TATTOO YOUR SOUL

They ran. They flew down the halls together, two black ravens. Hugin and Mugin. No longer burdened by the dead weight of the fallen Amon.

Brett and Robin could move freely once again, swiftly. Robin left, her steps light and fox-like, as Brett followed behind, a stalking wolf, practically snarling and baring his teeth at what Solomon had done to Kathain, to all of them. The corridors were long and twisting, a grand labyrinth in the dark and shadow, yet the younger fire starter seemed to know exactly where to run. Brett just kept pace, running a few inches off her heels.

The tonto felt sickening in Robin's hand, sending tingles up and down the girl's arm. She couldn't do it. She couldn't kill someone, especially not in such a brutal manner. Even if attacked, Robin couldn't guarantee she could actually go through with it. The only time the Craft user ever killed a person directly, had to watch it happen, the murder had been an accident, spurned by the sudden, uncontrolled, tremendous power of the Arcanum within the teenage witch. This weapon, this would spill blood directly upon her. The scarlet would stain her own, pale skin, and Robin would have to be up close to see the face of her victim if it happened. She knew the face would haunt her forever.

Fortunately, when they first came across a guard, she didn't have to.

Brett pushed her aside and rushed the guard, growling fiercely as he leapt. Robin gasped, watching the fire elemental unleash all of the fury of hell upon the man, stabbing the soldier again and again, splashing blood all over the place. Under the red lights, it looked black as ink. When the soldier stopped twitching and moving, the fire elemental stood over him, squeezing the hilt of the wakazashi in a death-grip, wet with sweat and blood. He breathed heavy, staring down at the corpse before him, the man he had murdered.

The only people Robin had ever seen do such terrible things were the witches she had hunted. Robin had never witnessed a murder. Not ever. She gripping the tonto tighter, worried that, in his rage, Brett would turn on her, unleash the beast within. Robin readied her flame, her inner fire, just in case, feeling the tongues of fire lashed up behind her emerald eyes.

"Brett?"

The fire elemental turned slowly, revealing his own, grotesquely blood splattered face. Tiny flames flickered behind Brett's suddenly yellow eyes. There seemed a delirious, devilish glee to him.

Brett cocked his head to one side. "Yes?"

A guard rushed behind him. Robin's eyes went wide. She couldn't say anything or form the words, but the girl didn't have to. Brett knew. He had heard to soft sounds of the soldier behind him. He whirled around, steel gleaming under the disgusting, red light.

Brett inhaled, killed, exhaled.

"More are coming." He sounded excited, as if savoring the very taste of the words upon his lips, his eyes shifting again from yellow to deep, rich red. A growled rumbled down in his throat behind every syllable. "Now…"

Even as the fire elemental turned, with a flourish, they came. It was a group closing in on them. Brett immediately lunged forward, into them, a whirling dervish, his coat billowing up and flowing around him. With his right hand, Brett struck out with the wakazashi. With his left hand, the fire elemental drew up his ancient fire, sending it out and into the world around him, to the soldiers who dared attack.

Robin had no other choice. Her eyes narrowed as the Craft user sparked her own flame, lashing out. However, as Brett moved to spill blood and kill, Robin used the power of the Arcanum to knock the guards back and away from her.

She glanced up to her partner, just in time to see him surrounded. "BRETT!"

His eyes went wide. There were too many guards, too many for him to take on all at once. Robin threw her fire out upon them, burning at their uniforms and armor, at the very Orbo upon their chest. The vials of green liquid burst, exploding out with glowing splashes and bubbling ooze. Robin ignored the spilling Orbo upon the floor, concentrating only on the man she ran towards as the soldiers fell, like parting the sea.

Brett seemed to slip and fall, stepping back and away as one of the guards brought a pistol up, aiming to his head. Robin, however, didn't stop. She kept right on moving, past Brett, her hands shooting out towards the soldier who threatened her friend. The pistol's aim turned upon Robin. The soldier's mouth fell open in a silent scream as he froze.

There was silence except for the heavy breathing of the three.

"Oh, God…"

Something warm, terribly hot and thick, spilt upon her hands, trailing over Robin's skin, but she didn't have the heart to look down. Brett reached out to her, his hands curling over hers,

"No…" Robin's voice was faint and frail, shaking as much as her body.

Brett took hold of the tonto. "It's alright, Robin."

The fire elemental jerked the blade back in a quick motion, ripping the blade from the flesh Robin had buried it in. Another spurt of blood came out with it, falling on the girl's pale skin, turning her stomach. The soldier fell to the floor, but neither seemed to care or notice. Robin remained locked in shock, while Brett just didn't seem phased by the death at all. The tonto dripped upon the floor. Brett just took the blade and wiped away the blood before handing it back to Robin's unsure hands.

"I… I just killed a man," the girl whispered.

Brett nodded. "Yes. And more will have to die in time."

"I… I've committed a mortal sin." Robin grieved for the soldier she'd just killed. "I've killed him… I've killed him…"

Brett grabbed her wrist sharply. "Listen to me." He pointed down at the man Robin had sent to an early grave. "That man. He would have killed me and you if you didn't kill him first." Robin shook her head, but Brett just laughed. "Robin, he made the choice to be with Solomon, knowing that all witches would be after him. He made the decision, not you, not me, not anyone."

"I feel sorry…" Robin started, but the young man cut her off abruptly.

Brett flared with anger and annoyance. "Don't you feel sorry for him, don't you dare." Robin gave a nod of her head, strengthening her own fortitude. "Good."

"We need to keep moving. We're not far, now," the girl just stated flatly.

"Alright."

xxxx

"They should be back by now."

Raven paced uneasily, just outside the border of the Vatican. He felt caged, despite how free they were, sitting out there in the dark of the night. The runemal didn't like this, didn't like waiting for Brett and Robin, not knowing what was happening, what was going on.

Raven sighed. "We should go get them."

"No," Kristo spoke from his place, seated in the shadows along a building corner. "They haven't tried to contact us. We stay where we are until we get the signal from Nycole."

The empathy knelt over Amon, her hand over his heart, reaching into his mind and soul, trying to south him. But, at this point, for all her attempts, Nycole couldn't find him. Amon had retreated deep within himself, deep into the darkest corners of his mind. It was a reflex reaction. Most people after such abuse, witch or not, did that. That simple action of retreat and burrowing in, digging into one's own mind was almost expected by the empathy, anticipated.

"Amon…."

"Where are you, Kathain?"

Nycole could hear him, within his own mind, talking to someone. The telepath smiled, holding him, trying to comfort Amon.

"She'll be alright, Amon. You rest."

"Kathain…."

But, the telepathy couldn't even convince herself that was true.

xxxx

Robin strode now, defiant and tall.

Brett watched curiously, following behind her as the Craft user let loose everything within her. Blue flames poured from off of Robin as she walked. These flames burnt a cold fire, like ice, licking at Brett but not burning him. No, they seemed reserved for the structure itself, eating away at the walls and the corridors beneath St. Peters. The fire elemental wondered how much of a sin it was to burn the seat of the Roman Catholic Church and the body of St. Peter himself.

She threw out an arm at a door, sending the metal thing exploding inward from the frame, slamming back and away with her Craft. This was a woman transformed. She hated herself, deeply, darkly. These people, Solomon, had done horrific things to Amon and, now, as icing on the cake, they turned her, Robin, into a murdered.

Enraged, Robin screamed out, burning down another bulkhead.

"Keep control, Robin" the fire elemental ordered under his breath, muttering the words.

Still, the man couldn't argue with results. Somehow, in all the twists and turns Robin took him down, she led him straight to the records. They were in a large, grand room, a third of the room filled with rows of computers and desks. The other two thirds of the record hall had been occupied by hundreds of filing cabinets and shelves of books. It, however, was not unoccupied. A few desk clerks, still there into the wee hours of the morning, jumped, screaming.

Brett drew the wakazashi fiercely, grabbing one of the desk jockeys, placing the tip of the blade at the stranger's throat. "Personnel sent me."

Robin glared harshly; if looks could kill, the girl would have been a serial killer.

The strangers babbled in Italian, the words blurring together in a string of confusing, unusual syllables. Brett just sighed audibly, already tired of the language and the fact that he didn't speak it.

"Doesn't anyone speak English in this fucking city?"

Robin strolled casually past a desk, trailing her fingers along the edge and igniting a path of blue fire on the end of the furniture, obviously threatening them. She spoke in Italian, the words flowing like a gurgling, bubbling stream. Lovely, liquid syllables fell from her lips, like music. One of the office clerks piped up, answering in the same language. Robin nodded slowly as the shaking man gave his replies. She interrogated him for a moment in half Italian, half Latin, annoying Brett.

It took a moment, but Robin smiled in the elemental's direction. "He says what we're looking for is on the network database."

Brett nodded, pulling the rolling chair of his new hostage towards a computer console. "Tell him to get on it."

xxxx

They left together, fighting side by side.

Robin never felt anything so pure, so real in her entire life. Nothing had ever felt so true and right. There was no anger, no sorrow, no emotion to any of the men she fell and those there was the chance Robin slew. The Craft user had transformed, emerging a warrior from the ashes of her life as a witch. Her heart beat in time with every smooth, slickly elegant swing of the tonto in her right hand and the flames of her soul. Her actions followed Brett as he fought with the longer wakazashi. Blood fell upon the walls and floor, shed by the victims, but Robin felt absolutely nothing about it. Brett glanced to the Craft user at one point; Robin merely smiled. There was no pride, no happiness at these acts. Her smile came only at the thought of how very close they were.

They continued down the halls and corridors, moving this way and that, knocking out and killing the soldiers who got in their way. Both witches left paths of flames running down each and every hall. He blue fire of Robin's Arcanum and the white of Brett intermingled, twining together and twisting into long loops of liquid fire.

This was pure Craft, at its very finest. Their actions, their energy, it was fed only by their souls and minds, not their emotions and anger. No, it held no emotion, no signature of feeling. Both fires were perfectly in control, despite their size. They moved and swayed under the command of both witches. Each breath grew the flames taller, hotter. Ages of wisdom, passed down through the blood of the witches, through each and every bloodline, fueled the fire.

And, soon, they were backing up the stairs, and into the night.

They had what they needed. St. Peters was of no consequence anymore. Robin watched it burn, as the flames shot up, reaching for the heavens, like Lucifer reaching for the grace and glory of God to be returning. The Vatican crumbled, taking with it hundreds of years of artwork and majesty.

Somehow, Robin didn't feel too bad about that anymore.

xxxx

Ok, so I lied. I got a chapter out. I couldn't resist.