Chapters III--IV

Chapter III: Alone in the Dark.


The Story of Witold...

In the cold winds of winter, Witold was born. He was born at the rise of the empire that is attached to his name and a destiny he had to fulfill.

Witold as a child didn’t have many friends, but because he chose to, his best friend and partner in crime was his dog Husdent.

Witold’s favorite past time was going into the forest with his father and Husdent. In one of those trips Husdent got himself caught in a hunting trap, Witold ran toward him and freed him, but Husdent still lay in pain and whimpered. Witold cried in unison as he saw his dog in pain and yelled for his father to come. But he suddenly stopped in shock as he saw a white light that emerged from his hand and into Husdent’s leg, he then realized that Husdent got up from the floor and licked his face in gratitude.

At the age of 17, as he finished High School, he realized that his mind also had some sort of ability, he noticed this when he received images of him and a girl of his class in a somewhat sordid fantasy, but he realized it wasn’t his fantasy which made him look over toward the girl in the vision, who was looking at him intently. He blushed deep red and decided to stay away from her for it look rather painful what he saw.

As a university student, Witold was mostly aware and in control of his abilities, on a football game he healed himself after he crashed with a player of the other team. Not one of the spectators noticed the subtle white light that went up to his leg, except for one. Richard McEntire, an exchange student from England noticed when Witold healed himself and was left in awe at the sight of someone using the craft.

Richard was not user of the craft himself, but he studied it out of curiosity, the use of the craft was not something prohibited in society, it was also not known to exist but only in movies, tv shows and literature. But there was much to learn and to know about this practice.

Richard approached him after the game, wanting to know Witold’s abilities and quirks. Witold didn’t know how to react to such a person, he tried to tell him he couldn’t do magic, but to no avail. After that encounter Witold and Richard became friends, Richard was thrilled to have a friend that could use magic and learned a lot from him and vice versa. 



As the years passed, their friendship grew, even though Richard went back to England after his time as an exchange student was finished.

Witold graduated in time from college and moved back to his hometown in Poland. There he did jobs for his father’s company and worked alongside him for quite some time, until one day Richard found him.

It was quite different than that time in the university, Richard was a picture of seriousness, and Witold was worried and inquired what was wrong.

It was then that Richard talked about Koba.

Kenji Koba, a prolific businessman employed youngsters with an affinity to the craft so to speak in specific areas of his so called empire, he believed that people that could use and understand the craft were able to understand how the world worked, spiritually and physically, a view he believed was essential for everyone to understand, using craft or not.

But Richard had a purpose for seeing Witold, he went to find him so he could use his healing abilities to try and save someone within the organization who had gotten into a serious fight with those who wanted to unbalance the world, as dramatic as it sounds and rather science fiction like.

________End of Part I_________

-“I brought her over to you, she is in one of the company’s buildings, she is stable somehow, but she is hurting badly, apparently someone who could use the phasing craft went for her while being in school grounds and basically it was like battle of the titans...” Richard said worriedly.

-“ ‘She’? A girl? How can someone hit a girl?” Witold said surprised.

-“Don’t let her hear you saying that , she has this thing about people calling her a mere girl, come, I’ll explain more on the way”

They got to a building in downtown Warsaw, it was full of people working in different things, and everyone greeted Richard as they walked through the halls.

They came to what Witold figured it would be an infirmary and he saw a girl lying in one of the beds, she looked no older than 15 years of age, he gasped as he saw her wounds.

-“How old is she? she is a child!” Witold said worriedly and angry.

-“She is 15 (Richard said softly) she is young but she is not like any other teenager, can you please help her?”

-“No need to ask...” Witold then put a hand on her wound, he shook his head as he saw in his mind each of the wounds and how they came to be, the same white light from his hands spread around the wounds making the girl shake slightly. 


It was like that how Witold met Nessa.

A few hours later, she awoke looking side to side to see Witold sitting beside her half asleep. She tried to get up but was too tired that she fell back onto the bed wincing a little in pain. Witold woke up at the noise and smiled at her.

-“You shouldn’t do that yet, your body is not strong enough” He said helping her lie down on the bed.

-“Who are you? (she said drowsily) where am I?”

-“My name is Witold and you are in Warsaw, you were in fight with another craft user,do you remember any of it?” He said worriedly while tucking her in the bed.

-“Vaguely, how long have I slept?”

-“6 hours, it took me a bit to heal you” he said sitting back on the chair.

-“You…healed me?” she said blushing a bit.

-“Yes, Richard brought me here to help you, you were in bad shape Nessa” He said smiling a bit.

-“…”

-“Don’t look at me like that, Richard told me your name. You shouldn’t be on this you know, you should be busy being a kid”

Nessa laughed heartily and Witold could not help but smile a little.

-“So, are you supposed to be my guardian from now on?” She said laughing.

Here was Witold yet again at her side, years later after that day, now Witold at the age of 26 he watches her slumber. She stirred slightly on her bed and opened her eyes and saw Witold sitting beside her.

-“This seems familiar” she whispered and smiled weakly.

-“How come we keep finding ourselves again in a near death situation?” he chuckled.

-“I didn’t plan this you know. I guess I got really hurt this time” she said touching her wound.

-“Careful there” he said as he got up hurriedly and checked her wounds, he sighed as he saw all of her wounds wrapped up in bandages. He shook his head while cursing slightly in Polish.

-“I’m sorry…” she said softly, smiling sadly at him.

-“It’s not your fault Nessa, someone out there wants to hurt you, I was just too late to get there and help you. I should have been here, I shouldn’t have left in the first place” He cursed slightly and closed his eyes.

-“You had to leave, it’s not your fault…” She said coughing slightly afterwards breathing heavily.

-“You ok? I’m going to have to heal you again…I…”

-“Stop being neurotic Witold…I’m fine, you did enough…” she whispered and smiled a bit at him.

 Alex came in running and almost throwing himself at her on the bed.

-“Witold! (he looked over the bed) I’m so glad you are safe Nessa!” he said hugging her tightly, she winced in pain but she didn’t move, she smiled and hugged him back.

-“Now now Alex…breathing needed hunnie” She said softly and breathlessly.

-“Oh, sorry Ne-san! (he said blushing a little and lying down beside her on the bed) I’m so glad you found her Witold, thank you so much!” he said almost in tears, Witold shook his head and smiled.


_____End of Part II______

Days passed and now our characters are in Koba’s main meeting room. Nessa is explaining what happened to her in battle and trying to find out some clues with the rest of the gang.

Richard paced back and forth on the meeting room, he lit up a cigarette as he went through his ideas on his mind. Witold looked at him impatiently.

-“Demian isn’t dead as we think, am I right Richard?” Witold asked worried.

-“He was killed 3 years ago, and we have been checking for activities related to him since then, nothing came up until now that is what I don’t understand!” he said smoking frenetically.

-“Someone is training minions with Demian’s ways, but who?” Yevgeny asked.

-“I got intel already on it (sigh) intel has been on it forever…and still they have managed to surprise us…” Richard said frustrated as he threw his cigarette stub in the garbage can and proceeded to light another one.

-“If someone is pulling a Sephiroth on Demian… then this is really bad, like really really bad, like we are gonna have some major showdown here” Joe said tapping the table.

-“I don’t want to fight again” Alex said in a whisper.

-“None of us want to fight again Alex (Nessa said getting up and walking toward the door of the room) none of us” she whispered as she left the room.

Witold got up and gave Richard a reassuring look and ran behind Nessa, as he ran he called out to her but she didn’t answer him nor stopped her walking.

_________End of Part III_______

The view was that of the crowded streets of Juuban, the wind played with his hair as he stayed there, watching the people go by, remembering how it was all before Demian, how it was after, the funeral for the fallen…everything.

Witold Andrzej Haczek, a man of 26 years of age, owner of one of the most prolific companies in Europe and one of the best warriors of Koba felt helpless and at loss at the current situation.

-“And I thought I was going to have a normal life after all” he chuckled sadly. He looked around the surroundings of the building, breathing heavily he looked back to see Nessa lying on the bed, at her side were a glass of water and a packet of pills, sedatives to help her sleep and ease her mind.

He went inside the room and sat on her bed beside her, he sighed sadly as he put the pills away and fixed Nessa’s hair. He was leaning over her to give her a kiss when Alex ran into the room breathing heavily.

-“It has started. They are onto Yevgeny!” he said running out of the room again.

Witold got up from the bed, looked back at Nessa, leaned over her quickly and gave her a gentle kiss on her lips. Walking toward the door he looked back again ad whispered.

-“And so it has begun…”

--------End of Chapter III-------

Chapter IV: Too close to breathe


It started with the sakura leaves playing in the air as they crossed the big blue sky. The wind blew them onwards, making them look as if they danced, this was a memory from times past, after the storm had claimed the lives of those that were cherished.

People could be seen walking down a paved road, around them there were flowers, flowers near tombstones in the Cemetery.

The Koba team gathered around a black coffin, tears and pain on their faces as the words of a priest tried to comfort them. The bells of a nearby temple could be heard as the minutes passed on the funeral of Charles Daniel Edenberg, Koba Elite, gadget extraordinnaire.

Witold walked toward the head of the coffin, standing where the priest was previously, he looked toward his friends, he took a deep breath while closing his eyes for a second and began to speak in a broken voice.

-"Charles was... no, he IS one of my best friends, one I could call my brother , our brother in arms..." he paused looking around to see Charles' spirit sitting beside Nessa, he noticed that Nessa didn't acknowledge his presence. Witold smiled a little and continued:

-"He is football and his gadgets, he always gives us hope for better days, even when it was obvious we were in dire trouble..." Charles waved at Witold, a smile played on his face.

-"Charles gave his life for a better life, and we are gonna miss him, specially the experiments on his shop, the eternal minibombs that constantly blew up on his face..." at this statement Charles murmured some words and made gestures to Witold, Witold chuckled softly in response.

-"We must learn to have a smile on our face even though things go wrong, try to learn from our mistakes and live our fullest, with no regrets...just like Charles did, it is like it should be for all of us"

In the present day, Nessa awoke to the sound of tapping on her window, she looked around her room to find a familiar face.

-"Charlie..." she said with a whisper.

-"Hi sweetie..." He said smiling, sitting beside her on the bed.

-"You got it..." she said signaling the cross he wore on his chest.

-"Yeah hon, of course I did..."

-"You came for me?" She said softly trying to grab his hand...

-"No, you know it is not your time yet Nessa..." She sobbed and closed her eyes, when she opened them again he was gone.


____End of part I_____


Yevgeny and Joe walked through a busy boulevard, Yevgeny read the dvd summaries of the movies they just rented, Joe was busy sending text messages from his cellphone. His phone rang suddenly.

-"Yellop..." he answered cheerfully.

-"Joe! is Yev with you man?" Alex said concerned.

-"Yeah, we just rented some movies, what's up?" 

-"The same dudes that were after Nessa are onto you and Yev"

-"On it..." He stopped walking as he ended the call.

-"What is up?" Yevgeny asked looking at Joe.

-"Alex called..."

-"What did he say?" the Russian boy gave him a concerned look.

-"To watch out for goons like the ones who attacked Nessa, looks like it didn't end with her..." He looked ahead, he saw a man coming fromt he other street.

-"Yevgeny Trofimiuik..." the man said as he walked toward them.

-"No, looks like it didn't" Yevgeny turning around toward the man.


______End of part II________


Nessa walked out of her room toward the kitchen, she opened the cabinets and got out her teapot and some tea bags. Charles suddenly appeared beside her, he leaned against the counter, arms crossed he stared at her back and sighed.

-"Why do you wish to die?" he asked in a sad voice, looking at her as she made her tea and walked past him toward a nearby chair.

-"I know you can see me and hear me, don't ignore me..." he said a bit angry at her lack of response.


In the streets, a man walked closer to Yevgeny , drawing a sword. Yevgeny gave the bag with the movies to Joe drawing his own.

-"Go get the others..." Yevgeny said to Joe.

-"Roger" Joe said casting a spell fading away.

-"Now I think it is the time for a proper introduction" Yevgeny said smiling to the man and started to walk toward him.




Back in time, after the funeral ceremony Nessa walked away toward the nearby park, Alex tried to go after her but Richard grabbed his arm and motioned him to stay, shaking his head as in saying 'no'. As she walked she chanted a spell and a box appeared on her hand, a box smaller to the usual jewelry boxes. As she walked tears came down on her face and she held it tightly on her hand.

She got to a place filled with flowers, of every kind and color. She kneeled on the ground putting the box in front of her. She closed her eyes and whispered what seemed it was prayers, as she prayed, the wind blew around her moving her hair, her dress, even her necklace full of crosses of different kinds.

Suddenly the wind stopped, the box and a cross from her necklace were gone, everything stood still as she collapsed on the ground.


____End of part III________


-"I have to say Yevgeny, I had imagined a scrawny looking guy...I see you do train at least..." The man said laughing a little eyeing Yevgeny up and down.

-"Sorry to disappoint you, so why are we here?" Yevgeny asked not taking his eyes off the man.

-"Well I have been ordered to terminate your existance..." -The man said tilting his head to the side- "Your kind brings unbalance to my employer's peace of mind...".

-"'My kind'?"

-"Yes" The man said starting to parry with Yevgeny's sword.

-"I bring harm to no one" Yevgeny said escaping a blow from his assailant. He put his hand on the ground as he chanted a spell making the ground below the man slippery. The man fell and tried to get up with the help of his sword. Yevgeny got off the ground quickly and pointed his sword to the man's throat.

-"I think you ought to tell me now what the hell is going on and you better start by saying who your employer is" Yevgeny said gritting his teeth.




In another part of the city, clad in a black skirt, shirt and boots, Nessa walked the streets of Hikawa district, around her people were going toward recreation centers, toward train stations. Some chattered, some laughed, some read the news, Nessa looked and smiled.

The busy streets swept past her as she walked the path toward the cemetery, the sound of her boots on the ground echoing on her mind.

She stopped at the gates of the cemetery, she shook her head as if getting herself together and she walked inside.

Yevgeny fought with great strengh as he tried to push the man from above him. The man laughed as he saw Yevgeny's efforts to be somewhat in vain, he screamed as the man stabbed him in the arm with a small knife he got out of his pocket.





Nessa sat beside a tombstone, she put her hand on the ground and with a spell the wind blew some leaves from it. She smiled sadly as she dusted off the tombstone, singing softly as she did so.

-"Pardon me for earlier Charlie. I didn't mean to ignore you." She said softly while lying down on the grass.

-"It still hurts you know, your death...Witold leaving afterwards. I never got really over it all, maybe it is because I never said goodbye to either of you, even Witold. Now he is back, I can't get over this...why? I don't know, I wish I knew." -the wind blew softly around her, she closed her eyes and sighed- "I guess that with this abbilities one tends to think that we can be inmortal, unharmed, that we can stop anything and anyone..."







Yevgeny ran away from the man, exhausted he whispered spells of protection on himself. The man laughed as he kept running toward him.

-"Give it up Yevgeny! you can't hide from me..."

-"Niet!" Yevgeny yelled as he casted a spell on his attacker.







Nessa got up from the grass and bowed in front of Charles' grave, she turned around and walked away. She turned her head once or twice having a feeling that somebody was watching her, but shrugged as she saw and felt nothing around her.

Her mobile phone rang suddenly, she cursed as she tried to get it as fast as possible.






Yevgeny whispered a spell trying to slow down his enemy to give him a chance to recover slightly. He looked around for his weapon but didn't see it around him, he was bleeding from his side and breathing heavily.

The man walked toward Yevgeny slowly, weapon in hand.

-"You can give up you know? you have got nothing against me..." The man said chuckling.

Yevgeny closed his eyes and casted a spell to hide from the man, quietly hoping he would gather enough energy to keep fighting.


Nessa ran through the streets calling Yevgeny on her mind, receiving no replies. Suddenly a hand grabbed her by the arm, as it did she turned around getting out her dagger and put it at her grabber's neck, making no harm, but in form of a threat.

-"Careful with that..." Witold said softly not even flinching at the dagger pressed on his throat.

-"Witek...(she said putting down the dagger) you should know better than to ambush me like that" she said making her dagger disappearing.

-"What do you think you are doing Nessa?" 

-"I was called to help Yev..." 

-"You are in no condition to help him at the moment, you know that..."

-"If i was called, it is because I am...so let me go..."

-"Nessa I don't think you should go...I..."

-"Witek there is no time for this...let me go!" She said casting a spell and disappearing from his side. Witold stodd looking dumbfounded at the place where she stood. He cursed and ran away.


The sound of sword clashing could be heard, Yevgeny yelled as he fought, his wound was getting worse by the second, loosing a lot of blood, but he fought with all his might. The man hurt badly as well, but kept fighting Yevgeny.

On the distance, Yevgeny could feel a distinct energy, and heard a spell being casted. Suddenly the man was on the floor in pain, struggling to get up.

-"I thought I had sent a message with the other goon" Yevgeny turned toward the voice to see Nessa walking toward them.

-"You must be Nadzieja" the man coughed as he got up from the floor.

-"Yevgeny, go...this is between him and me now..." Yevgeny looked at Nessa puzzled, Nessa looked at him and smiled, she then casted a spell to make him disappear from the site.

-"So I'm guessing my target has changed?"

-"My friends stay out of this..."

-"You know that you have been wounded as well, you think you are match for me?"

-"Let's just say we are in equal condition now..." Nessa said getting out her dagger


_____End of part IV________


Yevgeny landed on the floor abruptly, Alex ran to his side trying to help him get up from the floor.

-"Yev, man. I'm so glad you are alright..." Alex said as he helped Yevgeny sit on a nearby chair.

-"Nessa is...not safe" Yevgeny said sitting down. Joe hurriedly brought a medicine kit to help his wounds.

-"Don't worry about that now, she is gonna be ok...Mamma is tough!"Alex said while helping Joe to treat the wounds.


The man parried his sword with Nessa's dagger, she blocked each and everyone of his attacks, the man became very frustrated at this, he yelled and cursed at her, she just blocked him in reply.

-"Why don't you attack me? why!?" the man said thrusting his sword against her, she blocked it effortlesly.

Nessa pushed the man away from her, she then casted a spell that kept him in place.

-"Where is Demian?" She asked the man.

-"Demian? what are you talking about?" He said struggling on the ground because of her spell.

-"How do you know I'm Nadzieja?...answer me!"

-"Girly...we all know..." the man then casted a spell of his own and threw Nessa onto a nearby tree, her body layed limp on the ground after hitting it. She moaned in pain as her previous wounds resurfaced. The man walked toward her, sword in hand.

-"We all know...we all know what happened, what you did and it is not happening again..." -the man grabbed her and pulled her up to the tree, her back on it, he pressed her body against it, she moaned in pain, and tried to cast a spell but he grabbed her chin roughly - "no more fooling around girly..."- she then hit him with her knee on his stomach, he curled in pain while she fell on the floor, and crawled away from him on the grass. 


He casted a spell that made her moan in pain falling on the grass, she tried to get up as quickly as she could, but the man threw himself over her, he put his knee on her stomach to try to stop her from moving, she yelled in pain. The man then proceeded to take out a knife, he stabbed her leg in anger, Nessa yelled in pain, closing her eyes, she whispered something the man couldn't hear- "What was that girly?" - he said as he hurt her other leg, making her moan in pain, she then whispered again, a small knife appeared on her hand, unnoticed by her attacker, as he proceeded to stab another part of her body, she gathered all her strengh and thrusted her knife on his arm. The man yelled in pain as she tried to push the man away from her, but he tightened his grip on her and pushed her onto the ground once more. - "Die!" - she then heard the sound of a sword cutting through flesh, she, with eyes closed waited for the pain to come for her, but felt nothing except the few dropplets of blood on her, she gasped as tears fell from her eyes at what she saw.

Witold had cut the man's head in a swift movement, then pushed the man away from Nessa, and kneeled beside her.

-"Nessa..." -he said as he saw her in tears unable to move- "Nessa..." - he then checked her wounds and started to heal them, her tears were subsiding as she felt him touch her wounds.

-"Witek..." she said moving her hand toward his slowly.

-"Nessa...it's ok now..." -He said holding her hand, comforting her, and helped her up from the ground slowly

-"I should have listened to you...they know who I am...they know..." she said, her voice breaking.

-"They won't do anything to you, I won't allow it!" -He held her face with his hands, he looked at her eyes, reassuring her, wiping away her tears - "I'll protect you, I always will, I won't leave you...not again" he whispered closing his eyes, Nessa held him close to her, not caring about how her wounds hurt.

-"Ja kochak Ty..." -he whispered to her as he caressed her hair, he looked at her face once more, and caressed her cheek softly- "Ja kochak ty, always..." -he kissed her forehead and pressed his on hers closing his eyes, holding her close.

-------End of Chapter IV---------