Legacy of Hope
By: Chibi-chan
Chapter 3: “Beginning”
*
It was that day, seventeen years ago, that Cecilia had to choose between what was right for her and what was right for the kingdom. Jack had just stormed in, angry and upset that there was a decision to be made when he thought the answer was obvious. However, when he spoke, he sounded different this time. “Princess? All you all right? Princess! Princess… Cecilia, please…! Cecilia!”
*
“Cecilia! Snap out of it! Cecilia!” Jack worriedly said. Cecilia was still standing there with a look of terror on her face while Mira still screamed. “Dammit, what happened here?! Cecilia! Please…!”
Ron was having about as much luck trying to get through to Mira. “Montoya! Dammit, whatever it is, it can’t be worth all this screaming! Just talk to me; I’ll listen! Anything to stop that screaming!” Seeing no progress, she swore and marched up to Bernard. “What the hell happened here, fucktwit?! Why’s the queen a zombie and Montoya acting like one of those psychics in those stories do right before they blow up a city?!”
“It’s a long story, since you weren’t there to hear the story, but the short version is that the queen tried to contact a Guardian from this story since Miss Montoya told her its name, and then this started,” Bernard explained, just as calm as if there was nothing going on.
“Guardian? What Guardian?!” Ron barked.
“Fontira, Guardian of Pain,” Bernard replied.
“J… Jack…? You’re not mad at me…?” Cecilia suddenly said in a detached tone.
Jack blinked. Not having the slightest clue what she was talking about, he said the first thing that came to mind. “Uh… no?”
“Oh… good…” the queen said again, still in the same tone. She then blinked a few times, shook her head, put a hand to her head, put the crystal away, and, leaning forward and looking faint, reached out and held onto Jack’s arm with her other hand. “Now I know for damn sure that wasn’t a Guardian…” she muttered, followed by, “I don’t feel so well…”
Jack put his arms around her and held her close. “Why don’t you just go to bed, Princess? You can tell us what happened here later…”
Ron spoke up. “Like hell! I wanna know what happened to Montoya now!” she demanded, one hand indicating the now unconscious Mira on the floor. The girl had stopped screaming and blacked out at about the time Cecilia came around.
Jack opened his mouth to say something, but Cecilia raised her hand to stop him. “Very well, I’ll tell you. I tried to contact a Guardian, but instead of hearing one of them, I heard, and I’m not sure how I know this, but it was a woman’s voice. A human woman’s voice,” the queen said slowly. “She sounded so cold, as if bitterness and malice were all she knew. She said that the Guardian was hers, but she’d give me a sample of its power. Then… then every painful memory I had entered my mind all at once, one right after the other, never pausing for a moment. It… it was…”
“And the same probably happened to Montoya,” Ron muttered. “She said the attacks had been following her, so just imagine what she saw…”
“That’s all I have to say. Jack, let’s go…” the queen said. “You’ll take care of her, right?” she said to Ron. The gunner nodded, so Cecilia and her husband left the room.
Ron watched them leave, then looked back to Bernard. “Well, just don’t stand there! Pick her up and follow me!” she commanded.
*
Outside at the castle gates, Zed had just finished telling Rudy about the conversation in the queen’s quarters earlier. “So, she’s decided to take action, but our only lead in finding out what’s going on is some old story? This should be fun…” Rudy summarized.
“Well, one dubious lead is better than no leads at all, right? So we at least have something to start with…” Zed said. Something else Cecilia told him before he left the quarters popped into his head. “Oh! She also said to ask someone named Emma about transportation. Any idea what that’s about?” he asked.
Rudy nodded. “Yes, I do. But I should warn you about Emma; she’s a bit…”
The young man stopped in his tracks once they got to the other side of the gates and saw a woman in her late forties/early fifties in a pink lab coat listening to some assorted (presumably) Dream Chasers.
“They’ve been cleared out by the church,” one of the Dream Chasers, one who appeared to be a Crest Sorcerer, said.
“Danny’s team has taken the ones by the inn out,” an ARMs-using one said.
“There’re still a few stragglers coming out of the sewers, but Alyssa and her people are taking care of them,” an older woman, who was most likely a Dream Chaser when she was younger, carrying an acid-burnt broom and a few throwing knives said.
“Very well. Tell Alyssa to keep up the good work, but tell the others to stay on guard in case they missed any monsters or in case of a second attack. Dismissed!” the woman in a pink lab coat and little black dress that she was a wee bit too old to be wearing told them. She turned and saw Rudy and Zed. “Why, Rudy, when did you get here? And why didn’t you come visit me? You… I mean your ARMs are most interesting to look at…” she said brightly.
“… ‘eccentric’,” Rudy whispered to Zed. “Well, uh, you see, Emma, I… eheh…”
Professor Emma, aside from the graying hair and a few lines on her face, also remained largely unchanged. She was still quite sharp, along with being bossy, eccentric, and, quite frankly, intimidating. It didn’t help that last part that she was currently leaning on a Sniper Rifle ARM that was almost as long as she was tall. She noticed Rudy eyeing the piece both nervously and in fascination. “Isn’t Elvira here a beaut? Someone from the Court Seim area dropped it off with me and never came back for it,” the professor said, patting the ARM.
Zed tilted his head to one side and said, “’Elvira’? You named it?”
“Of course she didn’t, Zed; it told her its name,” Rudy told him, completely serious. “That’s how you know if an ARM accepts you.”
Zed then knew precisely how other people felt when he said something completely ridiculous, and it gave him a strong urge to laugh. He knew, he knew his companion wasn’t joking, but the very idea of it was just so silly that he had to shut out everything else being said out in order not to laugh. The next thing he heard when the urge had passed was Emma saying, “It’ll be ready by morning; I guarantee it! And be sure to tell Cecilia that everything’s under control here!” followed by Rudy tugging on his arm and trying to lead the green-haired swordsman away.
The last thing Zed thought before heading back was, Rudy certainly has some… er… “interesting” friends…
*
In the twins’ room, Bernard and Ron had just taken Mira’s backpack, bags, and boots off and put her in one of the beds. “Poor kid; she’s had a rough day…” Ron said, taking a seat on the other bed.
The bard nodded. “One thing bothers me, however,” he said.
“What’s that?” Ron asked.
“Why was she affected too? Her Highness should have been the only one affected by it,” Bernard said. It looked like Ron was about to say something, so he added, “It couldn’t have been that it just hit everyone in the room, since I wasn’t affected by it, and I’dve known if it just affected magic users…”
“Yeah, you seem to know some pretty fancy magic stuff, don’t you?” Ron said, “I still wanna know what was the deal with that flower thing you did to that monster earlier.”
Bernard bowed his head. “It saddens me to disappoint a lady, but that, I cannot tell you the secrets behind. Not yet, anyway,” he told her. “You can take care of things from here, correct? I wish to gather information from those there when the attack began. By your leave, my lady…”he said, and then, with a bow, left.
“Great, he’s not just a philosophizing fucktwit; he’s an overdramatic philosophizing fucktwit,” Ron muttered, finishing the sentence, thankfully, in her mind, just before the confused and still a little scared twins entered the room with Fluffy.
*
Some distance away from the city, a shrouded figure with violet eyes cursed. “Dammit, it wasn’t supposed to affect her, just that meddling Guardian shaman queen… Damned humans, making me accidentally hurt her…”
The figure let out dry laugh. “Ah, but they won’t be a problem very long. They are weak, and their Guardians, already weak, will weaken further with the despair and hopelessness that will continue to spread. My Guardians, on the other hand, will grow stronger, yet remain under my control thanks to those who abandoned us. After this place falls, they are next. Yes… They will be next, after Filgaia…”
*
“Mom! Dad! Claudia! Where are you?!”
Let go… let go of the past and set us free!
“What?!”
*
“Go away… GO AWAY!” Mira cried in her sleep, ending in a shriek loud enough that it woke herself up.
Ron’s head immediately turned to the Crest Sorceress. The gunner had been sitting on the floor with the kids as she told them stories, but she decided the story “Goldilocks and the Three Stooges” could wait for a conclusion for the moment. “Eh? Montoya?”
“Ronnie? Ronnie!” Mira exclaimed. She quickly got out of the bed and, for lack of a better and more precise word, glomped the gunner. “I had a bad dream at least I think it was a dream oh why won’t this just stop for one moment?!” she wailed rapid-fire in Ron’s ear. It was precisely then when she noticed something odd about Ron. One of the researcher’s hands was on the gunner’s chest, but something felt odd about it to the former. A squeeze of the hand quickly told Mira what was so strange. “You’re… a girl?”
“No duh, genius,” an increasingly annoyed Ron said.
“But… ‘Ron’…?”
“Short for ‘Veronica’,” Ron answered the unfinished question. “Now, if you don’t mind, would you please stop groping me before I feel the need to break your fu… er… Guard’-da… uh… your thumbs. Yes, just your plain, simple thumbs,” she warned, silently cursing her inability to swear in front of the children.
Mira blinked. “Groping you?” She then realized what she was doing and removed the offending hand in a slow, slightly scared manner. “Oh, sorry…” she said, a bit embarrassed. A thought came to her, so she said in a low tone, “Why didn’t tell me you were a girl? I’d still have loved you…”
Ron had absolutely nothing to say about this; she was just too dumbstruck to think. When words finally found her again, she still wasn’t exactly quoting Shakespeare. “Uh… huh? H-hey! What’s this about ‘love’?! And for the record, it’s not like I set out to fool anyone! I can’t help it if I’m a tomboy for life and an A-cup wonder!”
“What’s an ‘A-cup’, Ron?” Garrett asked.
Ron, already embarrassed to high heaven, just said, “Uh… It’s really not important, kid…” The Guardians must have a warped sense of humor… she thought.
*
In the queen’s quarters, long after Cecilia went to sleep, Jack was still awake. He couldn’t stop thinking about all that had happened that day. In the back of his head, he knew this was self-centered, but most of all he thought about what Ron had told him about her father. His eyes kept going back to the picture of her father and Ryan that she had given him.
“Couldn’t be… I mean, everyone else… I was the only one… wasn’t I? Plus the wrong last name…” he muttered to himself.
He shook his head. “But she said her grandmother’s buried in Milama. More’n likely they lived there. Elmina, mom could have seen her… plus it’d be hard to get into Arctica to get the pictures since the land route’s gone… And the name thing, she might have been adopted; taken that family’s name… She’s not looking for money or else she would’ve claimed right then and there…”
With another glance at the picture, he decided a trip to Milama was in order once things were under control in Adlehyde…
*
Tomorrow always comes, and this time was no exception. Cecilia had sent word that she wished to meet Emma, Ron, Mira, and Bernard in the conference room momentarily. Jack wasn’t called to the meeting, although he was free to go if he wished; however, he didn’t really need to be there since his wife had been talking about what she was planning since she got up.
“… and after I hear Emma’s reports of what went on outside and make inquires as to if she’s got anything that may be useful finished or in development, then I ask Miss Montoya, since she’s probably wanting answers just as much as I am, to accompany me to the Guardian shrine; don’t want a repeat of that last episode, there should be more protection against that there, then I’ll ask Miss Derringer…” Cecilia rambled mostly to herself, trying to get her thoughts in order.
“To go with you too,” Jack cut in with.
Cecilia stopped what she was doing and tilted her head to one side. “Eh? No, no, I was going to ask if she’d stay here. I’d feel better knowing she was here in case something else happened.”
“And I’d feel better if she was with you!” Jack told her “Look, I’ll still be here if there’s another attack or something, but if something happens to you, I… well, I’d rather not think about it.” He took her hands in his and held them up at about chest level. “I only want you to be safe. The people need you, the kids need you, and I need you.”
“Hopeless romantic,” the queen murmured. “You really trust someone you’ve only known a day for something like this?”
“I do,” the man said with a nod. “Call it intuition, but I think it’ll be all right.”
Cecilia thought for a moment, then said, “All right, she will accompany me. But…” She looked him straight in the eye and with a smirk, said, “But if the castle falls because she wasn’t here, I’ll have to hurt you.”
Jack returned the smirk. “You will, huh? And how do you plan to do that?”
Needless to say, the conversation then turned into something rather different from that point….
*
A little later, in the conference room…
Ron took a pocket watch out of her pocket, opened it, checked the time, and with a dissatisfied sigh, closed the lid and put in back in her pocket. “Where the hell is she? She said nine o’clock…” she grumbled.
“Maybe your watch is fast,” Mira suggested.
A moment later, the queen, looking rather flushed, finally entered the room and smoothed a wrinkle in her skirt. “Sorry to keep you waiting. I was, ah, held up for certain reasons. Now, Emma, I’d like a report of what happened in town…”
*
Meanwhile, outside of town, Rudy had been having some “difficulties” with Zed…
“Zed, for the last time, the Gull Wing is perfectly safe-“
“Nuh-uh! I like having my feet on the ground instead of high in the air, where one problem could mean painful, fiery death, thank you very much!”
“Dammit, Zed, if you don’t get in the Guard’-damned Gull Wing right now, Zephyr help me, I’ll…”
And so it went for the next half hour…
*
Back to the meeting, Emma brought up an odd footnote to the attack report. According to her, it appeared that not one animal, no cats, no dogs, not even a mouse had been killed in the attack. “They seemed to be deliberately avoided,” Emma added, “It was most unusual…”
“So whoever caused the attack is targeting only humans,” Cecilia mused.
“Whoever?” Emma asked.
“Yes, whoever. Many strange things happened yesterday, and I’m certain a person, although perhaps one who is not necessarily human, is behind this,” the queen replied. She turned to Mira and continued, “This is why I ask you and Miss Derringer to come with me to a place where it will most likely be safer to contact the Guardians. You need answers just as much as I do and,” she turned to Ron, “my husband insists on you coming with me for extra protection. After what happened yesterday, I can understand why he’d be worried about me.”
“Your Highness, if I may, I would like to accompany you as well,” Bernard said with a bow. “As a follower of truth, I must know more about this as well. I would also like to think that I coming along would provide greater protection.”
“I don’t know…” Cecilia said hesitantly.
“If he steps outta line, I can shoot him for ya,” Ron suggested a bit more cheerfully than Bernard would have liked.
“Well, if you put it that way, he can come along,” Cecilia said, a bit more seriously than Bernard would have liked.
“I-I assure you ladies, I will give you no cause for that!” Bernard told them, rattled by the last two sentences.
*
Back to the Gull Wing…
Both Rudy’s patience and temper had had been whittled away by Zed’s determination to stay on the ground. Wearily, he asked the man, “Is there anything I can do to get you on board the Gull Wing? Anything?!”
Zed slowly looked Rudy over and repeated, “Anything…?”
Rudy’s eyes widened and he started to blush. “Y- you can’t be serious…!”
Zed laughed and said, “Of course I’m not, but I had to do that just to see the look on your face.” He winked and added, “Besides, isn’t it customary among humans to at least buy someone dinner before asking to do that?” Wonder if he really would have went through with it if I was serious… Better not ask; he already looks uncomfortable, he thought
Still blushing, Rudy replied, “Y-yeah, I guess so…” At the same time, he was thinking, So, how about dinner sometime, Zed? He didn’t dare say that, of course, but he thought it. “Uh… so, will you please get aboard now?” he asked.
“Nope,” Zed said curtly.
Rudy really didn’t say anything to Zed after that, insomuch as he made angry, incoherent sounds and threatening motions at the man while a long stream of obscenities ran through his mind…
*
Later, back at the castle, after some quick preparations had been made (“Time is of the essence,” the queen said before the meeting ended), Ron, Mira, and Bernard waited at the main exit of the castle while across while across the room, the queen was saying her final goodbyes to her family before she was to set off to the shrine. Well, most of her family; little Garrett was Guardians-know-where and Liete went off about a few minutes earlier to find him.
“Guardians, those two have been saying goodbye for fifteen minutes now,” Ron complained, who had been switching between exasperated looks directed at the queen and her husband and looking at her pocket watch for the last ten of the fifteen minutes.
“I’m with you here. It was sweet… for about a minute. Now it’s rather nauseating,” Bernard agreed.
“Well, phooey on the both of you; I think it’s nice to see there are couples who are still like that!” Mira told them both.
Little Garrett came running in, followed closely by his sister, and didn’t stop running until he got to Ron. Out of breath, he panted, “Good… you’re still here… Have gift…”
Ron blinked, the crouched down to the boy’s level. “Gift? You really don’t have to…”
The boy shook his head, then said, “Yes, I do. Zed got one too…”
“And he’ll cry if you don’t take it, and he can cry loudly,” Liete warned.
Garrett started to pout, but remembered he still had to give the gunner the gift, so he set aside the impulse to whine for the time being. He took something small enough to be completely out of sight inside his closed hand, took one of Ron’s hands, put the item in her hand, and closed her hand around it. He whispered conspiratorily to her, “It’s supposed to open almost any door. Don’t tell Mommie about it; she didn’t say I couldn’t have it, but… She has more of ‘em anyway.” Wearing his best puppy dog-eyed pleading look, he said, “You will take it, won’t you?”
The look did it. Ron had trouble enough saying no to a child, let alone one who gave her that kind of look. “Sure, kid,” she said.
The boy smiled brightly and tightly hugged her. “Come back soon, OK? Or Liete will be sad!” he said.
“Me?! Of all the…” Liete muttered.
The queen, who had finally stopped saying goodbye to Jack, said, “We should get going if we want to get at least through the pass by dark.” She hugged and kissed the children and told them, “Goodbye, my little angels. Be good for daddy until I get back…” She strode to the door and said, “Miss Montoya? Miss Derringer? Mister Illych? If you’re all ready…”
And with that, the four of them left the castle and the group of Mira Montoya, Veronica Derringer, and Bernard Illych were on their way to a shared destiny…
*
“Zed?”
“Yes?”
“Is it too late to agree to
sleep with you to get you on the Gull Wing?”
“Yep.”
“You’re an incredibly
frustrating man when you put your mind to it, you know that?”
*
End Chapter 3
Chibi’s notes:
No, I’m not sure why Zed’s so determined not to fly. My best guess is that the last time he (probably) was on something that flew (i.e. the Photosphere) traumatized him or something. Or maybe he just doesn’t like the idea of flying in something Emma made, for which I wouldn’t blame him. She may be good, but she’s also kinda scary… Just consider that evidence that, no matter how serious I try to be, something silly will invariably work its way in to what I’m writing. ^^;
(Oh, and blame “Goldilocks and the Three Stooges” on my insistence on checking out the “Threadspotting” section on the Straight Dope website [www.straightdope.com]…)