Chapter 2: Awakening.

During the years of his youth, Ais was taught many things. He learned how to use many different black magic spells such as firaga, wataga, and blizzaga. He also learned many white magic such as curaga, aeroaga and refectaga. There he also befriended Xehanort, Dilan and Aeleus. The others were always busy with experiments. Ansem made sure he was schooled well by his best teachers much like Even, Aeleus, Ienzo, Dilan, Braig, and Xehanort. Instantly, he was the most popular person in the entire district and began to enjoy hs new life. Vya often came to visit him, just to see how he was handling his new life and the people. Kver was often busy but came to see him anyway just to see how he was doing. There was one time, when he and Dilan went to the Great Maw to excavate the area(this was usually after Dilan got out of the labortory) They found a huge herd of Flame Vipers there destroying many small creatures that came to the Maw. Dilan was indeed much more advanced then Ais in physical strenght, but in some magic, Ais exceeded him such as, the Seven Dragons magic. It was indeed a very strong attack but not nearly as strong as Dilan's wind attacks. Ais was the strongest in the moonlight so he chose to fight then. Dilan was off guard when a Flame Viper knocked him down to the ground, immobolizing him for what seemed like hours.

"Dilan!" Ais yelled destroying the Viper that was on him. He knew that Dilan would be alright so he turned around to kill off the many Vipers. "I will protect you with my life." were the last words spoke by Ais before he destroyed the creatures that were annoying him. He cut through a group with an overwhelming Inferno attack that sent them all to their graves. Luckly he had enough magic points left to use a esuna spell on Dilan to awaken him from his slumber. Luckily it worked. Dilan arose from his feet and walked over to Ais. He took out 3 lance like weapons and ran at the Vipers with wind whipping speed and attacks. He was able to tear through many of them until they fused together to create the Viper King. This was what Ais and Dilan both feared and prayed that somehow they would survive.

Dilan said, " Now would be a good time for one of your crazy plans, Ais." Ais shrugged and put his hand out to Dilan. " What are you planning? I hope its not the Noveja Bomb because that is not even a tested technique although I wouldn't mind to kill a huge snake for testing purposes. " Ais grinned as he jumped up into the air. Dilan ran so that he was under him and casted a Firaga spell up to Ais. He hoped that the spell would not hit him and then casted a following Thundaga spell. As Ais caught the firaga spell, he thrusted it at the beast and casted another firaga spell that fused with the first one. Then he did the same thing with the thundaga spell and then casted the one spell in his arsonal to kill the creature-Novaga. All the casted magic fused together and struck the Viper head on. Ais fell into Dilan's arms panting in exhaustion. Dilan whipped the sweat off his face and looked at the King Viper. It looked untouched by the attack. Had the attack missed the target or was the creature not affected by that particular magic? Hopefully that was not the problem. The creature roared as it began to burst into flames. The move had killed the beast very slowily. Dilan lifted Ais and brought him back to the Bastion. Ais had fallen asleep because he was so tired after casting the spells.

Ais awoke in his room alone. His body ached in pain as he sat up. He felt like he was going to retch. Ais never felt this weak ever after casting an incredibly powerful spell. He wondered what time it was because there was no clock in his room. Ais lived with Dilan and his family in a small condominium. It was a good size for the family. He had grew up the with Ansem but had chose to live with Dilan when he was older because he had grew up with him. Ais didn't know whether or not to live with him or go to live with Vya and Kver. He completely trusted Vya and Kver but he was very close with Dilan. He had grew up with Vya and Kver but he thought that he deserved freedom. So that is why he moved in with Dilan.

He was happy that he had moved in with his closest friend. Although sometime, he wished that he had stayed with Vya and Kver. On rare occasiions, him and Dilan would get into a fight and they wouldn't talk to eachother for days. In that case, Ais would sleep over Vya's until everything was settled with Dilan. It wasn't his fault that he was amazingly talented at video games and Dilan was not. They would often argue over the games and it would end up as the sort of war that people want to avoid. Anyway, they would eventually get over it and play a nice long game of Dragon Slayer to see who was better. Every time it was Ais but Dilan was still good at the parts that Ais was not. In other words, Ais and Dilan made a great team at difficult video games.

One time they went to a Dragon Slayer tournament to see who was the best player. They both were on teams and they beat everyone's scores. Their high score was 9,999,043,621 and no one had ever passed 1,000,000,000, except them. Most of the others were jealous of their skill but that never stopped them. Until one day when Dilan's friend Braig asked what they were doing and they told him that they were playing the Dragon Slayer game and no one could beat their score. That is until Braig tried the game. Of course the game was a shooting game and instantly Braig adapted to the new surroundings. After less then an hour, Braig hit a billion. He was the new master and Dilan and Ais didn't like that. they tried and tried but never beat Braig's score. Ais intended to like a new game that had just came out called Xyeo and he was instantly good at that game. The character resembled himself sort'a with the blue hair and yellow eyes but had a sea spirit sealed in him instead of a berserker spirit. Like him also, he was elven. It was odd how people could come up with games that looked almost exactly like an actual person but of course was not.

A year later...

"Ais wake up." A distant voice sounded. " Master Ansem would like to speak with you about the upcoming ceremony. He said something about the prize they give away for doing a heroic deed. If that is the award you are getting, I don't know why though. If you ever did something while I was gone in the labortory, then it would be nice to know what you have done to acquire the master's attention." Ais began to awaken and shook his head in disapproval. "In any case, congrats.' He looked somewhat jealous that Ais was getting all the attention and not himself. The only thing Dilan was lucky for was being Ansem's assistant and he was beginning to think it was a waste of time to work there. He didn't get paid but got to live in a castle like the other 5 assistants and Ais. He was by far one of the most outgoing assistents Ansem knew but Braig beat him by a mile. This sometimes made others worry when they both came in such as Even. Both had habits of pranking the others.

One time Even was asleep in his chambers, when Braig came in and put shaving cream on his hand. Then he waved a feather next to his nose and Even went to get the annoying thig away only to get a hand full of shaving cream on his face. This annoyed Even so much that he chased Braig until he went into the forbidden library. That was probably the most dangerous thing Braig ever did because there was a reason the library was forbidden even to the scientists. Deep in the mysterious library, a vicious serpent slept. No one could ever defeat the creature so the chamber was barred up. Over the year, the bars got rusty and weathered making the metal brake. It was today that Ais was going to do something he had not done in years to save his friend but he was unsure weather or not he should risk going berserk and killing everyone and thing. He didn't know if he would be able to control the power after the serpent was slain or if he would kill Braig or anyone else. Then again he also didn't want anyone to know that he was a berserker and be killed. That is the last thing he wanted at the time. He knew he had to help his friend but he thought that Braig was very strong and could handle himself that is until he hard Braig scream for help.

Ansem heard it all the way in the tower and the other assistants also heard it in the labortory. Everyone, including Ansem came to where Ais and Braig were. They all looked dumbfounded as to why Braig was in the library but knew that is was hazardous to enter there without an armed army and the chances of surviving were very slim. Immediatly, the creature saw him and charged in for the attack. Braig took out his twin pistols and started to shoot at the raging beast. Many bookcases and furniture snapped as the vicious beast thrusted forward. As the shots hit the creature, the serpent growled in anger and lunged at Braig. He jumped into the air, high enough to not get hit and shot many thunder bullets. To his suprise, the bullets bounced off the serpent's scales and hit him. 5 shots went into Braigs body, disabling him from moving. Since he was in the air, Braig fell a good 7 feet, landing on the ground and shattering his legs and arms as well as fracturing his ribs. Before the serpent reared up fo another attack, a huge claymore thrusted into its skull. It growled in anger at the one who attacked it.

On the other end of the library, was Ais. He had a blue aurora around him and began to walk up to the snake. His eyes were emotionless as he stood there gazing up at the creature. Within a matter of seconds, the snake was killed by a jolt of an unknown assult. No one was able to see he assult before the snake collasped. When the snake vaporized, Ais stood in the enterance to the room. He walked out of the room just as heartless as he came in. Braig could tell that something was wrong but he was in no condition to move. When Ais left, Ansem and Even came running into the room to help Braig. They found out that the serpent was a spirit of an ancient bassalisk. What they didn't know, was how Ais had been able to attack the beast. It was another mystery.

Meanwhile, Ais had already left Hollow Bastion. He couldn't control what he was dong because when he went berserk, the demon inside him took over his body. His instincts vanished as he went deeper and deeper into the demon form. His skin began to get furry and red eyes replaced the golden ones. He howled in anger as huge feathery wings spouted ont of his back like a catchy fungus. His indigo fur enveloped his whole body and he began to thrash around like a wild animal.

A loud shriek was heard from the wilderness outside Hollow Bastion. Instantly, Even and Xehanort were aware of the dangers that was resonating from the grasslands. They got out of the castle within a matter of minutes. They knew something was wrong and they had to relinquish the problem soon before anyone was hurt. Even knew Dilan and Braig would be needed for this king of battling due to that fact that they were the stronger ones of the six appretences. Aeleus ran out of the castle soon followed by Dilan and Braig more alert then anything.

"Whats going on?" Braig asked hurriedly. "Where did Ais go?" He scanned the area searching for the newest member of Hollow Bastion. He was nowhere in sight. Braig knew something was wrong but he was unsure as to what it was.

Dilan added, " Master Ansem, do you know the whereabouts of Ais? Should we send a search party or search ourselves for him?" There was know response. "Master, what should we do?" He said this rather annoyed as he walked over to the dazed Ansem. Ansem had a good feeling as to where Ais was. He knew that Ais would not run away from the Bastion unless he had to for some mission but now was different. Ansem always knew Ais was different. He had always completed the assignments before the other apprentences even when he was new. He was even able to beat Ienzo and Even's record time of 4 minutes on a Xyoreo potion. Something was telling Ansem that Ais was that howl. He had a feeling that the howl had come from the berserker- Ais. He didn't want to harm Ais but if he attempted any harm to the civilians, then he would have to take measures into his own hands and put a stop to this.