Revealed Secrets

The Liahona guides Serenity to loose trust in someone she holds dear

Serenity laid on the couch in Ash's room, her face buried in a pillow. It was a room she normally wouldn't come within fifteen feet of but her lack of same-gendered friends led her to make tough choices.

"I haven't talked to Alessio in two weeks." She mumbled into the soft pillow. She'd given him the pillow around the end of summer. Over the summer they'd been stuck there. Ash's permanent residence was there and Serenity stayed there one month of her two month break so she could get ahead of the game in chemistry and catch up on math.

She was a little lonely and bored because GC was a ghost town. She and a few other people decided to camp out together in order to combat boredom and isolation. Ash and her got a lot closer in that month and before she left to go home she gave him a pillow with an A stitched onto it in front of a cross. 

"I am sure you haven't." Ash said, his voice clearly agitated.

I'm annoying him. He hates me. He's always hated me. He just pretends to be friends with me because we work together. What if he thinks I'm the traitor. Oh my goodness.

"I can hear you having an anxiety attack Serin. You're being a girl, it's annoying. If you want to talk to him then talk to him. Since when do you like Hunter Alistair? You're annoyingly obvious when you like people. You can't like Hunter you haven't accidentally stalked him yet." Ash said, Serenity took a chopstick out of the bun in her hair and threw it at him. 

"I don't know, I just woke up one day and Hunter Alistair is all I think about everyday." Serenity giggled uncharacteristically. Ash looked at her oddly, raising a single eyebrow.

"I'm starting this by saying I don't believe in God," Ash stated, walking over to Serenity. ",but, have you used the Liahona yet?"

"No, why?" Serenity sat up on the soft green couch, crossing her legs. She lifted her hand and opened her palm, asking for her chopstick back. Because she'd taken one out her hair had dropped down into a mass of shiny red curls that hung past her shoulders. She hadn't bothered to have it cut in a while because she'd been preoccupied so it was growing longer. 

"I think you need to use it, you dumb w***e." With that Ash tossed the chopstick back. Three packs of vanilla pudding later Serenity had been convinced to go to Alessio's room to get the Liahona. 

Serenity stuck her spoon in the pudding she'd been given then pushed the white substance in her mouth with a smile as they approached Alessio's room. Right as they got to his door, five or six girls were leaving his room. Ash looked at Serenity. Then Serenity looked at Ash.

"Were those...." Serenity started

"Yes."

"Like, actual...."

"Yes." Ash raised an eyebrow at Serenity, before walking forward and pushing the door open to Alessio's room.

In it, was a female sitting down on the bed with Alessio and Dan sitting in a swivel chair, spinning around. Dan and the female were cracking up laughing while Alessio looked incredibly annoyed. 

"Serenity, hi!" Dan waved as the chair begun to spin more slowly.

Serenity completely ignored the greeting, looking at Alessio. She then realized that she was ignoring 2 out of 3 people in the room and the third she didn't know so automatically wouldn't talk to. She glanced at Ash, giving him strong 'you deal with this and let me leave' signals. As expected he didn't pick up and moved farther into the room. Thankfully once Ash entered the female said goodbye and left.

"Who were those chicks?" Ash asked, sitting on the bed and leaving Serenity in the entrance. 

"You're growing your hair out? It looks nice, I like long hair." Dan commented to Serenity. She glared at him, seriously considering going bald just because of that statement. How dare he make that statement, he no longer had any right to comment on her looks. 

"I'm cutting it today." Serenity responded briefly. Avoiding eye contact with the brown haired male.

"Why, Serin? It looks-" Dan started.

"That is NOT my name!" Serenity boomed. Or at least she boomed in her own 107 pound girl sort of way.

"You gave me a nickname, you call me Smith." Dan qualified his actions and gave Serenity a knowing smile that got under her skin. Dan somehow always knew when it came to Serenity. It irritated her, because even if he just raised his eyebrow or moved his eyes to the left she knew what he meant by it.

Is this guy completely daft? Entirely stupid? Can he even read? It isn't a nickname it's his last name and it's NOT SUPPOSED TO BE NICE. Gosh. this guy.

"Serenity. You have to help me." Alessio said to Serenity, breaking the silence. When the girl looked at him she was taken back because his face was in complete despair. "These girls. They won't leave me alone." He complained, seeming unnaturally vulnerable. 

Serenity let out a large laugh, "Are you serious?" 

Alessio gave her a sharp look that told Serenity that he wasn't playing. This simply served to make the redhead girl laugh even harder. Her face turning red in her amusement Alessio picked up a pillow and chucked it at her, Serenity simply summoned her scythe and knocked it to the side one handed-ly. Her pudding was in the othr hand and her spoon threatening to fall out. Thankfully, because Alessio wasn't directly controlling her- just allowing her- she could make the scythe small. Otherwise her sacred pudding would be done.

"You came here for something." Ash said in a low voice.

"Right, I did. Um, Alessio I need to use the Liahona. Ash thinks that the whole Alistair thing might be some sort of- well, I just need to use the Liahona." Serenity said, Alessio easily grabbed the device and tossed it to her. Serenity's eyes went wide, "ARE YOU SERIOUS THIS IS SACRED FOR MORMONS YOU CAN'T JUST TOSS IT WHAT IF I COULDN'T CATCH IT?" Serenity exclaimed.

"It can't be broken. One of the girls you saw threw it against the wall to see if it would bounce. Dan then used it and it worked fine. After that I threw it out of my dorm window on a hunch and when you use it and it still works that will confirm my theory." Alessio said easily.

THAT IS COMPLETELY RIDICULOUS! WHAT IF IT IS ACTUALLY BROKEN! JEEZ ALESSIO!!

"Whatever, what did Da- he find." Serenity asked.

"I found you." Dan said easily.

"Come again?" Serenity asked flatly.

"I found you. I used it and it showed me a battle when we were partners but it only focused on you." Dan looked intensely into her eyes,

"I fear this means giving you to Dan. We've already discussed a temporary partner exchange until this mystery is solved. Don't take too long though, we're going against Cynthia today." Alessio said calmly, as if giving her to Dan- even momentarily- was an option.

"That isn't necessarily what that means. Actually you coming in here and giving me a terrible rendition of Ash's theory gives me a hunch. If you two were meant to be partners you'd be drawn to each other if you being drawn to Hunter is a hint from the liahona. Considering you want him to be as far away from you as possible and Dan feels the same way he did forever, you two are definitely not drawn to each other. I suspect what he saw simply means that he needs you. Whatever he has to do, however he contributes to the cause, he needs you." Alessio told her, causing her to calm down.

"I can deal with that. I'm going to go use this now, however it actually works." Serenity left the room. Right as she pulled the door mostly shut behind her she blacked out. When she opened her eyes again she was in Cynthia's room. She'd never been in it before because Cynthia had a large sense of privacy but she thought it was hers because Cynthia's favorite hat was on the tv she was looking at. She walked around and everything was a little shaky and hazy, it didn't feel like she was actually there. Somehow the idea firmly came to her that she was in a different dimension. When she couldn't wrap her head around that the idea that next was placed in her head was an example. Something along the lines of there was one-dimension, two-dimension, three-dimension and four-dimension she was simply in a different state. Serenity accepted it and moved on. 

She looked around, thinking it was a little weird how Cynthia decorated the place completely red when it hit her. The room was covered in blood. She looked down where she was standing, she was surrounding by candles that were in a large circle. She shrieked and jumped out of the circle in a hurry. When she looked into the circle she expected to see a pentagram or an upside down cross but she didn't. All she saw was more blood that looked like it was smudged or wiped.

Cynthia no, please no. Tell me this isn't a f*****g black mass.

Serenity's eyes welled up with tears as she walked around the room, it was a textbook black mass. There was even evidence of the activities that were supposed to be done at a black mass. Serenity shook her head no, she didn't believe it and she wanted to leave. She knew she had too though, she walked on and entered the connecting bathroom. She was always jealous seniors got connecting bathrooms. In it was Hunter Alistair and he looked frantic, worried and near in tears. After taking a few deep breaths he knelt down to some cleaning materials, picked them up and entered the room again. Hunter began to clean up the room, infusing normal cleaning techniques with a bit of magic to get the job done more quickly. Suddenly things began going fast forward and when it stopped Serenity knew a hour and a half had passed. Hunter was done cleaning and stood, stretching out. The door began to jiggle and Hunter froze. Cynthia entered and yelled something and Hunter. There was a struggle and Cynthia was somehow subdued and laid on the ground unconscious and Hunter exited the room quickly. 

Serenity opened her eyes in her real body, gasping for air. She was laying in the hallway in front of Cynthia's room. She began looking around frantically, adrenaline pumping through her veins. In a split second decision she jumped up and opened the room. When she did there was no Cynthia, no sign of a struggle, no anything. Not even the cleaning materials Hunter left behind. The set up of the room was even different. She looked around and shuffled through a few papers and deduced this was actually Cynthia's room. Whatever room she just saw wasn't Cynthia's.

She left the room and reported everything to Alessio who revealed she'd been gone for maybe two hours. The only people in the room were her and Alessio, Serenity cleared everyone else out.

Alessio had a very troubled look on his face. "Damn it all!" Alessio slammed his fist on his desk. "I wish I could of seen this my self. From what you've told me, I concur on your theory that the room you were placed in and the room you woke up in front of are two different rooms. I don't believe someone could change out every single aspect of a room easily and there is no reason for them to. The original room does seem to have every indicator of a black mass. The room had a connecting bathroom so it's a senior room, it couldn't belong to Hunter and we already know it doesn't belong to Cynthia. Both of them were called there, neither of them performed the black mass. I would highly doubt it. Hunter, I would say is being black mailed. Why else would he clean up the room while entirely scared out of his mind. Cynthia was called there to catch Hunter and put suspicion on him rather than the culprit." 

Alessio stopped talking and laid down on his bed, his face in the pillow. He stayed that way for ten minutes. Serenity took the time to cry in relief. She was so glad Cynthia didn't do it and neither did Hunter. When she ran out of tears she realized she wasn't drawn to Hunter any longer, confirming Ash's thinking that it was an idea implanted into her head.

"Serenity, call everyone here." Alessio said, his voice heavy.

"Everyone?" Serenity asked.

"Everyone. Our team and Dan. For that matter I have faith in Arai too. Whoever did it isn't mormon which Arai is and more heads are better than one." Alessio sighed and Serenity quickly did so and everyone showed up.

Serenity recounted her experience with the Liahona for Alessio. "Now, I've come up with a narrowed list of people who could be the culprit," Alessio begun, "This is in no particular order other than how I think of it but first, the man is smart and yes it is a man." Alessio paused because everyone began to interject at once. "The toilet seat was up according to Serenity. Now if you would all stop interrupting. Now that we've covered the culprit is male and the male is extraordinarily smart i would also say he's arrogant. He's entirely confident in his intelligence. He has a close enough relationship with Cynthia for Cynthia to have entered his room. Also he's an atheist with catholic backgrounds or catholic. This is because he performed a black mass. He also has several accomplices, none of which are Cynthia and Hunter. Cynthia was caught by surprise and Hunter was a.) blackmailed and b.) not female. All of the culprit's accomplices are female. It's necessary in order to have a black mass, if you know what that is you'd know. The females may or may not have consented to the partnership. If Hunter was blackmail I would have to say some if not all of them are being blackmailed."

Alessio finished and looked at the entire team, everyone having a heavy face at how real this situation became and how involved they now were. "Now, look for someone who meets those qualifications. If you can, get close to him. If you can enter his room and remember what you saw tell Serenity so she can say if it's a match. Right now, Serenity and I need to battle the Creator and Cynthia." 

Everyone nodded in response.

 ______________________________________________________________________________

When Serenity and Alessio arrived in the arena their bodies were still buzzing from the adrenaline of the discovery. Serenity could barely focus as the crowd roared in her ears. She looked up and saw Cynthia's entire team talking and laughing. After further inspection she saw her friends sitting a bit below Cynthia's team. She looked back at Alessio and his face was cold.

"Cynthia Lancaster, ranked thirtieth universally and Wesley Reynolds, ranked twenty-fifth universally." The announcer said, the crowd going wild. America had the highest ranking students in the world but even if Cynthia and the Creator (Wesley) both dropped rankings from the beginning of the year they were still extremely strong for their age. They were only ranked among high school students so against college students and adults they would loose easily (College students and adults were all in the same ranking pool though after college a great many people gave up their abilities to lead normal lives. Others hunted demons as a side job and often married their partners because having multiple partners became much less common after college. The remainders worked jobs for God's Chosen as an organization rather than a school. Serenity herself was planning to go into biochemistry for GC and work in one of their labs. She knew a lot of people planning to join demon hunting groups).

"Alessio Iwertz, ranked forty-seventh universally and Serenity Starr ranked two hundred-and-third universally." The announcer said, the crowd laughing. Serenity went completely red.

"You're a sophomore and you haven't actually been seen at events like this. Your ranking isn't accurate to your skill level. They can only base it off your grade's, mission reports and expected skill level. Besides, there are probably five thousand GC students around the world. I guarantee you that your rankings will skyrocket after this match- even if we lose." Alessio reassured her. Serenity gulped in fear but nodded at him.

A digital voice began counting down from thirty to signal when they could start. Serenity took her breaths along with the counting. The robotic voice seemed to become a part of her. It reverberated in her head, it was the only thing she could think.

5

4

3

2

1...

Serenity shot her hand out and her scythe appeared in it, as long and gaudy as it usually was. Serenity didn't move after a few seconds and she looked at Alessio, expecting him to do something. Suddenly she was lurched into action, her body running towards the Creator at normal speeds. the Creator launched balls fire at Serenity. They hit her each time, but she dodged enough that they just burned the sides of her arms.

It hurt like hell, even for a God's Chosen student trained to have a much higher pain tolerance than regular people.

The Creator ran at her next, forcing Alessio to put Serenity in the defensive. Somehow Serenity suspected that was just what Alessio because Serenity was running slower than she could with the scythe and jumping shorter distances than she could normally.

She then held her ground, planting her feet down firmly and bracing herself. Suddenly it was extremely hot as a ball of fire barreled towards her. Right as it was about to hit her, her weapon shrunk in her hands almost instantaneously.

If I win this I will seriously start donating to the Alessio is Always Right Foundation. Serenity thought, and then she jumped. 

Reviews

[Crazed Flame]

Start donating to the AARF. Realizing just how stupid that acronym is we will not be using ever again. you see Alessio is one of the selected few who is immune to the disease that has effected 99.9999% of the population in the world. A disease with a cure, DEATH, luckily there is another cure. Alessio shall show the error in everyone's way. Sadly no one is perfect so if you are having girl problems look for another Gary Stu (here is a definition for a Gary Stu: A Mary Sue or, in case of a male, Gary Stu or Marty Stu is an idealized fictional character, a young or low-rank person who saves the day through extraordinary abilities. Often but not necessarily this character is recognized as an author insert and/or wish-fulfillment.) Alessio is totally the person I want to be except for the ponytail get rid of the ponytail.

[Erza]

I love the story so far, but one thing that bugs me is that you sometimes leave things unfinished. one example would be how Serenity was suppose to tell Allen's girlfriend of his death, and we never got to hear how that ended. keep going the way you are going but make sure you complete what you started!