Shadow and Flame
Solomon was looking for them. Amon had no doubt about that. Even if Karasuma kept her promise, they would never simply accept such a simple explanation. Of course, with luck, she wouldn't have even told anyone about the whole "ascension to the gods" thing, but even so, Solomon knew her to be immensely powerful. They were looking for her, and him, if they knew. And nobody had more eyes than Solomon.
Amon rarely ran from his enemies, but he had often hidden. And for most of his life, he had been the greatest hunter of them all. No one knew better how to dodge the net he had helped to spread. And what was more, no one was better prepared.
Amon had never been a fool. He knew (or had known) Director Zaizen, and knew that he might become a target himself someday; so he had prepared resources, ones that neither Solomon nor Zaizen knew of. He had safehouses, equipment stashes, hidden bank accounts and deposits that not even Solomon could track. He had false passports readied for several countries, and friends in all quarters who could help. Amon did not hide in the city, the city hid him.
It would have been easier, however, to do it without Robin. All his preparations had been for himself, he had never planned to be fleeing with a partner. He had no passport readied, and not all his friends could be… trusted with her. Some of the safehouses he had prepared would not even hold two people.
Annoying, Amon reflected, that the reason he needed most to hide from Solomon was the one reason he was likely to be found. No one looked twice at Amon's dark hair and brooding face, he was merely one of a thousand in the streets. Robin, with her fiery hair and… well, herself, turned heads no matter how hard she tried to blend in. Once, Amon even had to fight off some thugs who were thinking to… well, he wasn't sure what they had been thinking, but by the end they weren't thinking it anymore.
They tried several things. She dyed her hair once, and Amon got some weathered, beaten coats that made them much less noticeable. She gave up that ridiculous hair style, too, though her hair still looked out of place.
In a way, though, it made the whole thing more thrilling. Amon had prepared his whole life for a race like this, and now that it had come, Robin just added an extra challenge to the great race. He had to be more inventive, make up new excuses, new paths where they would be less noticed.
And, he observed to himself one night as he sat by the window, watching the people passing, her presence had protected him from his two greatest fears.
One, he never let down his guard now. He had always known he wouldn't be able to, when running from Solomon, but he had always suspected he might grow careless, simply because nobody seemed interested. Robin had taken away that danger, as now people were very obviously interested.
Two, he knew why he was running, and he knew he would never grow weary. He had feared, almost with disgust, that he would someday tire of running, simply running, without any aim or concrete purpose. Amon needed a goal, an end to set his sights on, and without it… Amon shuddered to think… without it, he might just give up, or worse, stick a gun in his mouth and end it. Amon hated the thought of such weakness, hated the idea of himself becoming such an unprincipled man, who could die in such shame. Far better to die against the witch hunters, he had said, even then.
Now that danger was gone, he told himself, eyes traveling over to the bed where Robin lay sprawled. Whatever else came up, he would always know why he was running. And that was as it should be, for there could never be any shadow where there was no flame.
A/N: Woot. Another one. This was supposed to be the last chapter, actually, but then that ran into something else, so I converted it. This might be the last for a while, I'm kinda out of ideas. There's maybe one more, but it needs a lot of work.
The reviews I've gotten so far are immensely helpful. Drop a note, even if it's just to say: Good job! I think I mentioned last chapter that I brought this series out of the vault mostly because so many people liked it. Like the story says, I need a reason to do what I do.