“You know what a marionette is right” Xander sighs plopping on his bed, “yeah of course” David responds, “so what are the different kinds of marionettes” Xander leans back and lies flat on his bed, David dropped on a bean-bag chair in the corner.
“well there are two main types, marionettes with a physical form and those without, marionettes with physical forms are much more common. These are also divided into four categories, the ones that represent the masters desires, the ones that oppose the masters desires, the one that reflects who the master is, and lastly the hardest to identify and the most dangerous this, type embodies the master’s subconscious” David says constantly looking up and pausing before the next sentence.
“Good, other than you failed to mention free, advisor and puppet type marionettes, free marionettes are ones that can choose to listen to their master or not and can act on their own free will, the advisor is in the service of the master while still having a will while the puppet is no more than a vessel for their masters use” Xander elaborates.
“So what kind of marionette do you have” Xander questions.
“I’ll keep that a secret till I know you’re friend or foe” David denotes, “good choice, if you asked I would have said the same” Xander chuckles.
“They say these marionettes have been with us all recorded history, so tell me where do you think they come from” Xander asks with a calm smile, “I think they are a fragment or a reflection of their master, and as for where, its the same place humans come from, mother but in simpler words, where you go after you die, and what about you” David explains.
“I guess I want to believe that they come from dancing spirits in the sky known as the aurora borealis, I know it sounds dumb but I want that to be true, I know it likely isn’t but I still hope” Xander scoffs at himself.
“Well I see nothing wrong to be overly optimistic when it is beyond science, but it becomes a problem when a person cowers from reality” David notes, though Xander lays up and looks at him confused before wafting his hand, “tell me why do you want to be a monster hunter?” Xander tilts his head.
“I have three reasons for why, the first reason is that I’d like to find out more about my past and for that I need power connections, and freedom from the government which to monster hunters have, the second reason is to experience interesting things, and the last reason is to die in an interesting way, oh and a bonus quest, to kill the person who took my memories Beyond Rainbow”.
“Oh, I knew you were really weird, but not like that” Xander says with a small smirk, “what about you” David inquires, “I want to destroy the S.B.O foundation fully, the parent company of S.B.O is still operational, and I do have another goal, to find my real family” Xander snarls.
“But lets face the real issue, you’ve had two attempted murders as well as at least one spy using a fly, and I’ve heard buzz about someone like you for months now, though no one says your name or appearance” Xander says with a serious look, “wait where have you heard about me” David questions.
“Well you’re quite the hot topic in the organized crime world, and no one says what you look like or your name, though people do call you Apollo, which I find strange” Xander clarifies.
“Why didn’t you tell me before now!” Rose shouts out of confusion, “jeez turn it down, I only made the connection recently, and descriptions of you are vague to say the least, people say you’re a mystery waiting to be unraveled and that you have a certain attraction that make others part of your fate like a spiraling current pulling objects toward it, at least from what I’ve heard” Xander runs off slowly geting quieter.
“Jeez how did you even make the connection anyway” David asks, “you know about aura right?” Xander responds with a question, “yeah of course, but what does that have to do with this?” David inquires.
“I can’t see aura but I can feel aura, and your’s is like a gentle huricane, pulling everything from it's foundation all spiralling around you, your aura is quite strange” Xander says seeming a bit anxious for some reason, ‘we both know that is’t the whole story, so what are you hiding’ David thinks.
“Oh and I’ve been meaning to tell you this, the other guy that tag teamed me yesterday, well I have his corpse” David says, “where the hell did you hide the corps” Xander exclaims, “its inside my marionette” David responds looking to his side.
“Jeez guess we’ll have to search it, is it a big one” Xander fall back, “well its small compared to an adult” David says dancing around the subject, “explain why it is smaller compared to an adults” Xander questions with a loud edge.
“Well it isn’t an adult, the corps is an early teens” Rose says getting quieter realizing how bad it sounds to most people, “you killed a kid, did you even feel a thing when you did it” Xander asks in a disappointed tone, “well I’ve always been told my morality is skewed and alien, and to answer your question I did feel some remorse that he had to die an assassin” David responds.
“Stop dodging the question did you or did you not feel bad that you killed him” Xander asks angrily, “no I don’t feel bad that I killed him, happy now” David says coldly, Xander lets out a sigh “lets just search the clothes in the bathtub”.
Xander leads David to a washroom next to his room, Xander opens the door revealing a bright clean washroom with skin products cluttered on a small shelf next to a large sink.
“Oh and can you get a large plastic bag and some string, the body is still bleeding” David asks sliding the bath curtain, “all right I think theres some plastic bags in the kitchen” Xander says walking out.
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‘I wonder how others view morality’ David thinks to himself thinking of all the times people called him bad or immoral back in the village and no matter what it was David could never understand what made a bad person bad.
“Why are my morals so different to others, what makes me different” David wonders outloud barley audible under his mumble, he could feel an inexplicable definging silence eminating from everywhere as if all the background noises never existed, nothing but a defining silence Davidis alone with only his thoughts.
“Zero, come out” David says as Zero thrusts out from Davids body it looks almost human but warped and hollow, its mask like face never changing nor moving, just keeping its shallow smile and soulless eyes.
David cringes looking at Zero, Xander walks back in the washroom looking at Zero once again, “that things a unique one, can say that much again” Xander says hoding a big plastic shopping bag as well as a roll of twine rope, David grabs the bag and twine.
Rose reaches into Zero’s mouth and quickly pulls out Mike’s body and almost instantly David wraps the plastic bag and ties Mikes neck with twine puting it in an x knot completely sealing the bag shut.
Only a few drops of blood leak from the semingly fresh bullet wound, “i’ve never seen a knot like that, and why is it still bleeding? isn’t it supoed to have clotted?” Xander questions.
“It’s part of Zero’s infinite storage, items stored there are suspended in time” David says dragging the body to the bath, “would you like to do the honours” David asks with a smile stepping back, “sure all I have to do is search him right” Xander respond crouching over the bathtub.
“Oh and there's something you should know about, your lackey, Teseji I mean, she is the daughter of Drako Sin Geo, who is the current leader of the G-”, “woah seriously as in the leader of one of the most powerful guilds in the world, the one with members who train in the Geo martial art their whole lives” Xander interrupts excitedly turning his head so fast David thought he heard his neck crack.
“Well yes but you see that isn’t all, the reason why Teseji attacked me was because her father asked that of her twelve years ago giving her my full name, when the S.B.O was still active, somehow he knew my full name even though I was given my name after the S.B.O, it just doesn’t add up” David rants.
“wait what, ho did he know your name before you got it, how did he even know of your existence in the S.B.O, and how did he know Teseji would meet you” Xander says even more shocked still looking back on David.
“And there's more, the Geo clan has some deep history with my village, you know about constellation villages” David says as Xander turns back to continue searching Mike’s body, “yeah aren't those nature reserves where a bunch of spiritualists live, and also have a power that gives them leverage over governments and guilds, not much information is publicly available, and all I know is they make cursed weapons” Xander says.
“Yes but the Geo clan has ancient history with my constellation village, and I find it suspicious that Drako is after me, maybe its some ancient grudge” David speculates, “you have quite the strange life huh,” Xander scoffs, “hey check this out” Xander turns to show David a card, that seems to be a bunch of gibberish letters all clustered together.
“Looks like a cypher, and a simple one at that” David says as he stare the card down, “yep just as you said, this should be easy” Xander responds “here”, putting the card in David's hand.
“Bingo” Xander say pulling out a small phone from Mike’s pocket, “we shouldn’t open it yet, it may be bugged with something” Xander gives David the phone, “wait what if he’s bugged with a tracker” David asks.
“Don’t worry, Lark has a marionette that part of its abilities allows him to hide us from any non physical signals he doesn’t specifically allow, including satellite and radio” Xander responds.
“There seems to be nothing left on him other than a photo of you, looks like an id photo, like a passport or licence, it looks too professional to be anything else” Xander notes getting up to show David the photo.
“I remember this, you’re right it's my passport photo from two weeks ago” David says pondering what it could potentially imply, “are you thinking what I’m thinking” Xander says, “They might just have influence in the government and if so we’ll have quite a rough time” David responds.
“Bingo, get rid of the corpse and then we solve the cypher” Xander says to David, “aye sir” David says mockingly as Xander takes the collected items and walks out of the washroom.
David returns Mike's body to Zero’s mouth where it will likely stay forever, David exits after Xander going into his room, “what the hell” Xander mumbles, “what, what happened” David asks.
“It's just that this cypher is clearly caesar cipher, what is this, a children's game” Xander growls, “wait a caesar cipher, are you sure its a caesar, maybe it just looks like one, actually let my look at it” David swipes the card out of Xanders hands.
David scans the card carefully, “why, just why” Rose says with a defeated voice his eyes lowering, Xander takes the card out of David's hand and starts reading it, “I already figured it out, the shift is eight” David mumbles.
Xander immediately reads it “rosedeadman com pin lilith”, “hmm weird site, but it would make sense who would ever google something like that” Xander says going to his desk chair and booting up his laptop.
‘That was way too easy, I mean I thought we were up against a serious criminal organisation, but they just seem to be some idiots, how disappointing’ David thinks to himself with a sour taste in his mouth.
Xander opens a new tab and types the site with opens a prompt for a pin immediately, Xander begins to type the password but a thought shoots into David's ‘this is way too easy, man what if just what if’ Davids eyes widen as he realizes the situation.
“Xander don’t do it its a trap” David exclaims, but it was too late Xander already clicked enter, it was silent for a few seconds as the tab loaded flickering approved, “what, this was way too easy something isn’t right” David says with an almost crazed smile.
The laptop suddenly shut down flickering with the blue error screen before fading to black, “what is happening, there's no way a site should be able to something like that, and all signals should be jammed by Lark” Xander says turning his head to David.
“Unless its a marionette ability, and the card was a decoy, maybe this enemy of ours isn’t so disappointing” David says ecstatically, though he could here a fan noise slowly getting louder and louder, like an old pc booting up.
David traces the sound to the phone on the desk, Xander looks down at it as well with the phone getting louder and louder, steam begins to flow out of the audio holes and headphone jack.
David could feel heat coming off the phone as it got hotter and hotter, then a flick switched in his head, “Xander get away its rigged” David shouts as a sense of panic began to set in, David instinctively summons Zero to store the phone but he realizes it's too late as Zero’s hand is engulfed in a growing flame heading toward Xander.