REALLY pushing it this chapter! These lyrics barely relate to any part of the plot. It involves severe imagination-stretching and they're Kato- orientated, I think. . .? Gods, I hardly even know myself. *sigh*




Part Two, Chapter Two: Knock Knock

This time you got it all figured out./Think it's gonna work okay but I'll make sure it won't cause I'll be standing in your way./So wait a minute if you will./I ain't got no time but time to kill./When the ground starts getting hot it doesn't matter if you run or not./This time you've seen it done before./This time you're gonna get it right./Once more you fail miserably and then,/then you do it all over again. ~The Hives (again . . .)




Margarete gives a last sad glance at the body of Kato and turns towards the wheelhouse door, hating herself. Surely she didn't have to kill him? There must have been a better way . . . But it was him or her, she reminds herself, one of us had to die. Why him? The thought leaps suddenly out into her thoughts. What gives me more right to live? what a stupid notion! He'd have killed Alice, as well as me. Two lives or one, and anyway, amn't I in the right now? Wasn't that what this is all about?


She still isn't satisfied with her conclusion, but she has to put it out of her mind. There isn't time now.

Margarete leaves the wheelhouse and moves tentatively towards Yuri. Alice is still looking into the distance and Zhuzhen is watching, thinking, reaching his own conclusions. Suddenly Margarete feels a rush of rage for them. . . Why can't they be angry, why can't they at least say something to her? They might have forgiven her, might hate her . . . Alice is watching to see what Yuri's going to do, she thinks he's in charge here. But Zhuzhen? She hardly knows anything of Zhuzhen yet, ut he's bound to come out with some surprise. He's too quiet for someone who knows nothing.


Margarete stands in front of Yuri, then, if the other two aren't going to tell her anything. Alice has turned away from the sea and back to the boat. She looks pale and shocked; merely from bearing witness to the recent events. Margarete wonders if she herself looks as scared as this or merely removed. Like it matters . . .



She stares straight at Yuri's face, silently demanding some kind of answer. Will you please tell me if you trust me now? I killed them both . . . does that prove anything to you? But she doesn't speak, she fixes her blue eyes on Yuri's brown ones and hopes he'll speak first. This silence is proving hard for all of them to break. Margarete glances around quickly at Alice and Zhuzhen again. Alice seems to be starting to understand what had just happened, why two people were now dead, what was going on. She blinks, and speaks shyly and quietly, barely above a whisper.

You killed Kato,' she says, then tries the last part like a question. . . . for us?'

Margarete, relieved at even a sound, turns all her attention onto Alice. This sounds like Alice is prepared to forgive her for the moment at least. Or if not forgive, accept that she has made a new start now, she is telling the truth.

Margarete inclines her head.

Yes,' she says, bringing her eyes to meet Alice's. Yuri'd been surprised too at Alice being the first one to speak.

Well,' he begins. Whatever side we're on . . . We're all gonna have to keep outta the army's way for a while.' He studies Margarete's face, deciding all over again. Guess we might as well do it together . . .'



At least for now, the past has been put away for the sake of the present.


So,' Zhuzhen speaks at last, pensively. Where do we go from here?' He surveys the scene around them. More time has passed than Margarete had first thought. They're nearly at Shanghai, and before they reach a port there is a lot of evidence they must hide. They all still feel slightly awkward; though Margarete doesn't want to use the conversational techniques she learnt when spying, when she's playing a part. She could probably make the chatter come easily, but it'd just be false, superficial, gloss. From now on, se silently promises, everything between her and the other three will be real. In an instant she suddenly sees how different Margarete and Malkovich are . . . And how they blur together sometimes. What if they just become one person? One person who will be me?


Suddenly afraid of this happening, she speaks, mostly to get these nagging thoughts out of her mind.

The army's gonna try and contact Kawashima soon. I'd suggest by then we should be far away from Shanghai, seen as how they know who they're looking for.' she glances around at the group. The only one they're not on the lookout for at the moment is Zhuzhen. But I reckon they'll leave it for a while, Kawashima was pretty much the top authority on this mission herself, and God knows they have enough else going on right now. The longest we'll have is probably about to days. By then, I hope we'll be as far away as we can. Pretty much right away.'


Yuri casts a worried look towards the bodies of kawashima and kato, still lying where they fell.

What are we gonna do with these two?'

Margarete shudders, not noticing that she does.


. . .I guess we'll have to dump them in the sea.' There really isn't anything else that they can do. But now she'll have to touch the bodies again, just when she was beginning to get used to the idea of their death. In her mind, she can still see the two corpses perfectly, eerie and forever hanging at the back of her mind, grinning into her thoughts. She knows they're just behind her.

Yeah, but where?' Yuri says. Like you said, there's gonna be a hell of a lot of people looking for them. Surely if they're just off the coast of Shanghai, that'll be the first place the army looks?'


We'd better get them down the coastline a bit then. If we don't go any further towards the land, and head on round the coast a bit, it ought to put them off the scent long enough to let us get into Shanghai, and, hopefully, out again too. . . . Now, do any of you happen to know anything about steering a boat?'

. . . I can have a go,' Zhuzhen offers after a moment's consideration. All four of them make their way to the wheelhouse, Margarete pausing a little at the door, trying not to think about Kato's carcass inside. She notices Alice looks apprehensive near the bodies as well, not from emotional attachment, but simply from her proximity to the messy, bloodied hunks of meat that'd used to hold people. Thinking about it like that, no one can really blame her. I'll be glad when we see the last of this damn boat. I can truly start again . . .

Which way should we go?' Zhuzhen asks, dragging Margarete's thoughts away from her anticipation of the future. She looks around the wheelhouse for a map, knowing there must be one somewhere. Sure enough, there is, crumpled,lying by the wheel. Lying where Kato, steering, must have dropped it . . . Shocked by a gunfight, stunned by a former ally's betrayal.


There are ghosts everywhere, reminding her. She can't escape them here.

It''ll be different in Shanghai, Then I can let it go.

Margarete scans the map. There is a line drawn taking in Kawagoe, Fengtian, Dalian. Circles around Changchun and Wuhan. Why Wuhan? I expect I'll never know now . . . On a patch of ocean, there are notes in Kawashima's unmistakable and immaculate hand. Agent Malkovich will lure the group to Shanghai . . . After the emergency change of plan due to technical failure . . . Suddenly overcome by a rush of mournful grief for the dead pair, Margarete takes her eyes away from the letters and focuses on the floor instead. How can I feel sad for them? After what they d have done?

How can I not, after what I've done?


Margarete? Are you all right?' She nearly jumps a the sound of Alice's voice.

Yeah,' she answers, angry at herself for getting lost in her own mind. She stares at the map, pointedly avoiding any writing. There's a little bay there,' she indicates with one finger. South-east of Shanghai, near Jiaxing . . .' Zhuzhen takes the map from her and begins to turn the boat around. It gives a dramatic lurch and wobbles precariously, dipping from side to side.


Dammit, pops! Don't DO that!!' Yuri cries. Are you trying to kill us?!'


Oh come on now . . .' Zhuzhen laughs quietly under his breath. Don't think about it and you'll be fine.'


How can I not think about it?' he protests. This is worse than your stupid aeroplane,' he adds to Margarete as he slouches round to the cabin, accompanied by a concerned Alice. Margarete smiles softly to herself. Things are starting to get back to normal.







It doesn't take long to sail along the coast to the bay. margarete stands by Zhuzhen in the wheelhouse, directing him to a quiet spot. The place she chooses is between two towns, Zhenhau to the south and Hangzhou to the north, but it can't easily be seen between either of them, tucked away between rocks and cliffs. The water here is deep, greenish blue and peaceful. A final resting place. . . . Margarete has a sneaking suspicion that they won't rest so easily. She's not being superstitious, merely thinks the army will find the bodies soon, will hunt them down.


I guess we leave them here,' Margarete says, feeling a reassuring sense of calmness at the thought of finally being rid of the corpses. Keeping this goal in mind to stop her from losing her nerve, she walks over too Kawashima's body and pauses.

This is it. Just get it over with and everything'll be fine. She bends down and picks up the body. It's surprisingly light. That's because her head's gone . . . All that's left where her head used to be was a mangled stumpy mess of clotted blood, a few shards of bone showing through. Margarete takes her eyes off the gory spot and carries the body to the side of the boat. Holding Kawashima over the water, she stare into the murky green.

Let her go.


She drops the body as gently as she can. There's a deep splash and a fizzy buzz of salt water tinged with crimson. The dark shadow of Kawashima sinks in to the depths. She is gone, finally.


Easier than I'd expected, but there's still Kato to go.


Margarete goes over to the wheelhouse, where Kato's body lies in a sticky mess of gore, his chest blown apart. She bends down to hoist his cadaver to the side of the boat. It's easier this time, dealing with Kawashima has steeled her nerve. But Kato's body is heavy, a dragging leaden weight, a bitter reminder of the fact what she is carrying is nothing but a corpse, a lifeless body. She remembers how Kawashima had always prepared her troops for a hard battle by telling them that even if they died, it would be a good and noble thing because they died for their country. This isn't noble at all. No one will hail Kato as a hero. . . From what I gathered, Kawashima's own father won't even mourn her very much . . . Oh, fuck, what have I done here . . .?


But no one gave any of these soldiers recognition either. No one knows their names. And most of them won't even have someone feeling like this about them. . .



Margarete drops Kato as close as she can to where the ripples still echo from Kawashima. Don't let them be alone. . . There's another of these stupid sentimental thoughts.


But I can afford to have them now! I can afford to think about things, to decide the right thing to do.

My only remaining ties are friendship and loyalty. Finally I'm free. . .









. . .I hate typing things up . . . It would be even worse if I ever wrote a chapter of decent length. That wasn't very in Margarete's character, but she'll be more like normal next chapter. Thank you for the reviews aegis ( The fic will not stop for a helluva long time. If everything goes to plan it's gonna carry on through the whole game and have something after the game finishes too. I don't know what you mean by flashbacks but I will put a bit in about her past. (In Rouen, there's gonna be slightly more of a conversation with her father than there was in the game.) And yes, Alice is bit in shock. I think we'd all be a bi in shock if stuff like that started happening all of a sudden.(Okay, unless we were big tough people like Yuri, or . . .Zhuzhen. . .Hmm. I don''t get Zhuzhen, which is why he isn't doing very much. But the next part of the plot is kind of where he has a starring role. . .) and Loki, Harbringer of Doom (Um. I'm scared. ^_^). And I FINALLY completed Shadow Hearts today! (I got the sad ending, but Yuri didn't seem half as depressed as I'd have expected . . .I can't get that ending song out of my head. And I had absolutely no idea that was how Zhuzhen's name is supposed to be pronounced.)