A/N: Hello again! It´s time for a second Chapter of A&A (Awake and Alive), don´t you think?
Maybe some questions will be answered, who knows?
If some characters are slightly OOC let me know it, I´m not doing it on purpose^^
And one information before you´re going to read:
Miria is Number 1
Deneve is Number 2
Helene is Number 3
...Not really important for this Chapter though...
Enjoy yourself :)
Standing on top of the high hill, her gaze travelled through the full streets in this lively city.
Rabona was one of the few villages that meant a lot to her, mostly because of her great respect towards a certain person.
It took her nearly two hours at human speed to reach the holy city after her encounter with the three men outside the walls of Maltara. At the thought of it she softly shook her head. It was disgusting.
She began to walk towards the tall gates of Rabona, this time a little faster. She released some Yoki to make her presence known, but only enough for the blind woman she wanted to visit today.
Clare owned Galatea not only her life, but also her humanity.
Finally reaching the gates, she stopped and looked at her hand. Closing her eyes she placed it over her chest, right above her heart. "May the god of Rabona forgive me".
"You, tell us your name and your intentions", called a guard towards the cloaked figure and moved to stand in front of her.
"My name is Clare and I'm here to visit an old friend of mine". Friend was a great understatement.
"Put down your hood and then slowly remove your cloak please".
"Sure".
After doing so and handing over her cloak to another guard, the first one inspected her.
"Okay, you can pass".
"Thank you".
Pulling on her cloak again, but leaving the hood down, she walked in the direction of the great Cathedral.
~*~
Once sensing that all too familiar Yoki, a gentle smile showed itself on Galateas lips. So another month had already passed since their last meeting? Time's passing by way too fast.
"I'm going home now, Bishop Vincent", the tall woman said as she turned around to walk out of the great Cathedral.
"She is it, isn't it?".
The smile never leaved its place. "Yes".
Now Vincent smiled, too.
"It's great to know that she's well after all she's been trough".
"It is".
~*~
Patiently waiting outside Galateas house stood Clare, arms crossed over her chest and back propped against the wall.
"Took you some time to walk these few blocks to your house", she said as she recognized Galateas scent that filled the air around her.
"As lovely as ever Clare", sighed the older woman and opened the door, stepped inside and left the door open for her.
After closing the door, Clare took a deep breath. Here, in this house, she felt at home.
The former Claymore had changed into casual clothes and offered her friend a seat.
"Excuse me but you smell like-" "I know, don't remind me of that".
"I'm sorry".
This time it was Clares turn to sigh.
Galatea sensed that her friend was someway disturbed.
"What is it that seems to bother you?".
"You know what? Sometimes I think you can read minds or something like that".
She smiled. "Don't try to avoid the topic".
Hesitating for a moment, Clare searched for comfort from the long-haired woman and was greeted by milky-white eyes and a gentle smile. "You know that you can tell me everything".
"It's been 2 years since the incident". Clare chuckled. "Only two years and I'm getting nostalgic".
Galatea glared at her. "Stop saying that. It was hard, for all of us".
Clare jumped out of her chair.
"´All of us´!? Galatea, almost all my friends died back then, there is almost nobody who could have suffered the way I have!". Her emotions were getting the best of her.
"Don't you dare raise your voices against me". Her statement was calm, but sharp like the blade of a sword. It worked.
"You've my apologies", she said, bowing deep and too ashamed to lock eyes with Galatea.
Standing now, she took Clares chin and gentle lifted it up. "I'm sorry too. I shouldn´t have said that in your presence".
Eyes filled with sadness greeted her, showing nothing but true pain at the loss of her friends.
"Let's begin the training".
Releasing her chin she walked into another room.
Nodding her head in agreement, though Galatea couldn't see it after all, Clare followed her.
~*~
Sitting in a comfortable wooden-chair, the current number 1 of the Organization looked over a few papers.
´Number 13 was being wounded in the last Awakened Being hunt. Number 34 and 40 were killed by a group of Yomas and number 39 and 29 awakened during the past 2 weeks´.
Miria let out a heavy sigh.
´All in all, a rather bad month´.
Besides the bad news, images of past events were keeping flashing before her eyes.
Moments from before their encounter with Priscilla.
She slammed down a fist on the large wooden table and a loud "Damn it!" echoed through the empty corridors.
Burying her head in her hands Miria fought back tears that welled up in her eyes.
´Why? Why did you left me…´.
A soft knock on the door disrupted her thoughts and after taking a deep calming breath, she allowed her visitor to enter the office.
"Uhm, Miria-sama, you wished to see me?".
"Yes Paula, please sit down".
"H-hai!".
The shy warrior sat down in one of the chairs in front of her superiors' desk and began to nervously play with her hands.
"I want you to choose another 3 warriors and hunt down an Awakened Being. ".
"Yes, but why m-me?".
Miria locked eyes with the much younger woman in front of her.
"Because I have faith in you".
Paula stood up, saluted with a "Yes Miria-sama" and darted out of the room, nearly bumping into a now very confused Deneve.
"Why did number 7 just dashed out of the room like that?", she asked as she sat down in the same chair Paula sat only moments ago.
"Not important. Why did you come?".
"Because I found something really interesting". She took Mirias silence as a gesture to go on.
"In the forest near Maltara I smelled the scent of blood. Human blood, to be specific. After investigating the area I found three corpses of males".
"Nothing special-". "Let me finish please".
Miria nodded.
"Their corpses were buried. Somebody made them graves and it wasn´t a human".
"What?!".
~*~
After getting the information that the Awakened Being was somewhere near the holy town of Rabona, Paula chose number 18 Julia, number 22 Bertha and number 31 Anna to accompany her.
"Let's go".
~*~
Galatea watched Clares motionless form in front of her. It was obvious that she was in a deep state of meditation, even for a blind person like her.
The long haired woman stood up to leave the room, but as she passed Clare, images were flashing in front of her eyes.
´W-what the heck is that!?", cried a villager before he was sliced into tiny pieces by an invisible source. The smell of burned flesh and blood filled the air and the dark gray smoke emerging from the flames which burned down the whole village clouded the star-filled sky.
Standing in the middle of all this was a huge creature, his back turned towards Galatea.
She was confused. She didn't know why she was seeing all this.
Starring directly at said back her confusion turned into fear. Only the sight of this being was intimidating beside the incredible huge amount of Yoki it was leaking.
Finally turning around, milky-white eyes were meeting deep golden ones.
~*~
Snapping here eyes open, the nun was sitting upright in a split of a second, but was gentle being pushed back into bed by a concerned looking Clare.
"Galatea, what happened? You just passed out during meditation; the sound of your body hitting the floor woke me up".
"What the heck was that", she mumbled more to herself than to Clare and looked like being deep in thoughts. "Did you say something?". "No, I didn't".
´It's better to keep that to myself, I don't know what Clare is going to do if I tell her I entered her mind without permission´.
Noticing that Clare was still looking at her with that concerned gaze, she smiled and told her that she was alright.
Just as she was about to stand up she felt a great amount of Yoki emerging from outside the gates of Rabona.
Dashing out of the room, Clare took her cloak and ran out of the house.
"Wait! Stay inside the house!". Galateas shout was completely ignored.
"Damn that thickhead".
Wow, that was a long chapter I think XD
Whatever, I like this one
And, I love Galatea, she kicks ass and can see like any ordinary person too, like she isn´t blind at all that´s funny^^
And for that mind thing...since she can control Yoki I thought it would be cool if she could enter somebody's mind, like Clare in Chapter 93
If somebody has a question, just ask, I´m willing and trying to answer all of them :)
Next Chapter : Confrontation
If you liked it, please REVIEW.
No flaming please.