Crystal unClear

[Cory]

chapter 0 - prologue

Rain poured hard from skies of grey onto the poorly paved roads of the city of Celata. "How can you do this!!!??" a despret man shouted at Carlitos. This man certainly wasnt a poker player, for the betrayal in his expressions couldnt be more obvious. At the moment the man, who was barely a member of the rebellion, was completely surrounded by more than a dozen of Carlitos. Something that was possible due to Carlitos' doppleganger spell. The man had lost track of which was the real Carlitos amongst the clones.

In the distance, General Oujou was massacuring handfuls of other new recruits of the rebellion. Everytime Oujou killed one of them, the man surrounded by Carlitos become that much closer to loosing every friend he had in the world.

Carlitos had been the one who initially managed to gather the intel about this group of new recruits for the rebellion, as well as their hiding place within Celata. At which point Carlitos had reported all his findings to Oujou, the general whom Carlitos directly reported to now. Something that wasnt always the case. Infact the general who initially found and recruited Carlitos into the government has since gone mysteriously missing.

Oujou enjoyed the killing, some would say too much. The only reason he had even bothered to bring Carlitos along for the assignment wrap up, was so that Carlitos would have to prove himself in dealing with a couple of scraps. Everyday was another day Carlitos had to prove himself to Oujou, failing to do so on any given day would likely result in Carlitos' demise at the hands of Oujou.

The man went to attack Carlitos, the man's fist glowing with a strange green fire, which he would punch one of the Carlitos' directly in the stomach. The Carlitos that was punch would suddenly find his insides burning instead of his outsides. That Carlitos would burn to ash before dissappearing, but the rest remained. "Damn" the man muttered, realizing that the one he had chosen to punch was obviously another clone and not the real one.

"How can you do this!!!??" the man again shouted, but this time he continued, "For Rea's sake you're a Reborn too. Arent you!? You have to be with weird magic like yours. Why dont you help the rebellion, we could get out of here together" the man pleaded. Carlitos' amber eyes glazed over. "No" Carlitos replied coldy. The man turned in the direction of the Carlitos that had spoken, "then burn!" the man shouted as thrust his fist forward, the green flames on his fist becoming a column of green flame which blasted in that Carlitos' direction.

The half a dozen of Carlitos that were caught in the attack would find their outsides completly unharmed while their insides turned to ashes. "Wrong one" Carlitos replied. The man's eyes widened as he turned around, not having realized that mere clones could speak, to see the real one behind him with a rod of energy in his hand, which Carlitos now threw in the manner of a javelin at the man. Mid air the rod multiplied into a dozen rods. The man blasted his green fire at some of the rods, but he couldnt get all of them, and so the remaining rods hit their mark. The man was slammed to the ground by the rods, finding himself immobilized.

Carlitos made the remaining clones disperse, and then approached the man. "Please! Dont kill me!" the man begged almost hysterically. "I wont" Carlitos replied. The man was confused and relieved all at once. "I dont have any spells for killing. Also, Oujou might want to ask you some questions. Though i doubt it, he usually kills his targets quickly, but it will hurt" Carlitos added. The man's eyes widened in horror, which was followed by the man spewing all sorts of obsenities.

Oujou would soon give Carlitos the order to move on to his next assignment. As Carlitos walked away, he heard the man shout "Traitor!" Carlitos stopped and turned towards the man one last time. "Why? What makes me a traitor?" Carlitos would continue to speak in a flat monotone voice. "What you say makes me a reborn, is nothing but a meaningless birthmark to me. The word 'reborn' is just a sound you use for people with power, just an empty word that i've never heard before. Your so called 'rebellion' couldnt be more random, like some bored kids throwing rocks at their parents. I dont remember your 'rebellion' ever even being around, i cant fathom why they are now." Carlitos' gaze averted as he shook his head slightly. "What the hell has the government done to you!?" the man said. "The 'government', just another sound without definition. I had a simple choice, and i'm simply following the people who have allowed me to live. As for you, in what way could i have possibly betrayed you? You're just another another stranger in the crowd, i dont even know you" Carlitos told the man. Then he kept walking away, leaving that man to the grim fate that awaited him by Oujou's hand.

[Cory]

Chapter 1 - Meteor, part A

A week later. Somewhere in the city of Celata, outside of one of the cities many government offices. Carlitos wasn't dealing with any members of the rebellion today. Usually Oujou, who wasn't known for taking breaks of any sort, was constantly assigning things for Carlitos to do. Which tended to be along the lines of: spy on that rebellion gathering, gather intel about that rebellion member, track down the location of those rebellion members so Oujou can have at them, etc. But on this day Oujou was..... well actually Carlitos had no idea what Oujou was up to. Anyone who thought Oujou informed Carlitos of everything was sorely misinformed. But whatever it was, it was keeping Oujou so preoccupied that he forgot to give Carlitos any specific assignment. Something which other members of the government took advantage of to order Carlitos to guard the government office that a meeting was taking place in. Outside of this particular government office Carlitos had a number of his clones guarding the perimeter. Inside, Carlitos had a clone stationed at the door of each room. The real Carlitos was guarding the door to the room the meeting was actually happening in. Low to middle ranking members of government comprised the people present. Though who was there wasn't anywhere near as important as what was being discussed. It wasn't Carlitos' fault that they were speaking loud enough for him to overhear.

"Do you actually believe that nonsense" a government member said. "I wouldn't have bothered to arrange this meeting if I didn't have everything verified first" another said. "This meeting and such like it wouldn't be necessary if the higher-ups bothered to keep the rest of the government equally informed" a third said. Their chatter became inaudible as a bunch started talking all at the same time. "As I was saying," the chatter calmed, "according to powerful reborn's in our government, the meteor is 90% likely to completely miss our world. Just something nice to look at in the sky for a few days and nothing more" a government member said. "You're ignoring that 10%" another said. "We're using the reborns in our employ to figure out trajectory and place of impact, in that highly unlikely event. Also, we're devising some plans as to ensure that the rebellion would suffer the most loss of life from it" one of them said. "Hmmm, wouldn't it be convenient if our government reborns could somehow get the meteor to directly hit Krit" another said. "Feel free to dream such wonderful fantasies, it's almost certain to harmlessly avoid Rea" one of them said. "On a side note, none of our government reborns were able to identify the substance the meteor is made of, and it's not akin to any materials or substances natural to Rea" a government member said. "So?" another said. "So. Despite all that, this unidentifiable substance has actually been encountered one single time before" another said. "What?! How? When? Where??" one of them said, before chatter erupted between the government members again.

The door to the room the meeting was taking place in would open all of a sudden, and a government member would abruptly yank Carlitos into the room. The chatter became silence, as the government member pulled at the crystal hanging from a chain around Carlitos' neck. The other members of government got up and got closer to Carlitos as they took an eyeful of Carlitos' crystal. "Explain how you came to have this right now" a government member demanded. "I was found with it. I don't remember" Carlitos replied stoicly. "Lies!" one of them shouted at him. "He's not lying. Some of our government psychic's went through his mind when he was first recruited into the government. He has no memories of before he was found" a government member said. "Then what good is he, or it?" one of them asked. To which another government member replied, "What if it can somehow make the difference between a 90% miss and a 90% hit."

[Cory]

Chapter 2 - Meteor, part B

Marseine, grand capital of the Government. Within the throne room of the Imperial Palace of the Emporer, the Emporer himself had been quietly eating breakfast. But this breakfast would not be like any other because in mere moments he would suffer a disruption the likes of which he never has. The doors burst open as EVERY single middle and high ranking member of government as well as all six of the generals and all of the captains that served under those generals abruptly entered the throne room without any consent or any trace of formality. The Emporer was enraged. "What is this madness!? Is this your attempt at a coup, go ahead and try it. I'll kill you all where you stand regardless of your rank!" the Emporer declared to the crowd before him as he tossed aside his breakfast.

One of the generals stepped forward. "You are aware of the reports of the passing meteor correct?" "Obviously. Including the fact that its likely to miss our world and be completely irrelevant. 90% likelyhood of a miss i keep hearing" the Emperor said. "We have a plan" the general said. "A plan thats entirely dependant on a 10% chance of the meteor hitting. If thats what this intrusion is about, i'm having you all sentenced to death" the Emporer said. "A new plan. If this plan was anything but a certainty, we wouldnt have come. A reborn with considerable gravitational powers had been found, a reborn which we've since captured and then used the psychics in the governments employ to take control of his mind. The gravity wielding reborn is a slave to our will now. We will use him to amplify Rea's gravity and forcefully pull the meteor to the planet" a general said. "For what purpose?! to get us all killed? there's no telling where the meteor would impact" the Emperor said becoming furious again. "Thats where he comes into play" this time General Oujou had spoken. He had stepped forward, grabbed a subordinate of his, and tossed that subordinate infront of the Emperor. That subordinate being Carlitos.

Another general stepped forward, one who had short black hair and dressed like a lawyer, who went by the name of Sebastion. While he wasnt the most powerful general, Sebastion was the longest serving of all six generals. Who were all currently present, by the way. While Generals Frey/Freya and Oujou were stationed in the city of Celata, General Sebastion was stationed in Marseine itself. Sebastion's highest ranking subordinate, Captain Wesker, maintained a position at Sebastion's rear flank. "It was recently discovered that the crystal that Carlitos wears, the very one he was found with, is of the same exact composition as the meteor itself. Now while the actual composition of the crystal and therefor the meteor remains a mystery to us, whats important is that a definite attraction has been observed between the crystal and the meteor. And a way to amplify that attraction has been crafted" Sebastion explained. "Interesting. What exactly is being proposed here" the Emporer wanted to know.

Another general stepped forward. "We will send our gravity manipulating reborn as well as Carlitos to the center of the isle of Kritt. Once there the gravity manipulating pirate will pull the meteor to Rea, once thats accomplished the gravity manipulating reborn will take on the role of Carlitos protecter. At which point Carlitos's crystal will draw the meteor to his position. The device we crafted to amplify that attraction will be put into play. And finally the meteor will directly and violently impact the isle of Kritt" the general said. The Emperor grinned and started to laugh. "That entire island will be wiped off the face of Rea, nearly the entire population of reborn that are against the government will be killed, the 100,000 normal citizens who live on Kritt and constantly spew anti-government sentiment will all be killed, the central nucleus of the Rebellion itself will be annihlated and the vast majority of its membership dead!!!" the Emperor declared as he stood up. "And in the wake of such beautiful mass genocide, the war will finally be over. Peace at last!" the emporer shouted with glee, as many middle ranking and upper ranking members and soldiers of the government applauded.

"I will not place such an operation in the hands of mere soldiers. My six generals, you will unite and handle this operation directly. Make sure Carlitos and the other one make it to their destination. Meanwhile unleash an attack off the shores of Kritt against rebellion ships and pirate ships, be merciless, dont hold back. Keep our enemies so distracted that by the time any of them have the slightest clue what we're up to, it'll be far too late" the Emporer ordered. Then the Emperor walked up to Carlitos, and put his hand on Carlitos's face in an inappropriate manner. "May your noble sacrifice be remembered always as what put this world on its proper course" the Emperor said. The Emperor would slide his thumb lightly across Carlitos's lips, and then kiss Carlitos on the forhead, before walking back to his throne. "No hesitation. Commence this plan at once. Make it a reality before days end" the Emperor commanded the generals.

[Cory]

Chapter 3 - Meteor, part C

A small ship sailed quietly through dense fog as it approached the Isle of Kritt. The ships crew consisted of eight members. Carlitos, the gravity manipulating reborn whos mind was under the governments control, and the six generals of the emperor. For all six generals to be in one place at one time was unprecedented. A vessel with such a crew needed no other defense, for their combined might was godly. A veil of silence lay upon Kritt. The sky was clear, the weather couldn't be any less turbulent if it tried, there was no hint of a breeze, no sight nor sound of birds, the ocean waves had never been more gentle. The silence was deafening.

Carlitos was sitting on the deck towards the back of the ship. There was a grate near him, from which Carlitos could hear fragments of a conversation between two of the generals. Carlitos had come to know the names of four of the generals: Oujou, Frey, Sebastion, and Freya. As for the last two, the two whos conversation Carlitos happen to be overhearing at the moment, he had no idea what their names were. "So thats our part in the plan, eh. Simple enough, and convenient since it will make avoiding the meteor's blast radius much easier for us" a general said. "Though there's one minor detail thats nagging at me. From the intel thats been gathered, it seems that Carlitos's crystal is made of the same stuff as the meteor" the other general said. "So??" a general asked. "Well doesnt that mean that his crystal is from the meteor, or from whatever place out there that the meteor comes from? So doesnt that make Carlitos an alien?" the other general stipulated. "All manner of test was performed on Carlitos when he was first found, before they let him join the government. Including testing whether he was some kind of alien. The results proved he is of Rea'n descent" a general said. "Then how does he have that crystal? If he is definitely from here, and the crystal is definitely the same as the meteor, how does Carlitos have a crystal that belongs to a meteor thats has yet to even arrive on our world??" the other general asked. The two of them were stumped by the apparent catch-22. "arrghh, this makes my head hurt. Who cares it has nothing to do with the plan, dont talk to me about it anymore" a general replied. At this point Carlitos stopped listening.

Carlitos looked down at the crystal and fiddled with it a bit as he starred at it. He wound gleam no answers, just the usual feeling that it was his, just a feeling.... Carlitos looked up when he heard footsteps. It was the gravity manipulation reborn that had approached. He looked a couple years older than Carlitos, though still short for his age. "What are you doing?" the boy asked. "....nothing at all" Carlitos replied. He would stop fiddling with the crystal. "Do you regret being here, do you plan on betraying us and leaving?" the boy asked. "General Oujou has commanded that I be here. So where else is there for me, where else would I go" Carlitos replied. "I just came to tell you that we're about to arrive, so be prepared" the boy said. As the boy was about to walk away, Carlitos asked "Do you regret being here?" "I... wait, why am I..." the boy paused and held his head as he looked to be in pain. The mind control of the government psychics would reassert itself. "I have no regrets. It is my pleasure to serve such a grand purpose" the boy replied with a monotone voice. "What's your name?" Carlitos asked, seemingly indifferent to what had just occurred. "My name is Genis" the boy replied.

The small ship stopped as the six generals gather on the deck. "Okay everyone knows their part in the plan. Lets get to it" General Frey said. Sebastion stepped forward. With a surge of energy Sebastion would no longer look like a lawyer nor human for that matter. His appearance would transform entirely. His feet became talons, his hands became claws, his clothes melted away and his skin became pale and muscular, thick black fur covered him from the waiste down as well as his forearms, two long and sharp horns emerged from the top of his head, a thin and incredibly long prehensile tail emerged from his lower back, powerful demonic looking wings abruptly ruptured out of his back, oh and his eyes turned completely green. Sebastion would grab both Carlitos and Genis. Then with a powerful flap of his wings he would ascend skyward and then head towards the Isle of Kritt. Carlitos started hearing all sorts of noises after they were airborne. Explosions and screams and such. He looked back to see that the two generals, whos names he didnt know, had started an assault against the rebellion and pirate ships that could normally be found in the waters surrounding Kritt. Ships canons fired to no avail, bloody battles of escalating intensity would quickly begin and end aboard each of the decks of the ships, ships themselves were torn apart and started to sink. Though the screaming emanated most loudly from the docks and town of Kritt itself, which the Generals Frey and Freya were laying siege to, a bustling island city quickly changing into trail of blood and destroyed buildings. As for General Oujou, he had tracked down the underground location of the rebellion's secret main-headquarters that was somewhere on the island, and had proceeded to attack it.

Meanwhile Sebastion led Carlitos and Genis to Kritt's coliseum. He would drop them in the center of it, and then start attacking the people in the crowd. Sebastion tore through the crowds of the coliseum like paper, Genis was focusing his powers over gravity on the small spot passing through the sky. It was the meteor, and Genis reached for it, using the gravity of Rea as if it were his own hand and took hold of the meteor and pulled it in. The small spot now darkened the sky as it became gradually bigger. Now set upon its course, there was no stopping the meteor, no turning back. Carlitos stood in the center of all this madness. And yet for Carlitos, it couldnt be more quiet, as if all the sound had left the world, the way someone halfway through a car accident would experience it. Carlitos's attention focused on a small hummingbird flying overheard as it tried to get away, then onto a single droplet of blood from a random person that Sebastion had just killed, flying past Carlitos. However, underneath all that there was a feeling. Carlitos looked down at his crystal. Just a feeling..... "Ow" Carlitos said at the sharp brief pain in his shoulder. All the sound flooded back into the world. He looked to see that Genis had injected him with something, probly something to amplify the attraction between the crystal and meteor. "Your up" Genis said. Genis would start using his gravity powers to kill people in the coliseum. And now that Genis was defending Carlitos, Sebastion no longer needed to and therefor started to fly away. The crystal started to glow.

Then the meteor started to glow as well. The crystal and meteor glowed in sync with each other. Carlitos felt something in his chest. "What's happening...." Carlitos said under his breath as he clinched his chest. The sight of the glowing meteor dominated the sky now. Carlitos's eyes would glow, as he heard something akin to a voice from his crystal. "Reality ending Catch-22 detected. Must Escape. Must ESCAPE. RUN!" The crystal glowed brighter and this time with a bright blue light, which abruptly expanded into a large dome of blue light. Both Carlitos and Genis would be caught within it. "What the hell?!!" Sebastion exclaimed from his position high in the sky, at the sight of the still expanding blue dome of light. While Sebastion was distracted by it, a pillar of blue light would shot up suddenly from the dome, and Sebastion would be caught in it. The pillar of light would continue upwards as the meteor continued downwards. Just before they met, there was a blinding flash.......

[Cory]

Chapter 4 - Reset

Carlitos sat in a hovercar that was gliding down the middle of a city street on a day with clear blue skies. He was looking up at that sky rather intensely. "Are you even listening?" a woman asked. "What happened to the meteor??" Carlitos asked. "What are you talking about?" the woman asked. "I.... I dont know... nevermind" Carlitos replied. The woman went on to say some other things, while Carlitos rolled his eyes at her in response. The woman was much older and sitting in the drivers seat and in the midst of a drawn out speech. "Again you're blowing this way out of proportion" Carlitos said. The woman gave a furious glare. "When is the last time you even did homework, a year ago? Could you tell me the names of a single classmate or teacher or class you're in?! How about the dollar amount of the damages or the bail!!!" the woman said. "Whatever" Carlitos replied. "And for what? What was it all for, a girl" the woman said. "I love her" Carlitos said. "Love!" the woman scoffed. "I love you, Carlitos. You dont know what love is, all you know is the dark magics that girl has got you addicted to. She has you so high on the stuff I'm surprised you have any brain cells left. I knew that girl was no good from the start" the woman said. "Dont talk about her like that! She's the best thing that ever happened to me. And she's not ashamed of her magic, the world needs balance, it can't be all light all the time" Carlitos said. "She is a lost cause who doesnt want to be saved" the woman said. "She's a better person than you'll ever be!!" Carlitos shouted. Seconds later a hovertruck flew right through a red light and collided with Carlitos's hovercar at 90 miles per hour.

The passenger side of the hovercar was pancaked and the hovercar was sent spinning and tumbling across the intersection before smashing into the front of another hovercar. A protective shoch-absorbing sphere of gell had squirted out of the steering wheel and encased both the woman in Carlitos's hovercar as well as the hovertruck driver and the doctor in the hovercar they smashed into; this had happened upon impact and kept them uninjured. However, the extensive and sudden damage to the passenger side of Carlitos's hovercar had prevented that system from being able to do the same for Carlitos himself. The doctor, a man in his early thirties by the name of Genis, swam out of the gell sphere and stumbled into the street, at about the same time as the hovertruck driver. "I'm sorry, I fell asleep at the wheel. It was an accident. Have mercy" the hovertruck driver begged. "You know there's no forgiveness or tolerance for this sort of thing" doctor Genis said. The doctor pulled out a plasma pistol and fired an anti-matter bullet at the hovertruck driver, which ripped open a temporary hole in reality that sucked the hovertruck driver into oblivion. After putting away the plasma pistol doctor Genis made his way to Carlitos's hovercar, in time to see the woman swimming out of the gell sphere and landing on the street with a thud as she fell out of the hovercar. "Ma'am let me look you over to make sure you dont have a concussion" doctor Genis said. "What about Carlitos!?" the woman exclaimed. She ran over to the passenger side of the hovercar and gasped at the sight of the bloody-pulp that was essentially Carlitos.

The woman chanted some arcane phrase under her breath and the hovercar changed into a flock of pigeon's that flew away. Carlitos was semi-conscious and his breathing was shallow. Doctor Genis used a device which displaced a 3D-holographic image of Carlitos's insides. "He's a mess, but there's a chance he could at least be saved as a viable organ donor" doctor Genis said. "Not if I can help it" the woman replied. She placed her hands on Carlitos and started chanting. After a minute or so doctor Genis recognized the specific arcane chant she was reciting. "Magic of that order has never been done successfully. The results will be random if not a complete failure, not to mention the potential of backlash" doctor Genis said. "I have to try. Besides I wasn't magistrate-penultimate six years running for nothing" the woman replied. Both hers and Carlitos's bodies would glow and then their internal organs would switch places. The organ transfer spell turned out to be 90% succcessful. "That was incredible" doctor Genis said in disbelief. However doctor Genis's 3D-holographic display revealed the two things that had kept it from being 100%. Backlash. The spells backlash had rendered Carlitos's mind a blank slate, and both Carlitos and the woman's hearts had been completely destroyed. "But not good enough....." the woman said clenching her chest. ".....I was never enough" the woman said as she keeled over and died. "Such a shame, or perhaps an oppurtunity" doctor Genis said.

With the press of a few buttons on his wristwatch, both Carlitos and doctor Genis would be teleported to the doctor's laboratory. Robots would clear one of the tables of equipment and place Carlitos onto that table. While the robots ripped off Carlitos's shirt and used a micro-laser scalpel to cut and open an incision down the center of Carlitos's chest, doctor Genis located a metal container with various measurement devices attached to it and brought it over to Carlitos. "Now, react the same way with a person as you did with lesser animals, and win me a Nobel Award" doctor Genis said to the container's contents. He opened the container revealing a blue malleable crystaline substance. Something that the doctor had found while investigating craters on the dark side of the moon. He scooped out some of it and molded it into the shape of a cylindrical crystal, put a chain through it, and put it around Carlitos's neck so the blue crystal rested next to the open incision in his chest. "Come on, dont you want to be together, you always want to be together" doctor Genis said as he looked towards the metal container. The crystal pulsed and the remaining malleable crystaline substance in the container flew out of the metal container and into the incision in Carlitos's chest, where it would take the shape of a heart and start pulsing. It wouldnt beat like a normal heart but somehow the glowing pulse got the blood flowing all the same. "Outstanding" doctor Genis said, while one of the robots sealed up the incision in Carlitos's chest. Doctor Genis was about to put the blue cylindrical crystal back into the metal container, but it then hardended/solidified and started glowing and Carlitos himself glowed as well.

"What is this?! It's resonating with the boy's life force" doctor Genis said. The robots pointed a couple of different devices at Carlitos, the results of which displayed as mathematical equations on a holographic display. "This is beyond anything thats happened with the lesser animals. It returned Carlitos to life, while at the same time Carlitos's magic gave it life. A heightened symbiosis?" doctor Genis hypothesized. The mathematical equations raced down the holographic display faster and faster. "But, according to this it's so much more, capable of.... no that's impossible!" doctor Genis said. 'WRONG' The word flashed across the holographic display in glowing letters just like how Carlitos and the crystal were glowing. "Is this an attempt to communicate? It didnt just gain life, its gained sentience as well. What are you trying to tell me?" doctor Genis asked loudly. The following words flashed on the holographic display, 'THIS WORLD IS WRONG.' The blue crystal emitted a bright flash of light.

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There was a bright flash of blue light in the middle of the throne room of the Emperor's palace within the grand capitol city of the government, Marseine. Emperor Sebastion himself was present. As was Emperor Sebastion's family, a squad of first class soldiers, and a general. They had been in the midst of classified conversation, when this abrupt flash of light disrupted everything. The soldiers armed themselves and took positions between the light flash and Emperor Sebastion, while his family was escorted out of the room by the general. Then the general returned as the light faded, revealing a 15 year old shirtless boy lying unconscious on the floor. The soldiers were a tad confused. So the general took action, kicking the teenager in the side in a successful attempt at waking him up. The marble floor was cold on Carlitos's skin, causing him to sit up quickly. He looked around confused and disoriented, not recognizing where he was. Carlitos looked down at himself, his fingers slowly tracing the surgical scar that went down the middle of his chest. Then he held up a blue cylindrical crystalthat hung from a chain around his neck. "This is mine" Carlitos said. He didn't know how he knew that but felt it very clearly. Then he felt something sharp at his throat. His attention focused on the general now holding a trident to his neck. "Who....are you?" Carlitos asked. "I am General Wesker, and unless you want to die on the spot you will tell us exactly how you managed to infiltrate the most heavily fortified palace on the planet, as well as what your bizness with the Emperor is?!!" General Wesker demanded. Carlitos looked around confused as he drew a blank. "I....I'm......I..." Carlitos trailed off as he realized with dread that something was very wrong. He couldn't recall who he was, he couldn't recall anything prior to when he was awakened by the general just now. "Get on your feet so I can kill you properly" General Wesker ordered.

Carlitos hesitated. General Wesker whacked Carlitos with the side of the trident. As Carlitos got up, everyone present noticed the black circle, the mark of the reborn on Carlitos's lower back. Emperor Sebastion interviened. "Wait. Perhaps he can be of some use. Put him through every test we have. Find out what he is, what he's capable of, and if there's any truth to his seeming lack of memory. If even a single thing doesn't check out, get rid of him. If he turns out to simply be useless, dispose of him. Otherwise present him with the only choice he has left" Emperor Sebastion said. "A choice?" Carlitos said aloud before he realized it. Again Carlitos found the generals trident at his throat. "Join the Government or die" General Wesker said. For someone without memory it was a woefully jarring way to start a life. Though it also made such a choice rather unconflicting, since he had nothing else to fall back on. The tests would go on for a month. Afterwhich Emperor Sebastion said, "I have an overflowing abundance of subordinates already, so send Carlitos to the city of Ce'ata. At the rate General Oujou gets his own subordinates killed, he's always in need of more." Carlitos would be taken to Ce'ata by horse'n'carriage. However about halfway there...... "This world is wrong" whispered a voice from the crystal just before the crystal emitted a bright flash of blue.

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Carlitos stood in the middle of a city street in the pouring rain, watching over a man who was pinned to a wall by a handfull of energy rods. The man didnt, or rather couldnt, struggle to try and free himself. "Why dont you just kill me and get it over with" the man said. "General Oujou will decide your fate. He'll be here soon enough" Carlitos replied stoicly. "Actually, I'd prefer you to hand him over to me instead" interjected a voice from above. Upon looking upward Carlitos noted the fellow now standing on the ledge of a rooftop. This fellow was a teenager just about Carlitos's age, if not slightly older, who dressed like a butler and had long black hair. "Am I glad to see you, Sebastion!" the man exclaimed. "The only one I'm handing him over to is General Oujou. And the same applies to you and everyone else in the rebellion that I come across" Carlitos said. Sebastion leaped off the roof and landed between Carlitos and the man. "Did you tell'em anything?" Sebastion asked the man. "Not a word" the man replied proudly. Sebastion took a small metal rod out of his pocket, afterwhich the metal rod extended five feet and one of its ends sharpened to a point. Sebastion would stab it through the man's throat, killing the man on the spot. "Why did you do that?" Carlitos asked. "If I cant have him, no one can. How about you, why do you do what you do?" Sebastion asked. "I'm simply following orders" Carlitos replied. "Why not join us in the rebellion instead?" Sebastion asked. "No I...." Carlitos would get quickly interupted. "Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah. No need to explain. I do my homework when it come to checking up on government dogs" Sebastion said. "Then why even ask?" Carlitos asked. "I suppose I was hopeing you were ready for some room to grow, to mature, to explore the possibilities, to become. But instead I see the government had held you tightly in place and rendered you stale" Sebastion replied. Carlitos's eyes glazed over with emotional indifference. "I expect you intend to capture me now, and hand me over to General Oujou in place of the man I killed" Sebastion said. "Why bother even asking" Carlitos replied. Sebastion grinned. "I'd like to see you try" Sebastion said.

With an arcane chant, Carlitos would turn invisible. Sebastion looked around and then grinned. "That's not clever enough. Unless you intended on fleeing, all I have to do is wait for your spells duration to end" Sebastion said. He would take a moment to listen for any type of reaction or response from Carlitos. "Not even a gasp? That's quite the level of control you have over yourself. But I know you must at least be surprised that I'm aware of this spells time limit. Like I said, I do my homework" Sebastion said. Carlitos would appear some distance from him and then charge and lunge at Sebastion's back. Sebastion turned around, grabbed Carlitos's arm, used the latters momentum to throw him over his shoulder, before thrusting the rod into Carlitos's chest. Carlitos's eyes widened as he spit out blood. "Too bad you're just a doppleganger" Sebastion said about the dead Carlitos on the ground before him. Sebastion turned and threw the metal rod in the direction of the real Carlitos. He avoided a direct hit, but Carlitos's shoulder was still grazed by the metal rod just before he became visible again. "Invisibility isn't all that useful while the pouring rain has been bouncing off the sillouette of your body the whole time" Sebastion said, revealing the reason he had grinned earlier.

Carlitos would manifest a rod of energy in his hand. "All your spells are defensive, support, and utility oriented. Except for that one" Sebastion stated. Carlitos threw the energy rod towards Sebastion, halfway to its target the rod would multiply into a dozen rods. Sebastion dashed about barely dodging the energy rods while making his way towards Carlitos. Once he had closed the distance between them Sebastion reached out, causing the metal rod he had grazed Carlitos with earlier to rise off the ground and fly back into his grasp. At which point he thrust it at Carlitos's midsection. However Carlitos manifested another energy rod in his hand and used it to protect himself. Their metal and energy rods clashing. "Not bad, but too bad your only offensive spell isnt even truly offensive. It only causes paralysis instead of injury, right" Sebastion said. "I get it, you do your homework. Stalker" Carlitos replied plainly. Though it didnt change how right Sebastion was. Furthermore while the spell could be used for close range, it wasn't truly designed for it, putting Carlitos in even more of a disadvantage. Sebastion swung his metal rod so hard that it made Carlitos's energy rod shatter and dissipate. Sebastion went in for the kill, but now Carlitos took advantage of his own speed. Compared to the likes of Oujou, Carlitos's speed was slowmotion. Compared to the average persons though, Carlitos might as well of had the speed of a demi-god. Which became quite evident the longer he dashed and dodged Sebastion's rapid succession of thrusts. Eventually Sebastion feigned a thrust of his metal rod. Carlitos fell for the feint and subsequently found himself in a choke hold. As Sebastion's grasp tightened on Carlitos's throat, Sebastion aimed to skewer Carlitos with the metal rod. Carlitos's eyes went blank and he spoke in a voice that wasn't his own. "The world is wrong." The crystal that Carlitos wore from around his neck flashed with a bright light.

============================================================================

"This is bullshit" Ciel said. "So you keep saying" Carlitos replied. "And yet it hasnt sunk in" Ciel said. "I try not to listen to you most of the time" Carlitos said. "Wish you wouldnt of listened yesterday about this shit-tastic assignment for new recruits of the assassins guild" Ciel said. Carlitos rolled his eyes. "Why are you two standing infront of my boat?" a guy with a straw hat asked. Ciel and Carlitos turned around to find six other people with the straw hat guy. A guy with green hair and three swords by the name of Zolo, a guy with a long nose name Usopp, an anthromorphic raindeer names Chomper, an anorexic lady with orange hair called Nami, a lady with dark hair called Robin, and a blonde guy wearing a black suit names Sanji. Ciel looked back at the boat and then back at the straw hat crew. "Now the boat design makes sense" Ciel said. "What's that suppose to mean?" Zolo asked in an angry tone. "It means your fuckin boat is retarded looking" Ciel exclaimed. "I'm gonna kill'em" Zolo said. "Calm down Zolo, you've had too much to drink" Usopp said. "He hasn't had anything to drink" Chomper said. "Oh wow. We've stayed here at the Kritt shipyard for way too long" Usopp said. "Hey kids, want to join my crew!?" straw hat guy asked with a big grin. "Actually we just wanted to steal your boat" Carlitos said. "You must be joking" Robin said. "Your crew is the only fuckin joke here" Ciel said. "Not helping...." Carlitos said. "I can make their deaths really painful" Zolo said. "What do you guys even need a boat for?" Nami asked. "The Guild was suppose to arrange for a ship and a crew to be here for us, for an assignment we're going on. But this morning a guy from the guild shows up to tell us that the ship got attacked on the way here. So now its up to us to figure out transportation" Carlitos explained. "Its bullshit" Ciel added. "Its also vague. We might be more inclined to help you if you told us some details" Robin said. "Like for example, details about the Guild" Chomper added. "You really expect us to bend over and let you screw us out of our assignment so easily" Ciel said. "Your boat will suffice" Carlitos added. The straw hat crew took a moment to look amongst themselves.

Then the straw hat guy inflated like a rubber ball, and with a swift kick from Sanji, was sent flying in Carlitos and Ciel's direction. Carlitos would cartwheel to the side and out of the way. "Oh fuck you too" Ciel muttered towards Carlitos. Ciel would get hit directly and be sent flying off the pier and crashing into the straw hat crews boat. The jaws of the straw hat crew would collectively drop. "We're suppose to be getting them away from our boat, not helping them onto it!!!" Nami yelled. "oops" straw hat guy replied with a laugh as he scratched his head. Carlitos charged at straw hat guy, but before he could get anywhere near him Robin summoned multiple sets of arms out of the ground which grabbed Carlitos by the ankles and wrists. The rest of the straw hat crew then approached Carlitos with bloodthirsty looks in their eyes. "Crap....." Carlitos muttered. Ten minutes later Ciel and Carlitos were sitting on the pier all bruised up, and watching the straw hat crew sail off into the distance.

After Ciel and Carlitos spent a few days recovering in the Kritt Medical Center, they started looking around Kritt's shipyard for another boat. Not long after, the two of them found a boat that for some reason every single other soul in the shipyard was keeping their distance from. "This boat doesnt look half bad, except for the fuckin obnoxious big red letter R on the side" Ciel said, then turned to Carlitos and added, "You're supposedly good with magic, you can make it disappear." "Dont care. Lets just take the boat before its owner shows up" Carlitos replied, while already boarding the vessel. "Fuck it. I'll do it myself then" Ciel said. He would start pulling at the big red letter R to try yanking it off the boat. Carlitos went to Ciel and slammed his head against the big red letter R. "OW! Fuckin bastard!" Ciel shouted. "You'll get over it" Carlitos said. In response to the shouting, three people came out of a nearby building and ran up to the boat. A woman with red hair, an androgynous she-man with blue hair, and a sorry excuse for an anthromorphic cat demon. "Well well looks like these kids were trying to steal our boat. Definitely worthy material for joining our team" the cat demon said. "More. Red. R's" Ciel said in a disturbed tone, with a twitching eyebrow, after noticing the uniforms those three were wearing. "Ah yes, let us introduce ourselves" the cat demon said. Suddenly a spot light shined down on those three, out of nowhere. Carlitos and Ciel looked around frantically trying to find the source of the spot light, to no avail.

"Prepare for trouble" the red haired lady said. "Make it double" the adrogynous blue haired guy said. "To protect the world from devastation" the lady said. "To unite all peoples within our nation" the guy said. "To denounce the evils of truth and love" the lady said. "To extend our reach to the stars above" the guy said. "Jessie!" the red haired lady declared. "James!" the blue haired guy said orgasmicly, while his eyes sparkled and he sensually carressed his own cheeks with a rose he pulled out from his ass. A crowd of girls swooned in the background and fainted like dominos. Ciel slowly turned towards Carlitos. "Kill. Me. Now" Ciel said. "Meowth, that's right" the cat demon said. The spotlight shining down on Jessie, James, and Meowth would abruptly vanish. Carlitos slowly removed himself from their boat. "So what do you think?" Meowth asked. "Lets go find another boat" Ciel and Carlitos agreed as they walked away with their heads lowered. "Team Rocket is blasting off again!!" Meowth said. "Hey I think we actually won at something just now" Jessie added as the three of them sailed away from the island of Kritt.

Since they were now much more cautious in their selection of boats, Ciel and Carlitos had elected to sit down outside one of the taverns and watch the various boats and ships come and go from the shipyard for a couple of hours, looking for a mark. Eventually something caught their eye. A small vessel, whos sleeping quarters would likely fit only five or six at most, but it was also sturdy looking. And most importantly it was normal looking, something that wouldnt stick out or call attention to itself. Ciel and Carlitos raced towards the boat. "Finally... we can get going" Carlitos said. "Going where?" the boats captain asked. "Oh Fuck!!" Ciel exclaimed annoyed. "This world is......Fail. Fail. Fail!" a voice from the crystal declared as the crystal started to glow. "What's going on?" Ciel asked, as he put his hand on Carlitos's shoulder. The moment he did, the crystal emitted a bright flash of blue light which encapsulated the both of them.

============================================================================

Captain Wesker walked down a long hallway while carrying an unconscious Carlitos over his shoulders. He passed many doors along the way as he approached the large door at the very end of the hall. Just as he was about to place his hand on the doorknob, the door opened. A young woman, with blonde hair that was worn in a ponytail, stood before him. "You're right on time" the yound lady said. "Mistress Cecilia" Captain Wesker said. "Please no titles. Saying it that way makes me sound old" Cecilia said. "Suit yourself. Now if you dont mind I've come a long way" Wesker said. Cecilia moved aside. Wesker went inside and put Carlitos down on a couch that was in the back of the office. "An odd piece of furniture to have in an office" Wesker said. "I just bought it yesterday. What can I say, I had a feeling I'd need one" Cecilia said as she followed Wesker inside. She would close the door behind her. Wesker took a seat in a chair infront of a desk, while Cecilia sat down in the chair behind the desk. "Ever since the war between the Government and Rebellion ended hundreds of years ago, the government has undergone quite a bit of restructuring. Though we at the government have also found ourselves in a, shall we say, fragile position. At the least it hasnt left the Government with as much to do as it used to. So its left us with much more time to follow up on anything and anyone peculiar. Like you, Cecilia" Wesker said. Cecilia looked unphased by his words as she poured herself some tea. "You look to be in your mid twenties, but there are reported sightings of you all over the place. Popping up briefly here and there stretching back to the time of the war. And even possibly to the time of the ancient Queen Rea, though we're still looking into that" Wesker said. "But like you said, I'm only in my mid-twenties. So all those sightings cant possibly be me, right" Cecilia said. "....of course..." Wesker replied in a cold voice.

Wesker got up and started pacing. "Nonetheless the government is keeping an eye on you. And you seem to be keeping in good behavior. But then you went and founded this school" Wesker said. "Academy" Cecilia corrected. "Right. Well consider the government intrigued by your little project. And consider Carlitos, the youngest member of the government, as our offerring to your project" Wesker said. "Project" Cecilia scoffed. "This Academy was only founded with the best intentions. To teach and guide the youth of this world, the next generation, so that the future may be a peacefull one. Perhaps as peacefull as it was in the time of that Queen Rea you mentioned" Cecilia replied. Now Wesker scoffed. "I'll accept Carlitos here and have him enrolled as a student. But while he is here, I hope you realize that he is essentially my property. Under my care, without yours or any other authorities interferance" Cecilia said. "Carlitos may have only been with the government a very short time since his sudden arrival out of nowhere, but he is still government property, only on loan to you. You would do best not to forget that" Wesker replied. Cecilia sighed. "I have other things to attent to. So I'll be departing, leaving Carlitos behind as a sign of the governments good faith in your project, for now" Wesker said. At which point Wesker would leave the office, but not before having some tea. Cecilia smiled. "I was just parched...." Wesker said, slamming the door behind him. Cecilia laughed slightly, then she looked over at Carlitos, while rubbing the tattoo of the name 'Kenshi' that was on the side of her neck.

[Cory]

Chapter 5 - Orientation

Carlitos and Cecilia were sitting in her office across from each other. "Was there anything else?" Carlitos said after noticing how Cecilia was starring at the crystal hanging from Carlitos's neck. "I'd like to ask you a question" Cecilia replied.

:: earlier ::
Carlitos stood infront of a door that he had just knocked on. A suitcase in one hand, a couple of papers in the other. He glanced over one of the papers again as he awaited for someone to come to the door. "Maybe this isn't...." Carlitos stopped speaking mid sentence as the door opened. The boy that opened the door looked to be around the same age as Carlitos, but more urgently the boy was wet and naked. Save for the towel that hung loosely from the boys waist, as if it were about to fall off. "Sorry I was in the shower" the boy said. obviously, Carlitos thought. "My name is Genis" the boy said. Carlitos didn't reply. "....did you want something?" Genis asked. Carlitos didn't reply, again. "I'll let this towel drop if you don't say anything soon" Genis said. "Oh, um....sorry. I..I thought this was my dorm, the dorm I was assigned. But I must have gotten turned around here, I'm new here" Carlitos rambled. "Uh-huh" Genis said as he grabbed the papers Carlitos was holding and skimmed through'em. "No, no mistake. This is the right dorm. Though it was awful nice of Headmistress Cecilia to not mention that I'd be sharing my dorm room this semester" Genis said. Genis stood aside and opened the door fully so that Carlitos could come in. Carlitos entered and glanced around. "I guess you don't have a lot of stuff??" Carlitos asked. "I just prefer a minimalist way of decorating. But that side of the room is yours now, so do whatever the hell you like with it" Genis replied as he gave Carlitos his papers back. "Thanks. My name is Carlitos, by the way." "I don't remember asking" Genis replied as he walked back into the bathroom to dry up.

:: much later ::
Carlitos walked through some double doors and found himself in what seemed like the Academy's gymnasium. It was quite large and mostly empty, aside from the group of students standing with Cecilia near the center. While there were bleachers alongside one of the walls, there weren't any score boards or basketball hoops. Or any sports equipment for that matter. Carlitos had a somewhat confused expression as he made his way towards the group. "You're kinda late" a student said. "Its his first day" Genis said. Then Genis approached Carlitos. "Sorta speaking of which, I missed you at lunch. I Had gotten all syked up about denying you a seat at my table and humiliating you infront of everyone, for nothing" Genis said. "...Thanks...." Carlitos replied sarcastically. "So what happened? Did you really get lost trying to find the cafeteria?" Genis asked. "No, I was with Headmistress Cecilia" Carlitos replied while he avoided eye contact with Cecilia. "With?" a student said suggestively. Some others laughed. "She said an Orientation was standard procedure for all new students" Carlitos said. "More like interrogation" Genis joked. "Anyway why is some of the stuff missing?" Carlitos asked about lack of basketball hoops. "Its not that kind of gym, that's on the other side of the Academy" a student replied. "What kind of class is this then?" Carlitos asked. "Fight Club!" a student exclaimed. Cecilia sighed. "Its not quite that. While one of my goals is to help this generation of young people to shape an age of peace throughout Rea. Sometimes, regrettably, peace needs to be defended, or fought for to be maintained. Otherwise those who wouldn't want peace would just kill the whole lot of you to keep it from happening and maintain their statis-quo. For lack of a better name this is 'defensive arts class'" Cecilia explained. "She keeps changing the name of this class all the time" a student said. "Just how many classes are you teaching?" Carlitos asked. Cecilia just shrugged. Most of the students present started heading towards the bleachers. "Whats going on?" Carlitos asked. "New students are always up first" Genis said. "What?!" Carlitos replied. "Though I am jealous" Genis said. "Why?, your free to trade places" Carlitos said. Genis sighed at the sight of Carlitos's opponent. Another new student, about the same age as Carlitos and Genis, though taller, with long dark hair, and for some odd reason dressed like a butler. "His name is Sebastion. He's also new" Genis said, with another sigh. "You know the rules, Genis, no trading places and no assists by anyone else. And remember Genis, I'm keeping my eye on you" Cecilia said. "Yeah, yeah" Genis replied as he made his way to the bleachers. "um...hi" Carlitos said trying to be polite to his opponent. "Its a pleasure to make your acquaintance" Sebastion replied, as he shook Carlitos's hand. "Have we met before???" Carlitos asked. "Doubtful" Sebastion replied with a smile. "You two can begin any time" Cecilia said while chowing down on some popcorn by the bleachers. "How did you get over here so fast!?" a student asked. "And where did she get that popcorn" another student wondered. "You know she'll never tell us" Genis added annoyed. "I'm not really sure what she expects me to do at the moment" Carlitos told Sebastion. "Its simple. She expects you to survive" Sebastion replied as he charged. As Sebastion charged, something flashed briefly through Carlitos's mind. An image. A moment. Carlitos in the middle of a rainy street in the city of Celata, fighting Sebastion. "...But that's never happened. You've never met me" Carlitos mumbled. Sebastion took a small metal rod out of his pocket, which extended to the size of a staff. He twirled it about mid-charge before striking Carlitos with it. Carlitos had been so distracted that he taken a direct hit without any countermeasure and was sent spinning back until he landed on his ass. "ouch. Is that it?" Sebastion asked. "Keep going" Cecilia instructed. Though the other students were surprised at this. "If you insist" Sebastion said.

:: another day ::
Sebastion and Carlitos were sitting outside at a table at one of the Academy's courtyards. Sebastion had a free period, while Carlitos just didn't have classes on this particular day. "I'm having a hard time figuring out what kind of school this is" Carlitos said. "It seems to depend on Headmistress Cecilia's mood. The best description I can come up with is that its a college for high school aged students, with an incredibly bizarre and erratic curriculum" Sebastion replied. Carlitos laughed. "The rest of the students just act like its normal or something" Carlitos said. "They're just adjusted is all" Sebastion replied. "I just mean that its nice to not be the only new student here" Carlitos said. "I suppose..." Sebastion replied. "So how did you wind-up getting enrolled here? Did your family send you?" Carlitos asked. Sebastion's expression soured. "Did I say something wrong?" Carlitos asked. "...No. Its just that I don't have much in the way of family. They're all long dead, except for the twins of course" Sebastion said. "Twins?" Carlitos asked. "My cousins" Sebastion replied as he took out a locket and opened it. Inside was a picture of twins, a little girl and boy. Sebastion let Carlitos take a look. "Who looks after your cousins?" Carlitos asked. "Xion and Ciel look after themselves really. This picture is quite out of date, they're older now, almost as old as me" Sebastion replied. "You sound like you miss them" Carlitos said. "Perhaps...." Sebastion replied. "Sorry I brought it up. Didn't mean to be such a downer" Carlitos apologized. "Don't fret, its not like you had anyway of knowing about my very small family. No harm done" Sebastion replied. Awkward silence swooped in as Carlitos wondered how to continue the conversation. It wasn't as if Carlitos could pry any further about how Sebastion was enrolled at this Academy or about what exactly happened to the rest of his family, or about why Sebastion's cousins Xion and Ciel weren't enrolled here as well. Pursuing that line of questioning any further would be somewhere between suspicious and offensive.

:: a tad beforehand ::
Carlitos was heading back to his dormroom, to drop off some stuff between classes, but stopped at the door when he heard voices. One of which he recognized right away as Genis, but the other was unfamiliar to him. Carlitos kept listening. Within their dorm, Genis was looking over some paperwork that was spread across his bed. A man in black robes, Digamma, was sitting on the ledge of the open windowsill. "You haven't given me much time to investigate the two new students before showing up for an update" Genis said. "Frequent info updates are just standard procedure for the assassins guild. You never know when even the tiniest most insignificant minutia will become useful. You should know that by now" Digamma said. Genis sighed. "I suspect Sebastion's admittance has something to do with an as of yet unidentified connection to Carlitos, and/or a curse that his bloodline is inflicted with" Genis said, while handing over a few papers to Digamma. He glanced over them briefly. "This particular curse also afflicts a set of twins, one of which you may have to interact with soon as part of your next assignment" Digamma said. Digamma gave Genis pictures of Ciel and Xion, while Genis handed over a picture of Sebastion to Digamma. "I'm guessing we're using the usual cover story for my next absence from this Academy, while I deal with this brat, I mean Ciel, I mean important assignment" Genis said with an eye roll. "Obviously. Also try to get a bit closer to Sebastion, that fact that you know him could potentially be of use against those twins on your next assignment" Digamma suggested. "As far as the other new student, Carlitos, he's a Government dog" Genis said. Carlitos didn't hear anymore of their conversation because he quickly walked away from the door. He was running late for his next class now anyway, but more urgently he had an update of his own to make. Carlitos took out a small device that Captain Wesker had left with him, and placed it in his ear. "Captain, can you hear me?" Carlitos said. "I can hear you just fine. Our government employed psychics are connecting us via these experimental devices. The people upstairs will be pleased that such a contraption actually works. Now what do you want" Wesker said. "I've been made" Carlitos said. "What! That bitch Cecilia was suppose to keep her mouth shut about you as part of our arrangement. I knew she couldn't be trusted" Wesker assumed. "No the Headmistress hasn't said anything. Its a fellow student. He hasn't told any other students, but he is apart of the Assassin's guild and he's just informed another of their members about it" Carlitos said. "Did you just say the Assassin's Guild?" Wesker asked coldly. "Yes. Should I abort this assignment?" Carlitos asked. "....No. I'm modifying your assignment parameters. He may have made you, but you've made him too and they don't know it. Continue to deal with the Academy and Cecilia the way the Government ordered you to, but now you're looking into the Guild as well. Opportunities to have an inside ear on the Assassins Guild is rare. Do your duty and make the Government proud, and try not to fuck this up" Wesker said, as he ended communications. "Yes sir...." Carlitos replied.

:: sometime in between ::
Carlitos and Cecilia were sitting in her office across from each other. "Was there anything else?" Carlitos said after noticing how Cecilia was starring at the crystal hanging from Carlitos's neck. "I'd like to ask you a question" Cecilia replied. "Depends on the question. As you know I can't reveal any details about what I do for the Government" Carlitos said. "It's not that kind of question" Cecilia said. "What kind of question is it?" Carlitos asked. "....the kind that may deeply trouble you" Cecilia replied. Carlitos wasn't sure how to react. "When Captain Wesker first brought you here, you were unconscious" Cecilia said. "So?" Carlitos said. "My question is why" Cecilia said. "What?" Carlitos asked. "Why were you unconscious?" Cecilia asked. "Isn't that obvious. How is anyone rendered unconscious" Carlitos replied. "I didn't ask about anyone else. I'm asking about you" Cecilia said. Carlitos's glance shifted around the room, as he stuttered trying to conceive a coherent sentence. "Did Captain Wesker do it to you?" Cecilia asked. "No" Carlitos replied immediately. "Then why?" Cecilia repeated the question. "Its classified" Carlitos replied. "I know an excuse when I hear one" Cecilia said. "Can I leave now, I think we're done for today" Carlitos said. "Yes you can leave, the moment you answer my question. My simple, tiny, little question. Why?" Cecilia replied. Carlitos sat there in frustrated silence. Cecilia sipped some tea. Then Carlitos started to think about it, and when he did, the crystal hanging from his neck pulsed briefly. Carlitos went to quickly cover the crystal with his hand. At that moment, Carlitos remembered when Cecilia was starring at his crystal earlier. "You knew...somehow you knew. How did you know!?" Carlitos asked. "Perhaps that is enough for today. You can leave my office now, I do have an entire Academy to run afterall" Cecilia replied. Carlitos got up as if to storm out, but then stopped at the door. With his hand on the doorknob and his back to her, he said "I remember how I was rendered unconscious. I remember yet at the same time I don't remember. En route here, the Captain and I were attacked by some thugs. I was knocked unconscious during the fight. I remember that. I remember it because it is the truth, because it was absolutely real and happened without a doubt. There were witnesses, you could ask them if you wanted to. And I remember everything before that too, all the way back to when the government first found me. And yet.... it doesn't feel right. Something is off....wrong..... None of that feels like it ever was. Like, as if I only began when I woke up from being unconscious..... And it feels like I've had this feeling before, more than once before, but kept forgetting." Carlitos then opened the door and started to leave. "One last question of the day. What's your name?" Cecilia asked. Carlitos turned around and looked at Cecilia like she had three heads. "Carlitos, you cant be that forgetful" he said. "Duh. I know that. I was actually referring to that crystal of yours" Cecilia replied. Without a word Carlitos slammed the door shut behind him.

[Cory]

Chapter 6 - The Auswahlen Saga, part 1


:: Flashback ::
A large boat called 'Kenshi's Way' sailed at high speed out into the Grand Ocean. Carlitos entered the captains quarters after knocking on the door. He found the Headmistress of the Academy herself at the wheel, with a sexy sailor's hat on her head. "Everyone's waiting to find out more about this special field trip. I mean, its a strange assortment of people you choose for it. Most of us don't even have the same classes together, a few aren't even students. Is there anything even out this far into the ocean? Or is this some sort of scuba thingy" Carlitos asked. On board this boat, including Carlitos and Cecilia, there were 26 people. "So many questions....." Cecilia paused as she briefly rubbed the tattoo of the name 'Kenshi' that was on the side of her neck. ".....I'm sorry Kenshi, but for this lesson i'm taking my que from Whisper.....i'm so sorry" Cecilia said to herself. Carlitos stood there confused without a clue as to what Cecilia was talking about.
:: Flashbacks End::


A few days later.....

Carlitos woke up suddenly. Having just blacked out for a minute or so. He stumbled to get to his feet. His head bruised from the way his head hit the ground, his stomach bruised from being attacked. Carlitos was in the middle of a forest on an uninhabited island somewhere in the Grand Ocean. "I don't appreciate cowardly sneak attacks" Carlitos said. Then Sanji walked out from behind a nearby tree. Sanji wore a suit and thick black boots. He was a year older than Carlitos and a fellow student at the Academy. He had wavy blond hair, had a cigarette hanging out of his mouth due to being a chain smoker, and had a glowing tattoo of the letter 'F' on his cheek. Though Carlitos had one of those too, a glowing tattoo of the letter 'P' on the back of his hand. "I don't think I like being talked to that way" Sanji said. "How else do you expect me to talk to a prick" Carlitos replied. Sanji charged at Carlitos, who turned to run, but suddenly Sanji was infront of him, and with one of his glowing feet kicked Carlitos in the midsection....again.

Carlitos was sent flying from the impact and collided, back first, against a tree, hard. Carlitos spit out blood as he slumped at the base of the tree. Sanji's footwork was renowned for being inhuman. "You don't have to do this. We don't have to submit to all this insanity" Carlitos said, while Sanji approached leisurely, taking a drag of his cigarette. "Yes we do. There's no escape from here unless we do this. Kill or be killed. And when that's all that's left, there's no such thing as cowardly or sneaky or unfair. You do what you have to. The ones that figure that out live, the rest, like you, die" Sanji replied. Sanji charged at Carlitos again. With an arcane chant under his breath, two dopplegangers of Carlitos appeared infront of him. One of them blocked Sanji's attack, at the cost of his own rib cage entirely shattered and splintering into his lungs and heart. The second doppleganger then grabbed hold of Sanji's extended leg. "What the F*ck" Sanji exclaimed. And then the real Carlitos got up and speared Sanji.

Once on the ground Sanji, Carlitos, and the remaining doppleganger struggled and tossed around in the dirt. Carlitos would wind-up sitting on top of Sanji, while the doppleganger did its best to hold down Sanji's legs. At which point, Sanji took his hands out of his pockets and placed them around Carlitos's neck and started to choke him. In response Carlitos put his hands around Sanji's neck and started to do the same. Though he also conjured two additional dopplegangers. One of which took hold of Sanji's arms, got them off of the real Carlitos, and restrained them. Sanji struggled to speak as he was being choked. "I may use 'cowardly sneak attacks' but at least i'm not cheap. At least I'm not a hypocrite" Sanji said. "You're the one that said when it comes down to this, everything's fair" Carlitos replied, his hands still around Sanji's throat. "You wont do it. You're too good inside" Sanji said, reffering to the prospect of Carlitos choking the life out of Sanji. The prospect of killing his fellow classmate in cold blood.

Carlitos's hands slowly started to loosen. Carlitos took a moment to let his mind really catch up to what the hell was going on around him. 'what the hell am I doing' Carlitos was thinking. "You're right" Carlitos said as his gaze averted. Sanji smiled.....but only for a moment. The extra doppleganger that Carlitos had conjured, that had elected not to restrain Sanji in any way, had instead ripped a chunk of bark off the nearby tree. Then it walked up to Sanji, just as the real Carlitos was loosening his grip. "You're wrong" the doppleganger said as he violently stabbed the bark through Sanji's eye. The doppleganer stabbed it as deep as he could, all the way through. Sanji Died with a smile on his face, not even having time for his facial expression to register the shock. "NOOOO!" the real Carlitos cried out in horror with wide eyes starring right at the doppleganger. All the dopplegangers dispersed themselves. And Carlitos pulled away his hands after the blood from Sanji's mortal wound had bled onto his hand. The tattoo of the letter 'F' on Sanji's cheek stopped glowing and faded away.

[Cory]

Chapter 7 - The Auswahlen Saga, part 2


*Disclaimer - The 'Omega' npc in this story and the 'Omega' that is one of Lucian's alternate personalities, are not the same. They are two entirely separate people who have nothing to do with each other at all. Sorry for the confusion.*

:: Flashback::
In the lower decks of Cecilia's boat, Kenshi's Way, Genis was snooping around. He opened each door he came across and glanced inside. Genis would make a mental note of things that seemed worthy of further snooping, before closing each door and continuing further down the hallway. Eventually Genis came across a door that was locked. "Interesting" Genis mumbled. Then there was a sound. Genis turned around to find an old man who was suddenly there moping the floor. "Geppetto?, The Academy janitor? Why in the world did Headmistress Cecilia bring you along for this field trip?" Genis asked. Geppetto glared at Genis. "Whatever. Just get lost and find someplace else to ruin with your dirty mop" Genis said. Geppetto gave Genis the finger and stormed off. "Good luck getting him to clean your dorm room at the Academy ever again" someone said. Genis turned back around to find two of his fellow classmates, Delta and Omega, laughing at him. "Don't you two have better things to do, like giving each other head" Genis said. "Is it always this easy to sneak up on you? Maybe you should consider retiring from the Assassin's Guild" Omega said. "You know the only form of retirement the guild offers is death. Though why they haven't gotten rid of you two already is beyond me. When is the last time you gave the guild info about the Academy that was even remotely useful" Genis replied. "Anyway. What are you up to?" Delta asked. "I was about to pick the lock" Genis answered. "Don't bother, we already tried that" Omega said. Genis tried anyway....but also failed. "What could warrant such a high quality lock" Genis wondered aloud. "I did some snooping. The question isn't what, its who" Delta said. "A prisoner?? Why would Headmistress Cecilia bring along a prisoner for our field trip?" Genis asked.
:: End of Flashback ::


Genis stopped his lonely stroll through the forest when he noticed something on the ground. Having kneeled to get a closer look, Genis found a string or a thin wire that was half an inch off the ground. His gaze followed the string, to the left and then right, to that find that both ends stretched to nearby trees and then went up along the trunk of the trees. Genis grabbed a pebble and got up on his feet. He would distance himself from the string by about five feet and then toss the pebble at it. Then two large logs swung out from the trees upper branches and slammed into each other. If Genis hadn't stepped back he would of been killed. "Whoever set this lame trap can come out now" Genis yelled. *Click* Genis looked up when he heard that sound above him. "Shit!" he said at the sight of a wooden spear falling down aimed right where he was standing. Genis dodge rolled out of the way seconds before the spear thrust into the ground. As Genis sighed, he noticed an 'x' on the ground right under his feet. "What the f...." Wooden arrows shot out of small holes in all the nearby trees, all of which were coming for Genis. He would quickly backflip out of the way. Only to land on a patch of unstable ground, which he quickly found out was a net. It triggered the moment he landed on it and it pulled upward trapping Genis inside it and dangling in it in mid-air. "Not so lame now is it" Usopp said.

Usopp revealed himself to be standing on the branch of a tree. Usopp was one of Genis's classmates at the Academy. Though he was a couple years older than Genis, and they didn't hang out much due to being apart of entirely separate social circles. He had a glowing tattoo of the letter "B" on his shoulder. He also had a backpack that was filled with stuff he had made. "Great, the shop class showoff" Genis muttered. "If I'm a showoff its because I have something to show off" Usopp replied. "Yea your amazing ability to use a hammer or follow an instruction manual" Genis said with an eyeroll. "More like my innate knack for making things. Sorta like a blacksmithy, I can just look at my surroundings and see all the things they could be used to build, and exactly how to go about building it. Plenty useful in life outside the Academy, also useful for making traps to catch prey" Usopp said. "Except people don't give a shit about a blacksmith unless its to make them a weapon" Genis said. "Oh, I make those too" Usopp replied, as he reached into his backpack, pulled out a crossbow, and pulled the trigger.

Except Genis then cut through the net and fell out of it. Narrowly missing the crossbow arrow, and landing on the ground on his feet. "How did you...." Usopp didn't need to finish asking because he could see the answer. The sword that Genis now held in his hand. At all times Genis keeps a bookmark with him. The bookmark itself was created by Genis's ability. The fact that the bookmark can change into a sword and vice-versa at will, is also apart of Genis's ability. Since as a sword it allowed Genis both more efficient use of his ability as well as allowing him to defend himself. Usopp now aimed his crossbow at the glowing tattoo of the letter 'M' that was just above Genis's left eyebrow. Genis swung his sword the same time Usopp pulled the trigger, and he cut the arrow in halves. Then Genis slashed the ground infront of him. Though when he did, his sword had become briefly incorporeal and left no visible mark on the ground. Usopp grabbed a bunch of bombs out of his backpack and threw them at Genis. A wall suddenly thrust upwards out of the ground at the spot where Genis had slashed with his sword. The bombs exploded. The explosion sent Usopp flying. It also mostly wrecked the wall, while leaving Genis unscathed. Genis leaped over the ruined wall and charged at Usopp. As he charged he slashed his sword at every tree he passed. Usopp had landed against a tree, but grinned when he realized which tree. He would get up on his feet and press his hand against the bark, activating more traps he had built. Halfway between Genis and Usopp, a pit opened in the ground, a pit filled with wooden spears to impale oneself upon. The side of another tree opened up and fired a group of wooden shurikens at Genis. A third and fourth tree spit out a bunch of cords which tied together to become a web, a sticky poison covered web. The point was that if Genis somehow avoided the shurikens, he would fall into the pit, and if he tried to jump over the pit he would get stuck on the web which would then dumb him into the pit anyway, and if he tried to simply go around the pit and the web he would be hit by the shurikens. "hahaha, there's no way for you to counter!" Usopp exclaimed. "I already did" Genis replied. One of the trees that Genis had slashed, opened and fired a group of shurikens of its own. Colliding with the other group of shurikens so they all fell to the ground. A second tree that Genis had slashed, caused the pit to close on itself. A third tree that Genis had slashed, opened and a flamethrow pointed out of it and blasted away at the web, reducing the web to ashes.

Genis walked through the flames as they subsided and walked up to Usopp. Usopp went to fire his crossbow at Genis, in response Genis quickly cut the crossbow in half with his sword. Then he pointed the blade at Usopp's throat. "How, how did you set all those traps? When could you of done it!?" Usopp asked wide eyed and frustrated. "A long time ago" Genis replied. "That's not possible, you weren't even on this part of the island until just now. And we've only been on this island at all for just a few days!?" Usopp said. "That was true. Yesterday and all the days before, that was true. But it isn't the truth anymore. I effected the memory of the ground over there and of those trees. More specifically I inserted my presence into the long term memory of the ground and those trees, so that they remember me having set those traps a long time ago. That single affected memory changed their entire history. That's how" Genis explained. "You can effect the memory of objects and stuff" Usopp asked. "Yes. Though obviously I can do the same to people" Genis replied as he suddenly thrust his sword into Usopp's neck. Usopp's eyes widened, he could feel the blade, yet it didn't make any wound. The blade was currently incorporeal. It was as if when Genis's blade turned incorporeal it cut into the memory instead of the flesh. Genis pulled out his sword, and then walked away. Suddenly Usopp remembered something that never occurred, a suicide pact he had made with Genis. "How....how could I have forgotten" Usopp said. Usopp took a short spear out of his backpack and then stabbed himself through the chest with it. The glowing tattoo of the letter 'B' on Usopp's shoulder faded and disappeared, as Usopp collapsed and died. Genis walked away with a grin.

Sometime later, Geppetto showed up. He was dragging the corpse of Sanji behind him and stopped infront of Usopp's corpse. Geppetto smiled.

[Cory]

Chapter 8 - The Auswahlen Saga, part 3

:: Flashback ::
10 years ago.....

A 7 year old Sebastion was walking through a field on the isle of Kritt. Perhaps walking wasn't the right word. He was trying to catch up to his cousins. 5 year old twins, Xion and Ciel. They were all pirates. Or more accurately, all three of them were apart of the same family of pirates. Who served with other pirates all their days, and all of which ultimately answered to and respected Pirate Queen Vendisa. The ship they had been on had docked at Kritt's port in order for its members to get some r&r while they resupplied and such. And in a moment of boredom, Xion and Ciel had ran off right out of the town at port and into the fields. Who knows where the twins were heading. Sebastion certainly didn't. He didn't even think the twins themselves really had any manner of destination in mind. Letting them have their fun wasn't so bad. Letting them get killed by some manner of wild animal on the other hand would not only be devastating but would be blamed entirely on Sebastion, since he was told to keep on eye on them. Something which Sebastion only agreed with in the first place in the hopes of scoring points of approval with his parents. "Don't either of you think its time to be getting back?" Sebastion said. Xion stopped. Sebastion walked over to Xion, being careful not to touch her though, and noted the hole in the ground she was looking at. "Do animals live in there?" Xion asked. "Not sure, not so sure its a den either" Sebastion replied. He caught glance of a crack spreading through the ground from the hole. A crack that was quickly spreading towards Ciel's position some ten feet away. "Watch out!" Sebastion shouted. He sprinted towards Ciel and pushed him out of the way just as the crack caused another hole to open in the ground. Which Sebastion fell into instead.

Sebastion came to soon after. He was in a dimly-lit cave underground, the only source of light coming from two holes in the ground above. He looked around. There was a girl down here. A girl that was Sebastion's age that was unconscious. Which answered why there were two holes. "At least I wasn't the first idiot that fell for this trap" Sebastion muttered. He stood up, and tried to jump towards the hole. It was too far up. He tried to climbed the walls of the cave, but they were too smooth and Sebastion fell back down. "Ciel! Xion! Are you alright!?" Sebastion shouted. Xion peeked into one of the holes. "Ciel is sleeping because he hit his head on a rock" Xion replied. "Damn..." Sebastion muttered. "Its too dark down there I cant see you. Come back up already" Xion said. "Obviously I would have if I could. Both me and your brother need your help, Xion. You need to go back to port, find my parents, or yours, or anyone from the ships crew. Tell them what happened and get them back here as quick as you can" Sebastion instructed. "Boys...." Xion said. "When you tell them what happened, try and spare me some dignity in your version of events" Sebastion said. Xion then ran off towards the port.

Sebastion sighed. He walked over to the unconscious girl and kneeled beside her. He shook her a bit. "Are you okay?" he asked. "Fine, just napping" she replied. "Oh" Sebastion replied surprised. She sat up. "What?" she asked. "um, nothing.... Just, I didn't mean to disturb you" Sebastion said. "That's a dumb thing to say" she replied. "I mean I didn't mean to wake you, well I did, but that was when I thought you were unconscious and hurt" Sebastion said. "I suppose you could have left me be, and then got yourself rescued and just left me behind to rot" she replied. "No, I, wow this is a strange conversation" Sebastion said. "You started it. I'm just following the rhythm" she replied. "Lets start over. Hi I'm Sebastion. I hope you're not with the people who set this trap" he said. "Hi I'm Mackenzie, and for all I know it was you who set this trap" she replied. Sebastion laughed slightly. Mackenzie raised an eyebrow. "My relatives should be coming soon to rescue us. Do you have anyone..." Sebastion wasn't sure how to word the rest of that question. "My family is very small. They should be at port still. We were only passing through and they wouldn't have left without me" Mackenzie replied. "Well after we get out of here, maybe we could hang out and stuff. It'll be at least a day or so before my ship leaves Kritt" Sebastion suggested. "I doubt my family would allow it. Especially with pirates" Mackenzie replied. "Not everyone with a ship is a pirate" Sebastion said. "That's not my experience" Mackenzie replied. "Not all pirates are bad" Sebastion said. "Not everyone thinks my family is good" Mackenzie replied. "I'm in no position to judge a person based on their family. So I wont, and if you don't tell your folks about me being with pirates, then maybe we have a shot at having a fun couple of days" Sebastion said. "And then what?" Mackenzie asked. "Then you'll be on your way and I'll be on mine, no harm no foul" Sebastion said. "Promise?" Mackenzie asked.
:: End of Flashback ::


In the middle of the forest on an island somewhere in the Grand Ocean, there was a campfire. Which Sebastion had made his way towards. "Finally, some friendly faces" Sebastion said. Zolo and Robin looked up from their campfire and returned Sebastion's polite glance with cold glares. Sebastion, Zolo, and Robin were all fellow students at the Academy. Though despite Sebastion's attempts to hang out with them, Zolo and Robin had gone above and beyond to make sure all their classes were different from Sebastion's and generally avoided him like the plague. "I suggest you leave now" Robin said, her gaze averting. "I would if I could, but alas leaving this island isn't currently possible no thanks to these" Sebastion replied, referring to the new tattoo's they were each sporting. Robin had a glowing tattoo of the letter 'H' between her collarbones. Zolo had a glowing tattoo of the letter 'W' at the base of his skull. Sebastion had a glowing tattoo of the letter 'C' in the palm of his hand. "I wasn't talking about that. I meant we cant stand the sight of you, and it would be in your best interest to get out of our sight" Robin said. "Perhaps this is a silly notion, but I figured there was safety in numbers and our chances of surviving would improve as a team" Sebastion said. "There's no trusting you" Robin replied. "Oh come now. There's no reason for all this hostility. All three of us are pirates afterall" Sebastion said. Zolo became enraged. "Pirates! Me and Robin and the rest of our crew who serve under Captain Luffy are pirates. Loyal to Pirate Queen Vendisa. Our crew only came to the Academy in the first place to spy on and gather intel about Cecilia and her Academy, for Vendisa. But you have no right to call yourself a pirate anymore. You traitor!" Zolo said. "Ah, so its about that" Sebastion said as his gaze became cold. "Yes, that. Every pirate and their mothers eventually found out about the incident with Xion and Umi" Robin said. "And everyone respected Vendisa's decision to have Xion sent to the Isle Of Solitude. Except you, Sebastion. When you eventually found out about what happened to Xion, not only did you abandon your crew and betray your own captain, you assisted Xion in her escape from the Isle of Solitude!" Zolo said.

"Can you truly fault me for choosing to help the little family I have left" Sebastion said. "The pirates and Vendisa were your family! Pirates took in your cursed family generations ago. Pirates looked after you and gave you a place to eat and sleep all your life. You would of had nothing and been nobody without Pirates. Anyone who has ever been sent to the Isle of Solitude has been sent there for damn good reasons. But your cursed little family expects special treatment and fuck the rest of us pirates who say otherwise. Where's your pride as a pirate!? Even calling you a pirate now makes me sick!" Zolo ranted, as he got increasingly more angry. "Why are you taking this so personally?" Sebastion asked. "The day of Xion's escape from the Isle Of Solitude, us and the rest of our crew serving Captain Luffy were sailing back to Lulana for some R&R. On the way we saw you, and tried to stop you. But you and Xion fought back, severely damaging our ship and killing two of our crew members" Robin said. "I see, so that was you guys.... and now I realize that it was because of Captain Luffy that word of Xion's escape from the Isle of Solitude got out so quickly" Sebastion said. "Not as quickly as you abandoned the pirates and ran into Cecilia's arms" Robin said. "It wasn't as if I could simply go back to the pirates after that. It was only by chance that Xion and I were found by Cecilia following Xion's escape from the Isle Of Solitude. Cecilia offered us both asylum at her Academy. Xion declined, I accepted" Sebastion said. "You probably spy on the pirates for Cecilia now" Robin said. "I assure you, I wouldn't do anything of the sort" Sebastion replied. "Someone who casually glosses over the fact that you've killed two of our crew in the past, isn't capable of assuring us of anything" Robin said. "Well, this conversation has been most unpleasant so I'll be on my way" Sebastion said. "Too late" Zolo replied, as he pointed one of his swords in Sebastion's face. "Didn't you want me to leave, or was I mistaken" Sebasion said, in a slightly snarky way. "Now that you've made Zolo so angry, your window of opportunity to leave has closed. There's no stopping Zolo now, his Wrath will be sated" Robin replied. "hmm, aren't I allowed some last words, before my execution?" Sebastion asked.

"Every man has that right" Zolo replied with a nod. "Blind loyalty is the same as idiocy. Any true, or at least logical, follower of Vendisa would have realized that her behavior has been....off..... For some I time I suspect. Its part of the reason I was compelled so to act on Xion's behalf. Though that never occurred to any of you, did it. Which in a way makes me more of a pirate than you lot could ever be" Sebastion declared. "F*ck you" Zolo said. Though right as Zolo said it, Sebastion kicked a burning log from their campfire at them. Zolo and Robin leaped back to avoid it. Sebastion took a small metal rod out of his pocket. Then as he twirled it around, the metal rod extended until it became a spear. At the same time, Zolo unsheathed all three of his swords. He had one in his left hand, the second in his right hand, and the third he held in his mouth by biting down on the hilt. Robin clapped her hands. Sebastion looked towards her. The second he did he realized she had only done it to distract him. And in that same second Zolo charged, leaping over the campfire and descending upon Sebastion as he swung the blade he held with his mouth at him. Sebastion went to move back, but suddenly found that he couldn't. Sebastion looked down and saw an arm sticking out of the ground and holding him by the ankle. Sebastion realized that Robin had clapped not to distract him, but to summon the arm that now restrained him. Unable to move back, Sebastion's spear clashed with Zolo's third sword. While Zolo pressed his weight downwards upon Sebastion with that sword, he still had the swords in each of his hands, both of which he now swung at Sebastion's midsection. It was like two blades of a scissor about to cut paper in half. Despite Sebastion's imminent demise, in the back of his mind he was impressed. Robin and Zolo had very quickly established themselves as an effective team, obviously honed from years of working together, who had basically claimed checkmate in a matter of minutes. Then the blades of the scissor met in the middle.

The clanking of metal could then be heard against the blades of Zolo's swords. Just when it seemed like Sebastion would meet his maker, he used his free hand to punch Zolo in the throat. This caused Zolo to cough his third sword out of his mouth, which freed Sebastion's spear for use. He had then thrusted it downwards at the arm restraining him, stabbing it and causing it to release Sebastion. And when he had thrusted the spear downward, he had done so at a right angle, so that Zolo's two swords would collide against the metal spear, and leave just enough space to not wound Sebastion. Who then used the opportunity to leap away from Zolo. Of course Sebastion's cleverness at escaping that gambit only infuriated Zolo further. Zolo kicked Sebastion's spear out of the ground and into the campfire flames. Sebastion frowned. Robin clapped. At which point a multitude of arms were summoned out of the ground and tried to grab Sebastion. He would dodge and parry and flip his way around the arms as they attempted to reach for him. As he did so he was making his way closer and closer to Robin's position. Zolo would come at Sebastion to intercept him. Sebastion reached into his jacket and pulled out kitchen knives which he held between the fingers of each hand. He threw five of them at the hands trying to grab him, stabbing and pinning them to the ground with perfect accuracy. The knives in his other hand he swung against one of Zolo's swords, only for Zolo's sword to cut through the knives like butter. "Oooops" Sebastion said. Zolo swung both his swords. One aimed to decapitate Sebastion, the other aimed at Sebastion's knees. Sebastion would flip sideways, between the parallel blades, so that he became parallel to them as well and in doing so avoided them. Afterward Sebastion landed and in a continuous motion spin kicked Zolo in the chest. Zolo was sent flying back and landed in the campfire. "AHHHHHH!" Zolo shouted in agony as he was burned alive by the flames. "NOOOOOOOO!!" Robin cried out as tears streamed down her face. "Let this be over" Sebastion said with a sigh. "Not until your dead!" Robin declared coldly, as she clapped her hands harder than ever before. Sebastion's eyes widened at the sight of 200 arms being summoned out of the ground. He evaded some, but he was quickly overwhelmed. They grabbed him all along his arms and legs and at his hip and at his throat. They stretched him out and made it impossible for him to move. Robin clapped her hands again, but this time fifty legs were summoned out of the ground. They stretched over to Sebastion and starting kicking him in the stomach and chest all at the same time, in a seemingly never ending barrage. Robin had no intention of stopping until Sebastion was literally beaten to death.

Sebastion's vision started to blur and darken as blood spat out from his mouth. Sebastion's family was cursed, quite literally. A curse had been placed upon an ancestor very long ago. Every descended in the bloodline was effected. Though the curse could be a double edge sword. So while the curse definitely disadvantaged them in more ways than one and in the long run wasn't worth having to deal with, it could also help. It could give them power. For Sebastion's cousins Xion and Ciel, that power manifested in Xion's blood and Ciel's mind. As for Sebastion, it was in the body. A dark aura surrounded Sebastion, and within that aura Sebastion's entire body transformed into something else, something powerful. Robin's eyes widened as the aura burned away all the arms and legs she had summoned. The aura dissipated once Sebastion had fully transformed, then in the blink of an eye Sebastion was directly infront of Robin. And it was now his hand at her throat. "The way you look now, is the same way you looked when you helped Xion escape the Isle of Solitude. The same way you looked when you killed two of our crew members. So what are you waiting for. I wont beg, I've never begged for any man and I never will. So just grow a pair and look me in the eyes when you finish it. Do it!" Robin shouted. Sebastion looked into Robin's eyes, and then snapped her neck like a twig. The glowing tattoo of the letter 'H' faded off of her as he dropped her corpse onto the ground. Sebastion's body reverted to its normal form. He huffed a bit as he started walking away. That form was tiring to say the least. But then, Zolo would rise from the campfire flames. Sebastion stopped and slowly turned towards him. "That's impossible" Sebastion said. It was only the sheer force of Zolo's wrath that kept him alive still. Zolo would grab Sebastion's spear, that had been thrown into the campfire earlier. With it Zolo charged at Sebastion at absurd speed. Sebastion's exhaustion prevented him from reacting in time, and so before he knew it Zolo was suddenly infront of him, stabbing Sebastion's own spear through Sebastion's gut. Pain soared through Sebastion's body as he gurgled on the blood flowing out of his own mouth. Zolo smiled. Then Zolo fell to the ground. The glowing tattoo of the letter 'W' faded away off of Zolo, just as he crawled over to Robin and reached for her hand. Then he died.

Sebastion yanked his spear out of his midsection. He would hold his wound tightly as he wandered away slowly.

Sometime later, Geppetto showed up to find the corpses of Zolo and Robin. Geppetto smiled.

[Cory]

Chapter 9 - The Auswahlen Saga, part 4


:: Flashback::
In the lower decks of Cecilia's boat, Kenshi's Way, there was a locked door. Infront of that door three students of the Academy, Genis and Delta and Omega, were having a discussion. "A prisoner?? Why would Headmistress Cecilia bring along a prisoner for our field trip?" Genis asked. "Because I insisted" a woman replied. The three of them turned towards her, baffled and alarmed as to how she was suddenly there. "How did you get here?" Omega asked. "I walked. Which is generally what folks do in hallways and corridors" the woman replied. "How could you have avoided our detection?" Omega asked. "With a yawn" the woman replied. "How long have you been there, listening in on us?" Delta asked. "Long enough" the woman replied. "Who are you?" Genis asked. "My name is Nez" the woman answered. "You say that like its suppose to mean something. You're definitely no student of the Academy. I've never even seen you there before" Genis said. "So it didn't occur to you that Cecilia could have friends or a life outside of The Academy?" Nez asked. "Why are you here?" Delta asked. "I was invited" Nez said. "Why?" Delta asked. "To help" Nez replied. "To help with what?" Genis asked. "Not telling" Nez said teasingly. "To help who?" Delta asked. "...Not you" Nez replied ominously. Omega unsheathed his sword. "Why are we still putting up with her? She's already admitted to eavesdropping on our conversation. Therefor she now knows that the three of us are with the Assassin's Guild. You guys know the only option now is to kill her to preserve that secret" Omega said. "Fine. Just be quick about it and try not to make a mess" Delta replied with a sigh. Omega charged and swung his sword at Nez. She jumped up above the arc of his swing and landed on the flat side of his blade. While Omega took a second to be stunned about it, Nez backflipped off of his sword. In the process of backflipping, she kicked him hard in the jaw. Omega was sent sprawling back and landed on his ass, while Nez landed gracefully on her feet. Delta and Genis also charged at her. However, ten minutes later Omega and Delta and Genis were all defeated and unconscious on the floor. "Oh well. I'll let Cecilia sort this all out" Nez said. Then Nez turned her attention to the locked door.

Since Nez was the one that had fashioned this lock in the first place, opening it was effortless for her. She walked inside the bland and nearly empty room, and closed the door behind her. There was something in the center of this room though. A chair. And in that chair was a man. An unconscious man who was gagged and bound to the chair. Nez walked up to the man, lowered the gag from his mouth, and slapped him across the face. "Wakey, wakey, Captain Albert Weskey" Nez said as she slapped him a second time. "Its Wesker" he replied as his eyes opened. His eyes seemed to scan the room, but it wasn't actually the room that he was looking at. "Oh wow, x-ray vision. I'm jealous" Nez said. "Why are we and Cecilia on a boat with 22 teenagers and an old man?" Wesker asked. "They would be 22 students and the janitor from Cecilia's Academy" Nez replied. "The last thing I remember.... I was in Marseine. I was on an assignment that has nothing to do with this. I was tracking down...no I had found and confronted a troublesome target of the Government. Lucian. And then...." Wesker trailed off as he looked up at Nez. "Then I intervened" Nez said. "Carlitos as well as a few other hidden subordinates of mine from the Government are on this vessel. Yet Carlitos's task and their assignment has nothing to do with Lucian whatsoever. They don't even know he exists. So why am I here" Wesker demanded. Nez pulled something out of her pocket, a small blue crystalline shard, and held it up for Wesker to see. Wesker's eyes widened. "Is that a shard of Carlitos's crystal?" Wesker asked. "Yep" Nez said. "When the Government first found Carlitos, countless tests were ran on that crystal of his. All of them fruitless. More than once dissection's of the crystal were attempted, but nothing in the world seemed to be able to break or fracture or peek inside that crystal of his. So how is it possible that you broke off a shard!? Its not possible" Wesker said. "I wonder if Carlitos realizes this is missing" Nez said. "Why do you have it?" Wesker demanded. "I'll show you" Nez replied. She walked behind Wesker. Then she grabbed his hair and yanked his head back, and shoved the crystalline shard down Wesker's throat. While Nez held his jaw shut and forced him to swallow it, Wesker's body convulsed violently. When Wesker's eyes briefly glowed with a blue light, Nez let Wesker go, and started walking towards the door. Wesker was confused more than ever. Carlitos and Lucian had nothing to do with each other in the slightest, but now there was Nez, this woman who was suddenly connecting dots that never were between the two. "What have you done to me?" Wesker asked. "Not telling....yet" Nez replied. Wesker struggled to get free but he couldn't. He attempted to use his powers, but he couldn't. Wesker didn't understand why, and he understood Nez even less. Just as Nez got to the door, she stopped and sighed. "Try and relax. There's no point in stressing yourself out about things you'll never find out" Nez said. "And why is that?" Wesker asked. "....Because we're going to kill you. But first you'll help us out, just a little" Nez replied. The door slammed shut behind her.
:: End of Flashback ::


"Captain Wesker?" someone asked. At first the voice sounded far away, but as Wesker's vision cleared, the voice repeated itself. Sounding closer each time. Wesker sat up, finding himself in the middle of a forest. "Not that I'm ungrateful to see you, but how did you get here?" Leon asked. "I was apparently kidnapped" Wesker replied. "Embarrassing" Leon said. "Obviously. So you better not tell anyone or I'll have you demoted" Wesker said. "Yes, sir" Leon replied. "Now where in the hell are we?" Wesker asked. "An island somewhere in the Grand Ocean" Leon replied. "Why?" Wesker asked. "Cecilia had taken a group of us students from the Academy out on a field trip. But the field trip has been revealed to be a death trap" Leon answered. Wesker stood up and dusted himself off. "To make matters worse. Every single government spy you planted within the Academy is on this island now. Even your red herring, Carlitos, is here too" Leon informed. "Serving as a red herring for your group, was only a part of Carlitos's assignment. Anyway. Are the others with you now?" Wesker asked. "No... I've been looking for days without success" Leon replied. "Lets remedy that" Wesker said. The two of them set out through the forest. "So what's with the stupid tattoo?" Wesker asked, referring to the glowing tattoo of the letter "J" on Leon's forearm. "You do realize that you have one as well" Leon said. "What!?" Wesker said as he stopped. Leon stopped as well, so that he could pull off Wesker's sunglasses and hold them infront of Wesker's face like a makeshift mirror. When Wesker looked at his reflection, he saw a glowing tattoo of the letter 'Z' between his eyebrows. "F*ck" Wesker mumbled with annoyance as he yanked his shades back from Leon and put them back on. Wesker kept walking. "Sir, wait. I think I saw someone" Leon said. Wesker stopped. "Over there by the trees" Leon said and pointed. Wesker looked. Then a woman walked out from behind a tree. "Her..." Wesker said. "Who is she?" Leon asked. The two of them watched as the woman walked behind the nearest tree, but than walked out from behind an entirely separate tree. "What the hell?" Leon said confused. The woman did it a few more times. "Does she not notice us? Who is she?" Leon asked again. 'That's a good question' Wesker thought to himself. "An enemy" Wesker replied aloud. Negative chi radiated from Wesker's hands. "Negative Sagittarian stance" Wesker said as his negative chi took the form of a bow and arrow. Which he then fired at the woman. The woman moved aside so that the arrow would pass aside her by fractions of an inch. "Hello" the woman said. "Hello, Nez" Wesker replied.

Nez took a few steps towards him. She had a glowing tattoo of the letter 'U' just above her belly button. Though her tattoo glowed a different color than the rest. Nez then stopped as she glanced at Leon and then back at Wesker. "hmmm, this wont do. Maybe it needs like a boost or a trigger or something" Nez said. "What is she talking about?" Leon asked. "Doesn't matter. Just kill her" Wesker ordered. "Yes sir" Leon replied as he whipped out a pistol and started firing. Nez pulled out a katana and swung it through the air a few times. Slicing in half every bullet that he had fired at her. Then Nez charged at Wesker. Though he would fire another arrow of negative chi at her. She stopped and slashed her sword at the negative-chi arrow. At first when her sword collided with it, sparks flew and it pushed her back at bit. But only until Nez mustered the strength to counter the force of the arrow and deflect it at a nearby tree. When the tree was hit by the negative chi arrow, the tree started to slowly rot away. Nez continued her charge. "I don't think so" Leon declared, as he slammed his fist at the ground. A plethora of jungle vines would burst out of the ground in order to entrap Nez. She would backflip to avoid them. But then more vines burst out of the ground and trees around her. Nez would swing her sword at such speeds that the human eye couldn't keep up. And soon the vines would be sliced and diced with the skill of a chef. "Negative Aries stance" Wesker declared. The bow and arrow of negative chi changed to become lightsabers of negative chi that extended from each of his fists. Wesker would leap at her, swinging his sabers downwards like an x, clashing with Nez's sword. "As if some wench could ever get the best of me" Wesker gloated with a grin. "You realize I wanted you get up close right?" Nez said. "What?" Wesker said confused. Nez then kicked Wesker between the legs. Wesker's eyes widened and became crossed eyed from the humiliating agony. Nez laughed at him, and then kicked him in the stomach. And she kicked him hard, hard enough to send him flying into the nearest tree. Wesker slammed against the tree, though more importantly the back of his head slammed hard against the tree. Wesker's eyes briefly flickered blue as he became unconscious.

:: Flash-Sideways ::
Long ago and far away. On an entirely seperate world. Earth.... or at least a version of it. Albert Wesker was leader of the Umbrella Corporation. A conglomerate responsible for the creation of various devastating virus's. For the purposes of experimentation and financial gain. The latest virus on the verge of being unleashed was the Ouroborus Virus, enginered by Wesker himself, and about to be unleashed upon the world. In his mind this would create a superior world, the virus would kill the unworthy and those that survived would be changed, or evolved in Wesker's opinion. Throughout the years there was has been a team of people fighting to stop Wesker's machinations. A team consisting of Chris Redfield, Jill Valentine, Leon Kennedy, Claire Redfield, and sometimes even Wesker's own duplicitous double agent Ada Wong. The team at long last had finally confronted Wesker on a remote volcanic island. Though they succeeded in ruining Wesker's ambitions, Wesker had infected himself with the virus in a last ditch effort to kill them. Which wasnt going well considering they had just knocked Wesker into a pool of lava. The team was boarding a helicopter and about to depart, when Wesker grabbed hold of the helicopter's tail with some viral tentacles. "You've ruined my life!! So you can all burn in hell!" Wesker shouted. "You first" Chris replied as he aimed a rocket launcher at Wesker. The rest of the team gave Wesker the finger. Then Chris fired. The rocket collided with Wesker and then sent him flying down towards the lava. "NOOOOOOO!!!!" Wesker shouted. The last thing Wesker saw was Chris and the rest of the team smiling and laughing and giving each other high fives. And with that image in mind, Wesker collided with the lava at the same time as the rocket exploded. Then Wesker died, in undescribable agony.
:: End of Flash-Sideways ::

Wesker's eyes briefly flickered blue as he awoke. Leon was kneeling beside him. Nez was nowhere to be seen. "Sorry she escaped. But I saw which direction she went in, so we can go after her" Leon said. Wesker silently glared at Leon. "Sir, are you alright?" Leon asked. "Help me up" Wesker said. As Leon did so, Wesker said, "Negative Capricorn stance" and suddenly hundreds of spikes of negative chi burst out from all over Wesker's body, stabbing into Leon's body since he had been helping Wesker get up. Leon's eyes widened as he stumbled back from Wesker. "Why?" Leon pleaded. "Because I remembered" Wesker replied. Leon fell to the ground and died, the glowing tattoo of the letter 'J' fading off from Leon. Wesker stood up fully, the spikes of negative chi dispersing. "I don't know if it was a previous life or a parallel world or both. But I remember in full and painful detail how you and your group killed me. Its time for revenge!" Wesker said.

Sometime later, Geppetto showed up and found the corpse of Leon. Geppetto smiled.

[Cory]

Chapter 10 - The Auswahlen Saga, part 5

:: Flashback ::
The Academy. 1 year earlier.

Cecilia was in her office. Across from her were three teenagers, Jesse and James and Meowth, who were trying to gain admittance into her Academy. As well as trying to sell Cecilia on the merits/cause of the group they were apart of, The Reborn Independence Movement. The interview had been going on for about an hour and a half already, which had gotten a bit animated and theatrical. "Stop" Cecilia said with a sigh. "Have you made a decision?" Meowth asked. Cecilia got up and looked out the window. "I wish you had never come to me....." Cecilia said, sadness heavy in her tone. "What's that suppose to mean?" Jesse asked. "What have we done wrong?" Meowth asked. "...Nothing.." Cecilia said. "...Yet..." Cecilia mumbled. James got up, approached Cecilia, and handed her a rose. "For you" James said. Cecilia looked towards James, and for a moment her mind flashed to another place and time entirely, and Cecilia saw Kenshi standing before her as he placed a flower in her hair. When her thoughts returned to the present, Cecilia took the rose and smelled it. She smiled briefly because of the scent. "What's this for?" Cecilia asked. "Milady looked like she was in need of a flower" James replied matter-of-factly. Jesse's face turned red and she looked furious. "Thank you. Though where did you get this rose from?" Cecilia asked. "Don't ask" Jesse and Meowth said in unison. James would return to his seat, as Cecilia regained her composure.

"Let's be plain about some things. The group you're apart of, The Reborn Independence Movement, a group devoted to the equal rights of Reborn's as well as the possible creation of a Reborn-only independent nation, sent you here not just out of respect or admiration for me. They sent you here to gather intel on my Academy and spy on me, isn't that right" Cecilia said. Jesse, James and Meowth sat there in silence with their jaws dropped. "That isn't...." Jesse started to say. "Don't try and deny it" Cecilia interrupted. "Have we failed this assignment too?" Meowth turned to Jesse and James and asked. The three of them looked equally disappointed. "Cheer up. I'm still granting you three admittance into my Academy" Cecilia said. "What? Why?" Jesse asked in disbelief. "Maybe I believe in your groups cause. Or maybe I believe and hold out hope for the three of you. Who's to say. Now go on and get yourselves settled before I change my mind" Cecilia replied with a shrug. Jesse, James, and Meowth cheered and happily left Cecilia's office. "That was very cold of you" Nez said as she seemingly walked out from nowhere. Nez would stop when she was directly across the desk from Cecilia. Cecilia sighed as she poured Nez some tea. "I'm starting to wonder if that's because of Whisper. His influence is something that really worries me" Cecilia said. "Funny. The prospect of Whisper's influence on you, is something that really excites me" Nez replied. Nez held up her tea cup as she said, "Three cheers for Whisper." Cecilia got up and stuck the rose into Nez's tea cup.
:: End of Flashback ::


Somewhere on the Island, two students of the Academy were walking through the forest. They were Jesse, who had a glowing tattoo of the letter 'X' on her stomach, and Meowth, who had a glowing tattoo of the letter 'G' behind his ear. "I thought you said you were good with directions" Jesse said. "I am" Meowth replied. "Then why have you been leading us in circles for days!?" Jesse said. "Those are just the circles in your head, you ditz" Meowth replied. "Oh really, than explain the mark on this tree right here. The very same mark I left when we passed it 3 days ago!!!" Jesse said. "Oh shut it. I have James's scent. Finding him will be easy breezy. Don't blame me if that pansy James likes to walk around in circles" Meowth said. "You're so full of shit. You couldn't track dung you stepped in. If I had a dog in my collection, we would of found James and been off this island days ago" Jesse replied. "So basically what you're saying is that all of this is entirely your fault for not having a dog" Meowth said. "No, just that relying on you was an epic mistake, as usual!" Jesse replied. The two of them stopped to bicker at each other for a few hours. Yes, a few hours. Lets just say they could wipe the floor with every other debate team combined. Then they heard a song. A soothing melody that the Jesse and Meowth found themselves entranced by and compelled to follow.

The song led them deeper into the forest, to a grove where two more students of the Academy were. Chomper, who had a glowing tattoo of the letter 'D' on his chest. And Nami, the girl who had been singing the melody, and had a glowing tattoo of the letter 'S' on her throat. Prior to joining the Academy, Nami and Chomper had been pirates and members of Luffy's crew. Nami stopped singing when she saw Jesse and Meowth. "I thought that tune was only meant to work on guys" Chomper said. "It is. Oh I knew I was right about that hussy being a lesbo" Nami said. Chomper laughed. "What!!!?" Jesse said outraged. Then she slapped Meowth in the side of the head when she caught him laughing too. "Thanks a lot Meowth. Your oh so great sense of smell was suppose to lead us to a pansy, instead you found us the sluttiest cheerleader of the school" Jesse said. "Your just jealous because you failed the cheerleading tryouts you lesbo xeno-whore" Nami replied. "I think the word is xenophile" Chomper said. "eww, that's worse" Nami replied. "Well you'd know a lot about jealousy wouldn't you, harpy" Jesse said. "Its siren!" Nami replied. Jesse and Nami glared at each other as they said in unison, "You're so dead!!"

Jesse reached into her backpack, that was filled with a multitude of red and white orbs, took out one of the orbs and threw it towards Nami. The orb glowed and an unidentified bat-like monster came out of it. It charged towards Nami. Nami opened her mouth as if to sing, but this time she screamed. An ultrasonic, ear splitting, mind numbing scream. Jesse and Meowth and even Chomper fell to their knees in pain as they covered their ears. The bat-like monster that Jesse had unleashed stopped its charge and blasted a similar scream, which collided with Nami's. For the moment the two were canceling each other out. Chomper took a bottle of drugs out of his pocket and swallowed one. Which cause Chomper to suddenly become twice as big and as muscular as the hulk. Chomper ran over to the bat-like monster and put his fist through it, causing It to splatter and die. Nami attempted to aim an ultrasonic wave at Jesse, but instead had to dodge a large gold disk that had been thrown at her. Meowth had turned a part of the ground to gold, and he was doing the same thing again, but this time he was changing patches of the ground into golden shuriken. Meowth charged towards Nami as he threw the shurikens at her. At the same time Chomper charged towards Jesse. Jesse reached into her backpack and tossed out a handful of the red and white orbs, unleashing a football teams worth of creatures to attack Chomper with.

Using her cheerleading experience, Nami twirled and somersaulted around Meowth's array of golden shurikens. The moment he ran out, Nami cartwheeled up to him and drop kicked him in the head. Meowth hit the ground and his head bounced off the ground like a ball. Nami looked towards Chomper's fight with Jesse's freakshow, and prepared to scream. Meowth then extended his claws, and slashed at Nami's leg. Nami screamed. Though this scream wasn't ultrasonic, it was just pain, the sheer pain of her leg turning into gold. Nami fell onto the ground, as Meowth got back up. "What have you done to me!?" Nami said with a horrified expression on her face as she looked down at her leg. "Turning you into money" Meowth replied with a grin. You could practically see the dollar signs in his eyes. He swipped his claw at her a second time. Nami held up her arm, only for her arm to be turned into gold as well. He went to swipe at her again, but Nami swung her now gold arm at Meowth's head. In a bit of irony, Meowth had been hit in the head so hard by Nami's gold arm, that it crushed his skull and snapped his neck like a twig. Blood spat from his mouth, and the glowing tattoo of the letter 'G' faded away as Meowth's corpse hit the ground.

"Help!" Nami shouted as she tried to drag herself away from Meowth's corpse. Two of her limbs being gold now made it challenging to move around. Chomper just finished ripping apart the monsters that Jesse had summoned and ran over to Nami. "Are you okay?" Chomper asked, as he kneeled by her side. "Okay?? How am I suppose to function like this?" Nami tearfully replied. "Meowth?" Jesse said softly as her gaze found Meowth's corpse. Jesse and James and Meowth hadn't just been in the Adademy together, they hadn't just been apart of the same group, The Reborn Independence Movement, for years beforehand. The three of them had practically know each other since they were toddlers. And now a lifetimes worth of memories of Meowth raced through Jesse's mind. Jesse sobbed like a child. "Maybe...maybe we shouldn't be doing this" Chomper suggested. In response Jesse pulled out the two last red and white orbs that she had, and threw one of them into the air. From it a colossus sized red dragon was unleashed. And it went to stomp one of its feet onto Chomper and Nami. Chomper caught the giant foot, and held it up with all his strength. Though Chomper could tell that wouldn't last long and if he did nothing they would be crushed. So Chomper took out his bottle of drugs but this time swallowed all the pills inside it. Chomper's size increased to equal that of the red dragon, and he punched the dragon in the face. At the same time Jesse threw the second of the last two red and white orbs she had at Nami. An alien version of an anaconda was unleashed and it went after Nami, wrapping and coiling itself around her. Nami attempted to scream but it swallowed her whole. The red dragon grabbed both of Chomper's fists and blasted flames out of its mouth and directly into Chomper's face. The glowing tattoo of the letter 'D' faded away around the time Chomper's eyes and brain melted from the heat/flames. Chomper's corpse then shrunk back to normal pint size and plummeted to the ground, not that he would feel it though since he was already dead.

Jesse sighed. Then Nami screamed again. An ultrasonic scream that splattered the alien anaconda apart. "Still alive, bitch!" Nami said. Jesse pointed upwards. Nami looked up to see the colossal red dragon, which stomped its foot down on Nami. Splat! The glowing tattoo of the letter 'S' couldn't have faded fast enough, since Nami was obviously dead. Jesse returned the giant red dragon back to a red and white orb and started to walk away. "She lied to us. She manipulated us and tossed us away like garbage. All we had wanted to do was some good, but she never believed in us at all. She never had any hope in us. Cecilia lied to us" Jesse ranted hysterically through her tears.

Then another student of the Academy walked out from behind a tree. "Ada Wong?" Jesse said. "Your mascara's running" Ada said. "What? who cares...." Jesse started to say. But Ada Wong stabbed Jesse in the throat with a kunai. The glowing tattoo of the letter 'X' faded away as Jesse fell to the ground and died. "I don't" Ada Wong replied, as she happily skipped away.

Sometime afterward, Geppetto arrived to find the corpses of Meowth, Chomper, Nami, and Jesse. Geppetto smiled.

[Cory]

Chapter 11 - The Auswahlen Saga, part 6


*Disclaimer - The 'Omega' npc in this story and the 'Omega' that is one of Lucian's alternate personalities, are not the same. They are two entirely separate people who have nothing to do with each other at all. Sorry for the confusion.*

:: Flashback ::
In the lower decks of Cecilia's boat, Kenshi's Way, Nez walked out from the room that Wesker was being held prisoner in and slammed the door shut behind her. After resetting the lock on that door she turned her attention to Delta, Omega, and Genis. Three teenagers who were unconscious on the floor in the middle of the hallway just outside the locked door, after Nez had beaten them in a fight. Nez would kneel down between Genis and Delta and reach into her pocket. "What do you think you're doing?" Cecilia asked, having showed up a few minutes earlier. "Expediting things" Nez replied as she pulled two blue crystalline shards out of her pocket. "Shards of Carlitos's crystal" Cecilia said. "Yep" Nez replied. "That wasn't part of the plan" Cecilia said. Nez stuck out her tongue. "Its an unnecessary risk" Cecilia said. "I just figure that they deserve to know some truth about themselves....before the end. And you know how I feel about second chances" Nez replied. Nez dropped one of the blue crystalline shards into Delta's mouth. Delta's body convulsed violently before his eyes briefly glowed blue. "I think your sentimental whim is affecting me" Cecilia said. "Hey! Its not a whim" Nez protested. Cecilia rolled her eyes before continuing. "The fact that I'm doing all this..... I'm starting to feel like I'm a heartless monster. It would be so easy to just stop before we get to that island, to just turn the ship around and head back to The Academy" Cecilia said as she sat down next to Nez. "Don't flake out now. You're the one that said 'Extreme change sometimes requires extreme action'. Just try and keep yourself focused on the things you're trying to prevent" Nez said. "I can scarcely believe I said something like that. Seems like something that Whisper would believe. Kenshi would be so disgusted and disappointed with me. Would Kenshi hate me?" Cecilia said as she started to cry. She covered her eyes to hide her tears. Nez used that opportunity, to put the second blue crystalline shard into Genis's mouth. However, Cecilia grabbed Nez by the wrist and halted the attempt. "No not Genis, never Genis" Cecilia said. "Fine" Nez replied with a sigh. So instead Nez shoved the crystalline shard down Omega's throat.
:: End of Flashback ::


On the island, Carlitos and one of his doppelgangers had been making their way through the forest. Until now. They reached a point where the forest ended abruptly and became a desert. Carlitos stopped and looked on with dread at the expansive desert before them. "As if I didn't have enough problems. Maybe I should turn back" Carlitos said. "There's no point in going back the way we came. There's no one there and nothing new to see. Lets go on ahead" the doppelganger suggested. "As one of my current problems, I have no intention of taking advice from you" Carlitos said. Carlitos turned around to go back the way he came, but his doppelganger then stepped in his way. "Move aside" Carlitos demanded. "Or what" the doppelganger said. Carlitos went to push the doppelganger aside, but the doppelganger shoved him right back. "I said OR WHAT; you'll disperse me? Go ahead and do it" the doppelganger said. Carlitos averted his gaze and became silent. "Pussy" the doppelganger said. Carlitos looked back at him with a glare. "You've dispersed all the other doppelgangers you had conjured, except for me. But you can't keep this spell going forever, eventually I'll disperse whether you like it or not" the doppelganger said. "Since it's only for one doppelganger, I'm barely using any of my magic and nowhere near this spell's full potential. I've already kept it going for days, you'd be surprised how much longer I can keep it going" Carlitos replied. "You're only so opposed to dispersing me because I'm the doppelganger that killed Sanji. And the moment I'm dispersed, all of my memories and experiences and emotions and murderous intent becomes yours. But in order to survive on this island you need me in here" the doppelganger said as he placed his finger on Carlitos's chest. "I don't want that" Carlitos said as he pushed the doppelganger's hand away. "What's happened to you? During your time serving the Government, you were sent on all sorts of assignments that led directly to people getting killed, and you had absolutely no problems with it whatsoever" the doppelganger said. "Will going the way you want me to get you to be quiet" Carlitos said. Carlitos left the forest behind and started walking into the desert. "You're not the same blank-slate amnesiac that you were when the Government first found you. Somewhere along the way you stopped faking whatever personality was necessary for each assignment, and started to develop a personality and grow a conscious all your own. And it's not just that, the time you've spent at the Academy has affected you and started to change you" the doppelganger said as he followed Carlitos. "Shut up" Carlitos denied. "I'll shut up when you wake up to reality" the doppelganger said. The doppelganger got infront of Carlitos, grabbed his hand, and turned it so that the glowing tattoo of the letter 'P' on the back of Carlitos's hand was facing upwards. "You know this tattoo does more than just prevent you from leaving the island" the doppelganger said. The doppelganger would press down on Carlitos's tattoo, and when he did the tattoo's glow became a holographic projection of a timer that was counting down. "When this timer reaches zero, you will die. The single only method of getting your time to increase is by killing people. Your timer is getting low because it was me that killed Sanji and not you. But if you would disperse me or at least let me disperse myself then my kill would become yours and you would gain some time" the doppelganger said. Carlitos pulled his hand away and the holographic projection of the timer faded and went back within his tattoo. To his doppelganger's extreme annoyance, Carlitos simply kept walking in silence.

Elsewhere in the desert area of the island. "I suppose if I had to find anyone, you two are the least worst choice" Genis said. "Talking down like that about your fellow cohorts in the Assassin's Guild; your such an asshole." Omega said. Omega had a glowing tattoo of the letter 'N' on his forearm. "We need to talk" Delta said in a serious tone. Delta had a glowing tattoo of the letter 'A' on his right eye. "Yeah about how to bypass these tattoo's and get off this island" Genis said while pointing at the glowing tattoo of the letter 'M' above his eyebrow. "That too... but I've had something else on my mind" Delta said. "Feel free to share with the rest of the class any time now" Genis said. "The question on my mind is, Why" Delta said. Genis sighed. "I suspect its because Cecilia has been lying all along about her reasons for starting the Academy and had been planning this all along" Genis said. "Perhaps if Headmistress Cecilia had taken the entire population of the Academy onto this little field trip of death, then I might of agreed" Delta said. "She couldn't fit everyone on the boat at the same time, which is why she's missing now, to sail back to the Academy and get more students" Genis said. "Now that's a stretch. If it weren't such a preposterous notion, and if all the tattoo's were of our names or of numbers, then I might of slightly considered it" Delta said. Genis started pacing around Delta. "The tattoo's are letters though. Which implies that there are 26 players involved in this. And you're implying that there was meant to be 26 and only ever 26 in this" Genis said. "Indeed" Delta replied. "So does that mean that Cecilia was never lying about her good reasons and genuine intentions for the Academy?" Omega said. "I believe so" Delta replied. "Then what the hell, why us?" Omega said. "Exactly. Why have those of us selected for this 'field trip' been suddenly rendered exempt from Headmistress Cecilia's good intentions" Delta said. "Maybe this is Cecilia's version of expelling us" Omega said. "An idiotic notion. If that were the case, why go through all this trouble when she could simply just expel us the same way any normal school would" Delta said. "26..., but there were only 22 students invited on this field trip" Genis said. "True. 22 students, plus the Academy janitor, plus whoever the person was inside that locked door we discovered on the boat, plus the strange woman we encountered outside of that locked door, and if you count Cecilia herself then that makes 26" Delta said. "I'm guessing Cecilia only came along to oversee that everything goes according to plan" Genis said. "Or it could be that she feels some guilt about what she's doing. Like maybe Involving herself personally and exposing herself to same dangers as the rest of us on this island is some weird form of penance for her" Omega said. "Or both" Delta said. "But aside from Cecilia, why choose the rest of us specifically, what could it be about this group that led her to think we deserved this, what could we have in common?" Genis said. "I may have a theory. As a member of the Guild, I've been doing my job spying on the goings on at the Academy. You two should have been doing the same, so think about what you've uncovered that might of been of special note or significance about the particular students that were chosen for this field trip" Delta said. "Well there is a group of students that were Pirates and seemed to be spying on Cecilia and the Academy for Vendisa" Genis said. "Huh, really?, because there's a couple of students from the 'Reborn independence Movement' that were at the Academy to spy on Cecilia" Omega said. "And there's a bunch of students that are with the Government that were at the Academy to spy on Cecilia too" Genis said. "And of course there's us with the Assassin's Guild who infiltrated the Academy for pretty much the same reasons" Delta said. Genis, Omega, and Delta's eyes widened at the same time. "Cecilia found out!" they realized.

"Cecilia found out what??" someone asked. Delta, Omega, and Genis turned around to discover Carlitos and his doppelganger standing atop the nearest sand-dune. It was an awkward encounter to say the least. While at the Academy, Genis had discovered that Carlitos was with the Government, and Carlitos had discovered that Genis was with the Assassin's Guild. But neither of them had confronted or revealed to the other what they had found out. Carlitos and Genis shared a dorm room, so whenever they were in their dorm room at the same time they were polite to each other and made small talk and tried to act like everything was normal. Though outside their dorm room they generally avoided each other. "It's none of your business" Omega replied to Carlitos. "We should leave now. Or at least lets try to separate them so we could kill one of them and then leave" the doppelganger whispered into Carlitos's ear. "Shut up" Carlitos replied. "Since a way off this island hasn't revealed itself, I see no other choice aside from playing along with what's expected of us on this island for now. Besides, getting rid of Government dogs makes things simpler for us in the long run" Delta said. "Is that a problem for you? Because I can deal with this myself" Omega asked Genis, as he unsheathed his sword. ".....No" Genis replied. Genis took out his bookmark, which then transformed into a sword. "I just don't see the point in wasting a potential minion" Genis said, just before he charged towards Carlitos. The doppelganger charged towards Genis. Genis swung his blade in an upwards arc through the sand so that some of it would get into the doppelgangers eyes. When it did, Genis spin kicked the doppelganger in the stomach. Which sent the doppelganger flying back and then skidding across the sand on his ass. Carlitos watched as the doppelganger skid a ways behind him. "What are you doing!? Don't look at me, pay attention to what's infront of you!" the doppelganger shouted. Carlitos turned back around to find that Genis was already upon him, about to thrust his sword through Carlitos's chest. "Nooo!" Carlitos shouted, but Genis didn't hesitate. His blade went right through Carlitos's crystal and his chest, but the second before it had the blade had become incorporeal. Carlitos looked down with wide eyes at the sword. Carlitos could feel the blade but there wasn't any wound. It was because Genis's sword wasn't cutting through his body, it was cutting into Carlitos's memory. "What.....what are you doing?" Carlitos strained to ask. "Editing" Genis replied. The crystal started to flicker. The expression on Genis's face became startled and confused. "Something's wrong" Delta said. "An older me?, a younger me?, an entirely different me?, a meteor? What the hell is this? These memories don't make any sense. Why can't I find the beginning?" Genis said. Carlitos started looking strained as placed his hands at his temples. The crystal flickered faster. The doppelganger got up and looked over towards Carlitos, his expression becoming as startled as Genis's was. "The crystal..... NO!! Stop it, you have to stop!" the doppelganger shouted. The doppelganger started running towards Carlitos and Genis. "You're right something is really off here, Genis has never had this sort of trouble with his abilities" Omega replied to Delta. "Carlitos's tattoo of the letter 'P'...... what does it stand for?" Delta wondered aloud. "What does it mean?!" Delta demanded loudly. The crystal stopped flickering, just before it emitted a powerful blue shockwave in every direction.

Before the doppelganger could get to either Carlitos or Genis, he was hit by the shockwave and sent flying back. Genis being at the epicenter was hit the hardest and sent flying way back, weapon and all, right past Delta and Omega. The two of them were hit as well, but the moment they were hit by the shockwave, Delta and Omega's eyes briefly glowed blue. Carlitos feel to his knees, while still holding his head. The doppelganger got up first and looked around. "Well, that could have wound up a lot worse" the doppelganger said with a sigh of relief. He made his way over to Carlitos in order to check on him. "Every thing in my head is so fuzzy" Carlitos thought aloud. "We should really go, but after that it would be good for you to relax and take it easy for a bit" the doppelganger suggested. "Not without him" Carlitos replied. The doppelganger stood there confused, as Carlitos got up and headed over to Genis. "Are you alright?" Carlitos asked Genis as he helped him up. "Why are you helping me, you dolt?" Genis asked. "Why wouldn't I? We've been step-brothers since our parents hooked up when we were little" Carlitos said. "Huh. Okay I don't know what just happened, but it seems like the changes I was trying to make to your memory still somewhat worked....sort of. I guess it'll have to do" Genis said. "Great, that really could have wound up a lot better" the doppelganger said discouraged. Genis picked up his sword. "Hey! Would you two stop being so dramatic and get up already so we can get a move on" Genis told Delta and Omega. The two of them got up slowly and looked at each other as if they had just had an epiphany. Delta and Omega's eyes briefly flickered blue one more time. "I remember" Delta said. "Me too" Omega replied. "It was...another place, some other city or continent maybe?, a different life?" Delta rambled. "Tiberia" Omega said. "Yes. Yes that's right. Another version of us on another world called Tiberia. We were part of a large group of people who..." Delta paused and looked at Genis, "....you. We believed in your goals and dreams and ambitions and did everything we could to make them come true" Delta said. "What are you talking about?" Genis asked, as he slowly took a step away from Delta. "You were there on Tiberia. It was another you but yet still you" Delta told Genis. Genis thought about the disturbing memories that he couldn't make sense of that he saw in Carlitos's head, as he looked over at Carlitos. Even if Carlitos had answers, his memory was too altered by Genis right now to remember any of those answers. Carlitos looked back at Genis in confusion. Genis looked over at the doppelganger, who in response averted his gaze. "We meant to use Cecilia to go back to the beginning so you could fix everything and make Tiberia into a never ending utopian paradise. We would have succeeded if it weren't for Kenshi, Cecilia, and Whisper getting in our way and killing us all" Delta said. "How is Cecilia involved?" Genis asked, while taking a few more steps back. "It doesn't matter. What matters is that she's here in this world and so are you. And now that we remember, its as if we've been given a second chance to do for Rea what we failed to do for Tiberia" Delta said. "Genis doesn't remember" Omega said. "There's nothing to remember. You two have gone insane" Genis said. "This isn't insanity, it's crystal clarity. I am the Delta of Rea. I am the Delta of Tiberia. They are two separate people with two separate lives, and I am both of them. And I believe I can merge them. The ambition, devotion, intellect and soldier's training of my Tiberia'n self, unified with my assassain's training and my Guild connections and resources of my Rea'n self. I can make my goals in both worlds come true. Won't you join me" Delta asked as he held out his hand.

Genis swung his sword at Delta's hand. Delta spun out of the way and grabbed Genis by the wrist of his sword hand. "What the hell was that?!" Omega said. "The two of you, like this, are no good to the Assassin's Guild anymore. Of course I have to kill you now. Guild procedure 101" Genis replied. "My Tiberia'n self loved you too much and could never have brought himself to harm you in any way Genis, but as for my Rea'n self..." Delta said, just before he punched Genis in the nose. Genis fell back onto the sand on his ass, his nose bloody. "I think you broke my nose you tool" Genis muttered. "...This self has no problem seeing you for the dick that you are. And no problem forcing you into achieving my goals whether you like it or not. I may have no where near the god like powers I had on Tiberia, but I still have one small aspect of that power in this world. Which will be more than enough to beat you into submission and kill your government pet" Delta said. "What aspect?" the doppelganger asked. Genis looked startled, he got up quickly and attempted to cut down Delta before it was too late. However, Omega then got infront of Genis with speeds that Genis had never seen Omega capable of before. Genis and Omega's swords clashed. "What aspect? Oh, just the Accumulation" Delta replied. Delta stretched out his arms and copies of Delta came into being, each of them wearing a different colored suit. And they just kept coming, until there were hundreds upon hundreds of Delta's. Genis was desperately trying to get past Omega, but found Omega's swordsmanship to be suddenly very improved. "Incase you were wondering, I'm incorporating my Tiberia'n self's techniques into my fighting style" Omega said. "Thanks, now I know which memories to rip out of your skull" Genis replied. Carlitos was about to go to Genis's aid, but the doppelganger ran over to Carlitos first and got in the way. "I have to help him!" Carlitos declared. "I know you're not in your right mind at the moment, but you must have some common sense still. Like keeping yourself alive first!!!" the doppelganger shouted. Carlitos looked over at the legion of Delta's charging at him. A rod of non-elemental energy formed in Carlitos's hand, which he quickly threw in the direction of the army of Delta's coming at him. In mid-air the rod multiplied into a dozen rods. Each of which hit and immobilized a Delta. "That wont be enough" Carlitos said under his breath. During his fight with Omega, Genis kicked Omega in the gut to knock him back, Genis would backflip a few times to get further distance. But Genis and Carlitos were still too far away from each other, and both of them were about to be overwhelmed by Delta's. Genis's sword became incorporeal as he stabbed it into the sand dune. Right afterwords, a series of deep spiked pits opened up in the ground, large groups of Delta's would fall into each of them. "Clever, Genis, you effected the memory of this area, so its as if you had set these traps in advance. But that wont be enough either" Delta said. "Maybe not, but it did give me enough time to cast this spell" the doppelganger said. Carlitos was finishing an incantation for a magic spell, a spell he used often but never on the scale he was attempting. "What?" Delta said as he looked over at Carlitos. At that moment 300 doppelgangers ran out from behind Carlitos and charged at the remaining army of Delta's.

It was quite the sight to behold. The multitude of Delta's and Carlitos's colliding like two tidal waves. When Genis altered Carlitos's memories, he had included years worth of fabricated memories of martial arts training, which the doppelgangers were using to get quite the advantage over the Delta's they were fighting. When Genis effected the memory of the ground, it hadn't just been to create static spike pit traps, but a series of them that opened and closed at random all over the area, making it incredibly difficult for the Delta's to avoid. As if all that wasn't bad enough for Delta, the original Carlitos wasn't standing idly by during all this. "Be careful, watch how many spells you cast at the same time" a doppelganger cautioned. "I know" Carlitos whispered. After another incantation under his breath, Carlitos levitated into the air, giving him a nifty aerial view of the groups of Delta's in the rear of the army aiming to flank Carlitos's doppelgangers. Carlitos manifested a non-elemental energy rod in each hand and threw them towards each of these flanking groups of Delta's. The rods he threw would multiply and immobilize dozens of Delta's at a time. And Carlitos kept generating and throwing them. Genis wasn't sitting idly by either. The blade of his sword once again solid, Genis charged through a group of Delta's. Flipping and leaping around them as well as slicing and dicing them on his way towards his target. The real Delta. When he was upon him Genis aimed to decapitate him, but just at that moment there was Omega again blocking the attack. "I'm not being side tracked a second time, I'm taking you both on" Genis declared. "You're arrogance is astounding" Delta said. "You always thought you were better than us, but its time you realize how wrong you are" Omega said. "Its time I prove how right I am" Genis replied. "So be it" Delta said. Genis kicked Omega out of the way and swung his sword at Delta's midsection. Delta leaped up so the blade would pass under him. Omega came back and swung his sword at Genis. Genis would lean back so that the blade would pass over him. When he stood back up Omega swung the blade in reverse at his back. Genis would backflip over the blade and swung his own sword at the wrist of Omega's sword hand. Omega dodged. Delta jabbed at Genis's gut. Genis caught Delta's fist between his arm and his side. Omega thrust his sword at Genis. Genis flipped sideways, taking Delta's fist with him, twisting Delta's arm in the process and as Genis landed on his feet Delta was flipped over onto his back via the momentum. Genis swung his blade downwards at Delta. Though Delta thrust his leg in a forwards arc so that Genis's sword would clash against the metal plated bottom of Delta's boot. Omega swung his sword at Genis. Genis whipped out a side kick, so that Omega's blade would clash against the metal plated bottom of Genis's boot. Apparently metal plated boots was the Assassin's Guild's fashion fad of the month. With his free hand, Delta went to punch Genis in the bollocks. Genis let go of Delta's other fist and awkwardly leaped back while avoiding Omega's sword. "I've had enough of this. It will be less trouble just to kill you both" Delta exclaimed. Delta got up and touched Omega, now Accumulating a hundred or so Omega's, each of them with two copies of the original Omega's sword. Delta commanded the Omega copies to aide the Delta copies. With their sword copies in hand they made mince meat out of Carlitos's doppelgangers. A group of them surrounded Genis from all sides and were about to impale him. And just at the worst possible time, Carlitos had strained and exhausted his magic. Carlitos would fall to the ground only to find himself surrounded by an army of Omega's and Delta's about to kill him. "That's right. Cower, you fools. For this is what a hero, who will go above and beyond to do what is right and necessary for two worlds, truly looks like" Delta said.

Then someone got behind Delta and grabbed him in a choke hold. That someone was Ada Wong, with a glowing tattoo of the letter 'I' on her left eye. "Impossible! How could you have snuck up on me without anyone noticing?" Delta said. Ada Wong leaned in and whispered into Delta's ear, "And this is what a villain looks like." "No, wait!! You don't know what you're doing. I beg of you...." Delta shouted. Before Delta could finish what he was saying, Ada Wong snapped his neck. At that moment all the copies of Omega, all the copies of Omega's sword, and all the remaining copies of Delta abruptly vanished. The glowing tattoo of the letter 'A' on Delta's right eye would fade away as Ada Wong let go of Delta and he fell into the sand. Delta was dead. Carlitos and Genis both breathed a sigh of relief at how lucky they were to be alive right now. "Ada Wong? Isn't she Omega's girlfriend and..." Carlitos started to question. Ada Wong looked over at Carlitos and, before he could finish his sentence, briefly put a finger over her mouth and said, "Shhh." Genis looked over at Ada Wong and then looked at Carlitos suspiciously. "Ada, what are you doing!?" Omega asked. "I'm winning" Ada Wong replied. Then she started to walk away. "Where do you think you're going!" Omega demanded. Ada Wong stopped. "Oh, by the way dear, I'm breaking up with you" Ada Wong said. "Are you serious!? You choose NOW to do this?" Omega said. "It's over. But don't worry, I'll do my best to try and pick up the pieces and move on" Ada Wong replied. Then she happily skipped away until she passed over a sand dune and was out of their sight.

Omega stood there in silence, his jaw nearly hitting the ground. Then Genis charged at Omega. Their swords would clash. Omega regained his composure somewhat as he spoke, "Of course this doesn't change anything for you, does it. You really are quite callous." "It's not my fault that you've become as insane and unstable as Delta was" Genis replied. Carlitos was on his knees and exhausted. His magic was rather depleted, but he still had some doppelgangers around. "Help him" Carlitos told his doppelgangers. They complied quickly and charged towards Omega, so as to overwhelm him. Omega went to spin kick Genis, but Genis leaped back to avoid it. Omega's attempt to get to Genis was now blocked by the doppelgangers. Omega cut and slashed his way through each of them, but there were still a good number of them. Also he could see that Genis had now made his blade incorporeal. Omega saw through their strategy, Genis would wait until Omega was completely overrun by the doppelgangers and then he would swoop in and butcher Omega's memories, probly to the point of basically lobotomizing him. "While Delta didn't deserve whats happened to him, he wasn't without flaws. Like for example he was a bit of a show-off, but I doubt you've ever even heard of what I'm capable of" Omega said. Omega would suddenly stop fighting, allowing a large group of doppelgangers to grab and restrain Omega. "What is he doing?" Carlitos wondered. Genis was confused also, but he wasn't going to stand around like a dunce and miss the opportunity, so he made his move and charged. Omega's sword then started to glow. "Cease!" Omega commanded, and his sword responded by unleashing an energywave all around him. Suddenly Genis's blade was reverted to a solid state against his will, the changes Genis had made to the ground's memory was suddenly undone and all the spike pit traps dissapeared as if they never were, and all the alterations that Genis had made to Carlitos's memory was abruptly undone. Carlitos held his head and was in visible pain. Genis wasn't the only one effected by whatever Omega had done. At the same time, all of Carlitos's remaining doppelgangers were dispersed against his will. "No!" Carlitos said as he looked over at the doppelganger that had killed Sanji. That doppelganger smiled as he was dispersed as well. Carlitos held his head even tighter, as he fell down onto the sand. "What the hell is going on!?" Genis said. "Nothing. That's my power, the power of my blade. When I will it, all things in the sight of my blade are Negated. Everyone is rendered equally and absolutely powerless" Omega said.

Genis tried to make his blade incorporeal again but nothing happened. Carlitos, realizing he wasn't much good to anyone in his current state, tried to cast an invisibility spell on himself, but nothing happened. "Sorry, there won't be any more surprise guests to save you, and you won't be able to help yourselves with any more stupid tricks" Omega said. Genis frowned, "F*ck it" Genis mumbled under his breath as he charged. Omega charged at him as well. Genis slashed his sword upwards through the sand, so that some of it would get into Omega's eyes. Yes he had employed this tactic earlier, but he figured if it isn't broke don't fix it. Except Omega slashed his sword through the oncoming sand so that the sand would miss its target. Genis then swung his sword downwards at Omega's sword arm. With his free hand Omega used his sheath to block the strike. "You know, my Tiberia'n self didn't want the same thing as Delta's Tiberia'n self. That version of me had been planning to get Delta and you killed by Kenshi so that I could use Cecilia to go back to the beginning and then use my power. They may have been trying to make Tiberia a perfect world, but i knew it was a waste of time and that Tiberia was too rotten to be worth saving. Using my power at the beginning would have canceled out and negated Tiberia before it could ever become in the first place. And hopefully the empty space that was left behind would leave room for another world to become, a world with an actual chance of being something decent. Unfortunately I can see that Rea is even more rotten a world than Tiberia is" Omega said. "I was wrong about you. You're not as insane as Delta was, you're far worse" Genis replied. Omega thrust his sword at Genis. Genis would dodge to the side and cut off the arm Omega was holding his sheath with. Omega gritted his teeth from the pain as blood spewed across the sand, but he would ignore this pain as he spun around and swung his sword at Genis's midsection. Genis side-flipped over the blade, and at the moment he landed he cut off Omega's sword arm. Without hesitation, Genis then decapitated Omega. Omega's sword stopped glowing and the effects of his Negation power wore off from Genis and Carlitos. Omega's head rolled through the sand as his body hit the ground, and the glowing tattoo of the letter 'N' faded away. Omega was dead. Afterward, Genis walked over towards Carlitos and held out his hand. Carlitos slowly took his hand and Genis helped him up onto his feet. "Thanks.." Carlitos said awkwardly, though the two of them were looking at each other suspiciously. "So... what now?" Genis asked.

Sometime later Nez showed up to find the corpses of Delta and Omega. She would go over to each of them and violently rip the blue crystalline shard out of each of their guts. "I'll be taking these back if you don't mind" Nez said. She would put the two blue crystalline shards into one of her pockets, and take out a lighter and a flask from the other pocket. The flask was full of oil, which she doused Omega's and Delta's corpses in, and then she used the lighter to light them on fire. "Hmm, it's a shame I don't have marshmallow's. Oh well" Nez said as she walked away.

Sometime afterwards, Geppetto arrived, but all that was left of Omega and Delta's corpses were ashes. Completely useless ashes. Geppetto frowned.