Trinity Blood: Book 3: Vehemens Veritas
Chapter 3: Broken

The door creaked open and Abel winced. Damn, he'd been way too slow. If he hadn't paused… oh well, no use complaining over what couldn't be changed. "You're awake," Abel looked up at the sound of William's voice. He had expected the professor; however, he hadn't expected the beautiful young lady with him.

Slowly Abel stood, his eyes locked on the two figures before him. It had been thirteen years since he had seen either of them as more the blurs thanks to the glasses he once wore. It took Abel a moment to realize the woman was Caterina. He really needed to take those accursed glasses off more.

"Abel," Caterina crossed the room until she stood before him. She reached for his hand but Abel moved to one side turning his back to her. This was harder than he thought it would be. A large part of him didn't want to leave. The fact remained, not only had he risen from the "dead" but Caterina had betrayed him. In using Lilith's nano-machines she'd done something as bad as the boy had over seven centuries ago. "What's wrong?" he heard the rustling of her clothes as well as Tres enter the room, closing the doors behind him. Good, at least no one would over hear this.

"Why did you use her nano-machines, Caterina? Why did you do it?" there was no trace of the goof Abel had been in his voice. The act no longer seemed important. He was leaving as it was, so what did it matter if William and Tres knew what he was really like? "I told you what could happen if I was ever fused this far and you ignored it. You said you would never use them and you did," his voice shook with real anger, but was tight as he tried to suppress the emotion.

"Abel, calm down," Abel felt Caterina take his wrist. "You've been through a lot this past week. Take a moment and calm down," there was a note of panic in Caterina's voice only Abel's hearing would be able to pick up.

"You want me to be calm," Abel growled. "I told what a one hundred percent fusion did to the only other who had been fused so far and you, you chose to ignore me!"

"This other," William stepped forward, trying to change the subject, "would he happen to be the man you fought?"

"Yes," Abel whispered, the memory of that night seared into him.

"I also once told you the crusnik could have a different reaction to people if it was introduced overtime," William said, stepping forward. "This other man and you are different. I might not know why you're suddenly extremely serious, but it's clear you haven't lost your sanity." No, but only because Lilith had been there. Without her he knew he wouldn't have had the strength to say "no" to the crusnik's offer.

"Different," Abel's hands balled into fists, "we're no different. Not anymore at least." His next words came as barely more than a whisper, "He's my twin brother." He felt Caterina stiffen at his words and almost welcomed the silence which fell over the rest of them. "I have to stop him," this last bit wasn't for Caterina or William, he actually didn't have a clue why he said it.

"Then stay," Caterina spoke softly. Despite the softness of her voice there was a commanding note behind it. "Stay and together we can stop him. You don't have to do this alone, Abel, you're a member of the AX, you have to stay."

Abel tugged his arm from Caterina's grasp. Reaching into his pocket, he found what he was looking for. His heart ached at what he was about to do, but there was no other option, no other path left to him. "Then," he whipped around and threw his ID on the floor between himself and Caterina, "I quit." Several other items slipped from that pocket as well, but he just ignored them. Turning, he started towards the door.

"Abel," Caterina took hold of his arm once more. The fool, was she trying to get herself killed? "You're a founding member; you can't just walk out now, not when humans and the Vatican need you the most. Are you just going to abandon humanity?"

A semi-false rage ripped through Abel at her words. Again she used this to try to get him to stay. It wasn't humanity Caterina was worried about, it was losing him as a friend. Well she'd lost his trust and friendship the moment she touched Lilith's nano-machines.

Whipping around, Abel slapped her, holding back to make sure it was only hard enough to get the point across. "Silence you insolent child!" Abel shouted at her. Caterina stumbled, releasing his arm in shock and staring at him with wide eyes. "You speak of matters you can't understand," rage and sorrow coursed through Abel spilling from him in the form of his words. "I have been protecting humans for longer than any one of you has been alive. Leaving the AX will not change this fact and it sure as hell won't change the fact I am protecting your kind. The only mistake I made was trusting humans!" He glared down at her as she straightened and met his angered eye with her own steely one. "Every time I trust one of your kind, you stab me in the back. I don't know why I even bother anymore."

"You're lying," Caterina said calmly. Abel stiffened. "Abel, I've known you too long to not be able to tell when you're acting and when you're not," he took a step back, the betrayal she'd dealt and some of the rage hadn't been an act. "Besides, if you hadn't been acting you wouldn't have held back when you slapped me. My jaw would be broken at the moment instead of just having a burse," she smiled at him. No, Caterina didn't understand. Just because he was acting, just because he didn't want to hurt her, just because of this didn't mean he wasn't leaving. It didn't mean he would change his mind about it.

Turning, Abel was stopped by William's cane pointed at his chest. "Just because you want to leave doesn't mean you should," stated the Professor, "and hitting Her Eminence was completely uncalled for."

Abel ducked under the cane and raced towards the door. "Tres, stop him!" Caterina shouted the order. At once Tres was in Abel's path, pointing his M17s at Abel's head. Skidding, Abel changed direction and bolted for the window. A bullet few past his ear the shrill noise making his hearing blackout in that ear. Leaping, Abel threw up his arms to protect his face. Glass exploded around him. "Bring him back," the words were muffled thanks to the ringing in his ear. It was slowly starting to heal but – Abel's focus was on the ground now. Landing, his legs absorbed the impact. The shock of hitting the ground so suddenly made him stumble before he finally regained his balance.

"Crusnik," Abel glanced over his shoulder before he raced off, heading into the maze which was the gardens here. The ground shudder under Abel as Tres landed. The next moment bullets flew past him, only missing because Tres didn't have a clear line of sight. Whipping around a bend in the maze, Abel nearly crashed into the person who'd been there. He forced his pace to slow before he spun to avoid striking her. He could hear Tres preparing to fire another round.

"Get down!" Abel took hold of the woman and pushed her into another passage of the maze. Bullets thundered overhead, just grazing Abel's long hair as he and the woman fell to ground. The next moment he was looking into two familiar, yellow eyes. It was Asthe! What the hell was she doing here? Slowly he released her and moved into a sitting position. "Tres, stop shutting up the gardens, you're going to kill someone at this rate!" shouted Abel his voice returning to the light, almost joking tones he had grown so used to over the years. He could just hear the click as Tres ran out of bullets. The seventeen second delay in which he took to reload was nowhere near long enough for Abel to make a break for it.

"Is it your intention to keep running, Crusnik?" Tres' emotionless voice sounded muffled, showing there were several hedges between him and Abel. "If so I will continue firing," Tres stated just as a click sounded. His guns were reloaded. "You can't outrun me, Crusnik. You cornered yourself the moment you ran in here." Okay, well there was no denying that, Abel sort of was cornered at the moment. This passage was a dead end and the one he and Asthe had just been on only lead to more people.

"Come on, it's what midnight," Abel guessed, judging off of the coolness in the air, "who expects people to be out at this time of night?"

"Tovarish?" Abel glanced at Asthe at the sound of her shocked exclamation. "You're alive?"

"No, I'm a zombie, I've come for the apocalypse," Abel said sarcastically then paused. "Oh, wait, the apocalypse already happened," Abel ran his fingers through his silver hair. "Forget I said anything there," he turned his ear in the direction Tres was. The machine was moving, no doubt searching for Abel since he'd noticed Abel had stopped moving. "Humans to the left and Tres to the right," Abel sighed heavily. "Why does this seem so familiar?" He shook his head before he reached into his pocket before he stopped. Shooting up the place would only cause more harm then good. "Hey, Tres," he called, "can't we call a truce and talk this out?"

"Negative, unless you intend to return as ordered?" Abel sighed heavily at Tres' words. He'd feared this would be Tres' response.

"I can wait here, make a break for it, or confront him," Abel muttered to himself. "I dislike all three at the moment," he shook his head. Waiting here would cause Asthe to get caught in the cross fire, running for it would cause an innocent bystander to get caught in the crossfire, and confronting Tres would end up revealing to Tres and the Vatican Abel had been holding back a lot of his power during the tests. This was why people believed he was ranked B- in normal form and only A++ in crusnik… well forty percent active crusnik. Confronting him was better than letting anyone get harmed because of him.

"Toravish," Asthe growled at him, but Abel just ignored her. "Would explain what is going on here?" Still Abel ignored her as he stood. Asthe leapt to her feet, snarling, "Answer me!" when he didn't, he heard her make a move to punch him. Without so much as looking at her Abel blocked the blow. "How…?" Asthe breathed in complete shock.

"Confront him, it is," Abel sighed. Releasing Asthe's hand, he closed his eyes. In a language he hadn't used in nearly thirteen years Abel whispered, "The betrayer stands before me." As the words come to him, he heard Asthe's breath of intake as she no doubt recognized the language as the historic empires. He stepped out his hiding place, opening his eyes just as Tres appeared. "He who utters the lie of peace, he utters the lie of safety," Abel moved forward as he watched Tres raise his guns. "My people, my love vanish before me," he felt unnaturally calm even though song he muttered normally made sorrow build within him. "The world crumbles, freedom dies," Tres' gun was pointed right at Abel's heart when Abel stopped less than fifteen from him.

"Your intention is to fight me, crusnik?" Tres asked in a dull, emotionless voice.

"No my intention was to walk past you, originally, up until Caterina started to act childish and ordered you to drag me back," Abel sighed. "Lower your guns Tres, I really hate fighting old friends. Also wouldn't shooting me in the heart go against her orders anyway?"

"Positive," Tres moved the muzzles of his guns so they were pointed at Abel's elbows and knees. "You can't defeat me, crusnik, your battle rank is too low," stated Tres.

As Tres pulled the trigger, Abel leapt back before back flipping. He landed without the slightest hint of a sound. "One matter I have learned over the years," his voice was no longer light, "is never show an enemy or an ally your full skills. You never know when someone might use such knowledge against you: friend or foe. You think 'crusnik' just applies to my other form, do you?"

"Affirmative," stated Tres, "your abilities in this form are that of an average human."

"'Average human,' eh?" at this Abel's lips twitched in a small, sad smile. "I have never had such a luxury of knowing what an 'average human' is even capable of. The act was always just a rough estimate. 'Battle rank: B-' upon reflection I should have held back more, but I guess the thought didn't occur to me at the time." Tres pulled the trigger once more with ease Abel dodged once more by retreating several paces before racing forward. The bullets fired on him, Tres was trying to hit something he couldn't see at the moment.

With a powerful leap Abel twisted, heading over Tres' head. He landed on the other side of Tres and started to race off down a path which sounded as if it would lead out of the maze. The conversation had only been a ploy to buy Abel enough time to listen to the night. Behind him he could just make out the sounds of Tres in pursuit as well as Asthe racing through the maze on the opposite side of the wall from him. Then another sound, someone was blocking the exit. Skidding, Abel only just managed to avoid crashing into William as he stepped into Abel's path. His eyes flickered to what William held in place of his pipe. It was a syringe, filled with enough tranquilize to take down a bull elephant.

The sound of Tres stopping behind him was followed by Asthe leaping over the hedge and landing beside Tres. "Why the hell are you running from the Vatican?" Asthe demanded.

"You wouldn't," Abel said, his eyes flickering from the needle to William. A frown creased William's features, a look of sorrow of in his aquamarine eyes. "William, don't," Abel took a step back, heart hammering. This wasn't happening. First Caterina had decided to fuse him to the crusnik and now – now William was going to betray Abel's trust as well. Why? Why would they do this to him? Why after so many years? Was it because he-he was a monster-a sinner? "Please," Abel took another step back as William removed the protective cover from the needle.

"I'm sorry, Abel, but you are needed with the Vatican," William looked at Abel sadly before his eyes flickered to Tres. "Tres, hold him," William ordered.

"Afirmative," at Tres' word Abel felt himself go numb. It was happening again. Why? Why would they do this?

A shriek tore from Abel's lips. Turning, he took hold of Tres and with strength unmatched by any Methuselah he lifted the killing doll. Anguish and betrayal flooded through Abel. Without even noticing the doll's weight he threw him at William, shrieking the word to the night, "Liars!" A cry of agony tore from Abel. The shriek, speaking of what he was, echoed through the night. "Liars," he repeated before racing blindly into the night. He ripped through a nearby hedge barely noticing it. It was followed by another and another. Open ground appeared before him and Abel took off. To the human eye he was now completely invisible as he raced faster than even a Methuselah through the dark night.

The world felt as if it had shattered around Abel. For the first time since waking all which had just happened fell on him. Abel skidded to a stop and clasped in a thicket of trees. Hot tears slid down his face. It was worse than when the boy had stabbed Abel, this was so much worse. It felt almost like the day Lilith had been killed, almost like when he had discovered it was Cain who had planned the Human-Methuselah War, no, it was worse than even those.

Abel doubled over, weeping. It hurt. It felt as if his heart had been torn from him and sliced into small bits. When William had pulled the needle on him – it – he had promised Abel, told him he would never use a needle on him without his permission.

The memory of a long ago day floated to the surface: A fifteen year old Caterina smiled up at Abel. "In fact you may have found the place you belong." Abel stopped dead in his tracks, barely able to believe what he was hearing. Turning to the girl, he frowned down at her. "Why not have it be here with the rest of us? I know William thinks of you as a friend and Father – I mean, Brother Havel at the very least likes you. I know Sister Kate will come around and I've considered you a friend since we meet." What she had said that day had given him so much hope. It had been as if all Abel had dreamed of was coming true all at once. All his life he just wanted a place where he belonged, a place where others wouldn't think of him as anything other than a friend. On Mars he had it and for a time he thought he had it with the AX. He'd been wrong. He'd been wrong!

Abel laid there, his tears running silently down his face. His eyes were locked on the clouds as they moved across the night sky. Just behind those clouds was the Ark. He knew not how long he laid there only soon his tears ran dry and he was staring at clouds tented gold with the rising sun.

Numbly Abel rose and staggered forward. Taking hold of a branch, he only just saved himself from falling. He'd lost everything. Slowly Abel started to walk, each step just as numb as the last. Abel had lost it all. Eight centuries ago it had been Lilith, his sons, and Seth. He had been forced to leave the empire and his family in order to force a peace on the world and continue his love's work. Now Cain had reappeared and the AX – those he had trusted had—

xxx

Caterina stared numbly at the items Abel had dropped. Only a few minutes ago she'd been told Abel had escaped. Tres was searching Londinium but Caterina doubted he would find anything. Kneeling down, she pulled his ID from under the wallet and small stack of papers which had fallen as well. As she took the ID, one of the papers flipped so it was facing up. Caterina froze at the sight of a picture. She couldn't tell how old it was, all she knew was that it had Abel in it. Slowly she picked it up and looked at it.

Abel was sitting on a couch with two dark haired boys. The lights were on in the room and the window outside showed it was night more than likely extremely late at night. The boys looked wide awake, one was seated on Abel's lap looking as if he was telling a story while the other was next to them looking at whoever was taking the picture and smiling a toothy smile. Turning the picture over Caterina recognized the narrow script on the back as Abel's hand writing. It read: Aran (lap) and Azul, three months after adoption. Picture taken by Sara.

Looking through the others, Caterina paused at one which showed a grown vampire noble standing, with a vampire female sitting, and a child standing before the noble. Turning it over, she saw part of a letter on the back of it.

Dearest brother,

When I learned Aran had found you, I was so happy I had to send these to him so he could give them to you. As you can guess that's Azul in the picture with his wife and kid. I think Azul grew up to be very handsome… not that Aran isn't, I just don't get why he likes terrans so much (Aran if you read this your aunt is going to order back home and lock you up for a week). He's with his wife: Shirley Fortuna and their son Karl Fortuna. Karl is so cute with his blond hair and blue eyes.

Aran sent me a message he managed to get you to meet his kids, are they just as cute as Karl? Oh, that's right, send a reply with Aran if you can. (out of room, next one on the picture of Karl)

Caterina stared at the letter. This was from Seth, why would Abel drop it? Seth meant a lot to Abel. Slowly Caterina looked through the rest of the pictures and found the one of the boy. Turning it over, she found another part of the letter.

Okay, I can't find any paper that's why they're on the backs of these pictures. I know what you're thinking: 'Can't find paper, but don't you live in the palace?' Yeah, yeah, I know but all the servants are asleep. Don't ask me why but I am writing these up during the middle of the day… so tired. If you'd told me how much hell you had to go through I would forced to you stay in the empire and keep your job. Okay, I'd try to force you back no matter what. Please come home brother… you are missed here and there is always a home waiting for you. (Next on picture on the family picture, you know the one)

It took Caterina longer to find which one Seth had been talking about. She looked at the picture first. This one showed Abel seated in a chair, wearing the white coat with veins of black through it. He also had on a cape but the details were lost because of the chair and the black haired woman who had her arms wrapped around his shoulders. Seated on the floor where Aran and Azul with another teenage boy as well as a black haired girl, she had her arms around both Aran and Azul, a grin splitting her face and green eyes shining. There was something about the girl which made Caterina think of Abel. Turning the picture over, she found the rest of the letter.

I locked up your rooms and threatened the cleaning staff if they went near it they'd end up in the dungeon. If you return I will have them touch it only then. Okay, so I did take out some of the songs Sara wrote, but I noticed the piano sheet music, the final draft one, is missing. Did you burn it after Sara's death? If so, why? It was such a beautiful piece even though you gave Sara no ends of hell about it when she tried to get you to help with the music.

Well, I'm out of pictures. Send a reply with Aran, would you? I want to hear from you and know where you buried Lilith. I'd like to visit her one day.

Love,

Seth Night- (oh you know my last name)

(picture: Abel (seated), Sara (behind Abel), Floor: Aran, Seth, Azul, and Valdemar)

Caterina turned to the picture over and looked at the people in it. So the girl was Seth. Though girl might not have been the right word to describe her, by now she would be in her nine hundreds just like Abel. Turning her eyes on Abel, she saw very little of the man she knew in his features. It was him and at the same time it wasn't him. There was no despair in his eyes and far less knowledge. He wasn't smiling and looked more annoyed than anything else. His winter blue eyes were locked on the camera and his silvery hair fell to his shoulder. So much time had passed between this picture and the person she knew. It was odd to see him in such a different light.

Slowly Caterina gathered up the pictures and Abel's wallet. If he ever returned she'd give them back to him. She desperately hoped he would return or she would at least see him one last time.

(Author's Note: I don't know why but "Breaking the Habit" by Linkin Park really fits Abel…

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