ROSETTA: GUARDIAN REBORN CHRONICLES
She had no idea what song it was she was humming. All Chloe knew was that she tapped a steady rhythm with her foot. She concentrated on paring the green mangoes piled in front of her. She could not wait to eat them all. Chloe lifted her fingers and tasted the juice. It was deliciously sour. The taste could jar her awake more than a large mug of coffee could.
Lex was across from her. He had five yellow mangoes sliced up on a plate in front of him. The rich sweet juice made an attractive puddle at the center of the plate. He filled the air with trivia questions that made Chloe furrow her brow and look very appealing.
"Can you tell me for what purpose women for centuries have consumed more than fifty percent of the world's green mango supply?" he asked.
Again, that wonderful pondering expression. "For feasts?"
"No."
"How, Lex?"
"Pregnancy craving," he answered easily. "It's the most popular choice in tropical climates."
Chloe shifted her gaze from the mangoes to Lex. When he grinned at her, she averted her eyes and swallowed uncomfortably. "Interesting." Chloe picked up a knife and started cutting off pieces of the green mango. "Did you.. uh.. Did you notice anything odd about Clark lately?"
Lex caught on to the shift. He tried to make her at ease by assuming a light tone. "There's always been something off about your best friend."
"My best friend!" she repeated, smiling. "Aren't you the guy he's spent more time with the past year?"
"An excellent point," he acknowledged.
"Anyway, he was so mad about what he supposed was my snooping around his family one minute and the next, he pulls this Jekyll and Hyde thing on me. I swear that that guy changes so much so abruptly in one day that someday I won't recognize him!" Chloe related in disbelief. "He asked for my help locating Swann as if he hadn't just yelled at me."
Lex shook his head and set the mangoes on a tray. The two of them walked into the library. "And the little boy pretending to be a young man reveals himself yet again," he commented.
Chloe opened the door as he walked in with the tray. They settled on the stuffy couch they adored to sit quietly on whenever they were there reading. Lex continued, "I found him in the cave before dawn. I'm beginning to suspect that Clark has this huge secret he doesn't want the world to know about-"
"You've always suspected that," she told him with a wry grin.
Lex nodded. A sly curve of his lips alerted Chloe to an impending line. "- or Clark's seeing someone that Jonathan wouldn't approve of."
"Lex!" Chloe gasped. "You're sick!"
The two of them share a naughty bout of laughter. On impulse, Lex caught her by the upper arms and pulled her to him. Chloe turned her face up so that they would be in the perfect angle for a kiss. He cupped her nape and gently kissed the corner of her mouth, deepening the kiss and nipping her lower lip as they progressed. Chloe ran her hands over his head as his firm lips moved to her neck and behind her ears.
"Hmmm," she moaned.
The soft sound made Lex jerk up and away from her. Chloe opened her eyes. She had not been intimate with Lex since the scare, and she was not prepared to see how far they could go right now. Not this early. Not without actually talking about it with him. She was thankful that he had the strength to stop because she doubted she would have been able to. She would have just hated herself afterwards.
Chloe sat up and reached for a large slice of green mango. She stuffed the whole piece into her mouth and scrunched her face at the explosion of sourness. Having effectively killed the excitement that Lex stirred in her, Chloe stood and walked over to the desk where a pile of shiny reading material lay.
"Oh! Oh! Oh!" Chloe let out as she recognized them.
Lex took a deep breath. "So you've heard the rumors too?"
"Are you insane?" she gasped. "Everyone's talking about Rosetta! And these are pre-released editions." Chloe touched the comic books reverently.
"Yeah. I pulled Stahl out of retirement for the Guardian Reborn series."
Chloe beamed at him. It more than made up for the ridiculous price he had to pay for the man to work again. "Oh I love you!"
"It's supposed to chronicle the opposite side of Warrior Angel. You've wondered so much about the background story that I contacted the creator himself. I absolutely did not give him directions about what to write. Rosetta: Guardian Reborn will be purely his work. Let's see how correct you were about what happened to Devilicus before the change."
"You mean you haven't read them yet?" Chloe asked, teary-eyed.
"Without you? You're kidding me."
Chloe hugged the comic books to her chest and made her way back to Lex. She flopped right beside him and learned against his body. He lifted his arm and laid it across her shoulders. Chloe opened the first book and for the meantime, both forgot about reservations and distances to be established.
"Rosetta: Guadian Reborn Chronicles," she read excitedly. "Volume 1"
They leafed through the pages silently.
Devilicus swam in clear water. He dove deep into the water and just stayed underneath. He saw the vast emptiness and grabbed his throat as he started to drown. When the water transformed into blood, Devilicus stopped struggling and opened his arms wide. The density of the blood propelled him upwards. The last frame for the introduction showed him floating on his back, his arms thrown open, drenched in blood and his eyes closed against the sun.
For the first time in dozens of issues, Chloe spotted the guardian that had always intrigued her. This issue though, the blonde guardian was not a faint image in the background. A circular panel at the center of the third page had the face inked in clear perfection.
"She looks a bit like me," she said wryly, looking up at Lex.
"I only said I didn't influence the story. I didn't say I made no requests about how your favorite background character should look like."
Stahl had finally named her. At the start of the real story, which was the first conscious world event of the comic since the first panes were Devilicus' dream sequence, Eurydice stood in front of figured cloaked in gold.
"I can offer you no assurance," she told them. "But I am willing to make the effort. If you will only allow me." Drawn in full figure, Eurydice's hair reached the small of her back and she was clothed in a white version of the dress that Chloe wore to Lex's first marriage.
"What you are asking of us," one of the cloaked figures replied, "will disrupt the universe. Why should we grant you this? More importantly, why must we grant Devilicus this chance? He is choosing to betray his roots."
"If you do not risk this then you are putting the universe in greater danger," she replied passionately. "I know Devilicus. You know the extent of his powers. He can destroy you all if he wants to. One rift in the universe of my passing from this plane to the living is nothing compared to saving one of your best Guardians from a fall from grace."
"Very well, Eurydice. One week."
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, overwhelmed by her gratitude and relief. She felt herself surrounded by a million lights that she was almost blinded even with closed eyes. The next moment that she opened them, she found herself in a dark alley.
Eurydice picked up her flowing dress to lift the hem from the damp ground. From a distance she saw his figure emerge. Her heart skipped, only her heart did not really beat anymore. He was still larger than life, more beautiful than any male had a right to be.
"Devilicus!" she called out.
Eurydice ran towards him and stopped a few feet away. Devilicus was heading towards a guardian whose back was turned to him. She glimpsed his shining fist.
"No, Dev. Don't," she whispered.
Yet Devilicus did not turn to her. He said the guardian's name. When the other guardian turned to face him, Devilicus lifted his fist. Eurydice rushed between them. If he saw her, he would stop. Devilicus only needed to see her to come back from whatever hell was clouding his vision.
The smoldering fist went straight through her heart and buried deep into the other guardian's body. Eurydice looked down, defeated. He did not even feel her presence. She felt herself disintegrate slowly into the phantom she truly was.
He did not even feel her. His anger had consumed him.
She had six days to figure out how to make him see her in this form.
The last page has another one of Warrior Angel's famous endings. It was a full page color illustration of Eurydice looking up at the sky, one crystal tear halfway down her cheek. The thought bubble read, "I traded heaven for this. Why couldn't you even feel me, Dev?"
Chloe closed the first issue of Rosetta slowly and sighed. She laid the comic book down on the table and burrowed deeper into Lex's side. Lex tightened his arm around her. "Are you okay?"
She shook her head. "It was so sad. For the person you love to forget you. I wouldn't have been able to live with that."
"Don't you see, Chloe? He didn't forget. He was merely too blinded by his hatred that he never felt her."
"And that's the same as forgetting," she rationalized. "To think she exchanged heaven for that."
"I don't know," he replied. "Whether he recognized her or not, whether he even knew someone was there or not. It doesn't matter. It would still be heaven for me, no matter how much it will hurt me, if I can still see you."
"That's where we're different then, Lex."
"Why do you say that?"
"Being with you, and you not remembering us, would be the most painful hell for me. I'd rather that I not be with you at all."
The words worried Lex, although he did not understand why. Instead he shook his head again and dropped a kiss on top of her head. "Well then aren't you glad we're both ordinary humans? I won't fall from the sky. You wouldn't need to leave heaven to save me."
Chloe extricated herself from the embrace just enough to look up at him. Lex was prepared to match her grin. But she was looking intently at him. "Deal," was all she said.
She had no idea what song it was she was humming. All Chloe knew was that she tapped a steady rhythm with her foot. She concentrated on paring the green mangoes piled in front of her. She could not wait to eat them all. Chloe lifted her fingers and tasted the juice. It was deliciously sour. The taste could jar her awake more than a large mug of coffee could.
Lex was across from her. He had five yellow mangoes sliced up on a plate in front of him. The rich sweet juice made an attractive puddle at the center of the plate. He filled the air with trivia questions that made Chloe furrow her brow and look very appealing.
"Can you tell me for what purpose women for centuries have consumed more than fifty percent of the world's green mango supply?" he asked.
Again, that wonderful pondering expression. "For feasts?"
"No."
"How, Lex?"
"Pregnancy craving," he answered easily. "It's the most popular choice in tropical climates."
Chloe shifted her gaze from the mangoes to Lex. When he grinned at her, she averted her eyes and swallowed uncomfortably. "Interesting." Chloe picked up a knife and started cutting off pieces of the green mango. "Did you.. uh.. Did you notice anything odd about Clark lately?"
Lex caught on to the shift. He tried to make her at ease by assuming a light tone. "There's always been something off about your best friend."
"My best friend!" she repeated, smiling. "Aren't you the guy he's spent more time with the past year?"
"An excellent point," he acknowledged.
"Anyway, he was so mad about what he supposed was my snooping around his family one minute and the next, he pulls this Jekyll and Hyde thing on me. I swear that that guy changes so much so abruptly in one day that someday I won't recognize him!" Chloe related in disbelief. "He asked for my help locating Swann as if he hadn't just yelled at me."
Lex shook his head and set the mangoes on a tray. The two of them walked into the library. "And the little boy pretending to be a young man reveals himself yet again," he commented.
Chloe opened the door as he walked in with the tray. They settled on the stuffy couch they adored to sit quietly on whenever they were there reading. Lex continued, "I found him in the cave before dawn. I'm beginning to suspect that Clark has this huge secret he doesn't want the world to know about-"
"You've always suspected that," she told him with a wry grin.
Lex nodded. A sly curve of his lips alerted Chloe to an impending line. "- or Clark's seeing someone that Jonathan wouldn't approve of."
"Lex!" Chloe gasped. "You're sick!"
The two of them share a naughty bout of laughter. On impulse, Lex caught her by the upper arms and pulled her to him. Chloe turned her face up so that they would be in the perfect angle for a kiss. He cupped her nape and gently kissed the corner of her mouth, deepening the kiss and nipping her lower lip as they progressed. Chloe ran her hands over his head as his firm lips moved to her neck and behind her ears.
"Hmmm," she moaned.
The soft sound made Lex jerk up and away from her. Chloe opened her eyes. She had not been intimate with Lex since the scare, and she was not prepared to see how far they could go right now. Not this early. Not without actually talking about it with him. She was thankful that he had the strength to stop because she doubted she would have been able to. She would have just hated herself afterwards.
Chloe sat up and reached for a large slice of green mango. She stuffed the whole piece into her mouth and scrunched her face at the explosion of sourness. Having effectively killed the excitement that Lex stirred in her, Chloe stood and walked over to the desk where a pile of shiny reading material lay.
"Oh! Oh! Oh!" Chloe let out as she recognized them.
Lex took a deep breath. "So you've heard the rumors too?"
"Are you insane?" she gasped. "Everyone's talking about Rosetta! And these are pre-released editions." Chloe touched the comic books reverently.
"Yeah. I pulled Stahl out of retirement for the Guardian Reborn series."
Chloe beamed at him. It more than made up for the ridiculous price he had to pay for the man to work again. "Oh I love you!"
"It's supposed to chronicle the opposite side of Warrior Angel. You've wondered so much about the background story that I contacted the creator himself. I absolutely did not give him directions about what to write. Rosetta: Guardian Reborn will be purely his work. Let's see how correct you were about what happened to Devilicus before the change."
"You mean you haven't read them yet?" Chloe asked, teary-eyed.
"Without you? You're kidding me."
Chloe hugged the comic books to her chest and made her way back to Lex. She flopped right beside him and learned against his body. He lifted his arm and laid it across her shoulders. Chloe opened the first book and for the meantime, both forgot about reservations and distances to be established.
"Rosetta: Guadian Reborn Chronicles," she read excitedly. "Volume 1"
They leafed through the pages silently.
Devilicus swam in clear water. He dove deep into the water and just stayed underneath. He saw the vast emptiness and grabbed his throat as he started to drown. When the water transformed into blood, Devilicus stopped struggling and opened his arms wide. The density of the blood propelled him upwards. The last frame for the introduction showed him floating on his back, his arms thrown open, drenched in blood and his eyes closed against the sun.
For the first time in dozens of issues, Chloe spotted the guardian that had always intrigued her. This issue though, the blonde guardian was not a faint image in the background. A circular panel at the center of the third page had the face inked in clear perfection.
"She looks a bit like me," she said wryly, looking up at Lex.
"I only said I didn't influence the story. I didn't say I made no requests about how your favorite background character should look like."
Stahl had finally named her. At the start of the real story, which was the first conscious world event of the comic since the first panes were Devilicus' dream sequence, Eurydice stood in front of figured cloaked in gold.
"I can offer you no assurance," she told them. "But I am willing to make the effort. If you will only allow me." Drawn in full figure, Eurydice's hair reached the small of her back and she was clothed in a white version of the dress that Chloe wore to Lex's first marriage.
"What you are asking of us," one of the cloaked figures replied, "will disrupt the universe. Why should we grant you this? More importantly, why must we grant Devilicus this chance? He is choosing to betray his roots."
"If you do not risk this then you are putting the universe in greater danger," she replied passionately. "I know Devilicus. You know the extent of his powers. He can destroy you all if he wants to. One rift in the universe of my passing from this plane to the living is nothing compared to saving one of your best Guardians from a fall from grace."
"Very well, Eurydice. One week."
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, overwhelmed by her gratitude and relief. She felt herself surrounded by a million lights that she was almost blinded even with closed eyes. The next moment that she opened them, she found herself in a dark alley.
Eurydice picked up her flowing dress to lift the hem from the damp ground. From a distance she saw his figure emerge. Her heart skipped, only her heart did not really beat anymore. He was still larger than life, more beautiful than any male had a right to be.
"Devilicus!" she called out.
Eurydice ran towards him and stopped a few feet away. Devilicus was heading towards a guardian whose back was turned to him. She glimpsed his shining fist.
"No, Dev. Don't," she whispered.
Yet Devilicus did not turn to her. He said the guardian's name. When the other guardian turned to face him, Devilicus lifted his fist. Eurydice rushed between them. If he saw her, he would stop. Devilicus only needed to see her to come back from whatever hell was clouding his vision.
The smoldering fist went straight through her heart and buried deep into the other guardian's body. Eurydice looked down, defeated. He did not even feel her presence. She felt herself disintegrate slowly into the phantom she truly was.
He did not even feel her. His anger had consumed him.
She had six days to figure out how to make him see her in this form.
The last page has another one of Warrior Angel's famous endings. It was a full page color illustration of Eurydice looking up at the sky, one crystal tear halfway down her cheek. The thought bubble read, "I traded heaven for this. Why couldn't you even feel me, Dev?"
Chloe closed the first issue of Rosetta slowly and sighed. She laid the comic book down on the table and burrowed deeper into Lex's side. Lex tightened his arm around her. "Are you okay?"
She shook her head. "It was so sad. For the person you love to forget you. I wouldn't have been able to live with that."
"Don't you see, Chloe? He didn't forget. He was merely too blinded by his hatred that he never felt her."
"And that's the same as forgetting," she rationalized. "To think she exchanged heaven for that."
"I don't know," he replied. "Whether he recognized her or not, whether he even knew someone was there or not. It doesn't matter. It would still be heaven for me, no matter how much it will hurt me, if I can still see you."
"That's where we're different then, Lex."
"Why do you say that?"
"Being with you, and you not remembering us, would be the most painful hell for me. I'd rather that I not be with you at all."
The words worried Lex, although he did not understand why. Instead he shook his head again and dropped a kiss on top of her head. "Well then aren't you glad we're both ordinary humans? I won't fall from the sky. You wouldn't need to leave heaven to save me."
Chloe extricated herself from the embrace just enough to look up at him. Lex was prepared to match her grin. But she was looking intently at him. "Deal," was all she said.