spira_rp | And I don’t wanna say I told you so...

Entry tags:

And I don’t wanna say I told you so...

Gin Ichimaru's footsteps were light on the Desert Palace's ancient stone floor. They were soft enough to barely echo off the walls except for the scuff of a toe or heel.

He liked the Palace at night. It was more peaceful, like any populated place tended to be when most of the inhabitants were in bed and, for the most part, quiet. Even the air seemed to move more quietly when the hum of conversation and the distant sparks and flares of spiritual pressure were felt from the training centre, where the wards applied didn't keep it back if the door was left open.

Peaceful as it was, he rarely slept there. He had somewhere else for that, somewhere within his jurisdiction as a Gotei captain. He retained a room though, and it was from there that he was walking, heading in the direction of the quiet kitchen, while the borrowed sky outside the window was dark and the air was cool and filled with the smells of night time.

Nobody seemed to be up. He was sure that some of the denizens would still be awake, doing whatever they felt like in their rooms, but nobody was up and about. It was too late for the night owls and too early for the morning people. He smiled to himself as he reached the top of the stairs down to the main hall, but the expression fell away abruptly when the sound of an alarm split the silence.

The noise set every nerve in Gin's teeth on edge. Halfway between a scream and a siren, it was a magically amplified and erratic, half-undulating sound that had obviously been designed not to be ignored under any of the circumstances it might be set off to. It was hideous, organic and ear-splittingly loud, akin to the sound of a thousand babies crying and just as many tomcats yowling, foxes screaming and nails being drawn down a chalk board and it rose and fell in tone enough that it was impossible to get used to. For a moment, even Gin stood frozen at the top of the stairs, eyes briefly wide, the hair on the back of his neck on end.

"That's new," he said to himself, his soft voice drowned by the screechy baying of the siren.

He headed down to the hall, feet quick on the stairs. From beyond the front door, and the hall that separated the door to the Zertinan Caverns from the palace proper, he heard a low roar, angry and bellowing, even with the siren's wail doing its best to block everything else out.

"Oh," he said. "Look's like one of Kuja's little pets has slipped its leash." He smiled to himself, directing his gaze up the stairs, anticipating appearances from other members of the Clan. "This should be fun."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Marluxia had been present for other such contests. He'd observed Wonderweiss subjugating the Hellhound. It was the first time he'd ever seen such a thing, and it had been strangely tense at the time even though the monster in question would have been one easily dispatched by himself or Lumi.

This beast would not be readily dealt with, and this contest was taking much longer than others had.

Ulquiorra and Neliel had left, and then reappeared soon after. Ulquiorra first, dressed in his Arrancar uniform and wearing an expression of silent attentiveness. Neliel had reappeared shortly after, and given Marluxia a look that had graduated from merely poisonous to outright venomous.

He'd ignored her. There may be trouble later, but for now, Wonderweiss was more important.

In deference to Lumi's voiced concerns about having his gun for weaponry, Marluxia had collected his sword for him. He hadn't been pleased about the idea of leaving him, but he'd been satisfied that Wonderweiss was in this for the long haul.

He'd also taken the opportunity to dress, since standing before a wyrm such as that wearing nothing but pyjama bottoms felt uncomfortably vulnerable.

The air was thick with the battle raging on between Wonderweiss and the wyrm, although it continued in a form unseen. Marluxia was tiring, but he could manage. He hoped that Wonderweiss would not be suffering from his own fatigue in the contest against the wyrm. It would be a pity for him to lose to it after fighting so long.

Lumi stood a small but significant distance back from Wondwerweiss, in line with his Torama. Neither were close enough to be a distraction, but they were near enough to rush in should everything go sour. He stood, not stiffly, but at attention and with his shoulders squared. He, like Wonderweiss, hadn't wavered. Somehow, he didn't look vulnerable, not even in what he was, and wasn't, wearing.

Something shifted in the air, something so subtle it was barely there, something that may have been beneath the notice of most of those present. The Torama, who had been sitting on his haunches like a temple-side statue, stood, sensing it too.

Lumi straightened a little, eyes narrowing, and looked over his shoulder, to Marluxia. Hours ago, he had felt him leave, and, hours ago, he had felt him return. That was the only thing that could have made him take his eyes off the Wyrm, or off Wonderweiss, and he had seen what he had brought when he had looked round back then.

Something like a sense of profound relief had rushed through him at the sight of his sword and he had nodded his thanks, his expression briefly open, before turning back to the silent and impossibly tense battle between the boy and the dragon.

He hadn't turned back since. Marluxia's presence was enough, and he didn't need to see him for that. If his Chakra had flared, he would have attended to the cause, but it hadn't been necessary. Neliel, evidently, had kept her head.

When he turned now, it was to convey that something was different, that something had changed. He held out his hand for the sword, just in case. The shift was the time to make sure he was really ready.

Submit now, Wonderweiss willed again, his fists balling at his sides.

He resisted a renewed urge to blink sweat from his eyes and brought his front teeth together again in a click, to bring back his focus. It was an action common to beastmasters and, for whatever reason, it seemed to work.

He wasn't going to lose. He wasn't going to give up, not now. Not after this, not with what was at stake.

Kneel...

Ulquiorra had stood, still as the night, hands in his pockets, observing, and waiting. The air was tense, frought with power that was not unlike the sense in the air when Espada fought with their releases. This was more intense than it had been when Halibel, Grimmjow, and Nnoitra had been fighting, but the atmosphere hadn't wavered in the hours since.

Nor had Wonderweiss. Nor had Lumi.

Marluxia had left, and returned, dressed and bearing a sword that Ulquiorra had never seen before. Neliel had joined Ulquiorra some time later, standing in her own uniform, mask out and an oppressive sense to her reiatsu that strongly suggested hell awaited the next thing to cross her today.

It was no concern of Ulquiorra's, but he had expected better of Neliel. She was too emotional, too easily led to make mistakes by affection for others. It would be her undoing if she did not master it.

The atmosphere shifted, for the first time in many hours, and Ulquiorra curled his hand around Murcielago's hilt and watched, carefully.

Marluxia had allowed Lumi a twitch of a smile at his first glance back. Marluxia didn't understand Lumi's attachment to his sword when he was, primarily, a ranged fighter. He preferred guns, and his ruin spells were a thing to behold, though magic wasn't his forte.

Still, he rarely travelled without the sword, and Marluxia put it down to Lumi preferring to keep his options open. There was something odd about standing back and holding onto it, perhaps because it was rare that Lumi didn't carry it. Marluxia didn't bother to examine his feelings on the matter. They had other concerns right now.

He felt the change in the air, and he was already moving to hand Lumi his sword before he saw Lumi reaching back for it, obviously reluctant to take his eyes from the wyrm.

Marluxia inhaled slowly, ready to call on a portal, but also gathering himself to use the magic innate to the area, should he have to. He wasn't about to let Lumi get hurt if that thing attacked.

He had been revered, once. The fire he commanded had brought many of these little creatures before him, when he was young and when he was younger than that. His fire had always been powerful, and others had always sought him out for that power.

He had been stronger than every one that had come to him over the years, and they had grown stronger as he had grown older, and eventually he had grown older than the creatures that came for him, too. Then, seeing that none could best him by the right methods, they had used wrong ones, cruel ones, methods he could not fight, that were not a fair contest of wills. They had gathered, and put the collar on him, and the magicks within it had tethered his will, and dulled his mind.

But not his anger.

The collar had failed centuries later, long after those that had placed it on him were gone, and he'd been free once more, burning with anger at these little creatures as the fire within him had burned the flesh of any that had come to find him in the centuries since.

Then one lone little creature had found him, and restored the magicks within the collar, but he'd been older, and harder, and angrier this time, and those magicks hadn't been sufficient to tether him forever.

Now there was this little one, using the old methods to try and tame his will again. He was small, and fragile, but he had a tenacity the wyrm could respect.

Kneel. He had never knelt. Submit. He had never submitted. But the will of this little one battered against his own until those demands became more like invitations.

Submit. Yes.

He did.

Wonderweiss found the dragon's will give way. He took in a sharp breath, found that he was able to blink, and did so rapidly to clear the sweat from his eyes.

Without wasting a moment he raised a hand towards the roof of the cavern, palm up, and concentrated, not losing his focus, not now. Light collected on the surface his palm, burning bright and white, and the power from that seemed to surge down his arm and force its way into his skull.

The...Thev...

Thoughts ran through his mind. They weren't ordered or profound. They were simply there, like feelings, notions, as if they were appealing to every sense he had.

Fire. People bowing. Young buildings in an ancient style. Strength. The smell of damp grass. Coastal water. Darkness. The scape of claws on stone. A sense of being alone, and chained...

"By the will of Etro," he said, quietly, for the words did not need to be said loudly...

All of those thoughts, scents, feelings came together at once, merging into one word, one distinct word that stood out beyond everything else. He could see it written, though the script meant nothing to him. The sound did, though. The sound echoed in his mind, ahead of every other thought, every other feeling.

The Wyrm's name.

"Kneel as my Sirei," he said, his voice strong, but not forceful. "Thevetat."

Nel's temper still scorched, though she kept her reiatsu in check. She'd been prepared to step in and fight, to unleash Gamuza's full power to fend off an angry wyrm for the seconds it would buy, and make damn sure she survived it long enough to make sure Marluxia and Lumi caught the brunt of its ire, too.

They'd followed Wonderweiss out. They'd encouraged his actions, and they'd had no right. Wonderweiss was a boy, a teenager, too young to be in the position being an Arrancar had already put him in, and he'd already faced off against death in the interests of someone that didn't have the right to make that decision for him. Aizen hadn't been thinking of Wonderweiss's welfare when he'd had Orochimaru treat his mako poisoning.

Marluxia and Lumi hadn't been thinking of his welfare when they'd encouraged him to stand before this beast and try to tame it.

She was still angry at them, at Marluxia mostly because he was the one in control. Wonderweiss was an Arrancar, and not their concern. They had no business encouraging a course of action that had an Arrancar placing themselves in peril.

Nel had stood back, and watched both Wonderweiss and the wyrm, and Marluxia and Lumi, for the duration.

When the atmosphere broke, and Wonderweiss raised his arm, Nel blinked in surprise.

He'd actually done it? Could Wonderweiss really be that powerful a Beastmaster?

Ulquiorr had watched, and continued to watch. Aizen-sama would have no care for the full, tedious replay, but Ulquiorra could show him the important parts. The beginning.

Now the ending, too.

Ulquiorra adjusted his stance, attention fixed on Wonderweiss. He left his hand on his sword, just in case. The air broke, as if a storm had broken and then moved on, leaving behind relief in its wake.

Wonderweiss had beaten the wyrm. Ulquiorra had known of his potential power, but this was a demonstration. He was beginning to live up to it.

Lumi felt the moment when the dragon's will slackened.

He gripped his sword tightly, still on edge for something going wrong, but then he saw Wonderweiss begin the binding, and he relaxed his grip. The tension in his shoulders left him as the boy called out the Wyrm's name.

The name, he had been told, bound the beast. Trainers gave names to pets, but Beastmasters divined them, using the creature's true name to bind it. Wonderweiss had said that there was an ancient magic in names, and that Beastmasters still knew how to use them.

Wonderweiss certainly knew what he was talking about on the subject.

Lumi stood back, poised to move, waiting for the dragon to acknowledge the boy's calling of his name.

Thevetat.

No creature yet alive knew that name, but this one had learned it.

He exhaled, a long, slow, warm breath, that contained none of the magic he'd been harried for. As slowly as that exhale, his reiatsu lowered, drawn in, under control until it would no longer crush those weaker than this one in his surroundings.

He lowered his head to look at his new master, and those surrounding him, who stood with weapons ready. Some of them were strange, even among the strange death and not death contained within the others. The one with his name, however, separated from the fiend within, was a gentle being.

Gentle, but not soft, not weak. An unmelting core like metal made proof against his fire ran through this one.

Submission was, perhaps, not so bad.

Wonderweiss reached up with a hand to touch Thevetat's broad, flat muzzle.

The scales were warm, though he didn't feel like they should be, and they were as hard as iron. That didn't surprise him, not with what he'd weathered from released Arrancar before he had stepped in.

"Thevetat," he said again, looking up into the eyes of his new Sirei with a smile. "I will get that collar off you as soon as I can."

He meant it, too. He meant it as surely as he had meant everything up until this point. He wouldn't have his Sirei bound, not with iron, or whatever metal the ancients had shackled him with. A beastmaster didn't need any of that.

Thevetat was a friend, now. A partner. He would be able to use the magic of a beastmaster's beast, and walk in the shadows and the world between, so that Wonderweiss could call upon him when he needed to, or wanted his company. He would be safe from everything outside of that and, in turn, could watch over his Beastmaster in secret. He would be able to talk to him from those places, even if he couldn't see him.

"Rest, now."

The battle hadn't just been hard on the Arrancar he'd faced.

Rest, yes, he wished to rest. He had spent many years fighting, for himself, or for others, or against others. Did this one truly wish to remove his wretched collar? What he'd seen of him suggested so, and for now, that was enough.

He gave one final look at the others, and went for the first time to a dark place of rest, where he could stay until required.

Szayel lingered in the Palace's doorway, watching.

He'd left, dressed, returned, left again, and returned multiple times to check on proceedings over the following hours. He'd been both surprised and impressed at how long Wonderweiss had lasted, but it wasn't until they'd been at it for seven hours that he'd started to wonder if, perhaps, Wonderweiss might be in with a real shot. Szayel had expected him to be soundly defeated, exhausted and overpowered long before it had reached that point.

That he'd lasted so long suggested he was putting up a good fight.

He pushed his glasses back up his nose as the wyrm faded away to wherever it was Wonderweiss kept his pets when he wasn't keeping them in the garden. He really was going to have to reassess the power levels of the Arrancar.

Marluxia relaxed, allowing the gathered power he held ready at his fingertips to ebb away.

"Well done, Wonderweiss," he said, his voice deep and satisfied. He'd had his doubts, of course. Wonderweiss was young, after all, but physical power was not the beginning and end of Beastmastery. Wonderweiss had an unusually strong heart, which seemed to be far more important.

He made no attempt to contain his smirk.

Wonderweiss had bested something that had escaped Kuja. He'd also tamed something that would have destroyed other Arrancar. He really would go far, given the right push.

Wonderweiss smiled as Thevetat phased out, disappearing into nothing, as though he'd gradually shimmered and simply vanished. As soon as his dragon was out of sight, he felt the strength leave him and his knees buckled.

He heard the movement of a bare foot on the rocky ground behind him -- Lumi -- but it was Forvalaka who arrived to steady him, his massive furry form landing on light feet ahead of him to prop him up. Wonderweiss leaned against the Torama's neck and gripped his heavy mane to stay standing, his legs trembling beneath him.

That ... had not been easy.

Lumi made to move when the dragon had gone. He knew how exhausting taming a sirei could be from previous outings with Wonderweiss, and none of them had been anything approaching this calibre, but Forvalaka had leapt to his master's side before Lumi had the chance to employ flash step to reach him. He would have caught him, he simply didn't need to.

Instead, he turned around to rejoin Marluxia. He held his sword by its white scabbard and let his shoulders slump a little. He was tired. He hadn't done the same sort of thing as Wonderweiss, not by a long shot, but standing for several hours had been enough to drain him, especially in his already weakened state.

He offered Marluxia a half smile, a rarity.

"I had no doubts," he said, voice soft.

Nnoitra had stayed outside. Some of the others had gone in, to change, and whatever else, but Nnoitra hadn't.

He'd let his release go, but he hadn't withdrawn. He was too curious about what would happen. He didn't want to miss it when it did. Nnoitra had a particular interest in large and terrifying creatures and the unwilling subjugation thereof, so he wanted to witness whatever would come to pass.

He half smirked when the kid won.

Man, that was going to piss Kuja off.

Gin watched everything, leaning lazily against the frame of the palace's main doors. Somebody would have to fix those.

Kuja hadn't returned and he hadn't bothered to alert Aizen, either. He'd let them both find out for themselves about what happened, it was more fun that way.

It had been enlightening, though. Wonderweiss, an Arrancar that hovered around the middle of the strength-ranked hierarchy, had managed to best something that Kuja had resorted to underhanded means to obtain. That was certainly interesting.

Still, it was late. Or early. He had a city to attend to, and, capable underlings or not, he would be missed if he stayed gone on a surprise absence for too long. He turned on his heel and walked back into the hall, a grin on his face.

Marluxia looked at Lumi and asked, "Really?" His tone was flat, and had it been anyone other than Marluxia, the question would have been replaced with the word 'liar'. Marluxia didn't need to resort to such outright accusations, however.

Lumi had contingency plans should Wonderweiss have failed, he knew. For him to have made contingency plans, Lumi needed to have considered the possibility, just as Marluxia had.

Wonderweiss had exceeded expectations. Marluxia would not do him the disservice of pretending otherwise. He also would not do Lumi the disservice of assuming he had the same faith in Wonderweiss as the rest of the Arrancar clearly had, however. They'd both known Wonderweiss was capable of more than someone like Neliel had guessed, but, for Marluxia at least, he'd just proven himself capable of more than even he'd known.

"I did," he admitted, "or I wouldn't have brought your sword."

On reflection, that was probably also a lie. Lumi had wanted his sword, and so Marluxia had brought it. He'd have done so even if he hadn't considered that it might be necessary.

Of course, one could argue that Lumi wouldn't have wanted it if he hadn't considered that it might be necessary.

Ulquiorra released his grip on his sword and replaced his hands in his pockets. Wonderweiss had exceeded the skills of Kuja in one of his classes. This was information that needed to be passed to Aizen-sama.

Someone should have issued a report already, but Ulquiorra knew Nel had been pre-occupied, and Halibel and Stark were not vigilant about making their reports immediately.

With that in mind he turned back towards the Palace.

Nel's heart jumped in her chest as the realisation that yes, Wonderweiss had subjugated the thing began to sink in. Her dispute with Marluxia was ongoing, as far as she was concerned, Wonderweiss's success didn't negate the danger he'd been placed in, but for now it was put to one side.

She ran towards him and dragged him into a hug that was tighter than it needed to be.

She wanted to scold him. She wanted to tell him he'd done something very stupid, and very dangerous, and he could have been killed, but at that moment it probably wasn't what he needed to hear. He could barely stand, he didn't need to hear how she'd expected him to be killed.

So instead she just held him, her eyes shut and nose in his hair.

Szayel eyed Gin as he walked past, and then turned his attention back to Lumi and Marluxia, who had gravitated towards each other again like a compass gravitates to a magnet.

They were, beyond doubt, a pair. Szayel had witnessed the strength of their partnership in his infirmary, when Lumi had been half wild, and he'd witnessed it again when Lumi had ripped Nel away from Marluxia.

Nel had threatened him, because Nel was a stupid, irrational woman where Wonderweiss was concerned. Lumi had threatened back. He wondered if Nel would have died for her infraction had the situation been otherwise. Obviously Lumi and Marluxia were familiar with the finer points of beastmastery practices. Had Lumi refrained for the sake of Wonderweiss, and all the rest of them?

It was an interesting possibility.

"Well," Lumi said, looking down with a barely disguised look of amusement. "I thought the likelihood of success vastly outweighed the chance of failure, but it's better to be prepared than not."

He looked at the lacquered surface of his sword's scabbard, his eyes trailing from where the blue at the end faded into the white that made up most of the length. It was a little like a katana, a little not. It was slightly longer, the blue-bound handle the same, and it lacked the curve most held. It had weight to it, perhaps more than was wise for him to be carrying around while injured.

He looked back up and into Marluxia's eyes. He looked and felt tired, but otherwise seemed unruffled.

"Thank you for bringing this," he said, voice quiet. "I couldn't have held that thing off with a gun."

Wonderweiss looked up at Nel's approach and found himself drawn into a tight hug before he had chance to say anything. He held onto her, too tired to be mortally embarrassed about being squashed up against her chest like that.

He stayed like that for a while before he pulled back to look up at her.

"How long did it take?" He asked, his voice showing sure signs of exhaustion.

And I don’t wanna say I told you so...

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)