TCS-Lucky and the Trial of Jade

[PopcornPie]

This is a Chronology Series side story taking place right between the end of Blood Gulch Blues, and the beginning of Hunter of the Throne. We focus on Lucky, an ex-Solo team member who has moved in with fellow Solo teammate, Lealan. By all means, his story should have ended happily. But he will not be satisfied until he can no longer feel the joy that comes with a happily ever after...
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"Get the fuck back here, Laddie!" A red rabbit called desperately after the raptor he chased, knowing he couldn't afford to lose him. This was not because the lizard was a friend. He was a nemesis, with whom Lucky never had the chance to settle the score. His name was Toffee, and he tried to make Lucky into an obedient, greedy Solo team member. Ultimately, Lucky defied him and his wishes, but the guilt he felt carried on. Throughout the adventure in Blood Gulch, he fretted that Toffee would have each and every one of his friends killed for knowing too much. Even after they'd been freed, even after Lucky had never seen Toffee again, the raptor continued to torture him with the threat.

With a steady chuckle in his throat, Toffee outran his pursuer, and ducked around a corner to listen to him shout. "Goddamn you, Toffee!" Lucky cried, to his pure amusement. As he prepared to run ahead, however, he would notice a concrete wall, too smooth to climb, and sitting on ground too hard to dig under. Why, the raptor was trapped! And Lucky knew it, hopping before him with a triumphant grin. It looked like the end for Toffee, but why would he be afraid? Lucky no longer had any power over his own mind. Any second now, his greatest weakness would call, throwing him off his aim. Three...Two...

"Lucky!"

...One.

On cue, Lucky whipped his head around. "Lana?!" The Braixen's voice was unmistakable. As was her shadow. He could see it up against another wall, highlighted by some hellish red light. She flailed her head around, her ears down, searching for her knight. Only Lucky could see the shadow claws creeping up behind her. "Lana! Look out, Lass!" His shout was fruitless; The beast still grabbed her. "Luckyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!" She screamed like a frightened child, and it made his ears hurt. His head thrashed back and forth between the smug raptor, and the terrified fox.

"Go on, knight." Toffee hissed smoothly. "Go ahead, ride into battle on your pony. You might actually save her!" His smile made Lucky want to pluck his eyeballs out. The lizard was still right; He could have the satisfaction of saving her here. But the satisfaction of Toffee's destruction was something he looked forward to for even longer.

Lana's safety.

Toffee's death.

Lana's safety.

Toffee's death.

While Lucky was frozen in place, struggling to decide, the shadow beast lifted its tail, and slammed it to the ground, making the labyrinth crumble to bits all around them. As the walls fell, he saw that it wasn't just Lana whom the creature possessed in its oily arms. Rex, Sora, Lealan, Umbra, Megumin, and Luffy, and even Pearl and that lass with the red and brown hood, found themselves ensnared. It was just Lana who could still scream.

"Well, Lucky?" Toffee was speaking as though the floor hadn't collapsed all around them. "Do you want to save me for another time, and save them? Or do you like to reenact reality in your dreams?"

Lucky snarled, but gazed at his friends miserably. He had so many chances to protect them, to make sure they weren't harmed further. He failed every single test. They should want nothing to do with them after he let them down so low. Why did they continue to haunt his dreams? Why couldn't his dreams be lonely again? Maybe, if he saved them this one time, they would go back to their own minds, and leave him be. But how did he know that it wasn't Toffee pulling tricks? What if Lucky shot him, and he would stop recreating his friends forever?

"Friends are temporary, Lucky. Enemies are forever." Toffee smirked. "Whatever happened to that? Are you just going to put some people who have forgotten about you by now over the one who put you through all this torment?"

Lucky's shoulders bristled. If he saved them, they would just move on from him regardless. But they would still get to move on with their lives. In one place, Lucky would finally fix his mistakes. In that same place, Lucky could finish the one who helped trap them in this Hell, and got away with it. Wouldn't that still be doing something noble for them, wouldn't it be avenging them?

Friends' safety.

Toffee's death.

Friends' safety.

Toffee's death.

Friends' safety.

Toff-

CRACKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKA.

The ground was falling apart beneath Lucky! He was going to fall any second, but there was a bridge of rocks leading to the shadowy monster. Or, if he wanted, he could hop to the platform Toffee stood on, and finish him. This was a fact of which the raptor was fully aware. "Choices, choices.~"

"Lucky, come back to me!" Lana begged from afar, making Lucky's ears fold. Why couldn't he just pull them off, make himself deaf? Why couldn't he just pretend he didn't know a thing about Lana? Why couldn't he just choose?

Why couldn't he stand up straight!?

"Looks like you took too long, Lucky..." Toffee beamed at the plummeting rabbit. In his desperation, he'd failed to notice the last of the platform falling to pieces beneath him. As Lucky fell into the void, he could hear his friends' cries, and Toffee's laughter. Both voices became stretched out, and echoing.

"Seeeeeeeee yoooooooouuu..."

Now Lucky saw nothing. He heard nothing. He could say nothing. There wasn't even a breeze beneath him as he fell. What would he do now...?

"...My little FRIEND!" The shadow beast appeared one more time, with Lucky having fallen into its lair. With all the speed of a barracuda, with the teeth to match, it swam towards Lucky, enclosing him with a heavy SNAP.

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"Guh!" Lucky rolled forward, and had a look around. Okay, okay. He was still with Lealan. He was alive.

He'd just lost another chance to take out Toffee, because he couldn't stop thinking about his stupid friends!

"You okay, Lucky?" His imaginary friend, Lupe, spoke urgently. "I woke up just in time to see you having a nightmare!...Same one?"

"Same one." Lucky replied wearily, climbing out of his bed. Perhaps a walk in the moonlight would help him.

 

[PopcornPie]

With his Paw o' Death attached to his nub, Lucky padded outside with his head low. For what it was worth, this planet Lealan had taken him to was very lovely. Perfect for a rabbit, in fact. Nice and rural.

But he couldn't enjoy it. Not while the experiences he carried in Blood Gulch lingered. That was probably his one chance to actually be in a real army, and he was a complete, utter pussy. He wasted all his time caring for people he wouldn't even see after they beat the final boss. It could have been in and out, if he didn't give a shit. But no...He was a fucking joke the whole time, turned hysterical and worried about others.

Well, Blood Gulch was behind him. He couldn't change what he had done. He could only prevent it from happening again. But how? By saying they would close off his heart, and then saying they wouldn't when it was time to pay up, Project Freelancer effectively scammed him. Lealan's solution, while it did work, was just temporary. She never said anything about a permanent solution. As far as he knew, she didn't know one.

Suddenly, mid-step, Lucky was pulled backwards a little, and couldn't move. When he turned around, he noticed his dress snagged on a stone. Well, actually, it wasn't his. It belonged to Lana. Or, to be more specific, her Project Freelance-created clone. Either way, its owner was gone. During the final battle against Meta, she was dragged away by that shadowy thing, never to be seen again. He carried the dress in memory of her, and hoped to reunite it with her someday.

"Wooooooooooooa!"

Thud.

This must have been one of the holes Lealan was warning him about. Lucky scraped dirt off his nose, then had a look around. All that was of interest down here was the staircase he'd tumbled down, and a strange door. It had a bizarre writing on it, and it looked very old overall.

"Would Lealan want me to go in there?"

"I doubt it." Lupé interjected. "I mean, she probably doesn't even want you going out for walks."

"Well...She's probably sound asleep right now." Lucky reasoned. "And this is probably just a maze or something. I could just peek..." But first, he pressed his ear to the door. He heard nothing. "Maybe that's just what this door leads to. Nothing."

So he turned on his heel, and prepared to hop back to Lealan's abode, only to hesitate. Well...He couldn't confirm that the door led to nothing, right? If he didn't check it out. Maybe there were some riches back there, Lealan would appreciate it if he brought back riches.

"You know somebody will just stop you, Lucky." Lupé pointed out. "That door could be someone's bedroom."

"If it was, then I could probably hear snorin' or somethin'." Lucky was now overcome with curiosity, fiddling with the doorknob.

"Maybe they don't snore! Lucky, don't..."

The rabbit kept working.

"Don't..."

One more twist...

"DON'T!"

The rat's words fell on stupid ears.

As soon as the door opened, Lucky felt himself being pulled in; Not enough to yank him in, but enough to signal that he should come in. "If they wanted me to stay out, they wouldn't have the vacuum in there..." Lucky muttered to himself, as he gingerly stepped inside.

The door shut behind him as soon as he was all the way in! "Oh, shit!" Lucky banged in the air where the doorway once stood, to no avail. He was surrounded by stars, and stars alone.

"Great going, genius." Lupé grumped.

"Did we just...find a portal?" Lucky asked himself, as he swam in space. All doors lead to somewhere, so...was this the somewhere? He still felt himself being pulled along. Eventually, he would come to what he presumed was the real somewhere; a glowing, multicolored portal. Time would only tell what laid on the other side. Who knows? Maybe he'd end up where one of his friends lived!

All Lucky could do was hold his eyes on the coming exit, unblinking. So, when colors began to flash in front of his eyes, he thought it was just a function of staring too long. But then the flashing persisted, and became more and more frequent, accompanied by shrill computer sounds where soothing, otherworldly tones had been.

"What the fuck?!" As the space glitched around him, Lucky flailed, trying to launch himself back the way he came. It failed miserably. He was just one tiny red rabbit floating in a vast expanse of glitches. Lealan would know what to do, right!?

Then the stars beneath him tore themselves away, revealing another wormhole. This one had much stronger drag, which pulled him straight down.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

When the rabbit came to, he was laying face-first in a pigsty. In broad daylight. "Hey-lo there, little feller!" A farmer poked him out with his pitchfork. "Sorry, lil' feller, this spot's for pigs only! Shoo, shoo!"

The only conclusion Lucky could come to was that the door's teleportation thingy had glitched out, pulling him into an entirely different area than it had intended. In other words, curiosity killed the cat, and stranded the rabbit. "Lealan is gonna kill me..."

 

[PopcornPie]

Lucky dragged his nubs across the muddy town he'd found himself in, trying to see anything he could potentially recognize. Lealan's ship was nowhere to be seen, and this felt waaaaay too Earth-like to be her planet. Those were clearly Earth pigs he'd fallen into. And, instead of warm and arid, the world around him was actually quite marshy, and musty.

"Fuck, the dress..." Lucky had to keep pausing to flip the dress onto his back. It was soaking up the mud and morning dew like nobody's business.

"Seriously?!" Lupe snapped. "You've just gotten yourself stuck in another dimension, Lealan is probably gonna think that you abandoned her, and all you care about is the dress of a dead girl?!...By the way, did you ever stop to think about how creepy that is?"

"I just want to return it to her. It's not creepy."

"But she's DEAD! What're you gonna do, dig up her corpse and slide it on?"

"Hell no, ew! I'd just-" And, suddenly, he found himself being scooped up by a little girl. "Hey! Leggo!"

"Bunny! A talking bunny!" Her little blonde curls bounced as she nuzzled Lucky. "Mom, look, a talking bunny!"

Lucky placed his teeth over the young'un's arm, growling quietly. Nope, nope, nope. He had been picked up and snuggled enough times. And this time, he had very important business. He would give the girl three seconds. "3...2..."

"Mama, look! I found a talking bunny!" The toddler had already brought him all the way to her worried parents, who scolded her for running off while they weren't looking. The child was just so happy to have a new pet that she didn't mind being yelled at!

"...Ah, to hell with it." Lucky fell limp in her arms. "She's just a kid." He hated it, but he would have to take the pacifist route. "Hey. Lass. You're gonna have to find somebody else to be your pet. I'm on official talking bunny business. Oh, and don't call me 'bunny'."

Understandably, this freaked out the mother. "Egads! He really can talk! And why is one of his paws...metal?" She reached down to examine Lucky's Paw o' Death, which only earned her a smack on the wrist. "I don't care if you're the mother of Shirley Temple!" Lucky snarled. "I went through a lot of shit to get me paw back, and damn if I'm gonna let its security be threatened ag-" In turn, the rabbit was slapped across the cheeks. "Hey! Watch your mouth around my daughter!" The mother cautioned.

"Fine." Boy, if Lucky didn't need enough reminders of Rex's existence. He didn't like Lucky's cursing, either. "What are we even lookin' at...Ah?" The family was staring at a lovely statue of a kirin, composed of smooth marble. Even with the overcast, its jade horn brilliantly reflected light. Beneath the statue was a plaque, reading the following:

"Mismakora. Last seen about sixty years ago, estimated to be about six hundred years old. Kirin hailing from the Forbidden Havens, responsible for the armies against the demon Lapatido."

"Huh. Interesting." Even Lucky could admit it. But what good was this information to him? The answer laid at the bottom of the plaque:

"Infamous for her unique spell, the Barrijade. She could seal off the hearts of her soldiers, so they would not have their instincts swayed by emotion during battle."

Immediately, Lucky's world brightened, and a gigantic smile spread across his face. "She could close off hearts?! Holy sh-" The girl's mom hit her slapping hand against her palm. "In any event, I gotta find her! Forbidden Havens, I gotta remember that!" He gently kicked out of the girl's arms, then pounced on the father, taking his Atlas and running with it...Only to return it when the Forbidden Havens were not in it.

The only place he could go was to the town hobos.

 

[PopcornPie]

Here's something no one in Blood Gulch learned about Lucky: Thanks to all his time spent in bars and shady parts of town, he spoke fluid drunkard. And he knew where to look in order to find some tipsy loons, usually between food markets if not between bars or fight clubs.

"Forbidden Havens!" The man with the tall, beaten hat guffawed. "Don't you know you follow the moon to reach those?" He inspired heckling and wheezy laughter from all his fellow homeless folk.

"No, I don't." Lucky was unamused. "I just tumbled into this overglorified mud pit. I don't even know if noodle horse is real." He could only hope that he was speaking in the right dialect, or that he wasn't overestimating his abilities. Not helping was how old this particular batch of hobos looked: If they knew the truth, then whatever Lucky could get was invaluable. If they were simply giving lipservice to their hallucinations, then following their words could be the last mistake Lucky was ever seen making.

"Noodle horse!" Wheezed another lowlife behind him. "I've seen a noodle horse lately...In a colorin' book..."

Lucky turned to face her. "What did the coloring book look like?"

"To be honest? Shitty." Replied the shambling woman. "It barely had any pages, it was, like, one big page they folded into four. Or eight. Some even number." She burped. "And the picture was all grayed, so that was a bitch to color over and have it show. Didn't come with any crayons or nothin'. And the captions underneath the pictures were waaaaaaaay too fuckin' long."

"A newspaper..." Lucky muttered. "Do you still have it?"

"Uuuuuh...I left it in that last alley." She hiccuped. "See that sign with the oranges? Look in the alleyway next to it."

During Lucky's (fortunately) brief search, it became apparent that the garbage system in this world wasn't very efficient. He had to burrow through layers of wasted food, worn out cloths and leather, and papers once used for various purposes, before finding the coveted newspaper.

The first thing about it that disappointed Lucky was the discovery that film was not a thing in this world. What was supposed to be Mismakora's picture was clearly just a painting that was reprinted in black and white ink. Not helping was the hobo's rather unsavory ways of coloring it, which not only did he not want to even think about, but smudged up her image. Even so, the picture did, in fact, depict her leading an army with strange blotches across their hearts. Was it Barrijade, or was it just printing issues? All he could go by was the text, which, thankfully, was intact.

"So, she's only been missing sixty years after fighting this demon?" Lucky carried the paper back to the bunch, his eyes scanning it up and down. "Seems like a sneeze to me, unless some punks vandalized the statue, and she wasn't really six hundred."

"Oh no, furry friend." One of the oldest hobos spoke. "I was a lad the last time we truly saw Mismakora. She guided her jaded soldiers with patience, and skill. The demons fell one by one." His voice was wistful, as though he was reading a fairy tale. But Lucky was still skeptical. "Sixty years still sounds like an oddly recent disappearance. You sure it wasn't a mischisel?"

"Bah! That was probably just a donkey. Mismakora actually flew high into the skies, disappearing into the clouds." The man raised his arm wide over the horizon. "You won't know unless you go. You know how they like to end stories with the people roaming into the sunset? Do that, but with the moon."

"...So that means I go West?"

"No! Go wherever the moon's goin'."

"But the moon goes to the same place as the sun."

"Oh, really? Uh, what did I say, then..." The hobo scratched his grizzly chin. "Uh, maybe you're supposed to go the opposite way to the moon. Or right between them."

"...Is there a museum I can look at?"

"Oh, not here, no. But Harris knows where it is!"

"Who's-GUH!" It sent a bristle down Lucky's spine to learn that Harris was a raven. Oh, sorry, not just any raven, but a raven popular with the avian community. He had a big flock of other ravens, crows, even sparrows and pigeons at the ready.

"Uh, no! I just had a ride in the talons of a big bird, I don't want toYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Lucky was quickly seized by the entire flock, and carried away.

"Bye bye, bunny!"

"Don't forget to write!"

"Hey, you didn't compliment my coloring!"

Lucky was too wrapped up in terrified-rabbit-in-the-talons-of-a-predator mode to address any of their comments. "EEE! EEE! EEE! EEE! EEE! EEE!" His cute little rabbit screeches faded into the horizon.

"EEE! EEE! EEE! EEE! EEE! EEEE-Ow!" Lucky was unceremoniously dropped at the door of a grand museum by the birds, who flew away as soon as Lucky was out of their feathers. The moment couldn't have come sooner for them; their bird heads were aching after all that screeching.

Lucky would be happy to report that he didn't just nearly have a heart attack for nothing; The exhibit about Mismakora told him just about everything he could want. If her existence was a hoax, then, sheesh, did these people put a lot of stock in it. There was even a sample of the mud she supposedly walked on sitting below paintings of her attacks, and written accounts of what it felt like to be blessed with the Barrijade. "In that moment, I felt nothing but vigor and valor...No empathy, no regret, no remorse held me back."

As Lucky read to himself, he stared at the paintings. Those people the kirin led had faces as hard and cold as the elegant, glowing jade across their chests. He could see just how effective the spell was, just from how angry and bitter they looked. They had enough blood pooling at their toes to paint a skyscraper, and they marched through it in intimidating rows. Sunlight highlighted their sharp features, creating striking dawn and dusk palettes. "If I can find her, I'll be one of them..." Lucky uttered greedily. "I'll show Rex who I am. I'll avenge Lana. I'll destroy Toffee...And all with no vulnerabilities!" Drool dripped from his lip as he jotted down the directions on a piece of scrap paper.

From the museum, Lucky now knew exactly where to go. It wasn't a straight path across the world, as implied, but it was doable. He would have to wander through just about any terrain he could think of, until he came to mountains which danced with cold mist all day long. Just as the homeless folk said, much of this journey would involve following the sun and moon.

Everything he needed for this journey was bundled up in Lana's dress, and fastened to him by the sleeves.

It was time to fix his heart.

 

[PopcornPie]

It took days to get to where Lucky was now. Tedious, aching days, forced to eat whatever he could find. Not even with his water could he be picky. In Brittlespine, he was nearly swallowed by a sandstorm. In Thinmoss, he had to slice his way out of the guts of several crocodiles. In Frendell's Jungle, he found himself trudging in circles well into the night.

By moonhigh, the hungry, cold, filthy, damp, and bruised little rabbit had found himself in a rocky location. Fortunately for his aching legs, the road here on out was smooth, just a little cracked. Even better, the mountains he saw silhouetted in the moonlight were unmistakable! "Woohoo, home stretch!" He cheered in a gravelly voice, to nobody in particular. He could finally reward himself with sleep, with Lana's dress serving as a blanket.

As he stirred, Lucky stared at the mountain. Somewhere among those peaks was the answer to all his developed problems. He would come up that mountain, and come down a mighty rabbit once again. There was nothing but benefit up there. So why was he in disbelief? Why was he feeling hesitant? "Am I really about to do this?" He reflected on every event that had led to his being here. He'd had everything he stood for challenged, yet he still made it out alive. He helped kill Meta...But that was it. That was the moment when he felt his original self wheezing a last breath. The rest of that time, he was laughable. To himself, anyway. How did everyone else feel about him, truly? He took everything that was said to or about him, and let it swim around a while. Pearl still thought of him as a soldier. Lana was worried enough about him to start hitting herself when he left. Lealan seemed attached to him, and him alone. Luffy almost looked up to him.

They...depended on him. He supposed they were all forced to depend on each other, but Lucky especially seemed to have a lot of people following him around. "Yet, I was weak." Instead of bitterly hating the members of the enemy team, he found himself being petted by Umbra. He gave into his paranoia and nearly destroyed the ones he tolerated so much. He acted on his heart, instead of his instinct, and just look at how well that turned out. He made the mission life-threatening, by putting everyone else before his own common sense, and destroying their security when he was trying to protect it. He spent his whole life being selfish, why did he think he could be selfless? In the end, he solved jack fucking shit.

Toffee was still out there, and did have something to do with the Meta plot after all. He was probably watching his former mercenary lying in a sad little lump at the base of this mountain right now, and laughing. Toffee knew he had orchestrated Lucky's downfall. He could even have been hunting down the others right now, simply to spite him. Toffee knew how unreliable all of them were, and definitely had the resources to finish what Meta couldn't. And Lucky just laid here.

On the other nub, suppose Mismakora could fix him. Would the line between friend and foe be blurred? Did he want it blurred? How would Rex react? Rex just gave up on him, left him alone...Did he ever want to see Lucky again? Did anyone ever want to see Lucky again, after he made things worse for everyone? Would they care if this made him stronger?

To answer his questions, the stars seemed to roll together, forming Toffee's image as Lucky looked up. The rabbit could make out everything: His frigid eyes, his mocking grin, his insultingly professional stance. Just as he did in Blood Gulch, Toffee loomed above his puppet, waiting with baited breath for an opportunity to pull the strings again. Out of the paranoia he gave him, Lucky almost killed everyone on the plane...When would Toffee scratch out that "almost"? Or suppose he jumped the gun, and cut out not just the "almost", but Lucky himself from that sentence...

And Lucky just laid here.

And Toffee was only a threat because Lucky gave in and was chummy with everyone. If he wasn't so tied down by what his friends wanted, he would have killed Toffee. he would have killed them all. They sent him to Blood Gulch because he was a masterful sharpshooter, not a stuffed animal. In the end, he still couldn't describe that the fuck he was thinking or feeling. All he knew was that it destroyed his pride, leaving him worthless.

Worthless...Weak...Defeated...Lucky counted those words like sheep as he drifted off.

 

[PopcornPie]

By dawn, all hesitation was gone. Lucky had to kick himself awake first, then realize that all of his friends pulling him into a night-black abyss was just a nightmare. "Today..." He panted, as he made his first steps up the mountain. "...Today..." The clouds shaped themselves into his friends. Although the clouds had an impressive disguise, none of them smiled. Lucky was to be beaten down by their dependent, disappointed frowns. All he could do was remind himself that it was all for their own good. "...Today, all of you stop holdin' me back."

With his shoulders aching, the rabbit tossed himself like a ragdoll atop a cliff. Was this the peak? Was this where Mismakora lived? There were mountains all around him, with no indication that he had climbed the right or wrong one. It was merely a collage of grays and pale blues all around him, an endless field of rocks rising from an endless patch of mist. "Fuck..." He yawned, itching his cheek. "They better have did what I said, and kept themselves safe...I am not doin' all this shit just so come down and find that Toffee blew all their brains out anyway."

That's when a shadow whisked over Lucky's head. It was too large to be a bat, but too scaly to be a hawk. Upon closer inspection, Lucky realized that the animal had four legs, and a long tail. "Mismakora?...No, Mismakora didn't have wings..."

At first, Lucky believed that it was exhaustion that made him think that the beast was gliding towards him, but that belief was quickly shattered when he realized that he could hear its breathing too closely. With a yelp, he sprung out of the way, sliding on his belly. The flying creature had a much smoothing landing, turning to face its prey.

The assailant was an enormous golden dragoness, with chestnut stripes running down her back and shoulders. Her belly was protected by jagged plates matching the stripes. The curving orange horns surrounding her face had uncountable scuffs and scratches, and her tailtip was covered in a thick layer of char. Her legs were like an elephant's, but her paws resembled those of a lioness. Her intense orchid eyes focused on the rabbit, whose red pelt stuck out like a sore claw in this land of grays and blues, as she padded towards him with her tongue slipping through her yellowed teeth. As the cherry on top, she revealed that she was smart enough to use human speech. "To think I could be having fish right now..."

Spoiler: The dragoness

"I should have figured that dragons live in this place..." Lucky uttered aggressively, rising to his nubs.

"Then you should have stayed in your burrow, little bunny." The dragoness snickered, before charging, her mouth wide open.

Lucky's first move was to run beneath the dragon, hoping to bite on her back foot. His hunter attempted to pounce as soon as Lucky was beneath her chest, only to land flat on her belly. This only kept her down for a breath, and she sprang to her feet, whirling around to give chase. With a snarl from the deepest depths of her throat, she ignited her tailtip, causing it to glow orange. Lucky didn't evade her for long, and a single swipe knocked him to the side, with enough force to knock his Paw o' Death clean off. With the rabbit down for the count, the dragon charged into him once again, deviously preparing to feel his warm blood running down her forehead.

But Lucky wasn't done yet, and he ducked, ensuring a much more survivable collision with her chest. Then the rabbit bit down on the space between two plates, making the dragon howl. In response, the gigantic monster crushed him underneath her paw, puncturing his little body with heavy yellow claws. Lucky was able to work his arms free, and used them to hold the dragon's mouth open when she went for the killing bite. Naturally, she retaliated with a quick shower of flames, but Lucky bit down on her paw, making her lift it high into the air with a screech.

Lucky pushed himself out of her grip, landing in a spurt of blood. Both of them had bite wounds now, but Lucky was quickly expiring from his. And the scorching wasn't helping. If he just had his weapon, he could finish this. The cruel dragoness had thrown him a good couple feet away from it, and was now tossing him in the air like a toy. During a higher toss, Lucky pushed himself forward in midair, landing a nub straight in her eye. When his foe tipped her head back with a yowl, she threw him towards the Paw o' Death. He just needed to inch towards it, which was easier said than done with his aching joints. He crawled a couple centimetres, then gave into his pain, and collapsed. With booming laughter, the beast lifted herself into the sky, soaring towards the sun.

Oh, fuck.

Lucky had to use his very last piece of energy to slither towards his weapon. He heaved himself forward like a slug, panting heavily. "I can't...I won't..."

He could see the golden dot spinning around in the distance.

"Those assholes caused me to lose me home...me pride...me inner strength..."

The dragon bent her wings back, and stuck her claws as far out from her as they could go. Her lips pulled back into a bloodcurdling grin. Her tailtip was ablaze, leaving a trail of embers behind.

"...Mismakora is all I have left...She is the only one who can save me from the hell I'm in...the only one who can ensure me victory over Toffee..."

Lucky fit his shuddering nub inside his Paw o' Death. It felt as though its weight had doubled. He could feel his heart struggling to replace the blood he was losing. His sore ears picked up the sound of the dragon arriving on the cold breeze. It was a song to which the Grim Reaper eagerly danced.

"I didn't go through all that shit...ANY of that shit..."

"Aw, you got a cute little glove, you cute little bunny!" The dragon mocked, as she dove towards him with the speed of a comet and the grin of a demon. "Too bad it will take a lot more than one punch to stop me from snapping your spine!"

"To be killed..." Anger surfaced within Lucky like an air bubble in a pot of boiling water. Though he had to fight to keep himself conscious, he managed to line up his turret with the beast. "...by a FUCKING LIZARD!" He gave the internal trigger a squeeze, confident that the bullet flying away from him would be the last sound he'd hear.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"

Or maybe that last sound would be the dragon's primal scream echoing across the Forbidden Havens. The entire mountain range could hear the declaration of the beast's defeat.

Lucky opened his eyes, and lifted his head, to see her descending dizzily, panting heavily. All the hostility in her appearance had vanished. Instead, she looked petrified, as though she had seen the Reaper dancing in front of her eyes. Her shrunken pupils focused on her shoulder, where a wound completely foreign to her began to ooze blood. She held her wounded paw in the air, wobbling on her remaining three legs.

The rabbit was also jittery, but he couldn't stand at all. He was left panting, even smiling a little. "Heheh...Just imagine what I'll do to you, Toffee." He whispered.

Then the dragon's eyes darted upwards, back to Lucky.

"...If I live, that is!" Lucky tensed, balling himself up with his eyes wide.

"You!" The dragon barked, unmoving. Her pupils remained puny, her jaw agape and wavering. "...You..." Her voice faltered. "...What is that? What have you done to me?"

 

[PopcornPie]

Both creatures stared at each other, panting and bleeding. Nobody else came to challenge them, or see the damage, or even lighten the mood. It was just predator and prey, studying each other, no longer sure about who was who.

"I said, what is that?" The dragon barked fearfully, thumping her tail. Impatience sparked in the backs of her eyes.

"...It is to be healed, that's what it is."

Both animals turned their heads to see a third floating over them. Even though violence had unfolded right in front of her, her face was stoic, with mellow green eyes and an angular muzzle. Her scales were an elegant blue-silver that made her look as though she was a descendant of the mist that circled her. Locks of blue, white, olive, and pear shrouded her face, while also parting to reveal a beautiful jade horn that curled backwards like a knife, pointing to matching antlers. Also matching the horn were her eyelids, her cloven hooves, and the scales along her back, though the latter parts didn't have the same cracked patterns the horns and eyelids had. The scales on her belly were an off-white, right down to the hair-covered tip of her tail. Her appearance was unmistakable; Lucky had found the one he was searching for.

Spoiler: The kirin

"Mismakora!..." Lucky called to her, but she simply floated over the rabbit, landing smoothly before the dragon. After carefully studying the wound, she illuminated her horn, and pressed it on the injured beast's shoulder. Her magic succeeded in carefully extracting the bullet, which remained stationary above her left antler. Then she took care of the wound itself. It shrunk from a gaping hole, to an ugly bruise, to a moderate bruise, to a light bruise. Finally, it disappeared entirely, and the dragon could once more stand on all four feet. "And now, as for you..." She turned around slowly, walking to Lucky with focused eyes.

The rabbit panicked internally. Had he just fucked up royally? Would Mismakora be kind to him, after he harmed an animal in her territory? Was she about to avenge the dragon's dignity, and stomp him flat with her powerful-looking hooves? "I-it was self defense!" He defended himself hastily, refusing to uncurl.

If he paid attention to her expression, however, he could see that she was not angry. Across her eyes floated wisps of curiosity, uncertainty, even distrust and confusion. "I assume this is yours." She dropped the bullet in front of him, then circled him, his Paw o' Death quickly catching her eyes. "Such an unusual paw...And why is it the only one you have?" Her ears picked up on the sound of Lana's forgotten dress fluttering in the breeze. "I'm to assume this is yours, as well. If this is a gift, I'm afraid I cannot accept it." She couldn't even begin to imagine how she, let alone any creature, could fit in a gown of these proportions. She wouldn't even be able to work her neck through the hole in the top!

After carefully observing Lucky, Mismakora made her final judgement. Lifting her head to the dragoness, she decreed, "This is clearly not a food rabbit, Sunburn."

"What!?" Sunburn protested, smoke bursting from her nostrils and tailtip. "He disabled my shoulder! I ought to finish the job, right now! So DON'T UNDO IT!" She watched miserably as Mismakora healed her former prey. "Forgive her, young one." The kirin bellowed. "This is Sunburn, the one who does the hunting for me, as well as the one who protects and fights for me in battle. As for myself, my name is-"

"Mismakora." Lucky stood tall before her. Well, tall by his standards. Mismakora was around five times his height. "I know. I specifically came here lookin' for you. I read about your legend."

"Whatever would lead you to come to me?" Mismakora sniffed him, then recoiled harshly, her muzzle wrinkled. "Whatever it is, it is clear that you did not take a path of cleanliness." She used her magic to lift him into the air, right in front of her face. "Come. You can tell us all about it in the bath." Kirin and dragon, side-by-side, walked into the mountain they shared. As to be expected, it was very dark inside, especially when they descended a slope hidden in the back. At the back of this slope, there appeared to be a large pile of stones. "What do you want me to do, rub the stench off?" Lucky snorted.

"Patience, hare." Sunburn snorted back, padding forward. She nudged away the stones effortlessly, which had Lucky wide eyed. The rocks were actually an image, painted on the backs of gigantic leaves!

The leaves gave way to a splendid indoor cavern, its vast, luscious flora and fauna kept warm and fed by numerous "fake suns", clusters of enchanted crystal primarily growing on the ceiling. Mismakora had spend several days tunneling beneath this mountain to a great river, creating a large underground lake. In this lake, Mismakora dropped Lucky, magically scrubbing his wounds away. While he was cleaned, Lucky told them the whole story: Being assigned to the Solo Team, the friendships he accidentally formed, the paranoia he ended up succumbing to, his deep loathing for Toffee which seemed to vanish only to come back stronger, Meta, all of it. Not one detail was spared.

"I don't know what a mercenary is, but it sounds like you made a terrible one." Sunburn growled bluntly.

"I was. And the worst part is, I don't even know if anything I did counted anymore."

"Because you were not in your own body?" Mismakora tilted her head, a slight grin of amusement spreading across her elegant, thin muzzle.

"Exactly. If it wasn't me heart, or me nubs, or even me own eyes, then what the fuck did I do that mattered?"

Mismakora giggled quietly, then turned to her dragon assistant. "Sunburn," She ordered calmly. "Bring me whatever animal you can find."

Sunburn returned to the cave mere minutes later with a goat in her teeth. It kicked and bleated shrill bleats. At Mismakora's command, she set it down next to Lucky.

"Now, let me see if I can remember how this spell works..." Mismakora concentrated deeply, illuminating her horn. She tapped Lucky on the head with her horn, then the goat, causing some kind of minty green mist to envelop both creatures. Suddenly, both animals dropped unconscious, and the mist subsided.

It took a couple seconds, then Lucky came to his senses. "Aaaaaa...Maaaa..." He got up groggily, panicking when he felt his legs become significantly weaker. His eyes were weaker, too, as was his back. "Wha...What..." He suddenly had a much more difficult time forming words as well. The goat, however, had no trouble. "MAAAAAA! MAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" The hoofed mammal screamed and kicked...within Lucky's body. Sunburn kept the rabbit restrained in her tail, watching in amusement as Lucky finally discovered his new hooves, and had a similar freakout. "WHA-A-A-A-A-AT THE FUCK?!" He screamed, thrashing around. Mismakora approached him with a smile, only to give him a good whack across the muzzle with her hoof, prompting further anger. "Da-a-a-a-a-amn you! Why are you-GA-A-A-A-A-A-AH!" The kirin's next move was to toss Lucky high into the air, making him land in the lake. Only after Lucky had kicked and flailed his way back to land did Mismakora order Sunburn to place the goat-rabbit next to him, and reverse the process. (The whole time, Sunburn was making the garden quake with hysterical laughter)

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Lucky screamed, protectively rubbing his fur. "What the fuck was putting me in a goat's body, and then throwing me into a fucking lake, supposed to prove!?"

The kirin chuckled warmly. "So you remember what you felt and experienced?"

"You pissed me the fuck-" Lucky's ears drooped, as his face went blank. "-Oooooooh..."

"You see?" Mismakora bellowed. "It was not your body, but it was still your feelings and memories. As long as it's your soul, you could be within the body of a snail, and still be you."

"So I really did fuck up beyond repair...Fuck..." The rabbit laid down miserably. "I really am just some worthless rag to be kicked around."

"...I believe I now know what you have come to me for." Mismakora purred. "Allow me to guess: You are afraid to face those friends you made."

"Somethin' about being around them made me soft. I've never felt so weak before."

"That is what compassion does, alas." Mismakora's head drooped. "When you worry so much about what others think of you, if they'll still love you after what you've done, you lose your confidence, and your ability to hold your own goes with it."

"And that's exactly why I want it undone." The rabbit explained adamantly. "This new, soft me won't last a second against Toffee. But you're the only one who is both able and willing to undo the damage. The Director probably could do it, but that bastard just didn't want to." He leaned on her hoof. "Please, only you can fix me! I'm a bird with a broken wing down here! Without your magic, I'm as useless as I was in that gulch! And Toffee will reign unopposed!"

The kirin held a thinking frown, turning away from him. She laid by the lake, gazing motionlessly at her own reflection, humming. This was completely unprecedented. In all her years of service, never once had she had such an eager volunteer. Her spell had regressed into an obscure legend for a reason. She barely even understood much of the terminology this rabbit had used in his tale. Cloning? Plane? AI? These were the strangest ingredients for heartbreak she had ever heard. Yet she had learned to look past what she didn't understand, and focus on what she did. Perhaps Lucky just did a poor job at spinning the story in his favor, or she was doing a poor job at putting herself in his place. Either way, what she heard was recollections of people who worried, and wanted him to be at his best. This led to the hardest part of both their decisions: Was it true companionship, or temporary? With Lucky alone, she couldn't tell. Not helping was Lucky's tone as he gave names. Whoever Rex, Sora, Megumin, Lana, Kendall, Pearl, and Lealan were, they each gave his tone some kind of bitterness, each with varying levels of regret. Because they weren't consistent tones, Mismakora was left unsure of if Lucky really wanted to shut them out of his heart for good. If that was the case, however, then why would he continue to talk to himself like a broken toy? Why did he look at her with such desperation? Could she really afford to send such desperate eyes to look elsewhere?

No...She couldn't. She wouldn't. But she could and would not simply give Lucky what he wanted that easily, either.

"Very well, Lucky. I have a plan for you." The kirin got up and turned to face him, seeing that the rabbit and Sunburn were pacing together.

"I knew you'd see it the way I do!" Lucky hugged her hoof. "You don't know how happy I am to hear that someone else in this crazy string of universes speaks me language!"

"...Only partially, I'm afraid." She crowed. "Lucky, in all my years, in all the stories like yours, I have learned to recognize the different flavors of regret. You are quite a mixture. It seems that you regret making these friends, but you also regret leaving them. Thirdly, you regret appearing weak to them."

"I could've been so much stronger if it weren't for them!"

"Yet you are certain I am the only one who can bring back this strength you speak of?" She answered. When the rabbit nodded wildly, she continued with a sigh, and a more urgent tone. "Lucky, the spell you wish for is highly dangerous. I only used it for the most powerful enemies, when I needed soldiers absolutely united in thought. Do you realize that you will not be able to keep your friends and your power at the same time?"

"I would rather have power any day!" Lucky responded angrily.

"Your tone has not made that clear." The kirin lifted her head. "I am left with uncertainty of how strongly you feel this way. Henceforth, I need you to prove that you truly value my powers over your friends. I will create a great trial for you. Only when you pass it shall I grant your wish."

Sunburn's eyes went wide. "Mismakora is thorough with her tests, rabbit. You're still going to accept anyway, aren't you?"

Lucky simply bopped the dragon on her nose, then returned his attention to the waiting Mismakora. "With all due respect, my kirin, I wish to never let them get in the way of me conquest again. Me life has taken the most serious turn it possibly could, and I can't risk them getting in me way with their soft smiles and bright souls." He got down on one knee. "If I had to fight a hundred more Metas in order to set things right, I would without question. Bring me your worst, Mismakora."