A/N: Right, continuing off from where we were, I forgot to mention the name of the fanfiction! Derp :P, Anyway, it's name is, 'Reclaiming the Throne' Again, would highly recommend reading it over, if you like Guilty Crown, but hated the ending, you're sure to love it.

But whatever, without further adieu, welcome to Chapter Two of Ice, Fire, and a Purple Flower.

-End-

Safety is Far From Here

Valka simply stared at him, death and killing wasn't something she was a stranger to. People actually helping her without anything to gain, however, were complete anomalies to her. In all the time that she'd been in Miyabi's group, the Crimson Scythes, never had she been privy to such a show of selflessness, everything back then had been done with something to gain, favours, money, food. Generosity had been as rare as sanity.

"Wh-"

"Move your arse, unless you want to be captured, that is. If that's the case, I strongly recommend that you adjust how you entertain yourselves in the Crimson Scythe."

She blushed heavily in outrage, feeling the angry warmth spread across her body as the words registered in her head. If she'd been able-bodied, she would have tried to rip the boy apart. As such, she was weakened, however slightly, and fighting him would only lessen her chances at getting away. She stood up, and nodded, preparing for yet another sprint.

"Ah, shit."

Turning around with surprise at his words, she suddenly realised why. The other two of her chasers were standing together, blocking their way out. The expressions on their faces confirmed that they were indeed, very, very, unhappy. Both had their voids out, and were standing in puddles of mud, water, and blood, staring at both Valka, and the other boy like starved lions. Hungry…angry…animalistic.

"Holy. Shit. Is that you, Aster? One of Nanba's missing captains? Holy crap, I haven't seen you around in ages!" the captain said with glee, and also the slightest hints of surprise.

The woman prodded the dead corpses, looking at them with a hint of awe. They were killed in a very surgical way, clean, concise cuts, the deadliest efficiency. It marked an experienced killer, and one that had years to refine their tactics.

"I can see why you're a leader. You took these two down with no sweat at all. I bet you didn't feel bad about killing them at all. Did you?" She sneered while saying this, clearly enjoying taunting her opposition.

Valka looked back to Aster, realising that the name rang a bell.

This is the Poison Berry? Seriously!? A kid in a hood and cloak?

To his credit, he didn't seem provoked at all, completely neutral. This impressed her slightly as she realised the kind of a fighter that he was, a tactician through and through. He seemed to know the disadvantages of fighting in anger. Such emotions clouded one's judgements, and made it exceedingly difficult to predict an opponent's moves.

"Playing the strong, silent type, eh? Prick-" The captain was silenced, just as the other two had been. Once again, the world fell into a deathly silence, it made everything seem strangely calm, as if there wasn't about to be a massive fight. Meanwhile, the captain had turned a rosy shade of red, anger now clearly present on her face, and in her actions. The movements of her mouth also suggested some very, very foul language.

While Valka had been amusing herself with looking at her former captain's anger, Aster had been thoroughly examining the pair's voids. The captain herself was armed with Reaver Claws, large, sharp blades attached to a bracer meant to be worn on a finger. She herself was wearing one on each finger, ten, sharp, brutal weapons in total, designed for tearing, ripping, and causing the most painful death as possible by digging into their victim's flesh.

Her companion was armed with two Saber Claws, two long, sharp blades shaped like a saber-tooth. This made Valka quite worried. Her urumi was very poorly suited to fighting against weapons which would catch the blade, and she was less than confident in her ability to melee. But she would try her best. She didn't know Aster, but the fact that he hadn't backstabbed her yet was reassuring, if only because she was assured life for a few more moments.

"Don't worry, you'll be fine. That kid with the saber-claws isn't the most experienced fighter here. Just remember, your urumi's speciality is in the long reach provided to you. Use it to your advantage, and destroy your enemy at all costs, because if you don't, they will. One or the other matey, take your pick."

She looked at Aster, surprised yet again; she didn't take him for a type to help people he didn't know

Today's just full of surprises.

Too fast for her to fully comprehend, her current ally bolted at the captain, completely pushing past the other grunt. But somehow, his opponent blocked the forward jab with relative ease, catching the hook blade in her claws. She smiled, a deadly, cocky look of triumph laced with palpable anger.

She swung her other hand around, aiming for his lower body, but Aster simply used the other hook-blade to stop the deadly strike. Now they were in deadlock, each weapon occupied. The captain used the time to smile, Aster used the time to smash his forehead into her face. The crunchy feeling as he broke her nose, smashing the cartilage, was immensely satisfying. Blood sprayed out, and splattered across his face as the lady drew back in pain, staggering as she tried to stop the bleeding.

She ran back towards Aster, forming claws with her hands in an attempt to rip him apart. She was fighting fully blind now; anger had completely clouded her vision. Big mistake. The moment she was close enough, Aster pushed one of her hands away at the wrist. Then he did something that chilled Valka down to her bones. Grabbing her other hand, again, by the wrist, he twisted it, and pushed it down to her arm. The snap, crunches, and pops were clearly audible as the wrist broke, and dislocated.

So was the scream.

She staggered back, screaming both in fury and in anger. Arguably, a person who was blind in rage could sometimes be even more dangerous than one thinking clearly. This was certainly the case with this person. She leapt at Aster with newfound vigour, slashing and thrusting, all while yelling and screaming. For some reason, Aster had turned off the strange ability of his void, in favour of hearing his opponent yelling and screaming.

"I'LL KILL YOU! I'LL SKIN YOU ALIVE, AND WEAR IT AS A COAT! I'LL CUT OFF EACH OF YOUR FINGERS, AND SHOVE THEM UP YOUR ASS!"

His reply was a steely look, and careful footwork. But slowly, and slowly, he was being pushed back. Meanwhile, the other person had veered off, and was looking straight at Valka. The alleyway was thin and narrow, which restricted her usage of her void, but also stop him from using his blade in a wide, sweeping arc.

"Ohhhh, I'm gonna enjoy this." He said, smiling leeringly.

"I assure you, after I'm done, you won't be enjoying anything for quite a while." Valka replied, glaring at him.

He drew his void, as did Valka, and started to walk slowly towards her, staring into her eyes. Then he lunged at her, twirling the void around his wrist and stabbing at her chest, aiming for the spots that would hurt most. She didn't let him get even near to her. Using the long, whip-like blade, she kept him at bay with the threat of a long gash splitting open his belly should he get close enough.

But she wasn't getting anywhere either, realistically, they were at a stalemate, neither of them pushing up further and getting a blow on the other. Just blocking, and flinging their voids around rather uselessly. So she tried something new. She pulled the whip back, and started to whip it around her body, forming a type of wall. The boy tried to advance, seeing her open spots, he ran in, straight into Valka's line of defence. In one second, the boy was pulling his arm back to stab at Valka's gut. In the next moment, his arm wasn't there anymore. Blood sputtered and spewed out of the grievous wound, and the boy yelled, falling into shock as the sudden trauma of his arm being dismembered got to him.

His biggest mistake was not walking out of the way. As Valka knew from countless years of fighting against others in the crystal realm, her void, shaped like an urumi, was carried by momentum. Once it started to move, it wouldn't stop anytime soon. Against her will, she kept moving, swaying and moving with her whip-like void. The boy's fate was grisly, to say the least, as the weapon cut through his body one, two, three times in total. The body that remained was cut into three, large, disgusting parts of gore that used to be a human.

She looked away, feeling somewhat guilty for what she'd done. Even though death had lost its toll on her after a while, seeing such a grisly demise, committed by her own hands, made it even worse. The scent of irony, viscous blood drifted into her nostrils, and she gagged. One thing she'd never gotten used to though was the sickening smell of human blood. To her, there was just something fundamentally wrong about the smell of blood from another Genesis she'd killed.

On the other end, Aster had sustained multiple wounds to his arms, all minor scratches and cuts, but he was well aware that those added up with time, additionally, while he became weaker and weaker, she only seemed to get stronger with every wound that she received. She knew it, and he knew it. If he didn't do something soon, e would most likely be cut down and killed.

So he decided to do something…drastic.

Aster drew back his left arm, and let the claws dig into his forearm, wincing as the void gouged into his arm. As his opponent laughed at his apparent pain, he used the opportunity to grip her injured wrist, and twist it around even further. It had the desired effect of making her turn a pale, white shade as her brain registered the pain. She tried to pull her other, uninjured hand out of Aster's wound, but found that he wouldn't let her go.

His opponent's pale, blue eyes meet his piercing amaranth eyes, and she could swear that he was smiling inside.

"Well, you were right about one thing, I still don't give a shit about killing you, or them."

Lifting the blade on his right bracer up, he hooked the end around her shoulder, and tore it off with a brutal, messy cut. She didn't even have time to scream before he put his hands around her neck, and started to squeeze. She choked and gagged, trying to bat at his face with her butchered and useless hand, but to no avail.

Eventually, she stopped moving, eyes rolled back into her skull. She had died a horrible, painful death, and Aster still couldn't give less of a shit.

He held his injured arm lightly by his body, abstaining from using it, which would have made the wounds worse. Panting slightly, he kicked the body once, grunting with a small laugh. He looked back, straight at Valka, glaring, sizing her up, and looking at the three pieces of what used to be a Genesis.

"Come on, let's go to my safehouse. I need to get patched up, and you need some rest. Badly."

"But I'm not tire-"
"Did I ever say that you were physically tired? We Genesis don't get that so easily. But our brains, well, they're a lot weaker than our bodies, even with our 'new and improved' abilities from evolution."

He walked off with a straight back, not looking back to check whether Valka was following him.

"Plus, you seem like good company, that's pretty hard to find nowadays."

What a friendly person…totally, friendly. Valka thought, laughing in derision at herself.