Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction / Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ 'Til The Last Sunset ❯ Chapter 3: Fallen Goddess ( Chapter 3 )

Fallen Goddess

Drof: …I'm in the middle of a debate with my friend's sister over whether or not Ford is a Mary-Sue. I asked a friend of mine, Yami-Ko, and she told me something that, I admit, I'd been rather ignoring. What she said was that Ford was borderline Mary-Sue, partly because there's not enough character introspection on her…And I agree. I'm working on it, in both ND, and of course, TTLS, as well as CYHM.

Karasu: …The point?

Drof: Just so you peoples know…Here's the chappie!

Disclaimer: Ford owns nothing except the OCs.

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Chapter 3: Fallen Goddess

"Matey, ye can't sit there forever," the bat demon pointed out. The woman she was speaking to just glared at her, glacier-blue eyes full of anger and pain.

"Don't ye be givin' me `at look!" the bat said. "I get enough o' it from Mukuro."

"Dark-Sparrow?" the woman said.

"Aye?"

"Shut up and go drown yourself, why don't you?"

"If I did that, mate, who'd be `ere to set ye straight, eh?" Dark-Sparrow asked.

"Just leave me alone to die, why don't you?" the woman asked. Dark-Sparrow sighed.

"Can't do that, matey. It's me duty to protect ye, since ye can't be takin' care o' ye own life, it seems," the pirate said.

"It's not my life I didn't take care of…" the woman said.

"Ye can't be dwellin' on that!" Dark-Sparrow said. "It wasn't ye fault. Ye couldn't `ave done anything to stop it, either. So stop mopin'!"

"As your lord and master, I order you to leave," the woman said.

"No."

At this, the woman raised her head from her hands, and looked at the pirate in disbelief.

"What did you say?" she asked, her voice deadly calm.

"I said `no'. I ain't leavin' ye, matey," Dark-Sparrow said, looking the woman straight in the eye. The woman rose from her seated position, glaring at the pirate.

"You told me `no'…" she said. "You, a former felon, a mere servant, told me, your lord, `no'."

"So I did," the pirate observed.

"How dare you…" the woman said, barely controlled fury in her voice. "How dare you even think to refuse my demands-!" The pirate walked over to her, and smacked her in the face.

"Ye are not all-powerful!" she yelled at the woman, who just stood there, dumbfounded. "I'm not just ye servant, matey, much as ye wish I was! I'm yer friend, and ye can't get rid o' me as easily as just tellin' me ta leave! I promised ta look out for you, and I gotta do that! After all, matey, what good's me word if I can't keep it when I most need to?"

"Your word?" the woman asked. "You are nothing but a pirate with no ship and no crew. You are a criminal. Paying the price on your head could empty half my treasury! You have no worth to anyone alive! Your word is worth nothing. It means nothing. You are a back-stabbing, double-crossing bitch, and you know it! Don't start talking about your honor and your word, you have none of the former and the latter is something you hand about as easily as anything, and break without a second thought!"

The pirate stared at her for a moment.

"Listen mate," Dark-Sparrow said seriously, "ye know as well as I do that I keep me word. When ye're a pirate, ye spend alotta time with ye crew, an' ye gotta know ya can trust `em, and that when it comes time ta fight it out, that they'll be on yer side, an' not just `cause they're fightin' fer the gold or the plunder or any o' that, but that they're fightin' ta protect ye, `cause they are ye mates, savvy? So ya gotta make sure that they can trust yer own word, or else why in all the hells'd they be fightin' fer ya? So yer word…It's sacred, matey."

"With gutter trash like you," the woman said coldly, "nothing is sacred."

"'Ey there mate, that's `urtful!" the pirate said. "Back when I was still a pirate, I kept me word to me mates an' I did what I said I'd do, an' me mates and me, we could trust each other, d'ya savvy? `Cause out there on the seas, when ye're out fer days an' weeks an' months an' even years, ye gotta be able ta trust yer mates, `cause they're the only people yer gonna be seein'! An' matey, me crew could trust me! I had me own ship, me own crew, an accomplishment indeed, what with everyone sayin' that a woman on board is bad luck. But me mates, they knew I was as good a good-luck charm as they'd ever see, an' they knew I'd take care o' `em, `cause they're me mates! And it's the same with ya, me lord!"

"I'm not one of your crew," the woman sneered. "I'm no thieving pirate like you."

"No, mate, ye ain't," the pirate conceded. "But matey…I was givin a choice b'tween servin' ye or bein' hanged, and I choosed ta serve ye rather'n be hangin' by me neck from the gallows, and I made a promise when I made me choice. Matey, I promised I'd look after ye, and ye're needin' it now more'n ever!"

When the woman gave no response, the pirate continued, her tone earnest, "I promised! Matey, I swore on me honor as a pirate, an' on me honor as a demon, that I'd take care o' ye. I took th' oath, an' I let ye collar me-" at this point, the pirate pointed to the sleek steel collar around her neck "-an' I threw me pistol in the ocean mate, that last reminder of what was pro'lly the best years o' me life, and watched it drift away, an' I let ye confiscate me ship, and I took up work as yer lackey, an' I been doin' that ever since, an' I ain't about ta stop now!"

"What should a promise mean to a gutter crawling whore like you?" the woman asked in a scathing tone.

"Apparently," the pirate said softly, "a promise to a gutter crawlin' whore like me means more'n it does to some fancy, high-up lord like yerself, `cause if I remember correctly, ye made a promise that day along wit' me, an' `at was that ye'd take care o' me just the same as I'd take care o' ye, but ye `aven't been keepin' to yer word." The tone Dark-Sparrow used was soft and quiet, the look on her face mild. However, the effect on the woman these words were directed to was amazing. All the color drained from her, and she turned an ashen grey color. She sagged, and sat down heavily, all the fire leaving her eyes.

"Just leave me alone…" she said.

"Ye're runnin'," Dark-Sparrow accused. "Ye did it when yer mates were killed, and now ye're doin' it agin, an' it ain't any more right than it was before!"

"I am not!" the woman cried. "I'm not running! I'm staying right here…I know what I did, and I admit it! Now leave me alone! Just leave me alone to die…" She turned away, curled up into a little ball, and started crying. She was shocked to feel a hand on her shoulder, and, a moment after that, strong arms wrapping around her.

"I said I'd take care o' ye, mate," Dark-Sparrow whispered. "I always take care o' me mates, and ye've earned enough o' me respect to count among `em. After all," she continued, a grin spreading across her face, "ye gotta be able ta trust yer mates, savvy? Gotta lend `em a shoulder ta cry on when they need it, strength ta lean on when they can't rightly walk themselves, an' ya gotta just always be there for `em, same as they'd be there for yerself."

After a long while, the woman's sobs faded to sniffles, and that to the occasional sniff. She sat up, pushing the pirate away. *Then again, few people would want to be in close proximity with a creature that did not believe in soap, friend or no.*

"What's eatin' ya?" Dark-Sparrow asked after a moment. *She really is more perceptive than everyone thinks.*

"It's that….With all my power, all my intelligence…I still couldn't help the people I care about!" the woman said. "I'm the greatest lord in the Makai…The mere mention of my name inspires terror in the strongest of demons…But all my power couldn't do a thing! When I really needed to…I couldn't help anyone!"

"Ye may be powerful," the pirate said, "but ye ain't a god. Ye can't do everything. We all have limits, mate, and ye've met yers. So ye can't be whinin' about it, ye just gotta suck it up. Take yer punches, ya savvy?"

"I can whine, and I intend to," the woman retorted. Dark-Sparrow laughed, and shook her head.

"Weirdest demon in the Makai, ye are…" she said. "But then again, maybe `at's why ye're so different…"

"And just how am I different?" the woman demanded.

"Fer one, mate, ye choose ta spare the life o' the pirate who'd been messin' with ya fer years, insteada killin' her outright or havin' her hanged, an' that's unusual. And ye got this funny li'l habit of bein' a rather caring person at times," the pirate said. "An' I'm sure there's more, I just can't think o' them."

"Ran out of numbers, probably," the woman snorted.

"Ah, shut up!" Dark-Sparrow said. "Ye know, ye should probably go see the damage…See what parts o' the castle are fallin' down."

"I'm leaving," the woman said after a moment.

"What?!" Dark-Sparrow was shocked. The woman turned to her, with the strangest look in her eyes. For once, that look of coldness and hostility was gone, and replacing it was something…indescribable, something as intangible as starlight, yet as real as the ground beneath her feet.

"I said I'm leaving," she repeated.

"Why in the seven hells are ye doin' that?!" the pirate demanded.

"I hear something calling to me," the woman explained in a distant voice. "It says I should leave, and so I will. I've been here too long, anyway." She was walking as she said this, out of the room and down the hall. Dark-Sparrow ran after her, catching up and walking beside her, trying to reason with her.

"Matey, ye can't just leave!" she said. "Ye have a territory to rule! Ye have people to take care of!"

"They'll be fine without me," the woman said serenely. "The people I really care about, I couldn't take care of them. So those others don't really matter. They'll live, or they won't. It's up to them now."

"But…matey!" the pirate protested, feeling increasingly helpless. "Ye can't just get up an' go every time ye hear some voice callin' ye! It ain't right!"

"Whatever's calling me," the woman said, "it tells me there are others who need my help. And since I can help them, I will."

"But…but…" Dark-Sparrow took a moment to gather her thoughts. Earlier, she'd had a good handle on the situation, but she could practically feel it slipping out of her grasp, like grains of sand slipping away from frantically clutching hands.

"We're at the door," the woman noted. She and Dark-Sparrow both spent a moment looking at the vista arrayed before them, and it was truly stunning. Everything was icy, sharp and shiny. Spires of ice twisted up out of the ground into fantastic shapes, some many hundreds of feet tall.

"I'm leaving now," the woman said once more. "Are you coming with me?"

"Damn straight I am!" the pirate said. As they walked off into the cold, harsh lands beyond the doors of the sheltering castle, Dark-Sparrow no longer argued with the woman about her choices.

For she, too, heard something calling to her. As the first sounds of it reached her ears, her head jerked up, and she looked around for a moment, wondering who was there. The woman just stood there, saying nothing. She knew what was happening.

"It's different for everyone," the woman said, and then she was silent. Her words rang true. Dark-Sparrow didn't know what the woman was hearing, but she knew what she herself was hearing.

For the pirate, the voice that told her to leave was many. She heard the voices of her crew, dead lo these many years, and it rather scared her. It was just a faint whisper at first, barely heard above the howling of the icy wind. But slowly it got stronger, and she heard it better.

The voices told her to go on, that a great thing was going to happen, and that she had a part to play in it. Standing there, in the middle of a cold, icy wasteland, with her ears filled by voices she'd tried her best to forget, Dark-Sparrow was surprised to find that tears had come to her eyes.

"Aye…" she said softly, listening to the message she heard. "So I will. On me oath, aye." She turned to the woman, and her eyes held that same faraway, mysterious look. "They says I'm ta follow ye," she explained. "An' that I gotta be here, so I guess I ain't gonna be arguin' no more."

"Let's go," the woman said after a moment, and they started on their journey. A long one it would be, long and difficult, but they had each other to depend on, which was a situation familiar to the both of them. And they had the voices urging them on, telling them to go.

***

Drof: It's shorter than usual, I know…I found this kinda interesting. A friend of mine who I had read this kinda thought I was putting those two as a couple, and I'd just like to say this: It's nothing like that. They're just friends, `kay? Anyways, review!! Or face the wrath of Riddick's teacup!!!