The Shattered Star
All the earth is a grave, and nought escapes it; nothing is so perfect that it does not fall and disappear.
Apophenia, more commonly known by the phrase: Bad things come in threes. Is a saying Jugram found himself relating to far too often. At first, he believed it to be a part of his ever growing cynicism that had been brewing for a thousand years. But as his life had progressed up to this point, he could feel the morose etch into his bones.
The first tragedy: Being ordered into the information hub, an area he wasn't knowledgeable in. He could have easily passed the duty onto someone else, but he could sense the firmness of His Majesty's order.
The second tragedy: The ruinous presence of his colleague. Had he booted her out of the room as he intended, this mess would have been avoided. Until another pestering soul wandered in.
The third and final tragedy: Bambietta's cloak. He had accosted her many times before to fix the length, or trade it for a shorter one. She, however, was insistent on keeping it as it was. Presumably to annoy him. Alas, her stubbornness toppled her over and sent him along with her into an abyss.
Bad things do come in threes, and they are all due to Bambietta.
"Holy Shit, we're falling!" Her voice was carried backwards as the impending white ground quickly approached.
Why she hadn't fixed her position is beyond him, but he didn't have time to call out her mistakes. They had begun falling moments after they were blinded by the blue light. It was a strange feeling, a vacuum had formed around them and kept them still and restrained. Only moments later to drop without warning. He barreled downward for a split second before sticking out his limbs to stop himself and bringing them back to his side under his cloak. The ground was rapidly approaching, but it was far enough for him to realize the ground was nothing but snow. He looked around and found a small hill and aimed for the side of it, but as he looked to see where the bane of his existence was, he fought back the feeling of sighing.
During this time, Bambietta hadn't done a single thing to brace herself. Only hurling profanities here and there as she spun. After seeing her body flicker as she gained speed he finally felt some sense of empathy and glided over to her, hooked an arm around her hip and turned his feet downward as he slammed into the side of the hill.
Snow shot up as the pair slid down it with increasing speed. A bump caused Jugram to lose his grip on Bambietta and all he heard was her yelp as she flew backward. His momentum wouldn't allow him to turn back and grab her, so he coasted himself down it and caught his footing as he jumped right before he crashed at the foothill.
He dusted himself off and glanced up at the rolling mound that was Bambietta and watched as her gained mass bounced off a rock and was on a collision course towards him. The piled up snow had shattered after the bump and her body flailed.
Time slowed for Bambi, her hands outstretched to catch herself and to her surprise, Jugo was right in front of her. His hand was out and she felt relief knowing Jugo would catch her.
Heh, he's not that bad of a–
Jugram's hand gilded against her arm and he sidestepped as he pushed her away from him.
Gah!
She shrieked as her face smashed against the snowy ground and she swore she felt the bottom of her feet touch her head. Fuckin' asshole!
She sputtered and spat snow out of her mouth, vulgar words spewing with them as she turned to look at him. "You ass! Why didn't you catch me!?" She stood up and dusted herself off, taking a quick mental note to make sure everything worked properly.
"Your acceleration was far too great for me to attempt it. Had I done so, both of us would've ended up on the ground." Her eyes twitch lightly as he gave his reasoning.
"So you instead opted to let me eat shit instead, eh?" Her lips and everything that could show her aggravation, twitched. She had never felt this angry before. Sure, what Meninas did to her shampoo was up there, but it didn't end with irreversible back pain!
"Better one of us than both of us." He turned and began looking at their surroundings.
Had her eyes not been ringing with fury, she was certain she would've blown the bastard sky high. His stoic attitude, or was it indifference, often made her want to rip bundles of her raven hair out. Since the day she met him she couldn't help but be irked by him. They met two years ago, when she was fifteen and completely new to the Wandenreich. She had been brought forth to His Majesty and "evaluated" by him. He had deemed her existence beneficial and ordered Jugo, whom she did not know at the time, to present her the communion; or so they called it. After that she really had no idea what to do, the other four Sternritter at the time kept to themselves. She was freaked out at the little gremlin that walked around covered in a hood, Askin spent his time laying down somewhere complaining about his life, Bazz-b–such a strange name–avoided her with a sneer on his face, and then there was Jugo. If he wasn't near His Majesty, he was either training the Soldat's in the way of the sword or seemingly trying to avoid something…or someone. When she first came under the scrutiny of his green eyes, she felt fear, awe, and everything in between.
"What are you doing out here?" His tone wasn't accusatory, rather blunt in question.
"I uh- just wanted to explore?" Her voice was low and her response was more a question than an actual answer.
His green eyes narrowed, but he ultimately let it go. He moved around her and continued his way down the hall, his cloak swishing as he walked with haste.
"We need to find out where we are." His voice snapped her out of her daze, she felt her face grow tired as she held the sneer in its place.
"Judging by the size of the mounds," He turned to look at the mountain she just flew off of. "We shouldn't encounter such elevations."
Bambietta just snorted, loud and exaggerated enough for him to turn and look at her: "You a pioneer all of a sudden?"
He simply blinked and looked in the distance, "In this case it would be a mountaineer."
She sighed exasperatedly, I hate my life.
Her brown eyes looked up at the skyline, noticing the orange hue's beginning to emerge from the horizon's line. Its rich blue color would soon disappear, and if the slight shaking of her legs meant anything, it would be freezing in a few minutes. She would be damned if she was going to spend another minute out in this frozen tundra, let alone with that conceded asshole!
So, with an intake of breath, Bambietta buckled her knees and jumped to fly away. Only to land face first back on the ground, sputtering snow again.
Jugram eyed her strangely, surely thinking she had gone completely insane.
Tch! I'll wipe that look right off your-!
"Could you not fly?" He asked, turning to look at her fully. His eyes scanned her form as she lay on the ground, as if everything was wrong with her.
She stood up and dusted herself off and huffed, "I landed on my face. What do you think?" She bit out as she flung snow from under her sleeve. "Damn thing's everywhere!" She took off her glove and whipped it.
What I wouldn't give to just blast all of this sky-fucking-high! She peered to look at Jugo through the corner of her eyes. Hell's he looking at?
"Yea? You got a problem?" She placed her hands at her hips and glared at him.
"You could not fly." He repeated. She gained an aggravated look on her face, but he spoke before she could retort,
"Blast the side of that hill." He pointed to a small incline away in the distance. In case of any avalanches, or lack thereof, he would rather not have to save her a second time.
She didn't know what he was getting at, but shrugged and pointed a finger at the hill. She felt the surge in her veins that let her know she had found a source of Reishi, only for it to quickly fade. "Huh?" She looked at her hands and back at the hill. Nothing happened, it's as if the Reishi itself was stripped from her before she could react with it. She was certain it was there, she felt it pulse and expand like it would when her explosions go off…but.
There was nothing. Not even smoke or an imprint where it might have gone off. That's when she realized where she was; and unknown land. At first she thought she was amongst the sands of Hueco Mundo, not giving the snow a second thought. Her eyes scanned her area much more efficiently. It was bright, quickly darkening and the black backdrop was gone. This was something she hadn't seen and the fact Reishi and any other form of it was gone, sent her in a frenzy. She was weak.
"Jugo, what the hell is this!" She ran up to him, grabbing him by the hem of his cloak.
"You ask me as if I know." He pushed her off of him, smoothing the crinkles caused by the ape-like strength of hers. Though this was an issue, it was mainly an issue for her. He really had no need for Reishi as she and the others did, he had managed over a thousand years without it and he will continue to do so. But…the panicked expression and bubbling words of Bambietta are going to be a problem. The current situation is already an undesired outcome of the experiment, but being trapped with the explosive attitude of his subordinate?
One must muster all their courage to keep from insanity.
He sighed and looked up. There was something bothering him about the sky. It's colorless, bleaky tone wasn't strange, rather the bleeding purple wisps that seemed to outstretch and disappear. Like a tentacle carefully spanning out to feel its surroundings. The wisp was so subtle that he Jugram questioned for a moment if he was hallucinating, but it was there, subtle but present. His green eyes followed to the point of origin and he spotted something out of the ordinary and downright strange. A giant swirling storm in the distance of purple and strikes of lightning, had Bambietta kept her mouth shut and silently thought herself into a mental crisis, he would have been able to hear the distant cries of a choir at the storm's center.
"Let's go." He said quickly, turning away from the storm. "The frigid temperatures are only going to get worse. Best we find shelter of some sort." He walked past her into the open field.
"Shelter?" she asked aloud. "There is nothing out here!" she motioned to the expansive nothingness. "And have you forgotten we can't use anything! If I could fly I would've found something by now!"
Jugram, however, continued walking. "If you plan on complaining the entire time, you are free to do whatever you wish."
Her eye twitched as she watched his form descend the slope they were currently on. Oh, just great! First I cant use my Schrift and now I get to freeze my ass off with him.
She planned a retort of the century, something askew in the back of her throat that had accumulated over the times she's bit her tongue. She knew it would definitely get him to rage at her, showing her how he truly was, however, fate had different plans, ironic.
In the distance was the low howling of some type of animal, akin to a dog or wild mut. She instinctively gripped the medallion she had in her pocket, and to her surprise it felt weightless. That is when the reality of the situation set in.
Bambietta was in an unknown land, cold, and a regular useless seventeen year old.
As the howl's drew closer, she gripped her cloak and quickly ran after Jugram, who had already walked a far distance. When she finally reached him, she found the winds had begun to increase, blowing their cloaks back as they continued on. She had half expected him to comment on her joining him, perhaps he didn't due to the wind and the slowly increasing amount of their struggle. They had not walked for more than twenty minutes, in silence, before a huge wave of wind burst before them. The once clear landscape had turned dark and the only thing she could see was the infinite specs of snow clashing against her. Her face felt as if it were being cut by each little spec that slid across her pale skin.
Jugram fared a bit better, using his cloak like a shield as he walked slowly, and not as quickly as she had attempted to do. However, in a moment of frustration from the snow, Bambietta pulled her cloak up to her face, only to have it ripped from her grip and flung behind her into the darkness. Her curse was drowned out by the roaring wind, but her fury was captured in her quick stomps. Each stomp felt as if she was walking on a cloud and had not once made contact with the ground she was once on, and that was a terrible action.
Her anger was apparent on her face, and she ignored the sound that came out of Jugram's mouth as he looked back at her. That was until a wave of solid snow crashed into her chest, pulling her down and swallowing her. Panic rose, but her mouth had been filled with the snow and her body felt far too heavy.
Her saving grace came in the form of a hand breaching the snow, bunching her shirt as it pulled her out of her grave. She had no time to spew the collected snow within her mouth as she was shoved sideways and collapsed onto a rigid cold surface.
She heaved once she managed to get on her knees.
"Why did you continue to pat the snow under your feet?" Jugram asked, wiping the snow off of his clothing.
"Oh, I'm sorry, that's what you were saying?" She called back from her kneeled position. "Yea, I could hear you from all the damn wind!" Bambietta thanked whatever god there was for saving her, because she would be damned if she would ever thank Jugo. She would rather have died in that blizzard than give him the satisfaction.
Once she caught her breath she became aware of two things:
Her back and most of her clothes were absolutely soaked from the snow, which meant her cloak was gone. The second, she was looking up at a rocky ceiling with dripping water. She sat up and glanced around, the opening of the area was being washed by the torrent of wind and snow.
"Are we in a cave?" She asked, immediately taking note of her shivering voice. Her lips began to twitch and finally the trembles traveled down her arms and the rest of her body.
The look on Jugram's face almost made her walk back into the snow.
"A heavily used one." He looked around and pointed out the chest and the pit at the center of the cave. "A way point when hunting, maybe some fire starting supplies are left inside the chest."
Bambietta took note of how sure he was. She watched as he opened the chest and let out a quiet sigh.
"Empty."
"No fire." She groaned, hugging her arms closer to her body.
Well, I did say how could this get much worse. I'm starting to think dying buried under snow wouldn't have been such a bad thing. Now I get to freeze while my clothes become popsicles-
She jumped slightly when she felt a radiant flap of warmth land on her. It felt as though the gods themselves took pity on her and let a golden light shine down on her. Looking down, she found a well kept and tailored cloak around her.
"You're shivering and my clothes, for the most part, are dry." Bambietta now realized he spoke in statements.
She blinked before looking down at the cloak and muttering her thanks as she bundled herself with his cloak. A strong scent was coming from the collar area of it, close to her face. It smelled peppery and smooth, dare she say suave. It wasn't harsh and almost smelled…natural.
Dumbass has pheromones now?
"Haa."
She looked up with a cocked brow. Jugram had sat with his back against the cave wall, sword in between his legs as he kept his eyes shut. Though he was dry, that did not exclude him from feeling the frigid temps of the cave. His breath materialized and his body trembled ever so slightly, that she had to focus on his form to actually see it.
She had a moral dilemma, was she truly stuck to her way that she would just watch him freeze? Would he not do the same? Glancing down at his cloak around her, she slowly stood up.
"What are you-?"
"Shut it!" she said as she plopped down next to him, throwing one side of the cloak around him.
"It's big enough for the both of us." She looked away when she said that. The close proximity and his naturally warm body against her freezing one, was enough to make her look away in embarrassment. "Doesn't make sense for the both of us to freeze and…sorry for getting us here in the first place."
She could feel his eyes on her, but she still refused to look at him. She nervously played with a tiny rock she had found. A tick she had whenever she was nervous about something, a tick she hadn't done since the communion two years ago. Then she felt as if she abandoned being the weak insecure girl she had been.
But now? She was a little frightened of being right back where she was. Weak without her Schrift, alone if Jugo died from the cold, and lost with no way back.
"Bambietta."
Her breath caught in her throat and she contemplated not turning to him, but she knew he wouldn't call her again. He would just stare at her until the sun rose again. So, she turned to him and realized just how close she had placed herself. His right shoulder was under her left one, and she was practically seated on him, her eyes widened when she saw his face inches from hers.
"You're wet."
She blinked, stunned, then sneered; pulling away from him slightly.
Last time I try to do something nice for the bastard!
So, there's not that much dialogue in this chapter as a whole, and I feel as though I rushed it. But, I knew if i kept writing it would only get worse and i am terrible when it comes to keeping an attention span for so long. That is why the first chapter took so long, because I kept working on it in intervals.
That said, I wanted this chapter to work mainly as an internal dialogue of the two. Jugram has very little character information between the manga and what's out in the anime. Therefore, I am going to keep him as close to his edgy and quiet demeanor as possible while adding a few tweaks here and there. I don't plan on adding a whole new emotion to the guy, he wears the very few he has on his sleeves after all. We also don't see much of his internal self up until his final fight.
Such a wasted character :(
So, with my interpretations of his flashbacks, final words, and motives I plan to add those to his demeanor. As for Bambietta, she is somehow much harder to write for me. Even if her attitude is the typical ones for gyaru's and such, which is why I plan on working with her characterization as I re-read the manga.
With that, this ends the chapter, Thank you!
Stabr OpSihg: Thanks for reviewing, and i can also agree that this version feel's more "alive.'' I can attribute that to taking a creative writing course for my university over the summer (Do NOT recommend). The original version of this was aiming towards dragging a few sternritters into the mix as the story progressed, but I have since scrapped the og idea and went with just Bambietta (For now?) I also touched a bit on the subject of whether or not Sajin's bankai can be used and I have a plot line for it, but that is far into the future.
Megami Elric: I must agree, with the rising popularity of Bambietta, I find myself clicking on stories with her in it. She was such a prospect within the story, and felt disappointed how she turned out. Luckily, I think she gets a bit of redemption in the light novels if I remember correctly.
Goshinzilla: Thank you! There's a few things I got in store that might work and might not, only time will tell. :)
ThePerfectIdiot: I bit off more than I could chew in the original version of this, but I think I learned my lesson and I hope I can make this one work!
