover and faced Grogar with nothing but clear hate on her face, but managed to fake some accepting resignation. Adagio fancied herself a halfway decent actress. She could look obedient if it served her ends.
“What kind of errand?” she asked, teeth still grinding around her attempt to sound somewhat demure.
“Ah ah ah, what kind of errand Lord Grogar,” he corrected, eyes narrowing dangerously. Adagio suppressed an urge to gag and choked out the words.
“What kind of errand...ugh... Lord Grogar?” She felt sick to her stomach, the words tasting foul on her tongue.
“An associate of mine has dropped off a package for me at an agreed upon location that I require you to retrieve,” he pulled a small slip of paper from a inner pocket of his white vest and held it up, “You will follow the directions here to the letter, without deviation, and return with the package swiftly. I will be monitoring your movements, so do not tarry, otherwise you have experienced the kind of punishment I can bestow.”
Adagio frowned, not at all certain what the point of this was. Didn’t he have other servants that could do this kind of thing? Why send her out like this? Unless he had some kind of ulterior motive he wasn’t telling her, which wouldn’t surprise Adagio in the slightest. She didn’t other asking any questions, mostly because she suspected that would only earn her more pain as an answer. Instead she floated up to Grogar and gingerly took the notes. Some part of her desperately wanted to bite his smug face off, but knew that the attempt would go about as well as firing her Cero at him had.
She wished she knew how to use that power at will. She’d have to teach herself, through trial and error.
“Return within five hours. That should be more than enough time to reach your destination and return, with time to spare,” Grogar said, nodding towards one section of the wall where another door slid open to reveal a staircase leading upwards. She nodded and proceed to float past him, only to be halted by Grogar snapping his hands up to grip her chin between his fingers.
She bristled at the touch, but didn’t dare resist as he turned her face towards him, his eyes devoid of warmth. “Do not attempt to escape. This is a test of your obedience. Please me, and you may gain some small freedoms, but only if they are earned.”
Adagio thought she might break a tooth, she was gritting her teeth so tightly, barely managing to say, “Yes, Lord Grogar.”
He let her go, and she went up the narrow staircase, tremors of anger making her shake terribly. At the top of the stairs she found herself in a strange hallway of vast, dark pillars of stone, stretching to the left and right seemingly for hundreds of meters. Looking at her directions the first bit told her to go to the right and continue for thirty six pillars exactly, where she was to find another staircase she was to go up.
Muttering various unpleasant things she wanted to do to her captor, especially for sending her on inane errands, Adagio floated along the silent hallway. As she went she tried to take her mind off of the pains still aching through her wounded body by thinking about what her sisters might be doing right now. It was a sobering thought because if Adagio knew her siblings then Sonata was probably still a bawling mess, while Aria was likely trying far too hard to pretend to be the strong one.
“Good job Adagio, let’s depress yourself along with being frustrated over your complete inability to escape this hellhole,” she grumbled, oddly somewhat feeling better to just complain out loud. Somehow hearing the annoyance dripping off of her own voice was something of a comfort. It proved that she wasn’t close to be broken yet. She was still Adagio Dazzle, one pissed off and sarcastic bitch.
The thought was enough to make her smile a bit.
Finding the pillar and the extra set of stairs she went up those for nearly twice the length of the first set, until she was pretty sure she now had a ingrained and irrational hatred of all things stair related. When she reached the top she was surprised to find a flat stone wall that looked more like roughly worn rock rather than carved stone. However the directions simply told her to push on the wall, so she did, and found to her brief shock that the wall wasn’t actually there. Her talon passed right through like the wall was simply made of mist.
Taking a deep breath she floated on through, and blinked to find herself out in the vast sandy desert of Hueco Mundo. The wall she’d just passed through was built into the side of a rock formation, one of many that seemed to litter this part of the desert.
“Huh, a hidden entrance to your labs, eh? Sneaky damn rat,” Adagio said, frowning, “Why show me this? Unless it doesn’t matter that I know. Blast, of course he said he could track me anywhere, so what good does it do me to know where one of the exits are?”
She blinked, shaking her head. Talking to herself was probably not a good sign as to her mental state. Refocusing on the task at hand she looked at the directions. She was to head north to a placed called Las Noches? Where the hell was north!? Did Adagio look like she had a built in compass!? She was fuming, but her anger soon turned to surprise as she turned around and looked up... and up some more.
“Oh, that must be Las Noches,” she grumbled as she looked at the tall, mountain sized walls of a gigantic fortress. It was made from a pale gray granite, consisting of a huge main block with a single huge dome bulging upwards from its towering walls. Adagio counted eight separate pillars of stone that soared up even higher than the dome, surrounding the wall at equidistant points. Flanking the fortress on either side were strange blocks of stone of a pale, sea green color, with clear, huge square openings of blackness within them.
This had to be the center of power for the Hollows. Who else in Hueco Mundo would build something like this? Reexamining her directions she noticed they told her to go to the walls of the fortress and follow it to the east until she found a place with three dead trees. Trees? Glancing around she noticed there were a few scattered, dry and darkened husks of what might’ve once been trees. It made her wonder if this realm was always such a desiccated husk of a world?
Taking a deep breath, bracing herself for a long bit of flying, Adagio got moving, swimming through the air with smooth swishes of her tail. The pain from her wounds fell to a dull background ache, some of the lighter ones already closing up. She wasn’t sure if Hollows recovered from injuries this quickly as a normal thing, but she wasn’t going to question it, especially if it benefited her.
The bleak sands passed by with swift assurance as she picked up her pace. She knew it was only a fake, temporary sense of freedom, but it felt good to be somewhere other than Grogar’s underground lab, if only for a short time and stuck doing the bastard’s seemingly pointless errand. What could be in the package she was to retrieve? Who was she retrieving it from? The whole situation struck her as fishy. She had a growing suspicion that this was just another experiment in the guise of a seemingly simple task.
She growled at the thought. Despite how close the fortress of Las Noches had seemed, at first, Adagio hovered along the sand dunes for an hour before it got any noticeable amount closer. It took another such hour before she actually got within the shadow of its huge, imposing walls. Strangely she saw no gates or doorways leading into the fortress. Its walls were smooth as eggshells and seemingly impenetrable. Shrugging she turned to her right, following along what she assumed to be the eastern edge of the wall. Fortunately it didn’t take more than ten minutes at that point to find the small copse of three skeletal, dried out trees jutting up from the sand.
Glancing around, Adagio looked at her instructions, but they ended with her arriving at the trees.
“Well, now what? Am I supposed to guess where this stupid package is?” she grunted her her breath. She looked around, seeing nothing. She floated about the trees, but there was nothing there. Frustration boiled up inside her, and a bit of fear. The memory of the pain Grogar could inflict on her sent a cold feeling surging through her. What was she supposed to do if she couldn’t find the package? Just return without it? He’d surely punish her, but then he’d do the same if her time ran out.
“Dammit!” she shouted, lashing with her tail at one of the trees. Her sharp, blade-like fin severed the tree in half, causing it to smash into the sand.
“Geez, somebody’s in a bad mood,” said a voice from nearby and Adagio wheeled around to face one of the nearby sand dunes, where a woman stood, watching her with an amused grin.
She was an Arrancar, Adagio could tell that much at a glance. She had the shape of a human, with a tall, athletic build that showed toned muscles and even a hint of abs, but the clear, empty hole in her stomach along with the fragments of a bone mask in the shape of a jagged set of spikes jutting up from her short, wild blue hair showed her Hollow nature. A pair of jutting horns extended down from the sides of her head as well, and Adagio noticed the woman, more a teenager really, had clawed hands. Her eyes were a shining red and set in a punkish, youthful face. She wore fairly simple clothing consisting of a pair of tight, cloth pants and a sleeveless white vest that was tied across her chest with cords of black leather. Both pants and vest were torn up and frayed as if she did a lot of rough work in them. She left her feet bare, and Adagio noticed something like flecks of blue scales around the girl's’ feet and the back of her hands.
“Who are you?” Adagio asked defensively, floating back a bit, eyes narrowed.
The girl laughed, jumping down from the sand dune in a long, leaping arc that landed her right in front of Adagio. This close Adagio could see the hilt of a sword wrapped in blue cloth hanging from a strap across the girl's’ back as she leaned forward, hands on her hips, and sniffed at Adagio.
“You got the reek of that old man on you. One of Grogar’s new flunkies, huh? What’s he got you out here for?”
“Answer my question and I’ll answer yours,” Adagio said, raising her chin with a bit of sharpness in her voice.
The girl raised an eyebrow at her, and Adagio felt a distinct crush of the female Arrancar’s spiritual pressure as she said, “You’re pretty cocky making demands of a Fraccion.”
Adagio growled and prepared to either fight or run, whichever seemed more likely to keep her alive, but the girl just laughed again and the spiritual pressure went away. “Hah! Lucky you I like cocky people. Shows some guts. More than I’m used to seeing from any of the pukestains Grogar usually has running around doing dirty work for him.”
The girl extended a clawed hand, “Name’s Ember; Fraccion to the Fifth Espada, Lord Torch.”
Adagio hesitantly took the offered hand with one of her own and Ember shook it vigorously. Blinking, Adagio said, “Adagio Dazzle. What the hell’s a Fraccion?”
“Wow, you are new. Fraccion are the right hands to the Espada, the head honcho’s around here. What, that geezer Gorgar not tell you anything? You do smell like him, so don’t try and tell me you don’t work for him.”
Adagio lowered her head, hissing, “I don’t work for him, I’m his damned prisoner! He’s... studying me.”
Ember glanced Adagio over, seeming to take note of her wounds for the first time, “Yeah, sounds like Grogar. You’re not the first to get snagged into his labs for creepy experiment fun-time. Huh, he’s usually not interested in experimenting on Hollows. What makes you so different?”
Adagio wasn’t at all sure she ought to be trusting Ember with any information. After all Ember was an Arrancar, like Grogar. Yet she was also the first person she’d met besides Grogar, and at this point anyone who wasn’t freakin’ Grogar seemed near saintly by comparison.
“This is what he’s interested in,” Adagio said, pointing at the gem floating within her Hollow hole. Ember saw it, blinked and took a surprised step back.
“Whoa! The heck is that thing!?”
“A long story...” Adagio said, sighing, “One I don’t have time to tell because if I don’t find this damn package Grogar sent me for he’s going to make my day even worse than it’s been already.”
Ember’s expression changed to one of wry thoughtfulness, “A package, is it? That’s weird. Sounds like he’s screwing with you to me.”
“That’s about what I figured, but what choice do I have except to jump through the hoops he’s holding in front of me!?” Adagio said, anger simmering in every word. Ember looked at her, and tapped her chin with one claw for a moment before smiling.
“For now, you’re probably screwed, yeah. Buuuuut, here’s the thing, I don’t like Grogar. Bastard took a shot at my dad a few centuries back and crippled Torch bad enough that it bumped down from being the Second Espada to the Fourth. Then he eventually lost that position and he's now stuck as the Fifth. He's still badass, don't get me wrong, but he's fallen a long way and it's all Grogar's fault! I’ve got plenty of reason to want to snub the smug asshole. You seem kind of cool, for a lower class Hollow. Might be I can help you out.”
Adagio was suspicious, but the dangling bait of hope was hard to ignore, “How, exactly?”
“Life here is all about might makes right, you see. The stronger take from the weaker, even among the Espada. The only reason Grogar’s still alive after screwing with Torch is because the big boss Lord Tirek needs Grogar’s science know-how and forbids anyone from straight up killing the buzzard. But that doesn’t mean Grogar’s got enough pull to gainsay Torch if Torch decide to, say, take one of Grogar’s pet experiments under his wing.”
Ember looked Adagio over, frowning, “Of course my old man has no reason to give two craps about you unless he thought you’d be an asset to him, which no offense Adagio, you’re nowhere near strong enough to impress him....”
“But?” Adagio said and Ember grinned.
“But, if I showed you how to evolve yourself into an Arrancar, that might change Torch’s mind. He’s always looking to recruit more badasses into his horde, so if you can evolve and prove to him you're hardcore enough then he could grant you protection and take you right out from under Grogar’s nose.”
“And you’d be willing to help me do this... why, just because you don’t like Grogar?”
“Pfft, as if I need a better reason. The guy is a straight up piece of trash. Doing something to piss him off will sit just right with me, and hey, like I said, I like cocky people like you. Its win-win for me. All the real risk is going to be on you, since you’d need to figure out a way to meet with me in secret to train. Get caught and I imagine Grogar will make your life even more of a living hell.”
“I... don’t know if I could,” Adagio said, putting a claw over her chest, “He’s got tracking devices in me. For all I know he can monitor my conversations.”
“Tch, if he was listening in don’t you think he’d already be doing something about it?”
True, he hadn’t zapped her with any pain yet, and what reason would he have not to if he heard her talking with one of his enemies like this? Likely it hadn’t occurred to him to install any kind of monitoring besides the tracker to make sure she didn’t run off. Still, that in and of itself was an issue because she couldn’t go anywhere without Grogar knowing about it. So the only conclusion she could come to was to not hide where she was going. It sounded insane, but Adagio had made a life of manipulating others, and a plan was already forming in her mind.
“He won’t want me doing anything he doesn’t think is his idea,” Adagio said, rubbing her chin with one long talon, “But with a bit of time I could plant the notion so that he’ll think training with you is a wonderful idea he thought up himself.”
Ember eyed her incredulously, “Really? I might not respect the guy but know better than to assume he’s an idiot. How are you going to pitch me training you as a good idea?”
Adagio licked her lips nervously, “You let me worry about that. Heh, I must be crazy. But what do I have to lose at this point? Must be why I’m so willing to trust someone I just met. Speaking of which, what are you even doing out here? It is awfully convenient for me that you just showed up here out of the blue.”
“You always this suspicious?” Ember asked, arms crossing over her chest.
Adagio gave the Arrancar girl a grin that might have carried just a hint of crazy in it, “Recent experiences have taught me to not get my hopes up, especially when something looks too good to be true. I appreciate this offer to help me, and like I said, I’m desperate enough to bite, but what are you doing out here really?”
Ember frowned, her eyes narrowing for a second, then she groused and sighed, “Told my dad I suck as this espionage crap. Look, my old man knew Grogar was getting giddy over some experiment and wanted to know what, so he sent me out here to keep an eye on the goat bastard’s ‘secret’ lab, which ain’t as secret as he’d like to think. I’ve been out here all day, and when I spotted you pop up I figured you for one of Grogar’s flunkies. My plan was to talk you up, or failing that, rough you up... but turns out you’re pretty chill and are probably the experiment Grogar’s working on. Lucky you. Here’s the thing, knowing my dad he’s be just as likely to send someone to kill you just to piss Grogar off, but I’m willing to stick my neck out a bit to convince him my plan is better.”
“Because I’m ‘pretty chill’?” Adagio asked, eyebrow raising.
“Because I want...” Ember started to say, but abruptly cut herself off, grimacing and shaking her head, “Look, I don’t usually do this much chatter. All I’ll say is that I’m on the level here, so are you wanting my help or not?”
“Like I said, I’m desperate, and that’s not an admission I make lightly, so yes, I’m in,” Adagio said, “Just give me some time to convince Grogar. It might take a few days.”
Planting suggestions in other people’s minds was often a matter of patience and time. Repetition of the right words, subtle hints. Grogar couldn’t be much more resistant to it than any other person. On top of that, Adagio could feel the pulsing warmth of her siren gem. Its power was growing, and she could feel the clear echoing call of siren magic inside it, not just the more beastly Hollow power it was consuming. It was a risk, a serious gamble, but Adagio thought she might be able to use some of her old tricks. Her singing wouldn’t be as strong as when she worked alongside her sisters, but she’d been the strongest of them, and who knew if being fused with her Hollow self might make the gem more powerful.
She’d find out if she could sing like a siren again, one way or another. But before that she had the problem of this package to figure out. With a geral growl she looked back at the trees, “Before I return to that piece of filth I still have to find this cursed package! Any ideas?”
Ember shrugged, “Why don’t you use your Pesquisa to try sensing for it?”
Adagio blinked, “My what?”
“Pesquisa. Uh... your Hollow senses? They let you sniff out spiritual pressures and feel out what’s around you. If there was something hidden around here then you’d have a better chance of finding it.” Ember grinned, showing fangs, “Also useful for finding dinner if you happen to be peckish.”
Adagio thought of all the Hollows she’d consumed that past day through a seemingly endless, hellish battle in the arena, and shivered. “I’m nowhere near hungry, I just want to find this package and return before Grogar gets impatient with me.”
“Then close your eyes, and clear your head of clutter,” said Ember, “Then take a deep breath and focus.”
With a bemused look on her face Adagio did so. She was no stranger to the notion of clearing the mind to focus. She and her sisters did so every time they sung together. For Adagio it was always easiest to do this when focusing upon her ambitions, picturing all the thing she wanted and desired to grasp at any cost. It wasn’t as easy this time around to do that. Her ambitions had cost her so much, after all. Yet there were still things she wanted, and was willing to risk what little she had left to get. Revenge was pretty close to the top of that list, but it wasn’t enough... she couldn’t get her head focused and clear just thinking of her desire for revenge on Grogar.
However, while casting about in her mind for some way to focus her thoughts, she did find something she wanted even more than destroying Grogar.
A clear image of Sonata and Aria entered her mind, both of them smiling, both of them safe... both of them together with her once more.
That gave her focus. That was an ambition she could grasp for with the crystal clear discipline she needed. With a deep breath she felt her mind clear and center itself, and in that space she could feel her spiritual energy like a warm torch.
“Good, I can tell you’ve got this,” said Ember, “Now, if you can feel your spirit, send it out in a pulse. It’s like a mental shout, at least that’s how it feels for me.”
Adagio understood, though in her case it was less a shout and more like imagining herself letting out one harmonious chord, and she felt her spirit energy flow out of her in a single pulse. With a startling realization she understood this wasn’t any different than the sonar pings she and her sisters would use when they’d lived as sirens in Equestria’s oceans. Her spirit energy rushed out in an invisible circle, reacting with any other reiatsu in the area. She felt Ember, and could feel the Arrancar’s power, how much stronger Ember was, how it had its own unique flavor that reminded Adagio of something sharp and tart-like, yet somehow oddly sweet.
And she felt another source of reiatsu, a small ping of spiritual energy nearby, within the small group of dead trees, buried beneath the sand. Opening her eyes she looked and pointed, “There.”
Ember nodded, “Good. I felt it too. You know you feel weird, spiritually speaking.”
“Hmm? How so?” Adagio asked as she walked over to the area where she felt the buried signature of spirit energy, kneeling down.
“It's hard to describe. You’re definitely a Hollow, but it's like I’m getting two different spirit energies off of you, one that’s Hollow, and one that’s something else entirely. Whatever it is, the feeling is coming off of that gem.”
Adagio glanced over her shoulder at Ember, raising an eyebrow, “Would you believe me if I told you I’m actually a magical siren from another dimension and the gem is the heart of my power to seduce others with song?”
“...Wut?”
Adagio chuckled under her breath, “Nevermind. Let’s just say I’m perfectly happy not being a normal Hollow. Now then...”
She hated doing any kind of dirty work, but after being maw deep in the innards of a bunch of Hollows Adagio’s threshold for dealing with disgusting things was vastly raised. A bit of digging in the dirt like a dog, she could deal with that. It only took a few minutes to uncover a small stone cube about a foot long on either end. It wasn’t as heavy as Adagio thought it might be as she picked it up. There was a single latch to open it, and Adagio was rather curious if there was actually anything in there, but figured Grogar would know if she tampered with the container so she just tucked it under one arm and turned to Ember.
“Well, once I’ve gotten Grogar agreeing to let me train with you as if he’d thought the plan up himself, I imagine we’ll be seeing more of each other.”
“Good luck with it,” Ember said, “Still don’t know how you plan on convincing him, but I guess it's no skin off my back one way or another. Just try not to get killed. The number of people I can have intelligent conversations with around here I can count before running out of fingers.”
With that, they parted ways, and as Adagio floated back towards Grogar’s underground lab, package in hand, she turned all of her attention towards how she’d manipulate her captor into starting down a path that would lead to her being able to one day bring about his downfall.
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When Twilight Sparkle awoke it was to a familiar tickle on her face. Blinking awake she found a small purple dog sitting on her chest and licking her nose, who barked excitedly upon seeing her eyes open.
“S-Spike!” Twilight exclaimed, sitting up in her bed and giving the dog a tight hug, “When did you get here?”
She was in a room somewhere in one of the many towers of the Quincy fortress, the Silbern. It was a rather large and luxurious room the bed itself more than twice what Twilight could consider normal, and it was ludicrously plush. Despite all her fears and misgivings about the future she’d found herself sleeping a deep, comfortable, and dreamless slumber. A glance at the old grandfather clock in one corner of the room showed her it was still early, not even halfway to six o’clock. Sunrise was still a time off, and she’d need to get to the Quincy Academy before that, as per Spitfire’s instructions.
Spike, wagging his tail, said, “Shining Armor brought me along, but I was in a carrier until recently. He said he didn’t want me distracting you before your meeting with this king dude. How’d that go, by the way?”
Twilight shivered, “Strangely. I don’t know what to make of him. He seemed... not as scary as I thought he’d be, but I feel like he’s hiding a lot, too.”
Spike yawned, and thumped one of his hind legs as Twilight gently scratched behind one of his ears, “This whole place smells weird to me. Way too clean. Not sure I like it.”
“Neither do I Spike, but this is going to be home for now,” Twilight said, giving the dog a quick hug before setting him aside and tossing the covers to hop out of bed. She went to one of the large dressers situated along one side of the room and dug into it. Inside was something that made her feel apprehensive, even through Cadance had told her it’d be here for her in the morning.
Her Quincy uniform.
She looked at the slim, form fitting and sleek white uniform and sighed, closing the dresser. She’d change after a shower. Spike settled onto the bed while she went into the adjoining bathroom that was attached to her room via a door just to the right of the dressers. She took a quick, bracing shower, not taking as much time as she’d normally like, but she was too anxious to relax and just wanted to get this day going before she lost her nerve.
Drying off, she went back to the dresser and pulled out the uniform, slowly changing into it. The pants were well cut slacks that hugged the skin closely but still left lots of flexibility for movement. There was no skirt, but the blouse had long side tails that almost approximated a skirt. The blouse had elements of a military jacket, with double silver buttons up the front. The collar was high and a little tight, with the Quincy cross insignia on the right lapel, and a small, single star on the left to indicate her rank as a cadet. There was the cape that went across her shoulders, the sleek white silk going down to about her mid-back, and the cap, a short billed military cap that went on her head after she did her hair in a simple ponytail. Finally there were her black socks and tall, nearly knee high black military style boots. She’d never worn anything like them and they were a bit uncomfortable once she got them laced up.
Looking at herself in a tall standing mirror, Twilight felt like she was looking at a stranger. She still wore her normal glasses, and her mother’s old Quincy cross hung from her right wrist, completing the image. She could see Spike in the mirror’s reflective surface, laying on the bed behind her and looking at her with worried eyes.
“Are you sure about all this Twilight?”
She sighed, shaking her head, “No, but that doesn’t matter. I can’t turn back now, Spike. I have to do this.” She gulped, “I just don’t know if I can.”
Spike jumped down from the bed and came up to her, nuzzling her leg and smiling up at her, “I don’t really get all that’s going on, but I know you can tackle anything that comes your way. I’m totally here for you, whatever you need.”
Twilight knelt down, smiling warmly at Spike and ruffling his head as she wiped a bit of moisture from her eyes with her other hand, “Thanks, Spike. It means a lot to me that you’re here. I don’t know how much time I’ll have to take care of you, but I’ll make sure you have food and water before I go.”
“I’ll take care of that, Twilight,” said Cadance as she was rather suddenly standing in the doorway, as if she’d been there all along. Twilight nearly jumped out of her new boots, and even Spike gave the woman an unnerved look.
“Cadance? How long have you been here?”
There was a slightly hurt look in Cadance’s eyes, flashing back to gentle control in an instant, “I just got here Twilight. I wasn’t spying on you.”
Twilight’s brows creased, her voice taking on a hint of hurt as well, “You already have, once.”
Twilight felt a small stab of guilt, because Cadance looked no different than if Twilight had physically slapped her. The woman took a deep breath and put a hand over her chest, “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I didn’t think you’d understand why I did it. I wanted to protect you Twilight. To know if you ever got into trouble. I... should have told you, but I only had your safety in mind.”
“Yes, you and my whole family, apparently,” Twilight said, unable to keep some scornful frustration out of her voice.
“That’s not fair, Twilight.” Cadance stepped into the room, slowly walking up to Twilight, who tensed up at the woman’s approach, but didn’t move away. Cadance moved around her, eventually ending up a bit behind Twilight, one hand resting on Twilight’s shoulder gently as Cadance looked at Twilight’s reflecting in the mirror. Twilight looked back at herself, clad in the Quincy uniform, the same way Cadance was. Cadance didn’t look happy, with her face bearing a saddened, tired cast.
“This is the life your brother wanted desperately to keep you from. Even your parents weren’t inclined to see you take up arms as a Quincy. Its a life that has consumed many, and I know they wanted something different for you, their cherished daughter. But now that you’ve chosen this life, there’s no going back. I’m sorry we couldn’t continue as we were. I would’ve liked to have seen you go on to college, graduate into any field you wanted, and become a brilliant member of whatever scientific field you desired. I would have cheered for you every step of the way, while doing my duty as a Quincy to protect you and every innocent human on this world from the shadows of anonymity.”
Cadance breathed deeply, a long sigh as she turned Twilight around, put her other hand on the girls’ other shoulder, and looked her straight in the eyes with a depth of both hardness and sorrow, but ultimately acceptance.
“Now I’ll do all I can to support you on this path your life has taken, whether you trust me or not. We are no longer student and dean, or the near sisters we could have been. Now we are comrades in arms. You will face great hardships in the time to come, Twilight. You’ll feel pain, see others die, people you’ll come to know. This is the hard fact of war, and we can’t protect you from it. Only be there to support you through it. So please, I ask you, don’t push us away. Your family loves you, even if you don’t believe that right now.”
The words were said with all the sincere warmth that Twilight remembered Cadance always speaking in. It felt so nostalgically comforting and right. Perhaps that was why it was so hard to trust. Cadance had always been this loving and supportive, for as long as Twilight could remember, and all that time it was while hiding such massive secrets. Could Twilight really trust any of her family again?
On the other hand, did she really want to go the rest of her life bearing a grudge against the people she loved? Could she bear that kind of lonely, cold life, while also facing all the many challenges in front of her? Seeing Cadance standing in front of her, looking a much scared as sincerely trying to connect, Twilight couldn’t help but swallow a lump in her throat and give the woman a quick hug.
“I’ll try, Cadance. That’s all I can say right now.”
Cadance hugged her back, “Its enough. Now, you’d best get going. Shining Armor is waiting for you at the front gates. He’ll show you how to get to the Academy. Good luck, and be careful. This training will be perhaps even more dangerous than hunting Hollows with your friends had been. I’ll look after Spike.”
Spike gave a small bark of acceptance, sensing Twilight losing some of her tension, and with Cadance giving the dog a pat on the head he seemed willing to let bygones by bygones for now. Twilight soon departed, making her way down the long, winding corridors of the palace to find the massive entry hall from yesterday. She felt proud to not need to ask any directions from the several Quincy soldiers she’d seen paroling the halls.
Outside in the courtyard she found Shining Armor waiting by the front gate, its portcullis still raised. He gave her a solemn nod punctuated by a small, relieved smile as she approached.
“Morning Twily. Sleep well?”
“Surprisingly so, given the circumstances,” Twilight said, standing awkwardly in front of her brother for a moment before adding, “Cadance talked to me. I, uh... I’m working on getting over the whole spying on me thing. I hope you, mom, and dad all know I don’t... hate you guys, right?”
Shining Armor stiffened for a moment, wincing, then managed to relax a bit, scratching the back of his head, “I didn’t think you would, really, but I know the whole family lost some of your trust with everything that’s happened. Didn’t figure this would be an easy transition for any of us. Wish we had more time to talk, but we really do need to get going if we’re going to get you to the Academy before morning muster.”
He led her outside the castle, and a little ways off the road, before turning to face her. “Alright, so you remember what I taught you about reishi collection?”
Twilight nodded, “All Quincy techniques revolve around collecting and releasing spirit particles, manipulating the ones in our environment or inside ourselves.”
“Correct. In a spirit realm made of reishi we have a lot more to collect and work with, but since a spirit realm is made up entirely of spirit particles they can interact with each other differently than they do with physical particles here in the material world. Basic principles remain the same, however, and being able to use reishi as a platform to stand on even simple air particles is one of them. Now, show me.”
It was a technique Twilight was still far from perfecting, but she got the basics. With a deep breath she concentrated on the flow of her own spirit energy, and some of the spirit particles existing inside the air around her. There seemed to be more here around the Quincy palace than in other areas she’d tried this in, which made the next part easier. With a slow exhale of breath she gathered some stray spirit particles underneath her feet, and then used her own spirit energy to fill in the gaps between them. Slowly a blue platform of energy formed beneath her, and lifted Twilight up off the ground.
Shining Armor nodded in approval, “Good. Now, I’m going to show you how to use this technique to travel quickly over a short distance. Its the same principle as a Soul Reaper’s Flash Step, and you need this if you’re going to keep up with the other students at the Academy.”
Twilight paid close attention as Shining Armor mirrored her previous actions, gathering reishi underneath his feet. Only while Twilight had formed one large platform, he created two smaller, but much denser pools of spirit energy under the balls of his feet. Then in a burst of energy he released that pent up reishi and propelled himself at high speed backwards. He then almost instantly did the same technique again to change direction and all but vanish for an instant before he appeared a good twenty yards away.
Twilight blinked, and raised her hand. “Question?”
“Go ahead,” Shining Armor said as he walked back up to her.
“How can you deal with the g-forces of such rapid movement without snapping your neck?”
Shining Armor slapped his forehead, “Right, I still haven’t taught you that one yet either, have I? Okay... damn, I really wish I had time to go over all of this. This is why joining the Academy is so dangerous for you right now, you don’t even know Blut Vene or Blut Arterie. This is all stuff I was going to teach you before we ever had to worry about you joining the Quincy or not.”
“Well we don’t have a lot of time, so just give me the basic rundown and I’ll try to work it out myself on the way to the Academy,” Twilight said, trying to control her rising stress with a few slow breaths. It wasn’t really helping. Shining Armor did manage to give her a reassuring smile, however.
“You’re right, you’ve got a real talent for picking things up fast, so maybe showing you once will be enough. I hope so, anyway. Okay, so watch...”
He extended his hand and for an instant Twilight felt a spike of spirit energy inside him. Then his hand seemed to briefly glow with hard angled veins of pulsing red light. Twilight could sense Shining Armor’s reiatsu, the pulse of his spirit energy flowing inside those veins of glowing rose color.
“Blut is the technique that allows a Quincy to infuse our bodies with reishi enhancements by channeling our spirit energy through our blood. This can be used to either boost our physical strength, or allow us to withstand deadly attacks. What you’re seeing now is Blut Vene, the defensive ability. With this I can withstand the g-forces of high speed movement, or take the attack of a Soul Reaper’s Kido or Zanpaktou without being instantly killed. Blut Vene’s opposite number, Blut Arterie, can make me strong enough to tackle Hollows bare handed, if need be. Of course how strong an individual Quincy’s Blut is vary’s a lot on how much spirit energy we have, but it's a core technique in our ability to fight Soul Reapers and Hollows on even terms. Hopefully you can pick it up quick. You should, as a pureblood Quincy.”
Twilight took his hand and examined it, looking closely at the lines of red light infusing his skin. She traced a finger along the veins and closed her eyes, feeling out the energy and how it flowed through his blood. “Hmm, this... kind of reminds me a bit of how Rarity’s power works, only she’s controlling her blood on a much larger and complex scale.”
“The blood is just a channel for us. What your friend is doing is fundamentally different, but that’s neither here nor there. Do you think you could do this?” Shining Armor asked, and Twilight chewed her lip.
“Maybe. I need time...”
Shining Armor gave a swift nod, and turned around, kneeling down, “Alright then, hop on.”
“Shining, I’m too old for you to be giving me a piggyback ride,” Twilight said with a small laugh, but he just smiled at her in that annoying, brotherly fashion.
“You need to focus on figuring out Blut, and I can’t expect you to do that while trying to also use our high speed techniques without killing yourself. I’ll move slow enough to be safe. We’ll be a bit fashionably late to the Academy but I’ll make sure Spitfire chews my head off, not yours. Now come on, daylight’s wasting.”
Swallowing her embarrassment, especially considering there were Quincy soldiers up on the palace battlements that could see the, Twilight climbed onto her brother’s back. It was a tad nostalgically familiar to when she was much smaller and he would give her piggyback rides around the mansion. Mostly though it was just embarrassing. Fortunately she did have something to occupy her thoughts as Shining Armor took off, making large leaps into the air, using his reishi to form miniature platforms that used to jump from point to point as he took her west into the forest. He was moving quickly, but nowhere near the breakneck speed he had before. The wind rushed by, making Twilight’s ponytail whip about. It was tad frightening at first, but her brother kept his balance well and she never felt in real danger of slipping free.
It allowed her to focus on figuring out Blut.
Shining Armor gave her a few basic pointers, but Twilight did most of the work herself as she focused her attention inward upon her own spiritual energy. She’d become skilled enough to summon her Quincy bow without any trouble, but that was an external representation of her power. Manipulating it internally was a bit different, and she spent long minutes feeling the energy slip away from her more than it followed her direction. Yet Shining Armor hadn’t been wrong, Twilight had a talent for learning quickly. By the time Shining Armor had slowed down Twilight might not had been able to form a Blut Vene, but she had a growing idea of how it was supposed to work. She had to concentrate her spirit energy at a single point on her body, and much as Shining Armor said visualizing her bloodstream as a natural channel for that energy helped. She couldn’t quite get it to solidify in the kind of defensive enchantment that Shining Armor had, but she felt like if she could just keep practice for a few days she’d get it right.
The problem was, however, she didn’t have a few days. She and Shining Armor had arrived at the Quincy Academy.
He landed in the clearing of a large forest valley that cut right through the dense trees. Uniform, steel bunkers lined either side of the valley, a dozen in total, all leading up to a thirteenth building at the head of the valley that looked to Twilight like a modern military headquarters facility complete with communications dishes, surrounding chain link fence, and a concrete helipad. In between the bunkers were spaces cleared out for square shaped areas of shaped stone that reminded Twilight of martial arts training pads, minus the actual padding.
As she and Shining Armor arrived she saw that there were people either inside these square arenas, or hanging out beside them. Those within, all of them young men and women around Twilight’s age and wearing Quincy uniforms similar to her own, were doing battle with each other. She saw Quincy flitting about at high speed, firing bow shots of blue reishi. Stray shots, instead of flying out haphazardly from the combat areas were instead intercepted by barriers of blue light that appeared around each arena, then flickered out as the fighters continued their bouts.
Twilight winced as she saw one girl in the nearest arena, a familiar athletic woman with beige skin and a wild head of hare of many blue tones, got hit in the shoulder by an arrow from her opponent, another girl who was familiar due to her lighter two toned set of pigtails, white on light blue, and her darker blue skin. The arrow drew clear and obvious blood, though it didn’t penetrate as deep as it should have, and Twilight realized the girl who got hit must have been using Blut Vene to minimizing the damage, though the girl still growled in pain.
“Argh! Dammit Sugarcoat, that hurt!” the girl shouted as she drew her bow back, a smooth dark blue longbow that was tipped on either end by jagged bolts of lightning. Even the arrow of reishi she fired had a snapping crackle of electricity about it, though the other girl dodged aside the shot swiftly, Sugarcoat’s face deadpan.
“You’re only getting hit because you're bad at dodging, Indigo. Move faster and I won’t hit you.”
“Gah! What do you think I’m trying to do!?” Indigo Zap huffed out, firing off more arrows as Sugarcoat ducked and weaved about, evading the attacks with smooth, simple grace.
“Try harder,” was all Sugarcoat said as she raised her own bow, a shorter and thicker one than Indigo’s, cast in a pearl sheen with an oddly square shaped and offset handle. The arrows she fired where almost like bullets more than arrows, compact sharp spikes of light that Indigo scrambled to dodge, getting tagged in the leg as she missed a step.
Upon that hit there was a klaxon sound and a woman standing by the side of the arena said, “Three points; Cadet Sugarcoat wins the bout.”
Indigo let out a rather unladylike curse and with a snap of her fingers dismissed her bow in a glow of blue reishi, and Sugarcoat did the same. The two girls stared at each other, Indigo wincing as she tried to ignore her wounds, “I’ll get you next time.”
Sugarcoat just shrugged, “If you do, you do. If you don’t, you don’t. I don’t see why you’re so competitive about this.”
“Uh, duh, we’re Shadowbolts, we’re supposed to be competitive!”
“We’re not some high school sports team anymore, Indigo. Competing seems pretty pointless when we’re all going to be dealing with the same opponents soon enough,” Sugarcoat retorted as she strode past Indigo, and then took note of Twilight and Shining Armor’s approach. The woman who called the match also noticed them, and turned to meet the new arrivals. She had skin of a light mint coloring, and a vibrant head of hair that took on two different shades of orange. Her eyes also had an orange tint to them, which narrowed slightly at Twilight and Shining Armor’s approach, especially when looking at Shining Armor.
“Ah, had to give your sister an escort here, did you? Can’t she use Hirenkyaku on her own?” the woman asked in a chiding tone, referring to the formal name of the technique Shining Armor used to move swiftly.
Shining Armor’s face took on a iron cast, “She’s learning quickly, Lightning Dust. Faster than most. Where’s Spitfire?”
“Setting up the exercises for later today,” said Lightning Dust as she took on a thin, satisfied smile, “Spitfire put me in charge of training until the evening exercise comes around. So...” she looked at Twilight, “Just what can you do, girl?”
“I, um, well...” Twilight stammered, feeling distinctly uncomfortable under this woman’s judging gaze.
Shining Armor stepped forward, “She’s capable of summoning a spirit bow, and understands the basics of spirit energy sensing and can use Hirenkyaku to a limited degree.”
“Hm, that’s hardly more than what a novice can do. If she’s to join the other cadets that’s simply not good enough.”
“Her placement here is an order from His Majesty,” Shining Armor reminded Lightning Dust, who paused at that and gave an acknowledging nod after spending a moment with a considering look on her face. .
“I wasn’t saying she can’t join the class, Shining Armor, but how am I to have her participate if she can’t keep up with the rest of the cadets?”
“I can keep up,” Twilight said firmly, stepping forward. By now their arrival had attracted attention from the other cadets, and a gathering had come to encircle the situation. Twilight glanced around, noticing other Crystal Prep students she had seen at the Friendship Games. She was hoping to see some friendly faces, but most of them looked at her either with only faint interest, or well guarded expressions.
Lightning Dust tapped a finger on her hip and said, “Well then if you are so confident then you won’t mind proving it. Lemon Zest!”
“S’up teach?” asked the neon pink skinned girl with brightly colored green hair with yellow highlights. Twilight didn’t think the white Quincy uniform worked well on her at all, but Lemon Zest didn’t seem to care, and had somehow gotten her hands on a pair of headphones. It seemed even Quincy training couldn’t deprive the girl from her music.
“You were scheduled to fight Suri Polomare, but instead let’s have you test out our newest cadet,” said Lightning Dust, glancing at Shining Armor, “That isn’t a problem is it? If she can keep up, that is.”
He didn’t look happy with the situation, but looked at Twilight questioningly. It was clear he was leaving this up to her, and with a small gulp Twilight nodded, “I can do it. W-what are the rules exactly?”
Lightning Dust’s smile turned a tad... ominous, “Pretty simple; step into the ring and when I give the signal, you go at it. Bows only, no physical attacks. First to three strikes on their opponent wins. Aiming for the head or heart is prohibited, but anything else goes. Got it?”
Twilight nodded, and Lightning Dust’s smile turned into a full on grin that carried a hint of disturbing glee to it, “Right then, get in the ring and show us what you can do. Lemon Zest, I expect you to treat this just like you would any other fight against another cadet. I don’t want to see any holding back.”
“Yeah yeah yeah, I hear ya teach,” Lemon Zest said as she hopped up onto the platform, Twilight following her. As the two girls walked out onto the stone arena Twilight saw the shimmering field of blue energy snap into place around it, presumably to protect the spectators from harm. There were now quite a few cadets watching, perhaps more than half the class. Twilight could feel their eyes almost all on her as she faced Lemon Zest in the center of the arena, the other girl stretching her arms casually and yawning.
“Been awhile. How’s life?” Lemon Zest asked, not looking all that worried or aggressive. Minus their surroundings this could’ve been any regular day back at Crystal Prep, for all the concern Lemon Zest was showing.
“Uh... okay, I guess?” Twilight said, “Strange, really.”
“I know right? This Quincy stuff is way over my head, but hey, apparently it's ‘family tradition’ or some junk. Guess I don’t care as long as I get to chill when I want.”
“Hey!” shouted Lighting Dust, “You’re not in there to socialize. On the count of three I expect to see some fireworks. One...”
Lemon Zest rolled her eyes and sighed, “Yeesh, such a slave driver. Oh well, sorry about this Twilight, but gotta satisfy teach, you know?” Lemon Zest cracked her neck and put her headphones on, switching on some music.
“Two...” Lightning Dust said, raising a hand in a ready motion to signal the start of the impromptu match. Lemon Zest, casually widening her stance while still looking relaxed, head bobbing with whatever music she was listening to, held out her left hand out to her side. In a flash of blue light a bow appeared there, a very oddly shaped one. It consisted of two opposite facing half circles of energy, connected by a central solid piece of what looked to be a hexagon of bright pink metal with small lines of energy flowing between the inner portions like a handle that Lemon Zest held. Twilight had never seen something so odd looking or impractical, but Shining Armor had told her that a Quincy’s bow often took shapes that represented aspects of the wielder’s personality... and well this odd looking thing somehow seemed to fit the odd girl in front of her.
Seeing Lightning Dust tense to signal the start of the match, Twilight quickly threw out her right hand, focusing to summon her own bow. It took shape in a sparkling flow of blue reishi particles, a fairly simple curved crescent of cerulean light.
“Three!” Lightning Dust chopped her hand down, and Lemon Zest’s bow came up in a flash almost too fast for Twilight to see.
And thus her life at the Quincy Academy began.
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Like seeing Ember here, hope she and Torch can get Adagio out from Grogar fast, and I hope when that happens Grogar will feel like a moron for letting Dagi play him.
(fanboy squee) EMBER!!!
Hold on, why does she look so familiar... *gasp*
img01.deviantart.net/31fc/i/2015/144/7/d/say_my_name__for_realzies__by_blondenobody-d8ulf2r.png
affordablehousinginstitute.org/blogs/us/wp-content/uploads/this_is_going_to_hurt.jpg
I'm still loving this, and impressed you can pump out quality chapters on a consistent basis. Sure, there are typos, but the quality of the actual narrative more than makes up for it.
Awesome as always, and adagio is getting her training!
I vote for Vasto lorde Adagio or something even beyond that! 
Just a question... How would Ichigo fair against full power Ulquiorra after his father trained him, also this is the time where he fought Aizen
Excellent. So would Torch and Ember be this fic's versions of Starrk and Lilynette?
7627694 XD wrong Ember, this is Pseudo Dragonlord Ember not ghost girl rocker Ember.
7628226
Obviously, and it pains me that you think I would believe otherwise.
But until best tsundragon(TM) gets her own theme song we'll just have to settle for the one sung by
Sonatathe other Ember.P.S.- I've never actually watched Danny Phantom. Please don't hate me...
Great chapter!
7628321 XD I know I was pointing it out as a joke. Really now never seen it? Then get your butt over to Kisscartoon so you can watch it from the beginning. Sequel series is possibly in development too as Butch Hartman has made character designs for the main characters 10 years later.
For
ortoday my data collection is at an endby other devices I’ve planed inside you
eight separate pillars of stone the soared up
But, if I showed you to to evolve yourself
looking a much scared as sincerely trying
1. Extra Or.
2. Planted.
3. That.
4. How.
5. As.
Seems that both Adagio and Twilight are gonna be entering a trial by fire and oh boy does it seem like it's gonna hurt. Unsurprisingly I'm quite interested in the method Ember said she'd show Adagio to evolve herself since the Hollows themselves aren't given much expansion in the anime and such.
I now excitedly await the release of Torch's zanpakto
Torch and Ember are Arrancars! Holy, that's amazing! I'm now dying to see them during a fight!
For Adagio the life got a little light of hope, but if Grogar is completly like is Bleach counterpart, I seriously doubt that it will be easy for the siren to escape from his grasp.
Depending on whether or not Tirek is Esapada number one or a Soul Reaper Captain, I'm guessing that as Scorpan will either be Espada number two or also a Soul Reaper Captain. Chrysalis could also be either, I think. More older gen villains could also be more Espada, like Lavan, Arabus, Catrina, or Hydia.
SHE CAN SMELL TSUNDERE
I love this! And what a surprise seeing Ember here! Cool!
Like the others say, cool seeing Ember here. I wonder, can Hollows be decent around humans and soul reapers enough to live a somewhat normal life? Even if it's only Adagio who can do this, I won't terribly mind...
9851979
Probably; I mean they have a society of sorts, so I guess anything’s possible... asides from, you know, the whole soul eating thing