Wild ARMs: Off on a Tangent
By: Chibi-chan
Part 24: “Fate’s Favored Child”
*
“The Guardian of LOVE, Luci?! My son brought back the Guardian of Love?! As in a Guardian Lord, the ones that were nearly wiped out?!”
Yes. It seems I had been mistaken about his fate. Still, someone around him may be able to help me.
“You think so? But who? The woman? The girl? Or…?”
*
Somewhere outside of Court Seim, the next day…
Someone loves me… I still have a hard time believing it, Cecil thought. He sighed, and added, It’s too bad neither Jamie or Elmina can come with me, but being arrested would seriously hurt their chances to save the world and stuff. He paused, and said aloud, “Oh, for Stoldark’s sake, I’m starting to think like Jamie! ‘If the world gets destroyed, then where would I keep my stuff?’ indeed…”
The prince looked around. There wasn’t anyone else in sight, let alone in range of the spell he intended to cast. “Good, no one else’ll get caught in this spell… Teleport!” He vanished from view and was fast on his way to back to Adlehyde…
*
Elsewhere, somewhere less pleasant, Nicholi Maxwell was in some forgotten ruins looking for one of the Gemini Circuits. “How do I get myself into these thi… AAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaah! *THUD!* ow.”
*
Nicholi looked up towards the ceiling (well, where there should have been a ceiling, anyway). “Guard’-damned hole in the floor… Who’s genius idea was it to put one in a dark room just outside the door and where is he so I can kick his ass?!” he complained. To compound his troubles, a trio of harpy-like Valkyries decided just then to attack. Grumbling various colorful obscenities, he drew a shotgun-model ARM. “Now I remember why I don’t do this any more!” he growled before firing.
*
Finally, Nicholi had made his way to the Gemini Circuit. It was lying on the floor before a great pit. “This is too easy…” he muttered.
*ROAR!*
And gunshots and a Laine-like stream of curses soon followed…
*
Adlehyde. On the outside, one would never have suspected anything had changed since the last time they had been there. People still did their daily routines; they got the bread, they fed their pets, they worked, they played. Looks can be very deceiving…
*
Everyone stared at Cecil as he walked down the street. Some looked with pity, some fear, a few others with contempt. What is wrong with everyone? It’s like… well, I’m not sure what it’s like, the prince thought.
The boy decided it was best to ask someone just what the hell was going on. He turned to a nearby woman and started, “Excuse me, but do you know what…” She, however, turned tail and almost broke into a run trying to get away from him. “Funny, I distinctly remember people being a little friendlier last time I was here,” he said. He sighed and thought, Well, Professor Allison lives here, so maybe she’ll be able to tell me what’s going on…
*
When Cecil got to Allison’s place, he found only her assistant. “Professor Allison? She’s out looking for the Gemini Circuits with Nicholi Maxwell,” the assistant told the boy.
“Greeeaaat…” Cecil complained. “Well, can you tell me what’s going on with all the people here? Everyone was looking at me like I was a leper or something!” he asked.
The assistant blinked. “You… don’t know? How could you not know?”
“Let’s just say I’ve been kinda ‘out of the loop’ for a while. Tell me everything…” the prince said.
*
Inside
his room, the king was thinking. I’ve
driven away my only child, haven’t I?
No, not my only son; our only son. Oh, Arianna, how many ways did I go wrong…?
There
was a knock at the door. “Your
Highness?” Minister Johan’s voice called from the other side.
The king
told him to enter. “What is it that
requires my attention, Minister?” he asked.
“This,”
Johan said, drawing a thin, easily concealable knife. “Long live the Valerias…”
*
“… and then the Valerias took over…” the assistant finished. “They’re looking for you, since you’re the only person they see that can challenge them.” The assistant paused, and slowly added, “And anyone suspected of associating with you, well…”
“I get the picture,” Cecil said. He then gradually went into an unnerving laugh. “Heh… heheh… Of course, this is yet another part of the BIG cosmic joke on me! I come here alone, looking to resolve things with my father, only to find out that he’s been frikkin’ assassinated and the new rulers in town are after me because they think I want to rule! Ahahahahahahahahahaha! I was right; it really never ENDS! HA, HA, HA!” In one swift motion, the boy turned and hit the nearest wall with his fist. “Dammit, can I not be right about this for once?! Hmm, universe? CAN I NOT BE RIGHT ABOUT THIS?!?”
“Uh, sir, perhaps it would be wise…” the assistant meekly started. Despite not knowing Cecil very well, the person knew that this was potentially dangerous behavior, if only for the boy.
The boy cut the assistant off. “Has there been a funeral yet? Has he been properly buried?”
“Well, yes, but…”
“I’m going. Thanks for the help,” Cecil said in dangerously muted tone before leaving.
“I can see why the Valerias fear him; he’s quite mad…”
*
Later, an extremely and thoroughly pissed-off Nicholi Maxwell stormed into the very same building that a quite mad (in more than one sense of the word) Cecil had left earlier. “Where is she? I got her damned part right here and the sooner I can give it to her, the better!” he said.
“You know, Nicky, you have a real gift for unintentional innuendo,” Allison’s voice crooned behind him. She, too, had just gotten back from her part of the mission. She walked past him to her assistant and said, “I would have been here earlier if not for a… minor setback…”
*
“That’s…
that’s the stone mermaid!”
“It’s
not a mermaid; it’s a golem, you doofus!”
“Well,
whatever it is, it’s attacking the ship!”
*
“The ship sank, and I had to wait at Yard until the circuit washed up on the shore,” Allison explained. “Handy little phenomenon, that beach of Yard…”
“Good for you,” Nicholi said with a grand display of not giving a damn. He walked over and plunked the Gemini Circuit down on Allison’s desk. “There, a complete set. Now if you don’t mind, I’m going home,” he told her.
“But Nick, I’ll-“ Allison started to protest until the sound of a large bell being rung was heard.
“What the hell was that?!” the male ARMsmeister exclaimed.
“I’m not entirely sure, Nick,” the woman said.
“The prince… Does this mean they got him? Or does it mean something else is wrong?” the assistant wondered aloud.
Both ARMsmeisters gave the assistant surprised looks. “The prince?!”
*
“Ah,
here you are, father…” Cecil said as he walked to his father’s
grave. It wasn’t terribly hard to miss;
it was next to the prince’s mother’s grave.
“So, they put you next to mother…
I can’t say I think you deserve that right, but what can I do about it
now?” The boy looked to his mother’s
grave. “Mother… she was your world, wasn’t she, father? When she died, you… you died too in a way,
didn’t you?”
The boy
turned back to where his father was laid to rest. “But she wouldn’t have wanted that! She would have wanted you to live! She would have wanted…”!
He took a long pause. “… she
would have wanted for us to live…”
He heard
a sound he recognized as that of a sword being unsheathed behind him. “You must be with the Valerias I’ve heard so
much about. If it’s all the same to
you, I’d like to leave this place, this city, peacefully. I have no intention of ruling or giving your
regime any troubles; I merely wanted to speak with my father.”
The sound of footsteps headed towards him. “I gave you a chance… oh well.”
*
Allison and Nicholi had no sooner left the house to investigate had the people already begun talking about what just happened.
“The bell-“
“Calling out the whole guard!”
“Did you see it? Did you see it?!”
“The first guard-“
“-magic disco balls-“
“Then more troops-“
“Was that really a Guardian?!”
“-wiped out the knights!”
Nicholi managed to get the jumble of overlapping gossip pieced together. “’Magic’? ‘Guardian’?! Wiped out the knights?!? I always knew that boy was trouble! If James wasn’t so attached to him, I’dve…”
“Kicked his butt for being a magic-using version of you at that age?” Allison suggested.
“… point. Guess this proves there is a such thing as karma,” Nicholi muttered.
*
Back at good ol’ Pandemonium…
Zeikfried and Emma stood before the Darkness Tear. “Beautiful, isn’t it?” Emma said.
“It’d be more beautiful if it were done,” Zeik replied.
“Ah, yes, but it needs that certain… organic element first, we have plans for that which need to be completed first. Musn’t let that redhead get away with what she’s done, no?” Emma said smoothly.
“Of course not. She will be punished…”
*
Hanpan stood outside the entryway, purposely eavesdropping on the two. “Elmina… what do those two have planned for you?”
*
Down in the dungeon, “grown-up” Calamity was once again trying to get through to Laine. “Listen, we can do this the easy way or we can do this the hard way-“ Calamity began.
“Hard way, please,” Laine said curtly.
“Argh, so stubborn… Normally, I like that, but not when it’s like this…” Calamity muttered under her breath. “Listen, little girl, no one is going to come and save you. Your friends, if they are in fact alive, can’t get here, and Hanpan’s too whipped to do a damn thing. You may as well make it easy on yourself and surrender now.”
“Get bent,” was Laine’s reply. She stood up and walked to the bars. “Things may not be in my favor, but I’m not about to lose hope yet, so there.” She put her hand through the bars and, with a mean grin, flicked Calamity right between the eyes.
Calamity grabbed that hand before Laine could pull it back in. “You think you’re so cute, don’t you?”
“She doesn’t have to think she’s cute; she is cute.”
“Hanpan!” Laine exclaimed cheerfully.
Calamity dropped Laine’s hand and glared at the mouse boy. “What the hell do you want?”
“Merely to talk to the prisoner alone, if I may…?” Hanpan answered.
“… fine,” Calamity said with a scowl. She turned to Laine and whispered, “But if he tries anything, let me know and I’ll kick his ass, OK?”
“Uh… all right…”
*
Back to Cecil and his… er… slight problem…
“All right, who’s next? Who’s the next idiot who wants to be hurt because he doesn’t want me to leave town in peace?!” Cecil cried, looking around for anyone else who decided to fight. Half the guard, by his reckoning, had come out to try to stop him and all had lost quite miserably thanks to magic and the Guardians. Still, all that took its toll on the boy and by this point he was feeling rather drained.
“That would be me,” a man with silver hair and ornate garb said as he walked toward Cecil. Standing behind him were yet more knights. “So, you’re the estranged Adlehyde heir. I thought you’d be different somehow.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, how nice. Look, all I wanted to do was talk to my father, but since he’s dead, the conversation would be a little too one-sided for my tastes, so I’d just like to leave in peace now, although no one here seems to bloody understand that fact,” Cecil told him.
“You wish to leave? To do what? Gather troops to overthrow the new ruler?” the silver-haired man asked, the faintest hint of nervousness surfacing in his speech.
“What?! Dude, if I wanted to overthrow the government and rule this country myself, I would have done so already. Judging by how wussy these soldiers are, I probably could have done it by myself,” the prince said, gesturing to the fallen men. “Think they’ll be OK? I didn’t think I hit them that hard…”
“Perhaps. Then why do you wish to leave?”
“Because… I promised them… I promised him I’d return. I have to go back home or I’ll never forgive myself for failing them,” the boy explained. “Yes, saving the world and stuff is on our ‘to do’ list, but the world could end for all I care if I can’t be with them…”
“I see,” the man said. After taking a moment to think, he turned to the knight behind him and said, “Let him pass.”
“B-but, Sir Valeria…!” one of the knights protested.
“I do not believe he is a threat to us now. However, if he returns, certain measures will have to be taken,” the Valeria man said stiffly.
“Can’t even come back to ‘visit’ mother? If that’s what it takes to see Jamie and Elmina again…” Cecil said. He glanced back at the graves of his parents and added softly, “Sorry, mother. I hope you understand…”
“Adlehyde? If you will…” Valeria interrupted.
“Huh? Oh, you want to leave right this moment. All right…”
Anything to get back to them…
As Lucied as my witness, I will NOT be lonely again!
*
!!
“Luci? What’s the matter?
*
“Felt something? Felt what, Luc?”
*
*
*
*
Well, I told you I’d be back, Jamie, just not at what price… Cecil thought as he put distance between himself and Adlehyde. He sighed and thought aloud, “Denying my birthright is one thing, I was expecting I’d have to do that, but to never be able to visit mother’s grave again…”
“… but they’re worth it. They believe in me, they care…” The sound of something large and metallic opening was heard some distance away, cutting off the boy’s thought. “What the hell…?!”
*
Upon investigating, Cecil saw something he couldn’t immediately classify. It was big, slightly orange-ish red, seemingly made of metal and glass, and had wing-like structures on either side. Nicholi Maxwell jumped out of the thing and faced Cecil. “Heh, Allison’s gonna be pissed; you’ve just ruined her surprise,” Nicholi said.
“Surprise? What is that thing and what’s it supposed to do?” Cecil asked. He paused, then added, “What’re you doing here anyway?”
“It’s all a very long story…”
*
End Chapter 24
Chibi’s notes:
Uh… der, I like rice.
Next stop: Pandemonium…
(“To be ‘Fate’s Favorite Child’ is to be ‘Fate’s Favorite
Plaything’…”)