Chapter 18 - Guardians of the Paradise

"I'm Cislo and she's Barbara. Oh, and the nerd back there is Vincent."Cislo introduced.

'All of them are somehow very intimidating' Ray and Emma thought as they looked at them.

"You, Emma, and, what was it, Ray, right? From Grace Field?" Cislo asked making Emma and Ray nod their heads while slightly shaking.

"Yes." Ray replied as Barbara literally had her face so close to the side of Emma's face.

"We're all fugitives too!! Did you know that?! Only we're much more awesome, got that?!" Cislo yelled making Emma surprised.

"Yeah, we totally smashed that entire farm to pieces!!" Barbara yelled from behind the two.

'Are they...' Emma thought as she looked at Barbara and Cislo.

"Correct. They've developed an imaginary rivalry with you, like little children. I beg your pardon, but could you humor their whims for a bit?" Vincent politely asked.

"Whoa, that's so cool! Groovy! We're not even close, totally! Y'all are the best!" Ray sarcastically said which seemed to satisfy them.

'That mark...the position...it's just like Y/n's and Norman's. They can 'smash' a whole farm. Meaning, these three are also irregulars like Y/n, Zazie, and Adam. We met this Vincent yesterday at the medical ward and they're here in the leader's room, in the leader's absence, looking pretty carefree. I'm sure they're not foot soldiers like Hayato and Jin. They belong to the upper rank' Ray observed.

"Oh yes! Thank you so much for yesterday! All that you did for Chris and Dominic." Emma thanked Vincent.

"Right. The boss said much the same. What matters is that they get well." Vincent slightly smiled.

"Right, that's what we wanna ask! We want to know aaall about it!" Barbara sat really close to Emma, making Emma and Ray uncomfortable.

Suddenly a thud was made. They looked at the door and realized that it got kicked open by the one and only, Ruthless.

"Oh, Ruthless. I see you're covered in blood again. Did you go out and hunted some demons?" Vincent asked.

"Yeah. They were nearby and I couldn't resist the urge that came over me." Ruthless said as she grinned.

"By nearby, you mean about 5 kilometers away, right?" Vincent sighed as Ruthless nodded.

(A/N: Eyoo! I'll be calling you Ruthless when it's third person I hope you don't mind.)

"Where's my clothes? Boss hid them again to make sure I don't go out and hunt, right?" Ruthless asked.

"Ah! The boss placed them in his desk. He said that you won't go looking in there." Cislo replied as Ruthless nodded. Ruthless saw her clothes and grabbed it.

"Oh! Ruthless, did you bring me my meat?" Barbara asked as she chewed on some demon meat.

"Yeah. It's in your room." Ruthless said before leaving the room with her clothes in hand.

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"Was that Y/n just now?" Emma asked as she started shaking at how Ruthless looked like.

"Yeah, that was Ruthless...err..I mean.. Y/n. Don't worry, it's normal. She goes out on a daily basis and ends up coming back with blood all over her." Vincent explained.

"Yeah, come on, y'all gotta tell us everything about them!" Cislo went close to Emma's face.

"About them?" Ray asked.

"The boss, Minerva, and Ruthless, silly!" Barbara blushed as she held her demon meat.

"How do y'all call them? No...Norman and Y/n!" Cislo blushed as he pointed at them.

"Correct. To put it bluntly, these two really adore the boss and Ruthless Since they found out you've known the boss and Ruthless for a long time, they've been dying for the gossip." Vincent bluntly said.

"Shut the hell up! We know ya love them too!" Barbara and Cislo yelled as they pointed an accusing finger at him.

"I mean, who wouldn't? When I got back from patrol yesterday, the folks at the ground level were all talking about the same thing! This thing about the boss looking like a different person and Ruthless carrying a child while smiling! Won'tcha tell us more?" Cislo said in an adoring manner.

"Cause I got to knooow!! What kinda person are they?! What's more, they say y'all are their besties or whatever? Come on!! What is your 'Norman' and 'Y/n' like?! Tell us! Now!!" Cislo began to yell loudly.

"Well, I don't think he's changed all that much, but Norman is intelligent and very kind. He's always so gentle...and he always meets you with that sweet smile on his face." Emma said as she began to blush while smiling.

"The boss? No way!!" Cislo yelled as he burst into laughter.

"I can't believe it!! How about Ruthless? Well, I mean...ya know, Y/n?" Barbara asked.

"Well, she didn't change at all. She still greets you with that beautiful smile of hers. She acts like a mother and she treats the kids as if they were her own. She's still as amazing when I last saw her." Ray said as he started to blush while smiling.

"Gentle, mother?" Cislo asked

"Smile?" Barbara asked.

"Treats the kids as if they were her own?" Vincent asked.

"No way!! The only time she smiles is when she's slicing the demons up! She's Ruthless, the merciless! No way is she gentle!" Barbara started to laugh with Cislo.

"Well, I have proof." Ray mumbled.

"No way!! Show us! Show it to uuus!" they slammed the coffee table. Ray sighed and took out the photo from his pocket and showed it to them.

"That's Ruthless?" Vincent asked and Emma smiled and nodded.

"Whoa!! She's smiling and wearing a flower crown!" Barbara exclaimed as she blushed.

"And she isn't covered in blood for once!" Cislo pointed out.

"Is it really that surprising? What's Norman like nowadays?" Ray asked.

"Dead serious" Barbara replied.

"Wintry cold" Vincent answered.

"The czar" Cislo answered.

"The czar?! How about Y/n?" Emma asked.

"Sadistic" Barbara replied.

"Blood-curdling" Vincent answered.

"Merciless" Cislo answered until they heard the door open with such a force.

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After changing, I had to go to Norman's office and stay in there with Barbara, Cislo, and Vincent. I sighed and kicked the door open, my usual greeting. It's quite noisy in there.

"I'm back. Oh, Ray and Emma! How lovely, what are you two doing here?" I asked, surprised as I took off my hoodie

"Y/n, isn't it bad if they see your horns?!" Emma started to panic making me giggle.

"Don't worry, they know about it." I said as I closed the door and sat beside Ray.

"Ruthless..." I heard Barbara call me. I looked at her and see her with her eyes wide open.

"Did you just smile?!" Barbara yelled.

"Did you just giggle?" Cislo yelled this time.

"Uhm...yeah. Not used to it? Well you better, as long as my children are here then I'll be smiling more!" I smiled.

"You should smile often, it looks cute on you." Cislo said as he looked away with a pink tint on his cheeks.

"Wait, shouldn't you be with the boss as his bodyguard along with Zazie?" Vincent asked.

"Norman told me to stay here and that he will be fine. He also said that I should hang out with my children." I replied.

"So folks, got any good stuff from back then? Like y' know, embarrassing stuff?" Cislo smirked.

"You mean, wetting the bed until they were 10 or something?" Ray asked and Cislo nodded.

"They never did. But, you know, Norman used to catch colds a lot, and just when you thought he was getting better, it just comes back." Ray said.

"There was this one time when Y/n was holding a child and she was so clumsy that she dropped her. Y/n was so shocked that she thought the child was dead and she fainted. She faints when she's scared or traumatized." Emma laughed.

"Emma! That was one time, I didn't mean it." I said as I covered my face embarrassed making everyone laugh.

"I heard you're pretty close to the boss, Y/n. What's the beef?" Barbara asked as she went close to my already red face.

"We're only close friends, Barbara." I chuckled.

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"Thank you, you told us some excellent stories." Vincent said as he pushed his glasses up.

"In the end, you yourselves totally got carried away with!" Cislo laughed as he leaned against the couch.

"Ya even teared up!" Barbara said as she laughed.

"Thankee kids, I learned a lot of great stuff." Barbara thanked them.

"Right! 'Cause that guy won't even talk about the past, you know. And Ruth- I mean Y/n never talks to us unless it's needed." Cislo sighed.

"Norman and Y/n, so today they're..." Emma paused.

"He's a great man! Always puts his comrades before himself. Y/n may be quiet and merciless but she's a great person." Vincent smiled.

"No gentle smiles tho! Even now, he's been exhausting himself to save all of us, cattle children. Everyone has made it this far thanks to them. Y/n is always outside, patrolling day and night. They hardly sleep!" Cislo said.

"This power of ours too! He's the one who showed it to us, who taught us to use it. Y/n thought us how to fight and how to use weapons and hand to hand combat and all kinds of techniques she knows." Cislo said with a smirk.

"Power? From Lambda?" Emma asked and I nodded.

"Indeed. Lambda, the experimental plantation, Λ7214. We're all veteran comrades from that cesspool." I explained.

"I'm originally from Goodwill Ridge...Barbara too. R-Y/n is from Grace Field like you two and Vincent was born in Glory Bell. We were sent to Lambda and they did those frigging experiments. It was hell, day after day. No, hell doesn't come even close to describing it. Lots of kids died on the spot, lots more were killed. We were treated like things, worse than things. If it wasn't for the boss, I would have died right there. That 12-year-old boy looked like a god, I tell ya!" Cislo said.

"But let's be honest, Y/n had it the worse. The only thing you can hear in her experiment room was screaming. If she didn't kill all the guards and demons, we would've all died." Barbara said. Emma and Ray frowned.

"Yeah. I even saw her throw a man outside that she managed to break the door with a man. I saw it with my own two eyes." Cislo said.

"Norman had a plan and he got all of us to go along with it, Zazie included. The other farms we destroyed too. Its always been the six of us liberating everyone." I said, trying to change the topic.

"Six people!" Ray exclaimed.

"You alone did all that?!" Emma asked.

"I told ya, didn't I? We're frigging awesome! Don't worry. His plans are always perfect. With his brains and our brawns, their days are counted." Cislo said.

"Aw, man, I can't wait...I wanna kill'em all. Every time I destroy one of those things, I get a little weight off my chest!" Cislo confessed.

"Yeah, yeah, me too! The best thing is to rip the meat out of them. I can only really rest when I bite into it" Barbara confessed.

"Ahm, er, do you mean this meat is..." Ray paused as he looked at the bone that Barbara was holding.

"Ehehehe! Surprised?" Cislo asked.

"Yup, this is their meat. Probably one of the guards from that mass production place we just raided." Barbara explained. They destroyed a farm without me...

"I mean, doesn't it piss you off? That we're always the cattle here. Even now it's burned into my mind...my body. Their eyes, the agony, every single day of suffering." I said as I stood up and sat on Norman's desk.

"Those bastards are all the same. Death is too good for them." Cislo said.

"The damn demons, the Ratri too...they deserve worse." Vincent said.

"They're all gonna taste what they do to us!!" Barbara yelled. That's weird, why is Emma reacting like that?

"What's with that face? Don't tell me you feel sorry for them. Why ain'tcha laughing? Ain'tcha happy? Is it cause you wanna spare them? Even though you're a cattle child yourself? When y'all said ya wanted to discuss something with the boss, tell me ya didn't come with a lame-ass idea, like changing the idea or something"

Barbara's pissed.

"Cut it out Barbara, you'll mess up the hideout." Cislo tried to stop Barbara. Barbara broke the bone with her foot.

"The demons are monsters! They must be exterminated, right?!" Barbara yelled as she was about to pick Emma up, my reflexes kicked in.

"Barbara, stop." I said and she winced in my grip as I held her wrist with a bit of my strength.

"Tsk. Fine, just let me go, it hurts like hell." Barbara said and I let go and she started to rub her wrist to soothe the aching.

"However it may be, you're too late. Everything has already been put to motion. The boss has anticipated the plan and got it started this morning. Even if you go after him, you won't get there in time. And by the time he's back, no one in the world can stop him." Vincent said.

"You said that he left here, right? What is Norman doing?" Ray asked. I looked at him.

"He's having a meeting at the moment, with some of our pawns." I smirked.

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"We got your letter, William Minerva." an owl said.

"The situation is as stated." Norman1 said.

"I came to seal our alliance with your group. Together, we will destroy this whole world." Norman said.

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(A/N: Eyoo! I should stop following the plot. I follow the plot too much. I'll try adding some more of you and Ray in the next chapters. Anyways that's 2301 words for you. Peace out!)