Nines sat on the edge of the observatory, his blue eyes watching the distant tram slowly make its way up to the little station not far away. He couldn't see inside it from this distance, but for some reason he was sure there was someone inside it. His eyes flickered to the dark and silent forest, frowning as the thought of fire and claws briefly flashed through his mind. He shook his head, dismissing the strange thought, and jumped down to the grass below, moving closer to the tram station.
As it got closer, he saw a slender, white-clothed figure through the large windows, and was immediately fixed on the idea that it was the strange malkavian fledgling, Mirina, come calling. He leaned back against a small tree not far from the station, watching as the tram docked in the enclosed building. Listening carefully, he could just make out the faint sound of footsteps, and suddenly the door burst outward, and the slender malkavian drifted out, her head tilted slightly to the side and her eyes on the trees as the faint night breeze caught her long, loose hair. Her dress was stained with blood and ash, and even from this distance he could feel the strange aura she was projecting, coloring the air around her with madness and power.
Without warning, her head snapped towards him, and Nines could swear he saw her eyes glowing eerily in the cool night air from fifty feet away, a distraught look on her delicate features. She turned and sprinted with unnatural and unexpected speed up the small hill, surprising the Anarch when she reached out and grabbed the front of his shirt, her two-tone eyes wide and slightly unfocused. Staggering back slightly from the impact of the smaller vampire, Rodriguez lifted his hands to steady the shaking malkavian, blinking in shock at her unusually odd behaviour, opening his mouth to find out what the hell the problem was. Slumping slightly, she finally lifted her head to meet his eyes, her ruby lips spilling out words that tumbled over each other in their haste to escape.
"Nines? Nines! They took my little raven! They took her from our nest and put their horrible black hands all over her perfect dark feathers she put on just for me, and tore her apart in front of me, and she screamed for me but I couldn't reach her in time!" Mirina gasped for unnecessary breath, the horror in her multi-hued eyes shifting to something calmer, something darker as she straightened her posture, her delicate looking hands still in a death grip on his shirt. The Anarch leader blinked at the onslaught of words, vaguely concerned by the shadow in her eyes as he carefully pried her hands from his shirt, clasping them together between his own as he tried to calm her down as she continued to spill words into the night air.
Her voice low and cold and filled with dark glee, she continued, "And then I rent them, tore them to bitty screaming pieces and set the pieces on fire. And then I waded through their blood, to the depths of their twisted building, ripping and tearing as I went, until I found their leader. I pulled the spikes from his crested skull until he screamed for me to stop, to join him, and I set the voices upon him, and let the darkness take his sight, and pulled his crafty hands from his arms and set them alight as well. And when I was done, they and he were Nevermore."
Shaking his head, Nines was sure he only understood about half of what she'd just said, and watched with a vague sense of unease as her gaze clouded over, dropping slowly to their still joined hands. "Whoa whoa whoa, calm down kid. What little raven? What are you doing here? How did you find me?"
The malkavian blinked, her gaze drifting back up to meet him. "I found the sky. Nevermore, said my raven, she was taken, now she's dead." She shook her head, blinking a few times as if to clear her mind as Nines frowned, trying to decipher her words. "The Dam Sail told me to take a walk in the park, and Smiling Jack said to find the bird headed lion. The Jester sent me too, said to make you his accomplice since he betrayed his Black Queen, and was betrayed by her in turn." She shuddered, her eyes going wide and her face twisting into a pained grimace.
Shaking her hands slightly, Nines stared at her. "What? What's the matter? Mirina? Talk to me? Who's the black queen?"
"Queen of China, she says pretty words but they are false, pretends to be friends, but I don't want to sleep with fish." The malkavian gasped, fixing her gaze on his eyes as she whispered, "Don't trust the Black King, his tongue is forked and the voices whisper, always whispering, call him old serpent, the deceiver, Prince of Lies. He is not to be trusted. But the rebels, they have a cause! They need a leader, now, more then ever, before this little pawn finishes the game. I'll sweep the board and set the sky on fire!"
Nines stared at the slender shivering kindred before him, seriously unnerved by her words as the sound of machinery kicked up behind her. He found his eyes drawn unwillingly to the trees in the distance, his senses, carefully honed over several decades of unlife, telling him something was horribly wrong.
"Come on, kid, we need to get out of here. Something's not right." He turned towards the tram station, frowning as he saw the vehicle pulling out, and pulled her by the hand towards the building. She allowed herself to be led, but suddenly jerked to a stop, her fingers curling like a vice around his wrist. Nines turned to look at her, increasingly alarmed as the smell of fire drifted on the night breeze from the forest. The girl lifted her free had to her temple, her eyes clenched shut. "No no no no no! Oh god, they're coming, teeth and claws and fury! I told you the walk in the park wasn't pleasant! It's not Smokey, oh god oh god. Run!" Surprised by the diminutive fledgling as she darted back the way they came, her fingers still curled around his wrist, Nines was surprised by her strength as she pulled him in a sprint towards the observatory.
His blue eyes widened in shock when the large, white werewolf leaped down from the roof of the building, tearing the two vampires apart and carrying the startled Anarch over the cliff's edge with a yell.
...
Mirina watched in horror as the werewolf took her favorite Anarch over the edge of the cliff, glad to hear his surprised yell since it meant he was still, so far, alive. A whisper behind her, and she whipped around in time to see a second werewolf creep out of the forest, his feral gaze settling on the slender kindred. Following the tugging of the Web, the fledgling darted with preternatural speed into the observatory, unerringly finding the exit on the opposite side where the small generator was housed. Flipping the switch and ignoring the slavering howls that seemed to always be a few paces behind her, she spun in a blur of white and red and moved back into the building, her eyes hard as she made her way into telescope room. Leaping gracefully up onto the small platform, she flicked another switch, opening the large, curved wall, and waited, still as a statue.
She didn't have to wait long, the large grey werewolf quickly clawing his way up to the outer platform, drool dripping from his maw as the creature stalked forward. Mirina stared at it, her hand resting on the switch, and stood her ground, leaning back against the monitors. It went to shimmy through the narrow opening, and, with a vicious smirk, she hit the switch a second time, causing the wall to swiftly grind closed on the beast. Without waiting to watch the creature die with a series of pained yelps and whimpers, the malkavian dropped off the platform and sprinted to the tram, gaining the vehicle just seconds before it pulled out again.