A/N I know right?! 2 chapters in a day? Well, I've got a really busy weekend ahead of me and don't know when the next time I'll get to edit is, so I wanted to get this posted as soon as possible. It's a short one, but I hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: Still don't own any of the characters/proper nouns.
Nexus HWR 6.7 Will:
Capital
Errrr. The bars of a cell dropped down into the floor, and a couple of mutants tosses a short figure in their arms into the cage. "Hey watch it!" Soul yelled. The teen with spiky white hair got down on his knees next to the figure lying there flat on his face and he turned the other boy onto his back. "Hey! Hey Gon, you alright?"
Gon's face was covered in bruises and cuts. His left eye was swollen and overall he looked like shit. The bars of their cell rose back up and the guards walked away without saying a word while Soul glared at them. Once they were gone the boy looked back down to his friend, "Come on. You're stronger than this Gon."
"Oi Gon!" a voice yelled across the cells. Soul lifted his gaze and looked through his bars and the next cell's to the blue haired teen pressing his face into the steel poles. Black Star grabbed his bars hard and yelled, "Get your shit together! The Battle Royale's in under a month!" Gon's eyelids opened up even though his eyes themselves were bloodshot and the skin around them was all cut up. "You're my only real competition now that the baby's giving up!" Black Star continued to yell.
Soul looked across the cell block, and he shook his head at his best friend. He saw Black Star glaring past him at the back of Soul's cell and Soul turned around to look to their back wall. He stared at the taller teen with an orange pompadour who did not come up with a comeback for the "baby" comment. In Black Star's cell, a man sitting cross-legged in the middle of the cell opened up his eyes. Jiraiya spoke to Black Star's back, "Your friend's soul has been broken."
"Bullshit!" Black Star yelled. "Hear me Kuwabara?!" Black Star yelled over.
Kuwabara lifted up his bowed head and his eyes were so dark as he glared back at Black Star. "Shut up," he muttered, then bowed his head again to continue staring at the floor.
"Shut up? SHUT UP?!"
"Yeah! Shut up!" about a dozen other gladiators yelled.
None of the ones who shouted were in Black Star's cell, which made sense since no one there would try something so stupid. Black Star roared at them all, "BRING IT ON! I'll take all of you at once!"
"That's the whole idea of the Royale," Crocodile snarled across the cells. The former pirate wore brown rags and his black hair was all messed up around his head. He had bags under his eyes and was tired of Black Star's annoying personality. He continued, "So keep your mouth shut until-"
"Did I ask you, wimp?" Black Star growled. He looked straight across the cells into Crocodile's eyes, and Black Star's mouth twisted into a crazy smirk at the sight of the hate in Crocodile's eyes.
"Monster," Crocodile muttered, turning away from the boy whose eyes were giving him chills.
Gon Freecs was finally getting back to his feet, and Soul gave him a pat on the back when he managed to stay up even on his shaky, bloody legs. "Good man," Soul said.
Gon nodded first through the bars at Black Star who nodded back when he saw Gon's serious, reassuring gaze that showed unlike some of them, he had not given up hope. Then Gon turned to Soul and he started smiling at the teen who helped him out. This would be so much harder without the rest of Delta squad. We keep losing friends, Gray, Rambo, Axel, Akamaru, Kiba, he turned his gaze and with a sadder expression thought, Kuwabara. But there are still a lot of us here, still fighting, still looking for a way out. I just hope, Cloud made it back to the Resistance…
Two guards sprinted past the cells and everyone inside them looked out wonderingly. A few stayed sitting, but Jiraiya's eyes that were closed again snapped open, only this time there was a green tint around them and a small grin on his face. The white haired man stood up and walked towards the bars where Black Star and Tsubaki, along with another six of their cellmates were standing looking out in wonder. A couple more guards jogged by and a voice called out from a different cell farther down, "What'sa goin' on here?!"
The Italian accent in the voice was one Black Star, Gon, Soul, and Tsubaki recognized well. They spun their heads the other way and all thought, Mario, simultaneously. They did not know where their Italian comrade was and only saw him on occasion, but they were glad to hear he was still alright and somewhere in their cell block. Another guard, this one the Chimera Ant in charge of opening and closing all the cell doors, ran by the cells and all the prisoners were intrigued now as they tried to look towards the doors on the other end of the room.
The doors opened up, and a small crowd stepped through them as all the guards bowed their heads. Only gladiators from the first few cells could see the doors opening, but everyone could hear them as they started speaking. "Welcome, Lords of the Cooperative," the head Chimera Ant greeted with his head still bowed. Nearly a dozen powerful figures were stepping through the door, and some of them had slaves with them, following behind on leashes or just walking on their own. "Look around and make your picks. All the gladiators you see will be part of the Battle Royale!"
The Lords were there to gamble on the upcoming tournament which was a big event apparently in the Capital. A few of the interested gladiators leaned back as they did not want the Lords to see them. They did not all have to enter the Battle Royale, but if a Lord put money on them, they would not be able to refuse going out into the arena.
"Well I heard," a high-pitched man's voice that sounded very flamboyant called out. He was near the front of the group of Lords, had light green skin, and even darker green hair that was tied into a long braided ponytail that fell far behind his back. He wore a white cloak with his left arm sticking out of it, and he was holding that arm out to the side as he continued in his excited, extravagant tone, "That you have acquired quite the unique specimen Magneto!" He turned his head more and looked back at the other Lord, wearing all purple, and he looked past the man at the figure walking directly behind him. "I find her beauty exquisite! She is both a weapon weilder-ah, meister," he corrected himself, and instantly some others farther down the cell block who could hear him tensed up.
Gon noticed Soul next to him grab the bars tighter and press his face farther into them to try and see farther down the aisle between cells. The Lords were getting closer, and they heard that man continue, "and a blade herself, at the same time! I have never seen something like it before."
The mutant man being spoken to had a fat pink alien at his side. Magneto calmly walked forward through the cell block but he turned to face the taller alien, "That is correct Lord Zarbon. I will allow you a demonstration later on if you are interested." Dodoria smirked as Magneto said it, as there was another reason Magneto wanted to have a private meeting with Zarbon, who Dodoria suggested they find.
Zarbon noticed Dodoria's smirk and he figured out what was happening rather quick. "That sounds delightful," he said, turning back to Magneto and giving him a broad smile. Zarbon then turned and started looking around at other fighters in the cells around them, but he sighed and continued walking as he did not see anything he liked.
"It can't be," Black Star whispered, mainly to himself.
A few others near the cell's bars with him looked at the teen confusedly, and then nervously and a few of them backed away. Jiraiya looked in and saw not just Black Star, but the weapon-girl, Tsubaki, trying their best to look down the block at whoever was approaching them. Tsubaki's arms were shaking, but it was Black Star's twisted expression that had the other prisoners backing away.
Zarbon got in between their cells first, and he looked at these prisoners confusedly by the expressions a few of them had on their faces. He glanced behind him and watched as a couple of the other Lords walked by, only to stop and look back interestedly as well as a few of the slaves did not even glance at them, just kept staring down the cell block at Magneto and Dodoria who were looking confused by the time they arrived. "What is it?" Dodoria muttered, wondering if he had something on his face.
"Maka!" Black Star yelled.
Magneto's eyes opened wide and the mutant Lord turned left to the boy with spiky blue hair who screamed his slave's name. Maka turned when Magneto did and she looked at the cell bars, at Black Star and Tsubaki who looked into her blank, glassy eyes, and dropped their jaws. Black Star grabbed the bars hard and he jumped up so his feet were pressed against them too as he started ripping with all his strength, making the cell itself start shaking. "MAKA! MAKA IT'S ME!" There was no recognition in her eyes and every second he looked at her he got angrier. Black lines crossed over his face and for a second the pupils of his eyes turned into stars and he gave off an aura that made even Jiraiya gawk at the animalistic child trying to rip the bars out.
"Why is this slave not being restrained?" Magneto questioned, turning and looking at the Chimera Ant in charge of the cells.
The Ant gulped and replied nervously, "I already turned on his restrainers." The other Lords who were wondering the same thing as Magneto all turned back to this teen whose bracelets on his wrists and ankles were glowing red, yet he did not scream out in pain. He just continued to roar his comrade's name, and finally the woman grabbing the bars spoke too.
"Maka, it's us," Tsubaki said, her voice barely audible over Black Star's screams. Maka did not move her head an inch as Tsubaki spoke. She stared straight ahead and her gaze missed the taller woman's. "Please Maka," Tsubaki whispered, tears forming in her eyes.
"Aww, this is sweet," Dodoria said in a mocking tone. "I take it back," he pointed at Black Star, "I'll bet three million on that one."
The other Lords said nothing in response to Dodoria while Black Star continued to rip at the bars with all his might, and actually make them visibly shake. Dodoria looked around but none of the other Lords were taking him up on his bet. "I will take that bet," a Lord who had walked farther then stopped to watch this interaction began. He stepped back towards the cell Black Star was in, a man with short, spiky, light-purple hair who wore a black kimono and a headband with an hourglass on it. His ninja headband that signified him as a ninja from the Village Hidden in the Sand also had a horizontal line cut through it. He stepped up to the cell and looked past Black Star at a figure slightly older than himself who glared back into his eyes, "One of the Legendary Sannin, Jiraiya."
"Fourth Kazekage," Jiraiya muttered.
"Lord Rasa, putting a three million dollar bet down that that boy is going to lose?" Magneto questioned with interest. He looked at the boy who seemed ferocious and strong, then to the older man farther back in the cell.
"Maka," a voice whispered behind these Lords. The Lords making bets all turned away from Black Star's cage, and that boy stopped screaming himself hoarse. He finally dropped to the ground as the pain blacked-out his mind and Tsubaki had to drop down next to him and start shaking him as he had a seizure. Dodoria turned to a Chimera Ant and yelled at him to stop torturing Black Star now that he had a bet on him, while the other Lords all looked back at the cell across the block from his. They looked at the teen with spiky white hair directly in the center of the cage, staring at Magneto's prized slave's back, and whispering, "Maka, why don't you recognize us? You're stronger than this!"
Maka Albarn turned around slowly to follow her Master's gaze to the other side of the cells. She turned and Soul stared straight into her glossed-over eyes, and Soul's arms dropped from the bars in front of him. His forehead pressed against the bars slowly slid down as he dropped to his knees. Maka's eyes had no life in them. Magneto spoke up, "Were you her partner? That is sad. You should know though, her will was stronger than most. It took much longer to break her spirit." Soul's face could not even look horrified. He just, bowed his head, and his wide eyes stared at the cold steel ground.
Kuwabara never stood up when the rest of them went to the bars to see what was going on. The teenager who felt so sorry for himself, who felt so broken, saw Soul falling apart in front of his eyes and his own chest hurt even more. He pushed down on the ground on the sides of him, but before he could stand, he caught a glimpse of Gon's face while the younger boy stared at Soul. Gon stood there staring at Soul in a depressed way, and Kuwabara could tell what he was thinking, and it made him lose the urge to go over and help. Soul's eyes were wide open, unblinking at the floor, his entire body could no longer function, because of the crack in his heart.
"Maka," Black Star whispered. He watched as the girl turned with her Master and they started walking away. Until she was out of their sights, she never once turned back around to look their ways. Black Star spun back to Soul and he opened his mouth to shout something, but nothing came to mind. Others saw the way Black Star stopped himself, and then the teen turned his head and looked at Tsubaki who had curled her head down in between her knees. Black Star imagined, just for a second, what it would be like if he had just seen Tsubaki in the state Maka was in, and his mind blanked with rage. It only lasted a second before he quickly reminded himself that she was at his side and he could protect her, but those who saw him about to call to Soul also saw his face during that second, and almost all of them decided to back out of the Battle Royale.
Soul finally blinked because his eyes were dry being open for too long. When he blinked he started to move again, almost like being snapped back to reality. He blinked a few more times, and then he started blinking out tears. He stared at the ground below him that got wet by his tears, and the boy with a broken heart thought, She's gone. If only I… If only I had went with her. I could get to her, and I could fix her, if I, if I could only get to her. But I can't. I can never get to her. She's, she was… and it's all my… I- I'm sorry Maka. Soul snapped his head back and the boy screamed at the top of his lungs, "I'M SORRY!"
100 Miles South of the Capital
"It's so bright," a girl with short pink hair down to her shoulders said. She stood on the top of a hill with two others by her sides. The girl's eyes matched the pink of her hair and the pink cloak she wore from her shoulders to her feet. She had a rifle slung over her back and two pistols at her sides, and she lowered the pair of binoculars she had in her hands and handed them to the man on her left. She kept staring out into the distance though, and she continued softly, "Even without them, I can still see it."
"The city that never sleeps," the dark figure on her right spoke. "You are lucky to have never seen it up close, Mine." The taller figure was covered head to toe in black fur, wore a pair of green pants over his muscular legs, and had a long red blade in his right hand. The figure's face looked like a cat's mixed with a human's, he had a scar on the outside of his left eye, and the majority of the right side of his body was made of metal. His steel right eye extended out a little from his head while spinning, zooming in on the distant Capital while the lens on the end of it glowed red.
Panther Lily's mechanical eye moved back into his head, and he turned to his left to look at the others. The Exceed slashed his sword in front of his body twice then spun the blade up over his back where he strapped it. "The path to the Colosseum is treacherous. We will not make it easily before the Battle Royale."
"We have to try," Mine said, her voice soft but firm. "We've lost too many people getting this far to give up now." She glanced over her left shoulder and down the other side of the hill they were standing on where their other comrades were gathered in tents. The tiny camp did not stand out much considering there were thousands of similar tiny villages scattering the countryside around the Capital. The tents behind them were few and far between, their numbers having dwindled in recent months.
"That's right," the man on the left of Mine said. "We are going to free our future comrades from the Colosseum. We need their strength to free everyone else." He had no hesitation in his voice and everything he said he sounded so sure of. The teenager with light brown hair had green eyes and a constant determined expression on as he spoke. "Once they're all out, we'll only have a short time to get everyone in the same room for the teleporter to work."
Mine smiled at the young man on her left side. The two eighteen year olds gazed into each other's eyes for a few seconds, then Tatsumi looked back out to the north where they could see the bright sky above the Capital in the distance. "This is our riskiest break-out yet," Tatsumi whispered seriously. "Ever since I started this group, separating from the Resistance who would never risk coming this far north, I made a promise never to back down because of how dangerous the fight could be." He held a fist up in front of him, "We are going to get them all out of there, though," his lips curled up again and he finished, "we would never be able to do this, without our soldier on the inside."
Mine, Lily, and Tatsumi all looked out towards the Capital a hundred miles away. Inside that Capital, a slave was currently in the eastern fourth of the city, not the southern Quarter where the Colosseum stood. The Quarter with the Colosseum in it was not nearly as extravagant as the eastern Quarter, the Embassy Quarter, where this slave stood in a room sweeping a broom back and forth on a dirty floor.
Two other slaves were not far from this girl, another girl a little taller than her, who kept glancing her way regretfully, and a tiny man floating around to clean higher up on the walls that got drinks splashed on them during another part. Liz and King would occasionally give the other girl in the room glances or ask her questions, but the blank eyes of the teenager put them off. Liz could hardly look at her old friend because of the way Maka was acting.
Maka stood there, face pointed straight at the wall in front of her, sweeping back and forth as if it was the only thing on her mind. She turned left, took a step, then swept back and forth again, before taking another step and continuing. Right at the cross, left, down, straight four hundred meters, fifth door after the intersection. 567448… 567448 567448, remember the code, they used it for both doors. Past the guards, their cell block is the lowest floor, twelve or so down… Everything she had seen and heard earlier that day came rushing back to her, but all the emotions she had felt back then were returning as well.
Tsubaki… the sound of tears falling off her friend's face dripped in her ears. Black Star… she imagined him grabbing the bars with his full strength, shaking the foundation of the building with his roars, her heart warmed at how angry he got seeing her like that. The little bit of warmth in her heart vanished though, as she remembered the expression on Soul's face. "I'm sorry!" She heard it echo in her ears over and over and over and over and over again for the last eight hours. The wails she could not react to, the screams that she knew if she looked like she had heard, one of the powerful people around her would have noticed, would have blown her cover.
Knowing how impossible it was to react did not make it easier not to though. She felt her heart screaming and her very soul ripping apart. Soul, I'm so sorry. I never wanted you to have to see me like that. I never wanted, to break your heart. She could feel her eyes getting wetter and she had to curse herself mentally and start thinking harder thoughts. Maka steadied her mind and kept pace with her broom, never missing a beat.
A/N Gotcha didn't I? XD So Maka's not as broken as previously thought, but the others are reaching their breaking points one by one. Kiba's no longer in the prison with them, Crocodile's suit is gone, Kuwabara's broken and Soul follows behind him. Black Star's rage is skyrocketing, and bets are being made on the upcoming Battle Royale! Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Thanks for reading!
joebob323 chapter 31 . 8h ago
Hmm, not much to comment on, but it's nice to have a lax chapter now and then. This was a well needed break from the action packed chapters we have had for a while. Just good old family bonding. Yay! BTW, good job!
Action packed one the day before, nice uplifting one in the morning, followed by a depressing slavery chapter at night! XD Thanks for the review!
Espada-001 chapter 31 . 5h ago
Well I don't really I have anything to comment about this time except I can't wait for the next chapter. Also looking back I used a bad abbreviation and confused you I guess. When I said KH character I was talking about Katekyo Hitman, sorry about that I should have used KHR. Anyway till next time have a good day.
Ahhhh, I see. Thought you meant Kingdom Hearts and I was so confused as I tried to think back on all 20k words looking for one of their characters. Yeah, Takeshi's here on Aebrith and makes his first appearance, but it won't be his last... Thanks for the review!