Hihi. I’m back. I give thee a little shoutout to read the stories of my friends, because they are spiffy and update more often than I do.

UNHOLY MOTHER OF CHEESE. Thank you. THANK YOU ALL READERS, for helping me achieve the 200-likes mark despite my infrequent updates and strange ways.

Urgh, I’m such a slob. It has been three weeks since I last updated, I know. And Kirby has battered me accordingly [O-(‘_’t) Super Rude Kirby courtesy of DaMunky.]. I really am sorry about the delay with this chapter – but storywriting, Maple and all matter of electronica had to be temporarily put aside in favour of healthy sleep and good grades. >_> But seriously, how can one’s real life overtake one’s virtual life?! D< IT’S NOT POSSIBLE. xD[/ubergeek]

Attached are a few pictures; the first is badly-drawn Essy, in some sort of weird outfit I concocted myself. *goes off to cry at lack of drawing ability* The other two are sprites of our favourite split-personality crossbow-woman, in Finesse and Essy forms respectively. Enjoy!

EDIT: Okae, so MMOT is being a bich. D< Essy picture up soon!
EDIT1: Essy picture up now. =D TAKE THAT MMOT! HAHA! Finesse/Essy I know, I know, her right hand looks really weird. I can’t draw hands for bugger-all. <_<
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i. Li
I sat up in bed and rubbed at my eyes gingerly, still disoriented. After the disaster of last night, we had moved to an inn in the main village, where we wouldn’t have to worry about the psycho Ranger turning up and trying to shoot me in my sleep, or at least would have to worry less. It was still dark; sunup wasn’t for another hour, according to the gleaming crystal and metal clock on the side table, and I struggled my way out of the sheets blearily. Slowly, still groggy from tiredness, I began to stumble my way to the bathroom-

“Go back to sleep,” a voice said, disgustingly cheerful for this hour, and I spun around, now extremely awake and highly alert. Being a thief did that to you; lots of people tended to want the stuff you took from them given back. But it was just Az, fully dressed in Pilfer and China set, his shinkita glinting bare on the sheets in front of him. I glanced at it; he was fast with that thing, and I just hoped I would be able to spot his Haste before he pulled it on me.
“No,” I said, taking a wary step backwards. He sprung lightly to his feet and I went for the Avarice tucked under my bed; it wasn’t there, and I looked up in time to catch the glint of his grin and the flash as light rebounded off my claw.

“Don’t be a bad ebil Kitty-Li-kins,” he scolded mockingly, and I got to my feet, aware of the fact that I was only wearing a sauna robe and that it was damn cold. Tensing, I pounced; he dodged, still waving my Avarice around out of my reach, making me snarl at him, “What did I do to deserve this?”
“You’re being evil and mean,” he said, voice singsong. Then a note I recognized and didn’t like the sound of at all snapped into his tone, which made me stiffen. “Guess what happens when Kitty-Li’s are evil!”
“Az!” I yelled, furious. “If you-” He caught me by one arm, so that I was virtually dangling from his raised hand, glaring angrily at him.

“This is my fight,” he said quietly. “I can’t expect you to get tangled up in it just because of some crazy people wanting to kill me.”
“Don’t be an idiot!” I yelled, struggling against his grip. “We’re a team! I’m not going to cut and run on you because I’m scared or just because you think I’m too weak to fight with you!” He stiffened and looked incensed. I growled at him and tried to pull out, but he was stronger than me. And taller.
“It’s not that you’re too weak,” he answered, pained, after a few beats of agonized silence. “I just don’t want you hurt.” He let go of me and I took the opportunity to grab him by the shirt front, yelling at him, “I don’t care!” Taking a deep breath, I was about to let loose a whole string of swearwords on him before he placed a finger on my lips.

“Man, you’ll wake everyone up,” he whispered, his grin flickering on and off his face like a magma flare. “Wish me luck, huh, evil kitty?” There was silence, then I was blinded by a sudden flare of blue-streaked light. Cursing, I stumbled forward and groped at thin air as my eyes watered from the sudden change in brightness, the symbols engraved in angry red on the inside of my eyelids.

When I could finally crack my eyes open, he was gone and a window was open, the curtains blowing with the cold morning breeze. I stalked over to it and, sticking my head out the window, yelled to the awakening town, “Fine, you – you snail-brained, noble, self-righteous, annoying twerp! But if you get killed, I’ll have your teeth on a necklace! Got it?!” There was no answer, but I thought I heard his snicker of laughter and the familiar mocking, “Cli-ched. Cli-ched Kitty-Li-kins.” Furious, I slammed the shutters, hearing snow slowly cascade off the roof and having the small satisfaction of hearing a scream of indignation as some other resident of the inn had ice dumped on them.

The next challenge was finding where in the Dark Lord’s name he had secreted my armour, my hat and my boots. Cursing profusely all the while, I spent the next quarter of an hour tearing apart the room in search of my items. Finally, I found my Red Burglar stashed under his pillow, for whatever reason. Scowling to myself and muttering all the time about Az and all his ancestors, I jammed it on my head, only to yank it off again and turn it the right way round, fuming.

When I opened the refrigerator – why did an inn in a town that was permanently snowed in need a refrigerator anyway? – and found my Shadow set and gloves neatly folded and wrapped in clear plastic, I allowed myself a little self-satisfied smile. Dragging out my armour, I shook the plastic off it and dressed as quickly as I could. Removing my Avarice from under the bed where it had fallen, I grabbed my sets of Steelys and the pouch of pills Allamar had given me yesterday, downed a red bean soup in a couple of gulps, kicked my boots on and ran out. The innkeeper was barely awake by the time I was speeding out the front door, and I had just gotten seven feet from it when I heard a smug, “Look who got ditched.” I turned to face the owner of the voice as she cracked her Whip; slotting Steelys into my claw, I narrowly dodged the slash of her weapon and, glaring defiantly into her single eye, I raised the Avarice and growled, “Let’s roll.”

“I’m going to kick your scrawny, double-dealing, man-stealing ass,” hissed Finesse, taking a step towards me. I stopped her with one loosed Steely that landed just between her booted feet. Even if it was Essy’s body, I didn’t particularly care. I just wasn’t feeling in the mood to be nice to either.
“Bring it,” I snarled.

ii. Az
I wondered, just idly, if Kitty-Li had found her clothes yet. She’d probably kill me for it. Oh well, I was probably going to be deadified one way or another; it might as well be by a Scary Ebil Kitty-kins, since she’d probably wanted to do it every day for the past three years. Might as well not deny her the satisfaction.

I heard a whistling sound and half-turned just in time to nearly miss the arrow, which sped within a bare inch of my chest. Inches from my beating heart, which was still beating, thankfully. A moment of shocked silence, followed by an obligatory scream of pain/horror, then a dramatic turn to start profaning the guilty party. Only I couldn’t think of an appropriately painful and humiliating profanity. The Ranger was looking at me a bit weird, so I settled on, “Your father was a Pig and your mother was a Zombie Mushroom! Oh yeah, you smell funny.” He just fixed me with this eeeevil cold glare, so I noted the humour score. Me, one, Creepy Maniac Ranger, none.
“I thought we were here to fight, not insult each other,” he said icily. “At least, that was the impression I received.”
“I thought you might as well feel my scathing wit before I kick your ass,” I answered cheerily, and drew out my shinkita of Ultimate Spiffy Az-ness. “Let’s-”

Arrows were flying all around me even before I could say my cool confident-hero-about-to-kick-the-villain’s-ass-line. In a flash of Haste, I was running, churning trails behind me in the snow. Dark Sight wouldn’t be much use in snow, which would show up footprints, so I didn’t bother wasting time and concentration on that. Instead, I put my attention to focusing on the various fun ways in which I would kick his ass. Proper.

There was one thing I had to say for his choice of battleground. There were cliffs. They were big and sharp and pointy. Cliffs meant places for him to snipe, but cliffs meant places for me to hide from his Ranger-y skills so that I could pull Bandit powers on him. That said, I leapt onto a ledge of ice and grabbed the rope hanging down the nearby cliff-face, swinging crazily for a few seconds before I manhandled myself to the top of the ridge, ducking as an arrow composed of pure magic energy soared over my head. At least I knew he couldn’t try the Bomb Arrow move he had pulled last night, not with the risk of avalanches. But I didn’t know what kinds of other tricks he had. Oh well, might as well find out. Hopefully without getting killed in the process.

I peered over the edge of the cairn and gave him a cheery wave. Or at least, I would’ve given him a cheery wave if he was there. That wasn’t good.

I turned around, bringing my cutter up just in time to knock his bow out of focus, sending an arrow through my hat. Through my hat was better than through me; but I decided to complain anyway, once I had kicked him away from me, rolled out of his immediate psychotic vicinity and was making for the higher crags.
“I paid money for this hat!” I shouted, kicking up drifts of snow as I skidded to a halt. So he had Thrust; it was the only way he could have gotten up there as fast as I had. Well, thief Haste was better, and looked cooler, too. Completely ignoring the fact that he could shoot arrows at close range, I stood a chance!

I don’t think he cared much, though. I wondered if five arrows being fired towards you at one time was an apology, or maybe just a ‘that’s nice’. Wait, five arrows?

Oh, snap.

I ran, rolled and dodged as they trailed the ground behind me, and I idly wondered how long it would take before every spare inch of ground and cliff was melting from the sheer force of arrow-y badness. Then I wondered how Bowmen carried that many arrows around. I mean, how didn’t their backs break from it all? You never saw a hunchbacked bowman staggering from the weight of over a thousand arrows on their back. I reckoned that wasn’t fair. I mean, I had to carry this shinkita around, but hey. It did impress the ladies a fair bit. There was nothing cooler than an awesome shinkita of Az-ness belonging to Az the Uber-Spiffy Wonder Bandit. Wait, Wonder Bandit?

I ducked as an energy arrow buried itself into the cliff face behind me and yelped as six arrows arced over to me, ducking three that embedded themselves at various stages over my head. Creepy Maniac Ranger was an extremely good bowman. I hadn’t counted on the fact that he could shoot without seeing his target. The other two landed narrowly on either side of me. One shattered when it hit the rock. I breathed a sigh of relief that was stopped mid-sigh by an arrow. That pinned my hat to the cliff.

“Man, would you leave off the hat?” I muttered to myself, ducking out and attempting to remove my Pilfer from its impalement.

iii. Li
I clenched my teeth as the stall crunched and shattered from the combination of my weight and Finesse’s throw, barely managing to leap out of the wreckage just in time, as the whip cracked down inches from where I had been, tearing a hole in the collapsed awning. The stallowner had no time to start complaining before I yanked him out of the way, loaded a couple of Steelys and hurled a Lucky Seven at the crossbowwoman. She dodged out of the way, the knives embedding themselves into the wall behind her.

“Give up and die already,” she hissed, and I loosed a string of throwing knives at her in response, more concentrating on her movements. They missed her; her speed was just about equal to mine, but I had agility, while she had to contend with heavy armour and thick snow, which was fast getting trampled as we moved. The clearest advantage I had, the one which I’d never actually thought about using, was the fact that I had one more eye than Finesse did.

I leapt back and the whip whistled inches from my face. Holding up the Steely, I levelled it carefully, slotted it into my Avarice, and ducked out of the way of the whip. Because she only had one eye, she had to keep moving. To make sure that I was in her sight at all times or, at the very least, her perceptions. I just had to be fast, keep edging her towards a spot where she didn’t have enough space to manoeuvre, then I could get a clear shot-

Someone grabbed my arm and shoved down my claw, shouting, “Stop fighting! You’re wrecking the town!” Almost before realising it, I had turned to him – him? – and aimed the loaded Avarice in his face before he could drag me away. I stared into the unknown face, a warrior frozen and unmoving. I wondered why for a few dazed beats. Then I glanced at the claw in my hand and blinked a couple of times. Slowly, hesitantly, I lowered it. The enchantment of the cold shattered, and everything became so much more vague and yet dangerously clearer at the same time.

The next second, I choked as the harsh plaited whipcord wound around my throat, making me hiss; but in anger, not pain or shock. I heard Finesse yelling something, but didn’t care. This time, I was focused and I was furious; without the cold raging at me to kill, to hurt, I could concentrate on how to get this thing off my neck and murder this prissy female Bain painfully and slowly. She might have been trying to cut off my air supply, but she was trying, not actually succeeding yet. I took a breath through my nose and the sharp winter air raced up and through to my head, clearing it of the last traces of ice, as my Avarice, still-loaded, shifted on my hand. Closing my eyes, I tensed my arm, pulled back to gain as much momentum as possible, and shot Finesse in the foot.

She was obviously so wrapped up in gloating that she hadn’t noticed the part where I had a loaded Avarice still waiting to kill someone. Screaming, she let go of me and I took the opportunity to get some distance between us. Her shoe would have protected her fairly well, but if I was lucky enough, that would have hurt. I had three Steelys out and readied when her whip nearly took my hat off, her wounds visibly healing and closing over. The little realisation that she had a bag of healing pills like I did made me curse under my breath; this meant that we could just keep going on like this for ages. I didn’t have ages; I had until Az and the Ranger guy met and started bashing away at each other, and since I had no idea of when that was, I would have to take Finesse out fast.
“You pithy little…I’ll squish you!” she hissed, and I tensed, glancing at her foot. The snow had been churned up by our chaotic dance, no longer pristine.

No longer pristine. I frowned, glancing down; that meant something. It meant an edge, an advantage, what it would take to win this battle. The whip curved a crimson arc across the air between us and, concentrating as I skidded out of the way, felt myself disappear, detaching myself from the corporeal and the visible. Now as the world faded into gray mist around me, I ran across the churned snow, my footprints invisible amidst the chaos that we had already caused. All it would take was to get onto Finesse’s blind side, then-

I yelped, my concentration shattering and becoming visible as a whip tangled itself around my ankles and sent me flying backwards. My attention focused on how to hit the ground, I slammed into the snow with one arm, rolled clumsily over and struggled to my feet, braced for another attack when I looked up. However, my opponent was distracted for the moment.

The crimson eyepatch peeled away from Finesse’s face and dropped to the snow as a Steely quivered in a post behind her. One hand flew to the socket where the Balrog had taken her eye, the fingers of the other hand uncoiling from the whip. It dropped from her fingers slowly, as if reluctant to leave her, and time seemed to slow down painfully as she folded to her knees. She looked straight at me then, and I stiffened, going for my Steelys, but I was stopped by her smile. Not a vindictive smile like Finesse, or even the annoying, false smile I’d seen on Essy these past couple of days. Just a smile, and yet it seemed so…real. She closed her eyes and one hand swung back, fumbling for the Steely embedded in the post, and as her fingers curled gently around it she looked up at me with her one red eye and one seared, empty socket, and said, her voice soft, “I see it now. I see how I can be free.” Seconds too late, I understood what she meant.

In one smooth movement she yanked the Steely out of the post, tilted her head back to expose her pale throat and had plunged it into the soft flesh at the side of her neck. Blood literally fountained, yet my legs fought me as I tried to get to her, my hands resisted my best attempts to at least deflect her tries, even my Haste refused to activate. All I could do, all I did, was stand there morbidly transfixed as she died. As the wary observers crept to her side and I just remained unmoving like some stupid idiot.

Suddenly, I felt my knees give out and I collapsed, trembling, and the jarring sensation pulled me back to reality slightly. Still shaking, I got to my feet hesitantly and staggered as fast as I could over to her, through snow fast becoming rich with her blood, and the gathering crowd slowly parted to make way for me. I could feel the accusing glances boring into me like little flechettes. Yet I ignored them, instead turning to the crowd, screaming, “What in the Lava Dungeon are you doing staring like idiots?! Any one of you – damnit, you!” I grabbed a likely-looking Assassin and screamed, “Get Saedas from that house on the hill! Isn’t there a Cleric amongst the lot of you-” As Essy’s lips moved, she whispered, barely audible over the roaring in my own ears, “Stop.” I let go of the Assassin, stumbling to Essy’s side and landing, on my knees, beside her. Someone was trying to halt the bloodflow; I fumbled a white pill out of the little bag at my side and nearly dropped it as I attempted to push it into her mouth.

“Don’t,” she coughed, pushing my hand away. The pill dropped from my fingers, tumbled into the stained snow; I couldn’t divert my eyes from her face; to the left her one eye and to the right the bare cavity. “Saedas won’t help. He was the one who told me where you’d be. Besides, I don’t want to be saved…I need to make amends. This is my apology.” She raised one bloodstained hand to my face and I didn’t flinch.
“Saedas told you where we’d be?” I asked, my voice a bare whisper. She sighed and closed her eyes; I raised my hand to hers, on my face, and closed tight around it. The crowd was just silent, watching. I don’t think they realised what was going on. I didn’t want them to.

“He told me where you’d be…he has to play for Maestro’s side, Li. Don’t blame him for trying to protect…” She coughed again, and the person opposite me looked at me helplessly as blood welled around his fingers. But she continued, even as she died a little more with every drop that leaked out of her. “Blame Maestro…if you need to blame anyone…for this. Don’t blame yourself…or Az, or Saedas…Blame Maestro, because…he manipulated us all. Including me…and I am so sorry…for that. Save Az from him…please…” I closed my eyes in defeat. Maestro. The Ranger? It seemed to fit, better than we would have believed.
“I’m sorry it had to come to this,” I whispered. When there was no reply, when her hand went soft in mine, I opened my eyes. “Essy?”

Her face was palely serene, her eyes closed. I could feel nothing. I just felt numbness inside, but the hot pricking at my eyes indicated that at least one person would cry for Essy. Had she even been Essy at the end? She seemed to have been herself; Essy, Finesse, one person.
“She’s gone,” the girl opposite me said helplessly, leaning back. I sighed, defeated.
“I know,” I whispered, letting go.

iv. Az
I struggled and tried to yank myself free, because the rocks were poking into my back something nasty. Oh yeah, and I was pinned to the rockface for Psycho Crazy Ranger to come and shoot me. Not good? Yeah, I thought so too. I couldn’t escape from his ebil little trap…thing without tearing my shirt off, and I really didn’t want to do that. It was cold. Also, being shirtless in front of this guy didn’t appeal to me.
“You’re pathetic, Black Angel,” he scoffed, pausing a couple of feet away from me. I stared back at him, then glanced at my shinkita lying nearby but not nearby enough, then back at him, then stuck out my tongue. If I was going to be shot, I might as well be shot defiantly. Ha!

“Is this all you can do?” he sneered, pushing my face up by my chin. His fingers brushed my neck and I shivered involuntarily; his skin was cold. As if he had never been warm. He laughed at me; it was kind of like nails on a chalkboard, except not as relaxing. “I’m going to kill you. To the death, Azrael! Too bad it’s yours!”

White light coursed out from a spot behind him, and I yelped as I was blinded by the bright liiiiiight. The Ranger screamed and his icy fingers moved away from me; I couldn’t feel him in my close proximity any more. As I shut my teary, wounded eyes I fancied I saw the faint afterimage of an angel. Angel? I had heard…
“Hurry,” a familiar voice said tersely, and I opened my eyes just a crack and closed them again when I saw the Dark Leatties doing a parade across my vision. Something sizzled dangerously close to my head, and I jerked away. Really jerked away, not just still-being-held-by-an-arrow jerked away. When I felt that my eyes were up to the task of seeing again, I cracked one open just in time to prevent myself being undignified and falling facefirst into a pile of snow. That would be pretty undignified. At least it was undignified without arrows keeping you stuck to a wall.

A hand was extended into my vision and I tentatively looked up. Red hair, now bound back by a golden circlet studded with a lone black jewel. Pale skin, and, of course, those sealed hazel eyes. I swatted away his hand and got to my feet myself, massaging my eyes as I shut them to spare myself the pain.
“What are you doing here?” I asked quietly, once I was pretty sure that cracking open my eyelids wouldn’t result in permanent blindness for me. Something metallic was shoved into my hand; I recognized it by its contours as my shinkita and gripped it hard, barely resisting the urge to swing it up to the side of his throat.

“I? I am here to end what began with you,” he said calmly.
—-
Ugh, I can’t write fight scenes for bleah. Hopefully I still have readers and haven’t lost ‘em all. xD Thanks for putting up with me! I heartchu all so very much. <3