Friend or Foe
Who: Baron Byron Balaz and Alice Cullen
When: Sunday, September 4th, 2010
Where: The Park, near Black Pond
What: I have come to keeelll you. Y/N ?
Rating: PG-13 to R for potential language and violence.
Status: Closed, incomplete
( The Baron had not survived as long as he had without being prepared for the worst. )
When: Sunday, September 4th, 2010
Where: The Park, near Black Pond
What: I have come to keeelll you. Y/N ?
Rating: PG-13 to R for potential language and violence.
Status: Closed, incomplete
( The Baron had not survived as long as he had without being prepared for the worst. )
And Baron Byron Balaz was planning to kill her.
Alice wasn't sure why - her gift didn't give her the whys. She just knew that about two exchanges into their conversation she had begun getting visions of herself fighting someone, who must have been Balaz. For that reason, she'd been quick to suggest they make their meeting somewhere secluded. A couple of perfectly civil, even friendly, posts later, the visions showed her the same man by the lake she'd just suggested as a meeting place, obviously setting traps. As he decided what he would plant, she saw them all: herself caught in some sort of invisible net, sliced by tiny but deadly wires, consumed by explosions.
None of those things would kill her, but they would certainly annoy, and maybe even incapacitate her for a while. If she let herself be caught in them, which she certainly didn't intend. She might have skipped the meeting altogether, but her visions also showed her that eventually the two of them would sit and chat quite normally. Which was perplexing.
Did this man greet every new arrival like this? You'd think the town would have a higher murder rate then. Very few people had Alice's advantages, and those traps were not set by a man who was kidding around.
Point of interest: they weren't set by a man at all. It didn't take much more than a glance at her visions to see that he wasn't human. He wasn't exactly like her kind, either, but he was a vampire. Did he feed here? Was that it? Did he know what she was, and want to get rid of the intruder in his territory?
Well, she wouldn't find out if she let him kill her. She could let him trap her, but that risked utter ruin of her reputation. As Edward had once told Bella, Alice's small size might have been a disadvantage in a fight - if anyone could ever catch her.
Which they couldn't.
Confident in her visions, she came to the lake at the appointed time, and when she reached the edge of the danger zone, she began to dance.
Step here and I'm trapped, here and it's safe - here I duck, then turn, up this tree to avoid the wires--
It was more instinct than conscious thought. She knew no one but Balaz would see, so she moved like a vampire, too fast and too gracefully, skipping from one tree to the next and back down with her small feet scarcely seeming to touch the ground, slipping between triggers and traps through spaces that seemed impossibly small for her.
Not a single trap went off.
She alighted several feet from him, smiling, hands clasped lightly behind her back, and took her first face-to-face look at Baron Balaz.
"It's sweet you went to so much trouble for me," she said in her light, musical voice.
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If she was another Noble, she was no doubt one of Doctor DeCariole's experiments. The old man was annoyingly loyal to the elder Lord Balaz and talented in ways that Byron had never begun to understand. But he refused to fall here.
Secluded until then, a veil lifted over the carriage which had sprouted what looked like a cluster of mismatched gun turrets, all which trained right on the hapless (young?) woman and the section of trees near where Byron had been standing exploded in a concussive blast of sound and light. What remained was a ten foot by ten foot patch of wasteland where nothing would grow or live for possibly hundreds of years to come.
"I'm sorry to be difficult my dear, but I do not intend to allow my father to believe he has trapped me here helplessly."
Byron had faced immortal foes before--being and creates so cellularly manipulated that that only possible way to destroy them was at the atomic level, and even then, the destruction of every atom, every molecule must be simultaneous or regeneration was almost certain. Gritting his teeth he fluttered a few yards back and waited for the smoke to clear.
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She'd had a chance to confirm one thing, though. One odd thing: His eyes were blue.
His array of weaponry was way beyond impressive, though. Without her foresight she would have been blasted into oblivion long before. Where did he get all of this?
More and more questions.
Considering and rejecting the idea of landing on his carriage (oh DEAR, that would have been messy!), she paused again near the lake shore. "Do I know your father?" she enquired artlessly.
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The fact that the woman had stopped at shore's edge meant that she was either unable or unwilling to cross onto the water--it was obvious she hadn't expected the guns on the carriage though, so whatever action she took to avoid them was instinct....and instinct had told her to avoid water.
"Lord Balaz of Krauhausen. But here I thought he exhausted all his mercenaries and was just down to his loyal followers? But then, if you followed me all the way here, you couldn't be in it for the money, seeing as it's unlikely you could collect."
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Alice was enjoying herself, to be honest. It wasn't often she really got to go all-out. That was the reason her family looked forward to thunderstorms with such anticipation. But she also knew they didn't have long to play before someone came looking, wondering about the explosions. They'd need to conclude this and get out of sight.
But get rid of the traps first, she amended. It was clear Baron Byron wasn't much concerned about attracting attention or collateral damage.
"But I thought you were Lord Balaz of Krauhausen? Or is that the trouble? Father and son having a little disagreement about whose turn it is?" Alice's dimples flashed in the dim light as she smiled. "It must be frustrating being the heir to someone who just won't die."
Even as she said the words, her gift was trying to show her something. She couldn't let it hit right now, though, not while she stood here vulnerable. Taking a couple of quick running steps, Alice dove into the water with the grace of a dolphin, making barely a splash as she broke the surface. She headed straight to the bottom, keeping an eye (both physical and mental) on the dark shape above the surface against the sky.
And there, while she had a few moments of 'breathing' space, she let the vision come.
Another fight, the same man, but she wasn't there. Instead, he fought a truly massive man, dark-cloaked and dark-haired and reeking of Power. But it was Byron's blade that sliced through the taller vampire's body.
Alice found herself smiling. That ought to please him, she thought. But in order to tell him, she'd first have to get him to stop trying to kill her.
Or... vice versa. Yes, that would work. Not from underwater, though.
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"It's hard to properly inherit when you were disowned before you could walk. Your service to him makes you no better than the man who tried to kill me twenty times before I reached young adulthood, so I'm sure you understand it when I say you had this coming."
Sliding into the carriage, a virtual display panel appeared marking out the lake as a grid with an x locked onto Alice where she had come to rest below the surface. Using only half of his available arsenal this time he set the main laser to auto-target and several of the others to strafe the surface--even if this didn't kill her the chance that she could get completely out of range was slim.
Exiting the carriage again as the heat build up would both even him, Byron set his lips in a grim line as a mass of red lights blinked on the surface of the water and the air began to grow hot.
"I believe the saying is...fish in a barrel?
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"Please don't evaporate the lake on my account." Still polite and smiling. "Maybe we should try this again."
Foreseeing what would happen if she gave him more than a few seconds to reorient on her new location, she sped off. "I'm Alice," she called, her voice seeming to come from everywhere as she moved ghostlike through the trees. "Alice Cullen. And I've never met your father." Suddenly she reappeared, dangling upside-down by her knees from a wide tree branch just fifty yards from him, her wild hair making a spiky halo around her pixie-like face.
"But I know you're going to kill him."
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With a thought, the red grid vanished from the lake, but not soon enough to prevent a humid fog from attempt to rise; a cooling early September air keeping it low over the surface of the lake. A few of the other guns repositioned automatically but after a few spurts he shut them off too, not wanting to waste ammunition.
There had to be a way to stop her long enough to get one good--
'What?!'
"You're a seer, aren't you?" Within the carriage, systems needed to recalibrate--it would take a few moments but this had to work. He needed to keep her talking. "And forgive me if I'm not very trusting--I've been here close to a year and you are the first...being I have encountered similar to myself. It was the right assumption to make for my own well being." If she was a seer, perhaps she already knew his past and why his father had to die.
"Does father know you've been speaking slander about him? I have a hard time believing he'd let someone live who so much as thought that in his presence."
There was a always the possibility that Byron had assumed from the beginning, that Lady Cullen was so loyal to his father that she allowed herself to be trapped in this place with him, with just her reassurance that she would kill Byron. "It's either that or he trusts you as much as that decrepit old doctor, DeCariole."
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Alice could see what he intended, of course. But the future was in flux. If she could say the right things now, he might be persuaded to change his mind.
And if not, she'd still have enough warning to get clear.
"I admit I'm not infallible." She rolled her eyes, still upside-down. "But as things stand right now, there's a very good chance you'll be sliding a sword through his guts within the next twenty years. (I'm assuming you'll have the sense to keep chopping after that.) As for DeCariole, he won't live to see it happen." A small smirk curved her lips. "It doesn't seem like much of a loss to the world. Yours or mine."
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But she was now saying that not only his father, but DeCariole wouldn't survive if Byron returned which... was admittedly, part of his plan. And there weren't many other ways for her to know that.
"You won't attempt to stop me taking my father or DeCariole's life?" Byron ventured, voice questioning for the first time since the counter began. "Other than the fact that we're both trapped here and it's as unlikely for you to get back as it is for me, how can I trust that you aren't trying to take me off guard?"
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Reaching up to grasp the branch she hung from, she slid her legs free and dropped lightly to the grass. Held out her hands, palms spread. "Have I tried to kill you?" she asked mildly, eyes twinkling with amusement. "Have I even tried to touch you?"
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"Then you are very lucky to have someone who would grieve for you, Lady Cullen. I can't say I've ever had that luxury." His mother, maybe, but what could she do but mourn in that watery grave where she was buried alive? His father had killed his only friends at the castle, the two loving human servants that were more like siblings than anything.
Suddenly, something struck him. The children. May and Hugh. If Hugh were somehow still alive, would he grieve? That thought did more to stay Byron's hand as Alice dropped to the ground. There wasn't a hint of malice or that killing aura all vampires were so attuned to, and though aware that it could rise and over-take her in a breath, Byron sheathed his sword.
Despite that, he took a few almost interpretable steps back. She was right. She hadn't tried to hurt him, but a lifetime of paranoia wasn't going to be vanquished in a night.
Even so...
"No, you have not." There was a weariness in his voice. "I cannot say I trust you completely, but I do apologize. It has been a very, very long time since someone of your talents hasn't wanted to kill me on sight."
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She smiled encouragingly when he sheathed his sword, but when he apologized, she outright laughed. "Alice, please! You and your father may be nobility, Baron Balaz, but I can't make any such claim. And don't be sorry; I haven't had so much fun in a long time." Bright golden eyes flicked over his face, taking in his eyes again. "Before we really get to chatting, though, we should really tidy up, before someone comes wondering what all the explosions were about."
There was no really worry of that anymore, though. She could see that no one would come before the evidence was gone. Oh, there would still be traces - that poor stand of trees, for one - but nothing that pointed at 'vampires'.
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"You did say you weren't infallible." As she smiled, full and bright against the gloom, Byron realized something that made blond brows knit curiously.
No fangs.
So Alice Cullen came from a world where "vampires"-- for she was one, he knew that now; she possessed thew same dark aura as all their kind-- had no fangs, could move naturally at speeds close to breaking the sound barrier and had occasion to be psychic.
And apparently didn't address themselves as Nobility. That would take a little explaining.
"Alice then. You understand, that in my era all vampires refer to themselves as Nobility, although there quite a few who scarcely deserve the title. My wretch of a father is one of them. Our kind claimed a stewardship over all of humanity centuries ago, led by the efforts of The Noble Ancestor." He took he hand in greeting, bowing generously. " And you needn't worry yourself about 'tidying up.'"
Around them, an odd sort of hush overcame the night, and a million sleek, bright lines, visible only to their vampire eyes loosened and contracted, coiling into a hidden compartment on the carriage, and what looked like lightning bugs blinking in the woods faded.
"The explosives are inert now. A chemical has flooded through the charges that will dissolve them by daylight. Shame, I was looking forward to knowing if they were worth what I paid for them." Byron nodded towards the carriage, and as if on cue a team of four cybernetic horses cantered down the path and back into their places, magnetic locks tying them to the harness automatically.
"Since I was impolite enough to make you walk all the way here, would you allow me to make up for it by driving you back?"
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If he did prey on humans, Alice would have to respect that - she was entering his territory, after all, not the other way around. She might try to persuade him to give 'vegetarianism' a try, but that was about all she had the right to do.
She watched the wires retract themselves, the traps rendering themselves harmless with little more than a thought on his part. "I'd say I'm sorry they were wasted, but you were trying to kill me with them, so I'm not so very sorry," she teased. The carriage was another bit of wonder; the horses drawing it looked alive (albeit armored), but their scent was nothing but machine.
"You do have some interesting toys!" Alice was pleased to see that there was so much new here. As of yet, she still didn't know what her purpose was in this place, but it seemed more than likely it had something to do with Baron Balaz, the entirely new type of vampire. She placed a foot on the step of the carriage, then paused. "It isn't going to explode as soon as I get inside, is it?"
She knew it wouldn't, but she couldn't resist teasing.
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"If you can believe it, sometime in the 3 millionth millennia of this planet, humans wage a war so destructive to themselves and the planet, our kind, lead by the Noble Ancestor are able to rise to power over the whole planet." Byron told her, moving to check the carriage harness as he spoke, his voice strangely nostaglic. "Our reign lasts for half as long as that of humanity, for as the generations pass the Noble Ancestor recedes from public view and then vanishes entirely."
There, Byron paused, looking deeply thoughtful. "Some come to believe he was killed, others that he grew disappointed in the opulence of his children and vanished out of shame--either way in-fighting begins almost immediately. For generations the great Noble families, mine included, wage war with one another carving kingdoms out of nothing, shifting continents and cities on a whim. Until the OBEs arrive and for a brief period Nobility is united against them. Outer Space Beings. But once the Beings were defeated, humanity had finally scraped it together to fight back against their ancient oppressors and since then...what survives of our people live in rotting castles or cities on the edges of The Frontier. Some, like my father are too accustomed to the old ways to accept what has happened. Others no longer do anything to protect themselves against the Hunters that are hired to kill them and welcome death. I...do neither. I believe we must find a way to coexist again, not as we were, not as tyranical monsters but was conservators. Stewards."
He shook his head.
"Forgive me, our history is not exactly a pleseant one. And you needn't worry about intruding on my territory I have not drunk the blood of a living being in several seasons. Long ago, Nobles who believed it was their duty to protect humanity devised synthetic blood that fills all of the base biological needs of our kind." Reaching into the carriage for a moment, Byron pulled out a hard polymer container. "Try some if you wish. There is no difference between that and human blood other than that it did not come from a human." Byron watched her curiously-- even if Alice preyed upon humans she seemed to understand the philosophy of the Noble Ancestor. That someone so far in the ancient past held those beliefs was...comforting, in a way.
It was impossible not to laugh when Alice teased him, and for the first time in a long time the sound was genuine and quite beautiful. "No, it will not. But please, allow me." Stepping fleetly past her and into the carriage, Byron held out a hand for her to hold as she stepped inside.
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