Claymore Fan Fiction ❯ Blacklight ❯ Part 2: ( Chapter 2 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

This is my very first Claymore fanfic and crossover.

Date: 041209

Disclaimer: A Claymore/Prototype crossover. All characters and concepts belong to their respective creators and owners.

Synopsis: What were the youma? Where did they come from? There has never been an adequate explanation given as to how they came into being until ... now.

B L A C K L I G H T

Part 2:

There were two figures walking together along the dusty road. Claymores, Number Four Gina and Number Six Ophelia (she has not yet reached ranked Number Four), both wore identical clothing and carried similar weapons, provided by the Organisation.

Since neither Claymore liked the other, the journey was rather quiet and devoid of any of the usual conversations between two travellers. From her hidden position in the woods, Claymore Number Three, Galatea watched the two single digits walked at a steady pace along the road. What they made them quickened their pace. It was too late to save the merchant convoy, when a group of misshapened monsters leaped out from behind the woods to attack it. The guards screamed as they drew their weapons to fight the pouncing horrors. Then from out of the blue, one of the monsters fell into neatly-cut pieces only to disappear in a spray of blood. A hooded figure appeared in its place, holding a Claymore with one hand.

The five other youma gave a growl of anger and leaped at the hooded figure. Claws pouncing, teeth snapping ... on the mysterious hooded figure. As if sensing their attack, the figure leaped to the side, her movements a blur to her opponents.

Galatea sensed a brief flash of youki momentarily before it vanished again, too well concealed even for the Eye of the Organisation to detect.

'Those two had better be careful. This stranger knows how to conceal youki from detection,' she thought.

There was a brief commotion ... with pieces of flesh, blood and bone flying through the air and then before anyone realised it, it was over. The brown-robed hooded figure remained standing, the large Claymore in its hand. The surviving guards stared in complete fear at the hooded figure, afraid that she might turn her attention on to them at any moment. Then with one well-practiced swing of her large two-handed sword, she sheathed it without a sound.

The two Claymores were shocked to see a group of youma dispatched so easily and quickly by a virtual non-Claymore. What was worse, neither of them had detected any use of youki by the stranger in the fight with the youma.

The stranger looked at the group for a little while before turning to leave.

"Identify yourself, stranger," Gina called out.

"Who asks?" the voice replied giving away the gender identity of the stranger.

It was a woman.

"I ask," the current Number Four answered.

"Under whose authority?" the hooded stranger countered.

Gina hid her surprise. That was new. Nobody had ever questioned the authority of the Organisation in matters dealing with dangerous youma. None that survived anyway.

"I shall ask once more. Who are you?" Gina repeated her question.

"I cannot tell you," the stranger replied.

"You will tell me," the current Number Four stated before advancing on the stranger.

Suddenly her blade flew forward to remove the stranger's hood. Gina was quite confident in her ability to hit her target without injuring the stranger. There was a loud sound of metal clashing against metal. Involuntarily, she raised an eyebrow. Her movement had come up short against the Claymore in the stranger's hand. Not giving up, she tried again. Once again, her blade was deflected by the stranger's Claymore. She was fast, Gina had to give her that.

"I cannot tell you ...," the stranger repeated as she weaved through another forward thrust from Gina's blade.

"Why stranger?" the current Number Four pressed on her attacks.

" ...Because ..." her words came to a stop while ducking a blow while parrying all the other strikes from Gina.

"Because of what?" Gina was getting a little excited.

The stranger was giving her more of a challenge than she thought. It had been a long time since anyone else apart from the top three single digits had given her such a hard fight.

"Because I do not know," came the stranger's surprising reply.

The current Number Four intensified her attacks while using her youki for the first time. Still the stalemate persisted with her launching her attacks while her opponent simply weaved through the attacks with an unexpected ease.

Impossible!

This stranger was matching her effortlessly strength for strength, speed for speed and skill for skill without even the slightest hint that indicated the use of youki.

"Unlikely," the Number Four Claymore answered with sheer disbelief as she struck the woman again. "You are definitely not a normal human being," she added..

Gina turned around her blade became a blur as she raised her limit to twenty percent. Still the stranger seemed to easily hold off her attacks without any use of youki.

"What is normal? Tell me, is it normal for the inhabitants to attack strangers in this land without provocation?" her mysterious opponent asked for the first time.

"No," Gina added.

'She's better than I thought. Time to get serious,' the current Number Four thought and raised her limit all the way to thirty percent. Her speed and strength were many times greater now but still her opponent did not appear to be having any problems meeting her blows. Every blow met with a resounding metal echo on her opponent's blade as the very air seemed to vibrate from the strength and power of their clashing blades. The air pressure from the sword strikes were incredible enough as it proved able to cut down the trees, boxes and even rocks.

"Then, why am I getting attacked everywhere on sight? First by those bandits, than the villagers and finally you. I don't remember carrying anything of value or committing any crimes," the stranger responded flippantly while deflecting the attacks directing against her seemingly without effort.

The current Number Four fought harder, intensifying her attacks with every passing second to penetrate the stranger's defenses, all in vain. It was very disturbing. She was moving far faster than she had ever moved in this duel. Yet she had come no closer to penetrating her opponent's defenses than before.

'Is she reading my moves or something?' Gina wondered, as she narrowed her eyebrows slightly.

Finally, after a few minutes of sparring, the stranger seemingly had enough and her blade shot forward, catching the current Number Four by surprise as it dove beneath her weapon, before lifting it up to throw the Claymore into the air. Without wasting anytime, she leaped forward to reclaim her weapon. Her opponent's blade flashed once touching her throat. Her large Claymore, deprived of its user, clattered uselessly to the ground.

Gina could not believe it. She had been soundly defeated. Her opponent had disarmed her with a single stroke of her sword. Who was she? Giving Gina's blade a swift kick, it flew forward to impale itself more than a hundred metres into a bark of a tree.

"Who are you?" the current Number Four asked as a slight sensation of fear began to make itself known.

There was silence. Other than her fellow Claymore, nobody else was around, the humans having fled the area long ago. With a movement far too quick for her to follow, the stranger sheathed her Claymore before using both hands to remove her hood. A beautiful face with blonde hair and the faint hint of a smile greeted her.

Alarm bells began to ring in the Claymore's head.

She has no silver eyes!

Her fellow companion seemed to realise this as well and quickly drew her sword to attack the stranger as she moved to walk past her. The forward thrust of her Claymore drew forward to slice through her opponent's head only to come up short against something hard and immovable like a mountain.

This time, Gina had reason to draw in her breath. The attack had not even forced the stranger from her tracks. A large blade, seemingly sharper and bigger than any Claymore with serrated edges all around it had stopped the current Number Six's Claymore weapon cold in its tracks before it could even reach the target. As she studied the weapon, she realised that the large blade was actually a part of the woman's arm, stretching out from where her arm should be to easily match the length of a standard Claymore.

The appearance of the strange weapon put any further doubts as to what the true nature of the stranger was to rest in Gina's mind.

She's an Awakened Being!

From her hidden vantage point, Galatea could not help but watch the entire exchange with a deep sense of foreboding.

Something about the stranger and the way she carried herself bothered her. It was like she had met the stranger before in the distant past.

No way! she thought as her eyes fell on the face covered by the hood.

'Teresa of the Faint Smile ... Her eyes ... She's Awakened!' Galatea concluded quickly as she left the area in a hurry.

Her handlers and the Organisation had to be warned. There was no way the two single digits could take on the legendary Teresa of the Faint Smile ... even before her Awakening. She had heard rumours of how the Organisation had sent an entire squad of four single digits :- Number Two, Three, Four and Five to take on the former Number One when she had turned her back on the Organisation. Not a single member of the execution squad sent to kill the renegade Number One had ever returned. Now that the former Number One had Awakened, the chances of taking her out in a fight were even more remote. There was no longer any sense in getting involved in the fight and getting herself killed for nothing in the process. Besides she had more important things to do like reporting the news back to her handlers and the Organisation HQ. Without any further hesitation, Galatea, the Eye of the Organisation, quickly returned back to base.

"I have spared your life once already. I will not do so again," the enigmatic woman in brown robes warned Gina when she made a run for her Claymore that was embedded in the bark of a pine tree.

Ophelia struck out at her with her Claymore only to be sent flying by a powerful backhand from the woman who continued to parry her strikes effortlessly with her strange arm-turned-weapon. Gina continued to make a run for the pine tree. She had to hurry. Ophelia was not going to last long against their mutual enemy. Alone they stood not chance. Together, however, there was a small chance, slim though it might be of taking down the Awakened Being. Drawing upon more youki to power her limbs, she made a break for it ... her target, the Claymore blade that was embedded in the tree. There ... she pulled out the blade ... and much to her surprise, discovered blood ... purple blood coating the blade.

'What?' Gina thought while taking a quick look behind the tree to see the body of a youma lying on the grass in a pool of blood.

'She knew. But how?' the current Number Four wondered.

Without wasting any more time, she made her way back to where the current Number Six and the Awakened Being were fighting. From her vantage point, it was easy to see that the Awakened Being was wiping the floor with Ophelia with little to no effort. Gina's features became even more monstrous as she raised her limit to fifty percent. This was dangerous as she could easily past the point of no return. But for short periods of time it was alright. Powered by her newly-drawn youki, Gina flew towards the stranger with her trade mark attack at blinding speed.

Much to her dismay, the Awakened Being simply side-stepped her attack before slamming into her body with a loud crash. The current Number Four was thrown more than a hundred feet into the air from the blow. For a brief moment, she saw nothing but stars. Finally gravity took over and the downed Claymore landed against something firm and solid. Pain blossomed through her chest when she tried to move and Gina discovered to her horror that her ribs were broken. Already her youki was hard at work trying to mend the damage to her body, though the current Number Four knew that she was out of the fight.

'What did she hit me with?' Her eyes fell on the woman with a round spherical shield around her body.

It rippled briefly into tendrils of black and red before settling back into the more familiar form of a robed arm that she saw initially.

'The sleeve of her arm ... is a part of her body?'

And then she knew. The brown-hooded robes of the woman were just as much a part of her body as her hands and arms.

No way.

'Is she just partially Awakened or fully Awakened?' Gina wondered.

Suddenly, there was a piercing scream ... and then silence.

Ophelia! Gina cried inwardly in horror.

As if hearing her cry, the Awakened Being turned back to look in her direction. For a minute or so, she stood there her eyes somehow gazing eerily into her own from that distance before turning away. After the Awakened Being left, she let out her breath that she hadn't realised that she had been holding while her youki continued to repair the damage done to her body.

In the distance, the Awakened Being's footsteps became fainter and fainter as the sun continued to sink over the horizon.

Back at Organisation Headquarters in the smoking parlours of power, there was a heated discussion going on.

"Impossible! Absolutely impossible! How can Teresa still be alive? We have her head with us," a voice shouted in disbelief.

"That is what I saw," another voice answered, female this time.

"The way she looked. The way she walked. The way she fought. There's no mistaking her for anyone else," the same voice continued.

"A thousand curses! Not only do we have to deal with an Awakened Priscilla but an Awakened Teresa too? How goes Rafaela and Luciela?" another voice asked.

"They are not ready," a third male voice joined in.

"Tell the doctors to hurry. I have a feeling that we might need them before long," a voice that appeared to be the leader added.

"Very well, I will let them know," a male voice at the table answered.

A woman in brown robes continued to walk without stopping on the road. Suddenly, she felt it. A brief flash of youki. Turning in the direction of the youki, her eyes studied the trees lining up one side of the road carefully. Her hand flew to her Claymore and she drew it out from its scabbard.

"Come out, whoever you are!" she called out.

Silence greeted her.

Then there was the sound of grass being stepped on and man in a white cloak stepped in front of her. He was tall and broad-shouldered with long cyan hair reaching his shoulders. She held her blade in a defensive posture in front of her. The man had very strong youki. In fact more than anybody she had encountered so far on her journey. She had to be careful with this one.

The man did not move, however.

"What are you waiting for? Let's get this over with so I can be on my way," the brown-robed woman snorted, trying to goad the man in front of her into an attack.

"I have not come to fight, my dear. I believe I have something you want," he stated.

"And what could that be?" she asked her blade ever-ready for any attacks from the man.

"Your identity, for one," he answered.

"You know who I am? Tell me! Tell me now!" she insisted, her blade never leaving its threatening position.

"No I don't know who you are but I know the people who can tell you who you are. I also know where to find them," the man answered enigmatically.

"Who? Where?" she asked again.

"But they are more likely to destroy you if you go alone. I have a proposal to make. If you assist my army in attacking the place, then you will certainly have access to all of their archives. Their archives are sure to contain all the information regarding who you are and where you're from," the man suggested.

There was silence for a moment while the woman stopped to consider her options.

"How did you know what I was looking for?" she asked once more.

"News travel around fast. I'm willing to bet that those people who know who you are preparing a way of destroying you. If you go on your personal quest alone, you will surely die. If you do it with the assistance of my army, however, you would have a better chance of success. Consider it carefully," the man answered.

After a few seconds, the woman asked, "Why are you helping me?"

"Consider it an exchange of services. You help my army in destroying this people whom I dislike and you get to find out who you are," the man answered.

"Very well then Mister Stranger," she spoke as an unwritten agreement was struck.

"Just call me Isley," the enigmatic being answered as he headed back into the trees.

The woman followed silently in suit.

TBC

I do admit I need help with writing this fic. For some reason ... I can't seem to write as much as I used to. Probably part of the reason as to why I haven't updated Gamemaster, Timeline, Countdown, Photocopy, Photogrey and Chrysalis in a long time. My mind can't seem to concentrate on anything for long periods these days.