[8] The Survivors

[Ashe]

The town was nothing short of amazing. It was like some kind of hidden secret world in a Tim Burton film, living and breathing as if entirely unaware of the events taking place outside of its own domain. The people here looked rather ordinary. Most of them even appeared to be entirely human, but Ashe had learned not to trust appearances there as fact.

It was a lot to take in, but as the absolute fatigue of their previous events washed over her, her body had no choice but to relax itself. Her surroundings were eerie, but only due to the circumstance of their hidden existence. There was nothing that openly seemed to deny the sincerity of the city. Uneasiness was beginning to affect even her everyday life, she realized, given that she was now in what appeared to be an everyday ordinary city, an environment that she should thrive in, and yet she was looking over her shoulder at ever shadow that moved in fear that the inhabitants would change to goblins in the nonexistent moonlight.

Kai had affected them all, to the core, it seemed, regardless of how much they had fought against it. Everyone who had been brought here would be forever different from the experience. They had all just been ordinary people, lacking the desire of taking another person's life, mostly denying the need to watch the shadows for predators, and just worrying about the "important" things, such as making it into the right college after graduating in order to not be seen as the family failure in the grand scheme of things.

Now survival skills had become a priority for all of them, Ashe realized as she found herself absently fondling the sync dagger within her jacket pocket. Her thoughts had already frequently flickered over the times that she'd trained with her grandfather in self defense. At this point, completing that training was looking like a fair idea, whereas before she had dismissed the thoughts from the perspective of it being something that she doubted would ever need to come into play unless she joined the military. But now, feeling so absolutely helpless, as if God himself was throwing lightning at a crowd and the only thing keeping her safe was the odds that another equally terrified human being would have their flame snuffed out by the strikes instead of her. It had been nothing more than pure luck and the odds favoring her.

There were now only six.

Far fewer than had first been brought onto the island. Ashe recalled that before, when they had first arrived at that angel statue, being told that another group of six was hunting them. And upon meeting that group, it was discovered that there was a third group beyond that hunting all of them. Lies built upon lies.

The chimes to the doors woke her up as she pushed her way through the entrance to the clothing shop. Immediately, the attendant glanced up at the girl and then at a picture of Ashe that was hanging on the wall behind her. "Looks like you'll be needing some new clothes before going back into public," the young woman suggested, leaning back in her chair to return to filing her nails.

"I don't... have any money," Ashe responded sadly, looking at herself in a nearby full body mirror. Her pink hair that she'd been so proud of was soaked in dried brown and red blood. Her own blood, she realized. Her makeup had been smeared long ago, leaving her with the effect of one of many dark gothic art images that she'd found on the internet. To help this effect, her new dress and jacket were shredded, embarrassingly revealing a bit more of her chest than she would have desired.

The seeping red tint of blood pervaded her entire skin tone from the back of her skull down to her ankles, betraying that she had been lying in a pile of her own entrails and blood for some time. She looked almost barbaric, she realized, knowing that if she had passed herself on the street in her current state with her wickedly curved new dagger, she'd probably shit herself twice and run the other way.

The attendant, on the other hand, simply shrugged and jabbed a finger towards the clothing racks. "Don't really need any, Ashe," she responded, not noting the girl's jump in posture as her name was called. "Mr. Demolic has already cleared it up with most of the town. You six are supposed to receive full VIP treatment over your stay here, as well as getting anything you buy credited to his account. I've seen some pretty odd things before, but I'm guessing that you guys must be very important to him," she mentioned, before sitting up straight. "Oh, just between us, since he's willing to pay full price for anything you guys buy, the town has coincidently increased its prices on a lot of things for entirely unrelated reasons. If you want to buy some stuff and have it shipped to your home, we can arrange that as well," she hinted, winking at Ashe.

"You mean shopping spree?"

The woman nodded. "Exactly what I would mean if I were to hope to get ahead on my sales plan a bit," she said cryptically.

Ashe didn't need to be told twice. Within fifteen minutes she was back up at the counter with four attendants helping her push multiple full carts to the checkout. This store had had some good stuff, she noticed. Jack Skeleton hoodies, some awesome hardcore shirts of styles she hadn't seen before, even some Hello Kitty underwear. The pink haired girl herself had already changed into a pair of ordinary jogging pants and a light shirt, pulling a heavier jacket from the pile to throw on over it.

"Cash or credit?" the woman joked before the other employees pushed the carts towards a back room. "Why'd you buy all that and then turn around wearing what you are, anyways?" she inquired.

The girl shrugged, glancing at herself in the mirror. She did look fairly ordinary and boring at the moment, despite the caked on remnants of battle still covering her. "That stuff's pleasure, and this stuff is business," she explained. "I think this stuff will be a bit more efficient for what we have to do. Don't really feel like being caught in another snow storm unprepared, you know?"

Nodding, the attendant pointed at a nearby map on the wall. "Hey, here's a copy of that for you," she informed her, reaching under the counter to pull out a nearly forgotten pamphlet. "There's a hotel nearby if you want to go rest a bit and clean up. Between you and me, though, there's a fairly nice hot springs style bathhouse in the west district if you want to head there. Normally that place is packed, but Mr. Demolic made specific arrangements for the best location to be kept clear for you six," she noted, wrinkling her nose in jealousy.

A nice bath sounded like a good idea, Ashe realized. "I'll keep that in mind," she mentioned, thanking the woman before heading in the direction of the bath house.

---

Steam clouded the girl in vaporous rapture as she descended into the fiery waters. It was amazing, the type of feeling that she'd unknowingly longed for since he arrival at the island. With all the snows and killing, having the chance to both warm up as well as cleanse the putrid aroma of death from her young teenage body was long awaited. She slipped down into the cloudy waters and let out a sigh of relief, the sweat leaving her pores being able to expel the disgusting toxins that had built up within her system as well as to release any bad energy that may have built up.

The waters washed over her body from the Asian inspired hotsprings, leaving her to drift into a wondrous sleep. It was the hard, cold, metallic click that awoke her. Her eyes snapped awake to notice a large squadron of soldiers standing around the pool as the coils of mist from the water moved back to reveal them.

She panicked, immediately slipping further towards the center of the waters in an attempt to climb from the other side, but only feeling a cold hard boot dig into her back as she did. Helpless, cornered, and unable to get away. That was the feelings that passed over her as she turned, looking from one faceless killer to the next while trying to cover her naked form with her arms. Her dagger and everything was with her clothing, which was no longer within her reach.

"We've located the final survivor," a soldier announced into his radio. "The other five have been executed. Shall we proceed to eliminate the sixth?" he asked in a cold and emotionless monotone.

Receiving confirmation over the radio, the surrounding soldiers leveled their guns to face down at her in unison, the red light trails from their scopes leaving her body covered in blotches of color similar to the blood before it. "Sage and the others... are dead?" she whispered. It was a shock to her, something she was finding hard to process. They couldn't be dead. Something in her gut still felt their presence nearby, as if she was able to know where they were. Sage was right here in town, her mind reasoned.

"The bitch squirmed the most as we held her down and choked the life from her. She cried her sister's name out right after your name. Right before Mr. Demolic himself slipped the blade through her ribs and cut out her heart," the faceless man informed her through harsh and venemous words.

Ashe took a deep breath, fighting down the anger and fear that was building within her. She could feel it, the very life flowing throughout each and every one of them as if she herself were connected with the tides of spiritual energy within them. Sage and the others... They were still alive, somewhere, she knew it. Her eyes flashed with rapid bursts of ki as her powers attempted to fully awaken. They were out there. "You... liar!" she growled, the vapors closing in like a curtain to hide the figures once more.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," a new voice among the crowd laughed. The man spread his arms as if bowing before an opera, taking notice as the steam created shrouds spread to accommodate his foreboding presence. He rose to his full stature before pulling tightly to adjust a glove on one of his hands. "Did you know that I saved her till the very end, after forcing her to watch as I slaughtered each of her friends one by one? Yes, she cried as I later showed her the video footage of her sister's death repeatedly," he mentioned, leaving Ashe trembling in the water.

"Kai... if you laid one hand on her, I will kill you, you sick son of a-"

"I already have!" he laughed, his face adorning the mask of those lost to insanity. "And Ashe, I wouldn't be so sure that she would approve of your words or intentions. After all," he trailed off, the smirk spreading to his ears as a number of firm arms clamped down onto her shoulders to tear her naked body from the waters while pulling her arms back to reveal her flesh to them all. He took a moment, and decided to toy with her a bit more as he put off what he was originally going to say in favor of prolonging her torment. "In this moment, while I steal your innocence from you before all of these loyal men and the millions of viewers of my show, I want you to understand... Before killing you, I am going to touch over your entire body, inside and out. I am going to rape you physically and return the damage that you have done to Sage when you raped her emotionally."

This caught the pink haired girl's attention, forcing her to stop her struggling long enough to lock him within her eyes. The veins in his neck were throbbing. It wouldn't take much to simply arc pure and unfiltered hatred his direction to remove the flow of ki that was keeping this stain of humanity alive. "What are you talking about? You try to touch me, Kai, and I will succeed in what your mother's attempted abortion failed to accomplish," she spat. Bolts of radiant blue energy was flowing throughout her veins, cackling from her glowing blue eyes down her arms to collect at her twitching fingertips.

"Ashe, don't you realize?" he gloated, turning to point as the mist spread back to reveal a large viewscreen behind them. A series of very edited events began to play for them, much to Ashe's horror. It was... the death of Zena. But somehow, he had modified it so that the scenes of her returning to check for survivors had instead showed Ashe, or a double, ruthlessly holding down a tied up Zena while placing the grenade into her mouth. As the doppelganger on the screen turned, emotionlessly, from the struggling woman, she walked away in time for the explosion to consume Sage's sister. "What a horrible, horrible girl you are. Betraying your new friend by killing her sister," he prodded, turning back to her.

"Her soul was broken at that moment, shattered... by you."

No!

No!

I would never!

"Kai, you twisted coward!" she screamed as her blue crystalline aura exploded around her. "Why?" she cried out, her young mind still not able to understand how someone could be so... inhuman. She was naive and didn't understand that some people were beyond help. She didn't believe that someone could be this far beyond redemption.

His lips curled into the most delighted grin she'd seen him display yet, as he approached her struggling form and placed a finger between her breasts, gazing hungrily at her as his finger ran down to her stomach. "For the ratings, of course," he explained with absolutely no human emotion behind it. He could have told her that his car was blue or that he was going to eat a sandwhich in the same tone. "You are quite ugly, I'm afraid, but I'm willing to make the sacrifice. Feeling your struggling form beneath me is going to significantly boost our viewer count through the roof." He stopped for a moment as his hand touched her just below her trembling naval. "I don't even need the money, obviously. But letting them see the hand that guides this ordeal involved so intimately in such a disgusting act simply for the cameras... That will bring them in. The wicked shall consume the world," he whispered into her ear, pushing past her brilliantly glowing and deadly gaze to get near her blue tinted form. He took a slow and deep breath to smell her scent before placing his hand back on her.

"When you cry out for release, like a lover would," he breathed, his disgusting breath washing over her. "I want you to scream Sage's name for the cameras."

She detonated with power, the blue energy exploding all around her before embracing her with furious energy, her figure floating over the platform as the dozen arms containing her were severed from their sockets by the irrational blades of ki arcing around her. Her arm slowly extended until it was touching the forehead of a paralyzed Kai Demolic.

"There's still hope for the world. I am sad that you couldn't see that," she whispered, no longer consciously choosing her words. By reflex, her fingers spread, the wave of energy exploding from her palm until it ruptured through everything before her, bathing them all in a blinding light.

---

Ashe bolted upright, the sweat and water flooding down her face as she quivered from her dream. "Sage, Wizard, Kaden..." she began stuttering, calling random names while looking around. There was no one within the courtyard at all. Her clothes were still lying beside her, and the only sound was the water and a nearby radio discussing another freak snowstorm rolling into the city.

That blue light...

She held her shaking fingers and looked at them, her eyes studying every water wrinkled crease and steam blushed portion of skin in hope for answers. None were given.

Her eyes looked down into the mirror of the rapidly cooling water at the image of a terrified young girl, shaking and unable to decide how to handle the situation that they had been thrust into. She had grown angry with herself, at her helplessness. She wanted to help people, to help make things better for her friends. She wanted to be more like the Ashe in her dream, stronger and more able to do something, anything...

Angrily, her fist slapped the watery reflection away before her hands reached up to slick her raver colored hair back out of her way. She grabbed a towel to wipe the water from her face before shivering a moment in the cold. It had gotten cold quite fast, she realized as she pulled her clothes on, reaching down for the heavier jacket. So fast that it had actually cooled down the baths. Had they turned them off on her?

---

Her exit into the city streets revealed a winter wonderland, with the citizens playing happily in the snow without thought of where it had come from. A quick look to the mountain enclosed sky revealed that it wasn't a natural snow. Off in the distance, a trio of familiar figures were stomping their way through the snow towards the food areas. Kaden glanced up and recognized her, cupping his hands over his mouth to get her attention. "Hey, Ashe! We're grabbing some food. You are welcome to join us if you want," he offered from afar.

She smiled, her worries forgotten as she began heading into his direction, before she saw a timid figure shuffling quietly through the snow behind them. Her features lit up as her walk turned into a jog. "Sage!" The girl declined a response, continuing to trudge through the snow as if still lost to her depression. "Alright, screw this," Ashe growled, kneeling down into the snow. Her hands slid around as Kaden and the other two women watched her, gathering the snow up into her freezing hands before packing it together into a large ball. Rising back to her feet, she decided to give Sage a fair chance. "Sage, incoming!" she screamed, launching the frozen projectile towards the girl.

It was so unfair, she realized, as the girl was launched from her feet to land squarely on her rear. Ashe nearly felt bad as the girl just kind of laid there before rolling over and pushing herself to her feet. As she got up, her expression was one of confusion rather than depression, having been jerked out of her mood by the sudden attack. "Ashe?" she asked, tilting her head to the side.

"Catch!"

Ashe thrust a large cluster of snow that she'd scooped up with her jacket, taking the girl once more to the ground before she laughed and reached down to pull her back to her feet. Sage's response was to snatch Ashe down by her outstretched hand and to cram a mound of snow into the pink haired girl's face in retaliation.

In the distance, Piper stared at the pair and rolled her eyes. "I guess they would rather confront Kai on an empty stomach," she expelled in frustration.

"Tch," Kaden breathed from behind her. "Nothing wrong with releasing some tension," he reasoned. He waited until she turned back to him to chide him before he hit her with a double barrel snowball attack of his own.

The priestess's laughter taunted Piper behind her veil as she sputtered and wiped at the snow. Piper dropped to the ground, angrily scooping up her own ball of whiteness as Kaden ducked around a corner for cover. Sophia found herself to be the resulting target of Piper's frustration.

It was what they had all needed. They had been so tense and edgy for so long that this short term of snowball fighting was exactly the type of release that they had been desiring. Some fun and friendly competition, about as relaxed and enjoyable as it could get. Most of them didn't even know each other, yet it had the same appeal of spending time with your greatest of friends.

It was a great way to take their mind off the coming rounds.