The Kid

Disclaimer: I don't own MAR, never have.

Chapter Three: Babysat

---

The aftermath of the War Games left all of MAR Heaven in shock. The leader of the Cross Guard had been killed, but had taken Phantom down with him. The populace didn't know whether to celebrate or grieve. But the Chess Pieces- those of them who had survived- were all unanimously miserable.

Most of the survivors remained in the castle. As a general rule, they didn't have anywhere else to go. Some had fallen into complete and utter depression. The only hope left was Phantom's immortality. Someday he would revive, and they would get a second chance.

Peta chose to focus on that hope. He wasn't the type to fall into a dark and miserable depression. He enjoyed darkness and misery too much to do that. And so he set off on a journey to recruit new members for the Chess Pieces in preparation for the second battle.

He was forced to take Candice along, to prevent her from being killed by Queen Diana. After news of Phantom's death had reached her, Candice had pretty much had a complete mental breakdown. She confined herself to her room and screamed and cried non-stop, repeatedly begging and pleading Phantom to come back. After three days of this someone finally slipped a note under her door reminding her that Phantom wasn't dead permanently or anything. With this revelation, Candice more or less went back to being her usual cheerfully insane self.

All of this was typical Candice behavior, and nothing to get excited about. Unfortunately, this had occurred while Candice was still acting as Princess Snow's tutor. The discovery of her allegiance to Phantom had come as an unpleasant shock, and suddenly cast suspicion on the Queen who had hired her. An investigation had lead to Diana's treachery being discovered and she had barely escaped being imprisoned by her enraged ex-followers. Needless to say, the Queen was not happy about this turn of events.

Normally Peta wouldn't have cared if she took out her wrath on Candice, but in this case he thought the whole thing was Diana's own fault to begin with. When she had first chosen
Candice for princess brainwashing duty (on the grounds that a woman would have more maternal instinct- had she looked in the mirror recently?), Peta had gently tried to tell her that she was making a mistake, and she had arrogantly brushed him off.

Now, he was enjoying seeing her pay for her spectacularly bad judgment. Besides, Peta didn't think the whole thing was a complete loss. Candice had probably traumatized Snow more in the few weeks than Diana could have over the next couple years.

And so, Peta had taken Candice and quietly left. It said something about the general mood among the Chess Pieces that Peta actually preferred being alone with Candice to staying with them.

In the Chess Pieces' Castle only one person wasn't in mourning for Phantom. But despite that Alviss could rival any of the Chess Pieces with his unrelenting misery. The boy had lost his greatest hero, and he didn't even have his greatest enemy to hate anymore. Alviss no longer bothered to pull pranks on anyone. He had become a pale and silent shadow of his former self.

No one had much time to think about Alviss anymore either. In fact, the boy might have been able to just leave the Castle, if it weren't for Rolan (the one who stopped him). Rolan's final command from Phantom had been to take care of Alviss.

Actually, Phantom had casually told Rolan to "Look after the kid while I'm gone, okay?" right before he left to fight Danna. This was probably intended to be a brief babysitting job not a long term assignment, but these were the last words Phantom had spoken to Rolan, and he had taken them as a sacred duty.

And so Alviss remained. In truth, he seemed to have little heart left for escape attempts. He had no where left to go. He was a war orphan, and the Cross Guard which had been looking after him was disbanded. Now he was completely alone. Even a familiar enemy might be better than no one.

---

Chimera was convinced she was the most miserable person in the Chess Piece's Castle.

Sure, there were other people who were extremely gloomy, and a few who might be crazier. But when it came to sheer unrelenting depression, she couldn't be beat. Everyone else occasionally smiled, if only at the sight of other people suffering. This made them too cheerful for Chimera, so she avoided her teammates and mostly lurked in her room or on the training field.

The sound of a knock on her door was completely unexpected. She decided to ignore it. To her annoyance, someone took this as an invitation to push her door open.

The intruders appeared to be two of her fellow Chess Pieces, Kouga and Mr. Hook. She was pretty sure they were both above pawn rank, which meant she couldn't just kill them. A pity.

Oddly enough, the two were holding a young boy between them. They tightly gripped his arms as if they considered him potentially dangerous, but he appeared to be sullen and unresponsive.

"What's that? Dinner?" she snarled. Her voice came out deep and harsh, thanks to her mask. It still felt strange and awkward to have it covering her face, but she had to admit she like the way it made her voice sound; like the tougher, more dangerous person she was becoming.

The other two recoiled slightly at her words, but soon rallied themselves. "No, unfortunately we're not supposed to kill him," Mr. Hook said. "For some reason he appears to be considered important, so we have to keep him from escaping the castle."

"The newcomer always draws babysitting duty," Kouga added unconvincingly.

So, this was some form of hazing the newbie? "Don't count on him surviving long with me," she growled.

Neither of them looked particularly worried. In fact, Kouga looked rather pleased. Chimera did a hasty reassessment of the situation. It appeared they were hoping she would kill off the boy. There must be some reason they couldn't do it themselves, so they were hoping to shift the blame onto her. She wouldn't be fooled that easily.

"Take the brat and get out of my sight," she hissed giving her most menacing glare.

They exited very quickly, but left the boy behind. Oh, they'd pay for that when she caught up with them.

Should she chase the kid away? But what if he managed to escape, and then they blamed her? No, she'd have to watch him until someone came to get him.

But what was she supposed to do with him in the meantime?

The boy stared at her. She stared back at him.

---

Half an hour later they were still staring at each other. Chimera had never seen someone try to outstare a mask before. She was almost impressed.

She could feel her eyes begin to hurt, even though she had been blinking normally behind the mask. It must be psychological damage.

Finally, embarrassed at the prospect of losing a staring contest to a prepubescent brat, she said, "Just go over to the corner and sit there."

He didn't move. "I mean you, shrimp!" Still no reaction. Irritated, she grabbed him and dragged him across the room. He didn't try to resist. "And be quiet!" she added, unnecessarily since he hadn't spoken a word.

Perversely, this seemed to rouse him from his silence. "I'm not a shrimp, my name's Alviss! And I'll be whatever I want!" The defiance seemed to be a reflexive response.

The show of resistance pleased her- his previous attitude had been eerie. "No you won't! I may not be able to kill you but I bet being transformed into a toad might improve your attitude a bit."

"Better a toad than whatever you are!"

That struck a bit too close to home. "I'm the one holding your life in my hands!"

"It's not like my life has much value," he said bitterly. "I'd have killed myself if they weren't keeping me away from edged weapons."

Curious in spite of herself, Chimera asked, "What's wrong with you anyway?"

"Everyone I love is dead and I'm being held captive by the ones who killed them. Oh, and to make matters worse, I'm beginning to feel like my enemies are turning me into something I don't want to be. And I'm cursed to become a living corpse. The real question is, what's right with me?" He abruptly hunched over, looking like he regretted saying so much.

For Chimera, the words reminded her too much of her past self. Silenced, she merely turned back to her training exercises, leaving Alviss in peace.

---

Almost five hours had passed, and still no one had come to pick up Alviss. Chimera was beginning to consider lowering herself and actually leaving her room the find someone to take the brat off her hands. Not that he'd been any trouble after his brief outburst, but she still preferred to be alone. Besides, she needed to establish her status among the Chess Pieces as being above this. Otherwise she might get stuck with dirty jobs like looking after creepy brats all the time.

That thought was enough to decide Chimera. She was going to threaten the first person she saw into taking the kid off her hands. "Come on, we're leaving," she growled at Alviss.

For some reason, this time he decided to obediently follow her. Perhaps he was as sick of her company as she was of his.

Chimera determinedly marched through the mostly deserted halls. Spotting someone ahead of her, she stormed up and shouted, "You take the kid! I've had him long enough!"

"Excuse me, do you know who you're talking to?" the pink-haired woman asked coldly.

Chimera took a closer look. Crap. "You wouldn't happen to be the Queen, would you?" Peta had pointed Queen Diana out to her once, and identified the woman as one of the people she had to obey. Oops. "I'm extremely sorry, I thought you were someone else. I'll just go look for a peon to bully."

The Queen sneered, "You are a peon compared to me. And looking after a runt suits an ugly woman like you." With that, she swept off.

Chimera could feel her temper rising. She hadn't come to the Chess Pieces to be treated like this! And the "ugly" comment had really hit a sore spot.

To her surprise, Alviss was giving her a measuring look. "I don't like her either," he commented. "Do you want to get a little revenge?"

---

"This is a really bad idea," Chimera grumbled. "If we get caught, we'll probably be killed."

"If you were going to back out, you should have done it before making the potion. At this point I can just finish the job by myself," Alviss retorted.

Chimera growled. She couldn't stop now without looking less courageous than a mere child.

"Are you sure she's gone?" she asked nervously.

Alviss was already picking the lock on the Queen's door. "Relax, she always takes over an hour to eat lunch." The lock clicked open. "Now, come on!"

---

Shortly afterwards, the castle was split by a 100-decibel scream.

"And, Diana always takes a shower after lunch, because she can't go more than half a day without primping herself," Alviss said contentedly.

"How do you think she likes her new neon green hair?" Chimera asked wickedly.

"Not very much, but I think it suits her perfectly. And I couldn't have done it without you making the fake shampoo."

"On the contrary, it's all thanks to your brilliant ideas and lock-picking skills. You seem very good at this."

"I have a lot of practice. But this is the first time I've ever gotten Diana. Hopefully not the last time, either."

"I concur, but for now I think we'd better stay in my room."

"A wise warrior knows when to make himself scarce," Alviss agreed.

---

Chimera resumed her training, and Alviss continued to watch her. But this time, he tried to imitate some of her moves. Chimera was rather impressed by his skill, given his age.

When she noticed he had stopped moving, she paused to check on him. Alviss had fallen asleep on the floor. Well, he was still just a kid. Asleep, he looked just like any other child. The sight roused a vaguely maternal feeling that Chimera had thought beaten out of her a long time ago. He was just so cute.

And if she covered him with a blanket, no one ever had to know.

---

Chimera was beginning to doze off herself when her door was thrust open and two strangers came hurling in.

She was combat ready in seconds, but the two ignored her and went straight to Alviss.

"We've finally found you!" Rolan cried. "I should have tortured Kouga about your whereabouts sooner!"

"Are you alright, Alviss?" Ash asked anxiously. "Don't worry, I 'm much stronger than those two, and I'll make sure they never bother you again."

"I'm fine," Alviss insisted sleepily. "I think they thought Chimera would do something to me, but she's really not so bad."

"We're so grateful to you for looking after him," Ash told Chimera sincerely.

"It's not a problem. Just get him out of my sight before I kill him," she growled.

As usual, Rolan tuned out anything he didn't want to hear. "I'm so glad you and Alviss have become such good friends! And he looks much more cheerful. You seem to have a positive influence on him. You'll have to come play with him some more tomorrow."

"Didn't you hear me? I never want to see him again!" Chimera suspected that Alviss had a knack for getting under her skin. She couldn't afford to get close to him, for the sake of her new persona.

"I don't think you have any choice." Grinning evilly, Alviss walked over to Chimera and whispered in her ear, "I know what you helped me do to Diana. If I expose, you what do you think will happen? From now on, you're my minion!"

That evil brat! How could she have ever thought he was cute?

Chimera scowled at Alviss as he slipped out the door with Ash, but she knew she was cornered.

She was surprised to notice Rolan giving her a knowing look. "He was blackmailing you, wasn't he? You're not the first one. Alviss is such a precocious child, and Phantom taught him well. I'm sure you'll quickly become good friends."

Chimera gaped at him. "You're completely insane, you know that?"

"So they tell me!" Rolan said, smiling brightly.

---

Peta normally went through life with a mildly foul mood. He hid it with his psychotic smiles, but the truth was he generally found his existence to be rather tedious. Only occasionally were there exceptions. Sometimes, after an especially difficult victory, he briefly felt rejuvenated and alive. And sometimes, after something particularly irritating had happened, his ennui was consumed by raw fury.

At the moment, his mood was definitely leaning towards furious, thanks to his pain-in-the-ass of a traveling companion.

First, Candice had ruined his attempt to implant ambition in the heart of the Luberian Thieves' Leader. Peta had been at the top of his game, being eerily menacing and sinisterly persuasive, speaking of the innermost secrets of Galian's heart. But while he was trailing the thief, Candice had run up to him screaming something unimportant. As a result, Peta's spying had been discovered by Galian and Galian's stealing had been discovered by the townspeople, leading to both of them being run out of town.

Galian was no longer very impressed with Peta; in fact, he was downright angry. There went a perfect recruit.

Alas, this was only the first time that Candice ruined Peta's talent scouting missions. Potential fighters became much less impressed with the Chess Pieces after they discovered that at least one of the knights was a hyperactive childish lunatic.

And to top it off, Candice had randomly decided to kidnap a little boy. She had claimed that she thought the child, the son of the Cross-Guard's plant user, could be useful someday. Actually, Peta suspected that she just missed Alviss. He couldn't understand why; normally she acted like the one most victimized by the brat. Alviss seemed to have grown on her. Maybe it was because of her masochistic streak.

However, the boy Jack had been nothing like Alviss; he had mostly screamed and cried. Not that Peta didn't consider that an improvement compared to Alviss' violent attacks. Though in a surprisingly short time Jack had toughed up considerably.

Candice had even wanted to take the boy back with them! She claimed that he would make a good friend for Alviss. Peta had vehemently opposed the idea. Alviss needed no help whatsoever in being a nuisance. In the end, the point became irrelevant when Jack ran off during the night.

Candice had sulked non-stop after Peta had refused to let her go find him. Fed up, Peta decided to dump Candice back at the Castle. If Diana hadn't forgotten her grudge yet that was just too bad. Any more time in her company and he would probably end up killing her himself.

No sooner had he crossed the castle's threshold then his ear drums were split by an enormous explosion. Cries of "Grab the brat!" and "Someone take those bombs away from him!" shortly followed.

Candice's eyes lit up with excitement. "It's Alviss! He's back to his old tricks!" she shouted. With that, she happily took off in hot pursuit, crying, "I'll get him!"

Peta followed at a more sedate pace. To his surprise, he could feel something like a smile tugging at his lips. A real smile, at that. He'd sort of missed the good old bomb-dodging days, though he wasn't sure why. It wasn't as if he'd been worried about the demon child or anything. After pondering the matter, he concluded that the part of him that craved danger must have missed a worthy opponent. Yep, that was totally it.

It was good to be home.

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Author's Note: I'm sorry about how long it took me to update this time! My keyboard stopped working and I had to get a new one. Then I got caught up writing a Rurouni Kenshin fanfic with my sister. We have a separate account called "evilchibis" where we write stories together. We just posted our first chapter of our story "Kenshin Tries to Knock Off Kaoru." If you like this story, you'd probably enjoy that one too.