[guncannon109]

6th Revolution: Stubborn, Unshed Life

Syd stood with her eyes narrowed at Maestro and grunted, turning her head and dodging his gaze, “I have no idea what you’re talking about, because you aren’t my father,” she snarled as she looked back at him in the corner of her eye and pulled out her green striker die, “You never were and you never will be… just go, before you regret it.”

“Oh my, you’ve certainly grown up to be a feisty one,” Maestro chuckled shaking his head a little at her. He took two steps forward resulting in syd taking one step forward herself, tightly gripping the die in her hand as she sharpened her gaze at him. He sighed, “Fine… be that way, but just so you know you shall always be mine my sweet little flower. As will that girl you’re protecting.”

He turned his back to her and waved before dispersing in a small black cloud of smoke which quickly shifted in a flock of black bats which flew up into the sky cast in a deep orange from the setting sun. Syd gritted her teeth together and kicked over a can that lay partially crushed at her feet, the clang of metal against the pavement and far away caw of birds cutting through the otherwise dead air.

“Come on Trey,” she spoke up turning to the boy behind him, Trey’s lost eyes jumping over from the sky above to where Syd was standing, “we’re going.”

“Oh, right,” he paused for a moment as the girl walked past him, “Where are we going?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” she asked as she looked over her shoulder to him, with a cold look in her eye, “We are going after that fledgling, that is my job after all remember?”

“Right, of course. But…” he stared at her for a moment as he felt his heart begin to race, “Who exactly… was that?”

“He’s just someone who’s better off dead, that’s all you need to know,” Syd snarled turning her back to him once again, “Now are you coming with me or not?”

Trey nodded, “Of course.”

“Good,” she smirked a little, “That’s exactly what I wanted to hear.”

---

In a small plaza at the bottom of the hill where the school sat atop of, Samantha quickly walked down the street with her eyes fixed in front of her as she bumped into a small child and knocked him to the ground.

“Ow…” the boy sniffled as he began to cry, his mother instantly ducking to the ground to pick him up.

“Are you okay sweetie?!” the child’s mother panicked a little as she patted his head, the boy sniffling a little before nodding. “That’s good, yeah you’re okay,” the mother smiled as she wiped the tears away before looking over to Samantha, “There, I’m sure this nice lady didn’t mean it… right?”

Samantha froze as the boy smiled and extended his hand to her noticing a small pin she had in her hair, “Pretty!”

Samantha jolted and smacked the boy’s hand away, the mother gasping in shock and pulling her son away from her. At that moment, Samantha felt a sharp pain in her chest that instantly ran into a near by alleyway as fast as her feet would allow her. Once she was out of sight she collapsed to the ground.

“Why…” she panted heavily as she tightly grasped the pain in her chest, “Why won’t you people ever just leave me alone!”

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

Trey sat on a bench by the side of an open road as Syd stood atop a tall lamp post with her wrist held up to the horizon, a small light green glow emitting from the gemstone on her gauntlet. As Trey let out a loud sigh he looked over to see Amy running towards them, crouching down and resting her hands on her knees once she reached them.

“Any luck?” Trey asked simply.

Amy sadly shook her head as she stood up and frowned, “How about you two?”

“Sadly not,” he returned as he hung his head.

Amy looked up to Syd and raised one her eyebrows, “Uh… what exactly is she…”

“Tracking,” Trey answered looking up to Syd himself, “At least that’s what she told me.”

“Oh, so she’s like a spirit medium or something. Right?” Amy asked jumping to conclusions, Trey turning to her with a look of confusion, “Yeah, I read about them once. It’s said that there are some people that are so in touch with the world that they literally find anything or anyone just by concentrating hard enough and feeling for their energy.” She looked to Trey and laughed, “At least that’s the best I can describe it anyhow.”

“Oh… that does sound a lot like what she told me,” Trey looked over to Syd, taking note of how focused she currently was at her current task.

“Thanks again for doing this,” Amy smiled at him once again, grabbing his attention back, “It means alot to me, honest. Especially all that she’s done,” she sighed and looked back up to Syd, “I don’t know if I could ever be as selfless and thoughtful as your friend is up there… really, she’s something else.”

“Yeah,” Trey felt his heart skip for a moment as he balled his hand into a fist, “It would help me out a lot if I were more like that… more like her.”

At that moment the light hovering over Syd’s gauntlet flickered as it quickly faded away. Syd then snapped her fingers together and opened her eyes. “Got her,” she exclaimed as she jumped down to the ground below, “She’s not far from here, but we need to hurry.”

“Fantastic!” Amy clapped her hands together before placing them over Syd’s shoulders, “Where are we going?”

“We are going after he,” Syd put simply turning her gaze down the road with her back to Amy, “You on the other hand need to go home.”

“How come?” Amy protested, “She’s my friend, I should be there for when-”

“You need to leave!” Syd barked as she turned around and looked the girl in the eye, a small spark like glimmer going off within her own, “Now!”

Amy’s look of concern was instantly replaced with a warm smile, “Alright, if that’s for the best I understand,” she bowed before turning her back to them and walking off down the road in the opposite direction of where Syd and Trey were going, “Let me know how it all goes, alright!” she waved as she disappeared over the horizon.

Syd let out a small sigh and turned to the other end of the road, “I really hate doing that.”

Trey blinked and looked at her, “Uh… what the heck did you just do?”

“I reconfigured her mind set by tapping into her mental network,” Syd explained, “It isn’t easily done, hence why I don’t do it unless I need to.”

“Uh, isn’t that kind of wrong?” Trey asked as he felt his skin crawl, “That’s someone’s mind you’re messing with! How would you feel if I stepped into your head and rewired you just to make my life easier?”

Syd’s eyes flickered for a moment resulting in her twitching for a moment and becoming frozen in her tracks, “This isn’t the time for such nonsense.” She turned back and looked him in the eye, “There is a flame that must not be allow to be blown out no matter the cost, so are you coming with me? That is what you wanted right, to take you with me?”

Trey thought for a moment then nodded, “Sorry… lead the way.”

“Excellent,” Syd smirked taking hold of the boy’s hand, “because I’m not leaving you behind.” She laughed a little, “Your petty concerns are far too amusing for me to do that.”

---

Back on the other side of town, Samantha limped her way out of the alleyway as the sky began to grow a deep angry amber from the setting sun. She gritted her teeth and fell to the ground, grasping her chest as she felt her arm begin to pulse violently.

“Does it hurt?” a voice called out to her.

She wiped her head around to see Maestro standing directly behind her, “W-who are you?” she winced and grabbed her arm before shuffling away from the black eyed man who lurked over her, “Get away from me!”

In what seemed like a single step, Maestro loomed over her and propped up her head with one hand and placed a finger over her lips with another “Hush now my dear,” he cooed as he looked deep into her eyes and gently caressed the girl’s cheek with his thumb, “You have no need to fear me child, it is everyone else who you should be afraid of. They are the one who wish to cause you such torment.”

Samantha looked into her eyes and felt all her pain seemingly vanish within his gaze. She felt her heart begin to race not out of fear, but more in comfort, as something about this man made her feel safe somehow.

She gulped as her eyes widened, “W-what are you talking about?”

Maestro slowly knelt down and pulled up the girl’s sleeve revealing several blue thread like cracks of light constricting around her arm. She gasped in shock as the threads slowly began to pulse, revealing a slight shade of violet from within them along with a hint of a deep red.

Maestro leaned down and gently kissed the back of her hand as the thread began to fade. “There,” he whispered as he looked up to her, “feel better?”

“Yes… thank you,” she breathed heavily as she pulled her sleeve back down to cover her wrist. She looked back to the man in front of her who in turn was looking back to her with a piercing gaze and a seemingly warm grin on his face, “Why are you helping me?”

“It is because you and I dear are one and the same,” she put simply, pinching her cheek a small bit before standing back up, running his hand through his long jet black hair as he looked down upon her. He then reached for the collar of his shirt and, like a knife tearing through fabric, undid the top six buttons leaving his well sculpted chest exposed which was covered in several blood red cracks much like the ones on the girls arm.

Samantha gasped and rose to her feet before reaching out her arm and placing her hand on the male’s bare chest, “Do those… hurt?”

“On the contrary,” he placed his hand over her’s and looked into her eyes once again, “these markings are proof of my power, and that I am alive.” He released her hand and pushed her away before turning around and redoing the buttons of his shirt, “That same power rests within you as well. All you need to do…” he looked back to her over his shoulder and smirked, “is cast yourself away from everyone.”

Samantha’s eyes shot open, “No,” she shook her head and looked down to the ground, “I-I can’t… everyone will be disappointed in me if I… if I-”

“If you what?” Maestro interject as he walked up to her and wrapped his arm around her, pulling her in close before whispering into her ear, “You’ve practically already done so, what harm is there in taking one final step?”

Samantha began to shake within the male’s arms as the comfort she felt from him before quickly changed into fear once again. She was trapped with no where else to go and as a result her entire body began to completely lock itself up as she closed her eyes tight, fearing the worse from whatever this man had planned from her.

“LEG HER GO MAESTRO!” Syd called out from the entrance of the alleyway with Trey directly behind her, slapping her driver onto her waist as she pulled out her green striker die.

The black haired male looked over to her and chuckled, “Of course, as you wish my flower,” he said as he violently threw the girl in his arms to the ground, Trey instantly running into catch her.

The boy looked the girl over and sighed with relief, “She’s alright!” he called back to Syd with a small thumbs up.

“She is,” Maestro smirked as he pulled a black die from his pocket and flipped it into the air, a curved blade as black as obsidian forming from it as he quickly grasped it and swung it over his shoulder, “but you might not be.”

Maestro swung the blade at Trey as Syd quickly slammed her green die into her belt and pulled up the hood of her jacket, giving the dial on her belt a quick spin.

“GAME START! STRIKER!” he belt called out as her coat changed from navy blue to jade green as her eyes shawn bright yellow from within the void of her hood, “Piercing saber arise!”

In one motion, Syd pushed Trey and the girl out the way, whipped out her twin swords and clashed one with Maestro’s own blade before slashing at him with the second. Maestro however caught the blade and used it to bend Syd’s arm around her back before kicking in the back of her knees and forcing her to the ground, Syd crying out in agony and powering down as a result.

“Do you not understand yet child?” he whispered into Syd’s ear as she tried to break free, “You still have yet to fully grow, and so you cannot even dream of defeating me. You still are merely a delicate flower that cannot survive on the outside of my garden.”

Suddenly, without thinking, Trey placed Samantha down on the ground and ran over to Maestro, “Damn bastard! YOU ARE A SIN AGAINST NATURE!” he shouted punching him hard in the back of his head with all that he had. However, this didn’t even so much as phase Maestro as he simply looked back with a glare of only slight annoyance.

“Worthless little pest, do you not understand nature?” he said as he thrusted the hilt end of his sword into Trey’s gut, winding the poor boy as he fell to his knees. He then released Syd’s wrist as let go of his blade as it dispersed into a puff of black smoke in the air. “Lightning strikes the tiger’s home, which sets catches and burns to the ground. The tiger fleas and out of fear attacks a passing man. The man is a hunter and shoots it dead, then take it home to feed his family” he said coldly at the boy who huddled on the ground before kneeing him in the face which lead into a kick to the chin from the same leg. “That is the truth about nature my boy.”

Syd crawled back onto her feet and watched Maestro, not seeming to care too much about what he had just done to Trey, “Just leave… you monster...”

Maestro looked back to her and laughed, “We are all monsters my dear little flower.” Without a single word more, he turned his back to her as his body began to break apart into a swarm of bats which flew up into the sky and disappeared over the horizon.

The second Maestro left, Samantha tossed around violently and grabbed her chest as she cried out in agony while bright violet threads of light began forming all over her body.

Trey instantly got up and ran over to her, “Hey! Girl!” he called out to her as he shook her shoulder, “Come on! Stay with me!” he turned to Syd, “What’s happening to her?!”

“Stand aside,” Syd said, pushing Trey off the girl and reached into her pocket, pulling out her pair of black dice, one with a gold trim and the other with a silver. She knelt down and placed the gold trim over Samantha’s heart and the silver trimmed over her forehead, pressing down on them with her thumbs as the began to glow, “Mihira of Shadow, Lowe of Light. Banish the beast from this pure heart,” she called out as the dice began to phase themselves into the girl, “Ready your hands of godly might, and send me forward as your dart!”

The second the dice had completely dissolved however, the threads covering Samantha’s skin quickly repaired themselves as she threw Syd off her and got back onto her feet, “STAY AWAY FROM ME!” she cried out grabbing her chest, “All you people do is make things worse! So just leave me alone alright!”

After screaming her lid off, she turned on her heel and ran out of the alleyway and into the now empty street. Trey froze for a moment, then turned to Syd who laid passed out on the ground.

“Syd!” he called out to her trying to shake her awake, “Come on! We have to go!”

Syd’s eyes slowly opened as she blinked once before staring blankly for a moment, “Could you not be so rough with Syd’s body when she isn’t in it?,” a voice escaped her lips that was much deeper and clearly not her own, “she won’t appreciate it if you break something you know.”

Trey blinked for a moment, then took his hand girl who lay on the ground in front of him and screamed, “W-WHAT THE HELL?!?!?!”

---

Syd slowly opened her eyes as she began to regain consciousness. She looked around but could see nothing beyond the ghost like glow her presence emitted off her body as it stood suspended in the pitch black void that seemed to stretch on farther than her eyes could see without any sign of a top or bottom. She couldn’t even tell whether or not she was currently facing up or down.

“Where… am I?” she asked aloud to herself trying to make sense of things as a small glimmer sparked from either side of her, “And what… are those?”

She reached into her pocket and grabbed her green striker die but before she could do a single thing the small glimmers began to multiple and swarm around her, revealing themselves as small blue torches that stood suspended without chains or a stand to carry them.

“Hang on a moment…” she thrusted herself forward and floated over to one of the torches, placing her finger on the bottom of it and lifting it towards her. Despite the light it cast, it gave off no heat and was instead rather cold to the touch.

Syd looked into it as the image of a much younger Samantha at a table surrounded by and small boy who sat beside her and an elderly man and woman who stood over her. A cake with seven candles lit sat in front of her as she blew them out resulting in a collective applause from the trio standing around her.

“Happy birthday dear,” the older man and woman said in unison as the small child reached toward the cake with his mouth wide open. “Patience Tori,” the woman grinned as she lightly tapped the back of the boy’s hand, “it’s your sisters birthday so she gets the first piece.” The boy sobbed a little.

“Here Tori,” the young Samantha laughed as she grabbed a knife and cut a small piece before setting it down on a plate and putting it in front of the boy, “I’m in a good mood today, so I’ll let you have this one.”

The boy smiled happily before digging his hands into the cake on his plate and shoving it into his mouth, getting more on him than down his throat. “Tori!” the boy’s mother growled as she grabbed a napkin and began wiping the boy’s face, “Manors!”

“He’s only a baby dear, he’ll learn,” Samantha’s father chuckled placing his hands on his daughters shoulders. “Which reminds me,” he reached into his bag and pulled out a black sketch book with a coil ring binding wrapped in a red ribbon with a matching bow, “happy birthday sweety.”

“So these are her, what are they called… memories,” Syd said to herself as she pushed the torch away and looked over to the other ones that surrounded her, “But I was supposed to go to her heart, how did I…” she thought for a moment then smacked herself in the forehead, “Right, she knocked me over and threw off my aim!”

Her ear then twitched from the light sound of sobbing that began emanating from another torch as it floated by her, Syd in turn picking it up and looking into it to see a slightly older version of Samantha sitting on a swing set with her sketchbook partially buried in the sand below her feet.

“HEY! YOU DOWN THERE!” A voice called out as a small girl with short brown hair ran up to her and knelt down in front of her, “You alright little missy?” Samantha remained silent as she kept her eyes fixed on the book which the brunette was now stepping on, “Oh…” the girl paused as she took her foot off the book and picked it up, “I’m sorry, did you drop this?”

Samantha rubbed her eyes then hopped off the swing and began walking off in the other direction, not carrying at all for the book she left behind.

“Hey, wait!” the other girl called out to her as she got back on her feet and turning the book over as it opened to a page with a rough sketch of a man without a face, “Where are you going!” she chased after Samantha and held the book out to her still on the same page. “You can’t just throw something like this away, can you? I’ve never seen anyone my age draw like this, you shouldn’t waste it.”

Samantha turned her head to the side and looked out to a river that sat at the bottom of the hill the park sat on, “I haven’t seen my dad in a while… that’s why I tried drawing him… but…” her eyes began to fill up with tears as she found herself starting to choke up, “I-I can’t even remember… what he looked like.”

“Oh, is that all it is?” the girl smiled as she tapped Samantha on the head with the front cover of her sketchbook, “I know it’s hard with someone you’re that close with being so far away, but you’ll see him again someday and even so he never is that distant… is he?”

Samantha sniffled and looked towards the girl, “What makes you say that?”

“Because, when you love someone they never truly leave you,” she raised her finger and pointed towards Samantha’s chest, “They’re in here, so long as you remember them being out there.”

“You really are strange you know that?” Samantha glared at her, “What’s your name?”

“You just call me Amy,” the girl grinned as she extended her hand to Samantha, “And… you are?”

“Samantha…” she returned slowly extending her own hand to take hold of Amy’s, “And thank you,” she added forcing a smile, “I’ll take my book back now.”

Syd shook her head and laughed as she flicked the torch away, “Oh children, what I wouldn’t give to be like you.”

“I don’t want to be this way!” a voice called out as a crack formed below Syd’s feat allowing a blinding light to shine through, “Someone please! Help me!”

As the darkness cleared Syd found herself standing in front of what seemed like a circular window that looked out to a small river with a surrounded by two banks filled with vibrant green grass. On the other side of the window sat Samantha crying into her knees as she wiped her tears away on her sleeve.

“You know, if she wanted help she really could have just asked,” Syd sighed as she leaned against the window, “Stubborn girl.”

“Huh?” Samantha lifted her head up and looked around, “Who said that?”

“Oh crap, she can hear me!” Syd jumped back as the view in the window shifted from one end of the river to the other.

“Of course I can hear you!” Samantha called out, “Where and exactly who are you!”

“I’m in your head!” Syd sighed as she banged his fist against the wall beside the window resulting in an echo that filled rung through Samantha’s ears, “Now if you don’t mind, can you get me back to my body so I can help you like you asked?”

“NO!” Samantha shook her head around violently, “GET OUT OF MY HEAD FIRST!”

The room Syd was in began shaking from side to side as the girl shook her head as Syd hung on for dear life, tightly gritting her teeth together as she clung to the wall, “Eli!” she spoke into the gauntlet on her wrist, “please hurry and get me out of here!”

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

Eli walked down an empty alley in control of Syd’s body as Trey walked behind him. A small glimmer lit up from the gem on Syd’s gauntlet as Eli looked down to it and nodded, “We’re getting close, we need to hurry.” He said as he continued down the road.

“Okay,” Trey called out trying to keep up, “think you can give me a slight explanation of what the hell is going on?”

“I guess that’s fair enough,” Eli returned not dropping his pace, “When a fledgling’s mental state is on the verge of breaking a network rider is allowed to activate what’s referred to as Heart Soul Ejection or HSE for short. This procedure is achieved through the usage of to specialty dice that can only be used once before needing to be replaced, the Heart Gold die and Soul Silver die.” He turned the corner but kept on topic, “Using these two dice, the network rider can focus their own energy on both the fledglings soul, which is represented by the brain, and the heart which represents itself.”

“Okay… but she’s done that before hasn’t she?” Trey asked still trying to keep up with the soul that was currently controlling Syd’s body, “Why exactly are you moving Syd’s body right now? Where exactly did she go?”

“I was getting to that,” Eli shot a sharp glare at him, “Thing is that a network rider can only focus if the target is standing still. If either the target or rider are moved during Heart Soul Ejection, the end result could be… inability to return to one’s own body.”

“B-but that’s only a could be, right?!” Trey asked as he began to sweat and his body trembled a bit, “You don’t know for sure after all, right Eli?”

Eli turned his back to Trey in the same cold fashion that Syd usually did, “We need to getting moving, there is no time to be worrying over such things.” He said as he continued down the street, Trey following shortly behind him.

Deep within a network of cables that pulse between a deep ruby red and a bright sapphire blue, Maestro leaned against one wall as he gazed into a mirror cast in the frame of a demonic red eyed bat with the glass of the mirror set within it’s jaws. The mirror displaying the image of Trey and Eli as they continued onward.

“Sorry boys, but you shall not interrupt this flower’s growth,” he smirked as he pulled a black six sided die from his pocket and placed it onto the glass of the mirror, the die slowly submerging into it, “at least not for the time being.”

Back on the street, Trey and Eli overheard a small gaw of what sounded like a dying crow behind them as Trey turned back to face it.

“Did you hear that?” he asked Eli who kept his gaze on the road in front of him.

“It was only a bird,” Eli returned as the sound of a small crack came from above. He looked upward to see a network of jet black chains with a violet aura around them spew downward onto them, “Now this… might be a problem.”

Before either them had anytime to react, the chains formed into a dome like cage that entrapped them within it’s void before sinking deep into the ground in a motion so quick that it was as if they were never there to begin with.

Maestro smirked as he watched the two from the inside of their prison through the mirror, “There, that should keep those two occupied.” He ran his hand over the mirror and switched the view from Trey and Eli over to Samantha by the river, “Now, let’s see how my dear flowers is coming along.”

Samantha smacked her fists against her skull and screamed, “GET OUT OF MY HEAD ALREADY YOU PSYCHO STALKER!”

Syd held on for dear from the inside of Sam’s mind as she did her best to remain on her feet, “I’ve already told you, it isn’t quite that simple!”

“Then how do I fix this!” Sam screamed at her as an older gentleman with a small child walked by, saw her and covered the boy’s hears before running off down the road and dragging his child with him.

“I don’t know,” Syd sighed as she closed her eyes leaned against the wall by the window in Sam’s head, “This hasn’t exactly happened to me before.” She reopened them after a while a saw a small memory torch floating just in front her and, out of pure curiosity, she picked it up and looked into it.

Inside was an image of Samantha leaning against her school locker with her sketch book opened to a rough sketch of the same knight Trey saw in it earlier, only this one had color to speak of. The Samantha from within the memory let out a sigh and closed the book before gently sliding into her locker.

“She asked me to make this over a month ago,” she said to herself as she smacked her head against the door of a nearby locker, “what’s wrong with me?”

“Hey Samantha!” Amy called out as she came up to her friend and patted her on the back, “I didn’t see you in fourth today, there something wrong?”

Samantha froze and stepped in front of her locker and closing it with her foot, the door locking automatically, “No… I’m okay Amy… really.” she said forcing a smile

“Oh, that’s good,” Amy smiled as the two made their way 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.”

Syd raised her eyebrow as she watched the events in the memory unfold, “Hey, can I ask you something?” she asked pushing the torch away as she looked toward the window, “That girl Amy… why do you keep avoiding her? You two are friends, correct? Shouldn’t friends, you know, want to spend time with one another?”

“I don’t even know anymore to be honest,” Samantha shrugged before collapsing on the river bed and looking up the sky, “It all started with her wanting something drawn and I offered to do it for her. Then she began asking for more and more and I just got… overwhelmed,” she closed her eyes and took in a deep breath before exhaling, “I guess that’s why… happy now?”

“I think that’s a question you should be asking yourself,” Syd sighed as she got back onto her feet within Samantha’s head, “Years down the line when everything is said and done, will you be happy with the life you lived by cutting yourself off from the world?”

Samantha sat up and thought for a moment, however just as she was about to come up with an answer she heard the small crack of a twig come from behind her. She looked over her shoulder to see a swarm of Maestro’s bats surrounding her and drawing closer.

---

Deep within the cage that Maestro had trapped them in, Eli sat on the floor by the solid wall while Trey paced around. Four doors had been placed around them, each with a bat set above the frame. Trey looked at each one as a haunting and chilling wind echoed throughout the room.

Trey went around and jimmied each of the doorknobs and turned back to Eli, “So… none of these seemed to be locked,” he said as he was about to open one of the doors, “I guess we should just… pick one.”

“I wouldn’t if I were you,” Eli spoke up before the boy opened the door, resulting in him taking his hand off the know. He raised his finger up to the bat at the top of door, “Take a look.”

The bat above Trey’s head had a tiger clenched firmly in it’s jaws, he then looked directly across the room to another which had a tongue in the shape of a canon. The bat to the left of that one seem be molded to look as if it was on fire while the last one remaining had jagged fur as if it was being subjected to a constant flow of electricity throughout it’s body.

“I’ve seen this trick before, the maestro is going easy on us with this one,” he said as he got up and looked to Trey, “The only way out is to pass through each door in a specific order… alive.”

“Then how do we figure out the correct order?” Trey demanded as he started to lose patients, “I doubt that man would leave the answers on the back.”

“If he did there would be no fun to it,” Eli sighed, “or at least that’s how he sees it.”

Trey groaned and ran his hands through his hair as he looked back to the bats on the doors, specifically the details that set them apart from one another, “Wait a minute…” he looked over to the bat with the tiger within it’s jaws, “Lightning strikes the tiger’s home, the home catches fire and burns to the ground.” he turned his gaze over the bat on fire along with the bat to, “The tiger runs and attacks a man in fear. The man is a hunter and shoots it dead, then take it home to feed his family.”

“What was that?” Eli raised an eyebrow and turned to Trey, “Where did you hear that?”

“It was something that psycho said,” Trey explained as he took a closer look at the bats once, “I didn’t quite get it at first but I think he must have been giving me a small hint of some sort… but why is anyone’s guess.”

“What fun would there be if victory was guaranteed?” Eli sighed, “Another of his popular phrases.”

“You and Syd sure have a long history with him, don’t you?” Trey asked, “Would you mind telling me something?”

Eli looked at him, “Shoot.”

“I-is he… really who he says?” Trey stumbled, “Syd’s father I mean.”

“No, at least not how Syd views it.” Eli put simply, “At one point he was the man that gave her the life she has now, but that man died long ago. The man calling himself Maestro is nothing more than an empty shell.”

“That man… who was he?” Trey asked, “If you don’t mind me asking.”

“He called himself Matlyn, that’s all I can say,” Eli returned his gaze to the door with the electrified bat and took two steps towards it, “for now we should concern ourselves with getting out of here,” and for your sake… I hope your right.”

---

Back by the river, Samantha ran for her life from the bats that were on her tail as she ran up a hill and rested at the top with her hands on her knees. She panted heavily as she looked over her shoulder to see the swarm still close behind her, quickly taking off at an unsteady pace as she tried to catch her breath.

“How’s about you let me take the wheel for a moment?” Syd called out to her from inside her head.

“Huh?” Samantha questioned, jumping a little at the question, “Wait, what are yo-”

Before she could finish speaking, Samantha’s legs seemed to move on their own and leapt her onto the rail of the bridge resulting in the top half of her body falling forward and Samantha catching herself with her hands.

“What’s going on?!” she shifted her eyes around, “How did you do that?!”

“Just relax and let me handle this,” Syd said to her as she slowly but surely took control of the girl’s arms and kicked her up off the rail and began propelling the two of them forward, “Geez, why must your body be so slow?”

“This isn’t the place for comments like that!” Samantha cried out as Syd shifted her eyes over to a cluster of bats that were forming along the bridge’s support beams above their heads.

“Great, looks like our friends brought company,” Syd tsked as she brought Samantha’s arms upward and cracked her knuckles, completely ignoring what her host was saying by this point, “Sorry girl but I need to borrow this.”

Syd then used Samantha’s arms to pull a pin from her the shirt of her uniform and prick her finger so a small bit of blood came from it.

“OW!” Samantha cried, “What was that for?!”

“Watch,” Syd instructed as she snapped her fingers together as the small bit of blood dispersed and scattered into the air. Syd clapped the girl’s hands together and chanted “Mighty Grune, lord of steel and master of blades. Take this offering and fused it with strength from your forge’s blaze!”

Syd then twisted Samantha’s hand sideways and turned them so they laid flat against one another and the fingers of one met the palm of the other, “RELEASE!” she cried out causing the few drops of blood in the air to reform into thin spike like blades before launching themselves into the bats in front of her and Samantha, knocking them down and turning them to dust.

Unfortunately, as the few bats went down more seemed to take their place. Syd however went unphased by this and simply jumped up into a flying jump kick and plowed her way through to the other side, landing feet first with Samantha’s body on the other side of the growing horde as they turned to face her.

“Can’t transform,” Syd looked around and saw shovel driven into the ground directly behind her, “guess we’ll need to make do with what we’ve got.” she said as she picked up the shovel and gripped it tightly with both hands before turning back to the bats.

“Uh, you’re joking right?!” Samantha protested trying to move her feet and run but couldn’t due to Syd’s influence, “There’s far too many of them, you’re gonna get us both killed.”

“That’s where you’re wrong princess, because I can’t die yet,” she looked over to her wrist where Eli’s gauntlet would normally be, “Not without him anyway.”

“Him?” Samantha thought for a moment, “You mean that boy you were with?”

“Not quite who I was talking about,” Syd jumped at the bats using Samantha’s legs and swung at a few with the shovel before kicking off the rail and propelling the girl’s body up to one of the support beams where even more bats were waiting for her. She adjusted her hold on the shovel and smiled warmly, “Though now that you mention it, he’s kind of important too.”

---

Back within the cage set by Maestro, Trey and Eli ran out of the doorway marked by the electrified bat as a large crack off surge of electricity went off behind them. The moment the two touched down on the other side, the surges instantly stopped as the door crumbled and turned to rubble.

“Well… that’s one…” Trey panted as he wiped sweat from his forehead, “Now what’s next?”

“That’s the tricky part,” Eli returned looking at the remaining doors, “In the verse there were two lines that mentioned a tiger. One was placed to throw us off while the other is part of the order we need to follow.”

Trey thought for a moment then pointed to the bat sculpted to look like it was made of fire, “This one is next.” he said as he took a step forward towards the door.

Eli’s eyes shot open as he ran over and grabbed Trey, “Stop! We don’t know that yet!”

“The first line is for the lightning, the second is the fire then the tiger and finally the hunter,” Trey said as he pushed on towards the door and grabbed the handle, “If it isn’t it’s only a fifty-fifty chance that I’m wrong.”

“You sure you’re willing to take that risk?” Eli asked him. Trey nodded, “Alright,” Eli sighed as he reached for the handle, “For your sake I hope you’re right.”

---

Back on the bridge, Syd plowed her way through more of the bats using Samantha’s body which beginning to buckle under the force Syd was putting into it. As a result she was forced to jam the shovel into the ground and rest her host’s body on it with her hands as the last of the bats circled around her.

“Damn… only seventeen left…” she panted heavily, “If I were in my own body these things would be dust with one little warm up swing…”

“You sure about that my little flower?” Maestro called out as he suddenly appeared sitting on the rail of the bridge with his hands in his pockets. The bat with the mirror within it’s teeth hovering over his shoulder, “I’ve trained you well, but in your current state I don’t think you’ll last for much longer before you wither away.”

Syd gritted Samantha’s teeth and spat on the ground, “Shut your mouth!” she barked at him through Samantha’s teeth.

“Carefully,” Maestro chuckled, “You’ve been in there for far too long my dear, if you don’t watch yourself you might end up erasing that girl’s life force with your own.”

Syd’s eyes shot open resulting in Samantha’s doing the same, she looked down at the girl’s hand and moved it as if it were her own, “Oh crap, this isn’t good.” She smacked Samantha’s head, “Girl! You still in there!”

“I’m afraid she can’t respond anymore my dear little flower,” Maestro chuckled, “But nice job snagging yourself a new body for yourself,” he smirked as he lifted his arm to show a single ring on his hand with a jade gemstone, “The apple never falls far from the tree as they say.”

At that moment, a small glimmer sparked from within the mirror as two long chains shot out of it and forming into Trey and Eli who both had burn marks and bullet marks covering them from head to toe.

“We… made it!” Trey panted as he climbed to his feet and looked over to Syd, “Samantha… where’s Syd?”

“Eli!” Syd called out as she ran over to her body and grabbed her own hand, “Tag out!” Both the eyes of the two girl’s bodies shawn a bright green for a moment as Samantha’s fell down to the ground and Syd’s fell face first on the pavement.

“Bravo young lad,” Maestro clapped with a grin on his face, “I’m impressed how quickly you were able to figure it out.”

“It was rather easy once you left me the answers,” Trey glared back at him, “that was your biggest mistake.”

“No,” Syd growled as she regained control of her own body and forced herself to her feet, “His biggest mistake was being alive!”

She instantly pulled out her blue Caster form die and slapped it into her belt which was still around her waist from her last fight, pulled her hood up as she placed her hand over the dial on her belt “GAME START!” her belt shouted as she spun the belt without giving her usual chant or cry of henshin, “Caster! Conjuring of the Unknown!"

Her coat changed from it’s standard navy blue to the bright fluorescent azure color of her caster form as her armor and mask form around her. The bright yellow eyes of her ballet mask illuminating as her staff formed in a burst of blue fire.

With one single motion, Syd conjured an immense ball of deep blue fire within the hook on the top of her staff as the gem changed from it’s usual sapphire collar to a deep purple before unleashing it upon the remaining bats wiping them all out in just one swing. She then turned on her heel swung her staff over her back with one hand and grabbed the other end with other as she turned her anger filled gaze toward Maestro who looked back to her with a calm unassuming smirk.

“Next, YOU!” Syd gritted her teeth as she conjured yet another burst of fire from her staff, this one at least ten times as large in an even deeper shade of blue as her eyes began to shift from their normal yellow to an angry crimson red.

“SYD! STOP!” Trey cried out to her as he ran in between them and threw his arms around her, “If you kill him like this we’ll all be killed!” he called out to her and he gripped the back of her hood and tried to hold her back, “That way HE wins! Do you want that!”

Syd’s eyes slowly returned to their normal yellow as she loosened her grip on her staff and let it fall to the ground behind her, the fire going out the second she let go. She glanced over to Trey the smirk under her mask, “Thank you Trey…” she thought to herself as she slowly wrapped her own arms around him, “I knew there was a reason I let you come along.”

“Well, I do believe this has been enough excitement for one don’t you think?” Maestro clapped for a moment as he pulled out a black die from his pocket, “But first, a slight parting gift.”

He threw the die over to Samantha resulting in it submerging into her forehead as Maestro hopped onto the rail and bowed, “Thank you ladies and gentlemen, you’ve been a lovely audience.” he said before jumping backward and dispersing into a swarm of bats that flew up and vanished over the horizon.

“Get back here you bastard!” Syd shouted as he ran over to the bridge and slammed her fist down on the rail.

“He’ll be back,” Eli called out to her from within his gem on Syd’s gauntlet, “When that day comes, you can claim your revenge.”

“Guess we don’t have many other options,” Syd sighed, “do we?”

“Syd!” Trey called out as he hovered over Samantha who convulsed violently on the ground as the deep red cracks began to reform and become dark black, “Come quick!”

Syd looked over her shoulder in horror and ran over to Trey, grabbing him by the wrist and pulling him away, “GET AWAY FROM HER!”

The cracks overtook the girl’s entire body as a massive tear opened up from her center and a large minotaur with deep blue skin and jet black fur stepped out, shaking the ground as he touched down onto it and looked down towards Syd and Trey.

“S-samantha?” Trey gulped.

“No,” Syd put simply as she replaced her blue caster die with her orange hunter one and gave her belt a quick spin, “not anymore at least.”

“RE-ROLL! HUNTER!” her belt called out as her coat changed from blue to orange and her bow formed in her left hand along side her quiver on her shoulder, “Burning Arrow Ignite!”

“Syd! Wait!” Trey grabbed her bow and looked her in the eye, “What are you doing!”

Syd batted him away and aimed her bow and the beast, “My job,” she said in a cold almost machine like tone as she ejected the orange hunter die and replaced it with the red finisher before giving it a quick spin.

A three lit up from the face of the die as it came to a halt “THREE!” Syd’s belt called out as she pulled back on the trigger, “Fatal Strike!”

“NO!” Trey cried out as he jumped to his feet, Syd knocking him back with a single swing of her right arm as three burning arrows shot out of the bow held by her left.

The arrows impaled the raging beast and instantly set it ablaze, it roaring out in pain as it fell over backwards and burst into a gust of smoke and fire leaving nothing but a small pile of jayd as the smoke cleared. Trey collapsed to the ground as Syd powered down and walked over to the remains, removing a vial from her belt and scooped up what little there was.

“Figures there wouldn’t be that much,” she said as she looked at the small amount of fluid in the flask before shrugging and returning it to it’s place on her belt, looking over to Samantha’s lifeless body with a sympathetic frown, “Shame it had to turn out this way… I was really starting to like her.”

“Why do you talk about her like that?!” Trey snarled as he looked up to her, “She was just a girl dammit!” he shouted as he jumped to his feet and looked Syd in the eye, “And you write it off like that!”

“There’s nothing that could have been done,” Syd looked at him, “Once a fledgling casts away their humanity and shuts themselves off from the world, there is no going back.” she looked to the vials on her belt and sighed, “No matter how much I wish it was otherwise.”

Trey balled his hands into fists knelt down beside Samantha’s body, “If that’s the case… what’s going to happen to her now?”

“Slowly memories of her will start to fade away,” Syd explained as she looked over the body, “Her body is still whole, so that gives her sometime… but not much. First with the people she’s met only once or twice, then her close friends until finally, not even her own family will remember that she even existed.”

“I will,” Trey said as he picked up Samantha’s body and carried it in his arms, “even if no one else will, I will never forget that she was here.”

Syd raised an eyebrow, “What exactly do you plan to do?”

“I’m taking her to a hospital,” Trey said, “Even if she doesn’t have a soul her body is still breathing, that way at least her friends and family will be able to say goodbye to her while they still can.” He looked over to Syd and gulped, “Now are you coming with me?”

Syd simply nodded, “Of course.”

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

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---
---

Amy sat in a chair in a hospital room overlooking Samantha who lay lifeless in a single hospital bed dressed in a simple white gown, Samantha’s sketchbook. After a while of sitting in silence she opened it a skimmed through the pages until she came to the knight in violet and gold armor with the signature marked, “To Amy.”

“You see,” she cracked a small smile as a tear formed in her eye, “I knew it would be… awesome,” she slowly began shaking as she hunched over and brought her hand to her face and wiping her eyes. Just then. a nurse came to the room and knocked on the doorway.

“Excuse me Ms,” the nurse called out to her, “Sorry but visiting hours are over, I’m afraid I need to ask you to be going soon.”

“Oh, okay,” Amy nodded as she wiped her face a little and placing the book down on the bed on Samantha’s lap, “just give me a minute, I’ll be heading out in a moment.”

She slipped on her coat then ducked down to the floor to pick up her bag, only to turn back and look down at Samantha with a sorrow filled look on her face, “I’ll be back tomorrow,” she said lightly taking hold of her friend’s hand, “Okay?”

As she went to release her grip, she felt the hand she held with her own slowly tighten itself around her’s. Her heart skip a beat as she looked back to see Samantha with her eyes half open and a warm smile on her face.

“S-samantha?” She asked in a state of disbelief.

“Please,” Samantha weakly called out to her as a tear formed in her eye, “Don’t ever leave me.”

Without so much as a second word, Amy dropped her bag and threw her arms tightly around Samantha as tears began running down her face, “Of course,” she sniffled as she held her friend in her arms, “I won’t ever leave you.”

Next time on Kamen Rider Jayd:
Seventh Revolution. Criminal, The Delinquent Fledgling