65; 30 Created for life, death and love

A couple months have passed since everyone’s training has started, signs of wear are becoming ever apparent not only on their weapons but their clothing as well. Crystal and Holly are slowly wandering through a thick forest far away from town, “so Holly can you please tell me why Neon told you to bring us out here? We’ve been going around in circles for hours at this point”, Crystal says with an irritated, dehydrated rasp in her voice. Holly freezes in her tracks as she tries to recollect what she’s been told, “hmmmmm, ummm I don’t really have any idea what I was even told if I was honest with ya, hehe”.

Crystal slumps over in a perplexed annoyance, “are you kidding me?! We’ve been in this forest for hours, I swear I’ve seen this tree 5 times already! Are you sure you’re having us do the right thing?”, Crystal shouts. Holly shows a quiet shocked expression to Crystal’s reaction but she quickly fakes into a wide gleeful smile, “yee!” Holly says before running off further into the forest.

The two girls suddenly hear some rustling in a nearby tree, “Holly watch out! I knew it was bad going this far” Crystal quickly says while drawing her sword. The branches rapidly begin to snap, “oh shit!”, Blue shouts while he crashes to the ground. “Umm Blue? What are you doing here?!” Crystal says in annoyance. Blue slowly looks up to her, his face burning up in embassisment, “oh, oh hey there Crystal, how um funny it is meeting you here huh? It’s just crazy, am I right? Blue says while stumbling over his words.

Crystal swiftly twirls her head to lock eyes with Holly, “Holly did you know about this the whole time?”, Holly bashfully leans back against a tree while trying to contain a huge smile, "um weeell you could say I coulda done something", Holly says with a nervous giggle. Crystal slowly walks over to Blue and spikes her sword into the ground in front of him as she gazes down at him in disapproval, “Fine then, just come along with us, please tell me that you told someone to watch over Red”, Crystal says before walking off towards town.

Argon stands by himself right at the entrance of the manor, “Alright alright now, how do I say this? Neon freeze right there I’m the UCU and I will… no no, that won’t do. I, the UCU am here to defeat you, argh no, that still feels weird, stop right there and I will, no no no not that!”, Argons says in frustration while continuing his pacing. “Oh Nexie is going to kill me, I’ve been delaying this for far too long; oh what?! Who’s that over there?”, Argon states while locking over to Red, the glow of her orb catching his eye.

Slowly Argon starts to advance towards Red, "could it possibly be, after all these years? The child of a rose, I thought she vanished ages ago" Argon quietly whispers to himself as he closes his gap. “Hey you there!! I, the UCU will take you right now, show me the one called Neon to me right now or face the consequences!”, Argon says while getting up close to her. “Get away”, Red softly says while holding her orb close.

Argon leans into Red to get a closer look at her, “Now please show me Neon or else-”. Red’s eye begins to glow a vibrant red color, “I SAID GET AWAY!”, she shouts while holding her hand out. The space around her palm begins to warp and twist in on itself before it bursts out and flings Argon across the manor lawn and into the entrance gate. Time slowly begins to slow down around him, he shifts his head up as the golden yellow glare of his eyes reflect off the rays of the sun, both of their eyes meet to find Red and the world around her frozen in time.

“That energy, I've felt it before. But how could it be, there shouldn't be a way for this girl to be this powerful let alone exist", Argon nervously says under his breath before haphazardly getting up to his feet.

Argon hastily turns around to leave, but is instead shocked to find a woman dressed in black from head to foot just feet away from him. She is completely unaffected by his powers. Her leather jacket and pants tightly hugs her slim figure while she covers herself with a large loose fitting black cloak that flows all the way down to her mid length glossy heels.

"What are you doing here? That girl is my target", she says to him in a calm, monotone voice while slowly pacing around Argon. "Who are you working for? I've never been told of you, how are you able to bypass my power?! I'm the UCU, no one should be better than me!" Argon shouts to the woman who then suddenly stops in her tracks. "Would you shut the hell up, you sound ridiculous and delusional. I've been tracking this little girl down for ages, she holds secrets you will never know or understand", she says while approaching Red.

"Now leave her alone, or else" the woman says while opening her cloak, revealing a slim black sword hilt with a vibrant red sheath. In a quick jerk she opens it halfway to reveal a pitch black blade that shines off the light around her as her eyes start to glow red.

Argon’s confidence quickly begins to fade while he begins to feel her immense power, “fine you can keep her in your own sights, I have more things to do than bicker with you” he says while walking off away from the manor. Time remains frozen around the woman as she draws her focus back onto Red, “Just a little further, there must be a way to crack into that power of yours. Nothing will get in the way of me seeing that limit”, she calmly says while looking into the red glow of her eyes frozen in time, and then suddenly in a fraction of a second she vanishes into thin air, not to be seen anywhere.

The space around Red gradually begins to speed back up again but by the time everything is back to normal she notices that Argon seemed to have just disappeared from right in front of her, “Wha- what happened? Where did he go?”, Red anxiously says as she lowers her hand back down to her side.

In a loud slam the manor doors burst open behind her as Ali, Ruby and Neon burst out of the door, “Red are you okay?! We heard you from inside and came out as fast as we could”, Neon says while darting her eyes around the manor lawns. “I- I don’t know…”, Red quietly mutters while she stares at the broken fence.

Way off into the thick dense forest the trio of Blue, Crystal and Holly are still finding their way back to the manor, the huge crash in the distance from Red causes them all to freeze in their tracks, “What the hell was that?! That’s from all the way at the manor, come on guys let's hurry they might need our help”, Crystal says before she begins to run through the forest. As Crystal begins to pick up the pace everyone becomes more and more spaced out, with every step apart they all become the more the forest starts to feel more daunting.

Crystal breaks through the thick brush of the forest with such force with her sword she can hardly hear Holly crying out in the distance to her, “Crystal, wait up, pretty please! I can’t run as fast as you guys can!” Holly says, trying to catch her breath a few hundred feet away. Holly can feel a slow but familiar tingle run up her spine, and before her eyes Holly gazes upon a crooked, dark, shadowy figure in front of her. It’s very presence around everyone has shifted the forest around by it’s own will alone. “EEEH! What the heck are you?” Holly shouts out while reaching for her sword.

Crystal takes a hold of Blue's hand while she charges up a gale, Blue's face quickly flushes into a bright red, "alright Blue, you better make yourself useful right now. Holly watch out, GALE!!", she says while mixing up a large gust of wind with Blue's powerful ice elemental magic, causing a ball of small ice shards to swirl around their grouped hands and with one swift motion they fire them out at the illusion. Multiple shards sink into its shadowy skin but seems to have no effect on it whatsoever, The illusion snaps back to the other two and without taking a step it appears in front of them. It’s muddied from feels eerily inhuman but also oddly familiar at the same time, the only feature that can be made out is it’s bright red eyes as it erratically dashes towards them.

The midday sun shines through the thin curtains of Red’s room, she’s sat on her small cozy bed, while Neon and Ali look on at her from across the room, “so what’s the last thing you remember Red? You couldn’t have just done that for no reason” Neon says while pulling a chair up next to Red.

At first she ignores Neon while fiddling with her orb, looking deep into its glow, but she then takes a moment and looks up, “it- it was some weird guy, he said something about being a UCU, he didn’t seem all that tough though. Such a weird guy” Red softly says, almost as if she’s just talking to herself. Neon shifts in her chair to face Ali, “well I guess that was easy, our crackpot must be back in town somewhere, I’ll go with Ruby and look for him there. You can look over Red until the others get back, it shouldn’t be too long by now”, Neon says before making her exit.

Crystal slices through the illusion multiple times with no effect to it, "goddamn you, just leave us alone!" she says while trying to gain any sort of momentum against it, but then her eyebrows raise as she thinks of an idea. In one hand she has wind and in the other she holds a ball of fire, she joins both her hands together to shoot a massive fireball towards the illusion fueled by all the wind.

“Blue!”, she shouts out, “oh um ahh, what do you need Crystal”, he quickly asks in confusion. “Just blast the DAMN THING WITH ICE BLUE!”, Crystal yells out to blue again, “oh sorry”, Blue nervously says before freezing it’s now molten form.

Crystal cautiously makes her way towards the illusion and looks into it’s empty eyes, “just what are these things, were they human at some point”, Crystal says before hitting it with a large gale of wind, causing it to shatter into many tiny pieces that scatter through the air. The warped forest around everyone begins to clear and shining rays of an exit start to be seen at the ecotone of the trees, “finally, I thought I would never see the end of this place”, Crystal says while wiping the dirt off her clothes.

Holly slowly makes her way out of the forest and falls onto her back in exhaustion, “wowe, that was a real hard fight!” she says while catching her breath. “Holly you didn’t even do anything”, Crystal barks back in an irritated groan. “Oh yeah, that’s right, it was heart pounding to watch though” Holly replies back with a large jolly smile.

Standing atop a rock, Blue looks over to see the town, overlooked by a large cliff. He sets his eyes to the manor on the far side of town, “alright guys let's get going I’m sure they’re starting to worry where we are”, he says to the others before sliding down the smooth cliff side.

Argon weaves through the streets of crowded people, the further he gets into town the more dense the crowd gets and the harder it gets to move forward, “ugh, finally I found it in this town. The old bar of Troubles Past, I really need to take a load off after today”, Argon says while approaching the old worn door.

The wood is scratched and scuffed showing the previous scuffles of unruly patrons of the past. The door opens in a slow creek while the jumble of multiple voices and clanking glasses fills the air, the inside of the bar is lit by warm orange candle light while the catchy tunes of a barside piano plays to fill in the dead air. The center of the room is filled with a large half circle bar filled with men who have been worn down from life, and then he sees it on the far right edge of the bar. The same woman who he ran into at the bar, her legs are sprawled on top of the bar while she leans against the wall slowly sipping a cold ale.

“Um excuse me miss, you need to take your legs off the bar, it’s rude to other patrons”, the buff and burly bartender says to her while he prepares a drink for someone else. She seems to completely ignore him at first as if she wasn’t even there, “miss you need to lower your legs!” he says in a more stern tone, but after hearing this tone her eyes begin to glow red. The drink in his hand begins to slowly bubble and then without warning his glass explodes in his hand, "goddamn it, fine then you can stay like that", he says while sweeping up the shards.

Argon sharply turns around quickly to exit the bar, but as soon as he turns around the woman is right next to him looking down towards the street, "who are you? And why does it seem like you're following me?!", Argon anxiously shouts out at her. "That's weird, I was about to say the same thing to you. I was about to head out anyway, remember to always watch behind your back. You never know what can happen, just saying”, she says with a wink before slowly walking away.

Argon keeps his eyes locked on her for a while before walking gradually into the bar and sits on one of the center bar stools. The bartender turns away from throwing out the glass to notice him.

“Ahh, Argon! Long time no see, have you been working out? You’re lookin great man. So what’s the poison you’re chooin’ today?”, he says, pulling out multiple bottles from under the counter. Argon slumps over with his arms on the bar, keeping his head up with his hands under his chin.

“You know just the usual man”, he says while keeping his mind on the woman in black. His drink gets prepared and shuffled over to him, but he keeps it still, his mind still distracted, “something on your mind? You don’t seem to be like yourself today”, the bartender says while walking back to his bottles. “It’s not much, just a shadow on a relatively mundane day, perhaps a change is needed” Argon mutters quietly while his eyes glow golden yellow.

Buried deep within the crowds, Neon and Ruby search everywhere for signs of Argon, from the stuffed main squares to the empty back allies, nothing is to be found. “This guy really is good at vanishing acts”, Neon says with an irritated groan while taking a seat on a sidewalk bench.

All of a sudden the girls start hearing screaming in the distance, “What the hell? I guess that’s as good a queue as any that we have our guy”, she says while she jumps back up to her feet. And begins to move towards the screams as people run away from the source of the problem, and as they get closer they notice that many of the fleeing people are covered in blood, “Ruby get Ali, we need to heal these people right now”, she shouts to Ruby over the endless screams in the chaos. Ruby nods her head before making her way back to the manor.

Neon struggles to turn herself around as more people continue to bump her around as she slowly progresses forward, but then she locks her sight on the source of the problem, the bar of Troubles Past. Inside she finds a bloody massacre, masses of dead bodies piled up on at the entrance and in the booths. Blood is spilled all over the walls and is soaked into the rugs.

She runs to the bartender who’s slowly crawling his way to the exit, his face is cut up, his back has a enormous gash in it, he reaches his arm forward to grip the ground only to find out that his hand has been cut clean off, “Why- why would he do this?” he slowly says while quivering towards the door. Neon quickly kneels to his side and supports him up to help him out of the bar, “don’t worry sir, just please stay calm. I’ll take care of you the best I can”, she woefully says to him.

Crystal takes her first steps inside the city bounds and immediately the mood of the town doesn’t feel quite right as she makes her way further into town, but suddenly she freezes in her tracks as the woman in black makes her way towards them and passes by as she walks out of town, “that energy, it feels dark and empty”, Crystal chillingly thinks to herself as she stares down the woman. “Is everything alright Crystal, you okay there?” Holly worryingly asks Crystal as she continues to stare off. After a couple seconds her attention sharply snaps back to Holly, “oh yeah, don’t worry I’m fine. Let’s get moving though”, Crystal replies in a shaky voice.

As they reach further down into town people are seen gathering in groups, and then they start to find wounded people on the sides of the streets being helped by castle guards. Crystal eyes out Neon with the bartender and runs over to her, “what happened Neon?! We were only gone for a few hours”, she distressingly says to Neon, while looking at all the wounded people around her.

“There’s no time for that right now Crystal, just take care of as many people as you can. Holly come here, I need you to be brave with this”, Neon says before revealing his arm. Holly instantly recoils in frightening disgust, “ummmm o-okay, I- I’ll try to” she quietly says as she leans down, her eyes turn a deep blue as she focuses her energy.

Ruby makes it to the manor with intense haste and bursts open the front doors with immense force, “ALI! We need to leave now!" Ruby shouts out through the main lobby causing to quickly dash out of her office, "Wait hold on, what's wrong Ruby?, Ali says perplexingly back. Ruby quickly grabs her hand and drags her out, "there's no time Ali, come on!" She barks back in aggravation as they both hurry back to the others.

Several hours pass as the sky goes from day to dusk to night, Holly and Ali are starting to get tired after spending all day healing everyone’s wounds, Crystal exhaustingly looks up to spot Sigma talking to Neon from across the square. Her face instantly begins to to burn up from just seeing him, “How are things going with you Crystal, I know today’s been tough”, Blue says to her while she’s distracted, “Blue shut up, shut up! He’s right over there!” she quietly says while nervously covering his mouth.

Blue’s eyes awkwardly dart around while not knowing what to look for, “um who’s him anyways?”, he asks her in confusion. She looks back with a shock and pushes away, “it- it’s no one, just please go and bother someone else”, she says while trying to hide low.

Argon’s suit is a little different from the rest of the castle guard’s uniforms, his chestplate is a jet black shimmers in the dull lantern light, covered by a thick white overcoat, “is that it Miss Neon? I’ll report all your findings to lady Xenon as soon as I can. I’m just glad that this wasn’t any worse than it already is”, he says with a sigh of relief.

Neon looks back to meet his serious stare, “It’s the least I can do, I have a responsibility to this city as much as she does, please send her my best regards. I really should visit her again but times have been way too busy as of late” she says with a light smile on her face, but that brief time of joy is broken up with a sharp thorn of shock driving it’s way down her spine, “wait, where’s Red?! We forgot to watch her! I’m sorry but I have to go now!” Neon says while her eyes glow a bright red.

A swirling vortex of light appears around Neon, almost lighting up the entire square and in one smooth action she jumps far into the air lighting up the sky like a raining comet, “please let her be safe, I hope he hasn’t gotten to her too!” she frighteningly thinks to herself as she goes through the sky.

The manor is dead silent, The glow of Red’s orb is all that can be seen from outside the manor. A small creek is heard from the main doors of the manor, the sudden change startles Red and causes her to shift her focus away from her orb. She hops down from her bed to investigate the noise, her orb is the only guiding light in the large, pitch black halls. Red freezes in her tracks as she hears heavy footsteps draw closer to her, as the sounds come even closer she can start to make out a figure with brightly glowing yellow eyes.

The bright glow eventually reveals the figure to be Argon, but his energy feels completely different to the person who she saw in the beginning of the day. The once snarky attitude is gone, being replaced with a still, deadpan stare. Flashes of forgotten memories of a similar figure begin to flood Red's brain as soon as she can see his bloody face, she collapses to the floor in complete fear as he steps ever closer to her, "you're not getting the upper hand on me this time, my sweet little Rose", Argon eerily says drawing out a blood stained sword on her.