Number Zero
"Number... Zero...?" Clare whispered, her eyes on Wiess. "Impossible..."
"Number Zero?" Wiess asked Riful, slinging his arm over her shoulder. "Where'd you get that crazy idea?"
Riful looked surprised. "You don't remember?" she asked. "Wiess, the most powerful warrior ever born, king of all female warriors? Have you lost your memories?"
"Apparently, it seems," Galatea muttered. She gave Clare a sharp look. "And this man was your companion?"
Clare looked away from Wiess in disgust. "Of course not!" she snapped.
"Number Zero, Wiess," Riful sang, "Born from the union of a Number One ranked male and Number One ranked female warrior. Older than all of us 'Abyssal Ones'."
"Older?" Galatea repeated. "But, you and the other Abyssal Ones are at least three centuries old!"
"Holy shit grandma!" Wiess chuckled, tousling Riful's hair to her annoyance.
"You do realize that you're older, right?" she asked waspishly. "And let go of me! Why are you even here?"
"Just here for some unfinished business," Wiess replied, giving Clare a dark look. "If you don't mind, I'd like to destroy this would-be killer of mine."
"Wha - what?" Clare gasped, taking a step back. "Wiess!"
"You tried to kill me!" Wiess said angrily, stepping forward towards Clare, leaving a thoughtful Riful behind. "I remember! I saw you stabbing me in the throat in my memories!"
He continued to walk towards Clare, who was stepping back in fear, shock and guilt, as Galatea and Jean watched in surprise. The young black-haired man stepped past Duph's body, advancing on the one he used to trust. Suddenly, Duph flashed to his feet, bringing both hands together as he made to pummel Wiess into the ground.
"DIE YOU BASTARD!" Duph screamed, swinging his arms down. They hit Wiess with a deafening bang, causing clouds of dust to fly up and rocks to scatter into the air. "Gotcha!"
"Think again," a voice from underneath his fists said coldly.
Duph's hands were hovering several feet off the ground, and underneath was Wiess, holding the massive fists up above his head with just two fingers and his thumb. The young man was pressed into the ground by a couple of feet but all in all, he was unscathed. There was only one thing different about him, something that scared everyone in the tunnel - including Riful - very much: His eyes were a shining red, such a dark crimson in color with bloodlust and rage that it chilled them to their very bones and made even the Abyssal One want to flee in terror.
"You should have stayed down," Wiess remarked in an oily tone as he gently, effortlessly flicked Duph's hands away from him. "Now I'm afraid that little girl is gonna need a new boyfriend."
"No, wait!" Riful cried, changing into her Awakened form, but it was too late. Without so as much as becoming a slight blur, Wiess moved faster than any living creature could see, and Duph became a giant splatter of gore, coating the walls and warriors in purple blood and chunks of flesh. The largest piece that remained of the mighty Awakened Male was his eyeball, which rolled on the ground towards Riful, stopping at her enormous black 'skirt'.
"D-Duph..." Riful said sadly, her black face letting out a single tear.
Wiess stood just where he was before annihilating Duph, seemingly unaffected by anything, his clothes and body clean of any blood. He stood there, his hands still in his pockets as he turned around to look at Riful. "His fault," he said simply. "Not mine."
Red eyes pierced black ones as the two powerful beings stared eachother down. Finally, after what seemed like ages, Riful sighed.
"I... accept my defeat," she said. "I... I will be... leaving now."
And in a massive twirl of black cords, she dissapeared into the sky. Wiess watched her fading figure with a bemused grin before turning around to face the three warriors behind him. Clare gulped and grasped her sword tightly, readying Ilena's arm for the Quick Sword technique. She stared as Wiess' face became a slight blur, then all of a sudden, the heavy weight of her claymore sword dissapeared. Shocked, Clare looked down to see her empty right hand and looked around to see Galatea's and Jean's swords missing as well. Looking back at Wiess, she nearly swallowed her tongue at the sight of him shouldering all three swords with one hand.
"You weren't thinking of finishing me off, were you???" he asked softly, looking into Clare's silver eyes. "It took me half a second to kill that male Awakened Being, what chance do you think you have against me as pathetic Claymores?"
"These past few months have been interesting," Wiess continued, tapping the swords against his shoulder. "I've been trying to find out my limits, trying to see what I'm capable of. You, with the long hair, you can read Yoki flows, can't you?"
"I can," Galatea replied.
"And also control them to an extent as well," Wiess smirked, making her lose her composure for a moment. "I know you were gonna try it on me next, I'll save you some grief: Don't."
He held the swords out in front of him and beckoned for all three warriors to watch. "Now, read what I do next, you too Clare!"
With a clatter, the swords began to vibrate, then hum, then suddenly, all three rose into the air from Wiess' hand, forming a three-point star. Wiess smirked at their shocked faces as he began to spin the swords around like a wheel. "Amazing, isn't it?" he asked them. "You and Number Three there can probably see that I'm using my Yoki to manipulate inanimate objects, right?"
"Incredible," Galatea said, "As expected of the so-called 'Number Zero'."
Wiess shrugged. "If you say so," he said. He made the swords fly back to their owners. "Anyways, back to business."
He gave Clare a cold smirk and she readied herself. "Are you ready for this?"
Clare released some of her Yoki in preparation for the upcoming battle, but when she did, Wiess merely frowned.
"That's it?" he asked incredulously in disbelief. "After all those months, you've only gotten that much stronger? What a waste of time! I'll come back when you're a little more than a peon."
"What?" Clare shouted, but he was already gone.
-----
As she trudged along with Jean up to the snowy mountains of Alphonse, Clare could not help but think back on what had happened with Wiess. He had been so... powerful, so sure of himself. What had happened to him during these past few months? How could someone become so monstrously strong in that short of a time span? It was scary, too scary to comprehend...
And the look on his face when he saw her... It chilled Clare to the bone. Did he really hate her that much? But of course he would! She had tried to kill him, the man who had once been her very sidekick, the one who was always there for her. Maybe... Maybe Wiess was wrong. Maybe she really was a monster...
-----
Wiess landed in a forest somewhere out in the country. Looking around, he saw a small figure standing around a small pond. He walked up to Riful of the West. "Hey."
"You've got a lot of nerve, coming here," she said quietly, staring into the murky water. "You killed my Duph."
"He was an idiot," Wiess simply said. Riful let out a small chuckle.
"You said that the first time you met him," she said, turning around and giving the young man a smile. "Never liked Duph, not once in your lifetime."
"I'm sorry I forgot everything," Wiess apologized. Riful 'shushed' him and pulled him into an embrace.
"It's okay," she said, swaying back and forth gently. "You always lose your memories after a while, it's not your fault."
She continued to rock Wiess in the forest as they stood there quietly, enjoying eachother's company.
"It's okay... Big brother..."