Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Shattered Illusions ❯ Marionette's Dance ( Chapter 38 )

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Shattered Illusions

Chapter 38: Marionette's Dance

By: Melissa Norvell

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"What's happening to me? Ah..." Tsubomi held her head and stumbled around as she desperately tried to fend off Hizaki's waves of psychic energy, battling him for control of her mind. It was wearing on her, making her weak. The girl put so much energy into fighting him off that her body was beginning to lose control. 'I've got to fight it! He's just trying to rape my mind again.'

No way in hell was she going to give him that kind of satisfaction.

Hizaki continued to look on at the pathetic state of the girl. She tried so desperately to combat his control. It was cute. Eyes of amusement stayed transfixed on her form. "Such a stimulating thing...to see you in pain. I was getting sick of seeing you so happy around Copernicus. Humans are only worth being one thing and that's food. That is all you're worth, so learn your place." His last sentence was bitter as he snapped his fingers. Tsubomi's body jolted painfully as he continued to watch her form. "I, Hizaki, Princess of Illusions command you to fulfill my every wish, desire and word."

He had done it. The possession was successful. He had finally won the struggle for control of her body.

Blank eyes stared at the psivamp as Tsubomi spoke in a voice void of emotion. "Yes, my lord. I shall do exactly as you say. Your every thought, wish, desire and word."

Hizaki moved a tendril of curly, blonde hair over his shoulder and closed his eyes. That smug smile was painted on his red lips. "Now, as of today, your goal will be to take out Copernicus and the Blue Rose Order. Obliterate that organization!"

"Yes my lord, I shall murder the members of the Blue Rose Organization," Tsubomi gave her salute. She would begin dancing on the strings of her puppet master right away.

"Now, we must find a proper tool of murder for you," Hizaki glanced around the room with a disapproving frown. "There's nothing here...How boring. This house is useless. Follow me and I will equip you with a suitable weapon."

For someone who had gotten through Hide's defenses so easily, it was shameful to know that the girl didn't have any kind of grand weapons behind her. That only made her constant victories over Hide's army all the more shameful.

Tsubomi placed a hand over her chest, and with a simple 'yes, my lord' she agreed and followed her new master as he walked over to the corner of the room and materialized a sword before him. The blade faded into existence, surrounded by a barrage of sparkling lights that twinkled like stars. Hizaki held out his hand and commanded the girl to kneel to him and for his beautiful puppet to pledge her loyalty to him.

Tsubomi agreed, saying her trademark phrase as she knelt and took his hand, kissing the top of it gently. "I, Tsubomi Sakurazawa, am yours. I will only listen to your words, my dear master."

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Millie walked back from the fields of rose as she gazed at her portrait of her dearly departed prince. Uttering his name in a sorrowful tone, she sighed unaware of what was coming down the lane.

A tall, dark silhouette bolted down the walkway, plowing into her with such force that it knocked the girl off of her feet. The both of them screamed as they collided. The breath was beaten from her breast as she fell backwards, flashing him as the picture of Yale fluttered out of her grasp. Maroon eyes widened as she could do nothing but watch helplessly as her picture flew into the air, carried by the gentle wind. "No, my picture!"

The man sat on the ground, wincing at the contact his ass made with the rocky surface. "Ow...Man, that hurt," he exclaimed as he rubbed his backside. "I should seriously watch where I go. Ouch, I think a rock went up my ass." Blinking a couple of times, he glanced beside of him, eyes following as a picture floated down and landed beside of him. He picked it up and examined it with golden eyes of interest. "Hey, I think I've seen this guy before."

"Please give it back-" Millie cut herself off upon hearing the last thing he said. "Huh? You've seen him?"

"Yeah, he was a prince, right?" The dark-skinned man lifted himself up to face the girl. "He was at Earl Prizemarter's birthday party. He got shot. Man, it was really bad, too. He was pronounced dead on the scene. I didn't even know what happened and then I was nearly run over by the crowd," he scratched the side of his face, recalling the incident was somewhat of a blur for him. He didn't know Prince Yale too well, only in the aspect that he was a prince and was of some importance to the Earl.

"You were there?" Millie knew that many vampires were there but she hadn't remembered seeing him. He was an odd vampire, with caramel skin, and a beautiful face. A dark mole was under his right eye and he had long, dark lashes. He wore a funny, pointed hat that looked like some type of wizard's hat with a long, wide rim and had long, flowing, wavy black hair that reached his mid-back. Beneath his drab, olive coat, he was fit and trim, someone who looked as if he did a lot of traveling.

Of course, in the ball room setting, he probably wore something entirely different. Maybe it was the drastic change of clothes that she didn't recognize him. That day was hectic and sorrowful. The only people she had a chance to truly meet were Shiva and Teru.

"Yeah...were you?" A thick, black eyebrow was arched. She did seem familiar.

"Yeah...Don't you recognize me?" Millie put a hand to her chest. If he saw Prince Yale's death, then he should have known what she looked like. Then again, he could have had the same problem she did with him. They probably both looked drastically different from their formal attire.

"No, should I?" The man looked confused. For the life of him, he couldn't recall anyone who bore a resemblance to her at the party.

"I was the girl who held the prince until he died," Millie glanced down in sorrow. Her words were low and frown evident.

His face lit up in shock at her unveiling. He could hardly believe that she was the same girl. Recoiling, the tanned man pointed with his brown, goat-skin glove. "No way! You're the girl who loved him?"

Millie nodded as he gave her picture back to her. The girl took it and tucked it into the pocket of her dress. She didn't want to carelessly lose it again.

"I'm so sorry," the male's words were filled with condolences. "That must have been so painful. Man, I felt so bad for you. I didn't even know a prince was even at the party and I talked to that guy twice. Well, in my head. He's a telepath because he's mute. He never told me he was a prince. Makes me wonder what other royalty was there." After all, the Earl knew a lot of people, namely a lot of socialite, upper-class vampires. There had to be way more royal figureheads there than what he knew of.

"There was a king too, and knights. All of those people who were dressed in blue and white that wore roses on their breasts, they were his knights," Millie explained the presence of her other friends. They were distinguishable from the others at the party by their blue, crushed velvet clothes, lace and blue roses.

"Not even they could protect him." Then again, who could in that situation?

"The king was the man hugging him," Millie explained as the dark-haired man bowed curtly.

"My name is Zino Tidus Adair III. I'm sorry that I haven't introduced myself." There they were, talking their lives away without properly knowing each other. It felt a little rude to Zino that he had done something so careless.

"I'm Millie Ashford," Millie curtsied.

"I've never heard of you, and I attend all of the high society parties around here. I was at Earl Prizemarter's last party as well. Were you there?" He didn't recall seeing her at any of the previous events. Perhaps it was just that he wasn't paying attention.

"Yeah, I was with the prince, king and the king's lover," Millie stated.

"Lover?" This was new to Zino.

"The king loves another man. He's infertile so no heir would ever be produced," she was sure that Zino probably had known about the Inheritors before, but she would provide the information in case he wasn't aware or it had slipped his mind.

"Scandalous! Is the other man a royal?" For a vampire to be in a homosexual relationship was uncommon, but not unheard of. Then again, for a vampire to be in a relationship in general was strange and out of the normal.

"Nope, not even the same ethnicity," Millie informed him.

"It's a double scandal!" Zino was shocked in more ways than one. To consider a partner was one thing, but to consider a partner outside of his own race was a rarity indeed!

Millie laughed a little when she saw his overreaction to the information. It seemed that he was into gossip more than she was. It was refreshing to know that someone else cared just as much, if not more about such things as she did. "I guess it kind of is in a way."

"Hey, would you like some ice cream?" Zino decided that it couldn't hurt to ask her, anyway. The two of them could get to know each other over some nice, cold ice cream. It would just be a nice bonding event.

Millie frowned, "I don't have any money."

"It will be my treat. You're like royalty anyway. I should be catering to you," Zino smiled brightly and jerked a finger to his chest. To him, there was no greater fulfillment then hanging out with a woman who had been involved in royalty, especially one as pretty as Millie was. It was as if he were taking a princess on a date.

Millie blinked. "Huh?" She was a little confused that he would say such things. "I'm not royalty. I'm just a commoner." Had she had married the prince, she would have considered herself so, but to do so now was just asinine. She was nothing special and any chance she had of that happening wasn't going to happen at all.

"Don't be modest," Zino waved in dismissal.

"No, I really am." Why didn't he believe her?

Zino placed his hands on his hips and arched an eyebrow. "How do you figure? You know a king and a prince." That was close enough to royalty to him.

"It's a long story, really. I'm not nobility. I'm normal." Honestly, she was no one special. It wasn't about being modest, Millie was really just...Millie. There was nothing else to it.

"Really?" Zino didn't seem too convinced.

"Yeah..." The girl hung her head in defeat. "I'm just a student from America. It's completely by accident that I know them."

Just then, a large hand reached under her face and tipped her chin up, gazing into those melancholy, maroon eyes. "Don't look so down. It's fine, really." Who cared that she wasn't noble? She was still a nice girl, and someone he seemed to get along with. That was truly all that mattered when he thought about it.

"You're nobility. I mean, you probably are related to an earl or something." Everyone she knew was suddenly nobility; it wouldn't have been shocking if he was as well. That's just the kind of environment she existed in.

"I'm the son of an archduke, but hey, I like to live freely away from all those turned up noses and stuff. I'd rather just be normal." Stuffed up balls and fancy formal events only made Zino wished he could get all of those tight-fitting clothes off of his body. He felt more in his environment when he was traveling and living off of the land. Much to his family's dismay, he didn't want to carry out their deeds of being royal or assuming any kind of royal position.

"You're just saying that." Honestly, who wouldn't want to be royal?

"Nah," Zino shook his head, "besides, you were almost a princess. Man, that is way above me."

"Well, I was knighted, too by the king," Millie supposed that in that aspect, she was part of royalty. She didn't consider herself anything like that, however.

"You're a knight? Well, that makes us on the same level," Zino hoped to kill any semblance of there being anything awkward between them. After all, whether or not Millie wanted to admit it, she was indeed royalty in one way or another.

"What are you? Are you an earl?" Millie was so confused. Zino said he was son of an archduke, but she was unsure of what exactly that made him.

"Oh gosh, I don't like to be called that but I guess my true title is Earl Zino Tidus Adair III, but don't call me that, please." He placed his hand behind his head bashfully. "Just call me Zino."

"Okay, and I'm Millie."

The two traveled to an ice cream stand that was a couple of blocks down the road. It was a small, nostalgic-looking place, much like the ice cream stands she used to frequent as a child. It brought back a lot of memories for the girl. It was kind of nice to get away from everything that was happening and spend some time out, just being a normal girl. When she thought about it, Zino was a pretty nice guy and he definitely didn't act like any of the others. He was realistic and down to earth. A nice break in the chaos in her life.

"So, today we're just a couple of normal people," Zino smiled and handed her some money. The girl nodded and took it happily. "Seeing you smile is the most important thing to me."

"Huh?" Millie blinked. They had just met each other, how could her smile be most important to him?

"You have a beautiful smile, so I want to see it. I think people should always smile, because life is too short to sit back and worry and be depressed by everything. I mean, sure the prince is dead but he wouldn't want you to be sad and miserable," Zino's words hit Millie in the face with a realization. The girl uttered a 'huh' as her face lit up in shock. "I think people who die want you to be happy and love again, otherwise they'll feel like they are a burden to you or they'll be incredibly guilty in the afterlife."

"I mean, think about it, would you want to know that you depressed someone and were the reason that they didn't think they could love another person?" Zino glanced skyward as the gentle wind toyed with his long locks of black.

Suddenly, Millie felt like she had been acting like a fool. Here she was, being so sad and depressed that she debated on if waking up in the mornings were truly worth it, when she should have been trying to get over him. Yes, it was hard but to let him hold her back seemed stupid right now. It probably did make Yale feel bad, if he were watching over her. "No, I would want them to be happy while they were alive." The girl replied after receiving her ice cream cone, filled with dreamscicle sorbet.

"I know it's weird, but I think it's disrespectful to be sad at a funeral. Yeah, they left this world but they are resting now. They don't want to see all of those people crying about them, like they want to know that they made you hurt so much. It seems cruel." It wasn't the best way to see the situation. In fact, it was pretty controversial, but it was something that Zino had always felt strong about. He tried to put himself in the shoes of a soul, looking down upon all of those people and it wasn't anything he wanted, that was for sure.

Millie glanced down at her ice cream with furrowed eyebrows. "You make me sound selfish."

"Oh no!" Zino threw out his arms, nearly knocking the ice cream out of his cone. "It's nothing like that! Just stating my beliefs. Please don't be offended!" It wasn't anything that he had planned at all. In fact, now he felt bad for bringing it up right after she lost the prince. What was he thinking?

"You care about my feelings a lot for someone I first met," Millie thought it odd that he was so careful about offending her. Perhaps he was just nice, but still, there was something about it to her.

"I really like you. Hey! We should be friends!" Zino wanted a friend, or at least someone he could relate to that wasn't going to shun him about his eccentricies about being royal.

"You want to be my friend?" Millie didn't think Zino would want to associate with someone like her.

"Hell yeah! I'd love to! You seem so interesting and you're not Japanese!" The fact that she wasn't Japanese meant that they had something else in common. Zino was actually relieved that there was someone around that was just like him.

"You're not either? Where are you from?" Millie could tell that he had an accent, but she wasn't sure if it was an accent or a Japanese dialect.

"Switzerland," Zino replied.

The girl's face lit up and she beamed with happiness. "Really? Oh wow! That's so cool!" She'd never met a Swedish person before, and she had a feeling this was going to be interesting. It was always nice to learn about other cultures. That was why she came to Japan in the first place.

"Yeah, I've been around the world. I travel quite a bit." It was a leisure that Zino indulged in. He loved going to different places and seeing the world. It was another reason he couldn't just stay shut up inside of a stuffy castle. He had too much he wanted to accomplish.

"You're amazing!" Millie clasped her hands together and smiled.

Zino's eyes moved to a silhouette in the background and Millie turned to see Tsubomi, standing there with a long-handled battle axe in her hands. The maroon-haired girl cocked her head, questioning her friend's name as she stared into her void eyes. There was something dark and sinister about her friend. It was as if Tsubomi was a whole different person, and she didn't answer her when she questioned her name. Millie then asked if something was wrong in an unsure tone, and still, Tsubomi simply stood there, stock still.

'There is one of the Blue Rose Order. Kill them.' Hizaki commanded from within the girl's mind.

"I obey your every word, my lord," Tsubomi replied obediently.

Zino was confused. He glanced around at the situation before him, unable to decipher what he should do. "Who is he? You know that guy?"

"Who are you talking to? Tsubomi-kun, what's wrong?" Millie cocked her head in worry and confusion.

"All members of the Blue Rose Order must die," Tsubomi's mechanical words slipped through her lips.

"What?" It drove terror forcefully into the school girl's veins.

Tsubomi darted towards the two, swinging her battle axe. Zino yelled for her to look out and positioned himself in front of the girl to act as a human shield, only to be flung to the side. His body sailed through the air and smacked into a nearby tree, beating the breath from him as he came into contact with the rough bark and slide down the surface, resting in a seated position on the ground.

"Zino!" Millie called out in shock. She couldn't believe that he was just cast away by her as if he were nothing. In fact, there was something strange about all of this. She had never seen Tsubomi have that type of power before.

Whipping around, she leveled her friend with a steely gaze. "Tsubomi-kun! What's wrong with you?" Something was wrong. This wasn't the Tsubomi that she knew.

Zino held his side as blood streamed down the side of his mouth. Trembling from the pain, the black-haired man groaned from the dull pain in his back. "Millie...Run..."

"Die..." Tsubomi swung the axe again as the girl barely got out of the way of her strike. Tsubomi's axe blade slammed into the bark of a tree, lacerating the wood as it dug into the plant.

"I don't understand this. Why are you trying to kill me?" Millie panted as Tsubomi struggled to pull the blade out.

The girl simply gazed at her with hollow eyes as she lifted the blade from the tree and jumped into the air, spinning like a ballet dancer as she swung the weapon to strike again. Millie was quick to react and jumped back yet again.

Why would she try to kill her? What was going on? Why was her agenda to suddenly kill the members of the Blue Rose Order? She didn't understand what was going on.

"Please, stop!" She begged. "It's me, Millie! You know? Millie Ashford! Tsubomi-kun!" Millie desperately tried to reason with the tom boy, but nothing got through. She drew herself in as the axe blade came deathly close to chopping her in half. For once, Millie was truly scared.

"As a member of the Blue Rose Order, you must die," Tsubomi repeated her orders and continued to try and strike at the girl.

"What are you talking about? You're a member of the Blue Rose Order!" Millie dodged from side to side, trying to escape the wrath on the end of her axe. Above all things, she couldn't let her friend strike her with it, or she would be dead in a heartbeat.

"Liar," Tsubomi replied coldly as she continued to swing the axe at the girl.

"Why would I lie? Tsubomi-kun, this isn't like you. I don't understand. I thought you wanted to help Copernicus." What in the world was happening? Why did Tsubomi's motives change so drastically? Something was very wrong.

'Kill her.'

"I have no desire to keep you alive," Tsubomi continued to swing the axe at the girl, her pace quickening as her desire to end Millie's life intensified.

Millie was struggling to keep up with her friend's hacking. For some reason Tsubomi was stronger than before. Her strikes were more fierce and powerful than normal. "What did they do to you? You're not even listening to me."

Tsubomi held the axe over her head, swinging it around like a helicopter propeller, then she brought it down savagely as the ground shook, knocking Millie to her feet. The girl rolled out of the way just before the blade contacted the ground for a second time.

"I don't want to hurt you, but I will if you try and kill me." This broke her heart, and as much as she didn't want to lay a hand on her beloved friend, she knew that she wasn't going to get away with not doing so.

Tsubomi spun the axe on one hand, releasing it like a boomerang as Millie stood up and ran out of the way of the rotating weapon. It dug ruthlessly into the same tree that Zino had been seated under, missing him by inches. He winced and opened one eye. Seeing his opportunity, the man grabbed the axe.

The tom boy attempted to spin kick Millie, but she grabbed her leg and tried to punch her. Tsubomi was quick to react and grabbed her fist, leveling her with an emotionless stare. "Insignificant creation, you aren't worth the life you were given."

"You're crazy and brainwashed. You don't know what you're doing! Snap out of it, Tsubomi-kun!" Her friend was possessed. That had to be it. Tsubomi wouldn't act like that normally. There was something Hide did to her.

Zino ran up behind Tsubomi with the axe blade drawn. Tsubomi glanced over her shoulder as a dark shadow was cast over her. The blade glinted in the light as the dark-haired man was fixing to bring it down to end the girl's life, only to be stopped by the voice of his friend.

"Zino! No!" Millie shouted desperately as Tsubomi caught the blade with amazing strength in one hand.

The girl held it back as blood welled to the surface of her skin, dripping down her arm. She brought her foot up, landing a kick to his stomach as he was flung back into another tree. Tsubomi then flipped the axe and caught the handle in her hand, pointing the bloody blade at the girl.

Millie leveled her with a stern expression. "Let's go!" She said as she tried to punch Tsubomi in the face, but her attack was evaded by Tsubomi moving her head to the side. "This isn't you! This isn't who you really are! You love Copernicus, and you'd never do this to him!" The girl continued to attempt to desperately plea with the tom boy, trying to break through to her senses. "Think about it, please! Reconsider this, Tsubomi-kun!"

'His eyes...what's that orange glowing line around his pupils? Wait!' Millie stared into the void eyes, glowing with neon orange as she made a connection that caused her blood to run cold. This was the same thing that she noticed with the vampire who assassinated her lover. Her eyes widened as the connection hit her in the face like a sack of bricks. 'He had the same line! It...Is it possession?' She ducked down as the axe blade nearly impacted her face. 'How? How did Tsubomi-kun get possessed? I've got to tell Copernicus!' The girl yelled as the side of the blade traveled close to her face, the cold metal contacted her skin as she saw strands of maroon fly into the air.

Zino called out her name, but she held her hand out to him. "Please," she pleaded, "please stay out of this." She didn't want to involve anyone anymore than she already had. Zino didn't deserve to be thrown into something of this magnitude.

"I cannot stand by while this happens," Zino protested against her orders. There was no way that he was going to stand idly by.

"I'm a knight. Let me handle this. Besides, I think I know what's wrong with him," she wasn't sure how to help Tsubomi, but at the same time she was going to try and handle the situation the best she could. Millie had no intentions of trying to kill the other girl. There had to be a better way, but she wasn't sure of what that way was.

"What?" She did? Zino was glad someone did because he was completely lost.

Tsubomi thrust the axe forward as she charged at her opponent. Millie moved to the side and brought her knee up, ramming it into Tsubomi's stomach. Tsubomi doubled over, coughing up fluid. "He is my friend and he's possessed."

"Possessed?"

"Don't blame him for this. It isn't his fault. He's being forced. If you can avoid it, don't hurt him," Millie instructed him. Above everything else, she didn't want Tsubomi killed. She only hoped she could tire the tom boy out or make her pass out.

"What do we do to knock him out of the possession?" Zino was willing to do whatever she wanted. All Millie had to do was say the word and he would carry out her plans.

"I don't know."

"This doesn't help anyone," Zino sighed.

"I've never faced this situation before," she had barely been inducted as a knight, much less anything else. No matter how many countless enemies she had faced, Millie had never dealt with a friend being possessed.

"Do you know who is possessing him? We could attack the source." If Zino knew who the possessor was, then he could go and deal with the puppet master while she faced off against the puppet.

"Well, I-" Millie was cut off as the axe blade slashed her side, slitting her layers of clothing as blood seeped through to the surface, staining her clothes. Zino called out her name in shock as her form crashed into the ground, blades of grass pricking her body as Tsubomi got above her, swinging the axe down as the girl dodged, the blade coming down inches from the flesh of her cheeks. A thick layer of sweat coated her body as the blood loss caused her form to grow cold.

Tsubomi placed her knees on either side of the girl's hips as Millie stared up into those blank eyes that stared down on her with intent to end her life. Millie's voice trembled with uncertainty as she stared death in the eyes. "Who are you? I don't even know anymore." Kicking up, her foot made contact with the tom boy's gut, lifting her off of her. The gun slinger then put her feet over her head and rolled back, popping up and pulling out her gun. Tsubomi flipped in the air and landed on her feet, sticking the end of her axe into the ground as the two had a stare down.

"Do you think that you can stop me? Do you think you can shoot me?" Tsubomi dared her to make a move.

Millie clenched the gun as her emotions waged war inside of her head. She didn't know what to do, and she was clearly torn.

"You don't know what to do," Tsubomi's voice sounded amused, "do you?"

"Shut up!" Millie shouted emotionally. "Just stop talking!" She didn't want to hear it. She didn't want to hear anything that came out of her friend's mouth. None of it was true! It was all lies! 'You're not Tsubomi-kun...you're not...but you're in Tsubomi's body. If I kill you, then I kill Tsubomi. I can't do that to Copernicus. You're his world. You're the only thing that he has left. I can't kill you.' The barrel of the gun was shifted to the possessed girl's hand and she tried to shoot beneath the blade to knock it off of the head off of the handle, but the bullet was deflected.

"Do you think I'm stupid? Why would I have a weapon that could just be shot apart?" Tsubomi asked as she rushed at the other girl, who continued to shoot at her. Tsubomi wove in and out of the barrage of bullets. They whizzed by her head as she gained distance between them.

"Sorry, Tsubomi-kun but you can't die," Millie squeezed the trigger and the loud bang registered in her ears as the bullet pierced Tsubomi's shoulder, the same one that she had shot herself in before. It pierced her skin, splattering blood through the air as she released the axe and fell backwards on her side, propping herself up on her elbows. The axe tumbled through the air and landed beside of her. Tsubomi then immediately got up, as if the shot wound was nothing more than a shove to the ground.

"What are you?" Millie was shocked. The force from the gun had knocked her on the ground. She sat on her butt, pointing the gun at Tsubomi. "Do you not feel pain? Your eyes...Your eyes are so dead and void. You're not even alive anymore. You're just a puppet." Red claws appeared and wrapped around the side of the girl's face.

"Of course he doesn't act like a human," a familiar voice reached her ears.

"Hizaki!"

"This is how humans should be, mindless and completely subservient," Hizaki pulled the girl's face close to his. The smell of women's perfume wafted through her nostrils. "I can see why Copernicus likes this one. When I look at him closely, he is very handsome," Hizaki noted, placing a finger to his lips in thought as Millie glared at him defiantly.

"You...you possessed him," she shot in malice.

"He's a vampire," Zino noted, staring down Hizaki.

"Yes, I did. Does it pain you to see him like this?" Hizaki placed a hand on his hip with a sly smile. He didn't even need an answer from the girl to know what she felt.

"You son of a bitch! Change him back or I'll blow your brains out!" The girl threatened, shoving the gun in the pretty vampire's face, between his eyes.

"That's rather rude, besides, this is a level five possession. You're precious little bird has no control over his actions. He is my complete slave. I have taken over the part of his brain that registers orders to the rest of his body and regulates his psyche. His will is completely bent to my command. He only acknowledges me as master. Ah, sadly one drawback to this type of possession is that I have to remain strong enough to fight against his rebellious will. Which will break first, my will or his bones? Interesting, yes?" Even if it wasn't amusing to Millie, it was amusing to him. Her despair over the incident excited him. It made him giddy with joy to see Millie so utterly helpless and unable to do anything while her best friend tried to put an end to her life.

"You're a sick man," Millie's eyes narrowed and her voice was projected with hatred.

"What would he know about pain? He's just been hiding behind Copernicus this whole time. That's fine; however, I've been slowly draining his mental energy over a course of time. That's why it was easy to possess him," Hizaki explained. "His mind is so wrecked that he doesn't know what he feels anymore. He can no longer distinguish reality from distortion. His mind, body, and soul belong to me." The cross-dresser walked over to his puppet, resting his cheek against the tom boy's as he sat his hand on his shoulder. "Such a pretty little thing that Copernicus once had. I should make him mine. So loyal to a fault to that man. He'd make an excellent servant. If I screw with his memories, then I can easily make myself replace him," Hizaki was full of amusement as he played with the girl's tendril's weaving them in and out of his long fingers as he admired her boyish qualities, giving Millie a sly smile.

Suddenly, three of Hizaki's long fingernails were shot off, splintering as the shards hit the ground. The vampire looked shocked as he stared in horror at his once finely manicured nails.

"Don't touch him! He belongs to Copernicus, not you!" Millie shouted as tears clung to the corners of her eyes. "He's my friend...He's been through so much..." Her voice cracked with emotion as she clenched her eyes shut, trying to will the stinging tears back.

"Tsubomi, show them who your real master is," Hizaki shot, growling in anger. How dare that bitch shoot off his nails! She was going to pay for screwing up his perfect manicure!

"Yes, my lord," Tsubomi complied and bowed, taking Hizaki's hand. The blonde flashed a smile to the gunslinger.

"Stop! Don't bow to him! Tsubomi-kun, stop it! Please!" Millie frantically begged, firing her gun around the brunette, trying to snap her out of her possession. Her emotional pain was morphing into physical pain now and her voice broke and wailed as she continued to speak. "Wake up! Don't! You don't belong to him! You belong to Copernicus!"

"Millie..." Zino hadn't seen the girl break down like that. It pained him to see that she was in such a state. He cast a sympathetic glance at her futile struggles to desperately pull her friend out of his trance.

Tears ran down Millie's face as Tsubomi's lips touched the cross-dresser's hand in a loyal kiss.

"Now, that is truly worth your heartache. Does it hurt that you have to see him like this? Such tears of pain make my heart flutter with glee," Hizaki laced his fingers together with a smile as he teased the girl, verbally battering down her mental state. "Come, Tsubomi, let's leave them. I want Copernicus to know about this incident."

"Yes, my lord," Tsubomi followed him away, "I live to hear and obey."

"No..." Millie looked on with widened, trembling eyes as her one of the worst scenarios that could have ever happened played out before her. She stood there, unable to move, her heart raced and she felt herself overcome with anxiety. She was helpless. All Millie could do was watch as her friend walked away with his captor. "No!" She screamed painfully and fired a shot in her last desperate attempt to pierce Hizaki, but the bullet never met it's mark as the two of them faded away in a swirl of sakura petals.

Her knees gave out from under her as Millie came crashing down as tears ran down her face. "No...this can't be...It just can't..."

...To Be Continued