Truce & Pursuit

As Zappa's mind sank into dark unconsciousness, his body went completely limp and started to collapse. But before he could hit the grass, something unseen caught him in midair, keeping him suspended for a moment. Every muscle in his body suddenly tensed to its limit with a harsh jolt, and his back arched in agony. A scream tore itself out of his chest.

Necro saw his opponent vulnerable, and tried to smash the wiry-looking young man into the ground with one giant clawed fist.

Zappa somehow threw himself out of the way, though he had been writhing in pain just a moment before. Eyeing him with its hungry red gaze, but this time with greater caution, the black wing drew back, folding himself against the woman's body. Zappa twitched, then flopped forward to face the monster. His eyes had rolled back into his head, making them seem blankly white.

"I'LL CURSE THAT DOCTOR STRAIGHT TO HELL! EVERYTHING'S RUINED!" an impossibly high-pitched, piercing voice came out of his mouth. He took notice to his attacker for the first time. "AND YOU… DIIEEE!"

Something invisible seemed to grab him from behind, and then he went flying, hurled across clearing to slam into the creature. He hit with much greater force than Necro had expected; both he and the woman crashed painfully into the trunk of a large tree as they were thrown backwards.

Zappa laughed in that same maniacal, shrieking voice. He had risen from the ground and was crawling menacingly towards the winged woman.

As she rose to her feet, stumbling slightly, her white wing began to unfurl. The pale face of a beautiful woman rose gracefully out of the feathers. Undine, the white wing's spirit, had awoken as well. Extending one delicately fingered hand, a spear of ice exploded out from her palm, flying straight at Zappa. But before it could hit him, a figure suddenly materialized just in front of the young man and the projectile shattered where it touched it. The demon controlling him was revealed. He was the puppet, and here was the master.

The figure was the thin, frail figure of a young woman wasted away to the bone. Her skin looked waxy and corpselike, and filthy, damp black hair hung in front of her face, obscuring it completely. The nightgown she wore looked old and stained. But S-Ko emanated such an aura of pure hatred and evil that both the woman's wing-spirits focused carefully on her.

"What are you?" Undine's voice was like a harp. She shielded the woman with her pearly, soft feathers from the pollution of the evil spirit.

"TWO HUNDRED YEARS OF PAIN," Zappa stood shakily behind S-Ko's semi-transparent form, his mouth forming her words. "YOU WILL FEEL IT, TOO." Suddenly, she seemed to lose all reason.

"NOW DIE AND ROT, YOU BITCH!" She cursed just before disappearing.

Zappa was advancing again, and while the image of S-Ko had been distracting both wings, he'd summoned a weapon.

A giant, bloody sword was floating ominously in the air next to him He was grinning as he jumped skyward, and the blade danced airborne around him before it turned and flew eagerly at its opponent. Far too quickly to see, it lashed out and sliced into flesh.

There was a soft cry; the woman herself and not her two protectors had been hit this time. Her long tail suddenly whipped out from behind her, knocking Zappa's blade away just as it was spinning around him for another attack. Like a black python, it coiled itself around his now exposed neck. She drew him in close, and squeezed down harder as he started to struggle.

The woman's angelic face remained blank as always, eyes closed. It was Necro that spoke, his red eyes blazing from somewhere within their deep sockets in his skull's face.

"Truce," he growled.

Zappa's laughter cut as keenly with derision as the sword's edge, but he stopped writhing for a moment and turned his white eyes towards the robed creature.

"WHAT MAKES YOU THINK I'LL EVEN LET YOU LIVE?" he sneered.

"Kill, kill together," the low rumbling voice answered. "You and I. Kill Humans."

"NO!" Undine shrieked, enraged. Her beautiful flawless face twisted into a snarl as she savagely lunged at the young man still strangled helpless by the neck. Necro's black claw stretched impossibly far, knocking her aside. His eyes were burning again, this time at the scent of victory.

A second pair of arms, pale and veined, sprouted out of Zappa's shoulders and wrenched him free of the tail. He hit the ground with a thud, facedown in the dirt.

"TRUCE ACCEPTED…" his muffled voice rose from the ground as he began to laugh. Standing directly above him, the woman remained motionless as her two wing spirits thrashed and clawed at each other. They were too preoccupied to see the starved, cadaverous figure appear behind them within the trees.

As S-Ko walked slowly towards them, her dirty black hair parted in the middle, revealing a yellowed, toothy smile.

"YESSSS…." Zappa said, now in gales of hysterical laughter.

Reaching out with one bony hand, the demon grabbed hold of a handful of Undine's lustrous white feathers. For one instant, the two ethereal entities' faces met, one contorted by her sadistic glee, the other by terror.

Then S-Ko's dirty nails raked down the pure white mass of feathers, stripping them away to reveal lines of blood. Her victim's mouth opened wide in a silent scream; she quivered under the force of the curse, every feather standing on end, before her face sank into them once more. The white wing crumpled into itself, raw and bloody, and moved no more.

Necro and S-Ko turned to face each other. The deed was done. The two dark creatures looked and saw the other's true name. They understood.

Just as the black-robed creature melted into the velvety dark feathers, the frail woman standing behind him faded away, leaving nothing but a cold gust of wind in her wake.

The only one left standing in the clearing was the blue haired woman, her brow furrowed in vague worry and arms folded around herself protectively. She sank to her knees, then slid down to the ground before she fell into a deep sleep, her ragged white wing draped over her. Zappa lay exhausted and still as death where he'd fallen a few feet away.

Both their demons were at peace… for now.

"Gruesome…" was the only comment the city constable could make. She looked pale and slightly green despite all her years of police experience. Adjusting her wire-rimmed spectacles with one finger, she closed the door behind her.

"Unthinkable," the sheriff added, his old face lined with worry. "There's no way... it's inhuman."

The home where the crime had taken place had been cordoned off with a makeshift wire fence, officers stationed at each corner. On the outside it seemed tranquil enough. That's why the door and windows remained pointedly shut.

Both the constable and sheriff stood outside in the bright sun, uncomfortably close to the front door. They'd just toured the inside of the house, and were not anxious to go back in. As they watched the horizon, the figure they'd been urgently expecting suddenly appeared over the crest of a hill.

Ky Kiske, head of the Sacred Order of Holy Knights, had been riding on horseback through most of the night. As soon as he dismounted next to the scene in question, local police officers stumbled over themselves to take his mount and replace it with a fresh one.

"Oh, thank God… he's finally here," the sheriff muttered under his breath.

The constable wasn't quite so relieved. She studied the young knight as he strode towards them; he seemed much too young to be able to fill his prestigious position. Still, the immaculate state of the young man's white-and-blue overcoat, clothes, and hair, combined with the look of deadly seriousness that seemed carved into his face gave out an aura of complete control.

"Officer Kiske?" the constable questioned as he stopped in front of her, one hand resting lightly on the hilt of his sword. He nodded.

"Please, let's go inside quickly," he said briefly. "From what I've been able to learn so far, time may still be on our side."

"Of course," she complied, though she was anything but eager to re-enter the house.

The constable led the way with Ky and the sheriff in tow. The worn, wooden front door creaked threateningly as she pushed it open. Once they all were inside, she quickly closed it behind them. The three of them simply stood quietly for a moment. The draped windows only allowed barely enough light to see the scene of carnage.

"You were right to send for me," Ky said softly, his voice a great deal less confident than it had been just a moment before. "Yes, completely right…"

Though the entryway looked completely clean, blood had been splattered over each of the living room's four walls, floor, and – defying all reason – the ceiling. The floor rug in the center of the room had been soaked with it, erasing its previous color and turning it into a patch of darkness. Two of the reported four victims were supposedly in this room, though how the coroners came to that conclusion was unknown. Quite a few more than two dark masses of flesh were visible thrown around the floor. Some looked like they'd been cleanly severed from their respective owner's bodies; others looked like they'd been torn off and gnawed at. Some were simply so mutilated that all attempts at analysis failed.

"A human simply lacks the magnitude of strength and violence that would be needed to kill someone in this way," the knight continued, trying to make as much sense of the scene as he could.

"What could it have been? A Gear!" the old sheriff exclaimed.

"It's possible… you're certain it wasn't some sort of animal?" Ky demanded.

"Absolutely. Our eyewitness clearly saw that it was a man that walked out of the house," the constable stated.

"It may have been a Gear; that narrows the list of suspects quite a bit… it could have been a breed of heteromorph… it could have even been a Nightwalker, though very few still exist," the gears in Ky's mind were moving, "… and no motive to speak of?"

"None." The constable said coolly despite their situation. "The only thing we've managed to glean is that it was probably a stranger. A random act of violence. Some neighbors reported that they'd been warned earlier that day that a dangerous stranger would be passing through town and to stay indoors."

"Then another question we have to answer is 'who gave the warning?'" Ky wondered out loud. "I am going to recommend that you start tracking down this other person back here while I search for the murderer."

"You're crazy, you know that?" the sheriff interrupted quietly. He was staring at one of the dark patches on the floor. "Going after something that could do this…"

Ky didn't respond at first. In the dim, gloomy light of the house, his gold hair and sky-blue eyes only seemed to shine the brighter.

"It doesn't matter how powerful they are," he said, steely determination leaking into his voice. "Crimes like these will not go unpunished."

-Author's Note-

Yes, this chapter is one of the reasons why my fic has a "T" rating. One of many. XD

For some reason, I decided that S-Ko would have foul mouth…it was inspired a little bit by the girl from "The Exorcist", I guess. I hope you're still enjoying my fic (assuming that's why you're still reading it, anyway). I loved being able to fit Ky into here; I'm almost as fond of him as I am of poor, cute Zappa. He'll be showing up a few more times along with some other characters.

Again, thanks for reading!