As the Crow Flies CH 14
Been a while for this fic. I do apologize for that. Enjoy!
-You’re not like the others you know.-
-And?-
-Most would have finished it by now.-
-Traversing the globe is one thing, the colonies are another. Much more space to run and more ways to do it.-
-Point.-
-What else?-
-You’re changing. The longer you stay here the more you change.-
-How so?-
-Will it be enough when all is done?-
-It will have to be.-
-Why?-
-Because my Little Bird needs me.-
-He’s a pilot.-
-Doesn’t matter. He’s still a boy too, and he needs me. I won’t abandon him.-
-I just hope it’s enough.-
-It will be.-
-You’re not like the others, you know.-
-Always.-
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“It was said long ago that the crow would guide the spirits of the departed to the afterlife. But sometimes the spirit experienced something in
life, so painful, so devastating that the soul can’t rest. Then the crow will guide the soul back to make the wrong things right.”
“Sir?”
“It’s an old Earth legend, from before the Native peoples of the Americas finally dissolved the last tribes.”
Treize Kushrenada stood from behind his desk, stepping slowly towards one of the windows of the grand old mansion, eyeing the rising storm and the dark birds taking flight over the woods.
“All the feathers from the murders came from one bird. There is no way one bird in their lifetime, let alone a year or two, could produce this many feathers. There is no trademark of cloning, and why clone a single bird for a trademark anyway? Very few people would even think to test the feathers, and fewer still would think the results significant.”
“General?”
“We were warned, Zechs. You and I personally. And I think Lady Une will be visited soon as well if the pattern holds. No,” he put up a hand as the Lightning Count stiffened, “not to kill her, but warn here. There is a line that is not to be crossed.”
“So you believe the tale?”
“I have enough teachings of the world not to discount anything. You saw a petite woman, her face plain in one moment, then with that Death’s Head paint moments later when she would never have had the time to apply it properly with that…. man right next to her. I saw that same woman one moment and then she vanished the next, between blinks. She was real and solid and bled when my sword nicked her. The drops of blood on the carpet proved that she was no hologram or drug induced hallucination.“
“What aren’t you saying?”
“I ran a test on the blood sample left behind.”
“And?”
“The DNA matches one of Mephisto’s victims, the one they couldn’t identify.”
Zechs Merquise stiffened as a chill ran up his spine. At the window a crow cawed, a single black feather floating in to land softly on the desk.
Maybe it was time he started believing too.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The line’s been crossed
And now you’re lost.
No more ignore the crime
Lady Une stopped in her tracks, turning slowly, looking for the source of the childish voice. She would not fall for tricks like so many others. There were logical reasons for everything, mystical explanations were the product of too much free time and too much drink.
At least, she thought so.
I warned you once
You’ve lost your voice
And now you’ll do the time.
She shrieked as a hand darted out, touching her face and dozens of images flooded her mind, people, places, deaths, horrors that her own hands had made.
“Ok, Nice Lady, buh-bye!”
A dark, petite woman walked out of the military base as the commander went silent and her mind broke in two.
-You’re not like the others you know.-
-And?-
-Most would have finished it by now.-
-Traversing the globe is one thing, the colonies are another. Much more space to run and more ways to do it.-
-Point.-
-What else?-
-You’re changing. The longer you stay here the more you change.-
-How so?-
-Will it be enough when all is done?-
-It will have to be.-
-Why?-
-Because my Little Bird needs me.-
-He’s a pilot.-
-Doesn’t matter. He’s still a boy too, and he needs me. I won’t abandon him.-
-I just hope it’s enough.-
-It will be.-
-You’re not like the others, you know.-
-Always.-
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“It was said long ago that the crow would guide the spirits of the departed to the afterlife. But sometimes the spirit experienced something in
life, so painful, so devastating that the soul can’t rest. Then the crow will guide the soul back to make the wrong things right.”
“Sir?”
“It’s an old Earth legend, from before the Native peoples of the Americas finally dissolved the last tribes.”
Treize Kushrenada stood from behind his desk, stepping slowly towards one of the windows of the grand old mansion, eyeing the rising storm and the dark birds taking flight over the woods.
“All the feathers from the murders came from one bird. There is no way one bird in their lifetime, let alone a year or two, could produce this many feathers. There is no trademark of cloning, and why clone a single bird for a trademark anyway? Very few people would even think to test the feathers, and fewer still would think the results significant.”
“General?”
“We were warned, Zechs. You and I personally. And I think Lady Une will be visited soon as well if the pattern holds. No,” he put up a hand as the Lightning Count stiffened, “not to kill her, but warn here. There is a line that is not to be crossed.”
“So you believe the tale?”
“I have enough teachings of the world not to discount anything. You saw a petite woman, her face plain in one moment, then with that Death’s Head paint moments later when she would never have had the time to apply it properly with that…. man right next to her. I saw that same woman one moment and then she vanished the next, between blinks. She was real and solid and bled when my sword nicked her. The drops of blood on the carpet proved that she was no hologram or drug induced hallucination.“
“What aren’t you saying?”
“I ran a test on the blood sample left behind.”
“And?”
“The DNA matches one of Mephisto’s victims, the one they couldn’t identify.”
Zechs Merquise stiffened as a chill ran up his spine. At the window a crow cawed, a single black feather floating in to land softly on the desk.
Maybe it was time he started believing too.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The line’s been crossed
And now you’re lost.
No more ignore the crime
Lady Une stopped in her tracks, turning slowly, looking for the source of the childish voice. She would not fall for tricks like so many others. There were logical reasons for everything, mystical explanations were the product of too much free time and too much drink.
At least, she thought so.
I warned you once
You’ve lost your voice
And now you’ll do the time.
She shrieked as a hand darted out, touching her face and dozens of images flooded her mind, people, places, deaths, horrors that her own hands had made.
“Ok, Nice Lady, buh-bye!”
A dark, petite woman walked out of the military base as the commander went silent and her mind broke in two.