Jaden walked through the campus, his dark eyes searching through the nostalgic, illustrious halls that made up the Academy's entirety. Pure white, with tiny hints of blue entwined with the florescent lights, with the steel easily reflecting towards the back of his shadow. His hands were shoved in his pockets, as he made wove his way through the armies of friends and companions, all of whom were crying their eyes out at the inevitable, bittersweet parting known a graduation. Their expressions were downcast, and though they endeavored plastering on a courageous face, in the end their minds were completely shattered, and they broke down once again. If he remembered, Alexis was with them when that happened, those people she called friends.

He brushed past the sea of bodies slightly, ignoring the curious, yet adoring gazes the freshmen kept giving him. From behind, he could hear Blair's overly enthusiastic voice, the girl so ironically remaining oblivious to the very fact her crush was strolling right past her. He could see small glimpses of teachers chatting forlornly with their students, doing whatever they could to try and advise them a bit more, at the very least, until they leave the island. Jaden blinked at the tearful scenes in front of him, before moving on to another direction, the disinterest clouding his pupils.

His footsteps resounded from his ears. He could feel happy stares instantly boring his back, as the famed Slifer made his esteemed appearance. And yet, all the same, he couldn't help but feel a bit bothered by it. He never saw Jesse in the crowds, nor did he see Atticus, who was probably partying at the Obelisk dorms, nor even Zane, who was most likely with Shepherd. Axel was getting ready to go to the army to become a field researcher, while Jim was preparing to go back to Australia, probably to attend some top, famous duel college there with Shirley. Who knows? Maybe they could even be a dueling couple, or some other nonsense bestiality could think of.

One classroom managed to come to his attention however. The door was slightly open, and though Jaden wasn't at all ready to give into his temptation, he noticed a tiny silhouette from within the laboratory. He blinked, before coming toward the door, easily remembering the moments he devoted into developing developed his own little systems of biological warfare.

He'd been doing his own little research for the past few weeks, trying to utilize different strains of viruses to come up with yet another weapon for Yusei (hopefully) to use. He didn't particularly like the fact Alexis had to get dirty doing her little hobbies, nor did he enjoy masquerading as some idiot during his time in the Academy. If anything, this little hobby was a way for Jaden to escape, all the while being productive…in some morbid fashion.

Slowly, he came to the classroom and opened the door, the tiny gasps let out from his already gathering audience. Inwardly, he sighed, then closed it. He turned around, only to find Chazz there, hovering near the counter.

Well, this was gonna suck.

Carefully, Jaden went towards the senior, with that same, indifferent expression on his face. "Hey-"

Chazz immediately jolted. He spun around, hand on his chest, his eyes wide with shock, as he stared at Jaden with that similar, playful annoyance he had been for the last four years. "What're you doing here?"

Jaden raised an eyebrow, as he walked around the teen, at this point not even bothering to hide the annoyance spread across his face. "That's what I should be asking you. What're you doing? Your fans are all outside."

"It's hard being the Chazz," he said in that snooty, prideful voice. "I mean, what with all the fans and all."

"Uh-huh," Jaden answers aimlessly, as he swept across the desk, the microscope still in place. Odd; he'd forgot to take the specimens out yesterday. Did Alexis take the virus strains somewhere else? Well, Jaden's already memorized the patterns, and though recreating the amino acids were going to be a pain, at the very least he should be able to reconstruct that much.

Still, he didn't think the girl would be so against it. Being a little hygienic in your killings wasn't the end of the world.

There was a freshman biology textbook sitting near the microscope, and along with it, what looked like a family pedigree. Jaden cocked his head. "Chazz…were you doing something in here?"

"You think I'm that much of a shut-in?" he hissed. "Come on; no one's got time for that."

"Right…" Jaden replies, as his curious getting the hold of him, his memories returning through the ordeals. That's right; Alexis was doing something on genealogy.

So…more than likely she threw the pathogens away.

He sighed then, sweeping the pedigree from the textbook. "You sure?" he asked.

Chazz folded his arms. "I don't even understand half of what you're reading."

"That's…kind of sad."

"You say something?"

"No," he quickly answered, as he looks over the list of names. Huh, Alexis was actually paying attention in her tutoring sessions. Good for her. "No. When you walked in, did you find any ah…broken glass anywhere? A pipet or two…?"

Chazz blinked, before smirking. "Dude, those pranks are getting old, even for you."

Jaden never answered.

"Uh, hello?"

"Chazz, where's Alexis?"


The Black Rose Witch was an infamous serial killer, dating all the way back to the 1500s. Her legend was incredibly gruesome, as she went on her merry way, leaving behind a crimson trail with unmarked graves lying next to it. She was cold, calculating, cruel, ruthless; the villagers burned her at the stakes but for some reason she never did stay dead. Numerous accounts of seeing her dragging her corpse from her body alone was enough to send chills down the teacher's spine, and it didn't help that Banner was the one who told him of those stories. Crowler still has those nightmares from time to time, and it was something he couldn't get rid of in just a day or two. In more ways than one the legend was more frightening than Camula could ever be.

And all the while, that girl sat there, smiling simply at nothing.

Finally, Crowler managed to muster some effort to address Alexis's tale. "S-so…" he stammered, before mentally kicking himself for sounding so weak. "Is that…all?"

"No sir," she said eagerly, her bangs bouncing then as she leaned forward. "In fact, that's only the surface. We've killed a lot of people, you know? Me, Jaden, our entire coven. We killed a lot go people and we were never even punished for it. Then again," she continued, staring emptily at the floor, "in a way, you could say they all deserved it. But I wouldn't know. Yusei would say one thing, Akiza would said another-"

He blinked, before narrowing his eyes. "Akiza?"

"Uh-huh. She was the former Black Rose." Her smiled faltered then, recalling some significant pain Crowler had no business of knowing. "She was killed by a rival coven… and it sucks because we didn't even have a funeral for her."

"I'm…I'm sorry to hear that…"

"I'm sorry too, but it's not like we could do anything about it though, right?" she asked, biting back a painful laugh. "But we were all happy once. And it was fun too. I love Yusei, but I loved Akiza too. She used to play a lot of games with us; one time, she decided to have a little contest, and the rules are that if any of us could kill more than she could, we'd all go out to eat that night."

How…could she talk about something so gruesome…just like that? Like it was another chore she had to take care of, like some mundane assignment she had to do before the final exam?

Yet in the end, he managed to convince himself once more that she wasn't serious, that she was probably just trying to relieve some stress before graduation. After all, Alexis was in a lot of activities, and he kept seeing the girl getting so many confessions at once. Sometimes, she would even just sit there and contemplate on yet another, trivial subject matter. So Crowler nodded.

"Dr. Crowler," she said, brushing aside the still struggling silence, that carefree smile returning to her face once again, "Jaden use to tutor me, in all kinds of things. He would show me so much, from blood to limbs to equations. Once, he managed to sneak me into one of his labs, and showed me what bacteria looked like. He did a lot of cool stuff back then, and whenever he found something out, he would always tell me about it. I really liked that too. He also knew a lot about poetry and art and music, and he's always trying to drill that stuff into my head." She sighed, staring up at the ceiling. "It made Alexis Rhodes more perfect than she should've been."

"…Alexis-"

"I didn't like it of course, but he kept insisting I do so. Honestly, I don't know why these characters were so important to him. In the end you're probably going to forget the both of us."

There it was.

"THAT'S NOT TRUE!" Crowler screeched, causing Alexis to flinch at the sound. She jolted from her seat, her carefree air instantly vanishing from the seams. Crowler stood, slammed both palms on his desk, took a deep breath, and leaned forward.

"You and Jaden are the brightest pupils I've ever had the pleasure of teaching! Granted, there were times when I wanted to strangle the Slifer Slacker! And I wanted to rip you away from his pathetic, idiotic influence! But all the same! I'm glad to have you both as students! So please, don't trouble yourself anymore with this!"

"Crowler."

"What?" he screamed frustratedly, swirling his head towards the front of the door.

Jaden stood there, leaning against the door frame reflecting back that same, awkward expression Crowler had just given him. He bit back his tongue, and though he visibly gulped, Alexis found nothing troublesome with the situation. She grinned at the boy, who returned it with neither warmth nor happiness. His red blazer fit the new, sophisticated, Gothic look he'd undertaken, though the melancholy had faded from his face. His dark brown eyes flickered toward Crowler, and automatically, the teacher halted all thoughts.

This…this was…

"Crowler," Jaden said again, as he walked toward Alexis, a seemingly unknown frustration souring in light of his eyes. "I need to talk with Alexis for a moment."

"I-I-"

He sighed, before coming to Alexis, grabbing her arm, and forcefully yanking her to her feet. "Thank you."

"W-wait!"

Jaden narrowed his eyes, and he gave a brief, irritated look to Alexis before addressing Crowler. "What?"

Crowler froze, and whatever scolding he was going to give the Slifer suddenly flew out the window. Was the prank over? What were they going to do now? Pick on some other poor teacher? Why'd the boy do that, especially when things were going so well, when Crowler himself almost believed Alexis? But he swallowed his pride, and eased himself into a very tense grin. "N-nothing. Go back you two."

"Right," Jaden answered, before twisting his heel and dragging the unwilling girl from his desk.