Ch. 5: Darkness
Well happy people, this is chapter five of Sands of Time. Now, I've taken the time to review my previous chapters to come to the conclusion that Anna is a Mary-Sue, but I don't really care all that much. Mary-Sue's can be fun, and that's what fanfiction is all about, am I right? So please, excuse the mess if you don't like Mary-Sue characters, but this fic has been stuck in my head for a while, so I'm using it as a creative outlet, m'kay? Same goes for Shattered Glass, Hellsing fans.
Anna stared as the Sphinx bounded toward her group of co-workers. Many things ran through her mind while she stood, rooted to the spot: fear, anxiety, hope that the Parisian would go first, and the sudden realization that this might be the end of her journey. It was that thought that broke the camel's back, or something to that effect, for Anna was not profoundly accurate with her analogies and could care less at the moment. That was her team about to be eaten, and if Whitmore found out the reason, the albino would be held responsible and possibly jailed.
'Yeah right. Like anyone would believe that my team got eaten by a Sphinx/Leviathan thing,' she thought sourly.
Now, one must realize that these thoughts took place in a mere matter of seconds, for the team was still only in minor peril as far as Anna was concerned.
"What are you people standing there for? Do something before you all get eaten, you bunch of morons!" she shouted.
The others took heed and scattered, hoping to high heaven that some miraculous event would occur to save them. This, however, would not happen in all actuality, leaving them as kitty food for our little friend.
The Sphinx landed squarely where the crew had previously stood, a look of disdain crossing her face as she turned to face Anna.
"You've made your last mistake, human. Why are these pathetic underlings worth your life anyway?" the creature questioned.
"Because they're my pathetic underlings!"
Lunging at the beast, she took a furious swipe at it with her axe. The sound of scraping metal met her ears as she was thrust away by the creature's mighty paw.
Anna lay in pain, her ribs screaming in protest as she tried to move. Her back was bleeding heavily from contact with the great claws, but this was not what worried the woman. Tilting her head out of the dirt, she watched the others try to fend it off in vain, only to be dealt the same type of damage as she. The Sphinx was, at least, half mechanical. With that in mind, she was sure that physical damage would be impossible, at least from their standing point.
She watched as the Parisian was struck down as he tried desperately to claw his way out of the cavern. It did not move her, for she cared more for Vinny, Mimi, and Zahalm. She didn't understand why she was so impassive when it came down to him, and she'd not the attention span to learn his name when they first met, but she supposed it wouldn't matter after this anyhow. Somehow, it seemed almost sad to watch him die, but she noticed the creature turning away.
'Probably just didn't want him to make a way out,' she thought tiredly.
Straining to keep her wandering mind focused, she heard Mimi's high-pitched screams from one side of the room. Fearing for the girl, she slowly and painfully rose from her resting spot and turned to face the opposite wall.
Mimi was pounding on the beast, trying to lure its attention away from Zahalm. The man was on his knees, blood pooling around them as it spurted from a deep chest wound. The Sphinx, however, was not distracted by Mimi's blows and cries and had already turned to finish its job.
"Zahalm, if you die... I'll kill you! I don't know how, but I'll kill you! Don't you dare die!" the Norwegian shrieked.
Limping behind the Sphinx, Anna made a half-hearted swipe at the leg, throwing it off balance for a moment in hopes of getting Mimi's attention.
"Get him away from here, Mimi. Get him through that pass. Mimi! I said, do it now!"
The woman was shaking, but nodded in understanding as she began to drag the man toward the entrance, sobbing and spitting in the direction of their attacker.
By now, the Sphinx had recovered from the blow and began rising from the floor, a look of hatred burning in her ebony eyes. It turned to face Anna, who figured that by now, it was all over. If her prayers were answered, she could distract the thing long enough for the others to escape, but she felt weak from blood-loss.
Heavy paws raked across her front, leaving deep gashes in her chest, much like Zahalm's. Falling onto her back, she watched it step forward, placing its front legs across her shoulders, roaring in triumph.
What she saw next suprised her, for by now, she'd figured her minutes numbered. A hand shot above her and into the mouth of the beast, shoving what looked like a small parcel down its throat. Gagging and biting down, Anna saw that it took the hand with it, but it backed off of her.
Thick arms wrapped around her waist and dragged her backwards as she watched the Sphinx wretch for a few seconds before exploding with such force, she thought she'd die.
Entrails and mechanical parts rained down as she feebly tugged a bit of innard from her hair.
"Heh...It's raining Sphinx," she laughed before blacking out.
LINE BREAK
It was dark, and that was all Anna knew when her consciousness returned. She felt heavy, her limbs refusing to move even an inch. It took all she could to turn her head to her left, catching the sight of Milo lying on a cot next to her.
"Well, I never imagined Heaven to be so plain, but I guess this works," she mumbled.
Turning to her right, she frowned, eyes wide. Moliere was on a cot to her immediate right, scowling at her.
"Wait... If you're here, then this must be the other place! Why, God? Why?" she moaned.
Gaetan rolled his eyes and sneered, spitting on the floor between them. His arms were heavily bandaged, as well as his neck. A look of pure disgust was thoroughly plastered over his features.
"Normally, I would take zis time to stare at your breasts, but since you find zis 'ole situation an inconvenience to you, I won't spend my time ogling at some-sing you don't 'ave," he spat.
"You... I ought to... Who am I kidding?" she sighed, closing her eyes, "I don't have enough energy to ask you what that means with a witty comeback."
"I take eet you 'aven't looked at your chest lately."
"Oh, for goodness sake, they didn't have to take 'em off, did they?" she asked, exasperated.
"Non, but from what Sweet said, zey're mangled beyond all 'ope."
"Hope of what, you French weasle?"
Gaetan laughed a bit, coughing up a bit of blood. He looked rather ill to Anna, but she didn't expect she looked any better. For all she knew, it was the drugs that kept them both from trying to kill each other rather than haveing a less-than-polite conversation.
"Of seeing you on ze cover of Playboy magazine," he sniggered, hacking again.
Anna's face turned red with fury, but she could do nothing more than glare at him. He was truly one of the most vile people she'd ever met, her father included. Growling, she blinked and waited for him to catch his breath.
"I remember...it was raining Sphinx in the cavern. What happened, or do you even know?"
"You should be thanking me. Eet was I zat pulled you out of 'arm's way."
"Huh...Who'd have thought you had a soul? Why exactly did it explode? There was an arm above me, but that's all I can remeber."
She hated relying on him for information, but Milo was out cold and knowing him, he'd start vomiting and complaining about carrots as soon as she mentioned what had happened. Her nostrils flared, she was tempted to go back to sleep, but she doubted he'd allow her that comfort.
"Vinny stuffed some C4 down eet's throat. Took his hand off, but eet saved us. While you were yelling at zat Norwegian brat, he told me to get you away from ze creature, but eet took me some time to get there. He lit ze explosives and shoved zem down her throat, I pulled you out, zen BOOM! Eet rains Sphinx," he laughed.
"You know, it sounds to me like you had way too much fun doing that, but I won't question it further."
"Zat would be wisest," he said, cocking his head with a wide grin.
"Where's Vinny? Is he...okay?" Anna asked, completely ignoring his last remark.
The Parisian shrugged and gestured to his right. Anna could just see the slight bulge in the blankets, signing to her that a person lay there. Her face went slack, but she could do nothing more than turn her worried eyes back at the man beside her.
"Don't worry. He's not dead, but eet's pretty bad. Sweet said zat he's suffering a lot of blood-loss from where his hand was taken off, but not enough to kill him."
Anna heaved a sigh of relief, wincing slightly at the pain in her chest. Letting her eyes drift as far down as she could, she saw the numerous bandages winding themselves around her. Her legs and arms had sustained little injury, but her chest and back were a different story. She saw the pink tint of the bandages and grimaced.
"Look, I'm going back to sleep. If you dare keep me awake, I'll kill you when I feel better. You understand?" she said weakly.
"I don't 'ave the energy to keep pestering you, Miss. Per'aps when we awake?"
"Deal..." she trailed off, falling back into slumber.
When she awoke again, Anna found herself propped up into a sitting position, a small plate of food on the table beside her. It consisted of nothing more than a fish fillet, some disgusting looking herbs, and several pills. Next to it sat a tall glass of something that resembled one of Mimi's kelp Power Smoothies, only milkier and a lot more rank. The stench almost made her vomit, but she'd had nothing to eat, so she swallowed the small amount of bile and tried to will her arms to move.
"Eet's not so bad eef you swallow quickly. Take ze pills all at once and try not to let eet hit your tongue," came the nasally voice beside her.
"You'd better be telling the truth," she growled, doing as instructed.
The sad truth was, that he was right. Although the concoction tasted awful, she was sure it would be worse if it lingered in her mouth. She gagged, and set the glass down, trying to keep everything from coming back up. She heard his laughs, but was far more preoccupied with trying to find something worth drinking to get the foul taste out of her mouth.
"Zere's water right 'ere," Gaetan said, shakily offering her a glass.
Not caring to check and make sure, Anna forced herself to grab hold of the glass, draining it with two or three gulps. The foul taste disappeared, and she smiled a bit.
"I don't normally do this, but thanks," she muttered, returning the glass to the table.
She mentally kicked herself for not noticing the pitcher of water and two glasses between them earlier, but she'd been too tired to look at the time. Picking up the herbs, she chewed on them a bit, noting that they had a rather bland taste in comparison with her drink. Scarfing her fish, she set the plate aside and looked back at the Parisian, who was currently occupying himself with a few dirty magazines.
"So...Who are you, exactly?" she asked.
Dog-earring his issue and putting it aside, he studied her expression for a moment. She looked thoroughly drugged and unhappy, but he knew how she felt and decided not to mess with her...today. Propping himself on his side a bit, he grinned again.
"Gaetan Moliere. But tell me, why do you ask?"
Blowing her bangs from her eyes, she looked at him with a sour expression. Drugs or no, she still didn't like him. She'd be a little more passive for now, but when she got better... Oh, when she got better... That would be the end of peace. She only thought of this as a temporary truce, but she prayed to the gods that it wouldn't be too long until it was over. She truly wanted to get back to work again.
"I don't know. I didn't know who you were, and I still don't really care. I just like to be able to put a name to a face, you know? It's one of those self-satisfying deals. I mean, as long as we're here, we might as well be civil to one another."
"Zis is true. Polite conversation never hurt anyone. Zat's very kind of you, Miss Anna."
"You do know that later on, I'm going to look back on this and think it's the worst idea since Hitler's father told his wife, 'Let's go to upstairs, Brunhilda. I'm feeling a bit frisky tonight.' Then I'm going to laugh it off and go commit ritualistic suicide," she said dryly.
Gaetan couldn't help but laugh at her mannerisms, thinking that it must be the drugs. He'd have never thought the woman could have such a dry sense of humor, but it was enough to know that he'd be in good company until they became well enough to get back to work. Then, the drugs would wear off and they'd go back to hating each other as usual. The world would keep on spinning.
"You 'ave a very cold sense of humor. Who would lead us forward eef you killed yourself? We would be forever lost in a vast sea of dispair."
"You got that from a book, didn't you?"
"Well, I'm not illiterate, as you can see."
He gestured to the magazines on his side of the table. Anna snorted lightly, shaking her head.
"I'm suprised there's anything to read in those. Mainly thought it was all porn and such. Ah well, we're all imperfect anyway. Might as well admit it while I'm able to."
"Tell me, out of curiosity, what guilty pleasures do you 'ave? Zere 'as to be some-sing every man and woman does to assure zemselves zat, somewhere deep inside zem, zey are human. Surely, you agree?"
"I do, and don't call me Shirley."
"You're sick, you realize zis?"
"That's changing the subject. To be perfectly honest, I do fantasize, but that's really as far as it goes. No magazines, no books, just my imagination and me. By the way, don't tell linguist guy over there that I said that. He'll most assuredly scold me for it," she said, jerking her thumb in Milo's direction.
"He won't find out. You know some-sing, though? Zis is ze first time I've spent talking with a member of ze opposite sex for such an extended period of time."
Anna blinked in confusion. She would have taken him as a skirt-chasing pervert out for all the whores. Perhaps one with a certain affinity for exotic women, excluding Atlantean females for their ability kick ass like no tommorrow. Now, though, he seemed more like a human being; just another man talking to another woman, although both were outcast for any number of reasons, most of which Anna didn't want to think about.
"I have to say, I owe you an apology. I thought I'd figured you out by now, but I suppose I was wrong. You're not as bad as you seem."
"Is zat you, or ze drugs talking?"
"Maybe a little of both. I'm sure I'll take it back later on. Almost positive."
"Oui, but until zen, care to play some cards?"
"If I can move my arms and hands."
Carefully, she flexed them a bit. Finding that the pain was subsiding, she turned back to him and nodded. Why he had cards, she didn't ask and didn't need to know, but for a few hours, the two of them could act as civil people often do when playing Rummy, and Anna supposed that would be good for the both of them. At least she could escape the darkness of her heart, even for just a bit under the influence of pain killers and morphine.
I don't own the 'Shirley' phrase from Airplane, so don't sue me. Hitler joke came from an episode of Whose Line is it Anyway, which I don't own either. Hope you all enjoyed the chapter. Chapter six is on the way!