Beyond the clouds and mountains, above the world and close to Heaven, lie the Dragon Palace — an opulent, floating fortress adorned with gold, onyx and marble. On the outside, a broken bridge lead into a grand plaza with a fountain. Scattered around the area were ancient cherry blossom trees and zen gardens, the sand combed into perfect circles. There were also several small pools of water filled with lotuses, that decorated the area. There were even several koi in a few of them, lazily swimming around. Here, oarfish servants could be seen in red and white robes, tending to several people who appeared to be some sort of nobility.

A long staircase lay at the far end of the plaza, leading up to the palace entrance: two circular sliding doors made from golden wood and paper, and framed in black. Two red lanterns, hanging from a pair of nearby columns, lit the area around the door with a gentle red glow.

was a long, wide hall with a thin red carpet, its edges decorated with dragons embroidered in silver thread. Silk tapestries with various designs hung from the ceiling. On either side of the hall were various arterial passageways, leading off into other areas, and at the end of the hall, up several more stairs, sat an empty, golden throne with complex sculpturing and red padding. In front of it, a round, mahogany table sat, with seven people, each wearing an intricate silk kimono. Several cups of tea sat on the table, and for the moment, it seemed the room was silent.

That silence was broken several moments later, as hurried footsteps echoed in the air.

"Masters! Masters!" Came a voice from down the hall. An oarfish man with blue hair and a beard approached the table and knelt. "I have urgent news to report!"

"Gather yourself, then speak." One of the people, a woman with a bun, dressed in a pink and white kimono replied gently. "It does not do to report in such a panic."

"Yes, Lady Yuan." The servant replied, taking a moment to catch his breath. Then, "Do you recall the mission Iku Nagae went on several weeks ago, to assassinate the traitor?"

"Hong Meiling." A second person interrupted, his voice gruff and disapproving. He had short, black hair and an eyepatch, and was clad in a red and gold kimono. "We remember. Significance?"

"Yes, Master Zhan. It seems she was..." The servant paused. "Unsuccessful." Murmurs went around the table, and the servant continued "There's more. From what we understand, the traitor is headed toward the Palace as we speak."

"Finally come to give herself up, then?" Sneered another; a man with long blonde hair and a sky-blue kimono.

"Unfortunately, Master Wuhan, I don't believe that's the case. If she repelled Nagae, it's more likely that she's come here to fight, or at least to negotiate. What are your orders, sir?" The servant asked, bowing his head.

Once more, silence fell upon the table. All the nobility looked at each other, then Zhan spoke up. "Clear the plaza, the gardens, and all outside areas, then lock all the doors of the palace. We will approach the traitor, leaving only one way in — and one way out."

"Yes, Master Zhan!" The servant responded, before rising, and sprinting back out into the sunlight.

"After all these years... Finally we'll get our resolution." Yuan stated. "We've been tracking her for far too long, and spent far too many resources on this. It's time to bring her game to an end."

"She won't go down easily." Zhan muttered. "Those lesser beings she protects will make her desperate and encourage her to fight to the death. We must act as swiftly as we can."

"She is but one youngling." A man in a green kimono chuckled. His hair was white and he was clean-shaven. "She'll present no threat."

"Even so, Lingxin. We cannot take any unnecessary risks. There must be—" But Zhan was interrupted by a loud 'boom' from outside the palace. The seven looked at each other, then rose and strode out to the main entrance.

There, they saw a massive crater in the plaza, the fountain broken and spilling water freely on the ground. Several nearby oarfish and nobles scrambled away as fast as they could, locking the palace doors behind them. In the center was Meiling, her fist to the ground. She stood, and saw the seven standing atop the stairs. Her look drew into a hateful glare, and she approached the bottom of the stairs. For a moment, no one said anything.

Then, Yuan spoke. "Sister!" She smiled. "How kind of you to visit us after all these years. To what to we owe the pleasure?"

"You can start by explaining the attempt on my life." Meiling growled. "After all this time, why is it only now you've begun sending assassins to me?"

"Oh? Have you forgotten your treason against this palace?" Lingxin responded. "Everything you scorned and threw aside?"

"I left because of the endless conflict and bickering over the throne. I want no part in your political squabbles." Meiling responded. "I made that clear the day I left, and my answer hasn't changed."

"Running doesn't exclude you from our affairs. It simply delays you from participating. You are a dragon the same as the rest of us, and as such the throne does concern you." Zhan scoffed imperiously.

"I have no interest in the throne, and neither should you. Just because the Dragon God isn't here doesn't mean he still isn't the rightful ruler of all." Meiling snarled. She composed herself, then continued "But I'm not here to have a polite political discussion with you." She began to glow rainbow, scales ripping through her skin as she threw off her hat. "You've threatened my family. I'm only here to ensure it doesn't happen again."

Zhan began glowing red himself, and red scales pushed their way through the skin on his face. "Is that so? Then, it seems we don't need to talk any further. Out of respect for what you are, I'll slaughter you personally." He nodded to the other six, and they took a step back, kneeling on the ground behind Zhan.

A long, rainbow tail began to emerge from behind Meiling, and her face grew longer, human features melting into a dragon's rainbow snout. Her fingernails grew longer, her teeth grew sharper, and just as they had all those days ago in the mansion, horns began growing from her forehead. Her clothes shimmered, and then vanished as her body began to get longer.

Zhan was undergoing a similar transformation, his hair and beard growing longer and turning white, his kimono sliding off his shoulders. Both of them began to grow in size, and after a few minutes, two dragons floated, coiled above the ground — one rainbow, one, a dark, ominous red.

From the start, however, it was clear that there was an imbalance. Meiling wasn't small by any means, but Zhan was far longer and larger, and his aura was almost overwhelming. Oarfish peered from the windows, watching and waiting.

I knew from the start this wasn't going to be a fair fight. I already knew that yesterday when I left the SDM. Meiling chuckled in her head. Going against the Seven Elders, I already knew I was going to die. Her lips drew into a snarl, and she thought to herself But none of that matters now. I have to do everything I can to stop them here... or at least buy as much time for Patchouli as possible. She let out an angry, primal roar, a sound that ripped through the air and shook the ground. Without further ado, she and Zhan rushed at each other, claws outstretched.

As they slammed into each other, shockwaves erupted, and lightning began to crackle overhead. They locked eyes, and snarled at each other, before Meiling began to wrap herself around Zhan.

Meiling roared.

Zhan snarled back. Zhan ripped at Meiling's sides, and golden blood began to seep from her wounds. She roared in pain, and recoiled from Zhan, giving him an opportunity to grab her instead. His claw closed around Meiling's head and he drove her to the ground, smashing her face against the stone.

Meiling yelled, struggling under Zhan's grasp. Her claws raked along Zhan's underbelly, eliciting a snarl of pain. She squirmed out from underneath him, then sliced at his eyes. <—You're the weakest one here, Zhan!!>

But she wasn't fast enough; Zhan coiled back and launched himself at her, grabbing her and pulling her into the air. Zhan bellowed. He writhed his way around Meiling, and began to squeeze.

Meiling roared in agony as Zhan's coils crushed her tighter, tighter...Her mind began to get foggy, breath being forced out of her lungs. She turned her head around and sunk her teeth into Zhan's flesh, as deep as they would go. Zhan snarled and scratched at Meiling's left eye, blinding her. He released her and then hurtled into her, sending them both downward toward the palace. Just before Meiling landed, he pulled back, and watched as she slammed against the plaza floor.

He descended, clearing the dust cloud with a swipe of his arm. Meiling stood before him, panting and golden blood dripping from her ruined eye and sides. She hissed venomously, throwing herself at Zhan and biting down on his snout.

Zhan growled, and slashed at Meiling's underbelly, leaving a deep wound that gushed gold, but Meiling simply bit down harder, causing Zhan to roar in frustration and hurt.

"Lingxin—" Yuan started, her eyes widening and her voice urgent.

"You don't need to tell me." Lingxin shouted, sliding off his kimono and beginning to transform, emerald scales growing from his body.

Meiling barely had time to react before Lingxin slammed into her, knocking her loose from Zhan's face. She hissed, and Lingxin roared in response, now transformed into a dark green dragon.

No good. No good. Meiling thought. Zhan was hard enough, but now Lingxin's getting involved.

Zhan reeled back, standing shoulder to shoulder with Lingxin, gold pouring from his mouth. The two hissed at her, and Meiling took a few steps back.

Lingxin announced.

Meiling snarled. She spat Zhan's blood onto the ground, then continued

Lingxin asked. Meiling growled hatefully, as Lingxin went on

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Meiling wanted to respond, but she couldn't maintain her dragon form any longer. Her clothes shimmered around her as she reverted to her humanoid form, coughing. The blood from her wounded eye lost its golden color, turning red once more, and she gripped her shoulder, doing her best to remain standing. She gazed up at Zhan and Lingxin, who now towered above her.

"You two...would never understand." She gasped. "All you do all day... is bicker... and fight. That's no family I wish to be a part of."

Lingxin responded.

Meiling chuckled. "Your eyes are already closed. You deafen yourselves to the world below. I've found more love in the mortal realm than any I've ever felt here. People who pray for my success, and support me in everything I do. Yet here I am again... Fighting my brothers as if we've become stupid beasts. Dragons have lost their moral code. That's the real disgrace."

Zhan narrowed his eyes and started toward Meiling, but Lingxin held out his arm.

Lingxin said.

Six oarfish emerged from the palace and knelt before Lingxin. "Yes, my lord!" They said in unison.

He ordered.

"Yes, my lord!" They shouted, before dashing off.

Zhan stared in disapproval at Meiling.

"There's no greater cause I would lay my life down for than the safety of my family." Meiling sighed in frustration. She knew it was over, but she had hoped to stall the elders a little longer. She knelt. "Do it then." She murmured.

Zhan and Lingxin reverted to their human forms, clothes appearing around them again. "No. Even if you have turned traitor, we will do things the way we have always done. You will be escorted to a dressing room, where you will prepare." Zhan commanded. "Your last honor will be giving your life in a traditional execution."

Meiling glared at Zhan. "Some honor." She growled.

---

An Oarfish was tending to Meiling, cleaning and bandaging her wounds. Another was taking her measurements.

"Doesn't this seem unnecessary? It'll be stained with blood in a few minutes." Meiling grumbled.

"Don't talk, traitor. This is the way it has always been done, and it will be so again." The measuring oarfish spoke. He went to a line of all-white kimonos that hung on a rack and picked one out. "This is in your size."

Meiling slipped off her normal clothes, and slid her arms into the kimono, closing and tying it around her waist. She looked at herself in the mirror, with sadness in her eyes. "Not a bang, but a whimper." She murmured to herself.

"Do not speak." The oarfish commanded again. "It is time." He took hold of Meiling's arm, and led her out into the courtyard, where the Seven Elders stood, as well as a crowd of other dragons and oarfish. The Elders were gathered in a semicircle behind a wooden box with a white cloth and a knife on it. They watched as Meiling walked out, barefoot, and knelt before the box. She gazed down at the knife, pristine and waiting.

Zhan spoke loudly. "Behold, the traitor. Hong Meiling!" He paused, letting the sentence sink in, then continued. "Accused of deserting, as well as making a mockery of all dragonkind by serving under a lesser being! Fraternizing with the weak, and rejecting the strong. These are her crimes. The sentence is death, by ritual suicide!"

Murmurs rippled through the crowd, and Meiling sighed. To her surprise, she felt her eyes getting wet. Huh. Even now, I'm still mourning. I thought I'd left all my regrets behind at the mansion, but it seems I was wrong. A sad smile came to her lips. Bedtime stories with Flan, tea with Remi. Reading a good book with Patchouli, and cheering Koakuma on. And getting scolded by Sakuya, of course. I guess I always knew it couldn't last forever, but... I'd hoped for just a little more time. She chuckled to herself. Maybe that's selfish of me to ask. But I know this isn't what you would have wanted either... right, Dragon God?

Meiling picked up the knife and considered it, then lowered it in front of her stomach, closing her eyes. The conversation she'd had with Komachi all that time ago came to mind. Love, huh... Looks like it won't get tempered as much as I'd like. But even so... It's a beautiful blade. She thought to herself with a smile.

Before she could plunge the knife into her body, however, a scream rang through the air.

"MEILING, NO!"

Meiling's eyes shot open. "That voice. It can't be—" But as she turned to look, her mistresses were standing there in broad daylight: Remilia and Flandre Scarlet. Her eyes widened, and then began to fill with tears. "Remi, Flan, what are you doing here?! You have to get away, now!! Get away from here as fast as you can!"

Remilia shook her head. "We're not leaving you, Meiling! Why did you come here?! Sakuya and the others told me everything! You ordered them to keep us in?!"

Zhan gave a quick glance to the other Elders, then growled "What is a pathetic, weak being like this doing on our holy ground?! Guards, seize her, and her companion!"

At once, oarfish rushed at Remilia and Flandre, various weapons in hand, each of them cloaking themselves in electricity. Remilia narrowed her eyes, and began to glow red. In a voice that echoed, she declared "It is not my or my sister's fate to die today." A red pulse of energy shot through the air around her, and the oarfish staggered backward momentarily.

With that, she summoned Gungnir, while Flandre brought Laevateinn forward. She let out a yell, and spread her wings, hurling herself into the crowd. Meanwhile, as Flandre turned to look at each oarfish, she squeezed her hand over, and over again. Oarfish all around her began losing limbs — an arm, a leg, a hand. Blood sprayed from each wound, and Flandre had a wicked grin on her face, as she cackled maniacally. "Boom! BOOM! BOOM!" She shouted, rushing at the wounded oarfish guards and slicing at them with her spear.

In the chaos, Meiling hadn't moved. She sat, still with the knife in her hand, and gritted her teeth, tears beginning to drop from her eyes to the ground. "Stop it..."

Remilia and Flandre were a whirlwind of death, twin blades slicing through the onslaught like butter.

"Stop..." Meiling said, louder, clutching her knees through her kimono.

The sisters turned their eyes toward the dragon elders that sat atop the staircase, hissing like mad cats.

"I... said... STOP!!" Meiling screamed, a brilliant rainbow light blinding everyone in the area, including Remilia and Flandre. When the light cleared, Meiling was in her true dragon form again, coiled and floating before the execution box. Wuhan and Lingxin tried to make a move, but Zhan threw out an arm.

"Wait. Observe, for now." Zhan ordered. The two looked at each other, then gritted their teeth and sat down.

Meiling gave a glance to the elders, before turning her gaze to Remilia and Flandre, who looked up at her with awe.

Remilia's gaze turned cold. "The servants don't protect the master! That's not how this works, Meiling! We came to save you—"

Meiling roared, taking Remilia aback. Meiling cried in desperation.

For a time, everyone was silent, and Remilia and Flandre's faces scrunched up, tears welling in their eyes. Then, another voice sounded behind them. "Sorry... but I like those odds."

All eyes turned to the plaza, and there, glowing a bright red, stood Reimu Hakurei — Shrine Maiden of Paradise. But something was off. She didn't seem quite... corporeal. Her image flickered in and out, like she was made of smoke. She advanced at a casual pace toward the Dragon Palace. Oarfish servants tried to tackle her or grab her, but their hands came up empty. Reimu ignored them, and kept walking forward.

Meiling's eyes widened.

"Oh, please don't ask that question again. I said you're under my protection... and I meant it." Reimu interrupted. Her gaze shifted to the dragon elders. "We are going to take Meiling... and leave. And no power in the world is going to be able to stop us. Do you understand that?"

Wuhan growled, and raised his hand, firing a monstrous beam of blue energy at Reimu. He grinned, knowing that no mere mortal could survive such an attack... but his smile faded as he saw her still standing there. She glared, and kept walking, up the stairs, one step at a time.

The other elders rose, and simultaneously raised their hands as well, each firing a similar blast of magical power at Reimu — to no effect. She kept walking, tightening her grip around her purification rod. Meiling couldn't believe what she was seeing.

"Get back!" Wuhan screamed. "I command you! Mortal! GET AWAY!" Reimu ignored him, and eventually, she stood over him, her gaze as poisonous as it could be. Wuhan yelled in anger and tried to grab her, but like the oarfish guards before him, his hands simply passed through her. Terrified for once in his life, Wuhan asked "W-what are you?"

Reimu was silent for a moment, and then replied "I... am the Shrine Maiden of Hakurei. I am the protector of Gensokyo, prime incident resolver, youkai exterminator. And I am sick... and tired... of being helpless." She growled, grabbing Wuhan by the collar. Again he tried to touch her, but he couldn't. She turned her gaze to the other elders. "I've done a lot of listening the last few days. And now it's my turn to talk. So sit down, shut the hell up, and listen." She threw Wuhan to the ground. She took a deep breath, while the elders looked at each other. "Your politics are disgusting." She began. "You seem to have forgotten that the Dragon God is the supreme ruler of all. You are fighting over a throne that will never, ever, belong to any of you."

"The Dragon God has—" Yuan started.

"I don't care what's happened to him. And for what it's worth, I bet you have no idea either. As a matter of fact, I don't think you even care. Because if you did, you wouldn't be here, slaughtering your sister. You'd be out, looking for him, here, and now." Reimu accused. "But you aren't. So don't ever talk to me, or any other mortal, ever again, about 'family obligations'. Least of all, don't preach that crap to Meiling, who has, time and again, insisted that this isn't the way. Who has, time and again, tried to get you to understand the world below. To truly appreciate it, rather than look down on it. You are failures, all of you." Her gaze turned from the elders to the oarfish gathered in the courtyard. "Every single one. Every person here." She turned to look back at the elders. "Dragons are supposed to be the guardians, the protectors, the great ones who are immune to sin and temptation, who always know what's best for the world. Longevity, peace, prosperity." She paused, then continued, "But when I look at you, all of you, you represent greed, and pride, and everything your kind is supposed to be above. I've met a ton of mortals who, compared to you, and compared to what I've heard, look like saints."

"Who are you to show up and lecture us on the ways of the world?" Zhan spoke up. "You have arrived on sacred ground as a trespasser, manhandled one of our leaders, and interrupted an honorable execution. In our eyes, you are no more than a common thief or ruffian."

"Maybe I am. But if this is your world and we're just living in it, I'd sooner kill myself than continue on the way we are now." Reimu retorted. "But I don't expect you to listen, and I don't expect the Dragon God to show up and beat some sense into any of you, either. Which is why I have a proposal."

There was a murmuring among the elders, before Yuan spoke. "What could you possibly offer us that we do not already own?"

"Our lives. And Gensokyo." Reimu responded. "I want to have a danmaku battle. I'm sure I don't need to explain what that is to a group of people that are as 'learned' and 'wise' as you all?" Before they could answer, she continued "If I win, you leave the Scarlet Devil Mansion, its inhabitants, and Meiling alone. Until the end of time itself."

"And if you lose?" Lingxin asked pompously.

"Then you get to kill us all, and everyone in Gensokyo, for our insolence." Reimu stated flatly.

Meiling shouted.

Reimu ignored her. "Do we have a deal?" She demanded.

There was murmuring between the elders again, and Zhan answered. "Very well. We will honor your proposal."

But that wasn't good enough for Reimu. "Swear, then."

"Excuse me?" Zhan scoffed.

"Swear, on the Dragon God, and all creation, that you will uphold your end of the deal if I win." Reimu persisted.

There was a long pause. Then, after some more tense muttering, every elder put up their right hand. "We swear on the Dragon God, and everything he has created, that we will honor your proposal."

Reimu stared at them, then turned to face the plaza, where Meiling, Remilia, Flandre, and all the oarfish and lower dragons stood, watching in disbelief. "Then get this place cleaned up. If we're going to do this, the battle area should at least look decent. Danmaku is about beauty, after all."