Arron and Trexx

Chapter 67

Shikamaru slowed to a stop, watching with a reasonable amount of confusion as Arron marched up to a rather rundown looking house. Shikaku stopped next to him as she banged her fist against the door. They could hear it from where they stood, and the noise made Shikamaru jump a little. Something was horribly wrong, but he wasn't sure what. Arron had been fine this morning. Excited. Happy. Not pissed and ready to go ramming her fist against doors.

The said door slammed open. Shikaku tensed as an annoyed man glaring down at Arron. He was shirtless, a beer in one hand. A lion tattoo covered a good majority of his chest, and he had several piercings in his left ear. If you looked up the definition of 'shady' in the dictionary, there'd be a picture of this man, no doubt. Shikamaru looked conflicted between watching to see what the hell Arron was doing, and going after her. But like Shikaku, he didn't move. Both men were curious by nature, and Arron was an enigma. One they never saw in this state.

"Are you Youri?" Arron asked, her tone cold and steely. Shikaku flinched, but Shikamaru had heard that voice before. He felt a bit of excitement and anticipation, as odd as that was, well up inside of him. He adored seeing new sides of Arron. He knew that was weird, but he didn't care. More of Arron was drifting to the surface of that ocean she was stuck in.

"Who the hell's asking?" The man scoffed, glaring. Arron's eyes narrowed right back, and Trexx let out a growl. It was a hostile one Shikamaru had only heard once, and that was when Trexx first arrived at their home. It made his breath hitch in his throat. Shikaku put a hand on his shoulder. Arron was a kind, respectable girl. She was quiet, witty, and timid. She was nothing like the girl standing before this man.

Shikamaru had seen a glimpse of this Arron during that interview with Inoichi. He never thought he'd be seeing this Arron so soon, but it was... awing. Watching her was fascinating. Arron, a crumbled shell of the girl, had risen and filled her hollowed self back up. She was powerful in a different way that was no easily explained or described, and pissed.

"Me." Arron bit back. The man scoffed.

"Yeah, that's m-"

The man didn't have time to finish his sentence. Shikamaru sputtered as Arron's shadows shot forward, barreling right into the man's body and sending him flying back into the house. Though Arron looked reasonably calm outwardly, the rage shining in her eyes was evident even from this distance. Trexx nearly doubled in size, his claws elongating and sharpening with Arron's courage and wrath. Was this what it was like the night she escaped? Had she reached this breaking point?

It made sense that she'd lost it eventually. The things the girl had been through had built up and kept a lot of her feelings pent up under the surface. Now that those layers were thinning, some of her raw emotion was seeping out. Shikamaru didn't know why this man was the receiving end of such feelings, but he was sure Arron had a good reason.

"You piece of shit!" Arron's voice shrieked, her voice knocking the air right out of the two Nara men. There was a crash, and the man came flying right back out of the house. Shikamaru and Shikaku were too stunned to move, and they barely processed Ino as she sprinted past them like her life depended on it. She didn't look shocked, but rather like she'd been expecting this as she literally tackled Arron down to the ground. It all happened to fast, Shikamaru felt as though he'd just ran a marathon.

"Get off!" Arron hissed, squirming. The man scrambled back, blood covering a good half of his face. His left side was scraped up from the fall. Trexx, or maybe it was Arron's shadows, had punted him into the front yard. Shikaku and Shikamaru stared. Arron wasn't done. "He was four! He was fucking four, you piece of-"

"H-He wanted it."

The entire world stilled for a brief second. The birds stopped chirping, the wind stopped blowing. The color drained from Ino's face, her mouth opening in horror. Shikaku and Shikamaru braced for what was about to happen. Though they didn't know what was going on, they'd sensed the pause in this new-Arron's anger. It was a stutter, astonishment and disbelief clear in the girl's eyes.

"He... wanted it?" Arron's laugh was humorless. Ino tightened her grip around her, acting as a human straitjacket of sorts. "Your four year old son... wanted it?"  

The man seemed to realize his answer was wrong when Trexx stepped up, casting a deadly shadow over him. His entire hand was large enough to wrap around his torso now. Shikamaru paled as the beast grew in size, becoming taller than the house in seconds as Arron's eyes became more frantic. Shikaku pressed his lips together. He knew of the Dusk clan and their power, of course. He knew what their rage could do. How destructive their shadows got in correlation to their emotions. He'd... never seen it first hand. Sometimes he forgot Arron came from a clan of warriors.

"Arron!" Shikamaru finally managed to urge himself forward. Arron's angry expression dropped in an instant in response to hearing his voice, and Trexx's bone-crushing grip lessened on the wheezing man. Shikaku blinked a few times, feet moving on their own as he followed after his son, gazing at Trexx with wide eyes.

Arron was breathing heavily, and Ino loosened her grip slightly. The girl's dark hair was a mess, falling in her flushed face. She was pissed, but seeing Shikamaru seemed to snap her out of her blinding rage, and tears filled her eyes when she realized. It hit her like a train, and Shikamaru carefully dropped to his knees in front of the girl, eyes wide. He felt winded, gazing at this new form of Arron in shock. It was different and new, but still Arron. A part of her. Another piece of her that had returned from beyond the void her trauma created. She was evolving back into herself.

"H-He... He raped his son." Arron said blankly, eyes glazing with tears. Shikamaru could sense the memories replaying. She was reliving a part of it. Of what she'd been through.. "H-He's... He's four."

Shikamaru sucked in a sharp breath of air, and opened his arms to the girl. Shikaku turned his angry eyes onto the man Trexx was still holding. The beast was huffing, the surface of his shadowy body rippling. He wanted to eat the man, Shikaku noted mildly as he regained his composure. Faintly, he could hear Arron begin to cry behind him. Shikamaru was holding her close, and Ino was rubbing her back, her teal eyes focused on the alleged rapist heatedly. 

"You're coming to me." Shikaku hissed at the man with the lion tattoo. "Enjoy the sunlight while you can. Where you're going, you won't be seeing it much anymore."