Lament and Fruition
A History Between the Head Agents of the Echelon
By Kagomes_Luver2789
Part 1: "Children"
Where... am I?
Kay El was lying on the ground, face up, staring into a deep black void. Why am I here?... How did I get here? he asked himself as he stood to survey his surroundings. However, as the first second of inspection showed, the dark abyss had now surrounded him completely, encompassing him from all sides. Even the ground, which he felt with his bare hands as he stood, was now gone.
What the hell? This isn't where I was. I...
He realized that he couldn't recall where he last was. He tried retracing his steps to where he could last remember being, but the fact was that he couldn't trace back to anything before he stood up. It was as if this void, this dark and looming shroud that was placed over him, has pulled away at pieces of his recent memory, and kept it for itself, tidbits to feed its black feral hunger.
With a sudden jerk, he was being pulled backwards by an unknown entity with tremendous force. He spun himself around in his zero gravity environment to confront his enemy face to face, putting himself in as best a stance as his situation would allow. But there was no man standing behind him. Instead, he was being slowly pulled into a black hole of magnificent proportions, and he instantly knew he had no chance of escaping it. And then it hit him. He knew where he was now. So he did what he always did... and charged towards it.
It engulfed him whole, swallowing him into its monstrous stomach, like a whale devouring a significantly outmatched fish that made no attempt to resist. And he kept going down, and down...
He could hear the voice, but a blinding sensation in his eyes kept him from seeing who it was. However, he had a distinct feeling he knew where he was already. It didn't take much memory scavenging to remember that nobody had called him by his first name in a long time.
As he began to lift himself up, he could feel dry dirt underneath his hands and smelled a distinct aroma that reminded him of the old cellar in his home. He didn't get far, however, when the girl who had yelled for him shoved him back down to ground. Before he could yell in protest, she spoke once again, this time softly, and noticeably quieter.
"Stay down; I think they're in the stairwell above us. It sounds like they might be leaving already," she said with a small sigh of relief. Yet, he could hear a slight sadness in her voice.
"A...Annais?" he asked slowly. While it seemed insignificant at the moment, he noted that his voice had become a softer, slightly higher-pitched child-like voice. A voice completely separated from his usual.
He felt her rustle next to him as she slowly stood and began to move away towards the far end of the room, where he could hear the dying footsteps from upstairs in the dining room through the stairwell.
"Annais! Where are you going?" he whimpered as he felt his way towards her, desperately clawing at the air in front of himself, trying to find a way to make his arms reach all the way across the gap between them.
"I'm going to see if it's safe. I won't let them do the same thing with mom and dad to you," she said as he heard her continue on her way through to the steps. "Wait!" he yelled, "Don't leave me!"
As he heard her run off, he gradually regained his sight, finally able to perceive his surroundings. But it was too late, as he only saw a lock of dark brown hair move swiftly up the stairwell and heard the faint steps clattering up the wooden boards, slowly heading towards the dining room at the top of the flight. He followed them through the floorboards to wherever within the manor she was heading.
Then, they suddenly stopped.
"Annais...?" he whispered quietly to himself.
From slightly ahead of where he was standing, above the floorboards, he heard the cocking of a rifle. And then a shot rang throughout the home, quickly followed by the thud of a body against the floorboards above him.
His eyes widened in horror as he grasped the support beam above him, a trickle of blood seeping through it...
* *
"ANNAIS!" he yelled in his booming, deep bass voice. He stood up straight on the bed in the small, quiet room he was now in. Tears were welling up in his eyes as sweat dripped from his forehead, covering his eyebrows with a wet, glistening coat that shined in the moonlight that filtered through the window from the outside of his room.
Living three years in the same room, with the only company you ever get being a maid with your daily meal, does that to you sometimes. But, it wasn't his loneliness that could account for his every night waking from the same nightmare, his nightly travels back to the same exact moment from his repressed past.
The moment that ruined whatever normal life he could have lived. And not just his, but his dear friend's as well.
He and Zeus had been together ever since they left behind their old lives, because sometimes even the bravest of men have memories that makes them weep uncontrollably with sorrow. Isn't it that stored emotion that causes the emotionally unstable to appear as tough as a rivet? But underneath, the pressure quietly builds until the rivet cannot hold back any longer and bursts, taking down with it the steel-plated composure of a man.
But they vowed to return one day. They vowed to their respective families that they would make sure the wrongs done against them and their kin were made right. Even if it meant the two had to work together in order to see years of their labor be brought to full fruition.
Oh, Juan, a smile spread across his face slowly as he began to reminisce of his younger self, To think we were so bitter back then...
* *
Eric Guerrero and Juan Alvarez weren’t exactly friends. At least, not when they were younger, back when they still retained the child-like innocence that meant the difference between men and boys. Back then, the only thing they were taught to honor was not power, not friends, but family, and the privilege of being in it.
The Guerrero family was a moderately wealthy line of Hispanic peoples in the southwest region of Actonia, owning estate that bordered the sea off to the west. Having been part of the first rush of settlers in the area, they easily prospered and became an elite household within the mildly populated town of Aires, just off the windy shores of the sea. The family excelled in fishery, coal mining, oiling, and (during some seasons) farming. Owning the manor in which the Guerrero's lived in meant owning one of the most powerful names in the land.
However, they weren’t alone in the ranks of the wealthy in terms of property. Along with the Guerrero’s, the Alvarez family had laid its stake on a great deal of land in Aires, and like their counterpart, were also regarded as an elite household, one of which partook in the farming of sugar cane, fish farming, and mustard seed plantations spread throughout the town, as well a few other business venturings. Anything that the Guerrero's didn't profit from, they did, and vice versa. So it only made sense that there would be bickering and squabbling between the two every now and then, especially in terms of which house held control of the town hall and mayor's office. However, the debating and constant fighting eventually turned each house into bitter enemies.
And Juan and Eric were caught right in the middle of it.
While both children seemed compatible enough to be friends, their situation in life prevented it from being so. Juan was taught by his step-father to never trust a Guerrero, and Kristobal Guerrero, Eric's father, always reiterated the notion that an Alvarez was just a trap waiting to happen.
It's surprising though that, for being feuding families, they lived relatively close to each other. The Guerrero's estate was situated just off the shore, with a spacious front and back yard, and towering spires that seemed to reach out towards the heavens. Directly behind the manor was a thick wood that stretched for nearly a mile and a half, before emerging in the property of the Alvarez, which had a Victorian style mansion placed just in front of a beautiful and serene lake. The wood was cut in half by a small creek that ran through it, with a great variety of wild life, ranging from squirrels and hummingbirds, to a couple of small bears and hawks. The children of both households would often play with the small creatures in the mildly dense forest, but they never strayed far, lest they became lost, or even worse, met up with wandering members of the opposing family.
Eric was born a couple of years before Juan, and, with both being the closest born from each family, they were both by far the most scrutinized in each household. If one exceeded the other in one category, they would be pressured to do even better, to the point where disownment was threatened. Where Eric excelled in physical stature, strength, and overall athleticism, Juan promptly out-achieved him in intelligence and strategy, with intimidating test scores and passing both elementary, middle and high school within a total of six and a half years, when he was only ten years old. It wasn't to say his ability in combat wasn't competent, however. He was amazingly skilled in weapon combat, with a considerable advantage when armed with close to mid-ranged weapons, from daggers and maces to bladed staffs and longswords. Eric, on the other hand was a master of a number of different martial arts (including, but not limited to, Dragon Fist, Taekwondo, Taijutsu, and Hapkido), a formidable opponent when using the double scimitars (the only melee weapon he would consider using), and was generally considered a prodigy in hand-to-hand and close-quarters fighting, with amazing accuracy when behind the barrel of a gun as well.
They were the pride of their families. At the ages of thirteen and eleven, Eric Guerrero and Juan Alvarez were regarded throughout their town as children of extraordinary talent and ability, with future prospects in their respective fields. However, they were still just children. They still maintained an air of innocence and child-like serenity around them.
Until the day they both lost it all.
* * *To Be Continued
------------------------
Characters
Board Members:
Juan Alvarez/Zeus - Shuya_Nanahara
Eric Guerrero/Kay El - Kagomes_Luver2789
Other:
Annais - apparently someone who was very close to Kay El. most likely a relative.
Kristobal Guerrero - Kay El's father, head of the Guerrero household.
By Kagomes_Luver2789
Part 1: "Children"
Where... am I?
Kay El was lying on the ground, face up, staring into a deep black void. Why am I here?... How did I get here? he asked himself as he stood to survey his surroundings. However, as the first second of inspection showed, the dark abyss had now surrounded him completely, encompassing him from all sides. Even the ground, which he felt with his bare hands as he stood, was now gone.
What the hell? This isn't where I was. I...
He realized that he couldn't recall where he last was. He tried retracing his steps to where he could last remember being, but the fact was that he couldn't trace back to anything before he stood up. It was as if this void, this dark and looming shroud that was placed over him, has pulled away at pieces of his recent memory, and kept it for itself, tidbits to feed its black feral hunger.
With a sudden jerk, he was being pulled backwards by an unknown entity with tremendous force. He spun himself around in his zero gravity environment to confront his enemy face to face, putting himself in as best a stance as his situation would allow. But there was no man standing behind him. Instead, he was being slowly pulled into a black hole of magnificent proportions, and he instantly knew he had no chance of escaping it. And then it hit him. He knew where he was now. So he did what he always did... and charged towards it.
It engulfed him whole, swallowing him into its monstrous stomach, like a whale devouring a significantly outmatched fish that made no attempt to resist. And he kept going down, and down...
- * *
He could hear the voice, but a blinding sensation in his eyes kept him from seeing who it was. However, he had a distinct feeling he knew where he was already. It didn't take much memory scavenging to remember that nobody had called him by his first name in a long time.
As he began to lift himself up, he could feel dry dirt underneath his hands and smelled a distinct aroma that reminded him of the old cellar in his home. He didn't get far, however, when the girl who had yelled for him shoved him back down to ground. Before he could yell in protest, she spoke once again, this time softly, and noticeably quieter.
"Stay down; I think they're in the stairwell above us. It sounds like they might be leaving already," she said with a small sigh of relief. Yet, he could hear a slight sadness in her voice.
"A...Annais?" he asked slowly. While it seemed insignificant at the moment, he noted that his voice had become a softer, slightly higher-pitched child-like voice. A voice completely separated from his usual.
He felt her rustle next to him as she slowly stood and began to move away towards the far end of the room, where he could hear the dying footsteps from upstairs in the dining room through the stairwell.
"Annais! Where are you going?" he whimpered as he felt his way towards her, desperately clawing at the air in front of himself, trying to find a way to make his arms reach all the way across the gap between them.
"I'm going to see if it's safe. I won't let them do the same thing with mom and dad to you," she said as he heard her continue on her way through to the steps. "Wait!" he yelled, "Don't leave me!"
As he heard her run off, he gradually regained his sight, finally able to perceive his surroundings. But it was too late, as he only saw a lock of dark brown hair move swiftly up the stairwell and heard the faint steps clattering up the wooden boards, slowly heading towards the dining room at the top of the flight. He followed them through the floorboards to wherever within the manor she was heading.
Then, they suddenly stopped.
"Annais...?" he whispered quietly to himself.
From slightly ahead of where he was standing, above the floorboards, he heard the cocking of a rifle. And then a shot rang throughout the home, quickly followed by the thud of a body against the floorboards above him.
His eyes widened in horror as he grasped the support beam above him, a trickle of blood seeping through it...
* *
"ANNAIS!" he yelled in his booming, deep bass voice. He stood up straight on the bed in the small, quiet room he was now in. Tears were welling up in his eyes as sweat dripped from his forehead, covering his eyebrows with a wet, glistening coat that shined in the moonlight that filtered through the window from the outside of his room.
Living three years in the same room, with the only company you ever get being a maid with your daily meal, does that to you sometimes. But, it wasn't his loneliness that could account for his every night waking from the same nightmare, his nightly travels back to the same exact moment from his repressed past.
The moment that ruined whatever normal life he could have lived. And not just his, but his dear friend's as well.
He and Zeus had been together ever since they left behind their old lives, because sometimes even the bravest of men have memories that makes them weep uncontrollably with sorrow. Isn't it that stored emotion that causes the emotionally unstable to appear as tough as a rivet? But underneath, the pressure quietly builds until the rivet cannot hold back any longer and bursts, taking down with it the steel-plated composure of a man.
But they vowed to return one day. They vowed to their respective families that they would make sure the wrongs done against them and their kin were made right. Even if it meant the two had to work together in order to see years of their labor be brought to full fruition.
Oh, Juan, a smile spread across his face slowly as he began to reminisce of his younger self, To think we were so bitter back then...
* *
Eric Guerrero and Juan Alvarez weren’t exactly friends. At least, not when they were younger, back when they still retained the child-like innocence that meant the difference between men and boys. Back then, the only thing they were taught to honor was not power, not friends, but family, and the privilege of being in it.
The Guerrero family was a moderately wealthy line of Hispanic peoples in the southwest region of Actonia, owning estate that bordered the sea off to the west. Having been part of the first rush of settlers in the area, they easily prospered and became an elite household within the mildly populated town of Aires, just off the windy shores of the sea. The family excelled in fishery, coal mining, oiling, and (during some seasons) farming. Owning the manor in which the Guerrero's lived in meant owning one of the most powerful names in the land.
However, they weren’t alone in the ranks of the wealthy in terms of property. Along with the Guerrero’s, the Alvarez family had laid its stake on a great deal of land in Aires, and like their counterpart, were also regarded as an elite household, one of which partook in the farming of sugar cane, fish farming, and mustard seed plantations spread throughout the town, as well a few other business venturings. Anything that the Guerrero's didn't profit from, they did, and vice versa. So it only made sense that there would be bickering and squabbling between the two every now and then, especially in terms of which house held control of the town hall and mayor's office. However, the debating and constant fighting eventually turned each house into bitter enemies.
And Juan and Eric were caught right in the middle of it.
While both children seemed compatible enough to be friends, their situation in life prevented it from being so. Juan was taught by his step-father to never trust a Guerrero, and Kristobal Guerrero, Eric's father, always reiterated the notion that an Alvarez was just a trap waiting to happen.
It's surprising though that, for being feuding families, they lived relatively close to each other. The Guerrero's estate was situated just off the shore, with a spacious front and back yard, and towering spires that seemed to reach out towards the heavens. Directly behind the manor was a thick wood that stretched for nearly a mile and a half, before emerging in the property of the Alvarez, which had a Victorian style mansion placed just in front of a beautiful and serene lake. The wood was cut in half by a small creek that ran through it, with a great variety of wild life, ranging from squirrels and hummingbirds, to a couple of small bears and hawks. The children of both households would often play with the small creatures in the mildly dense forest, but they never strayed far, lest they became lost, or even worse, met up with wandering members of the opposing family.
Eric was born a couple of years before Juan, and, with both being the closest born from each family, they were both by far the most scrutinized in each household. If one exceeded the other in one category, they would be pressured to do even better, to the point where disownment was threatened. Where Eric excelled in physical stature, strength, and overall athleticism, Juan promptly out-achieved him in intelligence and strategy, with intimidating test scores and passing both elementary, middle and high school within a total of six and a half years, when he was only ten years old. It wasn't to say his ability in combat wasn't competent, however. He was amazingly skilled in weapon combat, with a considerable advantage when armed with close to mid-ranged weapons, from daggers and maces to bladed staffs and longswords. Eric, on the other hand was a master of a number of different martial arts (including, but not limited to, Dragon Fist, Taekwondo, Taijutsu, and Hapkido), a formidable opponent when using the double scimitars (the only melee weapon he would consider using), and was generally considered a prodigy in hand-to-hand and close-quarters fighting, with amazing accuracy when behind the barrel of a gun as well.
They were the pride of their families. At the ages of thirteen and eleven, Eric Guerrero and Juan Alvarez were regarded throughout their town as children of extraordinary talent and ability, with future prospects in their respective fields. However, they were still just children. They still maintained an air of innocence and child-like serenity around them.
Until the day they both lost it all.
* * *To Be Continued
------------------------
Characters
Board Members:
Juan Alvarez/Zeus - Shuya_Nanahara
Eric Guerrero/Kay El - Kagomes_Luver2789
Other:
Annais - apparently someone who was very close to Kay El. most likely a relative.
Kristobal Guerrero - Kay El's father, head of the Guerrero household.