2.5 A Grim Reminder

I yelped as a piece of the roof suddenly collapsed in front of me, the smoldering piece of hay and cobblestone kicking up some of the burning embers into my face.

"Fath- *cough* -er?!"

I furiously waved the embers off my face with my katana, my left hand still covering my mouth as I exited the burning workshop and out to our backyard. It was there that I saw the one thing I didn't want to see happen.

*SHLLLICK!*

A sword...

*SCHLLICK!*

A woman...

*SQUELCH!*

A body...

"HAHAHAHA!! THAT'S WHAT YOU GET FOR DEFILING YOUR BETTERS!"

A bitter taste rose to my mouth as nausea and disgust filled my very being, my grief intensifying the boiling emotions inside me as I couldn't help but vomit out what little I still had in my stomach.

Father...

"Huh," the woman turned to me as I struggled to process the sight before me; my knees threatening to give out on me. "Didn't know Dame Flamme had a kid with this trash."

I couldn't even begin to understand what she just said as my eyes fixated on the one sight that I hoped hadn't come to pass. My knuckles whitened on the grip of my katana as grief and rage quickly replaced the horrified disgust in me. My focus constantly flitted between my father's brutalized corpse and the blue-haired bvtch that just did the deed.

"Awww~ Is the little boy scawed?~" the bvtch taunted as she raised the tip of her bloody rapier to her lip, her eyes glinting as she stared at me. "Is Mommy not coming to save you?~"

I grit my teeth as I slowly assumed the stance Mother drilled into my head for years. I put my left foot forward as I lowered my body closer to the ground. With my right arm outstretched and my katana pointed edge-forward, I readied myself to slash with all my might should I charge forward. A primal part of me wanted to just throw all caution to the wind and go in on the woman sword-forward. It was all too easy; to run in like a madman possessed while waving my sword around in hopes of landing a hit.

Then again, if it didn't work in games, it sure as hell wouldn't work in real life. I really wanted my sword to slash this bvtch down for what she had done, and me running in sword blazing wouldn't do me any favors in accomplishing it.

"Oh? Trained, are we?" the woman chuckled as she put a hand behind her back while pointing her rapier towards me. "I guess I'll humor you~ You're Dame Flamme's son, after all~"

That name again... Flamme... A moniker?

"Show me your Mother's fire, cutie!~"

My eyes widened as a ball of liquid condensed on the tip of her rapier, the dark-red color of blood coalescing before moving to coat the rest of her blade. Another Zahler then, one that could control water?

Whatever. I breathed deeply as stood my ground, prepared for whichever attack this bvtch had to throw at me...

Calm down, Rouge... Remember your training...

I'm wasn't gonna die here. I still had to find Mother.

*GUSH!!*

I felt something pierce my stomach as the wind was knocked out of my lungs. A numbing pain radiating from my stomach as I felt blood rise up to my mouth.

...Huh?

"T-That's it? No fighting back? Not even a wild slash my way?"

My legs gave out I put a hand on the gaping hole on my stomach. I felt the blood pour out of me as my vision started to fail me.

What just happened?

"Rouge-URK!!!"

My head hit the dirt as I heard a familiar voice call out to me... Mother?

"How the mighty have fallen..." the bvtch remarked, her footsteps leading away from me and going towards where I heard Mother's voice. "Never thought it'd be this easy, considering that it's Dame Flamme that we're talking about."

"I'm kinda disappointed actually," a familiar voice added. It was from the one that attacked us out on the open field. "I mean, this is what the Flamme's been reduced to?"

I tried to force myself to move, but to no avail. I couldn't even lift my head to see what they were doing anymore.

"You traitor..." Mother spat. "After everything we've-"

"Still have some fight left in ya, Flamme?~" the man taunted. "Let me fix that then."

*SCHLIIICK!*

A sickening sound of metal rending flesh... Mother...

*Thud*

A fire burned inside me as what I assumed to be Mother unceremoniously hit the ground. These fvcks...

"There. That takes care of that," the man chuckled.

I'll make them pay. If I didn't die here, I'll make sure they regretted this.

"G-Good thing I never got pregnant~ If this is what having a kid meant, I refuse to even think about it!~"

I strained my ears to get at least some information out of the two, my consciousness still with me as I silently bled out on the ground.

"Not even for that one special someone you always talked about?"

"No... N-Not anymore, I think~"

A brief pause went between the two, my home's burning crackles filling the silence as I fought to remain conscious. White spots appeared in my eyelids, my body feeling colder by the second as I suddenly felt myself being lifted by my waist.

"S-So... what about this cutie?~" the woman asked. So she was the one that picked me up.

"Take 'im to the capital. He's bound to be either a Zahler or a Nenner."

Cut the crap. Talk about why my parents needed to die, freaks!

"I don't think he's going to be a Zahler, Jay~"

"Does it matter? He's bound to be as soft as her mother anyway, Aria."

Jay and Aria... Names I was far from familiar with. I could only mentally file everything I could remember about these two fvcks into my head before my body could fail on me. I just hope they talked some more.

"But still, he's Dame Flamme's son! I can't-"

"Can't what, Aria?"

A disagreement? Was there something here that I could use?

"I can't make her hate me more than she already does..." I heard the woman sigh, her tone almost inaudible before her voice perked up again. "Never mind~"

From there, I heard the howling winds pass through me as I felt my body move for a little bit. Judging from the sound of it, the speed that we were going was almost the same as Mother's back on the plains.

"Time to go back then?"

"Lead the way, Brother."

Siblings, huh...

It was then that I felt my consciousness fade, the last sensation I had being the wind fluttering through my blood-spattered hair. In my mind, I had but one final thought before I truly and utterly passed out; a feeling so intense that there was only one word adequate enough to describe this utterly despicable feeling...

Revenge.

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