"What the hell was that?" Caine asked, gasping for air as he clutched his injured arm. Blood snaked down and dripped from the tips of his fingers, staining the grass below.

He glanced at the figure of the nearly unconscious Allen in front of him. There was no way he was going to take any chances.

"Gahaha! Well, I've never seen anything like it myself!" Whitebeard laughed, brandishing his sword around carelessly as he did so. "You're lucky I was watching, Caine. I know you'd hate to be beaten to death by your own student more than anything." His condescending tone pissed him off, but he had been saved thanks to Whitebeard.

With a groan, he hauled himself to his feet and stumbled towards Allen, only to be stopped by Whitebeard. "What do you think you're doing? I need to treat him."

The Captain remained unmoved. "Careful. That's not a Primis to be taken lightly. Lack of control is to be expected the first time, but this is beyond that. He has far too little control over it...and it has far too much freedom." It was one of the rare moments where the usual smile vanished from Whitebeard's face, and one of the still rarer ones where the spark winked out from his eyes.

Caine looked down at Allen again. There were still traces of smoke fizzing from his ears, nostrils and mouth. His neck had a nasty blue-black bruise around it, and his wrists were broken. The rushed, wheezing breaths he was taking increased the sense of urgency in Caine even further.

He pulled away from Whitebeard, and lowered himself to his knees to examine the boy. His mouth and teeth were covered in blood, and his left eye was swollen shut.

Good lord.

Whitebeard's face showed no concern for Allen, but it did reveal a slight interest in what was left of him. "He was born with two souls, Caine. I think that was the cause behind his Primis."

"Two...souls?"

"That's right. That thing...it had a soul in it. Its own Ley, separate from Allen's. This kid was born with two souls. Normally, one would die within moments of birth...but not in his case. Something happened to him when or before he was born, Caine. Something fucked up."

He stepped away from Caine, whose curiosity had now been tested.

"So you believe something trapped that second soul...and integrated it into his Ley?!" It was almost too unbelievable. What sort of power could possibly trap a soul? That was something that was almost in the realm of the gods. The idea of a mere human tampering with souls sent a chill down his spine.

But Whitebeard did not deny it. "Its possible. More than possible. I've read about it in my homeland. But tampering with souls is a dangerous, dangerous game...as you can see."

As he walked away, Caine noticed the faint traces of smoke rising from Whitebeard's sword.

He turned his attention back to treating the boy, but a kind of fear had begun to take root in his mind now. Regardless of whether or not it was for a single cut, Whitebeard had needed to use his flames to defeat his Primis.

To force such power to be used in order to be defeated...just how dangerous was it? It had barely exerted itself to force even him to his knees.

How would they defeat it again, were it to be used once more?

* * * * *

"Primis."

Allen felt that long-forgotten sensation of dread as he opened his mouth and dropped the cigar to the ground. His stomach heaved and lungs tightened as a massive volume of smoke began to spew out through his mouth, followed by his nose and ears. He clutched his chest in pain, watching the smoke spread out more and more as his strength began to swell.

"Get off, Cassian. The situation has changed." Lyza said, pulling him off again. This time, he didn't retaliate. She placed him down gently on the ground, asking herself what she had been doing to her son all these years.

I had been using him. Like a tool. When he could have been so much more, I restrained him to such a meaningless, dependent role.

She had her doubts, watching him run towards Afro. She had no real faith in him, but...but he had saved her life. For the first time in his life, he had saved her with the strength she had ensured would protect him.

As he looked up at him with those wide eyes she was so used to ignoring, she shuddered. Memories of battles with her son...no, battles where she used her son mercilessly to kill at the potential expense of his own life drifted through her head. She had seen enemies chop his head off unknowingly as a little boy, only for their own to fly off in a matter of seconds. Arrows and musketballs relentlessly shot through his body, killing the shooters in the process.

Dear god. Oh, dear god. How many times have I killed my son?

Something in the back of her mind brought her back to reality. It was the side of her that had crafted her into the warrior she was today. That side of her shook her, roaring at her to focus, that it was no time to think about the past and lose herself.

She blinked, and realized the smoke had now spread itself around her once more. "Smoker! Enough with the cowardly tactics. Come out so I can beat you to death already." She yelled, slowly repairing her helmet and restoring it back into shape as she did so. Something told her his Primis was going to be a tricky one.

She was wrong.

"Cowardly? I don't think that's the word you should use to describe this, Lyza." His voice was hoarse, but fairly audible. With a wave of his hand, the smoke began to clear away and thin out, revealing what lay within.

"Sorrowful Jester."

She first wondered exactly what the hell it was. Certainly, it wasn't huma-

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!" The screech from its lipless, grinning mouth rattled her armour, the ship, and indeed even the field of Ley surrounding them. Had Lyza been weaker, the scream would have simply blown her own Ley away and left her temporarily weakened.

The thing had no legs, no eyes, no nostrils, and no ears. It was a massive, four-armed beast with a greyish body formed entirely of smoke, and was chained to the boy under it. Two pairs of chains restrained the lower arms around its body and attached to two black cuffs made of smoke on the boy's wrists, while a third, slightly thicker chain had been attached around its neck, which led back to a similar one around Allen's own neck. Most notable was the set of clearly human teeth it had on its face, decorating a lipless hole of a mouth.

He raised his shaking hand to his face and took off his glasses to place them inside his pocket. The collar around his neck was already uncomfortably tight, and he wasn't eager for it to get any tighter.

He wondered where the Captain was, but decided it was pointless to wonder anyway. I won't hand my life over for him to protect. That isn't what I've been fighting for all these years.

"You said you wanted to beat me to death? Well, I'll gladly welcome you to try...if he lets you that is." Allen tugged at the chains on his wrists. "Kill her, Jester!"

It didn't wait around. Immediately, with horrifying speed, it glided through the air and slammed its fist into Lyza, who tried to block by crossing her protected arms in front of her. The blow hardly softened, and she found herself once more skidding across the deck. This was much more different from simply getting hit by the smoker's fists, this was like the force of a cannonball multiplied tenfold. It threw another punch, and she leaped aside to avoid it.

Another hit like that and I'll be risking serious injury.

She glanced over at Cassian, who nodded and ran after her. This time, more than ever, she was going to need him...no matter how much she wanted him to stay put.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!" The beast continued its shrieking and pummeled the deck, forcing Lyza to jump away. She saw Cassian fall, but forced herself to stop. She had to see if it would work, or they were both dead for sure.

Even so, she winced as the creature's fist came down upon Cassian's body, flattening him instantaneously. By some miracle, or rather, thanks to his minimal capability with Ley, he had managed to not die from the impact, but surely had crushed ribs and flattened lungs. "A-Ack...hel-"

The thing raised its arm to strike again, and found itself blown apart as Cassian's injuries were deflected back to it. With a howl, it reformed itself before lunging for the stunned Cassian again, but failed to reach him before Lyza. She snatched him under her arm and ran, hoping against hope that this plan would work. Certainly, that thing was strong, but it did not seem to have much room in that smokey head to think.

If she could just use Cassian the proper way...

Use...Cassian...

"Jester, STOP!" Allen yelled. Thankfully, it obeyed this time and stopped. Despite this, he could feel the dissatisfaction emitting from it , the desperate need to kill. "Just wait. Don't attack the boy, understand? You need to kill the woman first."

He had very little control over this beast. What he used to instruct it was not his words, but his thoughts. His memories, his experience, his knowledge of battle...that was what was being used to steer it. Without them, it was a sad creature constantly in a kind of excruciating pain, always screaming to be freed. It haunted him whenever he used his Primis, because he would hear its cries for days afterwards. He couldn't tell if it was male or a female, but whatever it was felt as though it was him, not just something else. As though he was the one who was always screaming at night, as if he was the one who begged to be freed.

He had no time to think any longer. Jester ignored his orders and sped towards Lyza, who now ducked down and avoided its fist. It slammed down as soon as it realized it had missed, prompting her to raise her arm and block the attack.

She felt the shock from the hit and wondered why she hadn't simply tossed Cassian at it earlier.

Why she now ignored his pleas to let him go and take the hits for her.

I can't.

She shoved the creature's fist aside with great effort, and ran off again.

"What's wrong, Lyza? This can't be enough to beat you so easily, can it?" Allen asked, stumbling along behind Jester.

Dammit. Trying to control this thing uses too much Ley! He thought, feeling the strength sap from his body by the minute.

"Mom, let me go!" Cassian cried, struggling to free himself.

She didn't know what to say, or what to do apart from running. He wouldn't understand if she told him now. And there was no time to make him understand.

The smoke around them was stifling, but she could at the very least, see through it. Her best option now was to escape, or to find a way to restrain her son. He would never forgive her, but if the two of them could manage to survive this, it would all be worth it.

Another sudden burst of speed propelled the smoker's Primis forward, and it slammed its fist into her back, sending her spiralling forward. Cassian landed several feet away near the railings, while she rolled and came to a halt near the main mast.

The sharp pain in her back was the least of her worries. She hauled herself back to her feet and worriedly looked for her son, who lay motionless on the deck.

"Don't worry about the boy." Allen muttered, approaching her with his Primis hovering above him. "I saw him coughing because of my smoke earlier, and since I wasn't affected, I deducted that he was unable to deflect toxins and such back to one who deals it. You spoke as though his deflection applied to everything, but knew full well it wasn't true...didn't you?"

"So you paralyzed him with your smoke, or something like that, huh?" She asked, and found herself smiling slightly as she stood up. It didn't surprise her that something like that would affect him immediately, considering his lack of Ley.

"Its pretty impressive, I must say. For one to think of so many things at once and find solutions in the middle of battle. I've rarely seen such composure during my time, especially not from a kid like you."

Allen found this response to be insulting. "I may be young, but I'm a scientist. If I couldn't think up of a solution for a situation like this after all my years with Captain Caine, I wouldn't be able to live with myself." He said, yanked the chains on his wrist, signalling Jester.

"Scientist, huh? I once studied to be something like that too." She said, and directed the orbs on the floor around her.

"My intelligence and experience in battle combined is what will decide the victor today, brat!"