“One bottle of sake.” Baiken requested.
It had been three whole days since Baiken and Millia had pulled out of
the ruined city. Since that day, the two had been trailing a path
forwards. Neither one had any idea of where they were heading. They
just let their instincts guide them. It was all a matter of getting
what you want.
Millia wanted to be free,
And Baiken wanted revenge. Simple.
The only way to do those things was to search. No matter how long it
took. So after Baiken and Millia had been on the road for a while, the
two stopped and decided to head off to the nearest town or village to
rest at an inn. Stopping at a bar however was Baiken’s idea. It was in
a mild way, disconcerting to watch Baiken’s drinking habits. No matter
how much revenge or training Baiken tortured herself with, some how
she’d find a way to have that quick little drink at the end of the
day. But that was how it was with Baiken. You have to take her as she
comes. Millia had long since come to terms with Baiken’s little
idiosyncrasies, and in a very blunt way, the disinclined assassin had
grown to like them.
The two were sitting by the bar side, on a couple of barstools, and
tiny may as well have been invisible smile pulled at the edges of
Millia’s lips as Baiken ordered (or demanded) her favorite (see?)
drink.
The bartender left for a few seconds and came back shortly with a
bottle fine sake and two glasses. Millia handed the man a few world
dollars while Baiken poured herself and Millia two glasses of said
sake.
“Here.” Baiken said as she passed the glass to Millia.
The blonde didn’t say anything, just nodded in thanks and sipped some
of her beverage. Baiken, being the ‘fair’ lady that she was, gulped
her sweet alcohol down in brute fashion. But Baiken took a deeper
notice of the blonde next to her.
Even for Millia, she was very quiet today.
Baiken wanted to know why. “What’s wrong?”
Again, Millia said nothing but gave a brief shake of her head as a
response. The scarred samurai wasn’t buying that line of crap though.
“Your silence speaks volumes you know.” Baiken quipped.
Millia set down her glass. “It’s nothing, I just...It feels somewhat
strange to be out on the open again. It seems as though it’s so
familiar yet I...I cannot remove this feeling I have.”
Baiken tried to drown out the other voices around the two of them.
“And what does that mean?”
“It is hard to...explain, but-“
Just as Millia was about to explain herself, a spherical ball wrapped
in kinetic energy shot fiercely from behind the two and smashed
Baiken’s glass of sake.
It goes without saying that that was a declaration of intent.
Both women turned around and stood off their stools abruptly, and
faced whoever or whatever did that.
A tall, dashing man strode up to the duo as stragglers and drunks
backed away from him. The man across from them was fairly tall; trimly
muscular, with the most unusual hairstyle. It near enough covered his
entire face, and his long white tresses were printed with the symbol
of a seemingly Egyptian eye. He was dressed in formal garments and
despite his aggressive act; his cool disposition possessed a
disturbingly frank magnetism.
In his left hand was a tightly gripped snooker cue. Some of the people
surrounding the three had looked at this man oddly, and assumed he had
come for a game, but others looked upon him with a quiet fear.
“I hope you are going to pay for that.” Baiken snapped.
The man ignored Baiken and focused his attentions on Millia. “You are
Millia Rage.”
The woman in question narrowed her eyes. “What of it?”
All of a sudden, the man ripped off the front of his white shirt, and
it flew lightly backwards out of sight. Coolly, he smoothed out the
point of his snooker cue with a small grey cube. With that action, the
cogs and wheels in Millia’s brain started to turn.
A wave of memories came flooding back to her. “...You!”
The man grinned darkly yet charmingly. “So you remember me. I find
that so hard to believe when you abandoned the group who cared for and
raised you.”
Baiken’s quick hand slithered towards the hilt of her blade. “Who is
this man, Millia?”
Millia tightened her fist sharply. “...He belongs to the assassin
organization and is Zato’s aide de camp. His name is Venom...”
(Cue a solitude that asks for nothing in return!)
“That’s right.” Venom said. “Now tell your friend to step aside. We
have business to iron out.”
That got Baiken’s blood flowing. One thing she couldn’t stand was when
someone dismissed her so easily it put her significance in question.
And the Japanese swordswoman drew her blade in response to that.
“Kami-sama, what is it with me and bar fights? Boy, I warn you. Pay
for my drink and just maybe my sword will not cut you in two.”
Venom still showed no fear, only brought the cue between his index and
middle fingers, pushing up a tight embrace on the end of his cue with
the other hand.
With blinding quickness, Venom slid onward slightly and jabbed his
snooker cue out forwards. A second kinetically charged ball blasted
frontward at Baiken. The shot was too quick for Baiken to avoid, but
with enough effort, Baiken raised her sword to her defence. The orb
shattered on the edge of Baiken’s blade, and Baiken lowered her sword
with a slightly less nonchalant fighting conduct.
Venom pointed at Millia. “Rage, this is our quarrel. Tell this woman
to move away. I will not fight you under un-chivalrous terms.”
Baiken’s anger spiked. “Oh ho, you are a righteous fiend, aren’t you?
That is it you lit-“
Millia put a staying hand in front of Baiken. “No, he’s right. This
will be decided between him and I, Baiken. I’ll handle this.”
The low growl from Baiken indicated that she wasn’t happy with that
request, but her desire to facilitate Millia’s wishes overpowered her.
With her peach eye trained on Venom, Baiken made short steps away from
him and Millia. Those around followed Baiken’s example, and formed a
large ring of spectators around the two, but gave them enough space to
fight in.
Both Millia and Venom readied themselves though Millia had an enquiry
that she wanted to address. “You.” Millia spouted indignantly.
Venom’s smiled faded. “Yes?”
“Why are you here?” Millia yelled. “Did your master send you?”
Venom braced himself on his left leg and pulled some locks of his hair
to rest behind his ear. “In the event that you defeat me, I’ll make
known my intentions. Until then we have no need for words.”
Millia needed no second ushering as she rush straight for Venom. The
blonde ploughed forwards until she reached Venom’s proximity, and her
dynamic hair contorted into a dagger-like shape ready to impale
Venom’s freshly bared chest. The attack fell short, and Venom swiftly
sidestepped the blow with enough time to throw a quiet smile of
amusement.
The muscles in Millia’s body tensed and focused themselves as Millia
mechanically pushed her left leg forwards to slow her dash to a halt.
Millia made a sharp 90-degree turn to the right, to face Venom.
By this time he had ran backwards to the other side of the spectator
ring, and had fired another one of his trademark balls of kinetic
energy. This one caught Millia well off-guard, and it rammed brutally
into the blonde’s shoulder.
Millia was thrown back slightly by the force of the shot, and had to
stab her hair into the varnished floorboards to prop herself into
stability.
The blonde stood up slowly and evaluated Venom. Seeing that his
projectiles were probably his real strength, Millia ran straight for
him again, throwing her previous tactic to the wind. Correct to her
suppositions, Venom fired an additional energy ball to counter her
quick push forwards. But rather than face it, Millia bounded into the
air, clear over it. The ball was sent sailing into the crowds, and one
of the men there was shot clear in the stomach.
After coughing up a geyser of blood, the young man fell to his knees
and clutched his stomach in pain.
At the peck of her jump, Millia began to plummet towards Venom in an
arc trajectory. Zato’s trusty ally caught on to Millia’s change in
strategy a little too late, as the unwilling assassin dove leg first
into the chest of the dedicated one.
Millia’s double kick knocked the breath from Venom’s lungs, but to
reciprocate, Venom swung his snooker cue at Millia. The blonde back
flipped using Venom’s chest as springboard, so the swipe cut through
air and air alone.
Millia landed gracefully a short distance away from Venom, and stood
up, quickly regaining his fighting pose. Venom smiled a little, taking
a slight fancy to fight, and casually wiped the side of his mouth free
of the small trail of blood that ran down it.
By this time, Millia assumed that she had Venom well scouted, so she
ran forwards in the same way, straight for Venom. Then the mysterious
assassin pulled his cue up to some extent, and Millia was expecting a
repeat of his ball games.
She didn’t expect him to charge forwards while twirling the cue at
speeds so fast it appeared to a blur of the mind. Millia’s eyes
flashed with foolish realisation as the cue smashed into her
repeatedly by means of a deadly method of efficiency. The blow(s)
ended quickly, furthermore Millia was thrown back clear across the
room.
“Millia!” Baiken yelled as her friend was hurled along the smoke
filled bar.
It was only through Baiken’s yell that Millia gained enough focus to
make a quick air recovery and land in crude styles on the floor.
But Venom gave her no time to recover. In an instant he shot another
energy ball with Millia Rage’s name written all over it. Millia didn’t
have enough time to jump over it, so raised both her hands to protect
herself. The ball crashed and split over Millia’s arms, with enough
power to gash Millia’s right arm.
Millia fell to the side and clutched at her arm with a sharp gasp of
pain. Venom altered his own strategy, and hurdled into air. Millia
turned onto her back, and she opened her eyes just in time to see the
aerial variation of Venom’s projectile come screaming towards her. The
blonde got her ass in gear and used her hair as leverage to stand and
then jump out of the way. Like a missile, the blast cracked open the
floorboards and Millia felt a minor tremor below her feet.
Millia stood up, her right arm bleeding, and steeled herself. She
wasn’t about to quit now. Not after coming this far. Again Millia,
seemingly oblivious to her situation, charged at Venom. Baiken then
became worried. This fight was not going as well as she had first
assumed it would. Then Baiken’s eye brightened in anger, when she
realized that Millia was STILL holding back.
“Eh?” Venom looked curiously at Millia. She charged him from the front
again? The English assassin assumed that she was either a fool or some
kind of masochist. Nonetheless if that were her wish, then he would
certainly punish her for it.
Venom rushed towards a darting Millia, and span his cue around to
complete his Double Head Morbid attack. But the very second the attack
came within mere inches of striking distance, Millia swayed under it
with a quick forward roll. Venom’s crystal blue eyes widened in shock
when he realized that Millia had tricked him.
With the path to a opening finally in sight, Millia turned around, and
whipped up her hair into a fierce lashing wave that knocked Zato’s
aide de camp clean into the air. Millia did not pass up the
initiative, and jumped up into the air to follow a temporarily stunned
Venom. Now that she had him in a decent position Millia made another
burst into the air to get above Venom’s body, then curled her body
into a ball, allowing her unique hair to surround her completely to
form a crescent moon shaped form. This form drilled into Venom’s body
with an unyieldingly ferocious spinning attack.
{Finally. She pulled one out of the hat.} Baiken thought as she
watched Millia and Venom from ground level.
After maintaining the attack as long as she could, the moon shape form
her hair took on dissolved itself and slithered back into Millia’s
normal hairstyle.
Millia’s petite shoes landed softly on the ground following her
descent, whereas Venom crashed violently on the cold hard floorboards
of the bar.
“Uh...” Venom groaned awkwardly. With his snooker cue as a boost,
Venom stood up and stared hard at Millia. His previous suspicious were
starting to come true. But he had to be sure.
Holding himself firm, and by tensing his muscles and nerves, and with
one hand, made a sharp wave-like movement with his hand. It instantly
seemed to open up a gate to different dimension, and through that
momentary tear came a HUGE sphere of burning red, yet solid energy. It
travelled slowly, but the energy it gave off was enormous.
Both Millia and Baiken gasped as the massive ball neared Millia.
Suddenly everything around Millia fazed out. Even Baiken’s incessant
yells went unnoticed by the blonde. Everything fell out of focus.
Unexpectedly, the only thing Millia could think about was Zato.
Though she barely seemed realized it, Millia felt like she was hit
like a truck at hypersonic speed as Venom’s Dark Angel attack had a
full, head-on collision. Millia’s body was repeatedly battered by the
awesome strength of the giant orb, and a trail of blood splurged out
from a deep cut that she had sustained on her forehead.
The unwilling assassin started to slip into unconsciousness.
**********
[Where...am I?]
{Heh...heh...heh...}
Millia studied her surroundings. She wasn’t at the bar. She wasn’t
anywhere it seemed that all there was...was nothing...for miles around
her, just ice and snow, and a few brief winds.
Baiken was not there, neither was Venom. She was alone.
Or so she thought.
From the distance, a small puddle of shadows moved towards he quickly,
and those dark shadows materialized into a form. A humanoid form.
The form of Zato-ONE.
Millia slowly stepped back on the cold floor of ice, desperate to back
away. This wasn’t happening.
Zato was screaming and writhing in agony, tightly holding his
throbbing head with his hands. Millia tried desperately to look away
from her former master, but her eyes were drawn completely to Zato’s
pain.
“Zato...” Millia gasped.
“M-Millia...” Zato said in strain through gritted teeth.
“Help...me...”
Millia’s insecure anger arose as she pointed at Zato’s mangled form.
“Help you? Why should I? You ruined my life! You transformed me into a
brutal executioner. You denied me the right to be a normal woman!”
“I gave you power...and you spat...in m-my face...”
Zato screamed again. “You were the...only woman I could...could ever
trust...I...(Yaaaaaaggghhhhhh!)...needed you...”
Millia again tried to back off. “Well I never needed you.”
Something happened to Zato there and then. He was constantly holding
his head in pain, the suddenly that pain faded. His twisted body the
straightened and re-took that ruthless glow that it had always
possessed. And that imprinted grin of a tyrant returned to him.
The dark form of Zato slid across the ground to Millia via the moving
shadows below his ankles, and brought himself face to face with his
nemesis.
“You always needed me, Millia. I made you. I complete you. Admit it,
the only reason you wish to kill me is because you can’t face up to
your true feelings. Feelings that exist unbidden within your heart.”
“How dare you talk about my heart!?” Millia yelled.
“Frozen?” Zato said sarcastically. “As is your soul?”
Millia tried to stab Zato with her hair to stop him from saying
anymore, but the moment she made the attack Zato disappeared and
reappeared behind her.
Millia froze up like a statue as Zato cold hands ran themselves along
her lithe body. “You see...the hatred in your mind called out for my
destruction...but the hesitation in you heart prevented you from
finishing...you really are a worthless assassin...”
Millia shoved Zato back repulsively when his hand reached her thighs.
“Get away from me! You disgust me!”
Zato chuckled. “Do you want to run from our twisted love...again?”
“Stop it, Zato...”
“We, were destined to die in each others arms...”
“Stop it, Zato!” Millia yelled angrily.
Zato took no notice. “Do you want to die, my delicate little flower?”
Millia looked away. “I...died a long time ago...”
“If that’s so, the why do you still want to see me in my cold hard
grave?” The anger in Zato’s voice was now showing.
The unwilling assassin had thought this through so many times.
“Because I want my spirit...my soul to be free.”
Zato looked at Millia angrily then slid back down into his shadow
puddle, though his voice reverberated across the snowy fields.
“Then stop running. Stop holding back your true strength. Confront me
with it all. Then on that fateful day...we’ll see...which one of us
was right...”
**********
Millia’s eyes snapped open, and she realized that she was still
feeling the full force of Venom’s attack. Desperately, Millia gathered
everything she could muster, and managed to spin quickly at such a
sharp degree that three translucent disks of powerful energy ripped
through the Dark Angel, dissolving it.
The blonde then collapsed to the ground as all the pressure was
released. The three disks didn’t stop there though, as all three
rammed into a pre-maturely confident Venom.
The English assassin yelled out in frustration, as the final blast
tossed him through the crowds and into the far wall.
Baiken ran up to Millia and used her arm to pull the woman up from the
floor, and get Millia on her feet.
“Millia! Are you okay?” Baiken asked concernedly.
The cuts on Millia’s body were minimal, but the one eyed Ronin
couldn’t tell if she had internal injuries. Millia’s eyes slowly
drifted open.
The woman’s voice was weak. “B-Baiken...?”
Baiken breathed a sigh of relief. “Yes.”
Some of the crowd had begun to disperse and leave the bar from the
sheer scale of the fight. Only a few brave souls dared to watch on.
And after sitting Millia on a table to ease herself, Baiken drew her
sword and strode over to Venom, who had made a small indent in the far
wall of the bar.
Baiken kneeled over Venom, and held her sword to his neck. “Now...I
want answers. I know that you want more from Millia, so start talking
now.”
Venom spit up a little blood, and smiled slightly. “I need your help.”
**********
[It’s disgusting!]
~It’s love...~
“Please...stop it...” Dizzy mumbled.
Back on the May ship, Dizzy was in her room, on her bed, curled up in
a ball holding her head tightly. The voices in her head...jarring her,
hurting her...The arguments...
She couldn’t stand it any longer.
They’re arguing...
[How can you condone such behavior!? It’s sickening!] Necro yelled,
his voice echoing in Dizzy’s aching mind.
Undine didn’t wait long to respond. ~Can’t you see that she is happy?
She has finally found someone who she can truly love, regardless of
her race~
[She is HUMAN! And to add more to the mix, she is female! I cannot
agree with such an abnormal choice!]
~The only one here who is *abnormal* is you, you judgemental lout! ~
Necro’s anger made a sharp turn to the max. [How dare you? Don’t you
have the child’s best interests in mind?]
~Of course I do! I want Dizzy to happy. And she is happy with May. Let
her follow through. If that is her wish...~
[Fool!] Necro bellowed. [This is insane! I will never accept it! She
is human! The two don’t mix! They look differently; they feel
differently...they act differently! Are you forgetting the Devil’s
Living Place? Are you forgetting what happened there?]
~Do you think that May is anything like those people? ~
[All humans are guilty in my eyes!]
~Is that so? ~ Undine chirped sarcastically. ~Then aren’t you ignoring
the fact that Dizzy here, isn’t a ‘pure’ Gear? ~
Dizzy couldn’t take this anymore. Necro and Undine’s voices were like
brief put palpable whispers in Dizzy’s mind, but to her, it felt like
they were screaming around the room. Dizzy felt like maggots were
slithering along the grooves of her brain. This was just too
painful...
“Please stop arguing!”
**********
Johnny was over at the bridge, calmly steering the May ship through
the skies and clouds. Then a remote memory crossed Johnny’s mind, and
he ruffled through his pockets. He pulled out a small piece of paper
and grinned brightly. The May ship’s next destination was China, and
another ‘old friend’ was there.
“Heh, heh, heh!” Johnny snickered.
Just then, May walked through the door to the bridge. She and Dizzy
were supposed to help his June in the cafeteria today, but she
couldn’t find her anywhere. The brunette walked up to a cheerful
Johnny and took a little gander at what he had in his hands.
“What is that? An address?” May asked questioningly, and then... “A
woman’s address?”
Johnny almost jumped in surprise. “Eh? What the? Oh it’s just you
May.”
May looked angry. “Who is this for?”
Johnny leaned on the rudder of the May ship. “An old friend.”
“An old ‘girl’ friend?”
At first Johnny looked strangely at May, but died down when he
remembered why May was acting this way.
{Well, it isn’t hard to believe. No woman can resist a body like this!
But still.}
Johnny kneeled down slightly to face May at eye level. “Look May.
Don’t worry about that. Haven’t you got some chores? To help out June
in the cafeteria?”
May wasn’t prepared to drop the subject but what Johnny said made May
think about Dizzy. “Yeah, I do. Me and Dizzy. But I can’t find her.”
“Well go find her for me. I don’t wanna dump you and June in it but I
need to teach Dizzy how to fly the May ship.”
“Wasn’t April going to do that?” May asked.
“Yeah, but April’s busy at the moment. She and the others are plotting
out the maps again. Our old copies are getting so withered I swear
we’ll crash into Zepp one of these days.”
May sighed. “Alright I’ll look for her.”
**********
Kaiser’s afterthoughts
----------------------
* Sorry, I promised two key events right? Well the Millia/Venom fight
lasted too long. I’m gonna have to skip the other one to the next
chapter.
* How was the fight? Did Venom use too many Stinger Aims? Was Millia
too resilient? Feel free to offer *constructive* criticism.
* I hope I did Venom justice. He’s one of my favorite characters next
to Millia, Dizzy and Testament, so I hope I did okay with him.
* If you’re wondering what the hell that business with Zato was about
during the Venom/Millia scene, that was just Millia’s subconscious
trying to motivate her into going all out. It was all one big
hallucination/dream.
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