{December 2nd}

The first thing Taupa Tenga woke up to, was the strong, horrid smell of chemicals. Bleach, to be exact. It was so strong that his nose wrinkled, and he gagged a little. The second thing the teen noticed when he awoke, was how bright the room was. He was blinded by the white, fluorescent lights around him, and for a brief moment, he thought he was in Heaven. A wave of elation and joy at that prospect washed over him.

But that smell of bleach, that sickening, gut roiling smell ruined his illusion. He realized that he was not in Heaven, but in a hospital.

The faint sound of a heart monitor came from beside him, and Taupa struggled to remember why exactly he was here.

Then it flooded back. The civilians, the airship field, Shoggoth, his arm being torn off, his lungs being punctured, his legs being snapped like twigs; every single moment flooded back to him. He was spared no detail by amnesia, though he wish he was.

Wait. His arm.

A sense of urgency filled him as he realized that Shoggoth tearing off his arm was no dream, it was all real. Taupa frantically whipped his head to the side, craning his neck to get a look, any glimpse of what could be left.

His stomach sank as he spotted his right arm, wrapped tightly in faintly bloodied bandages.

"No...No, no, no." Taupa breathed, a lump forming in his throat as he realized what had happened. His arm was gone at the elbow, a hopeless shell of what it had been formerly. A sickening train of fear hit his gut. What would happen now? Would he be a lefty for the rest of his life? Would he be able to afford cybernetics, still fight, still attend Haven with his injury?

Wait. Terra.

Would he still be able to protect the love of his life with one arm?

The sickening silence left him with no answer, and the question would torment him for the rest of the night.

{December 3rd}

"Hey. I, uh...brought you some flowers," Aurtheolin Dragoon smiled to his friend as he entered the tiny, sterile white hospital room. His blonde hair slicked back, green eyes slightly dulled because of Taupa's condition, he searched the teen's face for any sign of mood improvement.

That smiled lowered into a frown once he found no change in mood.

"That's pansy shit, Arthur," Taupa murmured as he stared at the wall, a distant and sad look upon his face. Although he was incredibly glad for some company, he didn't like the other boy seeing him like this. Weak. Vulnerable. Pathetic.

All the things he strove not to be.

Taupa slumped back against his scratchy, hard pillow.

"Oh, come on. Brings some light to the room," Arthur argued, setting the bouquet of roses and lilies in a vase he brought. He dragged over an uncomfortable chair from the corner of the room, wincing as he plopped down in it, then focused his attention on the patient. "So...How are you?"

"Peachy."

"I'm trying to help, Taupa. I can't help unless you talk about it," He sighed through his nose, rubbing his temple.

Taupa gave him a slight glare, "It's not like theres anything to talk about. I lost. I got my arm ripped off. The end."

"You need to talk about it. It's a coping thing the doctors told me about-"

"Well, screw the doctors. My arm is gone and there's nothing any amount of coping can do to fix that," Taupa growled.

Arthur's gaze trailed dowward guiltily, and for the long moments that followed, Taupa couls only hear the ticking of the clock on the wall.

"I hate it. I hate that I can't do anything to help you," Arthur mumbled sadly, his bottom lip quivering ever so slighty under his emotions.

"Don't...pity me," Taupa choked out, gritting his teeth as he attempted to hold in tears that threatened to spill down his cheeks. Was he just a pity case to everyone now? A broken soul, with no other purpose in life? Did Terra think that, was that why she didn't visit him yet?

Taupa drowned out every other sound in the room with his questions, the only noise he was able to hear was the ticking of the clock in the background of his silence.

{December 5th}

Taupa Tenga stared at the plain, white wall of the hospital room with a distant and dead look. Tears dried on hs cheeks, his left arm was strapped to the bed, and he slouched against the lumpy, scratchy pillow. He felt completely hollow, a sense of existential dread deep in the pit of his stomach. He was alone, the boy realized for what seemed like the millionth time. No one had come for him. Partially because most- no, all of his family was dead now. A day before, Taupa had recieved the phone call from the police, and they explained his cousin, who was more akin to a brother, was murdered in the alleyways of Mistral City. Taupa hadn't taken it well. He thrashed, and screamed, and kicked, and sobbed. He had no one, not even the love of his life.

He was alone.

'You think you're alone?' A dark, deep voice called. Taupa's head snapped up, his distant and tired eyes widening. His head whipped around the room as he tried to find who spoke, but the teen discovered there was no one there. He chalked it up to exhaustion, and sank back against the pillow.

'Well, you're pretty wrong, kid.' The voice taunted again. This time, Taupa's face paled. There was no one in here but him, was he hallucinating? Was the pain medication getting to him? What was going on?

'You wanna know what's going on? Guess mommy and daddy never told you where you come from…'

"What are you talking about? What the hell is going on?" Taupa hissed, his teeth gritted.

'Eager for answers, aren't we? Be careful, a self proclaimed goddess once told me that ignorance is bliss. But hey, I'm sure you'll love having an ancient psychopath in your head!'

Taupa's words died on his tongue. Ancient psychopath? Self proclaimed goddess? What was he going on about?

'I'll alleviate your confusion for you, son. The name's Cerbero! I'm your great, great, great, great, great, gr-'

"Enough! Tell me what the fuck is going on!" Taupa snarled angrily.

'Someone's pissy. I'm your ancestor, great grandaddy. The original user of your semblance. And we're going to be spending a lot of time together these next few weeks, before I kill you.'

Taupa's mouth hung open in complete surprise, the hollow feeling in his chest being replaced by one of fear. He was crazy, completely insane. No way this Cerbero person was actually his ancestor… right? God, he wished his parents were here right now so they could explain all this to him.

"Kill me? What are you talking about? You can't kill me, you're in my head!" He laughed nervously, a bit of emotion cracking through his angry facade.

'I don't want to kill your body, but I do want to kill your mind.'

Taupa finally connected what Cerbero was trying to tell him. If everything went according to plan, Taupa would be gone, his ancestor would have a body to do whatever the hell he'd like. He'd have a second life: Taupa's.

His words chilled the teen to the bone.

{December 8th}

It was day three of this whole sharing a body thing, and so far, it wasn't going too well.

Taupa's time in the hospital had been filled wiht sleepless nights and stressful day, and he had no clear answer on how to stop the cycle. Dark circles were proinant under his bloodshot eyes, and he stared off at the screen of the tiny television rather tiredly.

With every day he spent in this room, Taupa felt like he was losing himself. Like he was emotionless, dead inside. He didn't have any of his pugnacious fire in him anymore, or the hard determination. Cerbero was the catalyst of this. After everything that'd happened to him so far, his ancestor was the cherry on top. The psychopath was determined to make Taupa's life a living hell; he made snide remarks whenever he wanted, gave the teen horrific nightmares every night, and brought up scarring memories from his past and Taupa's.

'Hey, Taupa Train, what the fuck are we watching?' Cerbero called loudly from the back of his subconscious.

The teen rubbed his bloodshot and dry eyes against his shoulder, mumbling a few curse words at his ancestor, and squinted at the television. Some game show was playing, one he really wasn't paying attention to.

'There was a good war movie a couple channels back. I wanna watch people die!'

"Yeah, I kinda don't. We're going to sleep," Taupa grunted out, using his pinky finger to hit the off button on the remote. The nurse had put the remote near his hand while still leaving his arm strapped down. At least it gave him something to do.

'No, we're not. Turn back to the movie,' Cerbero growled. 'I'll make your nightmares worse than usual.'

"Is that even possible?" Taupa chuckled dryly. "I'll take my chances." He began to try and lean back, hopefully able to catch an hour or so of sleep, but realized he couldn't. His joints felt stiff, almost frozen, and a sick hungry made his stomach churn. What was this? Taupa had never felt this feeling before.

He tried to move himself, tried to slump back against the pillows or push against the restraints on his arm. But nothing. He was totally concious, but unresponsive.

However, his pointer finger twitched towards the remote, slowly flicking back a few channels until it finally stopped, landing on the war movie.

"Fucking Cerbero! Let go!" Taupa screamed, a muscle twitching in his cheek from the strain of resisting his ancestor's control.

'You were a fool not to believe me when I told you I'd have control. You're too weak to do shit anyways. Sit tight, sonny. I'll be sailing this ship soon enough~' Cerbero chuckled in his head.

At that moment, at that very moment,Taupa realized he never knew what a war was until he was alone.

{December 12}

The hospital was usually the place everyone felt safe in; security in every corridor, doctors and nurses who could save your life just down the hall, no enemies to shoot, stab, or kill.

But to Terra Azure Vasquez, it was unsettling. She hated the smell, the horrid smell of bleach that choked her while she slept these past few weeks. She hated the bright, flourescent lights that ripped out every flaw and imperfection it shone on. Most of all, she hated the sounds. Sometimes the hospital would be a nerve wracking, deathly silent. Other times whispers of sobs and people taking their final breaths would echo down the halls.

As she walked down the corridor, she stuck close to Amari, her older brother.

"Are you excited?" The wolf in man's clothing breathed to her, then frowned as he rememebred her condition. Before he could correct himself, she reminded him.

"I can't remember him. I don't know why I should be excited. Other than the fact he's my boyfriend," She mumbled back, eyes on the polished tile floor beneath them.

"You two were a little more than boyfriend and girlfriend. You always got that look in your eyes when you talked about him, "Amari explained. Notcing her confused expresion, he continued, "The love look. Y'know, that look when a person makes you all warm inside? When you're in love?"

"Note the past tense," Terra grumbled, her stomach sinking as she lamented over her amnesia once more. After a few panic attacks, lonely days, and pain from her amnesia while she was in the hospital, Terra had finally begun to trust Amari

"Bodies have memories too, not just minds. You never know, your instincts might just tell you to kiss Taupa, and bam! One simple kiss could jog that memory of yours," Amari tried to bring some hope into her, but Terra wasn't taking.

"What do you think this is? A fairytale?" She scoffed as they stopped by a door. A burly security guard blocked the entrance, and looked at them with worried eyes.

"Uh, senor, what seems to be the probelm?" Amari stepped up, a frown creasing his face.

"You can't see the patient inside. It's too dangerous for visitors," The man shok his head vhemently, crossing his arms.

"It's visiting hours, and we know the kid in there-"

"I don't care. It's simply too much of a risk," The guard repeated again.

"The boy lost his arm! He can't be that dangerous!" Amari shouted, scowling as his temper began to spiral out of control.

The guard leaned forward, hissing, "He bit a nurse's ear off today! That kid's psycho! And unless you want to end up like her-"

The man immediatly stopped in his tracks when Amari whipped his sword out from his sheath, pressing it against his throat. "My baby sister is missing seventeen years of her life. The only one who has the slightest chance of bringing it back is that psycho," He growled, jerking his head towards the door. "I can be dark. I can be like him, if you'd want me to. Do you want me to be like him?"

The guard quickly shook his head, face pale. The older Vasquez wasted no time in shoving him aside and storming into the room. He moved off to the side, letting Terra get a good view of the patient.

He was hollow, the girl realized as soon as her jade eyes roamed over him. His face held no emotion, a strange blank wonder as he stared at the distant wall. The brawler's eyes held almost the same gaze; it was emotionless, but not lifeless. Oh, it held life. A swirl of madness mixed with his dark, onyx eyes.

Terra shivered.
Finally, he spotted her.

"They told me you weren't coming," He breathed hoarsely, a blank smile taking presedence on his face. "They told me you were gone."

"In a way, I am." Terra replied cautiously. "Are you Taupa?"

"I was." He said, eerily calm for such a creepy response.

"And who would you be now? If you aren't Taupa Tenga."

Silence. What was he thinking? What was going on behind that blank, placid expression?

"I am retribution," Taupa whispered, his eyes finally piercing into hers. Terra was even more unsettled than before. She wanted to leave, run, do something to hide from that intruding gaze. But strangely, she was transfixed."I am retribuition for everyone who ever hurt you in any way."

"I don't even know you-"

His gaze turned violent now, an angry tempest of a stare, and shifted to Amari.

"What does she mean? Of course she knows me. I know her, even like this. What does she mean?"

Amari flinched at the way he spoke; this didn't sound like Terra's idiota, the one she fell in love with. It was so different from the old Taupa that even Terra herself couldn't recognize him.

"She lost her memory. Someone attacked her, and she has amnesia. We don't know who did it, niether does Terra," He explained.

"So she has," Taupa's piercing stare rested on the other teen in the room. It was almost longing in a way, longing for the good old days when he had his arm and his sanity and she remembered how he kissed her with such a tender passion.

Amari shifted a bit closer to his sister, to protect her if anything went wrong. "Tenga, Mio Dio...What the hell happened to you? They told me about your arm but…"

"I guess there was someone else inside me. My ancestor, my tormentor; one and the same. He was more akin to a Grimm than a person, really. He kept me company when she couldn't," Taupa's hollowed onyx eyes sent an accusing glare towards his girlfriend. "He kept telling me he'd kill me, take over my body. He tried. Over a fucking movie, of all things. I killed him first. I took him over. He imprisoned me, but set me free in a way. Moral conscience doesn't fucking matter to me anymore, it doesn't chain me!" He laughed, dark and unhinged.

"It made you into a damn animal!" Terra shouted at him, angry at how easily he had given in, how easily he'd taken the easy way out. She could have loved him again, she knew it deep down. Now she couldn't.

"So it did. I don't give a fuck. I am utterly alone up here, but I'm free. It's what I needed," He hissed, a sickening smile on his face. He leaned towards her, as if he was eager to get to her. She cringed away. "Pathetic. Afraid of your own love," He scoffed to her.

Amari stepped in between them, blocking the lovers. "Ter, do you know him?" He whispered quietly, but deep within, he knew the answer.

"No. I don't know him at all." Terra breathed forlornly, adverting her gaze from the psychopath sitting in the bed.

Amari nodded slowly in silent resignation of the fact that his sister and Taupa were both gone forever.

Hey there, Zombikini. Happy Birthday! I hope you liked it, took me fucking forever to write, and it wasn't even supposed to be this long? Haha, whatever. Anyways, when writing this, I couldn't decide whether to write something angsty or fluffy, but angst is always my go to.

Here's to another year on the forum, Roleplay Buddy.

~Plot Queen