Fan Fiction ❯ Penance ❯ San/Three ( Chapter 4 )

Sunlight streamed into the small hotel room while shining into Garret's eyes. The unconscious teenager's left hand twitched nearby as his body (along with the sunlight) willed him to awaken. He opened his eyes, and slowly got up onto his feet. His mind was hazy, as it had always been since he was found at the docks by the fisherman. He felt groggy, as if he had been disturbed from a peaceful dream or had taken a heavy amount of sleeping pills.

How...did I get here...? Garret asked himself. Then he remembered the circumstances prior to his sudden loss of consciousness. He looked at his hands which no longer held a ghostly projection around them. They looked...normal. Then the mysterious vision he had received during unconsciousness swam into his clouded thoughts, albeit in an equally hazy form. Garret held a hand to his forehead.

Who...are they? Somehow...they seem...familiar... His head swam with confusion...and a dull pain. The dream seemed hauntingly real, like some vagrant memory revealing itself from the depths of his subconscious then disappearing into the haze of his conscious mind. Just as he was forcing his mind to retain the image of the elven princess and her green-clothed companion the dull pain in his head intensified, until it quickly escalated to a point of unbearability. Garret began to clench his head while slowly walking toward the window. He moved his free hand down to the windowsill in an effort to support himself. His effort proved futile, however, as he felt himself twist his body and fall flat onto his hands and knees.

From deep within his mind he could feel a mysterious force manifesting itself. When he could supress it no longer, he let out a cry that resonated throughout the hotel.

The clerk sitting at the cash register busily cleaned up the area of the minute layers of dust that had accumulated on and throughout the desk. Yet her mind drifted toward the Miller Crest Inn's newest customer. He looked familiar, somehow, yet she failed to fully recall where she may have seen this man.

Wasn't he on TV the other night? She thought. Yet when she heard the blood hurdling scream sound from one of the upstairs hotel rooms, she immediately raced upstairs to locate the source of the scream. Another scream, even more chilling than the last echoed through rooms in the 300 hall, until she finally located the room where the screams were coming from - 367. The room that had been checked out by the strange young man in the gray trenchcoat. When she opened up the door to the hotel room, she saw him on his knees while clutching his head in pain.

That was when the most bizarre thing occured. In the blink of an eye, the guest had vanished and an elf in green had mysteriously appeared in his place. He opened his eyes and looked at the clerk through a pain-filled azure gaze. With his free hand he reached out to her as if it were some outcry for help. The clerked back out of the door and up against the wall, afraid of the elf and not believing the situation before her. On the back of his hand the symbol of three triangles, glowing with a soft light while a blue aura surrounded his hand and gauntlet. The elf squeezed his eyes shut once more. As if by a mysterious force, she felt herself being lifted up two feet into the air. Her arms instantly flew to her neck; she couldn't breathe.

Within moments she fould feel the life leaving her as her life flashed before her eyes. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head son afterward as they closed for the last time. The force that had taken her life released her while her lifeless body slumped onto the floor of the hallway outside.

The grip of the elf's fingers on his head slowly lessened as the pain in his head subsided until it became almost non-existent. The blue aura around his hand, as well of the symbol of the three triangles on the back of his gauntlet vanished without a trace. Blue eyes snapped open while he felt himself collapsing onto his hands and knees, panting heavily as though he had ran for several miles without end. He did not know what force within him had taken hold of him moments before, but when he looked into the hall outside he could see the clerk outside, limp and unmoving on the floor. The elf's eyes widened as a gasp escaped his lips.

No...

Panic and disbelief swept through him as he crawled toward and leaned over the clerk's body. He placed his middle and index fingers over on the clerk's neck in an attempt to feel for a pulse. He found none.

I...I didn't...

He slowly backed away from the clerk's body. His gaze drifted toward his left hand. To his surprise, it was not the hand of Garret Andrews that greeted him but the leather gauntlets and hand of...someone else entirely. The blue aura that had surrounded his hand moments before also returned while shining its eerie light onto his face. A flicker of recognition lit up in his mind, which to his surprise was clear for once- the was the same gauntlet that had appeared as a projection around this very same hand. Yet this hand was smaller in comparison to the hand of Garret Andrews. Stranger still, he could feel a warmth permeating on the back of his hand. He slowly rotated his hand until the back of his hand could be seen. And what was there made his heart leap out of his chest and into his throat- the symbol of three triangles, arranged to form an even larger triangle glowed softly, independent of the blue aura surrounding his hand and lower arm while the lower right triangle of the three glowed the brightest. He couldn't recall the significance of the symbol, but the fact that it continued to shine like a sacred mark against his hand was more than enough to startle his already confused mind.

What the...?!

The elf backed into the hotel room until he stopped and turned to face the window. When he saw his reflection on the glass, a startled gasp managed to creep out of his throat.

What the hell is this?!

He closed his eyes, not believing what he was seeing before him.

No...That's not me! I'm Garret Andrews! I'm not that person in the window!

Amidst his denial, he felt something about him change. When he opened his eyes the face of Garret Andrews greeted him once more. Even as the familiar haze within his mind returned to cloud his thoughts, he suddenly felt uncertain about himself...and his future. Garret's eyes glanced down at his left hand, which was surrounded by the etheareal image of the gauntlet he had worn through the eyes of the elf. Along with this, too, was the symbol of the three triangles. And soon afterward the blue aura also returned, though its light was diluted and weakened.

What's...happening to me?

Just then, a scream tore through his thoughts. The images and aura surrounding his arm vanished as he turned to face the man crying at the feet of the clerk's lifeless body.

"Oh God, Felicia...wake up. Please wake up. Don't leave me like this..." The man, Jarod, whimpered pitifully to the deceased woman. Jarod then turned to look at Garret with a burning rage in his eyes.

You!" Jarod shouted, "What the hell happened to Felicia?!" Garret felt a lump form in his throat.

"I...I don't know, I-"

"Liar! I heard her scream from downstairs. I see my lover's dead body right outside your hotel room..." His anger only continued to escalate as his voice began to take on a menacing tone.

"You killed her, didn't you..." Jarod demanded. Garret held up his hands in an attempt to calm the acquaitance down.

"No, I-"

"You fucking murderer," He began, "When I get through with you, you'll wish you had never been born!" Just then, the angered Jarod leapted into the air in an attempt to grab Garret by the neck and choke him. At that moment, amidst his confusion and despair, a flicker of courage and bravery ignited within his soul.

"No!" Garret shouted. He closed his eyes, and with a mere thought Jarod was thrown back into the wall outside by the same mysterious force that had awakened within him moments before the clerk had arrived. Jarod shook his head and got up onto his feet. When he regained his senses, he gasped. Standing in front of him was no longer the teenager he had accused of murdering his girlfriend, but an elf in a green tunic. His sea colored eyes glared angrily at him as a hand surrounded by a blue aura was held out in front of him. Jarod felt a wave of panic run through his mind.

"No...what in God's name are you?" He asked in a frightened tone. The elf's eyes didn't stray from him as his face took on an unreadable expression.

"I am not a murderer," the elf responded flatly. In a state of panic, Jarod ran away from the elf, unwilling to risk angering him any further. All throughout the hotel doors opened to investigate the scene near Room 367. The elf closed his eyes nervously.

"Oh my God! Someone call an ambulance!"

"Jesus Christ...what the hell happened here?!"

"Look, mommy! Look, daddy! It's that guy we saw on the news!" A little girl noted. Everyone looked inside Room 367 and saw Garret standing there, his eyes on his hands and his face flustered. From the drama of this new 'power' awakening, to being accused of murder, this was the last straw. Before they could drag him out of the hotel room, Garret let out a flustered cry before leaping and crashing through the hotel room window. He rolled onto the pavement with minimal injury.

"Someone call the police! We found Garret Andrews!" He heard someone shout. Garret ran away as fas as his legs could carry him before the hysteria at Miller Crest Inn could grow worse.

Palmgate sat quietly at his desk. Only the sound of a clock ticking echoed through the office as the doctor continued to examine various research documents pertaining to Garret, the Comet of Aetherus, and psychic phenomena. All the while, a smile full of twisted satisfaction formed on his face.

Subject GA-L17K was tested to have possessed primitive telekinetic abilities...more research is required in order to fully determine their usefulness within the Project...

So he did possess some of his family's power after all. Not that it matters much for him. I wonder...if what Matthews said is true, then does the being I have trapped in his body control this ability of his as well?

Palmgate closed his eyes in deep thought.

I wonder if this being will be of any use to me...unlike Doctor Matthews-

At that moment, the telephone rang. Palmgate glanced at the phone for a moment before a sneer formed on his face. He calmly picked up the receiver.

"Go ahead," Palmgate said. His smile widened.

"So, he was seen at Miller Crest Inn...he what?!" Palmgate shouted angrily, "And you haven't done a thing to silence the witnesses?! If word gets out about what really happened to Garret Andrews, the complications could be disasterous for everyone involved in the Project." Palmgate drummed his fingers against his desk impatiently.

"I don't care what you have to do, I want Garret Andrews found! Not today, not tomorrow, not after lunch, now! And make sure he is returned here unharmed, or else it will be more than your job you'll be losing..." Palmgate slammed the receiver back into the dialer, and rubbed his temples against his forehead.

He was a fool to send idiots to do a job as important as this.

"In other news, more US soldiers were killed today in the fallout between Fallujah and Baghdad today. It is believed to have been the work of Iraqi insurgents, led by-" Aaron quickly switched to a different radio station. He wasn't terribly interested in hearing the news at the moment- especially about Iraq. It wasn't so much that he didn't care about the events that were unfolding in the Middle East, so much as it was the frequency of said events being mentioned. But before he could become any more annoyed at his radio, he spied several strange black cars driving southbound - opposite of where he was going. He raised an eyebrow in curiousity and suspicion.

Palmgate's Quarantine Control Unit? Where in the world are they going in such a hurry? Aaron thought.

With his suspicion growing, he made a u-turn at the light and decided to follow them.

For what seemed to be an eternity, Garret ran. Time in itself seemed non-existant to him - only the desire to get as far away from Miller Crest Inn as possible filled his thoughts. When he reached the end of the pier the fisherman had discovered him at, though, he collapsed onto his knees, panting heavily while his body refused to run any further. It was here that Garret felt his hands clench the wooden planks that supported him. A frustrated growl escaped through grinding teeth as he squeezed his eyes shut. He no longer knew what to believe. Ever since the fisherman had found him, Garret had been searching for something- his past, his life...his identity. When he saw the news segment mentioning him, as well as seeing his reflection for what seemed to be the first time, he had thought that, at least at the time, that perhaps he was that person. Bbut when he saw the reflection of the youthful but teenage elf in a tunic, everything had had come to believe as true up to that point fell away, like a worthless rag that no longer served any purpose.

It left him feeling lost...and even to a lesser extent, empty. Sitting up onto his knees, Garret let go of the wooden planks and held them out in front of his face as he opened his eyes slowly. His hands were unsteady, trembling with his own confustion and uncertainty.

"No..." He whispered to no one. He squeezed his eyes shut once again as he grabbed his temples.

"Who...am I?" Garret choked despairingly. Even as the sounds of footsteps echoed throughout the foggy harbor, he paid no mind to it - all that concerned him was his own inner confusion and turmoil.

"Just...who the hell am I?!" He said, louder this time as a lone tear forced its way down his cheek.

"...Garret?" A surprised female voice asked. Garret felt his hands let go of their grip onto his head. He got up onto his feet and turned to face the individual behind him. When he saw the woman wearing the beige overcoat and beret, memories flooded his mind; memories of happiness, love, passion, and times gone by. Yet he could not recall her name.

"Who...are you?" He asked. The woman, once beaming with happiness, now looked at him sadly.

"Garret...don't you remember me? It's me...Elizabeth Parker..." She replied sadly. Just like that, the name finally registered in his mind. Garret's eyes looked at Elizabeth with sudden recognition.

"...Liz?" He asked. Elizabeth nodded. Yet this did not comfort her, but instead she regarded him with worry. Had her lover, whom she had awaited his return all this time...forgotten her?

"Garret, what's happened to you?! Where have you been all of this time?!" Elizabeth asked him, her voice loud and full of anger, and sadness mixed together. Garret blinked and returned her a saddened look as well.

"I...I don't...remember," He replied. Elizabeth, still embracing him, finally began to cry.

"How?" She asked, "How could you forget me? After all of this time of waiting..."

She gripped the back of his trenchcoat firmly, threatening to tear it as she did so.

"...how could you just forget me like I never even existed?!" She whimpered. Garret didn't reply, but simply held her in his arms. Even as she sobbed uncontrollably on his shoulder, he said nothing. For an instant, he felt normal. There was someone in his life that still cared about him. Perhaps, with Elizabeth's help, he could finally find his true self. But these hopes were fleeting, as the sound of a gun being loaded echoed through the misty air. Over Elizabeth's shoulder, Garret saw down the barrel of a handgun being armed at them, as well as the mysterious figure in black. Elizabeth seemed to sense Garret's intensity and turned around, gasping at the figure.

"Step away from him, miss," He said with neutrality. Elizabeth didn't move.

"Wh-who are you? What do you want with Garret?" Elizabeth asked. She could hear him sigh through the ski mask.

"That, ma'am, is none of your concern. Just move aside, and you won't get hurt. He replied in that same neutral tone. Elizabeth clung to him fearfully. Garret removed Elizabeth from him. He stepped in front of her while placing a hand behind him to warn her to keep her distance.

"What do you want with me?" Garret asked venemously. The figure laughed.

"'What do I want with you?' Nothing, really. It's what my boss, Arthur Palmgate, wants with you more than anything. I didn't see what's so special, personally..." Just then, images flashed in Garret's mind. A comet, blazing with an eerie light. A man in a business suit, laughing maliciously. A battle between him...and something else. The elf who appeared in his place, throwing him overboard. Dead bodies. Blood dripping from a sword. An engine exploding. A loud crash into icy Pacific waters. These images gripped Garret's mind with a deep ferociousness that nearly sent him into madness. Arthur Palmage...he suddenly regarded that name with a depthless hatred he had not known had existed for anyone.

"...But orders are orders," the stranger, Bordello, finished.

"No..." Garret replied, his voice full of poison, "Get the hell away from me!" Through his ski mask, Bordello smiled.

"You aren't going to come quietly, huh? Then you leave me no choice." As if in slow motion, Garret watched as Bordello began to pull on the trigger to his handgun. Garret then lept on top of Elizabeth as the bullet whizzed overhead. He then jumped off of her and pushed Bordello into the water. After that he drug Elizabeth off of the pier and onto the concrete.

"Run!" Garret shouted at her. Elizabeth shook her head, unsure of whether to assist her lover or run away and let him battle these men by himself.

"But what about you?!" She called back.

"I'll be fine, trust me!" Garret shouted, "Just go!" Elizabeth didn't argue, as a bullet whizzed by her head. She ran, and ducked behind a dumpster. Garret ran up to the nearest gunman and tacked him. The gunman only had time to look at him with surprise at the astonishing speed of his attack. With both of his fists clamped together, Garret struck a blow across his face. This broke his opponent's neck and effectively silenced him. Before he could do much else, however, a scream pierced the air. Garret's eyes widened, as he looked toward the direction of the scream - the dumpster next to the warehouse. There he saw Elizabeth being held hostage by one of the gunmen. Garret's eyes widened.

"No..." He mouthed. The gunman laughed at him.

"Give it up, Andrews," He said menacingly, "We've got your girlfrend here. Do anything funny and she's toast." Garret stood his ground. Elizabeth looked at him fearfully as if silently pleading him to rescue her. Garret could do nothing but stand and watch as her captor laughed at him.

"What's the matter? Aren't feeling very heroic now that I've got your little vixen here?" He asked. He held onto her tightly, taking her long brown locks and sniffing them affectionately. He began to kiss Elizabeth's neck before his mouth traveled down... Garret could feel his anger growing inside of him as he watched the gunman treat his lady as if she were nothing more than a mere object to please him.

"My, my...you sure know how to pick women," He said venemously with a tinge of arousal hanging on his voice. Elizabeth cried out, begging him to stop.

"Dammit! Let her go!" Garret shouted. Just as he stepped a foot toward him, the gunman pulled out his pistol and shot Elizabeth. With a scream she fell onto the cold pavement beneath her as her own blood sprayed the air like a can of spilt paint.



With a skid, Aaron's car came to a stop. He stepped out of the car, and watched the scene before him fearfully.

I'm too late...



Garret fell onto his knees, and cried out from the depths of his soul. Once more, he had failed to protect someone. This time, though, it was someone whom he believed himself to hold dear. He closed his eyes, as he blocked out everything around him.

"Stupid shit. Now look what just - what in God's name?!" The gunman exclaimed, disbelieving of the sight before him. Kneeling on the ground was no longer Garret Andrews, but an elf in a forest green tunic. Enblazened on the back of his hand, was the glowing emblem of three triangles. He got up onto his knees as the gunman looked at him fearfully. From a scabbard he drew his blade; hanging from his scabbard, he armed himself with a shield. A sudden wind blew through the area, playing with the tail of his pointy green cap.

Aaron's eyes widened. The person possessing Garret Andrews was none other than...

"Brother Link?!" He mouthed. Link raised his head to look at the gunman. Angered sapphire eyes piereced into the gunman's emerald eyes. All sense of perversed bravery left him instantly, leaving him feeling powerless.

"No...get back!" He cried as Link walked closer to him. He fired shots from his pistol, though they hit anything but the angry elf. Link leaped into the air...and sliced off the gunman's hand. The gunman howled in agony as he held his bleeding arm, his arteries pulsing out blood with each heartbeat. His hand was on the ground, still firmly holding onto his pistol. Link continued to slice, stab, thrust, and otherwise chup up the gunman's body until it resembled little more than ground beef with skin, bone, and parts of organs still attached. The gunman's comrades looked on, despite the geyser of gore in front of them. And when Link's bloody face turned to look at them, they did the last thing they could think of.

"All units, open fire!" And with that command, they all began to fire their weapons at the raging elf. Link charged forward, wth his shield in front of him to deflect the bullets. Barrel rolling at first, Link pounced on one of the attackers hiding behind one of their black cars. With a surprised and fearful look, the attacker felt shart metal plow through his neck before he saw no more as his dismembered head flew off Link's blade and into the air as blood dripped out.

"Sweet Jesus!" One of the gunment cried out, "He killed Richy!"

"Watch out! That damn elf's dymamite!" Another warned. Despite the heavy gunfire, this didn't deter Link. Like an extension of his own arm his blade flew, dismembering anything that happened to get in the way of it. Like his rage, it danced furiously, spraying blood and body parts everywhere. And when it all came down to it, the last gunman knew only this - Arthur Palmgate had incured Satan's wrath upon them...in the form of an elf in Christmas green. Then he too was silenced forever.

Link looked at the scene of gore around him, before turning his attention to a basin of fresh water. There he walked toward and upon reaching it he began to clean off the blood on his sword. The look of rage in his face had died and in turn gave way to a look of sorrow. Even his reflection in the now bloodied depths of the water ceased to bother him; only the unmoving body of Elizabeth encompassed his train of thinking.

As Aaron looked on, he could hear footsteps running to the scene.

"Liz?!" A flustered Vivian cried out, "Liz, where are - oh my God!" Vivian was horrified at the scene of gore before her. Disembodied body parts and organs, covered in blood, bathed the area a crimson hue. And as she looked around, she spotted Elizabeth's collapsed form by a dumpster. But what concerned her more was Link, his green tunic stained crimson; his face and hair weren't spared from the blood bath he unleashed. Yet her arrival did not concern him, she noticed. Despite the fact that an elf of all things was among them, and that she thought that she was hallucinating, she noticed one thing- he was slowly walking toward Elizabeth. She dared not go near him, even as he held her friend's body in his arms. Vivian saw, as he turned their direction a look of sorrow in his eyes and on his bloodied face. As she watched him walked off into the fog with her friend, she could have sworn she heard him mutter something along the lines of "I'm sorry, Elizabeth."