-Chapter 1, Samanya Greenson

The setting was one of brown and green, flat and dull in its appearance, like a painter had laid out the background on his giant canvas, but then had gotten bored and left it to its own devices. The plains housed little flora, and even less fauna. There were no defining features. No unique wildlife or intriguing vegetation to call its own. Nothing. Nothing except for the odd flower that a butterfly might perch atop.

In the middle of the Eurasian continent, with no landmarks and a total lack of civilisation, the yet-unnamed expanse stood without a second look from anyone.

Not, then, where you'd expect the single largest and most devastating natural disaster the world had ever seen would stem from.

But, of course, things never do go exactly how one would expect.

First came the tremors. The ground shook under an invisible force. Shock-waves emanating from an unseeable point just above ground. The butterfly took off into the sky as the flower's stem snapped, but it was too late to save itself from what came next.

A...rift. That would be the closest thing that comes to describing it. A rift between a dimension that is ours, and one that very much is not. It was a swirling mass of purple and black. A hemisphere of darkness that erupted from that same invisible space. It expanded outwards, swallowing the ground whole as it grew and grew and grew. The butterfly fled, but it too was absorbed into it's unrelenting expansion. Before long, it reached what those plains were lacking. Trees, animals, people and cities were lost to its clutches, and as the terrible force finally subsided, and the dark orb had stopped devouring everything in its path, it had killed one-hundred-and-fifty million innocents in the blink of an eye, just like that.

Did the orb care? Of course not. It couldn't care. It could only destroy, regardless of the whims of its creator.

Seen from space, the rift covered an enormous area. Superimposed over the USA or China, and those countries would have been wiped from the map without a trace. Superimposed over Europe, and it'd be impossible to even tell there had once been a sprawling unity of societies there. Almost fortunate, then, that it had started in such a barren place.

What would later be named as 'The Eurasian Sky Disaster' was the closest humanity had ever been to an extinction level event, and it had all been brought upon by one being. One singular entity.

The first Spirit.

Not too much is known about it, but…

"...but it's dangerous. Very dangerous, and we know it's still out there somewhere. Any questions?" The red-haired girl with the long twintails finished talking and looked to the only other person in the room: another girl, this time with messy, tomboyish hair, cut somewhat short and dyed a bright cyan.

The second girl answered, "You said 'the first Spirit'. Does that mean there are others?"

"Yep! And that's what we're dealing with here. Let me tell you what you specifically will be doing."

The second girl sat eagerly as the first girl switched the slideshow to another one, and as the wall was decorated in a new set of words and images, she took out her pencil and prepared to-

"Boo!"

Samanya jolted back to reality from the memory of that first meeting all those months ago as her friend lightly punched her arm. "Hey! What was that for?" She demanded as she looked up from her spot at the bench.

The boy sat down beside her on the wooden seat and stared off into the same sunset that Sam had been gazing at during her daydream. "Well, you were sat there all spaced out and stuff. Looked like you could use a buddy." He turned and flashed a big grin at her, closing his hazel eyes and showing off his white teeth.

Sam rolled her uninterested emerald eyes at him and brushed her brilliantly blue hair away from her face, then leant into the backrest. "It's been a pretty long day, you know?"

"Oh? What was it this time?"

"More combat training. I still don't get why I'm the one doing it. I made the suit, sure, but I'm hardly built for combat." Sam admired her slim arms, exposed from the sleeves of her grey T-shirt down.

"Putting you through it all again, huh?"

"Yup."

The boy also leant back and relaxed, the cool wind slowly blowing through the evening air. It was unusually warm for spring at this time, but neither of them were complaining about the refreshing change in temperature from the absolutely dismal winter a month before. Behind them, a road with quite a steep incline stretched upwards into the hills and downwards towards the city. Tenguu city. It had been built inside a crater, with the main city standing proud in the centre of the bowl as the more rural estates ran along the hilly terrain all around it. Its highest point easily towered above the skyscrapers of the inner city.

This was thirty years after The Eurasian Sky Disaster, and peace had finally returned. The mourning would never cease for those affected, but the big picture had started to heal, albeit slowly.

"Hey, Hinata," Sam started.

The boy groaned. "Uh-oh. Whenever you use my full name I get scared."

"Listen," she sighed, "you're the only person who knows what I do, okay? Very few people even know Ratatoskr exists, let alone what I do there, so you cannot tell anyone."

"Yeah, I know. You've told me that a thousand times. You don't need to address me as 'Hinata'." He made a gesture of disdain at his name.

"Right, sorry, Nat."

"See? Much better."

"But still, it'll get me and you into a lot of trouble if anyone else finds out."

"I know, I know." Nat waved it off with a disarming smile, implying that Sam should let go of any worries that her secret would get out.

"Alright, thanks," she said as she got up and massaged her hands. It was getting a little chilly now, and she had things she needed to do and work she needed to catch up on.

"You off?" Nat asked as he stood up too.

"Yeah, got some crap I need to sort through." She rubbed her head to try and soothe the headache that was coming on and replaced her glasses on her small, freckled nose. The frame was a little crooked, but they were okay for now.

"C-Can I walk you back?" he hesitated.

"Sure, I'd like that," she replied, holding out her hand.

Nat took it in his and started down the road towards the twinkling lights below, Sam by his side, her arm against his. She enjoyed this. His touch against hers. His smell filling her senses and his warmth just near enough to steal for herself on a night like this. She wanted so badly to be more, but she knew she couldn't. It would complicate things beyond belief, so she bottled it up. It hurt her to lie to him whenever he hinted at it, but she had to. She had to protect him.

Soon, though, she'd have a lot more to protect than just one boy…

Sam exerted her body and her armour to the absolute extremes of both as she bobbed, weaved and dashed through the 'gymnasium'. She called it that, although you'd be hard-pressed to find another gym that shot real bullets at you. At the sound of one such gunshot, she jumped up into the air and pirouetted around the stream of hot lead. In the same swift motion, a jet of plasma leapt out from her hands and instantly melted the weapon.

"Careful! You're using too much power again! Just disable them!"

Sam cursed inwardly at that as she landed, before setting off down the course to the last obstacle. The track had been relatively simple so far, with just some basic reaction and reflex training, so she wondered what this last activity would be as she raced along the track. Although, as she approached, she didn't see anything at all. She stepped into the 'clearing' with the walls surrounding her. She could easily scale them, but that wasn't the point of the exercise.

"Okay, so, this is the last test for today, and you might have noticed that there's nothing there yet." The voice came over the speaker system loud-and-clear. A man's voice Sam knew very well.

"Kannazuke, stop playing around and just show me already."

"All right, Sam. If you're just going to ignore my introduction, and be like that, then fine." Kannazuke sounded upset, but Sam brushed it off, and turned her attention to the metal pedestal slowly rising up into the room. Upon it sat…

"An egg?" Sam queried, her head cocked.

"Yes, an egg. Pick it up."

She looked up at the one-way mirror in the corner of the huge hall, where she knew he would be watching her. "You sure? Is it going to explode?"

"It's just a normal egg, Sam, so pick it up."

Groaning and murmuring, Sam reluctantly picked up the egg. "I've done it. Can I go home now?"

"Not yet. Now..." he trailed off as the entire room started to echo with loud grinding and scraping noises. Somewhere beneath the floor, gears were turning, but Sam still couldn't figure out what the hell an egg had to do with all of this.

She waited for the noise to stop before speaking again. "You done?"

A laugh came over the speakers, followed simply by a sharp, abrupt, "Dodge!"

"Do-" Sam was cut off by the large spike that had fallen from the ceiling just in front of her, and as she looked up, she saw how many more there were. The sudden shock had also had another effect, and as she looked at the palm of her hand, the egg was now no more than a crushed mess. "Oh, I see where this is going now." She wiped the sticky goop off of her gloves and knocked the shell away from where it had exploded all over her legs, before stalking back to the pedestal, retrieving another egg, and listening to the command that she worried she was going to be sick of by the end of the day.

"Dodge!"

After twenty-two attempts at that stupid test, Sam was allowed to go home. She stripped down and jumped in the shower, leaving the black bodysuit she wore under her armour carelessly discarded just outside the cubicle. She washed the sweat and egg white off of her body as the hot water overwhelmed her. It scalded slightly, but if Sam was being honest, it couldn't get hot enough. It felt so good after a long day of training and getting shouted at, so she let it run as long as possible, allowing it plenty of time to soak into her skin. Eventually, though, she picked up the bottle of shampoo and rubbed it into her scalp. She thoroughly cleaned her greasy hair until it would be fluffy and soft like she was used to having it.

"Hmm, maybe I should grow it long." Sam imagined what she'd look like with long, blue hair, flowing down to the middle of her back. She almost liked the sound of it, but figured it would probably just get in the way. And it would take ages to dye, of course.

Stepping out of the shower and covering herself in a towel, she meandered through her apartment to her room, where she collapsed onto the bed and landed in a heap. She held a hand up to her forehead and drew in a deep breath, before letting it out through her lips and sinking a little further into the mattress.

"God, I'm much more tired than usual, I swear," she said to herself aloud. "I can't think of why though. I haven't been pushing myself that hard. Have I? I can't remember."

She got up and dried herself off, before throwing her towel onto the floor, ignoring the washing basket that sat mostly-unused against the cream dresser.

Ten minutes later and dressed in skinny, waist-high jeans and a black crop-top, she left her flat, locked the front door, and took the lift down to the ground floor, intent on making it up to her own personal spot before the fireworks ended. The sun had long set, but she made her way just fine with the abundant light of the bustling city that she had recently grown to call home.

The train took her almost all the way up the mountainous bowl, but she still had some climbing to do until she finally made it. When she finally did, though, it was always worth it. It offered an unparalleled view of the starry sky. She looked out over the iron railings from the outcropping high above the city and smiled as brilliant lights and colours filled the night. The crackle-pop of those streaking rockets pleased her to no end, and she knew that tens-of-thousands more would be gazing at them, just like her. They mixed and blurred together. Separate patterns becoming one. One constant noise of joy.

Then, a new colour; purple.

A new pattern; spherical.

A new noise; a warning.

Sam gasped. "Nat!"

Then she ran.

A spacial quake was ripping through the city.

Nat looked up at the looming violet abyss as it neared him, destroying all unlucky enough to enter its path of terror. It stopped for nothing, just like his closest friend had said. It simply swallowed and swallowed and swallowed. And it would soon swallow him if he didn't move.

But he was frozen. Frozen with fear and pressure. His feet were leaden.

And all he could do was scream.

"SAM!"

...she'd have the world.

So, here we are again huh? It's been a while, but I've been wanting to do this for a long time. Welcome to Date A Live: Fractured Being! As you might already be able to tell, this is a reboot of Samanya's story. This is obvious because of the main character and everything else ^^. But, anyway, it's here now at last. Now, for this take on largely the same plot, I've designed it in a way that everyone can read it. Whether you've read SS or not or even whether you've seen DAL or not, you should understand and enjoy this story to its fullest. This is something I failed at with SS, but hopefully I'll succeed with in this. This is also completely replacing DAL: SS, so if you were looking forward to the next chapter, well...I'm sorry, but, I didn't like writing for it anymore. My style has changed, and I wanted to give this story the fresh coat of paint it deserves.

I don't know if this will ever even compare in popularity to the last one, but that doesn't matter to me, this is what I need to do.

I sincerely hope you enjoy your stay here.

-Ryan "Kurukaze" McGowan