CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

~ Ventus ~

The wind blows with great strength, rustling the trees and the bushes loudly. It continues to blow, eventually causing the lamp to flicker on and off. Two youths stand opposite each other under this unstable light. Kai watches the youth who introduced himself as Ventus with caution as he tightens his grip on the girl in his arms. The wind settles down and the lamp continues to function as it normally should.

"Kai…" Ventus addresses. "You disappoint me."

"What are you talking about, I don't have time for this kind of chitchat." Kai glares at him.

"Like I said, if you intend to take her to a hospital, you can save it." Ventus repeats. "They'll do her about as much good as you can alone if they don't know out how she'll react to the known medications and treatments."

Kai narrows his eyes on the other youth. "What do you want?"

"I'll be laconic." Ventus says. "I want to see if you can protect Lux."

"I don't have the time for this." Kai says, turning to go. As he does, he realizes something and turns back around. Kai then asks him. "What do you know about Lux and what did you mean by 'junk' in her body? And if the doctors won't know what to do with her, then do you know?"

"If you want to know all that, you'll just have to accept my challenge and beat me. I'll even answer anything you ask me to the best of my knowledge." Ventus answers him. "Of course, if you loose, Lux comes with me as your defeat will mark your inability to protect her."

"What!" Kai exclaims. "Forget it!"

"Then, deal with her however you please." Ventus says.

Kai looks at Lux for a moment. Her face is pale and her breath is weak. Crimson fluids still ooze out from her more serious wounds. He thinks for a moment about what Ventus just said. He could definitely take her to a hospital but if what Ventus said was true, then all he'd be doing would be putting her in more danger.

Kai lays Lux down onto the ground gently and turns back to Ventus. He then takes out his blade and launcher.

"Fine, I'll accept your challenge." Kai tells him.

"Then let the test begin." Ventus replies, pulling out his own launcher and white blade. 'Show me that you have the potential to protect her, Kai…'

"3…2…1…Let it rip!" the two of them shouts, launching their blades.

'Come on, Dranzer, don't let me down…' Kai prays to his bitbeast as the two blades collide in midair.

The two blades fall to the ground and revolve around each other waiting for the other's move.

"Not bad…for someone so tired." Ventus comments. "But…"

Ventus's white blade heads off towards the lamp and runs upwards using it. It stops right before it hits the top and waits there as if defying gravity.

Kai turns from the blade to the blader for a moment. Right at that moment, the white blade leaps horizontally from the lamppost and flips onto Dranzer, knocking it off balance and sliding in a direction away from the white blade.

"If you're going to loose focus in battle, you might as well surrender to me now." Ventus tells him. "Lok for one won't hesitate to use your distraction to his advantage. You'd loose for sure if it were against him."

Upon hearing that, Kai became enraged. "You haven't seen anything just yet!"

Dranzer speeds towards the white blade to attack it. As he was about to make contact, the white blade seemingly disappears.

Kai begins to search for it. 'Where'd it go?'

"Didn't I say to focus?" Ventus points upwards to his blade as it dives from high in the air for Kai's.

Though Kai tried to react to it, the white blade still hit Dranzer and caused it to wobble. Despite that, Kai chases Ventus's white blade and tries to attack it. As it was about to make contact again, the same thing happened as before. Kai looks up, searching for the white blade. As he searches, the white blade emerges from a thick nearby bush and strikes Dranzer.

"What the…!" Kai exclaims in surprise.

"Falling for the same trick twice…" Ventus mutters. "Maybe you really don't have what it takes to protect her from Lok."

"That's NOT true!" Kai screams, channeling his anger into his blade for another attack. This time, he hit his mark and it was Ventus's white blade that is wobbling. However, as Kai tries to make another attack, Ventus's blade tips forward a little and sends Kai's blade flipping away from it.

"You fight like a child; so far you prove easy to taunt and easy to trick." Ventus taunts him. "But I guess I'll do a final check to see if you have what it takes or not. So much for second place in the world championships back when the BBA was well and good and taking down that Brooklyn guy in BEGA…"

Ventus's blade circles Kai's blade now and it seems to be increasing in speed. As it does this, a strong gust of wind is generated and sends Kai's blade into the air, levitating it. Ventus then sends his blade smashing into Kai's Dranzer.

"I guess that's check." Ventus muses, expecting to see Kai defeated through the dust.

As the dust clears, however, Ventus is shown another result. Dranzer was still spinning and shows no sign of stopping anytime soon.

'He's stronger than I thought…' Ventus comments mentally.

"It seems you guessed wrong." Kai throws back at him.

"You sure that wasn't just luck, Kai?" Ventus turns from the blades to him. "'Cause that's what I think it was… Siegfried!"

Ventus sends Siegfried into Kai's blade again only to miss.

'What!' Ventus thinks in his mind.

Ventus searches everywhere within his view for Dranzer, but cannot seem to find it. Then, without warning, Dranzer bursts out from the same bush as the one Ventus used. It tries to knock Siegfried back but misses.

Ventus chuckles. "I don't fall for my own tricks…"

Kai remains silent.

"Well then, I suppose I should finish you off." Ventus straightens up. "Siegfried, Strike of Balmung!"

Kai watches as Siegfried closes in on Dranzer. It seems to have summoned a bitspirit in the form of a knight wielding a giant sword. The knight charges towards Dranzer, but as it was about to make its mark, Kai sends Dranzer into the air.

'I'm counting on you for this, Dranzer,' Kai communicates to his bitbeast. "Dranzer, Spiral Fireball!"

Combining his own power with his blade's momentum and the force of gravity, Kai's blade fell like a lone meteor towards Siegfried and stirs up the dust around the two blades. As the dust clears, a large crater is revealed. In the center is a wobbling white blade and a strong blue one. Soon, Siegfried falls still. The winner is clearly decided.

Ventus stares for a few moments at his blade as Kai steps forward to pick Dranzer up. Then, he looks up at Kai.

"Looks like I won." Kai walks up to Ventus. "Now then, you owe me some info."

"I don't deny that." Ventus says as he picks up his blade. "We'll start with Lux's current condition. Just bandage those wounds without applying any medication and have her rest up."

"What?" Kai watches Ventus's amused look in disbelief. He had been sure Lux would at least need a few stitches and possibly even a blood transfusion.

"She doesn't know this herself, but her body is equipped with a nanotechnological system." Ventus explains to him. "It activates only when she's unconscious and accelerates her rate of healing if she's ever injured but it doesn't do anything else much since development was never finished. However, I strongly advise you to avoid giving her any medications, topical, injected or ingested. Bizmark and Dr. Vaniard gave those with augmented souls a particularly large variety and dosage of drugs; a reaction to any other medications would be extremely...volatile."

"Augmented souls?"

"Magnanimae. That's the name given to them by the ancient tribe that prophesized their existence." Ventus tells him. "They're just like any normal human being…at least 'til they're awakened by some sort of artificial disturbance. After they're awakened, they may tap into their soul for certain powers or abilities such as but not limited to levitation. It is said that there are a total of eight of them, seven of which are born with augmented souls. When seven of the eight are gathered at a specific place, one of two rituals can be preformed. By order named in the prophecy, they are the King, the Sage, the Dragon, the Urchin, the Knight, the Witch and the Princess."

"And the last?" Kai asks.

"The Conditional Knight." Ventus tells him.

"Conditional?"

"He is only acts as a Magnanima under certain conditions."

"And those conditions are?" Kai asks.

"I don't remember." Ventus answers him plainly.

Kai looks at him for a moment, wondering if he was hiding something. Deciding it'd be pointless to try to get him to spill it if he was, Kai turns from him.

"Thanks." he walks towards Lux. He picks her up gently and was about to leave but turns back to Ventus. "Just one more question."

"Hm?"

"Who are you?" Kai inquires. "Why are you helping Lux?"

"Her father is both my uncle and benefactor." Ventus tells him. "I came from a wealthy family in Scandinavia. As one of the pampered and high class, I was naturally limited to company similar to myself. Though Lux and I lived in different households, we spent a lot of time together. Most of the others around my status were snobs so I didn't like them much anyways. We were like brother and sister."

"What happened?" Kai asks him.

"One night, Lux invited me over for a sleepover. It was really just so we could spend more time playing a collectable card game we both liked. During most of the day we would be busy with lessons or other things. I remember we were both in the middle of a match and she was about to win when one of her maids came in and said there's a phone call for me. My life changed after I answered it."

Ventus turns to Lux and strokes her hair gently. "While I was away, it seems a band of cloaked freaks raided my home. They were searching for something but nothing was reported missing. They killed everyone there, everyone but the young daughter of an old maid who hid inside an unheated oven. She described everything she saw. The trauma affected her so much she eventually had to be sent away. As for me, I suppose I was lucky that Lux invited me over that night. I was suppose to inherit my family's fortune after that since I was the only one left but I inherited nothing."

Kai watches as Ventus's nostalgic expression turns into an angry and vindictive one. "It was gone, all of it. The money in my parent's bank account and the estate…everything. It was stolen. I didn't know who stole it for a long time either. At the time, I was devastated. I lost everything and I thought that's all there will be to it and I'd just be alone. Right at that moment, though, Lux and her father took me in."

Ventus's countenance softens. "My uncle said he would care for me as if I was one of his own. Though my uncle was always busy with work and whatnot, he would buy me lots of presents to try to make up for not being able to be there. Lux and my aunt stayed by my side more often though. My aunt would always try to make my favorite foods so that I wouldn't miss the dishes my mother used to cook for me too much. As for Lux, She stayed with me and told me that she'd be there so I wouldn't be alone. That's when I realized that I took everything for granted before. And so, I came to love each of them dearly…my uncle, my aunt, and most of all, Lux."

"Unfortunately, two of the three people I grew to love were taken not too long after." Ventus continues. "My uncle, my aunt and Lux were going to go and donate some stuff to the poor. It was both out of kindness and for publicity since that would help my uncle's company's reputation. I was sick that time though so I didn't go. But…as soon as I got better, I found out that my uncle and aunt had been killed in a small town in Russia. As for Lux, she was nowhere to be found. I headed there immediately using the cash that my uncle left me in case of an emergency to search for her. I couldn't find her. At least…not immediately. After a while, I was even gonna give up actually but by some miracle, I found where she was…or rather…where Bizmark's henchmen took her. I tried to infiltrate their lab so that I could at least try to rescue Lux. Instead, I almost ended up being one of their specimens."

"When Bizmark's goons found me in their lab, they were going to test to see if I had the traits of a Magnanima. Luckily for me, I was able to get past the computer's security programs and get a glance at the list of traits those scientists speculated a Magnanima would have while I was poking around before they found me. Thanks to that I managed to fool them into thinking I was just a useless boy. I was the only one to fail that test though, so naturally, I was the only one who did not have to go through with the other tests. Thanks to that, I'm also the only one whose memory wasn't tinkered. Of course, after I saw the inside of the lab, Bizmark would never let me out free even if I didn't seem useful to him. In order to survive, I pretended to be Bizmark's lapdog. By impressing him and doing most of what he wants, I gained his trust as well as power within his organization. I even found out who it was who took my family's fortune thanks to the privileges he gave me. It none other than Bizmark. He didn't just take my family's fortune either, he stole from many others and used that money to fund his stupid research facility so that he can try to use the Magnanimae's power to take control of the world. I began to plot a way in which Lux could escape…and I did what I could to carry it out."

"I'm the reason why you even know Lux." Ventus turns to him. "It was me who dressed up as an intruder so that I could get on the lab's west wing security cameras. After that, I edited all the recordings of the lab and used them the following night along with my knowledge of computers to fool the buffoons who sat in the security room. With them busy thinking there's an intruder in the west wing again, I snuck Lux out of the lab from the east wing and took her to Moscow. I didn't return to the lab until I sent her off to Japan at the airport. Afterwards I simply told them I was out for a breath of fresh air and missed all the action."

Just as Ventus was about to continue, Lux shifts slightly in Kai's arms drawing his attention to her. Kai turns to her, half hoping for her to wake up while half hoping she would stay unconscious so she could continue healing some more. She remains unconscious.

"I think you should take her back with you now." Ventus tells Kai.

Kai nods and turns to go.

"By the way." Ventus calls to him.

Kai glances back in response.

"I know Tala will be heading back to Russia." Ventus states.

Kai's eyes widen in surprise. "How do you…"

"Go with him." Ventus tells him. "When Lok finds out Lux is missing, he's gonna either let you keep her until he finds the Knight or come to your place to take her back."

"But-"

"You're no condition to fight Lok as you are right now." Ventus interrupts him. "Go with Tala and have him show you to the lab. Don't worry, it's safe there now."

Kai nods as Ventus leaps into the air and disappears into the darkness.