The Knights normally only have a movie night once a month, usually on the first Saturday, but since we spent the last one discussing the potential Renata situation, we agreed in our group chat to have a do-over today. Asha is a little early as always. She and Faye are already joking away about something when I arrive at almost the same time as Ayame, and after us it's not long before Eden arrives too, bringing Ida along with her.
They always arrive together because the buses from Somerset are few and far between, so it's easier to have Eden pick her up. Eden and I share a slightly longer hug than either of us do with any of the others, and I feel her lips on my cheek. It hurts a little to keep our relationship secret just a little while longer, even if it does make sense. We part and greet everyone else, and I go to help Faye set up the snack table while the others sit around chit-chatting. Our Squires have all gathered in a corner with a set of cards that Chibi Destiny is using to slowly do tricks with. Since she's the only one with proper hands, playing a game isn't much of an option for them, unfortunately, but they seem to be enjoying themselves.
The movie tonight is a newer one, chosen by Ida. In keeping with her tastes, it's more artsy than what we usually watch, and not so heavy on the romance elements a lot of us enjoy, but instead, it's setting itself up to be an emotional deep dive into a family hurt by different types of abuse and addiction. I can't help but think a little about Jeanette's whole family situation. About halfway through, with half a doughnut in my hand, I catch myself looking over at Eden, who sits between Ayame and Faye tonight. Maybe the two of us could start watching movies alone or something? But that'd necessitate meeting either her or my parents. Maybe we could at least go to the cinema. I'm vaguely aware of something happening out of the corner of my eye when I'm pulled out of my stupor by Asha yelling across the room. "Destiny! Unplug your fuckin' ears and check your phone!"
"Woah, hey, okay, jeez."
"I've been tryin' to call you for a fuckin' minute! It's Jeanette!" My stomach drops and I fish the phone out of my hoodie's front pocket as quickly as I can. Faye pauses the movie, knowing something important is happening, and even the Squires raise their heads to pay attention. It is indeed a group text from Jeanette to both Asha and I, the first we've heard or seen of her in almost two weeks.
Jeanette:
'Hey girls. Sorry for the long silence.
Life has been strange and full of changes lately, but I really want to see you again.
I've been holed up at the Twin Roads Motel just outside town, room 37.
Would you mind coming over?'
I bolt out of my seat and start pulling my boots on immediately. Chibi Destiny knows what's up and hurries over to crawl into my purse. "Come on Asha, we gotta go!" I half-yell, having already forgotten about any other concerns I had tonight, though I evidently don't have to tell her twice, because she's already pulling on her jacket.
"Hang on a moment, stop!" It's Eden, a worried look on her face as she too gets to her feet. "You can't just go storming off like that, not with the situation we discussed last week." Deep down I know she's right, but I'll never be able to forgive myself if I let down Jeanette this time.
"N- No, you don't get it, if we don't hurry, she-"
"You can come with and hang back or we can go without you," Asha cuts in, being decisive as always. I can easily see the trepidation on both Eden and Ida's faces, but Faye takes a step forward, resolutely putting on her sneakers.
"Knights are always there for their friends," she says and puts on her jacket. "Which means we're coming with you. Right, Eden?" Our leader hesitates, but nods before anyone says anything else, and we all get dressed and pile into Eden and Faye's cars, then hurry as fast as traffic and laws allow over to the Twin Roads Motel.
The area surrounding the motel is calm and there's barely any cars in the parking lot, but Asha and I still ask the drivers to park a ways off. Normally we wouldn't try to hide anything from Jeanette... Well, other than the Knights, I guess. But this is a sensitive situation and we don't know what sort of state of mind Jeanette is in. "We'll be right here, across the road," Eden says as I get out of the car. She's reached over to take my hand, squeezing it tight. I nod at her resolutely, and Asha and I hurry across the road, heading for one of the few rooms with its lights on, room 37. Asha knocks on the door and tries the handle, finding it unlocked as it swings open.
"J? You in here? We came running as soon as we saw your text. Hello?" Aside from the one lamp illuminating the window we saw from outside, the room is cast in an almost unnatural darkness, but is otherwise a pretty standard motel room with a bed, small TV, chair and a little table next to it. In the back, the bathroom door can just barely be seen to be open.
"Fuck, did we miss her again?" I ask and make my way inside somewhat warily to take a look around. The rustling from my purse startles me at first, but then makes me panic a little when I realize the doll is trying to make her way out. Jeanette isn't supposed to see her move or hear her talk!
"Destinyyyy. There's something very wrong here." I've never heard Chibi Destiny actually nervous about something, so I stop trying to stuff her back into the bag and pick her up, holding her close enough that she can whisper into my ear. "The tapestry's thin. Someone's been messing with it." The dots connect quickly and I feel my veins turn to ice as I turn around and see Asha slowly pushing the bathroom door open.
"ASHA, WAIT!" With my hand outstretched, the warning barely leaves my mouth before an unseen force slams Asha hard enough in the chest to make her fly backward and crash into the wall with enough force that I swear I hear something other than wood snap. I hurry over to her, trying to help her up, but Asha is quick to her feet. She's doubled over, clutching the right side of her rib cage. "Should we transf-"
"No, wait," she says with a pained groan, putting a hand on my chest as if to halt me.
"Aaaaah. You came. Of course you did," a strange, ethereal voice that sounds like it's been passed through several filters and overlaid with itself floats out of the bathroom, soon followed by the same eerie purple glow all the monsters emit. "I knew you would. There's no way Destiny wouldn't come running when her friend actually needed her." I already have a bad feeling, and the familiarity of the voice doesn't make me feel much better, so when she steps out of the shadows well enough to be seen, I feel my heart shatter like glass.
Jeanette stands before us. Her pretty appearance has been twisted into an almost cruel form of beauty. The pale skin has lost what little color it had, contrasting starkly with the subtle, pulsing veins of black and purple that snake all throughout, especially trailing from around her eyes and backwards like exaggerated supernatural eyeliner. Her hair, normally cut into a bob and having been a wild mess last we saw her, is now slicked back and looks even blacker than it usually is. Only the deep purple lipstick reminds me of the looks Jeanette usually wears. This chapter was copied from NovelPing without permission.
There's no way our Jeanette would ever wear a damn ballgown, and yet, here it is, short in the front to show off her legs, sheer stockings and black heels, long enough in the back to drag across the floor as she moves, all in a purple just a few shades darker than the one pulsing in her veins. The same black and purple veins are so dense on her arms and hands they almost look like tattered opera gloves. I hardly recognize my friend, and yet, there's no doubt it's her.
"Jeanette? What happened to you?" I already feel the magic buzzing beneath my skin as I touch the trigger phrase in my mind and prepare to yell it out loud. Inside a small room like this, it'll cause some property damage if I transform without getting outside first, but I might have no choice if the time comes. I'm sure Asha is having similar thoughts.
"Oh dear, sweet Destiny. Isn't it obvious? After your first transformation, you and Asha both had less and less time for me as you started sharing that other part of your lives. The one I couldn't be involved in." She takes one step, then another, slowly moving toward us, but it's not just her footsteps I hear as she moves. Something is skittering in the darkness behind her. "Neglect and loneliness make for a powerful cocktail of emotions, and when my dad found out about my mom's affair and I had no one to talk with about it, well... Tragedies always come in threes, isn't that the saying?"
As she speaks, practically villain monologuing at us, Asha and I slowly try to edge backwards out of the room, but whatever bones Asha broke are making it difficult for her to move. "Eventually, something- someone- reached out to me. Promised me I didn't need to be lonely anymore. She promised me the power to hurt those who'd harmed me, and if I could help her out, she would love me forever..."
"Renata." I almost growl the name. I was already blaming myself for not having been there for Jeanette when she needed me the most, but now it's also my fault an immortal energy vampire from beyond the stars got her claws into my friend. I don't think I'll ever be able to forgive myself for this one.
"The very same. Now, to complete the third tragedy, my two best friends are going to mysteriously die." Her right hand reaches out and grips around something, causing motes of cold purple energy to solidify around the darkness itself until she pulls a scythe as tall as herself out of thin air and swings at us!
Asha forces me away, pushing me hard enough to throw me out of the way of the scythe even as she yells her own transformation phrase "By my knightly vow!"
Compared to mine, her transformation is nearly instant. From the outside, all I see is a glimpse of the warmer purple light her magic emits, forming into a mist that swirls around her and in a burst, she's transformed and healed up. The wall behind her, a good chunk of the floor where she knelt and one corner of the bed have all been vaporized by the force of the magic, and she strikes a hunched pose with her feet spread wide beneath her and both fists clenched in front of her, almost like a sumo wrestler.
"I'm gonna demolish you!" She ducks forward and catches the scythe's shaft with her hand, trying to pull it out of Jeanette's grasp, but in response, our friend reverses her grip on the weapon and pulls on it instead, forcing Incarna to throw herself to the ground in order to not be caught by the blade. "Destiny, come on, transform!"
"Right. Yeah, sorry," I mumble to myself as I get off the ground. The suddenness of the attack and Asha pushing me out of the way stunned me for a moment, but a blue light emanates from me even before I yell my own trigger "BLESSED BY THE DESIGNS OF DESTINY!" and transform faster than I ever have before. It still takes a couple of seconds, but just like what happened with Incarna's transformation, a solid corner of the room is left as nothing more than a smoking crater when I'm done.
"Come on, we gotta get her outside!" With the increased speed of my transformed state, I yank Incarna off the floor and fly out of the room with her, picking Chibi Destiny up on my way out, and up into the air where Incarna starts supporting herself with her own flight. Out of the corner of my eye, I catch four glimpses of light - pink, green, yellow and red - signaling the remaining four Knights transforming, and soon enough they're by our sides.
"What's happening? What's all that darkness?" Onyxia asks, and even though she's trying to mask it and remain calm, I can tell she's worried. Below us, a darkness blacker than night is slowly spreading from the corner of the motel where Jeanette's room was, the building itself crumbling and disappearing into the expanding pit. At the forefront of it, Jeanette in her purple dress saunters out to greet us, and now I realize what the skittering I heard in the darkness inside was. Hundreds, no, thousands of monster larvae in every nightmarish form you could imagine scamper out of the darkness, their purple glows being the only sources of light breaking it up enough for us to see the shapes between them. It's a teeming mass of death and destruction following in our friend's wake.
"It's Jeanette," I breathe, feeling despair and guilt war for dominance within me. "She's been possessed or something."
"By Renata," Incarna growls. She sounds more angry and upset than guilty, but she was always the type to react with righteous rage if there was space for it. My friend doesn't even seem to be doing it consciously when a large array of ballistic weapons manifests behind her back, including a miniaturized version of the rail cannon she so often favors.
"Look at the monsters," Aria says, pointing down at the veritable horde behind Jeanette. "They aren't surging forward or trying to attack her or us, not even the ones with wings. I think she's controlling them."
"That would explain their weird behavior the last two weeks." Kaida brandishes her sword, already lighting it on fire as she speaks. Vida's eyes have been closed so far while she surveyed the situation with her unique way to view the flow of energy we've been practicing occasionally since the fight with Fenris. Her voice is cold and fearful as she speaks.
"She's like us. The same way our transformations channel and amplify magic from another being, so does her current form. Her source is just a lot more powerful than ours. And the civilians are gone."
"Oh look, it's your new friends! I was wondering when I was going to meet them all!" Jeanette cuts our little conference off, spreading her arms wide, giant scythe in one hand. "Y'all done panicking so we can get on with this? I've been itching to test my strength against the famous Celestial Knights!"
"Alright girls. This'll be a tough one. I don't think we have the option to hold back. If we fail, we can be sure Renata gets exactly what she wants. Destiny, if you've got some tricks the rest of us don't know about, don't hesitate to pull them out." Onyxia's expression is grim but determined. There's been some tough monster fights, but we've always pulled through. The odds have never been stacked against us like this, though. Energy thrums in the air around me much in the same way I feel it beneath my skin, except this time it comes from my companions, all of whom wear grim expressions as magic flames swirl around their feet. Onyxia slashes the air with her hand and yells "Celestial Knights-"
A purple streak of energy parts the air where the Knights and I are floating, carrying with it a sound that makes my very bones hurt. There's no doubt in my mind that even our magically-enhanced durability wouldn't have protected us from that attack even as I look down to Jeanette, seeing it indeed came from the swinging scythe. "You really think I'm just gonna stand back and let you do that? STOP STALLING AND FIGHT ME!" She lifts off the ground while yelling, ascending to the height we're at. Onyxia looks frustrated at the interruption.
"Fuck it. Just do your best." I don't know what Onyxia was just trying to do, but I certainly have questions for after this fight if we all survive. Be that as it may, the Knights all leap into action with no further hesitation. Rather than letting Jeanette get off another attack like that, Kaida rushes in, blasting her with fire and swinging her burning weapon at the enemy in a move that looks like a wild, uncoordinated attack, but is ultimately designed to force her to defend herself. The fire is dealt with by Jeanette twirling her scythe to dissipate it, but the attacks come fast enough that she has to retreat and dodge, which she does with speed and nimbleness I had never imagined, soon enough gripping her scythe in an upwards swing to start retaliating and forcing our most skilled melee fighter on the defensive with relative ease.
Rather than skirting the edge of the battle with her cannons, Onyxia joins the fray against Jeanette herself, having transformed her dual weapons into a pair of short swords I've only seen her use when the Knights have trained against each other. With her unmatched speed, the twin blades of black and white light become as much a blur as Jeanette's scythe, forcing her back once more. Our two leaders are fighting in sync, but only barely managing to keep an upper hand as they switch positions and shift up their tactics at unpredictable moments. The fact that Jeanette can even keep up is astounding. There's no way she's had enough training to make up for the two years of experience Onyxia and Kaida have, so the only logical assumption is that the power instilled in her by Renata takes care of the rest, which is a scary thought in itself. Imagine what she could do with training.
Meanwhile Aria and Incarna are deploying large-scale area attacks against the horde of larvae beneath. The psychic's barely-visible waves of force are both precision weapons and cover areas that leave me astounded at imagining the level of power and control behind them. Incarna, having landed on the ground, is employing both several clusters of rocket launchers that create big, damaging explosions where their projectiles land, as well as some sort of beam weapon I've never seen before that not only cuts down vast quantities of the enemy with every shot, but also leaves deep furrows in the ground where the purple light passes. Impressive as the display is, though, there seems to be no end to the tide of monsters spilling out of the infinite darkness where the motel used to be. The source of this chapter is NovelPing.
Still holding Chibi Destiny in my arm, I float upwards to survey the battle and decide where my help is needed the most. "Destiny. I have an idea, but I'm going to need you to guide Vida, so I'm going to toss you over to her." The doll simply nods and sits down so her butt is flat against the palm of my hand. "Vida, catch! I yell and chuck my Squire at her. Our healer, evidently panicking a little, still manages to catch the doll, looking at me in confusion. "She knows how my powers work better than I. Maybe the two of you can figure out a way we can work together to sever Jeanette's connection or something!"
The green-haired woman nods, her face serious as she begins talking to Chibi Destiny, and I turn my attention back to the monsters on the ground, which are starting to spill out of the area we want to contain them in, despite my allies' efforts. "Alright. Time to show them what you can do, Destiny," I mutter to myself and hold Twilight Point high, pointing it to the sky. For the most part when I use my powers, it's always been to fiddle with the threads of fate, but the tapestry is too thin here, there isn't really anything to grab onto, so instead of channeling my magic inwards, I force it outside myself and into a shape I'm familiar wielding in combat, a more conscious manifestation of the same thing I did against Fenris.
"FATEFUL TIDE!"
One after another, spectral needles form in the air above me and race down toward the tidal wave of monsters beneath, needles manifesting faster and faster until they become a wave of their own that follows my mental direction as it carves wide paths through the swarm along with Aria and Incarna's attacks. It would almost be a pretty sight, if I didn't know the situation. For now, we manage to plug the wound and keep the tide from overwhelming us. But we can't keep it up forever, so I hope Chibi and Vida can come up with a plan soon.
Slowly but surely, Jeanette starts seeing the patterns in how Kaida and Onyxia are beating her back, and starts weaving in little blasts of magic here and there between parries and dodges, breaking the rhythm the Knights have fallen into just enough for her to start pushing back against them again. The scythe becomes a blur of movement, its cutting edge glowing faintly as it spins around, always cutting in Onyxia's direction, forcing her to move out of range, which she only barely manages as the very tip of the weapon graces her shoulder, cutting a deep wound.
Even big monsters or larvae with wicked-looking talons haven't been able to damage one of us like that, and certainly not so easily. We all see it happening and freeze for a second as we realize this might not be a fight all of us walk away from unless we can end it quick. Jeanette sees our hesitation and gives a wicked smile. "Yeah. Your armor isn't so impervious after all. How fun is that?"
"Jeanette, come on! I know I hurt you, and I'm sorry!" I halt my small storm of arcane needles as I call out to her, almost instinctively arranging them in a half-sphere hemming in the monster tide at the back of the dark hole. "But we can fix this! There's gotta be a way!" Everyone, even the monsters under my friend's control stand down for a second as we speak.
"Too little too late, Destiny! If you'd truly cared, I wouldn't have had to practically beg for just an afternoon with you two!"
"Can't we start over? Whatever Renata offered you, it can't really be a good enough reason to doom the world?"
"Absolutely it is." Jeanette raises her scythe again, gathering power to swing at me with that soul-sundering strike she used earlier, but out of the corner of my eye, I just barely manage to notice Incarna pointing her biggest cannon at our friend, charging a beam that normally leaves van-sized holes in monsters, one I'm fairly sure would take out one of us other Knights, too.
"NO!" I reach out and the storm obeys my unconscious command, diverting away from the monsters below and instead rushing up in an almost solid stream to block the path of Incarna's attack. The two clash and explode in a discharge of mismatching magical energies! The shock wave knocks all of us back and force us to land in order to deal with the turbulence.
"WHAT THE FUCK DESTINY?" Kaida yells at me, both anger and frustration more than evident in her features. "You heard her! It's her or the world!"
"N-No. Jeanette's gotta still be in there! We've got to find a way!" I look to Chibi Destiny and Vida, the latter of which is busy healing the wound in Onyxia's shoulder. It's taking longer than usual.
My Squire, standing on the ground next to the two Knights shakes her head sadly. "I'm sorry Destiny. The tapestry is already so thin you can barely touch the other Knights here, and Jeanette is so disconnected, there's no way we can cut her off from her power source."
All the Knights look at me with sorrow in their faces for knowing what has to be done. All except Kaida, who looks both determined and reluctantly accepting. She probably figures, if someone has to do it, it might as well be her. She wipes blood from a minor cut on her lip away with one thumb and stands up straight before she starts walking toward Jeanette, manifesting a sword of fire in her other hand. Jeanette gets off her knees, dusts herself off and strikes a pose with the scythe held ready to cut down Kaida. The red-haired Knight swipes her flaming sword in front of her, causing a loose dome of flame to spring up around the two of them. Onyxia gasps. "Kaida, no! We have to work together!"
"Sorry boss. There's no other way," Kaida scowls as she closes up the dome with a whispered incantation, leaving the rest of us to guess what's happening from the sounds of clashing weapons inside.
"No. I can't lose them both," I mutter to myself and stand up, determination filling my soul. I have the power to change reality to suit my whims. Destiny said so herself. So why do I have to just sit back and accept this? I let the needles disappear, even Twilight Point, leaving myself unarmed as I close my eyes and reach out with my senses. Despite the near-complete absence of the tapestry I usually tap into in order to use my powers, I still see something in the darkness behind my eyelids. Multiple potentials playing out side by side, letting me know for certain things don't have to go the way they're destined to at the moment. The tapestry is thin, yes, and Jeanette's threads are nowhere to be found. But I have one option left even now: Chaos.
My hand reaches out and grasps around something invisible. The high-pitched voice of Chibi Destiny cuts through, begging "Destiny, no! You don't know what'll happen! The outcome could be worse than doing nothing!"
"I have to try something!" Even with my eyes closed, I see motes of swirling pink and purple magic around my hand. As I solidify my thoughts about my desired outcome, I notice more of the motes manifesting and shaping into something I can grab. Wrapping my hand around it feels like grabbing onto a silken bed sheet, and pulling at it is no more effort than pulling the sheet off a bed, so that's what I do!
The motes fade and disappear, cutting off my access for now, and as I let go of whatever part of reality I just shifted. The night sky lights up in those same colors before practically tearing itself asunder! The thrumming inside my head, at the back of my skull intensifies. It's been there since I reached out to Chaos. I ignored it in favor of achieving my goals, but now it quickly becomes too overwhelming to dismiss, and the last thing I see before I pass out is Kaida's fire dome dissipating against a backdrop of black motes so thick it can only be the monstrous horde vanishing.