Chrono Crusade Fan Fiction ❯ Hell Hath No Fury ❯ Prologue ( Chapter 1 )

Hey y'all! First shot at a Chrono Crusade fanfic. Reviews brighten my day. :)

 

Disclaimer: I don't own Chrono Crusade, nor do I own any of it's characters. If I did, I would give SOMEONE the rights to an apparel line. Anybody, for cryin' out loud.

 

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I watch him, sometimes. Right after missions, right before dinners, I watch him. Perched up on top of the Order's walls, he had never known another soul set eyes on him. He had done this for years. Every few days, every few weeks. Sometimes it just depended on the weather. But on the clear days, he was up there. High above the ground. I wonder, now and then, just how he manages to climb it.

 

I wish that I would've gotten the opportunity to see his face, just once, while he was up there. All I ever saw was his purple hair whipping in the breeze, one knee drawn up under his chin. I wish I could've heard his thoughts. I suppose I wish a lot of things.

 

It isn't that I don't understand. After fifty years with little but a corpse and heart full of guilty memories, one gets used to a little alone time. And it makes sense, of course, that in a place such as this, the best place to be alone was outside the buildings, away from the chapel, atop the walls. Far above the reaching hands of both overzealous friends, and painful memories. I wonder at times what kind of hands he sees mine as.

 

But then, I wonder a lot about him.

 

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I glanced at the sky that was slowly changing colors. Time always seemed to manage to remind me of its passing. With a sigh and a heave, I was up. Up off my well worn perch. Watching Chrono muse was one thing, but having him catch me musing over his musings.... It would just have been too complicated, too awkward, too something. Far up in the dormitory I was safe. It was doubtful he could see me from that far away, even were he looking.

 

It was always right around this time, somewhere around when I had to twist my eyes from fanciful dreaming and focus them again on the world at hand, that I wished for something else. Times like those it was hardest not to just collapse on my bed, fall asleep, and never wake up. The many mantras I had preached to others sounded so hollow even in my own head. For those few seconds, resolve was no friend of mine.

 

Heh. I'm too young to think like this. I rubbed by hands over my eyes, as the urge to lock myself away in oblivion passed slowly and heavily. How old was I really, anyway? Seventeen? Eighteen? I couldn't really even remember anymore. I suppose it didn't really matter. I didn't feel any age. And keeping count of one's life only matters when there will be a substantial enough amount of it to count.

 

The only numbers that mattered now were the ones that counted how long I had left, and if even God himself knew that answer, he kept the secret locked away. I had to improvise.

 

“Years,” I whispered gently to myself as I glance in the mirror and straightened my habit. “I spent four years searching for you, dearest. I have little left to give.” I left the room and walked down the stairs, the bounce in my step growing with each tiny fall.

 

It had been a year since Joshua died. How, we never truly found out. Perhaps it was his fits, or a jealous demon. Perhaps a perverted sense of justice, acted upon him from any imaginable source. Heaven, hell, all were suspect.

 

I suppose distance makes an event less cataclysmic. Perhaps death of the heart is the only answer to death of a love, but either way, I remember the day only vaguely. The day my hopes died. The day I screamed and cried and wailed to any divine voice that would hear me. I had stopped crying long ago.

 

One thing from that day I will never forget was Chrono's face. It mirrored mine in every detail, save for the hysteria I endured. He always knew how to stay calm. A few days later he came to my room to see me. I refused to leave it. He had come to apologize. He had picked up the golden pocket watch from my table and twisted it around in his fingers. Dazed, he had simply stared at it. His stupor was the only way to cope the fury that lay inside him, simply waiting to be released.

 

Oddly, the one thing I had never regretted after I found out about Joshua was that contract. In vain we may have tried, but we tried. With our blood and our sweat and our tears we tried. Joshua was now forever beyond our reach, but I refused to accept Chrono's apology for “wasting my life.” Had I the chance to do it over again, I would have changed nothing. The only true difference worth noting was that my mission had changed from one of rescue to one of revenge.

 

Revenge on Aion, to be sure. Oh, what that bastard has coming to him....But even on so many others. All those who hindered us along the way. Any evil, anywhere, that could in any way be construed....

 

I suppose that made me a mercenary for God, supplying death and destruction for a small bit of sanity. I killed to have a purpose. And that's all my purpose was.

 

Take what I have, but I just pray that it's worth it to you in the end. I thought to whatever divine voice was listening.

 

By the time my boots hit the hard floor, a slight smile found its way to my face. Depressing thoughts came and went. Especially now. The time, and the denial, seemed to pad my heart from the arrows hurled at it from daily life. It always seemed harder after thinking too long, or too hard. Just one of those things I had to do. Wrap my heart up and continue with life. Happiness isn't free, but it is so much easier to pretend you have than to actually strive for it. Smiles I could wear, I could find the strength to laugh. I had the gall to lie if anyone asked if I was alright. Happy or not, it made little difference. May as well maintain the happiness of others. And it wasn't as if there was no bright spot in my ever darkening night.

 

Halfway across the lawn I stopped. No reason to get too close to him, to the wall. A man alone with his thoughts could be a dangerous thing. I decided to give Chrono and his space the same discretion.

 

“Hey! Chrono!” I smiled and waved at him. He jumped slightly at his name, but turned, smiled, and waved over the comfortable distance. “Dinner!”

 

He flung his boyish body off the high wall and landed lightly on the grass. Little boy my ass. He stood up straight and jogged merrily over to me after a drop that would have crippled most. He looked so small, so fragile, so... innocent. With his hands in his pockets and his hair bouncing along beside me, all I could see in him was the hair braidings and the punchings, the scoldings from sister Kate, beating up Elder, frolicking, playing, picnics, fishing, stories.

 

I slowed a bit to let him pass me, taking him in. Chrono, the sinner. The betrayer. Broken horn. Playmate and partner. Mother, father, brother, my portable family. For years he had been my world, my strength, my rock. Wise and kind and constant. Chrono, Slayer of Thousands, turned his innocent child's eyes on me.

 

“Rosette? You coming?”

 

 

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