Chapter Fifty Five: Dark Light

Without skipping a beat, Scalpel was up and moving away from Rav as Ronin aimed his sword at her, glaring and shouting, "Rav, what the hell?!"

 Without a word, Rav raised a finger to her lips and smiled at him as all of the shadows in the elevator began to vibrate.

A scream of agony burned through Ronin's mind as the shadows began to turn into fire, black fire that began to spiral into the hole from Rav's attack on Exeus.

His body twisted and shook, contorting in ways that should have been impossible as more and more of the black flames spiraled into him.

Grabbing his head and dropping to his knees, Ronin closed his eyes, hoping to shut out the sound as, slowly, he realized the sound had begun coming from Exeus's mouth instead of everywhere at once.

Cautiously opening his eyes, he saw the hole in Exeus's chest closing as more and more fire poured into him, until the wound was totally shut and healed as though nothing had happened.

Several seconds passed until Rav stood up fully and said, a smirk on her face, "Any questions?"

Scalpel, watching Rav cautiously, walked over to Exeus and started checking his vitals and said, "He's...he's alive…"

"How?" Ronin asked.

Rav shrugged and said, "Honestly, it's a little too complex for you to get right now. Lets just say, for now, that when Exeus's soul tried to reincarnate, it found that, for whatever reason, it couldn't and returned to his body."

Shaking his head in disbelief, Ronin said, "You expect me to believe that that was his soul?"

 Exeus began to shake, coughing as his eyes opened up, the bright red of his irises fading to black as he shouted, "What the hell was that!"

 Cocking her head slightly with a smile on her face, Rav said, "Welcome back."

Coughing more, Exeus pushed against the wall to try and stand up and was held back by the handcuff. Glaring at it, he snapped his fingers and the metal melted off of his wrist as though it were water.

A pleasantly surprised look on her face, Rav clapped quietly and said, "Look at that, one round trip and you're already improving in leaps and bounds."

Turning back to Ronin, Rav said, "There. I've brought you a pretty valuable fighter for your little team...as thanks. I have a request."

Putting his hand up to stop her, Ronin said, "You just killed him and you expect me to agree to a request?"

Throwing her hands up in fake exasperation, Rav said, "What, he's alive."

Shaking his head, Ronin said, "You had no way of knowing for sure that he'd survive that."

Rav narrowed her eyes at him and he felt as though the room had shrunk to a tenth of it's normal size. The air sucked out of his lungs as Rav seemed to take up all the space in the room, her eyes flashing menacingly in the growing darkness.

She spoke and her voice came from Scalpel, who had fallen to her knees, her voice dark and sinister, "If I wanted, I could make you do whatever I want you to do."

Almost instantly the room was back to normal and Scalpel was coughing as Rav said, "But I don't hurt family, Ronin, not seriously at least. I also respect people's right to do what they do or don't want to do...but this is more important than anything you think you've done in your entire life."

Gasping for air, Ronin looked at her and she said, "I need you to stop Jet."

 Shaking his head to clear it, he responded, "You know Jet?"

Rolling her eyes in annoyance, Rav said, "Unfortunately. He's one of my husband's team members."

Turning to Scalpel to help her up, Ronin looked at Exeus and asked, "You know anything about this?"

Shrugging, Exeus looked at Rav and said, "Nope. After I kill the woman who killed my family, I'll be coming for you though, Ravinica."

Chuckling, Rav said, "Man, nobody here uses my full name."

She flicked him in the chest again and he stood perfectly still and she said, "Hmm...impressive increase in strength...I'll have to let Shiku know about that."

 "Why do you want me to kill Jet?" Ronin asked, leaning against the wall.

"If you can kill him, I'll owe someone a lot of money," Rav said with a lilt in her voice.

She continued, mirroring Ronin's lean, "Jet's on vacation, but he's acting well outside the confines of his allowances."

 Rav mumbled to herself, almost inaudibly, "I swear, just because you're in this city doesn't mean you can just do whatever the hell you want."

Scalpel cleared her throat one more time and said, "Exeus, do you know anything about fighting?"

Nodding, he responded, "Not sure how I do...but I do."

Spiralling her finger in the air, Rav said, "Well this is all good, but I delivered my mission and my payment. Don't forget to finish that mission properly...oh and Ronin?"

 Looking at the crimson eyed woman, he cocked his head curiously and she said, "I'd recommend prioritizing Jet over the Cathols...after all, you only have a week."

"What?"

 "I've been looking over things around the city and it seems like whatever the Cathols have planned for War and that lady friend of yours...it's part of something bigger, much bigger than some squabble with the Guildless," Rav said as she began drawing on the wall of the elevator with her finger.

As she finished talking, she finished her drawing and tapped it, a massive rectangle that opened up to show a city street filled with Guildless screaming for vengeance.

From beyond her, Ronin could see a Cathol church on fire and multiple Guildless Rebellion signs.

As he started to ask one of the multiple questions he had, she winked at him again with a smile and stepped through the impossible doorway and it shut to show elevator wall again.

Sighing hard, he looked at Exeus and said, "Sister-in-law, huh?"

Rolling his eyes and rubbing his wrists, Exeus said, "Impossible. My little brother is only 12 and hasn't even had a girlfriend, let alone a wife."

Starting to walk out of the room, Scalpel said, "Hey Exeus...dying sucks...doesn't it?"

 Nodding, he moved to follow her and said, "Nothing's worse."

They left the room and Ronin was left alone in the elevator with his thoughts.

"Master...may I have a moment with you?" Moira's voice rang through his head quietly.

Looking down, he saw her looking up at him from the reflection in Exeus's blood and asked, "What's on your mind, Moira?"

She looked around a bit and said, "I've been thinking for a little while now...and I think I may have an idea as to what's going on with the High Cathols."

Cocking his head curiously, Ronin motioned for her to continue.

"The morning after we discovered that Trigger had defected, the High Cathols were playing a recording...I've cross examined multiple documents and I believe I've found a match that coincides with something that's been recorded recently."

Ronin nodded and walked away from the elevator as he said, "Hold onto that Moira, I'm going to get us to Delta's lab, you can talk to all of us."

As he walked, he sent out an all hands on deck alert through his V.U.I. and walked briskly toward the room.

The lights in the hall flickered as Ronin walked and he made a mental note to have them checked out soon. There were enough problems without power outages complicating things.

He was soon pleased to find that most everyone was already in the lab and Mira and Azue were on their way back from wherever it was they were training.

Letting everyone know they were waiting for the duo to arrive, Ronin sat as Moira began populating all the screens with data and information she'd found in her searches.

Twenty minutes later, the two arrived and Moira began, "Trigger is now War...though I suspect his mind may be active, he is likely no longer in control of his actions."

Ronin nodded and everyone else voiced agreement with this information as Moira said, "I believe that the High Cathols are trying to usher in an apocalypse that their predecessors preached for centuries before the discovery of Aether."

Data poured past the screens, information about the deaths and violence and other crimes increasing rapidly in the city over the last several years. Graphs showing the increase and higher density of Aetheric energy, spiking higher than it ever has on the night that Ronin fought Trigger and Liliana.

"I believe that this spike accounts for Trigger's body both outputting and absorbing immense quantities of Aetheric energy to create the effects that his weapon, and now he himself, demonstrates," Moira said, her voice grave.

Thinking back to the way bullets were manifesting in the air in the hundreds, it seemed obvious to Ronin now that it couldn't have been the normal effect of a weapon...that thing may be possible, but nothing Trigger had been working on involved it as a possibility.

Silas spoke, her voice loud in the confused silence, "What does all of this mean, Moira?"

 The data stopped scrolling on several documents that seemed to reference the passage that had been read as an announcement in the Cathol territory that morning.

"There are four horsemen associated with the apocalypse, among other signs and events. Though the order seems to be different depending on the message of the faith, the four horsemen are generally considered to be as follows.

 War, upon a red horse.

 Pestilence, upon a green horse.

 Famine, upon a black horse.

Death, upon a pale horse.

 'And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given to him a great sword.'"

Moira stood in her monitor for a moment before she continued, "I am not sure how they've managed to do such a thing, but I believe that, based on this information and the data surrounding the Cathols in general, they have managed to capture the essence of war itself and place it within Trigger's body."

The room sat in stunned silence at this information until Delta asked, quiet and afraid, "Is...is that even possible?"

Moira shrugged and said, "Unfortunately, I believe we may be stepping outside of the realm of possibility and into the world of probability."

 Exeus stood and said, his voice hard and angry, "It is possible. The Cathols are working with alchemists...incredibly dangerous alchemists who make the impossible their bitch."

 An image of the woman in a white cloak trailed by plants and flowers growing directly out of the concrete and metal around her flashed into Ronin's mind and he nodded in agreement.

Moira cleared her throat and said, "There was something specific that made me think deeper on all of this...Trigger's title. Death's Herald."

Silas followed this train of thought rapidly and said, "You think we've got three more of these guys to deal with…"

 Moira bowed her head politely and said, "It's my belief that Trigger becoming War may simply be the first of several steps to the High Cathols' attempt to start the apocalypse...but it is not outside of reason to assume that we may be seeing Pestilence, Famine, and Death before all of this is said and done."

Ronin thought all of this over and said, "What if they already have their Death and they're just waiting for the right moment to bring him to fruition?"

As he finished saying this, Moira walked to another screen and snapped her fingers, saying, "It is impolite to pry, Angel."

"Yeah? It's impolite to discuss something as serious as the end of the world amongst yourselves as though it only affects the people here," Angel shouted from her screen.

"What is it, Angel, we're very busy here," Ronin said, his voice cold.

"Ever consider maybe I might have information that could help you with any of this?" she responded angrily.

"We think we may be seven days away from an incarnation of death itself walking the earth, under the control of the Cathols...you have any information that could stop that?" Ronin asked pointedly.

Mockingly, Angel said, "Really, Ronin? Death? You lose your mind?"

 Rolling his eyes, Ronin said, " I don't have time for this. Play catch up if you absolutely need to be in this conversation, don't interrupt unless you have real information about any of this."

"You're serious about this?" she asked incredulously.

"Deathly," Scalpel said, her voice short.

Ignoring Angel, Ronin continued, "I think Jet may be their incarnation of Death...he certainly seems to enjoy causing it enough."

Azue and Mira both made disgusted sounds at the same time as the former said, "So we have a target, yes?"

Mira smiled devilishly and said, "I'd kill to kill him."

Rubbing his chin, Ronin leaned in to see the largest monitor and asked, "Moira, can you cross reference any spikes in Aetheric energy with Trigger's killing sprees?"

Bowing again, Moira moved her hands and various graphs and streams of data overlaid to show very closely matching data.

Ronin nodded and said, "I'd thought as much…"

Looking at him confused, Silas asked, "What is it?"

 "I think Trigger gets access to more power when he kills more people, hence the killings we've been seeing," he said, his voice saddened.

"What does all of this mean, Ronin?" Sellius asked quietly.

"We may need to kill Trigger to stop all of this," he responded, almost a whisper.

Exeus shook his head as he stood and said, "That doesn't explain why the woman, Liliana, was killing people in my neighborhood."

Scalpel nodded and said, "That...and where does Mira fit into any of this?"

Moira sat for a moment, a chair materializing for her in the monitor, and finally said, "I believe I've found a line of logic through all of this."

Ronin looked back at her screen and said, "Go on."

"Ok. So first, the High Cathols begin making minor infringements on Guildless Territory, places that nobody occupies, growing and gaining more space until they run up against the Guildless and begin conscripting them. This makes the Guildless upset, pushing past a line in the sand that was already crossed by all the various guilds in Neyk. This makes the Guildless begin striking back, pushing back as hard as they can. At this point, your group, Ronin, the Ghosts, show up and make weapons more easily available for anyone who would want them. 

The Guildless begin 'rebelling', pushing hard against the High Cathols as much as possible and in response, the High Cathols begin sending groups of unimportant soldiers to key places in Neyk, places where they will, without a doubt, be killed, ending with the last group sent to the tunnels beneath our headquarters here."

Moira stood as she continued, "At some point from you all getting here and this final sacrifice, Trigger found and began using the revolver that would convert him to War. He may have even been given this weapon or tricked into using it...either way, this final sacrifice was the catalyst for Trigger beginning to kill High Cathol soldiers wholesale. At this point, Trigger was fully under the sway of the weapon, motivated to kill as much as possible and gaining the power to increase his killing potential exponentially, which he began doing, not realizing that he'd begun killing the very people he'd wanted to protect.

From the information I've read, Jet, at one point, had a massive being living within this building that was creating the undead you fought when you first arrived. I don't have a way to know definitively, but it's possible that he acquired the weapon at this time, though I don't know how. It's the only time when everyone, from your reports on the event, was not consistently accounted for due to the darkness.

At some point in this situation, Liliana arrived within the dark city with anger in her heart and took up with the High Cathols. According to Exeus, Liliana has been killing for them as well, apparently on her own."

 Moira moved her hands again and Marcus, Jet and Liliana's faces all appeared on the screen with lines drawn to each of them from a white circle, symbolizing the Cathols. 

"We know that Trigger has, without informing us, resumed his research into weaponry since he has been seen to possess weapons that only he could create," Moira continued as she pulled up sales data. 

"We also know that his sales have skyrocketed, both old and new weapons seeing a huge increase in traffic as he began his killing.

We know that Jet and Liliana both seem interested in spreading as much death as possible, to the effect of Liliana killing, seemingly for the sheer fun of it, and Jet going so far as to bring the corpses of the dead to his fights."

I believe the idea that Jet is Death is very possible, and it may be that Liliana herself is one of the other two Horsemen, though I struggle to see any kind of unique theme or skills she may have exhibited beyond her enhanced strength and speed."

Sitting again, Moira looked out at the rest of the Ghosts and Ronin said, "So...as many as three of the four Horsemen may be out and wandering the city, killing indiscriminately. The fourth is likely to come soon, it may be that at the end of this week, we'll have to deal with all four...and we've barely managed to damage one, and two of them seemed totally unfazed by my attempts to stop them."

Silas raised her hand and said, "So...what do we do with that information?"

 Scalpel stood up and started walking to the door as she said, "We die smart."