Fate:Stay - Chapter 1 –

Rena POV

I live in the spotlight.

Wait, sorry, let me rephrase that alarming, misleading statement.

I write songs that let Elsword's girlfriend, Aisha, be in the spotlight. Confused? Let me just say this: The spotlight is a scary place to be. Besides, there is nothing wrong with composing songs.

"Rena! Hey, Rena, snap out of it!" Aisha waved her fingers in front of me. "Don't lose focus now. I'm about to go on stage!"

I blinked once. "Sorry, Aisha." Aisha was the idol I wrote songs for. She was about twenty-five years old, give or take, and was really beautiful with long violet hair and matching amethyst eyes. Like I said, before she was dating Elsword, my sort-of adoptive father. He had found me in the woods of Virginiasinging my favorite song, "Always." He was only twenty then and I was ten, but he pretty much adopted me and we got along well enough until Aisha came a few years ago.

These days, he spent more time with Aisha than with me. I shouldn't be possessive of Elsword but... I haven't seen or heard from him in a week! It used to be that we never go a day without seeing each other. But now... We don't even see each other anymore.

Aisha patted her bangs and straightened her clothes. "Do I look ready?" she asked her manager, Chloe.

"You look great! Now go on stage and sing!" Chloe smiled and gave her a little push and Aisha left to sing.

As soon as she left, Chloe turned to me and frowned. "Rena, we need to have a little talk on your composing skills."

"Why? I thought you said the sales were great!" I was surprised and a bit shocked.

"Yes, the sales were good but not enough to make her famous." Chloe shook her head. "Sadly, Rena, as Aisha's manager, I cannot allow her to sing songs that won't make her famous."

"But I-I..." I was stuttering. How could this happen? I thought I was doing great.

"No, Rena. After tonight, we don't need you and your composing services anymore. We will hire a more professional composer to take your place."

~ - Raven POV - ~

"Bastard, stop right now if you want to live!" Alex's right-hand man, Boron chased after me.

"Who in hell would stop running if you're trying to catch them?" I yelled back. I was running from Alex's men because he found out that I was alive and had a bounty on my head. Two billion ED in Elriosto be exact.

Not that I'm bragging or anything. It's actually a lot of trouble.

The leader, Alex, of course, decided to turn in me in hopes of gaining favor with the Royals. I ran away as soon as I heard, but I guess not soon enough?

-Flashback-

I was walking to Echo's workplace so that she can make the weekly checkup on my arm. The weekly checkup was required by Echo ever since she found out that my arm was acting…. Weird.

Today she took one look at my arm and sadly said (while licking her lollipop), "Suru, with your arm acting up like this it's only a matter of time before your sanity is lost… I'm not sure on what to do but for now I will have to conduct more experiments on it."

I shuddered but agreed to it. Echo was only trying to help me. I don't want to lose my sanity… Again.

As I mused over what she said, Echo looked behind me and waved. "Suru Chung!"

I snapped out of my thoughts to greet Chung, but I took one look at him and knew something was wrong. He was in his Berserk mode. It's a well-known fact that Chung only goes into Berserk mode when he's about to go into battle.

Before I could say anything Chung had grabbed me by the collar and asked me a question I didn't want to answer. "Are you a rebel too, Raven?"

My eyes widened in surprise. How did he find out?

He took my silence as an answer. "How could you Raven? I thought we were friends!"

"How did you find out?" I managed to choke out from his tight hold on me. I had tried my best to be friends with Chung even though his boss was Alex. I had even told Chung to keep myself a secret from Alex. Echo stared at both of us in confusion, not knowing what to do to help.

Chung looked at me with betrayal and guilt in his eyes. "I wanted to find out more about you so I asked my boss Alex and…When I showed him your picture he told me everything about you, including the fact that you were one of those rebels that killed my father!"

What? That can't be true! I don't remember killing his father! I didn't betray Chung… He betrayed me by showing my picture to Alex! I've been staying as far as I could from him…. So all that came to nothing, huh?

Kicking him in the stomach to let me down I ran away as fast as I could.

I have to get away from Alex. I knew that if I even take one look at his face, I would lose control of my arm. The place farthest from Elrios is Earth. Elrios is a dangerous place to be right now. I have to leave.

-Flashback Ends-

I kept on running in the back streets of New York, hoping to lose them. If I couldn't, then I guess I could always kill them, but... I knew what would happen if I do that.

If I were to kill someone, I would go on a killing spree. My left arm would act up and take over my mind and body. This only happened once in my life. I still remembered what it felt like; in the back of my mind, I knew what was going on, but I had no control over it.

I was almost out of energy. I had been running for hours, and I brought nothing to eat because I thought escaping was going to be easy. How was I supposed to know my human friend of three years, Chung, was going to betray me?

Just like Alex...

Stupid, don't think about him. I shook my head. I needed to get out of this.

Lights flashed. I blinked multiple times to adjust to it. It was a billboard sign flashing the words "Aisha Fuse free live performance at 8PM!"

I rolled my eyes. I didn't have time to go to some stupid air-head idol's concert. I was running for my life here.

I turned to go but then I thought of something great. If I did go to this concert, no one would find me there. I hadn't been to concert in years anyway. Who cares if I go now? I could always hide in the staff room if they ever found out I went to the concert.

~ - Rena POV - ~

I felt like crying. The show was over, and I sat with my face down on the dresser in the staff room, feeling miserable. I was fired. Being fired from a job I liked was a first time for me, so I felt like well...crap.

I rubbed my silver bracelet on my left wrist. It had a large green gem embedded in the middle and, for some strange reason, it couldn't be taken off.

Believe me, I tried. I went through a rebellious stage too. Elsword told me that when he found me in the woods I had already had it on.

I sighed, rubbing the gem on the bracelet harder. What was wrong with my songs anyway? I just couldn't see anything wrong with them. Maybe it's just that people's tastes in music are changing. I tried to reason with myself but somehow I knew I was missing something in my songs.

Something that every successful songwriter had.

I shook my head. I had to try harder to achieve my dream of becoming the best songwriter in the world.

I sang a song trying to cheer myself up. It was the one I always hum to myself. Always.

"I was so happy when you smiled.

Your smile broke through the clouds of grey,

Far from the sunny days that lie in sleep.

Waiting with patience for the spring,

When the flowers bloom renewed again.

Knowing there is more beyond the pain of today.

Although the scars of yesterday remain,

You can go on living as much as your heart believes.

You can't be born again,

Though you can change.

Let's stay together always."

~ - Raven POV - ~

Most definitely one of the weirdest songs I've ever heard. This blond chick was singing to HERSELF, after all. I hid in the closet waiting for everyone in there to leave. From the all sniffles I heard, she probably wanted to cry. Please don't. I want to get out of here. Go cry somewhere else please.

I rolled my eyes when a coat hanger stabbed my side. I broke it in half and threw it behind me, and the girl moaned loudly before she left, closing the door. I quickly stepped out and gave a sigh of relief. The idiots must've stopped chasing me by now. I'm outta here.

~ - Rena POV - ~

I finally noticed the clock on the wall. It was 11:00 pm.

"Oh, no!" I moaned. Now Elsword will complain about me coming home late. I never knew why he complained about that, but I always had to come home before midnight. Probably because there were a ton of gangs in New York.

I quickly shoved my stuff in my binder and left, closing the door on my way out of the building. I fumbled in my pocket for the keys to lock it. I saw a shadow fall beside me and rough hands grabbed me from behind.

"Mmff!" Was I being robbed? I didn't think I carried more than $100 though. I struggled, trying to break the grip around my mouth.

They spun me around so that I could see them. There were three of them, but only one was frightening. He held a huge cannon like it was nothing and was currently the one holding me in a tight grip.

"That one is actually pretty." The two men beside the cannon man used their eyes to rake over my body. I shivered and crossed my arms. "Can we play with her after you're done with her?" The question came from the person next to the cannon man.

The cannon man didn't answer him. Instead, he leaned closer to me until we were inches apart.

"Tell me," he said menacingly with his blue eyes boring holes into my green eyes. "Have you seen a guy with a white streak in his black hair? Or maybe a scar on his eye?"

"N-no!" I stammered. "I haven't seen anybody like that."

"Really?" He shoved me away from him but still held on to my arm. Then he turned to his friends. "She seems as if she is telling the truth. What do you think guys? Should we kill her?"

They all started to murmur.

"I think we should play with her," one said.

"Just kill her and get it over with," said another.

"Why don't we just leave her? All we need to do is threaten her to keep her mouth shut," the cannon guy suggested with evident boredom in his voice.

"But Chung!" the first one protested.

I had enough of this. Chung's grip on my arm had loosened because of the argument in the group. It was the perfect time to escape.

I kicked Chung in the shin, and he winced in pain, loosening his hold on me even more. Yanking my hand away, I ran past him and his friends as fast as I could. I may not be the best fighter, but I can say I was a pretty fast runner.

"What are you waiting for? Go catch her now! I'll go back to the headquarters to report to Alex first." I could hear Chung as he shouted orders to the other two.

After hearing that I ran faster than before, hoping I could outrun them. My home was only a few blocks away; I just had to make it.

I looked back and gasped. Are they even human? They were only a few feet behind me now. What am I going to do? I couldn't fight at all, and the last time I tried to block a punch, I ended up in the hospital for weeks!

A large shadow passed over the full moon. What was that? A bird? A breeze blew by and died. I felt my own resolve crumbling with the wind. I just lost my job and now I was going to die faster than the breeze.

"Huh?" I saw something run past me so fast, the wind turned violent, pushing me back toward the opposite direction. Startled, I stopped to catch my breath.

Footsteps neared me. I grimaced. I was now going to die. I stopped running, knowing it was futile.

"Kill me really fast, ok?" I rambled randomly, trying to calm myself but failing. Because I was going to die. I closed my eyes, not wanting to face the person who is going to kill me. "If you don't mind, that is."

I heard the footsteps stop beside me. I tensed. An awkward second passed.

"Hell no! I'm not going to kill you. Now would you freaking open your eyes?!" a deep voice growled.

Startled, my eyes flew open. And I took in the sight before me.

He wasn't one of the people who was in the group. A scar stretched from his forehead to across one of his eyes, and he had jet black hair with a streak of white in the middle. He wore all black. Black jeans, black combat boots, and strangely enough, a black glove on his left hand.

"Huh? Who are you?" Suddenly I remembered what Chung had said.

Scar on face? Check. Black hair with white streak in middle? Check. Sadly, I came out of the pot and into the fire. He was the person they were looking for! I mentally cursed to myself. Why am I so unlucky?

Normal people don't hunted down by a scary-looking gang, so he must be really dangerous.

"Come with me now." He grabbed my arm and yanked me forward. What is with the grabbing today?

We started to run. "I knocked those punks out, but who knows when they'll wake up."

"K-knocked t-them out?" I said haltingly. Is he a good guy then? I glanced behind me as I kept running. They were lying on the ground face-down, completely unconscious. "Oh." He really did knock them out. Quite quickly too.

I started to stare at my savior again. Upon closer inspection, his eyes were the color of gold but slightly slanted like a cat's. His skin was really tan, making me feel like I was pasty white, like snow.

He noticed me staring at him. "What? Is something wrong?" He looked self-conscious for a moment before returning to his stoic face.

I shook my head. "Nothing," I said. After thinking a moment I added, "Except probably the question, where are we going?"

"Huh?" That question startled him for a moment but then he replied, "I don't know about you, but I'm sleeping in a tree tonight."

I stopped running and yanked back my arm from him. "I actually have a home, you know!" I said, exasperated and breathless. We stood still and glared at each other.

"You can't go home now," he said slowly waiting for each of his words to sink in.

"Huh?" My eyes widened as I came to a scary conclusion from that comment. I shook my head so violently I almost got whiplash. "Sorry, I'm not one of those girls who just fall for looks and elope on the spot. I do owe you though." I frowned. I didn't like indebted to anyone.

"I didn't mean that," he said quietly. "The people who attacked you today are after me. I tried to keep them from seeing my face when I knocked them out, but I think they saw me anyway."

"And what does have to do with me?" I asked. "You mean I can't go home because of you?"

"Yeah," he said, "If they find out you know me, they'll come for you."

I started to get angry. "Mph. I don't care. They'll never find me anyway. I'm not even close to being famous now." I kicked a pebble on the ground. It was true. I was just fired from a job that could've made me famous.

We continued to argue about this problem until my throat hurt from talking.

"How about a compromise?" he asked after minutes of arguing.

I narrowed my eyes and crossed my arms. "Let's hear it."

"If, by chance, you don't get caught in one day, you can stay here. But if you do, you're going to leave with me. No questions asked. Got it?"

I mulled over it for a while, wondering what in the world he was thinking. Finally I sighed and stuck out my hand.

"I, Rena Lee, accept the deal."

A/N: Yay, I finally figured out how to the the lines! Anyway, please review? Constructive criticism is very much welcomed. (I know this chapter was way too long. :( I tried my best to keep it short). Many thanks to my first ever reviewer RubyCrusade! Thanks so much. I love you!