Prelude Chapter - Unfinished Lives

As always, the air was comforting, in these times of dread where everything seemed hopeless like the sun was mere seconds away from losing its iconic light, he stood here. Legs dipped in the river to enjoy that cooling wave slipe over the hairs' remnants, Azazel's hands against the grass; almost as though he were bathing in one of Riverton's iconic hot springs, he extended that happy moan as long as he could, eyes rolling back.

"You sound like you're getting the best head of your life."

How familiar that voice was like it was just yesterday that white-haired partner of his was teasing him about every little thing he did. Then again, he was somewhat correct, for when he gradually snapped his neck for their eyes to meet, there was the Reaper's son, the Scarlet King. Awaiting the response from the Detective as the Red Offensive of Divergence glared down at his father's cousin, Karlo couldn't help but scoff to the side, shaking his head as he withdrew his legs out the submersion of the stream in front.

"And here I thought you were a mature teenager, Ace. Ugh, you're just like your dad, it's so annoying," Az commented, the duo of kid and adult strutting side by side with a towel absorbing the droplets scattered widely over his proportions, "Did something happen I'm needed for, or did you just wanna bother me... because it's working, trust me."

"Heh, as funny as it is, seeing you mad; no, I didn't come to bother you. Not this time, anyway. Do you know how I kinda ripped Ashton's head off after trapping him within the human consciousness, all that crazy shit? Well, we thought he was rendered immobile 'cuz there was no way for his soul to move anywhere, but, turns out: he blinked."

Inside the warehouse, torn apart by the merciless seas of time, rendered forgotten by the world, there Kim stood, crouched, scratching at her chin, gazing intently at the decapitated head placed so elegantly on a crate.

"What're you doing? He's not gonna blink again if you keep starin' at it," Katie interjected upon her odd staring, holding the Blade, by the handle, over her shoulder like a staff.

"You never know!" June included excitedly, a finger raised and a wide-toothed grin over her pearly-white teeth.

"How's it even possible for someone to hold their soul within their head, widespread over their brain cells- their neurons?" Asked Jefferson, leaning forward, touching his hand over that rotten hair mop atop Ashton's lifeless head.

"Ashton Dabrowski used to be the Son of the Crawling Chaos so he has special capabilities gifted to him for when he was that being, like how Alexander was, I assume. Technically, he's an Incarnated Requiem Artifact, but since he was never human, he can't utilize Requiem energy, so he's just a regular one, more powerful than the norm, however. Hyper-regeneration won't ever evaporate until you destroy the soul, not the body."

Hana abruptly manifested from a pink flash of light projecting onto the faces of her newfound allies, Kate and Kim remaining idle, June and Jefferson covering their eyes. The former two black-haired girls bowing to their Master, June doing the same clumsily as Darrell smiled proudly at the girls' respectful actions. Reverting to original stances, Kim started to stand from the crouch, watching as Master Saiai inched closer,

"Why do we even need him anyway? Can't you use some type of cool Requiem technique and steal his soul, take the powers from his spirit?" Kima tiredly sighed at her query's start, shoulders relaxing, arms falling,

"If I did that, we'd get rid of him in his head, and my DNA WOULD start to adapt to his soul in tandem with my body being a vessel, but it'd be the start of a duality between him and me sharing this body. With all due respect, everyone, I'm not doing that."

Katie chuckled lightly, "It's just as well, ma'am, I couldn't imagine a relentless version of yourself possessed by the Son of Chaos," She side-commented gently.

"It'd be an insult to allow him to continue surviving, painlessly, at that. Can't we have Natalia just disassemble and reassemble him like torture him?" Kima proposed casually, June gasping at the mention of torment, Convergence's eyes darting continuously.

"I'm not doing that either."

Everyone turned to the source of the voice, watching as Natalia massaged her wrists, another step was taken forward. Everyone had gathered, for there only remained the missing males to reconvene with the rest of the group. And just on cue, there they were, entering from the sunny outside to feet the pebbles attach to his bare foot's bottom, Azazel yelped as Ace apathetically entered from beside the older man.

"I located the geezer, he was just jerking off-"

"Please don't say that about my father ever again," Katie begged sadly with tired bags magically appearing under her eyes.

"So, he... blinked? That's what you're worried about?"

Azzy took Kima's spot, analyzing this decaying head, chunks of skin remaining intact even now to hide his burnt skull, just then, the Blade vanished from over his daughter's shoulder. The shine of metal reflecting onto his face's side, a simple downward slash was all it took for Ashton's face to be sliced into a messy sideways cleave, messily slipping apart, pieces of flesh splitting apart with a disorienting sound of blood separating. The sound of a soul-lifting up to the Heavens was audible to them, Kim widening her pupils, hands automatically clasping against each other, shadowy patterns below her eyes darkening to sink into her skin... steam emitting into the air,

Just as she was prepared to obliterate the fleeing soul, everyone revealed their weapons or activated their auras, but just before they could attempt to destroy, a hand grasped Ashton's chaotic essence with pink glowing fingers. Salmon-colored pupils resembling flower petals reflecting in the eyes' center, Hana gazed ahead, tightening her grip over this forbidden soul that deemed itself chaotic, with just a good enough squeeze, it'd been cast down to the depths of Hell.

Ashton Dabrowski had died just then with his soul scattering to burning fragments, enveloped by Hell, pulled down so deep, there remained no end to his eternal torture.

"Why'd you... I thought we needed him. Why'd you kill him?" June's emerald glow dissipated from her body, feeling her hair fall over her shoulders.

"The reasoning behind Ace's orchestration for Azazel, Kate, and Natalia, was to recover potential allies from a couple of Incarnated Artifacts kept on ice. If they were or weren't comrades, they'd be eradicated easily. Mei Rivera and Edward Singh are the only ones we need at Riverton's center if Ashton's a failure," Commented Hana to the remainder of her friends, still smiling even at that disappointing deduction.

"Speaking of which, when are they going to wake up?" Ace stepped up to ask, hand on his hip, red hair with snowy tips bouncing with the way he slammed his foot down.

"I suspect Ashton was initially informed of our raid via Icarus, and he set up a sleeper agent in Dabrowski, waiting for the right time and place to ambush us when we'd arrive. Ashton held an advanced affinity thanks to being the son of Nyarlathotep, aware of his and others' souls... I can assume he locked both Mei and Ed's, meaning they wouldn't awaken for the time he was alive. Fortunately for us, though, Hana just killed him, so-"

The group of Riot turned their heads to stare at the two sleepers, Mei to the left, Ed's to the right. Instantly, their eyelids retracted into their skins, revealing the near-identical palette of their twin pupils. The moment was slow, their auras resurging out the hearts, Azazel revealed a pistol, trained on his old friends' faces, waiting, just watching as Katie aimed the tip of the Blackened Blade on their pale faces.

"Ugh..."

Smacking his lips together, the blurry sight of his whereabouts remained but a dream to him, rubbing the must out his eyes' corners, as the image cleared before him, and their figures sharpened, that instinct to battle lit aflame, sparking the goal that was his heart for it to continuously burn.

Dark Determination manifesting a fireball in his pink eyes, his palm detonated like a simple firecracker readying to pop, like fireworks ready to explode above the clouds and scatter plentifully. There was a notable delay, that no matter how bright the stars twinkle in the dead of night, they'd already perished, even as they reflected in your dark-colored eyes.

Maybe that occurred then, that their deaths were scripted by some invisible transcendental entity that organized the laws of the universe. But even som, his hand had magically closed the distance between them both, that memory of a campus where he served as a teacher... a memory that never existed of a time that never happened in the limitless number of events occurring in the New World, a fonder time where everything was favored by the Old Allfather's sacred laws.

"Azazel... it's you, isn't it? W-where... where am I?"

Ed's eyes darted from side to side, curiously searching his surroundings, rubble scattered around his seated body, but just as the tears started to endlessly stream down his cheeks like a river downhill; a fist connected to his cheek. Fortunately for him, he'd managed to cross his arm so he could direct his right palm to the left side, and though her face seemed familiar, detonating the bomb wasn't as hard as locating the will to do so. A stream of flames loaded with an explosive force knocked her through the wall, sinking her nails into the grass, the aura of light surrounding her frame as luminescent as the rays originating from the sun itself... Mei stared through the shade as the white clouds momentarily covered Sol's radiation from blessing the Earth.

"What's wrong with her?!" Worriedly asked Edward, stepping out the hole formed in the warehouse's wall, noticing the one in the ceiling with an upturned brow.

"She's been asleep too long. Even if she has Madisyn Rivera's Artifact ingested in her, without daily use of it, she won't remember anything from her mother's Old World memories. Immbolize her, and we'll be able to have her as an ally."

Azazel remembered when they were set off for Vegas, on that plane where she sat there, Katie and Ace readied themselves for the coming fight. For as he turned his head, despite what his eyes beheld, he could never forget what he was surrounded by, for as the world destroyed around him, and only he remained here, as did the masculine body of Ace, and the feminine one of Katie. He wasn't alone, not at all.

"Katie, Ace... I'll leave the rest to you two and Ed."

To Be Continued.

Chaos Center: Prelude - Start!