"Hey, Z,is it just me or is it darker in here"
"... what's troubling you?"
Jade suddenly flinched, hearing this question
Zen had realized that a while back,Jade seemed to be getting less and less cheery. It wasn't that he was specifically paying attention to her, he just liked to take in and observe everything around him.
Jade went quiet as she realized that Zen didn't know.
Seeing that she didn't feel like talking, Zen didn't pry and kept moving
Five minutes later, Jade's worried voice spoke
"Z? It's definitely darker in this tunnel"
There was actually no sunlight inside the cave like dungeon, however the ice in the cave shined brightly, illuminating the place. At least that was the case until now .
The ice shards inside the tunnel seemed to get darker and darker until they were almost pitch black
"M-maybe we should go take the other tunnel"
Zen however didn't seem to have any plans on turning back as he stared intently into the darkness despite having stopped moving
"Z? What's wrong?" Jade asked, noticing the abnormality
A few seconds passed and a pair of glowing,demonic,evil looking eyes appeared in front of them, floating a few feet above the ground
"W-what is that?"
Jade asked as she shivered despite no longer being cold
"Quiet down" Zen said plainly as he looked forward indifferently
"B-but that -"
"You're not in danger"
Jade was confused. How could Zen possibly know that.
The pair of glowing eyes moved closer and closer until it was in their range of vision and what they saw was quite surprising, at least for Jade
In front of them was a little girl 5-10 years old with a stuffed animal in her arms
She had straight long blonde hair that reached her back, smooth and soft rosy skin, and a pair of innocent looking pink eyes that seemed to release an eerie light. She was in a cute pink shirt and white skirt with a pair of adorable little pink shoes.
The girls pink eyes widened slightly when she saw Zen. Excited, she ran towards him calling out his name
"Zen? Zen!!! It's you!! I can't believe it!"
The girl immediately started circling around Zen and Jade excitedly as she started bombarding him with questions
"Zen, how are you here? I thought you were captured when they attacked us ★Gasp★ are the others with you too? What happened? Why didn't Crowley and Raven tell me you were okay ? Who's that on your back? Is She your new friend? She looks cute-"
"You're the one who's cute! And the name's Jade"
Jade suddenly yelled exasperated. Who was this girl? How did she know Zen? And more importantly, what was a little girl doing inside a dungeon. Jade looked at the girl who couldn't be older than ten years old and couldn't help but be confused.
The girl pouted and yelled
"No! You're cute"
"Nah ah , you're cute"
Zen sighed. He knew the little girl quite well,and knew she was very immature, and with all the time he spent with Jade, he knew she was too.
"Enough, you're both cute. End it at that"
The girl looked at Jade and her cheerful voice seemed to fluctuate slightly
"If she isn't your friend, Zen,then perhaps she's...a target?"
Her pink eyes suddenly began to glow eerily, pure unadulterated malice that seemed to condense into a corporeal translucent aura escaped from the eyes of the smiling, harmless looking little girl
Jade suddenly felt a chill go down her spine,as far as she could currently feel that is.
"She's my teammate" Zen said plainly, completely unphased. The girl's eyes seemed to loose the glow as she heard that and the aura of malice disappeared .
He looked at the familiar little girl. He was more surprised by the fact that they met than the fact that she, a little kid,was in a dungeon, and even more so that she was even alive.
"Looks like there really going ahead with that fall back plan.
Zen thought before talking to her
"You made it out of the..."
The girl's eyes brightened slightly
"Oh yeah! I did it,the you know what's got nothing on me. I made it out and I was one of the first too, awesome, right? Oh and guess what Zen, i got my name,i finally earned my name, just like you did all those years back. I'm officially no longer just a bunch of numbers and letters "
The girl was bubbly, Zen was.... the same, but Jade was confused.
What did she mean by saying she earned her name? And that she was no longer just some numbers and letters. She was even more confused to hear that Zen had done the same thing before. Just what was this all supposed to mean?
Zen kept quiet and waited for the girl to finish,he knew she would. He seemed use to her immature hyperactivity
The girl suddenly got excited and seemed to enter a strange frenzy as her pink eyes once again started glowing
"Do you wanna know what my name is, Zen? Do you? Do you? Do you?"
A malicious aura suddenly started eminating from the strange girl as she seemed to loose control of her sanity for a moment.
Jade felt her blood run cold. She felt like she could actually smell blood off of the girl. The evil aura was just too overwhelming. Could this really be something released from this child.
Terrified, Jade tightened her grip around Zen who didn't seem very affected and just sighed. This was actually expected as the girl had just recently completed.
Zen brought his hand down on the girl's head in a chopping motion
"Cut it out" he said.
The next second, the bloody aura around the girl seemed to disperse as her frenzy ended and her eyes stopped glowing.
The girl seemed to regain her senses as she apologized with a hint of admiration in her tone
"S-sorry Zen, sorry Jade. I only just got out so I'm not that good yet, but Raven said that I'll get better with time, maybe even as good as you one day "
Jade felt the strange aura disappear and opened her eyes to peek at the little girl who was still apologizing.Could that have come from this cute little girl?
The girl suddenly remembered the reason she had gotten overexcited and lost control in the first place.
"Oh yeah, my name"
She seemed to forget completely about what just happened as she once again perked up
"Guess what, from now on my name is Beatrix"
She said, beaming with joy
Beatrix suddenly tugged on Zen's sleeve as she tried to pull him to follow her
"Come on, I'll take you back home with me to Raven and Crowley and the others "
Zen however, didn't follow her and simply told her to stop.
Jade's expression turned sour as she stopped pulling and just help on to his sleeve, lightly tugging on it. She looked really sad, but also confused
"What's wrong Zen? Don't you wanna come back home with me? I miss you, you know?"
Zen crouched down to Beatrix's level, somehow managing to do so despite Jade being on his back.
"B-beatrix" Zen spoke, trying to get used to her name
"I'm going to sentinel academy. I'm not going back.... for now at least"
Beatrix suddenly started shaking her head and yelling, upset.
"No! No! No! You can't go Zen. You don't have an ability and there'll be nobody to protect you. They'll hurt you there, i won't allow it!"
"I already decided" was all Zen said, uninterested in her concerns.
"Fine then, I'll come with you to protect you"
"Not possible"
Little Beatrix's head drooped downward at his reply. Her fists were balled tightly as she looked at the ground sadly
Jade looked at the moping Beatrix and suddenly reached out to pet her, gently stroking her hair.
Beatrix seemed surprised but didn't flinch away and even seemed to enjoy it as she perked up a little bit.
"Jade-"
Beatrix suddenly stopped and suddenly turned to look into the tunnel.
Her expression suddenly turned serious, and Zen who had done the same thing suddenly spoke
"You should go"
"Yeah" Beatrix replied, seeming a little absentminded
She suddenly turned to look at Zen and said
"Let me deal with this one for now"
She turned back around and looked into the pitch black tunnel like she was expecting something.
A few seconds later, out of the darkness emerged a huge beast that looked like a white tiger.
It's had the same icy appearance as the other beast they met, with sharp ice fangs and claws.
It was larger than a regular tiger and although not too much so, it still looked like it could easily devour the little girl in front of it.
Beatrix tilted her head curiously at the beast that was furiously roaring at her. A strange eerie smile appeared on her face and with a single stomp on the ground, she dashed towards the beast, forcing it into the darkness despite her petite figure
"oh my goodness! Is she gonna be okay?" Jade yelled, horrified.
Zen had actually asked himself the same question but only needed to think for about a second to get the answer.
"She'll be fine".
10 minutes later Beatrix emerged from the darkness with a small beast core in her hand and a bright smile on her face. Other than a few minor scratches and some small bloodstains on her clothes, she was practically unscathed. In fact, she literally skipped to Zen, smiling brightly as she presented the beast core to him.
"For you" she said with a sweet smile
Zen looked at her and barely acknowledged the gesture
"It was your kill, keep it"
"O...oh"
Beatrix seemed a little disheartened by his refusal but still listened.
Jade looked at Beatrix who was once again upset and glared at Zen like he was some sort of monster
She chose to ignore him for now and ask Beatrix something despite knowing she'd have to explain to Zen.
"Beatrix?"
"Huh?" Beatrix replied, looking up at Jade
"Do you perhaps know where the exit to the -"
"Oh , the dungeon's exit? Yeah I know that. In fact you're already pretty close, come on!"
Beatrix suddenly took hold of Zen's sleeve and started pulling him with her, and this time he allowed it.
Now it was time for Jade to explain.
"We still need the tokens,why did you tell her to take us out?"
Jade sighed and showed Zen a timer on her watch which had a little under five minutes left
"That's how much time we have left before the assessment is over, there's no point in looking anymore, all the tunnels and fighting and you having to carry me wasted our time "
From her tone when she said that last part,it was obvious that she blamed herself for wasting their time.
It seemed that all the distractions from Crowley and the unfortunately long routes they had to take had wasted all the time they had for the assessment.
Zen didn't say anything or offer any encouragement,but he didn't blame her. Most of this was just bad luck. The random teleportation had brought them to such a desolate corner of the dungeon with all these confusing tunnels, and it definitely wasn't her fault Crowley had shown up when he did.
At this point, Beatrix stopped moving and pointed to the white glowing gate in front of them
"There's the exit" she said
Jade wasn't expecting Zen to say anything so she did instead.
"Thanks a lot Bea, i guess since we failed to find the tokens ,we might as well just leave"
Beatrix tilted her head curiously
"Tokens? What tokens?"
Jade explained how they needed two tokens to pass the assessment, and as they didn't have any, they failed.
"What does it look like?"
Jade, seeing no reason not to,described the tokens appearance to Beatrix.
"Oh, do you mean this thing? I thought it was a fancy button or something" Beatrix said as she brought out an academy token and passed it to Jade.
"This is it! Where did you find this?" Jade asked, excited
"It was inside that kitty's mouth. Weird thing was that it almost looked like someone put it there on purpose. You can keep it if you want to,Jade"
"This is incredible..... but.....we only have one"
Jade said realizing a new problem
She looked at the gate with mixed feelings. She was happy to be leaving, but what would they do now
Beatrix suddenly called out to her, snapping her out of her thoughts
"Jade"
"Yes, Bea?"
"This is for you"
Jade looked at Beatrix who had the beast core in her hand and seemed to be offering it to her
Jade hesitated, not sure what to do, but looking at the expression on Beatrix's face, Jade felt like she might cry if her gift got rejected for the second time, so without saying anything other than a thank you, she accepted it
"Let me just put these in my pock....."
Jade suddenly stopped talking as she felt something in her hoodie's pocket
"What's this?" She asked herself as she brought it out
Jade gasped looking at her hand, for in it was was another token and a beast crystal that was considerably more resplendent than the one Beatrix got
What's this? It's a token! Where did this come from?" Jade asked, looking at Zen, but he was just as clueless as she was , or at least he was before thinking it through.
The only other time they had encountered a beast was with....
"Silver"
Zen suddenly realized, the only person who was fast enough to plant those things on Jade while she was on his back was without him even catching a glimpse of them was Silver. Crowley was fast, but not that fast.
Beatrix seemed amused and even giggled a little when she heard Zen mention Silver
She looked at the flabbergasted Jade had decided to explain
"Silver's awesome, she loves taking care of us and is super cool. She's like our mom, ask Zen, he'll tell ya. She probably just wanted to help you guys out, and have a little fun messing with you at the same time"
Jade looked at Beatrix and could feel how much trust she had in Silver. She felt like the moment Zen mentioned Silver both her and Zen understood immediately and didn't even question.
Jade, seeing them so calm decided to just forget it.
"Well I guess now that we have what we need,we can go now" Jade said to Zen. She still needed him to walk as her lower half was still numb
Beatrix suddenly moved closer to Zen. She was pretty small so she only reached around his thigh.
She tugged on his sleeve to get his attention and gestured for him to get down on her level.
Zen crouched down with Jade still on his back until he was on her level
"If you really want to go to the academy, sure... but do me a favor, make sure that anyone who dares stand in your way will know just how strong you are....how strong WE are"
Jade suddenly felt like something changed in Beatrix's tone, almost like it got... sinister.
The dark aura surrounding Beatrix suddenly disappeared as she put her arms around Zen's neck, hugging him
"I'll miss you Zen "
Seeing this, Jade couldn't resist and stretched out her arms, hugging back from behind Zen.
Beatrix suddenly pulled back, breaking up the hug before she shoved something into Zen's hand before running off into the dungeon while waving back at them
Jade was about to shout after her that a dungeon was no place for a child but suddenly remembered what had happened in the dungeon and kept shut, deciding to just wave back
Once she was gone, Jade stopped waving and said to Zen
"Okay, let's go Z. I can't wait to get out of here and into the academy"
Zen looked at his hand to see what Beatrix had given him and was surprised to see the little stuffed bear that she had been hugging when he first saw her
He seemed in thought for a few seconds before speaking
"Jade, give me those beast cores"
Jade was confused but complied and gave them to him
Zen took them and one at a time pressed them both against the crystal of his ring , watching as they disappeared alongside the stuffed bear.
"Put this on" he said, handing her the ring
Jade looked confused as she wondered why he just gave her his storage ring but put it on anyway
"Why did you-"
"If anyone asks, it's just plain jewelry. As for why, let's just say, you don't want people finding out you have those"
Jade nodded despite still not understanding what he meant. He had helped her this far,so she would trust him.
"Oh and one more thing" Zen said
"Under no circumstances, should you look inside it" Zen said, and although it was the same emotionless tone that he was speaking with, she felt like he was trying to warn her.
Zen was about to start moving towards the gate when Jade suddenly stopped him
"Wait. I wanna try something"
A small portal appeared in front of Zen and another in front of the portal, with both being perfectly aligned with each other as per her ability's limitation .
Slowly, Jade put her hand into the portal in front of her and the next second.....