Disclaimer:Sorry for the long wait guys! A bit busy…but as you can see, I've been working on my fiction as well. Enjoy and thanks for all the reviews!

Chapter 12: The Break

The boy stirred a bit, his head laying on top of the table. He finally woke up from his slumber with a groan. He was quite groggy, his neck a bit stiff. "Your finally awake! Took you long enough." A feminine voice spoke to him.

"Huh?" He let off another groan and rubbed his eyes, "Oh...Beatrice..." His eyelids were still heavy upon his eyes, half closed.

"Have you been okay? You just collapsed in the middle of the mall." She said, a bit concerned about him with a worried look on her face.

"Wait! The man!" Jayden bolted upright suddenly, his eyes opened fully and glancing about.

"What man?" Beatrice asked raising an eyebrow.

"That man in the black coat! He looked like me...only a bit older..." He spun his head around to look for the man who appeared in his dream, or was it a dream? Perhaps a premonition?

"Jayden, as far as I can tell...there are a lot of men in the mall..." She spoke softly, still sitting down in front of the table.

"No, he was an odd one. You could tell him apart from a mile away! White hair, red eyes...and he had a sword too! I long sword! Red like blood...like his eyes..." His voice now lowered a bit as he thought about the appearance of the man.

"White hair?" Beatrice repeated, almost in a mumbling voice. It could be Scion...She thought to herself...but Scion doesn't have red eyes, or a sword...hell! He couldn't even use a sword to save his own neck!

"Yeah!" Jayden looked back at Beatrice.

"As far as I can tell...there was nobody who fit the description of the man your talking about...Jayden...have you been feeling alright?" Her slender and small hand would motion towards his forehead. He would stop the hand with his own hand as he firmly grasped her wrist.

"I-I'm fine...a lot of things have happened, that's all..." He said silently as he felt the warmth of her skin against his hand. The smooth texture of her skin would remind him of the old days when they used to play together. They stood there for awhile, his hand around her wrist.

"Uhhhh...Jayden?" A slight tint of red covered her cheeks.

"Yeah?" He snapped to attention.

"You can let go of my arm now..." She blushed even more after stating such a comment.

"Oh, sorry!" Jayden laughed nervously, "I guess it's the fact that I haven't seen you in such a long time eh?"

"Uh huh..." Beatrice said, now blushing a mad red. "That's for you, by the way." She pointed to the cup in front of him which lay on the table. The cup had a lid on it, medium sized and painted with red and blue plain colors with a straw sticking out of the lid.

"Hey, thanks! You always seem to read my mind...I was getting thirsty!" He sat himself down at the table and took a small slurp of his drink, it was coke.

She smiled softly, "No proble-!"

"Hey! What the hells going on here? Finally hitting on a guy, Beatrice?" An abrupt male voice interrupted her midway through her words. The voice was familiar, the type of familiar which annoyed her very much that she stood up and swiveled around with a clenched fist at her side. Beatrice knew what she would see when she turned around. A man with pure white hair, almost like snow in a messy disorder with emerald eyes who was dressed casually for the weather. Sure enough, there he was. The one who she pestered and whom pestered her in return with that calm air which surrounded him.

"Scion!" She glared at him straight in the green eyes. Scion would just stand there, laid back and smile.

"Never thought you were the type to hit on guys," Scion chuckled lightly.

The blush returned to her cheeks, more red than before. "M-me! Hitting on a guy? A-am not!" Scion scratched his forehead with his forefinger before replying calmly.

"Well, you never buy me a drink. So why the sudden change of heart on this guy?" He smirked once again. Jayden sat there, silent and out of the scene, averting his gaze here and there, from Beatrice to the newcomer Scion. He didn't know whether the two were just amusing or really wierd. Either way, he was suppressing the urge to smirk and laugh his head off at the squabble.

"T-this is different! J-jayden is an old friend of mine! We go back a long time! At least I have to show some courtesy after not seeing an old friend for so long!" She stuttered, now very flushed.

Scion folded his arms and screwed up his face just to show his amusement in the matter. "You wouldn't buy me a drink if you suddenly saw me again." He spoke, trying to imitate an innocent voice and formed an exaggerated frown on his face.

"Your not my friend! Your just some child in an adult's body who teaches me!" She spat out, her tone immediately changed from innocent and sweet to mad fury.

"Awwww, that hurts!" He said in a mocking manner.

Jayden hesitated for a moment before interfering with the heated up conversation, despite his own amusement. "Beatrice, don't you think you should tell me who this is?" He laughs.

"Oh...uhhhh...this is Scion...he's my captain...technically speaking of course!" Beatrice turned around to face Jayden again at the table, with the calm and angel like light on her face once again.

"Hey!" The captain raised his hand in a warm gesture of welcome.

"Scion..." She glared back at him momentarily, "This is Jayden Cypher. My child hood friend!" Through gritted teeth, she forced the last sentence out as if suppressing some urge, some force that tried to lunge out at Scion and stick a fork in his mouth. Scion didn't pay attention to her sudden aggression and completely laid back, spoke his mind.

"Hey, nice to meet ya, kid!" He laughed.

"Hey! You too!" Jayden also laughed. A small and silent beeping coming from the man's wrist rang through the air. Scion seemed suddenly alarmed by this and raised a navy blue sleeved arm. "Hm, that time already?" Dropping his hand down to his side, he smirked while he spoke, "We gotta go kid, but I'm sure we'll meet again sometime soon." The man walked away somewhere else. Jayden didn't really know, he was paying more attention to Beatrice.

"Errrr...what do you do anyways? You said he was your captain...so...are you in the military or something?" Jayden raised an eyebrow.

"Huh? You...could say that?" Her eyes averted towards the side, unable to make eye-to-eye contact with Jayden for some reason. "It's...a small group...just recently formed..." She said hesitantly.

"Oh? What's the name?" He asked once again curious.

"We just formed so we really don't have a name..." Beatrice glanced from side to side, trying desperately to make up words and keep a calm pose as well. I can't tell him! We're in Lakeside City! If I tell him, he might tell some Raven! I'd be in deep if that happened! Her mind panicked, thinking of ways to avoid the questions that might pop up from Jayden, her best friend.

"You gonna just stand there all day! Come on! We've got work to do!" The familiar abrupt voice yelled.

Great timing! He's actually useful for once! Beatrice breathed with relief. "Sorry Jayden! I have to go! I'll talk to you later!" She waved with a smile and dashed off.

"Uh...bye?" Unsure, he stood there. She left without even recieving his gesture. He was relieved though, to have seen her, well and unharmed.

"You have got to be kidding me, kid!" A strong arm suddenly wrapped itself around Jaydens neck, trying to strangle him and yet giving him enough room to suck in air for his life. Jayden flailed his arms around, hitting a large body mass of some sort, larger than him at least. "Two-timing on Jen I see!" The voice laughed.

"Wraith! Stop that!" He cried in laughter as he felt the top of his head starting to burn as something scratched it fiercely and ruffled his hair. The strong arm loosened it's grip around his neck and eventually released him. Jayden stood back up and rubbed the top of his head, still throbbing with pain. "Ouch! That was harsh Wraith!" In front of Jayden stood a man, almost twice as big as he was, fairly muscular with the normal Raven jacket on him, a crew cut and a bandage on his nose.

"Kid, you have to shapen up! Grow a spine already!" A single tear would come out of the corner of Jayden's eye as he rubbed his head.

"That was a little overdoing it though..." He chuckled, still hurting.

Wraith chuckled in a low and rough voice, rubbed his small beard. "That was pay back for last time."

"Don't tell me your still mad at me for that! That was obviously a fluke how I won! Come on! You kick my anytime in an AC fight. Letting me win for once isn't so bad." Jayden pleaed innocently as he strolled over to the garbage bin and placed his drink container into the slot.

"I'm just playing with you, kid! Come on! Jen's waiting for you! Another mission, it's from the government this time." The muscular giant slapped Jayden on the back, forcing what seemed to be a choke and a cough out of him.

"Wait...your not going to..." Jayden glanced at his friend as Wraith slung his large arm around Jaydens small neck once again .

"Nah! Don't worry! I won't tell her about...your little secret...so...what's her name? How did you find her!" He asked, grinning and dragging Jayden by the feet out of the mall.

"Come on, Wraith! It's not what you think!" He laughed humored by Wraith's sudden interest.

"Sir! The power plant in Terra-!" Naomi dashed through the door with her brown hair tinted with a slight red swaying about.

"It's alright, I've sent Marneas to take care of things." The man with long blonde hair raised his gloved hand to silent the woman.

"Sir? Is Marneas really that great of choice? The enemy is using Nuclear Particle Weapons, it could seriously contaminate the area and anything in the vicinity." Naomi had a look of concern.

"Don't be too worried. Marneas isn't exactly any normal human." The man smirked amusingly.

"Sir?" She raised a furrowed eyebrow at him in curiosity.

"Marneas was an experimental Plus who we saved from one of Sphere's laboratories. They would constantly conduct terrifying research on him...god knows what they did to him in there. As a result, his cellular make-up was restructured. Most importantly, he can adapt to environments which are seriously contaminated with potent toxins. The restructuring of his cells also caused an increase in his regeneration rate, he can be hurt but he can never die from a blow." His voice hummed almost methodically, as if he had recited this ages before.

Naomi screwed up her face, "Oh...I see...so that's why..." She mumbled to herself, the look of concern disappeared which was quickly replaced by a face of sorrow. Her eyes would avert it's gaze towards the tiled ground. Then, something caught her attention. Her head jolted upwards, "But I've heard that's what the "Angel Reaper" went through! Does that make Marneas an equal to him?" The man grinned widely.

"The "Angel Reaper"...is different. The only thing human about him is his heart perhaps, still the same as always..." With his long blonde hair following him, the man would pace around, up and down the room while he spoke in his usual gruff voice, "...radiation from a certain incident caused a complete change in his cells. Rather than slowly heal himself, he can quickly cover up his wounds right on the spot. And the radiation also seemed to have affected him in many other ways. Heightened strength, speed and stamina. A result of an Naturally Born Plus at his limits being exposed to massive amounts of radiation." He stopped there.

"So...why not just send him in to deal with Sphere? Why all of us? Sir, I'm not questioning you! I believe that your resolve is better for the world. But if you have such a weapon capable of stopping Sphere then why not just use it?"

"Because...the "Angel Reaper" isn't really part of Zeal. He's just a friend of mine who helps every now and then as he pleases." He tilted his head and smirked.

"Huh? Then...why not ask him to join us? He can save so many people! Why does he choose to only do as he please!" Naomi was a bit confused. Confused if this "Angel Reaper" had enough humanity left in him to consider what he could do.

"We may consider it a miracle...but he seems to consider it a curse...or more in his words, an atonement."

In the complete darkness, stood a figure, his face looking upwards as if trying to detect some hint of the stars that never were there. His whole body and face covered in blackness as well. Eyes closed as if contemplating on something. S...e...thhhhh...A soft voice moaned through the man's mind. S...e...thhhh...Once again with the phantom like voice, echoeing in a canyon of darkness. It's...time...A gentle sound soothed the man's heart as he opened his red eyes to look past the darkness that lay in front of him.