A/N: Hey everybody AeonLegacy here again! Hoping everyone had a great Christmas and, if this came out a little later, New Years too. This story might be longer than the prequel so please bear with me along the way. Anyways before I start going on about nothing lets start the story itself, enjoy!
Mel's POV:
Serah and Noel have been quiet as Alyssa was explaining to the guards about the 'misunderstanding' that took place after the improved Atlas was defeated. I was admiring the view around me seeing as how much the years had changed this ruined palace from being a hunting ground to a research facility by the Academy. I still couldn't understand what their angle was when Hope wasn't currently in control but I do know I can't trust Alyssa, she's bad news either way but Serah and Noel need to figure it out themselves to understand though. Still, like I had to do 'years' ago, I had to play oblivious.
"Here are your com. Units, they'll come in handy if you want to look around the ruins. The guards will let you explore just be sure to call if anything major comes up, monsters now tend to pop out of nowhere and attack anything that moves. Plus, despite your amazing efforts of trying to take down Atlas, there have been many readings that the Goliath is still at large around the ruins. If I were you three I'd be careful." Alyssa says with a warm smile on her face, however she isn't the same as Vanille. What I remembered about this girl is negative thoughts, I felt sorry for her but she isn't worth any sympathy now.
"Wait, Atlas is still alive!? But we cleaved the thing in two if I remember correctly before blacking out." Noel cries out of surprise, looks like the power I gave them didn't exactly break the connection that tied Atlas to the time it is currently in. Maybe I should investigate further into this matter just to see what I can come to a conclusion to.
"Yeah, I mean after what me and the army witnessed after your fight it should have died. Unfortunately like its size it won't go down." Alyssa replies with her arms crossed and one eye closed looking like she's pouting.
"Maybe this could help us look deeper into these anomalies that Maqui told us about back on New Bohdum. Its worth a shot too, especially since we need to see if we can look for that grave you mentioned." Serah had spoken suddenly the short haired blond jumped, startled, and gave her a bewildered look.
"Where did you come from?" The blond girl whispered, her voice became raspy from the sudden fright, a chortle escaped my lips as I tried to bite back my laughter. Noel notices me and shook his head of disapproval.
'Well, this conversation we are having with this girl is something I don't approve of man.' I thought to myself calmly breathing.
As the three of us followed Alyssa throughout the open ground facility she began to explain more details of the grave she had been searching for, after she recovered from her jumpscare moment.
"That grave is very important, I've been here for months and haven't come across anything, the location should be close by it just had to be! The ruins isn't very large anyways, that is what eludes me is how can the grave be hidden in a small space?"
When we came up towards a flight of stairs our guide stopped and her unit was ringing. She swiftly picked it up, almost stumbling to catch it from slipping from her grasp, and opened it. Quickly moving out of earshot it was just me, Serah and Noel.
"So, are we still going to train while we're here?" Noel asked, looking a little unsettled, as we had time to talk amongst ourselves.
"Of course, you think we were going to sit down and sit on our butts all day to get stronger? No, we are going to look around and do whatever missions are available here. I still have my holographic map from when I was a L'cie so finding our way around won't be such a pain. Plus I have a few new features; my map can log in how many artifacts we collected and how many are in the area, record the details of the missions we are given and it has a more organized beastiry! Isn't that cool!?" I replied not even trying to restrain my excitement. Noel sucked in air through his teeth and his eyes became nearly closed slits and Serah looked at me with her eyebrows raised, right... These two aren't the same as the team from long ago... Sucks...
"Since you are training us are you going to make us fight and you instruct?" Serah finally asked breaking the silence. I hung my head and let out a small chuckle.
"To be honest I had a better idea of teaching you guys while fighting alongside you. My fighting abilities have been limited while training with my sister and her squad back home, which made me unable to use the strength I gained when I was with Lightning and the others. Since my powers have been dormant for a long time I'm stronger than you guys but not as strong as you guys might think, basically it's back to square one for me too." I explained being as honest as I could, there was nothing back home to challenge my strength and I had to keep under wraps from the 'hero' stalking horde anyways so I have grown weak. Now I can cut loose again without too much consequence.
"However while we are training please be patient with me, I'm not a very good teacher with explaining but I can show you guys a thing or two while in and out of battle." Serah would have been a better candidate to teach if she were anything like her older sister, however she is a teacher turned student now. Noel isn't very calm or level headed so he can just sit back and learn both power and patience, a plan to get these guys to work together and working with them to find their individual strength... If only I had a similar mind and encouragement like Light the process of training would be cut by more than half, sadly I'm nothing like Light in that department... Plus, it's another learning experience for me.
"Okay so we just climb these steps and start looking for clues!" I shouted, while flashing my access pass to the guard, and ascended. Coming around a rough bend in the road my compass starts to beep madly it wouldn't shut off no matter what I did.
"What's wrong with that gizmo of yours, kid?" Noel shouted, a hand covered one ear to deafen the blaring. I tried to turn off the map and nothing worked.
"I don't know, I can't turn it off!" I shouted in return, wanting to silent the noise than hear it continue.
"Mel, Noel, we got company!" Serah cried and I looked ahead. In a flash, literally, two monsters appeared from a quick flash of light. A cat like monster floating in a pink shell and a droid appeared. A Cait Sith and a Zwerg Scandroid caught sight of us and began to charge. Drawing his twin blades and Mog transforming into a bow and revealing a glowing blue buster blade the trio stood ready and charged back.
Training Sequence Begins:
The Zwerg moved slowly as it ever did but upon impact the hit was a pain in the ass when starting out as a noob, however the three comrades were able to either side step the monster or jump a few feet above it to dodge its attacks. The Cait Sith was much quicker, series of scratches and claw marks appeared on Noel's face he struggled to pull the glued feline from his face. Pulling and pulling the act was futile but continued to do so to break free somehow.
"Get this damn thing off of me, damn it!" He words were muffled but Serah understood what her friend meant so she put her hands around the Cait Sith and pulled the beast towards her, blood flew from Noel's face from where the cat latched on and he would yelp in pain each time the claws were dragged across his flesh.
The droid took this opportunity to attack it's distracted enemies by charging at Serah and it hit her square in the knee, the impact let out a sickening cracking sound and the Pinknette double over in pain and landed with a heavy thud in the puddles of rain water groaning out from the attack that left her crying heavy tears. Mel was ignored throughout the whole event so she withdrew her weapon in the invisible scabbard on her back, locked firmly in place by a series of belts, and walked up to Noel. The cat was determined to not let go but once a cold metal hand was placed between its ears and upon its crown a wild shiver went through the monster. Mel decided to squeeze its skull and the cat let go in horror trying to claw at the hand to release it as blood and pink matter dripped from its ears and nose, thinking it was enough the interloper crushed the skull completely until white light took its place with a crystal and the brunette was finally free. When he wiped the blood from his face and used potion, in other words Peroxide, to clean his wounds he took the pain and ran over to Serah. Serah's leg was twisted in an unsightly way, her knee was bloody and below her knee cap it looked like her bone was poking out from under her skin Noel did his best to prevent himself from vomiting at the scene.
"Mel! Serah is really hurt! Get over here now!" The brunette shouted in desperation, not positively sure of what he should do right now.
Mel looks over her shoulder a second after giving the Zwerg droid a good punt to the circuit breaker and flies over the wall almost twelve meters high when it landed outside the ruins it just exploded and nothing was left, even the crystal was shattered. She rushed over to her two 'students' and noticed how bad and disgusting Serah's knee looked the teen almost fainted.
"Oh my glob, that is way worse than what happened to me so long ago. And a weak leveled Zwerg Droid did this..." She said thinking back to the incident that made her lose her right arm and left leg.
"What happened to you anyways?" Noel asked as he sat on his legs to let the girl lay her head on his lap and her body stretch out straight. Mel replied by lifting her left pants leg above her knee cap and showed the two her no longer dominant right limb, the metal gleamed and glimmered in the faint moonlight and facility lightings.
"Oh." Was all he said back.
"Does this look like that little droid was f***king weak! Mel!? Huh!? Because for the love of all that is dead and gone this pain right here that I am feeling didn't come from a f***king weak monster! damn it!? Shit!" Serah cried out in pain tears continued to fall. She forcibly grabbed Mel by the collar and pulled the teen down, her face really close to Serah's bloodshot cerulean eyes and pain filled expression the interloper would have blushed if this were completely different but instead turned pale with fear.
"I am in really REALLY bad pain right now so please, do something about it!" Shoving the teen onto her back with strength only gained from desperation Mel got up like a rocking chair and looked at the knee and casted the strongest healing magic she could muster, pale green light appeared and enveloped the knee until the whole leg was out of sight, Serah's expression was washed with relief and relaxed. When the light died to nothing her leg and knee were fixed and the bleeding stopped. Noel helped the pinknette to her feet, she wobbled a little and walked normal like nothing happened.
"Good, so... Can we go now?" Mel asked slightly cowering behind a broken stone structure hoping she wouldn't get yelled at. The older fighters were about to walk away until they noticed the crystal floating in front of them.
"That monster, turned to crystal." Serah said amazed finally calming down from her raged filled state.
"Servant of time. Daughter of Chaos. Unto the world unseen, the untamed you guide." Mog finally says his first words. Noel pokes at its stomach and remarks that 'it talks.'
"What do you mean 'the untamed you guide?'" Serah asks curious now.
"You can tame monsters and they will aid you in battle and serve you to your will, you and Lightning have similar abilities." The Moogle replied.
"I think its right, back in Valhalla Lightning did have monsters fight alongside her." Noel remarked. Serah looked as if contemplating this conversation and spoke.
"Could you teach me how to tame these monsters? I want to learn how to protect myself and the people around me." Mog twirled happily but flew towards the hidden teen, somehow drags her out of hiding and throws her to the adults feet splashing water around her.
"I can teach you techniques but you have to ask him on how to do it. Your sister told me he could teach you guys anything anyways." Mog says flying high out of reach as the teen tried to go for its throat. Serah seemed a bit skeptical to ask someone younger than her for guidance but then again she was his student already so she had no other choice but to comply.
"Are we just gonna stand in the rain all day or are we going to go find Atlas and this grave?" Mel asked trying to hide her impatience.
"Yeah, yeah we are going! Jeez keep your shirt on kid." Noel said and walked ahead but moved stealthily behind the teen and pulled her shirt and arms over her head just because, a skin tight black undershirt remained, the cloth could barely hide the lean toned muscles it covered it caught the pinknettes eye, until it was hidden again when the teen freed herself from her clothes and armor. Looking red from anger Mel chased Noel up the steps until the structures ahead were toppled over and descended upon Noel. Raising his arms Noel remained stagnant. Mel moved faster and slashed her weapon through the rocks it was sliced clean in two and fell below the steps with heavy thuds and debris formed dust clouds. The interloper felt she had to keep her identity, gender wise, a secret for some odd reason, these two aren't the same as the L'cie team from before who knows how these two would react if they discovered 'he' was really a 'she'!?
"Well, that was a thing! Noel as punishment for your actions your going to do suicides up and down these steps until I say stop, got it?" Mel cried, the brunette was about to protest but obeyed reluctantly and ran up and down the steps as fast and strong as he could while keeping himself from slipping on the wet ground. Serah and Mog watched earnestly but was approached by the teen.
"Serah, your gonna practice with me okay? I'm going to teach you how to fight with the sword, we can focus on your marksmanship in a different location. Okay? This will be good practice to defend yourself when enemies fight with melee abilities, so stand ready." And the girl did. Serah stood with her sword drawn and waited, Mel saw what she was doing and thrusted her blade towards her students stomach. On instinct the former teachers blade was thrown upwards in a sloppy fashion it nipped her teachers blade but was stopped when the tip touched the surface of the clothes.
"Dead. Focus, don't let fear control you, you control it. Again." Mel said and so she started to go hard against the twenty one year old. Her attacks were strong and graceful, controlled and precise, hitting only her students blade sparks flew. Serah had a very difficult time trying to fight back or keep herself from being pushed backwards from the flurry of attacks, her adversary had more experience in battle than she ever had while growing up there must be a way to overwhelm her opponent without direct contact.
"Your open!" The glowing blue buster blade sliced the air and rain aiming for Serah's neck. Serah raised her sword up until the oncoming blade made contact with her own but the bow blade had trapped the opposing one with the opening at the hilt, remaining as calm as possible the pinknette smoothly moved her sword with the motion of her teachers while moving her upper body backwards, balanced, and aimed the moving weapon at the ground until hers was free and Mel had missed. Smiling in satisfaction but overwhelmed with fatigue Serah collapsed from the practice and nearly hit the concrete but was saved from the interloper who caught her with ease.
"Whoa... WOAH!" Noel said as he was amazed from the sparring match. Hoever, he finally slipped and fell down the stairs by surprise and landed into the ground below face first and had an open bloody mark on the base of his nose to the bridge of his forehead. Mel heard the impact and shouted,
"Noel that was very careless! You have earned the score of twenty, get back up and start over!" Noel finally snapped and shouted curses from below but got back up and started all over again. Turning her attention to the tired adult Mel slowly smiled.
"Way to go in using your head in a confrontation, that's very good , Serah. You have earned the score of eighty, but let's see which one of you will reach a hundred. For now just rest up and we will continue after you've recovered." The teen said as she conjured earth magic and made a little hut to protect the sleeping woman from the rain with enough space to make a small fire and left Mog to guard her.
For the past few hours Mel supervised Noel with his training with the stairs and noticed how tired he was getting, his steps were weak and the brunette almost fell on the top of the stairs but continued. When he caught sight of his teacher he asked with a hoarse voice,
"What is this teaching me? I'm just... Gah... Running up and down...! Ah, damn it!..."
Mel looked at him sternly and replied with an equal serious tone,
"This is teaching me how strong your mental capacity is, your still going that's good believe me. However, your energy was depleted ten minutes or so ago, if you were still going as strong as you were when you first started then that would have showed me your very determined but your not you just need to work to get there. Physically I don't have to worry about you in that department but you need to learn patience, technique and timing, maybe a few other stuff but I'm not sure at the moment but so far that's all I think you need to work on for now." The teen said as she ran her fingers through her soaked silky hair, Noel seemed to understand but hated that he has to work harder.
"What about Serah? How is she doing?"
"Serah needs to work on more things than you do. She may be Lightnings sister but they are so very apart when it comes to battle."
Thinking it was enough Mel finally issued that Noel should stop and he fell to the ground relieved and fell right into a deep dream. Thinking to herself Mel pulled Noel to the small hut and expanded it to fit the man with Serah. Making sure the fire was still going the teen turned to Mog and asked if he could keep an eye on them.
"Of course! I swore to Lightning that I would protect her sister and I will do so even if you leave. But be sure to come back okay?" Mel nods and heads deeper into the ruins alone.
The first tunnel Mel encountered was said to have C'ieth roaming down there, nobody dared go down there out of fear and asked if the teen could sort it out and she agreed to do so. Coming to a dead end deep below the surface by using a few stairs after traveling down the tunnel the open spacious waterway was quiet and empty save for the rushing waters that entered through small closed gates and flowed in a box like motion due to the large square platform.
"Geez, looks like Lady Luck just isn't on my side today. There's nothing here to fight nor find, that really is a leg down." Mel said as she sat on the ground almost defeated. It was no surprise that the gentle sounds of the waterfall made her feel relaxed and happy to be isolated, it was better than back home constantly working outside and inside of school when time for herself was never on option anymore. Claire tried to do whatever she could to lessen her younger sisters stress but had to worry about her role in the military but at least she tried and Mel was grateful, but she was antisocial and since she came to Cocoon she broke out of her shell but when she returned home Mel created a new one and constantly focused on work, being away from others was a virtue but with work coming by the loads this way this seems like the last haven she will have then.
"Well well well... Look who is here all alone." A voice broke through the teens thoughts and she scrambled to her feet with her hand on her weapons hilt.
"Whose there!?" She shouted without breaking her act. Turning around every possible direction the teen was confronted again by that girl from New Bohdum, the one she swore she would kill for embarrassing her.
"You again?! What the hell do you want!?" Mel shouted, her face turning a bit red from the fresh memory. The girl walked slowly around the interloper very closely like a cat and vanished in a cloud of darkness then reappeared again.
"You know who I am. My name had been mentioned by Snow Villiers after all. But if you insist I will tell you my name. Its Lumina, don't forget okay?" The girl says tiptoeing to snake her arms around the interlopers neck but she managed to get away from the embrace in time.
"Why are you stalking me this way, huh?! Are you trying to torment me for some reason? Embarrass me?" Mel questioned darkly, Lumina pouted, replaced it with a sly smile in less than a second, and answered,
"Because out of you three musketeers you are the strongest but I have noticed when you are most vulnerable. You are a tool and I will do anything to make you mine!" Lumina says as she moves closer to the interloper than she wants for her comfort which is like wanting this crazy stalker to be a million or more light years away.
"You can't break me, I won't become your puppet stalker!" Mel says sharply but Lumina still advances.
"Its too late, you instantly became mine just with this." Just like at the NORA house Lumina plants her lips on the interlopers but the feeling was different than before, no heat rose to her face just the feeling of strings being spun and intertwining with her whole body manipulating her against her will. Darkness began to pulsate through Mel's eyes it was hard to focus let alone see her surroundings even the girl in front of her and a searing pain entered her skull, this was very wrong but somehow the black abyss was determined to not let her go again. Slowly breaking the contact Lumina was still very close but she whispered as if she had caught her prey in her devilish trap.
"A tool shall obey and you will do whatever I say. Abandon your students and wreck havoc upon the world in my place, Barthandelus and Orphan are nothing compared to what I can do to get what I want. And what I want is you, Interloper of Earth Guardian of the Goddess Etro's Champion. You are now my pawn in this deadly game of survival, what do you say? Kill in my place?" Lumina says charmingly awaiting an answer. The interloper was about to answer however an arrow came out of the blue and whistled between the two figures and created a thin crater in the walls of the room, two figures approached and Lumina shrouded herself in the shadows her haunting words echoed in the waterway.
" The choice of free will is an option no more, Interloper. Obedience will reward you defiance will reap you of your life and more, let destiny decide for you." And she was gone.
The two figures came closer and it was Serah and Noel with their weapons drawn, both looked dead tired and greatly fatigued but here they were. They ran up to their friend and tried to check on her but their eyes met blank brown eyes.
"Mel? Hey, wake up! It's us." Noel cried but no answer came. Trying and trying it was no good, Mel remained motionless as a statue and as quiet as one. The pinknette and the brunette look at each other and came to a reasonable conclusion.
"You deserve some time alone, and that girl with you didn't seem to want to give you any so we intervened. Sorry if we scared your girlfriend away Mel. See you in a few." Noel says once more and again he received no reply. Leaving with a scoff the two turned to the stairs Mel's eyes widened and glowed the color of gold her pupils narrowed to a cats and shot towards her leaving companions. She raised her scared hand, lightning being born silently growing stronger and brighter with each passing second by the time the two noticed the glow lightning shot out of the manipulated teens palm and exploded with thick black smoke clouds.
A/N: AAAH! I am freaking done! With this chapter at least... Well I hope this was good enough, I'm starting to think "May I be lost or Reborn" had better writing than this but that's my own opinion as the author... So anyways yeah I am trying to deepen the plot as much as I can with conflict, and yes the girl was indeed Lumina. I still don't like how she resembles a younger version of Lightning and Serah put together because when I saw her I was like "NOPE!" Anyways the grading scale Mel is using is something from this anime my friend introduced me to its called "Queen's Blade" used first by this character named Alleyne, who I think is pretty and bad ass! Anyway, if this is something you guys want to flame with how I am introducing Lumina as FLAME ahead, I don't care I just thought it'd be interesting in a way since she seems like a very blunt character to me so I thought 'hey why not do this?' So yeah Hope you guys are having a great day, so I'll see you all next year Kay? Ciao!