[guncannon109]

5th Revolution. Stubborn, The Self Loathing Fledgling

In a small school in France, a teenaged girl with long black hair with a single braid stood in the hall by her locker. She wore a simple regulation school uniform comprised of a deep blue blazer, black pencil skirt and a plain white button up shirt.

She stared into the back of her locker which was almost completely empty save for two books and small sketch book with a worn out spine. She let out a small sigh and closed her locker as the bell rang signaling the end of the day as several female students.

“Hey Samantha!” a brunette with short hair and vibrant blue eyes called out her dressed in the same uniform only with two clips in her hair, one hot pink and the other pale blue, “I didn’t see you in fourth today, there something wrong?” she asked as she lightly patted the black hair girl on the back.

The black haired girl shook her head while avoiding eye contact, “No… I’m okay Amy… really.”

“Oh, that’s good,” the brunette smiled while she lead her friend off down the hall, “So how goes the work on those sketches I asked you for? I bet they’re awesome!”

Samantha bit her lip and gulped, “About that… a few things came up and I… haven’t exactly gotten anything of value just yet.”

Amy turned to the other girl and blinked then smiled, “Ah, that’s okay. I was merely curious is all,” she placed her hands on Samantha’s shoulders and looked her in the eye, “I’m in no real rush so just get them to me whenever they’re done, okay?”

Samantha avoided eye contact with the other girl once again and simply nodded, “O-okay.”

“Now then, how’s about you and I get something to eat?” Amy asked patting Samantha’s shoulders with both her hands, “We can stop by that cafe you like so much.”

Samantha froze as she felt her heart stop then shook her head, “Sorry Amy… I can’t today,” she said looking Amy in the eye and forcing a smile, “I’m supposed to be home early to watch my little brother… sorry.”

“Oh…” Amy thought for a moment as she back away, retaining her smile, “that’s alright, I understand. You gotta do what you gotta do.” she adjusted her bag that was slung over her shoulder and turned her back to Samantha, “I’ll see you in class tomorrow then, have a goodnight!” she waved back to her as she took off down the hallway.

Samantha waved back with her right hand until Amy was out of sight then balled that same hand into a fist before slamming it into the door of a near by locker, “Just stop it will you,” she cried a little to herself as she felt herself choke up, a pair of horns jutting out of her head on the shadow she cast, “Please... just leave me alone already.”

{Insert Opening Theme - “Rinbu Revolution” by Chihara Minori}

Selias sat on her ring surrounded by candles lit by blue flames, holding a withered and crack skull in her right hand, “Worthless little chimera!” she snapped as she crushed the skull in her hand, “I expected more from him, and now he’s merely another dead candle.” she looked over to the flames that surrounded her, “As will the lot of you if you follow in his footsteps!”

“Excuse me Aunt Selias,” Maestro called out as he appeared in a ghostly form before Selias, “But might I make a suggestion?”

Selias grumbled, “Fine… but make it quick.”

“Allow me to see to the conversion of Fledglings into Gate Keepers,” he offered, bowing before the seraph, “just this once at the very least.”

Selias sighed, “Very well… I’m in too foul a mood to say no at the moment away,” she stretched out her arms and fell back on her ring letting her body fell limp as she held on with her legs alone, “Do as you wish… not like your mother would let me stop you if she were here anyway.”

“Thank you,” Maestro lifted his head up and smirked, “I’ll swear on my life I shall not disappoint you.” He said before vanishing into thin air just as quickly as he appeared.

Selias lazily spun her ring around to where Maestro’s ghostly form was previously suspended in the air before her, “I’m going to hold you to that.”

---

In the valley of a small town in france, Trey and Syd had stopped for lunch in a humble looking cafe. Trey had in front of him a half eaten sandwich and orange smoothie but pay little attention either, simply looking down at the floor while Syd sprinkled a bit of Jayd into a bowl of ice cream in front of her before screwing on the cap to the vile, slipping it back onto her belt and digging in.

“Ah!” she said with glee twirling her spoon in her hand, “Nothing beats french vanilla from the source, don’t ya think Trey?” she looked over to the boy in front of her and blinked, “Trey?... Everything alright?”

Trey did not respond, still looking at the floor as if he were caught in a daze. As a result, Syd leaned over and flicked him in the forehead.

“OW!” Trey shouted being forced back a little, “What’d you do that for!”

“I was asking you a question, try and pay attention will ya,” Syd sighed as she sat back, “Like I said, you seem to be drifting off rather frequently as of late… everything alright?”

“Yeah… it’s just that…” Trey dodged eye contact with the girl sitting in front of her and looked out the window to the grassy fields of the town they were currently in, “I just can’t seem to shake this empty feeling I have.”

“Empty feeling?” Syd raised an eyebrow, she then laughed and picked up the remaining half of Trey’s sandwich and held it up to him, “If that’s all it is than how about you fill up by finishing this? After all, that’s why I ordered it for you.”

“I don’t think this void is something food can fill,” he said softly taking the sandwich from Syd and putting it down on his plate, “I just… feel like something is missing.”

“Understandable,” Syd grinned as she placed her hand on Trey’s shoulder, “But you shouldn’t worry, I’m sure you’ll find whatever it is you’re missing someday. You just need to keep your eyes open.”

Trey laughed a little, “Knowing my luck I probably won’t until it’s too late,” he let out a small sigh and quickly finished the sandwich he had on his plate.

As he ate the front door to the cafe opened up, Syd turning her attention to it as she saw Amy walk in and proceed up to the front counter. The waitress working at the front smiling at her as she approached her.

“Good afternoon, welcome,” the waitress at the counter greeted her, “What can I get for you today?”

“Hmm, let’s see…” Amy thought for a moment looking over the menu above the waitress’ head while making a few small glances at the fresh food by the cash, “I’ll take a blueberry and banana smoothie, a BLT on wheat and could I also get two slices of those new cakes you have on display there?”

“Certainly,” the waitress nodded as she went to get the girl’s order together, “Which kind of cakes would you like today?”

“Pick two of your best,” Amy said with a grin.

The waitress nodded once again and carefully wrapped the girl’s sandwich and putting it in a bag before setting it aside and pulling out a cake travel box, selecting one layered chocolate fondant with a cherry on top along side a strawberry short cake and placing them both in the box next to each other.

“Here you are miss,” she smiled as she handed the order over to Amy, “Your smoothie will be along in just a moment. And… well if you don’t mind me asking,” she paused for a moment and thought her words out carefully, “How is that friend of yours doing? The one I always see you here with?”

“She’s alright, she’s just a bit too busy to come down here today,” Amy smiled and took her food from the waitress, “Thanks for asking though, I’ll let her know your thinking about her. I hope these cakes will be enough to cheer her up,” she added as Syd’s ear twitched a little, “she hasn’t been acting like herself recently.”

The moment Amy got her smoothie and paid for everything she ordered, she turned back around and began making her way over to the door drawing closer to Syd and Trey. As she past by, Syd kicked her foot outward pushing the chair beside her out into the girl’s path resulting in her tripping over it and falling to the floor and throwing the food she ordered up into the air.

“Oh, I’m sorry!” Syd jumped to her feet pretending to be alarmed but the girl’s sudden fall, “Are you okay?!” she asked as she extended her right hand out to her and blindly caught the girl’s food in her left.

“Yeah… I’m good,” Amy winced a little as she grabbed Syd’s hand and pulled herself up. She looked at the chair and laughed a little bit, “Wow, I should really pay closer attention to where I’m going.”

“There’s an idea,” Syd laughed handing the girl’s order back to her as if nothing happened, “Um, excuse me for eavesdropping but did you perhaps mention that your friend wasn’t exactly acting like herself?”

Amy blinked for a moment, then nodded, “Yeah… why do you ask? Do you by any chance know Samantha?”

Syd eyed Amy taking note of her uniform then looked her in the eye and smiled, “I’m a classmate of her’s, I was merely concerned about her as all and noticed the same thing… I was only asking to confirm whether or not you were talking about the same person.”

“Oh, well I guess it’s good to know she has other friends other than myself,” Amy said softly, forcing a smile, “Especially considering how distant she’s making herself with others.”

Syd watched her closely and raised an eyebrow, “Distant how?”

“Well… she used to be a fairly good student, never missing a day of class and even staying late if she had to. Not to mention she’s been at the top of the art program since first term,” Amy sighed then frowned, “But recently she’s been skipping class and she goes home the second the bell rings. Plus she rarely draws anymore and I’m starting to worry.”

“I see…” Syd thought for a moment, then snapped her fingers together, “I’ve got an idea! How about you and I sit her down tomorrow during lunch and have a stern talking to? You can voice your concerns to her and I’ll hold her down in case she tries anything.”

Amy blinked for a moment, “Are you sure that will work?”

“Positive,” Syd nodded, “Just leave everything to me and this whole thing will turn out okay.”

Amy stared at the girl in front of her for a while on the verge of tears, then with one quick sniffle regained her smile and bowed, “Thank you uh… I’m sorry, I don’t think I ever got your name.”

“You can call me Syd,” she said simply.

“Syd?” Amy looked up at her, “Like Sydney?”

“Just Syd is fine thank you,” the red haired rider glared at her, “And… you are?”

“Amy, Amy Amarante,” the brunette said simply as he watch beep, she raising her arm to look at her, “Oh my, where does the time go?” she laughed a little and bowed once again to Syd, “Sorry, but I need to be going now. We’ll talk to tomorrow, and thanks again for the help!” she waved to Syd as she ran out the door, “You two have a nice day!”

Syd smiled and sat back in her seat with a grin on her face, “She seems nice.”

“Is that why you tripped her?” Trey asked, glaring at her intensely.

“No, that was only to gather information,” Syd said casually as she returned to her ice cream, “How else was I suppose to ask her about that friend of her’s?”

“Walk up to her and say hi like a normal person?” Trey suggested shrugging as he raised both his hands up with open palms, looking at her with an expression that said no duh.

“Well what’s done is done and now we have a lead on a new fledgling,” Syd proclaimed, “the details of how we got the information are irrelevant.”

“Wait a minute-” Trey looked out the window, “that girl was-”

“Not Amy, her friend,” Syd clarified as she finished her ice cream and smirked upon the final mouth full, “Normally I’d need to see them face-to-face in order to tell, but for this one I only needed the description of their behavior.”

“How exactly were you able to that?” Trey asked, tilting his head to one side.

“I’ll explain later,” Syd said as she got up and grabbed her coat from behind her chair and slipping it on before bringing her gauntlet up to her face, “Eli, were you able to get the location of that girl’s school?”

“Oren Pierre Preparatory School for Girls,” Eli’s voice echoed from the gem on her gauntlet, “1.5 kilometers west of here. Rests at the top of the hill in the center of town.”

“Got it,” Syd nodded, as she made her way to the door with Trey right behind her, “Any idea where we can purchase two uniforms?”

“Searching…” Eli spoke once again, “five local boutiques, one within range of here.”

“Perfect,” Syd smirked as she looked back to the boy behind her, “Hey Trey, what size did you say you were again?”

---

Samantha lay flat on a queen sized bed with violet sheets in a fairly large room with the lights shut off. Several sketches and paintings covered the walls that looked fairly well made and looked like quite a lot of time and effort went into making of each one.

She let out a small sigh as he phone buzzed beside her. She reached over and flipped it open showing that she had an unread text message. Upon opening it she found it was from Amy reading Hey, you free for a moment?

She groaned and flipped the phone shut letting it fall onto her bed once again before curling up into a ball like position and closing her eyes.

“Just go will you,” she whimpered as she began to cry, “I don’t have time for you right now.”

Just outside her window on a stray tree branch stood Maestro, who loomed over her watching the girl carefully noticing her shadow become more beast like as it began to constrict around her.

“She seems to be maturing nicely,” he said with a smirk, “Sorry to disappoint you Sydney dear, but you won’t be getting your hands on this one.” He pulled out a set of black D10 dice keeping his eyes fixed on the girl, “I’ll make sure of that myself.”

{End of Part A}
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
{Start of Part B}

Early the next morning, Syd walked through the fronts doors of the school dressed in a recently purchased girl’s uniform and strutted into the center of the hall as if she owned the place. She looked around to survey the area until to notice that she was completely alone, letting a sigh and rolling her eyes before turning her attention to the doors behind her.

“Come on Trey,” she shouted a little banging her fist on the door, “no one is going to notice, you’ll just blend into the ground so long as you don’t act out.”

“NO!” Trey shouted back in protest, “I’M NOT GOING IN THERE LIKE THIS!”

“DON’T BE SUCH A BABY!” Syd yelled back as she kicked the door in revealing Trey huddling just beside the door. She reached out and grabbed his wrist before pulling him to his feet and into the school, “We’ll get through this faster if you aren’t embarrassed by it.”

She released her gripped and turned to face the young boy who was currently dressed in the same girl’s uniform with a long brown wig that did well to hide his face. She rested her chin on her closed fist and stared at him intensely.

Trey glared back at her raising an eyebrow, “What?!”

“Nothing,” she whistled turning her back to him, “I was just thinking that look suited you is all.” Without looking back, she took a few steps toward him and grabbed the cuff of his jacket and took off down the hall, “Now let’s get going before they arrest you for being a perverted cross dresser!”

“YOU WERE THE ONE WHO MADE ME DRESS LIKE THIS!” he cried out as he dragged off, “And could we please avoid this in the future?!”

A few hours passed by and it soon came time for lunch as Samantha found herself wondering the halls before the bell sounded over her head. Amy quickly finding her and walking up to her and taking hold of her hand.

“Hey there Sammy!” she smiled greeting her friend, holding her hand tightly in case she tried to get away, “What’s say you and I go grab some lunch? I know this great place far away from everyone that’s perfect for unwinding after a stressful morning.”

“I don’t know,” Samantha felt herself begin to tense up, “I have a lot of work to ca-”

“I don’t want to hear it!” Amy interrupted placing her finger over Samantha’s mouth, keeping her grip on her friend’s wrist, “You’ve been working non-stop for the past few weeks, so how about you just cut back and live a little?”

“I…” she thought for a moment then sighed, “You aren’t giving me a choice now, are you?”

“Nope! Now let’s go!” Amy grinned as she pulled her friend down the hallway and eventually lead her to an isolated stairwell where she was certain no one would bother them.

The two sat quietly for a while and ate their lunch peacefully as about half an hour passed by within a matter of moments. Samantha kept her eyes fixed on her watch and impatiently tapped her foot as she felt a tight pull in her chest as if she was going to burst if she stayed there for another moment longer.

She let out a loud cough and began packing her stuff away, “Well, I should probably get going. Thank you for the cake though.”

“Not so fast!” Syd called out as she swung herself down from landing above and landed directly in front of Samantha, “Lunch ain’t over just yet, so how’s about you just stay where you are?”

Samantha fell onto her back and began to shake, “W-where did you come from? Who are you?!”

“I am merely a new transfer student,” Syd glared down at her cracking her knuckles, “That’s all you need to know.” She looked over to Amy, “Do your thing.”

Amy blinked for a moment then nodded as she hopped to her feet and walked in front of Samantha, “Sammy, you haven’t been acting like yourself lately… and I just want you to know that if there is something bothering you that you can talk to me,” she pleaded, extending her hand out to the girl on the floor, “So please… let us help you.”

Samantha panted as she looked at Amy, then over to Syd and finally back to Amy, “You… want to help me?” she asked her friend as she stood up and got back onto her feet. She breathed heavily and looked Amy in the eye.

Amy nodded, “That’s all I want to do… so can you let me?”

Samantha looked at the girl’s hand then back at the girl’s eyes, “THEN LEAVE ME ALONE!” she shouted before pushing Amy into Syd causing the two fall over allowing her enough time to run down the stairwell and out the door.

“Gah!” Syd groaned in annoyance as she picked herself off the ground, “I hate it when they run!”

Amy clung to the rail and panted, looking up Syd with panic in her eyes, “We have to go after her!”

“Don’t worry, I have a guard by the door,” Syd smirked, “She won’t get far.”

“I see…” she sighed with relief, “then why did you lie?”

Syd raised an eyebrow, “Lie about what?”

“Be honest, you don’t actually know Sammy do you?” Amy laughed a little as she got up off the ground and looked Syd in the eye, “So why did you lie and say that you did?”

Syd glared at her, “Is that really important?”

“No, not really,” Amy said looking out the window as she rested her arms on the rail, “It just that you wanted to help her out despite not even knowing her at all. That alone proves to me how good a person you are, and how good people can be in general. You know?”

“I suppose you’re right,” Syd sighed as she walked over to the rail and looked down to a small window where Samantha could be seen running out into the courtyard, “We’ll give her a little bit of space then try again. How does that sound?”

Amy nodded with a sad smile on her face, “I just want her to feel better… nothing more.”

In the courtyard below, Samantha angrily stormed away and reached into her bag to grab her cell phone before tripping over her own feet and falling to the ground. Her shoulder bag flying from her reach and landing with the flap open with her sketch book in plane view.

She climbed up to her feet and grabbed her bag before laying her eyes on the book, pulling it out and flipping through it before coming to a page with a half colored violet knight with a gold trim along long flowing black cape and claymore style sword raised in the air with one hand and a simple shield in the other. She looked at it for a moment as she began to shake and slowly ran her hand over a small signature that read “To Amy.”

“A knight in shining armor, huh?” Trey asked as he suddenly appeared over her shoulder, “You draw that yourself?”

Samantha’s eyes shot open as she quickly closed the book and shoved it back into her bag, swinging it once again over her shoulder and jumping back on her feet. “Shut up!” she shouted as she turned to face him, “It isn’t any of your business so just leave me alone!” she said as her eyes began to turn red from holding back tears.

Trey’s eyes shot open for a moment as her words reminded him of something. “You’re mean!” his sister’s voice echoed in his head, “And you’re annoying, now leave me alone!” echoed his own voice.

“Are you sure that’s… what you really want?” Trey asked placing his hand on her shoulder, “Whatever it is you’re going through, we can help you. What about Amy, you ever consider how she feels?”

“WHY THE HELL WOULD I?!” Samantha barked back, slapping Trey’s hand off her, “She doesn’t care about me, so why should care about her?!”

Trey felt his heart upon hearing the girl’s words, having absolutely know idea what to say he simply let his arms fall down to the side and looked down to the ground. “You couldn’t be more wrong…” he said quietly to himself.

Up in the trees directly above the pair, Maestro hovered over them with a smirk on his face. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the three black D10 dice from before while keeping his eyes fixed on the girl.

“Sorry kid, but you’re the one who is misguided,” he said to himself as he threw tightly gripped the dice in his hand before throwing them down to the ground by Samantha’s feet.

The dice struck the ground by Samantha, knocking her back a little bit from the second.

“What was that?!” she panicked as she looked over to the ground and saw three sets of bat like wings sprout up from the ground in the places where each die hit. Her whole body began to tremble, “W-what’s going on?!”

“Get behind me!” Trey said as he forced himself between the girl and the wings as they rose up from the ground revealing three vampiric humanoid creatures attached to them.

“What are these things?!” Samantha cried out as the creatures drew closer, “Answer me now you stupid girl!”

“It’s a little bit hard to explain right now,” Trey said as he removed his wig and threw it to the ground, “and I’m a guy.” He turned to her and grinned, trying to hide how terrified he was, “I’ll distract them, you use this time to get away okay?”

Samantha simply nodded and ran as far away from the area as her feet would carry her. Trey watched until she was out of sight, “Alright,” he cleared his throat as he turned back to the humanoid bats who hissed their teeth at him, “You freaks want a fledgling? Then come get one!”

“Striker! Piercing Saber Arise!” Syd’s driver shouted as she lept in out of no where and landed between Trey and the bats fully cloaked in the jade green hooded coat of her striker form with both swords in hand.

Within a single moment, she tightly gripped both her swords and struck the leftmost bat with an over arm swing from her right handed sword, then struck the rightmost bat with her left sword before crossing both her blades and delivering a strong blow to the center bat as well as the other two sending them propelling backward and falling onto their backs.

“Why must you be so quick to throw your life away?” Syd sighed as she twirled her right handed sword and resting it against her shoulder before looking over her shoulder to Trey, “A gift like that should not be taken for granted.”

Trey gulped and nodded, “Sorry,” he said as he dodging the bright yellow glow from the eyes within the black void of the rider’s hood, “I didn’t know what else to do.”

“You should count yourself lucky we were able to get here in time,” Eli’s voice echoed from within his gem on Syd’s gauntlet, “otherwise you might not be alive right now.”

Syd readied both her swords as the bats got back on their feet and turned their attention to her. “I need an analyses Eli,” the green rider demanded as she scrapped the blades of her swords together, “what can you get from this swarm?”

“Shadow type, age 31.6 seconds,” Eli stated, “they’re only hatchlings, so the gate keeper that’s controlling them must be near by.”

Syd smirked under the plate that covered her face, “Perfect, then let’s finish these off quickly and find the abomination they fell off of!” she said as she swung her swords outward and charged over to the bats, opening with a slash from both her swords at all three of them with both her left and right swords coming together from opposing directions in the form of a pair of scissors.

“Couldn’t agree with you more,” Eli said as two of the bats jumped in front of the third acting like a shield allowing the third to take advantage of the opening by lunging at Syd and biting down hard on one of her blades and snatching the other within his claws.

“Damn it! Why must these things be so damn annoying!” Syd groaned as she swatted the bat away. Her hand with Eli’s gem on it moving on it’s on to pop out the green striker die and placing it within a pouch on the back of her belt.

“Here, let’s try switching gears,” Eli suggested as he moved Syd’s right hand to grab the orange hunter die and snap it into place at the front of the driver before giving the dial a good spin.

“Hunter! Burning Arrow Ignite!” Syd’s driver called out as the color of her coat change from jayd green to a bright amber orange, the female rider throwing her swords away and throwing out her left arm as her crossbow materialized in her hand along. A simple grey quiver now adorned her left shoulder.

“I like the way you think,” Syd said as she pulled an arrow from her quiver and loaded it into her bow, “but you know how I feel about you moving my limbs like that.”

“Sorry,” Eli returned as Syd aimed her bow up to the three bats, the yellow eyes from within her hood locking onto all three at once, “Sometimes I forget my limits.”

Syd smirked, “One of your better qualities.”

Syd held her bow in her left hand and switched out her amber orange die for her blood red one before giving it a good spin. The die slowly coming to a halt as the bats dug their feet into the ground and charged towards Syd.

“SIX! Critical Strike!” Syd’s driver shouted as five dots illuminated on the die within it. Syd instantly pulled back on the trigger of her bow, firing the arrow as it split into six burning ones. Two hitting each one of the bats engulfing them in a cloud of crimson flames and smouldering smoke.

As the cloud dissipated, the three bats fell lifelessly to the ground and transformed back into the back D10 dice that they spawned from. Syd then removed the die from her driver and powered down before walking over and kneeling down to ground, picking up one of the dice and examining closely.

“Let me have a look,” Eli offered, “if the gate keeper that made these hasn’t yet sealed off it’s network I could still track it.”

“Wait just a moment,” she looked at it closely then closed her fist around the dice, “I know exactly where these came from.”

“Smart as ever I see,” a voice called out as a series of black threads shot up from the ground, grabbing the three dice and eventually forming into Maestro’s body. He juggled the dice between his fingers before slipping them into his sleeve and looking over to Syd, a sinister smirk appearing on his face as he eyed the young girl, “I should expect nothing less from my darling Sydney.”

Trey blinked as he jumped to his feet, “Wait, I know you.”

“Damn it Maestro!” Syd barked at him, “You have no right to so much as utter my name, let alone get it wrong! More importantly, what the hell are you even doing here in the first place?!”

“Come now my dear,” Maestro snickered as he slipped his hands into his pockets and began to approach her, “Is that anyway for you to speak to your father?”

{Insert Ending Theme - “Kyoukai no Kanata” by Chihara Minori}

Next time on Kamen Rider Jayd:

5th Revolution: Stubborn, Unshed Life.