• Published 15th Apr 2016
  • 19,499 Views, 4,977 Comments

Equestria Girls: Friendship Souls - thatguyvex



When dangerous supernatural creatures start to stalk the streets of Canterlot City, Sunset Shimmer and the gang become involved in events that will irrevocably change their lives. A crossover series with the Bleach anime/manga

  • ...
37
 4,977
 19,499

PreviousChapters Next
Episode 80: Anomaly

Episode 80: Anomaly

“Do I really need to point out that this is blatant overkill!?” cried Squirk as he scuttled away from a rain of floral pink arrows that peppered the ground he’d just been standing on. So far running was all he was able to do with one pissed off Sternritter, a Soul Reaper Captain, and two more lower ranked Soul Reapers chasing him like hungry teenagers going after the last slice of pizza in the box.

“You brought this fate upon yourself,” Cadence said, zipping ahead of him, her wrist crossbow flaring with more arrows that Squirk literally threw himself to the side like a cannonball to dodge. “Quit running and surrender to it, and I promise to make it painless.”

“You suck at negotiations!” Squirk shouted, running like a bat out of hell with swift steps of Sonido, only to find a curtain wall of shadows stretching out into his path. “Grraah!”

He flailed backwards as Luna emerged from the shadows, scythes in hand, a ribbon of dark blue speed as her black, curved blades descended towards Squirk. He only barley evaded, and even then he couldn’t fully match Luna’s speed and took two bloody cuts across his lobster red chest. He grunted in pain and flung his harpoon forward. The weapon flew towards Luna, but she easily flickered out of the way with a Flash Step. A small tie of red energy connected Squirk to his harpoon and he flicked his fingers to direct it towards where Luna appeared a few meters next to him, but she easily vanished from the weapon’s path and came at him again.

However a fusillade of pink arrows diverted Luna away and the Soul Reaper Captain shot a faint glare at Cadence, “I already told you I need this one for Soul Society, Cadence. The Quincy can slake their vengeance elsewhere.”

“And I told you, dear Luna, that my mission doesn’t end until this one dies. I appreciate your openness in telling me your mission, but it doesn’t change that for the moment we’re at cross purposes.”

Luna shook her head, returning her attention to Squirk, “That’s unfortunate, but changes nothing about what I must do.”

“Oooooh, you gonna take that guff from a Soul Reaper, Quincy?” Squirk said, retrieving his harpoon and pointing a finger between Cadence and Luna. Cadence rolled her eyes, her wrist crossbow flaring with wafts of pink light as she collected reishi for a fresh burst of arrows.

“Don’t bother. I may not let Luna capture you, but I’m not going to fight her long enough to let you escape through a Garganta.”

“Well it was worth trying,” Squirk grunted, his frustration mounting at just how screwed he seemed to be. Grogar was still busy with that other Sternritter, and Squirk didn’t have time to create a Garganta big enough to escape through without exposing himself to a killing blow. He could still create small ones to use as defensive portals, which was helping keep him alive, but that was it. He needed a way to get out of the open! He’d been trying to run for one of the entrances to Smooze’s Warrens, because down in that maze he could possibly lose some of his pursuers long enough to get a full Garganta going, but so far they’d blocked him.

Bad enough he had a Sternritter and Soul Reaper Captain on his ass, but the Captain had brought along a pair of extra irritations!

”Coil tightly; Shibaru Hebi.” (Binding Serpent)

The Soul Reaper with the magenta skin and bearing a Lieutenant’s badge on her arm appeared behind Squirk, her Zanpaktou transforming from a short tanto form in a wash of blue light to become a coiled length of thick white leather; a whip that was tipped with a wicked looking steel barb. She grinned with an almost too friendly flash of teeth before snapping the whip towards Squirk, the steel barb glinting.

At the same time her partner, the dark blue skinned fellow, appeared at Squirk’s other side, his own Zanpaktou already transformed into a straight bladed set of arm claws, slashing for Squirk’s legs. Through neither were Captain-level, they both moved with surprisingly fast Flash Steps that made Squirk think the pair had been especially trained for speed. Regardless he was still able to create a pair of small Garganta portals to place in the way of those attacks, and although it forced the male with the claw bladed Zanpaktou to leap back, the female with the whip Zanpaktou twisted her wrist and the whip moved like a living thin, snaking around the portal and striking at Squirk with its barbed tip.

He used his left hand to bat the barb aside, but flinched as his hand made contact. The blade itself didn’t penetrate, or even really scratch his Hierro, but his hand felt oddly numb anyway, as if some kind of anesthetic had been administered. No doubt part of her Zanpaktou’s power.

“This is ridiculous. All this effort to kill me, and I haven’t even killed any Soul Reapers lately!”

“Strictly speaking we’re just here to capture you,” said the magenta female, winking, “So be a good boy and give up and we’ll protect you from the big bad Quincy.”

“Although we will still be taking you to our R&D department for study,” said the male.

“Nocturn, you don’t have to tell him that!”

“Oh, sorry Cheerilee. Um...” Nocturn blinked at Squirk, then said, “You probably won’t be dissected. Much.”

Cheerilee slapped her forehead, “Well now he won’t come quietly, will he?”

“I don’t think he was going to anyway.”

Cadence cleared her throat politely and turned a sardonic glance towards Luna, “Your subordinates... they’re quite relaxed, aren’t they?”

Luna was sporting a stone masked frown, “I don’t necessarily encourage it.”

To this Cadence offered an apologetic smile, “Well, don’t take this personally Luna, but I really can’t accept any more interference. Time is precious, at the moment, so...”

Cadence vanished in a burst of speed, and Luna tracked her motion, vanishing as well with a swift Flash Step to keep pace with the Sternritter. Cadence started to unleash a series of arrows in short bursts, first at Squirk, which Luna quickly deflected with one scythe while trying to cut the Espada’s legs out from under him with her other scythe. He leaped back from the strike with a yelp, taking shallow cuts that, while painful, didn’t disable his legs. Still, Luna’s scythe treated his Hierro like paper, and it only reinforced the idea in Squirk’s mind that this group being here for his head was straight up overkill, and he cursed his foul luck while he struggled to think of a way out of this predicament.

While he had dodged back, Cadence’s barrages had continued, only these ones were aimed at Cheerilee and Nocturn. Both were just barely fast enough to dodge, but it soon became clear that was only because Cadence hadn’t been aiming to strike them. Instead she’d been aiming her arrows to pepper the sands in a heart-shaped pattern, and with a wink and a mock gesture of blowing a kiss, Cadence fired two arrows, one into the center of each heart shaped pattern.

“Liebe Dunst!” (Love Haze)

The heart patterns of arrows lit up with rose pink light and then burst into rapidly expanding clouds of equally pink gas that quickly engulfed both Soul Reapers. The pair coughed and sputtered, moving out of the cloud with swift Flash Steps, but the gas had already been inhaled and Cadence smiled as she spoke to them.

“Listen carefully my dears, it’d most please me if you two would fight each other.”

There was a brief second of confusion and resistance on both Cheerilee and Nocturn’s faces as they struggled against the influence of the Lust. When distributed using the Liebe Dunst the power of Cadence’ Schrift was reduced, but it could spread over a wider area. A Captain like Luna or even a lower ranked Espada such as Squirk wouldn’t likely have trouble resitting the gas, but a Lieutenant or lower ranked Soul Reaper like Cheerilee and Nocturn were much more vulnerable to even a diluted version of the Lust.

Within a few seconds Nocturn and Cheerilee’s eyes clouded over and with adoring looks on their faces they obeyed Cadence’s command and faced each other, Zanpaktou at the ready. As they both moved to strike, Luna flickered into view between them, her scythes whirling in a powerful arc and striking away both combatant's Zanpaktou. As she did so her feet also moved in a blur, snapping out two expertly timed kicks to both her subordinates stomachs, knocking them back from each other. Luna sent a darkly sharp glare towards Cadence.

“This is a low blow, Cadence.”

“I’m sure they won’t hurt each other too badly as long as you chaperone them,” Cadence replied with a curt but apologetic tone, then immediately turned and streaked towards Squirk, who’d been edging away from the gas cloud. Luna swore under her breath. She couldn’t afford to leave her two subordinates alone under the influence of Cadence’s Lust, which would lose her precious moments while Cadence would be free to engage Squirk.

That being the case, Luna didn’t waste a single instant. While Cadence assaulted Squirk with more stinging flurries of pink arrows, any one of which carried the lethally controlling power of the Lust within it, and Squirk desperately sought to guard himself with hastily formed Garganta portals, Luna focused on subduing her enthralled comrades.

Both Cheerilee and Nocturn were slowly getting up, their Lust hazed eyes still locked on each other, minds clouded with the order to battle one another. Luna Flash Stepped behind Nocturn and swept his legs out from under him, toppling him to the ground once again. She then instantly stepped on his one arm, pinning it, and him along with it, while she gestured with one scythe towards Cheerilee.

“Bakudo Number Sixty One: Rikujokoro.”

The six flat panes of intense yellow light summoned by the Kido slammed into place around Cheerilee’s mid-section just as she’d been about to send her whip flying towards Nocturn. The Kido left Cheerilee thoroughly paralyzed, and would remain for quite some time or until Luna released the Kido. Nocturn was struggling under her foot, but Luna’s physical strength readily eclipsed that of her Third Seat officer. With a swift, practiced motion she knelt down and set a scythe aside just long enough to strike a precise point at the back of Nocturn’s head. He would be out for only a few minutes, but long enough for Luna to deal with Squirk and Cadence.

Grabbing up her scythe once more she cast her attention back to her target. Squirk was struggling against Cadence, trying desperately to get any kind of offense going by hurling his harpoon at the Sternritter while directing with with harsh hand gestures. At the same time he kept summoning small Garganta to absorb the swift pink streaks of arrows that rained down on him. Cadence kept the pressure up, not giving him any time to grow a larger portal he could escape through, and Luna noted that amid her barrages of arrows she’d been constructing several more heart shaped patterns on the ground around Squirk.

It was possible if she created enough of the Liebe Dunst it’d affect even an Espada. Even if it didn’t affect him fully, it might slow him down enough for Cadence to land a hit with one of her arrows. If that happened, she’d likely have him, and be able to kill Squirk at her leisure.

Luna rushed forward, her shadow shivering like a waking beast and expanding in an ink stained tide around her. If she could entrap Squrik in her shadows, she could subdue him while keeping Cadence away, but she had to move swiftly. Fortunately speed was Luna’s key strength.

Squirk barley saw her coming, eyes widening as shadows flowed around him and Luna’s body all but disappeared from the Espada’s senses as her speed took her up and over him. The Garganta portals he was using as shields made her strike difficult, her scythes having to move at awkward angles to pass by the hastily male holes in reality, but she struck a severe blow on Squirk’s right arm, causing him to snarl in pain and lash out with a hastily thrown Cero. Luna saw it coming and had little difficulty maneuvering out of the way, but it did force her back for a moment. A moment long enough for Cadence to finish her last heart pattern in the sand and unleash the triggering arrows.

In a bright glow of pink the gas appeared, swirling out in its choking embrace. Luna held her breath, focusing upon the shadows she’d gathered underneath Squirk while she’d been striking at him. All she had to do was open up her shadows and let them rise up around him. Even with the gas trapped inside, as long as Cadence remained outside the shadows, Luna ought to have enough time to disable Squirk.

Squirk, however, had no intention of going silently, and as Luna focused a rising a wall of grasping shadows around him, and Cadence paused for her gas to take effect, the Ninth Espada started to panic and grew desperate. He’d avoided doing this earlier because he’d wanted to flee into the Warrens, and his body would be too large to do that if he release Zanpaktou, but with shadows creeping up around him and horrible mind controlling gas surrounding him, he was utterly out of options. In that moment it was easy to cover up his fear with a growing, seething feeling of hate for this people who’d come to kill him, along with this entire damnable war! Damn the Quincy for being such vengeful pricks! Damn Tirek for letting this war drag on forever! And while he was at it, damn his own foolish self for ever thinking this Espada gig was a good idea! He could have carved out a comfortable little kingdom for himself out in the far deserts of Hueco Mundo, like some of those Privaron Espada. With his Gargantas he could have easily fled any attackers and stayed safe. But no, he’d wanted to have the high life of eating as many souls as he wanted and the prestige of being an Espada. Fat lot of good that was doing him now that he had a Sternritter and Soul Reaper Captain on his ass!

Well, he wasn’t going down quietly or easily, that was for damn sure!

”Boil over; Odio!” (Hatred)

His harpoon began to hiss and steam, its metal coating over with bubbling boils of melting metal. It then burst in a coating of melted iron that flared red hot and covered Squirk’s body as it started to emit a towering column of raw, crimson reiatsu. The column shot up into Las Noches’ false sky, impacting with the roof in a manner that made it look as if the blue sky was cracking like an eggshell.

Luna looked on with a frown curving her dark lips. She’d wanted to deal with this quickly, but this would complicate matters. Hopefully the battle outside Las Noches was so intense that it would take them time to notice what was transpiring within, or at least take them some time to send reinforcements. In the meantime she readied her scythes. Squirk’s unleashed reiatsu was enough to create a powerful swirl of wind that was sweeping away Cadence’s pink gas, but it was also pushing back Luna’s shadows. She’d have to wait until the transformation was complete before bringing the shadows back into play.

Cadence apparently had been thinking along similar lines Luna had, not desiring to let this battle last too long either. She and her team had been instructed to avoid using Vollstandig unless it was absolutely necessary. As things stood, this situation applied, far as she was concerned.

“Sassy,” she spoke into the small communications device in her ear, “We’re out of options. Go all out.”

Sassy’s reply was strained, and Cadence could only imagine the difficulties her friend might have been having against Grogar.

“Don’t need to tell me twice. Ugh, this ruffian is proving rather difficult.”

“Hold out as long as you can. I’ll finish our target as fast as possible,” Cadence replied, feeling a moment of even deeper concern. Where was Velvet? Why was it taking her so long to deal with whatever was in that tower?

She shoved aside her worries and took off her right glove, revealing the silver embossed Quincy cross embedded into the darker glove beneath. Luna saw the gesture, and had a moment to wonder what Cadence was about to do, when the Sternritter was utterly engulfed in a blinding pillar of white light that shot up into the air just as high as the crimson pillar from Squirk.

Luna blinked, then blinked again as a second pillar of light emerged from where she’d sensed Cadence’s Sternritter companion fighting another Espada.

What in the name of the Spirit Queen is this? Luna wondered, feeling the surge of reiatsu from Cadence. Was this a Letzt Stil? No, the glove looked different than the reports on the Letzt Stil transformation. The Quincy have been hiding a nasty surprise, it seems, she thought, and realized that besides capturing Squirk, it was now also important for her to return to Soul Society and report this development.

By now the liquid metal surrounding Squirk had boiled up with bubbling pops, billowing out clouds of steam alongside its pulsing aura of red spirit energy. But as the aura of red tapered off the mass of metallic liquid gained new shape and definition, cooling off until it took on the more traditional white, bone-like consistency common to Hollows.

A hulking body about twelve feet tall possessed a curved, hunched back consisting of a thick shell sporting three rows of conical spikes. Two large, segmented arms of white shell ended in huge pincers, snapping in clacking spasms and edged sharply as any blade. A sprouting of thick, powerful legs, six in total, supported the body like thick trunks of white bamboo. Then within the front of the large crustacean body, Squirk was embedded like a living statue up to his torso, his body below the waist fused to the larger whole, and his head merged with the tip of the shell into the shape of a pointed helmet. His own arms had become smaller versions of the large pincers, snapping in rhythm to their larger cousins.

Squirk let out a breath that released small plumes of steam, eyes starring heated daggers at Luna and Cadence both.

Cadence emerged from her own pillar of light on scintillating wings of pulsating white and pink gossamer, shaped in the wide, elegant curves of a monarch butterfly. Patterns of hypnotic light darted in mind numbing patterns across the wings, painful yet enticing to look at all at once. Around her head glowed a halo of crystalline blue, shaped into a heart. White, crystalline armor coated her chest in a fine breastplate, and her arms and legs in segmented greaves with faint traces of the same butterfly patterns from her wings. Her wrist mounted crossbow remained unchanged in shape, but now bore the same blue crystal composition as her armor.

The unmitigated ire didn’t leave Squirk’s eyes as he looked upon Cadence, “Cute wings.”

“Nice...” Cadence paused, a small smirk touching her lips, “Crab shell.”

A small moment of heavy silence fell between the three, thick with ready violence. Then all three moved at once, snapping into motion.

Luna swept one scythe out, creating a line of swirling shadows that spun across the sands towards Squirk. Cadence’s wings flared with saturated, bleeding neon color and emitted a pair of spiral shaped prismatic beams.

Squirk raised his two larger pincers and opened them, and upon doing so Garganta portals snapped open along with the pincers, the gaping dark maws as wide as the pincers could open. At the same instant Squirk began the slow process of forming a larger enough Garganta for him to escape through behind his now large body. It started as a thin black line that gradually started to creep wider. Meanwhile the Garganta portals formed by his pincers did something wholly different than any of his previous portals; they started to suck in air at high speed as if they led to a total vacuum.

This was a property of his Resurrection, allowing him to create special spaces within specific Garganta portals formed by his pincers. In this case opening them into a void-like sub dimension, similar to the ones made by Caja Negaccion, only larger and existing as vacuums that would create a suction effect outside the portal.

He shoved the two portals into the paths of Luna’s advancing shadows and Cadence’s beams, letting the Gargantas absorb the attacks. At the same time smaller Garganta portals opened up a meter above the apex of each conical spike on the back of his shell. Identical portals then opened up in sphere-like patterns around both Luna and Cadence. Then each cone shaped spike generated a Cero beam at their tip and fired them into the portals hanging above them, instantly transferring the destructive beams through their counterpart portals surrounding Squirk’s two foes.

The beams converged in a pair of earth shaking explosions that sent pillars of sand flying dozens of meters upward, yet neither Luna or Cadence were struck. Both had used superior speed to fly out of the trap of beams, Cadence in a bursting streak of multi-colored light, and Luna all but vanishing from Squirk’s senses for an instant. He grunted as he felt pain on his left arm, seeing a shallow cut on the pincer as Luna flickered by, a cloak of shadows trailing behind her.

He turned his massive body towards her, but had to pause as light shone down from above and Cadence’s wings ran with pulsing lines of line that hurt Squirk’s eyes and started to numb his mind. He could feel Cadence’s power pushing at the edges of his brain, the mere sight of her pulsating wings now creating a low-key infection of the Lust, hypnotic and dizzying to look upon. He growled in heated frustration and hate as he flung a pincer upwards, opening it along with its Garganta portal, and doubled the suction power, trying to pull the Sternritter in.

She stubbornly stayed airborne, but fluttered unevenly in the sudden wind pulling her towards Squirk. Her wrist mounted crystal bow aimed and created a blue crystal arrow, with a pulsing core of pink energy. She fired it and Squirk assumed it’d go into the Garganta portal, just like those spiral beams had, but this time the arrow seemed to move like a self-aware thing, bobbing around his portal in a insect buzz. It flew towards his face but he used one of his smaller pincers to block the arrow, slapping it out of the air... only to find the crystal shatter and unleash pink gas, just like the Liebe Dunst, right onto his face.

He resisted the urge to let out a string of non-family friendly language and instead wisely held his breath as the gas stung his eyes, but wasn’t breathed in. He turned away from Cadence with surprising speed for his bulk. The armor of his shell was like an enhanced Hierro, and could resist plenty of punishment. He was willing to bet on it resisting her arrows or beams, at least for a moment, while he focused on where Luna had gone.

The Soul Reaper had gone for his main Garganta portal that he’d been opening for himself. She stood before it, and had summoned up a wall of writhing shadows to wrap around the portal. When one got down to brass tacks both Squirk’s Garganta portals and Luna’s shadows were powers formed from their spirit energy, so they could interact with and interfere with one another. It was just of question of which was stronger.

In his released form, his reiatsu should have been stronger. Strictly speaking, it was, but by nowhere near as large a margin as he would have liked. Luna’s shadows could slow the progress of his Garganta, but not stop it. Which still put him at a disadvantage, since he could already tell that he was out of his league here. Cadence’s reiatsu had shot up considerably, and he couldn’t hold his breath forever. And this damnable Soul Reaper Captain hadn’t even used her Bankai yet and was still giving him trouble!

Squirk knew without a doubt he was finished unless he either got incredibly lucky, or help arrived.

----------

Adagio crept up to the edge of the exit to the Warrens and peered outside into Las Noche’s harshly lit interior desert landscape. It hadn’t taken any refined sense with her Pesquisa to feel the massive amounts of reiatsu flowing over the area like the currents of earthquakes releasing tidal waves through the ocean.

Behind her Ember knelt and peeked around the corner of the wall as well, wearing a troubled frown.

“Adagio, that’s a Soul Reaper.”

“I can see that.”

“And another Quincy Sternritter.”

“I can see that,” Adagio mumbled, eyes narrowing in rapid, concentrated thought. She'd somewhat expected a situation like this to develop, but not quite like this. One of those Sternritter gunning after Squirk made sense, but the Soul Reapers being here was a wild card she hadn't counted on.

Not more than a couple hundred meters away she could see a titanic struggle taking place. She assumed the giant crab-like form currently hammering the ground in front of a wall of shadows encircling what looked like a Garganta portal had to be Squirk. She assumed the fast, flitting shape that was avoiding Squirk’s pincer blows was the Soul Reaper. This was the first time she’d really felt a Soul Reaper’s reiatsu. It was a rigid and oppressive feeling, like touching a concrete wall, or the hard wood of a coffin. It didn’t have the cold, acrid taste of Quincy reiatsu, but it still felt distinctly unpleasant to Adagio’s senses.

Not to mention sharply powerful, like her finger had cut itself on the edge of a knife. This Soul Reaper was powerful. As strong as the Quincy Sternritter that was raining crystal arrows upon Squirk’s shell, filling the air with pink gas. It was hard to tell if this Sternritter was stronger than Prim Hemline, but Adagio could see the light of the Quincy’s wings and knew she’d activated the same transformation Prim had.

Adagio knew without a doubt that she and Ember didn’t stand a chance in a stand up fight, even if they joined forces with Squirk.

Well, let’s not give them a stand up fight, she thought ruefully. She and Ember had just one purpose here, and that was to ensure Squirk’s death.

Perhaps that meant they wouldn't have to do anything at all and the Quincy or Soul Reaper would do the job for her. She accounted for that possibility when she'd imagined only one Sternritter would be present to target Squirk. In that situation teaming up with him to eliminate the Sternritter, then finishing him off when he dropped his guard, would have been the most sensible plan. With the Soul Reapers here, that made things significantly more difficult. Not to mention she could sense other Quincy in the area, though she felt Grogar nearby as well, so he must have been fighting one of them. The other Quincy rieatsu was more distant and hard to pinpoint, so Adagio wasn't certain where that one was. Given the situation it made sense to wait and see if Squirk would be eliminated, sparring her the trouble... but if Squirk managed to escape through one of his portals, then that’d be a serious problem. There'd be no guarantee of being able to find him again. A plan started to take shape in her mind as Ember tapped her shoulder.

“Any ideas on what our play is going to be?” asked Ember, and Adagio nodded, grip tightening on her trident.

“I’m thinking.”

“We could just wait and see how the fight turns out,” Ember pointed out.

“Already thought that myself, but if Squirk runs away through a Garganta, we won’t be able to track him down again quickly.”

Ember grimaced, “Good point. So what do we do?”

The pieces of the plan fell into place in her mind, haphazard but workable. It wasn’t as if she had a lot of time to rethink things or second guess herself. Success or failure, it’d all ride on how well she could adapt and how lucky she was on tossing the dice. There were too many variables, too many ways things could go wrong, to let worry and doubt force her to inaction. Do or die, Adagio had to move forward.

She explained the plan to Ember. Ember looked incredulous, but nodded, willing to follow Adagio’s lead. It wasn’t like Ember had any better ideas herself. Quietly the two readied themselves, and moved out from the tunnel exit.

----------

Twilight paced the room, her limbs filled with agitated, restless energy. This felt far too much like when she’d been stuck in her room back home while Canterlot City had been under attack, not sure if her friends were alive or dead. Now she was stuck in another room, unable to help, unable to do anything, wondering if a different set of newly forged friends were okay, or at that very moment being killed by Hollows.

Unbidden scenes of death floated across her mind. The torn apart and ravaged bodies of cadets from the attack on the Academy. Hacksaw’s face, filled with fear as the Cero erased her. Indigo’s legs, torn away in a spray of red.

Twilight shivered, clutching herself while taking several deep breaths. Within her mind she heard Midnight speak in a distracted but chiding tone.

Will you relax? I’m trying to examine something in here and all this mental disturbance is rocking the metaphysical boat quite a bit.

A moment of uncharacteristic snark and partially manic irritation boiled up inside Twilight, “Oh I’m sorry, I’m just a little freaked out by watching people die right in front of me!”

It's not like you knew any of them. You barely said two words to that Hacksaw girl.

“That doesn’t mean I wanted to see her get disintegrated!” Twilight said with a sharp, acid edge of panic touching her tone. On some level she knew Midnight was at least partially correct. While she’d been a part of the battle she’d been able to focus on the fight at hand, and even when talking with Adagio she’d at least had the conversation as a distraction. Now that she was by herself, with only her troubled thoughts and a near sociopathic alter-ego for company, the stress and mental wounds of seeing so much death and destruction was pressing in on her like a vice.

She tried to take a few calming breaths, but they came out more like half-born sobs. “I didn’t know her, but I didn’t want to see the look on her face as she died, Midnight. I didn’t want any of this...”

Correction, you didn’t want it to be this bad. You still chose to join the Quincy and be a part of their war. This is just the natural result of that decision. You need to accept it and adapt. How many more deaths are you expecting to see before this is over? Not just this battle, but the whole war?

Midnight’s voice was cool, calm, collected. Utterly practical. Yet there was a faint strain there. Why? Was Midnight more affected by this than she was showing, or was the strain due to whatever it was she was ‘examining’? Twilight took another shuddering breath and sat down on the room’s bed, holding her face in her hands.

“I know. I know. I have to... deal with this. I will deal with this. It’s just hard. I can’t think straight right now. I wish I had some kind of problem to focus on. Something to keep me from thinking about the way Indigo’s legs just... flopped on the ground like that, like they were just pieces of meat.”

Her gorge rose, and Twilight struggled not to vomit. She felt a warm energy spread through her as Midnight’s voice sighed, the magic seeming to stead Twilight’s mind almost like a drug.

Easy there little miss weak stomach. I can reduce the nausea, but I can’t make your mental issues vanish for you, so please try to get your head in order. Like I said, I’m kind of busy at the moment.

“Busy doing what?” Twilight asked, closing her eyes and trying to empty her head of all the horrible thoughts and images of war and death scratching at her. Perhaps just talking with Midnight might help. Something, anything else to focus on.

Examining something. I told you that already.

“Yes, but what are you examining?” Twilight pressed, feeling slightly better as her curiosity was piqued. Granted she was also concerned. What could be diverting Midnight’s attention like this?

After a moment of pause that Twilight felt held a sense of hesitation from Midnight’s end, the alter-ego said, Come to the mirror. I’ll show you. Easier than just explaining it.

Considering this to be a far better way to spend her time than continuing to let her mind remained trapped in the murky spiral of dwelling upon the carnage she’d witnessed, Twilight rose from the bed and quickly padded over to the room’s single, tall standing mirror. For just a bare moment she saw her own haggard, dust stained reflection staring back at her, but soon that image wavered and faded like mist clearing out by a stiff breeze.

In her place within the mirror stood Midnight Sparkle in all her dark, scantily clad glory, but the alter-ego wasn’t wearing the usual haughty, self-assured look Twilight was used to but instead had a quizzical and even pensive look on her features.

I don’t know what it is yet, but have a look...

Midnight stood aside and gestured to something to her left. Twilight could see the mirror was showing an image of the same endless starscape that seemed to make up a portion of her inner mind. Only now she could see numerous glowing pathways of light crossing among those stars and the spaces between, some swooping in elegantly curved patterns of bright teal magic, while others moved in sharp geometric angles of light blue spirit energy, her Quincy powers. And at several points these patterns of light intersected, merging into gleaming stars of blue and teal light, pulsing as one. Only there was a small cluster of these stars that weren’t pulsing, but instead were still with a gloom of shadow wrapping around them. Only two or three out of the large multitude, but enough to darken a portion of the inner world.

And at the center of that cluster was... a box? It was a pure cube shape, pitch black in color, its dimensions no larger than Twilight’s fist. It sat motionless in space, yet the gloom that covered some of the nearby stars of energy seemed to be emanating from that box.

“What... is it?” Twilight asked with apprehension coating her tongue.

I told you; I don’t know, Midnight replied sharply, annoyance heating her voice, That’s why I’m examining it. I have no clue what it is, and I didn’t notice it until just a short time ago during your battle with that moronic Gilda woman.

Twilight blinked at that, trying to think over the fight with Gilda and if there’d been anything unusual about it. Musingly she said, scratching her chin, “I remember you said something about sensing something off after the battle. That was the first time we put the Hexenfaust through a true combat situation. Furthermore we utilized far more magic than we have at any point prior to the Friendship Games. Could any of that be the catalyst for this anomaly?”

Midnight paused as she turned towards the cube and the mirror’s image showed Midnight moving to hover around the object, her hands held near it as if Midnight was trying to feel it at a distance. Dark violet eyes narrowed in thought.

I doubt either the Hexenfaust or our increased magic use is the direct cause of this, but it is why I noticed it. It was reacting to my... our magic. Or maybe a more accurate to put it is that our magic revealed it, like a light can reveal an object hidden in shadow. I’m thinking that when I let you use more of our magic, the pathways through us that both our magic and your Quincy powers passed through hit this spot and got snagged.

“Snagged? You mean this anomaly is blocking both our magic and my Quincy abilities?”

Eh, poor choice of words. Truth is I don’t know what this is or what it’s doing, only that this particular portion of our metaphysical landscape can’t be passed by any energy, be it magic or spirit energy. It's like this cube is a total null-space. However, here’s a concerning tidbit; this thing was reacting to your mental state.

Twilight felt a cold tingle in her spin as she gulped, “Um, how so?”

Midnight met her eyes with a flat look, The more upset you were getting, the more I sensed a vibration from the cube.

Well, that wasn’t creepy at all, was it? Twilight took a calming breath to try to stifle a moment of rising worry, and adjusted her glasses as she looked at the cube more closely. It was such a small, innocuous thing, but the idea that this little black cube was hanging inside her mind, or soul, or whatever her metaphysical landscape represented left Twilight feeling distinctly chilled. “Keep calm; check. Can you tell me anything else about it?”

Not much, sadly. So far all I’ve been able to determine for sure is that this isn’t a recent addition. This thing has been here for awhile... Midnight hesitated, frowning deeper, Possibly since you were born.

Concern; rising. “H-how can you be so sure?”

Hold the stammers, they make us both look bad. As for how I know that, I’ve had plenty of time to get a good look around our spiritual and mental insides, as it were. I’ve gotten familiar with telling the difference between, say, old memories or new memories, or how old, faded emotions feel compared to fresher, intense emotions. Everything in here sort of has a sense of its age, of how long its been in here to leave its own metaphysical imprint. This cube’s imprint is old. As old as your earliest memories or emotional influences. That means it either appeared in your infancy, or at birth. Or...

“Or...?” Twilight asked pressingly.

Or its older than that. As in, given what we know of the cycle of life and death, this is from a previous life your soul lived, either in the living world or afterlife.

Now that was a notion Twilight hadn’t even considered, and wasn’t sure if it made her less nervous, or more nervous. Doing her best to still her unease she said, “Okay, so putting that unsettling bit of information aside, can you confirm if it's actively doing anything besides vibrating when I get emotionally distressed?”

Midnight gave a dainty shrug, Near as I can tell it isn’t doing anything other than just sitting here, taking up space. I haven’t been able to penetrate the cube with my senses to see what’s inside, if there even is anything inside. Rest assured I intend to keep a close eye on this. I don’t like surprises, and given this is as much my soul and mind as it is yours, I don’t like the idea of leaving this mystery unanswered. As for you, I suggest you just try to stay calm, don’t think about death, blood, and battle, and just concentrate on staying alive until this mess blows over. Then maybe consider asking your Quincy King what he might know about this.

That wasn’t a terrible idea. Sombra had been pretty open with her so far, and if anyone was likely to know what this strange anomaly might be, it would probably be him. Unless he was the one who’d put it there in the first place, and didn’t want her to know about it?

Midnight gave her a vixenish grin, eyes gleaming, Suspecting tall, dark, and handsome are we? And here I thought you were a lost cause and would trust anybody.

“I... I do want to trust him,” Twilight protested, “And who said anything about him being handsome?”

Your lack of self awareness depresses me. All I’m saying is that its good that you’re not totally trusting the man and realize he might be behind this strange cube. Keep that mistrust close in the coming days, Twilight, or we both might end up paying the price.

“I don’t know if I want to live my life mistrusting everyone around me,” Twilight whispered, and Midnight let out a dark chuckle.

Says the girl with assassins trying to kill her.

Before Twilight could respond to that, she froze. She’d just heard voices from outside the door. Distant, but rapidly getting louder, along with heavy footsteps. Hadn’t Adagio said this place would be empty!? Trying to stifle her panic and think clearly, Twilight looked around the room for a hiding place. She couldn’t be certain whoever was out in the hall was coming to this room specifically, but she wasn’t going to take any chances.

There were really only two possibilities, either the armoire or the bed. She imagined the armoire would be full of clothes and tough to fit inside, but the bed was ludicrously large (way larger than Adagio should need, Twilight thought), and it should be easy to hide under. As silly and juvenile as it seemed, a hiding spot was a hiding spot, and Twilight quickly scrambled to the bed and slipped under it. Just in time, it turned out, because the door swung open just as Twilight managed to pull herself fully beneath the bed.

“Shit should we be doing this, man!?” came a rough, panicked, but young male voice.

“I don’t know! I don’t know! Where else are we supposed to take him!? Oh crap, that’s a lot of blood! Dumbbelll! Hey, man, can you hear me still!?” this voice was higher pitched than the other, but still sounded like it came from a young man.

“Du...dude... stop yelling... freakin’ hurts... my head,” this voice was as young as the other two, but was spoken in a weak, slow tone of someone either incredibly tired, or near death’s door.

Twilight’s nose wrinkled as she smelled blood, and her eyes widened as she saw blood dripping on the pale stone floor as three pairs of feet crossed the room, two walking, one being dragged weakly between them.

“Dammit! Boss lady ain’t here yet! What do we do Hoops!? He’s dying!”

“Sh-shut up, Score! I’m thinking! Arrgh, I don’t know! This wasn’t supposed to happen!”

“Gu...guys, just put me... down. It’s okay.”

“Dude, like hell it is! You’re bleeding out!”

“And that’s...fine... got what we needed for...for Adagio. That’s all that matters... now put me down.”

There was a moment’s pause, followed by a sharply barked curse from one of the uninjured, or at least less injured young men, and they went to the table and sat their friend down into the chair. Twilight remained silent and still as a frozen mouse under the bed, but her mind was racing like an out of control speed boat.

She didn’t know who any of these three were, but it was obvious the injured one, Dumbbell, was wounded to the point that he may very well have been dying. Clearly neither of his companions had the remotest medical knowledge, and had clearly been hoping against hope that Adagio might be here to render some kind of aid. Now it seemed like all they could do was stand there and watch their companion bleed out. Twilight couldn’t see the extent of his wounds from her position, but she could see the blood trickling down his legs and seeping onto the floor.

Twilight was hardly a medical expert, but she wasn’t wholly bereft of medical knowledge either. Being the bright, knowledge hungry young woman she was, she’d devoured all sorts of information over the course of her studies. The medical fields weren’t of particular interest to her, but she had a strong grasp of biology and had taken courses on both basic and emergency first aid. She’d even perused more than a few of the more complex books on medicine and surgery when she’d gotten bored during those long, agonizing summer months when school was out.

Which didn’t mean she could claim to be a doctor or even a passable medic, but it sure meant she knew more about medical treatment than anyone else in the room right now, possibly enough to save this Dumbbell’s life.

Midnight’s voice hissed across her mind, Don’t even think about it! They’re the enemy. If we reveal ourselves, they’ll try to kill us!

Gathering her courage, Twilight spoke back in her mind, They might. Or they might not, if we use Adagio’s name. Midnight, he’s dying. I might be able to-

To WHAT!? Get us killed over some stupid, useless Hollow we don’t even know!? What guarantee do you even have that you can save him? We’ve never treated injuries before in our life!

That’s not true. We’ve treated cuts on Spike when he’s gotten hurt playing.

Oh, yeah, sure, totally the same thing, right? I think this Arrancar might need a bit more than a band-aid and some Neosporin! Which, in case you haven’t noticed, we don’t even have that much in the way of medical supplies. How do you plan to help him, kiss the wounds better!?

Twilight took a quiet, deep breath, and mentally shoved back against the sensation of Midnight in her head, and put a hardness into her mental tone she wasn’t fully aware she’d been capable of, I’m doing this Midnight. Either help, or get out of the way... but I’m through with watching people die in front of me.

With that, she rolled out from under the bed and stood in a slow and hopefully non-threatening motion, holding her hands up, palms out, in a peaceful gesture.

The two standing Arrancar whirled towards her, surprise and fear in their eyes as they tore swords from their sheaths and bared them at her. The third didn’t move much, given his condition, but blinked in shock at her sudden appearance. Twilight took in their appearances at a glance. They looked like they couldn’t be any older than she was, although with Hollows that didn’t mean much. They didn’t look like much, one a tall orange fellow with thick brown hair covering his eyes, another short and gray colored with wavy black hair. The injured one was browned skinned, at least where it wasn’t stained red with blood or bruised purple, and his creme colored hair fell over a face that was burned red across its left half, his remaining features twisted in pain. The rest of his body wasn’t in much better condition, his right shoulder swollen from an impact that must have broken bones, and blood still seeping from a pair of deep cuts that tore ragged valleys through his left arm. Also, Twilight was fairly certain his right knee was dislocated, if not outright crushed. But the worst wound was a deep puncture in his right side, just above the abdomen, which seeped dark red blood in a slow stream. An injury like that might not kill immediately, but without treatment he’d likely die within twenty four hours or so. Twilight couldn’t come close to properly treating that wound, or even half of what she was seeing, but she could render enough basic first aid that maybe he’d live long enough for someone with more power or skill to help.

That would have to wait for a moment, given his two standing companions looked like they were about to either panic, attack her, or panic then attack her.

“Holy crap, a Quincy!? How did they get inside!?” sputtered the tall orange one, Hoops she guessed,.

“How should I know!?” shot back the short gray one, Score, “J-just kill her!”

Knowing her next sentence could be the difference between being able to help or having to fight for her life, Twilight spoke fast, and with confidence she certainly wasn’t feeling. “Adagio sent me. I’m here to help.”

Well, she’d been right that using Adagio’s name would have an affect. All three Arrancar looked at her with incredulous shock, the injured one, Dumbbell, coughing and grimacing in pain as he leveled himself up a bit from where he’d been slumping in the chair his friends had dumped him in.

“H-how do you know the boss lady’s name?”

Technically speaking I could have heard it while eavesdropping on you guys while under the bed, Twilight thought, but it didn’t look like any of these three were super bright. That might work to her advantage, or not, depending on whether they would jump to the wrong conclusions. Putting on a smile she hoped was easing, but much more likely came off as horrifically awkward, she said, “I’m helping her with, uh, spy stuff.”

“Spy stuff?” Dumbbell said with a wince as he raised an eyebrow.

“Yup, spy stuff. You know, I tell her stuff, she, uh, helps me with things in return. She told me to hide out here until the battle was over,” Twilight said, and mentally muttered , And didn’t mention anyone showing up while she was gone. Putting that thought aside, she went on to say, “I hid because I didn’t know who might be coming in here. Adagio mentioned having, um, servants, but not that they’d come into her room.”

Looks passed between the three young men. With a sudden sound of fear, Hoops said, “Crap, forgot we’re not supposed to go into her room. She’s gonna be so mad at us.”

“Ugh, whatever, it's an emergency and we needed to find her,” said Score with a worried look, peering at Twilight suspiciously, “And how do we know you’re not lying?”

Twilight was quick to say, “If I was really meaning to harm any of you, why would I show myself at all? I could’ve kept hiding and either stayed safe, or ambushed you.”

“She’s got a...a point...” said Dumbbell, his one good eye looking at Twilight with a measuring gaze, “But why’s a Quincy helping...ugh... helping Adagio in the first place?”

“Would it be okay if I left it at ‘it’s complicated’?”

He gazed at her, then a tired look passed his face as he smiled in resignation, “Yeah... complicated fits her. I buy it, Quincy spy. So... why show yourself?”

No deception this time, Twilight’s voice just rang with simple sincerity, “I want to help you. I know a bit about medicine, and while I can’t heal your wounds, but I might be able to do enough to keep you alive until somebody better can look at you.”

“You’d do that?” he asked, and his two companions both looked even more nervous.

“Dude, Dumbbell, I don’t know that we should trust her! She’s a Quincy,” said the short one.

“Yeah, this is weird,” said Hoops, “Like, freaky to the next level kind of weird. Quincy don’t help our kind, they kill us.”

“So, geniuses, why ain’t she... she killing us right now?” asked Dumbbell, to which his two companions looked at each in baffled silence, not having an answer to that. Dumbbell coughed again, settling back into his chair, and looked at Twilight, “Alright, Quincy, if you’re gonna try and, ugh... do something, better get to it... before there’s nothing left to heal.”

A second passed where Twilight looked to see if the other two might object more, but they seemed beyond bewildered by the turn of events at this point and were both slowly lowering their swords. With a relieved breath she nodded and said, “I need clean water and any kind of clean, absorbent fabric you have. Towels, bed sheets, doesn’t matter as long as its clean. If you have anything remotely resembling a medical kit in some closet somewhere, that’d be fantastic.”

Score and Hoops both blinked, pointing at each other, “You talking to us?”

Twilight looked at them frankly, “Yes, who else? Your friend can’t move and I don’t know where anything is around here. Water. Towels. Medical supplies. Alcohol if you have it. Quickly!”

Hoops gulped and glanced at Score with a nervous, thinking twitch of his brow, “I, uh, think we took some stuff like that for the stash. And didn’t you snag something with one of them first aid symbols from the department store?”

“I dunno! We’ll have to look.”

“Well get looking!” Twilight said, a bit more snappy than she’d intended and she managed to nod politely and add, “Please. Anything you can find will be helpful.”

As the pair scrambled from the room to get searching for what Twilight asked for she approached Dumbbell and started to more carefully examine his wounds. As she did so he coughed again and glanced down at her with a curious look, his voice weak but mirror his eye’s curiosity.

“So seriously... why are you doing this? Not... not that I’m complaining... but even of your helping Adagio for whatever reason, that’s...guh... that’s got nothing to do with us. Kinda risky to... to just reveal yourself, not knowing if my pals would’ve... ganked you before you got a chance to say anything.”

Frowning in daunted consternation at how much worse the injuries looked up close, and realizing she had quite the uphill struggle here, she just glanced up at him and said, “Does it really matter why somebody helps you? Even if it’s for selfish reasons, you’re still getting more help than if that person chose to ignore you.”

At that he let out a pained, ragged laugh, “Heh...hah... that’s true, I guess. Stupid question...”

She didn’t say more on the matter, but as she started making a mental list of what she’d need to do to stop his bleeding and treat the wounds as best she could, she realized that his question did have some merit to it. Her motivations weren’t entirely pure, here. She didn’t want to watch people get hurt, suffer, and die anymore, but at the same time she was going to continue to be part of a war that’d all but guarantee more death and suffering would occur. It was a contradiction she couldn’t quite figure out how to resolve. Perhaps she was selfishly motivated here, helping Dumbbell only to make herself feel better and take her mind off of both thinking about the battle, and the disturbing discovering of the strange anomaly inside her.

But regardless of motivation, she’d chosen a course, and she was going to stick with it... and pray to whoever was listening that things didn’t get any worse.

----------

The explosion of reishi, scattering arrows like shards of glass, tore off the upper right spider leg of Roka’s Resurreccion, shedding a fresh spray of blood onto the sands. A pained half-scream tore itself form Roka’s already bloodied lips, but her eyes narrowed in determined defiance as she bounded to the right with a swift pair of Sonidos and tried to trap Velvet in a fresh spawning of razor sharp threads and needles that burst from her two remaining spider legs on her left side. By now both right ones were missing, and her silken clothes were bled from white to red by spatterings of blood from half a dozen arrow impacts.

Scores of needles flew through the air in glittering arcs, thread sharp enough to cut through stone weaving a deadly web around Twilight Velvet.

The Quincy, expression heavy as lead, just shook her head and with speed well surpassing Roka’s vanished from the center of the web before the threads got within an inch of touching her. The threads tore through the sands where Velvet had stood, cutting sharp paths dozens of meters long. Roka, focusing all of her senses as acutely as possible, tried to track Velvet’s movement. She barely saw a streak of white before the Quincy Sternritter was at her side, ramming the butt of her massive arbalest into Roka’s gut in a blow that sent the Arrancar girl reeling.

Yet Roka didn’t drop, spitting blood and planting her feet with a resolved cry, raising her hands in front of her and gathering the deep red sphere of a charged Cero.

Velvet watched, seeing the needles and threads expand from Roka’s spider legs once more. The needles dipped into the Cero sphere, gathering portions of it until the sphere was broken into dozens of smaller spheres, then they shot out at her in a wide pattern forming a large web of cutting red beams.

“Cero Tejedor!” (Cero Weaver) Roka’s voice was nearly lost amid the high pitched buzz of the altered Cero beams, whose size and complex patterns vaguely reminded Velvet of the laser security systems from some spy movie, only these were cutting lethal lines through the ground as the web rushed her.

Velvet sighed. This had gone well beyond what she expected to deal with, and she could sense Cadence and Sassy Saddles needed her help. Things couldn’t be going well if both of her comrades had resorted to Vollstandig. Velvet didn’t need to do the same here. Truth be told, she could have killed Roka within the first exchange of attacks, even after the young Arrancar woman had activated her Resurreccion.

It was just that Velvet was facing a conundrum she’d never expected to find herself in. She didn’t want to kill a Hollow. It was preposterous and utterly without precedent for her, but it was true nonetheless. In fact, the more Roka fought on, doggedly determined to protect her family against overwhelming odds, Velvet couldn’t help but find herself respecting this young lady.

Which was annoying because it was remarkably hard to kill someone you respected. Killing Hollows was usually a no-brainer, as for the longest time they were nothing to Velvet but savage monsters. Roka was nothing like any Hollow she’d encountered. Not in terms of power, of course, but in terms of the strength of her character? Velvet had never met a Hollow that had courage, integrity, or the smallest care for anyone other than themselves.

It presented a problem. She needed Roka out of the way to at least finish capturing Sunset Shimmer, or “Fenice” as she seemed to think herself now. She’d been trying to disable the girl, but Roka was showing quite a bit of resilience, despite several injuries that should have been crippling by now. It was looking like the only way to get Roka to stop was to kill her.

This has dragged on too long already, Velvet thought sadly as she bent and twisted her body in swift, dancing motions, evading the dense web of Cero beams projected by Roka’s needles.

She’d just have to hit Roka hard enough to put her down for good, and hope that it wouldn’t utterly destroy this strange Arrancar girl that Velvet, begrudgingly, had to admit she was starting to like.

To Roka’s credit, Velvet had to concentrate for several seconds on simply evading the complex weave of thin Cero beams that cascaded around her in an ever swirling and changing web, leaving dozens of scorched lines in the sand. Such an attack would’ve devastated a platoon of soldats and might have even given some of the weaker Sternritter trouble, but Velvet moved through the forest of beams like a hummingbird, zipping through narrow gaps and openings with easy contortions of her body.

With a final burst of speed faster than the wind itself, Velvet appeared through the dense maze of Cero beams, directly in front of a surprised Roka. Velvet gave the girl a grim, unhappy look as she shoved the barrel of her arbalest against Roka’s chest. There wasn’t time to convey anything in words, only to do what needed doing, but in Velvet’s mind she said, I hope you survive this, but if not... sorry.

There were numerous ways she could modify the reishi blasts fired by her arbalest. Her most common technique was the shotgun effect of arrows bursting out in either a wide arc, or flying out in all directions. It was good for clearing out large numbers of foes, or overwhelming a single opponent with difficult to dodge attacks. In this case such a technique would lack the precision Velvet desired, so she altered the reishi so that it would explode in a concentrated form, rather than bursting into a swarm of arrows. When she pulled the trigger, her arbalest fired a single, compact sphere into Roka’s chest.

The sphere impacted like a literal cannonball, carrying the shocked Arrancar in a short, high speed flight straight into the wall of the tower, where it proceeded to explode in a small but highly focused sphere of powerful blue white light.

“R-Roka!”

Velvet glanced to her right, where she could see that shark faced Hollow struggling to stand, trying to prop himself up on his sword. His whole body was shaking from his injuries, and Velvet noted that what looked like an older wound from before this fight had opened up across his gut, oozing blood.

The ground shook as the large dinosaur-like Hollow with the shark faced weirdo also tried to stand again, growling deep, but even as it got its feet under it the beast’s body trembled from its own wounds. Velvet didn’t sense anywhere near enough reiatsu from either one to consider them a threat and kept her attention focused on where her explosion was fading. She needed to confirm that Roka was out of the fight, one way or another.

As the smoke and dust slowly wafted away from the spot where Roka had been slammed into the tower, Velvet saw a shadow form emerge. Roka took one shaking step, then another. Her body was scorched, her clothing in tatters, with blood flowing from a deep wound in her chest where the reishi blast had hit. Of her two remaining spider legs on her back, the lower one was snapped in half, and the top one twitched, twisted at an awkward angle.

Velvet’s eyes narrowed, somewhat glad Roka had survived, but prepared to hit her with another such attack if the Arrancar girl so much as lifted a finger to continue the fight.

It turned out that wouldn’t be necessary. Roka took one more step on shaking feet, her whole body trembling, her eyes unfocused, but filled with equal measures of despair and sorrow. Her mouth worked silently as she tried to turn towards where Fenice remained trapped and unconscious inside Velvet’s reishi strands. Velvet thought the words might have been ‘I’m sorry’. Then Roka collapsed face first into the sands, unmoving. Velvet felt a flicker of her spiritual pressure remaining, but Roka wasn’t about to get up again anytime soon. This was further evidenced by the way the spider legs and cloth wrappings of her Resurreccion started to fade, swirling into a white mist that coalesced back into the form of Roka’s dagger, just out of reach of her pale hands.

Velvet sighed, “Thank His Majesty that’s over with...”

“You bitch!” shouted Di Roy, spitting up blood as he kept trying to stand, “If she’s dead, I’ll-”

A reishi sphere flew past his face and proceeded to detonate a few paces behind him, slamming him to the ground and nearly knocking Gaw over in the process as well. Velvet, holding her arbalest still aimed towards the pair, turned cold eyes their direction.

“That was the one and only warning shot I’ll give you, and I only give that much out of respect for this young lady’s courage in facing me to the very end in order to protect all of you. Don’t test my patience.”

With that Velvet turned to start striding towards Fenice, who only now was starting to twitch and groan, not quite conscious yet but probably a few minutes away from waking up. Velvet would need to get her out of here swiftly and rejoin Cadence and Sassy. Unfortunately there wasn’t time to try and convince the other human souls here to flee with her, since they seemed so stubbornly determined to remain here, but at least she could get Sunset out and later figure out just how she came to be in Hueco Mundo and why she was with these Hollows.

She only got about three steps before halting in place, frozen.

Her soul shook as an ocean of spiritual pressure crashed down from above, a wave of writhing malevolence and bitter tasting madness laced with a reiatsu so strong that for a second in blanketed out Velvet’s senses from detecting anything else around her.

Turning her head upward, her light blue eyes wide as two icy pools, she saw a figure standing atop the edge of the tower. It was indistinct, cowled in the shadow of a Garganta portal, but as the portal closed Velvel saw him more clearly. A tall, lithe man in a trailing white duster, pants, and dark boots, stood as still as a marble statue as he stared down at her, his long red hair slightly stirred in Las Noche’s faint interior wind. He held a naked blade in his right hand, longer than any normal katana, and still wet with fresh, red blood. Green, wolfish eyes seemed to glow within his pale white features.

She didn't immediately recognize him, though he looked incredibly familiar, but judging from his reiatsu, this was an Espada. One of the stronger ones.

What he was doing here, now, she couldn’t guess, but Twilight Velvet’s priorities changed the instant she realized what he was.

Sunset will have to wait for another day. I have to get to Cadence and Sassy, kill Squirk, and then get us the hell out of here as fast as-

It was only her own incredibly sharpened senses and reflexes that even allowed her to see him move.

One moment he was atop the massive tower, and within half an eyeblink he was in front of her, that long katana of his little more than a bright streak of metal tearing through the air. Instinct and extremely honed combat experience saved her life, moving with equally instant and incredible speed. She still felt the cold kiss of that steel edge for a bare instant, not enough to cut skin, but enough to know that if she hadn’t reacted with speed equal to his own, this Espada would have taken her head clean off in that attack.

She ended up standing a dozen yards away, arbalest aimed, but she didn’t fire. Now that he was closer, she had a much better look at him. His body was sporting several injuries, including a number of stab wounds on his lean chest that looked deep enough that they should be bleeding, but not a single drop of blood could be seen. While that struck her as strange, it was small potatoes compared to the fact that now that she could see his features more clearly, she recognized them.

He wasn’t looking at her. He was kneeling next to Roka now, having moved to the fallen girl in the bare moment between Velvet dodging his attack and her taking a second to aim her weapon. His back was turned to her, as if she wasn’t even there anymore, as he knelt next to Roka and placed a shaking hand on Roka’s shoulder.

Roka twitched, turning her eyes upward, bleary. Her voice was a pained, exhausted whisper.

“F...Father...”

Velvet felt her mouth go dry.

“It’s okay, hayseed, I’m here,” the man said in a voice that sounded entirely too... wholesome and normal to belong to someone spilling out that much cold, violent reiatsu. His strong, marble white hand rose to pat Roka’s head, ruffling her hair like any parent might their child to comfort them.

“Sorry...Father... I tried...”

“Shh, you did good, protecting the family. I’ll take care of it from here.”

He then stood, and turned towards Velvet. HIs eyes radiated pure murder.

Di Roy, gulping, glanced at Gaw, “Uh, Gaw... we might want to clear out of ground zero.”

Gaw gave a faint growl of agreement, and bent down to snatch up Di Roy in her jaws like a mother cat with her kitten, taking swift, limping steps away from the Sternritter and Espada.

Velvet stared down the Espada, taking a deep breath and keeping her arbalest trained squarely on him. She didn’t say anything. Didn’t make any introductions, ask any questions, or even conceive of trying to solve this diplomatically.

There was no point. She’d hurt his family, and she knew what kind of man Hard Nail was.

He didn’t look that much different from when he’d been alive. The skin, so white as to be almost pearl-like, was new, and his hair was a bit longer and more unkempt than Sweet Cider would’ve ever let him live down, but it was him. It was in the eyes mostly. Few men had eyes as intense as Hard Nail’s, and while she saw none of the warmth, kindness, and boyish charm that’d once been the man’s trademark, she sure recognized his fury. It was doubtful he had any memory of who he was, but Hollow or not, Espada or not, it looked like the shear rage that came about from someone harming his family was still clear and present.

Which meant Velvet wasn’t going anywhere without a fight, and she knew it. And very likely it was going to be a fight one of them wouldn't be walking away from.

Author's Note:

Well, Velvet's in it now. For that matter so is just about everyone else. Nobody's having a good day. Guess that's how war is. The climax of the arc approaches next chapter! Here's hoping I can make it worth the wait.

At any rate thank you all for reading and as always any and all comments, questions, or critiques are highly appreciated! 'Till next time.

PreviousChapters Next