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Snippet #1325524

located in The Magitech City of Neo Elysium, a part of LIMIT: The Last City, one of the many universes on RPG.

The Magitech City of Neo Elysium

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Collaboratively written by Kurokiku and Machina Ex Deus

Sable momentarily dropped the barrier to allow Arsenic through; she had the answer to her unasked question as soon as the woman began to cover air vents in an attempt to stop invasion that way. Sable might have indicated her gratefulness for the assistance to both her and Ivory, but she did not have the energy to waste on speaking. The constant jarring on her barriers was swiftly draining her of energy, and she honestly had no idea how much longer she was going to be able to keep the thing up. Poor Ivory didn't look well, and she was worried for Azure, out against all those MagiSpawn by himself.

The world seemed to shake, and Sable's barrier wavered. She fought to restore it, but then Azure teleported in and the surprise startled it into vanishing entirely. Azure spoke, but she barely caught the words, as her attention immediately fixed in what came next.

"Surprise." Sable's midnight eyes went wide, and she heard the movement behind her, though she knew she was far from fast enough to do anything about it. Weakened as she was, there was no chance of throwing up a barrier either. Azure leapt forward, but Sable did not think even he would make it in time. Her eyes fell closed, and she wondered for a moment what Citrine and Vermillion would do when they found out she was dead. Of all the people she knew, those two were the only ones she even dared to hope would mourn her loss. She had been born an only child, but Sable sometimes thought that if she'd ever had siblings, she would have liked for them to be just like those two. There were several crunching sounds, and she could only guess from what, certain that she did not want to know.

Too long passed, and Sable felt heat on her face. Opening her eyes, the girl let out a small gasp when she observed what had happened. "Vermillion," she said in a very small voice. Though his power had turned him into something that barely resembled the man himself, she recognized the hue of his engine. The construct he had become, though, did not move, and she looked past him to Azure, and the girl with too many engines.

"Behi-" but she did not have time to finish the warning, and Sable cringed at the sword was run through Azure's back, the horror of the entire scene before her forced her a step backward, and a strange, unearthly light overtook the two of them, and they disappeared. In the stunned silence that followed, Vermillion collapsed, and just past him, Sable caught the surprised face of Citrine, as well as the much more composed expression of Spectrum himself.

-=-

Citrine sat back in her chair and sighed. All the searches she could think of had thus far yielded nothing, and what was more, she was out of ideas. Uncle... surely, if this had been happening, you would have left me some sort of clue. But what? Dr. Saffron had always been fond of puzzles and riddles, and his encryption was riddled with them, along with references to various silly stories he'd told her as a child. Surely, a man who was, willingly or not, helping to create the army that would kill so many innocents would not have the time for something like levity, and yet... either way, she was far too shaken to deal with any of it at the moment.

Idly, she flicked to a tracking screen much like the one her father had in his office. There was Vermillion, near where she supposed the others must be. Sable's tracker had been removed, she supposed, but the fact that her ally was no longer moving significantly seemed to confirm that he had found something. Unless he just liked wandering around in the park, which she supposed was technically a possibility.

He was, however, surrounded by a number of dimmer, gray dots that she recognized immediately as indicating MagiSapwn. As she watched, s swath of them seemed to disappear, but she was more concerned with how they all gotten there in the first place. Such a large horde... it was unthinkable. Father. Citrine's jaw clenched, and it occurred to her that her genius of a sire may well have anticipated Vermillion going after Azure. He had been a little too easily convinced by her lie earlier, the one placing responsibility for the incident at the motel squarely upon her own shoulders. Shit.

Wiping the screen and the programming history of the computer for the past hour and a half, Citrine removed Azure's disk and shoved it in a pocket. She had to find Vermillion. There was a chance that he was in just as much danger from those MagiSpawn as Azure and his rebels were.

Exiting her uncle's old office, Citrine nearly jumped in surprise when she observed her father leaning against the wall in the hallway. She was about to explain, but realized she had no need to. Saffron had left the office and everything in it to her; trying to cover up her presence there would be more suspicious than not doing so. It didn't matter anyway, as Spectrum preempted anything she might have communicated with words of his own.

"Get your things. We are going to retrieve the Li- Sable. Vermillion is doubtless already there, but he will likely require assistance." Citrine nodded, trying to convey the appropriate amount of surprise. She didn't have to try very hard; the fact that her reclusive parent was going to do any of the dirty work himself was enough to provide that feeling in spades. What was he playing at? Selene knew him well enough to say that he never did anything that was not well-calculated and logically precise. Well, except designing monsters to kill thousands of people. Then again, even that had its own sort of twisted logic to it, if one were willing to completely ignore one's conscience, that is.

She followed immediately after him, not needing anything in particular, and her father surprised her by taking her arm gently in a hand. "I'm going to speed time now, so hold on and don't let go of my arm." Citrine was only too happy to comply, and the journey to the park whizzed by in what seemed like quite literally no time at all. Leading her over to what appeared to be a hole in the ground, Spectrum relinquished his grip, allowing his daughter to run forward. The two of them were in enough time to see a dying Azure and Colorless disappear, though Citrine did not recognize the girl who had stabbed him in the first place. Vermillion fell to the ground shortly after, and Citrine made eye contact with Sable for just an instant before rushing to his side. His power had long since peeled away everything but his muscle and bone, and Citrine found herself momentarily at a loss before looking to Sable with something approaching pleading in her expression.

The dark girl knelt at his side and shook her head slowly. "His heart has stopped," she said slowly, not quite believing it herself. "I... even I cannot bring back the d..." she swallowed, but before she could try to reform the words, Citrine broke in.

Don't say it! the woman shouted mentally, with enough force to make the others present flinch, and Spectrum had to step a few paces forward to avoid the shards from the piece of furniture that had spontaneously combusted next to him. Don't... please don't say it. Citrine's insides felt hollowed-out and she thought she might vomit at any second, but she refused to cry. She wasn't going to be the one who dissolved into uselessness, not now. But what was there that she could even do?

Sable, it seemed, had no such reservations, and the water fell soundlessly from her eyes even as she spoke in the calmest, most reassuring tone she could muster. "I... I am sorry. I cannot heal a body without life, and I cannot turn back time." She looked mournfully at her sole remaining friend, but Citrine's eyes had gone wide, and she turned backwards to face her father, who had been watching the whole ordeal with something approaching detached interest.

Spectrum knew immediately what the look meant of course, and he sighed internally. At this point, he would probably be better off if Vermillion was dead. The man was far too willing to ignore his orders, and seemed to be having a corrupting influence on his daughter besides, if she were willing to risk her own punishment to cover for him. Granted, when Spectrum had handed down the punishments, he had well expected this to happen, and it had worked out mostly as intended. Both Azure and Colorless were dead, and with their leader gone, his rebellion had been effectively crushed. The Life Engine was his again. Killing his impertinent soldier was an unexpected bonus.

But just by looking, he could tell his daughter would never forgive him if he did not do this. Not for the first time, he cursed the fact that his child had come to resemble his wife so much. She'd had the same defiant streak about her, and the thought of it sent an unexpected pang into his chest area. Fine. She would have her way as she had so many times as a child, but it would not be for free. Approaching the downed Vermillion, Spectrum instructed the others to stand back, which they did, and Activated his own engine, producing a swirl of effervescent color, which he concentrated with his hands, control effortless. Bringing both palms to face downward, he spread them apart, forcing the glittering ball of hues to spread into a dome over the grotesque and lifeless Vermillion. That done, Spectrum tapped the surface a few times, clearing the color away so he could see inside, directing time to reverse with naught but an exercise of his will.

Slowly but surely, flesh began to reappear on muscle, the flare of reddish power expanding, then receding back into the man's body as though he had never used it at all. He would still be unconscious, of course, as Spectrum was exercising the power on his body alone, and not, as it turned out, his mind, so he would retain memory of what had occurred. This might not have been the best idea, but he doubted that either of the two female agents present would fail to fill him in anyway, might as well save himself the headache of Selene's demands for an explanation about that one.

Finished, Spectrum dispersed his power, turning to his daughter and and the Life Engine. "Agent Sable, you will return with me. Doubtless, Niles is here with the car even now. Agent Citrine, you will remain. Destroy what remains of the MagiSpawn- and Azure's rebellion." He leveled an unnerving gray stare at Arsenic and Ivory, both clearly too fatigued to be much of a threat. To her alone, he added: Nothing in the world comes without a price. It is time you learned that.

Niles chose this moment to appear, and the two of them managed to place Vermillion in the vehicle, Sable following behind obediently, imploring Citrine mentally not to kill the two other woman, but it was not long before she, too was ushered away. The car drove off, and Citrine was left standing, surrounded by still MagiSpawn, and the two rebels that still lived. Turning, she regarded them with tired amber-gold irises. If you wish to live, I advise you to run. I shall not follow, not today. It was the best she could do. Around her, the MagiSpawn that remained were returning to movement, and she knew that meant her father was serious about what he'd said. It also provided an opportunity, however; she could claim to have been too busy killing MagiSpawn to notice them slip away.

Exiting the hideout, Citrine came face-to-face with a herd of MagiSpawn numbering a good three dozen. Good, she thought, lighting a fire over each hand, I could really use a chance to blow off some steam. Her control was nowhere near as precise as her father's or anyone else's for that matter, but her raw destructive potential was nothing to sneeze at, and if she didn't use her ability soon, she was likely to accidentally blow up HQ.

Citrine shot off the first two flames into the nearest MagiSpawn, who kept on coming until she sliced through it with a fire whip. Shutting down her telepathy engine, she tried to retain some semblance of control as she ritually destroyed every monster in sight. She had no desire to burn anything that wasn't one of those foul creatures, after all. It wasn't long, though, before magically-superheated yellow flames were everywhere, backlighting her in some kind of eerie halo. All her fear, hope, reservation, despair and rage were poured into those fires, and the few civilians who witnessed the event spoke of it in hushed tones. Surely, they thought, that must have been what hell looked like; grotesque flaming monsters everywhere, slaughtered by some kind of stonefaced avenging angel.

Eventually, though, Citrine quenched the flames and her own emotions alike, leaving nothing but piles of ash in her wake. It would be quite some time before she had the energy to make it back to HQ, but right at that moment, she couldn't have cared less.