AN: So, I came up with the character of Zaine one night and…well…at first he was a girl. But I really hated him as a girl, and made him a guy. Umm…Most of the characters in the prologue are my OCs. I don't own Black Cat or any of the characters from Black Cat. There, disclaimer. Anyway, I really like Zaine's character, which you don't really see much in the prologue…But you will in later chapters. :3 Enjoy and I hope you keep reading! –Kaida Amarante-
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My name is Zaine Payten, a 21 year-old sweeper, and this is my story. I was born in a small town to wealthy parents named Helan and Jesstin Payten. My older brother, Colle, was born two years before me. We lived a peaceful life in a large house on top of a hill outside of town. My father, for some reason, taught Colle and me how to shoot, telling us it was self-defense. We thought it was because we were wealthy and could be targeted by erasers or thieves. I didn't know the truth until I was older. But that's later in the story. My mother was an only child, but my father, Jesstin, had a sister, Sephira, who we were somewhat close to. She was always strange to me as a child, especially when she got "I" tattooed on her forehead. She would always talk to my father about something called "Chronos" and asked him about Colle and mine's training. And by training, she meant the singing.
See, our family has a special power handed down in the males. A power of manipulation through sound waves. We're not sure how it works, but the effects can be immense. We can create illusions or make people go crazy. And, when you really want it to be, the power can be fatal. That's right, we can kill using sound. Using our voices. Aunt Sephi always claimed that Colle and I needed to develop our power as quickly as we could. My father would agree and work on our training some more.
I never knew the extent of Aunt Sephi's influence on our family. What being related to her would bring. I finally found out when I was ten years old. My mother, Helan, was slightly…clairvoyant, I suppose. A seer. She could see into the future randomly, from a few seconds, to a few months worth of time. One night when I was ten, my family and I were sitting in the living room of our home, my father reading, my mother knitting, and Colle and I watching T.V, when my mother had one of her visions. We asked her what she had seen, but she wouldn't answer us. Instead she looked worriedly to the door and ushered Colle and I into the coat closet on the opposite side of the room. She told us to stay in there, no matter what happened, and said that she loved us very much. She smiled softly and closed the door. We waited a few minutes and heard the front door open. Fearing that our parents were abandoning us, Colle opened the closet door a bit and we peeked out, gasping at what we saw. A man in black was standing there, pointing a gun at my father, I still remember him in detail, 11 years later. He was wearing a black trench coat with plain black pants underneath and held a black pistol in one hand. His eyes were cold and stone grey, fixated on my mother. His stringy hair was the same color as his eyes, and hung down to his shoulders. But, the most defining trait was the scar on the left side of his mouth, crossing over his lips.
He turned his stone eyes to my father and asked him where Colle and I were. My father refused to answer and was shot in the chest. My mother didn't even flinch as blood flowed out of his wound and he fell to the ground, probably already dead. He then asked my mom where Colle and I were, and she refused to answer. I was about to scream out, to beg him not to kill her, but Colle put his hand over my mouth. My mother refused to answer and he walked up to her, eyes narrowing. He asked again where we were, and she told him to go to Hell. She was shot in the head. By this point I was crying, sobbing into my brother's hand. I must've caused too much noise, because the man turned his attention to the closet and started walking towards us. There was nowhere we could go as he swung the door open and leveled his pistol at my brother's head. He was about to pull the trigger when I heard the voice of a boy probably no older than my brother call out to him, calling him "dad". The man growled out that we would finish this later, and walked out.
Colle and I continued to live in the big house on the hill for two years, living off of what money we could find and things we could pawn, until we ran out when I was 12. We had to go live on the streets, and being the spoiled rich kids we were, didn't know how to do such a thing. Vyktori was the one who taught us how to. He was 14, the same age as Colle, and was a thief. Now, he didn't live on the streets, but was really poor. And he had lived on the streets before. He taught us how to live and would check on us every day, sometimes bringing us food or money. It wasn't long before I developed feelings for him. Feelings I had never felt for anyone before, especially not for another guy. I was in love Vyktori.
He started taking me with him almost everywhere he went. We got very close and were closer than Colle and I by the time I was 16. I never knew that he and his father were enemies of Chronos. I had always thought that Vyktori was simply a thief. I never once would have guessed that he had killed multiple people, many of whom were affiliated with Chronos. And never once would I think that his father was an eraser who was focused on killing the families of members of Chronos. And I especially never thought that his father was the one who murdered my parents and almost murdered my brother and me, only to be stopped by Vyktori. My world shattered around me one day when we were approached by two sweepers, who told him that they were after the bounty on his head. He smirked at them and pulled me in front of him, saying that they wouldn't kill an innocent bystander, since it would lessen the bounty. They told him that they didn't care about killing both of us. They leveled their guns at us and I was sure I was going to die until they were both suddenly shot down. Vyktori turned and we stared at the man before us.
His hair was dark brown and spiky, and his cold eyes were gold and somewhat cat-like. He wore full black; an outfit surprisingly like the one Vyktori's father had worn when he killed my parents. The main difference was the tattoo on the man's chest: "XIII". He looked no older than Vyktori or Colle. In his hand was a black pistol with "XIII" engraved on the side. The pistol was leveled at Vyktori. Vyktori sneered at him and called him the "Black Cat" and talked to him about how his father had talked about him and told Vyktori to kill him if they ever met. The Black Cat simply narrowed his eyes and shot Vyktori, killing him instantly. I fell forward and stumbled, catching my balance right in front of him. He stared down at me for a moment and motioned for me to follow him. I did. Later on, when I asked him why he did that, he told me it was simply instinct.
We ended up at Chronos HQ, where we met with Sephira, the head of the Chronos numbers. Who just happened to be my Aunt Sephi. So, I was allowed to stay. She sent me out with Train Heartnet, the Black Cat, on a lot on his less-dangerous missions. A year after he left Chronos, I did as well, meeting up with him soon after and joining him and his partner, Sven Vollfied, on their sweeper work. It was over a year later that we met Rinslet and Eve, and the entire thing with the Apostles of the Stars occurred.
This was how my story began. How my story ends, I guess we'll find out soon enough.