Blackhaven18: Yeah, am I a genius or what? I've managed to crank this chapter out early by working through the night. So, I'm just going to post this real quick, sleep three hours, and then go to classes.
Please review? It's like my coffee.
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the lint in my pocket.
Song choice: You're going down
By: Sick puppies
I think the song definitely fits this chapter, don't you?
Chapter 16: You're going down
The Next Day:
Nate smirked as he took a step back away from the wall, admiring his handiwork. It was nearly complete, he only had a few more holes to cover and that would be it. It surprisingly hadn't taken him very long to find the kanji he needed from the seals book, maybe around thirty minutes. It was drawing them all that took so long.
Nate had taken the rice paper and cut them in half width wise to make that previous stack of four inch wide papers into eight, before carefully drawing on the appropriate seals. Now he was currently pasting each slip of paper to one of the four walls of his chose site.
A few moments later and every wall was covered, now he just needed to wait…
Over the next couple of days an almost unnatural fog settled over the town of Forks' and The Cullen family for once couldn't be happier. Everyone had been restricted to their homes unless it was absolutely necessary to venture out because of limited visibility.
This of course meant there would be no stray humans out in the woods and fewer casualties in the long run…
It was decided that Bella would be staying with the Cullen's under the pretenses of attending a sleep over with Alice. Charlie, reluctantly, allowed his daughter to do so, more than likely keeping in my just how close Edward would be during their sleepover. Alice giggled at the strained look on the man's face when she asked, knowing exactly what was running through the man's mind even without her brother's gift.
Now though, everyone was silent, waiting for anything that sounded out of the ordinary, but Carlisle seemed to be waiting for something more. He hovered near the telephone constantly and if he wasn't in sight he was always nearby in case it went off.
Edward, seeing his father pass by the phone for the twentieth time, finally asked, "What are you doing, Carlisle?"
Whatever daze the elder vampire had been in broke at Edward's questioning and with one last glance at the phone he answered his son.
"Nate usually calls to confirm he finished what he was working on, but this time… nothing."
Edward nodded, "He may just be a little stressed and forgot to call." He concluded even though his answer sounded weak to his own ears.
Carlisle understood his son's reasoning, but it still didn't stop his worrying, "I understand, but since when does Nate ever forget anything, especially about something this important?"
"Should we go look for him?"
"… No, he might just be caught up doing something else… I'm sure he'll call soon enough." Carlisle reasoned even thought the sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach grew with each passing minute.
Edward also couldn't seem to shake the same feeling and he glanced out of the window and into the fog…
The dense fog was nothing to them as they walked at a steady pace into a secluded area of the forest, the sun high in the sky even if it was hidden behind a mass amount of clouds. It was the perfect setting to extract retribution…
"We shall stop here." Aro's voice stilled all those under his command.
It was a large meadow, which in all rights would have been absolutely beautiful if not for the couple hundred vampires camped within its depths and the perfect place to prepare for an attack it being about twenty miles from Forks', their eventual destination.
"I am positive young Alice has already seen our arrival, we shall allow them a few hours to come to us on their own and if not, we shall hunt for them." Aro called out and most others cheered in return.
The sentries around the camp listened far into the forest, paying no mind to the constant shuffling and tweeting of the forest creatures so far from their encampment.
One of the sentries cocked his head to the left, straining to focus his hearing in one direction. His partner seeing the action gave an inquisitive look until he answered, "Did you hear that?'
He too turned to the same direction to listen for the sound that grasped his partner's attention and hearing nothing shook his head. "I hear nothing brother, maybe you are hearing things in your old age?"
"Do not play games with me," His brother growled, but another subtle snap, closer now, caused him to stand. "Are you going to tell me I am hearing things now?" He questioned, seeing the look of comprehension dawning his brother's features. He gestured to get the attention of the vampire's further in, "Tell the master's someone draws near!"
The crowd that gathered around the section of woods the sounds emanated from parted as the head of the Volturi made their way to the front, curiousness driving them. From the faltered steps and delicious scent it was clear the intruder could be nothing but human.
The snapping of twigs and underbrush grew closer until a slight catching sound followed and the bushes in front broke free when the human fell through them to land with a soft thump in front of them. She was female from what they could catch as she fell down and she shifted, forcing herself to stand back up, long, rich brown hair cascading down her shoulders.
Her skin was a light ivory, so pale she could have been mistaken for a vampire, but it was her eyes that gave her away. It was not the bright crimson red they were used to, nor the topaz the Cullen's sported because of their way of life. No, deep, rich, chocolate brown eyes locked on them with wariness, acknowledgement, motivation and… excitement.
'What a strange human this one is,' Aro thought to himself he recognized the girl visage from Laurent's memories. Normally, humans that knew of what they were would be cowering in fear… begging… to not end their life, to change them so they could serve them for eternity.
It was amusing to see what the human kind would strive to do for even a second longer of their already pathetic life.
The girl carefully rose to her feet, mud covering the front of her beige covered jacket and she stilled finally seeing the audience she had no doubt, a blush stained her cheeks and her eyes widened as she took notice of their blood colored eyes. Aro smiled at the reaction and never being one to forget his manners addressed her.
"Hello, my dear." He started, his voice conveying false security, and gestured for no action to be taken as of yet, "It seems to me you are a tad far from home, wouldn't you say? What is your name?"
She nodded swiftly, her head dipping low so that her eyes were hidden, "I-It's Bella…" She whispered not giving a last name, and continued. "Are you the V-Volturi?"
"Yes, and if I am not mistaken you are the human that knows of us?" At her nod, he smiled again, "Well, I'm sorry to say we cannot allow you to live…" He stilled a moment at the flash of hatred in the depths of those brown eyes, but wrote it off as a fluke when her eyes filled with apprehension.
Aro sighed, "But even knowing that still you came here, hoping that if you sacrificed yourself we'd leave them be, even going as far as to disobey the Cullen's warning. No doubt they were going to hide you somewhere, but you managed to slip away, how entertaining." He looked at her, faked remorse in his eyes, "But I'm afraid we cannot allow the Cullen's to go without punishment either." Again she nodded, meekly this time and it was apparent why.
What could she, a mere human, hope to do against a hoard of vampires' centuries older than her?
Aro nodded and steadily raised a hand to signal one of the guards to dispatch of the girl when she chuckled. At first he thought it might have just been delusion finally settling in, but that sweet chuckle turned dark, dark enough to make him reconsider just killing the girl. She looked up at him, a maniacal gleam in her eyes as they bled into a light blue, intrigued by the sudden change Aro brought his hand back.
Maybe there was more to this human than he previously thought?
"Oh, I understand alright, but you should know not to take everything at face value. It could end up being your demise." She replied back in a sweet tone, her stance changing from the timid girl that first bumbled through the underbrush, to one of more confidence.
Caius, not paying attention to the changes and only seeing the girl's impudence fought not to rush forward and rip her throat out as Aro had yet to give the command. "You foolish child, do you not realize where you stand? How we could squash you like the insect you are?" He seethed and Bella gave him a bored look.
"Yeah, so?" She replied cheekily and turned her attention back to Aro, "Before you go through with this, you should know that I'm not really Bella."
Aro's eyes widened, and watched as the sound of a small explosion reached his ears, followed by a cloud of smoke, that caused the entire group of vampires' to back up in apprehension, leaving around seventy feet for their intruder to move about and if need be to attack her...
The smoke cleared to reveal a young man clad in one of the strangest fashion's he had ever seen. A pair of black bottoms, loose enough to allow for movement was taped with white binding tape around his calves and disappeared into the rim of his black sandal-like shoes. There was also tape around his waist to keep his dark crimson, sleeveless shirt from riding up and his pants to keep from slipping down.
Apart from that he wore a pair of black leather gloves and two pouches, one strapped to his upper right side and a larger pouch perched on his lower back.
Blond hair was in wild disarray, long strands framing his face perfectly and bright cerulean colored eyes peaked out in a calculating stare.
To say that Aro was intrigued was an understatement.
"How… interesting," He murmured, stroking his fine beard in thought. "I clearly saw a woman standing there and yet… you appear, tell me dear brother did I see wrong?" He turned to Caius and he too had an astonished look on his face, "Tell me boy, what is your name?"
The blond in front of him scoffed at the demand and gave the vampire a pointed look, "I go by Nate." He stated simply, not looking the slightest bit paranoid at the younger vampires' moving to block off his escape.
"Nate? Alright, then tell me. How did you… transform in such a way? Is it a gift?" Aro's voice was tinged with curiosity as he imagined that particular gift among his ranks, and Nate smirked.
"Of course it is, now I'm giving you a choice, either go back to Italy and leave the Cullen's alone… or you can choose to die here today."
A bubbled laughter forced its way from Aro's chest at the blatant arrogance of this young fool and he didn't stop it. It had been a long time since anyone showed such disrespect to them and in all honesty he missed all that vigor their opponents had before they were slaughtered and to think a puny human thought the even stood a chance against them.
It was laughable.
"Oh, you certainly are an amusing one, but I am afraid you do not know who you speak to. It is as my brother says; we have much more strength over you both physically and in numbers." Aro said once his laughter died down and the blond shrugged.
"It's not like I care, I've already warned you."
Aro gave once last look at the blond and gestured for one of his prizes's to come down, she bowed when she reached him. "Jane, my dear, if you would." Even though it was a question, it was said as a statement and left no room for an answer.
The blond in front of them stilled, facing his entire body to the one that was about to do something, never once taking his eyes off her…
Nate kept his gaze on the one called Jane the entire time. From what he heard from the Cullen's she was a fearsome opponent… something about attacking a person's mind. It reminded far too much of the Sharingan for his liking…
Her gaze narrowed at him when he didn't so much as twitch a moment later, she gave off a loud shriek and Nate looked at her in confusion. Alright… just what the hell did he do now?
Aro's look of interest now increased so that it was now resting somewhere between excitement and awe, a look of a child in a candy store and Nate didn't like it one bit.
"Amazing, tell me does young Edward's gift affect you in anyway?"
Nate blinked and sudden realization dawned on him. He was being tested… for what he didn't know, so instead of answering he brought his hands together into the first sign of the famed technique he was known for as a child.
"Enough questions, you really want to see the extent of my abilities Aro? I'll let you see them as I'm killing off your coven. Check this out, Taju kage bunshin no jutsu!" The area behind the blond Nate was filled with hundreds upon hundreds of clones, all staring malevolently out at the coven before them, and reaching into their pouches to produce a weapon of some kind. The most popular being his kunai of course. He pointed at the group, a feral grin marring his face and shouted, "Charge!" The mass amount of Nate's lunged forward reveling in the surprised looks crossing his victims' faces…
The front line was the easiest to take down; being filled with nothing but newborns that had no clue how to handle to situation except to follow Aro's order's of 'find the original!'. Unfortunately, while his shadow clones were having an effect, and he had been able to take down a couple dozen vampires, they were being destroyed far too easily by the powerful strikes of his opponents.
Running forward, he called out Rasengan and plunged the swirling fist into the enemies' chest in front of him, while two clones grabbed both his arms to rip him apart and threw the pieces to the growing pile behind him. Earlier, he created a couple hundred more clones and sent them into the forest behind the Volturi, to catch any that tried to escape.
He wasn't allowing for any survivors today.
He couldn't help the growl that escape him when the one called Alec, used that gift of his to bring down forty of his clones, their memories transferred to him as they realized they couldn't move and sunk down in the blissful unawareness of his gift. He needed to bring that once down and fast… he brought his hands together to make more clones, but stilled at the growling from behind him.
"Found you!" Felix hissed and Nate's eyes widened as he felt the impact of a fist on his right temple.
He was thrown a good thirty feet, into the raging battle around him, his right ear ringing from the impact. That vampire had a killer right hook.
His gaze flew in the direction of Felix and seeing the vampire running towards him, decided this would be a good time to pull himself together. He jumped up, evading the oncoming hit, that was now complete with a set of razor sharp nails, he noted ruefully.
A few more swipes later and Felix let loose another growl, "Stand still, goddamn you!" He hissed and if Nate had the time he would have shook his head.
'Yeah, like I'm going to comply with that.' He thought.
A few clones around him noticed his problem and jumped forward, latching themselves onto the vampire's arms and legs. He was able to make a swift escape, now that Felix was otherwise incapacitated at the moment.
Feeling a few more clones dispel at the tree line, their memories now his own, he noticed a few had tried to run, which consisted of the newborns that had not been cut down by the guard or their own master's…
He ran until he was once again lost amongst the confusion, quickly making as many more clones as he dared, trying to conserve the last of his chakra. He grinned as he when he realized as his small army had finally broken through their third ranks, which meant only a one more until he reached the guard.
'Only thirty more…' He thought to himself, making the signs for another rasengan.
He threw his hand forward, but was stopped by the grip that encircled his wrist and looking up realized it was none other than Felix.
'He sure made pretty quick work of those clones.'
Nate flipped his body over the vampire, ignoring the searing pain that emanated from his wrist and landed a cracking blow on the vampire's head with his right foot. Hearing the growl he knew that only served to anger the being further. He was grabbed by the back of his shirt and forced into the ground painfully, nearly eating dirt as his hands were pinned behind his back.
"Call them off you monster and I might just let your death be swift." Felix hissed, sharp teeth dangerously close to his ear and he shook his head the best he was able to. "Fine then…"
"What're you-" Nate never finished because the blow to the back of his head, the one feeling as if he was hit by a speeding truck, blurred his vision and he would have pitched forward from the impact if he wasn't already on the ground… He guessed he would have to make due with the now two inch crater he was now laying in, exhaustion, both physically and chakra-wise, finally catching up with him… He unwillingly drifted into the darkness…
"I should… killed… bastard." Nate heard through the recesses of his mind as he was pulled out from his conscious.
Bleary blue eyes opened slightly, the light causing him to close them once again, but he didn't move. He didn't want to give himself away, but then again, knowing these assholes they already knew because of his breathing.
"Oh, how right you are, Nate, my boy," He heard and woke to see the milky eyes of none other than Aro, he supposed the vampire in front of him could have been beautiful if it wasn't for that damn fake smile of his. Oh, how he wanted to rip it off right at that moment.
He took in his surroundings, nearly gleeful at the size of the small mountain of vampire parts he caused, it nearly being twice as tall as he was… Nate shivered at the cold appendage that trailed down the side of his face and looked back to see Aro, a look of concentration marring his perfect features.
"My, my, what an interesting life you have led young one…" He murmured, ignoring the heated glare from the blond, "You have a great power within you, but why pray tell did you choose not to use it against us?"
Alright, forget about ripping the smile off, this guy would be better off dead. He'd be doing the world a favor getting rid of that… that mind invading thing. How the hell was he able to get in his mind anyway?
"Like I need the stupid fox to beat a bunch of demon wannabe's," He growled out, forcing himself not to wince as Felix's hold on his head and hands tightened.
Again the hand trailed down his cheek, "Ah, you would be such a wonderful asset to my collection. If only we could do something about this defiant streak of yours…"
Nate was forced to his knees, feeling blood spill free from a cut on his temple and he spat back, "Like I'd ever join the likes of you. Go to hell!"
Aro angrily drew his hand back and brought it back to the blonde's cheek in a hard slap, that pitched him to the left if not for Felix's hold on him. Nate gasped out, feeling the wind knocked out of him, but soon enough that cold hand was back on his face, nearly caressing his now swelling cheek in a manner he decided he never wanted to see again.
"Oh, I'm so sorry for ruining that pretty face of yours," Aro crooned and Nate realized he might be in deeper shit than he thought.
The vampire was treating him like a damn toy and as he glanced over at the pile of bodies he saw why. There, resting near the bottom of the pile, were Jane and Alec's heads', laying side by side.
The old man needed a new toy and as it turns out Nate happened to fit the description to a tee.
He shuddered with revulsion, but looked over the vampires' shoulder, seeing the movement behind him… he caught a flash of yellow and inwardly grinned, there were still a few clones left… If he could just cause a big enough distraction.
Far off in the woods, the last three clones watched the scene, awaiting further orders' and silent understanding passed between them and the original. It was time for the final plan. The very plan they hoped from the very beginning they wouldn't have to use.
The ran further into the woods, careful not to expend any unneeded chakra and one nearly dove into a nearby bush, coming back out a few moments later with a few noisy fireworks, taped together. Setting it in a small clearing they quickly lit the fuse and stepped back, it going off a few seconds later.
Aro's head snapped up at the sound and he sent a few of the guard over to check on the source, his eyes never once leaving Nate. Scuffling could be heard and Aro finally looked away, as did Felix, when a body flew out of the woods at high speed.
Nate seeing this as his only chance, quickly twisted his way out of Felix's hold, bringing his knee up to deliver a powerful chakra enforced blow to the vampire's abdomen that had him crumpling over. The blond ran over to the pile of body parts, bringing his hands together to form the signs for another jutsu he forced himself to learn in his time in the United States.
"Katon ryuuka no jutsu!" A stream of fire poured from Nate's mouth onto the pile, setting it aflame, before he quickly dove into the woods once more, hearing Aro's roars of outrage behind him he quickly made his way to the construction site where his job was usually held.
'Maybe this wasn't such a bright idea…' Nate thought as he pushed his body to its limits, trying to stay ahead of the remaining vampires' on his tail.
He was running out of steam and fast, he took to the trees, making sure to run against the occasional tree to mark his scent. Suddenly a wash of dizziness overcame him and his foot missed the initial branch he was going to use to propel himself further. Nate fell straight down, catching smaller branches down along the way, and impacted hard on the forest floor beneath him.
Hearing Felix's howl of excitement he quickly pushed himself to his feet, the wave of dizziness and now moving ground beneath him causing him to stumble.
'Oh, Kami… not again.' He thought as he fought to keep himself from retching and pushed forward. 'Not much farther… just a little more.'
He forced nearly the last of his chakra into his legs to give him a little extra boost and made it out of the tree line too see the abandoned worksite… and the old iron factory seemingly within arms reach. Nate smirked and cast one last jutsu, a genjutsu to be exact with the last of his chakra and kept running. He reached the doors and opened them, until they were fully open and walked until he was on the other side of the rusted out shell of a building and sat down, his back against the wall.
Nate didn't have to wait long, because a few moments later the vampire's that had been chasing him saw him, tired and out of breath.
Aro's eyes narrowed at him in contempt, "You have caused my brother's and I a lot of grief." He accused and Nate chuckled.
"Yeah," He breathed, still trying to catch his breath, "I tend to do that."
"Will you stop fighting and come with us? Doing anything more will not do you any good," Aro stated and Nate hung his head down low.
He didn't have any chakra left and he was physically and mentally exhausted. Really, what he needed was a nice, long nap… and maybe some ramen… His stomach rumbled in response, ramen? He hadn't had that in ages… At least not the good stuff, made none other then by Teuchi and his daughter. Man, what he wouldn't give for a bowl of that right now.
He could just see it, the bowl steaming from the hot broth bath; the noodles were in, in all their deliciousness. Yeah…
"Well?" Aro questioned and Nate was brought back to reality, wiping his mouth with the sleeve of his shirt for any possible drool he shook his head.
"I already told you before Aro, but for your sake I'll say it again. Kiss my hairy white ass." Nate spat out contemptuously.
Aro let out a low growl and moved forward, flanked by his brothers' and what was left of the Volturi. "Prepare to die young Nate." He spat back and the blond just drew his knees up, resting his arms against on them.
"I've been ready to die for a long time now." He replied softly, watching as they drew closer, his vision already starting to blacken around the edges.
As soon as the last vampire was in the doors slammed shut, pulled by the wires Nate cut with the kunai behind his back and hearing the creaky shut, along with being plunged into darkness the vampire's started to panic.
"What did you do, you little fool!" Caius hissed as he truly looked around for the first time. Paper's lined the wall, all with unrecognizable kanji writing on them, they were even pasted to the floor and ceiling, "Why did we not see this before!?"
Nate, feeling bored and overall tired of hearing the elder vampire's voice decided to humor him and answered.
"You didn't see because I place a genjutsu over the building to make it seem like we were still in the forest and those cute little paper's you're all standing on are what are as… paper bombs." He finished dramatically. "We're all going to die down here, gentlemen. Have a nice trip to hell." Nate said and lit the fuse.
Three things happened:
One: Nearly all the vampire's tried to make a break for the door, all scrambling to get over each other, not wanting to die.
Two: They all shrieked as the bombs tore their bodies apart, while simultaneously burning the pieces beyond all recognition.
And last, but not least…
Three: Nate laughed at their feeble attempts as the bombs exploded around him, throwing debris around him.
As Nate finally succumbed to darkness, even just to get away from the blazing inferno, the last thing he saw was Edward's face and inwardly grimaced at how much of a fool he was around the vampire for the last few months. Of course Nate still loved him; anybody was a fool themselves for asking such an idiotic question, but still… it was nice to dream right?
He barely made out the shape of a large, metal container, commonly used for storing water to cool the machinery as it flew towards him and encased him in the only area of the room he was unable to cover with letter bombs because he ran out.
Being plunged into further darkness he let out one last breath, as the roof caved in on him, sealing him in…
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(1) All jutsu info is borrowed from this site:
http: // www. narutochuushin. com/ main. php? category= information & page= jutsu list
without the spaces of course.
Blackhaven18: Yeah, about the ramen thing. He is slightly delirious and that was what I was trying to convey in case you didn't get it. Alright, I know this for sure now. There are only two more chapters to part one of the Sea of Flames Trilogy: Part 1. It's finally coming to an end folks, stay tuned to find out more!
~TBC~