0; 24 Blue as the sky red as the sun

“It’s time to get up Crystal, GET UP!!”, Holly happily shouts, while shaking Crystal relentlessly, “ugg Holly please, give me just 5 more minutes” Crystal groans to Holly, her hair is a mess and her eyes are worn and heavy, her body has held a heavy toll from the unexpected encounter last night.

Crystal lifts herself up slowly and sits up in her bed, “Let’s get going, I already got your bath set up” Holly says with a beaming smile hovering over her. Crystal lets out a big yawn before jumping out of bed, “Alright okay then, just don’t barge in on me again or I’ll be convinced you have the hots for me”, Crystal says with a smug smirk on her face, “ah nah nah that won’t happen again hehe”, Holly says with a flustered blush.

The girls exit their apartment to be shocked to see Neon right beside the door waiting for them, “whoa, what the hell, how do you know where we live?!”, Crystal shouts to Neon, “That’s not important right now. I had to make sure you would keep your word to me”, Neon says before walking away. The girls are dumbfounded for a few seconds before regaining their composure to follow Neon to the manor.

"So what's our first thing we're going to learn? Does it have to do with weapons or is it maybe something with magic", Crystal asks Neon on her way over to the manor. "Just focus on your eyes, you will understand when we get there" Neon quickly states to Crystal, "My… eyes? What do you…" Crystal quietly mutters to herself.

The shadow of the manor looms over the three of them before Neon gets ready for the initial lesson, "Were you thinking about why your eyes hold an importance?" Neon asks the girls.

"All I know is that I’ve been able to control currents of wind ever since I could remember, compared to what legends of what the queen is rumored to be able to do my powers really suck” says Crystal in a dismal tone while looking down at her fiddling hands. Neon stares into Crystal’s eyes, unknowing to herself that they are currently glowing a vibrant red, fueled by the anger of her incompetence.

“That’s where you’re wrong, those eyes glow with the fiery passion of the Rose Complex and you have already done so much with it. My gracious assistant Ali knows the same Complex as well, I’m sure you noticed her likeness to using fire spells and the great control she has over them. In fact the Rose Complex is able to use any of the elements, water, fire, wind, and even in rare cases earth. The mastery of all these within a single person is completely possible. Now Holly what gift do you think your eyes give you?” Neon says to Holly whose face is caught in a perplexed confusion.

“I.. I don’t know, I didn’t think I really had anything special” Holly said in an apprehensive voice while sitting on the short grass in front of her, all of a sudden Neon quickly pulls out her sword and cuts a small gash into Holly’s shoulder, causing Holly tear up from the sudden attack while shrinking her body further to the ground.

“HEY WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!”, Crystal screams out to Neon. "Enough! Just look at her Crystal, she’s already healed”Neon quickly states to the girls, Holly slowly lifts up her bloody hand to reveal that her cut has already been perfectly healed within just seconds.

"The Ultima Complex, an invaluable ability among healers. It became obvious to me that there was something special about you when Crystal was protecting you from the illusion. She was unaware of it but you were hit with a few stray gusts of wind slices but when I came over to you to tend your wounds you were fine" Neon says to the girls.

"Although there is a third Complex" Neon continues as both of the girl's eyebrows perk up with increased interest, "but there's no one here I could show as an example because of its rarity, the Omega Complex, not much is known about it besides its powers over time manipulation, but your first lesson today is to focus on that power so you can use it easier", Neon says before sitting on the grass and focusing her energy giving off a slight glow.

The girls follow suit, but only after a few minutes they start to get bored, "ugh isn't there a quicker way to do this? I thought we were going to do cool things" groans Crystal, "the more you complain the longer this initial process will take", Neon says while glancing up to Crystal before quickly bringing back her focus. As the hours go by though Crystal becomes increasingly irritated, she looks up to even see Holly's face scrunched up, her entire focus centered on the slight blue glow around her body.

"Well look at who's already promoted to being a guard”, Ruby says knocking the two girls out of focus, she looks around at the tense air and then glances at Neon, “you know maybe this might be a little too much for them at first, maybe something more simple could give them a boost” Ruby says to Neon.

Crystal suddenly breaks all her focus as a frustration fueled whirlwind sweeps around her, “what?! How much more simple can this get? Crystal shouts out gripping and tearing the grass in the ground around her as she jumps to her feet while staring Ruby down. Holly looks up to Crystal as the tense air continued to fill the scene, “Maybe we should listen to her Crystal, who knows it could even be fun”, Holly says with a slightly worried smile.

Crystal returns Holly’s glance and her gust winds down, “alright fine, what is it then?”, Crystal begrudgingly asks Ruby. A quick feeling of relief dons Ruby’s face as her face cracks a small smile, “thank you Holly, I’m glad someone can speak some sense into this bullish girl. Anyways I thought some reconnaissance would much more suit your active mind, there have been multiple reports of trouble makers down at the market, all you need to do is give them a little scare”, Ruby says to the girls before sending them on their way.

“You have so much faith in these two, it’s very unlike you to take such a liking to others so quickly, hell it even took me a whole week”, Ruby says holding back a small laugh. Neon breaks her concentration to take a good look at Ruby, “oh come one you’re going to keep that against me still? There’s just something that spoke to me about them yesterday, I feel like they can be something great”, Neon says in full confidence before getting up from her meditation to tend to her duties of the day.

Down in the town everything seems normal, the people bustle in and out of the busy streets, they all rush by with places to be. The girls glance into all the alleyways to find any evidence of trouble makers but none are to be found, they look down one last alley and notice a little girl who runs away too fast to them to make out any details except for her long vibrant red hair and the look of fear in her eyes before disappearing into the crowd of people.

As Crystal tries to go after the girl Holly shouts out to her, “Hey Crystal come here, there’s something weird down here!”Holly shouts out from a nearby alley. Crystal fights the urge to follow the little girl to meet up with Holly, down the alley she finds a clustered assortment of random items on the ground, food, clothes and all of the like scattered all throughout the long back street. Crystal then gets a glance of a dark tarp on the side of the alley, it’s dirty surface covered in holes and tears with a pile of even more goods at its entrance.

She slowly makes her way to the tattered tarp she can hear small chattering and russling coming from inside, with a big swing she swipes open the tarp to unveil a group of around a dozen kids from just a few years of age to near teens all in tattered clothing, the look of fear illuminates from all their eyes except for one. A young boy who looks slightly older than the rest is protecting the younger kids, he stretches his arms while a glare of anger and fear floods his face while a deep red glow saturates his eyes. His matted hair is a short deep navy blue.

"G-get away, you're not welcome here", the boy nervously says reaching for the broken wooden sword strapped to his waist, "calm down we're not here to hurt you" Crystal softly says, reaching her arm out to him.

The boy tenses up as Crystal gets closer, "GET BACK! Don't hurt us anymore!" he shouts as the air instantly gets ice cold around him. The other kids within the group tighten up their huddle as the older boy holds his ground against Crystal, small sharp ice shards the size of needles form around him and just before he attacks Holly runs up to them, "please stop we're here to help you!" Holly says with a worried expression.

The boy glances over and notices her, the gentle look on her face reassures him and calms him down, "if you're not hurting us then what do you want?" he asks the girls. Crystal looks into the boy’s eyes for a moment and then glances back to Holly, “I need you to watch these kids for a little Holly, I’ll need to talk to Ruby and Neon about this”, she says before running off, the boy stares her down until she falls out of view.

On Crystal’s way back to the manor she can already notice that midday is fast approaching, “damn did the day really go by that quickly? I better get back quick”, she says to herself.

As the manor comes back into view Crystal can spot Ruby at her usual spot next to the gates, “Well it’s about time you got back, I would have thought you would have chickened out and given up. So how did it go?” Ruby casually says to her, "Well about that, things kinda turned out differently than I thought it would, I need to talk to Neon about it", Crystal says while digging the toes of her shoes in the ground.

A feeling of bewilderment encases Ruby’s face as she looks back to Crystal, “Well alright, I’m not really sure what she would have to do with this”, Ruby says while slowly opening the gate and guiding Crystal to the manor.

Holly looks around inside the tarp as she sits inside waiting for Crystal to return, dirty clothes are piled on the floor acting as makeshift beds on the hard bricks. Stolen food is stuffed in a sack in the far corner, oddly enough it all still seems to be fresh. She looks up to see light pouring in through the holes in the top of the tarp.

The boy leans forward in his seat with his hands on his cheeks and keeps a sharp eye on Holly still giving off the vibrant red glow from before. “Sooo anyways do you have a name? You seem way too tense”, Holly says with a nervous stutter, “why does it matter to you? I know you’re with them, you’ll take all our stuff and leave us with nothing”, the boy says while holding back tears.

Holly’s face shifts from a feeling of nervousness to greif, “I could never do that, I promise I’m here to help”, she says back to him, while her glassy sorrowful eyes give off a genuine aura.

“Fine if you really need to know, To the rest of the kids I’m known as Blue and that’s all you will know. Our parents threw all of us out, we did all we could to support ourselves so we banded together and lived off the streets. Adults never cared for us so we had to care for each other. We do anything we can even to get by, even if that means we lie, cheat, steal, or even kill”, Blue says with tears streaming down his face.

“You really do care about them like family don’t you, is everyone here?” Holly says quietly to Blue. He looks around, his face slowly sinking, “there’s one missing, she has only ever called herself “Red”, she also tends to disappear for long periods of time though, so I’m not all that worried about her” he says while regaining his composure.

“So you want me to take in a bunch of filthy kids? I’m sorry but I refuse, I already was pushing my limits training you”, Neon assertively says to Crystal. “All of these street kids are just trouble makers, they will eventually learn how to blend in on their own”, she continues but abruptly gets cut off by Crystal.

“No you’re wrong! I’ve seen them face to face, they’re just scared and lonely. They might do some bad things but in the end it’s their only choice, I just can’t leave them like this” Crystal begs Neon pleading as much as she can. Neon’s expression remains the same, “I’m sorry, but I can’t. The risk is just too high for me”, she says while Crystal’s face scrunches into a dismal rage.

“Well fine then! If you won’t do anything about it then I will!”, shouts Crystal before storming out the door shutting it with a forceful smash.Just outside the door Ruby hangs her head down in shame while Crystal walks by with heavy feet, “I’m very sorry about this Crystal, I..” Ruby quietly says before getting cut off by Crystal.

“Get away from me, how can you people be so heartless”,she says as her voice becomes hoarse and rough to the point where it’s hard for her to even speak anymore, Shocked at the interaction all Ruby can do is just look away as Crystal continues her way down the hall.

The day passes quickly as the sun lowers in the afternoon sky, near the end of the alley Blue sits as he watches people walk past, "so did your friend just ditch you? Seems like a great friend huh?", Blue says to her with a drab expression. Holly is sitting outside next to the tarp, she looks over to Blue in shock from his comment, "no, she'll be back soon, I'm sure of it", Holly says while looking up at the slowly traveling clouds in the sky.

Blue suddenly notices Crystal in the crowd amongst all the people rushing around her, Crystal's face holds a frustrated rage as she gets closer to the alley. She walks right past Blue as if he wasn't in front of her, "Holly it's time to go home", Crystal says in aggravation to Holly. She suddenly gets shocked as she hears Crystal's flat statement, "but why, what happened?”, Holly worryingly asks.

Crystal looks over Blue and all the rest of the kids, then looks back to Holly, “Neon won’t take them in, any of them. Pack your things up kid, I’m going to have to prove to her you’re worth it” Crystal says with her arms crossed and with her back up against the wall, Blue jumps up to his feet instantly when Crystal says this, “but I just can’t leave the others here, especially the little ones, they look up to me for everything” he snaps to Crystal. “It’s okay Blue I’ll stay here for you and take care of them” Holly says to blue with a wide smile, “In fact I’ve grown to really like them a lot”.

The air grows very still as Blue contemplates Holly's decision, "Well I guess so, just make sure not to forget about anyone" he disparagingly says to Holly, a slight smirk flashes across Crystal's face as she glances over to Holly, "Well if everything is sorted then come with me Blue. First thing I need to do is to clean you up, no one is going to take you seriously looking like that" Crystal says almost laughing at how unkempt the kid is.

While Blue is taking his bath later in the night he realizes that this is the last time he has bathed in at least half a decade, the only times he got close to a bath is when he would stick his head into the city fountain before the city guards would pull him away. He looks at his hands and remembers that only a few minutes ago they were covered in dirt from the weeks before, when Blue finally does finish he puts on the same clothes he had on before and heads over to Crystal.

As soon as Crystal notices Blue she rolls her eyes at him, "no no, no one will ever take you seriously in those rags" she says while she snatches his hand and drags him to her closet, "now let's see what I have here, hmm no… no. Ah here we go, put these on, it sure is a better improvement from what you're already wearing", Crystal says while handing him a pair of her old clothes. One is a deep blue short sleeve shirt with pink accents and sky blue frilly shirt sleeves, and the pants are the same sky blue of the shirt sleeves and tight all down the legs. She also hands him an old pair of shoes matching the color and accents of the shirt.

Blue looks at her while his face flushes with embarrassment, "are you kidding me I'll look stupid wearing this!”, Blue shouts at her with his face in a full blush. He begrudgingly swipes them from Crystal’s hands before going back into the bathroom to try them on, “what the hell am I doing?” he thinks to himself, the feeling of being ridiculous only getting more apparent with each piece of clothing he puts on.

Even though Blue is younger and smaller than Crystal her clothing is tight on him and hugs his whole body, when he walks out Crystal can't help but smile at how he looks, "hehe, looking better already", she says while giggling at him, "Well as much as I want to humor myself we really need to get some rest, tomorrow is gonna be a big day" she says while getting ready for bed.