Chapter 15: Impending Doom.

  “Ugh, what the hell is his problem!” Lyra shouted. She sat upon Taiyo’s bed with Kendall, bouncing her leg violently up and down as she continued to stuff things into a bag. She went through her daily maintenance of the gun she was given, furiously operating with its mechanisms. “I get why he’s mad at us, I mean I guess it’s sort of reasonable. But! He’s making Mila worry for no reason! What an absolute jerk!”

  “What can you do about it?” Kendall gave a defeated shrug. “I feel bad for the guy. He looks like he’s only a bit older than us so I had hoped we could be friends.”

  “Trying to make nice with everyone will only end in disappointment, get that in your head already would you?” Fiamma rolled her eyes. “This is why people like you are so hard to deal with.” Fiamma was in a position where she was resting her head on Taiyo’s shoulder as he inspected the golden revolver that had reappeared throughout his life so many times. They both sat against the wall on the floor, neither seeming that bothered or aware of just how close they had become. Kendall had noticed but chose not to say anything about it since he thought ‘it was cute just how close emo #1 and #2 had become’. Lyra, however, was still ranting about Drachen’s anger.

  “Oh I forgot about that old thing,” Lyra looked at the revolver within his hand. “It really is a beautiful weapon.”

  “Yeah it really is a cool gun. But I haven’t seen you pull that thing out since before the fight with Selene,” Kendall jumped in.

  “Why are you even taking it, you’ve been accessing your powers pretty efficiently without it. Did you find a use for it?” Fiamma asked.

  “I think I might be able to use it in my fighting style. Trying to keep copying Caelum will only make me a second rate version of him. Maybe it could be some kind of enhancer for my powers. I still need to prove myself to Drachen anyway. It’ll be a pain but I refuse to have even the smallest chance of getting backstabbed.”

  “Like really! The nerve of that guy! I should see if dragons are immune to magic bullets,” Lyra said through a strained smile as her eye twitched.

  “Let it go, princess,” Taiyo said. “We’ll be moving out soon. So if it really does bother you so much, you can make up with him on your own time. After all, until Mash and Takara come back with a report, It’ll be just Us, Rio, and Drachen.”

  “An entire week away from this base, huh?” she said, leaning back and lying down. “We haven’t even been here long and yet I feel like I’m really going to miss it.”

  “It’ll take a week for her to get to the Cage and back so don’t make this harder on any of us, ‘kay princess?” he sighed.

  “You and Kendall are going to end up with holes in you if you don’t drop that stupid nickname.”

  “Uh oh, you made her mad, bro. Quick, let's apologize before we get exiled!”

  “My apologies, your highness. It was foolish for me to infuriate you in such a manner,” Taiyo gave an over exaggerated bow to Lyra, causing Kendall to break out into laughter and Fiamma to giggle a bit.

  “You wanna die or something?”

  “Alright, let's go over the plan one last time,” Taiyo said. With those words, every single person in the room regained their composure and focused their attention upon him.

  ***Last Night***

  “Alright everyone, listen up, Vitale Clan!” he shouted out to the chanting crowd. Immediately, every individual went back to a kneeling position on the floor.

  Taiyo went on to detail the plan he had thought up when he had taken control from Takara. The plan would be to mobilize every single squad in the Cafe in order to properly subdue the Cage. Mila and Squad 5 will move to interrogate the individual who had been captured by Jeison in order to try and understand their true motives. Mila would be perfect for this since her and her maids and butlers would be able to continue to provide for them while showing themselves to be friendly and understanding. Mash and Squad 3 will be the messengers between the two clans. She would become the perfect negotiator and Takara and the Squad 2 would follow closely behind in the shadows just in case things go south, offering their assistance in combat if necessary. Caelum, Selene, and Edward would operate as the Cafe’s defense just in case the Cage tried anything. They’ll have the support of their squads 8, 10, 1 as well as Rio and Drachen’s squads 9 and 7. Aria will split her squad in order to be able to heal Mash and Takara if they have to engage as well as the Cafe defenders if a fight occurs while Jeison will try to get into contact with Takeoshi and Adira. Finally, Taiyo, Kendall, Lyra, Rio, and Drachen will cooperate and train each other on the abandoned bridge in order to increase their fighting capabilities while the operation occurs. In their current state, they could provide a lot of support but they were nowhere near strong enough to assist in taking down the top generals or leader of the Cage if a fight were to happen. This entire plan revolved around what happened to Mash. Would her negotiations go through, or would she be rejected? Everything relied on what would happen to the fifth grader, leaving no room for mistakes.

  ***Present Day***

  Taiyo and his group walked down a large bridge that had been abandoned by the city. The group made short conversation but Drachen was uncharacteristically quiet. Lyra kept looking back at him yet never starting a conversation.

  “This area should be good enough for magic training,” Taiyo said, looking around the vast expanse of the asphalt roads. The overbearing arches stretched far and tall, guiding any car that would have passed under them across the crystal blue waters.

  Rio and Drachen put down the backpacks they wore over their shoulders and did a few stretches.

  “So, what are you guys going to teach us?!” Kendall said excitedly.

  Rio looked at the boy with a level of understanding yet his face was as cold and hard to read as ever. Something about him seemed oddly eerie today.

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  “Young Master,” Drachen said, his hair covering his eyes and he spoke softly. “You… Are not ready to lead us.”

  Taiyo looked at the slowly approaching Drachen and put down his backpack with a sigh. “I figured you had something like that to say… Why is that? What about me makes me unfit to lead the Vitale?”

  “Say their names,” purple smoke started to fall from Drachens mouth as the winds picked up. The speeding gusts were slow yet deliberate. Certainly not natural or weak, the gigantic bridge which many cars had driven on over and over again began to sway ever so slowly.

  “Excuse me?”

  “Say. Their. Names.”

  The haze returned. An angel and a devil holding hands with their hearts torn out, their chests burning away like a paper slowly losing itself to ash. An inverted spiral tower falling into a pit of ice, crashing waves towering high into the sky like walls, threatening to crash upon the wasteland at any given moment. Eleven figures standing off into the distance,a bit more visible than before. Now, something new adorned the scene. High into the sky, there was a singular blue eye overlooking the entire wasteland. It didn’t move, it didn’t blink

  “Whose names?!” Taiyo shouted, his fist setting ablaze.

  “The names of your parents! The names of the people you killed!” The wind, at this point, became a raging tornado of air, shaking the bridge violently. “You can’t, can you?”

  Drachen reeled back, his laughter echoing over the raging gusts.

  “So what are you fighting for?! We have this elaborate plan and mission we crafted in order to survive and carry out their will yet you don’t even remember what they looked like! What kind of heir is that?!”

  He slumped over, allowing his hands to dangle in front of him as his head hung low. Purple smoke swirled around him.

  “I’m here now!!! I’m not perfect but I want to serve you guys as your leader because someone competent is what you all deserve!” Taiyo slowly started walking towards his opponent and Drachen did the same, soon they were inches apart from each other.

  “I’m going to tear you apart, Vitale.”

  “Feel free.” Taiyo smirked. But we’re doing this on my terms. “Rio!!!

  “Resurrection.”

  Rio’s pistol shaped to form a black shotgun and the same intricate clocks slowed down behind him.

  “I did a little digging myself, Dragon of the Vitale.” Taiyo nodded towards Rio. “I had some free time to myself so I decided to ask Caleum why Rio and Takeoshi were on equal footing and the answer I got was truly amazing…”

  Drachen’s crimson hair seemed to start to rise a bit, flowing in every which way like it was guided by some sort of invisible energy. Taiyo knew he had to choose his next words carefully.

  “That the only way to beat the unbeatable Takeoshi is to simply seal him away.” Taiyo walked past Drachen and stood next to Rio. “Rio’s Resurrection sends the target to a pocket dimension. This dimension is something he has complete control over, a place where time moves as fast or as slowly as the clocks behind him are currently spinning.”

  Taiyo pointed up with his thumb towards the various spinning intricate clocks, each showing a different time but they were moving at a snail’s pace.

  “Soooo, if he puts us in a world where the clocks look like that-“ Taiyo was still pointing at the now rapidly spinning clocks behind him with a smirk on his face. “We can fight to our heart’s content. Maybe a week in there would equal a minute here, who knows? If you want to do this, let's do this. ”

  Drachen sighed and looked up at the Vitale heir. Both men could exchange an endless amount of words and understanding through their gazes alone so many things were better left off unsaid. However, there was one thing that was simply too pressing of a topic to be left alone.

  “Taiyo Vitale. We have been in an age of uncertainty for far too long.” Drachen started. “I have seen many of our people die these past few years waiting for some sort of direction. The squad I lead are dedicated individuals willing to die for this clan; they only deserve the strongest and the best leader there is.”

  “I want to try my best for these people. I really do,” Taiyo said. “I don’t want to solve every problem by fighting. As I am now, I couldn’t beat you.”

  “And this desire. Where does it come from?”

  Taiyo sighed and sat down on the curb of the large bridge’s road. His hair silently flowed in the wind created by Drachen. Whenever he looked towards him, standing on the dark asphalt roads, it was like his very image flickered between human and some incomprehensible beast. The mana flickered around him in a state that was somewhere between a dense liquid and a crystalline solid, distorting and twisting the very moonlight that attempted to pass through it.

  “Why huh? You know. I’m not really sure why.”

  Thunder crackled and gusts roared as Drachen’s mana surged. Blood lust and pure magical power fully engulfed the bridge, dyeing it the color of his anger.

  “Sorry if that wasn’t the answer you weren’t looking for. I still haven’t found my noble reason to appease all of you. In fact… If you want to know what I’m really thinking I can tell you.”

  The air had grown heavier. It was that same feeling with when he fought Jeison - like a sharp blade was constantly being pressed against his throat no matter what distance he was at.

  “I’ve done a lot of thinking and more fighting than I’ve ever done in my life these past few weeks,” he started. “I wanted an easy way out - I always do - yet at the same time at every turn it felt like whenever I stepped into this world as the Chikarai, Taiyo Vitale, and not as the highschooler, I was possessed by something to always keep going. Every single time I would do something to try and figure things out bit by bit. At first I didn’t get it but now I do.”

  Taiyo stood up and turned towards the distorted mass of mana that was one of his Captains. One step against the wave, then another, and another. It was difficult, but he slowly made his way to Drachen, the feeling of the crude weapon constantly being pressed against his throat getting deeper and deeper as he was struggling to breathe now, his chest heaving furiously under the intense pressure.

  “I miss my mom and dad. I know I killed them yet every time I think back on them, nothing but the haze looks back at me,” Taiyo said, still approaching. “I want to know what I did. I want to know who they were and why you all kept fighting under their name for years despite their absence. I want to be the one that figures it all out. And to do that, I need you. I need all of the captains and their squads. I know there are things you guys aren’t telling me. Even things about this mission I’m in the dark on despite it being the first one I’m leading. Believe me when I say I want to help you all. Just give me a chance.”

  Drachen paused for a moment, contemplating Taiyo’s words carefully. The other members of the group had no choice but to remain silent as the two men discussed with such a heavy atmosphere. Rio’s gun was still trained at Drachen under the orders of The Sun.

  “The Cage family is special.” Drachen sighed. The mana and the weight in the air seemed to vanish all at once, leaving not a trace as if it was never even there. Taiyo let out a breath he didn’t even realize he was holding onto.

  “They operate as a typical underground organization yet they are one of the cruelest groups of individuals out there. Murder, kidnapping, laundering, embezzlement, fraud, extortion, smuggling, - you name it, they do it.”

  “Right, they are a crime syndicate of course. Wouldn’t be an issue if they were just walking dogs and feeding the homeless.” Taiyo nodded. He raised a hand towards Rio, indicating for him to put down his weapon which he obliged.

  “Right. But the catch is that the Cage family is truly just that - a family.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “Every single person in the Cage family is related by blood.”