What If? Saga Part 2: What if Bloodedge decided not to sacrifice himself...?

Outside the depressing interior of the destroyed lab and the biodome in which the so called Lynchpin resided, Ragna stood in a deserted wasteland. Ragna… the Bloodedge, as he remembered himself to be now. The words of the small vampire he had talked to just a minute ago echoed in his head.
“The end of this phase is yet unwritten. Which way you choose will determine it. As always, however, I will merely observe your actions… but, you`ve already chosen, haven’t you?”

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The great Magister Nine, annoyed by the fact that Ragna ran off outside and left without saying a word as to why, soon came up the flight of stairs behind him to the small, half destroyed balcony he was standing on. Her eyes were a glare, but something told her he had a very good reason to run off like this. He seemed almost like a different person entirely.
"Ragna. Whats wrong? Did the seithr get to you or are you just claustrophibic?" She sneered, a little less agressive than ususal as since she didn´t know how serious his problem was.

Nine glanced at him- something was off. He was calm and.. almost sad. She didn`t like the way that response felt.
"Hey... thats not a very precise answer!" She snapped, though quickly controlled herself again. "You look like you`re about to jump off the ledge of that balcony. Caelica wouldn`t like that, you know... and i´d kick your ass if you would do that."
Yeah... she had a really bad feeling about that. Especially since, despite her original impression of him, he turned out to be a damn good guy.

Nine huffed a bit at his response about kicking his own ass. Normally she`d laugh at that, but right now she was a bit too pissed and worried at the same time to have any kind of humor.
Her ears perked up though when he mentioned a plan, a fighting strategy of some sort- she heard many before, bomb the Black Beast with nukes, launch it to space, drill a hole into the planet and make the beast fall into it... but Ragna was a simple guy. A moron, some would say. A fucking idiot, she would call it. But he knew a lot about fighting the monsters that roamed the land lately, and he had a damn amount of courage... evident by the way he stopped a battle between her and Mitsuyoshi earlier.

"I`m listening." She said, calm and controlled, her eyes focusing on his. This might be something, afterall.

Nine twitched, and already didn`t like the plan. It could work, one year was just enough time to come up with something- assemble an army, find a weapon that would work and then make a stand- but it came with a price. One he was keeping from her.

".....you´ll die if you do it, won´t you. Thats what you`re not telling me."
Her glare intensified. "You`d save the world like a damn hero, and leave it behind you in shambles? Your friends are here, and willing to fight with you, but instead you`re insisting on fighting alone, why?!"

Nine´s irritation was starting to peak, and she gripped his collar. '"You saved Caelica from being fed to that god damn Lynchpin, and you saved Mitsuyoshi from becoming fodder for the beast.. and what now? If you want to kill yourself, i`ve got a quicker way to do it!"

Huffing, Nine let go of his collar, but didn`t settle down. Too much was at stake here to simply talk about it.
"Then lets put it down -together-! Me, you, Mitsuyoshi, Trinity and whoever we can find...! If it exists, it can cease to exist, too..! "
She bit her lip and glared harder.. this was just too much to bear with. How could he be so calm if he was talking about his own death?
"I`m not gonna let you die alone, Ragna. Forget about it."

"Shows how much you know." She scoffed at his last comment, crossing her arms in front of her chest.
While his arguements were sound, and she probably would`ve listened any other day, today she simply wasn´t having it. Not like this.
"Look, i`m not going to let you throw your life away for a world you barely even know. I`ve got more irons in the fire than you might imagine, i`ve pulled my strings, gathered intelligence, resources, we can do this... it`ll be a close call, but nobody will have to die just to buy us more time."
She looked in his eyes and took a deep breath.
"If it turns out we won´t have enough time, i`ll go with your plan... reluctantly. But if i can manage it, you´ll fight on our side... alright?"

While she didn´t like the way she formulated the last sentence, she nodded slowly and crossed her arms.
"Crystal. I have to say you´re stubborn about killing yourself too, but at least you intend to die for something. Trust me, i`ll save your life, even if it costs me a few nights worth of sleep."
She closed her eyes, not wishing to look into his any further, as it made her feel uneasy and wierd.
"Are we done? It looks like its going to rain any minute now, and Caelica is probably getting all worked up what we´re doing out here."

Nine stopped briefly, feeling his hand on her shoulder, and the warmth that spread from it. An incredible, encouraging warmth. It made her swallow dryly, and think about what she just told him.
True, it would make things harder than they needed to be. But without Ragna, she feared for the worst. Humans were power hungry bastards, and the entire social structure had fallen apart. Once the war would be over, anarchy would rise, and a few years later the wrong people would be in the wrong place.

"No, i thank you. For many things." She said, quietly, without looking at him. "Proecting Caelica, for one. Another would be bringing us here despite my stubbornness... stopping me and Mitsuyoshi from clawing our eyes out... and for considering that just now. Thank you for all of that, Ragna."

A second after he said that, thousands of raindrops started to fall- not just rain, but a fricking cloudburst. Thanking the heavens for her big hat, the witch stormed back into the building and headed down the stairs to the laboratory.
"You and your big mouth! It wasn`t raining a second before..! Damn, at this rate the elevator is going to break down in a way i -can`t- fix!"
Two stories further down, she headed for said elevator, and took a moment to catch her breath and wait for Ragna... it was only a minute, but her clothes were already damp, next to soaked, and the lower tips of her hair were hanging down with the water inside them. She grunted, though the smile on her face couldn´t be destroyed by that.

A white shirt gone wet turned translucent, and dark underwear could slowly be seen underneath- fortunately, Nine didn´t care much as a spark from her fingertips set the old elevator down the track, slowly and with many rumbling noises- some of those noises were an incoming thunderstorm, the others were bumps in the track.
As she noticed his looks, she peeked down and closed her own eyes in shame, but didn´t make any attempt to hide it- now he saw it anyway.
"Yes. We could`ve discussed that on the upper level... though i can see why you wanted some fresh air to think about this. I... don`t blame you, okay? Lets keep it at that."
As she shuddered due to the cold water, she suddenly got an idea- a fireball was produced from her hand, and she held it close to her clothing- the fire dried off the water, and within a few seconds, it was completely dry.
With a grin, she held it over to Ragna, slowly, carefully not to burn his face off.
"You have to study it for years, but Magic is so much fun when you`ve got it down like this."
The flame in her hand ceased as a harsh downthrust with a metallic creak went through the elevator- it got stuck between two levels, and refused to go any further. After getting up from the ground, Nine ajusted her had and tried a spark again- but to no effect.
"Great. Just fucking great. Of all the guys i could get stuck in an elevator with, it had to be this one."

Nine huffed, adressing their chances of being rescued. "Well doesnt someone have a bright look on the whole situation.. What are the odds that Caelica finds us down here? Mitsuyoshi probably thinks we're dead, no offense. If you ask me, we gotta bust out of this thing."
A discouraging metallic creaking sound agreed to them, and Nine could swear the floor was starting to bend towards the ground.
"Somewhere here..." She flashed up a smaller fire in her palm to try and find.an emergancy exit... There was a big red button for opening the doors, but could they squeeze out of here in time before the thing came down on them?

"Right, lets just..." Nine started, heading for the red button to open it and climb out, until a metallic creak made them stumble- one of the struts that was supposed to hold the elevator in place in case of an emergancy broke away like nothing.
"Shit, was that..?"
Another creak, another support strut, and they fell a few feet deep, before the third and last strut got into action- for now, it would hold.
Nine stared at the cieling, and at the prospect of death by cold welding of an elevator to the ground- the next time she heard a creak, she finally saw no other option.
"Tch... there`s no choice left...!"
Snipping her fingers and pointing at Ragna, she rapidly spun to the door and snipped again- Ragna disappeared and reappeared in the hallway outside, before- the third strut broke, and the elevator raced down the shaft, a cloud of dust blowing out of it along with a horrifying noise...
Nine was nowhere to be seen, but a few seconds after a loud thud shook the building, the grating of an air duct was pushed out, and Nine climbed out, with a bit of a strain.
"My aim was off..." She grumbled, landing on her fours on the ground. "That was a close one. Seems like fate wants to kill you whichever way possible, huh?"

Nine huffed and looked at Ragna, straightening her clothes as she noticed her hat was missing- must`ve gotten stuck in the vent. Who cared at this point.
"Save myself, huh? Thanks for your concern..."
She huffed again, and at this point, one could see how her chest was quickly rising and sinking. That little adventure had taken a lot out of her courage reserves, and not just that.
"I`m drained now, thanks to that. It`ll be a while until i can even light a candle, nevermind throw fireballs. That is why i didn´t do that from the fricking start. ....I`ll have to depend on you from now on."
She ran a hand through her pink mane, then slowly regained her composure, despite the heart in her chest beating like there was no tomorrow after narrowly avoiding death like that.