~O~
II
"We ask o' thee: Whit art thou?"
"We are Iscariot, the Zealot Judas!"
"In that case, Iscariot, we ask o' thee: Whit dost thou hold in thy right hand?"
"Daggers and poisons!"
"In that case, Iscariot, we ask o' thee: Whit dost thou hold in thy left hand?"
"Thirty silver pieces and a rope!"
"In that case, Iscariot, whit art thou?"
"As apostles, yet not as apostles."
"As adherents, yet not as adherents."
"As believers, yet not as believers."
"As traitors, yet not as traitors."
"We are disciples of death, the Death Disciple Group,
Only bowing and praying forgiveness of the Lord;
Only bowing and defeating the enemies of the Lord."
"Wielding our dagger in the night and poisoning the evening meal,
We are assassins; the Assassin Judas."
"When the time comes, we shall cast our thirty silver pieces at the altar
And hang thy head from our rope."
"Thereby we shall fall to Hell in cabal."
"Lined up in square formation, we seek to do battle with the 7405926 demons of Hell.
"APOCALYPSE NOW!"
After the phrase had been chanted, Iscariot's new soldiers of God returned to their beds for rest. Anderson offered a moment of contemplation and prayer for the future to come. Heinkel met up with Yumiko in the library. The nun held Heinkel's hand to her breast.
It was the silly exploration of two young women.
"So this is what women do for each other," Heinkel mused. "Look and touch?"
Yumiko smiled and let Heinkel's hand lower to her waist. "It feels nice to do this."
"Yeah, it does." Heinkel agreed.
"You first," Yumiko said, gesturing to Heinkel's robes.
"Really?" Heinkel blushed a bit.
Yumiko sensed her nervousness and shook her head. "It's okay if you don't want to!"
"No, no." Heinkel argued. She turned her back to her and slowly, nervously began to undo the buttons to her robes. "I'll go first."
She took a deep breath and pushed off her coat before working off the rest of her top. Yumiko stood there with bated breath. Seeing Heinkel with her naked back exposed... It was the most she had ever seen of her.
"Okay..." Heinkel said.
Heinkel took a deep breath and turned, facing the other woman. Yumiko blushed somewhat, raised her eyebrows and smiled a little.
"Oh...you have a nice body." she said.
Heinkel's face was bright red. "Uhm...thank you."
"Okay, my turn then."
Yumiko moved to undress and that was when a priest chose to walk in. "Sister Mary, I want to - Oh! Oh my God!" he exclaimed, when he saw the two.
Heinkel quickly hurried to dress herself.
"Father Anderson!" the priest shouted, over his shoulder, "You need to come here quickly!"
"Are we in trouble?" Yumiko whispered, side-long to Heinkel.
"I think we are..."
O
"...They don't even pay me enough to deal with this."
Manuel was complaining for most of the trek through the jungle. He continued to ask that they remove his handcuffs, but Yumie and Heinkel always refused.
"Please, take these off!" he begged.
"No." Yumie and Heinkel said, together.
"I won't run." Manuel told them. "I won't get very far, you know that, right?"
"Can I cut off his legs now?" Yumie whispered, sidelong to Heinkel.
Heinkel suddenly stopped and crouched down. She quickly beckoned for the other two to do the same. They peered through the trees and spotted a camp not too far away. Several men were wearing body armor and camoflage, armed to the tooth with guns. They were talking in Portuguese.
"Manuel, what are they saying?" Heinkel whispered.
Manuel squinted a little and leaned forward. "They're looking for us," he said, as he listened to the conversations, "They want us alive first."
"For what?" Heinkel asked.
Manuel listened to the conversations going on before his features filled with unease. "I don't think you want to know..."
"It doesn't matter." Yumie said, grinning wickedly. "These enemies of God will fall by my blade!"
Heinkel gasped in horror when the nun charged into the fray. "Yumie, wait! Dammit...!"
It became chaos as Yumie cut down the armed men with little difficulty. Heinkel had joined the battle with her two guns, taking out those who attacked her with expert percision.
Manuel had stayed hidden behind the trees, watching these warriors of the church deal with these men in such a way he'd never seen before. What sort of church did they belong to? And on top of that, what sort of church would allow these things? It was beyond his comprehension.
While Yumie cleaved a soldier in two, Heinkel had been momentarily distracted by her ferocity and a bullet from another soldier tore into her back. Yumie heard Heinkel's shout of pain and her eyes widened.
"Heinkel?" she gasped, her other self falling into slumber.
Heinkel clutched her shoulder, wincing in pain before she aimed her gun at the man who had shot her. Before she could pull the trigger, Manuel came swinging out of the trees with a branch and struck the man hard on the head, rendering him unconscious.
Heinkel frowned at him. "...thanks." she said, hesitantly.
Yumiko made her way to Heinkel, studying the bleeding wound in her shoulder. "It looks bad. We need to get that out."
"I'm fine." Heinkel snapped. "We need to keep moving. I'm sure there will be more."
"Heinkel, you're bleeding all over the place," Yumiko told her.
Manuel nodded. "She's right, mina. You need to get that out."
Heinkel sighed with annoyance. With their mission going less-than how she wanted, she couldn't afford to lose her arm out of this. They were right.
O
Manuel removed his belt and held it out to Heinkel. "Here, bite down on this." he said.
Heinkel nodded and did as he instructed, placing the belt into her mouth. Yumiko removed her coat and started to remove her undershirt, but the two women stared at Manuel. He rolled his eyes at the hesitation.
"Oh no, tits." he mocked, waving his hands in the air, "Like I haven't seen a pair of those before. Don't be prudes. You have a bullet in your shoulder to worry about."
Heinkel sighed. "He's right. Just do it."
"I have a knife. Hold on." Manuel started to reach for the knife in his back pocket, but his cuffs impeded that greatly.
"Wait." Yumiko said. She took the knife out for him.
When she focused on Heinkel's back, her eyes narrowed at the sight of several long, hideous scars. Yumiko wasn't a fool to what they were - whip scars. Typically found from self-flagellation. It made her hesitate and Manuel took that for reluctance to remove the bullet.
"You have to sterilize it first," he instructed, gesturing to the fire.
"I know how to do it." Yumiko said.
She let the tip of the knife burn in the flames of a small fire they had started. Heinkel bit down on the leather belt and winced for the pain to come.
When Yumiko slowly slipped the knife into the bullet wound, Heinkel jerked with a fierce snarl under her breath. Yumiko looked at her desperately.
"Oh God, I'm sorry!" she cried.
Heinkel jerked as Yumiko struggled to get the bullet out of her skin. It took several painful attempts before the shell managed to fall free. Heinkel was relieved when the pain ceased and removed the belt from her mouth.
Manuel leaned forward and picked up the shell, studying the casing. "This is interesting..." he said.
"What is it?" Heinkel asked, turning.
Manuel turned the shell, revealing a swastika branded into the metal.
"This is special," Manuel told the women. "Never seen ammunition like this before."
Yumiko looked at Heinkel and whispered under her breath. "Maybe it's why you couldn't heal from it?"
As a Regenerator, Heinkel could have easily healed such wounds, but when she had continued to bleed and the bullet couldn't be pushed out, she knew something was strange about the bullets. If they had these, there was a good chance that they knew who was coming for them.
It was a cold evening.
Heinkel returned to her room after training and began to disrobe. She lowered herself to her knees and reached for a whip resting in a small desk near her bed. After saying a prayer, she took a deep breath and brought the whip back, cracking it hard against her flesh.
O
The journey through the jungle had a mild setback.
Rain poured down on the three travelers.
"A little rain never hurt anyone." Yumiko said.
Her hair was sticking to her cheeks and over her eyes; she looked utterly ridiculous. Heinkel looked around for signs of shelter.
"We need to keep moving," she told the other two. "We stop for nothing."
"I don't want to rain on your parade," Manuel said, gesturing over his head, "But it's raining on our parade. We need to find somewhere to hole up until it passes."
Heinkel snorted. "Fine."
Yumiko wanted to question why she was so gruff, but decided against it. They stopped at a tree that formed a bridge across a raging river. Manuel made a nervous sound.
"Merda..." he muttered, "No way I'm crossing that."
Heinkel took him by the scruff of his coat and began to drag him across with her. Yumiko followed behind them.
"Just be careful. Don't look down." Heinkel instructed.
"I got it, Heinkel." Yumiko quipped.
Heinkel balanced herself on the tree and frowned back at Yumiko. "Is there something you wish to get off of your chest?" she snapped.
"I could ask you the same thing..." Yumiko muttered, with disappointment.
"You know, it's my dream is to be caught between two pretty ladies," Manuel told them, wincing nervously, "But we are standing over a rushing river! Maybe you can fight when we're on the other side, sim?"
"He's right. Keep moving." Heinkel said.
They made their way toward the edge of the river and Yumiko misstepped, almost slipping off of the tree, but Manuel grabbed her arm. Heinkel aided in this by taking Yumiko's other arm and the two pulled her onto land. Yumiko looked at Manuel briefly.
"Thank you." she told him.
"No problem," Manuel acknowledged.
"Alright, let's move." Heinkel was already moving forward.
"Heinkel, wait." Yumiko suggested. "We should talk. Please, we REALLY need to talk."
"Not now. Talking isn't important. We need to find their base of operations. Given the fact that we are far out of our range..."
Yumiko listened to her talk and tried to talk over her, but Heinkel wasn't listening. She closed her eyes, pursed her lips before Yumie took over.
"LOOK AT ME!" she shouted, her brown eyes almost red.
Heinkel whirled, shock on her face. Manuel also looked startled by the sudden, indignant outburst.
"...Maybe we can talk then..." Heinkel said.
O
"...It's just a phase young girls go through..."
"It's a sin. They're going to burn for this."
"You're not God, Enrico. And you're too young to think such things."
A young Enrico Maxwell sat beneath a tree, reading from the bible while he watched Yumiko and Heinkel chasing one another in the yard. Makube was standing beside him.
"I'm not too young," Maxwell said, eyes glued to the pages. "I'm old enough. Just you see, Makube. I will be better. Better than the Sisters and Fathers. Maybe better than Anderson."
Makube looked at him with a small chuckle. "You?"
"Yes, me. I'm not going to move up in the world because others will grant that to me," Maxwell told him, "No, I have to claim that right on my own."
Makube smirked and shrugged his shoulders. Though he was much younger than Maxwell, he seemed to have a certain maturity about him that most children lacked.
"Alright. You carry out your little schemes," he joked.
Maxwell watched him as he walked away. He gave an annoyed snort and resumed his focus on his bible.
Heinkel removed Manuel's cuffs.
The man stared at her in surprise, rubbing his wrists.
"You make one move..." Heinkel warned.
"I know, the crazy bruxa will hack off my legs," Manuel quipped.
"Yumie and I need to talk." Heinkel told him, "Keep watch then, yes?"
Manuel nodded his head.
Heinkel acknowledged with a nod of her own before she walked over to Yumie, who was in the middle of playing a game of "pinfinger" with Manuel's knife in the dirt.
"Yumie," she said.
Yumie grimaced. "Oh, dammit. I lost count." she snapped.
"You wanted to talk," Heinkel said, "Well? Here we are."
Yumie glanced up at her before sighing. She straightened and dusted her habit off a little.
"Why don't you ever look at me?" she asked. "Why won't you even touch me?"
Heinkel frowned at her. "You know why."
"Yumiko knows why. I do not."
Heinkel sometimes forgot that Yumiko's "other half" knew little about the ways of acquaintances and friends. Being "asleep" most of the time was reason for that.
"I'm not a fool, Heinkel," Yumie snapped, giving her a look, "You don't feel as strongly about me because I don't sit well with your sensitivities, is that right?"
Heinkel glared at her. "That's a damn lie!"
"Is it? People like me make for very poor companions, right?"
Heinkel snarled and began to yell now. Yumie was yelling with her and it all became chaos as both tried to speak over the other.
Before they knew it, they were upon one another, fighting with their fists. Heinkel had to be careful because Yumie was capable of crushing a man's skull with her bare hands. They slipped and fought in the mud and rain, grappling at each other, rolling around for dominance.
Finally, Yumie flipped Heinkel, pinning her to the ground. After a few angry, breathless hisses, the two women brought their lips together.
Then, they parted and their eyes widened.
"Why did you kiss me?" they cried, together. "No! You kissed me!"
"Aww..."
The two looked over at Manuel, who smiled at the sight.
"Oh, don't mind me, ladies," he joked.