Ellenlome, thanks for giving this the once-over. I changed it a bit, though, so I might have introduced more errors.
THE BARON'S WINTER
When the Cat and Haru had first entered the Doctor's lair she had offered them tea and scones, of all things. Then the Baron proceeded to play a game of 'keeping the civilized veneer up' with her. One of the things Haru remembered about the rather inconsequential conversation was the cat nobleman asking "Why did you need Louise's body?" as Shizuku had done before.
The Black Cat had set her down her teacup, looked the Baron in the eye, and said, "Can't you still get it, you moronic piece of fantasy? Immortality! I wanted the immortality you had been created with!" She turned to the seated Haru and Shizuku, who had been released from her cell along with Seiji and, still bloodstained and weak, been forced to join them at the table.
"I was a real cat, and we all lived in the same town," she told them. "Day by day I would pass by the shop where they were being made and marvel at the effort and obvious love—" she spat the word out like a rotting piece of meat "—that their maker was pouring into them. He even got sick for a while because of the effort he put into them, did you know that? Finally they were given souls, and I watched them walk and talk. How I longed to be like them, so graceful and charming!"
"But the people of that town were cruel! They thought of an alley cat as nothing more that something to curse and kick and throw stones at! Finally I had had enough. I had heard that the best revenge against ignorant people was an education, so I set out to make something of myself. I learned. I snuck into libraries at night and read whatever I could before dawn came. I attended lectures, sitting out of sight on the rafters. I took tests with the schoolkids, by lying on the windowsills and looking at the papers and listening to them check their answers. Finally I worked up the nerve and presented myself to a schoolteacher, who was kind enough not to turn me away despite my not having anything in the world except the fur on my back. He taught me, and when he could teach me no more he gave me a legacy and enrolled me in university. My fortune turned good then, and my fame soon grew. I was a teacher of note in physics and robotics in that institution when the Baron and Baroness came back into my life."
The Black Cat paused, like someone listening to an inner voice. "Louise wants to tell you about the horrible experiments that got me censured and eventually kicked out. No, my dear, not even you know the whole truth. When I saw them again, I noticed they hadn't aged at all. I grew envious of that—though I suppose I shouldn't have been so surprised, having been privy to their creation—and wondered if a mortal like myself couldn't break my own bonds with time. So I tried to find out.
"There will always be those fools in any institution of learning who decry those making strides towards the future. They will claim that those pioneers' work is against the laws of God, that it is too horrible, that it involves the Devil's influence or some such nonsense. I had laughed at their weak-minded sentimentality then, but they managed to get my work noticed by those higher up in the Assembly. When I could have been working on my precious project, I was forced to turn away from it and defend what I was doing. Think of it! I said to the Assembly when it summoned me to a hearing. No one will ever have to live in fear of death anymore! Parents will no longer have to suffer the deaths of their children!
"And the Assembly, that great mass of learning I once admired, turned its sonorous voice upon me, and said, And if no one dies any more, what will happen to us? Will you fill the earth to overflowing with our countless numbers? Will children cured by your process be cursed to stay as children forever? Will old ones remain old throughout eternity?
"In despair, for I already knew the tide was turned against me, I shouted, 'I don't know! That's why I'm studying it!' But they didn't listen to me: their minds, it seemed, were already made up. And so I was expelled from the position I had worked so hard to attain. What sayest thou, Baron?"
Haru, Seiji, and Shizuku all turned to the Cat, who said, "I had nothing to do with that, though I heard that news. I was only at the university as a guest speaker on magical appliances at that time." He looked up at the Black Cat. "That still doesn't explain why you kidnapped Louise."
"I'm getting to it. After I had been forced to remove my things under the watchful eye of guards, like some thief, I left the town and set up my own little laboratory in the countryside, using what was left of my mentor's legacy. There I managed to continue my work. At that point I was already so consumed by it I subsisted on little more than bread and cheese and a little meat, when I could get it. I forwent a social life, all the little amenities of existence, because I knew time was running short.
"You all know that the life span of a cat is very short compared to that of a human's. It is so even in that place. I was already quite old when I made what I thought was my final breakthrough. In the interval I had gained an assistant, an urchin I plucked off the streets of the town, and proposed with him to make the final, ultimate test of my research. I planned to lock myself inside my stasis chamber, as I called it, and spend the next ten years evading the effects of aging. I turned my tiny estate over to him, and told him to revive me after a decade. The boy agreed, and I spent the next ten years in a dreamless sleep.
"But when he did wake me up, I found that I had been terribly wrong. My work had not stopped the advance of time, it had only slowed it down. When I looked at myself in the mirror I was a decrepit wreck. I recommenced my research immediately, and quickly developed two more things: a pill that would return me to youth for a short while, and another method of staving off age. But all my work in that field was cast to the winds when my assistant and I took a trip into town and saw—yes, I saw the Baroness von Arno then, and she looked the same as she ever did. She was still charming, and youthful, and beautiful." The Black Cat's ears seemed to color somewhat. "An idea hit me as I looked upon her: what if I could transfer myself to a body like hers, which never aged? I had already developed a method of encasing souls in little blue gems a colleague of mine in the university had developed for catching ghosts and specters; it was my research on these that also played a part in my being expelled. Within a week I had developed a risky, untried theory, and also a plan to acquire her. I took one of my insect creations, went to her abode, and kidnapped her by injecting her with a tranquilizer I had developed specially for her and you, Baron." She returned to addressing the humans. "He was getting married to her at the time, so naturally when he learned from her servants of my actions, he swore to find me at all costs and set out to hunt me down. I laid low in my laboratory and did my work on Louise. She was a very difficult subject to experiment on. She was a fine swordswoman, and always tried to escape at the slightest opportunity. Eventually I grew tired of having to watch over her the whole time and developed my anti-magic devices, one of which is on the wall there." The Black Cat pointed. "When I placed her in it and turned it on, it forced her to become a statue again, and my troubles were solved. I have no doubt that it will have the same effect on you, Baron."
The teacup in the Baron's hand trembled. "You animal," he murmured, a murderous look in his eyes. "So you did torture her."
"Unfortunately, yes." The Black Cat spoke in a blasé manner. "Sometimes as a punishment for trying to escape, and at other times the pain was an inevitable part of experimentation. I did bear my share of it, you know."
The Baron was speechless.
"I made the final gamble three months after I had captured her. I operated on her, and on myself as well. I placed my soul in a crystal, which I then had my assistant implant beside your fiancée's beating heart, Baron. The procedure was wanton, reckless tomfoolery, but I had nothing to lose. If it failed, I was going to be dead anyway. Then he activated a complex series of cantrips and spells I had bought from a sorcerer and prepared. You have no idea how vindicated I felt when I woke up in Louise's body."
"And you have no idea how disgusted I am with you, Doctor," Shizuku voiced. "You are a scumbag of the lowest order. Why didn't you spare her the agony and just kill her?" The Baron turned, and for a moment his eyes and Shizuku's met, and an understanding passed between them. The Cat kept his peace; the writer returned her attention to their collective foe.
"Because if I had removed her soul her body would have instantly died. That is one of the few immutable rules of magical creations." The thief and assassin sighed. "Many times over the years I have tried to find a way to separate her and leave myself in here—" she pointed to her breast "—but I've never found one."
"How did you get to the Cat Kingdom?" Haru asked.
"Why do you ask?"
"Because in a way you're responsible for the craziness King Lune's father put me through."
"After the operation I spent years getting used to this new body. I found that I needed medicines during my convalescence, so I turned to using this body's physical prowess and stealing what I needed. It was so much easier than trying to earn a pittance. I grew used to that way of life and never looked back."
"Probably because your conscience couldn't handle it if you did," Seiji said accusingly. The Black Cat shot him a sharp look.
"Pontificate all you want, boy, but after spending a lifetime trying to acquire immortality, I wasn't going to let anything impede my pleasure in it. But one thing did try to interfere: the Baron von Jikkingen, who never stopped trying to pursue me. He and I had a few brushes with each other in the past, but we never set eyes on one another after I had taken up residence in Louise's body. I grew so annoyed that I tried to look for him in his residence in town so I could kill him, but I found out that he had moved by then. To where no one knew.
"After I had accumulated a fair amount of money I decided to move away, to avoid his further attentions. I said goodbye to my assistant, packed what few things I wanted to bring along, then traveled to the Cat Kingdom, where I presented myself to King Lune's father, hoping to curry his favor and find some employment. I'm sure he doesn't remember his short audience with me. I had not taken to wearing black yet, but I had already cut my hair short, as you see it.
"When Lune's father refused my generosity, I traveled for a while, but I found his realm boring. The people were oppressed, and the court was a mass of fawning bootlickers. What few intellectuals there were did not share my interests, and were much too busy trying to stay out of the volatile and fickle King's way than do anything to ruffle the surface of the waters.
"Out of sheer boredom, and because my finances were once again becoming dangerously depleted, I returned to my life of crime. Then in New Lorum I had a chance meeting with one of Phaecis' boys, and he recruited me into the gang. I set about learning their ways, and after I had clawed my way to the top and began calling myself the Black Cat I convinced him to help me build my mechanical army, in case there was ever a need to defend the island.
"He agreed to help me, and I set to work at once. Or crime sprees here and in the other kingdoms helped to finance our construction, as did our other activities, like weapons smuggling, money laundering, and assassinations.
"So here you see me, in my position of power and security, and yet you and your allies tried to knock me down, because of your self-righteousness. Why should I not treat you with contempt? Especially you, von Jikkingen."
Seiji shook his head sadly. "You're missing the whole point," he said in mock pity. "But why should I be surprised? Villains always did have dysfunctional heads."
The Black Cat stood up from her seat, walked up to Seiji, and gave him a kick that sent him sprawling to the floor. Then she ordered Ayuma to return him to his cell and cut off his air supply.
"No!" Shizuku leapt up from her chair, but the Black Cat quickly whipped out her smallsword and pointed it at her throat, forcing her to sit back down. "Don't hurt him! Please! You told me you wanted this body of mine. I promise I'll cooperate with you! I won't give you any problems! Only don't hurt him!"
The Black Cat watched her henchman toss Seiji back into the glass-walled enclosure, and turned to smile lazily at Shizuku. "Tough. He's the most annoying human I've come across in the past few years."
Ayuma turned a few valves at the base of the contraption, and after a minute or so Seiji sat down and began showing signs of having difficulty breathing. Shizuku could only sit there and beg as he began to cough, then choke.
"No! Seiji! Please, don't do this!"
"Sorry. Ayuma, go get me a croissant and some egg and bratwurst from Phaecis' table, please. And see how that fracas in the antechamber is going."
"Yes, ma'am." The lanky Abynissian left the room.
The Black Cat lowered her sword, and Shizuku tried to stand up and run to Seiji. The cat backhanded her, and she fell back into her chair.
Placing a high-heeled boot on her thigh to prevent her from moving, the Black Cat forced Shizuku to look at up at her with her hand. She then ran a finger under her chin. "I hope you retain your powers when I transfer myself to you," she said. "I want to see what it feels like to have magic, which I've never had. And you're not so bad-looking, Lady Amasawa. I shall enjoy exploring your body, the way I did Louise's." The finger left Shizuku's chin and wandered lower, to the hollow of her throat and the upper part of her chest.
That was when the Baron sprang from his chair and seized the Black Cat's offending hand, not heeding the sword in the other, that in an instant was held at his throat. Haru gasped and stood up, unsheathing her own weapon and pointing it at the Black Cat's heart.
"Don't touch her," Humbert von Jikkingen said, in a quiet voice that sent chills through Shizuku and Haru. "Don't you dare touch her. You took my Louise from me, and now you want to do the same with her. It will be a cold day in hell before that happens. Shizuku, go and free Seiji. Go. She won't stop you."
Hesitatingly Shizuku pushed the Black Cat's foot off her and followed the Baron's commands as the two continued to stare each other down. She limped towards the cell and opened the valves, then the door. A half-asphyxiated Seiji tumbled out of confinement into her arms, and she gently lowered him into a sitting position on the floor, leaning him against the base of the structure while he sought to regain his wind and wits.
The Black Cat tried to bat away Haru's sword, but the young lady just repositioned it over her chest when she did so. "Why are you so angry, Baron? Could it be that you're jealous about the fact that I know Louise's body better than you do? Oh, she could never hide the truth from me. You've never even slept with her, for all your posturing worldliness."
There was the tiniest suggestion of embarrassment in the Baron's voice as he answered. "No, I haven't," said he with a sidelong glance at Haru. "You may know all there is to know about her physical form, but that gets boring after a while, doesn't it? You'll never have her spirit. You have immortality, but with your envy and avarice you'll never have the happiness you seek. You'll never be like me, or Louise."
"Baroness!" yelled a voice from the other end of the chamber. It was Ayuma, standing at the entrance to the tunnel, carrying a big platter. She looked for a moment at the situation, then shrugged and walked towards them. "The fighting's still going on," she reported nonchalantly, "and it's spread to the hall. It's a shame about those lobsters." As she neared Haru, she suddenly stumbled. Haru instinctively tried to catch the platter as it fell. Naturally, that was when Ayuma took advantage and lashed out quickly with her sword. And the fight began.
------oOo------
It had seemed natural for her to square off with Ayuma, and for Baron to fight the Black Cat. Haru was nervous as well as tired, but she no longer listened to the voices of doubt in her mind. Nothing could be achieved by doing so any more; they were operating blindly now, trusting to sheer luck to win over their enemies.
After a tussle which seemed to last for a long time—but in reality was only a few minutes long—Haru had managed to knock out Ayuma with the pommel of her weapon, after almost getting the Abynissian's sword in her chest. She and the Baron turned their attention towards the Black Cat. The feline taunted them about how unfair it was that they were ganging up on her, but they didn't listen. The Baron was hampered by the knowledge that he was facing Louise, and that to hurt the Black Cat was to hurt her too; Haru was hobbled by her tyro status. Luck would hold, but for how long?
Shizuku and Seiji could give no help. The most the former could do was to hurl chairs at the assassin, which were easily avoided. The effort caused her to tire, though, so after only a pair she was slumped against the base of what had been her cell, chest heaving and rendered effectively hors de combat. Seiji stayed by her side, guarding her, and could only watch as the Baron and Haru tangled with the Black Cat.
The Baron lunged with his cane-sword, and the Doctor deftly skipped forward, the blade missing her lower back by mere centimeters.
"A good one!" she cackled, riposting against the Cat's open left flank. Her smallsword tore a small gash in the Cat's tuxedo. "Not quite good enough!"
Haru, who was at the Black Cat's other side, gasped and threw a sideways lop, not so much to hurt the criminal as to get her attention away from the Baron. The Black Cat ducked under her blade and spun sideways, catching Haru on the thigh, slicing her a bloody furrow that made the young woman cry out and drop to a sitting position on the floor, her leg muscles bunching up as the hot blood spurted out of her flesh.
"Haru!" The Baron aimed a two-handed downward blow at his opponent's back. She sidestepped it, and they began to exchange a classical flurry which forced the Cat to withdraw a little.
Haru looked down at the bright red staining her leggings and hands. The Doctor had managed to catch her where there was no armoring. It's just a shallow cut! she told herself fiercely. A measly cut! You get up and help Baron! Now! But no amount of bravado could drown out the pain shooting up from her flesh.
She turned her attention to see the Black Cat falling to the floor. Baron had apparently hit her with a kick, as he was just returning his right leg to the ground. Then he had to turn his attention to Ayuma, who had recovered from being stunned and was about to attack Seiji and Shizuku even though she was still groggy.
Seizing her chance, Haru pounced on the head that was near to her. She twisted and rolled and got the Black Cat in a headlock and her legs tangled up with hers. It seemed that the assassin was unused to fighting on the ground, because her counter-moves were ineffectual. Had she claws, she could've scratched Haru's face and forced her to let go. But since she and the Baron weren't made with any...
At last! came a voice in Haru's mind, as the Black Cat scrabbled at her with her gloved hands. It was the same one that had frightened her in Fort Lorum. You've got her where you want her! This is it, Haru! She doesn't deserve Baron! Kill her!
A red haze began to color her vision, and blinded as she was by her rage and fear, Haru heeded the voice and began squeezing her arm tighter around the Black Cat's throat. Just a little more. She doesn't deserve Baron. If you take care of her now, she won't be able to hurt you or anyone else anymore. She doesn't deserve Baron.
"You don't deserve Baron," Haru began to parrot the voice in her brain. The Black Cat coughed, her struggles to free herself growing weaker. "You don't deserve him. I deserve him. You don't. You don't!" The triangle choke grew tighter.
Suddenly Haru found herself being torn away from her foe and pulled to her feet. Still mad with battle-lust, Haru fought the grip that held her, until two slaps landed on her cheeks and cleared the red haze from her eyes.
Baron was holding her by the waist with one hand, while the other was balled up in a fist.
"Are you quite through?" he asked, an icy expression in his eyes. His Abynissian foe lay stretched out on the floor behind him, unconscious, her tongue sticking out of her partially open mouth.
"I... I..." Haru put a hand to her cheek and turned away from the Baron. "I'm sorry," she blurted. "I don't know what came over me."
"Well, don't let it happen again," the Cat snapped at her. "This would all be for naught—"
A shriek coming from the tunnel at the other end of the Black Cat's chamber caused them to look. Sailing out of the unlit passage came Captain Loriel, and she landed on her back on the floor and bounced once. A spear was stuck in her chest.
They watched, stunned, as the Captain sat up and made as if to pull the spear from herself. Before she could do so, three more came flying out of the tunnel and hit her square on her trunk. With a cry of pain she fell back onto the floor.
The largest dog Haru had ever seen came walking out of the tunnel, straightening up before approaching the Captain. Another spear was in its hands, its gray fur was fluffed up, and anger—and a strange look of mingled regret and sorrow—burned in its pale eyes.
"You should have quit while you were ahead, Loriel!" it barked. "I really didn't want to hurt you, but you gave me no choice!" It stood over the prostrate cat, and buried its last weapon in the Captain's throat. She shuddered for a bit, then lay unmoving.
"Captain!" Baron and Haru exclaimed in unison, horrified. Before they could move, a large, fat white shape ran out of the tunnel and climbed straight up the dog's back. It was Muta, and he wasted no time in scratching the dog's eyes out.
"You bastard!" they heard him say as he hung on while the dog howled and twisted and tried to get his paws on him. "I'll kill you, Phaecis!"
With effort born out of desperation the Pirate King finally got his paws on Muta and flung him away. Muta landed on his feet and turned to face him.
"You murderer," he hissed. "I'll get you."
Phaecis touched his paws to his eyes and grimaced. There was blood, but at least he could still see. "I'm no murderer. She attacked me first."
"That's because your machines killed her crew!"
"Feh." The Husky assumed a ready stance as he began to circle Muta. "That's war, fattie. Don't like the heat, get out of the kitchen."
Muta grunted. "Speaking of kitchens, when this is over I'll eat everything on your table and leave you to the worms."
"Oh, really? That's hard to imagine, considering you'll never leave this place alive."
"Bad doggy, all bark and no bite," taunted Muta. "Don't make me hit you with a newspaper."
Phaecis snarled and lunged at him.
"Let's help Muta!" Haru urged as the two began to alternately attack and defend against each other.
"Right, let me just get Louise tied up—" The Baron turned.
The Black Cat was standing in one of the open cells in the rock wall. With a baleful light in her eyes she leapt, aiming to pierce Haru through the back of the chest with her sword.
Who can say what went through the Baron's mind in that eternal instant as he watched his former fiancée bearing down on his friend and lover? There are many alleyways, many branches and pathways of thought the mind can go through in making a decision. Whatever reason the Baron had for doing what he did, no one can ever say, and he has kept his peace since.
Haru felt herself shoved to one side. She lost her balance, and as she fell she turned. She watched the two collide in mid-air, and saw Louise's sword erupt from the Baron's back in a welter of blood. The Black Cat's eyes were also wide as her chest was pierced by the Baron's cane-blade.
"No!" she screamed as the two fell to earth. "Baron!" Her cry was taken up by Shizuku, who stood up and rushed from corner of the room where they had been keeping herself and Seiji.
Haru rushed to the fallen Cat's side, ignoring the pain in her leg, the warm gush of her blood. She took him and heaved him up onto her lap, careful not to move the Black Cat's smallsword, which was still imbedded in his chest. He was strangely heavy and stiff to the touch.
"Baron," she keened, as her universe suddenly contracted into a tiny space enclosing her, the Cat, and Louise. The sounds of battle faded out, and suddenly things seemed oddly peaceful and quiet. "Baron, you idiot. Why'd you have to go and do this?"
The Cat's eyes were closed, and she feared he was already dead, until he opened them again and looked up at her.
"Haru..." he whispered. "Guess I'm getting too slow at my age."
"Oh, stop talking, will you?" she replied, her hopes flickering for an instant to life at his words. If he could still joke...
"We did it, in a way," he persisted. "We saved Louise. She'll never be hurt anymore." He sighed a little, and a gout of incarnadine blood trickled out the side of his mouth and ran down his furred cheek. "And this is my reckoning, for all I've done in my life."
"What are you talking about? Don't move," she scolded him as he raised a hand and touched the side of her face. "Maybe Shizuku-sensei can help you."
"No. Don't let her. Too dangerous." The Cat caressed her cheek. "I must ask a favor of you."
"Name it. Anything." A hand touched Haru's shoulder, and by it she knew Shizuku was kneeling beside her.
"If you..." The Baron coughed, and bright red spattered onto his ginger fur. "If you have any... love left for me, you will see to it that Louise and I... Louise and I will always be together."
Haru blinked away the tears welling up in her eyes. "I will. I will!"
"Thank you. Stop crying, both of you. You're both free now. Do as you will." The Cat dropped his hand and slowly turned to face his beloved, who was already dead. "Louise," he said, his voice almost inaudible, "I never even had the chance to say goodbye to you. My love, sleep in the winter..." Suddenly he pushed himself towards her and gave her a kiss, further impaling himself on her sword. His eyes went wide, and his body grew still. A sharp crack sounded deep inside the Cat's chest, but even though she heard it, it was a long time before Haru could bring herself to comprehend that he was gone.