The disclaimers in chapters 1 and 3 apply to chapter 4, so I don't have to write them over again, right!?

I rewrote some of chapter 4 because it was baaaad. @@ Now it's not as bad. Anyway, read 'n stuffs.

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Two sat cross-legged at one end of the arena, cracking his knuckles and sighing with boredom. It felt like hours had past since he had been ushered in and the guards had disappeared to look for a suitable target monster for a battle. Kuja was present today, sitting in his favorite seat with a look of somewhat drowsy thoughtfulness, as well as a few guards and men in white robes. When he had entered, the mage had resolved to do his best, as he might receive some praise from Kuja, and he absolutely loved being praised, but now time had worn off most of his enthusiasm. He hoped the battle would be quick so he could go back to wandering the halls in search of something to hold his interest for a while.

Kuja had boosted his already rapid growth, and he now looked almost fully grown. He had become a handsome, strong young man, albeit an arrogant and narcissistic one. His wings were large and powerful, and his eyes were narrower, darker, more cutting and resentful, like a proper Black Waltz's. His magic had been refined and strengthened through Kuja's training, and now it was basically just a matter of psychological preparation...

Two had almost fallen asleep by the time the opposite gates creaked open. He started and sprang to his feet, brushing a little of the dust off his robes and preparing to meet whatever stinky, hairy creature the guards were allowing him to annihilate. He loved fighting the monsters... the satisfaction he gained from killing them was most pleasing, and he thirsted for the silver warrior's praise. Normally, he would leap to attacking it as soon as the guards got out of the way, sometimes before, but today he stopped short and stared as the two blonde guards stopped dragging their charge into the dungeon's arena and now stood holding the struggling creature by the shoulders.

His enemy today was a small, thin, and frantically struggling girl with gnarled black hair and eyes darker than the sky on a moonless midnight, with her hands tied and dignity shattered. The guards dropped her into the dust, and she writhed miserably, trying to get her legs underneath her. Two's breath caught as she finally managed to sit up, coughing painfully, and the guards left through the gate again.

"She worked as a spy against Alexandria," explained some high-ranking Alexandrian soldier up above, "gathering information and relaying them to our enemies through her older brother, a known spy. She and her younger brother were caught with this man, and both have been charged with treason. She is to be executed immediately."

"Go on." Kuja's voice floated softly down from his perch. "Do as you must."

Two looked desperately up at Kuja, then back to the girl, who had noticed him and now stared at him with large and frightened eyes. She was a child... eleven or twelve years old, he suspected... how could he slaughter her like one of the dozens of dumb monsters that had died here before? What crime could an innocent child commit that would deserve her a bloody and painful death?

But, I...

His hands were shaking. He did not need to look at the silver one to feel the dark scowl coming from that direction.

Go ahead. Just kill her. It isn't difficult, a single spell will do...

Two could tell from the despair in her eyes that the girl knew what her destiny was now. She had heard tales of terrible demons shrouded in darkness that senselessly murdered all creations of light through their use of evil powers, and knew that this was precisely the kind of creature those stories spoke of. Her only choice was to resign herself to destruction, but she hesitated to make that decision, for the belief in a bright and beautiful future for children like herself had not yet given out. If she lived, she might become a brilliant scholar, a mighty general, an adventurer who was the first to climb to the peak of a mountain that reached high above the clouds...

I... I can't!

What are you talking about, fool? She is no different than the other souls you have destroyed. Go now, bring her to her miserable fate...

But monsters don't have...

She was shivering violently, tears of hopelessness forming at the corners of her eyes. She moved her lips as if to whisper, or perhaps to scream, "No..."

KILL HER!

Two's wings lifted him into the air, where he hovered as his dark magic began to rise in him. He screamed inwardly as he felt the sparks of power flowing from his hands, and then pointed them at the child, praying for something to either come and kill her quickly before he was forced to or to strike him down before the spell was complete. There was a surge of power, and flame poured from his hands, searching out the link between the two and grasping it, exploding along its length and consuming one in the black fire of death. She screamed as the flame razed her skin, biting into her and burning through her flesh to the promising soul inside.

The mage closed his eyes and dropped back to the ground where he staggered, dizzy and anguished. He felt nauseous. He needed to get away... away from her cries and the sickening pain of reality...

Why? Why why why why why!?

Kuja was laughing.

Good, Waltz Two... very good...

He was less in love with Kuja's praise for the destruction of consciousness.

*~*

"Don't you even take it off to go to sleep?"

"Nah... What if someone came in while I was sleeping?"

"You'd supposedly knock 'em dead with your good looks."

"Why're you getting so curious about my face all of a sudden? Ke-he-he."

"Oh, you! Hmph!" The guard stomped off and Two smiled somewhat, adjusting his beloved hat and leaning further back on the lounge couch.

He shouldn't have been so relaxed. His chest still ached and his soul still trembled with anguish from the act he had been forced to commit not too long ago, but by some power he was able to act as if he had completely forgotten the whole incident. He felt somewhat comforted that he was able to carry on, but was beginning to feel as if he wasn't quite in control anymore. Perhaps he had never been in control. But such thoughts frightened him so much he would shove them out of his mind and live on meaninglessly.

Maybe the monsters he had killed before had souls, and he had been able to kill them without thinking twice. Perhaps they had gone through the same despair and agony the child had, or more. If that was the case, he felt just a little better, and a little worse, but still functioned the same as he had before, dumb and naive as ever.

He was being tortured by misery, hiding behind the mask of an easygoing, suave young man. Now he was either wretchedly depressed or tremendously angry, much like a human teenager, but for far different, darker reasons. Nothing seemed to comfort him except the sweet oblivion that came in the world of dreams, but then, there were still nightmares of the burning half-corpses of screaming children tearing at his robes. Sometimes, though, a touch of beautiful magic would descend on them and make them whole again, and Two would turn and smile at his compassionate, kind, and loyal friend, who vanished into nothingness as he returned to reality...

The sound of something sweet and placid echoing through the long halls of the castle reached his ears. He looked up, startled, the noise almost new to him. It was mellow and soothing, drawing him to his feet, and there was something distinctly golden about it.

...What's that...? It sounds... like the ringing of a bell.

Two listened for a little longer as the sound began to fade. He suddenly began to panic, not wanting to lose its wonderful, simplistic excellence like he had lost everything else. He began to run, picking up off the ground after a moment and carefully navigating through the statues and tapestries. It led him on, withdrawing just as quickly as Two approached. He was not keeping track of where he was going, so occupied with pursuing the sound, and was naturally quite startled when he realized that he had almost bumped into Kuja, back from riding, and that the silver one's face was darkened with a terrible scowl.

"Why... What are you doing... in this part of the castle...!?" Kuja whispered, shaking slightly. Two dropped to the ground immediately, shocked by the ever-composed warrior's sudden burst of rage.

"I was following the sound..."

He was not allowed to finish. Kuja knocked him to the ground and snarled, then kicked him. "You disobedient little wretch! How dare you defy my orders! You could have ruined..."

"I was just..." He winced. "...I was just... I thought it would be..."

Kuja was carrying a crop he had been using while riding, and in his bout of fury saw nothing wrong with brutally striking the mage with it. "Back to your room!" he shouted angrily, kicking Two again and spitting on him before stalking away.

Two hissed bitterly, eyes burning, curled up against the pain and humiliation. An intense, master-soldier loathing was born in his blackened heart, and he lay there snarling insults and curses at Kuja under his breath for a little while longer before crawling away to his room, where he flung himself upon his bed and brought himself to silence.

No tears would come to quench the hateful fire that raged within him, perhaps because he was too proud, or already sealed from his softer side that yearned for the innocent days of happiness and glorious freedom in the silver heaven of ancient days. He was too angry and too miserable to think about anything anymore, anything except how upset he was about losing something again, and how much he hated Kuja for robbing him.

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