AN: Hello, hello. Now you guys might be wondering what the hell I'm doing writing another story, right? Well, I was going to work on Cold Blooded's next chapter but Psychology 101 bored me so much that I ended up with this... That and this idea's been floating in my head since I posted the snppet on Beast's Lair.
Blotted Destiny
Prologue: A Shift In Destiny... or When A Lost Soul Saves Another Lost Soul
The man walked amidst the flames, ignoring the severe heat as well as the hundreds of people pleading for help. It was too late to help them, after all, and his time would be better off spent in search of what or who caused the fire. A fire of this size wouldn't have appeared spontaneously. It would start in one area of the city; a house whose owner forgot to turn the stove off or perhaps a lit cigarette being thrown carelessly somewhere. If that were the case, the fire would have spread slowly and would ahve been put out by the fire department before it reached this city-wide magnitude. Video feeds from thirty minutes ago showed that the in one second, the city was in its usual, bustling state and the next, it was a blazing inferno of death and destruction.
The masked Vigilante known as Rorschach shook his head, his specially crafted mask randomly rearranging its ink blot design as he did so. Nothing about the current situation made sense. If the fire was caused by an explosion, the sheer magnitude of an explosion capable of causing it would have killed every person in the city immediately as well as obliterating the vast majority of the structures instead of the slow agonizing death that these people were suffering as they were burned to ashes.
His musings were cut short when slow and light footsteps registered in his ears. Turning around, he saw a red haired child, about four or five years of age, trudging through the ashes. Stumbling here and there, his eyes blank, as if he was merely waiting for the inevitable. Seconds seemed like hours as Rorschach watched the boy fight fate, while people older and more mature than him have all but given up hope, reduced to pleading to whatever god they believe in. As the sound of sirens echoed in the distance, Rorschach made a decision.
On the other side of the city, a certain Magus Killer succumbed to the curse of the Holy Grail, his last moments filled with despair and regret.