Disclaimer: "Tenth Man Down" is owned by Nightwish All characters are property of their respective owners.
Author's Note: Angst FTW. This takes place in a modern AQ world, so yea. AU.
Tenth Man Down
Maria sat in her cot, thinking about the day that passed. She couldn't stand it. She couldn't stand watching so many of her comrades die. Stupid, horrible deaths. Why? Why do we charge into that, Krieger!? Why do you keep sending us to our graves? When will you be happy? When your entire platoon dies?! Is that it? Well, you've almost got your wish. Ten.
Ten. That's all that's left. TEN of US. Ten HUMANS. Ten SOULS. Ten PEOPLE. Ten FAMILIES. Ten SONS. Ten DAUGHTERS. Ten SPOUSES. Out of two thousand, only ten of them survived, Maria and her unit. Thunder broke the silence again. It's been raining for five weeks straight now. How can so much rain fall from the sky?
As she lays down to sleep some nights, Maria begins to think that... maybe... just maybe it's not rain. Maybe it's not water falling from the sky. Maybe... just maybe it's... blood. The needlessly shed blood of her comrades. People she knew, grew up with, played with, trained with, fought with, and if this daily charge stuff doesn't go away soon, people she'd die with.
The sounds of more bullets ricocheting against the metal barracks, she couldn't sleep like this. Too loud. What's worse, the Paxians were relentless. No matter how many hits they took in the day, then were shelling the crap outta the soldiers from Battleon all night. No one could sleep, no one could do anything. Stick your head out, and they'd take it off.
No one really knew if it was the thunder.
No one really knew if it was the bullets.
No one really knew if it was the tenacity.
No one really knew if it was all of these factors piled into one, tensive woman.
No one really knew anything about the events of that night. All that was know was what was told to everyone the next morning.
"Why!? Why did you do it?!" The reporter asked a bloodied Maria as she was lead out of a military tribunal, her arm shackles unlocked. She simply offered a wave of her bandaged hand, and a smile.
-Earlier-
"Today I killed, she was just a child. Eight before her, I knew them all..." Maria sang to herself, her voice audible only to herself over the din of explosions and bullets. She looked down at her hands. Clenched within them was the pistol, the silencer still bloodied with nine separate samples of blood, blow back all of them. "In the fields, a dying oath. I killed them all to save my own..." Something caught her eyes. Someone was still alive. From the distinct sound of her voice, it was most definitely Rayne.
"Ma...Maria..." She managed out, crawling on one arm, her other crushed beneath her own bodyweight. "W-Why?" She continued. She made a last ditch reach for an assault rifle just in her reach. Maria's foot came down on the barrel. Even in the rain, Rayne could tell Maria had been crying. She drew her knife from her arm holster. With her other hand, she grabbed Rayne's right wrist. It was where she kept her tags. With so many dying from decapitation, your neck was not a safe place to keep them.
"Cut me free..." Maria sang to her, slicing the chain from her wrist, the metal sliding free and landing on mud. Maria looked down at the now bare wrist. It was muddy, but the remains of a relatively recent wound could still be seen. Maria placed two fingers on either side of the wound and pulled her fingers away, the wound splitting open again. "Bleed with me..." A small grunt of pain could be heard from Rayne. Maria leaned over and wiped the bleeding wound on her still-clean face, a long, thin streak of blood visible. Maria then opened up Rayne's shoulder pocket, pulling the dog tags from the other fallen soldiers from the earlier day out and pocketing them. "One by one, we will fall..." She reached down and grabbed Rayne's tags from the ground, and putting them with the others. "Down... down..." She dug the knife slightly into the mud at Rayne's right, the edge still showing, glistening in the fading moonlight. Maria got on her knees and leaned closer to Rayne's face. "Pull the plug!" She continued singing, kissing her. "End the pain..." Maria drew the knife out of the ground and drove it into Rayne's heart. She never felt it. Rayne's lifeless body fell to the ground, her eyes fixed with an expression of eternal sadness.
Recollecting herself, she stood. Her eyes came back to Rayne's open, sad eyes. She crouched back down.
"Run 'n fight for life..." She wiped a matted strand of hair from her dead forehead. "Hold on tight, this ain't my fight..." She continued, placing a finger on each of her open eyelids, and pulling them closed. She blew her a final good bye kiss and stood, pulling her knife out and cleaning it.
Something came over her as she looked at a Paxian rocket streak overhead. Almost as if some divine force was speaking to her, the thunder clouds parted momentarily, and the moon could be seen. As a last ditch prayer, she dropped to her knees, raising her hands to the sky.
"Deliver me from this war! It's not for me..." Her hands of praise turned to hands of scolding. Her fists clenched as she raised her index finger to the heavens threatening. "IT'S BECAUSE OF YOU!" She shouted, even over the explosions and bullet skipping. Her hands then dropped to the mud. "Devil's instant; my eternity..." She shook her head, tears escaping in many directions. She didn't want this. "Obey to kill to save yourself..." She was truly sad at what she had to do to live. But they would all understand... on the other side.
Maria looked down at her own right wrist. Her tags were wrapped around it like Rayne's. She looked at the knife on her sleeve. Drawing it, she placed it to her wrist, singing. "Cut me free.." She pulled up, the tags snapping with the combination of sharp blade and quick action. She grabbed the tags and tied them to a hand grenade on her wrist. She could at least give those Paxian fags a nice surprise. When this trench would be quiet tomorrow, they'd come over to see. "Bleed with me..." She continued, slicing her palm open and running that hand carefully, almost sexually through her hair. She began tying dog tags to hand grenades as she sang. "One by one, we will fall. Down, down..." She took two grenades in each hand, and bellowing like some Norse god, pulled the pins and bellowed. "PULL THE PLUG!" She threw one over the trench wall. "END THE PAIN!" She tossed the other over. She heard the first explode, followed shortly after by the second. Having finished, she re sheathed the knife, and stood, and ran down the trench.
"Run 'n fight for life... Hold on tight... this ain't my fight..." She sang to herself as she ran.
An hour or so later, as the sun broke over the horizon, she found herself a place to hide. Within was a small diary belonging to a man long since dead. Within the margin is a pen that has seen much better days. She took it in her shaking hand and began scrawling with broken penmanship on the first available page. She spoke as she wrote.
"I envy the nine lives that gave me hell. My path made up by their torn bodies. Man to man. Soldier to soldier. Dust... to dust. Call me a coward... call me a coward... call me a coward... call me a coward... call me a coward... call me a coward... call me a coward... call me a coward... call me a coward... call me a coward... call me a coward... call me a... BUT I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!" With this, she slammed the book shut, jammed it harshly into the breast pocket of her flak jacket and continued on her way.
Hours passed. She had passed the rear of the line long ago, and was now approaching the border of Paxia. There, with all it's glory, she saw it! Battleon! Home!
"They wait for me back home... They live with eyes turned away... They are the first ones to see... They are the last to bleed!" She finished strongly, running to the city of Battleon below. She ran through the dead streets until she came to her base. Empty with the exception of that dumb prick Artix, who was sleeping comfortably in his bed, far away from the carnage that was taking place. She slipped in the window. Not wanting to wake him up, she tied him to the bed, then slapped him awake with a good hard one across the face.
"Bwuh?" He asked, coming out of it. Maria was engulfed in shadow as she spoke in some cryptic prayer.
"The ultimate high as all beautiful dies." She grabbed her knife and sliced his night shirt off his body. "A RULER'S TOOL!" She shouted, slicing his inner elbow joint. No one heard his scream. "A PRIEST'S EXCUSE!" She called again, slicing at his other inner elbow joint. He called out again in agony, but no one answered. She began on his chest. With careful precision, she began carving an inverted star, a pentagram into his chest. With the last three cuts, she shouted loud and angrily "A TYRANT'S DELIGHT!" He was loosing consciousness now as blood poured from several wounds in his body. She cleaned the knife as she sang. "I alone, the great white hunter. I marched 'till the dawn brought me rest. Tenth patriot..." She looked him right in the eyes, all feeling drained from her own, as she spoke. "At the gallows's pole." Vaulting onto his bed and straddling him, she prepared. She gripped the knife in both hands and sang with delight evident in her voice.
"Cut me free!" He brought the blade down onto his right shoulder joint, the weapon sinking down to the handle. He screamed. "BLEED WITH ME!" She sang rather emphatically into his ear, driving the blade harder then before into his left shoulder joint. "Oh, no..." Another cry of pain. "ONE!" She dug the blade again into his right side. "BY ONE!" She then jammed it into his left side. "WE WILL FALL!" She began dragging the knife, still lodged in his left side, across his stomach. His screams were bloodcurdling now. "Down... down..." She gave the knife a good pull towards her with each 'down'. "PULL!" She pulled the knife out and stabbed it into his stomach. "THE!" She pulled the knife out, then plunged it right back in where it was. "PLUG!" Again, she stabbed the same place again. "End the pain?" She almost asked him. He nodded, his teeth clenched. Maria's mouth pulled into a sneer as she shook her head with malice. She pulled the knife out. "Run!" She shouted, slicing the wrist bindings free. "'N FIGHT!" She shouted, cutting bindings from his feet. "For life..." She flipped the cot over, causing him to tumble to the ground. He collapsed to the cold floor and stumbled for the door. Maria advanced, knife drawn. She crouched down and grabbed his shoulder, rolling him onto his back. "Hold on tight, this ain't my fight." With this, she jammed the blade into his neck and began rolling it, smiling with every pop and crack of his spine. Soon, even the tyrant couldn't bare to move.
-
The dawn came. It was a very beautiful sunrise. However, with that sunrise came the morning guard. Maria hadn't bothered running, or even changing clothes. She just sat on his bed, drenched from head to toe in blood, a smile permanently plastered on her face. She was dragged off to the brig in a flash of the eye.
The judge that afternoon, believed that this was an open and shut case. Murder One. No problem. However, things began to get complicated as reports of Paxia's surrender began filing in from fronts far and wide, reasons all the same. Here is what it read.
"Paxian Commander killed early this morning by two, well placed grenades from Front Six. Hero expected." The out cry from the public not to persecute a hero was greater then the one from Artix's family for a fair trial. Maria was released.
-Now.-
"Why?! Why did you do it?" The reporter asked the local hero as she was lead out of the courtroom. Maria simply smiled and offered a wave of her bandaged hand.
"Trust me. I am no hero." She spoke coldly. "Krieger's life is not the only one of a close friend I've taken." She finished, walking away.
"What?!" The reporter asked. Maria smiled, turned around and responded...
"Yesterday I killed. She was just a child. Eight before her, I knew them all..."