Disclaimer applies.

Notes: Yay, Black Cat scanlations are finally complete! (Stoptazmo has them, I think) And... I eat my words! No. XII did show up in the manga, at the very end, for about three pages. I must have skipped over them when skimming through the raws about a year ago. (I adore this scene, btw. It practically makes Sephiria/Belze canon. XD) Ah well. XII in my story will still have my own spin (versus the decidedly strange anime take), as we really don't see enough of him to have a good grasp of his "canon" character.

Elegy
Chapter Three
(Eve)

It was a week after Creed's defeat when Eve finally reminded her two (irresponsible, giddy-drunk from victory) partners that she still had one last promise left to fulfill.

It was another week, after much hassle over arrangements and procrastination, before they finally found themselves once again upon the porch of that secluded house on the lakefront, looking for its owner.

"... Think she's cooking again?" mumbled Train in a comically worried tone.

"Do you smell anything?" returned Sven, his face displaying a ridiculous pinched look.

"I don't smell anything," said Eve, just as a bespectacled figure emerged from within. Her two partners let out their breaths rather conspicuously, but the new arrival did not notice.

"Ah, Mr. Sven, Mr. Train, Eve!" the woman exclaimed delightedly. "I see your mission was successful."

Eve smiled. "Hello, Professor Tearju."

- - -

Eve sat at the edge of the lake, dangling her legs in the water as she flipped through a thick scientific tome. She had already read this particular book before -- it had been the first she'd picked up when she had come to the professor's -- but she had finished plowing through all the books the professor owned by now. And as redundant as it might seem with her remarkable memory, she had found that she didn't mind -- even enjoyed -- rereading as much as she enjoyed the experience of a first read.

It was very calming, here in this place. Just the other day she had found herself imagining... if she were to stay there forever, absorbed within her books, not a care in the world.

For the Bagil Lakefront properties were indeed beautiful, quiet and secluded and serene. It was easy to see why the professor had chosen to dwell here. Here, there were no disturbances from the outside world, and everywhere one turned one was surrounded by nature, both subtle and breathtaking. She hadn't seen a single soul aside from the professor and herself since Train and Sven had wandered off a month ago, almost immediately after their arrival, leaving her to her questions and all the things Tearju wished to speak to her of. For Eve's questions were many, and Tearju's tale long and rambling, and all that had to be spoken could not be finished within one night, and there were some days the professor was so distracted that she completely forgot about Eve.

And so the days had passed, here in this otherworldly setting, almost as if Eve were in a dream. Over time, one could almost forget that there was a world beyond this place...

-- Dangerous thoughts, those.

For while Eve was more than certain the professor would be only too pleased to let her stay even after all that must be said had been said, she knew also that someday, perhaps tomorrow, perhaps years from now, she would wake up with that strange unnamable feeling of something missing, of something unfulfilled. Already she had begun to miss Sven's familiar harassed grumpiness and Train's raucous, childish outbursts. It was something she had known deep inside her heart, long before she began to understand it, ever since Train and Sven had opened her eyes and rescued her from Torneo's mansion: never again would she allow herself to be trapped within a bubble-world, separated from reality. She was not alone -- there were other people in the world, people she cared for, people who cared for her, people suffering at the hands of other people. And she could not, would not simply turn the other cheek and let herself forget about them, even here in this place where it seemed sometimes as if she were the last living being on the planet.

And so she knew the time would come when she would leave.

Her talks with Professor Tearju were drawing to an end, she knew. The talks had been fascinating, in a strange, almost morbid way -- Tearju's stories of her childhood, her dreams and her wild imagination, her university years, her years working for Torneo. It seemed sometimes almost as if Eve were gazing into a mirror at herself and yet not herself, a mirror reflecting what-ifs and could-have-beens, who she was and who she wasn't.

There remained now only the tale of the development of Project Eve -- the tale of her creation, her birth.

Eve knew that Tearju had been holding off on telling her this part of the story, for reasons she could easily guess. She had considered confronting the professor about it -- though she could not deny that feeling near approaching dread within her heart every time she thought of the subject, that strange morbid curiosity insisted that she must know and face the truth. In the end she had opted for patience (she was nothing like selfish, impatient Train, after all), and it seemed her patience was finally going to pay off. Tearju had mumbled absentmindedly just that morning about "something important you need to know" before wandering into her lab to check on her experiments. Eve, recognizing the clear signs of when to leave the professor alone, had taken the book she now flipped through from the bookshelf and come out by the lake.

The afternoon was dimming now, and Eve closed the book and headed back to the house.

As she neared the house, she paused suddenly, tensing. A tall, black-clad figure stood in the doorway, peering inside.

Quietly, cautiously, she approached.

A few feet away, she stopped again, readying herself, and said, "Who are you?"

The figure -- a man wearing a top hat over his long, blond hair -- turned, looking vaguely surprised, then composed himself, offering her a charming smile. "Is the professor in? I would like to speak to her."

And then he frowned, peering more closely at her through his dark glasses.

Eve stared, then finally managed to open her mouth. "Charden?"

The man's frown grew deeper, then melted back into a smile, though this one somewhat drier than the previous. "Ah, I thought you looked familiar. You're that little girl who was with Train Heartnet, aren't you? What are you doing here? Still with the Black Cat?"

Eve continued staring at him, uncertain. Although he had left the Apostles of his own free will, and Kyoko had seemed to have been fond of him (though Eve suspected the girl was fond of any dashing male specimen of the human species), he had still been supportive of the ideals and goals he had thought Creed upheld and was perpetuating. Not that she was altogether certain what those ideals were.

"I am visiting Professor Tearju," she said, then paused, considering. "I last saw her heading into her lab, but I do not know if she is still there."

Charden chuckled. "I see. A solemn little princess. Now, are you going to invite me in, so we can find the good professor, or do I have to stand here all night in the cold?"

For that, Eve glared at him. Still, he hadn't attempted to enter before, despite the door being wide open -- though perhaps she had simply come upon him before he could do so.

She pushed past him and into the house. "Come in."

Something felt strange. Charden must have noticed her tense, because he stopped in his admiration of the professor's taste in furnishings and said, "What's wrong?"

Eve frowned, then glanced at him. "I... it's too quiet." She ran towards the stairs that led to the basement laboratory.

No one was there.

Eve stood deathly still. Could the professor have wandered off somewhere, in her absentmindedness? Went shopping for groceries, perhaps? But that couldn't be. Professor Tearju became an utterly different person when she immersed herself in her work, focused and intense and efficient, not at all like her usual rambling clumsiness.

Charden had by now caught up. "You're sure she was working here?"

"Yes, I'm positive."

"I see." Charden sighed, and touched the bridge of his nose where his glasses had been. "I came too late."

Eve frowned yet again. "What do you mean?" she demanded, trying to keep calm.

But before the man could answer, the sound of shouting upstairs at the front door came drifting down to them. Eve clambered upstairs, getting ready to form her hair into a mallet.

"Eve! What are you doing here?"

"Hey, it's that cute little girl who was with Heartnet!"

"Eve, where's that bastard? Is he here? Where's the professor?"

Eve stared. "... Rins?"

The thief was with who she recognized as one of the Numbers -- Seven, she thought, though his name escaped her. Both of them looked weary and bedraggled.

"Train and Sven aren't here," said Eve. "And the professor's disappeared."

It was Rinslet's turn to stare. "What?"

Number Seven simply looked bewildered. And then he blinked. "What the hell is he doing here?"

"Who?"

"Charden Flamberg, former Apostles member!"

Eve turned to see Charden watching the proceedings, somewhere between amused and annoyed, one slim eyebrow raised. "My pleasure, miss," he said now, sweeping off his top hat and bowing. "Number... Seven."

Rinslet now looked flustered and annoyed. The Number looked even more annoyed. Eve took the opportunity to speak up. "Yes, why are you here, Mr. Charden? What did you mean, 'I came too late'?"

Charden seemed rather hassled himself. He gestured to the sofas in the living room. "Come, let's have a civil discussion, shall we?"

Eve saw Rinslet open her mouth, about to protest, but then she seemed too exhausted, and resigned herself to walking over and plopping down on the softest seat. The rest of them followed suit. Eve tried to sort out her thoughts. Too much was happening, and it was all whirling around in her head. It was at times like this that she envied Train's simple, one-track mind. Not that she would ever admit that.

"Well," Charden was saying now, "seeing as how both the infamous lady thief and a Chronos Number have made their ways to this area, I suppose we all have some idea of what is going on here. Except, of course, for -- Eve, was it? -- here, unless the Black Cat told you something of recent circumstances."

Train is a simple-minded dunce who doesn't notice or care about things like this... whatever "this" is, she was about to say, even though she knew it was not entirely true, but Rinslet interrupted.

"No, I don't. It was only because my stupid car broke down, and then I had to walk all the way to Lork when a riot of all things started and I somehow ran into that idiot over there" -- she pointed at the Number -- "and we escaped together and I headed here because it was the closest place I could think of even though I've never actually been here before, and I was hoping to talk that professor woman into letting us stay, and ARGH. This has been the WORST day of my life!"

To Eve's, and Number Seven's, great surprise, Rinslet then burst into laughter. "Ah, I feel much better now. Almost as good as I'd feel if I could find someone to beat up right now..."

Number Seven inched almost imperceptibly away from the thief.

"So it's come to this already," murmured Charden thoughtfully. "Well, I'm not terribly clear about what's going on either," ("Sure you aren't," muttered the Number), "but rumors have been flying around recently regarding revolutionary activity centering around this area. Lork, eh? I never would have guessed. At any rate, I received information yesterday from certain reliable sources of mine that a certain Professor Tearju Lunatique was being targeted. For what reason," Charden shrugged elegantly, "I have no idea." ("Sure you don't.") "Naturally, I immediately headed here to warn her -- Well, perhaps you may have a better idea of why they were after the professor, Eve."

Eve, of course, had a pretty good idea by now why Professor Tearju had been targeted, or at the very least, a pretty good guess. As did Rinslet, she suspected, by the look on the woman's face.

Before, she had been feeling too overwhelmed to think straight. But now everything had become clear to her.

She shook her head in answer to Charden's query, deciding to maintain caution, and gripped at her skirt.

"We have to go save her," she said.

Tsuzuku

Next chapter will be Sephiria again. (The order will not always be like this.)

Updating will probably be slow... I tend to be a very slow writer (the first two chapters were a fluke :P), and I would like to finish my other multi-parter first. Check my profile periodically to know where I am and what I'm up to.