Battle Hymn of the Republic

Riley shuffled awkwardly on her knees making room for the spriggan's and their new friend. The small creatures had dedicated themselves to fighting the wounds being woven into their home and now - despite their earlier hostility towards Eryl - it seemed the triclops had been added as another casualty that required their safeguard.

As the prospector set about his work the stage magician pressed one hand to her breast and bowed in thanks to the potion wielding stone-kin. As Riley unfolded herself from her gesture her smile was frozen to her face and the hand against her chest was now subtly applying more pressure than a courtesy would demand. The cloth under her palm stuck wet to her skin as she could feel - like a feather passing against her skin - intricate geometries scrawl themselves into place beneath her fingers leaving behind trails of blood that remained divorced from any expected nerve responses.

The stage magician suddenly felt sick as a gyre of confused emotions all threaded through with fury buffeted against her mind. Cutting off her breath with a gasp the brown haired woman squeezed her eyes shut as she turned her head to look away from the triclops lying vulnerable before her.
--

Bind. And bind. And bind. And bind. And bound.

Five blood tipped talons pulled clear from a the sharp lines of a scale armoured chest as the clone by Jane pulled on the all the pain both Eryl and the pair of Rileys contained. As Fear had shifted, as the creature had stolen what was not for it, the shadows around the doppelganger also shifted from eager to violently unrestrained. The inky, smoke haze of a material raged forward dancing like flame before being jerked back, twisted and beaten by invisible hands into precise, razor cut scales. The black armoured figure - its head a featureless wedge - standing behind Jane flexed the claws adorning its hands and feet as a newly sprouted and segmented tail swished in agitation through the air. The figure's entire presence was locked towards each movement and cry of what had been Fear - a frozen frame of pure anticipation.

The material creating the armoured head rippled like water. The fluid motion chained forward over and over again in less than a scant second until it hit the ground and Jane could feel through the earth a single, rumbled word: UNDERSTOOD.

Kicking furrows into the ground the clone leapt the remaining distance between No Name and it. Landing on all fours - one beast on the back of another - one hand quickly slashed through the bindings of the saddle bags while the second plunged in and scooped out the grenade. The creature didn't even take a moment to look upon the weapon, instead skittering beneath the belly of Jane's steed and dropping unceremoniously into his shadow.

For a moment now this Riley paused. It had moved quickly, like the other had when she incarnated Doubt in the first battle, the clone was pushing away anything - everything - that wasn't pain. In the shadows now, in the playground between things, the creature that had been Fear was a burning pyre in a boring expanse of grey.

All it took was a grin and suddenly the armoured figure was pulling itself out from the back of the corrupted god. It planted its talon'd feet into the ground and the its tail roped between and about the bladed arms - smoke rising from each appendage the inky black whip captured. The body of armour rumbled, the ground rumbled, laughter rumbled as the talons holding the grenade twisted and stretched to force open the mouth that had spoken with Riley's voice.

As the armour's fingers squirmed and fought the hand beneath - covered in hundreds of shadowy bumps still - caught the vial of stardust before plunging deeper into the opened maw and bringing its fingers together until the weapon shattered with a crack!

Continuing to hold the arctic Key aloft, Miyuki pulled her right hand from the device and began to make some intricate motions with her fingers, almost as if she were weaving something. As she did so, the temperature immediately around her began to drop even further, to the point that even the most imperceptible amounts of moisture in the air began freezing, pulling moisture even from the Ice queen herself, whom was normally immune to such effects. When it got to a point where the woman began to make herself shiver, the wand held aloft quivering along with her, she pushed forward with her free hand, and the condensed ball of supercooled air was shot toward the creature of shame, instantly freeze-drying any vegetation unfortunate enough to be in its path.

"Whether or not I want to rid myself of you is completely irrelevant!" She told the mockery of a centaur. "However, if it will save my beloved I will happily rid him of you!"

Miyuki's attack swept over the road, paving a line of ice from her spot to Shame's. The most frightening thing of the woman's power was how peaceful it sounded in travel. The only impending noise was the writhing frost that heralded its arrival. Shame received the blow at the fore, frozen in his spot by the ice mage's prior magics.

The blast coated Shame completely, enveloping his entire body in cold. A back blast of icicles shot out past him, intermingled with pieces of the centaur's armor ripped clean of the body. Unlike the monstrosity that took Zulan's form, this shade could not swim in ice. With great effort, it pushed its arms to take aim at MIyuki, leveling the weapon.

The sound of a gunshot took Shame off of his legs. Something struck his flank with enough power to rip the horse body from its very frozen limbs.

Ruarc's finger was still out-stretched, but the gust of wind he sent out from the tip of his finger stuck the target with such a force that he may as well been wielding a firearm of his own. The glove focused all of the rune's potency in one spot, and had unleashed it in elevated form. Shame's body was coming down when the scene unfolded behind the pair of mages.

Fear, or what it had become reached up at the other Riley, writhing at her with its claws. The thing had a beastial intelligence, it's mouths clamoring up to consume the armored girl. She found herself slowly coming to merge with it, her body being pulled in. The stardust bomb was thrust deep into the gluttonous animal's gullet, she could feel something resembling a throat resisting the invasion.

"So... Soorr... soughrry..." choked Riley's voice.

Crack!

Time felt like it stood still.

A figure rose from where the stony prospector stood. Riley saw the features of the creature melt away, and there stood Percy, so close she could touch him, if only she could. He gave her a little look, the same look the creature had gave her. Assurance.

Jane saw him too, in that brief blink of an eye. He stood to his full height, and then broke out into a full sprint before leaping at Fear. The Alchemist displayed an unnatural strength as he scooped up Riley's copy in a single arm, dislodging her own arm from Fear's slimy mouth as the globule began to expand. The first explosions were beginning to cook off inside.

"Prota, O Madan O Aqua," he spoke softly before disappearing with the other Riley in hand.

Zulan slammed her shields together, and the lights found their way out of creature.

----

A stardust bomb is an item few ever come by, much less have the opportunity to use. In one end of the vial, there lays a few drops of volatile magma water, in the other, dust freshly gathered from a living star. The magma water is the catalyst for the potential energy in the stardust, as each mote possesses the incredible power of the star they come from. When incited, they begin to activate that energy, one mote at a time. The initial explosions are nothing impressive.

What they saw was something that impressive was ill-equipped to describe.

Every creature on that path, mage, faerie, and spirit alike were cast into the sky. They all saw the shields bubble them, and watched them instantly break away as the bomb went off. Each and every one of them were cast upwards, victims of less magely sciences of physics, by a force oh so magely. The initial shock was the gravitational force of being flung towards space great speeds, and then being tossed further, and further, and further as more explosions touched off.

They were miles in the sky, but they could see the craters, spreading into the town they were going to enter, consuming a portion of it as the stardust made its last hurrah.

Most of them had their senses after a sudden shock. However, Eryl flopped dead in the wind, apparently unconscious after the blast. Jane could see her, the gunslinger having only been singed a bit being so close to the initial blast, and badly bruised. Riley was a little further away, but also close to Eryl. She could sense her clone was somewhere above them.

Meanwhile Aulan had drifted towards Ruarc and Miyuki, along with a small cohort of Spriggans. Tulan was flapping wildly in the wind off Ruarc's cape. Zulan was veering her way back to Miyuki's side, looking a little singed.

"You," came a voice and the sound of whizzing wings.

Ruarc had enough time to see the on-comer. A twisted archangel, with six wings and the mauled flesh bottom of a mutilated horse turned into talons. The next sensation was his momentum suddenly shifting as the monstrosity rammed a bayonet into his stomach. The six eyes met his.

"Will never escape my grasp."

----

High above them all soared two more figures, who had fully escaped the blast. They had a still, front-row seat to the devastation wrought and the ballistic journey their comrades were taking to their current location. The Riley that was not Riley, !Riley, the other Riley sat tucked in the arm of the Alchemist as they both watched.

"I don't know who you are, but you are not my sister," he said, softly against the background of explosions. "You are linked to her, I know that much."

The energies that surrounded him were immense, and growing; they ate away at the armor that she wore so he could look her in the eyes. His gaze was gentle, but it belied a storming intensity somewhere deep inside. "If you ever make her unhappy, I will ensure you'll not do so again."

The power faded, along with the man himself, "Are we clear, Erin?"

Then he was gone, and she began to fall.

“Sure hope this does something,” Ruarc said aloud as Shame immediately set about doing the one thing the Druid didn’t want him to do; aim at someone else. Sure enough, the gauntlet had done something, and Ruarc was left awed and appalled by what had just happened. The academic in him began running through theories on how it functioned and ways to optimize it; meanwhile the Keeper in him who had been caught off guard a handful of times reached for a different rune.

“There’s no way that’s all there is to him, not letting my guard down till you’re…” he started, but before he could finish his joke about presenting moral lessons to toddlers his world was almost literally flipped upside down. His teammates had done… something. Figures that when he tried to avoid being caught off guard from the left, he’d take a sucker punch from the right. Only this sucker punch was in the kilotons variety. Shock and realization ran through him as he observed the aftermath from the group’s new vantage point. He was almost speechless, but in the back of his mind he had a nagging feeling that said he needed to focus. That nagging feeling was named Laoise.

After being flung into the air, the dove had been quite capable of reorienting herself, and had flown straight for the safety of Ruarc’s hood. Taking the liberty of yanking a hearty locke of the Irishman’s hair, Laoise did what she could to help her partner. Similarly, adding tension to his cloak was the small god, Tulan, proving herself to be quite tenacious.

A quick survey showed the team was all, relatively, close by. Though they were all over the place, and the force had knocked his staff off to God knows where.
“Kagami!” Ruarc called out. “Are you…”
Ruarc cut off as something demanded his attention, but as quickly as he was able to shift his focus the something was upon him.
“...alright?” he choked out the end of his question.

Ruarc could taste copper, his abdomen felt like it was on fire, and his head was filled with primal pain. Then there was that nagging feeling again. Laoise, with her beak buried in his hair, feet gripping his collar, and wings wrapping forward around his head.
”Shame is easier to handle when you share it with someone,” Laoise said, her voice ringing clear in his mind, pushing through the pain. She started to sing, a quiet song; just for Ruarc. After all, if Ruarc died, they were both dead.

“You can’t give up shame without giving up pride,” the Druid responded out loud. With his now free left hand he grabbed the barrel of the gun attached to the blade in his gut, and his clenched right hand glowed momentarily as a new rune appeared on the middle knuckle; Fire. Extending his hand towards the angel’s head, he made a rather rude gesture and pushed some of his fading energy into the rune.

The armour and bestial traits that had been covering the clone swirled and faded like dawn cutting away the last of a night's heavy brume. The visible half of the revealed face was a sullen hardline of forced non-reaction next to the unmovable frown of the mask they wore. As the alchemist holding them made his threat known the doppelganger's nostrils flared momentarily and breathed a shimmering haze of heat into brief life before calming.

Then Percival was gone and Erin was falling. Looking upwards Riley's darker half glared at the bright, sunny expanse of the sky before two points of shadow anchored themselves to their shoulder blades unfolding into a pair of wings. The new appendages snapped into motion jerking the mage to a halt. Looking down at themself Riley's clone hissed as they probed at their skin with their fingers - exploring the thick patterns of bruises and blisters covering one arm and then the other - and as they stretched their body against the motions of flight trails of matching wounds beneath their clothes made themselves known.

--

Riley didn't have time to sort through her sudden influx of emotions - her closed eyes causing her to even miss Percy's appearance - as the entire world shifted itself upwards.

The stage magician bit her lip and choked down on a pained cough as her body distributed the wounds her counterpart had taken from the what had been a fight moments before. The brown haired woman had tears in her eyes and her vision was blurry, her head pounding from both the conflict and the confusion of being rocketed high, high up in the sky, but knew she needed to pull herself together.

Eryl - part of her hated that name, but she threw those thoughts away with disgust - was her priority.

Roughly, raggedly, the stage magician rubbed her unmasked eye clear with her arm - her body protested with the motion, but the pain was pushed aside too. Locking onto the limp body of the triclops - the other woman was fully unconscious now - Riley snapped her fingers together bringing an expanse of simple, white material into place underneath her feet. Molding the platform beneath the simple plank bulged out into a thick furred, fluffy and striped house cat bigger than an SUV. The creature, glowing yellow eyes lazily taking in the open air all around it, shivered as the white material surged once more and formed into a skeletal set of wings. The wings beat once to arrest the fact that the creature and its creator were still falling through the air, but achieved nothing. Then, glittering transparent blue feathers sprouted as if they had been there all along, and the creature pushed up into the air with enough force that it felt like Riley had taken a punch to the chest.

Riley and her mount moved forward and the stage magician caught Eryl in her arms once more. With the triclops rescued from at least the fall for the moment the short haired woman moved her cat into an intercept arc with Jane.

"Hey! Cowgirl!" Riley's voice, amplified by magic, shouted over the wind and the renewed combat between Ruarc and Shame. "How do you do as a tail gunner?" As she finished speaking the cat-beast's blue and white striped tail positioned itself straight back holding as steady as a framework of steel.

The Ice mage noticed her condensed ball of cold make a solid impact with the shade of shame, but then watched as the stubborn creature began to aim for her with its weapon. Then, suddenly, she began to breathe a sigh of relief as Ruarc's blast hit it again, knocking it free of its own legs and preventing it from shooting her. Unfortunately, before the sigh finished escaping her lips, some other force knocked into the whole group, blasting them all skyward and compressing Miyuki's lungs, knocking what wind was left out of her on her trip from the ground and upward. unable to breathe, Miyuki's concentration on controlling the weather was broken, and the wand slumped in her hand, but an almost instinctual reaction froze the device to her hand, maintaining her grip as her vision began to fade out.

Having blacked out for a moment, or was it ten? She could not tell, Miyuki blinked back into consciousness, she tried to draw breath, but found that her new altitude made the effort difficult. Unable to breathe properly, there was a sinking feeling in her chest, as if one of her lungs had collapsed on itself from the concussion of the stardust bomb. she smacked herself in the chest as her momentum increased downward, trying to get the offending organ to work properly again, while still gasping for a proper breath, she finally remembered some medical training she had taken at one point (An effort to be useful if the frail Percy ever had a medical episode), and formed a small, sharp edged tube of ice, plunging the object into her own chest. It was an intense feeling of pain which she hadn't quite had time to prepare herself for, but the shock combined with her makeshift medical implement caused her to gasp roughly, and after an initial outburst of blood the funnel did its job, filling her lung with air and allowing her to finally breathe properly. again, freezing the hole (It would need proper healing later) the Ice mage took a few breaths as deep as she dared, and then took stock of the situations. in the few precious moments she had spent reinflating her lungs, something else had happened.

a flash of violence, and more blood from Ruarc. A visage of her beloved, there one instant and gone the next. A flying cat which somehow didn't surprise her at this point. Thinking quickly, Miyuki formed a small barrage of ice needles to throw at the shade of shame, then, once again weaving magic, formed multiple thin, gossamer-like parachutes from water and Ice, her magic holding the delicate looking constructs together, catching all those the she felt needed saving still, mainly herself, Ruarc, Aulan, and the other mini-gods, as well as any of the spriggans that she could could catch, forming one parachute after another, whittling away at whatever energy she had left, as she hadn't had a chance to regain it all after the blast had rocker her so hard

Working as hard as she could, Miyuki couldn't find the strength to say anything, or think of anything other than saving as many as she could.

FWHOOOM.

The sound dominated Jane's senses so completely, she couldn't think. Reflex took over, arms rising to shield her face from debris, and fingers clenching tightly over the sandalwood grips of her Lightnings. Her boots slid, skittered, and finally were blasted clean from the soil beneath them. The inertia pressed upon Jane's body caused her to black out. It couldn't have been more than a couple seconds, but when she came to the cowgirl was still sailing through the air, which had a distinct chill.

It was hard to determine why, spinning as she was, still disoriented. Precious seconds were spent slowing her spin and righting herself. They were all airborne. The realization was strange. She knew the weapon had been powerful, had counted on it, but this was something greater even than she had imagined. She was tempted to look down, to estimate just how far and how long they had to fall, but she fought the urge. Jane had work to do, and only a steely resolve kept her from slipping into the gaping pit of panic just beneath her. Holsters hugged steel once more. Now what?

Riley's voice- the real Riley- caught her attention. Jane wasn't sure how she could possibly be surprised by this girl, but the winged tiger was still surprising. Before she could figure just what the magician meant, they had swooped under her and Jane had mounted the flying feline. She was facing rearward and realized then that the tail had become rigid with some of the telltale signs of a weapon. A cannon, more like.

Jane reached up to adjust her hat only to discover it was gone. Gone. Her mood depressed, and her expression soured. It was arguably her fault, but if some uppity little demigods hadn't decided to play bones with an alchemist's headspace, she wouldn't be have been there in the first place.

"Just line them up," she answered the magician coldly.

From Ruarc's middle-finger erupted a gout of blue flame filling the visage of Shame with vicious heat. In response, the blade ripped out of the druid's stomach as the shade withdrew, drawing more blood from his wound. Like a struck fighter plane, their enemy twirled in the wind, smoke and flames whipping off the head and hissing screams erupting from the molten helmet. Miyuki's support seem to ward him off, forcing Shame to make more distance between the descending mages. Tulan began to slowly work her way up Ruarc's neck, gripping tightly to his shoulders. She began to fish in her robes, her other hand holding for dear life, buffeting into Laoise. The Druid's faculties began to fail him as he blacked out.

Ruarc awoke on a frozen riverbank next to a snowy field. The wind was chilly, but the air had a familiar smell to it, the scent of blood and hot springs. A quick glance across the still river gave the source, a gore-stained Raiko stood waiting for him on the other side. He wore his simple, working clothes, the only possession in his hand a small knot-charm with a needle going through it. A heavy fog rolled in from the near-by mountains, making it hard to see anything further than the tree line behind the young lady across the divide.

She beckoned him to over, raising a shivering, wounded hand.

"Come here. It's over. You don't have to bear it anymore," she smiled, "I'm here."

----

Miyuki's parachutes went on one at a time on the spriggans. One after the other they kept coming at her for salvation, finding it in a quick, lighter-than-air solution. In not so much time, there were many of the faerie folk floating in the sky, slowly distancing themselves from the harsh fighting. Aulan oriented herself with the new device, trying to reach the druid, who was relatively safe thanks to another one of Miyuki's creations.

"Always thinking of others," said a soft, familiar voice in her ear against the chorus of wind. A pair of hands rested on her shoulders, smoothing down to her hands. "But not yourself."

She felt lips on her cheek, and something pressed into her palm. A potion.

"All I can do for now."

The sensation left with that, along with the winding figure of Shame coming through for another strike, aiming for Jane and Riley now.

Upon the Cat-Bomber stood the two, along with an unconscious third. A fourth actor came to join their group, but not in the form of a shade. Another small creature, launched by the sheer force of violence that had unfolded beneath them, plopped face first on their flying mount. It was hooded and wreathed in various layers of dark clothing. It lifted its head, revealing the half-hidden features of Decanus, in a miniature form similar to that of Zulan and Tulan. The small godling made his way over to Riley's perch, and sat behind her.

Decanus seemed oblivious of the coming danger as Shame bore down upon them, laying out fire. The first shot aimed for center mass of the cat, but missed, because in place of the one cat, there were now two.

Riley had come to notice that her mask was no longer a half-mask, but a full one. A two-toned, smiling mask, reflecting that of her frowning-clone. Further she had split into fourths. Erin now stared at an identical twin at her altitude, and a mirroring cat and Riley stood apart of the one Jane and Eryl rode upon.

Shame unloaded a couple of rounds into the new foe, collapsing it and dispelling the new copy that had revealed itself, and then turned its attention on Jane, leveling his rifle on her.

"A foe worth fighting..." rumbled Shame, his mask melted, only able to see with two of its six eyes.

“What was I doing? Did I fall asleep?” Ruarc thought to himself as he woke up, finding he was having a hard time remembering things. He couldn’t recall where he was, and his head felt fuzzy. The hot springs? How could that be? Blood. The Irishman jolted upright. The battle with Alexei and Caoranach. Had he been knocked out?

From a short way off he heard someone he hadn’t heard in a long time, but it felt achingly familiar. Ruarc’s eyes met Raiko’s. The realization hit him so hard it felt like a hole had been punched in his stomach. Scrambling to his feet, the druid quickly made his way to the bank of the river but stopped short of going in.

“Raiko! You’re alive!” Ruarc called, finding his voice hoarse and oddly deep; tears were flowing freely from his eyes. “I had the worst dream.”

Please wake up

Raiko called to him, and Ruarc could easily see the trembling. Oh god, was the blood hers? She's hurt! The druid rushed forward, one foot entering the water. It chilled him to the bone. Enough to where his whole body flinched.

Ouch. A pain burned up his arm. He stepped back.

Looking down to his hand for the source of pain. A needle? Wait, he wasn’t wearing his robes, and his tome was gone. Getting a good look at himself, he looked different than he had earlier that night while fighting Caoranach.

Please wake up

What was that? Ruarc had heard something in the wind. If only he could focus, but his head was so fuzzy and he became aware of how much his body was aching.

“It’s over?” he repeated after Raiko. “Over?”

Please wake up

“Wake up?” Ruarc said under his breath. It hadn’t come from Raiko. Why would he need to wake up? Was he still asleep? Focus.

Ouch.

He had clenched his hands again in his daze, and the needle stuck once more into his thumb. Focus. No, he didn’t have time to worry about that, Raiko was hurt; he needed to cross the river. Where had that trinket come from anyway? Had Caoranach left it with him? He would need to remember to give it back the next time she was over for tea.

Wait. What? Why would… Focus.

Please wake up

Ah! The fog cleared from around him, and his head seemed to clear with it. The trinket. The pain in his stomach. He had been stabbed. Not here though. Percy! The group had been trying to save Percy! But then Raiko…

“Isn’t really here,” Ruarc said matter-of-factly, a look of grim understanding crossing his face. Looking up from the trinket in his hand, he had a haunted look as he met his dead girlfriend’s eyes for the first time in a decade. He considered what she had said. It’s over. Could he rest? He was so tired. How easy it could be to follow her, and just doze off like a summer day. The water was chilling though.

He braced himself.

Ruarc took a deep breath.

“I’m sorry.”

The words sounded clearly from his baritone voice.

“I’m so sorry. I’ve thought about what I would say to you if I could see you one more time, but all I’ve got is I’m sorry. I’m sorry I wasn’t strong enough to protect you. I’m sorry I couldn’t stop Alexei. And.... I’m sorry but I can’t come with you. I agreed to help save Percy, and until I see that through it isn’t over. I’m sorry, and goodbye.”

Please wake up

Ruarc closed his eyes.

Ouch.

"... You don't have to bear it anymore."

The soft words were whispered across an increasing distance.

Their warmth faded as the sensation of buffeting winds whipped and ripped over Ruarc's body, and he was pulled back into reality. His body stung deeply, his left hand clutched the corded needle tightly, but the pain in his stomach was fading somehow. He understood why when full sensation returned to his body and he opened his eyes.

His vision filled with wild blonde hair, and coke-bottle glasses. Tulan had spidered her way to his front and forced a potion in his mouth. She was forcing the sludge down his throat and it was starting to take effect. Ruarc had his fill of potions in the past, Percival's always tasted of oranges and tea, normal ones you bought tasted life fir trees. This one tasted like the word experimental. Despite the flavor, it filled him with vigor, and began to knit his wounds closed.

An understanding entered his mind now that he had used the trinket. The object was a Dreamer's Needle, a protective item that soothsayers, divination mages, and illusionists kept close to protect them from falling too deeply into their nightmares. The cordage was not part of the item, but it had been carefully, and lovingly wrapped. Ruarc realized that he had seen the same sennit on Shame's armor, fluttering in the wind when the fallen angel had run him through, it was one of the few things that remained uncorrupted from the guardian Akanus.