Arson woke up to find herself in bed. Dante was by her side.
'The Hunter must learn to pass judgement.' Arson tried to sit up. Dante looked at her calmly and then stepped away. Arson blinked, slow tears trickling down her face.
'Why won't you help me, Dante?' Her voice broke. 'Why won't you help me?' Dante carried on watching her, a calm smile on his face. One of the boys from before walked into the room, appearing not to notice Dante, who was standing at the doorway, his aquamarine eyes settled on Arson.
Arson's eyes widened as the boy passed right through Dante, who smiled at her and then winked before stepping back into the shadows. Arson made as if to get up, but a sudden sharp pain in her stomach caused her to wince and shiver. Not for the first time, she felt completely alone, and without a friend. Under normal circumstances, Arson would have sprung into action and would have used his brain to work out a way to get back.
But it was not so. Arson was not a he anymore. The fact that his body had been altered to such an extent forced her into tears. She drew her knees up to her chest and started weeping, her long brown hair covering her face as she wrapped her arms around her knees.
The boy looked at her sympathetically and then sat down beside her on the bed. To his utter surprise, she flinched and wriggled away and continued to cry.
'Get away from me,' she sobbed.
'Ash…' The boy stopped. He had no idea what to say to calm her tears. Hell, he didn't even know why she was crying. All he knew was that he had never seen her cry before. This was the first time, and it struck a chord in his heart. 'Hey calm down. Just look at me for a minute.' Arson carried right on crying, ignoring him completely. The boy touched her gently on the shoulder. Big mistake.
Arson gave vent to a muffled scream and quickly grabbed his wrist, twisting it painfully into an arm-hold, stretching the limb until the guy felt excruciating pain. He gritted his teeth and tried to move his arm, anything to try and relieve his pain. He couldn't help but be impressed. Ash had never shown such strength before. In fact, she was terrified of violence and was even more so scared of what she might be able to do. He gasped with shock as Arson released his arm. He spun around, facing the smaller figure.
'Why the hell did you do that, Ash?' Arson looked at him coldly and seemed to shrink into herself and backed away into the wall.
'I said stay away from me!' she screamed. She was about to fly at him with a punch but was grabbed roughly and thrown down on the bed. She spun around onto her back and got up again, shaking with rage.
'Ask just calm down and listen to me, okay?'
'I'm not Ash! I'm not who you think I am!' she cried. The guy's red-rimmed eyes widened in confusion. Red-rimmed? Arson lowered her guard and stared at the boy in front of her in shock. Rayne? She swallowed hard, and sat down heavily on the ground. He sat down beside her carefully and then frowned.
'Who are you then?' Arson studied the features of the boy, almost hopefully.
'Rayne?' He nodded, his eyes serious. Arson blinked back more tears, the relief on her face obvious.
'Thank God! Someone who knows me!' she cried happily. Rayne looked completely confused.
'Ash we've known you all our lives. What the hell are you talking about?' Arson shook her head.
'I'm not Ash.'
'Who are you then?'
'My name is…' Arson stopped. What the hell was he doing? What if there was another Arson in this godforsaken place? 'Ash…' she finished lamely. She lowered her eyes and then looked up at Rayne after a few minutes of fidgeting and ringing her hands nervously. Rayne looked at her curiously.
'Are you alright, Ash? I mean, you still look pale.'
'Can you tell me a joke?' Rayne looked nonplussed at the random question. Ash was looking at him expectantly, wanting a joke.
'I'm…not much of a joker,' said Rayne at last. Ash's face fell. She looked distraught. She got up and turned away from him, looking out of the window, a silent tear trickling down her face. Everything was so different. Everything was so wrong. Rayne was here but he wasn't. Where the hell was she?
'Ash?'
'Just leave me alone.'
'I can't do that. You've been knocked out for five days already. That's almost a week that you haven't eaten anything. You've got to come down at have something.'
'What do you care?' she said rudely. She shuddered and carried on looking listlessly out of the window, not really seeing what was out there. A lump was forming in her throat, and she was fighting back tears again.
'Look, you're my friend, damn it! And I'm not gonna stand around and let you starve yourself to death!' Rayne grabbed her by the wrist roughly, half expecting to be thrown to the ground. He was still stunned that Ash had attacked him, even if it was in self defence. Surprisingly, Ash made no move and allowed herself to be dragged downstairs, still wearing a pair of tattered jeans and a muddied top.
She kept her eyes lowered as the other two from before got up and rushed towards her, asking her random pointless questions. Was she okay? Was she feeling better? As she still tired? Was she hungry? Thirsty? Maybe she wanted to take a seat? The questions made her feel crowded. All she wanted to do at that point was scream and set something on fire. Maybe she could regain self control if she just tried hard enough and went through all the training that her male equivalent had passed through, she would be able to use her powers again.
She looked up, feeling a sudden new determination. She flinched as she saw another familiar face watching her. It was…him! Ash automatically lowered her eyes as Arson smiled at her encouragingly.
'Excuse me,' she murmured. She quickly turned away from them and walked off, going somewhere, anywhere, just as long as she was away from other people. She needed to train. She needed to regain control. Maybe then she'd be able to have a degree of sanity in this crazy place.
The other three looked at each other. Rayne and his girlfriend continued to speculate on what was wrong with their friend. Arson however, narrowed his eyes, his fertile brain already working. He smiled at the other two and then walked off.
'Hey! Where are you going?'
'I just need to check on something,' said Arson calmly. He saw Rayne nod out of the corner of his eye while his girlfriend continued to look slightly worried. Rayne. He needed to lighten up and stop treating things so seriously. He smiled a little to himself as he tracked down Ash. Maybe it was right that Rayne was so serious. He was a leader born and bred. A lot of the things he said made perfect sense.
Arson had already figured out that something was very very wrong with Ash. For one thing, her aura was different but yet the same. Different from what it used to be, but now it was the same as his own. This led to some questions. Had something happened to her when they had been attacked?
He paused, thinking of recent developments. The demon invasion was getting more and more fierce. It was becoming increasingly harder to fend off the demons they came across. No matter how hard Arson tried to train, they always seemed to be able to overpower him and he had been forced several times to retreat. Among fifty demon hunters, he and Rayne were the best. He usually took control of the demons that attacked during the day and Rayne took care of those that moved in the night.
However, for once when they were off duty, they had all decided to go to the nearby forest to get away from the duties piled upon them and relax. But then they had been attacked. Ash had run from the rest of the group in her bid for freedom. Maybe something had happened to her during that time? She is or rather was part human. Just a researcher who tried to help us find the weak-spots of the demons and tried to construct some kind of battle-plan.
He sighed. If Ash ended up being too unstable to carry on her work, they would have lost a valuable member of their team. The threat of demons was growing stronger and stronger and the hunters had been called upon to try and protect the sprawling village of Kilayan.
The scent was becoming stronger. Arson quickened his pace to see that Ash was outside, near a pond of water, staring across the surface listlessly. Arson sat down quietly next to her, keeping a distance away from her so then she wouldn't notice her presence. Looked like his plan had gone to waste.
'I know you're there, Arson.' Arson smiled wryly.
'So you remember me, huh?'
Of course I know you. I am you. I know everything about you. Because you're me. I know your fear of the water. Because I know that fear myself. Arson looked at the girl curiously, waiting for an answer. When he saw that there was none forthcoming, he cleared his throat. She looked at him at that point.
'Don't ask me questions and I'll tell you no lies.' Arson grinned again at the girl's remark.
'That's not like you. You're not usually this secretive.'
I am now. I've got to be.
'I wish you'd tell us all what's wrong. So then we could help.'
No one can help me now. I've got to do this on my own. But what was it that Dante said? I've got to be able to see people and judge them. I've got to learn who to trust and who not to…he makes it sound like a test. Like a lesson. But can I trust you? You may have my face but you might not have my values. You might be nothing like me.
Arson noticed that Ash was watching him cautiously, almost as though she wanted to say something. He knew better than to push her into it. Instead he looked over the lake's surface, as the sun's rays played upon the water as it rippled slightly with the breeze. He needed to say something that would calm her down. Anything at all. But nothing would come. At length, he lied down, allowing the sun to play over his face.
'You're scared of it, aren't you?' said Ash suddenly. Arson sat up quickly.
'What?'
'I'm scared of it too.'
'What is it? What are you scared of?'
'The water.'
'You and me both have a reason to be. You and I both control fire.'
'No. You can do something else. You just don't use it often.' Arson narrowed his eyes.
'What are you talking about?'
'Watch.' Ash closed her eyes and frowned slightly. A bench that was nearby gave an involuntary shudder and then lifted clear of the ground. Ash kept right on going. The bench rose further, the old wood creaking and groaning under the rough treatment. A headache was beginning to settle in but Ash carried on. She had to show Arson that she knew all about him. That was the only way she would be able to prove that she was Arson. She was him. Arson and Ash were one and the same. She knew this but she had to show him. She gasped in surprise as she felt Arson's hand curl around her wrist.
'That's enough, Ash.' She opened her eyes, the headache pounding against her eyes, blocking everything out. Eventually, it died down and she looked at Arson piercingly.
'Don't you get it?' Arson looked at her cautiously.
'Ash?'
'I'm not Ash, Arson. Maybe at one time I was called Ash. But I'm not anymore.'
'What are you talking about?' She saw that he didn't understand. She could see only too plainly his confusion. She closed her eyes and turned away from him, not wanting to see the expression on his face.
'How old are you now?'
'Eighteen. But you know that!'
'Listen to me, Arson. Just listen. Thirteen years ago, when you were five, your father, Kryder left you, your sister and your mother to go on a journey. He had told your mother, Ophelia his reasons for going on this trip, but she refused to believe him. Instead she believed her own version, that your father had left her. Shortly afterwards, when in the throes of a nightmare, you accidentally set the house on fire due to your powers. Due to my powers.
'She understood that you were more of a demon then an angel. She felt as though she had been tainted by bad blood. The blood of a demon. She called you a curse, blaming you for everything that went wrong. Soon, she reduced you to nothing more then a slave.
'You never were able to feel a mother's love. She beat you needlessly, she made you work and do chores that no child should do. Hell, she even made you torture yourself, Arson. Remember the incident in the bath? How she filled it up with freezing cold water? And how she told you to get in? You refused. I refused. When she saw this, she threatened to kill you. You nearly died that day. I nearly died that day.
'It didn't stop there. Afterwards, I was on the verge of dying, and she wouldn't take care of me. She ignored me completely. But at the end, she tried to get rid of me for good. The knife…' Ash's voice died out here and she shuddered as she remembered. It waved in front of her still, it pierced her even now. Filled her with all those memories. God, she was crying, again! She tried to keep her voice steady as she continued. 'You never told anyone. You never told your friends. The only people who knew the hell you'd been put through was your sister, grandfather and his business partner. Your friends still don't know. I know that none of my friends do. Except one…
'Ophelia-'
'Stop it! That's enough!' yelled Arson. Ash was silent. She didn't turn to see Arson's face. She knew the look. His eyes would be wide and tear-filled. She had never meant to put him through so much pain but yet she had been forced to put them both through the old agonising memories.
'Don't you see, Arson?' she whispered. 'Don't you understand what I'm trying to tell you?' She swallowed hard and turned around. Arson gaped at her, a look of fear and rage on his face.
'H-how d'you know all of this?'
'…'
'You mean to say…that you're me?' Ash nodded silently. Arson sat down heavily, staring at her. At last his eyes narrowed. 'I think you'd better tell me what's going on. How did this happen? Why are you here?'
Ash smiled with relief. Finally, she had someone who would help her.
Confusing, isn't it? Two Arsons in the same place. One is female and the other is male. Chaos is bound to follow. R and R please.
Arson and Rayne and now "Ash" belong to me as well as Ophelia and Kryder. Dante and Trish belong to Capcom and them only. Xyphos belongs to Vampy Sparda. I need some feedback for this, so any help would be welcome.