Chapter Text
Ron felt his ears ringing. The explosion created by Soleil’s last flaming arrow was way too close to him for his comfort. Hiding behind rubbles alone, he waited a second for the flames to subdue before rushing back into battle.
If you told him a couple months ago he would get regularly into fights where a single mistake could mean the loss of someone he cares about, he would not have believed you. He probably would have let out a nervous laugh before avoiding any new interaction with your person. Yet, here he was, rapier in hand, running towards the enemy. He had been coming back from his club meeting when he saw the three rabbit girls up to no good. While it might have seemed like a great idea back then, something to brag about when he’d hang with his fellow saviors, he quickly realized how foolish fighting three super villains alone was. God knows Neige, his cousin, would never let him live that down… If he does survive the encounter, that is.
The violent wind blew through his hair and rabbit ears as he avoided another attack from Soleil. The arrow disintegrated as soon as it touched his weapon and he took the opportunity to get in close quarter with her. As only a couple meters separated the two of them, he raised his blade to the skies before shouting:
“Chrome Gar-“
As roses were slowly rising from the ground, surrounding him, he felt a sudden pain to his right leg. He faltered for a second, giving a glare towards the one behind the attack. There, was standing Saguaro, laughing maniacally as she often did. Her sharp eyes were blown wide in delight, caught in the pleasure of inflicting pain upon the savior.
“Oh, poor rabbit! Trouble standing?”
Saguaro slapped her whip to the floor, letting a cracking sound echo onto the battlefield. Ron let his lips form a sneer, hiding his pain.
“Trouble standing you, more like.”
The rabbit sinner attacked him, the whip getting caught around Ron’s arm. His mask of confidence fell from his face as the small sharp diamonds on the weapon penetrated his skin. In one swift motion, he yanked his arm back with all of his strength:
“On with the show!!” Ron shouted as Saguaro was dragged towards him.
He prepared an attack but just as he was about to deliver it, another flaming arrow went between Saguaro and Ron’s heads.
“Don’t ignore me, you fool.”
“You are hard to ignore, Soleil.” He spat her way, thrusting his arm towards her, throwing violently Saguaro into Soleil. The two collided as both of them grunted. Ron massaged his injured wrist while looking proudly over the two sinners, moving in a laid back manner towards them.
“So? Had enough of me already?” His obnoxious smirk only widened by the glare they threw at him.
“Not so fast, sparkly!”
He didn’t have time to react before he felt fibers encircle his lower body, throwing him off balance. He could hear Saguaro’s crazed laughter as he collapsed to the ground, grinding his teeth at the annoying sound.
“Look at him!! Good job Roz’!”
Rozul giggled before tightening her grip on the savior. He huffed, as he felt the wires slowly sinking into his flesh. That was going to leave marks… Even if those boots, indeed, made his legs look insanely good, they didn’t offer much protection except at the front. He would have to ask Shizen how he could change that…
As Rozul was way too concentrated on gloating at him, Ron turned around, forcing on his face a grin as he put his head lazily into his left hand, the other tightening around his weapon. He looked up at the sinner, standing above him, with a suggestive look on himself:
“Come here often?” he said, wiggling his eyebrows.
“You’re in no position to be this confident, Herr Sparkly.”
“Quite the contrary, doll.” Ron lifted his laced up legs, tightening his abs before springing quickly to his feet (a trick he was glad to have learnt years ago to impress Brynn). In a second, he cut the wires between them, spun around and put the tip of his blade against Rozul’s neck. “How the turn tables…”
Behind he could hear the rest of the sinners rising up. Ron finally came to the unfortunate conclusion that… he was screwed. He barely hurt one of them and managed, in record time, to get injuries on both his arm and his legs. The sinners, on their side, would never flee as they felt comfort in their number. How could he fend them off?! No answer came so he decided to heed the advice of some of his favourite anime characters. Jogging away from this fight he could not win alone, he turned around towards the three sinners and bowed before striking another one of his obnoxious pose:
“This is where we part ways, ladies! To the pleasure of seeing you again. Bubye!!” he exclaimed before running, retreating to safety. As long as he found a spot to transform back into his normal form, he should be able to evade the sinners. To his knowledge, only Soleil had a clue about what he usually looked like but even then, in a crowd, finding someone like him very much average in every way might prove to be difficult.
So he ran, feeling the three other rabbit girls on his tail. He left the forest area, jumping onto the paved road. He observed his surroundings, searching for a narrow alley or anything that could hide him. He’d even be willing to hide in a trash can if he wasn’t sure that Soleil would be more than happy to incinerate the whole neighborhood to find him. The gears in his head kept turning and the rabbit sinners were getting closer and closer to his location. He had to keep moving.
Ron felt his feet move on their own accord, fueled by adrenaline. There must have been a place to hide, and he was going to find it!
He could hear matching sets of footsteps on the pavement, angrily chasing him. The savior took sharp turns after sharp turns, hoping from streets to streets. His head was buzzing with exhaustion, the sound of his blood pumping through his veins was so loud, the only other thing he could hear was his erratic breathing. Buildings melted into one another in a puddle of colours, passing by so quickly he could not even know if he already went through this area or if he even knew where he was. Paradise, California, was one hellish labyrinth in summer.
After turning one last time into a small alleyway, he put an arm against one of the wall, panting… He really should take Mathias’ advice about working out more. He felt like he just ran a marathon when really, what was it? Only running away from some murderous rabbit girls in the city? What’s so scary about that? He snickered at that, his forehead against the cool cement wall. It felt incredible against his sweating skin, assaulted by the Californian weather.
“What are you laughing at, Sparkly?”
His blood ran cold.
This was bad.
He was cornered.
No matter how hard he thought, he could not come up with any way to get out of this situation. The three sinners were right in front of him, blocking the way out of the alley. He was stupid to think he could have been able to run from them through here. He glanced around, focusing on any possible escape. Anything that Bob Bolivor would have been able to use to turn the encounter to his advantage! But nothing came to him. For the first time since what felt like forever, his mind went blank. Everything seemed to be brought to a halt as he stared straight to the three figures walking menacingly towards him.
Was it how it was going to end?
It was not like he was going to be able to do anything to stop them, should they attack. Even if he was able to take one down, he would quickly be overwhelmed.
He deflated, losing his grasp on his loyal rapier, ready to give up.
A voice resonated through his mind, whispering reassurances to him. He perceived it at first as himself, trying to find some fragment of missing bravery in his heart. But the voice was gentler than his, warm and calm, motherly in a way. His eyes shut close, forgetting for a moment the danger he was in, as any other sound began to fade away. He felt like he was floating into nothingness, bathed in a soothing glow. He could not understand exactly what this voice was saying or to whom it was belonging to. All he could do was surrender to the sweet buzzing coursing through him.
When finally he opened his eyes, he was standing in a field of silver roses, covered in morning dew. The light reflecting on each of their petals was way too bright for him to handle and yet, he did nothing to shield his eyes. Because what he saw in front of him stunned him into silence.
Right before Ron was standing his rabbit savior form, Baraguntai. From the long blond ears and hair ending in bright fuchsia to the ridiculous dress he somehow got used to wearing over time, he felt like he was looking into a mirror. Yet things seemed odd with him, from the posture showing off a cockier personality or even the more trained muscles.
The double began to move on his own, smiling widely to Ron, speaking in a lower register:
“I see you’ve gotten yourself in quite the predicament. Let me take care of them, would you?”
Before Ron could register that those words were meant to him, the doppelganger turned away from him and started to walk, digging a distance between the two.
“Hey, wait a sec-“
Ron tried to cross it but to no avail; the thorns of the flower field were wrapped tightly around his legs, contrary to the other man where roses seemed to bow before him, creating a path that was then closing in, creating an uncrossable barrier between the two. As soon as he lost sight of the other figure in the golden mist, Ron found himself falling backwards, quickly giving way to an irresistible deep sleep.