spira_rp | If you need an explanation

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If you need an explanation

Things had been fucking weird since Orochimaru's death. The Palace had been a weird place to be; Tayuya answered to Kuja now, and that was weird enough. Kuja had always been the damned prettyboy she didn't have much to do with, except for mocking Kadaj for taking after him. Now she had to report to him, take instruction from him...

They'd had to clear out Orochimaru's labs, too. That had been really fucking weird. There'd been a few samples to terminate and dispose of, and lots of research notes to either move, or destroy. L had claimed some, Kuja had, of course, been given everything relevant to the Sound Five....

There'd been some stuff on the Arrancar. Orochimaru had kept some data records from his encounters with some, like Ulquiorra, and Nel, and lots of data on Wonderweiss. Tayuya hadn't told Kuja about that, she knew what politics in Khamja could be like. She'd considered destroying it, at first, but then.... There was only one person that really should have data on the Arrancar, and she knew that most of it probably wouldn't be new, but some of the stuff on Wonderweiss at least, and the procedure he'd been put through might be helpful.

She'd taken it to Aizen, quietly, and somewhat sullenly, telling him that she wouldn't want it to get into the wrong hands. Kuja wouldn't have any use for it anyway, not that she'd asked him, but whoever was taking over the labs, and it clearly wasn't Szayel because he'd bitched loudly about that fact when he'd found out, might have, and they probably shouldn't have it.

She wondered if it had influenced the later decision to allow her, Grimmjow, and Yylfordt out together. Kadaj's absence in their little party was still being felt, at least by her. It was odd just hanging about the Palace. The rest of the Sound Five, Four now, since Kimimaro had taken the peaceful out offered to him, had got over their anger with her for being friends with the Arrancar. It wasn't her fault Nnoitra had got involved, and anyway, it wasn't like she was friends with Nnoitra. Sleeping with him once didn't make them fucking buddies.

Yylfordt had used the excuse of wanting to stop by Rush Valley and pick up some supplies. It was as good an excuse as any, and clearing it with Kuja was easy enough for her once Grimmjow and Yylfordt had been given the okay. Apache wasn't allowed, though; maybe it was because she wasn't actually part of Skite, or maybe Aizen just didn't want too many of the hotheads going out together. Tayuya was hotheaded too, but Aizen hadn't seemed to make much grumble about her joining them. Of course, she was part of Skite, and wasn't under Aizen's control, but maybe handing over that data had got her in Aizen's good books for a couple of days.

She'd asked Kuja if she could get out of the Palace for a while. He probably knew, or at least suspected, that part of her reason for wanting to get out was to see if they could get in touch with Kadaj, even if he wasn't prepared to come back home yet, but she wasn't about to admit that to Kuja. Still, monkeyboy wasn't dumb.

Yylfordt had done his shopping in Rush Valley, and then they'd moved on to the desert around, killing time before heading back, and picking on some of the local wildlife. Tayuya, at least, was finally feeling a bit better, especially after she'd called on Ifrit to murder some really unfortunate things. Working with her Aeons made her feel better in general, and Ifrit was her first, so he was always special.

Killing things helped too.

She'd dismissed Ifrit and was wearing a wicked grin when the absence of the Aeon's reiatsu allowed another one to creep across her senses.

"You have gotta be fucking shitting me," she said, turning towards where it was coming from. She couldn't see anyone there yet, but she could feel it there. They weren't trying to hide their presence, so they were probably on a hunt, or doing the same as them and letting off steam by murdering things that didn't deserve it.

She'd felt the Ryoka berserker's reiatsu enough times to know it by now.

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Saix saw the flames and the blackness from Axel, and scowled. Lea was a self sacrificing idiot; their healer was down, he shouldn't be using techniques which harmed himself except as a last resort.

Except that it was a last resort. Saix scowled further at that realisation, feeling a horrible, cold tightness in his stomach.

His opponent was still holding Lunatic. Having been hit with it once already, Saix was reluctant to run in and get hit with it again. Instead, he paused, catching his breath. He didn't really know what to do now. They were losing.

He didn't want to lose Lea again.

Axel's eyes widened at the Aeon's approach and he scrambled to move aside and avoid the attack heading his way. The size of the whale made it practically impossible. He evaded the worst of it, but cried out as the tips of Bismarck's spear-like Machina protrusions tore through his clothing and the flesh of his arm, the pain driving him to one knee. He gritted his teeth and gripped the Chakram that remained to him in a trembling fist.

He struggled to focus his Chakra enough to cast a Fire spell on himself. At this rate, they'd be lucky to come out of the other side of this battle.

Grimmjow risked a glance at Tayuya's side of the battle. She was okay, and Bismarck was doing its job against the Fire Elemental. He'd seen his Dark Knight techniques in the last battle, so he didn't have any doubt that he'd resort to self-damaging attacks to try and take out the Aeon. It didn't look like he needed to, though. Bismarck was doing a good enough job of shredding him itself. Good.

Yylfordt was suffering, though. He was grounded, and keeping himself going on potions. That was less good.

Grimmjow turned his attention back to the Berserker, wanting to finish the fight quickly. First, he decided that denying him his weapon was a good idea and hurled the Claymore with all his strength as far as he could out into the sands where it stuck in a dune, heavy-end first.

With that taken care of, he steeled himself, raised his sword, and moved in for a vicious attack.

Saix followed the trajectory of the claymore with his eyes, watching as it landed in a dune, far out of reach. Half a moment later it burst into light and disappeared.

Saix held his hand, collecting his chakra into a new copy of the weapon. He could hold the claymore's shape well enough, but over time it would weaken, and if Saix lost contact with the weapon that would happen a lot faster, but Saix, out of all of them who had trained, was the fastest at recreating his weapon once lost.

Saix was already moving to swing as the weapon reformed in his hand, and he channeled chakra down it, letting his enemy run directly into a ranged attack.

Saix realised late that it felt different, that the colour wasn't blue and black like usual but fiery orange and red. His chakra had always taken the shape of flames, but they were cold flames, blue ones, that had no capacity to burn. Now, even Saix could feel the heat as the attack left his weapon and trailed through the air like a flaming ribbon.

It didn't feel like his own chakra, either. He spared a glance in Axel's direction, a silent question forming on his lips.

Tayuya was riding the vindictive high of her enemy's cry of pain, when she felt something off in Grimmjow's direction.

The berserker shouldn't be using fire. The berserker shouldn't be capable of using fire like that. Everything they knew about the berserker said he was non-elemental, and next to never used magic.

She could feel that wasn't the berserker's chakra behind the move. It felt like Red's, and that--

"Grimmjow!"

Grimmjow had his sword raised to block the attack from Saix, but Pantera could do nothing to stop the fire, and he had no time to use any of his Sentinel techniques.

He snarled as the flames seared his flesh, his hierro doing nothing to protect him from the fire. The pain was blinding and the smell of his own burning flesh caught in his nose.

He'd fought Saix enough to know that elemental magic was unlikely to be in his roster, so confusion mixed with the agony of being burned.

Axel cast his own spell to try and boost his recovery time, only dimly aware of what was going on around him. It didn't do much to help. He felt little improvement. The gouges in his arm and side still hurt and blood still leaked through his fingers.

When he felt the strong sensation of a curious familiar Chakra and spell, he looked up.

That was when he heard the Summoner cry out.

Saix didn't understand what had just happened, but he recognised when he had an opportunity he could ill afford to waste. He moved in to launch a brutal attack while his opponent was injured and off his guard.

He needed to finish this fight, because Lea was still in trouble against the Aeon.

Saix raised his claymore and swung, hard, while he had the opening.

With Tayuya's shout, Yylfordt's attention swung to Grimmjow.

Berserker boy using fire moves. Well, that was new. The funny thing was that everyone seemed surprised by it, including Berserker boy, and that was interesting. Shame Ulquiorra wasn't here this time, really.

Yylfordt hurt, but he dragged himself back to his feet. If Grimmjow couldn't rally himself, they were in trouble again. He drew his sword.

Not that he'd last long if he had to re-enter the fight.

"Come on, Grimmjow," he muttered.

Tayuya grit her teeth. Grimmjow was hurt, but she wouldn't lose focus. Her own fight was still going.

"Boost," she hissed to Bismarck.

Red was trying to patch himself up, which meant he was suffering. Good. Tayuya was going to make him and the berserker suffer.

Grimmjow saw the swing in time to get his sword up to block it, hand braced against the flat of his blade. His arms shook as they took the force of the blow and he dug in with his feet for the traction needed to throw his weight behind a move to push it off.

He stood, teeth grit and panting, sword gripped so hard in his hand that his knuckles were white. To his credit, he didn't look down at his chest to see how bad the damage was. There should be time for that later.

The berserker was winning, but all wasn't lost. Grimmjow hadn't yet released. He raised a hand to fire a bala at him, to put some distance between them, and let the bolt fly with a low thrum of sound.

Axel got to his feet.

Aeons were a problem, he decided. He narrowed his eyes at the beast and considered his options. It was immune to Fire, so his natural abilities were useless, and it was large, so basic physical attacks weren't likely to have much effect.

Black Sky was a possibility, but he didn't want to risk damaging Saix or Aerith, not when the former had the upper hand for now. It would likely take out the Al Bhed and debilitate the blue-haired enemy, but it wouldn't be enough to finish off the Aeon or the Summoner.

For one crazy moment he considered using Charon, but he squashed that thought as soon as it came to him. It might not be enough and, if it wasn't, it would leave Saix alone to face the Aeon and his own enemy.

He scowled at the girl pulling the Aeon's strings and raised a hand to cast.

In the end, he settled on Demi.

Aerith opened her eyes, feeling muzzy headed and off-balance.

Where were they? It was like waking at some odd hour of the night, in some odd location, unsure of what time it was, or which bed you were in, like her first nights in Rabanastre had been.

Urgency washed over her when she felt, and spotted, the Aeon. Lea was badly hurt, Saix was doing a little better although Regen had worn off, but Lea was facing an Aeon that was his opposite element.

Lea wouldn't know, she realised. He wouldn't know how Aeons fought, how careful he had to be against one. The girl, the Summoner, didn't look concerned for any damage her Aeon had taken, which meant that Lea was in more trouble than even he knew.

She gathered her chakra, and cast NulTide on them all as Lea used Demi. His wounds would be the least of his concerns if the Aeon used its Overdrive on him.

Tayuya growled at the turn of events. Echo was wearing off, which meant the mage was back on her feet, and that presented a problem. She could send the mage back to sleep and command Bismarck at the same time.

"Yylfordt, get the girl," she spat, just before Bismarck was hit with Red's Demi spell.

Boost had done the trick--

"Cocksucking little shitweasel," she hissed, audibly. NulTide was not what she wanted to see come into play.

Fuck fuck fuck... Now she had a problem. She could spend time negating the Nul spell with water spells, but Bismarck was hurting and she didn't want to waste that kind of time and let this guy continue attacking. As long as the mage was back on her feet, she'd only reapply them anyway.

She glanced over at Grimmjow. He was in worse condition than the Berserker, although that didn't mean he couldn't win.

She needed to heal Bismarck, and take out the girl for good. But that left Red free to attack....

Fuck it she didn't want to lose this fight.

"Heal with Waterga," she instructed.

Tayuya drew his attention to the white mage. Her being back on her feet meant the fight was going to turn against them again quickly. It'd turn even faster if he couldn't take the girl down before her Limit was triggered.

He still felt sick, and weak, and he was mostly on his feet through force of will. He also had to get past Red to get to the girl

"This is not a good day for me," he grumbled, readying himself to make a dash for it and take the girl out while Tayuya healed her Aeon.

He was bowled over by a blast of non-elemental chakra he hadn't even seen coming, and landed on his face in the sand.

Saix leapt back, half dodging his opponent's attack, half deflecting it with the claymore, which knocked a chunk out of the claymore. His feet skidded in the sand.

He was keeping one eye on Axel's fight, and opponent, and was preparing to send a blast of chakra at the Aeon, when he spotted the blond one getting ready to re-enter the fray. He didn't notice the Nul spell that landed on himself, signalling Aerith's return to the fight, and instead smacked his claymore into the sand, sending a plume of black and blue chakra towards the blond fighter. Axel had enough problems without trying to deal with that as well, and the blond was weakened already.

Saix turned his attention back to his own opponent quickly. If he was driving Saix back with ranged attacks, he was about to do something Saix wasn't prepared for him to do.

Grimmjow took the brief let-up created by Saix's attack on Yylfordt as an opportunity. He held his sword one-handed, hilt out, and dragged his nails down the blade, setting off a blue glow along its length.

"Grind, Pantera!" He snarled, shielding his eyes from the swirling sand as his Chakra levels increased and the release transformation began.

Axel glared at the Summoner, braced himself to be hit with a Water spell and was relieved when it didn't come. The Aeon had healed itself, though. That was ... bad.

He didn't risk a glance at Aerith. She was back on her feet, but Saix had taken out the Al Bhed, so there was nobody to cause her any problems.

He narrowed his eyes and hurled his Chakram at the Aeon. It might not be effected by the Elemental properties of it, but it should still be hurt by a spiked metal wheel flying at its hide.

With NulTide applied, Aerith set her attention to the important task of healing the boys.

She concentrated her chakra into the most potent curative spell she could cast before letting it loose on Lea. He was the one in most urgent need right now.

Although Saix was hurting too. He'd been using too much chakra, she realised, and his reiatsu was feeling a little ragged. While she could heal him, she couldn't replenish his chakra for him.

Which Saix's opponent called out, she felt his power surge, just like that woman had done last time, when she'd nearly killed Lea.

Saix grit his teeth and cursed. He wasn't in a position to face his enemy's powered up form right now, and betting that he'd reach his own limit before he accrued too much damage was a gamble with a lot at stake.

He raised his damaged claymore and moved in to attack, not wanting to let his enemy have a moment. He didn't need any further advantages.

Tayuya cursed too, but for different reasons. With Yylfordt down, there was no one free to take out the girl, and if what the others had said was true, then her super special limit was broken by hurting her allies, which they'd have to do to get to her.

Fuck.

"Grimmjow! Fa lyh'd feh fedr dra raymehk pedlr pylg uh ran vilgehk vaad. Ev fa rind draca yccrumac duu silr, cra'mm dnekkan dryd vilgehk suja cra tet dryd vnaygat ajanouha uid mycd vilgehk desa, yht drah fa'na dah tevvanahd lumuinc uv vilgat. Yylfordt'c tufh, cra'mm hakyda yho Aeon E pnehk uid, yht drana'c hu fyo draca telgraytc yna kuehk du mad ic kad hayn ran. Fa'na tuha. Fa'na kuehk du ryja du vilg 'as ib aqdny rynt haqd desa ehcdayt."

She didn't want to admit to the reasons they were beaten in a way they'd be able to understand, though. She still had some pride.

Grimmjow felt the surge of power that accompanied his release and bared his teeth at his enemy even before the sand sent up by his Chakra boost had settled.

He felt stronger, faster and more capable in this form. It made him look half an animal, but the speed and strength boost coupled with the regenerative powe--

The pain hadn't abated.

He felt the movement of his opponent and roared, sending a wave of energy at him so powerful it could put Bismarck to shame. He looked down and touched a black, clawed hand to the burn on his chest in the moment's pause it gave him. His release hadn't healed him, not fully. The mark was still there and it still hurt, for all it wasn't open and exposed any more.

He snarled at Saix, furious, ears pulling back in his anger. He could have lost it then, but Tayuya's voice cut through his anger like a knife.

She had a point. He was the only one that had witnessed the mage's limit first hand and experienced the effects of it.

He swore, his nose crinkling as he bared his fangs again, snarling "Bimm pylg!" loudly enough to get though to Yylfordt.

Edited 2014-07-09 16:02 (UTC)

Axel, still panting, was glad of the cure spell from Aerith. It made him feel stronger, better, more able to continue.

He straightened in time to hear Saix's opponent shout something and then flood the battlefield with his reiatsu. It was like last time. He steeled himself, preparing for a harder fight... but scowled when the Bard called something in Al Bhed.

He didn't understand a word of it. It was too fast.

Saix tried, and failed, to maintain his footing in the face of his opponent's retaliation. His feet slipped under him in the sand, and even using Lunatic to shield himself didn't stop him being blown backwards as the ground shifted under him.

He picked himself back up when it was over, prepared for a further onslaught, and holding his claymore defensively.

Yylfordt felt like shit. Every movement ached, and he felt weak, but he heard Grimmjow, and he understood what that command meant.

He staggered, weakly, to his feet, standing like a man on his last leg. The way he carried his sword certainly didn't suggest he was about to attack anyone.

He couldn't even concentrate to release, that was what sucked more than anything. Although releasing in a weakened state like this was probably a bad idea anyway.

He looked at Grimmjow, and then at the Ryoka, before taking a couple of halting steps backwards.

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