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Chapter 2 – The rise of the one called Doppelganger.
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He lay in a puddle of red water. Red blood. There was someone screaming, it was herself, Her voice echoed around the walls in the small alley. Laughter rose behind her, she span around seeing only a dark figure sitting on a box, the were tossing a dagger up and down, "You're next."
She screamed. Her body was wet with sweat, she looked around wildly, and a face appeared from the darkness.
"Lili?" John sat down at the edge of the bed, "What's wrong? Did you have a nightmare?"
She looked at him, 'he's alive…' She sat up, and nodded. She curled her legs up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. She nodded again.
"Do you want to talk about it?" He blinked. Moving forwards he touched her shoulder, she jumped.
"You…" She looked up at him her eyes filled with tears, "Onii-chan, you were dead! And there was an evil boy laughing. He held a dagger and said, 'you're next…' " She shuddered. "I don't want to be next…"
John nodded and pulled the smaller girl onto his lap, he hugged her and rocked her gently, "I'm not dead… and you're not next. That was a pretty scary nightmare for someone your age." He kissed the top of her head, "For anyone, that would be scary."
Si-ming woke, "ugh…" he sat up, "That dam boy…" He growled and wobbled over to the controls, "Knocked me out cold…" He looked at his computer, "Planning to take Lili away from me, boy?" he laughed gruffly, "No one can escape fate." He picked up a phone and dialled a number, it rang, and rang… "No answer?" He blinked hanging up the receiver; he then crossed over to another machine and tried it. No response. "This does not bode well…"
"What doesn't," A calm voice asked far behind the professor. He span around, "Si-ming."
"Anna…" He blinked, "I though you were…"
The woman chuckled richly and stepped out from her shadowy cloak, her face was scared and burned, "I seem to have a knack at not dieing." She raised her arm; it was missing the rest of the limb after the joint in the elbow, "though it can be thought of as a curse."
"What happened...?" He looked at her gravely, "Did he…"
"Escaped."
"What about…"
"He's dead too."
"And his?" He looked at her completely taken back.
"She's with me. I found her." She nodded. "What about professor…" He shook his head, "My god…" She blinked, "And hers?"
"He's my assistant. The project was a failure with him." He shook his head chuckling lightly, "He slipped something in my drink, he seems to be against her training."
"Training? You mean you found her?" She walked closer and lent on the console.
"Indeed I have, she has almost natural fighting instincts."
"Is the chip functional?" She looked at him and picked at the cold food from breakfast that morning.
"There is evidence that the Doppler chip does work." He nodded, "Now where's your new girl."
By the morning, the nightmare was long forgotten. The two decided that they would head homewards due to the fact that they had done almost everything a young girl and her guardian could do in that city, well apart from stopping at a food vendor for lunch, which is what they did.
" 'nii-chan..." Lili looked out the window munching on the steaming food, "Why is no one smiling…" She pointed outside, towards the masses of people passing their parked car on the street.
"Well…" He looked outside at the people as well, "People haven't been happy for a little while now."
"Why?" she blinked, turning her child like eyes towards his face, "why aren't they happy?"
"There were some, bad, people who want to take over and rule the colonies… and that's what they did. People don't like being ruled, with no say in anything." He sighed and sipped his drink. "Though, there are people who are trying to stop them."
"Good." She nodded and bit into her hotdog, "Bad people should be stopped."
"Indeed…" Si-ming nodded, "Well Anna, you care free to stay here as long as you like."
"Thanks Si-ming." She nodded.
"Though I expect you to work for your keep." He wagged a screwdriver at her.
"Indeed I will." She looked at him.
"Mam…" a young woman appeared, carrying a tray of food, "Lunch is ready."
Anna turned and smiled at the girl, "Thank you Cesia, you can put the tray down here."
Si-ming looked up from his work, "And she cooks!" he chuckled, "it's a shame the chip only partially works…"
Anna shook her head, "It wouldn't have mattered if it did, she has no will or intention to fight."
"A shame, that is." He shrugged and helped himself to some sushi, "Though for a girl at her age to make a dish like this…" he nodded, "At least she's using it for something useful."
The two arrived at the manor house a few hours after lunch.
"Now, remember, what's our alibi?"
"We came home early because…." Lili blinked, "Because… we ran out of money?"
John rolled his eyes, "No… because…"
The door opened, the two turned to face a woman, Anna, "Welcome back." She smiled at John then looked at Lili, "So this is our Doppelganger…"
Lili blinked, John stepped in front of the small girl. "Her name is Lili." He growled.
"In time she will recognise many names for her…" She turned, and motioned them to follow, "So, you're John." She looked at him.
He glared, "And who are you."
"Ah." Anna nodded, "Professor Anna Mineko. Please, just call me Anna."
"Miss. Anna…" Lili tugged at her lab coat, "Where's you arm?"
"I lost it." She said shortly, "In a fire…"
John crossed his arms, "hm…"
The three appeared shortly in the lab deep under the manor.
"You," Si-ming stood up, "are exactly, eighteen hours and 13 minutes late." He glared at John.
"S..s..sir!" He swallowed audibly, "h..h..how?"
"You were never very good with chemistry… the drug you slipped into my coffee that morning breaks down with caffeine. Meaning that there wasn't enough to knock me out until today." He glared at him, "I am very disappointed in you. You could of gotten the girl injured, or worse killed! All because you wanted her to have fun."
"NO!" he shouted, "It's not like that!"
"You wanted her to not be like us…" another voice added into the conversation, the two newcomers turned, and looked at a young woman, a few years younger than John, one eye was green, the other purple, her hair was multi coloured, obviously died, and kept short. "But that's impossible."
"No!" He glared at her.
"It is." She nodded once again, "She is not like us though, and she is capable of using the chip."
"Chip?" Lili blinked. Her question was not answered; she was left out of the conversation.
"Who…" He glared at her, "Cesia, Professor Anna's new ward. I was in the charge of another, he's dead now. I know all about you John."
"Oooh…" The young blond girl looked at the rest of the group, they were equally ensnared into the story. Even the adults.
"Hey, that almost sounds like you Nana." The scruffy boy, the son of Duo Maxwell, laughed slightly, "Well that Cesia girl… her eyes almost match yours, except that the eye for her is green where as yours is brown."
The grown men looked at her, she chuckled, "Well, the story teller can place themselves in their own story, can they not?" She smiled.
"So there were four people with that 'D-chip'…" The son of Heero asked while munching on the last of his brownie.
"That's interesting." His sister finished his sentence, nodding.
"Hn." He looked at her then away.
"John and Cesia can't be trained though." Matthew pointed out.
"And one's escaped." Wufei's son pointed out.
"Very true Wei, very true." Nana nodded.
"But… you said she was mass produced…"
"True, Solo, so very true." She nodded to pony tailed boy.
"What happened to the others?" The two girls piped up.
"Well, Miss Dorothy Yuy and Miss. Isis Winner, you will have to wait and see about that." She nodded.
"Hn."
"And would Master Alexander Yuy refrain from 'Hn-ing', you're sounding more like your father every day, I don't think your mother would appreciate that much." She chuckled lightly.
"Out of our four thousand two hundred and thirty-six… only nine actually survived past the fire… and now… only four remain…" Anna sighed.
Si-ming coughed, "Correction, three."
"No, four." She looked at him, "One may have escaped, but that doesn't count him as dead." She sighed, "Where did they all go…"
"Well, from our planning, we calculated that half would die within the first few weeks, then a thousand went when we inserted the chip, then a half of them died in the following year. During that un expected fire, five hundred died from that…" he shook his head sadly, "that was our main failure…"
"Yes…" she sighed, "Then over the next four year fifty died from the chip activating too early, leaving us with our nine wraiths."
"How did the three die…" Si-ming looked at her, "At that point I was working on our programs…"
"Ah, there was a bad bout of disease…"
"Terrible." He shook his head. "Then we were raided, and our eldest two were
taken out, defending us as we fled. That's when we lost our youngest."
"Lili." Anna nodded, "Your charge. I'm still surprised you found her after three years." She sipped at her drink and looked at a screen, "So, this is our girl's read outs huh."
"That they are." He nodded, "pass that flat headed screwdriver, the long handled one."
She put down her mug and passed him his tool, "And you say that she hasn't done anything like this before?"
"I told you Anna. This girl was at an orphanage, unless the nuns there were teaching their kids to fight…" he stopped working on a piece and looked at her, "I believe that she's actually using the Doppler Chip already."
"That's crazy, a girl her age, using that chip already? Every time we saw one of the lost ones use their chip they wither went berserk or they passed out after a nosebleed."
"Though there were some times that they controlled themselves…" he slid a welding shield over his face and continued his work.
"Mmh." She nodded, "they had that tell tail sign, their eyes changed colour… did we ever find out why they did that?"
"No." He looked up at her again, "But most were normal shades for eyes."
"Cesia's proof of the abnormal colours, her violet eye was from the chip activating. I'm surprised that John's eyes…"
"His chip is unresponsive. He's the oldest of the four that survived, and the only proof that he is a chip candidate is his amazingly fast processing skills and his speed. Has yours shown any other traits?"
"Well Cesia has this strange ability… It's like she can almost read people's minds."
"Ah." He looked at her, "She can 'read' people."
"Too accurately though." She looked at him, "you saw what she did earlier this evening, when she confronted John the first time."
"Indeed." Si-ming nodded, he tapped a few buttons and set the piece of computer hard wear down, "I wonder where Niiro is right now." He picked up a rather large helmet and started working on it.
"Niiro…" Anna clenched her hand, "He could be everywhere and anywhere." Her eyes narrowed remembering the blood red eyes of their second youngest surviving creation, "that bastard." She growled, "I hope he's very far away… I'll kill him for taking my arm…"
"Niiro did that." Si-ming looked up from his work, "hm. Interesting."
"Interesting my ass." She growled, as she stood up. "I'm going to bed, and you should to, remember you're not an android." She walked off, and disappeared into the elevator shaft.
"Nor is our enemy, but they continue to work… and so will I." He nodded and returned to his contraption.
At the end of the driveway, to the estate where Si-ming's lab resided underneath, a motorbike stood, with its rider perched on top of it, looking at the mansion.
"So…" The voice laughed, the voice was light and airy, "We've found the mouse hole… and this cat is getting ready to pounce…" The rider pulled off his helmet and brushed back his white blond hair, he opened his eyes. Blood red. "We will be seeing you soon… yes we will." His smiled twisted to an evil smirk, "and then we shall see who is better…" He smiled darkly and put on his helmet, "see you soon sensei." He tapped his visor down and sped off on his bike.
Cesia woke. She sat up sharply in her bed and crossed over to the window just in time to see a light motorbike stop at the corner and then turn. Her eyes narrowed, and she placed one hand on the windowpane. She breathed deeply then turned towards the room again.
"What is it…." A sleepy voice yawned.
"It's…" Cesia blinked, "nothing, go back to bed." She turned and looked back out of the window.
"How come I do not believe you Cesia…" The body of the voice stood right behind her, and they placed a hand on her shoulder.
She shook her head slowly, "I just had a dream…"
"Nonsense… you felt something…" They lowered their head to her free shoulder and rested their chin on it.
"What does it matter to you." She looked to the other person's shadow consumed face, "well?" She blinked waiting for an answer.
The hand and chin recoiled, "It matters because if it is someone hostile we are the only ones who can protect this place…" John stepped forwards and pressed his forehead against the window, "weather we like it or not." Cesia walked back towards her bed, "well, who or what was it."
She turned, locking her purple and green eye onto his; he crossed over towards her, "A phantom from our past." She sat down on her bed, and then tucked herself in.
"I see." He nodded and layback onto his, "Our younger brother?"
"I wouldn't call him a brother." She looked at him coldly, "we…."
"We are not blood relatives, true." John nodded, "But, we all share the same life style, we lived and grew up together…"
"That is also true." She sat up again, "But must I remind you that he was the one who killed off most of the professors?"
John sighed, "Fine. He is not our brother, he is Niiro." He then pulled the duvet onto him again, "I still don't know why we have to share a room." He grumbled as he turned onto his side and went back to sleep.
Lili jumped out of bed, the nightmare had yet again disturbed her sleep. She shivered, and looked around her cell like room. "No one can get me… It's ok.. no one can get me… It's just a dream…" her eyes continued to blot around the plain room, "Anyone would be scare of something like that…" She had convinced her mind, but her body still remained frightened. She lay down on her bed and pulled the thick blanket over her face. "go away! Leave me alone!" she mumbled, "I don't like this dream!" She tossed and turned trying to get the piercing red eyes out of her mind, eventually fatigue took over and she fell into a dreamless sleep.
The week passed by, Lili had discovered that if she trained hard the nightmare would not come. Si-ming was ecstatic with the girl's progress within a week with the simulator, Anna was also very proud of the young girl, but she was highly jealous of Si-ming having the only trainable child from the entire project.
"Lunch!" Cesia walked into the training room, with John in tow carrying a few trays. Even though the two had a rocky first experience with each other, they were now getting along perfectly. "John, trays down." He grumbled, and put them down noisily.
"It's so nice to see you two working together happily." Anna smiled. John growled again. "Almost like a young married couple!" Both of them flushed furiously, making the older woman laugh. Cesia picked up a plate off one of the trays, and walked over to the pod. "Cesia, she's busy in a…"
The pod door opened. "Hi!" Lili smiled, "lunch?"
Cesia nodded, "out you come, young one." She waved the plate lightly, "Food and machinery do not mix."
Lili bounced out of the pod and sat at a desk, where she started eating. John looked at her sadly then picked up another plate and crossed over to Si-ming.
"Sir." He held out the plate.
"Put it down somewhere, and give me a hand." He grumbled, "I need some strength, this old body does not have anymore."
"Yes sir." He nodded and went to lift a few things.
"So Cesia," Anna smiled watching the young woman watching John, "you like him, don't you."
"Huh? What! Oh!" She blinked and brought her attention back to reality. Anna smiled warmly. "N..no! Why would I like him." She snorted slightly and picked up her mentor's plate and crossed over to her.
"Cesia.." She sighed and shook her head, as she accepted the plate, "You can't hide things from me, you know that."
The rainbow haired woman looked at the older doctor and blushed slightly, she checked that no one was looking their way and nodded once.
"I thought you would." She smiled, "You may not notice it, but you two are very compatible with each other."
"I.. don't understand.."
"Ah, well." Anna picked at her food, "In the process of our… project, we noticed that from all the people we cloned from, certain people worked better with each other. You and John, and your brothers and sisters worked well with each other, though, they were too stubborn like you are to admit that."
"So that's why we have to share a room…"
Anna blinked, "that, and I thought it would be interesting to see what happened." She smiled, "Lili and you two were the best three in clones for working together. Sadly… there was a lone wolf, who worked by themselves…"
"The red eyed phantom."
"Yes. It's a surprise that any of that man's clones survived." She shook her head, "I knew we shouldn't have used a convicts DNA…"
Cesia blinked, "Ummm…"
"Oh yes." Anna nodded getting back to the point of being compatible, "You two were also born in the year of the Tiger and Horse, both work well together."
"And the young one?" She looked towards Lili who was running her finger along her plate to collect the last of the gravy.
"The rabbit."
Cesia smiled, "I should have guessed." She sighed, then blinked, "she's how old now?" she turned towards her mentor.
"Ask her yourself!" She smiled nodding towards the girl.
"Lili, how old are you."
"I'm seven and a week and a half old." She smiled widely and put her plate down onto the tray.
"Seven and a week and a half!" Cesia chuckled, "my, my you're getting old!"
Lili beamed and she bounced towards the pod for more training. Cesia then turned once again towards Anna, "How old… is our phantom…"
"Niiro. Fear of his name only makes him stronger." Anna looked at her and wagged a finger in her face, "He would be 12."
"A dog?" she looked up.
She shook her head "No, a chicken." Cesia snickered, "Do not laugh… They are a very proud, and can be dangerous because of their powerful mind."
Her face fell, "oh. I was never one for Chinese zodiac…"
"So…. John's 20."
"Cesia's 17!"
"HA! Niiro's a chicken!"
"Maxwell, so are you." Wei snapped.
"Oh." He blinked. "Dammit."
"What would your mother say if she caught you saying those words Solo." Duo drummed his finger on the couch arm.
"Um... keep up the good work?" He smiled weakly.
"Umm…" Dorothy blinked, "aren't we all in the year of the chicken then?"
"No." Mathew pointed towards Solo, "Him and Wei are in that year."
"HA! You're a chicken too Chang!" Solo crowed (no pun intended)
Mathew sighed, "You two," he looked at Dorothy and her twin, "are in the year of the monkey, well, just. Born the day before the Chinese New year."
"And Mathew being born on the Chinese New Year…" Wei looked at him, "lucky bas..." He growled but was glared at sharply by his father, "ahem, he is in the year of the Dog, and so is Isis"
"Hey dad!" Solo blinked, "What year you in?"
Duo blinked then looked at the other guys, "umm…" he scratched his head, "I'm not too sure…"
Wufei looked up, "We're all in between the Dragon and the Horse…. Duo, I'd say you're a Horse."
"You heard him, I'm a horse." Duo smiled laughing. "Trowa, that would make you a Rabbit… right?"
Trowa shook his head, "I'm, just, in the year of Tiger."
"Lucky sod." Duo grumbled under his breath.
"Nana?" The children looked at her.
"The year of the Horse."
"Wow!" Alexander blinked, "You and Cesia have another similarity."
"I've said before master Yuy…" She sighed, "I can place myself in my own stories."
"Excellent!" Si-ming applauded as Lili walked out of the cockpit after a full three-day mission.
"I don't feel too good… Mr. Si-ming…" She looked up to him; her height was rapidly closing in on the 4'9" professor.
"..." Anna walked over to her and started checking her over. "Si-ming this girl has over worked herself!"
"True." He nodded, "You may take the rest of this day off, and the next to recuperate."
Lili smiled widely, "Yaay!" She then jogged slowly off.
"Her muscles are weakening due to no exercise." Anna looked over her shoulder to the shorter professor.
"I know. She will start some physical training after Christmas." He nodded and picked up his completed V.R helmet. "And she will also move into this in the pod."
"Good. With her age her chip will need daily examination." She nodded and sat down, "Have the designs been finalised for the suit?" She looked at him as she tinkered with a little piece of the operating system for one of the many mechanical pieces in the room.
"No. The exoskeleton is finished, so is the programming element and the power source."
"So what you're saying is that we've got a warrior with no armour or weapons."
"Correct. Though if push comes to shove it could always, in theory, give the attacker a nasty shock."
"Onii-chan!" Lili walked through the halls of the upper house, "where are you?"
A door creaked open, making the young girl jump and turn towards it. "Hello?"
"Li~li…" A voice called out to her.
"Who's there!" She moved closer towards the door. "Cesia? John?"
"Li~li…" It called out again. "I am the ghost of…"
Ghost? The girl shuddered, a hand gripped her shoulder making the girl yelp with surprise.
"WOAH!" John laughed, as he removed his hand from her shoulder, "Easy there!"
"John?" She blinked, "there's something in the closet!"
"Of course!" He smiled, "Ces~ia!" He called out lightly and the rainbow haired female walked out.
"Boo." She smiled lightly. "Hope we didn't scare you too much."
Lili shook her head. "A little... but not enough to make me cry… but why a ghost? It's near Christmas!"
John blinked, and looked at Cesia.
Cesia blinked and looked at Lili, "You're never heard of 'A Christmas Carol'?" John shrugged, "My my.. Lili!" She sighed, "I'll get you a copy of it!"
"A book?" She blinked.
"That's right." John nodded and pulled the girl onto his back, "It's a real old Christmas story of this really grumpy old man being visited by three ghosts to save him from a terrible afterlife."
"Ghosts don't exist though…" Lili blinked as she was handed a decoration to put up in the doorway.
"Well you jumped high enough when John touched you." Cesia chuckled as she turned around from pinning up some garland.
"Hey would you look at that…" John chuckled lightly, "Lili here put up some mistletoe right above us!" He smiled mischievously.
"John!" Cesia laughed as he lent in and kissed her.
"EWWW!!!!" Lili wailed. She was still sitting on John's back. "GROSS!"
Cesia broke the kiss, "Indeed…." She looked at Lili; "Once you find a boy that you love, when your older, you'll do silly things like John here." She passed him to put up more decorations.
"Nuh uh," She shook her head, "Boys are nasty."
"Oh?" John blinked, "You don't have a problem with me…"
"That's because you're not a boy." She rested her chin on his head, "Are you 'nii-chan? Aren't you a guy?"
Cesia and John laughed lightly, "I sure am Lili."
"Professors!!!" Cesia called to the two who had disappeared somewhere in the house "Your presence is mandatory for the lighting of the Christmas tree!" She looked at John and Lili and shrugged, "I don't know where they are!"
John sighed, "Why do I have a feeling that they are planning something…"
"I wanna put the star on top!" the little girl jumped up and down holding the very delicate gold star decoration.
"We will, we will!" John placed a hand on her head, "Calm down…"
"But."
"Caaalllmm…" He looked at her.
"Fine." She pouted.
"Where are they!" Cesia crossed her arms and started tapping her foot.
"We wish you a merry Christmas… And a happppy new year!" Anna walked in carrying a tray of hot coco and short bread cookies. "Sorry I'm late, I had to make the coco!" She smiled and slid the tray onto the table.
"Yummy!" Lili bounced at the sight and smell of the refreshments.
"Mam." Cesia looked at her professor, "Where is Professor Si-ming?"
"Oh." She nodded, "I have a message from him, he wants you to finish the tree and go outside."
"Outside?" John blinked, "oh no… my bad feeling is back again…"
Lili squealed, "YAY! I can put the star on the tree!" In a matter of seconds, she stood on top of John's shoulders and she placed the golden decoration onto the top of the 12-foot tree.
The group applauded and Lili, after being placed on the floor ran to her hot coco.
"Well! I believe we can drink these outside to help keep up warm!"
"Lili!" Cesia sighed, "She said outside!"
"Sorry…" The girl licked her lips, "but it tastes so good!"
"Ok. So we're outside… and it's dark" John breathed out, his breath condensed.
Cesia shivered slightly, "I didn't know Colonies did this…" She hugged her coco as she sipped it.
"It's a standard piece these days." Anna nodded snug in her toque and gloves. "Make the colonies seem like earth."
"But so cold!" Cesia shivered again, and was quickly hugged by John, so that they could both be warmer.
"Yes cold." Anna sighed, "We were use to living in a warmer climate." She chuckled at the sight of the two. "Now where's little…"
"Wee!" Lili skidded along the ground on a patch of ice, which stopped suddenly making the girl loose her balance, "where's Mr. Si-ming?"
"I believe.." Anna looked at her watch, "Look at the house." She pointed towards the large building, it was fairly dark.
"Huh?" Lili blinked, "what about…. WOW!" As she had turned thousands of Christmas lights jumped into life illuminating the house beautifully. In a matter of seconds Si-ming appeared, "Mr. Si-ming! The house!"
Si-ming turned and looked at his work, "Ah yes." He nodded and pulled out a small control, he pressed a button and the thousands of lights began to flicker like stars. "Quite pleased with the work I must say." He nodded as he sipped a steaming drink from a thermos.
"Quite a display you have there…" A cold voice laughed.
Lili jumped and cowered, "that voice!"
Cesia turned around, "He's HERE!"
"Niiro." John's eyes narrowed.
"And you remember me!" Niiro laughed. A single streetlamp flickered on, he stood underneath it. He started to walk forwards.
John and Cesia moved in front of the other three.
"Don't you come any closer!" John shouted.
"Oh? Can't I join in on the festivities? I too love hot coco" He smiled darkly.
"Bastard!" Cesia snapped at him.
"So?" He shrugged; he was less than 10 meters away from the group.
"I SAID STOP MOVING!" John yelled stepping further out from the group.
"Or what." Niiro sneered, "You're gonna kill me?"
"If I must."
"You see Johnny-boy.." The young Niiro laughed, "There's a difference between you and me. Do you know what that is?" John didn't reply, but his lip twitched. "Well?" Niiro sighed, "The difference between you and me is…" he paused something flickered and John staggered, "You're dead!" The red-eyed pre-teen laughed, "Merry Christmas!" He smiled.
"JOHN!!!" Cesia ran to him and caught him as he fell back a little, a sharp dagger in his chest.
"G…o" He looked at her, "Go! I'll keep him back, you get everyone to the house…"
"No!" She looked at him through forming tears, "I can't! You said we'd fight together!"
"Cesia!" He turned and kissed her deeply, and then looked into her eyes, "Go. Not for my sake… but Lili's. She MUST live!" He pushed her off of him and pulled the dagger from his chest. "I… love you." He turned to square off with Niiro.
"NO!!" She shouted as Anna started to pull her away. "John no! Let me HELP!"
"Shh… shhh!" Anna whispered to her, "Follow his wishes, and make sure Lili stays alive!" She placed Cesia's hand over Lili's. "Go."
With tears freely flowing down her face, Cesia picked up Lili, who was also crying, and ran to the house with Si-ming. They reached the door, "Professor Mineko.." Cesia turned, "what!" She looked to see that Anna had not moved from her position but stood alongside John. "Mineko-san!" She shouted.
"Let her go." Si-ming looked at her as he closed the door, locking it. "We must get to a secure area."
-Meanwhile-
"So. Decided to fight eh banshee?" Niiro smiled, "I'll give you your Christmas present as soon as I finish with my brother. Okay?" He smiled and turned towards John. He took one quick step forwards and seemed to disappear. John had no time to react or blink, before the first blow to his back was administered. "Oh common John!" Niiro taunted, "I thought you were faster than THAT!" He appeared in front of the injured young man and went to attack again with his two daggers. This time John deflected both of them. "Not bad… not bad…" He chuckled.
"I'll kill you..!" John growled.
"I'll kill you?" Niiro mimicked him, "That's all you got? Tisk tisk tisk." The two continued fighting.
Professor Mineko stood at the sidelines taking notes on a computer device, which fed all its imputed information directly into the mainframe of the mansion. "John don't let him get to you!" she shouted to him.
"Oh?" Niiro paused and looked at her, "Get to him? Dear Banshee, what the hell do you mean by that!" he looked at her, "STOP SENDING INFORMATION!" he threw another dagger, it met directly with Anna Mineko's throat. She stood for a few seconds, "Bas…tard…" Her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she collapsed backwards.
"I guess, death finally caught up with the old hag." He laughed crawly and walked up to the dead woman; he kicked her in the ribs, "See you in hell Bitch." He spit on her face and pulled the dagger from her throat. Turning he charged John again. Within a few slashes John had become a target, Niiro had severed all nerves between his arms and his brain rendering them useless. "I though you would last a little longer than this old boy!" He laughed again.
"I'm still standing bastard." John growled.
"Not for long." He smiled and picked up the computer device Anna was using, "well!" he smiled, "Look here! A recording device!" He smiled and selected it. He started videoing the defenceless John. "Look-ey here." He spoke to the camera, "Johnney-wonny, is hurt ever so bad… Should I put him out of his misery?" He dipped the camera so that it was nodding yes. "I should?" He smiled, "Any last words?" he looked at John.
"Heartless bastard…. I'm ashamed that I called you my brother! I hop you rot in the lowest of all the hells!"
"Times up!" Niiro smiled he placed the camera down, still recording and he attacked for that last time, slaughtering the young man. "Rest in pieces…" Niiro picked up the camera and focused in on John, "literarily."
Dorothy and Isis sniffed, "Why!? WHY NANA?!" The two looked up to the old woman tears in their eyes, "Why did John have to die!"
Nana sighed, "He was protecting the ones he loved."
"He died honourably." Wei nodded.
"Ya know, Ya gotta kinda feel sorry for Si-ming." Solo nodded.
"Oh? And why's that?" Mathew looked at him.
"Well… One, the dude's just lost his assistant, and adopted son, John. And he also lost Mineko-san."
Duo nodded, "Yeah.. I feel sorry for Lili."
"You would." Wufei looked at him, "You always side with the orphans."
"Mr. Chang. He does have a point." Isis looked at him, "She just lost her brother, almost exactly the way her dream told her."
Duo then stuck out his tongue at his friend, "neeaah!"
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Kuro-boshi: well there we go… Another Chapter done.
*John's Ghost floats in*
John's Ghost: You fuggin killed me off!
K.B: In order for the story to move along you had to go!
John's Ghost: BUT IN THE SECOND CHAPTER?
K.B: Umm… sure! *Smiles sweetly* I don't plan on making this story that long you know.
Cesia: *wailing* you killed off my one true love!!!
K.B: Are you aiming to make me feel bad?
Lili: Yes. *sniff sniff*
Niiro: I had fun!
*Is quickly attacked by the entire cast*
K.B: At least one of you did! *Receives death glares* eh heh..
JA NE!
Prof. Anna Mineko's Ghost: Everyone ignores the fact that I'm dead…
Cast: Okay!
*Proff. A. Mineko's Ghost disappears with a puff of smoke*
K.B: I hope she doesn't haunt my bathroom… (Like moaning myrtle in Harry Potter)
Si-ming: Review. If you know what's good for you.