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Falling Feathers Chapter 25

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Falling Feathers
Chapter Twenty-Five: Into Darkness
HWF

"Hey! Hey!" Crovix shouted leaning over Hace's body on the sofa of Maka's house, "He's awake! He woke up!"
Sterling, still lying on the kitchen table, turned his head to see Hace sit up so quickly he almost knocked foreheads with Crovix, who jumped backwards and bumped into the coffee table. Kris sat up from her chair at the table and looked over Sterling at Hace, rubbing the dirt out of his eyes and hair.
"Hace!" Stella and Andrew exclaimed, both holding food they had helped themselves to. Coraline sat next to them on the countertop and stood up as Hace did but quickly sat down as another explosion shook the earth.
"See! I said you'd be okay!" Crovix smiled trying to ruffle Hace's hair, but pushed her off and started to get up but failed, limping slightly.
"W-what happened to my ankle?" he stuttered looking around to everyone, who, except Sterling, pointed to Crovix.
"I dropped you-"
"O-okay, scratch that," he said waving his hands rapidly, "What's going on out there?"
Another huge explosion shook the house and the lights flickered.
"It's Lord Death," Stella said leaning over the silent Sterling, "He and the adult meisters are trying to get rid of Legion."
"… It won't work," Hace said ignoring the pain of his ankle and walking to the door, "Stubbornness has been bred in to us for generations. They have to be told or they'll just keep coming… like insects." He sighed as if they wouldn't understand and placed his hand on the doorknob.
"You can't go out there!" Andrew protested, "You'll get killed!"
"Hace," Crovix scowled grabbing him by the shoulder.
He turned and looked back at her with slight intrigue in his eyes.
"H-Hace?" he smiled lifting his hair to reveal Pike's strangely colored eye before walking out into the streets.
Crovix's jaw dropped and she ran after Pike, still in Hace's body.
"You should be dead! You know that!" Crovix shouted after Pike, who was running through the streets away from the house and toward the DWMA.
"I know," he replied sheepishly pushing her to the ground as something erupted off to the left of the two and sent debris toward them.
Once the dust settled and they had witnessed a few members of Legion defeat a weapon and meister, before bolting toward the school, they stood again and began to run in the same direction. The night was becoming progressively colder and the air bit their faces as they ran, making it difficult to speak to one another, but that didn't stop Crovix from trying to pry the story from Pike.
"Sterling's really hurt because of Anna! And we have no idea what's happened to Karsh or Helena!" Crovix exclaimed and Pike turned to her.
"I know, I'm s-sorry, but I can't help th-that!" he stuttered, "I just want to get Legion out of the city!"
"What after that!? What about Hace's body! Why would you keep it after you killed his soul? How can you live like that?"
"I didn't kill him," Pike replied running a few more streets forward and ducking behind a building with Crovix as several more people ran by. "His soul's still here," he continued, touching his chest gently, "I'm just borrowing this."
A look of disgust and confusion spread across Crovix's face. "You're sharing the body?!"
"N-no! I'll give it back! I swear!"
For the first time since they had met Crovix looked down upon Pike with a pity that ached with compassion. She couldn't help but wonder if he really was as bad as he seemed or if was just doing what was expected of him, what he thought was right. She didn't always like to see the good in a person like Pike, mostly because it was such a hard thing to do and required understanding, which was something that was never truly abundant in human beings. Even so it was as if Pike was instead working to be closer to her, without her even trying.
"S-so what's the plan?" Crovix said trying to smile at Pike, but finding she could not look at him as Pike while he still wore Hace's face.
"W-well we need to get to Lord Death, after that I can use my magic to point out those who've been corrupted."
"How…?"
"That's their job. We see a witch, kill it, and take their magic. If I use myself as bait by showing my magic then the corrupt ones who only look for power will come get me without caring about who I am. They think I'm Hace, that's what I've been telling them, so I'll just say that I'm actually Pike in Hace's body, which is true."
"And if they know it's you and still try and attack then the meisters will see who they can kill."
"R-right."
"And after that?"
"…." Pike shrugged slowly, "H-hope we don't get killed by the meisters?"
"Yeah, that too, but how are we sure the meisters even going to go after the Legion's corrupted members?"
"… I-I hope they do, or we'll be dead."
Crovix sighed and ran a hand down her face. "Alright, just as long as Hace is okay."
"He'll be f-fine. We have about ten minutes before my soul and magic fades out."
Again they stood and began running toward the school, Crovix taking Pike by the hand as their pace became quicker and they would spontaneously take different turns to lose or avoid being seen by others. Little by little the DWMA came into view on the horizon, over the tops of the buildings, but as they neared they could see the stairs had become a battleground with Lord Death at the top holding two guns which Crovix presumed where his demon weapons. Occasionally they could catch a glimpse of Maka and Soul a few steps below and further down were Tsubaki and Black*Star, along with other meisters trying to keep them away from the school. Completely were unaware that this was what Legion wanted, a chance at the top meisters, looking to get rid of enough weapons and to get Lord Death's attention for their leader.
"How do we get up there?" Pike murmured to himself, knowing that he could get through the Legion army easily, but if any meisters knew he was the leader then he would become the main target.
Crovix smiled as if this were a joke and said, "I have an idea."
She put her two index fingers into her mouths and whistled as loudly as she could. Somewhere in the distance, beyond what they were capable of hearing, glass shattered and something was sent hurtling toward them so quickly it looked like little more than a smudge in the air as it passed. Crovix's longer pieces of hair were swept with it as it went and both turned their heads slightly to the left to see where it had gone.
"What was that?" Pike asked nervously.
Crovix frowned and sighed, "That's just my luck."
A slight wiring filled the air again and the thing raced by for the second time, spun around a yard to their right and zoomed back to Crovix, this time staying in front of her.
"M-… magic broom," she said with a guilty smile before climbing onto her bristle-less broom and extending a hand to Pike, who climbed on behind her. The broom raced forward again toward the school with several drops in altitude and sporadic swerves left and right.
"I-is this safe?!" Pike cried as they plunged at least six or seven feet before flying straight again.
"Does it look like it's safe!" Crovix replied almost grinning as they came in for a rough landing on top of a building that lay directly in front of the DWMA steps.
"W-we need to be over there!" Pike said pointing to Lord Death, who was firing his weapons rapidly into the crowd closing in around him, still he did not seem frightened in the slightest.
Maka and Black*Star, however, did look as though they were becoming slightly nervous as other weapons were killed and more Legion members reassigned themselves to the two.
"Okay," Crovix said patting her broom quickly and their feet left the ground again.
"Just right by Lord Death!"
"Got it!" she replied and the broom raced forward over the heads of Legion's army and toward Lord Death. Suddenly the nose of the broom turned upward and soared up the face of the building. When they had lifted nearly fifty feet above the crowd the broom suddenly began to drift away from them and fell back toward the earth, Crovix and Pike did the same.
Eyes did not travel with them as they fell, and it did not take long for them to hit something, but it wasn't the ground. Pike landed on one of the building's window ledges while Crovix on the middle spike that jutted from the building toward the city and had been broken on several occasions, all due to the same person. She gasped, looking down at the battle, and began trying to hoist herself up onto the ledge.
"A-are you okay?! Should I come get you?!" Pike exclaimed over the penetrating sounds from below.
"No!" she replied looking over her shoulder, "Don't worry! I'm fine!"
Pike nodded and stood up to shout into the crowd, but suddenly his legs gave out and he fell back to his knees. Crovix furrowed her brow in concentration and began crawling back toward him on her hands and knees.
"Sure y-you're okay?" Pike asked as Crovix reached him.
"Yeah. What's going-?" she began but looked backwards at the clock tower, seeing that his time was almost up.
"We agreed ten minutes before Hace came back," Pike replied.
"Well can't you just come back after that?!"
He shook his head, "No, after that my soul is going to die, then Hace gets his body back."
"So how do we go through with the plan now?"
Pike smiled nervously like he always did and touched Crovix's shoulder hesitantly.
"… Sorry," he murmured.
She shook her head quickly and smiled back saying, "… No, you did a good job."
Pike nodded as his eyes closed and his soul was gently lifted from Hace's body, it hovered a moment before dispersing into the air. There was a long moment where Hace did not move and Crovix sat holding him and her breath.
After a moment of hopeless wondering Hace's nostrils flared and his chest began to rise and fall continuously. His left eye opened a crack, then the right, both normally colored, Crovix then took his hand and pulled him upright into a sitting position. He stayed perfectly still for a moment before slouching forward into her.
"Been a while," Hace coughed placing his chin on her shoulder as she reluctantly placed her hands on his back.
"… Y-yeah… it has," she said screwing her face up and putting her nose in the air to keep from tears.
They stayed this way for a moment before the sound of the battle became too much for them to ignore and Hace said, "… So the plan didn't work?"
"It didn't have time, we weren't quick enough…."
Hace hesitated a moment before continuing, "Not all your magic is gone, right?"
She extended one hand out in front of her and a few black feathers fell to the ground.
"That's all I can do," Crovix said, her face falling. "I'm not a witch, I'm just me."
"You're better than just you," Hace said getting to his feet, "because you are the only you that there is!"
"We're just kids! No one expected us to even get this far!"
"You did! Now where are we expecting to go next?" Hace grinned standing in front of her to face the crowd.
Crovix inhaled deeply and extended a hand into the air. A green bolt of energy cracked out of it like a lightning bolt and swung several times against the black night sky as if it were a whip. Several from below looked up because of the sound, most because they sensed magic, and the rest because everyone else had stopped what they were doing.
Hace stepped forward with his chest full of pride as he leaned into the lie that he had just done that. An eerie silence fell over the crowd as they looked up at him, some inching forward with the anticipation of getting their hands on witches' magic.
"T-this is your viceroy!" Hace said with a slight stutter so Crovix couldn't tell if he was trying to sound like Pike or if he was just nervous.
"… Keep going."
"Uh, I'm not Hace like I've been telling you for the past couple of months… I'm still Pike, I was just able to switch into his body by using… my magic."
More than half the crowd shifted excitedly.
"I have magic in my blood," he sighed glancing back at Crovix.
"Put your hand in the air," Crovix whispered from behind him.
"Why?" he replied out of the corner of his mouth.
"Just do it!"
Hace held his hand up into the air as Crovix, still hidden by him, moved her hands in a circular motion around something that wasn't there. Almost instantly a green light appeared between her hands, connected to her palms by tiny green circles of magic. Hace glanced over his shoulder to see something was happening behind Crovix as well. Huge, feathery, green, and slightly transparent wings had grown up behind her and were flapping gently, but she did not seem to notice. They were made of some type of magic and while it was evident that she could not use these for flight of any kind it was still slightly unsettling. The ball of energy had become about the size of a large football now and without warning it broke from her hands and soared upward, so it looked as if Hace had conjured it.
All at once the crowd broke into panic as most of Legion ran past the meisters and Lord Death toward Hace and Crovix.
"What now?!" Hace murmured as they took a step backwards and their backs now against the side of the building.
"T-they're not going for it!" Crovix murmured as the meisters let Legion pass them to get to Hace.
Hace watched those corrupted by power try to scale the building with a hopeless sigh before he looked to Crovix and extended a hand. Crovix gave him a guilty smile and took it, expecting the end, but suddenly Hace's hand in hers transformed into the handle of his bow form. Her smile grew wide and her eyes narrowed.
"Did you think we were going out without a fight?" he laughed grinning at her.
"Not a chance," she replied drawing an arrow of her soul wavelength out of nothing and pointing it at one Legion member who stood near the meisters. Smiling she released the arrow, which flew directly to its intended target and struck him in the chest. The man wavered slightly before retracting into a tight black ball which then exploded into a keshin egg soul.
The meisters watched it for a moment, then looked to the Legion members that hadn't moved, standing with frightened faces behind then, then to the ring of those trying to get to Hace.
Maka, standing amongst the other meisters suddenly gripped Soul tightly and ran toward the crowd, hoping she wasn't making a huge mistake. She raised Soul as she ran and sliced sideways coming upon the one closest to her. The person did the same as the one Crovix has shot, and left only a red soul in her place. Most were beginning to understand now; those who were trying to get Hace were the ones with the corrupt souls.
Crovix smiled as she continued to fire into the crowd as meisters and weapons now found it easy to attack, knowing it would now be simple to kill Legion without killing its innocent members. With the higher ground it was very easy to keep enemies away and the crowd began to shrink away, but as the crowd grew closer more and more people were making it up onto the ledge.
Crovix shot at a few that stood around them and they fell, but it was becoming incredibly difficult for her to hold her ground.
A man climbed onto the ledge holding a sword and cut across the bow. Hace exclaimed in shock, but for the most part seemed alright as Crovix used him as a sword to fend off the attacker. Their weapons collided as the man drew back his fist and punched Crovix in the face. She stumbled backwards as Hace called foul, but no one was listening.
Hace transformed from his weapon form and stood in front of her.
"Get out of the way!" Crovix exclaimed as another Legion member pulled himself up behind her with a type of hammer weapon.
Hace glanced backwards just in time to see him use it to knock her unconscious and push her off the ledge, toward the crowd at least forty feet below. Without a second thought Hace's feet left the ground and he grabbed Crovix mid fall around her middle, his other arm became a weapon which he drove into the side of the building's shingled roof to slow them down. Singles bounced from the roof as they slowly came to a stop, still dangling about twenty feet over the ground.
Hace struggled to hold Crovix up as he glanced above him to see the two Legion members smile and begin climbing down after him. His breathing quickened as he shut his eyes tightly and turned his head sideways into his shoulder as they reach him. One yanked Crovix back up onto the ledge and threw her against the wall and the other took Hace.
"Kill him! Kill him!" the first laughed in a deep, cruel voice as the second took Hace by the throat, forced him against the wall, and punched him in the stomach as hard as he possibly could. The second then swore and spit at Hace as he attempted to double over in pain, but found he could not due to the tight grip on him.
The second hit him again and the first punched him across the face as his ears began to fill with the ringing of curses. Hace's eyes focused on the two in front of him and found that now there were three, and then four, and five. Was this really what they would have done to Pike if they had found out who he truly was?
"Cut him!" exclaimed a female voice as more and more appeared, "He doesn't deserve to be part of Legion!"
The person holding him drew a knife and tossed it to the one beside him; Hace began to squirm and kick out at those around him, but nothing was working. The one with the knife closed in and forced it to the Legion tattoo on Hace's face. It pressed his cheek in for only a brief moment before puncturing his skin and drawing blood.
He screamed as the knife slid across his cheek and split his Legion tattoo horizontally, then was dragged all the way back to his ear and down to his jaw. Blood dribbled down his face and off his chin as he began to panic and found that he was too distraught to even turn an arm into his weapon form.
He could hear someone shout as the knife made its way to his neck and suddenly Crovix broke through the crowd, reaching for him as she was caught around the middle and thrown down. Hace attempted to shout but the grip on his throat was so tight that he couldn't form words.
Crovix spoke something awful, something that Hace never would have expected her to say, and tried to use what little magic she had left in her body to drive back Hace's attackers. A small spark formed between her hands and she forced it at the man holding Hace. It swerved slightly but upon hitting him exploded and knocked him backwards off the side of the building.
There was a sudden shift in attention as Legion seemed to have found two with magic in their blood. Crovix dove forward and grabbed onto Hace as the crowd closed in with both clinging to each other tightly. They bowed their heads into each other's shoulders and waited to be cut apart as Legion jumped toward them, grabbing at their clothes and hair, yanking them apart and trying to be the first to stab and kill one.
Ick, why is this so long!? XD proud to say there's only one chapter left! Enjoy!

Story&Art (c) *Tennessee11741
© 2011 - 2024 Tennessee11741
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Fluffypuppy77's avatar
NUUUUU MUST HAVE MORE!!!!!!!