Just as you didn't see too many heroes in the last chapter, you aren't going to see too many villains in this one. This is more about the good guys in this one. Enjoy it!

WITCH HUNTER ROBIN: Flames of Light

A single bishop walked into the papal apartment and nodded slightly as Fr. Juliano, now Pope Lando II turned and greeted him with a slight smile. "Bene Meridiem," he said, motioning the other man to take a seat.

"Boa Tarde, Your Holiness," the other man said with his own smile, his voice thick with a Brazilian accent. Bishop Lorenz Aquiline sat down and folded his hands as he looked at the other man.

"Is there something I can do for you?" Pope Lando asked, raising an eyebrow. The warm Italian Summer air filled the room with a calm and soothing atmosphere.

"Your Holiness," Bishop Aquiline said, stroking his hands. "It has come to our attention that the people of the Church around the world, are beginning to worry about certain individuals who have unique gifts." He pulled a paper out from his pocket and dropped it on the pope's desk. "We have numerous petitions from the people asking us to do something about this."

Lando sighed for a moment, and rose to his feet. He could try to deny knowing what the bishop was talking about, but as Fr. Juliano, whose daughter was impregnated with an enhanced child, he knew all too well. He also knew that the bishop had worked on the project as well. "Now is not the time for us to pick a fight, or choose sides, Lorenz," he said with a groan.

"But now is actually the time," the other man said, slightly raising his voice. "Every day there are more and more witches who are beginning to expose themselves. Solomon can't curtail each and every one of them." He pulled another piece of paper and tossed it at the pope. "Just three days ago, there was an incident by a Catholic school in a small town in California. A hunter appeared from no where and attacked a child with powers. She was repulsed by a witch with water abilities." His eyes grew narrower and darker than mud as he continued to speak. "Both the school and a large hall that they used as a cafeteria were burnt down to the ground, the witch was apprehended by the local authorities, and is being interviewed as we speak. His mother has spent a letter to the local bishop to ask for help."

Fr. Juliano looked at the paper and felt his chest fall. The water witch had attempted to help, but was knocked out during the fight. One of the school employees, the mother of the witch the hunter had tried to take out, was killed by the hunter, who was now no where to be found. "I can't get involved," he said with a sad moan. "If we acknowledge the existence of these people there could be a riot, and witch hunts all over the world, I would be responsible for the deaths of millions; that will not happen!" He shook his head "If I help out, it look's like the Catholic Church is siding with these people, even when they misuse their powers." He sighed and rose to his feet. "No, we can do nothing on this situation."

"Is that the pope talking, or Robin Sena's grandfather?" the other man snapped.

"That is out of line," Juliano roared, swirling on his heels. Somehow the room with its bright whites and cool summer reds seemed very uncomfortable now. The pope's eyes widened and became blood shot as he glared at the other man. "You have no right to talk about that," he said, his tone lower, but filled with ice. He sat down at the thick oak desk and groaned. "If it was about Robin, I would sing it to the Heavens, about their existence."

"No you would not," the bishop said, his tone cold and flat like a science teacher. "You are afraid that if you make witch's existence open to the public, Robin will face persecution herself." He smiled smugly and rested his hands on the back of his hands. "You know I am right."

The pope stared at the bishop for an alarming amount of time – seconds passed into minutes. The two of them stared at each other in silence the only sound in the room – a ticking clock on the far side of Juliano's wall. For a moment it even seemed that even the laughter of the tourists and Italian children seemed to fall mute as they glowered at each other.

"I think you should go now," Juliano finally managed to say.

"We're going to have to do something about this sooner or later, Juliano," Bishop Aquiline said under his breath. "It's just going to blow up in our face if we don't." He stood up and took his coat in his hand.

"Damn it, Lorenz, just drop it," Juliano growled.

"Say what you will, Your Holiness," the bishop said, his tone very sad. "But I'll not leave that poor boy stranded in the American jail." Pope Lando II rose to say something else, but the bishop held out his hand. "The statement will come from me alone. The Vatican will have nothing to do with it."

"Except you aren't that diocese's bishop, your not even a North American bishop. So if you say anything, it will look like it is a foreign affair." He sighed and shook his head. "Write a letter to the bishop in the boy's diocese, and see if there is anything he can do." Juliano stood up and jutted out a bony finger. "You stay out of it, Lorenz."

Bishop Aquiline sighed, his dark brown eyes filled with sadness. "There is a storm approaching, Juliano, one we both had a hand in creating. I just hope when the time comes, we're both ready to deal with its casualties."

The pope watched him turned and walk out of the apartment, before sliding back into his chair and grimacing. His white robes wrinkled and swayed as he rocked back and forth, but he ignored them. "How I long for simpler times," he said, slightly under his breath.

Kin sat at his desk, his face etched with agitation. "Mom, I'm fine," he snapped. There was a pause and he shook his head. "No mom, there is no reason why my old phone number is disconnected." There was another sigh and the former police officer, now STN-J member, cursed silently. "Mom, I'm telling you there is no reason to worry."

"But your father --," she began.

"I don't want anything from him," Kin snarled so ferociously he heard his mother gasp.

"Kin, honey are you on drugs?" his mother asked, her voice quivering. He could almost hear the tear drops hit her polished marble floor. "I've just been worried about you darling. The whole family has."

"Mom, I go through this every time, you or anyone else in the family," except for dad, "talks to me. I'm not on drugs, I'm not drunk, and I'm perfectly fine. So please, do not ask me about it any more!

"Look, just so you know, I am working in a very profitable group, doing Japan a great service; we're helping a lot of people." He smiled and leaned back in the chair.

"Then why don't you ever visit us anymore?" his mother snapped, her tears drying up faster than a swimming pool artificially placed in the Sahara Desert. "I mean, I never even get a birthday card from you. When was the last time you even shopped for food, or went to your apartment?"

Kin frowned and sat forward, the dark corners of the office seemed to come collapsing around him. "Have you been spying on me, mother?"

"Kin honey, that's not appropriate," she said, her tone harder than granite. "Why would you say something like that to your poor, weak mother, who can barely get out of bed some mornings, because she is so wracked with grief and worry about her only baby boy?"

"Mother, skip the phony ass act, we both know you go to those fancy get together events every weekend. And we both know that you also have Toshi," he snapped back.

He heard his mother click her tongue and hiss. "Toshi, what a lazy child, he has no potential, not like you Kin."

"That's not what you told your ladies club the day after my graduation from the police academy," Kin jeered. His eyes twinkled with dark light, and he smiled with a fierce grin, the shadows seemingly fleeing from him, replaced by medium shades of blue and green.

"Which graduation day would that be Kin, honey?" his mother said stonily. Just as quickly as the shadows vanished, they surged back around him. Still she wasn't finished. "It's not my fault that you are so insecure with your talents that you had to re-enlist after graduating the first time with top honors."

"We both know why I did that, mother," he growled. His ire was growing at an extended rate. The Japanese officer rose to his feet and began pacing the officer back and forth, his chest rising and falling. His fingers clenched the phone and tightened their grasp even more – if only the phone was his mother's neck.

"You really disappointed your father that day, Kin," she said, her pseudo tears beginning to drop yet again. "You know just as well as I do that it was hard for him to go and explain to --,"

"Mother," Kin roared, arteries in his face beginning to pop, "we have nothing more to talk about." He pulled the phone from his ear, covering the mouth piece and swore out loud, though he had no doubt that she could hear him. He took a gulp of air, breathed it out, and sighed. Putting the phone back to his ear he finished, "Mother I'm fine, I have a good life, and I'm doing a good thing working here. That should be good enough for you," if you were any kind of mother, that is, "so if you please do not mind, do not call this phone again. I'll talk to you again in a couple of weeks, so we can both calm down."

He knew the next comments from her mouth, he didn't even need to hear them to know what she would say, and before she could speak them, he swiftly pushed the off button on the phone and smashed it under foot. He looked down at it and gave a sad, lopsided grin.

"I keep this up, and the cell phone company is going to blow a gasket." Kin stretched, and yawned. It was early in the morning, and no one was in the office yet. Michael was still upstairs in his apartment, fast asleep. I could really use another two hours of sleep too. He smirked and nodded to himself, heading for his own room.

Robin slipped her overcoat over her arms, and slid the hood over her head, and silently slipped through the door. It wasn't that good of an escape, she knew, Amon was just next door, and he had ears like a wild animal. Still, he knew she was capable of defending her self if something happened, and she didn't plan to go too far away from Nagira's building. She just needed some fresh air, and it was five in the morning, nothing fresher than that type of air.

Slipping through the door of the office, and quickly down the stairs until she was to the door of the building, Robin slid on her thick shades and walked out into the "real world". She sighed, her head turning from the right to the left, and back again until with a nod she was off, toward a small park near the complex, and began jogging.

She had taken it up just shortly after Zaizen had died, and she had disappeared from public eye, silently moaning the loss of her scooter. After a while she found a liking to it, and over the next couple of months, had found it had tightened her body even more than Amon's Nazi boot camp, training sessions she agreed to endure to hone her powers. She was sixteen now, and had become quite a woman. If someone were to look at her, they would assume she was a high school student, or perhaps a college student, who was part of the track team. Her legs were slender, than what they were when she first arrived to Japan the first time, and her upper body had the shape that made most men ogle her from a distance, but keep them there out of fear. She even tried her hand at lifting weights, much to Amon's disapproval, and found that as the months went, she could bench lift nearly one hundred and fifty pounds for five minutes. She even took up kick boxing while she hid in South America.

All in all, she was not nearly the Robin Sena, agent of Solomon, that she had been a few months ago. She was a warrior, or the student of becoming a warrior now. She was dangerous in both physical arts, and the use of the craft, and that disturbed the part of Robin that was still that little girl who lived so long in the convent in Italy. What if she began to take a liking to using this strength too much? What if Zaizen had been right, and coupled with physical strength and mental strength, her craft use drove her over the edge of ambition and madness?

Robin stopped jogging and batted her head back and forth, her eyes clasped tight. No, no she could not think about that right now. She wouldn't think about it. There were too many people who were counting on her; there was the threat of the hunter, the possibility that Fr. Juliano had been elected to be used as a pawn, her friends' lives. The weight of the world hung on her shoulders, and she did not like it. I'm strong, but I'm no Atlas.

Finally she continued to jog, until she stopped near a small wooden building. It wasn't fancy, nor was it new. In fact it was a shack if you wanted to call it that, but she smiled as she looked at it. Except for a homeless woman, her husband, and three small children, no one knew it was hidden in this park. Tall dark green trees surrounded it, like guardians protecting a precious secret from marauding barbarians. Moss covered its dark brown walls, and small bushes hide the stepping stones that lead to the entrance. The only thing that showed its former, modest splendor, were four stain glass windows, which until very recently, had been covered with cobwebs and dust but never broken. It was a beacon of light, of hope surrounded by the shadows of a modern, uncaring atheistic, hedonistic world.

Robin walked into the small church, and was greeted by three very sleepy, yet undeniably excited squeals, followed by a deep low chuckle. The teenager smiled and looked down at the children as they rushed over to grab her ankles and grinned up at her.

"Daddy," the youngest, a tiny little girl with short black hair tied into a pony tail, and wearing Vandread pajamas said, looking back at her father, "daddy, Sister Robin is here!"

"So I see," said a giant of a man, his beard long and gangly. He rose to his feet and greeted her with a pleasant smile. "Can I offer you breakfast before your prayers Robin?"

"If you have coffee that would be nice, if it's not too much trouble" Robin said with a smile. She slowly sat in one of the pews, holding the squealing girl giving her ribs a little tickle, before setting her down.

He shook his head and smiled. "You came here two weeks ago and gave us hope, Robin. I haven't seen Shina so happy since before then, or the other two for that matter. If you want coffee, then you shall have coffee."

Robin looked at the man and grinned widely. "Arigatoo, Kano."

"You are very welcome, Sister Robin," he said with a large grin.

Robin finished her coffee, and then knelt down, making the sign of the cross. The children blinked at her, and then copied her movements. Their father, Kano Irosaka had no qualms about that, his wife had been raised Catholic, even though he was a Buddhist. It would be good for the children to learn something about that faith.

Robin continued to pray, to pray for peace, for hope, that the flame of light would not disappear from the Earth. When she was finished, she thanked them for their kindness, rose to her feet, and slipped out of the church as quickly as she had entered. Within ten minutes she was back at the complex, and sat waiting for Amon to leave his room. Then they would wait more still, while dark forces conspired to crush them. Robin just hoped that the flicker of light she felt within that church would be enough to enduring the coming deluge of evil.