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Epilogue: Battle! Emma vs. Harrier

"...You are so dead, guys," spoke a very un-psyched Emma, who was glaring at the Storm Hawks. It had been a day since the Cyclonians gave up their invasion, and wanting to get off the terra, the older teen was instead stuck in the Guardian's challenger locker-room, wearing light-heavy, golden plates that covered her chest and arms. The teenage team just sweatdropped as her annoyed face just gazed at them. They knew they should have asked her permission before answering the Rex Guardian, but she was asleep when he needed a quick answer. "… Seriously, why did you guys agreed to Harrier that I could fight him after I was healed?!"

"Come on, Emma, it isn't that bad," Piper said, as she patted the Gaian's shoulder, "This is just a sparring match, so you won't get hurt much. Besides, you and Harrier are on better terms now, so he won't kill ya anyway." The other girl just glared at her; she still wasn't satisfied against fighting the man, especially when she was expecting to get off this terra in the first place. Besides, this was probably just a trick in order to get killed "accidently".

"Anyway, why did he ask for me to fight him? He could tell just by looking that I'm easy kill," she retorted, as everyone hold up nervous smiles at this. True, she was a moderate fighter, but there was something that the gang hadn't told her. Maybe it was the right time to tell her now.

"Well, it's a pretty well-known rumor that all Gaians are really good fighters," Aerrow commented, causing the Emma to turned pale. That was completely stupid, even for them. How could they tell she was a really good fighter from where she comes from? Besides, even if the people back home were great fighters, she just couldn't imagine anyone from Modern Earth fighting for real.

Placing her hands on her hips, she said in a sarcastic tone, "You gotta kidding me." By the looks on the young team's faces, they definitely weren't. Now, she felt nervous.

"Well, even though the legends say that Gaia was a barbaric world, you guys still beat Atmos in a lot of battles during the war," said Finn, trying to make her feel relaxed even if it wasn't working, "Besides, I'm sure you've been in a lot of fights without us, and you've done fine since you're standing in front of us right now." That definitely didn't help; she knew that she had dumb luck during those times before, that along with fast legs and stamina.

But before the older teen could argue that those were just flukes, Piper put the standard Rex Guardian sword in her hand and said, "You have to get out there now, your battle is about to start!" Then, the tanned girl started to drag her out to the coliseum floor. There, the Gaian listened to the cheers of spectators as they excitedly showed their enthusiasm for this event. Oh great, now there was going to be a whole crowd to see her lose in front of Harrier; oh, she wanted to be somewhere other than here now.

'Well, it isn't a sky battle, that's good,' she optimistically thought, before looking down at the sword, 'And at least I got a weapon in this.' Then, she started to swing it wildly, just to get the hang of it. It was a little heavy, but still almost easy to maneuver. Unfortunately, the trumpets blared really loud, causing Emma to flinched and accidently let go of the weapon. It twirled through the air before puncturing the wall of the arena. She looked directly at it before saying, "Oops."

The crowd cheered more as the judges for the battle appeared. "Ladies and Gentlemen," the head judge spoke, as the crowd went silent, "We are here to celebrate the successful recovery of our grateful terra with a friendly duel. For our first challenger, we have our champion sky knight, Harrier of Terra Rex!" The crowd cheered as the Rex Guardian waved to them. "And for the challenger, one of the brave few who helped with saving this terra, Emma of Terra Atmosia!" The crowd cheered again as she waved meekly and smile weakly; at least he was true to the promise of protecting her heritage. "This battle will only use the basic rules of sparring. Competitor, approach each other and wait for the signal."

The girl gulped again, as she and Harrier walked towards each other. Her mind was caught in between "I can do this" and "I can't do this". The two stopped a few feet from each other, silently awaiting the signal. A few seconds later, the girl bowed to the man like any competitor would in a martial arts match, to give her some confidence. He raised an eyebrow at this; why would she bow to him at a time like this?

In the bowels of her mind, the teen was coming up with a strategy for this duel. She really didn't need to win since a person can't kill in a duel on purpose, so would just need to dodge until Harrier was tired. But as the signal was sounded, she completely forgot her plan. And he looked pretty scary by her point of view. So, ignoring the fact that all the walls would be hard to climb, she yelped and fled away.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and just stared at the sight in front of them. The Storm Hawks were just confused as everyone as they watched their friend ran around the stadium. Wasn't she supposed to be fighting, not running? Being the most confused, Junko asked, "What is Emma doing?"

"… The Meezi-Bugs in her legs are probably eating her muscles," freakily answered Stork as his eye twitched. Everyone else sweatdropped at that suggestion; there were no such things as Meezi-Bugs in anyone's legs. Maybe the girl was trying to warm up before the match. But they started to doubt when she tried to kick down one of the locked doors out. After a while, she stopped in order to catch her breath while the entire stadium sweatdropped at this sight.

Harrier, getting pretty annoyed at this, raised his sword and spoke, "I'm getting tired of these shenanigans!" Then, he started to run at his opponent, with a battle-cry. It was about to work too until his competitor noticed at the last minute; she jumped to the side, getting a light wound on her skin. Now, she realized she needed to keep her eyes on him in order to survive at least.

The next few minutes were just dodging, ducking, and rolling in order to avoid the Guardian's swings; there were a few near-misses, but nothing some first-aid bandages won't fix. The crowd watched with anticipation, waiting to see if was going to fight back. But she knew she couldn't do anything except dodge; she couldn't attack because she didn't have a weapon and her opponent had armor over his body.

'Not all of his places,' her mind reminded her as she took a quick glance at his body. There were no plates around his upper-sides, totally vulnerable for horizontal attacks. Getting a little bit tired of dodging, the teen did a side-kick when the man's arm was up. Everyone watched as he grabbed his side. After some silence, they cheered; now, it was a fight.

The duel continued as both competitors fought; Emma continued to dodge and kicked at him, while he swung his sword at her. It was pretty even, but due to freaking out earlier, she was really tired. So, she still had a disadvantage, but she continued to fight in order to at least get through this. Harrier, on the other hand, was being patience during the battle until he had a plan to win.

It was a few minutes later that the sky knight finally had the other fighter right where he wanted her to be. When the girl was about to do another side-kick, he grabbed her leg with a free-hand. She gulped, as the man twisted her leg, making her spin around and landing on her butt. She was about to give up, but she stopped when Harrier's sword pointed down at her chest. The crowd silently watched this development.

Feeling that there wasn't anything else she could do, she yelped, "Okay! I give! I give!"But she knew she wasn't going to do anything; the Guardian was going to kill her still as she played it out in her mind. The teen closed her eyes shut, in order for the pain to pass really quickly, and waited for the sword to go right through.

"… Stop acting like I'm going to kill you," the blonde's voice said, causing the girl to open her eyes at the sight of him offering his hand while looking away, "You're embarrassing yourself." She smiled sheepishly as she grabbed the hand and was lifted up in order to stand up. Then, they glared at each other for a second, still showing that "mutual" relationship between them.

The judges consulted with each other, before the head judge exclaimed out to the crowd, "The challenger had admitted defeat. This victory goes to Harrier of the Guardians!" The crowd cheered; not for the winner, but for the entire battle itself. The Storm Hawks ran out, right towards Emma to congratulate on a good try. For the two fighters, however, they were rubbing where the pain was.

When the squadron got there, Finn and Piper gave the older girl some pats, just before Junko put her into a bear-hug. She squirmed under the pressure before being let go; she was already in enough pain from the duel. Aerrow just looked at her and said, "Well, you did pretty well against him for the first try… And it seems he still doesn't hold a grudge against you." The brunette rolled her eyes at this. She felt that the man still wanted to kill her; he just couldn't do it with a lot of witnesses around. Anyway, the young sky knight looked at her and spoke, "So, I'm guessing you want to be going now…"

Now, if it had been earlier before this whole mess started, she would have said yes. But listening to the cheers of the people had gotten into her head and made her feel good about herself, at least a little. Looking up into the stands, she smiled and answered, "Maybe in a little bit… I still want to stay on the ground for a little longer."

The boy just smiled and nodded. Sure, a strange request after hearing her begging to get off, but maybe it was just her feeling praise. Anyway, he was happy that she and Harrier had some sort of understanding with each other now. Honor or no honor, the two were kind of-the same in their own ways. In fact, everyone has honor in their own ways. They just needed time to see it in themselves.

Meanwhile, hiding in the shadows of the coliseum, two Night Crawlers were watching the whole duel from a safe spot from the sunlight. They were sent to Terra Rex to investigate why Cyclonis lost this terra in the first place. After a day, they came up with three reasons; one was that Carver had betrayed them, the second was interference from the Storm Hawks and Rex Guardians, and the third was, as they described it, an obstacle in their path that refused to die one way or another.

One of the Night Crawlers continued to watch the scene while saying in a quiet voice, "Massster Cyclonisss will be mossst dissspleasssed when sssomething like her isss becoming more and more of a threat every sssecond ssshe'sss with them." Then, turning to his superior, he asked, "Ssshall we disssposssed of them sssoon in the night?"

His superior just shook his head and said, "No, we'll report back to Cyclonisss and wait for her to tell when to assssassssinate them. But you are right, the pessst isss becoming a problem… If ssshe'sss continuesss with her annoying exissstance, then we'll disssposssed of her along with another elssse who knowsss of her heritage." The other one just smiled sadistically; he was going to like the next mission that involved the Storm Hawks.

Stork shivered while everyone was being happy at the moment. His doom senses were tingling…

Author's Notes:

Alright, my peeps, I am officially done with this fic if you haven't read the title. So, some people are going to ask why I put in this chapter. One, to try to get my fight-writing improved, but it was a total fail. And the second, who else wanted to see a fight between Emma and Harrier?

Even though the polls didn't vote on the Night Crawlers to win, I added them anyway just to experiment with their characters. Besides, they're cool, they're hip… Maybe I should have said sleek instead of hip.

Now, for future projects, I am wondering what to do next. I am going to wonder away from the Soul Edge plot for a little while, that's for sure. I have a lot of ideas on the back burner and a few more coming up. One is working on more Storm Hawks fairy tales; I am really behind on those. The other is a three-part side story on the other OC, Katie if you don't remember Between Earth and Air,and a little bit of her experience in the story. There's also a Repton-origin story that I really need to work on, especially since it has been a really long time. And also, the OC fighting tournament that I am still working on. If there's anyone interested in this, contact me. Or you can steal it, it's like it's under heavy guard or a good alarm system.

For the reviewers, I like to thank Kitten2007, Flame Soldier, and Cold-heart-Angel23 for your reviews, along with those who have read my story. For Flame Soldier, I hope this doesn't change your views on Harrier. I respect your fandom for him since most people, and I am one of them, see him as a complete jerk. For Cold-heart-Angel23 and Kitten2007, continue to write your stories and develop your characters well in the future.

To those who have been lurking, write up your praise and/or criticism. And Please Read and Review!