I almost didn't post this fic. At first, I wrote it because I wanted to have some reference when doing flashbacks for "What I Like in You", since I always changed my mind about how everything had happened. But writing and posting this, I finally did something official. Things happen very fast and maybe you'll feel like something is missing, but anyway I hope you like it!^^
Disclaimer: I own nothing here, except the original characters and the plot, of course.
The audience formed mainly by ladies applauded the group of children that had just finished their musical presentation. Julia ran to her mother, Sara, and smiled.
"How was it, mom?"
"You were great, honey. It's just a pity that your father didn't see it.", the woman said with a clear German accent, patting her daughter's head, and Julia's expression darkened.
"Yeah..."
Julia violently opened the door of Valmont's office. He stopped writing something and looked at her.
"Dad, why didn't you come to see my presentation???", she shouted angry and he rolled his eyes, writing again.
"Julia, I have more important things to do."
"What could be more important than your own daughter?!"
"Don't be over-dramatic. My work is more important than a children's musical presentation.", he said coldly and Julia threw her backpack at him.
"You don't even care about me! I hate you!", she shouted leaving the office and Valmont went to the door.
"Julia! What did your mother and I say about you throwing things at me? That can still hurt someone!"
"That's exactly my intention!"
Valmont clenched his fists and gritted his teeth in an arduous attempt at self-control and would have failed if Sara didn't interfere.
"Hey, you two. Stop fighting.", she calmly said and pulled Julia by her hand back to Valmont's office. He backed away so that they could enter and Sara left Julia beside him. They two glared at each other and snorted, looking away angry.
"You are acting like little children...", Sara remarked sitting on the desk and crossing her legs.
"Just get to the point already..."
"Tonight will be a good opportunity for you two to get along. That idiotic captain Black trusts blindly in his most efficient secret agent and gave me the password of one of the computers of Section 13's system general access. Then it's easy to find out the password of any security system in USA. Robbing banks would be piece of cake."
Valmont and Julia stared at Sara in confusion.
"Uh... What exactly does that mean?", Julia asked unsure and Valmont smiled.
"Don't you see? Your mother soon will be able to get all the money we want without nobody even suspects!", he explained triumphant and Julia snorted, folding her arms.
"Dad, can't you think about anything else but money?"
"But...", Sara continued interrupting the argue before it even began and they looked at her. "...for that I'll have to go to Section 13 to copy the data. When do you want me to go?", she asked to Valmont.
"As soon as possible.", he answered smiling and she smiled back.
"I knew you were going to say that. But it also means that you are going to spend the whole day together.", she said and their eyes widened.
"The whole day?"
"Only we two?"
They glanced at each other sharply, thinking the same thing.
'No way!'
"Sure.", they answered at the same time, forcing a smile.
Sara got in the car already wearing her spy clothes and looked at her two relatives and the enforcers.
"I'm going now. That won't take too long.", she said.
"Are you sure it's a good idea to invade Section 13 now? Wouldn't it be better to wait until night?", Valmont asked in worry and she shook her head.
"Believe me, Section 13's security sucks! See you later.", she said and they quickly kissed each other. Sara also blew a kiss to Julia and waved to the three enforcers before going away.
"Keep her busy and preferably far away from my office.", Valmont ordered and went back to the building.
"Hey, can you stay with her? Today I wanna watch the last episode of that reality show I talked about.", Finn said and Chow sighed.
"No way, you just want to get rid of the responsibility..."
Sara was smiling pleased with herself. Who could have imagined that it would be so easy to get such important information of Section 13? She inserted a type of mini-CD in the computer's drive and saved all the information she found useful. That indeed would take a while, and she leaned on the table with a bored expression.
Suddenly, she felt cold shivers going down her spine and glanced around herself alarmed. For a moment, she's got the feeling that someone was watching her. She took her gun and prepared to shoot if she saw someone. She didn't have to do that, though. After some minutes and a glance at some rooms and corridors, she didn't see anybody besides guards and other distracted agents. She then kept her gun and went back to the computer room.
Now it was already night and the computer finally had finished the transfer. Sara took the CD from the drive and kept it in a small bag. She managed to get out of Section 13 without anybody noticing and would have to walk two blocks until getting to her car. She glanced at the sky and saw that it was going to rain at any moment.
"Sara...", an almost soundless voice hissed like a whisper and it could have been easily confused with the wind, but Sara was quite sure that it was really a voice. She quickly turned around and aimed her gun at a dark alley.
"Who's there?", she asked and the only sound she heard was of the cars in the street and of the rain. She slit her eyes and quickened her pace.
"Sara...", the voice hissed again when she was almost getting to her car and this time she turned around as fast as she could, but still didn't see anybody.
"Who's there? Come out, you coward!"
Once again there was no answer and she rushed to her car. Sara nervously started the car up and accelerated as fast as she could. The rain became heavier and she had to make a great effort to drive carefully even with such speed. She looked at the rear-view mirror and noted that a black car was following her.
"My dear Sara... Why are you in such a hurry? You cannot escape from your destiny."
"Who are you? Why are you pursuing me?", she asked and the voice just laughed coldly. "What do you want, you bastard???", the German woman asked angry and the voice took a while to answer.
"I want your blood, your soul, your life...", the voice replied with a tone even freakier than before and Sara unconsciously speeded up, trying to run away from the mysterious black car.
"No!!! Who the hell are you???"
"The omen of your death.", the voice answered and a sinister and not very clear image of something that looked to be a face was formed in front of her in the glass.
"AAAHHHH!!!!", Sara screamed in despair and when the image vanished, she just could see two lights of a truck coming in her direction from the left. The driver honked and tried to stop and deviate, and Sara instinctively did the same, but the street was wet because of the heavy rain and caused the truck and her car to skid and crash violently.
Julia rolled a dice and got the number three.
"Three! I win!", she commemorated.
"Aww...", Ratso murmured sadly and Chow took some dollars from his wallet.
"It's the fifth time she wins. This game is so boring...", he complained and Ratso also gave her some dollars.
"Don't worry. As a consolation, I'll buy two ice creams for you two.", she said cheerfully.
Finn was drinking a beer can while watching a reality show program that was suddenly interrupted by urgent news.
"Damn! What now?", he muttered and widened his eyes as he saw Sara and her car completely destroyed in the screen. The whole place was a mess and it seemed that the accident had harmed at least three other cars too. The reporter was explaining that a truck had skidded and ended up crashing into other four cars in a junction, and the victims were hurriedly being taken to a hospital.
"Hey, dudes! Check it out!", Finn said and his two friends got up and approached, being equally surprised as they saw Sara among the victims.
"Isn't that Sara?", Ratso confirmed and Chow nodded. The reality show returned and they looked at Julia, who had a confused and afraid expression.
"What do you mean? My mom was there? Did something happen?", she asked and Finn bit a lip looking unsure at the other two.
"We better tell Valmont about it...", the Irish man said in a low voice and he and Chow looked at Ratso.
"Stay with Julia.", they ordered and the Italian man lifted Julia to put her seated on the sofa.
"Ratso... what happened...?", she asked and he sighed.
"Listen, Julia...", he murmured but before he could finish, she jumped out the sofa and ran after the other enforcers.
Julia approached of her father's office door right on time to hear him yelling shocked.
"What?!"
"That's right, Big V...", Finn confirmed.
"Are you sure???"
"Absolutely! I've just seen it on TV! She was taken to that hospital near here."
The door opened violently almost hitting the girl. Ratso came to this corridor and ran to her while Valmont, Finn and Chow rushed to out the room.
"Dad, what happened?", she asked again and Valmont stopped, turning around.
"Someone take care of her!", he ordered and continued his way.
"Ratso, you stay with her.", Finn said and went after Valmont and Chow. The Italian man knelt down and Julia turned to face him seriously.
"Ratso, I want to see my mother. Now!", she demanded firmly and he sighed. Well, maybe she had that right after all. He would want the same if he were in her place.
"All right...", he replied in a low voice.
"Ratso! What are you doing here?", Chow asked as soon as he saw him with Julia in the corridor of the hospital, walking to their direction.
"Yeah, we told you to stay there with Julia.", Finn added.
"She wanted to come, I just couldn't say 'no'...", Ratso defended rubbing the back of his head.
A doctor and a nurse passed in front of them and the man looked very unsettled.
"I hate to tell bad news...", he remarked and the nurse sadly nodded while they went in a room. Julia saw her father inside that room and ran to there before the enforcers could stop her.
"Mom!", she yelled as soon as she opened the door and was horrified when seeing a very pale and bloodstained Sara lied in a bed, with dressings in several part of her body. Valmont was staring at her kneeling down in front of her bed and holding her hand, and the doctor looked to feel even worse as he saw Julia.
Julia ran for her mother and made a confused face. All this had happened so suddenly, and she wasn't sure of what to think. Valmont gloomily stood up and the doctor approached behind them and drew a deep breath, placing his hand on his shoulder.
"I'm... I'm sorry... The accident was very serious and she was badly injured... We barely could do something to help her...", he finally admitted and Valmont pressed his fingers on his temples and felt like he was about to faint. The doctor noticed that and glanced at the nurse, gesturing her to help. She nodded and guided Valmont out the room.
Julia was completely shocked. She closed her eyes in despair. It was very distressing to continue looking at her mother in that condition.
"Mom...", she murmured feeling her eyes being filled with tears and the doctor gently puller her by her shoulders, guiding her to the door.
"Come on, dear..."
"Nooooooo!!!! Mom!!!!!", the girl yelled while being dragged out the room.
Three months had passed since Sara's death, but Julia still remembered everything clearly as if it had been yesterday. Mainly the funeral, when she had seen something she had never believed to be possible. Her father really looked sad, and for the first time she had to admit that perhaps he wasn't as cold as she had thought and was a person who cared about his family.
In the first weeks he hadn't done many things besides being alone listening to very melancholic music while observing Sara's pictures. At least he decided to do something that Julia wanted and they returned to London.
Well, what Julia had thought to be the bright side of this had soon collapsed. As soon as they arrived in London, Valmont no longer looked so sad and Julia took it very seriously. She had expected that he would suffer a bit more because of her mother's death, not get over it so easily. And the worst, now that some time had passed Julia began to clear her ideas and analyze the situation, all her sadness turned into hatred.
Julia sat on her old bed in the huge flat they had in England and clenched her fists angry. Valmont suddenly opened the door of her room and she frowned.
"Julia, do you still remember where the museum is? I have a work for you today.", he said calmly and Julia glared so angry at him that he had to flinch.
"W-What...?"
"It's all your fault...", she muttered poisonously and he raised a brow. "It's all your fault!", she blamed again.
"What are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about my mom! She died because of you!", the girl shouted standing up and Valmont frowned.
"Because of me? It was an accident! I didn't have nothing to do with that!", he defended and she left her room heading to the living room.
"It was you who was so obsessed with stealing money that you ordered her to go to Section 13 without considering the consequences! If she had never gone there, she would have never had that accident!"
"How can you say something like that? It was an accident! How could I have known...?", he said following her and she turned to face him.
"And yet you're cheeky by coming here and ordering me to do your dirty work just like you did to her! You know, for a while I thought you cared about your family, and that money wasn't the most important thing to you, but I was wrong! I can't believe how naive I have been! You're worthless!", she shouted walking to the door.
"Julia!"
"Enough! I hate you! I hate you more than anything else!", she shouted and slammed the door so strongly that some objects in the room dropped and broke. Valmont sighed heavily and lowered his gaze. Was Julia right, after all?
"Stupid jerk... I'll show you...", Julia muttered alone while walking for the pavement.
"Excuse me!", someone said softly touching her shoulder.
"WHAT IS IT???", she angrily asking and turned to face an oriental boy a bit older than her. The boy jumped back and looked unsure at her.
"I... I'm sorry...", he murmured and Julia realized what she had just done.
"N-no, it's ok... I was just feeling a bit angry...", she said and the boy smiled again.
"I understand."
"But what did you want to tell me?"
"Oh, yes. Once in every fifty years, my clan invites foreigners to join us. And when I saw you, I thought you were the perfect person. They say that the more younger you are, better.", the boy said politely and Julia raised a brow.
"No, thanks. I'm not interested.", she said coldly turning to go away but the boy was not ready to give up.
"But you will have the opportunity to travel to China! Perhaps even live there! You will have the ancient wisdom that very few had the privilege to know.", he pointed out and Julia immediately stopped.
"China?", she repeated. As well as her mother, she had a strange obsession with that country. She turned around and smiled approaching of him. "Tell me more about that...", she said and the boy smiled pleased.
"Come with me."
Valmont stared at the cup of coffee that the waitress of the snack bar had just served, but he didn't feel like drinking it. Right now the only thing he could think about was Julia's words. They had never gotten along very well and Julia often stated she hated him, but this was the first time he felt real hatred in her voice and in her eyes.
And what if she were really right? Now when Valmont analyzed better the situation it seemed that it had been really his fault. He clenched his fists angry. Great, that's all he needed! He now was completely responsible for a child, the Dark Hand business were going down, and the guilt feeling was making him hate himself. The situation looked desperate and for a moment he even considered to commit hara-kiri or something like that, but gave up the idea since Julia would have nobody to take care of her. So, what else could he do?
"Damn!", he shouted hitting his two fists against the table, ending up dropping the cup of coffee, and then he hit his head against it too. "Damn! Damn! Damn! Damn! DAMN!!!", he continued hitting and the people in the snack bar stared in confusion or in curiosity at him. Or just ignored him. The waitress even tried to approach and ask if he was all right, but Valmont glared so angry at her that she gave up and looked away.
Then, a middle-aged gentleman sat in front of him on the other side of the table and smiled. He had short straight black hair, and blue eyes. He also had a mustache and was wearing glasses and a black suit very similar to Ratso's, just more elegant.
"Good morning, sir. I see you need help.", the man said.
"Get away!", Valmont snapped.
"I bet 100 pounds that I can say what your problem is within one minute."
Valmont raised a brow.
"I doubt it."
The man took four sheets of paper from his briefcase, each one with a different ink stain.
"What do you see in this stain?", he asked and Valmont watched the sheet of paper for a short while.
"Uh... A pine cone.", Valmont answered and the man nodded, showing another sheet of paper.
"And this one?"
"A guitar."
"And this one?"
"A frog."
"And finally, this one?"
"A shell."
The man sighed and was silent for about five seconds.
"You suffer because of you wife's death, you have a rebel daughter, you believe and fears black magic, and you are a criminal.", the man said smiling proudly and Valmont could just stare at him openmouthed.
"H-How... how do you...?", he stuttered puzzled.
"First, you said a pine cone. Pine cone is a type of flower and women like flowers. The pine cone is a colorless and lifeless-like flower, as well as the woman it represents. Then the guitar. Guitar is the symbol of the daughters' rebelliousness, since if you had a son you would have seen drums or a microphone. The frog represents the black magic from the Middle Age and the people's fear of the unknown. And shells have pearls. Pearls remind jewels, precious stones, money, everything a criminal likes."
Valmont was astonished and the man glanced at his watch.
"I think you owe me 100 pounds. But you can pay me later.", he said standing up.
"...Later...?"
"Doctor Yzarc, psychiatrist. Here's my card.", he said giving it to Valmont and waved. "Look for me when you think you need help."
Julia was observing the boy in front of her. He had invited her to go to his house, and he took her to a small dusty library where there were a lot of strange people wearing robes and murmuring incomprehensible words. The boy, who lately had introduced himself as Howie, was leafing through a book until finding what he wanted.
"Look, this book has a lot of Chinese ancient legends. This is one of my favorites. It's about a dragon that was guardian of a certain region in China and was very kind."
"Aww! I love dragons!", Julia said grabbing the book.
"And that dragon was extremely powerful. So much that other magic creatures were very afraid of him and decided to defeat him while they still could. Then, they cursed him and imprisoned him along with his powers within a jewel. The Hun Yu jewel."
"Oh... poor him...", Julia said sadly.
"Bur his spirit is still alive inside the power of the Hun Yu jewel. The legend says that who owns that jewel wins infinite powers and can do anything."
"Anything?", Julia repeated looking at him.
"Anything you can imagine. It kills immortal beings, resurrects dead people, turns night into day in few seconds, make people fall in love, allows passage for several dimensions... Anything."
"And... where is that jewel?"
The boy shrugged.
"I don't know, I'm still too young to know about all the matters of the clan. But anyway that information can only be found in a spell book kept at a secret library in Hong Kong. It's in the last door of a long corridor. But...", he hesitated.
"But what?"
"Only chi-wizards can enter there..."
"Could you tell me where exactly that library is?"
"Sure!"
"Really?"
"After you join our clan and train for fifteen years to learn how to use magic."
"What? But... isn't there another way???"
"If you were family, maybe. I mean, officially... Sorry, but that information is secret. I can't tell anyone."
"I see.", Julia said with her cold tone again.
"So, are you going to join us?", Howie asked eagerly and she smiled.
"Of course! I always loved magic!"
"Then while Finn and Ratso go in through the ventilation tube, Chow watches the main room and-", Valmont explained to his enforcers and Julia suddenly entered his office.
"Dad, dad, dad! I found a way to solve all our problems!", the girl announced happily and Valmont turned to look at her.
"What do you mean?"
"First, I have to go to China and train my mind and my body for fifteen years."
"What?! No way!"
"But you did that in Sri Lanka!"
"That's a completely different thing! Don't even try to compare! And why would you want to do that, anyway?"
"Thus I'll be trusted by some chi-wizards and I'll know where the Hun Yu jewel is so that it can give me infinite powers to-"
"What?! Magic?!", Valmont interrupted turning pale.
"Uh... yeah, but..."
"No!!! No way I'll let you get involved with magic and suffer the same as I did!"
"But dad, I-"
"No!"
"But that will help-"
"I already said 'no'!!"
"But wouldn't it be-"
"Enough! You won't go to China and will never have anything to do with magic! You will stay right here in England, very far away from any wizard! You will act like a normal child and so there!", he snapped turning around and his enforcers didn't even had time to warn him about a yellow Chinese vase that Julia threw at her father. Fortunately she missed and the vase didn't get to hit him.
"How am I supposed to act like a normal child with a father like you?!", she shouted and left his office slamming the door as usual.
"That Julia doesn't change...", Chow commented shaking his head.
"Are you ok, Big V?", Finn asked and Valmont leaned on his desk.
"I think I do need help...", he said taking a card from his pocket.
'Dad... you're lucky for having such an understanding daughter like me.', Julia thought sitting on her bed and taking the book she had stolen from Howie's library.
'I understand that after everything that happened, you have become so blind that you can't even see the solution for our problems right before your eyes.'
She opened the book and began to read it in deep thought.
'But it doesn't matter if you are an ignorant. I will take care of everything on my own... And I know that some day I will get it!'
THE END!