Disclaimer: the rights to the game Shadow Hearts are owned by Midway games. Should they, or any of their affiliated companies or employees, request it, this not-for-profit fanfiction piece will be deleted from any web site it is posted on and removed from my hard drive. Thank you.
The Everblack Bible
Verse 1
Starting Out
By Random1377
Margarete Gertrude Zelle glanced up from where she had been stirring the fire's embers and grinned mischievously at her traveling companion. "My, my," she winked as the man walked up to her, "you two certainly aren't shy, are you?"
Yuri Hyuga looked blank, then gave her a sour glare. "Oh you're a real scream," he muttered, instantly regretting his choice of words.
"Well from what I heard, she's the screamer," Margarete said, eyes wide and innocent, "I hope you didn't hurt-"
"Knock it off," Yuri grumbled, throwing himself on the hard earth by Margarete's feet and lacing his hands behind his head, "she was having a bad dream and I went in to make sure she was ok – we're not… we don't…" he growled with frustration, wishing there was a better way to say what he wanted to say. "We weren't doing it, ok??"
"Poor you," Margarete said sweetly, "but ummm… how long was this dream of hers, 'cuz by my watch, you were in there for a good hour."
"Sh-shut up," Yuri stammered, "we were just talking!"
"But I thought she was asleep," Margarete teased.
Yuri gave up. "Fine, fine," he muttered angrily, "I just… like to watch her sleep sometimes, ok? God – you're worse than Halley with all these damn questions! And you better keep this to yourself, you understand? She already thinks I'm a pervert…"
"Aww!" Margarete clasped her hands, trying to keep a straight face as she gushed, "watching your little girlfriend sleep – that is so SWEET!!"
"Shut up!!"
"Hey, it's not my fault you 'accidentally' walked in on her in the shower at the last hotel," Margarete laughed, "Good heavens, sonny boy, you've been traveling together over a year now! When are you finally going to-"
"What I don't understand," Yuri grated, rolling over and rising to his knees to loom over the older woman, "is why you won't just drop it! And don't call me 'sonny boy' – I'm not that young!"
Margarete puckered. "Ooo, so forceful," she hummed, pretending to shiver, "you gonna make me regret saying it, you big strong man, you?"
Yuri blanched. "Cut it out!" he protested – rather weakly – as the woman suddenly leaned into his personal space and blew in his ear. "I… I mean it!!"
In his mind, he could hear her voice, whispering, "I wouldn't mind traveling with him for a while… no, wait… forget I said that." through the thin mesh of the confessional in Rouen.
"Don't hurt me," Margarete mock-whispered, very close to laughing at the boy's agitation… but also feeling the slightest thrill of exhilaration. "I'll do whatever you say – just don't hurt me, sir." When he shivered, her voice lowered still further, losing just a bit of its teasing quality. "So big and strong… mmmm – I'll bet you'd just love to pin-"
"Hey, what are you guys doing?"
Yuri and Margarete sprang apart as Alice Elliot, their other traveling companion, made her way into the dim light of the fire. "Umm, n-nothing!" Yuri said quickly, praying that the young woman really was as bleary as she seemed to be. "We were just, um-"
"Planning our next stop," Margarete jumped in, dropping Yuri a wink and blowing him a kiss as Alice closed her eyes and yawned, "Yuri wants to go back to London and check on Halley and the kids, but I was saying we should swing by Bistritz first and pick up Keith – I'm sure he's just about bored to tears by now."
'Thank you,' Yuri mouthed, looking clearly relieved.
Margarete took great pleasure in mouthing back, 'Pay me later.'
Teasing the young man was far too much fun to pass on… though in all honesty, it was getting harder and harder to pretend that she was not serious.
The smile ran away from Margarete's face, however, as she noticed the far-off, troubled expression Alice wore. "What's wrong?" she asked softly, rising to her feet and letting her hand drop to the butt of her pistol as she followed the younger woman's line of sight. "Is something out there?"
Even after the destruction of the Float, and Albert Simon's defeat, there were still monsters roaming Europe's lush, rolling countryside, so wariness was definitely not uncommon for seasoned travelers – especially those traveling with an exorcist and a harmonixer.
Alice blinked and shook her head. "N-no," she said, blushing faintly as the older woman studied her, "I just… I think we need to get to London."
Yuri and Margarete exchanged a glance. "I knew she'd take your side," Margarete mumbled, trying to lighten the suddenly heavy mood.
"What's in London?" Yuri asked, ignoring Margarete for the moment. "Alice…?"
Alice shook her head again, bringing her attention to his face with some difficulty. "Koudelka," she said, so flatly that Margarete and Yuri exchanged another glance. After a long stretch of silence, Alice put her right hand on her head and sighed. "Sorry," she whispered, rubbing her temple with a pained look, "I'm just… I dreamed that Koudelka was calling me, but it was faint – like she was far, far away."
"I didn't hear anything," Yuri said uneasily.
Koudelka, or rather – Koudelka's voice – was the reason they were where they were at that point. Yuri had heard her voice in his mind for several years before meeting Alice, and at Koudelka's prompting, had been compelled to protect the pretty blonde exorcist. He had not heard her voice in his mind since rescuing her from the depths of the Calios mental hospital. And being as how it was usually a painful experience, due to the voices of the demons bound to his soul, that was just fine by him.
"I heard you screaming," Margarete observed quietly, "That's about it."
Alice glanced at Yuri, her blush returning as she gave him a timid smile. "Y-yeah," she said quickly, "I umm, Koudelka was trying to tell me something, and I could see her, you know? But… but then something burst into the room she was in, and everything went black." Her blush intensified. "I woke up screaming, and… and Yuri was there, and…" she trailed off.
Margarete looked from one to the other, sensing that there was something being left unspoken… but tactfully deciding to keep the focus on Alice's dream. "So if she really was trying to contact you," she said carefully, "we should start moving now, shouldn't we? I mean, I don't know much about spirits and stuff – besides what I've learned with you guys, I mean – but I figure we should get a move on."
"It… might have just been a dream," Alice said reluctantly, "it really wasn't like any of the other times she's talked to me… so it might have been just a dream."
"Better safe than sorry and all that," Yuri said coolly, "pack up – it's not that far to London. I figure we can get there in three days."
"Three days," Alice bit her lip, "it's too bad we don't have a motorcar."
"I think we could arrange one," Margarete said, scratching her chin with an almost too-casual air, "give me two hours."
Alice was on the verge of asking, 'Legally?' when Yuri caught her eye and gave her a minute shake of his head. "That would be great," she said with forced lightness, "should we just wait here?"
"Heh," Margarete laughed, cracking her knuckles. "Finally! Yeah, I'll be back before you know it!" With a hasty goodbye, she scrambled to her feet and dashed off into the darkness.
Alice and Yuri regarded one another for a moment in silence. "So," Yuri said slowly, stuffing his hands into his pockets and turning away from her glittering blue eyes, "just you and me, huh?"
"Uh huh," Alice nodded, taking a step closer to him, "all alone… just like the first time we met." She laughed nervously, "In fact… I think this is the first time we've really been alone since we met."
Yuri looked up at the sky. "Full moon," he observed lamely, "was there a full moon that night?"
"I think so," Alice said, taking another hesitant step, "Yuri, I-"
"It's been great," Yuri blurted suddenly, keeping his back to her as he struggled for words, "you know, traveling with you and stuff."
"You like fighting demons?" Alice asked, quirking one eyebrow up and taking one last step closer.
"Well, not that part," Yuri admitted, scratching the back of his head, "but being with you, and… God, I don't know how to-"
He cut himself off as he felt a soft, tentative touch on the back of his hand. He turned to find Alice smiling warmly at him, the tips of her fingers resting lightly on his skin as a faint blush graced her cheeks. "I understand," she said simply, "and… it's the same for me…"
Yuri averted his eyes. "Yeah," he whispered, looking back up to the moon, unable to do more than just stand and breathe for fear of breaking the moment. Once, in Nementon… she had almost told him she loved him – but since then they had been no closer than familiar traveling companions, or (at the most) old friends, and for the life of him, Yuri simply did not know how to get them back to that point.
He never had been good with stuff like that.
As for herself, Alice felt like she was walking a tightrope. She knew that Yuri liked her, and sometimes, when they were alone for more than a few minutes, she caught him looking at her in such a way as to suggest that it was more than that… she just did not know how much more. I can wait, though, she thought contentedly, if you're there when I wake, and I can just… hold your hand like this – I can wait as long as it takes, Yuri. I promise.
She blushed as she recalled that he was there when the terrified look on Koudelka's face had sent her screaming into consciousness, leaving her disoriented and dazed in her own tent. And then, somehow… she had been in his arms, her shivers slowly subsiding as he stroked her hair and awkwardly whispered, 'It's ok… it was just a dream… it's ok, Alice…'
"It's a nice night," Alice offered timidly, wondering if she should try twining her fingers with his, or if that would be pushing her luck.
Yuri nodded but said nothing, and she sighed, almost pulling her hand away, then simply leaving it where it was and looking up at his profile to see if she could gauge his mood. When a faint hint of red tinged his cheeks, and he leaned back slightly, letting more of her hand touch his… she slowly leaned her head on his shoulder, and gingerly clasped his hand in hers, letting her eyes drift closed for a moment and simply savoring this brief moment of closeness, trying not to wonder how much it meant to him.
Neither of them noticed the pair of brilliant green eyes watching them from the tree line… and there was no way they could have heard the softly whispered, half sad, half amused, 'Kids,' that drifted on the soft breeze before the eyes' owner finally slipped off into the night.
**
In the dark hills surrounding London, England, two figures stood gazing up at the stars. One, a tall, dapper looking gentlemen with black hair and eyes, the other a slight, fair-haired man with watery blue ones. They had said nothing for some time, seemingly intent on the noises of the word around them, but the silence was broken finally as a third figure staggered into the clearing they occupied, its visage coated with blood and gore.
"M-master," it growled, its misshapen snout uttering the word with much difficulty.
"The deed is done, then?" the taller of the two men asked, unconcerned by the creature's sudden appearance and ragged, inhuman features.
"N-no, master," the creature whined, "I-"
"Your excuses do not interest me," the tall man yawned with an air of clear boredom, "I have no use for them, or subordinates that cannot complete simple tasks."
In spite of its monstrous appearance – replete with thickly muscled, powerful limbs and wickedly curved, keen-as-knives talons… the creature whimpered. "M-mercy," it howled, the sound echoing through the hills like the wail of a lost child, "Master… mercy… please…"
The shorter man cast his eyes back to the stars as the taller man raised his hand, palm first, towards the creature. There was a terrible rushing sound, reminiscent of a powerful wind blowing through a stand of trees in late fall, and when the shorter man looked down once more, there was but a pile of ash to mark where the creature had stood mere moments before.
"Wasteful," he croaked, his voice weak and tremulous.
"It was not a complex undertaking," the taller man said smoothly, "four Doomhounds should have been more than sufficient."
"Not for this woman," the shorter man coughed, covering his mouth with a look of supreme distaste, "and you, yourself were not able to fully shield her."
"Mmmm," the taller man hummed nonchalantly, "she has grown a touch more powerful since last we met… do you think I should send her more hounds?"
The shorter man shook his head wearily. "I would not waste the time," he sighed, "from all you have said of her, and what she has done tonight, it would merely inconvenience her and draw unwanted attention to us. No, it would be better to wait for the next act to play itself out, my good man."
"I see the wisdom in that," the taller man agreed, smiling brightly, "then perhaps we should take in a show over the weekend? I understand that there is a lovely burlesque just opening up on old Church Street."
The irony of this statement was not lost on the smaller man, and he chuckled weakly. "You are incorrigible as always," he said, his whispery voice barely carrying through the night air. "Very well… but come Monday, I believe it would be best to be done with this business. There must be no obstacles."
"But of course," the taller man bowed sweepingly. "Until then."
The smaller man sighed as his companion vanished, a soft gust of displaced air the only marker for his passing. "Perhaps we should extend an invitation to our young friends to join us," he mused to the quiet hill. "Yes… yes I think that would be most entertaining." Folding his arms across his back, he made his way down the hill, glancing up at the full moon above with a thin, sardonic smile. "Koudelka Iasant and Alice Elliot," he whispered softly, "the keys of darkness and light, swinging into play once more." His smile grew.
"Oh yes… this could prove quite interesting indeed."
Continued…
Author's notes: well there's part 1 of my first gamefic! Kind of a departure from anime fanfiction, I admit, but hopefully enjoyable nonetheless. Any anime fans our there might notice that the word 'Everblack' is a little familiar – this is because I 'borrowed' it from Starship Girl Yamamoto Yohko. *shrug* hey, it just sounded too cool to pass on, and too fitting not to associate with something as dark as Shadow Hearts. ^_^ What is the Everblack Bible, and what, exactly, happened to Koudelka? Well, stick around for chapter 2, if you'd like, and I'll fill you in. :D
Big pre-read thanks going out to Aegis. Couldn't have done it without you, my good lady… hope you like the rest. ^_^
Feedback is always welcome at [email protected]