A/N: So this chapter is another one without too much action. Sorry about that. It is important though, both because of something that's established and also as a lead in for the next chapter, in which a ton of other stuff will be revealed.
Also, I noticed that quite a few reviewers think Clare is Teresa's sister. While that would make for one hell of a plot twist, unfortunately it's not the case. The timing just doesn't work. And if you recall, Teresa outright states in the last chapter that her sister would be on old woman by now assuming she's alive. So no, it's not Clare. Don't worry, you will eventually find out what happened to Teresa's sister, but not quite yet.
One more thing, and this isn't really that important to the story, I just wanted to point it out. At this point in time, Clare still has her long hair. Since she got the regular half-youma treatment in this story, she had an easier time in the final exam and didn't need to resort to what she did in that extra scene. Like I said, it's really not that important, so I can't say for sure yet if she will get her hair cut like in canon at some point. Maybe I'll make a poll of it or something.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter and I apologize for my rambling. XD
Hoping through the wet from rain grass, the pack of rabbits raised their noses into the air, sniffing out dinner. One of the bigger ones found some tasty looking grass and gnawed on it greedily while his brethren continued their search. They would have to find their own food as far as the rabbit was concerned.
A twig snapped in the distance, bringing all the rabbits to rapt attention, their ears tall and listening. They heard it again and scattered. An arrow sailed through the sky after them, impaling the bigger rabbit straight through it's heart.
Irene left her hiding spot and stood over the body of her prey. She picked it up between two fingers, crinkling her nose. Rabbit wasn't her favorite type of meat, but she didn't feel like walking further to find something else. It would probably go to waste just like this rabbit would anyway.
She carried it back to the cabin she'd, through several months of labor, managed to build for herself. In the small kitchen, she set the creature done and got to the job of skinning it. Irene averted her eyes, staring out the window while her knife wielding hand slid expertly through the rabbit's stomach.
Irene found herself thinking about Teresa again, as she was want to do on quiet days like this. She thought of Teresa and Noel and Sophia and Priscilla. Sometimes, her mind would even stray to that little human girl who caused everything. She wondered what kind of warrior that girl had grown into.
It was easy for Clare to ignore her fellow soldiers. Staring at a spot directly in front of her, frowning in a way that promised death to whoever was foolish enough to get too close.
Her legs felt more and more like rock with every step, and Clare bit her lip, forcing down a groan of irritation. She scanned every door she passed, coming closer and closer to the one designated for her. Once she's found it, she could finally get that nice hour's nap she'd been waiting for. That's exactly what Clare needed to recharge and get back to full strength.
In the meantime, she would entertain herself with images of Teresa's head staked onto her sword, her face frozen in eternal fear. Clare smiled despite herself, she couldn't wait until the day that image became reality. Until then, she would practice and dream and fight her way up the ranking.
"Well, hello."
Clare stopped. Her yoki flared for a split second before she brought it back down. The owner of the voice stepped towards her, heedless of the stone faced look Clare wore. Somehow, Clare had known right away who it was approaching, and as such, she wasn't shocked to see Hilary wearing a tiny smirk that nevertheless infuriated her.
"What kept you?" The more experienced warrior asked, circling Clare like a wildcat over it's prey. "I've been here for half a day already. You haven't been slacking, have you?"
Clare narrowed her eyes, she wanted nothing more than to strangle this damnable woman. As if sensing Clare's anger, Hilary's smirk faded.
"How do you expect to kill Teresa if you slack off?"
If she was expecting a verbal response, she didn't get one. Clare roughly pushed passed her, maintaining a complete lack of eye contact the entire way. Her feet click-clacked against the stone floors, and thankfully, no other set of footsteps followed her. Clare left Hilary in the dust, finding her door after turning one final corner and practically shoving it open.
Once her armor has been removed, Clare dropped on the bed, clothed only in her outer suit. She removed the metal boots last, throwing them across the room without a care for where they landed.
She laid down, arranging herself on her side and staring out at the rising moon. Her silver eyes fell to the walls as they began to feel heavy. Before completely succumbing to sleep, Clare made a note to get some more practice time later on before she was inevitably sent out on another mission.
Whether she would admit it or not (and she wouldn't), Hilary's words had had an affect on her. She supposed she should have known that she wasn't ready to hunt down Teresa. She was a new soldier and Teresa was the strongest on record. That's what everyone always said. Fighting Teresa was suicide, the former number two, Corissa or something, had learned that the hard way.
"Twenty seven," Clare spoke aloud the rank she had been given. Perhaps one day she'd be given the rank of twenty six, or twenty five.
Or one.
Clare smiled to herself, cementing that number in her mind. That was the dream, to become the strongest warrior the organization ever saw. Stronger than Teresa could ever hope to be. No matter how long it took, Clare vowed that she would do it.
'Just wait, Teresa, just wait…'
She swings. Her opponent makes a similar move. Their swords clang together, creating sparks. Both fighters push harder and harder by the second. She grits her teeth, her opponent smiling mockingly at her.
"Give up," she says. "You can't defeat me, we both know it."
"Fuck you," she answers. Teresa just smiles wider.
She pulls her sword away fast, using the momentum to swing again while Teresa is unprepared. The former number one's yoki reading abilities are without equal, but so is Clare's speed and strength. She strikes gold, slicing Teresa's arm clean off.
The fallen warrior howls in pain, but Clare doesn't stop to enjoy her success. Her hated enemy has three remaining limbs, after all.
When it's over, Teresa is nothing more than a head and torso. Clare kicks a leg off into the distance along with Teresa's sword. Now it's her turn to smirk as Teresa shivers in fear.
"Please, spare me," she begs pathetically. "I'll do anything. Please."
Clare laughs, and it's soft, but full of triumph. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. To think, Teresa was once the strongest soldier in history. Now she was nothing more than what she always had been deep inside: a sniveling little worm.
Clare lifts one leg and plants it on Teresa's chest, right over her heart. The monster cries, almost as if she's a human who deserves that privilege. Clare raises her sword again, silver eyes burning with an unsuppressed bloodlust.
"Spare you," she says in a low voice. "Isn't that what my mother and father said?"
Teresa's eyes widen, and she screams, pleading for help that will never come.
"This is it," Clare says, pressing down hard to silence Teresa. "I've waited so long for this day."
She takes in Teresa's face, wanting to burn it into her memory so she can have it to cherish for the rest of her life. Her sword gleams in the moonlight, baying for more of Teresa's blood. Clare is very happy to oblige.
"Goodnight, Teresa of the Faint Smile."
Her sword comes downs.
She feels a hand on her shoulder, and it stops her sword just above Teresa's face. Clare blinks in confusion.
"That's right," a voice says. "Very good, kill that filthy witch."
Clare cringes, that voice sounds so depraved, so disgusting, so much like what she'd always pictured Teresa's to sound like. She turns around, coming face to face with a human male. He is quite ugly, or maybe that's just the lewd expression he wears. It takes her a moment, but Clare notices that his other hand is non-existent. A bloodied bandage covered stump rests at his side as he looks down on her, smiling evilly.
"But first… I'm so glad I got you alone."
Clare stumbles back. Her sword is gone and so is Teresa. She falls to the ground, her small, human body shaking from the impact. Her attacker looms overhead, but she can do nothing to stop him. If only someone could help her, save her from this monster. He grabs her by her hair. Clare screams.
"HELP! SOMEONE PLEASE!"
He laughs raucously and throws her hard against a brick wall.
"Don't bother, no one can hear you," he grins, all his rotten teeth showing. "And you're dear mommy-monster has abandoned you."
He rears back a leg and kicks her in the stomach. What follows is a blur of pain and screaming, mixed in with the evil man's laughter and cries of joy. She doesn't know when she blacks out, or what happens when she's unconscious. The next time her eyes open, a warm smile greets her. She feels strong arms around her tiny body, protecting her from any harm just as any good mother would her child.
"Clare, wake up," she says. "You're safe…"
Happiness wells up like a balloon in her stomach. Suddenly the intense pain is a little more bearable, because she's finally with the one person in the world who truly loves her. She will never let Teresa leave her again.
"Thank you."
Clare's eyes snapped open. She stared wide eyed at nothing, mentally processing the dream she just had. Though her body was still, inside, Clare was raging. The fires soon broke through, allowing her body to move again. The first thing she did was scream, the second was to punch the nearby wall, leaving an indentation deep enough that she almost broke through to the other end.
This action relieved barely a fraction of her rage, and Clare had to fight to stay seated and not run off and find some unsuspecting fellow soldier to take the brunt of it out on. Breathing deeply, Clare drew herself to full height. Her legs started moving on their own, aimlessly wandering around in circles like a caged tiger.
'What is this,' her mind hissed. 'First that creature and now my own dreams…'
Growling, Clare clutched her head in her hands, digging her middle and index fingers into her scalp. Heedless of the pain they caused, she allowed memories of her dying parents, helpless at the hands of Teresa, to enter her mind. She remembered her father trying to shield her mother from the blade, his head flying off his body after mere seconds. Teresa was slower with her mother, stabbing her several times in the chest before finishing her off. The whole time, she'd been cold and emotionless, as if she was doing little more than squashing a bug under her foot.
Clare's anger started to intensify and she felt the sudden urge to punch the wall again, but she ignored it as best she could.
'That's what happened, Teresa killed my parents. I know it's true, I was there. So where to these visions of me… relying on Teresa, loving her even… where on earth are they coming from?'
Clare's hands fell limp, her eyes closing tight. She took several deep breaths, knowing that if she was ever going to figure this out, she couldn't afford to let her temper fly out of control like this. If she let that happen, who knows what the consequences would be.
'I'm almost afraid to go back to sleep,' Clare chuckled humorlessly. 'The thought that I could create such ridiculous images…'
She remembered how Teresa looked in that dream, soft faced and smiling warmly. Suddenly and completely without warning, they changed to gold. The same kind of gold that all soldier's had when they released their yoki. But these weren't Teresa's eyes anymore, Clare realized. They were eyes she'd seen quite recently.
"That's it," she said aloud, realization dawning. "That monster, at the Devil's Tree. This only started when I fought him. He looked in my eyes and… did something to me!"
Just what that 'something' was, Clare didn't know, at least not yet. The new soldier ran to the door, not bothering to put even her boots back on. She raced into the hall, only one goal and one person on her mind.
Hilary blew some stray hair away from her eyes, making a mental note to redo her braid later on. She leaned heavily against the wall, watching out the window as new trainees were being evaluated.
One was having trouble holding her sword properly, and a group of three other recruits seemed to find this the funniest thing in the world. They laughed and pointed every time the sword dropped from the girl's hand, and not once did the trainer do a thing to stop them. Which was to be expected.
Growing bored, Hilary lifted herself back up and started walking. She had no real destination, but felt that giving her feet some exercise might alleviate a fraction of her boredom. Just when were they planning on giving her an assignment that didn't involve babysitting anyway? It wasn't like the youma had taken a vacation or something.
"Hey!"
Hilary stopped and grinned. If she couldn't get something to kill, talking to Clare again was an acceptable substitute. She waited a few seconds and then turned slowly, as if trying to imply that she wasn't all that interested in the younger soldier.
Clare was fast approaching, hard determination obvious from her eyes to the air around her. Hilary had removed her outward grin, but inside it was wide as ever.
"Evening, Clare," Hilary greeted her as casually as possible.
This had the desired effect of making Clare angrier. She managed to control it though, speaking calmly even with the harsh undertones of her voice.
"What was that creature?"
It was really more a demand than a question. Hilary half expected Clare to hold her down and put her sword to her throat if she didn't get an answer. It was rather amusing, to say the least.
"Creature?" Hilary played dumb, marveling at how much fun riling up Clare was becoming.
Predictably, number twenty seven didn't take this well, stepping closer in an attempt to be intimidating. It probably would have worked better if Hilary hadn't easily defeated her just a day ago.
"Don't play with me," Clare said dangerously. "I want answers and I know you have them."
At this, Hilary's jovial attitude began to fade. She didn't like being accused of things, particularly lying. Hadn't she told this girl before that she didn't know what that monster was? Just how untrusting was Clare? More than Hilary had originally thought it seemed. It just wasn't a healthy way to go about life, even as a soldier.
The fact that she really was lying didn't count as far as Hilary was concerned.
"You have quite an attitude," Hilary moved forward quickly, forcing Clare to back up. "You heard me say I don't know anything about it. What makes you think I do?"
"I don't," Clare admitted with no hesitation, the action surprising Hilary. "I have no one else that I can ask, and anyway, you haven't been honest with me so far. Why should I believe anything you say?"
Hilary raised an eyebrow. "But by that logic, if I told you right now that I do know something, how can you be sure I'm being honest?"
"Easily," was the answer. "I'd just make you show me your source of information."
Dead silence followed this. Both Clare and Hilary stared each other down, as if daring the other to make a move first. During this time, Hilary studied the shorter girl, begrudgingly admitting to herself that Clare's petulance was impressing her.
"You're really that confident I know something," she remarked. Clare barely flinched.
Sighing, Hilary stepped away, walking briskly down the hall away from the younger soldier.
"Follow me," she called out before Clare could even begin to scream at her to come back.
Hilary didn't bother to look over her shoulder, she knew that Clare was following her and would until they reached their destination. Hilary noted how lucky it was that no handlers or doctors were in the halls at the moment. It wouldn't do if she was caught leading another soldier to a location not even she was supposed to know about.
She'd be in even bigger trouble considering the third party who'd been listening in on her and Clare's entire encounter, and now followed at a 'safe' distance, roughly ten feet from the tiny streams of yoki she was unwittingly releasing.
Hilary wondered if Clare knew of her presence too.
Teresa dropped another log onto the fire, watching it grow and flicker while Volans held an impaled fish over the flames.
"How much longer do I have to do this?" The awakened being complained.
"Stop whining," Teresa ordered, snatching it away from him. "I could make you get the firewood next time. You and Orion."
Volans cringed, making a face that showed his incredible disgust at the idea. Out of all the beings in Teresa's little group, Volans and Orion were the most prone to fighting. Teresa had lost count of the number of fights she had to break up after the first month or so. By the second, she'd simply stopped caring.
For his part, Orion was sitting as ever at Pavo's side. She'd allowed them to have some time alone before, a gift for their 'good behavior' as she called it. Really, at this point, she was well aware that the five men would do nothing without her permission. When she'd become their unofficial leader, she didn't know. She didn't care to think too hard on it either.
Teresa's thoughts were interrupted by footsteps behind her. Her ears perked up at the sound, and she turned, smiling ever so slightly when she saw who it was and what he was holding.
"Mensa," she greeted the silent awakened being who held around ten logs in his arms. "Thank you, I think that'll be enough."
She couldn't see Mensa's face through the tall pile, but he probably hadn't given any reaction to her words anyway. He walked backwards, stopping under a tree where they kept the rest of the firewood and gently set it down. Teresa watched him place each log neatly onto the pile. She remember several hours ago, when Orion dropped his load of wood onto the ground in a messy pile. Mensa had gone over, completely unprompted, and arranged them in a pristine stack.
It was odd, but not uncommon. Teresa had noticed that Mensa was a stickler for neatness, particularly where Teresa herself was concerned. He always made sure her designated 'sleeping' area was clean of any twigs and leaves before Teresa even stuck her sword into the ground for the night. He never spoke a word, sleep little, and ate even less. She still hadn't seen his awakened form either.
Everything about Mensa was an enigma, not even his companions could answer Teresa's many questions. And whereas she'd long ago figured all the other four out, Teresa was starting to doubt Mensa would ever make any sense to her.
She sometimes wondered if he'd been like this as a soldier, or a human even. Maybe once, he'd been nothing more than a happy little boy, living without a care in the world aside from what mother was making for dinner tonight. Teresa smiled sadly. They'd all been like that once, she knew. Even the obnoxious Orion and the unfriendly Volans. Even she herself had been a child once.
Teresa's eyes fell to the ground. She thought to herself that it probably would have been better if they'd never stopped being those innocent children. Whenever she went to this train of thought, everything else was pushed to the side and temporarily forgotten.
And in their place came thoughts of Clare.
