The Lost Souls

[Razilin]

It wasn't long before the villagers brought the trio to the hut where the plague victims were quarantined. It was a modestly-sized hut shielded from the rest of the village by doors and windows covered by cloth; hardly top-notch isolation protocols. Hayato and Taka had their mouths covered by some scarves, while Annabelle used the burqa.

There were about a dozen victims, all piled shoulder to shoulder in the hut. Already, flies and maggots were making their way through the corpses and the stench of death and rot filled the room.

"Ugh," Hayato muttered in disgust. He reached a hand out to his girlfriend. "Hey, you okay with this?"

She smiled warmly at him, the only spot of sunshine in this dark and dismal room. "I've seen my share of dead bodies, Hayato. I'll manage. Just stay back, okay? I don't want you to get exposed unnecessarily."

She knelt by one of the bodies and took out a set of autopsy gear from her backpack. It took more than two hours for her to finishing examining all the bodies and taking a few samples. Annabelle's trained eye noted a few things. The rigor mortis she expected, given that these bodies had been laying here for at least a few days. Each of them had a shock of white hair, even the younger ones. But it was their faces and eyes, frozen in terror, that made her stop and reconsider their initial impressions.

Why would plague victims look that terrified? Scared of death, perhaps, but they wouldn't look like they had seen a ghost...or worse.

She finished collecting her samples and led the Tennou brothers to the hut the elders had given to them for their use while they were staying in the village. It was much like the other residential huts - simple, serviceable, and small. A trio of pallets were laid out on the dirt floor to serve as beds. Annabelle was a little miffed about that. She was hoping to get some private time with Hayato later, but if all three of them were bunking together...well, Hayato was into some kinky stuff just to spice things up, but Annabelle was fairly certain he'd draw the line at having sex in front of his older brother. Even if Taka's expression would be one of the funniest things of the year.

Annabelle set up a microscope from her backpack and prepped the various samples on the slide. It would be another hour before she finished. She groaned as a crick in her neck manifested as she tiredly looked up from the microscope. Hayato's strong fingers were instantly at her shoulders, kneading the stiff muscles with expertise born from long familiarity.

"Oh, that feels amazing," she moaned in delight.

"What did you find?" Taka interrupted curtly.

"Gee, Taka, I didn't know you killed moments in addition to monsters," Annabelle snarked. She raised a prepped slide. "Okay, so these plague victims? They're not actually suffering from any plague. There's nothing physically wrong with any of them. Except in their eyes."

She set the slide under the microscope again and allowed the brothers to look.

The sample was a piece of a victim's eye. They could see a black, cloudy mass forming into a vicious viper about to strike.

Annabelle exchanged it for another eye sample. This time, the cloud took the shape of a man with a gun. Another slide - now, the cloud was some kind of monster. Another, now with a baby being pulled away from the arms of its mother.

"What the hell?" Hayato murmured. "What is this?"

"Beats me," Annabelle said. "Never seen anything like it. I can tell you this - this has nothing to do with medicine or biology, but everything to do with the supernatural. Best guess? They died of fear and these images are the most frightening thing the victim could see."

 

[Quiet One]

Taka was silent for a long time - longer than normal, even for him. He immediately turned away from the slides and instead looked out the window at the village. He was trying to find anything off about the little outcropping of huts, something that didn't seem right. He noticed wires tracing from one hut to another, coated in dust and sand - power lines. One of these huts must be housing a generator. Then he caught sight of a reflective glint. There were lightbulbs hanging on these lines. And they were all shattered.

Turning back inside, he looked up and saw several places for bulbs to be hung, as well as peaks of the wiring behind the packed mud. But no lightbulbs. Why did they have the support system for light, but not the light itself?

"Killing with fear?" Hayato was saying. "Definitely sounds evil. Right up our alley, too. Think we're dealing with a demon, or a dark Fae?"

"The markings we've been seeing on the doorways aren't consistent with the monotheistic prayers. Not Muslim, Jewish or even Christian," Annabelle countered. "I took some pictures and sent them to Landel. She says they're pagan prayers, from the religions that were dominant in this area before Islam."

Hayato shot her a look. "How long has this place been here?"

"I don't know, but everything seems...old-fashioned. These huts are made like ancient settlements. And did you notice the clothes everyone is wearing? Old, like clothes worn in this area hundreds of years ago." Annabelle shook her head. "I don't understand it. It's like we're in a time warp."

"The Fae is holding them back," Taka surmised. When his partners looked at him he explained. "Did you notice the lights? They had electric lighting and they destroyed it. These screws are bare." He pointed above. "Every time these people get an advantage this Fae takes it away. Probably with fear attacks like this one."

"Keeping them in the Dark Ages," Annabelle nodded. "Why?"

"To keep them afraid." He jabbed a thumb out the door. "Everywhere in the world was like this once. I bet the dark Fae liked it this way. Get Landel on the phone and have her check the books. These people keep mentioning the Arancol. Have her look that up."

 

[Razilin]

"The Arancol - the 'the' is very important, Landel says - " Hayato rolled his eyes and mimed quotes in the air. " - can't be hurt because he has no physical form. Can't go through stained glass; its holy or something. Turns into a black cloud or mist. Kills through fear. Oh, and he can possess stuff and people, but can't use his other abilities while doing so." Annabelle finished repeating what Eliza was telling her over the phone. Then she said into the mouthpiece, "Thanks, Eliza. We'll keep you updated." She clipped the phone shut.

Night had fallen over the village and the Tennou brothers already set the pallets up for sleeping. "So we're basically fighting a ghost," Hayato summed up while waving a dismissive hand. "Pssh. Easy. We've handled ghosts before."

The younger brother's bravado was nothing new. Annabelle even found it attractive most of the time. But she saw the thoughtful, somber expression on Taka's face and wondered if perhaps her boyfriend needed to dial it back a bit. Something had Taka on edge. And the thought of Taka Tennou - Agent Crossfire himself - unsettled left a growing knot of concern in Annabelle's gut.

The trio settled in for the night, with Taka forgoing the pallet in favor of sleeping sitting upright with his back against the door and his pistols in easy reach. Meanwhile, Annabelle snuggled against Hayato's strong chest with the blanket pulled around them both. She felt doubly secure in her lover's arms and Taka's double-pupil gaze watching over them all.

She was halfway asleep when a rustle of sand outside made Taka jerk to his feet. Annabelle mumbled back to wakefulness when Hayato gently shook her awake. "What...?"

"Nani ka, Aniki?" Hayato hissed softly, grabbing his sword even as he went into a crouch. Annabelle understood enough Japanese to translate the short phrase: What is it, big brother?

Taka stared out the window as he tapped and racked his guns. "Teki da."

The enemy.

 

[Quiet One]

There wasn't a single light on in the village. Of course not - the Arancol wouldn't allow it. But all was not quiet and peaceful. Taka could hear faint whimpers from the neighboring huts. All the huts faced West, so that's where the marksman looked. It must be for a better reason than a good view of the sunset.

It was all black out there. No civilization for miles in every direction. The only clue that anything was approaching was that the stars were going out, shrouded by some dark mass. There was that rustling sound again, like sand shifting...

He turned around and was jumped by a large cat with a hunched back and huge claws. Two seconds was all it took to jump out of its reach and fire a few rounds. They burst it apart as the sand dropped to the ground. He stared at the sand grimly. Too easy. Then he looked up. The sky around the hut began to darken.

"HAYATO DOWN!" He shielded his eyes as a massive tidal wave of sand tore into the hut. The flimsy wood planks were ripped off the roof one by one, the windows widened out by the carving little shards of silicon. When the dark force had swept over the hut he was relieved to see his little brother and Annabelle run out the doorway, hunched over with their heads covered.

"I thought...the spells...were supposed to keep him out," Annabelle gasped while they regroup.

"Guess that's why he used sand. Loophole," Hayato offered.

"I think it just stops him from haunting a place," Taka added. "He's coming around again."

The black cloud pushed through the hut again, this time from the back and coming straight for them. Tendrils of dark smoke eased through the cracks in the mud, but the building wouldn't budge. The mist tried to force its way through the doorway, but was stopped by an invisible barrier. Seems the markings were good for something after all.

"Annabelle, get to the dead hut," Crossfire ordered in a whisper.

"What?"

"He won't haunt what's already dead," he assured her.

"And you can guarantee that, can you?" she retorted.

Taka thought about that and looked to his brother. He knew he'd never forgive him for being wrong. "...Keep close to her. Just in case."

"You expect me to let you fight this thing alone?!" Hayato retorted. "I think you'd better check for sand between your ears, Aniki!"

The dark mass lifted out of the hut and began swirling around, picking up sand and debris and lifting it up. The swirling maelstrom of sand tightened in the center of the roofless hut.

"This isn't up for discussion!" he shot back. He pulled the trigger on the maelstrom where some sand had collected to form a face. The bullets whizzing through only seemed to make it angry.

"Hayato, come on!" Annabelle tugged at his arm, but she might as well be trying to move the huts.

"I'm not leaving my brother!" he retorted.

"I'm not saying to," she said. He turned. "Just to come with me."

They ran off. The maelstrom condensed into a column, then dropped all of its debris like a hammer. Sand, dried mud and wood flew everywhere. The hut was blown to pieces, including the doorway.

Crossfire shot at the swirling darkness to get its attention and ran through the village. He went into one and jumped through the window, then through a window and out by another one, every time his keen eyes making a cursory glance at the dwellings and not finding what he was looking for. The Arancol followed him, tearing open roofs and blowing out windows. Occasionally it would turn the sand into more monsters, with many arms and eyes and claws and teeth.

Taka slid into a long neglected hut, and there he found it: the old power generator. It was covered by an old sheet, but it still looked workable. He dusted it off and started hand crank, then stopped. The shuffle of sand was gone. The Arancol wasn't behind him.

Oh no. Hayato.

 

[Razilin]

"Haaaaaah, ah!"

Sand monsters shaped like rabid wolves burst apart with precise, lightning-fast swipes from Hayato's blade. Like his namesake, he leaped into the air like a falcon on the wing, striking down at the Arancol's grainy puppets with a talon made of a yard of the finest-forged steel. Another pack of sand-wolves exploded as he landed among them with a circular slash. Annabelle ran up to the safety of his presence as the path was made clear.

"The hut's dead ahead!" the young ninja said, pointing with his sword.

"Puns, Hayato? At this time?" Annabelle snarked, even as panic and adrenaline made her heart pound. She whipped up his pistol, blasting a misshapen humanoid monstrosity with six arms shambling toward her. Like the others, it was fashioned from sand and shadow. The bullets passed through it and blew out entire chunks that slowed it down. It just as slowly reformed. "There's just no end to these guys!"

"I'll cover you, go!" Hayato declared, holding his ground while his girlfriend darted into the hut filled with the village's dead.

As soon as she was inside, Annabelle took a covering position from a window and shouted, "Peel!" With that, Hayato broke ranks and darted for the hut while Annabelle fired upon the encroaching horde of sand monsters. Hayato ducked under the swiping claw of a hunting cat made of sand, sliding on his hip into the safety of the hut, just as Annabelle blew the feline's head apart with a well-placed shot. Hayato slammed the door shut.

"Doubt that'll hold them," Annabelle dryly remarked as she reloaded.

Hayato smirked sheepishly. "What can I say? Habit."

"Shit. Hayato, look."

The young ninja glanced at his lover's suddenly pale face and then out the window. Coming right at them was a swirling maelstrom of black mist, whipping sand, mud, and debris with its many inky tendrils. Gobs of compacted refuse flung out from the swirling morass, crashing through the hut's flimsy walls and thatching. Hayato wrestled Annabelle to the ground, just as one such missile burst through the wall they were just standing behind. The mist inched ever closer, and with it, a legion of its sandy servants.

"Oh, shit," Annabelle murmured again in dread.

She took some comfort in Hayato's warmth, closeness, and his strong arm around her shoulders. His visage was firm, serious, and unwavering despite the cold sweat running down his temples. He held his katana before them, guarding them both.

Annabelle took in a steadying breath and tapped and racked her pistol. "Here they come...."

"Hayato, move!" she cried out, shoving her boyfriend to the side as the shattered remnants of the wall exploded inward. Tendrils of black mist surged into the hut like lances, stabbing the corpses laid out on the floor. "I thought this guy couldn't do anything with the dead!" Annabelle said, shooting at the corpses that were suddenly shambling upright, the tendrils of mist sticking out of them like marionette strings.

"Behind me!" Hayato ordered, darting into the fray once again, leaping, flipping, spinning, and rolling through the crowd of animated bodies. His swords flashed again and again, dismembering limbs and severing heads. But they kept on coming. "Out, now!" he shouted, stabbing one of the zombified corpses in the torso and freeing his blade with a spinning back kick that sent the monster into his compatriots, bowling them over.

Together, they ran back out into the village proper. Hayato looked around. There were no sand creatures to be seen, though there were several piles of loose sand and dirt in the street where they used to be. "Looks like the Arancol can't control any more puppets while possessing those bodies," Annabelle reasoned.

Then Hayato waved down a figure running toward them. "Aniki!"

 

[Quiet One]

Taka sprinted towards the hut previously occupied by the dead. He lugged the generator behind him, which cut down on his sprinting. But he would need it. He thought he knew how to get the Arancol's attention for certain, and keep him away from his brother and his bedmate. The grim marksman wasn't expecting to come running back to find a zombie puppet show in progress. On a reflex he pulled out his gun and fired. He paid no attention to how near the zombies were to Hayato or Annabelle; he didn't need to since he never missed. One was an inch from grabbing the doctor's neck and he shot the wrist apart without pause. Another he shot from around Hayato's head, so close his hair moved in the breeze of his bullet.

The poor souls whose bodies the Arancol was controlling couldn't keep standing for much longer. There was simply too much damage done by the three. So the demon Fae changed tactics. The next time Hayato stabbed into one of the walking dead the bodies went limp, but the black shroud did not return. Then all of a sudden Hayato swung and nearly took Annabelle's head off. He gripped his katana with both hands, but it dragged him and forced him to swing and stab.

"What the - he's possessing my sword!" he shouted as the blade swept down to take out his own legs. He hopped back, jumped, then spun, keeping his brother back from trying to help him, even adding an attempted stab for good measure. "Aniki, a little help here! How do I get this thing out?!"

"He has to inhabit something else," Taka replied. "Hit something hard enough and you might get him out."

Hayato took the handle in a double grip, wrestled the struggling katana over his head like a wriggling boa, and pierced it into the earth. Cracks tore through the soil and sand swept back as it began to gather again. It formed into a mannish shape, with many mouths roaring and spikes of compressed sand appearing and disappearing in waves.

"Arancol."

The construct turned to Taka and hissed, "The Arancol, mortal."

"Time to come out of the Dark Ages." He turned on the generator. It sputtered and coughed and finally came to life. There were no intact lightbulbs, but every time the current jumped to a broken bulb it snapped and produced a pop of light.

The Arancol followed the popping light show, spinning around to watch and shrieking with rage. As it turned it dropped some of its mass and rose up, turning into a long spindly visage. It looked down at Taka and snarled.

"You...dare...?"

"I do." Taka pulled out his phone and shined the flashlight setting on the shadowy monster, his right hand still holding his gun. "What are you going to do about it?"

The Arancol exploded and rushed him. Crossfire leapt out of the way of a blast of sand and ran out of the village. He kept turning back and shooting, to get him to stay on him. However, he was sure what really had the Dark Fae chasing him was his defiance against his blackout policy. He kept running out into the desert, sinister cackling and growls right on his coattails. He jumped off a dune and slid down it. His gun was empty, so he tossed it away. The Arancol was bearing down on him. He stuck out his hand, his cross scar the first thing to meet the onslaught of shadow.

The mist shrieked and blew past him, trying to claw him, grabbing hold of his clothes briefly, but always letting go. The tiny bulb in his phone blew and the screen cracked. Taka shuddered where he stood as the nightmares flooded into his brain. They were all focused on his worst fear: failing to protect Hayato, not saving him when he had the chance. The images of him gored, flattened, or just lying still kept coming. But he held firm. As much as the thoughts made him shake he held firm. Because he knew one thing the Arancol did not. He knew he could stop it from coming true.



It was morning when Taka opened his eyes. That didn't seem right. How could it have been the dead of night one minute, and now it was dawn? He turned away from the sunrise to see a dark shadow drift off into the horizon. He stood up and brushed the sand off his suit. He didn't seem any worse for wear. He looked down at his hand. It burned a little, and seemed to pulse a bit.

When he got back to the village the place was in an uproar. He may have a hard time understanding Arabic, but it was clear from the village elder's body language that they were no longer welcome. Annabelle was trying to calm him down, plead their case. Hayato just looked lost until Taka came into the thick circle. The shouting died down into murmuring. The chief went silent. Hayato beamed and clasped a hand over his brother's shoulders, pulling him into a one-armed hug.

"Aniki!" Taka could feel the joy in his brother's voice and he was glad his sunglasses shielded his eyes from looking misty. "Where the hell have you been?"

"Just outside the village," he said. "I don't...I don't know how it's morning." He took a deep breath and nodded to his brother. "We know what we're dealing with now. We need a game plan."

 

[Razilin]

The trio reconvened at the edge of the village, where they had a view of a rocky formation of hills in the distance. "We spoke with the elder and the other villagers while you were out," Annabelle said. "Local legends says that the Arancol dwells in the caves beneath those hills. Those who go in, never come out; they become food for the Arancol's offspring."

"This bastard's kept an entire populace in the Dark Ages and worse," Hayato summarized grimly. "Hushcobb mandate demands we take this guy out." He adjusted his backpack, laden with flashlights, lamps, and extra batteries. "At least now we've got weapons that can actually hurt him."

"Don't get too overconfident, Hayato," Taka advised softly, thinking back to a certain Fae in a certain forest many years ago. "The Arancol is no fool and he's dangerous."

The trio marched across the badlands for hours, eventually arriving at the mouth of the cave. The sweltering heat gave way to an unnatural chill as soon as they left the beating sun for the nearly oppressive darkness within. Flashlights burned, illuminating their way. Skittering and low growls echoed around them as they maneuvered through the winding tunnel, heading ever deeper into the heart of the earth.

"We're not alone," Taka murmured.

"Yeah, no shit, Aniki," Hayato grumbled, a flashlight in one hand and Anna's hand in the other.

The young surgeon wielded a pistol in her free hand, the barrel shifting to and fro as she tracked the slightest twitch of movement in the shadows. "I really hope that's just a trick of the light," she murmured, though she didn't really believe her own words.

Droplets of drool from overhead made them turn the beams of their flashlights to the ceiling. Two spider-like creatures with shining mandibles and humanoid torsos clung to the rock above, growling hungrily.

"What the hell are those?" Anna cried, opening fire. The spider-creatures scattered and dropped to the ground, skittering toward them.

Hayato drew his sword while Taka brought his pistols to bear. The brothers moved in sync, cutting and shooting in tandem, beating back the two spider-creatures. They retaliated by spraying web-like material at the brothers. Taka rolled away while Hayato was netted and anchored to the ground. The spiders advanced on the trapped young ninja.

A pistol roared, forcing the spider-creatures away from their prey. "Get the hell away from him!" Anna growled. Taka leaped to his brother's side and, using a knife, cut the younger Tennou free.

"We're not exactly killing them, Aniki," the freed Hayato noted, swiping his sword back and forth, leaving long cuts along the monsters' flesh.

"I noticed. They're tougher than they look," Taka agreed. By positioning alone, the spider-creatures had cut the trio off from escaping out of the cave entrance. "Anna! Back further into the cave! Fall back!"

 

[Quiet One]

"This isn't exactly the smartest move," Annabelle noted as they inched towards the darker end of the cave. The crawling monsters were closing in from odd angles. "We need a way out after we do what we came here to."

"Working on it..." Taka muttered back. The one working its way around the roof of the cave turned its head 180° around, like an owl but far more disturbing. The sticky fibers that clung to its body made long web trails wherever it crawled. Now that his eyes were firmly aimed upward Taka could see how the ceiling of their trap was covered with them.

What kept them up there? Then the Nightcrawler shifted positions and Taka saw it. As it placed its hand on a clear patch of stone, webbing formed. So the secret was the hands.

His hands moved quicker than most people's eyes could follow as he switched his bullet clip with a load of blanks. He shuffled in the breast pocket of his suit as he stepped further back with the others.

"What are you doing?" Annabelle asked.

"When we thought we were dealing with the supernatural I decided to bring some insurance," he replied. He pulled out three long glass stakes held between his fingers. "Holy water."

"These things aren't demons. It won't work."

"It will if I aim in the right place..." Taka stuck the first glass spear into the barrel of his gun and pointed it up at the roof-bound monster. The creature snarled and advanced on them. "I hope their webs are like spider's."

He fired. The holy water spear shot not at the monster, but at the ceiling. Crossfire's gamble paid off, as the moisture from the consecrated rounds ruined the adhesion. The creature fell to the ground with a sickening thud, but it wasn't dead, righting itself with an angry roar. Taka reloaded in an instant and shot the other one off the ceiling.

Now on ground level, it was time to switch back to live ammo. He just got the clip in when the first one he'd dropped rushed him. Taka leapt up and kicked him back with both feet, landing on his back and shooting off two rounds. He didn't hit the body, but instead shot right through the hands, and as the Nightcrawler tried to clamber after him his hands caught onto the stalagmites and held him in place. The more it struggled the more webbing it seemed to create, trapping itself more.

The other was upon him. Thankfully, Hayato had caught on to his plan and pushed the second monster back, spearing its hand to the cavern wall. When he pulled away a mass of thread shot around and entrapped it. The creature tried pulling its hand free and Taka shot the other hand. Now they were both firmly held in place.

"How long do you think that'll hold them?" Hayato asked.

Taka watched them struggle, only succeeding in entangling themselves more. "Long enough. Let's keep moving."

"What are they?" Annabelle asked as the brothers headed back towards the entrance to the next circle of this little hell.

"Offspring."

"Off - Aniki, how does a creature without a physical form...you know?" his little brother asked.

Taka smirked. "I thought you were too old for me to have to explain the birds and the bees to you."

 

[Razilin]

The trio continued their journey ever deeper into the cave, their flashlights the only illumination in the maw-like tunnel bringing them closer and closer to its deadly master. Even though they encountered no further creatures like those spidery beasts, they could each feel the oppressive vileness of the Arancol permeating every rock and fissure of this place.

Hayato's hand suddenly shot out, silently calling to his brother and girlfriend to halt. He closed his eyes. "I hear something," he murmured softly. It was like silk sliding against silk, the faintest of whispers, at at the same time holding an ominous lilt. From the flickering shadows emerged a lean, willowy humanoid figure with burning red eyes within a featureless helmet.

"Great, more of the Arancol's kids," Anna hissed, drawing her gun. Beside her, Taka silently did the same.

Black tendrils of shadow and smoke coiled around the willowy creature's hands, eventually coalescing into black curved swords. "Okay, gotta admit, that's a neat trick," Hayato allowed, drawing his own katana. The creature rushed him, forcing the young ninja to exchange a series of strikes and parries with such speed and force that sparks jumped from where their blades crashed together.

"What the hell...?" Hayato suddenly found it difficult to focus. Everything was blurring within his vision. He swiped once, twice, and thrice at the shadowy warrior, but struck only a distorted afterimage. It took every ounce of lightning-fast reflexes to bring his blade back into defensive position, as the failed attacks left him wide open for a counterattack. "Son of a bitch! Taka, he's distorting my vision! Be careful!"

It was bad enough for a swordsman to deal with faulty visual cues. It would be absolute murder on a marksman.

 

[Quiet One]

It was a sobering warning, and Taka defied his warrior instincts by keeping a good distance from this new creature. In theory, he should be able to keep out of range of this blurring ability. He slowly circled around his brother and the monster fighting, leaning in now and then to test where the weak spots in the distortion field were. The fight - he sourly noted - was not going well. Hayato couldn't land a blow with his senses being messed with. Similarly, he couldn't defend well, sometimes putting up his sword a second too late to block, leading to a few cuts along his arms.

Taka aimed for the chest. Even with slight distortion it was too wide of a target for him to miss. He fired the iron Fae bullets. Wrought iron worked against most Fae; the element being specially treated by humans carried with it a burning they couldn't stand, a reminder of human tampering etched into every molecule. That said, it didn't work on all Fae. On some of the more powerful, it just succeeded in making them angry. This thing fit that category. When Taka's rounds hit his bony chest and went through with a sickening squelch. The holes were small, and the creature turned, hovering nearer to the marksman. As he did, Taka's vision seemed to double, then triple, as the holes multiplied on the creature's chest, then abruptly disappeared. It moved its arm. Or was it already raised? He was seeing so many versions of the same shadowy limb at once that he didn't know where it was.

Suddenly he was thrown onto the ground and a heavy crash of stone echoed from where he'd been standing. That answered that. While the Fae had been focused on him Hayato had managed to get a clear view of what was happening, and knocked Taka out of the way before a thick shadow blade cut him in half.

"This isn't getting us anywhere, Aniki!" his brother growled in frustration. "How do we fight this thing when we can't see what he's doing?!"

They looked back to see the creature rounding on Annabelle now. The young doctor was firing wildly at what she thought was his head, but the rounds kept passing around dark wraith and hitting the ceiling.

Taka paused. He heard a thud. Then a second, louder one. He looked away from their enemy and saw some freshly sheared stones on the cave floor. Looking up he could see where they fell.

He swapped his Fae clip for his Dirty Harry round. Heavier and packing more gunpowder, these were like little shotgun blasts.

"Don't use your eyes," he advised Hayato. To Annabelle he called out, firing at the ceiling. "Annabelle, keep shooting! Stalactites!"

The golden blonde doctor understood and starting shooting higher up, both of them jumping out of the reach of the enemy's blades as they made small but sharp rocks drop onto the monster.

 

[Razilin]

"On it!" For a woman who spent most of her time in the operating room rather than in the field, Anna obviously kept in practice with her basic Hushcobb training. She squeezed the trigger of her pistol with both speed and control; the shots slammed home into the fairly easy targets the stalactites presented. Each shot chipped away at their stony base, weakening them. Unlike Taka's Dirty Harry rounds, her nine-milis weren't going to knock them down. But they did loosen them. "Hayato! Go for it!" she shouted.

Hayato smiled as he realized what his lover and brother were up to. His katana flipped into a reverse grip in his hand. "Here I go!" He leaped into the air, his sword flashing like a lightning bolt. He landed silently on the stone floor behind the shadowy humanoid with his blade halfway back in its scabbard. At first, nothing happened.

Then Hayato locked the rest of his sword back into the scabbard with a soft clink.

The stalactites, weakened by Anna's shots, broke from their moorings and crashed down upon the shadow creature, joining the rain of stone that Taka had dropped on it as well.

The creature's perforated corpse twisted and roiled on the ground, several stony spears anchoring to the floor. Hayato joined his lover and brother, touching the former on the elbow. "You all right, Angel?"

She nodded with a ragged smile. She was breathing heavily as the adrenaline of battle wore off.

Taka cleared his throat. Hayato gave him a smarmy grin. "Almost forgot about you, Aniki. You got a boo-boo? Want me to kiss it, make it better?"

The elder Tennou just shook his head and turned toward the tunnel leading even deeper into the cave. They could all feel the unnatural cold emanating from within, a stark contrast to the blistering heat outside. Taka murmured gravely, "He's in there. The Arancol."

Hayato, a hand on his sheathed sword, nodded. "Yeah." Then he looked to his brother and flashed him a fiercely confident grin. "Wanna go fuck him up?"

 

[Quiet One]

"Love, we haven't exactly been doing so hot thus far," Engel said and put a hand on his shoulder. Taka nodded his ascent to that. As missions go, this wasn't going well. Both Engel and Taka must have burned through half their total ammunition already, and only succeeded in killing one Fae. "Kind of wished we had stained glass bullets, since he doesn't seem to like glass."

"We can talk to Landel and Crippling after we get back, have R&D work it up," Taka replied as he switched clips. "For now we try ecto rounds."

"The Arancol's not a ghost."

"He acts like one," he replied tersely. "Maybe these'll scratch his non-physical form."

Taka spared a glance at the dark pit they were headed towards. This was it. Time to fuck up a Fae.

The trip down wasn't any more pleasant than what they'd already been through. As they went it seemed to get colder and - though it didn't seem possible - darker. They each turned their LED shoulder mounted lights to maximum, but even still they couldn't see more than a few feet in front of their faces. It was a matter of some annoyance for Engel, seeing Taka still wearing those damned shades in this pitch black. When they finally reached the bottom of the winding stone path they came across...well, they weren't sure. Everything was so dark it just looked like black. Taka's senses made him stop and turn, aiming down with the flashlight. Lying there was a man. His hair was white and his face was contorted in horror like the Arancol's victims. His clothes were baggy, tattered, and covered in dust. The body was leathery, with the skin clinging to the very bones. But the eyes were milky white, without the scarred irises of the dead. It was so cold, Taka could see something from the body he wasn't expecting: breath.

"He's alive." Engel rushed over and dropped to her knees, examining his pulse and checking his body for responses. The poor man just stared ahead. "Nonresponsive. And his heartbeat's going like crazy, at least 150 bpm."

"More over here," Hayato announced. He had found another body, this one a woman. She was much the same as the man, though the stomach had a strange bump sticking out of it at least 6 inches in diameter. Green tracks traveled up her arms and legs like veins stuffed with chlorophyll. Looking back at the man, Taka noticed his hands were dark green.

Engel stepped back, but whipped around in a flash as she stumbled upon more bodies. One was another woman, this one looking like a pregnant skeleton.

"What the fuck is this?" Hayato demanded in a hushed whisper.

Taka looked them over. Each one seemed to have some green on them. But it didn't look added on. Fae blood? That was notoriously green. But he had that in his system, too, and he knew it didn't change the color of his blood. Maybe it was the concentration. These people were husks. They had less blood to go around...

Engel reached the conclusion first. "I think this is some kind of...breeding room. This is where the monsters came from."

"Shit..." Hayato breathed. "So he just...possesses these guys and makes them do the nasty with him inside them? I'd say the bastard can go fuck himself, but I guess he does that on a regular basis, huh?"

"Not only that," Taka added, "but these are meta-humans. Anomalies with natural born powers. They're not all Arab, either."

"Might have some wayward travelers here," Annabelle concluded. "Do you think the Arancol wanted us to see this? Like it would scare us more?"

Taka looked at the deceptive shadows, seeming to breathe around them. They were enveloped in darkness. He pointed his light where the door should be, but there was just rock.

"Probably," he said. "Why don't we ask him? He's all around us right now."

 

[Razilin]

Taka's grim pronouncement made Anna inch closer against Hayato's strong back. The young ninja held his blade out at the ready, eyeing the shadows with suspicion. "We need a better position," he whispered. Those poor victims - trapped in a state of half-life and half-death as glorified, gory incubators for the Aracol's spawn - were obviously going to be a problem if any of the monsters were to hatch here and now.

That was when one of the bodies stood up, tendrils of shadow trickling out of it, controlled by its horrifying, ephemeral master. "Oh, here we go," Hayato growled. Others began to stand as well, their Fae blood-infused vessels glowing eerily in within the light of their shoulder-flashlights. "Move! They're coming!"

"Hope you've got an idea, Taka!" Annabelle cried out, slamming in a fresh clip of ecto-rounds into his pistol. "This is just the cannon fodder. Arancol's next for sure...."

 

[Quiet One]

"Then let's skip the preliminaries," he said. Taka lowered his hands and stepped forward, acting as the barrier between the Arancol's semi-living zombies and his brother and friend. He looked genuinely unafraid, staring at them neutrally. "How about you just pick one body to fight with? You can't scare me, and this is the tactic of a coward. Pick one, Arancol, and fight me like a man."

The bodies stopped their slow shuffle forward. The darkness around seemed to pulse and throb. Taka knew he was making a risky move. Calling the Arancol a coward would either trick him, or force him to attack in rage. The shadows began to pull back, and Annabelle and Hayato relaxed. But he recognized the slow withdraw, the density of the darkness increasing as it pulled back. He wasn't retreating. The Arancol was getting ready to strike.

"HAYATO DOWN!" he shouted as the dark mist shot forward and enveloped him. Taka felt the familiar panic from the last time try to set in, but he was reminded that he was in charge of his fate, that if he had anything to fear, it would be his own failure. And he refused to fail. He shut his eyes behind his glasses and kept measured breaths, waiting for the feeling to subside. Eventually, surprisingly, it did.

"The Crone..." he heard whispered to him. He opened his eyes to see the cave was as it had been. One of the Arancol's victims opened his hand. There was an old scar across his palm. A breeder opened her arm and showed him a long scar that started at the center of her palm and traveled down her forearm. Another had a long, winding mark along his entire arm.

"He's scarred them," Annabelle whispered.

No, Taka thought, Not him. He'd been set up. All this time...he wasn't meant to kill the Arancol. Just to appease it so it would stay in the shadows for a little while longer. The monster would want what he had, and that old Fae bitch knew it. And she was right. It was the only way to save Hayato.

"I'll stay," he announced. "But only if you let them go."

"Taka, what the hell are you doing?" Hayato rushed towards him, but Annabelle held him back.

"It's me he wants," Taka replied. "It's why we're here. It's the only reason we're here."

"How do you know? Taka, you're not making any sense!" Annabelle goaded him. She reached out for his arm, but he shook her off.

"I just do. It's the only way you get out alive." He turned back the army of bodies and dropped his guns. "Open the path. Let them leave."

A wall of shadow parted behind them, revealing the opening through which they had come. Annabelle looked from Taka to the opening, then began to climb towards it. She fought back her tears and fight harder still to tug Hayato with her. But he was much stronger than her, and he refused to leave his brother.

"Aniki if this is what he wants I'll stay with you!" he shouted. He tugged away from Annabelle to try to get to him. Taka didn't look back. He wouldn't be tempted to put his brother's life in danger. "We don't go it alone, Taka! We're a team! We're brothers!"

"You don't need me anymore, Hayato," he said back. He took deep breaths, trying to keep his tears at bay. For Annabelle it was the most emotive he'd ever been. "You can take care of yourself...Go!...Start a family. Save lives. You were always a better hero than me, Hayato. I was only ever a hunter."

"Taka..."

He pulled out an extra gun from his suit and fired at the ground in front of Hayato's advancing feet, forcing him back.

"Go."

He heard Hayato's protests slowly die away as Annabelle finally managed to edge him towards the exit. He kept his eyes closed as they left, tears slipping out past his lenses. He had nothing to fear now. Hayato was safe. He had fulfilled his end of the deal.

"Aishiteruyo, kyōdai," he whispered. I love you, brother.

 

[Razilin]

It was telling how crushed Hayato was, if Annabelle could actually drag him away from the sight of his brother as the Arancol's shadows descended upon the older twin.

"Aniki...."

Barely a whisper. Annabelle closed her eyes to rid herself of her own tears; her lover sounded so...broken.

"Come on, Hayato," she said softly, still gently tugging on his arm. "We need to leave. Taka's bought us some time, but we've got to go - now!"

Already, the Arancol's hungry shadows started inching toward them. Suddenly, Hayato became as rooted as an ancient tree.

"Hayato," Annabelle said, instantly recognizing what that meant. "Please, we've got to go!"

The young ninja looked at her with deadened eyes. "I...can't, Angel."

"Don't do it," she pleaded. "He sacrificed himself for us. You've got to run."

"I have to try and save him."

"Damn it, Hayato! I loved him, too! But he sacrificed everything so we can survive and get out of this hell hole!" She gave another futile yank. But Hayato was as immovable as mountain. "Please, don't do this...."

Hands gently pushed hers away. Steel hissed out of its scabbard. Hayato stepped away from her, slowly. "I'm sorry, Angel. I love you, but I have to try."

As he began to walk back into battle, Anna's hands gripped his. "Hayato, please," she begged, "I don't want to lose both of you...."

Hayato almost stopped then and there. But he gently freed his hand from hers. "I'll come back, Angel. I promise."

He charged into the shadowy morass.

 

[Quiet One]

Taka took a deep breath as the shadowy mass swirled around him. He didn't want to be used as a monster's breeding stock - who would? - but there was a peace to this. These tributes seemed empty, at a point between dead and alive. There must be some point where their bodies finally gave out and they'd be allowed to die, even if it was hundreds of years down the line. He would likely be rendered unaware, so he didn't have to deal with the unpleasantness. The true peace, though, came from knowing his little brother had been spared. It would hurt for a while, he was sure, but Hayato would find a way to move on. Raise a family. And maybe someday Hushcobb would have the arms to finally kill this monster. He idly wondered if his brother would name any of his kids after him.

The Arancol's dark mist began receding, more and more of the sickly breeding cave revealed as the Dark Fae condensed into a dark point.

"You...will make...new family..." the awful voice rasped.

"So long as I protect my old one," Taka replied.

The darkness shot forward. Taka closed his eyes, ready to be consumed. But then a warrior's cry and the telltale shinkt of an unsheathing katana made him open up again. Hayato jumped between Taka and the approaching Arancol, swinging his sword down right where the dark missile was rushing in. The sound of rushing air and piercing screams echoed from the sword. The Arancol's half-dead dummies dropped around them. When Hayato stumbled back his blade was pitch black. As it did the last time it was possessed it tried to swing on its own. Hayato held firm and began directing it, lifting his scabbard up. With one last yell of effort he sheathed the cursed sword.

"Hayato, what are you doing here?!" Taka shouted, rounding on him.

The younger brother panted and held up the blade. "Being the hero. You said I was good at it."

The controlled older sibling took a deep breath. "I told you to go."
"And I said I'm not leaving without you," He shot back. he pushed his shoulder. "What the fuck were you thinking, Aniki? Have us leave while you end up stuck here as some freak's baby-daddy?"

"This was what I'd made the deal for," he said under his breath, seeing Annabelle come through the hole. "I just didn't know it when I did. I thought I agreed to kill him, but I really only signed up for this."

"Then we find that crone and stab her with Arancol, here," Hayato quipped, holding up the sword. "Anyway, we've got him. Let's get back to Hushcobb and put him in Lockup."

WIP