Disclaimer: I do not own Black Cat in any way, shape, or form. (I wish I did though, cuz Sven is sexy, and Train is kick-ass...) I do not profit from this story. :)
Skip over the following if you've seen the anime ending...
As I mentioned before, the fic is based on mostly the manga, but its plot surrounds the anime ending. This series review by Jeffrey Harris helps explain the anime ending without giving too much away:
"Having finally defeated Creed Diskenth and his army, the Apostles of the Stars, Train and the other members of the Sweeper alliance take a breather and take some time to celebrate the victory. But there's still one last thing that needs to be addressed—Cronos.
Mason, the leader of Cronos, appears with the former members of Creed's group at his side. He's preparing to enact his own plan that involves using Eve as its main tool. Eve becomes dejected after Sven suggests sending her away to school, which gives Mason and his henchmen the chance to kidnap her. Eve is put under the control of Mason in a device that's called Eden, and they turn Eve into the core of a massive ship that will sweep over the world and absorb the lives of the entire population."
Before Original Sin—Innocence
And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
Genesis 2:25
Sven sat at the dimly lit bar, distractedly running his forefinger around the edge of his glass' rim, its contents emptied. Loosely hanging tinsel and plastic holly hugged the edges of the counter, and the sparsely decorated mini Christmas tree on his right was his only companion. A few ornaments hung close together in what could have formed a crooked, mocking face.
This is where it began, Sven thought idly.
He glanced up at the clock on the wall cluttered with half empty bottles of alcohol. Quarter past twelve.
Its official. Christmas Day.
He was interrupted from his thoughts by a slamming door. Footsteps came closer, and a shadowy figure appeared in the doorway. Sven's heart lifted.
Maybe...
"Sven, I'm going to lock up for the night. When you decide to leave, turn off the lights."
"Okay Annette," he replied halfheartedly, hope crushed. "Thanks."
She turned to leave and stopped. "Hey Sven..."
"Yeah?"
"Merry Christmas."
His reply never came, but then again, she hadn't expected one.
One year earlier, Christmas morning:
Eve shot up out of bed as soon as she heard the strident blaring of her alarm clock. Decked in a Santa hat, fuzzy cat slippers, and pink PJ's, she crept out of her bedroom to the little Christmas tree in the family room. She paused.
Presents!
She was always excited Christmas morning, and this year was no different. But this Christmas like any other, she passed the tree and crept down the hallway that led to Sven's bedroom. He was dead asleep, breathing softly. His eye patch rested on the nightstand, and his green hair framed his face wildly. He looked so peaceful, she almost felt bad waking him. Almost. But figuring that this was the only day the whole year that she ever did, she made the exception.
Eve grabbed Sven's hand, pulling at the sleeping figure.
"Sven get up. Its Christmas day."
When there was no response, she pulled harder. That was a mistake. The rug slipped from underneath her and she landed on Sven's body. His eyes shot open and he sat up with a loud "OOF."
"Wha-What?" he looked down to find Eve calmly gripping his chest. She had recovered from her fall quickly.
"Let's go open the presents."
He looked in the direction of the night stand and at the blinking numbers on his alarm clock.
He groaned and sunk tiredly against his headboard.
"Eve, its six o clock in the morning!"
"We can wake up Train," she urged. "It will make you feel better."
He smiled. He loved to see her so excited. He knew at Torneo's lab, she never had much of a childhood. She was nineteen now, and this still meant the world to her. Besides, no one could argue with her logic.
"Yeah, you're right. Lets go."
She helped him out of bed and pulled him to Train's room.
Train was splayed out on the bed, snoring loudly. A little snot bubble formed from his nose and popped in the air.
"One-two-" they whispered in unison. "Three!"
They landed on Train like two sacks of Christmas potatoes.
"Waaahhh!" he woke with a shout. Looking around dazedly, he spotted Sven and Eve grinning impishly at him. Pulling out a Santa hat from God-knows-where, Eve pushed it on Train's head.
"Merry Christmas."
Train threw himself back on the bed.
"It'll still be Christmas a few hours from now. I'm goin' back to sleep!"
"Oh, no you don't! If I have to get up this early, so do you," said Sven, pulling off Train's blanket.
"But its so cold," said Train hugging himself into a ball.
"Can't blame me for trying to save money on the gas bill. It's not like we're chasing criminals as often as we used to."
"We were broke as hell even when we did..." Train sulked.
The vein in Sven's forehead popped out as he closed his eyes and tried to ignore his partner's comment. "I'll give you blankie if you get out of bed now." Sven waved the blanket just out of arm's reach.
Train followed them to the living room, rubbing his heavy eyes. When Sven finally awarded him his blanket, he wrapped himself tightly in it. Only eyes, a nose, and a Santa hat were visible.
"Thanks Princess, it keeps my head warm," Train said, pointing to the hat from under the blanket.
"You're pathetic," said Eve with a tilt of her head.
"It's early! Leave me alone!" Train replied in a weepy voice.
Sven shook his head, amusement visible in his eyes. Train was always cranky Christmas morning. But he knew that he was happy. He also knew Train heard them enter his room each Christmas morning, but only acted surprised to give Eve the pleasure of rousing him herself.
Sven chuckled and ran a hand through his hair in attempts to make it look decent. "I'll go put on a pot of coffee."
When they finally started opening presents a little over half and hour later, the sunlight was already brimming over the horizon and spilling onto the roofs of the little town.
Eve stepped into the heap of presents and separated them into smaller piles. There were some from all their friends-Annette, Rins and Jenos, Leon, Marie, even, oddly enough, Charden and Kyoko. Eve opened her presents slowly to stretch out the holiday moment, while Train and Sven tore theirs apart greedily. When most gifts were accounted for and wrapping paper was piled up in all corners of the room, they opened the gifts they gave each other.
Train reached for his second to last present. It was from Sven.
"Bullets!" cried Train happily after demolishing his package.
"Be careful with those, they're special made."
"What for?" asked Train.
"Figuring it out is half the fun," replied Sven while lighting a cigarette between his lips.
Train and Eve stared. Sven shrugged guiltily. "I'm cutting down. Only half a pack a day."
"As opposed to your usual pack, that's not so bad!" said Train with visible sarcasm.
Eve stretched out her hand, forming an ashtray. Sven put out the cigarette miserably. They had been on guard ever since he turned thirty-eight. His smoker's cough had been getting a little worse every year, and they feared for his health as he got older-which was completely pointless since he wasn't old at all. He was still as young and sexy as ever!...At least that's what he told himself every morning in the bathroom mirror. Unbeknownst to him, his two roommates were aware of his little ritual, but thought it best not to say anything yet-not until his fortieth birthday anyway.
"So partner," sighed Sven. "What do you think?"
Train was about to respond when he got a closer look at the bullets. There were seven color coded bullets in a row encased in foam. He narrowed his eyes at his friend and placed the bullets on the floor warily.
"Hey, you're acting as if they're booby trapped or something," said Sven defensively.
"Wouldn't be the first time," said Train. "Remember last Christmas?"
"That was an accident!" Sven blurted out, pointing his finger at Train.
"Yeah, an accident that almost cost me my shooting hand!"
"I said I was sorry!"
"Whatever," Train said with a wave of his hand. "Here's your present." He tossed it to Sven.
Sven opened the box and peered inside.
"A pack of Nicorette gum, and...a new eye patch?"
"Your old one was getting ratty looking," Train said.
Sven nodded. "Thanks Train...I think."
"You're welcome!" Train replied cheerily.
"Here, Train," said Eve, handing him a brown box wrapped up in a large bow.
He eyed it suspiciously and sniffed it.
"Thanks princess! Hey, this doesn't smell half bad. Now, let's see what I got."
Shining holly wrapping paper was torn apart in seconds to reveal...
"A dried fish cake."
"Yes, Neko San loves his," she said pointing to the adopted white cat that seemed to follow them in all their travels. Over the years they took him in, and he-half stray, half house cat-came and went as he pleased. Neko meowed happily as he chewed on his fish cake.
Train rolled his eyes.
"Princess, you get me something like this every year. I'm starting to run out of closet space! And Neko keeps getting into my closet to eat 'em! At this rate, he'll die as the fattest cat that ever lived!"
"This one is different," she replied, pointing to one corner. Protruding from it was a ribbon in a knotted loop. "It's an air freshener."
Sven laughed, and Train shrugged. "At least it's useful."
Train tossed her his package. The wrapping job was...well...pathetic.
She opened it and in the box was a folded sheet of paper.
Unfolding the paper, she read the message and shot him a glare.
"What's it say Eve?" Sven asked innocently.
She passed it to him wordlessly.
The paper read: I O U.
"Train, that's not fair. At least she got you something," said Sven with a shake of his head.
Train glanced over at Eve.
Damn, he thought. If looks could kill...
He threw up his hands in surrender.
"No worries, just think of it as a blank, ask-me-for-whatever-you-want paper. It's hard enough getting a little girl a gift, but it's almost impossible getting a teenage girl a gift. I'd rather fight Creed one on one any day."
Eve stared at him icily.
They knew Train wasn't very good in the "gift department," but this year, he hit an all time record.
"Thanks Train. Here's your present Sven."
A nicely wrapped gold box artfully tied with shining red ribbon was exchanged from her hands to his.
He smiled at her and set his mug down on the table.
Carefully, he opened the package to find a strongly built silver watch resting loosely on black velvet. Its ticking was smooth-almost imperceptible. The face of the watch was blacker than the velvet that protected it with silver markings that glimmered in the faint light.
"It tells the date, the time of course, and it works like a map," said Eve softly. "There is a GPS satellite connected to it, so you'll never get lost in between jobs, and so you won't have to worry about more complicated paper maps. I read some new ground breaking technology books-so I learned how to alter a regular watch into a better, more useful one."
Sven opened his eyes wide in surprise.
"You mean, you did this Eve?"
She nodded.
"It's a lot simpler than it seems. You just have to memorize the order of things."
Train's mouth opened wide. "You got Sven a super cool watch, and got me potpourri fish?"
"Train-you gave her a sheet of paper for Christmas."
"Hey, it's a wish paper...that's practically gold!" he argued briefly, but seeing as his defense was crumbling, gave up.
Sven looked at Eve warmly.
"Thank you Eve, it's really a great gift. I'll wear it always."
Eve blushed at the compliment, but quickly sat down to open her gift. It was wrapped in red, and a white bow adorned the corner. It was very small.
Once opened, she gasped softly.
Laying in a gray encasement was a smooth, golden heart the size of her thumb nail.
"It's a locket Eve. Open it," Sven said reassuringly.
She flipped it to its side and parted the heart in two. Inside was a picture of Sven with his hand resting on Eve's shoulder-who was dressed in her favorite gown from seven years before. It was a picture of their first Christmas together. If one looked closely, an ankle protruding from a brown shoe could be seen behind them, as if floating in mid air.
"That's Train's foot, remember? He was leaning on that ladder next to the big tree in Annette's bar and he ended up toppling over right as the picture was taken."
"No way! Lemme see!" exclaimed Train, who believed that he had erased all evidence of that photo.
Eve's face was red. She nearly looked sick.
"Eve? Do you not like it? We can return it and pick something else," Sven said hurriedly.
She shook her head and jumped over to his kneeling form.
"Thank you Sven," she whispered into his shirt as she embraced him. "It's beautiful."
Sven wrapped his arms around her.
"You're welcome."
"Man, all this excitement has got me starving. Let's eat!" said Train as he stood with a stretch.
"You must have been a cow in another life," said Eve passively.
"Oh yeah? How do you figure?" asked Train as he cracked an eye at her.
"Cows have four stomachs."
Sven laughed while Train and Eve went at it...
"I'm a growing boy!"
"You're a glutton."
"Well...I'm a better sweeper!"
Eve formed her hand in the shape of a mallet...
"I'll go make breakfast before World War III starts in my living room," said Sven, a bead of sweat forming on his forehead.
"OWW!" he heard Train's voice from the kitchen. "Boy Princess, you've gotten faster!"
"I'll show you who's a better sweeper..." Eve's calm reply reached his ears.
Neko moewed nervously at the violence.
That Christmas had been their best Christmas together to date. But it brought with it false hopes of goodness in the year to come.
Present Day:
Eve, thought Sven painfully. He thumbed the broken watch on his right hand.
There's no time left. Sven looked down into his empty glass.
In it, he saw the reflection of haggard looking man with a poor looking eye patch and an unshaven face. Unable to look at himself any longer, he slid the glass aside bitterly.
I have to find you. And Ill make those bastards pay for what they've done.
Sven stumbled behind the counter, and chose a particularly strong whiskey. He opened it, taking a long drought. The liquor proved stronger than expected, and he coughed roughly, sputtering at its potency. Sliding dejectedly against the wall and onto the bar floor, he gripped the bottle tightly until his knuckles turned white. His eyes were looking directly ahead of him, but his stare was fixed on nothing.
Ill save you Eve-even if I have to die to see it through.
Next Chapter:
Train comes to town to check on Sven, but finds a drunk in his stead. Infuriated and disappointed, he tries to gets Sven to talk about what happened to Eve. Can he convince his partner to forget about their painful past long enough to try and save her while there still might be time?
Note: "Neko San" is translated to "Mr. Cat" in Japanese. I would have left it just "Cat" in English, but it would have been very Breakfast at Tiffany's...not that that's bad, but, its not really Black Cat. :-)
For those who don't know:The Eden Project (In the anime TV series) was a plan controlled by the Chronos leader Mason and moved into play by "The Doctor" (who worked for Creed as one of the Apostles of the Stars)...They captured Eve and had turned her into a biological weapon...taking control of the world city by city (basically, she was in a ship and they projected her nano-machine powers onto cities, where she fed off the energy of human life). She was put into a trance-like state where she talked to "Adam" (an integral part of a large computer system connected to her...sort of like a talking computer in human form) who tried to persuade her to end the world-without her really knowing that she was ending it. I won't tell you what happens after. If you really want to know, message me. No spoilers. Just a short explanation.