Return of the Master

Daniella sat on the stone floor, bleeding and sobbing, looking at the crashed and broken elevator before her, eyes wide with horror. Slowly, she realized the terrible fact that she'd have to live with for the rest of her life...

She was a murderer. She had intentionally killed a person.

She tried to keep it in, but she couldn't anymore... she wailed loudly, a scream of suffering and despair. This was who she was. A killer. This was the last straw. She didn't care about her identity anymore, didn't care about who the master was, about Fiona, Riccardo, Poppy... Poppy...

She had just thought about it... had she killed her only friend? When she had last seen him, he'd been on the top of the elevator. But a worried bark answered her from above, and she saw the dog looking down at her and pacing back and forth on one of the iron girders. He must have jumped off... She knew that Poppy would be better off here, with people who cared for him. Not with her, not where she was going...

She painfully dragged herself to her feet, feeling the adrenaline pumping through her. She knew if it weren't for that, she probably wouldn't be able to move right now. She limped over to the ladder, feeling the blood drain out of her with each passing second. She had to get out of this house. If she was going to die, it wouldn't be in this place. She began climbing the ladder, her whole body shaking violently, her breath seeming to run out. She was determined to get out of this house if it was the last thing she did. She climbed up next to the doors of the first floor and pressed the emergency open button to the right side.

Daniella didn't take a look back at Poppy as he barked in sorrow, watching her leave him. She knew she wouldn't be able to handle it... after all he'd done for her, she was abandoning him. The doors slid open and she stepped through them. She began moving as fast as she could for the exit, running in a blind haze, allowing no other thoughts to enter her mind. There was no doubt to her now that she was going to die, and she wanted to at least escape this place first. She ran through the atrium, not noticing the water that still flowed around her feet.

She felt her warm blood pulsing through the hand that she'd placed on the wound in her side. She didn't have much longer. She shoved open the glass doors in the atrium and ran through the dark hallway, heading for the foyer. She passed the operating room, but didn't spare a thought to Fiona and Riccardo. She just kept running, feeling her life slowly slipping away from her. She was almost there... just a little bit more...

The foyer opened up ahead of her, she saw it at the end of the hall, getting larger and larger. She was almost out... it was within arm's reach... Daniella burst into the foyer, standing in one spot for a moment, then heading determinedly for the main doors, the way out, they were right there... when suddenly, she ran into somebody.

Somebody was holding her, catching her, trapping her. She yelled with all she had, tried to swing at the person. They weren't going to let her escape after all. She was going to die here. Slowly she stopped struggling, giving up, not having the strength to fight anymore. The man's soothing voice came to her ears.

"Oh my god... what happened to you?"

Daniella recognized the voice at once. She knew where she'd heard it before... the master had arrived. This was the man for whom she'd been searching.

She looked up into the man's face. He had red hair, which ran back so that it looked like fire. His eyes were very intense, his eyebrows very sharp... she had seen him in the painting... it was as if he'd stepped right out of it. Daniella looked into his eyes. If she couldn't escape, then at least she wanted to know the truth...

"Who am I?" she gasped, pleading. "Who am I?"

The man looked down her body, examining her wounds, her blood-stained clothes. He shook his head, then looked back up at her.

"Forgive me for not introducing myself. My name is Aureolus Leonardo Belli... and you, my dear, are my wife."

His... wife? Her head spun, trying to comprehend this. What did he want with her? Would she be in this house forever? She felt pressure pushing on her from all sides, the black fog once again encroaching on her vision. It was too much, and she couldn't fight it. She let the darkness swallow her, Leonardo's words following her into the void.

"Don't worry, I'll fix you... You just need some rest."

Leonardo picked her up easily, her limp body very light. She looked as if she hadn't had any food for days. He had to make sure she was in prime condition. He looked again at the bullet holes in her body, one in her side, the other in her arm. Those would take some time to heal, even with all his knowledge. He looked around the foyer, the huge room looking exactly as he'd left it. But he knew things weren't the same here, and he had been expected for the unexpected.

Although his greeting had been his bullet-riddled wife assaulting him, he tried to take it all in stride. Things were much different here now, he could almost smell it on the air. He would get answers, but she would have to be conscious first. In time, he would check up with Fendari, but for now he had more pressing matters, most importantly healing Leana. Instead of taking her to the operating room, he would take her down to his lab, as he did with all of his... patients. But she would get special treatment. She was the most important thing to him right now.

As he walked up the spiral stairs to the second floor, he looked down at her face, which actually appeared very serene now. She was very beautiful, and he knew that she would make him a fine wife. Not that she would be staying around long, but... he would make sure he got his share of her before she was sent off to the slaughter. He was still playing the friend card, only trying to help her find her identity. That's the only way he was able to get her to come here, and now that he had returned, he would make sure she felt right at home.

He had such plans for her... she would become the fruit of all the research that his great family had ever done. The Azoth she had was unique, strong... and pure, which was what mattered the most. There were people after her now, though, there was no doubt about that, but that problem could be taken care of quickly. Where Fendari had been during all this, he would have to... inquire about later. He man had been left in charge of her well-being... and Leonardo was going to make sure that the man understood just how much she meant to him.

Yes, things had changed as they always did, there was no doubt about that. He knew, as he walked down the long, dark stairway that led to his alchemic laboratory, that things were not going to be the same. There were many more surprises in store for all of them, and he was sure that the best was yet to come. Fate worked in mysterious ways... but now was when it all began. The die had been cast... and the game was afoot.

TO BE CONTINUED...