They followed Shirou single file through the broken doors of the hospital and down a large hallway. There was an indoor garden in the distance ahead with pathways leading to different areas of the building. It was overgrown with vines creeping up the sides of the walls. Shrubs and bushes had grown tall creating archways of green over top of each pathway. It was most likely used as a therapy space for ill patients. It was similar to a greenhouse although the roof had lost all of it's glass letting the rain in, pooling water in different areas. It was beautiful, the air was thick with moisture, housing insects and birds of all kinds.

They crept in as silent as possible one after the other, holding their guns at eye level and their weapons ready. They reached three different pathways. One to the left, one down the middle, and one to the right. "Which way will lead us up?" Veda thought. She focused on her senses, searching for cursed in the building. It was almost like viewing the building on a grid, she could feel their presence on each level and the directions they were in.

"What do you sense Veda?" Shirou whispered.

"Cursed to the left and right." She whispered back.

Shirou flicks a free hand in the direction of the middle path and they quietly shuffle down it listening for unusual disturbances.

They pass through the garden area and into another hallway. There were no windows, only emergency lights running along the middle of the ceiling. The generator must still be on, which gave them more light to see as they made their way to the rooftop.

They come to a set of double doors, the door on the right is hanging from it's bottom hinge and the other is closed. Above the doors reads Medical Surgical Ward in Japanese.

Shirou signals everyone to crouch behind the left door. They sneak behind it and kneel. Shirou puts a finger to his mouth then to his ear. Everyone nods and listens. He peeks his head up over the glass in the door and looked beyond into the next room.

"Bang!" Something slammed against a wall beyond the doors and everyone jumped. The banging repeated three more times before a gurgling noise and dragging footsteps began. It was coming straight for them.

Shirou held up his blades, waiting for it. It wandered through the doors, twitching and shaking. They watched it turn its head slowly, it's blood-filled eyes make contact with Veda's but before it could let out a scream, Shirou snuck behind it and sliced his blade into the back of its head. He lowered the body to the ground as it convulsed on the floor blood spilling out of it's wound.

Shirou peered through the open door again, and looked back at us, holding three fingers up.

"Three more cursed ahead." Veda said to herself. She nodded to Shirou and so did the others. She reached into a slot on her belt and brought out a silencer. She twisted it onto the barrel of her AK then made her way up beside Shirou as quietly as possible and peered around him.

Beyond was a large circular room barely lit with emergency lights. She could see live wires hanging from the ceiling, sparking on the wall to the right. To the left we're three dark shadows seizing and shuddering as they wandered aimlessly around the room.

Veda placed a hand on Shirou's shoulder and pulled him away from the door. He moved giving her room and she kneeled bringing her scope to her right eye. She searched the room for a cursed head, dragging the red laser along the walls until she found one. She pulled the trigger and it went down, then she searched for the next, and the next. They all go down quietly, aside from the thump sound their bodies made as they hit the hospital floor.

"Nice shot." Shirou said smiling.

"I know." She replied and she returned to her positioned post beside Shannara.

Shirou signaled everyone to advance forward. They creep through the door rushing with silent steps, closing open doors on the way down the hallways, blocking off any cursed that might attack from behind. They walk into the open room.

The room was large with two hallways leading to patient rooms on either side. Veda remembered the other hospitals she had been in always had exit doors with stairways at the ends of each hospital wing. But straight ahead we're large floor to ceiling windows, mostly broken, with a balcony leading out to a sitting area. If they can get out there, her servants could scale up the side carrying them one by one. It was the easiest way to the rooftop she had decided.

Veda lowered her gun and took Shirou's arm.
"Balcony and then up." She said keeping her words quiet and short.

He nodded in response.

They made their way over to the balcony with no interruptions. Skirting by shards of glass and decaying bodies, some still wearing their nurses uniforms. They approached the seating area outside.

The balcony encircled a wide patio below it, Veda looked over the side of the railing. She gasped. There were hundreds of cursed standing still side by side, their bodies vibrating as their heads hung low. Something wasn't right about this. It was almost as if someone had gathered them and froze them in place.

Everyone else had gathered around her leaning over the railing watching them.
"Somethings not right." Cu whispered.

"No, this is suspicious, we need to keep an eye out. Let's get to the top of the hospital." Fergus replied.

Veda could sense a strong signature coming from the other side of the hospital. "The other Servant." She thought.

"We need to leave this area now!" She snapped, and Cu already had her in his arms leaping from building ledges and windows to the top of the hospital above them. Next was Luca with Fergus, then Cu came back down with Fergus to get Jax and T-rex.

"Hey man! I'm no princess and I won't be carried like one! Give me a good boost and I'll jump up myself!" T-Rex complained..

"That sounds like a better idea." Cu replied.

He clasped his hands together in a kneeling position and T-Rex stepped onto them with one foot. Then Cu lifted him up, throwing him high enough to catch the edge of the rooftop. He climbed the rest of the way up and Veda helped him off the side. Fergus did the same with Jax, only he, being much lighter than T-Rex was thrown much higher landing with a thud on the rooftop. Veda burst out laughing as quietly as she could.

"You shush!" Jax said.

The two that were left were Shirou and Shannara. But before they could make the leap up, the sound of chains we're heard around them. Shirou was suddenly knocked into the wall ahead by chain and Shannara was picked up by another and carried over top of the patio below.

She hung there gripping the chains around her neck as they choked her, tightening around her body.

"Shannara!" Veda screamed.

But Shirou was already on his way to save her. He leaped out grabbing a chain, swinging himself up onto another where he stabbed at an invisible being causing the chains around Shannaras neck to loosen. She cried out in pain and gasped for air.

They hear the sinister laugh of a female voice. Then she appeared at the center of the chains holding her up above the cursed with Shannara.
"What do we have here?" She smirked. "Three servants, two mages and two humans? Although one is not so ...human."

"Let her go Rider!" Shirou yelled and took a step forward.

She let Shannara fall a few more feet before catching her again.

"Tsk, tsk." She said, shaking her head. "I wouldn't do that if I were you. One more move and I drop her!" Her last words seemed to have woken up the dead below, they were shrieking and screaming out for blood.

Shirou stopped.

"I suggest the rest of you stay where you are if this mages life means something to you!" Rider scaled down her chains like a spider in a web towards Shannara. She grabbed her hair and pulled her head back.

"You are a strong mage aren't you." She said.

"Let us go! You don't know who you're dealing with, Medusa!" Shannara replied.

"Medusa!" Veda thought.

"Oh? Are we starting introductions? You all know who I am, I would like to know who the blonde girl is up there. She is not like any human I've ever sensed."

Veda stood and gathered her wits.
"My name is Veda Rae, I am humanity's last hope, its last form of salvation. I can cleanse the curse from any man, which I have done to Berserker and a thousand others!" She called out to her. "We need your help!"

"Interesting! You don't look like humanity's salvation! And how am I to believe all of this?" She laughed. "I know! Why don't we test your theory, see if you can cleanse these cursed creatures before they devour your mage!" and the chains suddenly released, Shannara plummeted into the ground below with all the cursed.

"No!" Veda screamed. She took two steps towards the edge of the rooftop in an attempt to leap off the building, but Cu grabbed her before she could go any further.

"LET ME GO CU!" She yelled tearing at his hands.

"No! You will die down there!" He cried to her, then pulled her in closer. They watched as the cursed devoured Shannara limb to limb as she screamed and wailed attempting to fight them off with fire explosions.

Veda fell to her knees sobbing with Cu holding on to her.

"RIIDERRR!" Shirou shouted, and shot towards Rider striking her with his blades. With a flick of her hand she had Shirou tied in chains unable to move.

Veda was furious, a temper building inside of her. A revelation was forming, it started from the deepest part of her mind, breaking through unknown barriers that held it closed. Her eyes began to burn, her hands began to glow a bright blue, and the air around them picked up.

"Cu...I suggested you move..." She growled at him in a two toned voice.

"Veda! stop this, you're not going down there!" He argued.

"CU! I WILL GIVE YOU ONE LAST WARNING! MOVE!" She yelled and a force exploded from her throwing him, Jax, and T-Rex backwards.

She stood hands clenched breathing heavy, as the cursed power consumed her body. Her mind went wild as she let it out. Energy was pushing out of her like waves, Cu was unable to get close to her again. With her power peaking she stood before the rooftop side.

Fergus had gone to help Shirou and was battling with medusa now.

"MEDUSA!" Veda screamed out and the building shook, glass shattering with the vibrations.

Everyone stopped to look at Veda. She was glowing with power. She leapt off the building onto the chains in front of her two servants and Medusa.

She stabilized herself on the chains, and rose to her feet. She looked at the cursed below her scratching and ripping at each other to get to them. Her anger surging through her.

"WHAT YOU HAVE JUST DONE WILL NEVER BE FORGIVEN!" She screamed as more voices joined her words. She was pulsing with cursed energy and it shot out of her like a sonic boom over and over. Each wave blew a force of power into the air pushing against her enemy. Revealing to them her true form, her second nature what she is and will become.

Medusa glared at her, unable to make a move. She watched in disbelief, that a human can possess that much curse and still keep their sanity.

"I will show you what I can do!" Veda shouted in not two but six different tones now. An evil grin tugged at her cheeks and her eyes flared at her enemy flashing orange and red. She began to speak to the cursed.

"I take the curse from you and restore your souls! May you be reborn! I RELEASE YOU!" She screamed. The ground shook and power exploded from her hands. Veda began to levitate into the air slowly. As the bright light from her hands grew she held them out to her sides. She called to them one more time.

"I RELEASE YOU!" Another explosion and her entire body is engulfed with white light. The entire city became a vortex of energy sucking the cursed out of the dead and into Veda's chest. She shook and twitched as her back arched taking in the darkness from them. Out of her hands, a white light streamed into the dead bringing them back to life, back to normal beings.

There were no words for this, not one person made a sound. No one called for Veda, or tried to help. They knew. This was what she is, what she was made for. If anyone we're to stop her now, they would be stopping thousands of lives being restored. So they stood and waited for her to fall.

She took the cursed in letting it consume her mind. This was more than she had ever absorbed before. It felt as if her brain matter was being pulled apart. Voices were screaming in her head so loudly she began to lose her vision and her sense of reality. She needed to hold on until it was finished, until she had restored all the souls in the city. She pushed herself harder, blocking out the voices. It was then that she lost consciousness and the darkness took her.

Cu watched, horrified at what was happening to her, this wasn't anything like what happened with Berserker. She was taking in more curse than she ever had before, her entire body shook with it as she raised into the air. But there was nothing any of them could do, only wait until it was over. Cu would be ready to catch her when she fell.

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

It took some skill to get to Hiroshima castle. With the entire city restored, the streets we're a mess of confused people wandering around calling for loved ones. It wasn't like our group to leave them with no answers but Veda needed help. She was unresponsive and barely breathing at times

The amount of cursed she absorbed had burst through her clothes and destroyed any weapons she was carrying aside from her Katanas which were now pulsing with cursed energy. When it was all over,she fell from the sky and Cu managed to catch her bringing her safely down to the hospital balcony. Shirou wrapped her in his cloak and they left with the new servant, the servant who had taken a life from them, a comrade they so desperately needed.

Rider agreed to join us in our mission and she would take Veda as her master when she was ready and able, as we have restored the city and her masters family. She brought us back to Hiroshima Castle where we met her master, an eight year old boy, and he provided us with accommodations and food and clothing for Veda. Cu was still furious with what happened to Shannara and vowed never to trust Rider no matter what she does or says from now on.

He carried Veda to her room and laid her down in the bed provided to them. Adjusting her so she was as comfortable as possible just like before. Cu was starting to hate this part the most, watching someone he loved being torn apart from the inside and not being to do anything about it was unbearable. He wished he could help her, maybe even take the curse into himself, but that is not his purposes in this war, his purpose is to make sure Veda gets to the grail and restores the world.

He sighs as he runs a hand along her cheek.

Yes he loves her, he has accepted that. In all his years of being a servant he has never loved someone so deeply before. The thought of losing her in this war was something he feared all the time. He knew, the moment she raised into the air in front of them, that she may die to save civilization. She herself has become, some sort of servant just like them, and she hasn't even lived yet. Still young, still pure, still new to the world.

"You deserve better than this." He whispers to her.

But Veda can't answer him right now. She is fighting back the curse from the deepest depths of her mind. Without Shannara here, who knows if she will be able to break free from it.

A small noise escapes her mouth as Cu brushes a strand of hair out of her face.

He looks at her waiting for another response and she suddenly jerks and sits up straight, nearly hitting Cu in the head with her shoulder.

"Veda!" He gasps. But something isn't right. She doesn't respond, she stares at the wall of the room ahead. It is only darkness beyond them, except for a small candle lit beside Cu on the nightstand. "what is she looking at". He thinks.

"Veda!" He says and gently shakes her shoulder. No response.

Her mouth falls open, and a low two toned growl escapes her.

"What the hell? Veda! Wake up!" He calls shaking her harder now.

Her head snaps towards him, and he realizes he is no longer speaking to Veda. He is speaking to the curse directly. It was seeping down her eyes, a black smoke oozing from them disappearing into the air. She snarls at him, and moves her body into a cat like position. She shrieks and Cu jumps up from the seat beside her backing up towards the door.

"Shit!" He says. "I NEED A LITTLE HELP IN HERE! He yells.

He can hear the sound of footsteps running down the hall. "Thank God." He thinks to himself.

Shirou and Fergus rush through the door only to see Veda has somehow climbed up the wall and onto the ceiling. She hangs upside down staring at them all growling and snarling.

"What the fuck.." Shirou gasps.

"Get her down!" Fergus yells and he jumps up onto the bed, grabbing a black veiny arm. Veda shrieks again, it was ear piercing bringing us to our knees. Fergus quickly grabs a pillow and smacks her in the face with it. Well that shut her up, but that also pissed her off and she leaps into Fergus, scratching and tearing at him like a cursed zombie. He is barely able to keep her from drawing blood, Cu comes forward and grabs her by the waist, before she is able to turn Fergus into undead Fergus.

Veda is kicking and shrieking as Cu tries to get control of her. She's strong and overpowering him so he throws her against the wall opposite the bed and she hits it falling to the floor. Then he pounces on her back forcing her down before she can get back up. It was like wrangling a large cat, claws and teeth snapping and scratching at anything close to it .

"Shut the door quick! And get me some goddamn chains.!" Cu yells. Just as he said chains Rider makes her entrance to the room and slams the door shut. She lets out her chains giving one long section to Cu. He ties her hands together around her back, then wraps it around her legs chaining it all together then he stuffs a cloth they used to clean her up in her mouth. With Veda hogtied and gagged he relaxed himself on her back, relieved to have finally gained control over her.

"WHAT IN THE HELL IS GOING ON?" Fergus shouts.

"The curse has taken her mind." Shirou replies, kneeling down in front of Veda as she snarls and glares at him through black smokey eyes. "I don't know how to get her back. Without Shannara...We can't do anything for her."

Rider interrupts.
"I can stun her for a few hours, maybe her mind will restore itself if the curse is absent."

"It's worth a shot!" Cu says.

"Close your eyes Cu Chullainn." She says and walks over to Veda who is still fighting the chains and Cu sitting on her back. She looks into her eyes and lifts the cloth covering her own.

"Mystic Eyes." She whispers and white light shoots out of her eyes and into Vedas, she becomes limp underneath Cu, and slowly falls into a deep sleep.

"It is done! She will be paralyzed for a few hours. But this might be a good time to try and guide her back using your thought connection." She says looking at Cu.

"I'll try my best. I just hope the voices don't shut me out again." He replies.

"They shouldn't, that part of her has been paralyzed. If she isn't back to normal in a few hours I will do it again. Let me know I won't be far." She gets up and walks towards the door and stops. "Cu, try describing fond memories to her she might respond to those." She says before exiting the room.

Everyone in the room sighs with relief.

"Well that was ...messed up." Fergus says.

"You got that right." Cu replies and picks up Veda throwing her over his shoulder then walks her to the bed to lay her down. He takes the chains off her body but keeps them close just in case he needs them again. "Hey guys?"

"Yeah?" Shirou replies.

"When she wakes up, can you all maybe not tell her what I just did to her? Angry Veda is just as scary as zombie Veda and I don't really want to take her on when she's able to wield a sword." He says scratching the back of his head nervously.

"Sounds good to me." Shirou replies.

"I'm not saying shit to Veda when she wakes up, I'm scared of her too!" Fergus says.

"Alright, if she wakes again just holler, we will be down the hall in our rooms." Shirou says.

Cu nods and sets up his chair beside Veda again. "Thanks man." He replies.

"Oh and Cu, if at anytime you want to take a break from sitting with her I would take your place anytime." Shirou smiles slyly.

"He just had to add that in there." Cu says to himself.

"Not a chance buddy!" He snaps and Shirou leaves the room chuckling to himself with Fergus by his side shaking his head.

"Asshole." Cu whispers.

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