Dilandau felt a cold prickle on his skin. For some reason, he felt as if someone was watching him. He turned about, but all he could see was the placid eyes of the audience behind him. Suddenly aware of the passage of time, his eyes then snapped to the clock. It was already 1:00, which was strange. He realized that time passed differently here, in great spurts if it wanted to. He also understood, subtly, that something wanted him to change his train of thought, that something had drawn his mind away from thoughts of invisible eyes looking at him. The fact that he knew this made him smug, but also frightened him. But he didn't have much time to be afraid.
"Prosecution, call your next witness." the judge said.
"Yes, your honor. I'll call…" and Folken sent a glance of smug poison towards Zongi, "Dragonslayer Jajuka."
As two in whom they were proved mistaken,
That we sit sometimes in the wayside nook,
With mischievous, vagrant, seraphic look,
And try if we cannot feel forsaken.
Robert Frost - "In Neglect"
Jajuka rose to his feet, walking slowly forward through the swinging doors. He seated himself in the witness box, and stared placidly back at Folken.
Dilandau was wary. Of all the Dragonslayers, it was Jajuka who he would most expect to still be on his side, but of course, who knew what was happening to them? Shesta, it seemed, had been controlled from behind the scenes, and caused to forget for a moment how he felt about Dilandau. Or perhaps it was just this time in the world of the dead. How long had they been dead? It must be almost thirty years… But of course, it could also be that the creatures on the stand were just figments of the dream world. Dilandau decided not to think about it. At the very least, Jajuka could not accuse him of being responsible for his death. He had chosen to die himself.
"Please state your name for the court." Folken said, repeating the obligatory first statement.
"Jajuka." came Jajuka's deep voice.
Folken nodded, "And you were one of Dilandau's last Dragonslayers?"
"I was the very last one." Jajuka said.
"Right, of course." Folken said, and he paced for a moment in front of the witness box, "Can you summarize your duties when you were under Dilandau?"
"I was in charge of every duty at that time." Jajuka said.
"To what extent?" Folken said, conversationally.
"Everything. I fed Lord Dilandau, cared for him, made sure he didn't get into trouble." Jajuka said, "At that point, he was seriously disturbed."
"Oh, really?" Folken said, unsurprised, "Why?"
"Objection, your honor!" Zongi said, "That's an opinion!"
"Sustained."
"Right." Folken said, "Well, then, what in his life had happened that could cause him to be disturbed so?" he said, mockingly.
"The death of the other Dragonslayers, I assume." Jajuka said.
"I see." Folken said, "So, he was practically unable to care for himself, is that correct?"
"Very much so. He was prone to extremely long fits of catatonia, and he would start shaking and be unable to stop." Jajuka said, without a trace of pity or emotion.
Dilandau himself was able to remember very little of that time, and despite himself was waiting on the edge of his seat to hear more about this lost time of his. All he could remember was Jajuka's kindness, really, nothing about his day-to-day life.
"So Jajuka, tell me something?" Folken said, "How was it that you came to care for and fight for Dilandau if you were never in military service before?"
Dilandau sat up for a moment. Jajuka was a civilian? Well… Of course he would be, Dilandau thought in retrospect, Beast-men weren't allowed in the military, least of all the Zaibach military.
But Jajuka continued, and the courtroom listened intently, "I was in the service of the Zaibach madoushi." he said, "They trained me to serve with Dilandau."
Dilandau's senses reeled. Jajuka, who was his only friend at the time of his 'death', serving the madoushi? Of course, hindsight made it painfully obvious, but it still shocked him to the point that he almost didn't hear Folken's next question.
"So, you served with Dilandau for what purpose?"
"I was trained to give him support and monitor him." Jajuka said.
Folken nodded thoughtfully, "Now, we know you were ordered to do this, but did you have any ulterior motive? Any reason you would particularly want to serve under Dilandau?"
Dilandau's eyes turned to Jajuka, who mirrored his gaze and then turned away, "I did…" He paused, "In my youth, I was the only caretaker of a large group of children kept in the madoushi's labs. As the years went by, many of them…" he swallowed, "Died. Only one survived."
"What does this have to do with Dilandau?" Folken asked, though he already knew the answer.
"The last to survive was a girl named Celena." Jajuka said.
The terrible truth dawned slowly on Dilandau.
"So the personal reason you were supervising Dilandau was….?" Folken asked.
"Because I still hoped to release Celena from within him." Jajuka said, "I knew that this…" he gestured vaguely at Dilandau, "this shell could be shed, and Celena would return."
Dilandau didn't see the gesture, but he knew what it meant.
He could only very vaguely hear Folken intone, "Let the record show that the witness pointed to the defendant. No further questions…"
But the courtroom had disappeared to Dilandau. He had retreated into himself, poring over his misty memories of that time. Jajuka had been the only one he could cling to, Jajuka had been his only friend. And yet nothing he had said or did, no kindness he had given Dilandau could not be explained away by the underlying desire to help Celena. His eyes blurred with tears, but he was no longer paying attention.
Zongi felt the presence next to him go cold, the way someone felt when one of his kind had taken their spirit. He turned to Dilandau, who had slumped over in his seat, eyes wide and sightless. His wide eyes went even wider, and he dug his cold fingers into Dilandau's skin, as hard as he could.
"No!" he shouted, trying to pierce the obstinate wall Dilandau had erected over his senses, "You can't!" He took Dilandau's shoulders and shook him hard, "They won't give up, so you can't!" he said desperately.
The world around began to shift into whiteness, and Zongi shook Dilandau even harder, "You can't give up!" he said, his voice cracking.
But Dilandau was, for the moment, beyond him. He felt strangely unlike himself at the moment, and as he searched frantically through the memories he had of Jajuka for one kindness that wasn't directed to the dormant personality within him, he felt himself drifting away, almost as if into sleep.
The voices he heard were distant, and he tried to drift away into the darkness that those terrible dark figures had told him not to approach. He felt the coolness growing closer to him, and shook off the fingers of doubt that trailed him.
But then a clear voice shot through the strange darkness that Dilandau so wanted to escape to.
A soft, unassuming voice, "You wouldn't leave them behind, would you?" there was a pause, "Your mother and your friends." Dilandau thought he almost recognized the voice, but he couldn't place it in his confused state.
Dilandau, or what he had let himself become, paused. That pause was enough for the natural pull of his supposed body to bring him back to where he had sat. He opened his eyes, and saw relief in the eyes of Zongi.
Looking around, he noted that the rest of the courtroom didn't seem to have noticed anything had happened. But Zongi took his face in one cold hand, and forced Dilandau to look at him, their faces inches apart.
His eyes still had a glint of fear in them, "You must never do that again." he said, in short pants, "In this place… It is very easy to let yourself go over to…" he paused, "There is no protection between this," he lifted Dilandau's hand, "your soul, and the world around you. The only thing that keeps you in a body is perception. You perceive that you have a body, and that keeps you from floating around the room like a cloud." He sighed.
"What do you mean?" Dilandau said, despite his desolation and confusedness he was eager to find out more about this world.
"Nothing…" Zongi said, "Nothing… Just keep yourself concentrating on the 'real' world, OK?"
The strange kindness reflecting in Zongi's overlarge eyes caused Dilandau to nod sadly, and then turn his eyes back to the rest of the room. As if at a signal, they resumed motion.
The judge looked impatiently down at Zongi, "Do you wish to cross-examine or not?" he asked, as if the pause in proceedings had been exclusively Zongi's fault.
"I will cross-examine the witness, sir." Zongi said. He turned to Dilandau, and at that moment, Dilandau felt the memory of Shesta's testimony rising to the surface of his mind. The look of import in Zongi's eyes made Dilandau realize what the forced memory meant. Zongi wanted to reiterate the importance of trust in this trial. Dilandau nodded somberly, and Zongi took on a look of determination.
He stood and walked slowly up to the witness, all the time staring at him thoughtfully. He seemed to be ferreting out the weaknesses in Jajuka's testimony merely by looking at him.
Jajuka, to his credit, merely stared straight forward without a trace of nervousness on his face. This could have been due to his nonhuman heritage, but for some reason, Dilandau believed that it had to be some great strength within him.
After a silence that seemed to stretch far longer than it actually did, Zongi spoke, "Jajuka, according to your testimony, the ONLY reason you wished to serve under Dilandau was not because of any concern for him, but only the underlying soul Celena, is that true?" he asked.
"Yes." Jajuka said briefly.
"You are under oath." Zongi said, cocking his head.
"I know this." Jajuka intoned.
Zongi nodded, as if he had merely been informing Jajuka of the fact, in case he had forgotten, "So how did you feel about the boy Dilandau?" he asked.
Jajuka frowned fiercely in Dilandau's direction, "I was disgusted by him."
"Why is that, Jajuka?" Zongi asked kindly.
"He was a violent creature, totally without empathy. He only cared about himself. He was the complete opposite of Celena. I didn't care about him, I only helped him stay alive to keep my hope that Celena would come back."
"When you say you didn't care about Dilandau, which Dilandau do you mean?" Zongi asked.
Jajuka's face showed surprise for a moment, but he quickly stifled it, "I don't know what you mean." his gruff voice spoke.
"Well of course you know that the Dilandau here is not the same Dilandau as the one you served under!" the doppelganger said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, "He lived for fifteen years without knowing the truth of his other self, without seeing all the memories of the life he once lived. And of course by the time they came back, he was a different person. You can't tell me that you didn't look in on him, at least once."
Jajuka looked away.
"Perhaps you meant to look in on Celena. But you can't deny, that kind little girl raised a kind little boy." Zongi said, as if in a whisper.
Jajuka raised a furry fist and banged it against the table, "The boy was a terrible menace!" he said, his voice thundering against the walls.
"Does that mean he still is?" Zongi said, quietly but with equal force to his voice.
Jajuka looked lost for a moment, his eyes empty but searching.
"Well?" Zongi said.
"I… don't know." Jajuka said, holding his face in his large hands.
"You told the truth yourself, when you unconsciously said 'was'." Zongi said, pressing a hand to the cold counter that Jajuka sat behind.
Jajuka looked ill at ease, and turned away from Zongi's accusing eyes.
"No further questions." Zongi said with an accompanying slap of the counter. He walked slowly back to his seat, and smiled warily at Dilandau. There was little in the way of a response.
Dilandau didn't know what to think. He didn't want to think. He closed his eyes against the pain of his memories as Jajuka walked silently back to his seat.
Zongi leaned over to look at the expression on Dilandau's face. He felt that perhaps he hadn't been as useful as he could have been, perhaps he hadn't been able to find that fatal flaw that could have made it all right. The look in Dilandau's eyes told him that a blow had been struck against him. There was a shadowy dullness in his eyes, a flash of fear in the depths of them. It was a certain soft fragility that they hadn't held at the beginning of this Trial.
Zongi put a hand on Dilandau's shoulder, trying to convey wordlessly that it would all be over soon.
Dilandau looked up at him after a moment.
"It'll be all right." Zongi said, his eyes filled with pity.
Dilandau sighed, and nodded slowly, trying hard not to think about the recent testimony. The sick feeling in the pit of his stomach ebbed away as he prepared himself for the next witness.
Author's note: _ I'm really really late! And I'm sorry! It took me FOR-EVER to finish this chapter, because I've been busy and because it was hard. I'd never have done it if it weren't for Shy Violet, though. (Thanks!! Love!!) I got a new car, in case you all care! It's a Pontiac Grand Am GT! It's teal! Teeeal!!!
reviews.exe (enter)
Eboni: I had to end it there! If I wrote any more, it would make the story not ephemeral enough for me…Too plain. I need to confuse you! It makes me feel powerful. ^-^ You were interested in joining our little Dilandau ML, it's called Fate's Toy, and it's over here… Fate's Toy Looks like it didn't work last time. Yeah, I'm OK, though. My grandma got a new car and gave me her old one. ^_^!!
Feye Morgan: Yeah, I tried to convey the fact that Dil-sama's differenter than he used to be, but in some ways the same. The fact that he's different is what they don't like. And… Only QUASI-mysterious? I'm besaddened…
Shy Violet: Yay! I'm so happy! But I already told you that… I hope that despite the fact that I talk to you every day, you'll still be unable to figure out the twist. YAY! Wicked awesome is wicked awesome!
Etowato: YAY! Oh, I get so much happiness from you being confused and intrigued. Whoohoo! Oh, I am evil… For the con, I dressed up as Umi Ryuuzaki from Magic Knight Rayearth and Jet Black from Cowboy Bebop.. ^-^ Yes, I am a girl. It was sooo fun.
BlueAloe: Oh, I'm glad you got all that out of it. That's really what I was trying to convey about the villains. They're basically, excuse the lameness, locked into their fates. They really want to break away from their lost lives, but as long as Dilandau still lives, they can't. OK, I guess I understand the Mole Man thing… It sort of surprised me when you asked me why my fave character was a pyro. I felt chastened. So, more power to you.
Anyone who wants to see me in costume can go here!! My Cosplay Page