- Title: Vampiric Sacrifice
Author: stefani teee a.k.a. Koneko ^Å^
© Tales Spinners Inc.
Koneko-chan says!
Chapter Five: Broken
They stared, aghast, at the horrid sight in front of them. Relena looked shell-shocked as she stared down at the dripping corpse of one of her own friends. Even for her, screaming wouldn't have been enough. The others she hadn't been able to help, hadn't been able to do anything. This was the same, her logical brain told her, but Emmy had been right in front of her, dying in front of her and she couldn't stop it. She hadn't been able to.
"Whoever did this has a sick, sick mind…" This was from Duo, but there was no tone of hilarity in his voice. It was deadened, hard. Dorothy, still holding one of the sheets that had held some of the manuscripts slowly stepped forward, draping it over the still-bleeding corpse. She was too far gone to help now. The thin line of blood that appeared at her throat told that story all on its own.
Relena turned away from the sight, turned her back to one of her friends, and walked away. It had happened before… when they'd stared at that horrid gravestone that held no body of Lucrezia Noin Peacecraft having never even caught sight of any remnants left of her body other than blood, and when she'd seen the secret files dictating the horrid deaths of the Peacecraft monarchy. She'd seen the images, stored away in databases that were never supposed to reach the public eyes or ears, much less to her own.
The matter was a tricky one to get out of, and it was soon pronounced by the police that the same psycho who'd been responsible for the corpses floating in the bathtub, filled with a mixture of water and blood, was responsible for the death of Emmy Winters as well.
It was a solemn-faced girl who returned to Peacecraft Manor the next morning, and found her older brother sitting in a chair, sound asleep. He'd obviously woken up early that morning, waiting for her to come back. Biting her lip, she went quickly for a blanket, draping it over him before silently going past him and up the stairs to her room. There she found Gabriel curled up in a ball on her bed, whimpering softly as he wriggled, lost in some dream. Smiling softly, she stroked the side of his face, brushing away several strands of hair from his eyes and turned away, heading towards the closet. She had to change, then get to Preventers quick smart. Knowing Une, she'd be in her office, trying to explain her theories about the vampiresses. What had seemed so concrete and final last night seemed so blurry and abstract today, with no balance of truth or fiction. She shook her head, sighing. She had to think up a very good way to put her thoughts or she had about less than a snowball's chance in Hell of explaining anything. Sometimes, it was a good thing to be one of the best politicians in After Colony history.
~*~*~*~
"NO! Watch out!" Her shrieks were echoed by answering screams, panicked and terrified. "Oh god no, not Gabe! Get away from him! NO!"
He ran towards her, his hair and clothes matted with the blood of both him as well as the vampires that had already fed and which he had uniformly decapitated as he strove to reach his wife. Her dark hair stuck to her sweaty forehead, face streaked with blood, both hers and the vampire she was fighting off, keeping him away from her son who was cowering to one side in a corner, clothes torn, with several deep scratches, and clutching a cross. He'd managed to shove it directly into the face of the vampire bent on killing him, gaining him enough time for his mother to step in, taking up his part in the fight.
"Be careful! I'm coming!" he bellowed back, trying to reach her, wading through the seemingly endless hoards of demons flooding into the mansion. Once again, he cursed the stupidity of his staff at having invited the vermin in. Shoving aside one vampire, bleeding from a nasty looking chest wound, and then impaling it when it attacked him, he made his way towards his wife and child.
Finally, he reached them, killing off the vampire she had been fighting and gathering up his child in his arms. He whirled to grab his wife's hand, knowing it was a losing battle, and they had their child to think of. What he saw horrified him. There were more, this time led by a woman. "Oh shit, Noin just come on!' he was yelling at her. But she seemed spellbound, unable to hear him as she just stood there in seeming shock, wide eyed as another woman approached from the side. Her dark eyes were enchanting, and when he stared wildly at her, wondering what she was doing, he found himself sinking into that state of mindlessness that his wife seemed to be in. Only Gabe's sudden yank on his arm brought him back to his senses as he ran for her, grabbing her, shaking her, attempting to keep an eye on the vampires and the vampiresses while not looking the dark-eyed female in the eye. It was quite a feat, but he had managed it. She blinked, and she turned towards him.
"Daddy watch out!"
Above him, the ceiling exploded downwards as several more of the vermin leaped into the room, screeching in high, keening yells, like banshees as they dove for the threesome. "Come on…"
She tried… she honestly did. But at that moment, the vampiress leapt, literally tackling her to the ground. In his horror, he watched as the vampires went for his wife, like bees drawn to honey.
"Noin…"
"MOMMY!" Gabe was screaming now, his eyes wide and frightened, his entire body trembling. He was crying now, as Milliardo mechanically took up his child and ran, away from the sight of the ghastly sight. He would have stayed, tried to kill as many as he could, but there was no chance of survival and he knew it. He had his son to think of, even though she… she was gone.
"We're not done with you yet, Princeling…" A clawed hand grasped his shoulder, digging deep into the flesh, tearing through flesh and muscle, making him grunt and wince, but not dropping his son. But the hand yanked him backwards, pulling him towards him and Gabe was wrenched from him as he saw another vampire's face grinning over him, eyes hungry, fangs already dripping with both saliva and old blood.
He struggled, and it only caused him to be to even more torn up, the vampires evidently not caring for him to be alive. He could hear his son's screams though, and he continued to fight with all his might and main against the horrid blackness clawing at his eyesight. Just before he blacked out… a huge lumbering figure passed across his vision, ripping the vermin around him limb from limb. Who was it? What was it?
His eyes sprang open, just as his body reacted, leaping off the chair to his feet in a quick fluid gesture that had been well perfected during the course of his life. He came face-to-face with a rather surprised younger sister as she walked past him after descending the staircase. "Brother?" she queried, cocking her head quizzically, wondering what was wrong.
He shook his head, holding a hand gingerly to his forehead, rubbing his temples wearily. "Nothing, nothing… did something happen last night?" he gestured to the bandage on her leg, making her look down at it. "This? Oh… well… uh, Adrian Townsend's house was attacked and since Dorothy's is right next to it…"
"You went to check it out." He finished for her, his sudden feeling of fear coursing through him again. He did not approve of what she was doing, of her wanting to exact revenge upon those who had deprived them of a life with their own family. He didn't want what had happened to Noin happen to her too.
"Yes…" she began gathering up stray sheets of paper that she'd dropped in her surprise, piling them neatly on top of her three-ring binder. "Are you all right now?"
"I'm fine… and I also have a meeting with Lady Une over at Preventers HQ in order. Basically tell her what happened, then I'm off to work."
"You've got a lot on your shoulders for a 21-year old."
Relena laughed, "And you are saying this to me?" she asked him, with a falsely incredulous look. Milliardo smiled, drawn into the familiar banter, "It was a different time, sister dear, the situation was much different."
"Ah, forgive me, O Knowledgeable One, in your old age your wisdom spans millennia upon millennia!" Milliardo looked properly horrified. No matter what he'd faced in his past, it was quite another thing for his own sister to accuse him of becoming senile. "Why you…"
She dodged away from his grasp quite nimbly, mocking him, even in her light rose political suit, "Getting slow in your old age, brother-o'-mine?"
He sighed, shaking his head, a small smile on his face, "Oh, get going to your meeting… Gabe and I will be just fine." Relena smiled, "Then I'm off… be careful, don't let anyone suspicious in, even in the daytime."
Milliardo's face grew grim and he nodded, "I know… I'm just glad you weren't there that night…"
Relena shook her head vehemently, "I wish I was there, Brother! I might've helped… I might've kept Marie from letting in those vermin…" she shook her head, "But we can't dwell too long in the past, can we, Brother?"
The sudden image of Noin's bloodstained, beautiful face appeared in his mind and he nodded slowly, "No, we can't…" but it was too hard to forget the one person who'd always stood by him, no matter what crazy ideas he got into that head of his. It suddenly made him think… he'd been so worried over his sister the other night. It had slipped his mind to ask about where… where Noin had been buried.
"Relena?"
In the process of putting on her shoes, she looked up. "Where is… where is Noin?" Relena looked sadly, almost nervously at him. "Her body was never found… the police… they think she was too…" Milliardo understood. They had torn her to shreds.
Milliardo nodded, his voice sounding choked, even to him, "No matter then… you go now."
Relena nodded once, biting her lip, and was out the door. Sprinting towards her car, she got in, and put the pedal to the metal, veering out of the way of an oncoming grandmother and her shopping cart, scaring the poor woman half to death as she yelled back an apology and continued going. The old woman, after overcoming her shock and fear, simply muttered, "Kids these days…"
Relena pulled into a screeching stop at the front of the building, and leaving the parking to the valet, snatched up her slightly crumpled stack of papers. Then, with a calm expression, exited the car, passed through the customary swarm of cameras and cameramen alike, ascended the stairs and entered the glass doors of the building quietly and serenely… Before continuing her headlong dash towards the conference room, joined by several other, equally late and equally dignified personas.
"The conference room A?" gasped out one middle-aged politician, a binder with several sheets of paper flying out of it as he ran. Relena pointed, "Third door to the left!" she replied before racing on down the hallway until she reached the door labeled 'Conference Room B'. She stopped short then, casting a smile at the guard posted just outside, composed herself, then opened the door, walking calmly inside.
"Forgive me for being late…" she trailed off as soon as she caught sight of a familiar figure sitting at the head of the conference table. She had to work hard at keeping her mouth quite closed. There he was… Adrian Townsend himself, sitting there placidly, without a trace of any more recognition than any other fellow politician was.
Quickly regaining her composure, she sat down with that faint smile that was always present on her face when she went to meetings like this. She'd planned on seeing Une before coming here… but since she'd been caught late both at home and in traffic… Her eyes strayed to the windows, which were all securely curtained, the room lit only by the many electrical lamps hanging from the ceiling.
The meeting commenced and finished rather quickly, despite her earlier misgivings, and she replaced all the papers in her briefcase quickly, with a half-hearted goodbye to Adrian Townsend as she sprinted out the door. If she didn't get the Preventers HQ to give her report, she'd be done for. No one, not even the politicians themselves could handle Une's wrath and not quail before her.
She never noticed his slight attempt to talk to her before she was out the door. He had a serious look on his face, and as she left, he shrugged silently, saying softly to himself. "She'll have her own suspicions to worry about soon enough." He left quietly, trying not to make a scene as he made his way carefully to the car, covered at all times from the Sun's deadly rays to the car waiting for him where the windows were graciously tinted dark enough that no sunlight entered.
Midii sat there beside him, watching him. "Were you able to talk to her, Mr. Townsend?"
"No. But there is no worry… she will learn what I have to say soon enough."
She had a strange, beguiling smile on her own face. "And what would that be, Mr. Townsend?"
He returned the smile distantly, slightly furtive, "I believe if she doesn't yet know, she will soon… and you too will know my suspicions."
She grimaced, and withdrew, looking out the window in silence, feigning ignorance. But she knew well enough what he knew. And she would do well to keep it to herself until the proper time came. He smiled grimly, she may be Mystery herself, but he was still a vampire. A strong one.
~*~*~*~
Relena was having her own problems. First off, it was because Lady Une was in a very, very bad mood, enough of a bad mood to snap at even the ex-Vice Foreign Minister. Politician she may be, but no longer was she beholden to the responsibilities of her late adopted father, or her biological father. "What do you mean, the vermin attacked Adrian Townsend's mansion? You looked into this matter personally? I thought you were brought in on the critical list not to long ago… what the hell made you go over there and check things out yourself?"
Relena's face was sweet, but serious. "Lady, you know very well that Adrian Townsend is a good friend of mine. He is one of the most distinguished people I have ever met, vampire or not, and to stand by and watch his house be burned down would have been something beyond my ability to take. The vermin had their own magick, and someone, or something, managed to kill Emmy right in front of me and there was nothing I could do, no one I could stop from hurting her."
Lady Une softened, just a touch. "Emmy? One of Townsend's servants?"
Relena nodded, not trusting herself to speak. Despite all her brave words in front of her friends, she was not the type of person to go around killing things in cold blood. She honestly did feel pity, and a strange feeling of guilt mixed into her pride whenever she had dealt with one of the vermin. Not all had started out like this… they might have retained some part of their old lives even, like Adrian. But she would kill whoever got in her way, in her friends' way. She was softhearted, but she was not a bleeding heart. She was strong. She could deal with whatever life threw at her, even if it broke her.
She would not cry. Emmy was gone; there was nothing else to be said about that.
But that had never been the issue with Relena Peacecraft Dorlian. It had been her nature, not her feelings.
Some said that Relena was suicidal.
Others insisted she was merely too trusting.
But she thought herself none of these things. Suicidal meant that she would willingly jump off the roof of a building, and she would not do that. She would face death, of course, she understood that she could die at any moment of time, and sometimes she chose not to struggle, but she was no fool. There was much to live for, and she'd be damned before she'd kill herself. Because if someone else offered to kill her, they were in their turn putting the guilt on their own shoulders, doing the job on their own. She knew her life was important, but she was not egotistical to believe that it was only her alone, that wealth and power alone could make her life important. If she had to, and in several times over the course of her life, she had thought it less than worthy than someone else's, she had offered it away. But that was not suicidal. Suicide is something that you can't turn back from once you've done it. Giving yourself to someone else left them with a choice. A choice was not suicide.
And trusting? No, she was not too trusting, she had been through too much to trust easily. It was true, she had believed once in her youth, believed in the sheltered life she'd left of frivolity and of people who'd adored her. She had not openly acknowledged it, but in her deepest heart of hearts, she had registered her own importance in the St. Gabriel's popularity scale. But after Heero Yuy had come into her life, there was no true trust anymore. Or at least, the trust that had been close to instantaneous when in her sheltered life. It was most likely because the things told to her hadn't mattered, really mattered to her. But everything that came later had. There was no more trust, but there was belief. She certainly had believed in Heero, in Duo… in all of them. But she hadn't trusted the fact that they would know exactly what to do. She believed in their own nature, little that she knew of them at the time, but she had not trusted them, no, not even Heero.
She considered herself fatalistic. She was ready to die, death held no fear over her, but she would not willingly take her life meaninglessly. There had to be a reason something was done, and to be able to go to that extreme, she had to have a reason. Because she was tired of life was not an acceptable one. For the most extreme of extremes, the greatest of reasons had to be given. She had none.
She wanted her life, the bad along with the good. She didn't give a shit about silver lining, if something was bad, it was considered bad, no small good from it could really be considered good if everything was bad to begin with. But there would always be good after the bad had happened. And she had learned throughout her life to accept all that had happened, and then afterward, leave it behind her forever. The past was something she did not want to relive, any of the good along with the bad. She would not be left a broken woman left with only the delusions of her past.
That had been the thing that had made her strong. Heero Yuy, for a while had been her rock, and she had relied on him to be strong, but she had found out that he was not perfect, he could not always be the strong one. And in some things, he had relied on her, believed in her at the times when she most doubted herself. That belief had helped her grow stronger, surer of herself. But it was the final belief in herself which made everything function around her again.
But she was human. And she kept her friends the highest priority, above her, and if anything should happen to them… well, she would make Hell seem the perfect vacation spot. Whoever had been responsible for Emmy's death was going to pay. She believed in peace, but if she couldn't have things go right if she came from the pacifist viewpoint, then she would wage war. She had Preventers backing her up. She could lead an all-out war against the new-raised Queen of Darkness. She was a pacifist, always had been, but there was not enough idealism in her, to stick to it. Theoretically, everything would be put to right if everything had gone the way it was supposed to. But she had human nature to contend with. And where there were men, and power, and need for survival, there would always be battle. She had accepted that, thrown her ideals to the winds, cast them out, and lived her life the way she wanted it. She found herself not to want to carry on either father's work, to promote peace, to follow in their idealism. She had to find something of her own to believe in. And she chose to believe in herself.
Considering she was still alive, she must have done something right.
~*~*~*~
For the first time in a long time, Heero Yuy had found himself helpless. He and the rest of the boys, had stayed with Dorothy in her mansion, and had been looking through the rest of Townsend's books and scrolls for more than half a day. He had been awake when Relena had quietly whispered to Dorothy that she had to go, still ashen-faced and walking out into the rain, not caring to bring an umbrella. Townsend had left a little while before, and they had all assumed it was to go back to his house before the sun went up. Dawn was already close to breaking, and Midii Une had left with him. Dorothy herself was not in the best of shape, but Adrian had been kind enough to help heal most of the more important injuries. Her arms, side, and half her face was covered in bruises, but she continued doggedly to sift through the huge volumes of information on some clue as to destroy an Ultimate vampire. There had to be a way… the world was not overrun with them now, so something had happened, been able to kill them, or trap them, or destroy them.
The thing was, that he had watched that stately blonde leave the house, her eyes red with tiredness, and that old protectiveness that he had thought he'd grown out of, stirred inside him. And he wanted to shield her from the world again, wanted to erase that awful closed expression on her face. She had watched one of her friends die right before her eyes, when she had been saved from a death by torture from the vampiresses… and she had bled to death in what they had thought to be the safety of Dorothy's house. And after the initial shock, Relena had closed down completely, as if some icy curtain had dropped down in front of her eyes, and she remained solemn and quiet throughout the entire night they were there. Of course that hadn't stopped her from being the kind, sweet person she'd always been. There was just something missing in the sweet smile of hers. Perfectly understandable. But it was not right. And he hated the fact that he couldn't do anything to keep that stony expression off her face. He had been down that road before… and it had led him to the brink of insanity. He did not want that for her. Never would he want that for her.
He got up, and, ignoring the questioning faces on everyone else's faces, he grabbed his jacket, stopping only at Dorothy's door, "I'm going to get Relena… knowing her, she'll probably still be hiding everything underneath a smiling face." He disappeared out the door, they could vaguely hear the purring of the engine as he reversed the car and disappeared out of Dorothy's long driveway.
As soon as he was far enough, Duo, and Dorothy as it was, shared a private smirk, "And he says he's not dead gone on her…"
Then they went back to the serious work, leaving the rest of the boys out of the loop. But they were smart. They caught on in their own time.
~*~*~*~
Relena had finally gotten through her meeting with Lady Une and was stumbling blindly out of the Preventers when someone caught her by the shoulder. Not being in complete control of her senses, she was startled, instinctively grabbing the hand and jerking the person forward off-balance. Side-stepping them, she turned to face…
(Well, who else could it be?)
Cathrine blinked several times consecutively, before her confused expression melted into a smile. "You've gotten those reflexes down pat, haven't you?" she asked, as Relena apologized, and helped her to her feet.
(Then again…)
She nodded, forcing a smile on her face. "Sorry about that," she apologized again. "You startled me."
Cathrine waved it off, "Of course, of course… it's my fault really, I should've known not to come up behind a vampire hunter. But I thought you would've noticed me… I was calling your name from down the hall."
Relena frowned, having not heard a word but the scattered thoughts in her own head. "I'm sorry… I was… preoccupied."
"You very much looked like it," Cathrine commented matter-of-factly, "In fact, you were so out of it that you didn't even notice your lover boy standing there in the corner." Relena blinked, once, twice, and then again for good measure.
Turning slowly, she noticed the shadowy figure leaning against one of the walls that she knew so well, for the first. "Heero?"
The other woman grinned, waved and walked away, completely at home in her Preventers uniform. Relena could be so lucky. She slowly made her way towards the man who'd been in and out of her life for so long, and stopped just in front of him. "Are you waiting for someone?" she asked softly, not half-believing that he might be waiting for her.
He shrugged, "I was worried about you," he told her simply.
"You actually deem me worthy to be worried about?" she asked, wryly.
"You always have been." From first impression, you would never from the way he looked and the way he talked, just how much a complex person he was. Everything about him seemed so simple, as if he could pass through life without much effort. He was the opposite of, having to work harder than anyone else to achieve what amounted to normalcy with everyone else around him.
That made her smile, just the slightest bit, and nodded, "Thanks."
He stood up solidly on his own two feet then, and walked beside her as they made their way out of Preventers, passing through the gates, and towards their cars. She found, to her amusement, that he had found a way to have his car parked right next to hers where Senator Kelly's personal car was supposed to be. She had always found it a waste of space, as he hardly ever drove it anyone, much preferring his flashy limo. The car had been very neatly moved into the center of the lane a few spaces ahead, just enough space for both Heero's car, and Relena's car to be able to get out perfectly fine.
"What did you—how did you…" she trailed off, "Do I even want to know?"
Heero blinked at her owlishly, and had he been Duo, she'd accused him of his tendencies towards the illegal side of the line. Of course, this was not Duo. But she still very much preferred this version of tall, dark and handsome.
Wait, did he fall under the label of tall, dark and handsome?
She frowned, puzzling over this new tidbit of thought, looking him over from the corner of her eye as she unlocked her car. Tall, yes. Dark? Well, his hair wasn't dark per se, but it certainly wasn't as light as her hair… Handsome? Her cheeks flushed, did one even have to ask? The man was the perfect definition of gorgeous.
Shaking her head, allowing her hair to fly in front of her face like a cloud, she looked up at him, "Meet you there?" she asked him.
He shrugged, "If you want, I could go with you."
She felt her eyebrows raising before she could stop it, and asked, "You want to?"
"I wouldn't mind."
Smiling, she gestured, "Do you want to drive then?"
He paused for a moment. Then… "Yes."
"Be my guest." She grinned, "I knew your male testosterone urges couldn't hold out for long."
That brought out a small smile on his face, "I prefer to live long enough not to ever have you drive me anywhere again."
She let out a sound that very much resembled an indignant squeak. "I stay below the speed limit!"
He raised a sardonic eyebrow, "Could have fooled me."
She tapped him firmly on the shoulder, "Just drive."
Now, this was a very difficult feat to accomplish dramatically because of the fact that she had to reach up to tap his shoulder, his being taller than her, but she managed to pull it off quite well as a matter of fact.
He mimed tipping an imaginary hat at her, "Ma'am."
They got in the car.
~*~*~*~
Milliardo Peacecraft stood there, clothed in his long gray duster that he had always been so fond of wearing, belted close as the wind blew the dried leaves in large whorls and swirls around him. He was staring at the gravestone, alone beside a single lone tree, and quite far away from the rest of the graves in that particular graveyard. And there was no body beneath that ground where the grass had grown over while he'd been comatose. The flowers he held in his arms he lay tenderly down on the grass in front of the stone. "Noin…" he said softly, the words losing their volume in the wind. It was late that evening already, but the sun was still shining bright enough for him to be safe from the night-walking vermin.
He placed his hand tenderly on the granite stone, and even through his gloves he felt the coldness. He had been the witness, and the cause of too many deaths to count… his hands were stained with the blood of both old foes and old allies, and he wished above all else he could have helped her, that she could have survived the vampires' attack.
Relena had made them pay dearly for it, he knew, but in his eyes, she was still a child, and staining her soul with the knowledge of how to kill, even to those heartless vermin, it was something he wanted to protect her from. But too many things had happened since he'd been wandering the insides of his own mind, and she'd reached adulthood without him. She always had, it must be said, even in her younger years she had always watched everything with a detached, empty look, and he'd watched her secretly sometimes, and seen this. It was hard to imagine the wonderful little sister that he still remembered playing with in the old castle becoming that strange distant figure. And now, she was a killer, a vampire hunter.
He wanted his own revenge. He knew just as well as Relena did that the attack on the castle had been by the vermin. Sadly, the Peacecraft family had had absolutely no knowledge whatsoever of vampires at that time, and only after much searching of the ruins had the truth been revealed. For some reason they still had yet to learn, the majority of the vampires, headed by this 'Queen' had pitted themselves, and all their inhuman power against the Peacecraft family. And he had to learn why, very, very soon. Because at the rate things were going, (having checked up with Lady Une on the current things that they had learned while he had been comatose), they might soon pass from being 'extremely hard to kill' to 'completely immortal'. Which would be a very bad thing indeed.
It was only now, when she was gone that he could think of all the things to say to her. He'd always run away, disappeared, whether it be off to fulfill his ambition of fighting a worthy opponent or simply to wage war on whoever came up against his own ideals. He had never been one to indulge in his own personal angst, or in his "if only I had" 's, but there was nothing he wished for more, than to have her back, just so he could tell her all those things… he wanted a chance to be able to. To have everything pitted against him with none of her strength and her belief in him, it was hard to continue on. Being alone was something he'd gotten used to… but that did not mean he had enjoyed it any more than before.
Why? He wondered, Why did it have to be her? She wasn't born into the Peacecraft name… if anything, it would have been Gabe they were after, though I shudder to think of that… or me. Why couldn't it have been me? She didn't deserve this… she worshipped life on the battlefield, and I believed in the bringing of death in a war. When did I learn to care so much? It mightn't have hurt as much if I hadn't remembered it all… but it would still be filled with that empty feeling, cold, detached and clinical.
He sighed, rereading the inscription over again, Before all this, when I was young and confused about all this… who was it that was my strength, before Noin became the better part of me? Trieze… it was Trieze. I worshipped him, with all his charm and charisma… and yet he was a soldier, best I'd ever met… and I wanted to be like him. To be strong, to have the honor of fighting a brilliant battle. But in the end I lacked the honor that Trieze had… he was my friend to the last, but I did my best to reject that friendship… but he knew what I wanted throughout the entirety of our battle. He did his best to help me, while still clinging to his own ideals. Was this what Noin wanted? She believed I was in the wrong, all those years ago… she believed that the Gundams were in the right, that they needed to protect the Earth Sphere, and the Colonies along with it… but she still stood with me. She betrayed her own ideals for me… was I worth all that? Not to myself… but I never knew if I was for her. She was worth the world to me… she and Relena both… they were the only two things that mattered to me. I lose my wife to the vampires, and I lose my baby sister for… the woman who is perfectly capable without my help…
He shook his head clear of the thoughts. His mind was wandering… the sun was creeping away down the sky to her bed beneath the hills, and now was the time to start being extra careful, to be very aware of everything. He could not afford to let his mind wander, especially in vermin-infested places like this. Milliardo was a soldier to the very core of his being, and he wore a sword, sheathed and belted to his back in a spine sheath, which lay vertically on his spine. The trick to it was to get it out quickly without slicing off a lock of his long hair. He'd mastered it a long time ago thankfully, and it lay there hidden beneath the coat at all times. One did not serve in the army with Trieze as your commanding leader without picking up some of his old-fashioned tastes and abilities with weapons. And he had always been good at fencing… which had sped up his education with the sword master with incredible speed, and ease.
So it was only natural that he'd rather take the sword than the stake… especially when it came to learning something new. And stabbing people (relatively speaking of course) with wooden spikes he only associated with outdoor décor, where they made a tiny fence around the peony bush, was something totally foreign to him. He touched the smooth stone with his fingers one last time, before turning round and beginning the long walk back to the graveyard gates. It was a large graveyard… it would take some walking. He could have taken the car round the twisting gravel path… but he had decided against it.
He realized he was not alone when a cold shiver ran up along his spine, and he tensed, listening, his eyes flickering all around him. The soft rustlings of grass underfoot made him turn, and behind him, there stood three of the vermin, two of them slinking as far away from him as possible as if afraid to stay, but too afraid of the consequences to move away.
He barely took notice of them… his eyes were literally unable to look away from the face of the apparent leader. "Noin?" he croaked, his voice hoarse. "Noin, is that you?"
The large dark eyes of his one beloved was watching his every moment, her skin, naturally pale, was now bleached of color, the long white billowy dress she wore accented this, and she was beautiful. She had always been beautiful, but now she seemed to have a glow around her, something ethereal, something entirely not human.
"Zechs…" her voice was nothing more than a whisper on the wind, but he caught it.
"They got you." He said dully, "You're one of… one of them."
The two vampires behind Noin bared their teeth and hissed at him, the male wrapping an arm possessively around Noin's slim waist. Zechs wanted to tear off the vile limb as she cringed away from him, looking up at Zechs as if in silent pleading.
"They won't let me go," she whispered, and he had to half-read her lips. "They wouldn't let me come back to you… and then they killed me."
"And we turned her," hissed the female one, smiling a horrid smile at him, her face horribly disfigured, as if half-melted. He gave an educated guess that it was with holy water, which seared through a vampire's flesh like acid. "We turned her, and she screamed at us, fought us, screaming your name, screaming your son's names…"
Noin looked away, eyes hollow, pulling in vain at the arm firmly snaked around her middle. "Then they killed me, and changed me, and they wouldn't let me see you or Gabe, even a glimpse, until now."
"Why?" It was a demand, not a question.
The male vampire spoke, "She would have torn you apart, she could not control it. We know more than to let the fledglings slaughter our… food, so quickly."
"Food." It was not a question.
"That is what you are, mortal." It hissed at him, mocking him, "And you will never be more than food. The Queen wants you dead, and your still-beating heart presented to her on a plate."
"Shame she doesn't go for originality." Noin muttered under her breath. Three things happened at the exact same time. The first was the female vampire attacking Noin with a rake of her talons. The second was the male vampire pulling away from harm before the blow could connect. And the third was that Zechs' sword had appeared with a sharp "shhhing" sound, and had charged the vampiress, plunging the blade into her chest. It would not kill her, his blade was not silver, nor wood, and he had not even aimed for her heart… but it would certainly hurt like hell.
He wrenched the blade out of her, and it came out with a horrible sucking sound as blood began to flow in rivulets down her stomach, blood seeping into the thin white shift, dying it a brilliant crimson. She grasped a protective hand over it, staggered back, hissing profanities at him, but otherwise stayed on her feet. "You'll pay for that…" she hissed at him.
"And you're going to pay for trying to hurt her." the male vampire returned, glaring at her. "You know the Queen's orders."
"She insulted Her Majesty. She needs to be punished."
"And you have the power to bring about her punishment? O great worker of Justice! O Cleanser of All that are Foul!" mocked the male vampire, who was more intelligent than first he appeared to be. "You have not the power, and the fact that this mortal has caught you unawares is proof of your weakness."
He turned back to Zechs, an expression of something like respect in his silvered eyes. "You are brave, mortal," he said, much of the snarl gone from his voice, and it even sounded human, "I can see why the Queen would almost appear to fear you and your family."
Noin looked away, "I'm sorry Zechs. I wanted to be there for you. And I can't. I can't!" She turned and ran, and the two vampires let her, turning to follow her, though they looked back once to see if he would follow. He did not. He didn't want to see them, see the pain that had been so very visible in her face.
Mentally, he reviewed the facts, a natural habit that he'd developed in the previous wars, and he didn't like at all what he came up with. She was a vampire. She had to die.
Didn't she?
~*~*~*~
End of Chapter.
Whew! Sorry it took so long, I have almost completely lost track of my plot, and that compounded with a severe case of Writer's Block is the reason this chapter is so late in the coming. I promise to update as soon as possible. Thanks for reading, beloved ones who have stayed with me this long. Don't forget the reviews!