Thick globs of water spilt over her eyelids. Frantically she ran her grimy hand over her tear stained face, only to smear the soot around. The tears, never ceasing, obscured her vision of the utter chaos and destruction before her. Her black eyes scoured the burnt and broken landscape that was once Paris.
Zelda, the former nun and AX member ran blindly through the rubble. Jagged, upturned pieces of concrete and metal ripped her dark dress and scraped her already injured skin. Endless was the demolition. In every which way she turned the horizon lay shattered and ugly. Time was just as warped as the ground and she had been going on in a directionless way forever.
In mid run she stopped and sank to her knees in defeat. She threw her head back and screamed from the depths of her soul. Her throat constricted and cut off her wordless cry. Tears, sweat and dirt caused her dark brown hair to stick to her face and neck. Her bangs clung to her eyes becoming a blinder to everything around her.
"Why?" Her raw vocal cords rasped. "…WHY??!"
Off in the distance she heard a rumbling. Her head jerked up in fear of another attack. Panic overwhelmed her senses, causing her eyes to become unfocused and yank wildly around.
A dark clad figure rounded the corner; Zelda's twitching eyes landed on it and paused. Her breath stopped and her heart ceased to beat. The man was garbed in a Rozen Kreuz Orden outfit and hat. His red hair had been shaved and his left eye glowed ruby.
Tres…She thought, the name came unbidden from her subconscious. He turned as if she had called him verbally. Tentatively she stretched out her shaking hand and tried to push herself up off the ground.
"Tr-" A bullet ripped through her right shoulder as her lips were beginning to form his name. Agony. Burning. Mind destroying. Pain. Whatever physical torture she had endured before was nothing compared to this. Bar none.
Thankfully she didn't have to endure it long, the wound and the haunting cold look of her former partner staring down at her. Within seconds Zelda's mind liberated itself and shut down.