## Seven Minutes Earlier
Aado hits the ground hard enough to taste dirt.
"Ah!!" He forced himself up on one knee, spitting blood, glaring at the two figures circling him like they had all the time in the world. "You kids aren't playing fair!"
"Shut up, old man!" Tareik's grin was all teeth. "**SANDSTORM!!**"
The world turned to grit and wind. Aado threw an arm up too late — the sand tore across his side like a thousand tiny blades, and he doubled over.
"Holy phase—!"
He didn't even see the second attack coming. Kuro dropped out of the churning sand like he'd been waiting inside it the whole time, one arm already swinging.
"Not so fast, little brother. **ABYSS LARIAT!!**"
The hit lifted Aado clean off his feet.
He hit the ground again, slower to rise this time. Everything hurt. He wheezed out something close to a laugh, because what else was there to do. "Huff... huff... ouch... why are you doing this?"
Kuro crouched down to his level, elbows on his knees, studying him the way a man studies a puzzle he's already solved. "Sorry. I'm not one of those villains who reveals his plans before losing to his prey."
"Always the funny guy, huh?" Aado's voice cracked. "Why not just kill me, then?"
"And what's the fun in that, little brother?" Kuro's smile didn't reach anywhere close to his eyes. "I want to enjoy our little sparring session a little longer. It's been oh so long since I got to stretch my legs."
"Shut up!!" Aado lunged — and Kuro caught him without even standing all the way up, driving an elbow down into his skull.
"Ahhh!!!"
"Ah!! My eye!!!" Kuro reeled back, one hand flying to his face, blood already welling between his fingers. For a second the amusement in his voice curdled into something darker. "Why you little— " He stopped himself. Breathed. Straightened. When he spoke again the smile had returned, thinner now. "Suru. Get ready to take his spirit."
He looked down at Aado one last time, almost fondly.
"I enjoyed our little family reunion, Brother."
A woman stepped out of the haze behind him, and whatever she was holding hummed low, like it was already hungry.
"This'll hurt me more than you," Suru said.
Aado's eyes went to the device in her hands. "What is that?"
"**Spirit Splicer.** Activated."
For one heartbeat, nothing. Aado almost laughed. "Okay then, I don't feel any—"
The scream that tore out of him didn't sound human.
The sky answered him.
"**CLUSTER GRENADES!!**"
The explosions scattered Suru and the device's hum both, and Yoku dropped into the clearing like he owned it.
Sans didn't even bother hiding his irritation. "How'd they get here?" He glanced at Tareik, sneering. "Huh. Those bums are useless."
"Shit—" Suru's concentration snapped like a plucked string. "I can't focus while they're attacking us."
"You don't think we know that?!" Sans threw up a wall of gray. "**SMOKESCREEN!**"
"**VANTAGE POINT!!**" Yoku was already moving before the smoke cleared, finding the angle, finding the shot.
"**SCORCH LASER!!**" A line of reddish-orange-hot light cut through the haze — Shinkei, breathing hard, eyes locked on Aado's crumpled shape across the clearing.
Yoku dropped beside him. "Mr. Aado, are you okay?"
He didn't get an answer.
"**OMINOUS STRIKE!!**"
Yoku barely got an arm up in time, and even blocked, the force of it threw him sideways. "Gah!!!"
Shinkei's stomach dropped. Too many. Too many of them, and Aado down, and — "Crap, there's too many of them, and with Mr. Aado down... what do we do?!"
"You depend on your friends." The voice came from behind them both, steady in a way nothing else in that clearing was. "**REVENGE RUSH!!!**"
Mashù came through the smoke like something unleashed.
Jeremi actually looked pleased to see him. "Oh. Not running away this time?"
"I only did that to warn everyone!"
"Doesn't matter." Jeremi shrugged, almost bored. "Because of you, I killed two people in your place."
Something in Mashù's chest went cold and then very, very hot. "No... why!!" He didn't think. He just moved. "**RETALIATE!!**"
"Woah." Jeremi swayed out of the strike's path by inches, delighted. "You almost got me!! Too bad you're so boring to fight."
"Say that again!!"
"Did I strike a nerve?" Jeremi's smile widened. "Good."
---
Sans planted himself between the fight and the others, arms crossed, daring anyone to try him. "We won't let you all get in the way!"
"**GUN WHEEL: DUAL SMGS!**" Yoku answered without hesitation, twin barrels already spinning up.
Sans didn't even flinch. "You really think that would hit me?!"
"**SANDSTORM!!**" Tareik's voice cut through everything, and the clearing vanished into a wall of stinging grit.
"I can't see anything—" Shinkei's words dissolved into a cough.
"You're dead now!!" Tareik's grin split through the storm. "**SAND TOMB!!**"
"Shinkei!!" Yoku's shout was swallowed by sand closing in like a fist.
Mashù's stomach dropped. "Oh no—"
"Pay attention, fool!!" Jeremi's blade found the opening Mashù's fear had left.
"I'm fine!" Shinkei's voice, strained but alive, cut through the dust cloud that used to be a tomb.
Yoku blinked. "Huh—"
"No worries." A new voice, easy and bright even in the middle of a battlefield. "The main character made it in time!"
Romaji dropped in with a grin that belonged nowhere near this much blood.
"**FURY FIST!!**" Beside him, Kamira was already airborne, fist connecting with Jeremi's jaw hard enough to snap his head back. "You should pay more attention too Jeremi!"
Jeremi spat blood, wiping his mouth, still smiling. "Nice hit. Now the fun starts."
Yoku's eyes landed on Kamira's face and stuck there. "Roma and Kam... why do you have an eye patch on?"
"No worries, I'm good." She didn't look back. "Worry about getting Aado out of here."
"I'll carry him." Romaji was already moving, shape rippling and thickening. "**BEAST TRANSFORMATION: GORILLA!!**"
"We can't let you go." Rino stepped out from the settling dust, and the dolls behind her clicked into motion like puppets on invisible strings. "**PLASMA DOLLS!!**"
Yoku groaned. "Why does everyone have clones and soldiers?" He shook it off. "Anyways — I got this. Roma, you go, get Aado out of here. **CLUSTER GRENADES!!**"
The explosions bloomed against the dolls and did nothing at all.
Rino sighed like she was talking to a child. "Yeah... um. Explosions don't work on my babies."
"Man." Yoku exhaled. "This could never be easy, could it?"
"**BLUE LIGHTNING WHIP!!**" The crackling line of light tore three of the dolls apart before Rino even registered the new arrival.
"My babies!!" Rino's composure cracked for the first time. "You again?! I'm so tired of you already!"
"Aw." Aoi twirled the whip once, almost lazily. "I'm tired of seeing your ugly mug, too."
Yoku watched her with open admiration. "Man, she is so cool..."
"Hey, Yoku." Romaji's voice, flat, over Aado's limp weight on his shoulder. "Can you focus? We still need to get Aado out of here."
"Right!! My bad, bro."
"**SAND WALL!!**" Tareik slammed a barrier down between them and the exit. "You all aren't going anywhere."
"**EMBER FIST!!**" Shinkei didn't slow down, didn't ask permission — just hit the wall dead center. "Worry about yourself!"
For a moment nothing happened. Then Tareik started to scream.
"Huh— it hurts—" His hands clawed at his own arms. "The pain... I can't stand it!!"
"Calm down!!" Sans grabbed for him, too late. "You're hitting us, too!"
"I hate pain!!" Tareik wasn't hearing him anymore.
"Woah—!!" Shinkei barely got clear of the blast radius. "Gah... man, that hurt."
---Elsewhere...
The path ahead was blocked, sealed off by something none of them could see through.
"Great," someone muttered. "It's blocked off. What now?"
"Shut up." Tekai didn't slow down. "There's an opening. Follow me."
They followed.
"Where is he?" Tekai's voice had gone thin and sharp, scraped raw. "Jeremi!!"
Jeremi turned like he'd been expecting the shout for a while now. "Oh. The other twin sister." His head tilted, thoughtful, cruel. "Speaking of — how is the other one? Ichiji, was it?"
Something in Tekai went very still. "Don't you dare speak her name."
"Hm?" Jeremi leaned in, savoring it. "What was that?"
"**DON'T YOU DARE SPEAK HER NAME!!!**" The words tore out of her raw. "How dare you kill my sister!"
"I told her to stay out of the way." Jeremi shrugged, like he was recounting something as mundane as the weather. "That little pest annoyed me. So I got rid of her."
Mashù's blood went to ice. "You really weren't kidding." His voice came out smaller than he meant it to. "You really killed people?"
"What?" Kamira's head snapped toward Jeremi. "Who else did he kill?"
"The crystal one. His name's slipped my mind." Jeremi waved a hand. "He must not have been that important, then." A pause, almost an afterthought. "He's alive, though. Because of Nanshi. But—"
"Don't say it." Tekai's whole body was shaking, and not from fear. "Don't get in my way, either. His life is mine to take." She was already moving. "**HAAAAA!!!**"
"Wait — Tekai!!" Kamira reached, too far away, too slow.
*(Splat!!)*
"Bleh..." Tekai staggered, something dark spreading across her front.
"Did you really think I wouldn't bring a weapon to a fight where I'm outnumbered?" Jeremi's blade was already clean again. "Now you can join your sister."
"Tekai!!!" Mashù's scream cracked in half.
"Cough— cough—" Tekai was still standing, somehow, folded around the wound, and when she looked up there was something wet in her eyes that wasn't only pain. "I'm glad to see you care about me, Mashù." Her hand closed around something at her side. "**REWIND!**"
Time went back only for 4 seconds.
"**HAAAAA!!!!**"
"Wait, Tekai!!!" Kamira's warning came a half-second too late again.
*(Slice!!!)*
"You missed me," Tekai rasped.
"*What?!*" For the first time, something like real alarm crossed Jeremi's face.
Tekai didn't give him a second one. She drove her skull into his and ripped the knife from his slackened grip before he'd even finished reeling.
"Wait, Tekai." Mashù's hands were up, useless, pleading. "You can't do this. It won't make anything better."
"*Shut up!!*" She was crying now, openly, ugly and furious. "You weren't there!! He murdered my sister — who was trying to protect that little girl. He has to pay for what he's done." Her grip tightened on the blade. "With his life. **Haaa!!!**"
"HALT!!!"
The word landed like a physical wall, and every single one of them froze mid-motion.
"Ah—" Tekai's knife hand trembled, inches from Jeremi's throat, and would not move another inch. "I can't move."
Kuro stepped out of the dark unhurried, like a man arriving fashionably late to his own party. "Can't have you all kill my son and put a damper on my plans now, can I?"
"Why can't I move?" Mashù's voice had gone very small.
"It's like—" Kamira's breath caught. "It's like I'm afraid of just a voice."
*What's happening to everyone?*
Shinkei's head whipped between them, panic climbing. "Bro, what's wrong with everyone?"
Kuro looked them all over, almost bored, almost delighted. "I see. Looks like there are a couple of Originals among you." He waved a hand, dismissive. "No matter. They're still Guardians in training." His eyes settled somewhere past all of them. "Now. Give me Hajime."
*We won't let you have him.* "**GEYSER BAZOOKA!!**"
"Aw." Kuro didn't even bother to fully dodge, just let the water hit him, wringing out a sleeve with theatrical disappointment. "You got my favorite clothes wet." His expression didn't change even as his voice dropped an octave. "**DEMONIC ROAR!!**"
*"Anjero!! Wraith Form: Fire!! Pyrus Scorch Launcher!!"* — Shinkei's voice, but not only Shinkei's. Something else moved under it, something with heat and hunger.
*Woah... nice, Shinkei. I didn't know you got that form, too. How?*
"We want to protect others," was all Shinkei said, like that explained everything.
*We? ...Okay, then. I won't ask.*
"That's better." Kuro patted down his sleeves, satisfied. "My clothes are dry. Thank you."
*Nothing's actually working. Hm.*
Kuro tilted his head, genuinely curious now. "Interesting. First time in a while I've seen one of the Originals awaken. I wonder — can that one, too?"
*Shinkei, you good?*
"Hey — Aalto's host." Kuro's attention had shifted, fully, unnervingly, onto me. "Can you also transcend?"
*No. But I can still beat you.*
Kuro laughed, low and genuine, like I'd told a joke worth remembering. "Haha. Haha. You're funny. Why not join me?"
*What? No!!*
"I'll teach you how to transcend, and you can have all the power you want."
*Is that what happened with Jeremi?*
"Why, yes." Something almost paternal crept into his voice. "He is my son, after all."
*So if he's your son, that means—*
"Correct. Hajime and I are brothers."
*Then why are you trying to kill him?*
"I just need his spirit."
"A—Anjero..." Aado's voice, barely a whisper, dragged itself up from the ground. "Sh— Shinkei, please, run. You can't beat him."
"We won't know unless we try," Shinkei said.
*Well said, bro.* "**GEYSER BAZOOKA!!!**"
"**SCORCH LAUNCHER!!**"
*"Combo Move: Scalding Cannon!!!"* — Aalto and Pyrus, speaking as one, speaking as us.
"**HAAAAA!!!!!!**"
*(Boom!!!)*
Kuro staggered back half a step, touching his own jaw like he was surprised to feel anything at all. "Oh. That stung a bit." Then he smiled, and it was the worst thing I had seen all night. "My turn. **YAMI DEMONIC ROAR!!!**"
"Shinkei!!!" — *...oh gosh.*
"He'll live." Pyrus's voice, steadying, already working. "Just give me time to heal his wounds."
*I'll never forgive you for that.*
*...Huh... huh...*
*Haaaaa!!!! Wraith Form: Water!!!! I'll stop you right here and now!!!*