Part One: Descent into Madness

“Bless the angel from heaven above; bless the devil from haters of God. May these prayers reach through and guide you to rest in peace my dear,”

 

Part One: Descent into Madness

 

 

(Silver Children- Nujabes)

 

A deep breath, he inhales and when his eyes open they open to a room wet with fresh blood that creeps into the cracks of his toes like waves creeping onto the shore. A bloody battle has ensued but yet, there isn’t a speck of blood on him. His katana is tucked away in its sheath, shuriken is still tied to his back and kunai is still hidden in his secret side pocket of his shirt. He stares at the unrecognizable remains of his long time mentor who had taken demonic form. Frozen in time as a rabid dog, his eyes are wide open with an intense stare-blacked out. He is foaming at the mouth with his sharpest teeth showing. Across the way, the man sees the lifeless human form of his mentor sitting up in his bed, head cocked to the side with his long silver hair laying across his face. The Grecian curse mark slowly disintegrates off of his neck.  Finally, he stares at the ceiling of this dimly lit room with a gaze of invincibility looking through the ceiling of the underground hideout to the sky of the upper world.

 

(Take a Little Hand- Yoko Kanno)

 

In the midst of his gazing, he hears light footsteps coming down the hall. Nearing the entrance, the footsteps become lighter and then stop. This person is hesitant to come any closer seeing that the entrance had been forcibly opened.  He lets his eyes slowly drift to the lower right corner of his eyes to see behind him without the on-looker knowing. Out the corner of his eye he sees strands of red hair that looks even more orange due to the orange glow of candle lights in the hallway. He reaches for his kunai in his shirt, closes his eyes and appears behind her with the kunai pressed against her neck. By this time, she had already mustered up the courage to look inside the room and the fear of God was in her eyes. Tears ran down her cheeks, heartbeat rapidly increased, body began to shake- all without force.

“Why” she murmurs.

“We are all Monsters. Guilty now, guilty go!”

 

Decades earlier;

 

            Standing at his parent’s grave, a boy holds the hand of his new guardian. At the young age of six, the only family he has known was taken from him by a rouge Ninja. Even though this day was a hot-sunny summer day all he could feel was a dark cloud hanging over him-crying- causing disturbing chills. Trying to hide his despair he faintly smiles when someone expects a response and holds back all his tears. When mourners finally leave him alone, he heads back to the gravesite to place a rose on both of the tombstones. Next to the grave was an old oak tree that had been stricken by lightening. Through the branches, he could see a full moon lighting the night with transparent clouds scattered throughout the sky.  Crows occupied the tree but surprisingly they were silent. He stares at the ground, hoping they would break through the coffin and dig their way through the dirt and back to the surface.  He falls to the ground and huddles into the fetal position. His guardian followed him to see where he was going; he places his hand on his shoulder causing the boy to look up. His face was now paler than usual; wet with tears and snot.

“Argento, I know it’s hard right now, but things will get better. You’re a strong kid. I know this because your parents were strong. You have a big heart and the rest of your life ahead of you to make happier memories”.

His sobs were slowly becoming sniffles.

“Take my hand and let’s go home.”

Argento stands on his feet and takes his hand. As they leave the gravesite, a white and black dog crosses in front of the tombstones and is bitten by a snake. Argento hears the dog’s cry and turns around to see the snake slithering away while the dog takes two more steps before it is overwhelmed by venom. The poisoned dog lies in the dirt in between his parent’s tombstones. 

 

Fifteen years later;

 

(I Miss You -Ayur)

 

Argento ‘s  guardian, Oro, trained him to become a ninja to protect the Aka clan from hostile neighbors. An age of war has fallen upon the lands and more than ever are youths being recruited to protect their village. Now at the age of twenty-one, Argento is mentoring younger clan members. He trains four of the clan’s youths; the fraternal twins (who have different last names due to them having different fathers), Nero level-headed Aranelous and Weiss hot-headed Wasser, the child prodigy Gris Nimbus and kind-hearted Ferrah Aero. Usual a mentor takes on three trainees but Weiss and Nero have to work together to function.

            During training, Gris leads the team with Ferrah as his right hand “man”.  Weiss and Nero follow lead while working with their strengths while keeping in check each other’s weaknesses. Argento supervised but offered little help. He wanted them to figure things out on their own with as little guidance as possible. They failed many training mission before they succeeded. They failed some qualification exams-Weiss in particular- that set their group back, but together they pulled through. When Argento felt like their team unity was the strongest bond in their lives, he trained each of them separately to help them realize their fullest potentials- their specialties.

            First he worked with Nero and Weiss and focused on the strengths of tranquility and fearlessness.

“Nero, look deep within yourself. Where do you go when you want to escape? Why do you go there? How do you go to this place? Who are you with? Who or what are you escaping? Weiss, look deep within yourself. What run through your mind when you see danger? What drives you to protect those around you? What make you so impulsive?”

 

Seven years earlier;

 

 Nero is in his childhood home with his brother, mother, father and other father. Nero and Weiss are in their bedrooms- a whole house separates them. Their mother built a house where she could live with her children as well as her lovers without the two sides crossing paths. Even though they weren’t suppose to hang out together, Weiss and Nero escaped their home regularly and created a brotherly bond that is only natural. Their fathers were in disapproval and became more and more hostile toward each other and their shared lover.

            One day Weiss and Nero had gone out and got food from the market, surprised that their parents let them go together. On their way back to the house, from a distance they could hear screaming, yelling and sobbing. The boys hasten their pace. From their home they hear a blood curdling cry, “NO!” and a loud thud. The boys peer through the cracks in the fence.

 

(Saku �" Dir En Grey)

 

In their living room window they see their mother hiding behind a couch as one of the fathers crawls through the kitchen door with a trial of blood behind him. A large gash was on his back, shirt was unraveling and bloody, hair unruly and bloody as well. As he nears the coffee table, he becomes light-headed and his head slams into the wood. The other father comes through the kitchen door only seconds after with katana in hand. He stumbles across the room to the couch and grabs the mother by the hair.

“This is all your fault!” He claims. “If you hadn’t been f*****g around with some other guy, I would have to do this. Now I am the bad guy, huh? Huh!”

The mother shakes her head in disagreement and with a shaky voice sobs, “You don’t have to do this! We can all be a family. The boys are handling the situation, why can’t we?”

“Oh, but I am!” Still pulling on her hair with his right hand, katana in left hand he raises it swings for the other father’s neck. To horrified, Nero looks away and meditates. He takes himself to his safe haven- his sanctuary- his garden of peace; a place his regularly visits when confrontation is near. Weiss tries to snap him out of it so they can to something to stop this madness.

“We can’t do anything, Weiss. The best we can do is stay away before he tries to kill us.”

“So you’re just going to let your father die!”

“I won’t give yours the satisfaction of killing the both of us”.

Weiss turns his attention back to the living room. Nero’s father’s head lays on the floor facing the outside while the body lies in the opposite direction. On the couch was Weiss’ father who has their mother pinned with a pillow over her face- smothering her. Weiss races to the window and begins to pound on it. Nero is still looking away. The father hears nothing over his own voice. Weiss sees a flower pot and chucks in through the window and grabs a glass shard. His father sees Weiss running at him with the shard but before he knew it the shard had punctured his heart and neck several times. Covered in blood he falls backward to the floor with his eyes in direct view of Nero’s father. Weiss lifts the pillow off of his mother’s face only to see a face completely drained of life. His red hands grab her shirt as his cries hysterically into her chest.

“Why, God, why? Please bring her back, Please…please!”

Outside, Nero meditates into a deep internal state of escapism. Here he continually tells himself, “You won’t have the satisfaction of killing us both. I belong here as much Weiss does. I am not a burden, I am not a burden.”

 

Seven years later;

 

            Argento takes in all their pain, through his eyes he saw what they been through. Weiss and Nero come out of their meditations with watery eyes. Argento wraps his arms around the both of them a pulls their heads to his chest.

“Unfortunate events happen, but we are fortunate to have them. They make us grow, they make us learn, they make us strong, and they make us who we are. Take in that pain and keep using to your advantage and never let it be a weakness. The both of you can read people better than anyone else, don’t ever lose that ability.” Weiss and Nero look up at Argento to see him smiling and they wipe away their tears and vaguely smile back. They bump foreheads literally putting their heads together and nod to each other in agreement.

            Next, he works with Gris and focuses on his strength of strategic planning.

“What makes you so independent? Why do you prefer to plan ahead instead of living in the moment? Where does your mind go when in battle? Who drives you to strive for perfection?”

 

Four years earlier;

 

(Crystal Silence- Chick Corea)

 

Since Gris was the oldest child, his parents-mostly his father-expected nothing less from him than the best. He knew a war was on the horizon and his father wanted him to be beyond well prepared for battle when he comes of age. He personally trained Gris since he was four years old. He put him into a private school and gave him no time for “childish things”.

            Gris has a younger sister, Nebbia who wanted to prove to their parents that she was just as smart, just as strong, just as good as Gris. She was only two years younger than him, but at a certain point her wisdom far exceeded her brothers’.

            Their father began to turn his attention to Nebbia and trained her more than Gris. Gris tried to win back his father’s affection, but he was shunned. Gris began to spend his days in the library, reading books upon books for hours on end. Eventually he got tired of going to the library and bought the books instead. Nebbia didn’t like this; she liked all the attention on her.

            On this day four years ago, Gris was coming back from school. When he makes it home, no one was in the house. He calls out, “Mom, dad, Nebbia, are you home?” But no one answers. He figures his parents are still at work but he doesn’t know where Nebbia is. He searches the house and when he finds no one, he heads outside. In the backyard he finds his sister standing over a fire pit. Next to her is a huge wooden box. She reaches in the box, hold up the item and turns to her brother. She begins reciting text from the book she is holding and then drops it into the fire. Gris realizes that that box of books are his and she was going to burn them all.

“What are you doing? Those are my books!” She doesn’t reply, she just recites another text from the next book and throws it in the fire.

“Hey, stop it!” He yells as he runs towards her but as he reaches her she kicks him back to where he started. She grabs another book and then another and then another and with each book she throws into the fire it grows.

“You will never be as smart as me. If you were, you wouldn’t need to reread any of these books. They should be memorized the first time you read them.” She throws another book into the fire. This one makes the fire grow incredibly big. Not noticing this, Nebbia’s pants and shirt quickly catches on fire. Some of the gasoline she used to start the fire had gotten on her clothes and skin and is burning her faster than normal. Gris gets the hose and spays her down and then uses a blanket to smother the fire. Nebbia is rolling on the ground in agony, rolling around in the ashes of dead skin and paper. Her whole body is covered in burn marks and scars- black soot covers her head to toe. Gris calls the ambulance and when they arrive, so does their parents. Their parents put all the blame on Gris. Nebbia is stuck in a full body cast for months and when it was removed her scar infested body makes her extremely self-conscious and she hides away in her room. Still unforgiving, Gris’s father disowns him and forces him to live at a boarding school. It’s been four years since he has seen his family.

 

Four years later;

 

            “That is why I burn books when I finish reading them. I can memorize them too. She’s no better than I am.” Gris proclaims. Argento lowers his head to look at Gris who was meditating while sitting on the ground.

“But you lost something important to you in the process of proving yourself.”

“And what would that be? I still have my mind, my body, my soul.”

“You lost your spirit. You lost your ability to read books for enjoyment. You lost your ability to read a book and take what you want from it and not what others want you to take from it.” Gris looks away with a pout on his face.

“If you find that curious-creative drive again, you could be the great ninja you’ve always wished to be. I have faith in you. I know you can do it. Let others doubt you because in that doubt there is always a way to surprise someone and in most cases it is yourself.” Gris stands to him feet and looks out to the valley the hill they are on overlooks. He sees a flock of birds flying in formation with one bird in the front, far ahead of the others. It squawks commands and the other reply. A wind is blowing from the east; noticing this, the lead bird banks right and flies higher while the others follow in order to fly above this gust of wind. This gust of wind blows feathers that shed in his direction and one lands on his forehead. Gris grabs the feather of his forehead, grips onto it tightly and walks down the hill to join the rest of his team.

            Finally, the last one Argento works with is Ferrah. He focuses on her strength of compassion.

“What makes you see the good in people? Who was caring to you? How does being compassionate create internal conflict for you in battle?”

 

Eight years earlier;

 

            Ferrah grew up as an only child. Her father had died when she was little and her mom is raising her by herself. Her mother tries to have a love-life but she doesn’t always pick the right men.  She was had men who were bums, men that were addicts, men that were abusive-all types of men. At the beginning of each of her relationships, they seemed like hard-working, motivated, loving men but there was always a certain point in each relationship things take an unexpected turn. She always blamed herself; it has to be her fault right, if the same things keep happening to her? She had given up on love when another man wanted to be a part of her life.

            This man had been watching her from a far for quite some time now. Ferrah has seen this man on numerous occasions when she went out shopping with her mother. He has seen the men she had been with, learned from their mistakes and molded himself into the perfect man for her. One day he approached her with the intent on making her fall in love with him at first sight. To his dismay, she didn’t acknowledge his efforts and carried on with her day. The man tried again another day, but yet again she turned him down. She was done with love and had no motivation to make room in her heart for it. The man was frustrated. He had spent so much of his time pursuing this woman, persuading this woman to let her know his love is real. Frustrated, he continued to follow her from a far with the hope of learning more about her so he can get her to open up to him.

            Months past, he changed his appearance and he attempted to woo her again. This was not the day to do it. She and Ferrah were walking with somber looks on their faces. Seeing this, he felt it would be the perfect opportunity to run into her again. He bumped into the mother as if by accident.

“Oh I am sorry my lady. I was too busy fascinated by this book.” She looked at the title.

“I love that book. It is my favorite.”

“Oh, is it now? It is my favorite too.”

“I remember at first I didn’t like it very much but then my husband read it to me once and it had deeper meaning to me then.”

Husband? He didn’t anticipate this. When did she get married?

“Oh, so you are married?”

“I was, but he passed away four years ago- this day four years ago.”

The man finally noticed that she and Ferrah were wearing black and had a hand full of lilies.

“If you please excuse us, we are heading to his grave at this moment.”

“Oh of course, I am sorry to hear that. I offer my condolences.”

“Thank you, sir.”

Ferrah and her mother continued to the graveyard while the man stood in defeat.

 

(Blue- Gackt)

Something inside had cracked; all this commitment with no gain. He was used to getting what he wanted and didn’t know how to handle this. He was used to knowing everything before approaching a situation. How could he miss something that important? This rattled his brain and he was determined to win Ferrah’s mother’s affection. One night, he broke into their house and forced himself onto the mother.  She screamed and fought back. She was able to get him off of her and she ran downstairs, grabbed the kitchen phone and locked herself in the bathroom. The cord was lying on the floor in the crack between the door and the ground. He had followed her and broke down the door. With all this commotion, Ferrah woke up and slowly headed downstairs. The man had grabbed the phone out of the mother’s hand and proceeded to tie the cord around her neck while detaching the phone from the cord. He forced himself on her again and in his demented rage of passion the grip of the cord became tighter and tighter, slowly but surely choking the mother. Ferrah went to the storage closet and grabbed a broom with a metal body. She continually beat the man with the broom until his attention was on her and not her mother. When he grabbed the broom and swatted Ferrah away, he finally realized that he had killed the mother in front of her child.

 

Eight years later;

 

“He knew I saw what he had done. He knew that I knew his face and name. He knew that I would want revenge and the police would find him easily if I lived. In spite of knowing this he let me live. He showed me compassion and regret.”

“What happened to this man? Did you turn him in?”

“No, I didn’t. I knew it would catch up with him eventually and it did. He took his own life. I remember seeing him viewing the funeral from a distance and later that day the police found his body in that same spot.”

Argento was taken back to when he was six years old and how a rouge ninja had killed his parents. Unlike Ferrah, he didn’t know the killer, he doesn’t know where he is now, but the assassin did spare his life too.

“Ferrah, we are lucky that we were young and these killers were compassionate- sympathetic to our feelings of hate, pain, rage and loss. But neither one of us are six years old anymore. War is war and no one is safe. Compassion for outsiders must be suppressed because in other clans, kids as young as six can be killers.”

Ferrah lowered her head. A gust of wind blew from the south forcing the flock of birds to fight against it. Some of the birds didn’t have enough strength to fight it and were separated from the rest of the flock. The ones that made it through continued their journey southward, leaving the others behind.

 

Four years later;

 

(One of those Summer Days -Rhye)

 

After four years of training, when they all are 18- their team set out to the battle field.  The war between the Silver and Gold nations was at its peak and casualties are high. The five- Argento, Weiss, Nero, Gris and Ferrah set out on their first mission, optimistic that they can complete it with no problems. Their mission was simple, infiltrate a village in Kiro clan territory and gather Intel on the Gold Nation’s battle strategy; where will they strike next?

In a nearby cave, in the outskirts of the village, they set up camp and hideout in this cave. Around the fire, Gris comes up with a strategy while Argento assigns roles. Weiss and Nero will be the look-outs to make sure Gris and Argento can sneak into the village unnoticed. Those two will listen in on a war meeting while the other three wait for their go ahead. When the meeting adjourned, Argento will whistle to signal Weiss and Nero to create a distraction while Gris raids the local library for any relevant information and Argento and Ferrah gather supplies.

The next morning, they set out to carry out their mission. Everything is going according to plan. They listen in on the war meeting and when it is over, Argento gives the signal to move into phase two of their operation. Gris heads for the library while Ferrah joins Argento. Nero and Weiss cause a ruckus on the streets of the village turning all attention on them. The village officials notice that they are from the Silver Nation and take immediate action. This was a crucial time in the war and no enemies were allowed to escape. From their base on the far side of the village, just outside of it, they summon their porcupine spiritual guides. These porcupines are not normal sized but giants with giant spikes to match. They rush the streets of the village and surround it on all sides.  By the command of the chief, the porcupines release their spikes all at once and pierce through every home, every shop, every building and every person in the village.  The streets were silent, the porcupines returned to the base, the officials checked the streets to make sure the enemies didn’t escape and they didn’t. They found the body of Nero pinned to the side of a bakery shop with a spike through his chest. They found Weiss pinned to a tree with a spike through his forehead. They found Gris pinned to a bookshelf by two spikes, one through a book in his hand and one through his shoulder. They didn’t find Argento or Ferrah who were still hiding at their base- they are spared. They head back to the cave and wait. They wait for it to be safe so they can retrieve their fallen comrades’ bodies.

Night falls upon this valley and they return to the village. The officials have taken their bodies in their possession and threw them in a shallow pit they dug up hours before. Argento and Ferrah unbury them and transport their bodies back to the cave. In the morning they left Gold Nation territory and returned home.  There, they were properly buried and given a proper sending. Argento decided to bury them in his family plot. Yet again, another family line ceases to exist.  Nero and Weiss’s parents were dead, Gris’s family disowned him, and so Argento, Oro and Ferrah were their only real family. Argento and Ferrah deal with another great loss in their families and Oro is the one that guides them through it. Unlike 19 years ago, Oro doesn’t have the time to bring each of them out of their slumps. He is the leader of the Aka clan and has a war to lead. Ferrah and Argento did not go back to war and spent the remainder of it living together in Oro’s vacation home-far away from the battlefield.

 

Four years later;

 

            Two years after the failed mission, the war ended for the time being. The Murasaki clan had called for a cease fire and threatened to enter the war and kill those who didn’t agree. Both nations know that the Murasaki clan is the most powerful clan and can wipe out the other four clans easily so both agreed. The Murasaki clan moved out and set up villages throughout both nations.  

            During these four years, Argento and Ferrah help each other through their sorrow. In this time of peace they got married. The man that took Ferrah in after her mother was murdered was the leader of the Ao clan, Gurren Kage. At the wedding, he gave her away while Oro presented the couple with their rings. They lived together in a quiet village near the ocean- away from the capital and away from their pasts. Argento had other things on his mind; things that he would need to get done in private with no interruptions. He spent most of his days in the basement of his home, conducting numerous experiments on frogs, rats, E.coli, and cats. He studied their genes, their lifespan and their mutations. He wanted to see how much their bodies can handle until they gave out and when they did give out could he make them handle the stress again. For years he played with the life and death of these species, succeeding to bring some back to life while others remained dead.

During those four years he practiced and practiced. Ferrah having no knowledge of him playing God had no way to stop him before it was too late. Argento wanted to find the secret to eternal life and would not stop his experiments until he finds it. Now, Ferrah is pregnant with their first child. Argento promises to himself, as does Ferrah, that their child will grow up with both of its parents. He had made much progress on his experiments and soon wanted to test out his findings on humans- the living and the dead. In an unfortunate way, he would get his chance.

 

(Jardim Botanico - Akiko)

 

The doctor tells Ferrah and Argento that if she has the baby, Ferrah will not make it through the birth and the baby may not either. Ferrah was willing to sacrifice her life so that Argento can have a child, but Argento doesn’t want to lose Ferrah and possibly his child too. He had to do something quick, her due date was only days away. He was ready to see if his serum would work. He took the first dose of it and waited to see what would happen. Nothing happened, not until he went to sleep. In the middle of the night he awakes shivering. His body temperature was much colder than normal. His skin feels slippery and scales appear all over it. His complexion becomes a tan color, but his chest turns yellow, eyes turn black, tongue turns purple and grows, two black dots appear on the sides of his neck as his neck stretches further and his teeth grow and become sharper. On the back of his neck the Greek letter of Phi appears. Argento stumbles over to the mirror to see what he had become. The serum he made turns him into a deformed Human-King Cobra. Horrified, he finds a blanket and wraps himself in it and retreats to the basement.

In the morning, Ferrah wakes up due to the severe pain of contractions. In pain, she cannot lift herself off the bed and calls out for Argento. She calls out his name over and over again, louder each time she feels another contraction. No answer. She tries to turn over to her side with the hopes of swinging her legs around so they can reach the ground and she can push herself up to sitting positions. As she attempts, her water breaks and she falls back onto her back. She calls for Argento again, but still no reply. She begins to focus on her breathing. In the midst of her beginning to push, Argento finally makes it to the bedroom. In full panic mode, he carries her from the bed and sets her in the bath tub.  He runs warm water into the tub and grabs a rag to wipe some of the sweat off her face. There is no time to call a doctor, so he has to deliver their child himself. Ferrah keeps pushing, while he holds his hands out, ready to catch the child. She pushes and pushes and pushes until the baby comes out in full.

“It’s a girl!” He proclaims joyfully.

“A…girl…my dear…Sephora…Rose.”

“That is what you want to name her?”

“Yes...it’s my…mother’s name.” Ferrah was out of breath and barely conscious she lays in the bath tub.

“Hold on, Ferrah. I won’t let you leave us.” Argento had to think fast, the ambulance even if called would not make it in time. Ferrah was breathing lightly and Sephora wasn’t crying. A strange sensation over came him. He began licking his teeth as he looked at both of their necks. Something was telling him to bite them, but how would an injection of venom help them. Even with this thought, he bites their necks, Sephora’s first and then Ferrah’s. Sephora starts to cry and a symbol appears on her neck where he bit her; the symbol is the Greek letter, Delta. On Ferrah’s neck the Greek letter, Sigma appears. Her breathing slows down even more and within a minute it stops. He checks her pulse and feels nothing. He moves her body to the basement and places her inside a coffin in a giant cooler, hoping that one day she will wake up. He finds another coffin and begins to bury that in the backyard, convincing his neighbors and doctor that she was in there and that she had died in childbirth.

 

Two years later;

 

(Powdered Snow-  Ayumi Hamasaki)

 

Around the Silver Nation, there have been numerous “missing person” reports. The people have been disappearing at night and leave no trace behind. At first, they were disappearing from a village near the ocean, but now they are disappearing from surrounding villages as well as the capital. Oro is concerned that these disappearances may be caused by spies from the Gold Nation or even worse rebels from the Murasaki clan who are trying to cause another war. He begins his investigation, working his way from the capital to that small village near the ocean.

            Arriving at this village, he notices how rundown it had become. A once lively fishing village is now silent. The streets are empty. Every door and window are closed and boarded up. The sun is hidden behind dense clouds and fog. There is little plant life to be found and rotten fish are being picked apart by stray cats. The village looks abandoned. Oro, however, had to make sure. He sends his team to search every house, every shop and every alleyway of this village. No one was home.

            Oro and his team search every inch of this village on a cliff by the ocean. When they reach the cliff, they start to turn back when one of his crew notices a house built on the side of it. They scale down the side of the cliff to reach the porch of the house. Inside, they find piles of paper and medical books scattered throughout. The bedroom has an unmade bed in it with a wine bottle on the nightstand and a wine glass next to it. The kitchen has pots on the stove with rice and noodles inside it.

“Someone still lives here.” Oro concluded. “Spread out!”Oro headed outside to view the surrounding area. Off of the porch was a staircase that leads to the beach and another one that leads to the top of the cliff. He takes the steps to the beach. When he reaches a flat footing, he notices a rock that has an inscription on it. Oro pushes against it, but nothing happens. He looks for a break in the rocks he could pull and found one. As he pulls the rock loosens. Instead of forcing it open the right way, he digs at the rock surrounding it and pushes it in the opposite way. He sees a long tunnel that has been dug into the side of the cliff. He takes a match from his pocket and lights it so he can see. He follows the tunnel only to find himself eventually at a three-way split. He feels the ground for vibrations and takes the path leading left.  He comes to another three-way split and feels the ground for vibrations again. This time he takes the right path. He delves deeper into the cliff’s side tunnel and eventually finds himself in a hallway with seven doors.

            He picks wisely what door he wants to open so whoever is here won’t know he is here. Naturally, a person would go for the door at the opposite side of the hall, but something was telling him to choose a different one. He chooses the door in the middle on the left side of the hall. He cautiously approaches the door and peaks under it. He sees a person standing in the middle of the room facing away from him. He stands up and kicks down the door. Dust flies in the air and when it settles he sees a familiar face-a face he hasn’t seen in years.

“Argento? Is that you?” The man turns around holding vile of a green substance in his hand.

“No. My name is Weiss. And who are you?”

“Weiss…Weiss!” He was in shock. “How are you alive?”

“You see this mark,” it was the Greek letter Alpha, “this is the mark of the reincarnate, Argento.”

“Reincarnate. Argento has been toying with life and death!?”

“Toying isn’t the right word, he has been experimenting with this fragile thing we call life and its inevitable end we call death.”

“Toying, experimenting, whatever you call it, they are not something to be messed with!”

“Is that so, Oro? You don’t want to do more with your life, do more than what your short time on the planet will allow you?”

“Argento!”

 

(Taskinst- Ayumi Hamasaki)

 

“You of all people should understand. My parents’ life was cut short, your parents’, your wife’s, Weiss’s, Nero’s, their parents’, Gris’s, my wife’s…everyone around us. And yet you look down on me for bringing them back.”

“Argento, living things are called alive because they are not dead and when they do die they are called dead because they are no longer alive. If there was suppose to be life without death, alive without dead then we wouldn’t be called living things- it’s only natural.”

“I have created an in between existence that I can only grant on others.”

“Yes, an existence that should not exist in this world. I won’t let you out of here alive!”

“Well that’s funny; I am already dead according to you!”

Oro draws his kunai and charges at Argento but Weiss interferes. Argento escapes the corridor and runs through the tunnels, battling off anyone who tries to halt his escape. When enough time passes by, Weiss follows Argento’s lead and escapes through the tunnels. Nero, who was in the room across the hall, hears the commotion and heads to the room at the end of the hall. He goes there to retrieve the coffin that holds Ferrah’s body, but when he gets there the coffin was open and her body gone. Irritated, his Grecian curse mark-Beta- glows silver. Nero leaves the hideout to inform Argento. Argento already knows because he saw her in the tunnels and she was the one leading the rest of Oro’s troops through the tunnels. Gris, who was in the house grabs Sephora and leaves the premises as well. They all manage to escape and head to the border. When Oro returns to the capital, he tells all his officials that Argento has been banished and if they see him to kill him immediately. To his dismay, the research he was doing started to become known throughout the nation and word had spread to the Gold and Bronze nations as well.

            For months, Argento, his daughter and his follows wander throughout the Gold Nation looking for a good place to hide. In one of the few desert areas that were occupied by trees and shrubbery, he made an underground hideout and left no indications of it being there. The entrance was only visible to those that bear one of the Grecian marks.