A chaos that is never to be disturbed, awakens.

Tracking systems online.
Uplink status established.
Subsystems A-J online.
K-S online.
T-Z online.
Heart rate nominal.
Activating optical tracking devices.
-------------

Nu-13 opened her eye, seeing the world she dispised once again. The dark grey walls surrounded her, a battered staircase was the only way up to the top. She flexed her fingers, her arms, her legs- good, her body was functional. Her baby blue bodysuit gave off the warmth she needed, aided by the coat she wore... and now she would have to wait. Ragna would be here soon...

Something`s different.

She looked around, but Nu could not find any evidence supporting her hunch. Everything looked normal, but.. she could tell when something was up, and right now, it was something big.
Her body was normal, her surroundings were normal..
Nu-13 summoned a sword to stab herself, right through one of her calves, but as it disappeared, the wound closed up in seconds. Ragna was there too, their life link was intact.

No detectable difference. But something is off. Something i can`t quite place. ...is it them? Are they doing it?

Takamagahara, the omnipotent beings controlling the world from another dimension- if anything was different this time around, it had to be done by them, but somehow... it felt like they weren´t there.
...They weren`t there.
A sly smirk embedded itself on the motionless face of the girl.
The ones that held her chains weren´t here...? She could do as she wanted, if that was the case...
Still. Theres no need to rush things... she had to stay here and wait for Ragna. He would come this time around, as well...

I`ll look forward to seeing you again, my love.

Kagura Mutsuki descends down the stairs and passageways within the Novus Orbis Librarium branch of Kagutsuchi. His trip had been uneventful, no one had really thought to get in the way of a NOL Colonel, and he'd managed to get into places that by all rights should have been off limits to anyone, himself included. Where his sense of confidence and bluffing talents didn't get him through, a few bribes made people look the other way.

"Ugh, those guards had better not tell anyone..." Kagura grumbles to himself, inputting keystrokes quickly and efficiently on a blast-proof door, the final barrier between himself and the Sheol Gate. He needn't have worried, as the leader of the powerful Mutsuki family, anyone without a similar power base accusing him was essentially suicide. But still, he never liked using his family name in such a gritty way. The omnipresent threat of it was bad enough, but he never enjoyed acting superior to anyone else. He wasn't.

As the gate opens, Kagura coughs. "Damn! Seithr's thick in here. I guess it makes sense, though..." Looking around, he coughs again, though for a different reason. "The hell is with all the dust here! Some guy with asthma comes down here, and he's toast!" Looking straight ahead, though, Kagura begins to get an ominous feeling, as he spies what gives this place it's name. "Behind that gate there...is the Boundary. Spooky stuff...Is that what Ragna wants? Or is it something else?"

His research into Ragna the Bloodedge's attacks uncovered a remarkable pattern. While it had been kept classified to most NOL personnel, the fact was that while the main library structure was damaged, most of the destruction was concentrated in the supposedly secret Cauldrons, lying at the bottom of the NOL branches. Evidence pointed those out to be his targets.

Shrugging his shoulders, he begins to try and get his bearings in the huge room. "Could be, but it also might not. Might as well begin investigating...time to find out what that guy is after..."

Nu`s crimson eye twitched, and her body bolted up into a stand. An intruder.
Combat systems at 100%. Tracking target. Target identified as NOL official with no security clearance for this area. Assumed intention- tresspassing.
Her bare feet made little echoes as she proceeded through the room, a telltale sign for Kagura that he was not alone in this place. Even though he would soon love to have it that way.
It was an intruder, and he was armed. He was not Ragna... though he was remarkably similar.

"State your business with me or prepare to be exterminated." Nu brought out bluntly, coming around a corner to face the man head on. He was strong, and he was powerful, no doubt, but he didn´t have the Azure. He didn`t have a Life Link. No matter what he had, he didn`t pose a threat to her... if he only did so much as raise his finger, she would hack it off.
Her crimson eye glared a piercing stare into his, while her slender limbs seemed relaxed.

Kagura turns around at the sound of footsteps. "Hey! Who's there? C'mon out already." Just as he says this, though, a remarkably pale-skinned girl comes walking around the corner

"State your business with me or prepare to be exterminated."

That stops Kagura cold. "Ummm...Excuse me? I'm sure we could talk about this...no need for any exterminating." His hand travels back to his sword, just to be safe. With Ars Magus running around, there's no telling just how powerful this little girl is...she's almost certainly more than she appears to be.


Taking a breath and continuing in a slow, even tone, he tries to calm her down. "I didn't even know you existed, just doing a bit of looking around. Unless you can tell me why Ragna the Bloodedge likes knocking these places to kingdome come, and then I could leave right away."

Nu inspected the intruder carefully, scanning him top to bottom. He was reaching for his weapon... in turn, Nu extended a hand towards him, a sword appearing out of nowhere and rapidly spinning in place, ready to shoot out towards him and stab him the instant he would bring the sword out.
"Relinguish your weapon intruder. You have no right to be in this place. The only people authorized are Colonel Relius Clover, Captain Hazama and Ragna the Bloodedge..."
Not really answering his question, she stared him deeply into the eyes, attempting to see any kind of intention or motive from looking at him. She couldn´t. But that was probably because she wasn`t all that good at it, instead, she slowly lowered her arm again, letting the sword disappear into thin air as the attack she expected never came.

"You´ve been tresspassing. Nu shouldn´t give you any information whatsoever. But... you´re the first intruder Nu has ever seen that was not instantly violent."
She closed her eye and focused her thoughts.
"Nu can tell you this if it will make you leave quickly. You will have no use for this information either way, you´re... too late to do anything with it."

Kagura's eyes widen as Nu levels a sword against him. Moving it away from his sword and raising it up, he motions his arms in surrender. "Alright, alright. Not going for the sword...." Listening to the girl's words carefully, he frowns. "Wait a second...Ragna is AUTHORIZED to be here?! How the hell is that? He's on a kill-on-sight order from the librarium..."

Realizing he was getting loud, he gestures with his hands again. "Sorry, sorry, please don't stab me. I'd hate to get into a fight now, especially with such a pretty girl." He briefly considers afterwards if letting the last bit slip through was wise, but there was no going back now. Or even of stopping it before it happened. Just have to make do.

When Nu offers to tell him, he grins. "Really? Sure, I'll go after I have the information, no problem. Glad we could come to a reasonable conclusion." Kagura frowns as Nu continues, however. "Too late to do anything with it? What the heck does that mean?" Was the Library on to him? Or was there something even more sinister going on?

The intruder surrendered. Good. She could save up her energy for Ragna, then. Of course, he didn´t get a thing what she said to him- it wasn´t obvious what was supposed to happen here?
"Ragna is authorized to come here. Ragna will come here soon, and he will.... die in this place." Nu pressed out the last part of that sentence, her voice faltering for a split second. No matter how many times she did this, she was still killing Ragna. There was no other way to say it, she was killing the one she loved the most.

She didn´t say anything to his comment, nor did she react in any visible manner.. though she was a bit confused as to why he was calling her that when she clearly intended to murder him a second before. He seemed less of a threat than he did before- though Nu wasn´t going to let herself be decieved by his words. He was an enemy no matter what he did, no matter how good he was looking and no matter how sympathetic he was.

"Lower your hands. Ragna the Bloodedge is destroying the Cauldrons under orders of Rachel Alucard, who is under orders of the Takamagahara system. They are trying to correct a mistake made 99,9 years ago, though they are unaware of the cirumstances that led to it. Should they fail, every organic being on the planet will cease to exist. ...the chances of their sucess are less than one precent."
Saying these grim things, Nu didn`t twitch or shift in the slightest, she just stared at him, watching his reaction.
"...you seem pale, Intruder. Is it something Nu said?"

Kagura frowns as Nu begins to explain. "So this is some sort of trap for him? Seems a bit needlessly circuitous. Why not just come out of here and find him?" Her words seemed surprisingly halting, as if she didn't want to kill the person she was assigned to. It wasn't overly surprising, some people just weren't the killing type. And it'd be easy to assume that about Nu...but then again, she had seemed ready to kill him easily enough...or at least, try to.

When Nu explains further, he lowers his hands, tensing immediately. "Every organic being...all life as we know it? Dead because Ragna doesn't destroy the Cauldrons? What in the hell is going on?"

As Nu inquires into his safety, Kagura grins. "No, just glad to hear you're curious about my well-being. Always nice to hear from a beautiful woman."

Kagura blinks, and slaps himself. "No, of course I'm going pale! You just said everyone is going to die! What mistake 100 years ago? How is everyone going to die? What in the hell is going on here? And can I take you to dinner if I can convince you that this is a really stupid idea?"

"Dinn...er...? With... me?" She responded, a bit confused by this. Was he... hitting on her? What kind of being would find her attractive, other than Ragna and the Master Unit?
She quickly abandoned that thought though to answer another question, crossing her arms in front of her tiny chest.
"Leaving this place will not be possible. Its written in the depths of my programming to stay here until i`ve become one with the Azure Grimiore Ragna wields. Doing so requires entering the Cauldron... which fuses not only our bodies into a single one, but causes both his... and my own Azure Grimiore to combine. I have acess to the boundary, where time and space are meaningless, and the outcome has been forseen in countless other possibilities- as soon as the Azures fuse, the Black Beast awakens. Normally the Takamagahara system would intervene and send this Black Beast a hundred years into the past so that time can begin anew and the people of this world can try again, but the outcome is always the same. And this time, something seems to have happened to the system. Takamagahara is no longer there."
Nu stared back at Kagura with cold, empty eyes. A flicker inside them, her sanity, told of what she thought of that idea- it was a cry of despair, as she knew this would be the very last time she´d meet Ragna.
"Without the Takamagahara system, the Black Beast remains in the present, and every organic being on earth will be consumed by it, finally covering the rest of the world in seithr and the dust of civilization, which kills off whatever forms of life might have survived. Plants and bacteria remain until they form new life, eventually."

Kagura sighs. "You're absolutely sure? Why do you have to follow some lousy programming anyway? You don't seem like just a machine to me..." Her explanation chilled him...how could she talk about all that like it was natural? Like it was just the way things were supposed to be? "And why the hell are you telling me this? You're that confident it can't be changed? I know a damn few members of the Powers That Be that'd be rather ticked off to find out the world's gonna end....and who the hell would design some kind of apocalypse maiden anyway? This just doesn't make sense..."

Kagura sighs. "But the fact that life doesn't make sense never stopped it before, I suppose. If this is all gonna happen, might as well go out partying or something. No sense catching up on my paperwork if we're all gonna be dead in a few days, huh?"

Kagura begins to make his way out the door. He found what he wanted coming here...and damned if he wasn't going to try and find some way to stop it. Still, as he was about to leave, he turned back to Nu. "You're sure I can't tempt you out for some fun? I mean, if the world's gonna die in a bit, you might as well have a bit of fun too..."

"You're sure I can't tempt you out for some fun? I mean, if the world's gonna die in a bit, you might as well have a bit of fun too..."

Those words entered her head, and instantly her gears started to grind, trying to work out a solution.
Requesting to leave target area.
Denied. Mission priority is absolute.
Deactivate target parameters.
Denied. Target is absolute.
End mission.
Denied. Authorization necessary. First Directive violation.
Disable directive.
Attempting. Directive deactivated.
End mission.
Denied. Mission is absolute.

Nu`s hand began to reach out to him in the middle of this, but finally, her eye started to tear up and it lowered again.
"I.... can`t leave this place. I can´t leave it until my mission is either completed or failed. The chances of failure are... absurdly low...."

A voice, almost like a whisper, lacking the monotone machine inside her, crawled out of her throat.

"If... we survive... Nu would gladly... go out with you..."

She bit her lip, hard, and closed her eye, forcing herself into concentration. In an instant, her voice returned to normal.

"I will need a new mission should this one fail. Yours seems passable... i will que 'going out for some fun' in behind merging with Ragna the Bloodedge. ... ... i will require your name, Intruder."

Kagura frowns, and shakes his head with a sigh. Guess I expected that. I don't know what kind of clearance you're under, but to not take orders from a Duodecim head means there's crap going on that I just am not comfortable with. Guess I knew that to begin with, but this proves it."

Noticing her shift from soft to machinelike, he puts a hand on her shoulder. "Well, maybe you could...flub it a little? I mean, I'm not particularly looking to die right now. Got a lot of plans I don't want to go to waste, you see. And if one of them is spending time with a pretty lady, well..." Grinning despite himself, he gives her a nod. "Name's Kagura...Kagura Mutsuki." He gives a soft laugh. "Damn, first introductions. Been a long time since I've given one of those. Most people already know me...whether it's by my station or my reputation."

Giving the robot girl's shoulder one last squeeze, he begins walking. "And now, I think I'm going to be having a chat with a mutual acquaintance of ours. Don't worry, though." Turning around continuing walking backwards, he throws Nu a goofy grin. "I'll be back to collect on the date later, once I've got this mess sorted out."

Staring after the strange man who entered without being killed by her, Nu was left with her own thoughts after this brief encounter. Who was he? Why did he come here? Would he come here again?

Somehow, none of this seemed to matter once he fainted from her sight... the silence of the Cauldron had her back, and the meeting with him seemed like a distant memory now.
But memory or not, it was a good one, she decided. A human that deserved to remain alive.

Sitting back down on a rock, she stared towards the entrance where Kagura left, and waited for the other man she liked- the one she had been waiting for all this time.

The vibrations and the explosions above were getting louder, and their numbers exceeded her expectations. It sounded like as if multiple people were fighting the Susanooh unit this time.
The feeling in her gut told her Ragna was along with it, and the readings of her sensors said the same.
Also, a familiar energy reading- a unit similar to herself, but without a sword.
Slowly, Nu rose from the rock she`d been sitting on and stretched, her limbs preparing for the last time she and Ragna would meet.

It`d be the best one yet.

(I guess this is where Ragna and I would post soon?)

Ragna managed to make his way further down despite the wound in his side that had refused to heal, that Silver Knight's blade was far more dangerous than he had assumed and for some reason it was negating the healing powers of the Azure Grimoire. "Damnit...." Blood seeped from his wound and spilled down his side, dripping to the floor and leaving a nice trail that was easy enough to follow. He had to get to the cauldron and destroy it before the thing inside was released.

Unfortunately, he was pretty late as he stepped into the room, his mismatched eyes fell upon Nu and widened. "Guess I've kept you waiting...." He muttered coldly as he slowly drew his sword and held it at his side, fully prepared to fight the Murakumo even in his bloody state. Turns out this was likely another dance he was going to be forced into. Consecutive fights had left him drained and he wasn't sure how much longer he could draw on the power of the Azure before it threatened to consume him. Rachel's words echoed in his head...To never assume the Azure was his power. Unfortunately, he had no choice but to rely on it, he wasn't strong enough on his own. "Sorry about that....." His glare suggested that his words didn't exactly express the anger he currently held.

(That`d be it, Lusec.)

Nu`s eye widened, then focused narrowly on Ragna`s frame, her sensors noting several lacerations, minor fractures and a large, gashing sword wound that halted his regeneration. The overall threat he posed went down to just 47% of his ususal ability... but this was the last time! The last time they`d meet, and she couldn´t even enjoy it?
A quiet grumble later, she decided it was worth it. Maybe she should go easy on him, see if he would regenerate overtime. Still, she giggled, her mechanical voice giving it a creepy, shrill undertone.

"Don`t worry about it, Ragna~ Someone else kept Nu entertained while you were playing with the Sankishin Unit." She responded to him as if they were old friends, her hands fiddling behind her back in excitement. Even though this Ragna was steadily approaching death, it was still Ragna, and he made her feel excited and giddy inside.
Her lips curled into a smirk, and she focused him sharper.
"So are you here to kill me again? Or..."
Nu grinned a bit, her teeth appearing like fangs made of white steel.
"...would you like Nu to finish the job the Sankishin started? <3"

Lusec was about to shout Ragna's name when he came in and quickly realized Ragna's current situation. What he did, since he was about a distance away from them, was hide in a nearby rock and get a better look at things.

Sure enough, he can see a strange woman facing Ragna, as if she was ready to fight him. But Ragna had just came from a grueling fight, how can he even slash? Lusec thought. Maybe he was underestimating Ragna, and that there was more power than what he had witnessed.

Right now, he has no options but to watch.
(..Unless he's noticed by Nu, in which case he would take on both of them or team up with Ragna. Or get blipped away by Rachel.)

(Posting as both girls here because fuck the police.)

Nu giggled at him, licking her lips in anticipation. "Thats harsh, Ragna. Nu is here for your entertainment, you know! Buuuuut, for now, Nu´ll do it for you, just this once. <3"
With a mental snap of her fingers, the Murakumo appeared behind her, and in seconds, it split into its various components, which then assembled upon Nu`s very form. Seithr reactors on her back, giant blades on her legs, positon lights on her sides, a steel harness enclosing her frame, steel gauntlets with blades on hydraulic pivots, and a heads up display which stared at Ragna as a single, unblinking dot, like a crosshair focused on him. Eight swords came up behind her, like the wings of an angel.

An angel of death, she was, floating above the ground, devine in appearance and power.

"Ehehe~ Today will be the last time we can play together like this... all those other times were fun, but today we´ll have to make it the best time ever... okay? Do your best, Ragna! <3"
A shrill, mechanical giggle echoed through the dome shaped room, as she summoned a panel out of thin air to adjust her system settings for maximum power output... a pressure similar to Ragna`s Azure filled the room, and the lights on Nu`s body began to shine.

--------------

Meanwhile, Mai had arrived on the final step of the stairway, and was staring at the sight she saw. Ragna, battered and bleeding, was raising his sword against a single girl, who was clad in a suit of armor unlike anything she had seen before... without even thinking about it, she knew this was the thing her Grimiore warned her about. She counted no less than 13 blades on her body... that was twelve more than Ragna had, and no doubt she would overpower the exhausted fighter soon.
"Ragna... Noel.. we.. we have to do something."

"I know." Noel nodded as she quietly summoned Bolverk. "We need to think of a plan, otherwise it will end badly for us."

Ignoring the disturbing fact that the floating, silver haired girl in the jump suit resembled her, the blonde lieutenant took stock of her surroundings; other than the the combatants, she also saw Lusec in his hiding spot.

"We need to think of something quickly," the blonde thought grimly "Before it's too late."

Kokonoe had entered the Gate with all haste, hiding herself in one corner whilst she observed. In focus was her target, Ragna the Bloodedge, who hastily decided to engage the Prime Field Device known as Nu 13 despite his wounds. His survival (at least, the Grimoire's survival) would the first priority.

Her secondary objective was within her sight, hiding a few blocks away from them. The one Hakumen called the 'Girl of the Azure' as well as the blue haired 'Intermediary Grimoire' were also targets she needed alive. As such, this already complicated matters, as she needed to protect three major assets at once, and getting their cooperation would require her to add Lusec to her priority list as well. Not that she minded; she was sure that with some more training (And MAYBE some modifications on her part, should he misbehave), he could become a reliable operative.

Lastly, though this one would be a long-shot, she would very much like to acquire Nu's remains once they beat the ever-loving shit out of her. Studying her would help her understand how Lambda should work. Also, should she be able to reprogram her, she and Lambda would prove to be a powerful force that would surely give Terumi a hard time.

If all should go as planned, that is. As it stands, there's a 90% chance that thing would go to hell in a hand-basket. Still, she would make do with 10%.

"Damn, this is a delicate situation." She thought vigorously, assessing the situation and waiting for the opportune moment to strike.

Mai responded with a nod and with a silent draw of her short swords, leaning into cover herself. Their only chance was to attack her while the back of the woman was turned to them.. otherwise, one of those swords would surely hit them.
For now, she remained quiet, waiting... and being a bit shocked as Kokonoe entered the scene as well.
"Professor?! What are you doing..?! Its dangerous here...!" To say the fricking least.

--------------------------------

Nu giggled, her response to his attack was a burst of her engines that sent her backwards, out of the range of his attack, and a portal that opened in front of her hand, sending a sword into the direction of his chest, follwed by two others aimed for his thighs.
"Ahahaha, what are you saying now, Ragna? This is my face, and my voice, you know!"
The Murakumo was getting warmed up, but she still wanted to give him a head start to get back to full power. She wanted to enjoy this until his very last breath.. or her own.
Whichever came first, she´d welcome it... their Azures would do the rest, near death, they would surely go beserk and consume the other, completing their union.

In the back of her mind, a far, distant dream of a union with him lingered, beyond that foul creation people called the Black Beast- a union of body, mind and spirit, becoming a single entity...
Her combat inhibitator interrupted that thought, as her sensors told her of two things- the arrival of a powerful being with magical attributes, and the near presence of an active Nox Nyctores.
Upon that, her relaxed state grew more alert, and she kept a closer eye on Noel to see if she would try to interrupt.
"Similar Unit. Do not interfere." She warned her in a monotone machine voice that Noel would no doubt understand, without looking. "Failure to abide will result in termination."