TOUCHING GOD

"In this world, there will always be three Oracles."

Leanna practically shuddered at her own words, feeling nothing, or, perhaps, something at them. They were spoken with such hushed and vaguely harsh tones, riddled with mystery and a strange sense of impending doom. That whispered truth seemed wrapped in a dark sense of foreboding.

She looked down to her hands, pale under their scarlet stain.

It dripped to the earth.

Leanna ran her fingers together, over the still warm crimson. The liquid remained just as fresh and as temperate as the man she had taken it from. It was the blood of the warrior, the blood of the samurai. He had been a worthy adversary, and the blood spilt had been hard owned. There lingered the unearthly feeling of having struck down a god in the sweetness of that sickly strike of hers, deep into his flesh.

God.

No. He was no god. Leanna saw that now. He was but a witch.

His blade slashed through her, straight through her flesh and done to the bone with a deadly, meaty crunch. The burning metal sliced through her with little effort, searing down through to the core. And, yet, she felt nothing more than the actual cut its self. Leanna welcomed the slashing, driving blow, closing her eyes and arching her back towards it.

Strange emotions.

Did she want herself dead?

Leanna had never contemplated such things.

Suicide was a waste of time and the resources put into her.

"You can't."

Time seemed to sing to her, crooning sweetly and sickly in her ear. Leanna couldn't believe it at first, but the voices came to her just as surely as any other. They spoke in frail and whispered tones, hanging on the wind and the very gossamer fabric of the universe. And only Leanna could understand their secret language.

"You are far more important."

xxxx

"Damn."

Leanna opened her eyes with a cracked caution. The girl mentally chastised herself for having falling asleep in her perch, dozing just ever so slightly with the sinking of the sun in the east. She had grown too comfortable with all this. Sure, Leanna had the upper hand, knowing exactly how everything would play out, but that didn't mean the assassin could let her guard down for but a moment.

She yawned wide and stretched each and every one of her muscles, tense from sitting still for so very long. Leanna could wait longer; she knew she could. But, on the same token, Leanna knew she didn't have to. They were coming for her.

All she need do was wait.

xxxx

"This doesn't smell right."

Nycole snickered to herself and gave Sakaki a slight slap on the arm. "It smells like cherry flowers, and you know it."

Sakaki shook his head. "That's not what I meant."

The empath didn't need Haruto's input to know something felt off in the group. In truth, the girl didn't even need her gifts and Craft to know it. They were quiet, morose and somber. The Thirteen had held their tongues for close to the entire day, saying only exactly that which had to be said. They spent the day lounging about a hotel room uneasily, sitting around and planning, plotting, preparing. And, yet, somehow, all felt that no manners of preparation could truly ready them to face Kathain again.

And, now, they were back, back in the Mall, following her trail from the Reflecting Pool back up to the woods. It actually took them some time to find her path, amidst the footsteps and tell tale signs of the millions of tourists from the day. And, yet, there it remained, refreshed even. Kathain had been there, maybe three or four hours before them, skulking about the grounds.

Amon knew exactly what to do. He just wished Karasuma were there. Miho would just have reached down, touched the foot prints, and scryed into Kathain's mind. Simple. And, yet, they just couldn't.

Kristo seemed to understand; he glanced up to Nycole. "Would you?"

The girl nodded slowly, solemnly. She looked unhappy, as if reluctant and unsure of herself. The empath didn't seem pleased at all with the thought of reaching into Kathain's mind, but it was a necessary evil. They needed Nycole to do this one, simple thing. She would oblige, grudgingly so, out of honor and loyalty to the Thirteen, to her friends. The telepath knelt down, placing a tender hand upon the tracks, trying to avoid disturbing the prints in any way, shape, or form.

She closed her eyes, feeling her mind unfold.

'Kathain.'

Nycole's brow furrowed, feeling around for her friend, for Kathain's consciousness in the grand scheme of things in the universe.

'No.'

The universe screamed back in reply.

'Leanna.'

The world shuddered that word. It was a name, a person, a being and consciousness. It was the newest birth, the first and last, so it seemed. Even the world and all minds encompassed together seemed to be coalesced on this one thought.

'Oracle. Hunter. Assassin. Killer.'

Nycole's stomach turned sour at the last word. Kathain was no killer, no murder. But, she was no longer Kathain. She was Leanna. Who knew is Leanna was capable of such things that Kathain was not? Wo knew what Zaizen had changed within Kathain when he bastardized that spritish girl into the creature known by all life and existence as Leanna? How much could one man have destroyed?

'Find them. Eliminate them.'

"Leanna!" Nycole's eyes snapped open in a flash as she jumped in shock and horror.

"What?"Brett blurted out.

The empath didn't waste any time scrambling back to her feet and glancing around; her blue eyes flitting this way and that, scanning each and every shadow. "Leanna. She's here, somewhere." Nycole's voice wavered with surprising urgency and terror. "Where are you, Leanna?"

Sakaki grabbed her shoulder suddenly, squeezing it sharply. "Stop. Explain."

"Leanna. Kathain." Nycole shook her head, tossling her coppery locks in a sudden swish of her head. "Leanna is Kathain. Or, at least, what's left of her."

"What do we do?" Sakaki inquired softly, his fingertips brushing against her cheek.

"We pray."

xxxx

"They are coming."

Leanna watched.

The empath, damn her, she already seemed to know. With one, casual touch of her fingers and her mind, that red head had figured out so very much so very quickly. No matter. The assassin could work around that.

But they were drawing near already, sooner than anticipated.

Leanna drew in a deep breath and left her perch.

Things were in motion now.

xxxx

"She's here…."

Nycole stumbled this way and that, tottering on uneasy legs. To any passerby, her ungainly motions, with her arms stretched out in front of her, would have looked like the swaggering walk of a drunkard. But, to those that knew her, to those that were sensitive, they could see the glaring difference. Nycole held her hands up, palms outward, feeling about and probing with both her hands and her mind, searching, ever hunting.

Kristo drew his sakabatto from the shadows, resting the weight easily in one hand and keeping it ready. "Get ready."

"Where is she?" Amon asked of no one, drawing his own pistol.

"Right here." A sinister voice gave the answer as a shadow dropped down from the trees directly in the center of them.

Nycole screamed as a hand shot out of the night and grabbed her, dragging her back and into the night, back and away from this interloper. She opened her eyes and calmed instantly, seeing that Kristo had just jerked her through the night back to his side. He stood at a sharp attention, every muscle on edge and ready for this second encounter. Kristo would not allow himself to be taken as he had the first time. This time, Kristo meant business.

But Nycole slammed her weight hard forward, shrugging off his hold. "Leanna!"

The shadow turned, cocking its head to one side. "Who asks?"

"I do. Oracle to the Thirteen!" Nycole cried out.

The form stood tall, as if considering this. "Oracle…"

Something flashed in the night. There was a quick motion in the night, in the dark and the nothingness of the void.

"LEANNA!"

xxxx

Um…. Meeting time?