The Day it All Fell

Fire. That was all that I could see, nothing but the rising flames of Hell surrounding the four of us. I was on my knees, not from fear, but from the sheer level of pain I felt from the volume of the cacophony of explosions around me.

The sound felt like it was drilling into my brain, and no matter how hard any of us pressed our hands against our ears it easily bypassed it all.

Squinting from the pain, I quickly looked around to see if everyone was okay, and though they were a little far away I could tell my father's group was doing okay, but I can't say the same for the surroundings.

All around us were shards of metal, small puddles of raging fire, and charred ground; we were just far enough away from the trees to avoid them catching fire.

However, as the ringing in my ears began to ever-so-slightly fade, I could hear screams of pain coming from the direction of the other truck, and when I looked I could instantly tell it was because none of them had enough aura to properly protect themselves.

From where I was I could see a few mangled corpses, spread around in bloody pieces, and one or two that were still alive but in agonizing pain. Though a few of the guards successfully protected themselves, it seemed to take the same toll on their bodies as it did on all of us, minus my parents and Cromwell, whose body was strong enough to somewhat withstand the piercing noise of the explosions.

"…to…gent…Argento!" Snapping out of my daze, I noticed my mother yelling my name, though it sounded more dull than usual. Touching my ears, I felt the warm blood gently flowing out of them, enough to be worried but not enough to be dangerous.

Now looking into my mother's eyes, the relief that I responded was quickly washed over by a glint of foreboding, to which she spun on her heels and swung her blade.

*Pang*

I would have thought her to be loopy from the explosion, if the sound of a bullet hitting metal wasn't heard, along with the sound of a sniper going off a short distance away. 'Did she just deflect a bullet, with her sword?'

If I had been confused about what she did, I wouldn't be now, as she proceeded to do the same thing several more times, and though from different angles it would all come from one side of the road's treeline.

As she swung her swords faster than literal bullets, I noticed my father doing the same, and as the bullets began dying down a horde of people clad in black clothing. It was primarily black, but above each of their hearts was a design.

It was a red compass with a sideways eye in the middle. On the southern side, there was no circle, and instead, it had 5 drawings of evenly spaced, long crystals.

"That emblem…" Looking back at my mom, I could see recognition on her face, then the normally peaceful, beautiful look she held at all times suddenly morphed into the purest form of rage and hatred I have ever seen. "Salem!"

'Wait, Salem?' That wasn't a name I was expecting to be thrown around until much later, since Beacon hadn't even fallen yet, so how did my mother know of her?

I noticed though that we were now much closer to Maxwell's group than before, just a few meters apart since we had been slowly shuffling our way to them.

"Cromwell!" I could hear my father almost shouting, as if to catch the attention of all those in our group, including the guards who were grouping up behind my mother. "Take everyone but Argento and run into the forest, and head to Vale as fast as you possibly can!"

"What?! I know you two are strong, but from what I know of aura that explosion you protected us all from should have severely lessened your reserves! Do you mean to fight them all off and protect Argento at the same time?!"

Now that Cromwell said it, I noticed that for the first time in all my years of fighting against them, they were sweating. Just the sound had been so intense, so I could only imagine how much it actually affected them.

It seemed, though, that my father wouldn't have him hesitating in a time like this, as he spun around and grabbed the front of Cromwell's shirt. He pulled Cromwell toward him with little effort, and Maxwell's eyes began glowing gold.

"We don't have time for this! They're after our family, and that includes Argento, so they won't be too focused on you if you all run away now!" With concerned looks on the adults' faces, they eventually decided to put their faith in the two they called their friends.

Quickly walking backward, not leaving their back to the enemy, I could feel two people grab me from both sides, refusing to leave without me.

"What are you two doing? You have to go with them, get to safety!" I knew who it was without even looking, so I pulled my arms from their grasp and put my hands on their shoulders, staring into their eyes.

"But what about you? What if something happens to you? What if- oomph!" Ivy didn't get to finish her sentence, because before she could finish it I kissed her on the lips.

Before either of them could process it, I did the same to Trivia, and though they were flustered, they were too terrified to be distracted by it.

"I won't die, I promise. Now go!" Giving the two a light push towards the rest of the group, they slowly backpedaled until both of the Cassinovas grabbed them and began pulling them faster toward the forest.

"How bold of you, taking both of their first kisses in this situation. I didn't know I raised a son who was so shameless." Having seen the interaction from the corner of their eyes, my readiness to stay behind slightly surprised them, about as much as my actions to make them leave.

"I had to do something to make them easier to persuade. And besides, if I end up dying here, I would regret not kissing them both at least once."

"Now that's the most Chrono thing I've heard you say yet, Argento." After I smirked at my mother's comment, the group of Salem's forces was finally within rushing range, and the first to do so was Maxwell.

As he pushed his feet off the ground, he broke off chunks of pavement and before anyone could blink was in front of one of the frontrunners, and sent a whistling punch straight to his head.

With an audible crack, the no-doubt dead body bounced off the ground, being sent flying into two more of them, sending them tumbling to the floor.

Grabbing his katana's hilt, he got into a drawing stance as his sheathe began glowing a dim gold, before pulling it out so fast that the three men who surrounded him didn't notice as their heads slid off their bodies, gushing blood like a fountain.

From his right came a torrent of water, which he sidestepped and dashed toward the water's source, impaling an extra person on the way and ending with lifting both impaled bodies so hard they flung off his sword, landing in the middle of the group.

As Maxwell's massacre started, more and more of the people began surrounding him, eventually blocking him from my sight, but the explosions, lights, elements, and more from all of the Semblances being activated could be seen, felt, and heard even from where the others were running away.

'I knew my parents were strong, but for his strikes to go through the enemy's aura shield in a single strike is simply just monstrous.' Even now, as the body count steadily rose, more people trickled out of the forest, and now that Maxwell was far enough into the group, they began splitting their focus to Amelia and me.

Getting into a stance, pulling out my katana ready to fight, I see my mother's arm go in front of me, stopping me from doing anything.

"I know it'll be hard just standing there and not attacking, but please only move if it is to protect yourself. These people are too much for you." Hesitatingly nodding to her, I change my stance to a defensive one but keep myself ready to go on the attack at a moment's notice.

Charging forward, sword clad in fire, a woman jumped through the air and spun, adding momentum to her sword as it came swinging towards my mother.

From the other side at the same time came a man wielding sickles covered in an oozing purple, striking in an x in sync with the fire lady.

Pulling her Chokuto blades from behind her, she caught the force of the woman's body with one blade while sticking her other blade in the perfect place to stop the man's sickles.

With a smooth flick of the wrist, she knocked the fire woman's blade straight into the man's chest, which glowed a bright purple while knocking him back very fast.

Before the man could get too far, she flicked a throwing knife straight into his throat, making blood spurt everywhere as she pulled it back just as fast, sending it straight into the forehead of the fire woman, who was in the middle of falling to the ground when it struck.

Now, most people, no matter how veteran, would be at least a little put off by this sight, but I could only gape at my mother's fighting prowess.

I could feel the heat from the sword she stopped, and then the force of the blow that came my way I could actually feel, and it was at least a meter away from me when it stopped.

I couldn't stay distracted for too long though, because another man with lightning wrapped around his feet launched himself at me, pushing his lightning-wrapped gauntlet forward as the single blade on top extended, also coated in lightning.

Knowing the lightning would travel through my katana if I parried with it, I decided to let it get in just close enough to lift my leg as fast and hard as I could, kicking him right in the elbow.

However, before I could lift my leg, the bang of a gun went off and his arm was flung off course, immediately afterward a knife could be seen piercing through his heart and flying back to my mother.

This same pattern continued to occur, with every attack thrown my way being directed away by my mother before it could hit me, and them dropping dead in the next second. Until finally, a girl of smaller stature managed to sneak past her senses for just long enough to get to me with her needles.

She was too fast to completely block, as I hadn't seen her coming, so I struck her needle with my katana as hard as I could, directing it to graze a line straight up my bicep.

Before the pain could set in, I sent a kick straight to her pelvis, pushing her back just far enough for my mother to notice and finish her off.

Without the time to spare with words or stop the blood, I continued to block and parry any blows that my mother couldn't stop in time, occasionally getting wounds I couldn't stop to analyze the severity of.

Without an end in sight to the enemies, I truly could not tell if we would survive this battle.

<Trivia POV>

My heart is pounding, and my lungs are hurting, but we can't afford to slow down. Even now we can hear the explosions behind us from the Chronos, some times we can even feel the ground shake slightly.

It looked like they were right, they were the target, but where did that leave us? Tears were welling in my eyes, but I couldn't afford to let myself cry; not when Argento was back there fighting for his life, while I simply ran away.

"Come on, just a little longer and we can take a short breather before going farther - shit!" Pulling out his shield, Cromwell blocked a viscous, black arm, stopping us all in our tracks.

'No, this can't be happening! The longer we take here the longer they'll go without help.' I couldn't help but panic, because now visible in front of us was a small group of Grimm.

It was easy to tell that the only way out would be to kill them, but we have been running non-stop since we split up, and the only people with experience are either wounded, extremely tired, or Cromwell.

"Everyone, protect each other! Only come to my aid if I need it!" And with that he jumped into the fray, fighting several Grimm by himself with only a few coming our way.

I may be terrified, but I didn't spend all that time training to be useless, so I pulled my rapier out, and with Ivy by my side, we took on the weakest of the few.

The guards took on the remainder with Ivy's parents helping, and once we were done we went to help, but Cromwell jumped out from his group he had just finished off and made quick work of the injured Grimm.

Huffing and panting, Cromwell had some light injuries but nothing serious. "We must continue on. They are risking their lives, and the longer we dawdle the lower their chances of survival." Getting nods from all of us, we continued on our way, coming across one or two stray Grimm along the way, which we quickly dispatched. Then another problem occurred, several more Grimm jumped at us.

'Something is definitely not right. We aren't even very far from Vale, how could there be this many Grimm appearing by the main road?'

"Fuck, alright I don't want to do this but I'm left with no other choice. Laela, Deagan, take the kids and continue onward. We'll take care of these and catch up." At his words, the Cassinova pair grabbed Ivy and kept going, but soon stopped realizing that there were only the three of them.

This of course didn't go unnoticed by Cromwell, who felt a light punch hit him in an uninjured area.

"Trivia, what are you doing? Go with the Cassinovas!"

*Ding*

{No! I already left Argento behind, I am not leaving you behind as well!} The tears that threatened to fall before became stronger, a few falling but I held the majority back. {If we're just going to meet up with them further down then I will be staying!}

"But if your father-" I lightly punched him again to stop him. 'I can't believe this dumbass hasn't caught on to how I feel.'

{I don't give a damn about my father! He's done nothing but be a pain in the ass to me! You're the closest thing I have to a dad, and I am not leaving you behind!} The tears were almost fully running down my face now, and because of how I was standing the Cassinovas also saw the screen, making their hearts pang at the moment.

As for Cromwell, he had a star-stricken face for a second, then tears and a relenting smile the next as he shoved his sword through a Grimm.

"Okay, you can stay behind with us, but don't do anything reckless!" Now looking at Ivy, who had the same face we both did when we left Argento, I quickly pulled her into a tight hug.

At that moment, I realized what the mothers had meant during our conversation about Argento. This is what they were getting at. So when I pulled out of the hug, I held onto Ivy's shoulders and gave her a swift peck on her lips.

"I love you, so live!" It was the most I could muster my voice to do, but it seems the gesture got across when I saw that amazing smile of hers.

I can't believe it took me this long to figure out my feelings for her; they were just expertly hidden behind my feelings for Argento, but not anymore. As I let go she began running back to her parents, and they were off.

Now, as I look back at the group, a few more Grimm seemed to have appeared. As I pull out my rapier once more, a faint shimmer of pink surrounds me, and I reached toward my eyes.

The contacts that I habitually wore every day of my memory became dislodged, with me throwing them on the ground; I couldn't afford the obstruction of my sight, no matter how slight it might've been. Now raising my head, one of my eyes begins to glow pink, while the other glows brown as I feel my body become lighter.

'I guess it might be time for us to play.' I thought inwardly, reaching out to something deep within, and in response, it formed what I can only describe as a little me, with both mismatching hair and eyes. The little me 'looked' into my 'eyes', and smirked.

[Gladly]