Chapter 19: The Girl In Red

Narrator's Pov.

"This is Rivet Town?"

"Uh...it's where I came when I met you, Seele"

Ryan looked around the city, remembering how he had went there to kill Fragmentum monsters to calm himself from Herta's messages.

"You came here too? What's with me and Dan Heng being the ones who're left behind?" March pouted crossing her arms above her chest.

"We have to look for Clara" Seele spoke but Stelle rubbed her chin a bit doubtful.

"The city is big...how are we gonna find her?"

"She said she came to find some components didn't her?" Dan Heng spoke and Seele looked at him. "Is there a place where she could get stuff like that easily?"

"Nat's Storage room...good thinking Dan Heng, let's go, I'll lead the way!" Seele spoke before starting to run.

"Seele and I killed a few monsters...there shouldn't be too many, but Clara came here all alone...if we help her, we could probably gain Svarog's favor." Ryan thought as he followed Seele alongside the others.

As they ran towards Natasha's Storage room, they stopped and hid behind a few crates, Seele poke her head out, seeing 2 Flamespawns and 2 Incineration Shadewalkers apparently patrolling.

"Only 4? I expected more, this'll be a piece of cake." Seele smiled a bit.

"What's the plan?" Bronya asked and Stelle immediately replied.

"We go Ape Shit!" The racoon girl screamed and ran towards the Fragmentum monsters.

"Go...Ape shit?" Bronya blinked a bit trying to process the girl's words.

"What the hell does that mean?..." Ryan looked towards his unwanted sister.

"Let's just go before she kills herself." Dan Heng sighed

Stelle slid across the floor dodging the tackle of a flamespawn, the other one tried to tackle her too, but March quickly shoot an arrow at it freezing it completely only to be completely destroyed by a shoot from Bronya's weapon, one of the Incineration Shadewalkers threw an attack with its glaive towards the Racoon girl but Dan Heng stopped the attack using his spear.

"You should be more careful, Stelle" he warned the girl who simply grinned.

"I knew you were going to save me Dan Heng"

"Really?" He asked pushing the glaive back and then grabbing his spear.

"No" she replied quickly and the boy simply groaned.

The flamespawn quickly tried to tackle Bronya but Seele in a quick movement cut it in half before launching herself against the free Incineration Shadewalker throwing a swipe with her scythe, she cut off one of its arm, letting Ryan approach and finish it off by decapitating it with one of his ethereal swords.

Dan Heng dodged to the side a strike from the remaining monster's glaive, Stelle ran towards it giving it a hard bonk with her back forcing it to kneel, and Dan Heng took the chance to stab its head from behind.

The four monsters from the Fragmentum disappeared letting the group continue their walk towards their destiny.

"I feel like there should be more monsters here...the Fragmentum here is very serious" March spoke looking around.

"Ryan and I were here before, I also came with Stelle and Bronya, there should be only a few monsters wandering" Seele explained and eventually they reached Nat's workshop.

"Hey! Isn't that the robot that followed Clara around?" Stelle asked seeing a stoplight robot on the ground.

"All of those looks the same, how do you difference it?" Seele asked a bit nervous.

"Racoon instinct."

"What does that even mean?"

"Shhh! It's about to say something" March quickly cut the girls off.

"Initializing self-repair module... Initialization failure...Clara...in danger, Must... protect..." The robot barely was able to properly speak.

"In danger? Where?" Seele asked with worry on her voice.

"Workshop...Target...must be eliminated."

"The workshop? We need to go!" Bronya spoke and Seele nodded her head.

"I know the way, Follow me!" Seele spoke before running away.

The group ran behind Seele who lead the group to a slightly open area, where a Blaze out of Space was floating in front of a slightly bruised Clara.

"There she is!" Seele screamed running towards the monster with her scythe.

The Blaze out of Space turned around seeing the group approach and immediately threw a fireball towards Seele who quickly moved away before disappearing with a purple flash, Stelle and Dan Heng ran towards the monster while Bronya and March stayed behind to aid them from the distance.

Ryan quickly dashed towards Clara, grabbing her and then dashing away, putting her down away from the monster.

"Are you okay, Clara?"

"Y-yes Mr.Ryan...just a few bruises" she nodded with her head.

"Good, stay here, we'll take care of that thing." He spoke to the girl before backing away and going towards the Fragmentum monster.

Dan Heng rolled to the side dodging a Fireball and threw his spear at the monster that quickly slapped it away, Seele appeared in the middle of the air, catching the spear and throwing it back at Dan Heng followed by her throwing a swipe at the Blaze out of Space hitting its arm almost cutting it off.

The Blaze out of Space tried to grab Seele but a wind bullet hit it onto he gave making it recoil a bit, March took the chance and shoot at the monster's arm freezing most of it, Stelle quickly jumped towards the monster and hit the frozen arm with her bat, breaking it into pieces leaving the monster with one arm less.

Dan Heng stabbed the remaining arm of the monster, hitting precisely where Seele had cut it this time cutting the arm completely off, the monster growled but before he could do something, various flying swords stabbed him in the back from side to side, it turned around quickly but Ryan swiftly stabbed its head, killing it and making it disappear.

"There, it's dead" Ryan announced and made the various ethereal swords also disappear. "Clara! You can come back."

"Y-yes!" She spoke and approached the group looking at all of them. "Thank you all for helping me..."

"It's nothing, you shouldn't be around here all on your own, you know?" Seele crossed her arms above her chest. "Did you get all the components you wanted?"

"Uhm, yes, but how did you know I came here for components?" She asked a bit curious.

"We were actually looking for you, we need your permission to see Svarog" Dan Heng explained but Clara simply looked at them a bit worried.

"Why do you want to see Mr.Svarog? I can pass a message" she spoke softly

Seele shook her head. "No, this time it has to be face to face, can you take us to him?"

"Mr.Svarog doesn't like talking to others...specially Wildfire."

"I know, but he has avoided communication for too long, this time we have to see him." Seele's voice turned a bit rougher.

"I know you're working hard for the Underworld, but if you and Mr.Svarog had a fight innocent people could get hurt" Clara looked at the ground.

"Listen Clara, we want to protect the underworld, Svarog's duty is also to protect it, why can't we work together?" Bronya pointed out.

"Mr.Svarog isn't affected by other people's wishes...he only follows rational judgement" the little girl spoke looking at the group. "He thinks that the Overworld will end soon...the strength of the underworld won't be enough to fight back the Fragmentum, he plans to keep everyone down here so they can survive longer..."

"But we'd be living inside a cage" Seele growled lightly. "What good is staying down here if it only postponed our deaths a few days? How is that better than putting up a fight?!"

"That's enough, Seele" Ryan looked towards the girl but then pointed his glance towards Clara. "Clara...can we talk? In private"

"In private?" She asked a bit curious.

"Ryan, what are you-" Stelle was about to say something but Ryan quickly cut her off

"Leave us" he spoke this time a bit more serious.

"...let's go" Dan Heng spoke turning around. "Take your time, Ryan"

The boy slowly walked away, slowly he was followed by the other 4 girls, eventually leaving Clara and Ryan alone, he sighed a bit and started to walk, a bit confused, Clara decided to follow him, they reached a small table with a few chairs, Ryan sat on one of it, and signaled Clara to sit on another chair, the little girl simply sat on the chair and looked at Ryan.

The boy let out a small sigh before speaking. "I want to make a deal, Clara..."

"...uh?"

"...you let us into Svarog's lair and you help us persuade him, in exchange...I promise you that whatever happens, Svarog will survive" He rested his hands on the table looking slightly down at the girl. "If things go how I think they will...a fight will be almost inevitable"

"Mr.Svarog is strong..."

"What if he's not strong enough? He'd be defeated, and then his memory bank would be taken to be inspected... he'd probably be destroyed" he spoke making Clara flinch a bit. "I know you care...I really know, I was also risen by someone who took me in...I would do anything for him"

"I wish I could help but he doesn't understand human emotions and doesn't see them as rational thought...so he doesn't take them into account for his calculations."

"Then make him understand...the man that took me in, trained me to be a tool, he trained me to help him in his mission...and so I did, when his mission finished, he was hollow...he thought that he didn't have anything else to live for..." With a little pause he smiled lightly. "I changed that...I helped him keep living, I changed that man and I think you can change Svarog."

"Do you...really think so, Mr.Ryan?" She asked with some hope. "Do you think I could help him change his calculations?"

"I said It at the great mine didn't I? Everyone has their own behavior, but said behavior is not set in stone...it can be changed by situations, by choices...by people we care about" he slowly stood up from the chair looking at Clara. "Svarog cares about you Clara, and you care about him, just as he influenced in you, you can influence in him"

"But how? I tried to many times..."

"Svarog's calculations...were probably made a long time ago, things that hadn't happened at the moment are happening now, my companions are here, I'm here and most important...you're here, Clara" with a little smile he softly patted Clara's head.

"U-um..." She slowly stood up from the chair. "Fine...I'll take you to see Mr.Svarog...and we'll try to convince Mr.Svarog" she nodded with her head.

"Thanks Clara, let's go, the others are waiting." Smiling he started to walk.

"Mr.Ryan...why did you want us to talk in private?" She asked and Ryan stopped.

"Because there's something I wanted to ask you...as part of our deal, it's something that might be decisive on if you'll be able to convince Svarog or not..." He looked down at Clara With a serious expression. "It's something that the others...might not like"

"Uh? What is it?"

...

"They've been speaking for a while now..." Seele sighed a bit. "Do you think he'll be able to convince her?"

"I have zero faith." Stelle spoke.

"That hurts, Sister"

The group looked at the side seeing Ryan and Clara approaching, the boy crossed his arms above his chest and Stelle laughed a bit nervous.

"Clara will take us to see Svarog" he announced and the others simply sighed.

"Good...what did the two of you talk about?" Bronya asked making Ryan shake his head a bit.

"Nothing important, just gave a few ideas, used that 10 Charisma stat and Clara said yes" he smiled but Stelle chuckled.

"You have -69 Charisma Ryan, what did you bribe her with, Chocolate?" The racoon girl grinned a bit.

"No matter, the point is that we have Clara on our side now." Dan Heng said and the small girl spoke.

"I'll take all of you to see Mr.Svarog...but first I have to fix the Energy Core of the settlement...but it shouldn't take long" she spoke with a little smile.

"At least we'll be able to talk to him." March let out a small sigh of relief. "For a moment I thought we'd need to sneak inside and hope he listened to us."

"He would've immediately attacked you..." Clara warned making March flinch a bit.

"Let's go...we can't let Svarog waiting." Ryan said before starting to walk.

"Mr.Ryan...thats the wrong way..." Clara looked nervously at the white haired boy.

"Yeah...maybe you lead the way, Clara" he quickly returned looking down at her.

...

Clara stopped in front of the gate that lead to Svarog, the now repaired Perkins stood besides Timmy, the small girl let out a small sigh before looking down at both robots.

"Timmy...please open the gates, I've brought guests who want to se Mr.Svarog."

"Processing...welcome, Clara's guests" the robot spoke before moving aside, letting the gage open.

Feeling some anxiety, Clara walked through the now open gate, behind her, the Trailblazers, Ryan, and Bronya walked, Seele had decided to stay outside to not cause a ruckus for being part of Wildfire.

"Clara, you've repaired the Energy Core" the deep voice of Svarog made the little girl smile lightly.

"Yes...Mr.Svarog." she spoke while looking towards the robot.

Svarog simply kept himself silent after hearing Clara, his gaze turned towards the group of 5 behind the small girl in red, apparently investigating them, but yet, not finding anything about them, aside from Bronya, whose only information was regarding her rank as a Silvermane Guard.

"But why have you brought them?" Svarog spoke referring to the group.

"They want to talk to you, Mr.Svarog..." she looked towsrds the robot and Ryan steooed forward.

"Hello again, Mr.Svarog"

★ ★ ★

A/N: That's today's chapter!

I'm not really writing as often because I'm playing too many games...but the good thing about that is that now I want to make a Gamer story, but more on that later

Hope you enjoyed!