It's your fault. It's your fault. It's your fault...
Zelda lie in the courtyard, letting her tears flow over the stones in the ground. She hugged herself and bent over, face nearly touching the pavement.
"Sister Zelda?" The priest version of Tres called from behind her.
Her eyes enlarged and she stopped crying. Slowly, she turned around. "Tres!" She jumped up and buried her face in his jacket. "You're alive! I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry!" She sobbed.
He stared at her tear stained cheeks and red rimmed eyes and brought his hand up to her face. "Your words do not compute. I don't recall ever being alive."
She laughed and smiled up at him but something was wrong. He began to dematerialize into billions of particles.
"Nanites," he said before the process finished and the wind kicked in, blowing the remains away. She stared down at her shaking, empty hands in pain.
Zelda woke up screaming. Unconsciously, her anger caused her to lash out at the wall next to her bed. One armor covered hand swiped down diagonally, creating four deep gouges in the wall.
Ignoring that, she placed her head in both her armored and flesh hands, needing to calm her rapid breathing. Why? Why did Tres have to die? Why did she have to kill him? Why couldn't everyone be saved? There had to be a possibility, there had to be a chance...
Silently, her lips formed the words, "There is a chance." Feeling renewed hope for the first time in a long time; she threw the covers away and jumped out of bed. She paused at the desk and whispered, "I'm sorry Professor."
---
Running freely through the trees, occasionally pulling out the map and feeling a giant burden lifted from her shoulders, Zelda actually smiled. Everything was going to work out right; she could still straighten things out even though it seemed impossible. They would live happily again.
She sobered for a moment, remembering how she left things back at the laboratory. When Leon and William found her note stating where she had gone, it would not be pretty. Of course, they still had time to stop her. She had run the whole way here- despite a few 'accidents'- while they could take a train.
A dark, impending fortress loomed over the treetops, making her excited once more. "I'm going to save you Lady Caterina."
---
Golden eyes and a monocle reflected on the monitor's screen. They watched Zelda weave through the trees. Changing the channel, the screen showed Leon and the Professor racing after her, not but a few miles behind. It then flickered back to her.
The person, whom the eyes belonged to, shifted slightly, filling the noiseless room with the sound of soft curls brushing the ground. After seeing the dark haired girl flip over the wall surrounding the castle so casually but concentrated, the lady spoke.
Without looking away from the monitor, she said to a shadow in the background, "Go meet her in the grand ball room and show her the same respects that she has shown previously. That means to make sure she is no longer breathing when you leave the room."