She stood as still as a statue when she saw him step off the chariot. He stood silently, looking at her, peering at her, trying to figure out how such a girl managed to defeat most of his gang without any help. She said nothing, and he said nothing. She looked at him, he looked back. He stepped forward, she readied her scythe. Crilok Cid looked amused by this display of defence at him.

"What, you gonna fight using that little dagger on a twig?" He uttered mockingly. Vera's attention was then drawn to his heavy-looking weapons buckled to his belt, as his sides. They looked fit for someone of Cid's size and musculature, seeing as he his a big, beefy man. Obviously, they looked like they would do some serious damage to Vera should she be unlucky enough to be hit directly. She looked at him with apprehension as he stepped forward once again.

"I don't know who the hell you are, but if you're the boss of all these rats, then you'd best git the fuck off my property!" Vera yelled out as she took a step back. She wasn't too confident in fighting him, mainly because he looked like he would be able to snap her scythe like a twig. Crilok looked at her and chuckled, then looked at all his men and laughed even more! "I'm...I'm serious! If you don't leave, I'll cut all you guys up real bad!" She yelled with a slight twinge of fear in her voice.

"Oh, you're gonna cut us up real bad? Please, don't make me laugh! Also, this is my property now. Last I remember, this house hasn't had an owner livin' here for quite a many years! And naturally, since the owner never came back within those years to at the very least keep his house clean, we decided to take his responsibilities away from him. Besides, it's not like he'll be back anytime soon."

"One mistake: This is my house. I'm the owner."

"What, you?" Cid inquired as he leaned in to get a slightly better look at her. "Alright, I'll buy it." Vera's heart lightened. "But this is my property now. You should've stuck around a lot more to make sure us hearts without homes don't suddenly take over, and we've taken over. So you get out, or I'm makin' sure you'll be paste on the ground for what you've done to my men." He unhooked his weapons from his belt, one in each of his hands. He got into a battle stance and looked at Vera, who looked very, very unsure about whether or not she should continue to fight him. She took a deep breath and looked at Cid again.

1, 3, 5, 7, 9... She started to count in her head. She always did this when she was feeling like she was under pressure. She counted up, and straightened her posture. A new fire lit in her eyes, ready to take on her new foe. Cid saw this, and decided to do something to try and break her newfound will once again.

"Boys, get'er!" He shouted as he motioned for the rest of his uninjured, healthy men to attack.

Cid's men were hesitant at first, knowing that they too would get their asses handed to them like the friends they all saw scattered around them. However, a quick stare down at all of them from their big boss himself told them otherwise. They didn't want to disappoint him. They quickly bum rushed Vera out of fear, not really having much of a plan themselves other than "Don't make the big boss angry." They ran right at the farm girl, weapons in their hands, ready to strike. The five that weren't tired out from ferrying the reinforcements across the fields all jumped at her from the front at the same time, and that was their first and last mistake.

Vera looked upon the five men jumping at her all at once. She quickly twisted her body and swung around in a big circle again! They all were knocked back with a gash in their chest! The vagrants got back up and touched their wound, scared that they might die from it.

"Hm, seems like this bitch is tougher that I gave her credit for." Cid remarked as he scratched his bearded face. "Alright then. Gimme some backup, boys, hit 'er when she's distracted. And I'll be the main man leading the fight from now on." He stepped forward and clanged his warhammer and battle axe together to intimidate Vera. She simply ignored this and stepped forward to oppose him.

The thugs that were driving the chariots finally regained some amount of energy and some began to patch up their brethren, while others tiredly joined their boss on his fight against Vera. They weren't too excited about fighting her themselves.

"Alright, bitch! Let's go!" Cid shouted before he set off on an unstoppable charge towards Vera. The farm girl stood still as he charged towards her. He raised his weapons once he got into his effective range and smashed the ground in front of him with all his force, creating a crater in the ground and causing a bit of a quake that could be felt at a short distance. Vera, anticipating this kind of attack, dodge rolled to her right as soon as she saw his weapons raise into the air, completely avoiding the most devastating part of the attack. She saw an opportunity to attack once she got back up, and swung at Cid's back! Cid quickly pulled the axe in his left hand out of the ground and quickly moved it to block her swing! He stopped the blade entering his body by the skin of his teeth, as the tip of the scythe just entered his shirt and was dangerously poking his back. He pushed the scythe away and stood back up.

"Alright, I'll give you that," Crilok remarked. His face was sweating a little bit from the tension of having a blade ever so dangerously poke his back. "What's your na-Whoa!"

His sentence was cut off as Vera swung her scythe at him once again! He escaped by the skin of his teeth once again, moving backwards with each swing Vera made at him. She said nothing to him, simply lost in thought as she continued to count the prime numbers in her head.

"Now just-Wait a min-Hold on h-Can you-" Cid barely managed to get any words out without being assaulted by another of Vera's swings. Soon, he felt like he had enough of this and blocked one of her swings again, this time with his warhammer. He smirked at her, thinking that she didn't have any tricks up her sleeve besides swinging wildly.

He was wrong.

While Cid was distracted with being smug towards Vera, the farm girl slid her scythe forward and had the blade go down to his arm. He looked down at the blade, and just too late did he realize what she was about to do. Vera sunk her blade into the gang leader's forearm, causing him to roar in pain and drop his warhammer! He tried to escape, but in moving backwards he only made the blade move further along his arm! He stopped moving and looked at her with seething rage in her eyes. Vera looked back at him and smiled, giving her the same level of smugness he gave her.

"Illuso. Vera Illuso. And I'm gonna be the one who's gonna be laying down some frontier justice on your tanned hides." She uttered.

However, Vera didn't realize that she too had been distracted, leaving her open to attacks from behind! One of the thugs jumped on her from behind, grabbing her and throwing her off balance! She struggled and shook her body in order to get him off, but he clung onto her like melted cheese on toast! While she was dealing with him, Cid pulled the scythe from his arm and tossed it to the side. His right arm was useless now, seeing as she cut through his muscles and whatnot. He walked to one of his men who was handling the medkits and quietly motioned him to patch him up quickly while she was distracted.

Vera shook and moved herself wildly, flailing the man to and fro as he clung onto her! Soon enough, his strength gave out and he let go of his grasp on her! She got him off and quickly stomped him in the face three times to make sure he wasn't going to be back up for the next few hours! The other thugs jumped onto her right after with no hesitation, determined to not let Vera go anywhere!

She was in for it now; disarmed, tired from the last fight and rightfully scared now.

Vera couldn't handle a three-on-one situation without any weapons in her possession; she wasn't doing too well handling her fight since she lost her weapon. The three thugs ruthlessly assaulted her with their weapons, landing hit after hit on her body! She was aching in pain, unable to block their weapons and fists! She stumbled backwards, narrowly dodging an overhead swing that would've cracked her skull. She fell over right next to a crowbar, and she picked it up, seeing as she had no other alternative to a weapon. She rolled backwards and stood up, ready to get back into the fight. The first thug charged at her once again. Vera dodged her swing and followed up with a swift crack to his skull! She felt the vibration in the crowbar when the tool made contact with his skull. He fell to the ground, limp and knocked out.

The second and third thug began their assault after seeing their friend drop to the ground with a bloody crack in his head. They swung their weapons at her with full force, up and down, left and right, anything to get this pain in their side gone! Vera knew she couldn't keep up against two people, so she quickly retreated and ran behind the corner of her house, where she knew that there was a two-by-four propped up against the wall. She dipped around the corner, dropped her crowbar, grabbed the piece of wood and waited for them to take the bait. The angry gang members took it easily, seeing as they thought they were ready for anything that she could throw at them around the corner. The reached the corner and their faces were greeted with the feeling of wood making contact with their faces. They fell down onto the ground, and Vera continued by giving one final swing at their heads just to make sure that they were out for the fight.

Seeing as they were out of the fight now, she dropped the two-by-four and walked back over to where Cid and his crew were parked. She looked around for her scythe, and picked it up once again. She relished the feeling of her trusty weapon back in her hands once again. She rested it against her shoulder and looked back at Cid, who was looking calm while having the gash in his arm bandaged back up. It was obvious he wouldn't be able to use it for the remainder of this fight.

"Lady, you've got some nerve," Cid grumbled as he clenched his good hand. "to be sauntering back here after what you've done to all my men. While you were away, I've done some thinking about what I'm losing if I give this place up." The vagrant finished bandaging his boss' arm, gave it a pat and a thumbs up. "And y'know, I don't feel like I really want this place anymore."

Vera was stunned by his words, not expecting him to give up the fight so soon. "So, does that mean you'll take all your guys and go back to where you came from?"

"Sure, we'll be goin' back an' all that. But not before I kick your teeth in and rip out your vocal chords." Cid declared as he sat up from the chariot. "And not before I make sure I end this fight in a blaze of glory."

She wondered what Cid meant by "blaze of glory". Was he going to use some kind of explosion bomb or something? She wasn't exactly too sure, and thought about it until she smelled something burning. She sniffed the air three times and looked around. She could smell burning, but where was it coming from. She looked around some more, Cid watching her smugly. She looked around some more; she saw an injured thug who had been patched up stumble out of her house with a box of matches in his hand! She quickly dashed into the house and peered around the corner and saw a sight that shook her to her very bone. Her house was on fire! It wasn't just in one area, the dastardly devil had commanded his subordinate to set fire to multiple parts of her house! She panicked and dropped her scythe once again! She ran into the kitchen and grabbed as much liquid in the form of anything she could find and tried to douse the flames that was starting to run rampant in her house! She opened cans of food, took toilet water, sink water, milk, anything that would help put out the flames! Her efforts were all in vain though, as she found the fire to grow larger and larger, to the point where she couldn't contain it any longer! She reluctantly ran out of the house, looking at it as she retreated outside.

Her memories all sat in there, and they were all burning to a crisp inside. She wanted to cry, but she didn't. She couldn't. She picked up her scythe and stood in front of her porch, watching the flames engulf her childhood house. Her legs went limp, and she fell onto her knees. She stared at the fire, memories of days in the past gone by. All the love she received from her parents, all the antiques, all gone. Suddenly, something inside of her snapped. She stood back up again. She turned around and looked at Cid, who was watching his one uninjured servant help up and drag his injured comrades back to the chariots. He noticed Vera looking at him, and crossed his arms with a smug look on his face.

"Told ya' I wanted to go out with a blaze of glory." Cid laughed as he took his warhammer in his good hand and stepped forward to confront the farm girl.

"You...my house...my memories...I'll..."

"You'll what, girl?"

"I'll fucking kill you!"

She was not joking around this time. No more beating around the bush or holding back on her swings, she has gone off the deep end, abandoned her morals and focused on one thing and one thing only: to kill that son of a bitch that orchestrated the torching of her beloved house. She gripped her scythe tightly in her hands and dashed towards that smug bastard with the hammer in his hand. She jumped and swung her scythe from over her head down to the ground! Cid easily sidestepped this heavily telegraphed attack and prepared his follow up! He lifted his hammer in the air, preparing to bring it down on Vera's scythe! Luckily, Vera pulled her weapon out of the ground just in time to have it avoid being smashed into pieces.

She brought her scythe back, preparing to swing it to Cid's left, where his good arm is. Cid saw her do this, and pulled his weapon back as quickly as he could and moved out of the way of the swing that was about to happen. However, Vera tricked him and, just before committing to the entire swing, she switched the direction she was going to swing. She took a step forward and swung from the right this time. Crilok was caught off guard as his right side was unable to protect him against any weaponry on the account that his right arm was too injured to hold his weapon in his right. He was also guarding his left side, and as a result he was a bit more focused on his left than his right.

The blade jammed into the side of his stomach. He let out a loud roar of pain and quickly grasped the scythe in his hand. His right arm grabbed the scythe and tried to tug it out of his body, but Vera's anger-borne strength kept pushing it in deeper and deeper. He couldn't take it any longer, and dropped his warhammer, and used his left hand to push it out. He was successful this time in pulling it out. He yanked the weapon out of her hand and tossed it away. Cid reached down to grab his warhammer, but his hand was crushed by Vera's foot, stopping him from gaining the upper hand again. She ground her heel into his hand, and then drove her knee right into his chin. The blow was enough to knock the big guy off his feet and onto his back, and hurt Vera's knee in the process. However, she barely felt a thing with all this rage boiling in her veins. She straddled the crime boss, clenched her fists and began pounding away at his face. Her fists made contact with his face again and again, making horrific noises with each one. Blood poured out of his nose, his face was beginning to become covered in blood, it was one giant bloody mess. Vera's hands weren't doing too well either. The pain in her knuckles were starting to overtake the adrenaline's pain reduction. The skin on her knuckles split open, causing her blood to mix with hers as she continued to beat his face.

Cid finally drew enough strength to punch the farm girl in the gut and push her off of him. Both of them staggered to their feet. They looked at each other with the same amount of fury. They went at each other again like two starving beasts fighting over a feast. They both threw a punch at the other's face, but Cid's fist reached her face first. He stepped forward and wrapped her head in his right arm. His left arm pounded away at her side until Vera escaped by punching Cid in the groin. She pushed him off of her and tried to quickly recover her strength that was sapped away with each punch. She got up, and Cid was still struggling to get up himself. Vera pulled him back up by his blood-stained hair and punched him in the face once again. She kept on punching him wherever she could, but mainly his face and his chest. She threw one more punch, but her fist was caught in the boss' right hand, which had a now reopened wound and was bleeding profusely once again. She threw another punch, and that fist was also caught. They growled at each other and bashed their heads together. The sheer impact alone made Vera dizzy and almost caused her legs to fail. They bashed their heads again, and again, and again. Soon, Cid's strength failed to keep up and Vera pushed him to the ground on his back. He was too tired to fight or stand up now, and was at the complete mercy of her wrath.

She looked at him with a moment's glance and grabbed his heavy, iron axe. Normally, she'd be able to lift this without a problem, but now she was having troubles. She summoned all the strength she had and lifted it up onto her shoulder. She stepped on Crilok's chest and looked down at him. His face was completely obscured by blood. She wanted to end this immediately. She brought the axe up above her head. Her eyes were wild. Just as she brought it up to the apex, time suddenly stopped for her. She looked up, axe still looming above her head. She saw two copies of her standing side by side, one with a sad, mournful frown on her face, the other with a smug and mischievous smirk plastered on. They both walked over to Vera, one standing on each side of her.

"Do it, Vera. You know you want to. Look at what he's done to us: he's tarnished our memories, beaten our body black and blue, and destroyed our childhood! Are you going to let him get away with it?" Coaxed the girl on the left. She placed her hand on her shoulder.

"No, don't do it!" Begged the copy on the right, who had also placed her hands on Vera's right shoulder. "Remember the oath we made, kill naught a single soul, Vera? We're better than this, let's just let him leave and continue to follow our morals, or will you throw away the morals our parents taught us to value?"

"To hell with morals! Killing him is the only way she'll get justice!"

"Do what you know is right, Vera!"

Vera looked at both of them, and then down at Cid, who was staring at her with absolute fear in his eyes. Blood may be impairing his vision, but he could see well enough to know that there was a weapon that was going to come down on him. The axe in her hand grew heavy; she could hold it above her head no longer. She swung downwards.

CHNK!

The axe landed right beside Cid's face; it barely missed him, the blade sunk into the ground dangerously close to his beard. This was no mistake that Vera made, she knew full well what she was doing: She let him live. As much of a foul person he might be, Vera was not going to stoop to the level of a murderer just for the sake of revenge. Do not misunderstand this though, as she would very much love to see his head on a pike. She stepped off of his body and walked away towards the still burning structure of her once beautiful home.

"Leave. Never show your face to me again." Vera commanded as she stared at the inferno in front of her. The one thug that didn't fight Vera and was completely fine helped Cid get up as he looked at the farm girl's back with confusion and anger. Was he not good enough to kill? Was she just toying with his life like it was some kind of game all this time? He clenched his teeth and grabbed his axe once again, only to be brought out of his anger by the sounds of his men moaning and groaning awake. He scanned the area, finding that all of his cohort was not dead or anything, but were simply knocked out and thrown out of the game! It took Cid's beaten brain to process and understand why she had done this; he accepted his opponent's mercy and acknowledged that he had been bested. He was helped up onto his feet.

"Illuso," Crilok said. She didn't look back. "You're alright. Boys, help up your brothers and move out ASAP! Crippled can ride the carts! Everyone else start pullin' or walkin'!"

Soon enough, twenty-something injured and groggy hobos shuffled off on their chariots, leaving the farm girl alone for the first time in a few days. Her legs gave out and she fell down onto her knees. She sat in front of her house, watching it burn down to ashes. She watched her origin return to ashes. Hours later, the fire finally taken all of the home, leaving nothing but charred cinders and black ashes in its wake. She didn't know what came over her right then and there, but she cried. She cried, and cried and cried until her eyes were bloodshot. She didn't know why after the fire died that she started crying, but she knew that after she'd started to cry, the heavens itself started to cry. Rain soon poured down onto her face, mixing her tears with the fat droplets of rain. The remnants of the fire was put out, gone for good.

Vera didn't know what to do now. She stood beneath the warm and soothing rain, droplets falling gently down on the terrain. The rain couldn't wash away the sorrow that she felt, the stains of time. She stumbled and dragged her way all the way back to town. Her scythe was in tow, tears still streaming down her face, bawling with every step she took. Every breath she took was painful too, since Crilok had most certainly broken her ribs with his fists. It took her a few hours to get back into town with her all injuries; all the pedestrians who usually roamed the streets shut themselves inside to get out of the rain. Vera limped all the way back to the only place she knew would be safe: Miles' house. She limped there, down the street, through the gate, up the stairs and to his door. She knocked three times. There was no answer for a few moments, then the sound of footsteps. The door opened up, revealing the grey-haired man that had taken care of her for the past many years.

"Vera...? Oh my god, what on earth happened to you?" Questioned the scholar. He was completely shocked by how bloodied and beaten Vera looked. He had never seen her in this state before. Her clothes were torn, bloodied and stained with dirt. Her hair was matted with rain, and her eyes still streamed tears down her face.

"Miles..." Vera shakily sputtered out.

"What is it, Vera?"

"Can I stay here for a while longer?"

"Stay here for as long as you'd like, dear." He replied as he lightly hugged her and brought her inside.

As she walked inside, she said farewell to her innocence and ignorance.

THE END
ARC FINISHED