Confronting the Past: Mother and Daughter Reunite

Introduction
After Kat grabbed her gear, secretly leaving a note to her allies and guild mates, she along with her baby sister Fiona began walking deeper into the forest, miles of terrain to cover as the two swapped stories about some of the things they both experienced over the long years of being separated from each other. In Fiona's head, it was strange to hear how different the two were raised, Kat had her teachers and her guild, she only ever had was her room and her work, not exactly the family she dreamed of.

After what seemed like hours, the sisters made their way to a grove of sorts, hidden behind layer's of vines as it showed lights going through it.

"A form of energy vines" Fiona said looking to Kat who had a confused look on her face, "Mother discovered these and uses them as energy for her equipment and the guild lights" She said with a depressed tone.

"Are they dangerous?" Kat asked, trying to see through the vegetation to get a better look at what they were up against.

"Only to those without a guild mark, but don't worry, my mark emits a barrier that is a good six feet, and since you're standing in it, we're fine" She said as Kat nodded and continued following the vines, eventually reaching an opening to a cliff that revealed a built in guild right at the top of the mountain.

"Welcome to the Nature Hunter guild" Fiona said as she allowed Kat to view it.

"It looks-." taking a moment to look for the words. "Nice?" Kat was surprised, it didn't really resemble the Dark Guild headquarters she had came across in the past. It seemed, brighter. Though concealed through thick forests, the building looked like a castle cut out of a mountain. lights from the windows showed it to be inhabited, but Kat couldn't quite tell how many others there where inside. "So where's mom?" she asked.

"Most of the time she's in her lab, hidden away from the guild, and since we don't want anyone coming after us" Fiona said as she took Kat's hand, moving towards a wall as she pressed into it with her hand, causing it to split open and to reveal a door way leading down a path of stairs.

"She has her own way of getting to this lab, this is mine" She replied as the two began to walk down it.

Moving down the hallway, the sisters passed several other hallways and corridors leading in every direction. Small glimpses of what Kat saw made her stomach feel heavy as she passed bye. Rooms of medical charts and diagrams, lacrima powering strange machinery, and jars filled with all manner of things. It made her a little sick to think that this was where Fiona spent most of her time. As they walked through the hallway, a pair of voices could be herd coming from a brightly lit doorway ahead.

"Hand me the crushed Breaker Seeds, hopefully when she returns with the Phantom Seeds, we'll be able to see if the reaction with my recent formula will fuse" A female voice said as the sounds of clattering could be heard, the two came to see what appeared to be the upper half of a human a skeleton, climbing around as it passed some beakers back to the woman, reviled to have incredible looks, as she began mixing them together.

"Mother..." Fiona said as the woman simply looked over and actually had a look of surprise on her face, standing before her was her first daughter.

"My Kat, it's been quite some time" She said standing up as suddenly the skeleton changed forms, becoming a full flaming body and stood in front of her, glaring at the woman who was next to Fiona, "No Muerte, it's quite alright, I know her" The woman said as he nodded and returned back to his previous form, climbing out of the area.

Taking a moment to take in her surroundings, Kat stepped up and said. "So this is where you ran off to after dad died?" Glairing around the room, she noted several diagrams of the human body ."You always were a workaholic." she said with a grin, though her eyes remained firm.

"The work I did was ground-breaking, I couldn't stay in such a wasted area, I needed more to further my research, I'm sure the monks raised you well" She said looking back to her experiment, "Subject Nature, did you get those Phantom Seeds like I ordered you too?" She asked causally as Fiona tossed a small bag them at her. "Thank you, now go, I have no more time to waste with you, I must continue my chat with my child".

"First off, they tried to kill me for leaving the village. So I wouldn't call it a child friendly environment." Kat said impatiently. Then she grabbed Fiona's hand, as she was attempting to walk away. "And secondly, we're both your children." pausing for a moment to spin Fiona around. "But I'm sure you where the first of any of us to know that, weren't you?"

"True, though now that you're here, my experiments will be much more sucessful since your body is more honed and trained in the arts identical to your father" She said standing up to grab another beaker with a black liquid, "I'll admit Fiona was good for a prototype, but now we have a real candiate" She said as Fiona was shocked to hear everything that her mother was saying.

"Prototype?" Kat asked furious. "She's a human being, not to mention your daughter." Taking a step forward, she pointed up at Sabriel. "You can't just do whatever you want to people."

"In the field of science, one must do what it takes for the progress of it. Iif it meant experimenting on another daughter I was going to have, then so be it" She said as Muerte came back with some more bags of different herbs, handing them to his mistress as she looked through a microscope to see the reaction.

"Your mad." Kat said, seeing this conversation wasn't going to go anywhere. "Come on Fiona, let's go." Taking her sisters hand, she began walking towards the doorway they had entered through.

"Very well, but try to venture too far away, we still have experiments to do after lunch has been served" Sabriel said continuing her research as the sisters walked out of the lab.

Stopping for a moment, Kat let her pride get the better of her. "Like hell we're sticking around here." She said looking over her shoulder. "She's coming back to Bantia with me."

At that moment, the entire row of empty beakers she had near her immediatly broke from a quick release of her own magical energy, causing Muerte to start glowing bright red as she looked over, giving them an irritated look, "Who do you think you are? I will not have anyone stop this research, especially when I've dedicated my entire life to it. Your father didn't understand, and that's why he was eliminated" She said looking over at her two daughters, both had a look of shock on their face.

Kat grinned nervously, trying to keep a strong face for Fiona. "You want to go you old hag? Demon Soul: Lilim." She shouted, as her hair turned green and her clothes changed into a tight fitting leotard. Wings sprouted from her back and head as she said. "Then let's see what you got."

"Please child, I have more important things to deal with than your pathetic rebelious phase, Murete, see to it these two understand the word punishment, but do not kill, I still require them for my experiments" Sabriel said moving to clean up all the broken beakers.

In an instant, Muerte transformed into his full body form, quickly appearing right before the two, gripping their necks as he crashed through the wall, sending them both flying deep into the forest with ease, "The mistress's will be done" He said concentraiting his magic to create powerful demonic flames.

Kat stood up and was ready to fight, but looked over to see Fiona shaking in terror, not able to move even one inch as her face had the look of true fear. "Alright bone bag, I don't know what the hell you are, but your going to pay for hurting my sister." Throwing her arms out in front of herself, she called "Mage Blast." and a blue orb of magic power formed in her hands, and shot towards Muerte.

The being smiled as he summoned up a large fire barrier that manifested itself into a large skull, begining to eat the blast, containing it as he absorbed the power and redirected it back towards Kat, only twice as large as her blast. Kat's first instinct was to fly to safety, but remembering her sister behind her forced her to change plans. Her wings folded around Fiona, changing shape into a large shield. The blast's impact made her slide back about a foot, but had no other side effects. Her shield then split in half and formed into a pair of fists, which extended towards Muerte.

Muerte was caught off guard as he was sent flying into the forest, but quickly manifested multiple flaming skulls around the area, all pointed towards Kat as they were sent flying directly at her, laughing as they attempted to deal damage to Kat. As they surrounded her, Kat dove over Fiona, forming her wings into a shell to protect them both. Though she was able to hold them off, their constant battering made any sort of counterattack impossible.

Fiona saw how they were hurting her sister, and knew that she was afraid, but decided to stand up and fight, using her Slowing Magic to slow down the skulls, then started throwing knifes at them, combining them with Velocity Magic to destroy every one of them as she quickly fell to her knees, still shaking with fear.

"You dare attempt to strike back Fiona?! Then it is time for me to stop holding back and show you misable welps what punishment is!!" Muerte said channeling his flame into his body and letting out an ash storm that was aimed right at the two.

Kat grabbed Fiona's arm and jumped out of the way, using her wing to protect against the loose ash a intense heat of the flames. Landing with a roll, Kat turned, and her wings shaped themselves into an array of spikes, which extended towards Muerte. Caught off guard, Muerte made a slight grunting sound as over a dozen spikes shot through his torso. He went limp as the fire making up his body dissipated. Letting him fall to the ground, Kat reversed her Take over transformation and helped Fiona to her feet. "Come on, let's get you out of here." she said, wiping sweat off her forehead.

"Going somewhere?" A voice said as Kat quickly turned around, only to be slammed down into the ground along with Fiona, knocking the two unconsious. Muerte picked them both up on his shoulders and began taking them back to the lab.

Just as they where about to re-enter the Sabriel's laboratory, Kat began to stir. As her vision refocused, Kat immediately remembered what had transpired and sprung into action. She planted her hand on Muerte's shoulder and, using it as leverage, swung her knee into what would have been his stomach. He grunted again, and Kat jumped off of his shoulder, pulling Fiona along behind her. As she landed, she felt her head grow light as blood began running between her eyes from her forehead. Fiona laid beside her as she sank to her knees, unable to keep her balance. Glancing back up, she saw Muerte slowly walking towards her, his skeletal face seemingly burning with rage.

"I grow tired of your pathetic attempts to flee, the mistress will have her research, this I swear!" Muerte said with anger as he walked towards the two, preparing to burn their legs down so they couldn't escape from his grip again.

"Wait a moment Muerte." Said, Sabriel, who had finally turned away from her work. Following his master's orders Muerte halted, looking up at Sabriel. Kat also turned to face her, though the color began to fade from her vision. "She's got such energy, it would be a shame to let it go to waist." She said pointing at Kat. "It may be a bit premature, but I believe I could preform a couple procedures before lunch." Sabriel smiled as the thought of new experiments rushed through her twisted mind.

Kat tensed up as she explained. Taking a quick glance at Fiona, she tried to stand up, only for a bony hand to close around her neck. She kicked out as Muerte dragged her towards what looked like an operating table, her vision blurring further as she now fought for air. He lifted her off the ground then slammed her back down on the table, causing her to choke as he realised the grip on her neck. He then held her arms out to the side, preventing her from fighting back as a strange Lacrima overhead emitted a strange blue light, making Kat feel weaker as she felt her magic power draining away.

Left behind, Fiona twitched before her eyes flew open.

"Mother stop this!" Fiona said wanting to go after her, but still felt fear from her gaze as she started shaking like before.

"You have no voice in this matter, you never will, I do this in the name of science and I will make sure that everything will go right this time, especially now that I've perfect my methods on a worthless prototype like yourself" She glared at Fiona, looking back to Kat who was getting weaker and weaker by the second as Muerte kept his strong grip on her, "Afterwords, it will be time for your punishment".