Black Knight, White King ♔ Chapter One
Black Knight, White King
Rating: PG-13; language and disturbing imagery
Pairing: None
Summary: An accident in the Albiore III lands Asch in a heap of trouble as he ends up in a world torn in two. Hunted by the forces in control, he has no choice but to rely on a sly and womanizing older man to help keep him - and his abilities - from falling into the wrong hands. Symphonia/Abyss crossover.
Note: Wow. Just wow. I actually started this story ages ago, and I'm just getting around to finishing the first chapter. This bodes well, really. XP I hope you all enjoy it regardless.
CHAPTER ONE
Asch gazed despondently out one of the many windows of the Albiore III, looking down far below at the massive gap in the land that had at one time been Southern Rugnica. Once the Outer Lands had been safely lowered into the Qliphoth, the area where Akzeriuth had once been filled in completely with water, as if there had never been a mining city there in the first place. It was a frightening thought: that hundreds of years worth of history could be obliterated in an instant, and the land itself seemed to deny that anything was amiss. If nature could forget its own destruction so easily, then how quickly would a single human life be forgotten...?
"Gald for your thoughts, Master Asch?"
Ginji's voice broke Asch away from the window and his own brooding, and his gaze flicked over to the young man, his expression unchanging.
"Just pondering on how little time there is allowed to us," he finally answered after a moment.
Ginji let out a good natured laugh. "We're still young yet, Master Asch," he replied, "we have all the time in the world still."
Asch graced the pilot with a small, "Humph," of annoyance, before turning his focus back to the window. All the time in the world... or at least, all the time the world would allow them to have before it finally gave up its own attempt at life. Yet still, even if they did succeed in saving this world... what little time would he be allowed to enjoy the victory?
His dark thoughts were interrupted once again, not by the pilot, but by the pilot's instruments. The lights in the cabin flickered to red, and a loud, bleating wail started coming from the console. Asch's cheek twitched slightly in nervousness, though that was about all the unease he allowed himself to show; he was not particularly keen on plummeting hundreds of feet to his death in a twisted heap of metal.
"What's going on?" he demanded.
"I don't know!" Ginji replied, sounding distressed. "The sensors are picking up a high level of energy from somewhere, but I can't tell fro-"
The other young man was cut off as a high pitched wail came from somewhere outside. Asch clasped his hands over his ears against the noise, before he paused. That sound...
"Below us!" he bellowed. "Move! Move!"
Though neither of them could see, the ocean below them was churning angrily, a faint glowing bubbling up from where the Akzeriuth Sephiroth used to be. As Ginji's foot slammed down on the accelerator, the Tree sprouted to life again, engulfing the Albiore before they could even move. The force rocked the whole ship, sending both young men tumbling to the floor as a bright white light filled the entire cabin.
Asch swore under his breath, struggling to get back to his feet. The harder he tried, the more it felt like something was forcing him back down, restricting every movement, even breathing.
"D...dammit...!" he gasped out, trying to lift his head to see if Ginji was okay.
He could not see Ginji, or much of anything else for that matter. He did however see the form of a young woman, her back to him, her hands clasped behind her. The green dress she wore was of a style he did not recognize as nobility nor common, and just peeking under her hair were a pair of elongated ears.
"Are you all right?" she asked, and though he could not see her face, it was rather apparent that she was speaking into his mind rather than moving her lips. "Do not be afraid. You will be safe."
"Tch... w-who are you?" he demanded, his vision starting to swim from the pain of remaining conscious under this assault.
She turned to him slightly, but his uncooperative vision still prevented him from being able to see who she was. Black spots started to form in the corners of his vision, and he could feel unconsciousness starting to claim him.
"Do not worry for me. You will be safe."
Slowly, painfully slowly, the light from the Sephiroth Tree vanished, leaving the Albiore III hovering unsteadily in the air. Ginji groaned from where he fell, struggling up to his feet, holding his head as if it would help keep his brain from exploding.
"Ah... t-that was rather surprising, wasn't it, Master Asch?"
The young man expected a scathing remark in response, not the awkward and heavy silence that he did get. Ginji braced himself, afraid to see if Asch was unconscious on the ground as he turned... only to end up nearly jumping out of his skin as he realized that he was the only one still in the vehicle.
"Master Asch...?"
~.oOOo.~
A leaf fluttered down gently from somewhere above him, landing rather accurately on his nose. He twitched, eyes fluttering open before he let out an annoyed noise, blowing the leaf away from his face. Asch grumbled as he forced himself up, more leaves falling from his body; wherever he was, he had clearly been laying there for quite awhile. Despite the ache all over his body, he crawled up to his feet, shaking and nearly falling back over again before he finally steadied himself, taking a look around.
Clearly, it was a forest somewhere, but everything around him felt... off. The trees, the other plants, even the ground itself did not feel right, nor was any of it recognizable. He grumbled under his breath; the dreck was the one that was supposed to get blasted to the middle of nowhere for no real reason, not him!
"Dammit..." he muttered, taking a step in what seemed to be north. Perhaps if he could find a river, he would be able to find his way out of this place.
Wherever this place was, it seemed as if not even the monsters wanted to be there. Either that or they had all be frightened away by his unexpected arrival... however long ago that was. Still, the more he walked, the more it was starting to become apparent that he was not going to be encountering a river or any kind of civilization, and after what felt like hours, he finally collapsed against a tree, exhausted.
As he lay there, however, it quickly became apparent that something was very off about this place. He had yet to encounter any wildlife - even the sounds of birds chirping were absent - and everything was unearthly still. Gathering up his strength, Asch pushed himself away from the tree, stumbling down the way a bit farther.
Suddenly, the trees parted, revealing a clear plain that ran along a mountain ridge. The mountains towered over him, their shadow blocking most of the sunlight... but it was not just the mountains that cast such an impressive blanket over the land. A massive, ivory white tower stretched up from the ground, reaching up for the heavens and disappearing somewhere in the clouds. Asch nearly fell over trying to see the whole thing, and he stumbled to catch his balance, shaking his head. He was not on Auldrant anymore, that much was for certain; and that tower... it felt so unnatural...
He turned his back to it, walking away from it swiftly and trying to ignore the feeling of something crawling on the back of his neck. Despite his haste to retreat from that unnatural thing, he still was able to hear the flapping of wings, coming from somewhere high above and behind him. Asch quickened his pace, his hand going to his sword... before he spun around, sword lashing out just in time to clang against another.
Asch shoved his opponent away, jumping back to get his bearings, only to nearly lose himself once he caught sight of his attacker. There were only two, both androgynous, both wielding swords and dressed in armor with an emblem he did not recognize. What was most shocking about the two of them was the set of pure black wings on their backs, wings that were keeping them afloat a good foot or two off the ground.
He did not have much more time to be surprised; one of the creatures attacked then, and Asch had to throw up his sword to protect himself. It was sloppy, but it worked; the creature seemed rattled by him, and let his guard down for a moment. Normally, he would have pressed his attack, but this was not the time or the place for such confrontations, especially when he had no idea who - or what - these people were, where he was, or why he had come to be there. Asch turned and ran as fast as he could instead, the two winged beings hot on his heels. He made it to a river, and managed to travel a little ways toward something that resembled a coast line, before a man with an elongated nose and a long green cape covering most of his form suddenly materialized in front of him.
"And where do you think you're going?" the man asked in a reedy little voice as Asch skidded to a stop. The man did not wait for a response, instead holding out a hand, a beam of energy charging up. Asch jumped away just as the beam let loose, scorching the grass where he had been standing. The redhead swore violently, reaching out to the elements around him...
"O frigid blades pour forth. Icicle Rain!"
The fonons of this land, whatever it was, felt different than what he was used to, and the arte responded almost sluggishly. Still, a rain of icicles came down on the man, and one managed to hit him before he disappeared. He reappeared a moment later, a safe distance away and letting out an insidious cackle.
"Yes, yes, I knew it!" he exclaimed. "You resemble the Chosen quite closely. You'll do nicely."
"What are you blabbing about?" Asch demanded, sword posed to strike... until he suddenly found himself surrounded by a net. He swore again as he stumbled, fighting to throw the net off of him, but the winged creatures from before lifted him up, knocking him off his feet as well as letting his sword slip through the netting. The long nosed man picked it up, before motioning to the creatures.
"Take him to holding pen six," he ordered. "The procedure will begin immediately."
Asch felt his heart stop; he had heard words like that before, spoken with the same casual indifference as this strange man. The last time he had heard them, was after his kidnapping, just before his replica was born... Paranoia and survival instinct kicked in immediately, and the redhead thrashed as hard as he could, making the winged creatures struggle just to hold onto the net.
"Let go of me! Let go of me!"
~.oOOo.~
Asch was crouched, perfectly still and eyes closed, surrounded in complete darkness. Where ever this "holding pen six" was, they were not kind enough to turn on a light so he could see his surroundings. It did not bother him as much as he would have thought, however; if anything, it gave him time to think about how he was going to get out of this place.
Of course, he had already come up with an idea by now, but the hardest part of plans like these was the waiting. That creepy guy in the cloak had seemed pretty intent on grabbing him, and now he was taking his sweet time with... whatever the hell he had planned for him. Asch was already naturally short on patience, and this was not helping matters in the least.
It felt like hours before he heard the tell tale sound of a door opening, and he could feel light splash on his face. In that second, as the light hit him, he burst forward, arms coming up over his head and barreling through whomever it was that had opened the door. It was a brilliant plan (especially for him, not that he would admit that aloud), but there was a small hitch: he did not know what it looked like outside of his cell. When his foot met air, he quickly got a really good idea. Fortunately - or unfortunately - his fall did not last for very long, as one of the winged creatures from before grabbed him by his arms.
"My, my, you are a spirited young man for certain," the cloaked man commented, coming around in front of Asch on some kind of strange hovering fon tech. He glared at the strange man, wanting nothing more than to strangle him at the moment.
"Let me go, and I'll show you how spirited I can be!" he hissed, fighting against the creature's grasp.
The man let out a cackle that Dist would have been jealous of. "I think not. I have special plans for you, and I need you to be in one piece for them."
"Tch...!" Asch snarled, kicking his legs out toward the man's hover craft and though he managed to connect before he pulled away, it did much more damage to his poor foot than it did to the fon tech.
"Just who the hell are you, anyway?!"
The man glanced at him over his shoulder, unimpressed by the attempt to knock him off. "An inferior being has no need to know my name."
Asch let out another annoyed noise, struggling, but he might as well have been fighting against a vice. With a motion from the man, the winged creature lifted him up, and he took a pause glaring daggers at the back of the man's head to look around. He was in the middle of a very long, very large shaft, and all around him were other people trapped in cells similar to the one he had attempted to escape from. These other prisoners were clearly in much worse shape than he was at the moment, as he caught quite a few just milling mindlessly about, as if what little hope they had of ever seeing the light of day again had been taken from them long ago.
Asch felt his stomach bottom out at the sight of it all, but he refused to show it on his face.
When his feet were finally allowed to touch the ground again, he found himself in a perfectly clean and sterile laboratory. He grimaced, making one last effort to struggle against the creature as it half dragged him to the examination table, but it did him little good. Flashbacks of when he had gone through something like this as a child danced just out of the corner of his vision as his tabard, coat, and undershirt were stripped from him before he was forced onto the ice cold metal table. He ceased his struggling once the first strap was secured over his chest, giving one last kick at the winged assistant before he settled with glaring at the man instead.
"Oh, don't give me that look," he sneered, holding some kind of adornment in his hand. "Just think, if this experiment is successful, you might be a little more than an inferior being."
"There's nothing inferior about me!" Asch snapped, but the man ignored him.
Instead the long nosed freak placed the strange adornment on his chest, just below the base of his neck, and he could feel sharp points poking at his skin. In the next moment, the man slammed his hand hard on the jewelry, and Asch bit back a howl as those points shot into his skin, hooking around and heating up, as if they were fusing to his flesh. The glare came back in full force as he struggled, trying to break the bonds that held him with all the strength he could manage.
"Bastard!"
"Tut, tut," the man replied, looking amused. "If you can't stand that, I almost hate to see how you react to the real part of this experiment."
The winged creature approached, holding out a box with a green crystal resting inside. Asch frowned at it, a distrustful look on his face as the man carefully lifted it from its cushioning, like it was something exceptionally delicate.
"What the hell is that?" he hissed.
The man did not answer at first, leering down at Asch as he approached, the crystal gently cradled in his hands. He held it just a few inches above the ornament on his chest, where there was an obvious intent for the crystal to be set in. The closer it got to him, though, the more Asch could feel his skin prickle and his stomach twist, as if he already knew this crystal would not be good for him.
"Answer me, dammit!" he shouted, trying hard not to sound panicky and nearly failing.
"Don't worry. In a few minutes, you're not going to have enough of a mind to care."
The crystal came down, settling into the indentation, over top where a small part of his skin could be seen. As soon as the strange thing touched his flesh, however, blinding hot pain shot through Asch; it was worse than being replicated, worse than having his stomach split open. The kind of pain that crystal produced made it feel like every Fonon in his body was being ripped apart piece by tiny piece. He tried not to scream, but there was no way he could stop it that time; he was losing control of himself, of his body as it writhed in agony on the table... and of his powers.
He could feel his body starting to glow, Seventh Fonons flooding to him as if Lorelei itself was trying to stop whatever the crystal was doing to him. The man backed away from him, though Asch barely saw it out of the corner of his eye and did not really care either way. Everything was starting to burn now, but it was almost pleasant warmth, as if something inside of him was trying to comfort him, to urge him to relax. He fought against it, afraid doing so would have disastrous results... but he ultimately succumbed, and his world turned white.
Rating: PG-13; language and disturbing imagery
Pairing: None
Summary: An accident in the Albiore III lands Asch in a heap of trouble as he ends up in a world torn in two. Hunted by the forces in control, he has no choice but to rely on a sly and womanizing older man to help keep him - and his abilities - from falling into the wrong hands. Symphonia/Abyss crossover.
Note: Wow. Just wow. I actually started this story ages ago, and I'm just getting around to finishing the first chapter. This bodes well, really. XP I hope you all enjoy it regardless.
CHAPTER ONE
Asch gazed despondently out one of the many windows of the Albiore III, looking down far below at the massive gap in the land that had at one time been Southern Rugnica. Once the Outer Lands had been safely lowered into the Qliphoth, the area where Akzeriuth had once been filled in completely with water, as if there had never been a mining city there in the first place. It was a frightening thought: that hundreds of years worth of history could be obliterated in an instant, and the land itself seemed to deny that anything was amiss. If nature could forget its own destruction so easily, then how quickly would a single human life be forgotten...?
"Gald for your thoughts, Master Asch?"
Ginji's voice broke Asch away from the window and his own brooding, and his gaze flicked over to the young man, his expression unchanging.
"Just pondering on how little time there is allowed to us," he finally answered after a moment.
Ginji let out a good natured laugh. "We're still young yet, Master Asch," he replied, "we have all the time in the world still."
Asch graced the pilot with a small, "Humph," of annoyance, before turning his focus back to the window. All the time in the world... or at least, all the time the world would allow them to have before it finally gave up its own attempt at life. Yet still, even if they did succeed in saving this world... what little time would he be allowed to enjoy the victory?
His dark thoughts were interrupted once again, not by the pilot, but by the pilot's instruments. The lights in the cabin flickered to red, and a loud, bleating wail started coming from the console. Asch's cheek twitched slightly in nervousness, though that was about all the unease he allowed himself to show; he was not particularly keen on plummeting hundreds of feet to his death in a twisted heap of metal.
"What's going on?" he demanded.
"I don't know!" Ginji replied, sounding distressed. "The sensors are picking up a high level of energy from somewhere, but I can't tell fro-"
The other young man was cut off as a high pitched wail came from somewhere outside. Asch clasped his hands over his ears against the noise, before he paused. That sound...
"Below us!" he bellowed. "Move! Move!"
Though neither of them could see, the ocean below them was churning angrily, a faint glowing bubbling up from where the Akzeriuth Sephiroth used to be. As Ginji's foot slammed down on the accelerator, the Tree sprouted to life again, engulfing the Albiore before they could even move. The force rocked the whole ship, sending both young men tumbling to the floor as a bright white light filled the entire cabin.
Asch swore under his breath, struggling to get back to his feet. The harder he tried, the more it felt like something was forcing him back down, restricting every movement, even breathing.
"D...dammit...!" he gasped out, trying to lift his head to see if Ginji was okay.
He could not see Ginji, or much of anything else for that matter. He did however see the form of a young woman, her back to him, her hands clasped behind her. The green dress she wore was of a style he did not recognize as nobility nor common, and just peeking under her hair were a pair of elongated ears.
"Are you all right?" she asked, and though he could not see her face, it was rather apparent that she was speaking into his mind rather than moving her lips. "Do not be afraid. You will be safe."
"Tch... w-who are you?" he demanded, his vision starting to swim from the pain of remaining conscious under this assault.
She turned to him slightly, but his uncooperative vision still prevented him from being able to see who she was. Black spots started to form in the corners of his vision, and he could feel unconsciousness starting to claim him.
"Do not worry for me. You will be safe."
Slowly, painfully slowly, the light from the Sephiroth Tree vanished, leaving the Albiore III hovering unsteadily in the air. Ginji groaned from where he fell, struggling up to his feet, holding his head as if it would help keep his brain from exploding.
"Ah... t-that was rather surprising, wasn't it, Master Asch?"
The young man expected a scathing remark in response, not the awkward and heavy silence that he did get. Ginji braced himself, afraid to see if Asch was unconscious on the ground as he turned... only to end up nearly jumping out of his skin as he realized that he was the only one still in the vehicle.
"Master Asch...?"
~.oOOo.~
A leaf fluttered down gently from somewhere above him, landing rather accurately on his nose. He twitched, eyes fluttering open before he let out an annoyed noise, blowing the leaf away from his face. Asch grumbled as he forced himself up, more leaves falling from his body; wherever he was, he had clearly been laying there for quite awhile. Despite the ache all over his body, he crawled up to his feet, shaking and nearly falling back over again before he finally steadied himself, taking a look around.
Clearly, it was a forest somewhere, but everything around him felt... off. The trees, the other plants, even the ground itself did not feel right, nor was any of it recognizable. He grumbled under his breath; the dreck was the one that was supposed to get blasted to the middle of nowhere for no real reason, not him!
"Dammit..." he muttered, taking a step in what seemed to be north. Perhaps if he could find a river, he would be able to find his way out of this place.
Wherever this place was, it seemed as if not even the monsters wanted to be there. Either that or they had all be frightened away by his unexpected arrival... however long ago that was. Still, the more he walked, the more it was starting to become apparent that he was not going to be encountering a river or any kind of civilization, and after what felt like hours, he finally collapsed against a tree, exhausted.
As he lay there, however, it quickly became apparent that something was very off about this place. He had yet to encounter any wildlife - even the sounds of birds chirping were absent - and everything was unearthly still. Gathering up his strength, Asch pushed himself away from the tree, stumbling down the way a bit farther.
Suddenly, the trees parted, revealing a clear plain that ran along a mountain ridge. The mountains towered over him, their shadow blocking most of the sunlight... but it was not just the mountains that cast such an impressive blanket over the land. A massive, ivory white tower stretched up from the ground, reaching up for the heavens and disappearing somewhere in the clouds. Asch nearly fell over trying to see the whole thing, and he stumbled to catch his balance, shaking his head. He was not on Auldrant anymore, that much was for certain; and that tower... it felt so unnatural...
He turned his back to it, walking away from it swiftly and trying to ignore the feeling of something crawling on the back of his neck. Despite his haste to retreat from that unnatural thing, he still was able to hear the flapping of wings, coming from somewhere high above and behind him. Asch quickened his pace, his hand going to his sword... before he spun around, sword lashing out just in time to clang against another.
Asch shoved his opponent away, jumping back to get his bearings, only to nearly lose himself once he caught sight of his attacker. There were only two, both androgynous, both wielding swords and dressed in armor with an emblem he did not recognize. What was most shocking about the two of them was the set of pure black wings on their backs, wings that were keeping them afloat a good foot or two off the ground.
He did not have much more time to be surprised; one of the creatures attacked then, and Asch had to throw up his sword to protect himself. It was sloppy, but it worked; the creature seemed rattled by him, and let his guard down for a moment. Normally, he would have pressed his attack, but this was not the time or the place for such confrontations, especially when he had no idea who - or what - these people were, where he was, or why he had come to be there. Asch turned and ran as fast as he could instead, the two winged beings hot on his heels. He made it to a river, and managed to travel a little ways toward something that resembled a coast line, before a man with an elongated nose and a long green cape covering most of his form suddenly materialized in front of him.
"And where do you think you're going?" the man asked in a reedy little voice as Asch skidded to a stop. The man did not wait for a response, instead holding out a hand, a beam of energy charging up. Asch jumped away just as the beam let loose, scorching the grass where he had been standing. The redhead swore violently, reaching out to the elements around him...
"O frigid blades pour forth. Icicle Rain!"
The fonons of this land, whatever it was, felt different than what he was used to, and the arte responded almost sluggishly. Still, a rain of icicles came down on the man, and one managed to hit him before he disappeared. He reappeared a moment later, a safe distance away and letting out an insidious cackle.
"Yes, yes, I knew it!" he exclaimed. "You resemble the Chosen quite closely. You'll do nicely."
"What are you blabbing about?" Asch demanded, sword posed to strike... until he suddenly found himself surrounded by a net. He swore again as he stumbled, fighting to throw the net off of him, but the winged creatures from before lifted him up, knocking him off his feet as well as letting his sword slip through the netting. The long nosed man picked it up, before motioning to the creatures.
"Take him to holding pen six," he ordered. "The procedure will begin immediately."
Asch felt his heart stop; he had heard words like that before, spoken with the same casual indifference as this strange man. The last time he had heard them, was after his kidnapping, just before his replica was born... Paranoia and survival instinct kicked in immediately, and the redhead thrashed as hard as he could, making the winged creatures struggle just to hold onto the net.
"Let go of me! Let go of me!"
~.oOOo.~
Asch was crouched, perfectly still and eyes closed, surrounded in complete darkness. Where ever this "holding pen six" was, they were not kind enough to turn on a light so he could see his surroundings. It did not bother him as much as he would have thought, however; if anything, it gave him time to think about how he was going to get out of this place.
Of course, he had already come up with an idea by now, but the hardest part of plans like these was the waiting. That creepy guy in the cloak had seemed pretty intent on grabbing him, and now he was taking his sweet time with... whatever the hell he had planned for him. Asch was already naturally short on patience, and this was not helping matters in the least.
It felt like hours before he heard the tell tale sound of a door opening, and he could feel light splash on his face. In that second, as the light hit him, he burst forward, arms coming up over his head and barreling through whomever it was that had opened the door. It was a brilliant plan (especially for him, not that he would admit that aloud), but there was a small hitch: he did not know what it looked like outside of his cell. When his foot met air, he quickly got a really good idea. Fortunately - or unfortunately - his fall did not last for very long, as one of the winged creatures from before grabbed him by his arms.
"My, my, you are a spirited young man for certain," the cloaked man commented, coming around in front of Asch on some kind of strange hovering fon tech. He glared at the strange man, wanting nothing more than to strangle him at the moment.
"Let me go, and I'll show you how spirited I can be!" he hissed, fighting against the creature's grasp.
The man let out a cackle that Dist would have been jealous of. "I think not. I have special plans for you, and I need you to be in one piece for them."
"Tch...!" Asch snarled, kicking his legs out toward the man's hover craft and though he managed to connect before he pulled away, it did much more damage to his poor foot than it did to the fon tech.
"Just who the hell are you, anyway?!"
The man glanced at him over his shoulder, unimpressed by the attempt to knock him off. "An inferior being has no need to know my name."
Asch let out another annoyed noise, struggling, but he might as well have been fighting against a vice. With a motion from the man, the winged creature lifted him up, and he took a pause glaring daggers at the back of the man's head to look around. He was in the middle of a very long, very large shaft, and all around him were other people trapped in cells similar to the one he had attempted to escape from. These other prisoners were clearly in much worse shape than he was at the moment, as he caught quite a few just milling mindlessly about, as if what little hope they had of ever seeing the light of day again had been taken from them long ago.
Asch felt his stomach bottom out at the sight of it all, but he refused to show it on his face.
When his feet were finally allowed to touch the ground again, he found himself in a perfectly clean and sterile laboratory. He grimaced, making one last effort to struggle against the creature as it half dragged him to the examination table, but it did him little good. Flashbacks of when he had gone through something like this as a child danced just out of the corner of his vision as his tabard, coat, and undershirt were stripped from him before he was forced onto the ice cold metal table. He ceased his struggling once the first strap was secured over his chest, giving one last kick at the winged assistant before he settled with glaring at the man instead.
"Oh, don't give me that look," he sneered, holding some kind of adornment in his hand. "Just think, if this experiment is successful, you might be a little more than an inferior being."
"There's nothing inferior about me!" Asch snapped, but the man ignored him.
Instead the long nosed freak placed the strange adornment on his chest, just below the base of his neck, and he could feel sharp points poking at his skin. In the next moment, the man slammed his hand hard on the jewelry, and Asch bit back a howl as those points shot into his skin, hooking around and heating up, as if they were fusing to his flesh. The glare came back in full force as he struggled, trying to break the bonds that held him with all the strength he could manage.
"Bastard!"
"Tut, tut," the man replied, looking amused. "If you can't stand that, I almost hate to see how you react to the real part of this experiment."
The winged creature approached, holding out a box with a green crystal resting inside. Asch frowned at it, a distrustful look on his face as the man carefully lifted it from its cushioning, like it was something exceptionally delicate.
"What the hell is that?" he hissed.
The man did not answer at first, leering down at Asch as he approached, the crystal gently cradled in his hands. He held it just a few inches above the ornament on his chest, where there was an obvious intent for the crystal to be set in. The closer it got to him, though, the more Asch could feel his skin prickle and his stomach twist, as if he already knew this crystal would not be good for him.
"Answer me, dammit!" he shouted, trying hard not to sound panicky and nearly failing.
"Don't worry. In a few minutes, you're not going to have enough of a mind to care."
The crystal came down, settling into the indentation, over top where a small part of his skin could be seen. As soon as the strange thing touched his flesh, however, blinding hot pain shot through Asch; it was worse than being replicated, worse than having his stomach split open. The kind of pain that crystal produced made it feel like every Fonon in his body was being ripped apart piece by tiny piece. He tried not to scream, but there was no way he could stop it that time; he was losing control of himself, of his body as it writhed in agony on the table... and of his powers.
He could feel his body starting to glow, Seventh Fonons flooding to him as if Lorelei itself was trying to stop whatever the crystal was doing to him. The man backed away from him, though Asch barely saw it out of the corner of his eye and did not really care either way. Everything was starting to burn now, but it was almost pleasant warmth, as if something inside of him was trying to comfort him, to urge him to relax. He fought against it, afraid doing so would have disastrous results... but he ultimately succumbed, and his world turned white.