Okay. I'm embarrassed by the length of this given that 5,000 words is my goal, but A, I'm writing while half asleep. B, you deserve something after the wait. Sorry, y'all. Writer's block and finals. They're killing me.
Persuasion
A leg came crashing down upon Rogue's face before he could see the zero flash across the holographic clock. Instead of being blown back, he grabbed Kat around the ankle. With a vicious sling he tossed her ass flat on the ground. Her body rolled over and over again for her to pop out of the snow with wide, hazel eyes. Had that mask not been over half her face, he was sure her lips were parted in shock.
"So, you wanna play dirty. Do you?" Katja growled. She hopped up from her spot to take Rogue down at the waist. "You look like you could use a nap!" Her claws were inches from scraping against his bare skin until Rogue hiked his knee between their bodies. Lifting upwards, he tossed Katja up and over. She fell behind him, and he dashed over her.
When she reached up to snatch him, he turned to shadow. Her hand went right through him. "Can't catch what you can't touch," he explained, dashing towards the highest peaks he could get to. They had all day to get up this mountain, and the holographic map showed the 209 guild marks that were in the surrounding area. The map wasn't in detail. He wouldn't be able to use it and find a direct path. All it showed was who was still remaining. The mark of Sabertooth and the Royal Guard were tightly together. When Rogue was in front of Katja, his mark shown. When Kat was in front of him, her mark overtook his.
From the looks of things, the guilds he was closest to was the Guard, Kindred Spirit, Quatro Cerberus, and the Band of Fallen. Everyone else was clustered up in their own little groups. So, the kings wanted people to meet up and fight.
"Poison Blow!" Katja roared from behind him. He would have questioned what she thought she was going to be able to do with that attack until he realized Katja was fighting someone else.
Bacchus had come clean out of nowhere to throw his leg in Kat's face. This was Rogue's best opportunity. He could get out of here and secure Sabertooth's place as number one. He was about to make that decision until he saw someone else come from the woods. Katja had Kindred Spirit's Catori on her right. Bacchus was in front. An unnamed female from the Band of Fallen took a spot on her left.
"Takin' out the Guard in the start don't sound like a half bad idea to me," Bacchus commented before taking a swig from his flask.
Catori grinned from ear to ear in the way the Polterom family seemed to do as a trademark. "Not a bad idea at all," she commented. Her eyes flickered red, showing off her Forced Possession Magic.
"The Band of Fallen will show everyone just how much better it is than a measly assassin," the strange female to Kat's left snickered.
Katja was surrounded. The assassin had become a target more so than anyone else around. Rogue felt himself biting down on his bottom lip before he turned back. As soon as he did, he got to see Katja going in to swipe her gauntlets across Catori.
The Seith Mage dipped underneath. Eyes flashed red in hopes of catching the assassin in her gaze, but Katja's eyes were closed. She kept her eyes closed then landed perfectly in front of the Band of Fallen member. "Chamber of the Hallowed Fiend!" the woman cried out, thrusting her hand out towards Katja.
The blind assassin paid no mind to the blow. Instead of dodging, Katja grabbed the woman by the wrist. Twisting the woman's arm behind her, Katja popped it out of joint. "The Band of Fallen are masters of hand-to-hand, right, Danica?" Kat wondered. "Shame you don't have both of them to fight with now."
"Well done, Katja, but I'm not finished." The side effect of her magic pulled forward. Chains erupted from the earth to snatch Katja up. They wrapped around the woman's waist, grabbed her wrists and ankles. In seconds, Kat was forced to her knees in front of her three adversaries.
"Neither am I," Kat snickered back. "Purple Haze!" Purple poison began to leak out from Katja's pores. It spread out from her body to create an amethyst fog in the air.
Catori and Danica immediately threw cloth up to cover the poison from getting into their eyes, nose, or mouth, but Bacchus had no clue. He dove right in to deliver a blow to the chained Katja only to fall at her knees. "What the hell's going on?" he asked from his position on the snow.
"Poison Body Magic. Now, take a nap, puppy dog," Katja smirked underneath her mask.
Rogue was about to rethink helping her out until her body sucked the poison back inside of herself. As soon as the air was cleared, Catori caught Kat with her eyes open. "Got ya!" one of Bickslow's sisters cried. "Forced Possession: Soul Shredder!" A wave of crimson light burst from the Seith Mage to stab inside of Katja's forehead. As soon as the red flash slipped all the way inside of Katja's a blood curdling scream ripped from the assassin's mouth.
"What did you do to her?" pulled from Rogue's lips as he punched through Danica's shielded stance. The sound of Katja's screaming filled his ears. The woman was writhing in her chains, begging to be set free.
"Soul Shredder brings a person's greatest fears to the forefront of their mind. Loss of a loved one. Anything. I can bring nightmares to life," Catori explained with a look of triumph on her face. Crimson energy glittered in her hands, and she concentrated it deeply. "Hell Bound!" she commanded of her magic. Thrusting her hands forward, Catori launched a blast of energy towards Katja.
Grabbing Danica around the throat, Rogue snapped, "Shadow Dragon's Slash!" His free hand covered completely in shadows before he threw Danica's body against a tree from the brunt force of his blow. Her body snapped hard against it before Rogue tackled Catori.
The two of them rolled in the snow while Katja's screams began to subside. Without the crimson glow of Catori's eyes holding Katja's gaze, her spell was broken. "You bitch!" roared from Katja's lips. As soon as Danica's bindings pulled off her body, Katja threw Rogue off the mage.
A look of torment was written across Katja's face when she slashed poisoned claws against Catori's chest. "Paralysis!" Katja demanded before tossing Catori off to the side. The Seith Mage seized on the ground. Saliva ran in foam from her lips, but Katja barely paid any mind to the mage. Instead, she charged forward.
"Katja, wait!" Rogue harped, only to be given the most hate filled glare he'd ever seen. It was a glare to send someone to his or her knees. The kind of look a haunted woman gave before she delivered a death blow.
But, as soon as it came, it disappeared. Katja gave Rogue her back, and he got to see her wonderfully sheathed body dashing through knee deep snow.
Time Out Box. Time Out Box, Katja chanted to herself as she charged. Breaths fogged out even behind her black mask, and she felt her heart pumping hard. But, it wasn't because of the thickness of the snow or the uphill climb. It was because of Catori's magic.
That woman. That filthy, dirty female! She'd put her soul inside of Katja to go prowling around in there. And, what did she find? The boy. Of course, she found the boy, but her slumming soul hadn't left it at that. No, she'd played Dress Up in Kat's Time Out Box. All the horrors. The memories. The guilt. Always that horrible guilt.
Moisture danced on the rim of Katja's eyes, and she pressed on. "Oh, Trevet, I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry," she hissed, words pouring fog in air.
Every time Kat closed her eyes, she saw him. Tre. Sweet, sweet Tre with his kind eyes and patient words. She remembered his face so well. Had only been seven years old when Gatlin's father had purchased the boy. Instantly, Katja had fallen for him, her first crush.
Trevet O'Connor had been a foreigner slave from the Pergrande Kingdom. Freckle faced and red headed, the only person he'd really fit in with was Hollis. Even so, that didn't stop Katja from being interested in the boy. She'd always had a thing for the quiet, intelligent type, and sweet Trevet was just the ticket.
With his oversized, round glasses and slightly dorky persona, it was a wonder no one picked on the boy, but his kindness, that gentleness in his eyes, and even the way he could deal with the meanest of bullies to make them into his friends had been a talent. Only later did Katja realize that it was a magic.
While Katja had been fed poison from her mother's hands all her life, Trevet had studied persuasion from his father's tongue all his life. She was poison. He had a tongue gilded in gold. It was no wonder they were doomed from the start.
Still, seven year old Kat had been entrance. The freckle faced boy had caught her in the garden, trying to gather vegetables without rotting them. All Kitten had wanted to do was join the other slave children in harvesting vegetables—a strange desire, yes, but when that was what all the cool kids were doing, you wanted to do it, too.
For hours, Kat had been in the garden, picking up decaying vegetable after decaying vegetable. She'd tried so hard to keep them from dying, crying in her muddy hands every time she killed the perfectly good food and fully knowing the overseer would give her lashes if he saw the snake in the garden.
But, Katja's pathetic sobs hadn't gone unnoticed. With his passel of friends, Trevet had saw her. She knew they whispered things about her. Everyone did. She was a snake, a frog, and a lizard. Always, Katja was a cold skinned reptile with scales instead of flesh. Only to her brother was she ever a kitten, but only her brother could touch her.
No one else knew that her skin felt the same as hers. Sven had even told her so. Unlike Kat, Sven could play and rough-house with the other boys and girls. They would roll in mud together, tell stories in their quarters together. Touching. Laughing. Living.
But, not Katja. All her life she had felt like a snake even though Sven told her she had the same skin as everyone else.
Still, even as those boys and girls gossiped about the snake in the garden, Tre had left his friends. Using his Persuasion Magic, he'd convinced them that Katja wasn't a mean girl or scaly to the tough. He'd convinced them that Katja was a sweet girl who was merely scared to be around people because they'd hurt her feelings for so long. Kat's love for Trevet had merely grown.
Eventually, the two became friends. Close comrades always at each other's side. When Sven was plowing the fields or doing the chores that "touchable" people could do, Trevet would find Katja. Often, he would find Kat in the kitchen cleaning dishes. Once found, the two of them would hide out in the cupboards together, sharing secrets.
Trevet would tell her how beautiful she was with her exotic skin tone. He would compliment on the gold her eyes turned in direct sunlight, and she would use a pencil to play Connect the Dots with all of his freckles. At one point Katja had found the Big Dipper constellation on Trevet's face. He'd walked around for a week because the pen she'd wrote on him with was permanent marker.
As the years went by and their love only deepened, the affectionate and adorable love gave way to something much more primal. Sixteen year olds were a curious lot, and a lot of the other girls were being kissed by other boys, sometimes even girls. Kat was jealous. Of course she was jealous.
There she was. Sixteen years old and never been kissed when half the slaves had been. It was embarrassing for her until the day Trevet had gotten too close.
"You can't touch me!" Katja hissed when Tre chased her into the tree. Her hands were on a branch above her, and his hands were on either side of her hips. They were safe. She had on a turtleneck and jeans. There was no way he was going to touch her poisonous skin.
Laughing with his pure, sunshine laugh, Trevet laid his head on her thigh. "Come on, kitten. Surely, you don't believe my persuasion is that faulty. I promise you. All I have to do is persuade you not to create poison. Then, bam! You get kissed. I get to parade about the grounds as being the only guy to kiss the most beautiful girl in the world."
Her heart had found its way into her throat. Most beautiful girl in the… world. Such a simple phrase. Such an overused phrase. Almost like the tired 'I love you's that Kat would get after her assassin mother came home after a mission. Either way, it made her heart melt. Kitten was a sucker for romance.
The simple picnics. The sneaking into each other's quarters in the middle of the night. It had made her feel so special. So… beautiful. Trevet made her forget that people still saw her as a snake in the garden.
"You really think you can do it? Just persuade me not to make poison?"
"I don't see why not. I have persuaded the guards to escort you to my chambers. I have persuaded the king's arrogant son to fall into a river even though I knew he couldn't swim. Pity that the guards heard his squeals," Trevet bantered, looking up at Kat from her thigh. "Let me kiss you, Kitten. I swear you won't need persuasion for it to be perfect."
His eyes… They had promised so much. Purity. Clarity. Love.
Such a shame that Katja was about to steal it from him.
"No!" Kat hissed before her Time Out Box could let the rest of that memory return to her. She shook her head hard as she climbed up the mountain. She was nearly at the top now. Had taken two others on the way. But, what pissed her off was the fact that Catori, the one who'd woken these memories in the first place, was catching up to her.
Currently, Katja was in first place. She'd carved her way up this mountain and had lost Rogue somewhere in between. But, he was still on the map. Only a hundred guilds remained according to the grand total on the side of the holographic screen.
Rogue was in eighth. Catori was in fifth of all freaking places. Fairy Tail was coming in hot. Likely, Adamine was the one partaking for that guild. The way she'd already taken ten guilds out of commission. Yeah, the Fairy Tail representative had to be Adamine.
Hitting the top of the mountain, Katja tried to force Trevet and images of his perfect lips out of her head, but Catori must have loosened a chain on it. Over and over again she heard Trevet.
"Just trust me, Kitten."
"I trust you, Tre, but…"
"Ah-ah. Don't argue with me on this."
"But, it won't."
"Persuasion Control: Poison Body," he said, leaning in.
Kat's body changed. Tre leaned closer. Body heat. Lip trembling. Closed eyes. Could count the number of his freckles like stares.
"No, no, no, no!" Katja snarled. "No!" She shook her head and tried to keep from blinking as she slammed her feet into one of the fifty snowboards laid out. Only fifty. Good thing Kat had secured her spot.
She was so consumed in her own emotions that she didn't even see the large shadow crossing over her body. Not only did she not see that shadow, but she didn't see the snowboard poised to slam across her skull.
When Katja's body tumbled to the snow, blood pooling from her skull, the enemy didn't make a sound. Simply, he placed the snowboard on his feet then began his descent and towards Thor's Arena.
Snow melted across Katja's heated skin. The ivory flakes melted in her blood as the heat warmed their individual forms. Was that a cloud overhead as her vision wavered? A storm couldn't be coming. Isaac wouldn't have planned for the games to happen during one of Lancet's famous blizzards. Would he?
Katja wasn't really sure. All she knew though was that the pool of blood leaking through her clothes was the warmest thing she felt in a while. Soon, she tumbled into unconsciousness.
Aye, I put a poll up on my profile for my series readers. Tell me who you're favorite Royal Guard character is. I would love to know. Helps with the inspiration to write. Thank you and sorry. Will try to kick 'er in the ass soon. Nightie night. I'm about to fall asleep on my lap top.