THE FINAL CONFRONTATION

[steampunkborgia]

[It's time.

Once everything has gathered, perhaps they feel as prepared as they can be under these circumstances. Behind that door lays the place where things will end. The door opens easily, giving them access to the most important place underneath Krakow.

It's a rather large chamber, carved in the rock, but on the far end it feels like someone decorated the place to give it a very mystical vibe. A polished stone staircase leads to what seems to be a very large, glowing gate. It's being assaulted by an uninterrupted beam of volatile energy. Its origin is visible: a large, imposing laser machine, where all the tubes and wires are connected to. Right beside it, there's a coffin-shaped machine, the antenna blinking intermittently. Looks like it's on! But is it doing anything right now?

And, standing there with your backs to you, are the two people who have caused you so much grief and pain during the last month and a half. They're standing some distance away from the gate. Throughout the room are a few rocks that could serve as cover, as well as a pillar or two, but do you intend to hide? Regardless, looks like your intrusion didn't go unnoticed]

You all are so noisy.

[The door opening seems to have alerted her of your presence, yup. The Lady turns around. She doesn't have her half-mask anymore. The eye that's usually under it has a summoning circle carved onto it, shining so noticeably it can be seen even from the other side of the chamber. To her hip there's a sword, and her hand goes to a weapon a couple people may be familiar with: the marshmallow gun...with modifications. That sure is the fire-spewing trombone attached onto it. It's all pretty dangerous-looking yet still ridiculous. ]

Welcome, everyone, to the secret of this world. In here--why are there cats here?

[She blinks, puzzled. A good sign! Looks like, despite everything she has done and worked on, there's still room to catch her off guard in many ways!

The Lady shakes her head]

If you're down here it means you have been snooping around, haven't you? I'm sure this isn't the only place you sneaked into. My, darlings, that's naughty of you. All you had to do was stay on the surface and do nothing, and you could have the happy ending you wanted. Now, since you have seen more than I intended, I have no more option but to kill you. You can only blame yourselves, darlings.

[The Lady glances back at the gate, pensive, for just a moment before slapping a grin on her face]

My followers call me their Lady. My priestesses their Goddess. Everyone else calls me...the Other, for...some reason. [She doesn't seem terribly fond of that moniker.] But you all can just call me Lucrezia. And this here is my servant, Rembrandt as you well know by now. [She turns to him to add:] Oh, feel free to strike fear into their hearts by undoing your current form. The charade is over.

Now, have you all grasped the truth of this project?

Comments

1/2

[dominioned]

[ As the group of survivors entered Rembrandt's expression was neutral, aside from the small smile he wore. For anyone who's talked to him over the past several weeks (more so the past two weeks in particular), it's his usual state. But something gives him pause his eyes going wide, and it takes him a second to even hear what Lucrezia says to him despite their close proximity. ]

Ah, you brought them... [ The only thing he's staring at in this room is cats now. ] Did you bring toys for them too? Well, I imagine this won't take very long.

[ He shakes his head and seems to remember there is a time and a place to be made starry eyed by felines. ]

Is that an order?

[hors_devores]

I suppose if we are here to speak truths, then it is fitting me to do so as well.

[ The chamber goes dark, all the lights being drawn into a vortex that swirls around the Lady's servant. When the light creeps back against the darkness what you see is well...a mess.

Calling him a person anymore wouldn't be fitting, monster, abomination, devil is more than accurate. Rather than a proper body what you see in front of you is a swirling mass of shadow and shapes: a serpent's head, a raven's wing, the compound eyes of a mass of flies. They undulate never staying visible for too long, all kinds of horrors surfacing and then disappearing. And from that writhing mass comes a voice you're familiar with, that grinning mouth recognizable even if the rest of him isn't. ]

My, my it's been quite some time since I've been able to stretch my legs. A pleasure to meet all of you, once again! You may still call me Rembrandt, after all, it is my name at least for now.

[psychophant]

[Sometimes, the only reaction you can have to something is just "HAHAHA WOW" and that sure is a reaction Iago is having right now. After everything this past week and today in particular has been, this might as well happen. Sure, why not, we may all die down here, but he has no plans of going easily.

This past week Iago's done nothing but embrace his goth aesthetic by wearing all black, but today's a bit different. While he's still wearing mostly black, he swapped out the usual black suit jacket for one with a subtle floral pattern. No points for guessing who he's thinking of. His tie and makeup are in purple today and after he takes a moment to steel himself, he looks prepared for whatever nonsense happens next.

So he's just going to turn to the Survivors and blatantly ignore the mastermind duo.]

Don't do anything stupid. They want us to work out what's going on; we'll be safe for now. [Well, at least until they decide they're bored of us or until we stumble on the right answers, but there's no point in saying that.] Let's share what we've found and see what we can work out.

[He isn't going to say it, but he looks at his fellow Survivors like "please just play along for now" because there is no way in hell we are going to be able to take whatever the fuck Rembrandt's true form is at this current moment.]

[reanbeans]

[ Yeah, that sure was a thing. Rean was already on nerves, and this didn't help at all.

However, Iago's words got him to focus, to tear his gaze away from the demon's form revealed. ]

I understand, so...

[ He'll take a breath, because boy. This was going to be a lot. ]

I think I'll start us off with how the subway investigation went in great detail, so please listen closely.

[ ... ]

As we were walking through the subway, I couldn't help but notice that there were quite a lot of tubes and wiring running along the ceiling, coming from the concrete. They were attached to parts of the ceiling and walls; it was definitely hard to miss for sure.

It looked made from awfully strong materials, so I doubt I could've caused damage to them easily. And to top it off, they were running with energy.

After the three of us managed to get passed a moderately difficult part in the subway, we made our way forward. But, I think it's worth mentioning that whenever the three of us had to use our powers, there was a surge of energy, causing the wires and tubes to become more active and shake some more. There was this humming noise that came as well, and seemingly electrical sparks formed on the wires too - this all stopped after a little bit of time, so we proceeded as normal.

We came to a place that seemed to be some sort of crypt underneath Krakow, with coffins and such.

It looked like the ground once had heavy machinery that passed through it, and we did find a few excavating and mining machinery as we headed further.

I took one of the tunnels, with Raven, and Dazai accompanying me for a little while.

I noticed on a table that there were pieces of paper, and some tools - mostly electrical and welding ones.

The papers seemed to be schematics of some kind - definitely finished plans.

The first one looked like an advanced toy gun of some sort. [ Laser. It's a laser. ] There's a good amount of cables and pipes connected to the back, with a slot that had the word 'Skala'. Though I couldn't read the rest.

There also seems to be a beam coming out of this gun, though no target.

The second showed a lamppost, and they seem to show what's attached to it going into the pavement.

[ He'll then hold out this and was prepared to pass it along. Along with the other schematics. ]

And as you can see, she's talking about Kyousuke, Lysithea, Suzaku, Shin, Zangetsu, Ulquiorra, Ignis, Ango, and Shiro exceeding her expectations. I'm guessing about their participation in all of this...and that mostly everyone else fit within what she anticipated.

The last schematic showed some kind of electrical grid.

[ He's grimacing here, though. ]

There seem to be a number of components here - batteries, circuitry, piping, and other things. The center of it all seemed to go all the way into the crypt. This grid also looked like it covered all of Krakow.

That's all I've got from my side. Raven can probably fill in any gaps if I missed anything, and Dazai had been looking at other things of interest.

[reanbeans]

[ ...Dear Aidios, that sure was a demon if he's ever seen one.

But, fear's not exactly the entirety of what he's feeling right now. He's on edge, and yet, he won't run away.

They can't afford to. ]

...What was the point of hiding your real form all this time?

[inordertobelieve]

[ Uhm. So that's... a lot. For all they'd held the theoretical knowledge that Rembrandt is a demon, it had not done anything to prepare Mikami for this sight. His world is normal. Monsters are a matter of picture books. And this...? This is.....

He steps backwards, trying hard to not show that he is, in fact, absolutely terrified.

(Also there is cat hair all over him and potentially a cat rubbing against his leg, like, don't ask. Things happened. ]

[bawcock]

[ Yeah, he's... not sure how to deal with all of that besides staring at it with the biggest "yikes" he can manage. Which is a pretty big yikes!

He's completely on board with the "ignore the duo, let's talk amongst ourselves" plan when he recovers so he pulls out two papers from his pocket for everyone to read. ]

This is what I found. There is a little more, there were some books about demons, how to summon them, how to deal with them, but given what's on these pages I think we might not want to try any banishing rituals.

Mostly because, I bet that's exactly what the Lady wants us to do. We take all of the danger, she gets out of her contract, and then she decides to kill us anyway.

[steampunkborgia]

I'd rather you don't do a thing to Rembrandt. He and I have a working relationship going on, getting in the way of that would be just so uncouth.

[bawcock]

[ He's seen some crazy monsters in his day but also, what. ]

That's... a look you've got going on there.

[raventhaw]

I've been wondering about the lamppost.

[ she looks at it again and reads the words on the schematic. ]

Everyone on that list was a culprit except Zangetsu, Shiro and Lysithea. Shiro also isn't dead like the rest of them are. Furthermore, it's mentioned here that a couple of people had underperformed.

[ she turns to look at lucrezia. ] I don't suppose you'd be willing to tell us the names of those who underperformed, would you?

[bawcock]

[ He thinks about saying something.

Then he quite obviously turns his back to her so he's facing the group. Plz c urself out of this conversation!!! ]

[psychophant]

[That's so much, damn Rean. You put in so much work, good job.]

It seems like all of the uses of our powers have been providing energy. That would explain why it was necessary for us to gain these powers, I suppose.

[But he's also got some information to share, so might as well put some of it here!]

Teru Mikami, Cumore, and I explored the castle; in the basement I found a good amount of skala and a blender. [can you see where he's going with this, because he looks so done now.] Among the skala there was a note in the Lady's handwriting. It said that making sustenance for Ulquiorra was a challenge, but they found something that would work, with skala as the main ingredient. "This should have all the spiritual qualities he requires."

[And in case you want to look at the note, he has it here to pass around! You know. If we can focus on this instead of whatever the fuck the masterminds are doing.]

[steampunkborgia]

[you all just never stop being rude huh]

[steampunkborgia]

I wonder...

[She puts a finger to her chin, before finally shrugging]

Mako and Elliot, I'd say.

[bawcock]

[ Blame Rembrandt!! ]

[reanbeans]

The lamppost is probably connected to the electrical grid.

[ That's his guess, anyway. ]

We know that Zangetsu and Shiro had taken the hint, so maybe that could be why.

[pr159]

[ Hm. Well, that's a little more intense than he expected, but honestly, it's just like a particularly messy divergence catalyst, so it's fine. ]

Well, you pull that off better than most would.

[raventhaw]

So did Seteth, and his name isn't on there.

[ suspicious!!! ]

[hors_devores]

It's hardly fitting to walk the human world like this, isn't it? Aesthetics are important to me.

[inordertobelieve]

Additionally, there was a gauge that measures something inherent to Skala labeled 'V'. I have brought it with me. Normally I would assume that V stands for Volt and electricity has certainly been a large part of what we've been dealing with.... but the part about spiritual energy throws me off.

I brought the gauge, should we require further testing.

[ He still looks white as a sheet and afraid of Rembrandt, but he's giving his best. ]

[hors_devores]

[ This is a mess, honestly. A fang smiled forms amid the rest of the mess. ]

Oh, it seems you've won over their hearts. They have good taste, naturally~.

[drydrown]

[Weeks ago Cumore wouldn't have even tried to handle this. It would have been too much for him, the fear would have been overwhelming, he would have made someone else deal with this.

But it's been a long six weeks.

Before he can really think about it too long he's got Variable Edge in his hands, snapping it down into bow form and loading it and drawing, he's only got makeshift ranged weaponry but it's coated in poison and that's just going to have to be good enough for now.

He isn't firing it just yet - taking a shot at Lucrezia seems unwise when they don't know how to operate whatever machinery she's got or what it's capable of, taking a shot at Rembrandt seems like it will be hilariously pointless but god, that doesn't mean he isn't staring at him in particular like he's tempted, and he's keeping his aim focused there. He's severely wigged out, but strangely he isn't feeling afraid - perhaps his threshold for that was surpassed a long time ago.

Either way, he is completely out of fucks to give.]

I would quite prefer that you not move, demon. I have little argument with you, but I'm not precisely interested in dealing with external threats while we play your Lady's insipid little game.

[reanbeans]

[ Rean did his best, absolutely.

He'll nod at that. But, it made sense...though it wasn't a good thing, considering. ]

That sounds like it could be true, given the amount of energy that suddenly flowed through the wires at the time it was used.

[ He's listening closely to what the other was saying, and... hm. ]

...Spiritual qualities? As in...a spirit or soul?

[ He...would hope not, but... ]

[steampunkborgia]

No, seriously, why did you bring cats.

[Do you know how hard it is to make a villain final boss atmosphere when there are furballs walking around, pal]

[hors_devores]

[ What indeed. ]

Aww, would you prefer I looked like something else?