Suzaku
The corridor was long with the kind of sickly green tile walls that were found only in hospitals. The rows of fluorescent lights starkly lit the double doors at the end of the hall. Each door had a circular window, making it resemble the entrance to a kitchen in a restaurant. With that thought Chris decided he'd never eat out again. He noticed someone at the door, a stern looking man in his late fifties with a no-nonsense crew cut and a black suit.
"Orcot, what the hell are you doing here?" he demanded as he shoved the door open, "I thought I told you to take a week off."
"Sorry Agent Howell," stated Chris apologetically, "I was following a lead."
"The new and improved Count D you mean," said Howell as his face lit up with an odd intensity, "Any luck?" Chris shook his head absently.
"Well he admitted that Moody was a client," he said, "But I didn't find anything else."
"He's a wily one," said Howell thoughtfully, "But he does have a weakness."
"Which is?" prompted Chris.
"He's fond of you Chris," he replied with a faint grin, "Just like his father was fond of your brother."
"His father was very kind to me when I was a boy," mused Chris. Howell hit his shoulder lightly.
"Get close to this Count D, but be careful," he ordered, "Now go home and get some sleep."
"I want to see him first," stated Chris nodding towards the door. Howell sighed quietly and lit a scented cigarette with a black lighter.
"Don't punish yourself too much son," he advised, "After all, he fired the first shot."
"There had to be another way," said Chris angrily, "It didn't have to end up like this!"
"He didn't give you a choice," replied Howell reasonably, "Plus he had a hostage." Chris looked down at the floor, angry at himself.
"Just give me ten minutes," said Chris and he brushed past Howell through the double doors.
"Fine, but go home after that!" snapped Howell before he turned to head down the corridor. He realized that he had made a mistake of involving Chris in this case; the kid was simply too soft-hearted. "Damn fool," he muttered.
Chris found the room beyond the doors chilly, almost like Honlon's room. But this place was completely bare and functional. A bank of doors that resembled oversized filing cabinets lined one wall, while shelves full of medical instruments lined the opposite wall. Several gurneys were lined neatly in a row. In the center of the room under the harsh light of lamps sat a metallic table with a sheet draped over it. The folds of cloth clearly outlined the contours of a human form. Chris tentatively approached the table and cleared his throat.
"I gave her back to the Count, just like you asked," he stated hollowly, "Hope you can…." Chris couldn't complete the thought.
Finally he steeled up the courage to lift a corner of the sheet, half expecting a hand to grab his wrist like some bad horror movie. Instead he uncovered the head and upper chest of a man who looked peacefully asleep. In life Scott Moody had been both pale and thin, but now he looked positively translucent. Chris could now clearly make out the elaborate tattooing of tortured and twisting flames across his chest and arms, the beauty of the artwork only marred by the twin bullet holes in his chest. Chris dropped the sheet and headed for the restroom, feeling sick to his stomach. Inside he washed his face in the sink and looked at his reflection in the mirror. The face that stared back at him looked haunted and haggard. He pulled down some paper towels and dried his hands and went back into the room.
"What does the Count expect me to do now?" he wondered looking at the form under the sheet as if it could help him. He sighed and walked over to a side table where personal effects sat in plastic bags: a wallet, a watch, some keys, a pair of wire-rim glasses and some neatly folded clothing. He held up a pencil sketch of a beautiful but sad woman with long unruly hair. She seemed to be wreathed in a cloak of flames.
"Suzaku I presume?" asked Chris rhetorically. He noticed a glimmer in the corner of his eyes and turned to see irregular glowing golden patterns of light underneath the sheet. It almost looked like a fire thought Chris as the sheet erupted into a conflagration. The heat knocked Chris to the floor as a pillar of flames erupted through the ceiling, shattering the glass doors of the cabinets. He stood up slowly and noted all that was left on the table was the burning fragments of the sheet. Then the fire sprinklers burst into life, drenching him in a downpour.
Chris was still dripping wet when his car pulled up with a screech of tires to the front of the Count's shop. He furiously climbed out and hammered on the door with his fist.
"Open up, damn you!" he bellowed. He had enough of being jerked around. It was only when Chris rattled the door that he found it slid open, unlocked. He blinked in the gloom and frowned. The glow of the blue aquariums faintly illuminated the path to the backrooms.
"Count!" yelled Chris as he stomped down the hallway. He reached an intersection and noticed one of the doors was slightly ajar, through which Chris detected the faint scent of brewing tea. He smirked as he pulled the door open all the way.
The room beyond felt like a china shop. Fine porcelain statues and knickknacks stood in glass shelves inside mahogany cabinets, while dark oil paintings were hung on either side of a fireplace. A fire burned merrily under a wide mantle that held flowers in vases flanking a delicate clock that counted the seconds with unobtrusive ticking. Chris glanced to the far wall and saw a glass door that opened out onto a large marble patio.
Chris felt a cool night breeze when he stepped out onto the patio that overlooked an ornamental garden bathed in moonlight. The hedges were trimmed into tidy geometric shapes that bordered flower beds that no weed dared to grow in.
"Couldn't resist the tea, huh?" said a feminine mocking voice. Chris turned to see a woman sitting at a white table surrounded by four metal chairs. She was dressed in a frilly lavender dress and a wide brimmed hat and her lace gloved hands busied themselves in pouring a second cup of tea.
"I'm sorry Madam," said Chris apologetically, "I was looking for the Count." Chris thought he caught a twinkle in her eyes under the brim of the hat.
"Ah, so you thought I was the Count enjoying some tea," she said with an impish smirk as she handed him a cup. As she lifted the lid off a small ceramic jar Chris noticed smoke drifting out of an incense burner resting in the center of the table.
"Cream or sugar?" she inquired.
"A lot of both," he said with a faint smile, "I don't care much for tea." She giggled faintly as she dropped several lumps of sugar into his cups with small silver tongs.
"You haven't changed much Detective Leon," she said cheerfully.
"Actually, I'm Chris, not Leon," he explained as he scratched his cheek self-consciously. She stared up at him, an expression of shock frozen on her face. The sugar bowl fell from her grasp and landed on the patio, shattering into tiny shards.
"Chris!" she screamed as she jumped from her chair, knocking him to the ground in a crushing embrace.
"Hey!" protested Chris as he saw his cup of tea disappear over the balcony railing, "Could you let go?" The woman sat up and sniffled a little.
"Don't you remember me Chris?" she asked suddenly worried. Chris half sat up and mentally struggled to place her. She sighed and took off her hat, her wavy golden hair streaming behind her, which she gathered into two ponytails. Chris broke into a broad grin.
"Pon-chan!" he yelled, as he hugged her tightly, "Ha! Ha!"
"Chris, you're soaking wet," she chided softly.
"Huh?" he asked, starting to pull away.
"Never mind," she said as she closed her eyes and held him close. Chris looked past her to the incense burner.
"So what are you really?" he finally asked. She met his inquiring gaze.
"I'm a European badger," she said fearfully, "Does that disgust you?"
"No, but I never realized it in all the time we knew each other," said Chris with a self-depreciating smile.
"You had a pure heart," she replied enigmatically, "Not many people had the gift to truly see us."
"So how come I have to use the incense now?" he asked in a puzzled tone as he stood up. Pon-chan grasped his hand and pulled herself to her feet.
"You grew up Chris," she said as she automatically began to straighten his tie. Chris took her hands into his own.
"So did you," he stated quietly.
"I'm not interrupting anything am I?" inquired the Count in a lightly mocking tone. Chris and Pon-chan reddened and quickly separated.
"Are you here for tea Count?" asked Pon-chan hurriedly, mentally cursing her rotten luck.
"Of course my dear," he replied silkily, "If Christopher doesn't mind of course." It took Chris a moment to remember how mad he was at the Count.
"What the hell did you do?" he demanded. The Count blinked at him innocently.
"I take it things didn't go so well with Mister Moody," he said sadly.
"Only if you consider him spontaneously combusting on me bad," stated Chris with a harsh laugh. Pon-chan stared at Chris with a look of concern as the Count frowned slightly.
"Come with me," he instructed. Chris and Pon-chan followed him through the garden to a shed. Inside the tiny shed was the vast back hallway of the shop. Chris peered back into the garden with a slightly confused expression until Pon-chan grabbed his sleeve.
"Let's go Chris," she said. Soon they reached the compass room Chris had seen earlier. Except now the cylinder was glowing faintly from within.
"Something is wrong," said the Count, "She should have revived by now."
"Suzaku you mean?" asked Chris, "What was she, exactly?"
"A phoenix of course," replied the Count, as if it was obvious, "She should have been reborn from her ashes, but instead…." Chris paled as white as a sheet as he recalled the flaming table.
"Count, tell me everything that happened when Scott Moody visited this shop," he said weakly.
"I only met him once, about three weeks ago," began the Count.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………
The bell on the door of the pet shop jingled merrily. The Count turned his attention away from a little boy and his new puppy to greet the new arrival.
"Welcome to my pet shop," he said as he bowed formally. The lanky man in the dark suit removed the spent cigarette from his mouth and used it to light another one, then flicked the butt in an aquarium, where it was inspected solemnly by a brightly colored tropical fish.
"Let's go Ted," said the boy's mother as she nervously escorted her son and the puppy out the front door. The Count bowed to them then fixed a disapproving gaze on the man.
"I will ask you refrain from smoking in my shop," lectured the Count, "The pets can be very sensitive to smoke." The man looked at him blankly through dark sunglasses.
"You Count D?" he asked after a pause.
"Yes, can I help you with something?" asked the Count.
"Wait here," stated the man as he dropped the cigarette into an ornamental urn. He disappeared out the door and reappeared a minute later with a woman in tow. She wore a shimmering blue kimono tied with a green obi and her flaming feathery red hair was tied back into a single braid. She gave an uncertain smile as she regarded the Count with her crimson colored eyes.
"Suzaku, what happened?" he asked in surprise. She seemed to float across the room as she tearfully hugged the Count.
"Suzy told me that she came from your shop," said the man turning to go, "Take her."
"Wait a moment Mister Moody," said the Count. With lightning reflexes the man had a silver pistol drawn and aimed between the Count's eyes. Suzaku grasped the Count more tightly.
"How'd you know my name?" he demanded with cold fury visible on his face.
"Some of my clients are also your clients Mister Moody," explained the Count leisurely, "You are hired to eliminate certain shall we say 'problems'." A faint smirk appeared on Scott's face as he lowered the gun slowly.
"You have me at a disadvantage," he admitted, "I couldn't find out much about you."
"How did you come across Suzaku?" asked the Count.
"I found her locked in a cage in a backroom of a house owned by a former 'problem'," stated Scott stiffly, "She wouldn't tell me how she got there."
"You may have done her a favor," said the Count, "She was kidnapped some time ago."
"Don't thank me," said Scott testily, "Just take care of her." Suzaku crossed the room and took Scott's arm. He frowned down at her.
"No Suzy," he ordered, "You belong here with the Count." She smiled and leaned her head against his chest.
"It seems she has chosen you as her new master," said the Count is mild disbelief.
"That's impossible," he protested, "I'm not worth it."
"I'm inclined to agree with you Mister Moody," said the Count with a faint sigh, "Nevertheless, she has already made up her mind." Scott pushed Suzaku away angrily.
"Suzy, if you stay with me, you could die!" he snarled as he turned to look out the window. Reflexively he fumbled for a cigarette out of his pocket. Suzaku held out a hand and a small fire erupted from her palm, lighting the cigarette. Scott tried to mask his surprise as he took a deep drag.
"I will let you keep her if you sign a contract and promise to abide by the rules," said the Count reluctantly.
"What rules?" asked Scott, his resolve wavering.
"One: never show her to anyone," recited the Count, "Two: feed her only fruit and seeds; and three: keep her away from water."
"Why water?" he asked.
"She is a creature of fire," explained the Count, "Water can weaken or even kill her." Scott grumbled quietly as he placed a hand on Suzaku's head.
"You're a real idiot Suzy," he said with a mixture of fondness and exasperation. She smiled and nodded in agreement.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………
"That was the last time I saw either of them," finished the Count. Chris gritted his teeth.
"I have to find out what happened to him," he stated, "I'm responsible."
"Why you?" asked Pon-chan.
"Because I'm the one who killed him," said Chris simply.
Author Notes: The surname for Chris and Leon is given as Orcot in the manga and Alcott in the anime. Both are different translations of the same name since there is ambiguity in translating Japanese sounds (interchanging the letters R and L being the most well known). I like Alcott better but since all the canonical characters are from the manga, I'll change it to Orcot for consistency's sake.