Chapter 03
Ferdinand walked with slow, but confident steps, his destination in sight. He was dressed in his black cassock and cappello as always. His footsteps echoed in the hallway, breaking the monotonous silence as he approached the door to the small office room. This is it, years of work, endless reports to the Vatican, and long nights of prayers and meditation. It would be finally over soon. He only prays to harvest the wheat and not the tares.
He glanced at the bag in his hand; old, made of brown leather, and in need of some good restoration. But this was not important, what it carried, however...
With a sigh, he grabbed the door handler and entered the room. The decoration was mostly bare, save for a cross on the wall behind the desk, a picture of the current pontiff on the right wall, and a window on the left.
The priest approached the solitary chair, setting the bag on the table before taking his seat. His hands were clasped together, and his elbows rested on the table. He needed to think. The glimpses that he saw in his visions didn't tell him much, but they were enough.
What to tell the girls when they come in, what to tell the Holy See when the hours to send a new report come. How to introduce them to the Order can wait though, there was no need to overwhelm them with too much information too soon, and it wasn't like he would reveal too much information, only an excuse to give them the Artifact was enough.
So, he waited.
It didn't take long and soon he could hear voices from the hallway, he could not make any details but he could tell it was Emma, speaking too loud to his taste. The door opened and Sister Ana was the first to enter.
"Good morning Father." She greeted as she approached the desk. She wore her pristine white and red habit as always.
"Good morning Father Ferdinand." Said Taylor with all due respect, she was dressed in formal attire that by this point, should be considered what she saw as casual. A below-the-knee black skirt, and a simple white blouse.
"Hi, Father Ferdinand!" Spoke Emma too casually, to his eternal irritation. At least her clothes were not so scandalous, but he cursed himself for ever allowing jeans to his congregation.
"Good morning." He said keeping a careful tone. "I believe that you two know why you are here, yes?"
"Yeah," Said Emma as she crossed her arms. "Are you finally gonna tell us what is this all about?"
The old priest glanced at Ana. She nodded in understanding and excused herself from the room, closing the door behind her as she waited outside. As she left, he brought the bag closer to him, all the while, Taylor was looking with barely contained anticipation. Before he opened the bag, he paused midway and looked at the girls, meeting their gazes, one at a time before speaking again.
"Before I continue, want you two to promise me that you will never, Never, lose it or give to anyone else, understood?" They meet his gaze with determined nods. "Very well." He said as he opened the bag and carefully removed two wooden boxes from inside of it, one by one. "Each of these boxes is an old decoration item, valuable in a way, because of what they are made of but no historic value, I will allow you two to keep it for now as long as you two keep it well preserved." He lied and both girls narrowed their eyes but said nothing.
He gave each girl a box, but they looked at each other and swapped it, holding the boxes close to their hearts.
"That is it?" asked Emma.
"The only other thing I could say is our Lord Jesus is always with us, not much to say." They looked at him with suspicion but said nothing."Any other question?"
"Why are you lying?" Asked Taylor. The priest frowned, he wasn't trying to hide the obvious lie, but he hoped they would let it go for now.
The priest sighed. "I can't tell you much for the time being." He admitted. "All I can say is ask you two to do the right thing. When the time is right, I will tell you two everything."
They stayed like that in silence for some time in a staring contest before the girls relented.
"Alright, thank you, Father Ferdinand." Spoke Emma.
He watched them go, and he was alone in the room again. He joined his hands together in prayer. "Oh Lord, by intersession of your son, Jesus. I ask you to be with these two on their hours of necessity."
"Father Ferdinand" Spoke Ana as she entered the room. "Was that wise?"
"I don't know," he answered truly. "All I can do is hope that it is." He then looked at her in the eyes. "Don't leave without an umbrella though, it is going to rain."
"Why was he lying?" Asked Emma as they stepped outside the church. The sunny sky shone above, promising a peaceful day.
"I don't know," Taylor said honestly, her mind was elsewhere, focusing on the box in her hands. It was simple, only a latch to keep it close.
"Well, at least we got one part of the mystery solved." She said as she looked at the box in her hands. "Well, I... I think I will pay a visit to the cemetery. I will see you later. Bye, Taylor!"
"Bye," Taylor said, she knew what Emma was about to do in the cemetery, she couldn't explain why, only that she knew. After all, she too needed to go somewhere else to do what she knew was necessary. So, she walked with purpose, her destination in mind, and a perfect path to guide her.
Walking in the direction of the deeper parts of the Docks would not be safe in any circumstance, crime was always high in the area and the run-down decaying city infrastructure got worse the closer someone got to the Boat Graveyard, but Taylor didn't care, it was her destination after all, and somehow, she knew she would see no one.
A strong gust of wind blows past her, signaling the coming storm, dark clouds already forming on the horizon beyond the PHQ. Waiting.
Taylor smiled, and quickly hurried her steps, passing by empty streets and abandoned buildings. At one point she even crossed by a burned-down garage, its black walls to only remains of a once large structure.
Soon enough, the Lord's Port was in view in the distance and it was only then that Taylor realized how much did her mind wander as she didn't notice the distance she walked, but she was not worried as she walked by a beat-up car and grabbed a large shard of glass, and, made her way closer to the water. She found a pier easily enough, it was small and one of the very few that wasn't surrounded by the many rotten ships of the harbor.
For some reason, she felt a feeling of Déjà vu at the sight of the many dead ships and great admiration for the work of the protesters who did it that many years ago. Shaking those foreign thoughts in her head, Taylor made her way to the edge of the pier and knelt, placing the box on her lap.
Taking a deep breath, she concentrated on the task at hand, the storm was calling her, and she could not let it wait more than needed. She looked down at the box and reached her hand for it, bringing its content to the light of the world. The sphere forged in gold fit perfectly on her hands, broken, yet perfect, but it wasn't supposed to be carried by hands.
The Broken Left Eye
She knew its name, or at least, a part of it, but that didn't matter. As she held the eye of gold with her left hand, she brought the shard of glass closer to her right eye. "Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine." Taylor spoke repeating the words of the once sinful lector as they dug into her skin. "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you..."
If someone were to see the event, they would have seen a girl tear out her own eyes with a shard of glass, but yet, she would feel no pain and no mortal injury would weaken her. They would have seen her stand and hold the sphere of pristine gold tight to herself and stare back at the coming storm. They would have seen her take one single step forward, and then fall to in the water, swallowed by the bay.
But no one but God was there to witness.
"...When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned..." Said Emma, as she approached the large censer in the center of the small underground Ossuary.
She arrived at the cemetery of St. Nicholas only to find the place empty, with dark clouds on the horizon and a cold, hollow wind permeating the place. Normally she would be greeted by old man O'Connor, the keeper of the place.
To say he was old would be an understatement, without a doubt he was in his mid-eighties, short and with a slight hunch back, yet, he worked tirelessly every day with a smile on his face. Emma comes to admire the man's dedication and good humor, always happy despite what people would normally describe as solemn work. Maybe that was why Emma ended up loving the voluntary work at the cemetery, his optimism in an otherwise gloomy environment was contagious.
Emma was not sure if she wasn't afraid of death anymore, but she was sure she did not fear the dead. Especially those who are long gone and forgotten by the ones they loved in life, deep down, she knew they needed her to give them company.
The ossuary was their home, the old man made it inside an old and abandoned mausoleum in the center of the cemetery, not a secret project but many were unaware of its existence. Made of the nameless remains of the John's and Jane's Doe of the world.
She had entered the mausoleum and descended its spiral stairs unintended, she was welcome here, its walls of skulls always happy to see her with their eyeless faces, asking her to sing for them again. If her parents ever discovered anything about her favorite pastime, she was sure they would lock her in her room for the rest of her life, so, she kept that as her secret.
"...the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel," She set the censer alight and brought the sphere forged in gold to her hands, severed, yet perfect, but it wasn't supposed to be carried by hands.
The Severed Right Eye
"...Your Savior. Amen" She finished and without excitation, shoved her hands into the fire. The flames ignited as if alive and with a will of their own, spread through her arms and then engulfed her body.
She could feel the heat, but it did not hurt, she could feel her body become ashes but she felt happy. So happy that she wanted to sing.
And so she sang.
A music so beautiful that even the dead wanted to join her chorus.
So, they sang together. Their voice was one, and as the flames kept burning, Emma's voice was heard through all of the bay.
The cacophony of alarms blaring and the controlled nervousness of PRT agents rushing from place to place in an attempt to keep any kind of communication should not be good for any organization. But to Emily Piggot, Director of the PRT ENE, it was preferable to have agents on edge with a loud horn, than risk said agents turn against their fellow men.
"Report, now!" She demanded as she stepped inside the Command Room, monitors flicking useless in synchrony. Everything was down, and all communication devices were jammed by what by all accounts is an opera singing that as far as she was aware, was affecting all of the PRT HQ, maybe throwing her cell phone on a wall and shooting it with a gun was a little of an overreaction, but Emily could not afford any risks.
The Deputy Director, Renick was the first to speak. "Director, many of our patrol units have retreated to base, they claim it is city-wide."
That made her pause in her steps, she assumed it was some form of attack, and even gave orders to all units to be ready, and officers armed with live ammunition to be in position. But city-wide? That means that all units are blind, regardless of their location, and no reinforcements can be called from outside the city. And what about the PHQ? Are they in the dark too?
"Any sign of unusual activities from the population, mind control of any kind?" She asked, a pit forming in her stomach.
"No, ma'am." Replied a captain as he stepped inside the control room, his helmet on his arms. "Aside from the expected general unease and few reports of attempt riots being put down by the BBPD, everything seemed fine."
Emily nodded, "What about the storm?" It formed impossibly fast and now was above the city, but it wasn't bombarding the place with thunders so it wasn't on the top of her list of priorities.
"I just got some info from the archive Ma'am." Said a short and young dark-skinned woman as she left the table she was using to read a pile of papers, she gave a journal to her. "It didn't take me long to find, it looks like the same event that happened in Boston a couple of years ago. Big storm out of nowhere, minus the music."
Emily read the journal and as expected there was not much information aside from what she already knew. With a sigh, she started to give orders. "I want someone to establish communications with the PHQ, they are probably in the dark as we are so we will need a visual sign. We also need to retrieve the Wards and bring them to safety, send two armored vans with a full squad to-"
She was interrupted by the captain as he pointed to the monitors behind her. "Director, look!"
Emily turned around and to her surprise, the monitors were back to normal. An agent quickly rushed to one of the terminals, and after some tests, he confirmed what she hoped. "Very well," She said looking back to the others as more agents took their place on the terminals. "You have your orders."
With that, she left, making her way to her office. She will need to get in contact with everyone to assert the damage and try to search for a source for this event, maybe contact Director Armstrong for any intel. Before she made it halfway to her room she was interrupted by an agent.
"Director Piggot, Armsmaster just arrived with Dauntless." he said, delivering her a new cellphone.
"Send him to my room, and call Renick for an emergency reunion." She said and walked to her new destination, she needed to deal with this situation, and fast.
"That was his request ma'am, he said it was urgent." He said before leaving. Emily didn't like to sound of that but she would get her answer soon.
It took her two minutes but she arrived at the room, the remains of her cell phone already discarded, she was soon followed by Armsmarter, his midnight-blue power armor trampling heavily on the floor, Dauntless, in his Greek warrior armor. With the arrival of Renick, Armsmaster spoke, "Director, I... made a concerning discovery." He began unsure of his words, Dauntless looked nervous behind him.
"What was that?" Asked Renick. Instead of replying, Armsmaster looked at a TV screen on the wall and walked to it. He turned that on and connected a cable between it and his helmet. A video started to play.
"Today, me and Dauntless were in an event sponsored by the administration of the Ferry." He said as he skipped scenes of the recording feed. "We were stuck in the boat when the storm came." He paused the video, the storm was already on the Bay itself, with the city about to be covered.
"I already suspect you are stuck in there Armsmaster, so what are you showing me?" She asked trying to keep her calm.
"This right there was taken seconds before the music started and everything was jammed." He said as the video looked away from the city and back at the storm. Armsmaster then paused and started to zoom in on the video.
"Armsmaster why-" Renick was asking but stooped as he saw it. Emily's blood froze, the image was too blurry to make any detail, but she could see it all the same. A tail. A tail that was too, too big with its dark shape swaying in the air before it began to submerge in the ocean. Then, the music started and Armsmaster cut the video.
The room was silent for what felt like minutes. Piggot didn't know what to say.Please, don't be what I think it is!
"Ma'am." Renick interrupted her thoughts, looking at her expecting, Armsmaster did the same and so did Dauntless.
She released a breath that she didn't know she was holding, then spoke with all the cold professionalism she could muster. "I will contact the Chief Director about this information, in the meantime, I want all units ready, the Protectorate, Wards, PRT Officers, even the janitor. Don't spread this information to anyone else, but be prepared to sound the Endbringer siren, put it in a speed dial if needed."
Renick snapped to attention and without missing a second, left the room with a nod, Dauntless following behind leaving only her and Armsmaster.
"Is this really wise, Director?" He asked
She looked at him and released a sigh. "I don't know."
Taylor opened the window without any problem and sneaked her way inside, she didn't waste time searching for clothes. Her mother was downstairs, so she needed to be quick and silent.
Finding clothes similar to the ones she lost would be easy, but she would need to go back outside in the rain to keep the appearance.
As she got dressed she caught sight of herself in the mirror and remembered an important detail she needed to fix. After all, the golden right eye staring that now replaced her old green one would be noticed by undesirable souls.
She brought a hand to her right cheek, pressing her finger to her lower eyelids, staring at her new eye.
She blinked, and its place was a normal green eye, lifeless in comparison with her left one, but practically identical.
With a smile, she resumed her work and left through the window again.
A.N. I really didn't like the first scene, but could not think of any way to improve it, well, I didn't like the dialogue in general, I don't think I did a good work on that front. Hopefully will figure that out later.
1- In a way, we could say this is justice for everyone who got their eyes molested by Taylor in canon.