Witch Hunter Robin
False Echoes

Chapter XIII - Love, Marriage and Zombies

Disclaimer: You know by now I don't own Witch Hunter Robin®, which belongs to Sunrise® and Sci-Fi® Channel. You know this already.

Nor do I own the song False Echoes; I just borrowed its title.

Storyline, Plot, Kenny Avery©, Roger Williams©, Kichiro Wantanabee©, Rick Richards©, Michael Campbell©, Rosalind Nichols© and Mr. Jackson David Rica© are all mine.
 
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Robin was still a emotional wreck.

Her pond green eyes, usually nothing more than a quiet stare that held her emotions in check, were now filled with tears and closed partially as more salty liquid feel from them, running down her cheeks. She sat silently in the passenger seat of the car, her eyes flashing outside the window in the strange, almost eerie darkness of Christmas Morning.

This was no merry Christmas for her, this was like Christmas in Hell. She was filled with the unbearable sadness from Touko's death, and she constantly questioned it. She had seen many people die in her short life, but somehow she had never before seen a friend dead. And to see Touko's lifeless form on the ground . . .

"Robin."

Michael's hand was suddenly upon her shoulder, giving her a gentle squeeze. His voice was hoarse with a mixture of pain and sadness, which came from a mixture of the pain from seeing Touko dead, and his heart breaking every time Robin shed a tear. He hated the fact Touko was gone, and he hated the fact that Robin was sad.

Robin made no move to answer her lover, and instead she only continued out the window. She hadn't thought about death much before. Death. That was not the word for what happened to Touko Masaki. She had been killed. It was on thing to kill a witch who would abuse their power for their own purposes, but to kill a ordinary woman, and a woman as kind as Touko, that was a crime against nature.

Michael sighed as he realized it was no good trying to calm her down, because Robin was not going to be calmed down. She was upset. More upset than he'd ever seen her before. He had watched as she killed people, and he had watched when she had been shot by a friend, and he had watched when she admitted to losing her status as a nun because she had taken a life, and he had seen her cry.

But this was not crying.

This was sobbing.

Suddenly the car came to a stop and Robin turned her head to see a apartment complex. She had never been here before, but she knew where they were, it was Sakaki's apartment building. Michael sighed and looked at her, his sky blue eyes, shaded by the orange glasses, staring at her with tears forming, and Robin sighed. She was making Michael sad and she could not stand to do that.

"Gomen." Robin whispered quietly, remembering her Japanese for once.

"Me too." Michael mumbled back as he stepped out of the car.

The two teens walked quietly up the stairs of the building and quickly made their way up the hallways until they reached the topmost level of the complex, where Haruto's apartment sat at the end of a dark hallway. Yet as they approached the hallway, they saw a blonde haired man leaning against a wall with a small black gun in his hand. Robin tensed and arched her shoulders. Her hand went down to her pocket and pulled out the small glasses she valued so much, reaching up and slipping them over her nose.

As they approached, the blonde spotted them and he turned around. He spoke quickly and nervously, almost as if he was afraid something would happen if they didn't leave very, very fast.

"Sorry, this area is off-limits. Police business." He said quickly.

"Can I see a badge?" Michael asked with a certain hint of sarcasm in his voice, his body weight shifted onto one leg and he tilted himself. The blonde wasn't amused.

"Kenny, come give me a hand with these -- PUPPIES!"

Suddenly both Michael and Robin shot their heads up, a new spark of fear inside their eyes as they recognized that cry of 'puppies', almost like a child spotting a small group of dogs on the street. They knew that accent, somewhere between redneck, French and Irish, and they knew that man who stood behind the blonde in the dark sunglasses and the tiny haircut.

David Rica had a amused smirk on his face, and he appeared to happy. His short black hair, his empty eye sockets behind the dark sunglasses that hung loosely off his head (he had brought a extra pair) and the thin, incredibly smug, smile that he wore on his pale lips. It was all the same horrific things that Robin and Michael remembered all to well from before.

"Shit." Michael breathed quietly.

The next few things happened very fast. Robin narrowed her eyes and suddenly the dark hallway that Kenny and David stood inside was ablaze with bright orange flames, their yellow tongues dancing over the ground and walls, licking up anything and everything that their burning desire would allow. Kenny screamed, but a split second later bright, clear water exploded inside the hallway and killed the dancing yellow tongues and their burning oranges mouthes. Kenny, who had realized very quickly he was out of his league, turned and ran as far as his feet would carry him.

"Michael, go." Robin commanded quietly to the boy behind her. Michael began to protest, but he saw Robin, who stood crouching with her eyes narrowed and her brows quirked and he realized that, like Kenny, he could be no help here. He could not tackle the powers of the craft, for while he was the descendant of a witch, he was only a seed, and his powers could help him not.

Michael turned and ran, the cold night breeze blowing in his hair and his orange-sighted world suddenly exploded with the glowing yellow behind him, but he did not turn. He did not turn around when he heard the flames go out with a fizz, and he did not turn when a second yellow blaze flashed behind him.

Michael had just reached the bottom of the stairs when he saw it. A man, tall, and built like a football player who had slightly let himself go, with dark brown hair and eerie eyes, a color that was darker than black, stood. He wore only a small hospital apron, like the kind used on a corpse in the morgue, and he carried in his hand a long, black rapier sword.

Kichiro Wantanabee, or whatever was left of him, stood with a snarl and a growl at the bottom of the stairs. He looked up at Michael for a moment with those odd dark eyes, and then he raised the sword up to the light. It was then that Michael Lee realized where he'd seen that sword before, but quickly he shook his head. That was impossible.

"CAMPBELL!" Kichiro growled in twin voices. One was his own, a cold draw, and the other was a high, heated growl, which belonged to Rick Richards, or Jack the Ripper as he had been known more commonly in his own time.

Maybe it wasn't so impossible after all.

Michael didn't have time to react as Sakaki's father jumped upward, slashing that sword out in front of him. Michael threw up his arm, but it was too late, and the edge of his right arm was cut neatly by the blade, a thick red spray of blood shooting from the new cut like a soda can that had been shaken before being opened.

--

Robin's body was covered in a combination of sweat and water, sweat from jumping around and being so close to her own flaming craft, and water from the horribly painful hit she had taken from one of Rica's jets of the clear liquid.

"This is fun. I've missed our little fights." David smirked as he ran a hand through his hair. He still looked alright, for his skin healed every time she was able to slash at it with her biting flames, but his clothes were burnt and torn, and Robin knew she had got some good hits on him. Unfortunately she also knew that unless she completely destroyed his body, Rica could heal from anything that she threw at him.

Robin was about to try another blast of her craft when a scream pierced the night air and she felt her heart shatter in a instant. The scream was the same horrible sound she had heard when she had killed Michael inside the museum, and now she was hearing it once again. Ignoring Rica completely, Robin turned around and began to run, but Rica's jet of water caught the back of her head and sent her flying into the ground, smashing her pretty face into the cold ground and causing her own red blood to seep from her nose.

As Robin lifted her head up, she saw Michael appear in the edge of the hallway. He was running quickly, clutching his right arm, a large red stream of blood running from under his fingers. Then from behind him she saw a second man running. She recognized him as the man Amon and Karasuma had killed in the museum a few days ago, and she saw the sword as well.

"You cannot escape us, Campbell!" Kichiro growled in both voices.

"I can try." Michael shot back angrily, but he skidded to a halt as he saw Robin lying on the ground with her own blood smearing her face. Rica stood in amusement behind her and grinned.

"Kichiro, I wondered what happened to you ol' buddy!"

Kichiro looked up at Rica for a moment and then he tilted his head. "We know not who this Kichiro is. We is here for Campbell."

Rica quirked his eyebrow over the empty socket. "Kichiro, what the hell are you playing at?"

Kichiro growled, once again in the twin voices, as his eyes blacker than black looked at David Rica, who had no eyes at all. The two villains faced one another in the cold night of black air and neon lights.

"Campbell, now we shall -- Campbell?" Kichiro had suddenly noticed that Michael was no longer before him, and a second later Rica realized that Robin was missing too. He quickly turned his head towards Kichiro.

"You let my puppies escape!" He growled.

"We care not for dogs. You have delayed our revenge on Campbell. You die."

Kichiro ran towards Rica, but he raised his arm and held the long silver revolver in his hand. With a smirking smile he pulled the trigger and fired the bullets into Kichiro's face, breaking the skin and causing the mammoth of a man to fall backwards onto the ground. The body had already been drained of blood at the morgue, and so none ran out.

"Too bad." Rica laughed.

And then the body stood up.

Kichiro drew himself back up to his full, rather intimidating stature, his eyes still glowing blacker than black, despite the fact his face was cut into ribbons by the bullets that Rica had shot into it. He picked up that old black sword and he growled something awful in his salty voice.

"You annoy me, little man." Kichiro sneered.

"Oh, hell no!" Rica snapped. "I am the only zombie in this town, buddy!"

A jet of water came flying and smashed into Kichiro's chest, sending him flying backwards once again, but Kichiro threw his sword forward and it went straight into Rica's chest, knocking him backwards and impaling the sword tip into the wall behind him, which acted like a nail, keeping Rica in the wall.

--

While Rica and Kichiro had been growling at one another, Michael had grabbed his lover by the back and helped her up. The two of them took a chance and quickly ran into the open door crack of Sakaki's apartment. Once inside the doorway, Michael leaned against the wall, his eyes closed and his mouth making a small whimpering sound. The bleeding on his arm wasn't stopping.

"Michael, what --?"

"I don't know." He shook his head before she had even finished her question. "Robin we have to get" -- Michael paused as a wave of pain rolled over his body and he held back the desire to vomit -- "out of here."

"Michael? Is that you?"

Sakaki's voice had suddenly come from the next room, and both Robin and Michael quickly turned their heads. Michael tried to stand up, but Robin pushed him back down and commanded him to stay against the wall. She, however, hurried and ran into the bedroom, where she found Sakaki and Doujima both sitting on the ground, tied up with ropes.

"Thank God." Doujima breathed quietly, who had her eyes closed and leaning on Sakaki's shoulder. Robin narrowed her eyes and a flash of quick, small flames burnt the ropes off them quickly. The two of them, who were still only dressed in their night clothes (something Robin noticed and blushed at) quickly reached down and picked up their STN-J coats.

The three of them then ran to the door, where Michael was still leaning against the wall. He looked up at Sakaki and Doujima, who, once again, wore only boxers and a nightgown under the coats, and he smirked between the pain.

"Have you noticed that every time you two have sex someone tries to kill us?"

Sakaki rolled his eyes, and Robin blushed again, as she was not well vesrsed in topics of this nature. A second later, however, Michael growled in pain as he stood up, still clutching the deep cut on his arm. Robin took a step forward, but Michael waved her away as he stood, bleeding onto the carpet.

"What happened to you?" Sakaki asked. "Rica?"

"No, you're dad." Michael corrected him, and Sakaki's eyes widened in surprise. Then there was a loud noise, and the door of the apartment came crashing inside as Rica came flying through it. The four Witch Hunters all took a step backwards, as the witch on the ground growled and stood. Kichiro could now be seen outside, holding the sword.

"Damn it Kichiro, I'm really regretting training you." Rica sneered as he stood, ignoring the four teens around him and running towards Kichiro. The rhino-shaped witch only laughing in the salty, double laugh and swung the sword.

Robin gasped. Sakaki said nothing but made a odd choking noise. Doujima and Michael both closed their eyes.

The sword had sailed neatly through Rica's neck, severing his head and sending it flying through the air like a football, where it landed on the carpet around in front of the four teens. The body of the New Orleans man fell to the ground, apparently lifeless. Doujima looked as if she was going to throw up, and a second later she turned around and ran towards the corner, where she, in fact, did. Robin closed her eyes, and Michael turned away. Sakaki was doing nothing but staring at his father, who was now looking at the four of them.

"Campbell!" Kichiro growled and ran forward, but Robin was faster. Her eyes flashed open in a split second and flames engulfed Kichiro's body, consuming his dead skin and making him howl. Perhaps he was screaming from pain, or perhaps it was just from surprise. Either way he did stumbled backwards, collided into the railing, and tumble off the edge of the apartment building.

"We should go, now." Michael managed to say between the spasms of pain from his arm. Robin shot a look at him of both pity and fear, but as the word 'Campbell' floated up from the darkness of the night and they realized that Kichiro was, indeed, still out there, they all quickly made their way out the door and past the lifeless body of David Rica.

The echoing footsteps of the four STN-J operatives were heard over the many opening and closing of doors of curious people who wanted to know what all the commotion was about. None of the four really cared if people saw them running, blood still spattering the ground behind them from Michael's wound.

The four of them made good time down the many flights of stairs and ran as fast as their feet would take them to the black car that Michael had driven here in. Michael reached a pale hand into his shorts pocket and pulled out the silvery keys, tossing them to Sakaki, who unlocked the driver's seat door and climbed inside. Doujima quickly made her way to the passenger seat, while Robin and Michael shot into the back, Robin sitting behind Sakaki, and Michael lying across the seats, his head in her lap.

Doujima looked back at the two of them and she had a small, worried expression across her pale face.

"Michael, what happened to your arm?" Robin asked sadly.

"I think he cut a artery. That's the only explanation as to why it's bleeding so much." He growled out as another wave of nausea and pain exploded inside him, and Robin quickly grabbed his shirts sleeve and tore it off him, revealing a long, deep gash on his arm.

"You have to stop the bleeding." Sakaki called back to them as they drove along the quiet city streets, the sound of sirens echoing in the distance as police and firefighters headed towards the apartment complex. "Robin, singe his skin, it'll skive off the blood flow."

Robin glared up at Sakaki as if he was crazy, but of course he didn't know. She hadn't told anyone about what happened in that museum. She could hardly stand to use her craft around Michael, but to turn it on him again, even if only for a brief second, was too scary of a thought for her.

Robin's eyes caught Michael's and they spoke without words. She knew she have to burn him to stop the bleeding, or he would die, and yet she also remembered all to well how she had watched him die from the flames only days ago. Wishing she could close her eyes, Robin sighed and made tiny flames dance on Michael's cut.

Michael screamed in pain, and then passed out.

----

The dark black car that belonged to Amon, the dark leader of the STN-J's Witch Hunting operations, stop in the woods across the street from the secluded building known only as 'Factory.' Amon sat in the driver's seat, his dark, unforgiving eyes scanning the tall walls of Zaizen's stronghold, and beside him Karasuma stirred.

"I thought you weren't going after Zaizen." Karasuma whispered, not looking at the man beside her.

"I'm not." Amon's emotionless voice spoke as he cocked the gun and emptied himself out of the car from the door at his side. Karasuma sighed and shook her head, realizing that whatever idea he had for revenge against Takuma Zaizen, it would not work today.

The dark hunted, much to her surprise, did not go towards the factory, but instead he walked towards deeper into the woods. Karasuma quirked a brow, curious as to just what it was he had cooked up, and she exited the car and began to follow him.

Amon was ahead of her, walking briskly through the woods, but slowing down every now and then in front of a few trees. She didn't know what it was he was hoping to accomplish by doing things like this, but just in case she mimicked his actions down to the letter, and finally when he stopped next to a large rock, she did the same.

"Amon what --"

"Shh!" Amon commanded. He reached out with his gun and tapped the rock three time, then paused and tapped it twice more. Karasuma listened to the sound of the rock being tapped and realized it was hallow. Was this some Factory hideout? She did not know. A moment later the rock lifted up, and a hand came lifting it up, revealing a passageway beneath the dirt.

"Who's she?" A man's voice hissed from the darkness.

"Miho Karasuma. She's with me." Amon called back in a voice that was like a ice cube made of snake's venom.

There was a moment pause, in which Karasuma's training told her she was being watched, and then the man inside the tunnel laughed and let his arm slip away from the rock. Amon caught it before it fell down and he quickly made his way down the dark hole, Karasuma sighed and followed slowly, trying to ignore just how insane this idea seemed to be to her inside her mind.

Slowly she followed Amon down the tunnel into what looked like a sewer system, and she watched as the man in the shadows walked quietly before him. She did not know who these people were, but she wondered instantly if they worked for the Factory, and if they did not, how they could be based so close to it and remain secret from Zaizen's all knowing eyes.

"Is he here?" Amon asked the man leading them.

"Yeah. But he ain't too happy with you."

Amon fell silent and did not speak again for a long time. The sewers (they were sewers) were cold and Karasuma did not like being here. She had been quite confused as to exactly what it was at first, but she could only guess this was some organization. Obviously not as well organized as the STN-J or the Factory, but still a useful place. Or a place where she could die for being a outsider. She didn't know.

"Amon, you made it. Only took you four years."

Karasuma heard a voice speak and he heart suddenly stopped while her mind filled with memories, some good, some bad. The voice was much more hoarse and raspy then she remembered, and the man speaking it was not the handsome, well dressed young man she remembered from her rookie days, but she recognized him right away as Josh Osaka, the former head of the STN-J, and the man who had trained both Amon and Karasuma.

Josh moved his eyes to Karasuma, and he seemed to recognize her. He smirked at the blush in her cheeks and he grinned. "Still partnered with this old guy, eh Miho?"

It was Josh. And yet it could not be. She could not truly believe that this man before her was Josh Osaka, the older brother she had always dreamed of back when she first joined the STN-J. Josh had been so good-looking, and always a pleasure to be around, while this man had a look about him that was so dark and grim it made Amon pale in comparison.

Besides, Josh Osaka had been killed by a witch four years ago.

"Why'd you change your mind, Amon?" Josh asked. "Why now?"

"Zaizen killed Touko." Amon replied coolly. Josh's face didn't change it's expression, but he did shrug and turn around with a tiny, grim laugh.

"Yeah, I know. Sick, ain't it? When a father kills his own daughter. Then again what do you expect from that bastard, eh?"

Amon didn't answer, but at last Karasuma found her voice, which had vanished the second her eyes had fallen onto Josh, and she spoke in a scratchy and soft voice that did not suit her at all.

"Josh?"

Josh turned around and looked at her. His face was different. He had a tiny scar on his forehead and her eyes wandered to it and stared. It was like a small circle, almost like punctured paper after something had gone through it. Josh seemed to catch her stare and began to speak.

"Zaizen shot me four years ago because I was against changing our hunting tactics to accommodate Orbo usage. You see, I found out the truth."

Karasuma blinked. "The truth?"

Josh smiled a grim smile that would have looked proper on Charles Manson, but not on her beloved Josh from those memories. Not on Josh whom she had always felt safe around. Not the Josh who had been the closest she ever had to a mentor, to a brother. Not on her Josh.

"Orbo is made from people." Josh laughed and with that he turned around and vanished into the darkness of the sewers, leaving Karasuma and Amon both thunderstruck with this revelation. She did not know how Amon knew about this place, or how Josh had survived, or what this place even was, but she did know that at that moment both of them were given new information that made their blood go cold and their eyes go wide.

----

Kenny Avery stepped across the balcony of the apartment complex. Burn marks covered the ground, and pools of both water and blood seemed common as well. The police were here, but they were still downstairs where a screaming Kichiro Wantanbee was making a scene. Kenny's eyes scanned the ground for a second, and he quickly spotted the headless body of Rica.

"What the hell happened?" He breathed.

"Kenny, be a good puppy and help me out."

Kenny heard Rica's voice and slowly he walked towards Sakaki's apartment, terrified of what he'd find. And when he found it, he did indeed screamed and jump backwards, as it was the most disturbing thing he'd ever seen.

David Rica's head was lying on the welcome mat of Sakaki's apartment, a pool of blood beneath his severed neck, but his brows above the empty sockets quirked and his lips speaking words. "Kenny, just set me back on my shoulders and I can heal myself."

Kenny went pale. "You gotta be kidding! You're alive? You had your fucking head cut off and you're alive!?"

Rica would have rolled his eyes, if he had any. Instead he gave a bored yawn and once again, slowly, repeated his instructions to the blonde. Kenny obviously didn't want to obey, but he was so terrified that he did so. Grabbing Rica by his ears, Kenny carried the head over to the body and jammed his severed head onto the bloody neck stump. A second later the skin began to grow and merge into once another, and Kenny jumped back as Rica rose to his feet, his head re-attached, and once again very much alive.

"I really hate Kichiro." Rica growled. "C'mon, we have to go find those puppies because he does."

----

Michael's eyes, as blue as the morning sky, opened slowly and he saw a bright light above his head. The pain in his arm was gone, and the first thing that crossed his mind was that this was heaven, and he was, in fact, dead. Then it slowly dawned on him that the light was nothing more than a low, hanging ceiling light, and he was not in heaven, but in a crappy little room that was barren except for the small bed he was lying on, a table and chair in the corner, and a few old posters of bands that had gone out of styles years ago.

"Wha--"

He suddenly felt a hand on his left side, and he turned to see Robin push him back down into the bed. She had a tired smile on her face, and she was looking at him with those pond green eyes so full of love. Michael smiled a bit and allowed himself to land back in the bed.

"We didn't know where else to bring you, Michael, so we decided on your old apartment. Doujima knew the way." Robin explained, and Michael nodded a bit as the memories of the previous events played back in his mind. He was confused but he no longer cared. He only cared about the beautiful blonde who was sitting so close to him on the bed, sighing happily.

"Your arm stopped bleeding. We asked a doctor, he said you'd be fine. He wanted to keep you at the hospital, but we didn't think it would be smart. Kichiro will look there first, and we don't need him finding us yet."

Even as Robin spoke, Michael could pick up the worry in her voice that she tried to disguise and he knew that she had been horribly upset, and probably crying for a long time. He hadn't seen Robin cry very much since he knew her, but lately she had done more and more of it. It made him worry. She needed a break from this world of pain and horrors that she was unfortunate enough to live in.

"Hey Robin, I've got a crazy idea." Michael suddenly said bubbly for no real reason. Robin sighed.

"Michael, the doctor gave you quite a bit of morphine for the pain. Maybe you should sleep it off."

It was Michael's turn to sigh. Yes, he could feel the buzz of morphine inside him, and perhaps the idea he had gotten in his mind was only because he was currently high as a airplane, but he didn't care. Perhaps it was because he was high, but he thought this idea was a great one no matter what his current mental condition.

"Robin, after this is all over and the crazy sword-guy is dead, you want to get married and move away from here?"

Robin made a small choking noise and she stumbled a bit in her step, her face now looking as if she had bright sun-burns on her cheeks. She turned to Michael and, despite the fact she knew it was the pain killers talking, she could feel her heart pounding inside her chest. She looked down at Michael and managed a small smile.

"Michael, you know we can't do that."

"Why?" Michael asked as he took off his glasses and began to play with them absently while staring up at the blonde with his dreamy face. "Why not?"

Robin sighed. She didn't like talking about this. It was making her begin to wish this wasn't just morphine making him say these things. Of course they could not marry, for they were much too young, and even if they did they could not move away because she was a Witch Hunter, and therefore bound to spend the rest of her life working for SOLOMON, or risk becoming a witch, and he could not leave because of Zaizen's law.

"Because we can't Michael. Now you need your rest."

Michael was pouting childishly. "C'mon, marry me and we'll move to England. My aunt has a place by the beach we can use. It'll be fun."

Robin felt tears welling up in her eyes, wishing that her life could really be that simple. She wished she could run off with Michael and live by the beach in England, without having to fight and kill witches, zombies and everything else that went bump in the night. Yet she knew those things would never come true, and instead she turned to Michael and gave him a feeble smile, deciding it was best not to argue with her.

"Sure Michael. Let's go to England. Now rest."

Robin sighed and quickly walked out the door before her incredibly high boyfriend could speak again. She was no longer happy, because she had suddenly realized that she did want to marry Michael, and that if she could she would have meant the yes she'd given him. It was only then she realized that he life was to be void of marriage and love and children and all the things she had never thought about before that moment.

And she began to cry.

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