Twister Pendulum: A Prequel to RWBY

Note: This Fanfic is among the 1st generation of RWBY fanfics, made for the 1st gen OC's, and as such does not adhere to 
 the canon.
A rough draft of Twister Pendulum, a story created by LastZephyr featuring the original characters by TorrentAB, Cyrus Arc, Nederlanderz, Aquaflare, and Utter Noob.
Sporadic updates.
Copypasted from Word.
Please read and review! This is a draft, after all.
Basic Summary:
Six very different heroes from an alternate dimension must fight to save the balance of their world, but realize that doing so means endangering the existence of another, much frailer place than theirs. Their journey through time and space leads them to the truth of the balance between existence and nothingness.
RWBY: Twister Pendulum 
A dark-robed figure sat on the rooftop of a church, face obscured by a black hood. It faced the setting sun, golden eyes glinting in the fading light. It watched as the city lights began to turn on, and as each firefly of yellow flashed into existence, one by one, it created a rippling wave of color stretching into the horizon. 
“What an interesting place to find you, little sis.” 
The figure stood and turned abruptly, hood falling back as she did so. 
“Who are you supposed to be? It’s dangerous to come climbing on the roof, you know.” 
Torrent cocked his head, as the now-revealed figure looked at him. She wore a black jacket with a waist-length cape and a hood attached to the back, and knee-high dark boots over long pants streaked with red designs on the side. Interestingly, she wore a single wrist-length black glove on her right hand, but not the left. 
“Tory, it’s been a bit since I last saw you. Eight years, I believe?” joked Torrent. 
“I don’t go by that name anymore. The ones who do know me, know me as Everus Arcanum. And I still don’t get how you know my name.” 
Everus sized up the figure before her. He had golden eyes, like her, but at a significantly lighter shade. As she continued to look at him, he started looking more familiar, until: 
“Shinu? I mean, you look like someone I know, except he was kinda ... darker-toned. No wait! Stop looking at me like that! I don’t mean skin color, I meant, um, uh, well, he looked more evil.” 
Torrent smiled a nonchalant smile. “You mean, like this?” And with that, he morphed into Shinu. “Finally recognize me, little sis?” 
“Wha? How - Shinu, what’s going on? Who are you…really?” 
“Who am I? I am two souls in one body; I am the original heir to the Throne of Darkness. Some call me Torrent, others say I am Shinu. But it doesn’t matter to me, because I’m both. And I’ve been searching for you for a while, Tory, so I need some answers too.” 
Everus sighed. “Answers? There are no answers, just events. The kingdom was obliterated, two years after you left, and the only ones left are you and me, now. But for a long time, I thought I really was alone. The family escaped to the mountains, but they were discovered and probably killed. The reason I survived is because I left them when I was fifteen, to wander around and see the world for the first time.” 
“Well, that sucks.” 
“Yes, it does, and I’d like to know where you’ve been this whole time too.” 
Shinu changed back into Torrent, and laughed. “Let’s see… I survived on my own in the Snowy Forest, learning how to stay alive and evade the beowolves, and eventually I got so bored of myself that I created another half, and now I’m never bored! And I went and massacred a bunch of those wolves, since it was really annoying learning how manipulate shadows while trying to run at the same time, so yeah. And I don’t know how I ended up there, so don’t ask.” 
“Right.” Everus turned back towards the night sky. “So, now that you’re here, what do you plan on doing? Because I don’t know how you ended up in the Snowy Forest, and the whole kingdom was searched several times to find you.” 
“Well. You’re taking this all very well, Everus. What’s with that name anyway? Did you wanna subconsciously copy me, or did you not like your real name? Oh, and, tch, you shouldn’t be treading so carelessly on sacred ground here.” 
“My name was too… unusual, so I decided to go with a different one to keep anyone from following me. Apparently it didn’t work, but whatever. And this church is the tallest building in the town, and I’m waiting for something. I don’t believe in God, and after what you’ve gone through, you probably don’t either.” 
“Heh, you’ve changed, little sis. Or have you? Maybe I never played it any attention before. And hey, I’m waiting for it too. I just have this weird gut feeling that something important will happen at midnight, and it’d suck if this all turned out to be fake, but since you feel it too, and it’s getting stronger, it must be real!” 
Let’s wait for it together then. 
Hey, why not. 
The robed figure stood under the empty night sky. A silent city stood broken before him, shadows melted into night. He had heard about someone here who needed to be eliminated, or at least captured for the Illuminati. The citizens spoke of a god who had taken up residence in a nearby cave, and had begun clearing the forest of beasts and dangerous creatures. To Cobalt, this seemed like a good thing, but the people were wary and even a bit terrified of a being whom could kill the monsters so easily, and since nobody had actually seen this god, it only added to their apprehension about it. And he also had another reason for wanting to find this person. Powerful magic users were becoming more rare in this age, and anyone who could wield it so proficiently must have gotten it from somewhere, right? Therefore, he deduced, this being could give him a very good idea of where the organization calling themselves Revenant Placebo could be. 
Cobalt straightened, at the same time spreading a pair of white wings, giving him the impression of being an angel, and rose into the empty black sky to search for the god, trying to ignore the feeling rising in his heart. 
Luna stood in the forest clearing, watching the snow settling like a white blanket onto the greening grass. She could feel something, an urge to look up at the empty black sky, even though it wasn’t safest for her to be out on a moonless night. ‘It’s so quiet,” she thought to herself, but even as she spoke it aloud she saw a winged form descending from the darkness. It was too big to be any kind of bird, and it was wearing some sort of garment that billowed out as it landed on the earth. 
Cobalt looked at the god, but as he did so he could tell that it was actually a goddess, or maybe just a human girl around his age. But she was definitely not normal. Her hair glowed faintly blue, and her eyes were a deep, unnatural blue, not unlike his electric turquoise ones. He stood, unmoving for a second, and in one fluid motion pulled off the hindering cloak that was uniform for all Illuminati members. He unsheathed his rapier, Rhapsody, and entered a battle position, since he thought it would be rude to fight without giving the opponent time to prepare, in this situation. 
Luna realized what was going on the second the boy pulled off his cloak, revealing a long jacket and peculiarly enough, an electric blue scarf that flowed behind him in the wind. “This guy doesn’t speak much, but it’s all the more reason for me to fight him at my best,” she concluded, and summoned Moonsilver Blade. “Angel, hear this. Your god does not exist. There is only one god. Mine.” 
Cobalt gave no indication of having heard her, and suddenly leaped into the air. He pulled back Rhapsody, and spun downwards at Luna in a torpedo spin. Luna leaped up as Cobalt crashed into the place she had been standing seconds earlier, and followed up with a backhand slash at his head. Cobalt, without rising, rolled under and behind Luna, then uppercut from below. Luna parried but the force sent her flying into the air, where she made a wide gesture with her unarmed hand, sending a storm of magical beams toward Cobalt. Cobalt straightened up slowly, ignoring the bolts shooting towards his head, and an explosion of grass and dirt flew into the air. Luna hovered, struggling to see a human shape in the clearing debris, and heard a buzzing noise behind her, turning just as Cobalt roundhouse kicked at her and sent her into the earth. Luna rose, ocean eyes gazing into the day blue of Cobalt’s, and Moonsilver Blade vanished. She dove backwards, at the same time drawing her two guns, and immediately began firing at the angel shape. Cobalt vanished again, but not quite fast enough, leaving a spray of red droplets falling to the earth where he had been. Luna spun around, anticipating the attack, but saw nothing. Then she felt a cold metal pressed against her throat, and stood trapped for a second, then pushed one of her guns against the angel’s stomach, leaving them both stuck. 
Cobalt looked down at the M1911 poking painfully into his torso, and pushed outwards with a force field, pushing the two apart. 
Luna looked back, and saw the angel with its blood-streaked white wings, so white they almost glowed in the darkness, and the fluttering turquoise scarf.
Cobalt looked at the goddess, with her sparkling hair and surprisingly modest dress, as if it could hide the magnificence underneath. 
They stood, gazing at each other emotionlessly across the clearing, when suddenly a roaring sound startled the two. Luna and Cobalt spun towards the direction from which it came, but could not discern anything in the gloom. Then, a small red figure burst from the shadow, collapsing at their feet. 
Luna looked down, and saw a small girl wearing a strange red cloak.
Cobalt kept his eyes on the forest, and saw the first beowolf rise up on its hind legs and bare its bloody fangs at them.
As if by unspoken command, Luna and Cobalt jumped up and at the pack of wolves, determined to protect the child behind them.
==Part 2==
Luna flew into the air, and drawing out her guns once more, opened fire on the mass of beowolves. Cobalt ran into the thick hordes and cut at every moving black shape within reach. Blood sprayed everywhere in this massacre, and a few moments later the majority of the lycanthropes had been torn apart by the two meta-humans.
The remaining beowolves fled into the gloomy midnight, and Cobalt and Luna watched them flee, then uneasily glanced at each other. 
The red child stirred in the snow behind them, and they turned back and kneeled down. It was a small girl, about 4 or 5 years old in appearance. 
Cobalt spoke first. “What’s your name?” he asked, in a voice that was deep and yet vaguely musical at the same time. His electric eyes sought the grey ones of the child, in an attempt to connect and assuage her fears. 
The answer came, in an albeit quiet voice: “Ruby.”
Luna spoke next, “Why are you in the forest? It’s infested with dangerous beasts, in case you hadn’t noticed, and besides, there’s a strange new moon goddess whose taken up residence here.” 
“I wanted… to learn how to fight, and be brave and strong… just like you two! It seems so fun, too.” 
Luna sighed. “The ability to fight isn’t necessarily a good thing. Sure, it has plenty of uses, but don’t go out seeking it if you don’t need it.” 
Cobalt stood up and turned to Luna. “I’ll take her back to the village. That’s probably where she’s from, anyway.” 
The blue gazes interlocked once more. “Fine, but I’m going with you, to make sure you don’t kidnap her or something.” 
Cobalt gently picked up Ruby, and he and Luna rose into the empty night. 
They left the child at the place she specified, and when it was done Luna spun on Cobalt. 
“What the hell are you up to? You come in and randomly start attacking me, with your ‘cool’ silence, when I haven’t done anything to you!” 
Cobalt stood silently for a second, pondering how to explain, and spoke after a tense moment passed. “I’m a member of the Illuminati, which is a rebel organization dedicated to freeing the experiments - children, of Unit 731 Revenant Placebo, which is a cult/ science organization who aims to create a new kind of superhuman by tampering with their genetics. Their motive, as far as I can see, is to raise an army that will overturn the kingdoms and open a new era of technology and anarchist rule, where even minor offenders will be severely punished in order to secure a peaceful world.” 
“Okay, but how does that have anything to do with me?” 
“I was sent on a long-distance mission to gather information regarding any other potential escapees of these experiments, and bring them back for questioning. I assumed that, since you were another super-powered being, in a time where people with extraordinary abilities are becoming rarer and rarer, that you might have some connection to the RP. I apologize for my sudden action, but I had been searching several weeks with no success, and once I found a lead I became… eager to pursue it.” 
“Yeah, well, I’m not an experiment, as far as I can remember, which isn’t too far back; I’m the new moon goddess, who will bring peace to those who dwell in living nightmares.” 
Cobalt closed his eyes, and said, “Well, I’m sorry for attacking you, but I insist that you come with me anyway, because we will need all the extra help we can get in locating this group. I was an experiment too, which is how I received my powers, and some people…who were close to me were lost a long time ago, and I want to bring them back from their torture prison.” 
Luna was thinking about rejecting his statement, when she realize that she actually didn’t have anything else to do here, since with the angel’s help all the dangerous creatures had been abolished, and she needed to move on before the townspeople came to investigate. And when she heard about how he lost his friends, she, who did not remember anything about who her friends were, or even if she had had any, figured it wouldn’t hurt to join the angel in his sorrowful quest. 
“Alright, I’m going with you, but if you turn on me again I won’t hold back, and I really will kill you this time.” 
Cobalt let a faint smirk cross his face. “Holding back, huh? Well, you weren’t alone in doing that, moon goddess. What’s your name, anyway? Mine is Leonardo, but most people refer to me as Cobalt.” 
“My name is Luna Asimi. I-“ 
“Seriously? A moon goddess named Luna? What a crazy coincidence.” 
“I’m not done. I don’t think Luna is my original name, because a few years ago I lost my memory, and wandered into a cave holding the moon goddess, who decided I would be the new goddess and fulfill the duties that come with deification. I am, along with these duties, trying to find out who I really am, because I hate how most of my life is an absolute blank.” 
“Heh, an insomniac and an angel. What a fitting duo.” 
They both looked down for some reason, but suddenly felt a tugging in their chest, stronger than before, and looked up at the sky, as a faraway tolling of a clock tower spelled midnight. 
“You’re feeling it too, right?” 
“Yeah. I wanna know what this feeling is.” 
Across the city, Torrent and Everus looked at the blank night, as they heard the bell begin tolling, and felt a cool breeze blowing, where there had been none before, slightly ruffling their clothes. 
“What--?” 
Torrent grinned lazily, and spoke: “ Tch, the wind? It’s the last zephyr, signaling the start of a new millennium and new world, with plenty of awesome people to find and kill! Care to join me in that, sis?” 
Everus looked at him coldly, and said, “I’d rather not. Unlike you, I value ethics and morality, and I have ever since I was born. Unlike you, half-brother.” 
“Aw, come on. Just cuz I was the result of an illegitimate affair between your father and my mother doesn’t mean I did anything wrong, aside from living at the castle, of course.” 
Everus opened her mouth to speak, but just as she was about to utter a retort the black sky opened up, literally, as the darkness spread apart and formed a gap filled with bright light. 
In the snowy forest, a young huntress perched in a tall tree and watched as a series of symbols flashed in rapid succession, followed by a voice: 
“Humans, keepers of life, the five of you who can hear me now, hear this. The world you know is coming to an end, as time bends in upon itself in a black hole. The world, and everything in it: all your memories, feelings, lies of life and death, of light and darkness, all of it will come to an absolute end. Fate chose this path for humanity, and this is the path your universe will walk, unless someone stops it. You five, demon, shadow, angel, goddess, and human; you have the ability to stop the implosion of time and space, but only if you work together. I, I am fate, and I ask that you save your world, so you may keep me entertained, for a few centuries, with your desperate charges into timelines. You may not understand any of this now, but I will tell you this: the first clue lies in the castle of White Kingdom. And this piece of advice: never forget who you really are.” And with that the light vanished and the dark sky closed in again. 
The huntress paused, trying to understand the meaning of this, when she noticed how the previously silent forest suddenly came alive with the usual sounds of night fauna, sounds which had not existed moments ago. She knew, because she could see the light which went unnoticed by those in the nearby village, that she was one of the five. 
“Sounds interesting, definitely. I wonder, then, how are a demon, angel, goddess, and shadow, whatever that’s supposed to be, going to work together? This seems rather important, since the universe’s existence is being questioned here, but I need to find that bear.” 
Her hand tightened around a small ebony knife, but loosened when she started thinking again. 
“How about this: I find these monsters, tell them I’m not interested, and get the hell out of there. Oh, but, I don’t actually know how these creatures would react to that. Crap.” 
In the end, after several more minutes of thinking, Isabelle decided to go with the change for now, because she could find no trace of any bears in the snowy forest. She leaped gracefully down onto the white carpeted forest floor, and began looking for unusual signs in the weather, since, she figured, the presence of such strange beings are always heralded by a sudden change in temperature, or weather, and things like that.
Everus turned to her brother. 
“So, what’d you think of fate and its message?” 
Torrent laughed, and said, “Seems kinda stupid but interesting at the same time. I’m more interested in the other beings it mentioned. Especially the angel. Yeah, the angel. I’d like to have its wings. White wings would be so pretty.” 
“Right. So what, are you gonna rip off its wings and put them on yourself? Reality-and physics-don’t work like that.” 
Everus stood up from her crouched position. She wanted to find out what this ‘fate’ was referring to, and who the other chosen beings were. Besides, Torrent, even if they were related, wasn’t exactly the best solo partner for her, and she found his comments rather insane and difficult to put up with over a long time. Everus figured that seeking the others and beginning this journey would help her find a purpose again, and it did seem rather fun, despite the suddenness of the message. 
“Hey Torrent, I’m going to go look for the other three beings fate mentioned.” 
Torrent got up too, and said, “Okay Tory, I’ll definitely be coming with you. I’d like to meet a goddess, and I wanna fly with white angel wings.” 
Tory’s eyes flashed red, and said,” Even if you want wings, it’s not possible. Angels don’t exist.” And with that, she leaped onto a nearby rooftop and began scouring the city. “They have to be nearby, or fate wouldn’t be able to open up just one light to contact all of us, so the others must be in close proximity to this city,” she thought. 
“Aw, what’s the rush?” Torrent laughed, but leaped after her anyway. 
Cobalt and Luna stood atop the clock tower, scanning for any unusual figures. 
“We can’t see much from up here, so I think we ought to go down and look for the shadow and demon manually,” Luna told Cobalt. 
Cobalt glanced at her, then looked back at the metropolis sprawled before them. His blue eyes darted from tower to tower, seeking any unusual shadows. Luna sighed, and did the same. Her partner had become very silent after their fight, although he stayed with her. 
“There!” Luna pointed at two distinctly dark humanoid shapes leaping from rooftop to rooftop, and Cobalt followed her gaze to where she pointed. 
Cobalt nodded, and spread his white wings, flapping them once, then leaped over the edge of the tower, with Luna close behind. 
In the shadow of the clock tower, Everus stopped Torrent. “Look above you,” she cautioned. 
They stopped and looked into the blinding glare of the sun, and saw two humans falling from the sky. And yet, those two figures weren’t flailing wildly like most falling people would do; they sort of floated down and gracefully landed a few yards away from them. 
The two duos watched each other for a moment, sizing up the others and thinking furiously about what to say, resulting in a long and awkward silence dragging on, which they eventually noticed. 
The silence was broken, however, with a quote from Torrent. 
“Those wings…are so pretty…” 
“Huh?” Cobalt uttered, and was about to say more, when Torrent fell and morphed into Shinu. “Those wings…I want those wings!” 
Shinu lunged at Cobalt, forcing the latter to soar into the air to avoid him, but Shinu simply rolled and leaped upwards, clawing at Cobalt’s wings with obsidian-dark gauntlets. 
Cobalt summoned Rhapsody, and deflected one of the claws, and twisting to the side to avoid the other one. “What the hell?!” he uttered, as he continued to dodge a flurry of blows. 
Shinu smiled, a dark, slasher smile, and pulled back. The two stood facing each other, Cobalt on the defensive, and Shinu in a crouched position. 
“I want your wings. They could be really useful for me, since I want to fly,” explained Shinu, still grinning crazily. 
“You! But, aren’t we- who am I fighting?” 
“The one in front of you is Shinu. Torrent just wants to watch right now, and he’s letting me take over and have the fun of ripping off your wings.” 
Cobalt clenched his teeth, but wondered,” Wait, so, if he’s going for my wings, then if I pull them in, would he cease his attack? It would leave me grounded, with this insane monster, but it might stop him from attacking me, or at least confuse him a little bit.” 
Meanwhile, Everus, seeing Shinu lunge for the angel, thought “Crap, I don’t want to fight, but he is my brother.” And with that she launched herself at Luna, summoning her black soul-sword at the same time. 
Luna saw the other shadow leap at her, and drew out the Moonsilver Blade automatically. The dark-clothed being pulled back to strike at her, but suddenly vanished in a puff of black smoke. 
She spun around, already having fallen for this once to Cobalt, and saw the dark being slash at her back. Luna pulled her blade behind her, parrying the attack, then leaped forward while twisting around. She saw the figure in detail now. It was female, with a short black cape that smoked slightly, and as she watched its eyes flashed to red, a bright point in a mass of shadow. 
Everus teleported again, this time to a nearby rooftop, and pointed her sword at the girl, and it swirled with black wisps before launching a series of beams at the silver opponent. However, Luna rose into the sky and retaliated with a quick burst of magical energy. 
Once more, Everus traveled the dark matter, floating right in front of her opponent, but even as she prepared to strike Luna, she began to look strangely familiar. 
Luna saw the demon girl refocus in front of her, but instead of attacking, her opponent looked into her eyes, blue into red. Using this hesitation to her advantage, Luna brought down the flat of her blade on Everus’ head, sending her crashing onto the ground. 
Tory rose slowly, and saw that the other girl was still hovering there, and her eyes turned an even darker red, bordering on scarlet. She watched as Luna floated down before her. 
“Who are you?” 
Everus smirked, and replied ‘Does the term ‘Nevermore, Oblivion’ mean anything to you?” 
Luna tightened her grip on her sword, and spoke “Demon royalty. Hmph, the light of the moon will purify you.” 
“The moon is a reflection of…of…oh, whatever. I have no intention of fighting you anyway. The only reason I went for you is because my partner over there attacked your friend, and I figured he might have a good reason for doing so, since he has a powerful intuition. Besides, we know each other, and I don’t want to attack anyone I’m friends with, even if it was a while ago.”   
Luna scoffed. “Liar. I have no idea what you’re talking about.” But even as she spoke those words, a series of images flashed in her head, brightly, painfully. There was a village, an unusually bright moon, and a child, who looked somewhat like the teenager standing before her. “I..!” 
Everus’ eyes gleamed red, but even so, she said “Hey, are you okay?” 
“I’m fine. I might know you, but I don’t know exactly who you are. Fine, I’ll cease my attack, but you’d better help me stop your sociopathic buddy over there.” 
Everus cocked her head back for a second, then nodded. Then she vanished and reappeared on nearby roof, then disappeared again, moving quickly towards where their partners still dueled. Luna jumped up and shot towards the angel and shadow-being. 
Cobalt finally decided to withdraw his wings, after dodging around gracefully some more, and watched as Shinu stood confused for a second. 
“But…your wings, you’re not an angel? You fake!” Shinu roared. “I fight for a reason, you know! But then, maybe if you are fake, I shouldn’t kill you.” 
Everus and Luna suddenly appeared beside Cobalt, who understood that the two had somehow overcome their differences and settled the fight. 
Everus strode over to Shinu, who morphed back into Torrent, who drew his scythe. 
“Hey, Torrent, there are other places to get wings. Get some yourself, instead of tearing them off another person.” 
Torrent resumed his usual relaxed face, and said "I guess I won't be getting those wings after all. But I really, really wanted them. Maybe if I help you, I can make him give me wings too? Alright, I'm coming with you!" 
Part 4 
The four somewhat-humans stood grouped against the sky, waiting for the tension of a violent introduction to fade. The first one to break the silence was Cobalt. 
“I think I am right in assuming that you two are the demon and ‘shadow’. We might’ve gotten off to a pretty bad start, but it is necessary for us to work together, in order to prevent the collapse of our world. My name is Cobalt; I’m the angel.” 
Everus gazed her cold red stare, examining Cobalt, and said,” Huh, I had assumed that there were no angels left in this world.” 
“Pardon?” 
“The angel race is presumed to have been completely obliterated in the 6th Dimensional War, after the demons, with the aid of separate dimensionals, invaded through Heaven’s Gate and overran their society.” 
“Well, I apologize for deceiving you, but I’m not a real angel. I’m actually the result of an experiment conducted by Unit 731, in an attempt to infuse the cells of an ordinary human with the cells of an avian, although I don’t know which kind exactly. I was their first ‘successful’ product, so you could call me their star pupil.” Cobalt spoke, closing his eyes in bitter irony. 
“Well, every classroom, even if it’s a class of mutants, needs an overachiever to set the standard for the rest of the students.” Torrent smiled viciously. “Hey, Shinu, I think it’s safe to come out now.” And with that, while the other watched in surprise and a bit of amazement, a figure shrouded in darkness emerged from Torrent’s body, and stood beside him. 
Shinu looked at everyone, and explained, “Torrent and I share the same body, and we really are the same person, but I’m the physical manifestation of his hate and anger, which he never shows to anyone.” 
Torrent continued, “We actually aren’t that crazy when we talk like this, but when we share the same body and we’re thinking two sets of thoughts at the same time, stuff gets jumbled up. Like, I like to make fun of things, and Shinu likes to kill things, so when we become one we become an individual who likes to mock things, then kill them.” 
Luna scoffed, and spoke, “So, that makes you the shadow then. I’m the goddess. I was gifted with the strength of the moon, but the thing is, I was never given a purpose for this newfound power, and I actually can’t remember anything up till about 3 years ago, so I just travel around looking for clues about my past, with little success.” 
Everus said, “Me? I’m part demon, but I’m also the heir to the Kingdom of Darkness, which, due to a united invasion from the current world leaders, no longer exists. I’m also a wanderer, looking for a purpose my life, which is why I’m going with what fate says in the first place.” 
The four relaxed somewhat, as they continued to share their pasts. Shinu mostly watched as Torrent did most of the explaining for their history. Once they finished, though, they realized someone was missing. 
Everus wondered aloud, “Oh yeah, we still haven’t found the human yet.” 
Torrent shrugged, maintaining his small nonchalant smile all the while. “Hehe, at the rate things are going, we won’t need to find the human. The human will come to us.” 
Isabelle spoke, rising from behind the chimney she had been expertly crouching behind. 
“He’s right. But you all are very easy to track and pin down. You, demon, you have an unusually hot-blooded body, which exerts large amounts of heat in times of physical activity. But shadow, you are the opposite. The air around you shivers from a pungent chill. I may be human, but I make up for my lack of physical ability with a ridiculously high intellect.” 
Isabelle paused and took a deep breath, waiting to see if any of the non-humans would attack her. When none did, she continued. 
“All four of you possess physical and magical talent far superior to any I may have, and you will only get stronger in the time to come. Cobalt, the injections into your bloodstream have recently been manifesting into greater power than any like you have wielded before. I can see it in your hesitation to go all out, but you need to learn how to control it in order to survive against Revenant Placebo. The same goes for you, Luna. As you travel across the land, coming across far more dangerous situations than you have ever faced before, the powers gifted to you by the previous moon goddess will reveal themselves to you, naturally. Torrent, or Shinu, whoever you really are, you will continue to seek a balance between your respective skills, and once an equilibrium is reached, the combination of two minds planning and working in tandem will be enough to overpower any army. And lastly, Everus, Tory, once you learn to let go of your emotions while retaining your sense of analyzing, you can access a whole new set of abilities that will help you get stronger, and possibly one day reclaim your crown. And that is why I will not be joining you in your quest to save society.”   
“ What kind of a…! Why won’t you join us? It’s not like we have anything better to do.” 
“It’s not like we have a choice.” 
“!! Hey, Everus, aren’t your eyes red? Anyway, if the world falls apart, you won’t be able to find what you seek.” 
“Yeah. Even though I want to bring RP to justice, the current situation calls for this problem to come before any others.” 
Isabelle sighed. “You guys are so nonchalant about everything.” Ignoring their murmurs at this comment, she analogized, “My parents, both of them, were killed by a bear. I know it seems weak-minded, since you guys have been through the same pain and possibly worse, but I want to avenge their deaths, though, after that, I’m not sure what I’ll do next.” 
Isabelle turned, but at the same moment Cobalt, Everus, Luna, and Torrent, who remerged into a single being, spoke: 
“You’re dead if you turn away now.” 
And then, individually: 
“There won’t be a future if you don’t join us. Fate calls for five, not four.” 
“If you haven’t found the bear after this long, maybe it already died off or something. No big deal.” 
“You’ve proven to be more than equal for changing the world. Loss is what makes you so self-critical.” 
“Going on this quest will give you a purpose for living. Vengeance isn’t a good enough penchant for existing.” 
Isabelle smiled. “Well, if you insist… I’ve never had many friends before, so it feels nice to be needed… alright, I’ll join you! I’m pretty sure I lost the bear in this region anyway, so I can keep tracking it as we follow the path of history in the making. Oh yeah, I planned out and predicted this whole thing from the beginning. Just letting you guys know.” 
White Castle loomed against the sunset, which dyed the pale luminescent spires a brilliant orange. Quietly, a soft snowfall began, coating everything with a vague white layer. 
“That was seriously not cool, Isabelle. And I thought I was smart!” Tory burst out again. “Eh well, we got what we wanted, so I guess it’s no big deal.” 
The five stopped, gazing at the castle in the distance. 
“What exactly are we supposed to find in there? And where in the whole big thing are we supposed to get what we’re looking for?” 
“Fate never specified, but I’m assuming it would be somewhere deep in a quieter part of the castle.” 
“So then, should we split up and look for it?” 
“Mmm, let’s stick together for now, and split up only when the situation calls for it.” 
“Okay, we have to create a really big commotion in the front to draw out the guards from their sentry positions, then sneak in while the chaos and confusion muddles up communication.” 
“Wow, excellent, this’ll be a great chance to test out our skills while working together. Fun!” 
“So I really can’t kill anyone? None at all?” 
“Not yet, Shinu. Torrent, keep Shinu locked up until worst comes to worst, and we really do have to severely injure someone to escape.” 
“Fine, but he really wants out right now. Shinu hates royalty.” 
Part 5: Flashback Sequence 
“They say, at the end of one’s journey, it is only natural to look back.” 
“One journey’s end leads to another, that end can be interpreted as the starting point of a new chapter in our lives.” 
“Therefore, I have organized a compilation of our histories, taken directly from the witness, in an attempt to see this journey from a clear and unbiased viewpoint.” 
“I hope, that by reading these stories of our past, it will help you understand and predict the reasons behind our actions, and why everything happened the way we chose to make it happen.” 
“Please enjoy, if you can. We currently aren’t available for questions, but maybe someday we could return to the world, and then you can talk to us. But until then…” 
“-Sincerely, 
Toraelux ‘Everus’ Arcanum, and her friends Leonardo “Cobalt” Crescendo, Luna “Sarah Mesec” Asimi, Isabelle “The Huntress”, and Torrent/Shinu “Lord of Shadow Realm” 
A Compilation By Toraelux Arcanum 
Cobalt 
In the gloomy grey corridor of a silent room, a small boy with jet-black hair crouched in the corner, eyes squeezed tightly shut. He sat there, almost utterly unremarkable, if it were not for the two brilliantly white wings protruding awkwardly from a torn shirt. He opened his eyes, for a second, and they glowed with a radiant electric blue before fading out once more. The closed door suddenly creaked open, and a trench-coated figure stood silhouetted against the onrush of light. 
“Rise, Leo. The final part of your transformation has finally been synthesized.” 
Leonardo stood, and wordlessly followed the figure through the open door, letting it slowly shut itself behind him. The boy walked, past cages of mutations, past rooms covered with huge metal locks, and past cells where legions of disfigured creatures gazed at him through sickly clouded eyes. He walked, into a new section of the genetic asylum, a place sterile and white, deserving of its name “Unit 731: Revenant Placebo.” 
The coated figure turned to the small silent boy behind him, and gestured for the winged being to sit down in the operation chair. He watched in vague amusement as the little child allowed itself to be strapped and cuffed to the table without any hint of fighting back. It was lucky that this one was so obedient, or it might have ended up like the others. 
“Director, sir, the solution is ready for injection,” said one of the masked assistants. 
The Director nodded, and the assistants in the room understood and left silently. Once the door had firmly shut behind them, the Director pulled out a syringe from a cabinet beside him, letting the unusually long needle glint in the glare from the ceiling lights for a moment. 
Leo’s bright yet emotionless blue eyes followed the path of the needle as it was filled with the solution, and came near his arm. He twitched involuntarily, preparing for the agony that would arise, but did not complain as he felt the cold liquid seeping into his upper left arm, which was tattooed with the red information: 
ANG-0001 
Leo awoke, a while later, after passing out with no memory of doing so. He looked around, and as everything slid into focus he saw the Director watching him through rimmed glasses. The director was a tired-looking man, with greying hair showing all the signs of aging, but wide open eyes that observed through steel-green irises Leo’s movements. 
He realized that he had been unshackled, and stood slowly, letting his fully matured feathered wing unfurl behind him. 
“You can fully withdraw your wings now, Cobalt. We injected a serum that would allow you to blend in perfectly until we needed you to strike the victim. Yes, from now on you will be referred to only as Cobalt. Only you and I know the existence of your true name, since it was I who named you.” 
Cobalt listened, nodding vaguely, since he could not remember a time when he belonged outside of these white tiled walls. He focused on his wings for a second, and they faded into a shimmering glow, then into nothingness. 
“Good, Cobalt. It appears that you already have a highly unusual affinity with your abilities, which will be extremely useful for the lab’s purposes in the future. And now, follow me as I give you a proper tour of the organization, and what we aim to achieve and how you will help us get there.” 
As the two walked back into the shiny hallways, the Director explained his cause. 
“Cobalt, our organization, Unit 731 Revenant Placebo, has existed for decades and is comprised of some of the most talented scientists in the world. These scientists come from almost every background known to man, and are experts in forming life out of nothingness, and in giving greater life to those we choose deserve it. Our experiments, all of our test subjects, are obtained with a ratio of 20:1, in other words, for every one birth human we choose as a test subject 20 completely synthesized humans are used.” 
“And what am I?” 
The Director fixed his piercing stormy gaze on Cobalt, and said: “An experiment, of course. You have lived out your whole life within these walls. We decided that, when testing such a rare sample on a creature, it would be too risky to use a natural subject, and made you with the best intentions of the Unit in mind. I personally closely monitored your progress as you grew into a creature almost perfectly identical to an ‘ordinary’ human being.” 
They passed into the dark and rank section of the building again, except this time there were no eyes to follow their movements. All of the monstrosities had died. 
“Everything we create is separated into two categories: Kind and Unkind. The Kinds are the ultimates, the ones we decided to use for our purposes outside of testing. Of course, at the moment, you are the only Kind in this building, but with the valuable information your testing has provided, many more will soon join your ranks. As for the Unkinds, they are the creatures we use solely for experimenting purposes. They are the horrors, the abominations that surround you now.” 
Cobalt glanced at the dead Unkinds, left reeking in death, and despite the repulsiveness of their situation, Cobalt could not help but feel a pang of pity for these doomed things. 
“The red number tattooed onto your arm signifies your type and successful creation number. As you may have already guessed, ANG stand for Angel-kind, while the number beside it represents how many creations came before you, and which one you are. The letters and numbers have no correlation, and exist like that only for neatness issues.” 
They continued striding through a number of long halls, passing a huge experimentation area, and another similarly great room for creating test subjects. The Director stopped before a solid metal door, and passed his hand over a red laser sensor, which beeped in response as the metal door slid open. 
“And here we have the newest addition to our facilities: the weapon room. Of course, weapons are strictly forbidden from coming anywhere near the Unkinds, but you, and the other future Kinds, will be taught to handle such instruments because they are crucial to obtaining the raw materials we need for further scientific progress. Well? Go on. Choose a weapon.” 
Cobalt hesitated, startled by the array of tools before him, and stepped forward onto the polished bright tiled floor. He wandered for a bit, assessing each weapon, and finally settled on a long rapier with a bright red blade. He picked it up, and has he did so it assimilated into his being, ready to come forth when he would call for it again. 
“Excellent choice, Cobalt. It will definitely help us obtain all the raw materials we need, you know, more human test subjects?” 
Cobalt did not react to this, but the effects of the anesthetic were beginning to wear off and his eyes met the floor as he realized his purpose. 
“What have you decided to name it?” 
Cobalt looked up, eyes blazing, and spoke. 
“Rhapsody.”   
Approximately four years later, the same angel-boy stood once more before the Director, but this time with three other Kinds. 
“Well done, Team CULT. You have obtained a total of ten subjects in just a week, with fairly little physical damage, and for that, you can relax and stay here for the next two days before we send you out on a mission again.” 
The four teenage mutants nodded, and upon dismissal turned and strode down the empty hallway, out beneath a rare completely blue sky. 
Lumin laughed, and told his friends, “These missions are getting so easy now! The Director should send us out to get some stronger test subjects, like demons or something.” 
Tien replied, in his usual cool tone, although it did not always accurately express what he was feeling at the time, “Demons? Those only exist in the Shadow Dimension, which is completely inaccessible to powerless creatures, like you.” 
Lumin, who had sat down on the ground, suddenly jumped back up. “Powerless, me? What about that time I beat you in training, you know, where I completely disarmed and trapped you?” Lumin was an easygoing young man most of the time, although his light and carefree manner hid a closed and dangerous ability, to see into times itself, along with his magnificent marksmanship and deadly supplementary shots, making him unpredictable at times. 
Tien fake-coughed pointedly, and said, “That was once. Try to remember how many times I’ve done that to you, if you can.” 
Ultra-Violet interrupted the two’s bickering, chiding them, “There’s no point in arguing. We’re a team, and as long as we work together everything is cool. Oh yeah, do you guys remember anything else about your previous lives?” 
For these four, the pride and ultimate creations of the organization, were also incredibly smart, and their natural mental systems fought off some of the influences of the copious testing conducted on them at a young age. 
Lumin smiled. “Let’s see… aside from being an orphan roaming the streets, I liked to watch the moon rise and set every night. I think I had some siblings too, but that part is still hazy. What about you, Cobalt?” 
Cobalt looked up after listening to their conversation for a little bit, and confided, “Well, I’m definitely not an experiment like the Director told me so long ago, but the memories implanted into my conscious are mixing with my ‘true’ past, of which I can only see an empty green forest and someone fleeing from me.” 
“Aww, that’s it?” 
“Well, yeah, it’s not like any of that stuff matters.” But Cobalt knew he was lying. In his heart, he wanted to travel into the world by himself, and find out who he really was. I’m not a tool for you to use to solve puzzles, he would constantly tell the Director in his mind. 
Ultra-Violet, withdrawn except when with her team, laughed, telling them, “We all know the Director’s a big fat lying old geezer. As for me, yesterday morning I was just searching for the humans, when I saw a decorated carved rock that caused an image of a similar carving to flash in my mind. It had a pentacle on it, with drip marks running down to form two eyes. Creepy, huh? Tien? What do you remember?” 
Tien looked at them and said: “Nothing. I think I might actually be an experiment created by RP. Besides, none of this ‘past versus present’ crap matters. All that means anything is here, in this lab, in this world between worlds.” 
“Killjoy.” Lumin muttered, but he pressed no further nonetheless. 
As they walked back to their tower quarters, Cobalt in the back, he stopped at the foot of the stairs, and only Ultra-Violet noticed his sudden halt. 
“Something wrong?” 
“I’m sick of it. Of the Director treating us as slaves, as tools for his own enjoyment and achievement. I’m leaving this place. Tonight.” 
UV stopped, but instead of treating his statement like it was something real, she sighed. 
“Cobalt, I totally understand what you’re feeling, but we have no choice in the matter. The Director and the scientists are like our gods. They gave us this power, and we are condemned to use it for their purposes.” 
She leaned up and patted Cobalt on the head, and turned and walked back up the stairs. Cobalt looked after her for a moment, then turned the opposite direction and quickly strode away, towards the Unkind Chambers, the only place there was an exit from this dimension. 
Continuation 
Cobalt, along with all the other Kinds, hated the Unkind Chambers, where horrifying monsters out of every human’s nightmares resided. The exit had been strategically placed at the very end of the Unkind Corridor, so that one had to walk past their nightmares in order to get outside. 
The door to the Unkinds was always unlocked, so that in case any of the gifted children ever thought of escaping, they would glance into the rotting rooms, and instantly be so repulsed that they would turn back. That was the theory, anyway. 
The door creaked open, regardless of these consequences, and Cobalt’s commendable frame stood casting a shadow in the dimly lit hall. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and resolutely began walking forward. 
His footsteps echoed hollowly on the smeared floor, and as he passed each cell, the inhabitant would gaze up for a second. It would cease its moaning for a moment, stare at Cobalt, then shudder and crawl away when his electric gaze glanced over for a second. 
As he neared the end of the passageway, Cobalt heard a voice behind him. 
“Angel, a Kind, trying to leave? How amusing.” 
He spun around, drawing Rhapsody, and pointed it at the dark shape behind him. It was a Snail-Unkind, bloated and wet, with long tentacle eyes that waved about slowly. 
“You monster,” Cobalt breathed. “I didn’t know Unkinds were sentient.” 
“Sentient? Some are, more than you Kinds would want to believe. And who is the true monster here? The one that stays in its cell all day and night long, harming none but itself, or the beautiful angel that goes out reaping the souls of children, toddlers, infants, with each slash of his holy blade, the angel who does the bidding of his master, and kills when ordered to kill?” 
The Snail-Unkind began to move towards Cobalt, each heavy step echoing wetly on the scarred floor. 
“I could be the angel instead of you. I could be alive, but alas, a squishy blob like me cannot even scream. You hesitate to strike, I see. Why, are you afraid to dirty your shining sword with my bloodless gore? Kill me. It’s what I want, but I never get what I want. I, nameless, sitting trapped here in a pool of my own excretions, at least I am more human than you.” 
It stopped a few feet from Cobalt, and continued to speak in its ruined voice. 
“But for an angel to want to leave his heaven, he must be unbalanced by something in his cycle. Could it be that the angel is tired of his god? That the angel sees himself as more than a weapon, as perhaps even his own God? Whatever the reason, any sentient being that chooses to leave here has the right idea, even if he was executing poor planning in doing so.” 
The Snail spread its flabby arms wide, and at that moment heavy footsteps pounded above them. 
“You’ve been found, angel. By whom, I wonder? Perhaps one of your so-called friends chose to rat you out.” 
Cobalt scowled at that comment, saying, “At least I have some! At least even if I lose one, I have more who still care for me! You and your snarky ‘philosophical’ comments, you’re absolutely insane!”   
It began to laugh, a horrible, wet, croaking noise, and leveled its uneven gaze at Cobalt. 
“How is it that I, in my cramped prison that is my world, know more about the real world than you do? And why is it that now, in the moments before my death, I feel more alive than I have ever compared to the entirety of my wretched existence? Why is it that when I am feeling the most pain, a huddled puking blob before a glowing angel, I want it to continue?” 
“Because you’re a masochistic lunatic hobo, that’s why.” retorted Cobalt. But at that moment, the door from where he had entered flew open, and Tien stood shadowed by the light streaming behind him. The Snail-being hissed and recoiled from the warm inrush of air, summoning a giant shell and sliding into it. 
“Cobalt, what the hell are you doing in here!?” Tien yelled in disbelief, over the simultaneous eruption from the Unkinds disturbed from their stupor by the noise. 
Cobalt involuntarily flapped out his wings once, and said softly, “Tien, I’m leaving. I’m going to find out who I really am, and then I’ll come back for you guys too.” 
Tien scoffed disbelievingly. “No way… I can’t believe Lumin and Ultra-Violet are letting you go! Even if you were always the strongest, the bravest of us, you have no idea what’s out there! I do! I remember all of it, everything, I’ve known it ever since the day I woke up here strapped to that surgical chair!” 
Cobalt lowered his rapier. “You knew? You knew this whole time, and you never told us? Why? Because we’re your friends, or in spite of it? We don’t need you to protect us, least of all me.” 
Tien’s tone turned pleading. “Cobalt, you have no idea…what if who you are isn’t what you wanted yourself to be? What if…there’s no one out there waiting for you, like we always fantasized about? If you stay here, at least you’ll live! And at least I’ll know you’re okay!” 
Cobalt closed his eyes, then opened them again narrowly in determination. “Tien, don’t be selfish. Everyone deserves a right to know the truth, and there are those of us who are strong enough to handle it, no matter how hurtful it may be. I’m leaving, that’s final, and if you try to stop me I’ll have to take you down myself.” His hand tightened around Rhapsody. 
 Tien snarled, and spoke. “So be it! I’ll bring you back to the Director, to the lab, and I’ll finally be number one!” He summoned his gauntlets, which clicked into place, and fired sharp tendrils at Cobalt. 
Cobalt moved Rhapsody in position to parry, but suddenly the Snail-Unkind, which had been quiet all during his conversation with Tien, half-rose up and into the direction of the attack, and shuddered as the tendrils bounced off and left small cracks in the shell. 
Tien growled, and pulled back, ready to mow down the monstrosity in his path. 
The Snail spoke again, quickly, saying “Cobalt, the door is on the far left. The code is SF-A2 Br34K D0W5.” 
“What?” Cobalt stopped, startled by this sudden change of sides. 
Tien crashed full-force into the Snail’s shell, which cracked further but did not break. 
“Cobalt, live. Live and come back, and maybe my life will not have been so worthless after all. Please, Cobalt, not just for me, but for all the experiments and victims of Unit 731.” Tien smashed into the shell again and again, and the Snail attempted to raise its voice over the din. “Cobalt, fight free of His possession, and come back and save everyone here, even this wretch tearing me down. You can’t save me, but heroes die in the line of duty all the time, right?” 
Cobalt turned and rushed towards the end of the passageway, typing in the code and forcing the door open. 
The Snail, it’s shell almost ready to shatter, spoke again. “Cobalt, I’m sorry. I let my hatred for the Director spill onto you, his favorite pet. I stalled you, because the hateful part of my being wanted you caught and tortured like me…” Its shell cracked open and fell onto the gashed ground. “I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die…” 
“Does dying like this make me any less of a monster?” 
Cobalt finally succeeded in breaking the door open, and vanished into the vacuum pull into a new dimension. 
Tien stood over the remains of a giant shell, whose owner still writhed on the ground. 
The Illuminati waited, for a winged demigod to join their ranks. 
Fate chose this moment to turn its lense on the struggle of a pained boy. 
His future teammates: Luna, Everus, Torrent, Isabelle, and one other lingered in their stories for him to join into theirs. 
This is how Isabelle entered the roll of Twister Pendulum. 
Isabelle 
“ Father, I’ll be leaving for a while.,” Isabelle said as she opened the door. “I’ve already prepared everything I need, so there’s no need to worry about me.” 
“Leaving? To find the bear that killed your mother? But- it must be long gone by now…” her father’s voice trailed off as he heard the wooden door shut. 
Isabelle strode through the thicket of trees, and decided to start searching at where the bear had killed her mother. Her throat tightened as she remembered the scene. Blood everywhere, coating the evergreen leaves with a crimson spray, torn, ripped earth with long gauge marks everywhere. She recalled the sound of someone screaming endlessly, who could have been her or her late mother, but she could not recall who exactly. She remembered a series of gunshots tearing through the undergrowth, sharp popping noises ricocheting around in her head as she had remembered it. 
Without realizing it, Isabelle’s hand had strayed to her belt, where a self-made Remington 700 rifle rested, one she has painstakingly crafted for herself. After all, in her secluded little life in the Snowy Forest, there were hardly any shops anywhere near, and thus no other human contact nearby either. Along with her gun, Isabelle carried an Apache scalping knife for when close combat was the final option, and a machete strapped across her back, used more for slicing through densely packed trees than people. 
After a few hours of hiking, she reached the destination of the murder, which remained almost completely unchanged since she had last visited the site. Blood no longer dripped off the leaves and tree branches, and long soft grass had grown over the specific spot of the struggle, but aside from nature’s evolution, everything else was the same. 
Isabelle bent down, searching for any prints or scattered leaves, since, in midsummer, whenever many leaves were torn off branches it signified unnatural intervention. But, despite her best attempts at observing, no signs could be found. Sighing despondently, Isabelle set off in the direction she had seen the bear trundle towards on the fateful day of her mother’s death, which happened to be the opposite direction from which she had come. 
After almost a day of following the straight path, at sunset, Isabelle neared a small village expertly hidden at the base of a cliff. As she came near, she could hear the sound of many adults arguing, with wild gesticulations that pointed, oddly, up at the sky. 
Isabelle stood observing the villagers’ argument for a bit longer, but became so absorbed in trying to hear their voices that she stepped on a tree branch while trying to creep closer. 
“@%&*#$!” she thought. “I’ll need to be more careful about that from now on.” 
 But it was too late for her to hide in this moment, and the quarreling suddenly ceased as they spotted her. The townspeople began moving towards her, but as they neared her location, she pulled herself up into the tree and used the springy branches as leverage, launching her into a nearby sapling which bent, but did not break. 
Isabelle listened to their cries of “Where did she go? Is she another one of them? What if they plan to return?” She paused, calculating the possible dangers of participating in their dispute, but ultimately regarded these people as a minor threat, and leaped down behind them. 
The citizens spun around and backed away automatically, but she spoke: 
“I’m not quite sure what you all are talking about, but I’m not involved with any sort of organization. I am simply The Huntress, searching for the living burden of a hurt past. Have any of you seen an unusually large, almost fat bear around?” 
The townspeople stared at her, stupefied by her sudden reappearance, and one finally had the brains to answer. “I’m sorry, we haven’t seen any bears around here at all.” 
Isabelle, unsatisfied, asked again, “Judging by the way you paused before stepping into the forest, you can’t have been here for more than 6 months. So what prompted your entry into the Snowy Forest, where wild beasts roam untamed with no humans to capture them? It can’t be that your whole troupe decided to go on vacation.” 
“We…came here because of a series of strange, supernatural events that chased us from where we used to live, so we set up a new home here, where we hoped nothing else could terrify us, but we were horribly wrong.” 
Isabelle thought to herself sarcastically, A haunted town? Excellent, just what I need, new neighbors who bring with them a horde of paranormal spirits that will definitely scare off all the animals in a 5-mile radius. Still, this random meeting interested her, so when the adults questioned her further, she went along and listened to what they cautioned. 
“Well, Ms. Huntress, we used to live about 12 days’ travel from here, in a place near the Kingdom of Darkness, also known as NOCTIS. Anyway, we used to be like any other little village, farming and herding and sustaining ourselves, but one day, this cloaked young man with a scythe came to our village. He had this perpetual amused smile on his face, which stayed even as he suddenly was engulfed in black smoke and transformed into a shadowy beast, and began tearing apart our houses. He also attacked any human which came within his sight, but strangely, after about 20 minutes of absolute chaos, he said to himself, “Shinu, she’s not here, let’s look somewhere else,” and changed back into his human form and walked away like nothing had happened.” 
Another village carried the story further. “Later on, after we had rebuilt most of our farms, another shady character appeared. This one was female, but, instead of ravaging our lives like the first one had, she just sat on the rooftops and disappeared whenever anyone came too close, like a ghost or something. That ghost, creepiest of all, had these weird dark eyes that suddenly flashed red when someone came near, and three of our citizens had heart attacks from the fear of seeing the ghost look straight at them, almost into their soul.” 
“After that happened, we decided to find a new place to live, and packed up all of our lifetimes worth of work and moved here. We were safe for a while, but then we were attacked by a bandit band, ordinary people this time. One of our children, a teenager named Sarah Mesec, disappeared in the fighting, and we don’t know where she’s gone, since she never returned. 
Isabelle interjected, “Could it be that these incidents are completely unconnected? Maybe someone in your society carries some kind of dangerous summoning weapon, which in the hands of a troubled person, continues to cause disturbing apparitions to appear.” 
But her argument was revoked. “Ms. Huntress, these things were alive, I’m telling you, and it’s not over yet. Just last night five of our children were stolen, the oldest was ten years old. Some of us saw what had taken them, and it looked like an angel came down from the sky, followed by its shadow and two ghosts. They swept in and vanished, then reappeared clutching our kids, then flew up and away, all in the space of less than a minute.” 
Another thought came to Isabelle, Okay, so these guys aren’t just haunted, they’re cursed by fate to pursuit by misfortune, and no matter how much they run, they can’t get away. That means another demonic familiar should be arriving soon, so it’s best that I leave here as soon as possible. 
Isabelle shivered, despite the warmth, and turned to the villagers, who asked, “Huntress, none of us, even our strongest men, have been able to fend off these creatures, so we were wondering if you could take a shot at keeping our children safe? We can reward you, and it won’t cost a thing.” 
Isabelle shook her head. “I have a promise to keep, and I can’t help you anyway. The best option would be to contact one of the kingdoms, and ask that they send some soldiers to put down this threat. And with that she turned in the opposite direction and strode off. 
“Please wait, Huntress! You must be very observative, to succeed at what you do, so you must have noticed the fading of the moon!” 
Isabelle stopped abruptly, but did not turn around. “The moon? Yes, I’ve noticed that it’s glow has been dimming lately, but traditional folklore tells us that only happens once every eighty years, when the moon goddess’ powers are passed onto a new follower. Of course, it’s just a myth, but you can choose what to believe in.” And she kept walking.    
However, nothing of importance or interest occurred again until the third day, when she was watching the birds flit around in the sunlight above her as she walked back to her home. The journey had yielded absolutely no decent results, and she was going back to apologize to her father for leaving so suddenly. However, as she neared their hut, she noticed that the birds had left, and the forest was eerily silent. She stopped and crept closer to her hut, but as it came into view she realized what had happened. Splinters of wood planks lay strewn around haphazardly, some sticking into nearby trees. The entire house had been completely decimated, and charred remains indicated that a fire had been going, though the destruction was not wholly caused by a conflagration. Isabelle pounded closer, but slowed down as she neared the remains of what used to be her home. A series of bloody tracks led all over the torn planks, indicating long claws that could only belong to a bear. 
“FATHER!!” she cried, and when no response came, again, “FATHER!!” 
She called out again and again, but as the reality of her situation began to hit her she sank to her knees and wept. Isabelle was finally, truly alone. Her whole family was gone, killed before her as she stood unable to help. Her parents were dead because of her, because she chose to disobey anf follow her mother, and now because she had left her father. 
Isabelle stayed drifting for many days around the mess that had once been the center of her life, which reflected on the empty hole that had torn itself into existence in her heart. Eventually though, she looked up at the sky for the first time in days, and vowed to herself, I will kill that bear. I will kill it and then myself, since I have nothing left to live for. But, no, it would be an insult to my parent’s memory to die for them, after the ultimate sacrifice they made for me. I will, I MUST kill that bear, and end this monster that has given me the most difficult trial of all. 
She got up and wiped away her tears, and her eyes shone with the determination of utter hatred, and walked back into the forest, attached to nothing and no one, except that bear. 
Luna 
Some Years Prior 
“Sarah, where are you going?” 
The child named Sarah turned, and her greyish-blue eyes twinkled as she replied ambiguously, “Into the forest.” 
“The forest? Alright, but don’t stray too far. All the animals come out after the sun sets, and I don’t need you getting lost so soon after we moved here.” 
‘I’ll be fine. I’ve done this so many times already, you know.” And with that she turned and bounded off into the groves of woody trees. 
Sarah ran until she left the vicinity of her village, and turned for a moment before murmuring to herself, “If only you knew what I get myself into, here in the forest.” Then she looked around and paused, before running deeper into the forest and away from the boundaries set by her parents. She went deeper and deeper, as the sun began to drop lower in the sky and the tees became larger and more tightly packed together. 
After following the path she had memorized over the past few months, she slowed down and neared a hidden circular clearing. She stopped, unable to peer into it, and absentmindedly reached and felt the crescent-moon shaped birthmark on the back of her neck. 
“That birthmark signifies something,” her village elders would always tell her. “It means you have been chosen by someone special, perhaps even a moon goddess, to do something important for humanity.” Sarah enjoyed listening to their tales, even though everyone else ridiculed these claims as folklore and legends, and hoped that one day she might turn out to be someone special. Nothing distantly magical had happened yet, however, except this. 
She took a deep breath and walked into the circular clearing, as the sun turned the sky a brilliant flaming red, with orange streaks of clouds and a night’s darkness upon the horizon. There, as she had expected, was the demon-being she had met and befriended over the past year or so. 
The female being was a small child, a bit younger than Sarah was now, but the child interestingly wore almost all black, with red designs on her uniform, and a crest on her shoulder that represented the Shadow Lords’ domain. 
“Hello, Toraelux. You always get here before me.” 
Toraelux turned, and her eyes flashed a crimson red, which still unnerved Sarah even though she had seen it so many times in the past. “First of all, I told you to call me Tory, and second, I can teleport better now, so of course I’m gonna travel here faster than you can.” 
Tory stood up, and Sarah came closer to her strange friend. 
“Have you mastered control over your demon rages, or do you need me to cool you down more again?” 
“I think I’ve got it now, thanks. Sarah, it was really nice getting to know you over this past year, and being able to leave my castle and talk to a real person, but—“ she hesitated, thinking of how to phrase what she should say next. For Tory was not only a part-hell being, but also the princess and heir to the Throne of Darkness, which reigned over the neighboring lands, as Sarah had slowly, through constant verbal poking and prodding, found out.     
“Yes?” 
“Sarah, I think this is goodbye.” 
Sarah jolted slightly with shock. “Wait, do you mean your family has finally found out, or you don’t want to be here anymore?” 
Tory shifted uncomfortably. “My parents and relatives of the kingdom have become involved in a war between the Red and White Kingdoms, and it isn’t safe for me to leave the castle anymore, at all.” 
“Oh.” Sarah drooped her head down, but looked up again and smiled a mournful smile. “Well, if that means we won’t ever see each other again…then…it was nice knowing you, too.” 
Her friend came up, and spoke forcefully, “Sarah, this is goodbye, but I will make sure to find you again one day. Once I get old enough, I’m gonna end this stupid war between all of us and find you, one day, wherever you are.” 
Sarah shrugged, but laughed anyway. “Okay, that works. But for now, I really do have to leave you behind, so I’ll say it again. Tory, Toraelux, thank you for keeping me company over these past few months, and opening my eyes to a whole new slice of life, and being an entertaining friend, and I hope we will meet again someday. There, what do you think? I took it from what my elders say to each other sometimes.” 
Tory smiled nonchalantly and said, “I bet I can outdo that. Let’s see, I apologize for forcing my immature rage upon you, although you did control it really well, and I promise I won’t ever forget you, even if I end up living forever, like real demons do, and I promise that this goodbye is really just the beginning of another ‘hello.’ I like philosophy, and sometimes I try reading the texts in our library, and I think maybe I can understand some of it now.” 
“Okay, I promise I’ll never forget you either, even if I can’t live as long as all those other beings you told me about can.” 
Tory backed away, and spoke, “Well, I really have to go now. I’m afraid someone might have noticed my absence from home, so see you!” And with that somewhat awkward parting message she vanished in a puff of black smoke. 
Sarah smiled, but also suddenly began to cry. I should have known this friendship should never have existed. Making new friends feels great, but saying goodbye is so much harder than saying hello. And with that final thought she turned and began walking back to her village, as the sun fell beneath the treetops. 
Seven Years Later 
Fires blazed everywhere beneath the night sky, great roaring flames leaping up and obscuring the light from the stars. In the hazy gloom from the smoke and darkness, human figures ran about chaotically, screaming, with the sound of repeated metal on metal clashing somewhere in the confusion. 
A gruff, grating male voice screamed, “Give it up! We’ll take all your valuables and kill you all, and then your children!” 
Among this general panic, Sarah pounded back and forth, looking for her parents. She watched as her neighbors, whom she had trusted, run away from her gaze and away from the heat of the terror, where the bandits had begun to regroup. 
One, however, rushed towards her from the haze, and called to her: 
“Sarah! You need to get out of here, it’s too late for your parents!” 
Sarah turned, and saw her friend Lenora emerging, coughing, from amidst the charred yet still burning wreckage of a house. 
“No. I have to find them, and I have to prove that I’m not just a replacement!” 
Lenora watched her in amazement. “You mean for your older brother, who died moments after he was born? It doesn’t matter! Come on!” 
But, seeing the expression on her friend’s face, Lenora sighed, and said, “Alright, but we have to hurry, and I’m coming with you.” 
The two of them ran into the midst of the fighting and destruction, calling for her parents, but no reply came. 
“Do you see now? Save yourself, and make sure their sacrifice was not in vain!” 
Sarah hesitated, but at that moment one of the bandit leaders spotted the two, and called something unintelligible, then raised his gun. 
“Len!” Sarah screamed. But it was too late. She watched as a bullet ripped through her friend’s skull, spraying her with some of the blood, and fall wordlessly to the ground, still twitching. 
Sarah leaned down, but her friends whispered, “Sarah…get the hell out of here…” 
She looked up, at the bandits who were running towards her, and obeyed, twisting and tearing off into the silent dark forest, away from what used to be her home. She ran and ran, deeper without thinking about where she was going, only to get away from the horror behind her. 
Eventually though, she ran out of breath, and inevitably slowed down. Her pace slowed to a walk as she suddenly began to notice her surroundings. She had entered a new part of the forest, unfamiliar to her, and looked at the crooked trees that cast ominous shadows on the ground, and the large, eerily shaped stones everywhere. She kept looking around, but suddenly bumped into another being. 
Sarah backed away quickly, and attempted to discern the figure, who simply stood there, from within the gloom. 
Suddenly though, it stepped forward, and revealed itself from outside the shadows, in the light of the moon. 
“Vampire!!” Sarah cried, for the figure in front of her definitely looked the part. Pale, somewhat translucent skin, and a face still half-shrouded in darkness, with the revealed half gazing at her with a completely black eye, sclera and all. 
Sarah turned and rushed away, summoning energy from abject fear, even as the vampire called after her, raising an arm with a broken manacle attached. “Wait…” it called, but it was too laate. 
She was running so fast that she tripped over a tree root and crashed face-first into the ground, knocking herself unconscious. 
After she awoke, after an indefinite time had passed, she had no idea of who she was, which made her panic. 
The girl rose, feeling the long bloody cut on her forehead, and touched it gingerly. She looked around, for anything that might give her a hint as to whom she might be, but none was forthcoming. 
‘I’ll look around some more…maybe that will help,” she thought to herself as she dazedly stood up. And she did so, eventually coming upon a small cave, covered with green moss, which she ducked into. Upon entering, however, the cavern opened up considerably, to form a large stone room with faded inscriptions on the wall. She walked over and examined a few of them, but all she could make out were: journey of time and dimension…twister pendulum…black and white…dreaming of a true new day…breaking down the gate…alliance… 
The girl looked up, and saw a stairway carved out of stone leading up in front of her. She plodded up these steps, unsure, still, because no memories were emanating from these walls. 
At the top was a large metal altar, surrounded by advanced decorations and more inscriptions, which were more legible. 
“Hmmm, that which cannot be seen in the light can be properly seen in the darkness. But that makes no sense…” 
She looked around some more, but ultimately felt drawn to the shrine in front of her. The girl reached forward, and touched it, feeling the cool unknown metal, which felt almost like a liquid on her hand. 
A bright flash of light burst out from the shrine, dazzling her eyes and causing her to abruptly draw back her hand. But as the sudden light faded, a female figure floated before her, glowing with an almost unnatural light. 
“Welcome, to the shrine of the moon goddess. You were chosen before your birth to become one of us, and I have been waiting for you for some time; since my power has been fading, earth is in need of a new goddess.” 
“Wait, what? This must be some sort of mistake! I have no idea who I am, and—“ 
The moon goddess smiled, and reached out and touched the girl on her forehead, who closed her eyes automatically. 
“Who you were is not important; who you were meant to be is. And thus, I, Luna Lucis, pass on the powers and duties of the moon goddess to this girl, who is named Luna Asimi.” 
A bright light shone again from the goddess, but this light did not fade. It traveled up, through the goddess’ arm and into her fingertips, then into Luna Asimi. 
Luna shone with a brilliance of light, and her hair took on a bluish tint as she gained to powers of the celestials. She opened her eyes, and now they were a deep, ocean blue, contrasting from her earthbound appearance. 
She spoke, surer this time. “Thank you. But I still do not understand what my duties are as moon goddess.” 
Luna Lucis began to fade, but said, “Your existence will keep the moon alive. However, beyond that, is something you must figure out for yourself. I will tell you this, however. You must bring light into the darkness, which resists all attempts at illumination.” And with that, the former goddess faded into nothingness, and the moon outside shone brighter than it had been for the past few weeks. 
Luna Asimi rose, not realizing she had kneeled, and summoned a thin sword made of the same material as the shrine. Moonsilver Blade, she thought. Made of the souls of the moons and forged in the hearts of the stars.    
And with that she walked out of the covered cave, stepping into the bright light of sunrise. She looked up for a moment, and absentmindedly fingered that back of her neck, even though there was nothing there. Huh, for some reason, for a moment I thought there was something. Luna attributed it to her extremely faulty memory, and took off into the sky, telling herself: Well, if I’m supposed to find my own purpose, then it probably starts with me finding out who I am, or at least who I used to be. 
The moon goddess rose higher into the sky, and into the distance, a broken capitol gleamed, remnants of the Castle of Darkness, whose terrible story had unfolded years earlier. 
Torrent/Shinu and Everus Arcanum
The cloaked boy walked through the halls of the great castle, hearing his footsteps echo on the polished marble floor. He paused before a large tapestry adorning the wall, and read the slanted cursive inscription on the bottom. 
“NOCTIS: Nevermore; Oblivion Cometh, but Through Incendiary Darkness. What a cheap line. Pfft, makes sense, I guess, so whatever.” 
He heard the heavy footsteps of the Herald chasing after him, and rolled his eyes at the man’s fat clumsiness. 
“Lord Torrent, your father wants you in the courtroom, so why do you continue to evade me so?” the Herald cried as he arrived, huffing and puffing as he neared the boy. 
“I only answer those who acknowledge both of us,” came the answer, in a chilling two-toned voice. 
“Ahh, Master Shinu, I deeply apologize. Now, would you please come? The trial is about to start, and your father wants you to attend.” 
Torrent spun around and walked past the chubby Herald, letting a proud smirk cross his face as his cloak swished past the out-of-breath man, towards the courtroom. 
He made his way up the carved steps, to where the jury would sit as they gazed coolly at the accused, a place reserved for only the royalty themselves. He opened the door silently, and came through to where his younger sister Toraelux sat. Leaning over the balcony casually, he whispered, “Hey Tory, what’d I miss?’ 
He watched her jump a little in her seat with surprise, before turning and glaring at him with those frighteningly deep red eyes. “Torrent, Shinu, you’re late, you know. Dad’s putting one of our head generals on trial, and he wants us to see how to properly convict someone of their crime,” she hissed. 
“Yeah, whatever. Who’s the defendant, anyway?” 
“Um, I heard it’s General Psycopata.” 
Torrent paused, searching his memory for someone with that name. “But...isn’t he one of the best generals in our army?” 
The two children watched as a large double door across the circular court opened, and the general, followed by a small girl, entered flanked by armored guards. They glanced at their father, sitting a few feet away from them, as he shuffled a stack of papers and peered down at the general. 
Torrent, who had never had much patience for sitting down, especially now since he was at that age where boys think very highly of themselves, paid little attention to the boring claims made by the jury. The Head General bla bla bla has been accused of committing sexual bla bla bla with a human which is strictly forbidden by the bla bla bla. And because of bla bla bla General bla will be bla bla etc etc. 
He did, however, take a good look at the small girl who stood behind her father. She stood and shifted uncomfortably from time to time. She had an unusual pale demeanor, but the most remarkable, or rather chilling thing about her was the sheer difference between her eye colors. One eye was an ordinary blue human eye, but the other was completely and utterly black, and reflected the light coming through the windows. 
That’s pretty cool, huh, Torrent?  He heard Shinu tell him telepathically. She kinda reminds me of mom, like how she always seems half-in and half-out of the shadows. 
 We’re pretty good at hiding our alternate personalities if we want to, but mostly I like to show off this power we have. Torrent replied. But yeah, it’s cool. 
Shinu was silent again, so Torrent turned to see the General yelling something out. It seemed he and his father had gotten incensed over something. 
“You have sired a half-human, Vampire Alucard! And you know we do not accept humans into the higher positions of our armies, and we expect better conduct from our head officers!’ 
“And what of you, my Lord? Look! Look at your child, the part-demon! What makes you think you can commit this so-called crime, and I cannot?” 
Torrent heard his father flinch, and call to Tory, “Toraelux, come here for a second.” 
Tory obeyed, although somewhat startled by her sudden involvement in the court proceedings. 
“Tory, take off your glove. And pull up your sleeve, too.” 
Toraelux fumbled for a second, pulling off the black glove she always wore on her right hand, and pushing up the accompanying long sleeve. 
As she raised her exposed arm to the jury, Torrent got a good look at what hid under her jacket. A deep, red, rough arm emerged from her shoulder, with glinting scales all the way up to her elbow. Her upper arm looked like an ordinary human arm, but as he watched, the redness pulsed and rose, covering even more of her arm. 
“Do you see this, Alucard? It is the arm of a demon, a demon who will lead the country! Have you ever wondered why her eyes flash red every time she feels a strong emotion? It is because her demonic lineage gives her the ability to shape shift into a fully Hell-come form. Whenever she experiences a strong feeling, the redness will expand and change even more of her body, as a natural reaction to danger. But, unlike your child, Tory has the will, bravery, and intelligence to lead a nation! She can fully utilize her abilities if she wishes to do so, and her powers have already budded into a stronger force than any other our doctors have examined ever before!” 
Torrent saw the vampire pull back in a half-snarl, before rebutting, “And whose fault is it that Katlen is this way? Who chose to segregate the talented soldiers as non-humans only, resulting in a vicious society where humans, even part-humans, are despised and spat upon? It is your fault!” 
Continuation
Tory shrank back at this sudden onslaught of words, but her father laughed. “This argument is over. It was over even before you stepped into this courtroom. My word is law, and even if this seems unjust, think about it. What kind of dimensional being, demon, shadow, vampire, any one of these and the others, which one would actually accept and allow you to rejoin our exclusive society? The day you fell in love with that human is the day you were deemed an outcast by our society, and even if no one said anything, they remembered, and distrusted you for that reason. Toraelux here is part human, but the properties of demon blood allow her to fully shape shift into a true demon when the need arises, which sets her apart from other half-breeds like your daughter. I may not be able to convict you of any crime, and thus offer no punishment, but understand this: living will be punishment enough. And now, leave my presence before I tire of your antics.” 
Torrent watched silently as the vampire and his daughter turned and walked out of the circular courtroom, followed by the regiment of armed guards flanking the two. He got up from where he was leaning on the railing, to where his sister and father stood, and heard the latter say: 
“Make sure Alucard is riding at the very front of the army in our next battle.” 
His father turned, finally spotting his son, and appeared to grimace slightly before turning and striding away in the opposite direction. 
“Hey Dad, what’s the problem? Does General Alucard bother you that much? I bet I can take care of him, he—“ 
Torrent was silenced by a cold stare from his father. 
“Shinu, go to your room. Now.” 
“Um, okay. If you want, I guess.” 
The boy turned and pounded down the hallway, unsure of what to feel. 
Tory turned to the King. 
“Dad, what was that about?” 
The King sighed, and replied, “Let’s just say…your mom has grown weary of another child taking her daughter’s crown, and she believes it would be best if Shinu left this castle.” 
“Leave? But, to where?” 
But her question fell upon silence, because her father had already turned back into the long hallway. 
Meanwhile, Torrent was well on his way to his quarters, when the Queen of the Castle stepped out from a dark portal. She was an interesting woman, a half-demon, who always clad herself in a thick obscuring cloak because of her highly unusual, possibly even ugly, appearance. However, no one knew for sure what lay under those robes, since she was never seen without them. Torrent stopped before the Queen, whom he knew absolutely despised him, and enjoyed taunting her for that fact. 
“Hey Queen-lady, what’s the big deal, trying to scare me like that? You jealous cuz I’m so much hotter than you?” he laughed. The Queen said nothing, standing utterly still and blocking further passage of the boy. She slowly raised both of her arms, letting the large and heavy sleeves fall back and revealing two rust-red demon arms. Torrent tensed, realizing what was going on, and dodge-rolled to the side as bursts of flame shot from out of the woman’s clawed hands, scorching the area he had been standing seconds earlier. The Queen turned rapidly considering her heavy apparel, and released two more concentrated streams of fire at Torrent, who ducked and rolled behind the Queen. Lady Creperum turned once more, eyes glowing red in the darkness of her hood, at the shape of the boy running away from her, before taking to the air and flying after him. 
Torrent pounded away as fast as he could, knowing he had no special defenses from the flame, but as he turned the corner, he saw his mother standing before him. 
“Shinu, come with me! We have no time, the entire Dark Army has mobilized against us!” And with that she grabbed her son and held up a fist, which released a ball of dark energy which exploded a hole in the ceiling, which she flew through. The two rose above the shiny obsidian-like castle, and saw a number of regiments below, led by none other than General Alucard. 
“Fire!!!” cried the vampire, and at his command, the soldiers released a storm of arrows at the two exiled, and Torrent’s mother twisted and turned to avoid being hit, although she was grazed by a few of them. She cursed, and bounded off the roof into the nearby snowy forest. 
Scores of completely armor-clad soldiers tore off in her wake, each one an Inhuman, gifted with the powers of dark lineage. 
“Mom? Why are they trying to kill us?” 
“Shadows don’t belong in the human world.” 
“What?” 
Torrent’s mother stopped, convinced that she had fled deep enough into the snow-covered forest to pause for a moment. She placed down her ruffled son, and cast around for any signs of movement. Convinced there were none, she continued. 
“Shinu, you and I, we’re different from ordinary people. We have a conscious within us, one that can—argh!” 
A soldier had come up and shot the woman in the shoulder, and it began smoking where the shaft had entered the body. As they watched, more and more infantrymen arrived, and General Alucard flew down from the sky, cloak billowing impressively behind him. 
“General, why?” 
Alucard laughed, a cold screeching noise, and spoke. “This is for my daughter. This is from the King’s orders, forced upon him by Lady Creperum, the fiend. She plans to have both of you shadows of people destroyed, so the demons can regain ultimate control over the Inhumans. I follow her orders because I can eliminate the unfair threat posed by your powerless son to Katy’s wellbeing, and after I kill Torrent, I’ll move on to Toraelux.” 
The Shadow coughed, and replied, “Killing us will not save your daughter. I know, and you know, that she has been cursed by rejection of all the races. I promise, if you let my son go now, you will never see any trace of us again.” 
“Lies! I am a father trying to do the best for my child, as you are to yours! I respect your devotion, but my loyalty to my blood comes before all others!” He leaped forward and drew a crimson blade, swiftly engaging in battle with his opponent, who instantly drew forward a pair of black chains and coiled them around the sword. 
“Shinu, run! You can’t save me, but you can save both of yourselves!” 
Torrent hesitated in his confusion, but as he saw the soldiers aiming their weapons once more, he turned and sprinted into a nearby grove of trees, watching the dance between the vampire and shadow. Suddenly, his vision swam with a black mist, and without telling himself to do so, he ran farther into the forest, away from the conflict. 
Still partially blinded by the mist in his vision, he ran deeper into the frosty woods, as the sun sank lower and lower into the mountains. Eventually however, he could run no further, and stopped to catch his breath beside a jagged tree stump. He waited for a few moments for his senses to return, but upon their arrival, he noticed that the stump he was leaning on had multiple long gouge marks near the base. Torrent, exhausted but tensed, scoured the dark woods for a sign of life, and one came. A large dark beowolf leaped out of the shadows and onto the boy, pinning him underneath a mess of tangled fur and hot breath that reeked of blood. The creature raised up its head and howled at the full moon, before snapping its jaws downward. 
Mysteriously, though, its mandibles closed upon thin air, and it looked back up, spotting a shadowy figure standing right in front of it. The figure extended a pair of chains, tightening them around the wolf’s skull, crushing it as blood and fragments of bone showered everywhere. More beowolves began to arrive at the scene and, seeing the humanlike figure, dove at it with claws extended. 
The small figure leaped up and somersaulted over the wolves, landing on the tree stump. As it entered the moonlight, it revealed two heavy, multi-piece gauntlets covering its entire upper arms. It stood, waiting for the beowolves to lunge again, and once they did, the monsters were sliced apart by the sharp metal on his hands, as he leaped over their heads and cut in a ribbon path. 
The being landed softly, leaving no imprints on the layer of snow coating the ground. Its arms and front were entirely soaked with blood, and it stood in the middle of a gruesome wolf graveyard. It looked up and laughed, revealing it’s calculating cold eyes to the stars, and spoke: 
“Blood? I need more blood. Human blood; I will kill until my arms are stained with the burst hearts of people, with their torn bodies looking at me with dead gouged-out eyeholes. I will destroy anyone and everyone who gets in his way, in my brother’s journey.” 
It looked around laughed, pleased by the destruction around it, and spoke again. 
“Stop whimpering, Torrent. This is what life is like. Bloody, quick, brutal. But I will protect you from pain, and in exchange, you will allow me to sate my lust for annihilation. Ah, but your mind is broken, I see. Smashed to pieces by the loss of your mother, by my appearance from your psyche, and by the terror of reality. Well then, so is mine. Let’s be insane together! HaHAHaHaha!!” 
Shinu stood laughing up at the dark heavens that scowled down upon him, in their silent starless glare, the one full moon gazing down like a disapproving eye. A final straggling beowolf leaped out of the gloom and lunged at Shinu, who effortlessly thrust his large gauntlet into its stomach, chuckling to himself as it writhed, impaled by his hand, blood spurting out and splashing onto Shinu. The dark boy twisted his arm deeper into the flesh of the piteous creature, crushing its heart in his fist, and creating another explosion of flesh and crimson liquid. His white teeth shone in a humorless smile in the red coating his face, but a voice struggled its way unbidden from his throat: 
“No more, Shinu. I hate getting dirty when I’m working.” Shinu closed his mouth abruptly, but grinned again, before replying, “Of course, sorry bro. Yay, you’ve become more tolerant of reality, too! Allow me to show you what kind of a burden this life is!” He bent down, and morphed back into Torrent as he did so, the monochrome of his body fading back into the raggedly cloaked shape of Torrent. His body heaved as weight of what he was finally revealed. His blonde hair, stained with red, dripped blood onto his face, and as he looked up, he said, “That’s disgusting. It’s really too bad it can’t be helped.” He wiped his face with his sleeve, and instinctively raised his hands to the empty heavens, which flashed a cloudy orb before him, and a red scythe materialized in his grasp. 
Torrent spoke once more, finally, before trotting into the forest: 
“Wow, what a day. But Shinu, this really is just the beginning, right? The beginning of a new journey, sprung from the rotted corpse of my last united existence.” And he was gone. 
Back to the Main Storyline (Finally)
The group of teenagers stood before the cold and imposing brilliance of White Castle, looking for a suitable entrance, until Everus just said, “How about I teleport inside with Cobalt, then we can find a doorway and let the rest of you in?” 
Cobalt turned abruptly. “You can teleport too? That’s good then, we can infiltrate the castle without being sensed, and find a subtle entrance and let the rest of you guys in.” 
Torrent sighed despondently. ‘I still don’t see why we can’t just tear a big hole in the wall and run through it in the chaos.” 
“Whatever, bro. Come on, Cobalt!” And with that Everus half-turned and vanished into a dark portal, Cobalt following quickly after. He reappeared beside Everus inside small room with an open door leading into a large gilded chamber, and saw his partner leaning on the doorway. “It looks like some kind of ceremony is going on,” she spoke quietly. “We’ll need to be really silent if we’re supposed to sneak past all those people.” 
Cobalt crept up and looked out of the open doorway. He saw a large crowd of formally dressed people, presumably royalty, who were seated in long rows next to a traditional carpeted empty pathway. As he watched, a young almost entirely-white-clad young girl walked up the red pathway, and noticed that, even for her young age, she was very pretty. Or at least quite adorable. He glanced at his partner, and was surprised to see her face twisted in an expression of hatred. Everus muttered, “How fair is it that the princess of white can live and rule in a world free of darkness, while the sons and daughters of the shadows must hide unseen from humanity, lest our true identities be discovered?” 
“You okay?” Cobalt asked, even though he knew she wasn’t. 
“Let’s just get on with this mission.” 
Leo crept forward and out of the closet, closely followed by Tory. He slowly made his way past the guests, fixated as they were on the crowning of the princess. The two were almost into the main hallway, away from the congregation, when he heard a tinkling noise followed by a quiet crash. He turned, and saw Everus standing next to a fallen icicle, who spoke sheepishly, “Sorry. My demon arm gives off a lot of heat, and I tried to avoid the ice, but, it kinda didn’t work, cuz there’s so friggin’ much of it. Hehe…” 
Leo rolled his eyes, but noticed that everyone had now turned their focus to the two party crashers, and yelled,” Just run!” taking his partner’s hand and running off with her in tow. They heard a voice cry out behind them, “Guards!” and Cobalt heard Everus swear behind him, but almost immediately afterward, heard a castle-shaking crash as chunks of the ornate ceiling fell around them, cracking the floor. Torrent had decided to break in. 
Isabelle stood coughing as the smoke cleared, and saw Shinu standing before a gaping hole in the wall of the castle, as her teammates also emerged from the gloom. She watched as Luna walked up and tried to smack Shinu, who dodged and ran into the castle. Just as he entered, a group of armored soldiers exited, pointing their guns at the two girls. Isabelle glanced at Luna, before swiftly drawing her gun and shooting at the guards and hitting one smack in the middle if his forehead. She then duck-rolled to the side as she continued firing, and saw Luna draw her two machine guns and do the same. By the time the dust had fully cleared, the two has made their way into the walls of the fortress amidst the confusion. 
Meanwhile, the residents of the castle was in an uproar, as the guests ran around haphazardly and guards struggled to mobilize against the flow of people rushing for the exit. Explosions continued to rock the structure as Shinu tore at pillars and tried to relocate Cobalt and Everus. It was they who found him, however, as they came up behind him as he toppled another statue. 
Shinu turned, changing back into Torrent as he did so, and informed the other two, “Well, today we have all learned a lesson. We suck at going incognito, to be blunt.” 
Tory’s eyes flashed red, but it was Cobalt who spoke first. “No, today we learned that demons and shadows suck at being incognito, because their body and mind just aren’t meant for enclosed spaces with lots of people around.” 
They looked around, noticing that they were in a dimly lit area of the castle, with a few rays of light streaming through some tiny windows. And somehow, the small ice princess had made her way into the same room as them. 
Seeing the innocent looking child standing before them, Tory’s eyes turned a deeper crimson scarlet as she drew her black sword, and aimed at the girl, firing a single thin beam of darkness at the child before her partners could object. 
Suddenly, a humanoid figure jumped down in front of the laser, and bounced it away with a silver katana. The princess backed away quickly from the being, who spoke in a quiet and hesitant voice: 
“White snow need not be stained with unnecessary red,” Katlen Psycopata spoke. 
Category:Fan Fiction
Category:Alternate Universe