Chapter 6
The night before was terrible…well not terrible more like stressful. Luna could not get comfortable in bed for the life of her too worried about why Aranea was scooted all the way towards the edge of the bed. Had she done something wrong? Did she tease her too much? These thoughts kept her up most of the night.
Aranea meanwhile could not get comfortable in bed due to worrying about touching Luna in bed. How could someone look so relaxed and disheveled but still completely breathtaking? It simply wasn’t fair to be tortured in such a way. The best way to avoid it would be to lay on her back far, far away from Luna. Well as far as she could get on a single bed.
Needless to say, both were exhausted and bubbling with nervousness around each other that the ride in the car to Hammerhead was becoming unbearable. Aranea was in the front seat hoping for something to happen anything to take her mind off Luna and the impending fact that she would be leaving for Insomnia today. She wouldn’t get to see her again. Her chest felt a little pull but maybe that was just some indigestion. Those eggs looked questionable at breakfast today.
However, no matter what today brought Aranea would be professional about the whole event. She would drop her off say goodbye to the oracle and be on her way pardoned and free from Niflheim along with Wedge and Biggs. That was the goal of this whole mission in the first place, right? She leans her head against the window and looks out seeing nothing but desert and more desert.
It had been strange driving through Hammerhead no one was out and about. Sure, it was a waste land but there were people who lived in the area. It was too quiet, or maybe Aranea was just paranoid. Well she didn’t get this far not being paranoid still it was unsettling. She sits up in the car looking at Biggs.
“It’s too quiet.”
“It is a desert Boss,” he says darting his eyes from the road to the rearview mirror.
Aranea has her arms crossed. “You know what I mean.” She says seeing a glint in the distance. “Get ready,” she says reaching for her polearm.
In the distance seen from the car is the glint from a Ma-X robot or armory robot with an artillery of mass weapons.
“Stop the car,” she tells Biggs. Seeing two of the Ma-X robots descend behind them.
Biggs looks at her before stopping the car in the middle of the road. “I hope you have a plan.”
Aranea smirks, “I always have something up my sleeve.” She looks at the backseat. “You need to stay in the car.”
“But I can help,” says Luna gold light forming in her hand.
“No. Not yet. They haven’t shot at us yet. They want a deal. Maybe I can wiggle us out of it but if they see you and you’re not around us. They’ll kill us and keep you alive. Stay in the car I can handle this,” she says closing the car door before walking down the road towards the moving robot. It’s disgusting seeing the thing move like a dying spider, but she needs to deal with whoever this hot shot think he is. Wasting the Empire’s money on some wild goose chase. Sure, she no longer was going to take Luna into the Empire that plan had changed early on, but this display of arrogance was not going to be tolerated. Whoever was in that dumb robot was either stupid or looking for a dying wish. They knew better than to mess with Aranea and she was going to have a great time wiping the smug look off-
“Oh Aranea how nice to see you,” says a nasally voice as the robot opens bending down to let the man out from the device. Aranea’s eyes widen as she pauses in her step.
“Oh, now come on Aranea. Is that anyway to greet your General,” he smiles too sweetly. He looks behind her seeing the car and laughs. “Seems you’ve been making a game of this capture. But now my dear the game is over. Surrender the oracle or suffer the consequences.”
Luna can’t stand this anymore. She doesn’t want anything to happen to Biggs and Wedge, but she can’t hear what the man from the robot is saying to Aranea. She can feel the fear from here. See it in Aranea’s stance. That man is more dangerous than he appears. She can’t stay in the car any longer and exits it gold light forming in her hands as she walks straight down the road materializing her spear as she stands by Aranea’s side.
“We seek passage through your blockade. Move aside and be spared,” Luna says sternly to the man dressed in armor ensigned with the Imperial markings. She had not come all this way to be stopped by some imperial soldier who had taken over her country. She would not move another inch for them. They need to move for her.
The general looks at Luna and then Aranea and laughs loudly. Aranea places her arm in front of Luna and pushes her behind her. Luna can feel Aranea’s arm shaking. This man has a power over her what he has over her she doesn’t know but it has Aranea terrified.
“Oh well done Aranea you fully tricked her,” he laughs. “Why I bet she doesn’t even know of her impending capture.”
Luna glares at him, “impending capture? Not likely.”
The man’s laughter subsides as he looks at her. “Oh, are you so sure. Do you know who I am,” he asks moving towards both of them. “General Caligo Ulder. The one who made the plans to capture poor poor Tenebrae.” He chuckles, “now then what makes you think you’ll fair any better now? Oh, are you going to run away and abandon your people like you did in Tenebrae all over again? Your poor brother,” he says slowly.
Luna flinches at his words. “Poor thing didn’t even have a chance to escape,” he grins. “And no wonder his selfish sister was only escaping for-”
“Shut up,” clips Aranea. “Look let me make this easy for ya Ulder.” The general bristles. “You’re going to let her go to Insomnia and maybe just maybe I’ll spare you.”
Ulder looks between both women before laughing loudly, “oh Aranea you really are laying it on thick. You see Luna,” he says grabbing Aranea by the throat. “This monster right here is trying to be the hero when we all know what her true colors are. You know she led you, here right? All of this was her plan…well she was supposed to get rid of you much earlier, but something must have come up,” he says grip tightening under her throat.
Aranea winces bringing her hands up to release his grip growling. “You move anymore and that pretty collar of yours will come off,” he threatens. Aranea releases her hands from his arms shaking. “Luna if you want Aranea to survive you’ll come with me back to the Empire.”
Luna looks at him unamused, “you obviously have something on Aranea otherwise she wouldn’t do such a thing. You’re nothing but a little man with a lot of leashes under his control pathetic. You don’t hold any true power.”
“Oh,” he laughs slipping his hand under Aranea’s collar. Aranea panics. She grips the collar holding it tight against her throat. “You’ve yet to see the true power Niflheim has to offer.” With a quick slip of his hands he has unleashed the collar around Aranea’s neck. He holds it in his hands watching as her eyes dilate into slit pupils. “Oh, did you forget to tell her,” he sneers lighting the collar on fire.
“Tell me,” Luna questions as Aranea holds her stomach in pain.
She kneels over on the ground on all fours shaking. Before Luna can even react Aranea’s hair is pouring down from her head to the ground. Her skin is turning a greyish blue as her back cracks and bends pulling upward as her scapula becomes like a shark fin sticking out of her back. The clothes on her body begin to tear and rip as her form grows bigger and bigger arms break and fuse becoming paws with razor sharp claws. One claw continues to grow and thicken as her hind legs break forming into doglike hind legs claws ripping through her boots. Thick white hair pours out of her backside covering her lower half as a bony greyish blue tail extends out from her tail bone. Her face is no longer recognizable. It’s covered by the long fur like hair and only a snout with shark like teeth can be seen behind the matted mess.
General Ulder laughs as the transformation continues. “You see Luna once a monster always a monster.”
Luna looks down at Aranea. Aranea who no longer has a human form but has become a larger and more dangerous form of a Havocfang daemon. Aranea whimpers fur like hair covering her face from view. Luna pats the daemon’s head and looks over at the general.
“Is that all you have? Is that your great plan,” she asks bluntly.
“She,” he stutters, “you saw what he became, she betrayed you.”
Luna smiles, “yes she did but I’m afraid I wouldn’t test someone’s loyalty by revealing their secret to the enemy. Aranea is a Havocfang as large as your robot and you just betrayed her trust. You just released her daemon form that is much stronger and bigger than any of your current robots,” she grins.
The Havocfang, Aranea perks her ears and turns around facing the general growling. The single claw on the front paw clicking on the ground.
Ulder hadn’t planned this happening. How had Luna known about Aranea? Those questions can be answered at a later time for now he needs to escape. He edges back towards the MA-X Robot but before he can even make a move Aranea has pounce on him claws tapping by his ears menacingly.
“Call off your troops or perish,” says Luna staring down at the general. “Unless your life is worth is for this Empire of yours,” she grins as Aranea pressing her paws deeper down on the general.
Ulder laughs, “I’d rather die,” he says before giving the command for the other to attack as he stabs Aranea from her underside. It bounces off barely leaving a scratch. Instead Aranea slices Ulder’s skull with her claws before stomping on his body like a dead rat.
“This isn’t good,” Luna says as MTs begin to descend down on them along with various MA-X versions of robots attacking them. Aranea kneels down before Luna and rolls her eyes towards her back.
“Ride you,” Luna asks as Aranea huffs beneath her hair claw tapping the floor. Luna nods her head before quickly getting on top of Aranea. There’s no time to waste. They can’t fight all these robots not alone. They need help and the best help is just a few miles down the road. She shouts down towards the zooming car driving past them.
“I guess Biggs has done this before,” she says seeing the car zoom in-between robots as easy as snake slithers on the ground. “Aranea get me to Insomnia. We’ll gather the Crownsguard-” She doesn’t get the rest of her sentence out and only feels a rush of wind blowing through her hair. Aranea is quick, lightning quick as she moves down the road faster than the car Biggs and Wedge are driving. It doesn’t take long before they see the barrier of Insomnia.
“Just a bit further and they should start to arrive,” she says leaning down on Aranea as they rush down the road.
Just as they are beginning to get to Insomnia a hoard of glaives begins to shoot out from the city like a hoard of angry wasps. They begin to attack Aranea slashing her left and right.
“No,” shouts Luna. “The robots behind us. MTs behind us,” she shouts to deaf ears. The glaives still continue to attack Aranea who jumps side to side trying not to injury them or get Luna hurt. Luna at this point has had enough she throws down her trident into the ground making the road and surrounding ground crack and hiss.
“Aranea lay down and don’t move,” she shouts over the clash of swords. Aranea responds and quickly lays down on her side as the glaives begin to slow their attacks. One of the glaives warps to Luna.
“Oracle Lunafreya. We must destroy the demon behind you.”
“If you touch her, I will stab you with my trident where you stand. Call your glaives off and have them prepare for a Niflheim invasion. They are coming with over six MA-X robots and more MTs than I could count.”
The glaive nods their head, “as you wish,” they say before relaying the message through the intercom piece and leaving the large daemon and Luna behind to go fight the MTs ahead.
Once the glaives are gone Luna rushes to Aranea’s side and begins to look over her injuries. “Idiots. You’ll be ok Aranea.” She looks into the beast’s eyes and frowns. “I have to heal your injuries. It will sting so don’t bite me,” she says before giving Aranea much warning as she touches her paw and begins to let her light enter into her body. Luna closes her eyes and concentrates feeling the strings inside Aranea’s body.
They’re not really strings more like a pull of herself. They’re twisted and tangled and feel out of place. It’s similar to how she healed Aranea after the battle with Aridus. That’s when she first noticed the tangle of wires that were more than just normal human strings easy to manipulate and heal. They were tougher like parachute cords tangled into a misshapen mess, choking on the fragile human string. She adjusts what she can. What feels too prickly or out of place she leaves alone. Some knots take time to be undone and she only has enough strength to heal what she can. She begins to feel weak and drained as she untangles the strings in Aranea’s body and soon pulls herself out from the process.
She opens her eyes and see the Havocfang beast on its side whimpering. Most of the wounds have healed but there are more on her underside than anywhere else. Luna won’t be able to heal them without more energy. She sighs exhausted as she leans against the large front paw.
“Aranea…I don’t know how to bring you back. That collar was keeping you human and I don’t know how to fix it. I don’t know how to help you,” she feels the hot tears rolling down her face. “Just tell me something I can do. How do I bring you back,” she asks crying.
She feels the hot breath from the daemon on top of her head and looks up. Aranea lays her head down and opens her mouth wide. The long-extended tongue taps the tooth in the back.
“You want me to get your tooth?”
Aranea let’s out a low confirming growl.
“But it’ll hurt and how will this even work,” she asks her. She doesn’t receive an answer just a repeated motion at the tooth to be yanked.
Luna let’s out a long breath. “Ok just don’t…don’t bite my hands off alright,” she says sticking her hands deep in the back of the Havocfang’s mouth. She sees the tooth that was pointed at and pulls quickly hearing a loud pop. She looks down in her hand and sees the tooth along with another tooth poking right back out where the last one was.
“Ok that’s why you weren’t worried,” she says holding the slimy tooth in her hand.
“And now what?” She asks receiving an answer of Aranea placing her thick fur like hair over Luna. Luna looks up at her and sighs. “Of course, old binding. I understand now hold on,” she says before cutting a piece of Aranea’s hair with her light. She takes the hair and braids it before tying the tooth in-between the loose strands. It’s matted enough it should hold long enough for Aranea to tell her how to make it permanent.
She wraps the hair and tooth bracelet around Aranea’s paw and watches as the Havocfang begins to shrink and become more human in shape. Soon enough Aranea is in front of her with the hair and tooth bracelet around her right arm. Once she has become fully human again the bracelet melts and forms into a solid black leather band around her wrist.
Aranea looks over at Luna sheepishly. “So, surprise? I turn into a daemon sometimes,” she winces looking down at her legs. She sees a blur of white elope her and knock her down to the ground. She groans in pain as Luna lays on top of her body hugging her?
“Oh my gosh Luna,” she says as Luna kisses her on the lips interrupting her. Aranea looks up into teary eyes shocked.
“Don’t you ever pull another stunt like that again,” she says tears falling down her face.
“I…uh holy shit did you just kiss me,” she asks shocked.
“I…well,” Luna starts turning red. “You almost died so why not,” she says flustered.
Aranea laughs loudly and lifts her hand touching Luna’s face gently. “Alright I guess that one is a freebie then.”
“What are you talking about,” she asks before Aranea is lifting her head up kissing Luna on the lips while being straddled.
“Talking about that princess,” she grins. “So not that this isn’t romantic as hell and I’m feeling great in this position let me tell you just phenomenal, but I really don’t think the oracle should be caught with a naked daemon between her legs,” she says sticking her tongue out at her.
Luna snorts covering her mouth before leaning down kissing her once more. “I really couldn’t care less about what they find. Just don’t promise to do anything stupid like that again?”
Aranea rolls her eyes, “oh you drive a hard bargain but sure I’ll try for you Luna.”