Filling In The Blanks

Chapter 29: Hunted

"Get them."

The sentence was so chilling that the members of the resistance were paralyzed on the spot for a few moments. Beatrix's eyes shifted, before suddenly unleashing her sword and thunder element all at once, hoping to hit off the guy running towards a stunned Vivi.

He flew a decent ten feet across the terrain, sliding to a stop, causing a whole lot of dust to shoot into the air.

That seemed to snap everyone out o it.

Blank drew his dagger, and along with Zidane, they tag teamed one of the guys going for Ruby. Blank leap frogged Zidane, his dagger at a ready. He swung out, one knee tucked to his chest, the other leg extended behind him.

He slashed at the man in front of him, getting deathly close to the man's brooding face, before slashing into it, gashing his cheek, knowing he knicked a few teeth. Just as it seemed he was going to fall to the ground, Zidane's tail wrapped around his ankle and yanked him back, letting him flip safely behind him.

The dazed man, confused on Blank's escape, didn't realize the blonde pounced, his feet digging into the ground before his leap, stabbing the man in the neck. As blood spurted out, fuck gurgled out of the man's mouth as he realized what was going on a second too late.

Meanwhile, Beatrix was trying to keep them back, throwing her lightening in every direction. She couldn't protect Steiner – she wasn't going to fail anyone else… Her back stung – the full injury that collapsed one side of her body into itself had healed yes, but unfortunately the mental scarring wasn't gone – every time she fought she remembered it, sending tender nerves in her back into an overload.

She focused in on their leader, hoping to strand his knights without commands, leaping from side to side, throwing multiple spells at him at once. Unfortunately for her, he simply seemed to vanish out of thin air, appearing a few feet over to the side. Her attacks only increased in speed, and at one point, she knew she set his glove ablaze – though it did nothing… His armor was fireproof.

Deciding it was time he made a move, he evaporated, and condensed in front of her, grabbing her by the neck and squeezing. It was just enough time to cause her to black out, but not enough to kill her. With that he threw her to the side, his speed inevitably being her downfall.

Vivi threw magic spell after magic spell in his defense. He couldn't play offense – not with the surprise he had taken of actually being ambushed. A man slid on the ground with a burlap sack, hoping to bag the small mage. Eiko, seeing this, threw a levitation spell his way, and the man went right under him.

The black mage glanced at her in surprise, but she only smiled and winked, before jabbing her staff into a man's stomach as hard as she could. It didn't do a lot of damage, but it gave her enough time to bound away.

Cinna was beating down some guy with his sledge hammer, when suddenly he heard a cold scream. Whipping around, he saw one of the men had backed Ruby into a tree, looking as though he were about to do something less with his sword, and more with his body.

He slid his hand up her leg, pulling her skirt up. Cinna cried out, in an attempt to push past two men to go to her aid, but the two threw him onto his back, and began to beat him down, slashing him against the chest, and even one stabbed him – the blade going between his ribs, puncturing his lung.

Ruby waited for the moment when her skirts came far enough up. She reached down, in no hostile way – one way he could get what he wanted even easier. Unfortunately for him, she had a few tricks up her sleeve, as she yanked a dagger out of her stocking, and brought it down across his wrist, going for her chest.

He howled, and tried to grab at her, but with the dagger lodged in his hand, she moved the blade so it stood horizontal – separating the two pieces of bone even further. With a sickening snap, it moved out of place, and it seemed, being more interested in women than actual fighting, he passed out either from the noise it produced, or the perhaps the pain.

Freya moved about in an attempt to keep everyone together, and aid as many people as possible. This strategy soon turned out to be a bad one, when soon enough people had been defeated to gain up on her. She began trying to summon a dragon to help her, but was smashed against the arm, causing her to stumble to the side.

Instead, she tried her jump ability – being able to seemingly float higher than anyone could possibly follow, she would easily be able to recover above. Just as she was about to take off though, Cinna's own sledgehammer – abandoned on the ground when he went down – slammed into her knee, shattering the bone inside, causing her to cry out. She crumpled to the ground, as they pulled a sack over her head to keep her quiet.

Eventually, the fumes inside got to her, and she fell unconscious to the ground.

From a safe distance away, Dagger cast a cure spell on her, and though it would have eased the pain and the injury itself had she been awake, it only drew attention to Dagger now. She held her staff tightly, not afraid to fight – but one of Beatrix's bolts (since all of this was happening basically at once) found her as a stray target, and she herself fell easily, no fight put up at all.

This had caught Zidane's attention, causing him to abandon Blank in the midst of a battle to try and retrieve her fallen form, only to have him stopped by the leader. With a wicked grin, he shot a water spell at Zidane. It was weak, but it had its effects as the vision of failing to hold onto Blank during Dagger's summon flashed through his mind, it easily caused him to be paralyzed for a long enough time for them to kick him when he was down – knocking him too out of the fight.

Marcus was now fighting along with Blank, having held his own for the most of this fight. They all saw that obviously the Tantalus Crew member was one of the strongest fighters – or at least had the most will to scuffle, and aimed towards him. Blank wouldn't let him go down so easily though, and took down another guy – using his smaller body to duck between Marcus' leg and stab the man in the groin, immediately taking the fight out of him.

When they didn't go down right away, and with Vivi and Eiko still managing their way around the enemy, a frustrated yell was heard that caused everyone's blood to run cold, and ultimately freeze, no matter if they were in the middle of killing someone or not.

"Stop!" The feminine voice was far more frightening than anything they had heard since the last time they had seen Ruby and Beatrix mad on the same occasion. They watched as a beautiful young girl, a heavy axe easily being maneuvered in her arms, her dazzling chocolate eyes, harsh with agitation.

"You idiots…" She heaved the axe forward, pointing it at Blank, seemingly ready to chop his head off, "Surrender, or he dies."

No one made a move, until Blank struggled against the man holding him, "No! Don't!"

She moved it closer, "Keep your opinion to yourself redhead… or you'll get it…" She leaned closer, "Though you are kinda cute… maybe I should keep you around for other things," She winked suggestively, but soon a dagger lodged itself into her shoulder.

Of course, it didn't get very far past her leather armor, and she plucked it out with disgust – it only scratched her mocha colored skin. She glanced up, along with Blank, to see Ruby angrily standing a good fifteen feet away, rage seeping off of her.

"Good job sweetie, any closer and you might have achieved an eighth of your job…"

She howled in rage, and pulled out a second dagger, moving with enhanced speed towards the woman.

Easily, the axe came down on her arm, lodging itself in her skin. The scream shattered the eerie illusion over the whole thing, and when she pulled the axe out, blood oozed down the woman's arm. She slapped a hand over it, glaring immensely.

The brunette didn't seem fazed as she moved back to blank, "Surrender!" She barked.

Irritated, Marcus threw down his own dagger, and Vivi and Eiko moved forward as Vivi interrupted his own firega spell.

She flipped her hair at the general standing over Dagger, "Figures you couldn't do the job."

"Where's your boyfriend, Lani?" He barked, "Shouldn't you be with him?"

She chuckled, "You're just angry that I rejected you," She spoke nonchalantly, causing him to fume. "Bring in the trash boys!" She ordered, moving away, "Amateur… Needing backup. Sick…" She commented before moving away.

They couldn't believe they just so easily let their guards fall… Let alone… allow themselves to lose this battle…

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Dagger awoke with a start, jolting awake in a leaky, moist room. She glanced around, seeing only herself in the cell. Her head rippled with pain as she crawled to the bars, glancing across the way to see Blank on the ground. Blood seeped over the ground, making her bite her lip in fear.

What happened? She tried to think back, but every time she attempted it, a flood of pain would shudder through her body.

"Blank!" She hissed, just to see if he would respond.

He ever-so-slowly swiveled to the side, in an attempt to look at her, and she winced when she saw the blood smeared on his face.

"Don't worry," he assured, "it's not mine…"

She let out of the breath she didn't know she was holding when she glanced around, "What's going on?"

"You were hit with a lightening bolt… We were ambushed on our way to meet Baku…"

The memories came flooding back to her, and though she wasn't conscious for quite as long as everyone else, she whipped her head around in worry, "Where is everyone else?"

Blank gestured lightly around them, "There in the cells next to us… I think… From where I lay I can see Cinna… They knocked him out pretty hard… to my right though – I can't see anyone."

"This is not good…" She shook her head in despair, "How are we going to get out?" She whispered frantically.

"You aren't…" Out of no where, a pale man with flaming red hair walked by, hunched over, a mysterious aura floating around him in an almost lazy and uncaring fashion.

"What do you mean?" Blank hopped to his feet, though the girl didn't miss his flinch at the movement of his body.

"Not with me as a guard… And especially not with how many guards they put outside this place…"

"Who are you?" Blank demanded, his anger swelling inside of him. He crossed his arms as though it would help him get answers.

The man saw right through him, "Trying to make yourself look intimidating isn't working when you're behind bars without a key you know…"

Blank's glare only intensified.

The man chuckled and crossed his arms, leaning against the molding wall on Dagger's side of the prison, "You're kind of short? How old are you – eight?"

Blank then growled, his lip curling, his pearly teeth showing slightly, "Where are the others?"

"One's being executed."

The girl gasped, immediately her heart snapping into two inside her chest. Blank's arms dropped to his side in defeat, and watching their reactions made him chuckle.

"Kidding."

This caused Dagger's anger, surprisingly, to flash when Blank's didn't. "What the hell do you want?" She demanded, stomping her foot.

"Nothing you can give me…" He shrugged and twirled the ring of keys on his finger, "See you later…" He walked away, leaving them there confused.

?

It was there third day in the cells, and Dagger's eyes were finally about to close – she hadn't gotten any sleep and she was so close to unconsciousness. A smile crept onto her lips as she settled herself cozier into the floor.

And a dangle began.

Shooting up, she looked as though she were going to rip through the cages of the cell and tear whoever was making that noise's head off.

Of course who was it, than the God damn guard who they met on their first day. He always came through at the worst times! Either her or Blank was just about to fall asleep, and here came the damn man, jingling his keys as though taunting them out of sleep and freedom.

She damned the day he was born.

He nodded in her direction, oblivious or just not caring towards the glare she was shooting at him. In her mind, a mental picture of a thousand daggers stabbing him was playing out, satisfying her to enough of an extent that she didn't go on a rampage.

She lay back on the floor, though the essence of sleep had completely left her.

?

Zidane groaned, pulling his head off of the floor. His eyes were misty and blurry, and he felt nauseated to the point of puking out his guts. He grabbed his head, and dropped it between his knees, his tail limp on the ground behind him.

What the hell had happened?

"Zidane!" The gasp was certainly a surprised one, and he heard a light scamper across from him. The voice was feminine but he couldn't make it out.

When he didn't answer, the voice sounded again, "Are you alright?" She questioned, fearful of his answer.

"I can't see, my head hurts like shit, and I could throw up until I'm less than fifteen pounds – what…" He trailed, squeezing his eyes shut as a wave of pain collapsed on him. "Who is that?" He questioned.

"Beatrix…" She answered, and the authoritive tone in her voice suddenly made a little more sense.

Vicious memories flooded back to him, making him groan and fall back, allowing his eyes to close.

"Zidane…" She spoke with worry he hadn't heard in quite a while.

He grumbled something, and though she couldn't hear it, she spoke back to him anyways, "Are you alright? Please don't pass out again."

"Again?" He murmured, though enough for her to hear.

"You were out for three days…"

He shot up, ignoring the spinning of the world, and managed to hook his fingers onto the bars of the cell to keep his balance, "Three days?" She nodded, even if to him it looked like a blob of almond color moving around. He didn't know what her answer was, but he groaned. "How are we going to get out?"

"You aren't!"

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A/N: So… interesting chapter eh? Lol You'll be excited by the next one :) I hope you enjoyed this! Please review!

-zesty-