Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Sacrifice ❯ Possible Alliances ( Chapter 3 )

Xx.

Sacrifice

By: Melissa Norvell

Chapter 3: Possible Alliances

Xx.

"There's nothing here…It's been destroyed," Undine looked to the ground. The last glimmer of hope had been ripped from her body. Now it was certain that Fife's life was going to be plunged out of existence. This was awful.

"That angel lied," Ko's voice shook with defeat and a slight hint of anger. How could he have led them astray like that? They had someone who was practically dying with them. It was like he wanted Fife to pass away. That was just cruel. Why were those angels such dicks?

"What else is new?" Chichiri sighed matter a factly. Did they really think that he was going to help them? There was always that hope, but honestly, he knew better. The guys tried to kill Fife, why would they save him? They were just screwing with them, and they were dumb enough to fall for it.

"What now?" Keiji looked to the other members of the band, plus Undine. He hoped that one of them would have an idea of what to do right now. Time was running out for Fife, and all of them as well.

"He's bleeding all over you," Chichiri pointed to the immobile boy. Keiji's clothes were stained with large patches of red but the drummer looked unfazed by it. That was the least of his worries. It wasn't about his clothes, it was about how much blood was on them.

"We've got to do something, or he'll die," the stoic one told his team members without delay. Who cared about the blood? The boy's life was far more important, and now that they had been led astray, they didn't have any way to get him medical help. If they didn't think of something quick, it was lights out.

"We can use the things from this hospital to help him," Ko looked through the debris for anything helpful in aiding Fife. "We'll have to do it ourselves. Who has the most medical experience?" She looked to the group in hopes that someone knew something about being able to aid him. If they didn't, then they were screwed.

"Don't look at me. I'd end up sowing his foot to his head or something," Chichiri knew he was bad with putting a band aid on a cut, much less sowing up wounds.

"I'll do it," Keiji volunteered tenderly laying Fife down on a large, flat rock. He didn't want to cause any further damage then what had already been created. "We don't have time to argue. Undine, Ko!"

Both women looked at him and replied in unison. "Huh?"

"Find some bandages, stitches and some type of chemical I can flush out the wounds with. If you find anything to stitch him up with, make sure to sterilize it with anything you can find," he ordered as Chichiri told him that he would find some medicine to put on as a topical ointment. The drummer nodded in response as he knelt beside of the dark haired boy, taking off his shirt gently and examining his chest wounds with a grave expression.

"This is bad. His wound is deep," Keiji noted as the flashback of Hiroshima's blade going through Fife's body played on repeat for the fifth time that day. "That sword went completely through. This will require a lot of sowing but I think I can do it. Why the hell did you go and save me? You idiot," he frowned morosely, but pulled up his façade as Undine and Ko came running from the rubble, each holding items in their hands. Ko had a flashback of her own, thinking back on what had happened a while ago.

'Fate is not something that is predetermined; it lies in the hearts and actions of all humanity.' The angel's words sounded through her mind as she fell deeper and deeper into thought, mulling over the statement. 'Who was that angel? And was the other the man of legend? He certainly looked evil. He had no heart or conscience and killed without mercy.' Blue eyes befell Undine who stood only a few inches away from her. 'Undine knew him…She stated earlier that she knew the winged boy…But didn't the boy in the legend only have two wings? This guy had four…'

Her train of thought was interrupted by Chichiri's loud and friendly voice. "That's awesome. How did you learn to stitch like that?"

"Long ago," the green haired boy told him, concentrating on his fallen comrade as he fell into the nostalgia of the past.

"I'll save you," the boy cried as a woman ran to him, frantic and wounded. A large laceration was across her chest. Blood oozed to the top, soaking her clothes as she lay there.

"Please, help me…" A weak voice pleaded with him.

A wound was stitched with precision and accuracy, not a single flaw in the process. For someone so young, he managed to have the skill of a surgeon, due to how many times he had repeated the process.

"Thank you so much. How can I ever thank you?" The woman asked, grateful to Keiji for what he had done.

"There's no need," was the sad response in turn.

He pushed the thought to the back of his head. "Now, all we have to do is wait until he wakes up. We'll have to let him rest," Keiji watched the boy sleep soundly below him.

"Are you sure we should stay here?" Ko asked. It didn't seem safe, especially since the angels knew where they were now.

"Do we have a choice? If we move him, his stitches will come undone," Chichiri responded. Didn't she ever hear about how you weren't supposed to move a hospital patient? What was she thinking? They couldn't just carry Fife around like a bag of potatoes, and there was no way in hell that he was just going to get right up and act like a normal human being. Fife was weird but he wasn't invincible.

Undine watched the sleeping boy, reading the expression on his face and wondering how someone who held so much pain could look so peaceful in their sleep. Then Fife looked pained and his breathing became ragged and accelerated. A thin layer of sweat glistened upon his pale skin. Keiji kept a watch on him, and seemed a little worried about his condition.

"He's having weird reactions to whatever we flushed his wounds with," Ko analyzed the situation. Things looked bad. She really hoped that Fife didn't die on them. She prayed to all of the gods above that it wasn't a severe, allergic reaction.

The dark haired boy turned his head to the side, the look of pain was evident. He was lightly panting as his body struggled against the liquid that was used to flush out his body.

"Hang in there, Fiest," Chichiri said gravely, worried about the suffering boy.

"It's Fife," Ko corrected, glaring at him.

"Damn it," Chichiri cursed. "I'll never get the hang of this." He truly was bad at remembering names. He cursed himself for doing something so stupid in such a serious point in time.

"Ugh…" Fife emitted a small pained noise, evident by the look on his face. It also looked like he may have been stirring awake from the intensity of what he was feeling.

'Come on…You've got to be stronger than that.' Keiji thought with a resolute expression painted onto his visage. He knew the other male could pull through this! He just knew it! Fife had to live! He HAD to!

Shortly after, the injured boy arose; his ponytail flowed about him and danced in the air with his movement. The longer portions of the bandages had done the same, and looked like several streamers and causing the injured form to look quite haunting with its languid movements. Mourning, pain and the threat of demise clung to his midnight blue eyes as they set sights on Keiji once again.

"You shouldn't get up like that," he spoke in the same, monotone, freezing voice he had used before. Keiji was happy that he was alright, but pissed off that he went and got himself stabbed because of him. He wasn't going to let him off easily, hurt or not.

"Are you alright, Fife?" Ko asked with concern shot through her eyes. Fife was beginning to give off unnatural feelings and it unnerved the lead singer. He nearly looked like a zombie that was barely clinging to life, and that thought frightened her.

"I'm fine," the injured one replied in a gentle yet void tone.

"How can you say that when you just got stabbed," Chichiri tried to coax the feminine one to sit back down and take it easy. He didn't want him to do anything rash.

"Pain doesn't bother me," Fife seemed as if anguish was an everyday part of his life. He reached for his white, long sleeved shirt, now stained with his own blood and sliced by Hiroshima's unrelenting blade. He picked up the material and examined it. He would have to put it on again, no matter how dirty it was at least until he could find a new one to replace it with.

Knowing what Fife was thinking, Keiji took off a short-sleeved button up shirt that he was wearing and handed it to Fife, “wear this."

The frowning boy reached out with a pale hand and lightly took the shirt from him. He thanked him, hair shading his eyes and a deep set frown placed upon his face.

"Well, it's not like I want those wounds to be infected," Keiji's voice turned characteristically cold as he shoved all further kind thoughts to the back of his head. "You'd better not move to fast, you'll rip your stitches.” They busted their asses saving Fife, he wasn't about to let him do something stupid to screw up their efforts.

Fife produced a slight yet eerie smile, “alright."

"Undine?" Ko questioned the gothic one, who was looking to her in response. "Were those the legends?"

"The one with the green, bristly hair was. The blonde one I've never seen before." Undine had no idea who the angel with chains adorning his wings was. In fact, she found it odd that he was hanging around Hiroshima in general and wondered why and how the two met.

"I wonder if he's a legend too," Chichiri mused. He didn't think that Hiroshima was just going to let some random dude hang around him for no reason. Not to mention, that wind attack Tsurugi threw at them was pretty sick. It leveled a building in no time flat. Not just anyone could do that.

"If he is, he isn't from this town," Undine told the two. She knew that there were many legends, but one like him was foreign, that was certain.

"So there are two legends running around this place," Ko hoped that wasn't the case, but right now nothing would shock her. It was better to assume they were both deadly, or something like the Fife incident was going to happen again.

"This isn't good," Keiji's gaze turned from Fife who was standing behind him with his bangs shadowing his eyes and a disturbing smile plastered on his features and set sights on the others. He wondered if they had any idea on how to approach the situation.

"They'll kill everyone here," the small girl informed. "That's how the legend goes. Hiroshima, the green haired one, is in fact, the legend." She had known him for a long time, Undine knew everything about him, and all of the controversy that surrounded him.

"What? But he has four wings?" Chichiri wasn't following what she was trying to say. Something wasn't right about the exchange of information between them. "How did he acquire the other two wings?

"He's powerful. Think of him much like an evil archangel." That was the best way that she could truly describe him to get the message across.

"It would seem that we have to leave if we want to live. Hiroshima won't hesitate to kill and I'm surprised that he didn't go ahead and kill Keiji-kun," Fife spoke up, his once disturbing features faded instantly away, revealing his happy façade once again.

"Yes…" Keiji agreed. "Why would he spare me?"

"There's a plan in store."

"So, he's going to kill everyone, but why?" Chichiri asked. "The last he's been here people have died and this place has changed." Didn't there have to be a reason that he killed people? Surely, he didn't go around just killing willy nilly. That made no sense.

"He has no regard for human life."

"What about you?" A slate gaze looked from the blonde to the girl. "You know him. Won't he kill you too?"

"I'm not exempt from his plans. If he'll kill me then I'm perfectly happy with that. I don't mind at all," Undine replied. This was something that she had accepted long ago from Hiroshima. It was also the reason why she only half way expected him to kill Keiji and completely kill off Fife. If there was a definition of no mercy, Hiroshima was it.

"How can you be fine with that?" Keiji didn't get why she had so little regard for her own life. Didn't Undine care about what happened to her? Didn't she want to live at least a little? What was up with her? Most of the time, she just acted like an empty shell. Undine intrigued him.

"Fate's hand is often cruel and whatever happens, happens," Undine stated. Even if the legend didn't kill her, she would meet her demise in another fashion. In the end, everyone was destined to die and she didn't fear something like that.

Fife's shoulder was firmly grabbed and his form was pushed past by the drummer. The feminine boy's open buttoned up shirt flowed with the backwards movement and he took a few uneasy steps back.

"Well I won't let it happen," Keiji said sternly with a frown plastered on his face. He didn't really want to think about something like this after going through the events at the Rose Hip. Didn't Undine realize how unsettling it was to just talk about death like that after all they'd just gone through?

"What do you intend to do about it, Keiji-kun?" Fife asked and the boy sharply turned his gaze to him. A steel cold flashed in green eyes.

"Well, I'm not going to sit back and watch people die. I'm not going to be a part of that." Keiji wouldn't do it, not again. He had lost enough people in his life to even think about such a thing.

"I want to know more about the legend." Fife was willing to lose his life if he had to. Something gravitated him to Hiroshima, and the plethora of mysteries that surrounded him.

"But Fife-kun…What would you want to find out? Look what happened to you…" Undine spoke, her voice calm. Didn't he just learn his lesson? Tangling with Hiroshima was something he didn't want to do. Next time, the sword wasn't going to miss. That, she was sure of.

"I think there's more to it then people would like to think," Fife replied happily, as unfazed as ever.

"You're crazy," Keiji was astonished at his apparent masochism. "You're crazy if you think Hiroshima needs any redemption."

"You think like everyone else," Fife was quick to note his fellow male's flaw. Was Keiji so closed-minded that he would just assume Hiroshima and Tsurugi worked on cookie cutter mechanics? That was a stupid way to view the world.

"…" Keiji had nothing to say on the matter.

"It's attitudes like that which made him kill," Fife's voice took on a knowledgeable tone, as if he knew the rhyme and reason behind the legend's actions.

"Are you saying we should figure out exactly what's going on?" Ko arched an eyebrow. She wasn't sure if she wanted to be involved in something like this.

"It's interesting…" Fife told her. It wasn't like he had something else to do.

"But aren't we acting foolish by doing that?" Chichiri was a little confused. Of all the people in the group to want to investigate the situation, the guy that got stabbed by a sword was it? What the hell was going on? Was he in some kind of messed up bizzaro world?

"Maybe so…But in a way, we have the power to change fate."

"But that legend will kill us all," Chichiri argued. Was Fife out of his mind? Didn't he just get stabbed? Was he saying this out of delusion? He really hoped that he wasn't this stupid.

"Not if we work for him," the lead singer purposed.

"Why would you do that?" Undine didn't know the logic behind what Ko was saying and thought that she was a bit foolish for bringing up a plan that would be so complicated to execute without dying. A plan of that magnitude needed to be handled gently and any slip in trust could end up in the deaths of everyone there. That was too large of a sacrifice to put on the line.

"Maybe we could find out his motives, then we can stop him," Ko thought it was a good plan, anyway.

"You'll get nowhere purposely betraying him. He'll find out and kill you," the slate haired girl knew that Ko's plan was destined to fail and turn out foolish, and the woman had just proven her theory correct.

"I'm not helping him anyway," Keiji protested. "Not after what he did to Fife. Any one of us could be next." Work for him? Keiji would have rather died than have an alliance with a murderer like that.

"To truly learn about him, you'll have to want to work with him and stick to it faithfully…and you have to gain his trust," the tiny girl informed. "It's not just an instant alliance. You have to be true to your feelings…or it's just not going to work."

"That won't be a problem," Fife replied.

"Huh?" Keiji looked to him in question. Fife was becoming quite the enigma. Everything so far that the green-haired boy thought Fife would do, he's done the complete opposite. Keiji thought for sure that this boy would hate Hiroshima from what he had done and was proven wrong. What kind of person was he? He initially didn't care about Fife but now he was almost fascinated in trying to figure his psyche out and felt compelled to do so.

"I've always been inquisitive about the legend and its credibility," Fife made his strange interests known.

"I'll always stick by him," Undine was faithful above everything else.

'Something's not right about this…and her. If she works with that legend, then she must support killing people.' Ko thought to herself. She was almost certain that Undine was going to end up betraying them at some point.

"Are you really going to go back to him after he stabbed you?" Keiji asked Fife. The other male's way of thinking still perplexed him.

"Yes."

"Why? That's stupid," Keiji was beginning to get annoyed with Fife's constant happy answers. Not to mention that the guy said nothing that any normal human would respond. Why was he saying such idiotic things? Keiji knew that he wasn't stupid by any means. Was he suicidal? What was going on?

"He didn't want to kill me. It was you he was after," Fife told him the explanation as if it was the simplest thing in the world to understand.

Realization shot through the stoic boy. It was true. Hiroshima wanted to kill him, initially. He felt his body lock up and his heartbeat accelerated. He was Hiroshima's initial target. This meant that the angel would pursue him until he dropped dead, and tear through everyone to do it. It wasn't Fife who was the liability, it was him.

"You like this legend, don't you?" Chichiri once again asked the obvious.

"It's not a matter of liking him or not. I support him," Undine was still sticking to her alliance.

"Why would you support a megalomaniac like him?" Ko asked. Did she not see what a horrible person Hiroshima was? What in the hell was her malfunction? Would she have thought Hiroshima was right, even if he did killed Fife and Keiji? Why did she like him so damned much?

"You don't know him,” Undine stood unwavering against her words.

"Isn't there a reason why people believe that legend?" The whole conversation didn't make sense to Chichiri. Why would Fife and Undine act that way? The legend was more than credible to him. Hiroshima equaled bad. The equation made sense…Hiroshima plus sword equaled death. Divide that by bloodlust towards each individual person and multiply it by power. It would result in destruction and any logical person would think that the response would be to stay away…And yet…These people want to go TOWARDS the danger.

What the hell was wrong with them? Did they have a death wish?

"I think they've lived here a little too long," Ko shot sarcastically, “they're too used to this." Honestly, they were flinging this around like it was a common occurrence. The thought of it made her sick. Did they really think it was a joke?

"No, I've always wondered about the winged boy legend lacking credibility," Fife told her. Undine seemed to know what she was talking about, and he believed her. However, the information that was released contradicted what everyone was saying about him. This was where his interest came from. How could one person have such vastly changing views? Was the legend really that bad? Sure, he was sword-happy, but that didn't mean much.

"If Undine stopped the legend, then would she be working for him now?" Ko wondered that all of this time. Undine was still shady to her. She didn't like that someone so fully supported a maniac like Hiroshima.

"Yeah," Chichiri agreed, “that makes sense, but wouldn't she be traveling with him?" Something about her just didn't make any sense. He wasn't sure that he could completely trust her either.

"She wouldn't have stopped if that were the case," Fife brought up his argument. Why would she oppose someone she saw as an ally? If they were on the same side, Undine wouldn't have cared if Hiroshima killed him.

"He actually listened to her," Chichiri made an observation, "and wouldn't she know who the other angel was? She doesn't seem like a liar to me."

"One can master the art of lying well," Keiji affirmed. Criminals did it all of the time, and there were people out there who even knew countermeasures to trump lie detector tests.

"I'm not lying," Undine continued to stand strong.

"All of the hotels and inns are going to be full because of what happened," Ko started a new conversation to avoid fighting amongst everyone. She had her theories about Undine and whether or not she was telling the truth, but decided to keep them to herself. They had been through a lot today and needed to calm down. Besides, it wasn't good for Fife's current condition to go through that type of stress. She knew that whoever lived would be staying in the inns. No doubt their houses if they lived on this side of town were devastated.

"We should probably find an abandon building at least. That way we don't get attacked," Chichiri stated. If they were going to get caught, he didn't want to be out in the open. They could at least try not to make themselves such big targets.

"It would be wise," Undine looked to him, "Hiroshima likes to kill at night." At least he wouldn't see them as easy victims if he happened to fly back over the demolished part of town. He had a good idea.

"I've got a question for you," Ko asked the girl. "If you like him, why are you helping us?" It had been bothering her long enough. She was ready to call her out on her shit.

"I'd hate to see you die so early," Undine's answer was eerie and it left Ko standing there in silence. What in the hell did she mean by that? Was she just playing games with her?

"…"

"There is a house in the central part of town that has a vacancy," Undine proceeded to say, knowing that the house always had a vacancy. She didn't even have to look. It would have been wasted time and she knew the town like the back of her hand, navigating through it was an easy task.

"Looks like it's our only choice at the moment, let's go," Chichiri replied.

Xx.

Two angels sat atop of a large steeple in the central section of Saesugawa, accompanying the many crows which were resting on a flight through the town. The two dark angels basked in the setting sunlight, signifying the coming end of that day. The rays cast orange glows upon the two as the occasional crow call could be heard, echoing through the painted skies.

Down below, blue eyes caught gaze of the small group, walking towards an old Victorian-style building.

"Looks like they're headed for that old Victorian house," Tsurugi advised as the gentle winds blew through his feathers.

"That should be interesting," Hiroshima was nonchalant, as he sat on the ledge with the crows. The sounds of the birds filled his ears as he felt the wind against his skin. Being so high up gave him a rush, and it kept him out of sight. They didn't even have the faintest idea that they were being watched.

"Are you already plotting, Hiro-kun?" The blonde looked down to his sitting comrade with a gentle smile.

"What do you think?" The wicked one playfully questioned. When was he not plotting?

"You're so evil, Hiro-kun," the black winged angel gave a charming chuckle.

"This isn't a matter of good and evil my friend," Hiroshima arose, pulling his sword out and striking a pose and pointing his sword in attacking position as his cape and now-spread wings were rustling in the breeze. "It's a matter of integrity. No major threat…Besides, they're interested in that legend," he replied as the crows flew from their places around him in a flurry, "so I can't deny them their dreams."

"So, are you going to just toy with them a little?" Tsurugi's tone was still light-hearted. It was as if nothing in the world could bother him or break his psyche.

"I'll keep them interested. If they are curious…Then they may just have the potential I'm looking for."

To Be Continued…