The Twilight Moon Vandel Buster
Chapter One: Death Of The Zenon Warriors

Carmen

As usual, the Zenon Warriors came to town to check on Beet. I knew he was Zenon's brother, though Zenon did his very best to keep it from Beet. I wasn't sure how in the world Beet hadn't managed to figure it out, since they looked exactly alike.

I secretly had a crush on him. He saved me after all, from my miserable existence. From myself.

You see, I'm not fully human. I'm half Vandel. Vandels are horrible creatures that resemble insects and animals and exist for no other reason than to cause mayhem and destruction to humans. Of course, humans aren't much better when it comes to me with my dark reddish brown hair and my silver eyes. I'm guessing it came from my bastard sire. He was the reason my mother was dead; he beat her, raped her and left her for dead, somehow pregnant with me.

Vandels and humans alike didn't like me, but back to my crush on Zenon and how he saved me. As I mentioned, humans don't like me ('cause I'm half Vandel) and Vandels don't like me either ('cause I'm half human) and when my mother gave birth to a red haired silver eyed girl when she'd never had a husband or even a lover or someone remotely resembling a lover, what else could I be but a Vandel's bastard child? They took to chasing me, hunting me, doing unspeakable things to me, so when the Zenon Warriors passed through, Zenon found me and patched me up, and when I was well enough to travel, he took me with them and left me here with his brother Beet in the hopes that I could have a normal life, that the villagers wouldn't blame me for the mistake of my birth. He came here with the other Zenon Warriors whenever he could, probably to check on Beet. Not that Zenon-sama would ever admit it to anyone but himself, and he might not even admit it to himself. He was not going to be happy when he found out that both me and Beet took the Mark, which marked me as a Vandel Buster despite being half Vandel myself (something I couldn't help— it's not like I asked to be born, thanks).

I was playing my guitar just outside the gate when they came, working on mastering a new tune I'd heard in the village as usual, secretly waiting for them to come. I still had yet to tell Zenon how I felt about him. It was just a silly crush, one that wouldn't last.

"Mind if I join you?" Zenon asked with a smile when he saw me, touching his own guitar. He had just visited Beet and taken down a few monsters, and I was flattered he actually bothered to come see me (I was half Vandel, the very thing he was supposed to be ridding the world of).

I nodded, grinning from ear to ear. "I'd love for you to join me. So, what song would you like to play today?" We played together often.

"How about 'I See The Light?'" He asked, walking back towards the village.

My heart skipped a beat. "I'd love to." I agreed.

"By the way," His face turned stern. "What's this Beet said about both of you taking the Mark? You're not doing this for revenge against . . ." He wisely avoided mentioning my sire. "Are you?"

I shook my head. "No, I got over that idea long ago. Okay, I'd still like to give that bastard a nice kick to his prized possessions and Bust him depending on his rank and mine if I ever meet him, if I meet him 'cause I'm not going looking for him, but that's not why I became a Buster. I became a Buster so that I could rid the world of Vandels and help people. Like you. And besides, maybe I can stop what happened to my mother from happening to anyone else."

He shook his head. "You and Beet both." He said, but I had a feeling he was secretly pleased. "Alright, I'll show you how to slay the monsters around here."

I grinned. "Great, I like that idea." He led me to a swamp where the other Zenon Warriors were gathered. He rummaged around in his backpack and extracted what appeared to be a sealing scroll, which he tossed me. I raised an eyebrow. "What's this for? Is this a sealing scroll?"

"Right as usual." He praised. "Yes, it's a sealing scroll. Inside you'll find a weapon, one that suits you, but you'll have to get it out. Only you and Cruss can actually use those dratted things."

My eyebrows shot up as I unsealed a nearly exact real metal replica (because the real thing wasn't actually metal, but metal created from Divine Energy) of the Excillon Blade with a sheath and everything, ready to be strapped to my back. "Care to explain?"

"Don't think I haven't seen the way you eye the Excillon Blade when you think I'm not looking." He grinned. "So, let's find Beet and get the pair of you training. You didn't hear this from me, but Liao is looking for a good squire or two. Maybe if you offered to be the group's squire, you could get a few monster fighting lessons from him."

I grinned. "Now there's an idea." I set my guitar down and waded into the swamp with Beet.

"Loosen up Beet." Zenon instructed. "The teeth will sink in further if you're tense." Beet grudgingly loosened his muscles and to his surprise, it didn't seem to hurt anymore. "Good. Now, hold your spear tightly and swing it across the back of the mouth."

A clam-thing latched onto me. I swung my Excillon Blade replica across the back of its mouth as Beet cheered about having slain a monster.

I merely grinned and set about slaying more of them, Zenon occasionally calling out tips despite Liao-teme's numerous protests that 'brats like us' shouldn't be Busters, most likely conveniently forgetting that he was once a brat like us too, and that once he was in our shoes. We decided to finish up slaying the monsters in the pond, except just as we were finished, Beet's head started to swing. I knew that to be the 'danger sign' for when he was about to fall asleep (Beet's term, not mine). He dropped to the ground a minute later, fast asleep.

Sighing, I dragged him out of the pond and over to where I figured his brother would find him (how could they not be brothers? They looked exactly alike). Then I went to find Zenon (my sleep day was yesterday, so I didn't have to worry about falling asleep on the job), only to discover that he and the other Zenon Warriors were facing down an army of monsters and a Vandel. Normally I would have run away (they were Busters and I would probably just be in the way) but not this time. Now, I was a Vandel Buster, and it was my duty to fight the Vandels.

"Zenon," I begged quietly. "Please let me help. I promise I won't be in the way, and I figured out how to use my Dark Power a few days ago." Dark Power was the opposite of Divine Power and was used by Vandels. Because I'm half Vandel, I could use both Divine and Dark Power. "And now I know how to use my Divine Power. I can help. Please let me."

He looked at me, back at the army of monsters, then at me again, and seemed to make up his mind. "Alright. But please don't get hurt. You're too important to me."

I nodded. "I won't. I promise." We fought for a whole day and night until finally, there was just Beltorze left. When we finally had all the monsters defeated, the Zenon Warriors brought out their Saiga. Zenon's, the Excillon Blade. Liao's, the Burning Lance. Cruss's, the Crown Shield. Bluezam's, the Boltic Axe. Alside's, the Cyclone Gunner.

They declared that they wouldn't let Beltorze get any closer to the village. He just laughed and told us he had no interest in the village. He would apparently go anywhere, as long as the Warriors were there. The thing he wanted from the five of them was their lives. By killing them, he could earn another star. Destroying a whole country wouldn't even earn him one, but killing the Zenon Warriors would. I really wished I could use my Saiga, but sadly, as I was just a level one Buster, I couldn't yet. When I could though I hoped it would be able to channel Dark Power.

"Meaning that the five of your lives are worth more than a country." Beltorze continued with a sick grin. "It should be great news to you as a warrior!"

Zenon scowled. I raised my sword. "It's disgusting!" We shouted, charging at him as a single minded team; one mind, one heart, two blades. "Die, Beltorze!"

He easily dodged our blows, and a full-scale battle between Buster and Vandel quickly ensued.

"Hm," Beltorze mused. "You're one of those two half Vandel upstarts. For a newbie Buster, you certainly are powerful. Maybe I'll get another star if I kill you."

"In your dreams." I spat.

We charged at him again and again, and then Beet just had to call out. "Go Zenon!" He shouted, pumping a fist. "Kick his ass!"

"Damn it Beet!" I yelled. "Get out of here!"

"But you're here." He whined.

I sighed. "And unlike you, I have the advantage of being able to use my Dark Power."

Then, quick as a flash, Beltorze had taken Beet captive and before any of us could do anything had shot a blast of Dark Power through his chest.

"Get ready!" Beltorze shouted gleefully. He then released blasts of Dark Power which tore into the Zenon Warriors. Without even thinking, I tackled the nearest person to the ground. I wouldn't realize until later that it happened to be Zenon. Beltorze said something about how he won and all that was left was to deal the final blow and take their lives.

We all gathered around Beet. He coughed and apologized to Zenon, because had he not called out, Beltorze probably wouldn't have been able to defeat us. Zenon realized that there was a way to save him: give Beet their Saiga. They wouldn't let Zenon give his to Beet because he was still relatively unharmed thanks to me tackling him to the ground (and had knocked him out to make sure he didn't give up his life when he was still pretty much fine), but the rest somehow gave their Saiga, their very lives, to Beet. I bit my lip hard to keep from crying. Beet begged them not to do it and wanted to know why they would do it just for him. Despite the severity of the situation, I had to roll my eyes. "Haven't you looked in the mirror lately? Look at Zenon. Look at you. Can't you see the resemblance? Can't you see that the two of you are brothers?"

"No way!" He gasped. "Zenon . . . is my brother?"

"He wanted you to have a normal life, so he left you with another family when you were just a baby." Cruss-onii-san informed Beet.

"It's not fair." Beet complained as the men I thought of as older brothers all disappeared one by one. "Leaving me out until the very end. You promised that once I became stronger as a Buster you'd take me along. I want to go with you guys."

"Farewell Beet." They chorused, disappearing in a flash of light. And that was the last time I ever saw four of the greatest Busters ever to live.

"Hail and goodbye, Cruss, Bluezam, Liao, Alside, members of the Zenon Warriors, my brothers." I whispered as the balls of light that had been orbiting around Beet's chest disappeared forever.