Blargle. School is starting soon, updates won’t be as often…y’know, all that jazz. YAY SCHOOL WORK *dies*. Thank ye for feedback, for it spurs me on to greater heights.

Just finished reading a book about Irish balladry, so my head is really REALLY messed up right now. Forgive any weird language, horrible plot development, OOC-ness and grammatical/spelling mistakes that may ensue. I was not meant to write with my head in this state.

EDIT: HOLY #$%& THIS SUCKS. What the hell was I thinking? T__T I’ll revise this chapter AS SOON AS I AM ABLE.
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i. Li
I stopped dead as Essy – or apparently, someone that looked like Essy – yanked on the red whip around Az’s neck.
“Hey,” I said warily, taking a step forward once I was sure of moving without falling on my face. “Don’t…” My voice trailed off as she looked over to glare at me, eyes brimming with venom. I didn’t look away, matching her fury with mine.
“It was for you, wasn’t it?” she spat. “He left me to die for you!”
“That’s not true and the real Essy would know it!” I snarled, taking a step forward and lifting my Avarice. Almost as if in retaliation, her hands tightened around the whip, and I grimaced, lowering my arm again. Damn it!

Some movement caught my eye. I watched his hand, moving slowly, almost imperceptibly. All the fingers extended, then he closed the little finger. Four. The countdown routine. We’d worked together so long it was almost second nature. Looking back at Essy – or this person like her – I said quietly, “Who are you?”
“I’m Finesse,” she said, smirking at me, and my throwing arm itched. Three.
“I don’t think so,” I growled, glaring at her. “For starters, Finesse wouldn’t try to kill her boyfriend.”
“Hey, don’t I get any say in this?” interjected Az, sounding pained. Two. Finesse looked up at him and smiled, so sweet it was asking for a punch to tone down the sickening lovey-dovey degree. One. At that moment, Finesse or not, I was more than willing to put one fist through that angel face.
“Of course not, darling,” she purred. “After all, you didn’t give me any say in my own death.” Zero.

We both switched on Haste with a flare of symbols and, as Finesse yanked sharply on both ends of the entangled whip, I slid behind her and kicked her legs out from under her. She grabbed at Az as she fell and as he unwound the weapon from his neck; collapsing to his knees beside her from the pressure of her weight.
“Az?” she whispered, and for a moment she sounded like the Essy we knew. The Essy that he had fallen for in the first place, not this psycho with her face. “Az, please don’t. I’m sorry.” He hesitated, and as he did I saw the sickening darkness flit across her pale visage and dived for him, yelling, “Az! It’s not our Essy!”

The whip cracked as she leapt to her feet and lashed out for Az; he wasn’t there any more. Instead, he was standing on the stairwell, arms half-raised warily. He hadn’t drawn his shinkita yet. Why, you idiot? I didn’t have time to ask him as her whip scored down my back, making me stumble forward and whirl back, snarling, just as I loosed a string of Steelys from my claw.
“Don’t!” yelled Az’s voice, and we hit the slicked stone with wet thumps where the snow turned to slush below us, sending the knives all over, badly aimed by distraction. He had shielded me from the fall with himself, for the most part, but as I stood up I saw Finesse raising the whip for us again. Haste blazed around me as I grabbed the whip with my claw-protected arm, yelling at her, “What’s wrong with you?!”

“What’s wrong with you?” she snarled back, and yanked the whip out of the clumsy fingers of my claw hand. However, the comment wasn’t directed at me; she turned and gave him a look of pure hatred instead. I was just about to bury a clump of sharpened metal into her skull before she turned to me with unnatural speed and, tangling the whip expertly about my ankles, slammed me hard against the wall.

Damn, she was good with it! But what was with her? Why was she attacking me, or Az? Especially after he’d fought so hard to keep her alive? I was shoving myself to my feet before I first heard the tearing sound; furious, my hand was going for my knife pouch before I looked up and saw his eyes.

They ripped my heart straight through. This wasn’t him; this wasn’t the Az who made me want to strangle him at every spare moment, and it wasn’t the Az I had seen at the docks who was willing to kill if necessary. This was an Az who was watching his world fall apart and wouldn’t bother saving himself…so unlike the guy I knew. His eyes mirrored that. They were just so full of hurt, and pain, and desperation, shock and anger and sorrow that I didn’t think I would ever be able to feel that deeply.

Those eyes were the reason I wanted to really kill Finesse, right at that moment, if she was Finesse and not some other freaky person taking a semblance of her to screw up things for Az and me. Again.

Just as she was raising her whip to hit an unresponsive Az again, as he sat there silent, still, I let Haste guide me, skidded on the slush, and, just as she turned, grabbed her by the shoulders and sent us both flying down a stairwell. In midair, she twisted so that I would take the fall instead, which made me even more determined to give her a really good bashing. Slush soaked into the shadow set and I ground my teeth from the shock as she stared at me, her face set in a twisted grin. My hand moved for my Steelys and she trapped it with her arm; how in the Lava Dungeon was she this fast?

Leattys scrabbled over to us, probably hoping to pick at the kills. When one of them crept closer to her, she whirled towards it, ripping it apart with one crack of the whip. I didn’t hesitate to shove her off while she wasn’t focusing on me, glad for the distraction.
“Az!” I yelled, while she rolled. I didn’t see him anywhere, and I didn’t know whether to be glad or annoyed as usual; that he was staying out of her way, or that he wasn’t helping me. I decided on the former. I didn’t want him dead. The next thing I knew, her whip was curling around my neck and I choked as she pulled me back towards her.
“Azrael, darling.” Her voice was horrible and silky, like the sound a Necki might make before it bit you. “Since you left me to die, I wonder if you’ll do the same for my replacement? Shall I make her suffer too? Just…” The whip tightened around my neck, and I coughed for air. “A little?”

He appeared at the top of the stairs, and I could feel my eyes widening as I raised one hand to the weapon around my neck and the other to him, gesturing furiously at him to stay back until I noticed the change in his face and froze, letting my hand drop back. It was filled with the something I’d seen at the docks. It scared the living Stirge out of me.

“Stop.” Even his voice had it, whatever it was, resonating off every syllable. “Essy, don’t.” She seemed to hesitate for a while, then, if anything, she pulled it even tighter.
“No!” she spat, and I winced as she jerked on the whip. “You’re pathetic, Az. You keep telling me to stop, not to do it, not to ruin your life like you ruined mine?! You jerk! Promising me the sky and giving me a frozen grave!”
“Wait just a minute,” I snarled at her, trying to shift my elbow into a position where I could wind her. No good; she was wearing chainmail. “He tried to save your life. He nearly died out there trying, for the Dark Lord’s sake! Don’t-” She stopped me midsentence with a harder jerk, and I gasped, still trying to find a weak point where I could hit her, something…

“And if I did?” I froze. He was making his way down the steps, his footfalls careful and measured and sure. I wasn’t sure who this was, but it wasn’t Az either. Great. I was surrounded by people who looked like my oldest friends and weren’t. The marks on the side of his face, where…Finesse…had hit him earlier, were turning red against his tan skin, but they seemed to just make him took wilder. More frightening.
“Why take it out on Li? I’m right here. I won’t fight.” He paused, sweeping off his Pilfer to grin at her, but there was an edge to that grin I hadn’t seen. His shinkita was still sheathed, but I was sure he was going to come to his senses eventually and draw it. Still, I wasn’t sure I wanted to see this Az fight, because this side of him was ready to slide a blade through anyone’s throat.
“Because she’s the one you left me for!” she hissed, and I wanted so hard to just turn around and punch her senseless for being so stupid.

“You’ve got it all wrong, Essy,” he whispered, voice sibilant, reaching a hand out. “I can’t tell you what happened on that trip. I can’t even remember what I did to make you hate me. Just keep this between…the two of us.” He took another step forward and she seemed to go still behind me, as if considering. Then I felt the flick of her hair on the side of my face, as if she was shaking her head.
“No, I think I’ll make you suffer.” Her voice was light and cheerful and horribly final. The whip tightened painfully and my mouth opened uselessly, gasping for air that wasn’t coming. I was going dizzy. Head swimming. Unable to focus. Rough cord of the whip, pressing into my throat. Az. Essy.

ii. Az
I watched, dazed, as this girl who I’d thought had been Essy proceeded to choke the life straight out of my best friend. I guessed it was rather stupid, just standing there and watching…but I was too badly disturbed to really realise what she had done until she was dropping Li to the floor.

Not my proudest moment as a friend.

“I hope you’ll remember me a bit better now,” this girl said, blowing me a kiss as she gave Li a kick in the ribs. “I know this little tart will.” Her communicator began to beep in her pocket, and she pulled it out, frowning, while I just watched her in shock as she put some messages into it, then tucked it back into her pocket and smiled at me with that sugary smile. Man, that smile was angelic sugar sweetness, but she was Zakum’s rival for evil. Maybe his relative. A sugar smile on the face of Zakum’s relative…rock candy? Ouch, I wouldn’t like to bite into that.

Then I glanced across at her and straightened slightly, almost subconsciously. She was watching me with this little expression on her face that was so forcefully reminiscent of the old Essy. The look which had always said, You’re not paying attention to me, Az. I looked painfully at her, then shook to clear my mind.

This. Wasn’t. Essy. And she had just proved it. By nearly killing Li, who had just been trying to protect me. Nice going, Az. Really nice going.

“I’ll have to go now,” she purred. “I’ll be sure to see you around. Call me.” With that, she grabbed Li’s unconscious form and hurled her straight off the flight of stairs, straight down into the chute to level five. I switched on Haste and ran, not thinking, not caring, only hoping to prevent myself from making this any worse than I already had. I missed. She hit the floor hard, and by the time I had reached her, Finesse – or maybe her evil twin sister – had gone. Evil twin sister? Wasn’t that a big cliché too? I laughed, even though there was no one to hear me except a bunch of monsters. Maybe I was going psycho after all.

Cautiously, I dug in my bag and got stabbed…by broken glass. When had the potion bottles gotten broken? I didn’t think it was possible to break potion bottles. I looked half-ruefully, half-apologetically, at Li. If mine were broken, hers would be completely smashed. I guess it was to El Nath with us. Carefully, I removed my hand and shook it. No blood was flying, so that was good. I couldn’t say the same for her, though. She looked a bit battered, and when I turned her around and eased her pack off, I winced at the whip marks on her back and the marks where fragments of glass had embedded themselves. For me, she’d taken these, and the Dark Lord knew what other bruises.

Sighing, I hauled her up around my shoulders and carefully made my way down the tower, using Dark Sight to disguise us both from the little furballs of doom rollicking around the tower. I didn’t want to be inflicted with furball evilness. Furballs should be sat on and not-

I stopped dead and sank to the brick platform at the top of Level Three, ankle-deep in snow and slush. What was wrong with me? Li was seriously hurt and all I could do was joke around like…normal. All right, so seeing Essy had been a big, painful shock, especially when she tried to kill me. Was that any excuse, though? Was the fact that it was ‘just Li’ enough to make it less serious than it had been when it was Essy I had been pulling through the snow?

Straightening up, I glanced at her. Her neck was surrounded by a pale bruise where the whip had been, and I guessed it was going to darken soon enough. Her face was paler, I guessed from the cold and hoped it wasn’t blood loss or something equally nasty, and her breathing was heavy.
“It’s okay,” I said quietly, shifting her so she was a bit easier to carry, then resuming Dark Sight. “I’ll help you like I couldn’t help Essy.”

When we reached the bottom floor of Orbis Tower I was just about ready to die of exhaustion. But I couldn’t. Not just yet. I had to get Li to safety, a warm bed, food and a Cleric. Then I could die wherever I damn well wanted. Slowly, I opened the door and blinked a couple of times at the blinding light; the sunshine being reflected off the snow, the pepes…

Oh snap. The Jr. Pepes.

I resumed Dark Sight as one skidded towards me, sidestepping so it careened into the wall behind. Glancing downwards at its trails, I realised something. Something very, very bad for us, and good for ravening, hungry monsters.

We were leaving footprints.

Swearing a few handy curses that Vikin and Pason had taught me, I switched on Haste and began to run through the snowy field. Dark Sight would be useless if we were leaving a clear trail. Just one more field. Just one more field then Li was safe. Too bad all my luck wasn’t on my side.

I tripped on a buried root and fell into the snow, face-first. Ouch, brain freeze. And it tasted like fish, too. Slowly, pushing myself to a sitting position in the snow, I pulled Li up so she wouldn’t drown in fish ice and sighed.
“I guess I’m a pretty hopeless rescuer, huh?” I whispered. “I’m sorry. But I’ll get you to El Nath if it kills me.” I choked a bit at that, feeling myself begin to go all teary. I hadn’t cried…well, since it had been the same situation, years ago. Saving the girl I cared about. “It should kill me. I’m horrible at this.” I heard crunching snow on the side, and looked up, shielding my eyes from the sun with an arm.

“It’s all right, boy,” the figure said. A flash of blue and white blinded me and I tried to shoo away all the black dots dancing across my vision so I could see what our handy spur-of-the-moment rescuer had done; and realized it was a Mystic Door. So maybe luck was on our side after all.
“Help her,” I whispered hoarsely, my voice raw with cold, misery, exhaustion, exertion…relief. “She deserves it. I don’t.” Then I said a quick little mental goodbye to the world of the evil furballs and fish ice, and passed out.
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Ok, so major OOC-ness ensued. What the…*swears at own chapter* was this?! I promise the edited version will be up. Soon. Soon as possible.

EDIT1: Edited version, tralala. Revised to make it less OOC and more accurate to the version I had in mind in the first place. Argh, do not write while Mapling.