The King of Fighter's: Pawns of the Purple Flame

Disclaimer (warning! Boring disclaimer ahead! People of a nervous disposition beware.): I, Grey Rayne, do not own anything, whether it be items, characters, place names or anything within The King of Fighter's universe. I do own a few miscellaneous characters within this story, but they may be used freely by all.

King of Fighters is a trademark of SNK Playmore.

A/N: This story is set during the years 1995-2002. Mostly 2002, which is a dream match.

Prologue.

Another explosion ripped through his body, shooting agonising pain through him in a relentless wave. He grit his teeth and fought back the urge to cry out, keeping his pride even in, what was certainly, the last moments of his life. He heard a chilly voice speaking from somewhere in the shadows to his left.
"Fool, only those of the Orochi bloodline may harness such power." He paid little heed to it, though. He had heard a similar phrase echo through his own mind as he began to lose control of it, pushing his new found inner strength to its utter limit and beyond. He fixed his gaze on the team of fighters who he had just fought, some picking themselves up with an effort. His gaze fell mainly upon one young warrior amongst them, the son of Saisyu Kusanagi, and suddenly the explosions that began tearing at him with renewed power didn't matter anymore.
"I will be back!" he screamed at the fighter, as a pillar of light shot out of the ground beneath him. Rugal Bernstein knew no more.
Kyo Kusanagi scoffed to himself.

Rugal's death was well documented in newspapers around the world. Black market big-shots cursed the news, having lost one of the biggest 'players' in the shady side of marketing. Otherwise, Rugal's death was celebrated by most people, and only two small, shadowy figures came to the funeral, although there wasn't anything left of the former King of Fighters tournament holder. Rugal's statues, his ghastly collection of fighters encased in iron, disappeared without a trace.

Vice and Mature continued on, although Mature had been slightly disappointed at Rugals death, she seemed to get over it very quickly.

Time passed and King of Fighters tournaments were renewed several times by various benefactors and gang lords for purposes of their own. Vice and Mature decided to team up with Iori Yagami in The King of Fighters '96. Vice and Mature had been sent originally to kill Iori by Goenitz, one of the four heavenly kings of Orochi...

Vice walked absently back to the locker rooms, thinking about the bitter look of betrayal Geonitz would probably have on his face. Iori was more useful than she thought he would be, he had helped them get quite far in the tournament, too.
She was dimly aware of her team mates, Mature and Iori, walking a few paces behind her. Mature was chatting to Iori incessantly. Iori seemed slightly more aloof than usual, but Vice ruled it off as an 'Iori thing.' She had been able to pound quite a few people and had spilt some blood, so overall Vice was as happy as a bunny in a carrot field.
A blood curdling scream ripped her out of her thoughts.
She spun around quickly to the source of the scream; Iori. His face, as much of it as could be seen, was contorted into a mask of both pain and terror, two emotions she had not seen on his face before.
"Iori, what's wrong?" Mature cried out. She had taken a quick leap away from him as soon as she had heard the scream. Suddenly, Iori seemed to gain control of himself, he bent forward and placed a hand over his face, as if trying to hide it away from view. Vice and Mature stared at him in anticipation, they were just about to rule it out as another 'Iori thing,' when he removed his hand from his face and looked up at them. His eyes were wide and wild, like the eyes of a feral cat when trapped in a cage, froth dripped down from his mouth, which hung open limply revealing his white teeth. Vice and Mature had little warning as he lunged, first at Mature, he clawed at her wildly, purple flames spewing from his hands and singeing her. Mature was taken by surprise and couldn't defend herself at all. She fell to the ground quickly in a bloody mess, clothes and skin singed to a darker colour within seconds.
Iori turned his maddened attention to Vice, and threw himself at her without even holding his arms up. Vice spun on her heel, her foot coming around in an arch and catching him hard on the cheek, which didn't seem to affect him at all. Vice cried out as Iori clawed at her face and then grabbed her viciously, dragging her down to the ground. Purple flames licked her flesh and she screamed as she was consumed in it. Iori brought his hand back and lunged down at her throat. Vice tried to scream again, but no words or sound came out, except a sickening gurgle. She was aware, in a quickly dizzying state, of Matures limp body several feet away from her. She heard Iori storm away in a torrent of hacking and slashing at everything around him, hissing unintelligibly and groaning under his breathe. Vice turned over onto her front and faced down at the ground. She felt a sticky substance between her almost numb fingers and looked at her palm in wonder. Blood. She usually liked the sight of this substance, but this was her own blood, and she was lying in it. She hoped it wouldn't stain her suit. She didn't really notice the fact that she couldn't take in a breath, she was extremely dizzy and beginning to get very, very tired. If only she could find a nice bed and sleep forever...
Vice shut her eyes and darkness took hold of her.

Vice opened her eyes again, thinking she had been dreaming. She looked about herself and noticed that she was in a place of complete darkness. The only thing bad about it was that when she looked down at herself, she was slightly transparent, but glowed with a heavenly white light.
"This doesn't look like heaven!" she announced to no-one in particular, but she got an answer anyway.
"What, you would prefer the other place?" A female voice said behind her. Vice spun around and raised her fists instinctively, only to find Mature standing several steps away from her. Mature, although she had the same wavy blonde hairstyle and Orochi suit that they had both become used to wearing, was also slightly transparent and glowed with the same ethereal whiteness as Vice, although Vice fancied that Matures glow was brighter than her own. Mature looked about herself in a surprisingly calm fashion, considering the circumstances. She suddenly grit her teeth and threw her hands up in the air.
"Grr! Iori! Of all the no good double-crossers! The son-of-a-bitch dares to kill me!" Mature shouted angrily, as if she would make him pay for it.
"No use complaining about it now. Anyway, where's the 'Big Man'? I thought you were supposed to go through pearly gates and then you're allowed to know the answers to your greatest questions!" Vice shouted into the darkness. Mature turned her head from side to side and then stared back at Vice.
"Well, maybe..." her voice cut off, her eyes suddenly fixing on a point behind Vice's right shoulder. Matures eyes widened considerably and her face, although slightly transparent, went pale. Vice turned around to see what the problem was and her reaction was quite similar to Mature's.
A figure had appeared suddenly out of the shadows, becoming easier to see the closer it became. Its black robes swept the ground majestically behind it. Vice's eyes wandered to what it was holding in its right hand, whilst noting that the hand itself wasn't a hand at all, it was holding a very large scythe, in the fashion other people would hold a stave or walking stick. Its hand was skeletal, as was its bony face. Its eye sockets were empty, save for a red glow deep within them, staring out at them. The tall figure stopped about 6 feet in front of them. Vice and Mature were rooted to the spot, unable to take their eyes away.
Death grinned, as he always did, at the two women before him. He reached deep within his dark robes and removed a solitary hourglass. It was quite a cheesy looking hourglass, although it was gold, it looked fairly cheap. Death glared at it for a moment with apparent interest, and then stored it away in his robes.
"MATURE?" he asked, his voice was very deep and posh sounding, although it had a very unnatural echo to it.
"Y-yes?" Mature stuttered in her mixture of shock and horror. Death turned himself to one side and held out his arm, beckoning her to walk in the direction his arm was facing.
"PLEASE, WALK THIS WAY." he said, as a bright white light suddenly appeared and began to grow. Mature hesitated, but obeyed. She turned to Vice before she entered the light and waved her hand. Mature smiled and then turned away, the white gap snapped shut and she was gone.
"Mature?" Vice shouted. Death, who had practically been ignoring her, suddenly turned to her.
"DO NOT BE ALARMED." he said in as comforting a voice as possible. "SHE HAS BEEN, LET US JUST SAY, PROMOTED. SHE SHOULD BE HAPPY THERE." his grin expanded slightly, but then he turned away and started to walk into the darkness.
"Wait!" Vice shouted after him. Death stopped and turned to look at her. "What about me? Don't 'I' get promoted?" She asked peevishly. Death stared at her for a moment, as if agitated, but then reached into his robes again. He removed another hourglass, slightly larger than Matures had been, but also much darker, as if the metal on it had been blackened. The bottom bulb was half full of sand, Vice could see, but the top bulb was empty of sand. Vice could see something else in there. In the top bulb there was a purple flame, immobile at the moment, frozen. Vice recognised it as Orochi energy.
"What the...?" she said quizzically.
"IT APPEARS FATE HAS SOMETHING ELSE IN STORE FOR YOU." Death said casually, as if it was the most common thing in the world. Vice glared at him darkly.
"You're just going to leave me here?" she hissed. Death seemed to give this some thought.
"YES." he said simply. But continued quickly before Vice could protest. "DO NOT BE ANGRY. TIME IS STANDING STILL AS I AM HERE. HOWEVER, IT WILL RESUME AS SOON AS I LEAVE. YOU WILL NOT BE HERE LONG." Death turned away and started walking into the shadows. Vice watched him fade into the darkness until he was gone. His voice came to her though, as if in a whisper, but she caught the words.
"FAREWELL, VICE, UNTIL NEXT WE MEET..."

A/N: Orochi's next chapter! yay!