Reclamation

Roxanne kept punching and kicking at the dummy, harder and harder. "I don't think your idea is good, Riley. It looks fake. Someone could think it was a trick. Too risky," she said between punches.

She then addressed Abal's question. "It was only a year. My mom freaked out on me for taking it instead of ballet like I was supposed to. Richard took ballet instead." She laughed bitterly. "I'm a bit rusty. We never got to weapons. I was just a kid. And I can't go in that room where the weapons are. That... Monster is there."

 Roxanne clenched her teeth and stopped her punches. Her knuckles were bruised and she kicked the dummy over. Tears stung her eyes again. She would be training with her brother if it weren't for Vanthus. She needed real flesh to hit. She needed Vanthus. "I don't care if he kills me in the process of killing him. I have nothing. No family. No home. No life. I don't know where I'd go when I'm finished. But for the moment, I need to be in the best physical condition and make sure my skills are on point. I need to be ready. I don't care about that utopia bullshit. I'm going to kill Vanthus, or die trying. And if I do die trying, I'll become a ghost and kill him then."

 

Abal stepped forward and took her bruised hands in his, staring down at her for a moment. "Spar with me." He offered, his eyes unreadable. "i can take it, trust me." he said softly. "You need to release your anger before it consumes you...and trust me...that's never a good thing...." he almost whispered, sounding somewhat tormented. Pain was reflected in his green eyes, a pain that mirrored her own for a brief moment. "We're behind you...but you need to train if you're to stand a chance against him..so I say again...spar with me."

 

Zein shrugged at Malik's notes. "I guess." She followed him back  to the main hall, where breakfast was now served, and took a seat whereas Malik headed off to retrieve his gear. She tried to balance out the food groups on her plate. If I'm going to be stronger, I need to be as healthy as possible, she mused, though she kept glancing at the bacon-wrapped skewers. After she cleaned off her plate, she cracked and grabbed one, chomping it down quickly, then heading back to the training room to wait for Malik. While she waited, she hacked at the dummies with her falx. Perhaps she'd check the armory later for another, less-worn weapon. As attached to her current blade as she was, it was in pretty shitty shape. The edge was well-maintained, but the flat was rusted, dented, and bent in several spots. 

After a couple minutes of relentlessly tearing apart the dummy, she realized that there wasn't anything she could learn from it. She sheathed her blade and leaned against the dummy, her eyes darting around the training room. She realized that Malik was there already, and that he was probably waiting for her, so she crossed the room and greeted him with a light kick to the back of the knee. "Let's go," she said, dropping her falx and sliding it out of the way, shifting her stance so that she was ready to fight.

 

"Um..." Roxanne flushed a little. "That won't work," she flushed a little. "I do have clairvoyance. But... It's weird. Bear with me, don't freak out."

She took his hand, and licked the back of it. As she wiped the saliva off with her sleeve, she flushed even more and recoiled, dropping Marcus'. "Oh, gross! I didn't need to know that that was how boys did that!" She shuddered at the thought. "I get a play by play of your actions over the next 24 hours and no one needs to go into your room tonight. Ugh. I didn't need to see that. Thank god this is erased in a little bit because good god I did not need that in my life. God damn," she said, quickly changing the subject.

"So yeah. As you can see. That won't work in combat. I need to learn things my damn self and reflexes and all that jazz. Abal and Zein can teach me that, right? And Abal, can you teach me how to use the sword? I changed my mind about the axe thing."

 

Abal unsheathed his saber, reversing it and showing it to her. "This is a saber. It's a light weapon, not meant for power, but for speed. It only has a single edge, but if weilded properly, it can be exceptionally deadly. I've trained with this blade since I was old enough to lift a practice one...Watch." he said, taking the blade and holding it in a modified en guarde position for a moment. Lunging, he stabbed out, the point of the blade tapping a dummy in the heart as he retracted and spun, the blade singing slightly as it passed through the dummy. Slowly it slid apart and Abal resheathed his sword. "I can teach you the basics, but true mastery only comes after years...decades of practice. I'm good...but I'm not as good as my br-Sensai." he said, his voice catching somewhat.

 

Meanwhile, Sydney and Riley were caught up in their own conversation.
"Riley, you know I didn't mean it like it that..."

"You wish I was that Riley. I know that for a fact. You wish... You wish I was your Riley. Why can't you accept me? What's wrong with me?" Riley's face showed no hint of joy- she wasn't trying to lighten the mood anymore- and her eyes were beginning to wet "Is it... Is it because I'm a girl?"

"Riley, no-" Sydney reached out to the younger girl.

Riley stumbled backwards, away from her friend's hand "Keep your hands to yourself. By the Arc name, I swear I'll never fall into your arms again. I'm done coming to you when I'm in pain."

"Riley please-"

"I saved you Sy. Why couldn't you do the same for me?" And with that she left the room, skating as if she was running from the devil itself.

 

As the other scattered off, Claire gave herself a moment to slink off away from the rest of the gathered children a gag. She had to go and be a nice girl for her infiltration of the tower! Now she was stuck here and she'd have to get used to being timid little Lara. Ugh! she thought in exasperation, a puff of hot air expelling itself outward in response. To think that she'd have to fight for her life in the middle of this mess all while playing some weakling! It was almost too much.

But she couldn't drop the act. Not now. Not when she had already committed thus far. Perhaps this trial could force Lara to grow up a bit. With that in mind, she strode over to the training area, watching with an falsified anxious expression as the others began to practice. She noticed, her ears perking up slightly to catch the conversation that followed, when Roxanne licked Marcus. Clairvoyant?! Shit! Okay. Rule number one: Don't let Roxanne lick anything else. At least... not anything within a five foot radius of Claire.

Keeping the thought tucked away in the back of her mind, Claire meandered over to the weapons rack. There was another fencing saber available, but if she showed off her skill now then she would have some explaining to do. Instead she reached for a rather large array of throwing knives all packed into a convenient little belt. She had never really had much practice with the things, but she supposed it couldn't be too hard. Still, if she went up against someone who could manipulate the direction of her projectile-weaponry she'd be in some pretty serious trouble. Debating it with an unnatural speed, she quickly reached for a smaller, thinner sword.

Fucking hell, she thought vehemently, this'll have to do... Feeling its weight in her hands she nodded slightly and joined the others. Again that fake anxious look seeped into her voice. "C-can I train with one of you?"

 

Sydney silently slumped down onto the ground, unsure of what to do.


"Nothing." Riley went and sat down beside the girl, watching the floor being magically cleaned "I'm fine..." She smiled weakly, staring at the flower in the girls hair "Say, what's your name? I'm Riley Arc. But I guess it doesn't matter much cuz' soon this silly version of Riley will be gone."

After a lapse of silence she spoke again "What if... What if someone loves you? But not really you... They look at you and see someone else. And every time they remember you're not the one they project onto you... They drift away?"

"I wish the real Riley were here. Dick and Mark would've loved him- he knew all about everything. He wasn't noisy either, I guess Zein and Malik would've liked him too. And Roxanne..."

She curled into a ball "Gosh- Roxanne would've probably loved him."

 

Abal noted the little Lara perusing the weapons racks and smiled slightly when he noticed she had chosen a thinner blade not too dissimilar from his own, but he held his tongue, knowing one of the others would take up training her...if she needed it. He could tel from the way she handled the sword that she wasn't a novice, but he kept his thoughts to himself and turned back to Roxxanne. "Well, Roxxy? I can train you, if you'd like." he asked softly.

 

Malik stood up and removed all off his gear except for his clothing and boots and left his weapon belt on top of his bag and coat. He kept the fabric wrapped around the lower half of his face simply because he felt the need the practice in the same breathing conditions that he would normally face. Facing across the mat from Zein, Malik assumed his own stance and prepared to strike.


The boy reached out as if to grab Zein and she knocked his hand out of the way and attempted to punch him herself. The punch connected with his side, sending an audible gust of air out of Malik's mouth. Zein smirked, only to realize that Malik was now close enough to get a grip on her. He grabbed hold of her collar, then delivered a kick to her thigh. She grunted, falling to a knee and using the momentum to break free of Malik's grasp before rolling back and kicking upward to force Malik to back away momentarily. This gave her enough time to shift to a crouch.

Zein leaped at Malik, striking him again in the torso before backing off. The two traded blows for a while before Zein managed to move in and deliver a knee to Malik's ribcage. She chuckled, then was nearly sent to her ass by an uppercut from Malik that caused a torrent of blood to spill from Zein's nostrils. She laughed loudly, pinching her nose so she wouldn't bleed everywhere. "Holy shit!" she laughed. "I think you broke my nose. Nice freakin' hit!"

Malik used the hem of his shirt to wipe the small amount of blood on his hands off. He felt where he had been kneed and grimaced a bit at the pain. There would definitely be a large bruise there tomorrow. "Nice knee. Sorry about your nose. Want me to fix it? I'm gonna shoot now that I'm properly sore." He passed the notebook to his sparring partner before gathering things up again and walking towards the range.

 

"Oh right, you're a healer," Zein said to herself. "It's up to you. I've had my nose broken enough times for me not to care if it's fucked up again. I mean, it's already pretty crooked," she joked. She followed him, deciding she'd take a breather and watch him practice for a bit before going outside and enduring the sun. She spared a glance around the training room, wondering how Roxanne would hold up. "I hope she gets some help," Zein mused, mostly to herself. "She's going to need hella training, probably."

 

"Yes, please," Roxanne answered, and took a sword comparable to his off the rack. "Alright. Will this help me handle bigger swords? I want one like the one my brother wanted to use, but I don't want to break your sword." She didn't really like being called Roxxy. That was an odd nickname. Not even Richard called her that. She figured now she understood what it was like when she called Richard Dick all the time. It was meant to be an innuendo despite being an actual nickname, and Richard knew that. Just a joke. An affectionate joke. Richard had understood that, right? What did Richard understand before he died? Better yet, what didn't he understand? What did she not tell him before he died? What would she regret?

God, why the hell was she moving so quickly through this? She hadn't grieved properly. Her brother had died not half an hour ago, and here she was, trying to tell herself that she was going to be fine. But she knew she wasn't, deep down. Especially after this newfound quest for revenge.

"And it's Roxanne. No one ever really called me Roxxy. It's weird," she remarked, still pretending that she was strong enough to keep going from this, or at least strong enough to train.

 

Abal smiled and showed her how to hold it properly and gestured for her to move to the training mat. "Don't worry...you won't break my blade, no matter the size of yours."He said, examining her. "you gonna be ok?" He asked softly so that only she would hear.

 

Riley pet Lilian's head, standing "You're a wondeful kid." She pulled a small rock from her pocket, almost perfectly round.

"If I came to join you would you be angry?" She spoke to herself, tossing the rock in the air and catching it"Or would you welcome me with open arms...? Dear Riley- I'm about to do something quite stupid for the sake of my friends- please forgive me. Forgive me for everything."

She turned to Lillian "can I speak to an adult?"
---
Sydney kicked a target as hard as she could but it didn't help her release her emotions- she began striking several around her with her legs. She did so in silence and after a while, bruises began to form but she continued with her kicks.

 

As they moved ont othe training mat, Roxxanne still holding the blade a little unsurely, Abal studied her. "Ok, take a stance like mine." He said, striking a fencers stance, one hand behind his back, feet slightly spread, blade raised and at an angle. Roxxanne did her best to mimic him, her arm shaking slightly as the blade wavered. Abal looked at her for a moment, then shook his head, before moving with lightning speed, his blade striking at and removing hers from her grasp easily. Spinning, he stopped suddenly, the edge of the his blade centimeters from her throat. "You're gonna have to relax....Let your muscles take over." He said, sighing softly. "Let me see...." He murmured, then pulled down a weighted hauk. Handing it to her, he corrected her stance. "Let's start with this. Follow the pattern, slowly." he said, then began to put her through the drill.

Several hours passed and Abal called a halt. He looked fine, but Roxxanne was shaking and sweating from exertion. "You have a ways to go, youngling, but you're on the right path." He said, patting her on the shoulder as he racked the hauk. "Every day. For a minimum of three hours, you'll do that drill and get faster at it." he said, sounding rough as he closed the cabinet. She could see his shoulders were tense with something, but he was trying to hide it.