To Love Thy Enemy

"Azuril?"

"What?" she said softly, not opening her eyes or looking up, she could hear him sit down in front of her, but she didn't want to see him, she didn't want to possibly see more tears.

"Open your eyes, please. Look at me." she shook her head,

" I can't do that." she said, readying herself to fight her own sadness as the possibility of scaring him away, or hurting him, weighed heavily on her, she wouldn't look at him, she'd just see tears. "It's the same thing as when I broke down."

"What?"

"I hurt them. They'd done me a favor and I assume something different before I even bothered to look deeper into it. I broke down, yelling, screaming at them, and when I finally walked away...all I could think of was what a monster I'd become that day...of how terrible I'd been, this spread, gossip and whispers, and I heard from the rumors about me that they'd cried." she stopped, bowing her head more, hoping her face was hidden, tears were escaping, and she couldn't stop them, "...they'd cried, and I caused it. I couldn't stop hating myself...I still do, and always will, for that one incident alone. I'd die to go back in time and fix it. I'd do anything, sacrifice everything, just to listen to them, and see them smile, not cry." there was no response for a second, then she felt a hand on her cheek,

" what about your tears?" Damien asked, gently gripping her chin and lifting her gaze, her eyes were open and she was staring in confusion, he let his other hand wipe the tears away from her eyes, more replaced them, "did you cry too?"

"Yes. I hadn't cried in so many years, but I cried for them, I didn't think I remembered how, and part of my mind kept wondering if I was doing it right. But if there is one thing that can and will get me to shed my tears it is them." her eyes widened in surprise for a second when Damien pulled her to him, like a doll, a rag-doll... she thought, closing her eyes, they snapped open again when Damien spoke next,

"you cried during your nightmare, when you said my name. Were you crying because of me?" she sat in silence for a second, she could feel his heart beating fast, she could also early hear him taking several shaky breaths,

he's crying... she pulled away from him and then gently pushed him down so his head was resting on her lap, he looked confused, but closed his eyes and smiled when she rested her human hand on his cheek, "Yes, Damien. I was crying for you. Crying because in my nightmares, you were taken away from me...some place I couldn't follow, and I didn't want to be alone. I was crying for you." he shifted and moved a bit and wrapped one arm partially around her waist, pulling himself closer to her,

"thanks." he said tiredly, "I didn't want to think I was the bad guy in all of that pain. Go ahead, cry for them. I'll take care of crying for you." he said, she ran her fingers through his hair several times before just resting her hand there,

"I'd never even contemplate thinking of contemplating something remotely close to this with the girl you resemble, but I would cry for her, and die for her, and everything in-between, if it meant I could see my friend smile, Damien, there is your similarity to her, I would sacrifice everything for both of you." Damien grinned,

"nice to know I'm loved. Even when I was a girl."

"Anyone else who heard that would be terribly disturbed."

"Yeah, well, their loss."

"Damien, you are something different in every way."

"Azuril, wake up. We're leaving."

"Miko?" Azuril said, sounding quite confused, "but you were...and, Damien...but...where is Damien?" she babbled, still sounding calm,

"right here. Why what's up?" Damien said as he walked over to the two girls, "what is it, Azuril?" she just gaped, then looked back at Miko, then she sat still for a moment, very confused and frustrated.

but I just-all of that-what was-that a dream? Why the hell would I have a dream like that? I'm trying to get him away from me, not yank him into my arms. What is this! It's stress. It has to be. Yes. It's stress and he's the person I know the best here, my brain automatically made a freakish connection...like the time I had a freak nightmare where Lisa married my brother...that one freaked me out so bad I couldn't sleep for a month. This entire 'being turned into a video game character, stuck in a box for a thousand years, waking up and being tormented by the one person I hate the most, and having to travel around with these lunatics until I find that bitch and kill her, while dealing with the trials and conflicts of the journey itself' thing has defiantly done a good amount of damage to my brain. I'm even more psycho than I was before!

"Azuril," Bobby called from the front of the group, "what do you think I'm going to say?"

"I still want to know how you did that so quickly, it's kinda creepy." Damien said, Bobby shrugged,

"when I figure out the answer, I'll tell you." she said, then she looked over her shoulder at Azuril, who had gone straight to where she was told to, "you look beat. What's the matter?"

"A...nightmare again...that's all." she said, still unsure of what she'd seen. was it a nightmare?-ack! What am I saying! Of course it was! That's the equivalent to Genevieve we're talking about-a girl friend of mine! It's still too weird! A/N: authoress is not bias with the who 'chick freaked out by chick' thing, very on the contrary. Authoress is, however, freaked out by the odd image she has created, she is far too used to her friend being the way she is, and that includes gender, and all of that other weird stuff, if authoress ever came across a male version of her friend, she would probably go comatose from shock. Authoress didn't help herself any in assuring lack of biasness and irritation with biasness, did she?...hopefully, the point has been made... ( . ) ) she shook her head a bit to clear it, I was right earlier, this place is driving me mad-er...driving me madder! The next thing you know, I'll be helping the enemy, or blowing the wrong person's brains out, or going comatose or something like that! Well, I'll just need to focus more! That's all! I'll bite my tongue and try to bear it when 'Sephiroth' comes, because I know whoever she picked to play that role in her game will have a familiar face to go with it. Ok. I can do this. I really can.

"look!" Annakhin suddenly cried, pointing ahead of them, "smoke."

"Think someone's camping?" Zykan said, Skayr shook her head,

"not likely, with that amount of smoke." she said, then Bobby bolted, running towards the smoke,

"trust me, it's beyond a big-ass fire! This is too mush smoke to not be, at least, a few houses or barns!" she called over her shoulder, Damien and Azuril were off after her right away, Skayr close behind, then Zykan and Annakhin,

"you can't grow more or anything!" Zykan snapped, tired of carrying the small girl, she didn't answer him.

They looked around in horror, blood, fire and bodies were spread out before them, and entire town's worth of people.

"I hate it when I'm right on this kind of stuff." Bobby said quietly, Skayr kept silent, bowing her head slightly, her way of showing some honor to the dead in front of her, Annakhin covered her face behind her hands, already crying, Zykan mimicked Skayr, also showing some respect for the dead. Damien didn't move, talk or even breathe for a minute, then he jumped a bit and turned to look next to him at whoever had just let out a horrified gasp, Miko had her hands over her mouth in shock, her skin had lost all color and her eyes were wide with fear.

"Miko..." Damien said softly, touching her shoulder, she turned on him, crying and clinging to him, "it's ok. I know. It's just like home, I know. It scares me too." he said, hugging his friend, keeping his gaze away from the burning buildings, "we'll make it through this and make her pay. I know we will." Azuril watched the pair,

best friends...best friends there to comfort each other. Like me and Lisa... then she looked at the flames, sad to say I know what'll come to pass here. Our first look at the enemy... she thought, closing her eyes and bowing her head, she would show her own respect to the town's ruins and people, I'm sorry you had to die like this. For a game. Now, I have another sin to atone for. More blood to try to wash off of my hands. Unfortunately, soon, I will have to add your killer to my list of sins. she thought mournfully. all of this for a game? She's taking this too far, passing too many boundaries and limits. Involving my psychological and emotional well being was one thing, hurting my friends was another, higher, crime, bringing me out of one hell and into another was another thing, taking everything I've ever loved or cared for away from me and then tormenting me with it later is another thing, but taking a human life just for the plot line of this sick game is too much. I will cross that same boundary, when I kill her. She won't get away with this–huh? she walked into the town a ways, making everyone else spaz,

"what are you doing! Get away from there!" Bobby cried, but they all stopped when she stooped to pick up something, she stopped all movement once she had properly examined whatever it was she was holding, she swayed and staggered a bit when she turned to go back to them, as though she was in shock, her face was white and her eyes had widened in, what appeared to be, absolute horror.

"Azuril?" Miko said, worried about the other girl, who stopped moving when she stood about a yard away from them, hiding whatever she'd found under her cape, "what is it? What did you find?" Azuril shook her head, eyes unblinking,

"n-nothing. Nothing at all." she said in the smallest, most disturbingly sad and frightened voice they'd ever heard from her.

"You're beyond a shit liar." Bobby said, "what is it?"

"You...wouldn't understand...it's too important to me..." Azuril said, in the same small voice as earlier.

"Let's go put all of those fires out, see how many bodies we still have enough of to bury." Damien said, watch in shock as Azuril headed in first, "where are you-"

"I must find someone! Worry about yourselves." she said, then she crawled through a space between several broken beams

"Azuril, wait!" Skayr said, running over to the gap, Bobby grabbed her before she could go in after Azuril.

"Leave her alone for a while. She can turn into a monster if she gets into trouble." she said, Skayr looked back at the gap, then back to Bobby,

"alright." she said, then she followed her friend through the door to a, early standing, flame engulfed, house, looking around carefully for survivors, Bobby was controlling the flames, "Bobby, you are an alchemist, am I correct?" Bobby paused in her attempts to keep the fire down,

"yeah. So?" she said, Skayr put her hands on her hips and examined the flames blocking her path to the next room in the house,

"you are a flame alchemist?" she said,

"yes. That would be why they call me the Flame Alchemist, Skayr." Bobby said flatly, "and it's not just fire I can play with. I can mold everything, if given the right time, materials, energy and large boxes of cookies. I'm just infamous for burning things."

"Then 'alchemize' the flame away so I can move on through the house."

"It's not that simple. You know the whole 'for every action'-"

"there is and equal and opposite reaction. Yes I know, what does that have to do with anything?"

"Well, in a small way, that relates-whoa!-" she paused to stick her hand against a flame, then shove it back, "ok, in a way, that relates to alchemy. You can't gain something without losing something else of equal value. Thus the 'equal and opposite reaction' part of the formula. For every action, for every gain, there is and equal and opposite reaction, there is an equal loss. Following me?"

"Yes. I believe so, you alchemists live by a skewed version of Newton's law."

"Pretty much."

"Then how do you make things change without sacrificing something in return?"

"Skayr, is this really the right time to be discussing this?"

"Fine. Now 'alchemize' me a path."

"Bitchy, bitchy." Bobby muttered, putting a hand to the floor, the wood on the doorway molded into an arch over Skayr, leaving the doorway cleared for her, "now sod off, whiner!" she said, going back to the flames.

Azuril growled angrily, finally giving in to her better judgement and unbuckling her cape, leaving it behind as she finally exited the odd series of, what could be considered, tunnels of planks, parts of walls early in tact furniture and other such things. She coughed a bit covering her nose and mouth to avoid suffocation for at least a second as she crawled back into the tunnel she'd exited, backing out with her cape.

"I'm surprised it didn't catch flame." she muttered to herself as she buckled it back onto her, the high collar made it slightly easier to avoid the smoke, she still coughed a lot, though. "I hope this smoke doesn't kill too quickly, if I lose...no! I need to keep looking, that's all." she walked around the small, untouched, are she'd found, calling for someone that wasn't answering, and thus was worrying her further still. "You're still alive, I know it! Stop hiding. This isn't a game, come out!" she yelled, "no one..." she sat on her feet when she decided to let her legs give out under her, resting the mystery item on her lap and staring at it, unblinkingly, tears already leaving clean trails down her ash covered face, "should have stayed to say good bye to you. Not run from you. I should have told to all about it, about this. But I can't now. Why would you be here in the first place? What brought you here?"

"Zykan-"

"if I hear the words 'can you make it a little wider' one more time, I'm dropping the damn shield." Zykan hissed, he was keeping a large shield up around himself and his three passengers, not happy about it, but forced to do it nonetheless.

"That's not what I was going to say." Damien said, then he pointed off to Zykan's left, "I wanted to know what you think you see over there." Zykan looked where Damien was pointing, tilted his head to the side a bit, then looked at Damien,

"Azuril. Why?"

"What condition does she look to be in?" the blond asked, Zykan looked again,

"looks like she's out cold. Why?-ack!" he then caught on to his own words, "what the hell happened to her!"

"Why we go ask her that." Miko said, some sarcasm there. Zykan glared,

"watch it, or you'll the first 'human french fry' in our group." then he popped them over to Azuril's little untouched corner of the fire-filled town, Damien and Annakhin getting to her first.

"Well, she's breathing." Damien said,

"that's always good to know." Zykan said,

"she's cover in ash and soot. What was she doing to get herself this dirty?"

"She was looking for someone. That's what she said anyway." Miko said,

"She was crying too." Damien muttered, noticing the tear trails on her cheeks.

"This girl is way more trouble than she's worth." Zykan said, Miko gave him a look,

"so are you, but we keep you around anyway." she said flatly,

"cut it out before it begins, you two." Damien said automatically, "how the hell'd she get so far without strangling herself with that cape?"

"Well, we found her in a coffin, maybe she's already dead and getting her throat yanked at tight enough to choke her doesn't do jack shit." Zykan said, another odd look from Miko, Annakhin gave him a withering look, Damien stared oddly at him,

"this is what you think of?" he said, Zykan growled and flipped him off. A mall cough and sharp intake of breath caught everyone's attention, "I think she's walking up." more coughing,

"Yup. She's waking up, and she defiantly just early missed death." Zykan said

"You've dealt with death?" Miko said, Zykan smirked, fangs visible,

"remember? I am death." Miko shuddered,

"I forgot about that fact."

"Let's go find Skayr and the pyro, then work on getting this place cleaned up." Damien said, carrying Azuril, who was still gasping and coughing, Zykan raised an eyebrow,

"you always end up the one who looks like the hero." he said, Damien tilted his head to the side a bit, confused,

"what?"

"You always end out looking like the 'prince charming who rescued the damsel in distress'. And I'll be damned if it isn't the same damn damsel every single time."

"Shut up and get us out of here." Damien growled, not up for talking about romance, that area was upside down for him at the moment and just thinking of the words 'love life' made his head spin.

"Whatever you say, boss." Zykan said sarcastically, then they were gone.

When a building blew up across town from them, the group knew they'd at least found Bobby, she had a very blunt way of solving problems.

"Hey, Flame Brain, how's it goin?" Zykan said lamely when Bobby turned away from what was once a burning store,

"that was sad, Zykan."

"I know. But I had to try something." Zykan said, shrugging.

"Where's Skayr?" Damien said, looking around for the normally stoic girl, they heard the sound of boards cracking, then dove to the ground when a ribbon-like string of white energy whipped out of a pile of boards nearby, swinging around like a whip, sending boards flying, crashing everywhere, reduced to splinters. When they looked up again, Skayr was crouched on one knee, shielding something from where the boards would have gotten it, the ribbon thinning into nothingness as the white glow at the tips of her fingers died away.

"Skayr!" Annakhin cried, "are you hurt?" Skayr shook her head, then she looked down, most likely at what she'd shielded from the falling boards.

"I don't get hurt that easily. And if I do, it heals faster than your wounds would." she said, then she uncovered what she'd found, a small black kitten. "You're safe now." she said, soft and kind, everything she normally wasn't.

"it's so cute!" Annakhin said as she and Bobby joined Skayr by the kitten,

"don't smother it, you'll scare it." Skayr said, Bobby grinned,

"I knew you were all warm and fuzzy on the inside."

"I'll have them carve that on your tombstone."

"Damien, we can keep him, right?" Annakhin asked, looking like an excited child as she cradled the kitten in her arms, Miko joining her, petting the kitten. It took several minutes for him to respond,

"we still have a bunch of work to do here. We'll hang onto him until this place is cleaned up, then I'll think about it." the four girls smiled brightly at him,

"thank you, Damien." Miko said,

"well, let's stop dragging ass, let's get going, we have a mess to clean up." Bobby said, grabbing her boomerang from where she'd abandoned it while running inside the burning house earlier, she leaned it against a nearby tree, Damien laid Azuril down under the tree as well, keeping her in the shade, Bobby raised an eyebrow, "what'd she do to herself now?"

"Nearly died from smoke inhalation, nothing major." Damien said, Bobby grinned,

"you're cute when you're bluffing."

"Yeah, yeah, go get to work."

"Wait!" Annakhin said, putting the kitten down by Azuril, "you stay here and keep her company until we get back, ok?" she said, then she walked over to where Miko stood, eyeing up a large pile of boards, "she was waking up before, but she's out again. Is that a good sign? Should we wake her?" Miko shook her head,

"let her rest. If what she's been saying is right, she won't die. She can't until the game is over, if you wanna say it how she would." she said, "help me with these boards."

---

"Skayr, over here!" Bobby called, clapping her hands together, "ready!" Skayr wound up and hurled a huge piece of what was once a roof at her friend, who put her arms out in front of her, palms out, when she made contact with the piece of roof, it turned to separate shingles, falling all around her, she kicked at them until she'd kicked them all into the huge hole she'd made, which was slowly filling with things from their odd game of catch.

"So, this is what you can do, aside from lighting things on fire, and controlling flames."

"Yes, partially. We had this talk already, you gonna throw me that door or do I have to make a hole under your feet to get rid of it?"

---

"So, what's the current status with you and Vampire Girl, anyway?" Zykan said, getting rid of a good portion of the debris in front of him with an absent flick of his wrist and scythe.

"You'd better watch where you point that thing." Damien said, pointing to Zykan's scythe, "and I have no clue whatsoever as to what you are talking about involving me and/or Vampire Girl."

"Bull."

"No, I mean it. I think she is a danger prone, somber, confusing, melancholy vampire." Zykan couldn't help but laugh at that one,

"dude, you are so dense."

"What?"

---

several more coughs and she could finally breath properly, she looked around a bit, getting herself up into a sitting position, leaning against the tree she'd been left under. After several minutes of quiet sitting, she unbuckled her cape, letting it fall off to the side. She sky rocketed when something made a noise from under her cape, then it started moving.

"Wha-!" she yanked her cape away and found the kitten Annakhin had left there curled up partially on her cape, she'd buried when she took the cape off. She sighed and relaxed, letting the part of her cape that wasn't occupied by a cat lay across her lap. she looked around for a second, then panicked, "where is it!" she crawled around the general area, that was still shaded by the tree, finally, she found what she was looking for and returned to her original spot. "Here you are. I thought I'd have to go find you again." she said, letting her new prized possession lay across her lap on top of her cape. Several seconds later she was clenching her fist around her prize, "my own life, my friends and family's lives, the lives of all those killed for the sake of this damned 'game' of hers-all of them, I thought they'd left me with nothing left for her to take from me. But she took a new life from me. She is taking think beyond too far...she adds more blood to my hands with every passing minute. I could not protect my friends from her, I could not protect myself from her, and now, I couldn't protect the one thing that I took for granted, should have taken more seriously, something that I was supposed to protect and love. I was made to protect! I was to protect her, not because of who she was, but because of what I was supposed to be!" she gasped and choked on several sobs, holding them back, "I haven't cried this much since I made them cry. My heart is cruel. I need someone to at least pretend to care, to at least say they understand. Like the Pardoners of the Plague Years...I am as good as a plague, and she was a plague, the plague. I can beg for pardoning of my sins, can I not?" the kitten crawled onto her lap, settling down on the object of interest to Azuril. She was about to move the cat when she paused, thinking on something, Pardoner. The little black kitten from The House on Hound Hill. Seth's cat was named Pardoner. Well, this makes some bit of ironic sense. I'm begging for pardons for my sins and a little black kitten decides to answer, Seth's kitten, Pardoner. This fucked up hell has too many parallels. I will so enjoy killing her for all of this copyright infringement. the kitten mewed and Azuril blinked a bit, staring down at it, then she relaxed and started petting it. "I don't suppose you have a name?" a purr was her only answer, why did I expect a response? she thought lamely, then she focused on the cat again, "well then, may I name you?" another purr, "I will take that as a 'yes'."

---

"Miko, look, Azuril's awake." Annakhin said, pointing to the tree Azuril was sitting under. Miko looked at the girl being spoken of and grinned,

"she found our friend. And I think he likes her." she said, meaning the kitten.

"Should we tell the others she's up?"

"No, again, let's let her be for I bit."

---

"what do you think of the name 'Pardoner'? Is it to your liking?" Azuril said, the kitten mewed again, still purring loudly as she stroked its plush fur, "please, even if it's only once, live up to your name for me..."

"So, what's the current status with you and Vampire Girl, anyway?"

"You'd better watch where you point that thing. And I have no clue whatsoever as to what you are talking about involving me and/or Vampire Girl."

"Bull."

"No, I mean it. I think she is a danger prone, somber, confusing, melancholy vampire."

"dude, you are so dense."

"What?"

"What? Damien? Zykan?" she caught sight of the two boys heading past the pile of debris that Annakhin and Miko were working on. "What are they-ah!" she started to stand up but was forced back down by a large amount of tiny pin pricks on her leg, she looked down and realized Pardoner was still on her lap, he'd sunk his claws into her leg to get a grip on staying where he was. "I'm sorry, my friend." she said, settling back down and resuming her petting him.

"You know that's all foreplay." Zykan said, Cheshire Cat grin on his face

"I am not having this conversation with you." Damien said, glaring at Zykan, who put his hands up in false defeat,

"hey, I tell it like I see it."

"Well, someone should gouge your eyes out."

"Look, dude, getting back to you and your shit love-life." Damien growled and glared, "cool it, pal. You've gotta have something resembling this talk with someone at some point, and would you rather it be Miko or maybe Skayr?" Damien shuddered, shaking his head, "then shut up and lemme talk. Ok, about the Vampire," unknown to them, Azuril twitched at that,

I'll shoot him...

"you know all that shit she's dishing out to ya's just foreplay, right?" Azuril blanched, did a double-take, then started checking the ammo in her gun,

he will die, slowly and painfully. 'Foreplay' my ass. If I want something I walk up to it, shoot its current owner, and take it, no fuckin foreplay.

"what?" Damien said, sounding completely unconvinced. Zykan was still grinning like the Cheshire Cat, "What the hell do you mean 'foreplay'? You know her, she goes for the direct approach. Azuril sees, Azuril likes, Azuril shoots owner of wanted item, Azuril takes item. No foreplay there. Besides, like I said earlier, I don't think it'd work anyway."

"Oh? And why's that, Romeo?"

"I told you already, I think she is a danger prone, confusing, manic-depressive-"

how did he know that?

"-and completely un-controllable and un-predictable Vampire."

He's dead too.

"again, foreplay. She just needs to get laid." Damien tripped over his own feet and fell over at that, Azuril sat on her gun to avoid and conquer the odd urge to use it she was having.

"What!" Damien cried as he staggered to his feet.

"You heard me. Flat out, man. She just needs, at the least, ten minutes alone in and alley with some guy."

must...resist...urge...to kill...

"Jesusrich, man! You are a freak!" Damien cried, staring bug-eyed at Zykan, who looked quite non-challaunt about it all, though his composure faltered when he got a look at the expression on Damien's face.

"Why yes I am. And, if it's freaking you out that bad, dude, you need to get laid too."

"I swear it, two more words about that and I'll-"

"you'll what with a face the same color as a tomato? I highly doubt you'd be concentrating on killing me. More like, trying to hide from the Vampire."

losing...battle...to not...kill...

"that was a nightmare that damn scene a while ago, and now you're laughing at me about it!-Again!"

"Um...yeah. Yeah, I am." Zykan said, clearly trying not to laugh. He twirled his scythe around like a kendo stick, then leaned against it, "ok, the closing statement of our little talk, Tomato Boy, is that you need to shack-up the Vampire. And fast. You'll lose your nerve if you wait too long...and too many more incidents like that first one and you may lose something besides your nerve." then he jumped back a few feet when Damien dove at him, continuing the chase for a while, then getting bored with it, tripping Damien with his scythe, then walking away, "just do it and get it over with, or pop into a strip joint..." were his parting words. Damien sat on the ground swearing for a minute, then looked up, confused, when he heard a kitten's mew, Azuril was coached down in front of him, Pardoner managing to climb up onto her head and look at Damien from his perch.

"Hi." he said, mentally praying that she'd at least give him a five second head start before she started shooting at him.

"Hi." she said, Pardoner mewed again,

"you found the cat."

"His name is Pardoner."

"'Pardoner'?"

"Yes. Far back, in the thirteen, fourteen and sixteen, even nineteen hundreds, there was a plague that swept over most of, what I would call, one third of the planet. It killed slowly. Black or purplish sores appeared, mainly, only to see how you will react, in the armpits and groin." she had to pause to hold back a small laugh at the slightly green tint his skin had taken on as he made an odd face at that thought, "puss and blood were very easy to find as well, that's partially where the technique of blood-letting was used. While the body was eaten away on the outside, the disease took its tole on the innards as well. We won't go into that area. Fleas and rats spread it, then anyone you came into contact with, during or after the incubation period, forming of, the disease, might infect you. The disease destroyed several nations throughout very early history. The strange black sores are where they got the name and nick-name for the plague. The sores came to be known as buboes, thus the name became 'bubonic plague. The color of the sores gave it one of the most infamous names if that time. It was called the Black Death."

"Um, ok, ew." Miko said as she and Annakhin joined in the conversation, "Damien what exactly did we walk in on?"

"One of the most disgusting things I've heard yet...and I've heard a lot, believe you me." Zykan said. Azuril twitched, beating down the urge to throttle him.

"Well, I asked why she named the cat-"

"you named him?" Annakhin said, looking at Azuril, who still had Pardoner on her head,

"yes. I did." she said, Pardoner mewed, as though backing her statement.

"Well, what did you name him that ended out leading to that weird blah?" Miko said, Bobby and Skayr were joining them now,

"hey, she's up, so's the cat." Bobby said, Skayr nodded,

"he seems to like her well enough. Have you named him?"

"Yeah, she did we're just waiting to hear what she named him." Zykan said, Damien shook his head,

"don't ask her to repeat her story, and the cat's name is Pardoner." he said.

"'Pardoner'?" Annakhin mirrored,

"Why?" Miko said,

"it's a long story that I will cut short-"

"oh, sure leave them their appetites, I've lost mine!" Zykan said, Bobby gave him an odd look,

"I eat all your food anyway, why are you bitching?" she said. Skayr knocked her lightly on the back of the head, "ow! Oh, Azuril."

"Yes, well. I will cut the story short, in the past, there was a plague that wiped out about one third of the planet, and in some areas, while the sick waited to die, they wished to have a priest pray for them and pardon their sins, but the priests weren't going near the ill, for reasons I will not repeat, but mainly because any type of contact with anything carrying the disease would spell out your own death, the priests sent out people from the churches to walk through the streets to each of the ill who begged for pardons and pray for them. Because of that they were called Pardoners. Pardoner and I have our reasons for his name, but it comes from someone who forgives sin. Now, since we are speaking of pardons, have the dead here been gathered? And are you sure all of the bodies are there?" she was seemingly quizzing them right away after a rather grisly and dark story about the past, walking away as though the past was nothing to her.

"Yes. We gathered the bodies. We laid them out and we were going to start digging a grave for them-" Skayr started, Azuril interrupted,

"a mass grave? No identification or memorial for each of them separately?" she asked, she'd put her cape back on before going over to Damien and, now that she was facing the remains of the town, looking sadly at the corpses she'd blamed herself for killing, they were reminded somewhat of her story, something dark that wiped out many people, someone who would give people hope with their pardons, both in one in front of a mass of victims of the darker half, "no. even if I must do it myself, no mass grave will be made for them. They deserve to be buried each with their own names, not melded with many others. My way of begging for their pardoning of my sins." the lighter half of what stood before them.

"She is the same thing she told us about." Zykan said, Miko and Bobby nodded,

"a saint and a sinner." Skayr commented, Annakhin gave a tiny nod, Damien finally stood up,

"alright. Let's get digging. We have a lot of work cut out for us." he said.

"Wait," Bobby said, "now that I'm on a roll, lemme do it!" she said, then she clapped her hands together, then slammed them, palms down, onto the dirt, the ground shook the slightest bit and the bodies slowly sunk into holes that had taken far too much work to properly organize. "There we go."

"Wait!" Azuril said suddenly, "let me go through and see them all first. I must be sure of something."

"Whatever floats your boat." Bobby said with a shrug. Azuril walked slowly up and down each row of open graves, becoming more and more frustrated as she went on. Annakhin, meanwhile, looked back at the tree Azuril and Pardoner had been under, noticing something lying there. She walked over and picked it up, becoming very confused at it,

"what is this?" she muttered, then she walked back over by the rest of the group, holding out the object Azuril had been clinging to the entire time they'd been at the town. "What do you think it's for?" it was an old, tattered cloth, made of the same material a baby's blanket might be made from, a soft, sort of stuffed animal like rabbit head was at the top, made like a baby's toy,

"It's a...bunny...rag thingy?" Bobby tried. Then possibly the loudest noise they'd heard since they got there occurred, Azuril let out a horrified shriek,

"Don't touch it!" she screamed, practically diving on Annakhin, Zykan catching Pardoner as he pulled a suicide jump off of Azuril's head before she dove at Annakhin. The smaller girl staggered back, looking rattled,

"Azuril, what the hell was that about!" Bobby snapped, then she blinked a bit in confusion, everyone staring as she just sat still on the ground, holding the tattered cloth tightly to her, giving them a slightly possessive glare,

"don't touch it..." she said in a small voice. Pardoner wriggled free from Zykan's hold, running over to Azuril, pawing at her until she sat with her legs crossed so he could crawl onto her lap and curl up there. He started purring right away, seemingly calming her down with the sound, she sighed and started to pet him, still holding the cloth to her as though it was vital to her living.

"I think I speak for all of us here when I say 'what the hell just happened'?" Zykan said,

"That is a good question." Damien said. Everyone jumped when Azuril spoke again,

"my apologies, all of you. I...you wouldn't...understand...Bobby, I didn't find what I was looking for. You may finish what you started." she said, scooping Pardoner up gently and carrying him back over to the tree she'd originally been under, she put him down, unbuckled her cape and folded it up, sitting cross-legged on the grass, putting her cape on her lap and Pardoner on top of her cape, giving him something softer to lay on than just her legs. She started petting him, still gripping the cloth tightly.

"What's so special about that thing?" Miko said, Damien shrugged,

"you guys finish the graves, I'll go take to her." he said, then he turned around and flipped Zykan off when he felt the trickster jab him in the back with his scythe, "prick!" then he stormed away, Zykan cackling evilly. "Jackass." then he stopped in front of Azuril, "hi."

"Hi." she didn't acknowledge him beyond that though. Pardoner lifted his gaze and made a small mew, most likely his recognition of Damien's presence.

"So, what is that thing?"

"Nothing you need to be concerned about."

"Azuril, I'm sorry, for whatever it is that's happened to you now. I've lost things too because of Angela. I'd been in love with her. But, you weren't ever in that boat with anyone, were you?"

"Oh, no, how could I have been? I'm just a manic-depressive vampire who desperately needs to get laid." Damien cringed,

"so, you heard that all, huh?"

"Loud and clear."

"Uhh...I um...you see I-"

"forget it."

"What?" he said, confused now,

"You were right earlier, Damien. We would not fit together, it wasn't meant to be, whether you or anyone else thinks so or not. We were meant to join up, kill Angela and part ways with no questions asked, not fall in love with one another and let emotions get in our way. I cannot let that happen, I want this done quickly. I cannot afford to lose that goal just because I love someone. I'm doing this to avenge those that I loved, that is all. I shouldn't have strayed from that path at all. I am sorry to have led you on, Damien. I will not do so again."

"But, what would those you loved say? Would they say 'make yourself miserable while you have the chance to change it all'?" Damien asked, kneeling down next to her, "would they want you to be this torn up?" she shook her head,

"no. no, they would not. But if they were in my place, I know they would feel the same things I am. And I know they would blame themselves, just as I do myself."

"Why blame yourself for something you had no control over?"

"Because I should have stopped her sooner. Angela took my friends first, and she knew the effect it would have on me. I still can't fill that empty spot where they once were. Therefore, I will try to fill it with all of the sins I have piled on my shoulders, and then try to empty it again."

"You're trying to make yourself this sad, just so you can feel a little better every time we do something right?"

"If that's the way you wish to put it then fine. That is what I am doing." she watched Pardoner sleep for a moment, then closed her eyes, "now, ironically, I have someone to help pardon my sins as I attempt to repent. My cousin would be proud of me for mentioning so much about religion." then she noticed Damien looking at the cloth rabbit she held with her. "Does this interest you?" he snapped out of his odd stare,

"no, it's just...not something I expected you to be so touchy about."

"It...belonged to someone else. I finally have something to remind me of my time, of my life. I don't want to lose it. That is all."

"I'll tell the others to leave it alone then."

"Thank you, Damien."

"No, not another." Bobby said, they'd come across several demolished towns, all of them had something laying around that made Azuril spaz and dive at. So far, they had the cloth from the first town, a soccer jersey, which was burned and singed from the flames, the one before this one had a broken porcelain fairy, now, this village had nothing, that sent Damien, Bobby and Skayr running into the flames, Bobby's pyro-abilities coming in handy, searching frantically.

"How does she hide so well everywhere she goes?" Bobby said, Damien shrugged,

"who knows? Let's just find her." the search was short, she found them, clutching at her left arm,

"I'd forgotten...it's burning hot...I can't move it." she said, giving them a pitiful look, Bobby grabbed her by her right arm and yanked her closer to the group.

"You nut-case! What were you thinking!" she snapped, Azuril looked away from her,

"there's nothing here...all of the people are dead as well...this is a recent attack, we just early missed whoever did it." she said, using the emotionless voice she normally did.

"Let's go." Skayr said, pushing Bobby lightly. When they returned to Miko, Zykan and Annakhin, they allowed Azuril to fall to her knees, still having trouble with avoiding burning herself with her own arm, she was breathing in sharp gasps now, looking both relieved and worried,

"nothing was there. Is that...can that mean-or maybe it's..." Pardoner jumped out of Annakhin's arms and ran over to Azuril, nudging her leg with his head, she started petting him, still trying to keep her left arm away from her, and now Pardoner. "You may have to forgive me yet again, my friend." she said, they figured she was speaking to Pardoner, who she talked to and spent time with the most. Bobby clapped her hands together, put her hands against the grass, and waited for a second, then the dirt under the burning village shook like waves on the ocean, then finally, the village sunk into the dirt, leaving nothing there.

"Sorry, but we can't take time to put the bodies of the dead in their own marked holes." she said, "Zykan, can you help Azuril with her arm before she accidently fries the cat?"

"Sure, why the hell not?" he said, shrugging as he walked over to Azuril, then he pointed his scythe at her and a shower of water fell on her, "oop. Overkill-eep!" Azuril was standing up slowly, Pardoner running away from the wet ground, hissing and shaking the water off of himself as best he could, "Five second head start?"

"Two."

"Kyay." Zykan made a break for it, Azuril letting off some pent up frustration, shooting at him finally giving up on long range, chasing him, shooting at him more.

"Should we stop them?" Miko said, Skayr shook her head,

"no, let her blow off some steam."

"Or Zykan's head." Miko added,

"yes. That as well." Skayr grinned, then Bobby whacked them both with her boomerang.

"Can it. This is too good, I want to cherish every second." she said, Annakhin looked at Miko and Skayr,

"It's probably just their special way of showing each other they care." she said,

"y'think so?" Damien said, watching Azuril pause, reload, then run after Zykan again, "she'll try to kill him by hand when she fully realizes it was her chasing him that emptied her ammo."

"I'm glad they don't care about me that much." Miko said in a somewhat shaky voice, the rest of the group nodded their agreement. It was the ground shaking that ended the chase, everyone watched the spot where the village had been, waiting for something to pop up, suddenly, Skayr's eyes widened,

"Zykan, Azuril, get away, fast!" she yelled, but not quite fast enough for them to get the warning and they were thrown in two different directions when a beam if light, and a huge explosion blew away the ground beneath them.

"Ow, fuck! My head...!" Zykan growled as he sat up, looking around for his scythe, "shit, where'd it go!" he said frantically, crawling around as he looked for it.

Azuril moaned softly form the pain in her head,

"what happened? Where is-my gun! Where did my gun land!" she crawled around looking for it, but came up dry. "Where did it land, where?"

Zykan finally spotted his scythe, starting to stand up to go grab it, but a gun pointed at his face made him back down,

"what the hell? Who are you? I know I find myself in this position frequently but, now seems more dangerous. What are you?"

"Good guess, 'what' that is." Zykan did a double-take,

hold up, that was a girl's voice, where'd this weird fog come from, any way? Dust and dirt from the explosion should have cleared up by now...what is this? And, why did that voice sound really young? he thought, a series of mixed expressions passing over his face, "let the fog clear, I want to see your face." he said carefully, hoping she wouldn't shoot him, when the fog started clearing he started to get a better look at her, then he stopped moving, "you're just a----"

Azuril froze, the odd sheet of fog was thinning,

"what in the...?" then she saw the rest of the group, sans Zykan, heading towards her,

"are you ok? Are you hurt?" Bobby said,

"what was that?"

"What happened?"

"Where's Zykan?"

"I don't know." she said, swatting them away from her, she never did like people invading her bubble. "I don't know where he is, or my gun, or what happened or why it happened or-" she froze up, all color draining from her face in record time, eyes wide, she was shaking looked like she was about to fall over comatose,

"Azuril?" Annakhin said quietly, Azuril took a few small steps forward,

"oh, God, no..." she whispered, "no, it's not real...it's a lie..." she took a few more steps towards whatever it was that had her mortified like that.

"Azuril, what's wrong with you-huh?" Bobby started, looking in the same direction as Azuril, "Zykan!" now everyone was paying attention, "who is that?" Zykan managed to hear his name and looked at the group, clearly begging for his life. The girl looked up as well, Azuril froze completely, unable to move, think and for a why breathe.

"She's just a kid." Damien said, the girl had dark blond hair and dark blue eyes, she wore an all black outfit, long cape-like coat, black glove, boots that went up only slightly past her ankles, and pants that were tight to her body, low rising and complete with a strange yet fancy looking belt, the front of her outfit was open, nothing but the coat, in other words, but two black straps crossed over each other tightly, holding it closed. Oddly enough, she reminded them of someone, vaguely so, but she did.

"Where did she come from? How'd she get Azuril's gun?" Miko said, Azuril was shaking harder, close to having a break-down,

"who is she?" Bobby said, Skayr and Annakhin noticed Azuril's shaking fit, she'd started hugging herself tightly in hopes of making it stop, her mind was starting to go into shock.

"Azuril!" Annakhin cried as the girl staggered back a bit, then her legs caved underneath her. Skayr making a hasty catch, holding the, still panicking, girl upright,

"calm yourself. What is it? Do you know her?" Skayr said quietly, Azuril early managed to nod, "who is she?" Azuril opened her mouth to talk, but no words came out, even when she tried to scream, no sound was heard, "dammit!" Skayr hissed, giving Bobby a kick on her ass, her hands occupied by holding Azuril steady. Bobby turned around, ready to have a swearing match, but bugged up instead.

"Damien, she's going into shock! Damien!" she cried, Damien ran over to them,

"Bobby, you go back to the front, Annakhin, help me with her." Damien said, lowering himself to the ground, taking Azuril with him, holding her upright, "ok, what the hell am I supposed to do!"

"Keep her aware of the world around her. She needs to stay at least a little focused if we're going to keep her awake." Annakhin said.

"Ok. What do we do to do that?"

"We could just talk to her." suddenly, Pardoner made his entrance from his hiding spot behind a large rock a little ways behind the group, he jumped into her lap, pawing at her hand, "I think she's gone."

"No!" Damien snapped, "I won't believe it. I wouldn't believe it if it was any of you. She's not gone." he said, "she's just wandering. Where ever you are, Azuril, get back to where you should be. Come on. At least move a tiny bit. Please."

"Azuril, you need to wake up! You have to!" Annakhin cried, getting truly frightened for her friend, "you can't leave us all here alone. What about everything you've gone through so far! Enduring and conquering all of this torture. Did you will yourself on for nothing! What about your family! Your friends!" there was a small moment of relief when she blinked her eyes several times, "come on, keep going. We're waiting for you. You're not all alone! Come on!" her hand moved,

"hey, how's she doing?" Bobby called back, "we're at a stand off here, we move, she pulls the trigger, she moves, we go after her, then she pulls the trigger. Please, tell me you have some good news."

"We do! She waking up! She's coming out of it!" Annakhin said, Skayr smirked over her shoulder,

"I knew we couldn't be rid of her so easily."

"What happened?" Miko asked,

"Azuril caught one look at that girl and went into shock. Apparently, Damien and Annakhin are doing a quit job of waking her up." she said quickly, holding her boomerang tightly, ready to throw it if the opportunity presented itself, Skayr cracked her knuckle, crouching slightly as prepared to bolt at the girl if needed, Miko's fists were up and she looked ready to go. Azuril let out a small whine, shaking her head slowly,

"what...happened?" she muttered, looking from Damien to Annakhin, then back again.

"We made a new friend and you didn't like her." Damien said,

"what-?"

"'Azuril'? That's what your name is now?" came the girl's voice, all eyes were on here, "stand up." she snapped at Zykan, who glared death at her, but stood nonetheless, she grabbed the leather band around his neck by the tails and yanked him in front of her, "I figured your name would be a little more creative, knowing you, that is." she continued, making Zykan gag when she yanked on the band, then pushed the gun up under his chin.

"Zykan!" Annakhin cried,

"y'know, you can rescue me at any point in the near future. Don't wait for an invitation." another sharp yank,

"shut up."

"I like you, and I despise you at the same time." Miko said, "now, let him go, I'm the only one that gets to raz on him like that!"

"You want him, you come and take him."

"Shit. Now I'm an official meat-shield-ack!"

"I said shut up."

"Well, we'll just have to pay you a visit then, won't we?" Skayr said, Bobby shook her head,

"I like inviting my guests over to my place, so, come on, boomerang effect!" she said, throwing her boomerang, more shocks for the group,

"No!" Azuril cried, grabbing Damien's sword and throwing it like an over sized throwing knife, watching it tangle with the boomerang and send both of them to the ground.

"What the hell'd you do that for!" Damien cried,

"don't hurt her!"

"Why not?" Bobby snapped,

"wow, the blood-ties do matter after all." the girl said, smirking, "why don't you tell them who I am, Azuril?" she said the name mockingly, as though it were fake. Azuril looked around the group, then she looked away looking at the two weapons she'd crippled from their owners' reach..

"Stop it. Leave them alone." She said quietly, "if she sent you, then it was to torment me, not involve them."

"Then all of those deaths I left behind for you all were wasted on only you?" she girl said, fake sugary-sweet. Azuril's eyes widened and, for a second, they thought she'd relapse,

"you spilled blood?" she said, just above a whisper,

"and I'll spill more," she paused to jab Zykan harder with the gun, he made a small gaging noise, "if you don't tell them what I want to hear." Azuril shook her head,

"I will not utter a word of it until he let go and returned to us, alive and in tact." the girl smirked,

"you watched too much TV." she said, shoving Zykan forward, he staggered a bit, then disappeared, startling the girl, "what-?" she looked back at the group Azuril stood by, finding Zykan over by them, screaming at the other boy in the group to let go of him so he could get his scythe and chop her to bits. Then she watched with some amusement when the smallest member of the group yelled 'down' and he hit the dirt face first. "You belong together" she commented, Azuril scoffed,

"at least I have somewhere I seem to belong. If you are here under Angela's orders, you have nowhere to go. I find that much sadder than my lies." she said, "return my gun, and Zykan's scythe. This is no different than when we were at home. You even know who I am, please, don't make this difficult." everyone was watching silently, none of them could figure it out.

"Who is she?" Miko asked, Damien shrugged,

"hell if I know."

"Please. I don't want this. If I'd known this was going to happen, I would have killed myself ahead of time. Don't make this hard. Give me back the weapons. We won't attack you, if that's what's got you worried-"

"I'm not worried. I'm waiting. I gave you your freaky friend back, and now I want to hear my end of this."

"As you wish." Azuril said, turning to look at the group in front of her, picking up Pardoner and holding him, "I am not who I said I was. I have a different name, my birth name. My name is Katherine. Katherine Fiore. When I went into that box, I was only seventeen, somehow, she changed my age, appearance, name and a whole of what I am."

"Why didn't you just tell us all that before? It wouldn't have changed anything?" Miko said,

"There is, in a way, more. In my time, this entire world, even our quest for revenge, mirrors a game, even all of you mimic the characters. I've played the game many times through. I know all of the steps, necessary and unnecessary. And I watched as those exact same things happened right before my eyes, afraid that, if I spoke up, she would change it, and we would be in even more danger."

"Well put." the girl said, "now, tell them about us."

"What does she mean?" Skayr said,

"she is referring to the fact that we are blood sisters."complete silence followed, finally, Azuril broke the silent, "you have what you want, Clare. Now, go. Please."

"For now, dear sister. For now." she said, vanishing in a swirl of smoke. "Remember, 'as you wish' means 'I love you'."

"You may hate me now." Azuril said, as though telling them that it was proper to do so at that moment. Pardoner nudged her hand, she started petting him, then sat on her feet, not wanting him to go flying off to some random direction if someone hit her.

"Why?" Damien said, "you could've-should've told us."

"I was not aware of her presence here. I am learning these things at the same time as you."

"So, your sister, direct blood relation, not step or adopted or something, is on Angela's side?" Miko said, Azuril didn't move, or dignify her.

"Who did she represent in the game?" Annakhin asked,

"the main villain, only in the game, the villain was male, and in his late twenties, not female and in her early teens."

"And the rest of us?" Zykan said hoarsely, rubbing his throat, "little bitch, I swear it, I'll kick her ass."

"Zykan, you moron, she's Azuril's sister, watch it!" Damien said, Azuril shook her head,

"her body is my sister's, some of her mind is still my sister's, but the rest is nothing but darkness. I cannot let her hinder me."

"Even if you have to kill her?" Damien said, Azuril was silent, then,

"I do not know. I am not sure of anything anymore. I closed my eyes for what seemed like a second, opened them to catch a brief glimpse of Hell, closed them and opened them again here. I'm waiting for my eyes to open back in my own time, my own place, some place where no one had been forced to play this game. But I keep opening them to the same thing, something that has come to be known to me as a far too real nightmare." Pardoner purred loudly, getting her attention, she continued petting him, "but since I cannot wake from this nightmare, I will play it out until the end. I will rescue what she has taken from me, and I will make certain she suffers as much as all of the 'players' who didn't make it through to the end must have."

"You're pretty damned determined, aren't you?" Damien said, hands on hips, small grin on his face, "you really think you can pull all that off?"

"If I must live off of false hope, then, yes, I do. Allow me my pathetic hope." she said, smiling as Pardoner rolled onto his back and batted at her hand, the little game continued while the conversation did.

"You know you can't do it alone. But, stay here, with your game cast, and we'll see it through to the end." Damien said, trying not to smirk at the childish look on Azuril's face while she played with Pardoner. she's a different person when she's found something that makes her smile... he was suddenly jabbed in the back, he glared over his shoulder at a smirking Zykan, "shut up before you speak up, freak-job."

"I'm hurt."

"Good." he then turned back to Azuril, who was now attempting to remove her hair from Pardoner's grasp, she looked annoyed, but not enough so to make her look like her normal self. "Having problems?"

"Damien, I do have my gun back."

"I'm joking." he said, everyone was dispersing, Skayr curled up on the large rock Pardoner had been hiding behind when Azuril's sister showed up, Bobby leaned against said rock, tending to her boomerang, Azuril had managed to give it a clean, light, cut down the middle.

"That woman's a menace." she mumbled,

"yes, but, you try convincing Damien to get rid of her. He's far too gone to come back where she is concerned."

"Yeah, yeah, Lover Boy just better not get us killed because he's screwing up his own love life."

"What about Damien's love life?" Miko said as she walked over to them, Zykan and Annakhin could be seen by the tree that had been used for shade for their entire time being in the village that Bobby had the ground devour, Zykan jumped up onto a branch, jabbed his scythe into the side of the tree and relaxed back on the branch, dozing off. Annakhin was sitting under the tree, mulling over everything she'd heard, straightening it out as best as the tid-bits she was finding would allow.

"He has none." Skayr and Bobby said in unison. Miko blinked a bit,

"ok, never do that again. And, what do you mean he 'doesn't have one'?"

"The poor kid's got no girlfriend." Bobby said,

"that doesn't mean he has no love life." Miko argued, Skayr pointed out the next argument, it was sitting next to Damien, trying to pull a cat out of its hair.

"There's Romeo and his desired Juliet. Tell me how well his love life will go if she is the one he wants." she said, Miko sagged visibly,

"I know. I know he wants her, but..."

"But you still can't help but be jealous of her, right?" Bobby said, then she pointed at Miko with the tool she was using for sanding the surface of her boomerang, "listen to me, kid, when you get involved with the opposite sex, you're only asking for trouble." she said, Skayr smirked,

"she only says that because she's never had a date."

"Oh, and you have!" Bobby snapped, Skayr answered her with a yawn.

"You two are no help." Miko said, "just because you're older than me doesn't mean you're wiser I guess." then she paled and shrank in fear,

"What!" Bobby snapped,

"Old!" Skayr put in,

"I am not old, nor am I not wise!" Bobby informed Miko, Skayr cracked her knuckles,

"I'll show you what these old bones can do, you brat!" and she was off after Miko, Bobby running after them. Zykan fell off of the branch he had perched on, clutching his sides and laughing hysterically, he planned on never letting Miko live this down.

"Zykan," Annakhin started, he stopped laughing right away, sitting up and waiting to see if there was more to that, "what characters do you think we represent in her game? And, if she knows what's going to happen, even if it's altered before she can figure it out, why would she hide it from us?"

"Maybe she was watching to make sure she could pull us out at the most dangerous moments, figuring we'd be fine otherwise."

"Maybe...I still want to know who we are."

"so, in the game, I'm the main character? And he's on basically the same hell-bent quest as me?" Damien said, Azuril nodded, she'd finally gotten Pardoner away from her hair and was now watching him chase a long piece of grass she pulled off of the ground and dangled in front of him.

"Yes. Miko is the childhood friend of the main character, she also has some romantic interest in him, she's also on the same quest as him."

"Whoa, deja vu."

"Yes. There is a pilot who works with mechanics, and things of that sort, Bobby is the one he represents, though he was not an alchemist and he did not set everything around him aflame."

"That sounds partially like Bobby."

"Skayr represents either one of two people, or a combination of them. Another pair of characters with grudges to settle. Whereas she speaks and acts like the better of the two characters, she is strong yet kind like the other is. Zykan, I cannot be sure. He is in the same predicament as Skayr. There is a trickster and betrayer that he resembles, but there is also an energetic, agitating ninja with sticky fingers and the same attitude as Zykan's that he also resembles."

"And you and Annakhin?" Damien said, ignoring the sight of Miko being chased by Bobby and Skayr.

"I am a character whose story is a mirror of my own. He loved someone who did not love him back, she volunteered her unborn child as the test subject for an experiment. He thought that was appalling and tried to step in, getting himself nearly killed, early alive I mean, he, like myself, was experimented on, put into a state of suspended animation and left in a coffin, in a crypt next to the lab that he knew all too well. When he finally, after much argument and persuading, joined the group, that is where he gets interesting. He is beyond excellent with a gun, and transforms into several different creatures when upset or beaten, both to an extremely high degree. He was poetic and knowledgeable in many ways, and he held his own, even through all of that."

"Wow, from what you've told us about him, and yourself, you are his female clone." Damien said, "and Annakhin?" Azuril froze up, "Azuril?"

"No one. She has no resemblance to any of the characters at all." she said, picking up Pardoner, allowing him to play with her hair. Damien didn't buy the excuse,

"who does she resemble, Azuril? And why are you so hesitant?"

"She has no relation to anyone in the game, Damien. That is all there is to it." she didn't want to tell him that one of his friends was the mirror of a girl that is killed while saving all of them. Then she found a scapegoat. "A flower girl. She is the mirror of a flower girl." she said, in the beginning of the game, Aeris was a flower girl. Why didn't I remember that sooner! she mentally chided herself. Damien looked confused,

"a flower girl? She looks like a flower girl? That's it?" he said, Azuril nodded,

"a flower girl." then she winced and decided Pardoner had had his fun yanking her hair, it was time to put him back on the grass.

"Who does Angela represent?" Damien asked suddenly, sounding curious and cautious, Azuril spared him a side glance as she tried to untangle her hair, to free Pardoner's paw.

"Several different people. She resembles a group of people, a corporation, that some members of our group dislike, she partly represents the villain my sister is playing the part of, and she partly represents the scientist that experimented on many things and creatures. Myself and Skayr's character are the two that are most prominent. This scientist also created my sister's character. Injecting and mixing different things into the child of the woman my role loved, this all before the child was born."

"So, he was saving himself sometime and, instead of experimenting on the kid the same way he did you, he did it before the kid was born?"

"No, Damien. He wanted something else to come of that child. Between your character, mine, and my sister's, one thing is the same, we all have a certain type of energy in our veins, making us somehow the same, but very different. The child was the third of the three 'Advent Children' in the game."

"So, my character was injected with the same chemical or whatever as your's and your sister's? Then why are we all so different in the game?"

"One chemical does not destroy what one is, it only adds to the many things that make you who you are. But, yes, you are right, the three of them were extremely different, and not just in personality and appearance, they had different levels of humanity inside them. Your character, though there were questions raised later in the game, was the most human of the three, he reacted the least to the chemical, for lack of better word, for my character, the results of the experiments and the chemical melded in a way, this is speculation on my part, though, that made him stronger as well. As for my sister...her character was never given the chance to be human. The same chemical was used on him, along with another, new and more powerful, force, he was born with nothing human about him, save his physical appearance. He was raised as a human, had no idea of what he was, he then found out what had been done to create him, what they had taken bits and pieces of to put inside him, he went mad, giving your character enough hatred and drive to hunt for him endlessly."

"Shit, that's extreme. Then what? What happens in the end?"

"Good, as always in these types of stories, prevails and the villain is killed, thus saving everyone and everything from certain destruction."

"So, that would mean my character kills your sister's character? Wouldn't it?" Damien said softly, Azuril nodded. "I...I shouldn't say I'm sorry for that, it won't be enough. And you don't want pity, sympathy, or anything of that sort. But, I still wish this was over."

"I know. I wish that too. I wish that I was asleep again, that I'd saved the things I care about from her and just gone back to sleep."

"So, that's your plan for after all this? Go back to that coffin? Sleep for eternity?"

"Yes."

"And if we can save your little sister, will you leave her? I can't imagine you would." Azuril lowered her gaze,

"no, I would not-could not leave Clare in this place all alone. You win again, Damien. I may have to continue to live. At the very least, for her sake." Damien then noticed Azuril had the cloth they'd found a while back out and laid on her lap.

"That was her's, wasn't it?" Azuril nodded, "so was the shirt, and the fairy, right?"

"Yes. The shirt was her's for when she played soccer, her team's uniform. The fairy was a present from my mother and me. This," she held up the cloth, "she had for thirteen years, I knew and saw her after thirteen years with her."

"Her entire life, as far as you know?"

"Yes. I..." she pulled away from Damien, looking away, "I am her older sister. I was supposed to protect her, not drag her into something like this. Not turn her into a monster. I was supposed to make sure this sort of thing never happened, not even in her nightmares. She is another person I could not protect. The one person I should have protected above all others. Pardoner has his work laid out before him. I hope he makes it through."

"It doesn't take a pardoner to tell you your sins are forgiven, it takes you understanding it yourself. If you don't get it, it doesn't matter how many times you're pardoned, you'll still be guilty. Forgive yourself before you ask others to do so."

"Damien, you are poetic and bold. I think that is why I enjoy your presence. Thank you, again." Azuril said, turning to look at him again, "you make it sound much easier than it is, and that give me some hope. I pray you're right and I can rescue my sister. And any others she has with her. I also hope you get your revenge. you deserve it."

"Thanks. You're pretty poetic too, when you want to be."

"Thank you, again."

"She's been like this for a couple weeks, not even Bobby can get her to do anything." Miko said, watching Bobby talking to Azuril, most likely the same simple, little things she always used, hoping for a response. Damien was talking with Annakhin about something they couldn't quite hear,

"She relapsed, part of her brain froze. Damien and Bobby are trying their damnedest to keep her walking, moving and, somehow, eating, Annakhin has her bag of snakes spread out in front of her, since she's the one trying to un-freeze Azuril's brain." Zykan said, Skayr joined the pair,

"I don't blame her. We did see her sister several more times, the brat also said some things that, I guess, were from Azuril's past life. I might end out like her too if that happened enough."

"Like a vegetable?" Zykan said, Skayr gave him a look and he backed away a bit, "just asking."

"I wonder if they've at least come somewhat closer to snapping her out of it." Miko said,

"why not just beam her on the head a couple times, jar things into motion." Skayr said,

"because Bobby would kill you." Miko said, at the exact same second, Zykan spoke as well,

"because Damien would kill you." then the pair stopped talking, blinked a bit, looked behind Skayr at each other, then righted themselves, "that was weird."

"Yeah." Miko said, then she turned around and walked away rather quickly, Zykan made his way to the nearest tree, jumped onto one of the branches, jabbed his scythe into the side of the tree and dozed off.

"What the hell did I do to deserve them?" Skayr moaned, hiding her face behind her hands, then she let her hands fall away from her face and walked over to a large rock nearby, jumped up onto it, curled up, yawned and started to doze. Miko leaned against the rock Skayr was on, half asleep herself, finally, she was out.

"Well, our biggest breakthrough for today is that she twitched when I called her Vampire Girl-"

twitch

"see?"

"She hates that nickname even when she can't truly understand or hear it." Damien said, "that would be kinda cool, if I wasn't talking about a friend."

"Yeah. Let's get her back by the others, and the cat." Bobby said, helping Damien lift Azuril off the ground.

"They're all asleep." Annakhin said, first pointing to Skayr, then Miko, then Zykan.

"Well, we'll be quiet, then." Damien said, laying Azuril down, Pardoner curling up next to her right away, "whoa! Hey, check it out." Damien said, Bobby and Annakhin turned to look quickly, "she moved, a little." Azuril had started towards Pardoner, but obviously, after a second or so, she was gone again.

"Do you think her mind is still going through its normal routine? Like she can hear us or something like that?" Bobby said, Annakhin shook her head,

"we'd have gotten at least a true movement by now if she was still with us like that." she said. They watched Azuril for a second, nothing,

"I don't know why I expected her to move just now. But, I wish she had." Damien said, Bobby lowered her gaze, fixing it on the ground,

"maybe she really is gone for good. Some place we can't reach her. She's still breathing and all of that stuff, but her mind is off somewhere past the boarders of La La Land. We could be wasting time and energy on the impossible." she decided not to look up when she could practically feel Damien's glare burning through her. Annakhin looked at Damien with a pity filled expression on her face,

"Damien, I'm sorry, but, part of me says she's right. And it gets bigger and bigger everyday."

"Well, that's nice, you think that, then. But it'll do you jack-shit since she's staying, I won't leave her like this." Damien said, taking a seat next to Pardoner, "you leave if you want, I'll either catch up when she's back to her normal self, or if I've buried her."

"Damien, I know you care about her, but this is somewhat ridiculous. We should have left her at a hospice a while ago. They would take care of her." Bobby said,

"and what about when they wonder if it's alright to pull the plug on her and we aren't there to tell them not to? Then what?" Damien argued, Bobby paused to think of a response.

"Wasn't that name of yours a character you made up somewhere? I do believe I've heard it somewhere before."

"Clare...don't. You don't know what happened at all-"

"Don't I?" Azuril dove off to the side as her sister landed a punch hard enough to send huge pieces of dirt and rocks flying everywhere, making everyone scatter. Azuril slid to a stop on the rain-soaked dirt road they were walking down when they were attacked,

"Damien!" she cried, looking around frantically for her friends, suddenly a huge piece of gravel and clay from the road hit her, she gave a strangled scream when she landed hard on her back, quickly trying to dig herself free,

"miss him already?" Clare teased cruelly, walking leisurely over to where her sister had finally crawled out from under the dirt and clay, coughing and taking deep breaths from getting the wind knocked out of her, then kept out of her for a short while, she struggled dizzily to her hands and knees, choking and finally coughing up some dirt and gravel then she went back to the frantic breathing,

"C-Clare, I don't" she choked again, "I don't understand–why?" she gave a weak cry when she was shoved back down onto her stomach on the ground, her sister's foot holding her there,

"because you were softer than me." by now, Damien and company had themselves unburied,

"what the-" Damien started, Zykan covered his mouth,

"you'll get her into even deeper shit if you freak out. Just shut up and bear it with the rest of us."

"Even back home, I was the one that got smacked around. And who did it? You." she put all of her weight on Azuril's back making her scream, Damien was tackled from behind at that. "See? Soft. And the excuses later...'it's the pills' 'I didn't know what I was doing' 'you shouldn't have pissed me off'. I love that last one. I heard it the most."

"So, you resorted to becoming something inhuman...just because of pent up hate for me?" Azuril said, "you willingly turned yourself into a monster? Something not worth anyone's time to even kill, just for a petty reason like hate?" a heel jabbed her rib-cage, she gave a tiny cry and fell silent,

"what else was there? Mom and dad weren't helping, you weren't letting up, nothing got better! I hated you! I hated the fact that, even if it was for the best, you got all of the attention when you ran away!" she dragged her sister off of the ground by her shirt collar, glaring at her as she tried to pry herself loose without using her left hand, "now suddenly you care about whether I get hurt or not? Now it's wrong to hurt me? If you hadn't hurt me before all this, I wouldn't be here!

"I-didn't—I didn't want it to be this way!" Azuril choked when the grip on her collar tightened, "I ran away to avoid this!-to keep this out of existence!" the grip didn't loosen, "I know I was a monster-even before all this! I hated myself for so long!"

"And you never tried to find out why! Or ask me how I felt!"

"I am sorry! I know what I was, and what I should have been. I took you for granted! Hurt you, taunted you, it seemed too far away to be any concern of mine. I-I let you down. I abandoned you, and I didn't think twice of it. I'm sorry! I wanted to tell you the night I ran away, to tell all of you, that I was sorry. But...but when I wanted to tell you I'd made all of those mistakes, let you down, and to ask for help, for forgiveness, I just turned my back. It still hurts. I'm still in pain and empty from it! Please, forgive at least a bit! Stop being the monster you were told you are!" she was thrown away from the other girl,

"you think that confession makes any difference? You still hurt me more than you can tell me you did in a million years! I should kill you right now!" Azuril stayed on the ground, not moving those words were more painful than anything else she'd experienced since she first woke up in a year one-thousand years from her home.

"Whoa..." Zykan said, backing away from Damien absently, "she's serious, isn't she?"

"That's horrible." Annakhin said quietly,

"we can't just keep watching her get hurt, can we?" Bobby said, Skayr shook her head, but made no move to do anything

"I hate having to say this, but, if we try to help, it'll only bring her more pain. We can hate doing nothing as much as we want, as long as we stay where we are."

"I swear it, I'll kill that little brat-!"

"Damien, no!" Miko yanked him back, "are you deaf? We go out there, Azuril may just have another break-down. We need to stay here. I hate it too, but we have to."

By now, though, Azuril had passed out, with the words 'I should kill you right now' ringing in her ears

"oh, no, not this brat again!" Bobby said when Azuril's sister made her dramatic appearance of dropping in form seemingly nowhere, drop-kicking Zykan, who's swearing fit was cut short when the wind was knocked out of him and he started struggling to breathe,

"Zykan, get your ass away from her, stupid!" Miko cried, Zykan, still trying to breathe properly, scrambled back near where Miko and Annakhin stood, Skayr automatically dove at their new enemy, getting more and more frustrated when she couldn't catch her. Bobby threw her boomerang, but it was simply batted out of the air like a bug,

"shit."

"That was a new one." Miko said, Azuril was half hiding by a tree, attempting to remain unseen by her sister.

"Oh, you're pathetic of you think that's gonna work." she heard her sister say, then she ducked when a long blade chopped through the tree

a copy of the Masa Mune! she dove away from the blade as it was jabbed into the dirt where she'd been crouched in hiding a second ago. "Please, stop it!" she cried frantically, jumping away from her sister again, "I know, I hurt you, but what gives you the right to do all this!"

"The only permission I need is my own!" then the blade's next stroke was cut off by another sword. "What the hell!"

"Damien, don't! Get away from her!" Azuril shrieked,

"hey, everyone else got a shot at her, it's my turn." Damien said, Clare grinned,

"so, you're the new version of her friend Genevieve? Gotta say, you are pretty cute. Hey, if you back off now, I'll make it quick and painless." she looked over Damien's shoulder to where Azuril sat, Damien had shoved her back to block the blade from hitting her. She was now scrambling to her feet,

"Leave him out of this! Leave all of them out of it! Your hate is for me, don't involve others!"

"Is that your excuse for pleading for his life? You didn't react this way with the others."

"The situations for each of them were different. He is too close to you, let him be!"

"But he's so cute." Clare said mockingly, grinning wickedly at the enraged gleam in her sister's eyes, "ooh, jealousy is a good color for you. I'd wear more of it, sister." she shoved forward as hard as she could, forcing Damien off balance, Azuril ran for him when he fell back and hit the dirt,

"Damien...I told you to stay back. She will kill you if you fight that recklessly..." her sister's snickering made her look up, glaring, "I said to let them be. Not hurt them further. This is my fight. not their fight. Leave them be, please." she moved between her friends and her sister, "please, Clare...leave them alone." she said quietly, "hurt me, torture me, scar me as much as you want, but, please, don't lay a hand on them."

"Didn't think you'd care so much. After all, you did nearly lose them when we were back home. You were the one at fault there. You were the one who pushed them away. Maybe you're just not meant to have friends, sister dearest. The only friends that still care about you are people you've pushed away before as well, that and our dogs." Azuril bit her bottom lip, trying to block out the words she was hearing, "you pushed your friends away, you pushed your family away, you pushed the world away. Who do you think missed you? How many people do you think mourned your loss?" she tensed her muscles, bracing herself for the answer, knowing it already, "no one." she collapsed to her knees, hiding her face behind her human hand, "no one thought of you for very long after you ran away from us. No one cared for too long. No one wanted to care for too long." finally, she ducked a scythe blade.

"You're damn lucky I can't kill you, or you'd be in tiny bits and pieces by now, you sick little bitch!" Zykan snapped, glaring, "sure, when we first met her, we were weirded out and didn't want her around, but, we were never this cruel. And if I think it's sick and twisted to the point where it makes me sick just looking at you, it's past Hell freezingly horrifying to the rest of the group over there."

"Zykan–?" Azuril looked up at him,

"if I were you, I'd haul my ass back by Damien, then hide." Zykan said. Azuril did as told, the rest of the group following, Annakhin peeking out from behind the rock she was hiding behind. First, a short chase ensued, then Clare got bored with the passive approach, finally bringing out her weapon, going after Zykan with it.

"Zykan, be careful, you don't know how powerful she might be!" Annakhin yelled, Zykan paused, looking down at her for a second,

"will you be-"

"Zykan, watch it man!" Damien yelled, pointing at something, Zykan turned to look, panicked and put up a barrier fast, if the attack had hit, it would have continued on, hitting the rest of the group hidden behind him.

"Damn, that was close..." Zykan muttered, then he shot forward with an attack Clare barely blocked, "you are making my life way too fuckin' difficult, bitch!" he hooked her blade and pushed it away from her with his scythe, then popped in some magic, grabbing her around the throat and having a short snack on some of the black powers she was radiating,

"What are you!" she cried, Zykan still gripping her throat, he smirked,

"you wouldn't believe me if I told you, human. And that's what you are, nothing more. Remember that. As your sister once said, 'humans feel, they mourn the remember' you do the same. Do the math on why you yourself feel empty. Oh, yeah," another good jolt, "thanks for the snack." then he twisted the blade of his scythe more, making her drop her sword, followed shortly by him dropping her "way less than you deserve. I can't kill you, I'll feel the pain of doing so, but I can say; leave your sister alone. She messed up, she knows it, she's trying to fix it. Chapter closed. See ya, brat." then he walked back over by the group, "can we go now?" everyone, in a bit of a daze, nodded.

"Stop it!" Azuril shrieked, running into the middle of a fight between her sister and Zykan, apparently, Angela hadn't counted on Zykan being what he was and had sent Clare for a round two for observation. Apparently, Zykan had that figured out and wasn't using any tricks, just normal speed and skill, normal for him, way above average for humans. "Zykan! Stop! This can't continue!"

"Tell her that!" Zykan snapped, blocking a blow from a blade, "she seems to like trying to decapitate me."

"Clare, don't! Why are you doing this?" Clare stilled, then she looked at her sister,

"because I was ordered to. And if he doesn't start using those tricks of his soon, he'll get hurt." she said, trying to provoke him, it worked, sort of,

"I can do just fine without my tricks and spells thank you very much, ya little pest! If she wants a show, I'll give her one without magic!" then he went after her again.

"No..." Azuril murmured, "it's not right...it shouldn't be like this-it—" her vision went black as she fainted dead away.

"Shut up! Leave her alone, you bitch!" Bobby yelled, glaring at the younger of the two sisters, who had the older of them crouched down on the ground, covering her ears and crying,

"this is cruel. We need to help. Now." Annakhin said,

"I'd love to hack that girl's head off, but we still seem to be stuck to the ground." Zykan said, referring to the fact that, somehow, Azuril's sister had managed to sneak in a small bit of power and use it to shove them to the ground, not relenting.

"She'll make her snap! If that happens, we might not be able to defend ourselves against whatever it is she may turn into." Skayr said, "she transforms when damaged too much, am I right?"

"Shit. I didn't think of that! Hey! Shut up! Lay off her, you don't know what you're doing! Stop it!" Damien yelled frantically, not liking the idea of being stuck in one spot while Azuril transformed and lost control of herself.

"What makes you say that? I know her well enough, I also know about the fact that all she is is a bunch of bits and pieces of a bunch of different things. It almost makes me sad. But it makes me even more sick when I realize she's still a blood relative."

"No..." Azuril whispered, "that's not-"

"that's not true? Hell, do you think I'm stupid? She told me what you could do, what you are. And what to do to set you off." she smirked broadly when Azuril started shaking her head rapidly,

"no, I am not that cruel! I am not going to hurt them! I can control it!" she cried

"that's what you said about all of those freak disorders back home. 'I can do it by myself'. Then, that one day after forgetting you could cry, I heard you crying, I walked away."

"No..."

"I heard you talking to mom, about the fact that you'd blown up at your friends-"

"stop, it wasn't that easy, or that simple! You know it!"

"And for no good reason either, wow, at least you had the fact that I'm your little sister and hitting me and yelling me is expected of an older sibling."

"Stop it..."

"Azuril, don't listen to her! Don't even acknowledge her! Don't listen!" Miko cried

"she's just trying to break you! Don't allow her that win!" Skayr yelled,

"what about when you said that you wouldn't let your emotions hinder you!" Damien suddenly yelled, Clare looked at him and Azuril froze, "you told me, earlier on, that you let emotions get in the way too much. You told me you wouldn't let them get in the way ever again! How is this keeping that promise to yourself-!"

"You sure do give convincing arguments, don't you?" Clare said, walking over to stand in front of the group she'd trapped against the ground. Azuril was on her feet in a heartbeat,

"Clare, no-!"

"Leave him alone? Right?" Clare finished for her sister, who was eyeing her warily, "honestly, if what you keep telling me is true, about not loving him, then why are you so overly protective?"

"Because he runs into a fight with no thought otherwise. He is always the one most likely to get killed, if any of my other friends were the same, I would be the same way with them. Stop trying to make it sound like more than it is." Azuril responded, rather quickly, Clare grinned, then looked at Bobby and Skayr, Azuril's eyes widened in horror, Jessi! Lisa! her mind automatically said, "stop! Stop it! Leave them alone!" she cried, beating her sister to the girls, "not them, don't hurt them."

"Why? Because that looks like your friend and our cousin? Jessi walked away after the funeral, she went half-vegetable after you were pronounced a dead and lost cause."

"What...?" Azuril's legs caved under her and she fell to her knees, staring wide eyed at her sister, "Jessi...she..."

"They put her in a ward." Azuril fell back so she was sitting on her feet, she looked like someone had shot her, "mom and dad, well, they never recovered fully. Especially after I ran away to become stronger, I heard they died from grief." there was no color anywhere on Azuril's face and she looked like she was about to be ill, "and if that's what happened to them, what do you think of our grand parents?" she started to shake, hugging herself automatically, eyes still wide with horrified guilt in them, "your friends from your group over there were blown away by it too. Much counseling was involved." she clenched her teeth together, holding back her screams, it was nearing the point where she would need to get as far from her friends as possible, she was trying to fight the monster down, hoping she wouldn't lose. "And, I forgot Lisa earlier." she was getting nauseous just from the possibilities of what had happened to her friend, "she committed suicide right after the funeral for you, and you were still alive when she did so the entire time. You were the cause of her suffering, and you could easily have changed that, but you didn't, you as good as killed her yourself." she choked, bent forward onto her hands and knees and emptied her stomach right there, too far gone from that information to care about anything, she could hear her sister laughing, but she didn't look up,

"d-don't...no–no more...please..." she begged, closing her eyes as she fought back the monster inside her, "kill me-and go. P-please."

"Killing you would be no fun. Besides, isn't your boyfriend the one that's supposed to kill me? You know the game, you know it's true."

"Stop..."

"I also remember being told, somewhere along the line, that my character tries to kill him at every chance meeting." Azuril's eyes widened, her head snapped up, even with the tears blurring her vision, she could still tell where her sister was,

"stop it!" she cried, "don't!" She scrambled over to Damien, doing the first thing that came to mind when she was trying to defend either herself or someone else, pulling her gun out and aiming at her sister's head, "leave them be. Leave him be." her friends watched in shock when she spoke to her sister, now suddenly in a dangerous tone, one that made it perfectly clear that she'd pull the trigger if she needed to. Even her sister looked shocked for a second, "yes, you continually attempt to kill him, yes, in the end you die by his hand. But that is in a game from our own era. This new game has different rules, sister." the shock was back on her sister's face, some nervousness and confusion on everyone's faces, her voice was slightly different, a harsher tone, one that was even threatening, but a sleek and cocky note was added in, her eyes were narrowed dangerously and she truly looked ready to pull the trigger, "the rules are different. Here, the characters are only copies, in personality, nothing more. Their stories also mostly differ from the ones depicted in the game. Her's another new part, you're a sad copy of a man who was weak enough to lose himself after only seeing one half of his position. I am a nearly exact replica, the only differences I have are eye and hair color, and gender. We are the same otherwise."

"And the new rules? I don't give a shit about any of that. I want to know what you're holding back." Clare said, her sister grinned wickedly, making them all stare in shock,

"as opposed to letting Damien's character go through with what he needs to do in order to keep the plot going, you die by bullet, not by blade. It's personal now. And I won't hold back next time." before she could do anything else, her grip on her gun loosened and she dropped it, she swayed for a second, then fell over, out cold the last thing she managed to hear was the rest of her friends, yelling her name, telling her to wake up, but she was too tired, and she chose to take a nap instead.

"I wanted you to know
That I love the way you laugh
I wanna hold you high and steal your pain …away
I keep your photograph
And I know it serves me well
I wanna hold you high and steal your pain
because I'm broken when I'm lonesome
And I don't feel right when you're gone away

You've gone away
You don't feel me here...anymore

The worst is over now
And we can breathe again
I wanna hold you high, you steal my pain away
There's so much left to learn
And no one left to fight
I wanna hold you high and steal your pain

cause I'm broken when I'm open
And I don't feel like I am strong enough
cause I'm broken when I'm lonesome
And I don't feel right when you're gone away

cause I'm broken when I'm open
And I don't feel like I am strong enough
cause I'm broken when I'm lonesome
And I don't feel right when you're gone away

cause I'm broken when I'm lonesome
And I don't feel right when you're gone...away

You're gone away
You don't feel me here...anymore"

---

Seether and Amy Lee; Broken; Punisher soundtrack