FicWad

“Well, that was fun!” a cheerful, but slightly irritated, Helen said with enthusiasm.

“It was... different.” Deneve said agreeably; it was a very different from what she was expecting. The woman couldn't remember the last time she just, relaxed and played a very simple easy to get into game like the one she just had.

They even learned a few things about the Primis Group! Takeo, Nikolai and Dempsey were all soldiers of different nationalities.

Takeo Masaki is a former Officer of Japan's Self-Defence Forces.

'Tank' Dempsey is a former Corporal of the United States Army.

Nikolai Belinski is a former Sargent of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

And finally, Richtofen was a lead-field scientist of a mysterious organization called Group 935. An Organization that was now defunct.

Helen, Deneve and Naruto understood the first three were soldiers, similar to the ones who are protecting Rabona, but they were on a completely different scale. Understandable, since they were from a time where travelling the world was so simple - in their eyes at least.

They didn't learn anything else other than that; it had to be pointed out to Helen, there was no point in learning more about their former organizations as they no longer exist. They were part of an era long gone.

Suffice to say that made her a little irritated. She had been so eager to know more about the Old World. In the end though the woman relented.

“So now that... you-know-what is back, what are you four going to do?” Naruto asked the four men purely out of curiosity.

“They're not 'back' per say.” Dempsey replied. “It's just the foot soldiers. There's still a chance for us to beat them back before they get a permanent foot hold here. In the other dimensions we went too, there was only zombies – a fuck load of them, but they were nothing we couldn't handle. So far we didn't run into a Margwa. So that's a good thing.”

“I did.” Naruto said; the Primis group all stopped at looked at the blond with wide eyes. Being completely aware of the looks they were giving him Naruto added. “But that was seven years ago. I haven't ran into a Margwa since then.”

Hearing that the rightfully paranoid men all exhaled in pure relief. For a moment Richtofen thought the fight against the Apothicons would have gotten harder. But if the Margwa's – the heavy hitters – didn't show up after all this time, then they were in a much better position to fight back.

Helen put her hands behind her head and interlocked her fingers. “Well, it's good to know we got a chance to stop this before it can really begin.” Naruto gave the woman a momentary glance and nodded in agreement with her.

“As long as they're here on this continent then we have a chance at containing this plague.” Naruto murmured; the men and women around him heard what he said and were in full agreement with him.

If the zombies were just restricted to this island, and let's be honest, they're not the sharpest tool in the shed, then wiping them out would be a lot easier to do than say... them being world wide. It was what nearly made them lose the second Human-Apothicon war – they weren't prepared on how fast the infection was. The second you were bitten then 9 times out of 10 you were finished.

But this outbreak was manageable.

“I wonder how we're going to deal with this outbreak?” Naruto wondered musingly. He wasn't all that confident to be honest; out of everyone in this world – excluding the Primis group – he had the most experience when it comes to fighting the zombies.

Dumb and mindless the walking corpses may be, they are are easily taken out if there's a low number of them. But put them in a large party of over 50 and then they're no joke. If you get cornered by them, and they're swarming you from all sides, then you're fucked.

Getting ripped apart fucking hurt! The blond didn't know what was worse, burning to death or getting torn to shreds.

Helen casually put an arm around his shoulder, and the blond let out a startled grunt when the woman pulled him to her. She grinned down at him mischievously, sniggering as she ran her gloved hand through his hair. Off to the side Deneve could only shake her head at the antics of her best friend. The woman had a small smile though.

“C'mon, you have us! We'll beat them back.” Helen cheered with enthusiasm.

“You're literal super soldiers,” Naruto blandly pointed out. “You're going to have no problems beating them back either way. Considering I died to them 28 times... and almost did die for real a few days ago, I'm not so confident in us normies.”

“To be fair, you were alone there.” Dempsey countered.

Naruto gave the older man a questioning look. “How did you know I was alone?” he never told them that, so how did he know?

“The Keeper.” the American answered; after that Naruto didn't ask for more information. Given the Keeper is a protector of the universe, that reveal had told him everything he needed to know.

“But back to the point,” Naruto said. “I've been in that place for like... four decades or something, I don't know. So trust me when I say, that the walking dead are no joke if they're high in numbers. Besides, do I need to remind you of that zombie you and Deneve saw when we first met?”

“...No. That thing was admittedly hard to kill.” Helen admitted with a bitter taste in her mouth.

“Mainly because of it being able to appear and disappear at will.” Deneve added.

Teleporting; it was the most bullshit of abilities she ever had the pleasure of encountering. Miria moved so fast it was like she had teleported from one spot to another. But that zombie yoma... its power was on a whole other level.

“Right. So you can't think they're going to be easy, since there's a very high possibility there is going to be that type of zombie among them.” then he shuddered and leaned against Helen. “Besides', there was that mutated fucker who almost killed me for real too. We're going to have to deal with that thing again, eventually.” the blond exhaled sharply.

“I'm just glad we have a Keeper on our side. And that dragon too.” Deneve said aloud; then she frowned thoughtfully as a thought came to mind and looked to Naruto for an answer as she asked. “Speaking of them, where are they? I thought they would have stuck around a bit more?”

“Ember is running damage control, and is trying to kill as many zombies as possible before they get here. And as for the Keeper,” the blond stopped momentarily and took a deep breath and yawned at the same time. “it's looking for its brethren to try and give us some back up. Not sure how long it's going to take it to get back though. The Keepers aren't as numerous as they used to be.”

That had gotten him more than a few looks; and then Naruto yelped in pained discomfort when Helen got him in a headlock. “Why did you wait to tell us this now?!” she yelled at him.

This action had gotten everyone in the vicinity to look on in bewilderment at this curious sight. An irritated looking Claymore head locking someone, while another palmed her face in dismay and embarrassment at their antics.

The Primis group looked on, bemused more than anything.

“A lot of things happened!” Naruto quickly cried out when her grasp on him got tighter and tighter and more uncomfortable, “I forgot!”

Seeing his discomfort Deneve sighed, and raised her hand. Helen yelped in surprise when she felt her best friends' hand whipping across her scalp and reflexively let go of Naruto to rub her now sore head.

“Thanks, Deneve.”

Said woman gave him a nod, as if to say 'don't worry about it'. And then Helen straightened herself and put her arm back around Naruto's shoulders, acting as if nothing had happened.

“So, if your dragon friend does find more zombies for you to fight, whatcha gonna do?” the short haired woman asked. Helen knew, from Miria, that the Primis group are heroes of the Old World. They had fought the enemy – the Apothicons – and even though they had won, it had come at a great cost. Them going to confront the walking dead is a damn certainty.

Naruto on the other hand... both Helen and Deneve had a feeling on what his answer was going to be.

“I'm gonna go and fight them of course.”

Yep. That was what they were expecting from him.

X.X.X.X

It took them nearly an entire week, with little breaks in between, but they finally made it. The city of Rabona was finally within sight. Dietrich breathed a sigh of relief as did Violet, Lina and Noma.

Dietrich looked at the other groups they had ran into when they were returning.

The second group had consist of Audrey, Rachel, Nike and Clarissa; they were at the border between Lautrec and Toulouse, and Dietrich's group ran into them by pure chance. They were fighting a army of reanimated corpses of both humans and animals of 500 strong when they came along.

They backed them up, and after a long and lengthy battle, the zombified mammals and canines were defeated. The battle had caused their uniforms to be in the state it's in now: torn in their arms, legs and thighs; like someone had managed to grab on to them and pull at the seems. The light grey colour of their bodysuit was matted with blood as well.

The third and fourth groups, with Dominique and Minerva forming the third, and Letitia and Tesla forming the fourth groups had ran into them. Quite literally at that. Almost as if the fires of hell were on their asses. All of them had the unfortunate encounter with a Panzer Soldat not long after.

But after a lengthy battle with the mechanical thing, they were ultimately able to bring it down. Thankfully before it could outright kill or injure them.

“Oh, finally!” Nike exclaimed with relief, “I never thought I would be so glad to see the walls of Rabona!”

“Tell me about it.”

“I'll say.”

“It's good to finally be in a safe place!”

Dietrich heard everyone speak at once with relief evident in their voices. She couldn't blame them for that either. She was relieved to see the walls of the Holy City herself. With that in mind all four teams made their way to the city gates.

As they approached the women could see a lot of solders on the battlements. And there was a large encampment around the entrance. Many people, refugees they realised, were being kept from entering by armoured soldiers. Many people were in various states of undress too.

“What's the point of this?!” one average looking man, in his undergarments demanded fiercely.

“Why do we have to take our clothes off?!” a fully clothed woman cried out in pure, utter outrage.

Among the guards is a tall, muscular man with short brown hair decked out in full steel, plate armour, excluding a helmet. He was armed with a broadsword.

Standing beside him is a young man with long blond hair, tied back in a pony tail. He's wearing a mixture of cloth and plate armour, and is armed with multiple throwing knives and a short sword.

They are Galk and Sid, two Robanian soldiers.

Galk being an intimidatingly tall man was able to use his height to his advantage. And many of the civilians cowed at his glare. The other protesters went silent. Taking that as his cue to speak, Galk did so. “It's a new standard procedure. We had recently been attacked and had received several casualties. The reason we're having you all strip down is to make sure you're not bitten.”

“Why does it matter if we were bitten or not?!” Dietrich heard a young man cry out in anger and frustration.

“Because if you're bitten, then there's a very high chance you're gonna die.”

The soldiers looked behind them and made a clear path. The hybrids saw a single, Caucasian man with short brown hair and a moustache walking out to meet the refugees. His armour was made of a surcoat over mail with a strange circular symbol on it, chainmail and leather pants and steel plated boots and gloves.

In his hand was a metal staff. It was completely alien in its design; it looked to be made of many parts, and the top was closed. The man had the look of someone who had seen the worst the universe had to offer, and beat it with his own hands.

“I'm Dempsey.” the man introduced himself. “You people got any questions, you ask me,” he thinned his lips as he glared at them, almost daring them to argue with him. “Understand?” when no one answered he snarled threateningly. “I said DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!!” he barked, much like the military officers of old did.

Many people jumped in surprise and fear; and for a reason they do not know they stood at attention and nodded affirmatively. Dempsey grinned with satisfaction.

He still got it.

“Alright,” he began, now in a much calmer tone. “Ask your questions, one at a time. That is your first and ONLY warning.”

“W-what is the point of us having to strip down?” the first nameless, and average looking man, with his underwear being the only thing keeping his decency had asked. He was much more cowed now.

“The point of this is to see if you were bitten or not.” Dempsey answered him, and continued when he saw the same man about to open his damn mouth. “One week and three days ago the entire population of Alnwick has been wiped out. We're not even sure if there's any survivors baring who came here.” the man told them.

“H-How many survivors were there?”

Dempsey looked at the person, a young brunette haired girl somewhere in her early teens. He sighed.

“As far as we know, there's two. And they were Claymore's.” he answered her. Dempsey rubbed the back of his head with his free hand and added, “They told us about the walking dead; of how anyone that was bitten or were already dead had came back as one of them not long after.”

He of course already knew about all of this, being one of the four experts in the known world as of now when it comes to those abominations of nature. Naruto Namikaze was close to being there himself. But he didn't have as much experience as himself, Takeo, Nikolai and Richtofen.

“What happens to those that were bitten?” the 12 hybrids heard a woman shakingly ask.

“As of now, standard procedure will have those bitten locked up behind bars. Anyone who refuses will be put down.” Unsurprisingly there was an outcry of injustice at that. Dempsey however was not going to take their shit. He raised his staff into the air and, before everyone's eyes the top snapped open revealing a big glowing white crystal that had electricity crackling around it. Then everyone, excluding Dempsey, covered their ears as a thunder clap was heard when the staff released a discharge of lightning into the sky that immediately placated everyone.

Now that everyone was quiet Dempsey gave them a terrifying glare.

“This plague has a high casualty rate. 9 times out of 10, people who were bitten will die. And if you die you come back as a walking corpse. And if you're inside of the city, and that happens...”

Before any of them could answer, another person made their appearance.

“There you are!” Naruto exclaimed as he approached the American. For those that didn't see him before, they were taken aback from the way he was dressed. It was foreign. The silver eyed women could see it was a uniform of some kind, but that was it. The blond paused mid-step upon seeing the intimidated people in front of the man, he sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “'Tank'? Are you intimidating them?”

“No, I'm not.” Dempsey motioned to the assembled crowds and said, “They're bitching and moaning, while these soldiers are trying to keep everyone behind those walls safe. They want answers, I'm telling them, on my terms: they need to shut up and listen or get a boot up their fucking asses.”

“...right.” Naruto answered in a tone that told the man, he didn't believe him. Then Naruto noticed the teams of Dietrich, Audrey, Dominique and Letitia and he pointed at them. “We got silver eyed people here!”

That brought everyone's attention to them. Galk was quick to get them to follow him and Sid inside of the city. They did so without hesitation.

“How come they're allowed in immediately and we're not?” the hybrids heard one of the irritated people being kept out of Rabona, ask demandingly.

“They're super humans, genius.” came Dempsey's smart assed answer. “Out of everyone here, they're the ones who are most likely immune to whatever is making the dead rise up. Because if what is said about them is true, they can't get sick. Unless you can counter that?”

Naruto cleared his throat. “Now, for those who were cleared of bites already, get yourself dressed and move to my right. For those that weren't cleared, stay put and strip down to your underwear!”

“...Who are those people?” Dietrich asked Galk and Sid; she couldn't help but look back at them out of curiosity.

“They happen to be newcomers to Rabona. They just showed up around a week ago.” Sid answered her. “The blond one has some history with Cynthia and Miria, Flora and Yuma, Veronica and Eliza, and Helen and Deneve.”

“From what it is said, he went missing a near decade ago. Don't know where he disappeared too.” Galk added on with a shrug.

“I'm not one for gossip, but it is said he spent those seven years in some far off land, fighting off all sorts of twisted monsters all by himself. But I would take that with a grain of salt.” Sid added; he sighed and crossed his arms. “But what we do know is that the kid showed up a week and a few days ago. From their lack of reaction to his sudden appearance, Miria and several others that knew him was told ahead of time of his impending arrival. Then several days after that both Helen and Deneve show up, with this giant demon-creature attacking both them and Naruto. But you're going to have to ask them for the rest.”

Duly noted, Dietrich thought to herself.

Out of pure and honest curiosity, about the man with that weird circle symbol on his cuirass over mail, Audrey asked. “What about that man who was with him? Who is he?” to discharge a bolt of lightning the way he did... there was no way that thing he had was normal.

“If the word around him is true, then that man is a part of Primis.” Galk answered.

“P-Primis?!” Nike stammered in disbelief, much like the other 11 when that revelation was dropped on them. “As in, the Legendary four that saved the world from a great evil? THAT Primis?!”

“If the word around them is not a lie, then yes.” Sid replied.

The two women couldn't help but look back at Dempsey from over their shoulders. While they're not superstitious in anyway, they did hear a lot about the heroes of old. Of Primis and how they saved the world, but at the great cost of the Old World collapsing.

If he is a part of that group, then they were in the presence of a living, breathing Legend!

And if he truly IS part of Primis, then what is he doing here? And how is he still alive after all this time?

Sid and Galk have seen their fair share of weird things. Clare having to infiltrate the Holy City in order to kill a yoma. A hybrid hidden herself in the city as a nun for nearly a decade. And then the Holy City was attacked several times, with the hybrids coming to defend it.

Then after everything that happened earlier in the week? Having four Legendary heroes showing themselves for the first time since their disappearance 3000 years ago, along with an ally of theirs that were talked through stories? They weren't all that surprised anymore.

X.X.X.X

The 12 women were led to a barracks and when they walked inside they saw Commander Miria, and quite a few other silver eyed women they recognised standing around a table. Amongst them were three men wearing the same armour and carrying the same but fundamentally different staff. There were several Rabonian soldiers as well. One of them being a general.

The general was in a heavy heated discussion with the men in crusader armour from the sounds of it, with Miria acting as a buffer between the two.

“Why should we listen to what you say?” the general demanded. “If you are who you say you are, then you're from an age long passed. What does anything you say have any relevance now?”

Nikolai looked the armour clad man in the eye and said with a perfect poker face. “Are you capable of killing your own family?”

“...What?” he growled viciously.

Despite the warning growl, Nikolai thinned his lips and added. “This plague can infect those through bites. The infected will get sick. And they will die. Then they will return as a walking corpse in less than a day.” he smiled, but there was no amusement in it. It was cold. Detached. “It is what happened to my family. To my wife and child. To my mother and father. Their deaths could have been avoided, if one refugee had shown he was bitten. Instead he had turned and infected my family, who I had to kill when they turned. That is why it has any relevancy today.”

“Unress you want to suffer through what Nikorai has, you wourd be wise to risten to him Generar...” Takeo told the general who was now contemplating on what he had just been told.

Knowing he was being asked for his name, the man gave them it. “O'neil.” he glanced at Nikolai, Takeo and Richtofen and let out a tired sigh. “...How fast can this thing spread from person to person?”

“It varies from person to person.” Richtofen answered. “Ze healthier ze person is, ze longer it takes for zem to turn. However, zere are a few people like meinself, Nikolai und Takeo zat are immune. Dempsey und Naruto are immune also.”

“Is there a way to spread this immunity to others?” Miria asked, everyone was disappointed when Richtofen shook his head no.

“There was way to cure infection with these staffs.” Nikolai revealed.

“What?!” General O'Neil bellowed in outrage. “How come you're not using them to heal the people outside the city walls?!”

“The prace which granted the staffs the power to do so, is no ronger accessibre.” Takeo calmly answered him. “Northern France... No Man's Rand... the prace we wourd need to go, was sprit off from the mainrand of Europe and had sunk into the depths of the ocean. And more and more continents had suffered the same fate of spriting off during the war.”

“Which means we would need to go into the depths of the ocean, and travel 5000 feet under water, or more. Which is no longer possible.” Nikolai told them and seeing as the general was opening his mouth to continue, the Russian added. “And even if you had technology to achieve this, you would have to go to last known location of France... which would have been under water, eroding away to the passage of time for the past 3 to 4 thousand years. Do the math.”

That made the general clamp his mouth shut and growl under his breath. Neither of the men were intimidated in the least. Miria on the other hand could feel some sympathy for the man, as she's much the same way when it comes to her own comrades. Her fellow hybrids.

Speaking of, the woman finally noticed the 12 new arrivals and was worried when she saw their dishevelled state.

Miria stood up and said. “Dietrich! You're back!”

When everyone looked in their direction the former No. 8 took a deep breath and nodded. “We are. All 11 of us. And we have grave news.”

Everyone immediately went silent and patently awaited for her to begin. Dietrich was the one to go first.

“My group fought a small army of walking corpses, and later encountered a second one at Nile Village in Mucha. The streets of the Nile Village was completely overrun with the living dead. There were no survivors.” She took a moment to collect her thoughts. “As we made our way back to the Holy City we were ambushed by animals who too were like the living dead.”

“What...? Animals are capable of being infected too?” one of the solders murmured out if horrified realization.

Although she was very concerned about this revelation, Miria held up a hand and gestured for Dietrich to continue. She wanted to hear everything.

“We came across Audrey's group by pure chance. And after helping them get out of some trouble we retreated back here.”

Dietrich then looked at Audrey who took that as her cue to tell Miria everything that happened on your end.

“My group was at the border between Lautrec and Toulouse when we fought a small army of the walking dead. We took care of them though. After attempting to get back to Rabona, we ran into another, much bigger, army of these dead people and wolves. A thousand strong, if I had to estimate.” she paused to catch her breath and to gather her thoughts. “That was when Dietrich's group came and helped us defeat them. We encountered Dominique and Letitia's groups not long after.” The former No. 3 reported to her commander.

Then Dominique and Letitia exchanged looks, before the former sighed and took a step forward.

“Mine and Letitia's group were on our way back to Rabona after discovering several towns had been emptied. There was blood everywhere. On the streets, on the walls, on the doors and windows. There were no bodies. Our groups met up a day later and we decided to high tail it back here.” Dominique, Minerva and Letitia and Tesla all shuddered as they remembered what happened next. “And then, a day later, this... armoured behemoth of some type with fire coming out of its back, feet and hand dropped from the sky and attacked us!”

Letitia picked up where Dominique left off seeing how stressed she was becoming. “It was made of some of the hardest and thickest metal I had ever seen. Our weapons glanced off of it at worst, and made a small dent in it at best.” she glanced at Tesla and Minerva. “We had to retreat from it since we had no sure way to hurt it. But it shot fire from its feet and back, and it managed to keep pace with us and it used fire to try and harm us. We don't know how long we were running for, but we eventually ran into Audrey and Dietrich's groups. We managed to kill it after a lengthy battle by stabbing the fucker through the front of its exposed helmet.”

“Then all of us made our way here as fast as possible.” Audrey concluded.

The entire room was silent throughout the whole thing, and by the time they were finished recounting their events leading them back to Rabona, there was a very, very tense atmosphere in the room it was almost suffocating.

“It looks like the dead are already spreading.” Nikolai said with a scowl of distaste. He then looked to General O'Neil and told blandly told him. “This is why your soldiers are getting refugees to remove clothing before entry. No bites means no people turning. You let them in without checking, you can possibly doom entire city.”

“What about those that are hurt?” Galk asked, “Some of the refugees may have hurt themselves when they were running away.” The man greatly appreciates everything they're doing to keep everyone in Rabona healthy and alive, but he is merely covering all the spots they may have missed.

“If the injured are not bitten, then you ret them in.” Takeo told him.

“And if they are bitten... well, you should know what to do by now no?” Nikolai rhetorically said.

He knew the question itself was rhetorical but one of the soldiers answered it anyway. “Lock them up for one day and one night. If they make it, they can rejoin the other refugees, if not...” he made a grimaced as if there was a bitter taste in his mouth. “...then we make sure they don't get back up.”

Nikolai stroked bearded chin as he brought everyone back to the main point. “If they were attacked we might have to go and kill as many as possible.” the man was clearly referring to Dietrich and the other three groups.

“Yes! Zat is right!” Richtofen motioned Nikolai and Takeo to follow him as he abruptly made to leave the barracks. “Ve should go und make sure zey are back vhere zeye belong: 6 feet in ze ground!”

Nikolai and Takeo followed him without hesitation.

“By ourserves?”

“Ve alvays did zese things alone. Und ve alvays succeed. Zhis should be no different.” Richtofen answered with confidence.

“Try not to get too confident.” Nikolai advised him. “Arrogance and confidence is bad combination; is downfall to many great men.”

General O'Neil watched them go, and when they left, the man let out an exhausted sigh and looked to the acting Commander of the remaining hybrids.

“What are you to do?” he asked her.

Miria straightened herself and gave the general a neutral look. “What we always do. But instead of yoma we are to fight, it is the living dead. And I want to keep from having as many casualties as possible.” she motioned to the door Nikolai, Takeo and Richtofen walked out of. “Since they fought the living dead and are the only people alive, excluding the Keeper, with the knowledge and experience to handle them I am taking any advice they can give. And you should too.”

With that Miria went out of the room. With that as her way of saying their meeting is adjourned, the others dispersed from the room.

O'Neil however stayed behind and stared at the table. He had a thoughtful expression on his face; Miria seemed to hold those men in high regard. With a sigh the general turned and made his way out of the room, he'll give them the benefit of doubt for the moment.