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View Full Version : Keep The Flag Flying: Xavier Returns


Z_Blitz
01-28-2008, 06:14 PM
"Blurry vision, shivering muscles, strain on the eyes and body, heavy breathing. All the symptoms of shortage of air to breathe; so tell me Xavier, how does it feel to taste of your own medicine? Wasn't this your favourite way of ending a battle? Seeing your targets writhe and struggle for a fresh breath of air? Wait... No... It was MINE!"

Barely concious, I looked upon the blonde tall man in the frilly French shirt with a glass of red wine in his hand. His piercing emerald eyes shot through mine revealing all of my secrets, intimacies and background. My life as it was, reeled in front of this man's eyes as I approached my unprecedented demise. Gasping for air, I made one last valiant attempt to climb up the man's legs and stop his vaccuum knowing well that he still required some air himself to breathe. Aggrevated at such state I have become in, the man kicked me with his foot, sending me a few meters back in recoil, this time staring at the blank purple hue that stretched endlessly in front of my eyes.

"The once so proud Xavier, now crumbles like a falling pillar, all because of this "power" he weilded. Too bad for him though, he knew nothing about it. You see Xavier, I have tried warning you through your dreams that you were only temporarily using this power of mine until you get up on your own feet and realize yours, but no monsieur. You chose to rely completely on me, ignoring my warnings several times. You... I... And... -wer... con....?"

I lost conciousness after being this guy's playmate for the last hour... Or was it two? Maybe even more. I lost track of time while being held in this inbetween world.

I have been betrayed... By the air.

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During and after the mission at the Northern Arc with Cain Nightroad:

An unusual restlessness crawled up from under my skin as the battle with the Exorcists approached. For the past few days, I have been having dreams of a young Frenchman, from the days old who looked exactly like me. Haunting me like a shadow with an eerie, sinister smile on his face. Whenever I tried to approach him, he'd only get further away up until he raises his hand with his back turned to me. It gets dark after that, and I wake up in horror. "My" pride did not allow me to confide to anyone about this predicament I faced, not Styx, not Jarlaxle, not Christopher and not even that dubious Cain. I knew well that talking to any of them about the pertaining issue would lead me nowhere. I needed someone with an extensive background in dreams and their meanings like Road, or someone who knew well what kind of person that blonde Frenchman was, all I knew about him was his name. Le Blanc.

The mission somehow unraveled itself, with little to no interaction from my side due the crippling feeling that dawned upon me. While exploring further north, I felt disoriented and out of place. Styx, being the perceptive akuma he is, noticed this and decided to pull himself out to his master. I was now left alone with no companion to try and erase this haunting image of Le Blanc from in front of my eyes. It was shortly thereafter that I found myself out of breath and energy. My eyes closed off on their own and I went into a case of deep slumber.

Was it the cold? I could not ascertain that back then. One was for sure though, Le Blanc was back and this time, he wanted something that was his.

The next time I was concious, I found myself wired to a bunch of devices that I could not determine its function. I saw Lero hanging from a steel bar above my crib that somehow resembled the one they use in hospitals. Was I in emergency care? If so, who carried me here? When did I come here? Is the Earl here? My questions were answered quickly upon Road's sudden jump on my exhausted body. She looked me deep in the eye and kissed my forehead, almost sending shivers down my spine from the disgust I felt.

"Can't a sister kiss her brother these days? Sheesh, the complications they draw on us. This world is so binding! Hehehe~"

I could barely speak then, finding enough energy to respond to her rhetorical remark, I muttered in a voice that did not sound like mine:

"You... Disgust me."

The girl put her hand against her nose and jumped off the bed to a chair nearby, grabbing Lero on the way. She responded saying that I was out for over a week, hence the less than desirable smell of my breath. She also said that I was currently in the "hospitability of the Earl", back in our little dimension. My condition was apparently unstable.

"Your powers seem to have been escaping you as of late, haven't they Xavier?"

Her question was to the point. She knew well of my dreams, and my incapability of molding the air, the way I used to. "The Noah of Pride" she said, "was dead long ago. The fact that you came into existence makes little to no sense."

What she said, sounded like a riddle to me. If I am not, who I thought I was, the who am I? If I am not the Noah of Pride, then what Noah am I? Am I even a Noah? It made no sense. It wasn't until the Earl came in, that I finally grasped an understanding of the situation.

"Le Blanc Dupont. The Noah of Pride. He was once one of my most dedicated servants and has contributed a lot to the success of my plans. He, along with the older generation of the Noah family were close to attaining unfathomable power that would have left no Exorcist on this planet even close to scratching us, the dark side, as people so casually call us. They are greatly mislead you know~."

I looked away from the Earl, directing my eyesight elsewhere, hinting that I was not interested in his bedtime stories now.

"Impatient as ever, Le Blanc."

My eyes rolled back into place, locking with the Earl's well-hidden sinister yellow eyes. He knew well, that I detested being called as Le Blanc, and that I requested being called Xavier, the name I was christened with.

"Don't look at me like that. You're about to know, why I called you Le Blanc when we first met. Xavier... Do you believe in reincarnation? Hehe~"

No, I did not believe in such petty hogwash that people make up to explain the phenomenal, or their shortcomings. Superstitions and reincarnations included, all of that made no sense to me. A person makes who he is, and does not depend on luck, prayers or anything of that sort to pull himself from bad to good.

"What I'm about to do now, is save you, but at the same time, lose you. Xavier, in short, you're Le Blanc's reincarnation. The real Xavier, sleeps deep within, unwaken, and waiting to be aroused by a certain stimulus. To help induce the face off between you and Le Blanc, I'll be enlisting Road's help. With her dream manipulation, you should find yourself face to face with what it is that haunts you."

Those where the last words I heard before Road covered my eyes with her cold palms and sent me to my fateful encounter with Le Blanc.

((More to come later))

Z_Blitz
01-30-2008, 09:11 PM
Heed the name of who follows the Magus's Arcana, for as of this moment: Thou art I, and I art thou. Once complete, summon my holy armor you shall and plunge the world to darkness you will. He who bears the genes of the accursed, open your eyes and witness thy stand of glory.

The voice I heard in my state of unconciousness was deep, dark and reverberant. It felt nostalgic listening to it albeit it being my first time. Was this the "real" me speaking? Is this what Le Blanc meant? I did not know...

One thing was for sure though. Just after hearing that voice, and when I lost all hope to return back to the world of the living, my eyes opened on their own, my lungs filled in with air and my heart revitalized, pumping blood to the rest of my organs. Life has returned to my body, or so to speak.

Slowly, I staggered while standing up on my feet. The surprised Le Blanc could do nothing but stare in awe as his glass of wine fell to the floor, shattering to pieces. The aura around me grew sinister as my outer appearance changed over all. My blonde hair turned to white -while maintaining it's smoothness, yet not design- and my skin complexion became a tad less pale.

"Enter Xavier! Bravo monsieur! I couldn't be happier for you! Too bad though..."

Le Blanc's series of commendments and applauses stopped there, his body now assuming a battle stance and the air gathering around him in an accelerated pace. The look on his face reflected pure agony and distaste for this unexpected change from my side. The remainder of what he had to say passed as a message in the back of my head, much like how we Noahs often communicated with one another.

"... For me to exist, YOU have to die! I will not willingly lose this battle! My pride as a Noah is on the line!"

Raising my right palm in front of me and directing it at Le Blanc, I responded to his message in a calm tone.

"For one of us to exist, the other ceases. Ah... The irony..."

"Pale Flare..."

Flames exploded around Le Blanc's body, where the air was concentrated, resulting in a massive explosion that shook the realm we both stood on. His screams of pain because of the burns his body must've incurred back then reached my ears loud and clear, though instead of feeling sorry for him as I normally would have, a sense of sadism took over. As if not enough, the flames shot Le Blanc's body up to the sky and up a fiery pillar stood with Le Blanc in its center, disintegrating slowly to the extreme heat. To my mind he spoke his last words, thanking me for holding his wishes and beliefs true, and disclosing the sin that I was to bear.

"Bigotry..."

Easily could one misunderstand the deeper meanings of the word. Bigotry; when used in relation to me simply stands for the fact that I refuse to accept the changes in this world that have brought it to this state of corruption. If this is what the new world brought, then I'd rather stay behind in the world where people were capable of distinguishing clearly what was right, from what was wrong.

Staring once more at the blank hues that stretched in front of me, I snapped my fingers cueing that "sister" of mine to warp me back to my body which she made sure to keep warm with her own.

"Get off me!"

"But X-a-v-i-e-r~! You look so pretty now~. Lero! Hand me my make up set!"

"I SAID GET OFF!"

Kicking my blanket and Road off me, I looked around for anyone else in the vicinity, my silent calls were answered as the round shadow of the fat clown approached my curtains.

"Xavier~. I hope you've rested well. I'm sorry, but would it be too much trouble for you to go and join Nicholas and Constantine? They seem to miss you.~"

Twisting my body clockwise and ignoring the childish remarks that Road and Lero threw at me, I got off my bed and headed out of the dim lit room I was in. The Earl politely asked me where I was headed to, to which I replied coldly:

"My cupboard. I'll change my clothes and rendevous with Nicholas, that IS what you want me to do, isn't it?"

The fat man nodded pleasantly, his ever present smile gleaming under the sole light that shone in the room. Before shutting the door behind me, the Earl asked me one more thing.

"The Noah of Pride, Le Blanc is no more. His powers diminsh in you now. Tell me, what is it that you have gained in return, Xavier? Pyromancy? Weather control?"

Smiling half-heartedly, I shot a small lightning bolt towards the Earl, which he so skillfully blocked using Lero as a shield.

"Does that answer your question?" I said before slamming the door behind me.

"He could shoot lightning bolts now?" Questioned Road, looking at her brother for an answer in his eyes.

The man chuckled like Santa on Christmas, while petting the injured Lero.

"Something far more valuable dear. Oh yes... It's Xavier, the Sorcerer now."