Disclaimer: Still don't own any characters mentioned from Nintendo, M.G.S, Sega, Namco, Shonnen Jump, Nippon Ichi, ATLUS, Square Enix/Soft, AKSYS Games, Sony, and any other animes/manga in the story except for my own. Also, in case you did not know, the plot is completely original, the mentioned characters so far are original, (Dark, Death, unknown woman, and the two street fighters) and expect more, but as far as I know, I'm going to introduce characters throughout; some you may recognize, others, not as likely; those characters for certain are made by the companies mentioned above.

The Dark Flame

A Super Smash Bros. Brawl Fan Fiction

Chapter 8: Old, Strong Memories

As much as I tried to look back into my past, I could not find anything that told me that I was elsewhere before I was with Death. But those visions were beginning to get to me, and think maybe he's doing something to yank my chain or something. However, as much as I tried to accept it as that, perhaps a part of my life was missing and I was not familiar with what it is. Or something happened and I merely forgot them, though they are locked somewhere deep inside my mind. I was up for hours last night just thinking about the events, but I never found any memories since.

I decided that, perhaps it was a joke tossed on me from Death due to my delays, yet I tried not to let it get so me. My day started; a half an hour worth of morning training, a bit of a meal just after, and wandered about for the day, meeting with the people that walked around here, did a bit of training, and I also read a little in case I could find anything about my past. Nothing ever did ring inside my head, and as such, I went back to my room; that was just for yesterday. Today, however, would probably be the most experience-filled day of my life.

It started off usual, everything was typical, but when I was at my bed, I could've sworn I saw movement outside my window, but it was gone when I looked up. She was probably watching me as usual, not really a bother; I actually grew used to her being around watching me. For all I knew, she had potential reasons to watch me, but the next time she makes the mistake to encounter me up close, I will bring her here and "interrogate" her of what she knows, and why she follows me around in the shadows of all places. I know ninja are shadow folk, and never like openly exposing herself, but part of her wasn't like a usual ninja, more like a trainee or "genin" class rated, yet I had no other thoughts of it.

I went up to the gym like usual, yet today it wasn't completely abandoned; there was an individual here, however, I sensed two presences here, though I never exactly found the other person. The woman fighting had long, blonde hair in pig tails, wore what appeared to be a school uniform underneath her black trench coat, and was using a unique scythe. The gem appeared to look like an eye, it was on both sides, and there was a red wave design along the sharp side of the blade. It was that young woman I saw when I first arrived, I now realized, but she didn't see to know that I was here even. But then I saw her suddenly stop, tossing her scythe up a little ways, and it glowed, and shifted forms into a humanoid shape. I never saw it before, but oddly, it felt like it was normal for me to see, oddly enough; weird.

The humanoid, after the glow ceased, was what appeared to be a young man with white hair, wore an orange shirt underneath a black jacket and brown pants. In his hair was a black headband of sorts, keeping most of it back, for whatever reason, I don't know. He held a bored expression on his face, his eyes were red, and he appeared to be looking up, for some reason. I don't know these two people, yet… something inside me felt like they were, somehow, familiar.

The girl looked around, and it didn't seem like she noticed me there yet, and she looked to the person who was once her scythe. "Seems like another silent time to train, isn't it Soul?" I heard her ask the male. Odd, a young man who was named "Soul", but it didn't sound too odd, now that I looked at it.

"Of course, considering the people are watching the competition fights going on, why would anybody even be here…?" I heard him explain to her, and then he looked around himself, and then I saw him look my way. "Well, I guess we aren't alone, after all, Maka…" He said to her, and then she turned around and she looked at me. It was barely noticeable from where I stood, but I couldn't help notice how her eyes widened slightly upon seeing me. Did I forget to do my hair this morning, I wondered. However, I then saw her drag him to the side, and I heard them whispering to one another, but I couldn't hear them. I just sighed and looked out the window, but then heard the young woman called Maka approach, Soul keeping his distance a little.

"Dark Fire…?" I heard her ask, and even though it was my name, I showed hardly any retaliation. "Darrrrk…?" I heard her repeat, and I saw where this was going to lead. Odd enough she knew my name, but I had to make it seem like I had no idea what she was talking about.

"I'm sorry, but are you trying to talk with me?" I asked her, raising an eyebrow, as if unsure as to what she meant. A typical thing a stranger would say

"Oh, I'm sorry… You see, you look an awful like one of our acquaintances who somehow disappeared seven months ago, is all… We thought you were him, but, I guess not." She said, but then I heard Soul walk next to her, and looked at me.

"Listen, quit putting on this act; we know it's you Dark. Nobody else has that same hairstyle as you do…" I heard him explain; he certainly was one to jump to conclusions, and I even saw how Maka glared at him, but he didn't stop. "You went missing seven months ago chasing after this woman who wanted you dead, and you wanted to end things with her. But you chased after her when a portal opened up, taking her in, and you made a promise to a really good friend of yours at the time, your-" However, before he finished, Maka smacked him in the back of the head, cutting him off.

"Look, I have no idea what you're talking about, nor do any of those things of which you talked about doesn't ring any bells. I know that there are others out there who have this hairstyle; so don't go jumping to conclusions of who I am. My name is not Dark, I'm Demitri Flint…" I spoke, somewhat annoyed with Soul for some reason. But, even so, some of those things did come up, if only slightly in my mind when he said them.

"Stop trying to hide it; sorry to be like this, but you can't go on pretending to be someone you're not. You don't know what we had gone through during your absence at the academy; so much happened so fast. When you were gone all those months, many of us believed that Light had somehow managed to overpower you and killed you. Sure, I may not have, but I at least knew you were strong enough in your own way." Soul carried on, despite being smacked by Maka a second time. Light? Who did he mean by that, unless he… was meaning Light Water? But how did he even know about her?

"Soul, just stop it!" I heard Maka yell at him, annoyed with him, and then she looked at me. "Dark, just come clean and tell us you're really you. She misses you; you know, your weapon partner… She has always been hoping that someday you would return to Death City for you; Soul and I did all we could to try and comfort her during your absence. Just… please…" I heard her ask, but even so, she herself was being a bit stubborn to have me admit who I really am.

"I'm telling you I'm not Dark Fire… I don't even know what you're even talking about, so why are you putting me through intervention over something that is actually meant for someone else?" I said to her, but then I saw both Maka and Soul look at one another, and it would appear they both had something in mind.

"Perhaps this will remind you of where you're actually meant to be…" I heard Soul explain, and Maka grabbed my wrist, surprisingly tightly for a young woman, and she dragged me into the training room. Soul had grabbed three headsets, one for each of us, and entered behind us. He forced one on me, as much as I began to struggle, and Maka took one, while he put on the last one, and input a location. That was when the landscape began to form around us. It was in front of what appeared to be a walled off city, with an odd "castle" or something at the top of the hill. In the sky was a sun with a large grin on its expression and wide eyes, and that was when I saw the morbid-looking moon as well in the sky. The same one in the vision I had the other day.

"This was your home for the longest time, Dark… At first, you weren't accepted too well by any of us, due to you being different; you could not find a weapon partner who had a matching Soul Wavelength as you did. Death did all he could to ensure that you would have a suitable weapon to fight with, and it wasn't until you met Avery…" She spoke, and I watched as the hologram of that ninja walked towards us; she showed hardly an expression on her face. "It wasn't until you met Tsubaki's cousin that you had someone willing to fight alongside you. You offered her so much, and in fact, you two became real close real fast. You two fought so well, that you were able to help her become a Death Scythe, faster than anyone else in the academy's history, in fact."

"But even though you two were close, you had a rival who had problems with you who was part witch… Light Water; she was part Meister, but she had a witch for a mother, and as such, explained how she was able to conjure up spells while using a weapon at the same time. She was also a first, but she quickly became rogue; you and her had so many fights with one another, she absolutely wanted to refuse your existence. She was convinced at a young age that it was your parents that killed her mother, and why her father went missing. She wanted to get rid of your entire family; we even watched as she killed the few people who watched over you when you had nowhere to go." I heard Soul explain this part, and the environment changed, almost to a flaming wreckage that has been recently attacked. "You chased after her when she did such, with Avery in her now Death Scythe form you had helped her recently awaken to. Reckless as you were, you were able to fend her off. But rather than killing her, you killed her weapon partner, Avery's and Tsubaki's other cousin, Ken, who had made the decision to take the blow rather than seeing his Meister be killed before his eyes…" It was here that it changed to what appeared to be a continuation of that vision the other day; I watched as the figure who I could not deny as myself pulled the scythe out of the male's wound, and watched as the scythe I held took on a human form, and when the light faded, it was that ninja girl who was following me. The male glowed, and turned into a floating sphere with odd flame shapes coming from the sphere. There wasn't any speech that could be heard, but when I looked to the woman who was pushed aside, I could not deny she held the characteristics Death had explained to me.

"Enough of this!" I yelled, and I removed the head gear, and the holograms and settings were removed, returning to the training room. "Look, I don't know what you're trying to prove here, but I've only known about one thing; my parents died in a fire, and I was to be killed as well, but… Rather, my purpose was meant for another reason. I was never meant to be one of these so-called, "Meisters" you call them, nor have I ever worked with a partner in all my life. Only I control my memories; stop trying to push these lies upon me you two and stop telling me about who I am supposed to be. Only I know for certain who I am supposed to be; nobody can tell me who I should be or how I'm supposed to act. Or even who I'm supposed to be with, dammit!" I yelled, explaining to them as they removed their headsets after.

"Dark, why would we lie to you about this? What reason do we have to do such a thing to you, after all the pain, suffering and torment you had gone through due to Light's existence? What's wrong with us trying to set your path back on course to what it was; are you that lost and blind for being gone for those seven log months to forget us; to even forget about Avery? She has never forgotten about you; she has her reasons to believe you'll return to her someday." Maka went on, and I closed my eyes as I turned my back to them.

"Maybe there was another man named Dark Fire who you're mistaking me for, because all these images and words you're saying to me mean nothing to me! Have you ever considered that at all either of you?" I yelled, and that is what caused the tattoo markings of the darkness to appear on my skin, and I saw Soul grimace his sight away. Maka simply looked down, away from them as well.

"There… is one last thing you need to see. After that, we'll leave you alone…" I heard Maka say, but soul looked at her, as if shocked to hear her say she'd give up. But I sighed; if it was only one thing, I might as well. I put on the headset, and Maka did the same with hers, and the setting changed again. Next to me was the woman, "Avery" they called her, and she wore the typical getup I seen her have, however, across her body were this dark, tribal markings that looked like tattoos, much like the ones I had. Actually, they were exactly like the markings I had.

"Before she became a Death Scythe, Avery was cursed by a witch; those markings you now bare were once hers, and they granted her strength, at the cost of her slowly slipping into madness. That is one of the reasons why you two had worked so fast to obtain the souls necessary for her to become a Death Scythe. However, instead of the markings disappearing all together after she consumed the witch's soul, they were transferred onto your person, since she was giving the choice to either keep a hold of them, or force them upon you… But you were wanting to help her get rid of them, so you took it upon yourself to take the markings away to keep to your word, despite it being against her best wishes. You only wanted what was best for her, and for her to live a long and peaceful life; one that you thought she respectfully deserved…" Maka explained, but all these were causing me to calm down; actually awakening memories I did not expect. She was right, but… I cannot simply let her know that; I want Avery to tell me these things herself if they really were true.

As she said, the holograms and settings disappeared after a while, and Maka removed the headset. "Come, Soul… We have something we must take care of; Demitri Flint here wishes to be alone…" I heard Maka say to him, referring me to the name I said to them, and as much as he wanted to keep her back, he was dragged out by the wrist, and I was left there to think. I fell to my knees when Maka and Soul were out of sight, as one particular memory ran through my head.

-Flashback-

I was standing before her, looking at her as her markings covered the exposed parts of her skin. I held her hands, giving it time for the soul she had recently consumed to go through her, and made her stronger. This was the last one she needed to be free from the curse she had been with for the longest time. I released her hands when she winced, and I learned from what I've seen that she was going through the Death Scythe transformation. But even so, she approached me and suddenly embraced me, holding me close as the markings didn't seem to be going anywhere.

Was this a lie, I wondered, but that couldn't be it. But, then, I saw her look up at me, and saw her open her mouth to speak. "I guess… I'm to be stuck with them…" I heard her say, but for some reason, I didn't want her to go through with any more torment with those markings. At that time, I began to ask for her to be spared from the madness, and that I should be the one to undergo what for she had always thought to be a great burden. When I did so, however, she just looked at me, not knowing that her markings were slowly disappearing from her body. I then leaned in and pressed my lips against hers, and that was the last connection needed for the remainder of her exposed markings to disappear off her, and began to appear on me. I can feel the surge going through my body as I took the markings, even if against her will. Soon enough, I did pull away, and gazed at her.

"Avery, please forgive me… I don't wish to see you suffer any more with this curse you had been stuck with since Zho's passing… I want your life to be free, like I've always wanted you to be since you and I met, and I learned of these markings. I want this because I love you…" I said to her, lightly stroking a hand through her hair. I held her hand, and began to concentrate with all my might and, inevitably, I saw her begin to glow. In a few moments, I saw her change shape into her new form, the Death Scythe, the final form that any and all Weapons anywhere. With her, I know now that we have the power needed to be able to fight Light Water, and end this conflict once and for all…

-End of Flashback-

I was looking at the ground when I snapped back, my hands on the ground while I was still on my knees. I… am Dark Fire, not simply because it was the elements I possessed, but rather because it really was my name. Hard as it sounds, Soul and Maka were right, as much as it pains me to accept, but… I simply cannot confirm this without Avery. The next time I meet her, I need to will her to become my weapon again… I may have forgotten how to do it, but still, I have to try. If this does occur, then I accept who I am, but if not… I don't know what to think.

After a moment, I did find the strength to stand back up, and I looked up, removing the headset, and walked out of the training room. I set it back, and then I left the gym, took the long way around due to the fights still going on, and I made the decision to return to my room to correctly think of all these events through. But, I wonder just how I'll act the next time I should run into Avery, whether it is purposely or accidentally…