Chapter #7

//Meetings //

Blank locked the door and turned to face the window. He walked across the room to it and looked out. He saw Beatrix stomping away, angrily.

Great! he thought. Now she´s not around to forbid me not to go!

He had already begun to unfasten the buckle on the belt and now he took it off. He walked to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. The cyborg eye seemed smaller, in some strange way.

That´s odd... he though. Machines don´t shrink!

But it looked like it had. The eyelid covered it more closely now than it had done when he examined it in Alexandria. Blank felt the cold touch of fear and doubt crawl up his spine.

He had been lying to Beatrix and Veranda. He did not have a headache. He had just known that it was about the only thing that would get them to leave him alone. His head had been bursting earlier that day, but the ache had disappeared...

And now it was coming again. All so suddenly. Blank looked into his eye, his good eye, and he could see his pupil shrink until it was as a small dot, like the point on a pencil. Blank grabbed his stomach, feeling like he was going to throw up, but his feet did not manage to move him to the toilet. Then suddenly he could not hold it any longer and spilled his half- digested dinner into the sink in front of him. But it did not stop there. He felt as if he was about to hurl up his liver and lungs. His stomach was caught in a cramp that lasted for about 10, long minutes. When it finally stopped, Blank whiped his mouth, coughed one last time into the sink, and then looked back into the mirror. The headache was gone and his good eye was back to normal. He looked fine, although he was a bit pale and his eyes were flowing in tears (which, he thought, could not be good for his machenic eye).

He looked back down into the sink and saw the mess. There was even a little bit of blood in that pile of some gross stuff Blank did not remember eating. He tried to wash it down the sink, but when that did not work, because of all the big chunks, he dug it up with his hand and flushed it down the toilet.

Uck, he thought, as he washed his hands.

The headache was completely gone.

Strange, he thought.

Again.

He took up the belt he had put on the shelf next to the sink and put it back on. He still felt naked without it. He strapped his sword on his back and stuffed his small knife in his boot.

He headed for the door and closed it quietly behind him. He threaded the stairs carefully, not wanting to make a sound. This was his mission, and he was going to do it stealthfully.

Quickly but quietly he made his way to the hide-out. He did not know why, but he felt this strange urge to go there. He was most certain that he would find something there that would help him on this case.

He was going to find his origin.

Sure it´s lame, he thought to himself, sounding like some fairy-tale an´ all, but this is just something I´ve got to do! he reasoned with himself. Something all men have to do!

Finally he stood outside the familiar house he and his fellow Tantalus brothers had grown up in. It was not much to look at but it meant something to him.

Home.

This was the only place he could feel right in. Like he was not out of place.

He smiled a bit and grabbed the handle and pushed it down, opening the door. He noticed that the lock was broken.

Weird! he thought. We´ve never been robbed before...

The door gave away a loud creek as he pushed it open. It was dark inside, but to his surprise Blank thought he could see the faint glow of a candle somewhere inside. He walked as silently as he could, hoping that if the burgler was still inside he would not have heard the creek from the door. He stopped for a moment to listen. At least he could not hear a thing.

He walked towards the bedroom he and Zidane had shared when Zidane had still been with Tantalus. Now he slept there alone and had for nearly 4 years. He peeked inside the room.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Beatrix was standing over the dead woman.

She gave a short report to the guard, showed that her sword had not been used the last hours, and he let her go. But he still gave her a suspicious look.

Beatrix walked hastely to the inn.

I have to show this to Blank! she thought, gripping the letter she had found.

The streets were mostly empty and no sound could be heard. The inn was not far off but Beatrix wanted to get there soon.

She walked inside the inn, introdused herself to the innkeeper, reminding the old man that she had already come here earlier that day and payed for their room. The man did not seem to remember, but Beatrix was very convincing.

Beatrix glanced into the next hall from the counter and ran her eye over the bar. She tried to pin-point where Veranda was, but could not find her.

She must´ve gone back upstairs! she thought.

She half-ran up the stairs and found their room, nr. 13 (A/N: This is for my friend... he´ll get the idea!). She tried the doorknob and opened the door.

'Hey?' she half-yelled. No reply.

'Blank? Veranda? You here?' she shouted in the bathroom´s direction when she saw that the bedroom was empty.

'What the..?' she asked herself and walked to the closed bathroom door. She opened it and clasped her hand over her face.

Ick! That stench! What´s rotting in here?

It was the smell of Blank´s barf, which had not diappeared in the closed room. But of course Beatrix did not know that.

But what surprised her more was that neither Veranda nor Blank was not there.

'Damn it!' she cursed aloud and banged her hand that was not tightly concealing her face into the door.

'Now where did they wander off to?'

*~*~*~*~*~*

Blank stood in the doorway, shocked, gaping.

Before him Veranda lay in a bed, her hands bound and a blank expression on her face. Her jeans were all torn like after a struggle, and her shirt was in no better shape. But she was not alone. There were two men towering over her, one of them who was just standing up from kneeling beside Veranda as Blank appeared in the doorway. The one standing was fiddeling with something inside the cloak he was wearing, but since they were turning their back at them Blank could not see what it was.

Then he saw the gash in Veranda´s face and let out a small shriek (A/N: yeah, you know, like a really girly shriek! ^_^). The men both turned around, looking at Blank with astonishment. One of them had dark hair, quite short and lifeless, and very characteristic facial lines. He looked at Blank with nothing more than the irritation of being interrupted in the middle of something he thought highly entertaining. Not that he really changed expressions, this could just be seen on his bodylanguage.

The other one Blank was familiar with. It was the leader of the bandit group he, Veranda and Beatrix had encountered earlier that day (A/N: Ok, so I made that a bit obvious...). He even looked exactly like he had then, except that now he did not have his hood up so Blank could see his face very clearly. He had blond and short hair, dark brown eyes and a nose so bent that it must have been broken at least 5 times. He was still wearing that cloak made out of that none-color fabric.

In a split of a second Blank came to his senses and grabbed out his sword, half-pointing it at the blond man.

'You here?' the man noted. 'How quaint. Now we can just get you out of the way, and general Beatrix will be no problem. Not alone!' He smiled at the black haired man beside him. 'This is the one we´re supposed to take with us.' And he nodded in Blank´s direction.

'Really...?' the darkhaired man stated. 'I thought he would be... bigger!' he said with bluntness and tilted his head to side as if he was measuring Blank. Blank only growled at him.

'He´s an animal!' the blond man explained to the other one, who had given him a puzzled look. 'Or that is what I´ve been told!'

'Does he oppose any threat?' the dark-haired man asked.

'Oh, no, not at all...' the blond answered, even though looking dubious. 'He´s not able to do anything that doesn´t involve a sword!'

Anything that DOESN´T involve a sword? Blank thought. The heck does he mean? Not that!?

'What do you think you´re doing!?' Blank asked them, trying to sound threatening.

And failing at it.

'Oh, and it speaks!?' the dark-haired said to the blonde. 'How adorable!' And he grinned.

'What did you do to Veranda!?' Blank half-shouted, without loosing his calm though.

'Oh, Veranda, eh..?' the blond said leaning back, taking a look at Veranda. 'Well, we didn´t do anything that she didn´t enjoy, if that answeres your question!'

'Step away from her, you freaks!' Blank shouted, totally in the dark of what he meant.

'Oh, playing her hero, are we? Well, let´s just settle this then, shall we?' the dark-haired man said, whipping out his own sword. It was long and very thin, it´s shiny blade carved with symbols or markings of some sort. It gleamed and the metal rang clearly when he unsheathed it. The blond also drew his sword, a sword exactly like the one who had approached Beatrix earlier had bore. It was broad and kind of rusted, like it had not been cleaned once since it was made but had killed hundreds.

And then they approached Blank.

And when they attacked they attacked him like he was a child. They obvioulsy thought that he would not be able to defend himself against the two of them. And that's where they were wrong. Blank put up a good fight, barring their attacks with skill and fury that they had not expected. They found that they had underestimated him.

And the fact that they were not to kill him put things in Blank´s favour.

After a short fight, only a couple of swings from Blank´s parts, Blank managed to hit the dark-haired man in his side, not deep but badly, and he collapsed on the floor. It was obviously not lethal, but painful none the less. Blank paused for a moment, watching as the blond gapsed, looking down at his friend. Blank took the chance and ran to Veranda without thinking, checking the gash on her face. It was not serious, and she did not seem to be hurt anywhere else. Although there was a big pool of blood in the bed.

His bed.

Blank felt a sharp pain in his left shoulder. The blond was looking at him, his big, dirty sword was inside Blank´s shoulder. Blank yelled, but managed to pull back, the sword drawn out of him painfully. His left hand felt numb and he could not control it. He took his two-handed sword and tried to swing it at the blond but failed. It was too heavy.

But too his surprise the blond did not attempt to hurt him further or capture him, but knelt down, yanked his dark-haired comrade up on his shoulder, looked back for an instant and then ran out, his wounded friend dangling over his shoulder.

They ran away?

Blank shook this thought out of his head and turned his attention back on Veranda, after checking if the men had really left the house. They had.

'Hey!' he said to her.

She just stared at the wall in front of her and answered:

'Hey..'

'You OK?' he asked carefully, but full of concern.

'Uh-huh..' she nodded.

He knew it to be a lie but did not mention it.

'You hurt?'

'No. Not beside this gash on my cheek.' She pointed at the gash that started between her eyes and continued to her right cheek, ending somewhere under her right eye. It was not long, but it hit the bone.

Blank inspected it carefully.

'I think this will leave a scar!'

'oh?' she said, sounding like she actually did not care.

'Come on, let´s get you to the bathroom. I think there´s a first-aid kit there somewhere. A potion.'

'Potion?'

'You´ve never had one?'

'no...'

'Well, there´s always a first time to everything!'

He led her into the bathroom, cleaning her wound with a wet rag and giving her a potion, because:

'You look like shit!' he said, trying to lighten her up.

'oh, thanx!' she answered.

'So, what happened here?' he asked her after a moment of silence.

'They beat me up!'

'What about all that blood?'

'From my forhead!'

Blank knew it was a lie. The gash did not bleed that much. It seemed to Blank that it had not even hit any vein. But she said it so firmly that he let it drop. If she said so, it was most propably true.

Blank cleaned the wound on his shoulder and drank a potion himself. He felt the pain drift away, and wrapped his own shoulder up.

*~*~*~*~*~*

The weapon shop in the industry district of Lindblum.

Beatrix was standing in the middle of the small room, looking at the weapon- covered walls. Now where was she supposed to go? To her left there was a racket filled with axes and to her right swords hung in rows. And all around her, placed neatly on the floor, were shields, in all sizes and of all types. And helmets were fastened high on the walls, side by side, as close to the ceiling as they could get.

Beatrix stood there still for about a moment or two, then she shook her head and walked to the counter.

'Excuse me...' she started but the shopkeeper did not seem to notice her. 'Excuse me but could you tell me...' The shopkeeper glanced passed Beatrix, got up of his chair and walked to the back of the store, ignoring Beatrix. She raised an eyebrow and gaped.

How´s that for a service! she thought to herself.

'Hello?' she half-shouted and leaned over the counter. 'Can anyone hear me!?'

'I can.'

Beatrix spun around herself instantly as she felt a light tap on her left shoulder. Before her stood a small and thin man, with an eagle´s nose and skinny face, beady eyes that were crystal-blue and seemed to never stay on the same spot for more than two seconds. Beatrix only stared at him with her one eye and did not speak, so he raised his eyebrows and spoke:

'Can I help... you?' he asked with his high voice, that waved around from tone to tone like he was singing a tune.

'Yeees...' Beatrix answered reluctantly. 'What is your name?'

'I am Muninn, at your service!' he said and bowed. Beatrix noted that he was not mocking her, but she felt that he was not being entirely sincere either. 'Now, is there anything I can do for your honorable self?' he said.

Oh great! Beatrix thought. She did not like this kind of formal speech without a reason, just like Veranda.

'Yes, you may yet be of some help to me!' she said, pressing on the 'you'.

'Might I suggest that we talk about it somewhere private, my beautiful lady?'

Oh, God, he´s also kissing my ass! she thought but managed to put on a smile.

'Sure.' She answered.

And he led her out.

The letter was still unread in Beatrix´s pocket. When she could not find either Blank or Veranda she had just gone out to attend to her own business, like the others seemed to have done. It still bothered her that they were gone, and that they had left no message. But, she had other things to think of now.

Muninn led her to an alley behind the weapon shop. Beatrix did not know why he had addressed her, or how he knew that she was looking for him, but it did not matter that much to her. She had found him, after all.

Muninn was a strange man, puny and deffinetely not the strong type. But he seemed sneaky and would be able to backstab his own grandmother, if he was payed enough gil. But, since Beatrix was not really trying to befriend him, it did not matter. This was her way to find Mikoto, and she needed to find Mikoto. Or at least that was her reasoning for her doing this.

'In here, milady.' Muninn said as he gestured her through a door, looking more like a hole in the wall. Beatrix crumbled through it without much difficulty and Muninn jumped in after her. They were in a small room with only a sofa and a chair. This room was obviously only used as a meeting room for matters of unlegal purpose.

'Can I offer Thou some beverage?' he asked her.

'No, thank you! And please stop thouing me!' she answered, a little to rudely, maybe.

'As you say!' Muninn said and bowed. 'Now, what is it you need us to help you with?' he asked her bluntly after seating himself in the chair opposite the couch where Beatrix was sitting.

'I need you to locate a person for me!'

'Living in Lindblum?'

'Yes.'

'How much are you offering?'

'How much do you want?'

Muninn looked at her thoughtfully for a few seconds.

'10,000 gil.'

'10,000 GIL!??!??!?' Beatrix yelled. 'For WHAT!?'

'That is our price! Do you think you can manage?'

'You cannot be serious!'

'Oh, but indeed we are!'

Beatrix was silent for a moment while she thought this through.

'Which one of you decides the price?' she asked him. He only looked at her puzzled. 'You or Huginn, your boss?' she explained.

'Oh, but that is entirely my master´s decicion!' he answered. 'Finding a person resident in Lindblum costs 10,000 gil for everybody, not just you! If it was my choice I´d cut off the price,' he blinked her. 'but since that is not in my command...' he added with a hint of regret.

'Then you better show me to your boss!' Beatrix stated, standing up.

'W-what?' Muninn asked shocked, glaring up at Beatrix.

'Well, since you are in no position to bargain with me I´ll just have to meet with the one who is.'

Muninn stared at her for several moments, and Beatrix begun to suspect that he was not ever going to speak again. Then he drew in a big breath, let out a sigh and shook his head.

'But I´m afraid I can´t do that!' he stated. 'I´m specifically ordered NOT to bring ANYONE under ANY circumstances to my lord!' He nodded his head to emphasize. Beatrix looked at him, thinking about how simple he was.

'But this isn´t just ANY circumstance!' Beatrix told him. 'This is life or death here!'

'What do you mean?'

'I mean that if you don´t lead me to your boss I will get seriously pissed and jab this little friend of mine,' she grasped the hilt of her sword, 'into your head!' She smiled innocently and tilted her head to the right, blinking her left eye furiously.

Muninn gaped at her with utter astonishment.

'Right... now...?' he managed to say. Beatrix saw that he was not used to people stanging up against him. He seemingly was in the position of a man who nobody messed with.

'Yes, right now!' she said, speaking slowly as if talking to a child.

Muninn frowned, scrached his head and looked around the room like he was measuring what way out would probably be the best to run off through. But since there was only one door and no windows he dropped that thought.

'Yes, ma´am. Right this way ma´am!' and he led her through the door and out on the street again, his head hanging low.

mmm... Beatrix thought. The way she felt after pushing Muninn around back there had been really good. She felt powerfull, like every time she had the whole first class legion of Alexandria in front of her, doing whatever she told them to. A big smirk was covering her face as she followed Muninn to a house near the rail-way station in the industry district. The house they stopped in front of was quite big, obviously infested by a rich family.

'You wait here a moment!' Muninn mumbled, looking sheepishly at the street. Then he ran to the house, all bent, and disappeared inside. Beatrix stood around for a few moments, heard a bit of yelling from the house, assuming that it was only Huginn scowling Muninn for his disobedience. She did not care.

Then Muninn stumbled out, gesturing her to come on inside.

*~*~*~*~*~*

'I´m fine!' Veranda stated as Blank tried to approach her.

'No, come on! Let´s get you out of those bloody clothes.'

'I said I´m fine!' She grabbed her hand over her arms, folding her chest, and staring at him furiously.

'OK, OK, only trying to help!' he replied, backing away. They were still in the hide-out because Blank had seen that his room was a mess. It looked like these two men had actually been looking for something, and he was going to check out if anything was missing.

But not until he had cleaned up.

'I´m going to wash that bloody sheet of my bed, and it would be convenient to wash you clothes while I´m at it, you know!' Blank told her, gripping his left shoulder because of a sting he had in his stabwound.

'Then I would not have anything to wear!'

'Of course we can get you something to wear! You think I haven´t thought about that!?' he asked her with a sharp tone. 'There´s some clothes of Ruby in that room over there,' he pointed at the room opposite his own. 'that you can wear! She won´t be needing them!' He tried to make it sound casual, making a joke out of it.

But not succeeding.

'Right...' Veranda answered and walked towards that room. Blank took the sheet off the mattress in his bed. It was soaked with blood. Veranda´s blood. She must have been cut deeply, although Blank did not see any wounds on her.

'My god...' he muttered to himself, lifting up the sheet, letting the blood drip on the floor, blending with the blood of the dark-haired man.

Then Veranda came out of Ruby´s room. She was handing her clothes towards Blank. 'Here!' she said, holding only her shirt and her jeans, both soaked, and ripped. She was wearing a blue skirt which Ruby had often worn during the summer and a green shirt with white symbols on, which Blank did not recall Ruby ever wearing. The thought of Ruby only brought pain into Blank´s mind so he brushed these memories away.

He took her clothes and asked:

'That´s all?'

'Yeah?'

'What about your underwear?' he asked, shamelessly.

Veranda turned red on a mere second. 'I´m not gonna let you wash my underwear!'

'What, 'let' me? I´m not yearning to wash it, I just thought that maybe it had to be washed, judging by you jeans at least...'

'No thank you!'

'OK, OK... But I don´t think these will do you any good,' he lifted up the shirt and the jeans, 'even though we clean them! They´re all torn!'

'Then throw them out! I can keep these, can´t I?' she asked, holding out her arms, talking about Ruby´s clothes.

'Yeah!' Blank nodded.

Awkward silence.

'Aren´t you going to go wash...?' Veranda asked Blank, who was still standing in front of her with a dripping sheet and her clothes in his hands.

'Right, yeah!' he answered. 'Could you get rid of these?' he asked her, handing her her clothes back.

'Sure!'

It was not until about an hour later that the two of them returned to the inn. Blank had scoured his room, not able to find anyting missing, and when they had finished cleaning up they tried to fix the lock. Blank noticed that Veranda never even once sat down during that hour, but did not think any of it.

When they finally got back to the inn they found Beatrix sitting in their room. She was cleaning her huge sword, her face unreadable.

'Here,' she said, holding her hand out to Blank. She was holding the letter.

*~*~*~*~*~*

A/N: Well, well, well... why am I still writing you ask? Well, if you´re still reading you certainly must find something interesting in this crap of mine, so why are you asking me!?

Anywho... if you ARE really reading this, it would not kill you to review, would it!? even though it were only for the sake of telling me to stop writing! ;)