Model: ashercn97/av-v2
Author: ashercn97
Pipeline: sentence-similarity
Library: sentence-transformers
Tags: sentence-transformers, safetensors, modernbert, sentence-similarity, feature-extraction, dense, generated_from_trainer, dataset_size:343902, loss:CoSENTLoss, arxiv:1908.10084, base_model:answerdotai/ModernBERT-base, base_model:finetune:answerdotai/ModernBERT-base, model-index, text-embeddings-inference, endpoints_compatible, region:us
Base models (finetune): id: answerdotai/ModernBERT-base
Card metadata: tags: sentence-transformers, sentence-similarity, feature-extraction, dense, generated_from_trainer, dataset_size:343902, loss:CoSENTLoss
base_model: answerdotai/ModernBERT-base
widget: source_sentence:            Hello Fellow Bloggers!  This is my final attempt at starting up a blog. I always start, it lasts DATE, and then I burn out. BUT this is something I would really like to get into, maybe it will last this time.   For those of you who don't know, I am a DATE country girl lost somewhere in the big city. I have adapted well though, if I must say so myself. I have been living in GPE for DATE. My mother in PERSON live here also and I have a (almost) DATE dalmatian. I have been dating the same guy for DATE, and plan on making it last forever. I am a Signing Team Manager for a local ORG store, and love hanging out with my friends... I guess thats the basics, so lets go on to TODAY!  It was DATE. Can I say any more? Everything that could go wrong, Did. I didn't get CARDINAL of what I wanted to get done accomplished, and.....WHOA... I don't wanna start of complaining, if I do that I will never get anyone to read my blog.  DATE was DATE. Period.  Does anyone else watch the Swan? I am a Reality Show Fanatic. I can't believe these people leave there family for DATE to make a physical transformation. I recently made a rather large transformation myself, but I don't think that I could have been so successful if I didn't have my friends and family there to back me up. Not that I am knocking the show by any means... I plan to watch it...in TIME.  I gotta tape wrestling too. (I am NOT a redneck) I tape it, and then ORG and I watch it when he gets off. It has become a ritual. I never watched wrestling before PERSON and I got together. What is this effect guys have on us gals? Somehow they always tend to rub off on me. Before Gene it was PERSON and Matchbox Twenty... It's just weird how that happens.   I promise as time progresses my posts will be more interesting. I just gotta get back in the swing of things.   'After a while you learn the subtle difference between holding a hand and chaining a soul, and you learn that love doesn't mean leaning and company doesn't mean security, and you begin to learn that kisses aren't contracts and presents aren't promises, and you begin to accept your defeats with your head up and your eyes open, with the grace of an adult, not the grief of a child. You learn to build all your roads on DATE because DATE's ground is too uncertain for plans. After a while you learn that even sunshine burns if you get too much. So, plant your own garden and decorate your own soul, instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers. And you learn that you really can endure... that you really are strong, and you really do have worth.'             
sentences:            ....The day we have all been waiting for, even if it has been for different reasons. TIME is the finale' of American Idol. I have no idea who is going to win DATE? I guess we will find out in TIME! Speaking of Television... Did anyone else out there watch the season finale of DATE? What an ending! I think next to The OC, that was my favorite show of the season. ORG, I know it seems like I am some huge TV/Movie Buff because I talk about it alot, but I am not that bad, I swear!  DATE was a rather unproductive day at work, which was exactly what I needed since, DATE started off to be a huge mess. We had a visit with CARDINAL of the company big-wigs and he seemed to be pleased with everything my team has accomplished. That makes me feel good. Even when DATE goes wacky...that kinda made it worth it all, know what I mean?  I haven't got to talk to Gene much DATE, and I won't get to see him TIME either. Turns out his fraternity is having a rush event, so I guess it will be DATE before we get together. I miss him already! UGHHHH!!! He did call me when he was on the way to the hospital earlier. CARDINAL of our friends, PERSON is in there, with a staff infection. I hope he gets better soon. He is such a sweetie!   Why? Why is it that ex-boyfriends girlfriends always feel threatened by their ex-girlfriends? It's kinda sad, because you can't even remain friends with people you have dated because their current Significant Other has issues dealing with it. WHERE IS THE TRUST PEOPLE??? Oh well! That's my random thought for DATE.   Oh... I almost forgot (man this blog post is all over the place) My friend PERSON is moving back to GPE DATE. I am going to miss her like crazy! Her Mom has PERSON and is really sick, so I understand COMPETELY why she has to leave. I hope everything works out for you girlie!    'I was so high I did not recognize the fire burning in her eyes, the chaos that controlled my mind. Whispered goodbye as she got on a plane, never to return again, always in my heart....OH! This love has taken it's toll on me....'         urlLink What Classic Movie Are You?    urlLink personality tests by similarminds.com  , What about civility? Jokes or not, are they intelligent? A long time ago, actual discussion was seen in the comments section instead of, lol OP is a fag . It's like a scientist explaining life found on Uranus but the audience giggles and says, lol, youranus ., Napoleon swallowed somewhat uneasily. "I won"t forget that, Clara. Truly I won"t." Now it was Clara who slowly nodded. "And I"ll try not to push too hard, not to tighten the knot into a stranglehold. It isn"t easy for me, Napoleon, to accept U.N.C.L.E."s very prominent and highly prized position in your life, but I am trying. I really am trying." Napoleon answered nothing for in truth what was there to say? They understood each other and accepted the limitations the personality of each imposed on the other. He would concentrate on that positive fact, and not stress on the negative possibility that his heart"s devotion to Clara and his soul"s dedication to U.N.C.L.E. might never result in any sort of comfortable lovers" knot. July 1963Antwerp, Belgium Wandering the Meir was a rather invigorating experience. So much to see at every turn. Napoleon was definitely energized by the surroundings and was thoroughly enjoying his stroll. He was on the prowl for a new set of cufflinks, something to celebrate his recent promotion to Chief of Enforcement, Number 1 in Section II of the North American division of U.N.C.L.E. His superior, Alexander Waverly, had informed him of that promotion ten days ago in New York. The Old Man, as Waverly was respectfully if mischievously called by his subordinates behind his back, had congratulated his new CEA with a handshake and a "Well deserved, Mr. Solo" and then promptly sent him off to Brussels on a mission. So Napoleon hadn"t even gotten the chance to make merry with a triumphant dinner in a tony restaurant or a festive bottle of vintage champagne. His mission had concluded successfully this morning and, since his flight back to New York was not until tomorrow afternoon, Napoleon had decided to take the short train ride from Brussels to Antwerp with its bustling diamond market. He wanted the cufflinks that would serve as a reminder of this moment in his career with the Command to be spectacular. Though he owned many a pair of the male-oriented shirt ornaments, he owned absolutely none that boasted diamonds in their design. So what better way to emphasize this personal turning point than with cufflinks bought from the world"s largest diamond center? Napoleon had received cufflinks as gifts from various people close to him, from his Aunt Amy to his one-time fiancée Clara Richards, throughout his lifetime. Yet, with regard to any such items meant to commemorate a particular moment in connection with U.N.C.L.E., Napoleon always purchased them for himself. He probably couldn"t have explained the why of that if asked; it just somehow seemed most right to him. His relationship with U.N.C.L.E. was far too internal to intimately share with others. He had tried that years ago with Clara and in the end she had walked away from him because U.N.C.L.E. was so integral to his soul. He didn"t know why or when this kinesis of being had happened, but he was wise enough not to any longer deny it. Oh, there was also no denying Napoleon Solo adored women, found them exhilarating and as necessary to his everyday happiness as breathing was to his physical survival. Since Clara he"d had many affectionate sexual liaisons, yet absolutely no passionate romantic affairs. He recognized now there really wasn"t any compromise that could be reached between the continuously competing responsibilities of the heart and of the soul. Today though Napoleon wasn"t dwelling on any of that. He was thoroughly at peace with the world and with himself. He hummed tunelessly as he "window-shopped" the displays at various swanky retail jewelry stores. He sauntered in and out of the establishments, nonchalantly browsing their wares, his senses on the alert for that one set of cufflinks that would draw his eye and tickle his fancy. And then he spotted them. They were bold yet elegant: designed as shooting stars, each with a five-pronged focal point accented by a curved ribbon that split into three separate tails. They literally glittered with diamonds as the brilliantly faceted stones covered every element of the motif, even leaving Napoleon unsure if the underlying metal was white gold or platinum. One could say perhaps they were a bit ostentatious, but they definitely made a statement that to Napoleon suited his current state of mind. He was himself glowing inside with the practical recognition received within his chosen field of idealistic endeavor. So why not let that glow show a bit on the outside with the radiance of diamonds when he shot his cuffs? Intent on claiming his prize, Napoleon thrust his hands casually into his trouser pockets as he cleared his throat to gain the attention of the salesman behind the glitzy counter. He had no doubt the cufflinks would be sybaritically costly in terms of legal tender, but hey, he had already more than paid his humanitarian dues in far more precious coin. November 1969London, England "You"re late," Illya Kuryakin commented a bit tartly to his partner. "Oh? The plane hasn"t taken off yet, right? So technically I"m not late," responded Napoleon Solo in a teasing tone and with a mischievous grin. The two men had been in England for the past two weeks overseeing the security operation for the most recent U.N.C.L.E. Summit Five conference that had concluded the day before. It had been a relatively quiet affair for the organization"s top enforcement team. No murders or jealousy-motivated vendettas or grandiose Thrush takeover plots like those that had made Summit Five in Berlin two years ago such an unpleasant memory, especially for Napoleon. "You said you would meet me at the airport twenty minutes ago," Illya further challenged, perhaps a bit petulantly. Illya"s own most poignant memory of the Berlin Summit Five was of his partner being "psychologically" tortured by U.N.C.L.E. itself. That had left a sour taste in his mouth, even though he now knew Napoleon had used that situation in an attempt to expose a mole within the organization. In the end that mole had been one of the five Continental Chiefs themselves, Harry Beldon, and he had been brought down before he could do any irreparable damage to U.N.C.L.E. Yet Beldon had also been the man Illya had worked for in the initial stage of his enforcement-agent career. Thus that Beldon had turned out to be a Thrush in U.N.C.L.E."s clothing had disquieted Kuryakin more than he would ever openly admit, even to his partner. So perhaps he was a bit more irritable today than was warranted by Solo"s minor tardiness. It was just he wanted to mentally catalogue the latest Summit Five as completely over and done, and he could only do that with the finality of their current departure from London. Therefore the prospect of he and Napoleon possibly missing their scheduled commercial flight home had been particularly unsettling. "And I have met you at the airport, just a bit behind schedule. So all"s good," countered Napoleon wryly. Illya gave no verbal reply, but he did quite expressively roll his eyes, a sign of mild exasperation that Napoleon purposely ignored. Instead Solo gave the girl behind one of the airline desks a truly charismatic smile as he requested a customs declaration form. "Whatever do you have to declare?" Illya asked with some curiosity. Napoleon reached inside his jacket and pulled a small flat jewelry case from the inner pocket, laying it on the counter in front of Illya. The Russian opened the leather-bound container and gazed upon its contents. "Another set of cufflinks, Napoleon? You own pairs enough already for a dozen men." Napoleon only shrugged. "Don"t tell me: you saw them in a shop window and couldn"t pass them by." Again Napoleon only shrugged. He wasn"t about to let his partner in on the truth that these particular shirt trinkets had been custom designed to his specifications. Though he did indeed own many pairs of cufflinks, he had never before himself commissioned any. He had come across all previous sets he had personally bought much as Illya had mentioned: he would see a set that fit some condition in his mind and purchase them "off the shelf", as it were. These cufflinks though were different. He had wanted something to memorialize the fifth anniversary of his permanent partnership with Illya, a milestone that had been reached that October. That particular landmark was not one the two men verbally discussed, yet was it ever-present in Napoleon"s mind. He and Kuryakin were U.N.C.L.E."s top enforcement team, the cream of the crop, but it was more than that. With the Russian agent Solo had forged a bond of friendship unlike any he had ever formed with another human being. Oh, he had friends by the score, but those ties were always casual, close to the surface, fostered by commonalities of past upbringing, current character traits or future expectations. Napoleon shared none of those usual companionship roots with Illya. Where Napoleon had been nurtured within the open framework of democratic principles, Illya had been reared within the closed structure of communist tenets. Where Napoleon"s nature was optimistic and idealistic, Illya"s was pragmatic and realistic. Where Napoleon focused on fundamentally affirming opportunities, Illya concentrated on effectively negating threats. The two men could not seem more different, and yet there was an inner core where they melded together, each a separate half of the same whole and neither truly complete without the other. So, during this assignment in London that wound up fortunately not consuming his every waking hour, Napoleon had spared some time for a trip to Hatton Garden. At the shop of one of the area"s renowned jewelers, he had batted back-and-forth with a master goldsmith ideas on the creation of a truly one-of-a-kind set of cufflinks. Something that represented himself and Illya and their unique synergy. The final result of that creative process had finally been ready today for his pickup, and now rested in the small leather case open on the surface of the airline courtesy desk. That artistic outcome had turned out exactly how Napoleon had wished: a bit of him, a bit of Illya, and a bit of what was shared between them imaginatively interpreted in the skillful twisting of fine metals. As the airline clerk returned with the form Solo required, Kuryakin took the case in hand and tilted it to-and-fro, examining its contents with a critical eye as the light reflected off the ornaments from various directions. Each cufflink consisted of a toothed leaf wrought in white gold that sported a short curved stem running through one side of a horizontally positioned yellow gold acorn. Another short curved stem ran out from the opposite side of the acorn into the main body of a serrated leaf fashioned of rose gold. The crossbar backed the white-gold leaf on the left cufflink and the rose-gold leaf on the right cufflink, thus placing the toothed leaf on the top of one link and the serrated leaf on the top of the other. The leaves themselves were angled in such a way that the set together formed an open circle, with a leaf of one kind seemingly stretching toward the leaf of the other kind on the opposite cufflink. "The detailing of the leaves is exquisite," Illya conceded with honest appreciation for the workmanship, "but I must assume the goldsmith had little familiarity with botany." "Oh?" casually questioned Napoleon, seemingly intent on the task of filling out the customs declaration. But in truth he was watching Illya"s reaction askance, pleased with his partner"s obvious fascination with the design of the cufflinks. He had never shared with Illya the association behind his assorted collection of cuff ornaments. It was one of those rare private emotional places where he didn"t unreservedly embrace the prospect of Kuryakin"s interconnection. Between the partners there were still a few of those for each man. Still, Napoleon could not help but feel contentment with the fact the concept he had conceived as a representation of the unique harmony between the two of them did indeed intrigue the other man. "Napoleon, even you must know that, though mighty oaks from tiny acorns grow," Illya paraphrased an old adage, "powerful birches do not. And this rose-gold leaf is that of a birch just as surely as the white-gold one is that of an oak." "Think about it, Illya," Napoleon"s mind forwarded even while his lips merely inquired, "Is it?" "Of that I have absolutely no doubt, my friend," Illya confirmed. "I am quite familiar with the shape of that particular leaf as the birch is the national tree of Russia." "You don"t say," said Napoleon aloud as his brain silently noted, "As the oak is the national tree of the United States, tovarisch." Illya ran a finger lightly over first one cufflink where it was nestled in its bed of velvet and then over the other. His brain was reaching toward a correlation with something, but his facial expression let on he wasn"t sure just what. "The acorn is U.N.C.L.E., my Russian cohort," Napoleon"s wordless mental prodding continued as he seemingly concentrated on the form he was mechanically filling in as necessary, "and from that "tiny acorn" have we both gotten the chance to grow: toward a conviction that has crossed rival political boundaries and into a trust that has bridged opposing personality traits." As if somehow hearing Napoleon"s thoughts, Illya opened his eyes remarkably wide for a split second and then squinted hard at his ostensibly mundanely occupied partner. "Napoleon," he ventured, "is there anything in particular you want to tell me about these cufflinks?" Again Napoleon shrugged. "Just that I appreciate them as a set... more than I ever expected." Illya shut the small case with an audible snap, enveloping the separate halves once more within the protection of the same whole. "Then you"d best keep them close," he gravely admonished Solo as he extended the closed box back to the dark-haired man. Napoleon looked up toward his partner once more and accepted the jewelry case from his hand with a simple, "Indeed." Then he carefully placed the box back within his inside jacket pocket, right over his heart. May 1974New York City, New York In the end Napoleon chose to wear to Waverly"s retirement dinner the gold-and-star sapphire umbrella disk cufflinks he had purchased nearly two decades ago in Anegada. It somehow seemed appropriate to him that the ornaments he had selected to rejoice in his own triumphant entry into U.N.C.L.E. should now as well memorialize Mr. Waverly"s graceful exit from the organization. Something in Alexander Waverly had always reminded Napoleon Solo of his grandfather, Franklin Milbourne. There was no doubt Mr. Waverly was more open-minded and less bound by old conventions than Napoleon"s childhood guardian had ever been, yet were both incredibly righteous men internally compelled by the tenets of their own moral convictions. And in some ways Waverly"s mentorship of Solo mirrored his grandfather"s guardianship: caring but tough, expectant of a certain degree of adherence to set rules but also tolerant and even pleased by a certain degree of independent thought in his "charge". The mood of the dinner was nostalgic yet cheerful. The Old Man would be missed. It was he who had built the organization from the ground up, he who had helmed it into steady achievement of the admittedly difficult goal of non-partisan cooperation between nations. Yet the "New Man" held the promise of a bright continuing future for the Command. Napoleon Solo was a superb strategist who also recognized how to use congenial diplomacy to best advantage. His experience as a field agent gave him a ready understanding of the "down in the trenches" aspects of U.N.C.L.E., and his personal commitment to the underlying ideals of the organization was unparalleled. Only a tiny minority of practiced skeptics had any misgivings that he was the best mix of both personality and skill for the position of next "first among equals" Continental Chief. Napoleon sat to Waverly"s left at the head table, the other four Continental Chiefs ensconced to the Old Man"s right. Illya sat on Napoleon"s left as he had so often at Waverly"s round desk during their enforcement agent years, both men listening to the Old Man speak challengingly then of their next assignment in the field as he now spoke contentedly of their next roles in the organization. The food was delectably mouth-watering, the champagne delightfully nerve-relaxing, the toasts either warmly or humorously celebratory, and the atmosphere a perfect blend of fond conclusion and eager anticipation. As the last of dessert was being happily consumed by the attendees with an additional cup of coffee or tea poured by the servers, Mr. Waverly asked to speak to Napoleon privately for a moment. Concerned that perhaps there was to be one more piece of crucial but heretofore confidential information that needed to be passed on by the exiting Section I Number 1 of North America to his successor, Napoleon"s countenance took on a very serious mien as he nodded his assent. The two men walked off toward a small private sitting room in the secured catering hall. Once there, Mr. Waverly chided with a wry smile, "You needn"t look so tense, Mr. Solo. I"m not about to reveal some hush-hush situation that could result in World War III and thus that you must rectify immediately.' Napoleon"s shoulders visibly relaxed. "That"s good to hear, Mr. Waverly." "I simply wanted to personally present you with a little gift." Napoleon"s eyebrows rose upward toward his hairline at that disclosure. Ignoring the younger man"s astonishment, Alexander Waverly removed a small jeweler"s case from the inside pocket of his tuxedo jacket and extended it toward Solo. Napoleon accepted the box from the hand of the older man and silently opened the hinged container. Inside was a pair of gold cufflinks. The motif was of a framework dove, wings outstretched, with the main of the body formed by a globe. To Napoleon it looked very akin to a religious symbol he remembered from his Catholic-educated childhood: the Holy Ghost protecting the world. But he noted that the globe was the skeletal globe of the insignia of U.N.C.L.E. He glanced back up at Mr. Waverly"s face and saw the sly amusement in the Old Man"s eyes. "I know you collect cufflinks, Mr. Solo." Napoleon slowly nodded. It would seem the cunning old fox knew much more than simply that. That somehow he had found out the particular associations Napoleon attached to those collected cufflinks. "A long time ago, when the idea of U.N.C.L.E. was first conceived," Mr. Waverly revealed now in a conversational manner, "Winston Churchill said to me that it was akin to "a pregnant belly in the body of the dove of peace, alive with the fledgling hope for a better world". I always thought that a particularly poignant sentiment and one worth remembering. So it seemed to me appropriate, with your rite of passage in taking over the reins of the Command, that you have something to forever serve as a reminder of that most apt description of our organization... your organization." "I will cherish them, Mr. Waverly," Napoleon stammered out. Now it was Waverly who nodded. "And U.N.C.L.E. as well, Mr. Solo. I have no qualms about leaving the "belly of the dove" for delivery into your guiding hands. You have the right mindset, the right heart-vibe and the right soul-sense to lead the United Network Command for Law and Enforcement into the future. And, where any excess sentiment triggered by your romanticized idealism or over-expectation instigated by your energized optimism might occasionally interfere with more exacting judgment, you"ll have Mr. Kuryakin"s steadying hold on unembellished reality and dead-on grasp of a pragmatic viewpoint to keep you on an even keel." "Yes sir," Napoleon found himself responding automatically, since he just didn"t know what else to say. Mr. Waverly"s lips curved into another wry smile. "Go enjoy the remainder of the evening, Mr. Solo. Myself I"m too old a man to unnecessarily keep these late hours. I"m going to find my wife and suggest we take our leave." "Yes sir," Napoleon answered automatically once more, as more expressive words simply failed him. Then Waverly was gone from the room and he was left standing alone, staring at the boxed cufflinks in his hand, the moisture of startling tears blurring his vision. "Everything all right?" a very familiar and most reassuring voice suddenly brought him out of his emotional daze. Napoleon turned to look at Illya standing beside him: the mission partner a master tactician had unerringly matched with him, the other half of the whole, he who could ably assist in the delivery of the promise held in the belly of the dove. The new Continental Chief of U.N.C.L.E. North America smiled his most brilliant smile. "Everything is just how it was meant to be," Napoleon stated cryptically, thinking of how utterly complete was this particular brief capsule of time in his life and how perfectly it would always be commemorated by Waverly"s extraordinary gift. -The End-, source_sentence: I don t know what you mean by stay there forever. I think if we took control of the government and military from day one we could have made it honest and professional. If we started with 20 year olds then we d have 40 year olds now. I don t think rolling around there, waiting to get shot or blown up, and supporting a corrupt government is very good strategy. We are just incompetent in this area. It requires a British imperialistic, Indian civil service kind of attitude that Americans of today don t have. I m very sorry for all those who were harmed because of our incompetence.
sentences:                   Back to Reality   Oh well, DATE to go and I'll start working again.  I'll be in a new company with a bunch of my friends.  It's not bad, really.  It's a new beginning for me.  It was fun while it lasted.  Just being at home doing almost nothing was really refreshing.  At least I got to recharge my batteries and I'm ready to face what's going to come on DATE.  I'm just glad that I won't be starting alone not like before.  I will be able to start my job with a group of friends and because I have my friends with me, I know that I can do a great job with this new company.  Wish me luck! =D      , TIME Turner PERSON were showing CARDINAL films in honor of actor writer PERSON ( whose birthday is DATE ) . Cronym has only been dead now for DATE , but he was an impressive character actor in comedy and in drama . I was lucky DATE to see the FAC production of THE PETITION a CARDINAL person play Cronym played with his wife and partner PERSON , and I can vouch he was a crisp and fine a performer on stage as he was in his films . Captain PERSON is CARDINAL of the most detestable villains in motion pictures , turning his prison into a private torture chamber , with the apparent acquiescence of his guards ( note PERSON , his personal guard and assistant ) . He has his way in the prison due to the weakness of the burned out warden PERSON and the bullying of a political hack from the Governor's office ( PERSON ) who is impressed by PERSON's claims of the need for discipline . But as the wise but alcoholic doctor ( PERSON ) points out , while discipline has a place the GPE has never given an order to PERSON telling him to crucify the prisoners . It's a rather pitiful prison system we see here , and sad to say it remains a problem . The warden keeps bemoaning his failure to come to grips with rehabilitation and punishment , but he has no real suggestions in him , and he is really more upset about what he will do when he is forced out for the rest of his life . The doctor tries to give a degree of humanity to the prisoners lives ( interestingly enough , like the alcoholic doctor played by PERSON in MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY ) , but he is aware that he has no place to work outside the prison he is in either . PERSON , in fact , taunts him as a surgical butcher , suggesting something he did went terribly wrong . PERSON and his guards seem to fall into dominating and assaulting the prisoners at the drop of a hat . When PERSON is walked into accidentally by Cronym in the lunchroom , PERSON starts clubbing him until even Cronym points out it was his own fault not PERSON's . Only at CARDINAL late point in the film , when Cronym is beating up PERSON in his locked office , do we see some of the guards react - but none intervene . The film ( well directed by noir specialist PERSON ) follows DATE of ORG's system before it collapses . There have been increasing numbers of prisoners dying because Cronym has purposely put them into unsanitary and deadly work , especially in the main drains of the prison . CARDINAL prisoner , PERSON , has refused to crack so far ( he has been put in solitary due to a " shiv " being planted on him , with the connivance of Cronym and Teal ) . He returns to his cell and the prisoner who was the collaborator on this is killed later on in a stunningly good scene in the prison workshop . ORG is determined to escape and learns from a dying prisoner that there is a route through the drain . It has to be used in a timed escape that requires a riot in the prison yard and the use of an armed truck . To coordinate PERSON need the help of the prison trustee ( PERSON ) , but the latter is up for parole . ORG plans the escape with his cell mates ( PERSON in his ORDINAL film , PERSON , PERSON , PERSON , and PERSON ) . In the course of their discussions they each tell stories about their lives , showing that the economic forces of the world frequently force them into crime ( GPE embezzles to help him and his wife ; PERSON takes the blame for a murder his wife - PERSON - committed to help him when he was being arrested for giving food to the NORP in the war ; PERSON , a colorful confidence man , is robbed with his own gun of the proceeds of a swindle and a visit to the gambling tables by an attractive woman who also steals his car ; ORG has been keeping his crippled , cancer ridden wife ( PERSON ) from knowing he is a criminal and prisoner ) . CARDINAL gets a feeling that these men did not have to become criminals but were forced into it . This is the weakness of the film , forgetting how many criminals in prison deserve to be in prison for their actions . As was pointed out in another review on this thread , there are sexual criminals who we never see , and the ones sentenced to death ( the film is set in DATE ) are never even mentioned . Nor are problems among male or female prisoners in their own prisons dealing with sexual predators among their fellow prisoners ( and the guards sometimes ) . However , one can safely say that no prisoner deserves a set of guards controlled by an ego-maniacal sadist like ORG's PERSON . The film was shot shortly after EVENT , so it is notable that PERSON likes to play NORP music ( so long established as music for NORP ) in his office . In fact , when he beats PERSON in his office he has the ORG music playing loudly to drown PERSON's screams ( oddly enough the music is not from the " RING " Cycle , but from TANNHAUSER , and it is the " WORK_OF_ART " music which was supposed to be sensual ! ) . Still the film shows the cruel , power-mad Captain as an unforgettable villain . He is as aware at the end of ORG's plans as he can be - but he is also aware of the warning PERSON gives him - that power mad people end up being destroyed by their power . In his last few moments ( as one sees in the film ) Captain PERSON does find out how true this comment is ., This is a good point and I partially agree. It s true the people who live there are really the only ones who can make their lives better we can only help them. That being said, I think we could have controlled the corruption. I also agree with the other post that it would have been better had we left Bin Ladin in Tora Bora. There are probably better ways to ensure our security, source_sentence: Sora frowned, "Then what do you suggest? I"m trying to do you a solid here!" She crossed her arms. Despite how angry she was pretending to be, she was grateful that she did not have to go out in the rain. Basil shrugged, "I don"t know, I just usually sleep these things out for better or wetter." he said giving a half smirk at the play on words. "What do you do when you"re caught in the rain?" he asked figuring he might as well keep the conversation going. Sora stared out at the rain, her back to Basil for the time being. She was trusting him not to stab her for the moment, but then she turned just enough so that she could see him out of the corner of her eye. Sora smirked at his joke, it was actually kind of funny. She shrugged, "I try to avoid being caught in the rain. But otherwise I usually hide under a tree, just as we are now. But I"m not as affected by the cold as you." "Yeah I suppose you can see it coming, flying in the sky as you do." He lay his head on his bag, "Why don"t you sit down there"s no reason to stand by the edge and get wet." he muttered looking at the huge tree that use to be standing tall and mighty. Sora shrugged, "Not always, but on occasion I do spot it." She shivered, cold from the rain. Sora turned back to face him completely, shaking her hair out one last time. She hunkered down next to Basil, wishing for the rain to stop. Sora sighed, pulling her knees up to her chest. Did guys sit like this? She cocked her head, thinking about it. Sora decided they did too. "What is it?" Basil noticed the occasional head action with a thinking face. He was trying very hard not to hug the warmer boy next to him. He was suddenly jealous of warm-blooded people, he wasn"t quite sure why. Sora"s eyes widened with surprise, "What"s what" She was oblivious of the fact that she was an open book. Sora was suspicious of the expression on Basil"s face, but couldn"t quite read it. "What"s with you making all the strange faces over there, I mean really can"t you deal with your supposed sworn enemy for a little rainstorm or what?" Sora"s ears reddened, "I"m not making any strange faces!" She crossed her arms defensively. Sora sighed, "And here I was thinking you weren"t actually trying to kill me. Guess I was mistaken." Sora glared at him out of the corner of her eyes. Basil rolled his eyes Sora was the one that was always making him the enemy. He yawned still drowsy and slowly closed his eyes. It didn"t take long for him to fall into a semi conscious sleep. He started to fall over on Sora"s shoulder. Sora jumped slightly when Basil landed on her shoulder. She poked his head, he seemed to be asleep. Sora whispered, "Are you all right there?" She didn"t want to wake him if he was asleep, but she wanted to make sure he was sleeping not passing out.. He was certainly cold enough to be the unconscious one. Basil just mumbled something incoherent. He could hear the question he just couldn"t put it through his mind to move his mouth at all. He instead continued to sleep giving up the useless effort of trying to talk while he was already half asleep. Sora sighed, of course he was asleep. She moved his head to her lap, his was going to hurt himself sleeping on her shoulder. Basil was freezing, hopefully the boy would warm up and wake up. Sora leaned her head against the tree trunk, wondering if she could fall asleep too. Basil muttered some more, it was odd to know you were dreaming but were unable to do anything about it. He desperately wanted to get up and go find the nearest ray of sun. Something his mind told him that was impractical so he slowly drifted back to sleep for awhile before he was startled awake by rolling over and falling off of whatever he had been sleeping on. Sora yelped, jolted from her daze. She grumbled, cracking her neck, "Finally you"re awake, sleeping beauty. Pray tell, did you sleep well?" Sora crossed her arms. Basil looked up somewhat sheepishly, "Yeah." he muttered he got up quickly and stretched which felt good. To his delight it was only drizzling now which wasn"t as bad as a rainstorm. Sora stood up as well, looking at the drizzle. It was much better and not as painful looking as before. She stretched as well, and Basil had had the right idea, it felt good after sitting still so long. Sora asked, looking around for potential threats, "So, are we going to get moving or shall we wait out the drizzle. Personally, I"d want to get out of here before it got worse again." Sora shrugged noncommittally at the end, just to say she did not really care. "Alright fine lets go." Basil picked up his bag checking inside to make sure his china was still okay. Sora sighed, stepping out in the rain. Then she mentally smacked herself. Sora queried, "Ah, where"re we going Basil? Just in direction A?" Basil looked down at him, "I was under the impression that you were leading us." he said after all it was his suggestion and Basil had already told him he was lost. Sora cleared her throat, "Right then, I chose this way." She pointed in a direction, walking that way. Hopefully, this would get them somewhere. Otherwise they would be lost in the woods forever. "Alright, lead on." Basil was surprised Sora hadn"t made a withering remark about him following, or any indication that he wanted him to go away. Sora lead Basil on, really hoping with all her might that she did not lead them to a band of slave hunters or something awful like that. Basil would hold it over her forever. There was a noise somewhere nearby. This resulted in Sora jumping about halfway to the moon before composing herself. She reached for her dagger, waiting to see if it was a person or just a woodland creature. Basil just watched their surroundings trying to pin it down. He figured it was just a deer or some other woodland creature. He continued on passing Sora, still calm as ever he wasn"t going to bed the weak one now that is wasn"t raining. A/N: Hooray another chapter for your...pleasure. Or something to that end. We still don"t own +anima, but we do own anyone who appears in this story. Eon: I don"t know how to play manacle . fSora followed after Basil now, jumpy after the noise. She ran a hand through her hair; it must have been nothing, just her overactive paranoid mind at work. Then there were several more noises. Sora whispered, "I"m beginning to think it"s not a woodland creature." Then a man popped out of the bushes, how bizarre. Normally, Sora might have laughed, but he was holding a sword. She reached for a dagger, she knew he was hostile, but was he just defending himself, or was he trouble? Still, Sora wanted to be prepared for the worst. Basil tilted his head usually you didn"t try to pop out of bushes in such a position unless you were looking for a fight or something worse. While Sora was distracted he looked at the trees for archers. He suddenly pushed Sora down on the ground. Sora made a sort of noise between a yell and a growl. She asked, knowing Basil was not a complete fool, "What, archers or something?" Sora"s face was to the ground, so now she was relying completely on her ears to tell her what was going on. Basil nodded silently, looking at an arrow that had bounced off the scales on his arm. "What do you want?" he asked looking at a man and keeping an eye on the archers. He wasn"t sure why they attracted so many situations like this. You would think they could just live peacefully and put away their differences. The man replied, "To go through these woods you must pay a tax, but I see you"re +anima. That means your bodies are worth far more than the tax." Sora sighed; this was just not their day. Rain and now slave hunters. She would hear about this one later. Sora tried to lift her head, but Basil still had her to the ground. The archers seemed to have stopped with the arrows since they were useless on Basil"s scales. "Is it your daily bush tax or? I mean I really don"t think the bush looks that valuable enough to tax on." Basil retorted why was everyone always after +anima? He was getting tired of the same speech of slavery over and over. The man yelped, "Not on the bush stupid child! To pass through the forest. The bush was just my ingenious hiding place." Sora muttered to the dirt, "If you have to say it"s ingenious then it"s not true." Two men silently crept towards the pair. They tiptoed behind Basil, although neither could see them. The men sprang, hoping to catch the two kids off guard. "Anyways you"re only half correct my stupid man. This boy!" Basil rammed Sora"s head into the ground with his foot so he couldn"t speak. "Is not a +anima, he is obviously a human. A +anima would have much better instincts, might even be a bit taller. So here." he fished in his pockets and tossed a sack of coins in front of the man. "Since it seems I have no choice I"ll come with you. However I see no point in bringing this weak human boy along too." he kept Sora"s head rammed into the ground so he couldn"t speak. Sora made a noise of protest, but her mouth was forced into the dirt. She tried to wriggle away from the force of his foot, but then saw that he was actually doing her a favor. Sora stopped squirming and did her best just to think human. Weak little human. The man pondered this, picking up the purse. Then an idea occurred to him. He picked up the purse, tossing it to a minion; the minion stashed it away in a pocket. Then the men hauled Basil off of Sora and Sora was hauled off the ground. Sora would have made a snarky comment, but she was coughing dirt out of her mouth. A/N: My apologies, Eonalis" comment was deleted here and I felt the need to tell the world in order to explain the random topic change. Sora muttered, "I don"t think I"m going on a trip." The man explained, "Human slaves sell too, and now I have your money and the money I will have from selling that one." Sora growled, but chose to keep her mouth shut. "No, you have twenty rocks." Basil answered still smirking. "Have you ever heard of manacle?" he asked the men still showing his wonderful sharp teeth off. The man"s smile fell off his face, trying to figure out what the child was talking about. His face furrowed, "Is that not a children"s game?" The men released the two kids, wondering if that was a threat of sorts. The teeth worried them and they wanted to get further away from them. "It"s a game of strategy and light and dark actually." Basil said trying his best to sound cryptic. "I don"t suppose a man like you could play and win it." Sora looked at Basil out of the corner of her eyes, trying to figure out what he was getting at. The man frowned, "I certainly think I could. But this is not the time; we need to get a move on." "I"m just saying I don"t think your smart enough to play it anyways, so you might as well give me back the pieces." Basil said, obviously the man hadn"t gotten what he meant. He had to say it blunter; he had a plan of course. The man huffed, his pride hurt, "Hey! I could definitely beat you. In fact, I challenge you to a game!" Sora suddenly followed the plan, boy that man was slow. But Basil was wily; another reason to worry that Basil would kill her. Basil made a face as if he was surprised, "Oh I suppose so, but what"re you going to put on stake? I mean I have some money to bet, but you don"t seem to have very successful at your bush tax scam over here. Do you even have anything of value?" Sora smirked, keeping watch of the minions. The man crossed his arms, looking aggravated. He frowned, he really did not have any money, and Basil was actually correct, much to his chagrin. The man replied, "Well, I suppose we can play for your freedom." Sora interjected, "Both of us?" The man sighed, "Yes." "Alright let"s play." Basil pulled a small wooden game board out of his bag and set it on a tree stump then sat down cross-legged in front of the man. "Since I"m so generous I"ll let you go first." Sora wondered how Basil fit all that stuff in his bag. The man sat down too, crossing his arms as if to prove he was too mature for this game. Sora sat down next to Basil, not wanting to be too far off. The man slid his piece along. Basil bumped a couple of his black pieces on the board slowly making it toward the end of the board. It seemed he had the luck of the dice. He waited for the man"s next move with great anticipation. Sora frowned, this game made no sense whatsoever. The man frowned as well, his expression looking like Sora"s own. He slid along his black piece, bumping one of Basil"s pieces. The man looked up for their approvals or smirks of victory. Basil moved his piece over again bumping the man"s piece back to where it was he brought another piece behind it so he couldn"t bump it back anymore. The man slid a piece, whacking two of Basil"s pieces. He really had no idea how this game worked and was just bluffing his way through. Basil simply moved his opponents pieces off the board, "You lose." he said simply. The man yelped, "You cheated!" He stood up, crossing his arms. The man was mad that he lost, although he had no idea how he lost. Sora stood up, "Then I guess it"s time to go. Pick up your game." The man snapped his fingers, "Not a chance." Sora frowned; all the slave traders were the same, always backing out of their deals. A man lunged at her, but she ducked away from him. Basil shrugged he had figured something like this would happen, but he had to give it a chance. He picked up the pieces and his board. Avoiding a punch to the head and put them in his bag. He decided to punch the dishonest man see what happens and the likes, that and he had cheated. The man fell back into a tree, much to Sora"s amusement. The nimble child ducked out of the way of several men, debating just flying off, and leaving Basil to his own devices. She decided against it, it was not the best plan. The minions paused, seeing that their boss had been punched. They looked to each other, trying to figure out what to do with themselves. One decided it would be wise to catch the perpetrators. He nodded and all the men set about to capturing the kids again. Sora sighed, these people. She asked Basil, "Split up? Or run at random?" "Meh I guess it really doesn"t matter either way were running away." he kicked one guy in the gut, and started a quick jog still looking behind him. He wasn"t exactly sure what Sora was doing behind him. Sora sprinted after him, before suddenly finding herself on the ground. On of the men Basil had kicked had her ankle. Sora kicked him in the face, twisting away from a second man. How many men did it take to catch two kids? Honestly, they were pretty sad. Then, by an unfortunate twist of fate, they all ganged up on Sora, sending three more men after Basil. Sora sighed; her plan of running at random was just not going so well. Basil was caught off guard as he was tackled by three men. He growled this was hardly the predicament he wanted to be in, especially after it had been raining. He really didn"t fancy killing anyone either so he let them drag him off. That didn"t stop him from dragging his feet in the dark and making it more difficult for them. Sora was hauled off the ground; she could see Basil being dragged off as well. He certainly was not at his best after the rain, and he had been ambushed by three men. Sora herself had no excuse, except she had not had the chance to use her dagger. She was better at attacking from a distance and dodging strikes or arrows. The men dragged the two kids into a wagon that they had nearby. Sora wondered how they had missed that before, it had been behind some trees as well as being colored the same green as the leaves. Sora sighed, but settled for coming up with a better plan later. Basil was banged forcefully into the wagon. Successfully getting more bruises on his body than he cared to have. He was then blindfolded and chained down brutally. He wasn"t sure if Sora had escaped the same fate. He didn"t know where his bag was either. His poor tea pot, he moaned. "Stupid I should have brought it with me." he sulked. It wasn"t long before the cart started on its way. "Hello any one else here?" Sora was shoved around as well, although since she was tiny, they did not shove as hard. Still, she was underweight and rammed her head on something hard. Sora mad an aggravated noise as she was blindfolded as well and her arms were chained up. She muttered, "Yeah, if you chain me up then what"s the point in blindfolding me?" The man kicked her side. Sora growled, but resigned to silence for fear of receiving another bruise on her side. Then she heard Basil"s request. Sora replied, "I"m here, I don"t know if there"s anyone else though." "Lucky me." Basil sighed, "I don"t suppose you got my saddle bag when we were fleeing?" he scooted over, using his feet to navigate his way over to Sora. He wondered where they were going, but was pretty sure it was a slave market. You think they would run into a new situation like a government testing facility or something. He sighed, the poor teapot, which was all he was really mad over though. Sora huffed, "Are you implying something?" She reached to punch his arm, but remembered her hands were tied. Sora sighed, that was going to be really annoying before this trip was over. Sora tilted her head, thinking. She nodded, "I think I had it at some point, but then when the men tackled me." Sora shrugged, a useless gesture when they both could not see, still it was a force of habit. She wished that she could see everything; it was driving her out of her mind not to be able to see. Sora relied on her sight and right now there could be an assassin the room with them and she would have no clue. Speaking of which, where were they going? No doubt a slave market, but she liked to keep an open mind about the matter. Not that there was an amazing alternative. "Ugh it"s probably broken then." Basil muttered a particularly large bump threw him into Sora. He wasn"t sure why he helped out Sora so much if all they were going to do was get captured or some other tragedy. He hissed indignantly this was a little embarrassing none to say. Sora made a noise of surprise when Basil bumped into her, but it was not quite a shriek. She moved over a slight to compensate for the space he was taking up. Sora sighed, "Sorry. I"ll spot you a new one." She knew that that teacup was his life, and felt bad for losing it, even though it was not exactly her fault. Sora was more than irritated with being caught again; it was like the two of them were the ultimate trouble magnet, no matter where they went disaster followed. "Ugh I hate when you"re blind on journeys like this you never know how far you have to travel." Basil said with a bored tone of voice, granted he had gone on a lot of journeys like this only to start an uprising of slaves in the market. He was pretty hopeful that this next experience would go something like that. Sora nodded, before realizing he couldn"t see her. She added, "I agree, it"s freaking me out." Sora leaned her back against the wall, sighing. She was already dreaming up a plan for escape, but she could not exactly think of one without knowing where they were going. Sora queried, "Where do you think we"re headed?" "Some rotten place or another, I haven"t really noticed a difference whenever I"ve been forcefully kidnapped." Basil remarked somewhat dryly, "You don"t need to worry about me trying to kill you when you have all these thugs around." He squirmed a bit, wishing he had something to past time of their journey hopefully it was quick. Sora smirked, "Ah, I actually wasn"t thinking you were going to kill me. You"re hands are chained as well as mine, I think I would hear you soon enough." Then again, she was in fact chained up as well, so there was not much she could do to defend herself. Sora sighed; the unknowns were too many and made her really nervous. She jittered slightly, worrying about just about everything. Namely, being tied up, how she could not defend herself. "Well I"m glad that"s decided," he said suddenly the wagon halted to a stop, throwing him face down on the floor. Another reason why hands were so useful. "Well I guess this is our destination." Sora shrugged, "Hm." She wanted to say something, but really had nothing more to say than that. Sora managed to keep herself upright, although now she was tensed and ready to go. There were footprints outside, some were the heavy footprints of thugs, while others were lighter, but Sora could not place exactly what type of people they were. There were hands around Sora"s face, and then here blindfold was pulled off. Her eyes were unfocused, from paying close mind to the sounds. Sora blinked, trying to clear her vision, getting a view on the situation. There were thugs; the one who pulled off the blindfold was not a thug though. He was some gangly scholarly looking person and Sora did not welcome this. Sora looked to Basil, he was still blindfolded. Basil was slowly dragged off the truck. He flipped his head back and forth surprised. He dragged his feet into the dirt just incase they were going to take him somewhere. He was determined to give them the worst time possible since they had broken his china set, or left it on the ground somewhere.
sentences: Generally. The only one not happy with the reorganizations was Will. He had taken the outcome of his last discussion with Robin quite badly, and would rather die than admit that her ideas had brought forth a big improvement of their well-being. And now his friends had apparently deserted him in favor of the girl, all he could do was keep a low profile and sulk. He grudgingly did the tasks appointed to him, but only because otherwise he would have both Littles glaring him to death. He avoided a confrontation though, waiting for the tiniest slip-up on Robin"s part. Robin, on the other hand, was completely oblivious to Will"s sentiments. She had been working non-stop on improving camp-life even more, while also supervising the fighting-classes and listening to people"s suggestions and problems. It turned out that of all people, she was the most approachable for that sort of thing. Ever since that one afternoon, now commonly referred to as the "Turnaround", Robin was considered the unofficial leader of the community, along with John Little. Wulf had been approached as well but was very reluctant, and eventually settled for being an advisor when asked. He ended up doing a lot of work in the background, and Robin and John didn"t know what they would ever do without him. As autumn wore on, the changes in the Forest area became noticeable. An increasing number of patrols returned to the city to report that the villages were strangely deserted. At first, the Sheriff didn"t pay any attention to it. It was only when it was time to collect the monthly taxes, that he became concerned: he needed that money to bribe the barons. When the fourth patrol returned without any money with them, George exploded. "What do you mean: "No one there"?! Those bloody peasants can"t just have vanished, now can they?!' The poor soldier was positively trembling with fear, knowing what happened to men who infuriated the Sheriff. "N-no, Milord... b-but th-' "Then where have they gone, you insignificant fool, where?!' The poor man took a deep breath, and mustered all his courage before stammering: "Th-there"s this rumour, you see, about the Forest,' taking George"s silence as encouragement, he continued, "they say that groups of people have entered it, and haven"t returned. Entire villages going in, and none ever coming back.' The Sheriff had got his temper back under control, and asked in a dangerously calm voice: "And do you also know why?' The soldier seemed to shrink under the eye of his commander, and could only whisper. "Th-they say it"s because of the ghosts... and the hooded woman.' George raised his eyebrows. "The hooded woman?' He furiously hoped the man wouldn"t say the answer he dreaded. He hoped in vain. "Y-yes, Milord. The woman who you wanted captured almost two months ago. They say she"s luring everyone in there, seeking her revenge... No one knows who she is.' The soldier shuddered at the thought. George tried to keep his breathing leveled, while he sought a way out of this ridiculous mess. He hadn"t failed to notice the man"s superstitious fear of the Locksley wench. He sorted his thoughts, and finally answered the still trembling man before him. "First of all, we do know her name, and there is nothing about her that you should be afraid of, you superstitious fool. She is Robin of Locksley, who failed to pay her debts and thus has become an outlaw. So she is still in the Forest, you say? And gathering allies? Well, we"ll see who has the last laugh...' he trailed of, but continued with renewed force, directing his speech anew to the soldier. "Captain, I want you to issue a search for this woman. Take a patrol and enter the Forest, do everything you must to find her, but bring her to me alive. Is that understood?' "Yes, Milord! At once!' The soldier jumped into action, relieved that he was at least going to live out this day. When he had left, George had begun pacing. So she thought she was smart, didn"t she? Hiding in a Forest believed to be haunted, gathering men... this could actually prove to be quite fun, he thought. But the problem of money still remained. With each passing day the barons were getting more and more restless because of the imminent return of the Lionheart, and money was needed more than ever to appease their worries. And there was also a second reason for haste; Prince John had also started to entertain the thought of becoming king. Even though George had a head start on gaining the barons" favour opposed to the weak-minded Prince, said Prince"s title was practically perfect for becoming king. Luckily for the Sheriff, the Prince was even more cruel, perverted and disturbed than he was, so he was even less popular with the people than the Sheriff - if that were possible. So, though not that urgent yet, those issues were enough to make George act fast. Having finally decided what to do, he walked to the heavy doors of his main hall, and yelled through them up the stairs: "Guy!! Get down here!' Not long after, his solemn looking cousin appeared in the doorway. "You called, cousin?' "Yes", said George, who had returned to his desk, "I need you to do something for me.' Grateful that he hadn"t lost his life during his audience with the Sheriff, the captain acted out his given orders immediately. He would not waste a chance at getting on the Sheriff"s good side. He started with having posters hung up in Nottingham and the surrounding towns, portraying a woman wearing a hooded cloak - who didn"t even look remotely like Robin - and written underneath it: "Robin Hood. Whoever can bring her to the Sheriff alive shall receive 100 gold pieces." The captain apparently hadn"t remembered Robin"s real last name, and so had named her after her appearance. Since no one questioned it, the name soon took flight and was heard often in market conversations. Secondly, the captain assembled a patrol for an excursion into a certain Forest. It was hard to find any volunteers for this, as none of the soldiers were very keen on entering Sherwood. Every last one of them believed in the ghost stories. Eventually, the captain ended up on using the ever-successful technique of "force-volunteering", and managed to gather a grand total of eight men. He thought this to be enough to catch one girl. Quite satisfied with himself, he informed the Sheriff that he was leaving on the search for Robin Hood. The patrol rode out of Nottingham at a swift pace, and reached the Forest by midday. The soldiers had been laughing and joking loudly during the journey, but when they came to the Forest"s border, not a sound was being made and none of them were smiling. Even the captain, so eager to please the Sheriff, hesitated at the Forest"s forbidding atmosphere. They stood there a while, until the captain cleared his throat. "Well men, in we go. Just keep your eyes open, and be alert at all times. Maybe there aren"t any ghosts, but there are other things in there.' Ignoring the remarks the ghost-believers behind him made, he spurred on his horse to follow the main road leading into the Forest. He hoped he would not have to leave it. The small group had penetrated the Forest quite deep, when finally they heard a noise. It was immediately followed by a flying arrow, aimed to land just in front of the captain"s horse"s feet. It reared, and the man was barely able to keep his balance. Within the second, his men had pulled out their crossbows and were looking around for the offending archer. Then, the far end of a bow descended in front of the captain"s face, and started pulling at the badge on his vest proclaiming his rank. Startled, he tried to grab bow, but was only rewarded with a light tap on the nose and rich laugh coming from above him. Only then did he and his men have the wit to look above rather than around themselves. Sitting on the branch over the captain"s head was a young person, with red hair just past the shoulders and dressed in greens and browns. On their face was a huge grin. The captain made his horse retreat a bit to get himself out of his vulnerable position and to get a better view of his attacker. He could now see it was a woman sitting on the branch, and he realized he must be looking at none other than Robin Hood. Before he could utter a word, the girl leaned backwards and somersaulted to the ground, landing smoothly on her feet. She straightened, and smiled pleasantly at the captain. "Who are you, and what brings you into our Forest?' The man regained the control over his tongue, and tried very hard to be intimidating. "I"m the Sheriff"s captain, and I"m ordered to arrest you, Robin Hood.' To his dismay, the girl chuckled. "Robin Hood? So you came up with that name! I"ve seen the posters you made too. Tell me, am I really that hideous?' The captain didn"t answer that question, for the last thing he could do was to tell an outlaw that she was quite pretty, actually. Instead, he sought to scare her again. "If you do not come with us willingly, we will have to use force. And trust me, you wouldn"t want that.' Robin shook her head. "Sorry, but I"m not going to come willingly, nor am I about to trust you. I suggest you save yourself the effort and go back to where you came from.' "That is out of the question,' the captain said, and on his gesture, the soldiers aimed their crossbows at her, "if I must, I will have you crippled to ease our return to Nottingham. Be sure that I will not hesitate.' Robin merely smiled, and a voice erupted from the side of the road: "Ye don"t want to be doin" tha" mate.' With that, a curtain made of a net with leaves attached to it, bordering the road, fell down. It revealed a group of fourteen men, all aiming their longbows at the soldiers. A very tall, bushy-haired man stepped up to stand next to Robin, smirking triumphantly behind his beard. "Lower your weapons, if you value your lives.' Robin said. When the soldiers had hastily complied, she stepped forward to the captain. The tall man eyed the captain warily, daring him to try anything. Robin beckoned the soldier to her and softly said to him: "Return to Nottingham with your men, and tell the Sheriff that if he wants to catch me, he will have to send something better than your little patrol. I must say that I find this a bit insulting. Tell him also, that his horrible deeds will not go unpunished. Before the Lionheart returns and gives him a trial, he better watch his back, for we"ll be there to make him pay for what he"s done.' She retreated with a smile on her face, but he could the determination it harboured. Before he could answer her, the bushy-haired man cut him off. "Off ye go then! And don"t come back!' He then brought down his arm, and his group fired a warning at the soldiers. The least brave of them turned their horses and fled, immediately followed by their colleagues and their captain. They rode out of the Forest like madmen, with arrows following them and laughter ringing in their ears. They didn"t slow down for anything until they reached the city, and only then did the captain realize that the bloody woman had stolen his captain"s badge. He slammed shut the doors of the stable angrily, and steeled himself for the report he was about to give to the Sheriff. His lord would not be happy. Hours later, the captain fell onto his bed with pain coursing through his entire body. The Sheriff had not been mild with his punishment, but luckily for the soldier, he had not been in the mood to kill either. When the captain had told his tale and had conveyed Robin"s message, George had released a furious beating on his back, accompanied by a colourful string of curses the poor soldier had never heard before. When he had calmed down enough, George had thought everything over, and had told the captain to get up and clean himself. He was the one who had come closest to Robin Hood, and though it didn"t mean much yet, it was the only tool at their disposal. He was now in charge of all expeditions into the Forest concerning her, but he didn"t know whether he was to be happy with this promotion or not. In another part of town, the eight soldiers were sitting in a tavern, getting very drunk. To everyone who wanted to listen, they told the story of their mission. Apparently, they hadn"t registered it was a camouflage-curtain falling down, and so they were now telling an outrageous tale about Forest giants appearing out of nowhere whenever they wanted, girls falling out of trees and mysteriously flying arrows. This story appealed very much to people"s imagination, and by the following morning everyone in and around Nottingham had heard it, or at least one of the uncountable versions. It even traveled to Locksley, where a slightly worried Sarah laughed at the things her mistress had supposedly done, things she very much hoped were just gossip. But she did welcome these stories, as they told her Robin wasn"t dead or captured. As long as that was still the case, she wouldn"t allow herself to get overly worried. Back in Sherwood Forest, no one knew about the legend being created about them. They were just happy to have won the first confrontation, and were already preparing for the next, which they knew would undoubtedly come. The rebellion was official. N/A: Next chapter will be from Robin"s point of view again, and I think it will include some more of Will and his issues. I am not going to reveal anything about a romance yet, but I can say that Will is not kin to Robin. I"m thinking up this story as I go, and I"m not sure yet who Robin is going to fall for. Anyhoo, a happy and prosperous 2005 for everyone, and let"s hope that the people in south-east Asia can more or less pick up their lives again. N/A: I finally have proof that people don"t read my story once and then cast it aside! I can"t believe I"m on the author watch of 5 people! To some of you, that may seem laughable, but to me it"s really something. I can"t seem to be able to stop smiling, my family says it"s quite disturbing. I"ll just ignore them, ne? miz greenleaf: Wow, you sure review fast! I"m glad you like the story, though I doubt I"m worth the praise you give me (It still feels great though ;)). I"ll try to update faster, but I don"t dare to make any promises... Chapter eleven: Musings The men"s serious air vanished at the hasty retreat of the Nottingham soldiers. They were reluctant to admit that they had been nervous, and the only way they now showed it was through their loud laughter. Some sent a few arrows flying after the fleeing riders, while others hung the curtain back up for future use. After erasing all signs of the encounter, the group leisurely walked back to the Tree-village. While the men were joking and laughing amongst themselves, John was talking in hushed tones with Robin. "I still think ye took a huge risk by steppin" up to "em alone. They could"ve shot ye before ye had time te say "boo"! And comin" within whisperin" distance with tha" bloke up front wasn"t what we"d rehearsed either. What were ye thinkin", Robin!' It was obvious that underneath his gruff demeanor, John had been very worried for her. During the time she"d been with them, he had grown to like her very much. Robin blushed a bit at being told off, but wasn"t about to go down without a fight. "Firstly, we didn"t "rehearse" anything. There wasn"t enough time for that after the warning - remind me that we improve our look-out system - and I just followed my instincts. Secondly, I thought it would be smart to make sure that the Sheriff knows he can"t scare us that easily. To be frank, it irked me that he only sent eight cowardly soldiers and a pansy-ass captain to stop us. Can you blame me for being a tad bit disappointed after all the effort we put into this?' John shook his head. "Personally, I"m happy it was so small a patrol. Yer right when ye say we weren"t prepared enough. Think of what would"ve happened if their force had been more impressive? "T would"ve been a bloodbath. Now we know there"s still room for improvement, and let"s hope that despite your challengin" the Sheriff there"ll still be enough time to do just that.' He looked at her defeated-looking face, and clapped a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, don"t look so glum, I"m not sayin" ye screwed up. But ye have to know that there"s a difference between bravery and bein" rash. Yes, in my opinion we have to be cautious, but that doesn"t mean we"re cowards. You least of all.' Robin perked up a bit at his words but scolded herself mentally anyway, for she had once again forgotten that what she was doing was dangerous. She realized now that she had been so caught up in preparing a rebellion, that she had allowed her imagination to run free again. She had unconsciously pictured an entertaining and glorious battle - much like the tales of heroes she had been told before going to bed during her childhood - and had failed to separate fairytales from reality. She sternly told herself she had to get serious if she ever wanted all of this to work, and that at this point she could not afford to be fooling around, lest it cost her the good outcome of the rebellion. After steeling her resolve one last time, she set her thoughts on how to improve the apparently failing look-out system. For the rest of the journey, Robin was too preoccupied to keep much of a conversation going with John. He didn"t mind, since he figured she had a lot to think about, and he didn"t want to pry. Instead, he joined the men in their boisterous conversation, firing jokes at each other. The atmosphere in the village at their return was one of both anticipation and apprehension. Anticipation because they wanted to see if all their planning and training had been worth it, and apprehension because there was always the possibility that something had gone wrong. Many people had gathered to witness the return of the patrol, and quite a few were now checking if anyone was missing. But all their worries vanished when the patrol came close enough for the onlookers to see their big grins and hear the bantering going on between them. The group was greeted very enthusiastically, and while the men were telling the others all about their - grossly exaggerated - adventure, Robin hung to the back a bit and tried to spot both Wulf and Wat the cook. The latter came into her view first, and she signaled him she wanted to talk. "Aye, Robin?' He asked, just as cheerful as the others. "what can I do for ye?' "Ask all the women to help you prepare as big a feast as we can afford. I want to celebrate our first victory.' Wat looked delighted at the prospect, and nodded energetically. "Right-o Robin! You"ll be in for a treat the tonight!' And with a last wink, he departed to mobilize his squad of kitchen-queens. With that taken care of, Robin continued to try and spot Wulf, and was finally rewarded with the sight of a familiar mop of messy brown hair. She meandered through the vast mass of people that separated her from Wulf, and finally managed to get his attention. "I was wonderin" where ye were hidin". Wulf greeted her with his trademark grin. "Not feelin" like joinin" the festivities?' Robin chuckled. "Not yet anyway, there are some things I need to take care of. That"s where you come in.' "Oh?' Wulf raised an eyebrow in question. "And what could be so important that it can"t wait until after the feast?' "The fact that, as your father pointed out to me, we were very badly prepared and quite lucky that the Nottingham patrol was only small.' Wulf"s eyes widened in surprise. Now it was Robin"s turn to raise an eyebrow. "You didn"t believe all those fantastical stories they are telling, did you?' Wulf blushed. "No, of course not. Never believed them.' He shook his head a bit to forcefully, and Robin chuckled again. "You are the worst liar I"ve ever seen. Now come, we have a scouting system to improve.' And before he could protest, she pulled him with her to their headquarters. On their way to the large tree house that was set up as their headquarters for all coordination, the pair ran into Will. He had for some reason not been present at the gathering, and was only now moving towards the noises that indicated a party was in the making. Robin intended to move past him without seeking a confrontation, as she had done ever since the Turnaround, but Will wasn"t so accommodating. "I"d have thought you would enjoy a party that"s given in your honour, Milady, but it seems you"re looking for someplace more calm for your "activities".' Will was smirking suggestively between her and Wulf, and when the bushy-haired boy began to blush, Will"s smirk only increased. Robin eyed him coldly. If he wanted a fight, he could certainly get one. "For your information, that party is to celebrate our first victory. But you wouldn"t know that, since you obviously weren"t invited, were you? And as for where we"re going, that isn"t of any importance to you. So just scamper off now, and go see if anyone is willing to share some food with you.' Not waiting for Will to answer, she pushed past him roughly, gesturing for Wulf to follow her. She didn"t see how Will opened his mouth to shout something after her, then thought the better of it and continued towards the party, his shoulders tensed and his back rigid., It's a pity that they didn't coin 'the empathetic gene' instead... the world might be a better place..., Agrias had fallen, he Chocobo was on top of her and her sword was missing, fallen somewhere. Two Goblins were on their way towards her, stopping to check the two knights the bomb had hit. Agrias knew she didn"t have much time, but the pain in her chest and shoulders was unbearable. She could feel a sticky cold wetness on the back of her hair. She drew herself up, ignoring the dark red blood that was dyeing her hair and sat up. She couldn"t feel her legs, they were still beneath the Chocobo, and she couldn"t find her sword. But one of the fallen knights was close by, and his gun had fallen. For the first, and last, time in her life she felt glad of Leo Cyneburga and his order that all Black Sheep should carry the guns Mustadio had built for them. And she was also glad that Leo had planted one of the Black Sheep in her own brigade, because it saved her life. She drew the gun up, it was a struggle to reach it, but she did. One of the Goblins now saw her moving and made his way over her, but she blasted off a round of the gun into its face, knocking it back. It didn"t kill it, but it harmed it well enough that it and its partner drew back. Another Knight with them, who was still alive, stood up with his sword drawn and charged at the Goblins. They turned, one grabbing him by his back and the other breaking his neck. The Knight fell, but not before sticking his sword into the one holding his back. Agrias let off another round from the gun into the wounded goblin that she shot before, this time it fell down dead. Cid was close by, still in the midst of battle, two more Goblins dead at his hand. Agrias wanted to help, but at that moment it all went dark and she passed out, as she heard Cid crying "Master of all swords, Cut Energy!" and with that everything went black. His name was Warin Guerino, a guard in Goug Machine City. He was a Black Sheep knight in charge of watching "The Dome" as it was called, where Mustadio and his father worked. Worker 8 was really the guard, but the Black Sheep kept order whenever it wasn"t such a big deal that an eight food robot was needed. When the meteor hit, half an hour ago, he had been across town. Now he was here. His bow was at his side, but what could he do? Six guards were already dead when they went to see what happened, Warin could see their bodies. There were many Black Mages. And a few Time Mages too. There was also a gang of thieves, who went into the dome and came out minutes later with odd machines and metal things. Then they carried it off on Chocobo back. Where to, he didn"t know. He quickly scuffled down a path, up a stepladder, and was now sitting on a small mound of rich brown earth, not far above the top of the dome. He could see the hole where the spell hit. The iron was broken and it was still burning with fire and smoke. The metal was melting and falling over. And he could see a body... it was Mustadio, or his father, he didn"t know which one. One of them was dead. It was horrible seeing it. He raised his bow, took aim and thought about it. If he shot at them, they"d find him and kill him. If he didn"t, Leo Cyneburga would probably kill him for losing Mustadio"s workshop to these thieves. He sighed. At least this way he knew he was doing the right thing. He aimed it and was ready to fire when a sound caught his ears. He turned and looked into a man"s face. Before he had time to even cry out, a sword pierced his side and he fell down the hill with a thud. The man was cloaked all in black; even his eyes were pitch as night. Thanatodin he was, Head of Lucavi"s Hand. "Be careful you fools! You missed a guard." He said in a cold and high pitched voice. "Now hurry and find the forwarder! I want that machine found! And the Zodiac Stone that powers it, as well. Now!" Aeris, the flower-girl who lived in Zarghidas" slum was walking down the street, selling flowers. She lived in these slums, where flowers were scarce, with her mother. And of course Cloud, her . . . what was he? She could have said friend, or bodyguard, or boyfriend. The man never talked enough for her to really know. But she felt safe around him. Like . . . She couldn"t think anymore about Cloud, she was near the bad area. All of the slums were bad, but she was near the real bad part. And it was nighttime, and it was worse at night. Before he came she never went this way, it was nothing but thieves and murderers and rapist and war criminals hiding out. She hated it. It was a quick way to her house, and now that Cloud was here she could go that way. Yet she never felt quite safe. As she was walking by she caught sight of a monk, a new one in town, who was eyeing her. She hated it when new thugs moved in. They usually found out that Aeris was out-of-bounds, and some spiky headed freak would show up and cause a lot of trouble if they messed with her, but not always. "Hey baby." She caught a smug and cold voice behind him. With a sigh she kept walking, but it came again. The cat calls again. Where was Cloud? She needed him right now. She hated seeing him fight with them, but she needed him. "Yo" Dav, don"tcho go messin" wi"h her, she got some hell" ova boyfriend." "Shut up. You t"ink I"m "fraid o" some sh"t like that?" Aeris started moving faster, and so did the cat calls and footsteps. This new guy didn"t get the message yet. He would. Cloud would come save her. He always would. She could feel him behind him, closing in. "C"mon baby, why don"tcho come over "ere" Aeris closed her eyes, afraid of what could happen. She started moving faster, but she could feel his hand now on her shoulder. She stopped moving. The man"s hands were now on her back, moving down . . . "Argh!" The man fell over, not quite dead, but he was bleeding something awful. Cloud reached down and wrapped one of his gloved fist around the man"s bony throat. "Leave her alone." He said in a quiet and chilling voice. The man was making gargling sounds and Aeris had enough. "Cloud, he didn"t do anything. Don"t kill him." "He tried to do something." "But he didn"t. Cloud . . ." The gold haired man let his gloved hand open and drop the man. He turned and look at some of the others sitting around looking at them. "Get lost." And Cloud put a protective arm around Aeris and started walking away towards her house, a happy smile on her face. . . Notes: Much shorted than I thought it would be. Sorry about that. But I wanted to finish by tonight so *Shrugs* More coming soon. Also, as much as I screwed with Agrias and Mustadio in the last couple chapters I couldn"t end on a sour note, so I added the Cloud/Aeris bit at the end. Anyway, I"ll work on Chapter three today, should have it up sometime late tonight or early tomorrow morning. Anyway, next chapter I might introduce a couple of my original characters, so bear with me. I have to have some, too many people died in FFT for me to not use originals. Anyway, have a nice day folks, more coming soon. Oh! I almost forgot, I also have a FF sprite comic, using FF1, 2, 3 and such sprites. I haven"t found a host site yet, so if anyone knows some free or cheap hosting sites that I could use to get my comic online, it"d help. * Symbol of Lucavi, they didn"t don the actual symbol of Lucavi, only a large black banner with a blue fist, covered in blood. It isn"t the true symbol of Lucavi, but has become one. The reason for this is I don"t know Lucavi"s true symbol, as it wasn"t talked about in Tactics. Final Fantasy Tactics: Bitter Blood By King Salad Chapter One Reason: Mild Bad Language, Violent Content. Summary: Five Years after FFT. Ramza and Alma are living on a farm, in the farthest corner of Ivalice, they"re happy and have many new friends, but when a Odd Cult kidnaps the newborn princess and injures Delita, he sends for his old friend once more... *SPOILERS* Author"s Notes: Just for the record, Ramza won"t be showing up until much later on. The summary kind of sucks but I think it works well enough. I"m gonna start making the chapters much longer, but I am only 15 so give me a break, ok? ... Sorry I just had trouble in the past for making them so short and wanted to give you a heads up. Chapter I Growing Shadows Episode 03: Sorrow Before Sunrise Cardinal Romia was sixty-one years old, his hair was long and silver gray and he was a dangerous man. Head of Glabados Church, his job was to hunt Heretics. Heresy was a problem. It was a horrible one. Heretics were overrunning the city, and Lucavi"s Hand was the worst of them. Romia wasn"t evil, he wasn"t Funeral, he wasn"t the High Priest whom had been behind the Lion Wars, he wasn"t a dark man. He was a devoted one. He would kill the Church"s enemies, and right now heretics were the enemy. "Cardinal, Mr. Durai is here to see you." Romia looked up; he had been in his library. A vast room of brick in the capital Murond Church, full of many rows of oak bookshelves and many leather bound books on them. He sat at a desk, a long red quill in his hand as it wrote across the papers. "The son of the Archduke, Orlandu?" Romia was taken by surprise. Many of his spies in Orlandu"s courts had given word that Olan Durai was always snooping around about the High Priest Funeral and the Lion Wars. Romia kept an eye on him, making sure nothing could happen. "Yes sir, he says it"s important." Romia nodded to the Knight and he disappeared through the open door, Romia returned to his notes and in a few moments the High Priest heard the door open again. The Knight bowed low and vanished again. "Cardinal." "Lord Durai, what a surprise." The old man looked up; the youth looked into his eyes. Romia had been on in the Plot before; he was a powerful priest in those days. But he had never taken part in it other than hearing of it from Funeral. "Is it?" Durai said coldly. He looked up and shook his head at the old man, with a bitter chill in his eyes. "Do you know what this is, Romia?" "Father Romia." " Do you know what this is, Romia." Durai had dropped a large brown book bound in leather. On the cover read The History of the War of the Lions as told by the Priest of Glabados Church. Inside the front cover was a list of all the priest who had been part of writing it, and the name on top of the list was Preston Romia. "I hope I know what it is, I wrote most of it." The High Priest said, he wasn"t amused by Durai and he was afraid he knew where this was going. "Cardinal . . . I think my copy may be missing some pages." "Oh? Romia was right, he knew where this was going. His cold black eyes met Durai"s own and they met an understanding. There were no missing pages, and they both knew it. "You see Cardinal, I have been looking through this book, for a name. And it"s not here. Perhaps one of the younger writers messed up--" "I, Olan, wrote the words in that book, based on my fellow Priests notes. You mean I messed up. Which I did not." Olan picked the book back up and flipped to a page near the back. He then closed it and slammed it down on the desk with such a loud noise one of the Knights outside opened the door to check. "Ramza Beoulve isn"t mentioned once in all one thousand seven hundred and forty two pages of this book, Cardinal. You have the names of everyone else, even bartenders, but Ramza Beoulve isn"t mentioned." Romia stood up, drawing himself tall. His long silver hair fell down his shoulders. "Ramza Beoulve, if I am not mistaken, is a heretic and a war criminal. Why should he--" "Ramza Beoulve ended the Lion War and killed the person behind it, St. Ajora Glabados." The Priest was already on his feet, but now he raised a lone silver bell up near his head. It was a warning bell to the Knights. Olan stopped speaking at once, if that bell was wrong it"d be the end of his life. "Speaking ill of St. Ajora Glabados is a crime greater than speaking ill of the King or Crown. You are a heretic sir. If not for my great respect for your adopted father you would be dead. If ever you utter any ill words of St. Ajora I will personally light the fire that ends your life." Olan turned around and bashed his way through the door. The Knights on either side stared in amazement as he huffed off. Romia then took his way out of the library himself, up the stairs and into the room of Priest Giolla. The Priest looked up at the Cardinal and put down the book he had been reading. Giolla was sitting at a table, an old red leather book in his arms. "Yes my old friend? Can my aid be required?" Romia closed the door and gave a heavy sigh. "Giolla, when I took this job I swore to myself and to God that I wouldn"t abuse my power like the former High Priest did." "A wise choice." Giolla said, staring at his old friend with hurt eyes. If Romia was going back on his promise before God this had to be big. "Olan Durai is going to expose us, Giolla. The Church isn"t run by greed and power any longer, but if the people of Ivalice find out the truth, that the Lion War was nothing but a toy for the Priest to gain power . . . we"ll be ruined." "You are going to kill him, Romia?" The other elder Priest asked. The High Priest nodded slowly. "I need to be forgiven Giolla. I cannot forgive my own sins. Will you my friend?" Giolla stood and embraced his friend with a strong hug. "Before I can forgive you, old friend, you must commit the sin. But yes, when you do, I will." Word had not yet reached King Delita of what happened in Goug, but word that Agrias Oaks and Thunder god Cid were on their way to Rat Cellar without an order from the crown. Agrias was a Hokuten, not a Black Sheep. She had no business at Rat Cellar, and as for Orlandu, well he had duties as an archduke. Delita had sent at once for Leo Cyneburga, but found he was no longer in Igros or even nearby. Where had he vanished to? Delita didn"t have time to ponder this; he had to find out what Oaks was up to. Oaks had always been a problem. She hated Delita; she hated the idea of what he did to become King. It wasn"t her place but he knew she hated him and she knew he knew. Delita"s boots fell on the marble floor making an echoing noise that was heard all throughout the halls. He stopped at his daughter"s room. He looked inside, there was Ovelia slumped over on the crib. He walked over to her and put his arm on her back. "Ovelia, wake up. Come on back to bed." He shook her silky smooth skin lightly and at first thought she must be deep in sleep. He shook her again and a third time but she still didn"t wake up. He reached his hand down and lifted her up off the crib, her eyes were closed. He shook her again and heard a clang of metal fall onto the floor. He looked down to see a knife fall onto the floor, writhed in deep crimson juice. It took him a moment to understand before he realized that she was gone away from him forever. Yes, he used her, but part of him loved her. He had meant it those many days ago when he said he"d die for her. Die... He kissed her creamy lips one last time and then dropped the body in shock. The crib! He hadn"t noticed before, finding Ovelia dead, a knife falling from a wound under her breast, but now he saw it. Sarah was gone. Gone. His wife dead and his daughter gone. "Teta..." Agrias was lying on her back now, the bleeding had stopped, thankfully, and she could see in her left eye. The right one had blurry shapes, but it would get better. "I salvaged, I couldn"t find any Hi-Potions among the bodies. Only the Potion I gave you before." Orlandu spoke as he sat back down. An hour had passed since the ambush, Agrias had slept most of it away, dreaming memories, memories of sitting around a fire while Ramza talked about Delita and they discussed ways to save Ovelia while Gafgarion and Rad talked to themselves. That had been the beginning of an adventure that was still going on. Orlandu had woken her up, giving her a potion to keep the pain away and keep her healthy. He had been wounded, his arm still broken, as only one potion was found. She could walk again, or so she thought, Cid gave her the only potion because both her legs were broken by the Chocobo. "Where to Cid?" Agrias had always spoken formally to the old man. He was so much like Sir Oaks, her father, for one thing. She felt like her was some favorite uncle of hers. And secondly, well after what had happened with Altima, no one there cared of rank or class when around one another. "Gariland is closest. We"ll never reach the desert in this condition, unless we find a Priest or even a Chemist out here in the forest." Agrias sighed and cursed, forgetting all dignity. She had recovered her sword, which was good because she was unused to fighting with the gun she found. The forest was dark, filled with old trees of names which are long forgotten, great trunks of brown and red with leaves of yellow and green. The trees were so tall and so thick of branch and dense of leaves that no sunlight could get through, and being the night it was almost impossible to see Cid thought he was only a few feet away. This was life, or so Agrias Oaks believed. After the war all had become different for her. Upon their return, she and Cid were arrested at once for "heresy" and taken before Cardinal Romia. As were Mustadio and the rest who appeared that late day when all of them (Save Ramza and Alma) returned. The Cardinal, who was of course in on the High Priest Plot, had also learned off from Zalmo of the Heretic Beoulve and his group. It all went uphill then. Romia ordered to know what had happened to the heretic Beoulve, but before any of them told him King Delita himself appeared at the Glabados Church and after a heavy talk that Agrias had not heard, they were freed. Cleared of all charges of heresy and murder, and given jobs. Oddly enough all of the jobs they were given benefited Delita. Agrias hated him, but Ovelia had told her one night that she had married him for love, not because he made her. Agrias didn"t know if he believed the Queen, but if Ovelia said so, then she"d believe her. For now anyway. "Agrias." She was brought out of her memories as Orlandu spoke again, the old man now was prodding at his arm that had been broken with a long knife. "We"ll have to move, you up for a travel tonight or another few hours of rest?" Agrias didn"t speak, not right away anyway. She was tired and near death, if that potion had not been found she would have slipped off into blissful eternal slumber, but she was alive and in such pain. Moving out was smarter, who knows when the Goblins would be back. Of course rest would be a great help to her injured body. "We should move to Gariland now, Cid, we have to." Idris Brennus was only twenty-four years old, and he had been even younger when he became the Lieutenant to Leo Cyneburga. Shortly after the war Ovelia gave birth to a son while she was at Beltha Garrison, while on her way back to Igros the carriage was attacked. Her guards were slaughtered by the assassins, save only Idris who was able to get the queen away from the carriage. Her son was saved too, but a week later he died anyway, the cause has yet to be found. Despite this, Idris was made Chief Lieutenant of the Black Sheep. When the Goblins began invading the cities around Sweegy Wood, Cyneburga put Idris in charge of finding their base. After weeks of battle in the Wood he learned of Rat Cellar and the old Death Corps base the Goblins were now using. Idris had been at the siege with Leo and his friend Roland Bedivere when it began, and when Cyneburga had road back to Igros, Idris was in charge. He was now of the siege. Three days after Leo left, around the same time that Agrias Oaks the Hokuten and his boss Leo Cyneburga had their argument, he decided to lead an attack squad around back. And so the Dragoon Lancer had done so, he and his squad, which was made of two knights, an archer and a chemist. They moved quickly around back and closed in on the upper floors of the building. Several Goblins and the mysterious mages were waiting, and they appeared to be arguing. Idris had moved close to hear. The Goblins spoke in their own language, but the Mages seamed to understand. They however spoke in the common tongue. "We"re not going out there again, too many archers. It takes to long to charge our spells before they get their arrows at us." The Goblin chief, Idris thought it looked like a chief being larger and darker than the others, grunted in it"s own horrible language but the mage stood by his decision. Idris could see them arguing, perhaps the mages and the goblins would kill each other. If the Goblins fought the mages at these close ranges, they"d win. And then the Black Sheep could swarm them without fear of magic. It all looked like it was going perfect, until a second goblin, also tall and dark of skin like the leader, entered and spoke of two warriors in the forest who they had tried to kill, but had slaughtered seven of their warriors. Were these two in the forest Black Sheep? Or Hokuten? Or Shrine Knights maybe? Before Idris could do anything else, several Goblins turned his way. It was then that Idris learned that he and his squad was sneaking towards them using their own escape route into the forest. The Goblins stopped in their tracks for a second and stared at the group of Black Sheep. And then with a snarl the goblins charged . . . Author"s Notes: Well, I have it up later than I thought, only because I didn"t originally plan on the Idris part which took some time to write, and because I had other things to do. I just felt I should add some more. As for Ovelia"s death, if you have to complain then I"m just ignoring you, killing off people is fun and this isn"t the last time it"ll happen so get over it. NOTE: As of right now I am not working on this story on a regular basis. I"m working on "Two Robots, Red as Blood (2RRB)" my Megaman Fanfic and "The Unwritten Chapters (UC)" my very long, masterpiece of a Digimon Fanfic. Since UC will take me a very long time to work, I"m only waiting on 2RRB until I start work on this story again. I will be finishing it. I promise., source_sentence: I should"ve known that since that huge mansion was her house, she"d be able to escape even with my using her magic. There was nothing else I could do other than to make the house constantly change and make things difficult for her, I wasn"t as skilled as she was. "..." Ellen looked at me with a puzzled look on her face, "Still not dead? I have to applaud your tenacity." Suddenly she looked at if something had hit her, "Ah, could it be... Are you that worried about your father?" I felt the anger inside me boil even more but now it was mixed with worry, "Stay away from him!' Ellen turned away from me yet again, refusing to look at what she used to be. "Oh, I know. You and your father, Viola. A close family of two." I wanted to tell her that she knew nothing about my father and I but when I tried to think back on my memories, I realized that this body, Ellen"s body, didn"t have my memories. "Those memories stayed in your body. He"s a kind man. A hunter, isn"t he?" She asked even though she knew the answer already, "And he even sent you that letter. What a good father." Ellen turned back to me and began getting closer to me once more, "So then, I suppose you"re worried about what"ll happen when you"re gone?" Ellen walked back over to me, knelt down and held my face in her hands, "It"ll be just fine. I"ll give him Viola"s share of love." She smiled even more, "And I"ll take her share of love, too. So..." "Viola?" A man"s voice called out and footsteps running on the path were getting closer. "Daddy!' When my father got closer to Ellen she ran up to him and hugged him! "Viola?! Are you safe?! Are you hurt anywhere?" "I"m okay daddy," Ellen had the nerve to call my father her own, more tears ran down my face as he didn"t know what had happened. "Daddy... That"s not me! Daddy..." Ellen then went to my father"s side and feigned fear, knowing that once she moved he would see me. "What?! Why..." he then looked back towards me as I started trying to crawl to him. "Fh... ah... aa... th..." I tried calling my father but not even I was sure he could understand me, "...dh ...dha... di..." "S-STAY AWAY, MONSTER!" Hearing that shattered my heart, he couldn"t hear me, he didn"t know. In one last attempt to tell him that I was his daughter and not the witch in my body I tried reaching out to him, but he raised his gun. He must"ve been hunter before coming out to look for me. BANG Pain enveloped the left side of my head, it hurt so much that I couldn"t bring myself to move anymore. Even though I hadn"t moved, my father shot me again as if to make sure I was dead. Once he believed that I had truely died, as I thought I had died right there, I could still see my daddy walk back towards Ellen and tell her that they were going back home. I had no control over the body that had been shot and I wanted to cry even more when Ellen stopped and giggled at what happened then went to catch up with my father. "She now believes you"re dead." The woman"s voice whispered in my ear as her hand uncovered my eyes and I went back to seeing darkness. "Now it"s time to go home and for you to start healing." (This is my first attempt at a "The Witch"s House" story. I"ve played the game and went through the Normal Ending and the True ending. I"ll have to play again for the third-psuedo ending, but I saw a video of it on youtube. I know this isn"t my longest first chapter I"ve ever written but I felt it was okay for a start. Hope this isn"t too confusing for a read and hope you enjoy it, please read and review.) ~Viola~ We were walking for a long time it seemed, the woman only stopped once in a while to adjust her hold on me and continued walking. I hated being blind, I hated not being able to see where we were, there were so many things I hated right now and one of them was that my leg itched but I didn"t have legs which made it that much worse. I wanted to ask where we were at the moment but with my voice still damaged I couldn"t utter a coherent word. There were so many things I wanted to say, so many things I wanted to complain about but couldn"t. The sounds of the forest were soothing and peaceful despite all the horror that went unnoticed. Though I couldn"t help but listen to the birds singing, crickets chirping, animals running about after the rain had let up. "Just rest Viola; I"ll wake you when we get to my home." The woman"s voice softly told me, it was strange how she seemed to know what I wanted to say but I did as I was told and tried to sleep. ~Silver Witch~ It is such a shame for a sweet young girl to be caught up in something so horrendous, all she had wanted to do was make her friend happy and this is how she"s repaid. I looked down at the sleeping girl in my arms and hoped that she was asleep, it was hard to tell when she had no eyes but that would be remedied in time. In time Ellen will regret wronging Viola and she will take back what is rightfully hers, but that day is far from now and we have plenty of time. I knew this path like the back of my hand, there was no getting lost in this forest for myself and my guest. Walking past several rose bushes I stopped as I was greeted by a black cat with a white tipped tail, my demon to be precise. "My, my, you never bring in a soul to me." The demon spoke, eyeing Viola, eager to take her soul which I wasn"t going to allow. "She"s not for you, you mangy cat." I walked passed him and proceeded towards my home up ahead. "If you"re not giving me her souls then what are you going to do with that mangled mess of a child?" His voice sounded perplexed and annoyed, it"s been a couple of days since I offered a soul or two to him so it"s no wonder he"s testy, "It"s also not like you to help another witch." "She"s not a witch; she"s just a poor girl who befriended a witch." When I stepped in front of the door the door opened on its own allowing me to walk inside. I heard the demon following me closely now until we stepped into the house, "Ahh, the body switching spell." the cat realized what I was saying about Viola"s situation, "Such a tricky spell with difficult requirements. The easiest people to fool for that spell are bleeding hearts and gullible children." Without turning I uttered a spell under my breath to throw a book I had left on the dining room table at the possessed cat. I smiled when I heard him shriek most likely after dodging the book, going onto more important matters I uttered another spell to place several towels on the couch in front of the fire place and I set Viola down on it. By how she was breathing I could tell Viola was sleeping but I didn"t have the heart to wake her, so after covering her with one of my quilts I left to do some work. Using my magic to create a shortcut to one of my personal rooms where I study magic and make potions, I began looking through the books I had for the ones that"ll help the girl. "Cat, do you remember where I had placed the books on restoration spells?" I hoped that my feline companion would know since I wasn"t finding the book amongst the pile I had left on the table next to an empty ceramic bowl. "You mean the one you threw at me? It"s in the living room." Ignoring the snide comment I went back to the living room to retrieve the book and flipped through it to see that it was indeed the book I needed. Opening it to where I needed it, I ventured back into my private room and began working on the potion. " "Bodily Restoration" " my cat read after hopping onto the table to read what I had the book open to, "You need a couple more ingredients for this type of potion, my faithful witch." I could hear the spitefulness in his voice when he said "my faithful witch", I didn"t mind it though; it was something I ignored long ago. "It"s nothing I can"t find in my garden or out in the woods." "You might want to help your guest first... She"s bleeding all over your couch." I mentally slapped myself for not wrapping up Viola"s wounds first, it should"ve been the first thing I did once I got inside but I guess working on the healing potions overshadowed it. Grabbing several sheets I began tearing them so it would be easier to wrap up Viola"s legs to stop the bleeding, when all the bandages were made I quickly went through my supply cabinets and grabbed several jars filled with various plants and liquids. Going over to Viola I gently removed the quilt I started to use a scrap sheet to dab away the blood that was coming out of the open leg wounds. Opening one of the jars filled with a cloudy substance in it, I took part of the cloth I had in hand, dipping it in the jar and began lightly smeared the substance over Viola"s wounds. Putting an appropriate amount of the balsam fir resin on the wounds I began wrapping up her legs to prevent any possible infections and so when it gets to the time where I can get to heal her legs there would be no complications. The eyes on the other hand were another story, I couldn"t exactly treat them until Viola was awake and it would be rude to wake up a young girl from her slumber. Gently sitting her up I put bandages around her head, making sure that the eyes were covered and fasten it so the bandages wouldn"t come off so easily. Softly laying Viola back down on the pillow I went back into my study and began grabbing various ingredients. The first thing I intend on restoring was her eyes because even though the book states that growing the legs back would be a quick procedure, it"s quite painful and would take a few months to be able to walk without feeling pain. That and I felt that seeing was far more important than walking because what was the point in being able to walk but not see where you were going. When I finished crushing some herbs into powder I added them into a bowl and then set it over the fire in the fireplace. ~Viola~ Smelling something cooking and burning wood I sat up, feeling what I was on I realized that I had been sleeping on a couch and had a blanket covering me. I guess the woman didn"t want to wake me up when we arrived at her home, but now I was hungry. The invisible cook at Ellen"s house didn"t seem to be that great because all he seemed to make was some sort of stew which had cabbage and wieners in it, that and it was hard to ask for food when you couldn"t speak. "Aa...ah... Mmh..." I hoped that the woman was nearby to hear me, I didn"t know if she had anyone else living with her or not. "Hey! Your guest is up and looks like she wants something!" I heard a male voice speak, the voice sounded a lot like that black cat"s but this voice had a different and more refined tone to it. Hearing something close to glass quickly being put on a wooden table and rushed footsteps, I felt the woman touch my hand to tell me she was here. "What is it that you need Viola?" I put my hand on my stomach and then I took the woman"s hand and wrote "I"m hungry" in her palm with my finger. "Of course, I"ll have dinner prepared in a moment." I heard her get up and then ask, "How does lamb, cooked vegetables and cheesecake for dessert sound?" That dinner sounded wonderful, my mouth was already watering all I could do was nod rapidly because it"d been a while since I had something that good. Hearing her footsteps fading all I could do was wait and I wasn"t sure how much time had passed but I had a feeling that it was quite a bit due to me now having bandages around my head and my legs. There wasn"t much I could do so I just sat on the couch and listened to the sounds of flames crackling, food sizzling and plates being placed on a table. While I waited for dinner to be prepared, I unconsciously started braiding my hair like I did every day when I woke up. It didn"t take me long to finish making two braids even with Ellen"s hair being as long as it was after I had taken the ribbon out, but since I only had that one ribbon I had to tie both braids together behind me rather than have them at my front like I used to do. Smelling the delicious scent of dinner waft through the air I could tell that dinner was almost done, using my hands to feel what part of the couch was what I took the blanket off of my and hung it on the back. With the sound of footsteps coming back into the living room the woman"s soft voice rang, "It"s time for dinner, Viola." With that being said she picked me up carefully and walked me into the dining room, I assumed of course. She sat me down on a chair and pushed it in to where I was close to the table and once I was close I began lightly feeling where my plate and utensils were at. I heard the woman giggle before placing a fork in my hand and felt a cat jump on my lap. "Pay no mind to me, I"m just here for this assist." I heard that same man"s voice ring. My left hand was now being held by the woman while she uttered some words that I couldn"t understand and when she was finished she let go. "Now place your left hand on the cat"s head." I did what she told me and a gasp left passed my lips when I could see! But... I had no control of where I my sight went. "In other terms the spell that she used is for sight-stealing, the only drawback is that only I can control what you see." The cat spoke to me as he continued to look at the plate full of food. "I"m sorry, but it"s the least I can do for now." She apologized as she sat down at the other side of the table. Right now all the cat was looking at was my food; I couldn"t exactly see who my caretaker was all I caught a glimpse of was her silvery hair. I tried to get the cat to raise his head up a bit but he wouldn"t budge, so I gave up and began eating. The cooked vegetables were delicious; the carrots, tomatoes, broccoli, and some type of squash were well seasoned. When I tried to tear a piece of lamb off of the leg but with just using the fork it was rather difficult and just as I was about to take my left hand off the cat"s head to take the knife and cut it an invisible person picked up my knife, took my fork and began cutting the meat off the bone and into small pieces. When the invisible person handed the fork back to me, I got a piece on the fork and ate it to find that it was cooked very well and the taste of rosemary added flavor to the meat. "Tch." The cat"s head lightly jerked as he sneezed downward and tried to move back some but was forced to stop when his back end hit my stomach. "You used rosemary didn"t you?" The woman giggled at the cat"s accusation, "Rosemary makes the meat taste better and I figured that Viola would like it." "You know fully well that I can"t stand rosemary, it"s a demon repellant." I felt the cat cringing his nose under my palm as he kept his sight on my plate. "Well you"re stuck there until Viola is finished eating because I"m not gonna let you leave this table before that." I continued eating the lamb and veggies while having to ignore the cat"s low growling and it"s failing attempts to move away from my plate. By the time I had finished off the lamb the witch"s demon was itching to run out of the dining room, but under protest he obeyed her orders and stayed though he seemed relieved that the scent of rosemary was fading. Soon after I was finished with my dinner the woman got up to take my plate along with hers to the kitchen and when she came back she had set down a plate of blueberry cheesecake in front of me. It had been years since I had cheesecake, I"ve hadn"t had any of the dessert since mom had passed from an illness and father wasn"t the greatest baker in the world. Out of habit I used my fork to push the blueberries into the cheesecake until they weren"t seen and then started eating, I heard the woman chuckle at what I had just done. "That"s quite the unusual way of eating a cheesecake." I "looked" down in embarrassment but then continued eating because I couldn"t exactly explain. As I continued to eat the cheesecake I had some difficulty keeping the sauce from dripping anywhere other than the plate so I had to use my other hand thus blinding myself but it was better than getting my clothes dirty... Well any more than they already were. "Viola, I also must apologize for not having a spare dress or any other clothes for you. I would lend you some of my clothes but they would be much too big on you, so hopefully by tomorrow I"ll have something for you to wear other than that dress." I nodded in understanding as I finished off the rest of the cheesecake; since the woman and I were finished she got up from the table with her plate in hand, walked to my side of the table and took my plate. After hearing the glass being placed on a metal surface, most likely the sink she came back shooed the cat off my lap and carried me. Since I didn"t have the cat to see I had no idea where we were going but when we happened to be in another room the nice fragrance in the air I would guess that we were in a bathroom. "I figured that you would like a bath before going to bed..." she paused for a second then sat me down on a small stool. "Is that alright with you?" I don"t think I could"ve nodded my head fast enough, a bath was another thing I really wanted, I couldn"t stand the blood, sweat and greasy feeling any longer. It didn"t take the woman long to draw the bath and helped me in after getting the filthy clothes and bandages off. To be honest it felt rather nice to be helped, though it was only because I was both blind and had no legs, but in time that would be different... I hope. By the time the woman was finished helping me get clean, she picked me up out of the tub and wrapped me up in a towel while she wrung out my hair. She stopped for a moment telling me that she"ll be right back, that she had to get something for me to wear for the night, so I waited with the big towel wrapped around me like a blanket. When I heard her get back she slipped something over my head and helped me out of the towel and get my arms through the sleeves as well as giving me other garments to wear. Once I was in the oversized nightgown the woman carried me to yet another room and laid me down on a soft bed. With no words being exchanged the woman tucked me in and left the room. ~Silver Witch~ I didn"t see any problem with letting young Viola take my bed for a while, my home was meant to house one person but it"ll change. I needed to finish that potion I was working on since the book instructed that it"d sit for a little over an hour to allow the brew to cool down and for the ingredients to set in. Putting all the contents in a decent sized bottle I set it aside as I opened another book of potions and flipped through the pages to a potion that heals the throat. "Hey!" I let out a sigh when the cat tried to get my attention, "You need to keep up your responsibilities and bring me souls so you can have your magic." I looked at the cat out of the corner of my eye, "Tomorrow. You"ll get your souls tomorrow, now let me work in peace." "I"m holding you to that, my faithful witch." I paid no mind to where the mangy cat went and while I allowed the fire to begin boiling the water I looked up at the clock that hung above the door to find that it was nearing midnight. Thinking that Voila would be fast asleep by now, I grabbed the bottle and a small eye dropper and headed to my room to find the young girl lying on her back holding one of the throw pillows I forgotten to take off the bed. Quietly unscrewing the lid to the jar I used the eye dropper to get a bit of the potion, I set the jar down and as careful as possible I lightly pushed up each of Viola"s eyelids and placed a few drops of the potion in each eye socket. After placing the appropriate amount of drops in each eye, I squeezed the rest of the potion back in the jar and tip-toed out of the room. Going into the living room closet I took out a spare blanket I had and muttering a spell I conjured a bed next to the still bloody couch and I went to sleep. "Hope you enjoy your new sight in the morning, dear Viola.' (Sorry this took so long to get finished and posted up. I got distracted by playing "Mad Father" which was recommended to me, finishing Silent Hill 3, starting Silent Hill Origins and coming up with story ideas. Hope you like this chapter and I really appreciate all the reviews, story favorites and follows, I didn"t expect this story to be liked that much but I appreciate it all the same.) I know this isn"t what you"re wanting to see but I feel like I should leave a note explaining a thing or two. First off, I"m really happy at all the reviews for this story because I never thought that it would get that popular but I don"t know if I"ll ever get back to it. Maybe if I play the game a few times more to get the motivation I"d probably be able to throw out another chapter but until then this story is kinda on a haitus. Secondly, when I read my thirtieth review from Rukifellth I wanted to reply back "I just discovered "The Diary of Ellen" last night and am still reading it, so of course there"s going to be mistakes. This story was made probably before the prequel was released and translated into English.' So putting that into consideration I may go back and edit some of the story so that it makes sense with the prequel pertaining to Ellen"s degenerative disease. So until the time comes where I"m finally in the mood to write more "A Witch"s Revenge" there won"t be another update for a while. A thousand apologies for this.
sentences: Just wanted to jump in and say I was really impressed by all these comments. I expected to jump down to the bottom of this thread and find trolls, but you're both responding to each other's comments very thoughtfully., "Dude, you seriously need to see a psychologist. Because this is far from beautiful, it"s plain creepy and shouts "I"m a stalker with a delusion in mind!'" I yelled at him, feeling myself freak out more and more about the statue then quickly covered it back up. "That, my dear, is what you"ll become in the future." Riccardo said, obviously not acknowledging what I just said. "I am not going to be pregnant! I"ll do everything in my power to make sure that never happens!" "Deny it all you want, dear Fiona, but that is what you"ll be when the time comes." Riccardo shot back then added, "Go ahead... you may touch it." "Seriously dude, it doesn"t have the "BOOM pregnant" powers so I"m not going to even bother touching it. Aren"t you even listening!" I was getting scared but what he said next just went over the top. "You will be mine, Fiona!" the mad keeper declared as his sinister laugh echoed throughout the room as he left. I felt so paralyzed with fear that I backed up slowly to a corner, purposely fell on the ground, curled into a ball and almost started crying. Tears were welling up in my eyes but they refused to fall, I tried dismissing everything Riccardo had said from my mind but his declaration and laugh stayed no matter how hard I tried to be rid of it. I looked behind where the statue was to see a small bottle that had a picture of lavender on it, getting up, I picked up the bottle, uncorked it and the scent that came out was really nice, relaxing even. Corking the liquid lavender I put it in the miscellaneous section of my bag then picked up the Garden Key which unlocked the door that lead to the marionette room, bathroom and the kitchen. From the moment I grabbed the key I quickly made a mad dash to the door out of the room and began running to the small yard with the sealed well and had the backwards bench. Though before using the key I went over to the two vases that were somewhat hidden behind the well, I didn"t find any items in the first vase but the second one had magnesia in it which looked like a small light green diamond that was pretty to look at, I liked pretty things. Getting back on track I went to the locked garden door and just as I was about to use the key, a noise resembling bells resounded in the air, I looked to my right and walked away from the door a bit to see what it was. Floating from where I just left there was a blue glowing ball just flying about, in all honesty it looked pretty like a blue lightning bug but unfortunately I had to remember that it was a Lumi and Lumis plus me equals bad things, so I quickly got back to the door unlocked it and closed the door behind me just before the pretty creature could catch my azoth"s scent. Knowing where I was I dug through my key items side of the bag to get out the REST key plate so I wouldn"t have to spend so much time sifting through the bag just to look for it like I did with the METH key plate. The whole hallway was lit by pretty glass chandeliers on the ceilings which was good, walking down the corridor on my right there was the marionette room which I had to pass since I didn"t get the broken marionette, on my left was the door to the kitchen and just up ahead were the stairs leading down to the restroom. I stopped in front of an arch made on the wall and looked down to see some stones looking like they were about to crumble, I kicked that spot a few time and once it was cleared... "EEEK!" I literally jumped a foot in the air and back stepped a bit away from the bugs crawling out of the hole. "God, I hate bugs! Moths and butterflies are cute but any other bug, no!" I wigged out and as soon as all the bugs seemed to crawl away to a new home I looked into the hole to find Refined Antimony. "Okay, maybe the antimony was worth it." I put the ball of orangish-yellow powder in my back with the magnesia and regular antimony as I went down stairs to put in the key plate, once it was in the slot the door to the bathroom was unlocked but I didn"t go inside the bathroom right away because I went to pick up the broken half of the original REST plate which was the "RE" part. The bathroom was nothing interesting; there was a sink that in the game was a status restore spot, the shower that serves as a hiding spot and the stalls back there was a dummy hiding spot, a storage space and the path leading down to the Castle Gate Key and a pair of special boots. I went into the restroom anyway to get the item that I knew was in there which was actually a medallion, then went out before I had any unexpected company. Jogging up the stairs I looked around the corner to find that the coast was clear so it was safe for me to go to the kitchen, upon entering the kitchen my sight immediately went to the ham hanging above the cutting counter. "Ham? I always thought those were severed heads." I shrugged my shoulders as I went to the other side of the counter to reach over and grab the jerky on the counter, "I wonder which jerky this is?" I looked around to see if anyone was watching as I tore a tiny piece off and ate it, "Chicken...and it"s good, but gotta save it for Hewie." I told myself as I went around to where I was on the inside to find something to wrap the chicken jerky in. Under the cutting counter was some paper towels so I used that as a wrap, finishing wrapping the chicken jerky, I placed it in my bag and made sure that it didn"t get on the bisque doll. From there I decided to unlock the short cut back to the guest room, when I opened the door to the dining room I had to stop and stare at how amazing the whole place looked because never in my life had I ever seen a more beautiful dining room. The chandelier lit up the head of the table while the second chandelier was off on the back half of the long table, heck I couldn"t help but feel the fabric the deep red curtains were made of along with the table cloth and the lit candles made everything even more stunning. Walking along the right side of the table I found the other half of the original key plate, I was going to use it for when I get to the water tower, retrieving the other half of the key plate I went straight to the door out of the dining room to unlock it thus opening another pathway. I went back into the kitchen and went down the stairs leading to a storeroom though when I was held up by the boards of wood. For some reason, I didn"t just want to kick it down or charge into it...I wanted to break it with style, so I got into a fighting stance like I would in karate, mind you I"m a black belt, and knowing fully well what I"m wanting to do I chambered my back leg and stuck the barrier with a side kick. The wooden barrier broke away when I brought my leg back, I had to relish in that small victory as I went down the stairs though when I saw the map on the table I did not like what I was going to encounter when I went back upstairs. I picked up the map and looked at it, I remember clearly never even looking at it because it always seemed useless. "Okay, so I"m at like Belli Castle and totally lost. Oh my god, a map it"ll help me, wait this map is useless." I spoke in one of those voices that"s often used in a mocking tone. After looking at the map I folded it carefully and placed it in my bag for any possible future use but if I get to the other side of the castle with Daniella stalking me, the map"s going in a fire. Before leaving the storeroom I opened the lid to the vase and ended up pulling out more chicken jerky, I wrapped it up in the same "packaging" I had the first chicken jerky in and put the vase on its side to show that I"ve looked at it. As I was going up the stairs I thought I heard the sound of fast shifting footsteps, I knew who it was and I was not going to like it but I was not going to what Fiona did, I was going to keep my distance. Upon getting back into the kitchen once I got a few steps away from the stairway to the storeroom I heard something that sounded like something, or rather someone, beat against the glass window. The sound in the silent kitchen made me jump a little but it wasn"t enough to make me hug the counter where Debilitas was hiding behind, reason why; I haven"t the faintest idea but I don"t care. Giving the sound a moment to settle, I let out a sigh to hopefully start off what"s supposed to happen and practically on cue Debilitas sprung from his hiding spot. "Bye-bye!" I bid farewell for now as I ran out the door, slamming it behind me and sprinted to the corridor and started going up the wide stairs. "I will not pull a Fiona. I will not pull a Fiona. I will not-aaaah!' My thought were interrupted when the tip of the boot caught the very edge of the third step which caused me to fall, "God dang it! I pulled a fricken Fiona!" I hissed because the majority of the injury I sustained went straight to my knees since that was what I fell on. As I was trying to get back up on my feet and continue to get away from Debilitas, the door leading to the kitchen was being opened. I looked back to see the door opening, the gardener of the castle closing the door behind him, at first he had his back to me but as he turned around and saw me it took him a few moments to actually get through his head that I was near and had a look of surprise on his face. The look of surprise lasted for a few moments as he was laughing but it faded and turned to a look as if he was mean and scary, I managed to get back up on my feet and run up the rest of the stairs but it was there that I felt eyes watching me, I didn"t like that one bit since it got my paranoia worked up even though there was no one in front of me. Before I could even try to look around the corner the sound of dragging footsteps from behind me sounded closer, I turned around to see that Debilitas was practically in arm"s reach of me! Deciding to not be a coward for once in my life I got into my fighting stance and was fully prepared to fight off the guy, but when he took only a step forward and angry voice yelled. "Exire Debilitas!" I looked behind me to find no one there, "Oh come on! I tried that and he didn"t even do a dang thing!' When I looked back to Debilitas he looked off in the distance as if the voice came from there, he held out his hand as if contemplating whether to touch or grab me but then he wore the face of a beaten child as he put his hand down. As he turned to leave the man looked back at me as if saying that he was sorry or something close to that, from there he left the area to who knows where and I let out a sigh of relief, "I hate to say this but thank you Riccardo.'"Please excuse me, Miss." Riccardo"s voice rung in the halls again, I turned around to find him walking out in the open wearing his brown garbs and had the hood over his head. "I am Riccardo, keeper of the castle." "Yeah, you"re also the creep who made that disturbing statue of me pregnant in the music room!" I shot back, still not even remotely amused. Riccardo let out a hearty chuckle when I said my piece, "Everyone"s a critic when it comes to art, I thought you would appreciate it." From what I could see on Riccardo"s face, he now wore a different type of expression that I couldn"t read, "So sorry to hear about your accident. Your parents..." I held my head in my hands as another memory flash went through my mind, all I could remember that it was dark, the car was heading for a log pile, the car crashed and Fiona"s scream. My head was slowly but surely killing me, heck it was worse than a migraine! "As Master Ugo and Mistress Ayla are both deceased, you, Miss Fiona are the sole surviving heir of Belli Castle." When Riccardo mentioned my, well, Fiona"s parents another memory appeared in my mind, Ayla looking in the back seat at her daughter while Ugo was driving the car sometime during the evening. Fiona"s mother placed her hand on her father"s hand lovingly, everything seemed like nothing could go wrong in that span of time. The headache got progressively worse to where it felt like someone was pounding on the inside of my skull, "Are you in pain, Miss?" Riccardo asked, putting on a tone of worry or concern. "Will you be all right?" "Yeah, and could I at least have a cold washrag to ease this fricken headache." I groaned as it was starting to become unbearable, so unbearable that I was crying from the pain."I will get one for you, now you"ve had a long day. Please rest upstairs, your bed has been prepared." were the last words I heard from Riccardo as I fell to the ground and passed out from the pain. ~Third POV~ After Britt passed out on the ground the castle"s keeper walked over to her unconscious body and stared at her with an unknown intent in his eyes that couldn"t be seen due to the top half of his face being hidden by the hood. Being careful not to wake her up Riccardo picked up the woman and proceeded to carry her back to the guest bedroom without encountering Debilitas or the maid, Daniella. Having to trouble carrying Britt or as he knows her, Fiona, to the bedroom, he laid her down on the bed, removed her boots, pulled the covers from underneath Britt and covered her up. Finishing tending to the unconscious woman, he left the room to go get the wash cloth to help ease the headache Britt received. While Britt slept it gave the memories suppressed by Fiona"s trauma to start surfacing, like the memory that appeared before it went a little longer, how the car crashed into the pile of logs, the windshield breaking into the car from wood, Fiona screaming in fear, and the man in the dark coat and hat peering into the car looking at Fiona. ~Britt"s POV~ I jumped awake from the dream/memory that played in my mind, everything felt so real and unknowingly putting myself in Fiona"s position I brought my knees to my chest and almost started crying again. "It"s just a dream...no... They"re Fiona"s memories, losing her parents in a car crash and now in this nightmare." I spoke to myself as I realized that I was in the guest room bed with the covers on. I raised my hand to my forehead to find no washrag. "So much for getting that cold washrag." As I stretched out I felt that something was amiss...where the flip did my bag go? Literally I scrambled out of bed, my foot getting wrapped up in the blankets thus me falling to the floor and when I finally got the covers off my feet I did a complete circle to see that my bag was hanging on the bedpost. I sighed in relief that Riccardo or whoever carried me back to the room didn"t leave my bag just laying around, I put my bag back on my body and let out another sigh which was of disappointment that I was still in a video game character"s body and in this blasted castle. I wanted to go home where everything was normal and sane, my thoughts of going home were interrupted when I heard a dog"s cry. "Hewie!" I exclaimed as I ran out the room, not even bothering to get my boots or to look out the window to see if he was really where he was at. The cool air actually felt rather nice and was doing wonders for the pounding headache I had, after getting down the first flight of stairs I noticed that the door to the broken marionette was opened but I couldn"t be bothered with that at the moment. Going down the rest of the stairs the soft ground felt nice on my feet even though I was still wearing my socks but more important matters had to be addressed. I ran to the bound white German Shepard, pet him a few times to calm him down, the whines he was making just tore my heart to shreds so I went over to the tree, managed to undo the wire holding the noose around Hewie"s neck and I got the wire off him. Once the wire was off him I grabbed the capture device that was used by dog catchers and with force I broke it in half by slamming it on my knee, sure it kinda hurt but it was worth it because it was now broken and can"t be used. Getting back to Hewie, I knelt down on the ground till we were almost eye to eye with one another and I couldn"t help but notice a blue sparkle in his eyes...wait a sec, Hewie"s eyes were brown... I slightly jumped at the Shepard"s sudden bark but it wasn"t aggressive, "Hewie?" When I said his name he started to growl, "I thought Hewie liked being called by his name and what"s with his eyes?' "Sorry, I"ve noticed that your eyes...they"re not well...animal-like." The dog cocked his head in confusion as he continued to watch me, "You probably think I"m crazy," I put my face in my hands and ran them over my hair, "God, I wish I was at home talking to one of my friends."When I mentioned the fact that I wished I was at home talking to one of my friends Hewie barked once again, I looked into his eyes and seen that they were an icy blue, something about them didn"t seem right. "Okay, um, just curious, you wouldn"t happen to know anyone that"s not from around here... Do you?" Hewie barked again which made me start wondering if this white German Shepard was really Hewie. He brought up his paw to show a spiked collar tied around its leg, it looked like something one of my friends would... I went wide-eyed, "Lex?" I asked, unsure if that was really who "Hewie" was and to my surprise the dog barked happily. I fell backwards to the ground, sat down, totally not believing this was happening. I looked at the dog, who bared it"s teeth as if grinning. ~Lex"s POV~ Did this Fiona look-alike call me by my real name? I shout excitely, which came out as barking. This"ll be weird, but I guess I have to protect Britt. That"s fine, but since I"m a dog, things may be different for me... "Damn, this"ll be weird.' I had a hard time believing that we were in this kind of situation, it was just way too strange but this was how it"s going to be until we"ve reached the very end. Britt"s reaction to realizing that I was me was pretty funny, I noticed that she made a minor change to Fiona"s costume which was by just adding a pair of capris on under the skirt and the bag. I also noticed that she didn"t have her boots on. "Hey, where are your boots?" I tried asking but like before it came out as barks so I had to point to her feet so she"d know what I was talking about. "Oh, I left my boots in the room, when I saw you with the wire around your neck I immediately ran out here without even thinking about putting the boots back on...Speaking of which I don"t even remember taking them...Eeeeew, Riccardo touched my legs!" I couldn"t help but snicker at how Britt was reacting but then again if we were in the opposite positions we were in, I wouldn"t be too thrilled about it either. When Britt got up I knew that we were going to be going back to the guest room and waiting for us there would be Debbie. "Ready Lex?" Britt asked but then reached into her bag; pulled out something wrapped in a paper towel and thanks to my dog sense of smell it smelled like chicken. "Here"s some chicken jerky I found, I figured you would want something to eat." "Thanks," I barked as I ate the chicken jerky Britt gave me; it was pretty good and definitely filled my stomach for now. Once I was done eating Britt and I starting going up the long flight of stairs and by the time we got to the door to the guest bedroom all we had to do was walk in. Wasting no more time we went inside the room Britt didn"t seem surprised to see Debbie sitting on the bed, swinging his feet back and forth and when he saw Britt he waved to her and I think he was trying to say "hi" to her. I was ready to attack as he went into his flailing moment to look intimidating and when I looked to Britt to see if she was okay, her expression was that of confusion or wondering what the hell he was doing. She backed up a bit when Debbie got on all fours like a dog and tried to touch Britt but that was when I stepped in and started barking at him, he didn"t look remotely happy about me being here and then got up and tried to look threatening to me. "Lexi use bite attack!" Britt commanded and I noticed that she pointed towards his neck so running towards the mentally challenged man I jumped up and managed to bite into his neck, drawing blood. I could tell Debbie didn"t like it from how he was shouted in pain, I let go of him when he looked like he was going to slap me and from the moment I let go he ran out of the room holding his neck wound. "Yay Lex! That earned you 1900 experience points!" Britt made a Pokémon reference as she kneeled down to me and was petting me. Something was telling me that this was only the beginning of our adventure through Belli Castle. (8 and 1/2 pages...That"s how long this chapter is, I hope you like it and I really appreaciate the reviews I"m getting even though they"re anon reviews. Nice reviews are nice reviews and I hope I continue getting them because I really love them and love this story since I have some ideas in mind. Lex, I really hope I got you in character, you may scold me if I didn"t get you in character. Well time to work on the fourth chapter. Byebye. Also I know that in the game lavender is a plant but I wasn"t sure how exactly one would be able to use it so I put it in it"s liquid form which the scent is much stronger, so that"s how it"s going to be.), Well some of the offenders need no sexual offender treatment. If you drunkenly expose yourself to some people on the street, then after a jail sentence, you probably aren't going to do it again, or if you are the thing to treat is more alcoholism. Even among the sex offender as sex offender class, the field is just too broad to speak of effective therapy or prevention. Incest of the parent child variety is easily dealt with through removal of the child, and restricting visitation. While one or both parties may need therapy, treatment is not always needed, the behavior stops when the access does. Someone who downloads child pornography may need very different treatment depending on the nature of the downloading, and the nature of the images. Even rapists almost certainly need different types of treatment according to the type of the offense (violent vs. date for example). Prevention methods also almost certainly vary based on the offense to be prevented. Anti date rape education and outreach probably has only minor effects upon violent rape for example. Though of course certain methods can probably have multi offense reductions (increased public and undercover policing on trains would probably counter both exposure and groping for example). Still, it is hard to see how one can reduce sexual offenses in broad strokes., source_sentence: "Let"s give him what he wants. I may have only the basic Zero armor for the Liger, but that"s all I need. After all, I beat the Berserk Fury with that. Time to show you guys just who"s over confident." Bit nearly shouted. "The area within a twelve mile radius is a designated zoid battle ground. Only competitors and personnel have authorized entry. The Blitz Team verses the Stratus Team. Area scanned, battle field set up, ready...Fight" the Judge said. The Blitz Team advanced slowly, fully alert and causeous, but mostly because the Liger had donned the Panzer armor, slowing it down dramatically. Before long, though, there radars found an object racing toward them. A fox type zoid charged the Blitz Teams three worriers. It was white, with a slight tinge of blue in it, like a star. It looked similar to the Shadow Fox, but was very different from any other fox-type zoid know, like how the Liger Zero looked rather unique in comparison to other Liger"s. The only visible armament with a laser Vulcan gun on its back. "Everyone, watch out. One thing I"ve found is that he"s good. Really good. Don"t play around." Jamie commanded from his post in the Hover Cargo. "Roger that." they all returned. The Gun Sniper stopped in its tracks and opened up with her Gatling rifles and the various smaller guns on her wrist. The agile fox just danced around the shells as they grazed the dirt to its sides. The Liger tried to keep up with its movements, the insanely heavy Panzer armor slowed his reflexes to much. Before long it was face to face with the Liger and Fox. It leaped over the Liger and tackled the Shadow Fox, then bounded off before turning around to fire the back mounted weapon at the Liger Zero"s turning body, but the beams just shattered on contact with the dense metal. So, it took off towards the Gun Sniper instead, blowing right passed the other two, much to the annoyance of the Liger"s piolet, who had just turned all the way around. "How can he have reflexes like that. In a matter of seconds, he knocked our two best down and is closing in on the Gun Sniper. That shouldn"t be possible!" Jamie was nearly shouting. Even Dr. Tauros had stopped playing with his zoid models to watch the match for a change. However, after a few moments, his gaping jaw closed and curled his lips into a smile that meant that he understood what was happening. "Bit, according to the computer, you only have ten minutes until you hit critical and have to switch armor. Hurry up." Jamie commanded. "Easy for you to say." Bit returned. "You aren"t the one sweating his life away." Bit inhaled a deep breath as the scope for the Hybrid Cannons slid in front of his eye. Brad was not having fun. The opposing zoid was always ahead of him, dodging every attack, while Leena just fired madly, and to no avail. Brad leaped again, trying to come down on Lance from above, but the enemy just jumped backwards, Brad"s claw hitting earth. Brad pulled his paw free and turned to face the enemy fox, and was about to try again when some thing caught his eye and he tore off to the left. Lance simply looked around for the cause of this sudden development. Unfortunately, he didn"t notice the twin lasers of raw golden energy blazing towards him in time, and only avoided a direct hid, being thrown by the intense shockwaves that fallowed. Rolling and tumbling on the earth, Lance contemplated his current situation. "Rrr. Starlight, please stay with me. We have a match to win. Don"t freeze on me now!" he pleaded with the mechanical fox. It stood up, the damage minor to what it could have been. Mostly scratches and dents in his armor. He looked over at the Liger Zero. "What awesome assault power. But I wonder, just how long can he hold out with the abnormal heat that that armor must be emitting. How long till he has to..." He was cut of with the answer as the Liger"s armor broke off and crashed on the ground. The basic body of the cat creature shook itself, enjoying the new freedom from the insanely heavy steel plates. It then bounded off towards the team transport, what ever it was they called it, as the Gun Sniper charged out, fully reloaded. "Must be off to change his armor. It"s the only logical explanation." Lance sighed. "This could be the chance I need to focus on the other two." He jumped from side to side, trying to avoid Leena"s relentless assault. However, her accuracy had improve to a degree, forcing Lance to completely focus on her, giving Brad the lack of attention he needed to carefully aim at his prey. The black fox"s back mounted canon opened fire on the white enemy, punching into his side, knocking him down to the ground. Leena ran over and promptly started to stomp him with her zoids massive foot as Brad charged in, his front paws lighting up the same way they had only three days ago. "Strike Laser Claw!" he cried as he jumped into the air, claws stretched forward. "Right. You wish." Lance said out loud. He twisted his controls, and the two ion boosters ignited and, throwing him out from under Leena, and away from Brad. "Brad, watch it!" Leena shouted over her com as Lance pulled away, tripping her and making her fall to the ground in his place. But it was too late. Brad"s strike hit home, just on the wrong person. Leena was out of the battle. "BRAD!! WHAT WAS THAT FOR!" "Leena"s been knocked out?!" Bit cried as the white armor locked in place. "Uh, yeah." Jamie exclaimed. Things were definitely not going their way. Lance was using them to attack each other, which caused confusion and disunity with one another. "Listen Brad, don"t get to close. Try and stay one step ahead of him until Bit can get back." "Alright. But if this doesn"t work Jamie, I"m taking your next paycheck." was the reply. Brad opened fire, running along the side of his rival at the same time. But the other fox did the same, holding them at a stalemate. Then, an idea began to form within the mercenaries mind. He pulled a small trigger in his controls, and thick black smoke poured out, swallowing himself, and billowing out around Lance"s zoid. He could tell from the way that Lance was moving that he lacked the same scanning equipment as the Shadow Fox. Be moved over to the right in as stealthy a way as possible, but Lance still jerked his zoids head in that direction. Brad moved one foot to the left, and Lance opened fire. Brad easily avoided, and dashed towards the edge of the smoke. "Now"s my chance.' he thought to himself as his front paws lit up. He jumped almost strait up and out, startling hie adversary. "What"s this?!" Lance screamed inside of his cockpit. Brad had disappeared within a thick shroud of smoke. He turned on a heat censor, but nothing showed. "The smoke must be hot enough to hide his heat signature. Well then," he smiled, flipping a switch. Everything inside the cockpit was drowned out buy the sudden burst of noise. He had turned his sound receivers up to their max. He listened hard, trying to pinpoint Brads location. He heard it faintly. A step off to the left. He turned to face it, and maxed out his cameras to get as clear a view as he could, but the cloud was all to thick. Then, he heard a louder one just over to the right. His gun blared to life at the new target, but he had no way of knowing weather or not he had managed to make contact. Then, his attention was forced up as the Shadow Fox burst out above him, claws ready for a Strike Laser Claw. "Good thinking, but it wont work. You"ve left yourself quite vulnerable actually." he grinned as he aimed his gun up at the Shadow Fox. "You need some way of quickly changing your position before you can pull off a move like that. Without them, you wont survive." he fired, pummeling Brads zoid, who fell off balance. He then charged in and used his zoids skull to smash right into Brads, flipping him over his back and crashing him. This victory was shot lived though, because only a few seconds after did a green blur race overhead, showering him with bullets. "What the..." he was cut off again as a white Liger rammed his left side. "Hi, it"s me." Bit smirked. "Hey Jam...Wild Eagle. How you doing?" "Ha ha ha. The Wild Eagle fears no man or pilot. He will crush all opposition." the Raynos pilots alter-ego exclaimed. He turned and flew into the back of what remained of the cloud. When he raced out, he was met by several rounds of shells, tearing through his armor. Jamie, or more correctly, the Wild Eagle, crashed and skidded to a halt. "Three down, one more." Lance muttered. "But the damage I"ve sustained..." he said as he punched a few keys. "My head armor, front legs, and left side are all down over thirty percent. I"ll have to end this as quickly I can." Bit watched as Jamie was taken down only minutes after entering the fray. But, he had done a good deal of damage to Lance. And, Bit had a plan. "Hey you! I"m challenging you to a one charge battle!" "I accept." came a calm, almost frightening reply, but no face to match it with. It really was spine tingling. "This will be easy. With the Liger"s Strike Laser Claw, I can end this pretty easily. No sweat.' Bit took off at a run, charging the opposing fox-type zoid head-on. "Let"s do this right." The Liger"s front claws burned to life. "Strike Laser Claw!" He leapt high into the air, but when he tilted his head down to check his aim, Lance wasn"t in the correct spot. He was directly under him. He jumped up and smashed into the Liger Zeros stomach, knocking it off balance, and into the ground. Lance charged in, just as Bit did the same. He watched as Bit prepared for the Stike Laser Claw, playing directly into his hand. "Thank you, Mister Cloud. That"s exactly what I expected, and wanted you to do. Starlight. Let"s do this!" he moved in. He jumped right into Bit, catching the young pilot off guard. He looked down on the fallen zoid. "Your pathetic. I thought that the mighty Liger Zero would do better than that. I"m ashamed. And so, I"ll end this." He vaulted into the air. Bit looked up in horror. He saw and all to familiar light blaze to life above him. Then, a very familiar command was heard. "STRIKE LASER CLAW!" Lance"s attack cut both the Liger"s right legs off, freezing his battle command system. "Battle over! Battle over!" the judge decreed, raising his arms. "The winner is, the Stratus Team." "WHAT?!" Bit shouted, slamming his fist onto the console. "We lost?! NOOOOO!" "Liger!" Bit screamed inside of his zoid as he looked at the screen. "What? A command system freeze. How is that possible? Liger!" The battle had been in progress for only fifteen minutes, and already, Bit was out. The Blitz Team was facing off against the Amazoness Team. A team composed completely of women, and used a Hellcat, Lightening Saix, and was lead by a Royal Saber Tiger. Even with the Jager, the Liger Zero simply refused to perform at its best. Its mobility was barely that of the basic Zero unit, and it moved at more of a trot than a run. Bit just couldn"t figure it out. "Leena, Brad, you two have got to win this one on your own. Liger"s out, and if we loose, we"ll be booted out of Class S." "Whatever. Really Bit. Your hopeless. Ahahahah." Leena laughed as she unloaded just about every ounce of ammunition on the Hellcat. "Points for Leena. Oh yah!" Brad, on the other hand, had his hands full. The Liger had originally been despatched to deal with the Saber, while Brad could use the Shadow Foxes maneuverability to take down the Saix, while the Liger would deal with the Royal Saber. But now that Bit was out of the match, he was stuck trying to fight both off. "Leena, support would be nice. Gloat later!" he hailed as he dodged another charge from the Lightening Saix. It landed and skid to a halt, pivoting on its heals. But its lack of ability to make such a tight turn in such little time was all Brad needed. He took a firing stance and unleashed as many rounds on the ultra fast zoid as he possibly could. When it fell over, and didn"t get back up, Brad took that as a system freeze. What happened next was rather unexpected. A shower of missiles and other explosives crashed around Brad, rocking him around, and taking him out of the battle. "What happened?!" he inquired of no one in particular. Although he could no longer move, his main camera showed him that it was actually Leena who had done that. "LEENA!" he shouted. "Yes. I got that Saber Tiger. I DID! HA!" she jubilantly decreed. Brad looked all around and found that lying behind him was the crumpled remains of the final enemy zoid. Leena had been attacking it as it tried to creep up on Brad, and therefore, caught it off guard. "Battle over! Battle over!" the judge announced. "The winner is, the Blitz Team!" Elsewhere on the planet Zi, in a small café where most zoid pilots hung out when not doing matnence or battling. A figure in a black cloak laughed. He had been watching the battle, and been taking note of the Blitz Teams style. When he had calmed down, he set some money on the counter and walked out of the restaurant. "Not much of a team." he smiled. "Bit!" Leena yelled at the blond haired pilot at the Tauros Base. "Get that zoid of yours in gear. We barely won because of you." They were discussing the battle of the previous day. "And the Shadow Fox was seriously damaged." Brad put in. "Hey now, wait a second." Bit defended. "You can"t blame that on me. Leena did that." "Because you weren"t there to deal with that Saber. So she did what needed to be done. So get that Liger into shape." "And soon." Doctor Tauros put in. "We just got a call from the battle commission. The next battle has been set. And I think it just might be what we need to stimulate the Liger Zero." "What do you mean Doc?" Bit asked. "It"s against Lance Celeric." Jamie explained. "And this will help Liger how?" "Don"t you get it Bit?" Leena nearly shrieked. "Liger"s upset because we were beat by one zoid. And it was Lance who was in that zoid." she exclaimed. "Your right. It"s time for revenge. After three months of failed performance by me and the Liger, we can go up against the guy that did this to us. Lets do it." Bit said, jumping up. "Jamie, we"re going to need a strategy. Get a move on it! Go!" "Hey partner." Bit began as he walked into the hanger where his zoid stood tall. "I know your still pretty upset about what happened against Lance, but we need you to wake up. We"re up against him again tomorrow, and need you at your best. Alright." he comforted. The zoid stood up tall and growled in a response of pride and anticipation. "The area within a twelve mile radius is a designated Zoid Battle Ground." the judge began. "Only competitors and personnel have authorized entry. Area scanned. Battle field set up. The Blitz Team verses the Stratus Team. Battle mode 0963. Ready; Fight!" he commanded. Bit rushed out in the Schneider armor, only find that Lance was using similar components. His armor was green with five long laser blades visible to the naked eye. No long range weapon of any kind was to be seen. "Buster Slash!" he commanded, the five rushing blades snapping to attention, glowing with a bright blue. Lance seemed to copy this, only he was equipped with just three rushers. The two zoids locked horns (figuratively), struggling to get there own weapon past the others. "Bit!" Leena shouted in a warning tone. "Watch out!" She opened every last compartment that her zoid possessed, as multiple targeting squares merged together on Lance. "WEASEL UNIT TOTAL ASSAULT!" she cried, emptying herself of her ammunition. Lance looked up to see the onslaught that the Gun Sniper had unleashed. "I don"t think so." he muttered, a smile crossing his face. He twisted his zoids head, throwing the Liger Zero Schneider to the side slightly, and running off in the opposite direction. "Time for the Gun Sniper." he said, closing in on the defenseless zoid as it tried to escape in vain. The two side rushing blades retracted half way, so as to point out to the sides, and expose the razor sharp edges. He cut through the right leg, just below the knee, allowing gravity to pull on the overly armed zoid, crushing its entire right side in the proses. Then, he spotted the Raynos flying in overhead. He made a wide turn, and running up the back of the falling Gun Sniper, he retracted all three lancets. As he leaped over the pile of metal and guns, several boosters on his zoids back and legs flared to life. He rased up, and just as he passed under the flying zoid, the center razor swung forward, slashing Jamie"s zoid"s belly and wing, bringing it down. However, the downside to this maneuver was that Lance was incapable of landing properly, and tumbled to the ground. "Well, that could have gone better." he sighed. He slowly stood up, finding the Shadow Fox over to the left, gun poised and ready. "That thing has a CAS as well?" Tauros pondered. "That can"t be good. But that"s also one of the coolest things I"ve ever seen." he squeaked, picking up a model of the Liger Zero and a Blade Liger. "Grr," he said, commandeering for his little toys and the battle he was imitating. Bit looked up to find both Leena and Jamie down, but that Brad was satisfactorily pummeling Lance. He stood up and bolted over to aid his teammate. Brad was doing fairly well. He had managed to seriously damage Lances armor, and was pushing the opposing fox zoid to its limit. "Maybe I can get a decent bonus for this. Not to mention all the points I"ll get." he snickered. Just then, the green fox leaped over the attack in attempt to tackle Brad and the Shadow Fox, who just sprung back as Lance landed. He opened fire again, but this time, Lance was ready, jumping back and forth in a zig-zag, closing in on Brad, who took the initiative, and jumped forward with a Strike Laser Claw ready. His paws met with the honed edge of the blade, a silent struggle taking place as they pushed at each other. The built up they had created exploded, throwing them away from each other. They both rolled and bounced off the ground. Lance was amazed at how quickly Brad had reacted to his counter. The rumors of Brad"s skills were not lies. Lance zig-zagged inwards, blades ready for an attack. He met Brad"s Strike Laser Claw head on, their attacks equal to one another"s. They were pushed away by the intense growth of power. Lance struggled to his feet and diverted his eyes to the right, finding the Liger Zero charging in. He turned to face off with his true rival, and lunged at the oncoming zoid. They met and struggled for a second, then broke free and passed. Bit landed with all blades in their safety position. Lance looked to his left side to see a deep line cut into his side that went through the armor and grazed the main body. "Bit just copied my own attack.' he gasped. "The very same one that I used on the Raynos, only with a slight twist. But how. Could he be...' he was cut off by something rather strange. The Liger was extending its forward blades, and stretching the two longer ones out to the sides. They burned with an intensity like never before. Then, very peculiarly, they all retracted. It came running in with all blades down. Then, the swords snapped out, the two side ones lancing forward. Pink lightening sparked between the seven swords. A barrier of surplus energy formed, then intensified into an azure field of raw power. It was a attack like none other. Bit looked back at Lance after their little exchange. He needed to think of a way to take him down. "Any suggestions Liger?" he asked of the zoid. In response, a screen flashed in front of him. It depicted the Schneider with all seven blades in position for an attack. The words "Seven Blade Attack" were below it. "Are you sure you can do it Liger. Last time we did this, it nearly cost us the Schneider." Bit questioned his zoid. It simply growled in compliance. "If you say so." His zoid made its preparations for the attack. It primed the blades, charged energy, and then stormed forward. Only Lance was doing something of a similar nature. He had his three rushing blades forward, and two more out to the side. However, Bit feared it not. He stayed focused and prepared. They closed in on one another. "Seven Blade Attack!" "Star Shower Slash!" Lance replyed. They connected, crossed, and landed in identical crouches. Bit folded all his weapons back, turned, and smiled at Lance, who collapsed to the ground. "Battle over. Battle over!" the judge decreed, raising his arms. "The winner is, the Blitz Team." "We won." Bit exclaimed. When he looked back to see if he should help Lance, he could see the other pilots amphibius shaped carrier approaching, and a cloaked figure walking up to it. He pulled out a control switch and a hanger door popped open. Mechanical arms reached out and grabbed the Starlight Schneider, hauling it into the compartment. Bit tried to get a close up view, but the hood on the cloak was up, covering his face. "Good bye Lance. See you around." he solemnly said. So, what did everyone think. I"m gonna take a break from this one to work on a couple of other fics. Please read and review.
sentences: Franky gulpped. "So..tell me..why you were at cadence"s house" cole asked quizzically, standing infront of franky with a knife. "I just went to say hello" franky let a tear fall. "STOP WITH THE LIES, FRANKY!" cole punched him in the cheek, his lip bleeding. "Cole!" Zendaya shouted. "WHY DONT YOU TELL THE TRUTH!" cole spun round and approched zendaya with the knife. "tell what truth, cole?!" Zendaya asked, Cole pulled an angry face and turned to franky with force, grabbing him by his shirt. "Last chance, franky!" Cole raised the knife. "Me and cadence slept together!" Franky cried, cole gave him a sly grin, gripping the knife. "COLE NO!" zendaya pleaded him Cole gave franky a sadistic grin, sliding the knife into franky"s stomach. Franky cried out in pain as the knife punctured his skin. Quick as a flash, cole pulled the knife out, leaving franky bleeding on the ground. Zendaya let tears fall. "FRANKY!' she shouted, crying in fear and sadness as franky lay panting on the ground, blood surrounding him as cole stared, grinning. "This..is the hard way" Cadence sat on the hospital bed, staring at the drip that was injected into her hand. she exhaled heavily, reaching for her phone. "franky.." she said quietly, holding her phone to her heart as she began texting, suddenly CeCe burst through the door. "i came as soon as i got your call" CeCe smiled, taking a seat next to cadence. "i brought your clothes, charger and some snacks. and obviously, shampoo" "thanks CeCe.." cadence thanked her, putting the bags down on the floor. "so..whats wrong?" "i have liver poisoning.." cadence shrugged, a tear falling. "but..how?" CeCe looked confused. "i overdosed.." "on what?!" "paracetamol..i think" cadence rubbed her head. "why did you do that?" CeCe exclaimed, raising an eye. "i dont know!" cadence shrugged, holding her phone tightly. "well..ok..all that matters is that you get better" Meanwhile Franky crouched on the floor, his hands pressed against his wound. "You-" franky struggled. "You dont d-deserve cadence!" "And you dont deserve to live...but im being nice" cole grinned. "How is stabbing someone nice?!" Zendaya shouted. "Shut it you" he threw a brick at zendaya, hitting her in the cheek as she squealed in pain. "Just leave it zen..he"ll h-hurt you t-too.." Franky managed painfully As cole slammed the basememt door. Zendaya cried at the sight. "Franky! Please..keep breathing.." She cried, trying to break free. "Zen..stop it..y-you"ll hurt y-yourself.." Franky gave her a considerate smile before leaning back against the wall as he closed his eyes. "Franky?" Zen said quietly through tears, looking at him. "...franky?" "...yeah.." Franky was out of breath and opened his eyes slightly, speaking quietly. "..dont leave me.." Zen cried hysterically. "..your g-gonna be..ok.." He shut his eyes again. "N-no!" Zendaya panicked, wanting franky to open his eyes. "Please.. Stay awake" "Tell cadence.." Franky kicked his phone to zendaya. "..tell her.." He coughed blood. "I love her.." "Franky?" Franky closed his eyes for the last time as he exhales his last breath. Silence. "Franky?" Zendaya called out to him, before breaking down into tears as frankys body lay limply against the wall. hi guys! Thank you for reading my story and staying with me after 7 months of being inactive. It really helps me when writing the chapters, knowing i have people to write it for. Im so sorry for leaving you all. Some of you might notice that i usually update this fanfic in the morning at about 9:30 ( gmt+1 ). Well this might change because i help out at the stables and i have a horse (sometimes two) to care for, ride etc. So updates might be published in the evening or later at night. Thank you for reading my fanfic, its greatly appriciated! Thanks for all the positive reviews telling me your all exicted to read the next chapter! Next chapter coming soon! Do you think frankys dead? Will zendaya text cadence? Or will she ring the EPF? Cadence cried on cece"s shoulder. "What if I die?" Cadence said, fear in her voice. "your not gonna die!" cece shouted, obviously upset that her friend could die. "they"ll find you a liver or make you better!" the nurse walked into the room with a clipboard and a few green sheets. "cadence?" the nurse questioned "stupid question" this made cadence, cece and the other nurse, who seemed to be a young teenager, maybe on work experience. "thats me" cadence said with a crack in her voice, she smiled as the mood lightened. "you obviously know you have liver poisoning, and the cause. we"ve looked abit further into your condition, and its not as bad as it seems" the nurse smiled, the young girl approching cadence. "we did some x-rays, none of them show any significant damage to your liver.." the teen showed cadence the x-ray and pointed out the effected areas of her organ. "what does this mean?" cece tilted her head. "it means that you dont need a liver transplant" the teen replied as the nurse gave cadence and cece a green sheet to fill out. "what do i need then?" cadence asked, now looking concerned. "just some medication to take" the girl smiled, obviously a fan of cadence, the nurse left the room to get the medication as the girl gave cadence and cece a pen. "im so glad its nothing serious.." cadence smiled, as did cece. "we"re glad too" cece replied, relief filling her voice. "i wouldnt want my idol to suffer a transplant..i"ve heard they can be painful for a while afterwards" "i bet its not everyday you get a see a famous person on work experience" cadence smiled, filling out the form. "should i put your name here?" "you can do, it would look good on my record if you did" the girl smiled, giggling. "i will do then! whats your name?" cadence asked, cece listening too. "my names rico" the girl smiled, as cadence and cece filled out the form as the nurse came back with a box of medication. "whats..mine for?" cece asked as rico gave the nurse the papers. "declaration of responsibility and just to witness her reciving the correct medication" the nurse explained. "wait..responsible for what?!" "her taking her medication correctly" cece tilted her head at the nurse, she continued. "when overdoses happen, we have to have someone who will make sure it doesnt happen again. even if the overdose wasnt intentional" "ohhh" both cadence and cece said together. meanwhile zendaya panicked in her attempts to work the broken phone, eventually being able to call g-billy. the phone seemd to ring forever before he picked up. "franky!" g-billy shouted down the phone, zendaya could hear the other band members talking in the background. "its zendaya! i"m with franky!" zen spoke quietly. "where are you?!" petey shouted in the background. "coles basement! he"s kidnapped us!" "are you alright?!" g-billy asked, grabbing his car keys. "i think i"ve broke my ribs..and franky"s been stabbed" zen started to cry. "...s-stabbed?" the 3 males went silent. "i-..is he...breathing?" "i...i dont think so.."zendaya had waterfalls coming from her eyes "..i cant tell.." "call the EPF" g-billy demanded. "we"re on our way" "hurry..please.." zen cried, putting the phone down and calling the EPF. Really short update. i have the idea and storyline in my head, i just have trouble getting it onto the screen haha. "where does cole live?!" g-billy sat in his car, the other 2 band members in their own cars. all three started their engines. "isnt cole cadence"s boyfriend?" petey questioned. "lets go to her igloo!" "good idea, following you, stomp!" g-billy gave stomp the signal to start driving as the three penguins rushed out of g-billy"s driveway to cadences house. meanwhile "here.." cole gave zendaya a glass of water, unhooking the chains, but keeping hold of her arm tightly. "why are you doing this?!" zen asked, angry, tears falling. "because you two deserve this" he snarled, gritting his teeth. "franky doesnt deserve to be dead!" zendaya cried, pointing with her other flipper. "hes not dead stupid" cole kicked franky. "leave us alone!" zendaya cried, curling up in a ball against the cold wall. "fine!" cole locked zendaya up again, leaving them both in the dark once again, slamming the basement door. "..franky?" zendaya called out softly, forgetting about the chains she roughly tried to shuffle over to franky, being restrained by the chains. "ouch" zendaya left wrist cracked loudly, tears flowed from her eyes as she squealed in pain. meanwhile stomp turned into cadences drive way, driving down the long, tree-surrounded path that lead to her house. luckily her car was in the drive and her and cece were just unlocking the front door. stomps car came to a sharp halt, his car making loud grinding sound as he did so. the other two stopped behind him, g-billy getting out and shouting to cadence. "cadence!" "what?" she replied quietly. "where does cole live?!" g-billy shouted, cadence could tell he was very panicked, she walked as fast as she could, without hurting, towards him. "why? is everything ok?!" she spoke calmly, but everyone could tell she was panicked. "is cole hurt?" "no, but franky could be! hes kidnapped him and zendaya!" g-billy let a manly tear fall from his eye, cece now rushing over to him and cadence. "where does he live?" "5 penguinpond way" cadence cried. "let me come with you, it stands alone. you could miss his street easily" "alright, jump in" g-billy said, getting back into his car. "no! cadence you need to rest, your really ill!" cece looked scared for everyone. she needed cadence to stay at her home, but she needed franky and zendaya to be safe. "movement like this isnt going to get you better!" "cece my friends are more important to me! i"m sure i"ll be ok!" cadence got in the passenger side of g-billy"s car. "but cadence!-" "cece" cadence reassured her. "i"ll be fine, i promise" "then let me come with you guys!" cece put on a brave face. "no! stay here and look after lolz" cadence put her seatbelt on as g-billy began to quickly reverse, turning his car round. the other 2 males followed. "..alright..cadence.." "yeah?" "call me if your hurt.." cece looked worried. "i will!" cadence threw the house keys to cece as g-billy drove down the long path, leading to the main road. stomp and petey following behind. G-billy turned to cadence with a smirk on his face. "you ready for some serious speed to save our friends?" he asked, as he looked the long, empty road up and down. cadence returned a smirk. "you bet i am-" this story is seriously getting intense. and i just want to say this before i start writing the next chapter. i understand that club penguin is for younger children, which means it is possible that 60% of fanfiction readers are younger children. but this story will most likely experience some...erm..foul language in the upcoming chapters. i know the story has already had some swearing and taboo-ish jokes, but it wasnt consistent. and by saying that, i dont mean that from now on every single sentence will have a bad word in it, but there will be more of them. especially from cole and zendaya, as you can imagine. and as foul language, i mean swearing and threatening. maybe even some soft-gore. as you probably know or have figured out i find it abit awkward to write love/intimate scenes; which is why i made the intimate scene with cadence and franky a few chapters ago jokey and funny. i feel like it takes the intimate boyfriend-girlfriend feeling away and becomes a friendship type of intimate. in the future, i would like to write a very cute, lovey-dovey chapter, that is just pure cadenky, with no characters. infact i have wanted to do that for a while, but obviously, it wouldnt fit right with the climax. plus they need to save him. and he needs to be alive. oh dear. im so sorry. g-billy sped down the empty road, the other two males following close behind, cadence giggling. "this is so dangerous!" cadence sat back in her seat, unable to move as it was too fast. "and fun!" "good way to save someone, huh!" g-billy changed gear, causing the car to make a different noise, giving the impression of speed as he swiftly drifted round a tight bend. cadence squealed. "oh my god, billy!" cadence gripped the seatbelt, now feeling adrenalin. "what?!" he checked behind them, making sure that the others were behind. "make a left turn!" cadence pointed, g-billy slowing down a bit as they entered a narrow, ice-layered road. "oh...oh no" cadence squinted her eye, leaning forward. "is that...franky"s car?!" cadence opened her window as the male stopped by the side of the wreckage. "..it is.." g-billy looked shocked and shaken, examining the car. "..i hope he"s ok..come on!" he hit the accelerator and drove carefully but quickly down the road. "there!" cadence pointed to a big house away from the other houses in the distance as g-billy drove towards it, the other two males following close behind as they came closer. meanwhile "franky?..." zendaya asked, trying to get herself comfy so her wrist wasnt hurting as much. "..franky..please..wake up.." franky didnt move, the chains restraining his actions and his breathlessness restraining his life. blood dripping from the wound. zendaya cried painfully, her face soaked with sweat and tears. "i hate you!" she shouted, crying, looking up at the basement door. "i hate you so fucking much!" zendaya"s whole body was turned into anger and pain. "your such a fuck up!" she struggled under the chains, stressing herself out. meanwhile g-billy slammed the breaks as the car screeched to a halt outside cole"s house as the other three males followed. "you knock cadence..he"ll answer to you." the three males stood at the side, as cadence stepped forward to ring the bell. cole answered. "cadence!" cole gave her a tight hug, almost like he was trying to take her breath from her. "cole.." cadence smiled, then pulled away, only to be introduced to cole"s lips once again. "we need to talk" cadence gave him a serious glare as the three males showed themselfs. "wheres franky" "franky?" cole asked, now starting to sweat. "yes, franky" stomp further confirmed. "and zendaya" "im not that evil" cole grinned. "cole, kidnapping one person is bad enough! and you"ve got two!" cadence shouted. "and you"ve stabbed one of them!" cadence pushed cole, entering his house as he backed away. after all, he was in fact, scared of cadence. "tell me the truth!" cadence pinned him down, slapping him violently. "just because i"m your girlfriend doesnt mean i cant give you a good slap when you need it!" cadence lunged at cole as she slapped him over and over again. "i cheated on you! i dont love you!" "then why date me?!" cole, now angry, managed to boil up some confidence and slammed her onto the hard wood flooring, cadence grunted. "because i was too scared to say no! but im not scared, of a evil murder like you..not anymore, cole!" she gritted her teeth a cole held a guitar up above him, aiming for cadence"s head. "dont. move." cole panted, gripping the guitar. "or i will hit you.." cadence"s POV that guitar..that voice... i thought to myself as i lay on the cold wood, panting. i remember a male...holding a bat..just like that...then i fell..i got knocked out.. my tried fitting pieces together, tried tying the ends. then it hit me. he did it. he knocked me out. he overdosed me. i lay in shock as the my unintentional overdose jigsaw fit together. more than perfectly. 3rd person POV "you did it.." cadence said, shocked, her eyes wide. cole dropped the guitar. "i did what?..." cole asked, turned his head to the side abit, avoiding eye contact. "you..knocked me out" "no.." cole answered quickly. refusing responsibility of her accident. "yes!" cadence let a tear fall as another car pulled up. two officers sped in. "we got a call? EPF" the black and while male penguin showed their badges, cadence"s scared expression turned to a smile. g-billy, stomp and petey explaining to the agents the suituation. coles eyes suddenly filled with worry, looking straight into cadence"s. he whispered. "cadence.." cole let a tear fall, his eyes moist. "..cole.." cadence replied half heartedly. she felt, somewhere in her heart, in the very depth of it, sympathy for cole. "..its your own fault" "i know.." cole lowered his head as the officers finished talking to the males, the officer approached cadence and cole. "cadence ma"am? need a hand?" the officer held his flipper out to cadence, she accepted, pulling herself up and dusting herself off. "thanks.." she said quietly. "cole..your under arrest for assault and suspected murder and abduction" the other officer put cole in handcuffs, leading him to the back of the police car and seated him, shutting the door. "dont move" they locked the door, re-entering the house. cadence was sat on the sofa, her face covered by her flippers. g-billy looked abit annoyed at her. petey and stomp looking for the basement door. "...why are you crying?" g-billy asked, standing in front of cadence. "..you.." cadence sniffled. "dont understand" "dont understand what? that franky might be dead? and zendaya could be hurt?!" petey overheard the small conversation, glancing over to the blue male and peach young-adult. cadence replied with a silent sniffle. "...he"s my boyfriend.." "WHO DO YOU LOVE?!" g-billy yelled at her loudly. cadence looked up, tears falling, her skin going pale. she had her mouth open abit as she swallowed down guilt. "cole or franky?!" "...franky.." cadence had to answer, and at this moment in time, franky was the correct answer. or, the answer that would save her ass from a whooping off g-billy. "right then" g-billy crossed his flippers as the officers walked over to the female. "ma"am are you alright?" the officer asked, taking a seat next to cadence. "im fine..thanks.." cadence answered slowly. "i found it!" petey was pointing to a door inside the closet, he opened it with ease. "why wouldnt you put a lock on it?" "beats me" stomp said, looking down into the basement. "zendaya?!" he shouted. "yeah?" she answered painfully as the penguins ran down the step, turning the light on. "franky!" cadence screamed, running to his side, crying hysterically. "franky wake up!" she shook him, the others unhooking zendaya who was hugging petey. the officers ran over to franky. "cole stabbed him.." zendaya told them all, crying as she held her wrist and walked over to cadence. "zendaya..can we talk with you if you dont mind?" the chief EPF officer asked her calmly. "sure.." she rubbed cadences back, cadence cried on franky"s shoulder. "want a moment?" g-billy stroked her hair comfortingly. "..please.." cadence had her face buried in franky"s chest. "i"ll stay.." stomp stepped forward, kneeling the othet side of franky, unclipping the chains. "..just for comfort.." he earned a nod from cadence as the others left. "..you okay?" stomp asked, sitting franky back. "..." cadence sniffed, gripping franky"s top. stomp sniffled abit, then rubbed cadence back as she cried into franky"s jacket. "...this is all my fault.." she muffled into his jacket quietly. "dont say that.." "it is..if i"d of just said no to cole or not cheated on him..franky wouldnt be in this mess..he wouldnt be hated by cole...and he wouldnt be dead...i hate myself...he"s innocent and he"s dead.." cadence cried, hugging franky. "..im so sorry...so so sorry.." stomp couldnt tell her otherwise, because she was right in a sense. the officers and some nurses came down the stairs with a stretcher to put franky"s body on. "cadence, we need you to come to the station. you need to be questioned." the chief told her, helping her up. "..s-sure.." cadence got a bit nervous. "b-but..franky.." "dont worry..he"s going to the hospital..he hasnt been dead for too long..he"s still quite coloured." the doctors wrapped a bandage package on franky"s wound. "we"ll let you know how he"s doing and you can come and see him" "so he"s going to live?!" cadence"s tears stopped falling as fast. "we"ll do our best" the doctors lifted his body to an ambulance as cadence followed stomp and the officers out the basement, and out of the house that was taped off as a crime scene. wow! this is the longest chapter i"ve ever done, its got 1,484 words not including this authors note! dayum son! anyway, this chapter turned out to go alot further than i expected it to. i was going to stretch this bit of the story across 3 short chapters (because you all loveee short chapters). i chose to do this on one because i would forget the storyline. i hope your all not too sad about it. also, the next chapter will be sort of complicated because it"s going to be from the different characters points of view instead of 3rd person like usual. just a warning. thanksssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss wow got a bit excited there. i"d like to say this chapter now has 1,615 words including the note Cadence"s POV I rubbed my eyes as i sat in the coridoor with g-billy at the police station, but tears kept falling down my pale face. I felt sick and guilty. "What are you gonna say?" G-billy asked me. He bad his arms crossed. "Im gonna answer whatever they ask me" i told him with a crack in my voice. "No sticking up for cole" g-billy sat next to me, his hand on my shoulder. He pulled me into a hug.,        I can't say I had an unproductive day, as I vaccuumed and did dishes and made cookies and straightened up the bedroom.  But it doesn't seem I did much.  That's okay, tho!  I must enjoy the free time while I still have it.  DATE.  Then the great unknowns should be known; i.e., did I pass prelims?  will I be going to GPE?  what am I going to do with my cat? (okay, that last one is of slightly less importance..heehee.)          , The inspectors mind was swirling - My Phryne? So much money! With this kind of money, maybe he could follow her to England... My Phryne? But he couldn"t possibly accept the money, it wasn"t the right thing to do... My Phryne? If she were here he wouldn"t need her help, so she would be helping to solve the problem she created... My Phryne. Sensing his inner turmoil, Mr Butler asked again in a gentle voice "Do you love her Sir?" "Yes." Jack replied without realising it. He looked up, shocked that he had voiced his innermost feelings, feelings he hadn"t really admitted to himself - and voiced them to her butler, no less! He groaned and hung his head in his arms on the table. Could he really blame the hangover for this? "Right then," Mr Butler said, standing up again, "you go home and pack your suitcase, and I"ll make all the travel arrangements." He said it so matter-of-factly that Jack started to rise, automatically doing what he was told without thinking. "What?!" Mr Butler smiled. "I presume you will want to go after her Inspector. I am familiar with her travel plans and have a few contacts of my own. I am sure we can arrange for you to meet up in London in no time at all. I"ll use the money she has left for you to book your passage as soon as possible. In the mean time, you need to pack your belongings and organise some time off work... Given the hours you seem to spend working, I presume you have some time owing to you?" It took a minute for what Mr B was saying to sink in. Jack wasn"t used to other people taking charge for him. Oh sure, Miss Fisher pushed her way in all the time, but secretly he knew it was only because he let her. Even in the beginning, he was more curious about her detecting abilities. But now, here was Mr Butler taking charge of the situation. Jack knew he had extensive military experience and could see him as a very effective authority figure. Given his current state, Jack knew he needed help. "Er.. Yes," repliedJack, "I haven"t taken any leave for the past 10 years. And lately when I"ve tried, Miss Fisher has managed to find work for me to do." He said with a wry smile. "Yes," agreed Mr Butler, "she does seem to attract...the need for your professional services...". It was settled. Mr B would make all the arrangements while Jack tidied up at the office and at home. Jack would return to Miss Fisher"s house later in the afternoon to go through the travel plans. As Jack sat in his office making notes on his open cases he wondered how he was going to tell the commissioner. He couldn"t admit the real reason he was taking leave. When he finished the last case and tidied his desk, he could put it off no longer. "Am I really doing this?' he thought. He was anxious and excited at the same time. He rang the number for the commissioner and took a deep breath. "Good afternoon Sir, Detective Inspector Robinson here... I need to take a leave of absence to attend to an urgent personal matter in London. I will require all of my saved leave as I do not know how long it will take... Senior Sergeant Collins is across all of my cases and he will be back from his honeymoon next week. I have left notes for my replacement... No sir, I believe Miss Fisher is off flying around the world on a trip with her father, so she won"t be a bother to anyone while I"m gone... Yes Sir... I will return at the earliest convenience... Thank-you Sir". He hung up the phone and breathed. That was almost too easy. He allowed himself a little smirk at the question about Miss Fisher causing havoc to his replacement, and thought he covered that well, without gaining suspicion. He checked the time and headed home to pack. He found his small, old, battered suitcase and wondered if it would last the journey. It would have to do. On opening his wardrobe, Jack was at a loss as to what to pack. Just then, there was a knock at the door. He had heard Miss Fisher comment many times about Mr Butler"s uncanny ability to turn up when needed with whatever was needed of him, but he never really believed it until now. "Mr Butler?! I thought we were going to meet at Miss Fisher"s house at 3?" "Yes, sorry Sir, but I thought this suitcase might be of use to you." He walked in bearing a brand new large case and proceeded through the door. "If you could point me in the direction of the bedroom Sir?" he said. Stunned, Jack pointed to the rear. He didn"t even bother asking how Mr Butler knew where he lived. Mr Butler then proceeded to pack the case with all Jack"s requirements. Jack guessed he"d done this many times before for various employers in the past, but he still felt uneasy letting someone else do this task for him. Sensing Jack"s discomfort, Mr Butler began asking questions to involve Jack in the packing process. "Your tux, Sir?" "Will I need it?" he asked, surprised again. "Well Sir, I believe with Miss Fisher, it is best to be prepared for any situation." Jack smiled, yes, anything could happen when Miss Fisher was on the scene. They successfully packed appropriate clothing for any situation they could think of and closed the lid on the case. Jack noticed that the clasp had his initials engraved in it. "Where did you get this case from?" he asked. "I didn"t think you would want to borrow one of Miss Fisher"s, so I bought this one with some of the money she left for you. It wasn"t too expensive, but I guessed that since you haven"t travelled much lately, your old case may have been lacking. "Er.. Thank-you, Mr Butler" Jack replied. The Inspector couldn"t help but wonder what Mr Butler had done prior to butler-ing. They then settled down to discuss travel plans. Mr Butler had arranged a flight to Fremantle where he would meet up with the ship that Mr Fisher had missed two days before. The liner would allow the Inspector to use Mr Fisher"s ticket. "They may have gotten the impression that you are required in London for a case Sir and I didn"t think it my place to discuss your reasons for travel." Mr Butler explained with a sly grin on his face. Jack couldn"t help but chuckle at that. He realised that sometimes it was a blessing to have someone else make arrangements on your behalf! "Now the last part of the journey is not confirmed yet. You could stay on the ship all the way to London, however, if you are able to get off in France and fly the last leg, it would save you a few days. I am still following up a contact over there and I"ll send a telegram once arrangements are made." His mind raced - he had a few contact overseas too, from his time in the war. He passed on the information to Mr Butler and they discussed alternative options. Between them, they had most of the Continent covered and he really only needed to stay on the ship long enough to cross the ocean. He would expect a telegram from Mr B to confirm their plans and disembark in Egypt. At that revelation, Jack"s heart leapt - was there a chance he could meet her at the airport? They had been delayed in Ceylon for nearly a week, while some repairs were being done on the plane. She"d hated flying through the storm, but sometimes you just didn"t have a choice. Miss Fisher read the newspapers to see what was happening back home & noticed that there was a ship bound for England that was due to arrive in Bombay, India that day. She wished she"d had news from home - Dot & Hugh were still on their honeymoon & Mr B wasn"t in the habit of divulging information unbidden. She suddenly felt very lonely. To clear her head, she went for a walk along the beach & headed down towards the hangar. She was pleased to see that the plane looked like it was nearly ready to fly again. "Perfect timing Miss. She"ll be ready for a test flight this afternoon and if it all checks out, you can leave in the morning." "Excellent! I"ll be here at 3:00!" It would be good to get up in the air again. Nothing frustrated her more than being stuck somewhere with nothing to do. Whilst she"d had many offers of social engagements, none of them had been particularly appealing to her so she had declined them all, instead spending her days wandering through markets and hanging around the airfield checking the progress of the repairs. She wandered back to the room & quietly ate lunch with her father. The afternoon test flight went without a hitch and she made preparations to leave in the morning - they"d fly over India & make it to Bombay by tomorrow night. Miss Fisher had been travelling for weeks. She was glad that the roar of the plane"s engine prevented her from having to talk with her father throughout the day, but the evenings were exhausting. He was like a child she had to care for - why couldn"t he find them a hotel for once? Or some food? Each day was much the same: rising early, a quick breakfast, organise the day"s travel & accommodation plans then hop in the plane and take off for the next stopover. She had met some gorgeous male specimens on the journey so far, but her heart hadn"t been in the flirtations she made more out of habit than anything else. She knew that if she"d made this trip a few short months ago she would have been having lots of fun, delighting in the men along the way. She kept telling herself it was because of her fathers presence, but deep down she knew it had much more to do with the person who entrusted her with some lost property; a certain blue swallow brooch she wore everyday. She found herself absent-mindedly turning the brooch over and over in her hands as she thought. She slowly smiled as the colours sparkled in the late afternoon sun, tired from a long day of flying. She thought about how it came to be in her possession. She had told Jack a story from her childhood: of her first theft as a child growing up in Collingwood. The next night after they had wrapped up the case, Jack had pinned the brooch on her, telling her it was on loan - lost property. It was such a lovely gesture, entrusting her with the brooch, it showed that he"d really listened to her - something not many other men did. And that he wanted to make up for something that had happened in her past, to lighten her load. It suddenly occurred to her that it was very convenient that a swallow brooch happened to be in Mary"s van with the other stolen jewels when Jack had searched it. Phryne didn"t really believe in coincidences. As she handled the brooch, she felt the back of it & noticed that there was a rough patch. How many times had she worn this pin since the Inspector had presented it to her? She didn"t care to guess. Why had she never noticed the roughness before? She turned it over to take a closer look. There, on the back under the clasp was a tiny engraving: "for Phryne". Her eyes widened with the sudden realisation that Jack hadn"t borrowed it from "lost property", but rather he"d bought it for her after hearing her story... Why would he do that? Why would he not tell her? She knew why - whatever they were, they weren"t in the type of relationship where he could buy her jewellery without some serious questions. It must have cost him a whole month"s wages! Her heart filled with emotions she didn"t know what to do with and she could feel a tear coming to her eye. This just wouldn"t do! She was Phryne Fisher, Lady Detective, not some silly schoolgirl! She admitted to herself that she really hoped he would come after her - it was the first time she"d ever told a man she wanted him. Phryne hoped he understood what that meant. Her heart skipped a beat at the thought of Jack and knew he would - he seemed to understand everything about her lately. She returned the pin to her lapel with extra care, knowing it was hers to cherish forever. Just then, her father returned. * Author"s note: I just re watched "Blood and Money" and changed a couple of references to the lost property as it came from Mary"s van, rather than the Station. I wasn"t sure about including the paragraph about the engraving, remembering that he would have had to do this in about a day whilst investigating the thefts & Badger"s murder... Also, I"m not sure he would risk the exposure of his feelings at that time... But it just reads so nicely & initial feedback liked the idea, so thanks for suspending belief a little bit & going on the ride with me! Next morning she was up with the sun, dressed quickly and managed to convince her father to do the same. They headed out to the airfield by 8 o"clock. She tried to convince herself she was just eager to get in the air & get closer to delivering her father to her mother. The men were ready with the plane when they got there. She carefully checked all the visible repairs again and climbed into the cockpit. It didn"t take long before she was heading down the runway & up into the air - she squealed with delight as the plane handled perfectly. Before she knew it, she was out over the gulf. It was an uneventful flight, and she was glad of it. She did not want any further delays. They landed in Bombay and quickly found the little hotel that had been recommended to them by Mr Butler. Miss Fisher and her father dined in a little restaurant not far from their hotel. "Did you have friends on the ship that left this morning?!" the waitress enquired with a friendly voice. "No. We"ve just arrived ourselves," Mr Fisher replied. "Oh. Just as well. We were so busy last night - you wouldn"t have been able to get a table!" She smiled as she took their orders & left. "What"s wrong Phryne, my love? You look a little down." asked Mr Fisher. She looked up at him thinking "What"s wrong? I"ll tell you what"s wrong! What"s wrong is the fact that I"m sitting here with you instead of a loving, caring man who gave me the most thoughtful gift ever and he finally kissed me! I could be doing who knows what with him, right now but instead I"m sitting here with you half way around the world!' What she said was "I"m just a little tired". She excused herself and went to the ladies room when she felt herself blushing at the thought of Jack. She sighed, Jack. What was he doing right now, she wondered. Would he be on a case in Melbourne without her? Would he be waiting for the next ship to leave? She hoped he and Mr Butler had somehow caught up with each other. She didn"t want him to have any excuses to hide behind. Either he wanted to follow her, or not. Urgh! This wouldn"t do! She realised that she was frustrating herself now! The more she tried to put Jack out of her mind and be her old self, the one who toyed with men for fun, the more she wanted to leave her father & fly back to be with him! She had to put these thoughts aside. She didn"t want to change. She"d sworn she would never change for a man. Ever. But she found herself wanting to do things for him... be there for him... She"d even found that she wasn"t enjoying flirting with other men... She felt like she wanted to cry. Was she losing herself? They hadn"t even done anything! One kiss! One little kiss... One sweet, passionate kiss that left her giddy... Oh dear... How had this happened? Ever since they"d met, he just been there for her... He"d seen her at her worst and was still there for her... She knew she could trust him - he"d saved her life on more than one occasion... But he"d also helped mend her heart - finding Janey, dealing with Rene, getting to the truth with her father... She was slowly realising that she was already in a loving, caring relationship with the man - the only thing missing was the sex. And if he would admit it too, if he came to England, she knew she could do something about that... She smiled a little, wicked grin at the thought. She felt a little better now - not the soppy, lovesick girl wondering if a man liked her the same way - she knew he liked her (he"d made romantic overtures to her after all), she chuckled at the memory... and the swallow pin... She sighed as she unconsciously lifted her hand to feel the pin on her lapel... No, now she was back to being the hunter... If he made it to England, she would be back in control... She would seduce him and make him beg for mercy... She was starting to make a plan. Phryne straightened herself up and returned to the table with a smile on her face, just as dinner arrived. "Looks delicious!" She said kindly to the waitress and began to tuck in. Next morning, they left Bombay, heading out near the Arabian Sea, towards Karachi. Whenever they were over water or near a coast, she would often marvel at all the ships passing underneath. When she was a child, she sometimes used to go down to the docks and wonder about all the places they"d been and adventures she might have if ever she was brave enough to stow away on one. Miss Fisher found herself reminiscing as they neared an ocean liner. She could see a hundred or so passengers out on the deck, enjoying the sunshine and fresh air. Ladies in their dresses, flowing in the breeze - Phryne chuckled at that; a pants suit would be so much more practical... Oh, how she missed Mac. Mac always had such good advice. A good chat with Mac would soon straighten out her doubts & concerns. After her epiphany at dinner last night, she found that doubts kept creeping in. She was struggling to hold on to the idea that he really wanted her, rather than an image of her, that he wouldn"t want to change who she was. No matter how many butterflies sprang up in her stomach when she thought of him, there was no way she would let herself be owned by a man again, even if she had to enlist Mac"s help. Phryne couldn"t help but turn her attention to the men on the deck as they got closer. She could see men in suits reading and some rather fine specimen in more casual clothes engaging in sporting activities, but her attention was drawn to one man, standing apart from everyone else, save for a lady friend he was talking to. He was wearing a long trench coat & hat, with hands stuffed in his pockets. Author"s note: A big thankyou to the-illuminaughty-confirmed over on tumblr for the flight plan & ship itinerary which I"ve used for this story. Jack had been on the ship for nearly 2 weeks and was finding his confidence waning. Everyday he doubted himself. "Did she really want him to actually follow her?' What would he do if he got there and she laughed at him? He couldn"t help wondering if Miss Fisher had been faithful on the journey; no doubt she will have found herself with many fine, exotic young men... Urgh... He couldn"t bear to think of it. A big part of him expected her to find comfort along the way, after all - that was part of who she was. But he couldn"t help wishing, hoping that she was finally able to have a more meaningful relationship with just one man. He had told her once that he"d never ask her to change, but then he"d also said that he couldn"t be part of the parade of men coming through her parlour... "And then we couldn"t help but laugh at the whole thing..." Jack was vaguely aware that the woman standing opposite him had just finished telling him some story which she obviously thought was hilarious. "Yes." he said. Immediately regretting it. "I"m sorry Miss - Hall was it?, I"m afraid my mind is elsewhere. I"m not very good company at the moment." "Nonsense, Mr Robinson. Are you feeling alright? Would you like me to accompany you back to your quarters so you can rest?" "No. Thankyou." Why did society women think that any man travelling alone was a potential husband? He"d been propositioned more than once, and other than saying "I"m chasing after my beloved" he was struggling to find excuses to turn them away. In the distance, he could see a plane in the sky. He smiled and thought of Phryne. "You like planes do you?" Miss Hall asks, misinterpreting the smile. As the plane gets closer, Phryne realises that it IS Jack standing on the deck! She calls out in excitement (not that he would hear), but seeing that he"s talking to "another woman", she finds herself getting upset - why would he hop on a boat half way around the world only to fall into the arms of another woman? She knew she was jumping to conclusions, but she couldn"t help it; "soppy fool!' she declared to herself. Jack is staring at the plane until it is almost at the ship - it looks so much like her plane. Could it possibly be? Yes! "Phryne!" he yells excitedly as he turns his back on the woman who"d been chatting at him for the past week, to watch plane better. He takes off his hat to wave it at the plane. She sees him turn his back on the woman and wave at her with his hat. Even from this distance, she can tell that he is smiling at her. "Jack!" She squeals with delight! She turns the plane to fly past a second time, this time time coming in as low as possible along the side of the ship. And for the first time in two weeks, they both feel the same thing at the same time: sheer relief, joy and excitement. They wave at each other as the plane goes by, confirming their commitment to each other, doubts disappear and neither of them care who can see the big silly, happy grins that can"t be wiped off their faces... Author"s note: this is where "Come After Me" concludes. I am writing another story that begins when they meet up in London. Thankyou so much to all those who "favourited" and/or left comments on this, my first effort at creative writing since high school, many years ago. Feedback is always appreciated.
pipeline_tag: sentence-similarity
library_name: sentence-transformers
metrics: cosine_accuracy, cosine_accuracy_threshold, cosine_f1, cosine_f1_threshold, cosine_precision, cosine_recall, cosine_ap, cosine_mcc
model-index: name: SentenceTransformer based on answerdotai/ModernBERT-base
results: task: type: binary-classification
name: Binary Classification
dataset: name: lovesit
type: lovesit
metrics: type: cosine_accuracy
value: 0.8195364238410596
name: Cosine Accuracy
verified: no, type: cosine_accuracy_threshold
value: 0.5910154581069946
name: Cosine Accuracy Threshold
verified: no, type: cosine_f1
value: 0.7775665399239544
name: Cosine F1
verified: no, type: cosine_f1_threshold
value: 0.4655485153198242
name: Cosine F1 Threshold
verified: no, type: cosine_precision
value: 0.696763202725724
name: Cosine Precision
verified: no, type: cosine_recall
value: 0.8795698924731182
name: Cosine Recall
verified: no, type: cosine_ap
value: 0.8703252460710647
name: Cosine Ap
verified: no, type: cosine_mcc
value: 0.6230693663993592
name: Cosine Mcc
verified: no
Likes: 0 | All-time downloads: 30
Created: 2025-07-02 07:44:14