Trinity Blood: Emperor's Mask
Chapter 7: In the Rain
The sun was setting in the distance. Abel could just make this out by the failing light, or more over on how it was getting easier and easier for him to see. Clouds had covered the sky for the better part of two days. The scent of rain was increasing by the minute now and he knew they needed to find shelter fast.
"There's a cave not too far from here," he called back over the howling wind. "We'll have to take shelter there."
No one wasted breath on a reply. Right then it was taking even the Methuselah a little effort to keep going. The long days and the fact they were relying on blood tablets wasn't helping them.
A light rain had started by the time the group reached the cave. Abel made certain all of the wood they had on them was still dry before he set up a small, smokeless fire near the back of the small cave. He instructed them to keep the fire low before he moved to the mouth of the cave. Tres was on guard there, silent and watchful as he had been since they had started the journey.
Abel knew better than to try and start a conversation with the machine while he was guarding Caterina, but really the only company Abel had for the past few days had come from Caterina and William. He hadn't been able to sleep at all since the conversation with Ion and he knew it was because of his old allies and the memories which were haunting him every time he had a spare moment of thought.
Instead of trying to think or trying to speak, Abel watched as the rain picked up until the ground below them seemed to have turned into a stream. It was lucky that the cave was perched on high ground to save them from the worst of the weather. His gaze turned from the ground towards the sky.
While he'd never placed much thought on his own happiness, there had been one in the simple rudeness humans had shown during the act. The fact they had spoken with him, either with pity, ill-disguised disgust or anger, or even with just barely contained patients. It had made him feel more accepted by humans and more cut off in the same instance. He had always been hated, always mistrusted. He was, after all, a crusnik something far worse in the minds of humans than a Methuselah.
Abel pulled out a tattered, old book that looked as if it had seen better days. The cover showed signs of having been personally made. Most of the pages were worn and others were newer having only just been added to the journal. He opened it. The earliest pages were filled with old profiles on Methuselah who had threatened the tenuous peace between the empire and the Vatican during the first few centuries after the war. Abel had been sent out on many missions during those days to suppress the uprisings or rebellious members in order to stop war from breaking out and thus a lot of the early journal was about that.
Nearly a century after joining the Vatican, after his Aran's suicide over the murders of two of his children and wife, the journal started to turn personal rather than work related. It had been the only means Abel had been able to keep his sanity after learning his youngest son's fate. That and the few years the pope had actually let Abel spend with his surviving granddaughter, Sheena and her fiancé to husband Marcus Sforza. In hindsight Abel now realized that those years had been some of the happiest with his time during the Vatican, even in the wake of losing his son. He knew it had been a thank you on behalf of the pope and Vatican and that it hadn't been meant to last nor had he wished it to last forever, but that time had meant the world to him.
He pulled out the faded picture of Sheena with her husbanded, their two year old son, and Abel. It was really the last picture Abel had of them and one of the last ones taken before he had returned to Lilith's tomb and the centuries he had waited to be called upon once more.
It hadn't been until a few years after meeting Caterina Abel had learned Sheena's fate. He had been relieved to learn her death as well as his great-grandson's had both been painless and in their sleep from old age. He had seen pictures of great-grandson as an old man in Caterina's estate over the years, but she'd never spoken much about the man, other than the fact that he was her great some odd grandfather and some of his view points on Methuselah were one of the reason's she didn't completely hate their kind.
Abel had never told her that she was related to a Methuselah or let alone that Methuselah was Abel's adopted son. A part of him wanted her to know and another part of him feared her reaction to learning such a thing.
He ran his fingers down the side of Sheena's face then her son's. He missed them all the more now than he had in years. Perhaps because now he had a chance to look back on them and wonder.
The sound of someone moving up to him didn't make Abel react. It was either Ion ready to shout at him again or someone just wanting fresh air over the harsher scent of fire.
"Where they people you knew?" Esther asked.
Abel jumped, nearly dropping the picture and book. "E-Esther," he stammered more from shock and the heart stopping moment he'd thought the picture would fall into the rain. "You could scare a person senseless."
For a second it looked as if Esther might actually smile at this, but after a moment her lips became pursed instead. "Father, I want the truth from you, no more lies, no more dodging, just the truth," she started in rehearsed tones. "You've dodged every question and we do deserve some answers."
Abel was about to speak.
"I'm not finished." She was flushed and the words were becoming hurried. "How old are you really? Is your other-other form really your true self? Why did you lie?!" the last question was shouted and tears were starting to form in the girl's eyes.
Abel winced. He'd never meant to harm the girl. He sighed and looked at the book as he slipped the picture back between the pages. "None of those are easily answered nor will you much like some of the answers to them."
"Start with your age then," Esther's voice was a high as though she was losing her nerve.
In the end, Abel knew she at least deserved answers. Out of everyone else here she was really the only one who still deserved them who didn't know. He took a deep breath, "The day and month, I've long since forgotten, so I can't give you the exact date I was born. I was born in the year 2088, which makes me about nine-hundred seventy-six."
By the silence in the cave he knew Ion and Asthe had heard as well. Several long moments passed before Asthe whispered, "Nine-hundred seventy-six? But that would mean—" she cut off, eyes wide with the sheer shock at learning his real age. "I had assumed you were born during the civil war."
"Then I wouldn't have fought in it," Abel replied in smooth tones. "Even if I had been I would still be around my ninth century if not close to my tenth, Astharoshe."
There was silence at this as his words sank in.
"As for your other questions, the first answer is no. And on the lying, it wasn't a lie; nothing I ever told you was a lie." He looked away from her and back out at the sheet of rain. If they were attacked now they wouldn't last long with their backs to a wall.
"That's not much of an answer," Astharoshe sounded a little annoyed at this.
Abel sighed. "To answer your question fully on the other side of me," Abel started as he looked back at the cave, "would take too long to explain. For now all you need to know is that the basic answer is: no, that isn't truly me. It's a part of me, yes, and it's a part of me I wish didn't exist."
"What do you mean 'other side' of you?" Ion asked the question this time.
"An answer you will no doubt find that you never wanted to know," Abel stated. A sharp nose at the edge of Abel's hearing caught his attention. He turned his attention back on the rain and narrowed his eyes. Visibility was next to nothing. He stood. "Be quiet," he hissed to the others as he kept his gaze locked on the landscape beyond the cave.
"What is it?" William asked while the others shifted either uneasily or in doubt to Abel's sudden reaction.
"I can't be certain," Abel whispered as he closed his eyes and listened. "Stay quiet." It took him several long moments to discern the sound over the rain. Then a soft nose of boots against mud came to Abel. "We have company." He told them in a low voice. "Tres—"
The machine didn't need Abel to tell him anything he was already moving. Tres passed Abel one of the guns he had before moving into the rain. He vanished through the sheets of water in order to cut off the enemy.
Abel knelt down and started to set up the gun Tres had given him. It was a sniper rifle. Abel didn't care right then how or why Tres knew he had once favored this type of gun. All that mattered was keeping those with him safe.
Once the gun was set up, Abel moved so that he was on his stomach. The scope wasn't going to do him much good here, but it might just help him be able to see the raw shape of the figures moving through the rain. He scanned the area. It didn't take him long to see one shape moving away from the cave in a wide arch. He traced the route Tres was taking and sure enough several more figures came into view.
Abel's finger hovered over the trigger. He had to make damn certain he didn't kill the people but he also had to make certain he didn't give away their exact location. Abel took a deep breath. He hadn't felt this focused behind a gun in years. He felt as if he had an eternity to move the gun so that he was aiming to disable to the group. He fired the first shot. The gun fire was drown by the rumble of thunder overhead. One of the shapes collapsed in the mud.
The others hadn't noticed one of their allies fall. Abel waited before pulling the trigger again. Another fell, followed by another. Then flashes appeared signaling Tres had entered the battle. Abel was careful this to aim away from his ally. He took out two more before stopping there. The few which remained would be dispatched by Tres. Abel stood and slung the gun over his shoulder.
"I'm going to grab one of them information before Tres kills all of them," he told Caterina before he raced off into the downpour.
By the time Abel arrived on the field, Tres had killed all but one man. Tres kept his guns trained on the man and it took a moment for Abel to realize it was Petro. "Hold, Tres," Abel instructed. "You should know by now bullets don't do much against Petro's armor."
"Positive, Crusnik," Tres replied in his normal emotionless voice, but he didn't lower his guns.
"Tch, you think I'm going to let you heretics get away with killing his Holiness Alessandro?!" Petro shouted in his normal gusto and booming tones.
"We didn't kill Alec," Abel stated. He knelt down by one of the men and checked for a pulse. "Did you have to kill all of them, Tres?" Abel asked.
"Positive, it was the quickest and surest means to protecting Lady Caterina," Tres replied.
Abel sighed and bowed his head. Before all of this had happened he would have spoken a prayer aloud for these men but now – Well, in the end Abel had never been able to bring himself to believe in a god who would condemn his sister and Lilith for just being created.
"Petro," Abel started as he turned his attention back on the man. The tip of Petro's weapon pointing right at Abel's face stopped him from continuing.
"You're both heretics and will pay for your crimes with your lives!" growled the man. His eyes were narrowed with rage under his helm.
Abel pushed the weapon away from his face. "You're wounded," he stated with a nod to the wound on Petro's side which had no doubt come from Abel. "If you fight me or Tres now with any of your normal… enthusiasm it will kill you."
"So be it!" snarled Petro. He lunged for Abel, but his movements were slow compared to what they had been back in Carthage.
Abel side stepped him before twisting and kicking the man hard in the back. Petro stumbled before falling hard into the mud.
A small breath escaped Abel. "Brother Petro, I will say this only once, I was holding back greatly in Carthage. If you face me in combat wounded or otherwise there is a high chance you will die!"
Petro struggled back to his feet.
"And dying over a misunderstanding is rather wasteful," Abel continued.
Petro didn't seem to hear a word Abel said. He lunged again. This time Abel shot forward as well. He avoided Petro's weapon and stuck the man as lightly as he could on the back of the neck. Mud flew up once more as Petro collapsed.
"We'll get him to the cave and stripe his weapons and armor there," Abel told Tres. "He's not to be killed."
"Affirmative." Tres took hold of the unconscious man and lifted him off the ground, slinging one arm over his shoulders. Abel joined the shorter man and together they carried Petro back to the cave.
"Brother Petro?" Esther eyed the man as Abel and Tres set him down.
"He's the only one left." Abel started to help Tres strip the man of his weapons and armor. He wore plain clothes underneath with a hole through where the bullet had struck him. "We'll question him then we'll have to leave here before whoever else is out this far discovers us," Abel stated.
"So what are we going to do with him after he's been questioned?" Ion asked.
"That depends on him and if he believes the truth." But Petro had a thick head and Abel was uncertain any of them would be able to convince the man of what had really happened.
Instead of returning to his position near the front of the cave Abel moved into the back with Caterina, just out of earshot of the others.
"Do you really believe Petro will believe us?" Caterina asked.
"No," Abel stated without hesitation, "but we do need information from him."
Caterina nodded. "And we might get more from him than that. But, Abel, it will require you to scare a message into him."
"Scare?" Abel couldn't help it, he laughed. "Brother Petro isn't easily frightened, Caterina, certainly you know this?"
"I realize that; however, even the strongest of men frighten if they're drugged enough and we'll have to drug him as it is to get the information we need."
Abel sighed and bowed his head. This was true enough. "If he wakes before dawn I will take him far from here. That would be enough to frighten anyone. I will rejoin the group a few miles from here even if it's on foot."
"Can you layout the path you were planning on us taking?" Caterina asked.
"Yes."
"Good." She made to leave but Abel stopped her.
"There's one more matter," he started, looking at the young woman out of the corner of his eye. "And it's related to my sister."
Caterina looked at him, a frown creasing his lips.
"She's not an advisor to the empress like I originally told you. She's—"
"The empress," Caterina finished with a soft, knowing smile. "I'd guessed that a long time ago, Abel."
"How?" Abel asked, though he had feeling on the answer.
"There is only one race I can think of able to live eight centuries and that's yours. It didn't take me long to put two and two together."
Abel winced then bowed his head. "I should have told you sooner," he confessed, "it might be impossible to see her with all that's happened."
"I'm certain we'll figure something out before we reach the empire. We're still months away from getting there after all."
Abel nodded. "True." He returned the matter of Petro. "I'll travel at night and day in order to rejoin you faster."
"Just be careful, Abel. We can't afford to lose you."
"I'll return shortly with food," he told her before leaving the cave once more. The truth was that he didn't want to be there when Petro woke. They needed the information but what might happen wouldn't sit too well with Abel at all.
It was passed midnight by the time Abel returned to the cave. The rain lessened and was now little more than a drizzle. He had only managed to catch a meager amount because of the rain but it would have to do for them when they woke in the morning.
Petro was barely conscious when Abel entered the cave. William and Tres stood near the man preparing him for the journey.
"How drugged is he?" Abel asked as he set down what he'd caught.
"Very. I doubt he'll even register the fact you're flying him anywhere," William replied around his pipe. William moved over to Abel with at least a cup's worth of Methuselah blood. "Drink this, if only to keep your strength up during the flight. I don't think losing control now would be wise."
Abel sighed and nodded his agreement. He eyed the blood for a moment before he took it and downed the glass. "There was no one out there for a few miles," he informed Tres. "Lead the group down the path I've marked and I'll find you in a day or two."
"Stay safe," William clapped Abel's shoulder.
Abel removed the upper half of his coat before he followed them out of the cave into the drizzle. "Nano-machine crusnik 02 release of restrictions eighty percent." As always, Abel heard 02's whispering, taunting him to give into them. It was louder than normal because of the activation rate, but manageable only because of having had Methuselah blood. He would have to be very careful on the return journey lest he lose control and slaughter a village or something far worse than just one village.
"Take him as far as you can before dawn," William instructed Abel. "Then get back to us."
Abel nodded. He took hold of Petro and launched himself into the air. Several powerful down strokes got him off the ground and heading for the clouds. While Petro was now dressed back in his armor and Abel carried the hammer, the weight was noticeable only by the difficulty to get off the ground. The damp clouds surrounded the two of them as Abel continued higher into the sky. He leveled out just above the clouds and angled towards the Vatican. He would travel away from the route they were taking in order to throw the enemy off.
By the time the sky was starting to lighten, Abel had flown nearly half way back to Rome. He landed and placed Petro on the ground as Abel's wings vanished and his hair fell around his face. He pulled back on his coat. Abel didn't pause to see if anyone was around to help Petro, he bolted, running as fast as he could back along the path he had just flown over. At his highest speed in his near human form, he would make it only a third of the way back to the group. He would have to fly back when night fell in order to save time and return to them as quickly as he could.
(Author's Note: Because Bluewing pointed it out, humans are getting face time.
To those of you who were wondering, I'm not stopping my fan-fictions. They're just going to be slow because I have been focusing (when actually writing) on my own series rather than fan-fictions. The stories are still being updated and I do work on the chapters, it's slow. The only fan-fiction I scrapped was the Star Wars one and that was more being upset my favorite character (the character who originally got me into writing) getting scrapped by Disney (good news is that The Old Republic has him in the next expansion). Anyway both this one and Divergent Path are being worked. I am just a little stuck with a scene in Divergent Path at the moment.)