Chapter 7: [The Keystone] (Read Everything)

"obvcorse it has its limits... and id rather you tell me your name instead of my figuring it out by force" said cynthia to the girl

Asuya, as she saw Echo come back, greeted her with a harsh tackle-hug. She snuggled her cheek against Echo's, and when she spoke, it was obvious she was drunk.

"Echo! I love you, you know that right? I'm so glad you came with me instead of that jerk Jaden!" She kept snuggling Echo's cheek, as Kado was downing the rest of the whiskey. She remained silent, but had a bit of a smirk on her face. Marideth was sitting on one of the stools, looking at her wires.

"You know Echo...I feel like you should get an answer as to why we brought you here." She paused then looked over at Echo. She pointed at Asuya.

"I wasn't lying when I said Alucard was corrupting her. And your spirit appears to have helped her. I can tell from her aura. There's now a mix of three; hers, Alucards, and Ancilla's. But your spirit is also the one who has caused Asuya to attack Jaden like she did. During that fight, I could see that Asuya's aura was not her own, and it surely wasn't Alucard's. And I have to say..." She smirked.

"I like her better this way."

she turned off her aura sight saying to the girl "black soul? actually im nomraly a nice girl, that likes to cause destruction once in a while, so how about i help you with that problem of yours..."

"hu... you seam to be calming down, you know i can teach you how to controll it..." said cynthia looking at harmony with her aura sight active

cynthia put her hands behind her head and looked up in the sky. "a long time ago i manadge to controll and use the power of a demon in me...but in the process i dident exactly come out human...a cost i would say is worth of the power you have" she said to harmony

"a power that im sure if you learn to controll it, it will not happen no more" she saw her starting crying but knew she couldn't touch her so she stood there

Echo seemed rather calm, but as Willow's speech progressed, her face contorted from a soft smile into a worried frown. She patted Asuya's head gently, stroking her hair before speaking.

"Ancilla helping Asuya? What do you mean? I noticed the familiar aura on her, but I didn't quite know it went beyond just talking..."

cynthia looked back down at the girl placing her hand on her chin asif she was thinking "have you ever tryed purposefully using the power for a long duration of time?."

"Not...not on purpose...I don't want to hurt anybody..." She looked Cynthia in the eyes.
"If you can prevent this from happening, I'll let you try..."

(Jish, bunny my characters please. Thanks!)

Asuya looked up at Echo.

"She offered me a way out, and I took it. I don't know what she did...but she suppressed Alucard somehow. She said something about...'Giving motivation' in the form of killing Jaden, so I took it." She smiled and went back to snuggling her. Marideth remained unmoved. Kado tossed the bottle aside and crossed her arms.

"Your spirit friend took over Asuya." Kado said.

Gajeel sighed at Shinyo's question. "I just know he's an idiot and I'm kicking his ass as soon as he comes back. That kid needs to learn what emotional control is, because he has none."

Rex sighed, laying down on a chair. He had to leave in the middle of the fight, but he at least did something.

(got perms to bunny harmony)

cynthia materialized one of her scythes saying "i got a idea than.." she than taped her scythe in the center of the chest of harmony, she than activated her demonic separating, separating harmony and her spirit.

harmony fall to the ground landing on her but, she felt weaker asif her spirit had been riped away from her. "w-what did you just do?"

cynthia dident respond, all she did was plant her but on the ground, siting in a way asif she was about to meditate, closing her eyes, she looked around for the aura if her spirit to see if she can find it. when she did he basically mentally spoken to the spirit. "you dont need to be afraid of me..." she said "i am not here to hurt you, just to figure out some stuff, i dont want you to stay away from her nor do i want you to keep torturing her, what i want you to do is figure out a way for YOU to convince her to let you in...when you get in give her your powers let her control them at will, no more of you trying to controll her powers.........." the spirit reacted asif it dident like the idea "i dident espect you to like it.... but by doing this you AND harmony will grow stronger and stronger.....that is unless you DONT want to get stronger.." the spirit started calming down a bit, seamed like it started to like the idea "now.... when this wears off and you return i will see what i can do on the outside..... when this is all over and done with you both will be almost unstoppable.."

cynthia than opend her eyes looking at harmony saying "now we wait...."

Echo groaned loudly, pinching the bridge of her nose with her other hand. Suddenly Ancilla had materialized in front of Echo, her demonic and black form curled into a ball while she snored. Her hollow eyes blink in and out of red, as if her eyes were fluttering open. Her claws came up to rub her eyes, and she yawned before getting up and looking around.

"Wha?... Why am I out of bed?..." Echo sighed, flicking Ancilla's nose. Ancilla reeled back a bit, grabbing her nose with a frown.

"Owie..."

"You told Asuya to kill Jaden and went sadistic. Again. Didn't you?" Ancilla seemed to be trying her best to look innocent, shuffling back and forth on her feet.

"What do you mean? Course not. You'd know if I want sadistic!" Ancilla gave her sweetest smile, black fangs showing and red eyes narrowing. Echo let out a heavy sigh before speaking again.

"You're in your sadism mode." Ancilla froze and blinked.

"... Oh."

"..."

"..."

"Bad Ancilla." Echo flicked Ancilla's head again, and Ancilla grabbed her forehead this time.

"But I helped her! I mean, Alucard was being an ass..." Echo put her hand on her hip. Although her spirit had literally just been revealed to have tried to get Jaden killed, Echo looked more like a mother confronting an angry child than a girl confronting a demon.

"You also told her to kill be fiance." Ancilla let out a nervous laugh, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly.

"I mean, he was also being kind of an ass..."

"Yes. He was. But no killing him. Okay?" Ancila crossed her arm, pouting before looking away from Echo.

"Ugh. Fine. You're no fun." Echo sighed, petting Asuya again before tilting her head towards Ancilla.

"Now change back to your regular form. You can keep helping Asuya, but no more killing Jaden." Ancilla huffed before turning into the small, blue, translucent girl. Soon after, she had dissipated. Echo ran her hand through her hair, tapping her foot slowly.

"This stress is going to kill me..."

Asuya waved at Ancilla like a child, then blinked and looked up at Echo.

"But...Mary said it was okay to do it too!" At this, Marideth jumped up, her face turning dark red. She nervously rubbed the back of her head.

"I-I did no such thing! Asuya, sweetie, stop making things up to protect Ancilla!" She laughed but shook at the same time. Kado sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"You guys are idiots...Marideth, you forgot what we came her for, didn't you..." Kado shot a look at Echo, and Marideth snapped out of it.

"Oh yeah! Echo, sweetie, would you kindly let me open your mind and take your memories?" Marideth clapped her hands together with a friendly smile.

Echo grimaced upon hearing Willow's words. Why had she thought she'd be safe here, among the three sisters?

"No. You know what happened when you took Asuya's memories. Try anything..." Echo's voice was calm and serious, and a writhing ring of eyes appeared around her neck. They seemed starved, hungry.

"... I snap my own neck. And don't think you can take me by surprise. I will see what you do before you do it."

Marideth remained unmoved, but let out a sigh. Asuya shot a look at Kado and Mary.

"Don't touch her. We got her here, that's all I wanted. You don't have to erase anything, Mary. If you even try, I'll kill you." Asuya stood up and glared at her sister, who raised her eyebrows.

"Alright, alright, calm down Asuya. I won't do anything...But Echo, sweetie.." She shifted her eyes to Echo.

"Just know...if you do anything rash, it may hurt Asuya as well...and I can tell from your aura you don't want that."

"You're right. I don't. But the loss of memories is the loss of an aura, and that is no better than death to me." The Watcher's eyes slowly receded, and Echo wrapped an arm around Asuya. She rubbed Asuya's back slowly, a soft smile coming to her face.

"I would prefer to remain alive for as long as I can. Besides, I don't see how it affects things too much. for now, I am with you guys. I know you want to erase my memories of the Spirit Force."

harmony's spirit had than started returning to her reconecting with her, her powers returning.

cynthia had said looking at harmony "now, your turn.... you say you are afraid of harming others because of your spirit, yet you lack the confidence to even attempt to control it...." Cynthia looked right at harmony when she said "let it in"

Asuya turned an even deeper red, and this time it wasn't from the liquor. Marideth smiled at the two of them. As much as she hated humans, this scene amused her.

"You two are so cute together. An uncontrollable psycho and a cutie who knows what's going on. You're right, I do want to erase your memories of the Spirit Force, because frankly, they're not a team...They're a bunch of children." She stood up and grabbed another bottle of booze. Being a guldrich, she couldn't get drunk. She sipped from the bottle.

"You see...I have tried to tell them time after time what a team really was, and what a team needed. And yet, they continue to bicker and fight amongst themselves to the point where one of their own went right to the enemy. That fiance of yours...You know as well as I do, he didn't propose on his own free will...I had to scare it into him." As she said "scare" her eye flickered.

"If you want to go off and marry a dead man walking, then by all means do so. Just know, it will only hurt her in the end..." She looked over at Asuya.

"But hey, we're not here to argue. We're here to celebrate. We made it out of that fight alive, didn't we? So, to us!" She raised the whiskey bottle and took a few drinks before handing it to Echo.