CHAPTER 19:

AFTERSHOCKS

The first thing that came back was the sensation of tiredness and pain, an ache that settled into his very bones. The second was hearing voices. One was raised in anger, the other, filled with cold fury.

"…Wrong. Lord Griffith wouldn't do that!"

"Are you calling me a liar? Casca a liar?" A sound of someone being grabbed, and a squeal of pain. "Listen to me, you pampered little brat. The Griffith you fell in love with is dead! He died thanks to your father in that damned Tower of Conviction, and that monster was born in his place! Or do you think I gouged out my eye myself?! Or that Harry and Casca could have a child that looked like that?!"

Harry groaned, sitting up gingerly, opening his eyes to find that Guts, looking the worse for wear, had grabbed Charlotte's dress from the front, bringing her in close, a look of cold fury and hatred on his face. Harry noticed belatedly that one of Guts' eyes, his right, was now shut, and new scars littered his face. His left arm was gone too. "…Guts," he rasped. "Let her go…"

Guts and Charlotte turned to see Harry, and Charlotte twisted away from Guts, who let her go. "…How are you feeling?" Charlotte asked.

"Like something the cat dragged in and pissed all over," Harry muttered, before he coughed. He looked around. They seemed to be in some underground space, a cave or a mine of some sort. Memory came back in dribs and drabs, and he remembered, just before blacking out, how well his Fiendfyre assault did. It did virtually nothing to the Godhand, and while it roasted some Apostles, others managed to survive or even weather it. But…he couldn't do anything further before he had blacked out. "…Guts…you're alive…but Casca…is she…?"

"…She's alive. But…she's not in a good way," Guts said softly. "We're at Godo's mine. It's been six days since…I only woke up yesterday. We were worried sick about you. Casca thought it was something called magical exhaustion. It was all touch and go for a while."

"…Anyone else? Any other survivors?"

Charlotte shook her head. "Aside from yourself, the only members of the Band of the Hawk left are Guts, Casca and Rickert. Guts claims that Griffith betrayed them, for power, sacrificed them to demons, but…"

"…It's true. I saw part of it through my link with Cas," Harry said, gingerly getting to his feet. "Guts, where is she? Where is Cas?"

After a moment, Guts pointed, to where part of the cave had a natural pool nearby, fed through a small waterfall from above. There, getting soaked while in a white shift, was Casca, the now transparent clothing clinging to her body, her arms wrapped around themselves. Harry began walking down to the pool, wading through the water. Something about the situation didn't feel right.

"Cas…?" he asked softly, reaching out a hand to touch her, only to have it smacked away. His legs were swept out from beneath him, and he slammed into the pool, Casca on him in a flash, lips bared in a snarl, fist cocked back to punch him, only for her brown eyes to widen in shock.

"Harry? Oh God, I…I'm…I'm sorry, I…" She began to hyperventilate, while Guts helped Harry to his feet.

"…Cas…it's okay," Harry said. He smiled wanly. "…That's what I get for sneaking up on you after…after…everything you went through. Do…do you want a hug?"

After a moment, Casca nodded, and he gently embraced her. He didn't fail to notice her tensing in his embrace, but he hugged her, even as she began to sob. Eventually, Guts joined in, and the three of them stood there, in the pool, just trying to come to terms with the fact that they had survived, and yet, their comrades had not…

Casca eventually left the mine, and Harry followed, Guts in tow. They were in silence the whole way, save for when Guts identified the building up ahead as the residence of Godo, his habitual blacksmith. Casca disappeared into a room, before coming out, dressed in something not unlike her usual clothes. However, Harry had noticed that Casca had been broken. Fear and anxiety danced in her chocolate eyes.

Rickert was soon beckoned away from where he and a girl (whose name turned out to be Erica) were with a hunched over but muscled old man, who was Godo. They gathered just outside the forge, while Charlotte and Anna went about their business elsewhere. An unsettling silence fell on them all, before Harry finally broke it.

"It all happened, didn't it? Griffith betrayed us, for power. I saw it like in a dream, no, a nightmare, as if I was looking through Cas' eyes. He got offered power by that Godhand or whatever they were called…and he took it."

Guts nodded solemnly, as did Casca. "…Is this my fault?" Harry asked. "I tore strips off him while he was healing, but…"

"No," Casca said, glaring at Harry. "This is not your fault. Guts triggered this by leaving, but…the King tortured Griffith, and Griffith made his choice. I think he would have done it even if you hadn't berated him. I was…I was just too angry to see how desperate his condition would have made him. And that thing…that wasn't Griffith, not the one we knew. That was Femto, and he…he…" She began to hyperventilate again.

"…I know," Harry said quietly.

"No, you don't," Guts said, shaking his head. "Last night…Casca gave birth to…something."

"…Gave birth?" Harry asked in horror. "Then when Griffith raped you…that was his child?"

"…No," Casca said, tears trickling down her cheeks. "It was yours. Ours. It had your eyes, Harry. A beautiful emerald eye…and yet…and yet…"

"The Skull Knight said it was corrupted by Femto's seed," Guts growled. "You were going to have a child, and that bastard…"

Harry felt his mind seize up. He was going to have a child with Cas? But the only time he had had sex with her recently was…oh. And he'd forgotten to use a Contraceptive Charm. And Griffith…Femto, he had…he had…

With a primal roar of fury, Harry surged to his feet, and began firing Cutting Curses and Blasting Hexes at the landscape. Every time he fired, he saw Femto's face, smirking at him smugly. He knew. He knew. He fucking well knew! The anger he felt towards Griffith since Guts' departure and the subsequent events had nothing compared to what he felt now. It was like comparing a napalm bomb to a nuclear weapon.

"YOU BASTARD!" he screamed up at the sky. "YOU MONSTROUS FUCKING RAPIST BASTARD! YOU COULDN'T BE CONTENT WITH FUCKING OUR LIVES OVER BECAUSE YOU WERE SORE OVER GUTS LEAVING! NO, YOU HAD TO RUIN OUR CHILD! OUR CHILD! YOU RAPED CAS, YOU MAIMED GUTS, YOU MURDERED OUR FRIENDS AND COMRADES, AND YOU HAD THE GALL TO FUCKING SMILE WHILE DOING IT! I'LL KILL YOU, GRIFFITH! I WILL TRACK YOU DOWN TO WHATEVER HELLHOLE YOU'RE COWERING IN AND FUCKING KILL YOU DEAD! I KILLED VOLDEMORT, I CAN KILL YOU TOO! YOU HEAR ME, FEMTO?!"

"Calm down, Harry!" Rickert pleaded.

"Calm down?!" Harry snapped, whirling on Rickert. "He murdered the entire Band of the Hawk, barring the four of us! Guts and Casca have been through the closest thing this world has to Hell, and Griffith, Femto, he sacrificed our comrades for power! And what he did to Casca…how the hell do you think I can be calm?" His face fell, and in a quieter, but bleaker tone of voice, he said, "My child…I was gonna be a father, and…"

Casca held up a hand, silencing him. Some small vestige of the commander she was had taken hold. "I know, Harry. But…we need to think of our next step."

"Next step?" Guts asked. "…Casca, you're barely holding it together."

"I know that, Guts!" Casca snapped. "But…I'm not going to go to pieces if I can help it. When that nobleman tried to rape me, I took up the sword to defend myself. I very nearly fell apart when Femto…did what he did. As you said, I'm barely holding myself together. I think it's only thanks to Harry that I'm still remotely sane. But I'm not going to sit around in that damned cave forever, even if the Skull Knight said it repels those spirits."

"…What?" Harry asked.

Guts indicated the brand on the back of his neck, identical to the one Casca had on her breast. "Bonehead said that this brand attracts evil spirits at night. A dinner gong, in other words, for all sorts of nasties trying to possess us or kill us. The cave was touched by the Elves once, Fairy Iron lining the walls. Casca and I…we've disagreed a little on our next course of action. I intend to slaughter my way through those monsters until I can find a way to get Griffith to show his mug. Casca wanted to wait until you were awake, and track down someone who might know something about the Godhand and these brands. Something about a witch at Enoch."

Harry looked over at Casca, and then at Guts. Before he could say anything, Guts shook his head. "I'll only get you two into more danger. Without the Raiders, without the Band of the Hawk…I'm just a guy who is really good with swinging a sword around. I heal best by myself, killing things that need killing, but you two…you need each other. Even if killing all those monsters doesn't get me closer to Griffith, less of those damned things in the world is only a good thing. And once you two have learned all you can from that witch, assuming you find her, you can hook up with me again. But…Casca needs to heal. What Griffith did to her…you can't just flip a switch and ensure she's okay again. But you're her best shot of healing, Harry. You, and this witch."

Casca looked at Guts, before she shook her head. "You really are such a stubborn bastard, aren't you, Guts? Going off and doing your own thing, even if it gets you killed? You haven't changed that much at all. Very well, then. As Commander of the Band of the Hawk, what little there is of it, I order you…search and destroy. Kill every Apostle that preys on the people of this world. Show them the same mercy they show us. Save those who cower under their shadow, and stop those who help them willingly. And as my last order, Guts…" Her chocolate eyes narrowed. "Don't you dare die until we are ready to rejoin you."

Guts gave a feral grin, one filled with malice more than mirth. "Aye-aye, Commander…"

Casca had been holding herself together for that meeting, but Harry noticed her commanding mask beginning to slip. The four of them headed back into Godo's forge. The old man was working on something. "Boy, I need you to work on the crossbow attachment for this," he said to Rickert. As the boy nodded, and went to work, Godo looked up at Harry. "You're the wizard this idiot spoke a lot about, huh?"

"Yeah, Harry Potter. Thanks for looking after him, and us, after the…after everything."

Godo nodded curtly, and went to work. "I'm making a new arm for Guts. It's not fancy, but it'll allow him to fight."

"Fancy?" Casca asked incredulously. "You said you were putting a small cannon into it, never mind magnetising it so he could wield a sword. I'd call it fancy…in a really practical way."

Godo shrugged. "And?"

Harry, meanwhile, found his attention brought to a rather large shape nearby. "…Is that a sword?"

"Casca asked about that," Guts said. "Apparently Godo was asked by Charlotte's grandfather to create a sword capable of killing a dragon."

Harry stared at it. While it roughly had the shape of a sword, it was too big, massive, heavy and rough to be called something as elegant as a sword. It was more of a lump of raw iron, shaped into a blade. "…I can believe that."

"Your commander told me that you once faced down a dragon," Godo said. "Do you reckon that could kill it?"

Harry looked the sword up and down, before nodding. "…Maybe. Depends on who's wielding it. Guts…you're not thinking of…"

"Already did. Bit tricky with only one hand, but…"

Casca scoffed. "You and your thing for big swords, Guts…"

Casca knew she was barely holding it together. Guts leaving, Griffith's imprisonment, being hunted down, Harry being trapped, the prison break, the Eclipse…and her commanding officer, a man she once loved and adored, not only betrayed her for power, but he…he…

He raped her.

Some coldly objective part of Casca thought it a perverse irony that the man who saved her from a rapist would end up perpetrating the same deed on her person. The rest of her was repulsed by the whole thing, struggling to comprehend how that man did so. She knew better than to believe Harry considered her soiled by the act. She knew him too well, he blamed the rapist, not the raped. So too did Guts, having experienced it himself thanks to Gambino's actions, and for all the hulking swordsman's brusque and crude demeanour, he'd helped comfort her as best as he could when he woke. But the act, and the birth of that grotesque child, the one that vanished with the dawn before they could decide what to do with it, did a number on her. She was barely holding onto her sanity.

She couldn't help but scratch at the brand she had been given, the vile little thing. She remembered Void proclaiming that this meant her soul was Femto's to claim. Yes…Femto…not Griffith. Griffith, the true Griffith, wouldn't have done that.

But Harry had come. Her soul had retreated into his own, she knew this with utter conviction now. He had saved her once more. If not, who knew how the pain from the brand and the trauma of being raped by the demon that was once her beloved commander would have affected her?

She knew she was still only holding herself together barely. But it was a mask. Inside, she was chipped, cracked, broken. Only sheer force of will kept her psyche from falling apart.

She was wandering the woods near the mine, when she heard a by-now familiar clopping of hooves, and a dark presence. "…What do you want?" she asked bitterly.

"The same thing you want, Warrior. The end of the Godhand."

Casca scoffed. "You could have told us sooner, about what the Behelit would do."

"…Would you have believed me? You thought Griffith, the mortal frame of the one now called Femto, to be a paragon, one who could do little wrong. Even with the warning Nosferatu Zodd gave you, you believed otherwise. I heard your words, that you would prove me wrong, that you would fight your way out of Hell. You survived, Warrior."

"Only because you brought Harry into the Eclipse on time. And even then…" She shivered, clutching herself, her breath coming in pants of fear.

Cold, gauntleted hands clutched her shoulders, but even as she flinched, more from the contact than the cold, she realised how gentle the contact was. "…The Wizard changed more than I believed. I know of the bond between you two, between your souls. It was that that allowed you to keep your sanity, Warrior," the Skull Knight said softly. "Femto's vile actions would otherwise have caused your psyche to utterly shatter. And yet, here you are."

"…Here I am. And yet, so many others, Judeau, Pippin, Corkus, Gaston…all dead. Sacrificed to allow Femto to be born. Is there any point to us going on? Trying to stop them?"

"…I do not know. But is there no point in trying? In striving? You, Warrior, you, the Struggler, and the Wizard have one thing in common. Your willpower is strong. You are filled with determination. I cannot say whether you will achieve what you desire in the future. To go against the Godhand requires more power than you have. And even then, they are but the hand of a greater power. But…without willpower, without determination, strength means little."

"…Helpful as always," Casca said sardonically. "But…I need to ask…are you Gaiseric?"

"…Gaiseric died long ago. There is naught left of that man than dust and shadow and lingering feelings. What I am is a ghost whose time passed long ago, and yet who lingers to try and do some good for the world."

"…I call bullshit," came the familiar voice of Harry. Casca turned to see Harry past the figure of the Skull Knight. "The only reason I'm not more pissed at you is because you said Zodd prevented you from trying to help us."

"I also assisted your comrade, the boy, Rickert," the Skull Knight said. "He was the only one of your rearguard I could save from the Apostles who feasted there. But yes. I did wish to help you. Zodd interfered, not because he desired your suffering, but rather, another battle with me. Where do you intend to go?"

"…Enoch. There's a witch there, one who might be able to help us learn."

While the Skull Knight's helmet did nothing but grin its usual macabre grin, Casca was sure she heard a proper smile in the entity's voice upon hearing that. "A good choice. The Struggler intends to wage war on the Apostles, which in itself will only do good for the world. But the witch…I know her. Lady Flora…she has been a friend for a long time. I believe she has taken on an apprentice the last time I met with her. And should you find things lacking there…perhaps you should consider seeking out Elfhelm on the Isle of Skellig, and the Flower Storm Monarch. However, be warned: Flora's domicile is protected by powerful magic. You cannot send your Portkey there."

"…I think we'll take the scenic route anyway," Casca said. "Even with those evil spirits coming after us because of this brand, I think I need it. I need time to reflect, to come to terms with…with…"

"And I'll be there with her," Harry declared, firmly, solemnly. "I'll be there for her."

"Then I wish you both the best of luck. While this may not have been your darkest hour, for who knows what tomorrow will bring, you, Warrior, have survived something few have. So has the Struggler. And you, Wizard, you have kept them both sane. The Godhand fear you. Whose hand do you think was behind your imprisonment in stasis? You are a stone thrown in the waters of causality. And what happens to the ripples, I do not know, and neither will they. Take heed of that, and take heart…"

They spent some more days there, waiting. Tempers cooled enough, and Charlotte and Anna agreed to stay with Godo, at least until they received word of the King's passing. Only then would they emerge from hiding. Charlotte still seemed reluctant to believe Griffith had done what he did, but no arguments erupted.

Guts got his new arm and armaments (Harry putting the emergency Portkey enchantment onto it), taking the massive sword, the Dragonslayer. Farewells were made. And as they walked away from Godo's home, ready to part ways once they needed to, Harry and Casca looked at Guts. "You ready?" Harry asked.

"Yeah. I've got that paired diary thing. I…I want to hear from you, hear how you're doing. Both of you. The three of us…we're heading into dark times. Worse than before. Harry…you look after Casca."

"Don't worry. We'll look after each other. But…you still sure you don't want to come with us?"

"My mind's made up. We get stronger in our own ways, and cope in our own ways. You two, get whatever knowledge you can, get healed up. Once you guys are ready…come find me."

"…Don't you dare die, Guts," Casca said. "As Commander of the Band of the Hawk, diminished though it is, I am the one who decides where you die. And it won't be before we meet again, and certainly not for a long time after that. You hear me?"

"Yeah."

With that, the three survivors walked on. They would struggle against a fate that had been set out for them, by monsters that influenced the world, and the power behind them. Against demons and evil gods, the three of them would struggle, contend, and endure.

And perhaps, by some slim chance, maybe they would prevail…

CHAPTER 19 ANNOTATIONS:

So, there you have it. The post-Eclipse stuff.

Now, writing Casca after the Eclipse, but still sane, was a bit hard. I needed to balance the obvious trauma she went through, with her being functional. Because retreating into Harry's soul helped shield her from the worst of what happened, she's sane, albeit barely. In order to cope, she's trying to go back into her commander personality to hold herself together. But she's merely burying the trauma, and not with much success, being just able to stay functional and barely sane. I hope I haven't stuffed it up.

Anyway, just one more chapter to go.

No numbered annotations this time.