RECOMMENDED SONG: WARRIOR BY NINA SUBLATTI
Akaashi was still shaking. He hadn't stopped shaking in the last 18 hours actually, but he masked the shudders by keeping busy at all times. He was going from one place to another, trying to stay focused on something like for example the commotion present in the hunters' barracks, the war that was going to break out in less than two hours or Suga's growing fury when he discovered that Daichi, Hanamaki and Suna didn't show up for their genetic testing and had disappeared without a trace. But more often than not, Yaku's words echoed in his head again: "You are pregnant, Akaashi." Every time he remembered the black and white image on the screen, his hand would fly to his own abdomen, but he quickly withdrew it as if it burned. A part of himself, the part that listened to his omega instincts, told him that a cub was good news; the other part of his being, the rational part of the hunter, told him that all this was just an added problem, a new difficulty much more complex to overcome than the previous ones. And now he was marching on his way to Sakusa territory, towards Takefukuro, along with all the military squads —a total of 20 among the 32 from the Hunters Guild. They were going straight for the few remaining packs in Japan with the intention of exterminating them, of laying waste to everything. And yet Akaashi's biggest concern was the life growing inside him.
Military trucks carrying extra weapons traveled alongside hunters who marched on foot. Akaashi led his own squad as Captain, and he in turn was led by his Commander, a furious Suga who thundered his steps and gnashed his teeth in anger. They all carried their weapons at the ready, securely fastened and pressed to their chests as they trotted around the outskirts on their way to their destination in Takefukuro. Akaashi was tired but his tense body didn't give way; the strong smell of aconite around him made him want to vomit; the furious footsteps of all the hunters around him echoed in his ears like a melody of death. It was the chronicle of a death foretold. He was scared, more than ever. All the hunters distrusted their own companions, the uncertainty increased every moment, with every step they took. No one knew if someone could stab them in the back. The solid union of yore was shattered in a flash by a single lycanthrope that Suga inadvertently made a martyr to all other werewolves, including Akaashi. When Suga announced at the hunter barracks that very morning that Miya Osamu was a lycanthrope and that he took it upon himself to give him a proper death, Akaashi knew exactly what he had done: the Commander's smile gave no doubt that he exposed the beta as if he were a carnival monkey. And since that announcement, all the hunters were irascible and hostile, they had been humiliated by someone whom they considered a companion but who had actually turned out to be their staunch enemy.
Akaashi couldn't even imagine the outcome of that battle. As the sun set and the hundreds of hunters advanced like a troop, Akaashi could only think about Bokuto. If he would have been able to alert the others, if the werewolves would be ready to do their best before falling under the poisonous effect of wolfsbane. What's more, would he and his cub be able to survive? Even without being injured with aconite, just smelling it so closely was making him sick.
Akaashi sighed and looked ahead. He needed to focus on himself and on overcoming the problems he would face in the immediate future: his own death.
Iwaizumi appeared in his field of vision and stood next to Suga. Akaashi pricked up his ears to hear the conversation, although with all the noise it was a bit difficult for him to understand the words.
"... your prey will be an easy target," Suga said with a nasty smile.
"I'm not so sure. He's been able to elude me all these years. Who says he won't do it again?"
"I'm a better hunter than you," Suga replied boastfully. "I'll kill him if necessary. I don't plan on leaving a fucking lycanthrope alive. After killing the alphas and betas, I'll go find the omegas."
Iwaizumi shot him a strange look that Akaashi interpreted as disdain. The truth was that listening to Suga talk about killing other beings as if nothing was disgusting. Just seeing the look of dark pleasure on the Commander's face made Akaashi's skin crawl.
"Oikawa is mine, don't you dare touch him," Iwaizumi said. "I'll be the one to kill him with my own hands. I've been waiting for this moment for years."
Akaashi stared at the nape of Iwaizumi upon hearing those words. He hadn't had a chance to tell him the truth about his parents' deaths; had he done so, he would have discovered his cover and those of the betas. If he had told Iwaizumi that his parents' killer was the person he was talking to, no one would have believed him. So Iwaizumi remained oblivious to the truth and now focused all his anger on killing Oikawa even though he was innocent.
Akaashi tried to keep listening but the noise of the military trucks, the footsteps, the small-talks of the hunters around him, and the buzzing in his own ears made his work difficult, and when Suga and Iwaizumi stepped forward a bit more, he lost all chance to listen to the rest of the conversation. He tried to listen and search for the voices of the two Commanders, but seeing that he wasn't succeeding, he soon gave up.
As the procession advanced, night fell. The darkness would give the lycanthropes an advantage, but that advantage would be dwarfed by the huge numerical difference between the parties —more than 500 hunters versus fewer than 200 werewolves. Although Akaashi relied on the strength of alphas, deltas, and betas, he couldn't help but feel terror. The feeling that everything was going to end that night haunted him, and he wasn't sure he wanted to know the outcome.
"Akaashi!"
Akaashi looked around startled. Suga was waving his hand at him, so Akaashi quickened his pace and approached him, placing himself between the two Commanders.
"Sir?" the omega asked.
"Are you prepared to hold a position of Commander?" Suga asked with a searching look.
Akaashi blinked several times without understanding. "Sir?" he repeated confused.
"After tonight's battle, I'll be promoted to Lieutenant Colonel."
"You're very sure of that, Suga," Iwaizumi said with a sarcastic laugh. "It'll be fun to watch someone else snatch that title right in front of your eyes."
"Shut the fuck up, Iwaizumi," Suga snapped, nailing his good eye narrowed at Iwaizumi. He turned his attention back to Akaashi. "As I was saying, after this battle my position will be yours. I recommended you to be the next Commander. After the genetic tests, you will be one rank above the current one."
Akaashi gulped. He did his best to fake a grateful smile. He couldn't be worried or scared, and of course he couldn't show weakness. But he was shaking with fear and the anxiety made him nauseous. He nodded and took in a breath of cool night air. The only thing he breathed in, however, was the burning aroma of aconite and gunpowder. The urge to vomit increased even more.
"It's quite an honor, Suga-san," Akaashi said with a bow.
Stand firm, he told himself.
Suga smirked and patted him on the back. "Well said."
The troops continued to advance relentlessly until late at night. Once they entered Takefukuro, Akaashi caught a glimpse of a huge line of silhouettes on the horizon blocking their path. He smiled to himself. Bokuto had managed to warn the others and organize the packs against the clock to prepare the counterattack. The tension was palpable, the hunters advancing side by side clenched their weapons in their hands. But now Akaashi was calm. Or well, as calm as he could be in a situation like this in the middle of the war. The vision in front of him instilled in him the courage he lacked, he was ready to give his life for his own. It was time to stop hiding, to stop running from his roots. It was time to face his enemies, to show that werewolves also had a right to live.
When both sides met face to face, the silence became absolute. All the hunters stopped at the same time, weapons loaded and ready to strike. All but one: Akaashi continued to advance until he broke the ranks of his formation. When he emerged from the crowd of hunters, he turned and raised his weapon, aiming directly at the hunters. His omega blue eyes shone brightly in the night, proudly demonstrating his status. Rumors now reached his ears, both from the hunters and from some surprised werewolves at his presence among the enemy ranks, a hitherto unknown fact except for Bokuto. But nothing could have mattered less to him as he walked backward toward his pack, toward his alpha. Akaashi was there to fight, to protect his life, his alpha and his cub's. And also to defend his pack and his species. He was clear about one thing: that night was the end of the world that everyone knew. For better or worse.
"So you're Bokuto's ally," a voice said when Akaashi reached the werewolves' side. "You're an omega."
Akaashi looked in the direction of the voice. It was Sakusa. He kept his red eyes fixed on Suga, but Akaashi nodded. He knew he was seeing him too.
"I remember you. You were in the barracks the day I escaped."
"I didn't know it was you until recently," Akaashi said, looking back at the hunters. He looked defiantly at Suga and smiled. "But that doesn't matter. Now we are on the same side."
***
The hunters seemed about to explode. Suga was on edge, he was going to go crazy if he didn't do something. He would be capable of committing an attack on civil society if he made sure to kill Akaashi. He kept his eyes on the former Hunters Guild Captain as he clutched the assault rifle in his hands.
"This has to be a fucking joke," Suga said through clenched teeth. His nostrils moved every time he breathed. The bile rose up his throat, he was about to explode. Rage and anger boiled inside him, and all he wanted right now was to let it all out.
Iwaizumi, next to him, was completely silent, his wide eyes still fixed on Akaashi. Suga was not unnoticed by the utter bewilderment he showed, nor by the change in expression when Iwaizumi's green eyes fell on one of the alphas next to Akaashi: Oikawa.
"I hope you're ready," Suga said, his fists clenched around the butt of his rifle.
"I was born for this," Iwaizumi said.
Suga reacted instantly by throwing himself at the werewolves with a battle cry. He raised his rifle and fired mercilessly at the werewolves, hitting two young betas in the shoulder and chest respectively. All the hunters followed suit and began firing at the same time the werewolves attacked: the alphas drew their claws and fangs and the betas drew their knives and guns. The silence was broken by some angry screams, others of pain, bullets that whistled through the air and sharp blades of survival knives that ripped through the air. All the stillness that existed until that moment quickly disappeared as the bodies began to fall inert to the ground.
Suga visualized Kiyoko battling three hunters that she took down in one move, clawing their faces and chests. Two of the hunters fell to the ground screaming, but the third one froze, lying like a doll on the pavement. He was dead.
"It's my time, bitch!" Suga yelled running towards her.
Kiyoko quickly turned to look at him as he fired incessantly. Despite his good aim, the bullets seemed to have a life of their own and avoided hitting Kiyoko's body. Maybe he was nervous or excited or maybe it was thanks to the alpha's dexterity, Suga wasn't quite sure. But he was pissed off. He was going to kill that bitch, he was going to make her pay with her life for having left him half blind and with a horrible scar on his face. He was willing to take all his fury and all his frustration on her and watch her bleed to death.
Suga fired a round of bullets again, causing two of them to sink into Kiyoko's shoulder. The girl moaned in pain through clenched teeth but didn't stop. She ran to Suga with her claws raised and dropped them on him. The sharp nails couldn't penetrate the protective vest Suga was wearing, but they did cause deep lacerations to his arms.
"YOU WHORE!" he yelled with a groan of pain.
Suga almost dropped the rifle due to the sudden loss of strength and power. It was a sensation of pain so strong and raw that Suga thought his arms had come loose from his body. The flesh was open, some of it had ended up on the ground. Kiyoko had ripped off part of his muscles with a single attack, and now blood was spurting from the open wounds, spilling onto the ground around him. Suga moaned again in pain, but rage and bloodlust outweighed injuries. He clenched the rifle between his hands and fired a burst of bullets again while Kiyoko was removing the two stuck in her shoulder. If he wanted to kill her, he had to aim for her chest and fill her heart with monkshood-bathed bullet to make sure she didn't have time to regenerate. But his arms were so weak that he missed his target and instead the bullets landed a little below her chest, near the girl's stomach.
Kiyoko doubled over and fell to her knees with a yelp, her fingers digging into the new bullet holes to try and get them out of there. Suga took the opportunity to take a breath and look at his arms: they were mangled and covered in blood. The uniform was ripped and in places he could see the tendons exposed to the air. That was going to be a difficult wound to heal, but his arms still worked. Nerves and bones weren't damaged, and although holding the gun —let's not talk about shooting— needed from a superhuman effort, Suga wasn't going to give up. That would be his last battle against the alpha. It was going to be bloody, full of rancor on both sides, both of them displaying a tireless desire to kill the other. It had been that way since the first time they met, and at last the enmity was about to reach its climax.
Kiyoko got up with a grunt and Suga raised the weapon. The alpha dropped the bloody bullets to the ground before clenching her fangs, her red eyes gleaming behind her glasses.
"It's a shame a pretty girl like you is a dirty killer monster," Suga said pointing the gun at her chest. "Say goodbye to life. And say hello to your omega for me when you see him," he added with a cruel smile.
Kiyoko clenched her jaw even more. Just as Suga fired, the girl ducked and dodged the bullets by throwing herself forward, towards Suga. They both rolled on the ground screaming in pain and rage, trying to hit each other with whatever it was: with their hands, fists, knees, or the assault rifle that Suga was still holding.
"Don't you dare bring Tanaka into this!" Kiyoko yelled madly.
The bodies of hunters and lycanthropes moved and fell in defeat around them, but neither Suga nor Kiyoko paid any attention to them. At that moment they were the only ones on the battlefield, locked in a lonely war that seemed to have no clear winner. Suga pushed Kiyoko off of him and stood up, but when he raised the weapon again, Kiyoko was also on her feet, throwing herself at him again.
Suga withdrew in time to avoid Kiyoko's claws that hovered over him and raised the rifle. He pulled the trigger and the bullets tore through the air in Kiyoko's direction, but only one of them dug into the girl's shoulder, the same one that had nearly healed the previous wounds.
Damn regeneration!, Suga wanted to shout. Instead, he fired again. The second wave of bullets puzzled Kiyoko, who froze wide-eyed for a few seconds. A few moments later the alpha fell on her knees to the ground with her mouth open in a silent scream and the blood spurting from her chest, right where her heart was pounding, flooded with monkshood-bathed bullets.
Truth be told, even Suga didn't believe what just happened. He fired, but he didn't even have time to target the girl's heart. And yet all the bullets ended up right there. Suga dropped to the ground as well, his arms so sore he could hardly breathe. The rifle slipped from his hands and fell between him and Kiyoko, but he didn't bother to pick it up. He simply watched as Kiyoko's red eyes slowly faded, as her chest rose and fell at uneven intervals, how her mouth remained open in an attempt to say or shout something. A triumphant smile widened on Suga's lips; although he himself felt that he was going to die of pain, the satisfaction of knowing that he had finally killed Kiyoko outweighed any other feeling, good or bad. When the girl fell motionless on the ground covered in blood, bullet shells and dirt, Suga's smile widened to unsuspected levels.
But the sweet taste of victory was soured as large claws grabbed him by the neck, jerked him off the ground, and turned him in one motion. Suddenly Suga found himself staring into the most intense red eyes he had ever seen, and for the first time in his life, he felt fear.
***
Sakusa bit the neck of another hunter, a woman who at first seemed to know what she was doing. She wasn't a rookie, her movements were agile and studied, and if she had faced someone else she might have survived. But, as it was obvious, she was no match for Sakusa Kiyoomi.
The Beast smelled the feelings and pheromones of each of the hunters and lycanthropes around him; all those aromas mixed with the sour aconite smell, anyone in his place would have been confused due to the strange combination. But not Sakusa. He could also hear every movement approaching him despite the din, so he knew the woman was approaching from behind. All he did was turn around and lunge at her, digging his fangs into her neck and devouring the fresh flesh before him. Within seconds the woman was dead.
"Bad luck," Sakusa said sarcastically to the corpse that lay with eyes open and no throat.
Sakusa stood up again. He whirled around, razor-sharp claws at the ready landing hard on two new hunters. He slit both their throats before either of them realized what was happening. Everywhere he looked, Sakusa saw corpses that he himself had left behind, piling up on top of each other wherever he went, their bodies torn from the wounds he inflicted on them. Blood dripped from his claws, fangs, and lip piercing and stained his shirt, but not a single drop was his. He had no scratches. Not a single hunter had been able to get close to him, and if they dared try, they were dead only a second later. His red eyes shone like two burning stars in the sky, he could see what was happening all over the battlefield despite being late at night. His murderous gaze penetrated the flesh with fury, as if he wanted to kill them all with just that. And in part he succeeded, because the hunters, terrified when facing the Beast, let their guard down and that was the moment that Sakusa took advantage of to finally steal their lives.
Sakusa was furious. He wounded, tore, crushed, devoured, and killed with only one thing in mind: avenging Atsumu for what they did to him. He didn't forget what had led him to that moment: memories of his past and Atsumu's tears appeared in his mind spinning like a carousel, haunted him and kept him grounded. They gave him a reason to continue. But neither the pain he experienced when he was locked in the labs nor the loneliness he faced for years compared to the grief he felt seeing Atsumu collapse in front of him. Sakusa attacked incessantly, defending his life and that of the only person he cared about. He wasn't going to let anyone else do something like that to Atsumu again. Osamu and his parents had already been taken from him, and he wasn't going to allow any hunter to take anything else from him... Although the truth is that there was nothing else left that they could take from him.
The mere memory of Atsumu a few hours earlier was enough to make his heart ache. The omegas had to stay safe, not get into the fray. But Atsumu was unhinged, so out of his mind that all he thought about was avenging Osamu's death. Kita took it upon himself to sedate him for a few hours and leave him in Yaku's charge to make sure he wasn't putting himself at risk. Atsumu wasn't trained for battle like the other omegas in Sakusa's pack, so if he had entered the fight, he would have died almost instantly.
But Sakusa had taken the omega's motivation as his own. He was going to avenge Osamu's death. The beta revealed to them the darkest secrets of the Hunters Guild, he put himself in danger to save the others. He was the definition of a hero, and Sakusa knew that Atsumu, beneath all the pain and mourning he faced, was proud of his twin brother.
He killed a new horde of hunters looming over him; none of them managed to get close enough or hit the shots from their pistols and assault rifles before falling to the ground bleeding. Sakusa showed no mercy, just as hunters had never shown mercy to him or any other werewolf.
Sakusa turned and looked around. All the members of his pack were still standing, both the betas and the omegas fighting side by side. Unfortunately he couldn't say the same for members of other packs; many werewolves —all of them betas— had fallen with the hunters in the middle of a field of blood and furious screams. The war was hard, cold and sad, and although Sakusa didn't know the deceased, losing members of the species when it was going through so much trouble was a real shame.
He dodged Ushijima, who was facing two hunters at the same time, and Suna, who was fighting with a knife in each hand, his face spattered with blood, tears in his eyes, his teeth clenched and muttering "for Osamu" every time he sunk the sharp blades into enemy flesh. He avoided a few other werewolves fighting hunters as he advanced, and then he saw him.
Sakusa clenched his fists until his claws dug into the palm of his hands, but he didn't mind as he felt no pain. Also, a second later the wounds were gone. Inside him there was only hatred and thirst for blood, the desire to kill that being who called himself human but was actually the true monster that everyone should be fighting. He ran silently toward the hunter beyond and reached him just as Kiyoko fell dead at his feet. But Sakusa didn't give him time to rejoice at the alpha's death, for a second later he was grabbing Suga by the neck and lifting and turning him with one hand, claws digging into the back of his neck.
"It's been a long time since the last time, Sugawara Koushi," Sakusa rasped, his red eyes fixed on Suga's good eye. "How is your grandmother?"
Suga looked terrified— No. Suga was terrified. Sakusa smelled the fear oozing from his skin, saw the glow fade in his eyes. Sakusa dug his claws a little deeper into the back of his neck, and Suga groaned and struggled against the grip, but couldn't get free.
"Kiyoko did a good job," Sakusa continued casually. He pointed at Suga's bleeding arms and almost wanted to laugh at how ridiculous it all was. Instead, he tightened his claw around Suga's neck even more until he almost took the other's breath away. Suga's body spasmed and contorted. "You might think I'm going to kill you, but I won't. Killing you wouldn't be enough to fix all the damage you have caused. I want you to suffer."
"Let go of me, you fucking beast," Suga gasped out of breath.
"Or what? Are you going to kick me?"
"You will regret this..."
"Hm? No I dont think so. I've wanted to do this for a long time. To have you in my claws and hurt you, to give you back a small part of everything that you put me through. I've wanted it since I was just a kid and you tortured me next to your fucking grandmother."
Saying that, Sakusa tightened his grip even more.
"L-leave me," Suga gasped. His lips were turning purple, his eyes were going to bulge. But Sakusa didn't loosen the grip.
"I can think of something better," Sakusa said. His voice, already deep and husky, changed to a harsh whisper. He used his alpha voice, capable of instilling fear even in humans. "I'm going to hold you immobile for the rest of your life. You're going to see life go by in front of your eyes... or your only eye," he corrected himself, "without even being able to wipe your ass. You will grow old bedridden, and when your last minutes of life arrive you will remember Miya Osamu and Miya Atsumu and you will remember these words as if it were the only thing you know how to do: the omega won't be next, but you will."
With that said, Sakusa dug his claws until his fingers were half buried in the back of Suga's neck. The Commander had new spasms, screamed in pain, but Sakusa didn't stop. He groped for the vertebrae, and when he found them... he fractured them. And with them the spinal cord. Suga hung like a rag doll, motionless but wide-eyed. Sakusa dropped him to the ground like a dead weight, and all Suga could do was flop down.
"If you expected me to have mercy," Sakusa continued, "you were wrong. If you expected me to just kill you, you were wrong. And if you expected to get away with this fucking war without paying for the millions of crimes you have committed, killing humans and lycanthropes and torturing everyone who stood before you, murdering children who hadn't even shown their condition, and even worse... having killed Atsumu's only remaining family, let me tell you that you were. Very. Wrong."
Suga stared at him from the ground unable to move. He couldn't really do it ever again. Sakusa had taken care of that.
"Revenge is a dish best served cold, Sugawara Koushi."
Then Sakusa stomped him hard on the face and Suga groaned in pain. Tears came to his eyes. His blind eye looked ghostly, covered in mist and crystallized with tears. Sakusa was delighted to see the blood spurt from his nose and seep into his mouth until Suga coughed splashing red drops everywhere. And so, drowning and choking in his own blood, Sakusa turned around and left Suga behind, satisfied with the fulfillment of his revenge.
***
Akaashi reached down and struck the hunter in the groin with the butt of his rifle. The hunter groaned in pain and dropped his own weapon to the ground to cover himself with his hands, cursing loudly in a shaking voice. Akaashi took advantage of the moment to fire several bullets at his bowed head, and a second later, the hunter was lying at his feet, dead with his eyes open and several bullets embedded in his skull.
Bokuto fought close to him with claws and fangs. He roared every time he struck, and just hearing his voice made Akaashi feel safe. Something stupid, since he was fighting for his life right now, but the calm and tranquility he felt being close to Bokuto was something difficult to overshadow, not even in the middle of the battle. The hunters rose against them, but there was nothing to fear if he stood alongside his alpha.
Akaashi fired at one of the hunters approaching Bokuto from the rear. Stealthily, he advanced through the fallen bodies toward another hunter who was on his back. He fired without even being detected by him, and the hunter fell forward, inert and out of breath. He was dead, like everyone else. Akaashi moved with agility, killing hunters without difficulty, as if all fatigue had vanished. It was probably due to adrenaline, although Akaashi couldn't tell that it wasn't also because of the effect Bokuto had on him. He felt rejuvenated, strong and hopeful...
But then everything changed. He felt a sharp pain in the upper part of his shoulder, and a horrible burning spread through his entire arm. His entire body trembled, and he groaned in pain but he didn't drop to the ground. He looked down at his shoulder and saw a shallow gunshot wound that had grazed the top of his shoulder. The skin around it was blackened, he didn't know if from the impact and the gunpowder... or because the bullet was bathed in aconite.
Akaashi froze. Yaku's words echoed in his mind once more: "You are pregnant, Akaashi", "If you scratch yourself slightly with a blade bathed in aconite, you may survive, but rest assured that the pup will not."
"No, no no, please!" he moaned under his breath, putting a hand to his belly. His eyes got filled with tears. "Hold on. Hold on!
Akaashi looked around with misty eyes. He wasn't badly injured, he could continue fighting. But he was scared for the cub. It had only been a touch, but if the bullet contained aconite, it had definitely entered his bloodstream.
Akaashi removed his hand from his belly and wiped away the tears. He clutched the rifle in his hands and stared at his next target. The battlefield was still full of hunters, he couldn't surrender or retreat now. He had to protect himself and the rest, running away would only make him feel like a coward. There was no possible redemption for all the sins he had committed since joining the Hunters Guild, but he could at least avoid a greater damage. Right now he couldn't worry about an unborn cub, he had to worry about himself and his species. He had to worry about surviving.
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Shit's getting serious
Part 2 of the final battle in two weeks, see you!
NAZ, OVER AND OUT!