ESSENCE
Reece grimaces as he glances over at the street where his great sword is laying as we hide in the alleyway from the hail of gunfire. He glances between me and his sword a few times and I go to grab his arm when I notice what he's contemplating as he goes to launch himself forwards on his heels.
"Reece, don't," I frown, "it's too dangerous."
Reece clenches his jaw and glances away to meet Daemon's gaze, whose eyes wander down to Reece's sword before flickering back up to meet Reece's eyes again. Daemon nods and leans around the corner of the car while checking to see if he's covered.
"Rai!" Daemon calls out to gain her attention.
"Yeah?" Rai shouts back.
"Speed bolt!" Daemon shouts and Rai nods.
Rai leans around the corner of the telephone pole and twists her hand around sharply, which sends several rays of electricity that Daemon uses to run behind as it forms a temporary wall as he runs along with it, picking up Reece's sword and tossing it to him, before rolling into the alleyway with us as the lightning crashes into the wall of the building.
Daemon reloads his pistol, shell casings dropping on to the ground as he leans around the corner of the wall and fires towards the nearest sniper in a parking garage.
"It's no use," Daemon scoffs as he leans back around the corner and his back hits the wall, his eyes flickering between the two of us, "I can't reach them from here with this."
Meanwhile, Rai creates cover for us with her storm clouds as it begins to rain and fog begins to swarm the streets, lightning occasionally striking the buildings that the snipers are hiding in, and thunder rumbling throughout the darkened sky.
"Rai could create a tsunami," Daemon shouts over the loud noise, "but it would endanger the surrounding areas!"
"As would a violent storm..." Reece mutters as he contemplates what our next move is, "is Rai able to create a field of electricity around her?"
"Yeah," Daemon nods, "she can create a field bubble of electricity around her and speed forwards, seemingly almost teleporting to her intended target because she travels so fast and defies gravity, but in this situation, there are too many snipers that if she were to go after one and pause for even just a second, she'd be shot."
"Come on," A familiar voice rings out, "how hard could it be? Take them down already! Geesh. Or do I have to do everything myself, because, I certainly would like to."
"Aether," Reece growls as he leans around the corner and locks eyes on him, "of course."
I inhale sharply and I watch Reece, feeling somewhat breathless at the situation.
"Aether Gallaghan," Kazuki spits as he walks through the gunfire towards Aether, trading his daggers out for a pair of pickaxe weapons made of ice that glow with frost and he twirls them around once.
"What are you doing?! Get back!" Rai shouts at Kazuki, who simply ignores her.
"You cost me many business deals, you know that?" Kazuki glares at Aether.
"Well, isn't that a pity?" Aether muses as he twirls his gun around in his hand boredly and in an at ease manner, "however, it seems that my trap worked well after all. After all, it lured you here. This'll be fun. I'll get heavily rewarded for taking in shit like you."
Kazuki glares once more at Aether as Aether begins to shoot at him and pulls out a second pistol in the process, twirling it around before shooting them simultaneously as Kazuki reflects them with his weapons. Kazuki manages to run up to Aether, moving side to side as Aether reloads and starts shooting again. Kazuki's soft, blond hair turns white while his silver eyes turn icy blue as he throws one of his ice pickaxes at Aether, twirling as he does so, and his better wing shoots out shards of ice in the form of blades in the process.
I watch as Aether's eyes widen slightly, but he bends backwards and dodges the array of flying, lethal, ice blades and almost gets his by Kazuki's pickaxe in the process. However, once the pickaxe crashes into the pavement, a wall of ice jolts to life and freezes across the street, standing ten feet tall. Aether glances backwards and scoffs slightly at the inconvenience. In the split second moment that Aether took to glance back, Kazuki took the opportunity to slide up directly to Aether and is now holding his remaining weapon underneath the curve of Kazuki's jaw. Aether's eyes meet Kazuki's and the two stand there watching each other for a few moments before a small smile works its way onto Aether's face and he manages to sweep Kazuki's legs out from under him.
"Dammit," Reece clenches his jaw as he watches the two collide once again, sparks flashing as Aether pulls a knife out of his boot and the two constantly swing and dodge at each other, "I'm going in there."
"Reece," I say firmly and grab on to his shoulder, making him look back at me, "be careful..."
Reece smiles slightly and nods before running off towards Kazuki and Aether with his greatsword.
"Oh," I sigh as I scan the rooftops for signs of familiar faces, "where are you guys?"
The rain picks up as Rai focuses on making the storm heavier, turning the rain from average to heavy in the process as thunder crashes through the sky. Meanwhile, Daemon sits on the ground with his back pressed up against the brick wall and I notice a deep scarlet path forming on his jacket by his shoulder and that his breathing is slightly heavier than normal.
"When are those friends of yours getting back here, kid?" Daemon winces as he shifts around.
"Please," A wry smile forms on my face as I make my way over to him before squatting in front of him, "I'm not a kid compared to you. You're only, what? Twenty-five?"
"Twenty-three," He winces whenever I gently examine his shoulder, "although, I'd like to make it to see twenty-five."
"Tsk," Rai says as she appears in front of us, evidently having taken the opportunity of Reece running out into the street to find cover and run to us, "and here you were the one worried about me. Funny how the reckless nineteen year old is perfectly fine, but her partner got shot in the shoulder."
"Actually, it's not really funny," Daemon meets her eyes as he glances up, "at least you're having fun."
"That comment is going to come out of your pay grade," Rai chides as she squats down to examine his shoulder as well and Daemon snorts, perplexed.
I glance back over at Reece and Kazuki to see that they've now managed to team up against Aether, who seems to be slightly struggling to hold them both off. I tilt my head in confusion and in slight amazement as to how he's able to fend them off so well. He must truly have remarkable talents...then again...he is one of the most well regarded agents of White Rabbit...
"You little shit!" Reece growls out as he continues to swing and Aether manages to keep dodging him as Kazuki huffs, slowly losing stamina due to his previous recent wounds.
Reece finally manages to slam his sword into Aether and sends him flying into the wall of ice behind him, making Aether wince as cracks begin to run up throughout the ice, threatening to shatter the wall of protection. Reece goes to swing again, and within the split few seconds that Reece leaves his center open, a sly smile forms on Aether's face and he pulls a third pistol out from the back of his pants where another holster is hidden and he aims it at Reece's chest.
"Reece!" I scream and lurch forwards, my right arm reaching out as if I could possibly reach him from here and pull him back from danger.
Almost instantaneously, red energy slashes through the wall of ice as Clattonia cuts through it with her katana and flies towards Aether with blinding, murderous rage, her eyes glowing bright red and red energy surrounding her as her magenta hair flies around and she yells out, which happens right as the sound of a gunshot goes off and I scream again, feeling the life drain out of my body as I panic, my mind racing to catch up with the situation as my eyes watch Reece, hoping and praying that he didn't get shot, that he didn't get killed.
Aether whirls around, his eyes widening in surprise as Clattonia lands a kick to his face before landing on the pavement, sliding a few feet away from Aether due to the force of her flying slash through the ice. Meanwhile, Reece stumbles backwards slightly and Kazuki watches the scene with a stunned expression, staring at something beyond the two sides of ice that are left, the middle having been completely eradicated by Clattonia.
"Reece!" I scream and run towards him.
Reece glances over at me and our eyes meet as he reaches into his arm and rips out what appears to be a shard of ice and lets it clatter to the ground. My eyebrows furrow in confusion until I notice that Reece hasn't been shot and relief washes over me.
"Essence, get back," Reece frowns and urges, looking somewhat frustrated at the situation.
I frown and my eyes drift over to where Kazuki is still watching as Clattonia stands and holds her katana to Aether's throat, who lies on the ground staring up at her with sadistic eyes. Several feet on the other side of the ice wall, Jace is standing with his pistol raised and I notice that Aether has been shot in the thigh, making realization wash over me.
"You son of a bitch," Jace snaps and slowly but angrily walks through the opening in the wall of ice, firing a second shot into Aether's other thigh and making him cry out, "you knew and you never told me?"
"What are you talking about?" Aether scowls and his eyes search Jace's, "and why the hell did you shoot me? Shoot them instead!"
"You knew that it wasn't a Supernatural who killed my mother," Jace snaps as he continues walking closer, firing a third shot into Aether's knee and making him scream, "you knew that White Rabbit covered up that it was actually organized by White Rabbit, didn't you? And they blamed it on a Supernatural so that my father would join. You knew that because it was your father who ordered it, didn't you? My dad's best friend had the love of his life, my mother, killed, because he wanted to convince him to join."
"What the hell is going on here?" Reece demands.
"We found the package that Kazuki agreed to send," Clattonia says, her eyes meeting Reece's, "it was a file on Jace's mother, along with other information about various individuals that White Rabbit tried to cover up. Minjonet wanted to smuggle them for herself and act as if they got lost on the Tokyo trip."
And with one, swift motion, Clattonia swings her katana and Aether's eyes widen as she creates a long, deep slash along his midsection and the sound of glass breaking echos throughout the air.
"Wait a minute," Reece starts as Aether's image shifts and flickers as a pane of glass seems to appear and cracks run all throughout it and Aether's gasping begins to sound more feminine, "is that..."
"Yes," Clattonia nods as the writhing figure before us turns to Minjonet's image, "that's actually Minjonet. She was projecting herself as Aether to get the support of regular White Rabbit members who don't know about or trust her."
Minjonet's wide, silver eyes bore into mine before she stops moving entirely, her last breath leaving her lips as she stills on the pavement. In the process, Caliber comes running up through the hole in the wall of ice with her sniper rifle on her back, attached to a black strap that's hugging her body, and her eyes scan the scene before her.
"You mean," Jace breathes out, his eyes focused on Minjonet's corpse, "that...that wasn't Aether..."
"I took care of the other snipers," Caliber says, "it seems we are done here, yes?"
"If you guys don't mind, I'd really like to get to some sort of medical clinic soon," Daemon shouts over from his position with Rai.
"Right," Clattonia nods as she looks over at them before her attention goes to Reece's arm and Kazuki's weakened stance, as well as Jace's trance like state, "it seems that we could all use some rest."
I know that Clattonia's right, but I fear that we may not get to rest for very long with the storm that is to come.