Sacrifices
* * * Chapter One: Responsibility * * *
* Where…am I? *
Hare opened wavering brown eyes and gazed around him at the pulsating colors that surrounded him. A fiery vermilion dominated his sight, though he could catch glimpses of other shades through the brilliant flames.
* What…is this? *
A warm feeling rose from deep within his chest, threatening to consume his very being. Hare fought against it, forcing it back, even through a nagging feeling at the back of his mind urged him to let it take over.
~ Go on. Don't fight the fire. ~
* NO! Go AWAY! Who are you, and what do you want with me? *
A breathy sigh seemed to echo in his mind, and the vermilion flames that swirled around him flickered slightly. Hare whirled around, trying to catch a glimpse of the speaker through the blazing light. Nothing came to his searching eyes, but he could sense an overwhelming presence somewhere close by, watching him.
~ Why do you continue to fight me? ~
* LEAVE ME ALONE! What to you want from me? *
The strange voice seemed to sigh again, and the light began to dwindle away, just as the heat in the rabbit's chest faded slowly. A terrible coldness replaced it, and Hare gasped and fell to his knees, shivering.
* Why are you doing this? *
~ To make you see…to make you understand… ~
* Understand what?*
There was no answer, only a terrible darkness that hung over the rabbit like an ebony blanket. Raising his head, Hare gasped as something appeared in front of him. He watched in horror as his friends appeared in front of him, frozen like statues, staring blankly into the darkness at some terror at he was unable to see at first. Then the cause of their fearful expressions rose in front of them, and Hare opened his mouth in a silent scream as he stared up at the featureless, looming shadow.
* Is that…Moo? *
Ebony flames shot from what appeared to be the gigantic creature's mouth, and they swept over the bodies of the others. Hare watched, terrified, as the six forms of his friends were consumed by the darkness and shattered into pieces, and tears flowed unchecked down his cheeks.
~ See this and understand, little one. You and your friends will have to suffer much more than this in order to achieve your ultimate goal. ~
* Suffer more than death? What does that mean?*
The only answer came in the roar of the black flames as they surged around him, not touching his body even as they seared the darkness around them. Hare closed his eyes and screamed, and the warmth in his chest came rushing back and raged into his body, seeming to set his very soul itself ablaze. Red flames surrounded him and clashed with the black, lighting up the entire world with their glow.
* * *
Hare snapped awake with a soft cry, and he quickly glanced around at the other searchers, hoping that he hadn't awakened them. Seeing that none of them appeared to be awake, he sighed in relief. Getting silently to his feet, he crept away from the silent campsite and walked over to the nearby stream that wound through the valley. Kneeling on the riverbank, he splashed cold water onto his face and shook the glimmering droplets out of his fur.
"Another weird dream," he muttered under his breath, irritably brushing wet bangs away from his troubled eyes. "I guess it was naïve of me to think that they would stop after we got rid of Joker. After all, they've been coming to me ever since I got the Phoenix's Tear…"
Sighing, Hare reached under his bandana and absently fingered the glittering crystal teardrop. The mystical artifact gave him the ability to use tremendous powers, but that didn't necessarily mean that he wanted them. While it was nice at times to be able to heal his wounds on his own when they got a little too rough, there were plenty of other aspects of being able to control the Tear that he would have gladly gone without. The visions that constantly haunted his dreams were a perfect example.
There were other problems as well, the primary one being Naga. Just the thought of the reptilian monster made Hare shudder. Naga was the last remaining member of the Big Bad Four, the most elite of Moo's soldiers, and the primary cause of all the pain and suffering that the little rabbit had gone through. Because of the snake-like monster, Hare had lost his family, his friends, his hometown…his entire world, swept away by flames set by Naga and his troops. Afterwards, Naga had captured him and imprisoned him simply because he felt it would be amusing. Hare had only managed to escape after Naga found the Phoenix's Tear, and had somehow used its powers to teleport himself far from the reptilian's claws.
Now Naga was trying to recapture his 'little rabbit', and secure that power for himself. And it didn't matter to the purple-scaled monster what the cost might be, how many monsters and people might have to suffer or die, just as long as Hare came back under his control again. So far, it looked as though Naga's minions agreed with him on that, or at least didn't have the guts to protest against what he was doing. The recent encounter with Vanity had proved that for certain…
Hare sighed as quietly as he could, and walked back toward where the others were gathered, still asleep. The little rabbit couldn't keep himself from glancing nervously over at Suezo as he walked past the snoring eyeball monster. Even the peaceful, relaxed look on the sleeping monster's face couldn't keep Hare from thinking about all the horrible things that he had done a few days before. His shoulder seemed to ache for a moment from remembered pain, even though Hare had healed the wound that Suezo had given him when he bit him.
It wasn't Suezo's fault, of course. It was Vanity's fault; it was her charm spell that had clouded the eyeball monster's mind and made him attack his friends, to even strike Holly and send her plummeting down a staircase. Even Tiger understood that, although Golem had still been forced to hold the blue wolf back when Hare, Holly and Suezo had reunited with the others. It was obvious that the lupine monster wasn't the only one who blamed Suezo for what had happened: Suezo clearly blamed himself as well. In the few days that had passed since then, the eyeball monster had been unusually quiet, trudging along silently behind the others instead of hopping alongside Holly like normal. He seemed to be afraid to even look at Holly, like he didn't feel worthy enough to be anywhere near her anymore. Without Suezo's constant jabbering and complaining, an awkward silence hung over the rebels. Even Genki was affected, and had been acting a little subdued.
Let's face it, Hare thought gloomily to himself, this team is on the verge at coming apart at the seams. Nobody wants to admit it, but it's true. He shuddered again; the mere thought of the team splitting up frightened him. After all, they were 'the courageous seven,' the 'searchers,' the 'Anti-Moo rebels.' They were the only ones with enough bravery –though some might call it stupidity– to openly resist Moo and go looking for the Phoenix…the one monster who could possibly overthrow the dark master. If they ended up separating, it would mean the end of any sort of hope that the world had of shaking off Moo's control. It would also mean the end of the closest thing that he had to an actual family.
Hare paused, a little startled. For some reason, it seemed a little strange to think of the others as being like a family to him, and he looked around at them as if seeing them for the first time. A smile tugged at the edge of his mouth; as weird as that might sound to somebody, it still had a ring of truth to it. His actual parents had been killed by Naga what seemed like an eternity ago, along with the rest of the monsters and people in his village. They had been everything he had ever known up to that point, and losing them had meant losing an entire lifetime. Now he had a new life, and in the rest of the group, he had found what in a sense might been seen as a new family.
Even if the feeling isn't mutual, Hare thought, glancing over at Tiger, it's still there. It might actually mean something. That notion comforted him as he slowly drifted back to sleep.
* * *
Surprisingly, Golem was the first one up the next morning, and when Hare awoke he saw the stone giant calmly and silently waiting for the others to get up on their own. His quiet patience was a stark contrast with Genki, who immediately started bouncing around the meadow and calling for the others to get up the moment he was awake.
"Come on, everybody, rise and shine! Wake up, Suezo, Tiger, Mocchi, Holly! It's a beautiful new day!" he gushed. The others rose reluctantly; Tiger muttering a few choice words about the boy's early-morning enthusiasm. Hare didn't hear exactly what he mumbled, but decided to count that as a good thing.
The routine went as normal; everybody gathered their things, Holly doubled-checked the Magic Stone one last time, and then off they went, walking along another dirt path continuing their search for the Phoenix. However, the same awkwardness that had haunted the trip for the past few days still remained hanging over them. Suezo hopped along in complete silence, eye downcast, keeping his distance from both Holly and Tiger. The two kept glancing back in his general direction, the girl with sorrow shining clearly in her soft brown eyes, the blue wolf's golden eyes distrusting and accusing. Hare gulped; the tension between those three was almost like an electricity in the air, ready to spark at any given moment.
"So…" Genki said at length, desperate to break the silence. "Do you think we'll see any of Naga's baddies today?"
"Probably," Tiger mumbled. "We're due."
Hare almost made a sarcastic response to that comment, but he knew that the blue wolf did have a point; they hadn't had much trouble with baddies lately. Except for a minor scuffle with a few very confused Suezo-types near Vanity's tower, they hadn't really encountered many of Moo or Naga's warriors. Not that it was necessarily a bad thing, of course, but it was something for the group to focus on, and distracted them temporarily distracted them from the more personal problems they were having.
"Welllllll…even if they are out there, it doesn't really matter," Genki said at length, a confident grin spreading over his face as he glanced back at the others. "After all, we've beaten everything they've thrown at us before. Besides, remember…"
"…You're the Monster Champion, yada, yada, yada," Suezo suddenly finished for him. "We know, we know already."
Genki and the others glanced quickly back at him: it was the first time he had made a sarcastic comment –or, really, any type of comment– since the encounter with Vanity. The eyeball monster kept looking down at the dirt road beneath them, deliberately avoiding their gaze, and an awkward silence came for a few moments. Genki broke it after a few moments' pause, shrugging and turning his attention back to the road ahead.
"Hey Mocchi, race you to the end of the path," he challenged, skating ahead even as he spoke.
"That's not fair-chi!" Mocchi protested, rolling into a ball and bouncing after the boy. The two raced ahead and soon disappeared over a hill in the road, and the other searchers exchanged glances and sighed together, following after them.
"How much do you wanna bet that we'll be hearing them screaming any minute now?" Hare asked, nudging Suezo gently. Before the eyeball monster could reply…
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
"CHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!"
"………" Hare and Suezo both rolled their eyes (or, in Suezo's case, eye) in perfect unison. The two quickly followed after Holly, Golem, and a muttering Tiger as they dashed down the path.
"What type of monster, how many, and which one do I kill first?" Tiger demanded as he caught up to the two first. Genki and Mocchi just stared at him strangely, and the lupine monster looked around, confused. "Where are the baddies?" he asked at last.
"Huh? There…aren't…any…baddies…Tiger," Genki finally replied. Pointing ahead, he added, "It's just that…we didn't expect to see that up ahead."
The searchers all looked down the road to see an innocuous little village nestled between the rolling hills ahead of them. The blue wolf stared down at the town blankly; the vicious, battle-ready sneer on his muzzle drooping into what almost looked like a pout.
"Sorry to disappoint you," Hare commented, seeing the expression on Tiger's face. "Looks like no fighting this time." He leaped back to avoid getting hit by the swipe the blue wolf aimed irritably at him, and dashed away toward the town, laughing the whole way. A snarling Tiger followed him, while the others just stood on the hilltop and sweatdropped.
* * *
By the time the other searchers had caught up to them, Tiger had managed to corner a now visibly worried Hare, who had taken refugee in a tree. Holly coaxed the blue wolf into allowing the rabbit to climb down safely, and the two glared at each other from opposite sides of the girl as they filed into the village. However, any harsh feelings they had toward each other at that moment were soon forgotten as the searchers began to examine their surroundings a little more closely.
"This can't be right," Holly commented, gazing around at the silent buildings that towered around them. Except for themselves, the streets were echoingly empty, even though it was still early in the afternoon. The bare booths of merchants flanked the quiet roads, with nothing displayed on their shelves. The rebels looked around a little apprehensively, and Tiger growled low in his throat.
"Looks like the baddies were here," he snarled, and Golem nodded silently. Mocchi, Hare, and Suezo glanced nervously at one another, and then at Holly.
"Maybe…maybe there are some survivors?" Genki suggested weakly. Holly shook her head slightly in doubt, but the searchers still agreed to split up and search for some sort of sign as to what had happened. The courageous seven branched off in different directions, each praying that they would find something positive even in this place.
"After all, it's not like the place is trashed," Genki murmured to himself, clear eyes scanning the buildings as he skated past. "If the baddies had been here, wouldn't they have trashed the place? We'd find some sort of sign…"
Still, even Genki couldn't escape the feeling of dread that slowly spread over the rebels as they wandered through the barren streets. Suezo hopped silently from house to house, peering briefly in each window, then shaking his head despairingly as he looked away, avoiding the eyes of the others. Golem spotted something lying half-buried in the dirt road, and bent to pick up what turned out to be a handcrafted wooden doll. The small toy, lovingly carved by some unknown parent for their child, had suffered a broken leg, and its yarn hair fell in tangles over its soiled fabric dress. The stone giant cradled it absently in one massive hand as he gazed around at the soundless village, almost as if he was half-expecting its owner to come dashing out of hiding and reclaim it.
Mocchi began to sob, clinging to the hem of Holly's tunic for comfort, and Genki glanced back at them in concern. Tiger just shook his head again, golden eyes flashing.
"Moo," was all the blue wolf could say. "This is because of Moo. Him and Naga…"
Golem nodded silently, still gazing at the broken dolly cradled in his hand. After a moment, the stone giant rumbled, "Let's go. There is nothing here for us now."
"Yeah," Holly sighed, gazing up at the sun, which was beginning to complete its circuit in the sky. They had searched for a few hours now and still found…
A shriek from nearby took them off guard. Tiger cursed, quickly glancing over at the others and noticing that one was absent from the group.
"It figures," he snarled, turning and dashing toward where the scream had come from. As he ran, the others following behind him, he muttered, "Just what have you gotten yourself into now, Hare?"
Within a few moments, the lupine monster found Hare standing in the Center Square of the village, staring blankly in front of him. Tiger opened his mouth to start cussing the little rabbit out for screaming for no apparent reason, but the words died on his tongue the moment he saw what the other monster had already noticed. The other five searchers dashed up behind them, and Genki inhaled sharply as his clear eyes drank in the scene.
The Center Square was filled with lost discs. Several of the discs had actually been uprooted and placed in different positions, leading one to guess that they had probably been moved there for dramatic purposes. Tiger figured that Naga was no doubt trying to unnerve them with a display of his power. If that was the case, it had worked well: even the blue wolf was visibly shaken by the sight of all the lost discs gathered in one place. A snarl rumbled from deep in his chest, and golden eyes glinted like cold steel in narrowed slits.
"Hey, there's something written there," Suezo suddenly spoke up, squinting at the base of the Center Square statue. As the others stared at the eyeball, he hopped up to the marble base and leaned forward. Suddenly his pupil dilated, and he yelped, "Blood!" as he jumped backward. Running forward, Genki and the others cringed a little as they saw what he meant: a message had been scrawled on the gray marble slab with crimson swipes of blood. Tiger, the only one not affected by the sight, leaned forward to make out what it said.
I know that you will see this, my little rabbit. Consider this your warning. If you do not surrender yourself to me soon, others will continue to suffer for your disobedience. I suggest you give yourself up now, or do you enjoy having others pay for your actions? Until we meet again, Naga.
"…That cold-blooded monster," Tiger snarled, breaking the silence that hung like a dead weight over the group. Genki growled, his clear eyes unusually dark.
Hare stepped backward, wavering eyes locked on the bloody scrawl, slowly shaking his head in disbelief. Holly and the others glanced back at him, clearly worried, and Genki took one step toward him, reaching out in a consoling manner.
"Hey, don't let it get to you…" he started to say. But before he could get the rest of his sentence out, Hare had already turned and run off, plunging blindly down the streets. Genki cried out in protest and jerked to go after the rabbit, but Tiger stepped in front of him, shaking his head.
"Better not," he warned, glaring in the direction that Hare had run off in. "Nothing you can say or do will make him feel any differently about this. Let him work this out on his own."
"Why, Tiger," Suezo commented mildly, eyeing the blue wolf. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say that it almost sounds like you do care a little about Hare after all…" He quickly shut up as Tiger glared at him, a huge sweatdrop appearing on the back of the eyeball monster's head.
* * *
Hare plunged blindly forward, his mind reeling with a thousand thoughts at once.
Naga killed the people of this village because of me, his mind repeated again and again. It's all my fault…I'm to blame. The thought lodged in his mind, refusing to be dispelled, and Hare choked as tears streamed from his eyes.
Shoot…no matter how far I run…it's not like it's going to change anything. When I stop, those people will still be dead…and it's all my fault. If I hadn't escaped from Naga in the first place…
Then he would have the Phoenix's Tear, and would probably have murdered those people anyway, the logical part of his mind kicked in. Hare slowed to a stop as that thought registered, realizing that it made sense. More sense than beating himself up over something that he couldn't change did, anyway. Yet even that concept couldn't stop the guilty tears from coming, and Hare buried his face in his paws and wept.
"How…many more are going to have to die because of me?" he wondered aloud. "It seems that no matter where I go, I have to cause some sort of pain…and now this…" He raised wavering eyes to stare up at the sky; the rays of the setting sun seemed to stain the horizon with blood.
"Darn it…even the others have gone through a lot because of me," he mused. "If Vanity hadn't been trying to get control of me, she never would have turned Suezo against the rest of us…I wonder…" He paused, trembling slightly as he continued, "How long is it gonna be…before one of them gets killed 'cause of me?"
The thought terrified the little rabbit, yet he couldn't get away from it. If things keep going like this…it'll only be a matter of time before one of them…might die trying to help me…
"Should…should I leave them for their sake?" he asked aloud, gazing at the orange-streaked sky as if for answers. When no answer came, the little rabbit sniffled one last time and, wiping away a few final tears, turned to retrace his steps back to the others.
Tiger'll come down on me for running away, he thought, a little bitterly. As he walked along, distracted by his thoughts, he failed to notice as a slimy blue tentacle slowly emerged from a dark alleyway and began to slither after him. Its end morphed into a hand, and it reached grasping fingers for the back of his neck.
The Phoenix's Tear suddenly flared into bright light, and Hare glanced down at it, then over his shoulder. Seeing the hand reaching toward him, he instinctively dodged aside, opening his mouth to cry out, "Wha-" Before he could finish his startled shout, another appendage shot from the shadows and wound itself around his neck, yanking him roughly off his feet and into the dark alleyway from which it had emerged.
As Hare gasped for breath, clawing at the slimy limb with both paws, he felt something else began to wrap itself around his neck. A Sheet attack? He thought, recognizing the technique despite the darkness. That meant that his attackers had to be some type of Jells…He lashed out blindly with his paws and feet, trying to drive them away. Something seized his left arm and twisted it painfully behind his back, and the rabbit's eyes teared with fear and frustration.
"HE–" The desperate cry was cut off as unseen hands thrust a damp cloth against his face, covering his nose and mouth. A musty, overpowering odor swept into his system, and Hare's vision was already beginning to blur by the time he realized what was happening. The sleeping drug took effect quickly, and as the rabbit's struggles slowed, one of his attackers separated from the others.
"Phase One completed," Captain Icy Jell snickered, smirking as he looked at his unconscious captive. As the other Icy Jells began to form a gel cocoon around Hare's unresisting body, the commander motioned for a figure standing hidden in the shadows behind him to step forward. Turning to face his companion, he said, "You know the plan. Your assignment is simple enough: Get the rebels off guard and kill them."
The Jelly Hare nodded mutely. It reached over to the unconscious Hare's paw and touched him briefly. Its clear blue form rippled, then morphed into an exact copy of the little rabbit. As it drew its now tan-furred paw back to its side, the Jelly Hare smirked, a shadow falling over its face as it said in Hare's voice, "Mission accepted. Beginning Phase Two now."