A/N: Here is the rest of Chapter 16. It may not be as long as some of the recent chapters, but that because I cut a scene out since I wasn't going to make this weekends deadline other wise (its not cut out from the story, its just postponed until next chapter). Also, the "romance" tag has been removed for the time being. There will still be romance in the story, but as of right now the "sci-fi" tag is a better representation of the story at the moment.

First, some review responses:

Astroman1000: Glad you're enjoying the story so far. Isabelle's death has had a major impact on Isaac (as everyone can tell by his nightmares), and will continue to do so. As for Siren, we'll be seeing more of her in the future as well. Thx ;) for reading.

Guest: Indeed, quality over quantity. Sorry about the lengthy waits, but that's college for you.

LoveDemLemons: Thank you! While this story doesn't have many reviews, as of today (April 4, 2016), it has over 24k views, so people ARE reading it, but just aren't reviewing. As to your remarks on the "sex scene", it was actually supposed to be a lemon but I cut it out and decided to update without it because I wasn't sure how people would feel with lemons in the story. The lemon between Isaac and Jinx is half-written and still on my computer, so it wouldn't take much for me to finish it and upload it as an "edit". If there is enough of a demand, I'll include lemons and finish up the old one.

Fleeing From Shadows

Ionia

The lush, almost untouched green forest was the epitome of serene. As a light breeze ruffled all the leaves among the trees, the beautiful multi-colored flowers growing out of the dirt remained motionless. The flowers in question, held an exquisite blend of blue, purple, red, and green. They were popular among the women of Ionia during fairs as a symbol of romance. One such flower in the forest was in full bloom, ready to be plucked and placed in a female's hair by her chosen male.

As the breeze died down, one of the leaves unhinged itself from it's branch, slowly falling down until it was next to the flower of Ionian romance.

Only for both the leaf and the beautiful flower to be crushed underneath a black armored boot a moment later. This was followed by another black boot in the same spot, totally destroying the remains of the once beautiful flower.

The two sets of armored legs and the bodies connected to them sprinted through the forest with reckless abandon, paying no heed to the destruction of wildlife they caused.

Instead, the two armored figures, one male and one female, only paid mind to the various throwing objects that narrowly missed them by inches as they ran for their lives.

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" Connor shouted as he leapt over a log. The wild animals that bore a curious resemblance to Earth wildlife scattered in fear as he and Hitomi ran for their lives. Of course, while it was a curious resemblance, Connor didn't give one damn about it right now.

Hitomi, who was in front of him, quickly glanced over her shoulder in Connor's direction. "They're gaining on us!"

Connor threw a quick look over his own shoulder. Sure enough, the ninjas that were chasing them, some on foot some jumping from tree branch to tree branch seemingly defying the laws of physics as they did so, were now closer then they were a few minutes ago.

He also managed to catch a glimpse of a shuriken mid-flight towards his head from an angle to his left.

"Woah!" Connor shouted, dropping and rolling forward with his momentum as the object passed over his head and lodged itself in a tree nearby. Connor rolled back onto his feet and kept sprinting, cursing between breaths at the ground he had lost from having to dodge.

Fuck me! Why did I ditch my helmet back there?! One of those to my skull and its over. Connor cursed under his breath again as he looked at Hitomi's backside as she ran ahead of him. Her back armor that was once pitch black had scraps and scratches on it from the entire ordeal.

Fuck! They're going to catch at least one of us… Connor knew how this was going to end, with both of them being caught. They had been running for who knows how long now, and it was only the two of them left. Ryo had been caught in some kind of net some little ways back, and Connor had to forcibly pull Hitomi away.

Leave no man behind they say, but fuck we're no good to Ryo if we get caught too! That was Connor's logic behind him convincing Hitomi to leave her friend behind as she struggled in the net as the ninja's closed in on them. That, and whatever it was that Ryo was shouting in Japanese at Hitomi probably helped convince the princess to leave her behind.

First Jacob, then Ryo… Connor grunted in pain briefly as a stray tree branch cut his check as he sprinted past it. With Hitomi in front… guess I'm next…

Connor quickly fumbled with the assault rifle in his hands, checking the clip while maintaining his speed and trying not to trip on any roots sticking out of the ground. One misstep and the plan he was formulating in his head would back fire. Then he AND Hitomi would be caught like rats in a cage full of hungry cats.

Not that he had ever heard that analogy before.

Clip's almost full… Connor swallowed hard, building up the courage to do what he needed to. Oh sod it! God save the Queen and all that ballocks!

"Hitomi!" Connor shouted. "Just keep running and don't turn back!"

"What!?" Hitomi shouted back at him, already ignoring his words and looking back over her shoulder at him.

"JUST DO IT PRINCESS!" Connor screamed at her, "GO! GO!"

And with that final shout, Connor took whatever courage he had left in him and grinded to a halt. He turned to face their pursuers with fire in his eyes and his teeth barred at the ninja, trying to appear as intimidating as possible.

Not that a pasty white teenage boy could appear very intimidating. In fact, if he had his helmet still on he would've probably looked more intimidating.

"SHAKEN NOT STIRRED MOTHERFUCKERS!" Connor screamed at the ninjas as he open-fired with his rifle. He didn't bother aiming down the sight, and just held at the hip on full auto. Totally inaccurate, but it was distracting as hell. The ninjas saw his clearly televised move and broke off, scattering as he unleashed a hail of lead in their general direction.

"Come on you twats!" Connor taunted the ninjas as he tried to gun them down, his ears already ringing from the deafening sound of his fully-auto-going-commando gun. "I got-"

His next taunt was interrupted as he barely had nanoseconds to respond to the glint of several objects mid-flight towards him. The series of shrunken hit him in the chest and Connor let out a grunt in pain as he felt one of the shuriken's sharp metal ends find a spot between his armor's plates in his armpit.

"Sod…" Connor grunted as he dropped his rifle and stumbled back, hand going to the injury only for him to bump the throwing star with his gauntlet causing more pain to shoot through his body.

He grunted again when he saw one of the ninjas appear next to him. Shit! Connor grunted as he tried to grab his combat knife but was way too slow. The ninja dropped down and swept his legs out from underneath him, causing Connor's world to spin as he felt flat onto his back.

Connor let out a brief howl of pain as he slammed his unprotected head on the hard earth. Before he even had time to swear he felt a force hit him in the chest, forcing the air out of his lungs. Gasping, he blinked the tears swelling up in his eyes away and managed to make out a ninja with a feminine appearance standing over him with a foot on his chest and a sharp blade pointed as his head.

"Keep chasing the other one!" The ninja spoke with a feminine tone, "I'll take this one back."

Connor opened his mouth to tell the she-ninja to kindly fuck off, but instead he was forced to gasp for air.

Connor tried to get up, but the ninja pinning him down quickly leaned down and jabbed him in the side of the next with some kind of needle. Connor grunted again and tried to grab the needle in his neck, only to feel even more pain since he just moved the arm who had a shrunken lodged in his armpit.

And to top it all off, he started to feel his conscious waning.

Damn…. Connor thought as the world faded to black. If sergeant Miller saw that display… he'd be pissed…

Connor's last thoughts before he passed out were that of Hitomi. Run… Hitomi….

(Hitomi POV)

Kuso! Kuso! Kuso! KUSO! KUSO! Hitomi cursed like a madwoman in her mind as she continued to run for her feeble life. She ducked under a branch her, wined around a tree there, leapt over a log here, all in an attempt to both outrun and shake off her pursuers.

Her mind was still fresh with Connor's last stand. She had heard him tell her not to turn around and to keep running, words that shook her to the core. She had only partially listened, having looked over her shoulder once the sound of gunfire had come to a stop, just in time to see Connor get knocked to the ground. That was all she could take as she resumed looking away, trying to force the tears out of her eyes as she left her last squadmates and friend behind.

First Matthew, then everyone on the other side of that fallen tree, then Jacob…

Then she was forced to leave her best friend behind.

And now Connor was gone.

Connor no! You were always an ass but... no!

Connor... Ryo…

Hitomi felt her eyes water and gritted her teeth. Now wasn't the time for tears. Now was the time to run.

This has to be a nightmare, this has to! This can't be happening!

Hitomi ducked around another tree as she ran. As soon as she passed by the large oak, she heard several "thunks" following her in the wake.

They've caught up to me ALREADY?! Hitomi didn't need to look over her shoulder to know what the sources of those sounds were. The shinobi were still on her tail.

We trained for years and THIS is how it ends?! Hitomi thought as she leaped over a fallen log as she sprinted through the forest, trying to lose the ninja's pursuing her. She dove under another fallen log, just in time as several shrunken flew over her body.

They're aim is off, I must still have a decent lead on them!

She stumbled back to her feet and resumed sprinting. But she couldn't stop wondering how this had happened?

Then it struck her. Now. Of all times while she was running for her life.

Is THIS what happened to Isaac?!

Another object flew over her head and lodged itself in a large tree trunk.

Kuso! Forget it! Now is not the time! Hitomi shook her head as she ran. She had only one goal right now and that didn't involve her former trainer.

And that goal was escaping her newfound hell on earth.

Blood Red Roses

Demacia

It's going to be a long night…

That was the only thing sergeant Mathew Jarrson could think of. The soldier sighed as he grabbed the next piece of paper that was stacked at the desk and looked it over.

Join the Demacian Army… get promoted… do paperwork…

He rolled his eyes. THAT'S what should've been on the recruiting forms when he had first enlisted in the army. Sure, his patriotic side had enjoyed being part of the Demacian military, the moment he got promoted to "desk sergeant" that attitude changed.

Now, his life consisted of paperwork.

How could anyone do this everyday and NOT go crazy?! The soldier shook his head as he read over the paper in front of him, a requisitions forum. He scowled at the sight.

"God-DAMN IT!" He shouted and stood up from his desk. Other soldiers on break outside his guard-post office glanced in with questioning looks.

Mathew fired back at them all with a scorching look. "Which one of you bloody peasants organized this!?" He shouted at the bystanders outside his office while pointing at the massive stack of paperwork on his desk and waving the sole piece of paper in his hand. "THIS is a requisitions forum! It goes to the REQUISITIONS OFFICER! NOT ME!" He bellowed.

The guards outside had various responses, from sheepishly grinning, to trying to look inconspicuous. After a few seconds, Mathew scowled again.

"Well?! One of you grunts better take this to the requisitions officer NOW!" He shouted again, and sure enough, one of the new, younger guards rushed into his office and took the paper.

"Move!" Mathew barked at the new-blood as he raced out and towards the nearest requisitions office several bocks away at the nearest barracks.

For bloody sakes… why couldn't I have gotten an office at one of the barracks? No…. I had to get assigned to a guard-post in some boring section of the city… surrounded by new and incompetent guards.

Mathew rolled his eyes and sat back down, taking up the next sheet paper. Ever since Bilgewater got hit hard by… whatever the hell those "Ascension" nut-jobs were, the amount of work had doubled. Honestly though, Mathew couldn't blame the higher-ups for that, seeing how Bilgewater nearly got wiped off the map by a single ship.

And to top it all off my office has no door, so I get to watch everyone relaxing on break all day long!

"Uh… sergeant, sir?" Some other guard poked his head in his office.

Oh YOU unlucky slob…

"This…" Mathew growled, not looking up. "Had better be important…"

"Uh… well…" The soldier paused and entered the office, but he wasn't alone. There was a little (girl?) in tow with him. "I found this…girl… sitting on the street alone."

Mathew looked up from his work and gave the girl a quick one over… but then had to do a double take.

The little girl looked anything but like some lost little girl. She was wearing a black children's dress that looked more like she was going to be giving some kind of gothic performance on a stage then a simple child's dress. The dress started just below her shoulder and extended down to her knees, leaving her almost ghostly pale white, but strangely flawless skin exposed to the cold night air that was outside.

But what was most curious, is that the girl's face from the nose up, was hidden behind some sort of… mask. The mask was completely devoid of features, just a jet-black mask that extended up unnecessary over her head by at several inches, giving the three feet tall child a little more height.

Well… she sure is a curious looking… child…

To Mathew's eyes, she looked like some sort of dark-magic child or something. Whatever. Magic wasn't part of Mathew's job.

Mathew looked over the girl once again, who hadn't even twitched since she entered his office. He then looked up at the street guard who brought her in, who had a somewhat confused look on his face.

"Where did you find her?" Mathew asked him.

"Around three blocks west, sir." The guard responded. "She was just siting there… alone on the side of a street at night. No one around, and it's starting to rain so I thought I should bring her here for safety."

"Well, then take her to the break room." Mathew motioned behind the soldier to where all the other guards were lazing around.

"Sir?"

Mathew lifted his arms up in the air and motioned to the enormous stack of paper work he had. "Can't you see I'm busy kid? Go fill out a report on the…" Mathew looked over the strange girl one more time. That… has to be the weirdest child's clothing I've seen a girl wear… ever. He thought before directing his attention back to the guard. "…girl? Yeah. The girl."

The soldier looked like he was about to protest when Mathew threw him a glare that said "Go on, argue. Make my day."

"Y-yes sir…" The soldier mumbled and grabbed the little girl's hand to lead her out. As she turned around to follow the guard out, Mathew noticed a small tattoo poking out over the top of the girl's dress, right below her neck on her back.

A tattoo? On a little child? He glanced at it wearily. Looks like the top of a triangle… what kind… of… wait…

"HOLD IT!" Mathew yelled, his sudden outburst causing the guard to almost jump out of his skin. The little girl, however, didn't make a single motion, other then slowly turn her head in Mathew's direction.

That is the creepiest girl I've ever seen! Mathew thought before quickly fumbling with drawers on his desk.

"S-sir?" The guard asked, obviously confused as to why Mathew had told him to stop right after he told him to get out of the office.

"Wait a moment!" Mathew growled as he went threw drawer after drawer, trying to find a certain report. Come on… damn it! Its always in the last one you check… He mentally grumbled before pulling out a report from his desk with the title "Ascension" on it.

Found it… Mathew got up from his desk as he flipped through the pages of the report looking for a certain page. He walked over to the little girl and the royally confused guard, circling around the girl until he was behind her, and then crouching down to the girl's level.

"Excuse me miss…" Mathew muttered as he carefully gripped the girl's dress just underneath the tattoo and slowly pulled it down slightly, having to brush the girl's think black ponytail out of his way. Her hair is rather long too…

"Uhh… sir?" The guard raised an eyebrow at Mathew's actions.

Not that I blame him. "Shut up for a moment… I need to check something." Mathew barked at the younger man as he carefully stretched the girl's dress down and out a bit so he could get a better look at the tattoo.

Sure enough, the tattoo was much larger, covering the majority of the girl's back. The jet black tattoo looked like a pyramid, with a capital letter A carved into it, and an open eye in the middle of the letter A.

Its like three tattoos in one… man that thing looks strange…

Mathew released the girl and looked back at his report. As he quickly scanned the numerous paragraphs on the page, he found the line he was looking for, and then felt all the blood rush from his face.

What has been identified as the Ascension's insignia appears to be a pyramid, with the letter A in the middle in upper case, followed by an open eyeball in the middle of the letter A. He read.

Mathew swallowed hard and circled around the girl until he was in front of her, looking her over again. The mask she was wearing prevented him from getting a good look at her face, but he exposed mouth made a single movement.

How does she see with that thing on? There are no eye slits…

As if she had heard his thoughts, the girl raised her head slightly as if she was looking up at him, and cocked her head to the side in a questioning manner.

Mathew couldn't help but feel a creeping sensation wash over his body. How the fuck? Can she SEE through that?

That would explain a lot.

"What is your name kid?" Mathew asked the girl, trying to cover up the slight wavering in his voice.

The girl said nothing.

"Sir, I think she's a mute." The guard interrupted him.

Mathew eyes looked up from the girl, and at his guard. "A mute?"

"Yes sir. When I tried talking to her earlier she never answered." The guard explained.

A mute… Mathew sighed as he looked back down at the girl, who was still "looking" back up at him with her head to the side. Great…

"Sir…" The guard asked again, seeming to get anxious.

"Its…" Mathew began before changing his mind, his eyes still on the creepy-as-hell little girl as he spoke. "New orders… keep this girl here and keep a close eye on her."

"Uhh…" The guard looked even more confused now.

"Dismissed." Mathew ordered and hastily got back to his desk.

Of all the luck… a creepy as hell little girl ends up in my office with the FUCKING Ascension insignia tattooed to her fucking back! Mathew quickly scrambled for his quill and a blank sheet of paper, paying no heed to the guard and the girl as they left his office.

Mathew took a deep breath to steady himself as he began to write a brief, but important letter to the king. He has to know this. If the Ascension are here in Demacia… Mathew felt a shiver go down his spine. He didn't want to think about it.

Meanwhile, the object of Mathew's sudden new stress was being lead to a bench by the hand of the guard who found her. Other guards, both passerby's and the guards relaxing on break, all turned to give the strange girl a curious look.

Suddenly, the girl stopped walking, causing the guard leading her to also come to a sudden stop. "Something wrong?" The guard asked her.

The girl made no motion.

The guard grinned sheepishly. "Oh right, you can't speak… well then may-"

He stopped talking as soon as the girl opened her mouth, and to his complete and total surprise, she started singing.

"A storm is loosed upon the sea..."

The guard's face froze in shock and he let go of the girl's hand. The girl's voice was anything but that of a child's and sounded as if she was a trained vocalist.

The girl, with both her arm's hanging loosely at her side, continued to sing as if it was the natural thing to do.

"Whose eye is stained with tears…"

Mathew's head bolted up from his letter and scowled. "Ok, who ever the HELL is sing… ing…" His angry voice trailed off as soon as he identified the source of the song.

"A wretch hell-bound and bent on blood…"

Mathew blinked at the sight and sound. How is that girl singing… so well?

"The makings of the fearful's fears."

The girl now had everyone's attention, even the passerby guards off-duty or on errands had stopped to if she was aware of the sudden and surprised audience, the girl surprised everyone again.

She started to dance.

"The tide it stole away her grace…"

"The depths, they wouldn't claim her…"

The little girl shuffled from foot to foot with an unusual amount of grace for a child, as if she already had decades of practice.

"A toil begat by father's blood…"

"The path was laid before her."

Mathew just stared at the little masked girl with the Ascension tattoo. He was both dumbstruck at what he was witnessing, and yet awestruck by the little girl's grace as she danced and sang.

But then he realized something…

Those lyrics, something felt off about them. If anything, they sounded foreboding and creepy.

Regardless of what Mathew was thinking, everyone (including himself) was watching the girl.

"Redemption borne by brigand's blood…"

"A blight upon the darkness…"

"The pact embraced, a road unsought…"

The girl's dance led her to slowly twirl her body around, ending the motion with her head down slightly.

"The Maiden of Death won't be unwrought."

Mathew blinked, for the first time since he had been enthralled by the young girl before himself and all of his fellow soldiers. The Maiden of Death? That last lyric had to be THE MOST forbidding about the entire song.

The girl paused in both song and dance… or maybe she was finished? Either way, the spread out crowd of guards was still silent and unmoving.

Then, Mathew saw it something that made his entire blood go cold.

The girl's shadow was still moving… but the girl had stopped moving!

Before Mathew could say something, the little masked girl's shadow froze, and then began to shake uncontrollably.

One of the guards who had been listening carefully to the girl's song bolted up from his table, knocking the food on his plate over. "WHAT THE FUCK!?" The guard shouted, which got everyone's attention. As the guard in question tried to get up and stand away from the bench he had been siting on, he tripped and fell. But as he fell, he pointed at his shadow, which was also starting to shake.

"WHY IS MY SHADOW MOVING?!" The guard screamed.

And with that last shout, everyone quickly scrambled to look at their own shadows, and sure enough, everyone's shadows were starting to behave strangely.

Mathew looked around franticly trying to find his own shadow, but was relived to see that his was still following him… you know, like a SHADOW WAS SUPPOSED TO!

A series of shouts caused Mathew to look back out where everyone was, only for him to wish he didn't. Over the little girl's shadow, a black mist had appeared. Before anyone else could comment on the incredibly strange phenomena that was occurring before them, the mist disappeared.

And in its place was a shadowy apparition of the little girl with glowing red eyes, while the girl's real shadow having disappeared entirely.

What… the fuck… Mathew thought, his eyes having gone wide at the sight.

The girl turned slowly to face her featureless shadowy clone, as the clone did the same to face the original. Once they were facing one another, the girl and clone each grasped the edges of their dresses and bowed elegantly to one another.

Then the masked girl resumed her dance, but this time with a shadow clone of herself mirroring her ever move.

As they started dancing, everyone else's shadow in the room suddenly came to life as shadowy apparitions with glowing red eyes identical to that of the little girl's shadow. Before anyone could question what the shadow clones would do, one of the clones unsheathed it's sword.

"LOOK O-" One of the guards shouted as he tried to pull out his own sword, only for his shadow clone to plunge it's black blade through the man's chest.

And with that, a frozen-in-fear Mathew witnessed as the entire guard's barracks turned into a slaughter house… all while the girl and her own shadow danced and resumed singing with an eerie voice among the screams of the guards around her.

"Her wrath is known throughout the black…"

A guard parried a blow from her shadow, only for another shadow to impale her from behind with a shadowy spear.

The girl and her shadow took a step back from one another…

"The garden's of death she is tending..."

One of the guards leapt over a table to get away from his shadow, only to have a shadow appear out from underneath the table and grab his leg.

The girl and her shadow outstretched their arms towards one another, and took a long step towards one another, grasping each other's hands.

"Vengeance is her only ward…"

Two guards went back to back with one another trying to fend off blows from their own shadows, while another guard tried was strangled to death by his shadow.

The girl and her shadow began to waltz with one another for a moment, before letting each other go and going back to back and lowering their heads.

"Beware the blood red rose's thorn."

Mathew couldn't take his eyes away from the girl as she danced and sang, even as all the guards and soldiers in the barracks were massacred by their own shadows. Blood spattered across the entire room, even onto the little masked girl who either didn't notice the blood or care as it splashed across her mask and lower face.

"OH, woahhhhohhohhh, woahhhohhohhh…" The girl sang as she and her danced from side to side while remaining back to back with her mirroring clone, ignoring the bloodbath and screams of the dying around her. "Woahhoh oh oh, woahhh, woahhhhhhhhh"

Mathew heard the sound off a sword being unsheathed right next to him, which finally caused him to tear away from the harrowing sight before him. Right next to him, was a shadowy apparition with glowing red eyes, and sword in hand.

The girl continued to dance among the slaughter, as Mathew screamed in terror as his shadow sheared his head off.

The Unforgiven

Ionia

How long had it been?

To Hitomi it had felt like forever since she and her squad had first stumbled into that ambush, and she had been running non-stop since then.

Hitomi felt her legs start to give out. The exhaustion catching up to her. Panting, Hitomi came to a slow stop near a river that gave way to a waterfall. She placed one hand against a tree to support her as she hunched over, trying to catch her breath.

Sure she was in above top-notch physical condition thanks to her training and being a meta-human, but after a massive adrenaline filled sprint, she was bound to be exhausted.

Did… did I lose them? Hitomi glanced over her shoulder as she tried (and failed) to force oxygen into her lungs and keep it there. She hadn't heard or see anything get thrown at her for awhile now. Maybe she had finally outrun the shinobi chasing her, or maybe they gave up.

Well… they already caught or killed all of us… except me…

Hitomi felt a surge of emotional pain at that thought. Sole survivor. A title that sounded completely bad-ass… but no one wanted to have.

Did… did I just earn that title?

Hitomi felt the pain in her heart swell at that thought. Nothing had prepared her for this? Hell nothing could have prepared her for this shit.

The Japanese teen in high-tech black armor was completely out of her element here, and she knew it.

Hitomi glanced around her, trying to get a better baring of her surroundings. The waterfall was just loud enough to cut out any other sounds, and the shallow river was clear as can be. The sight of it was making her dry mouth yearn for the taste of nature pure water.

Of course, as tempting as it was, Hitomi knew that she was still in the middle of a forest with the possibility of hostile shinobi nearby. Taking her helmet off was a terrible idea. One that Isaac would've grilled her for doing if he had ever heard about it.

Hitomi stood back up straight, taking her first satisfying deep breath in what felt like ages. I'm still tired as hell, but I need to keep moving…

That's when it hit her. She had to keep moving. But to WHERE?!

She was in the middle of a forest with no clue how she got there, or where she was, or… well… anything!

Hitomi's thoughts were interrupted when she felt that chill go down her spine, and she immediately realized that she wasn't alone.

"Kuso!" Hitomi cursed and dove forward, tumbling on the ground and getting back up to her feet, with her boots splashing into the shallow water of the river. Where she had been standing up against a tree a moment ago were a pair of shinobi with swords drawn and with a third similarly armed shinobi up in the trees.

They caught up to me ALREADY?! I was stopped for barely a minute!

"Take her alive?" She heard one of the shinobi speak.

"She lead us on this wild chase," The lead shinobi spoke, "I'm going to kill this one."

Hitomi wanted to shout at how unfair this all was, but it won't have done her any good. Even more so since the lead ninja was already charging at her.

Kuso! Hitomi thought as she leaned backwards as the blade of the ninja's wakizashi swept over her torso right where her neck was a split second ago. Hitomi quickly raised herself back up straight, only to have to leap to the side to dodge another strike. She took another step backwards away from her attacker, the water splashing slightly from her motion as Hitomi found herself moving farther into the (thankfully) shallow river.

Hitomi made to reach for her last weapon, her combat knife, but quickly changed her mind. A little knife against a trained shinobi with a wakizashi… She knew it wouldn't have ended well, and to top it off, it was a three on one!

Well sort of. Only one of the shinobi was attacking her at the moment, the other two were still standing back on dry land.

The ninja actually fighting her leapt at her again with a horizontal slash.

He's forcing me deeper into the river! Hitomi observed from her situation as she was forced to dodge again. With a grunt, Hitomi leaned backwards again, only this time she leaned back farther, planting both her armored hands into the riverbed and performing a backwards cartwheel. As she came back up onto her feet, with her hands out and ready, Hitomi gasped as she barely had a moment to react from the next slash from the ninja aimed at her head.

She brought both her arms up just in time to block the slash with her forearms. As the sharp end of the blade slammed into the armor protecting her arms, Hitomi grunted in pain as a dull pain shot through her arms.

Still, dull pain from blunt force was better then having either her head or her arms chopped off.

Taking a step back, Hitomi's eyes followed the shinobi's blade as the ninja took up a fighting stance.

I guess he figured out that this armor is tougher then it looks… Hitomi too another step back, the water beneath her making noise from her movements. She quickly eyed her forearms, and saw a chip in both parts of her upper-gauntlets from having blocked the blade. Well… ok maybe not THAT tough…

Hitomi's eyes returned to the ninja standing opposite of her, poised to strike again. Just what is that sword MADE OF?!

…. Oh…

Hitomi wanted to smack herself in the head at her own stupidity. In all the running, the fear, and the… well… running, she had forgotten her own meta-human powers.

Narrowing her eyes, Hitomi eyed the shinobi's wakizashi carefully… seemingly... feeling it.

The shinobi wasn't going to wait for whatever it was Hitomi had planned, and resumed his attack.

While he made his move, to Hitomi it felt as if everything was going in slow motion.

Composition… texture… I see…

She focused on the sword in the shinobi's hand, a sword that was getting closer and closer to her neck with every passing nanosecond.

Hitomi took a deep breath and prepared herself for the fight of her life.

Watch over me senpai…

Hitomi focused on her hands and felt power flowing to them from her heart, down her arms, and into her hands. A bright light formed in each hand, causing her shinobi attacker's eyes to widen as he brought his wakizashi down over his head, poised to split Hitomi straight down the middle.

The lights in Hitomi's hand shinned bright, and with a roar, Hitomi shot one of her hands up over her head just off to the side of the ninja's blade coming down a her. Meanwhile she darted her other hand towards the rapidly approaching torso of her attacker.

The light was followed by an even brighter flash, which faded in a second. As the light came and went, Hitomi felt the air in each hand solidify, and she grasped the power in each hand. When the light faded Hitomi felt the air in each hand take the form of a sword's hilt, one in each hand.

There was a loud clang as metal hit metal over Hitomi's head and she simultaneously felt both her hands come to a stop from some external force.

This was followed by a shriek of pain from her attacker.

The shinobi still at the shoreline tensed up and readied their weapons, taken just as off guard by the sudden twist of events as the lead attacker had.

How could they not be taken off guard? A second ago Hitomi was unarmed. Now, there was a wakizashi in each of Hitomi's hands where the bright lights had been a moment ago.

The hand over Hitomi's head held a sword identical to the one that it had just blocked in mid-strike.

And a second wakizashi in Hitomi's other hand was covered in blood and sticking out backside of her attacker.

With a grunt Hitomi pushed her attacker off her, the pressure from the blade over her head vanishing and the sword in question falling into the shallow river. At the same time, she yanked her other hand backwards, pulling the blade that she had just formed out of thin air out of the torso of the shinobi.

The surprised shinobi stumbled back, hands going to his stomach which was now spitting out blood. Before the shinobi could shout for assistance, Hitomi leapt forward, plunging both wakizashi's through the man's chest with all her might. The shinobi made a gurgling sound from having his lungs pierced by steel, which was followed by one final grunt as Hitomi pushed him off her new swords and into the river.

There was as loud splash as the ninja's body hit the water of the shallow river, and he did not move again.

This is my power! Hitomi thought with a grim confidence, the guilt of having just killed another person pushed out of her mind. She could afford to feel guilt later, right now, she had to survive.

Item duplication. That was what TRANS-Ops Gamma Project had done to her. After going through the painful sessions that turned Hitomi from just (somewhat) ordinary Japanese schoolgirl and into a meta-human, she had gained the ability to duplicate any item within a short range of herself.

It took a lot of training to use it, and sometimes Hitomi still screwed it up and would end up with nothing but air in her hands. But thankfully, after some hard practice that was only on the rarest of occasions.

She twirled both blades and took up the fighting stance her Isaac had taught her. In a way, Hitomi wished the shinobi facing her didn't have his face concealed, because she was almost certain he had an expression of shock on his face.

"Watashi to tataku!" Hitomi shouted at the other two shinobi who had been waiting in reserve. The two shinobi accepted her invitation to "fight me", and charged into the shallow river. A river that now ran red with blood.

Both shinobi leapt into the river after her, their own swords at the ready. Hitomi swung one of her blades at the first shinobi, who paired her blow while the second shinobi tried to make a swipe at head. Hitomi ducked down to dodge the swing and tried to stab the man through the stomach, only to get distracted by the first ninja trying to cut her in half. Grunting, Hitomi parried the blow and took a step back, with a shinobi on either side of her, trying to surround her.

Kuso!

Both shinobi descended on her again, swinging both their blades around with expertise that out did Hitomi's. However, Hitomi still parried both blows. The shinobi on the right would make a swing at her and Hitomi would block it, and then immediately turn to shinobi on her left and parry his blow. Even though it was a two on one, Hitomi held off both shinobi's attacks thanks to having two swords.

After several seconds of being on the defensive, Hitomi slipped up. She awkwardly parried an attack from the ninja on her right, causing the flat end of the blade to bounce off her sword and hit her in the face. Grunting, Hitomi felt her head shake in her helmet from the force as she stumbled back, barely dodging the swing from the ninja on her left.

As she regained her barring's, Hitomi cursed when she noticed that the blow against her helmet had left a small crack in her visor.

Hitomi parried the next series of blows from the ninja, only to have one of them hit her sword extremely close to her hand, knocking it from her grasp.

Shit!

Hitomi cursed as she dropped one of the swords and tried to parry the next blow from the second shinobi while dodging the stab from the first now that she didn't have a second sword to block. As she managed to move off the line of attack, Hitomi focused her powers again.

Another flash of light burst in her now disarmed hand, and in a split second another prefect duplication of a wakizashi appeared. Now rearmed in both hands, Hitomi made a horizontal slash against the ninja who had tried to stab her, as he was unprepared for her to re-duplicate a blade after being disarmed.

Hitomi's blade slashed across the ninja's neck, causing her foe to drop his own blade and go to his knees in the river, with his hands at his blood drenched throat. The second and last shinobi standing made a cry of rage and swung down at Hitomi hard. Grunting, Hitomi brought both blades up to catch the sword in a lock above her head.

Two down… KUSO! Hitomi cursed in her mind as the last standing shinobi kicked her in the gut, sending her back a few feet and stunning her momentarily. As Hitomi tried to recover, the shinobi charged at her, making a stab at her stomach.

Hitomi's eyes went wide. She raised both blades to block but she would never make it.

Kuso! Kuso!

"HASAGI!" A loud masculine shout echoed through the battle from… somewhere?

Before Hitomi could even wonder who shouted that, she was suddenly kicked up into the air along with the river's water and the other shinobi. Her world went spinning and she felt herself get flung through the air.

What the hell?!

Hitomi grunted as she hit hard earth and rolled, knocking both her duplicated blades out of her hands. She hit the back of her head on something, causing her vision to blur and giving her a major headache.

Groaning, Hitomi stumbled up onto her hands and knees to try and figure out what happened. What hit me…?

She was now on dry land next to the river, and the bodies of the two shinobi she had taken down had also been kicked up out of the water by… whatever it was that had hit her.

The last shinobi alive, however, wasn't too far away from her and was already back on his feet and staring her down.

Kuso! Hitomi tried to stumble to her feet, but was too dizzy to coordinate. She fell backwards and smacked her back against a tree. The shinobi noticed her inability to get up and charged at her.

Oh no…

Hitomi tried to stand back up to defend herself, but then she saw a new figure emerge from the forest right behind the shinobi. Although it was difficult for her to make the figure out since she was so dizzy, she was able to make out the blue clothing and massive brown ponytail the figure had.

And the sword the figure had just drawn.

"SORYE!" The figure shouted in a masculine voice as he dashed at the shinobi from his blind spot, taking the ninja completely off guard. The newcomer slashed the man right across the chest, splattering blood everywhere. The shinobi stumbled back, dropping his sword and grabbing the wound with both hands. However, it didn't matter, as the mysterious man slashed again, cleaving the shinobi's head off.

Who…? Hitomi blinked at the sight. Did someone just save her?

She closed her eyes and groaned, trying to get up, only to lose her footing again from a mix of dizziness and exhaustion. Hitomi plopped her rear onto the earth below her and groaned, leaning back up against the tree and opened her eyes. Through her cracked visor and dizzy vision, she saw that her mysterious savior was essentially standing over her, giving her a better look at him.

His blood clothing covered up most of his body, but left his well toned and scarred torso exposed. Pieces of armor in a similar shade of blue were present on his lower arms and one of his shoulders. And as for the man's massive ponytail… well… there was so much hair, it almost looked like he had a pineapple growing out of his head.

But what was most curious was that the man was standing over her and drinking something out of a cup, appearing totally calm and as if he hadn't even just killed someone.

The man took a swig from his cup and looked down at Hitomi, his mouth hidden behind his overly large collar from the tattered clothing that covered his upper body.

"I hate ninjas…" The man muttered in a masculine voice. He waved the cup in his hand around slightly and raised an eyebrow. "Can I interest you in some sake?"

Hitomi raised her own eyebrows in confusion. "H-huh?"

Did he just offer me a drink?! Out HERE?!

"Rescue the girl and immediately offer her a drink?" Hitomi heard another voice, but this one sounded slightly familiar.

From behind her saviour, another figure walked out into Hitomi's field of vision. This figure almost made Hitomi gasp. He was clad in similar armor to Hitomi's, only it was dented, scrapped, and damaged. A piece here and there were missing, such as one of the shoulder pieces, a bracer, and a plate near the hip were all missing. The helmet of the new soldier was still in decent condition, with only a few scraps on it that had peeled away the black paint.

As the similar armored individual stood next to the strange man, he shook his head, face hidden behind a visor. "Did you HAVE to hit her too?" The armored man gave the strange man a light shove. "Thought you could aim better then that samurai jack!"

The mysterious, pineapple haired man sighed. "Why do you insist on calling me that?"

"W-who…?" Hitomi finally managed to get out her voice.

That brought both men's attention down to her. The armored figure leaned down to Hitomi's level and removed his helmet, revealing a black face with some facial hair growth on it, and a wide white smile. But what was shocking to Hitomi, was that she recognized him!

"Hey there princess." Jackhammer smiled. "Fancy seeing you here."

Hitomi blinked in complete shock. "J-jackhammer…?" She mumbled, finally feeling the fatigue of the last several hours catching up to her. "N… no…. impossible… you're… dead…" Hitomi mumbled before she felt her world go dark.

A/N: Before anyone says anything, yes that song is NOT mine and the lyrics belong to the song "Blood Red Roses" by C21 FX.