Disclaimer : Oi, me dunt be owning SCII, or any of it's characters, and I
get no profit from this fiction, however! The characters I have created are
MINE and if you use them, I will lower you into a vat of liquid nitrogen.
You've been warned.
A/N: Sorry for the long for people who actually READ my fic, but I kinda lost my inspiration, then I had no time, then I had lost the inspiration again, it's a never ending cycle! Anyways, Here it its, chapter 7 of an estimated 13 chapters!
Chapter 7: History Lesson
Takaishi and Xianghua reached one of the larger, independent cities after traveling along the Pilgrimage Highway. Unlike most villages, the city was bustling with street life. Along the outskirts of the city, farmers and herders try as hard as possible to keep up a flow of food despite the darkness. Traders from smaller villages flowed in and out with traded goods and guards stood like sentinels, watching for any signs of movement in the darkness beyond the walls. Torches and lamps lit in the street as well as carried around by people.
"Finally, civilization again!" Takaishi stretched out his arms while walking alongside Xianghua. He couldn't help but glimpse over at her occasionally. She was in her more casual clothing, her Imperial uniform tucked away in her bag. She wore her favorite crimson red shorts and tunic that made her look both beautiful and menacing if she had her sword out. Xianghua turned her head slightly towards Takaishi and noticed that he was glancing at her. She just smiled as he blushed and acted like he wasn't doing anything while they strolled down the streets.
"This place is bigger than I thought, where is that inn?" Takaishi thought out loud.
Some random person responded, " Over there-" he said pointing down the street, "- past that store." Takaishi bowed but the man just shrugged, not used to foreign customs.
"Hey, Takaishi, that building there. . ." Xianghua motioned for him to look, " It looks familiar doesn't it?"
"No clue, never seen it before." Takaishi bluntly pointed out, "Unless you're saying we went in a circle."
"No no no . . ." Xianghua shook her head and sighed, "Never mind, just never mind, we should check into the inn, then go for supplies."
They both checked in and got their room. Takaishi checked his weapons while Xianghua sat on her bed counting the gold they had left. They still had enough gold to buy supplies, but after that, they'd be broke, and they'd need to find a new source of income rather than Takaishi's occasional bounties and one or to odd jobs here and there. Once again Xianghua sighed.
"Somethin' bothering you Xiang?" Takaishi asked, looking up from his blades at her.
"I'm fine, don't worry about it, just thinking about things." She responded lightly, continuing to think about what they were going to do once they got to Spain, and the center of Raphael's empire.
"There's no need for thinking about our little adventure right now Xiang, we're pretty far from Spain, it's best just to relax right now and unwind." Takaishi said while plopping onto his bed to lye down.
"Unwind?" Xianghua sighed and started rummaging through one of her smaller knapsacks.
"That's what I said, Xiang. You're too tense, you really need to keep more of a clear mind when fighting you know, no better way to clear the mind than to just kick back and relax." Takaishi said as he put his hands behind his head and closed his eyes.
"Really, though? We don't have the time to relax Takaishi! We're both being hunted, and I'M the one who has to trudge into the heart of demon territory and succeed where others have died painful deaths trying!" Xianghua was near-ranting.
"That's exactly my point, Xiang. You're ranting on something that isn't going to happen anytime soon. And by the way, I'm coming with you, so you're not alone." Takaishi said while still lying down with his eyes shut.
Xianhua sat silent for a moment, pondering to herself. Silently she took her possessions from the knapsack and placed them onto her bed on the other end of the room.
"I'm going to get supplies." She said while shouldering the knapsack.
"Have fun." Takaishi responded.
Xianghua left the room, trying not to seem too agitated, but wound up slamming the door unintentionally.
O======I==================================================
Siegfried left his heavy breastplate and greaves, as well as his sword in his room and went down the hall to where Sophitia's room was. It wasn't locked like Cass had said, so he gently opened the door. Sophitia was sitting on the bed, cradling her sword and shield, and didn't take noticed of him until he stepped all the way into the room.
"Sophitia?" Siegfried asked as light as he could make his voice.
Almost instantly Sophitia broke out of her trance to look at Siegfried. Tears welled up in her eyes and she stared at Siegfried as if he was an illusion. Suddenly, she lunged out at him and caught him into a hug, small tears of happiness streaking down her cheeks. O======I==================================================
"Hard to believe this little thing is part of something so important." Takaishi thought out loud, while looking upon a now much large shard that consisted of several fused ones.
"Aye, it is, it's a piece of that blade I told ya about, at least that's how the legend goes. When the world is cast into the infinite darkness by the Shadowstorm artifact, the Nova Blade can break the darkness by shattering the orb. Tis' a simple little legend really, no one took it seriously, but just look at it now. It's all true." A burly man said. He was one of the Keepers of the Old Art, a now rare order that held many old folklore and legends, as well as several ancient artifacts. Takaishi had wandered around the city and found one of the old temples that the Keepers used as a "museum" of sorts.
"Aye, twas a lucky chance that we had one of those shards, lad. The legend said that once, a long time ago, a demon from the center of the world crafted the Shadowstorm artifact so that it could keep the world in eternal night so that it could roam free, away from its mortal enemy, the sun. Well, the gods weren't too pleased about seeing their experimental world being threatened by a being that equaled them, so they crafted the Nova Blade in response, and passed it down to a hero lineage. It the final battle, when the killing blow against the demon was struck, the blade burst apart, sending searing shards across the black skies, tearing holes of light through the dense clouds. The hero had perished because of this, but his sacrifice brought the world back into the light. None of the shards ever were recovered until the world was threatened by the Shadowstorm again." the man tapped his chin and thought to himself. Takaishi went back to examining the shard that now resembled a chunk of a sword.
"One last thing before you leave in search of the other pieces, lad." The burley man said right when Takaishi was about to stand up and leave, "Once the blade is fully fused, take it to the Tower of Heroes, where its hilt resides. Once you have the hilt and blade, take both pieces to the Temple of Hephaestus in Athens, only the will of the smith god can put the blade together." Takaishi nodded and left the building to meet up with Xianghua, who was getting supplies in the village market.
Takaishi looked over more maps while waiting for Xianghua at the inn. When she showed up, illuminated by a lamp, he spoke up.
"Look what I got Xiang." He said smiling as he held out the blade piece.
"It's bigger than before. What happened to it?" she asked, staring at it as it pulsed light out slowly, but with more force.
"Apparently the shards we find fuse into a blade, then into a sword. If we put this blade together, we could get rid of this damned darkness. Its more complicated than that I think though" He said while scratching is head.
"Really? Well don't you think that will be a tad bit hard? I meant, if it's a sword, we'll need way more pieces than we have, I mean, this only looks like the size of a dagger so far." Xianghua put down the basket of rice she was carrying to look at the blade piece.
"And how exactly are we going to find every piece? If it's a sword, there's at least bound to be fifty shards out there, maybe more. We don't even know the size of the blade. And we only have two shards regardless." She said, hint of skepticism in her voice.
"I say we should try it, how hard could it be?" Takaishi responded, but this commented only made Xianghua more skeptical.
"Oh come on Takaishi, think about it, pieces could be scattered all over the world! How would we find them ALL?"
"I dunno, as we go along."
"AS WE GO ALONG!?" Xianghua was starting to get angry with Takaishi's sudden incompetence.
"Calm down Xiang, no need to get angry, it was only a suggestion, and we could always use a weapon to wield against Raphael.
She stared at him then sighed. She started to wrap up some of the vegetables she had bought. Fruits and vegetables were rare without the sun, due to the stress-inducing task farmers had to pull to grow them. Despite the horribly high prices, many of the vegetables don't taste all too great, but still held nutrients. Takaishi went to his bed and plopped down to read a small note he had. Takaishi was still awake when Xianghua retired to bed, and he couldn't help watching her sleep.
'She has the most wonderful smile. . .' he thought to himself, 'What am I thinking, she's just my friend as well as my partner on this, I shouldn't be thinking these things. . .'
Takaishi continued to watch Xianghua. A silluette of her was cast upon the wall in the fading lamplight. Even when Takaishi turned in for bed, he took one last fleeting glance at Xianghua's innocent smile before killing the lamp light. O======I==================================================
William swiftly brought his massive blade crashing down upon one of the wolves head, freeing the creature from a demonic grip. Talim swiftly lashed out with her elbow blades, cutting and slashing any wolf that dared to close in on her and fending off others with a torch. This wasn't the first time the pair had been ambushed by some freakishly mutated animals, and each time they had handled the situations easily. These kind of fights merely annoyed Talim. If they didn't have to fight, they could have gotten to the next city. Their supplies were getting low as well. William's hunting didn't go well since most of the local wildlife had been tainted by the presence of demons that wandered aimlessly in the eternal night.
"William, this isn't going-" Talim jumped to the side as one of the wolves lunged at her throat with jaws open and foaming. "- too well, we need to get to a city soon and –" once again Talim dodged, and slashed the wolf's belly open while it was in mid-flight, "-get some more supplies, and repair our weapons."
"ENOUGH!!!" William let out a deafening battle cry and swept his massive sword in a wide arc, killing off many of the wolves and wounding others that couldn't dodge completely. The other wolves, even though driven by their demon-infused hatred, fled. Talim sat down and sighed, even though she didn't do much fighting.
"Heyuz. . . we not far from a town metinks, maybe we culd stop der, you know, rest." William said while staring off, trying to see through the increasingly think horizon.
"Metinks there be a fog comin in. looky." William swung a fist out and sure enough, he couldn't see it any longer. "Berry tick, don't like tick fog, no good for fights. Me don't wanna swing sword and hurt you Talim."
"Humph. . . we can't set up camp either, the wolves will come back with more, and if we trench in here, we might run out of food and water, not to mention kindling for fires." Talim said while observing as much as she could see with the torchlight.
"WE keep goin den?" William asked over his shoulder.
"I, guess so, lead on William." Talim said with a subtle sigh.
"Okie dokie!" William started trudging off into the thick fog with Talim tailing behind him with the torch, trying to get some limited visibility.
O======I================================================== Sophitia clasped onto Siegfried in once massive death lock. She was so glad to see him, after the events in Athens. Siegfried slowly and subtly tried to pry Sophitia off him, but to no avail, she just clung onto him. At first he was just agitated at her for showing such emotion. He always thought showing emotion as weak, but slowly Siegfried returned the hug.
"Siegfried. . .Why did you run away? Why? We were worried. I prayed that maybe you would come back." Sophitia said lightly.
Siegfried knew that she was going to ask him that. Frankly he didn't want to answer her, but something made him. He wasn't so sure what it was, but looking into Sophitia's eyes made him talk.
"I wanted to leave. I didn't need to be cared for, I didn't think I needed it. I thought if I could get the Soul Edge back, it would have healed me."
Sophitia stared at him, pity in her eyes. Her stare made Siegfried feel uneasy. Pity was not something Siegfried wanted, in fact, it was the last thing he wanted. Those who pity are weak, and those who are pitied are even weaker, he had always thought. Perhaps it was the Soul Edge's presence affecting his conscious, Siegfried thought as he realized his past errors. He was no longer tainted by the cursed sword, and for once in a long time, Siegfried was thinking clearly with reason. Sophitia broke the embrace and sat down on her bed as Siegfried took a seat in a nearby chair. Slowly Sophita wove the tale about the fall of Athens.
End Chapter
A/N: Yeahoo, finally got a chapter done. Tried not to make it seem too OOC and too cliché. . . .Well looks like I did a terrible job then! If you haven't noticed it already, the main focus is T&X, with other characters/couples on the backburner. I'll try and get the next chapter up with a little flashbacking from a Raph PoV and continue on with Iatiak and Seung Mina, maybe a bit more of W&T. If prevoked, I might write up what happened to Taki and where she is. . .but ONLY if I get enough reviews. R&R plz!!!! I need all the reviews I can get!
A/N: Sorry for the long for people who actually READ my fic, but I kinda lost my inspiration, then I had no time, then I had lost the inspiration again, it's a never ending cycle! Anyways, Here it its, chapter 7 of an estimated 13 chapters!
Chapter 7: History Lesson
Takaishi and Xianghua reached one of the larger, independent cities after traveling along the Pilgrimage Highway. Unlike most villages, the city was bustling with street life. Along the outskirts of the city, farmers and herders try as hard as possible to keep up a flow of food despite the darkness. Traders from smaller villages flowed in and out with traded goods and guards stood like sentinels, watching for any signs of movement in the darkness beyond the walls. Torches and lamps lit in the street as well as carried around by people.
"Finally, civilization again!" Takaishi stretched out his arms while walking alongside Xianghua. He couldn't help but glimpse over at her occasionally. She was in her more casual clothing, her Imperial uniform tucked away in her bag. She wore her favorite crimson red shorts and tunic that made her look both beautiful and menacing if she had her sword out. Xianghua turned her head slightly towards Takaishi and noticed that he was glancing at her. She just smiled as he blushed and acted like he wasn't doing anything while they strolled down the streets.
"This place is bigger than I thought, where is that inn?" Takaishi thought out loud.
Some random person responded, " Over there-" he said pointing down the street, "- past that store." Takaishi bowed but the man just shrugged, not used to foreign customs.
"Hey, Takaishi, that building there. . ." Xianghua motioned for him to look, " It looks familiar doesn't it?"
"No clue, never seen it before." Takaishi bluntly pointed out, "Unless you're saying we went in a circle."
"No no no . . ." Xianghua shook her head and sighed, "Never mind, just never mind, we should check into the inn, then go for supplies."
They both checked in and got their room. Takaishi checked his weapons while Xianghua sat on her bed counting the gold they had left. They still had enough gold to buy supplies, but after that, they'd be broke, and they'd need to find a new source of income rather than Takaishi's occasional bounties and one or to odd jobs here and there. Once again Xianghua sighed.
"Somethin' bothering you Xiang?" Takaishi asked, looking up from his blades at her.
"I'm fine, don't worry about it, just thinking about things." She responded lightly, continuing to think about what they were going to do once they got to Spain, and the center of Raphael's empire.
"There's no need for thinking about our little adventure right now Xiang, we're pretty far from Spain, it's best just to relax right now and unwind." Takaishi said while plopping onto his bed to lye down.
"Unwind?" Xianghua sighed and started rummaging through one of her smaller knapsacks.
"That's what I said, Xiang. You're too tense, you really need to keep more of a clear mind when fighting you know, no better way to clear the mind than to just kick back and relax." Takaishi said as he put his hands behind his head and closed his eyes.
"Really, though? We don't have the time to relax Takaishi! We're both being hunted, and I'M the one who has to trudge into the heart of demon territory and succeed where others have died painful deaths trying!" Xianghua was near-ranting.
"That's exactly my point, Xiang. You're ranting on something that isn't going to happen anytime soon. And by the way, I'm coming with you, so you're not alone." Takaishi said while still lying down with his eyes shut.
Xianhua sat silent for a moment, pondering to herself. Silently she took her possessions from the knapsack and placed them onto her bed on the other end of the room.
"I'm going to get supplies." She said while shouldering the knapsack.
"Have fun." Takaishi responded.
Xianghua left the room, trying not to seem too agitated, but wound up slamming the door unintentionally.
O======I==================================================
Siegfried left his heavy breastplate and greaves, as well as his sword in his room and went down the hall to where Sophitia's room was. It wasn't locked like Cass had said, so he gently opened the door. Sophitia was sitting on the bed, cradling her sword and shield, and didn't take noticed of him until he stepped all the way into the room.
"Sophitia?" Siegfried asked as light as he could make his voice.
Almost instantly Sophitia broke out of her trance to look at Siegfried. Tears welled up in her eyes and she stared at Siegfried as if he was an illusion. Suddenly, she lunged out at him and caught him into a hug, small tears of happiness streaking down her cheeks. O======I==================================================
"Hard to believe this little thing is part of something so important." Takaishi thought out loud, while looking upon a now much large shard that consisted of several fused ones.
"Aye, it is, it's a piece of that blade I told ya about, at least that's how the legend goes. When the world is cast into the infinite darkness by the Shadowstorm artifact, the Nova Blade can break the darkness by shattering the orb. Tis' a simple little legend really, no one took it seriously, but just look at it now. It's all true." A burly man said. He was one of the Keepers of the Old Art, a now rare order that held many old folklore and legends, as well as several ancient artifacts. Takaishi had wandered around the city and found one of the old temples that the Keepers used as a "museum" of sorts.
"Aye, twas a lucky chance that we had one of those shards, lad. The legend said that once, a long time ago, a demon from the center of the world crafted the Shadowstorm artifact so that it could keep the world in eternal night so that it could roam free, away from its mortal enemy, the sun. Well, the gods weren't too pleased about seeing their experimental world being threatened by a being that equaled them, so they crafted the Nova Blade in response, and passed it down to a hero lineage. It the final battle, when the killing blow against the demon was struck, the blade burst apart, sending searing shards across the black skies, tearing holes of light through the dense clouds. The hero had perished because of this, but his sacrifice brought the world back into the light. None of the shards ever were recovered until the world was threatened by the Shadowstorm again." the man tapped his chin and thought to himself. Takaishi went back to examining the shard that now resembled a chunk of a sword.
"One last thing before you leave in search of the other pieces, lad." The burley man said right when Takaishi was about to stand up and leave, "Once the blade is fully fused, take it to the Tower of Heroes, where its hilt resides. Once you have the hilt and blade, take both pieces to the Temple of Hephaestus in Athens, only the will of the smith god can put the blade together." Takaishi nodded and left the building to meet up with Xianghua, who was getting supplies in the village market.
Takaishi looked over more maps while waiting for Xianghua at the inn. When she showed up, illuminated by a lamp, he spoke up.
"Look what I got Xiang." He said smiling as he held out the blade piece.
"It's bigger than before. What happened to it?" she asked, staring at it as it pulsed light out slowly, but with more force.
"Apparently the shards we find fuse into a blade, then into a sword. If we put this blade together, we could get rid of this damned darkness. Its more complicated than that I think though" He said while scratching is head.
"Really? Well don't you think that will be a tad bit hard? I meant, if it's a sword, we'll need way more pieces than we have, I mean, this only looks like the size of a dagger so far." Xianghua put down the basket of rice she was carrying to look at the blade piece.
"And how exactly are we going to find every piece? If it's a sword, there's at least bound to be fifty shards out there, maybe more. We don't even know the size of the blade. And we only have two shards regardless." She said, hint of skepticism in her voice.
"I say we should try it, how hard could it be?" Takaishi responded, but this commented only made Xianghua more skeptical.
"Oh come on Takaishi, think about it, pieces could be scattered all over the world! How would we find them ALL?"
"I dunno, as we go along."
"AS WE GO ALONG!?" Xianghua was starting to get angry with Takaishi's sudden incompetence.
"Calm down Xiang, no need to get angry, it was only a suggestion, and we could always use a weapon to wield against Raphael.
She stared at him then sighed. She started to wrap up some of the vegetables she had bought. Fruits and vegetables were rare without the sun, due to the stress-inducing task farmers had to pull to grow them. Despite the horribly high prices, many of the vegetables don't taste all too great, but still held nutrients. Takaishi went to his bed and plopped down to read a small note he had. Takaishi was still awake when Xianghua retired to bed, and he couldn't help watching her sleep.
'She has the most wonderful smile. . .' he thought to himself, 'What am I thinking, she's just my friend as well as my partner on this, I shouldn't be thinking these things. . .'
Takaishi continued to watch Xianghua. A silluette of her was cast upon the wall in the fading lamplight. Even when Takaishi turned in for bed, he took one last fleeting glance at Xianghua's innocent smile before killing the lamp light. O======I==================================================
William swiftly brought his massive blade crashing down upon one of the wolves head, freeing the creature from a demonic grip. Talim swiftly lashed out with her elbow blades, cutting and slashing any wolf that dared to close in on her and fending off others with a torch. This wasn't the first time the pair had been ambushed by some freakishly mutated animals, and each time they had handled the situations easily. These kind of fights merely annoyed Talim. If they didn't have to fight, they could have gotten to the next city. Their supplies were getting low as well. William's hunting didn't go well since most of the local wildlife had been tainted by the presence of demons that wandered aimlessly in the eternal night.
"William, this isn't going-" Talim jumped to the side as one of the wolves lunged at her throat with jaws open and foaming. "- too well, we need to get to a city soon and –" once again Talim dodged, and slashed the wolf's belly open while it was in mid-flight, "-get some more supplies, and repair our weapons."
"ENOUGH!!!" William let out a deafening battle cry and swept his massive sword in a wide arc, killing off many of the wolves and wounding others that couldn't dodge completely. The other wolves, even though driven by their demon-infused hatred, fled. Talim sat down and sighed, even though she didn't do much fighting.
"Heyuz. . . we not far from a town metinks, maybe we culd stop der, you know, rest." William said while staring off, trying to see through the increasingly think horizon.
"Metinks there be a fog comin in. looky." William swung a fist out and sure enough, he couldn't see it any longer. "Berry tick, don't like tick fog, no good for fights. Me don't wanna swing sword and hurt you Talim."
"Humph. . . we can't set up camp either, the wolves will come back with more, and if we trench in here, we might run out of food and water, not to mention kindling for fires." Talim said while observing as much as she could see with the torchlight.
"WE keep goin den?" William asked over his shoulder.
"I, guess so, lead on William." Talim said with a subtle sigh.
"Okie dokie!" William started trudging off into the thick fog with Talim tailing behind him with the torch, trying to get some limited visibility.
O======I================================================== Sophitia clasped onto Siegfried in once massive death lock. She was so glad to see him, after the events in Athens. Siegfried slowly and subtly tried to pry Sophitia off him, but to no avail, she just clung onto him. At first he was just agitated at her for showing such emotion. He always thought showing emotion as weak, but slowly Siegfried returned the hug.
"Siegfried. . .Why did you run away? Why? We were worried. I prayed that maybe you would come back." Sophitia said lightly.
Siegfried knew that she was going to ask him that. Frankly he didn't want to answer her, but something made him. He wasn't so sure what it was, but looking into Sophitia's eyes made him talk.
"I wanted to leave. I didn't need to be cared for, I didn't think I needed it. I thought if I could get the Soul Edge back, it would have healed me."
Sophitia stared at him, pity in her eyes. Her stare made Siegfried feel uneasy. Pity was not something Siegfried wanted, in fact, it was the last thing he wanted. Those who pity are weak, and those who are pitied are even weaker, he had always thought. Perhaps it was the Soul Edge's presence affecting his conscious, Siegfried thought as he realized his past errors. He was no longer tainted by the cursed sword, and for once in a long time, Siegfried was thinking clearly with reason. Sophitia broke the embrace and sat down on her bed as Siegfried took a seat in a nearby chair. Slowly Sophita wove the tale about the fall of Athens.
End Chapter
A/N: Yeahoo, finally got a chapter done. Tried not to make it seem too OOC and too cliché. . . .Well looks like I did a terrible job then! If you haven't noticed it already, the main focus is T&X, with other characters/couples on the backburner. I'll try and get the next chapter up with a little flashbacking from a Raph PoV and continue on with Iatiak and Seung Mina, maybe a bit more of W&T. If prevoked, I might write up what happened to Taki and where she is. . .but ONLY if I get enough reviews. R&R plz!!!! I need all the reviews I can get!