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Shadows and Embers
Chapter 2- Setting the Stage

Chapter 2- Setting the Stage

Excerpt from Medical report: 10042 B

145, 321 M. (145 Day of the 321 year of Mice.)

Rina Fixton: 0 previous births

Rina Fixton married to General Jin Fixton, gave birth to four infants.

The birth process grew complicated when the last two infants got stuck and the mother fainted. Which required Doctor Francis to perform an L-Section and manually get one of the infants out, by pulling it out through the incision. Letting the last infant get out on its own.

Medical reports: 16798, 16799, 16801, 16802 BC

Name: Sophie Fixton

Sex: Female

Color: Light-Brown

Name: Jenny Fixton

Sex: Female

Color: Brown

Name: Rebecca Fixton

Sex: Female

Color: Deep-Red

Name: Seymour Fixton

Sex: Male

Color: Black

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-About 15 minutes later-

In a dimly lit room coated in a bright yellow paint lays 4 infants in green cradles. The infant’s ears and tails from right to left are light brown, bright red, black, and brown. Of which the bright red and black ones are squirming around as if jumping beans.

“Those two sure like to move around.” Comments and olive skinned women, who unlike the infants lacks a tail or ears.

Another women leaning against the wall looks at the two infants and replies, “You're right…those two are moving around a lot. What do you think we should do about them? Should we stop them, or just let them keep going until they're tired?”

This women has pasty white skin and smokey white ears like a raccoon. She has on a simple brown skirt that goes down to her ankles, and a long shirt which hugs her arms tightly, but hangs loose around her torso. Which looks to be designed to hide ones figure.

“We should just leave them be. It’s not like they’ll get hurt moving around a little.” The olive skinned women says before opening a book.

“Well I guess that’s fine, but I’ve never seen an Vepi act like this before.” The raccoon eared women says looking at the two infants shuffling around the crib, as she thinks back to all the babies she’s seen here.

“Don’t Vepi usually take a week before they really start moving?” Her gaze shifting to the olive skinned woman with her face in a book.

“Mmmm? Oh yes, Vepi don’t usually start moving until the first or second week. The kids might not be full Vepi though, I mean the two moving ones are black and bright red. Have you ever seen a black Vepi? The red one isn’t unheard of, but I’ve never seen one that red before.” The olive skinned women says without looking up from her book. Her tone seeming to get more intense as she went on.

“Shhhh! Maggie you can’t say that! She’s General Fixton’s wife and that means she’s a noble. You could get both of us killed by saying that.” The raccoon eared women chastens while getting off the wall. Her hands and arms waving furiously as if to show how serious she was.

“Fine-fine, if you want to live in fear forever you can do that, but just know that I don’t plan to live like that.” Maggie says while waving her hand in a swatting motion in the direction of the pasty skinned women.

The pasty skinned women hearing this stomps toward Maggie yelling, “You see Maggie that’s the problem there! It isn’t just your life in danger, but mine! If you want to insult nobles then fine, but don’t involve me in it! You always do this! It’s always YOU-YOU-YOU!”

Maggie finally taking too much jumps up from her seat, throwing her book into the seat with a loud -CRASH- before storming at the pasty skinned women. “Asuna I’ve had enough of your whiny shit! You’re always complaining about stupid shit!”

Asuna temporarily stares blankly at Maggie as she bolt toward her. When Maggie is no more than 5 feet away she’s finally shaken from her confusion, but it’s too late. Maggie only 5 feet away takes a big step toward Asuna and swings her right fist into Asuna’s left cheek, leaving a fist shaped impression into her face.

Asuna taking such a powerful blow from surprise, stumbled back hitting one of the cribs, knocking one of the infants on the floor.

A wail momentarily fills the room as the brown haired infant rolls out of the fallen crib onto the cold stone floor. The infant leaving a trail of red in the direction it rolls before finally stopping against the wall with an almost squishy sound.

Silence fills the room as Asuna and the infant finally stop. Maggie still in the posture she had when punching Asuna in the face simply stops. Her gaze in the direction of the fallen crib, looking lost. As if all her dreams were just destroyed in front of her.

Asuna managing to crawl up from in front of the crib looks at the cause of the noise in shock. A bloody corpse of what was a baby girl, now lays mangled on the now red floor.

“…Look what you did…you killed her.” Asuna seems to squeeze out of her throat before tears start to run down her face.

“I didn’t kill her…she’s probably alive. Let me give her a little healing and we can just say it never happened.” Maggie quickly says in panicked manner, her eyes jumping back and forth from the corpse and Asuna.

“You hit me and expect me to help you cover up a murder!” Asuna screams at the top of her lungs.

Maggie in a panicked manner says “Keep your voice down. Do you want people to come in here?” while stepping closer to Asuna.

Asuna seeing Maggie advancing toward her, tries to back up but after making it back a dozen feet or so, she finds herself against a wall. Her hand moving repeatable in a semicircular manner, as if trying to find a door knob, but she soon remembered that the door was further down the wall.

Maggie seeing that Asuna is not only scared but also trying to escape, decides on a wild course of action. She speeds up her advance toward Asuna and says “Asuna…if you pretend nothing happened then I and you can simply return to work like nothing ever happened. Otherwise…I’m sure you don’t want that to happen.” Her gaze filled with warning.

Asuna is dumbstruck, never had she ever thought this was how day would go. Having a co-worker assault her, kill a baby, and then threaten her. ‘Was she simply to lay against a wall waiting for her fate? No, she needs to fight back! She needs to kill this women and save the babies…yes the other babies needed her help!’

“Asuna we can work this out. Just promise me you won’t tell anyone.” Maggie says with a crazy look in her eyes before finally stopping in front of Asuna. Her breath now hitting Asuna’s face, and her eyes staring into Asuna’s face.

Asuna finally getting the courage to fight back, stares at Maggie. She tries to think of a way to attack her, ‘maybe I can get her attention somewhere else and then jump on her? Yeah that sounds like it will work, but how do I get her attention away from me? I need to at least save the other 3 infants. That’s it! I’ll use the infants as bait and then jump on her when her back is turned.’

Asuna’s face twitches under stress as she stumbles to say, “But what about the babies?” as she points in the direction of the farthest crib from them.

Maggie feeling confident in her victory Maggie decides to hear out nervous Asuna. Completely missing out on Asuna’s secret plan. “Don’t worry I won’t hurt them. In fact I’ll even save that injured one over there too.” She says signaling in the direction of the mangled corpse of the infant.

Asuna realizing she failed decides to go with a more direct plan. She points toward the dead infant laying on the floor and says, “Fine let’s go save her then.” As she walks slowly toward the mangled corpse.

“So you agree not to say anything?” Maggie asks while watching Asuna pass her, as she her heart beats in anticipation.

“Of course, but first we need to save this girl first. Then we can worry about whether or not I tell.” Asuna says laughing in her mind as she anticipates the attack that’s about to happen.

“Your right, first comes the baby, then then you’ll promise not to tell anyone.” Maggie says in a relived manner before following Asuna in the direction of the baby.

As they walk step by step closer to the mangled corpse, Asuna begins to count backwards from five. ‘5…4…3…2…1…Now!’ When she finishes counting she sends her elbow into Maggie’s face, breaking her nose and knocking her over.

Maggie feels her nose slowly smooch back until finally breaking with a -pop-. Her thoughts grow wild with anger and hate, ‘That bitch! How dare she attack me, when I was trying to be peaceful!’ as she falls to the stone ground.

Asuna continuing her offensive by straddling the fallen women, and unleashes a storm of punches into her face and upper torso. The blows thought wild and uncontrolled, still manage to make Maggie curl up in defense.

Maggie trying to think of a way to defend herself from this flurry of blows lifts her arms up in front of her face and curls her chin to her chest. Letting the blows hammer down on her.

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Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Fighting

War

Death

Suffering

All of which I love most in this world.

As I watched my older sister die, and as I watch the two nurses fight to the death. I can’t help but feel somewhat at home and relaxed. Like I was back in my tent on the battlefield again, after a long day’s battle.

I grew up in a violent household, with a violent father who would beat my mother, me and my siblings. While my mom would simply beat us in frustration, and I would beat my siblings, but I never hated it for a minute. Even when I was being beat by my father I would just think to myself, ‘Look how he can beat me without even fearing danger or retaliation. That’s what true strength is. The ability to conquer your enemy completely, to the point that they can’t even put up resistance.’

Now here I am 220 years later as a baby again, without even an ounce of Ki in my entire body. When I try get up I feel dizzy and some of my muscles don’t move the way I want them too. But the main problem is this tail near ass that feels odd. I never had a tail in my past life, and this is not what I imagined it would feel like to have a tail.

The woman in front of her continue their brawl, as the black eared infant crawled up to the edge of the crib with his body pressed against it. When he gets to top with his shaking legs he looks toward the red eared infant to his side and flashes a grin, ‘Stupid bastard, you dare to anger me the war lord Phaedra! First you dare to knock me out of the way in the womb, and now you dare to taunt me with a grin!’ She thinks while snarling at him, before attempting to stand up.

‘Damn!’ She curses to herself, ‘How did he stand up with these weak wobbly legs?’ She looks around the disgustingly green crib while trying to look for something to grab onto. When she sees it, something so simple that she simply passed it over and over again; the cribs edge. ‘Damn, how did I miss something like this?’ She curses to herself while grabbing the edge by stretching my body to reach the edge.

When she finally manage to pull herself upright, she begins to feel sick from having laid down so long. ‘Ha, I made it up here!’ She thinks as she smirking at her new brother.

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Blood is sprinkled around as the two woman wrestle on the floor delivering awkward punches to each other’s torsos and faces.

"Die you baby killer!" Asuna screams at the top of her lungs before driving her fist into Maggie's throat.

Pain fills Maggie's body as she attempts gasps for air, her offensive temperately broken. 'I never wanted this to happen.' She thinks to herself before the door leading into the room slams open.

"What the fuck are you people doing!?" A four tailed woman screams.

Asuna being the only one who can really react to the scream stops first, and turns in the direction of the yell.

Maggie feeling the storm of hits stop decides to quickly throw a punch before Asuna decides to keep going.

"I...I was just trying to save the babi-" Asuna manages to blurt out before getting punched in the face. Her mouth filling with blood as she flies back into a crib.

The crib taking the full weight of a grown woman tumbles over before dropping a baby onto the floor, leaving another trail of red in its wake.

The four tailed woman is shocked again at this entire conflict, but soon that shock turns into anger as she watches a dark eared infant roll on the floor. "Look what you did." She mumbles once before saying it again, "Look what you did!" this time yelling in rage. Powerful magical energy radiates around the four tailed woman's body as she screams, "Look what you did!" Over and over again.

Maggie feeling the danger sprints to one of the green cradles. Fear fills the woman's heart as she quickly moves to the cradle, 'I need to get a hostage fast or I'll get killed here." She repeats this in her head over and over again as if chanting.

Asuna just managing to get up from an in front of a crib again stares at the running Maggie with hate burning in her heart. "You made me kill two babies you damn bitch!" She screams without even looking at the corpse of the fallen infant.

The four tailed woman stares at the sprinting olive skinned woman with hate, before unleashing a wave of intense flames. The flames fly in a straight stream like motion before splashing into the woman, lighting her on fire.

Maggie's flesh burns with pain unlike anything she's ever experienced before, as her flesh and bones melt away into a thick liquid. Her last thoughts are of her home in Deria.

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'Fuck my face hurts like a bitch!' The black eared thinks while fighting his bodies involuntary tear response.

'God how did I get in this mess in the first place? I don't even know why those two started fighting, or why they want to fight in a baby room to begin with.' He thinks while holding his bloody face with his broken fingers.

'To think that my new life is already this hectic. It makes you wonder what the future has in store for me.' A grin soon hangs on his tear and blood covered face.

'Shit I bet that red eared bitch is laughing at me right now.' He thinks while peeking in the direction of her crib. He sees the red eared infant standing up staring at him with a look of content before noticing his glance and smirking at him.

'Fuck, I will kill her soon. Just you wait, once I can move on my own I'll fuck you to death, and make you my personnel pet.' He thinks with a hate filled glare.

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With the death of the olive skinned woman, the four tailed women's fury was mostly suppressed, but she still needed to kill someone else. She walked toward the raccoon eared women with loud steps, as if to make a show of her power. When the raccoon women turned to her, she only gave a calm smile, while radiating her powerful magical power. "Are you ready to die child?" She calmly says.

Asuna hearing this is flabbergasted, 'Death? I'm going to die? For what? I protected the babies and fought to keep them safe. Why would she kill me?' Thoughts storm through her head threatening to drive her insane. "But I tried to protect the babies." She nervously blurts out trying to protect herself.

The four tailed women only looks at her with a grin, completely ignoring the woman. Her magical energy swirling around her like a mini storm. Until she slowly raises her finger at the raccoon eared woman.

Asuna seeing this screams out, "Why kill me!?" before being devoured by a storm of magical flames.

A grin momentarily flashes across the four tailed woman's face before returning back to normal when she hears the door open up behind her.

Doctor Francis in a black overcoat walks in with sweat running down his face. "What happened in here?" He asks in between his pants.

The four tailed women turns around on her heel saying, "I was just taking care of some problems here. Two of our medical staff’s immigrant workers decided to kill two of the general's babies. So I naturally had to stop them with force." She says showing a sad expression as she walks out of the room.

Doctor Francis shows a shocked expression, "They killed two infants?" He mumbles letting the women past him.

As the woman passes him she whispers, "You should look to see if any of the kids are still alive." before walking down the hall.

The Doctor hearing this immediately looks around the room and see's two infants on the floor in a puddle of blood. When he gets close to the black eared one he sees it twitching in pain and covers it with his magical energy. The healing energy he pumps into its body closes all the visible wounds on its body but he keeps pumping it into its body to help fix any internal injures it might have sustained.

After 5 minutes of full throttle healing he picks up the infant up. The face is caked in dried blood and tears, but worst of all some of his fingers healed wrong. "Shit I need to break his fingers first, then heal again." He curses while grabbing the infant’s tiny fingers. The fingers feel weak and tiny in his grip, as he grips them with his large fingers -Pop- a sound rings through the room accompanied by only a high pitch groan. "That's one, don't worry only 4 more to go." He says to the black eared infant who has a pained expression on his face.

After breaking all 5 of his messed up fingers he re-heals them, and moves on the next infant leaving the black eared infant on the floor. The next infant has brown ears and is laying in an awkward position. With its arms curled behind its back, and the other arm twirled out over its head. The arms are both broken, with the one behind the back snapped right in the middle like a branch.

This infant he lifts up to see whether it's alive or not, but realizes it’s dead when he touches its cold stiff body. 'Damn I was too late.' He thinks to himself before putting this infant back on the floor and walking back toward the black eared one.