Chapter 6
Awakening
"Where are we?" Ace thought as he noticed Clara beside him. They were in the middle of the road with all sorts of futuristic and sci-fi buildings around them.
"I believe were a very long time into a future." Clara explained as a hover car was heading right towards them!
"We're going to have to fight it!" Ace shouted and slashed the hover car! The car then stopped, and the Driver got out carrying an enormous single-edged broadsword!
"Why did you slash my car?" The girl shouted. She looked to be around 15 and 5'2. She wore a simple silver t-shirt and matching skirt. Her red eyes contrasted greatly with her silver boots and long brown hair that flowed down to her waist.
"Because he can do so in this story." The Author sarcastically explained.
"Because your car was going to hit me and my friend, you idiot driver!" Ace shouted and ignored what The Author just a said a second ago.
"I'm sorry; I guess you're not from around here at all." The girl responded as she looked at Ace.
"What makes you think that?!" Ace responded and wondered what made the girl think that..
Because, you slashed my hovercar, that's why!" The girl shouted. "Multi-slash!" Then she used her enormous falchion to slash Ace.
"Oh crud!" Ace responded as he slashed back with his katanas. "Twin Katana Beam X2!"
"You're pathetic." The girl responded as Ace glared at her. He wasn't in the mood for all of this.
"I'm willing to fight." Ace added as he knocked the blade from her hands." Now stop!"
"There isn't a reason for either of you to fight!" Clara added as she looked at both of them. "This is just plain stupid to be doing right now!"
"I'm sorry I allowed myself to get out of hand." The girl explained." My name is Aerith."
"My name is Ace, and this my leak, Clara." Ace explained as he made his chopper appear." Let me guess, Empress Vanessa is still in power?"
"I have no clue who that is at all." Aerith responded. "I probably would if they were ruler of this place.
"Well that's good to know." Ace answered. "I was just time jumped and need some place to stay."
"Then let's head to my place." Aerith explained as Ace looked at his katanas. "Also we'll need to get those fixed."
"Sounds good to me, so let's get on going!" Ace added as they drove away…
5 minutes later…
"Welcome to my home." Aerith explained as they walked in. It was a small place, but had a blacksmith area and three bedrooms with 2.5 baths. "Also can I fix your katanas, Ace?"
"I guess." Ace answered and handed the Katanas over. He hadn't realized just how fragile they were until he handed them to Aerith. They looked to have been batter and the blades looked to be almost broken. After handing his weapon over, he noticed a familiar friend was waiting for him. It was The Black Cat. Ace immediately ran after it.
"Where are you going?" Clara asked as she caught a glimpse of The Black Cat.
"To honor my friends who I lost when I disappeared and was sent into the future." Ace lied as he walked out of the building. He didn't understand why he had to follow the Black Cat, but if it brought him answers so be it. The pursuit led him to a cemetery after only walking for about 10 minutes.
"It's been a long time, Ace." A boy with a scythe explained. He hadn't changed his appearance much, except now he had on a black unzipped hoodie with a grey shirt.
"Yes it has been, Angel." Ace responded as he looked at the three unmarked graves that were behind him." Why are there only three graves?"
"Because Nina wasn't killed that day by whoever committed these murders." Angel answered.
"That's good to hear." Ace added as he looked at Angel. He didn't trust him fully, but it was good see he wasn't the only one who survived.
"Ace… I don't think the Empress was responsible for this." Angel explained. "However, I suspect she was being controlled by somebody."
"I know for fact she wasn't responsible." Ace answered as he looked at Angel.
"If she isn't, who is responsible for this?" Angel answered as the sounds of a chainsaw revving up were getting louder.
"Yay! It's dumb and dumber!" Hera sarcastically shouted as Gabe and Bill appeared.
"That seems like the perfect title for those two idiots." The Author added.
"That, or Stupid and Stupider." Valia responded and pissed the two of them off.
"We heard that!" Bill shouted, waving his weapon up in the air.
"Well, just get over it!" The Author responded as Angel made his Scythe appear.
"Grand Chainsaw slash!" Bill shouted as he attempted to slash Ace with his chainsaw!
"Doombringer!" Angel shouted only for the scythe head to be knocked back by Gabe's Gatling gun shots.
"You really love throwing insane enemies at us don't you?!" Ace responded and threw a kunai up into the air, only for it to come falling down a few feet in front of him.
"I find it more interesting for you and your friends to defeat the odds." The author responded as two eggs appeared before Ace.
"These are two spirit dragons that will help you on the road ahead." Hera explained.
"Thank you, Hera." Ace whispered as the eggs hatched a second later.
"Master, we await your commands." The male spirit dragon explained.
"I'm going to name you Dai." Ace explained as he pointed at the male one." And I'll name you Miyako." Then he pointed at the female spirit dragon as he said that.
"Oh crud, this isn't going to end well for us." Bill responded as both dragons burned him, causing both of them to have a cartoonish char on them. Almost immediately, they both ran off to wherever they went off to.
"Let's go!" Angel responded as he followed Ace." Can I join your side?"
"I'm fine with it." Ace explained as the dragons disappeared into the necklace that now appeared around his neck. It was a leather loop with two silver dragon pendants on it.
"Now the question is why do you think you and I were frozen in time?" Angel asked as they walked down the road.
"I'm not sure." Ace responded." But I know Vanessa didn't do this because the person who knocked me out said 'You never figured it out.'"
"That means there our a lot more questions to we don't have the answers to yet." Angel responded. "Questions that only The Black Cat knows the answers too."
"I'm angry that I wasn't able to save them." Ace added as he looked at Angel. "They fought so hard with me to stop the Empress. And their reward for fighting as hard as they did to get answers? They get slaughtered so at a later point I would be broken down and be unwilling to fight anyone!"
"However you're right." Angel explained as they reached Aerith's home. Ace entered first and explained why there was somebody with him now. For some reason, Aerith was totally fine with having somebody else in her home. A little bit too okay with it.
"Here are your katanas, Ace." Aerith responded as she handed back Ace unmended katanas." It seemed that the metal refuse to be mended at all."
"Master, we are the only ones who can fix your katanas, so hand them to us." Dai explained as Ace handed him his Katanas.
"Dai and I will have them ready in a few hours." Miyako explained and they teleported away to some other dimension. After that, they made some sandwiches and had lunch.
"Ace and Angel, somebody has already signed the form for you to compete in the Battle Rumble Tournament." Aerith explained as she ate a sandwich and showed the three of them the already completed forms." The tournament starts tomorrow, but the pre-ceremonies our tonight."
"I expect Vanessa to be there and competing." Ace responded as he studied the form. Either The Black Cat or somebody else had signed them up.
"Yeah and why does that matter?" Angel asked as he looked at Ace.
"I'm going to see if she really has changed at all." Ace answered as he looked down at the floor.
"You just want answers don't you, Ace?" Reapera responded as she appeared in front of him.
"Yes I do." Ace answered." Kalin, Mark, Aurora, Mara, and never deserved to die at all. But that's how destiny is. It takes things away from you that you don't want it take at all."
"I understand now." Aerith answered as she looked at Ace.
"Let's get ready to set the record straight." Ace added." So were about to the end of the first arc, Author?"
"Yes and the next arc will be around the same length as this one is." The Author explained…
That night…
"Are you sure about this, Ace?" Angel asked as they looked at the door.
"Yes, it's time for some answers too some of the questions I have." Ace explained as he, Aerith and Angel walked into the building. As they walked in Ace unsheathed his katanas which were now attached to his back via a magnet.
"My, My, My, What do we have here?" Vanessa responded as she got off her throne. She was dressed a lot differently now. She no longer wore her black "Hero of Time" tunic and had switched over to a crimson dress. To go with her outfit, she had matching pumps and opera gloves with crimson lipstick and blush to finish the look off.
"Let's talk." Ace responded as he looked at her. It was time for some sort of an explanation to her actions.
"Agree." Vanessa calmly added as Ace sheathed his katanas and followed her into a back room. He still didn't trust her that much, but he followed her anyway. She led them into a back room where they talk without anybody interrupting them at all.
"I guess it's time for you to hear my side of the story on this whole fiasco." Vanessa explained." Ace, I've always been on your side." Then she kissed Ace, shocking him. Then things became all clear. Vanessa that he knew and loved had returned back to him.
"Do you know what happened to Mark, Kalin, Aurora and Nina, Princess?" Ace asked curiously as he looked into the eyes of the one he loved as he said his nickname for her.
"That's where it get's really interesting." Vanessa explained. "Two hour after the massacre I committed, I found two bodies, Mark's and Kalin's, but I didn't find Nina's or Aurora's bodies at all."
"But how do I know you aren't lying and you killed them yourself?!" Ace responded still suspicious about everything that happened.
Flashback…
Vanessa paced around the airship, knowing the many sins she committed that day. After what had happened at the school, something inside of her changed. She had gotten a new message from "her master" ordering her around to do something. Her response was to flip him off and tell him she wasn't going to that with a half dozen swear words in the process.
"I killed 500 people, most of which didn't know what was happening or why I did what I did that day." Vanessa thought sorrowfully." I was a psycho and I can't hold myself for what I did." Then she exited the control room of her airship and allowed it to plummet towards the earth "This truly is the end." Then a few seconds later, she blacked out.
"What? I'm still alive?" Vanessa mumbled as she looked around. She was outside the wreck now with The Black Cat looking over her.
"I see you're awake now." The Black Cat responded. "That was some crash you survived."
"Who are you and why am I still alive?!" Vanessa responded as she got up.
"I'm The Black Cat." The Black Cat explained as she watched Vanessa.
"Go away." Vanessa responded and ran off as The Black Cat watched.
"Were probably going to be seeing each other again at least one more time, Vanessa." The Black Cat whispered as she watched Vanessa. Vanessa ran over to the tallest building she could find and climbed to the very top.
"Finally I'm out of her sight and this time I'll die, hopefully." Vanessa thought as she looked over the edge of a tall building. It was her time to die. Then she jumped. She fell at least 100 ft to the ground, blacking out as she hit the ground.
"What? I'm still alive?" Vanessa thought as she opened her eyes. Somehow, she had survived a ten story fall.
"Yep you're still alive." The Black Cat added as she watched Vanessa. Vanessa had not a single bruise or broken bone at all which defies all logic because she just jumped off of a ten story building.
"I challenge you to a fight!" Vanessa shouted, confident she could beat her petite opponent with her
"Fine by me, Vanessa." The Black Cat shouted and made two curved bone daggers appear.
"Let's do this!" Vanessa thought and slashed The Black Cat.
"Feline Strike!" The Black Cat shouted as she launched herself into the air and started to slash Vanessa with her blades and claws.
"That won-"Vanessa responded as she fell over." …stop me."
"I can't do that." The Black Cat responded as she made her blades disappear.
"What do you mean?" Vanessa responded.
"There is still a chance for redemption." The Black Cat explained as she helped Vanessa back up. "Also, killing isn't the way I do things."
"But I'm the villain…" Vanessa whispered as she looked at The Black Cat.
"You can change your destiny no matter what people tell you." The Black Cat explained as mystical energies swirled around her for a minute. As the swirling energies disappeared, no longer stood The Black Cat. A girl around Vanessa's age and height now stood in front of her but looked like she had little more muscle than her. She was dressed in a violet Lolita dress with a few violet petticoats and stockings with matching violet stiletto heels. She had on violet lipstick and her nails were the same color. On her head was a pair of gogglehead goggles.
"Who are you?!" Vanessa shouted as she looked at the girl.
"That will come clear soon enough." The Girl shouted. "However, you still have a long journey ahead of you with your friends."
"My friends?" Vanessa asked. "What does she even mean by that? Ever since I became The Empress, the only friends I have I betrayed." Then something caught her attention. Two corpses were lying by the swings. She ran over to the old playground, where what she saw shocked her and brought horrible memories out. There laid the bodies of Kalin and Mark.
"What happened to them?" Vanessa thought as she walked closer to them. "Who did this to them?"
"Vanessa…" Kalin whispered as she looked down at him.
"I'm sorry for what I did!" Vanessa apologized as.
"That's my girl. I forgive you. But, you must find Ace and help him stop the one who killed us." Kalin added as he closed eyes for the last time and smile as his skin went cold and limp.
"In due time I will avenge you, Kalin and Mark." Vanessa explained as she walked away. The last thing she remembered was a hooded girl in a cloak whacking her over the head…
Flashback end…
"Because the only people I ever killed who mattered were Jared and Mara who were just useless plot devices I believe." Vanessa responded calmly. "However, the answers you seek might come from the tournament."
"Yes, somebody knocked me and Clara out for some reason." Ace added as they headed back out. In the darkness, a figure waited for them.
"Ace and Vanessa, sitting in a tree. K, I, S, S, I, N, G!" Nina responded as they turned the corner and noticed her.
"Not funny, Nina." Ace answered as Nina followed Ace out of the building. In the main room, Angel and Aerith were waiting and they headed back to Aerith's.
.
A figure watched the hunters. It was a woman possibly in her mid thirties. She wore a white sundress and white sandals. She hid within an alley of a street. She was looking for someone. Someone that had disappeared from her under mysterious circumstances. She had waited long enough for her to come back. Now, she decided to come to this world to look for her someone. That turned out to be a big mistake. An entirely different figure came up behind her and knocked her out.
"You'll make a perfect toy to use against the resistance." The Man thought as he pulled the body through a portal.
.
"And things get interesting…" The Author responded.
"Wow a whole lot of stuff happened." Hera explained.
"A lot of the stuff that happened in this chapter is going to affect the coming chapters." The Author added.
"I have a question." Hera added." If a body isn't found, does that mean the person is alive?"
"No, most of the time the body is usually moved away from the scene of the crime." The Author explained.