Struggle Of Powers

-Genesis- · November 10, 2010

Akima whirled on Lora and using a small gravitational pulse shift sent the pill from Lora's hand to Koya. "Lora neither you nor Aya will be using these. Todou made them to specifically go with my body and genetic code. It's just a miracle that it didn't hurt Koya when he took it. Even now I'm sure that when the side effects kick in Koya will have it worse than I will. Now go back with the others! What do you think Kallen would say if she knew you were considering taking something that has at least a 90% chance of killing you. And you dragged Aya along too, what do you think Cougar and Natalie would say? They're the ones responsible for her now!" He turned to look at Koya and swallowed his own two pills and watched Koya do the same. Then he looked back at Lora, "Lora, for once please listen to me. Koya and I are clearly not as strong as you and Aya, but these pills will amplify our abilities temporarily. The side effects that would normally hit me could force me into a coma, and I can guarantee that Koya will suffer worse than I will from them because they weren't made for him. It could even kill him. I'm not going to risk that with either of you and with these pills in our systems Lora, we can easily force you to go back. But please don't make us." He looked at her with pleading eyes, hoping that she'd actually listen to him. The last time, she hadn't been strong enough to fight him and he'd forced her to accept what he'd said, but even then she didn't listen and went after him, digging him out from under a mountain.

Kyou stood with the others and at Destined's comment walked over to him and spoke, "Are you feeling left out? You can go join them if you wish, it makes no difference to me. I just thought that they might need the help." After that she turned and walked back over to some of the others when she noticed it. *Oh, why now..... Lora must have followed Akima and Koya, and she probably dragged Aya along too.* Kyou shook her head and then continued over the Saul and Black (she doesn't know he's John). "You look like you could use some healing, am I right?"

At Bordimour's words Lana turned to Hachi, "You were the cause of that accursed war? I enjoy fighting yes, but that civil war was nothing but a bloody massacre. Hachi......" She clenched her fists and then her whole body loosened as she calmed. Lana turned to Bordimour, "So what happens next my Lord? Do we sit and watch as they fight until they're finished?" She seemed to stare at the ongoing fight both appreciating each side's abilities as fighters and despising the fact of having to resort to letting someone else fight for them. "Also, are you sure that he will obey you? He doesn't seem like the type to take orders very well."

Jake the Sage · November 11, 2010

Lora's eyes began to well up with tears and both Akima and Koya could tell she was fighting to hold them back. Finally she dropped her head and let the tears flow freely down her flushed cheeks, down and off her chin, as she sniffed and breathed heavily through the emotions. Clenching her fists Lora opened her mouth, but nothing came out, and shut it again. A few times of doing this an finally she managed to mold a single sentance, "I can't just sit back and do nothing . . ."

Looking up even Aya, her best friend, was shocked at the expression on the young woman's face. Her eyes were bloodshot from crying and her entire face was flushed red with the thought of her mentor dying. Raising her fist she shook it, not angrly, but more to get her point across, and continued, "I can't just sit back and let Mitch nad Bob get killed fighitng someone for us! I just can't! And here you two go off risking your own lives to help but tell Aya and myself to not help!? Who gave you . . . the right . . . to tell us not to help someone we care about!"

"Heh I think I will," Destined said as Kyou turned to Saul and Black, offering them aid, "In fact I think we should all go . . ."

"I agree," Josh said through a grunt as he attempted to stand up, the intense pain in his chest dropping him, and Yaming looked at her severly wounded husband. She knew what he was thinking, he could never continue living on knowing that he was alive . . . because he allowed a good friend to die while he did nothing. She felt the same, all this time she felt sick knowing what those two were risking, and now the feeling had been voiced. Turning Yaming stood up, readied herself, and looked seriously at Kyou, "Heal us and lets go save Mitch and Bob."

"We will sit back and watch," Bordimour said as he saw Hachi look saddened out of the corner of his eye, getting some amusement out of it, and then answered the second question, "As for if he will obey us . . . with the proper words anyone will do as their told."

Jake the Sage · November 16, 2010

-Genesis- · December 3, 2010

Akima's face fell, *Damn, at this rate I'm gonna make Lora hate me........ but if it keeps her alive it's worth it.* He hardened his face and looked her in the eyes, "Lora, You aren't strong enough to help them directly. If you try you could get them killed faster while they try to protect you. Koya and I are powerful enough, but this power is only temporary. If you want to help them, then go back to the group and stop them from interfering if you can, that will help us more than any fighting you two can produce against their power at your current level." Akima sighed, "Lora.... please understand.... at the rate you and Aya grow, in a few years you two could become more powerful than I could be, even with two pills in my body. But you're not that strong yet and you won't be if you die here!"

Kyou then whirled on everyone, "ABSOLUTELY NOT! ONLY THOSE WHO CAN EASILY RUN ON THEIR OWN CAN EVEN TRY TO GO HELP, OTHERWISE YOU'LL BE KILLED! SAUL, JOHN (Black), JOSH THERE IS NO WAY YOU WILL BE GOING TO FIGHT!" After that she closed her eyes and calmed for a bit. "Besides, I don't have unlimited power, healing takes a lot out of me. The only ones here who're fit to fight are Destined, Kallen, Natalie, and Yaming. And none of you can face off against Donald. Try to understand, my grandfather in back there fighting to give us a chance to escape. If anyone should be fighting to go back it's me." She closed her eyes again and then turned to Yaming, "Althought you are fit to fight I'd ask you to remain here and help me heal people, also you know as well as I do that if you go to fight Josh will follow you no matter his condition."

Lana steeled herself and then looked back to where the three old men were fighting, "What will we do about the West? They obviously have set their sights on us. There were only three of them and yet they probably could have destroyed this entire city and everyone here on their own. But instead they held back, it seems they planned on taking control of the South. Although I don't think they'll make that mistake again, since they failed in their negotiations to make us subservient to them, and then failed to capture the South, I'm sure that the next time the West comes it will be to annihilate us."

Jake the Sage · December 3, 2010

"Heh . . . I know he would," Yaming said with a happy smile, she had said the truth and knew she'd have done the same, "But Kyou you don't have to heal everyone fully . . . just enough to move without worry, we can handle the rest."

"If you want to save your grandfather then stop fighting with us and come on! He is fighting to save everybody, but deep down we all know he can't do it on his own even with Mitch's help! We aren't going to stand back and let him suffer . . . NOT WHEN WE CAN STILL FIGHT!!!" Josh said slamming his feet, making them crack into the ground a bit, and released the reserves of energy he had been keeping in store for an emergency. The energy swirling around him Josh looked at Kyou, surly she must be surpised he could still bring out this much power, and turned to face the battlefield.

Turning in unison Yaming and the others willing to fight brought out whatever ammont of power they had left, Destined still facing Kyou with a grin, and they leapt to speed towards the fighting. Destined, once again, merely watched Kyou as she slowly watched them leave. Rising from where he had been leaning he slowly walked at the Northern Princess and tilted Lucifer down a bit, "Did you honestly think your words would reach them? They are willing to die just to aid that old fool you call a grandfather . . ."

Stepping past her he summoned his own power and levitated off the ground a bit, not even turning his head before flying off, "See you on the battlefield, I know you'll be coming sooner or later . . ."

Stepping beside Akima, Koya let his hand rest on his weary friend's shoulder. Looking over he gave a small smile before his face switch to a serious expression and slammed his fist into Akima's stomach hard enough to knock the wind out of him. As Akima slumped over he stood up and faced Lora and Aya, "I know I'm not going to be able to talk you out of this . . . and Akima has even less of a chance."

"She wont Akima and I know you know this as well, she's a stubborn one," he continued addressing his friend who was by now getting a good breath again, "But I don't think she didn't decided to do this out of a single whim and thought long and hard about every possabily . . . accepting even the worse outcome, didn't you Lora?"

Nodding her head Lora wipped her eyes, determination burning in her eyes just as strongly as before, and helped Akima to his feet. Standing with both amrs wrapped around his right she gave him a knowing nod before the sound of a sonic boom reached them. All looked up to see their allies speeding towards the battlefield, ready to fight alongside the Northern General and the Legenday.

"Its time," Akima said summoning the power he had recieved from the pill.

"Yeah"

"Akima you can come if you want, but Lora and Aya are coming with me," he stated in a firm tone, "And ti would be better not to fight each other over this and instead pool our efforts to defeat the Southern Legendary."

And with that . . . Koya and Lora left, leaving Akima and Aya to either follow or stay behind.

The movements the three combatants were so amazingly fast that Lana could not see each blow at all. It was like something out of a movie, for a moment things can see would seemingly slow down and then . . . they would vanish with the coupling of ultrasonic booms that rocked the earth underneath them. She had to steel herself to not grow worried about her own safety where their positions. Then she noted the three soldiers from the West; they obviously had the power to end this before the Southern Legendary was awaken, but didn't.

"It seems they planned on taking control of the South. Although I don't think they'll make that mistake again, since they failed in their negotiations to make us subservient to them, and then failed to capture the South, I'm sure that the next time the West comes it will be to annihilate us."

"Yes," Hachi agreed as he walked beside his twin sister, "Lord Bordimour what we'd be too weak to defend against any attack the Western Military would make if they decided to for months."

Instead of answering Bordimour glanced over at his two subordinates and raised his energy level to a threatening level, "I have already thought of that . . . and unless you wish to not have to worry about that, or anything else, then I suggest you silence yourself or I will do it for you."

"Aye," Hachi said before adding in ",sir."

<OOC: do you know how hard it is to read this while Dragonball Kai's theme music plays in the background? Answer: REALLY FREAKING DIFFICULT!!! XDDD >

-Genesis- · December 15, 2010

Kyou quickly blocked everyone off with a large ice wall causing them to flinch back slightly and before they decided to break through it Kyou glared, "If any of you were paying attention to what little of the fight you saw then you'd know that sending too many people to help would just be a problem, we'd only be giving Donald more targets, making it easier for him and harder for my grandfather since too many people together against one person would make everyone get in each others' way and get hurt." She sighed before uttering her next words. "I think only Destined, Kallen, and Natalie. They've each taken very little to no damage and have more than enough energy left. I'd rather not have a bloodbath of our allies to clean up at the end of this."

Aya immediately ran ofter Koya and Lora with a slightly frightened look in her eyes. Akima sighed, *Aya's more afraid of what will happen to Lora if she doesn't go than what'll happen to her. DAMMIT! Lora and Aya aren't fast enough or strong enough to block or even evade his attacks. My only hope is Aya's Santen Kesshun, it's unbreakable but takes a lot of time to use. If things start to go wrong I'll have her use it to encase and protect herself and Lora.* He tuned and sped off, easily able to catch up due to the pills in his body. He quickly passed Aya and Lora and evened out with Koya, "So, please explain to me why we're not tying Lora to a rock and going to fight?"

Lana bowed he head slightly but clenched her fists, *We're just trying to help. Lord Bordimour gae us our positions originally because he valued our power and input, but these days he doesn't care and acts like he's utterly invincible. I guess we'll just have to trust him.* Out of the corner of her eye she noticed two men running towards the fight at high speed. They were still far off but they were closing the distance quickly. *Are some of that group really coming back?*

Kiria leaned back against a large rock and looked to where Alisa was working on Ike, "So how long will it take for you to fix him up so we can get a move on?" Alisa was quiet for a bit before responding, "He'll be 'alive' in a little, but I can't do full repairs until we get to one of the outposts where I can get materials to work with." Alisa spent a few more minutes working before she stopped. "So are you done?" She nodded, "He should be back, hey Ike."

Jake the Sage · December 15, 2010

"Why aren't we tying her to a rock?" Koya repeated looking over his shoulders at Lora and Aya, barely able to keep up, and then back at Akima, "For starters don't you htink it'd be a little pointless? Also . . . the look in her eyes . . . it's the kind someone has when they know they wont loose."

"Ah! Akima Koya look out!" one of the girls behind them screamed out as a flash of light nearly engulfed them . . .

"You aren't going to stop us," Josh said hitting the ice wall, levitating in midair, and scowled at her. John and Yaming readied to aid Josh in their escape but was stopped when they heard Lora scream out to Akima and Koya. Turning around they saw the enormous flash of light that caused an even bigger explosion. When the dust settled all four of them were in a different location with the Northern General standing amongst them. The old man was incredibly battered, even missing an ear, and half of him looked already dead. Heaving a great deal he grinned at Lora, who's mouth was wide open, and gave her a thumbs up, "Glad you could . . . make it to . . . the party . . . kinda needed a . . . break . . ."

"Aid of any kind wil not prevent the inevitanble," a cold voice said hovering near the group. With shadows and dark blood covering his body Donald looked down with heartless eyes at those who had amanged to escape one of his 'death beam' attacks and spit into the wind. Surging with what remained of his energy he held his hands out and away from his body, the mass of energy swirling around him, "Mors ultima linea rerum est . . . E sum nex!!!" [death is everything's final limit . . . and I AM death!!!]

"Yeah yeah we heard it before," Mitch said slamming his fist into Donald's face and forced him back, landing with his batytle buddy, and let his arms swing limply. Looking over his shoulders he could see the group who had been stopped by Kyou's ice wall and chuckled to himself, "Hey Bob . . . looks like that stubborn great great granddaughter of yours is trying to stop the others from getting any closer."

"Heh . . . yeah," Bob said eyeing Donald as he rose back up from the ground, "She always did have a hard time trusting others. How much longer can you go?"

"About five more minutes," Mitch replied looking at the others, "I can cover everyone here in a time barrier that will allow you to aid us . . . so we need to take him down then, are you ready?"

"Oh-ho! Look who's come to play," Lord Bordimour mused as he saw nearly all of the group headed into the fray. Looking at Lana and Hachi he could see they thought it might be best for them to interfer, but he knew better. Stepping between them he softly said, "Don't interfeer . . . we still want the Southern Legendary to think they're the enemy. And what better way than to convince him than if they attack him?"

"Y-Yes sir," Hachi said before swallowing his nervious tension. He still had half of his attention on the raging battle and wasn't sure anymore if the Southern Legendary would win . . . his power was begining to diminish . . .

His optical sensors now back online Ike shook his head, regaining his GPA systems to locate where he was, and then saw Kiria and Alisa looking at him. Standing up he repositioned his frame to the way it was before and asked Alisa, "How long have I been offline?"

-Genesis- · December 17, 2010

As the explosion engulfed them Akima and Koya were virtually unaffected due to the exponential boost in their power from the pills. Akima turned to look as Aya and Lora were thrown back but unharmed due to Aya's quick action in summoning bubbles of energy around each of them protecting them. Akima then whirled to face Donald, "If you think we're the same as when we disappeared you're wrong!" Akima could tell that he and Koya were on par with Donald in terms of their levels of power but Donald's unique ability would still give him the advantage. *Okay, so our attacks will work on him this time, but we still have to avoid his hands. This is gonna be annoying.* Akima went to step forward and disappeared, he reappeared behind Donald a second later, *Yes! I can use my ability to force myself in the direction I want to go, that, combined with my speed make me faster then him! It's not much of an advantage, but I'll take it!* Akima then held out his hand and blasted Donald with a pulse of increased gravity towards the ground.

Kyou then looked to Yaming, "Please try to understand my reasoning, I'm trying to give us the best chance we have. You and I are the only ones here other than Aya who have the ability to heal others. Your husband won't listen to anyone but you, but I can promise you that if he goes out there in his currently injured state.... he won't be coming back. Please, trust me, my grandfather sent us away to take care of those who needed it. If we're here we can heal those who need it and then possibly send them out to relieve those who need it and creating a cycle until you and I run out of energy. You're a reasonable person." Kyou then turned to where Cougar was sitting still feeling too weak to walk. She placed her hands on either side of his head and began.

Lana nodded towards Bordimour, "If you say so milord, but should we not move farther from the battle now that there are more variables involved?" Lana then noticed that Hachi's knuckles were white and his hands were shaking slightly. She followed his gaze to the fight and noticed something, *Is it possible? No doubt that's why Hachi's hands were shaking. This is bad. We need to do something.* She stepped back slightly and made a few hand signs behind her back that only Hachi would understand: You've probably already noticed, but things aren't going well for the Southern Legendary, his power is weakening. It must be from being contained for so long he isn't able to control his power and it's overflowing so that half his power is being wasted. At this rate he'll lose. I think that if that happens we should run despite what Lord Bordimour says, this battle is an impossible cause. What do you think brother?

Alisa looked down at Ike's damaged body, "About an hour at best." She looked up at Kiria for a second before continuing, "Kiria claims that just before he left the Southern Legendary was released and is currently reducing the capital to ruin while fighting the group who battled the borderlands military compound and killed Dr. Wright." Alisa sat back a bit away from Ike, "You're legs were completely destroyed as well as your right arm. You can still sit up and such but it'd be best if we headed back and repaired you before making another move."

Kiria stepped forward into Ike's sightline, "I disagree, but anyway you're the only one with a working link-up to the base. Alisa's was wiped out when she was hit with that disturber pulse."

Alisa looked to Ike, "Could you connect with the base and check to see what our next orders are?" At the word 'orders' Kiria twitched, *Orders or no orders, I'll decide for myself.*

Jake the Sage · December 18, 2010

Apparently Akima didn't need to state he was ready. Instead he used his own powers to accelerate himself behind Donald and, once he was there, shot out a pulse of gravity aimed at sending the Southern Legendary to the floor. However one doens't become a legendary warrior without learning to fight in any situation. Bringing his hands into his body Donald began spinning around until the dodged the attack successfully; ending up beside Akima with a menacing snarl. Stretching his hand to grab Akima it seemed as if he slowed down at the last minute before someone else slamed their feet into his forearm and knocked him back.

Landing Lora stumbled a bit before Koya and Bob shot off to continue the assault on Donald. Looking up at him she gave a satisfied smile and stood back up, "Aren't you glad I forced you to let me come?"

"So how do we beat him if we can't touch him?" Koya asked as he dodged a punch from Donald, countering with a concussion blast to the enemy's face. Grabbing Donald from the blast Bob grinned and cracked the Southern Legendary's back before throwing him into the ground. Coughing the black spots grew larger, "You guys just keep attacking him . . . from a distance . . . Mitch and I will worry . . . about close quarters . . ."

Yaming looked over at her husband, for once realizing how much of a toll his injuries were taking out on his body, and then back at Kyou. With a sigh she turned around and looked at Josh with sad eyes, but she never had to say anything to him. With a scoff laugh he sat back down with a grunt and looked up at her, "Go ahead . . . just make sure you come back . . . that's all I ask."

"Thank you," and with that she leaned over and kissed him. Breaking apart they both smiled at each other and Yaming turned to face Kyou, "Alright so it is going to be me, you, Cougar, Corey, Titanium, Saul, Black, Destined and Kallen . . . right?"

Looking over his shoulders Hachi noticed the latter half of his twin's hand signs, though he was able to successfully guess the begining half. Watching each motiotn, hearing her voice say the invisible words in his mind, he grew solmn until she stopped. "Should we really run despite our orders from Lord Bordimour? I would never before have thought such an audacious idea . . . yet something is amiss with our Lord, I am troubled his mind is no longer intact and is speeding towards a goal that will never come true," the Southern Soldier thought as he glanced at Bordimour, who's own eyes were locked on the battle, a smile on his face. Was he really willing to risk everything on a gamble like this?

Taking a step back Hachi began forming his own hand signs to his sister: I have. Yet I am not certain is it being caused by his detainment. However it might be as you stated dear sister. If the battle does become the worst of outcomes I do believe it would be best to flee and reunite our strengths at a later time.

"Oh now . . . what was all that about?" Bordimour said looking behind him, seeing the hand signs which Hachi had just made at his sister. Despite not knowing what the symbols meant he could make a pretty good guess at what it was just from their body positions and the worried expressions on their faces.

"I can," IKE said attempting to get up despite having no legs and only one arm. Suprisingly IKE's automatic balance system allowed him to "stand" straight up and antenna jutted out of the horns adorning his head. Silent signals zoomed through the air as he got into contact with Andrew back at the Western Base. Silently the two carried on their conversation, uninterrupted by the thought of eavesdropping by Alisa or Kiria.

"So the Southern Legendary has awakened?"

"Yes sir, however the power readings I am recieving indicate that his level of pwoer is dropping drastically . . . from my calculations he will not last more than five minutes at this rate."

"Very well. The South is finished, no doubtedly the General Bordimour will attempt to reinvigor it and attack once more, but his attempts will be futile."

"Sir, what about Kiria and Alisa?"

"They are of no more use to me. General Chysaor wished Kiria to face the Southern Legendary and desired they both eliminate each other . . . however it seems that I will have to adjust my plans and delete him myself from the equation. As for Alisa . . . she is a loose end that you should be able to tie up easily. Bring them back under the guise of merely reporting in, understood?"

"Completely Master."

IKE's eyes seemingly returned to life as the antenna zipped out of sight. acing his "former" commrades he spoke, "I have reported back into General Chysaor, he wishes for us to return and give our reports to Andrew at once. We are also due to be repaired Alisa, prior to all of our reports."

Jake the Sage · December 27, 2010

Jake the Sage · January 9, 2011

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-Genesis- · January 10, 2011

Akima looked at Lora with an annoyed look on his face, "Are you sure you want me to answer that?" Then he stood up and suddenly rushed at Donald, *As long as I focus a layer of pressurized gravity completely surrounding my body he can't touch me. Allowing me to fight, but I won't be able to do that endlessly so when I can't dodge one of his attacks I'll do that instead.* Akima concentrated a burst of gravity in his palm and then thrust his palm into Donald's chest, "Take this!"

Kyou looked at Yaming calmly, "Actually Yaming, I think you and I should stay behind and heal those who are injured here. You and I are the few here who can heal others, which means we can't get hurt, no matter what. We're more valuable helping the injured than fighting ourselves. You may not like it, but it's the most practical option. But I won't stop you if you're going to go fight. " Kyou then turned to the others, "As for you, Saul, you can barely stand on your own due to your injuries, Kallen had to carry you here. And although I healed Cougar, he is still unable to tap into his Alter Power. So it's Kallen, Destined, Natalie, Titanium, and Corey who are going. If too many more people go they'll just get in each other's way with only one target."

Lana bowed her head, *This is getting much too dangerous, at this rate the Legendary will fall and then Lord Bordimour will sacrifice us to make his escape, or kill us himself for being disloyal. Either way it seems that this will come down to a simple fight for our lives. Dammit! What do we do? Hachi....... what are you thinking?* Lana's body language was showing plenty for Hachi to know exactly what Lana was thinking.

At Ikes' mention of being repaired Alisa closed her eyes, "Understood, let's get going then." With that she turned and began walking in the direction of the South-Western Border. As she walked she bowed her head for a second, *I see, they plan to try and eliminate me.... they see me as a loose end. It looks like I'll be making a move soon, I wonder if the information I have regarding the Western Military will be enough to negotiate my surrender and cooperation with that rogue group who battled Dr. Wright. As for Kiria, they probably plan to eliminate him as well. Although he'll be more troublesome for them than me.*

At Ike's words Kiria sighed, "Whatever." Then began to follow Alisa as she walked. *Things are getting a bit too suspicious to me... I'll bet that damn General has a plan to try and remove me from his way. I'll just have to be ready for it when he makes his move.*

Jake the Sage · January 11, 2011

Landing Lora stumbled a bit before Koya and Bob shot off to continue the assault on Donald. Looking up at him she gave a satisfied smile and stood back up, "Aren't you glad I forced you to let me come?"

"Are you sure you want me to answer that?" Akima retorted and stood up, rushing towards Donald. The Southern Legendary was so focused on keeping Bob and Koya at bay. Even though he could kill them with a single touch he was finding it incredibly difficult to get a hold of them, their bare skin barely missing his grasp by seconds, and he knew it was all because of Mitch that they were lasting this long. "Mitch is trying to draw this out as long as possible. He knows we can't keep this kind of fight up for long," Donald thought just before feeling the impact from Akima slam into his chest. Being blown back far Donald crashed through some remaining buildings and crashed to the ground with a groan.

"D*mn Akima are you alright?! You punched him bare fisted," Koya called out as Lora rushed to her allies side to see if he needed any help. Watching the two Bob and Mitch glanced at each other and kept breathing heavily as they nodded to each other- Time Remaining: 4 Minutes 34 Seconds

Yaming was stunned that Kyou would dismiss either of them going just to state they could help people here. The other woman thought it would be better to be out on the battlefield, fighitng and healing alongside everyone else, but she was exhausted and nearly out of power like her husband. Sighing she slumped down on the ground and clenched her fists, taking some of the charred earth in her hands, "Kyou you might disagree with me but I'm not going to stand back and watch. I've told you already I want to help them and I think I can be more use out there than remaining here like you."

"So I'm going with them," she finished standing back up and wipping a tear from her eye, "It may sound selfish and stupid but I'm not going to change my mind no matter how much your words make sense."

"Blah Blah Blah can you two shut up so we can go kill the enemy?" Destined said crossing his arms and then levitated off the ground, obviously showing he wasn't going to wait around anymore. Turning around Yaming gave Kyou a final thumbs up before racing towards the battle with those whom had been instructed to go aid the others. Only Kyou and those injured remained as Josh watched his wife grow smaller into the horizon and head for dangers he couldn't protect her from. Laughing he looked over at Kyou and spoke, "You know you might want to have a bit more faith in your friends there if you're ever going to be a leader . . . Lady Kyou."

Standing up IKE turned to face the South-Western Boarder and began following Alisa with utmost confidence that they had no idea of what was too come. Even if they did there would be no escape for them, Andrew's plans were absolute and could not fail under any circumstances. They were already amongst the dead as far as he was concerned. Activating his booster systems IKE soared into the air after stating they would get back to base quicker this way and need not keep a low profile.

"Oh now . . . what was all that about?" Bordimour said looking behind him, seeing the hand signs which Hachi had just made at his sister. Despite not knowing what the symbols meant he could make a pretty good guess at what it was just from their body positions and the worried expressions on their faces. Despite her lord and master having spoken directly to her Lana was so wrapped up in her conversation and worries she didn't notice that he was watching her making symbols to her brother. Only when Hachi's eyes grew wide did she notice Lord Bordimour's figure looming over her, his eyes red with a mixture of anger and insanity, and his hands reached out for her neck. Gripping tightly around her trought he hoisted her up off the ground and began forming a ball of fire in his left hand, "I said 'what was that just now' soldier? You should show a littel bit more respect for the man who saved your life and answer his questions. Oh well at least this should burn the lession home for you!"

"Lana!"

The burning sensation of Lord Bordimour's fingers piercing through his shoulder caused hachi's mind to rock. In a split second he had leapt in between his master and sister, taking the hit meant to ram into her chest. Falling to the ground beside Lana he toppled over and held his wound as it bled profusely even though he kepy applying pressure to it. Through clenched teeth he managed to ask, "Lana . . . where's Bordimour?!"

"That would be Lord Bourdimour to you . . . you ungrateful b*stard!" the Southern Commander said standing up, his cloak flapping against the wind, a few feet from where he had been tackled. His eyes grew red as he walked with the sway as if he was drunk, and held both hands out ready to strike, "Seems you've both run out of uses. But don't worry Hachi . . . Lana! I'll easily be able to replace you so don't cry for your master! Hahahahahahahahahaha!!!"

"Lana get out of here!" her brother yelled as he pushed her away, firing a bolt of lightning at his former master.

Time Remaining- 3 Minute 59 Seconds

"You cannot keep this up forever Mitch!"

"Wow did you develop ESP while you were underground sleeping beauty? I was just about to say that," Mitch mocked back to his former friend as the two exchanged blows and whittled at each others stamina. Bob had collapsed from a massively powerful blow to the stomach, causing him to cough up blood, and Lora was digging Akima and Koya out from underneath a toppled building they had been thrown into.

"You always had to have the last word! You ALWAYS had to be Mr. Right!!!" Donald yelled as the two collided, causing a shock wave to ripple through the battlefield and knocked both Legendarys backward. Skidding Donald was the only one of them who managed to keep himself standing as Mitch dropped to his knees. Laughing at his old friends weakness Donald released more of his power, shooting up into the sky and swirling around him like a tornado. Pointing his open palm at Mitch three dark blades formed and whirled around at his speed, "This is it Mitch, aude!"

"Yeah about that . . . maybe some other time you psycho freak?!" Corey called out landing in front of Mitch and used his psychic powers to shove the triple attack barely out of the way. Shock forming on Donald's face he hadn't the time to react as a flame appeared in front of him before it burst into a furious whirlwind that reached high into the sky and trapped him in place, burning his body as it raised him off the ground. Looking up and around Mitch could see those who had come with Lora and Aya standing around him. Destined and Natalie were responsable for creating the fire tornado, by combining their abilities they had made it far larger than ever before.

"What are you guys doing here?" Aya asked truly confused while Titanium tossed the final boulder off Akima and Koya, Kallen appearing next to Destined and Natlie with her hands pointed at Donald to shoot whatever she had at him.

"We're here to help of course," Yaming said rushing mere moments after landing to treat Mitch of his wounds. By now Lora, Akima and Koya had reached the others and the young girl happily grinned at Akima, "Glad I wasn't the only one who had the same idea."

A roar caught everyone's attention as Donald sent an even more powerful shockwave outward, breaking the massive fire tornado, and knocking everybody to their knees. Floating in midair he looked down at them with empty eyes and was no longer cloaked in the Reaper's outfit. His skin had turned a dark greyish and he held a scythe in hands now formed of bone. Noxious fumes seeped out of his mouth as he raised his weapon over his head and Mitch spoke with a bit of optimism, "Couldn't've come at a better time, lets take'em down!"

Time Remaining- 2 Minute 7 Seconds

<OOC: Best Personal Way for Epic Writting. 1.) Make sure you aren't interrupted, 2.) Close all other windows and focus exclusively on writting, 3.) Put in headphones and crank up F*CKING KICK A$$ FIGHT MUSIC, 4.) Begin to write to the music XDDDD >

Jake the Sage · January 24, 2011

BUMP

Jake the Sage · February 5, 2011

BUMP-ity

-Genesis- · February 8, 2011

EDIT: Ignore this post.

bury the year · February 8, 2011

I do believe this was necroed. Sorry, but LOCKED. If the original poster would like to discuss over PM, please do so.

-Genesis- · March 4, 2011

Akima didn't even react to Koya, Lora, and the others coming to him, "I'm fine, I'm encasing myself with a gravitational field. This way I'll never actually make physical contact with his body while increasing the force behind my physical attacks." As he looked around at the ruins of the Southern Capital Akima froze, *What are we doing? We originally grouped together for the purpose of keeping each other safe and so that we wouldn't have to participate in the war. But now we're not just participating in it... we're encouraging it. They wanted to turn us into their weapons, tools for them to use us in this war. They tried to take Kallen by giving her the RWS and using it as an excuse to claim her as military property. They tried to get into Lora's mind and use her to kill us in order to fully control her. And they tried to make Aya used her power to turn us against each other. How many Southerners who were innocent of anything were killed because we came here?....* Akima continued to think these thoughts and all of a sudden Koya came flying at him and the two crashed, flew backwards and smashed into a building.

Kyou looked at Josh and smiled, "That word... faith... oh, how I hate that word... Listen closely Josh, I may not look it but I have lived far longer than you have. I've been around since before you were born. When I look at all of you I see myself from a long time ago. I once had faith like you do... but over time... while I watched hundreds, no thousands, of people who had faith and told others to have faith die violently and tragically... my faith wavered and eventually died." Kyou turned her back to Josh and sat down on a rock, "You've heard me called the Ice Princess... I earned that name when my faith died. I had found that showing emotions and having faith had done nothing more than cause me pain and suffering. When I first met all of you I saw the same thing I saw in everyone else... people who had a blind faith in each other. I regarded you as the same as every other, my grandfather said that you were all different. I ignored him but eventually saw what he meant. But the truth is that despite what Mitch, my grandfather, or I think, faith is blinding. And it has led to more suffering and deaths in this war than were ever necessary." Kyou then looked up at the sky, "So give me a reason why my I should trust in the faith that led me to watch others die needlessly."

As IKE claimed that they didn't need to keep a low profile any longer Kiria smirked and looked towards the sky, "Fine then. I'll see you all back at the compound." *Hopefully it will be the last time.... I have no doubt that they'll take Ike apart and build a newer, better model, but why would they want Alisa? She's still in perfect working condition... no matter, it's not something I'll need to worry about.* He spread his wing and with a single flap was high in the sky, far beyond the sight of a normal person.

Alisa watched as IKE and Kiria left. *I'd better get moving too. Although even if Andrew plans to shut me down he doesn't know that he can't fully shut me down. So I'll have to use that piece of knowledge to it's fullest advantage. Either that or I'll be killed, I'm not just an AI like IKE. I may have to look to that group we left behind in the south for survival. But I'll leave that as a last resort.* With that the back of Alisa's shoulder's opened up and her thrusters came out. About a second later she was about 20 miles away and moving at about 200 mph.

As Hachi shoved Lana aside she could only look in shock at the bloody wound in his shoulder, *That attack was meant to kill me.... Lord Bordimour is trying to kill us.... I can't leave Hachi behind!* Her shock was now gone, replaced instead by rage and fury. *I'll only have one chance, since it's the one thing that we have that Lord Bordimour doesn't know about. And we might as well use it since Hachi is dying. I won't be left behind without him.* Lana punched her fists together infront of her abdomen and as she separated them lightning coursed between them. When her arms had reached her sides the lightning split and coursed over her arms and shoulders. Suddenly she leapt at Lord Bordimour and grasped onto his chest. The lightning then began coursing over Lana's entire body and into Bordimour's this was going to be her final act. The Discharge Ability. She was bringing every last ounce of her power to bear, now all Hachi had to do was do the same and hit Bordimour with it, then the three of them would all die together in the massive discharge.

Akima spoke to Lora from under the rubble, "Lora, we're fine. Koya's body is starting to shake as a side effect from the pill but otherwise we're okay." Underneath the rubble Akima made sure that Koya didn't see as he pulled another pill out of his pocket and popped it into his mouth. *I'm gonna have to end this soon. Each pill I take makes me stronger but will increase the strength of the side effects when they kick in. Koya's already beginning to be affected and that's because they weren't meant for him.* Suddenly light came through on him as Titanium lifted the last boulder off. In that last second when no one could see him he decided to make a last second decision... and popped four more of the pills into his mouth. Then, without a word to anyone, he jumped out of the rubble and headed back towards the fight.

Natalie was focusing her power to manipulate the vortex of flames since Destined's power was only necessary to keep the flames going in it. She thickened the swirling winds so that the flames spinning around Donald were three feet thick from him. Then Natalie made the vortex larger so that it was now almost fifty feet high. She closed off the 'eye' of the vortex and under her breath spoke, "Et maintenant pour la fin." Then she had the entire vortex flucuate and the whole flaming vortex slammed straight down onto Donald's head causing a massive explosion.

Toudou suddenly appeared walking over a hill just outside the ruins of the city in time to see the vortex collapse and the massive explosion. *I see things aren't going well.* He glanced down at a long thick piece of equipment he held in his arms. *Looks like I was right to stay behind to finish this. It seems that they'll need it.... now I just need to find Kallen.*

Kallen was close enough to the fighting that she felt the heat from the explosion as her right arm projected an energy shield to protect her from any debris, but she looked on stunned when the smoke from the collapse of the vortex disappeared and she could see what Donald had become. *This is the power of the Legendaries? Then why is it that Mitch can't hold him off? It's as though Mitch is losing his powers. Were't they each supposed to be equals who balanced each other out?*

Seeing what Donald had become Akima realized that it was much worse than he'd thought. He was going to need every ounce of the power the pills were giving him and more in order to finish this. Akima stood for a moment and held his hands flat together as though he was praying. *This one ability is my only shot. But I'll need to wait for the perfect time... Mitch said that they had a time limit, I need to get Donald in the last dregs of that time period. So here goes nothing.* Unnoticeable to everyone else Akima was building the energy in his hands. He could separate his hands at any point while building this energy, but it would build faster while they're together and he needed them together at the point when he'd use the ability.

<Note: Akima will simply avoid attacks as he prepares his final move so make sure that you finish your next post with roughly 10 seconds for Akima to get in at Donald with the finish. Thanks!>

Jake the Sage · March 5, 2011

"D*mn Akima are you alright?! You punched him bare fisted," Koya called out as Lora rushed to her allies side to see if he needed any help. However Akima didn't even react to them and merely brushed each one aside as he stood up, coughing up some blood as he did, "I'm fine . . . I'm encased in a gravitational field, this way I'll never actually make physical contact with his body. I also increase my own physical attacks with this."

"Now that's pretty smart," Lora commented as she saw him looking around at the ruins of the Southern Capital and looked around as well. She had no way of knowing what he was thinking and herself was imagining what could be used to finish the Southern Legendary. Akima on the other hand, felt a chill run down his spine, "What are we doing? We originally grouped together for the purpose of keeping each other safe and so that we wouldn't have to participate in a war . . . but now we're not just participating in it, we're encouraging it!" It was amazing that he was able to think and fight at the same time, almost impossible in the current situation, but it would finally catch up with him. He had dodged a punch from Donald and managed to get his balance back before crashing feet first into the ground and more memories came back to him, how they had wronged all of them. How they had tried to take Kallen by giving her the RWS and using it as nothing more than an excuse to claim her as some kind of property . . . the attempt to get into Lora's mind and treat her like a puppet, sending her to kill those she loved just to fully influence her . . . and how their deceit lead Aya to use her powers to turn everyone against each other! "How many Southerners who were innocent of anything were killed because we came here?" he though before Koya came flying at him and the two crashed, flew backwards and smashed into a building.

"Koya! Akima!!!" Lora yelled having seen the two crash into each other before plowing into a building only to have it topple on them. Racing over she sensed their energy and began digging away through the rubble and shards of glass. Finally breaking through far enough that she could make out parts of their faces she could hear Akima speaking up to her, "Lora, we're fine."

Yet that wasn't the entire truth. Koya's body was starting to shake as a side effect from the pill, but otherwise they were okay. Clenching his sides as Lora slowly pulled each piece of debris off of them he felt as if he was burning up inside and hadn't even noticed Akima pulling out another pill from his pocket and pop it into his mouth with the intention of ending the fight quickly. "Each pill I take makes me stronger, but will increase the strength of the side effects when they kick in," he thought before the light came through on him as Titanium lifted the last boulder off and even heard Aya, "What are you guys doing here?"

"We're here to help of course," Yaming said rushing mere moments after landing to treat Mitch of his wounds, her back towards the violent whirlwind of flames continued to capture the Southern Legendary. Feeling some resistance within the vortex Natalie focused more of her power to manipulate the vortex of flames, since Destined's power was only necessary to keep the flames going in it, and thickened the swirling winds so that the flames became three feet thick.

"You know you might want to have a bit more faith in your friends there if you're ever going to be a leader . . . Lady Kyou."

Kyou looked at Josh and smiled, "That word . . . faith . . . oh, how I hate that word . . ."

Josh paused for a moment and glanced over from his resting spot, raising an eyebrow. He had wanted to go assist his wife and the others, but in the current state he was in he'd literally be 'dead weight' in no time. Instead he had to settle with conversing with Lady Kyou while the amount of energy in the distance caused a cold chill to run down his spine.

"Listen closely Josh . . ." Lady Kyou had said and he did listen, as it was just about the only thing he could do, "I may not look it but I have lived far longer than you have. I've been around since before you were born."

He seriously doubted that, since he had a secret "history" that not even his wife was aware of. But he wouldn't argue the point and merely kept on paying the young princess credence, "When I look at all of you I see myself from a long time ago. I once had faith like you do . . . but over time . . . while I watched hundreds, no thousands, of people who had faith and told others to have faith die violently and tragically . . . my faith wavered and eventually died."

Kyou turned her back to Josh and sat down on a rock, "You've heard me called the Ice Princess, right?"

"Yes."

"I earned that name when my faith in people died. I had found that showing emotions and having faith had done nothing more than cause me pain and suffering. When I first met all of you I saw the same thing I saw in everyone else . . . people who had a blind faith in each other. I regarded you as the same as every other, my grandfather said that you were all different," hearing this gave Josh a small smile, showing his pride, but Kyou never looked in his direction and continued, "I ignored him but eventually saw what he meant . . . but the truth is, that despite what Mitch, my grandfather, or I think, faith is blinding. And it has led to more suffering and deaths in this war than were ever necessary."

Kyou then looked up at the sky, "So give me a reason why my I should trust in the faith that led me to watch others die needlessly."

"You shouldn't," was all she heard from Josh, surprising her enough to look over, and there she saw him smiling at her, "Faith can be blinding if you have nothing to found it on, but even then it cannot do everything. Faith and trust do carry you only so far . . . and when it cannot carry you any farther you have to do the rest yourself."

"Now," he said standing up and put his sword onto his back, "I have faith our friends will succeed . . . but why not ensure that?"

Outstretching his hand he held it there for Lady Kyou to take hold off.

"Lana get out of here!" her brother yelled as he pushed her away, firing a bolt of lightning at his former master. Falling out of the way Lana looked up in shock at the bloody wound in his shoulder and gapped with her mouth wide open, "T-That attack . . . was meant to kill me . . . Lord Bordimour is trying to kill us!" Shaking she watched as Lord Bordimour walked out seemingly unharmed from the attack and grinning from ear to ear. Shaking for a moment the sound of her brother calling out in front of her snapped Lana back to her senses, "Lana I said get out of here, now!"

"I can't leave Hachi behind!" her shock and fear quickly vanished, replaced instead by rage and fury. Standing up behind her brother she punched her fists together in front of her and began sending her energy to them, "I wont let Hachi die like this! We are going to stay alive after this and stay together no matter what! I only have one chance . . . since it's the one thing that we have that Lord Bordimour has never seen." Lana left her thoughts alone, knowing that this would most likely kill them both, and separated both fists to reveal the lightning coursing between them. Looking at this Bordimour merely shook his head as her brother stood stunned that his sister would even think of attempting to fight the one person they knew would be impossible to win against. Placing her hands to her sides the lightning split and coursed over her entire arms and shoulders, appearing as almost two enormous electrical gauntlets, "Hachi if we die here . . ."

"I understand," he said understanding what she was saying. They had no chance of escape, Lord Bordimour would easily outrun them and they could never actually kill him, they lacked the power necessary to do so. So . . . what do two people do who can neither run nor fight? Go out causing as much damage as possible! Bordimour shook his head, his hand covering the right side of his face as he chuckled to himself, "Really? REALLY?! You two are going to try and fight back? Well . . . lets see what you go-

Bordimour's words were cut off as Lana clutched onto his front shirt. She had never been this fast before and it took him by surprise, the leap was more than ten feet, but she had gotten to him before he could react. Unable to counter Bordimour felt the lightning that was coursing over Lana's entire body race into him, causing his entire body to go ridged. This was going to be Lana and Hachi's final act, the 'Discharge Ability'. They would bring every last ounce of their power to bear, and once the two connected onto Bordimour, then the three of them would all die together in the massive discharge. Watching Hachi prepare Bordimour's brain raced against the massive current of electricity scrambling it to figure out a way to counter the move. His limbs felt numb and he could hardly keep hold of a single thought . . .

"Lana," Hachi said making his little sister look over at him, he was ready. Leaping at the pair Bordimour yelled out as the brother and sister yelled out to each other for the final time, "Lana!!!"

"Hachi!!!"

As the individual battles raged on the small airship being piloted was hardly noticed by personnel or radar alike. Landing far enough from the war zone, yet still close to the city's ruins, the airship gave a low hiss as it eased the suspension. The hatch swiveled around, the mechanisms unlocking the round doorway, and opened up as the lone figure stepped out before walked over to the adjacent hill. The figure was surprised to see a vortex comprised of flames collapse and the massive explosion, "I see things aren't going well . . ."

The figure, Todou, glanced down at a long thick piece of equipment he held in his arms and then back at the war zone, his face stern, "Looks like I was right to stay behind to finish this. It seems that they'll need it . . . now I just need to find Kallen.

Natalie had been making the flames of the vortex thicker and thicker so that it was now almost fifty feet high to prevent the Southern Legendary from escaping, she even closed off the 'eye' and spoke under her breath, "Et maintenant pour la fin."

With Donald completely trapped, supposedly, in the fire tornado everyone was taking the opportunity to count heads and ensure everyone was still able to go on. Destined made a comment about 'how easy this so called Legendary was' and began laughing to himself and even made a remark to his hat, Lucifer, but Natalie could feel what was really going on. The truth was that they were barely containing him, if at all. Her eyes closed she was trying to keep an eye on his power level when her eyes opened wide and a roar caught everyone else's attention as Donald sent a powerful shockwave outward, breaking the massive fire tornado. Kallen felt the heat from the explosion racing towards her and from her right arm projected an energy shield to stop and debris from hitting her, but everyone else was knocked to their knees. Her eyes slowly wandered up into the sky, towards someone she didn't want to look at, where her stunned expression changed to fear. When the smoke from the collapse of the vortex disappeared and she and everyone else could see what Donald had become. Floating in midair he looked down at them with empty eyes and was no longer cloaked in the Reaper's outfit. His skin had turned a dark grayish and he held a scythe in hands now formed of bone. Noxious fumes seeped out of his mouth as he raised his weapon over his head. "This is the power of the Legendaries? Then why is it that Mitch can't hold him off? Weren’t they each supposed to be equals who balanced each other out?" Kallen thought as Mitch spoke with a bit of optimism, "Couldn't've come at a better time, lets take'em down!"

"Finally something we can agree on! Move your asses people!" Destined yelled at the top of his lungs as he leapt into the sky without a second thought, some might call that suicidal but he didn't give a d*mn. Streaking through the sky he watched as Donald slowly brought his arm down, the blade curving through the air, and felt the shockwave pierce into his body. Blood splattered out from all orifices as Cougar caught him before it was too late and skidded on the ground only to have his leg caught by a chain and both thrown into the ground. Each person knew this was no longer any time to hold back, Donald was on the offensive and they had to stop him!

Seeing what Donald had become Akima realized that it was much worse than he'd thought and the way he was easily picking off everyone was an testament to that undeniable fact. He was going to need every ounce of the power the pills were granting him and more in order to finish this, if he actually could. He watched as Lora flipped behind Aya, her shield raised up at maximum strength, only to have it shatter like glass against the enemy's bare fist and both where sent skyward. The evil glare Donald gave Kallen as she fired as many energy blasts as she could manage sent shivers down her spin before he appeared behind her and gripped both wrists, a black veil beginning to eat away at her skin and causing her to scream until she was saved by Black and Saul as they cut away Donald's arms. Catching Kallen Saul nodded to Black as he aimed the shotgun at the enemy and let loose a volley of bullets that bounced off the man and were ricochet back at them.

"This is insane!" Corey yelled as he used his psychic powers to make sure the others where not hit by the rain of bullets. Many of them would agree, but the only other option was to have Donald just kill them off . . . and nobody wanted to go down without a fight. Even Mitch was having a hell of a time fighting Donald now, the attacks that before seemed to never land on him were know hitting with such force that the areas behind them where exploding in a violent display of their power. Akima had stumbled back to his feet, he had been hit by a deflected attack from Kisune and sent through another of the last standing buildings. Getting up he held his ribs, "Good . . . not broken at least . . ."

Akima stood there for a moment before pushing his hands into his pocket, pulling out more of the pills and put them into his mouth. He had already taken four more when he was buried under the rubble the first time so this would push him to the absolute limits or farther. Swallowing the drugs he held his hands flat together as though he was saying a silent prayer, "This one ability is my only shot . . . but . . . I'll need to wait for the perfect time. Mitch said that we have a time limit . . . I need to get Donald in the last dregs of that time to ensure this'll work." Opening his eyes Akima had built up enough energy in his hands but would not separate them, he needed them together at the point when he'd use the ability.

The twins had made a final attempt at ending all three of their lives, but something went horribly wrong. Lana had already a firm grip on Bordimour and Hachi had taken hold of him a minute later. The combined total of electrical energy the two had been wielding should've fried Bordimour into a withered husk, but as the electricity coursed through all three of them there was no explosion that should have been there. Instead with each passing second it appeared that both of them grew weaker, while Bordimour's condition changed only slightly. Absolutely tapped out Hachi and Lana's hold loosened enough that their weakened legs allowed them to topple to the ground. Standing still, looking down at his one time subordinates, Bordimour laughed as the smoke drifted off his red skinned body, "Interesting . . . that amount of power surely would've killed me . . . unless I diverted it."

The twins could hear the sound of rocks cracking, splitting, and then the unmistakable thud of Bordimour's tail hitting the ground. It was that thud and the realization of Bordimour's tail that made them understand why their attack had not worked on him. Bordimour had used his tail as a conductor, causing the flow of electricity which would've killed them to go into the ground and dissipate. Bordimour stomped his foot on Hachi's head, causing his ears to bleed, and bent over to speak, "You think I would not have thought of something so simple?"

He released Hachi's skull and lifted both of them up by their necks, choking them, and shuddered when he felt the explosion of power behind him . . . in the direction of where the Southern Legendary was fighting, but it wasn't the Southern Legendary who's power he had sensed.

“There has to be something we can do!” Destined said barely dodging an attack before being used as a human shield to block a sword attack by Saul, the sword piercing his right arm. Both were kicked back to trip up Cougar and cause Kallen to stop charging her attack. The situation had gone from slim to d*mn near impossible in a matter of seconds. Donald’s new form was overflowing with so much energy that if their assaults made it past his counter attacks it felt like hitting a steel wall and did nothing to harm him; and even then only a few people knew that fact. Dropping to her knees Lora breathed heavily as she watched Donald sling Bill away before ripping Titanium in half and used both metal arms to knock out Amber and Elizabeth. Cursing under her breath she forced her legs to stand back up and spit out more blood, she wondered how much she had lost, and rushed back into the fray.

“Tanta Stultitia mortalium est [What fools these mortals be],” Donald said waving his arm that caused a black wave of energy to send everyone reeling back. Looking solemn he pulled the bone scythe, which he had not used during the entire fight, and spun it in the air before getting into a fighting stance. Everyone did not move an inch, wary of what the weapon could be capable off, but were forced into motion when Donald charged at them. In a few seconds those who did not get hit discovered the weapon’s ability as the souls of anybody the scythe had cut floated above the bodies they belonged too. Gasping Lora say that Aya had been felled along with Koya, their bodies laying limp on the ground as their souls floated above them and flickered in the wind.

She rushed over to them, trying her hardest to wake them up, but the blank stares explained it all- they were dead. Destined cursed under his breath has he yelled out orders, “Kallen! Send as many energy blasts at him! Cougar! I need you to grab that f*cking thing from him and make sure he doesn’t get it back!”

“Destined!!!”

“WHAT?!”

“Cougar got hit,” Kallen called back shooting energy blasts at Donald even before Destined had prompted her. Destined glanced back to see Natalie crying over his body, the soul floating around, and noted the others that had been hit. They had one third of their group taken out in a single attack and now everything else would be suicidal, ”I always did figure I’d end up killing myself . . . but like this is pretty f*cked up.” His eyes suddenly grew wide when the sharp pain of a blade cutting through his lungs hit him. Glancing down Destined could see the entire length of the scythe protruding from his chest and covered in his own blood. Chuckling a bit, not even aching in pain, he gripped the blade as hard as he could and tried to keep Donald from pulling it back out as he felt his limbs going numb, “If I die . . . I’m f*cking taking this thing with me!!!”

His vision grew blurry and finally faded once his soul left his body, but even in ‘death’ his grip did not loosen and Donald remained unable to wrench it free from him. Toppling to the ground Destined’s body remained in possession of the scythe as Donald loomed over it . . . If he could not pull it out of the corpse he would have to break it out. Bending over he grabbed Destined’s arm and began twisting it in an unnatural way, making the remaining few who had not been hit to yell in shock once the loud snapping of bones echoed throughout the area.

One arm down and still the grip had not loosened. Donald stood up and grimaced at the situation before an attack from Natalie had caused him to loose his footing. The anger filling the young maiden’s eyes was nothing short of amazing as she sent twister after twister to further knock Donald off his feet and away from Destined’s corpse. When it looked like he was going to fall Lee grabbed the Legendary, the black veil not appearing on his body, and slung him into the air where Lora landed the largest blast she could muster at the moment. Falling to her feet the group looked around at those who had fallen and Akima cursed under his breath, ”Come on d*mn it . . . come on!”

“Resistance is futile,” they heard Donald’s voice call out as he rose back up from the ground, the left side of his face completely missing and his right arm being held by just the bone. There was no way he could still be alive, but one would suppose having mastery over life AND death would mean you’d be pretty near immortal as one could get. Pointing at Lora, who had caused most of the damage, a black ball of energy formed at his finger tip, “Mors ultima linea rerum est [Death is everything's final limit].”

“Not mine it isn’t,” Lora mocked with a grin, unsure of what to do. The beam left Donald’s finger, raced over to Lora, and seemed it pierce through it’s target in one clean blow. Resting his arms to his side Donald turned around but stopped when he noticed something, those who he had sent into a suspended form between life and death were getting back up. ”Impossible . . . My scythe had locked them,” he began to think before spinning around. Standing where Lora had been was Destined, bleeding with a gaping wound in his chest, and held the shattered scythe handle in both hands. The hole in his body seemed to have missed every vital organ and allowed him to remain standing, though he leaned on the scythe’s handle, “Next time . . . Double check your God d*mn target f*cker!”

“I told you . . . Never go anywhere without string,” Eden said on the ground a couple feet away from where Destined way, and the Southern Legendary could see the line all the way to where Destined was standing. Somehow they had managed to make Destined’s body move after he had been hit so that Donald would destroy his own weapon. This fact made his eyes glow darker and more ominously than before as his energy skyrocketed . . .

It was the final round. Neither faction could stand much more prolonged fighting in their current states.

Time Remaining: 1 Minute 25 Seconds

-Genesis- · March 14, 2011

Kyou turned to look at Josh offering his hand to her and smiled, but instead of taking it she closed her eyes and a massive ice rose formed around her and closed upon her before shattering leaving only quickly melting ice shards where Kyou was standing only moments ago. In the dimension when she went when she traveled using the ice roses Kyou continued to smile to herself, *Josh you really are a pain. You're making me act without thinking. Yet all you did was try to convince me to not lose what little faith I had regained since I had met your little group. Hmm, maybe my faith wasn't dead at all, maybe it was just waiting for someone to help me find it again.*

Akima watched as Destined and Lora pulled off a miracle with their desperate attempt and destroyed Donald's scythe. He looked over at Lora who was then helping Aya to her feet and ran over. "Lora, Aya, I have an idea to take down Donald but it's a very dangerous one. Are you two up for it?" Akima waited for a second as the two looked at each other and then nodded. Aya picked up her book and turned back to Akima, "So what'd you need us to do?" Akima turned an yelled out to the others, "Everyone! We've got a plan over here but we need a little time, try to buy us as much as you can!"

Hearing Akima's voice Kallen looked over to him and was unsure of how to respond when suddenly Cougar's voice rang out next to her, "Got it, give it your best shot we'll buy you as much time as you need." She turned to see Natalie finish helping Cougar up and see him kiss her lightly. "C'mon, it'll be alright, this is no time to doubt. Look at Akima's eyes, they're powerful, and confident, besides nothing else has worked I say we give him a shot." He calmly but quickly wiped Natalie's tears away and turned to face Donald. Taking a wide stance suddenly he glowed slightly and two craters appeared nearby. The matter from the craters went and surrounded his body forming his Full Altar Armor. Natalie closed her eyes as Cougar got ready to fight and brought up a calm breeze surrounding her, "I know what to do. I'll move the air out of your way as you move nearly doubling your speed." Kallen smiled as she saw this and as she turned to get ready to fight she saw a figure standing on a hill not far behind her with and airship behind him. *No way! Wait... what's he holding? Is that, a new piece for me?* Thinking of this Kallen bolted away towards the hill with her back to Donald knowing that Cougar would cover her if necessary.

When Akima yelled out to everyone Destined looked over to him and yelled back synically, "I'd love to help, but I can't even really move on my own anymore, but don't worry. I'll do my best!" Then under his breath as he ground his teeth, "Stupid little s***, what makes him think he's got the right to order me around." Suddenly from behind him a woman spoke, "He doesn't think that he has the right to order anyone. He's simply requesting assistance and I'm here to make it so that you can assist alongside me." Destined didn't even have to turn to recognize the superior tone of the voice. "Fine then, Lady Kyou, fix me up so we can get this over with." Behind him Kyou smiled as she kneeled and placed her hands on his back. As she did so a layer of ice began spreading over Destined's body from her hands, as soon as it encompassed all except his face she removed her hands and the ice shattered, but as the layer of ice fell from him the wound in his chest disappeared. Kyou looked down at her work and spoke, "This is the fasted way I have of healing someone, it will make the area where the wound was sensitive for a little while but other than that you should be perfectly fine." Destined stood up without another word and nodded his thanks before enveloping his hands in flames and charging at Donald, *Well, I didn't really expect a thank you.* Then Kyou's noticed in the distance three figures, one standing holding the others by their throats. *Damn..... I'm sorry, I have to help here, you're on you're own.* She then turned and stood still like Natalie, focusing on her power which could be used at a distance.

Seeing Destined bolt of towards Donald hands ablaze Cougar (unseen by anyone because of suit covers entire body including face) smirked and in an instant was right beside Destined, "I'm not gonna let you have all the fun!" Then Destined's usual smirk spread across his face and he reared back his right arm, "Alright let's try this again!" He then threw out his left arm pointing it at Donald blasting him with a massive gush of superheated flames. Donald intended to simply dodge but when he tried he found that he couldn't move, his legs were covered in ice from the knees down and it delayed him too long. Natalie's eyes had turned stark white by this point and she was in complete command of the winds nearby and as Destined threw the flames she used the winds to funnel it into piercing spear of flames which hit Donald head on, but instead of tearing a hole through him as they'd hoped he'd lifted his hand open palmed infront of the tip and stopping the tip with some damage to his palm, since he'd been unable to dodge in time. The rest of the flames gushed over him but doing little damage. But Cougar was ready, while the flames were in Donald's face blinding him temporarily Cougar shot in through the back of the flames and showed up right in Donald's face his speed so immense with Natalie moving the air around him perfectly that Donald's face was covered in momentarily shock, until Cougar rammed him in the face with a punch thrown at hundreds of miles per hour. He himself protected from Donald's body by his Altar Suit

Kallen had reached the top of the hill just as Destined threw the flames towards Donald and turned back to look as she heard the gushing of flames. "Doesn't seem like things are going as planned, wasn't this supposed to be a simple underhanded mission of assassinating the corrupt leaders of the South. I'll have you tell me the whole story later, but right now I need you to hold out your right arm." Kallen smiled as she heard the calm voice of Todou behind her and held her right arm straight out from her side and continued to watch as Cougar nailed Donald in the face with his meteor-like punch. Todou unwrapped the piece of machinery to reveal multiple pieces which he attached to her right shoulder, the outside of her right arm, and the back of her shoulder, before placing a piece of equipment on the right side of her head. "That should do it. Kallen what you have on is a temporary weapon, it won't last long and it's still the prototype. But it is able to fire massive pulses of energy through the RWS strong enough to annihilate an entire army of normal people like myself. You will only have three shots and most likely against the likes of that," He gestured towards where Donald was standing back up from a massive pile of ruin that Cougar had punched him, "And they will probably only blast him back like that attack of Cougar's, but it's still better than nothing, but beware, once you fire all three pulses it'll be nothing more than a dead weight on you and you'll have to eject it immediately. Understand?" Kallen didn't respond, but nodded in understanding. Todou smiled and stepped back a few feet and too the side to watch. He quickly glanced at Akima and thought to himself, *I know what you're planning, and you're about to go through hell and back. Everyone will worry and cry for you, but their pain will be nothing compared to the pain you'll have gone through if you survive.*

Kallen was smiling as she used the piece on the side of her face to not only target Donald but to magnify her sight so that she could see even the slightest twitch. Then she yelled, "Cougar... Destined... MOVE!" The two of them glanced back for a second only to see her modifications, Cougar instantly thought, *OH s***!* and rammed into Destined, knocking him out of Kallen's way and barely making Donald miss as he tried to grab hold of Destined. Kallen then fired, from the open palm of her arm a focused pulse was fired which went straight along the sight path and hit Donald full in the chest firing him backwards into the rubble. Kallen didn't waste any time, she quickly aimed at Donald's new position and fired again, this time simply blasting him into the ground. She then made a quick decision and fired the last shot pummeling Donald further before ejecting the equipment making it fall off of her and hit the ground, glowing bright red with intense heat. She then looked only to see Donald slowly lean forward and stand up seemingly unharmed.

While Destined, Cougar, Natalie, Kyou, and Kallen resumed the attack on Donald with renewed vigor Akima explained to Lora and Aya what they needed to do. "Lora, I want you to put on your gloves because I'm gonna need you to get directly up into Donald's face, literally. I need you to get right infront of him and latch onto his face so he can't see, use Cougar if you need it, but you have to be the one on him because you're the only one Aya's used to teaming up with and I need her to be able to pull off a binding on Donald without catching anyone else and you're the only one who she's used to warping her abilities around, so she should be able to get Donald without getting you... Right Aya?" Aya nodded, "I'll get him with my strongest binding, but it will only hold him for about 6 seconds... tops." Akima nodded, "Then Lora, as soon as Aya has Donald in the binding, you'll have at most 6 seconds to get back to her and funnel you're energy into her to continue binding him. As soon as you two have him I'll get right up to him and finish it." Aya and Lora looked at Akima with odd looks and Lora voiced what they both must have been thinking, "So what is it that you're going to do that will be able to take down Donald?" Akima took a deep breath before speaking and when he spoke it was cryptically, "Something that I hope I never have to do again." Then he smiled encouragingly at them, "So you both know what you need to do?" Lora and Aya both nodded and as Akima stepped back into his position Aya mumbled to Lora, "Not that he really explained his part to us. But we don't have the time to fight over it." Lora nodded in agreement but in the back of her mind she was worried, the last time Akima didn't tell them what he was going to do he ended up burying Destined and himself under a mountain and barely able to move.

Akima watched as Kallen blasted Donald three times and then as Donald began to get up Akima spoke under his breath so that only Lora and Aya could hear him, "Go." Without a second thought Lora went at Donald at top speed, being a bit shaken from the pulses he was barely able to focus when Lora was suddenly infront of him and then wrapping her legs around him under his arms and wrapping her arms around his head, blinding him while leaning back. It was an awkward position, but it put the only piece of her skin in sight, her head, out of Donald's hand's reach. As soon as Aya could see that Lora had a good grip on him Aya's book flew open and the pages turned to a page covered in a giant circle Aya closed her eyes and thought, *Eight binding pillars of light converge!* Suddenly Donald's body went rigid as eight rectangles of light shot into him from all directions. As she felt Donald's body go rigid Lora lifted her legs, curled them under her and used them to push off of Donald throwing herself towards Aya. She almost fell over as she landed, but recovered and went to Aya who's eyes were still closed. As she reached Aya, Donald had almost broken the binding, but she put her hands on Aya's shoulders and her energy surged between them allowing Aya to reinforce the binding and hold Donald. Akima was now standing infront of Donald with his hands clasped together, he then separated his palms only and there between them was a small black orb of flowing, circulating in all directions. Akima looked Donald in the eyes before looking down at the orb and speaking, "Expand with the spirit and collapse upon the soul." Suddenly the orb pulsed once and the ground under him and Donald was pounded down leaving them floating above a crater. Then from the orb small strips of black shot out and began making a much larger orb surrounding the two of them which began to circulate in and of itself and it grew darker until neither Akima nor Donald could be seen. Rubble was being drawn towards the large orb and as it touched it, was crushed beyond the state of dust. Then a massive shockwave was released which blasted everyone off their feet and as it occurred the orb grew and then quickly collapsed back down to it's state surrounding the two. A continuous suction persisted, not enough to drag in a person, but enough to make hair flow towards it.

Aya, her binding having died when the orb surrounded them looked on in horror, "This darkness is Akima's power?" She took a single step forward and suddenly Cougar was infront of her and Lora, "Don't get any closer. We don't know what's going on and we certainly don't want to get caught up in it." From behind them a voice rang out, "He calls it Déformation Gravitationnelle or Gravitational Distortion. In other words it's a massively powerful gravitational field which just collapsed on himself and Donald. As you get closer the suction gets stronger, get to close and you'll be sucked in and annihilated." The voice was Todou still standing a good distance away. Kyou and Natalie stood between them and Todou, Natalie with a look of shock on her face and Kyou's face was downcast. While Kallen, who was standing behind Lora, looked on in utter disbelief. Her legs gave out and she fell to her knees still looking on at the orb of darkness.

Todou heard a scrabbling noise and turned to see a hand coming out from the orb and grasping at the earth. Getting a firm grip the arm pulled and then nother came out and did the same and after a bit they could all see Donald's head and upper body as he slowly and exhaustedly dragged himself out of it. But it wasn't the monster Donald that he had been a minute ago, it was a human looking Donald, just as Mitch, Bob and Kiria had encountered earlier. Once he was a few feet away he rolled over and collapsed on his back only to look up and see Mitch and a badly beaten Bob standing (kneeling in Bob's case) over him. "What happened, where's Akima?" Donald closed his eyes as he regained enough energy to do more then rasp, "Last I saw was the orb encasing us, and then I felt a massive crushing power which I was barely able to survive. Next thing I knew I felt the earth under my hand and could see light so I pulled myself out. Mitch helped him to sit up as though the fight had never happened and they were the same friends they'd been centuries ago.

While all that was going on Bordimour was smiling darkly while he held Lana and Hachi by their throats, "You thought an attack as pathetic as that would kill me? And it was so easily countered. Now what will you do, wait as I crush the life out of y-you?" Bordimour stuttered slightly and his head jerked slightly almost unnoticeable, so much so that Lana thought she'd imagined it, but then she glanced at Hachi and saw the confused look on his face... he'd seen it too. Lana suddenly realized, that with the amount of electricity that was running through his body, even if Bordimour had figured out to slam his tail to disperse some of the energy, he shouldn't have been able to voluntarily move his tail, which meant that it was an accident and only dispersed enough to make it bearable..... which meant that they still had a chance if they could send even a little bit of electricity into him. It would set off the discharge, to a lesser degree, but it should be enough to severely injure Bordimour. Hachi figured it all out at the same time Lana did, but also figured out how to set off the discharge. He lifted his good arm and held it out towards Lana who reached out and grabbed it. Bordimour looked at the twins who now held hands as he strangled them, "Good, now die together like a good brother and sister.... huh?" He suddenly noticed Lana reach behind herself with her other hand and grab a small taser. It was something Hachi had given her a long time ago when they were young children and alone. He wanted her to always have something to protect herself, but now she'd always kept it simply as a memento. Lana quickly flicked the switch on the taser and touched it to Bordimour's chest, and then she and Hachi glanced at each other with a look of contentment. In the next instant the electricity from the taser surged into Bordimour's body and combined with the electrical energy still within him and it all began to course through him, it went up into his arms and into Lana and Hachi who then used their own bodies to magnify it and send it back into Bordimour. The cycle continued until suddenly there was a loud clap and an explosion of energy. Bordimour was blasted from Lana and Hachi who, still holding hands, were thrown into a pile of rubble. After a bit Bordimour's arm twitched and then his leg, he began to move slowly but surely, severely burned all over his body. He sat up enough to look over at Lana and Hachi who remained unmoving. It didn't take long for him to figure it out, they'd died. They weren't burned, but their bodies were paralyzed, their hands together and their gazes locked on each other with looks of contentment on each of their faces. Bordimour spat some blood, "Damn bastards... how dare you, try to kill me and die with happiness. Damn..."

NOTE: By the time Donald gets out and is with Mitch and Bob Bordimour is standing over Lana and Hachi's bodies.

<inspiration for this post:

Bleach OST Stand Up Be Strong

Bleach OST Invasion

Bleach OST Treachery

names of songs courtesy of Zetsubou Black>

Jake the Sage · April 24, 2011

OOC: I personally apologize Kyubyu for taking so long. We both had a lot of problems getting this thing ready for posting- the most notable being the loss of the original and -Genisis-'s computer crashing

[spoiler= The End Part 1, The Final Fight]

"This is . . . Akima's power?" Aya had asked, feeling her binding on Donald having vanished, while she gazed on in horror. No one gave an answer, they had all been too stunned that someone they knew could manage such an impossible feat. Lora could feel her heart racing, beating faster and faster as her hair wiped around her face, and pressed both hands to her chest, "Akima . . ." She was worried for him, as everyone else must've been, but it was only Aya who went forward. She had taken a single step forward, Lora almost ready to follow suit, before being stopped by Cougar, "Don't get any closer. We don't know what's going on and we certainly don't want to get caught up in whatever it is."

"He calls it Déformation Gravitationnelle or Gravitational Distortion," a voice called out, answering the question of what the technique was, and continued on, "In other words, it's a massively powerful gravitational field which just collapsed on himself and Donald. As you can tell the closer you get the stronger the suction gets, get too close and you'll be drawn in . . . and annihilated."

Todou looked down at them as he explained Akima’s technique to them. Kyou stopped just behind Lora and Aya, and kept her eyes downcast to avoid looking at anyone directly; Natalie beside her with a look of shock at the size of the orb. "But what happens after? Akima did you even consider that?" Koya asked mentally, holding his side, and glanced over to see Kallen move beside Lora with the same face nearly everyone had on- the look of utter disbelief. Feeling how intense the pull of the gravitational force was just from her position Kallen could only imagine what it would be like in the center, where Akima and Donald was, and she felt her legs grow weak. Falling to her knees she shivered in fear, worried that Akima had just sacrificed himself to save everyone, "Akima please . . . don't . . ."

It was then, finally and indefinitely, that someone voiced what everyone was concerned about; though he did it in his own demeaning fashion. Pushing Lucifer lower on his head, to prevent the demonically possessed hat from flying off, Destined smirked, "So he's either locked the Southern Legendary in an inescapable prison or just crushed him to death, along with himself. That son of a b*tch stole my revenge kill . . ."

The dirty looks thrown Destined's way were quite ferocious, even as tired as everyone was, and he merely shrugged his shoulders. They all felt like collapsing, passing out for a good two days after a fight like this. Out of everyone, Todou's head suddenly snapped up as he heard something that sounded like scrambling . . . no . . . more like a clawing noise and turned from Destined to see a hand coming out from the orb, grasping at the earth. The crowd watching on in despair, getting a grip the arm pulled and then another came out and then did the same. After a bit they could see all of Donald's head and upper body as he slowly and exhaustedly dragged himself out of the orb. "You've got to be f*cking kidding me," Destined thought, blood soaking the front of his shirt, watching the Southern Legendary pull himself out of what was the equivalent of a miniature black hole, "He shouldn't even be alive." Standing in front of the black orb wasn't the monster Donald had been a minute ago, but instead it was his human looking form; just as Mitch, Bob and Kiria had encountered earlier. Expressionless Donald's form took a shaky step forward, paused, and then took another step as he trotted towards the overwhelmed group; each attempted to prepare themselves for an assault as best they could manage, which was hardly anything at all. Donald had made it half way before raising his hand, causing those ready to fight to wince in expectant pain, but fell on the ground.

No one had expected this, after dragging himself out of the gravitational orb, Donald . . . Southern Legendary . . . had collapsed a few feet away from them and didn't appear to be getting up. Sounds of footsteps made Donald, no matter in what state he was, roll over onto his back to peer up into the glaring sun and the face of a friend he hadn't seen in a long time, Mitch.

"What happened? Where is . . . Akima?"

Donald closed his eyes, regaining enough energy to do more than give raspy breaths, "Last I saw . . . was that orb encasing me . . . then I felt . . . a massive . . . pressure everywhere . . . felt like my head . . . was going . . . to explode. I was barely . . . able to survive. Next thing I knew I . . . felt the earth . . . under my . . . hand and could see . . . light so . . . I pulled myself . . . out."

"So you," Mitch paused for a minute, wincing in agony, as he knelt down and looked his friend in the eye, "don't know what happened at all?"

"What do you mean you don't know what happened?!" Lora screamed moving towards them, shoving Cougar out of the way, and didn't hide the tears in her eyes, "He was right there!"

"As I said . . . I don't . . . know," Donald replied looking up at the young woman, feeling as if he had seen her somewhere before, but his mind was so muddled he could not put a finger on the time or place. A shockwave distracted the group, who was beginning to plan on interrogating Donald as best they could, as the gravitational orb dispersed and vanished from the area completely, leaving a large crater in its wake; yet no sign of Akima could be seen. Desperate Lora and Aya leapt into the crater, both slipping and rolling to the bottom, only to get up and begin digging with their hands to find what wasn't there. Most of the group looked away, fighting back their own tears, as some watched on at the two teenagers fighting the harsh reality of loosing Akima. After five minutes of digging Cougar and Corey helped the girls out of the crater and back into the arms of the group, all who tried to console them as best they could. Kallen, affected by this more than words can say, held her head low as an idea came to mind, "That . . . that might work . . ."

"Mitch!"

The Northern Legendary looked up from his resting spot, the pocket watch flipping open and shut as he fiddled with it, and saw the urgent look in her eyes. Sighing he clicked the pocket watch closed as she raised the question he knew would arise eventually, listening to her ask if there was any way he could reverse time enough to prevent Akima from dying or any other way he could use his time manipulation to save him. Shaking his head he looked sternly at the ground as she collapsed, clasped her hands on his lap, and began to beg him to help bring Akima back. Almighty knows he wanted too, but he faced a harsh reality too. Lifting Kallen's face up, she then noticed that his face had gotten more weathered, more aged with clear white patched of hair replacing the dark brown strands from when they first met. He gave a hearty laugh, his normal one yet hinted with a cough, "I'm sorry Kallen . . . but I've used up all of my powers . . ."

"Grandfather, once Mitch recovers he can revive him, right?" Kyou said looking at her grandfather hopefully. Mitch shook his head, flipped open the pocket watch and gave it a satisfied look. Then he answered in Bob’s place, "No my dear child . . . I've literally used up all of my powers. The source that was keeping me young, alive so that I can be around after one hundred years of war and battles, has finally ran out. When it is completely gone in . . . oh I think possibly the next fifteen minutes . . . I'll die."

"Ah, so that's how you're still around . . . I always wondered why you never seemed to reach your limit . . . you're quite the tricky old b*stard," Donald commented to Mitch, momentarily forgetting that they remained enemies. First Akima and now they were going to lose Mitch as well, it was almost too much for most of them to take in; none cried though as they were all simply numb from everything that had happened to them in the last forty-eight hours. No one knew what to do know, the idea of leaving back to the North together to enjoy their hard won victory seemed silly and childish now . . . an ideal that had been lost somewhere at the beginning of the fight when the reality of how it was going to end dawned on them. Four minutes had passed and even though he was going to die, Mitch never stopped smiling and carrying on about the future with those willing to talk. He gave some advice to Aya and Lora, though the later refused to listen to it and insisted that he could save it and tell her tomorrow.

"So what now?" Saul finally asked as he rose from where he had been sitting on the ground, "The south is now nothing more than a desolate battlefield, with no reason to remain. Akima and others are gone, including the Northern Legendary- I apologize for including you so soon. No offense intended."

"None taken," Mitch said with a forced smile, leaning forward.

"So we can do one of two options, possibly both if we divide our numbers. We can return to the North or remain here and build a new and better South," Saul finished when a jet of fire shot above his head. The hysterical laughter of someone the entire group thought had died in the battle rang out while the smell of fresh blood drew near. Appearing over a hill Bordimour, now completely insane, looked down at the group covered in still wet blood and clutched what seemed to be a human bone; the bone still dripping blood and flesh.

< OOC: I find it odd "Monster" by Skillet comes on when I begin writing this XD >

"There’s no point in trying to build a new South . . . because THIS South isn’t dead yet!” Bordimour said standing upright, swaying back and forth as he bit into the bone and ripped off a chunk of meat, "You just want to take it! You want to take what's mine! Well, I won’t let you . . . I'll kill you all and keep the South all to myself, to make into the world’s most powerful military force!"

Tossing the bone away the former Southern Commander groaned as he bent down onto all fours like an animal and raced down the hill with surprising speed; he had been through the war and even against his two most powerful subordinates, but he still had enough energy to run that fast. His momentum allowed him to break through the shakily standing group of people, easily knocking most of them away or into the ground, before sending a stream of fire to cut off any counterattacks that might have been sent his way. Laughing his eyes darted around and spotting Lora, his damaged mind putting random pieces together creating a twisted puzzle in his head, "You! YOU are the reason this all happened . . ."

"If it wasn't for you I wouldn't have had to kill my most powerful subordinates," Bordimour said standing up and moving over to Lora before anyone could break through the flames behind him. Lifting her up, his hand clasped tightly around her jaw, his tail swung around and knocked Aya to the ground and knocking her book away before wrapping around her neck and began to squeeze as he psychotically raged, "If you hadn't gotten so sick this wouldn't have happened!!! Did you think going to these fools would make you better, make it so you could help the South not become what it was destined to be?!"

The flames where so intense that no one was able to get through them and stop Bordimour from wringing the life out of Lora. Forming a concentrated ball of flames in his hand he shaped it into a dart and held it loosely, "Well you died once, so what will it matter if I kill you again . . . your husband isn't around to save you this time Rach-"

Before Bordimour could finish he could feel his tail being ripped off, freeing Lora to fall to the ground. Bordimour then spun in fear as Donald loomed in front of him. Fear was replaced by rage as Bordimour used a fire dart to pierce Donald's heart, if the Southern General believed he had one, and twisted it as the two stared each other down. Coughing, blood spattered on the ground as Donald looked at Bordimour's smiling face thinking he had done the impossible and killed the Southern Legendary, the Master of Life and Death. Laughing he continued to twist the fire dart causing more and more damage to Donald’s innards, blood soaking his hand he didn't even notice the burning sensation covering his body while Donald kept his grip on the man's shoulders. Looking up Lora watched, along with the others, as Bordimour's body began to turn a burn from Donald's embrace before turning to a color resembling ashes. The transformation continued to envelope Bordimour's entire body until he’d been turned into ash, though his laughter remained until the very end, and with a single gust of wind the demon general's body disintegrated into dust. Turning Donald grinned happily, "Thanks for wasting those last few minutes on someone like me Mitch . . ."

"Hey . . . what are . . . friends . . . for?" Mitch said letting out a raspy chuckle as Donald collapsed on the ground, blood ceaselessly seeping from his wound as the life drained from him entirely. Shaking his head Mitch clipped open the pocket watch and noted the remaining time, "Donald you lazy . . . good for nothing . . . you'll catch your . . . death sleeping on . . . the ground like . . . that . . ."

"Mitch!?" Lora and Aya yelled as they rushed over to him and were stunned by not only the fact that he was spitting up blood, but also by the amount of blood suddenly starting to gush out of his body. Waving her hand Lora wanted to heal him or at least make it so that he wasn't in pain, but at the same time she was in a panic and didn't know what she could do to fix something like this; Aya's reaction perfectly mimicked her friends’. Looking up at them with his vision becoming blurry Mitch's breathing was growing raspy as he held out his hand and gently touched each girl's cheek and then reached behind them and held their heads to his chest as tears streamed down their faces. Mitch smiled, "You've both . . . grown . . . so much . . . since I met . . . you . . . I’m sorry . . . I stole your . . . childhoods for something as . . . stupid as training . . ."

"No . . ."

"We don't care," Lora said, "We can make it up after you get better."

"Sorry but . . . I won’t be . . . able to join you," Mitch said closing his eyes and getting a warm happy smile on his face, "Curusum perficio [i've finished my journey]"

A single shallow breath escaped Mitch's lips as his body faded, his hands vanishing against the two girl's he had helped train and loved like his own. Lowering their heads neither moved from the spot nor removed the small traces of blood left on their cheeks, only moving when they felt a gentle touch on their shoulders and saw that Koya, still struggling from the side effects of the pill, was kneeling down beside them. He didn't say anything but instead nodded his head, saying for Mitch to rest in peace, and he then shakily stood up, offering one of his hands to each girl. Taking it he helped them stand before being gripped into a tight hug while they continued to cry into his chest and beg for him to tell them that this was all a bad dream, that they would wake up to Mitch laughing. Barely able to keep a straight face Kallen walked up to the trio and embraced them as well, stifling her own tears, "Girls I'm so sorry, but he's gone . . . Mitch . . . Akima . . . they're both gone . . . there isn't anything we can do to help them anymore . . ."

"It's not just them," they heard Kyou say solemnly, and the group turned to see her lone figure kneeling beside another. It took them a moment to realize who she was looking down on and when they did it came as no shock, Kyou's great great grandfather, the Northern General who had lead his forces into this battle, had passed away as well. What had disturbed them was that he did not look like the man they had grown to know, his face had aged a great deal and was barely recognizable. Running her hand through his wispy hair Kyou explained, "Bob had always had Mitch use his abilities to keep him young, I thought it was just a stubborn old fool’s attempt at immortality and that without Mitch he'd return to his normal age and die. But I might have been . . . no . . . I was wrong thinking that. He wasn't trying to be immortal, he just knew there was more he had to do."

"There is still more we all have to do," Saul said from his spot on the ground and stood up, patting his pants free of dirt. It was true, with the last of the Southern Commanders having fallen, at the hands of it's own Legendary no less, the entire group who had trudged through the battle had to find those who'd been lost in the current of war. Splitting up those who could manage to move set out across the bloodied fields to find any sign of life . . .

[spoiler= The End Part II, Survivors]

Destined, John and Saul walked through the area as best they could without tripping over a dead body. For once Destined had removed Lucifer from his head, although only momentarily to wipe sweat from his brow, and placed the demonic looking hat back on his head before Saul addressed him, "So, what do you plan on doing now?"

Destined gave a small chuckle while he looked back at the man who generally detested everything about him, "Why the f*ck do you want to know, or even better, why should I tell you?"

"I for one am going to help rebuild the South and keep control of my body," John said patting his chest to emphasize what he had said. Destined scowled and reminded himself that the person standing in front of him wasn't the Black persona who had been so loyal to him, even if it was only for his own personal gain, instead it was the weak human who'd owned the body prior, and turned his back to them. Saul gave a smile to his long time friend who agreed that helping rebuild the South sounded like a grand idea, since they no longer had a leader and would be desperate for any kind of help; Destined had made a note about the South no longer having a leader. Stopping to let John rest Destined kicked the corpse of Southern Soldier and grinned, enjoying the sensation, but quickly lifted his head when he heard the sound of someone crying for help. He thought he had heard things, he often did, but when John and Saul heard it to it was confirmed they'd stumbled upon a survivor. And it wasn't just any survivor, it was the young girl from the beginning of the battle, Bellis. Looking her over Saul noted that she was in critical condition, having been buried under the dead, and things didn't look good for her. Stepping beside Saul, Destined held out a hand which caught on fire only to have John grab him from behind, "Don't you even dare think about killing her you b*stard! She is critical. . . not terminal! We can still save her!"

Knocking the hindrance aside easily he watched as Saul stood between him too and he gave a low growl, "Move."

"No"

"Very well," Sweeping Saul's legs out from under him Destined had taken him out long enough to close the small gap and bend down to look over Bellis. She was bleeding heavily and it appeared that a couple of her bones had been broken from the weight of bodies. Lowering the length of his flames so that they covered his hand tightly he reached out, and held his hand tightly over her injury while she thrashed and screamed in pain; he didn't let go even when Saul clocked him in the back of the head. Saul took a step back and began to have an energy ball form in his hand. When he thought that it was large enough he shot it, but had it deflected off a barrier and into the sky where it exploded. Shoved to the ground, he saw a Northern warrior land beside Destined, "Hey! Hey!! Hey!!! Saul this isn't like you, flying off the handle like that."

"Corey let me go or he'll-"

"He'll do what?" Corey asked raising an eyebrow, his hair a complete mess barely covering his eyes, "Save the girl from certain death?"

"What?" John asked confused as he attempted to lift his face from the ground. Held tightly by Corey's psychic ability, Saul listened as Corey stated that Destined was searing the large wounds closed with fire so that they wouldn't bleed anymore; he went on to address Destined and say that he hadn't expected him of all people to save a life, which Destined scoffed at. Standing Destined looked down at Bellis who had fainted from his 'cure' and Corey finally released Saul and John from his psychic hold. Bellis and Corey had been found alive, but it was unsure how many others would turn out to be so lucky . . .

Walking silently Kallen, Koya and Todou kept their eyes out for anyone still alive. It was beginning to look like a fruitless endeavor, each person they came across whom they knew had already died and this continued to cause a certain member of the squad to become more depressed. Stopping Kallen’s head hung down, Koya and Todou walked a bit farther before realizing she had stopped and looked behind them. Koya called out to her, "Kallen?"

"It's too much," she said softly as she clenched her left hand, "It's just too much . . . I can't keep going to just find another person I know dead . . . I . . ."

Koya and Todou rushed back over as Kallen fell to her knees before closing her eyes and collapsing to the ground, unconscious and breathing steadily; she had suffered too much mentally and had passed out in order. As Todou lifted her up onto his back, Koya looked at her resting face, tears still left over from having cried for Akima. He didn't know what to say to her to make her feel better once she woke up and he knew how much, more than any other death that had occured, Akima’s troubled her. Of course he felt anguish and a horrible grief over every single person who had died, but he accepted that fact and wanted to take care of those who were alive. Todou must've known what he was thinking about because he suddenly replied, "There isn't anything you can do to change what she is going through Koya. If you give her time . . . she will accept reality. Even though . . ."

"Even though, what?" Koya was curious about the doctor trailing off at the end of his sentence, as if he was about to say something but decided against it. The doctor raised his head to answer but was interrupted by a yell, "Hey! Over here!!!"

"See Elizabeth?! I told you someone would find us in time," Amber said, cradling the body of her adopted sister tightly against her, both of them covered in blood. Rushing over Todou and Koya saw what remained of the central unit of the Southern Rebellion Forces. In the middle of the circle of corpses appeared to be a mummified corpse, withered down to skin and bones, which was explained to be the Rebellion Forces Leader Professor Bill. Titanium slowly stood up and explained, "The Professor knew that during a battle like this he would not be able to be of any use. In forethought of this he had begun to prepare a vassal which would allow him to be of use, thus the homunculus body you see before you. He had transferred his soul over knowing full well it would not last the entire battle."

"He decided to cut his life short just to fight alongside those who mattered to him." Todou said gazing at the body before turning his attention to Amber and Elizabeth. Moving in front of them he simply looked over them and then looked at Amber, "She won’t make it."

"What do you mean she won’t make it?!?" Amber yelled at Todou and stopped when Elizabeth rasped out a few words, "No . . . he's right . . . I'm dying . . . . . . Amber?"

"Y-Yes?

"I’m s-sorr~" The silence grew as Amber shook Elizabeth, trying to wake her up as Amber tears fell onto Elizabeth’s still face. Finally she hugged her tightly and rocked back and forth, Titanium stepped forward and placed his hands on her to steady her and looked up at Todou with a solemn look on his face. Another casualty had been added to the war . . .

"So?"

"So what?"

"Are you going to complain about not being out there and looking for survivors?" Yaming asked her husband as he gazed up at the evening sky, feeling the breeze in his hair. Shaking his head he sat up, one of the only movements he could make without pain, and answered, "If we stay here we'll miss the people we're supposed to be meeting soon."

"What are you talking about?" Yaming asked confused. Josh laughed at the fact his wife didn't know what he was talking about and pointed over her left shoulder, "Wait about five minutes and then look there."

Five minutes passed . . . and then six . . . and finally when Yaming thought that her husband was just pulling her leg a figure appeared against the setting sun carrying two large objects on its shoulders. Walking towards them was Lee, carrying Eden and a woman that Yaming did not recognize but was glad had survived regardless. Reaching the two Lee laid the girl apart from the rest but placed Eden beside Josh and they shook hands, "So how did you fare in this whole thing?"

"Beat a Southern Commander with Lee," Eden said, pointing to his leg, "But he broke my leg and traumatized the muscles. What about you?"

"I beat two Southern Commanders," Josh said with pride but yelped in pain when he moved his shoulder too quickly. Stooping beside him Yaming let some of her power sooth the ache as she commented that it was what he got for pushing his body so hard that it almost killed him. Laughing at his own pain Josh looked up at the girl who'd been brought with Eden by Lee and nodded in her direction, "Yaming, could you?

"Of course." Yaming then began to examine her and she was able to see that despite outward appearances she was perfectly alright, but had fallen into a coma. Sighing she slumped back and looked at Eden, "I suppose you don't know who this is, do you?"

"I do not. However I did spot someone I knew on our way here," he then explained how on their way here they had saw Ichiro and that he had died a most gruesome death. Unfortunately it didn't surprise Josh or Yaming at all, after all in the brief moments they knew him . . . he seemed to be surrounded by misfortune, so dying in a war sounded like an outcome that'd happen to him even if he wasn't a part of it. Looking back at her husband Yaming asked, "So-"

"I'm not going to complain."

"No, so now what?"

"Ah," Josh laid on his back and closed his eyes with a smile, "We wait here for everyone to get back . . . they should return about 6 am tomorrow."

Nudging his foot in irritation she was still eased by Josh's extreme amount of confidence, as if he knew everything would turn out alright.

"May your soul rest in peace," Kisune said as he closed B-Lizard's eyes and took a step back. Holding a rag to his side to stop the bleeding he looked out at the area and wondered where everyone else was, "I've been walking for what feels like miles and I haven't seen Joshua or anyone else . . . if it wasn't for the bodies I might actually believe I am in the wrong place."

Gritting his teeth as a night breeze stung his open wounds and sent a fresh wave of pain through his body he mused to himself how at the moment he wished instead of being able to regenerate bones he could just heal a simple wound. Marching on he passed hill after hill until someone or something made him jump. Spinning around he could see a boy on the back of an oversized wolf, both covered in blood and sweat. Stopping he yanked a bone out of his skin and got ready, just in case it was a Southern Soldier who didn't feel like giving up, "I swear I still got some fight left in me!"

"Well that's all well and good, but brother and I don't have any," the boy said hopping off the wolf, stumbled a bit, and regained his footing. Limping over with the wolf's aid the kid smiled, "If you haven't guessed we're a part of the same team, which just happened to be the winning team . . . if you can call this a victory. My name is Felix and this here is my brother.”

At his name the wolf gave a loud bark, making Kisune's ears ring, but he was happy to have found someone alive besides himself. Traveling to find others together they relived the battle and how it had affected them, Kisune was very interested in the tales Felix told about the men running from brother's maw and how many people he had supposedly eaten; though he felt the numbers the boy gave were blown out of proportion. "Really? Over four hundred and eighty six people consumed by that thing . . . and still being able to run around slaughtering more? He has to be lying about that, there’s no way he could have kept count in this carnage," he thought, but couldn't deny that such a number would be possible in this kind of fight or for something that large; it was the size of something out of a manga. Reaching the top of a large hill they jumped when someone stopped in front of them, a man and woman walking together the woman seemed to be giving an ‘I told you so’ to the man, "See?! I told you I saw someone on this hill Cougar."

Kisune, Felix and even brother laughed at this before being lead back to the entire group.

[spoiler=SPECIAL! The Enemy which Remains at Large?]

"They've arrived," Andrew said in his normal monotone voice as three blips appeared on the radar, affirming that he was right. Turning in his chair the Western General intertwined his fingers as the cigar's smoke rose up with a scowl on his face; things had not gone has he planned, so he demanded to know what happened. Hearing the automatic door slide open he glanced over to see the three waiting for permission to step inside, which he quickly gave them, and they remained at attention. Looking at the group he could see that only IKE and Alisa had received damage, the prior being the most damaged of the group and the latter only seeming to have some scratches here and there, while Kiria didn’t have a single scratch on his body. Andrew walked to the front of the group and pointed to the first two, "Come."

Immediately IKE began to follow his creator but Alisa hesitated a bit before finally walking into the elevator. The button was already pressed, Sub Basement 3, and felt her nerves getting the better of her as they all descended deeper into the confines of the Western Military's Capital. Noiselessly the elevator doors opened and the two others stepped out into the room. Looking around Alisa was shocked to see spare parts meticulously organized by serial number, but the blank stares only did more to unnerve her as Andrew stopped beside two metallic tables. Getting up on the table IKE laid down and closed his eyes, Andrew stepping behind him and plugging a cord into his output module. Typing away at the keyboard Alisa could see that Andrew was examining the information stored within IKE's memory, also running a diagnostic scan. Once he had finished the diagnostic test he left IKE running on 'sleep mode' and addressed Alisa, "Now if you can get on the table, we will run your diagnostics and retrieve the necessary data from you."

Hesitating for a second, Alisa had a feeling in her 'gut' that something was wrong. When she did not move Andrew restated his orders and was asked a question, "What is going to happen to IKE?"

"He is damaged beyond repair," Andrew said coldly as Alisa finally made her way to the table, "I have retrieved everything of value from his A.I. system, so all physical remains will be destroyed. Despite the appearance of a personality he was still nothing more than what I desired him to be . . . a machine."

"So then what do you need from me?" Alisa asked lying on the cold table, actually getting a chill from the sensation, which Andrew took note of as no other robot acted so . . . human, and he replied, "Possibly the same thing."

Fear started to spread as Alisa felt something click into the back of her head, the cord which would allow Andrew to see everything she had seen and what she was thinking at that very moment. Thinking about what might happen when Andrew was done she waited as Andrew went through all of her electronic data. After a while he stopped and let his fingers rest on the keyboard, "Analysis complete."

'Analysis complete' . . . hearing those two words Alisa made a decision, "I’m not a machine to be disposed of . . . I have human mind and soul. I chose to stay here and work for the Military, but it seems that I've overstayed my welcome." Alisa then activated the special program that her android body’s creator had installed and locked Andrew out of her systems. Out of the corner of her eye she could see him typing in the command prompt to break through her security and which would destroy everything she was; it almost was in slow motion as he typed the first line of code. Hearing the second line of code being entered she took deep breaths and closed her eyes until an explosion rocked the entire structure of the building, nearly knocking Andrew to his feet but luckily interrupting his typing. Steadying himself he looked to the ceiling and then pressed a button on the large computer screen, "What is the situation?"

"The Western General and Kiria have engaged in battle." A mechanical voice replied to the query and Andrew didn't react. Another explosion and the lights flickered and Andrew returned to what he was doing, not caring about the battle above. As Andrew finished the coding that would shut her down a message appeared on his monitor stating that the command prompt was not recognized and had failed. Curiosity over the reason why the command prompt fail Andrew looked over to see Alisa pulling the plug out from the back of her head and slidding off the table. Whipping out a tazer he managed to hit her in the shoulder but was surprised when her weapons, which where supposed to be disabled, fire the ceiling out for her to escape. Making no attempt to chase her as she fled through the hole, instead he calmly walked over to the monitor once more and made a couple keystrokes, "Release fifteen X6N units to pursue and eliminate rouge unit Alisa."

"Voice Command Confirmed"

Alisa easily made her way through the base due to the confusion caused by Kiria’s fighting with the General. She had just barely gotten outside when she felt the ground shake, glass shattered high on one of the upper floors. She looked up while running only to see Kiria thrown out of the shattered window into midair and begin plummeting to the ground, the Western General stood at the edge of the window. She was surprised to say the least, "Kiria is supposed to be the most powerful of the entire Western Military. Even in his weakened state how can he be outmatched by a normal human?" She then noticed a door on the side of the main building open and fifteen X6N units ran out. It was pretty simple to guess the purpose they were being sent out for. Deciding to speed up her escape she turned her back to the base and fired her thrusters at full power. The X6N units began to chase her, but after only a few minutes she had gotten out of their range and they were recalled to the base . . .

"You have just lost three valuable commodities General," Andrew stated over a private communication, the General replaced his tattered shirt to hide the massive scar tissue. Raising his head as he fastened the upper most button of his collared shirt he raised an eyebrow, "Three?"

"Genesis, according to the chip implanted in him, is somewhere within the Eastern Mountains."

"The East? What the f*ck is he doing there?" the General asked not knowing why someone under his command would be in the most secretive area of the entire world; not even he knew much about what lied beyond the boundaries they had built ages ago. Sitting back in his seat he waited for an answer as papers spun around by the breeze now allowed in from the missing window.

"There is no direct explanation from Genesis himself, but by my calculations he is attempting to regain the power he had before the incident. But according to a message he left at the facility in the Western Mountains, he is merely going there for a little while and should return near the facility in less than a months time. All without causing any trouble with the East.”

"And the internal spy from the East? What about him?"

"Data from IKE and what little we got from Alisa have confirmed that, during the war, Jamie managed to slip away. Statistically he has already made the trip back to the East . . ."

"Report," a man said through a mask covering his entire head, the design resembling a demon. Appearing from the shadows Jamie's true form shifted back to the humanoid one he had adorned during his stint in the South. Kneeling down he only rose his head when his General allowed it and spoke, "Sir, I have returned from the South a-"

"I know where you have been!" the Eastern General said loudly, his voice booming in the empty cathedral, "I know where you are always. My eyes cannot be deceived, you should know that James."

"Of course."

"Now . . . report on the events you witnessed. My eyes had sensed a drop in the living in that area, explain."

Telling the entire story of how some random Supers had managed to infiltrate the Southern Military along with a group of rebels by using the guise of slaves and instigate the entire war. Continuing on he said that once the war reached its fever pitch the random Supers were aided by Northern allies. He ended the story with what he had heard afterwards, that the Southern Legendary was awoken by the Northern General, Northern Legendary and the ‘Western Angel’. Lowering his head again he listened, "The Southern Legendary has become deceased . . . I can no longer see him. Now only the West and East possess the powers of the Legendary. We know where ours is . . . we must not allow the West to locate and capture theirs!"

"What do you want me to do, my lord?"

Mulling it over for a minute the Eastern General stood up, walked over to the balcony to look out at his domain, "Summon the Three Man Slayers . . . hunt the Western Legendary and dispose of her!"

"As you wish sir," Jamie replied fading into the shadows.

[spoiler= The End Part III, Beyond the Pain of Yesterday into the Promise of Tomorrow]

2 Months after the end of the Southern Rebellion, the Ruins of the Southern Capital

"Let me out," a voice said to its captor, the voice slithering within the man's mentality as he tried to rest, "You cannot keep me sealed forever . . . I own you!" Standing up in his bed in a cold sweat John shivered, looking at his hands as the voice echoed in his head. How much longer he would be able to keep his alternate persona trapped within he didn't know and it scared him to death. The door opening caught his attention as Saul stood there, in his sleeping outfit, with a look of concern on his face, "Are you alright John? I could hear you screaming down the hall . . . as everyone else could I'm sure."

"Yeah Saul, I'm fine," he lied to his friend, "Just a nightmare about the war."

"Been having them like everyone else I see," Saul said with a yawn and John nodded, lying further. With a farewell Saul stopped before closing the door, "Remember we have to go to the funeral service at 3 pm today so try and get some rest and be there."

"Will do," With Saul out of the room John's eyes shinned a crimson red as the black aura swirled around the room, rattling the shelves, and suddenly stopped while John clutched his chest, "No . . . I won't let you roam free again . . ."

The skies themselves seemed to weep as the funeral procession marched its solemn trek through the remaining hollowed out buildings of the Southern Capital, a single church bell crying out. It had taken them this long just to clean the streets of the rotting corpses and debris, yet before any rebuilding could be done respect had to be paid to those who had fallen in the struggle. There were no coffins to carry, there would be too many if this was done, and instead each survivor stood in line to pay respect to a massive head stone. Made by Todou himself, the man had spared no expense in his abilities in making it, it was a bright metallic white he had personally engraved the name of each person who died or remained missing into the stone. The Grave Stone had been placed at the center of the crater created by Akima's last act against the Southern Legendary, using the spot as a symbolic meaning to the end of the war. Many people, even if they couldn't walk, made it out to the stone to place flowers around it, pictures to go with the names, and tears of grief. Walking up to the stone Kallen ran her fingers over the numerous names, searching out for a single one, and stopped to read the name silently, "Akima Rinaki . . ."

Covering her mouth she shuddered, fresh tears filling her already red eyes, and felt her legs beginning to give out beneath her. Before she fell down Lora and Aya caught her and together they touched a single name, "Mitch . . ."

Kyou watched from the remains of the Southern General's office and listened to the Church bells continue to toll. Closing her eyes the slight rain that had been persisting throughout the funeral slowly turned to snow as she cried, and her thoughts turned to her grandfather. He would seemingly be strict with her when she practiced mastering her ability to control ice, telling her that she needed to push herself even harder. She remembered he had gotten her so worked up one time that she didn't notice a large root sticking out before tripping over it. Now crying uncontrollably she hung her head, letting her short hair cover her eyes, and whispered ,"Stupid . . . stupid old man . . ."

Neither girl made an attempt to escape the rain drenching their clothing and bodies. They remained where they were looking out at the battlefield and both hide their tears behind the rainfall.

"I can't believe he's gone," Aya said wrapping her arms around her body to try and warm up.

"I know. It just seems like I’ll wake up tomorrow and find out we haven’t even left the North yet," Lora added coughing a bit; she thought she might be getting sick, but really didn't care. Looking to her best friend Aya took her hand and lead her inside, out of the rain, and wringed it out of her hair, "Hey? Remember when Mitch took us to our first picnic?"

"Yeah," Lora agreed with a content sigh. Both girls thought back to that spring day in the land Mitch had brought them too. He had showed them so many things that they had never imagined possible in what in reality was such a short time, tall metal buildings that stood taller than anything around it and let them have foods that tasted incredible. But out of all of that the picnic had stood out. After training for so many years Mitch had taken them to an amazing plateau that overlooked the sea at sun rise; the view back then had brought them to tears, though these tears were from happiness. To make them stop crying Mitch, in a spur of the moment, had smashed cake into both of their faces while laughing. By the end of the day no one had actually eaten a piece . . .

As the sun began to fall, the funeral had shown no signs of slowing down, instead there remained an enormous line which seemed to stretch on for miles. Scoffing at this Destined was thankful that he never intended on showing up and 'paying respect' to those who had died. Why should he? In his mind they were dead, end of story. Even if Black had been killed by the Southern forces that would just prove to be the end of his usefulness. Walking through the connecting streets he could hear Lucifer complain about the rain hitting him, drenching him down to the seam, and he took shelter under an overpass. Standing there he heard what sounded like a woman screaming in pain, something which amongst all this anguish caught his interest, "Finally something I care about . . . action!" Moving towards the sound he saw that it was coming from the third floor of a building, emanating from a window. Not taking time to do the logical thing and climb the stairs he instead scaled the wall all the way up, stopping at the sight before him. Inside the building was a group of people huddled around a woman, spread eagle on a bed and screaming louder than any normal human could be capable of, sweat pouring down her face. Beside her Destined could see a worried man, gripping his wife's hand, and soon another smaller cry replaced the woman's. A man, his forearms covered in blood, held the diminutive body of a baby, which bawled louder than its mother, and handed it to the exhausted couple. Dropping to the ground floor Destined took a step back into the rain and pause, glanced back at the window and the sound of the baby crying, "If a child comes out crying . . . that is the sound of a fighter . . . he should grow up strong . . . isn't that what you told me David?"

Natalie and ran her fingers over the grave stone, whispered a name, and left to return to Cougar's temporary living quarters at the hospital. Closing the door Natalie looked up at Cougar and gave a weary smile. He asked about the funeral and how it had turned out and she replied that it was "something you'd have to see yourself" before gasping, momentarily forgetting he couldn't leave the hospital. Instead of becoming depressed or getting angry Cougar laughed at his own predicament and patted the spot beside him, which Natalie sat down on. Wrapping his arms around her he held her against him, "When I get out of here we can go together. I want to pay respects to Bob and Mitch before we go back to the North."

Wrapping her own arms around Cougar, Natalie pressed her face against his chest and began to cry, wishing for that moment to come now . . . wishing that things would return to normal . . .

"It's beautiful isn't it."

"You always are," Josh replied with a grin, knowing that wasn't what Yaming was talking about, "No . . . I mean the sunset you inexcusable flirt."

"Yeah that too and you know I can't help myself," Both looked out at the sun as it slowly sunk behind the horizon and remembered the funeral. While Yaming had cried all the time Josh had not shed a tear, not that he didn't want too, but he knew at the beginning that a lot of people would die and had prepared himself emotionally back then; though he still felt a great deal of anguish over the losses. Sighing Yaming placed her head on Josh's shoulder, "So?"

"So what?"

"What now?"

"Good question . . ."

Amber lifted the heavy bag onto her shoulders, closed the door behind her, and looked out at the long line of funeral goers with a mixture of regret and anger. Turning away she trotted down the steps and out into the pouring rain before breaking out into a full sprint even though her wounds hadn't completely healed. With the hospital growing smaller behind her she left the Southern Capital and soon found herself in the edge of the forest where they had been fighting the Nameless Southern Commander. Walking in the area where her adopted sister had been murdered her memories vividly replayed each instant back to her until she couldn't take it anymore. Stopping where they had been picked up, also the same spot Elizabeth had died under the cherry tree, she tossed the bag to the ground and dug into it. Pulling out a loaded revolver she slumped down in the spot and held it in both hands, the gun felt heavier than usual. Checking it and rechecking it she began to cry, unsure of how she could go on . . .

"Des de~oku!" Koya called out shooting an energy blast which ripped apart the battlefield until he dropped. His heavy breathing was shown by puffs of vapor as he tried to stand back on his feet, swaying until he fell back down. Grunting he got on his knees and wiped his face of any blood. Pausing for a moment he forgot that Akima wasn't there to tell him to get up and keep going or help him up. Punching the ground he gritted his teeth and wanted to cry, but couldn't because he wasn't sad. No another emotion consumed Koya and it was that emotion which drove him to stand on his own two feet. Clenching his fist so tightly it shook, Koya's eyes boiled with anger as he released a massive blast which he swore upon, "Akima! I swear that I will find every single one of those radicals who still support the fallen Southern Regime and make them pay for all the lives that were lost fighting people like them!!!"

Koya wasn't the only one thinking of Akima, possibly one of the hardest losses to accept. Kallen had left the funeral, unable to stay there any longer, and left everyone else to be alone. In a dark room she layed on the bed, just breathing and trying to forget the feelings her heart were suffering. Her face contorted, tears wheeling up once more, and she knew this time like all others she wouldn't be able to fight them back. Crying seemed to be the only relief she could get, and it was only making the dark cloud which hung around her to grow worse. She could still see Akima as if he was right in front of her saying, "Everything will be alright."

"Are you sure about this?" Yaming said on the outskirts of the Southern Capital, her backpack filled with every possession she needed. Josh hadn't looked back at all when they had set out nor when did he change his answer when they decided on a course of action. Taking a deep breath he slowly exhaled and smiled at her, "I think this is the end of a chapter Yaming. We can't stay here, It would be better if we left and returned at a later date . . ."

"I suppose," she replied swishing her hair so that it blew in the wind. Taking her hand Josh and Yaming left the South to move onto areas unknown . . .

"Kallen? Kallen?!" Lora called out for her elder sister as she walked through the hospital. She and Aya had lost her when they turned their backs and didn't know where she'd be going, but both knew that she'd been depressed so they worried about her. Deciding to split up Lora eventually found her way to the hospital, "a good a place as any to be alone," Lora had thought seeing as it wouldn't be getting many visitors today. Walking through the halls she could hear the sick, injured and dying. The noises unnerved her and with the dead silence, no pun intended, she felt her mind beginning to wander. Stopping she saw an empty room and walking in, sitting on the bed to cry . . .

Aya had been crying alone, using the excuse to curl up and do so. She didn't want to lie to Lora and did feel they should find Kallen, but at the moment she knew in order to do so she had to clear her mind. Crying so much she actually began to hiccup Aya wiped her eyes and looked outside, noting that the funeral was almost over. She didn't know what was going to become of the North and South or even herself, she wished that Mitch was here to give them some advice. At the thought of her former mentor more tears rolled down her face and she managed to stop and stand, "I'll go to the North . . . I'll continue training as if Mitch was still there, that's what I'll do . . ."

The sun vanished behind the sky letting the entire sky to quickly grow dark. It had been a long day and each person had gone through a lot, some more than others. Exhausted, hungry, depressed, sick, all of those and more was what many of the group were feeling as they settled in for the night or remained awake, unable to sleep. Time seemed to slowly drift by, but drift by it did. The clock hitting 12 am was proof that even though they wanted it, time would not stop . . . it would not reverse back to before the war just on empty wishes. The sound of rain ceased and let the night time air cool in its stead under a starry sky. At the Grave Stone the metal shinned from the moonlight in a brilliant display with something floating above it. That object spun and danced in the air current until it nestled gently on the top of the morbid reminder of the dead. A single cherry blossom petal, quickly accompanied by its brothers and sisters, adorned the stone and metal before being blown away . . . off into the unknown . . .

[spoiler=Glimpses of the Future, Prelude to Struggle of Powers II]

"You can't be serious!?" Cougar said slamming his hands on the round desk, causing some of the board members to flinch. He was quickly brought back into his chair by Natalie as she yanked at his shirt collar and once that was done addressed her Commanding General, "Are you sure about this Lady . . . err . . . I mean General Kyou?"

"Cougar, either title is appropriate. And I know what many of you must be thinking," Lady Kyou said crossing her arms and looking over at the man who had traveled all the way for this special meeting with his Commanders. Letting out a sigh she looked at her own Commanders and spoke with a refined authority, "We really have no other choice. It may not be the best option or smartest but Destined is the only person who could assume the position of the Southern General, as much as I hate to admit it."

"You just hate the thought of acknowledging that I am on the same level as you Kyou," Destined said with a smirk, leaning back in his seat to look at the group of people he'd not seen in years. They certainly had changed a bit, though he could still tell who was who. The young woman who stood up and began threatening him was no exception, in fact she was the easiest to recognize, "Destined you have no right to speak to the Northern General like that! If you so much as speak out of terms until your official acceptance I will chop your head off, do you hear me?!"

"Perfectly Lorana," he replied goading her even more by using the entirety of her name. She would have lunged at him there and then, causing a fight to break out, if Aya hadn't managed to keep her sitting down; noting that Black and Kisune had made a move to counter whatever attack Lora might’ve unleashed on their boss. It had been three years, but it seemed everyone including the weakened South had gained some fight back. Waving his two Southern Commanders to relax Destined spoke, "Well seeing as no one can speak against me . . . I accept. Now I am not normally one for treaties-"

"Ha!" Kallen said loudly, standing up and looking down at the man with a confident smirk. Since recovering from her depression over the loss of Akima she had specifically been putting her energies into training and rebuilding both the Northern and Southern territories, "'not normally one for treaties' my ass. Destined you're the kind of person who stabs someone in the back once they've just saved your life!"

"Actually," Destined interrupted with a grin, "I stab them in the front . . . more personal that way. But! As I was saying, I am not one for treaties, yet those around me as well as myself know that our military is not capable of fending off an invasion, as is your own army Lady Kyou."

"I must say that my military is in much better shape than your own at the moment but you have a point," she said grimacing that, even after three years and no contact, Destined knew so much about the Northern military's might, "So what do you propose?"

"A joint military, one where we both share responsibilities as the leading generals," the idea had merit and explained why he had been so uncomfortable saying it, the idea of Destined giving up or sharing power wasn't something those who knew him could see him doing willingly. Looking to her right Kyou could see Todou and Saul nodding, assuring her that it was a smart idea to join the two militaries together, and she agreed; after all not following her two advisors would be inexcusable. Looking at Destined she laid down a ground rule, "But we command our respective forces independently, only cooperating on a need-be basis, alright?"

"I wouldn't want your soldiers anyway."

"Neither would I," Kyou retorted as the two shook hands. The deal had been set, the North and South were now united as a semi-single unit under the title 'Joint Forces Army'. With that matter out of the way a metallic robot, Titanium, walked into the room with a check board in hand. Being welcomed in he marched over to Kyou and handed it to her, "We have completed the surveys you requested."

"And?"

"Despite undergoing numerous experimental treatments to try to undo the trauma his body suffered, Eden's leg has healed perfectly but the treatment of the muscle trauma has continued to be unsuccessful. However it is to be noted that he does not seem disappointed by this. Continuing we have located the missing person whom you requested," at this the entire crowd grew curious, as far as anyone knew not a single person had went missing in the entire length of time since the Southern Rebellion. It was true Josh and Yaming were unaccounted for, but they had left on their own accord, hardly a missing person(s), "The girl, Amber, was located in the Southern battlefield, one of the highly restricted areas, with a single gunshot to her head and a revolver missing a single bullet."

"I understand" Kyou frowned. She had been hoping that they'd be able to find Amber alive after she vanished during the funeral procession, a woman of that talent would've proved to be useful to the new Joint Forces Army. Looking over the material again Titanium concluded that it was most likely suicide and that it had been committed during the funeral from the decomposition of the body. With that latest news the groom grew quiet until it was almost unbearable. Deciding this was the best time to reveal something he had been waiting for Todou coughed, drawing attention to himself, and walked into the group, "Well I think I have something that may change everyone's spirit for the better."

The group seemed to question this and waited for him to state what he was so confident would make them all feel much better. Waiting until he felt like they were going to start yelling at him Todou began, "I do hope everyone remembers that after the reconstruction of both the North and South I became somewhat of a hermit . . ."

"How can we forget?" Corey said with a laugh, "When you finally came out you could knock a person dead with the way you smelled!"

This joke caused most if not all of the people attending the meeting to laugh as well, Todou included since it was true. Ceasing his chuckles Todou pointed to Corey, "I am actually glad you mentioned the dead . . ."

Now everyone's attention was completely focused on Todou, "During that entire time shut up in my room I was going over equations . . . day in and day out. I spent every waking moment, and astonishingly a few unwaking moments, studying every detail of the final events during the Southern Rebellion. And I have come to a stunning conclusion . . . there is a minute possibility . . . that Akima is still alive. Just please remember that this is just speculation."

Everyone in the room froze unsure of how to react to such news. Todou had just said that Akima could be alive, but at the same time he didn't deny the fact the chances were he hadn't survived; Kallen out of everyone else didn't want to begin to hope again. Stomping Kyou stood up and glared at Todou, "How sure are you!? I don't want to go on a wild goose chase, raising everyone's hopes, just to find a dead body or . . . worse . . . nothing!"

"Though the numbers state it is nearly impossible for Akima to have lived past that final moment," Todou replied solemnly as the eyes of his General barred down on him, "My gut is telling me he lives."

"Of course Akima would be alive, that dude is too stubborn to die like that," Koya said with a laugh, delighted in the idea of Akima being alive. It was just those kind of words everyone needed to be assured that he was alive and well, somewhere in the world by himself. Laughing Kallen joked about how she would enjoy paying him back for making her cry over him, which only caused others of the group to mess with her over the reason she had cried; many got the reason correct despite her denying it.

"So Lady Kyou, Commanding General of the North," Lora said standing up with Aya, "What are your orders? As your sword I will cut down the path leading to our lost comrade!"

"And as your shield I will protect him until he arrives safely back to everyone!" Aya commented and got a smile from her adopted mother and father, Natalie and Cougar who were amazed at her brave words. Nodding Kyou waved her hand and gave the marching orders, "Then it's settled! We will go out and recover Akima and bring him back here! I want you guys to locate Josh and Yaming as well, they will know the other areas a lot more than anyone here, and bring them back as well; they've been gone too long as well!!!"

A resounding cheer erupted in the room and the meeting came to an end. Everyone filled out of the room, discussion over what Akima could have been doing since the end of the war or how he survived dominating everyone's mind. Sidestepping everyone Cougar let out a sigh and was startled by Aya standing in front of him, "Oh, Aya . . . is there anything you need?"

"Something’s on your mind isn't there?"

"No, why would you think that?" Cougar lied glancing away momentarily before looking back to lock gaze with her stern expression. Putting her hands on her hips Aya explained, "Woman's intuition."

Laughing Cougar couldn't argue with that bit of knowledge, Natalie used the same excuse to pry answers out of him when he tried to be secretive. Rubbing his chin he had no choice but to explain, "You know how I still have nightmares of the images that Jamie planted in my brain?"

"Yeah"

"Last night a new nightmare joined the old ones," he said grimly. Aya was surprised that a new nightmare had appeared, seeing as Corey had never been able to remove the mental scars or find any other damage. Answering the question she was about to ask Cougar stated, "In this nightmare I see a large . . . thing . . . looming over everyone, Akima too, and it begins to kill everyone. No one can do anything against it . . . Aya, it kills everyone."

Thank You to EVERYONE who was a part of this, no matter how small, for making this what it has become!

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Struggle Of Powers

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