Hello everyone, surprise, surprise, it's another story! Yaaay! So this is just one we started in our heads originally, but before we knew it, it came out as a rather fun looking story. The chapters will be usually turn-based, I think. The first and second chapter are written by halfdemon-kai and the third by me (Kazink) but after that you'll be guessing. Maybe this will sustain you guys until I get some chapters going in One Reality…LOL.
But oh jeez, now I have two stories to write…ouch. But halfdemon-kai needs some sort of entertainment while she's waiting for me…lol (not like she doesn't have enough stories to do though XP). Anyway, the storyline came from both our heads. Lets see how it goes, shall we?
Enjoy.
Without Reason
Chapter 1
The bars rattled as the carriage went over a large rock on the trail. She winced, hating the constant sound of horse hooves and chains. She was more annoyed than anything, having ended up in this situation at all.
They had thrown her in a cage, taken her sword away, and chained her hands together. She wasn't the only one. There were two more carriages going on ahead of them.
'What the hell is going on around here anyway?' She asked herself, finally deciding to push off the back of the cage. Her lime green eyes scanned the area, seeing nothing but rocks and grey skies.
"Screw this," Scion muttered, bringing her feet around.
Her black boots started kicking at the bars violently, trying to knock them loose. It was an old cage on an old carriage… it wasn't going to keep her prisoner.
"Hey! Quiet up back there!" a man shouted from on top of her cage.
She continued to kick violently, not listening.
After a moment, a man jumped down from the top of the cage before grabbing onto the bars.
"I thought I told you to be quiet," he stated, his voice sounding agitated.
Scion glared up at the young man on the bars.
"We're going to be there soon anyway so be a good girl and be quiet," the young man ordered again.
She got to her feet unsteadily, finding it hard to keep her balance in the moving carriage. The girl was eye to eye with him before she head butted him through the bars.
The cart hit another rock and Scion lost her balance completely, landing on her back again. The man chuckled as he turned his head back to the girl lying down.
"You're lucky that Jion already has dibs on getting to kill you when the time comes. I would have loved to have the chance right now," the young man threatened.
"Get back up here boy, we're going to need some clearance!" an older man's voice called from the front of the carriage.
The young man glared at Scion before climbing back up the bars and to be on top of the cage.
'Lucky my ass…' Scion thought while rolling her eyes.
She stared up at the top of the cage, trying to ignore the sharp pain in the back of her head. Her brows furrowed together as she thought.
'How did I end up in this mess anyway? How did things… turn out this way?'
Two days ago
Soldiers covered the vast plain, fighting for what they thought they should be fighting for.
"Asch, why are we fighting another war against the same people?" Sin asked as she pushed a soldier away from her.
"They invaded us," Asch responded, "We have to defend the palace."
"I know that!" the girl replied, killing the soldier, "But why are they invading us?"
"Dailiin never got that far in explaining," the former God General muttered, killing two men.
The two fought back to back, keeping an eye out for each other as best they could.
'This is so stupid!' Sin grunted, using her fonons to throw a wall of men away.
"Don't over exert your self Sin," Asch ordered from behind her, "We'll all need all the strength we can hold onto for this."
"I know!" the girl retorted, "But they're not leaving me much of a choice are they?"
"This isn't a time to argue!" Asch told her.
"I'm not arguing!"
Soldiers had invaded from across the border, the same soldiers that had attacked almost two years ago. No one knew why. No one really had a reason as to why they were fighting another war. They just knew that they were fighting.
With a way clear, Asch grabbed the back of Sin's cloak and brought her back against the side of the mountain.
"Fire!" he shouted, ordering the archers above them on the mountain.
Arrows went over their heads, out into the thousands of fighting soldiers.
"What about Scion and Din?" Sin asked Asch, looking at him in worry.
"Scion learned how to create a small barrier in the last few months. She can protect herself and Din from a couple of arrows," he replied, looking out over the soldiers for the silver haired girl and straw-blond man.
"Here comes some more, Asch!"
Seven people stood across the plain, on a mountain side, all of them watching the raging war below them.
"Do you see them?" a man asked, looking out into the many soldiers; scanning them.
"I found them," a young teenaged boy stated, his tone emotionless.
"I want to see that girl get out of this one," the same man stated, looking for the silver hair.
"We can't have you killing the Presence of Moonlight, Jion," Aeros continued, "You're the boss, you should know that."
"I wasn't going to kill her."
"Replicas have limits, master Jion," a larger man stated, glaring out onto the field.
"I know Hugo, but that girl seems different," Jion almost laughed, "She's got a lot of fight in her."
Aeros's dark eyes glanced to the far left to look at the bottom of a small cliff, under all the enemy's archers.
"So does the Eyes of the Demon apparently," he murmured as he watched the small black haired girl fight.
"Should we move in sir?" a blond haired woman asked; her voice stoic as she watched.
"Not yet Levaia. Let's give them some time to tire themselves out," Jion stated, smirking slightly.
"As you wish sir."
Scion started to become frustrated with the amount of soldiers that kept piling in on her. It made her wonder on how her three brothers had fought like this for months.
"Damn it," she hissed, cutting a soldier's head off, "I wish they would stop shooting stupid arrows!"
She held up her sword to block the ones coming at her and looked around for the straw-blond. Once she had found him, she created a small barrier over his head.
'He's lucky that I love him or else he would have been shot ten times over.'
An enemy came at her from behind and his blade grazed her arm before she could defend.
"Damn it," she hissed, concentrating on her fonons.
It took her a moment to concentrate enough to create a field of fonons due to the commotion occurring around her.
"Burn thy enemies with your flames; Inferno!"
The field of fonons became red before the soldiers surrounding her within the circle all burst into flame.
'Teach them to attack from behind…' She thought bitterly.
Scion's hands gripped the hilt of her sword tighter as she stepped out of the range of burning bodies. The onslaught of soldiers never seemed to end. Where the hell were they all coming from? After the last war they shouldn't have even had that many soldiers left. She grunted as she swung her blue sword around her, the large blade cutting through close range enemies.
'At least I get to make up for the deaths of my brothers on someone else.' She thought darkly, attacking as many soldiers that were close enough for her to kill.
The former God General took down most of the soldiers easily. He had been fighting longer; much longer than many of these soldiers. Sin didn't seem to be having much of a problem with them either. The only problem seemed to be the quantity of which they were attacking. The enemy had fewer soldiers, but the soldiers were attacking them in pairs or in groups of three.
'There are so many things wrong with this war…' He thought to himself as he killed another enemy soldier.
"Hey Asch," Sin called over the sound of clashing metals, "Why are those people just standing on the mountain over there?"
His emerald eyes cast up to the far cliff side, catching sight of seven people lingering on the mountain; observing.
"They're just watching," Sin stated, knocking down an enemy twice the size of her, "I wonder what they're thinking."
"They're probably the ones in charge," he murmured as he knocked another enemy away and looked closely at the group.
The taller man – the large one – he looked so familiar... His height and demeanor… the way he was standing…
'Where have I seen him before?'
The more they fought in this war, the more confusing it seemed to get. He kept grabbing pieces of it in his mind that didn't want to fit together. The pieces that he wanted to fit together wouldn't. The pieces that he already had didn't. The whole thing was wracking on his patience in this war.
'What exactly are we putting out lives on the line for?' He asked himself with narrowed eyes.
Asch's mind started to try to find a match to that tall man's appearance. Who out of the many people he knew was it? Once he had almost gotten the name of the person, an enemy soldier knocked him back into the cliff, pushing the name away. The former God General grunted before running the soldier through with his blade.
'So close…' He cursed in his mind.
"Sin, who does that taller man remind you of?" he asked her, hoping that she might be able to help.
Sin cast her demonic orange eyes up at the group of people on the mountain before throwing a wall of men away. She seemed to ponder it for a few moments before her eyes held recognition.
"He's that General that got mad at you for taking over his position," she stated, swinging her weapon at an attacker, "That's who he looks like anyway."
At her words, Asch seemed to find another piece of the puzzle to this war.
'The bastard betrayed us!' He thought, disgusted.
His emerald eyes looked around for a trail or a way to get up to the archers. If they could get there without being caught by the seven on the mountain, then he had a plan. The archers could shoot at the group on the mountain; take them out of the factors of war.
"Come on Sin, we need to get to higher ground," Asch ordered the smaller girl, killing her attacker for her.
"Hey!"
"Don't argue, just go!"
Jion watched the silver haired girl fight against his soldiers.
"Jion, the Eyes of the Demon is moving to higher ground," Aeros told his leader, seeming indifferent.
"Good, then the Presence of Moonlight should be fighting on her own," Jion mused, smiling at the words, "Levaia, go ahead with the operation."
"As you wish sir," the woman replied, about to take her leave down the mountain.
"A-are you sure that's a good idea?" a younger pink haired girl asked.
All of them cast their eyes at the girl.
"What do you mean Aria?" Jion questioned.
Aeros turned his gaze back to the war, understanding the younger girl's meaning.
"There is a man fighting with her Jion," he stated, lifting his hand and pointing to a blond man beside the silver haired girl, "He has been there for a while and you have not noticed?"
"Watch your tongue boy," Jion threatened.
His eyes narrowed slightly as he began to think.
"Go ahead with the operation Levaia. Soran, you go in from the other side," he ordered a younger man behind him.
"Yes Jion."
Both members departed from their places and it caused Jion to smile to himself.
"Let's see you get yourself out of this situation girl," he challenged, turning his attention back to the war.
Scion fought against soldier after soldier… killing them as she made her way through. That didn't seem to matter though. Even with the help of Din, they somehow ended up completely surrounded by enemy soldiers.
"Well this looks bad," she heard Din murmur to himself.
"That's enough comments from the peanut gallery," she told him, standing back to back.
'This is great. This reminds me of the time lady Nadelay took me in as her prisoner.' Scion's lime green eyes became cold at the thought.
In a moment the soldiers seemed to close in around them. In the closed space, Scion had a harder time wielding her sword. She kicked a man into another soldier, creating some space around them.
"Remind me to take a nap if we make it home," Scion told Din as she ran her sword through an enemy.
"We're fighting in a war, and you're worried about taking a nap?" the straw-blond asked doubtfully.
"Yeah, I'm going to be tired when we're done," she stated.
After a few minutes, soldiers had found a way to separate the two from each other.
'Damn it, we were doing well together…'
Scion created a field of fonons and expanded it as mush as she could without hitting Din.
"Lightning Tempest!"
Four bolts of lightning struck the ground and began to rotate around the field of fonons. The bolts closed in and electrocuted everyone inside of it but her.
Once Asch and Sin reached the archers, they saw what was happening with their two friends.
"I'm going back down there," Sin stated before turning around and running back down the way they had come.
She knew Asch was following her, hearing his footsteps close behind.
'I'm not going to let her be in danger alone again. I will help this time!' Sin thought as she fought through the soldiers to try to get closer to her friends.
"Would you slow down?" Asch nearly growled at her.
"Like hell I will!" she growled back.
The smaller girl got closer and closer, only stopping when Din was thrown against her.
"Din? What's going on?" she asked him, knocking away soldiers.
"I don't know," the straw-blond muttered, "but they captured Scion."
Sin seemed to freeze at those words.
'I wasn't able to help…'
The small girl was hit with anger, causing her to throw all the enemy soldiers around her away with her fonons.
A hand was placed on her shoulder and Din looked behind her at Asch.
"Din, retreat to the forest," the former God General ordered, "When you're far enough away, we'll retreat too."
The straw-blond nodded, going toward the forest through the path that Asch and Sin had made.
"Asch… what are we going to do?"
"Just trust me Sin."
Aeros turned toward Jion, seeing how the plans had turned out.
"The Presence of Moonlight has been captured Jion," he told his leader emotionlessly.
"Good, then we can retreat from here," Jion stated, turning away from the war.
There was a red explosion on the battlefield, drawing Aeros's attention.
"The Eyes of the Demon is gone," the boy added, "Their General has taken her away."
"Leave her," Jion ordered, "We have one for now. The Eyes of the Demon will have to wait until our next encounter."
Hugo turned toward their leader then, an almost concerned expression on his face.
"What about that blond with the Presence of Moonlight?" the large man asked.
"Kill him. He is a complication if he is tied to her."
"…A-and the soldiers?" Aria asked, looking up at Jion.
"It was predicted that we would lose this battle," Jion stated with a shrug as he started to leave, "They were nothing but pawns."
Present
The carriage jerked forcefully to a stop. Scion pushed herself to a sitting position to see what was happening.
The clouds were still grey and the wind outside blew the carriage; rocking it slightly.
'Where are we?' She asked herself, looking down the trail.
It looked like they were on top of a mountain high above the plains. Which mountain, she had no way to be sure of.
'Why the hell are we stopping on a mountain?'
"Hey boy, take the girl to her cell," the man from the front of the carriage ordered.
"Hey, I'm the one in charge here. Not you."
Scion scowled at the young man's voice. What was he even in charge of?
The young man jumped down on the bars and looked through them. His pale blue hair was dull against the grey sky.
"My forehead still hurts because of you," he hissed. "Maybe I should just leave you out here for the night."
"If you leave her out here then she will probably escape Soran," a familiar voice mused.
The light brown haired man made an appearance from the side of the cage. Her eyes became cold at the sight of him.
"You…" she hissed, getting to her feet.
Scion recognized him as the man that was sitting and watching on top of the mountain while she was fighting in the war.
"That's not much of a greeting," he laughed, shaking his head.
"Yeah, because prisoners are supposed to respect their captors, right?" she asked sarcastically, moving to the bars.
"I thought that we could be friends," the man teased her, finding the situation amusing.
"I would sooner cut off my left arm," the girl hissed, getting her face closer to the bars.
"Your mood sure is pleasant," he chuckled.
Scion kicked the bars at his words, making them rattle with protest.
The younger man gave the older man an almost confused look.
"It's okay Soran. I can take her to her cell."
"Are you sure Jion?" Soran asked, leaning in to whisper something into Jion's ear.
Green eyes narrowed as she watched the two men. There was a feeling in her stomach that was telling her that what was happening was wrong… that this needed to be stopped.
'No matter what happens… I'm not going to cooperate with these people. I don't care who they are. They're not getting what they want from me.'
"Do not be so concerned Soran," Jion told the younger man, "She cannot hurt me like that. Now go, make sure that the others have made it to their holdings."
"…As you wish Jion."
Soran departed and disappeared from her sight. Thunder boomed in the sky above them as a flash of lightning went through the sky.
"A storm on the mountains is quite dangerous girl," Jion told her as he smiled slightly, "Why not come with me to a dry place?"
"Rain's better than anything you can offer," she hissed, glaring at the man.
"Come with me, or we will make you come out."
Scion didn't comply, only backed away to the back of the cage. Why should she have obeyed someone that had put her behind bars?
"I see," he murmured, his expression not as amused as it had been. "Defiant."
Jion lifted his left hand and called someone over with his two fingers. After a few moments, a large man and another man made their appearances at the cage.
"Hugo, take the Presence of Moonlight to her cell. She will not go as willingly as I had hoped."
Both men looked at her and she stared back, challenging them to come get her.
The lock on the cage door was unlocked and the younger man climbed through the doorway. She watched him closely; waiting for him to come closer to her.
'I could go for the doorway, but then that large man would just grab me…'
The younger man slowly stalked forward, keeping his eyes on her as he went. His eyes were almost as cold as hers.
Drawing his sword, he lunged at Scion, using his forearm to pin her to the back of the cage by her collar bone. His sword was to her throat, his cold eyes locked with hers.
"You look like you've had a hard life," he whispered to her, his eyes narrowing.
"It doesn't seem like yours was any better," she muttered, watching him intently.
He seemed to smirk a little at her words.
"It's a shame that yours is going to end soon," the man replied.
"No sooner than yours," she hissed.
The man pulled her away from the wall before moving her to the entryway of the cage. He pushed her into the hold of Hugo's arms. They squeezed her tightly, nearly crushing her ribs. She found it hard to breathe.
Hugo led the way to what looked like an old stone shelter of some sort. There was a grey stone building with two wooden doors kept open.
"Once we're inside, keep a watch from the forest," she heard Jion order the man that had pulled her from the cage.
"Yes sir."
Asch walked ahead of Sin, leading the way back to Blue Abarath. He had used a hyperresonance to get them away from the war. They hadn't teleported too far away though; just a few miles. They needed to stay close enough to give orders to the remaining soldiers. This battle seemed to be favoring them now…at least a little.
"What do you think is happening?" the smaller girl asked, sounding worried.
"Din's probably close by," he stated, "Victory of the war isn't really something to worry about."
'At least not until we get some answers for all of this.' He thought with a hardened gaze.
He wouldn't put their lives on the line until he knew that what they were fighting for was worth it.
A shuffle in the bushes caught their attention and it made the former God General's hand to go to the hilt of his sword.
"Don't worry guys," a familiar voice laughed tiredly, "It's just me."
"Din!" Sin cried, nearly tackling the blond down with a hug.
"I guess it's a good thing that I decided to take a rest there," Din laughed halfheartedly, "Otherwise I probably wouldn't have found you guys."
"It's more like we found you," Asch stated, looking around the area.
"Yeah," the straw-blond laughed, shaking his head.
There was something in Din's blue eyes that caused Asch a sense of pain. It looked like the blond was hiding a feeling of shame.
"It's not your fault Din," the former God General told his friend, "They were planning that attack."
"What?" Sin nearly growled, whirling toward him.
"They were starting to leave once they had Scion. They were planning that attack," he stated again, trying to put more of the pieces together, "Why they would do all of that to capture one person is beyond me."
Asch looked at Din with a serious and stern expression.
"We're going back to the palace and getting answers for this. You, Din, are not running off to save her again," he ordered before turning his gaze to the black haired girl that had her mouth open to say something, "Don't you even think about it either."
The girl scowled at his words.
"This is a larger problem for just one person to handle."
At the moment, they didn't know what they were dealing with or why. They needed an answer before they could do anything.
'Dailiin and Syft know something about this. This isn't just about protecting Blue Abarath…'
The door slammed closed behind her as they threw her into the dark cell. She wasn't the only one in there. Three other people were in the same cell across from her; scared at the sight of the large man and Jion.
"Be a good girl and keep quiet for a few hours. We'll be back for you later," Jion explained, smiling at her.
She got to her feet and kicked the bars hard with her boot. A barrier threw her back against the wall, knocking the wind out of her for a minute.
"Damn it," she coughed, trying to catch her breath.
"This one's just for you and the Eyes of the Demon. So you have no choice but to behave," the man added before waving and walking down the long prison hallway.
Scion scowled at her position. These people weren't just normal soldiers and Jion wasn't a normal General. It seemed like he was like Asch; well trained and knew what he was doing.
'This isn't normal.'
Her lime green eyes cast toward the three people across from her. There were two teenaged boys and a young girl. One boy had bright orange hair and bright blue eyes. The older looking boy had snow white hair and purple eyes. The girl was curled into the side of the white haired boy, her red eyes wet from tears and her body shaking from fear.
"So they caught you too did they?" the orange haired boy asked, not really sounding surprised.
Scion cocked a brow at his tone.
"If they're catching older people then none of us really had a chance," he continued, almost brooding.
Scion slouched against the wall in her cell, her feet spread out in a resting position.
"You look like crap," the white haired boy stated, having an almost concerned expression on his face.
"That's what happens when you get caught in the middle of a war," she replied, "Everyone comes out looking like crap."
She felt herself laugh at the remark.
'It doesn't matter what kind of fight it is. We all look pretty bad afterward.' She shook her head at the thought.
"How long have you guys been here?" Scion asked, her brows furrowing at the question.
"I've been here for over a month," the silver haired boy stated, "There were twelve others here with me before… but they're dead now."
Scion's eyes widened at the statement.
"They just brought us in today, though we've been on those carriages for at least a week," the orange haired boy explained, "So we know just about as much as you do."
'Then the older boy must know something about what's going on in this place…'
"I-I don't like this place… I want to go home," the little girl whimpered, grasping at the white haired boy's shirt, "This place feels bad."
Scion's expression became sympathetic toward the young girl.
"What happened to the other twelve that were with you?" she asked the older boy, "What exactly… is going on in this place?"
She caught him wince at her question. Memories always were a thorn in people's sides.
"I'm not really sure, but they have five of these large tablets with writing on them. They took one after another… then none of them ever came back," the boy explained, "It's like they're gathering replicas up only to kill them."
'Replicas… They're capturing replicas? Then why would they capture me? I'm not a replica…' Scion wondered, confused.
"How do they know who's a replica and who's not?" she asked with a cocked brow, trying to act indifferent.
"That navy haired kid that's always with Jion can see people's auras," the orange haired boy replied, "I heard them talking about it on the way up here. The flow of a replica's aura is different from a normal person, but there are special replicas that are able to use their fonons to read this thing called a fonstone or something. I didn't really understand the whole thing."
"So these fonstones are probably those large tablets," Scion muttered.
"Probably," the white haired boy sighed.
'This isn't right. They're getting replicas to read these things and then they're killing them like they don't mean anything.'
Scion fell silent afterward and drifted off into her own mind. She began to wonder if the others were alright… if they had gotten away at all.
'Please get home safely…'
End of Chapter 1
Woo! So what did you all think? Was it good? I tried my best to get all of Kazey's characters right, she says I did… but that's really up to you guys to judge though isn't it? We hope you all enjoyed the first chapter, and that you'll be returning to read the second. :D So you better be there! We'll be watching!
Thanks for reading the first chapter!
Kazink and halfdemon-kai