Disclaimers: If only… if only…
Warnings: Read the brackets of the chapter. I think that's all that's needed to be said.
Other: Well, isn't this an original idea (rolls eyes) but hey, something actually happens… in the end…
000
"Thirteen years, thirteen stars. Four separate souls destined from the start. One dreaded prophecy; waiting to come true…"
Fragment Twelve: Star Showers mean Pain (aka The Pointlessness of it All)
Whatever it was that hit them, it was big, black, and had huge wings. So that meant something bad… right?
Well, that was the first thing that ran through Dark's brain – or lack of brain. Whatever – as the big black… something or other swooped over and around them. All one could think was that they had wings, were very big and they were doomed. Optimism came out in very strange ways, don't they?
Either way, it wasn't long before they were all rendered pretty much unconscious and they knew no more for the next… half an hour.
Fun.
000
Drip… drip… drip… drip… an inconsistent sound filled the air.
Plink… smack… bang… er… right…
Then came the random curse. Well, that was unexpected. Maybe it was time to wake up.
Daisuke stifled a groan of pain as he opened his eyes. At first he thought that he had gone blind – seeing as he couldn't SEE anything – but it then crossed his mind that they might have been out for a lot longer than they would have thought and it might have been night. Yeah, that would make sense.
But what would make MORE sense was that they were locked in a prison-like-dungeon-looking place.
Yeah, his brain wasn't working very well at the moment.
While he waited for his mind to focus, the redhead tried to remember exactly what had happened; they were walking, it was going to rain, and then they were hit by something big and black and had wings… oh, and the other three had been arguing, as per usual. It was so much fun before the knocking out had happened, and what had been the point to that? He just couldn't place it while his brain felt like mush. Very painful and soggy mush, so that couldn't be a good thing at all.
And he was talking to himself, which was a sure sign that he had just gone crazy. Maybe that thing had given him brain damage…
Eyes adjusting to the non-existent light, Daisuke sat up, but ended up regretting it because his head felt like it was going to explode sooner than later. Holding his head and looking around, it was an incredibly hard task because he still couldn't see a thing properly and it was starting to annoy him.
"Are you awake?" came a familiar voice and someone poked him in the shoulder.
"Yeah… where are we?"
"I don't know. But we seem to be the only two here as well…" was the annoyed reply, "When I catch those other two, I'm going to kill them…"
"After we work out what happened," added Daisuke, "Krad-san. Now, where did With go…" Groping around in the darkness for a moment, he came across rough stone, more stone, and even more stone. That was, of course, until he ran into a wall. Whining, he fell back and rubbed his head.
There was a small amused-yet-exasperated sigh as Krad crawled over to him, seemingly faring a little better with their prison with no light. Pulling him away she waved a hand in front of his forehead and muttered something offhand before informing him of what had happened while he was 'asleep'.
"I have no idea what that thing was that hit us, but whatever it was, it knocked us out cold almost instantly. All I remember seeing was black wings and the huge shadow itself," she muttered to herself, frowning self-consciously, "Then I woke up here. And you're here as well, of course. But no one has come by to check on us, and I haven't heard Dark or Satoshi anywhere."
The redhead inclined his head, "But why are we being held hostage… or whatever they're going to do to us?" He gnawed his bottom lip, "And With isn't anywhere here!"
Krad merely shrugged and stood up, thinking about how to actually get out of the place. They didn't have any weapons between them, Dark and Satoshi were nowhere to be seen or heard, and she really needed a brush for her hair. But then again, her hair wasn't in that bad of a condition, but it was the principal that was important! Not the fact that she actually didn't need to brush her hair because it was always perfect for some reason and now was not the time for her to be thinking in that way and they had to get out.
With a low mutter as her brain seemed to bounce in her skull, the blonde muttered, "Let's just hope that your rabbit-demon-thing hasn't been eaten or something and I'm sure he'll be fine for now… if he hasn't been eaten, anyway. But that's not the point; we have to get out first."
"Right," she heard the redhead get up unsteadily somewhere next to her, "Where do we start? I don't have any weapons and I'm assuming that we're locked in."
"I know that," she grumbled in reply, "But the most definite idea I've had at the moment is to blast the door down and see if we can find the other two and get out of here… wherever 'here' is."
Understandable but incredibly rash, Daisuke decided not to talk against it, seeing as they really did have no other choice in the matter with their current position; but before that, it was best to assess what they DID have at hand, and it was best not to let them jump to random acts to conclude their… death? Victory? Wait, victory to what? From what? Now he was lost.
Searching his pockets for a moment, the redhead pulled something out and squinted at it, "Well, this is going to be a lot of help, isn't it?" He mumbled to himself in a distracted voice, "Krad-san, do you have ANYTHING that might be of use to us?"
"Eh?" this caught the older girl off-guard, seeing as she had been staring at the door and wondering as to how to break it down, but collected herself and searched her own pockets for a minute. Eventually, she held out a couple of pins and hair clips of which she never used. "How about these? I never use them anyway and why?"
Daisuke took them with a semi-coherent 'thanks' and then moved over to the door, tracing a hand over where he assumed the lock was located while he explained to the bemused teen.
"This lock seems to be simple enough to break out of, you see, and with something pointy, I should be able to get this unlocked…" he fumbled for a moment and muttered something under his breath. Then there was a 'click' and the door swung open creakily, "And we don't cause so much noise in doing this."
"I didn't know you could pick locks," commented Krad, as their eyes adjusted with a dim light that seemed to come from one part of the dungeon-place-wherever-they-were. "Doesn't seem like you."
"Daichi – my twin – seemed to be obsessed with breaking into other people's houses and causing havoc," explained the redhead sheepishly, "Although she never stole anything, she just liked to go… through their stuff… to make idiots out of them. No one really ever liked her in the first place… but I have no idea as to why this was so…" He broke off and poked his head out of the room, peering about cautiously. The blonde took this all in and frowned again, not getting why anyone would bother doing that in the first place, or was it because that others didn't accept her that she acted in such a way.
"Anyone out there?" she asked.
Shaking his head, Daisuke stepped out and took stock of where they were exactly. Not that a lots of brick walls, no windows, some old candles flickering in brackets and the like was really going to help them with their location. They were in a basement of some sort, but that was about it.
Or a prison that just didn't have any windows and they were high, high above. Either way, none of this was helping.
Taking the lead, the two walked past more cell doors that were pretty much empty, and there was still no sign of the other two. This seemed to bug the blonde a lot and after every few doors they passed, she would kick a random one and see if there was anyone in there at all. Usually they received no reply when this happened, or it was just some deranged lunatic in there.
Half an hour later – or at least it felt like that – Daisuke sighed and rubbed his eyes, "Why does it always have to be so… dim in here? It's beginning to get on my nerves and I think walking around in the rain would have been better."
"Oh yeah, definitely," nodded Krad, taking a seat next to him on the stone cold floor, which was thankfully dry, compared to other places… "But that's not the point, is it? We have to find some fragment of some sort and we also need to find the other two before we can blow this place apart."
"Right… you're not serious about the blowing up part, are you?"
"You never know."
The redhead merely stared at her. "Okay… right…"
Falling into thoughtful silence, there really wasn't much that they could do until something happened. Looking up at the ceiling, the blonde mused thoughtfully over what had happened over the week and why they weren't getting anywhere; if she had her say in the matter, she would say that fate was just jerking them around for fun. And she was probably right about that as well.
But despite it all, she had also made some new… well, 'friends' seemed to be the only term she could use at the moment, although Satoshi still didn't seem to act like… anything while around her. Not that she cared; she had always silently agreed with Dark that he was a kind of creep. And a vampire, none the less, but then why did he get along so well with Daisuke and had no bitten him yet? Very, very confusing when it came to that… unless…
She shook her head and continued to think. Well, she and Dark had gotten along well with Daisuke, who was too kind for his own good, yet managed to stop the three of them from killing each other with every argument they had, and so naïve, it was funny.
Then there was Dark. He was… er… a jerk at the best of times, a complete idiot every other time. Then why did she care? Well, they knew each other beforehand, he was easy to hit over the head when annoyed and… he was just always there… for her… and handsome…
Wait, that did NOT go through her mind. She refused to believe such a thing and would have hit her head against the wall if Daisuke hadn't suddenly said something that allowed her to stop thinking such stupid, absurd, ridiculous thoughts. It was just so… scary. To her, anyway.
"Krad-san… should we get going?"
"Yeah, I'm all for it," she was going to kill Dark when she got a hold of him. That would teach him… "Although it's kind of hard to work out which way to go, seeing as we have no clue at all."
"True," Daisuke thought for a moment, "Wait… I've never asked what kind of magic type you have, did I?"
The blonde blinked at him, not getting what he'd just said, "Magic type?" she repeated stupidly.
"I mean, I have Summoning, I think Hiwatari-kun has some sort of spiritual magic of some sort, so… er… yeah. I was thinking that maybe your magic type might be able to help us… somehow…"
"Oh, well…" she thought for a moment, "I can use some basic healing… and… yeah, offensive magic is my forte. Does that help?"
"Er… I guess not."
"BUT I think, due to the fact that Dark and I are part of the higher-upper-something-or-other kingdoms," Krad waved a hand airily at the ceiling, "Our magic is sorta connected… or something. So I should be able to sense him if he's anywhere close by."
Daisuke nodded vaguely, "So you just kicking random cell doors was just out of frustration, then?"
"Yeah." She smiled, "You're like the blunt little brother I never had."
"And you're like the rational and somewhat violent sister that I wished I had instead of a twin who causes more trouble than she can handle and leaves me to clean it up," the redhead replied, smiling back as they got up to continue their – rather futile – search.
If only they knew where to start…
000
"So do you have ANY idea on where we are?"
Satoshi raised an eyebrow, "And why would I know that, you stupid prince-guy-who-can't-wield-a-weapon?"
"Because!" Stated Dark, jabbing a finger up at the ceiling to attempt to prove his point, "You're a vampire! That has to count as something, right!" With, who was sitting on his head, only 'kyu'-ed in agreement.
"Only that you're an even bigger moron than what even I thought," snapped the blue-haired vampire, "and that is saying a lot. So leave me alone."
The purple-haired teen huffed at this, but didn't say anymore; which was a surprise, seeing as whom it was that was being talked about. How long they'd been there and why, they had no clue and didn't have a watch, so there was no telling about what was going to happen next for them and… the usual.
Not like they could do anything in the first place, but they were NOT going to go and get themselves killed or… whatever. That wasn't the point and they really did need to find a way out.
"And this isn't any help at all!" Dark burst out all of a sudden, making Satoshi look up at him, a look of pure disbelief stamped on his face. Well, at least his glasses weren't broken, but it wasn't like he actually used them anyway. Being part bat or whatever really did have their advantages.
"What?" he asked blankly, not getting a thing that had just been said. In all honesty, he would not attempt to hold a normal conversation with this… guy-person-jerk-thingy, but they were separated from the other two… and he couldn't help but feel just that bit worried about the mortal whatshisname. And yes, he was worried a BIT.
Storming around the cell they were in, the purple-haired teen rambled on about something, "I know that usually I can just contact her through it but it's not working and does that mean that she's too far away and she's not even here or what? I mean, this is just so stupid and I don't get why we were put here in the first place and I'm sick and tired of it and I… well, I don't want to go home, but I want to get out of here and relax for a bit!"
All he got from this rambling was a long stare and then a short nod, "So you say… weirdo."
Dark bristled indignantly at this, "Hey, don't call me a weirdo, you four-eyed-not-even-a-real-vampire-jerk!"
That was the most sophisticated thing he could think of, and being locked in a damp cell wasn't helping either one of them. But they had no weapons with them and although they could see quite clearly, it wasn't much help to them.
"If only there was a way to contact them…" muttered the agitated teen a few minutes later, giving up on throwing the loudest tantrum possible, seeing as he was getting no reaction from the vampire.
"Scream for all you're worth," suggested Satoshi coldly, feeling that he would now be half-deaf for the rest of his life. Oh yeah, the stupid purple-haired jerk was going to pay for being such a nuisance…
Fortunately – or unfortunately – Dark actually did take the vampire's (rather sarcastic) advice. He winced and muttered a curse under his breath. This thing better blow over in the end, otherwise more people were going to die.
Actually… that wouldn't be a really bad thing, from his point of view. He couldn't care less about them.
000
Krad blinked and looked up, "Hey… did you hear something?"
Daisuke turned his head to look at her and shrugged, "I'm not sure. It was kind of faint, though…"
They both stopped walking and waited to see if they could hear… whatever they had thought they'd heard. It was echoing a lot, with the annoyingly consistent sound of droplets falling onto the stone floor and it was still cold and it was getting rather tedious, not to mention it was just plain tiring…
As they were about to give up and keep on walking to who knew where, they heard it again. And this time, it seemed highly familiar; insults, yelling/screaming, the fact that whoever it was, was highly annoyed… who else could it have been?
"If that isn't Dark, I don't know who it is," grumbled the blonde as the two made their way to where all the noise was coming from. Seeing as there were no guards running or anything close to that, it was safe enough to tell where they were, and Krad did the first thing that came to her mind; she blasted the cell door open.
As luck would have it, Dark was not in the way of the door, thus he was not injured, although he was then close to being strangled by his blonde-haired friend, who was now screaming at him for being an idiot.
"I see you're still doing well," commented Satoshi blankly, looking Daisuke up and door for a moment, "And how did you get out of… wherever you were?"
The redhead, who was cuddling With happily at this point, looked up and smiled at the emotionless vampire, "It was simple enough with the right utensils. At least you didn't kill Dark while you were stuck in here."
"It was a close call."
Daisuke laughed at this and then proceeded on trying to stop Krad from murdering Dark, but it wasn't going to be for a while yet that she would stop trying to cause him bodily pain.
Eventually, Satoshi just got sick with the two's antics and merely dragged them both apart and then proceeded on dragging them out of the cell room, Daisuke tagging behind and trying to calm the two down, who were still arguing heatedly despite the fact that they were being dragged around by the collars.
"You're a loser and a weakling and I can't believe you are just so stupid!"
"Hey, I wasn't the one who blew that stupid door down or called those giant winged things!"
"Like hell you weren't! You're pathetic and I just can't believe it!"
"You said that before! And you knew that from the start! Just drop it!"
"As if! You shut up, you stupid prince-who-can't-even-wield-a-sword!"
"Watch it!"
With a groan, the redhead blocked his ears, but then stopped his mental lamentations of when were they going to end when With hopped off his head and bounced off in another direction. Over the arguing/yelling, Daisuke called for his rabbit to come back, but it didn't listen.
"With! Where're you going! Come back here!"
"Kyu! Kyu kyu kyu!"
Shaking his head, the redhead chased after his bouncing demon-bunny-friend, and, seeing as the others were still arguing, Satoshi dumped them in the middle of the hallway and followed after the mortal. They came to a spiral-like staircase that went upwards and, some few dizzying minutes later, they reached the very top of the tower, where With was currently bouncing on the window sill and looking pleased with himself.
"Is that all you came for?" asked Daisuke, scooping up With and looking out the window with a frown, "Well, we seem to be in a huge stone castle and it's a very far drop from here to the ground…"
Satoshi joined him and looked out as well, "Maybe we should just see if we can blast a wall down and then just get out of here. We have no reason to be here anyway…" he trailed off and they both fell silent as two huge winged-creatures soared around the place, as if on patrolling duty. "Or not."
"I have no idea where we are, though." The redhead frowned thoughtfully for a moment as they both began the descent back to where the other two were, "I mean, if I'd read it somewhere or something… how could anyone forget such a hulking great stone castle with only one window at the moment?" He got poked lightly in the side and he squeaked.
"Don't get distracted," muttered Satoshi, "This is a dangerous place to be hanging around in."
"Right. Sorry about that."
Returning to the other two – who were still holding their arguing match – Daisuke sweat dropped visibly and the vampire did his best not to join in because he was just that bit away from going insane.
The main reason for all the commotion was due to lack of noise and the fact that they were still lost…
… an hour later…
"We're never going to find our way out, are we?" snorted Krad as they all lounged about in a stony corridor that looked very similar to the one they had passed fifteen minutes back, "I mean, seriously."
"I TOLD you that we should have just blasted a wall and'd gotten out already!" stated Dark triumphantly. This just got wearied look in return and the blonde accidentally-on-purpose kicked him.
"Maybe we're going around in circles. But I don't know if that's really any help to us," Daisuke pointed out slowly.
"Kyu…"
"With, are you hungry?"
"Kyu kyu kyu…"
"Aah…"
Satoshi ignored them, trying to work out where they were still and if there was any way out. Okay, so they were in a castle in the middle of nowhere and they had run into NO ONE at all during this whole time. That made it very suspicious, but what were they to do about it? It was getting very annoying for them and they hadn't been able to find any sort of mark that would lead them to the right direction, and they'd been running around in circles for who knew how long already.
Oh, and they were all getting hungry, but that was besides the point.
"I suggest that Krad blows up a random wall!" Dark yelled, more to himself than anyone else. "Who's with me here!"
"Dark… you just keep getting stupider every time I talk to you…" was the only thing the blonde said and she turned away from him, arms crossed.
"Well, he does have a good point, Krad-san," Daisuke shrugged as she gave him a look that read 'have you gone insane as well!', "I mean, we're really not getting anywhere just walking around and I am pretty certain that we're walking around in circles a lot more frequently than I want to think it."
Seeing as she had nothing against that little argument/explanation, Krad gave in and nodded grimly, "Although I do have to say that doing this may cause the entire place to collapse, but I suppose no one really cares anymore."
"Yes, well, all I care about now is getting out of here, eating food, and getting some sleep," muttered the purple-haired teen, not looking very happy with the fact that Krad had refused to listen to him but had instantly agreed with the redhead. "Or the bathroom, that's always a good idea."
He got hit over the head by the blonde, "Don't give me a reason to blast YOU through a wall."
"… Fine."
As they all were in agreement now (some a little grudgingly, though) they chose a random wall to blast through and the other three took cover, leaving the blonde on her own. Concentrating for a moment, she mumbled a few words under her breath that the others couldn't hear, but it seemed to be doing something in the end.
Strands of raw power could be seen filtering through her hands and they flickered around, as if they had a life of their own. It looked rather odd, a little bit scary, and not exactly… well, it was just… there. Magic. Well, one could only think about it for so long.
Then they all forgot about it as Krad had just slammed both palms into the wall and it disintegrated instantly, causing a chain effect that meant every other wall behind it was smashed as well, leaving a straightforward path that led to the outside, which was still rather dark.
Daisuke's eyes widened as he stared, Satoshi seemed unaffected by the scene before him, and it looked like that Dark was used to it all the time and he just shrugged.
"Well, that seems to have worked well enough," Dark muttered, stalking over to her.
"Let's just go."
Not wanting to waste time – or get crushed by falling stone – the four hurried out and noticed that they actually weren't that far from the main entrance which was right next to them. Quite literally. Krad swore out loud before they all jumped out. Judging by the looks the other three passed to each other, they knew better than to comment about it in front of her.
"Kyu! Kyu!"
"Hey, there're the big black things that attacked us." The redhead pointed out, looking up right ahead of them. They all followed his example and they all watched with faint amusement as one of them swerved right into the stone wall and fell to the ground with a thud.
Satoshi shook his head slowly; with all the things that had happened since then, he really did want to go to sleep… or find something to drink blood from. He hadn't had any since… er… whenever the last time they were free… if you could call hanging around the other three could be considered as such.
"Okay… let's just go… then?" Dark sighed and grumbled something else after that, but they were all in agreement and made their way to the planes of the unknown place that only had a lot of grass and one or two trees somewhere far far away. Otherwise they had an undisturbed view of the sky and a half-moon; well, aside from the giant building behind, but that wasn't the point at the moment.
Some few minutes later – and some relative peace – they were STILL walking and, to say the least, very, very irritated. They weren't exactly happy, that's for sure.
Sitting under the shade of an exceptionally large tree, Daisuke, Krad and Satoshi watched as Dark proceeded on banging his head hard against the thick trunk, obviously incredibly out of it and wanting to… be rendered unconscious? Well, they weren't going to carry him, no matter what was said.
"Well, this isn't going to last us long," muttered Krad idly, closing her eyes, "Wake me up when something interesting happens. And that does not include Dark beating his brains out, although if he does end up killing himself…"
000
The sensation of being shaken by the shoulders was what woke the blonde up. What was even stranger than that was the fact that it was still night. Unless she'd been asleep for a whole 24 hours, or just a few minutes, it was kind of insane and she wasn't in the best of moods either.
"What is it?" she snapped.
"The moron went off and got himself struck by a meteorite," Satoshi explained simply, being the one to shake her.
"… Huh?" was all she managed to say, but since he was not going to give her a proper explanation, she merely shrugged and followed him a short distance away where Daisuke was currently trying to attend to Dark, who looked dizzy. "So what happened exactly?"
The redhead explained, "Well, there was a star shower of some sort and Dark was just running around trying to get rid of excess energy-" (like a dog, the blonde thought wearily) "-and he got hit by one pretty hard. Makes you wonder when he'll wake up… if he'll ever…"
"Oh, he'll wake up," she muttered mutinously, "I'll make sure of that. You two go and see where that thing fell. The thing that hit him," she clarified as they shot her perplexed looks.
Nodding, the two left without another word and that left the blonde to find a way to fix the purple-haired teen up. After performing a simple healing spell, she noticed that he hadn't woken up and frowned, trying to come up with a way to wake him up. Being who she was, Krad did the first thing that came to mind: she kicked him. HARD.
Dark jerked up with a painful yelp before collapsing back and glaring at her, like he had never seen her before in his life. That, or he was just incredibly angry, but she couldn't give a…
"I hate you." He grumbled.
"Well, so do I," she replied coldly, not the least bit happy that he hadn't thanked her for helping him out of a very painful sleep (he had been hit by something in the sky, after all).
"Er…" the purple-haired teen continued to stare at her, unsure of what else to say now. Sure, they could just go back to arguing like they always did, but the past week had really changed… things. And that was besides the very scary fact that it had only been a week. Oh well, they could deal with the time part later. And it wasn't like he was going to go home anytime soon so what the hey, it wasn't going to hurt anyone; save himself, "Hey, Krad?"
"What?" Oh yeah, she didn't sound happy.
"You could've just used CPR, you know."
…
…
…
…
Yes, very subtle.
Krad was halfway through braining Dark – blushing both out of embarrassment and utter confusement/anger – when Daisuke's voice reached them a few feet away.
"Hey, I think we found the fragment thingy we were supposed to be looking for! Come here, quick!"
000
Well there you have it; long-ish, pointless, highly confusing, and Dark is being bullied again. Dark bashing, hm? But look what they found. Isn't everyone satisfied now?
Only two more chapters left, I should say; the 13th fragment and the epilogue, which in turn leads to… well, I'll tell you when it happens.
Reviews:
Hakudoshi-chan: Whoa, damn! (stares back at it) You shoulda told me earlier! (sobs) Now I look like a moron and it's all your fault and… well, okay, it's my fault, and thanks for pointing it out (grins like a moron). And I'm too lazy to fix it cause… what would be the point? Aside from my stupidity… although if I could find a reason for it… I would? Whatever. Thanks anyway; much appreciated.
Devinedragon: Satoshi is… amusing? He usually doesn't say anything though… or is that why? (feigns clueless ness) Well, I suppose the fact that Dark is just an easy target for their… verbal barbs and physical punch bag, makes you wonder how he managed to live this long, huh?
Koway Oceshia: Heh, thanks! They all have their own separate (if not vaguely OOC) personalities that deserve to be credited! It's what makes them them and… that's the whole point! Isn't it?
kyo's little koneko: The will to live is… there. I suppose. And he gets out of the death-situation pretty fine, so… yeah. Good for him, but I doubt anyone's going to die… I'm too kind for that… (unless it's someone I hate or one of my own characters) Yeah, those two are really… interesting… aren't they? Or is it cause Krad's a girl now and Sato's a vampire?
kittenoftime: Randomness is a curse, I swear XD thanks!
neko-nya: Yeah, that's true. Didn't he go all crazy-like in your co-written slave fic whatchamacallit? Well, whatever, he's likeable enough. Violence causes pain and suffering and yelling and… yeah, it's also a great way to go off and hurt someone to solve the problem. Does that even make sense? I dunno, they can hit hard, from what I can remember. But I guess that's why. Intellectual arguments, though…