Bennett.

The self-proclaimed leader of The Soaring Vultures.

About a year ago, after Kenji the ex-leader mysteriously died, the first-in-command, according to traditions was to take up the role. Except, Keanu the first-in-command was also dead. So, Bennett the second-in-command rose up to the position of leader.

Dots that don't connect in this exposition, is that Keanu, the first-in-command at the time, had supposedly died along with Kenji. But he isn't actually dead. And it looks like Bennett isn't too happy about that (If I had to say at this point, I'm pretty sure he killed Kenji).

"Bennett."

A bitter rumble erupts from his throat. He places one hand over the blade in his pocket. "You know I've always wondered why the dead won't stay dead. Kenji did."

Yep, he definitely killed him.

Keanu's hold on the bow tightens, it looks like it will snap any time soon, I have no idea why the name affects him so much. "Chris," he calls out to one of the men behind Bennett. "What was our pledge to Kenji before he died?"

He directs a load of hostility towards the man whose name he'd mention, and when the man sees the look on his face, he turns pale, shivering as he stammers. "To... always... seek the truth first... and... and..." His voice appears to be caught in his throat. "to be loyal to one another."

"Cowards." Keanu snarls. "You're just a bunch of cowards. You watched your leader die and watched the perpetrator roam free under your nose. You didn't even bother to find my corpse before appointing this vile man as your leader, all because you're scared of him."

Bennett's face turns sour. I swallow hard and turn towards Keanu, he is giving off undeniably questionable cold and sinister aura, but its somewhat comforting than the twisted look on Bennett's face. I nudge his side, mumbling, "You're SSS-RATED, you can take this guy and his goons right?"

I think he's not going to respond before he whispers back. "He's an SS-RATED, that's more than enough headache." He rethinks his words and briefly glances at me. "I can take him, you take the rest."

"What? Are you crazy?!" I yell a little too loud. "There's like at least a hundred people wanting our heads, I can't take all of them."

"Yes you can." This is the first I'll hear him sound confident in me. "Your nunchuks should be able to wipe out half of them. Your newly developed skills will help you too. I can't divide myself in half, I need... backup."

I know that...

But me?

I would be terrible back up. Non-back up material. I can't do this. There's too much enemies and not enough me, I can't possibly beat anyone.

"Hey." Keanu mutters. "The Village is counting on you to make it back, they need you. So you have to return no matter what. I don't mind dying here, just deliver the ingredients to Aki."

That's right. I have a mission. I can't die here, Keanu won't get to see his friends and he'll be grumpy everyday. I can't let that happen. "That's nonsense talk." My nunchuks come flying into my hands and I swing it around a few times, warming up. My grip tightens around the weapon. "We're both making it back."

"Do not allow either of them survive, especially the unregistered."

Surrounded by a hundred bloodthirsty men and women, Keanu and I take our stance back to back. This is exactly like we trained. I expected for there to be bloodshed, I just wasn't expecting a full on massacre.

1... 2... 3.

We dash at our enemies about the same time. A lot of men stay, guarding Bennett and attacking Keanu. The others come after me. I throw my nunchuks around in a circle, hitting a total of ten people. When it arrives in my hand, I can't help but feel a difference. I feel much more powerful.

Dancing through the crowd with my nunchuks, cutting off vital parts of their body I know will take hours to heal, I stop when a woman drops her weapon. I'm not going to fight anyone unarmed, so I drop my nunchuks too.

She signals for me to come at her with her fists folded, and I do. Avoiding a punch to the guts while blocking off a counterattack on my face, I bend to the ground kicking the woman and making her lose balance, falling face flat to the floor. She stands up again, having taken a severe injury to her legs. I try not to prolong her misery after seeing her wobble and unable to stand straight, so I punch her with the side of my folded fist. I don't expect this to do it, but she falls on the floor with a loud thud. I nudge her side just to make sure she's out and she rolls over like a pile of dirty clothes.

I don't have enough time to pick up my nunchuks as a maniac flies at me with an axe, trying to split my head in half. I quickly dodge the attack, watching as he takes time to pull out the axe from a nearby tree. I kick him in the face, surprisingly knocking him out cold.

That's all it took?

I don't know if I got stronger or this bunch are just a group of weak and useless fighters. Keanu must be having it easy then. Right in the middle of my thoughts, a blade slices through the atmosphere, cutting a strand of my hair. I turn around slowly, my blood lust at its peak. Oh he is so going to pay for that.

"DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH WORK I HAD TO DO TO GET A PERFECT HAIRCUT?!"

Justifiable steams flow out of my ears as I slice through the air with my nunchuks and sweep off the man's hair, I said he was going to pay for that. And he did. My nunchucks fly into my hands and I once again battle a group of feeble, tactless soldiers.

My once cream shirt is now hoarding a combination of different human fluids, which I refuse to think of the possibilities they could be. Slowly sliding down a tree, I take a cycle to regain my breath, even if the fighters were weak, it did cost a lot of my energy.

An arrow whiz past my head, embedding itself in the tree. I'd forgotten Keanu is still fighting Bennett. On arriving the arena, with my right hand fixed on my liver, I'm shocked.

Shocked because I can't see.

I literally can't see them, just their weapons clashing against each other. Flashing of iron against iron, at some point they stop using weapons, just fist to fist, but it's too well carried out that some of their movements cannot be followed.

This is how high-profile criminals fight like.

A body flies to a tree, on close investigation, I see Bennett slammed against the tree. Keanu approaches him, each step demanding respect and authority, he stops in front of Bennett's head on the ground, tempted to step on it, but he draws an arrow, its entire body crystalline. Even from here I feel the coldness of his words. "It's over, Bennett."

Instead of looking remorseful, or scared, he grins, looking straight at me causing me to leap back, my skin crawling before I realise something is definitely not right. "Or is it?"

I only watch his mouth move, I am unable to hear over the deafening explosion of a landmine underneath me.

Keanu drops his bow and runs towards me but my vision goes black before he can reach me.

°°°°

"Ow," I shoved my left thumb into my mouth, sucking on the trickling blood, hoping it would stop.

Mum walked over to me and drew my thumb towards her, wrapping a bandage over it and fixing it up. "I told you not to play with the scissors."

She flicked my forehead and I winced it pain. Wasn't she supposed to reduce the pain? What was all of this child abuse about? "I'm sorry... curiosity got the best of me."

"Obviously, now you see where it ends."

"Hey mum?"

"Yes."

I hesitated, only because I wasn't sure I wanted to know the answer. "Why isn't our blood red like everyone else? Is it because we're weird?"

"Weird?" She sounded perplexed rather than outraged. "Oh no darling, they're the weird ones. Our blood is orange because we're unique. That isn't something you should be ashamed of."

She planted a kiss on my forehead and went on to cook lasagne for dinner. I wiggled my thumb, the injury was already gone. My cells had regenerated so fast I could easily say I was never cut to begin with. But mum would tell me to keep the bandage on. Even if the cut was gone.

I had no idea why she wanted me to hide my quick regeneration from people.

I wiggled my thumb again and jumped off the counter to go play with some safety pins and safe toys.

I hated cuts.

°°°°

My eyes feel heavy, but miraculously I manage to pry them open, my vision is blurry so I nod my head vigorously, before a stinging sensation burns at the back of my head. "Ow." Thick orange liquid drips down my head and stains the back of my hand.

"Don't move too much." A monotonous voice comes from beside me.

I look to my side to examine the source of the voice. A fistful of black hair and grey eyes fixed ahead comes into sight, he glances at me briefly, this has to be the closest we've ever been. "This is the closest we'll ever be, stop staring at me."

"I'm not." I relax into the muscles supporting the weight of my body. Keanu is actually carrying me? "I thought you don't do well with deadweight."

"I don't." He hesitates, his own voice full of disbelief. "I'm just doing you a favor."

"Of course." A subtle smile plays on my lips. "Whatever you say."

"I gave you a healing potion, it should surface soon."

"Okay."

The ride to the Village is about an hourglass turn, with Keanu mute throughout. I don't try to start up a conversation either, the awkwardness is at its peak with me on his back and his arms firmly fixed underneath my thighs.

My split forehead sutures itself and the injury no longer hurts, just like how it happened, in a flash. On arriving the Village, we stop at the motel. Peyton and Aki are lingering nearby, Aki pacing nervously.

Peyton is the first to run up to us. "Oh my gosh, Carmine! What happened?"

Aki follows suit. "It looks like you're the only one who sustained an injury." He glares at Keanu pointedly. Keanu places me down on a chair close to them.

"Thanks." I tell him but he ignores me and pulls out items from his inventory. "You can have your reunion later, right now I have people I don't want dying. Make the potion, and make it fast." He shoves them into Aki's arms. With enough hostile glares directed at me, I bring out the other items in my inventory.

Aki replies grudgingly. "Okay, Carmine stay right here, and don't move. Keanu you have muscles, follow me, there are things to be carried. Peyton I need every glass cups you have."

They all carry out his orders, except me. I stroll into the lab set up and sit closely observing every step. Aki doesn't notice me and I'm glad he does not. Keanu stirs the items in the pot continously, and Peyton keeps adding stuff while Aki measures and signifies when the quantity is enough. Oddly enough, they work well together. I'd never expect Keanu to cooperate with anyone besides himself.

"Almost perfect." Aki whispers looking into the turquoise-coloured liquid. It must be finished. Right on to giving the villagers then. Aki stops my thought process along the rail. "One more thing." His face turns pale. "The golden goose." 

"I know, I tried looking everywhere but I couldn't find it. Can't the potion work without it?" I say suddenly, exposing my hiding spot.

"No." His face turns guilty. "It won't. I knew it wouldn't, I just wanted to try."

"Well do you know where it is? Where can I find it?" He staggers back at my question, I approach him seeing how queasy he looks. He's definitely hiding something. "What is it? Why won't you tell me?"

"It's.. an irregular." He stutters. "It's you."

I'm the golden goose?? I'm the thing that is needed to finish the potion? "I'm the thing you need to complete the potion?"

He nods. "I had my doubts but it can only be you, you're immune to the epidemic and your bloodline are specifically known for regenerating fast."

How does he know that? "So... am I to get in the pot? Are you going to cook me in that?"

"Oh no." He says immediately. "I just need your blood."

"Okay cool. How much do you need?"

He hesitates. "Everything."

I choke on my tongue. Did he just say he needs all my blood? Like all of the liquid in my body that keeps me alive? I don't know... that seems far fetched. "Everything?" But I'm not the one who voices the question. Keanu and Peyton are.

"Yes that's ideally sufficient to heal everyone in the Village." Aki replies, looking at me with both guilt and pain. "Hey look you don't have to if you don't want to, I'm sure I can find another w-"

"Okay let's do it."

"Excuse me?" Peyton and Aki retort.

"I'll donate all my blood, let's save the village."

"Irregular, you do realize you'll die if you do that. You've already lost more than enough blood on the way here." Keanu says, his voice sounding worry-filled but that can only be my imagination.

"And you realise I don't need your permission." He looks taken aback by my reply but also not willing to drop the issue. "Don't you want to save your friends?"

At this he completely freezes, unable to come up with a reply. "Yeah that's what I thought. I want to save Kyle too, so let's just leave it at that." I direct my attention to Aki. "How much time do we have left?"

"An hourglass turn."

"Then we better hurry."

Peyton starts, "Carmine you-"

I shut the door loud enough to stop more cumbersome questions directed at dissauding me from my irrational decision. I want to save my friend and the village. They might not like me but at least they'd know I'm not the person history has made me out to be. I'm the irregular that'll sacrifice her life for them, even though I hate getting cut. I'll be their hero.

Ten cycles later, the equipments to extract my blood are arranged. Keanu is wearing disposable gloves and Peyton pushing a cart behind him, with Aki locked in the other room. What is he doing there?

"He said he can't stand the sight of blood." Neither can I, understandable.

"So you're the one extracting my blood?" I eye Keanu. "Must be fun."

He doesn't say anything for a long period, then mutters. "Debatable." He pours some alcohol over my vein after successfully finding one. "This is going to hurt a lot, are you sure you want to do this?"

I chuckle. "As sure as I can be." I breathe out as I grip the chair for dear life, closing my eyes shut so I wouldn't have to see my skin get pierced. I shriek immediately I feel the needle in my body. Managing to pry my eyes open, I reach out for something, anything besides the chair I could hold onto without feeling like I was drowning.

Fingers lace with mine, as I latch onto them like a lifeline. I don't know whose they are, but the feeling of cold, comforting, fingers twice the size of my left hand wrapped around mine and soft, tiny, feminine fingers wrapped around my right hand are the last thing I sense before I pass out.

°°°°

My eyelids flutter open to a set of four heads hovering over me. Aki, Peyton, Kyle... and Keanu.
I try to lift my hand but it seems as though my whole body is paralysed. I groan after unsuccessfully trying to mutter a sentence.

"Don't move yet." Aki says, pressing a finger down on my forehead. "Your body is still replenishing the blood you lost."

Finally my mouth gets unstuck. "How long have I been unconscious?"

"Two days." He says like it is to be expected.

My eyes travel from his head to Kyle. A feeble smile forms on my lips as I try to reach for him. "You're okay."

"Yes I am." As if knowing what my words indicate, he places my hand in his and rubs gently with his thumb.

I breathe out in relief. My eyes find Keanu next. Suddenly I feel the heat rise to my cheeks, was he here for the whole two days I'd been unconscious? Doesn't he always have something better to do than worry about his archnemesis? "Your friends are fine then."

"Thanks to you."

The silence prolongs before I decide to take advantage of the situation. "You're welcome. I hope you're not as jittery as you were when you barged in here."

He snorts. "Funny." He throws on his hood and reaches for the door handle. "Stay off training until you're fully healed. Only come in when you feel better. It wouldn't be fun beating up a defenseless person." He nods at Kyle, Aki and Peyton as if to acknowledge them.

Kyle frowns. "Is it me or is that hooded rat acting a lot more suspicious?"

"Respectful, is what I think you meant to say."

He snorts. "There has never been anything respectful about that guy."

True.

Eventually, Peyton unfreezes from her spot. Her steps are shaky and shallow, not bothering to ask how I feel, instead plummeting on me in a warm bear hug. "I thought you were gone. We all did."

Geez, any chance someone actually trusted my decision and thought I would be okay?

"Me too."

She grins. "I guess being an irregular comes in handy sometimes."

A low chuckle leaves my lips. "I guess so."

Kyle's frown morphs into a full blown smile. "You're a hero." He kneels by my bed. "The entire village is indebted to you."

"We all are." Aki adds.

"I didn't do it for them to be indebted to me." A wide grin etches on my face. "I did it because I can, and if I can I will. I hate watching people die more than I hate being useless."

Kyle grabs - what remains of my cheek - with a world winning smile. "What you did was far from useless. Everyone would be dead without you, give yourself more credit."

Maybe I should think about myself in a more worthy way, they seem to.

"Okay then you should have your rest." Peyton says cheerfully, shoving the guys through the door despite their wails and protest. Just as the door is about to shut, her head pops in. "I'll bring some food and when you've regained your energy, we'll talk about that trip with Keanu." She winks.

I groan. The trip was (thankfully) not romantic like I guess Peyton is hoping, in fact it was far from it, the opposite actually. Let's see, a recap: I almost got eaten by an ivory rose, Keanu and I had to split up, almost got crushed by huge cows, fought hundreds of people, tripped a landmine, almost died, came back and donated my remaining blood.

Yup, quite far from romantic. Although there were moments... like when we were staring at each other in defiance because of an argument, is that considered... never mind, this is a pointless activity.

Peyton fulfils her promise, coming back with a plate of cake and grape juice. She force feeds me against my will, shoving the food down my throat with a smile, claiming I need to eat a ton to regain my energy and ranting about how she really wants to hear the trip gist.

This goes on for another two days, finally I have enough stamina to jump up and down my bed from excitement. Hey! I haven't been able to move for four days, this is the least I can do.

I slide past the open door then stop abruptly, conflict brewing in my heart. All I'd ever known and received from the villagers is hatred and animosity, would I be able to accept their love as I should? I guess it's true when they say you can get so used to negative feelings that you don't know how to accept positive things and think the worst of them instead.

What if they still don't like me?

A hand slips over my shoulder, pale yellow locks fall in front of his face, and his green eyes shine brilliantly. "You worry too much. I'll bet hundred rubies the villagers can't wait to see the irregular that saved them." He pulls my cheeks, forcing a smile on my face. "Besides you'll still always have us."

Peyton pats my back. "We're not going anywhere anytime soon."

Aki waves. Hands in pockets and jogs up to us. A charming smile making its way on his face. "You're going out already?"

"Yes." My voice bolder and more confident. It doesn't matter whether the villagers like me or not, my friends will always be here when I need them.

"Cool, I was just on my way to the City." And it appears Kyle also was. "Let's all go together then." A wholesome smile on my face.

I'd never realize how heavy the word together weighed, its entire meaning changed that day to me.

If I'd known what would happen in the next ten cycles, I would have run right into my room and never come out AGAIN.

Stepping out just beyond the motel and into the first few houses in view, a flying object hits my forehead and sends me flying a few good feet behind. The object drops to my foot, acidic water dripping off my forehead. An orange?

"That's her! The irregular that made us drink potions with her blood in it!" An outraged man leading an angry mob of people pointed at me and charged forward.

Kyle stretches out his arms, he's clothed in his Knight armour, so of course they stop. "What's going on here?"

A woman steps forward, malicious intent gleaming across her eyes. "Move aside boy, that girl deserves to die a thousand death for contaminating us with her filthy blood." She snarls. "Who has ever heard of an irregular giving up their blood to save people unless there's something in it?? You wretched girl! Tell us what you have done to us!"

The voices are ringing in my ears but I can't pinpoint the source even though they are before me. Surely I'm the wretched irregular they are talking about... but hearing it outrightly like this, makes my sick to my stomach. Even the kids among them glare at me with newly developed animosity.

"No, no. That was needed to get rid of the epidemic! Have you all lost your minds?" A sinister tone erupts while Aki talks to them, standing along with Peyton and Kyle to prevent more objects from hitting me, which is a bad idea, well, you'll see why.

"Are you on her side then? Did you all plan this to kill us? I would rather have know what was in the potion, maybe I would be in heaven by now because no way in hell would I have drank an irregular's blood intentionally!" Says another man among the crowd. He throws a tomato at Kyle which he dodges effortlessly. But when every one of the villagers raise their hands with items in them, I knew we had to get out of here.

Now.

I scurry to my feet, yelling at them to run as I do the same. We get stoned, tomato-ed, egg-ed and various other items I would rather not mention. Running away from the villagers, and into the safety of the Motel. We slip inside and lock the door.

"Can you believe those people? No, they deserve to die a thousand deaths! How dare they??" Peyton paces back and forth, her shoulders quaking with frustration and disgust.

I place a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry about it."

"I have every right to! Those people have been nothing but horrible to you, even when you try to help them! I know you're upset-"

"Upset?" I laugh, the sound bitter to my ears. They look at me worriedly as I keep laughing while approaching my door. "No, I'm beyond that, I'm done."

The building shakes as I slam the door shut, it may have even caused a minor earthquake, that's how furious I am. What'd you know? Trying to save people that don't value you and trying to set things right with them did not end as I'd expected it to. So now, the only thing left for me to do... is not care.

I'm so done.

I don't care if they die.

I don't care if they don't.

It's probably fitting if they do.

Another bitter laugh erupts from my lips as tears stroll down my face. I bet my friends are worried about me. But there is nothing to be worried about. I'm perfectly fine! The first stage of grief is to let it all out. Then... isn't the next step revenge?