The Imperial Bunker

Underneath the ruins of Ikaruga, several dozen miles of tunnels and fortified rooms garuntee the safety of the Imperator.. within these walls, Saya is safe from nukes, attacks and even Take Mikazushi itself... There weren´t a lot of guards, since the identity of the Imperator had to be kept secret, but what not a lot of people knew was that Saya was very much capable of handleing herself in a fight.
It might be not fitting for a royal such as her, but she could fight just like any other soldier... and she would, if it came to it.
The last stand of the NOL was fortified in these rooms, meant to last forever.

=====> Hazama's office

In the midst of the throne room, the other end of the dimensional interference field opened, blue electricity crackling along the edges of the void. From within its' dark depths stepped forth a human figure. Relius Clover stood tall as the portal closed behind him and slowly lowered himself to one knee before the Imperator. With his head lowered to look at the floor, he raised his voice a bit to be heard clearly. "Your highness, the 13th sample has fled from her Cauldron to parts unknown. Unconfirmed reports place her in Ikaruga assisting the Grim Reaper in an assault against a Library facility. How would you like to proceed?"

Saya`s shoulders twitched a bit as Relius approached her, the monarch had been near sleep when he asked for her orders. Of course, she wouldn´t say that, she was... meditateing... but the matter he adressed was much more serious than that.

"Nu has fled...? How intrigueing. Seems as if the child is rather spoiled from us letting her rest in the Cauldron... Still, we may yet need her, as scrap parts for my body."

Saya only then glanced at him, her voice calm and controlled, but her face at the verge to anger.

Find her... and if possible, bring her back here... if not.. well, you may kill her as you see fit. Traitors have no use in our ranks anymore."

(quick post, have to get to college)

Hazama slowly steps out of the portal behind Relius, looking around the room slowly, and blanking whatever the Imperator was saying for the moment.

Having left the dirt road to Ibukido some time ago, Ragna began making his way towards the ruins of the city by cutting across the less traveled landscape. This would save him time, and exposure to high seithr, while avoiding any watchful eyes guarding the roads. After about an hour of rough hiking, Ragna was short of breath and visibly sweating, the seithr was starting to wear even his stamina down. He needed to find this place soon, really soon. Finally arriving in sight of the ruins of the city itself, Ragna learned that it was not as uninhabited as most people believed. Here and there he could see a guard patrol making it's rounds. Suddenly, one small group made a sharp right and headed down a small flight of stairs leading underground to a reinforced steel doorway. That had to be it, this was the place. He just needed to think up a plan on how to get inside the bunker now. Perhaps he could sneak his way in and steal a uniform from one of the guards? No, that would take to long and with his hair and eyes he'd never pass for an NOL guard. That left one option open for him, a direct assault. Rising to his full height, he set his jaw and took off at a dead run, time to remind these sons of bitches why he had the highest bounty in history and get his little sister back.

Saya continued to meditate after her servants had thier questions answered... her hearing grew sharper, her sense of vision failing, but any other sense increaseing drastically in power... far, far into the compound, battle noise was heard... swords clashing against other weapons, screams, yells and unauidiable noises...

"Relius, your services may not be required for this one, but you may watch if you wish. My brother is comeing over for a visit." She finally said to herself, without moveing otherwise...

Raising himself up from his kneeling position, Relius crossed his arm over his chest and nodded at the Imperator's commands. "It shall be done. And what of-" Relius began before stopping himself mid-sentence as Saya spoke again. No sooner had she announced the arrival of Ragna the Bloodedge did the alarms begin to sound as an intruder was detected forcing his way into the compound. Glancing at the doorway, Clover silently calculated how long the low level guards would be able to hold out against an SS criminal. However, her Highness seemed content to handle this matter personally and if his services were no longer required then he had little reason to remain here. After all, the life link would be far more effective if the two of them were in separate locations. Bowing a final time, the Sin Alchemist backed up and disappeared down a side passage to take his leave. "I shall leave you to your private affairs then and begin preparations for the re-capture of the 13th sample. I shall only be a call away if need be your Highness."

Sparks flew from the clash of blades against one another, deep gashes marred the polished steel walls, smoke rose from many small fires throughout the halls now littered with bodies clad in blue uniforms. Amidst all the devastation and blood, the Grim Reaper pushed onward. With every step he took, he made another swing of his blade, each motion flowed into the next with a roar of determination and fury. These men were standing between him and his sister, he wouldn't hold back against them. He must have cut down two dozen of them by now as he continued to force his way towards the center of the facility. He could tell the halls were leading downward, deeper into the earth but how far was a mystery to him. At long last he came to the hallway's end. A strong steel door blocked his way along with a quivering low level guard. "Move." the Bloodedge barked once, his voice full of killing intent. Already afraid, the soldier twitched in fright and left his post with a stiffled yelp. Now free to deal with the door, Ragna puled back his sword only for the door to open of its' own accord. Somebody wanted him to enter. Raising an eyebrow, he slowly entered the throne room of the Imperator and there she was almost like she was waiting for him. "Saya..."

Only at the call of her name did she break concentration and come back to the real world. With a calm, controlled face she looked up to face the Intruder, crossing her hands and hideing them in the sleeves of her dress.

"Good evening, Brother. You´re an unususal guest... but i have expected you here by now."

She stood up, stareing into his eyes with a cold, emotionless gaze, a look that could kill.

"So, what do i owe you this honor for..? Do you wish to kill me, Ragna? To end the Librarium?"

It was a rethorical question, she knew that Ragna didn´t have the balls to kill his own sister, especially not after he spent years trying to find and save her. But that was the first step in her psychological warfare that she was about to unleash on him.

His eyes locked on Saya's but Ragna found almost no trace of his little sister in the Imperator's eyes. It was like she was a completely different person entirely. "I'm here to snap you out of whatever trance that sick bastard put you in damn it!" he said throwing an accusatory point in Terumi's direction. That freak was the cause of all of this but he would have to wait, Ragna's biggest goal right now was Saya, nothing else mattered. "What in God's name happened to you? What did he fucking do to you!?" he shouted at his sibling, anger and concern warring in his voice as his hands clenched at his sides. He had to find a way to get through to her, the Saya he grew up with had to be in there somewhere didn't she?

The lips of the Imperator turned up into a smile, then she laughed. "Trance? Who, pray tell, is supposed to control me? Terumi? The person i`ve set free and who is forever in my debt? Phantom, the witch that i´ve caught to immortalize the power of the Library? Or even Relius, that pitiful undead puppeteer? No, Ragna. They all work for me. I control them. I order them what to do. I gave Yukianesa to Jin to kill Caelica... and to kill you, as well... but this weak minded psychopath failed me on the long run. Whatever it was fate or his simple mind, he spared you... its not undesireable though."

The Imperator`s robe slid off her arms, revealing another, more form fitting and light robe underneath. With a simple gesture, jet black pistols resembleing bolverk, but with a more agressive design, appeared in her hands... a purple aura emitted from them, and she smirked darkly.

"For i get to kill you myself, now.

Ragna could only look on in shock as Saya took credit for engineering the worst night of his life. Terumi crippling him, Jin becoming a monster, Caelica "dying". It was all Saya, all her doing. Could that really be true? No, no it had to be Terumi's brainwashing, it had to be. Shaking his head side to side, Ragna balled his hands into fists as a black and red glow appeared around them. "I don't get why every member of my damn family wants me dead but I'm tired of this bullshit. You're not killing me Saya. I'm gonna save you whether you like it or not." he said calmly setting his gaze on her crown. Noel had returned to normal when he broke her headpiece, maybe the same would work here. He just had to get close enough to touch her. Narrowing his eyes he sprinted forward, his shoes tapping lightly on the cold floor as the distance between them shrunk quickly. Once he was close enough, he leapt into the air towards her with his right arm cocked back. He could barely believe he was actually about to hit Saya of all people but he didn't have much choice at this point. "GAUNTLET HADES!"

Saya raised an eyebrow at Ragna´s attack which would certainly overshoot its target, by far... she was then shaken by a harsh impact which tore her crown off of her head, breaking the connection between it and her hairpins, which simply fell off and let her hair flap out and touch the ground.
The Imperator herself merely grinned and fired a burst of burning acid bullets at Ragna´s chest, then proceeded to execute a high kick to the chest to drive him off... despite her frail stature, Saya knew how to use her muscles and could easyly keep up with a soldier.

"You fool."

With a sigh of relief he watched the crown fall to the floor with a clang. However, it did nothing to affect Saya, save piss her off a bit. Taken off guard by the total failure of his plan, he barely had time to bring up his arms in a messy guard against Saya's burning bullets. The rounds crashed against Ragna's forearms painfully. Had they been flesh and bone they would have done little to stop the bullets but thankfully the Azure posing as his right arm and the mechanical parts making his left stood up far better. Even then though, the harsh impact knocked the Bloodedge off balance and the high kick hit him dead on, sending the Grim Reaper flying backwards across the floor. Finally sliding to a halt, he dragged himself to his feet again, his arms aching and breathing hard. Saya had always been sickly, when the hell did she get all that power? A low growl escaped his lips and he forced himself into action again. "Hell's Fang!" he yelled, dashing forward with an aura of black and red seithr covering his arm. A follow up uppercut also augmented by the Black Beast's power should drive the point home a bit.

"Hm."

Saya`s Pistols crashed into Ragna´s fist, which she had thrusted forward to counter his sloppy attack... the uppercut was then blocked by the weapons crossing over, before she raised her leg rapidly, aimed for his cortch. It wasn´t to hurt him, but to break his concentration.... at the same time, she was prepareing for a real combat scenario, mentally prepareing herself to shoot Ragna more than just this one short burst.

"You have great strength and courage to try and fight me... however, unless you try and kill me, your efforts will be too weak to stand against myself. Well then... since you seem so determined to fight me without serious intention, i suppose i will fight you full fledgedly now..."

The purple aura increased, and Saya actually jumped, backflipped and landed in a light croutch before she opened fire at Ragna, holding both pistols sideways.

Snarling in frustration as Says blocked his every move, Ragna tried to focus his mind on the conflict at hand but he just couldn't do it. This was his little sister for god's sake. When he first fought Jin it was different, Jin had crippled him and given him years to simmer in anger. Ragna was still convinced Saya was innocent in all this. A sharp kick at his crotch snapped him out of it and he twisting his left leg, taking the strike to his thigh rather than his genitals. As Saya leaped backwards, Ragna actually twitched at her aura of power, maybe she did have the strength to back up her claims of controlling Terumi. Finally, he was forced to draw his sword, holding the flat of the blade towards Saya, Ragna hunched down behind the wide blade and felt the harsh vibrations as twin streams of automatic rounds bounced off the Bloodscythe. He had to put more effort into this if he was going to have any success. He closed his eyes for a moment and called upon the deepest recesses of his power short of using the azure. With a burst of crimson power he rose to his feet, fully prepared to fight. "BLOOD KAIN!" The full power of the soul stealer now coursed through his body and he lunged forward at a diagonal angle to evade the remained of the bullets and close the distance to Says. Reaching out with his left hand he intended to grab Saya by the collar and throw a forceful right punch to her gut. "It's not over yet!"

Saya, smirking at the sight of his Azure kicking in, rested for a moment and let herself get picked up, takeing the impact to her gut with simply exhaleing. It would seem as if her brother was starting to see that he wasn´t going to save her from anything...
Still, he was a thorn in her side, he had to be eliminated. Her right hand raised up to push one of the pistol barrels against his neck, pulling the trigger almost immidiantly.

"But it is the beginning of the end."

She didn´t care if Ragna would be able to avoid it or died trying to do it, but either way, he would have to let her go... which was her plan all along.
She would´ve never tried to kill him again if he wouldn´t meddle in her affairs. Still, she wasn´t going to go easy on him now. He had to pay for hundreds of thousands platinum dollars of damage done to the NOL, and he would pay with his blood.

He held back, like a damn sentimental fool he pulled his punches against his little sister. He just didn't have the heart to hurt her, not after all those years caring for her as a child. Hurting Saya was one thing Ragna couldn't do, and it cost him. The Imperator's gun barrel came up again and Ragna quickly released his grip on her collar to turn to the side. Despite the dodge, the shot grazed the top of his left shoulder, an area that had already been injured in his duel with Setsuna. With a grunt of pain, he sank to his knees, panting heavily. Sustaining Blood Kain was too much for him right now. Between fighting the NOL troops in Ikaruga, his battles with Jin and Setsuna, and breaking in here, his stamina was gone. He should have known better than to use the Grimoir again this soon. He felt his right arm begin to shake as the sethr generation rate slowed down greatly. The crimson shroud around his body was fading fast. Why can't I win? Why can't I win just once against these bastards! he asked himself through gritted teeth. Somewhere deep within himself, Ragna felt something snap. His right arm moved of its' own accord, covering itself in crimson energy in the shape of a pointed claw and shot out towards Saya's throat. Ragna only just barely knew what was happening, he had used this move against Nu in the past, Devoured By Darkness. If Saya was hit by that...

"NO!" he screamed, grabbing the wrist of his right arm and pulling it back. The talons stopped mere centimeters from Saya's neck before disappearing entirely as the Bloodedge forced the BlazBlue into submission. Rachel was right, the Azure Grimoir may be his right arm, but it wasn't his power. It was the Beast's. That being said, he wouldn't let it control him. He could end this on his own...somehow. Catching his second wind, he rose to his feet again and spat. "I promised myself, and I promised Caelica I'd stop you one way or another. I keep my promises Saya."

Saya could only chuckle as he wrestled with the power of the Beast after looseing control.. honestly, she didn´t care if she got hit by it, the Life Link would make her prevail through the end, but still, she had to kill him, afterall.

"Ragna, your very presence starts to irritate me. I suppose its about time to have you removed off the face of the planet..."

Her pistols raised, she aimed at him and unleashed a rapid fire once more, one pistol heading up, the other downwards till they met in the middle of him, where they tilted sideways and fired left and right independantly... the whole move was pulled off in less than three seconds, with the guns blazeing at a thousand rounds a minute while she fired a cross pattern to symbolize the Librarium´s victory at him.

Swallowing hard, Ragna drew the Bloodscythe again and shifted to the left in an attempt to evade the vertical stream of bullets while using his sword to deflect the horizontal one. Though he was able to skirt his way around the vertical line, the sheer number of bullets was more than he had anticipated. Round after round bounced off the flat of his blade, driving him back until he was just out of sword range. Planting his feet firmly, he leaned his weight against the Bloodscythe and endured the impacts of the final rounds. I'm sorry Saya the said, silently apologize for what he was about to do. As the last of the rounds fell silent he swung upwards with his blade, knowing full well Saya was just a bit too far away for the physical blade to hit her. However, there was more to it then that. Black energy welled up from the ground itself along the sword's arc and a misshaped fanged face emerged from below crash against Saya. The Death Spike was a sharp as any blade and being comprised entirely of the Black Beast's seithr, it had one helluva burning punch.

Saya`s attack had just ended as the counter attack promptly followed. Despite all her training, the power of the beast always caught one off guard the first time... she took a full hit of the Death Spike, getting knocked over by it but rolling to a stop.. as she got back up, part of her robes fell off as nothing was supporting them anymore, a gashing, large wound underneath, on her skin... it was deep, but not bleeding.. instead, the flesh closed up within seconds, leaveing Saya to smirk as she tossed the robe he cut through away. It would only hinder her movements.

"Does this proove to you how pointless your conquest is? I was hopeing to show this later, but now that you see it, there`s no point in delaying it further... you cannot kill me, Ragna. You can´t even harm me with any lethality."

As promptly as her statement ended, she jerked up one of her pistols and fired a round at his left chest, aimed for the heart. Of course, these acid rounds would take a while to travel through his body, but a sure kill was a sure kill..

Staring on in almost awe as what should have been a fight ending wound closed as if it was nothing, Ragna widened his stance and gripped the Bloodscythe with two hands. If Saya couldn't die than Ragna would just need to beat her into unconsciousness or something along those lines. He couldn't, wouldn't just give up after coming this far. As Saya fired, Ragna brought his blade down in a vertical cut. Though large, the Bloodscythe had a razor edge which struck the bullet head on, spliting it in twain in a small shower of sparks as a twist from Ragna's wrist ensured the two pieces flew wide rather than hitting him twice. It was an overly flashy trick that had few uses in a fight, but it was damn intimidating. Though he doubted it would affect Saya, Ragna had to try and play off a certain bit of surprise in his opponent and take advantage of it. Wasting no time, he pointed the tip of his blade directly as Saya's chest and flew forward in a mighty thrust to be followed by a horizontal slash flowing with the power of darkness. "Carnage Scissor!"

Saya`s guns only mildly annoyed the blade powered by the beast, and thus she recieved another serious looking cut that was healed in seconds. Her face, however, showed anger and a hint of embarressment as she raised her pistols and fired multple bursts at multiple areas of his body. Despite the length of the fight thus far, Saya did not seem to tire in the least.

"Would you cease to try and disrobe me, Ragna? I know of your reputation as a pedophile, but we`re silblings."

A powerful shot fired out of one pistol, which spead into multiple shells in mid flight like a shotgun, aimed for his general direction... a second shell followed soon after, but both would only deal modernate damage as the mainstay of the bullet spread out.

"Shut the hell up damnit!" was the Bloodedge's only reply to Saya as she shrugged off yet another of his most powerful attacks. Keeping his blade poised in front of him, Ragna was able to deflect the majority of Saya's shots despite the high rate of fire. However, with the onset of scatter rounds, Ragna found himself pressed once more. Batting away only a few of the pellets in his surprise, half of the first shot's pellets hit his right thigh, breaking his stance. The second round, hit him dead on in the left hip, his fatigue and injuries preventing him from even managing a messy block. His legs suddenly felt very weak and he sank to the floor, forced to use the Bloodscythe to support his weight. As his vision grew foggy, he blinked to try and keep Saya in focus but it was just too much. Running a literal gauntlet to get here had taken its' toll. If only he could have found her first he might have been able to finish things here but now he had nothing left to fight with. His body shook with a final effort to rise and continue the fight, only to crash to the floor in utter exhaustion as unconsciousness took its' hold.

Saya laughed, but it was cut off at the arrival of another visitor. Powerful arms yanked Ragna up and pulled him away, Multple voices cried out in unison, gunshots were fired and the distinct sound of the Oroburos flew past Ragna`s ear, but despite all that, he was dragged away with swift movements....

-----> ???