Story:Kings of Strife/Part 12

Part Twelve
“I take back what I said.”

The mercenary stuffed his hands in his pockets yet again as he walked behind Cidolas, his companion and savior. By now they were well on their way to leaving the city, having effortlessly slipped out of the police's grasp, and were apparently headed for the beach. The problem that Silverius had was that he knew absolutely nothing on why any of this was happening anymore, let alone how. “How did you get out of your cell? Where are we going now?” She had answered nothing, and didn’t even respond to his grumblings now.

“I suppose I should have expected that, huh?” Of course he spoke to himself, and Cidolas allowed it to stay that way. Still, he wished he knew exactly what went on in the head of this incredibly odd woman. Could she really have his best intentions in mind?

Something easier for him to ponder was the events of the day prior. Who were that soldier who attacked him, and what about him and his companion enraged Cidolas so? Obviously, if he had been arrested by the Inusian police as well, which he had, he was definitely not from Inusia. But the fact that he fought just like a soldier with years of rifle experience was undeniable. “I know a soldier when I see one,” Silverius has thought to himself, “and that was a soldier’s shooting. No way that could have been a mercenary.” Judging by the bear-like beard he sported, however, Silverius suspected that man hadn’t served much military service in a long time. Another expatriate like himself…?

“Whatever the case, I’m definitely going to have to keep a better cover in the future. The Inusians are definitely onto me at this point.” That was most distressing to him, along with the fact that he had made a new enemy, and Silverius hoped beyond hope that this girl would fulfill her promise as quickly as possible. “At this point, it might be a little harder than I thought to find a nice buyer for this Crystal, but if I find Maria again, we can just hide out somewhere in a foreign country for a year or two…”

Was he being naïve and hopeful? Probably, he admitted. But something inside Silverius, something he labeled as childish, wouldn’t let him let go of that ideal. Not yet.

Maria was like a ghost to him at this point. A distant memory of his failures, personified and dependent on him. By letting himself down, by letting her down, he could allow her to be tortured or even killed. Whoever had stolen her had some magnificently dangerous abilities that would be very hard for him to battle with. But he was not afraid.

The mercenary ran a hand through his black hair, now as dark as the evening sky around the two. The air began to grow cooler and their footsteps made the only sound on the lightly grassy plains of coastal Inusia. In the distance, Silverius could see the sea beginning to peak on the horizon. These types of feelings were foreign to him and he was basically helpless to figure them out.

Cidolas now stopped and looked around the dark beach. Her green jacket was slightly illuminated in the darkness due to its brightness. The moon, mere days away from a full moon, was very large in the sky and was shining brightly on the dark water. Despite its reflected lights, the sky was still very dark, and not a star shone through. In the slight coastal wind, both the openness of Cidolas’ clothes and the lightness of her hair, angelically blonde and floating like a curtain over sunlight, gave her the illusion of a celestial being taking merciless inventory over its subjects. The sheer majesty of her stance, along with the unsettling nature of her usual actions and facial expressions, took Silverius by surprise and he was temporarily struck dumb. Right afterwards he gained his concentration again and reached out with a cold hand to grasp onto her colder arm, drawing her close to him and pulling her from her own purposes. In his haste, Silverius grabbed her with more strength than intended, and the woman was drawn extremely close to his chest, so close that their faces were mere inches away. He found himself breathless and taken aback once again, not only at the situation but at the frozen coldness of his companion’s face. She was as distant as ever and didn’t even seem to notice where she was, except for the fact that she was being held. Irritation flashed across her face and her eyes looked down on Silverius, despite the fact that she was a few inches shorter than he was.

“Why do you grasp me? Do you not wish to find your comrade?” The stoic woman’s blank red eyes looked straight into the brown eyes of the mercenary, even as his own wandered to glance over the porcelain body of his prey.

He instinctively wanted to let her go and back up, but a rush of previously-acquired anger ran through his muscles once again and he held even tighter onto her skinny arms. The woman moved not an inch. “Now that we’re here, you need to tell me why we came here in the first place. What was with you attacking that kid from earlier, and how the hell did you break out by yourself? Where did you find my weapon at?!” She had given him his gunblade, originally confiscated, after they had broken out.

Her eyes, almost shielded by her thin hair, narrowed as if dismissing his claim, and she turned from him and his gaze. Even though she seemed to have swept him off her palette, she still did not move or even attempt to leave his grip. Silverius noticed that she seemed to be looking around the beach as if she was searching for something.

Silverius shook the woman violently. "Don't you ignore me, dammit - I'm tired of you not answering me! How can I trust you if..." He looked down, shaken by his use of the word "trust" as well as his newfound aggression. He had told himself never to trust anyone again, nor to ever get this close to a woman. His hands lifted as he let go of Cidolas and backed up, his eyes staring at his shoes. Weakly, he continued to speak. "How can I work with you if you never tell me anything? Am I supposed to just blindly follow you when you tried to kill me back in Norzaven? Was that even you?!"

Once again his questions fell to deaf ears. The mercenary grunted in frustration as he clenched his fists and moved a step away before Cidolas' hand flashed in front of his face. He stared at her outstretched, open palm.

"Calm yourself, warrior, for there is no need for battle nor absconding. You do not need to trust me - I work solely to stop Ouroboros. You are a means to an end, and retrieving your companion would severely hinder their goals. Thus my work advances itself, you gain power and your mate, and keep the Crystal from the Serpent Society." She lowered her hand and turned, as if the entire matter was solved. Crono looked after her for a moment, his mouth slightly ajar.

"Oh… Yeah, right, because that just solves the whole mystery, right?” He struggled with the right words to articulate his rising frustration, even as he aimlessly stepped around the sand. “Go home, meddling kids! Why the hell do Ouroboros, or whatever the hell their name is, want the Crystals? How many of these things are there, why... why do they want Maria?!" His mention of her name caused his voice to crack involuntarily, almost like a trigger for him. Weak, that was weak, he exclaimed to himself as his hands covered his face. It was beginning to irritate him. Apparently the answers were a fluke, because Cidolas didn't contribute any more knowledge. She continued to search the beach head to toe; finally it grew too much for his patience. "And just what the hell are you looking for?!"

A shot ran through the air, followed quickly by a whizzing of the sands.

Both Silverius and Cidolas looked up at the same time as the shot rang through the night. All concerns and frustrations departed as they crouched and their muscles tightened in search of an enemy, replaced by sheer tension and silent concentration. Crono slowly removed his gunblade from his belt and held it at his side in a moment of anticipation, and Cidolas held her sheathed katana in front of her. They waited, low to the ground, for another shot, a muzzle flash, an indication of the enemy. A flare to be attacked. The ocean water lapped restlessly as well, the bright white moon making its prints on the low tide. The sand beneath their shoes was angel white and dirty mahogany, a mixture of colors in the otherwise black night. All of the environment waited anxiously for the commencement of the battle.

The shot came again, and both of them looked towards it this time. The position was found.

Silverius dashed off to attack, his feet leaving sand particles flying in his wake. Cidolas did the same, undeterred by her wound - this time, the bullet had found its mark and blasted into her left calve. Blood fell behind her as she ran. The third rifle shot didn't come, but Cidolas stopped in her tracks after a moment of running and ran to her left instead. Initially this distracted Silverius, eliciting a turn of the head from him, but he suppressed it and continued to run towards where the shot had come from.

He could hear it now, the rifle being cocked and reloaded. He timed himself before suddenly jumping, avoiding the bullet that was shot a mere second later. Time seemed to slow around him as he was propelled into the air, temporarily blinded by the muzzle flash in the darkness. The shooter was amazed by the reflexes of the man in front of him, enough so that he didn’t shoot immediately again like he could have. By the time he realized this, the mercenary had landed and was too close for him to reliably be hit, so the shooter let go of his two-handed rifle grip and reached down to his leg for something. Silverius didn't want to see what the shooter was grabbing for and impatiently and inaccurately slashed downwards at the silhouette. The attack was clumsily blocked by the enemy's rifle. In close range now he could tell clearly who the assailant was: the soldier from before. Crono broke the steel clash with a frustrated cry.

The rifle was knocked from the soldier's hands, flying across the sand some feet away. Crono stood catching his breath with locked eyes with the short-haired man. He was taller than Crono, and much more muscular, but apparently didn't have much training in close-range combat. Crono let another aggressive growl leave his lips before talking to the man.

"Just how the hell did you get free, and why can't you just leave us alone?" The soldier's clothes were tattered and worn, but they were obviously military-esque and decisively not of Inusian origin, cementing the ideas that Silverius had come up with earlier. Perhaps he wasn't in such dirty water after all.

The soldier lowered his sense of gravity and positioned himself to pounce on his rifle, his large muscles tense and slightly bulging. Silverius raised his gunblade and clicked the safety, grabbing the man's attention on his situation. The soldier gave a sort of half growl, half chuckle. "I could ask you the same thing, you dirty little thief. And I will, once I get through with you. I'll not have you working with Ouroboros when I can put a stop to it!" The mention of Ouroboros shocked the mercenary, causing him to look down with wide-eyed shock and slightly lower his gunblade.

“How does he know about them...?!” The soldier noticed this lapse and took advantage of it, diving for his rifle in a mad rush. Silverius heard the noise and reacted instantly, shooting wildly but missing the soldier.

The foreigner was quickly on his knees, reloading his gun and taking aim at Silverius. The time for shooting had passed, the mercenary surmised, and ran towards the persistent soldier, his blade at his side and ready for a cut. The soldier saw this and knew he would take heavy damage if he shot, and so instead he kicked backwards from the ground and thus dodged the slash. The fight was too intensely close for him to get a good shot, and he knew this wasn't going to change anytime soon with the persistence of the target in front of him. This time, he was successful in kneeling and grabbing his bayonet from the wrap on his leg, and he hurriedly attached it to the barrel of his rifle as the mercenary in black stumbled from his miss. Barely recovering in time, Silverius sidestepped the stab from the soldier's rifle, quickly noting that now it sported a sharp looking bayonet on its tip.

The two both backstepped, breath reserves shaken from this momentary scuffle, and surveyed each other, blades almost glowing in the moonlight. The soldier chuckled before letting a serious, disapproving scowl take hold over his face.

"Scum of Ouroboros, I am a soldier of Nneoh. No Inusian prison will hold a man of my rank, especially not from the country they just made a peace pact with two years ago, arrested on shaky evidence. I do this for my people… for my country." The soldier pointed his weapon at the mercenary, not intending to fire but for dramatic, angry effect. Within his eyes flickered the fire of a resolve unbroken, eyes that had seen the endless galaxies and returned with frustration at the injustices of nature’s denizens within them. "I am Vikcent Hyusei, and I will kill you, and I will take hold of your Crystal so that I can stop your plans!" Without another word, he sprang forward and slashed at Silverius with the bayonet, only to be blocked with his gunblade. Springing backward from the block, the gruff-looking soldier strengthened his footing and stabbed at the mercenary this time, but was parried. Silverius took advantage of the halting of the attack and made an strike of his own that was dodged.

The encounter continued wildly like this for a short while, but the scales eventually tipped in Vikcent's favor. Silverius, his voice silent and his attacks not as forceful as before, was obviously not fully into the fight. No, his own head went into comprehending what Vik had implied. As Vik fought wholeheartedly with his self-righteous rage, the mercenary found himself stabbed a few times and his new coat was cut more than a few times. He barely made an offense of his own, his non-occupied senses wholly focusing on keeping him alive. Their battle moved them across the sands, Vik moving to and fro and Crono backstepping or dodging to the side.

****

Elsewhere, Cidolas found herself wandering the sands once again. She could hear the distant sounds of battle, and no more gunfire pierced the night, so naturally she knew that Silverius had waged battle with the rifleman from before. All the better for her - she had a job to do. Her unnaturally red eyes scanned the dark landscape, searching for movement, looking beneath the sand and above the stars.

"Haze Knight of Ouroboros, show yourself." The booming command showed not an ounce of weakness, instead overflowing with commanding authority and single-minded strength. It bravely told the world that she wouldn't let anything keep her from her goals, a fact that showed itself as the blonde woman bent over and pulled the bullet from her bleeding calf with her fingers in an instant, soundlessly discarding it to the side.

A moment passed before anything around her moved again. She knew of the movement before she heard it or saw it, whirling around a full 360 degrees and unsheathing her katana within seconds. She held the sheath behind her and the sword proudly in front of her, ready to strike. In front of the woman stood one Hasey Troblum, birthed from the shadows themselves, his hands in his pockets and a gas mask around his neck. The boy looked at her with equal parts anger and amusement, his slim wiry muscles tingling in anticipation.

The one known as Hasey spoke with a voice that did not befit his young frame, one that was fiercely sarcastic and biting. "So you found me at last, you meddling bitch." He spat out the curse like infernal spit, letting it slap across her face and trickle down her figurative cheek. It had no effect on her and she didn't move an inch, not even letting her facial muscles contort in emotion. He looked at her quizzingly, tilting his head and furrowing his brow. "I'd like to know how you know who I was when that blockhead back there couldn't, but that's alright.” The boy chuckled and looked at Cidolas from beneath his eyelashes. He was shorter than she was. “I'll just have to," with this he retrieved one hand and fingered with the long knife strapped to his chest and tight tank top, "take care of you."

Cidolas did not budge. Her example of an unmoving sentinel was growing unamusing to the Haze, and he unsheathed his knife and twirled it around his finger.

"It was getting a little old having to pretend to be some young amnesiac for that guy back there, but he came through and got me what I needed without me even having to lift a finger. In fact, you provided the perfect opportunity for me to break away... All I had to do was coax him into following you guys down here with his pathetic sense of "justice" once he freed both of us." The young-looking warrior let out a crazed, high-pitched laugh, tilting his head back and staring at the large moon as he cackled. "Can you believe how stupid some people are?! Justice, revenge! If only he knew I was part of the group that killed his precious squad, ahahahaha! Now wouldn’t that just be something else?!" Now he looked back down at Cidolas and pointed his knife at the silent woman.

His voice transitioned from the furious amusement to the cold, frigid hatred that he had channeled when he first spoke. "I don't know what your problem is, but I just need you to get your stupid little ass out of my way so I can... escape..." At first, the Haze Knight's face was cradled in amused confidence, but realization dawned upon his face as he finally thought about the surroundings he had found Cidolas in. He pointed his knife at her again as he slowly backstepped. "You... You wouldn't happen to know about the tunnels… The portals... Would you? Is that why you were here...?"

Cidolas spoke now. "I know all about you, P7, and I know about what your Society has done. Just know that I am the sword that will strike down you all, for the evils you have committed in this world. You will never be forgiven for what you’ve done, not even after death." She spat his codename in a form of superior mocking. Now it was time for irritation to strike "Hasey"'s face, followed by angered stepping forward.

"What we’ve done…?” He looked confused and angered that he was. “You couldn’t mean that one place back then…” He looked up once again, flinging his midnight blue hair astray above his head, and glared at Cidolas. “Oh, so you know allll about us, huh?" His voice began to rise in a cautious crescendo. "Well, I'll cut your stupid throat and bash your stupid head in, alright! You know nothing! You know nothing about us!!" He stood close to her now, his knife hand trembling and furious spit trailing from his mouth. The two locked eyes in a hostile glare before the Haze Knight finally gave in to his anger and rushed forward with a stab to Cidolas' throat. She parried with her sheath and let in a quick slash on the Haze Knight's chest, causing him to spout a little blood and a cry of anger more than it was pain. He backed up as he stared at her with his inferno eyes and opened up a pouch on his waist, dipping his knife inside without a moment’s hesitation. When he drew it back out, it was soaked in a tough and viscous green liquid. He dashed forward again, this time quickly dodging Cidolas' sheath block and moving in to stab her exposed side.

“You’ve left yourself open, you stupid little bitch,” he exclaimed as he poked at Cidolas’ flesh. Incredibly, she moved with even more agility than he, and brought her sheath back to smash the Haze Knight on the head. He managed to cut her arm as he went flying to the ground from the blow, and his headband fell off, landing around his neck along with his steel gray gas mask.

Blood dripped down his forehead from where he was cut from the attack and mixed in with his now free hair, and he sat up on his elbows growling in anger. “You stupid little piece of stupid…!”

Cidolas spoke in a monotone voice as she walked leisurely towards Haze's position, her blade pointing to his throat. "Prepare yourself for your retribution." She drew her sword back to prepare for the stab, and Haze clenched his eyes for the killing blow.

Instead, both of them were confronted with the sound of chains.

Cidolas was frozen, her blade mere inches from the Haze Knight's flesh. The slice of cold steel was wrapped in fat, jet black chains pulled very tight. So very tight that the pale woman found she could not move more than an inch - her entire arm, not just the blade, was wrapped up in these strange chains. Haze's face was at first painted with fear, but upon seeing how Cidolas was contained, he grinned with more excitement than ever before. A cynical laugh even escaped his persona.

"V8… You're just in time, Vapor, for once in your stupid old life!" He stood up and stared at the defenseless woman in the flashy jacket with his familiar inferno eyes and a condescending stance. "You're mine now…" His husky whisper accompanied him readying his knife to attack.

Right before his strike made its mark on Cidolas' throat, she dropped her sheath and whirled around, grabbing and pulling the chains toward the Haze Knight as she fell backwards. He didn't have time to move his aim as the owner of the chains flew forward, but before he could stab her, a blade wrapped in chains flew into the Haze Knight's hand, stopping his attack short and opening his grip on the knife. Both Haze and the controller of the chains fell to the ground, a scream of pain coming from Haze, as Cidolas landed on her knees and moved back farther, removing her hand from the chains in the process.

At this point, Cidolas finally saw who the mysterious intruder was as they stood up from on top of the Haze Knight. The master of the chains was a woman, a barely clothed one, with voluptuous curves and a disarming smirk. Her black hair fell from her face in beautiful waves, although most of it was covered by a hood that wrapped around her neck to frame her slim and perfectly sculpted face. Directly below the hooded material, she wore a raggedy, torn shirt that barely contained her large breasts. The rest of her was scarcely wrapped by similar turquoise robes, and more of the deep black chains snaked around her entire body. As the woman stood up and looked to Cidolas, she idly swung two ends of the long chains, both of which appeared to connect to long, jagged knives. Her full lips smirked as her half-closed eyes looked over her pale opponent, who once again stood strong in a battle pose. "Ooh, darling, you want to fight me? I'm not so sure, after what you did to adorable little P7 over here..." With these seductive, huskily spoken words, the Vapor Knight dodged backwards almost instinctively as the Haze Knight slashed at her exposed leg. "V8, you stupid old hag, you did this to me!!" He sat up and cradled his left hand, the one that the Vapor Knight had stabbed in order to stay his blade from touching her. The wound was deep, Cidolas could tell, and it was bleeding rather profusely. She surmised that his battle ability had decreased by half, if not more. She moved to finish him off...

...until a long knife came flying towards her face. Instinctively Cidolas moved to block it with her sheath, but upon realizing that she had abandoned it a minute ago, dropped to the ground in a quick and desperate dodge. She barely managed to get past the attack, but it was alarming to her all the same. She looked where the strike had came from and saw the Vapor Knight pull the blade’s chain back before swinging it in a wide arc to the side of her. She tsked three times.

"No no no, honey, we’ve decided that you're mine now. Let cute little P7 take a rest, mm?" She tilted her head ever so slightly, but her thin eyes flashed with unmistakable murderous intent, reinforced by the sheer skill with which she handled her unusual weapon. Cidolas didn't move, so the Vapor Knight took the initiative, swinging her blades before casually tossing one flying Cidolas' direction.

The pale warrior dodged out of the way effortlessly, taking this moment to survey the dark sands for her fallen sheath. Her battle ability wasn't at its fullest without it, but - another blade came flying, and she dodged it, but suddenly an attack came from behind. She whirled around to see her assailant, but was greeted with the original blade slashing across her shoulder as it returned to its user. A chuckle came from Vapor's direction, and the second blade came from the opposite direction, but Cidolas was able to block it with her sword this time, sending it flying another way. “Of course,” she thought to herself, “if the blades come towards me, they must return through the same way.” She turned again, sensing another blade flying towards her, and she dodged it again before the other one came flying. Her senses were on red alert, and now the attacks were coming towards her so fast that she didn't even have time to fully plan a counterattack.

Vapor, at first chuckling amusingly at the evasive moves of the woman in green, now laughed with an insane frequency and volume, deriving intense joy from the way her swords cut across Cidolas' skin and absconded before they could be stopped. Her bodacious blue eyes laughed in their own ways, and her body took on a provocative dance independently as she twirled the chains around her enemy. This was another battle that would be concluded in a moment, V8 decided, as she –

- did not get to make any further moves. Her laughing stopped instantly and her movements were jerked still as the woman with the katana suddenly stopped moving and allowed the blades to deeply stab into her skin. Vapor pulled on the chains in order to retrieve them, but the woman dropped her katana and held tightly onto the blades, her flesh cutting open to accommodate the sharp metal.

"Wh... What are you doing?” The woman in teal spoke with a flagrant infestation of fear as the color drained from her face. “Let... Let go!" Vapor frantically pulled on her chains, but was aghast to find that her enemy was too strong. Despite the obvious agony that she must have acquired by holding onto the long, serrated blades, the woman in green didn't hesitate at all, even with blood falling from her hands and body. "You let go right now!!" Panic was beginning to draw upon Vapor as the enemy pulled the chains toward her, grabbing and drawing Vapor across the sands. She couldn't let go of the chains, the enemy must have realized that, for she was obviously taking the pain so that she could stop Vapor. Now the hooded woman looked around with frenzy, searching for anything that would save her in the quick moment that the battle had turned from her favor.

Her eyes looked for the last solution, but she could not find it. Her pride was swallowed for her fear to take over. "P7!! P7, where are you?! Haze!! Help me! Please, help me!!"

All of a sudden she fell to her back, all resistance suddenly gone from the enemy. She looked up to see that the enemy's arms were dismembered entirely with a disgusting cleanliness. Now it was time for disgust to creep up Vapor's body, her arms wrapping around her wide curves as if to keep away the fear.

Haze stood in front of the girl in the flashy jacket, his long knife bloody from the job it had finished. The girl stood as if unbelieving what happened, her silent eyes staring at the arm stumps that once held victory in their grip, now weakly bleeding on Haze. He spat with disgust before kicking the girl in her stomach, sending her to the ground. He knelt and stabbed her with the knife a few more times, perhaps more to get his anger out than to deal any more damage.

He stood up and turned toward Vapor, walking toward her with a grudging scowl and angled eyebrows. His wild hair obscured most of his face, but his magenta-orange eyes shone through the mop of midnight blue. The Haze Knight wiped some of Cidolas’ blood off his face and tucked his knife away before cradling his still-bleeding hand again.

"I didn't even want to save you, you stupid cow. Those was my last drops of Burning Blade solution. But…” With this, the boy let out a perverse chuckle. “It's not every day that I get to hear you beg for my help." He smirked. "How pathetic you were, dear V8." Vapor gingerly stood up with anger, drawing her chains back to her person and disgustingly removing the severed hands that still gripped it tightly.

"Oh shut up, at least I was going to win. Did you have to make such a messy job of it? Ugh, you're absolutely repulsive. Don't you touch me!" She swatted away Haze's hands that reached lecherously for her body while she had been replying, as if searching for a reward. He looked after her with barely-veiled hatred as she walked over to the downed Cidolas.

Both Vapor and Haze looked down at the woman, who now jerked around on the floor, barely able to move coherently, let alone stand up. She was obviously finished, but the fact that she wasn't dead or very weak at all was disturbing at best. Vapor looked at her with disgust. "You put poison on those last few stabs, right,” she asked to Haze.

“What the fuck do you think?” He spat on the disembodied woman on the ground. “Stupid ignoramus.”

Vapor shook her head and looked at the writhing body with amazement. “Just what is this? Who is this...?" Haze shoved her out of the way and snorted.

"Doesn't matter, sweetheart. Just gotta make sure she doesn't say anything about us." He pulled out his knife again and bent down to finish what he started. Cidolas had nothing to say, even in the face of her death.

****

Vikcent and Silverius fought on with continued intensity. Rather, Vik attacked while his enemy barely put up a defensive front. His various cuts and few stab wounds began to draw his attention to the battle at hand, and although he still didn't know what this soldier was going on about, he knew he wouldn't find out if he was dead. The mercenary now blocked a stab and jumped backwards, swinging his sword around before taking a more offensive stance than before. Vik stopped pursuing him for a moment, taking note of the man's newly renewed energy and frowning. Just when he thought he had this battle in the bag.

No more words were exchanged between the two men, only blows. The darkness was somewhat illuminated by the moon, but with such a tender embrace of battle, the two combatants could have been blind and the attacks would have been just as savage. Stab, parry, dodge, slash, duck, elbow, stabilize, kick, it continued on a wheel of war. And just as viciously and swiftly as it began, the fight was over. Both men stood panting before the soldier dropped to his knee, his little experience in close-range battle having taken its toll. This time around, after Silverius recovered, he had received some wounds of his own, and his already ripped shirt was a little more torn than before. Blood trickled down his left arm from a shoulder wound. He glared at the mercenary with ill-contained hatred. He spat out insults now that he could deal no more physical damage.

"You scum! Keep fighting, or are you just gonna slither away like the snake you are?!" With this he stood up again, teetering on his feet as his vision blurred. "What does it take to bring you devils to justice, huh? Hanging you by your entrails?" He slowly raised his rifle and aimed at Crono, barely holding steady before dropping it. Now he whispered to himself. "Why do I deserve this... Why do I continue to fail..."

Silverius was no better off with his conditions, on the contrary he was hurt more, but he was especially tired of the insults that were being slung at him. He tossed his blade to the ground in frustration, quickly feeling regret at the pain that flashed across his back from the action. "I don't know what your problem is or what kind of shit you've been snorting, but I have nothing to do with those Ouroboros guys, alright?" The soldier looked up to him with anger, obviously not paying much heed to what the mercenary was saying. "Yeah, okay, they hired me to take the Crystal, but I'm keeping it from them now. I'm on your side, alright?" The grudging confession was heartfelt, Vikcent could tell, but he still stubbornly refused to believe it.

Vikcent shook his head and let his head fall into his hands. "You're lying. Show me your Crystal, then!" He looked up sheepishly as if he didn't even want to see it, but he did. Silverius pulled the Crystal from his waist pouch, the shining jewel a star in the darkness. It was a coral blue, unlike Vik's Crystal, but it possessed the same sort of mystic beauty and mystery. Vik was transfixed by it, but it sent a wave of nausea through his body, as if the light wave it let off brought him plague. He waved it away, wishing it to be gone from his sight as soon as possible. The mercenary asked him to show his, and he reached into his own bag.

The soldier’s eyes widened from the moment he stuffed his hand into his bag. Immediately afterwards, he took his hand out before he reached in again, and again, and again, before he finally let panic take hold over him. Vik thus fell to his knees, tears beginning to fall and icy coldness beginning to reach in on his extremities. His large hands covered his forehead, soon becoming soaked in nervous sweat.

"This... this cannot be happening. No... no!"

Silverius looked at him with confused concern. "What the hell’s wrong with you?" He began to stagger towards the broken down soldier. In response, Vik twirled and looked at him with bloodshot eyes.

"I... I lost it, it's... it's gone!" The mercenary stopped in his tracks, his eyes wide as well. This was a disaster; anyone getting hold of the Crystal could be a terrible enemy. How could this guy have lost it?

An unfamiliar look passed over the soldier's face. He stood up frantically, looking around with beady eyes. "This... this means... Hasey? Hasey, where are you?!" His cries called out across the beach, reaching for someone who no longer existed. For someone who never really existed. A dream that had formed and dispelled in the wake of one man. A nightmare that had taken his dream right from under his nose.

...End of Part Twelve.

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