Until All That's Left Is...

"Everyday... Everyday I just kinda repeat myself alot, don't I?" Rat mused to herself next to her bizarre doppelganger, who was staring at the barren desert below the winding white tower. She had been waiting patiently for everyone to finally show up for what she nicknamed "The ultimatum for the future of everything and making others fight me out of boredom extravaganza fight". 

"Do you still not have a plan then?" The black haired woman asked in a distant and flat tone, not even bothering to look back at the relaxed Rat. "Eh, I think it's becomin' less foggy. I know that stupid heart is a centre piece in it. Oh, and you're meant to be something related."

"Well... I'm sure you will figure it out." The woman said with a dismissive wave as Iyu handed Rat another drink with her usual smile. "Miss Rat, Panila and our friends have breached the tower. Would you like me to deal with them?" 

She seemed thoughtful for a moment before snickering. "I wanna have fun. Iyu, under no circumstance are ya to interfere in my plan... Whatever it is." She said with a point to the zipped up receptionist.

"Okay, Ma'am."

"Why do you insist on still calling me that?" Panila yelled as they ascended the junk filled halls of the spire. "Well, you did rip off my arm. I can call you whatever I want, Loopy Lucy." Avis said with smirk on her beak.

The halls of the once elegant spire were filled with everything Rat had collected over the years, from random old sacks of rice to otherworldy artefacts that didn't even look like it was from this world. Senshi couldn't help but note that some of the items looked more aged despite the fact they were only recently made in terms of history.

Vex looked over an artefact that looked rather familiar to her, motioning Zamtika's attention to what looked like six different variations of Heartbreaker, all still having a rose engraving on the handle, the signature feature on the weapon. 

"What? Why does Rat have six Heartbreakers?" Tika said with a confused look, quickly walking into a storeroom to find thousands of weapons with different weapons. Avis and Vinea quickly joined her, running around to find something to take. "Wait!" Tika tried to stop them, but Vex quickly rushed off with them.

The three began going over each weapon, but Avis's attention was taken by the sight of her speaker with a tag numbered 4041. "My speaker? Actually, is it my speaker?" She mumbled, carefully trying to pull it off the shelf. Vinea's attention was grabbed by golden vines wrapped up in a bow. "I... Think those are mine?" He said as he noticed a tag that read number 4040.

"It seems the Rat has kept a collection..." Panila mused, wandering down the room with them, before her seven eyes laid upon at least a hundred of the same chains, each ladled from 500 to 600. The thing that unsettled her was the fact that it was a recreation of her summoned chains, something she thought was impossible to recreate.

She followed the hall to the end where everyone gathered around a rapier with a Rat engraving kept in a glass case, lit up by light. Vex quickly grabbed one of the Heartbreaker copies and smashed the case open, quickly stealing the weapon for herself. Tika crossed her arms in disapproval, as Vex began waving it about.

"Haha! This thing is pretty light, what's the bets it's Rat's weapon?" She snickered, trying to do a trick only to stab Panila in the eye. She let out a horrid screech before yanking the blade and trying to break it over her knee again and again, but it was surprisingly more durable then they first thought. 

After the Warden had finished letting out her anger by breaking everything she saw, everyone continued their way up until they finally reaching two imposing twin doors decorated with random splatters of paint and stickers of rats along the edges.

"Not very subtle." Vex giggled as Zamtika and Nvr pushed the doors open to see Rat staring out in to the distant desert while a swirling rift hung above her ominously, Pandora concentrating on keeping it open as Rat was talking to herself.

"Rodent!" Panila yelled out as she wrapped her fists in chains, slowly walking towards her. "Oh, hey Panny." Rat said with a casual wave, putting her hands in her pure white jacket pockets as she stepped forward.

"So... This is the end. Not as dramatic as I thought it'd be." She said with a slight giggle as she pulled out Mollia's beating heart and raised it to the air. The portal began swirling faster, as if it was being sped up as it cracked open more.

"There we go. Now it'll only take like five minutes for this thing to finish." She snickered again, putting the heart in her pocket as Panila leapt for her like a wild animal. Tika groaned slightly as she leaned Ven's body against the door while motioning for everyone to attack.

"Come on... I wanted to monologue!" Rat said with a laugh as she summoned a sword made of pure light and parried Panila's strike.

"Above."

Rat quickly shoved Panila back as Avis launched her metal feathers towards her. She desummoned her sword and created a dome to protect herself, only to be launched upwards by Vinea's vines. 

"From behind."

She turned back to see Vex ready to slice her throat with her gun-blade, and in a moment of quick thinking, created spikes of light that shot out from her body, piercing Vex and knocking her back to the floor. Rat landed next the the jackelope, noticing her old rapier. "Oh, did you guys go digging through my stuff?" She asked with a smirk while grabbing her rapier and posing dramatically.

"YOU ARE DEAD!" Zamtika yelled in anger as she charged forward with her lance at the ready. Rat mocked her with a mimicking hand motion before raising her hand with a smirk. "Do you know how many times I've heard that one? It's so played out."

As Zamtika closed the distance, her lance ready to explode her skull in two, Rat fired off a beam of burning pure light. Everyone was blinded by the attack, covering their eyes as they backed away slightly. 

Nvr used Grey to pull Vex over to them as they heard a piercing squelch. As the light cleared, they saw Rat's body fall over with a large hole in her chest, while having a stunned yet still smug look on her face. Avis and Vinea let out a cheer as they rushed over to Zamtika, shaking her in celebration. 

"Holy... We already Just need to get Pandora and we're done!" Vinea cheered as Avis played a small celebratory tune from her speakers, but Panila let out a small sigh as she leant Vex's unconscious body against Ven.

Zamtika let out a small laugh as she stared out into the desert, not turning back as Avis and Vinea continued shaking her broad shoulders in celebration. "Hey... Tell Vex I'm sorry." She said with a smirk as she turned back, half her face burned up from the blast.

"Uhm... Hey, that's f-fixable." Avis said with an awkward chirp. 

"That... Isn't the part... I was worried about..." She laughed, turning around to show the most of her chest had been burnt off to the point her ribs were visible. She was only living through her sheer force of will alone now. 

The two looked stunned, not knowing what to do as she slowly made her way to Ven, with Nvr helping her over. She fell next to him, letting out another slight laugh as she stared at her rabbit eared family. 

"Yeah... I'm not gonna even... Try to say I'll live... Give Artemis my regards... And tell him he can have his heart back."

Everyone watched as Zamtika plunged her hand into her own chest and ripped her own heart out before shoving it in Ven. Senshi quickly scuttled over to Ven and began attaching the heart to him with some wires still inside his body. 

Panila didn't seem to overall care about the dying oni, instead going off to try and pry Pandora from the portal and leave the others to do there own thing.

Avis and Vinea helped Nvr sit Zamtika against the door as the oni began drifting off. "I reckon... I'll come back as an undead." She chuckled, with Avis and Vinea laughing lightly with her. She gave held her lance tightly and gave a final laugh before finally dying.

"Oh come on. That's a bit dramatic, don't ya think?" A familiar feminine British voice called out with a light bit of laughter. 

Everyone, even Panila froze up, as they turned to see Rat, only to see she looked more beast like. Her skin was now a scruffy brown, matching her skin tone. Her usual twin braided white hair had become matted and overgrown. She resembled looked more like an actual Rat then a person.  "Didya miss me already?" She called out with a laugh before summoning pillars of light, crawling on all fours as she began circling Panila.

"Ya wanna know something, Lucy? I finally remembered what I wanted. You locked me up in the ultimate prison. My own bloody mind. Hells, you even used the whole Underbelly as a prison, didn't ya? Just to keep me at bay."

"You killed my Mother. You almost killed my aunties. You were going to kill me. For what? Some petty revenge over something that wasn't even their faults?" Panila sounded surprisingly composed,  desummoning her chains as she stepped towards Rat.

"You are nothing but a Rodent. A rodent who can't accept the fact that they lost! You know nothing of the suffering she caused, know nothing of the lives I saved, you know nothing about anything. You are just a shell. A hollow thing. Not even worthy of the Chordarum name!"

Rat stopped crawling around as she looked like she remembered something, bursting into laughter. "The Chordarum name? What the hell are ya on about, Lucy?" 

Everyone else was a bit confused too, though they only saw it for what it was, a distraction. As the rest of them were trying to get Ven back, Panila continued. "Didn't you ever wonder why I kept you around. It was because you. You were the daughter of Mollia. Pandæmonium figured it out when she first laid her eyes on you."

She didn't know how to respond, scratching at her ears as she stood up, now close to 16ft in height. Rat looked behind her before facing Panila again. "I... Don't think that's right? That's not how the story goes..."

She seemed to be genuinely struggling to remember the story, but as she did, a purple portal opened up behind her before she was swiftly kicked towards Panila, who launched chains at the Wererat, holding her in place.

"Killin' people? Stories about heroes? Saving the world? None of that really matters. What does matter is the fact that I am going to kick your Ass." 

Ven emerged from the portal, holding Chainbreaker as he readied himself for a final battle. 

But Rat, pulling herself from the floor, realised something. She had finally remembered her plan. She knew what to do. She was ready. She began changing back into her usual self, brushing her hair back as she gave a playful smirk. 

"Yeah... Nah. I know who I am, Lucy. I am just rodent. I'm the woman she wanted to be. As you said, a shell. But I'm the Shell of What was. I'm no hero. I'm no villain. I'm just the version of a love struck fool who wanted to see her Mouse again.

I am Rat, The First Domain Leader and Personal Servant Of Lucy Vincula... And the Broken Shell of ###### #########!"

Rat grabbed her rapier up to her throat as she held up Mollia's heart. Ven and Panila quickly rushed to stop her but where too late as they heard her laughter as she pulled the thin blade across her own throat, slicing it cleanly. 

As the blood began to dribble down her neck, the two watched with bated breath, knowing there was something more to this. 

"I suppose I should have stepped in?" Iyu sighed, still with a smile on her face as she stood at the doors with everyone else. Nvr gave her friend a hug as Grey tried to bite at her from Nvr's neck. "Wait, so Rat killed herself because...?" Avis asked with a chirp, looking over the scene with a nervous look. 

"Because she completed her part of the plan. We are done here. Come, I will escort you out if you wish." Iyu smiled, slowly beginning to unzip herself in preparation. Everyone looked between each other before shaking their heads. "I'm gonna stay..." Nvr seemingly smiled, patting Iyu on the head. 

The zipped up receptionist gave a nod and gave a bow before sitting next to them. 

"Then let us watch the finale."