Kaida lands first on the grassy banks on top of the white cliffs overlooking the West Sea.
There is a slight breeze from the sea currents, and she shields her eyes from the afternoon Sun.
Adrien's ships are hard to miss.
They are massive black eyesores that almost seem to teleport with how fast they're cutting through the water.
Blink and they're already 100 metres further. Blink, and they're another.
Kaida scans the horizon; she counts 5 ships.
She was already racing against time.
She huddles with the team she brought with her, turning animated as she directs them.
"Oshunos, I need you to wipe out those ships. Drown them all. Yuri, you help them. Pierce holes in the hulls. Vipers, you help too, use whatever living thing you can. I want no remnants. It's a lot to ask, which is why I'm here. Take all the power you can from me."
Kaida steps back and proceeds to watch, her eyes sharp. She expects her orders to be carried out immediately.
The sky quickly greys, unnaturally so. It is overcast and dreary within the blink of an eye.
The soft winds that once blew turn harsher and stronger. Kaida's doing.
An Oshunos man cracks his neck, and feeds into Kaida's bank of energy, with delight.
His eyes glaze over and his arms whip around with ferocity and within an instant the untameable ocean waves are at his mercy.
The Oshunos all work in tandem and the waves grow larger and more ferocious.
The sea comes alive, and a blanket of sea water rises so high it touches the clouds, spraying water vapour across them all.
It is a terrifying sight, seeing sea water rise so high. Kaida's eyes gleam.
The wave crashes down, with such sheer power, it breaks a ship in half.
"Drag it under."
Kaida orders.
The sea swallows the two halves of dark oak, and the ship is never to be seen again.
The eyes of a a curious young Oshunos sparks with imagination.
She has never had access to such power in her life, and she had never been given such freedom with how to wield it.
She looks at the Queen's back in awe.
Then she steps up to the edge of the cliffs, her bare feet making contact with the harsh rock.
With some crazy flicks of her hand, spirals of sea water begin to form. They disobey the laws of gravity and create whirlpools from sea to sky.
They spin and spin gaining momentum, before they completely tear through a ship.
Disintegrating the hull entirely so black bits of wood are ripped off and spiral upwards.
It is a mess of wood and metal and sails.
The girls's conjured water tornadoes take out two ships with maximum efficiency. They are unstoppable.
She lets them tear across the bay, then she squashes them back, merging them with the ocean again.
"What is your name?"
The girl blinks fast, her breathing erratic and her hair wild, from the sheer strain of what she had accomplished.
She is shocked the Queen is addressing her, almost starstruck.
"Cordelia, my Queen."
She bows reverently.
"Well done, Cordelia."
Kaida keeps her praise simple, and the Oshunos girl raises her chin proudly.
Kaida could feel Cordelia was going to be a strong one. She would have a welcome place in the Queen's court.
Kaida refocuses, spotting some fins cutting through the water.
She peers intensely and sees a pod of black and white splotched killer whales navigating through the stormy waters.
They circled and swarmed and attacked all of the corpses who were left aimlessly bobbing around in the water.
They were ripped apart and decaying limbs were left floating in wreckage.
A few of Adrien's human soldiers had jumped off the ships and were swimming to shore, ever so desperately.
Kaida looks down at them with disdain.
"Ayala."
Kaida points, not needing to say much more.
They are quickly herded up by the orcas, and their screams are drowned out.
They thrash and yelp, until the water around them is still. A blood red hue invades the surrounding blue.
A moment later, a large tail pops up from the water, arching from left to right. Sea water drips from it in massive rivulets.
A behemoth of a creature surfaces and exhales a spray of water from its blow hole.
Kaida is in awe. She had never seen a blue whale before, and she can only stare. It was so majestic and so imposing.
She had not even seen it lurking beneath the chaos she had brought.
The Vipers direct all the aquatic life they can reach, and with a shocking crash, the whale's tail breaks a remaining ship in half.
Splinters of deck fly up and the two halves of the ship begin to sink.
Kaida looks out at the shipwrecks, broken bits of wood and expensive ships lay blowed to bits, ebbing back and forth.
A slither of satisfaction washes over her. It was a small victory against Adrien, and she savours in it for a split second.
"Good work here. One Oshunos and one Viper can stay, keep an eye on the situation here. Try and round up or beach the debris and bodies so none of it washes out further into the ocean. The rest of you may return to the city."
They all nod. They feel accomplished. This was sure to be talked about after today.
The Beamos teleporter calmly had been watching the onslaught, far from the cliff's edge.
His cousin had followed Kaida to Ashgate and lost his life.
After that, he had doubted if Kaida was worthy of leading them, at all.
But in this moment, he understood. He understood why they had not abandoned her. And he would do as she commands, as was his duty.
Kaida turns to him.
"Take me to the Stilts."
There is one protest.
"My Queen. I am coming with you."
The reply is instant.
"No. I need you here or in the city. We cannot have the undead reach the Palace."
Yuri doesn't understand. She doesn't understand why Kaida feels she must do this all alone. Why she refuses her protection.
Kaida turns away from Yuri and directs her attention to the Beamos teleporter.
She gives a nod.
He grabs her by her gauntlet, and they teleport.
Kaida and the Beamos soldier land on the wooden board walks that criss-cross over each other.
Kaida is already too late.
One of Adrien's ships had docked and Adrien's army of undead are tearing through the stilts.
They are like rabid animals, they hack at the wood and reinforced metal with their rusty weapons.
Some climb up the corrugated roofs, ripping them apart or up.
They are hungry for blood.
They can smell the Reds and they will do anything to sink their teeth into them, or hack away at them in a bloodlust filled frenzy.
"Ahhhh, WAIT"
"NOOOO!"
"HELPPPPPPPP!"
Distant screams of terror rebound over the stilts, they come from families, huddled together and hiding.
"No, no, no!"
Kaida doesn't even hesitate. She sprints down the pier, her swords in hand.
"Should I come with you, my Queen!?"
The Beamos shouts after her, she was too quick, already advancing alone.
"No! Find people and get them to the underground tunnels. And call some soldiers here to support!"
Kaida yells over her shoulder as she dives into a group of running zombies.
She pulls one back by the scruff of its tattered brown cloth. She pushes two into the sea, and she strikes down a few others, separating bone from flesh.
She sees one jump down into a home, having torn through the roof. And she hears the cry of distress of a woman.
Kaida kicks down the door, and extends her arm.
At the last second, her sword stops the axe heading straight for the mother and her two children.
Her hand shakes with tension, having stopped the full downward force of the axe.
With a grunt Kaida pushes the zombie away.
She does a flashy kick, forcing it out of the home then she kills it on their doorstep.
She has no time to accept their thanks before she's on to the next house. She curses to herself all along the way.
How were there so many over here already! They almost seemed to multiply.
Kaida is a one-woman army through the Stilts and she fights tooth and nail so no Red blood is spilt on her watch.
She directs people out towards the pier where it is quieter and safer.
Some of the zombies don't stop at the Stilts, they clamber their way over the roofs and heading past the markets and into the heart of the city.
Adrien was surrounding them from all fronts, closing in.
Kaida finds herself in a gap between two ramshackle houses, she looks both ways up and down the alley.
She suddenly feels awfully claustrophobic, having intense flashbacks to Ashgate.
Then, she was in a similar situation, hounded and cornered.
The air Kaida breathes begins to sting a little, her chest feeling warm.
She needed to catch her breath. She runs forward and then freezes, her eyes widening.
Clawing around the corner was a massive corpse, half-rotted and dead-eyed. Telling from the armour it wore, it was once a soldier. It raises its sword at Kaida, almost sentient.
It was challenging her.
Kaida attaches one of her swords to her back, and holds the other with both hands firmly on the hilt.
She puffs a few times and then she goes running at it with a fearsome battle cry. Her ponytail whipping in the air behind her.
She stabs at it, but it can't get through.
It has some sort of chainmail on, that even her razor sharp swords struggle against.
Kaida is left open and exposed, and it slams her head against the metal side of a house.
She backs up, her ears ringing and her vision blurring.
It begins to take swings at her, which she has to duck under.
She dodges while regaining her sense of balance, hard to do while in constant motion.
She fights the overwhelming urge to throw up, taking deep gulps of air.
She sweeps behind the undead fiend, her eyes scanning for a weak point.
"Gotcha."
Kaida rebounds between the two houses, gaining some height. She is nimble when the soldier is stiff and creaky.
She settles on its back and plunges her sword into the back of its neck.
It takes some force to push the sword through the stiff and expired flesh, almost like leather now.
The muscles and tendons are tough and rubbery.
She twists her blade forward, till half its neck is off, she's almost there, but it reaches behind and grabs Kaida, throwing her forward with superhuman force.
She takes a bit of a tumble and roll, but flicks her head up.
Her sword is stuck in it. But she still has the other on her back.
"Here, let me help with that."
A woman's voice breaks Kaida's concentration.
Kaida looks up, and the afternoon sun illuminates the silhouette of a woman wearing a russet coloured pirate's hat, with thick matted brown hair.
She drops down into the alley and grabs the imbedded sword from another angle.
She twists and spins it using the whole force of her body, going in a centripetal motion, and she keeps spinning, almost like she's steering a ship.
The razor-sharp sword finally rips through the remainder of flesh and its head comes clean off.
The undead soldier drops to its knees, and then proceeds to collapse in a heap.
She keeps ahold of Kaida's sword, much preferring it to the weathered sword at her hip, and they escape from the alley together, hand in hand.
But they are not out of the clear. They are surrounded when they leave the alley.
The two women go back-to-back, a sword in hand each.
There is nothing but stillness, as Kaida's brown eyes and the woman's green eyes scan the stinking corpses around them, wondering which one will attack first.
A skeletal one breaks formation and goes running at them, and that's when the rest of them descend, like vultures.
They twist and rotate, taking down zombies, and they talk to each other while doing so.
"Charlie!"
Clink, Clash!
"I'm so surprised and so happy and so overjoyed to see you! What are you doing here!?"
Kaida is overcome with emotion.
Clash! Scrraaapeee!
"Yeah, I know kiddo, what has it been now, 3 years? You've grown so much. I see you on TV now! It's...simply unreal."
They swap positions.
Clang! Clang!
"I came back to defend my home. To fight for my Queen. As her loyal subject who has known her since she was like 12."
Charlie laughs in between a ferocious swing.
They kill together, in perfect unison.
"I know, Charlie, I know. I have so much to tell you-"
Kaida pushes back the last zombie and just as she turns around to speak...
"KAIIIIIIIIIIIIIDAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"
Someone seems to howl Kaida's name, completely interrupting her. It is so reverberant, she is sure the whole Stilts hears it.
Kaida's blood runs cold.
Charlie sees Kaida's eyes cloud over with a scary, scary, glow that she had never seen before.
A cold, stillness was emulating from Kaida, even taking Charlie aback.
Being here had changed her, hardened her. Charlie wasn't so sure how to feel. She was just a girl who had barely seen much of the World, when she first landed here.
"It's Adrien."
All hint of surprise and good-nature had left Kaida. It was just like him to ruin this reunion. Like he ruins everything.
"Charlie, I trust you. Please, stay here, keep the Stilts safe."
Charlie is about to argue back, but Kaida gives her a second glance and that is all it takes for Charlie to obey.
She knew how it worked, there was a hierarchy to follow, as there was on a ship.
Charlie can only watch Kaida's retreating form as she spirals between the houses, in the direction of the voice who summoned.
"Just a girl."
Charlie says out loud. But alas, girl, no more.
Kaida reaches the other end of the Stilts.
At this part, the huts and houses begin to slowly tailor off, just leaving stretches of pier and the open sea.
It is always quiet around this part, but now it seems like an absolute ghost town.
Kaida creeps forward, slowing now to a walk.
She finds herself on a thick wooden boardwalk. A massive coiled rope sits resting against a mini wooden stump. Along with a rusted anchor and some old hole-filled nets.
There was genuinely nothing here, but her nerves are strung.
She closes her eyes, and feels outward...and there it is.
That perverse and wicked darkness that washes over her, the aura and power she cannot control and silence.
Like the blackest black magic.
She feels a gust of cold wind blow at her neck.
She turns her head an inch and when she turns back, Adrien is in front of her.
His golden hair is tousled. The armour he always wears, today is polished and gleaming. Kaida can see herself in its reflection.
He is covered in an even longer and blacker tattered cloth. He lowers his hood and tilts his head at Kaida.
His mismatched eyes glisten with mischief.
"Hello, little Red."
Kaida's breath catches in her throat.
Every inch of her is tense. She remains mute, but Adrien can see the wrath in her eyes, directed at him.
It amuses him and a deep chuckle escapes him.
Adrien steps towards her and Kaida freezes for a second. Make no doubt about it, she was afraid.
Her brain wasn't functioning properly.
Move. Move. Move.
She wills herself.
She raises her sword.
"Don't."
Her voice is low, and severe.
Adrien arches a blonde brow.
"Don't take a step further."
He ignores her and continues walking. It was a mind game now.
"But I have gifts for you. Don't be rude, Kaida."
He stops just in front of her, looking down his nose at her.
Her sword brushes against his armour, leaving a scratch on his chest piece.
She doesn't lower it, keeping at least a gap of space as long as the length of her sword between them.
Adrien slowly reaches to his hip, aware sudden movements would most likely make Kaida attack, and he moves his cloak aside to reveal a red crystalline dagger.
Kaida would recognize it anywhere.
The dagger Elias gifted her and took back. The dagger that killed Maven.
Kaida stares at it. The last she saw, it was in Maven's possession. He always kept it close.
It was an item imbued with both love and hatred. A gift and a curse all in one.
Kaida lowers her sword, almost in shock.
"How did you get that?"
She squares up to Adrien now, their eyes battle each other.
"Answer me!"
Kaida's voice quakes from anger and a deafening crack of thunder echoes over their heads.
"Oh? Was that you? You've gotten stronger, I can feel it."
Adrien lowers his face to hers.
"But my principles still remain. A Red will never be able to demand anything of me."
Adrien takes a few steps back. He removes his cloak completely, letting it flutter away in the wind, and in the movement, he throws down a human hand.
Freshly severed and still dripping with silver blood.
Kaida jumps in her skin, absolutely horrified.
It was a woman's arm, pale and slender.
The remainder of an ice blue armour is still somewhat attached.
"I will cut from their bodies, the hands of all those that help you. What good do they serve? What use are they? If they serve a Red Queen?"
Adrien is genuinely puzzled. His thumb and forefinger pinch his chin in query.
"Yuri?"
Kaida's eyes widen in realisation.
"Yuri!"
Kaida shouts, completely ignoring Adrien, she becomes frantic, circling around the boardwalk. Unable to keep still.
"You psycho! WHERE IS SHE?"
Adrien can feel his hair prickling up with static.
His eyes narrow.
"She's hanging off the edge of the boardwalk. Here, let me help her up."
Adrien moves aside and Kaida can finally see an arm clawing to remain on the edge of the wooden planks.
A slight grunt is heard.
Kaida rushes to help but Adrien is already there. He pulls Yuri up from over the edge, by the scruff of the neck. Like she's some stray dog.
He holds her dangling over the edge, her whole body limp.
Yuri looks paler than she's ever been, her arm is gushing out copious amounts of silver blood. Lethal amounts.
"Are you watching Kaida?"
Adrien reaches behind his back, to unleash an axe, with a black wrapped handle.
It has an unnatural spiral shape to the blade.
Yuri looks at Kaida now, her voice a rasp.
"Give him hell, my Queen."
Swish.
In the next moment, her head is severed from her body.
Kaida barely saw Adrien's arm move, he was that quick.
He drops her torso, discarding off it on the mud below the boardwalks.
Her head lands splat on the boardwalks, her pale hair rolling over her face.
The silver that leaves is a spray, appearing like a fountain, spouting out mercury.
The shock that takes Kaida over is instant, but the rage that follows is even quicker.
Her eyes cloud over and lightning strikes the boardwalk so ferociously, the wood instantly chars.
Fire catches around her, and the sound of electricity crackles and whizzes in the air.
Kaida's eyes follow Adrien as he dodges and weaves the killer bolts she sends down in a flurry.
For his size, he is so nimble and he gets so close that she would electrify herself if she called down lightning.
She was willing to though.
Adrien grabs her wrist, so she cannot raise her sword, and then he secures a hand around her throat.
His fingers stretch up to her jawline, her face in his hands.
He pulls her close.
"Those were some neat new tricks. Although, nothing I can't handle. You know, I was friends with Lord Titanos, the infamous controller of storms, before he was MIA. I know your power."
Kaida tries to turn her face away, repulsed by him, but she can't move.
"But, you can't kill me, Kaida. I promise you, by the end of today, I will sit on that throne. And I want you to see it...so please do, stay alive for just a bit longer."
He pushes her face back and her whole body follows.
She finds her feet and is ready to turn in him again, but he is gone.
Kaida falls to her knees and just at that moment, her earpiece crackles to life.
"We're being overrun back here...the undead are breaking through, they're heading to the Palace..."
"Does anyone have eyes on the King and Queen?"
"It's not looking good, we're attacking each other! We need backup!"
Kaida pulls it out with a grimace. It was too much noise.
She sits, defeated for a moment, beside Yuri's head. She reaches out to out, barely even able to look.
"I'm sorry."
Kaida whispers to her.
She mourns her protector, her friend.
She had failed her bitterly.
_______________________________
Author's notes:
You're actually a real one if you remember Charlie!
Also, I know where my story is going, but I also don't! I've had such a frustrating month trying to figure out how the pieces lay.
Sorry for the lack of Maven content, and overall romance, but if you like action, there is plenty of that!
Don't worry, hopefully everything will make sense and I won't try and waffle too much and go on tangents *nervous laughter*
I was really trying to not make Adrien charming but it's like I have a natural proclivity to create tension with every bad guy, whoops.
And also, RIP Yuri. In a civil War, bodies have to drop. Her fierceness, will be remembered.
Next chapter, we catch up with Cal and the others in the city, and hopefully I can get to the Maven bits just after that!
As always, thank you for reading and don't forget to like, comment and vote.
If you're still with me, thank you 🫶🏾💗!