Relic

Chapter 4: Steel and Stance

Ram finds herself in a black, empty void. She can hear distant, indistinct muttering echoing around her. Crackles of red lightning surge into view, one by one. A thundering cloud manifests before her. The voices come closer. "Stop messing around." The voices say. "Control your power. Control your emotion."

"Shut up!" Ram says. The face of R appears before her. "You won't be able to protect anything."

"Shut up!" She swings at the image, waving it away. A glow from behind catches her attention. She turns around. The glowing energy before her shifts forms constantly. All animal forms. Bears. Boars. Lions. Countless other forms. Then, when it stops, the energy shoots into her body. She expects the energy to shoot throughout her. Instead, it hangs across her entire body. Controlled and contained. She can feel a surge of adrenaline within her. She lurches forward.

She violently shoots up in her bed, crackling red energy across her body slowly dissipating. "What... was that?" She rubs her eyes. She glances at the clock. "Shit!" The time is close to when the café would open. Why hadn't R woken her up for morning training? And where were her sisters? She quickly changes her clothes and goes for the door. Passing by a large mirror, she notices her horns. She runs back inside, places the hat on her head and runs out the door.

Downstairs, she can see Dean already finishing up his prep behind the counter, with the help of Flare. Jeanne is sitting by the counter, noticing Ram come downstairs. "I was wondering when you'd join us?" Jeanne smiles. "Why didn't anyone wake me up!" Ram shouts, annoyed at her sister. "But you were sleeping so peacefully! I didn't want to wake you up rudely."

"Just wake me up next time!" Ram scoffs. "Where the hell is R?"

"He wasn't with you?" Jeanne asks.

"What? No. If he woke me up for training, I would be awake now. Did you think I went return from training and go right back to bed?" Jeanne looks off to the side, answering Ram's question with her body language. "You can't be serious! Didn't he say he would have all of you join me in training as well?"

"Right, that slipped my mind." Jeanne said.

That was when Damien answered. "Don't tell him I told you this, but R informed me that he has a meeting with the leaders today."

"Leaders?" Flare asks.

"He hadn't told you?" The sisters shake their hands in unison. "I see. Well, a brief explanation then. As you know, the city is divided into many districts. Some districts house only humans, others house Rels. In the Rel districts, there are quite a few powerful Rels who would eventually rise to power. Those guys are the many leaders of their respective districts."

"How many districts are there? How many leaders?" Flare asks.

"There are quite a few small districts here and there, but there are four main districts. Ours, Crowwell. Crowwell leaders include Moxy, Dread, Monsieur and our very own R."

"I remember he said something about." Jeanne says.

"I still can't believe that guy is an actual leader. Who the hell would ever trust him with anything, he seems completely useless!" Ram complains.

"I remember R being able to toss you around quite easily." Flare says. "I believe he's a lot stronger than you give him credit for."

"You!" Ram amps up, before relaxing her shoulders. She knows the truth of the matter, even if it's not one she likes.

"Those are the Crowwell districts. To our east is the Rings district, headed by Roy, Gilmore, Firecracker and Diablos. Crowwell is fairly civilized compared to the Rings. The Rings is a very militant and gang infested district. To our west is the industrial black-market icon, the Stacks, headed by two different organized crime groups. The first is Nyfe's gang, the Dragons. The second are the Sakuras lead by Haneko. Finally, there's Libra. From what R told me, some major things are happening there in terms of leadership. Klaus is the only official leader of that district, but there's still turmoil. They have been losing influence with the other districts due to their lack of participation due to their own problems."