Chapter 4
(Here comes chapter fooooour! Muahaha. I know it's mostly been focusing on Sheena so far. Because of that, this chappie will partly be about Zelos, as will many of the chapters to come.)
It was a peaceful day. The violet-robed ninja strode down a familiar path through the forest, though how it was familiar or where she was headed was unknown. This didn't seem to bother her, however. She was happy, nothing could ruin that. But suddenly, an ear-piercing shriek met her ears. That was familiar as well... Eerily so. As was the crimson form that was shooting her way, fangs bared menacingly. She tried to scream, but her voice refused to work. She tried to run, but she found she was frozen to the spot. The dragon showed no signs of stopping... 'You killed us all,' it seemed to say, though it had no distinct voice. Its voice was that of all her comrades combined and given an echoic hue. The ninja watched in horror as it turned its head sideways and sunk its fangs into her neck. For a split second, a pain worse than death was felt...
Sheena shot upright, covered in a cold sweat. She was breathing heavily, for moments ago she had been suffocating, dying at the fangs of one of the same drakes as had attacked her the previous day. After a while, however, her breathing slowed. The ninja soothed her racing heart, and soon the panic gave up its firm hold on her mind. For a moment, she wondered why she was sprawled out on the grass rather than at home in her bed… 'Oh yeah. All that's left of my bed is a handful of ashes.' She sighed, looking about her… And there was Zelos, not five feet away, cooking something that smelled deliciously like Omelet. Somehow, he hadn't noticed her moment of hysterics, thank Martel. Wiping the sleep from her eyes, she brought herself closer in to the fire, away from the morning chill. At this movement, the redhead turned to look at her, immediately plastering on a cocky grin.
"Good mornin', my voluptuous hunny." He addressed the ninja, who was currently staring at the iron pan in his hand with distant eyes. Either she was as fond of shiny objects as he was, or she was deep in thought. Either way, Zelos wouldn't be deterred. He pulled the pan from over the fire, offering some sizzling eggs to the ninja. When the object she was gazing at moved, Sheena jumped slightly, as if startled back into reality. So she WAS deep in thought. 'Oops.' "Eggs?" The Chosen offered and, after a moment of examining them skeptically, she nodded. Delighted that she'd accepted his offer, Zelos hastily proffered a fork from his bag and offered that as well. In silence they ate… Well, in silence SHE ate, while Zelos let his gaze wander about his surroundings. Hard as it was to resist, he didn't stare at the attractive ninja… Her last slap was painful in his memory, however long ago that was. Actually, it was two years, nine months, seventeen days, three hours, and fifty-nine seconds. How he remembered that, Zelos didn't know. It just goes to show that there really WAS a brain under all that crimson hair.
Upon finishing her eggs, Sheena seemed in better spirits, so he ventured a question.
"Where are we going, anyways? You said yesterday that you had business to attend to…" He mused, gazing at the ninja expectantly. Her gaze shifted from the fire blazing before her to the cerulean eyes of the Chosen.
"I'm going to find those that demolished my village. I'm going to find who's responsible, and I'm going to kill them." She vowed, and never before had the redhead heard her so determined. It unnerved him slightly… 'She can never find out. Never.'
As Sheena's voice faded into silence, she could have sworn she'd seen a shadow of doubt, of uncertainty pass over the face of the Chosen. But before she could be sure, that shadow had gone, replaced by his usual cheery façade. She pushed the thought away, sure it was just her eyes playing tricks on her… Like they had yesterday, forcing her to relive the horror of her village's fate as she lay near unconsciousness among the bodies of the fallen dragons.
"On my way through, I heard from some travelers that Sybak isn't as peaceful as it used to be. Sounds suspicious to me." offered Zelos, who seemed to be restraining himself from his usual perversion. After a moment's thought, Sheena nodded.
"To Sybak, then." With that, she rose to her feet, dusting herself off and straightening her disheveled clothing. She'd almost forgotten what it was like to sleep on the ground. 'At least it's not muddy.' She thought, attempting to look on the bright side, but miserably failing. She undid her hair, letting it fall down her back a moment and combing through it briefly with her fingers before twisting it back up into a bun.
"Aqua Edge." The redhead put out the fire with one of his weaker water spells, and at last the duo was ready.
This time, Sheena made sure Conicere was tucked safely under her ribbon before setting off. It took a moment for Zelos to realize they were leaving, and when he did he jogged to catch up. And it was like this that they set off across the vast field to Sybak.
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"Even BEFORE I was angel-ified, I had lightning-fast reflexes." Zelos boasted, having decided to quell his boredom by telling Sheena everything he liked about himself. Which, for Zelos, was everything. Well, nearly everything, but we'll not go into that, now will we? It had been nearly an hour since the Chosen had started his blabbering, and there was no end in sight. Sheena had spent the majority of that hour taking the word 'ignoring' to new heights. Now, though, a slight smirk caressed her lips.
"Hey lightning." She started.
"Yes, my favoritest hunny?" He answered, turning his head to the side so the ninja could be seen behind him.
"Catch." Suddenly, an object soared through the air in the direction of the redhead. 'Trying to catch me off guard? Voluptuous AND sly. Sheena, you're just PERFECT. Time to shine.' He whipped out his hand to snag the object from mid-air. The speed of it would have impressed any girl… Even Sheena, though only mildly. It would have, had the object not been Conicere. What was one minute a boasting, swaggering redhead, was now a whimpering ball of… whimper. The card, as Sheena had expected, had sent a pretty hefty charge up the arm of the unsuspecting Chosen, and he'd stumbled backwards in surprise. Even moments later, on his butt on the ground, Zelos was STILL trying to figure out how his plan went wrong. But then his questioning gaze came to rest upon the card. 'That bloody card again.' Even the sight of it brought back the pain of his first shock, and Zelos whimpered slightly in remembrance. He looked up to Sheena, who had just recovered from a fit of hysterical laughing.
"What was that for?" He whined.
"You wouldn't shut up," shrugged the ninja, and she stepped closer to once more retrieve her card.
"You could have asked me to." More whining, this time accompanied by what sounded like a bit of a bruised ego.
"Are you saying that would have worked?" Questioned the ninja, an eyebrow raised in skepticism. At his silence, she took that as a 'no' and turned to continue on her way. After a couple of steps, she heard Zelos rise behind her, hastily following and soon falling into step beside her.
"Hey Sheena?" The ninja turned her head to gaze up at the redhead.
"Yeah?"
"Never do that again."
"If you stop with the 'Amazing Qualities of Zelos'. Most of which were bullshit, by the way."
"Come on, Sheena. You're hurting my feelings." Zelos fake-whined, drawing a short laugh from the ninja. "…Can I at least finish? I haven't even gotten to the part about how amazingly sexy I am."
"Don't push it." She warned, and that left the Chosen silent.
For a while, fragile silence came over the field. While the ninja's head was filled with the journey ahead, the redhead's thoughts were much less serious. He was currently plotting the many ways in which he could try to touch the ninja in ways he shouldn't. 'If I sneak up behind her, and-'
"Zelos, don't even go there. Don't think I can't hear you coming up on me like that." The ninja foiled his plot from the get-go, and he heaved a sigh of disappointment. 'I'll never win, at this rate. Stupid ninja training... It gives you, like... a sixth, seventh, AND eighth sense.' After the sigh was carried off on the breeze, silence enveloped them once more. And they walked. And walked. And walked. And walked. And, just for a change of pace, they walked some more. After what seemed like an eternity, the Chosen could stand the silence no more. He hurried to come up beside the violet-clad banshee.
"Hey Sheena? Wanna play a game?" He offered, a hint of hopefulness in his query. The ninja turned, regarding him skeptically. In all honesty, playing a 'game' with Zelos was the last thing she wanted to do. But, for once, she decided to humor him.
"Enlighten me, what game has your twisted mind come up with now?" She questioned, but the redhead shook his head hastily.
"No no, this isn't gonna be anything bad. It's easy. I ask a yes or no question, you answer it. Then you ask, and I answer. Simple enough?" He offered, turning a pair of hopeful eyes on Sheena and awaiting her decision. She went over all possible rule-bending he may try in her head, and could come up with nothing exceptionally horrible… So, at last, she gave in.
"Alright, I'll play. But nothing about my culture, for even with their death I will not betray the knowledge of my village's ways to anyone outside it's borders. Understand?" Zelos nodded, agreeing to her demand, a childlike look of excitement lighting up his face. He immediately shifted into a look of deep thoughtfulness, and the ninja dreaded what his gutter-bound mind was cooking up.
"Okay, I've got it. How sexy am I? I mean, come on. It should be illegal to be this sexy." A cockeyed grin was plastered on his face, having backed the ninja into a corner. "And you have to answer these questions TRUTHFULLY." She was trapped. Or so he thought.
"Sexy? Maybe, maybe not. People would pay more attention to that if you weren't so busy distracting them with your wild and abundant shows of idiocy." She stated unflinchingly, and it took a moment to comprehend what she'd said before the Chosen could reply.
"You didn't answer the question." He protested.
"You're not ugly, how's that?" The ninja offered, and that was as close as she intended to get to any true answer to his stupid question.
"In Sheena-speak, that means 'You're incredibly sexy, Zelos! Marry me!'"
"No. In Sheena-speak, that means 'You're not ugly.'" She corrected, which drew a sigh from the redhead.
"Fair enough. Your turn." The ninja thought a moment. What DID she want to ask him?
"Have you ever liked someone? Seriously? I don't mean your hunnies, Zelos." A pair of sapphire eyes widened in surprise at the question placed before him. 'Why does she want to know, anyways?' But fair is fair, and he still needed to answer.
"I have. I-… I think I do right now." She never asked a name, did she? No. So he didn't offer one.
The ninja pondered his answer, trying somewhat desperately to figure what the heck that last bit was supposed to mean. Was he just trying to rub it in her face that he'd found a hunny back in Meltokio? That was likely it. She managed to ignore that little beam of hope in the back of her mind that told her that the someone he liked was her. Wait, how could that be hope? She'd rather be wed to a sasquatch then to have Zelos like her. Before she could get too deep into thought, however, he jumped into his next question.
"For my next question… Will you show me your boobs?" SMACK! A handprint in red was marked on the Chosen's right cheek, and he staggered back in surprise.
"YOU PERVERT! ASK ME THAT AGAIN AND I'LL SLAP YOU!" Sheena fumed, letting her bangs fall over her face to hide the red creeping into her cheeks. Zelos rubbed the offended cheek as it began to regain feeling.
"I wish you'd say that before you slapped me…" He whined, giving the ninja a fair bit of space.
"Don't look at me like that, Zelos Wilder. If you weren't expecting a slap with a question like that, you're an even bigger idiot then I thought." The Chosen kept his silence after that… for a minute or two.
"… I guess that's a no?" He ventured, though he wished he hadn't, for with a 'HMPH' the ninja hurried her pace and left Zelos behind. He didn't persist this time… To say anything to her at the moment would be signing his death wish. So, lamenting his mistake and cursing his tendency to ruin such perfect moments.
While she grew farther and farther ahead, she listened for the sound of his footfalls as he jogged up behind her… Yet no footfalls were heard. Her first impulse was to look back, to make sure he was still following, yet Sheena refused to give him that satisfaction, to know that she actually cared. She did, however, slow down to a more relaxed pace, the same as before Zelos had ruined the moment yet again. This silence lasted far longer than the others… Hell, it lasted longer than the others put together. But after an eternity, she heard that long-awaited foot-on-dirt rhythm of the Chosen coming up behind her. He came up beside her, and she turned to gaze at him expectantly, all of her previous anger having dissipated during the eternity of silence.
"I'm sorry." His voice was quiet, though Sheena had no trouble understanding his words. This is a first, a sincere apology for his perverted motives. But she didn't want to jump to conclusions….
"For what?" She asked, just to make sure.
"For all that's happened to you lately. For the destruction of Mizuho, for the attack from the Drakes…" Heh. So much for an apology for his perversion. But Sheena still accepted it as an honest apology.
"That wasn't your fault."
"I'm sorry anyways." He countered, and Sheena didn't particularly want to start the fight anew, so she nodded in acceptance. This was one of his not-half-bad moments… If only they came more often. 'Waaaaay more often.' "Hey, look! It's Sybak!" At Zelos's declaration, the ninja rose her gaze to the horizon, and sure enough, there was the faint outline of the city by the sea. She could almost hear the ocean, even that far away, calling to her, drawing her closer. So she went.
"Race you there!" She challenged, and dashed off through the grass. Zelos blinked a moment in surprise before taking off after her, though her head start put her way in the lead. And it was in this manner that they dashed toward their first destination, their first set of clues on Sheena's journey for revenge.
(Okay, basically another fluff chapter. The next few chapters advance the story quite a bit, so I decided to give you a free fluffeh chapter to prepare. Muahahaha. Tell me any mistakes you found. Tell me your favorite part. Tell me ANYTHING, just review! Hehe.)