A/N: Dude, it's two A.M., I was attempting and succeeding for the first time in a week to fall asleep, and this came to me. You'd better appreciate it!
Disclaimer: Dude, even if you sued me, you'd get nothing. I'm broke! Oh well… I don't want you take my cookies away… I do not own Trinity Blood.
"Ha! Ha! De! Wait for me!"
"Come on, Stel! It's the biggest I've seen yet."
A man with a slightly scruffy brown hair and laughing blue eyes sat down on the Congo boat, draping an arm about his mate's shoulders. The woman, with long, wavy, dark brown hair laughed slightly at the teenager and child's antics and placed a gentle hand on her mate's.
"They're little ruffians." She said, giggling as the children reached their hands into the water.
"They're all ours." The man replied, burying his nose into her hair.
"They should not lean over so." A cold, emotionless voice said.
Both adults turned their attention away from each other to a small child sitting close to them, on another bench seat. They both had their own looks of disgust: the mother's narrowed eyes and crinkled nose, a small hand gripping her husband, her rock for support, while the father's was a sneer, holding his mate close to him.
"Oh, and how would you know, Lia?" The mother asked coldly, not really paying attention to parental instinct to protect her children, but just to make the girl with white hair wrong.
"My name is Lyisistrata, and you will address me as such. And how I know," an evil glint entered her eyes, "I'm going to do it."
Before either parent could stop her, she was up and dashing. There was a surprised half-yell, a woman's scream, and two men's outraged cry. The boy, Demetry jumped to the railing, only to be pulled back by the crew.
"Hold him back!" The captain shouted. "There are 'gaters in them waters!"
The woman muffled a sob as she turned away from her son, still fighting to get to his sister, by hiding her face in her husband's shirt. The man moved away from his mate and slapped the child who had done the deed so hard, she flew across the boat. The three family members held each other as they watched for the floating brown head.
The little girl's mouth was filled with water when she surfaced. She screamed and held out her hands, but the only one on that side of the boat was Lysistrata, waving pleasantly and throwing little white flowers into the water as she plucked the petals off. The girl's feet slipped again.
She opened her eyes to the murky world, to be met by pain. Alligators were after her, big and scary. She surfaced, and saw a thin ray of hope. An old tree limb, held out like the hand of a good friend, reached out over the bank. She reached, grasped and pulled herself free of the water, just as an alligator got her leg…
Stella's eyes snapped open. Her feet and stomach tingled uncomfortably with the convincing nature of the nightmare. She smiled wryly. After all I've been through, jumping off cliffs, falling under glaciers, being attacked repeatedly, I remember that?
She snapped to attention as the door whined. A burly guard stood in the doorway, backed by three others. No matter his numbers, the man seemed undeniably nervous.
"You okay?" Stella asked. She did not want him to empty his bowels in any form in the room she needed to stay in. "You want to use the pit?" She pointed to the hole in the floor.
The man shook his head. "Stella Iceheart, you are to undergo trials to see if you are trustworthy and in control of your own body. If you prove to pass the tests…"
"Then I'll be let out under strict supervision, yadda yadda." Stella waved a dismissive hand. "Look, kiddo, I've been through this before. Let's go and see what your Pope has up for me, eh?" She stuck out her arms. The man stared blankly. Stella cocked and eyebrow. "What? You're not going to handcuff me? You know, 'clap her in iron and through her in the dungeon'…"Stella quoted the famous line.
"Er… no."
"Oh so this is one of the tests."
"Um… I'm not allowed to say that…"
"But I've figured it out. And you're going to get in trouble." Stella loved watching as the tiny Terran's brains struggled to keep up with her. He opened his mouth to say something but she shook her head. "Don't worry. I won't let them know. It's like a surprise party I found out about early… except my life is at stake." She gave a little laugh.
BOOM!
"Damn it, Tres! I was supposed to knock and give him warning! What is he's not decnt?"
"Let the robot have his fun, son. Besides, since when has Abel been awake at this ungodly hour? Abel? ABEL!"
"It's all right, Leon… the door crashing into the room woke me up." Abel said wearily, already dressed from his midnight rendezvous.
Leon Jr. came into the room like a bull in a china shop. "Well come on, the Cardinal wants to speak with us! Er… Abel, why are you already dressed… and in bed?"
Before Abel could think of a reply, Leon Sr. had smacked him upside the head. "Eh, leave him alone, Michael. In fact, out! Go make sure Tres isn't terrorizing poor Sister Ellen!" As Michael left, Leon Sr. let out a grunt-sigh and a smile. "Besides, he is probably tired from last night's little escapade."
"Eh?" Abel's eyes widened fully and he sat up straighter. "I assure you, Father Leon, I have no idea what you are talking about."
Leon let out a raspy laugh. "Of course, Nightroad, of course." He got and left, but stopped at the doorway. "Next time I'm not gonna clean up the mud in the hallway."
A/N: I wanted to keep going, but I figured this would be a good place to stop. Besides, this chapter is important and I do not want to over-stimulate your little minds. Review!
Happy Thanksgiving!