Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Into The Void ❯ Wake To Darkness ( Chapter 3 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: MellyN 
Miscellaneous: Original Stories Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Comedy / Romance | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 03.18.2015 | Pages: 8 | Words: 4.2K | Visits: 375 | Status: Work In Progress
Miscellaneous: Original Stories Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Comedy / Romance | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 03.18.2015 | Pages: 8 | Words: 4.2K | Visits: 375 | Status: Work In Progress
Into the Void
Chapter 3: Wake To Darkness
By: Melissa Norvell
"More dead over here," Agata pointed out, looking at several dead bodies which littered the street. They were haphazardly strewn about in various positions as far as they eye could see. It looked as if a war had taken place there, and whoever was the victor had long since fled the scene.
Rubio looked through a window of an abandoned house. It was small in structure and looked as if it only had about one or two bedrooms. Now, the building lay in ruin, decrepit from the onslaught of fighting that took place. "Here too, I'm afraid."
Agata looked to the dark figure. "Are you sure you're alright?"
"I'm fine," he shrugged her off.
"Who was after you anyway? I mean, why and who would have a motive for that type of thing?" She had a feeling that this was a bigger circumstance than she knew of.
"I have nothing," the silver hairedmanshrugged.
"Yesterday, it was reported that the wife of terrorist Masateru Ibuki, Miss Belladonna Angora, was assassinated." Did it have something to do with that? The two events were very close together. Agata wasn’t stupid, and all of her years as a sergeant made her good at detective work.
Haunted blue eyes locked onto the blue clad woman.
"Do you think it has a connection?" Agata asked, trying to piece information together.
"Who can say?" Rubio avoided the subject.
"You think it was a person or a group?"
"From a brief examination of the corpses, they were all killed with the same type of weapon. So either it was an army, all equipped with the same type of instrument of death, or it was an individual," Rubio discerned. "It's hard to tell the length of the weapon from the wounds, but the weapon can't be any larger than a katana."
"That's some katana," She noted.
"Or some man wielding it."
"Precisely why he must be brought to justice," Agata was stern with her words. Her job was to keep people like that off of the streets, and to protect innocent people so things like this didn’t happen.
The silver haired man walked over to another house, reporting to Agata the five casualties there and watched her scratch it down on her clip board. He reported two more; she again, jotted them down.
Sighing, Rubio finally spoke up again. "It's doubtful that we'll find any survivors. I've been meaning to ask you," he looked at the white haired woman, "why are you the only one here? Usually they send search parties for this sort of thing."
"I found the village on my own," she happened to be traveling down that route and stumbled across the decimated region.
"What about sending a message to your base?" Couldn’t she have done that? Isn’t that what they were supposed to do? Rubio wondered why she didn’t do it. That seemed a little unprofessional.
"Can't," Agata responded. "Radio was broken."
"Damn, that sucks."
"No kidding," She sighed." What luck? They can't get much luckier than us."
The male sighed in defeat as visions of all that happened ran through his head. "I know what you mean. These past few days have been hell."
"For you too?" She arched an eyebrow as she looked over to him, finding that they had something in common, "at least I'm not alone."
"Hey, there's something in the middle of what seems like a road there," he spotted a small figure crumpled in the middle of the walkway a few feet in front of them.
"Seems like someone may still be alive after all. Let's check them out," Agata instructed.'This mission may not be a total bust after all.'
Footsteps became louder as they neared a small girl lying in the middle of one of the village paths. She was in the fetal position and had short, shoulder length hair that was curled out at the ends. It was a dark shade of blue-green. She was light framed and thin, appearing to be in her teens. She had no wounds, but she was unconscious. Rubio kneeled beside of her and lifted her torso up so he could get a good listen to her heart. It was still beating.
"She's still alive."
"That makes two survivors," Agata began scratching her down on her clip board.
The man shook her a little, trying to snap her back into consciousness. "Excuse me…Wake up…"
"Ugh…" He got a vocalization from the girl, who after a few minutes opened her eyes. "What? Where?" Her eyes, same color as her hair widened as she took in the sight around herself. "What happened?" She sat up bolt straight, then clenched her forehead in her hand and winced. "Ouch! My head!" She looked up at Rubio. "Wow, am I dead? Because you look like an angel." She found Rubio to be an attractive man.
The male shrugged her comment off. "Are you alright? Do you have a concussion?"
"Nah, I got knocked out," the girl told him the last thing she remembered before she slipped into unconsciousness. "Some guy hit me in the back of the head with a gun." She rubbed the back of her head, trying to quell the dull pain from being struck.
"What did this guy look like? Can you provide a description?" Agata knew that if someone had an inkling of a clue of what happened, then they could solve this mystery.
"Not really," the young girl replied. "All I saw was a hand with a black glove on it reach around my shoulders, kind of like I was being hugged, and a mechanical voice telling me that I was going to live. Then I got hit."
'Valentino…'Rubio's mind went straight to a possible suspect who fit her description.
"That really sucks too. I was totally going to kill that guy!" She closed her eyes and smiled.
"There were two of them?" Rubio was a little confused.
"What?" The girl wondered where he got that question from.
"Two men attacking the village?"
"I didn't see anyone attacking the village," the blue-green haired girl stated. "I got knocked out. I mean, I don't know if the guy who knocked me out was working for them or not."
"That means we still have no leads," he sighed. So much for trying to solve the mystery.
"Leads?" The young girl inquired.
"We're trying to figure out who did this…and why?" Rubio proceeded to say.
"You're one of two survivors found," Agata noted as he looked through her paperwork.
"And the other survivor found?" The girl questioned.
Agata pointed to Rubio, and then the short haired girl looked down sadly. She asked if she was certain that she was the only survivor and seemed desperate for there to be others. Rubio gave his condolences for the lives lost that were special to her.
"There's a slim chance that you might not be, but we're not done combing the village. We're up to 1,000 dead out of the 3,000 we're looking for," Agata gave her the grim statistics. There was still a chance that they could find someone else, but it was very slim.
"There's got to besomeonealive.Anyone." A desperate and delusional look shot across her features. They couldn’t be dead. They just…couldn’t…Even if there was a small hope, that was better than nothing.
'Poor kid,'Agata was sympathetic towards the girl. She felt really bad for her being in such a traumatic situation.'I can see it in her eyes. She wants to believe, but I can't really make this sound any better by giving her a miracle to believe in.'
"We can't just sit around. We've got to look and-Huh?" Sari noticed the blood speckled bandages that were wrapped around the outside of the male's clothes. "What happened to you?"
"Gunshot wounds," Agata told her. "He's being stubborn and won't let me remove them. So if he gets lead poisoning and dies, that's his own fault."
"You really should get those taken out," Sari advised.
"There's no time, if we want to find survivors," Rubio ignored the both of them. He could tend to his wounds on his down time. They needed to get things done.
"You know, it's great and all that you want to find survivors, but you can't find the survivors if you're not surviving to do it," the petite girl said sarcastically. "You really should let…uh…The girl with the eye patch take it out." Honestly, did he not have a brain in his head? They needed him to help find people, not die because he was being a stubborn asshole.
Agata made a face of exasperation at the mention of her name not being remembered. Honestly, that was the least that he could have done.
"My name is Sergeant Battissia Agata."
"Hi, I'm Saburo Sari," she got up slowly. "Nice to meet you."
"The guy with the wrappings is Rubio," Agata introduced her third party member as Sari approached Rubio and reached out for his wrappings, unbinding them.
"What are you doing?"
"You've got to get these tended to."
"I'm fine," Rubio argued for the second time. He was going to be stubborn about this until the end of time.
"Nonsense! Quit being a baby! You need help!" Sari began what escalated into a yelling contest, each retort getting more vicious and thunderous.
"Leave me alone!"
The white haired woman felt sweat run down her forehead. "This is already a long day and with the two idiots it's only getting worse. I think it's about time for another cigarette."
"You need help!" The spunky girl yelled.
"Nonsense!" Rubio hissed.
"Let me see your wounds!" The persistent girl reached for the remaining bandages on the darkly clothed man, who drew back like a cat being attacked.
"No! I refuse!" The silver haired man snarled.
"But you're hurt!"
"Never mind it!"
"Do you two realize that you're getting nowhere?" Their colleague asked calmly. Honestly, they were acting like a couple of children.
"He's being stubborn," Sari snapped, pointing at Rubio in accusation.
"I'm stubborn?"
"That's what I said, isn't it?" The girl shot back.
A look of annoyance shot across his features and a vein popped out of his forehead. "What?"
"Just let me take them out," she insisted.
"I just met you. Why do you want me to comply with your demands?" Rubio still felt the need to defend himself.
"Look," Sari sighed in exasperation, "you're right…I don't know why you should trust me…But who else are you going to trust?"
Rubio looked at Sari in realization and defeat, and then looked to Agata, then some dead bodies lying on the ground. His mind raced, searching for a decision or resolution of some kind. On one hand, if Sari and Agata kept annoying him about it, he would just end up getting annoyed himself. It was for the best that he got the bullets removed. But he had been shot before and endured the pain until he completed the mission.
Blue-green eyes looked at him impatiently. "Well…" Was he going to take the offer or not? Was she going to have to beat him up to make him see the point? Honestly, he better not make her hold him down and pull the bullet out herself.
"I suppose the two of you aren't going to leave me alone until I do, right?" Rubio didn’t feel like fighting anymore. He might as well get this whole ordeal over with and just let them pull it out.
"Hey, I'm not in this, I just made an observation," Agata defended herself. The last thing she wanted to do was be involved in their fight.
The younger female just smirked in victory.
With an annoyed look, the male spoke, "well, I guess I have no choice."
'Ha! In your eye!'Sari thought to herself arrogantly.
"But…"
"Huh?" The young girl felt sweat roll down her head.
"I want Agata to do it."
"That's not right…" Sari fell down. "Ouch…My head…"
The white haired girl sighed. This wasn’t what she had planned on. Didn’t she just say she didn’t want to be involved in this squabble? "Whatever gets it over with faster. Lay down."
The man lay down on the ground and Agata moved swiftly, taking off his shirt. She unbuttoned the elaborate gold buttons and spread the cloth apart to reveal all of his wounds. The woman stated that it may hurt and pulled out a small dagger. She noted that it was the smallest thing she had and there were no available pain killers. Rubio informed her that he just wanted to hurry and get it over with so they could move on. The pain would be nothing compared to all of the things he’d been put through.
"If you ask me, those bullets have been in there a bit too long. They're beginning to make you irritable," Agata remarked.
"…"
The younger girl sat on the ground, fuming to herself at the fact that Rubio had turned down her help for Agata's.'Howdareyou insult me! I'm a great swordsman! Trying to tell me I can't do the job. I'll show you, you-'
"Sari?" Her thoughts were cut off by Agata's intrusive voice.
"Hm?" The yellow clad girl looked as if she'd been caught doing something.
"Come help me out here."
"Right," she got up and walked over. "What do you want me to do, Miss Agata?"
"Hold the wound open so I can see the bullet," the woman instructed, trying to peer into the wound to see the bullet lodged between the areas of muscle. The younger girl replied to the blue clad female and told Rubio that it would hurt. With a pained cry and a few grunts, the white haired female got the first bullet out. One the second one, Rubio winced as she stated that it was a little deeper then the first as she dug deeper, Rubio cried out in pain.
"There. Got it," the second blood covered bullet was placed on the ground.
"Good as new," Sari said happily, "bet it doesn't hurt so badly now."
"If you like feeling like you have holes gouged into you."
"Oh, quit being a baby."
"I'm not being a baby," Rubio argued.
"Right."
"Why couldn't you have been dead?" He muttered angrily.
"Because that would have made you happy," the smart-mouthed girl shot back. Like she wanted to make him feel good in the slightest, this jerk deserved to suffer.
"I really am beginning to hate you." Rubio didn’t sign up for this, nor did he want it. Why did he have to be on a team with someone so insufferable?
"You know, I have the feeling that I wouldn't be the only one you hated," Sari dared him to say something back.
"Can we just go now?" Agata sighed, growing tired of hearing the two argue constantly.
Rubio put on his jacket and agreed. He wanted to get out of there as soon as he could. The sight and stench of those bodies were starting to get to him.
"Sure thing," the young girl nodded, "just don't let Bullet Boy slow you down."
That was it. A silver eye brow twitched in irritation. Rubio remained silent for a few minutes before turning around, a scowl on his face and a finger pointed to Sari. He had a million complaints and insults going through his mind. The thing was, he had to find one that didn't seem lame or ill-used. He opened his mouth, thinking that he had found the right one, but then closed it again.
"Yes?" The short haired girl smiled innocently…Too innocently.
"Nothing," was the irritated mutter.'She's the one who wanted me to stay and get them pulled out andthenshe accuses me of being slow!'
"Well, let's go," the girl ordered.
Agata, who had been paying attention to the bullets, looked back to her team mates. "Right. They are non-lead based. Good for you, right. They obviously came from a gun fired at close range. Whoever did it definitely wanted you K.O'd and not dead."
'Damn it all!'Rubio's thoughts berated him.'I don't understand this! Why doesn't Valentino want to kill me?'
As the three walked through the town, no one said a word to each other. Tension and stress were high and this was an intense and devastating situation. Each pair of eyes looked around at the death and destruction around them and couldn't help to feel something within them. Agata and Rubio kept their poker faces, showing no emotion and seeming to be both serious and sorrowful at the same time. Sari, on the other hand, couldn't keep that type of façade. She was worried that her parents might be slain, and couldn't concentrate on anything else but to think that they were alive somehow and kept a small glimmer of hope in her heart for them. While she hadn't found their bodies, it was no sure thing that they weren't dead.
Breaking the silence, Agata spoke up.
"A real ghost town, isn't it?"
"Yeah," came a small yet sad voice.
Ghostly blue eyes looked to the young girl. A crystalline tear made its way down her face, and was then wiped away by a small hand. Feeling a pang in his heart for a few of his past commentary, Rubio put a hand on Sari's shoulder.
"Did you lose anyone close to you?" Agata knew the question was obvious and maybe even stupid, but she asked anyway.
"My whole family," Sari replied, tears still streaming down her face.
Light blue eyes were still transfixed on her as a manly hand came to meet soft skin, wiping her tears away.
"It's alright Sari," Rubio comforted, "I know how you feel. I lost my love to some killer."
"You did?" She was glad that she wasn't the only one, though she did feel sympathy for Rubio.
"Yes," the man’s tone was one of sorrow.
"Wow, that's too bad."
"But I'm lucky compared to you, Sari. You're taking this well for someone who's lost everyone." He continued.
"Thanks." Sari replied as the man continued to wipe away her tears gently and comfortingly. She allowed herself a smile. The smile was reflected from the man she was arguing with a few minutes ago. The two stood there in complete silence.
A moment of peace.
"Okay," a semi-deep feminine voice intoned. "Now that we're all friendly and everything, let's get a move on."
"HM!?!" The annoyed look forced its way back onto Sari's face. "I barely know him!
"This is what I get for being nice," Rubio sighed. His moment of peace had been completely destroyed by Agata's sarcasm.
"I'm not your girlfriend! Geez! Quit being lonely!" Sari pulled away, looking offended. Someone like him could only dream to have a girl like her. He may have looked like an angel, but she wasn’t even going to begin to consider him any kind of mate material.
"I'd never be that lonely," the man mumbled beneath his breath.
"What!? Are you trying to say I'm not attractive?" With that being her final sentence, the girl hurled herself into the air and catapulted at Rubio. She began beating him up. Within the cloud of dust the two had stirred up, their voices could still be heard.
"Agh!"
"I'll kill you!"
"Hey! Watch the hair! Agh! Don't grab me there!"
"Cha!"
"Ow! Ouch! That's already damaged!"
"You think I care!?"
Sweat ran down Agata’s forehead, exasperated by the two's antics. "I feel like a babysitter." She took a step up to the two, getting between them. "Alright children, let's go."
"That's okay," Sari stood up, brushing the dirt off of her yellow skirt. "I'm done now." She walked a few steps over to Agata, leaving Rubio lying on the ground in a crumpled heap.
"Was that really necessary?" The battered Rubio asked in a disgruntled voice.
Once again, Agata sighed. She’d never been as done with something as she was with the two of them. "Let's finish up this searching job and report the casualties back to home base."
'Home base?'The man's thoughts ran rampant, coming to the conclusion that she was sent from the military. This was bad. This was really, really bad.
"Alright, let's go," Sari was ready to get some rest and settle down. She needed to recover from her traumatic experience.
'They still know I'm a terrorist. They'll find me out for sure. Agata will be mad.'He looked to the white haired female.'I deceived her.'
"Uh…Hello…Rubio…" Sari waved her hand in front of his face, trying to snap him out of his thoughts. "Let's go!"
Blinking and looking to the girl, he finally spoke. "Right. Sorry about that. I blacked out for a few minutes."
"Do you need a few more minutes of rest?" Agata turned half way to look at him.
"No, I'm fine." Like hell he was going to tell her what was wrong now. Knowing the two of them, if they were as persistent about this as they were about getting that bullet out, he was already in for a world of hell.
"Are you sure this time?" Sari asked, giving him a skeptical look.
"Yes, I'm sure this time."
They walk for what seems to be hours in silence. No one really mentioned anything to one another. Rubio, thought to himself how exactly he'd get through this situation without having to reveal who he was.
'I'll just have to play it cool and hope that no one says my name or finds me out.'As he thought, his pace slowed and he began to fall a few feet behind the girls. He could hear them talking about something and decided to home in on what they were saying.
"You think we'll catch who did this?" Sari looked over to Agata, who was walking side-by-side with her.
"Won't be a problem," Agata glanced back at Rubio.'I wonder what's wrong with Rubio.'
"What?" He spoke up, knowing that she was staring at him.
'Something's definitely up with him. He's getting a little tense and nervous ever since I mentioned coming back to base.'Her eye narrowed. "I'd better keep an eye on him." She said lowly to herself, making sure that Sari couldn't catch the phrase to question it.
'Well…'The young girl looked to her companion.'What's up with her? She looks so serious about something.'
TBC
Chapter 3: Wake To Darkness
By: Melissa Norvell
"More dead over here," Agata pointed out, looking at several dead bodies which littered the street. They were haphazardly strewn about in various positions as far as they eye could see. It looked as if a war had taken place there, and whoever was the victor had long since fled the scene.
Rubio looked through a window of an abandoned house. It was small in structure and looked as if it only had about one or two bedrooms. Now, the building lay in ruin, decrepit from the onslaught of fighting that took place. "Here too, I'm afraid."
Agata looked to the dark figure. "Are you sure you're alright?"
"I'm fine," he shrugged her off.
"Who was after you anyway? I mean, why and who would have a motive for that type of thing?" She had a feeling that this was a bigger circumstance than she knew of.
"I have nothing," the silver hairedmanshrugged.
"Yesterday, it was reported that the wife of terrorist Masateru Ibuki, Miss Belladonna Angora, was assassinated." Did it have something to do with that? The two events were very close together. Agata wasn’t stupid, and all of her years as a sergeant made her good at detective work.
Haunted blue eyes locked onto the blue clad woman.
"Do you think it has a connection?" Agata asked, trying to piece information together.
"Who can say?" Rubio avoided the subject.
"You think it was a person or a group?"
"From a brief examination of the corpses, they were all killed with the same type of weapon. So either it was an army, all equipped with the same type of instrument of death, or it was an individual," Rubio discerned. "It's hard to tell the length of the weapon from the wounds, but the weapon can't be any larger than a katana."
"That's some katana," She noted.
"Or some man wielding it."
"Precisely why he must be brought to justice," Agata was stern with her words. Her job was to keep people like that off of the streets, and to protect innocent people so things like this didn’t happen.
The silver haired man walked over to another house, reporting to Agata the five casualties there and watched her scratch it down on her clip board. He reported two more; she again, jotted them down.
Sighing, Rubio finally spoke up again. "It's doubtful that we'll find any survivors. I've been meaning to ask you," he looked at the white haired woman, "why are you the only one here? Usually they send search parties for this sort of thing."
"I found the village on my own," she happened to be traveling down that route and stumbled across the decimated region.
"What about sending a message to your base?" Couldn’t she have done that? Isn’t that what they were supposed to do? Rubio wondered why she didn’t do it. That seemed a little unprofessional.
"Can't," Agata responded. "Radio was broken."
"Damn, that sucks."
"No kidding," She sighed." What luck? They can't get much luckier than us."
The male sighed in defeat as visions of all that happened ran through his head. "I know what you mean. These past few days have been hell."
"For you too?" She arched an eyebrow as she looked over to him, finding that they had something in common, "at least I'm not alone."
"Hey, there's something in the middle of what seems like a road there," he spotted a small figure crumpled in the middle of the walkway a few feet in front of them.
"Seems like someone may still be alive after all. Let's check them out," Agata instructed.'This mission may not be a total bust after all.'
Footsteps became louder as they neared a small girl lying in the middle of one of the village paths. She was in the fetal position and had short, shoulder length hair that was curled out at the ends. It was a dark shade of blue-green. She was light framed and thin, appearing to be in her teens. She had no wounds, but she was unconscious. Rubio kneeled beside of her and lifted her torso up so he could get a good listen to her heart. It was still beating.
"She's still alive."
"That makes two survivors," Agata began scratching her down on her clip board.
The man shook her a little, trying to snap her back into consciousness. "Excuse me…Wake up…"
"Ugh…" He got a vocalization from the girl, who after a few minutes opened her eyes. "What? Where?" Her eyes, same color as her hair widened as she took in the sight around herself. "What happened?" She sat up bolt straight, then clenched her forehead in her hand and winced. "Ouch! My head!" She looked up at Rubio. "Wow, am I dead? Because you look like an angel." She found Rubio to be an attractive man.
The male shrugged her comment off. "Are you alright? Do you have a concussion?"
"Nah, I got knocked out," the girl told him the last thing she remembered before she slipped into unconsciousness. "Some guy hit me in the back of the head with a gun." She rubbed the back of her head, trying to quell the dull pain from being struck.
"What did this guy look like? Can you provide a description?" Agata knew that if someone had an inkling of a clue of what happened, then they could solve this mystery.
"Not really," the young girl replied. "All I saw was a hand with a black glove on it reach around my shoulders, kind of like I was being hugged, and a mechanical voice telling me that I was going to live. Then I got hit."
'Valentino…'Rubio's mind went straight to a possible suspect who fit her description.
"That really sucks too. I was totally going to kill that guy!" She closed her eyes and smiled.
"There were two of them?" Rubio was a little confused.
"What?" The girl wondered where he got that question from.
"Two men attacking the village?"
"I didn't see anyone attacking the village," the blue-green haired girl stated. "I got knocked out. I mean, I don't know if the guy who knocked me out was working for them or not."
"That means we still have no leads," he sighed. So much for trying to solve the mystery.
"Leads?" The young girl inquired.
"We're trying to figure out who did this…and why?" Rubio proceeded to say.
"You're one of two survivors found," Agata noted as he looked through her paperwork.
"And the other survivor found?" The girl questioned.
Agata pointed to Rubio, and then the short haired girl looked down sadly. She asked if she was certain that she was the only survivor and seemed desperate for there to be others. Rubio gave his condolences for the lives lost that were special to her.
"There's a slim chance that you might not be, but we're not done combing the village. We're up to 1,000 dead out of the 3,000 we're looking for," Agata gave her the grim statistics. There was still a chance that they could find someone else, but it was very slim.
"There's got to besomeonealive.Anyone." A desperate and delusional look shot across her features. They couldn’t be dead. They just…couldn’t…Even if there was a small hope, that was better than nothing.
'Poor kid,'Agata was sympathetic towards the girl. She felt really bad for her being in such a traumatic situation.'I can see it in her eyes. She wants to believe, but I can't really make this sound any better by giving her a miracle to believe in.'
"We can't just sit around. We've got to look and-Huh?" Sari noticed the blood speckled bandages that were wrapped around the outside of the male's clothes. "What happened to you?"
"Gunshot wounds," Agata told her. "He's being stubborn and won't let me remove them. So if he gets lead poisoning and dies, that's his own fault."
"You really should get those taken out," Sari advised.
"There's no time, if we want to find survivors," Rubio ignored the both of them. He could tend to his wounds on his down time. They needed to get things done.
"You know, it's great and all that you want to find survivors, but you can't find the survivors if you're not surviving to do it," the petite girl said sarcastically. "You really should let…uh…The girl with the eye patch take it out." Honestly, did he not have a brain in his head? They needed him to help find people, not die because he was being a stubborn asshole.
Agata made a face of exasperation at the mention of her name not being remembered. Honestly, that was the least that he could have done.
"My name is Sergeant Battissia Agata."
"Hi, I'm Saburo Sari," she got up slowly. "Nice to meet you."
"The guy with the wrappings is Rubio," Agata introduced her third party member as Sari approached Rubio and reached out for his wrappings, unbinding them.
"What are you doing?"
"You've got to get these tended to."
"I'm fine," Rubio argued for the second time. He was going to be stubborn about this until the end of time.
"Nonsense! Quit being a baby! You need help!" Sari began what escalated into a yelling contest, each retort getting more vicious and thunderous.
"Leave me alone!"
The white haired woman felt sweat run down her forehead. "This is already a long day and with the two idiots it's only getting worse. I think it's about time for another cigarette."
"You need help!" The spunky girl yelled.
"Nonsense!" Rubio hissed.
"Let me see your wounds!" The persistent girl reached for the remaining bandages on the darkly clothed man, who drew back like a cat being attacked.
"No! I refuse!" The silver haired man snarled.
"But you're hurt!"
"Never mind it!"
"Do you two realize that you're getting nowhere?" Their colleague asked calmly. Honestly, they were acting like a couple of children.
"He's being stubborn," Sari snapped, pointing at Rubio in accusation.
"I'm stubborn?"
"That's what I said, isn't it?" The girl shot back.
A look of annoyance shot across his features and a vein popped out of his forehead. "What?"
"Just let me take them out," she insisted.
"I just met you. Why do you want me to comply with your demands?" Rubio still felt the need to defend himself.
"Look," Sari sighed in exasperation, "you're right…I don't know why you should trust me…But who else are you going to trust?"
Rubio looked at Sari in realization and defeat, and then looked to Agata, then some dead bodies lying on the ground. His mind raced, searching for a decision or resolution of some kind. On one hand, if Sari and Agata kept annoying him about it, he would just end up getting annoyed himself. It was for the best that he got the bullets removed. But he had been shot before and endured the pain until he completed the mission.
Blue-green eyes looked at him impatiently. "Well…" Was he going to take the offer or not? Was she going to have to beat him up to make him see the point? Honestly, he better not make her hold him down and pull the bullet out herself.
"I suppose the two of you aren't going to leave me alone until I do, right?" Rubio didn’t feel like fighting anymore. He might as well get this whole ordeal over with and just let them pull it out.
"Hey, I'm not in this, I just made an observation," Agata defended herself. The last thing she wanted to do was be involved in their fight.
The younger female just smirked in victory.
With an annoyed look, the male spoke, "well, I guess I have no choice."
'Ha! In your eye!'Sari thought to herself arrogantly.
"But…"
"Huh?" The young girl felt sweat roll down her head.
"I want Agata to do it."
"That's not right…" Sari fell down. "Ouch…My head…"
The white haired girl sighed. This wasn’t what she had planned on. Didn’t she just say she didn’t want to be involved in this squabble? "Whatever gets it over with faster. Lay down."
The man lay down on the ground and Agata moved swiftly, taking off his shirt. She unbuttoned the elaborate gold buttons and spread the cloth apart to reveal all of his wounds. The woman stated that it may hurt and pulled out a small dagger. She noted that it was the smallest thing she had and there were no available pain killers. Rubio informed her that he just wanted to hurry and get it over with so they could move on. The pain would be nothing compared to all of the things he’d been put through.
"If you ask me, those bullets have been in there a bit too long. They're beginning to make you irritable," Agata remarked.
"…"
The younger girl sat on the ground, fuming to herself at the fact that Rubio had turned down her help for Agata's.'Howdareyou insult me! I'm a great swordsman! Trying to tell me I can't do the job. I'll show you, you-'
"Sari?" Her thoughts were cut off by Agata's intrusive voice.
"Hm?" The yellow clad girl looked as if she'd been caught doing something.
"Come help me out here."
"Right," she got up and walked over. "What do you want me to do, Miss Agata?"
"Hold the wound open so I can see the bullet," the woman instructed, trying to peer into the wound to see the bullet lodged between the areas of muscle. The younger girl replied to the blue clad female and told Rubio that it would hurt. With a pained cry and a few grunts, the white haired female got the first bullet out. One the second one, Rubio winced as she stated that it was a little deeper then the first as she dug deeper, Rubio cried out in pain.
"There. Got it," the second blood covered bullet was placed on the ground.
"Good as new," Sari said happily, "bet it doesn't hurt so badly now."
"If you like feeling like you have holes gouged into you."
"Oh, quit being a baby."
"I'm not being a baby," Rubio argued.
"Right."
"Why couldn't you have been dead?" He muttered angrily.
"Because that would have made you happy," the smart-mouthed girl shot back. Like she wanted to make him feel good in the slightest, this jerk deserved to suffer.
"I really am beginning to hate you." Rubio didn’t sign up for this, nor did he want it. Why did he have to be on a team with someone so insufferable?
"You know, I have the feeling that I wouldn't be the only one you hated," Sari dared him to say something back.
"Can we just go now?" Agata sighed, growing tired of hearing the two argue constantly.
Rubio put on his jacket and agreed. He wanted to get out of there as soon as he could. The sight and stench of those bodies were starting to get to him.
"Sure thing," the young girl nodded, "just don't let Bullet Boy slow you down."
That was it. A silver eye brow twitched in irritation. Rubio remained silent for a few minutes before turning around, a scowl on his face and a finger pointed to Sari. He had a million complaints and insults going through his mind. The thing was, he had to find one that didn't seem lame or ill-used. He opened his mouth, thinking that he had found the right one, but then closed it again.
"Yes?" The short haired girl smiled innocently…Too innocently.
"Nothing," was the irritated mutter.'She's the one who wanted me to stay and get them pulled out andthenshe accuses me of being slow!'
"Well, let's go," the girl ordered.
Agata, who had been paying attention to the bullets, looked back to her team mates. "Right. They are non-lead based. Good for you, right. They obviously came from a gun fired at close range. Whoever did it definitely wanted you K.O'd and not dead."
'Damn it all!'Rubio's thoughts berated him.'I don't understand this! Why doesn't Valentino want to kill me?'
As the three walked through the town, no one said a word to each other. Tension and stress were high and this was an intense and devastating situation. Each pair of eyes looked around at the death and destruction around them and couldn't help to feel something within them. Agata and Rubio kept their poker faces, showing no emotion and seeming to be both serious and sorrowful at the same time. Sari, on the other hand, couldn't keep that type of façade. She was worried that her parents might be slain, and couldn't concentrate on anything else but to think that they were alive somehow and kept a small glimmer of hope in her heart for them. While she hadn't found their bodies, it was no sure thing that they weren't dead.
Breaking the silence, Agata spoke up.
"A real ghost town, isn't it?"
"Yeah," came a small yet sad voice.
Ghostly blue eyes looked to the young girl. A crystalline tear made its way down her face, and was then wiped away by a small hand. Feeling a pang in his heart for a few of his past commentary, Rubio put a hand on Sari's shoulder.
"Did you lose anyone close to you?" Agata knew the question was obvious and maybe even stupid, but she asked anyway.
"My whole family," Sari replied, tears still streaming down her face.
Light blue eyes were still transfixed on her as a manly hand came to meet soft skin, wiping her tears away.
"It's alright Sari," Rubio comforted, "I know how you feel. I lost my love to some killer."
"You did?" She was glad that she wasn't the only one, though she did feel sympathy for Rubio.
"Yes," the man’s tone was one of sorrow.
"Wow, that's too bad."
"But I'm lucky compared to you, Sari. You're taking this well for someone who's lost everyone." He continued.
"Thanks." Sari replied as the man continued to wipe away her tears gently and comfortingly. She allowed herself a smile. The smile was reflected from the man she was arguing with a few minutes ago. The two stood there in complete silence.
A moment of peace.
"Okay," a semi-deep feminine voice intoned. "Now that we're all friendly and everything, let's get a move on."
"HM!?!" The annoyed look forced its way back onto Sari's face. "I barely know him!
"This is what I get for being nice," Rubio sighed. His moment of peace had been completely destroyed by Agata's sarcasm.
"I'm not your girlfriend! Geez! Quit being lonely!" Sari pulled away, looking offended. Someone like him could only dream to have a girl like her. He may have looked like an angel, but she wasn’t even going to begin to consider him any kind of mate material.
"I'd never be that lonely," the man mumbled beneath his breath.
"What!? Are you trying to say I'm not attractive?" With that being her final sentence, the girl hurled herself into the air and catapulted at Rubio. She began beating him up. Within the cloud of dust the two had stirred up, their voices could still be heard.
"Agh!"
"I'll kill you!"
"Hey! Watch the hair! Agh! Don't grab me there!"
"Cha!"
"Ow! Ouch! That's already damaged!"
"You think I care!?"
Sweat ran down Agata’s forehead, exasperated by the two's antics. "I feel like a babysitter." She took a step up to the two, getting between them. "Alright children, let's go."
"That's okay," Sari stood up, brushing the dirt off of her yellow skirt. "I'm done now." She walked a few steps over to Agata, leaving Rubio lying on the ground in a crumpled heap.
"Was that really necessary?" The battered Rubio asked in a disgruntled voice.
Once again, Agata sighed. She’d never been as done with something as she was with the two of them. "Let's finish up this searching job and report the casualties back to home base."
'Home base?'The man's thoughts ran rampant, coming to the conclusion that she was sent from the military. This was bad. This was really, really bad.
"Alright, let's go," Sari was ready to get some rest and settle down. She needed to recover from her traumatic experience.
'They still know I'm a terrorist. They'll find me out for sure. Agata will be mad.'He looked to the white haired female.'I deceived her.'
"Uh…Hello…Rubio…" Sari waved her hand in front of his face, trying to snap him out of his thoughts. "Let's go!"
Blinking and looking to the girl, he finally spoke. "Right. Sorry about that. I blacked out for a few minutes."
"Do you need a few more minutes of rest?" Agata turned half way to look at him.
"No, I'm fine." Like hell he was going to tell her what was wrong now. Knowing the two of them, if they were as persistent about this as they were about getting that bullet out, he was already in for a world of hell.
"Are you sure this time?" Sari asked, giving him a skeptical look.
"Yes, I'm sure this time."
They walk for what seems to be hours in silence. No one really mentioned anything to one another. Rubio, thought to himself how exactly he'd get through this situation without having to reveal who he was.
'I'll just have to play it cool and hope that no one says my name or finds me out.'As he thought, his pace slowed and he began to fall a few feet behind the girls. He could hear them talking about something and decided to home in on what they were saying.
"You think we'll catch who did this?" Sari looked over to Agata, who was walking side-by-side with her.
"Won't be a problem," Agata glanced back at Rubio.'I wonder what's wrong with Rubio.'
"What?" He spoke up, knowing that she was staring at him.
'Something's definitely up with him. He's getting a little tense and nervous ever since I mentioned coming back to base.'Her eye narrowed. "I'd better keep an eye on him." She said lowly to herself, making sure that Sari couldn't catch the phrase to question it.
'Well…'The young girl looked to her companion.'What's up with her? She looks so serious about something.'
TBC