A/N: I'm cruel to both my characters and my readers. (Slow and sadistic. What a combination...) So I'm sorry for my procrastination- at least I haven't yet sunk to the Madamhydra extreme, which is updates of one or two stories a few times a year. It makes her readers write death threats, it does. Anyway, what I've been wondering is if this should have an AU label stuck on it- it gets progressively weirder from here on in. Ah, well... Enjoy.
Review Thanks:
Paperxflowers: I'm twisted, I'm weird and I'm proud. ^_^
TennyoAngel711: Yep, I'm pretty sure "torture at least one character" is rule #315-A, right beside "Angst" (#311) and "Fluff" (#319)
Dirtchild: Thank you!
AbiansBlood: You are twisted and strange... Good.
Debs: Thank you!
Rocku: Bondage Rock, eh? *evil smirk*
Famira Damaris: Thank you!
Dark Ash: Thank you!
Duchess Stagsleap: Ass-kicking will ensue eventually... I think... Probably. And yes, Dukie in he chapter.
Kaitourei: Thank You!
Reikocor: Thank you!
**********************
I never watch the scatter'd fire
Of stars, or sun's far-trailing train,
But all my heart is one desire,
And all in vain:
For I am bound with fleshly bands,
Joy, beauty, lie beyond my scope;
I strain my heart, I stretch my hands,
And catch at hope.
-De Profundis, Christina Rossetti
**********************
Cold... so cold...
Rock slumped, half-propped against the cell's stained concrete. The air in front of him blurred and he breathed in shallow gasps- The pain in his chest and limbs pulled at him and threatened to drag him down into the depths of unconsciousness. As it was, black shadows flitted at the edges of his vision as he pressed his head against the faintly damp wall. Rock quietly let the cold numb his red-streaked skin. The darkness ate at him, and Rock was very close to letting himself be swallowed up.
It was difficult to tell what exactly had happened, his memories of before nothing but a blurred mess of black and red, flashes of pain cutting into bare flesh. And now the sharp burn at his wrists and ankles. Trying to move a hand, all Rock got was a pitiful twitch and white-hot spikes of pain running up his spine. He hissed through clenched teeth, tasting copper on his tongue, though whether from a split lip or more serious injuries he couldn't tell. Pale light filtered in from a thin grating in the door and painted the floor beneath him a disturbing shade of red.
Rock stopped trying to move and lay still against the cold stone, darkness coming on in waves like the sea on stone- inevitable and intractable, a force of nature. In the fading awareness murmurings began, quiet voices speaking to him over the rushing in his ears. He shuddered once as a small dribble of blood snaked its way down his chin. In the black oblivion, there was the faintest sensation of fingers ghosting over his cheek... Nearly intangible, but there. Rock forced his eyes open, not realizing that they'd shut, and was confronted with a face barely inches from his own. Atlas' face. For a bare few moments, Rock just stared at him.
"Wh.. what're you doing here?" Rock slurred, "'m I dead?" He laughed slightly, humorlessly, and gave a half-hearted smile. "Guess... I guess it wasn't worth it in th'end, right? All that betrayal and pain, only to die here in some... Godforsaken Zone One basement..." He coughed slightly, spattering the ground with red drops, though they passed straight through Atlas.
"Not dead," said Atlas, subdued, "but not far away, either. Try not to move."
"How come you're here? You've never been anywhere outside m'head before..." Rock trailed off, either forgetting the rest of what he was to say or losing the will to complete his sentence. He sighed and his fingers twitched spasmodically.
"You're too close to nothing, that's the problem. You can see me, here," said Atlas, shuffling sideways and running his fingertips through smeared blood on Rock's chin without disturbing it, "so... You..."
Rock watched him for a moment, a perfectly-formed human crouched beside him on the blood-slick floor but for the fact that the floor itself could be seen through him. "Wh-" Rock coughed, "what were you going to say?"
"You're dying," said Atlas, serious. "You've lost..." he gestured at the blood-streaked floor, "far too much blood. I don't think you'll last too much longer."
"Oh...," Rock sighed, a small, ironic smile showing, "But it will stop hurting..."
Rock shut his eyes, too much in pain to think. When he opened them again, he was met with the view of stained stone and empty air. Atlas was gone.
****************Zone one was colorful and bright in the early morning, the sunlight refracting off broken glass and plastic shards to form a sort of rainbowed halo halfway up the sector's buildings. A few solitary doves flew past, adding to the idyllic, frozen moment- then a man's cry as he couldn't pay for the drugs he so sorely needed split the air, echoing whatever was being done to him below for payment, and Subaru closed the door.
Subaru was fairly young, no more than fourteen. His features were a bit asian and a bit something else, as his too-pale hair and oddly-colored eyes attested. In fact, it was these very traits that'd gotten him tossed out of his house by one of his mom's many boyfriends. Too strange, a freak. So he'd wandered and he'd stolen and he'd sold himself to survive. It was one of these times that Atlas had picked him up, brought him home and gave him a hot meal. Subaru hadn't understood what the man had wanted, at first. It was later, after Atlas had introduced him to the rest of their little group that he'd finally begun to feel at ease. Atlas had told him he'd never go hungry, have to beg for scraps or anything of the sort ever again. He'd been eight years old at the time and since then, he'd grown up with the revolution.
It was because of this that he didn't see why he should get the tedious job of door guard every day. It was boring, it was monotonous, and he would have continued with the train of thought but he'd just used up the longest word he knew and couldn't think of anything else to match it. Subaru stepped away from the door and flopped down in a battered chair in the corner, hating life.
As he sat, the warm sunlight fell on his face like a blanket and made him half-smile. Perhaps he'd been too hasty about hating everything. This was quite nice, actually... Just the thing to make you drift off on an uneventful afternoon. But Subaru promised himself not to do it. He had a job to do, didn't he? A job that... something... something important? No, not really. But still. No sleeping... no...
He was out in a minute flat.
*****************"Duke Red, I really don't think-"
"No," said the man in question, turning to his "troops", consisting mainly of the elite Marduk force and several police officers lent to him by Notarlin, "that's not what you're paid for, is it?"
The policeman who'd spoken up shrank back, cowed by the Duke's formidable glare. His fellow officers gave him sympathetic glances while the Marduks raised eyebrows, but otherwise didn't much react. They were used to Rock and Duke Red's strict discipline and barbed tongues.
Duke Red strode up and down in his office- Not as grand as the one he'd possessed before the Ziggurat's fall, but nice enough with a mosaic-tiled floor, several paintings and a large arched window. His small troop of whatever could be gathered together stood in three rows, unmoving, fifteen in all. They would have to be enough to rescue the boy. A few politicians stood by the walls, observing.
"Sir-" the policeman suddenly seemed to get his nerve back, "why are we expending so much effort to find one kidnapped teenager? We don't usually bother bargaining with hostage-taking subversives. I don't see the point in-"
"No. likely you don't."
The man closed his mouth, disgruntled. He was about to open it again when the Duke elaborated.
"The boy we're going to rescue is none other than Rock, the Marduk leader."
"Uh- But- The effort is so high, and a new leader can be..." he trailed off, suddenly aware of nine Marduk glares fixed on him, "er... Trained for the position...?"
Duke Red leaned closer to the man, who was now visibly nervous. "Rock," said the Duke, "is my son."
"O... oh... well..."
"Quiet," he turned away irritably. "I don't have time to be concerned with you. The MLF has offered to negotiate for his return this evening, on the condition that I destroy the robots of the city afterwards."
The outcry was immediate from the politicians at the edges of the room.
"You can't be serious!"
"However would you do it?"
"Do you know how much that would cost us!?!"
"Calm down," replied Duke Red in a soothing voice, a slight condescending tone as if reasoning with bad-tempered children, "I have no intention of upholding my end of the bargain. That is what they," he gestured to his troop, "are for. Swift, descisive action. No bargains."
"But how would you be able to destroy the robots in the first place? There must be thousands in Metropolis."
"You've heard of the Flare project?" Duke Red smiled, " No? It was more properly called the Omotenium ray."
The politician looked distinctly ruffled. "That project was scrapped along with the ziggurat, wasn't it?"
"No... That project, among others, is still very much alive." Duke Red smiled enigmatically, and proceeded to hand mission briefings to his rescue team. The politicians just glanced at each other and looked nervous.
*****************Dione stole out from the spattered cell she'd left behind, hands caked in red-brown rivulets that crept up nearly to her elbows. It crackled and flaked leaving rusty trails. she noticed her shoes making suspiciously squishy sounds as well. It certainly wouldn't do to have someone notice her, would it?
She crept back to a bathroom, locking the door behind her, and proceeded to scrub the remains of several hours' work off her hands. Her jacket was unsalvageable, stiff and slick with cooling red stains, so she pulled it off and tossed it into a corner. Looking into the mirror above the sink, Dione saw her own plain face haloed with nondescript brown hair, grey-blue eyes staring back at her, and someone else's blood in smeared fingerprints across her left cheek.
She smiled. Why not? What she'd just done was a service to the world. One less Marduk to hurt and kill the world's innocence. It was impossible not to be happy at such a thing, but Dione knew Theo, Myth and the others wouldn't see it quite that way. They were strange and she didn't understand their reasoning- They claimed to hate Marduks, so why didn't they hurt the one they held? Make him pay for his crimes? But that was why she had to leave before her vengeance was discovered. They, for some unknown reason, actually saw Marduks as human, albeit a lesser sort of vicious beast. She would be blamed, but only because she had the bravery to strike back when no one else would.
It was satisfying, but also lonely to be such a martyr.
The last of the blood rinsed off of her arms, Dione stepped out into the hallway and made for the exit, grabbing someone or other's tattered blue-black coat and tugging it on over her badly-mended white shirt. She walked through the hallways, meeting no one, and was able, when she reached the front door, to walk directly past the slumbering young guard and out into the street. She never even noticed the bloody trail of footprints snaking out behind her.
*****************"Myth! wait up!"
For what seemed to be the thousandth time, Myth stopped and turned to the sound of Kenichi's voice. He was dreading having to find Tima again... For a hunk of programmed metal, she sure seemed prone to wandering off.
"You're walking too fast! Slow down..." Kenichi trailed off as he caught up to the man, panting and dragging Tima by the hand behind him, though she seemed unfazed. "Why can't you go slower? You have longer legs than we do."
"Slow," echoed Tima, nodding. Myth just gave her an odd look then turned back to Kenichi.
"I'm going quickly because you kids are easy marks," he explained, "the faster we get to headquarters, the smaller of a chance you have of being mugged. So walk faster, eh?"
Kenichi frowned up at the man. It was irritating to be so much shorter than someone you were trying to argue with. "But if you walk faster than we do, that doesn't help us at all!"
"It's all about getting there as fast as possible." Myth smoothed some deeply-ingrained wrinkles from his shirt embarrassedly. "But for you, just for you, mind. I wouldn't do this for just anyone, I'll slow down." He grinned crookedly and winked at a thoroughly exasperated Kenichi, who looked back at him with a raised eyebrow. Tima just stared up at the sky, such as it was, seeming captivated.
Myth started off, careful to let the two children, or rather Kenichi, set the pace. They'd barely gone three steps when Tima broke free of Kenichi's grip and went chasing after some sort of insect, a mad grin on her face.
Myth just sighed unhappily, burying his face in his hand. This was going to be a long day.
******************Subaru woke up slowly, the sun's warmth on his face gone from comfortable to smothering. He blinked a few times, clearing sleep from his eyes, but stopped dead at the sight of brownish, smeared footprints trailing from one end of the room to the other.
"Dammit..." he moaned, "now what am I gonna do?" He ran a hand through unkempt brownish hair, nervous. "Someone walked right by while I was sleeping... God, Theo's gonna kill me."
Quickly, he decided there was only one thing to do- clean up. After all, if no one saw the mess, it was never there, right? Right!
He grabbed an old mop from the corner and filled a cracked bucket with water, though it leaked a bit, and set to work. He was cheered at how easily it was coming off the floor with a little pressure, but did notice it smelled a little odd for mud. Almost metallic. He could swear that he'd smelled it before, but just couldn't place the scent...
It was as he stood pondering that Myth opened the front door and walked in, trailing a couple of children. Subaru snapped out of his daydreaming and returned his attention to the floor, scrubbing hard and studiously not meeting Myth's eyes, cheeks burning.
"Hi, Myth," he said, head down, "you've come in late today."
"Yes, well," responded Myth, "some things kind of... Came up." He reached a hand behind his head and scratched at his stubby ponytail, shrugging in the general direction of the children. "It's a bit hard to explain."
Subaru looked up from his cleaning, remembering something he'd heard that morning. "Theo was saying he wanted to see you for something earlier. You should probably go on up."
"Will do. See you later," he said, and waved, beckoning the two children after him and starting up a set of steep stairs. As Subaru watched the boy followed, but the little girl paused and looked back for a moment.
"Red water," she said quietly, and departed. He looked at the puddles around his feet, but they didn't seem very strange, Just a bit murky, though they did smell oddly familiar...
****************The boy in the cell gasped for breath. He could swear his lungs were caving in, they seemed so small suddenly, just not enough air in the room. His vision was almost entirely gone, and a high-pitched whine buzzed in his ears. He'd tried to crawl for the door, desperate, and nearly blacked out from the pain. So close to the edge, Rock had finally realized something: he really didn't want to die, but the spikes of pain and hands sticky with your own cooling blood were making a good case for surrender. He lay half-curled by the bolted-down chair and hoped the world would stop blurring soon. The thick, coppery taste of blood was now undeniable, and he idly wondered if Dione had pierced his lung.
Dying hurt.
***************"Theo!" called Myth, opening the small room's door and revealing the man himself sitting on the windowsill, "Theo, you wanted to see me?"
Kenichi hung back and watched as the two spoke, and he was uncomfortably reminded of Atlas sitting in that same position, legs bent against the frame and staring up at a metal-laced sky, though the differences between the two were stark. Where Atlas had a harsh appearance, his eyes showed his intelligence and kindness. This man's eyes seemed not quite right... As if he weren't truly paying attention to what was going on, instead focusing on some point on the horizon. Kenichi wondered if he were truly the leader, or the leader in name only.
He was distracted by Tima pulling on his hand as she tried to go investigate a poster on the wall, and tugged on her hand in return as a distraction. It seemed to work- she stopped pulling and stared down at the floor. Kenichi had almost returned to his daydreaming when he distinctly heard Myth say "Marduk".
"What about that Marduk?" Myth said, "Did you want me to, er..." he glanced at Tima and Kenichi, "pay him a visit?"
"You were late this morning," responded Theo, "I had someone else talk to him. Don't worry about it."
"Really? Who?
"Dione."
The room's conversation stopped dead, and Myth paled.
"You- you're kidding, right?"
"No," Theo shrugged, mystified, "why is it such a big deal? You weren't here for the questioning, I got someone else. Simple."
Myth grabbed Theo's shoulders, nearly pulling him from the sill and shaking him while Kenichi watched in confusion. "Do you know what you've done!? He's-" Myth glanced at Kenichi again and lowered his voice, "He's probably dead by now. Resting in pieces. Understand? Dione hates Marduks!"
"Oh..." said Theo, "Oh! Really? I, uh... didn't-"
"There's no time for that! Where's he being held? We have to get to him!"
"Cell B-"
Myth cut him off and went for the door, looking panicked, dragging Theo behind him. Kenichi and Tima dashed after in their wake.
*****************Subaru had just finished cleaning the last of the muck off the floor, and dropped his worn mop into the water bucket. Strangely, from this angle it did look a bit... Red...
The metallic smell came to him again, and in a flash he knew what it was.
Blood.
He'd been scrubbing bloody footprints off the floor.
Subaru backed away, only splashing in more blood-tinted puddles behind him, staring at the ground in disgust. Without a word, he turned and ran for Theo.
******************"God, you're so stupid-" panted Myth, dashing through dusty corridors to the few tiny cells belowground, "I can't believe- you'd- be- so- fucking- stupid-"
Theo said nothing, only grimaced and concentrated on running. They screeched to a halt outside a cell door, seeing red-brown footprints and smeared splotches scattered at random.
"Keys, keys..." muttered Theo, digging through his pockets, " I know they're here somewhere..."
Myth placed a hand on the door, watching it swing open a bit.
"No need."
"She... Didn't lock it behind her?"
"No."
"That's not good, is it?"
"Not likely," said Myth, and with that, pushed the heavy metal door inwards in one screeching motion. Both of them stepped back at the stench of blood that rushed out. It stank of fear and pain, and was entirely sickening.
Myth approached the boy in the middle of the room slowly, unable to tell whether he were living or dead. placing a hand on the Marduk's neck, he got a faint, sluggish pulse, but nearly slipped and fell backwards in the pooled liquid at his feet.
"Help me!" he called to Theo, looping an arm around the prisoner's shoulders and levering him up, "we've got to get him help before he dies on us- Help me get him out of here, and to somewhere we can actually do something!"
Theo was hesitant about helping a Marduk, but complied. Together, they lifted the dead weight off the floor and began to carry him, slowly, from the cell. Kenichi, who'd been watching the proceedings from afar, flinched back from the injured Marduk, nauseated by the sight and smell of the Marduk's oozing blood- It was only as they shuffled by with their burden that he recognized his face.
"R- Rock!?" he cried, "Is that the Marduk leader!?" He drew back, half-interested and half repelled. Tima, on the other hand, seemed to be studying him carefully.
"Yeah," Myth looked distracted, "move, would ya?"
Kenichi edged back against the wall, looking sick. He held Tima back from the unconscious man, as she was trying to touch him. Myth and Theo shuffled by with their burden.
******************"Lay him down here-"
"-Bandages?"
"You've got-"
There were too many people in the revolutionaries' small, ersatz infirmary to get any clear conversations across. At least ten crowded the small room, desperate to save their prisoner's ebbing life. Slightly ironic... But if he died, they would have nothing to bargain with.
Myth was occupied with cleaning the crusted blood from the Marduk's lacerations, trying to get a clear idea of just how bad his injuries were, when Subaru rushed in, proclaiming something about blood in the front hall. No one paid him much attention. Theo hunted for bandages and gauze, along with two others, women who Myth thought were named Arika and Hespere. Another man searched through the drawers for needle and thread for stitches. Myth looked down to continue cleaning the wounds. It was as he did that he noticed something strange- the exposed cuts seemed to form some sort of pattern.
Wiping away more caked blood with a wet cloth, he saw the design extend halfway down the Marduk's chest and what seemed to be script below it. Feeling rather sickened at imagining Dione doing this to anyone, Myth cleaned away the last of the blood and came face to face with the Marduk's trademark dragon carved into flesh. The words below seemed to be... Latin?
"Do any of you know any latin?" He asked to the room in general, not hoping for much. However, Hespere responded right away.
"A little... Not much. Why?"
"There's something carved into him. Can you translate it?"
"What, you mean, as in... The words cut into him?! Eurgh!"
"Just get over here."
She looked, and Myth wiped away the freshly welling blood that was beginning to hide the letters.
"Concido... Angelus?" She said, half to herself, "how strange..."
"What does it mean?"
"Well, Concido can mean to be ruined, to fail, to fall or die, to be cut up..." here she looked at the prisoner's wounds, "but together, in this context..."
"What?"
"Fallen Angel."