Destiny
"Hey, Destiny, hey, wake up." I only barely manage to register that it's Eden's voice speaking before she almost pushes me all the way out of bed. "Come on, wake up, we've got trouble!"
"Okay, I'm up, I'm up," I struggle to force myself to full consciousness as I sit up, but the way Eden paces back and forth at the foot of our bed makes me snap to attention sooner than I would otherwise. "What's up? Is it Jeanette?"
"No. Well, maybe. She mumbled something, but there's bigger trouble. The city's being attacked. We gotta go, come on!"
"Fuck- Shit, yeah- I'm coming-" I almost roll out of bed and stumble to my feet as I follow Eden through the living room toward our balcony. I'm only wearing panties and an oversized t-shirt, grabbing my purse and Chibi Destiny on the way out. Eden is just in panties and a sports bra, but it's not like what we're wearing now is going to matter once we transform.
In the full glory of our Celestial Knight uniforms, both of us soar into the sky to survey Redhaven's skyline. It fortunately doesn't take us long to spot that the trouble in question is down near the stadium, at the city center. Something large with a long neck is wreaking havoc and causing chaos. Without even looking at each other, we hurry face first into danger, both pulling out our phones to start calling the other Knights. It'll take a few minutes for them to get here, but Onyxia and I can stall in the meantime.
"Hey Des! Make it quick, I'm kinda busy here." Asha sounds out of breath and there's a lot of noise in the background. "Speaking of, how fast can you be in Vestview? Got a monster situation."
"Crap. That's why I'm calling. Onyxia and I are having the same issue."
"Two attacks at the same time, after all this quiet? Sure. I've got this one."
"We'll hurry over when things are handled here."
"Alright. Be careful! Oh, and your brother says hi."
"Wait, Shawn?"
"INCANDESCENT BLAST!"-CLICK-doot-doot-doot.
The line goes dead and I'm staring at the phone for a moment before I turn to look at my girlfriend whose grim expression brings equally bad news. "Let me guess. Northstar Bay is having problems too?"
"Yeah. Westview?"
"Also in trouble. Looks like we're on our own, and I'd love to know why."
"We can worry about that later. For now, let's kill this thing and go help the others."
"Yes ma'am!"
Diverging into separate flight paths as we circle around to opposite sides of the monster, which appears not to be something with a long neck, but rather a large, snake-like creature with arms. With Aria so far away, we're gonna have to work without the ease of communication that her telepathic network provides, but as one might imagine, luckily Onyxia and I are solidly in synch about pretty much everything.
Transforming the Willow side of her powers into a short sword of white light, Nox remains that small hand cannon of darkness in her other hand as Onyxia rushes in against the monster. She bats away one of its four arms with her melee weapon and twists, performing what I can only describe as aerial alchemy in order to dodge the two hands trying to grab her from either side. A few shots from Nox deters the final hand just enough for her to get up close and personal with the beast, where she slashes at its torso, the white light burning a deep scar in its chest.
Unlike the last handful of monsters we've fought, this one doesn't start healing instantly, and actually reels back from the pain. That's good, it means it's probably a little weaker and she and I should be able to handle this on our own.
With my girlfriend very obviously taking the monster's full attention, I already know what my role in today's battle is gonna be, so I close my eyes for a brief moment, just long enough to get a sense of the tapestry in this area and see where any civilians might be. Most have been evacuated already, but there's a few left that are in mortal danger, and then a few more that aren't of as immediate concern, but will still need my help. Practice and a far better understanding of my powers than even just when we fought Fenris about eight months ago lets me do some fun things. This monster is too large to be fencing, so instead I swipe my left hand over a space of open air, manifesting a trio of blue needles that look much like Twilight Point itself and send them at our adversary where they swirl about its snake-like body, poking and jabbing more to create a distraction than to do any real damage. I trust Onyxia to do that part.
Meanwhile, I follow the threads that lead me to civilians in danger and pick them up one by one before bringing them to safety. The whole time I'm expecting something to go wrong. An explosion, a stray swipe from the monster's tail. Hell, even just some falling debris I hadn't seen. But no, Onyxia and I have this situation under control, and without much trouble I manage to get everyone out of harm's way and fly back to join the fray against the monster I'm sure is going to be dubbed Naga or something.
Onyxia's been busy while I was rescuing people. There's not a scratch on her, while the monster has still-healing cuts and holes practically all over its torso, and one of its four arms seems to not be doing so well. "Looks like you've got this handled~" I dare tease her a little when I fly up next to her and follow along with her flight path, employing some of the tricks she's taught me in the past few months while we were training together, as well as very subtle twists of fate to make sure neither of us are in much trouble.
"I wouldn't say no to a helping hand, anyway. Mind tying it down for me?" I quirk an eyebrow and smirk at her, giving her a look that tells her exactly what I'm thinking. "Hey! No flirting in battle!"
"Yes, ma'am~" I salute, still with a cocky grin on my face, but then divert off our shared flight path and start circling around the large snake-like foe. It won't do much good to tie its main body... Or is that called a tail? I was never much good with reptile anatomy. Whatever, it'll only be useful to tie up its arms anyway, so I reach out and grip several of the glowing strings I've used so often before. It's little more than a subconscious effort at this point, and with the speed and agility I've built up training with Onyxia, it doesn't take me more than a dozen seconds before the monster looks like it's been caught in a glowing blue spider's web.
While I've been busy, Onyxia has taken up position hovering just a few feet off the ground and about a hundred yards away from the monster. Her twin weapons have merged into a strange, vaguely cannon-shaped amalgamation of white and black light that hurts to look at, with her hands at the center. Even from this distance, I can feel the thrum of power gathering in the surrounding air, and looking at her through my sixth sense would undoubtedly hurt.
I also happen to know exactly what's coming and so I hurry out of the way just in time for her to yell "SUPERNOVA CANNON!"
A beam composed of the two disparate energies twisting around each other like a drill bursts forth from the combined muzzle of her weapons, causing the air surrounding us to quickly start smelling like ozone and sulfur. The beam doesn't collide with our enemy so much as it pierces it with the ease of a hot knife through butter and shoots out on the other side. I don't even get to see the hole in the monster's chest before it bursts into that familiar haze of black and purple motes. "That was a lot easier than anything we've fought as a squad," I remark as Onyxia floats up next to me.
"Good job, nonetheless. But yeah, it's weird, and I don't think it's a coincidence that it's at the same time as two other attacks. Especially not when we've never had more than one attack before."
"You think there's a strategy or something behind this?"
"Can't be sure, but I also don't wanna take the chance. You hurry to support Incarna in Westview, I'll join up with the others in Northstar Bay. If I haven't called you by the time you and Incarna finish up, hurry to assist us."
"Yes ma'am!" This time I'm not being flirty when I acknowledge her order. My girlfriend clearly thinks there's something bigger going on, and so do I, so I'm going to take it as seriously as she does. I'm already flying upwards to put some distance between myself and the cityscape below when I feel her hand grab my wrist.
"And be careful, Destiny." She kisses me briefly on the mouth before letting me go again.
I kiss her back. "You too, Eden."
Once I've put sufficient empty air beneath me, I focus the entirety of my power on flight. Without having to worry about agility and maneuverability, as well as not having to worry about damaging infrastructure, I can really push at the limits of just how fast I can go without hitching a ride on Onyxia's powers, and I kind of have to push it in this situation. However much weaker these monsters might be, Incarna is still fighting hers alone and will no doubt be in need of assistance. I don't have a way of measuring exactly how fast I'm going, but I'd be willing to put money down that I'd be outpacing even the fastest fighter jets at this point. I should be in Westview in less than 10 minutes.
Incarna
"INCANDESCENT BLAST!"
I hang up the phone and refocus on the fight I was already engaged in before Destiny called. Thankfully, I'm outside Westview proper, and there aren't a lot of civilians around, most of whom have already self-evacuated. Shawn should be staying put at his place, far outside the danger zone like I told him to, too.
What? You're wondering why I was at Shawn's place in the middle of the night? Why the fuck do you think I was there? No, we haven't told Destiny yet. We're just messing around with each other, so there's no reason to.
The bright flash of my attack causes the monster to recoil and retreat even further outside the population center, and I hurry to follow it, even while mentally running through the arsenal of weapons I've studied in detail to use with my powers in order to find the ones that might help me the best in this situation.
The big bad I'm dealing with is a fucking bipedal turtle with elongated forelimbs, making it walk like some giant ape. Its shell is tougher than you'd expect, even factoring in that it's a magical alien monster with an armored carapace, and I've already hit it with some fairly hardcore munitions to no effect. Striking at the head and limbs doesn't help much either, since this monster is surprisingly fast at retreating into its protective shell.
It does seem to react to bright lights, though, hence why I'm using explicitly diffuse blasts of magic in order to keep driving it away from civilians. And I've gotta use it to create time and space so I can get out my favorite weapon and charge it: the trusty railgun.
The ugly fucker pokes its head back out, leering at me, and I grin at it like a woman possessed. "What, is the little fly getting annoying? Oh, I've got so much more in store for you."
I hurl myself upwards, letting the momentum carry me rather than divert attention to active flight, while reaching out with both hands, picturing the shape of the weapon I want in my mind.
'Snub barrel, drum magazine. Grenade housings- fill them with aluminum and potassium perchlorate in just the right quantities- GO!'
The drum-fed grenade launcher manifests in my hand while the momentum of my thrust still carries me upwards. I aim the weapon downwards at the monster below and pull the trigger with a yell.
"CLUSTER FLASH!"
Dozens of stun grenades, flashbangs in more common parlance, fall to the monster's position below me at terminal velocity. The science of what I manifested takes care of most of the plan, while my spell does the rest of the work, causing each blast to chain into another two smaller detonations before the next grenade does the same. The stupid amphibian gets lit up like it's daytime with effectively harmless explosions.
All that light and noise is disorienting to even a magical monster made of extraterrestrial darkness, however, and while the detonations are still going, my hands let go of the grenade launcher as they spread even further apart, gripping around the stock, trigger and barrel of a much larger weapon.
At sixty-four megajoules per shot and requiring fifty megawatts of power for sustained firing, a regular railgun takes as much power as a small city to keep running for even just a handful of shots. While they work in theory, space and power requirements render widespread military use infeasible. Luckily for me, my magic can provide orders of magnitude more power than that without so much as straining my reserves, and I get to cheat a little regarding physics and space requirements. The Navy wishes it could do half of what I can.
With little more than a second between shots to recharge, the railgun rains down seven armor piercing sabot rounds with the force of a car on the highway packed behind each. Distracted by my clustered stun grenades, the monster doesn't even know that it has to react before the first shot connects with its colossal form. The first three only manage to crack its magically reinforced shell, but the fourth and onward hit weak spots created by the initial salvo and shatter the monster's protection like glass. Unlike most other monsters, this one howls in pain as it goes down and dissolves into familiar purple-and-black motes.
"Phew. Been a while since I had to fight on my own like this," I mutter to myself as I stand more upright in the air, though I remain parallel to the ground beneath me. "Better call one of the others and hear if I'm needed."
However, right as I put the phone to my ear and wait for Eden to pick up, a familiar blue glow approaches faster than I've ever seen it move before, and knowing my best friend undoubtedly has news, I hang up and put the device away in the pocket of my uniform. I call out when she's within earshot. "A bit late to the party!"
"Asha! I mean- sorry, Incarna!"
"We're more than a mile off the ground, Des. It's fine," I chuckle, ready to joke around with her a bit until I see the expression on her face. "What's wrong?"
"It's everyone- We were all attacked. Eden and I dealt with a monster in Redhaven, some sort of snake creature, and there's another monster in Northstar. We've gotta hurry and back them up!"
"Alright, yeah, fuck. This is kinda code red, huh?"
"All hands on deck, yeah."
"Shit. Uh- Just gimme a minute. I just gotta tell Shawn not to wait up for me." Before Destiny can protest at all, I'm already flying rather quickly towards her brother's apartment. Of course, she follows me, effortlessly flying in front of me to try to catch my eye.
"Hang on. What's going on with you and Shawn?"
"Is that really what's important right now, Des?"
"Well, we've got a few minutes before we're in Northstar Bay, anyway. So spill."
A few hundred meters from Shawn's apartment, we stop and hover midair. "It's nothing, Des. Or maybe it's not nothing. Maybe we're just having fun."
"Doesn't sound like nothing to me." She's trying to take it seriously, but that stupid grin on her face tells me she's just excited about what she thinks is happening.
"Maybe we haven't talked about what it is yet."
"Hey, so long as you're both happy, I'm happy. Just... make sure not to hurt each other? You'll both come running to me if something goes terribly wrong, after all."
I chuckle and punch her lightly in the shoulder, then wait a moment as I consider what to say, ultimately settling on nothing and flying down to float through the open window into Shawn's living room. I explain the situation to him. He now has full confirmation that both his... booty call? Girlfriend? Whatever I am, and his sister are Celestial Knights, likely going into the toughest battle of their relatively brief careers. He waves out of the window for Destiny to join us, but she stays hovering just outside the window.
All three of us are silent for almost a full minute before Shawn clears his throat. "I can't think of anything profound to say. Just make sure you both come back to me?"
"We will, don't worry. Destiny and I have each other's backs. Right, Des?"
She nods, though every shred of mirth has been wiped from her expression. "Whatever it takes."
Destiny hugs her brother through the open window before flying up and away to give us some space. The silence between us almost breaks my heart. Since I'm still hovering a few inches off the floor to remain level with him and don't offer any resistance, he easily pulls my body against his, one hand on the nape of my neck and the other on the small of my back.
He squeezes me tight as he kisses me more deeply, more lovingly than he ever has before, and I kiss him back, returning the gesture in full. Neither of us has to say a word to know what this means for us.
"I'll see you tomorrow. And then we'll talk about... everything," I mutter after breaking the kiss and slipping from his embrace as I slowly float backwards and out of the window. He nods, smiling with a hint of sadness in his eyes that hurts to turn my back on as I join Destiny in the skies.
"You okay?" she asks, floating over and extending a hand to try to put it on my shoulder to comfort me. I ignore her gesture, put on a determined face and start picking up speed in the direction of Northstar Bay.
"Let's just stomp whoever's causing us all this trouble."
Kaida
"I just got a call from Onyxia. She and Destiny are tied up, too, and it didn't sound like Incarna would be coming either. It's just gonna be the three of us," Aria sends over the link she's established with Vida and I. For fuck's sake! The first time we deal with more than one big monster and we're forced to split up at such great distance? Just my fucking luck.
"Great. Just fucking perfect." Even over the telepathic network, I can't help but let my emotions bleed through, but after working together for most of three years, the others should be used to that by now. "Vida, what's your situation?"
"There's something going down at the compound, but it doesn't seem like anything big."
"Then both of you hurry down to the harbor. We'll need to handle this one together." I doubt my thoughts come across as calmly as want them to, considering the fact that I'm dashing around in the comparatively narrow corridors between cargo containers, effectively dodging out of the way as tendrils and thicker tentacles do their very best to catch me. I'm neither as fast or nimble in flight as any of the others, but I am quick on the trigger, an advantage I readily reach for whenever one of the appendages get too close.
"BLAZING SHIELD!"
At my command, fire bursts into existence in a dome covering my right side and spreading down over my feet. The tendrils that had gotten uncomfortably close to my ankles are caught in the sudden inferno, and most shrivel and die, while the lucky few that manage to escape retreat. I turn a corner, coming face to face with a different tentacle that's been trying to sneak up on me. I didn't see it because of this damn black mist that's all over the place down here, but luckily I'm not restricted by moving in a 2D plane.
A silent spell pulses a brief jet of flame from my right hand in the limb's direction and then I make an almost ninety degree turn upwards, escaping from the grasping tentacles fairly nimbly. I feel my heart hammering in my chest, along with a tightening feeling around it at the thought that I have to go back down there to find the monster itself, but I shunt that whole sensation off to the side, panting.
The maze of cargo containers in the harbor is obscured by an unnatural layer of darkness that looks more like mist, and somewhere in there, the monster itself hides. Only the tentacles I've spent the last two minutes dodging poke out occasionally, just barely for a couple of seconds. But there's a lot of them, and they reach far enough away from each other that it's hard for me to pin point a central mass to aim for.
"Kaida!" The voice is gentle in spite of the loud volume, and I already know I'll find Vida even before I turn to look in her direction. She chose to speak out loud rather than over our telepathic connection. "Are you alright? Are you hurt?"
"What? No? I'm fine."
Our healer reaches out to my shoulder. "Your heart rate is eleva-"
"I said I'm fine." As I shrug away from her and float a couple of feet in the opposite direction, Aria arrives. I immediately put on my stern face and voice. "Listen up gang. We're dealing with a monster that's been cloaking itself, preferring to lure and attack targets in the dark shroud. I've been unable to locate the central body, so we don't know the true size of the thing. We need to be on our toes for this one."
I catch them both nodding out of the corner of my eyes, though I can't help but notice they're looking between each and me, rather than the monster below. "Vida, are you seeing any civilians in the area?"
"Not at the moment. They've all either fled or... Well, let's just hope it was a quiet, remotely operated night shift."
"What about the monster? No need to keep scouting manually if you can just tell us where it is."
"Sorry. That black mist's infused with the monster's energy, and there doesn't seem to be a pattern." She pauses for a moment and then flies in front of me, making sure to catch my eye. "Hey, are you sure you're okay? We can stall and wait for the others."
"Since when did you start questioning orders?" I snarl the words in irritation before I look to Aria. "You got anything?"
She looks nervously between Vida and I, but nods in the end. "It's been a while since I used my telekinesis in such a surgical manner, but I've been making a more physical scan of the corridors between the containers while we've been talking." She looks closer to the harbor itself and points to where the maze opens up towards the waterfront. "The tentacles are only the tip of the iceberg. The real monster is still in the water."
Now that she points it out, I can't believe I missed it. There is indeed a break in the dark mist at the end of the maze where something large has slunk up onto the concrete. It's almost as black as the vapor it clouds itself in, but even at this distance, it's obviously more solid.
With a flick of my wrist and a burst of power, I extend my arm, and Heart of Ash, my broadsword, appears in my hand, already on fire as it should be. "Alright, let's go end this quickly and be home before midnight. Knights, with me!"
Without waiting for the others to acknowledge my order, I rush forth, heading straight for the large, black blob. As I get closer, the telltale dark, cold purple lights that all of Renata's monsters share become easily identifiable, pulsing down what appear to be strips of lights trapped in frills on the sides of its body.
Aria and Vida are only a couple of seconds behind me as I approach, just in time to see a squid-like creature pull itself out of the water, its main body looking as squishy as a jellyfish. Its five monstrous eyes lock onto me as the long limbs retract from the maze of containers, beginning to wriggle about in the air as they come back to the main body. The intense stare makes me halt and hesitate in my approach, and when I do, so do the other girls.
"What're you doing, Kaida?" Aria is back to talking over our telepathic connection now that we see the monster in full. Standard mission protocol that I'm happy she's following. Enjoying the story? Read on at g.com.
"Just... assessing the situation."
"Didn't you already do that?"
"W- Never hurts to be a little extra cautious."
"Who are you and what did you do with Kaida?"
While we're talking, the monster wastes no time and moves towards us. Hundreds of tentacles reach out, grip the environment in front of it and pull, dragging it forward in slow, jerky motions that feel as far from threatening as anything gets. But I've seen how fast those limbs can move up close and keep an eye on them, especially after I see the creature reach out to try to catch Vida, who nimbly flies backward and bats at the tentacles with her staff.
Instead, the Kraken-like creature manages to catch a fork truck parked on a gangway, and seemingly doesn't care that its prey isn't alive when the vehicle in question is just pushed through the squishy surface of its body where it immediately starts dissolving.
"Well. Never seen them do that before," I whisper and dodge before a set of tendrils manage to snag me. Before I can really manage to catch a breath and keep up, even more of the disgusting limbs start reaching for me and my friends and we're forced to start dodging full time in order to not be caught.
"BLAZING SHIELD!"
"BLAZING SHIELD!"
"BLAZING SHIELD!"
"BLAZING-" An invisible blade cuts through the thicket of tentacles I'd been shielding myself from, giving me a brief reprieve long enough to finally notice Aria calling me through our connection once more.
"Kaida! Where's your sword? The monster makes new limbs faster than I can keep up. You've got to help me out!
Only now do I notice that Heart of Ash isn't in my hand anymore. The realization gives me pause, but before I can think much more about it, a veritable flood of wriggling limbs swarms over me again, grabbing at my ankles and arms, refusing to let me go.
"It's got Vida!"
"No- no- nonono-" It's all too much. The tentacles are everywhere! My sword is gone, I can't remember the words for my more powerful spells. I- I can't save Vida. I can't save myself! "E-Ember, please..." I whisper and cower, curling up as best I can even with the tentacles gripping my entire body and pulling me to my certain death, even as I do my best to struggle and fly backwards. I can only think to ask my Squire to end it all-
A bright, multicolored light flashes on the horizon, like the cut of a blade parting the heavens for a moment. The next thing I know, the tentacles loosen their grip and start dissipating, and in my panic, I hurtle several hundred meters backward, screaming and hyperventilating. Our savior turns out to be Onyxia, floating above where the monster used to be, wreathed in pink flame and the twin blades of Willow and Nox shimmering in her hands. I barely notice her approach before Vida hugs me tight, squeezing me and whispering that everything's going to be okay, that we're safe now.
I don't shrug her off. I can barely move, and at this point, it's a miracle I'm still transformed. It's Vida's flight that's keeping me afloat too. My voice is coarse, and I barely recognize it as I whisper to her. "I- I think I need help."
Destiny
As soon as Incarna and I get close to Northstar Bay, we're automatically connected to Aria's psychic network and given a location, transmitted alongside a sense of urgency, so we only slow down just enough to not cause trouble for the civilian population and otherwise hurry to the indicated rooftop near Vida's apartment.
We find the others somewhat huddled together around Ayame, the only one who isn't transformed and isn't connected to the rest of us telepathically. She's sitting on a folding chair the Knights found somewhere, and Vida is squatting down in front of her, hands on our friend's knees, with Aria and Onyxia standing slightly off to the side, muttering to each other a little.
I don't even need to be connected to the network to tell it's a tense situation when I see it, but the other Knights aren't keeping their emotions in check. Something went really wrong over here.
Neither Incarna nor I say anything when we land softly on the rooftop and walk over. I quickly take Onyxia's hand and look into her eyes. She's not just worried, but fully distraught. "What happened here?" I whisper, but she just gestures to Ayame, as if she's the only one who can explain.
"I fucked up. I- I couldn't- Jeanette- I-"
"It's okay," Vida breaks in, her voice gentler than it was even when she saved me on the bus all the way back the day of my first transformation. "I can try to explain, and you just correct me if I'm wrong. How does that sound?" Ayame nods and looks around at the rest of us apologetically, though she still avoids eye contact.
Vida clears her throat. While she explains, she remains squatting and holding Ayame's hand in hers. "It's all my fault," she begins, causing Ayame to look both confused and a little angry, opening her mouth to interrupt. "No, hear me out. I was the one to clear you for active duty again, and I clearly underestimated the mental strain the whole situation put on you. Your physical body might be good to go, but this-" she runs a finger over the scar Ayame always leaves on full display these days. "- wasn't the only scar you got in that fight. I'm sorry, Ayame. I should have taken better care of you." None of this clears up the details of what happened for me, but I think context clues are enough for now.
"We all should," Onyxia says softly as she steps into the conversation and lays a hand on Vida's shoulder. "I especially feel like I failed as your commander."
No one says anything for a while as we all have a somber moment. "So does anyone know why we had three fucking attacks at once tonight?" Asha finally asks, voicing the concern I'm sure we've all had all night.
None of us have a moment to answer before all the Squires, except for Chibi Destiny who's been watching everything with her head poking out of my purse, manifest in quick succession, close to each other and just far enough away it's clear they're separating themselves from us for the moment.
"I think we can explain that, noble Incarna," Kareh says in his deep, rumbling voice. "Back before the first generation of Celestial Knights, before we even made contact with the one who would take the alias of Lady Radiance, the six of us tried a different approach in protecting Earth."
Syd hops a step forward and periscopes to make himself look taller before he continues. "We cast a spell that made Earth the gateway to the rest of this galaxy. So long as a certain population level was maintained here, Renata would be unable to get to any of the other planets teeming with life."
"At the same time, we also tried to ensure she couldn't get to Earth," Willow's soft-spoken voice breaks in. "But we miscalculated the parameters of our spell, and while the planet was closed off to her, we Squires became beacons she could use to send her scouts in their less powerful larval state."
"Even those we couldn't fight successfully on our own, much less once they grew up and became city-wide threats." Ember's comment is very short because he is too busy worrying about his Knight to explain properly. Nox takes over.
"So we made the first pacts, the ones you know of, and the Knights proved more than sufficient in the task we set for them. We just had to cycle to a new squad every so often as our chosen ones grew up and had lives to live that took them away from each other. It was always a concern that if we were split up, Renata might be able to do exactly what happened tonight."
"So..." Aria contemplates for a moment. "If I had chosen to stay in Norway, then what?"
"Eo would have been forced to find a new Knight, Ms. Newmann," Kareh confirms our suspicions. The silent white fox trots over and rubs their head affectionately against Aria's thigh, tail curling around her ankle.
Onyxia scowls a little at her own Squires. "Then why didn't you pick new Knights when we all split up this summer? Or at least tell us about this whole situation?"
The Squires that have faces capable of showing human emotions grimace and flinch a little under the implied accusation. Even the other ones look away. "We all talked it over and came to the conclusion that we had to risk it," Nox responds. "With the potential threat of Renata so close, we wouldn't have time to train a new squad and still hope to win if she decided to pull the trigger. And since none of you were moving to the other side of the country, we were hoping the affected area would still be small enough to limit her to one summoning at a time. Clearly, we were wrong."
"Clearly." Onyxia's voice isn't just frustrated. She's downright furious with the Scouts right now. "Alright, we gotta figure out contingency plans in case-"
In the distance, a gleaming purple orb, bright enough to mimic a second sun quickly rises, cutting off Onyxia and making every single one of us pay very close attention. We rush to the edge of the rooftop, but we all know what's happening before we even see it; The government compound has been completely engulfed in the light, though still with that dark, swirling mist at the center.
Chibi Destiny tugs on my skirt to get my attention, and when I look at her, she just gives me a serious nod. "This is it."
"Fuck." Asha and Eden both look at me when I talk for the first time in ten minutes. They know what that means. "Is there a way we all get out of this alive?"
"The path is narrow, and I'm afraid I can't guide you. The tapestry is fraying to the point of nonexistence, even at this distance. But there is a chance."
"Ayame," Onyxia's gaze lingers on me for a moment before she looks to her second-in-command. "I hate to ask this of you right now, but do you think you're alright to provide long-range support? We'll need everything we can get, but I'm not putting you on the frontline right now."
"Well, I don't think I have a choice, boss."
"You're getting one anyway."
"I'll do what I can. Destiny's been trained well enough to take my spot."
Another moment's silence. I think we're all evaluating the gravity of what we're about to do. Onyxia gets up on the ledge in front of us, turning around to look at us.
"This is it, Knights. What we've been training for. When we get there, I'm going to open the Armory and then we just give it everything we've got. Don't hesitate to pull out the big guns. Destiny, you and I take front, keep her occupied as best we can. Vida, we need you to keep us all topped up, but if you see an opening to deal some damage, I'm ordering you to take it. Incarna, your first priority will be to deal with any auxiliary threats as swiftly and cleanly as possible. Aria and Kaida, you two support the rest of us as best you see fit, priority on hemming in the battle and dealing with the primary threat."
"What about civilians?" Vida asks.
"We have to assume there are none left, or any that are will be turned upon us." We all gulp a little, but nod. "Alright then, Knights. Let's do this."