Disclaimer: Witch Hunter Robin is owned by Sunrise, Bandai Entertainment Inc and now apparently the Sci-Fi Channel. Only the original characters and plot are my own. I am writing this story purely for my personal entertainment and no money has been or will be made from the production of this story.
Summary: Post-Episode 26. Amon and Robin have succeeded and in faking their own deaths, but can they rebuild their lives?
Fire Goddess
Chapter 1
Of Flames
The fire goddess was in the heart of her domain.
Sheets of flame surrounded them, twisting to the ceiling, burning everything in their paths. Amon stared in awe as the firestorm touched him and the fire witch, but did not harm either of them. Robin was pressed against his side, and the expression on her face, filtered through the flame, was one of wonder and joy as the flames danced to her desire, obeying her will perfectly. Vaguely Amon found himself wondering how they could breathe, flame ate oxygen and they were in the heart of an inferno.
The goddess knew that her flames were a two edged sword, capable of death and destruction, as she knew to her sorrow; but also of life. The warm, gentle flames of hearth and home and the flames of Hell were one and the same.
Dimly Amon felt something hit his shoulder. He looked up and realized that shield of flame or no; the ceiling of the Factory was going to fall straight down on them in any second. "Robin!" he yelled, but his voice was washed away by the roaring of the firestorm.
Distantly the goddess heard the voice of her companion, the dark hunter. Flame danced within and around her, and its play required all of her attention. The goddess knew that if she lost control of her protective firestorm both she and her companion would be incinerated. That knowledge did not frighten her.
The fire goddess felt the wall hit her carefully constructed shield, and not even her awesome powers could keep all of it from penetrating. She felt the violation of her shield with outrage and shame, and then everything went black. In the distance she could feel the warm body of the dark hunter, pinning her to the ground as burning debris fell around them. Irritably she tried to push him away, did he not realized that she couldn't protect them if she couldn't see? He was as immovable as a mountain, sheltering her against the collapse of this place of damnation, whispering words she could not quite understand into her ear.
The goddess knew she should be afraid, but was not.
Amon looked up as the last of the rubble clattered to a halt around them. Surprisingly an I-beam had fallen down, but instead of nearly crushing them it seemed to have saved their lives. They were directly underneath it, and it appeared to be holding back a substantial amount of debris. Amon blinked and looked around, while his night sight was better then most people's, he still shouldn't have been able to see the beam. Unless... There, a patch of sky was visible, just beyond the I-beam. If they could crawl through the debris then they could make it to freedom.
"A-Amon?"
The hunter glanced down at the sound of Robin's soft voice, and realized he was still lying on top of her. Carefully, he crawled off of her, ducking his head to keep from hitting it on the I-beam.
"Thank you," she whispered, "you're rather heavy."
Amon nodded and motioned to the hole, "I don't think we can crawl through that, but perhaps your Craft...?"
Robin blinked, and nodded, picking up her half-moon glasses from where they had landed when he had knocked her down. A stream of fire as hot as a cutting torch poured from her briefly, punching a hole through the debris like a hot nail through butter.
Amon turned quickly to the girl in surprise and alarm when she sighed and folded over. "Robin?" he asked, grabbing her shoulders and holding her steady.
"'m tired," she mumbled, her words slurring with exhaustion. Amon wrapped his left arm around her waist and pulled her slim body against him. He could feel her trembling with fatigue and he wondered if she had the strength to climb through the hole before SOLOMON's forces found it. He knew they had a few minutes at least, SOLOMON wouldn't approach the pile of rubble until they were certain that it had stabilized itself. It would take even longer for them to start digging it out, but by then SOLOMON would have the entire area cordoned off.
He hoped that they would have enough time to get out. Now was the perfect time to fake their deaths.
"Robin," he said, shaking her a little to wake her up, "we need to get moving." He felt her nod against his chest and then crawl forward to the hole. He boosted her up into it, hissing a little as the exertion stung his back, and followed her as she pulled herself further up, keeping close behind incase she lost her grip and fell.
It seemed to take forever to climb through the tunnel, even though it was only fifty feet long or so. It was surprising how little space the Factory compacted into when it fell, the Hunter thought. Above, Robin lost her grip yet again and slid down onto him, causing Amon to grit his teeth against a flare of pain. He held her steady as she regained her balance. He could hear her whimper, but whither it was in frustration, fatigue, pain, or grief over the tortured witches Amon couldn't tell. At this point it didn't really matter, all that mattered was that they got out of there safely.
At long last they emerged into the cool night air. Looking around he could see the searchlights of SOLOMON's forces scanning the area looking for survivors. Amon hauled Robin to her feet and she stood there, swaying. He gazed at her with some concern, while he didn't think she'd been hurt seriously in the fall of the Factory, he also couldn't rule out that possibility. There wasn't much he could do about it now, he decided, as long as she could walk he would focus on getting out of there without being caught. Later, when they were safe, he would figure out if she was injured. Ignoring the twinges in his back he wrapped his arm around her shoulders to hold her steady and silently led her away from the remains of the Factory.
They crashed at the first cheap motel they came to. There had been only one room left, due apparently to a large convention in town, and it only had one bed. Amon didn't care, his back was sore and flared with pain with every movement, and he was ready to drop from exhaustion. The manager had given him a strange look when he'd paid cash instead of using a credit card, and an even stranger one when he saw the fifteen year old witch. Handing over some extra cash made the man forget, instantly, that he had ever thought anything was suspicious about the pair.
As soon as Robin saw the bed she stumbled toward it, but was stopped when Amon grabbed her shoulder. Amon saw her green eyes widen and it looked like she might burst into tears in a second if he didn't let her go to bed. At that moment she looked younger then her fifteen years. "Amon?" she asked plaintively. He sighed.
"In a moment, I want to check you for injuries. Do you hurt anywhere?" he asked as he undid her hair ribbons before running his fingers along her scalp, looking for any lumps or depressions that might indicate injury. Her hair was sticky with sweat and gritty with dust and ashes and she trembled slightly under his touch.
"N-no, not really. I-I'm just tired."
When he didn't find anything alarming he let her go and watched for a moment as she got into bed, not even bothering to take off her shoes. God, he ached, his back was now one long streak of pain, the skin felt almost as if it was on fire, as if he had the world's worst sunburn. He held one hand up to his face and was somewhat startled to see that it was shaking like a leaf.
He followed her to the bed and took off her shoes before climbing in with her. After kicking off his own shoes he rolled over to his side to avoid letting his aching back touch the bed. One arm snaked out and pulled Robin closer to him and he basked for a moment in the realization that she was warm and alive and whole. Her hair smelled of concrete dust, sour sweat, and ashes. Somehow it smelled good.
A/N: A bit of fluffiness there at the end for the Amon/Robin 'shipers, of which I am admittedly one. Reviews, both positive and negative are always appreciated. Don't be afraid to point out any OOCness, plot holes, misspellings, bad grammar, or anything else you think is wrong with the story. I have a very thick skin and outright 'u sux bietch' flames will be laughed at. If anyone wants to beta read for me please email me privately.
Gloria's Random Warning: It is very possible that I may decide to incorporate this story into one of several others I am working on, if so then the title is subject to change. If I do this I will notify you guys in the summary and my profile.
