Absolute Vertigo
			       Chapter 3

	"The better to kill you with, my dear!"
			-Eric, aka Sigma

	From down in the arena, Vertigo stood ten feet from his opponent.  He
held his right hand behind him, hiding a little surprise from his foe.  
Looking up toward the throan, he saw Oniro stand in his seat and raise his 
right hand.  The ninja leader looked down at him, and Vertigo telepathicly 
said "I'm ready." and Onrio lowered his hand quickly.  
	"FIGHT!!"  he yelled.
	The captive ninja, unknowingly showing his weaknesses to Vertigo by
letting his mind wander, therefore allowing Quinn to read his thoughts, 
charged his foe, the blade of his sword pointed at Vertigo's heart.  
	Of course, Quinn saw this coming, and simply stepped to the side as
the ninja charged him, pulling his right arm from behind his back.  When the
ninja turned around again, he saw what Vertigo had been hiding.  His aunt's
sickle, still stained with her dried blood.  The ninja's eyes narrowed, and
he swung the blade of his sword in a circle as he regained his fighting 
stance.  Vertigo watched him cautiously, picking apart his every movement to
try and predict his next attack.  
	Flipping forward, the ninja came down on Vertigo from the air, the 
blade of his sword prepared to take apart his head.  Quinn held up his left 
hand, toward the sword, and pressed with his mind.  The ninja's eyes widened
in shock as he stopped in the middle of his attack, suspended in mid-air. 
Then, as suddunly as he was stopped, he was flying in the oppisite direction,
up.
	He screamed, as his body flew higher and higher into the air, and 
then stopped again.  Then he was falling to the earth once more.  The ground
closed in on him, and he tried to relax as he came closer to the earth, to 
lessen the damage done by the fall.  He landed hard on his back, but not as
hard as he had thought he would.  Wincing, he opened his eyes and tried to 
struggle to his feet, but before he could react, he felt a force holding him
down, the same force that sent him sailing through the sky.  Looking up, he
saw Vertigo standing over him.  The young, blue-clad ninja backed up a step,
then flipped forward, landing the flip on his opponent's chest.  
	The ninja gasped.  He felt a crack in his chest, and he knew that
Vertigo had broken one if not more of his ribs.  Vertigo then flipped forward 
again, off of his foe, and landed a few feet away in a battle stance, his
aunt's sickle still in his hand.  He turned around, and saw his opponent 
standing, holding onto his side, trying to get his breath.  The ninja 
stared at him hatefully.  
	Vertigo took a step back for show, then charged his opponent.  The 
ninja held the sword in front of him, ready to block any attack the ninja
threw at him, and then finish the job.  Quinn sensed his motives, and 
stopped, only a few inches from the ninja.  His foe followed through with his
plan, and swung the blade of the sword at Vertigo's throat.  Quinn quickly
held the sickle up in its way, catching the blade inside the ring.  He moved
the sword down, using his greater strength against his foe, pivited his hip,
and hit his foe in the jaw with a powerful roundhouse.  
	The ninja stumbled back, grasping his now bloodly mouth.  He cursed
under his breath and spit, seeing his blood and a couple teeth hit the 
ground.  He turned to Vertigo again, the rage boiling up, and glared at him.
He knew the ninja was reading his mind, but he really didn't care at this 
point.  He prepared various attacks in his head, trying to decide which one 
to use on Vertigo.  Before he could decide, however, Quinn held out his left
hand again, at chest level, palm up.  That mysterious force again began to
tug on the ninja's body, and no matter how hard he tried to fight it, he 
couldn't overcome it.  Vertigo sneered, seeing his foe struggle against his
telekinetic pull, and abruptly closed his hand into a fist.  At an amazingly
high speed, the ninja was pulled into Quinn's grasp, where Vertigo held him
with telekinetics for a moment, as he stepped back.  He then released the
telekinetic hold, and before the ninja had a chance to react, launched his
body into a back flip, hitting his foe in the chin with the toes of his 
boots.  
	Quinn landed in a squat, and as he got up, looked to see his foe, 
moaning in pain as he climbed painfully to his feet, his face covered in his
own crimson blood.  He had to respect this ninja, for continuously getting up
to face him.  But nonetheless, he had to kill him.  
	The ninja faced him once more, wiping blood onto his hand from his
bloody mouth, and flung it to the ground.  
	Vertigo's eyes narrowed, and the ninja could feel him smiling.  
Vertigo seemed to be concentrating on something.  Feeling the urge to look to
his side, the ninja did, and saw a strange, light blue mist emiting from the
ground.  The strange mist engulfed him, swirling around his body.  At first,
it was just distracting, and had no effect, but soon, his head began to spin,
and he could feel and see the earth around him spinning.  His inner organs 
seemed to bounce up and down inside him, and he became extreamly dizzy.  
Finally, the spinning and dizzyness was too much, and he turned to the side
and vomited.  Opening his eyes as he wiped his mouth, he saw a large amount 
of blood mixed with his vomit.  He looked around.  The mist was gone, but
Vertigo was coming at him.  He brought his sword up quickly, blocking a 
throat slash from Vertigo's sickle.  He tried to counter with a side kick, 
but he was too weak, and Vertigo was able to make up for his blocked attack.
He grabbed one of the ninja's arms with his free hand, stepped to the side,
and twisted it.  The ninja yelled out in pain, and Vertigo slammed his arm
over his shoulder, breaking it.  His radius bone tore through where his arm
was jointed, popping through the flesh and sending a spray of blood over the
two kombantants.  Before the excruciating pain could even register, Vertigo
dropped to the ground and swept his foe to the ground.  Then, in a crouch,
Quinn grabbed hold of his head, brought it up an inch or two, then slammed
it to the ground.  He climbed then to his feet and flipped away from his
battered opponent.  
	The ninja could barely move, let alone get up again.  Vertigo helped
him, with a touch of telekinetics, pulled him to his feet.  The ninja reeled,
his vision blurly, Vertigo's body seemed to double, over and over.  Quinn
carefully slipped the sickle inside his overmantle, then looked up at his
foe.  Eyes narrowed, Vertigo again charged him, knowing full well that the
ninja couldn't stop him.  He stopped in front of the ninja, and backhanded 
him in the jaw, then immediately followed with a sharp kick to his side.  As
the ninja fell back, Quinn high kicked him in the face, the moved at him, 
balling both his fists together, and uppercutted him in the jaw.  The ninja
again fell on his back, and didn't move.
	"QUINN!"  Oniro yelled, standing up.  "FINISH HIM!"  
	Vertigo smiled.  "My pleasure"  he whispered.  
	Using only a bit of telekinetics, Quinn pulled his defeated foe to
his feet, and grabbed him by the hair to hold him up.  Reaching inside his
overmantle, Vertigo pulled out his aunt's sickle.  The ninja stared at him
blankly, through eyes that were beaten almost shut.  He seemed afraid, but
maybe he was just wanting to get this over with.  Wrapping the circle of his
weapon around his foe's neck, Quinn stared back, without words, verbally or
mentally.  He let his eyes to the talking.  They narrowed again suddunly, and
he stepped back and pulled with his right arm, tearing through the ninja's
flesh, quickly seperating his head from his body.  His lower half fell to 
the ground, and his lifeless head, with still half open eyes, was still in
Vertigo's grip.  
	Quinn stared into the dead eyes.  
	"Rot in hell, you son of a bitch."  he sneered, hearing the crowd 
cheer loudly.
	"VERTIGO!" Oniro screamed, his eyes wide. "Give it to me..."  He held
out a hand, refering to the captive's bloody head.  
	Quinn turned to him, his face emotionless.  He held the head out in
front of him, at chest level.  Oniro inhaled in anticipation.  Vertigo's
hand opened, and the head dropped to the earth.  The fall seemed to go in 
slow motion to the Lin Kuei leader, and he could have sworn that Quinn would
allow the head to fall completly to the ground, until Vertigo swung out his
right leg, kicking the captive's head like a soccer ball into Oniro's grip.
The ninja leader caught it, more out of reflex, and stared down at Quinn.  
Even a hard, cold blooded ninja as himseld was shocked at Vertigo's display
of brutality.  
	
	From beside Vertigo's family on the throan, Toxin covered her mouth
in shock.  That ninja down in the arena was not the same man she met and fell
for two months prior.  But, damnit, she still loved him.    she
thought, shaking her head.    A soft hand placed
itself on Olivia's shoulder, and she gasped and turned around abruptly. 
	"Anna!"  she yelled.  "You scared the life out of me!"
	Knightshade stared at her blankly, then nodded down at the arena.
	"I told you."  she said, and Olivia hung her head.
	"He isn't normally like this, Anna.  So much has changed in two 
months, I don't know what's happend to him."
	Anna took her cousin's chin in her hand and held up her head.  
"Olivia,"  she said.  "You, out of all this family he has, are the one person
that keeps that boy sane.  He does have the capability to be a good person,
I know that now, but your the only person who can bring that out.  He loves
you so much, and any man who could be my cousin-in-law deserves my 
friendship."  She smiled, and Toxin couldn't help but smile in return.  
Olivia then hugged her cousin tightly, and over Knightshade's shoulder, she
saw Quinn slowly heading back up to the throan, his hands covered in blood.

	*		*		*		*		*

			  ~The Next Day~

	On the outskirts of a small village to the west of the Lin Kuei base,
Vertigo's family said their goodbyes.  Vertigo was there, with his parents,
his sister VooDoo, his brother Slice, his twin nephews Sigma and Omega, his
sister-in-law Blaze, his cousins Mirage and Eclipse, Sage, the family 
adoptee, and Toxin.  
	It had been a long and hard process of deciding for Slice, better
known to his family and friends as Kain.  His thoughts had been tearing at 
his mind for weeks, until finally, him and his wife reached a decision.  It
was time to leave the clan.  Oniro had tightened his hold on Kain and his
family, pressuring his children to grow up not to be like their father.  Kain
had always been a disappointment to Oniro, being such an honorable, 
good-natured, kind man.  Just like his father.  Kain realized, no matter how
much it hurt him to leave his family, that he couldn't live this way, and he
definetly couldn't raise Eric and Nicholas like this.  But just as he knew 
this, he knew that his children were old enough to make their own choices.
They didn't have to come with Slice and Blaze if they didn't want to.  Much
to Kain's relief, though, both of the boys decided upon leaving with their
father and mother.  
	VooDoo also decided to leave the Lin Kuei's hold with her brother. 
Her uncle had been pressuring her in her young age, trying to mold her into 
her own image.  Vanessa didn't want this, so she made her choice to leave.  
	"We'll miss you, my son."  Vertigo's father said, hugging Slice and
each member of his family one at a time.  "Write to us to tell us how you've
been, and we will try to visit as soon as we can.  I promise."
	Slice nodded, hugging his crying mother.  
	Then, while the rest of his family said their goodbyes, Kain slipped 
out of the emotional scene and pulled his distant younger brother aside. 
	"Quinn.."  he said, looking down at his feet.  "I know you and I have
never really been that close.."
	"Couldn't be helped, Kain,"  Vertigo interrupted.  "You are I are 
too different.  In our age, personalities..., morals.  It couldn't be 
helped."
	  "I know that, Quinn.."  Kain replied softly.  "but that doesn't 
mean it's too late, right?  I mean, I'm leaving, Quinn, and I... I don't 
want us to become more distant because of the new distance between us.  I'd
like to keep in touch.  Maybe... fix the brotherly relationship we never 
had?  Your my only baby brother, Quinn, and I love you very much.  I'd like
for us to become closer."
	"I love you too, Kain,"  Vertigo replied, but Slice sensed no emotion
in his brother's words.  Quinn cocked his head to the side.  "And maybe....,
someday we will be closer."
	Slice half-smiled, satisfied with that little amount of effort on 
Vertigo's part, and hugged his brother tightly.  In his embrace, however, 
Kain felt an emotionless pit, not the hug he had expected from a brother he
might not see again for years.  
	  Kain thought, staring off in no
particular direction, sighing deeply.  
	Kain then turned to where his family wait for him.  Glancing back at
Quinn once more, he saw Olivia standing close to him, her head rested on his
shoulder.  With one more crooked smile and a simple wave, Kain turned away.

			  End of Chapter 3

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