03-16-2010, 03:29 AM
The blanket of night watched over them all.
Perhaps the trip would’ve gone a lot easier if its participants were familiar with their steeds. As it stood, however, several of the Grey Wardens, including Juno, had not experienced the wonderful equestrian sport of horseback riding yet. As such, the onyx-haired Saiyan was forced to occupy himself with something, for if he focused on the road, the horse got pissy, and started taking him off in random directions that didn’t help their cause. His eyes fell on the blonde darklighter just a few paces ahead of him. He kicked his horse a bit to spur her forward, but he probably kicked too hard, for he was forced to hold on for dear life as the thing trotted pretty darn fast up next to the girl’s horse.
“You’re Xenia,” Juno repeated the blonde’s name from before, keeping his voice hushed as the trip had been mostly silent, and she turned to him with a curious expression on her face, nodding. “We met during Friend or Foe—you’re Sage’s sister, right?”
“I remember,” Xenia nodded. There seemed to be another topic that she was interested in, however. “You know my sister?” Xenia asked, this new revelation suddenly piquing her interest.
“Uh,” Juno stammered, unsure about how to describe their relationship, “Yeah. I mean, not extensively—”
“I should hope not,” Xenia smirked.
“Well, I mean, she’s pretty hot—” Juno accidentally blurted out, and Xenia’s eyes grew wide, but a smirk remained on her face. The boy—as of yet—hadn’t shown any signs of wanting to hurt her sister, so for now, she was content to toy with him. “I mean, of course, she’s got a pretty hot… uh, warm… personality. Like, uh, nice.” Xenia quirked up an eyebrow, and her smirk grew wider as she watched him squirm with his words. There was a slightly awkward silence, and a couple of intermittent laughs from her team, before she decided to break it.
“Yeah, she’s a pretty nice person,” Xenia replied, looking back at the road. The group of soldiers that had arrived with her chuckled a bit more, watching Juno blush profusely. “Well, anybody who can get Sage to talk to them for more than a second or two is obviously not an awful person, so that makes me feel better about trusting you.”
Juno looked away, his cheeks probably blood red from embarrassment. “Zanks,” he forced out, and quickly let the conversation go silent again, walking casually beside the blonde, eventually resorting to whistling an awkward tune. Xenia glanced at him, her eyes portraying annoyance, and he quickly let the air grow silent again. She was an imposing figure, after all.
Slowly but surely, the sun dipped over the eastern horizon, and dawn was upon them. The trip didn’t last too much longer, thank the Maker, and after a brief introduction with the king, the five Wardens were whisked off to a separate section of the fortress that looked as if it was once used as the dining hall. From the many soldiers who were stuffing their faces, it looked as if it had been rebooted in that capacity.
Juno was the first to sit, leaning on the table and eyeing each of his comrades in turn, starting with the one he was most familiar with: Xenia. The blonde stood, arms-crossed, and surveyed the fortress. Her spine was relaxed, her eyes not hostile but observant—something had definitely changed about the blonde since before, something that stole away not the confidence, but the boldness that she had had before. That was not to say that she was, in any way, less courageous or intimidating, but that something had simply… calmed the storm, if only a little.
Tamsin was, perhaps, the most curious specimen. Young, true, but not the youngest in the group—that spot was reserved for Wolfgang—the young girl held herself high with a sense of pride he hadn’t seen in many people that young. As if he wasn’t young himself, that is. She sat contentedly beside Juno, glancing from him to Cailan to Kazuya.
Wolfgang, as previously mentioned, was the youngest, and obviously the most frightened. He was attempting to put up a front, the onyx-haired seer could see, perhaps trying to impress the others, or perhaps trying to convince himself that this was going to all turn out alright—either way, Juno wasn’t all that sure it would. Wolfgang followed the black-haired man’s suit, sitting cross-legged in the grass and smiling shyly.
Kazuya remained standing, along with Xenia. The Japanese woman was a complex character, and Juno couldn’t even imagine looking into her motivations. She seemed distinctly unfamiliar, almost as if she was from a completely different time and place—wherever she was from, her personality did not fit this world or this game, and while Juno surmised that she must’ve just been a strange person, under the surface he knew that there was something there. He wasn’t about to bother himself finding out what, though. Not when they had a job to do.
Kazuya spoke first. “What’re we going to do?”
Cailan choked a bit on his words, obviously slightly nervous in the presence of Grey Wardens. “Uh, well, I was going to let you all talk that one over.”
“Some king,” Kazuya muttered under her breath, crossing her arms. The others shot her a glance, but the black-haired woman ignored them.
It was the question everyone had thought about, but no one voiced until the black-haired woman had. Her eyes flitted from ally to ally as well—it seemed she was sizing up the group as well. Her already-present scowl only deepened when her eyes fell on the young Wolfgang. Juno spoke up.
“That tower’s a weak point if I ever saw one,” he offered, “Those creeps could be completely wiped out on the battlefield and hole themselves up in there, ready to surprise us just when we think we’ve won.”
“H-he’s got a point,” Wolfgang nodded, though Juno wasn’t sure if he was nodding because he really thought the idea was a good point, or that he just wanted something to agree with. Perhaps he was making all these assumptions because he assumed all tweens were like he had been—severely impressionable. Wolfgang could be something completely different, he didn’t know. Whatever it was, though, it didn’t matter.
“We need to send someone up there, I guess,” Xenia amended, “Maybe light a beacon or something signaling the tower’s clear?”
“That sounds like a novel idea,” Kazuya sighed, “Tamsin’s good at getting into tight places like that. She disarmed a bomb for us last time around.” Juno looked at the silver-haired girl. She glanced up at Kazuya; thankful for the notice, obviously, but not so sure she felt up to the task. “But… do you think you can handle clearing the tower by yourself, Suzaku?”
“I…”
“I’ll go with her,” Juno piped up. “We’ll clear out the tower, and then you guys can stay down here, hold off the darkspawn till the ‘archdemon’ arrives. After that, you guys can take him down. We’ll signal you when the tower’s done, and then you can make the killing blow. Gamer’s info says that only a Gray Warden can kill an archdemon. Not sure why, but if that’s what it says, that means one of us has to do it, and if you three are on the ground, then it’s looking like it’s all on you guys. That is, if everyone agrees to the plan.
Tamsin and Wolfgang nodded almost immediately, and Xenia nodded a few seconds later after considering it. She’d be in the thick of battle, and that suited her.
Kazuya elongated her pause. She wasn’t quite sure she liked taking orders from a twenty-year-old, but the plan was good. “Alright,” she agreed, and the plan was settled: Juno and Tamsin would clear out the Tower of Ishal, and then light a flame beacon at the top; Kazuya, Xenia, and Wolfgang would stay down, battling darkspawn alongside King Cailan’s soldiers and, eventually, fighting the archdemon itself. With any luck, one of them would be able to sink their sword into it, and the battle would be over smoothly.
The half-Saiyan scoffed; it wasn’t going to be that easy, he knew, but hey, a guy could hope, right?
Juno’s eyes flitted from his companions to the sky outside the nearby window. Morning had barely left them, but already clouds hung in the sky, denying them the sun’s warm rays. He felt… cold, in a strange, foreboding way, in a way he’d only felt once before—during Friend or Foe, when he had stood there, staring at Balrog beat Sage and Ashe like they were playthings.
For some reason, he was at his best when others were in great danger. When he was the only thing at risk, something inside him denied him strength. Now, however, he had someone—or something—to fight for, and if it took the death of him to win this battle, he knew that he would risk it. He was aware, simultaneously, that most of his companions would do so as well. Now, whether they’d do it normally or whether the game had programmed this newfound mantra into them—he didn’t know.
And truthfully, he didn’t care, either.
The afternoon was slowly settling in at Ostagar. The darkspawn had, not surprisingly, delayed their push until a darker setting crept in—the soldiers knew they would march on the fortress at any second. The onyx-haired Warden slipped away from the fire, searching for the blonde in their group—Xenia. Sage’s sister. He found her a few minutes later, standing at the window of a large turret, gazing out at the plains and the forest below, waiting patiently for the battle to start. He walked up beside her and leaned against the marble wall, glancing briefly out the window.
“How is she?” he asked, accent still thick. The blonde bombshell didn’t look up.
“I don’t know,” Xenia muttered. “She got sucked into an event same as I did, right?”
“Yes, I guess so,” Juno replied, nodding and pushing himself off the wall. He started to walk out then turned back toward her. “How’re you holding up?” he asked, looking her up and down and noticing, for the first time, the distinct difference that had been plaguing him for the past few hours: she was much calmer than before, much more relaxed, without being apathetic. She wasn’t so tense.
“I’m… I’m good, I guess,” she said quietly, “I mean, as good as you can be, stuck in some crazy guy’s game of life or death.” She laughed, and Juno smiled, placing a hand on the door. She turned from the window. “Be careful out there,” she said, almost forcing it out, but with a little chuckle, “Sage wouldn’t be happy if you decided to join us in the prison.”
“I’ll do my best,” the onyx-haired fortuneteller laughed, twisting the doorknob and opening the wooden door of the tower, preparing to walk out. Xenia stood up straight, returning to her stronger stance—she couldn’t let any of those soldiers see her soft side, not before a battle. She met Juno’s eyes, and the two of them knew that they had to win this, at any cost. “Same zing to you,” he continued, “I wouldn’t want to have to explain how I let you die to Sage.” He smirked. Xenia looked up at him with a sarcastic glint in her eye, and laughed—he wouldn’t have to worry about that. Her will to live was higher than most people he’d seen before. With that, he turned to leave, and slowly began to pull the door to.
“Juno,” Xenia called after him, and the half-Saiyan stuck his head back through the space left between the door and its marble frame. He quirked an eyebrow, as if to ask her what she wanted. “You… you really care about her, don’t you?”
He opened the door, his expression growing slightly darker. “Yeah,” he said simply, finding no other way to explain. He didn’t know whether or not he actually cared about her as much as he thought he did, but nevertheless, he wasn’t going to stand by and let something bad happen to her. If Sage needed him, he’d be there for her… it was the same with Sophia, and with Kaden (though he probably wouldn’t admit that), and with anyone else he might’ve considered a friend. He bit his lip. “Yeah, yeah I do.”
“You’d better,” Xenia smiled, “Otherwise you’re going to be dealing with me.” The pair chuckled briefly, and then left, the sun slowly sinking into the horizon behind them as the cloud of the Darkspawn converged on the fortress. This was their hour—and it was up to them whether or not it would be their most glorious hour, or their final one.
The five Wardens stood on the fortress wall, gazing down at the incoming cloud of darkspawn. A few of the goblins burst from the forest into the fields, the first sign of the horde that continued to come. A few were larger, riding on disfigured steeds, and the five Wardens knew—through Gamer’s programmed knowledge—that these were the generals, one for the Hurlocks and one for the Genlocks. At the back of the cloud, the cry of the archdemon could be heard, but the thing had yet to show itself.
“Coward,” Xenia muttered.
“I guess this is us, Juno,” Tamsin muttered meekly, and tugged at the sleeve of her taller partner. The onyx-haired half-Saiyan nodded.
“We’ll head to the tower now—wait until you get our signal to finish off the archdemon,” the onyx-haired Grey Warden told his four comrades. “And whatever you do, make sure it’s one of you zree that delivers ze killing blow. If not, it won’t work.” The three soldiers of the group nodded, and Tamsin quickly hugged Kazuya. The Japanese woman seemed slightly disinclined for pleasantries at the moment, but she didn’t deny the silver-haired girl’s embrace. Juno placed a hand on Xenia’s shoulder, and nodded to her. She nodded back, and then Tamsin and Juno departed, heading west to the Tower of Ishal.
The tower wasn’t too far—it didn’t take them ten minutes to get there. It towered over Ostagar, once the central point of the fortress. Kings and generals would take up shelter here, strategizing, bent over maps and battle plans put forth by tacticians who knew nothing about true battle. Wars had been waged from here, and for a moment, Juno and Tamsin slowed their stride to reflect. They glanced at one another, then the half-Saiyan walked up to the wooden gate and rapped hardly upon its boughs.
No answer; he knocked again, but still, silence. He turned to Tamsin, a knowing expression on his face. She nodded, and reached for the hilts of her knives as Juno backed up and lifted a palm. He let out a loud Pop, and violet ki spun forth from his hand, crashing into the wood and sending it splintering across the tower’s courtyard. “Well, that’s one way to do it,” Tamsin joked, and then she walked slowly into the courtyard ahead of the mage, glancing around furtively. Juno pulled his sword out of his belt and held it in one hand, his staff in the other, and let his eyes survey the area. Something wasn’t right—they had feared that the Darkspawn might try to attack, but the area was quiet. Too quiet.
Tamsin screamed first—the arrow whizzed past her, and she stepped backwards, tripping into Juno, who pulled her in and fired a swift blast of purple ki from his palm, nailing the Genlock squarely in the face. It collapsed into a heap of dead flesh, and the silver-haired girl sighed a sigh of relief, looking up at her compatriot. His expression was uncharacteristically grizzled and stern; this wasn’t over.
The young girl stepped away, gulping. She held her daggers high, sliding into a fighting stance. She was well trained with the weapons, it seemed. Juno smiled—the youth was learning fast. She needed to learn faster, however, because in seconds, a darkspawn had leapt forth from nowhere and tackled her to the ground. Juno had just a moment to watch her struggle to keep his dagger away from her before another creature pulled his attention away. A large, burly creature leapt at him, a foreboding axe in hand, and Juno brought his elf-wood staff up to block the blow. The weapon vibrated at impact, and Juno swung his sword at the darkspawn’s feet, hoping to catch him off guard—no such luck.
Tamsin, meanwhile, was having a similar amount of luck. After a bit of a struggle, she managed to kick the monster off of her, but when she lunged with her knives, he thrust his own dagger at her, forcing her to dodge the blow in mid attack. Her wrists weren’t ready for the sudden movement, and they flipped back, her fingers loosening their grip on her weapons as they did so; the silver-haired girl’s knives were sent flying out of her hand and rolling onto the ground several yards away. The youth ran for them, but the darkspawn grasped her by the ankle and pulled her back towards him, lifting his dagger.
The onyx-haired Warden parried blow after blow, and for a moment, he and the darkspawn were locked in the closest thing Juno had had to mortal combat since Friend or Foe. Eventually, however, he was able to get a footing, and in this body, discovered he was able to fire ki attacks through his staff as his aimed the weapon and fired a Pop from it.
“You alright over zere, Tamsin?” Juno yelled over the clang of his sword against the Hurlock’s axe. He let his eyes look away from the battle once second and saw the dagger fly downward toward the silver-haired maid, and opened his mouth to yell—“NO!”—he sputtered, but the Hurlock took the blunt side of his axe and smashed it into Juno’s skull, knocking the onyx-haired Saiyan off his feet before he could try to save Tamsin.
The dagger made a crunching noise as it reached a destination, but fortunately, it wasn’t the destination it had originally hoped for. The metallic weapon slammed forcefully into the dirt, Tamsin barely rolling out of its trajectory. Her ankle, however, was still in the grasp of the Hurlock, so she used her hands to launch herself upright, bringing her free foot squarely into the creature’s face. It doubled back, releasing its hold on the implanted dagger.
Suzaku stood over the thing as it clutched its face, and her expression had grown rather angry. Juno slowly lifted his head up as the silver-haired girl glanced from her original opponent to the new one that was moving closer to her. Unlike usual, she didn’t look scared—she was putting up a front here, making the darkspawn believe that she was fully confident in her ability to kill them. And for a moment, Juno believed that she was.
As confidently as she could, the silver-maned servant ripped the dagger from the ground and stabbed it into the kneeling darkspawn’s forehead, tears forming in her eyes as she dug it forcefully into his skull. The onyx-haired Saiyan was impressed; she wasn’t about to back down. He gradually brought himself to his feet, grasped the hilt of his sword, and watched carefully as the other Hurlock approached her. She stepped back, losing that aura of confidence, and then he took his opportunity. He leapt into the air, using his Flight to keep himself aloft long enough, and jammed his sword through the creature’s back, sending crimson blood flying all over his robes.
The Hurlock collapsed, dead, and Tamsin looked upon the mage and smiled.
“I couldn’t let you do all the work,” Juno joked, and Tamsin’s smile grew slightly broader at the light-hearted Saiyan’s urging.
“I think… I think we make a good team,” Tamsin chuckled, picking up her weapons.
“I don’t zink, I know,” he smiled at the shorter girl, clapping her on the shoulder. “But, we’ve not got much time. If there were darkspawn out here, that means there’s darkspawn inside, so we’ve got to hurry.”
They wasted no more time, quickly running up the steps to the large wooden doors, opening them, and slipping inside, closing the entrance with a resounding slam that surely awakened any darkspawn in the tower to their presence.
Perhaps the trip would’ve gone a lot easier if its participants were familiar with their steeds. As it stood, however, several of the Grey Wardens, including Juno, had not experienced the wonderful equestrian sport of horseback riding yet. As such, the onyx-haired Saiyan was forced to occupy himself with something, for if he focused on the road, the horse got pissy, and started taking him off in random directions that didn’t help their cause. His eyes fell on the blonde darklighter just a few paces ahead of him. He kicked his horse a bit to spur her forward, but he probably kicked too hard, for he was forced to hold on for dear life as the thing trotted pretty darn fast up next to the girl’s horse.
“You’re Xenia,” Juno repeated the blonde’s name from before, keeping his voice hushed as the trip had been mostly silent, and she turned to him with a curious expression on her face, nodding. “We met during Friend or Foe—you’re Sage’s sister, right?”
“I remember,” Xenia nodded. There seemed to be another topic that she was interested in, however. “You know my sister?” Xenia asked, this new revelation suddenly piquing her interest.
“Uh,” Juno stammered, unsure about how to describe their relationship, “Yeah. I mean, not extensively—”
“I should hope not,” Xenia smirked.
“Well, I mean, she’s pretty hot—” Juno accidentally blurted out, and Xenia’s eyes grew wide, but a smirk remained on her face. The boy—as of yet—hadn’t shown any signs of wanting to hurt her sister, so for now, she was content to toy with him. “I mean, of course, she’s got a pretty hot… uh, warm… personality. Like, uh, nice.” Xenia quirked up an eyebrow, and her smirk grew wider as she watched him squirm with his words. There was a slightly awkward silence, and a couple of intermittent laughs from her team, before she decided to break it.
“Yeah, she’s a pretty nice person,” Xenia replied, looking back at the road. The group of soldiers that had arrived with her chuckled a bit more, watching Juno blush profusely. “Well, anybody who can get Sage to talk to them for more than a second or two is obviously not an awful person, so that makes me feel better about trusting you.”
Juno looked away, his cheeks probably blood red from embarrassment. “Zanks,” he forced out, and quickly let the conversation go silent again, walking casually beside the blonde, eventually resorting to whistling an awkward tune. Xenia glanced at him, her eyes portraying annoyance, and he quickly let the air grow silent again. She was an imposing figure, after all.
Slowly but surely, the sun dipped over the eastern horizon, and dawn was upon them. The trip didn’t last too much longer, thank the Maker, and after a brief introduction with the king, the five Wardens were whisked off to a separate section of the fortress that looked as if it was once used as the dining hall. From the many soldiers who were stuffing their faces, it looked as if it had been rebooted in that capacity.
Juno was the first to sit, leaning on the table and eyeing each of his comrades in turn, starting with the one he was most familiar with: Xenia. The blonde stood, arms-crossed, and surveyed the fortress. Her spine was relaxed, her eyes not hostile but observant—something had definitely changed about the blonde since before, something that stole away not the confidence, but the boldness that she had had before. That was not to say that she was, in any way, less courageous or intimidating, but that something had simply… calmed the storm, if only a little.
Tamsin was, perhaps, the most curious specimen. Young, true, but not the youngest in the group—that spot was reserved for Wolfgang—the young girl held herself high with a sense of pride he hadn’t seen in many people that young. As if he wasn’t young himself, that is. She sat contentedly beside Juno, glancing from him to Cailan to Kazuya.
Wolfgang, as previously mentioned, was the youngest, and obviously the most frightened. He was attempting to put up a front, the onyx-haired seer could see, perhaps trying to impress the others, or perhaps trying to convince himself that this was going to all turn out alright—either way, Juno wasn’t all that sure it would. Wolfgang followed the black-haired man’s suit, sitting cross-legged in the grass and smiling shyly.
Kazuya remained standing, along with Xenia. The Japanese woman was a complex character, and Juno couldn’t even imagine looking into her motivations. She seemed distinctly unfamiliar, almost as if she was from a completely different time and place—wherever she was from, her personality did not fit this world or this game, and while Juno surmised that she must’ve just been a strange person, under the surface he knew that there was something there. He wasn’t about to bother himself finding out what, though. Not when they had a job to do.
Kazuya spoke first. “What’re we going to do?”
Cailan choked a bit on his words, obviously slightly nervous in the presence of Grey Wardens. “Uh, well, I was going to let you all talk that one over.”
“Some king,” Kazuya muttered under her breath, crossing her arms. The others shot her a glance, but the black-haired woman ignored them.
It was the question everyone had thought about, but no one voiced until the black-haired woman had. Her eyes flitted from ally to ally as well—it seemed she was sizing up the group as well. Her already-present scowl only deepened when her eyes fell on the young Wolfgang. Juno spoke up.
“That tower’s a weak point if I ever saw one,” he offered, “Those creeps could be completely wiped out on the battlefield and hole themselves up in there, ready to surprise us just when we think we’ve won.”
“H-he’s got a point,” Wolfgang nodded, though Juno wasn’t sure if he was nodding because he really thought the idea was a good point, or that he just wanted something to agree with. Perhaps he was making all these assumptions because he assumed all tweens were like he had been—severely impressionable. Wolfgang could be something completely different, he didn’t know. Whatever it was, though, it didn’t matter.
“We need to send someone up there, I guess,” Xenia amended, “Maybe light a beacon or something signaling the tower’s clear?”
“That sounds like a novel idea,” Kazuya sighed, “Tamsin’s good at getting into tight places like that. She disarmed a bomb for us last time around.” Juno looked at the silver-haired girl. She glanced up at Kazuya; thankful for the notice, obviously, but not so sure she felt up to the task. “But… do you think you can handle clearing the tower by yourself, Suzaku?”
“I…”
“I’ll go with her,” Juno piped up. “We’ll clear out the tower, and then you guys can stay down here, hold off the darkspawn till the ‘archdemon’ arrives. After that, you guys can take him down. We’ll signal you when the tower’s done, and then you can make the killing blow. Gamer’s info says that only a Gray Warden can kill an archdemon. Not sure why, but if that’s what it says, that means one of us has to do it, and if you three are on the ground, then it’s looking like it’s all on you guys. That is, if everyone agrees to the plan.
Tamsin and Wolfgang nodded almost immediately, and Xenia nodded a few seconds later after considering it. She’d be in the thick of battle, and that suited her.
Kazuya elongated her pause. She wasn’t quite sure she liked taking orders from a twenty-year-old, but the plan was good. “Alright,” she agreed, and the plan was settled: Juno and Tamsin would clear out the Tower of Ishal, and then light a flame beacon at the top; Kazuya, Xenia, and Wolfgang would stay down, battling darkspawn alongside King Cailan’s soldiers and, eventually, fighting the archdemon itself. With any luck, one of them would be able to sink their sword into it, and the battle would be over smoothly.
The half-Saiyan scoffed; it wasn’t going to be that easy, he knew, but hey, a guy could hope, right?
Juno’s eyes flitted from his companions to the sky outside the nearby window. Morning had barely left them, but already clouds hung in the sky, denying them the sun’s warm rays. He felt… cold, in a strange, foreboding way, in a way he’d only felt once before—during Friend or Foe, when he had stood there, staring at Balrog beat Sage and Ashe like they were playthings.
For some reason, he was at his best when others were in great danger. When he was the only thing at risk, something inside him denied him strength. Now, however, he had someone—or something—to fight for, and if it took the death of him to win this battle, he knew that he would risk it. He was aware, simultaneously, that most of his companions would do so as well. Now, whether they’d do it normally or whether the game had programmed this newfound mantra into them—he didn’t know.
And truthfully, he didn’t care, either.
~+~
The afternoon was slowly settling in at Ostagar. The darkspawn had, not surprisingly, delayed their push until a darker setting crept in—the soldiers knew they would march on the fortress at any second. The onyx-haired Warden slipped away from the fire, searching for the blonde in their group—Xenia. Sage’s sister. He found her a few minutes later, standing at the window of a large turret, gazing out at the plains and the forest below, waiting patiently for the battle to start. He walked up beside her and leaned against the marble wall, glancing briefly out the window.
“How is she?” he asked, accent still thick. The blonde bombshell didn’t look up.
“I don’t know,” Xenia muttered. “She got sucked into an event same as I did, right?”
“Yes, I guess so,” Juno replied, nodding and pushing himself off the wall. He started to walk out then turned back toward her. “How’re you holding up?” he asked, looking her up and down and noticing, for the first time, the distinct difference that had been plaguing him for the past few hours: she was much calmer than before, much more relaxed, without being apathetic. She wasn’t so tense.
“I’m… I’m good, I guess,” she said quietly, “I mean, as good as you can be, stuck in some crazy guy’s game of life or death.” She laughed, and Juno smiled, placing a hand on the door. She turned from the window. “Be careful out there,” she said, almost forcing it out, but with a little chuckle, “Sage wouldn’t be happy if you decided to join us in the prison.”
“I’ll do my best,” the onyx-haired fortuneteller laughed, twisting the doorknob and opening the wooden door of the tower, preparing to walk out. Xenia stood up straight, returning to her stronger stance—she couldn’t let any of those soldiers see her soft side, not before a battle. She met Juno’s eyes, and the two of them knew that they had to win this, at any cost. “Same zing to you,” he continued, “I wouldn’t want to have to explain how I let you die to Sage.” He smirked. Xenia looked up at him with a sarcastic glint in her eye, and laughed—he wouldn’t have to worry about that. Her will to live was higher than most people he’d seen before. With that, he turned to leave, and slowly began to pull the door to.
“Juno,” Xenia called after him, and the half-Saiyan stuck his head back through the space left between the door and its marble frame. He quirked an eyebrow, as if to ask her what she wanted. “You… you really care about her, don’t you?”
He opened the door, his expression growing slightly darker. “Yeah,” he said simply, finding no other way to explain. He didn’t know whether or not he actually cared about her as much as he thought he did, but nevertheless, he wasn’t going to stand by and let something bad happen to her. If Sage needed him, he’d be there for her… it was the same with Sophia, and with Kaden (though he probably wouldn’t admit that), and with anyone else he might’ve considered a friend. He bit his lip. “Yeah, yeah I do.”
“You’d better,” Xenia smiled, “Otherwise you’re going to be dealing with me.” The pair chuckled briefly, and then left, the sun slowly sinking into the horizon behind them as the cloud of the Darkspawn converged on the fortress. This was their hour—and it was up to them whether or not it would be their most glorious hour, or their final one.
~+~
The five Wardens stood on the fortress wall, gazing down at the incoming cloud of darkspawn. A few of the goblins burst from the forest into the fields, the first sign of the horde that continued to come. A few were larger, riding on disfigured steeds, and the five Wardens knew—through Gamer’s programmed knowledge—that these were the generals, one for the Hurlocks and one for the Genlocks. At the back of the cloud, the cry of the archdemon could be heard, but the thing had yet to show itself.
“Coward,” Xenia muttered.
“I guess this is us, Juno,” Tamsin muttered meekly, and tugged at the sleeve of her taller partner. The onyx-haired half-Saiyan nodded.
“We’ll head to the tower now—wait until you get our signal to finish off the archdemon,” the onyx-haired Grey Warden told his four comrades. “And whatever you do, make sure it’s one of you zree that delivers ze killing blow. If not, it won’t work.” The three soldiers of the group nodded, and Tamsin quickly hugged Kazuya. The Japanese woman seemed slightly disinclined for pleasantries at the moment, but she didn’t deny the silver-haired girl’s embrace. Juno placed a hand on Xenia’s shoulder, and nodded to her. She nodded back, and then Tamsin and Juno departed, heading west to the Tower of Ishal.
The tower wasn’t too far—it didn’t take them ten minutes to get there. It towered over Ostagar, once the central point of the fortress. Kings and generals would take up shelter here, strategizing, bent over maps and battle plans put forth by tacticians who knew nothing about true battle. Wars had been waged from here, and for a moment, Juno and Tamsin slowed their stride to reflect. They glanced at one another, then the half-Saiyan walked up to the wooden gate and rapped hardly upon its boughs.
No answer; he knocked again, but still, silence. He turned to Tamsin, a knowing expression on his face. She nodded, and reached for the hilts of her knives as Juno backed up and lifted a palm. He let out a loud Pop, and violet ki spun forth from his hand, crashing into the wood and sending it splintering across the tower’s courtyard. “Well, that’s one way to do it,” Tamsin joked, and then she walked slowly into the courtyard ahead of the mage, glancing around furtively. Juno pulled his sword out of his belt and held it in one hand, his staff in the other, and let his eyes survey the area. Something wasn’t right—they had feared that the Darkspawn might try to attack, but the area was quiet. Too quiet.
Tamsin screamed first—the arrow whizzed past her, and she stepped backwards, tripping into Juno, who pulled her in and fired a swift blast of purple ki from his palm, nailing the Genlock squarely in the face. It collapsed into a heap of dead flesh, and the silver-haired girl sighed a sigh of relief, looking up at her compatriot. His expression was uncharacteristically grizzled and stern; this wasn’t over.
The young girl stepped away, gulping. She held her daggers high, sliding into a fighting stance. She was well trained with the weapons, it seemed. Juno smiled—the youth was learning fast. She needed to learn faster, however, because in seconds, a darkspawn had leapt forth from nowhere and tackled her to the ground. Juno had just a moment to watch her struggle to keep his dagger away from her before another creature pulled his attention away. A large, burly creature leapt at him, a foreboding axe in hand, and Juno brought his elf-wood staff up to block the blow. The weapon vibrated at impact, and Juno swung his sword at the darkspawn’s feet, hoping to catch him off guard—no such luck.
Tamsin, meanwhile, was having a similar amount of luck. After a bit of a struggle, she managed to kick the monster off of her, but when she lunged with her knives, he thrust his own dagger at her, forcing her to dodge the blow in mid attack. Her wrists weren’t ready for the sudden movement, and they flipped back, her fingers loosening their grip on her weapons as they did so; the silver-haired girl’s knives were sent flying out of her hand and rolling onto the ground several yards away. The youth ran for them, but the darkspawn grasped her by the ankle and pulled her back towards him, lifting his dagger.
The onyx-haired Warden parried blow after blow, and for a moment, he and the darkspawn were locked in the closest thing Juno had had to mortal combat since Friend or Foe. Eventually, however, he was able to get a footing, and in this body, discovered he was able to fire ki attacks through his staff as his aimed the weapon and fired a Pop from it.
“You alright over zere, Tamsin?” Juno yelled over the clang of his sword against the Hurlock’s axe. He let his eyes look away from the battle once second and saw the dagger fly downward toward the silver-haired maid, and opened his mouth to yell—“NO!”—he sputtered, but the Hurlock took the blunt side of his axe and smashed it into Juno’s skull, knocking the onyx-haired Saiyan off his feet before he could try to save Tamsin.
The dagger made a crunching noise as it reached a destination, but fortunately, it wasn’t the destination it had originally hoped for. The metallic weapon slammed forcefully into the dirt, Tamsin barely rolling out of its trajectory. Her ankle, however, was still in the grasp of the Hurlock, so she used her hands to launch herself upright, bringing her free foot squarely into the creature’s face. It doubled back, releasing its hold on the implanted dagger.
Suzaku stood over the thing as it clutched its face, and her expression had grown rather angry. Juno slowly lifted his head up as the silver-haired girl glanced from her original opponent to the new one that was moving closer to her. Unlike usual, she didn’t look scared—she was putting up a front here, making the darkspawn believe that she was fully confident in her ability to kill them. And for a moment, Juno believed that she was.
As confidently as she could, the silver-maned servant ripped the dagger from the ground and stabbed it into the kneeling darkspawn’s forehead, tears forming in her eyes as she dug it forcefully into his skull. The onyx-haired Saiyan was impressed; she wasn’t about to back down. He gradually brought himself to his feet, grasped the hilt of his sword, and watched carefully as the other Hurlock approached her. She stepped back, losing that aura of confidence, and then he took his opportunity. He leapt into the air, using his Flight to keep himself aloft long enough, and jammed his sword through the creature’s back, sending crimson blood flying all over his robes.
The Hurlock collapsed, dead, and Tamsin looked upon the mage and smiled.
“I couldn’t let you do all the work,” Juno joked, and Tamsin’s smile grew slightly broader at the light-hearted Saiyan’s urging.
“I think… I think we make a good team,” Tamsin chuckled, picking up her weapons.
“I don’t zink, I know,” he smiled at the shorter girl, clapping her on the shoulder. “But, we’ve not got much time. If there were darkspawn out here, that means there’s darkspawn inside, so we’ve got to hurry.”
They wasted no more time, quickly running up the steps to the large wooden doors, opening them, and slipping inside, closing the entrance with a resounding slam that surely awakened any darkspawn in the tower to their presence.