Rebel 8: The Closed Book

When Louise came to, she had no damnable idea where she was.

Everything around her was black, and spanned on for eternity. She could feel... something, pulsing in the background, like the heartbeat of God.

This place unsettled her. Slowly, she began to recall how she might have gotten here.

The Banish spell she and Rachel worked on. Wherever she sent Azrael, she must have gotten caught up in it too. Founder only knows where this is.

"Oi, Louise!" a strikingly familiar voice echoed through the void. Pivoting who knows how many degrees around, she noticed none other than Ragna the Bloodegde jogging towards her.

"Ragna, you're here too? What happened?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," the white haired reaper said. "We were fighting Terumi, when the Azure Grimoire reacted to something, and suddenly, I was here."

Louise parsed the information. "I wonder, did my spell connect with it?" she muttered. "I only got here because I tried to use an experimental spell on Azrael, and got caught in it."

"Ugh, really? That's what happened?" the sickenly twisted voice of Terumi joined in. "Of course it'd be some bullshit like that."

"Terumi," Ragna spat, feeling his anger boil. Seems Kokonoe's drug wore off some time ago.

"But, if you're here," Louise continued, "then where's Azrael?"

"That mangy old mutt?" Terumi dusted his cloak. "Believe it or not, even that fool's not got what it takes to last long here."

"And where exactly is here?" Louise asked.

Stepping in to full view, Terumi pointed off in one particular direction, at a strange blue light off in the distance. "Take a look, you morons," he spoke, "at the one thing basically all mortals strive to get their grubby hands on: The Azure."

BLUE

This is a force.

"That's... the Azure?" Ragna muttered, instinctively looking at his right hand.

"I told you, that one you've got's a forgery," Terumi spoke. "Hell, even the one that made up Hazama was fake." Terumi let out a sigh, as he flicked his hood off. "Never thought I'd make it here because of some brat from another dimension. It'd usually take the Origin or the Eye in order to open the gate, yet you just went and fucked the natural order. Gotta say, not too bad."

"Okay, what the shit?" Ragna shouted. "Why are you acting all... chatty?"

"Well, some of us are gonna die soon," Terumi stated plainly, "so I figured I'd at least give you some answers."

"Bold assumption there, snake-ass!" Louise shouted, producing her wand. "I may not know much about the Azure, but I sure as hell won't let you have it!"

"Damn right!" Ragna agreed, drawing his trusted blade. "In case you haven't realised, it's two-on-one right now!"

Terumi smirk his usual way, putting his hood back up. "Then it's an even fight."

Track Set: Centralfiction

As he stated, it actually was rather even. Terumi was swift enough to dodge most of Louise's spells, and strong enough to parry each of Ragna's strikes. Unfortunately for him, that meant they were capable of matching him blow for blow as well. Louise was surprisingly quick on her feet, and Ragna was formerly the worlds most wanted criminal for a reason.

Yet, despite everything, Terumi found himself enjoying this battle. Wrapping his leg in green energy, he let out a shout of "Divine Twin Blades" as he delivered two flip kicks at Ragna.

Nimbly dodging the strikes, Ragna launched into the air, his blade shifting into scythe form to deliver a clear, heavy strike. Synced up perfectly, Louise let loose one of her famous failed spells, exploding directly on Terumi's chest.

Reeling back a few steps, Terumi charged his energy into his right hand, and lunged forward. In response, Ragna did the same with his left hand, letting it get engulfed in black and red flames.

The Snakebite versus Hells Fang.

The attacks collided in a spectacle of red and green. A hand lock was held for quite a while.

"You know, Terumi," Ragna spoke, "if you weren't such a piece of shit, we might have had an interesting rivalry. The Ryu and Ken of our time, you know?"

"What's this sappy bullshit, Raggy?" Terumi said back, a faint hint of amusement in his voice. "Trying to talk your way out of this? That ain't like you."

"Just taking the opportunity, is all," he responded. "Considering I killed you in my timeline, I figured I'd just get this off my chest."

"Well, ain't that sweet?" Terumi chuckled. "You know what the sad thing is? You're not wrong." He felt his push start to get over powered, and his feet skid against the ground. "I've seen literally every timeline there is to see. Heck, I've seen one where you and I are band members. If you weren't the Origins favourite, and I the monster you had to kill, then who knows?"

Ragna chuckled, pushing harder against Terumi's hand. "Now who's getting sappy?"

Yet Terumi continued to push back. "Says the worlds angriest man to the worlds biggest asshole."

"Well, that's also where we differ," Ragna smirked rather triumphantly. "See, my anger actually gave me friends." And like that, the lock was broken, with Ragna leaping back a fair ways. "Hit it, Shorty!"

As Terumi stumbled forward, he noticed a few things. One: Louise was directly a head of him. Two: She was surrounded my an over the top amount of glyphs, meaning very big, very powerful spell. Three: It was aimed right at him. And lastly: he could not dodge it in time.

"Well," Terumi uttered, "fuck me sideways."

Fitting last words for a man in oversized laser range. Were they somewhere with destroyable ground, there would be a massive gouge in the earth. More to the point, though, was that there wasn't a single trace of Yuuki Terumi left.

Track End.

Louise fell to the floor, utterly exhausted. Ragna fell not long afterwards, though not quite as wasted. "Well, I guess that's that," he said rather chipperly.

"How... in the hell... can you be so relaxed right now?" Louise said between breaths. "We may have killed two psychopaths with one stone, but we're stranded Founder knows where."

"Ah, you worry too much, sis," Ragna chuckled. "If there's one thing I've picked up over the years, it's the knowledge that, at the end of the day, some things just work out. Heck, I'll bet if we just pick a direction and walk, we'll eventually get somewhere."

Louise let out a sigh. "Well, it's better than nothing, but let's just rest a spell, yeah?"

One year has passed since the event that went down in Halkeginia's history as 'The Edge of Madness', and a new threat has arisen.

A dragon far larger, and far deadlier, than any inhuman creature the land had ever seen, was running rampant. The thick miasma it protrudes leaves all those that try to approach it incapable of combat, and all dragons fight in servitude to this Ancient Dragon.

Only one man stands against it. One man who waits for the person who saved him to return. One man who, despite not belonging to this world, made it his own.

He is the White Void. He is the Cold Steel. He is the Just Sword.

With blade in hand, shall he reap the sins of both this world, and his own, and cleanse them in the fires of destruction.

He is Hakumen, the Gandalfr, the Familiar of Zero.

The end... has come.

A/N:

And there we have it, what I believe to be the most fitting end for this fic.

Bit on the short side for a final chapter, sure (roughly 1200 words), but sometimes, the final part doesn't have to be the longest.

As for why we end it here, rather than continue with some of the other FoZ stuff... Well, let's just call a cow a cow. The Blazblue-verse is, quite frankly, an overpowered one.

Not in the same sense that Dragon Ball is an overpowered verse, but the main driving force for this piece was in Azrael and Terumi, the only people that could pose a threat to a world with a full powered Hakumen and company. Throw in connecting Void magic to the Boundary, and really, there's not much else to do.

So, we end it here, with Hakumen's signature speech, against the final foe of Familiar of Zero (at least, by the anime's timeline).

This has been FlameOf, signing off on the White Void.