TATTOO YOUR SOUL

"Amon…"

Her tears and sobs swallowed the words as Kathain struggled. She writhed and twisted in the hold of the soldiers of Solomon. The metal handcuffs that had been clapped on her wrists burnt as her arms moved against them, and eventually cut into her flesh with an awful, oozing feeling.

But they would not stop. They just kept hitting him, beating him to near death.

"Stop!"

xxxx

Sirens screamed out in the night as the police car followed closely, somehow staying on Sakaki's tail. Haruto was good as per driving, but these cops were just as good, managing to just barely keep pace. Together, they rocketed down the narrow streets and alleyways of Rome, darting this way and that. Nycole leaned close, holding tighter to Sakaki as drove harder and faster.

"Can't shake 'em."

Nycole flashed with anger. "They shot out your taillight!"

It was as if ruining a perfect motorcycle was enough to enflame the telepath. She turned, looking over her shoulder and throwing a hand towards the car. The police car slammed to a stop, and the cops poured out, looking about this way and that.

Sakaki laughed. "What did you do?"

"Made them realize that they needed to hunt for a contact lens right there. "

"Where are we going?" Haruto inquired as he kept driving.

Nycole reached out with her mind, hunting down one mind in particular. The millions of residents of the aging city and its suburbs twinkled and glittering in the ether, each light heralding a different life and memories. It took her a moment.

But she didn't find Robin at first.

xxxx

Kathain!

She was there, in Rome, with Amon. They were being held, physically, by soldiers of Solomon, clad in green uniforms and wearing Orbo necklaces. The soldiers beat Amon viscously, all the while Kathain cried in terror and sadness. She hurt for Amon and the terrible things the soldiers did to the former hunter.

"Kathain…"

The precognitive started. "No…"

"Let them kill me," Amon sounded so serious and resigned to this lot, accepting his fate.

Kathain stopped, her blood freezing in her veins. "Amon… no… don't say that."

But Amon would not listen.

xxxx

"Nycole!"

Sakaki had to reach and grab the empath before she tumbled off the motorcycle. The former hunter struggled to keep control of the bike and hold Nycole at the same time as he stopped. The motorcycle purred at the street corner.

"Nycole…" he gave her a gentle shake.

The empath blinked, returning to reality and the man who held her. "I found her."

"Robin?"

Nycole shook her head. "Kathain. She's here." Sakaki nodded slowly, but the girl trembled. "No, you don't understand. She's so very sad. So sad." Nycole swallowed. "She's watching them kill Amon."

"Find Robin. She knows where Kathain is."

xxxx

"NO!"

Kathain poured the shout out from her heart. She could not allow this to happen. The precognitive had seen it, yes, but that did not mean she had to live it again. She wouldn't. No, the girl would not, could not allow this to happen to Amon.

"Kathain, listen to me."

"No," she growled, trying to ignore the all too familiar, sickeningly sticky sensation of blood trailing down her wrists from the places were the cuffs had cut and dug into her skin. "I won't listen to you."

He coughed, a hacking, liquid cough. A splatter of blood slapped onto the floor with a disgusting smacking noise. Her heart leapt, seeing the all too familiar signs of her vision coming true. But, this was not her vision. She had already changed it by speaking out. Amon didn't have to die. Kathain could stop this; she only needed alter the right elements to change the outcome.

"Amon…."

"Kathain…." He sounded sterner, despite the fact that Amon didn't even have the strength to hold himself up. His voice cracked like a whip from where the soldiers held his slumping body. "Listen."

"I refuse," the girl snarled.

The soldiers stopped, looking at Kathain with fear in their eyes.

"I won't let you do this to him." Determination rang in her voice. "I would rather die than to allow this to happen again."

"What are you saying?" a soldier inquired, as if voicing Amon's argument.

Still, the girl sighed. "I propose a deal."

Amon shook. He couldn't stop her, but Amon couldn't just all her to do this. The former hunter was too weak to argue for himself, but he could not allow Kathain to do this, to just give herself up. He wanted to cry out, but the conviction written on her face kept the hunter from arguing.

"His life… for mine."

xxxx

The Vatican loomed before the band of witches. It seemed so dark and foreboding in the night, the very opposite of the warm and welcoming pilgrimage site the brochures and travel books always spoke of. The basilica towered over them as the group just stood there in the grand piazza. The others seemed so lost before it, but Robin felt at hone in front of the menacing looking church.

"That's it?" Raven teased. "That's not so bad."

Kristo tore open a hole into the abyss and took them with him, into the shadows. Geoff never personally liked that, being taken into the void and nothingness that was Kristo's realm of power. It was unsettling to be hurled into a land of inky black and nothing else. Nycole welcomed it, being in a realm where the thoughts and emotions of others were smothered by the dark and shadows. Together, they drifted, guided by Kristo through the dark and into Saint Peter's basilica, into reality again.

Robin led the way, up to the baldacchino in the very center of the cruciform design of the basilica. It was a tall standing structure, like a massive arbor in the middle of the expanse of the cathedral. Thousands of carvings curled up the dark legs, reaching for the heavens. They were the Solomonic columns, or so they were called, marked by the seals of the ancient king.

Robin dropped to one knee, praying before the baldacchino.

"What are you doing?" Brett scratched his head.

Nycole nudged him sharply in the ribcage. "She's praying for forgiveness. Only the Pope is supposed to set foot on that." Brett raised an eyebrow. "God, don't you remember Art History II? It's a terrible sin to set foot on it when you're not the Pope."

Robin crossed herself and rose, stepping lighting into the baldacchino. The others followed, moving silently, cautiously into the baldacchino, standing before the altar. Robin knelt before the massive, stone piece, whispering another prayer for the sins she committed by daring to trespass into the sacred space, and below. Then, the Craft user reached at the altar, seemingly poking at nothing. Nycole furrowed her eyebrows, but the altar began to move, sinking away and revealing a staircase.

"Well, thank you, Nancy Drew," the empath sarcastically joked.

Robin turned. "Who's Nancy Drew?"

"Nothing."

Robin shrugged and gestured to the staircase. "We go down from here."

Slowly, hesitantly, they started down the staircase, down, into the dark; Brett lit a flame in his hand and jumped at a decaying corpse behind clear lexan. "What the hell is that?"

"It's true," Nycole breathed. "St. Peter."

Robin nodded rather nonchalantly. "It's always been true. We need to keep moving."

Kristo drew his katana and tonto, while the others took up their remaining pistols.

"Be ready… for anything."

xxxx

Alone. Tired. Cold. Alone.

They had taken her from him, taken Kathain. Who knew where to? Amon didn't. He barely knew where he was at that rate. He barely knew who she was anymore in the grand scheme of things. He couldn't tell just how badly Kathain had turned sides, in order to spare his life.

"Kathain…."

She left him; the precognitive abandoned him.

No. Kathain had no other choice. She had to do it. Her heart would not allow the girl to sit back and watch as Solomon inflicted more and more torture upon the man.

A white flame burned in his mind.

And, slowly, the flame escaped, trailing down the tile floor.

Amon felt a grin spread across his face.

This would be done soon.

xxxx

Mmm…. Getting closer.