Ima's True Story

The object tore straight through flesh, blue eyes snapping open wide and in pain. A hand came up to the bleeding shoulder wound, a grunt echoing as magical energy spawned around him with a single utter of Latin. Takato brought his clenched fists down with a pant, tensing for a single inch of a moment. He was getting pushed back, and his mind was flying through a mile a minute. He didn't want to harm this guy, even if he wasn't truly alive in essence. After all, he was still Ima's dear friend.

Yet, it looked like he didn't have a choice.

"Fine."

A single word, yet sad all the same.

"Give it all you got!"

The Rutherford flipped backwards, slamming his palms into the earth with a shudder of Latin. In a single moment he stood on a rather large stone tower, bringing up his metal-like arm. Flickers of flame span around his entire body, coming to form in a single orb of power within his palm. Takato suddenly jumped straight off the large wall, allowing gravity to slam him downwards as he pulled back the orb of flames and sank down at the two targets. His roar echoed loudly as he dropped like a rock,

“Turbo Flamma!”

(Whirling Motion Flame!)

Sol jumped towards the attack, almost seeming to fly in a sense. He grabbed the arm Takato was using to attack them with, the one with the magical fireball in it, with his own hand that was missing the segment of his pointer finger that he shot off.

The fire burned his hand completely, all of the skin charring away. There was nothing but metal underneath, both startlingly similar and immeasurably different to Takato's own. Sol didn't seem all too much affected by this, besides the loss of his skin.

"Try the opposite." Was all Sol said before he slugged Takato in the face.

The Magi had no time to react as the raw force smashed into his cheek, his form flying backwards and into the wall behind him, the echoing sound of bones shattering howling upon the area. Blood dripped down his pale features, eyes becoming a whirlwind of blurry motion. The Rutherford slowly looked up as he limped to stand up with a grunt, his gaze landing upon his opponent. There was a big difference between the two. While Sol was merely burnt to metal and shrugged off most attacks, Takato was bleeding true Human blood and agony. His nose alone look slightly out of place, even as healing and battle spells hissed over his lips.

A sudden vehemence lashed over the area as a tower of water flared up around the area, coming down to focus upon a single point. The blue-eyed Magi grunted and then swiped out his hand, sending out a large blast of echoing water in a vortex shape. All in all though, a single punch to the face had shown that he was truly Human. He seemed to struggle to see the blasts he was launching at his opponent, a trimmed fury burning in his eyes.

Sol didn't bother to try and dodge, merely crossing his arms in front of his face as the torrent of water crashed down on him. He couldn't hold back the scream that ripped from his throat when it did. It sounded as if he was in more pain than someone should ever be in.

He was.

When the attack was over, he somehow managed to stand. Bits of electricity were sparking off of him, like a machine short circuiting.

The dark-haired teen gave a pained smile at Takato as he struggled to stand. 'One more.' He mouthed to the shorter teen, knowing his voice wouldn't work. One more, and he knew he wouldn't be able to get back up.

And then Ima would be safe.

"I..."

Takato froze for a moment, his hands coming to a stop. Did he really want to do this? Destroy the best friend Ima had? Could he really do this? Safe to say, he didn't know what to do any more. Silent tears echoed at the very edge of his eyes, his fingers twitching to let loose one last final spell. He did want the child safe, but not this way. This would only cause her to suffer. A single foreign emotion filled the Magi. Fury. Raw, burning fury coursed through his veins, and something within him responded.

"...You..."

It was all his fault.

".....Bastard!"

Two hands snapped together as the air turned thick, a crackling echo of light forming around the area. A single force was grasped within the mind of the Magi, letting a drop of colour burn out. A piercing blue gaze narrowed upon the black eyed man and two hands were brought up, a single large form coming alive in the sky. Lightning sprang up within the dark sky, a great aura of power coming into existence around the blonde Magi. A single whisper sang along the air, eyes becoming encased in a sea of light,

"Quetzalcoatl....."

A chilling screech joined the whisper,

"....Thunder Storm."

Sol's eyes widened behind his glasses. If he attacked him...

"No!" He somehow managed to get out. He couldn't force out anymore words after that. But if he attacked him...

The lightning struck down, hitting the black-eyed man straight on. But at the same time, it didn't seem to hit him at all. There almost seemed an invisible force holding it back.

The man smiled.

"Now let's not get hasty..."

The electricity seemed to swirl around him before focusing on a single point in front of the man. Then there was a sound like thunder as it shot straight at Takato.

"After all, I'm not your opponent, now am I?"

Takato could only stare in shock as the blast tore into him, his eyes fading into a deep amber. The lightning tore through his body and he was literally blown back from the raw force. His iris became glazed and dark as his arms went limp, a cough spitting out a section of dark red blood to the floor. For a normal Human like himself, that amount of power redirected from a Summon was just too much to handle. The Magi was having trouble staying awake, letting alone staying battle ready. His hands twitched, his eyes falling upon his two targets as he tried to stand up with dangled arms.

D-Damn...I-I....can't...

His steel fist clenched and he flew forward, letting loose a agony driven punch

...GIVE UP!

"Stop."

Suddenly and without warning gravity dropped down on Takato. It was just enough to stop him in tracks and make it so that he could not move, but not enough to force him to the ground.

Ima jumped from where she had been watching before. She hadn't been able to move, petrified with fear, but now she seemed more than able to. The child landed next to her human friend.

"Stop." She repeated, looking between the two humans. Neither her voice nor her body shook, and she displayed no sign of fear. Then the child kept her gaze on the older man. "You win. I'll come with you."

She looked at Takato and smiled, a flash of fear now running through her eyes, disappearing as soon as it came. "Trust me." Ima whispered so softly that she could barely be heard. Then she began walking towards the man with black eyes.

He grinned triumphantly.

Ima..?

Takato froze as he watched in horror, his form falling to his knees in pain,

What you doing!? Run, Ima! Stop!

His form twitched with agony, his amber eyes gazing at the scene with a odd amount of terror,

"Help us fight this thing, guys. Don't give up, just keep fighting"

"I'm not going to stop fighting..."

"Never be like these people, Ima, never."

It was truly horrible, Takato felt hollow. A pure feeling of utter cold swept through his blood, his head slowly falling in a sea of sadness. His pain racked form began to stand, twitches running down his body. His false arm lashed outwards without a target, sparks echoing over the cracked and rusty metal skin. For the first time in his entire life, he hated someone. Hatred ran along his lips, his dazed amber eyes falling upon the black-eyed man for a single second,

"I won't let you take her. I will do anything to protect those I care about."

Then, it happened.

"Complexio..."

A twitch, a hand coming up to his chest,

"...Supplementum pro Armationem..."

A roar, lightning springing forth into his own body,

"I will ascend to the heights of heaven… or descend into the pits of hell!”

A pillar of black light exploded over the area, amber eyes burning crimson.

"Magia Erebea."

&&&&&&&&

OOC: Post-FFX Takato - Final Limit Break/Overdrive LV4 = Magia Erebea! ("Magia Erebea" would roughly translate as "Dark Magic")

Ima looked back at Takato with sad eyes.

So he didn't trust her.

She understood that maybe his human emotions had overrun his logical thought. Or maybe he hadn't heard her request at all. There were several logical explanations that the little blue-eyed girl could think of.

None of them made it hurt any less.

While the older man was distracted with the teen's transformation, Ima spoke, just loud enough so that the now crimson-eyed mage could hear her. "Hey...Takato? Do you remember that time when we first saw Leviathan?"

The child turned her back to Takato and faced the man who was still only known as 'Sir'. "I made a promise to myself then. That I wouldn't be useless. That I wouldn't give up. That I would never, never, let my fear control me.

She glanced back at Takato and there were tears in her eyes. "I...broke my promise."

Ima looked back at the still distracted man. "So please let me do this. This is something that I must do alone. Completely alone. Please."

She pulled something out of her sweater pocket.

"Even if you can't trust me..."

The alien floated up and swung the rock that she had picked up from the Silicis Telum, impaling it deep into the man's chest.

"...I need to do this."

Sir's eyes widened and he coughed up blood.

Takato froze.

His magical energy flashed around him, his crimson eyes staring beyond a veil of black hair and red tattoos. He held up a shaking fist, thoughts running through his mind. The raw Human emotion that the alien girl did not understand ran through his entire form, a vortex of rage lashing outwards within his mind. Rationality was being forced back by the storm in his heart, twitches echoing over his short form. It was rather odd to watch as the inverted-coloured Magi gazed at the girl before him comitting murder.

Then, he sighed,

"...I....you..."

He didn't know what to say.

The alien child pulled the rock out of the older man's body, which made him instinctively clutch the wound. He glared at Ima, making a grab for her with his other hand. She dodged this, using her manipulation of gravity to jump back next to Takato.

"You little..." He was forced to stop his sentence as he hacked up more blood. "I'll be back. I'll ALWAYS find you..."

He looked only at Ima when he said this, and vanished in the blink of a eye when he was done.

The child gave a shuddery sigh.

She then looked at the mage next to her. "He isn't going to die you know. I know the human anatomy well enough to hit something nonfatal. He's just very paranoid about dying. Very, very paranoid...." She trailed off before starting again. "It was the only way he would have ever left."

Ima attempted to wipe some of the blood she had gotten on her off. It was an attempt in vain. "And you don't have to be so surprised. I saw Raven put a bullet in a man's brain. Zora rips things apart with her arm. I've seen you practically dead in front of my eyes. It was only a matter of time until I had to do something like this."

Despite her saying this she gave a shudder.

Turning her attention back to Takato, she brought out her gun. She shot him twice, once white, once green. "Your bones should rearrange themselves correctly so it will feel weird, but it won't hurt."

Then the child couldn't help but stare. He looked kinda funny with black hair and red eyes....

Black hair and red eyes...

Ima looked away from Takato and gave a giant leap, landing next to Sol. He seemed to have fallen over, unconscious, as he didn't respond to the child landing near him. Ima somehow managed to flip him over.

He wasn't breathing either.

The child didn't seem the slightest bit panicked by this. She simply tapped on his chest twice, and leaned in to listen before doing it once more. She nodded in what seemed to be approval before looking over to the mage. Ima motioned for him to come over if he could.

"I'm guessing you have a lot of questions?"

She found this role-reversal somewhat interesting...