Chapter 13: Not Alone

The next chapter. I got it finished a lot faster than I thought I would. I'm very happy that I've found time to write between moving, summer trips, Applying to school, doing the required reading. Well here it is. Jack is going to hate this chapter. Oh and Jack, Leon, and Scath have made appearances in my other story Chatroom of doom in the chapter I'm getting ready to update so check it out in the next couple of days.

"You're a fool" Seraph sighed swinging his sword at Zero's head. With a clang it met Zero's now free right arm.

"I'd say," Zero shouted Pulling himself off the spears and grabbing his sword and nicking Seraph's cheek, "You're the fool!"

"How dare you insolent cur! I'll destro-" Seraph was slammed by a large wave of gray energy.

"About Damn time!" Zero shouted to the group of reinforcements which consisted of Jack, Serene, Ein, Kazé, Chris, Rose, Lina, Fia, and Cierra.

"Sorry we got held up," Kazé shot back.

"Just heal those two," Zero ordered.

"What just because you have reinforcements you think you can beat me!" Seraph shouted before he was consumed by a pillar of fire.

"Do you have short term memory loss or something!" Ledah shouted, "There were three of us to start!"

"Right, right, I don't remember trash," Seraph smirked from the smoke.

"What was that!" Ledah shouted readying his lance.

"You actually think you could beat me?" Seraph asked pointing his blade at Ledah.

"Save it!" Zero shouted meeting blades with Seraph.

"I've had enough of you're guardian complex!" Seraph shouted plunging his left hand into Zero's chest and flinging him into Ledah. "This is the end!" Seraph started raising his hands above his head and starting to collect Darkness. "I'll wipe you all out here and now!" As the darkness orb started to form the air around the battle field started to get heavy. Jack jumped into the line of fire striking Seraph in the chest with his scythe the blade of which shattered on contact. (It's the weapon Scath used because Scath stole it from Jack)

"Just because Scath picked you as a Host Doesn't mean you can beat ME!" Seraph shouted.

'Get ready! He's opening his wings!' Someone shouted. Following the warning Jack jumped up the instant Seraph opened his wings, which sent a ground based wave of darkness obliterating all that was in front of Seraph.

"Who said that?" Jack asked as he landed.

"Who said what?" Seraph asked still forming a darkness orb, "Are you losing it or something?"

"Someone told me that you were opening your wings!" Jack tried to defend himself.

'Find out later! Orb of Darkness now!' The voice shouted again.

"Oh right," Jack snapped back into the situation taking another swipe at Seraph but again not doing any damage.

"You don't get it do you? I absorb Darkness and Light. Just because you have a combination of the two doesn't mean you can hurt me," Seraph smirked.

"A combination?" Jack asked looking at his scythe.

"You don't even know what your power is? Scath told me you were stupid but This is absolutely moronic," Seraph laughed.

'He's trying to make you lose focus! Attack him now!'

"Every time I attack it get's absorbed!" Jack shouted at the voice.

"And now Moron Boy is losing it, shouting at someone who isn't here!" Seraph mocked.

"I know you absorb Darkness and Light but what about Fire!" Ledah shouted sending a giant fire arrow at Seraph knocking him back and shattering the orb of darkness.

"What the!?!" Seraph shouted looking at the large burn wound on his chest.

"That's it! Use different elements!" Jack shouted

'There you go!'

"Freeze him! Serene Nightmare!" Serene shouted firing a large ice spike at Seraph freezing him on contact.

"Electrify! Lightening Arrow!" Lina shouted sending an electrified arrow through the ice and Seraph.

"Burn him to ashes! Calamity Flare!" Cierra shouted raining fireballs on Seraph.

"Blow him away! Great Tempest!" Kazé shouted causing several tornados to fall on the General.

"Crush him! Terra Impact!" Chris shouted creating a giant boulder and smashing Seraph.

"Flames that scorch the Heavens, Cosmic Burst!" Ledah finished the Elemental attacks with his lance now enveloped in flames flying towards and Skewering the General.

"Nice," Zero smirked from his place on the ground.

"This is not how this ends!" Seraph shouted inside a small crater. "You insignificant whelps can't possibly defeat me!" Seraph continued ripping Ledah's Lance from his chest and hurling it back at Ledah who caught it.

"I remember you saying something about me being trash…" Ledah pondered, "Could Trash do this!" Ledah leaped into the crater and slashed Seraph nearly cutting him in half. Seraph collapsed onto the ground gasping for air.

"I am not done yet," Seraph coughed, "You'll see how truly insignificant you trash really are!" and with that Seraph disintegrated into nothing.

"Did he die or run?" Ledah asked.

"I think he ran," Zero sighed grabbing his blade and using it as a cane to stand.

"Damn, and I thought I had just killed the most powerful general," Ledah sighed as well.

"What do you mean you!" Lina shouted.

"Yea we all helped!" Cierra pouted.

"Give credit were credit is due!" Chris yelled.

"Alright alright we all did it!" Ledah quivered in fear behind his lance

"You're all making great progress," The Origin shouted across from the grim angels, "It's a shame I have to kill you all to get what I want,"

"It's the Origin!" Zero shouted, "Run!"

"Why? I'm not here to fight. I have my generals do that for me. I'm only here to stir up trouble," The Origin explained with a smirk.

"Which generally involves my dark side," Zero sighed.

"Bingo. Big money to the Ancient One," The Origin continued, "All of you're friends have powerful darkness in them. You know why?"

"No," Ledah answered.

"The Closer you Get to the Light the Greater your Shadow Becomes. Everything has darkness and light in their hearts. If you shun one and accept the other the shunned element is concentrated in a small space in the back of your heart and intensifies. That's why Oblivion is so very powerful," the Origin explained.

"Uh oh…" Jack mumbled looking down at his shadow. Everyone followed his lead to see that they're shadows had intensified and had all connected to Zero's shadow which started to shoot out of the ground and take shape. It continued collecting darkness until Oblivion had fully formed.

"Come," the Origin opened a portal of darkness and beckoned for Oblivion to follow which he did, "So long Zero, I hope you reconsider my offer." As soon as the portal closed everyone looked to Zero for an explanation.

"What's an Ancient One?" Fia asked.

"This is getting out of hand," Zero sighed.

"What's going on?" Lina asked.

"Yea Enlighten us Zero," Cierra glared at him.

"Meet me at Ein's house, I'll explain everything," Zero muttered disappearing from sight. Everyone except Jack rushed to Ein's house to hear the explanation.

"Alright, Everyone's gone Explain yourself," Jack shouted when he was sure no one was around.

'Do I have to?' the voice asked.

"Who are you?" Jack asked.

'You wouldn't believe me if I told you,' The voice sighed.

"Try me," Jack smirked.

'Remember when your brother died?' The voice asked.

"How could I forget," Jack mumbled.

'When I died I sent my soul into you're body to try and force Scath out of you're body and I succeeded,' The voice explained

"Wait you mean you're?" Jack shouted

'Yes, I'm Leon,' The voice answered.

"That's impossible Scath killed Leon!" Jack shouted.

'I know I was there, I entered you're body because mine died and now I guess I'm a spirit guide or something like that,' The voice chuckled.

"What was left of my sanity has drained away," Jack sighed

'You and me both brother,' The voice laughed.

"Well whoever you are I'm going to here Zero explain himself," Jack announced starting to walk to Ein's house.

'Wait you don't believe me?' The voice asked.

"For all I know you could be Scath but I don't care," Jack sighed.

At Ein's house everyone was sitting around Zero.

"Well?" Ein asked.

"I'm not exactly what you would call a grim angel," Zero sighed.

"I knew you were way too strong!" Ledah shouted.

"May I finish?" Zero shot.

"Sorry…" Ledah mumbled.

"I'm an Ancient One. A class of Grim angel that's in charge of dealing with very dangerous missions. There are only three of us but I think one of them might have been killed by the Origin. I was sent down to destroy Riviera to avoid the possibility of the sprites becoming part of the Origin's army. Of course they sent a child they believed would become strong enough to transcend being a Grim angel. But he died. Unfortunately I didn't destroy Riviera and with The Origin getting stronger day by day we are approaching the point of no return. The point at which the Origin will be too powerful for me to deal with and another Ancient One will be sent to destroy Riviera," Zero explained.

"But we've beaten all of his generals!" Ein shouted.

"If you didn't notice I could easily defeat Chaos, Omega, and Scath and eventually beat Seraph if I didn't have to defend you people and fight him at the same time. But the last time I fought the Origin he nearly killed me in two hits and unleashed Oblivion on you all," Zero shot back.

"Well what can we do?" Fia asked.

"We don't have many choices. We can sit and die, Try and train and die, or storm his castle and try and defeat every possibility of him getting an army," Zero explained

"I like that third one," Lina smirked.

"That one's the most impossible. We would have to open a portal to his castle, crash through his defenses and beat him on his home turf," Zero sighed, "The easiest would be to sit and die but so many of you have hero complexes that won't let you do that."

"How can we get to his castle?" Jack asked.

"I've already started work. It should take me about three months to break through to his castle," Zero answered.

"Do we have that kind of time?" Ledah asked.

"We have at least 2 months and at most about a year. The intelligence gathered before I came stated that the Origin was building a device to create an infinite source of pure darkness which would solidify the Origin permanently," Zero explained.

"Wait solidify permanently?" Serene asked.

"Yea. The Origin doesn't have a stable body. He can only stay solid in his castle," Zero sighed.

"But he was solid when he fought you!" Ein shouted.

"I was getting to that. If he gathers enough darkness he can stay solid about an hour while outside his castle. Once he get's the PDG (Pure darkness generator) he'll be invincible. And nothing will have a decent chance of killing him, not even destroying Riviera,"

"Then we need to get ready!" Chris shouted.

"Exactly. The next few months I am going to put the two grim angels, Jack, Chris and anyone else that wants to go through hell," Zero said taking his eye patch off, "Everything up until now has been a test to see if you could actually handle this kind of training. Most of you passed. The one exception being the one that didn't survive." Zero looked around the room with his red right eye exposed to the world.

"When do we start?" Ledah asked.

"Tomorrow," Zero said standing and leaving.

"Well this should be fun," Jack sighed.

The group dispersed from the house. Everyone was unsettled about this new turn of events. Jack saw Serene standing near the grove of response.

"Serene!" Jack shouted.

"Yes Jack?" Serene asked.

"Well uh… I… Wanted to tell you something… but uh…" Jack stuttered.

'Tell her you dolt' Leon's voice shouted from the back of Jack's head.

'Stop eavesdropping on my life! I'm trying to tell her that I love her!' Jack thought very loudly.

'You're doing a bang up job to,' Leon laughed.

'Just shut up!'

'At least be romantic! When I told her it was a romantic night under the stars,' Leon criticized.

"What is it?" Serene asked.

"Well uh I… love you," Jack said so quietly that nothing could hear him.

'smoooth, she can't reject you if she can't hear you,' Leon sighed.

"What was that?" Serene asked.

"I…"

'come on… say it. You've go the 'I' now say 'love you' and you'll be done,' Leon encouraged.

"I…"

'Jeez it's only two words!' Leon shouted

"Would you shut up!" Jack yelled out loud.

"What did I do?" Nardi said from the bushes.

"What the?" Serene, jack and even a ghostly Leon shouted.

"Uh… I uh wasn't… Oh man I didn't think of a lie in advance…" Nardi mumbled.

"You're losing your touch," Zero said from behind the group.

"What are you doing here?" Jack shouted.

"Two things, I wanted to ask you something I came here saw what you were doing and figured it would be my entertainment for the day. And I'm stalling," Zero explained.

"For who?" Nardi asked.

"You were supposed to run away you Idiot!" Zero shouted, "Now Jack's going to kill you!"

"But I came up with a lie," Nardi whimpered.

"We know it's a lie now," Serene sighed.

"Crap. Well… Oh my God what is that behind you!" Nardi shouted pointing. No one was fooled.

"Could you have been more obvious?" Zero asked.

"Are you going to help me or not?" Nardi asked.

"I tried and all you did was be an idiot," Zero shot back.

"B-but…" Nardi whimpered again.

"Hey Jack why don't you say what you said to Serene in an audible frequency?" Zero asked.

"But I already said it," Jack whimpered.

"I don't care it was a distraction again," Zero shrugged. Where Nardi had been there was now a sign that said 'insert sound effect for running away'

"Of all the!" Serene shouted looking back to Zero to find that where Zero had been stood a sign that said 'what Nardi's sign said'

"I think Zero used to be like Nardi I mean how did he get so good at that distraction thing?" Jack asked.

Nearby an explosion of yelling shot out of the forest, "HOW DARE YOU SUGGEST THAT YOU BASTARD! LET GO OF ME NARDI I NEED TO KILL HIM! I SAID LET GO! YOU MUST NOT WANT TO KEEP THAT ARM! I SWEAR JACK ONE DAY! WHEN YOU LEAST EXPECT IT! DEAD DEAD! YOU HERE ME DEAD!"

"I think everyone this side of Riviera heard you Zero," Serene sighed.

"What happened! Where's the fire!" Ein shouted in pure terror running towards Jack.

"I said he must have been like Nardi at one point in his life," Jack repeated.

The forest still shaken from the previous outburst withstood another, "LET GO OF ME NARDI LET GO!"

"You're not making this any easier! OH GOD MY ARM!" Nardi's voice ripped through the forest. The three could hear explosions and trees falling in Zero's destructive wake.

"FLEE! Flee for your little lives!" Kazé shouted wearing his bright orange 'Zero's angry with rage response team' jersey.

After much fleeing Chris and Max managed to calm Zero to the point where everyone except Jack wasn't endanger of losing their lives. Jack, Serene and Ein were resting on the wall of the Zero proof fortress that Kazé secretly built.

"What the hell did you say to him Jack? I haven't had to deal with an outburst like that in 500 years!" Kazé asked.

"I'm too afraid to repeat it…" Jack shuttered.

"YOU BETTER BE!" Zero's distant voice ripped through the fortress.

"See…" Jack mumbled.

"Oh I think I figured it out based on Nardi's injuries. Anyway you guys better get home and Jack should avoid paperclips and wet noodles for the rest of his life," Kazé sighed.

"O..k…" Everyone muttered fleeing from the fortress.

"So anyway," Serene smiled looking at Jack, "What were you saying?"

"Oh… uh it isn't important, I'll tell you later," Jack stuttered.

'Yea right,' Leon's voice laughed in Jack's head

'Not this again,' Jack thought. Serene and Jack went their separate way's, Serene heading home and Jack heading to the base.

"Hey, Haven't seen you in a while," A very familiar voice called.

"You!" Jack shouted meeting eyes with Scath, who stood holding a black sword in his right hand. Scath's new body had grey hair and a black coat that covered most of his body.

"It's a shame that you rejected me. I haven't been able to find a decent body," Scath sighed, "Thankfully when I kill you I'll reclaim your body."

"That will never happen!" Jack shouted.

"Oh really? Prove it!" Scath shouted charging blade at the ready.

Suspense again. I figured since I didn't leave you hanging last time I should do it again to compensate. Anyway to clarify the voice in the back of Jack's head is Leon. In order to free Jack from Scath Leon embedded his soul in Jack to force Scath out. I'm going to have fun with that. Zero's origin is revealed. The Origin's castle is the place where the final show down will take place. And if you haven't noticed by now I have designated 4 character's to kill each of the generals. Each general is paired up with one of those four, The Generals are now, in order from strongest to weakest, Oblivion, Seraph, Scath, and Omega. And the four characters to kill them are, Zero, Jack/Leon, Ledah and Ein. Try and figure out who's going to kill who.

Next time: Depths of sadness

Serene and Jack's relationship gets serious just in time to be tested by a familiar face. Zero starts the new training regiment and more await.