Chapter 14: Heraldry of the New Hope

Disclaimer: I don't own Trinity Blood, Naruto, or Dead Space. I make no profit on this.

Sakura destroyed the Aurora until no piece of her could ever hope to hide the smallest shred of living dead tissue. Ice and fire ran through her veins and she knew that she must protect, above all else, Earth. And when she was at last sure that Earth was safe, she turned her glowing red eyes on her beloved Abel.

"Crusnik 05. Power Output: 100%. Activate."

The words were met with a ripple of power that was like the flaming storm of the center of the sun and she felt herself melt away and become something different. Her wings were strong and carried her faster than even her Crusnik eyes could see. But nothing she collided with hurt her. She saw the blood seep from them and felt the flesh close; and Sakura let her hatred of the unnatural thing in front of her flood her being.

She plunged like an icy dagger into its heart and ripped her way to its slimy center. Teeth and tentacles tore at her and screamed with indignation when she refused to merge with it. And there, in its core, she found her lovely, perfect Abel.

He was being torn apart. His limbs ripped away and digested. His bones ground into powder and absorbed. His face was serene, peaceful tears running down across his smile to his jaw as it was broken more times than she could count. She watched a tentacle pluck a wintry blue eye and watched the blood in the jagged socket form another. Sakura blasted them aside and cradled her bleeding Abel as more of them lashed at the dome of ice surrounding them.

"Abel...wake up..." She whispered.

Deep in the recesses of his mind an image of Lilith melted in Esther and surged into Sakura. He reached for her, desperate for her to join him, and then felt a jolt deep in his stomach. His disgust welled up and he was abruptly aware, and horrified, at what he had done. He had fed this awful thing. Pounds of his body and bones and blood that had become more writhing toothed things that lashed. More acid pits that burned. More voices and eyes and hears that spoke lies and promised a pretty Hell.

"Wake up, Abel...All you have to do is open your eyes."

He felt himself plunge into darkness, away from the hallucination, and willed his eyes open. She was a thing of beauty...a living crystal with pale pink hair waving around her face and eyes like the harvest moon. And she smiled at him and told him, "Come with me, Abel. Take my hand."

"If I let the Crusnik go now...If I give myself to them...They'll devour me utterly...Just like Cain."

Her eyes softened and she pressed him hard against her throat and told him, "Take my hand Abel and you will never fall again."

His fangs lengthened before he could stop them and he bit through the icy shell of her throat and his mouth flooded with warm, dark, rich blood and the Crusnik in his body sung their joy. The horrid thing around him screamed its rage. And Abel merged with his Crusnik. A complete surrender to their power. And they hummed their praises as his mind sharpened. They would not, he knew with perfect clarity, subvert his mind. Abel closed his eyes and let himself drift away.

Sakura held him tight to her breast, his fangs still deep in her throat, and let loose her rage on the brethren moon. She ripped them apart. Slowly, savoring their pain, and plunged their pieces into black holes and fiery suns and twisted their atomic structure apart beneath her hands. Days passed. Days she didn't bother to track. And all the while Abel slept in her arms and his body fought to pull itself back together with the benefit of her blood. The Brethren Moons raged against their end. But rage would not help them. Sakura ended them, with great joy, in the center of a swirling vortex of ice that fed into a gravity anomaly that would rip proton away from neutron and electron. She could feel in her hands how their atomic structures bent and failed beneath the ice of her hands. Temperatures that there were no words for, iciness below absolute zero, were her wonderful, wintry playground. And when the last screaming voice faded with a dying gasp, she turned her wings against the inky void and flew towards the faint signal of the Neferet.

Kate granted her a joyous homecoming, but Sakura simply sat on the bow of the ship as she streaked towards home and held Abel.

"We're going home, Abel." She told him as the stars became trails of light and moons faded to pale splotches against the velvet of the eternal, endless night.

The Inquisition demanded many days of quarantine and Caterina wisely agreed. Thirty days came and went and still Abel didn't wake from his sleep. But the Professor, recovered from his experience and with Yamika's assistance from her bedside as she convalesced, could find no reason why. His brain was functional and they found no evidence of a coma. There was nothing to suggest shock or infection or any kind of physical trauma to his brain. His Crusnik levels were high and his iron and Bacillus levels were good. They could feed for many days without new blood. But Astha and Ion and Chandrakantar lined up to give him pint after pint of Bacillus rich blood. Dutifully, the Professor managed IV lines and catheters and monitors.

Sakura slept and ate by his side and when pressed, told them simply that she knew that Abel was still there. Her Crusnik hummed in the same harmony as his.

On the thirty first day, they were released with no signs of hallucinations, paranoia, violence, or depression. The AX went home to the Vatican and her giant suspended cross and marble halls and crisp fountains. Abel was placed in his own bed, cushioned with red sheets and gold brocade blankets. Caterina visited the first ten minutes they were home.

"How did you fare, Sister?"

"Well enough."

"I see he hasn't stirred."

"He never does," Sakura smiled fondly.

"We will need him again soon," Caterina fussed, clearly worried.

"He will always answer that call," Sakura promised.

"There is a new development I thought you should be aware of," The Cardinal told her as she pulled a file from a case at her feet, "A message from the Empire."

Sakura slid the folder into her lap and opened it. It was a thick packet of information that had been sealed with the Empress's signet. The wax broke with a brittle pop. There was a fuzzy gray and white picture that was labeled with the words 'Tau Volantis.' The leaflet below it detailed a last transmission by an Isaac Clarke and his companion John Carver. They had been lost many years before. Sakura opened another packet.

"What is the Black Marker?" Sakura asked.

"It's believed to be part of the Fermi Paradox: the idea that there are no intelligent civilizations because they are systematically murdered by another force. The Black Marker offered unlimited energy. This theory states very simply that the Black Marker is used as a lure. Large, advanced civilizations have need for that kind of energy. When it's activated, it sends a signal to another intelligent force that then wipes out the given civilization. These create massive voids called dead spaces that leave no trace of the civilizations that were there prior."

"And the Red Markers?"

"Human imitations. They replaced an unknown element X with the mineral bismuth; which aligns eerily with the data that Kate presented us."

"You think Arishana was once a galactic colony, then?"

"Almost certainly. Perhaps the old remains of the Aegis VII. They first tested Red Markers there. The government central authority at the time was an organization called EarthGov. Similar to the ancient UN organization that brought together government leaders under a single, recognized sanctioned authority. It would appear this might have been one of the earliest testing sites for the Red Markers."

"And why haven't these awful things been destroyed, yet?" Sakura asked.

"The information before you is a compilation of Lost Technologies and shadow knowledge. Much of this was lost to Armageddon. What you're reading now may well be incomplete, tampered with, or outright wrong and we may never know. The history simply isn't there."

"Then what is Tau Volantis?"

"We believe it to be a planet that killed itself sooner than let the Red Marker located there turn them into those necrobeings."

"And what are those necrobeings?"

"A recombinant of living and dead DNA we believe exists in the form of a virus. When exposed to a Marker, Red or Black, it begins infecting those around it. Interestingly enough, those closest to the Marker simply die and are never re-assimilated and recombined. We don't understand why. Further, distance deactivated this viral protein and the body denatured and flushes it. Again, we don't understand the bio mechanics."

"Might I be permitted access to a sample?"

"Of course. I can arrange it immediately."

Sakura stood in the lab, covered in a heavy white gown with pockets. Her hands, glowing green with chakra, rotated around a bubble of discolored blood. She separated the proteins carefully, pulling hemoglobin from albumins and DNA from its confines. In real time, she watched how human antibodies formed and flushed the viral component completely. Unlike Earth-based viruses, the viral RNA didn't insert itself into the host DNA—not until the host was dead. But without a Marker, the DNA failed to mutate. It simply rotted the way she would have expected it to.

She stepped away from the sample, lowering it into a chemical vat that dissolved it with a spitting sizzle and awful smell. In the decon shower, she tried to pull the events together. She stepped out of her gown and naked into another shower. The thoughts whizzing through her head sped up as she pulled on a plain white robe waiting at the door for her and tied her hair up in a messy knot.

"What are your findings?" The Professor asked, stepping to stand beside her from the hallway.

"I believe Earth is in no danger of infection. Not right now, but I have concerns."

"Such as?"

"If Tau Volantis still houses a Marker, it could well be enough to start the process over again. It could be millions of years before another mass as large as a Brethren Moon formed, but it's a possibility. And no one knows how many other Markers might still be out there."

"As far as we understand, there is absolutely no life on Tau Volantis."

"Yes, but simple organic matter might be all it takes for a new infection..." She trailed off, her hand under her chin.

"We can confirm the obliteration of at least three planets that were known to have Red Markers."

"And yet we can't find the Black Marker that was its progenitor."

"That is correct."

"Tau Volantis may very well house the only samples that could be used to reverse engineer a cure and stop this from ever becoming a threat again," Sakura said.

"What would you have me tell Duchess Milan?" William asked.

"That this isn't the end. Whatever happened on Tau Volantis was never finished. And we have to finish it now, William."

Sakura stepped away from him and down the halls. They eventually became carpeted corridors that trailed back to her small, private quarters that she shared with no one, not even Abel. She dressed in a simple, professional dress and heels and radioed William to ask him to meet her at Caterina's office. Together, they approached the Cardinal.

"You would have me send another ship..." She trailed off at the end of their long explanation.

"There doesn't seem to be another choice." Sakura replied.

"I almost lost my AX. Not a month ago today, William and Sakura. And you're asking me to send you again?"

"Caterina...This can't happen...Not again. And if it does, those things will come for Earth," William told her, biting hard on the end of his pipe.

"Abel isn't even conscious, yet, William."

"Two days, Caterina. Give me two days to see if I can reach him," Sakura replied.

Caterina frowned. The evidence was compelling, but she was reluctant to send them again to what seemed like certain death. And she couldn't imagine the Empire would look kindly upon her decision. The idea of a recurrence, though, was a thought that turned even her iron-clad stomach.

"Two days. I'll make the necessary arrangements."

Sakura turned on her heel and William followed, asking, "What do you intend to do?"

"If the nanomachines are sentient, they may be able to communicate with his. The ones in my blood originate from his. They should recognize both homes, now."

"And if they don't?"

"Then I'm afraid we'll be forced to argue more aggressively with our Lady Caterina," Sakura smiled.

She pushed the doors to the room she shared with him open and called for a cart of supplies. Tres was quick to deliver it, shiny and almost sterile, and bar the door behind them at William's request. They set up two IV lines. One that ran from her left arm to his right and another than ran from his left to her right. They were operated with a small, saline driven pump that would exchange their blood as a rate of three teaspoons per pulse of Sakura's heart. A computer held in William's hand relayed data on a split screen. One that read her vitals and one that ran the data for his.

Sakura closed her eyes and felt the pleasant pulse of their nanomachines being exchanged. And she felt what Abel did. Not clear images so much as the supplying of feelings and suggestions. He was horrified, afraid to wake up and confront what he had done and what he might be. Sakura lured him back with the promise of what he was: Abel Nightroad—someone who had come to save the lives of humans. She leaned down over him, her pink hair curtaining his face, and whispered, "Abel, they need you, us, again. Come back home with me."

Her voice, the sensation of her running in his blood, drove him to open his eyes and stare into hers. She smiled, a tear rolling down her pale cheek, and told him, "I lied, Abel...I told you that I'd never let you fall. But I really meant that you'd never fall anywhere but my arms."

Abel reached up and cupped her head with his slender hand and kissed her hard. He ended the lock of their lips and sat up and told her, "I'm sorry...I gave in and I don't know why."

"I think that when you tried to pull the infectious material from my veins that you overwhelmed your own Crusnik; but that won't happen again, Abel."

"Of course not. We're home." He smiled.

Sakura's lips thinned into a frown and he knew. Despite that, he asked, "We have to go back?"

"Arishana is dead," Sakura replied, "But Tau Volantis still stands, and it might still shelter a Marker."

"We have to destroy it," Abel felt his will solidify.

"Yes."

Two days later they stood before a magnificent vessel that was done in an array of colors. The green of the Empress of the New Human Empire, the gold of the Vatican, and the resplendent whites of Albion. Her shield was a gold cross wrapped with a white rose on a field of green. And she was dubbed, in scrolling silver work, the Invictia. She would be headed exclusively by the AX and three Empiric nobles: Astharoshe Asran, the Duchess of Kiev, Ion Fortuna, Earl of Memphis, and Chandrakantar Sarala, Duchess of Adana and Minster of Minerals and Metal Resources. They boarded in secret under the cover of night in the deepest parts of Istvan Proper.

As the ship opened up to them and her scant crew prepared to board, Caterina told them, "Destroy it and come back. If I lose a single one of you up there, I may not be able to prevent a war down here."

"Yes, Caterina," Abel smiled.

The Cardinal saw them off and as the ship pulled away, made no attempt to hide her fear. Sometimes, the idea that the stragglers of the Orden and vampiric and Vatican extremists weren't the biggest threats to peace chilled her blood. And she would have to live with the knowledge that Tau Volantis might not be the end. And, yet, if she failed in her job then it wouldn't matter. If Caterina, the Duchess of Milan and Cardinal within the Vatican, leader of the Division of Foreign Affairs, failed in her job, there would be no life to conquer. She turned away from the ship as it became a distant pinpoint of light, so much like a star, and returned to her own, earthly work.

TBC