Scene 10, Chap 10

I Met Them in a Dark Alley

Kali pov

Not again. I think to myself.

It's been years since I had that dream.

It's a shadow of the memory of the Night of the Blood Moon. The night I lost everything.

It was a night so steeped in blood it could be considered a natural disaster, if only you didn't look at the cause of death. It's said that everyone lost something that night. That no one in the city wasn't affected by the…slaughter is the only word for it really.

In an attempt to push those thoughts out of my head I get dressed in my clothes. A simple red dress over a blue shirt, with a navy blue jacket over top, and I braid my hair, something that helps me calm down a bit after my nightmare. As usual I braid it so that the hair on my right and back of my head forms up into the right half of my braid, which starts at the back of my head and goes over my shoulder, laying in front me. There it connects with the left half of the braid, which is made from my front and left side of my head of hair, which comes down over the left half of my face, head, and my forehead, before going around my neck to meet up with the rest of the braid.

I go into the kitchen, where I see adopted mother eating breakfast, with a portion for me on the table too.

Mom was one of the ones targeted that night, and she probably would have died too, if it wasn't for the fact that she had a powerful old friend of her staying with her that night. He was a powerful General in the military, and apparently he and mom have been friends since they were teenagers. Apparently he didn't have a good feeling about that night, so he took precautions to keep the people he cared about safe, including hanging out with my mother in a thinly veiled attempt to guard her.

That's not to say she can't fight or anything, it's just that the attackers had certain advantages she didn't, ones that tipped the balance in their favor. Advantages He was more than capable of utilizing for himself.

Well...

That...and he's one of the most powerful, intelligent, and brutal fighters I've ever seen.

In the end, he was right. That night turned out to be the bloodiest in Republic City history

The morning after the two of them went out into the streets to try and cleanup the city. Whether that meant saving survivors, or taking care of people hoping to take advantage of this situation.

And that's when she found me. I was just curled up in a ball in some alley, crying my eyes out with only a shirt on me.

Well…

That and the blood.

I was absolutely covered in blood.

I had no memory of who I was, where I was, or what was going on. I was just cold, wet, alone, and in pain.

Mom picked me up and took me to the hospital, though in my hysterical state I refused to be separated from the only person to show me kindness. Over time I eventually grew on her and she ended up adopting me.

Looking at her I briefly remember the somewhat stark differences between us. She has very distinct earth kingdom looks, with her paler skin with a slight tan and her emerald green eyes. I, on the other hand, look very water tribe, what with my darker, more tanned skin, and my sapphire blue eye.

But when I'm with mom I feel less self-conscious about my scars, it's actually something that helped me to bond with her when I was young. Like me, she has scars of her own, and she got more on the Night of the Blood Moon.

She has two scars on her left cheek, extending down diagonally to her jaw, which she had before that night, and after that night she got a scar extending vertcally down over her left eye, kinda like mine, although hers is just a straight line, not curved like mine. She also has numerous scars across her body and, like me, most of which are from that night.

When I say she survived that night I mean barely. In reality she shouldn't have been out walking around the city when she found me, but I'm glad she did.

She usually wears an eyepatch over her left eye when she's at work to look more intimidating. It was a habit started after she actually did have to wear an eyepatch after the Night of the Blood Moon, when her eye was healing. She found that people actually found her more intimidating with her eyepatch, and that her one eyed death-glares where much more effective. After that it stuck, even when she didn't need it anymore.

After all, most people didn't know that.

Although at home or among friends she doesn't usually wear it, so right now it was off.

She looked up from her breakfast as I entered the kitchen, I could smell the cooked meat and eggs, reminding me that I was starving. She was in her uniform, as usual, and was likely going to have to leave soon.

"Good morning Kali." She said in her usual gruff tone, one that I had long since gotten comfortable with.

Then she took notice of what I was wearing and said, "What are you wearing?" accusingly

I looked down at my clothes, trying to figure out what was wrong with what I was wearing, but the thoughts stirred up by my nightmare and my immense hunger made it hard to think.

"Uh…clothes?" I responded groggily as I sat at the table.

"Did you forget that you're coming with me to work today? You're going to be instructing the water bending officers on proper healing technique." She answered.

"Oh right, I forgot, sorry." I said, still tired, realizing that I would need to put on my uniform too. Actually now that I think about it I don't know why I didn't put on my uniform anyway, I didn't really have a reason not to.

She took a closer look at me and bluntly asked, "What's wrong?"

I considered lying, I didn't exactly want to bring it up again, but seeing how my mom is a detective, and more importantly, my mom, I doubted it would work.

"…I had the nightmare again." I admitted softly after a moment of silence

"Wha-again?!" She said, surprised, "You haven't had those nightmares in years." She muttered

"Yeah, I know." I said softly.

"You're not going into work with me today." She said firmly after considering it for a second.

"What! But I was going to teach your medical trainees about proper medical technique with water bending and stuff!" I cried in objection. I didn't want mom to have to hold me back just because I had a bad dream.

"Not anymore. We both know how you are after you're nightmares." She said pointedly

"Besides, most girls would love to get out of having to go to work." She said, going back to her breakfast

"Yeah, well most girls aren't me." I say, pouting slightly, "I was really looking forward to this, you know how much I wanted to teach."

"I'm still wary about having you teach while you're still so young."

"I can do it! I already went through medical school like a breeze, and I want to teach others who can really make use of the skills I learned. I'm just one person, but if I can teach your water benders how to be great medics then they can save lives, and not just catch criminals." I said passionately, it was my idea to get mom's water benders and form them into a core of field medics, and it was my idea to try and train them. I was really proud of it, especially when mom agreed with me.

"It's not you who I doubt. It's my numbskull officers that I'm worried about. I think they'll just discount everything you say because you're just a teenager. Some of them will probably be very …difficult." She explained

"Shouldn't they know better than to mess with the Chief's daughter?" I asked with a smirk, I knew many of the people at the station, they knew me, and they knew what would happen if they disrespected their boss's daughter.

"Yes, most do, but I recently got a new batch of recruits from the academy, and many of them are cocky green water benders. And many of them are young cocky men. And none of them know who you are, who you are to me, or what happens when you get on my bad side." She explained, taking a sip of her coffee.

"Oh." I said as my face dropped.

I knew by now that braking in new recruits was something of a bittersweet time for mom and her officers. On the one hand the recruits would get into all kinds of trouble thanks to their ignorance, and many of the cocky ones would become an annoyance for everyone thanks to their showboating. On the other hand giving them their due punishment was something everyone enjoyed watching the chief do. Getting chewed out by mom was kind of their initiation ritual.

"Well don't chew them out without me, it only gets better every year." I asked

"I can't control their stupidity." She countered

"Please." I begged

She sighed before saying, "I'll try."

"Thanks." I said happily before hugging her and going into my room with my breakfast.

Sarah pov

So after Korra's little reveal to the bending brothers, which was hilarious by the way, she had officially signed on with the team. That being said, she didn't reveal everything. She didn't tell the brothers the whole story about us, which I doubt they would have believed anyway. So all they know is that Korra is the avatar and she ran away with our help from her prison in the Fortress of Solitude.

The best part was when she suggested that Mary train the entire team.

Her rational was that considering how powerful she was after a few weeks of training with her, imagine how powerful the team would be if the all were trained under her.

At first, the boys thought that was great, they would get to be trained by someone could kick the avatar's ass.

Then…

Hehe…

…Then came the first training day.

It was painful to watch.

That being said, I couldn't look away.

Since Mary already knew how Korra fought she was done with the 'testing faze' that Mary had for her.

The bending brothers…

…not so much.

The best part was being able to watch Mary destroy the brothers with Korra.

I could tell that she really needed this. After all the savage tormenting that Mary had unleashed on her, she need to see others go through that same pain. In a way it proved to her that Mary truly wasn't discriminating in any way shape or form.

Mary was just being…Mary.

That's just how Mary do.

She doesn't particularly care about status and titles unless it had an actual impact on the issue she was concerned with. She was obsessed with efficiency and effectiveness. As far as she was concerned when it came to Pro-bending Korra, Mako, and Bolin held the same base value, regardless of Korra's avatar status.

The 'testing faze' was to find Mako and Bolin's strengths and weakness. To find the best way to weave the three of them into an invincible team. And I had no doubt that she would be able to do it.

The only problem came up when it came to, well, me.

Despite the fact that Korra wasn't under Mary's strict training right this second, the fact was, she had a job now, and one she still had to train fairly often for.

I, on the other hand, didn't.

And that….

…That was something Mary sought to correct.

Mary, the multitasking witch she was, was somehow able to perform three jobs, keep up with Korra's training, and still have enough focus to constantly badger me about finding a job

So…I tried.

So, at Mary's behest I searched for a job in the Marble Crown.

Well…

Searching for a 'job' might have been a bit of a stretch.

In reality I was searching for a job in all the wrong places.

Dark alleys at night and all the darkest parts of the area where the shadiest men lurked.

I wasn't looking for a job, no, I was looking at the darkest parts of the area to see what I could dig up. Kicking the nest of hornets to see what would come out and fight.

You see, since I couldn't train with Korra anymore I lost that outlet for my more violent urges. As a result they built up in me, and have been for some time. While fighting with Korra had helped relieve some stress, it wasn't exactly the best at it. The fact was, I had to hold back too much with Korra. I couldn't go all out for fear of seriously hurting her, possibly even killing her.

And that's not even including some of my darker desires.

So in the end, sparing with Korra was simply a way to relieve a portion of the stress, not actually help get rid of it in its entirety. I knew that if I didn't take care of it soon it would bleed into the rest of my life.

I would become more aggressive, meaner, and more savage. It wasn't pretty, and Mary could already tell that it was starting.

Hell, if I didn't resolve my little issue soon by the time I spared with Korra I would kill her.

So instead I decided to look for a fight in the darkest parts of the Marble Crown. I didn't care I how I got it done, I wanted to put some asshole in the hospital.

Specifically, an asshole, and not any random schmuck. I may be itching for a fight, but I don't want to go terrorizing the city.

Not if I can help it.

Unfortunately, for some reason I wasn't able to find anyone, no one wanted to mug me, beat me up, shake me down, nothing. It was really disappointing.

At one point I thought someone was about to try to mug me, I could see the mugger coming towards me and I could just tell that's what his intent was, I could feel it in my soul. Unfortunately I was unable to hide my enthusiasm at the prospect of him trying to mug me, and it showed on my face with my trademark evil grin. I guess he saw the malevolent smile filled with dark thoughts aimed his way and decided to rethink his plan.

Yeah.

I scared off a mugger by smiling at him.

So after a few days of this I finally struck gold.

Well... it's more like I found the gold striking someone else.

Kali pov

After mom left, and after breakfast, I feel another wave exhaustion come over me, probably because I didn't actually get much rest thanks to my nightmare. As a result I wake up again late in the day. I know mom probably won't get back until late at night thanks to the new rumors about some kind of supremacist cult.

Despite my nap the memories brought up from my nightmare are still fresh in my mind. So I decide to go to one of the only people who I know can help make me feel better since mom's busy. I decide to head over to my old friend Susanoo's house.

Susanoo's the son of the Mom's General friend who saved her life, and he's been kind of like an older brother for me for as long as I can remember. Then again, he is one of the first people I met after that night, making him one of the first people I can actually remember seeing.

After getting dressed I head outside and look out to see the vista before me.

It's late enough in the day that the sun is setting in the sky. Since we live on a hill that overlooks much of the city I have an unobstructed view of the city's skyline. I can see the massive new skyscrapers rising up in the distance. I can see the crowds of people and cars moving through the various districts like blood pumping through the body. All of it thrown on to the beautiful background of a sky painted various shades of maroon, gold, violet, pink, and many more. The beautiful view provided by living in the Marble Crown is as stunningly majestic as it is a truly cruel lie.

The fact is, as beautiful as this city is, it's also rotten to the core. It can be saved, but most people are just content to let the status quo rule. They're content to let the gangs have their way with the city, to let the corrupt and weak politicians allow the city to choke and die. As long as it doesn't directly interfere with them, they're just content to allow the poor, weak, and vulnerable to drown under the unending waves of filth that this city spews out constantly.

I shake my head, pushing these thoughts outside my head. Thinking like that won't get me anywhere. I'm just getting so dark and pessimistic because of what the nightmares brought up. They remind me of the darker times in the city. Instead I endeavor to think of what I can do to change things.

But you're just one person, what could you possibly do to a whole city of filth? Do you really think they can really be saved? Or are they just better off being purged? My subconscious tells myself, bringing me back into pit of darkness in my soul.

Shaking my head again I think in response Bad subconscious. Bad! In an attempt to cheer myself up.

I sigh in resignation

This is why I need to see Susanoo. He's closest and he's always been able to cheer me up. I think again, resolving to finally get moving towards his house.

Soon I'm in the middle of the crowds of people swarming through the city. Thanks to some incident that involved some kind of police chase my normal route is blocked by reconstruction work, so I take a detour. As I walk this unfamiliar path I can feel my headache growing stronger and stronger. It's pounding in my cranium, coming in waves, like a massive bell is ringing inside. The roar of the crowds around me doesn't help, but I do my best to block it out.

As I push farther and farther my vision begins to blur and I start feel waves of nausea coming over me.

As darkness begins to creep into the side of my vision I can feel a pressure come over me.

I see something dark move in the corner of my eye. I swing my head around to try and see what it was, but there's nothing there but more people just walking around going about their business.

I turn my head back in front of me as I march forward, but I'm startled as I catch a glimpse of something I never expected to see in the distance.

It's one of the shadow-men from my nightmare.

My breath catches in my throat, my heart races.

No, not here! I think in a panic NO! You're NOT real! Yo-you can't be.

Just as quick as I spotted him he disappears from my sight. I spin around trying to spot them, but I can't see him again.

It was just my imagination, calm down. It's just because of the nightmares. You're okay. You're safe. I think in an effort to calm myself down, to no avail.

Yeah, just keep telling yourself that. My subconscious mocks me, that'll keep the shadow-men away for sure.

Shut up! I shoot back before realizing what I'm doing.

Great I'm crazy enough that I'm having argument with my subconscious.

As I press forward despite my deteriorating mental and physical state, I can't help but feel paranoia fill me. As much as I tell myself that the shadow-men aren't real, the fact is I don't truly believe it. I can't help but see one in every person I see. The pressure of the crowd of potential nightmares around me is overwhelming.

I need to get away! I need to escape! I need to breathe! I think in a panic as the overwhelming pressure becomes suffocating.

I spot an alley ahead of me. Seeing that it heads off the beaten path I decide it's the escape that I've been looking for and I make a beeline straight there. I plow my way through the crowd, desperately seeking to get away from all this, to get someplace to myself, to get somewhere I can breathe. Normally I'd be a lot smarter about this, but right now….right now I can't even think about anything other than getting away from this crowd of people.

The alley feel like a beacon in the darkness, calling out to me as the as the only island of safety in the sea of darkness that surrounds me. As I race there I plow through several people, who quickly become disgruntled at my actions, but I pay them no heed. Instead I charge forward to safety. The whole way there I keep seeing glimpses of the shadow-men in the crowd. Never for more than a second, and never in the same place twice.

By the time I get to the entrance of the alley I'm in a full blown panic, my heart thundering, my breath short, and my mind a storm of fear and terror. As much as I tell myself it's not real, it doesn't help. I can't help but feel like I'm running for my life. I run deeper and deeper into the labyrinth that is the depths of the city. Away from the relative safety of the street the bowels of the city between the towering buildings is a maze.

Despite the normally winding, confusing, and twisting nature of the alleys of the city, I feel like I know exactly where I'm going. I can't shake the feeling like I've been here before, like I've done this before. I run, and run, and run. My body screaming at me to stop, but my mind telling me that to do that is to accept death. As I round another I see something that gives me pause.

I'm in a clearing, caged in by the towering building surrounding me.

I…I've been here before. I know it! I think. My subconscious screaming at me that I'm in danger.

As I struggle to figure out the puzzle I walk up the wall of the building in front of me where a dark stain remains in the center of the otherwise tan wall. Feeling a shiver down the back of my neck I look up and am horrified by what I see.

Hanging in the sky is a blood red moon in a black, cloudless sky.

This…this is just like my nightmares! It's, NO! It can't be! That was just a dream! It has to be! I think to myself, needing for this all to be a dream.

Then I hear something behind me, something that sounds like…like….laughter. Cold, sinister, and dark, laughter. My blood runs cold and I scream to myself inside my mind that it's not real. That if I don't look behind me then they won't exist, but unfortunately my body isn't listening. On instinct I turn around and seem the horrors of my nightmares come to life.

There, in front of me, blocking all possible exits, are the shadow-men.

They were sitting here waiting for me.

Sarah Pov

I was walking through the winding alleys of the city, looking for trouble in all the right places. It was nighttime and the lights of the city shone through the cracks between the buildings, and what few windows in this area still had lights on, creating long shadows that bathed most of the area in darkness. I was on the outskirts of the Marble Crown looking for any signs of trouble. I had heard that there was increased gang activity in the area, why, I don't know. But I'm going to find out.

I looked in the sky and I saw the full moon shining down, bathing everything in a strong light, combined with what few city lights were on it was enough to see where I was going, but not enough to really see the city. It made this area look nicer, the darkness hid the piles of garbage and filth of the area. The smells of the city filled my nose, and the city was unusually quiet. That's not to say it as really quiet, but compared to the almost un-ending hustle and bustle of cities I was used to, this was almost a silent calm.

That calm was shattered by the sudden shriek of a girl in danger and pain. It sounded like it came from a few blocks away, and I run as fast as I could to the sound. I pushed myself as hard as I could, pushing off from the ground with enough force to crack and fracture the pavement. I reached out with my senses to "see" where the scream came from, the design of the alleys and buildings undoubtedly twisted and contorted the sound, making that a less reliable source, only a good place to start. Reaching out I "saw" where she was, and I altered my course accordingly.

I slowed down as I reached the alley that lead into the area the scream came from. As I walked in the shadowed corridor I reached out and felt the area I was walking into before I could clearly see it. It was a large open yard completely cut off from the streets by the buildings surrounding it.

In order to get there you would have to walk through the winding alley and corridors until you reached it. If you didn't know where you were going you would easily find yourself lost. There were several alleys leading out of the yard, not just the one I was in, but I couldn't tell what was in them all right now.

As I reached the entrance of the yard I could see that the moon hung over the place, shining down on it with it's soft pale light.. It provided a small area of light that just reached most of the yard, but stopped short of the shadows of the alleys, which allowed me to be hidden in the darkness. I looked and saw a large gang of men, probably eight to ten, standing in a crowd around something. Suddenly the crowd parted as a girl was pushed from the center to the ground.

The men were wearing similar clothes to the gang members who we had encountered earlier, indicating there gang affiliation. The girl, however, was wearing a torn red and blue coat and dress it looked like. Whatever it was, it looked like it had undergone some rough treatment as of late

She had long brown hair that hung messily from her face, cover most of it. However, I was still able to see a blue eye of hers peek out from under it.

The girl propped herself on one arm and looked fearfully at the men who were surrounding her. The leader of the group, at least the one who looked like the leader, looked down at her and said something. I couldn't make out what it was exactly, but it was probably some kind of threat or something.

The girl was absolutely shivering in terror, I could see the tears falling from her face. Everyone here knew what was going to happen next, but I was the only one who knew that it wouldn't be ten guys doing the raping, it would be one black girl, braking their bodies with a solid fisting.

So, I stepped out of the alley and made myself known to them.

"Hey ASSHOLES!" I did Not say.

I said, "Hey SHIT HEADS!"

I didn't know who said the other thing

Which is exactly what he was thinking.

I looked to my left, where the sound came from and found an asian guy about my age wearing a black trench coat over a dark blue shirt, and dark pants. He had long, spikey black hair that flowed over his back just past his shoulders. The most peculiar part of him was his golden eyes that locked with mine. He looked just as surprised that I was there as I was that he was there.

Then my eyes noticed the swords he carried by his belt.

We looked at each other and through some kind of silent communication through just looking at each other we saw that we were allies in this. Both warriors, noble or otherwise, here to stop an injustice from happening. We acknowledged this with a simple nod to each other before turning our attention back to the crowd of would-be gangbangers and soon to be invalids.

Our entrance had alerted the gangsters to our presence and they positioned themselves between the girl and us. The leader stepped forward from the crowd and said jokingly, "Well fellas, it looks like we got a couple of heroes here."

His compatriots laughed at what they perceived to be a joke. Personally it wasn't the first time I had been called a hero, jokingly or otherwise. I kind of did this type of thing all the time back...well back everywhere I went really.

"Why don't we teach 'heroes' that this ain't no place for a hero." The leader said, but he unintentionally reminded me of dad when he said that last part.

Dad would often say heroes were mostly bullshit, and that instead there were people brave enough to put their morals ahead of their own life and do what they thought was necessary for them. If they were truly a "hero" then they wouldn't care about being called as such.

When the gangster said that I saw all of the gangsters get into a very familiar set of stances.

Really? All of them? How common are mages here? I mean they are just fucking everywhere! I thought to myself as I noted how strange it was for me to keep running into all these mages.

That being said, I welcomed the challenge. Plus, like almost every mage, that would just mean that they were vulnerable up close.

I controlled my large metal bracelets, liquefying them and making them cover my fists as small gauntlets, and prepared to lunge at them before the split up.

My plan was to get up close and personal while they were still in a crowd. That would help prevent them from using their powers, not just because they would be too close to me to properly use them, but because they would be too close to each other and would have to watch out for friendly fire.

Apparently my new "friend" thought the same thing and also bent down preparing to lunge, his right hand on the handle of his sword.

I wondered if he was also a mage, but I doubted it. For some reason mages here didn't seem to use any weapons or anything with their magic. I don't know why, it would give them something to fight with in close quarters, and it would give them something to focus their magic with.

Before the mage gangsters could launch their elemental assault my "friend" and I lunged forward as one, rushing into the crowd.

I think they thought we would fight like mages too or something because they were not prepared for us at all. We jumped into the crowd like two wolves onto a flock of sheep.

Well… rams

Because rams would fight back.

They would lose

But they would still try.

I immediately lost visual contact with my "friend" as we started the melee, but I was confident he was fine. I, on the other hand, was great.

The guy right in front of me tried to shoot a fireball at me, but I simply just spun to the side of it, dodging it effortlessly, and grabbed his outstretched arm. I launched two bullet-like punches against his outstretched arm at his elbow and his shoulder. I felt the bone buckle, fracture, and break under the immense force of my metal covered fist flying into them like a high speed sledgehammer, causing the arm to bend unnaturally.

He cried out in pain as his arm went limp and grabbed it with his other arm, doubling over in pain.

I sensed someone else behind me, lunging towards me and I twisted my body 90 degrees, causing him to fly in front of me. Before he passed me I turned my twist into a spin. Spinning on the ball of my right foot I spun and slammed my left leg into his right side, which was the side he lead with his lunge. I could feel his ribs give into my thunderous blow, I felt them crack and cave in as my shin crashed into them.

I then spun back to deal with the first guy. I grabbed him by the arm I broke, twirled around, and slammed him into the second guy as hard as I could. The whole time he was just screaming in pain form being swung around like a fleshy hammer by his tortured arm. When I did I could feel the bones bending and breaking from the collision.

Neither of them would be getting up for a while after that.

As the two of them crumpled into the ground in a mass of broken limbs I sensed a guy behind me trying to get me while I was vulnerable.

Too bad I wasn't

I spun around on the heel of my foot, turning 90 degrees in an instant to look at him over my shoulder. He was in the middle of throwing a basketball sized rock at me when I did.

Taking a spinning step forward I swung my right forearm into it so hard it exploded into pieces from the collision.

I barely even felt it.

Continuing my moment, I furthered the clockwise spin I had begun, and threw a thunderous left hook that smashed the poor bastard in the face like a sledge hammer. The impact sent him flying back a ways before slamming into the wall on the other side of the yard. He immediately blacked out whilst bleeding from his face rather profusely.

Now that I thought about it, I think I hit him a little too hard. I don't think he ended up surviving, which isn't too surprising considering he now had a bleeding crater where his face used to be.

Normally, I should have been more concerned about that.

Normally I would have been mortified by the fact that I had killed someone with my own hands.

Buuuut…

…At the moment I was having too much fun to worry about my accidental body count.

In that moment I felt alive.

This is the shit I lived for, a real fight, not a pussy ass magic fight where two shit-heads throw magic at each other like exploding snowballs.

I lived to feel my fight. I didn't just want to take my opponent down, I wanted to feel them go down.

To feel it as my body broke theirs.

I liked to feel the feeling of my body waging war against theirs.

Unfortunately these people weren't very good at fighting back, which was half the fun, but it was still the most fun I've had in weeks.

I was able to look over and take a look at my "friend" during the momentary, and I mean momentary, lull in combat for me.

Too most people, they would have been disturbed by what they saw.

To me?

Well…

…Frankly I was kind of used to seeing that kind of shit, it didn't even faze me.

This man in black, who I think I'll call the Black Swordsman for now, was fighting like a force of nature.

Mages here might have thought they were hot shit cause they could throw rocks and water with their weird magic. But his guy…

This guy was amazing.

No movement was wasted on flare or appearance.

Each slash,

Each lunge,

Each footstep,

Hell, each twitch, had purpose.

He was a whirlwind of blood, body parts, and expert swordsmanship.

Hell, I think he was better than Mary, and she has certain…advantages most people lack.

When he fought he did so ruthlessly. That's not to say he was savage, or was looking to increase his body count.

Oh no.

I know what that looked like.

No, this?

This was a warrior fighting for something he cared deeply about.

The fact was, he had killed several people. A few thrusts to the chest unleashing a small torrent of blood onto his trench coat. A couple slashes relieving a couple people of their limbs.

But.

At the same time, he hadn't killed everyone he met. Some he had simply incapacitated with a few well-placed stabs and slashes that systematically disabled them.

It was obvious to see that despite his merciless style of swordsmanship, he wasn't out for blood. He was simply trying to incapacitate them in the most efficient manner possible with all the grace of a skilled samurai. It just so happened that sometime, that meant killing them.

Frankly it reminded me of my dear sister, Mary.

So I liked him.

If he had boobs he would have looked just like her.

Well, and the dark skin, but otherwise he was like a male version of Mary.

That being said, there was something….off about him.

No…

…No, off isn't the right word, it implies something is wrong with him.

No, something was different about him. I could tell there was something different about his soul compared to most humans. Something…familiar.

I couldn't place what it was, but it made him special. He was human, at least in large part, I was certain about that. But that still left the infinite potential that tiny spec of something special could entail.

But, me being me, I pushed that issue to the side after taking note of it. After all, I had invalids to make.

The other odd thing about him, though, was his sword. It was black. Well, dark grey, but I was having a hard time identifying what it was made of.

Swords made of such dark metals weren't exactly common, especially ones that were effective, and it didn't feel like any particular metal I had encountered before. But there was definitely some iridium, platinum, iron, and nickel in it. Which was odd because one didn't usually craft swords from those things. There was also some other special ingredients I couldn't identify.

If I remembered I would try to take a closer look at it later.

All of these thoughts went by in less than a second in real time, but by this point time felt like it had slowed to a crawl. As I snapped back into the fight I looked toward a guy on my right who was looking at me in horror at what I had just done to three of his guys in as many seconds, but I could also feel someone behind me trying to rush me, as well as someone to my left launching a rock at me.

I twisted a little in my position in order to grab the dumbass behind me attempting to go for an ambush. I figure he just thought I was a little girl and a big guy like him could just take me without wasting magic. My grab surprised him because I doubt he expected a girl, or anyone really, to be able to throw his 400 lbs. ass anywhere, but that's exactly what I did. I grabbed him and threw him into the rock that the guy to my left threw at me.

Immediately after throwing the big guy I spun around and swept the legs out from under the guy to my left. I swept his legs so fast and hard that I actually broke one of his shins in half, and fractured the other. He barely had time to look at me in terror from the ground before I kicked him in the head, knocking him unconscious.

I turned around to look back at the guy I had thrown, who on the ground looking very confused. He was at the feet of the guy who threw the rock at me, and he looked very surprised that I had managed to throw someone so big. He quickly threw two more rocks at me, which I nimbly dodged as I rushed forward and kicked the big guy in the chest hard enough to send him flying into the earth mage's legs, causing him to fall on his face. The big guy kept flying until he slammed into the wall behind him hard enough to make an indent in the wall, the impact of which knocked him unconscious.

Meanwhile I picked up the guy who I tripped with the big guy's body by his hair and held him up in front of me so I could look him in the eyes. I looked at him, blood pouring from his broken nose, looking scared shitless as he gazed into my face which was now covered with a dark and toothy evil grin.

I was really enjoying this, and he knew it.

And it scared him enough to shit his pants right there.

I decided to just stop playing with him and I just threw him into the wall, knocking him out.

As I looked around I noticed several things.

One: Everyone was on the ground unconscious or writhing in pain, my "friend" apparently done with his share of foes. I have to say, looking between our victims it's easy to see who took down who.

Mine were all either on the ground, or in the wall and still in technically one piece. It's just that that piece was basically just a pile of broken mush.

They other guy? Every last one of his guys was bleeding profusely from somewhere. Several had missing limbs, which were also bleeding, and some were just dead, and no longer bleeding.

Two: I can't count for shit. I don't know why I thought there were like eight or ten people because now that they were all on the down I could easily see that there was 14 people, including the leader.

Which brings me to three because the leader wasn't here.

I turned to my friend and asked, "Hey, where'd the boss go?"

He looked back to me, obviously coming to the same conclusion and shrugged.

"I guess he ran away" He said before turning back to the girl who had moved to huddling in the corner. She was looking at us with wide eyes and tears running down her face, shivering in complete terror. Actually, now that I took a closer look at her, I wasn't entirely sure that she was actually looking at us, she seemed like she wasn't entirely all there, and she seemed barely aware of what was going on around her.

The man walked over to her and crouched down in front of her. He looked her in the eyes and said, "Red? Red?! Snap out of it!", Trying to get her attention.

She didn't appear to respond at first so he cupped both sides of her face with his hands and shook her.

"Red! Come on, wake up!" He commanded.

He seemed to know this girl, and was very concerned for her right now. Frankly I was too, but he seemed to have a more…personal interest in her. I idly wondered if they were in some sort of relationship or something, considering the lack of any resemblance between the two that would indicate a blood relation.

Finally she appeared to snap out of whatever trance she was in as her eyes finally managed to focus on the man in front of her.

"Su-Susanoo? Wha-what are you doing here?" She asked, still trembling in fear, but she seemed both surprised and comforted by the appearance of her friend.

"The better question is what are you doing here? You mother called me today to tell me that you had the nightmare again, and we all know what that means." He said, looking at her disapprovingly.

"Yeah, I know, but I was trying to make my way to you. You always know how to cheer me up." She explained with a timid smile.

"Yeah, I do, which is why I was making my way here. I knew you would take a nap and probably wake up late in the day, like you usually do after an episode like this, so I decided to wait a bit before heading over to your place. You're lucky I was nearby, otherwise who knows what could have happened." He chided in a deeply concerned tone.

"Promise me you'll never do this again." He sternly told her, concern evident on his face.

"I-I'm sorry for making you do this. I don't know what I was thinking. I just…I don't know, was drawn here." She tried to explain

"Drawn here?" He repeated skeptically

"I don't know how to explain it! I never do! You know that!" She defended, almost hysterical. She was obviously seriously stressed outright now, and not entirely sure of herself.

"Doesn't mean I have to like it." He answered back as her got up, giving her a hand as she wiped her eyes of their remaining tears.

She then noticed me, standing back and just watching the two of them interact.

"Um…Susanoo? Whose you're…friend?" She asked, somewhat concerned about me, who I was, what I was doing here, and so on. That made it abundantly clear that she had been completely out of it for the entire fight.

"That's…a good question. She helped my fight of your attackers, but besides that I don't know who she is." He responded, turning to me.

"I'm right here you know." I pointed out indignantly, put off by the fact that they seemed to be acting like I wasn't even here.

"And who are you anyway? And why did you help?" He asked

"My name is Sarah, and as for why I helped, well, what kind of worthless piece of shit would I be if I just let a group of thugs have their way with a helpless young maiden such as yourself." I responded, gesturing to the girl he had called Red as I did so.

I figured Red was some kind of nickname for the girl. At least I hoped it was. I can't imagine how bad your parents must be if they decided to name you after a color.

"Really?" He responded, surprised that I was acting out of such simple goodwill as I had.

Probably best not to tell him about me also just needing to beat the shit out of something.

"You'd be surprised how many people lack such a strong code of honor, or any honor really, not to mention the ability to back it up." He continued.

"Yeah, that's not exactly exclusive to this city." I responded in kind.

"Well, in any case, thank you for your assistance, my name is Susanoo." He thanked me, holding out his hand which I shook in return.

The girl then walked up to me and shyly said, "So you really stuck your neck out for me? Even though you didn't know me?"

"Yeah, of course. I might not have known you then, but I hope I can know the two of you better later." I replied honestly.

"Well, I do to. My name is Kali." The girl replied with a sweet smile, shaking my hand as well, though when she said the second part I froze, recognizing it.

She probably doesn't have anything to- I began to think

Before we could get anywhere else, however, the leader showed up again, with like 30 guys. But then again, I'm shit with numbers so maybe it was 50.

I don't know

It was a lot.

"Well shit." I said simply, stunned by his sudden appearance with reinforcements.

"Get them!" He cried, gesturing towards the three of us.

As he did his gang poured though the alleys, covering the walls in front of us. Susanoo stepped in front of Kali in a protective move while Kali looked like a deer in the headlights. Her response made me think that she was thinking that even her Susanoo couldn't take this many people by himself.

But he wasn't alone.

As the gangbangers got into their stances to send a flurry of magic at us I looked to him, evil grin plastered all over my face, steely calm all over his. We nodded to each other and charged forward to meet the enemy.

I don't really how long the fight took. It felt like it lasted hours, maybe days, but in reality it only lasted probably ten minutes.

Ten minutes of chaos.

Blissful blissful chaos.

I mean, yeah sure the two of us ended up covered in cuts and bruises, but it was the most fun I've had in a long time.

There we sat, back to back on the cold, hard cement, leaning against one another. Surrounded by, like, 50 unconscious people.

And some dead people.

Don't know how many, lost count.

It was glorious, but the two of us where dead tired. Well three of us, Kali was lying on the ground by our side panting. After the fight Kali had went around to heal everyone, trying to keep as many people alive as possible. As I watched I noted that she wasn't just some novice plugging holes, she knew damn well what she was doing. She appeared to use blood magic to put them back together, which considering how young she is, is impressive.

With blood healing, as I understand it, you can heal almost any injury, but you have to know what you're doing. You can't just heal someone by willing it. You have to know how to put them back together. Otherwise you're just shoving bloody pieces of the meat puzzle back together, hoping they stick.

So I watched as she literally wove people back together again with tendrils of their own blood. Thanks to that not that many people died. In fact, I thing only the boss died. But that's not entirely surprising.

Kali may be fucking amazing, but even she has a hard time fixing a severe case of missing head.

Especially when said head is little more than a stain on the wall.

So there we sat, exhausted, for, like, 30 minutes just panting and getting enough energy to move again. Susanoo and I had taken a few blows in the fight. Well, okay, I took a lot of blows, but I was built sturdy so I just tanked them. That being said, I still felt incredibly sore now that the adrenaline had burned off, and I bet Susanoo felt the same.

But at the same time it was nice, here we all were, just laying here, exhausted but we had successfully won a great battle not just for our lives, but for the lives of others. It felt good, to lie here with these comrades in arms I had made. After that I think Susanoo and I had learned a lot about each other from our fight, and we learned to trust each other. I think I can call him a friend.

Finally I was able to break the comfortable silence.

"So…That was…fun." I said between huffs of breath.

"Is it…over?" Kali asked, similarly out of breath.

"Yes…the…leader…is…over there." He said, lazily gesturing to a body crumpled to the ground with the cleanly decapitated neck, indicative of a clean slice with a sword, and the bloody stain on the wall behind him, indicative of something smashing the head into the wall at extremely high speeds.

"Oh…good." She responded, relieved.

"How about…we get out of here…before the cops show up?" I suggested.

"Why?...We didn't do…anything illegal….we were just… defending ourselves." Kali countered.

"Yeah… but cops'll… ask us questions…about this…and I don't feel like… answering a laundry list… of questions…do you?" I explained.

"Good point." Susanoo agreed

With a grunt I got up and then lent a hand towards both of them, helping them up.

The fight had left me beaten and battered. I felt incredibly sore but I still had enough in me to walk without limping. In fact I was feeling great. As we walked towards the street, exiting the alley, I felt great pride and happiness at the accomplishment I had just made, especially because of the new friends I made along the way. As I walked to the street basking in the post-victory glow I neglected to pay attention to my surroundings.

Particularly the cars in the street.

BOOM!

I felt a thundering pain explode from the entire left side of my body, I felt my bones bending, skin breaking, and muscles tearing. With all the damage I had already taken, it was too much, I couldn't stay awake, and soon the entire world faded to black.

A/n: Yay!

I did it!

I finally Posted one of my top 5 chapters!

Fuck Yeah!

It's one of my top 5 because it introduces tons of important and badass shit and has a few badass action scenes

I mean.

First: We finally get to see Sarah let loose a little, that being said it's not like she was pushed to the limit or anything.

Second: We got more formally introduced to Kali, and Susanoo. Both of whom are critical characters

Technically we got introduced to another character at the end there, but you'll find out more about that later.

Technically, if I really wanted to, I could have added a bit more content and split this into two nice little chapters.

I didn't want to.

So as a result you get to read one of my larger chapters.

The only that truly compares thus far is Test Day, and that one was hell to write.

This one?

This one was an absolute pleasure to write.

I'll probably call chapters like these super-chaps.

And...if I have too, I'll make "Darknesss" contain several of these.

In hindsight...

...

..."Darkness" Is Fucking Long As Shit.

Buuuuuuuuuut...

...

Not sorry.

Also, I hope you can start to see why I called this episode "Darkness"

I'll probably explain the whole thing later.

Also, in case you're wondering, Sarah's not a ruthless killer.

The best way to describe what happened is to say she got carried away and forgot to hold back enough to keep everyone alive.

On a side note, in case you're worried, Tenzin's not dead or anything.

He and his family play an important part of the story, just...later.

Trust me, When I'm done everyone will have gone through some form of their own personal hell at some point.

Weeeeeeeeeel...

Everyone except the devil of this story.

Technically he gets a happy ending.

You'll find out more later.

Oh

Another thing.

In case you haven't noticed...

October is going to be a busy as shit month for me.

At this rate, if I want Landfall out on Halloween then I'm just going to have to shit out like three chapters in a week.

Then again...

I doubt you lot'll complain about it.

Bastards...

I mean Gentlemen and Scholars All!

ha ha

ha

ha

...

...

...

sorry.

Oh, and I'll explain Kali's issue later on, but it might not be what you think

It's certainly special

I mean, usually you can't feel pain in a dream, and yet Kali felt agony in hers

In the mean time...

War Out