The Forsaken Art

Trent watched the group from afar. They had been acting suspicious for a while now, and he planned on seeing what they were doing. Suddenly they burst through a door, and started attacking a group of people.

Well... He couldn't let them attack those people... They hasn't done much wrong that he could tell. He jumped from the perch, and ran into the building. It was like a base for the group. He had decided to distinguish himself from the attackers, and used his sword to bring up a wall of flame between the group of soldiers and the defenders.

Then he saw her. It was the woman from before... The one with the big ass who wanted to kill him for the Jager episode.

"I think now is the time to pay you back for back with the Jägers. Well. Anyways... Lets kick their ass'es!"

He jumped through the flames, no burns in sight, and started slashing with his drawn sword.

For several seconds, Garreth stood in place, his eyes closed as he collected himself. His eyes snapped open as an Arcanus Opus mage drew close sword drawn and swinging. He sidestepped the man's swing with ease, and twirled the man's arm up and over his shoulder, stretching it and jabbing a pressure point, causing the man to let go of his scimitar. In one single motion, Garreth greabbed the blade, and brought it up under the man's chin and protruded up and out through the top of his skull, before puuling it back out.

Garreth tested the weight of the blade in his hand. "Off-balance." he stated, and threw the blade. True to his announcement, the blade's flight was not true. the pommel smashed into the forehead of a mage, whereas a balanced blade would have sunk it's teeth into his skull. Garreth rectified this with a shot from his pistol, which hit the back-side of the blade and pushed it partway into the man's skull. Not enough to kill him, but enough to scramble his brain activity. He stumbled around, trying in vain to grasp the weapon jutting out of his head. soon, he tripped, and landed on it, snuffing out his life.

Amanda was slinging ice arpund while Garreth was engaged in his melee fights, mainly watching out for and killing those mages smart enough to realise he wasn't packing his Eisha'n.

Garreth ran at one mage, and flipped over his back, bringing his head down as he did, before snapping the man's back like a twig, and then, in one motion, he brought both his rifles from his back, sweeped around, fired off a couple of shots, one pounding through one mage's eyeball, and the other hitting another's temple, shattering his skull into itsy bitsy fragments, before putting the rifles back on his back.

Ret smiled and murred softly, "It's time they remembered the fear we'd put into them last time we were around~" She replied a small dish of green appearing nearby. She simply stuck her hand into it and then withdrew it moments later, the disk disappearing afterwards. In her hand was now the Frozen Light. the Crystalline ice and light blade glistening. She gave a wide smirk before adding, "Ironic though. Last time we fought humans, we were also fighting against manaflayers. Now they fight alongside us." She grinned, "Let's go Asi~"

Lauren glanced at James and nodded, "Alright." She realized, a little too late, that her staff was still in the room she shared with her brother then remembered something else, "If they get too close though, I hope to see how good you are with the Spirit Claws~"

Jack walked outside, to look upon the men running towards him.

"Please…" he whispered. "Don’t make me do this…"

He didn’t want to. He had killed too many. Why did violence have to follow him? All he wanted to do was help…Was he cursed? Would it help this world, if he was just to take his sai and thrust it though his own heart? His pain, and so many others…would they be spared?

The soldiers were close now. Jack raised his blade.
"Im sorry." he whispered, and lashed out, his blade slicing one of the men clean in half by the waist before he could even scream. One of the other men raised his blade, but Jack's sai punched clean into his forehead. He looked almost mildly surprised as he died.

And he kept going. Ripping apart anything he saw. Part of him didn’t care if it was friend or foe, just enjoying the screams of the wounded and dying, and enjoying the blood that soaked his face and clothes as he ended the lives of so many people.

And then it was over. All the opponents near him were dead. Jack had lost count of how many he had slaughtered. The horror that had taken over his mind retreated, and the kind, gentle and shy Jack was back in control. And he saw what he had done.

He fell to his knees, lowered his head, and began to weep silently, ignoring the chaos caused by the comrades of those he killed.

When the fighting began to break out and chaos ensued, the two shapeshifters switched form. Everyone was shooting each other or hacking at others, magic flying back and forth of all kinds.... It was all but too easy to slip out. The thing about good spies is that they learn not to get caught.

Jenna followed a different path through the confusion than Roy did, but managed to make her way out just as easilly. Following him down the various corridors and halways, she knew exactly what was going on. Why Roy had slipped through the enemy ranks and expected her to do the same.... Finally, she turned around a corner and found him alone in what appeared to be a less importains section of the building away from the main halls.

"You noticed it too, right?" Roy asked, a serious tone overtaking his voice. "That man in the suit. He had the look of distrust in his eye when his pupil glanced at us.... You understand what that means, right?"

Less than sure, Jenna scratched her head as her hair went back to the orange of her current base form. "I'm not that great at facial detail."

Roy sighed in response. "Sometimes I wonder how you manage to keep any kind of life-like form-"

"Natural talent!" She quickly responded.

"Riigghtt... well the rest of us have to study such details unless then come in handy. Like right now, for instance!" He paced around a few steps unsure how exactly to mention it. "I'm not sure how, but he knows. He definately knows about the orginazation."

"Wait, what!" Jenna almost shouted before flattening herself against the wall. A few invading soldiers rushed past, probably lost in the unfamiliar terratory. "So he knows exactly what we are- how we work and everything. How? We're trained to die before telling people of this without reason!" She looked around the corner, expecting someone else to run past. The situation with the Czar was prehaps one of the few exceptions. They managed to keep secret throughout the magical genocide, keep from being used in the assault on the Chosen village, and be un-involved in this power struggle until the Czar died... and some punk just suddly just knew about them?

"Even stranger is Jaide doesn't even know." Roy added. "She was guinuinely open to our presence without a bead of distrust. Either he doesn't care for the others, or he's found out by a verry indirect source. Which is even more bizzare since they left out the most importaint part. It seems there might be a leak in the order. A verry, VERRY odd leak spiewing the name and name alone."

Slight confusion crossed Jenna's face at the thought of how the heck the information leak even worked. Did some dumbass member think he was helping by spreading thier name or something? If anything, more press would be worse for them since the fact that they are not known is how they opperate. Besides, the grandmasters determined which causes to aid, not the members or word of mouth. "What do we do? If he just knows the groups name, then he's not posing a threat, right? We have to take this mission.... A revolution just presents so many oppertunities!"

"We've got to...." The words escaped Roy as the severity of the situation came to light. "We've got to uphold the code of our kind. Find the source of the leak and fix it as fast as we can. Then, as soon as that's done, we have to, you know...."

Jenna sighed. "He seemed like he could be such a good person, too. You sure we couldn't let him live?"

"He knows too much." Roy stated in a supprisingly cold voice.

"But we could-"

"Jenna!" The shapeshifter shouted at his partner. "The verry idea that he could tell people about us is dangeorus enough. As soon as we can, we have to contact a seperate agent. Then, the grandmasters will arrange a problem to the leak. It's out of our hands now...."

"Yeah, I know." A solem look crossed Jenna's face as she starred at the cealing. How come everything she liked had to die?

Lauren and James managed to find the battle in time, already seeing many of the others around the HQ rending the attackers with ease. They looked to each other and locked hands. Lightning sparked around James' free hand while Lauren's free hand became shrouded in light.

Raising their free hands skyward they called in unison, "Blindignation!" The lightning and Light shot towards the sky, coiling together like a massive strand of DNA. It seemed to have done nothing until a small group of the attackers, as yet untouched, were suddenly bombarded by a massive lightning bolt, the point of impact detonating in a blinding light, sparking wildly at those in range.

Once the spell passed a number of the attackers had been robbed of their sight and, in their attempt to flee, some fell upon discarded, or still wielded weapons, meeting their ends, or stumbled into walls or falling into Venice's waters only to drown minutes later. Lauren looked at the battlefield then closed her eyes, suddenly turning away and gripping onto James, "S-so much... death..." She whispered.

Jack knelt in the mire of gore and body parts that he had created, still weeping over this. Over everything.

Finally, after an unspecified amount of time, he finally got up. He took one last look at the large number of soldiers he had slaughtered.

"Requiescat in pace." he whispered, before walking back, slowly drawing his hood over his head, as if in mourning.

Jaide winced as a light came from somewhere in CORE and drenched the hallway she was in. Her shade writhed inside of her, screaming in pain as it was weakened. Jaide, although human, felt a similar drain and leaned up against a wall for a moment or two. After the light faded and the spots in front of her eyes cleared, she followed after where Jack had went. She was worried. She didn't know what kind of fighter he was and if he would be in trouble.

She ran, pushing her legs to take her as fast as they could go, and skidded to a stop. There was Jack, perfectly fine except for the tears running down his cheeks. The enemies around him couldn't exactly say the same thing. Littered like fallen leaves, the area around Jack was completely covered in blood and gore.

Jaide carefully stepped towards him, trying to avoid the dead bodies. She reached him and gently put a hand on his shoulder. She wasn't one for comforting, she wasn't designed that way. Maybe, at another time, she could have been. But things happen and the past cannot change. The caretaker Jaide was gone.

"Hey," She started out lamely, "Let's get you away from here, okay?"

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

James grinned at the sight of his enemies falling. He wanted to pass the same enthusiasm to his sister, turning to smile at her as well. He felt her fingers grab his shirt and remembered she was the softer of the two of them. This was her first real battle, as short lived as it may be.

"Lauren..." He said softly. His eyes lost their hardness and he simply held his sister and shielded her sight from the death.

-=-=-=-=-

Asinoir had an uncharacteristic pout on his face as he told his wife, "That one was mine!"

Truly, Ret was the only one he showed emotion to. He worked very hard to maintain his bad boy persona... well, not really, he was just naturally one, but still. Ret brought out sides of him he didn't even know he had.

"It's alright, you just owe me later," He said, wagging his eyebrows suggestively with a mischievous grin on his face.

He sighed and dropped the carefree attitude for a second, grabbing the legs of a dead person and dragging them to the pile he was starting to form. It'd be easier for cleanup that way.

"Ret," He said in a tone that meant he wanted to talk about something, "I don't know what to do about the boy. No matter what I say, he always gets pissed off at me," There was a thump as one more corpse was added to the pile, "Hell, I'm trying! He's more moody than..." Asinoir swallowed his words. He was about to say than she was when she was pregnant but even the most brave man would be scared of his wife's wrath, "Than... well, you know what I mean."

Jack nodded, and wiped his face. Bad idea, as he just covered it in more blood.
"yeah. Lets go." he said, getting up and walking away.

After a moment, he couldnt help chucking slightly.
"I dont suppose C.O.R.E has some spare clothes i can borrow?"

Jaide looked over at Jack. He had smeared blood on himself after he wiped his face. She didn't have anything to offer him in terms of wiping it off.

After his question, a small, teasing smile happened upon her face, "Nope, you'll just have to walk around naked," She joked, attempting to lighten his solemn mood.

Jack blushed bright red at her words.
"Um...very funny..." he said, stuttering slightly.

Jaide grinned but arched a serious brow. Crossing her arms, she stopped in front of Jack and said in a light tone, "You think I'm kidding don't you?"

She then shrugged, "It's part of your initiation. All the rookies have to streak naked with naught but a sock covering their..." Jaide flicked her eyes to his nether regions, "Important bits."

She started to walk again, internally giggling. She was joking of course, but a good old fashioned hazing was far too tempting to pass up. She came to a stop in front of the armory, knowing that they kept clothes around here just in case they got shredded. She wandered over to a chest and shifted through it. She laughed and held up a long tube sock, her eyes twinkling with mirth.

"There's your sock, Jack," She said, tossing it at him and laughing.

Part of her was very curious to see his reaction.

jack raised an eyebrow. He knew she was joking, but was wondering how far she would go to tease him.
"...what do you do with female members?"

Jaide's smile grew just a bit bigger and she shook her head. Figuring the jig was up and he was onto her, she decided to drop the word "Pervert" out of her mouth. It was half-hearted and she was still smiling. She dug through the chest a little more and grabbed a shirt and a pair of pants.

"How about you go get me a new female member and find out?" She said coyly. She held up the shirt next to Jack and a bark of laughter left her lips. It was at least two sizes too big and the pants were no better off.

"You might want to put on that sock, Jack. Just in case," She said, holding the pants against his hips.

Jack was still blushing slightly.
"...erm...thanks, i guess."

Jaide's happy smile fell suddenly and she gently put her hand on Jack's shoulder.

"Go ahead and get cleaned up. I'll take care of the... mess," Jaide said, "Get some sleep too, while you're at it. I have a feeling tomorrow will be another adventure filled day."

Jack nodded.
"Good idea, you have a nice sleep, as i sure as hell doubt i will."

Roy switched positions with Jenna, looking around the corner. "Ok, looks like they've stopped coming." It wasn't that they were against fighting, but just in case one got away it was always a good idea to stay hidden. Part of him wondered if Jaide had a similar idea. If any of them escaped, she probably wouldn't keep the secrecy of who led thier order.

"Ok, so now I can practice my Mana Spirit impression?" Jenna asked as a confused look crossed her partner's face. "Well, it's good to have just in case. Besides, you never know when that would come in handy. After all, it's odd keeping up light magic when there's a Manaflayer around...." A smile crossed her face. "You should learn it too!"

Having studied expressions, not a many things got through to him. However, that image hit the nail on the head. "No! I'm not trying- I mean, I've been working on my beast form, but that's a little too far. Do you have any idea how much attention that would bring?!"

"Come on, you know it'd be fun...."

Roy's eyes slightly looked down as he spoke without considering what he was actually saying. "I don't like people looking at my... you know." By the time he looked back up, she was already walking away.

In Jenna's secretly twisted mind, everything made perfect sense. To her, it didn't matter what had just happened. She just wanted to show up the Mana Spirit by copying her fur-censorship. If she could just do that then everything else would come normally. Then she'd see! Her and her husband.... Jenna might even show her up in front of him by taking her form and going one better. That would show her for keeping purple hair a secret all these years.... Roy was getting close to mimicing an animal form, he'd be able to show her how to do it if he tried.

Meanwhile, to Roy, he was just confused. Maybe she wanted to see something but he shut her down? The two were once open to doing stuff like that a while ago, but after a while looking over eachother he began to see her more like a sibling. Her mind, pleasently innocent of the horrible things they had to do, much like a little sister. And he didn't want to ruin that image. Now, anything like that would just be plain wierd and just... the thought almost creeped him out a little bit. Of course she wasn't related, he remembered not having a sister when his parents were rightfully executed, but he felt like he should treat her as one. Which kind-of ment trying to get her someone else to be... with her. His mind flashed back to how she reacted to the news that the man from before was going to be killed.

Roy sighed to himself.... He was going to kick himself for this later, but he wanted to meet other people too. And as long as Jenna hung around him like she did, people tended to assume things. Two shapeshifters paired together, a man and a woman. He'd never find anyone with a first impression like that........

Finally, the two of them made thier way into the blood-soaked central area. There was Jaide in the distance with some random member who seemed to be getting embarrased. "I'll never figure this out!" Jenna shouted randomly, probably ruining the two's moment.

Jaide nodded. She would sleep. Eventually.

She started to open dark portals, tossing the bodies inside. They fell out into some random spot in a forest somewhere, certain to scare whoever decided to walk by. The eccentric girl exclaimed something about not figuring out something. Jaide shook her head a few times and then tossed another corpse into the portal.

She could feel sweat beginning to form at the nape of her neck. These guys were weak but they weren't light. With an unladylike grunt, she tossed the last one into the portal. She grumbled a few times, dusting her hands together, knowing that there were more scattered randomly throughout CORE.

She couldn't rest until they were all taken care of. She was the only one who made this process a bit easier. Instead of dragging them outside into where they could be seen and then dragging them still to some shady place, she could simply open a portal and deposit them somewhere.

She momentarily felt guilty for not letting them get a proper burial. No doubt there was a loved one waiting on at least one of them. She bit her lip. Well, they should have thought about that before becoming assassins.

She pointed at a few people randomly and assigned them to be guards. They would work in pairs and be on guard duty for two hours. Then they would be relieved by others that Jaide would pick. It ensured that at least some people would be able to sleep.

Exhaustion started to creep in. The moon was high in the night sky and she looked out a window, gazing at it. Full, round, silver and beautiful. She absentmindedly rubbed at the silver coin on her arm. Only a few more years until it'd be impossible to lie about her age and say she was on vacation from her labor. She didn't have the seal of servitude on her silver coin. Those were received after five years of slavery.

Jaide tore her gaze away from the window and tossed the last dead body into the portal. She snapped it closed behind him and, with bleary eyes, she began to move to her room. She would shower and then she would join her guards.

Sleep was a treasure that avoided her grasp.

Trent walked blindly through the base, bumping into many, and even knocking some men down. He couldn't care about them anymore. He had jumped into a battle he wasn't even involved in, and got no thanks for it.

Well, the least they could do fo him is spare a bed. He finally found the living quarters, and decided on a room, kicking the door open, and flopping down in the bed.

Not long after, an attractive woman with black hair walked into the room, looking straight at Trent.

"I'm not leaving..." Was his immediate response.

More surprisingly, she just layed down beside him and drifted off to sleep.

"Wha... Oh fuck it..."

He turned on his side facing the wall, and embraced sleep himself.

"J-James..." She started, "M-mother... F-father... You... Y-you all make it seem so... easy... So natural..." She closed her eyes, "Wh-why... Why is it so... hard?"

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Ret laughed running a finger along her husband's neck, "Owing you tonight?" She asked with a smirk, "Why wait so long, honey? We could just leave the fight to the others... get cleaned up and I'll pay you what I owe then~" She suggested with a flirty wink.

"Father," Sylas started after a while of walking silently from the Cumaltims' secluded home, "I have an idea. These Rumours say of someone who commands those who fight against CORE... Why not go to where he leads from, Rome, and find out more?" He suggested, "I'll head to Venice, where the rumours point CORE operatives to frequent, and gather info there. How does that sound?"

Azirak thought for a moment, and nodded.
"Alright, but dont do anything stupid."

_____________

Jack strolled into his room, and virtually passed out on his bed. It had been a insane day, and he was tired. For some reason, he didnt go to sleep straight away, and lay awake, thinking.

CORE was...different. Jack had fought all his life, and...he had never...had a friend.
It was a smart move back then. It didnt pay to have friends, when you would probably have to execute them at a seconds notice. There were some fellow soldiers who he had almost brought himself to care about, if they lived or died, but that idea always hit the fan after a few days.

Yet...they seemed to care. It was almost...alien to him. He had been brought up to believe he was expendable, little more than a tool to be discarded when used to its full extent.

So why did they care?

Jack thought, and he realised.

"I...have friends."

And as he lay back, falling into sleeps warm embrace, he realised that he couldnt be more pleased.

_________________

"Not to mention that Jaide is pretty Cu..."

"shut up!"

Aldron and Anna walked to their respective rooms, talking about the recent events. Aldron walked to Anna's door, opening it and hugging her goodnight. He kissed her head, saying, "I'll burn her tonight, don't worry."

With that he sent her away, and gave Emma the funeral pyre she deserved. Anna was asleep when he checked back in on her, and he slipped into his room, flopping onto the dead, and laying his weapons and cloths to the side. He was asleep before long, dreaming of a pleseanter time, and for some odd reason, of killing mages.

Go figure.

Without a word, Jenna walked off to a random room without even checking if anyone had already taken it. As soon as the door was shut, she immediately let loose as the light magic that formed her outfit dissapeared. It took even less time for her to strip off her backup outfit. silently, she turned her back to the door, faced her bed, and looked around for a mirror. After a bit of searching, she found one. "I'll practice all night if I have to." Carefully, she mentally pulled at her fleash twisting it to try and get the surface just right. It felt like head-skin, that seemed to be right. Now to just try and grow hair.... However, she couldn't figure out the right consistancy to switch the hair from gross-looking to a neat method of censorship.

Roy watched as his partner rushed off to her room. Considering what she was trying to do, it was a horrible idea to burst in on her.... He looked around at the piles of dead bodies Jaide was getting rid of. Normally in a situation like this is was a good idea to stick together, but he'd give her some space. The shapeshifter slipped into an empty room and hoped for the best. He should check if someone owned it, but the strain of the day had gotten the better of him.