A/N: Hey everybody, AeonLegacy here and ready to start a new story. Now that the sequel is beginning I figured that I should try to keep the Authors note as short as possible so I'll be brief: Since Mel had returned home Etro had vanished and, like the game of 13-2, Lightning is taken out of time and transported to Valhalla. What she doesn't know is the main Antagonist in this story, Caius Ballad, has been wiped out of the world and had been replaced. Anyway, I should stop there before I get too into this, here is the first chapter. Enjoy!
Mel's POV:
A month had passed since I returned home and the stunt that had played throughout the whole world since then has everybody still hell bent on looking for me. Why? I have no idea. Claire had my name and appearance changed so I wouldn't be recognized which really sucks! My new name is Michael Machiavelli and I'm a sixteen year old 'male' Senior at a school somewhere in California living in a town called Oceanside, and I'm glad me and Claire found a house there that has a big view of the ocean, at first I was skeptical about moving to a place called 'Oceanside' but I'm happy it has something that keeps me connected to home. I have to remain hidden and became a boy in my files until the events from the worlds destruction and the 'culprit' has been caught blows over but it won't happen, rumors in class say that this mystery person moved here in the mainland and every time anyone brings the matter up I just flinch and continue what I'm doing. Sis managed to get me something to cover my metallic limbs to look like my real limbs so nobody asks me about why my prosthetic limbs looks so weird like to anime goers from 'Full Metal Alchemist' and I wear gauze around my whole left arm to cover the scars, luckily my teachers understood when I told them I had a very embarrassing scar from a surgery before I moved here. I might sound evil or harsh but I thought the mainland teachers were going to be total hard asses and force me to take the wrap off but they fell for my lies.
Especially for gym.
Somehow I managed to talk my way into getting a pass to use a separate bathroom stall outside of class to change and do my business. I like my privacy a lot! If I changed with the other boys I will get dogged on and I don't even want to think of what they would do to me if they saw I wasn't the same as them in more ways than one. But then again I did use my power to manipulate my teachers mind to do this and, being a real good student in all my classes, he believed me when I passed him the note and took it seriously like he actually signed the paper. I never use my powers unless i absolutely have to, never abusing the gifts from Etro and never wanting to expose my secret to anybody. When I got into my stall I locked the door and changed in the single room bathroom, the mirror looked like ones you'd see in stores while trying on clothes, and when I pulled my shirt over my head I examined the scars there too, from Barthandelus. They carried over as well but it doesn't bother me so why should I care? Lights world is free from that asshole and now I can live my life as a normal teenager, under a near similar government as Cocoons only its actual people than a divine made AI, for now.
'Bang! Bang! Bang!' The metal door rang in the room, someone was waiting for me outside.
"Machiavelli! Hurry up, or you'll be doing ten laps and a hundred pulls up, boy!" An aggressive, yet motivational, voice yelled from behind the other side of the door. It was my assigned gym teacher, Mr. Mavericks, always threatening students with challenging work outs before participating in the sport he got us doing. My teacher likes to add more than the average amount for me because I showed him up and I'm going to surprise him again.
"Yes, sir. I'll be out soon." I replied back already in my black Nike basketball and navy blue echo shirt and black with silver trims running shoes on the verge of breaking but still very durable. I press my ear to the door to hear if anyone was outside the door to hear footsteps disappearing until I can't hear them anymore. I did a victory swing with my arm and leaned against the wall to watch 'RWBY', by Monty Oum from Rooster teeth, episode 5 just to watch Yang fly through the air all the way to the point where she lands and says, 'nailed it!' But end up watching the whole thing. I put my things away in my improvised locker, locked it with electricity bounded around the metal cage and ran to the football field.
The football field was huge, like the ones you would see in college football, the bleachers were towering themselves. Every time I see this place I shake my head with disapproval and think, 'where are we in the NFL or in high school? Damn.'
"Micheal!" I heard from across the field, my teacher and my class waiting for me in the hot sun. I jogged my way over and kept a stoic, calm, face until I met my teacher with leveled eyesight. His face was red from the sun or waiting on me for the x amount of times, I couldn't tell, but I bet it wasn't going to be good for me.
"Your late, again, Machiavelli . You know what happens when you continue to be late for my class. Each time your late I get to add additional exercises for you to do while everyone else gets to sit in the shade and relax to watch you suffer. You ready for today, son?" Mr. Mavericks spits at me with his face reddening a shade darker on the verge of screaming into the megaphone. I looked at my teacher then to my class, for some weird reason, and noticed the guys were both thankful and mad at me possibly for showing off and the girls... Well... I don't know, they look at me funny like I'm a puppy or something, I don't know. But behind everyone entirely I could have sworn I just saw,
"Get ready, Michael! Your going to do 15 laps around this three mile field. And you have to do it in under ten minutes, and no slowing down. Got it?" I looked at my teacher almost giving him the 'what the hell?' Look I when I hear or see something weird but got ready in a runners position and looked ahead focusing. The whistle was in the teachers mouth and when the whistle blew I didn't see my new school, I didn't see anything from my world. I saw Gran Pulse with the Pulsian monsters roaming around hunting or just killing and then I saw them again.
"Go!" Then the whistle blew and I started off strong the ground my right foot was had a small near perfect crater in the ground but kept running like I was being chased by Behemoths and by an angry Fang for putting bugs in her clothes, waving her lance around and looking scarier than Lightning when you ask her something like 'what do you do on your free time' she'll glare at ya with more venom than sincerity and knock you out with one punch like she did with Snow. I ran faster than a cheetah could ever had imagined running and didn't break a sweat. I didn't keep track of how long I had ran but with small side glances I saw my teacher had long since dropped his whistle from his mouth and his eyes looked comically big with sweat coming out from under his armpits, sweating profusely. I kept running like no ones business it felt like an endless cycle, a cycle we continue to follow ourselves but I know of that horrible truth and the lies behind it all. By the time I stopped and regained my senses school was over for a while but the teacher was still there, mouth agape and still sweating out missiles. It was time to leave and I headed to my changing room, the few minutes I had taken to get there I hid behind a concrete support beam out of reflexes to hide from the enemy but it was only a few female classmates standing outside by the door to my changing room.
'What do they want?' I wondered as I peaked around the corner to see what was going on. The few girls didn't do anything but stand there almost like guard dogs and I really need my things otherwise Claire will bust into the school and, embarrassingly, drag me out of the school. I swallowed my shallow nervousness and walked calmly to the door, the closer I got I got noticed by the girls by the door, I regretted moving out of the way but what choice do I have if I need my stuff, right?
"Hey, Micheal. Nice work out on the field." One girl complimented as she played with her wavy red hair in her fair hands. Another bumped aside the red head and stood in front of me, in a split second what was happening before me reminded me of a few anime's relating to school with humor all over again, only its real...
"Say, Micheal. If your not busy do you wanna hang out tonight? I'm holding a party at my place, your invited to come ya know?" This one was a blond and a 'peppy cheerleader' I notice at games but I don't really pay attention anyways. I stood there like an idiot, a rude one, and didn't answer. I want to say no but I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, since I am secretly a girl anyways to this ignorant place, but made my choice before hand.
"Sorry, but I'm really busy, I can't go to your party. Now, forgive me, I have to get home now." I say to the group, emotionless, and I walk inside the room. Everything was how I left it and locked the door. I removed my dirty clothes and used water magic to rinse myself off, washed my hair and face and cleaned up until I smelled better than dirt and grime. Using wind magic to dry off properly I pulled on a shirt and baggy military pattern jeans and grabbed my things. The coast was clear and I walked outside of school with my earphones in listening to 'Mirror, Mirror' from the show 'RWBY'. I think and while I walked home, the sun descending to darkness. The song, Weiss's theme, made me realize that what I did on the other side of my dimension was terrible and I can't take it all back. In all the time I had back home and telling Claire everything that happened to me,' I am the loneliest of all', in this world I called my home. I can't hide from myself no matter where I go and I can't keep this burdening secret from either world like in the song. I just prayed that one day I will be given the chance to repent for what I did...
I walked around the block of the sidewalk until I could smell salt water. I came across the docks and followed it several feet up to my new two story sky blue and white paint coated home. Claire gets the first floor with three rooms and master bathroom all to herself while I take the second floor made up of four guest rooms and two double sized bathrooms, its a funny story about how this got arranged but it just did, and I get to use the three other rooms to my liking without any interruption and that's fine with me. I managed to get to the door and took out my keys, just as I reached for the lock for my keys the door knob turned open and there stood my sister in her Air Force uniform from head to toe her brown hair tied up under her cap neat and polished. She didn't see standing there Claire just looked flustered and out of focus to not see me, until she bumped into my shoulder Claire notices me and turns around returning to her happy and collected self again.
"Mel! I mean Micheal... Welcome home..." She says warmly and gives me a brief hug and turns to her car to leave.
"Military called you in again?" I asked, not really surprised that she's leaving so suddenly. Claire has her car door open and closed it once she got in and rolled her window down to her nice brand new Toyota 2014 edition before it even came out.
"Yeah, sorry I can't be home tonight. I was actually really looking forward to having our horror movie night or playing indie horror RPG games tonight like we used to. Unfortunately, I have to go. Dinners fresh and hot on the stove, eat when your hungry, I'll see you when I come home. Bye!" She explains and drives out of the driveway and is now out of sight. I wave goodbye until she is gone and I go inside locking the door behind me. Ever since we moved here Claire wasn't under her original commanding officer, some new haole prick fresh outta the training grounds took up the role as her leading officer and calls her and everyone in her battalion to the base for no important meeting and keeps them there until he is ready to let them come home a week or so later, leaving me to fend for myself in this large house all alone until she comes home. It was nothing new but I still wished Claire was here with me than with the military... I can't complain so all I do is put my iPod on the speakers designed for them and play 'Mirror Mirror' again because right now I do feel alone. I wasn't hungry so I put the pot on the stove in the ice box and went straight to my room feeling tired with the music on repeat to that one song until it was faintly playing from below the second floor. My room was calling to me and I dropped backpack on the ground along with my O'Neal jacket and plopped on my bed. Somehow I was really tired and wanted to sleep in order to forget my troubles, when sleep was above me my eyes fluttered until I finally fell asleep.
I opened my eyes and found it was suddenly dark in my room, I checked the time and it was five minutes to midnight. My stomach growled and I went downstairs still hearing mirror mirror playing. I was on my way to the kitchen until I noticed it was raining outside and thunder rolled in again like the night I was struck by lightning and survived. I recalled Etro's words saying that I will return to their world sooner than I thought but wouldn't want to chance it with the electric volt again and not survive this time. I pulled the pot out of the fridge and somehow I felt uneasy, like someone was behind me uneasy. I threw the pot back inside the fridge and spun on my heels to turn around faster to find nobody there but the song playing. I sighed and warmed me up something to eat. When it was ready I took my plate outside and sat under the balcony with the swing chair next to the front door to watch the rain fall and listen to the thunder roar. I watched the storm while I ate and thought, 'maybe I'm not supposed to go back. Maybe I can help by staying put here until their world recovered from when I arrived.' It was a blissful feeling both bitter an cruel to think lies were comforting but it wasn't really helping me. Rain kept pelting everything it touched and the storm passed twenty minutes later, I went back inside and sat on the couch with my plate washed and cleaned. It was tomorrow but I can't sleep for the morning was descending over me closer and closer. I realized then the song stopped playing and was replaced with Hopes theme from 13 was playing. I looked at the TV and saw the screen had the same words it had the first time but the words were different, it wrote,
'Child bearing the pact of the Goddess, man kind is being threatened once more and the Champion had long since been awake to defend her ladies throne. Awaken the Champion and return to the world of Valhalla and Cocoon as the Shield of every dimension in order to keep balance and harmony among worlds. Accept and your journey shall begin, decline and your world will, too, be swept in the void of the endless darkness.'
That was it. Just like that the message had reached me. It felt like ages to be called back there, a little disappointed that it wasn't as flashy as my first entrance, and jumped to my feet. I went into my room to grab my sword that I used against Orphan, Caeli Velum, and ran back down the flight of stairs I almost fell. A golden portal ripped open in front of the TV and I could see remnants of Valhalla on the other side of it. I nearly walked into the portal until I thought about Claire, I rushed to write a note on the white board on the fridge and reluctantly walked back to the gateway. My heart grew heavy about moving so quick without a second thought, did I really despise the reality I was born in? I couldn't answer myself that but I knew I was leaving my sister behind again, I hope one day she would understand this with my message.
"Wait for me Sis. I'll come back for you no matter what." I said aloud to myself and walked through the portal. I hope Claire would understand the message I left her and keep hoping we will live a normal life again, just the two of us.
'Dear, Claire. If your reading this it means I am already gone. Please understand sis that I love you no matter what but like how you have a duty to protect the people I also have the similar obligation that keeps everyone safe from the threats beyond the states. Beyond the worlds we live in. I promise to come back to you and pray that I will come home successful. Don't forget about me, I love you sis. Your sister, Mel.'
A/N: hey everybody, AeonLegacy beginning the first chapter of the sequel. Sorry this first chapter wasn't that exciting but hopefully its alright. I had another idea of how I was going to write this but I guess this was alright, because everybody knows how important first impressions are, right? And right now not doing a good job... Anyways the story will be better in later chapters I promise. Well, until I can make the next chapter I will see you all later, please leave a review, like, the same old same old and let me know how I'm doing so far so I can make the story more interesting, yea? Ciao!