Cryo wiped the blood of his forehead with one clawed hand and launched yet another blast of ice at the Manifested with the other.

He'd lost count how many times he'd tried to restrain the two civilians Manifested by the haze. This blast of ice caught the first Manifested on the back half mid-lunge, pushing it backwards and freezing its legs solid.

It wouldn't last long. The strength that both possessed was nothing short of terrifying. Four legged with gangly limbs, flexible bodies, and a hard carapace over their heads that left only a wide, gaping maw visible beneath, Cryo could only attempt to keep restraining them, hoping to buy enough time to--

The second Manifested launched itself at Cryo from behind with a feral screech. He felt its night-green claws sink into the back of his shoulder and cried out, arching instinctively and driving his arm-frozen wings back into the Manifested's body.

It released him with a screech, but the first Manifested was almost free again. Desperate for a moment's reprieve, Cryo flapped himself a few metres into the air and froze an icy pillar beneath his talons to perch on. His wings dispersed the haze around him, setting it into a swirling, writhing frenzy.

Cryo could feel the haze now. It was more than just a smoggy coagulation of a green mist, so dark it appeared black. It was more like a living presence, an entity, slowly opening a sleepy eye, curious as to what this sliver of its infinite power was playing with. Wyvern hadn't said anything since Manifesting the two civilians. He'd remained back, a strange look on his face, barbed tail clacking against the starstone every time it twitched while the haze oozed from his skin.

Cryo weighed up his options: attack Wyvern directly, or attempt to locate fragments on the two Manifested--if they had any at all. Neither seemed like great options.

Delay, he told himself. All you have to do is delay.

The haze crept forward, coiling around the base of Cryo's icy refuge and growing thicker by the moment.

Cryo's thoughts were pulled back to Wyvern. He could attack, but he's simply watching.

Cryo decided to take a risk; he turned his back on the Manifested to face Wyvern.

"You talked about fair before," said Cryo. "Yet you create minions to team up against me?"

"I did nothing," replied Wyvern, once more in that strange, silky voice. It didn't entirely come from his mouth this time, instead echoing across the haze. "They embraced their own feelings, and found an... understanding in my power."

"Is that how you knew those things about me? Did you find an understanding within me?"

Wyvern smirked. "I have felt your Song many times before you shielded it within another. In every pang of jealousy, in every desire and the resentment it bred, I devoured pieces of your Song, just as I did this vessel who now holds me. Small submissions, each one bigger than the last."

Cryo knew--had known--from the moment he'd felt the haze leak from the ruins door. "You're the Other."

"Other," murmured the haze. "That is what they call me now, but I am not so Other, no matter how you might wish I was. I am Envy, and this world will not forget me so easily again."

The Manifested with three, parallel lacerations across its chest stalked closer, testing the pillar of ice. Cryo fired off another blast of frost, hoping to extend the moment long enough for Banshee to return. "Envy, you say? Am I correct in assuming that the all-powerful Other is jealous of us mere mortals?"

The haze hissed, and the two Manifested took a step back, standing still like they'd been switched off as the haze began to speak.

"The Titan attempted to seal me away, to deny me access to this physical plane that I had for so long. It destroyed the connection to the Pillars. It left this planet void of Colour, and then it left me silent. So I took pieces of other Songs, of its Song, little by little, desperately trying to build my own, to regain part of what I had lost. You say mortals like you have nothing I could covet--yet your short, simple existence is bliss. While I must devote every part of my being to regaining a mere taste of freedom, you humans allow your resentment to fester over a friend affording a jacket, or your boss having an extra hour of sleep, or your best friend spending too much time with the guy you're crushing on--things I experience over and over again as your resentment, your envy consumes you whole."

Cryo opened his mouth to reply, when Wyvern stepped forward again, pointing a clawed finger in Cryo's direction.

"I will complete my Song," it hissed. "And when I have done that, I will regain all I have lost. First, I will take my freedom, then I will take this planet, and when I have those, I will take a nap, and eat spaghetti, and take the blue plate on the top shelf of Luke's house for my own. I will get back everything that was taken from me!"

"Perhaps you should start small. Spaghetti is widely available throughout the City, and I believe there's a tableware store with a variety of blue plates in--."

Wyvern bared his teeth. "You dare mock me?"

A familiar voice chimed in. "If he won't, I will!"

Banshee strode in casually through the haze, twirling Joy in her hand.

Wyvern--Envy--whoever it was in control of the body, simply narrowed its eyes in her direction.

Banshee glanced at the two Manifested, who remained inactive, staring ahead with glassy black eyes. "Glad to see you're finally talking, Wyvern. Look, you even made some friends!"

"It's not Wyvern," said Cryo, still atop his frozen refuge. "It spoke like Wyvern before, but now it's the Other. It calls itself Envy."

Banshee huffed. "Of course it is. Can't make anything easy, can we?" She drew a breath and louder, called out towards Wyvern. "Hey, Envy! Don't suppose Wyvern's still in there?"

Wyvern stalked towards her. "You... you are another piece of the mystery." His eyes, now consumed by the same haze swirling around him, slid to Cryo. "Two pieces of a mystery, both parts of a presence I feel reach for my power without ever submitting. Intriguing."

"If I know that old bat, he's still in there," said Banshee. "We--"

The Manifested attacked, lunging straight for Banshee.

She dodged them with a flip so neat, that had it been possible, Cryo would have guessed she'd known how the Manifested planned to move. She bounced off their heads and landed with one foot on the edge of Cryo's icy platform, hooking her dagger around one of the crystals of his wings to hold herself there.

"Keep them off me," she said quickly. "I'll see if Wyvern's home."

Banshee leaped from the frosty pillar, heading straight for Wyvern with both daggers drawn, as Cryo gathered frost at both hands and aimed it straight at the Manifested below.

With their attention fixated on Banshee, Cryo caught them by surprise. He managed a thick layer of hard, glossy ice before their thrashing threaded the first cracks across the surface. Cryo leaped down from his pillar, closing his talons around a limb of the one previously lacerated by his wings and squeezing hard.

If it felt pain, the Manifested didn't register it. The limb in Cryo's talons twitched a little less violently, but the second Manifested was still a problem. Using what he had available, Cryo slashed his arm through the air in front of him, bringing the razor sharp crystals of his arm-frozen wings straight across the second Manifested's head. Ice shattered as the wing-crystals glanced off the Manifested's carapace-covered head, dealing more damage to Cryo than the Manifested.

With cracks rapidly spreading through the ice, Cryo pushed himself away with a flap, placing himself between the Manifested and Banshee. He could hear her voice behind him. Though he couldn't hear her words, he could hear the playful, teasing tone behind them. He could hear the sound of her daggers, the rhythmic sound of the dance as she engaged the thing in Wyvern's body.

It was only a dance for two, which meant Cryo had to keep any unwanted dance partners off the floor.

When the Manifested were free, Cryo sank a little deeper into the frost and for the second time this fight, released the hold on his aura. A swirling, white oblivion swept through the haze. Freezing, numbing. The howling winds of Skypillar's peak whistled through Cryo's veins, slamming straight into the Manifested, who on the already icy ground, were inexorably forced back.

Ice formed on the Manifested's bodies. Their flexible limbs became stiff. The frost sank deeper and deeper into Cryo's bones, his heart slowing, his pulse little more than an ice floe beneath his skin, pushing out more snow, more cold.

Until one of the Manifested made a very human-sounding noise.

It was little more than an intake of breath, the kind you'd expect when you stepped outside a warm interior and into the snow covered streets, but it was enough. It was enough to make Cryo blink, to make him realise that the haze had faded, that perhaps this far away from Wyvern--

Cryo didn't give himself a chance to second guess it. He clamped back down on his aura and lifted himself off the ground, just high enough to wrap a talon around part of each Manifested, then gathered the frozen winds behind him and shot down the street.

Ten, twenty, fifty metres. With each one, the haze fell away from the civilians, peeling back the ridged spines along their backs, their carapaces, their elongated limbs and those wide, gaping maws.

When Cryo stopped, there were two, unconscious humans left in his grasp. He laid them down at the edge of the street, taking only a moment to ensure they were breathing and wouldn't freeze to death before he flew back towards Banshee.

Whether due to Banshee's efforts or the effect of Cryo's aura, the haze around Wyvern was nowhere near as thick as it had been.

Banshee deflected Wyvern's tail with Joy, using the tail's momentum to lift it up and dance under it, giving her a clear shot with Grief. Instead of using the dagger's bladed edge, Banshee flipped her grip on Grief and jammed its hilt into the side of Wyvern's neck.

"Geez, Wyvern," she said with a laugh, disengaging as easily as she'd avoided his strike. "Looks like Cryo's back. That took him what, two seconds to cleanse your Manifested buddies?" Wyvern charged with a snarl, staying low this time. It didn't bother Banshee, who jumped and rolled down his back, stabbing the hilts of both daggers into Wyvern's kidneys as she did. "I give it maybe another thirty seconds to deal with you, and then we can deal with the real problem tonight."

Yet Cryo could see the slightest hunch in his partner's ready, the pinch at the corner of her smile that told him it wasn't as effortless as she was making it look.

"Y'no, the Wyvern I knew wouldn't be getting his ass handed to him by a pair of juniors," continued Banshee. "Honestly, it's just embarrassing. The great Wyvern, reduced to the Other's minion. Anything to say for yourself?"

A shudder ran down Wyvern's dark, leathery skin. His tail thrashed behind him as he lifted his gaze to Banshee, then flicked his calculating gaze on Cryo.

No longer drenched with haze, Wyvern's navy green irises were back and fuming.

Banshee saw it too. She backed off another casual step, tossing Joy in the air and catching it by the hilt.

"Makes sense, I guess," she said. "You aren't a full Luminary anymore. Your Ascended moved on, even if you kidnapped it. That power isn't yours anymore, not while Nereid is still active." She caught the dagger one last time, then flashed Wyvern a wide grin. "Welp. Thirty seconds is over. Cryo, free--"

Quicker than Cryo had seen of Wyvern yet, Wyvern shot up into the sky.

"Dammit," murmured Banshee, running a few steps closer to Cryo with her eyes glued to the sky. "I was hoping he'd go after Nereid."

"Nereid?" asked Cryo, watching Wyvern's silhouette linger in the sky above, almost like Wyvern was daring them to follow him.

Banshee bit her lip. "See, I thought--"

"I trust you--tell me what we need to do."

"Herd Wyvern to the temple grounds and ground him at the shore of the lake."

Cryo repaired the damaged crystals of his wings with a quick breath of frost, stretching his arms to the sides. "How is the pain you mentioned earlier?"

Banshee scrunched her nose. "Not fantastic, but I'm not out yet."

"I can handle him alone if--"

"We don't have time," said Banshee, shifting to shadow and swinging herself onto his back. "The cliff is still collapsing. We need Wyvern dealt with fast."

Cryo didn't need to be told twice. With Banshee on his back, Cryo climbed the sky to where Wyvern waited, a dark silhouette against the stars.

Whatever Banshee had tormented Wyvern with below had been almost too effective. Before they drew level, Wyvern attacked, diving towards them head first. Cryo gathered frost, intending to freeze Wyvern wherever contact was made, but the chance never came. Instead, Wyvern flared a wing, using its drag to slow his descent and whip his tail straight at Cryo's chest.

Cryo flapped his wings forward with a blast of frost to push himself backwards. Wyvern caught the frost on the tough outer layer of his wings, easily shaking it off and dipping below Cryo. Before Cryo had completely righted himself, Wyvern's tail was coiled around his ankle, and the Manifested Luminary was dragging him forward, straight towards Skypillar's rocky face.

Three blasts of ice did nothing but bounce off the back of Wyvern's wings. Wyvern tightened his tail's grip, immediately crushing the more delicate ice crystals around Cryo's ankle. The barbs drilled into the thicker ice around Cryo's shins, stabbing into the ice over and over, weakening it a little more each time. Cryo slashed at the tail with his free talon, but if anything, the leathery skin of Wyvern's tail was tougher than that of his wings.

As Cryo was about to get desperate enough to unleash his aura, he saw Banshee's fingers appear on the side of his leg. They dug into the fabric of his pants as she dragged herself closer to his ankle, dagger in mouth, one hand over the other until she was close enough to pull the dagger out of her mouth and drive it straight into Wyvern's tail.

Cryo's talons hadn't pieced Wyvern's hide, but Banshee's dagger certainly did.

Wyvern screeched and released Cryo. The dagger, pierced through two loops of Wyvern's tail, remained firmly stuck, pinning the tail back on itself at an awkward angle no matter how Wyvern attempted to dislodge it.

Cryo glanced down at Banshee, who was still dangling below, hanging off one of his talons. He didn't get the chance to pull her up before she drew Grief, took a split second to aim, and threw it at Wyvern. Grief flew true, going straight through the barbs of Wyvern's tail and slamming into the edge of his wing.

Yet, impossibly, Wyvern refused to give up.

As the mountain rumbled behind them and Banshee pulled herself onto Cryo's back, Wyvern released an enraged cry. Wyvern swooped, wings tucked tight around his body, and slammed into Cryo's side, jerking his head forward at the last moment to ensure his horns caught Cryo's unprotected bicep.

Cryo roared with pain, blood already dripping down his arm, and unleashed a torrent of frost. Wyvern evaded it with a series of aerobatics that Cryo could never hope to match. Wyvern easily looped around the frost, catching what he didn't on the toughened skin of his wings. He dove Cryo a second and third time, his horns leaving a deep laceration on Cryo's thigh, and yet another on his bicep.

Try as he might, Cryo couldn't keep up, couldn't turn fast enough. The air glittered with snow as Cryo's aura leaked out, but up this high, the winds ripped the frost away. Each flap of Wyverns wings twisted the air into violet swirls. Cryo didn't have the concentration to reach out, to pull it under his grasp and focus.

Below, they were close to the temple's shore of the lake, though at this rate, Wyvern wasn't going to be the one left grounded. Banshee was getting heavier as her shadow shift failed her. It was getting harder and harder for Cryo to keep a steady rhythm, and Wyvern, with Banshee's daggers through his tail and wing, only seemed to be getting faster as he wheeled around for the fourth and possibly final swoop.

But this time, when Wyvern dove, someone else was ready.

As Wyvern grew closer, a shadow leapt from Cryo's back. Through the swirls of frost, Banshee timed the jump perfectly. She landed square on Wyvern's back, grabbing his horns to hold herself in place and jerked his head back with a quick, rough movement to ensure his face was up to hers.

For a single, quivering, heartbeat, Banshee's eyes were locked on Cryo's with something that looked all too much like an apology.

And then, before Cryo could stop her, she Screamed, leaving both herself and Wyvern plunging straight towards the agitated surface of the lake below.

*+*+*+*

A/N - PSA, if things go to plan, there's about four chapters of SSB3 left.

P R E P A R E Y O U R S E L V E S