Cinders (Open)

Homes burned to the ground. Freshly dug graves. Cries of those mourning the dead. It was all so droll. There was no place for these things in the new world order, the world that Dar would create. Mostly, these things would disappear because his war would be the final war. There would be no need for conflict when nobody could stand against him.

This was hardly the first time such violence had visited this part of the world, or even this village. Blood thirsty warlords, greedy empires, and crazed terrorists had all left their mark here. Dar did not consider himself to be any of these things, and yet he had left a slew of dead all the same.

It didn't matter. Humans were born to be ruled by him. To die in the service of another was the greatest sin a human could commit.

The interpreter returned to where Dar sat, enjoying a glass of water. Occasionally, a piece of ash would fall into his cup. He didn't let it bother him. "We are certain they called for reinforcements,"the interpreter said. "Mercenaries, international allies, even meta-humans might show up any time now. It may be wise to retreat."

Priscilla looked up from where she was napping on a blanket before looking to Dar. Dar looked at the man. "Your fear is understandable, and I cannot make you stay. Still, your services are important to me. I will do everything in my power to ensure you survive."

The interpreter hesitated. "I meant wise for you."

Dar looked out at the still-smoking village. Most of his new subjects would be sleeping in tents tonight, tents that he had provided. It would take some time to set up his puppet king to rule over the people, and to stabilize their economy. If anyone wanted his head, they knew exactly where to find it.

Maybe he needed to reconsider that offer...

"I appreciate your concern. I will consider it."

The interpreter nodded and left, going to get some much-needed sleep himself. Priscilla rubbed her eyes. "Are we really going to leave?"

Dar shrugged.

Jenny had heard about the events down in Africa on the internet when looking for new missions to go on. When she did she was quite disturbed by the pictures that had been taken from afar, not as disturbed as most but still. She right away had gotten her things ready to go and left a note on her door so the others, if they even bothered to check when she was, and left on her motorcycle.

Jenny took a long while to get their considering where she was but soon after she arrived in Africa she saw a military group heading to the location. Jenny then joined them on their way over after assuring to them that she was only there to help the village by telling this to one of the men who could speak english who then informed the others.

Jenny looked to them as they neared the one who could speak english translating his leaders orders to her. He had requested to her that she go in and start to attack the man who caused this while they supplied back up and worked on getting any survivors out of the area. Jenny didn't mind the task at all and actually was about to suggest the same thing.

Jenny parked her motorcylce a bit of a ways off from where the man was and looked back at the troops that awaited her to move in then back forward at where the man was. Jenny then flew over to him and landed near him looking to him and spoke casually. "Enter cool one liner here."

It seemed that the few guards Dar had failed to spot this meta-human. It wasn't their fault. She could fly. She probably had a few other tricks, as well. And it had been a long day for these villagers.

Priscilla jumped to her feet at the stranger's arrival, drawing her sword. Dar remained sitting. She had not attacked them yet. She had decided to face them with honor. Dar could respect that.

"Priscilla, please get some water for our guest. She has come a long way." Priscilla looked nervous. Her sword was shaking, and she didn't take her eyes off of Jenny. Dar sighed. "There is a small army of soldiers just outside of the village, thinking they remain hidden from my sight. It might be best to avoid conflict. If we kill her, we'll have to kill them as well, and I've had enough of that for the day."

Priscilla did not draw her sword, but she did obey the order, filling a small cup with cool water from a nearby barrel. She hesitantly offered the cup to Jenny.

"Please, sit with us. Tell me your intentions. What is it that you want?"

Jenny blinked but eased a bit when dar seemed to no instantly attack her and actually commanded his right hand to stand down. Jenny pulled her mask down and took the water with a curtsy. "Thank you kind knight." She eyed the water that Dar was drinking and the barrel before taking a drink of the water figuring it was safe. She then looked to Dar once more with a nod and sat down with them.

"Good to see that we're not going instantly into a fight to the death since there clearly has been plenty of that today. My intentions are probably quite obvious based on my attire and who I have arrived here with." She crossed her legs and leaned back in her chair.

"I wish for you to stop your killing and leave Africa in peace not in pieces. I'm not sure if you're aware or not but dying and watching your loved ones die is not a pleasant task and I know this from personal experience. If you do not wish to give me what I asked for I'm afraid I will have to obtain my own wishes by force and let me tell you I don't go down easy. So now I will shut up and leave you to think and answer my question of, will you stand down?" She asked taking another drink of her water.

Dar listened, patiently. He took another sip of water when she finished. He looked at the stars while he spoke. "Stand down? I am already sitting. This village was under the control of the a warlord who had abused these people for decades. Now it is mine, and their lives will only improve. It is true that some innocents died in the crossfire. It is lamentable. But now these people are mine."

Dar looked Jenny in the eyes. "Africa has been in pieces for a long time. Who is responsible for that is a moot point. What's important is that it needs to be united. I will leave Africa in peace, and I will do so by uniting it into a single nation under my rule, as I shall do with all nations in this world. That is the path to peace."

But perhaps all this talk about world domination would send the wrong message. Dar decided to make it more personal. "There is a boy in this village, Adesola. He lost his leg years ago. I have healed him, and now his leg is whole. He has been starving his whole life, but tonight, he is well-fed. Adesola knows who is best to rule his people. He has asked me never to leave. Who are you to disagree with him?"

Jenny listened to all he had to say and sighed though spoke in a respectful tone. "I Understand now why you do this but I will ask of you not to try to do a guilt trip on me in hopes to win me over because if you do all you will do is push me back. Now as for Africa it does indeed seem like you are making things better here. Please look from my perspective, I saw that there was a man burning down an entire village killing god knows how many people in the process and as far as I know you were aiming to kill everyone in Africa."

"You're intentions are noble I will give you that Mr. Mystery man. And I can understand and can agree one who rules over all can make things at peace since it would make less things to fight over with all the multiple forms of government dissipating. I only see a need for me to force you to stop if you start going out of your way to kill innocent people or cause pain physically and or emotionally to any innocent people."

"If you mind me asking though what will you do if innocent people fight against you to stop your rule from spreading. What will you do if your rule makes lives worse?" Jenny spoke respectfully truly curious as to what he'll do.

"I am sorry that you have come all this way because of misinformation. I am certain that the media is reporting misleading stories intentionally about this, as they have done in the past."

"It has never been my intention to harm innocent people. You have my word. And please, call me Dar. I do not wish to hide my identity, for I have nothing to hide."

It seemed like the fight had become needless at this point. Of course, there was still the small army of people at the village's edge. Priscilla should be able to handle it. Maybe Dar could actually get Jenny to help. She seemed to be more and more on his side.

Jenny asked what Dar would do if innocent people fought against the spread of his rule. Dar grinned. The girl was clever, but he had an answer ready. "My dear, if someone is fighting against the spread of peace, they are not innocent. I hope that answers your question. I'm certain that I'll make a few mistakes along the way. Nobody is perfect, after all. I will, of course, try to help those who have their lives disrupted by my reign, but I will lose no sleep over it. At the end of the day, each person has the responsibility to improve their own lives, don't you agree?"

"Now, if you want to help prevent unnecessary bloodshed, why don't you get those soldiers you came here with to leave. I don't know what they told you, but I'm certain they do not share your noble intentions. But whether they do or not, I'm also certain you do not want to seem them harmed."

Jenny sighed. "If some one is fighting against the spread of peace they can still be innocent but they also can be miss-informed, scared that your way of peace might hurt them in the process of getting to it, they might think that once you have control you'll turn us all on our heads and became a crude ruler since it has happened before and we don't know you so how can we tell if you are what you say you are."

She then looked back to where the army was. "As for them I have no doubt that if they could hear and understand us and learn that I seemed to be siding with you and you were not going to stand down that they would shoot to kill all of us down here to ensure that their goals are completed just as you would try to take them down to achieve your goals and I would do to you and them to achieve mine but in a non lethal method as I have done in the past with others."

She looked back to Dar then. "My name is Jennifer Necowl, code name Energy Warrior, and unlike most in this entire world I wasn't raised to think that the government of my nation I came from is the best and all others are bad thus making me not want to change the type of government my nation has and do so by any means. But as for most of the world they do believe this and they would do anything to keep their nation the same and believe that all who oppose them are not innocent thus making them evil which evil should be stopped." She said deciding to use Dar's own logic about innocent people to describe the world.

"Now to get down to the point, your methods might be the best idea for some nations but for others you may cause panic and rage and unneeded blood shed because others will attack you in hopes to keep their way of life the same because most humans hate change and different things and their scared of it too. And their natural reactions are to lash out and fight those things so they don't have to face them. Trust me I know I spent all my life dealing with this because I've had different feelings on things and because I was different from others."

Dar listened, taking an occasional sip of water. Jennifer Necowl certainly had a lot to say. It seemed to Dar that she was trying to convince him to not take over the entire world, only parts of it. She made a lot of valid points.

"Jennifer, being ignorant is a sin." He let that thought sink in. "Those who fight progress because they are too lazy to learn the truth, or because they fear change, will have their blood on their own hands. People are not sheep, placed on one path and incapable of altering that path, though many have chosen to live like fools, having convinced themselves it will make their sin excusable. But the fool will still be judged with equal measure, because all people have a gift, the power to seek out the truth and decide their own actions. A nation of fools, more afraid of being held responsible for their sins than of meeting their own death, is exactly the kind of nation that needs my rule the most."

Dar put his cup down. "The world is a cruel place, and it has been that way for too long. The clean face of polite society hides the shameful secrets. There are more slaves now than there have ever been in human history. Every day more people are blackmailed, humiliated, deprived, conned, beaten, and murdered. It is disgraceful. Humanity is suffering, Jennifer, and I cannot allow it to continue on this path. It may be unnecessary to my survival to cause harm to people, but in the interest of humanity's future, the destruction of those who oppose the new world order is entirely necessary."

Dar stood up. He could sense the soldiers drawing nearer. Soon, there would be bloodshed. "An overprotective parent will spoil a child, and a baby that is always carried will never learn to walk. Stop protecting the weak. You are preventing them from getting stronger."

Jenny listened to his words and besides the igranace part she agreed with all he had to say up until his last part. She placed her water down and stood up looking up at him. "I would have idealized you and your friend there as a kid... a noble king taking back his rightful land in order to bring peace to it with the help of his royal knight. But now.... I can respect what you do but some of the things you say and the way you think makes me not able to idealize you."

"My parents were overprotective yet never spoiled me and because of them I survived my childhood. I was carried a lot as a baby and even as a kid and I learned not only to walk and run but to fly. I was weak and no one protected me and i died and sure i got stronger but also weaker.... if I don't protect the weak they die.... but they won't come back like me... and they won't get stronger because they'll be dead." She pulled out her staff.

"I do agree what you say about the world though... it is cruel... not afraid to pick on and prey on the weak... even those who seem to be good and noble and full of 'religious faith' so they must be good people for attacking a little girl who could be a demon when she's more likely to just be a meta human... even them prove to be evil ass holes who would even beat the girl to near death at her own parents funeral... the rules of the nations either don't know about this and down help or they just don't care..."

"I've seen the worst of the world since I was born, I do believe you can make it better but with the attitude you have about protecting others and people who don't know things is not going to help. Think of it like this... you can't rule a world with no subjects, and your subjects will always rebel if you are cruel to them. It's happened a lot in history and in story books. We both know those soldiers are about to attack... and that what you're doing is going to cause a lot of bloodshed... but can we hold off on the death for tonight since there has been so much tonight..."

The soldiers arrived and started to fire at them but jenny held out her hand making a bubble around all of them that blocked the bullets. "I will not stop you from you reaching your goal... at least for now but please... can you at least try to see the need in protecting others and that not all who oppose you are un innocent beings who should die?"

Dar laughed. "What do you think I am, some one-dimensional idealist? Of course I will use discernment to decide who needs protection, and who needs to learn to defend themselves. I won't hesitate to stop those in my way, but I am no serial killer."

Dar admired the bubble shield that was blocking the bullets. "I appreciate your open mind. Even the young like us are often stuck in their ways. You have impressed me. If you are truly concerned about the fate of the weak, then why don't you join me? I could use an adviser like you."

The bubble probably wasn't going to last forever. The bullets just kept coming. Dar drew his sword. Priscilla already had hers ready. "Well, we shouldn't keep them waiting. Shall we?"

Jenny glanced back at him as he asked her to join him and thought about it as she looked back at the soldiers. "Lets talk more about that after we handle them so i can think about it fully without constantly hearing gun shots and focusing on keeping a force field up."

She then added a layer of energy over her staff and stretched out the ends to make the staff into a double sided scythe. She then began to twirl it in one hand slowly going faster and faster and when they were ready jenny lowered the force field and ran at the men holding her scythe forward as she twirled it bullets bouncing off it.

She then turned on her heal and swung down her scythe hitting many guns out of the men's hands then quickly started to turn it the other way and started to use the blunt side of scythe, the staff side, to whack the men on the heads knocking the group of men she was handling out.

As the force-field vanished, Priscilla dashed forward with incredible speed, cutting off hands and cutting an occasional throat. She wasn't toying with anyone. There were a lot of soldiers here, and they had guns. She couldn't afford to go easy on them. She couldn't let her master down. A few bullets nicked her, drawing blood, but Priscilla never slowed down.

A hundred bullets struck Dar, but he did not flinch. They dropped to the ground, crushed by the force of impact. Dar himself walked towards the soldiers, slowly, a dispassionate look on his face. By the time he neared his first target, Jenny and Priscilla had already taken care of everyone else. As the bullets finally stopped, Dar locked eyes with the last man standing. The solider was out of bullets. He had shot every single one at Dar, and every single one had hit its mark.

"I am Dar Le Lefray, the Proud. You have struck me in combat, now I shall strike you back. But do not despair. You shall enter the afterlife with pride, for it was I who killed you." The longsword in his hand blazed white with energy. The man's eyes were filled with terror as Dar cut off his head in a single motion. Dar cleaned his blade and sheathed it.

He looked to Priscilla. She was bleeding and panting like a dog. He smiled warmly at her. "Well done. You've done more than enough work for one day. Why don't you get some sleep?"

Priscilla nodded, too tired to display any form of emotion. She walked over to her sleeping bag and fell asleep within a minute.

Dar looked to Jenny. "There now, it is much quieter. If you need some time to think about my offer, you are free to take as much time as you need."

Jenny looked at him looking over the bullet holes in him but saw he was unphased so she looked to priscilla and walked over to her and quietly kneeled down holding her hand over her wounds and healed them before looking to Dar. "I can heal you too if you need me too." she let the energy on her staff shatter and put her staff away. "And as for my answer I'd like to hear everything you'd be expecting out of me so I do not join you and later on learn I have to do something I don't believe is right for me to do."

She pulled down her hood then. "And just so you know I hope you don't expect me to kill... I'm not sure I could ever truly kill anyone again unless it was absolute last resort measures. Also I'm not one for bible huddle Sunday, just putting that out there cause I've been getting a real religious buff vibe off of you." Jenny said wanting to toss out there a big thing to her she wanted to make clear and one partly joking thing to lighten the mood a bit.

Dar watched as Energy healed Priscilla. He would have done it anyway, but it was a kind gesture, and one that Priscilla would appreciate once she woke up. Perhaps the two could become friends in time. It didn't seem likely. Priscilla was not one to make friends.

Jenny wanted to know everything she would need to do if she worked for Dar. She said that she would not kill, and that she would not attend Bible studies. It was odd that she placed those two things on an equal level. Overall, she was a very odd person, and Dar wasn't fully sure how to respond to her.

He decided that she must be joking about the Bible study thing, though it was noted that she had suffered at the hands of those who should have protected her in the name of their Lord.

"I hope the day never comes when I need to ask you to kill someone, Jennifer. But you deserve a good answer, and I am not trying to trick you. To serve me, you would need to do anything I ask, without hesitation. We cannot afford to have bickering among our ranks, especially not in public. If you have problems with my policies or what I order you to do, you can discuss them with me in private, after those orders have been fulfilled. This will not be easy for you. It is not a game. This cause must become your religion. Of course, you have the ability to make that choice. Some have not been as fortunate."

Dar looked at Priscilla. "Poor girl. She tries so hard, but even I can't give back to her what she has lost. But perhaps I could give to you what she has gained. I can give you purpose, Jennifer. You can heal your physical body, but there are wounds beneath the surface that you cannot reach. You carry emotional scars from this fallen world telling you that you do not belong here, that you are not important."

"But I need you, Jennifer. Here, at my side, you belong. You are a very important person, with a great destiny to fulfill. If you give your allegiance to me, I will heal you."