Chapter 1:An Adventure gone Greatly Awry

Yokki synchronization ratio nominal, holding steady at 50% as per protocol, Alicia. A pair of silver eyes glanced over at a figure that was a splitting image of herself, save for a few details.

The other claymore nodded, and brushed aside her long platinum blonde hair to keep it off her face.

Concur, sync ratio holding at 50%, however sensing occasional spikes. Is there a problem Beth? Alicia turns to regard her twin, though her face seemed as detached and disinterested as always.

The target is a powerful and unpredictable enemy, we may not be in the best tactical position.

Beth turned from her sister's gaze, and looked down at her feet.

Also experiencing further unsettlement over the current mission, cause unknown.

The sound of footsteps on the dirt interrupted their telepathic conversation. A man clad in all black emerges from the mist, his long robe billowing in the wind. The twins regard their handler with deadpan gazes.

"Oh don't give me that." The black clad clothed man pipes up in mock annoyance, a sardonic grin creeping up his face.

"You know, you girls were so adorable when we first picked you up from that town all those years ago." He complained.

No response.

"Tough crowd." The man sighs, adjusting his dark glasses that completely conceal his eyes and straightening his hat.

Rubel continues. "The feeders are in position now and en route to Riful's location. Advise you follow behind them. Exercise caution when fighting Riful."

He smiles and shrugs. "But of course, who am I to tell you how to do your job?"

The remark elicited nothing from the two black clad warriors, who continue to stare at him impassively.

"I really hate you two, you know that?" Rubel sighed, though if he was annoyed, it hardly showed through his sardonic smirk.

"Understood." Alicia finally monotoned, earning an amused snort from the handler.

"Well then, best of luck." Rubel turned and walked back down the path from which he came, disappearing into the mist. Neither twin watched him leave.

Let us go Beth, the protocol dictates we finish this quick. Alicia starts down the path headed to their target's location, steel boots clunking on the hard ground as she walked.

However, the protocol does not put my mind at ease about this mission. Beth followed her sister, falling into step exactly two paces behind her. Alicia dipped her head. We are not to question the protocol.

Bad things happen when we question the protocol.

"The organisation should have really included torture resistance and part of the training" was what Renee was thinking as she pulled a ribbed metal spike out of her thigh, the tail end of a scream escaping her clenched teeth as the steel ripped against the flesh.

She unceremoniously tossed the spike away and started channeling yokki into the bloody stumps that were her legs, the pain immediately subsided as the muscle and bone in her legs worked to reattach themselves to their dismembered halves.

"I need to get out of here." She thought, as rubble from the abandoned castle started to trickle down from the ceiling above. Testing her legs, and giving a satisfied nod. Renee turned to head down the dark corridor, but not before having a last look at the strange body that hung from the ceiling by a couple of metal spikes impaled into it.

As far as she could work out, it was the bodies of two women that somehow managed to fuse together in the most grotesque manner, like messed up conjoined twins. But it wasn't it's appearance that turned her stomach. Renee was a battle hardened claymore that had seen her fair share of carnage, and it would have taken a lot more than something resembling a mutilated circus freak to scare her.

It was the thing's yokki.

When Riful forced her to pry into its mind, she felt it. Pure, unadulterated rage. It was angry. At what she could not say, but if she had to guess it was vengeance it wanted. Vengeance against the world, a world which has forsaken it. When it awoke it was going to destroy itself and drag this world to hell along with it.

Renee shook her head. No, she wasn't going to think about that. Fortunately, Riful was distracted and ran off with the other giant before she started any attempts to awaken that being. It was still dormant as far as she knew, and hopefully would remain so.

Before leaving however Renee paused, and pulled out a suppression pill from her armour, quickly swallowing it. "Insurance policy." She convinced herself, before breaking into a full sprint.

"Dammit, everyone is taking me for a fool today!" Clare heard Riful's scream of frustration as she sneaked down the corridor of the abandoned castle. The abyssal one, seemed to have been distracted by some prior engagement she had with one of the organisation's claymores.

She had turned around in order to send her lackey to chase down said claymore, which had distracted her enough for Clare to suppress her yokki presence and disappear to the inside of the castle.

A very strong yokki source was inside this place, and if Riful was up to her old tricks of finding strong awakened allies again, Clare deduced she was trying to awaken it.

The aura was getting more and more unbearable the more she progressed, Clare visibly flinched as she started to feel the distinct migraine of yokki sensory overload. A little further down the corridor and she saw it, the source of the yokki.

Clare blinked, the thing looked most peculiar, like a formless mass of flesh hanging from the ceiling. She continued to stare, seemingly entranced by it. Then she blinked again, and the world around her vanished.

"Riful!" A deep gruff voice called out from the woods. "Yes Daff, I see it." The large humanoid mass of ribbon like appendages replied, while it looked out towards the valley.

Moments before, the castle they were at had imploded on itself and from the dust, rose a giant figure resembling two women standing back to back. Almost as if a grotesque parody of the image of the twin goddesses Teresa and Clare.

"I can see why you so desperately wanted to get away." The abyssal one chuckled sadistically. "If you remained there while that happened, there will have been nothing left of you."

The mass of ribbons started to unravel around the figure, each one retreated and compressed back into the main humanoid body, revealing the form of a young girl with long flowing brown hair. "Still, count yourself lucky you managed to get away while I was distracted." She sighed.

"We should get going Duff, I want to get a better view of that thing." Riful said, as she beamed up to the burly man behind her.

"Of course." The man replied before transforming into a large ape like, grey and purple monstrosity that towered well beyond the tree line. A set of ribbon appendages shot out of Riful's back and latched themselves onto the giant's shoulder, and slingshot Riful up onto it.

"Let's go." She said, as she perched herself neatly on Daff shoulder as they went on their way.

"It's moving." a young man with sandy brown hair observed the destroyer. Steel plate armour covered most of his upper body and accented his boots, but even then, one could tell at a glance that he had a fair amount of muscle to his form.

He turned to his companion, who had been silent under the hood of her tattered traveller's cloak since the unfolding of earlier events.

"Raki, move." A small voice piped up from under the cloak. Raki, had just enough time to process what his companion said before he felt himself being pulled clear, seconds before a giant white spear-like thing crashed into the ground he was just standing on. The man, now sprawled out on the dirt, was gasping in shock.

Raki looked up at his savior, whose hood had fallen off her head, revealing the face of a young teenage girl.

"Thanks, Priscilla." Raki breathed in deep, attempting to slow his rapid heartbeat. "It's not over yet, there's more." The girl replied, as she stared at the giant monolith in the distance.

Suddenly, Raki heard a sickening sizzling noise come from the giant white spear.

The beginnings of a pair of hideous clawed hands were starting to form from behind the skin of the spear, pushing against it, trying to force its way out.

Raki picked himself off the dirt and pulled out his sword.

"Seriously, what are these things." Riful vexed as she launched another set of appendages at the abyssal feeders, dismembering a few of them.

They however, seemed to have no sense of self preservation and continue to march towards her and her companion. "Riful!" she heard Daff shout, and she turned to see several of the feeders crawling up all around her lover's awakened form.

Another set of appendages swatted the offending feeders away, but not before one jumped up onto Riful's perch and took a bite out of her head.

"Why you!" Daff cried and he grabbed it and rammed it into the ground below. It groaned but for a moment before it regenerated it's broken body parts and stood up again.

"Their invincib-" Daff was cut short by Riful's appendages piercing the Abyss feeders head.

"Not bad for something with a puny little human form. But now i'm going to make you regret having such a resilient body." A sudden burst of yokki sent a shock through both Riful and Dauf's systems, and two identical claymores in black armour stepped into view, one in front of the other.

"By the order of the organisation, you, Riful of the West are to be executed." Alicia commanded.

The abyssal one chuckled. "An abyssal hunt? That's quite ambitious." Riful continued. "What can two of the organisation's dogs do against me?"

Beth's gaze shifted from Riful to her twin sister. Sync ratio holding stable at 50%. Alicia, I am ready. You may begin. Alicia's head inclined half an inch in acknowledgement, her deadpan stare not breaking away from Riful.

Situation: Target sighted, orders are to execute on sight. Intentions: Hostile. Under protocol, use of sync ratio up to 300% is permitted. To exercise right at your own discretion. Soul link: Activate.

Alicia's form began to shift an enormous flow of yokki flooded from her body, shifting her form into a being with a carapace that stretches over her body, with a head sitting at the end of a long neck. But the most striking thing was her arms which had turned into scythe like blades.

"She awakened?!" Daff exclaimed. The awakened Alicia sprang forward, closing the gap between them in a blink of an eye. Riful had but a split second to transform to avoid getting cut.

The giant mass of black ribbons took shape behind, Alicia doubled back for another charge. "Tsk, she targeted the moment right when I changed into my awakened form." Riful irked.

"This could be bad."

Alicia charged again, headed straight for Riful's humanoid body at the top of the spiral of appendages. But this time Daff caught her just in time, smacking the claymore into the dirt. "Are you alright?" A concerned Daff asked.

Minimal damage taken, it is safe to continue.

Daff raised an eyebrow as a tingle shot up his arm, Riful gasped "Daff, get away from there!" The giant ape responded a little too late however and his arm seemingly disintegrated before his very eyes. Daff screamed, Riful's appendages shot out towards the now freed Alicia. Alicia disappeared into a blur of afterimages, steering well clear of all of the abyssal one's attacks.

"Tsk, She's strong enough to cut through Daff and fast enough to evade my attacks." Riful tensed, eyes deadlocked on Alicia, primed for another charge.

"So that's the organization's anti abyssal team. I must say i'm actually impressed. But for both of them to be here, that must mean…"

Riful gasped as it suddenly clicked.

"Isley is dead, isn't he?"

"Isley is dead?!" Daff repeated in disbelief. The awakened Alicia said nothing, and surged toward her again in a burst of yokki.

"Smash the other one!" Riful screamed and moved her appendages to meet Alicia's onslaught of strikes. Daff aimed his hand at the motionless Beth and shot a burst of metal spikes at her. Beth sidestepped then just as they pierced the ground.

Riful parried another of Alicia's attacks, but noticed the claymore's speed had decreased slightly with Beth under attack.

Sync ratio reduced by 20%. Beth informed Alicia. Alicia circled back and continued to slash at Riful, slowly wearing the abyssal one down.

Riful scowled, becoming increasingly vexed at being forced on the defensive. A sudden foreign surge of yokki broke her focus. "Riful!" She heard Daff shout, before realising too late what had happened.

The Destroyer's projectiles decimated all that they hit. Daff had two large holes punched into his body before he even realised it. Riful suffered a similar fate when she tried to move to her lover's aid. Alicia managed to avoid taking any damage with her superior speed, but Beth was not as lucky.

Unable to maintain her awakened form anymore, Riful returned to her human form and rushed to an incapacitated Daff. Grabbing him by the hair, she dragged him through the woods in an attempt to escape.

"Leave me and escape, we'll both be killed if you don't." Daff groaned as his dismembered body dragged along the dirt.

"Shut up. Once you're healed up, I'm gonna rip you up again to within an inch of your life for saying such things." Riful snapped back. The abyssal one failed to notice an abyss feeder pounced on her and ripped off her right arm.

"Why you!" She snapped, and ripped the offending feeder apart with her appendages. Demented growls sounded from all around as a whole pack of feeders came out from behind the trees. Riful made quick work of all of them. But as they crumbled into pieces of mangled flesh, another pack of them came out to replace their fallen comrades.

Riful cringed. "How many of you are there…" She primed her appendages for another strike. A flash of afterimages, and an abyss feeder fell into a heap of chopped up flesh, followed by the rest of the pack, one by one.

The awakened Alicia appeared through the blood and guts, and turned to Riful, poised to strike. "What are you doing, weren't they on your side?" Riful grunted. Alicia stared at the abyssal one, before unexpectedly reverting to her human form.

Sync ration at 350%. Highly unstable, fluctuation beyond safe limit. Request to know cause. Alicia inquired through the soul link. When no reply came she asked again.

Beth?

Beth?

Beth's reply was weak and low.

Taken damage from projectile…. Unable to maintain level in current state… Experiencing major abnormalities in biochemistry…. Require assistance….

"A girl in the organisation's uniform!" A tall woman dressed in the leather armour of the seven ghosts exclaimed. "A black one too." She thought, as she stared at the sight of a fellow claymore who had been impaled into the side of a rock by a destroyer projectile. Veins that seemed to have come from the giant spire have spread all along the girl's body, up to the sides of her face.

"She's been hit by one of those things." The woman continued. "We should help her, Cynthia." She turned to her shorter, braided counterpart fully expecting her concur. What she saw however was a look of pure horror, etched into Cynthia's face.

"No, Yuma." Cynthia reached out to grab her comrade's shoulder, her gaze however not once shifted from the sight before them. "That girl." She stuttered. "Is beyond saving."

At the end of her sentence, an explosion of yokki ripped through the air. Shockwaves tore up the ground, giving all the motivation Yuma and Cynthia needed to flee for their lives. The latter however was not as lucky, as the radius of the earthquake spread faster than she could run, causing her to be swallowed up by the earth.

At the epicenter of the quake however stood a new creature. Cat like, it stood on all fours. Lithe but with a sharp bony skeleton that ran down it's back, and ended with a long and whip-like bone tail. Feral yellow eyes scanned the world around as the creature opened its massive maw of a mouth, exposing rows of metallic dagger like teeth.

The maw of teeth twisted into a sick grin, and for the first time in her life, Beth felt incredibly hungry.

A reverted Alicia drew her sword and charged at Riful. Riful responded, a set of ribbon appendages flying in the claymore's trajectory. Alicia swatted off Rifuls counters and jumped right within a foot of Riful, taking off her left leg with a swing of her sword.

The abyssal one stuck back, only hitting thin air as Alicia dodged the strike. Riful launched herself into the air in an attempt to rain down with her appendages. The claymore easily sidestepped the attack. Riful landed face down into the dirt, unable to stand up without her missing limbs.

"Reduced to eating dirt, this is how I die huh? Being beaten by the organisation's chief bitch!" Riful scowled up at her would-be executioner looming above her.

A blank faced Alicia raised her sword, preparing for the final strike when she felt a hand pull on her ankle.

"You won't hurt her." A near dead Daff pulled the claymore's ankle with his remaining arm. Alicia looked down, face as blank as ever. She pulled her leg free and turned back to the abyssal one, readying her sword. But, a sudden surge of yokki hit Alicia like a punch in the gut and she crumbled to the ground, dropping her sword.

Questions blitzed around in Riful's head as she watched Alicia go through what seemed like a psychotic episode. Veins formed around her face and her eyes flashed gold from the release of yokki.

Sync rate well beyond 400%, implementing first degree suppression measures. Beth, abort your transformation. Alicia demanded through the soul link. She grabbed her head as she started to shake uncontrollably.

Beth's reply came in an animalistic growl.

No…. This one…. Hunger….. Must feed…..

Riful cocked an eyebrow. Is she stopping herself from releasing more yokki than she already has. Riful's eyes widened. "Or is your twin fighting something so powerful you're losing control of her?"

Priscilla leapt from rock to rock across the ruined ground avoiding awakened Beth's bladed frill. She gracefully turned on her heel, slipping behind the creature's attack radius and jumping onto it's back.

Priscilla plunged a hand into the remnants of Beth's human body and ripped off it's torso. She proceeded to take a bite out of the resulting gore, but not before the creature roared in pain and sank it's blades into Priscilla's back.

Priscilla however didn't seem to notice the attack and continued to chew on the flesh. "You're not delicious at all." She stated. Priscilla casually hopped off the back of the awakened Beth and started to walk away, oblivious to the creature she attacked seconds ago.

"All the while, I've been holding back."

Angered, the cat creature launched another volley of blades at her.

Priscilla casually swatted them off with her off hand, barely tilting her head back to regard the creature.

"Go away, i'm not the slightest bit interested in you." Undeterred, the beast growled and bared its teeth, rearing up for another attack.

"Such foolish children you are." Priscilla sighed.

—

"Riful! You can kill her now!" Daff shouted. Riful ignored him and continued to stare at the incapacitated Alicia. Suddenly Riful tensed as she felt her heart sink and bile rise to the back of the mouth when she felt an awfully familiar presence.

"No… Weren't you in the south…"

Sync rate at 500% and increasing, demand you cease now, further increments are a fatal breach of protocol.

So hungry… Must feed….

Beth, cease this foolishness. Obey the protocol. Alicia commanded, her mind's voice remaining flat and icy. However beads of perspiration were starting to drip off her face as she gripped at her hair.

Hungry…. This one… Must feed….

Sync rate at 540% and increasing, fatal point reached, executing manual shutdown protocol.

With some difficulty, Alicia picked up her sword and in a yokki assisted leap, retreating from the battlefield. Riful watched on as her assailant disappeared into the distance.

The awakened Beth chomped down on Priscilla in vain as the teeth shattered as they touched her. The beast doubled back and shot its bony tail at her, Priscilla ducked clear of the attack and charged straight at Beth, arm drawn back.

She grabbed the awakened Beth's underbelly.

"Let's end this." Priscilla monotoned. Her hand tensed, but a zing of deadly steel caused her to abort the attack.

Priscilla drew back just as Alicia's sword slammed into the ground. Undeterred, Alicia the black immediately followed with a decapitating upward cut. Priscilla leaned her head to the left, allowing the blade to miss by an inch, before she jumped back to gain some distance from her new challenger.

"So you came too." Priscilla remarked flatly.

"Though, that won't change anything." Alicia however, turned her sword towards Beth and took stance, earning her a cock of an eyebrow from Priscilla.

Beth, this is your first and final warning, further breach will result in termination. Alicia steeled her gaze at the monster that was her sister, however at the corner of her glowing golden eyes, a single tear fell down the side of her face.

Guts…. Must FEED!….

Beth ignored her sister's warning and charged at priscilla, a large wave of yokki surging from her awakened form. A wave her sister tried to quell by pushing out a blast of her own. However, the effort was in vain as her twin's levels were still far beyond the safe perimeters. A wave of pain shot through Alicia''s brain and she collapsed into a trembling heap.

Bony appendages shot from Beth's awakened body, followed by a swing at Priscilla with her spined tail. Priscilla dodged all her attacks and followed up by grabbing Beth's head, but was promptly swatted away.

Beth reared and pounced, firing a volley of projectiles at Priscilla from the air. They pierced the one horned demon, however to no effect as Priscilla's body immediately regenerated all the missing parts of her body.

The awakened Beth landed on the shattered earth with a deafening thud, before she charged at Priscilla again, talons raised and teeth bared.

Alicia grabbed at her hair as veins crawled up the sides of her golden eyes, shaking. Images flashed in her mind, images of Staff, the organisation, the training, the torture, Beth, the protocol. It was her duty to honour the protocol. Beth did not follow the protocol.

The protocol must be obeyed.

It was her duty to follow the protocol. Beth did not follow the protocol.

The protocol must be obeyed.

It was her duty to follow the protocol.

Beth did not follow the protocol.

The protocol must be obeyed.

The protocol must be obeyed..

The protocol must be obeyed...

All of a sudden, Alicia the black stopped shaking. The veins subsided, her eyes returned to their original silver. She stood up, calm and determined.

"No compliance after ample warning. Situation: Ally "Beth" now regarded as a hostile target. Mission critical to eliminate on sight."

After images flashed, and a shrill chorus of steel sang it's deadly song. A fountain of purple spurted from where the awakened Beth's head was a split second ago. The body of the cat-like creature went limp and collapsed, the blood caking Alicia who stood before it, gaze downcast and claymore draped limply by her side.

Priscilla watched, passive but intrigued.

"You killed your twin sister when she could not be controlled." A faint smile broke on her lips.

Blood soaked Alicia continued to stare impassively at the remains of the beast that was once her twin sister.

"You are indeed nothing more than a doll of the organisation aren't you?"

Alicia did not move at her words.

"Well, i'm not interested in you. I must find the source of that scent." Priscilla paused as a burst of yokki rushed past her, billowing her cloak.

Alicia the Black became a metallic and blond blur as she charged at Priscilla, landing a barrage of sword strikes on her. Priscilla however, was unimpressed, effortlessly dodging the blindingly quick sword work.

Alicia responded and channeled yokki into her arms, executing an augmented downwards strike to break the awakened being's defences. Priscilla however, casually reached out and blocked her claymore by the guard, stopping the sword in its tracks.

"I spoke too soon." Priscilla said, as she stared into Alicia's steely golden glare. Tears streaked down the side of her face as her eyes held nothing but pure fury and contempt for the awakened being.

"So when one dies, the other one gets angry." Priscilla observed. "Even cries."

Alicia growled and yanked her sword back from Priscilla's grip and attempted a horizontal slash. The awakened being simply ducked under the slash and grabbed the claymore's neck on the rebound.

"But that means, your soul and sense of self was not completely crushed." Priscilla tightened her grip and smiled. "You are nothing but a failed product."

A small hack and wheeze was all Alicia could manage in protest as she was getting the life literally squeezed out of her. Summoning the last of her reserves, she grabbed Priscilla's arm and with her augmented strength, crushed it in her grip.

Purple blood gushed from the resulting gore. Alicia took the chance to draw back and recover, expecting Priscilla to do the same and buy herself some time. Unfortunately her opponent did not do such a thing and went for her with her still functional arm.

The claymore countered with a sloppy riposte, the bad angle allowing the awakened to get behind her guard and when one swift motion, rip apart Alicia's sword arm, just below the elbow.

An agonised scream broke out over the dueling ground, Alicia the Black took a full second to realise that it came from her. Priscilla wasted no time throwing the dismembered arm to the dirt and grabbed Alicia by the neck again.

"So it screams too." The One Horned Demon sneered as she held the claymore in her grasp. Alicia could only give a weak attempt at freeing herself, trying to pull herself free with her remaining arm.

"And it squirms for it's life." This time Priscilla laughed.

"It's a shame that you're not very delicious." She said as she licked a spot of Alicia's blood that had landed on the claymore's face.

The awakened one turned away from the prey within her grasp and looked toward the destroyer.

"That smell. That smell that I've been searching for all this time." A sickening smile crept up her face.

"Perhaps, when i'm done with that one." Priscilla turned back to the claymore. "I'll come back for you." Priscilla's grip tightened around Alicia's neck, as she brought her closer and whispered in her ear.

"Get more delicious till then."

The next thing Alicia the Black felt was the air rushing past her as she was flung from Priscilla's grasp, followed by the repugnant crunch of bone breaking as she hit the dirt. All the while her stomach turned at the coppery stench of blood filling the air she breathed, as her vision faded and darkened.

Author's notes: I had planned to do this story about 5-6 years ago, due to my dissatisfaction at the series. I felt the twins had a lot of potential as characters that was wasted by them being killed off in a single volume. But after that the series went from being just disappointing to being an absolute mess (my opinion), and it became more difficult to plan a story that involved so many characters and motives.

This was originally going to be an AU adventure story, based around the canon series featuring Renee, Raki and Alicia as it's main characters. Each had their own set of motivations: Renee getting further betrayed by staff as the story goes on and having to go her own way. Raki still searches for Clare but becomes disenchanted when she chooses revenge over him, and Alicia who comes to grips with a world that she was sheltered from since her birth.