"WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT ALL ABOUT!"
"Hmph."
The Blitzkrieg Boys sighed as Tala continued to rant and pace while swearing at Anya, who was sitting in a chair with her arms folded. They all knew Tala was referring to that little match where Black Dranzer, er, Branzer, made his entrance.
"Goddammit now what are we supposed to do about you! That fuckin' phoenix is dangerous and with you commanding it we're all fucking doomed!"
Anya, getting tired of listening to Tala's hysterics, brushed right past him and went into the kitchen where she knew it would be easier to ignore him ("by putting nuts and bolts in the blender" –evil smirk-) Tala tried to regain his composure, but lost it all over again when he saw the paparazzi outside. Getting even more thoroughly pissed off, he drew the blinds so none of the snooping bastards could see inside.
Inside the kitchen, one can hear Anya swearing very loudly into the phone.
"Fucking bastard, for the millionth time I... GET IT THROUGH YOUR FUCKING THICK SKULL YOU DUMBASS FUCKBAG, I AM NOT DOING AN INTERVIEW!"
(slams phone down) (phone rings)
"What the fuck is wrong with you dickheads!... THIS IS THE 7TH FUCKING TIME YOU'VE CALLED! GO FUCK OFF AND DIE YOU PATHETIC MOTHER-FUCKING BASTARDS!"
(slams phone down) (phone rings)
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
(smashing sounds)
Anya stormed out into the room with a mangled phone in her hand and flings open the front door where she is immediately greeted by a man from some news network, who promptly flung the phone in the guy's face and knocking him out cold before slamming the door shut again.
"Damn the paparazzi. DAMN THEM ALL TO HELL!" She swore.
"Dude, chill out will you?" Ian replied wearing a bored expression.
"I swear, if these fuckers don't leave me the fuck alone, I'll-"
A phone rings, making Anya'sface twitch.
"Relax, it's just my cell." Spencer said trying to keep Anya from totally losing it again. It wound up being a wrong number.
"Damn, you ARE psychotic."
Anya sat down on the couch and clenched her eyes shut, hugging her knees.
"Let's just say I had a very bad experience because of those fucking dolts outside."
Since Spencer and Ian were the only ones in there, they made an interesting proposition.
"We won't tell anyone."
"The hell you won't."
"Do you want to keep having us think you're a total psychopath?"
"I don't give a flying fuck about what you think of me."
"Seriously, we've been through far more shit than you possibly could have."
Anya sighed in defeat.
"Let me put it to you this way. I got famous, I got fans, and need I remind you the differences between fangirls and fan guys? Girls are obsessive, and guys are horny. You do the math." With that said she stormed up to her room and slammed the door loud enough to raise the dead. The two pondered a moment, then they realized it.
Back upstairs, Anya's hands went to her head as a splitting pain shot through her mind.
Hello my mistress. Crooned a smooth, dark voice.
Branzer!
That's an awfully rude way to speak to your bit beast.
In case you've forgotten, Branzer, you have 2 brothers that were here first! You should be showing them some respect!
Yeah!
Yeah!
Well, excuuuse me.
Get out of my head!
Black Dranzer laughed a dark, haunting laugh, making the pain suddenly drain out of her head but it was replaced by waves of lightheadedness.
"Ry... Kae..." She muttered weakly as she staggered a step backwards.
Hold on Anya...
Just try to hold on...
Anya's vision started to blur as her legs gave out from under her and she fell backwards onto the floor. Darkness consumed her as she blacked out.
-Dream-
The girl opened her eyes to see a hazy and misshapen world, the strange green liquid surrounding her causing everything to appear deformed.
Wake up 74986 DELTA. Someone's voice said.
She closed her eyes, too weak to respond.
"We're losing it! Its heartbeat is plunging!" Frantic voices yelled.
74896 DELTA clenched her eyes shut even tighter. The outside world was so raucous, paining her exceptionally sharp hearing..
Stop.
Her eyes shot open.
"We have a pulse!" Someone shouted.
The liquid surrounding her was drained as the glass around her was removed. She fell to her hands and knees, still fighting vertigo.
"Welcome to the world, 74986 DELTA."
Hearing a name she recognized, the project looked up into the loathsome eyes of a man whose name she didn't know.
"Dry it off and complete the procedures." He ordered a man standing next to him. She snarled at the person approaching her.
"She'll have to be sedated." The man told someone.
That was when she blacked out.
Anya sat bolt upright in bed, a cold sweat on her face. Glancing at her clock, she groaned when she saw that it was only 12 at night.
Wait.
Sitting upright, she saw that she wasn't in her room at all. Looking at her side, she saw Tala asleep on the couch using the crook of his arm as a pillow. The phoenix swung her legs over the side of the bed and tried to stand up only to stumble noisily enough to wake the sleeping wolf.
"What the fuck is wrong with me?" Anya asked as she sat back down on the bed.
"We found you passed out on the floor. I should be asking you that."
Anya said nothing.
"You snarl in your sleep, you know that?" Anya responded by raising an eyebrow, pretending not to know what he meant.
"Whatever." She muttered as she tried to stand up again. When she didn't fall right away, she managed about 4 steps before her knees buckled and she collapsed. To her surprise, in one lightning-fast movement, Tala had leapt up from the couch and caught her, putting them in a position that looked something like an embrace.
"Klutz." He muttered.
It was at about that moment that Anya realized how close to him she was and blushed aberrantly. Tala pulled her up to her feet. He was much stronger than she gave him credit for, much to Anya's surprise.
"Damn, I feel like I've been hit by a fucking truck." She groaned.
"No shit, Sherlock. You fell on the floor." He replied wryly. "Mind telling me why you lost it earlier today?"
"I'd rather not talk about it. Bad experience."
Tala just shrugged it off as he helped to walk her to her room, which was all the way down the hall. All of the sudden, he didn't seem like such an icy-hearted jerk. In fact, he looked almost... concerned.
What?
Anya shook the thought from her head as Tala opened the door to her room. It seemed pretty normal, but something still didn't feel quite right. Tala walked her over to her bed.
"You ok?" He asked with an unusual tone of caring in his tone.
"Yeah..."
Tala started to walk away.
"Tala?"
He paused and looked over his shoulder.
"Thanks."
He responded with only an "Mm-hmm," and left.
Where's Black Dranzer?
He's ignoring you at the moment.
The bastard.
Flattery will get you nowhere. Black Dranzer said with a smirkish tone.
Listen up Black Dranzer, you-
Anya, that dream you had, I gave it to you on purpose.
Huh? Black Dranzer's tone was unusually serious and... not evil. (?)
I don't know where it's from, but that dream you had is a key to recovering your past.
How do I know I can trust you?
You have my word as a phoenix.
Well, that got my trust.
When a phoenix gives its word on his kind, then you're guaranteed their word for eternity. Rycarraea explained.
Fine. But if you go back on your word, I'll destroy you once and for all.
Deal.
Little did Anya know what thoughts were lurking in the dark recesses of the phoenix's mind.
And when she uncovers her past, I will be able to take control. The plan is in motion.
Anya woke up to the sound of her alarm clock early the next morning. She leapt up from her bed only to have a scrape with almost doing a faceplant. Luckily, her reflexes were fast enough to make Anya catch herself so that she was in a push-ups position rather than flat on the ground on her face.
"Stupid..." She scolded herself.
Somehow managing to get over to her desk, Anya pulled out a black box from the drawer. Attaching several wires to her blade and then plugging them into the laptop, she started typing away furiously trying to find any glitches in the construction. It made no sense, how did Black Dranzer just appear out of nowhere? And conveniently when she needed him the most? It seemed too good to be true.
I think not.
She kept it up for hours, not finding a single flaw in the build.
Odd... very odd...
Downstairs, Tala was surprised to see Anya managing to get down to the bottom of the stairs.
"We need to talk." He said before grabbing her arm and leading Anya out of the room. The others exchanged confused glances, then decided to keep it to themselves so as to avoid a very painful training session.
"What the hell?" Anya snapped when Tala shut the door behind him.
"What is with you! One instant you're blasting Brooklyn with Black Dranzer, the next you're going completely psychotic over the paparazzi, then you pass out on your bedroom floor! There's something you're not telling us, and if you don't fess up soon I'm going to force it out of you, and I warn you, I give Blitzkrieg a new definition." He growled.
"What's there to tell! I can't even remember the first 15 years of my fucking life, and I'm 16! I can only remember one god damn year in my entire lifetime!" She exploded.
"HELLO! You can merge with your frickin' bit beasts, you have highly abnormal physical strength, and for some strange reason you have not one, not two, but THREE phoenixes all crammed into one fucking bit chip! That to me is 'something'."
Anya folded her arms.
"Look, the bit beast thing I can explain. It's simple, I was born with a gift that allowed me to do that kind of thing. Some bladers have it, others don't. The rest, I honestly don't know! I would stake my life and my bit beasts on that!" She replied indignantly.
Tala was taken slightly aback by the last sentence. To stake one's life on something was one thing, but for a blader to put their beast(s) at stake was like someone offering to shoot themself in the head.
"I don't know what's wrong with me, so just leave me alone!" She snapped before reaching for the door.
"Hold it-" He grabbed her wrist, but she whirled around again and smacked him across the face before running back up to her room, clearly pissed off.
Tala stood there stunned for a moment. Not once in his life, despite all the beatings, whippings, and other harsh punishments that he refused to venture into the details of, had a girlever struck him across the face. As weird as it sounded, it actually hurt. Feeling suddenly empowered, Tala stormed after Anya, finding her in the gym and beating the stuffing out of a punching bag.
"God. Damn. It. Why. Can't. I. Remember. ANYTHING!" She huffed between punches and kicks. "ARRRGH!" In one burst of energy, she threw a punch that sent the punching bag clear to the other side of the room.
She wasn't abnormally strong... something was definitely up.
Getting increasingly frustrated, Anya went back up to her room.
What's wrong, mistress?
Tala is what's wrong. Him and his stupid interrogations.
Why's that the problem?
I answered his fucking questions and he asked more which I don't know the answers to and got all pissed off even though I can't remember a god damn thing!
Well, that was just specific enough to work.
Anya ignored the youngest phoenix as she slammed the door to her room. Getting back on her laptop, she started hacking into any old Abbey files she could find.
Back downstairs, Tala was pacing furiously back and forth.
"Dammit Tala, sit down before I force you to, you're giving me a headache." Spencer groaned.
Tala shot Spencer his trademark death glare before returning to pacing and pondering.
Upstairs, Anya was typing away at her laptop. An idea had sparked into her mind, and it would help improve her blading. Little did she know, this was what would make all the difference in the story.