Balls of snow flew about the area as a snowball fight involving Jet, Virginia, Clive, and Gallows continued. Jet had just nimbly dodged one from the marksman of the group while Virginia was reloading. Gallows however got a bad feeling in his gut and came to a stop. He scanned the tunnel of Blue Crane and looked past the modified sandcraft, and then into the dark reaches that he had only glanced at earlier.
"What's…this feeling I have?" He wondered aloud to himself.
"Gallows!" His attention came back to the snowball fight when one hurtled from Jet's hand to the back of his head. It didn't hit hard though. It was most likely thrown cautiously by Jet who wanted to get Gallows attention rather than harm the oaf. He and Gallows stared at one another. "Hey, I think I heard Emilia call your name." He lied. "Go and see her."
Gallows nodded. He too, knew it was a lie, but went along with it. He was not interested in the snowball fight anymore, and Jet realized that Gallows was having trouble concentrating. He was too. They both had a bad feeling about something, but neither knew what it was. "Fine. But just remember where you and I left off. There's no way I'd lose to you!" Gallows chuckled and walked off to the sandcraft.
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Deeper into Blue Crane, in a cave that branched off from the main one, stood the woman named Emilia and the mysterious man by the name of Aries. His tan skin stood out more than her peach toned one. Aries, with his jade eyes on permanent scowl, but his mouth in a grin befitting someone of the darkness. They each stood adjacent of the other, with Emilia being cautious at first, but anger and annoyance was quickly taking over.
"Why do you insist on bothering me?" She shouted, with the walls adding an echo to it. While it carried within the cave, the sound of her voice did not continue outside of the cave. Even if it did, they were a good distance from the rest of the Maxwell Gang anyway. "What is your connection to me?" She continued as he only grinned more and remained silent. "Why did Ed have to die?" She moves for Aries with all her anger and might, but despite that, she misses and he dodges easily by moving backward two steps.
Aries finally made a noise. That sound being the same laugh he kept on giving her. "Slow down some, Emilia. You have too many questions and thoughts spinning in that pretty little head of yours." He gave a smug laugh. "I'll be the judge of what answers I give and when," he informed her matter-of-factually. "You forget easily that it is I who is in control here, and not you." Emilia's only response to that is clenched teeth and her hand hovering her blade's hilt. "You ask why your love died, Emilia? He died because I wanted him to."
"Th-that's no reason for someone to die!" She sputtered in anger, but calmed realizing the truth: Aries really was in control here.
"No matter where you go, Emilia, I will follow you. I can't allow you to live your life happily, however, I also do not want you dead either." Aries informed here calmly.
She continued to swell with anger. Shaking it off as much as possible as she roared, "Y-You bastard!"
"Heh," Aries calmly scoffed, "Of course, you no longer can remember or know why I do this to you." He put his hand to his forehead as if in regret. "I probably should have just killed you rather than beat you up and throw you off that cliff into the sea."
"So…you're the reason for this…for everything I've suffered. For my memory loss." She felt confusion swarm her. All of her past two lives has been founded on one crucial part to her first one, and this was part of it. Her last real memory must have been some sort of fight with Aries on a cliff, and now she knew this. That she was beaten by him and thrown into the sea, possibly in hopes that she would die. But she did not die, and she survived, just to have her second life ripped away from her by him. Now…she did not even know if this would be the last memory of her third life.
Aries chuckled. "On the first death there were gray clouds, upon the second death there was rain, on the third there is snow." He muttered as if in a childish means of storytelling. It was obvious that the first death was the time Emilia was tossed into the sea of sand. There were gray clouds overhead that day. And when Ed was killed, it had been a rainy night. Now there was snow. Today had been the same day, a different year. Not the same day, but each day was only a few days apart from the other.
"Still…why…why do you do this to me?" She pleaded for an answer.
"You're still on that?" He roughly voiced. He rubbed his temples. "So many questions, so many questions indeed. Why do you have so many?" He muttered as he circled her. "That's it," he declared coming to a stop before continuing, "I've changed my mind. I will let you die. Just so that your pain will go away."
"The only pain I have is you!" She declared vehemently. "The only way I will lose my pain is in your death."
Aries just chuckled in response as he continued circling her slowly. "You're still the same ol' Emilia from way back then." He mused. "You just don't realize it." He paused. "Come to think of it, you also still don't realize that killing someone won't remove your problems." He finally stopped his circles. "Remember how you killed that little girl? More like slaughtered her. The same for the old man. My, those were the times." Aries remarked with a grin and a laugh that seemed nostalgic.
Emilia did not believe that she were capable of killing a child or an old man. She shook her head in disbelief. "I…no, I never did…"
"I suppose not knowing your past is the best. I'm sure that if you did know the mere memories would do more damage than I ever could." Deciphering the look in her eyes, the man with the dark brown hair touched his hand to the shinobi-zue sword he carried at the waist. "Come at me then, if that is what you want. I will warn you—since you've most likely forgotten—that I am a master of the Earth Blade. The opposite of your Sword of the Winds style you use." The brunette assassin informed the woman. To be more exact, Emilia did use the Winds style, but the Western Wind division of technique. "You take great pride in being the best swordsman, or in your case, swordswoman, but I'm not sure you can handle me as your opponent." Aries laughed out of enthusiasm. "We never did get to have a full-blown fight in which we really displayed our skill." He quickly chuckled. "I suppose now we will."
Without any more time passing the two bodies were in motion, darting at one another and drawing their respective weapons from their sheathes. The two silver blades clash with a ringing of metal-on-metal. Never losing speed, the two swing at one another with the same velocity, and each crossing of their blades is parried efficiently by the other person. Emilia moves back from Aries and prepared her blade for attack.
"Transcendent the Blade!" She declared unleashing the wind blade attack on her foe. Aries dodges the astral blade by going out of the line of fire, and then returns just as the attack hits the cave wall behind him, scattering the snow and rock to the air.
"Quake!" He roared as he touched his kissaki AN: point of the blade to the ground and swung upward. From this motion an attack life Emilia's previous one is produced, but rather than travel through the air as a blade of wind, this attack cuts through the snow, and is ground-bound. In it's wake a small fissure is made, not a fissure, but more of a line of upturned earth and snow. Unfortunately for Emilia, though, she is hit by the attack and thrown into the wall ten feet away from her.
Slowly she regains her balance and stands tall. "I…I…won't lose," She huffed, "You know that." The woman wiped some dirt and blood away. The attack had damaged her all right.
"I'm already aware of your persistence and I know you won't give up." He replied. "You may not remember your past and who you were, but you still somehow retain your pride and principles."
"That may be so…" The female explained, "But I'm not the same person you knew." Rather than use her sword for what it is intended for—that being, a slash attack---Emilia instead opts for a good old-fashioned gouge attack aimed for the gut of Aries'. The man however is quick to move the blade aside with his own as he jumps away from it. Aries quickly counters and slashes Emilia's left arm, ripping the long sleeves of her coat, as well as leaving a shallow gash behind. Her forearm now exposed to the cold air as blood began to leave her body slowly. "Astral Punch, ha!" Emilia roared as she let loose the punch attack with her now empty right fist. Aries is knocked back into the wall on his side of the room, but it is Emilia who takes a knee as she dropped her sword. On her back was a long jagged line left behind where Aries has slashed in an unseen movement moments earlier. She felt the pain as she clenched her eyes briefly. "I…I…didn't even see it, much less feel it."
Aries, now recovering from the Astral Punch to his chest, walked forward from the wall to the kneeling Emilia. A cackle just as expected from his throat. "Give up." He told her. "There may have been a time when you could have beaten me, but as you said, you have changed. " He made her look up at him forcefully with his free hand; the other one holding onto the hilt of his blade. "You have a heart now, and that only weakens you."
Emilia had given up. For the briefest moment, she had thought this to be her end. But when Aries said that her heart weakens her, she snapped back to reality. "I-I disagree." She replied, the wound to her back hurting with every breath. "This heart of mine…m-makes me s-stronger…" She changed her expression of defeat to a glare of determination. "I'm stronger now! Stronger than I ever have been!" She gets on her feet and moves away from his body. "School of the West Wind!" She began to move in a spiral. "Tornado!" In a large spiral design Emilia let off a Transcendent the Blade that mirrored that of a tornado form. It's wind and centrifugal force moved it for her foe, as well as collecting snow with it. Aries is hit by the intimidating attack and thrown to the ground, but Emilia collapses to the earth in exhaustion.
However, Aries soon stands up no worse for the wear, with only minor wounds and damp clothing due to the snow. His cackle and grin coming out once more. "Good show," he applauded, "but, alas, it was all you had. Pathetic!" The brown haired man laughed. "Now…die! Earth Blade technique number three!" He raised his blade above his head, as if in preparation to stab down at someone. "Stalagmite Chain!" He sent the kissaki into the ground, creating a line of stalagmites that pop up as the attack rips up the earth. The attack hits Emilia's body through the air, where it only then stopped upon colliding with the wall. The force of the impact, and of the attack, cause the walls and ceiling to collapse some, dropping debris of rocks and snow onto the woman's body; burying it. "So long, Emilia, my old friend." Aries muttered.
However, it was too soon to say that, as the earth moved and the woman stood, determined as ever covered in dirt and her body wet from the melting snow. She let out a groan, "I won't fall down now, just I got up."
Aries readied his blade and went to attack the weakened and defenseless Emilia. "Good bye, Emilia." He announced, but a reply in the form of a bullet hits his right hand causing him to drop his blade. "W-who are you?" He wondered as attention shifted to the tall young man who stood at the entrance to the cave with an ARM drawn.
Emilia moved her eyes to him. "G-Gallows? Why have you come?" She questioned weakly.
"I'm not about to sit idly by knowing you're about to die." The Baskar said with a grin.
"This is my fight Gallows." She said with pride. She had to win this alone, if she were ever to be of worth. This was her victory or loss, and she did not want to share it with anybody else.
Gallows simply stared into her eyes. "Emilia, I don't want you to die. You are always putting yourself on the line for me, so let me do it for you this time."
Still, Emilia was stubborn. "No, Gallows, only I can end this." She stood up slowly. "Sword of the West Wind! Gale Force!" Moving so many times Emilia is able to throw out many Astral Punches that make one big wind. All of the attacks hit Aries into the wall, scattering rocks and snow as his body was lightly imprinted.
Emilia grasps her blade, and with some help from Gallows, made her way over to Aries. The man with the brown hair, in his weakened state, looked to Emilia and Gallows with a serious face. "What…will you do now?" He wondered.
"I will do what I must." She replied raising her blade.
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Emilia was an assassin who killed many people in her first life. She took her father's sword craft and used it for evil practices, and even killed all others of the West Wind style. She was a ruthless assassin who shamed her family. Aries was another assassin who was a rival to Emilia.
Emilia grew a heart, and found the errors of her ways, and wanted to quit her life of being a murderer. Aries would not take that sitting down, because he, himself, could never have a normal life ever again. He was jealous of Emilia, and also under orders to kill her, and so he fought her, and tossed her from a cliff. He soon found she had not died though, and that she was happy, now with no memory of her past. He was angry at her, and annoyed, as well as jealous that she had happiness with Ed, so he took it away from her, just like how he took her past in their other fight on the cliff.
Now she limped, helped by Gallows, back to the sandcraft, still without exact knowledge of her past. She only knows what was said by Aries before their fight. She knows nothing of who she was in the past. No memory of her being an assassin at all, but that still did not make it any less true.
"You didn't kill him." Gallows muttered. Emilia had left Aries unscathed in the end. She left his fate up to him, and left, and unbeknownst to Emilia or Gallows, Aries had chosen death and committed ritual suicide. He had finally found peace.
"If I had killed him," Emilia began, "I would be just like him."
Gallows nodded in understanding. "That's what I like about you."
Emilia continued in thought and silence. "Listen," She began again, "Thank you for coming to help. I was wrong to think I could do this all alone." She said. "I just want to say…you know…forget it. Maybe another time."
"Right. Let's get you back and mend your wounds." Gallows replied. "You still owe me advice on women by the way."
"Oh, I'm not sure you'll need it soon enough." She grinned, and that confused Gallows. "You may have already won someone's heart."
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AN: Wow, that seemed long. It took five pages, and the ending was abrupt, since I left it unchanged from the original. It was only abrupt like that in the original NDS because I lacked any more space to write, but I guess I felt I didn't need more. I would also like to announce that I finally have gotten us out of chapter Nine, and into Chapter Ten. Chapter Eleven is so large it also takes up part of Chapter Ten, but only the last bit. I suppose that I will have three more story arcs until the end. There's the Devil's Hand arc next, followed by the Auriol one, the Adven Bok one, and then the super long final arc. I should reach the last arc after I write the next…six chapters. Let's cross our fingers.
Oh, and remember, Malebolge is not canon and technically never took place in this story. Just so we're clear on that.