Without Destiny
Chapter I
MXKM Productions
Footsteps echoed in the long, dark stone corridor. The once magnificent palace, Remuse, was now a dead shell of what it once was, and scarred from a war that took place in ancient times. The footsteps belonged to someone weathered by battle, a young girl who had seen the brink of hell, only to continue living her life. Alyxx Heart, once a mage proud of the Mage's Guild, now leader of the Magical Defense Unit, created of her own volition.
The proud mage, stood tall, with tanned skin, and a long, unruly mane of straight hair the color of chocolate, tied into it a scrap piece of denim in a makeshift bow. Glinting in the moonlight, a beaten old metal badge that displayed a violet heart and blue diamond interlocked. Leather belts around her biceps tensed with each step, as she drew closer to a planetarium type room. A red leather belt, edged lightly with gold, was slung loosely around her hips, the belt held up a skirt comprised of brown leather belts, held together by heart and diamond buckles. Clenched at her sides her hands, gloved in light gray, fingers wrapped in black. And her wrist was cushioned by blood red, laced with a gold band. The metal around her foot, a golden cage of odd shapes, scraped against the old stone, under the golden cage, were knee high lengths of grey topped with a golden edge, and displaying proudly a blue diamond and violet heart, clasped to her shoulders with lilac heart charms, a blood red on outside and violet inside cape, flowing tattered with her steps. In her deep, feline violet eyes, there was an element of worry. Her quickened footsteps told so as well. She knew in her heart, there was only one reason why the Klôwe, her gods, would call her to their domain, an impending danger that threatened so much more than any could imagine.
The domed room of the building she entered was filled from wall to wall with thin delicate, silken strings, all woven and crossed, intersecting and ending, and beginning, woven by a master. OR so it should have been, many of the strings were broken and frayed. A thin path beyond this room, led her into a vestibule, which overlooked the starry sky. Standing between two pillars, an extremely tall woman, with long cascading ringlet curls of gold, dressed in an ivory veil-like gown. Her entire being seemed to glow.
Beside her stood a small girl, with very pale skin and dark, impossibly straight hair. The girl wore a black dress with white lace around it's hems, and held a small red book in her delicate porcelain hands. Both looked at her with knowledgeable silver eyes.
"What once was shall be again." The tall woman's voice was as smooth as and as sweet as honey.
"I should assume you know what this means." The young girl's voice told of more years than her image did.
"The Darkness lives again." Alyxx said to the two of them; Lumina, the Goddess of Light, and Corrinne, the Spirit of Knowledge.
"During the time of Silver, after the fall of Pennum, forces rose to fight against the Darkness. These forces were separated by only one thread in the Strings of Fate, and when that thread snapped, with no reason given, they had found each other. To ensure that this chaos would not happen again, the string remained snapped; letting the forces of Light be drawn to each. Despite precautions taken, something has caused the Darkness to return. Adding to that threat, Gumo-Jin, who controls the Strings of Fate, has vanished and the strings all pull apart. This you have seen yourself. Along with the recent infiltration of the Arised vault, that took from us some of the most dangerous artifacts in existence." Corrinne, was free of emotion.
"The powers of you and those who have sided with you are what we need in this time." Lumina was motherly, and gentle in her word choice. "I believe we Klôwe can leave matters to you, Alyxx Heart."
"I won't let your trust go to waste." Alyxx stood, a staff of braided gold appeared in her hand, the top a crescent. Inside the crescent, a red crystal appeared, turning violet as it grew outside the crescent. Below the crescent blue plumes fanned out.
"Trust in yourself, trust in your power." It was an old mantra, on Alyxx was used to hearing.
"I will come to you with any information I may discover." Corrinne offered.
Alyxx scratched a circle into the stone floor, using the crystal of her staff, Exxellior. A blue-white light bubbled up, "Transport." With that one word, the energy rose over her, and she was gone, no indication she had ever been there, not even the scratches had remained.
"Lumina, do you really believe we can trust the fate of the existence to that girl?" Corrinne questioned, her tone remaining the same note.
"I trust Alyxx with more than anyone should be trusted, Corrinne." Lumina's gaze shifted to a small gathering of stars that looked almost like the hiragana for flame. "She will not be alone in this, Remember Corrinne; she had that of the other Light, even if hers is dimmed." Lumina turned to walk away, "Search the oldest tomes first, whatever survived from Raptura and Elysion."
Alyxx reappeared in a small town; she craved the quiet that this place would bring. Even she needed a break every once in a while. Alyxx had super sharp senses and the added ability of sensing and controlling aura, these senses picked up on something close to her.
"It seems as though we think more alike than we like to admit." The cool voice belonged to a girl with long blonde pigtails, held up by ribbons like black butterfly wings. A black cloak hung loosely around her figure.
"And here I thought I would have some peace and quiet for a change." Classic sarcasm followed crossing her arms over her chest; Alyxx didn't have to turn to the girl to know who it was, Fate Testarossa. For little over four years now they'd been working together as part of the MDU. "It's nights like this that I enjoy most." Alyxx said in a long drawn out breath.
While Alyxx's original 'employment' had been the Mage's Guild, she'd made a team of friends with powers both strong and unusual. Fate had been in 'employ' at the Time Space Administration Bureau, and formed a team with several there. When Alyxx created the MDU, and a chance meeting with Fate occurred, was when Fate defected to the new organization.
"Enjoy it while you can." Fate said, in her all-too-familiar serious tone.
"What's happened now?" Another long sigh from Alyxx, this one strained and frustrated.
"A Lupercine fugitive has entered our area of jurisdiction, and was last seen fifteen miles from this location." Fate said, allowing her tone to relax a little. "It's Laos."
"Now that you mention it, it's a little chilly, isn't it July?" Alyxx mock-shivered, as part of her power over fire, she rarely felt cold.
"Just use your abilities to find him." Fate said to her. The abilities mentioned, were Alyxx's abilities to use aura to find any user of magic that was around, so-called dousing.
"But, we can't rely on my unstable power." Alyxx said with a grin, reaching for her bow.
"I thought you didn't care about what Crono said," her half-brother, Crono, was highly disapproving of Alyxx"s power, as they were 'unusual and unstable,' according to his experience.
"I don=t." A wild smile of Alyxx flashed as her eyes did with a purple fire. From a space inside her bow, she withdrew a pair of violet shades. "My aura, along with the range of the VR Visor, should give us a definite area, within a few hundred feet." Alyxx said, watching numbers, figures, paragraphs, video, picture, and other such material flash by her eyes.
"Unusual, I agree, but unstable has no boundary, compared to the Wolkenritter or even Nanoha at full strength." Fate said aside, more or less thinking to herself.
"I have an area." Alyxx said, removing the violet shades, or the VR Visor as they were called. "There were several strange power signals that registered, but Laos, is there." She ended her statement by pointing to a clearing in a forested area, marked by a large statue of a penguin.
"How ironic, or is it cliché?" Fate said aloud, not waiting for the answer. Whatever it was, taking down a criminal known to use ice-attribute magic in front of a penguin statue was certainly something.
"I don't know." Alyxx said to no one, walking into a run and flying off the building, "Jet Thrusters!" the gold casing around Alyxx's boots lit along the bottom, she flew, on a puff of flame, and stood in the air, waiting for Fate.
"Sonic Sail," Fate's cape flew off forming four sails behind her, and revealing the black body suit, with two red stripes on her bust. Her black gloved hands grasped the black and yellow triangular axe of her staff, Bardiche, yellow triangles on the back of her hands. A red belt slung around her waist held a short white skirt, that skimmed the tops of thigh high black stockings, with a red stripe at the top that led to silver satabons.
As they flew they developed their plan, "I think an assault would be the best plan of action!" Alyxx yelled over the rush of the wind.
"I think you should attack first, then I'll swing in with a close-range attack." Fate confirmed.
"Exxellior Form-Shift Blaster!" Alyxx commanded her staff; the blaster form of Exxellior looked like a silver and gold rocket launcher, with a blue plume where the blast-back would fire from, and red to purple crystal lining the barrel. Alyxx liked the weight of it on her shoulder. "Pepper Bomb!" Alyxx literally peppered the area with rockets that exploded, catching an abnormally tall man with silvery wings and long white hair in the blast.
Fate flew in, Bardiche glowing yellow, "Arc Saber!" She swung, the yellow energy blade flying out, hitting the man.
"Watery Card, put out the fire and defend Yue! Release and Dispel!" The voice of a young girl sounded, at her command, a mermaid-esque creature lead a wave around the flames and enveloped Alyxx. Fate narrowly dodged the creature with a lightning fast 'flash move' technique.
"The hell!?" Fate yelled, looking back at a frozen Alyxx. Laos walked toward her slowly.
"Whoever this 'Yue' is, he has a pretty sweet deal. Having people protect him," He looked at Fate, who readied Bardiche again.
Steam began to fill the air, "Rage Blitz!" Alyxx had several strong abilities under her belt, of them, "Rage Blitz" ranked among the most powerful, to no surprise the intense heat it gave off melted the ice around her and the flamethrowereffect it had burst out and hit Laos.
"Thunder-" Fate started a new attack, balls of electrical energy bound Laos, "-Rage!" several small beams of electricity fired.
"Shield! Protect us! Release and Dispel!" The owner of the interfering voice was a young girl with serious coffee-colored eyes, wild golden-tawny hair the fell into a short tom-boyish cut. She held in her hand a pink staff topped with a star and wings. She wore red in-line skates and matching elbow and knee pads. Underneath with she wore a light green sweatshirt and peach colored pants. In her other hand, she held several pink and white tarot-like cards.
"What are you doing? Stupid girl!" Alyxx bit back the acid that was the sting of expletives, which she was told, by her younger sister, Holly, she should stop using.
"Why are you attacking Yue? He's done nothing to you!" The girl shouted in frustration. Obvious to every other member there, she was confused.
Laos grabbed her from behind, putting his hand over her mouth, his eyes glowed blue with dark intent. "Attack me and the girl will die!" his cockiness surprised even them. His hand outstretched drew up a snowstorm.
ACosmic Flare!Alyxx shot off a searing shot energy that swirled and stopped the storm. "Get it now, you damn idiot, this guys evil." Alyxx pointed at Laos, "Lethal Ice Laos, reigning commander of the Jinka section of the Lupercine Army." Flames began swirling at Exxellior.
The girl bit Laos' hand, and pulled away as he snarled in pain. She pulled away, putting Alyxx between her and him, pulling out another card, "Fiery Card! Create and storm of flame and toast this creep! Release and Dispel!" From the card a being with great wings of flame emerged, that whirled around creating a flaming whirlwind.
"Pulse Break!"Alyxx shot one white ball of aura, and then rushed in to slap a pair of cuffs onto the criminal. With the push of a button, he was gone.
"Now the last bit of business to deal with is-"Alyxx began, drawing out the tone, turning to the girl.
"-Is who exactly she is." Fate finished, with a very matter-of-fact tone.
"I..um.. I," She stuttered.
"She is Sakura Kinomoto, Master of the Clow Cards!" the yellow beast that appeared now had a man's voice, but appeared to be a girl's teddy bear with and oversized head and lion's tail, with fairy wings attached to it.