Code Red

--Dani's Perspective--

After my father, who was apparently the man named Oberon Slicious, tried to strike me, I found myself in a world of clouded judgement. I never thought myself to ever have parents, and to see the first sight of one try to kill me? I wasn't sure what to think. He condemned Sky, yet I was protected by the one he condemned.

I may have always wanted to meet my parents before, but after seeing what atrocities my father tried, the want for it faded away. He was an evil man, and I could see that very, very clearly. 

However, no matter how clearly I could see it, I subconsciously knew that Sky told me to run from that place. I listened quickly, noticing how outnumbered we were. Even if Sky could fight all of them at once, I couldn't, and would just get in the way.

I bolted from the attackers, but they didn't chase me. After making it around a hundred feet from the point of origin, I could see Sky's body warp into Red Strands and stuff themselves into a weird, golden orb with intricate designs around the outer edge. I was convinced that Sky had been killed...

Until...

[A.I. Received]

[A.I. Received]

At the sight of the words in my eyes, I could see two lines of text with underlying colors of white and black origin.

[Don't worry about Sky, get yourself to safety]

[I see a path when you turn around and head in the eastern direction from your position]

Both Umbra and Hikari were talking to me now, assuring me of Sky's safety while pointing me in the right direction to run.

I ran through the city, infested with Rubeki, and killing as many as I could along the way. Ali Asterio's ability to manipulate gravity loomed within me and I was able to kill even more Rubeki than if I started swinging a Saber around. I saved those who were being cornered by the Rubeki, tying my hair with the stretchy bracelet given to me by the Owner of one of the market stands. She gifted one to both Sky and me, but I had to use it now to clear my face of extra hair.

I landed on the ground and launched a wave of gravity around my position, pushing all Rubeki through the streets and then forcing them up in the air. With my expanded control of the ability, I was able to leave the structures around me in stable standing, only moving the objects I focused on and then propelling them into the sky.

As the Rubeki aimlessly floated in the sky against the gravity I wielded, I clasped my hands together, pushing them into one huge ball. The heads of each wild animal the Rubeki mimicked peaked out of the neat spherical shape in the air above me, but with one cut through with my golden saber, and all dispersed into nothing but black smoke and ash. I noticed their composition.

"Hikari, why is there ash now? I thought there was only ever black smoke," I asked the A.I. in my mind.

[The Rubeki are made of up Black Strands in The First Trial. Here? It looks like something different... they are turning into the same composition of atoms as a cremated human is. Could they be...]

[Cremated human? I'm not detecting any deaths... where is this coming from? Who is creating them? I'm searching right now.]

Hikari had a conversation with herself out loud, thinking about what was composing the Rubeki around us. While I continued to look around, waiting for her explanation, Charlie and Charlotte came bolting around the corner, coming to a slow down when they saw me.

"Where's Sky at? Things are bad," Charlie panted out loud. As he ran to meet up with me, Faith, Khalil, and Mizu ended up behind him, panting with the same intensity in the ashy street with me.

"He uh... sealed..." I muttered. I couldn't find the words to keep up, but Faith seemed to understand just how dire the circumstance were. Her eyes grew wide and she turned to look behind her, then back at me.

"...sealed? What does that mean?" Charlie asked me. The intensity of worry in his voice began to grow.

"They put him in this orb thing... I don't know how it works, but he told me to run. There's another thing, Charlie. Our parents were there," I told him lightly.

"...what?"

"Our parents. From before, when we lived four hundred years ago. They were there... and they hunted Sky as well. My own father tried to kill me, so assume that they're violent and looking to do the same. It was thirteen to one, and he did some damage before he got trapped in that orb thing," I said to Charlie.

Hikari popped out of my body in her classic white clothing, offering to explain the situation to everybody.

"Cynthia constructed a plan to stop Sky that was to stop the production of his Strands and place him in an object. If I had to predict why, it's probably to bring Eirikr back. I don't know the means of which they will bring him back, but we have to interfere somehow before the plan reaches the point of no return," Hikari said. She looked at everybody intrinsically, except for Faith. 

"Hikari, are you aware that Arthur Vega has made an appearance?" Khalil butted in next, watching Hikari's confident, blue-eyed gaze shift to him. Her eyes began to whittle win confidence and widen in surprise.

"A-Arthur Vega? Like... Finlis's father?" Hikari asked. I was confused about the entire thing, only remembering Finlis to be the man who tried to ambush us on the ocean before Sky took care of him.

"Don't tell me this is one of those problems we can't deal with. Where do we start, Hikari?" I asked her. However, she only pointed at Khalil and Faith specifically.

"Your people will be safe inside their homes. You? Faith? You are the only one here who is capable of taking on Arthur Vega," Hikari said.