**Tartarus**
Greed:
This was the plan all along. To come here. And yet. When we had finally arrived. Why the hell was I still not ready?
I hardly noticed my eyes shuddering and my fingers twitching at the sight of Wrath before me.
He stood on the main balcony of the Wolves Den. That large man—whom I believed was Gorran—stood near next to him. And Daz had completely vanished.
It took me a moment longer to notice that Code and Brand had disappeared as well…
The Den was crashed in a large opening of some enormous tower. On the outside was a raging snow storm, and inside was wreckage all around what appeared to be a factory-like city hidden away in the Arctics, adorned with limp bodies of W.M.A. and crimson pools.
Wrath was in all black leather. Black pants. Boots. He had a trench coat that he wore like a cape over his shoulders with black fur, and there was a half-plague mask on his face. The taller—Gorran had a similar one on his as well.
How the fuck did it come to this?
How the fuck did I let this happen?
"Are you not happy to see me, little brother?" Wrath interjected my paranoia.
I gasped and felt a lone sweat trail down the side of my face.
"It's been a while… Normally family members exchange greetings after some time… After all, you have been dead for a long time until fairly recently, am I correct?"
I couldn't even respond, let alone breathe properly around him. It was as if his presence carried a different weight around me. Like a king to a peasant. And I was the latter.
"That's okay. We have all the time in the world now that I have obtained both you—" I hung on to his words as if holding on to it would reject the very thing. Like a dream where you knew you could act, yet could not. "—and Envy."
As he said his name, I heard muffled rummaging from within the Den. The floor shook, then from the roof behind me, a figure burst through like he had waited all this time to stretch his limbs. He had a crazed look about him, carried by a wicked smile that was larger than his face had room for.
His long, gray hair flowed from the howling winds as he emerged, laughing like a deranged lunatic.
"Oh, yes!" he crooned, touching his face, his body. "Freedom!"
Wrath looked at him with an unreadable expression, never changing. But I could hardly believe my eyes as my goosebumps rippled like a raging sea upon my skin.
Move… My whispered thought. Move, goddamn it!
Quicker than I could comprehend, Envy was before me mid-swing. And that mad smile still plastered on his face.
He struck me in the gut, and I grunted. Eyes nearly turning white from the sheer unexpectedness of it.
I flew with the sound of a whistle as I crashed onto an iron, smokestack wall—pipes bursting, and metal crunching upon my arrival.
"Envy…" I heard Wrath say. "Why did you interrupt mine and Greed's conversation?"
I could barely see through the bursting smoke around me, but it seemed that even Envy shuddered when Wrath spoke to him.
"I couldn't help myself. I've been meaning to do that since I was back in the Valley."
"Must I remind you not to meddle in affairs that don't concern you?" Wrath replied. His words were stern and well placed.
"Concern me?" Envy whipped around to face him fully, daring to defy him. "Didn't you remove Daz from play to release me? How does this not 'concern me', brother!?"
"You fool." When Wrath spoke the words, even I felt the air thicken around us.
Envy staggered, looking to the ground for some reason like he should not have acted out.
And I heard his thoughts…
Why… am I looking at the floor?
How was I hearing that? Why? Like all those times before. The Tournament. Lance. Drakthor. Alice. Terek. Those W.M.A. back in LeHarla… What was the meaning?
Wrath darted his eyes to me like he knew, and then back to Envy.
"Conceal your thoughts, brother. Our younger is listening…"
Envy whipped his head back to me as if I had just insulted him.
"Eavesdropping piece of shit—"
"Envy," Wrath spoke like he stilled the wind. "Leave."
As if there were some unseen connection between us, I felt Envy's heart drop, and his eyes widen. He turned back around, and began walking toward Wrath and Gorran. As he passed by, Wrath seemed to take something from him, but I didn't see what…
He then continued on without a second thought as he leaped out the blasted opening behind them, and out into the roaring blizzard. Disappearing into the white like he no longer belonged.
I finally rose from the cratered metal I was sent to, looking back down to the embodiment of fear himself.
It had been a while since I heard the thoughts of others, For the last time was at the Valley Tournament, where Pride had arrived…
My eyes widened to a realization then… Back in that Tournament. In the fight with Terek. Back in LeHarla… Had it been because a Sin was nearby?
Was that the reason why in this moment, I…
"All this time… and your link finally awakens now…" Wrath said. "But I suppose it makes sense. There are more than one other Sin's present at this current time.
What did he mean by that? By 'link'?
"No matter. I only need one thing from you. Nothing else matters."
One thing?
I closed my eyes in bitterness, and leaped down onto the iron floors.
My hair fluttered as I raised my head ever slowly, and opened my eyes ever slower.
For all the fear I felt. For all the dread coming here. I no longer cared.
I thought of one thing and one thing only…
Belle's face appeared in my mind, like the light she was, casting out the darkness. And the necklace she gifted me fluttered just before my face.
"Wrath!" I yelled.
He only glared with unchanging eyes, his chin up as usual, looking down at me for the dirt I was.
"No more running…"
I remembered the note by my nightstand. The words that said, Whom shall I send?
Remembering a forgotten promise.
The thought of three men were blurred in my head.
Asura… Ares… —
And one other, whose name left along with my fear.
"Send me," I said as I burst the floor, and bolted toward him.
He remained as he was, extending a hand as I arrived.
And then Gorran whipped his head away from us like he sensed something else.
"Fuck!" he gasped.
Someone else…
The sound of fingers snapping entered our ears, and Gorran had been replaced by Code himself.
For a fraction of a second, Wrath's eyes darted to his side, seeing Code there.
But that was all the time I needed.
When he darted his eyes back to me, it was too late. My fist had already met his cheek, sending him tumbling across the Den balcony, and crashing through the double doors and roof Envy had earlier emerged from.
As I landed and rose, Code adjusted his round glasses with his middle finger.
"Thanks for the distraction," I said to him.
"That's what I'm here for… Unfortunately."
"Tag team?"
"Sadly, no…"
As he said this, Gorran teleported back from right behind us, massive swing from his large arm already mid-motion.
I turned to be Code's shield, but I sensed another presence there with us. And the moment I had, the floor grabbed me and shifted me yards away from them.
What?
Gorran's swing was still on course to Code, but he flicked his glasses away and snapped his fingers, replacing it with Gorran himself.
He grabbed his glasses from where Gorran once was, and tossed it back on.
Code then unsheathed one of his long swords, and Gorran whipped back, charging at him again.
But just as Code attempted to swing, we heard a voice utter, "Refuse."
And his blade stopped mid-swing…
"What the f—" he spoke just as Gorran's heavy punch slammed into him without any delay, sending him to the nearest wall.
"Code!" I shouted, but the floor was still eating away at my legs, keeping me bound. "Fuck this!"
I threw my fist down, and it shattered, releasing me at last.
But as I tried to dash, the shards began to collide onto me like I was some magnet.
I grunted, letting out a pissed off "What the fuck" from it all.
Metal and debris joined me, turning me into a heaping ball of metal and wood.
Wrath rose at last from my last strike, dusting himself off.
"Release me!" I shouted at him.
He merely raised a brow and said, "Oh? This was not my doing, brother."
I was confused.
Was this not Wrath's power commanding everything?
It was then that another figure appeared from the shadows behind him.
He was a tall man in an officers cap, dark blue and black trench coat, and that similar half-plague doctor's mask they all wore was found on his face as well.
"Master, do not waste even an ounce of effort on this filth," he said, sounding like some devout servant.
"Very well, Arthur. I will wait above. Make sure to bring me his corpse when you're finished. I still need something from him."
"As you will."
Wrath's boots then lifted from the ground, and he began floating upward.
"Show me how the years have honed you, brother," he said to me, ascending to a higher location of this tower.
I gritted my teeth at him, like he was some false god, and I, an impious unbeliever.
"Do not avert your eyes from the opponent before you!" the man, Arthur, yelled as he remained yards ahead of me. "And do not…" he clenched his leather-gloved hands so tightly, I nearly felt his rage from the gesture alone. "Look at the Master with such blasphemy."
I faced him with a glower, and the metal and wood around me groaned.
"Fine," I said as I flexed, and it burst outward. The debris flew in all directions, and also toward him, but stopped midair as if it was not allowed to go any further—nor collide into him.
"Then before I beat the shit out of my brother. I wonder who will win…"
His eyes blazed with animosity at my words as I went on,
"A wolf, or a fucking lapdog?"