< - 3:2 Flames of Revenge | Coda - >

Symphony 3: Hell’s Requiem

3rd Movement: Angels of Darkness

The name of the planet was Char.  Not a very nice planet for someone to find themselves on, it served as a temporary staging base for the Zerg swarm during their campaign to destroy the Protoss.  Today, a large payoff to Kerrigan from FavuTech allowed them to use the planet that the silly Terrans still thought was the “Zerg Homeworld” as a primary headquarters in the Starcraft Universe.

As Crystal had predicted, Void and The Dominion decided that it would be a good idea to attack one of FavuTech’s important bases in Vergil’s absence, and The System warned of a buildup of their forces in the outer regions of the Starcraft Universe.  At the time, Crystal was too occupied with homeland defense to worry about the advances, and B’harroth probably didn’t notice, or didn’t care.  Now she stood on Char, dressed in ‘Battle Angel’ outfit again, but this time wearing a full environmental helmet over her head as well to protect her from the planet’s environment, and B’harroth, in his Daemon Prince form, stood next to her.  The Daemon towered over her just as much as he would in his Greater Daemon form, minus the impressive wing-span and the axes the size of her.  He wore a suit of deformed, Red-Gore painted Space Marine Armor and his face was black as night.  His eyes were glowing like fire, and he had large ivory horns that protruded from his head.

The pair of warriors stood on a rock cliff overlooking a massive open plain of rocks and crags, broken up by the occasional river of lava or geyser.  The area spanned for the size of the entire state of Massachusetts, and thanks to the HUD on her helmet that functioned much like Vergil’s glasses, she could see a tactical overlay of all of it.  The number of Dominion and Nanimo forces detected by various comm-satt scans was incredible.  Even B’harroth seemed a little nervous even though he claimed he alone had brought enough “points worth” of troops to fight off the attack alone.

The Daemon Prince heard his companion gulp nervously.  “I suppose this frightens you?” he asked.

Crystal wasn’t about to appear weak before the monster, but she wasn’t great at lying either.  “I’ve never seen so many weapons of war that I don’t even understand how they work.” She replied.  “I’m worried we won’t survive this battle, let alone the ones come after it.”

B’harroth made a low grunt.  “We will not die.  They can’t kill us, and out of respect to Vergil, I will personally see to it that they don’t kill you either.”

“Thanks, I think,” Crystal replied.  “We should get down to the command bases before we’re seen.”

“We’ve already been seen,” B’harroth replied.  “We’re going up against a powerful Sith master, and you think he hasn’t already sensed us with the force?”  Then the daemon prince laughed.  “Besides, I have no intention of running.  I will be in the front lines of this battle.”

Crystal wore a cynical expression.  “You do that, you big daemon, you,” she said.  “I’ll go way far back with our trump card, waiting to spring the trap.”

“I hope for your sake,” B’harroth said concerned as Crystal started to bounce away from the crags, “that Void’s MAGI or The Dominon’s spies haven’t already found out about your new toy.  If they have, you might find your trump card little more than a ten of hearts.”

Crystal smiled.  “I never would have figured you a euchre player, B’harroth.”

“I hate that game,” he replied.

*****

It was like the out-of-body experience from before. This time he wasn’t standing in a corner though... it was as if as he lay there in the bed, his eyes wide open, his vision was replaced with that of what he saw.  It was like a waking dream that played like a horror movie.  There was nothing he could do to stop it, though he had no desire to.

It was about the child again.  The child with purple eyes... the one that had to be Vergil.

He could see figures standing behind glass.  The glass surrounded a large bed room, complete with a few toys and a simple bed.  Sitting on the bed was a child, bald, with large, inhuman, purple eyes.  His skin was a pale gray color.  Sitting next to him was a woman who looked to be in her early thirties, with long brown hair and pretty hazel eyes.  She sat in a lab coat, a light blue shirt and a black skirt next to him, reading a book... the story of the Ugly Duckling.

Voices could not be distinguished, but the figures outside we’re talking amongst each other. It could be discerned that the figures on the other side of the glass assumed the beastly child could not see them, but the way that it looked from his storyteller to them lead Sanguineous to think differently.  

When the story had completed, the child pointed to the locket that hung on the woman’s neck.  She smiled and opened it showing to him.  For the first time, voices could be heard.

“This is my family,” she said.  “This is my husband, and this.... this was my son.”

“Do I have a family?” the child asked.  The woman hesitated before replying.

“S...  sure.  We’re all your family.”

”No. 18 isn’t my family,” the child replied. “He’s mean.”

”No. 18 is just looking out for you,” the woman replied.

The child hesitated.  “Can I be in your family?  It looks nicer.”  

The woman hesitated.  “Well... I don’t know...”

“I can look like him,” the child replied, excitedly.  Suddenly, the sound of liquid squishing around combined with other wonderfully disgusting noises as the child underwent a metamorphosis right next to her.  His eyes changed to be just like a normal human’s though the pupils retained their purple tint.  Brown hair sprouted out from a top the child’s head like plants growing on fast-forward.  His skin tone changed to that of the woman next to him.  When his transformation was complete, he looked exactly like the dead eight year old in the locket’s photo.

The woman leaped off the bed and screamed as the child smiled at her.  On the other side of the glass, one of the researchers said to another, “Amazing!  He’s only five months old and he’s already made use of his ‘evolutionary’ properties!  Isn’t that amazing professor?!”

“No,” the man answered.  “That creature just turned himself into my dead son...”

The image at this point fades, as if the movie was suddenly fast-forwarded to some time later. The child is alone in a large room, standing across from the large gas-mask wearing man from Sanguineous’ earlier vision.  The tall man says something, then energy comes out of an attachment to his lower arm.  The tall man, a Golem Soldier, re-animated by Neo-Mitochondria, charged at the child at full tilt.  The child stood his ground, wearing a playful look on his face.  Once the attack neared completion, the child’s eyes flashed a brilliant color of purple and his arm began to glow with Parasite Energy.  He raised his arm, parried the attack with it, and then punched his partner in the gut.  His partner went flying away from him, but landed on his feet.

Smiling, the child turned to one of the earlier researchers.  “Daddy daddy!” The child said.  “Aren’t you proud of me!”  The researcher returned with look of anger, and didn’t answer.

Suddenly, the image changed again, and now the child was alone in a room with the researcher.

“Listen to me!” The man yelled at the child as he beat it across his face with the back of his hand.  “You are not my son!  Adam died years ago in a car accident and you cannot replace him!  You are nothing more to me than Project Virgil, do you hear me!  You are not human!  You are nothing more than a creature!!!”

“But, daddy...”

”Don’t call me, daddy!” He yells again and smacks the child into the wall.  “I told you, you are not my son!  You are a creature!  A creature!!! A creature!!!”

-| Cue: Korn – Untouchables - Here to Stay|-
Notice: In the event that Korn’s Lyrics seriously offend the listener, a remix to ‘Du Hast’ will work here as well, please skip over the lyrical notes.

The man leaves the room.  For a painful and tense minute, the child doesn’t move, his head bowed down the floor.  He sits in his glass bedroom, alone, thinking.  Hours pass, and he doesn’t move still.   Finally, a tear runs down his cheek.

“I’m a creature, am I?” he whispers, his voice cracking. “So be it....”

The child cries out, quietly at first, but then his voice raises, until suddenly the glass surrounding his room shatters.

This time I'm taking it away, I've got a problem
With me getting in the way, not by my side

The child walks up the door guarding his room.  His eyes flash as he breaks down the door with his fists, using his enhanced Neo-Mitochondrial Strength.

So I take my face and bash it into a mirror
I won't have to see the pain

The researcher and his wife and the people around the room look petrified.  The child looks unhappily at the researcher and his wife before he leaps an the former, his nails becoming claws.

This state is elevating, as the hurt turns into hating
Anticipating all the f@#!ed up feelings again

Like an animal, he slits his throat, moving on to each of the scientists in the room.  In all the chaos, the child cannot tell if he killed the wife or not...

My hurt inside is fading
This s*&!'s gone way too far
All this time I've been waiting
Oh I cannot breath anymore

One of the dying researchers managed to hit the ‘WORST PANIC’ button on the desk.  An alarm sounds and the child looks around confused.  Not knowing what else to do, he runs.

For what's inside awaking
I'm not, I'm not a !@$#@
You've taken everything and
Oh I cannot give anymore

He makes it out of the room, only to find his sparing partner and jail-keeper, the Golem Solider No. 18, standing before him, a gun in his hands.  Without a word, he shoots the child, who falls against the door frame he just walked through.

My mind's done with this
So hey, I've got a question
Can I throw it all away?
Take back what's mine

The child holds his hand over the bullet wound and grimaces.  The Golem fires a few more shots, until the child falls down on the walk way, blood coming from the exit wounds.

So I take my time
Driving humbly down the line
Each cut, closer to the vein

Suddenly, a wave of energy shoots out from the child, leaving a series of flashing lights in their path.  No. 18 is forced to cover his gas-mask to shade his eyes.

This state is elevating, as the hurt turns into hating
Anticipating all the f@#!ed up feelings again

From the bright flash, the child emerges, now looking like a young adolescent, and bone-like wings coming from his bare back.  He flew into the air, and then crashed his fist into No. 18's face, shattering it and the gas mask whole.  His previous wounds were gone.

My hurt inside is fading
This s*&!'s gone way too far
All this time I've been waiting
Oh I cannot breath anymore

More Golems pour into the room, the boy waiting eagerly for them.  As they appear, he uses different Parasite Energy blasts to throw them back, using them so as to spend his Parasite Energy as best as possible.  

For what's inside awaking
I'm not, I'm not a !@$#@
You've taken everything and
Oh I cannot give anymore

Without warning, the boy flies through the doorway before them and begins flying down the corridors of the research facility, searching for the exit he had never visited.  Finally, he reaches a set of huge metal double doors.  He lands next to its control panel and presses the buttons to make them open, flying towards the blinding light of outside as he does.

Musical Interlude

To his dismay, the sunlight greets him with a full platoon of Golem soldiers, their cybernetic weapons all pointed at him.  The golems slowly raise their weapons and declare their intention to kill him.

I’m here to stay... bring it down

An evil smile creeps on the boy’s face, as he lands and puts his back against the closing door.

I’m here to stay... bring it down

And smiles to them as he raises his arms out, like he was against a cross.

I’m here to stay... bring it down

The Golem’s weapons lock and load...

I’m here to stay...

The Golems’ open fire, rocking the boy’s body against the wall.

Bring it down!
Bring it down!
Bring it down!
Bring it down!

They cease fire to reload as the boy collapses against the wall.  Again, a huge shockwave tears out from his body covering it in blinding light.

Gonna break it down!
Gonna break it down!
Gonna break it down!
Gonna break it!

When the energy and lights clear, the boy stood before them, appearing to look like a young adult, an arrogant and hateful stare on his face.   His eyes were inhumanly glowing, his entire eyes purple, malformed bone spikes protruding from his back.

This state is elevating, as the hurt turns into hating
Anticipating all the f@#!ed up feelings again

The golems furiously reloaded and opened fire just as heavily as they had before.  This time, all of their shots are ignored by an orange energy barrier that forms around the young man, not a single one hitting their mark.  Once the firing ended, the young man threw his head back and his arms down, releasing an unearthly cry from his lips.

My hurt inside is fading
This s*&!'s gone way too far
All this time I've been waiting
Oh I cannot breath anymore

Instantly, every last Golem was burned alive.  Seconds later the metal around the complex began to melt.  The young man continued yelling.

For what's inside awaking
I'm not, I'm not a !@$#@
You've taken everything and
Oh I cannot give anymore

In one last explosive out bust, the entire facility underwent a chain reactive explosion, not a single useable trace of the research or its personal or its Golem guardians surviving.

In the aftermath of the blast, the young man walks alone, his figure now looking much more human.  Mindlessly he searches the remains of the complex for some sign of where he could go... what he could do.  After sometime searching, he finds a pen and the remains of a manila folder, on which he could make out “Proje--- V—rgi---.” Picking up the pen, he found a torn piece of paper and, in what little literacy he had wrote...

“I am Vergil.”

The young man put the paper down, surveyed his destruction one last time, and then curled himself up into a ball, leaning against a fallen support pillar, and cried.

*****

-| Optional Music Cue: Yoko Shinomora - Kingdom Hearts – End of the World |-

Sanguineous felt as if he had snapped awake.  Yet, where he stood was in the middle of the dark place from before, alone with a mirror, and once again, in the reflection of the mirror, stood Vergil.

“So that child,” Sanguineous asked the reflection.  “That was you?”

The reflection nodded then spoke, his voice an aged version of the child from the dream.  “Yes.  Yes it was.”

“Was it me, too?”

The reflection shook his head to this.  “The time has come Sanguineous.  You have been an excellent host, I could not ask for better.”

“A host... I don’t understand.”

Vergil paused.  “You see, Sanguineous, you had the terrible misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.  You found me, almost dead, at the remains of a massive battle I had fought not too long ago.  A sort of blessing and curse of what I am dictates that anything that doesn’t outright kill me instantly, will make me stronger, but the worse of a beating I take, the more complicated my evolution is.”

Sanguineous nodded.  “Go on.  I want to know where I play into all of this.”

“During the battle,” Vergil continued, “my entire compliment of Neo-Mitochondria evolved to the challenge of my enemy, something that last happened about four years ago.”  Vergil paused before he continued further.  “It is the most complicated evolution I ever underwent, and my entire form needed to enter a state like a sleeping pupa as the evolution took its full shape.  Unfortunately, in the desolate place I came to rest, there was nothing to nourish my transformation.

“That’s when you walked in.” Sanguineous looked up at the Mirror’s reflection as it continued speaking.  “You too looked like you were weary from some great battle.  I struggled to my feet, trying to help you along as I myself was having problems maintaining a physical form.  The vampiric curse in my veins was beating my weakened Mitochondria, and you were losing blood fast.  You collapsed first, but not before you expressed a regret that we couldn’t help each other.  So I saved both our lives... I abandoned my old body and took over yours.”

“The side effect,” Sanguineous added, “being that the product of this fusion had no remembrance of either of our past lives.”

“Woo, can’t get anything past you,” Vergil said, a light chuckle in his voice.  “Unfortunately, by performing that move, I lost the biomass necessary for us to separate into two bodies again, and I fear the loss of your memory is permanent.”

Sanguineous looked away from the mirror.  Vergil sighed regretfully.  “I apologize that I could not do more for you.”

“No,” Sanguineous replied earnestly.  “That’s quite alright.  Better that we both live on, one way or another, than we both died back there.  But, why are you coming to me now?”

”The evolution is complete, and I cannot hold it back any longer.  You must make a choice.”  Suddenly, the ground lit up, showing an intricate stain glass pattern representing the life Vergil and Sanguineous had lived fused to this point. Images of Zeth, Piecis, Akron, Raven, and the Makei blade were beautifully crafted into it. From its surface, rose three pedestals, each holding different items.  “Take the gun,” Vergil stated, “And your story ends here, and I completely take over.  I can already see Akron’s destruction and the restoration of Crystal’s world in this path, but it doesn’t bode well for your future.

“Take the sword,” Vergil continued, “and I will cease to exist.  Your body will refuse my Neo-Mitochondria completely, and you will become independent again.  However, it was my soul and Neo-Mitochondria that was fighting off your Vampiric curse... remove me, and you will become a full-night stalker forever.

“Take the glasses,” Vergil explained the last item, “and my we will remain one in the same.  My conciseness and yours will fuse, your body and mine will fuse, and ‘Sanguineous’ will become the prefect combination of us both... all of our strengths and none of our weaknesses.  In this form, we will never live the lives either of us knew again, but Akron is as good as screwed now.”

Sanguineous looked hard at his options.  “You know,” he said in a mocking voice.  “If you were to do the ref correctly, it would have been a sword, a shield, and a wand.”

“Yeah, but I’m not Mickey Mouse and you don’t look much like Sora,” Vergil replied, chuckling.  Then he coughed, growing serious again.  “So yeah, um, chose wisely.”

“It is an easy choice actually,” Sanguineous replied and walked up the glasses.  Taking them from the pedestal and putting them on, a gravitational force pulled Sanguineous towards the mirror.  Once he stood before it, the Vergil reflection reached out to him, becoming an orange Neo-Mitochondrial ooze as he drew away from the mirror and covered Sanguineous’ body.  Once the stuff covered him completely, everything went white....

*****

There was a knock at the door.  Sanguineous opened his eyes, and he was back in the guest room he had fallen back asleep in.  Rubbing his eyes, Sanguineous answered inquisitively to who it was.  

“Ashandiel Regalia,” a woman’s voice answered on the other side.  “I’m the one who tried to kill you yesterday.  I’m terribly sorry about that.  May I come in?”

Sanguineous paused.  He looked at the watch he wore, the one that had dimensional transport as one of its bells and whistles.  It had been three hours and some minutes since he had asked her to leave him alone, and he knew he couldn’t hide in this lavish room forever.  Begrudgingly, he told her to come in.

Slowly the door opened, and Ashandiel peered in at him.  He was sitting on the bed, its sheets thrown about as if he’d tried sleeping a few more times but got no where.  He wore a despondent look to his face as he gazed out the window, to the side of the room.  A pair of obvious brown streaks of hair ran from the front his head to its back, and he seemed to have developed heterochromatin... on eye was red and the other purple, both duller shades of the color.  He still wasn’t looking at her as she opened the door and formally stepped inside.

“Um, Sanguineous-ral?” She asked a little nervously.  “Are you in more of a mood to talk now?”

Sanguineous didn’t move for a few moments before closed his eyes and sighed.  He stood up, fastening a few buttons on his vest that he’d undone to relax and faced Ashandiel. He gave an apologetic bow, bending his right arm across his chest as he did before he spoke.  “My apologies for my earlier behavior,” he said, his voice changed somehow.  It almost sounded as if it was making up its mind on how to sound.  It sounded younger, yet more confident, stronger yet less bestial.  These changes were significant for her to have noticed after seeing Sanguineous for such a short time in such a heated battle, or maybe she had paid more attention than one normally would the first time she met him. “I should have been more polite and allowed you to finish talking before I asked you to leave me alone.”

She smiled politely at him.  “That’s quite alright,” she replied.  “We can only begin to imagine what you must be going through to undergo the changes you have since I first saw you.”

Sanguineous blushed a little and rubbed the back of his head, letting a little chuckle escaping his lips.  “Um, this sort of thing isn’t normal for me either, to answer an earlier question,” Sanguineous stated.  “It’s really complicated to explain though.”

“I’m sure the mystics understand completely,” She reassured him.  “Anyway, we have many things the elders would like to discuss with you.”

“The... mystics?”  

“Yes,” Ashandiel replied with a nod.  “They are masters of mental energies and read you and your enemy’s minds while both of you were still under the influence of my casting.”

Sanguineous wore a perplexed expression.  “Read my... mind?”  Then a light bulb went off in his head.  “Hey!  What did they find out?!”

“Well,” she replied, “they said that you were to be trusted and the other guy wasn’t, even though Mizumi and I saw both of you causing severe damage to our lands.  That’s why the other guy is locked up right now and you’re here in one of the royal guest chambers.”

Sanguineous was still anxious.  “Did they tell you anything else about me?”

She paused as thought about the question for a few moments.  “Actually... you were a rare case.”  She replied.  “They had difficulties reading your mind... they wouldn’t tell me why, they said I wouldn’t understand.  As thus they said they couldn’t read you even a year into your memory.”

“Wow,” Sanguineous replied with disappointment.  “I’m so messed up not even head cases can tell how I am.”

Ashandiel smiled at this statement.  “What we did find out is that you are a hard working soul who has fallen on remarkably hard times.  They compared your life as both happy and tragic, like a symphony able only to play Rhapsody and Requiem.”  She paused before continuing to the important part. “You were also a good friend of Zetharius Regalia, and tried to save his life.  As a reward, the council has agreed with me to grant you a place to stay for a while as you sort out your confusing life.”

“Zetharious?” Sanguineous asked.  He said the name a few more times to himself before he struck a conclusion and snapped his fingers.  “You mean Zeth?  You knew Zeth?”

Ashandeil nodded.  “He was my cousin.”

Sanguineous’ jaw dropped. What was the chance of this? That Akron/Raven would just happen to chose the dimension of Zeth’s birth as a place for their final battle and get interrupted by his blood relatives Sanguineous thought.  His luck did seem to be turning around.  “Why do I owe you for knowing Zeth though?”

She smiled to him again and started to walk away from the room.  “Please come with me, Sanguineous-ral.  The Council wishes to speak to you.”  Not knowing where else to go from here, Sanguineous did as he was asked, and followed Ashandeil out of the room.

The room led out to a walkway outdoors that a roof hung over.  Decorative pillars and a guard rail ran all along the outside of the path which went around in a circle.  In the middle of this circle was a clear view all the way to the ground below; They had to be up at least 400 feet in the air!  The air seemed nicely clean and fresh compared to that of the world Vergil lived in.

He followed his companion around the ring shaped path until it a doorway lead to a hallway to the outside of the ring.  Going through a short hallway, Sanguineous arrived on the outer side of the ring, and the view was even more impressive.  He came to realize that the building was built on top some land that was high above the rest of the planet.  Looking across the sky it appeared as if a huge system of islands were strung across floating above the surface of the planet.  Here and there, individual buildings were even suspended in the air next to the mainland, like artificial islands in a sea of sky.

Ashandeil pointed to one of them.  “That building right there is where we are headed.  Are you ready?”

Sanguineous took a good look at the enormous palace like island of metal and wood floating apart from the rest of the land.  “But... but that’s not even attached to the mainland!”

Ashandeil blinked.  “Of course it isn’t.  You can fly, can’t you?”

Now Sanguineous blinked.  “Nope... not that I know of.”  He gulped, looking out at the sky... he couldn’t make out the horizon without looking down.   He had forgotten about what gifts he had now that he and Vergil were one.

Laughing at the dunpeal, Ashandeil walked up to him and took his hand in hers.  Both of their hearts skipped a beat at the contact, but both of them ignored the feeling and acted as if nothing happened.  Ashandeil chanted something Sanguineous couldn’t understand, and the metal wings on her ears began to glow.  In a moment both of them were floating in the air and Sanguineous grabbed her hand with his other hand urgently. Ashandiel tried her best to control her laughter, but failed in stopping a soft chuckle escape her lips.  

Not too many minutes later they arrived at the palace, which was just as well done as Sanguineous thought it would be looking at it from a distance.  As they proceeded through the halls, all of the guards removed their ornate pole arms from the doors and opened them for Ashandeil as they walked through.  After passing through a few decorative rooms, then entered a grand chamber were twelve people sat at a ring shaped table, a man who bore facial resemblance to Ashandiel sat at the forefront.  As they entered the chamber, the man called the council to order and brought Sanguineous to their attention.

“Ladies and Gentleman,” he began.  “This is Sanguineous-ral, who my daughter and niece found fighting with Akron in Pinera Field.  The mystics have already probed his mind, and we have found him not only to be safe but that my family is in his debt.  Sanguineous-ral, would you please tell the council how you knew Zetharious Regalia?”

Sanguineous cleared his throat in an attempt to sound less nervous than he actually was.  “Well, um, council, I worked with Zeth..er... Zetharious on an assignment to try and contain the menace known as Akron, who feeds on souls the same way you or I drink water.  He requires them to live, and they also make him stronger.  Zeth and I followed him through a couple of places, but when we finally confronted him, I was unable to protect Zeth from him.”

“Zeth?” One of the councilmen asked, his voice harsh.

Sanguineous shifted his eyes. “Yeah, Ze-... or, I mean Zetharious, my bad.”

“ ‘Your bad’ indeed, young-ral.  You will speak of a Celresstian using his full name.”

“Councilor Kootta, calm yourself,” the man who looked related to Ashandiel said.  “Remember that Sanguineous-ral is new here and does not know our customs...”

”Is that why he has the audacity to walk around in public with his ears uncovered?” One of the female councilors asked.  Sanguineous suddenly realized he was the only one in the room without some sort of headband that covered his ears with some decorative shape coming out of them.

Ashandiel gave the councilor a sour look, but her relative ignored the comment.  “Sanguineous-ral, excuse the rudeness of my compatriots. It has been a long time since people from another land have visited us.”  Sanguineous kept any side comments to himself as he continued.  “In apology for our unfair judgment, my family is already keeping Sanguineous-ral in our guest chambers. I would like to propose that we allow Sanguineous-ral, in return for his service to Zetharious, to live among us until he manages to figure out where he belongs.”

“Only if he agrees to cover his ears,” the woman councilor from before said, crossing her arms in some disgust.

“How?!” Ashandeil protested.  “He wasn’t born here, he doesn’t know his guardian!  What kind of ear cover would we give him?”

Her relative gave Ashandeil a harsh look for speaking out of line, but stood by her statement.  “I’m sure we can work all of that out in time.”

”I don’t like him,” Councilor Kootta stated.  “I don’t trust him or his enemy one bit.  We made a promise to create the seal before Zetharious left to keep things like Akron and whatever this monster is out of our lands.  I think it would be betraying Zetharious if we didn’t kick him and his buddy out now!”

A random councilor gave Councilor Kootta a harsh look.  “Master Kootta, to be frank the behavior of your family leads me to trust them less than this ral from time to time.  My son tells me of numerous troubles your own daughter has gotten herself into and used her family status to get herself out of.  You don’t seem to do anything about it.”  The councilor then looked at Sanguineous.  “If anything, I’d rather trust this outsider than your judgment as of late.”

“It’s settled then,” The Ashandeil’s relative stated.  “Sanguineous-ral will be given temporary status, and will be addressed as if a member of my family.  He will be given some time to adjust, but eventually he is to leave and continue with his affairs in his own world, as per the rites of the seal declared many years ago.”

Sanguineous looked around the room someone what confused.  Ashandeil wore a face that looked as if she was ready to burst with excitement.  He didn’t really know what to make of all of this, but he smiled at her anyway.

“With that, Sanguineous and Ashandeil are dismissed.  We will move ahead now to other matters at hand.”

*****

-| Optional Music Cue: Akira – Requiem.  Play until noted to stop |-

The battlefield was calm.  B’harroth stood awaiting signs of his enemy’s folly, but nothing stirred over the horizon.  It had been at least an hour since last he had spoken to Crystal, but he figured he would know if Favu Tech’s forces fell under attack.

That’s when he heard it over the radio waves.  FavuTech troops were mobilizing, reporting that the enemy had made their move.  The high-tech morons had dug themselves into trenches and opened fire, placing all their hopes on a glorious defensive stand... a basic tactic that B’harroth loved destroying.

Today, however, he wasn’t proving the folly of a static defense.  On the contrary, he was proving that the best defense is a good offense, and with that, he marched back into his Chaos Land Raider.  He turned to his driver and said eagerly.  “Brother Malus, drive.  We shall be joined in battle.”

Whoops and hails for Khorne overwhelmed the FavuTech comm net.  Smiling to herself, Crystal knew that B’harroth had begun his counter attack.

A squad of eight Land Raiders, flanked by sixteen Chaos Rhino Troop Transports rolled over the hills, carrying their cargo... B’harroth’s first counter attack wave.  They rode head-long towards the front line, coming down a pass into the valley where his enemies were.  Entrenched against a large hill of ash and stone was a FavuTech defensive position lined with Protoss Photon Cannons, Terran Siege Tanks and bunkers, and Brotherhood of Nod Obelisk of Light Laser Defense systems, with a few Tesla Coils thrown in for good measure.  The Siege Tanks fired their powerful Shock cannons at the advancing waves of Clone Troopers that poured out of mobile air transports and heavy assault tanks.  As they flew overhead in an attempt bombard the defensive position, Cloaked Terran Wraiths and the swarm of air defense on the hill tore to shreds any Dominion Clone Trooper transports that got to close.  Realizing aerial assault would not work, the transports pulled back, landing their men in the valley itself.

No sooner did the men touch down than did the Land Raiders open fire on the troops,  their Prometheus-pattern Storm Bolters or Las-cannons taking down the weak Clone Trooper armor like mad.  This would look to the common observer, as a massacre of Clone Troopers, but B’harroth knew this was only the first wave... the first of many.  He hoped under his breath that his Planet Killers and FavuTech’s combined Terran, Protoss, Tidan, Kushan fleets could hold of The Dominion’s Imperial fleet and Void’s Jurai fleet from doing any orbital bombardment.  For now, FavuTech’s Ion Cannons kept the upper hand in that department.

B’harroth’s transports opened their doors, Chaos Troopers running out and calling out the names of their gods.  Bolters fired and tore through Clone Trooper armor, Berzerkers, lead by B’harroth himself, charged headlong into firing lines and decimated their formations, already in chaos due to all the long range shelling from the hill.  

The Clone Troopers moved to regroup as a spaceship strongly resembling Ryo-oh-ki flew overhead.  The air defenses on the hill were unable to acquire a target on the ship as it flew over the hill and towards the valley, teleporting four lone figures onto the ground below.  The lone figures then threw their heads and arms back, their voices reverberating in such loud cries that every FavuTech trooper on the hill could hear them.  As they cried, bolts of electricity flew from their bodies and the mutated from normal human size into full-blown Eva-Units of various shapes and colors.  The hill opened fire on the new arrivals, but not a single weapon on it could break the AT-Fields on them.

The Ion Cannon blast that came down three seconds later did though, reducing one of the units to ashes.

Ryo-oh-ki flew further away from the battle as Imperial Storm Trooper, Droid Army, and Clone Trooper transports flew in and dropped off more units.  The sound of advancing AT-AT walkers drawing nearer could be heard not far away. As B’harroth lead his men around to charge at the next wave of Dominion reinforcements, moving them about to stop  from getting crushed by the Eva-Units.  As he called in his Titans hiding behind a nearby hill, he smirked knowing this battle was far from over.

*****

There was a sound at the bars.  Responding to a noise that hadn’t come since his last meal, Akron/Raven opened his eyes slowly, adjusting to conflicting darkness of the room to the light glow his bounds were giving off.  He looked around slowly to ensure his situation hadn’t changed.  He was still floating in the air as if he was bound to a wall, but his body touched neither floor nor wall.  He was instead bound by glowing rings of what he was pretty sure was magic energy since the rings were filled with intricate patterns.  His arms and legs were spread out so that he was making an X shape and his back was pressed against a larger magical ring that held his bounds in place.  Akron/Raven then looked forwards at who had knocked on his bars.  The despicable youth Sanguineous stood before him.

“How long has it been?” Akron/Raven asked his nemesis who stood on the other side of the bars.  “They thankfully don’t let much sunlight in here.”

“Three days,” the youth replied plainly.  “Not that you should care.  You’re going to be stuck here for some time.”

“Your voice has changed,” Akron/Raven noticed out loud and commented.  “Have you finally realized your identity?”

Sanguineous smirked.  “Better than realized.”  He stepped closer to the bars to show off his new eyes and hair.  “I have embraced it in a way that I imagine will surprise you.”

Akron/Raven looked closely, then made a quizzical face.  “I don’t get it. You should look just like him if what you say is true.”

Sanguineous laughed.  “You were not completely correct my dear soul-addict.  Vergil was only one half of the person you know as ‘Sanguineous.’  The person who fought you in the snow and on the plains three days ago is the mix of Vergil and a man who was on the brink of death the day he fought Shais.  In order to facilitate his own evolution, Vergil made use of that man’s body to host his metamorphosis.  I stand before you the complete synthesis of both people, and I control power that you would envy.”

Akron/Raven burst out in furious villainous laughter.  “You!  You have power that I would envy?  My dear dunpeal, you have serious delusions of grandeur.”

Sanguineous wore a sayian-like smirk.  “Your servant Shais underestimated Vergil’s abilities.  You would be wise not to underestimate me.  I am now easily twice the being Vergil was.”

“If this is so,” Akron/Raven said between laughs.  “Then why don’t you break me out of here and we can settle our vendetta once and for all?”

“Because neither Vergil nor Sanguineous are fools,” he replied, his smirk unchanging.  “I think I like you best here, where a people fearful of outsiders like you will keep you locked up in their powers forever, and you can never plague another dimension with your endless lust for the light that grants life.”

Now Akron/Raven’s expression turned sour.  “Do not overestimate these bindings.  This entire planet will be my dinner very very soon.”

Now Sanguineous’ expression turned sour.  “Then I’ll return to destroy you when you do.”

Akron/Raven frowned at him for some time before he spoke.  “Just what do you plan to do until then?”

“I plan on leaving here, today.  I have a woman on a tropical island and a corporation to go catch up with.”

“You won’t be going anywhere.” The villain replied in bitter anger.  “You are not like me, you cannot simply will through the boundaries of dimensions.  That watch of yours can only follow me around.  I had it corrupted so that it could no longer accept variable entries.  That was probably the last useful thing Raven did for me before I took him over.”

Sanguineous looked down at the watch.  It was the first time he bothered to study it for more than its green button.  Sure enough, its communicator and its expandable command pad were all broken, probably beyond repair.  He looked at Akron/Raven with a frown, who laughed sinisterly at him.  “You will have to kiss your woman on a tropical island AND your precious R&D goodbye forever, I suppose.”

To this, Sanguineous replied with another sayian-like smirk.  “In that case, I’ll stay here until FavuTech comes looking for me again.  Sooner or later they’ll find me, and when they do, it will be too late for you.”  He turned to leave the cell, and stopped after a few steps.  “I guess this way I’ll be here when you decide to break out, so by all means, feel free to try it.  I’ll be ready when you do.”

“End this now, you creature!” Akron/Raven replied.  “Let me out now and we can finish our fight!”

Sanguineous stopped in his tracks.  He slowly turned his head towards Akron/Raven and held it there for some time.  “Call me that again,” he said finally, “And I’ll make you an example that will make Shais’ death look painless.”  Before Akron/Raven could speak again, Sanguineous left the room.  He walked out of the dungeon, a sour expression on his face, and proceeded up the stairways to the first floor of the palace.

Once he walked out of the main palace gates he approached the edge of the palace. Akron’s right, he thought, looking at the ground.  With him locked up here, I can never return to Earth or to Piecis.  I’ll be stuck here... maybe even forever. Then he looked out at the floating lands, and towards the place where Ashandeil’s family lived, where he was staying. I guess it’s not too bad, he thought.  This place is pretty, and well... so is Ashandeil...He smiled to himself as he remembered what they were going to do today.  There was someplace nearby that she wanted to go on a picnic with him to. A picnic... just the two of them...  He was about to prepare for his trip back when he heard a voice behind him.

“And just what were you doing, ral?” A woman’s voice inquired.  Sanguineous turned his head and faced the speaker, Mizumi Kootta.  She stood behind him, leaning against one of the pillars, a pair of throwing blades in her hands.  Her red eyes looked down the palace steps at the outlander who returned her gaze.

“I was reassuring my nemesis that he was doomed if he tried anything,” Sanguineous answered his accuser.  “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to meet Ashy.”

Mizumi’s face turned sour and she spat at the ground in front of him.  She folded her arms across her fancy green top that had a low v-neck that stopped below her breasts and was tied above them. The top hung down like a dress not far past the start of her thy and under it she wore a black leotard that had tight sleeves that ran all the way down her arms and tied around the middle of her middle finger.  Both the leotard and the dress were detailed with fancy gold-trim pattern and around her torso was a large light green bow that tied in the back and left a pair of ribbons to trail behind her down to her knees, which were covered with knee-high tied brown boots.  Silver crescent shaped ornaments hung over her ears where Ashandeil wore her wings.

“How dare you call her that,” Mizumi stated angrily at Sanguineous.  “You have only been here a few days and already you speak to her as if she’s some friend of yours.”

“Maybe she is,” Sanguineous replied.  To this, Mizumi turned her nose up at him.

“You can’t be her friend; you are a ‘ral.’ You are an outsider and her clan heads our council.”

“I fail to understand why that stops us from being friends,” Sanguineous replied.  “I find her much more amiable than you are.”

“I am not jealous, you buffoon,” she replied harshly, walking down the steps towards him.  “I don’t like you. You’re being all buddy-buddy with one of the Regalia clan, and you’re still visiting your friend we’ve got locked up.”

“Just what are you getting at?” Sanguineous asked, now a little offended.

“I know your game,” she replied, now wearing a wry face.  “You want to knock-up our ‘princess’ figure and once she’s in love with you, you and your friend will take over and turn this place into whatever your homeland was like!”

Sanguineous was aghast. “What the @#$%!” he exclaimed,  “Where in the HFIL are you getting that idea?!”

“I can see the way you look at her!” Mizumi accused, pointing her finger at him.  “Don’t deny you don’t have feelings for her!”

Thoughts of Crystal and Piecis giving him disapproving stares filled his mind before he spoke. “Even if I did, that doesn’t mean that I’m trying to use her!” Sanguineous yelled back.  His body was growing warm, but he did well to contain his rage.  He failed, however, to stop his face from turning a light shade of red, at which Mizumi laughed.

“Keep telling yourself that,” she replied, laughing at him.  “But I’m watching you, and I’ll kill you in your sleep if I have to in order to save this land and my people.”  She paused and looked over his shoulder and noticed Ashandiel coming.  “Well, my dear Sanguineous-ral, your love toy is coming.”  She then closed her eyes and chanted three words that Sanguineous couldn’t understand and her figure disappeared completely from his sight.

“Why, you!” Sanguineous was about to try and sense her mitochondria when Ashandiel called out to him.  He turned and waved to her politely.

“Are you ready to go, Sanguineous-ral?” she asked, yelling across the narrow gap between the palace and the mainland.

“Please, call me San-san!” Sanguineous yelled back as he called on his Parasite Energy to float over the gap towards her.  Staying with Ashy might be fun, but I think I better sleep with one eye open when I sleep until Mizumi gets used to me.

 

*****

Note: 3:3 was too long for a message board post. This spot designated where the post was split in half

*****

Crystal yawned as she walked out of the Terran Command Center she had spent the night in and back into the super heated air of Char. The battle had been going on for days now, The Dominion and Void making only small advances on the ground, though painful ones in space.  Crystal had been informed not too long ago that all of the once Kerrigan controlled space platforms had been completely cleared of the Zerg, The Dominion using them and new locations to drop troops in.  Supposedly their orbital defense was only going to be able to stop orbital bombardment for another six hours or so, and the Ion Cannons were expectant to last not even that long.  Things weren’t looking good, but until they had taken what they came for, and that’s control of Char’s soil, FavuTech and B’harroth still had the upper hand.  Dominion and Nanimo forces had yet to figure out where the base Crystal was in was located, and until they did, they could not break through the network of FireStorm defense barriers keeping them from taking out FavuTech’s strongest holdings.  It was a long stalemate that had been going on for days now.

Crystal stopped in front of her trump card as it sat in a crater next to one of the main FireStrom Defense generators. She smiled at the machine with a sort of parental pride.  “You’re the reason I met Vergil in the first place,” she said to it as she approached it.  “And it turns out I’ll end up using you to save the day after all.”  The HUD on her helmet beeped.  The Dominion and Void were off to an early start today.  She had best get ready.

Meanwhile, B’harroth stood alone in the center of a valley.  The daemon prince lumbered a good 12 feet tall, in warped space marine armor shining in the light of Char’s burning sun.  His chain axe at his side, B’harroth prepared for the onslaught he saw coming around the bend of the valley.  Ten Generated Evas, approximately 10,000 Clone Trooper/Storm Trooper mixed infantry, about 8 AT-AT Walkers, and a few squads of TIE Bombers were supposed to approach this position in moments.  Behind them a series of powerful Clone-Trooper Siege weapons were supposed to follow, and these were B’harroth’s real targets.  

As the first of the Evas walked into the valley, it prepared its weapons and was about to fire at the daemon prince when the valley was filled with flashing lights.  JDA and Imperium Teleporters went off, unloading troops in numbers that rivaled the attacking ground forces, the appearing defenders consisting of mixed Khornate and FavuTech forces.  The battle began again as Ion Cannon blasts began raining down on the Generated Evas and troops engaged in fire fights all over the valley.  B’harroth watched happily and more and more blood was spilled for his master, the blood god.

*****

There was a knock at the cell bars again.  Akron/Raven opened his eyes and saw his assailant from days before on the other side.  He didn’t speak to her, giving her only a despondent and exhausted look on his face.

“Outlander,” Mizumi Kootta stated. “I demand to know your game.”

No reply.

“Your friend Sanguineous-ral is out making friends with my cousin and the daughter of the head of our council.  What is his game?”

He closed his eyes again.

“Don’t go to sleep, you wretch!” she yelled at him.  “Talk to me!”

“Why should I?” he replied calmly, his eyes still closed.

“Because you’re our prisoner that’s why!” she yelled back.  “You are an inferior outlander! You should want to please me!”

At this, Akron/Raven raised his head and opened his eyes to her.  “Inferior, am I?  Is that what today’s piece of total bull crap is?  I suppose you’re going to bring little children in here next and they’re going to point at me and yell ‘Gai-jin Gai-jin’ and spout something about being superior to me too right?”

Mizumi gave him a quizzical stare.  “Um... well, no, but they would be.  At least they aren’t some vicious soul stealing monster.  Now tell me what you’re game is!”

“Do you believe in monsters?” Akron/Raven replied.  A sinister smile crawled on his face.

Mizumi gave him a stare of total confusion.  “Why?  My mother told me outlanders were monsters, but that’s it.”

“Your mother was right.”  With those words, the dark aura appeared around him and violently lashed out to Mizumi.  It easily fit between the bars and then wrapped itself around her neck and legs, pulling her towards the bars.  Mizumi tried to yell for help, but the aura was depriving her the ability to breath.  “I am a monster, Mizumi Kootta, a monster who is going to use you to break free of his feeble cage!”

An awful feeling came over her.  She felt as if the aura was trying to deprive her of her essence, the thing that made her alive.  She was never more frightened in her life.  After several attempts to struggle and to cry out, she did the only thing left in her arsenal... she turned invisible and slipped free of the aura’s grasp.

“Don’t run!” Akron/Raven yelled, bursting free of his bonds and then mutilating the bars with his aura.  The aura then reformed as the Kurogatana in his hands.  “You’ll only die tired!”  With a sinister laugh, he leaped out of his cell, ready to destroy anything he could see.

*****

It had been eight hours since the battle on the ground had started again.  B’harroth had transformed into his greater daemon form and was now in the middle of the fray, rending troops left and right with his giant axes.  He leaped above an enemy soldier who tried to get him with something alike a light-saber and then cut him down where he stood with a single swipe.  While the daemon was having an easy time with the troops, there wasn’t enough FavuTech heavy artillery dealing with the weapons of mass destruction advancing into the valley.  All they needed was to get in the center of it and they would be able to use the orbiting Jurai ships and Star Destroyers to indirectly bombard the FavuTech HQ on Char.

B’harroth pulled out a communicator and pressed a few buttons with his thumb, still using his other arm to axe down more enemies.  “Crystal!  If you’re going to Ion Cannon something now might be the right time to do it!”

“No good!” Crystal replied.  “They must have knocked out all the Ion Cannons!”

B’harroth was about to swear when a Turbo-laser blast flew through the sky and hit him square in the shoulder, sending the massive and hulking form flying through the air.  The wound was but a scratch, but B’harroth was more concerned about where the blast had come from... the Mobile Command Center, The Dominion’s personal All-Terrain Full-sized Van loaded with more guns than a game of Unreal Tournament 2003. Knowing his axes would do nothing against that armor, he took to the sky only to have Void’s personal Ryo-oh-ki begin raining beams of Jurai energy at him.  It was all the daemon could do to dodge the attacks, and he saw below the Strom-Trooper and Washu-made Siege weapons getting into position.

“Human! I think it’s time to use your trump card!” B’harroth cried over the communicator just before it was shot.  Fearing the worst, Crystal threw a few levers in her cockpit seat and brought her machine to life.

Bearing incredible resemblance to the Full ZZ Gundam Armor, the completed Mammoth Gear MK III lumbered to life, its desert-camo painted body shining like new in the magma filled world of Char.  Without a moment’s hesitance, the machine brought its massive Nuclear Rail-gun over its shoulder and into its right arm, and pointed it at the Valley.  B’harroth flew back the to ground and threw his arms out cross shaped to protect himself from the blast as the machine fired a nuclear-warhead out of the rail gun over several hundred miles to the valley.  The shot hit dead on, the shockwave alone destroying all of the weapons of war and troops, allied or not.  When the light had dimmed and the mushroom cloud clearing, the only figures left was the Mobile Command Center, turned on its side, and Ryo-Oh-Ki, crash landed into the valley wall, and B’harroth, still standing with his arms crossed but his daemonic form severely beaten.

Crystal was about to celebrate at this huge defensive victory when the sky lit up with more lights than Char’s sun.  Timed perfectly for the opening between FireStorm defense activations, Star Destroyers and Jurai cruisers began bombarding FavuTech Char HQ, including the area where the Mammoth Gear was standing.  Not knowing what else to do, Crystal re-directed the Mammoth Gear’s targeting computers and began firing up at the cruisers.  She let loose as many shells as she could before the bombardment was taking its toll on the gear’s Gundanium alloy armor, and it fell down into the ground with grievous damages to its armor.  The bombardment stopped, and Crystal opened the cockpit, and struggled to get free of the mobile suit out of fear it would explode.  Not knowing what else to do, she found a largely undamaged Nod Recon Bike, and drove away as fast as she could towards the valley.

*****

A nightmare shook Sanguineous awake. Sweat covered his brow as he snapped his head up from its pillow.  The dream’s images were quickly fading, but wisdom told him to heed its message.  What he could remember was fleeting... it was the first time since Zeth’s death where the child with purple eyes did not haunt his dreams.  Instead, images of black flames, and vicious waves of darkness consuming all flooded his mind.  He was no where in the dream, instead, only the dark force’s victims were.  He was already struggling under pressure when he saw the forces of FavuTech consumed by it, then those two favus whom he met, Favmar and something else.  What stirred him awake was the image of Crystal fighting to her death against it, and then Piecis helplessly backing away from it before it consumed her too.  It was the sound of the two women calling out the two different names he still answered to that broke his dream.

The threat of Akron, to destroy all he loved and cared for, lingered in his mind.

He caught his breath.  Hyperventilating from a dream would do its warning no good.  Something was amiss... Akron could not be trusted in the hands of his jailers.  He started to move away from the bed when he struck something with his elbow.  Looking down, he saw Ashandiel’s bare back, her sleeping figure lying next to him.

Sanguineous was startled at first, but then recalled the events of the day before.  They had gone to a retreat, a place she and her friend had built when they were younger to hide from the palace from time to time, planning only to have a picnic.  They had a wonderful time, inquiring about each other’s past and their cultures, both full of an insatiable curiosity.  It was inquiries as to why her people were so protective of their ear coverings that lead to one thing then another.  Having no obligations the next day, they must have decided to stay the night at this place together.

Sanguineous wasn’t sure why his memory of this was hazy.  Perhaps there was something in the food or the drink that made him forgetful.  It was perhaps more probable that he was in denial since his Neo-mitochondria usually took drink and poison as casually as they were water.  Whatever the reason, the fact remained that he had spent the night with her, and the more he remembered, the more content he was with the fact.

The strike to her back aroused her from her slumber.  Ashy, her ear-ware on a dresser in the dark room somewhere, spent as much effort covering her ears with her hair as she did her chest with her blanket as she rolled over and faced him.

“What’s wrong, San-san?” She asked groggily.  Sanguineous’ mind snapped back to the reason of disturbing their blissful sleep.

“Something’s not right,” he replied cryptically.  “I worry about Akron.”  As Ashandiel yawned to herself, Sanguineous rolled out of bed and approached the window that faced her lands.

“Ignore it, my love,” Ashandiel whispered as she started to get comfortable against her pillow again.  “There is no way he can escape our binds.”  To her dismay, she heard Sanguineous swiftly trod across the floor for his clothes and blade.  “Did you hear me, San-san?”

“Your palace is ablaze Ashandiel,” he replied in earnest.  “I recommend we get dressed and head out.”

She snapped awake and rose from the bed.  “The palace is what?!”

With speed that normal humans could not manage, the pair threw on their clothes and weapons and rushed out of the small cabin, taking to the sky for the palace as fast as they could.  It did not take them long to reach the burning embers of the great city.

“No...” Ashandiel whispered to herself as they drew nearer.  “This can’t be... it’s just like... all those years ago... before the seal...”

Sanguineous wore a look of regret and determination on his face.  In mid-flight he drew his blade, his mind rushing with different ways to strike down Akron where he stood.  As the pair reached the city, they carefully flew over head, making a pass over the whole of it to look for their foe.

“Every building...” Ashandiel muttered feebly.  “Every last one is ablaze... I can hear people wailing in pain all around us!”

“There he is!” Sanguineous cried as he made a sharp descent towards the ground.  As he drew in, his foe finished running through another male guard, taking his soul in the process.  The enemy looked up at Sanguineous’ approaching figure and threw his hand out to him.  A wave of darkness flew forth and struck the dunpeal-NMC out of the air, though he landed on his feet.

Sanguineous looked up at his foe, and was shocked to see was undergoing a transformation.  The black aura surrounded him like flames licking at his legs. His hair was completely black and short now only to his shoulders.  It had a strangely spiky form to it.  His eyes were completely red, no sign of pupils in them.  The Kurogatana moved about on its own, cutting down people who were within viewing distance of the consumer of souls.

Suddenly a force of energy blasted the enemy back in his stance, him loosing his footing for only a second.  He looked up to his assailant and saw Ashandiel preparing another magic attack, the circle of energy already at her feet.

The enemy looked back at Sanguineous and smirked.  “I play games with you no longer, R&D Master!” He cried in a voice that rivaled thunder.  “I stand before you, not a fusion of servant and master, but with my own body and soul! Bow before the rising power of Akron, Dark Lord of the Abyss!”

“Nice title, you should make business cards!” Sanguineous cried as he charged forward, his Makei blade drawn and at the ready.  The Kurogatana flew at him from mid air and started to fight him using the same skill Akron had using the sword himself.  As Sanguineous was forced to do battle with the independent blade, Akron was able to pay more needed attention to Ashandiel’s attacks.

She fired her powerful attacks at him in rapid succession, a circle of energy never disappearing from beneath her floating form.  She threw gusts of energy and wind at her foe, which he either dodged or parried easily.  The circle then changed to form a full star in its form as she struck out her arm and Akron was forced through the air, his form spinning and spiraling as it did.  She then made slashing motions with her arms, and the force of giant blades crashed against him.  Drawing herself into a quick spin, a force of energy erupted from below Akron and spun him around furiously as if he had been contained within a whirlwind.  The force of the attack sent him high into the air and then threw him spiraling into the ground below, which he broke through almost to the other end of the floating continent!

“Why am I still fighting only with my sword?” Sanguineous suddenly asked himself, remembering his new powers.  His purple eye glowed for a moment as his hands turned to an orange goo and then broke off of him.  New hands formed in their place and the small bits of goo formed into orange objects floating in dependently around the blade.  They fired beams of red energy at it, causing it to miss its mark without Sanguineous fighting to parry it. The dunpeal-NMC took to the sky again and moved towards where Akron and Ashandiel were fighting.

To Ashandiel’s dismay, Akron ripped forth from his hole, taking to the sky at full speed, looking very unharmed.  “Impressive power of the wind you have, my dear,” he said in to her as he threw his right arm behind his back.  “But it will take more than your tricks of magic to phase the dark abyss!”  With that he threw his arm forth in a spinning motion, a whirlwind of dark energy flying towards her.  She threw her hand out in a similar fashion and a barrier of wind appeared stopping the attack.  Akron started to prepare another when a blade tore into his side.

He glanced at Sanguineous who floated beside him, the Makei blade buried into him.  Akron smiled.  “Such an attack wouldn’t work on you, why would it work on me?!” With that, he grabbed Sanguineous’ head and threw him to the ground.

Akron then turned his attention back to Ashandiel, a little too late for his safety.  The normal magical ring at her feet had become a sphere that surrounded her with a six pointed star at its core, light collecting around her wind blown form.  “If my ‘tricks’ are not enough monster,” she taunted in a voice of wind that rivaled his of thunder.  “The perhaps the wraith of the Regalia bloodline will!”  The sphere erupted from around her and blanketed the whole down in white light.  “This is for you, Zetharious!  Six-star attack- Storm of Retribution!!”

The white light was then replaced by a furious hurricane that rivaled that which could have occurred naturally.  Sanguineous bent down and raised a Parasite Energy barrier for cover as Akron brought his aura up to protect him.  Both warriors were shocked to feel their barriers failing before the might of her attack.  Fearfully, Akron looked for someway out of the assault, when he realized his sword was still fighting with Sanguineous’ toys!  Quickly, he willed the blade toward his assailant.  Too focused on the release of the spell, she didn’t see the blade coming until after it had buried itself deep into her, running her through.  The attack ceased, and she wordlessly fell to the ground.

“ASHY!!!!” Sanguineous cried, as he started to move toward her, but the scene was too reminiscent of Zeth’s death.  The black aura moved out and consumed her falling body before it even hit the ground, leaving behind only her ear-ornaments.  The aura returned to Akron, and when it did, a loud noise like that of thunder pained Sanguineous’ ears.  When he opened his eyes, Akron hovered in the air above him, wave upon wave of darkness flooding forth from his figure as the aura took form behind him.  It cast a shadow behind him that rivaled B’harroth’s in intimidation value, taking form of a giant black dragon-demon like creature.   Then, all at once, the aura enveloped Akron’s humanoid form, and then lowered him slowly to the ground.  The result was an eight foot tall pale skinned man with grey eyes and straight, thin black hair that carelessly cast down to his shoulders.  His face bore black tattoos that Sanguineous could not understand, and he wore a black shirt tight to his chest with bright white runes etched on it.  His legs were fully armored over his black pants and around his neck hung a dark red cape with an intricate black pattern woven into it.

A bead of sweat ran down Sanguineous’ face.  This did not bode well.

“Amazing how powerful these people were,” Akron said, his voice now soft but sinister, it still carrying as if it was thunder, though not needing to be as loud.  “I needed only to destroy one of their cities and claim their most powerful woman in order to complete my transformation.  I was certain I would need your soul to perform this feat.”

Sanguineous growled, searching for words that would not give away his uncertainty.  “The form I have chosen,” Akron continued, “was out of consideration for you, my dear nemesis.  I felt it would be easiest and most amusing if I continued to kill your beloveds and battle with you in a tangible, physical form, which can haunt their and your dreams.  This is only until I can claim your soul, and ascend to a place even I have never been.”

“I really wish I had something better to say in reply than ‘You can’t win!’, but I don’t,” Sanguineous replied, gritting his teeth.  “Your form now doesn’t matter as I will destroy whatever form you chose to take.”

“Then perhaps this is not a fit place for our final battle,” Akron replied.  He stood for sometime toying with what to do next as Sanguineous sweated out plans to attack the new foe.  “I know!  Let’s have one of your girlfriends watch your final seconds!  I’ve already killed one, but which one should get the benefit of your demise before her own?”

Sanguineous’ body was hot enough to cause the appearance of heat distortion around him. “How dare you threaten them!  Fight me, you coward!  You’ve wanted me all along, so damn it, take me!”

“I told you I would destroy everything you love,” Akron replied laughing sinisterly.  “But the more witnesses the merrier.  Perhaps, Crystal and your R&D friends should see your final hour.”  No longer needing the Kurogatana to pave the way, a dimensional rift opened around him and started to envelop him.  “Use the watch, Vergil, unless you want me to destroy them all before you get there.”  Before Sanguineous could reply, his foe was gone.

“DAMN IT!” Sanguineous cried as he fell down on one knee, using his sword to remain standing.  He stayed that way for sometime, unable to move, unable to come to terms with what he had but then lost.  He was ready to live out a happy life here, peacefully, with Ashy and her people, never to be bothered with war and death on such a scale again.  Then he snapped himself awake, his eyes burning with unquenchable fury.

“No,” he said to himself, standing up slowly as the burning flames of the buildings around him grew.  He stood up and walked through the streets until he found Ashy’s ear-wear.  “Hesitance is what got me in this mess.” He said to himself as he put it in his coat pocket. “I will not wait this time.”  Wasting not another moment, he closed his eyes, thinking some final thought of Ashandiel before pressing down the watch button and being taken away from the floating lands, never to return.

- |End Akira – Requiem if it hasn’t stopped already|-

*****

There was a loud banging noise against the outside of the Mobile Command Center.  B’harroth watched expectantly as it rolled itself over until righted again and The Dominion himself rolled out of the driver’s seat.  A glance to his right revealed to B’harroth that the Jurai/Angel Void had turned his space ship back into a Cabbit and had it set away through some pocket dimensional door of his.

“What in the name of all that’s evil was that?!” The Dominion cried as he pulled himself off the ground, spitting out dust and wiping the blood of his lip.  He looked to B’harroth angrily.  “Neither you or Vergil had any nuclear weapons that didn’t come with a mandatory warning noise reference first!”

B’harroth bellowed.  “Stop your b#*@^!ing!  The woman pulled the wool over both of your eyes and you’re not willing to admit it.”

Void shook his head as he brushed the dust off his blue jeans.  “Um, if you mean the giant nuclear-armed robot, the MAGI picked that thing up when we landed.  It’s just that someone here wasn’t able to plan his fleet attacks until NOW for us to take care of the thing.”

The Dominion did a double take and then faced his ally.  “What!  Listen you, I’m the one who contributed most of the troops to this endeavor!  Your fleets never would have made it into the system were it not for my fleet!”

Void gave The Dominion a vain look.  “Uh, no.”

 

“Let’s not get into the fact that your fancy Generating-Eva units and Guymelphs and Escaflowne battle ships were sitting ducks for Ion Cannon blasts that it took MY Fleets to knock out!  Face it, you would have been lost without me!”

“What?!” Void snapped back. “Your troops were sitting ducks for Vergil’s forces!  My Generating-Evas were the only things that had enough armor to withstand his defenses!  If it wasn’t for our AT-Fields, you never would have broken through anything!”

B’harroth laughed uproariously to himself.  The Dominion turned his cold stare at the Greater Daemon and said, “Why are you laughing, B’harrie?  You’re the one who’s lost this battle.”

B’harroth’s laughter instantly became a warcry.  “WHAT!  I haven’t lost anything fool!  Your blood for Khrone!!”  With that, he flew at The Dominion, his axes drawn as Void made a sword out of his Light-Hawk wings and The Dominion took out his double-light saber.

The Dominion dodged the initial swipes but was forced to parry successive strikes from B’harroth until Void fired off his cross-energy attack at both, sending them into the air.  The Dominion landed with an angry thud, but B’harroth used the attack to come descending down to the Angel with his axes to bear.  Void stood his ground with an arrogant smirk as B’harroth’s  blades harmlessly contacted his AT-Field, and then his Light Hawk wings came alive and threw the daemon at the Sith lord getting back on his feet.  The Dominion countered by force pushing B’harroth back at his foe.  Void placed his sword out in front of him to stab B’harroth dead as he flew at him, but the he had a better idea.  B’harroth took out a small grenade from one of his belt pouches and threw it to the ground, releasing a container of psyker spirits that assailed Void’s AT-Field.  The attack worked and B’harroth used one axe to parry the blade and another to swing for Void’s head.  Luckily for the angel, he ducked at the last second, sending B’harroth past him to twist in mid air and land on his feet.  B’harroth was about to strike at Void again when his foe was suddenly lifted into the air and then thrown into a rock cliff-side.  Force lighting then harmlessly bounced off of B’harroth’s Daemonic Aura as The Dominion charged him with his sabers.  B’harroth prepared to counter attack when there was suddenly an eruption of darkness between the three warriors.  Waves upon waves of darkness spread out from the core of the eruption, their force causing all three warriors to place up defenses against the assailing waves.

Crystal arrived at the top of the valley when the waves subsided.  As the darkness returned to its source, Akron’s form became visible to them all, at the center of the valley.  He looked around, taking note of the enemies around him and then laughed to himself.  “Greetings, R&D Lords.  I am here to end your reign.”

“Who the hell is this joker?” The Dominion asked in a tone that hinted that he felt rudely interrupted.

“He reminds me of that fool named Raven that Vergil talked about and I fought with,” B’harroth commented.  “I don’t know why he isn’t dead, or why he thinks he can destroy us.”

Void smirked.  “He just thinks he can run with the big dogs.  Let’s leave him alone until he figures out he belongs in the kiddy pool.”

B’harroth chuckled at this comment and extended a fist to Void.  “Hell yeah, man.”

Akron smiled to himself.  “You laugh at me now... just wait a few seconds.”  The R&D masters yawned and poked more fun at him until a shadow suddenly over took them. Looking up, they saw one of The Dominion’s Star Destroyers falling from the sky towards them!  Akron vanished into the shadows, but the other R&D masters scrambled to the sky to get out of the way.  When the battle ship crashed into the valley its shape and form contorted, and the mutilated space ship filled the valley’s end with its metal hull, lifeless forms falling out of a few off the broken windows.

The Dominion was about to yell something derogatory at Akron when he realized this wasn’t the only one.  Starships belonging to him, B’harroth, Void, and FavuTech were falling from the sky on a rapid descent course that signified their crews were no longer manning their posts.  As the other R&D Masters noticed this fact, it was B’harroth who was first to speak...

“WHY YOU  MOTHER F%^#@ING SON OF A—“ the list of insultes went on, and Akron, whose form became visible again on top the Star Destroyer, only laughed at him in reply.

“Sweat.... Jesus...” Crystal muttered to herself

“What I want to know,” Void stated in controlled rage as he floated to the ground on the rim of the valley, not far from Crystal. “is how the devil you pulled that off?”

Akron stopped laughing long enough to explain his powers to him.  “You see, my dear R&D Lord, as I predicted, those waves of darkness had no effect on all of you for one reason or another.  Those who were less fortunate however, were instantly killed -- their souls were given to me, when the waves contacted them.”

B’harroth pounded his axes into the ground angrily.  “That’s it!  Why are so many people in the soul stealing business these days, huh?  This is my market fool!  I kill you dead!”

“We all will,” The Dominion seconded, igniting his lightsaber again.  “That little stunt of yours has insured a painful and ludicrous demise.”

-| Cue: Rhapsody – The Power of Dragonflame - Gargoyles: Angels of Darkness|-
Notice: The original R&R Soundtrack will use an edited version done by Almasy Marquis that removes some of the cheezy narration.

They were all cut short when a tearing sound erupted from behind Akron and a dimensional vortex spat Sanguineous out on the ground next to him.  Akron leaped back from Sanguineous immediately as if he was shocked his foe would have appeared so soon.

Crystal ran towards the edge between the valley and where the Star Destroyer began.  “... Vergil?!”  She cried as Sanguineous stood back onto his feet.

“Vergil?” B’harroth seconded, his voice inquiring.

“Vergil?” The Dominion chimed looking around for some sign of the NMC.

“I don’t see him at all,” Void stated, shaking his head and scoping the area where Crystal looked.  “Only an arrogant brown haired man and one who didn’t finish his job with blue hair dye.”

Sanguineous shook his head and drew his blade letting it rest against his side.  He didn’t look at the other R&D masters, instead he focused his attention at Akron.  “Oh, don’t worry Void, it’s me... more or less.”

“Where the bloody hell have you been?!” B’harroth cried angrily.  “If you’re been gone all this time to get a make over, I swear I’ll...”

The Dominion interrupted him.  “It’s good to have you back Verg, but who is this clown?”

“This clown,” Sanguineous replied, “is my concern.  I recommend you all get away from here before you suffer collateral damage.”

The Dominion made a small ‘feh’ under his breath.  “I don’t think so, NMC.  This punk took out a sizable amount of space ships belonging to all of us, I think we all deserve our hits on him.”

Sanguineous raised the blade into a stabbing position.  “That is where you are wrong, my Sith friend.  Akron is mine.”

B’harroth laughed evilly.  “You’ve always been a party pooper Vergil, but I suppose in celebration of your return the least we owe you is the right to end this fool.  Let’s see what you’ve got.”

Crystal looked on wordlessly as Akron’s blade formed at his hands and he looked intently at his foe.  Sanguineous gazed quickly aside to her and smiled before looking back at his foe.  Sanguineous... Vergil... oh I don’t care who you are... please win...

Meanwhile, across the boundaries of dimensions and on a far away world, a chill ran down Piecis’ spine as she sat alone watching TV in her cabin.  She gazed up at the stars and sighed to herself.  “Wherever you are, San-san... I hope you’re safe...”

Time: 2:10 – End Slow Guitar part into faster Guitar part

They wasted no more time before the battle began.  With speed that the masters had never seen Vergil move before, Sanguineous flew at Akron with his sword drawn in a stabbing position.  Akron mindlessly threw his sword towards him to parry the attack, knocking Sanguineous off his footing.  The blade then arched around to strike at his side, a strike that was parried and didn’t slow his advance any.  Finally closing to cutting range, Sanguineous took a slash at his foe, only to have him phase away into a wave of darkness.  The Kurogatana still chased after him as Sanguineous turned in his path to where Akron appeared behind him.

The prophet told of loud thunders
Quaking the surface of earth
When the black raven would have turned
Victim of wonderful spells

The dark lord fired forth a massive blast of dark energy that became a hail of frozen spikes as they neared Sanguineous.  He managed to fly around most of them, cutting the rest down with his blade before they got close.  Once he was close enough to strike again, Akron faded away again.

He would have become a white swan
Born from the darklands of sin
Neither would Aresius have believed
What was now changing in him

Swan, prince of the magic lake
Hark, hear your name

Growling angrily, Sanguineous threw his blade behind him and waited for his foe to appear.  When Akron finally did show himself back on the surface of the Star Destroyer, Sanguineous threw his blade over his head and red and blue lights appeared around him.  Then he flew at tremendous speeds towards Akron, his blade sticking out in front.  Akron simply leaped out of the way, expecting his foe to crash into the downed and flaming space cruiser when Sanguineous’ form disappeared in a distorted wave, as if he had broken the surface of reality like a rock does the surface of water.  

Gargoyles, fly!
Gargoyles, fly!
Gargoyles, fly!
Angeli di pietra mistica,
Ladri d'anime fieri volano!

Akron looked around frantically for a sign of his enemy when reality bent on the ground below him and Sanguineous came out again flying at him once more.  Akron dodged again and this time Sanguineous stopped himself mid run and fired a massive Parasite Energy arrow at him.  The blast nailed Akron and sent him flying down to the Star Destroyer, causing a massive PE Shockwave when it hit.

Akron then burst forth from the ship unscathed, and faced his foe.  “Not bad, creature, but now we’ll test your true power!”  Suddenly the black aura appeared around him, but then fired out from him like crude waves of death.  Sanguineous raised a PE-barrier and began slashing at the waves to keep them away.  This continued until one managed to wrap itself around his neck and another around his leg.  The black forces tried to strangle him where he hung in mid air, and looked to be doing a good job of it.  Void frowned at the sight from his place on the ground.

Another mess of vampires:
Masquerade of sadistic pride
He could not endure these cruel games
against him who once spared its life

Luckily, Sanguineous did not disappoint. In a brilliant release of Parasite Energy, the waves were drawn away and then he threw a swarm of small objects from his body that pursued Akron, firing red lasers at him.  Akron ducked and weaved and worked to dodge all the blasts, a number of them hitting his aura.  Angrily, he commanded the Kurogatana to attack Sanguineous from wherever it was, and the dunpeal-NMC was forced to strike it away instead of preparing to attack again.

He realized so not too late
To be really far from his king
Far from his infinite blood thirst,
Too far to call them right for him

Akron yelled out again, his aura becoming massive claws of darkness that batted down the objects as they drew near.  

Rise... fly high and steal his soul:
Angels of stone!

Sanguineous focused his energies for some time and then his figure split into eight identical images of himself, fooling the Kurogatana as to which to attack.  Each image had its own blade and was able to parry, but the blade could not hurt them.

Gargoyles, fly!
Gargoyles, fly!
Gargoyles, fly!
Angeli di pietra mistica,
Ladri d'anime fieri volano!

Leaving four images to fight with the blade and the other four to attack with him, Sanguineous charged Akron again.  Akron’s aura blasted forth from his form and moved to consume all of the charging Sanguineouses where they hovered.  The images dissolved instantly on contact, but the real Sanguineous managed to get in close enough and buried his sword into Akron’s chest, just missing his heart.  Quickly he drew the blade out again and bashed him into the ground with his hilt before the Kurogatana returned the impaling stab from behind.

“Vergil!” Crystal cried as both forms descended from the sky, but B’harroth laughed at her concern.

“That’s nothing our good friend can’t get over,” he assured her.

As they plummeted, Sanguineous grabbed hold of the dark blade and pushed it clear of his body and then blasted it with enough Parasite Energy to send it into the next county, if Char had any, before the wound closed and the brought himself closer to Akron.  The dark lord of the abyss’s black aura sprung to life again and then enveloped them both like a pair of super sized black angel wings, sending them both into the sky.  The black cocoon then hovered above the star destroyer for minutes hiding from the viewers what was going on inside.

“Ten credits Akron comes flying out in pain when it opens,” The Dominion wagered.

“You’re on,” Void replied laughing to himself.  Crystal hardly found this a time or place to joke. To The Dominion’s dismay, Sanguineous burst forth from the black cocoon and went flying into the Star Destroyer, falling through most of its decks before he came to a stop.  

Ti invoco o terra... colora il mio nero...
con fiera lealta' io giuro sincero!

Painfully, the dunpeal-NMC crawled back to the surface, blood trickling down from his eye brow.  His sword was not on him.  Akron was hovering in the air above the Star Destroyer as Sanguineous got back on his feet and looked on as to what to do next.  Akron answered that question by firing a huge swarm of Dark energy blasts at him, all which turned into an even bigger swarm of elemental spells.  Sanguineous threw his hands forward, collecting Parasite Energy in them until he had a ball of purple energy the size of a house and then released it, creating a swarm of blasts of equal size to counter the attack.  He smiled to himself at his handwork counter attack when the Kurogatana appeared at his side again.  Without his blade it was all he could do to counter it.

Tra anime morte e caos immenso
a Gaia sovrana l'amore piu' intenso... io dargor a te!

Quickly, Crystal reached into the pistol holster strapped to her side and took out his Caster Gun.  She loaded the most powerful shell she had on her and then yelled “Vergil!  Catch!”  With all her enhanced strength, she threw it to her evading friend.  Sanguineous tried to move towards it, but Akron was faster and threw out his hand in its direction, blasting it away with dark energy.  The Dominion answered by grabbing the gun with the force and then throwing right into Sanguineous’ hand.

Hoping the gun was loaded, Sanguineous stood his ground as Akron moved to pounce at him once more with his blade out.  He threw his arm out and aimed the weapon right for the space between Akron’s eyes and pulled the trigger.  The chambers of the gun began to spin, glowing with a bright blue light before it fired a huge blast of blue light that drove Akron clear into the same next county that the Kurogatana had been sent before it exploded in mid air.

Sanguineous landed and turned his gaze to The Dominion.  “Thanks for the assist there, Sithy.”

The Dominion smiled to him.  “You’re welcome, Verg, I don’t like him any... wait, what did you just call me?”

Sanguineous turned and smiled to Crystal and mouthed out a thank you before he had to dodge away from another assault from Akron.  Crystal reached again into her coat and took out threw more Caster Shells and flung them into the air.  

Gargoyles, fly!
Gargoyles, fly!
Gargoyles, fly!
Angeli di pietra mistica,
Ladri d'anime fieri volano!

The Dominion guided them with the force to Sanguineous who loaded the next one into his chamber between dodges and then fired it at Akron again.  The Aura raised up in time and negated the attack this time, but when the next shell was fired, it shot out a black ball instead of a massive blast of energy.  The ball drew near Akron, sucking him and all of his Aura into it before it disappeared.  

“You did it!” Crystal cried, but B’harroth bellowed a war cry to interrupt her.

“Not yet he hasn’t!” The black ball reformed where it was and spat Akron back down on the ground where he was.  Sanguineous cursed in every tongue he knew as Akron got back on his feet and drew his blade again.

“I think I’ve just about had enough of your new toy, dunpeal!” Akron cried as he charged forward.

Time: 9:57, somewhere after the first slowing down

This time, Akron was much more relentless.  Every time Sanguineous dodged away, he was already there next to him with his aura trailing behind.  Sanguineous worked as hard as he could to dodge blade and dark wave, but to no avail.  In no time flat, the aura worked itself around him and wrapped itself around his limbs, binding him in place so Akron could repeatedly cut and slash into him with his blade before he used a ripping force of dark energy to send him flying through the nearest cliff edge.  

Sanguineous struggled to get back onto his feet but the onslaught continued with Akron floating in the air and commanding his waves of darkness from a far.  Sanguineous pushed forward with his Parasite Energy barrier and prepared his last caster shell.  He pointed it at Akron was about to lower his barrier to fire when once again, the Kurogatana appeared at his side.

The blade swung in and knocked the gun out of his hands and then came around for another swing.  Sanguineous dodged over it but was then picked up by a forceful dark whirlwind.  It threw him high into the air and then held him there as stone and dark force pounded repeatedly against his body before throwing him back down to the ground.

“Vergil... no!” Crystal called out, drawing her blade, but B’harroth wrapped one arm around her and pulled her back.

“I told you that I would not let you die in this battle!” B’harroth yelled angrily.  “Vergil will be fine!!!”

Pause around 11:54... this is where Almasy did his first edit out... this is signified by sound fading out

At the end of the onslaught, Sanguineous landed face first on the ground, his body beaten and bloodied, the Caster gun no where near him, rocks and dust surrounded his collapsed form.

“V...Vergil...” Crystal cried from where she stood, half angry and half worried.  “Get up you slacker!”

“Well, that’s disappointing,” The Dominion chimed in, but B’harroth raised a reprimanding finger to his mouth.

“Fool!  If he’s really Vergil, you and I both know this means nothing!”  Sure enough, a shockwave of bright energy erupted from Sanguineous, creating a blinding light.

Resume music

And this is then the epic end
of the legendary tale
of the one who found the light
and the dragonflame inside

When the lights and the shockwaves faded, a new figure stood before them, his shape distorted by heat waves surrounding his form.  A constant wind source seemed to be coming from under him, as if he stood over a massive blowing furnace, making his brown hair stand on end.  His purple eye glowed with such piercing light that it hurt to look at it, as his red one seemed to go dim.

..of the tragic rain of a thousand flames
of the town's defenders who faced pain
of symphonies of enchanted lands
of whispers of love and hate!

“That’s more like Vergil!” Void called from his place.  “Good show, good show!”

The dawn of victory can breathe in the wind
and this would mean the great rebirth
reborn, the one who's giving his life
...the towns lying on the ground

The new figure turned its attention to Akron.  The dark lord threw forth his aura at him again, but as it drew nearer, it burned away as if the heat he was giving off was too great for the consuming force!  The figure hovered in the air and moved slowly over the Star Destroyer, the ground below him beginning to melt under the intense heat.  Akron fired everything he had at him, but each attack faded away before it got close.

Be one (Be one!) of us (of us!) and
act as all the prophecies want...
To mountains and valleys, to fire and snow,
to sun, moon and wisdom rise your soul...
It's the call!

B’harroth studied what was going on when suddenly his eyes grew large.  Without a warning he grabbed Crystal and yelled to the other R&D masters, “HOLY KHORNE GUYS WE HAVE TO GET THE @#$% OUT OF HERE NOW!”

Not really sure why but not wanting to risk death, they didn’t argue and The Dominion and Void took to the sky after their daemonic companion.  Seconds after they left, a scream escaped Sanguineous/Vergil’s lips that rivaled sonic booms in intensity.  It wasn’t much different from the noise he made when he burned Shais.  Immeasurable heat burst forth from around him, melting the Star Destroyer and the rock and dirt of the valley into a liquid substance.  The heat burst forth at such a rate that Akron had no time to run away before it consumed him, burning his form completely and utterly, leaving nothing left, not even ashes to discern his remains.  When the heat subsided, the figure returned to his appearance before he was threw out the heat and looked off in the distance to his fleeing companions.

“He did it,” Crystal said happily as she finally ceased struggling in B’harroth’s arms.  “He did it!  He finally destroyed Akron!”  She looked down happily at him, a tear coming to her eye.  The Dominion and B’harroth both made victorious whoops and howlers at him as he bowed deeply towards his spectators.  Sanguineous then sighed and looked up at Char’s red sky, wishing there was some way Zeth, Ashandiel, and Piecis could see him now.

Void wore a face of concern.  He then saw something behind Sanguineous and cried out.  “I wouldn’t count on that yet... VERGIL!  LOOK OUT!”

Gargoyles, fly!
Gargoyles, fly!
Gargoyles, fly!
Angeli di pietra mistica,
Ladri d'anime fieri volano!

Out of no where, the black waves of Akron’s aura appeared and started to collect around Sanguineous’ body.  They reached up and struggled to hold him down.  The R&D masters immediately turned around and started to fly towards it, but then the aura spawned dark creatures of the abyss to fight them in mid air and keep them away.  They were nothing they couldn’t handle, but they did their task of keeping all four of them away from Sanguineous.

The dark aura worked its way up Sanguineous’ legs and then up his body.  He fought as hard as he could, but it was no avail, nothing in his arsenal could phase the consuming aura now.  It wrapped around him, building itself up behind him into a gigantic monument of darkness with hundreds of black arms reaching around his body and holding him down.

Between blows against the dark creatures, Void growled something at B’harroth. “If you hadn’t temporarily weakened my AT-Field, I could be doing something about that thing right now.”  B’harroth replied by giving him the finger.  Then his other finger when he was less busy.  Then a read-between-the-lines.

“Stop worrying about insulting each other and do something!” The Dominion cried out as he slashed at another wave with his light-saber.  Fighting more furiously they pushed forward and more forward, dropping a creature at a rate of at least one per second. They were too slow, however.

Time: 15:36

The great, ear spitting yell came from Sanguineous again, his form changing once again to show his Vergil-traits more prominently and the heat waves collecting around him.  Akron’s aura struggled to maintain its grasp on him, both the aura and Sanguineous’ face straining to maintain their current positions.  Slowly, the Aura continued to advance on him until it managed to cover his entire body.  At the moment the last strand of hair was lost to the darkness, there was a loud boom from the aura.  A shockwave of combined Parasite Energy and darkness shot forth, taking out all of the creatures and sending the R&D lords and Crystal back down to the ground.  The force of the blast made them grab on to some random protruding rocks and hold on for dear life before the blast stabilized into a dome of pulsing darkness and white light.  They were forced to hold on for dear life for at least five minutes before the waves of power and energy weakened.

Wait for lyrical completion

A steady wind was coming from it, but not enough to hold anyone seriously back.

Crystal stood up once again, leaning hard against the rock she and The Dominion were behind.  She looked towards the core of the valley where the huge energy dome had torn the remains of the Star Destroyer asunder.  Every now and then random pieces of the battleship flew over head, forcing those hiding behind the rocks to maintain a careful vigil of the flying parts.

-|Cue: Linkin’ Park – Reanimation – Krwlng |-

“Crystal!  You’re in one piece, thank the gods!”  Crystal turned around and saw Favmar and Favdee running onto the scene.  

“When did you two get here?” The Dominion asked wryly.  “Shouldn’t you have been here instead of blondie?”  Crystal gave him an evil eye.

“We would have gotten here sooner, but the aftershock of this battle has made transportation extremely difficult.” Favmar stated.  “What IS that thing anyway?”

“I think it’s some sort of anti-probability bubble!” Void called out from his rock.  “It looks to me as if Vergil’s Parasite Energy and Akron’s Darkness have reached a stalemate or something, and have created that void of normal energy until one of them wins out!”

“Wait?!”  Favdee cried.  “Vergil’s in there!”

”That’s right,” Crystal replied, taking a deep breath.  “And I’m going in after him!”

The Dominion moved to try and stop her but she was too quick.  Crystal ran as fast as her legs could carry her towards the glowing bubble of energy.  Favdee growled.  “There’s no way she’s going alone!” he cried as he leaped over the rock and ran after her.  Favmar moved to follow but the other R&D masters tackled him like football players going after a fumble.

Crawling in my skin
Without a sense of confidence, of confidence....
Consuming... confusing....

Wordlessly, Favdee and Crystal crossed the space between them and the energy barrier in no time, hesitating only a moment before they leaped off the edge of the valley into it.  As they did, their sense of the world around them seemed to fade, replaced instead with a blinding whiteness they couldn’t see through.

Crawling in my skin
Without a sense of confidence
I’m convinced there’s just too much pressure to take....
Something inside me that pulls beneath the surface...

Finally, everything came into focus.  Crystal and Favdee stood bare in some sort of messed up reality where the floor was black and the sky was purest white.  In this place, Crystal and Favdee were nothing but silhouettes with faces, details like their clothing or accessories or weapons not even visible or making any difference here.  And against the white sky, they saw the forms of two bodies bound up against an imaginary wall by darkness:  Vergil, and Sanguineous.

Crawling in my skin (crawling in my skin)
These wounds they will not heal (they will not heal)
Fear is how I fall (fear is how I fall)
Confusing... confusing what is real
Confusing what is real

“Vergil! Sanguineous!” Crystal cried as she ran across the black floor towards both figures.  Favdee took Sanguineous while she worked with her nails and hands to claw away the offensive black material binding them.

As they managed to free their companions, they fell to the black floor and became awake.  As they opened their eyes, they were startled to see each other separate again, but that shock gave way to a more pressing concern.

Something inside me that pulls beneath the surface
Consuming, confusing
This lack of self-control I fear is never ending
Controlling, I can't seem

A black form took shape like a heartless monster before them, massive antagonizing claws threatening to tear them all the shreds.  The four of them spread out around it and tried to fight the monstrosity.

To find myself again
My walls are closing in
(Without a sense of confidence, I'm convinced there's just too much pressure to take)
I've felt this way before so insecure

Through the strange mechanics of this other space, Vergil willed something resembling a gun into his hands and began firing at the beast to distract it.  As it moved towards him, it failed to notice the twin blades of Crystal and Sanguineous moving in to slice at its torso and back.  Their edges did nothing to it.

Crawling in my skin
These wounds they will not heal
Fear is how I fall
Confusing what is real

It swiped its great arms around and bashed Sanguineous and Vergil against some non-visible wall of the confined space.  It then turned its head and fired blasts of homing energy at Crystal and Favdee, who managed to dodge the blasts with much skill.  

Discomfort endlessly has pulled itself upon me
Distracting, reacting
Against my will I stand beside my own reflection
It's haunting how I can't seem

Vergil got back on his feet and tried firing off blasts of Parasite Energy at the creature.  It replied by willing the blasts back at its sender and then taking hold of him with his clawed hand.  As he began to crush Vergil, all four of them felt the mutual pain, as if their existence was linked to the ANMC.

.. to find myself again
My walls are closing in
(Without a sense of confidence, I'm convinced there's just too much pressure to take)
I've felt this way before
So insecure

“It’s no use!” Sanguineous cursed.  “We’re in Akron’s world, we’re playing by his rules.  Vergil is the only thing standing against him and unless we do something we’re all doomed!”

Crystal growled.  “I don’t care what it takes!  We’re too close to having him back for us to give up now! There as to be something we can do!”

Without a sense of confidence
Without a sense of confidence
Without a sense of confidence, I’m convinced there’s too much pressure to take

Favdee took a deep breath and then sighed.  “There is something we can do.  We cannot destroy Akron in his own reality, this is true. Through the powers of Soul Energy however, we just might be able to contain him!”

“But where are we going to get that much wholesale Soul Energy?” Crystal asked.  Akron tightened his grip on them all.

Without a sense of confidence
Without a sense of confidence
Without a sense of confidence, I’m convinced there’s too much pressure to take

Favdee grunted as he tried to continue. “I will use all of my High Favu soul energy to do it, but I’ll need a biological container to help me...”

“Then let’s go,” Sanguineous replied, standing up straight.

Crystal objected.  “Why!  Why should you!  This whole thing involves you less than any of us!  You are just an innocent bystander!  Let me...”

Fear will find myself again
(Without a sense of confidence, I’m convinced there’s too much pressure to take)
I’ve felt this way before, so Insecure!

Sanguineous held out his hand.  “It is the least I can do... for saving my life...” was all he replied, then he and Favdee nodded to each other and rushed at Akron’s form.

“Get Vergil to safety, Crystal!” Favdee cried.  Those were his last words.

Crawling in my skin
These wounds they will not heal
Fear is how I fall
Confusing what is real

The High Favu then let out a roar as his form disappeared into a cloud that consumed Sanguineous.  The dunpeal then ran as fast as he could and leapt on top of the monster, wrapping himself around its body.  As Favdee’s soul energy began to work, the monster released Vergil. Crystal, who had taken to form of her Liberation Attack, grabbed Vergil in mid fall and flew as fast as she could away from the monster.

Crawling in my skin
These wounds they will not heal
Fear is how I fall
Confusing what is real

The monster cried out in agony as the trick began to work.  Favdee’s soul energy encapsulated it and Sanguineous in a shrinking sphere as Crystal flew away as fast as she could, an incapacitated Vergil in her arms.  

Pianos fading out...

On the outside world, the dome suddenly blinked out.  A flash of light was the last proof to its existence that it gave before a massive cloud of smoke replaced it. Void, B’harroth, The Dominion, and Favmar watched intently at the cloud as a figure appeared forth from it.  Slowly, the Liberated Crystal walked like a Guardian Angel, holding an incapacitated Vergil, wrapped in her leather coat, in her arms.  Slowly, the attack faded away and she stood in place for some time, looking down at his restful expression before she collapsed on the ground from exhaustion.  

As the smoke cleared further, the R&D lords could see Sanguineous lying still on the black rocks of Char, amongst the wreckage of the Star Destroyer.  He looked the same as he had when he had appeared on Char, except the parts of his hair that were once brown had been replaced with black.

Favdee was no where to be found.

Symphony 3: ~Fin

< - 3:2 Flames of Revenge | Coda - >

This is a work of fan fiction. The author does not claim to own any concepts that appear in this peice aside from "Makei" and "Favu." All other concepts are copyright of their respective owners. All music cues are for recommended listening - this site and its author are not affiliated with any of the artists.