Siobhan Annex's Story

Flour dusted along the rosy cheeks, forehead, and the right rear pocket of twenty-two years old Siobhan. Dark eyes glimmered, from the exposed heat and as well as her need for perfection, as she scanned the flawlessly lifted layers tucked, still, safely in the brightly lit contraption. Her puckered lips turned at the corners, a well satisfied smile gracing her typically mundane appearance as she carefully closed the oven door, and turned the beeping timer off.

“This is a waste of time.”
Positioned, comfortably on an island seat, with cropped bleach blonde hair tucked behind pierced ears, and odium filled eyes intent on the unopened frosting and icing tubs placed on the opposite side of the island-counter, younger sibling Cora voiced her unnecessary opinion. Her irritated gaze locked with Siobhan’s confused one before a small smile graced the older sister’s lips once more, and a delicate hand was waved through the air by Siobhan; banishing away all negative statements.
“I don’t think so.”
Cora thinned her lips in an unhappy line at the easy reply, her feet balanced on the waxed wooden floor when she slid –in an uncouth fashion- off the seat, and gripped the butt of the stainless steel frosting spatula laying silent. Siobhan’s smile remained solid, and with hands tucked safely in overly stuffed mittens, Siobhan carefully removed the heated baking pan from the oven and placed it securely on the awaiting island. “This is the least we can do.” She said. “It is, after all, the anniversary of their joint deaths.” Both sisters allowed the words to hang –like a wet cloth- over their heads; both wandering through their memories for glimpses of their deceased siblings to their mother and father.
“They don’t care.”
“Oh, Cora, honestly, I worry about your brashness sometimes. Of course our parents car—“but Cora cut her sister’s words short by lifting the spatula, and stabbing the air with each emphasized word.
“Your” jab “parents” jab. She turned the sanitized steel towards her chest, anger no longer clear in her now hurt filled eyes. “I” jab “was disowned” jab “remember??”

Slender fingers stilled on the ties of the lime coloured apron knotted around her petite waist. Siobhan lifted her sorrow filled eyes to her younger sister, and puckered her lips. She hated when that subject was brought up, that was the only argument she was unable to win against her stubborn parents; the acceptance of her sister’s outlandish choices. “You know it was just in the heated moment of fir—“and again she was cut off.
“Oh please, heated moment my ass, Siobhan. How can you disown your last born- at sixteen?! News flash, ma and da, it’s called growing up. Experimenting and trying new things. If it weren’t for you Siobhan, I’d be whoring my body around just for breakfast money, and you know it.” Cora slammed the utensil on the clean countertop, her eyes clenched shut as thumbs moved up and rubbed at her pulsing temples; her words slow and spaced as though speaking with only a child. “When will you see things for what they really are, Sio’? When will you stop siding with them? If it wasn’t death, like our brother and sister, it was banishmen—“
“They are not responsible for neither Kylie nor Eamon’s deaths, don’t say that!” Her last word ended on a shrieking note, pain evident in the way her eyes bulged out of their sockets, the way her shoulders hunched over; tensed. Grief suddenly washed over her baby sister, and Cora could only march guiltily around the counter to Siobhan and leisurely rinse the previously forgotten spatula.

“How long should I wait?” Cora asked, leaving the stressed conversation for a later time.
“No longer than twenty minutes,” Was her sister’s raspy retort. “Allow it to cool then put the frosting on. Give that some time, and then write their names along with the years they’ve been gone with the icing. Niall, mum, and da will be at the restaurant later tonight. I’ll be in my room until it’s time for us to go.” Siobhan exhaled a tired sigh, placed her apron on its designated hook, and lazily climbed the steps up to her master bedroom. “I’ll be on YggOn...”
“All right.”
And that was the end of that.

Their parents had disowned Cora, yes. Their siblings were dead, yes. But that did not make their parents –their very strict and stubborn parents- guilty of murder! Growing up in the home they did, Cora knew what she was doing was wrong, was looked at with disapproval around the entire community, was unacceptable. Yet she dyed her hair from its beautiful auburn, and pierced as many areas on her cream coloured skin as she possible could. She was out late, having no sense of time, and spoke to everyone however she saw fit.
“How am I supposed to protect someone that is willingly going against the laws?” Siobhan asked herself. She pulled the palm sized towel from her dampened face and dried her hands before she stepped towards the small opening by her bathroom door, and dropped the used cloth into the laundry chute. She watched, without seeing, as it travelled down -towards her machines on the ground floor to be automatically washed-, and then moved towards her private equipment area; finding comfort in laying stretched out along her over sized recliner. Width and length almost the size of a queen square bed, she fiddled with the aluminium shaded gadgets alongside the arms of the adjustable seat as her eyes slipped shut. Secluded away and with all things around her silent, her fingers travelled above her head before locating what she desired, and brought the headgear over her eyes.

“Commence game...”

Her grey eyes opened up to a clear, mid-morning atmosphere. Slender fingers and toes tingled from the travel-like sensation she always went through whenever passing into the game. Annex flexed her fingers a moment, and then wiggled her toes, the odd feeling drifting away as her gaze toured over the hushed forest. Just as the many times before, Annex found herself in her favoured area, safely hidden behind thick, moss covered tree trunks, with weeping willow branched softly pressed against her dark hair. Barely there clothing covered her shapely form, the chains she at times used as a weapon wrapped and coiled loosely around her form. In black and white, with a single step forward, Annex pushed through her stationary state; as though breaking some invisible barrier, and carried ahead towards the place she called home.

The sudden chirping caused Annex to slow her decisive saunter, and lift her head to the now visible sky.
“Well? Get down here.” His face taut as though smiling, the young creature swooped low, and circled the moving female in a pet-like greeting; his chirping increased at his obvious excitement. A smile pulled at Annex’s pursed lips, and clear eyes rolled to the heavens in mock exasperation as a trim hand reached to her tanned shoulder; gently cradling the immature animal to the crook of her neck. “Yes, I know.”
As the town came into view, dark eyebrows wrinkled at the somewhat empty streets, the short lines, and tense space.
“Hm...” Eyes narrowed, flat dark boots silently moving along the cobble walkways as she followed the paths through the city. “It seems something has happened here, Keno.” Her pet chirped in agreement, climbing up to her crown before clumsily toppling onto her opposite shoulder. “Let us wait here...” She lowered to a comfortable sit on a bench, eyes scanning the area once more before slipping shut; her hands folded on her lap.

Whatever was happening, someone was bound to pass or entre, she was sure. Her skull tilted back, straight locks flowing in the light breeze -Keno buried in her hands-, as she waited.

“It seems we’re off to Galuna Inn, Keno.”

It hadn’t been long since Annex received the urgent message, an eyebrow lifted curiously at the destination, as she stood and stretched her body. Her arms settled back at her side, her lips pursed in a thin line as she moved towards the familiar building. Out of the entire WoV, she was probably the most silent and observant. She watched the others as they went about their way, and said nothing to them. No one was really a good friend. Annex took care of those in her guild, during battle; making sure they all managed to stay alive. But that was as far as it went. Off battle, she stayed away from the group and relaxed with her pet.
Annex only and barely spoke to their leader Lendon. If he asked her a question that she was unable to answer with a nod or headshake, Annex spoke up.

“You will have to remain outside.” She turned her gaze to the young bat, and narrowed her eyes in emphasis. Delicate fingers reached up to brush over his skull at his unhappy chirping. After a moment of unhappiness, Keno pushed off her shoulder and found a ledge.

Turning this way, then that, grey eyes finally met with the familiar Inn, voices already travelling out for her to hear. She moved forward, stepped through the barrier that surrounded the place, and silently entered.

---

"Is this battle going to be 'different' than the others?" She glanced at Takuya, "What is going on exactly?"

Takuya looked back at her. He also wondered why was this battle different than usual. He shook his head and turned towards the door. "I don't know either. They said that it was the frontline city, and that if it falls, we'll be overrun by the smaller guilds on the other side. They said that they should take this chance and charge into the enemy's frontline base." He opened the door and hushed them inside after.

They walked along in the candle lit hallway, and when they've reached the room, it was rather plain and normal. Fiona stood behind the table that projected the screen floating on top. "Seems like she's busy figuring a strategy." He whispered to them, and walked a bit forward, to the side. "There. The two you needed for me to find." Fiona then turned back at them. "Oh, so you're here." She quickly closed the floating tab, and opened another one. It was a list of probably over 1000 members, but she somehow shortened it to the only two names who was already here in the room; Ruka Kaname 'Platinum Angel' and Robin Hawthrone 'Frizzly'. It had two column, one being 'Cranium' and the other 'Tekyou'. "Pick one. Protect Cranuim or charge ahead into battle with Wings on Tekyou."

---

---

Yastin spun around in his chair for quite a while now, his body all tired. That training program his members invented were both a great help and a great lot of strain on his body. 98.67 percent if something a normal human cannot possess, and even though he's really powerful, he's still human. It wasn't long before he decided to stop spinning and was about to get up when a voice through the speaker stopped him. "Mister Yastin Cason, sir!" The voice of a soldier came out next. Yastin raised one of brows and replied him. "What's the problem?" He sat there silently for a while, with noises of orders in the background of the speaker echoed throughout the room.

"A man came and said that he came here for work. He said that we sent three soldiers to assassinate him, but he tortured them to death after that. he also said that we're next if we don't let him in. Snipers are already stationed within the walls, and they are ready to fire whenever you give the command. Orders, sir?" The voice asked as he panted after that. Yastin was interested who this man was, and to find out who defiled the name of Helios. He stood back up, and pulled out his trusty double pulse pistol. "I'll go and deal with him. Any suspicious movement from him, and it's bullets he'll eat. Got that?" He asked, wearing his black gloves. "Yes, sir!" The voice died out next after, and Yastin proceeded to the entrance of the guild building.

Sooner after, Yastin finally arrived. The man stood in front of the gate. Snipers all aimed accurately at him, following the orders of their leader. Yastin stepped forward and raised his hands, signaling the snipers to hold their attack. He placed them down and patted the man's shoulders. "Are you the mercenary I've been hearing of? The White Reaper?" He laughed at his own joke. He already knew that this man here was the mercenary, but he just wanted to lighten up the mood. "Come, let us go to my office. We'll talk things out there." He hushed for the man to follow him.

"You come to my office too, Ashron. I have some business to talk to you with." He spoke out of nowhere. He was actually talking to his second-in-command, Ashron Gregmier aka 'Loyal Servant'. He was Yastin's other closest friend who often hanged out him and Rensus, so he mostly entrusts boring things like filling documents and planning out strategies to him. "Alright. Will head there first." Ashron replied with a rather mature voice. "That's my trusty tool for expelling boredom, Loyal Servant." Yastin laughed as the voice from beside rang again. "I ain't your tool, nor do I expel boredom. These work need to be delicately handled and one wrong step, the entire guild might fall. Please. Don't take these as boredom; do your job as a guild leader well." Ashron argued. Yastin suddenly laughed extremely loudly and continued fighting with Ashron.

Inside the room awaited a man in a long blue coat with a black light armor on the inside and a long pants with gun holders. He wore glasses and a face palm was followed when Yastin laughed. "Please, sit down." Once the White Reaper sat down, Yastin introduced himself. "Names Yastin. Yastin Cason. And that blue guy over there is Ashron." He said, pointing at the obviously angered Ashron. "I'm not just some blue guy. I'm your god damn secretary." Ashron walked a bit forward and push his glasses up higher. "Fucking annoying guild leader. Anyway, my name is Ashron Gregmier. You can call me Ash, nice to meet you." He introduced himself.

"Okay, back to subject." Yastin sat down on his chair. "What is it that you need to come to us for work
? I hope it's not killing others. We don't do stuff like that, unlike WoVs."

---

---

A knock on the door turned Lendon's gaze of boredom from his eyes to the door. Lendon actually knew who it was, but he always wished it was someone new. "Hey Lendon, Guess who!" Lendon's expression turned even worse, this time with a sigh. "What do you need, Loki?" He asked, placing his palms on his face.

---

---

The members all chatted loudly and openly, laughing here and there when the opening of a door by Siobhan Annex stopped their chatting. Most of them continued, and that left Siobhan unnoticed by anyone. A man ran over to her, and greeted her. "Hey! You came!" He's voice was rather... young, and he was quite the shorty; even shorter than Siobhan. His smile was like that of an innocent child, and he looked at Siobhan with a wide smile. "Oh, I haven't introduced myself yet, have I?" He took a few steps back. "My name is Ken Amada. Nice to meet you." He grabbed Siobhan's hands suddenly, and hushed her to follow him. "C'mon! We'll have you meet with the leader. He needs to talk with everyone about something."

---

There wasn’t much Annex found interesting in the Inn. In fact, there wasn’t a single thing that Annex found interesting in the dimly lit place. And just as the various sets of eyes looked over her form before focusing back on other things, that was just how Annex scanned the bar before focusing on the individual approaching her. She flicked a loose strand of her behind her ear and watched his smile grow with each step he took towards her.

“Hey! You came!”
He was young. It was obvious not just in his voice but also the roundness in his cheeks, and the excitement in his eyes. His happiness made her eyes narrow in irritation. She had no clue who he was, and the fact that he was so glad to see her, set her on edge.

“Oh, I haven’t introduced myself have I? My name is Ken Amada. Nice to meet you.”
Annex literally growled at the sudden hand shake, teeth bared and hovering over the boy while she stiffly pulled at her hand to be released. But he merely ushered her after him, leading her towards the awaiting leader.

“I know, I know… Now let go. Please.”