"Vicky."
Vicky paused upon hearing her little brother speak to her. She could've left the hallway they were standing in— it was something she had done several times already— but some part of her was tired of running away.
"...What?"
"Tomorrow— 5pm— meet me in the sparring room."
Vicky turned around, surprised by what Sil was saying. She genuinely didn't expect him to say that.
"...Are you sure?" Vicky asked, slightly hesitant. "You know I can get pretty… violent."
"Don't worry, I can handle it," Sil replied with a comforting smile.
—
Vicky almost didn't make it to the sparring room in time, she had to prepare something beforehand— namely putting on some small boxing gloves with individual fingers and finding a tracksuit to go along with her gloves. She also wore her favorite grippy socks to fully cover up her body.
As she opened the door, she saw a familiar muscular blonde haired man sitting on a bench. He also wore something similar to what she wore, but had fingerless gloves and his arms exposed. She couldn't believe that she was going to be fighting him in just a few moments.
"I'm here," Vicky called out, flexing her fingers to ensure her gloves were staying on.
He turned around at the sound of her voice, "Oh— good. I'm glad you made it. You brought your lucky ones?" the man gestured to her socks, which had a galaxy pattern on them.
She walked over to the center of the room that held the most space, and nodded at his comment. This was where they were gonna have their fight. "Yep. I see you brought yours."
"So, what are the rules of this?"
Sil got up from his seat, and joined his sister, "Rules?"
She looked a little astonished, "Yeah? We gotta lay down some rules in a sparring match. We don't want to go TOO far."
He scratched the back of his head, "Oh, yeah, right. I've just kinda been fighting with my life on the line for a while now. I'm basically an expert at playing with my life."
"Are you stupid?" Vicky couldn't help but laugh, "You know what, I'll come up with the rules. No soul weapons, we can't break bones, but we can draw blood, and we can tap out at any time. Sounds good?"
Sil began to stretch his arms, "No soul weapon? Well, I guess it would just be fair, it's not like you can compete against 6 abilities."
Vicky smirked, getting into position, "It's not like I've been sparring with someone other than Logan, and you know how out of shape he is."
"Oh, you want me to go easy on you?" Sil remarked.
"Just go with what you think is necessary," She replied.
The two walked around the room, eyeing each other up, waiting for the one to make the first move.
Vicky dashed in– throwing a punch that Sil blocked easily. He threw in a jab to her side in retaliation, and she took the hit. Regaining a bit of her balance, she kicked at his leg. He fell, and attempted to side swept hers in return, who just barely managing to jump over it.
While Sil was still on the floor, Vicky took this as the opportunity to tackle him, but he got up in time to grab her by the shoulders. Her force caused him to slide back, but he kneed her in the stomach, causing her to lose enough strength and for Sil to throw her at the wall.
Taking a step back, Sil was hesitant and thought he might've gone too far, until he saw Vicky get up, cracking a few bones in her neck. She lifted her hands back up into a fighting position.
"Is that all you got?" She smiled slyly.
"Oh so you CAN take a hit!" Sil joked.
Vicky's eye twitched at that comment.
She ran up, throwing a kick— barely missing— but continued to swing into another kick, slamming into Sil's side. He grabbed it before she could retract, and flung her. Vicky barely managed to catch her momentum, utilizing a cartwheel to get back on her feet.
The two didn't immediately try to hit each other, giving Sil a bit of time to think. He took notice of Vicky's outfit, and thought it was something she didn't usually wear as she often opted for tank tops and baggy pants instead of the tracksuit she was currently wearing. Now that Sil thought about it, her entire body was fully covered, aside from her face.
Sil went in for a tackle, getting kneed in return. He attempted to block her knee jabs, managing to upper cut her head, his knuckles forcefully pushing against her jaw and her nose.
Vicky stumbled back, and Sil slams her onto the ground. He restricted her movements, holding her arms. She attempted to punch back, but struggled to get any force behind it. Instead she moved her head back— summoning a ton of concentrated qi to headbutt Sil.
He stumbled back, holding his nose. Vicky didn't give him any time to recover as she elbowed his jaw, and kneed him in the crotch, causing him to howl in pain.
Sil fell to the floor, holding himself where it hurt, and looked up to see his sister wiping a bloody nose with wild eyes. Upon closer inspection, the nosebleed stopped rather quickly. Was she using qi or…?
"Are you using an ability!?" He called out, "Those aren't allowed!"
Vicky couldn't help but cackle in response. She had 2 abilities copied at the moment, and the MC cells of Logan's ability were being pooled into the already high level regenerative ability. In a normal fight, Vicky fighting against Sil would've been one sided as he had more years of fighting compared to her, but with this ace up her sleeve, the playing ground was even. Sil had only figured out the first part of her plan.
"I never said they weren't allowed, only that soul weapons weren't!" Vicky proudly explained.
Sil mentally cursed as he didn't think to prepare any abilities before this friendly spar, especially since he thought it wasn't fair considering the two's vastly different number of abilities they could copy.
"Had to make things fair— since you're the only one here with a soul," Her eyes slightly lowered, and a barely noticeable twinge of darkness came upon her face.
He charged at her again, this time with his hands out in an attempt to copy her ability. She simply blocked the grab with her sleeved left arm, and shot her right out to grab Sil's head before jumping to slam him down into the ground.
Thankfully, Sil managed to block most of the damage using qi. He punched his sister's arm with qi, freeing his head, and he rolled out of the way. All of these hits were beginning to wear on him, but Vicky was just fine.
"Thought you had a hundred years of fighting experience?" Vicky sarcastically said, "But to be fair, I did need to save your sorry ass on that planet."
"I'm just going easy on you," Sil spat out, "I wasn't expecting a housewife of all people to put up a fight."
"Why you—!"
Sil and Vicky ran up again, this time trading a flurry of blows. Their strengths were on par with each other, with Vicky at full strength, and Sil slightly weakened from the pain. Sil knew he couldn't outpace her healing with the damage he was taking. If he could just copy her ability—
"I've fought civilians who punched harder than this, and that's not getting into the celestials I've killed!!" Sil antagonized.
"Oh really? Can a celestial do THIS!?"
Vicky then slams her foot into Sil's crotch, and he toppled over
"Damn it! That's twice!" Sil was barely holding it together to not cry out in pain, "Are you going for doubles or what?!"
Vicky chuckled, "I'm gonna make sure you can't make any more descendants."
"More!?" Sil yelled out confused, before he got kicked in the face.
His body flew over a few feet, and it was Vicky's turn to be concerned if she went too far. She ran over to Sil, about to ask if he was still okay, until he got up and punched Vicky's face with all of his strength, causing her to stumble back.
"OW!" Vicky yelled while holding her face, "Did you borrow that move from dad?!" she hissed with venom in her voice.
"Didn't you live with him longer?"
Vicky growled and tried to claw at him, but he managed to dodge.
"Did you seriously try to scratch me?! You can't do that with your stupid gloves." Sil boasted
"At least it means you can't copy my ability." Vicky sneered, "This time— I'll finally win against you!"
Sil was further confused when hearing this, but he couldn't think on it further as Vicky went for a spinning kick, the power behind it almost caused the air to shake. Sil attempted to regain his footing, but Vicky jumped and slammed both of her fists onto the sides of his head using qi. Sil wasn't able to protect himself using his own qi, causing some blood vessels to burst where his temples were.
"I've been stuck on that island for years!" Vicky almost screamed, "and you were able to leave at any time!"
Vicky kicked the dazed Sil to the floor, and jumped over him and began bashing his head into the ground.
"You made me like this— a violent monster that can only create carnage!"
Sil wasn't thinking right, and in that moment, he was believing what Vicky was saying to him. Seeing himself as Hilston— or at least someone who deserved to be hurt for looking like him. The most he did was try to raise his arms up in an attempt to block the attacks, but it was half-hearted.
"I was just another body to you— some extra life—, but look at you now!! Your own horrible creation turned against you!"
Vicky's fists came together and she focused all of her qi into a devastating slam against Sil's skull, causing cracks to form right beside his head.
In that moment, Vicky's fist was held in the air about to make another hit when she saw her brother— little brother— covering his eyes and shaking uncontrollably. His position like that of a child— in a fetal position.
Vicky looked at her fists, the red staining the gloves, and began to shake.
Vicky quickly got off of Sil and couldn't help but stare at her hands; the things she did while in that violent mental state— it horrified her.
"Oh my god— what have I done?!" She cried.
Vicky clutched onto herself. Wide-eyed at how she regressed back to when she was just another pet to Hilston.
In truth, it felt good to let out her anger in the moment, enjoyable even, but the consequences of her actions were staring back at her— literally— and Vicky feared that she might've—
"No—" she sobbed, and scrambled over to where Sil was.
She lifted him up, trying to figure out what was wrong. His face was bloodied, and bruised. Noticing his troubled breathing, Vicky was a little relieved knowing that he was still alive, but something was clearly wrong.
She shook him slightly, trying to get a response from him. Sil remained in a state of shock, and Vicky began worrying again.
"Come on— I'm sorry, I didn't mean to—" Vicky wept, "Your soul weapon— get your soul weapon out— heal yourself!"
Sil barely had enough mental strength to summon the book, but it disappeared as it arrived.
Vicky took off a glove, and held Sil's head closer to her chin, "Just copy it— y-you've done this a hundred times, just copy my regenerative ability, Sil, please."
Her hand touched Sil on his forehead, and the familiar electrifying feeling came when any Blade shared an ability with another Blade, and Vicky knew that Sil was healing, albeit slowly.
She started quietly humming to him, desperate to calm him down. Tears were threatening to fall from Sil's face and Vicky was shushing him.
[Chapter Art]
There were times back then when Sil would come out of his shell a little, and the two would interact. Vicky was only a young teenager at the time, and sometimes she played a little too rough with Sil and he would cry. Of course, Vicky didn't want either of them to get in trouble for hurting Hilston's prized possession so she would have to get him to stay quiet.
Vicky was lightly stroking his hair trying to calm him down; and they sat there together for a while, waiting for him to recollect and heal.
After a bit of waiting, Sil managed to gather enough strength to speak.
"Why do you hate me?" he mumbled.
Vicky looked down to her little brother, feeling an intense guilt for causing him to think this way.
"I don't… I don't hate you, Sil."
"Are you sure…?" Sil mumbled, tears swelling up in his eyes.
"I'm sorry— I hurt you— I was j-just being stupid," Vicky cried out, tears emerging out her eyes. She wasn't sad so to say, but angry at herself.
"...Why… Why do you hate me?"
Vicky's face scrunched up, more frustrated tears came pouring out.
Sil was one of the few people left that were still alive and knew what it was like on that island, and she had accidentally pushed him away.
"I don't! I don't hate you!" She screamed through choked sobs, "I hate myself!"
Sil's eyes widened.
With a free hand, Vicky wiped away some tears, "I hate that I'm not like you— you were able to leave that island sooner, and you have friends. As much as I love him… all I have is Logan. I'm… stuck here."
"But you're free."
"You don't understand, Sil," Vicky's eyes went to look down to Sil's, "It's different for you. You never had to be by his side for as long as I had. The things I've done because of him— for him— and everyone just forgets it because I act like I don't even care. I escape any and all consequences just because I'm married to Logan Green himself. I'm no better than him."
Sil didn't say anything and stayed silent.
"I'm right, aren't I?" she sobbed. "You can see it— how you and Jake have souls, but I don't. I was stuck on that island far longer than you, so I never got to develop a soul. Isn't that a sign of what I am? How I'm just a soulless– horrible being?"
"...You're stupid…" Sil whispered.
"Huh?" Vicky was a little shocked hearing that from Sil now of all times.
"You saved me, didn't you?" Sil looked up to his sister.
Vicky had to hold back a sob, and she held Sil closer to her heart.
"But- but- I hurt you, I beat the shit out of you an-and did this to you."
"You helped me," Sil said, referring to the regenerative ability.
"That still doesn't mean that you weren't hurt because of me!"
"You're trying," Sil leaned his head in closer to Vicky, "Isn't that what matters?"
Vicky couldn't stop the waterworks and began fully sobbing, crying into Sil. He too began to weep. The both of them hugged each other, sharing an understanding that no one else could even begin to fathom. They had each other.