Ultima Mission Return

--Shike's Perspective--

After the fight with Genesis and Hikari, Charlie, Asoh, Charlotte, Alex, Belle, Boo, Lily, and myself all made it back to Zealous inside the destroyed bunker. I talked to Hiyochi some more after stabilizing her and found out that the reason she was so absent-minded was because of all of the stress. A thirteen-year-old girl saving an entire city's worth of people couldn't have been good for her, and I profusely apologized for all that she had to do.

"You've done good so far Hiyochi... say, did anybody drop by here? Did anybody die?" I asked her.

"Some people were seriously injured... Faith was seriously injured, Ren and Mandi were both impaled and almost drowned, so I'm closely observing them. Here, this one is for emergencies," Hiyochi clarified. She tossed a radio over to me and I caught it quickly, tapping the button on the edge and speaking into it.

"Hello? Is anybody there? This is Shike. We've returned from Ultima Tower. Who needs help?" I asked.

The radio stood silent for a few moments, and I started to think the worst.

"S... Shike? Shike?! It's me! Alexia!" I heard it shortly over the radio. I was overcome with happiness, along with Belle and Boo standing right beside me.

"Alexia! Is Lia okay?! Is she safe?!" Lily got caught up with the three of us, practically jumping on my back while asking for her friend.

"Everybody is okay, Lily. Lia is okay, Sky, Dani, Illya, Carl, I'm okay. Everybody is safe, and Quake is almost done for," Alexia told us. We practically revived the room with our celebration, cheering for the notice of our friends who made it out alive.

"Listen Alexia... we're not in the best of shape right now, but if fighting needs to happen, we'll be there. How's the situation?" I asked into the radio with everybody standing around me.

"Sky... he's fighting three people. Cole... Fico..." The radio went dark for a moment while I waited for the third name. I half expected it to be somebody I knew with that amount of suspense.

"Cynthia..." She said next.

"Cynthia? Do you mean Sky's sister? She's alive? What is she doing with Quake? Does he need help, fighting three people on his own? Doesn't matter, we're coming there anyway," I told her.

"Wait... don't leave yet, I need your strands, please," Hiyochi pleaded for me. I nodded, knowing that here would be more important than getting into a fight, so I sat down and began transferring any strands I could to heal other people who needed it.

After about ten minutes of work, surprisingly, Hikari and Charlie walked back through the door. His leg was regenerated, and he looked battle-hardened from something that happened.

Just before that, Belle alerted me that she got a message in her eye, one that said that an Asterio had been killed. I didn't get the message, presumably because I didn't have a White Stone anymore. What was mine now belonged to Boo.

My mind shot off in various directions. It didn't say which Asterio was killed, so for a brief moment, I considered, what if it was Sky? What if it was Dani? Illya? Alexia? There could be so many people that just died...

Charlie walked in with Hikari right behind him. Hikari confidently walked passed him, but it was a weird type of confidence. Not her old kind of confidence, but a new one, that almost mimicked Charlie's.

"It was Genesis," He said, shaking his head back and forth while denying any other allegations of another person dying. His confidence remained unstoppable as Hikari looked deep into the wall.

"What are you doing?" Charlie asked her. Hikari's bright blonde hair blocked her even brighter eyes as she stared deeper, and deeper, and deeper. It looked as if her head would go through the wall any second now.

"I'm getting a feeling... something in my core is shaking..." Hikari mumbled.

Everybody, including Hiyochi, nervously stared at Hikari. Just from looking at her, she looked experienced and well-versed in weird things. For something that shook even her, I was beyond startled at what was to come.

"We need to leave," Hikari sharply said. Golden strands came out of her body, even more widespread than Sky when he's healing somebody, and she picked everybody who was injured up, simultaneously moving them, and healing them.

I was still skeptical about her. Not even an hour ago, maybe a little more, she was our enemy, and a talented one at that. For somebody to switch so fast, I was sure she planned something, and everybody here would be falling to her plot.

"Why? What's going on?" I asked Hikari. I played along for now, picking up Hiyochi, who already seemed absent from the conversation and her whole body. After I picked her up, I followed Charlie. I couldn't trust Hikari, but Charlie was a whole different conversation.

Hikari turned around, looking at me with tired eyes that had seen it all. Then, she opened her mouth, and looked at the same wall again.

"Sky Asterio is reawakening," She told us.

"Was... he sleeping...?" I asked next, following Charlie out of the bunker.

People were being evacuated at a fast level, being pushed out of the hole made in the wall by the bunker we entered through. Strands pushed, and pushed, and pushed, leaving us to leave last.

Pressure came back from the thing she stared at through the wall, the atmosphere grew more and more ominous, and finally, it struck quickly. I wanted to make a snarky comment about Sky 'Reawakening', because it frankly sounded stupid, but the pressure we've been feeling, what we've been avoiding all along.

I could even see the source. I felt the source of it, even from here. It was such an imposing presence...

A presence of which seemed demonic beyond belief. It threatened me, just for gazing near its location. I felt it, and I felt a lot of it.