This starts out in a flashback, if you remember the last chapter where
Legato was sharing his memories. And oh my...Felicity actually SPEAKS in
this chapter!
~~~~~~
Thin lips lifted into a grim smirk as the pale, gaunt man, ugly and tall with eyes that shone dully as if dimming in death, watched his dinner partner begin to cough, demurely behind his hand at first, and then loudly into his fist. A chuckle escaped his brittle throat.
Legato lifted his gaze with a glare, forcing out between fits, "What'd... you..... do...to me?!" He had first suspected something funny when this man, claiming to hire him as an assassin, had insisted on emphasizing on Legato's power and ability to venture into the most dangerous of territory, to play with people's minds until they didn't know up from down, instead of his target.
"There was poison in that drink."
Legato gagged as the foul taste of his beverage rushed back to his mind. How could he have been so stupid?! Rapidly, he swallowed, trying not to vomit and control his pitching stomach. A sudden pain tearing into his heart caused him to clutch at the spot, and then another knife-like sensation in his gut sent him reeling in pain to the floor, his chair tumbling back with him and crashing to the ground. There, quite helpless, he writhed in agony, feeling his mind screaming for some release. Lightening seemed to be exploding behind his eyes while fire burned in his chest.
"Don't worry. It's a slow-working poison. Won't kill you for another three months, but you will have spells like this every now and then. Now, let's talk about what I want."
"I thought...it was an...assassination," Legato groaned, wrapping his fingers around the table edge and trying to heave himself up before failing and falling back with a thump. Now close to tears, he curled into a ball and tried to remember the days where these sensations didn't even phase him.
"No. Now listen very carefully. I've been doing a lot of research and I have reason to believe that there really does exist a kingdom of dead dreams. It's underground - somewhere - and it holds more riches and power than you could ever imagine... But no one will go down there. Anyone who has never returns. All I want from it is one thing. It's a rod of pure gold inlaid with all the precious jewels known to man. If you retrieve it, I will reward you with the antidote to the poison." He threaded his fingers on the table, grinning to reveal crooked teeth. "It's very simple. So, do we have a deal?"
The blue-haired man moaning pitifully on the floor would've liked nothing better than to use his mental tricks to force that man off a cliff at a moment, or at least out the nearest window, but he was too weak, and his vision was fading even as the seconds ticked by. "Yes," he whispered in a muffled voice and then promptly passed out.
~~~~~
The beam of Legato's flashlight swept deftly through the yawning, cavernous hole before him, gleaming on snow and sparking brilliantly against icicles. It was gonna be tough getting down there, but that wasn't going to stop him when he'd come as far as he had - and when the stakes were as high.
Shivering, he turned up the collar of his heavy coat and hunched against the howling wind, golden eyes narrowed to slits as his soft blue hair, laden with frost, brushed over them. Once more, he checked his harness, the rope, and the stake he had driven into the ground, finding them all secure. And then, setting his thin flashlight between his teeth, he clenched his gloved fists around his line and leapt back, gliding down through the icy air until he reached the end of his length, coming to a gentle stop. For a moment, he paused there, took his flashlight in hand to inspect his current surroundings, and then deemed them worthy of continuing. Gently, he pushed off with his heavy boots and began the slow descent down the endless throat of the pit, slipping every now and then, but continuing to fearlessly rappel.
It had been about three years since Vash the Stampede had met him on the cliff that day. The emotional turmoil that churned in his mind back then almost reminded Legato of his own. Almost. Vash was superior - they weren't the same. He had forced the plant to shoot him back then, and as he had lay there, bleeding, smiling, dying, he couldn't help but think.... I'm free.
But he had only been captured again. Someone had 'rescued' him, saved him, and nursed him back to health until he was ready to go back into the world - and grow very bitter. Without his master or the gun-ho guns around, he found himself growing soft and nostalgic, and very lonely. Once or twice his thoughts fleeted to Midvalley, and sometimes to Wolfwood, but more than anyone else they turned to Knives. However, his thoughts weren't as fond as one would expect of the devoted servant. In fact, being out among people, he no longer wanted to be anyone's slave, and he eventually came to the conclusion he was so much better than the plant had let him believe.
News had reached him after about a year and a half of separation that Knives was living with his brother and the insurance girls. Figured.
Legato had now reached the bottom and let his feet touch the slick floor, but did not take his first step with enough caution and his legs shot out from beneath him so that he landed on his back. Growling unintelligibly, he slowly heaved himself up again and proceeded more carefully.
Things were uncomfortable and eerie from the very start, all the sheets of ice coating the walls of the maze of tunnels making a thousand mirrors, each reflecting him in a new and dizzying way. Swinging his light back and forth in astonishment, he turned, glared at his next reflection, and then drew in a sharp breath. Passing through the translucent ice was a woman, her shirt a pristine white turtleneck, her pants a fitted pair of black jeans tucked into her leather, knee high boots. A long, blood red trench coat that touched the floor seemed to be lifted on a nonexistent wind, and as she moved from one pane of ice to the next, her long, dark curls nearly concealing her pale face, she grew and shrunk in size, depending on the height and width of the slate. Absolutely beautiful, thought Legato, his breath still sucked from his lungs, but what was she...? His heart began to pound when something, a flicker or a fragment of a memory, returned to the corner of his mind, but he didn't really grasp it. This woman, this ghost slowly moving past and all around him, not existing except for in the glass, was someone he knew once.
She stopped to look at him, regarding him, or rather something behind him briefly, and then turned away again, seeming to walk back into the recesses of the solid ice. Something told him she hadn't caught sight of him.
Legato took a few moments to contemplate what he was seeing before rushing recklessly forward and slamming his palm flat against the ice, not being able to break through. Only cold hardness. "What the...?" he whispered, feeling a nagging inside, something telling him to get out while he still could. "Blast!" His fist slammed into the ice in defeat. No matter. He'd carry on.
He turned to do so, but came face to face a very impassive, very surreal man, his hair jaggedly cut to fall to broad shoulders, blonde and shining like gold despite the lack of light. "Hello," he said quietly, although Legato only continued to stare. "Welcome to Fairlight."
~~~~~~
Knives pulled away from his servant and scowled, intending to further question the man but only seeing that he would get nowhere, realizing Legato had passed out right about at the end. He glared daggers at the human, wishing he was awake so he could be intimidated once more.
Felicity was like a ghostly presence, never drawing attention, completely silent, but so obviously there. There was a basin of water beside her now (it was getting irritating how things just kept 'magically' showing up) and she dabbed at Legato's cuts and bruises, washing him clean of blood.
Knives busied himself with picking lint off his shirt sleeve, deciding to be perfectly indifferent. For a short while, it kept him entertained, and for an even shorter while it cleared his mind, but he eventually gave up and lay down, his back to the cause of his problems, and ruefully reviewed what had happened. "Maybe I shouldn't have slain the keeper," he muttered, examining his fingernails. "It was kind of like shutting down the system."
He sat up. Looked at Felicity. Just great. Now she had conjured a blanket out of thin air, having removed Legato's shirt, folded it neatly, and laid it on the ground. The warm fleece had been spread carefully over the sleeping man, who now lay turned on his side, one hand palm down on the ground beside his face and the other on Felicity's knee, head still resting in her lap.
She was doing that weird thing...where she looked at him and it was so ANNOYING!
"Woman," he growled, "can't you speak?"
She lowered her gaze for a few seconds and then lifted it abruptly, narrowing her green eyes and seeming to be demanding something.
Knives stared blankly at her. "What? Do you want me to feel sorry for you two?" He snorted. "After what you've put me through, I think you two got what you deserved."
Her fingers, slender and pale, beckoned for her to follow as they drew back the blanket, touching a scar on Legato's shoulder, then his chest, trailing down and displaying the dark markings.
Although his placid mask never slipped, Knives felt a bit astonished on the inside. He'd never really looked closely at Legato. Who would've known that underneath his close, his body was just one big, healed wound?
"Did Legato even tell you anything about me?" he asked harshly, not receiving any indication that he had. "Did he tell you that I loathe humans and that he did too? That I gave him all his power?" Knives frowned. "Well, I did.... I guess I don't hate all humans because...I've lived around them so much that I've almost gotten used to them, and my brother's wife - what an aggravating human - she has a daughter, my niece, and I really do..." He trailed off and then stood up. "Felicity, can you get me out of here? Legato says you can't, but coming from you...?"
No response.
"Ok, you lo...you lov....you LOVE Legato, don't you?" he questioned, finally spitting out the obstinate word. "And you know he can't survive very long down here. If you care for him, I think it'd be safe to say you'd do anything you could to get him (and me) out of here as soon as possible."
Knives could already see Felicity was terribly easy to manipulate, whatever she was, and he smiled to himself when she made her decision, nodding firmly. Later, he might hate himself for this, but that was later. This was now - and he could handle it.
~~~~~~
Legato woke up in the sands of familiar planet Gunsmoke. He coughed and sputtered in the dry environment, already dehydrated from lying out in the heat for so long. Achingly, he sat up and rolled his eyes all around, letting things gradually float back to him.
Oh...my...
He sprung up and quietly called her name, not expecting her to answer. No Felicity - anywhere. "I shouldn't have fallen asleep," he whined to the desert, shoulders slumping. "I shouldn't have put anything past that self-centered, egotistical, sadistic jerk!"
There were footprints in the sand, and he began to follow him, but the more he ran, and the more he thought about how the scenario was going to play out, starting with a fantastic fight in rich he could at least grant Knives with a scar to haunt and mar his perfection, and then die, as Knives was no much stronger, the wind began to sound more and more like it was calling his name. And then, it seemed to transform into a human voice, a woman's voice. "Legato...? Legato!"
He stopped and looked all around. "Felicity...?" he murmured wonderingly. It had been so long since he had heard her voice.
"Legato," she was with him now, touching his shoulder. "It's ok... Don't go looking for your death."
"He killed you."
"You know I wasn't really alive there... That wasn't my real self, Legato." She smiled at him, sadly. "I would've had to leave you eventually."
"But you are real!" he said in a strained whisper, merely because he couldn't force out anything louder. "You made my sickness go away, you cured the poison! I could touch you, see you... And I don't want someone else. All my life - "
"All your life, you say you've wanted someone to love you. There will be, Legato. But it has to be real - you have to look for it." She tapped him playfully on the nose. "Just keep living, Legato."
"What about Knives?"
"I can't tell you what to do there."
He pulled her tightly to him, hugging her with his face buried in her shoulder, remaining so for a few seconds before relinquishing his hold on her. "I have to get going before he gets too far ahead of me," Legato explained, leaning in to kiss her but turning his head at the last moment and pulling regretfully away. It really was time to let go.
Without looking back, he started forward, not knowing if she was still standing there, watching him, or if she had disappeared. All he knew was that by the time he had gotten a decent distance away, he felt quite certain that she was gone and that Knives was just on the horizon.
~~~~~~
So.....what'd you think?? Thanks for all the reviews. This story probably won't be much longer, just a few more chapters...I really don't know. Ok, summary:
Legato and Knives' confrontation, a little bit of Meryl, lit bit of Vash...and Legato figures out how to hold on to the real Felicity, if only for a few more days.
------Shangri-La
~~~~~~
Thin lips lifted into a grim smirk as the pale, gaunt man, ugly and tall with eyes that shone dully as if dimming in death, watched his dinner partner begin to cough, demurely behind his hand at first, and then loudly into his fist. A chuckle escaped his brittle throat.
Legato lifted his gaze with a glare, forcing out between fits, "What'd... you..... do...to me?!" He had first suspected something funny when this man, claiming to hire him as an assassin, had insisted on emphasizing on Legato's power and ability to venture into the most dangerous of territory, to play with people's minds until they didn't know up from down, instead of his target.
"There was poison in that drink."
Legato gagged as the foul taste of his beverage rushed back to his mind. How could he have been so stupid?! Rapidly, he swallowed, trying not to vomit and control his pitching stomach. A sudden pain tearing into his heart caused him to clutch at the spot, and then another knife-like sensation in his gut sent him reeling in pain to the floor, his chair tumbling back with him and crashing to the ground. There, quite helpless, he writhed in agony, feeling his mind screaming for some release. Lightening seemed to be exploding behind his eyes while fire burned in his chest.
"Don't worry. It's a slow-working poison. Won't kill you for another three months, but you will have spells like this every now and then. Now, let's talk about what I want."
"I thought...it was an...assassination," Legato groaned, wrapping his fingers around the table edge and trying to heave himself up before failing and falling back with a thump. Now close to tears, he curled into a ball and tried to remember the days where these sensations didn't even phase him.
"No. Now listen very carefully. I've been doing a lot of research and I have reason to believe that there really does exist a kingdom of dead dreams. It's underground - somewhere - and it holds more riches and power than you could ever imagine... But no one will go down there. Anyone who has never returns. All I want from it is one thing. It's a rod of pure gold inlaid with all the precious jewels known to man. If you retrieve it, I will reward you with the antidote to the poison." He threaded his fingers on the table, grinning to reveal crooked teeth. "It's very simple. So, do we have a deal?"
The blue-haired man moaning pitifully on the floor would've liked nothing better than to use his mental tricks to force that man off a cliff at a moment, or at least out the nearest window, but he was too weak, and his vision was fading even as the seconds ticked by. "Yes," he whispered in a muffled voice and then promptly passed out.
~~~~~
The beam of Legato's flashlight swept deftly through the yawning, cavernous hole before him, gleaming on snow and sparking brilliantly against icicles. It was gonna be tough getting down there, but that wasn't going to stop him when he'd come as far as he had - and when the stakes were as high.
Shivering, he turned up the collar of his heavy coat and hunched against the howling wind, golden eyes narrowed to slits as his soft blue hair, laden with frost, brushed over them. Once more, he checked his harness, the rope, and the stake he had driven into the ground, finding them all secure. And then, setting his thin flashlight between his teeth, he clenched his gloved fists around his line and leapt back, gliding down through the icy air until he reached the end of his length, coming to a gentle stop. For a moment, he paused there, took his flashlight in hand to inspect his current surroundings, and then deemed them worthy of continuing. Gently, he pushed off with his heavy boots and began the slow descent down the endless throat of the pit, slipping every now and then, but continuing to fearlessly rappel.
It had been about three years since Vash the Stampede had met him on the cliff that day. The emotional turmoil that churned in his mind back then almost reminded Legato of his own. Almost. Vash was superior - they weren't the same. He had forced the plant to shoot him back then, and as he had lay there, bleeding, smiling, dying, he couldn't help but think.... I'm free.
But he had only been captured again. Someone had 'rescued' him, saved him, and nursed him back to health until he was ready to go back into the world - and grow very bitter. Without his master or the gun-ho guns around, he found himself growing soft and nostalgic, and very lonely. Once or twice his thoughts fleeted to Midvalley, and sometimes to Wolfwood, but more than anyone else they turned to Knives. However, his thoughts weren't as fond as one would expect of the devoted servant. In fact, being out among people, he no longer wanted to be anyone's slave, and he eventually came to the conclusion he was so much better than the plant had let him believe.
News had reached him after about a year and a half of separation that Knives was living with his brother and the insurance girls. Figured.
Legato had now reached the bottom and let his feet touch the slick floor, but did not take his first step with enough caution and his legs shot out from beneath him so that he landed on his back. Growling unintelligibly, he slowly heaved himself up again and proceeded more carefully.
Things were uncomfortable and eerie from the very start, all the sheets of ice coating the walls of the maze of tunnels making a thousand mirrors, each reflecting him in a new and dizzying way. Swinging his light back and forth in astonishment, he turned, glared at his next reflection, and then drew in a sharp breath. Passing through the translucent ice was a woman, her shirt a pristine white turtleneck, her pants a fitted pair of black jeans tucked into her leather, knee high boots. A long, blood red trench coat that touched the floor seemed to be lifted on a nonexistent wind, and as she moved from one pane of ice to the next, her long, dark curls nearly concealing her pale face, she grew and shrunk in size, depending on the height and width of the slate. Absolutely beautiful, thought Legato, his breath still sucked from his lungs, but what was she...? His heart began to pound when something, a flicker or a fragment of a memory, returned to the corner of his mind, but he didn't really grasp it. This woman, this ghost slowly moving past and all around him, not existing except for in the glass, was someone he knew once.
She stopped to look at him, regarding him, or rather something behind him briefly, and then turned away again, seeming to walk back into the recesses of the solid ice. Something told him she hadn't caught sight of him.
Legato took a few moments to contemplate what he was seeing before rushing recklessly forward and slamming his palm flat against the ice, not being able to break through. Only cold hardness. "What the...?" he whispered, feeling a nagging inside, something telling him to get out while he still could. "Blast!" His fist slammed into the ice in defeat. No matter. He'd carry on.
He turned to do so, but came face to face a very impassive, very surreal man, his hair jaggedly cut to fall to broad shoulders, blonde and shining like gold despite the lack of light. "Hello," he said quietly, although Legato only continued to stare. "Welcome to Fairlight."
~~~~~~
Knives pulled away from his servant and scowled, intending to further question the man but only seeing that he would get nowhere, realizing Legato had passed out right about at the end. He glared daggers at the human, wishing he was awake so he could be intimidated once more.
Felicity was like a ghostly presence, never drawing attention, completely silent, but so obviously there. There was a basin of water beside her now (it was getting irritating how things just kept 'magically' showing up) and she dabbed at Legato's cuts and bruises, washing him clean of blood.
Knives busied himself with picking lint off his shirt sleeve, deciding to be perfectly indifferent. For a short while, it kept him entertained, and for an even shorter while it cleared his mind, but he eventually gave up and lay down, his back to the cause of his problems, and ruefully reviewed what had happened. "Maybe I shouldn't have slain the keeper," he muttered, examining his fingernails. "It was kind of like shutting down the system."
He sat up. Looked at Felicity. Just great. Now she had conjured a blanket out of thin air, having removed Legato's shirt, folded it neatly, and laid it on the ground. The warm fleece had been spread carefully over the sleeping man, who now lay turned on his side, one hand palm down on the ground beside his face and the other on Felicity's knee, head still resting in her lap.
She was doing that weird thing...where she looked at him and it was so ANNOYING!
"Woman," he growled, "can't you speak?"
She lowered her gaze for a few seconds and then lifted it abruptly, narrowing her green eyes and seeming to be demanding something.
Knives stared blankly at her. "What? Do you want me to feel sorry for you two?" He snorted. "After what you've put me through, I think you two got what you deserved."
Her fingers, slender and pale, beckoned for her to follow as they drew back the blanket, touching a scar on Legato's shoulder, then his chest, trailing down and displaying the dark markings.
Although his placid mask never slipped, Knives felt a bit astonished on the inside. He'd never really looked closely at Legato. Who would've known that underneath his close, his body was just one big, healed wound?
"Did Legato even tell you anything about me?" he asked harshly, not receiving any indication that he had. "Did he tell you that I loathe humans and that he did too? That I gave him all his power?" Knives frowned. "Well, I did.... I guess I don't hate all humans because...I've lived around them so much that I've almost gotten used to them, and my brother's wife - what an aggravating human - she has a daughter, my niece, and I really do..." He trailed off and then stood up. "Felicity, can you get me out of here? Legato says you can't, but coming from you...?"
No response.
"Ok, you lo...you lov....you LOVE Legato, don't you?" he questioned, finally spitting out the obstinate word. "And you know he can't survive very long down here. If you care for him, I think it'd be safe to say you'd do anything you could to get him (and me) out of here as soon as possible."
Knives could already see Felicity was terribly easy to manipulate, whatever she was, and he smiled to himself when she made her decision, nodding firmly. Later, he might hate himself for this, but that was later. This was now - and he could handle it.
~~~~~~
Legato woke up in the sands of familiar planet Gunsmoke. He coughed and sputtered in the dry environment, already dehydrated from lying out in the heat for so long. Achingly, he sat up and rolled his eyes all around, letting things gradually float back to him.
Oh...my...
He sprung up and quietly called her name, not expecting her to answer. No Felicity - anywhere. "I shouldn't have fallen asleep," he whined to the desert, shoulders slumping. "I shouldn't have put anything past that self-centered, egotistical, sadistic jerk!"
There were footprints in the sand, and he began to follow him, but the more he ran, and the more he thought about how the scenario was going to play out, starting with a fantastic fight in rich he could at least grant Knives with a scar to haunt and mar his perfection, and then die, as Knives was no much stronger, the wind began to sound more and more like it was calling his name. And then, it seemed to transform into a human voice, a woman's voice. "Legato...? Legato!"
He stopped and looked all around. "Felicity...?" he murmured wonderingly. It had been so long since he had heard her voice.
"Legato," she was with him now, touching his shoulder. "It's ok... Don't go looking for your death."
"He killed you."
"You know I wasn't really alive there... That wasn't my real self, Legato." She smiled at him, sadly. "I would've had to leave you eventually."
"But you are real!" he said in a strained whisper, merely because he couldn't force out anything louder. "You made my sickness go away, you cured the poison! I could touch you, see you... And I don't want someone else. All my life - "
"All your life, you say you've wanted someone to love you. There will be, Legato. But it has to be real - you have to look for it." She tapped him playfully on the nose. "Just keep living, Legato."
"What about Knives?"
"I can't tell you what to do there."
He pulled her tightly to him, hugging her with his face buried in her shoulder, remaining so for a few seconds before relinquishing his hold on her. "I have to get going before he gets too far ahead of me," Legato explained, leaning in to kiss her but turning his head at the last moment and pulling regretfully away. It really was time to let go.
Without looking back, he started forward, not knowing if she was still standing there, watching him, or if she had disappeared. All he knew was that by the time he had gotten a decent distance away, he felt quite certain that she was gone and that Knives was just on the horizon.
~~~~~~
So.....what'd you think?? Thanks for all the reviews. This story probably won't be much longer, just a few more chapters...I really don't know. Ok, summary:
Legato and Knives' confrontation, a little bit of Meryl, lit bit of Vash...and Legato figures out how to hold on to the real Felicity, if only for a few more days.
------Shangri-La