Soul Trade AU

Neutral Run Part 5: The Rage And Grief

Garaa sighed, and dropped Scar, letting him fall to the floor. She put on a fake, slightly manic grin, and turned to greet the three newcomers.

"Welcome! Welcome, welcome, friends." She chuckled slightly. "I was just hoping that someone reasonable would show up, someone who would understand that he," she gestured to the corridor that led to Biffa, "Is just repaying a debt. Now, if one of you will show me the other entrance..."

"No." Doc replied. Etho and Beef stood behind him, backing him up.

"Oh," She frowned, raising her trident, as Tango finally managed to pull himself free of the knife that had had him pinned to the wall, and began to walk over to join her. "Then someone's going to die tonight." She resolved.

There was a tense silence in response, until BDubs charge-tackled Tango to make sure the two demons couldn't cover each other. With that, everything happened at once, with Doc and Garaa engaging in a trident duel, Beef helping Scar up, and Etho just flitting from shadow to shadow in the dark room, generally being a source of mayhem.

Tango pushed BDubs off of him, trying to regain his bearings. When BDubs went to his knife belt, Tango popped up a magic shield around it, trying to indicate to BDubs that he didn't want to fight. BDubs subsequently punching him in the face indicated pretty clearly that the guy either hadn't or didn't want to get the message.

Beef, once he was done helping Scar up, went and joined in the fray by Doc's side, using his sword to block Garaa's trident from hitting Doc. Garaa growled softly, and got ready to throw her trident once more, this time aiming at Beef as he was distracted, nodding at the thumbs-up Doc was giving him.

And then it happened.

In the years to come, even Scar, an empath, someone even more aware of his emotions than the average person, would never be able to explain his motives in that moment. All he knew was that he saw that Garaa was raising her trident to throw it at Beef, and she was, because of this, ever-so-slightly off-balance.

Maybe it was self-preservation. Maybe it was the need to save his friend. Maybe it was the opportunity. Maybe he just wasn't thinking clearly, with all the rage and the fear in the room, and everything he'd been through recently. But no matter why he did it, he did do it.

What he did was that he let out a yell, and charged at Garaa, pushing her into the circle.

The magic worked almost instantly, as she began to dissolve. She lost her grip on her trident in seconds, the loud clattering as it fell to the floor alerting everyone else to what was happening. She looked down at herself, processing what was was happening, and began, softly, to laugh.

"'Someone' is me." She gasped between laughs, as slowly, yet painfully quickly, she vanished.

"GEE!" Tango screamed, running forward to the edge of the circle, as the last of Garaa drifted away. He stood there, trembling, breathing softly, for some time, his claws slowly curling into fists.

"You killed her." Tango's voice was heavy and monotone, when he eventually spoke. He took a deep breath. "YOU KILLED HER!" He screamed, his cold, shocked anger turning into pure rage in a split second, as he turned around, grabbing Scar by the collar and lifting him up. Doc reached for his trident, but quickly put his hands in the air at the look he received from Tango. With that, Tango turned his attention back to the empath struggling in his grip.

"She represented over five thousand years of history." Tango growled. "Five thousand years of history, and it took you, what, five seconds, to wipe it all away." He took another deep breath, and lowered Scar to the ground. Before he let go, though, he pulled Scar close, teeth grit. "That better weigh on your conscience for a long time." With that, he let Scar go, pushing him into the wall, and walking to the door.

"You know..." He paused on  the threshold, his hand resting on the doorway, glaring at everyone in the room, "I was trying to help. And I'll keep trying, but I want you all to know that it is only to fix what I've done. I was hoping to be friends again, but clearly that can never work." 

And with that, Tango was gone.

And that's the arc done! I'm going to do a few padding bits, to explain where Zloy and Pixl went, and what Python and Jevin have been up to, and where the heck Impulse is, and 'There's a demon loose on the server', and then it'll be time for the final arc: Outnumbered!

I've been Entropy, peace out from the present!