Gankutsuou Fan Fiction ❯ The Dollmaker ❯ Chapter Eight ( Chapter 8 )
Anime/Manga: Gankutsuou Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Fantasy / Hentai / Drama | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 12.05.2005 | Pages: 2 | Words: 5.2K | Visits: 324 | Status: Completed
THE DOLLMAKER
© December 6, 2005 By Rory V. Pascual
CHAPTER EIGHT
At an abandoned warehouse near the wharf, a large covered truck quietly rolled into the dilapidated building. Two ministry agents descended from the truck, eyes warily roaming all over the shadowed, musty place.
A voice suddenly called out in the darkness, "Did you bring the gold?"
"Yes, we have," the agent replied. "Let's make the exchange now."
A moment's silence. Then there were two simple words. "You're lying."
The tarp of the truck dropped, revealing armed agents within. At once, they fired their guns in all the places where anyone could be hiding. Within seconds, the warehouse was riddled with bullets, the tiny holes in the wall allowing thin beams of lamplight to shine through.
"STOP! STOP!" Albert cried, panic-stricken, as he rushed out of his hiding place behind the warehouse, together with Lucien and Beauchamp. "YOU MIGHT HIT EDMOND!"
"HOLD YOUR FIRE!" Lucien yelled. At once, the gunfire receded to a deathly silence.
His subordinate confirmed the Chief Secretary's fears. "Sir, there's no one here." The man pointed to a small speaker from which the voice came from.
Sure enough, Riondo's voice spoke through that small black box. "Very bad, Monsieur Morcerf. I had hoped that you could do something so simple as to follow my instructions. You disappointed me. I'm so sorry to tell you this but you've just signed the death warrant of your beloved Count of Monte Cristo. I guess Edmond was right about you. You never loved him."
Albert fell to his knees in shock as the transmission ended. "No, it's not true. I love Edmond. I…I…was only doing the right thing."
Beauchamp knelt down before his young friend. "Don't give up hope, Albert. We'll find him before it's too late."
"No, you heard what he said. He said that Edmond's going to die, and it's all my fault."
Lucien could no longer contain his anger and frustration. Striding towards the stunned younger man, he let his hand fly out, slapping Albert hard in the face.
"If you're giving up this easily, then Riondo was right about you," the Chief Secretary hissed in fury. "You never did love Edmond. Even if you had, you did not love him enough."
Albert's cheek stung from that slap, but the pain of guilt inside his heart was greater. "What am I going to do, Lucien? What must I do to save Edmond?"
"As Beauchamp had said, don't give up." Lucien then revealed, "I'm having my man trace the transmissions that Riondo made from your computer and from here. We'll find them soon enough, believe me."
Those reassuring words, however, did not convince Albert. His whole body trembled with the force of his weeping as he buried his face in Beauchamp's shoulder.
~~~~~~~~~~
"You have something for me, my friend?" Dream's voice was like the hot desert air as he glided towards the alien that was standing beside the table.
Ali gave the Lord of the Dreaming a bow of obeisance before handing him a sheaf of notes that have been neatly compiled in a thick folder.
"What is this?" Dream inquired. He opened the folder and let the pages turn swiftly, as though blown by the wind, while he read what was written. With each page, the Dream King's eyebrows joined in a frown until his face was a mask of shock and horror.
Closing the folder, the Dream King felt as if his head was spinning. "Why did I not realize this before?" Gazing up at the ever-patient alien, he said, "You did well, Ali. I never thought to research this angle. You have given me the answers to all the questions I have about Edmond Dantes and the mysterious creature known as Gankutsuou. Have you sent a copy of this to Albert Herrera?"
Ali nodded, and then shook his head, indicating that although he had sent the file, he had received no reply.
Dream was gripped by dread. "I must go. Pray, my friend, that I will not be too late."
At these words, Dream faded away, his substance merging with the shadows of the alien's chamber, taking the folder with him.
Ali picked up the doll that Edmond Dantes had given him. Master…be safe, he prayed, and he hurried off to tell Princess Haydee what had happened.
~~~~~~~~~~
Benedetto could not understand why his heart suddenly started to pound furiously. He glanced at his watch. Two in the afternoon, and still no word from Riondo and the others.
Something's wrong, he thought worriedly.
His eyes fell upon Edmond who was laboring at his important task with great difficulty. The stiffening of Edmond's fingers was more pronounced now than it was earlier. Then, the Count removed his gloves. The rogue was horrified to see that Edmond's hands were now transparent blue. The red artery pulsing within was now visible, but it too was being consumed by whatever mysterious condition it was that was afflicting him. Even the child man's face was like blue glass. Like a hard, blue sapphire, to be exact.
He's becoming crystalline, Benedetto concluded in horror.
Fear for the child man's well-being prompted the rogue to squat before him. "Count, I think you should get a little rest. You've been sewing all through last night and this morning with no sleep."
"Just a few more stitches to go, Andrea." Edmond's voice was strangely guttural, as though his vocal cords were also hardening. With slow, pain-staking progress, he was sewing the cravat to the Albert doll's neck. "Don't…have much time left. And Albert…he was crying earlier. I don't know why, but he was crying. I…I don't want Albert to cry anymore."
Something fell on Benedetto's hand. He saw that it was a brilliant diamond in the shape of a teardrop. Even the Count's tears were transforming into gemstones. The rogue instantly made up his mind.
As Edmond cut the last bit of string with his teeth, Benedetto pulled him to his feet. The Count seemed a lot heavier now. "Come on, Edmond. I'm taking you to Albert right this minute."
They had just taken one step when Edmond all but collapsed in his arms. Looking up apologetically at Benedetto, he said, "Sorry, Andrea. Can't move my leg." Sure enough, the Count's long leg had stiffened.
Benedetto cursed under his breath as he picked Edmond up, draping the older man's arm over his shoulder while supporting him at the waist, and led him towards the door. Edmond held the Albert doll tightly lest it fall out of his stiffening fingers. Before the rogue's hand could even touch the door latch, the door banged open, and there, Riondo stood, his face distorted by fury.
"I'm so glad to see that the two of you are ready to leave." Benedetto was unable to utter a single word of dissent as the pirate swung Edmond up into his arms. "Benedetto, let's go."
"What happened, Riondo?" Benedetto demanded as he followed the angry pirate to the car. To his dismay, Riondo placed Edmond in the front seat with him. "Where are you taking him?"
"Damn that idiot of a Viscount!" Riondo slammed the car door shut. "He set a trap at the warehouse!"
At that answer, Benedetto understood why his heart was seized by dread earlier. He got into the back as Riondo climbed into the driver's seat. Without the pirate's noticing it, he punched the number of the Interior Ministry on his cellphone, leaving the line open so that his call could be traced.
As they drove away, the rogue asked once more, "What are you going to do with Edmond?"
Grimly, the pirate replied, "Let's just say that Albert de Morcerf will deeply regret that he tried to trick Salvatore Riondo."
After an hour's drive, Benedetto saw that they were entering the commoner's area of the cemetery. Stopping at the gates, Riondo swiftly got down and picked up his captive, making his way through the old wooden markers and overgrown weeds. Frightened and perplexed, all Benedetto could do was follow his leader.
They reached a thick of copse of trees were their other men waited for them. As they drew closer, it was only then that the rogue finally glimpsed what the pirates had been doing. The men had dug a deep hole in the ground beneath a tree. Sitting at the hole's edge was an open wooden coffin.
Benedetto's eyes widened in horror as Riondo laid a stunned Edmond inside the coffin.
"Now, be a good boy, Edmond, and lie down there and get some sleep," Riondo said as he shoved the older man down into the box.
"NO! ANDREA!" Edmond screamed in terror, reaching a begging hand to the rogue. But Riondo grabbed the lid and slammed it over the coffin. Seizing the hammer from one startled pirate, he proceeded to nail the lid tightly shut, just as the poor man inside started pounding on the wood.
"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?" Benedetto rushed forward, making to stop the pirate, but Riondo decked him, that he fell sprawling onto the grass.
The other pirates were just as horrified. One of the men also stepped towards his leader. "Boss, I don't think you should be doing this…"
A bullet fired into his head immediately silenced him.
Sheathing his pistol back inside its holster, Riondo continued to drive nails into the coffin. At one point, he pounded the hammer again and again on the lid, shouting, "SHUT UP!" infuriated by Edmond's screams. But Edmond continued to cry out to Benedetto for help. Finally getting exasperated by those cries and believing that the lid was shut tightly, he ordered his men to "LOWER AWAY!"
Benedetto was horror-stricken. He was virtually unaware that the tears were rolling down his cheeks. He knew all too well what Edmond was going through right at that moment as the coffin was being lowered into its grave. Hadn't his own father done the same to him when he was but a wee babe?
"ANDREA, PLEASE! ANDREA, HELP ME! I'M SO SCARED! ANDREA!"
Benedetto could no longer take those heart-rending cries. Before Riondo could stop him, he leaped into the hollow grave, where the coffin lay sitting at the bottom.
"Hush, Edmond! Hush now!" Benedetto called to the frightened man inside. "I'm here!"
Edmond's voice was a hoarse whimper as he said, "Let me out of here, Andrea! Please! It's scary in here! It's so dark!"
"Yes, Edmond. I know. I wish I could take you out of there, but I can't. Riondo…he just killed Giuseppe when he tried to help you. He also hurt me as well. If I'm going to help you escape, I can't afford to have him kill me."
"But I'm so scared!"
"Yes, I know it's scary. Believe me I know. But you must hang on for me, and for Albert too. I'm going to get help."
Within the coffin, the rogue heard muffled sobs. "I'm sorry, Andrea. But I don't think I could be able to hang on."
"Of course you can!" Benedetto said, his voice close to panic. "Edmond, I don't want you to give up, you hear me! If you love Albert as you say you do, you'll do as I say!"
Edmond did not reply to that statement.
"Edmond? Edmond, please tell me you're all right in there."
"Andrea…I must know. Please. I must know why."
"Know what? EDMOND!"
As he laid his hand on the coffin's lid, Benedetto felt a sudden jolt and then heat flowed up his arm, filling his heart, and going up to his head. Then, the memories of that tragic summer five years ago poured out of him in a torrent. He tried to stop the outflow, but it was like damming up the swift current of a river. Benedetto was helpless as those memories fed into the man lying within the coffin.
Just as suddenly as the memory outflow began, it came to an abrupt stop, and Benedetto found himself falling flat on his behind, gasping for breath. Dread gripped his heart, noticing that the Count had fallen silent.
Stumbling towards the coffin, Benedetto pressed his face close to the lid. "Edmond! Edmond, please answer me!"
There came the quiet, but despondent reply. "I understand now. I remember everything."
The voice was different, mature. Like the nobleman he had known.
"Count, I…"
"I've caused so much pain to a lot of people, to Albert most of all. How could I have been so cruel? How could I have let hatred and revenge take control of my heart and soul?"
"Don't blame yourself. You've been hurt just as deeply. You were betrayed and made to suffer for many hard years in prison by those you called friends."
"But I had hurt innocents." Edmond let out a heartbreaking wail. "What have I done? This is not what I wanted. People's happiness, that is my wish, and finding the one whom I could love. How could I have let this happen?"
"What are you talking about? I don't understand! Edmond…."
Benedetto felt a chill in his blood at the man's next words. "I am not just Edmond, Andrea. I am also Gankutsuou. The Taker of the Darkness in man's souls. I have allowed the darkness to consume me, and Edmond Dantes as well. This was never meant to happen. I have failed in fulfilling my wishes. There is no reason for me to continue on any longer."
"Edmond…Gankutsuou…for the love of God, don't you dare give up…."
"God will not listen to one such as I."
Benedetto gazed down at the coffin and gasped. As though he had acquired the ability to look through objects, the rogue could 'see' Edmond crossing his hands over his breast, the Albert doll pressed to his heart. A pink glow was emanating from his body, breaking through the cracks of the coffin.
"Leave me now, Benedetto," Edmond whispered. "Let me fix everything one last time."
"Don't say that!" Benedetto burst into tears. "Stop it! Whatever it is that you're doing, please stop! You'll…you'll die!"
Suddenly, a rope snagged around the rogue's upper body and he was yanked out of the hole.
"NO, EDMOND!" he screamed as he watched the walls of the grave crumble and fall on top of the coffin.
The last words Edmond Dantes said to him were "Please tell Albert that I'll always love him."
"NOOOOO!" Benedetto cried, as dirt and mud magically sealed the grave just as he was pulled out of the hole.
"THE POLICE! THEY'RE HERE!" someone suddenly shouted.
Then, there was nothing, but sheer panic as the pirates fled in all directions. Bullets felled many of them who dared to fire back.
"LET'S GET OUT OF HERE!" Riondo roared into the rogue's ear.
Rage, however, had gripped Benedetto's heart. With a furious cry, he twisted his body around and grabbed the pirate's pistol. As Riondo took a step back, Benedetto fired one round after another into the evil man's body. Even when the pirate lay dead on the ground and nothing more came out of the gun but sharp clicks, the rogue would not stop shooting until a firm hand gripped his wrist.
"He's dead, Benedetto," Beauchamp told the rogue solemnly.
Benedetto blinked at the journalist in confusion. He was brought back to the present when Albert and Lucien hurried up to him.
Albert seized the rogue by the collar of his shirt. "Benedetto! Where's Edmond? What did you bastards do to Edmond?"
The memory of the older man jolted Benedetto into action. Shoving Albert aside, he railed, "I should be asking you that same question myself!" As the three men watched, Benedetto fell to his knees and began digging through the dirt with his bare hands.
"What're you doing?" asked Beauchamp, a frown creasing his forehead.
It was Albert who realized the reason for his former rival's strange behavior. Kneeling down as well, he also scrabbled into the muddy ground.
Lucien gasped in horror. Frantic, he yelled to his men, "EVERYONE! GET SHOVELS FAST!"
While the men scrambled to dig the coffin out, Dream arrived, watching in stunned silence, the folder that Ali had given him clutched tightly in his trembling hands.
"No!" the Dream King muttered. "Please don't tell me that I'm too late!"
"Yes, Dream," Desire confirmed. "You are too late."
The Lord of the Dreaming stared at his grinning siblings who stood underneath the tree, observing what was happening with undisguised pleasure.
"We got even with him real good!" Delirium stuck her tongue out at the grave. "Serves you right, Edmond!"
With frantic grunts and mighty heaves, the men pulled the coffin out of the grave.
"Edmond!" Benedetto knocked on the cover. "Edmond, please answer me! It's Andrea! Albert's here with me! It's going to be all right now!"
"Edmond! Edmond, can you hear me?" Albert called out to the man inside. "Please hang on! We'll get you out of there!"
Beauchamp snatched the crowbar from the hand of a running policeman. Using the flat end, he squeezed it through the crack and proceeded to pry the cover loose. Two more agents went on other side of him, hastening to get the lid open. With a loud crack, the cover gave way and it fell back into the hole with a loud crash.
What Albert saw inside caused an anguished wail to be torn from his throat. Benedetto turned away as his body was wracked by sobs. Lucien broke down completely that his lover had to embrace him.
Lying on the padded cushion was Edmond Dantes. The poor man had completely transformed into crystal. They could clearly see the coffin's lining through his clear, transparent form. Even his black hair and eyelashes had been changed into strands of black agate. Held in his cold, blue hands was the Albert doll.
Albert wrapped his arms around that cold, hard figure, his tears pouring from his eyes like rain. "Oh, Edmond! I'm sorry! I am sorry!"
Despair let out a raspy cackle. "Yes! Weep! Cry your eyes out! Let the salt of guilt rub the fiber of your heart!"
Dream felt a heaviness crush his heart at that pitiful sight. He turned to his three younger siblings who had been watching everything with glee. Anger that was only known to his previous aspect gripped the Lord of the Dreaming's entire being. Raising his hand, he conjured up a fierce storm composed of sharp sand and flung it right at his sisters. Despair, Delirium and Desire shrieked in agony as the sand scoured their skins and invaded every orifice of their bodies.
"BEGONE FROM MY SIGHT THIS INSTANT!" Dream roared. "THOUGH YOU MAY BE MY SISTERS, I SHALL NOT LET YOU GO UNPUNISHED THIS TIME!"
"Don't think that I will forget this, Dream!" Desire shouted back as it vanished with the storm, together with its sisters. "I shall destroy you just as surely as I had destroyed Morpheus!"
When they were finally gone, Dream pressed a hand to his face to stop the pouring of his tears. "I have failed you, Edmond. I have failed you miserably."
A gentle hand was laid on his shoulder. Whirling, he beheld his elder sister. There was a sad little smile on Death's face.
"Sister, don't," Dream begged her. "Please don't take him to the other side."
Death, however, sadly shook her head. "It was his choice, Dream. He had lost all reason to live." She waved a hand to the pink aura that emanated from the grave. The aura and the twinkling stars within it were spreading out, as if to envelope the whole world. To their preternatural eyes, the sky was no longer blue, but a bright pink. "Can you see it, Dream? He is giving his heart and soul to all living beings."
"Which is why I cannot accept that he die like this, not when he still has one wish left unfulfilled?" Uncharacteristic tears trickled from the starry pits of the Dream King's eyes. "I won't let him die, Sister!"
The sooner those strong words left his lips, a din arose among the dead of the cemetery, increasing in volume and intensity. The restless ghosts floated up from their graves, surrounding the two siblings of the Endless.
"Don't take our friend!" one woman implored them, holding the shade of a sunflower in her hand.
"It is not yet his time!" an old man begged in earnest.
"Please! We're begging you!" all the ghosts pleaded the same thing.
Suddenly, a beam of light shone down from the heavens. From that light, a blond-haired boy descended. His head was surrounded by a golden aura.
Death recognized him immediately. "What are you doing here? I have already taken you to the other side."
"I was permitted to come here to help you," the boy replied simply. "Even if it were his wish to end it all, Edmond would not be admitted into the Kingdom. He and the being who has chosen to die with him are not evil, but they do not deserve to wander this mortal coil for all eternity as restless specters."
"Then what are we going to do?" Dream asked in urgency. "Please you must tell us!"
The boy smiled meaningfully at the Dream King. "The Endless were never known to interfere in mortal affairs, and yet here you are determined to save one life. Why is that?"
"Because I too was once mortal. And from what I have learned from Morpheus before me, non-interference could prove catastrophic to many innocent lives, especially if one has the power to do something about it."
"So like your sister who experiences mortality every century, you've finally gained a human soul."
"Yes. And I have Edmond Dantes and Gankutsuou to thank for that."
The boy looked at Death. "Well? What do you say to all this?"
Death grinned broadly. "Only two words – Peachy keen!" Going towards the crystalline figure lying in the coffin, she bent down and kissed Edmond on the lips, sealing his spirit within the cold shell. She could feel that poor soul struggling to break free from his prison. "Sorry about this, Edmond, but everyone wants to see you happy and alive. For now, sleep, my dear sweet friend. Sleep until your one true love awakens you."
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