ChronicleChapter 9: What does it mean to be strong?
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Content warning
This chapter has the following subject matter
~Blood~
~Extreme Violence~
~Fighting~
~Gore~
and
~Torture~
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Touchy or sensitive readers, ye be warned
If any of this subject matter bothers or offends you, don’t read past this point, or be ready to forfeit any right to be angry at me for the contents of this story
Now for those of you I haven’t scared off please enjoy =p
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Within the confines of a roughly walled encampment complete with some basic wooden structures stands Alex, the fox gripping a large sword in one hand while panting and gasping, trying to catch his breath; his sparing partner, his former De’Nom with his rapier in one hand the other hand behind his back stands several paces from him. The fox then says righting his sword upright in front of his chest,
“Come on now, we can’t keep stopping to take a break, would a foe wanting to destroy you give you a few moments to catch your breath?”
Alex shakes his head no still breathlessly, then rights himself, only to have to parry a strike from his teacher, the fox clearly holding back even as his next strike found Alex’s flesh stretching crimson through the air as he cut his student’s cheek. Alex stumbles forward a step before turning to his sparing partner who’s blade is pushed against his throat as he does leading Fin to say,
“Come now, you’re faster then that, if I was trying to kill you, you’d be dead right now.”
Fin puts away his blade Alex then saying as he too sheaths his sword,
“I still have a ways to go it seems.”
His teacher nods then says as offers Alex a polite bow,
“Rome wasn’t built in a day, perhaps we should go back to our other lessons for now, you’ll get better in combat as time goes along.”
Nodding Alex then joins the other fox as he leaves the little arena leaving it for others to use as they see fit. Watching the others going about the day in the small camp with not much else to do but survive lead everything to be a bit bland but not till two girls, the black haired girl Yumi and her friend Aelita to walk up to Alex, Yumi saying as he smiled at them,
“Hey Alex, the other girls asked us to let you know we need more food supplies, and to ask if you could stop by to restock.”
He nods again however his companion says tugging his ear,
“Speak up, you’re going to have to get use to using English, your language is a dead language now, you and I are the only ones who know it.”
Alex nods then roughly says patting the young girls hair,
“Uh . .. . Sure thing, I’ll do it . . . . In . . a . . .few . . . . . .”
He struggles to try to find the word he was looking, a look of frustration furrowing across his brow, then saying as he found the word he was looking for,
“Moments! I’ll do it in a few moments.”
The girls nod then go to rejoin the others, leaving Alex and Fin to walk back along to where he’d left his things, and once he had his bag he pulled out the orb then said in his language,
“Alright, lets go restock the supplies then get back to training.”
Fin nods and joins him as he treks to the small area that not but yesterday he had helped them set up with everything they’d need to cook and an area with tables and chairs to eat at, it was a little tedious the fox would admit, but as the laws of the orb currently stood he was their only source of supplies, he’d not turn his back on them. Arriving at the kitchen area he was greeted by mainly girls and the one male in the group the knew how to cook the old man patting Alex on the back as he walked past, which lead Alex to ask,
“Why only females here?”
The other pink haired girl of the group stomped up to a stove to help make something was practically growling as she said,
“Because all of those guys are freaking useless, that Inuyasha guy burnt a pot of water for crying out loud!”
Alex laughs a little and he looks over the other girls who nod as he looked past them, then saying looking back to the angry girl in question,
“Sakura, I’m sorry. . . . . That . . . males . . . here can’t cook.”
She sighs and looks back to him saying as she did,
“Don’t worry, its not your fault they are all freaking useless.”
After that he hangs out for a little bit, and restocks everything they needed then afterwards sits down with a bowl of ramen and a drink, followed by Fin, the fancily dressed fox having the same. Sitting down at a table Alex then says to his fellow fox,
“Wish I could help them out, would sure be nice to have something to eat other then ramen.”
Fin states after a drink,
“You can fix that you know.”
Alex looks a little puzzled eyebrow upraised as he eats a bit of his ramen with a fork, having long abandoned trying to figure out how to use the two sticks Naruto was so excited to use to eat. The other fox says as he gets a bit ready to put in his mouth,
“The orb will do as you will, your word is its command, just tell it to do something and it will do it.”
As the regal fox puts the noodles in his mouth Alex having finished a mouthful of noodles,
“So I just tell it to do something and it’ll do it? Its really that freaking easy?”
The fox nods then taking a drink, Alex going on to say,
“So, if I told it to do something stupid like find me a pirate or something like that it would do it and plop him or her right next to me? You’re really saying its that easy?”
As it did before a small beam of light is emitted from the orb, unnoticed by Alex as he and the other Fox go on talking about the subject at hand, however as the light fades and a new hand finds itself on Alex shoulder, he jumps then turns to hear someone asking,
“Hey, where am I right now?”
Turning around he sees a guy sitting next to him, dressed in a red button down vest with gold buttons and a pair of blue shorts and a straw hat hanging from his neck. Alex looks back to the other and points to the guy behind him but gets only a grin in return, Alex then putting two and two together facepalms then turns to the new person next to him asking,
“Are you a pirate?”
He nods rather energetically and says,
“Yup.”
Grabbing up the orb from his bag he then says,
“Fuck you!!”
Stowing the item away once again the other fox turns around and says,
“You know, when your not using it perhaps you should tell it not to listen to your conversations till you address it.”
Kicking the orb in his bag Alex then says,
“Hear that? Stop listening!”
The orb gives a faint blink then grows pale in his bag, leaving Alex, Fin, and the pirate at the tables, Alex then leaning next to Fin and saying quietly,
“S. . Should I tell it to get rid of him?”
Thinking for a moment the other fox responds in turn,
“Maybe not I don‘t remember him being a part of the group till much, much later but time has a way of changing when the future meddles, because if I am remembering who that is correctly, he might be able to help us out, or at the very least some of his crew can.”
Alex now confused watches as his companion turns to the pirate who had taken it upon himself to finish Alex’s ramen for him,
“Are you the pirate that goes by the name Straw Hat Luffy?”
He nods mouthful of noodles, leading Fin to nod to himself, then saying,
“I thought so, if I remember correctly in your crew you have a talented cook and a skilled doctor am I right?”
Luffy responds in turn saying,
“That I do, Sanji and Chopper are both great at what they do, I wonder where they are. The last thing I remember was us eating dinner on the Marry then nothing do you guys know what happened?”
Fin nods then says look to Alex,
“Mayhap this is a good point for a critical point you should know Alex, its something you know who refers to as time stamping. I think we should bring his crew here to help us out, but we need to bring the right ones, if we get members of his crew from the wrong point in time this poor lad here will cease to exist. You need to be very careful when using the orb to bring people and worlds into the herd.”
Alex nods then asks grabbing up the orb and giving it a flick said orb then glowing to its pervious sheen,
“Alright then, what do I do?”
Fin nods then holds up one finger saying,
“One, just calling someone by name through the orb is dangerous, don’t do it, you’ve been lucky so far but its best not to push your luck, when you need to call someone to the current plane, you have to use a time stamp connected to someone so the orb knows the right time period to grab them from.”
Alex nods then turns to Luffy and asks Fin,
“So I do what now?”
Fin sighs finding Alex a little more clueless then he was told, then says,
“Command the orb to correctly time stamp our new friend here, then find the members of his crew that matches that stamp.”
Alex nods then says looking at the orb,
“What he just said, do it.”
The orb blinks for a moment in response then emit’s a red light that envelopes Luffy, the pirate in question laughing as it did so, it then returns to the orb and displays a date on its surface next to the pirate’s image. After that the orb glows a bright yellow as it starts to go about matching names that where attached to the time stamp and once it had done so several white lights are emitted from the orb and like the times before it formed a circle on the ground first forming feet then working on materializing the rest of the bodies of the people they belonged to. After the lights fade Luffy smiles and says to his crew,
“Hey guys how’s it going?”
The rest of them looking a little bewildered about the sudden change of scenery looks around till one of the crew, a man with blond hair asks,
“Uh, Luffy want to explain what’s going on here?”
A man next to him, the one with an insanely long nose then asks,
“Yeah and where did the Marry go? Last thing I remember was us eating dinner.”
Luffy mutters as he stuffs more of his pilfered noodles into his mouth,
“Ask him.”
Pointing to Alex all eyes suddenly focus on the not one but two foxes causing a slight uproar from the crew as they wonder if he is anything from demons to something they called devil fruit eater. They settle down after Fin has taken a few moments to explain a few things, saving Alex the trouble of trying to use his poor English skills to explain the situation to them. With the lot of them sitting down now with the fox all with bowls of ramen of there own the crew and Alex talk about what they are going to do, Alex asking as he looked to the group of pirates,
“So, I can still send you back, if you don’t . . . . . want to stay.”
Luffy looking to his friends asks,
“So right now our world doesn’t truly exist then?”
Alex nods leading Luffy to grin and say,
“Then if there is nothing to go back to, we’ll stay with you guys for now.”
A man with green hair, introduced as Roronoa Zoro, but simply called Zoro by his friends nods in agreement saying as he tossed his two cents into the conversation,
“I’ll say, if what you are saying is true then this beats floating around in the nothing void place.”
The rest nod agreement, expect for the blond man Sanji, who takes another bite of his ramen then says, completely derailing the current conversation,
“This ramen is pretty good, the cook surely has talent, but he’s messing something up in the broth.”
They all look over to him like he was crazy, in the middle of deciding what they were going to do and all he could focus on was his soup. Looking over to Alex he then asks,
“Where are they making this food at?”
Alex points him at the building they had set up to cook in and with that, Sanji picks up his bowl, still eating it and marches off, most likely to confront the ramen cook, All the while the rest of the crew is sighing in disbelief and their captain was laughing like an idiot about it. The fox wondering just what was going on, he stands and follows him into the kitchen building where he finds Sanji asking who made the ramen and once introduced to the man in question, they begin talking about things that quickly goes over Alex’s head. As if insulted the two start arguing about what the proper soup should taste like, then almost as if on cue the man Matsu shouts as he grabs up a few pots and fresh ingredients,
“I’ll show you how you make proper ramen, come into what is basically my kitchen and tell me how to cook.”
The blond man’s eye brows furrow almost like he had himself been insulted, then grabbing up pots and pans and ingredients to make his own ramen. What ensues is basically a chaotic cooking contest, the entirety of the camp soon joining in and cheering the two cooks on. Obviously being the one who looked to be in charge, Alex is quickly involved in the hasty contest as quickly both cooks shove large bowls of ramen under his nose demanding that he eat. He does so, despite not really being hungry at the moment, both cooks furious at one another when Alex told them that he couldn’t tell the difference. To Alex’s lament both cooks became enraged at one another returning to the stoves to make more ramen, and sure enough within minutes more ramen was shoved under the fox’s nose. A bead of sweat running down the back of his head the fox ate more ramen only to tell the two chefs that he still couldn’t taste the difference, Clearly the older chef Matsu really knew his noodles, but it was true that Alex had noticed that sometimes his broth was a little lack luster, but at the same time the blond chef Sanji’s broth was pretty much perfect, but his noodles often had the wrong consistency and texture. The cooking contest quickly turned party by the straw hats went on for hours till finally Alex could eat no more, and forcing himself to stand choose to put an end to the brewing rivalry, approaching both chefs who where mashing their foreheads into the others and glaring at the other, but both looking as Alex pulled them apart saying as then all eyes where on him,
“Stop this now, it’s pointless and petty. . . .”
Looking to Matsu the fox said,
“Your noodles good, broth not so much,”
Then looking to the pirate Sanji and going on to say,
“and you, sorry but often noodles suck, but broth is perfect, so what we do is combine talents,”
Clapping his hands together and interlocking his fingers, Alex states as he puts his idea into the hat,
“If Matsu makes noodles for Sanji’s broth soup is good, you two do that, no more fighting, you both good cooks no need to prove it to us.”
Both men quickly nod agreeing to the idea, and at that it quickly became a party both cooks working on food as the remaining pirates quickly whipped everyone into a frenzy making the party nearly explode with excitement. Food and drinks nearly flew out of the kitchen with the skill of both cooks working together; and it came as a good sign to many of the females in the camp, they’d not have to cook anymore. The party went on for hours till Alex finally walked away from it, still being to full from the contest to want to party, instead he took a walk alone to get some air and think about things. He felt a bit rushed, all of a sudden he was the leader of the group, they all accepted it without thought, he couldn’t help but wonder if that’s what they all wanted or if some of them just went with the general consensus. Still brewing over things the fox looked into the sky, the stars high above shining brightly, just existing as they did. The fox remained quite thinking about what he should do next till something caught his ears, a branch outside of the camp snapping. His ears perked up as he listened to goings on outside of the encampment, the sound of more branches snapping ring in his ears till his eyes finally adjust to the darkness of the forest around them, the same little shadow monsters he remembered from the past where creeping up on the camp, their dark blood red eyes shining like darkened rubies in the darkness of the forest. Alex had little time to react, once the shadows had realized they had been spotted then acted quickly and attacked slamming against the walls like a tide of darkness itself, several little monsters clawing up the wall from the congealed mass of shadows below, and once up on top of the wall, they attacked, with claws as sharp as razors, without fear or hesitation. Alex drew his blade, giving a loud sharp whistle as he did, hearing the sound of the party stopping in the picnic area.
Hers's a little mood musicAlex struck at the little demons with ease but noticed they didn’t take any damage, and in fact cutting through them was to easy there was no resistance at all, he quickly remembered they where in fact just shadows not solid till they struck, Thinking quickly as his spot on the wall was quickly overrun and the fox forced to retreat from it, set his blade aflame. Turning to stand before them he quickly thought of something, he couldn’t hit them, then that means. His eyes shot wide, turning to where he had left all the others, they had no idea about these monsters, he had to inform them about them, and he turned making a dash to the picnic area, where indeed those with fighting skills where trying to hold of the shadow demons, having locked those who no combat skills inside the cooking shed. Alex arrived on the scene as the pirate Luffy shouted in frustration as he quickly realized not one but two things,
“What the hell is going on a can’t stretch, and I can’t hit these things.”
Watching on as one of the shadow demons gashed open the pirates leg the pirate quickly shouted in return,
“Gah, stupid shadow thing . . . I’m going to kick your ass!”
Unfortunately for Alex, the battle for his companions was horribly one sided, many of the members of his group where quickly realizing their special skills where not working in this world, Luffy complaining that his devil fruit powers weren’t working, the ninjas Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura claiming that they couldn’t use their ninjutsu and other such skills where also on the not working list; even the half demon Inuyasha noting how his sword Tetsusaiga wouldn’t unseal. The shadow demons quickly began swarming the group as their inability to harm them quickly became realized, the shadows attacking with reckless strikes knowing they couldn’t be harmed, Alex seeing this quickly jumps into the fray, cleaving a shadow demon that was going to strike at the girl kagome, Alex then grabbing up a pair of chopsticks, setting them aflame with his sword then tossing them at more shadows. He quickly shouted as this got the attention of the others,
“Use fire, the light will hurt them!”
The others nod then go about grabbing up items then can use as burnable weapons, Alex setting said items aflame for them. With the ability to actually hurt the shadow demons now in hand, Alex let the fight against the little monsters, however as he and the others began striking them down, more and more ended up coming, it was like an endless tide of them, forever one they struck down four or five more would take their place, it was not looking good, and Alex couldn’t help but notice one thing, Fin was not among those fighting, in fact he was no where to be seen, but Alex didn’t have long to ponder this thought of where the other fox was as a scream came from the cooking shed, and the people inside came running out in a panic, inside a much larger and more solid looking shadow was grabbing the young boy Ulrich around the throat, having tried to drive it away from the others. The shadowy creature gashed the boy open a few times before someone managed to get to him, the creatures claws looking to score a fatal blow this time. Thankfully the blow never came, the efforts of the half demon and Naruto saved the boy from his fate at the creatures hands, forcing it to back away and force its way out of the shed.
A the larger shadow demon joined the others, a grin took to its face distorted shadowy face, as it glared over the mortals before it, both humans and otherwise, this creature was clearly in command of the smaller ones, soon the smaller demons where much more organized and fighting much more strategically then before, and soon despite the ability to harm the creatures the tide of battle once more turned on the fox and his group. Forced into a corner with the non combatants hiding behind them due to the smaller shadows constantly trying to throw off the fighters by attacking the helpless people they where protecting, Alex and the others where forced to stand their ground now that there was no way around them to get at the others. The large shadow creature sneered with a twisted chuckle, knowing they had played right into its hands, now Alex and the others had no where to go, they where trapped by their own defenses. Alex felt useless, how could he fall for such a simple trap, watching as now all those around him where in danger because they had little to no room to move around in, and as such now they where starting to get overwhelmed, a few of them actually starting to get hurt; blood flying through the air as the numbers game finally started taking its toll.
As the bleak battle took place, watching from on high was Fin, the regal looking fox watching on from atop one of the large wooden polls that made up the wall, arms crossed, and biting his lip as he was forced to watch, being forbidden to fight their battle for them. Saying under his breath as he watched the mortals one by one start to go down as their wounds became to great,
“Come now, you’re stronger then this, you must waken your power or this battle is lost.”
Back in the fight is was finally down to a handful of warriors left, the pirates Luffy and Zoro as well Naruto and Sasuke, the half demon Inuyasha, and Sonic, and last but not least Alex, however for as strong as they all where, the others around him where losing their steam even the battle hardened members of the group like Luffy and Zoro where on their last legs. Watching the others struggling to stand as the shadows swarmed around them Alex couldn’t help but think to himself as he saw the helplessness of the situation,
‘Is this it? Is this as strong as I am? Should I get away, or Perhaps I can still save the others if I send them all away at least I’ll be the only one to die here today.’
As he thought about what to do, if he should save himself or the others finally he decided, grabbing the remaining combatants he tosses them to where the others where at, those who couldn’t fight or where to badly hurt to continue, and once they where all there Alex conjured a strange fireball in his hand and then dropping at caused a large wall of bright blue flames the encircle the others, forcing the shadows away, of course this didn’t sit well with those who knew what he was trying to do, turning to them as they all began to shout at him,
“I’m Sorry I got you all into this mess, don’t worry I’ll hold them back while the orb sends you back to your worlds, you’ll be safe there.”
True to his word he toss the orb through the flames it flashed then enveloped them all in side kind of field of light, all they could do was watch as the fox fought against the countless shadows but he was quickly overwhelmed, there where to many of them and he knew he’d not survive the battle, but looking back he knew at the very least he had to buy them time to escape, even if they didn’t want to. Alex fount tooth and nail, even when he lost grip on his blade he enveloped his claws in flame and continued to fight, but the more he fought he suddenly felt a surge of power, and it grew as his determination to protect the others grew.
However he got side tracked, as he was trying to deal with the smaller shadows, he didn’t notice their leader approaching the flame wall, it winced at the light they gave off, but it didn’t back away and expending a little of its energy suddenly made the flames grow weaker and weaker till finally they went out, now nothing left between it and the others. No sooner did the wall of fire go out did Luffy try to strike the shadow creature. It didn’t go well, and soon the creature had tossed the pirate back, with a many fresh gashes in his body for his troubles. Luffy unable to stand, and quickly the others defeated all the same, things where grim, Alex couldn’t get to them and no one was left able to fight. The malicious shadow demon approached the group knocking the orb away as it did, making it stop what it was doing, then grabbed up one of the younger members of the group, the girl Aelita, grabbing her up by the throat then glaring into the frightened girls eyes with a wicked grin before violently tossing her away from the others and into a group of the smaller shadow demons. They swarmed the girl clawing at her, tearing at her outfit, the girl could not but scream as the little monsters tried to rip her apart.
Hearing her scream Alex turned to try and get to her, cleaving through the little demons to clear a way to get to her, but as the leader saw Alex trying to get to her, dropped the next person it had grabbed up to torment and made a move on Alex. The fox bringing down his blade on the shadows attacking Aelita, suddenly found resistance, and the clang of metal on metal rang out as the leader with a wicked grin plastered on its face stood before him a shadowy blade in its hand. The creature forced Alex’s blade back up and away from the creatures ripping at Aelita, the poor girl now covered in her own blood as the little demons continued to claw at her, doing her best to tray and cover her most vital areas. Alex pulled his sword away and was forced back away from the girl as the demon attacked, the resulting sword fight being all the fox could focus on, it was, strong and relentless. Minutes into the fight Alex slipped the demon taking the advantage and first cleaving Alex’s sword in two then gashing open his chest.
He fell to the ground, defeated, the demon leader looming over him with a sinister laugh rubbing its victory into the foxes face. Laying in the ground, his whole body aching as he struggled to breath, helplessly watching as the tall demon smiled at him once more then returned to the girl it had tossed, the poor thing now little more a bloody mess of gashes, she was somehow still alive but only just. The demon decided to torment the fox more, mercilessly dropping the horribly wounded girl into the dirt next to the fox; the girl landing with a sickening thud. The others knew that it was up to no good and several of them tried to get to their feet, watching as the demon sneered at Alex before lifting its blade then in a swift motion jabbing it into her gut, the girl letting out a blood curdling scream as the blade pierced her flesh. It gave the blade a few twist before retracting it the girl somehow still alive letting out a few bloody gurgles turning her head over as blood started to flow up her throat. She was badly hurt, she wouldn’t survive any more and the fox could not but helplessly watch, he was strangely heavy, his every breath labored and all of his muscles felt as if they were screaming all at once. He watched as this time the creature lifting its blade to the girls neck, grinning as the fox struggled to move watching as the creature lifted its blade once more, this time its goal to behead the child. Once the blade was high in the air, he watched as it hovered for a moment before the creature brought it down, but as he watched the blade falling toward the girls neck, he felt the power within himself surge, then with a strange sensation found himself floating in the white void again, no sign of the camp, the shadow demons or the people in his charge to be found. He looked around, his wounds where gone and for a moment he thought himself dead, fearing that he had failed, but as he lamented his loss, he heard a voice call out, a voice that sounded like a distant memory that his whole being was forcing him to try and remember the voice saying,
“Don’t worry, you’re not dead, a keeper doesn’t die that easily.”
Turning to where he heard the voice, he saw a figure cloaked and wrapped in darkness, Alex asking as the figure took a few more steps,
“What’s going on? Who are you?”
The figure laughs a little, Alex’s eyes opening wide, he remembered that laugh, though he’d not heard it in a long time, the figure then saying,
More mood music“You don’t remember sweetheart, I’m hurt, I thought you told me you’d never forget me.”
As the figure got closer, the voice became clearer, and clearer, tears starting to well up in his eyes as he figured out who it was. The shadows around the figure faded, revealing who the person was, that being a fox, clearly female, with a red fur coat not so different then his own. Alex’s lower lip visibly quivered, tears now running down his face then ran to the vixen, saying once he wrapped her in a hug,
“MOM!”
Towering over the vixen by several feet, Alex was still little more then a cub as he embraced her, loudly weeping as she held him close. The vixen then saying as she rubbed his back a little,
“Its been a long time hasn’t it, I’ve both waited for this day, and hoped it would never come.”
Alex asks as he wipes his eyes,
“Mom, what is this? What is going on, I thought you where dead.”
The vixen sighs then says as she pushes him away a little,
“I’m sorry, but I am dead dear, but I’ve not been allowed to pass yet.”
Looking to his mother with confusion in his eyes he asks,
“Not been allowed to pass, why not?”
She warmly smiled a little saying as she leaned in to kiss his cheek,
“Because I’ve something that I must pass on first, a power that’s been in our family for twenty generations.”
Alex nods asking as he finally let her go,
“What is this power?”
Producing a crystal ball, no bigger then a large marble, she says closing her hands,
“This is the legacy that’s been in trusted to our family for a very long time, We’re the descendent bloodline of the Keeper of Time and Space, the guardian of all those who exist. It has always been our task to protect those around us, though we use to have a much greater goal, but that was a very long time ago.”
Alex nods watching as his mother went on to say,
“I remember the day my father passed this gem on to me, though I had had the luxury of having spent several years under his tutelage to be ready for the day when I was to take his place, I’m so sorry that I wasn’t able to teach you son.”
Alex says putting his hands on her shoulders,
“Its not your fault mom, you died giving me a little sister, I could never hate you for that! No matter what I lost because of it.”
The vixen nods rubbing a few tears from her eyes, then saying as she held out the gem once more,
“So Alex, are you ready to be the next in line to bear our family’s mantle?”
Alex nods watching as his mother unbuttoned his jacket, then listening as she said,
“I remember the day your grandfather passed this on to me, he cried the entire time, asking me over and over again to forgive him, and having lived my life with this burden, I know why . . .”
Looking up at him with tears in her eyes she says,
“To be the keeper is a hardship you’ll have to endure for the rest of your life, I’m sorry.”
With that he felt her press the gem into his chest instantly a painful surge of power coursed throughout his body, his mother, the vixen clearly much stronger then she looks was easily able to hold him up as his body went limp as he felt the power surging in him, every molecule of his being screaming out in pain as the power forced him body to change. After a few moments of the intense pain, it suddenly vanished, his body having made forced to change to accept it, and once more able to stand on his own power he looked back to his mother, the vixen already looking much weaker then she was before, but still smiling all the same. Alex looks on as she says, laying her head on his chest,
“I’m sorry I wasn’t able to prepare you for this, normally part of the trails and training for this moment gets your body acclimated to the power so that it doesn’t hurt like that when you finally take charge of it, but more so, I’m sorry that I couldn’t teach you how to use it, it’ll be a hard road for you to master these powers, but I’m sure you’ll be able to do it, if any one could it would be my son.”
Alex nods asking as he looked down to her,
“So, what happens now?”
She says with a smile, Alex instantly noticing the fact that she was fading away,
“My task is done, my soul will no longer be allowed to stay here so I’ll finally be allowed to pass on.”
Alex nods, a few tears forming in his eyes, his mother letting out a light hearted laugh as she said wiping away his tears,
“Now now, don’t look at me like that, you’ll make me cry.”
Alex nods wiping his eyes clean then saying as she continued to fade away,
“While I have this chance, I want to apologize for when I was little, I was always a pest, always getting into trouble, always demanding that you and dad play with me. I just want to say that I’m sorry for being such a handful.”
His mother laughed aloud and said as she held him again,
“Alex, my dear boy, you where my first child, I may not have known what I was getting into when you where born, but you know what?”
Alex asks, a goofy little grin on his face as he did,
“What?”
She smiles reaching up a little to grab his head and making him lean down so that she could rub his nose against hers, then saying,
“I’d not change you, in fact I’d give the world away if it meant that you’d not change, I love who you are with all of my heart and don’t ever let anyone tell you that who you are is wrong, you’re my first child and I love you with all my heart forever and always.”
Alex responds in turn crying once again as he felt her form grow lighter and lighter,
“I love you too mom, I swear, I’ll not forget you ever again.”
The vixen nods with a then says the rest of her body begins to fade,
“Its time for me to go, I finally get to go see your father again, I so missed seeing him, and its time for you to go back as well, those people need you, protect them as our family has always done.”
With her last words, she is gone, the rest of her form fading away into nothingness, Alex left standing there crying, then saying as tear fell from his eyes once more,
“I swear mom, I’ll make you proud of me!”
He then turns and runs, fading away out of the white void, a single chuckle being heard, before his mothers voices echoes out, Alex hearing her voice as his eyes open once again in the real world,
“I believe in you.”
Last of the music for moodQuickly looking over he saw that everything was in a grayscale, but color was quickly returning and the blade once more resumed its plunge into Aelita’s neck. With but a split second to react, Alex grabs the blade inches from the girls throat, the demon shocked at how strong he had suddenly gotten. Throwing the demons blade away, said creature jumped away as Alex stood once more, a renewed strength flowing throughout his body. The smaller shadow demons suddenly started backing away from him sensing his sudden spike in power, as he kneeled down and picked up Aelita, the girl looking at him with a single open eye as he carried her back to the group handing her to Sanji the cook barely able to stand even before he was given the girl, Alex growning under her weight in his battered state saying as he rested his hand on her head,
“Protect her for me will you? She’s in really bad shape.”
Sanji nods saying as he turned from Alex,
“I’ll take her to Chopper, He’ll be able to fix her up.”
Alex nods then says turning to the others who where still struggling to stand,
“You guys ready to fight again?”
Looking down at Luffy, the pirate saying as he reached up for Alex’s outstretched hand,
“Hell . . Yeah, I told those . . .shadow things that . . . I was . . Going . . To kick . . . Their asses.”
Alex grabs his hand, the pirate suddenly going wide eyed as he felt a tremendous power surge into him, all his wounds then knitting and healing, Alex then pulling him to his feet saying,
“Then go kick their asses!”
Luffy shouts “Right!” at the top of his lungs, then shouting as he charged back into the group,
“Gum Gum Gatling!”
His arms suddenly start stretching out as he began viciously attacking the shadow demons, Looking out the boy Sasuke said as he reached for Alex’s out stretched hand,
“Looks like our abilities have been turned back on, this should be fun then.”
Naruto forcing himself up to his knee says “Believe it” as the two of them grab Alex’s hands and same as before as he pulled them to their feet the power radiating from the fox surged into the two of them healing their wounds and restoring their energies, Once on his feet Naruto saying as he held his fingers together in a plus sign in front of him,
“Time to fight shadows with shadows. shadow clone jutsu!”
Suddenly several dozen white clouds puff out from no where and within them stand clones of the boy, all wearing his trademark grin, Then next to him Sasuke weaves a hand signs of his own before leaning back and shouting,
“Fire style, Fire ball jutsu!”
He blast a large fire ball toward the shadow demons, the light given off of the attack alone destroying more then a dozen, Naruto then saying as he stomps his feet into the ground a few times,
“GAH!, damn it Sasuke, stop trying to show me up!”
The raven haired boy says with a laugh as he grabs up a kunai knife ready to charge into the battle,
“Oh sorry, I can’t help but make you look bad, because its to easy to do so you loser.”
Pulling his hair Naruto then says watching Sasuke run off into the fight,
“Sasuke!! I’ll show you who’s the loser!!”
Charging into the fight with his army of clones at his back Naruto shouts, “I’ll prove I’m better then you, believe it!” Alex laughs a little as he went about helping everyone else back onto their feet then joining the battle himself. Along side the others the battle starts to turn in their favor, with the others now able to use their special abilities and skills again proved to be the key factor in turning the tide, the over whelming strength of their attacks finally started making a dent into the number of shadow demons.
Despite his renewed and improved strength he was still lacking something, a weapon. Sure his claws where sharp but he lacked the reach he would have with a sword and as the battle raged on he felt something, and after dealing with a few more shadows, he heard something, then turning around he saw of all things, a sword, which looked like it had been chucked at the ground behind him. It was a big sword to say the least but something was strange about it, almost like it was calling to him, his curiosity peeked he went to the weapon, even under continual attack from the shadow demons which he dealt with as they came, soon he reached the blade and wrapping his fingers around his handle he pulled it from the ground, and in doing so he felt a strange sensation, in the moments from him grabbing the sword to him pulling it out of the ground he could tell this was not just another sword, it was different, but he didn’t have time to figure out how, as the demon leader let out an enraged howl and charged Alex to challenge him again. Alex wiped around sword in hand and met with the demons sword, the creature clearly enraged about losing this battle after he had all but won it. Even as the rest of the group finished off the last of the smaller shadow demons, Alex fought with the leader, the demon determined to kill the fox, but was given no such chance. Back and forth the two went back and forth each clash ringing out aloud as the two fought, and others moved in to help, but where stopped by Luffy and Zoro, Luffy saying as they where told to move,
“No way, this is his fight, can’t you see it in his eyes? He wants to prove he has what it takes.”
Even with the shadows defeated Alex and the leader fought everyone in the camp chanting and calling his name, and then he thinks to himself as he managed to knock the demons sword into the air,
‘Mom, dad can see me? Keep watching, I’ll make sure to be the hero you both knew I could become.’
With that he swung his sword quickly cleaving the demon in two, watching as the two halves of the creature fell to the ground his blade then sticking into the ground as well, then vanished much like that other shadow demons had. Lowering his sword he stopped for a moment as he looked around seeing how everyone cheered, then with a grin, he lifted his new sword into the air, letting out a shout of victory, everyone else quickly following suit.
Still standing on the large log, Fin still stands now clapping, then saying once he stopped,
“Well done Alex, now I’ve no reason to stay, this is a path you’ll have to walk on your own, but it looks like you’ve have plenty of friends to help you along the way.”
With that the fox nods, then turns walking off of the log and into a purple aura, leaves Alex to celebrate with his friends in there hard fought victory.
~end of chapter~