Dark Side Of The Moon

Chapter 3: Sticks And Stones

Written By Illuminet

Disclaimer: The Guilty Gear Series is the rightful property of Arc System Works. Some of the characters are being borrowed for non-profit purposes.

"..."-Indicate Speech

'...'-Indicate Thought

:xXx:

"Eat."

This was the awakening Dizzy was presented with the following morning by Sol as a long splintered piece of wood was used as a skewer with cooked meat stabbed onto it was thrust in front of her face. Dizzy glared into his eyes.

"Stop ordering me around! Just leave me alone and let me sleep a while longer."

She sneered, turning her face away from the food held out to her.

"You can sleep later on. Eat now."

He said curtly. With the rain gone and the sun just about to rise into the sky, the cave would be better exposed to the eyes of the Sacred Order. Both Dizzy and himself had to be gone from the area long before then if they were going to survive.

"I'm not hungry."

The Half-Gear refused.

"Eat anyway."

The Gear said to her dully, his countenance remaining devoid of emotions. His presence was causing her anger and discomfort all over again like the night prior.

"What part of -I'm not hungry- does that small brain of your's refuse to understand? Stick it up your ass for all I care!"

She spoke vehemently to him. She refused to allow him to command her like that without a fight. Even if she could technically not match up to him at this point physically. She would not let her mother's killer have the satisfaction that he could control her so easily if hardly at all. Sol was getting annoyed now as well by this point.

"Stop acting your own age and start acting like the age you look and eat the damn thing! Stop misinterpreting my intentions of wanting to control you! You want to stay alive and kill me later? Then you'll eat now."

He spoke, his voice raising ever so slightly due to his annoyance. Dizzy sighed through clenched teeth, hating the Gear standing before her even more because he had such an effective bargaining chip to play against her. Just like the night before, and it forced her to swallow her pride and accept his help and at his own whim rather than her own. So far the control of the situation was completely in his favor and she hated it. Knowing that nothing else was good enough to sway him, she grabbed the skewer roughly from his hand and bit into the meat. Her mind pondered what kind of meat it was she was eating while her eyes cast their sullen glance to his retreating form as he walked out of the cave. Sol could feel her gaze burning into the back of his head but continued to ignore it. Once outside, he took a half used pack of cigarettes from his front pocket.

'She better be quick. Shit...I hate these feelings of uncertainty. I hate not having enough power to possibly escape out of any situation put before my path. I refuse to be a lab rat for the damn Order like Frederick was to that asshole so long ago. She better start to realize that she has little choice but to trust me to keep herself alive for now.'

He thought to himself as he fished a slightly soggy cigarette from the pack. It didn't have much chance to dry from him getting his clothes soaked during the previous night's storm. He didn't really care though and placed the bent nicotine stick into his mouth before bringing the hilt of his large sword to it. A small flame was emitted from the hilt to light the cigarette. Sol felt his mood become slightly lighter as nicotine filled his system, exhaling smoke from his mouth and nostrils. The lazy trail of smoke that rose from the cigarette further calmed him to help him deal with Dizzy and her own bitter mood. He cast a side glance towards the cave as he saw Dizzy walking out of it, noting her to be walking steadily towards him. A small but decent portion of her power had returned in that one night. Not that he ever doubted that. She glared at him through narrowed eyes as she tossed his cape back at him, but they widened in slight surprise, noticing the heavy scars laced across his bare back through the torn coat. They had been created from the large axes the Holy Knights used to cut into his back when he defended her.

'How? How can he heal wounds that large when so much of his own power was exhausted? Me and mother would take a couple of days to fully heal during a weakened state, but he needs less than a day in the same weakened condition? How could a Gear like him have not been known about by us for so long?'

Dizzy pondered to herself, but snapped back to attention when she saw him put his cape back on, obscuring the view of his wounds further.

"Let's go."

He said simply, turning to fully face her. She cast her gaze away from his own.

"...Yeah."

She agreed, refraining from saying some biting comment and starting another argument. It would be at least one more day before she could restore enough power to use her winged systems, so she could not fully defend herself just yet. Knowing the Sacred Order, they probably put bounties on her and Sol's heads. She would need to rely on Sol's power for at least a little while, so she reminded herself that it would only allow her to keep an eye on her enemy and restore enough power to fight back soon enough and destroy him. She could cooperate that long to see her goals met, right? Without anymore words, the two left the trail at a brisk pace. They were almost side by side, but Sol kept ahead in order to defend Dizzy if need be. They traveled for several hours without speaking through a vast plain after the mountain trail ended. Questions burned within Dizzy's mind though, mostly concerning Sol himself. Yet her pride did not allow her to associate with him more than need be, so she remained silent, save for telling him to put out his cigarettes since he smoked them too damn often for her liking. She was ignored each and every time. Sol also did not try and break the ice either with any normal conversation and simply kept walking. He looked up at the sky and finally said something to her now.

"It's noon. This area's too barren. We'll keep going until we find a better place to hide. Gotta reach Zepp in a couple of days at the very latest."

He said. Dizzy's gaze was puzzled.

"The Flying Continent, Zepp? That's far from a smart move and even someone like you should realize that. Zeppian Soldiers are in allegiance with the Sacred Order of Holy Knights. I heard that Zepp's best soldier was killed by Testament. What, you think we can just waltz into a filthy Human city just like that?"

She spoke to him with a condescending tone. Sol grunted in annoyance.

"Whatever. You act as if we're going to take the normal way up there."

He said, puffing away at another cigarette. Dizzy noted it must have been his eighth one since leaving the cave and that he smoked the thing until it was burning in his mouth practically before spitting it out. He had smoked four of them in rapid succession after one was spent completely until finally spreading the intervals of smoking to accommodate the hours they had traveled thus far. It was a habit that was irritating Dizzy, and she already hated his guts more than enough already. She swore he was probably smoking just to irritate her for causing him discomfort during their previous little spats.

"Stop smoking so damn much! Even for a Gear, such a habit isn't good for you."

She shouted at him. He shrugged.

"Ain't happening. Couldn't take a hint the past seven times?"

He asked, a smirk crossing his lips as the cigarette was moved from one side of his mouth to the other. Dizzy glared. Though he never once looked at her direction.

"...Asshole..."

She muttered extremely low, hoping he wouldn't hear it even with his Gear enhanced senses. He obviously did though, because his smirk became a small grin, showcasing his fangs. Yet he continued to be silent again.

"...So anyway...why do we need to risk going to Zepp and exactly what do you need from there so badly?"

She asked. She didn't mean to speak again, but the past three years since she had matured beyond the confines of her age both physically and mentally, she had never had an experience such as this one: a very shaky but still normal conversation. During the war, all interaction she had was done with Justice but it was always business. Never the kind of loving and caring interaction between mother and daughter that she had yearned for. Dizzy blamed it partly on the war, but she also knew that deep down, her mother did not fully accept her. She was half of Justice's kind, but tainted by the other half that was Justice's enemy. This was the gap that separated her from the other Gears as well she believed at first, but all Gears were controlled by Justice and that understanding allowed Dizzy to realize that she was never fully accepted. Confusion always burned in her as to who her Human father was, but more importantly, why Justice even might have a Human fling and conceived her if she was only half. She had asked that once then, but Justice said that the Half-Gear's creation was not her own idea, but of the Gear Creator himself. When he had been captured and imprisoned by the Gears, Dizzy wanted to get answers straight from his mouth, but the Crusades came first. Sol's name began to spread amongst the Gears and their constant defeat at his hands. That's when Justice took to the front lines to end the supposed Human's life, only to end up being killed herself. Even if Dizzy was not fully accepted, she still had love for her mother because Justice did claim her to be useful with her ability to revive a good portion of dead Gears since the Humans numbers were so many in comparison to the Gears. This was the reason Dizzy continued to love Justice and fight for the Gears, knowing that her fate would probably be far better then with the Humans who would shun her for her Gear side and give her no chance at survival. Only near the end of the war did she get a chance to see That Man, though she had no plans of learning who her father was at the time anymore he had told her anyway, muttering to himself that she was the daughter of Justice and a Human he had known quite well. She had only gotten a name, but then Zepp's military, the Jellyfish Pirates, the Sacred Order, and most importantly, Sol, had shown up and she swore to avenge her mother's death. So much for that plan when she felt the power of a Gear coursing through him and realized what he was, which brought her hate for him to an all new high because he was betraying his own kind all along. Back to the present, though, Sol began to speak before his eyes narrowed and his head darted to make a side glance behind the way he and Dizzy had been traveling.

"Shit! Run!"

He ordered as he grabbed her arm and hauled her with him before she herself had a chance to see what he had seen.

:ToBeContinued:

Note-This chapter feels a little too slow for my liking. Probably because this isn't an all out action fic with a pretty straight forward plot as I'm used to doing for my Guilty Gear stories, and more of a focus on what kind of relation is going to be built between Sol and Dizzy instead. Or could just be that my writing skills suck and so, by extension, this chapter sucked...if so, I apologize.