*urrr* I hate it when this doesn´t come out here as it does in my word
document! So sorry that this isn´t italic or
centered
where it´s supposed to be! I don´t know how to fix this... :/
Jei! This is my first fanfic so don´t be harsh, but then again, judge me! Want to know if I´m doing ANYTHING right!
I´m pretty much just making this up as I go along so don´t ask me about the plot! I really don´t know where I´m headed with this! Of course I´ve got few scenes thought up but all in all I don´t know where this will end.
And I´m kind of writing this for the POV of someone who has finished the game! Just so there will be no hard feelings if I accidentally spoil something!
And don´t judge me by my english! I´m not born in an English-speaking country so. (and I´m a Blank fan, so he might turn out kind of hero like BUT I´ll try not to make it extreme!)
Enjoy and Review, please!
Chapter #1
//Uninvited Guest//
Blank stood in the rear of the stage, his arms folded over his chest and a big grin on his face. He watched as the Queen pounded down from her royal box as fast as she could to embrace Zidane. The look on her face was of pure agony, but blended with joy, anger and utter relief. Blank couldn´t see Zidane´s face but he knew that it bore a humble smile of joy he wore so often.
The Queen started to hit Zidane in fury and disbelief and he allowed her to have her way, knowing that would ease her pain from three years of not knowing what had happened.
The crowd cheered and applauded, delighted with the happy ending of the show and the Queens part in it. Every single civilian in the kingdom of Alexandria knew how depressed the Queen had been over the past few years. This was an appropriate ending to her depression. Now there would be a wedding and perhaps a heir to the throne. Alexandrians wanted certainty and if there was no heir there would be problems.
Blank scanned the crowd quickly with his eyes and saw some familiar faces. Freya, the Burmecian Dragon knight stood by Vivi, the little Black Mage, Amarant, who Blank knew almost nothing about, and the little, spunky, winged girl Eiko. Their faces seemed to glow with happiness, even though they all had known this day would come. And Quina, the strange looking chef, stood there, tounge out and that usual huge grin or whatever on it´s face. And, still up in the royal box, Steiner & Beatrix stood.
A happy ending, after all, Blank thougth to himself as he turned away and went inside the theater ship. He went down to his room and lay down on his bed. Even inside the ship he could hear the crowd screaming and shouting. Now there´s gonna be a wedding, he thought. I wonder if Zidane´s going to invite me? After all, it could get a little awkward. I bet Dagger will insist though... we being childhood friends and all, and she doesn´t know! I bet that´s the way Zidane wants it. He kept on thinking about it for a while, then he heard somebody coming down the stairs. Most likely Baku, judging from the sound. He always walked like he was trying to bring down the whole house (or ship or whatever).
'Yeah, what is it?' Blank yelled before Baku could even knock on the door. He didn´t intend it to sound as rude as it did.
'Aren´t ya gonna c´m up and join us? We´re going to the castle to celebrate!' Baku asked carefully.
Blank got up and opened the door. He didn´t have any reason not to go, other than the usual headache. But he couldn´t tell the boss about that. He smiled at the boss and gestured for him to lead the way.
They walked side by side into the palace. Baku was much taller, and broader, than Blank, so Blank seemed kind of insignifficant beside him. Normally that would have annoyed him, seeming a lesser man than anyone else, but not tonight. Tonight he just wanted to disappear into the crowd so hopefully he wouldn´t have to talk to Zidane, or anyone else for that matter. The headache was tearing through his head like it was about to burst but he showed no signs of the pain, except for in his eyes, which of course nobody saw, luckily. The big belt made sure of that.
Blank saw where Marcus and Cinna stood and pinched Baku to show him. They pushed their way through the crowd towards their friends. When they finally got to them Blank noticed Ruby standing by them. She had changed from her costume into a light blue evening gown, matching her hair and eyes. She looked stunning and Blank told her that. She blushed slightly and answered:
'Well one o´ us has to!' and chuckled a little. Blank just smiled back at her. Baku laughed hard and hit Ruby a little to hard square over the back, causing a lock of hair to pull free from her theatreristic hairdo. But Baku did not notice, just walked away in the direction of Zidane and Garnet. Blank noticed how happy they looked and sighed.
'So what are we doing in here, with all these people?' he asked Ruby.
'Didn´t ya hear, honey?' She looked surprised. Blank merely shook his head. 'Well the luvbirds gonna get married, righ´on da spot!' she said, blinking her right eye at him.
Blank put up a surprised face but his real thoughts were Finally!!
Then he eyed a table decorated with food and drinks and made his way towards it.
The hall was severly crowded. Every theatreguest had been invited.
Well, at least there won´t be any awkward invitations now! crossed Blank´s mind.
After dinner, which was surprisingly before the ceremony, they moved into the palace chapel. The royal mini-church took about 1000 persons in seat which was not enough for all the theatreguests. So Steiner kindly asked all who did not have a personal relationship with the royal couple to please wait in the dining hall or return to their homes. People did not see it to be a big request so they did as they were asked to and only about 500 all in all were present at the ceremony.
The ceremony went on without a single problem. Zidane was crowned as the King of Alexandria. To Garnet´s surprise she learned that Steiner and Beatrix had been doing the necessary preporations for a few weeks now. Ever since they heard of Zidane´s wellbeing. The Queen was a little hurt that nobody had told her, but did not let that get in the way of the joy of Zidane´s return.
Throughout the whole thing Blank sat in the far back, watching with great deal of interest. This was what he needed so that he would stop thinking about it, he thought. This was deffinetely the end of the whole thing! Zidane would realize that, right!?
Blank watched as they kissed intensely. He thought it was sweet, but made sure no one would notice that. His blank face expressionless. Ruby, who sat at the front stood up and started applouding. She smiled gayly, her eyes full with tears. Then she looked back at Blank and waved with excitement, and he gestured a some kind of wave back. Blank was fully aware of her feelings towards him, but there was really nothing he could do about it...
Then suddenly there was a loud scream of terror. Everyone froze and looked to the rear of the hall, where the scream had come from. Blank stood up as soon as he heard it and ran without thinking to his left, to where the scream had come from. He soon saw a woman, a brunette, lying on the floor. Blank could plainly see that she was dead, her head halfcut from her body. Nobody seemed to have been around her at the time so Blank was the first to get to her. Everybody else had wanted to be as close to the altar as they could get. Only half of the church´s chairs were occupied.
Blank knelt down at one side of the woman. Her hair was thrown over her face and her beautiful, pale green gown was soaked in blood. Then something caught Blanks eye. A movement. He looked up just in time to see a hand disappear out an open window near him. He ran to it and jumped up to look out. The window was high above the ground but that did not seem to hinder the owner of the hand. Blank could see him dash away from the palace. He was wearing a dark cloak so it was hard to spot him in the darkness of the night.
Blank jumped out of window and pursued. He was not about to let the only possible witness, and most likely a murderer, get away without a chase. He heard somebody, most likely Ruby, call out his name when he jumped out the window but he ignored it. Too bad he had left his sword on the ship. The only thing he now had to defend himself if the cloaked man would resist was a small knife he kept in his boot. He cursed himself for parting with his sword. He of all people should have known that that was not a smart move!
The man dashed over green flats of grass and flowerbeds neatly positioned in the courtyard. Blank could see him glance over his shoulder indicating he knew that he was being followed. That did not make things any simpler for Blank. Pausing to look around, the cloaked man turned around. He was standing where a light from one of the lamps placed in the couryard lit up the earth so Blank could steal a glimpse at him.
The man had breasts? Well, that kind of shocked Blank. The way the throat of the victim had been cut was rough and Blank would never have guessed a woman had done it. But her chest did not lie...
The mystery woman had blond hair, very long and there was a slight curlyness about it. She was slender but obviously strong. Under her dark cloak Blank thought he saw dark green clothes, that tucked tightly to her body, allowing her to move freely. The hood concealed her face.
Blank could see all this in just a split second, his eyes perfectly trained to catch every single detail. As a skilled thief he had to be able to memorize things. The woman turned and sprinted on toward the little harbor where a boat lay, appaerantly waiting for her. There were two men in it, or at least Blank thought the two figures were male, and as soon as the woman jumped in the boat they started rowing towards the other side. When Blank reached the dock it was already too late to see anything. They had disappeared into the night, and there was no other boat in sight. They had probably cut them loose. That was what Blank would have done, anyway.
Blank cursed slightly and turned back, walking hastily back to the palace. He was a little out of breath after the running but not that much, really. His mind sorting out the things he had found out, all clues, even though they were very few, he stored in his mind in case he would need them later on.
When Blank came closer to the palace he could see guards running around frantically, obviously trying to find the killer. Two of them sighted Blank and ran to him, trying to look really important. Their armour clinging loudly as they moved, and Blank thought that while wearing that there was no way that they were ever going to catch that woman. When the guards finally got to him they grasped his arms screaming: 'You´re not going to get away with this!' and 'You´re under arrest, buddy!' like bad actors performing in a very lame farce. He did not struggle, he did no't even try to talk his way out of things because he knew that would not do him any good. He just had to wait until they brought him to the 'King and Queen' (felt strange thinking about it like that). Then everything would be sorted out.
And so it was. Zidane explained carefully that Blank was not any kind of a homocidal maniac, but a friend of his, the King (still weird). And so the guards let him go, begging for forgiveness before running away, trying to aid in the search of the murderer.
'Where´s the victim?' Blank asked calmly. There was not any reason for making a scene, now that the woman had got away. The headache was still terribly strong.
'Right here.' Zidane answered. He lead Blank to the place he had found the woman before. The hall had been evacuated so the only people there were the royal couple, the tantalus gang, Ruby amongst them, Freya, Amarant, Steiner, Beatrix and some guards. Vivi, Eiko and Quina had left out of their own free will, although Eiko had needed a little bribery. Ice-cream and chocolate. Ruby looked shocked, but was able to keep herself restrained. Blank felt her begging eyes on him but he did not manage to force himself to look at her. Still too soon.
Zidane lifted up a coat, that somebody had covered the victim with, to reveal the body. There was blood everywhere. The body was more or less as Blank had remembered. The rough work on the cut through the womans throat, her soaking wet gown, her hair all over the floor, but her eyes had been closed by someone.
And there it was! Blank saw it now so clearly. Why had he not noticed that paper before? He crouched beside the body, stretched out his arm towards the womans head, but then hesitated, looking up at Zidane as if to ask if it was all right for him to touch. Zidane nodded. Blank opened the woman´s mouth. There it was, a letter. It was written with a totally normal handwriting, absolutely nothing was special about it. It was practically by the book. The paper had been folded so it would fit inside the woman´s mouth and Blank unfolded it. He read it first for himself, then aloud for the rest of them to hear:
Oh, sinful soul, oh sinful one To where has all your honor gone?
Frightful things your hands have done
Evil that surpasses none
Your soul is stained with blood so blue That nothing greater you can find To keep it hidden, long have you Concealed it insider your sick mind
Since then you have been laying low To hide what you alone dost know In your nightmare, most hated fear You tell yourself what you want to hear
Who am I? You know me well The memoirs deep inside you dwell And time alone to you will show
I am your ally, but yet your foe
-Be on the look-out for more 'treated' women. I will contact you again...
Blank finished reading and looked up on the rest. None spoke. He was not surprised. He had stood up while reading and now he knelt again, looking for more clues on the body. But he found none. Finally Zidane spoke.
'Who do you think it´s meant for?'
The question came as a little surprise for Blank. He had thought it was quite obvious that it was meant for Zidane himself, being left there during his wedding and he being King now.
'You, I think!' Blank answered.
'I agree' Freya added.
'....whatever...' Amarant commented. Blank thought it was his way of agreeing.
'But what does he...' Garnet started but Blank cut her off.
'It was actually a 'she'. I saw it while chasing her!'
Garnet nodded. 'What does she mean by this 'sinful one' comment?'
'Probably some loony making his or her sick jokes on us...' Baku exclamed. But Blank did not agree on that. This woman had her 'fulle femmes' (A/N: Danish I think...) or her full wit as some would prefer to call it. She was not just some loony. She had known exactly what she was doing, even if she would better had checked out her escape rute before striking. But still, Blank kept his yap shut. Maybe it was all in his head.
'Well, the letter does say that she´ll strike again, so we better start looking for her!' Freya said thoughtfully.
'Better hurry!' Blank answered. 'She´s long gone from the palace!'
'Why didn´t you say so sooner, then?' Steiner asked him with a slight sound of irritation.
'Didn´t think it wasn´t common knowledge.' Blank answered, fully aware that it was not a very good answer. He really should have mentioned this sooner.
'No time to think about that now,' Beatrix exclaimed. She whistled and two guards came running to her. 'Battlestation!' she shouted like a real general. 'We need to find this woman and we need to find her fast. She´s going to strike again and we better stop her before she does. Ceal the city, guard all ways out and go door-to-door searching for her. NOW!' She kind of screamed the last order and the guards backed away from her before scattering off. 'No, wait!' she then shouted. The guards stopped and turned around. She then turned to Blank and asked: 'Did you see what she looked like?'
'Yeah, but it was kinda da...'
'Good,' she interupted him turning back to the guards and shouting, 'But first get her description to the royal scetch artist! This man here,' she pointed at Blank 'will help you!' Then she turned back to Blank gesturing him to follow the guards. Blank lowered his head and obeyed like a housebroken dog. It irritated him to leave the scene, just to describe the woman, whom he had not even seen the face of, to some rotten scetch artist. He wanted to stay and investigate, but then again, going up against Beatrix in her dominion was not such a good idea.
*~*~*~*~*~*
The scetch artist was quick working and soon had a scetch ready of the woman, exactly like Blank remembered her. Blank padded the artist on his back and left him with the guards. This had only taken about 20 minutes, so he would surely not have lost out of many things. He ran to the chapel, pausing only once to let a young maid pass him by, and telling her she should evacuate the building. She thanked him and smiled, but he did not return it.
When he reached the chapel everyone except Ruby were gone. Blank cursed inside his head, blaming Beatrix for all of this. He slowly walked up to Ruby who sat in the back, not far away from where Blank had sat throughout the ceremony. Her face was expressionless except for the tears filling her eyes. Blank could see that she was trying so hard not to cry, but was barely succeeding.
'Ruby?' he said as he reached her. She had not noticed him before so she looked kind of shocked but managed to keep herself under controle, or something along that line.
'Oh, s´at you Blank?' She gave him a weak smile.
'Where did the others go?' he asked her not returning her smile.
'Oh, they went into da main hall for a meet´n!' she answered, her voice shaking.
'Why are you here, then?' he asked, mainly out of obligation rather than concern.
'Wait´n for you, darl´n!' She tried on another weak smile but it was very forced and then suddenly she burst into tears. She cried silently as her face disformed and tears flowed down her cheeks. She put one hand over her mouth and the other she placed on her chest, playing with a little necklace she always wore. Blank had given it to her about a year ago. Blank sighed and sat down beside her laying one arm over her shoulders.
'No need to cry, you know.' he started then shutting his mouth, knowing this was not the right thing to say at a moment like this. Instead he offered her his arms. Like a child she plunged herself into his warm and comforting embrace. Blank felt her shake and twitch as she tried to back her feelings, but he acted as if he did not notice. Ruby had of course seen a few dead creatures and few human even, but none who had been killed without any particular reason, in as cruel way as this. It was just too craphic for her.
Ruby cried for a long time, 15 minutes maybe. Blank did not say anything the whole time, mostly because he did not know what to say. He was very good in saying exactly what he was not supposed to say in critical times. Finally she pulled her face together, whiped the tears of her cheeks and stood up.
'Shouldn´t we go see the others?' Blank asked her. She nodded. And they silently walked out of the chapel and headed for the main hall. The silent between them kind of awkward, and the headache continued to torture Blank.
*~*~*~*~*~*
Jei! This is my first fanfic so don´t be harsh, but then again, judge me! Want to know if I´m doing ANYTHING right!
I´m pretty much just making this up as I go along so don´t ask me about the plot! I really don´t know where I´m headed with this! Of course I´ve got few scenes thought up but all in all I don´t know where this will end.
And I´m kind of writing this for the POV of someone who has finished the game! Just so there will be no hard feelings if I accidentally spoil something!
And don´t judge me by my english! I´m not born in an English-speaking country so. (and I´m a Blank fan, so he might turn out kind of hero like BUT I´ll try not to make it extreme!)
Enjoy and Review, please!
Chapter #1
//Uninvited Guest//
Blank stood in the rear of the stage, his arms folded over his chest and a big grin on his face. He watched as the Queen pounded down from her royal box as fast as she could to embrace Zidane. The look on her face was of pure agony, but blended with joy, anger and utter relief. Blank couldn´t see Zidane´s face but he knew that it bore a humble smile of joy he wore so often.
The Queen started to hit Zidane in fury and disbelief and he allowed her to have her way, knowing that would ease her pain from three years of not knowing what had happened.
The crowd cheered and applauded, delighted with the happy ending of the show and the Queens part in it. Every single civilian in the kingdom of Alexandria knew how depressed the Queen had been over the past few years. This was an appropriate ending to her depression. Now there would be a wedding and perhaps a heir to the throne. Alexandrians wanted certainty and if there was no heir there would be problems.
Blank scanned the crowd quickly with his eyes and saw some familiar faces. Freya, the Burmecian Dragon knight stood by Vivi, the little Black Mage, Amarant, who Blank knew almost nothing about, and the little, spunky, winged girl Eiko. Their faces seemed to glow with happiness, even though they all had known this day would come. And Quina, the strange looking chef, stood there, tounge out and that usual huge grin or whatever on it´s face. And, still up in the royal box, Steiner & Beatrix stood.
A happy ending, after all, Blank thougth to himself as he turned away and went inside the theater ship. He went down to his room and lay down on his bed. Even inside the ship he could hear the crowd screaming and shouting. Now there´s gonna be a wedding, he thought. I wonder if Zidane´s going to invite me? After all, it could get a little awkward. I bet Dagger will insist though... we being childhood friends and all, and she doesn´t know! I bet that´s the way Zidane wants it. He kept on thinking about it for a while, then he heard somebody coming down the stairs. Most likely Baku, judging from the sound. He always walked like he was trying to bring down the whole house (or ship or whatever).
'Yeah, what is it?' Blank yelled before Baku could even knock on the door. He didn´t intend it to sound as rude as it did.
'Aren´t ya gonna c´m up and join us? We´re going to the castle to celebrate!' Baku asked carefully.
Blank got up and opened the door. He didn´t have any reason not to go, other than the usual headache. But he couldn´t tell the boss about that. He smiled at the boss and gestured for him to lead the way.
They walked side by side into the palace. Baku was much taller, and broader, than Blank, so Blank seemed kind of insignifficant beside him. Normally that would have annoyed him, seeming a lesser man than anyone else, but not tonight. Tonight he just wanted to disappear into the crowd so hopefully he wouldn´t have to talk to Zidane, or anyone else for that matter. The headache was tearing through his head like it was about to burst but he showed no signs of the pain, except for in his eyes, which of course nobody saw, luckily. The big belt made sure of that.
Blank saw where Marcus and Cinna stood and pinched Baku to show him. They pushed their way through the crowd towards their friends. When they finally got to them Blank noticed Ruby standing by them. She had changed from her costume into a light blue evening gown, matching her hair and eyes. She looked stunning and Blank told her that. She blushed slightly and answered:
'Well one o´ us has to!' and chuckled a little. Blank just smiled back at her. Baku laughed hard and hit Ruby a little to hard square over the back, causing a lock of hair to pull free from her theatreristic hairdo. But Baku did not notice, just walked away in the direction of Zidane and Garnet. Blank noticed how happy they looked and sighed.
'So what are we doing in here, with all these people?' he asked Ruby.
'Didn´t ya hear, honey?' She looked surprised. Blank merely shook his head. 'Well the luvbirds gonna get married, righ´on da spot!' she said, blinking her right eye at him.
Blank put up a surprised face but his real thoughts were Finally!!
Then he eyed a table decorated with food and drinks and made his way towards it.
The hall was severly crowded. Every theatreguest had been invited.
Well, at least there won´t be any awkward invitations now! crossed Blank´s mind.
After dinner, which was surprisingly before the ceremony, they moved into the palace chapel. The royal mini-church took about 1000 persons in seat which was not enough for all the theatreguests. So Steiner kindly asked all who did not have a personal relationship with the royal couple to please wait in the dining hall or return to their homes. People did not see it to be a big request so they did as they were asked to and only about 500 all in all were present at the ceremony.
The ceremony went on without a single problem. Zidane was crowned as the King of Alexandria. To Garnet´s surprise she learned that Steiner and Beatrix had been doing the necessary preporations for a few weeks now. Ever since they heard of Zidane´s wellbeing. The Queen was a little hurt that nobody had told her, but did not let that get in the way of the joy of Zidane´s return.
Throughout the whole thing Blank sat in the far back, watching with great deal of interest. This was what he needed so that he would stop thinking about it, he thought. This was deffinetely the end of the whole thing! Zidane would realize that, right!?
Blank watched as they kissed intensely. He thought it was sweet, but made sure no one would notice that. His blank face expressionless. Ruby, who sat at the front stood up and started applouding. She smiled gayly, her eyes full with tears. Then she looked back at Blank and waved with excitement, and he gestured a some kind of wave back. Blank was fully aware of her feelings towards him, but there was really nothing he could do about it...
Then suddenly there was a loud scream of terror. Everyone froze and looked to the rear of the hall, where the scream had come from. Blank stood up as soon as he heard it and ran without thinking to his left, to where the scream had come from. He soon saw a woman, a brunette, lying on the floor. Blank could plainly see that she was dead, her head halfcut from her body. Nobody seemed to have been around her at the time so Blank was the first to get to her. Everybody else had wanted to be as close to the altar as they could get. Only half of the church´s chairs were occupied.
Blank knelt down at one side of the woman. Her hair was thrown over her face and her beautiful, pale green gown was soaked in blood. Then something caught Blanks eye. A movement. He looked up just in time to see a hand disappear out an open window near him. He ran to it and jumped up to look out. The window was high above the ground but that did not seem to hinder the owner of the hand. Blank could see him dash away from the palace. He was wearing a dark cloak so it was hard to spot him in the darkness of the night.
Blank jumped out of window and pursued. He was not about to let the only possible witness, and most likely a murderer, get away without a chase. He heard somebody, most likely Ruby, call out his name when he jumped out the window but he ignored it. Too bad he had left his sword on the ship. The only thing he now had to defend himself if the cloaked man would resist was a small knife he kept in his boot. He cursed himself for parting with his sword. He of all people should have known that that was not a smart move!
The man dashed over green flats of grass and flowerbeds neatly positioned in the courtyard. Blank could see him glance over his shoulder indicating he knew that he was being followed. That did not make things any simpler for Blank. Pausing to look around, the cloaked man turned around. He was standing where a light from one of the lamps placed in the couryard lit up the earth so Blank could steal a glimpse at him.
The man had breasts? Well, that kind of shocked Blank. The way the throat of the victim had been cut was rough and Blank would never have guessed a woman had done it. But her chest did not lie...
The mystery woman had blond hair, very long and there was a slight curlyness about it. She was slender but obviously strong. Under her dark cloak Blank thought he saw dark green clothes, that tucked tightly to her body, allowing her to move freely. The hood concealed her face.
Blank could see all this in just a split second, his eyes perfectly trained to catch every single detail. As a skilled thief he had to be able to memorize things. The woman turned and sprinted on toward the little harbor where a boat lay, appaerantly waiting for her. There were two men in it, or at least Blank thought the two figures were male, and as soon as the woman jumped in the boat they started rowing towards the other side. When Blank reached the dock it was already too late to see anything. They had disappeared into the night, and there was no other boat in sight. They had probably cut them loose. That was what Blank would have done, anyway.
Blank cursed slightly and turned back, walking hastily back to the palace. He was a little out of breath after the running but not that much, really. His mind sorting out the things he had found out, all clues, even though they were very few, he stored in his mind in case he would need them later on.
When Blank came closer to the palace he could see guards running around frantically, obviously trying to find the killer. Two of them sighted Blank and ran to him, trying to look really important. Their armour clinging loudly as they moved, and Blank thought that while wearing that there was no way that they were ever going to catch that woman. When the guards finally got to him they grasped his arms screaming: 'You´re not going to get away with this!' and 'You´re under arrest, buddy!' like bad actors performing in a very lame farce. He did not struggle, he did no't even try to talk his way out of things because he knew that would not do him any good. He just had to wait until they brought him to the 'King and Queen' (felt strange thinking about it like that). Then everything would be sorted out.
And so it was. Zidane explained carefully that Blank was not any kind of a homocidal maniac, but a friend of his, the King (still weird). And so the guards let him go, begging for forgiveness before running away, trying to aid in the search of the murderer.
'Where´s the victim?' Blank asked calmly. There was not any reason for making a scene, now that the woman had got away. The headache was still terribly strong.
'Right here.' Zidane answered. He lead Blank to the place he had found the woman before. The hall had been evacuated so the only people there were the royal couple, the tantalus gang, Ruby amongst them, Freya, Amarant, Steiner, Beatrix and some guards. Vivi, Eiko and Quina had left out of their own free will, although Eiko had needed a little bribery. Ice-cream and chocolate. Ruby looked shocked, but was able to keep herself restrained. Blank felt her begging eyes on him but he did not manage to force himself to look at her. Still too soon.
Zidane lifted up a coat, that somebody had covered the victim with, to reveal the body. There was blood everywhere. The body was more or less as Blank had remembered. The rough work on the cut through the womans throat, her soaking wet gown, her hair all over the floor, but her eyes had been closed by someone.
And there it was! Blank saw it now so clearly. Why had he not noticed that paper before? He crouched beside the body, stretched out his arm towards the womans head, but then hesitated, looking up at Zidane as if to ask if it was all right for him to touch. Zidane nodded. Blank opened the woman´s mouth. There it was, a letter. It was written with a totally normal handwriting, absolutely nothing was special about it. It was practically by the book. The paper had been folded so it would fit inside the woman´s mouth and Blank unfolded it. He read it first for himself, then aloud for the rest of them to hear:
Oh, sinful soul, oh sinful one To where has all your honor gone?
Frightful things your hands have done
Evil that surpasses none
Your soul is stained with blood so blue That nothing greater you can find To keep it hidden, long have you Concealed it insider your sick mind
Since then you have been laying low To hide what you alone dost know In your nightmare, most hated fear You tell yourself what you want to hear
Who am I? You know me well The memoirs deep inside you dwell And time alone to you will show
I am your ally, but yet your foe
-Be on the look-out for more 'treated' women. I will contact you again...
Blank finished reading and looked up on the rest. None spoke. He was not surprised. He had stood up while reading and now he knelt again, looking for more clues on the body. But he found none. Finally Zidane spoke.
'Who do you think it´s meant for?'
The question came as a little surprise for Blank. He had thought it was quite obvious that it was meant for Zidane himself, being left there during his wedding and he being King now.
'You, I think!' Blank answered.
'I agree' Freya added.
'....whatever...' Amarant commented. Blank thought it was his way of agreeing.
'But what does he...' Garnet started but Blank cut her off.
'It was actually a 'she'. I saw it while chasing her!'
Garnet nodded. 'What does she mean by this 'sinful one' comment?'
'Probably some loony making his or her sick jokes on us...' Baku exclamed. But Blank did not agree on that. This woman had her 'fulle femmes' (A/N: Danish I think...) or her full wit as some would prefer to call it. She was not just some loony. She had known exactly what she was doing, even if she would better had checked out her escape rute before striking. But still, Blank kept his yap shut. Maybe it was all in his head.
'Well, the letter does say that she´ll strike again, so we better start looking for her!' Freya said thoughtfully.
'Better hurry!' Blank answered. 'She´s long gone from the palace!'
'Why didn´t you say so sooner, then?' Steiner asked him with a slight sound of irritation.
'Didn´t think it wasn´t common knowledge.' Blank answered, fully aware that it was not a very good answer. He really should have mentioned this sooner.
'No time to think about that now,' Beatrix exclaimed. She whistled and two guards came running to her. 'Battlestation!' she shouted like a real general. 'We need to find this woman and we need to find her fast. She´s going to strike again and we better stop her before she does. Ceal the city, guard all ways out and go door-to-door searching for her. NOW!' She kind of screamed the last order and the guards backed away from her before scattering off. 'No, wait!' she then shouted. The guards stopped and turned around. She then turned to Blank and asked: 'Did you see what she looked like?'
'Yeah, but it was kinda da...'
'Good,' she interupted him turning back to the guards and shouting, 'But first get her description to the royal scetch artist! This man here,' she pointed at Blank 'will help you!' Then she turned back to Blank gesturing him to follow the guards. Blank lowered his head and obeyed like a housebroken dog. It irritated him to leave the scene, just to describe the woman, whom he had not even seen the face of, to some rotten scetch artist. He wanted to stay and investigate, but then again, going up against Beatrix in her dominion was not such a good idea.
*~*~*~*~*~*
The scetch artist was quick working and soon had a scetch ready of the woman, exactly like Blank remembered her. Blank padded the artist on his back and left him with the guards. This had only taken about 20 minutes, so he would surely not have lost out of many things. He ran to the chapel, pausing only once to let a young maid pass him by, and telling her she should evacuate the building. She thanked him and smiled, but he did not return it.
When he reached the chapel everyone except Ruby were gone. Blank cursed inside his head, blaming Beatrix for all of this. He slowly walked up to Ruby who sat in the back, not far away from where Blank had sat throughout the ceremony. Her face was expressionless except for the tears filling her eyes. Blank could see that she was trying so hard not to cry, but was barely succeeding.
'Ruby?' he said as he reached her. She had not noticed him before so she looked kind of shocked but managed to keep herself under controle, or something along that line.
'Oh, s´at you Blank?' She gave him a weak smile.
'Where did the others go?' he asked her not returning her smile.
'Oh, they went into da main hall for a meet´n!' she answered, her voice shaking.
'Why are you here, then?' he asked, mainly out of obligation rather than concern.
'Wait´n for you, darl´n!' She tried on another weak smile but it was very forced and then suddenly she burst into tears. She cried silently as her face disformed and tears flowed down her cheeks. She put one hand over her mouth and the other she placed on her chest, playing with a little necklace she always wore. Blank had given it to her about a year ago. Blank sighed and sat down beside her laying one arm over her shoulders.
'No need to cry, you know.' he started then shutting his mouth, knowing this was not the right thing to say at a moment like this. Instead he offered her his arms. Like a child she plunged herself into his warm and comforting embrace. Blank felt her shake and twitch as she tried to back her feelings, but he acted as if he did not notice. Ruby had of course seen a few dead creatures and few human even, but none who had been killed without any particular reason, in as cruel way as this. It was just too craphic for her.
Ruby cried for a long time, 15 minutes maybe. Blank did not say anything the whole time, mostly because he did not know what to say. He was very good in saying exactly what he was not supposed to say in critical times. Finally she pulled her face together, whiped the tears of her cheeks and stood up.
'Shouldn´t we go see the others?' Blank asked her. She nodded. And they silently walked out of the chapel and headed for the main hall. The silent between them kind of awkward, and the headache continued to torture Blank.
*~*~*~*~*~*