Disclaimer: If I owned any of these characters, I would be too rich to even think about fanfiction.
The sun beat down on the five figures walking across the courtyard of hollow bastion. Any visitor to the castle would have thought them a strange sight, but the residents knew that the only strange part was seeing all of them in one place. The most prominent among them was Reeves, one of the king's chief advisors. He had black hair, almost shoulder length but pulled back behind his ears. He also had a thin mustache that bent around his mouth then went straight down. He wore a navy blue suit, a white shirt, a black tie, and formal shoes. He had the look of someone who had power and would use it. He walked with the look of someone who knew where he was going, what he was doing, and would bite your head off if you stopped him.
The next most prominent figure was Barret, a huge man, with dark skin and a short fuse. He had a gun grafted into one arm. He looked like he might have been a sailor at one point. He had a bad habit of cursing whenever he got mad, but most people who knew him over looked that. He acted tough, but was really a big softy on the inside. He would do anything for his adopted daughter, Marlene, even if it meant fighting a whole army. He wore a tattered green vest that was torn at the sleeves and had pockets along the front. Under that he wore a plain white shirt, also torn at the sleeves, and he also wore dark blue pants. He had a tattoo of an anchor on his right arm, and an army haircut. He looked annoyed, like he had better things to do than walk with the rest of them.
Next there was Auron. He was dark, mysterious, and pretty much a recluse. He rarely spoke to anyone, and then it was usually to criticize the person he was talking to. He wore a red robe, with one of his arms resting just inside the front of his robe with the hand hanging out. This might have been to trick opponents into thinking he couldn't use that arm. Or it might be just because it was easier to fight with that arm out of the sleeve. Whatever the reason was, he kept it to himself. There was also a sword strapped to his waist. This was one of the more unusual sights as he was the only one of them who had a sword. He also wore a perpetual scowl, giving him the look like he was mad at the world.
Then there was Seto. He wasn't a human, but he was smarter, wiser, and older than pretty much anyone else in the castle. He looked like he was a cross between a wolf and a mountain lion. He had blood red fur, plenty of war scars, and had yellow-green eyes that seemed to look straight into your soul. He was roughly 200 years old, and the only being to remember what the sunken castle looked like. He was only 48 when it sank, but he would never forget how many people had died because the amazing fighters of back then had disappeared when they were needed most. That was why he had dedicated his life to protecting the residents of the new castle, hollow bastion.
Last came Vincent. He was the guy who you knew on sight not to mess with. From his vampire-like high collar on his cape to his golden, claw-like left arm, he looked like he was a character from a horror movie. Not that that was completely inaccurate. Between not having many friends and having demons trying to take control of him, he had a pretty horrific life. His cape was red and slightly tattered, coming down to his ankles and giving him a vampire look. He wore a red headband that held back his shoulder-length black hair from covering his eyes. A triple barreled gun was resting in a holster on the right side of his belt. He gave the impression that he was emotionless and opened his mouth less often than Auron.
"Reeves, why did the king summon us?" Asked Seto in a calm, controlled voice.
"I'm not sure. His father never summoned us all before, but King Ansem is much younger than his father was and might send you on a foolhardy mission that has no point whatsoever."
"YOU SAYIN' THAT I MIGHT BE OUT HERE FOR NO REASON!" Barret exclaimed pointing his gun arm at Reeves.
"That's a big "might" Barret." Reeves replied calmly. "There is a better chance that he is sending you on a mission to retrieve something he needs for his experiments. He is trying to find a way to turn the darkness in people's hearts into something that will help all of us much more than just having anger and bitterness in our hearts."
"Play with fire and get burned." Auron stated in his gruff voice. "This is going to backfire, and the results will be devastating."
"Are you going to criticize the king on what he does?" Retorted Reeves.
"I'm just letting you know that I won't participate in this if we're going after an item that will be used in his experiments."
'How much longer are they going to argue? It's hurting my ears.' Complained a maniacal voice inside Vincent's head.
'Oh shut up Hellmasker, I'm trying to sleep.' This voice was much more gruff than the last one, and didn't sound quite as insane.
'You know as well as I do that you don't sleep Death Gigas.' Retorted Hellmasker, with a mocking note in his voice.
'And you don't have ears.' This voice, belonging to Galian Beast, sounded more like a snarl than anything else, but it had the same kind of maniacal.
'I do to, they're just hard to see!' Hellmasker sounded defeated. Then, with pleading in his voice, he said 'Vincent tell him I have ears!'
Vincent ignored all three of them as they continued their fight. That was one of the only ways he could keep from yelling at himself. When he was alone he would sometimes participate in the discussions, but when he was within a mile of anyone he would act like they weren't there.
When they got to the king's audience room, Vincent forced his "inner demons" to be quiet and to take notes on what the king would say. The room looked like it belonged to a rich scientist that spent all of his free time studying one subject and nothing else. There were bookshelves lining the walls, and there were tables next to every shelf covered with strange glass vials and odd instruments.
At the far end of the room was a desk that was covered in stacks of paperwork at least a foot high. About half of them were complaint documents from random citizens saying something about the sunken castle. Behind this sea of paper sat a man with silver hair. It wasn't the kind of silver hair that an old man had, but more like he had decided to die it silver. He was sitting with his face in his hands, like he was tired but couldn't afford to rest.
When they were all in the room, Reeves cleared his throat. The man looked up, revealing a young face that looked like the man hadn't slept in days.
"They are here, King Ansem." Reeves bowed out of the way, allowing the others to move farther into the room.
"Ah, yes, the four great protectors of the kingdom! Welcome, and please, take a seat." The king motioned to a few chairs that were in the room. They sat down and the king continued. "I am sure you all have been wondering why I summoned all of you here from our borders, leaving them more vulnerable to enemy attack." After a few nods from them, he continued. "Well, I have been receiving more than a few complaints from the town residents near the sunken castle. There have been reports of disappearances, strange sightings, and a rock that had inch-deep gouge marks in it."
"Inch deep! What the hell could've done that!" Barret cried, jumping up from his seat.
"That's why I needed you. You see, every knight I sent in there hasn't returned. I thought maybe you would be able to find out what was there and report back to me. If any of you have objections, than I would not stop you from returning to your posts. What do you say, will you do it?"
'Come on Vinny, let's do it. I've been itching for a fight for a while.' Once again, Vincent ignored Hellmasker, preferring to use his own judgment than that of a sociopath.
'Yeah, all we've been fighting lately is loneliness. Nobody in their right mind'll attack us anymore, and we've been cooped up in your mind way too long.' Death Gigas was practically groveling, which was hard to do since he was just a voice in Vincent's head.
Vincent ignored the rest of the pleas and listened to what the others were saying.
"It would kill the people's trust in the king if we decided not to do this." Auron clearly didn't want to just abandon his post to explore a castle, but he did bring up a good point. After the recent death of his father, the late king, Ansem was having a very hard time catching up on everything his father left undone. If his subjects thought he didn't have the trust of the four most powerful and respected knights in the kingdom, how many of them would trust him?
"I think we should go." Everyone looked at Seto, shocked. He always avoided the subject of the sunken castle, let alone the castle itself.
"Well if he's goin', I'm goin' too, and ain't nobody's gonna stop me!" Barret had obviously made up his mind.
"I'll go too. I've been by myself for too long." Vincent showed no emotion, but the demons were ecstatic.
"I'll stay and watch the border. We don't want anybody invading while you're gone." Nobody was really surprised that Auron stayed behind. He liked being around people less than Vincent did.
"Good, 3 out of 4. Auron, you may return to your post whenever you like." Ansem smiled as Auron bowed and left the room. It wasn't really hard to tell that he had been hoping one of them would stay behind. "As for the rest of you, Reeves will accompany you as the robot Cait Sith. Rest well, you will leave in the morning."
They all bowed and left, wondering what Cait Sith looked like.
Ok, don't hate me if it's bad. Just review and let me know.