Chapter Three

Holy cow! I just gotta say that I was kinda right about the operation the organization does to make its warriors O.o

Who am I? René thought. Everyone here knows who they are. They can remember their past, sad though it is, and reminisce on the good times they've had with their families. René had none of that. All she can recall is the pain she's been in these past few days. She supposed that her family was killed by a yoma like Noel, Sophia, and Amelia, though she hoped that her whole village wasn't wiped out like Amelia said hers was.

René fell into a depression. Her pain was both physical and psychological. She gradually stopped interacting with her new friends and her head constantly hurt from restraining her tears. She didn't want to be seen crying. She didn't want there to be any reason to cry at all. Slowly, ever so slowly, she locked away her emotions deep inside of herself and put out an image of apathy. She just didn't care anymore.

"Hey, you're starting to really look like a Claymore!" Amelia exclaimed.

"You said the same yesterday," René said monotonously.

Amelia sighed, but kept up her cheerful façade. Maybe, just maybe, she could be happy enough for the both of them. René had helped her so much before she had fallen into that depression and now Amelia wanted to help her. She didn't hurt nearly so much anymore, in fact, she hardly hurt at all now. So what was wrong with René? Was it something about her past? But she doesn't remember it, Amelia thought.

"No, really!" she said. "Your hair is a really, really light blond and your eyes are totally silver now." Almost as an afterthought she added, "It was really strange watching you change."

"Huh."

Amelia waited for René to elaborate, to at least make a complete sentence, a joke or even a comparison like she would have before she fell into this fit of melancholy, but nothing was forthcoming. "Well . . .?" she asked, trying to get more out of her sad friend.

"Huh?"

Amelia sighed. "What about me! How do I look now?"

René glanced at her worried friend. "White hair," she sighed sadly. Amelia though that she was about to make up a joke but didn't have to heart to. She frowned slightly as René continued. "Silver eyes. Ears are kinda pointy." Rene raised an eyebrow but said nothing else on that matter. "I'm going to sleep." She got up from 'her' corner of the room and lay on her bed facing the wall.

"Oi, René!" Noel suddenly called. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

Silence.

"Oi!" she yelled, "You better stop being so . . . so far away from us! Talk to us Damn it!"

René closed her eyes tightly and ignored her. She just didn't feel like it.

"Hey!"

"Just shut up, Noel!" Sophia growled. "If she wants to be like that and give up on her life because of a few lost memories, then let her!"

They went to sleep. Their transformations into what the people called Claymores were now complete.

That was the last time any of the girls all throughout the holding cells could sleep peacefully, or as peacefully as being in a dank, moldy dungeon and in terrible pain would allow. Early the next morning a terrible screeching sound traveled easily throughout the damp air, the sound of sharp metal screaming against slate. The screech barged into the girls' cells and into their sleeping ears. Throughout the dungeon, girls were jumping out of their hard wooden pallets or falling out of them. Some girls screamed at the rude infraction to their newly sensitive ears while others just clutched at their ears in pain, trying to dampen the sound.

René fell out of her pallet onto the cold stone floor meaning and clutching at her head. She distantly heard Amelia screaming and Noel in a horribly high pitched voice scream "What the hell is this? Make it stop!"

And then, when René thought she could take no more of this racked and she felt that her eardrums were about to burst, it stopped.

The silence was deafening.

For the first time in many days, all of the holding cell doors opened almost at once. Four men wrapped up in black cloth stood stiffly on the other side. René glanced at Amelia in surprise and slowly stood up.

"Come," one of the men ordered. "It is time for your training to begin."

René wasn't so sure about this 'training', but she was tired of being in this dungeon. She wanted to see the sun again. She covered the few steps to Amelia, who was still wincing on the floor and helped her to her feet.

"Let's get out of here." Amelia nodded.

The sunlight was unimaginably bright. It peeked through little square windows and shared its light and warmth to all of the girls who were bereft of it in the dungeon. They still did not receive the full glory of the sun, they were inside, walking down long hallways of stone-like clay, but every time René walked by the interval windows, and the sun rays warmed her skin, she closed her eyes in bliss. The sun, at least, René thought, will always be a constant in my life.

"You know," Amelia said quietly, "maybe this isn't so bad."

René raised an eyebrow in disbelief but nodded slightly, "Maybe." That one word carried all of the weight of René's hope and longing for her past and her future. She desperately wanted to be able to move on, to burn brightly forward like the sun, but just couldn't forget about her forgotten past.

A random girl suddenly bounded up to them. she was slightly tall for her age and had short, messy, blonde hair, with the same silver eyes they all now shared. An older, more mature looking girl followed calmly in her trail. Her hair was slightly past shoulder length and wavy, but neatly kept.

The first girl spoke excitedly, "I heard you talkin' and you sound exactly like Amelia and René!" she looked at them questioningly. "Well, are you?"

René blinked in surprise. She would know that annoying voice anywhere, now. The older girl must be Sophia. "Yeah . . . . Noel?"

"Yep, yep!"

"So we finally meet face to face," Sophia said companionably. "It's good to see you two," she smiled. Then her eyes narrowed. "You better not bring your depressing attitude out here, René."

"Uhm . . ." René rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly.

"Get a move on!" one of the men in black cloth ordered.

They arrived in a large room, the size of a ball room, but not nearly a pretty, supported by nine clay columns. A man, also dressed in black stepped from the shadows. His face was marred by scars and his big hands looked like they could crush the bones of any one of the young girls here. His feet were bare and René could see the disgusting, disjointed shape of his toes which must have been broken many times but had never healed properly. Black trousers hung loosely from his hips and black bandages were wrapped around his middle, leaving his chest bare. A short buzz of hair peppered his tanned head and he wore dark shades of his eyes. This man was the biggest, most intimidating man René had ever seen and his permanent-looking scowl was not helping. His very appearance caught the attention of every girl in the room who stared at him in horrified anticipation.

With a gravely and rough voice he spoke: "I will be your master at arms. I am here to teach you the basics of swordsmanship so you at least have a fighting chance to survive against the yoma." He swept his arm out to a dark corner of the room. "Now grab a practice sword and make two lines in front of me. Make sure there's lots of room between you all."

The 'practice' swords turned out to be exact wooden representations of a full warrior's claymore. At her turn, René lifted one from the barrel. It was surprisingly light for a giant weapon made of thick wood. It would definitely hurt to be hit by this for all its weight. René just hoped that they would never have to fight each other with real claymores. With this unfamiliar weight in her hand, René walked to her place in the line forming in front of their new teacher. Soon, the two lines were complete and each girl held their own sword with different levels of awkwardness. They waited for instruction.

The man stared at them all – gauging their potential, René guessed – for what seemed like hours. René soon got bored of just standing there and holding her sword out like an idiot. What was the point of this? Why didn't their teacher, well, teach anything? This awkwardness was causing René to become fidgety. She shuffled her feet around, but that wasn't enough movement for her. She had a wooden sword in her for god's sake and she wanted to use it. So she did, but only slightly because everyone else was barely moving. She held her wrist strait and rotated her sword in small, tight circles. Their teacher didn't say anything about it and hadn't made a single movement for all this time so René assumed that it was okay. She made a small, halfhearted slash with her sword at the same time the girl behind her spoke up.

"Hey, teacher! Are you gonna teach us anything or what! I'm bored just standing around here and staring at your ugly face." The girl standing beside her gave a surprised gasp and everyone turned to stare at the cause of the outburst.

The culprit was a girl about René's ages with full, long, wavy locks a darker shade of blonde. Her arrogant silver eyes gazed challengingly at the teacher.

"Witch!" the man suddenly barked. "You will address me with respect! By the likes of you half-breeds," he sneered, "I will be called 'Master'. Nothing else." He moved suddenly, drawing his own practice sword from somewhere behind him. There must be some kind of device on his back to hold his sword there, René thought.

He strode forward towards René and made a wide slash with his sword at chest level. René barely managed to jump back in time before getting clopped with the wood. The sword passed by where she was standing, brushing lightly across her left shoulder and slammed into the unfortunate girl standing beside her who was totally unprepared for the blow. She went down gasping in pain. 'Master' didn't stop. He went straight on to the girl behind René who had spoken up and swung at her head. The girl's eyes widened in surprise and she clumsily brought her own sword up to block his attack. Her arms shook with the force of the blow. He swung again and again, harder each time. And each time the girl's sword was falling closer to herself under its weight. The rest of the girls were too shocked at his sudden action to move. The girl that had been knocked to the floor finally stopped gasping for breath and pushed her long, strait, silver hair from her face revealing pointy ears. She also stared at the scene with shock.

Crack!

The man had slammed both of their swords into the girl's shoulder. She winced as her arm was popped out of its socket. 'Master' smirked and continued the beating. This isn't right, René thought. She was holding her own at first, but she still doesn't' know how to properly use that sword. He, apparently, is a master. René had to do something! No one else looked like they would. The master managed to knock the wavy haired girl to the ground. She cried out softly in pain and struggled to stand up. Another slash of the sword and her arm was hit out from underneath her.

"Ah!" the girl looked up at the attacker in anger and pain.

"This," the man sneered, "should teach you a lesson in respect." He prepared to strike again.

René's world came crashing to a stop. Her head was spinning. Spinning around those words: teach you a lesson. "I think they learned their lesson," the black cloaked man said. René's world had ended at that moment. In this moment now, her world will begin again. The wheel of time continued on its course.

"No!" René suddenly screamed. The master jerked in surprise, missing the target of his attack.

"What," the man snarled, "is the meaning of this?"

". . . Lesson." René muttered to the floor.

"What?"

She looked up at the man slowly, her silver eyes showing pain and anger beyond belief. "That's how it ended," she whispered. "Those were the last words of my life."

"Huh?"

"I . . . I won't let it happen again," she said stubbornly.

The master glared at René and raised his sword at her. "I don't know that the hell you're talking about, you crazy bitch, but that's what you're all here for. To learn a fucking lesson in swordsmanship!" he charged, heavy practice sword raised high set to smash down on her head.

René's eyes widened in fear and she jumped to the side, turning sideways as well to avoid the wooden blade. With wide, fearful eyes she watched as the sword came crashing down an inch from her nose to clang harshly against the uneven clay floor. The master took it all in stride and used the momentum left over from his previous swing to fuel his next one in a single liquid movement. The speed of it was incredible and though René tried to jump out of the way, she was still new to this and to this new half-yoma body. She wasn't fast enough to escape free from damage. René doubled over in pain and tried to breath. Her breathes were ragged, she could hardly get her precious air from the pain in her ribs. Her vision was hazy, her head spinning.

"René!" She faintly heard Amelia scream but she could do nothing about it. She couldn't move away. His next attack came as quickly and fluidly as the last. A thrust to her gut had her on the floor before she could recognize this new pain. Blood surged up from inside of her stomach and came out with a hacking cough. Dear god, she felt like she was being torn apart from the inside out.

The master spat then lifted René up by the front of her shirt and roughly shook her, "I'm trying to teach you proper sword skills, witch, but you haven't even brought up you sword to defend yourself." He threw her to the ground in disgust and she cried out in breathless pain. René gasped desperately for breath, every gasp bringing shards of horrible agony all throughout her being. "Pathetic," he growled. "You're a Silver-Eyed Witch, now. Get up and fight!"

"You!" he turned to the first girl he had attacked. She had somehow managed to relocate her shoulder and was softly rubbing it to lessen the pain. She looked at him defiantly and smirked, "Yeah, Teach?"

"Aurgh!" he roared and charged again at the wavy-haired girl who quickly brought up her sword to guard against the attack.

"Bastard!" René growled out, gasping for breath and struggling to sit up.

Suddenly, gentle hands were on her shoulders helping her up. "René," she heard Amelia sigh. Noel and Sophia weren't far behind. They all helped her to stand, ignoring her pained curses. She leaned heavily against a pillar.

"Ooo hoo! You really got beat bad!" Noel exclaimed.

"Shut up, Noel," René growled.

Sophia looked thoughtfully at René and said sadly, "so you really did lose the will to live."

René looked at her in surprise then replied angrily, "No! I'm not going to just die!"

"I know that, but you're also not going to fight as hard for your place in life. You really don't care anymore." Sophia said in wise seriousness. The power of her gaze kept René's eyes locked to hers. The anger slowly faded from René replaced with sadness and she was finally able to look away.

"You . . . you just gave up?" Amelia asked sadly.

"I . . ."

"No! I never thought you would ever give up! You were the one who told me to survive, to keep living, and with such conviction, too. I can't believe you, René! After it was your confidence was the thing that kept me going."

René looked down in shame. "I have nothing left," she said quietly. "No past and no real future. What's the point of trying so hard for that?"

Slap!

René's head was hit to the side. Her right cheek red and singing. "Wha?"

"Don't talk like that!" Amelia hissed. "You have us, your new friends, and a new life that will be whatever you make of it. Don't throw your life and our friendship away!"

René looked up in surprise. She gazed at the faces of each of her new friends: Noel who wasn't very bright but had a lot of heart; Sophia who could be harsh but was always there for you, and Amelia. She had been through the transformation with René. They had helped each other through it and now she was helping her again.

"You're all right," René smiled sadly. "I'm sorry."

"Enough of this mushy stuff!" Noel exclaimed. "Now go and beat up that jumpy bastard who beat you up so bad!"

"Jumpy?"

"René," Sophia said seriously. "We're Claymores now and Claymores can heal themselves from the most grievous of wounds. I've seen it happen before . . . before . . . ." she cleared her throat. "Well, you can do it. And don't forget to use the weapons at your disposal." With her toe, she nudged at the sword that was somehow still clasped in René's hand.

Suddenly René laughed. Even though it hurt her ribs even more she still laughed. "You're right," she managed between fits of laughter. "You're right! I can't believe I forgot!" Her friends looked at her strangely but smiled at her change of heart.

René's laughter ended with her coughing up blood. The master must've hurt her more than she originally thought.

"René!"

"Damn, it hurts! Okay, I'll try to heal myself," she said bravely, her confidence and will to live back now and stronger than ever.

René could feel the power of the monster that was put inside of her. It felt . . . unnatural and disgusting to say the least. She drew on those powers, though. She brought this foreign energy to the surface, to her wounds and imagined them healing. In her mind's eye she put her broken ribs back together and healed the internal damage done to her gut. Inside of her broken body, she felt her bones reconnect with this yoma power and meld back together, and felt as her stomach wound was healed inside. This power coursed through her veins, and even though it hurt, for some reason it also felt so good. Her body was healed now, even the redness of her cheek, so she reluctantly let go of this immense power. She suppressed it back under her skin into her veins, hidden underneath the façade of a human appearance. Even though it felt good, it still disturbed her and she didn't think it was a good idea to give into it. She didn't want to have anything to do with the monster then was absolutely necessary. When she thought about it now, it was vile.

But for now. . . "I'm good," René said shakily.

Hello whoever reads this! xD plz plz plz review! I like constructive criticism. tell me if you like the story and how it's written and what i need to improve on.

Thank ye kindly :D