The Umbran Apprentices
Chapter 1
"Angelica," said a woman's voice. "Wake up, Angelica."
As I slowly opened my eyes and recovered my senses, I saw the face of what appeared to be a white-haired woman, whose suit was made out of her own hair. I would sit back up, and found myself outside of my stasis pod, in prison, awake. Behind the mysterious woman were two guards, each armed with rifles.
The woman would lift me back on my feet, as she then said to me, "Are you alright, Angelica? You've spent two years in stasis for so long, that you've yet to recover from it."
"I'm fine," I responded, "but who are you, and why am I out of my prison?"
"My name is Jeanne," said the woman, "and I've spent six-million pounds trying to bail you out. Don't worry about where I got such money, at least not yet."
"We gave you the prisoner, as promised," said one of the two guards, "so I suggest you leave the Vigrid High-Tech Security Prison now with her, unless you've changed your mind."
"Don't worry," replied Jeanne, "I'll get the both Angelica and I out of your sights as soon as possible." She'd then face me and say, "Come on, we're getting you out of this Hell-hole."
"I don't know why you're helping me," I said, "but okay."
Following Jeanne out of the stasis room and down the dark hallway of the prison, Jeanne would say to me, "Tell me, Angelica, do you remember how you've got yourself imprisoned here?"
"Why do you ask," I asked Jeanne.
"Because," replied Jeanne, "you've been in that stasis-pod for so long that you might not remember anything. Sort of like a certain woman my age that I used to know about..."
"Woman," I asked her.
"Less me-time," Jeanne responded, "more you-time!"
"Oh," I said, "sorry. Two years ago, when I was thirteen, there was a female popular high-school girl named Erica, whom along with her friends, used to berate and bully me at my high-school. However, that was until, out of anger, I've somehow mistakenly froze Erica into ice and shattered her into pieces while she was frozen. I would be accused of witch-craft as my school called the police, had me arrested, and sentenced to life in my prison's stasis-pod because of those bizarre ice-powers I've developed."
"That's all I need to know," replied Jeanne.
"Which doesn't explain why you've bailed me out of prison," I said to Jeanne. "Who are you? What are your intentions with me? Who was that woman your age that you mentioned? And how was I related to her?"
"You'll receive your answers in due-time, my pretty," replied Jeanne.
We then exited the prison building and arrived in the outdoors. I was glad to be free from my prison and back outside, but I still needed answers relating to Jeanne and why she bailed me out. In the parking-lot Jeanne led me to a small motorcycle, as I asked her, "Do you drive that thing?"
"Yes," replied Jeanne, "now, shut up!"
"Sorry," I replied.
Jeanne and I would get on her motorcycle, with her on the front-seat and me behind her. She would turn on the motorcycle's engines and drive the both of us out of the prison's parking-lot and down the streets of the city of Vigrid.
Three hours of riding on Jeanne's motorcycle with her as its driver, and already I didn't receive a single answer, as Jeanne was being too secretive about everything, like where she's taking me, what her intentions are with me, and how I'm related to another woman she used to know in her past. Eventually, Jeanne would stop nearby a large castle, on the top of an even-larger mountain that overshadowed Vigrid.
As the two of us got off her motorcycle, I asked Jeanne, "Do you live in this oversized castle?"
"Yes," replied Jeanne, "and you'll learn more in due-time."
Following Jeanne, I'd enter the castle, walk down the hallways that were as dark as the prison I used to be in, and arrived inside a small chamber containing a large desk, a boiling black cauldron, a crystal ball, several beakers containing bizarre liquids, shelves with old books, and the most striking feature of them all, two more girls my age, wearing suits made out of their own hair similar to Jeanne. The difference was that one girl's hair/suit was a fiery crimson, the other wore glasses and her hair/suit was blonde.
"I'm back, girls," Jeanne said to the two girls. "Tell me, have you've been on your best behavior while I was away to pick up our newest member of the family?"
"Yes," said the blonde girl in glasses. "We haven't broken anything by accident, and we've been studying for so many hours."
"Tell us, Miss Jeanne," said the red-headed girl, as she and the blonde girl faced me, "is she the one you've said you'd pick up?"
"Well," Jeanne said, "you're looking at her, so why ask questions you've already know the answers to?"
"Who are those girls," I asked Jeanne.
"Hey," said the red-headed girl, "don't speak as if we're not around!"
"Don't mind her," Jeanne said to the other two girls. "She has lots of questions relating to each of us, but she'll get them soon enough, as soon as I place a certain spell on her."
"What spell," I asked Jeanne.
"Come with me to my desk," Jeanne responded, "and you'll find out."
I followed Jeanne to her desk, as she sat on the top of it, the two of us facing each other. "I'm sorry I haven't told you this before," Jeanne said to me, "but, once you are placed under my spell, there's no turning back. This place will be your new home, and the three of us your new family."
"Why are you acting like you're scaring me," I asked nervously.
Jeanne outstretched the palm of her right hand directly into my face, as all of a sudden, a strong force attacked my brain. I grasped my head, kneeled on the ground, and screamed in horrible agony, as I wondered what in God's name Jeanne was doing to me.
After her attack on my mind, everything went black and silent, as I reopened my eyes and saw Jeanne and the two teenaged girls looking down at me. "Ungh," I groaned.
"Looks like she's waking up," the red-headed girl said to Jeanne.
"Tell us, Miss Jeanne," said the blonde girl, "will our new sister be okay?"
"Right now," Jeanne said to the two girls, "she went through Hell when I placed that spell on her, and she needs her rest."
As I sat up, I've found myself resting on a bed, with Jeanne and the two girls surrounding and facing me. As I looked down and took off the cover on me, I was then shocked to discover that instead of regular clothes like any other teenaged girl, I was wearing a suit made out of my own blue hair!
Facing Jeanne, I then said, "What's going on? Why am I wearing a suit made out of my own hair? What did you do to me?"
"The real question you should be asking me," Jeanne replied, "is what your name is."
"My name," I asked. As I went into my mind to find out what my name was, I couldn't find it anywhere, as all I knew was that I now go by a different name: Cryo, named after my ice-powers.
"I've cast a spell on you," Jeanne said to me, "to slowly and painfully strip you of your original name and memories, so that I can keep track of you and make sure you don't escape my castle and your new responsibilities as an Umbran Witch."
"Umbran... Witch," I asked.
"Your name is now Cryo," said the blonde girl. "I'm Static, named after my powers over electricity."
"And," said the red-haired girl, "my name is Grill, named after my powers over fire."
"I'm very sorry that I had to do this, Cryo," Jeanne said to me, "but the previous generation of Umbran Witches used to do the same to Bayonetta and I, their new generation of Umbran Witches. Jeanne isn't really my real name, and they robbed me of my original name to make sure I don't escape their watch, much like me with you and your new sisters. As for Cereza, the Forbidden Child of both light and darkness, when she first joined our order, they would magically strip her of her original name and memories of her Umbran Witch mother and Lumen Sage father, and thus give her a new one: Bayonetta."
"As in that girl whom I reminded you of," I said to Jeanne, "right?"
"Yes," replied Jeanne. "However, her Lumen Sage father, Balder, would send the Cereza from the time before she joined our order, to the future, to reawaken Bayonetta's long-lost memories of her past, which she lost not only from the same spell I would soon place on you, Cryo, but also when I imprisoned her for five-hundred years to prevent her from falling into Balder's hands. He did this to Bayonetta so that he could use her - the left eye of the world to his right eye - to summon the very monster that she and I used to destroy two years ago: The creator, Jubileus."
"Then what explains me," I asked.
"The order of the Umbran Witches are now but gone from existence," Jeanne continued. "The Lumen Sages - the servants of Heaven - and the Umbran Witches - the servants of Hell - once waged war with each other after a terrible disagreement, with the latter conquering the former. However, the sole surviving Lumen Sage would conspire the witch-hunts as an act of revenge against us for the defeat of his people, and through the witch hunts the Umbran Witches would also head to their inevitable extinction. So, five-hundred and two years later, Bayonetta and I, the sole-survivors of the order, thought about rebuilding the Umbran Witches by finding young girls your age with any magical potential within, and apprentice them into our newest members of the Umbran Witch family. However, being the selfish bitch that she is, Bayonetta prefers that our order stays dead rather than be restored to its former glory, and thus decided to build a small hut in the middle of the Vigrid swamps and live there alone as her home, leaving me all alone to rebuild our order!" Jeanne would then become angry and say to herself, "Holy crap, that fraggin' little bitch, leaving me alone to do all the work while she sits around in her swamp-hut, getting fat!"
"Calm down, Miss Jeanne," said Static.
"The book-worm's right," Grill continued. "It's all in the past!"
Calming herself down, Jeanned said to the girls, "Right, I apologize." She then faced me and continued, "As I was saying, so far, I've managed to recruit three new apprentices that would help me restore the Umbran Witches, including Grill, Static, and of course, you, Cryo. Like me, Bayonetta, and the rest of our fallen sisters, all three of you are stripped of your regular, human lives, and every memory relating to them, original names included. Thus, the three of you have to leave it all behind to become what you and your new sisters are. So now, you, along with Grill and Static, are one of my three apprentices, and as your mentor, I will do everything in my power to develop you into three of the world's ultimate Umbran Witches since Bayonetta and I."
"I won't be able to go back to my old human life," I said to Jeanne, "whatever it originally was, right?"
"Unfortunately," replied Jeanne, "no. After all, I said it myself: There's no turning back. As for your training and education in the dark arts, I'm afraid I can't train you until tomorrow. For now, you need to recover from the side-effects of the spell I casted upon you. If you want, while you're resting, you can always socialize with your new sisters while they keep a close eye on you. I'll be in my office researching my spell-books, so any time you need me, just send either Grill or Static and I'll be right over to get you anything you need."
"Yes, Jeanne," I responded.
"That's 'Miss' Jeanne, to you," replied Jeanned, as she then said to the other two girls, "Anytime she dares to get up from her bed, knock her out into a coma!"
"Yes, Miss Jeanne," replied Grill and Static, as Jeanne exited the bedroom, leaving me with the other two girls in the process.
As Grill, Static, and I faced each other, I then asked them, "So, how did Jeanne recruit you two into those Umbran Witches or whatever they're called?"
"Either you're deaf," replied Grill, "or have attention-deficit disorder, because Miss Jeanne already told you everything about us!"
"As much as I don't get along with Grill, often," Static said to me, "I kind of agree. Neither of us remember anything about our pasts or how Miss Jeanne found and recruited us into the Umbran Witches, because she cast a spell of memory-stripping on us, same as you."
"All we remember," Grill continued, "was when we first woke up with no memories of our pasts. I was the first apprentice to be brought into the Umbran Witches and had my name and memories stripped two weeks ago."
"I'm the second to join Miss Jeanne as her next apprentice," said Static, "as I had mine stripped one week after Grill's were taken away."
"Then that makes me the third," I said, "right?"
"Of course," Grill and Static replied in unison, smiling.
I was silent for the moment, feeling sad, as a few seconds of silence later I said to the two girls, "I know I've asked Miss Jeanne the same question and received an answer from her, but I'm asking this question to you anyway: I can never go back to my original home, wherever it is, with my original family, whoever they are, right?"
"So what," asked Grill.
"You don't miss anyone or anything in your original lives," I asked Grill and Static, "even though you no longer have any memories of them?"
"Grill and I are like inseparable sisters," Static continued, "with Jeanne as our mother-figure. Her training might have nearly killed us, as it's too austere even for us to literally survive, let alone figuratively-so, but we appreciate all that excessive, gratuitous death-training she provided for us."
"You talk," I said to the two girls, "as if you're a pair of disposable tools waiting to be used and then thrown away. Why would you say such crap?"
"Because," Grill responded, "it's supposed to develop our powers and combat-experience, not because Miss Jeanne hates us or whatever-the-Hell. Once tomorrow comes and your first day of combat-training begins, you'll learn to appreciate Miss Jeanne's austere training and discipline."
"Yeah," said Static, "and who knows, we might even become a Hell of a three-woman team, working together to take on any army of angels that wants Miss Jeanne, her friend Bayonetta, and the three of us dead, just as Miss Jeanne expected us to."
"Static maybe a total nerd and teacher's pet," Grill said, "while I often break the rules, disobey Miss Jeanne's orders, pick-on Static, and do things my way. But, even if we never get along very often because of our conflicting opinions and personalties, we compliment each other anyway, and would do everything in our powers to protect each other and Miss Jeanne. Surely, you'll develop the same compassion for us and the desire to keep us from harm's way, just as we'll do likewise to you during our time training to the death with Miss Jeanne as our mentor."
"So going back to your inability to remember," Static said, "I suggest that you do what we did when Miss Jeanne casted the spell of memory-stripping on us: Leave your past behind and focus on today, otherwise you'll never find true happiness. As long as you have the two of us as your sisters, you'll never want to remember or go back to your old life."
After hearing all that crazy-talk from Grill and Static, I would then lay down on my bed, placing my head on the pillow, as I would go deep into my thoughts. What the Hell were those two girls talking about? Why would they say such horrible things? And, judging by everything those two girls said, how will Jeanne take care of me now that I'm stuck as an Umbran Witch and her third apprentice?