Family Circle

Introduction
All Cynteria could hear after passing out is different sounds and voice's that came in and out during the time she was passed out, some sounded like children laughter, others sounded like crying, and some sounded like the activities that she and Alice did in private. However, all of the sounds slowly died out as she started to wake up, opening her eyes to see that she was staring at a wooden celing.

"Where... Where am I?" She asked when she heard the sound of a door opening.

"Morning lazy....We're in another hotel on Korkon Island, Tsume was kind enough to give us a lift on their boat." Said Alice leaning over Cyn.

"Ugh... Man, what about Enigma, where is he!?" Cynteria said in an angry tone, but was held down by Alice.

"Gone....He left the island and nobody has seen him since." Said Tsume sitting by the door. "Was kinda hoping he's show off so i could end himself."

"Yeah he vanished after you owned him." Said Alice smiling. "You did good though he was created to kill Markus and you matched him."

"I don't even know how I managed to achieve it..." Cynteria said groaning as she felt her head pulsing from the pain she had taken.

"It's called the Phoenix Force." Said Tsume walking over. "I heard legends of the magic when i was a mercenary.....Was mentioned afew times this form they could enter that gives them a huge pwoer boost."

"Wow....You know more than i do." Said Alice sitting ont he bed. "And my brother IS a Phoenix Slayer."

"So he must've been able to use it too, but I never heard about it at all, then again my father didn't exactly teach me everything about the Phoenix" Cynteria said sighing as she moved her hand to grab Alice's.

"Ask Markus he could help when we get back. I'm sure he could help ya with some new tricks." Smiled Alcie laying next to Cyn. "So after you've recovered what shall we do? There some really cool castles around here and they got a martial arts tournement going on as well."

"I was thinking we go visit this nearby village, it's suppose to have this amazing festival today and I've honeslty never been to a festival before" She said chuckling like a school girl, but stopped when she felt pain on her sides.

"Luckly all the castles are in or near the village!" Smiled Alice helping Cyn up. "Come on lets go find some earth for you to absorb."

"I'm gonna find Abi...I think she got lost clothes shopping again." Said Tsume leaping out the open window.

Cynteria and Alice smiled as she helped her lover up and went to get her some earth to absorb.

Destiny's Way
The two walked around for abit heading towards the near by village but came across a horried discovery, the town was in ruins with some buildings still in ruins.

"What happened here?!" Said Alice shocked as she saw a woman's arm hanging out from beneath some rubble and a burnt teddy on the ground with dried blood on it's face. "Who did this?!"

Cynteria looked around at the devestation, she was in shock at what had just happened to the area, the once peaceful village was in ruin's as many were dead and bleeding on the floor. She was about to cry when she heard the sounds of soft sobbing, "Alice, there are survivor's!" She said running to the sound to the sobbing with Alice following behind.

Eventually they both found themselves in a house, still standing despite being the entire village being torn asunder as the crying could be heard louder.

Alice closed her eyes and moved her head around to find the source of the sound. "It's upstairs...." Said Alcie as she ran to the blocked staircase. "Damn!"

Alice tried to move the blockage but was unable she looked around abit for something to help her while Cyn did the same.

Cynteria sliced at the wooden blockade with her feathered wing as it managed to split it in half and allow the rubble to slide down the roof as she and Alice made their way upstairs. The two found two rooms and went in one, they found it to be a former little girl's room with all of the furniture and items all torn and broken, and in the middle of the room were a husband and wife, both stabbed as they were holding two dolls.

Cynteira was horrifed by the sight that she saw, but then heard the muffled sobbing as she looked at the closet, she turned to Alice who nodded. She then walked over slowly, reached out towards the door and opened it quickly, seeing two little girls in front of her, one had short white hair while the other was a younger sister with long flowing blue hair as the older sister stood in front of the younger one, trying to make sure Cynteria wouldn't harm them.

"Easy, I'm not going to hurt either of you, you're safe now" Cynteria said with a kind and gentle smile on her face as she looked at them.

Alice looked around and noticed the swords. "They look familiar...." Said Alice as she reached for the blade only to be stopped by a voice.

"They're weapons used by Vega's personal band of zealots...." Said the voice. "I got here too late.....Sh*t!"

Alice turned around and saw her twin brother Markus standing in the doorway holding the lifeless body of a Black Hand Zealot.

"Guys, please..." Cynteria said glaring at the two of them, reminding them that there were two young girls that had just lost their parentsd and were scared half to death, "Come on out... It's okay, nobody's gonna hurt you" She said with a gentle smile as the girl with white her slowly made her way out of the closet with her little sister in hand as Cynteria had covered their parent's bodies to make sure that they didn't see anything.

"The survivers have gathered at the town square....Lets get there." Said Markus dragging the Zealot's body behind him, while the sealot had no injuries it was obvious he wasdead by the large lump in the side of his neck. "I've got no clue what Vega is doing here....This region has no involvement in the Archipelgo War.....Then again Vega isn't one for rational thinking or mental stability."

"It looks like he just attacked for the hell of it." Said Alice glancing at the body Markus was dragging. "Was he a straggler?"

"Yep....His friends ran once i appear and this weakling took his own life." Said Markus looking at his sister showing the anger building up in his eyes. "Thought i'd bring him along for the towns people to do whatever they want with....."

Cynteria nodded as she looked down to the sisters, "Come, we'll take you to the group, I'm sure the elder's there will help you" She said smiling as she attempted to grab the younger sister, but stopped when the older one blocked her way, glaring at her. "It's okay, you can trust us, we'll protect you and your sister" She said with a smile as Alice walked over and nodded.

The younger sister nodded as she let Cynteria pick her up while Alice held the older sister's hand.

Markus looked back and sighed, he then looked at his luggage and decided to toss it into a near by fire. "Now your body can experience the fires of hell...." He mumbled as he walked away. "So do we know the names of the kids?"

"Not yet Markus....Let them recover a bit first." Said Alice.

Cynteria felt the younger sister tighten her grip on Cynteria, starting to cry again as they exited the house, both Alice and Cynteria could tell that she was still so scared as her older sister went to her and rubbed her back to comfort her.

"It's okay, you're safe now, there's no need to be scared" Cynteria said with a smile.

Markus walked over and patted the little girl on the head and smiled. "It's ok we'll protect you from anything kid....." Said Markus taking the girl from Cyn and using his lightning to create beutiful sparks in the hopes to cheer up up and distract her. "I'm Markus Hotaru the red head is my twin sister Alice Hotaru and the one with green hair is Cynteria her girlfriend....."

Cynteria elbowed Markus as she took back the girl who giggled when she saw the sparkles and saw Markus groaning in pain, "Excuse me, I believe you meant to say Sister-In-Law" She said showing off the ring that Alice had bought for her.

"Ya what?!" Said Markus alittle shocked. "Well thanks for waiting till ya got home.....Besides i haven't given my blessing as the head of the Hotaru clan it's my right and duty."

"Well I figured after saving her from a ruthless butcher, I thought that would've made up for it" Cynteria said adjusting the young girl's weight in her arms.

"Which one?" Asked Markus leading the way to the town square.

"Enigma...." Said Alice following on.

Markus stopped at hearing the name of Enigma. "You managed to beat him?" He asked Cyn turning around with a smirk.

"Well not destroy him, but yeah, I was able to take him down with my Phoenix Force that I unlocked" She said as they kept on walking to the town center with Alice carrying the older sister as she had fallen asleep on her shoulder, slightly drooling.

"Lets see if we can find somewhere to rest.....We'll pick up the hunt for Vega tommorow." Said Markus glancing around.

"What about these two?" Asked Alice stroking the big sister's hair as she slept.

"We'll bring them along....Can't leave them here, but we'll make sure they don't see us when we find Vega." Said Markus.

Cynteria nodded as the group made their way to an empty house nearby to allow themselves some rest as Cynteria and Alice put the two sister's to a clean bed that they managed to find. Afterwords, they went to the kitchen to see if any food was still there,

"Damn, not so much food" Cynteria said as she saw a couple pieces of meat and some rice.

"We can do sometihng with this...." Said Markus as he openned a pouch on one of his belts and pulled out some herbs. "Can make a broth from the meat juices and make a beef rice stew."

"Ohhh sounds nice!" Said Alice sitting down. "So whats the plan?"

"I found some traks to the east so that's their route we'll follow it and end them." Said Markus lighting a small fire with his magic.

"I'm all for trying to get them, but we have the two girl's with us, before we head out, we must find someone to take them in" Cynteria said adding some more herbs as she began chopping them up.

"We can bring them with us...I know afew people in this region that can help us....Tsume and Abi Kurosaki. Came across them earlier in the week." Said Markus as he stirred the stew abit. "They're tracking them at the moment."

"Hey we know them!" Said Alice smiling. "They helped us with Enigma!"

"Well thats handy....We can leave the kids with them while we tear Vega's men apart." Said Markus tasting the strew. "Ok it's ready....Alice put some in a couple of bowls and take it to the kids."

"Ok!" Said Alice doing as her brother asked.

Cynteria and Alice each grabbed one bowl as they went upstairs to give the food to both of the kids as they were awake and holding each other as they heard them both look up to see them a bit scared. "Hey, it's okay, it's just us come on, we brought you two some warm food" Cynteria said as the older sister glared and held her younger sister tightly.

"You need to relax....We are the people who are gonna kill those who do this to your home." Smiled Alice as she placed a bowl at the end of the bed.

Markus came up the staris. "Hey i'm gonna train abit out the back...I've eaten already.....Yours is waiting by the fire." He said before leaping out the hole next to the stairs.

"Typical...Always wants to be ready for the next fight." Said Alice with a smile.

"Here, eat up, you two had a hard day" Cynteria said as the older girl glared before grabbing the bowl that Alice had placed and beginning to eat. Cynteria chuckled and was about to give the younger girl the bowl, but saw that she had already left and gone to the window, looking at the lightning that Markus was producing.

"Pretty isn't it?" She asked walking over as the girl looked back and nodded.

"Mama used to tell me that Lightning wasn't scary, it was part of nature, and nature wasn't something to be scared of" the young girl finally spoke as Cynteria was suprised.

Markus mixed his martial arts with his lightning before stopping and changing his look, growing 5 feathers on his forearms, lightning bolt marking across his skin and lightning to constantly come from his eyes. He then moved faster and summoned a sword swining it with an amazing level of skill and elegance.

"Wow... That's so cool..."Was all she could say before her tummy decided it was time to eat as she smelled the warm food and took it from Cynteria before going to sit over with her older sister.

"Well, I'm glad you guys like the food" Cynteria said smiling.

As the kids were eating they hear a loud noise like a bird screaching and a bright like outside. Followed by the sound of lightning disappating. "Well thats enough warming up my magic....I think i'll focus on physical aspects for now." Said Markus out side following by the sound of body parts moving at great speeds with the off booming of immense strength shaking the ground itself. "Vega will probably use ambushes at first but looks his limited paitence and attack head on....He's not one for manipulation so we won't ahve any 3rd parties working with him.....Though we could expect some problems from angry 3rd parties linking us to him in the wrong way."

"Markus stop talking to yaself!!" Shouted Alice with a smirk. "Strange man...."

"He can't help it, he gets really focused on his training it seems" Cynteria replied as the sounds of smal burps could be heard as the two girl's had finished their soup.

"So, did you two enjoy it?" Cynteira said looking at the older sister.

"It was fine...." Said the older sister. "What magic is he using?"

"Storm Phoenix Slayer Magic it's a rare lost magic taught to humans by phoenixes....He was taught by The Storm Lord Botlerus." Said Alice smiling. "Cyn is a Phoenix slayer as well but she uses the Earth style and was taught by the Earth Lord Stontas."

"Why kill phoenixes?" Asked the older sister.

Suddenly Markus appear and openned the window. "Well regular phoenixes can be effected by an illness that drives them mad and they attack everything and anything....." He said stepping into the room. "The Phoenix King told the other phoenixes that they could only kill a feral phoenix if one attacked them....So to counter that order they made us.....Now at first there were hundreds of us all finding and kill these ferals so they ould be reborn and come back with some extra resistance to the illness....But it came at a cost, many Slayer went rogue and began to hunt phoenixes for mroe power....That is an option we can take we can absorb a part of a phoenixes soul to gain mroe power and true immortality or the entire soul and replace that phoenix......However at this time they were hunting for power and killed any phoenix they came across or tried to....Thats when the Phoenix King decreed that 1 slayer per phoenix and if that Slayer wanted to create their own slayer but only one.....The bulk of the Slayers now are created by the Phoenix Nobles like Bolterus and Stontas."

"So you hunt them when they god mad? Why do they go mad....I mean i know it's an illness but how did they get it in the first place" Asked the older sister.

"Well before humans came into the world the gods made phoenixes to protect nature and all that the gods created from the dark gods they've been fighting.....The illness was the cause of a fight between a demonic lord known as Hodareth....After he was beaten he cursed all phoenixes to go mad and kill their own.....Luckly the phoenix king appear in person for the first and only time to try and coutner the curse.....He only weakened it enough that the Phoenix Lords, himself and his mate the Phoenix Queen were immune....Luckly each time a feral is killed and reborn they gain more resistance to the illness so they can't sucumb to it as easy."

"Ok next question....Why can't the Phoenix King enter our world?" Asked the sister her curisoity peaked.

"It's simple he's so pwoerful his very presence distorts the world around him....Trees grow out of control, the weather becomes chaotic and the earth begins to break and volcanos erupt and burn all." Said Markus sitting on the floor. "This is why he uses a form of thouht projection t oappear in human form when he wants to vist here....Normally he'sfound in the phoenix realm....Humans cna't enter it even Slayers...If we do our bodies break down and we vanish from reality....apparently."

"Huh, I never know anything like that" Cynteria said looking over to them, "Then again, it wouldn't be the first thing that he kept from me" Cynteria replied as she looked at the sister's.

"So, what's gonna happen to us now?" The younger girl said looking at them.

"Not sure but for now we'll look after ya." Said Markus smiling at the two.

"Yep!" Said Alice hugging the two sisters tightly. "We'll protct you with our lives!"

"That's right, you guys are more than happy to join up with us" Cynteria said smiling as she joined the hug, making Markus looking at them, seeing a future family.

"So you two gonna tell us your names....Will make things alot easier for us." Said Markus looking at the sky through the hole in the roof.

"My name is Joo Dee" The younger sister said looking at the grown ups.

"Chae Yi...." Said the older sister.

"Nice to meet ya." Said Markus standing up. "Lets all get some rest before we head off."

"Yeah i think thats a good idea." Said Alice standing up and stretching.

Cynteira looked at the two girls, "Get some sleep you two, tomorrow we have a long journey ahead of us" She said as the two sisters slowly went into the bed's sheets as she placed a large blanket on top of the both of them, before blowing out the lantern's.

Markus was sitting on the remains of the front wall watching the city. "You guys go to sleep i'll keep watch...." He said as he looked at the village.

"Yeah sure..." Said alice laying down on the floor and pulling Cyn down with her. "Cya tommorow bro!"

"Haha, good night" Cynteria also said as she placed the blanket over the two of them as Markus closed the door, "Wow, I have to admit, this wasn't what I expected" She said feeling sad.

"A wise man never trusts his expectations.....But flows with the way of life." Said Markus still watching the city. "It's a shame i didn't get here sooner....Some more people would've survived this attack...."

Hunter's Journey
After the long day's sleep for the small ground, the sound of the wind slowly woke up many of the people that were sleeping as Alice and Cynteria woke up, smiling at each other, "Good morning, sleep well?" She asked with a chuckle.

"Yeah i did...despite having a large rock digging into my right leg..." Said Alice throwing the rock away. "Hey seen Markus?"

Alice got up and looked around trying to spot her brother but couldn't. She then went upstairs to see if he was there but again he wasn't.

"No, not since we went to bed" Cynteria said sitting up as she looked around, trying to get any sign that Markus was still here or out.

Suddenly Markus teleported just outside the building. "Good news and bad news....." He said stepping in holding a bag of supplies.

"Whats the good news?" Asked Alice as she came down the stairs.

"Well good news is that Vega has left the island....The bad news is he's gone south...." Said Markus putting down the bag down. "I found a zealot that got left behind and after some interrogation said they were going to Destero Island south of Mochina...."

"Ok so whats so bad about that?" Asked Alice sitting down on a chunk of the roof.

"It's a independant island....Led by a very paranoid leader and the police are as well.....So we as strangers will have a real fun time...." Said Markus leaning against whats left of the wall. "We'll head back to Mochina so you two can have your wedding and officially induct Tsume, Abi and Cyn into the guild....Then we'll head to Destero and finish this."

"Well that seem's simple enough" Cynteria said with a chuckle as she stood up and stretched her arms, "We better go talk with the kids about this Alice, I don't think they'll just accept being brought to a strange new place without them deciding if it's right for them or not" She told Alice as she and her walked up to the stairs to their room.

"Yeah lets talk to them about it." Said Alice following Cyn up the stairs.

"I'll go get Tsume and Abi....And see if i can arrage a lift back home." Said Markus turning around and heading off to find the others. "I spent most of lastnight looking for those suppleis and they don't even notice....."

As they both entered the room, they saw that the Chae and Joo were still sleeping in their bed as Cynteria gently smilied before walking over to see them, "Hey sleeping beauties, it's time to get up" She said pulling back the blanket as the older sister made a grab for it.

"Hmmm that reminds me of someone." Smiled Alice looking at Cyn bfore poking the two sister. "Come on you two we got a surprise for ya."

Both finally groaned before they rubbed their eyes and looked up to the two as they were still sleepy, "What is it?" Joo Dee asked with a sleepy tone.

"Well, me and Alice were thinking, we know it's been hard since you met up with us, but we have a good feeling about you two. So we were wondering, would you like to become our daughter's?" Cynteria said with a smile as the two sisters looked in shock.

"Relax i'm as shock as you two." Smiled Alice as she hugged Cyn. "I think it's a great idea though!"

"I-i don't know...." Said Chae Yi looking down. "Will we be leaving here?"

"Yeah we will....But you'll be safe with the rest of our guild, we're all family there and we'll protect you and help you." Said Alice smiling. "Plus Mochina Island where me and Markus are from has loads of adventure in the capital alone!"

"Will we be able to do cool stuff like that other guy?" Joo Dee said with excitment in her voice as Alice and Cynteria laughed.

"Well, we don't know if you two have the potential for magic, but we'll have to see won't we?" Cynteria said picking her up and hugging her.

"We can ask Markus he can see magic within people remember...You should be able to as well being a Phoenix Slayer and all." Said Alice hugging the older sister. "We'll keep you guys safe and make sure you never loose your family again."

Both of the girl's looked at each other before smiling and looking back to the duo, "We'd like to come with you!" They said in a confident tone as both of their newly adopted mother's chuckled before giving them each a kiss on the cheek.

"Ok lets head home!" Smiled Alice as she picked up the older sister. "Only problem is we gotta find your new uncle.....We'll be here awhile then...."

Cynteria carried the younger sister as they both headed out the door to the downstair's area as they grabbed their bag's and handed the smaller one's to their new daughter's.

They sat outside the ruined building for a couple of hours waiting for Markus, Tsume and Abi. Eventually the three arrived and they started to make their way to an old patrol boat that a deceased soldier left behind.

"Wow this is actually in surprisingly good condition seeing at it's 50 years old." Said Tsume examining the boat. "So anyone know how to sail one of these?"

"I do go check the engine see if it's got enough Lacrima feul...." Said Markus stepping aboard placing the Chae Yi on the deck with her bag. "Ok how's it looking down there Tsume?"

"We got 3/4 fuel left should enough to get back right?" Said Tsume pocking his head out the engine compartment.

"Yeah and if we run out there alittle trick i cna do with my magic to get us that extra bit of distance." Said Markus starting the engine up.