Chapter 25 - And then there were four.
Notorious.
The road leading up to the mansion had seemed a lot shorter the last time Notorious had been there, she thought as her and her group walked up to the building.
Hermit and Merredith gripped hands tightly, and Notorious held Jasons right hand and Laylans left hand.
Everyone was looking forwards, their eyes set on their target. Except for Notorious.
She watched Hermit first, he was walking with purpose. After so many years locked away creating weapons that really had no use, he was finally able to help, and he looked proud of that.
Merredith looked anxious, but ready. She looked like she knew what she had to do and she was going to see it though no matter what.
Jasons face was almost unreadable, but Notorious use that tactic so many times that she could just unmask his feelings. He was scared. She could see the fear in his eyes. The last time he was here was the day he was turned into the very thing we were trying to destroy, and he didn't want to be here.
But he was hiding it very well, trying to be strong for everyone else. Another tactic Notorious used.
Laylan looked unfazed, he looked as though this was right where he belongs. And it was true. He had always been at home on the battlefield, giving orders and fighting his way through many enemies.
And as for herself, Notorious was terrified.
Not so much for herself, despite her sense of self preservation, but for her friends.
Her mentor and father figure, Laylan. Her boyfriend Jason. The boy who was like a brother to her, Hermit, and Merredith, the friend that could always cheer up a room.
They had all stuck by her in the past, and now here they all were, doing it all over again.
"I love you guys." She said, drifting her eyes over all of them.
Laylan gave her hand a squeeze, followed by a reassuring look, Hermit and Merredith smiled and her and Jason whispered it back to her.
She inhaled deeply and let her breath come back out as a sigh.
There it was, the front door.
They hadn't even discussed which entry to use, but the front door seemed as good as any.
Notorious let go of Laylan and Jasons hands and brought out her claws.
"I do a quick scan of the area." She whispered, and with a burst of energy she transformed into a dragon, all in one fluid movement.
She kicked up from the ground and her tail whipped the air behind her, her wings whistling as the wind skimmed their surface.
Once she felt she was high enough, she glided slowly around the building almost silently so that she could hear everything going on inside the house.
Bottom floor, that's where they were keeping the eximius. There sounded to be around 30 of them, all in close quarters.
Notorious knew that in a confined area that her and her friends would stand no chance against them, they would have to lure them out into the open.
She swooped back down and landed quietly in front of her group.
"There's around 30 of them, maybe more. All on the bottom floor." She told them.
"I would have noticed if that many people had gone missing, not to mention the amount of failures to successes in creating these things is two to one. I would have known if so many people had gone missing or turned up dead." Laylan shook his head.
"The pixies then?" Jason piped up. "They could be using them to keep people away and to make it seem like there's more of the eximius than there actually is."
"Smarter than he looks, isn't he?" Layan said, with a slightly shocked expression.
"That has to be it then." Notorious nodded. "Hermy, think you have good enough aim to take down most of the pixies?"
"Of course i do." He said. "Im offended that you have to ask."
Notorious smiled at him. "Then the rest of you focus on taking down the eximius."
"And you, my dear?" Laylan looked worried.
"I'll go after Atera." She said grimly.
"He's in there?" Merredith gasped.
Notorious nodded. "He's down with his creations. I can take him."
"And we're going to lead them out into the open, i presume?" Laylan asked.
"Not we. I will." Merredith said.
"Merry..." Notorious started.
"No, I'm not a great fighter but this i can do." She interrupted.
Notorious went to argue again but Laylan stopped her. "I believe she can do this. Have faith, my dear."
She sighed, but nodded anyway.
Merredith gave Hermit a quick kiss and ran off towards the front door.
They all stood in silence. Tense statues, waiting for any sign that Merredith was going to return.
Helplessly staring at the door in which she had just disappeared into.
After a short, but never the less, tense wait, Notorious heard faint footsteps.
"Jase." She whispered and tapped her ear.
His ears grew and pointed, becoming hairy like dogs ears.
He nodded his head and the rest of him moulded into the shape of the eximius. Notorious took a deep breath as the footsteps grew louder.
Laylan and Hermit could obviously hear it now too, because their eyes all darted towards the door at the same time.
Hermit prepared his crossbow.
Laylan placed his cane onto the floor and kicked it into a bush nearby and got out two long, curved blades.
Then came the sound of heavier footsteps and chains rattling, as well as something else...
Something light and barely audible.
Notorious recognized it as the flutter of small wings.
"Hermy." She nodded towards Hermit and he held up his crossbow.
"Jase." She tapped the place on her hip where his belt held the silver bombs.
He held one in each hand and readied himself to throw them.
Laylan didn't need any instructions, he would already have his own plan.
Merredith burst out of the door, whip in hand, followed by a swarm of pixies.
Hermit shot repeatedly and every arrow hit.
Pixies fell before they even knew what was happening.
Next came the eximius, growling and snarling, their eyes set on Merredith.
While they were distracted, Jason threw the silver bombs and with perfect aim, hit at least 6 of the creatures. Some of the other eximius fell over the ones that were writhing on the floor in pain, but were very quick to get up.
Merredith was grinning wildly as she ran towards us.
"Told you i could do it!" She shouted as she turned around and whipped an eximius around the ankle and brought it to its knees.
"I'm sorry i ever doubted you, mad woman." Notorious called back to her.
And then they all set off.
Hermit ran to Merredith to back her up, fighting four of the eximius at once.
Laylan ran to put down the howling beasts still rolling on the floor in pain, taking out an eximius that tried to get in his way.
Jason gave Notorious a quick smile and ran off to fight on his own, taking on two by himself.
Notorious shot into the air, kicking at the ground and leaving claw marks in the grass.
She dived down at an eximius that was about to join the battle between Hermit, Merredith and the four others.
She picked it up, digging her claws deep into its flesh. Notorious flew up and up before throwing it down towards the ground with all of her strength, sending it plummeting towards the hard earth.
Notorious scanned the area again, Jason was going okay, he had taken down two eximius already.
Hermit and Merredith made a great team, Merredith keeping the beast still while Hermit attacked.
Laylan looked to be struggling, he was up against three on his own.
Notorious dived down again, and once she was close enough to the ground she turned to fly down feet first, still going at an incredible speed, and crushed one of the eximius attacking Laylan into the ground.
Blood splattered up her clothes and drenched her boots, but she carried on, helping Laylan by fending off any more eximius coming for him.
Notorious spun around quickly and took off one of their heads with her tail.
The now headless body fell to its knees, and then onto the floor, its chest thudding on impact.
So far so good.
Jason.
I kept an eye on Notorious, despite the fact i had my hands full with three eximius.
One of them swung for my head while another tried to claw at my feet, i jumped and ducked at the same time, avoiding losing my head and feet.
I kicked out at one of them, getting rid of it temporarily while i plunged my fist into the others chest and popping its heart on the inside.
Its eyes widened and it dropped to the floor, blood spilling from its chest.
I thought for a moment about the fact that these were once people.
People that, like him, didn't have a choice in what they became.
But being emotional wouldn't see me through until the end of the day, it wouldn't keep me alive.
Besides, there was still two more beasts coming after me.
One more check on Notorious.
She was on the ground, dead eximius scattered in pieces on the ground around her.
She was covering something, but i couldn't make out what it was.
Merredith.
Once this was all over, i was going to make a song about this.
It will be sung before great battles!
I wrapped my whip around one of the beasts throats and pulled tight.
It squirmed and clawed at its neck to get rid of the choking sensation.
While it was otherwise occupied, Hermit shot it through the head with his crossbow.
The struggling stopped and i released my grip on the whip.
Rest in peace, poor soul.
Hermit shot close to my head and i turned around quickly to see another eximius go down with an arrow through the eye.
"Thank you sweetie." I sighed.
He smiled at me, but it quickly faded as he looked over in Notorious' direction.
I turned around and saw what he was frowning at.
"Oh no..." I sighed.
Notorious.
Just as she thought that everything was going well, suddenly Laylan and herself were surrounded with most of the remaining beasts.
She did a quick count up. seven eximius.
"Think we can make it?" Notorious asked Laylan, who was stood about two meters behind her.
"You might." He croaked.
Notorious spun around to see Laylan being approached by an especially large eximius.
His knifes lay on the floor, meters away from him.
She was about to run to help, but the other eximius becan to run at her.
"Laylan!" Notorious shouted and threw her own blade to him.
He caught it and plunged it through the monsters throat, just as the eximius shoved its hand into Laylans stomach.
"No..." Notorious breathed.
The beast fell to the ground, leaving a hole through Laylans body.
"No..." Notorious breathed.
The world seemed to go in slow motion as Laylan dropped to the floor.
Notorious ran to him and dropped onto the floor next to him.
"Go!" He ordered, and Notorious realized that the rest of the beasts were still coming for her.
She turned around, tears streaming down her face.
"No!" She screamed at them.
Everything went red and she felt rage sweep over her.
Notorious came back to herself to find she was covered in blood and panting heavily.
The eximius lay scattered in pieces around her, the limbs almost too mangled to recognize.
She ran back over to Laylan, who was rasping shallow breaths.
"I'll fix you," Notorious cried, holding his head up. "I'll fix you, my dear." She brushed his hair with her hand. "You're going to be okay. You cant leave me!"
"Quiet, my dear." Laylan whispered. "I don't need fixing."
"Laylan..." She sobbed.
Maybe he was in denial, maybe he didn't know he was hurt.
"I'm ready." He sighed. It wasn't a sigh of exasperation, it was a sigh of content. "I'm ready to go now."
"You promised me! You said to me when you first met me that you will be here every time i need you." She put her head on his chest. "I need you now."
"You just ki-" He coughed up blood and groaned in pain. "Killed all of those by yourself. You don't need me, child."
"Please... I can fix you."
"You've always been a daughter to me, my dear, but you don't need me anymore." His eyes flickered closed.
"Don't close your eyes, don't you dare Laylan." She shook her head.
"My child." He said with his last breath.
Notorious closed her eyes as well and screamed into his chest.
"You cant leave me!" She wailed.
She stared at him for what seemed like forever.
He looked more peaceful in death than he ever had in life. He no longer looked old, tired and weary.
Laylan was right, he was ready to go. Ready to find his peace.
But that didn't mean Notorious had to be happy about it.
"I'm so sorry..." She held his limp hand tightly. "I never meant for this to happen. I'm so so sorry."
"Notorious..." Someone said from behind her.
She turned around quickly, expecting to see Laylan stood there, cane in hand and his top hat perfectly crooked.
"Notorious look." It was Jason speaking. He was looking towards the building, where around 50 eximius gathered, snapping, howling and snarling. But not moving.
A man stood in front of them all.
He had black hair and wore very out of date clothing. He was pale and had dark, almost black, eyes that slowly looked around the battlefield.
The man stood straight and strong, like someone who may have been trained in the army or had come from a wealthy and upper-class background.
"Atera." Notorious said.
"You have become quite the kink in my plans, Torrie Charms." He had a British accent, but with hints of many different cultures behind it. "I think i may have to smooth them out."
The eximius all moved around excitedly at his words.
"Hmm," Came a girls voice from god-knows-where. "That sounds like it would be fun to watch, but i don't think i can allow that."
A girl stepped out from the trees, her pin-straight dark hair dancing behind her.
Everything was so confusing. Notorious wasn't sure what was going on.
And then it clicked.
The girl, she was from Notorious' vision.
But... She couldn't be. She died.
No. Notorious was sure of it. It had to be...
The dark haired girl looked at her. "Hello, big sister." She smiled.