On the rooftops of the LGD headquarters...
*swing* *clang*
Vortex, Ch'en, and Blaze go at each other as everyone around them spectates the most heated fight yet in the war of Reunion. With Lana at the side ordered by her leader to stay put, she could only watch with everyone else as the three go at it.
"H-He's keeping up with them?!"
"V-Vortex is a monster..."
Both Rhodes Island and the LGD were feeling the intense pressure from him as he simultaneously blocks both of their attacks. Amiya on the other hand was trying to peer into his head, trying to read his mind albeit unsuccessful much to her surprise.
'This is strange...' Ch'en thinks at the moment as she ducks under Blaze's swing before swiping her sword at him at the next split second. 'He never retaliated... is he...'
'No doubt about it, Vortex won't attack us.' Blaze noticed as the two girls jump back and look ahead to see Vortex standing his ground.
The lone man looks at the two of them, anticipating their next move as well as his own.
"...why is he not fighting back..." Dr. Fumi was agape. "Don't tell me that he's-"
"Looking down on us huh." Ch'en was angered. "You have the nerve to be that confident, that you can win without even attacking... you're asking for your death now."
"Don't misunderstand me." He replied. "As I said, I never wanted to fight. I merely-"
"Cut the crap. You're scum." Blaze didn't hesitate as she rushed towards him with Ch'en closely behind.
The two swing their weapons at him, as he dodges with a breath of his hair. Their barrage of attacks was endless as he desperately dodges without trying to hit them with his swords.
'I can't waste any more time! I need to get to Yelena!'
That moment of thinking proved to be fatal as that instance caused him not to notice Blaze's kick to his face, which sent him flying back.
"Ugh!" He lands square on his bum only to quickly get back on his feet, with the pain of his face still ringing. "This is not good."
He sees the two of them walking closer to him, ready to unleash more attacks while he could only think of what he can do to stop the bout and head to Frostnova as soon as possible.
But the situation could only be far from ideal.
...
..
.
On the other hand.
"I already knew that your betrayal was imminent. Your actions couldn't be far from the truth considering the drastic change ever since Vortex came back." Talulah conversed with the white cautus, looking displeased but not in a threatening way. "I have anticipated that things would turn out this way. That explains how I'm here in Lungmen, which wasn't in the plans we discussed. A big turn of events I would say."
"Why are you here?" Frostnova cautiously looked at her. "I shouldn't even ask at this point... I clearly know what you're here for..."
With a wave of her hand, Frostnova amassed a black ice spike as she launched it to the dauntless Draco. But in return, Talulah merely brushed the attack off with a wave of her own fire.
"Stand down. If I wasn't in the mood, I would have killed you moments ago." She threatened. "But right now, I only want to converse with you Frostnova."
"Converse?"
"I made myself clear. On the offset of our situation, my main goal wasn't to kill you for your treachery to Reunion."
"Then what is that you want?" Her unrelenting gaze stares on Talulah.
"I'm here to clear your mind of Vortex's intentions. Or would you rather want me to mention his real name?"
The confusion seeps into her mind, begging many questions that needed answers.
"I fully know that your treachery has been caused by none other than him. If he was some other person in Reunion I doubt you would go to such lengths. But then I remembered, or in better words, I pieced everything together. And what I found out was rather... conflicting."
"What... do you mean by that?"
"A few years ago, if you even remember, you yourself mentioned that you had a childhood friend who you wanted to find. And you described that person to be someone you hold great affection for. I could spend an hour to rant about your rambling on what you did together, but that's not where my interest lies. Because you see, during that time, you told me his name."
As Talulah continued talking, Frostnova can see what she was implying.
"Y/N. That was his name, which was coincidentally the name of Vortex himself. Reunion's hero, Reunion's traitor. Your childhood friend was within my grasp the entire time, in the same band that you were in. And to think that you didn't pay interest on him, and while he knew about you. It would only make me conclude that he didn't want you to know who he truly was. I wonder why..."
"Your ramblings prove *cough* nothing." Frostnova snapped back. "I don't care about that anymore. All I care is that he's come back into my life and that he's opting to right everything you have done wrong."
Talulah mentally scoffs, rather amused by Frostnova's bond with Y/N.
"...you sure do hold him in your highest regard. It's as if you know everything about him that made the trust between you two unbreakable." Talulah sighs.
"That's right. I was there with I'm when we were nothing but helpless infected children. I know everything about him, his life, his dreams, and everything else-"
"But not his origin." Talulah cuts off her words.
Frostnova froze for a second, taking in her words.
"His... origin?"
That moment of confusion gave Talulah the sign. The sign of which she can take advantage from.
"You talk big about him even when you know nothing about how he came to be." Talulah scoffed. "Your trust in him is nothing more than a foolish pretense."
"What do you know." Frostnova readied her black ice.
"Oh, I know more about him than you think, Frostnova. You see, I've done my research before to help you find him during our early years. But what I found out about him was quite interesting. His true origins, I know who he really is... I know where he came from... who he was really meant to be."
The hesitation fiddled with Frostnova's mind. There was a conflict brewing inside her, not expanded to a tipping point yet.
"You're lying. He's just a boy with a sister who was forced to work in the mines."
"It amuses me that you're trying to brush off my words." Talulah wickedly smiles. "Now let me ask you something Frostnova, another thing that may cater to your qualms. What do you think about Y/N in Rhodes Island? Why does a mere pharmaceutical company want a man like him?"
That question was so out of the blue. She didn't exactly know how to answer it.
"H-He joined because of wanting to achieve his goals. And they need his exp-"
"Rhodes Island reached out to him because they want to use him."
Talulah drops it all as she sternly forces her words into the hesitant cautus. That one sentence confused yet surprised the perplexed Frostnova. Rather than being stern like always, she felt indifferent about it.
But what Frostnova didn't know was that the person she was talking was... masked. As if it was someone else mixing the truths and lies. Someone more wicked... someone who knew and anticipated Y/N himself.
"W-What..."
"I said that I know about his origins. And it doesn't even take a smart person to guess that Rhodes Island wanted him because of it."
"What the hell are you-"
"The real enemy here is Rhodes Island." Talulah lied naturally as she breathed. "They want to use him, for their inhumane purposes and goals.
"...I don't believe you." Frostnova temporized, unbelieving that Talulah knew something off.
"I know you won't. But." She breathed in and out. "Will you say the same thing once I tell you... everything?"
Frostnova locked eyes with Talulah's deprived ones. There was something she knew about Y/N that she herself doesn't. But whatever it could be, either shocking or nothing, it would never budge her affections and trust in Y/N and his supposed hope in Rhodes Island.
Right?
"...tell me, then I'll judge."
"Oh, you will rethink it instantly. You'll know who's the real enemy, and why Y/N is better off to be within my grasp."
There was a weird feeling setting and circling within Frostnova's mind. A lingering yet wicked feeling, seeping through her subconscious, degrading her thoughts and emotions. She didn't know this, but Talulah was raping her mind with a dark type of art. Imbuing something within her that shouldn't be there to place.
There was no doubt about it. Talulah, perhaps, was twisting and manipulating her, using the truths and lies about Y/N. And Frostnova can't do anything but be exposed to it.
...
..
.
Another swing he dodges, another step he skids, there was no breathing room for Vortex to take as he continues repelling Blaze and Ch'en back. The desperation in his masked face was exposing the harsh reality in front of him. Two of his loved ones were against him in the twisted fate of the situation he had caused.
Revealing who he is was now a caution he could never ignore.
*clash*
As the three jump back after clashing with their weapons, they were now at a standstill. Looking at their common enemy, the two women noticed something about him.
"You're getting tired..." Ch'en points out as she sees him breathing heavily.
"Vortex-sama...." Lana worriedly looks at her master with the aggravating feeling of uselessness.
Hands trembling, vision blurring, the exhaustion of endlessly blocking and running from their barrage of attacks were weighing down on him. It didn't even help that he had to observe the two of their attacks while moving his body to respond without hurting them. He may be strong, but he's still a victim when it comes to the people that he loves.
"Please... let's just end this..." Vortex pleads. "I don't want to fight... just let us go..."
"As if! Not until you tell us what you know about Tempest." Blaze replied.
"...I can't."
"Then it's your deathwish," Ch'en responds as she closes in to deliver a slash.
Lana couldn't just stay put as she sees her beloved master about to get mortally injured willingly. It was unbearable, so she quickly drew an arrow from her quiver before loading up her bow pointing at Ch'en. As she was about to release the bowstring, she sees Vortex put up a hand, signaling for her to stop. Ch'en kicked away Vortex's short swords in the moment of hesitation from Lana as she slashes along his chest.
"No!" Lana couldn't take it as she shot an arrow imbued with her arts at Ch'en, causing her to deflect it albeit being pushed back from the sheer force of the impact.
Lana ran towards Vortex, but Blaze cuts off her path. That only proved to be foolish as Lana's shoulder charged Blazed as she drops to the ground away from her. Now with no one standing in her way, she ran to her master as she drops to his level.
"T-The wound's deep, no surprise since it's Ch'en." Vortex bated.
"We need to go, now!" Lana took his arm and put it around her shoulder.
"We can't..." He eyes Rhodes Island and LGD who were preparing to shoot the two. "Looks like they really want us dead..."
"...unless." Her grip on his arm tightens. "I'll hold them off..."
"What? No!" Vortex sternly said. "I'm not sacrificing you!"
"If not then, we'll be captured. And worse, Frostnova will..."
That sentence struck him hard. The shame he endowed was tantalizing. Of course, everything just had to go haywire as soon as the operation had started. And it all stemmed from his ineptitude once more. Everything was going badly as it shouldn't. And now look what happened to him.
Everything was against him. And worse, time's running out on the promise he made to save Yelena.
"Enough is enough," Ch'en warned. "You two are under arrest and will be interrogated accordingly by the LGD. You severely underestimated our capabilities and were bold to not attack. Whatever you were doing, it was pointless."
It was indeed pointless...
"Man, you really disappointed me." Blaze sighed as she heads back to her squad. "Just what were you even doing..."
What was Y/N doing...
"Vortex-sama, what now?" Lana readied herself to fend everyone off. "I don't know how much time I can buy."
Can he really not save Yelena?
.
.
.
It was all the same, just like before.
It was at that time, on that day, on that cursed winter day. The one day where he was forced to watch his sister get beaten to death, as he screamed and raged while the Ursus military pinned him down to make him suffer the sight of her sister's cruel fate.
He heard all her screams, he saw the blood flowing from her gashed face, and he felt the pain as the guards bashed her sister's body with their metal rods, playing with her innards as to paint a horrifying trauma to the poor boy... just for being infected with Oripathy, her sister suffered...
It was deeply ingrained in his body, the trauma he had run away from, that it was all his fault. If he wouldn't have stolen that necklace for her, Fauna would've been alive today. If it wasn't for him, Fauna wouldn't have died on her birthday. If it wasn't for his ineptitude, he could've saved her.
That was when he broke, that was when he discovered he had a latent yet ungodly form of arts.
Then it's going to happen again. Yelena's near to her death, the LGD had pinned him down, Rhodes Island wasn't even with him anymore. And even Lana is about to be sacrificed for his sake.
The anxiety, uselessness, ineptitude, powerlessness. He couldn't even bear to become angry at himself. In fact, the weighing feelings were opting him to display what was within him the entire time. The 'him' that was never gonna fade away.
His desperate side...
.
.
.
"No more..."
Vortex took his arm away from Lana's shoulder, causing him to limp forward to face Ch'en and the rest of the guarding LGD agents.
"I can't... waste any more time..." He bated, confusing the superintendent. "I... can't go back... I could never go back... just like Kal'tsit said."
The mention of Kal'tsit's name piqued Rhodes Island's interests.
"...only one way left. I don't care anymore..." He puts his hand on his mask. "If I want to save her, then I need every card on the table. Even if I have to bring others down with me... I can't let it happen again.
"V-Vortex-sama, don't tell me... are you..."
No more hiding, no more keeping it in, he took off his mask and his contacts, as he faces everyone in front of him. That moment would prove to be the catalyst that would spur on the final act of the play. With numerous shocks and gasps, the identity was now revealed.
Vortex was Tempest all along, and no one could be in more shock than all who saw his face, especially two certain individuals.
"It's me. It's been me all along." Tempest stated. "I don't care anymore. This is all I can do. No more sacrifices, no more deaths."
The utter shock Ch'en and Blaze felt was tremendous. The surge of conflicting emotions battering their chest, making it hard to breathe and to take in the truth of Vortex's real identity.
"Y-Y/N...?!" Ch'en's face was distorted in extreme surprise, with the traces of some lingering irritability.
"N-No... you c-can't possibly him... no... T-Tempest..." Blaze drops her chainsaw, the shaking feeling taking over her.
Aside from all the shocking reveal, he decided to break the ice.
"There's no time to explain, no time to deliver punishments or reprimands. So I'll be blunt." He looks towards the gaping Amiya and Dr. Fumi. "If you have it in you to look past my incident, my betrayal, just this once... please... please help me!" He bows down to the ground in a final act of desperation.
Shocking everyone even more.
"I want to save someone! I had no other choice, it had to come down to this. There's no more time. So please, I need your help! Not just as Vortex, not even as Tempest, but as the only one who's dearest to my Yelena! Please! I'll do anything!"
That was the last curtain call of hopelessness, what happens next is all that matters to him now. He knew that he alone couldn't save Yelena. So he decides to seek help from the unlikeliest people in the oddest of situations.
But... will they answer his plea?
...
..
.
.
.
"Sister..."
The Yeti Squad looks on to Frostnova who was standing all alone, hair covering her face, hands gripping madly on her knife. They didn't know what she was feeling nor thinking, and it was creeping them out.
It had been just a few minutes since Talulah left. And just as they had thought that it was all over, Frostnova decided to take some time alone.
What exactly did Talulah tell Frostnova?
Soon, their uneasiness dies down as Frostnova walked towards her brethren with... a dead and sour look on her face.
"U-Uhm, is everything alright sister?"
She looked back at the crossbowman and replied.
"Yes."
There was a dead silence afterward which made the situation more awkward. But.
"There's been a change of plans." She popped up. "I *cough* need you all at the superstructure entrance to guard anyone from entering the site. I'll be staying here alone... don't ask why..."
The entire squad was confused at her.
"But, I thought we were supposed to meet up with your friend at the docks?"
"No." She bluntly replied. "Just follow the plan. There's nothing to worry about."
Hesitation sweeps over the entire squad as they face the dead and blank-looking Frostnova. It's clear to them that the way she was acting now was due to her conversation with Talulah minutes ago. They would want to peer and ask, but the look on her face says so otherwise.
Frostnova looked different. Her face looked so jarring and pale as if she had recently experienced a great deal of depression. But the cause of it was baffling, to think that mere words can change her that much.
What was Frostnova thinking after the encounter with Talulah? What kind of discovery was able to turn her?
"If you say so..." They begrudgingly follow her order as they head to the entrance.
Left all alone in the vast space of the Lungmen superstructure. She utters.
"...I swear... I'll destroy Rhodes Island..." She grips her knife even harder. "...Y/N... I'll free you from their grasps... and then... we'll be free..."
The ground under her starts freezing as her ice slowly envelopes everything around her. An intense pressure fills the entire area as Frostnova eagerly waits for the impending force.
The sudden change in demeanor and plans was all too uncanny. And to think that Talulah was the one who caused such a drastic change. Just what did she tell her? Or more, how did she change her?
...
..
.
.
.
"Soon, your body will be mine. Y/N "Aeolus", the catastrophe's spawn..."
▌│█║▌║▌║ To be continued... ║▌║▌║█│▌
A/N: I would like to apologize for publishing really late. I got suuuuuuper busy with online school with all the tests and things to pass. Forgive me.
A/N: To make it up to you guys, I'm gonna publish a one-shot next regarding Tempest, Thorns, and Elysium. Oh boy, what I have in mind for the one-shot is gonna be super fun! Why? Cause it involves operator waifus of course!