Witch Hunter Robin Fan Fiction ❯ I Cannot Offer You Freedom ❯ Chapter 16 ( Chapter 16 )

Ok, so here is the part that was originally intended to be the second half of chapter 15. (Check back and read the UPDATED version of Chapter 15 if you have no idea what the hell I'm talking about.) I've made major revisions and everything, so I hope this one matches your expectations more. So…

If you guys were THAT upset about Sakaki's arm…well…you're gonna hate my guts when you find out what happens in this chapter. >.<

So before I die, I wanna say, thanks so much for all your support up until this point, and Golden-Sama, your stories kick ass. ^_~ (If I live, I will read your sequel!)

Now read on! And remember…if you kill me now, YOU'LL NEVER FIND OUT HOW IT ENDS!!!!!

***

I Cannot Offer You Freedom

~*~

The lines on his face had only grown deeper with the passing week. Now, he looked more then his 20-some years and he felt it too. But that did not stop him, for he knew what he had to do.

Struggling a little with his clothes, Amon finally managed to put them on his mutilated body and grabbed his single crutch with his good arm. He felt for the familiar Orbo gun in his overcoat pocket and smiled coldly when he felt its cool surface. Too bad for Michael that he had forgotten to close the link on Amon's headset before giving up those coordinates.

Straightening his shoulders as much as he could with one bound up and trussed in a sling, he kicked open the door, making sure to use his good foot. What a mess… His ribs moved painfully and he felt more blood ooze through the bandages wrapped around his torso. Wincing, he quickly buried the pain and held the gun up before him as nurses rushed at him.

"I'm leaving."

***

The walled city…not this place again…

Squeezing her eyes closed for a moment, Robin offered up a silent prayer and tried to still the shaking in her legs. Her vespa was parked next to her, but she left it and advanced forward, her craft running hot in her veins.

Only bad memories remained in her mind from this place, and she was hesitant to enter it again.

The walls rose steeply on either side of her, and only a dim golden glow filtered down to light her way. Dust, ancient as the earth itself floated and danced in the air around her and she sniffed quietly, stilling the sneeze that tickled her nose. Crumbling brick and forgotten trash littered the pathways and any other day, Robin would have tried to avoid the debris as much as possible, but not today; today, all her mind had room for was hunting down Avi and not letting him get the best of her in the process.

She wound her way deeper and deeper into the depths of the walled city, her breath coming quick and harsh in her lungs. I guess I wasn't as ready as I thought…maybe Michael was right…

The air shimmered slightly to her left and she whirled to face it, firing several shots from her gun. But the glowing green bullets were immediately taken over by miniature vacuums and remained harmlessly suspended in the air.

Gasping, she threw herself onto the ground and rolled to the side, trying to keep herself moving so as to impair Avi's aim.

Air flew past her with a sharp hiss; raising her hand to her face, Robin was surprised to find her glove coming away covered in blood. He must be able to propel small vacuums through the air, using them to make a cleaner cut then anything else could hope to achieve. Her mind took in this depressing fact with an adjusted practice; one more thing to deal with, but she would have to go on for the sake of the entire STN-J.

His laughter rang out once more as he advanced upon her slowly. "Like my little air trick, do ya? I know that you can't possibly have recovered yet from our last little meeting. So why don't you just give up already and let me take your life as payment for Miro's?"

Robin glared up at him and fire shot directly at his face…but never made it; the power of the void took away the air that was its fuel and the flames were extinguished immediately. Bringing up her gun, Robin aimed at his chest, only to find her arm was shaking so badly, she could barely hold it up in the air.

Her shot flew wide, and, much to her chagrin, she found she was out of bullets. Throwing the gun away from her, she moved as fast as she could to the side, trying her best to scramble to her feet and make some sort of getaway.

But another void surrounded her head, and she found herself gasping for air as her knees and hands slapped the ground with enough impact to bloody them up. Slick wetness coated her palms and soaked through her dark skirts, but she hardly noticed as the air was slowly forced from her lungs.

With one final surge of effort, Robin's hands scrabbled around on the ground, searching for something, anything that could puncture the airless space around her head. Her blood began to coat the ground and she slipped on it, the void preventing her chin from smashing into the ground. Her body fell to the side of its own accord and all of a sudden, cool air rushed over Robin's face and she found her chest constricting agonizingly.

Gasping for breath, she looked up just in time to see Avi's foot flying towards her stomach. It connected with a sickened squishing sound and she found her lungs airless for the second time that day. Heaving, she lay on the ground, eyes closed, not even bothering to look up at the witch who had inflicted this pain on her.

Laughing some more, Avi drew a dagger from his belt, running his tongue along the edge of the blade, "It thirsts for your blood…he whispered hoarsely. "It has been too long since I have fed its hunger with flesh!"

With a resigned sort of defeat, Robin surrendered to the man's will, knowing she was too weak to escape her fate. She had gone after Avi the first time at the peak of her power, and yet, still she had failed to defeat the air-mastered witch. Nothing could have prepared her for this. I'm sorry Michael…please…forgive me… She stared at the inside of her eyelids, despair clouding her mind, and waited for the blow that would end her life.

***

Groaning as his crimson lifeblood spattered the ground, Amon leaned against the wall, breath rattling forth from his lungs in a ragged, uneven rhythm. His entire right arm was throbbing like a drum, and he could feel his pulse thundering in his ears. All his partly healed wounds had seemed to open up once more, and Amon found that his foot was aching as if a thousand knives were stuck in it like a pincushion.

His crutch fell to the ground with a clatter, but he didn't bother to stoop down and retrieve it; he could hear the sounds of insane laughter from the top of the flight of stairs that loomed before him. Breathless, he clutched at his chest, trying to regain some of the oxygen his body so desperately needed. Sweat streamed down his face and dripped off his chin; his hair was soaked with it, and he reached up with a shaking hand and shoved it out of his stinging eyes.

After a moment more, the hunter mounted the steps cautiously, keeping the weight off of his injured foot and propping his good left arm up with the dilapidated railing that followed the stairs' path upwards. He hobbled weakly along and tried his best to ignore the fireworks of pain exploding in his head. Amon could only hope he would get there in time, for his blood was flowing ever more freely, a miniature red waterfall being created in its wake.

***

Circling around his fallen prey, Avi felt the rush of his craft singing in his veins. Long ago he had given into the insistent voice in his head, the one that told him to kill. Told him to kill and to like it. Long ago he had forfeited his soul to the power that now made up his very being, sacrificing all semblance of control and surrendering to a primal instinct that should have remained long buried.

This was what happened when a man turned his back to God.

With a gruesome smile plastered on his face, Avi knelt down by the defeated witch hunter and pressed the blade of the dagger to her throat. "Farewell, my pretty little sacrifice." He brought the blade up to above his head and brought it back down with a powerful swoop.

But the feeling of a gun pressed to the back of his head stopped his thrust in midair and brought his body whirling around to face the intruder.

"I don't think so," Amon said, standing behind the other man, but not knowing how.

Snarling, Avi dove for the other man, aiming his knife towards the already bloodstained stomach of the dark man. So this is it… Amon thought, and brought his gun up before him.

Even as the dagger pierced his stomach, he released an Orbo bullet point blank into the chest of his attacker and watched, satisfied as the light suddenly went out of his eyes.

A searing pain then shot through his entire body, and Amon felt himself teetering, losing his balance as the world rocked beneath him and his blood left his body like water bursting through a dam.

"AMON!" Robin cried as the dark hunter fell, landing on top of the unconscious witch with a sickening thud and a hideous crunching sound. Mustering up the last of her strength, she crawled over to his blood-soaked form and gently pulled it away from the witch's body, bringing his bandaged head to rest in her lap.

His dark, pain-clouded eyes stared up at her from beneath sweaty bangs. "I'm not afraid anymore…" he gasped.

Tears falling from her eyes, Robin leaned over his face and pushed away his hair. "Don't talk!" she told him, her voice shaking dangerously. "It's-"

"No…" he whispered. "I'm falling now…as if from a great height…" His eyes grew more and more clouded with each passing word. "But…how strange…" Here a little smile spread across his lips, the first one Robin had ever seen. "I'm not afraid…of heights…anymore…"

And as he closed his eyes for the final time, Amon sought out the girl's hand and held it gently in his own. Her tears fell upon his face like rain, and as she watched, his lips parted and his chest stilled; the color of life faded slowly from his cheeks as Amon's soul departed the mortal world.

***

>.< Like I said, if you kill me, you won't find out how the story ends! And you won't get to read my (possible) sequel… Heh…

I await your reviews and comments with much curiosity…

~SanoGirl

P.S. I feel much more confident about this chapter; I was able to write it unhurried and uninhibited so now I can honestly say that I worked my best at this. It may not seem better or worse or even any different to you guys, but it certainly makes me, as the author, feel a heck of a lot better. ^.^