The Princess With The Jet Black Hair

"Hey, did you find him already?" Ben asked Lavi as the two of them were at the centre of the city, after a failed search. Just then, Yukiko jumped down from a building to the ground and walked towards them.

"No. How about you, Yukiko?"

To that, she shook her head disappointingly as a response, "What about Beck? Hasn't he return?"

"No, not yet. That's strange." Ben replied.

Laughing nervously, Lavi forced out an uncomfortable smile, "Hmm, don't tell me Beck got swept up in some kind of fight... No, there's no way that he is that unlucky, right?"

Ben and Yukiko stared at him in silence.

He paused and became realistic, "...Yeah, I think Beck might be in trouble."

In a blink of an eye, the three of them disappeared and headed to the East side of the city.

Ben usually keeps his cool all the time, but he always had a weak spot for his younger twin brother. Beck was actually the only one that trusted him when no one did. His little brother would always do the craziest things to protect him and his friends, as far as to put his life on the line for them. This is the reason why Ben really loved his little Brother. Although he do not say this often, he really do love him.

"Hey, I think he's up ahead." Lavi informed as he pointed at a huge pile of rubble, "There's a collapsed building there."

Seeing that vile sight, they accelerated their speed as the three went from one building to another, before reaching the site.

Upon reaching, the two unconscious guys instantly caught their attention. One guy was lying on a pool of black coloured blood and another guy laying, face down, next to him.

Even though Ben did not see the full face of the two guys, he could already recognise that one of them is Beck. He moved swiftly to Beck and cautiously flipped his brother over to take a good look at him. Lavi, on the other hand, went over to check on Damian, who was not in a good shape.

"Hey Damian! Still alive? Heyyyyy." Lavi called out as he snapped his fingers a couple of times in front of his face. After a few snaps, he still had not woken up. "I think he's dead."

Yukiko shook her head a little and went over to Damian to check on him as well. After a whole minutes or so, she calmly said, "He still alive, but bȧrėly. We need to get help to Fiore as soon as possible if we want him alive."

"Ah, we should head back now then." Lavi said as he carried Damian by the arm, before looking over to his other friend, "Ben, how's Beck?"

There was just silence, Ben did not reply.

"Ben?" Lavi called out as Yukiko went over to him.

She was terrified when she saw Beck, she thought Damian looked dead but, Beck looked... worse. His face was really pale due to the huge amount of lost blood and his mouth was dripping with black molten substance, which was presumed to also be blood. Though Damian sustained more injuries as compared to Beck, he did receive a more fatal blow.

She attempted to check on the wound on his ċhėst, but she was not skilled enough to tell whether the blow that he received was directed at his heart or not. She then placed two fingers on the side of his neck to check his pulses, at first, she thought she felt nothing. However, as she concentrated, she could feel a really weak and faint heartbeat. "...We need to get help fast."

"Ben, we got t--" Yukiko's words were cut off by Ben's abrupt response.

"Yeah, I know."

Though he looked alright, she knew that he was struggling to remain composed. Carefully, he placed his brother's arm over his neck and lifted gently him up, "Let's go." All three of them made their way to headquarters as fast as they could to get help for the two.

"How the hell did this to you...?" Ben's thoughts echoed throughout his mind as he bit his bottom lip in anger, "...I swear, I'm going to kill whoever did this."

Just then, Lavi asked Yukiko to called Jai to tell him about the situation, which she did. She punched in the numbers that she remembered on the keyboard of the smartphone, before clicking the green buŧŧon at the bottom. She was new to electronic device, but she had already learnt how to use it normally.

Well, good for her.

"Hey, Jai. It's Yukiko. We found Beck and Damian, they are both badly injured. The person behind this is unknown and he or she didn't leave any trail behind. We will head back to Fiore now."

"Got it, if anything else happens contact me immediately." Jai, on the other side, replied, "I'll see you all later then."

Yukiko hung up after that. Lavi looked over to her and asked, "What did he s--"

"Ugh..." Damian ġrȯȧnėd out suddenly. He slowly opened his eyes and looked at his surroundings. However, his eyes widened once he realised he was at midair, "...Where am I?!"

"Wow, you're pretty loud even though your body is screwed up." Lavi teased, grinning.

"Hey, it's you!" He shouted loudly but quickly regretted it, as a sharp pain hit him.

"Hey, don't be too hard on yourself."

"Yeah... Wait, how am I alive?" Damian asked as he had his arm slung across his middle.

Lavi's gaze shifted over to Beck, "Well, you got to thanked this guy, right here."

Damian looked at Beck, still unable to comprehend what had happened.

"If I'm not wrong, Beck saved you." Lavi explained, "We saw the two of you laying on the ground, unconscious, beside a pile of debris."

"Oh." He said as he tried to recall about the things that happened, but to no avail.

All of a sudden, he had the urge to cough, but once he did, black liquid came out of his mouth.

"Whoa, you alright?" Lavi asked as he grimaced at the unusual black blood, "Who attacked you?"

Damian took a couple of deep breaths then spoke, "...I don't know if I can say this or not."

Upon hearing that, Yukiko shot a glare at him, "What do you mean you don't know? One of us have already saved you from death and now you aren't going to tell us anything? We haven't even talk about the thing you did to Ethan."

Damian's glaze saddened because what Yukiko said was true. "Yeah, about the Ethan thing... Sorry. I... I wanted to stop, but he was persistent. He was a pretty good fighter though, I'll give him that."

"I don't think a 'sorry' is enough. Do you even know how badly injured he is? Until now, he could bȧrėly do anything you know that? We don't even know when he could fight, walk or even move for that matter! For him to be in this state is a utter nightmare for him as compared to death!" Her voice got louder and louder as she blurted out all her emotions.

There was an awkward silence for a few seconds after her outburst.

However, it was eventually broken by Damian.

"Yeah, you're right. A 'sorry' isn't enough. I'll accept any punishment you want to give me, you can to burn me, electrocute me, or even beat me to the verge of death. I don't mind."

"...You don't mind but SHE does." Yukiko spat back.

Knowing that he could do nothing, but to tell the truth, Damian sighed and did. "Fine, I'll tell you everything. Believe it or not, I didn't plan to live after my little visit with Erik. He instructed me to bring Emily to him and he will find us using the tracking device on the bracelet that I gave her. I wanted to do that, but I just can't bring myself to do it. So, I didn't do it. Obviously, I got my ȧss kicked for that and I'm now I am here."

"So, you did work for the Phantoms?" Yukiko asked sourly, without looking at him.

"Yeah." He answered as he lifted his shirt a little to reveal a phantom symbol on left side of lower torso.

"Hey, quick question. So you're not human, right?" Lavi asked without a sense of anger whatsoever.

"Yeah, I'm not and I know that you guys aren't humans as well."

Raising both of his eyebrows, he ċȯċked his head slightly to the side to face Damian. "You know about us?"

"Pretty much, but I don't have much knowledge about you, Ben and Specimen S11."

"Specimen S11? Who is that?" Again, Yukiko was not looking at him when questioning him.

"That's who you guys usually call as--"

Lavi laughed nervously and stopped him, "Oookay, I don't think that person will not want to let his or her secret out."

Lavi's then placed his finger over his lips momentarily, hinting to Damian to keep that a secret.

"Ah, I see."

"A-Alright! Let's focus on heading back to Fiore, shall we? Stay alive, Damian." Lavi announced cheerfully in attempt to lightened the mood, which was definitely not effective.