Smoke and Mirrors
Chapter 1 - Dollet Dealings
The woman noticed two things when she woke up. One, she had a splitting headache. And Two, she was bound to a chair and gagged.
She blinked her eyes and looked around, trying to figure out where she was, trying to make scenes of what was happening, trying to remember what had happened through the haze that clouded her mind. She remembered going to the convenience store to buy food for tonight's dinner. She was at the register, taking her billfold out of her purse to pay for it, and then…
"This is all your fault you know!"
"Would you give it a rest already? It's not my fault!"
She heard two voices to her left, and turned her head slowly, trying not to aggravate the pain that filled her skull, to see two men. One was a medium height man with short dark hair; the other was taller, with shoulder length blonde hair. She remembered now, she was about to pay the cashier when she heard a shout and turned around to see what was happening when a gun was pointed in her face. The tall blonde haired man aimed his gun at her, telling her to put her hands up, while the short dark haired man aimed his at the clerk, demanding the money from the cash register.
The clerk was calm during the whole ordeal, looking as though he'd been robbed at gunpoint before, and deliberately took his time at empting the cash register while hitting the silent alarm button under the counter. The woman was silent the whole time, fear gripping her as she stared down the barrel of the handgun. After what seemed like an eternity the clerk bagged all of the money from the register and handed it to the short dark haired man, just as the police sirens could be heard coming down the street toward the store. The dark haired man cursed, and the next thing the woman knew was a sharp pain in the back of her head, and then nothingness…
The fear came back to her as she looked around, taking in her surroundings as she struggled against the rough ropes that held her hands together behind the chair. She was taken hostage she concluded, and they were in what appeared to be an abandoned warehouse. She pulled against the ropes as silently as she could, trying to use the two robber's argument as a distraction.
"This is your fault!" the blonde haired man whined and started mocking the dark haired man's voice. "'Come on man, this'll be an easy hit! The town is in all sorts of chaos from that SeeD thing yesterday at that tower. They'll never know what hit them!' Good plan man, real good plan. Did you plan on taking a woman hostage and running from the cops too?"
"I said SHUT UP!" the dark haired man snapped and started pacing. "We just need to come up with a new plan, that's all. The cops didn't see us run out the back, they don't know where we are yet. We just have to keep cool and get the hell out of here as fast as possible."
The woman looked on at them, making sure they didn't turn around and notice as she tried to flex her fingers enough to untie the ropes. She looked up at the light shinning through one of the windows on the top floor and noticed just how old and dusty the place was for the first time. It was quite dusty in fact, it filled her nose as she breathed and a tingling sensation started inside one of her nostrils. She closed her eyes, trying to fight back what she knew was about to happen, but there was just too much dust in the air.
Both men turned around quickly as they heard the sneeze. She looked up at them, eyes going wide with fear as they made their way over too her. She had a few ideas on how this situation would end, and none of them were good.
"Looks like our guest decided to wake up." The blonde man said as he turned to his partner. "What are we going to do with her?"
The dark haired man crossed his arms. "Take her with us of course. She's our ticket out of here. The cops won't do anything stupid if we have her with us."
"But…what do we do with her after that?" the blonde man asked as he looked back at the woman.
The woman drew back as far as she could as the dark haired man approached her, noticing the dangerous grin on his face as he got closer. "Oh, I may have a few ideas…"
"What are you talking about?" asked the blonde man.
The dark haired man looked down at the woman and traced the side of her face lightly with his finger as the woman flinched back. "She's such a pretty little thing. It'd be a shame to just let her go without having some fun with her…"
The blonde's eyes widened. "No way man! We're in enough shit as it is!"
The dark haired man looked back at his partner. "What are you worrying about man? Nothing wrong with having a little fun, is there?" The man looked back at the woman, drawing his face closer to her's as she turned her head away from his, tears starting to trail down her face.
"Oh, don't cry my dear." The dark haired man spoke softly into her ear. "We'll be real gentle. Who knows? You might even like it?"
"If I were you, I'd follow your friend's advice."
Both men spun around with guns drawn in the direction the voice came from.
"Who's there?" the dark haired man shouted.
In the darkness between two stacks of crates they saw a lighter flash to life and slowly lift up to light a cigarette. The light gave little away though, and all the two men could tell about the new mystery guest was that they had long hair. The lighter was extinguished, and all that was left visible in the darkness was the burning end of the cigarette as the mystery man took a drag off of it, blowing the smoke out from the darkness and into the light. He spoke again, in a smooth voice.
"You're already in enough trouble as it is. No need to complicate things further by raping the woman."
The blonde hair man stepped back, his gun still pointed in the direction of the burning cigarette. "Wha-what the hell's going on? Who are you?"
The cigarette brightened again, and another puff of smoke blew out from the darkness.
"You two have caused quite the ruckus in Galbadia. Authorities from Deling and Timber are looking for you. And now Dollet has joined the hunt."
The dark haired man was taking a step back now, gun pointed toward the darkness and shaking a little. "Wha-what about it? What's it to you?"
Another drag, and another puff of smoke.
"But you two have done well in evading those authorities. Well enough that they were forced to post a reward for your capture."
"Re-reward?" the blonde man asked.
"Yes. Quite a large reward too. I could live easily off that much gil for months."
"You…you some kind of bounty hunter?" asked the dark haired man.
"You could say that."
The blonde man began to panic a little as the dark haired man narrowed his eyes and spoke. "So, you've come to collect the prize then, huh?"
"Indeed. I have."
"Then collect this bitch!" The dark haired man fired his gun and into the darkness where the voice was coming from. He stopped when he saw the cigarette fall, rolling across the ground and out into the light.
The dark haired man let the clip fall out onto the floor as he loaded another one into his gun. "Hah! Fucking dumbass. Some bounty hunter he was."
"Tsk tsk, didn't your parents teach you that guns are dangerous?"
Both men spun around again, the voice was coming from up above now.
"Wha-wha-what the hell?" the blonde man yelled, swinging his gun around in the air and trying to pinpoint the voice's location.
"I have to admit, at first I thought it best to not even bother with you two. You're rap sheets are less than impressive, especially when compared to the others that I've hunted. But as they say, gil is gil."
"What the hell are you blabbering about?" shouted the dark haired man.
"Robbery, assault, drug smuggling. Those crimes seem quite petty compared to the murderers, rapist, kidnappers, and terrorists I've come across. But you two must've rubbed some higher up the wrong way to warrant such a large reward."
"Shut the fuck up asshole!" the dark haired man shouted as he fired his gun in random directions in the air.
"My, testy aren't we? Tell me, do you kiss your mother with that mouth?"
The dark haired man was gritting his teeth out of frustration. "No! But I'll sure as hell do something to your mom with my mouth!"
The voice chuckled as the blonde man waved his gun around in random directions. It seemed the voice was coming from a different location each time it spoke.
"Such crudeness. You should watch that language of yours, there is a lady present."
The lady in question had forgotten her situation for the moment and joined the two robbers in their search for the mysterious man, turning and twisting her body as far as the ropes would allow her to search the rafters above.
The dark haired man had had enough and threw his arms out wide as he shouted. "Quit playing games damnit! If you claim to be such a badass then come out here and show yourself you coward!"
All was silent for a few moments. The dark haired man was fuming and breathing heavily. The blonde haired man was looking around in panic. And the woman just sat there looking up into the rafters, trying to make sense of what was happening. A few more moments of silence passed, and then came the mystery person's simple reply.
"As you wish…"
The woman would've gasped if it weren't for the gag in her mouth. Behind the two unsuspecting criminals she saw a dark figure slowly rising up. The figure stood to its full height and slowly raised it's head, and what the woman saw next made her involuntarily let out a muffled cry of fear.
She could've sworn, just for a split second, that the figure's eyes glowed red.
The dark haired man saw the look of surprise on the woman's face and instinctively turned around, only to be met with a fist square in the face that launched him into the air and across the floor. The blonde haired man spun around with his gun held out and felt a gloved hand clasp his wrist tightly, forcing him to aim the gun up into the air. The man's strength was immense, and the blonde haired man screamed out in pain as the mysterious man tightened his grip so much that the bones in his wrist snapped, making him drop the gun. The blonde man looked up into the other man's eyes, his own eyes wide in confusion and fear, and saw two very cold blue-green eyes starting back at him. The man looked back at him with a look of disinterest as it effortlessly lifted him into the air by his now broken wrist, and let out a low growl as he flung the blonde man with such force that the blonde felt his shoulder dislocate before he crashed into a stack of crates.
The woman stared on in awe at the scene before her. The mystery figure was finally revealed in the light coming through the many windows. There stood a tall young man with a lean build. Long white hair flowed down the sides of his pale skinned face and over his shoulders, reaching halfway down his back. He wore a simple red t-shirt and plain dark jeans with black boots. But the most striking of his attire was the long black trench coat that seemed to sway on a nonexistent wind. The woman's gaze slowly moved back up to the man's face, and locked with his eyes.
She blinked for a moment as she looked into those eyes. She half expected them to seem cold, but they weren't. In fact, they seemed to be anything but cold.
The did however turn frigid cold as the dark haired man groaned and picked himself up off the floor, holding his now broken and bleeding nose and letting out a string of curses. The man looked up at the long white haired man as he made his way slowly over to him, eyes narrowing as he continued to hold his nose.
"Who the hell are you?"
The white haired man looked at him for a moment, looking disinterested as he absently adjusted the sleeve of his coat and proceeded to speak in a matter-of-fact way.
"It would be easier for all of us if you just gave yourselves up peacefully, but I imagine that's an impossible request. People of your line of work are horribly stubborn, and terribly cliché."
The dark haired man growled as he tried to get to his feet. "You're a fucking smartass aren't you? But you're right about one thing; I'm not giving up. I've been in jail before, and I'll be damned if I go back anytime soon!"
The dark haired man made a grab for his gun and swung it up toward the white haired man, but before he could pull the trigger a bright flash of metal arched toward the gun. The dark haired man's eye widened in shock as the front half of his gun fell to the floor. The other half still remained in his hand, useless. He looked up to see the white haired man's right arm outstretched, and saw a very dangerous looking sword held tightly in his hand.
The white haired man lowered his arm and smirked at the man still kneeling on the floor in front of him. "Such poor craftsmanship. I hope you didn't pay too much for that toy."
The dark haired man dropped what was left of his gun and started backing away from the swordsman. His eyes flashed in fear and recognition; he had recently heard rumors of a new bounty hunter; very bad rumors. "You… I've heard of you…"
The white haired man followed him as he crawled behind a stack of creates, out of sight of everyone else. "Have you now? Am I that popular among the criminal circuit?"
The dark haired man found himself trapped between the bounty hunter and the wall as his mind swirled with fear and disbelief. "They…they say you're some kind of demon; that you're not human. They say you have the strength of ten men; and you're everywhere and no where at once, like you were just now… But…but it can't be, you're just a myth. You don't exist…!"
The white haired man reached down with his free hand and grabbed the dark haired man's collar, lifting him off of his feet and slamming him against the wall. He drew his face just inches to the fear stricken man's face and spoke softly. "Oh, I assure you…" he trailed off. The dark haired man's eyes widened at what he saw next. Blood seemed to seep into those cold blue-green eyes, and his mouth opened as he let out a low and dangerous growl, exposing fearsome fangs. Eyes now completely red bored into the dark haired man's eyes as the 'demon' continued to speak.
"I am no myth."
………
The blonde haired man woke with a start as he heard his friend scream. He scrambled to his feet as quickly as he could, stopping and hissing in pain as his right arm decided to remind him that its wrist was broken and its shoulder was dislocated. He didn't have time to examine it though as he heard his partner scream once again. It sounded like someone was killing him. "Its…its that man with the white hair." He thought to himself. He looked over to the woman that was still bound to the chair and saw the panicked and fearful look on her face as she struggled against the ropes. He heard the scream of pain coming from the other side of the warehouse again and did the only thing he could think to do.
He ran away.
The blonde man burst out of the doors and ran as fast as he could down the path that ran along the side of the warehouse, muttering prayers to Hyne as he went along. He stopped and looked up as he heard something crash through a window on the top floor of the warehouse, and fell backwards and screamed as the body of his friend feel to the ground before him. The man was beaten badly; body covered in bruises, cuts, and blood. The blonde stared in shock at his partner's body as he heard footsteps slowly walk up behind him. He turned around and saw the white haired man, the one that had flung him nearly halfway across the warehouse as if he were a rag doll. The sunset was centered perfectly behind him, casting shadows over all of his features. All the blonde could see was his hair and coat swaying in the wind coming from the sea, and the long sword that he held in his right hand. The blonde panicked and shuffled back across the ground, holding up his uninjured arm toward the white haired swordsman that was still walking toward him and began pleading.
"Please! Don't kill me! I wasn't going to hurt her! Hyne, please!"
The white haired man stopped a few feet in front of him, looming over the blonde man as he reached for something in the pocket of his coat. He pulled out what looked like a bottle of powder, popped to top off of it, and waved it at the blonde, sending the dust into his face.
"Fear not. This won't hurt at all."
The blonde coughed as he breathed in the unknown powder, and promptly fell asleep on the ground next to his beaten friend.
………
The woman had almost managed to bite though the gag that was in her mouth out of fear and anxiety. She didn't know what was going on. First there was that white haired guy that showed up out of nowhere, who had taken down the two robbers with little to no effort. Then there was the screaming. The blonde guy got up and ran away. And then she heard something crashing through a window. Now there was complete silence, and that scared her more than anything.
Her eyes shot up as she heard the doors open and saw the white haired man from before walk in. He stopped for a moment and look around, and when he spotted her he walked toward her, unsheathing his sword. The woman's eyes widened, and as the man got closer she closed her eyes and bowed her head, shaking with fear and not knowing what was going to happen next. Her eyes remained closed until she felt the ropes that held her hands together pull slightly and was cut in two, releasing her hands. She looked up at him as he used his sword to cut away the ropes that held her feet, and used her now free hands to untie the gag from around her face and took a deep breath through her mouth. The man sheathed his sword and held a hand out toward her, silently offering it too her. She looked up at him for a few moments, and slowly took his hand, letting him help her up.
"Are you alright?"
The woman remained silent, staring at the man before her in wonderment, until a sharp pain in the back of her head made her stumble forward. The man caught her and held her up.
"Miss? Are you alright?"
The woman looked up, the image of the man before her got blurry as the pain flared through her head. She tried to speak.
"You…you…"
The man saw her eyes roll back and had to catch her again as she passed out. He sniffed the air for a few seconds, and turned the woman to see the gash that was on the back of her head and the blood that had dried in her hair.
"Damn." The man muttered to himself as he picked up the woman and made his way out of the warehouse.
The desk sergeant of the Dollet Police Department was busy trying to kill the last few minutes of his shift. It had been a long and hectic day. The clean up from yesterday's SeeD field exam had most of the cops working double shifts. The giant holes left in the walls of the stores by that giant metal spider had storeowners filing in reports of stolen merchandise from looters. The commotion from yesterday had the monsters nesting near the communications tower on the move and citizens were reporting sightings of them all day long. And to top it all off a convenience store was robbed and a woman was taken hostage, and the police had no clue where they ran off too yet.
The desk sergeant grabbed a doughnut out of the box sitting on his desk and leaned back with it and his cup of coffee in hand. "Yep…" he thought to himself, "its been a loooong day… And we still don't have any leads on those robbers and their hostage" He looked over to the wall to see the wanted posters of the two robbers the store clerk had identified and chuckled lightly to himself. "But with a reward like that, I'm sure someone will find them if we don't…"
The sergeant had taken a sip of coffee and was about too take a bite out of his doughnut when the door burst open and a man walked in, a man with long hair and a long coat; dragging two unconscious men who looked like they had seen better days. The sergeant left the doughnut hanging in his mouth and gave the long haired man a cautious look as he threw the two unconscious men across the floor toward the sergeant's desk. The sergeant looked down at them for a few moments and then looked back up at the long haired man, giving him a questioning look. The long haired man took a moment to straighten his coat, then looked to the sergeant and pointed to the dark haired man lying on the floor.
"Adam Cole. Age 24. Wanted for robbery, assault, and possession of illegal narcotics with intent to sell. Reward, 15,000 gil." He then pointed at the blonde haired man. "Dan Stanley. Age 23. Wanted for robbery, assault, and possession of illegal narcotics with intent to sell. Reward, 15,000 gil." The long haired man lowered his arm and looked back at the sergeant. "That'll be 30,000 gil."
The sergeant looked down at the two criminals for a few seconds, then looked over to the wanted posters, and looked back to the long haired man and finally took the doughnut out of his mouth.
"These are the ones that robbed that store earlier today, right?"
The long haired man simply nodded.
The sergeant scratched his chin for a moment. "Didn't they have a hostage?"
The long haired man nodded once more. "Yes. I took her to the hospital on my way here. She's suffered a head injury. You'll need to wait to get her statement."
The sergeant slowly nodded as he reached for a drawer and pulled out a piece of paper, offering it and a pen to the long haired man. "You'll have to fill out this form for the reward."
The long haired man took the pen and form and began filling it out as the sergeant looked down at the two men on the floor. The blonde one, Dan, didn't look that bad; but the dark haired one, Adam, looked like he had been through hell and back. He looked back up at the long haired man as he finished filling out the form and took it from him.
"Alright Mr…. Adrian Tepes?"
The long haired man, Adrian, nodded.
The sergeant continued. "Well then Mr. Tepes, we'll just fax this to Deling and they'll wire the money to the account you listed here."
Adrian nodded and turned to leave. The sergeant looked down at the two men on the floor once more and called out to Adrian. "Hey. These two aren't dead are they? They haven't moved once since you bought them here…"
Adrian turned and gave a small grin to the sergeant. "No. But they will need to see a doctor when they wake up."
The sergeant looked back down at the men as Adrian left the police station, and chuckled softly as he got up from his seat to cuff the two men. "Bounty hunters…" he thought to himself, "gotta love them…"
Adrian walked down the streets of Dollet with no real destination in mind, looking at the sights the city had to offer and turning his nose up to most of it. Dollet had never been his favorite place.
The people in Dollet had an aristocratic air to them, making most of them seem quite snobbish. The town had a monster infestation problem equal to and sometimes greater than Winhill's. The architecture just…well, it just wasn't his 'thing'.
And the town smelt bad too.
Adrian's nose twitched and a disgusted look came upon his face as he looked around. The place smelled of old fish and smoke. The old fish smell was easy to explain, the town was built on the northern coast of Galbadia, and fish was the town's leading source of income. The smoky smell though, that was unusual for this town, but it wasn't hard to figure out where it came from judging by the condition most of the buildings along the main strip were in.
He had came into town last night, following the trail of the two criminals he had just caught, and found most of the town laid to waste in the aftermath of battle. Smoke filled the night sky and the fires illuminated it. Rubble from destroyed buildings littered the streets along with wounded or dead Galbadian and Dollet soldiers. Adrian sat in the bar that was in the hotel he was staying at that night, quietly nursing his drink as his sharpened ears zeroed in on the conversations the other bar patrons were having, listening for any leads on his current bounty and maybe find out why the town looked like a herd of Behemoths stampeded through it.
He hadn't gotten any clues of the two criminal's whereabouts, but the bar was abuzz with conversations of a SeeD field exam and a battle at an old communication tower.
Adrian stopped as he got to the part of town where most of the fighting had occurred and looked around at the destruction. "So this was a SeeD field exam…" Adrian thought to himself. He had heard of them before from Jun and Richter. SeeD was the elite military force of the institutions known as Garden; of which there were three. "Military… More like mercenary." He amended. Garden wasn't a non-profit organization. They required large amounts of capital to keep running. Meaning whoever needed the services of SeeD would have to pay quite a bit of gil. "We're both a lot alike if you think about it. We both do dirty work for money."
And the life of a bounty hunter was dirty work indeed. Adrian found himself in this career by accident really. Very soon after he left Winhill a year and a half ago he found that one needed money to live on their own. He spotted a store in Timber with a help wanted sign and walked in with the intent of asking for a job, but instead ended up making short work of the two guys who were robbing the old woman that ran the store by gunpoint. Adrian was presented with a sizable cash reward for the capture of the known felons, and realized that this could be turned into a very profitable living.
And a very easy one too, when you're a vampire that is.
He was doing good deeds for society and sometimes making ludicrous amounts of money for doing it. But Adrian had dove into this line of work without really thinking it through. The things he had seen and the people he had hunted down so far; murderers, rapists, terrorists, kidnappers, you name it and he has most likely caught it. He had dealt with the lowest examples of humanity on a daily basis. Things like that can change a person eventually.
After all that had happened in Winhill a year and a half ago and all that he'd seen and had to do since then, his faith in the world and everything in it was running on low. He still pressed on as best he could though, because he had too.
He promised her he would.
It wasn't all that bad he had to admit. He was kind of proud of this 'Demon' rumor that had started to spread in the criminal underworld. He'd also readily admit that he largely enjoyed playing with their heads before going in for the kill, like he did back at the warehouse.
So here he was, Adrian Tepes, bounty hunter extraordinaire at the tender age of eighteen. And even with the lucrative amounts of gil he was making off of this dirty business, he had nothing to show for it other than his motorcycle, the few clothes he carried with him, and the sword Jun had given him, Muramasa.
Adrian continued to gaze slowly around the street, noting the amount of damage done. All of the shops had structural damaged of some sort, one even had a giant hole in the front, as if something had burst out of the store. The pavement of the street and sidewalks were all cracked and crumbled. "And this car…" he said to himself as he walked up to it. "Looks like something…stepped on it…"
He took one last look around before he started down the street once more. "Some exam that must've been…"
……….
Adrian could feel and smell the sea breeze before he even saw the beach. He stopped on the platform above the beach and leaned again the railing, looking out across the ocean and sunset as a frown grew upon his face. He purposely avoided beaches, they drew up too many memories; memories of an Adrian Tepes who no longer existed.
And besides, he'd never really gotten over his fear of the water.
But something was pulling him to this particular beach today, and he let his eyes roam across the length of the beach until he spotted a peculiar sight. There, almost in the exact center of the beach, was a large hunk of smoldering metal. Being the curious creature that he was, the bounty hunter soon found himself descending the stairs to the beach to investigate.
Whatever it was, he could easily tell how it died just by seeing all of the bullet holes that riddled its body. "Some SeeD leftovers?" he asked himself as he looked around for any clues as to just what the big chunk of metal used to be. His gaze followed along the length of it up to where he supposed the head of this monstrosity was supposed to be. Finally spotting something just below the front part he crouched down to get a better view. It looked like an identification number.
"X-ATM092."
Adrian stood back up with his eyebrows arched up high and let out a low whistle. He'd heard of these things before. Galbadia's unmanned mobile attack weapons, AKA the 'Black Widow'. "The last I heard these things were still in the prototype stages. They must've wanted that communication tower real bad to rush them to production." Adrian thought to himself.
He looked at it for a while longer, noticing just how beat up the thing looked. Aside from what seemed like a million bullet holes there were burn marks and sword slashes all over it. "And…is that…" Adrian blinked as he took a closer look, "Is that…an imprint of someone's fist?" Adrian took one last look over the heap of metal. The pride and joy of Galbadia's military technology, reduced to mere scrap.
"And they say these things are indestructible." Adrian chuckled to himself as he began to turn away. "So this is all SeeD's doing… Impressive."
Adrian looked out over the sea at the sunset, deciding to let himself enjoy the view just this once as he drew a cigarette from the pack in his pocket and lit it. Smoking was a habit he picked up shortly after he started bounty hunting. The job was a stressful one, and smoking was an easy, although unhealthy, way of calming his nerves. He leaned against what remained of the X-ATM092 as he watched the scenery and planned on what to do next. "I should revisit the police station. Take a look at the wanted posters. Decide what my next target will be…"
He was interrupted from his thoughts by the sounds of laughter. Looking over to his left he saw two children running along the beach and splashing in the water. One was a little boy who looked no older than eight years old. The other was a little girl, who was taller and looked to be a bit older than the boy. Adrian found himself staring at them as memories forced themselves into his mind. He could remember a time when he was that carefree and happy, playing on the beaches near Winhill with a certain blonde haired girl that was a bit older and taller than him, just like those two…
Adrian caught himself and immediately looked away, closing his eyes tightly and stopping the memories before they could do anymore damage. "She's dead now." He told himself. "And you… All that's left of the little boy is a chain smoking bounty hunter."
Adrian gritted his teeth as he looked up at the sunset one last time and glared at it. He snuffed out his cigarette on the dead robot behind him and briskly walked away as he drew his coat tightly around him, making his way up to the platform and back into the city.
"I need a drink…"
The Dollet Pub was usually busy this time of day with people who were just getting off from work. It was a bit quiet today however, with the exception of a few regulars.
The bartender was musing over this as he dried the glasses with his rag. The clean up from yesterday's fiasco had everyone working overtime. If there was one thing the bartender learned, it's that Galbadian invasions are bad for business, not to mention SeeD field exams.
But he was lucky, seeing as his bar had escaped any damage. He remembered all the rubble he had to step over on his way to work. And he felt sorry for the poor guy that ran the tool shop. That shop was nothing more than a hole in the wall now.
He finished with the glasses and threw the rag over his should as he heard the doors open. And he, along with the bar patrons, looked up to see a man with a long coat and long white hair walk in. The bartender gave man a suspicious look as he sat down at the bar. This guy seemed a little young to be in a place like this.
"What can I do for ya?" the bartender asked as he walked up to the man.
Adrian looked up as he took a cigarette out of his coat pocket. "Whisky."
The bartender gave him a funny look. "You sure you're old enough to be drinking that?"
Adrian gave him a cold look through narrowed eyes as he pulled some gil from the other coat pocket and held the bills up to the bartender's face. "Old enough to pay for it."
The bartender looked at him for a few moments and reluctantly took the gil. Something about the man was very intimidating, and a little scary. "Whisky it is then."
The bartender sat a glass in front of Adrian and poured the drink as Adrian lit the cigarette and leaned back in his chair, giving a glance around at the other people in the bar.
Adrian could feel a few sets of eyes staring at him, but thought little of it as he downed the whisky in one go and sat the glass back down on the bar. "Keep them coming." He called out to the bartender as he took the first drag off his cigarette.
"Yes sir." The bartender replied as he refilled the glass and went back to cleaning. The bar patrons that were staring at Adrian lost interest and went back to what they were doing, leaving Adrian to drink his second drink a little more slowly this time. His peace was disturbed as one of the customers in the back at a table shouted out to the bartender.
"Hey Mac! Turn on the TV! The game is on!"
The bartender, Mac, grabbed the remote from behind the bar and turned the TV on. Adrian idly watched the basketball game with little interest as he signaled Mac for a third drink, and was halfway through with it as the TV started getting fuzzy and looked as though it had lost the signal.
"Ah hell Mac, did you forget to pay the cable bill again?" the same customer from before shouted.
Mac looked back at the customer and mocked his voice as he walked over to the TV. "No Harold, I didn't forget to pay the cable bill again." Mac changed the channel, but the same distortion was on every station. "What the hell?" he grumbled as he started hitting the side of it. The image became clearer, but what they saw now certainly wasn't the basketball game they had all been watching.
"T-Testing...1...2... Testing... Testing... Ohhhh! P-People of the world! Can you see me? Can you hear me? Oh, this is incredible!"
"What the hell is that fatass doing on the TV?" the loud customer, Harold, shouted across the bar once more. Adrian became a little more interested in the TV now and lifted his head to get a full view.
"Ladies and gentlemen, this is not a recording! This is an actual broadcast over the air! Yes, it's been 17 years since a live broadcast has been possible!"
"Live broadcast?" Mac asked as he threw his towel over his shoulder and leaned against the bar near Adrian.
The fat man on the TV looked over to his side and nodded. "Oh, please excuse me… I seem to have lost my composure. We would like to present to you today a message from the lifelong President of Galbadia, Vinzer Deling. Ladies and gentlemen, President Deling."
The TV had Adrian's full attention now, and everyone in the bar was standing near the bar for a better view. Everyone knew who Vinzer Deling was, and no one liked him. Adrian found himself frowning as the President walked up to the podium and began speaking.
"Greetings, I am Vinzer Deling, lifelong president of Galbadia. Today, I stand before you to make the following proposition. We the people of this world have the power to end all wars."
"What the hell is this shit? They took the game off for this?" Harold whined as Mac motioned for him to be quiet.
"Unfortunately, there are some trifling problems standing between Galbadia and other nations, and they must be resolved…" The President trailed off as he looked to the side. The sound of something breaking in the studio could be heard, but the President continued. "I plan to convene with other nations' leaders immediately to resolve these problems. At this time allow me to introduce the ambassador who will be my representative for the conference."
Mac rubbed at his chin thoughtfully. "Is this why those fools were killing themselves over that tower yesterday?" he asked as Adrian looked down for a moment to finish off the rest of his drink.
"The ambassador is the Sorceress..."
Adrian almost choked as he swallowed the last bit of whisky. "Sorceress… Did he just say 'sorceress'?" His question would go unanswered though as a crashing sound louder than before rung out. Everyone looked on as a man in a gray trench coat stormed in from the side, fighting off the Galbadian soldiers that were chasing him. The man was grappled from behind by a couple of soldiers as another approached him from the front, but he kicked the one coming at him in the stomach, knocking him into the camera and making it fall over while he threw the two holding him off. The man in the gray trench coat took the President from behind when he got free and held his sword to the President's throat as a woman in a peach colored outfit ran into the camera's view.
"What the fuck is going on?" Harold asked as the woman motioned toward the Galbadian soldiers and began shouting.
"Stay back!"
More soldiers ran in, and the woman began shouting at them. "For the last time, stay back! You're only going to provoke him."
"Holy shit…" Mac mumbled as he watched the TV. The woman turned toward the camera and ran up to it.
"Timber Team, are you watching? Get over here right now! You HAVE permission! I need your help!" the woman ordered into the camera as the picture became fuzzy again. Static took over the picture for a few moments before the basketball game from before came back on.
Everyone in the bar was silent for a while before Mac broke it. "Well, that's something you don't see everyday." The bar patrons slowly made their way back to their seats as Mac turned to refill the white haired man's drink. "Another whis…huh?" Mac looked around the bar for a moment to see where he went too, but all he found was a few gil bills sitting on the bar where the man's whisky glass was setting.
"Weird guy…" Mac said to himself as he took the gil and went back to work.
Adrian walked down the street toward the hotel in a half daze, playing what little he saw on the TV through his head again and again. He had left the bar without notice just as that guy in the gray trench coat ran in and started fighting those soldiers.
"Sorceress…"
Adrian stopped and stared blankly out to the horizon, letting his mind fight off the haze that was clouding it and piece his thoughts together.
"The ambassador is the Sorceress..."
The memory of his last conversation with Jun ran through his mind.
"Yes. It was always mine and Richter's belief that a sorceress had a hand in your 'uniqueness'."
Adrian made it back to the hotel and leaned against the wall outside as he looked up into the sky and tried to make sense of everything. "Could it be Adel…? No, it couldn't be…"
Jun's words spoke in his mind again.
"No. The resistance in Esthar only managed to capture and contain her."
Adrian looked down at the ground as he closed his eyes. "Captured and contained… Could she have escaped?" He opened his eyes and looked up, watching the clean up crews doing their work down the street. "For all I know this could be an entirely different sorceress."
Adrian sighed as he entered the hotel and went to his room. Everything seemed to be happening at once. It's been a year and a half now, a year and a half of living on the road and hunting down criminals. And now…
"Why tell me this now?"
"To give you a purpose. I didn't want you to go off wondering the world aimlessly. This is your chance to find out how you came to be."
Adrian practically fell onto his bed, feeling exhausted. Sleep seemed like a good thing right about now. Maybe his head would be clearer in the morning. He didn't know what to do, but he knew he had to do something.
The words of President Deling and Jun still played through his mind as sleep overtook him.
……….
Adrian walked along the wilderness. Where he was and where he was going he didn't know. But the place seemed familiar, in a morbid way.
He finally came upon a clearing, and a familiar sent filled his nose. In front of him was a small lake with a tree situated near its shore. Realization hit him.
"This… This is the place where I woke up the morning after…"
"The morning after mother was killed."
Adrian spun around, his hand instinctively going for Muramasa, and suddenly stopped as he saw the sight before him. There in front of him stood a child, a little boy with short white hair and pale skin. But the child's most striking feature was his blood red eyes.
Adrian blinked and took a step back, his hand still resting on Muramasa's hilt. "You… You're…"
The child smiled and nodded. "Yes. I am."
"But…how?" Adrian's hand fell to his side as he looked around, confused. "Where am I?"
"It should be obvious." The child replied as he walked over to the tree and sat down on the ground near it crossed legged. "You're in a memory. Your memory."
"My memory…" Adrian said as he looked to the small boy. "You mean…I'm dreaming?"
The child tilted his head to the side for a moment, thinking. "Yes. You can call it that."
Adrian turned back toward the lake, staring over its reflective surface. "But, why am I dreaming of this?"
The child stood up and walked up to Adrian's side. "That should be obvious too. This is were it all started."
Adrian looked down at the child as the child looked at the lake's surface and then looked to the lake's surface himself, noticing his eyes were the same shade of red as the child's. "Yes, it is…"
The child looked up, and both sets of blood red eyes locked together. "You have a decision to make Adrian."
Adrian broke eye contact and looked away for a moment. "You mean the sorceress."
The child nodded. "Yes."
Adrian sighed and crossed his arms. "But Jun said Adel was the one using vampires during the war, and I can't be sure that this is Adel. There was more than one sorceress you know."
The child nodded again. "Yes, I know. But a sorceress is better than no sorceress. Even if it isn't Adel, don't you feel the need to investigate?"
Adrian closed his eyes and lowered his head. "I don't know…"
The child looked back over the lake and to the sunrise. "You're scared. Don't worry, I understand. No one knows why you are the way you are. Learning why…may not be a pleasant experience."
Adrian said nothing as he looked at the lake's surface once more, staring intently at the eyes that stared back.
The child continued. "But, would you be content living your life never knowing why you are the way you are? Don't you want to know why?"
Adrian finally looked up. "Yes. Of course I want to know why."
The child nodded. "Good. You've made your decision then." The child turned and started walking away as Adrian turned to call out to him.
"But… Yes, I've made my decision. But I'm still not sure what to do."
The child turned around and smiled. "Making the decision was the easy part. How to go about it… That's something you'll have to figure out yourself. Don't worry, have a little faith."
Adrian laughed to himself bitterly. "Faith. That's something I've had little use for lately."
The child looked at him and spoke in a soft voice. "She wouldn't like hearing you say such things, you know."
Adrian stopped and looked up to the child, whose eyes were now blue-green. The child nodded once and smiled again as he turned around.
"Like I said, don't worry. Have a little faith."
Adrian woke with a start and shielded his eyes against the morning sunlight that was steaming through the window. He groaned as he got up out of bed and made his way to the shower, letting the memory of his dream play through his mind as the warm water washed over him. Spending longer than he usually did in the shower, he finally got out and looked at himself in the mirror as he dried himself off. He let the dark power surface so he could look into those red eyes.
"Yes. Of course I want to know why."
Adrian narrowed his eyes and nodded at his reflection in the mirror.
"I've made my decision."
With that, he walked out of the bathroom, dressed, and started packing his belongings.
……….
Adrian was making his way down the street toward the car rental shop where his motorcycle was parked when his hearing detected the distant sound of labored breathing and fast footsteps. He didn't think much of it until he heard whomever it was shouting at him.
"Hey! Mister!"
Adrian turned around and arched an eyebrow as he saw a man running toward him and waving his arms. The man stopped a few feet from him and bent over as he tried to catch his breath.
"Yes?" Adrian asked the man as he finally recovered and stood up. The man looked at Adrian for a few moments before asking him his question.
"You… Are you the man that caught those two robbers yesterday?"
Adrian gave him a questioning look. "Yes, I am. Why do you ask?"
The man smiled. "Good. My wife told me it was a man with long white hair that brought her to the hospital."
Adrian blinked a few times before putting the pieces together. "Your wife, she was the hostage?"
The man nodded. "Yes, that's her."
Adrian nodded. "Is she well?"
"Yeah, thanks to you." The man replied. "She's got a concussion and needed a few stitches, but the doctors said she'll be alright."
"Good, I'm glad she's alright." Adrian said as he turned to continue on his way.
The man ran after him again. "Wait. We owe you so much. I don't know how we'll ever repay you."
Adrian turned back toward the man and shook his head. "You owe me nothing."
"Please." The man persisted. "You don't know how much you've done for us. I own the items shop here in town. Anything you want is free of charge."
Adrian shook his head again as he turned around. "That's not necessary."
"Please." The man persisted again. "I can't just let you leave without doing something for you."
Adrian stood for a few moments with his back to the man. "If you insist." He turned his head to look at the man out of the corner of his eye. "There is one thing that I ask of you."
"Anything. Name it." The man said.
"Cherish her."
"Huh?" The man blinked and sent Adrian a confused look.
Adrian turned around and looked at the man. "You love your wife, no?"
"Of…of course."
"You're lucky. You came close to losing her, but you didn't. Take this chance to cherish her and never take her for granted. You never know when you really will lose her." Adrian said as he closed his eyes and turned back around. "Some of us only learn this lesson when its too late."
The man nodded in understanding. "I will. Thank you."
Adrian nodded and started walking away, only to stop as the man spoke again.
"Its sad you know. We moved here from Deling because of all of the crime there. We were afraid something like this might happen there. Guess the world is filled with bad things no matter where you go."
Adrian looked off into the sky, contemplating what the man just said. "True. This world is filled with bad things. So much so that we forget it is filled with just as many good things. Sometimes we have to remind ourselves that the good things are there." Adrian turned to the man and gave him a small smile. "Have a little faith."
The man smiled back. "You're right, I will. Again, you've done so much for us. Thank you."
Adrian nodded one final time as both men turned around to go their respective ways. Realization suddenly hit the man and he turned around. "Oh, wait. I never got your…name?"
The man looked around, but the man with the long white hair was nowhere to be seen. He stood there for a few more moments, looking at the spot where the man once stood, and went back to the hospital to see his wife.
He would follow this mystery savior's advice.
……….
Adrian sat on his motorcycle, looking out over the ocean from the city's edge and having one last cigarette before he left. His mind was a blank. He wasn't sure how he was going to do this, much less what he was going to do.
"Making the decision was the easy part. How to go about it… That's something you'll have to figure out yourself."
Adrian sighed as he flicked the cigarette butt to the side. "How to go about it…" he thought to himself. "I suppose the first move is to go to where the sorceress is. And there's one obvious place an ambassador for Galbadia will be."
Adrian strapped on his helmet and started the motorcycle, taking off out of Dollet and across the fields in between the mountains towards his destination.
Deling City.
To be continued...
Next Episode:
Fate plays its hand and paths cross as Adrian arrives in Deling City to confront Galbadia's new ambassador, the sorceress. But it seems he's not the only one that's looking for her. The clock turns, the gates come down, and the battle is joined. But what Adrian sees next will change his life forever.
Stay tuned for Smoke and Mirrors - Chapter Two: A Blue Eyed Ghost.