****Hello everyone, welcome to my third fan fiction ever, this time based on the wonderful anime Gurren Laggan. Seeing how A Voice So Loud failed, I've been tuning up my writing style, as well as my fan fiction style, and I hope the results are pleasing.

As always, there will be illustrations to go along with this story, and they will always be posted on my profile. Check back every few weeks for any up dates. I'll try to post as often as I can. I hope you enjoy the chapter, and take the opportunity to visit my bank of illustrations while you're here.

See ya soon, and happy reading!****

-Update: Chapter One Illustration posted-

Chapter One

The Soul is in The Eyes

The monsters slumbered in the cold, brooding and abiding in the dark as they rested amidst stagnate chaos. Tears on the walls told vicious stories. The dried blood on their fangs whispered tales of horror. But they were not alone. A breeze of addictive fear swept the stone walls. A presence scorched with iniquity far deeper than theirs had entered the resting place.

The beasts' curled claws quivered, and their sun-spotted eyes rolled when he approached. Their punctured hearts shuddered as he spoke to them, slipping poisonous joy into their tar-like blood.

"A taste…a taste is all you were given," the voice sang its ghastly song. A sharpened grin cut across a tortured face as a weeping laugh echoed in the chamber. "Ah, it was only a morsel. You merely sampled the sweet flesh of that one. He escaped, yes, but I will force him to return. Be patient, yet prepare yourselves. Soon you will have your fill of a broken heart."

Slowly the monsters swelled in reverent anticipation. As they settled, their dreams were pierced with groans of longing, clutching to the hope that their wait was nearing its end.

The first thing Simon noticed about Cascade was that the sprawling town seemed to function best in bone-numbing cold. Wrapping his jacket closely around his pale chest, he watched as dozens of lively citizens scuttled around the ice-slick streets, going about their business in ordinary fashion. It seemed they were oblivious to the deathly temperatures, or perhaps they didn't mind the chill. It sure was a change of pace for Simon, now that he had spent so much time on the sunny side of the surface world.

Behind him a sneeze erupted in the quiet air, and was followed by a string of curses and moody grumblings.

"Damn." Simon turned and eyed a tall, thin youth huddled in a shaft of pale sunlight a few feet away. The boy smiled innocently to himself, smothering a giggle as his older friend rubbed his pink-tipped nose and frowned. "I'm about to turn into a man-cicle," he objected noisily. "Haven't these people ever heard of fire? Or warmth? Who would actually choose to live in a place like this?"

A girl's wail directly followed this comment, and a moment later the girl herself waddled up the road a few feet behind the boys. She clutched her arms at the elbows, and walked slowly and hunched over like a crippled beggar. "Y-y-you c-c-can't complain, K-K-Kamina!" she protested. Her pure white teeth clapped together rapidly as she scowled. "A-at least y-y-you have a ca-ca-cape! Look at m-m-m-me; even my rifle is getting f-f-f-frostbite!"

Simon blushed as the girl wagged herself back and forth, as if she hoped to shake off the unforgiving cold. Kamina huffed and jerked his chin up. "It's not my fault you go hopping around half naked all the time. And don't give me that speech about clothes that 'restrict your movement' either. All you pit chicks are loose in the brain as far as I'm concerned."

Ignoring the other man's grumpy retort, Simon shed his own jacket and offered it to his feminine friend. "Here, Yoko. You can wear mine," he said.

"Oh, but Simon won't you be cold now?" she wondered, but accepted the covering without pause.

He smiled shyly at her. "No, I'll be alright."

Kamina favored the small boy with a hearty slap on the back. "Atta boy Simon! Embrace your environment! The biting cold will give power to your heart and manly strength to your bones!"

Simon noticed that, despite his energetic speech, Kamina kept his own cloak draped securely around his shoulders. The boy shook his head and decided not to make any sharp remarks.

The day wore on in the shadow of frosty winds and minimal temperatures. The group wandered from building to building, seeking shelter and restoration in the warmth between the stone walls of shops, small cafes and even homes. Fortunately the townspeople had personalities in contrast to their frigid home, and welcomed the strangers as openly as parents would their children.

One woman, large and round as a seal, was especially talkative and even managed to overwhelm Kamina's unfastened tongue.

"Well dears, it sure is a treat seeing new faces in town, I'll tell you," she babbled, forcing brimming mugs of coco on each of her guests. "We don't get too many visitors out here in Cascade, not the friendly kind at least. My husband works the scoot carts, and he has oodles of stories about the beastmen who wander in here every now and then. It's the worst part of opening the town to the surface: those foul monsters pass through every couple of weeks. They don't mind the cold, with all the fur some of them have. Once I was down on the market, talking to one of my lady friends and…"

Yoko interrupted as politely as she could in order to ask, "Why do you think the beastmen are coming around so often? They're not attacking you are they?"

The woman shook her head. "Not usually, dear. They make threats, but for now they're much more interested in Paradise. That's the only thing they talk about when they come down to the city."

"Paradise?" Kamina repeated, suddenly perking up out of his crabby mood. "What would that be?"

Simon had barely been listening for the majority of the discussion, allowing his idle gaze to admire the glittering blue streets of the submerged town while his friends talked. All of the tunnels leading to the surface were engraved with intricate, artistic designs, as were the actual roads and walls outside. He had been wondering at the imaginative nature of the people of Cascade when the woman mentioned something called Paradise. Just like his older friend, Simon had instantly snapped to attention.

"Well actually it's a place," the woman explained. "Most of us have only glimpsed it from afar, but there are stories…if the night is clear enough, you can actually see it from the observation platforms above ground. Way off in the distance you can just spot a mountain shaped like an hour-glass with a beautiful garden on top. That's Paradise, as the locals call it. Rumors say it's the grandest, most wonderful place on the face of the earth." She laughed softly and shrugged her round shoulders. "I'd like to believe it, but I do have to wonder how much we pit-dwellers know about the face of the earth, after all."

"You can say that again, lady," Kamina grumbled. Yoko slapped his head reproachfully while Simon sipped his coco and tried to look harmless.

"What do you think the beastmen want with a place like Paradise?" Yoko pressed.

Shrugging again, the woman admitted that such facts were unknown to anyone in the town. "I can tell you what we want with the place," she went on. "As you've noticed, it's powerfully cold down here in Cascade. Only certain types of plants and animals can survive here, which means that we are often short on food. When winter rolls around there's almost always news of deaths swinging through the lines. Starvation hits us hard around here, but like I told you before: Paradise is as lush as a god's garden. If we could get there, just imagine the wealth of food we would have!"

Yoko sighed, though her bright eyes held an unpredictable inner glow. "I don't think the beastmen are all that interested in food…so there must be something else about that place. Maybe a power source, or even some abandoned gunmen."

"You don't say…" Kamina murmured to himself. A leisurely smile pulled on the corners of his lips, and he cast Simon a dubious glance. "Sounds real interesting, doesn't it, bro?"

Simon nodded eagerly. He tipped his mug of steaming coco toward his mouth at the very moment Kamina pushed his shoulder playfully, and nearly spilled the drink down his chest. His brother didn't seem to notice the mistake, and went on talking to the woman in earnest.

"So, is there anyone we can talk to who could tell us more about this Paradise place?" he wanted to know.

The woman's face darkened suddenly, the welcoming light in her eyes becoming unexpectedly overcast all at once. "Well…" she hesitated, falling completely silent for the first time during the conversation. "There is one person who has actually been there. His name is Linus, but I couldn't sleep tonight if I knew that I led you three dears to that vile wretch."

The venom in her words shocked the three friends, and they all stared at the woman in dumb silence as she spoke. Even Kamina was too stunned to comment.

"Now, I know you youngsters are interested in Paradise," she continued sternly, "but do yourselves a favor and avoid any word or sign of …him…while you're here. Don't even speak his name, if you can help it. We've been trying to jail that monstrous traitor for well over a year now, but unfortunately he's still running free. Don't let him near you, or your little friend there, if you know what's best for you."

Kamina and Yoko threw simultaneous worried looks toward Simon, as if they expected an attack at that very moment. Simon squeezed his mug and shrank into himself, trying to keep the fear off his face.

"What's so bad about this guy?" Yoko asked softly. "Did he…kill someone?"

"No, sweetheart, he did something much worse than that." The woman's plump face was gaunt now. All the wrinkles that had been unnoticeable before had become deep and lucid from repressed hatred. "They say the soul is in the eyes. If you were so unfortunate to catch that traitor's glance, you would see nothing but a cursed black pit, viler than death itself."