Post by Seraphim on Jul 11, 2006 17:26:47 GMT 12
[Speculative Fan-Fic; Maacha – Seraphim’s little sister – survived Sandstorm because she was at a boarding school out of town. She comes to New Pork and joins the Vampires, only to hear of a pyromaniac leading the Cigarettes who shares her brother’s name. She thought he was dead or still in prison, and now she still can’t really get to him on account of her being a Vampire. Read it and weep.]
Maacha liked old music from the nineteen-eighties, which was virtually ancient for a lot of people, and crouched on the roof of the Vampire outpost, her AP was humming ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’ by Tears for Fears where it had just been playing Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Streets of Philadelphia’. The wind ruffled her dark hair, and that too-familiar wolfish face was staring out over the city as it spanned away into the distance. She could see the remains of Central Park from where she sat, the grasses starting to break through the crust of ashes and some of the trees breaking into early leaf. If she turned, she could see the wharf, and turning in the other direction brought the Gargoyle Tower into her vision. Turning around to look behind her showed the ghetto, where Castle Smoke stood.
Turning the volume on her audio player down, Maacha rose to her feet. Just looking at her, you could see a striking resemblance to her brother – she was shorter, but only a little, and her raven hair framed a softer more feminine version of his face, with those same dark eyes. She had the same flash of temper in her gaze, but there was less of his danger-aura around her, although she was fast becoming known among the Vampires as a ruthless assassin, though she had made only one kill and assisted in only three.
Maacha swung down from the roof, back in through the window of the top floor, before she moved off down the stairs towards the road. ‘Road to nowhere’ played quietly in the background, the soundtrack for her stealthy descent. As her feet touched the tarmac, she slid her switchblade out of her pocket. She had learnt how to use it from movies, books, and trial-and-error, only the most basic information coming from her memories of Seraphim. He had been too busy protecting her to teach her to do it for herself.
Mina wouldn’t be pleased if Maacha deviated from the orders she’d been given, to remain here and watch, but this plan had been nagging in the back of the young assassin’s head for weeks. She had heard what disobeying Mina could bring – most of all the story of Dancer, which led instantly to the story of the Cigarette-Vampire feud and Seraphim’s capture, torture, and escape. As it was, Maacha was willing to brave Mina’s wrath. She had to see if this Seraphim was her brother. If he was, then surely she could hide behind him one last time, until Mina forgot about her?
Maacha began her trek slowly, but she picked up speed as her feet almost instinctively brought her over piles of rubble and letting her vault over fallen support beams. She was eleven, or around there, and her lean form moved quickly to cover as much ground as she could in as little time as possible. Her stamina had improved since she’d come to New Pork, having to trust her feet to get anywhere.
Almost as soon as she crossed the white stripe on the ground that marked the beginning of Cigarette territory, ‘Beat It’ came on and she whistled along, knowing it would attract attention but not minding. She wiped the Vampire Omega markings from her forehead, glaring at the red stain it left on her sleeve, then shrugging and moving on.
Reason jumped to her feet as she heard Axel and Dancer put up a call outside and dashed out to see what they were bringing back to Castle Smoke. Dancer moved at the head of the group, her binoculars swinging against her chest; the slight glint of the thumb-ring threaded on the binocular’s rope visible even from that distance. Reason though she knew where that ring had come from, but she wasn’t sure – and she wasn’t sure if she was pleased about it or not.
Daisuke came up behind Dancer, his binoculars dangling from his wrist and Axel walking beside him. Between those three, a girl strode. She couldn’t have been more than twelve or thirteen, which meant she’d have been ten or so when the bombs dropped three years ago.
As the scout group swung closer to Reason, the girl looked up at her. Her dark eyes were vaguely familiar, but there were no tribe markings on her face. Even loners had marks on their faces now, the hollow circle around one eye or a filled circle on their cheek. On the other hand, the girl couldn’t be a newbie to New Pork; she was much too calm for that and the fact that Axel dropped three knives, a razor, and a collapsible scythe in front of Reason as he came to a halt indicated she wasn’t unused to battle, either.
Dancer slipped away, probably to find Seraphim. Reason smiled to herself again, then settled down on the deckchair she had vacated earlier. Castle Smoke loomed up behind her, Daisuke and Axel standing to either side of their young prisoner. Axel – tall, dark, and harder than he had been when he got here, he must have been nineteen or so where Daisuke would be seventeen – so many years had passed. Reason herself was almost twenty one now.
“Who have we here?”
“Clandestine – oh, Maacha.” The girl said, then shook her head and removed two earphones from her ears. For a moment, Reason was sure she recognized ‘We didn’t Star the Fire’, btu she could be sure.
“And what allegiance do you hold – yes, Daisuke, go get a drink. Ax, could you stay?”
Clandestine. An alias; probably a tribe member trying to pass through the city unmolested as a loner or newbie. But which tribe..?
“Oh? Uhm, I’m a Vampire but –”
Axel shifted, and quite suddenly had a knife tickling the girl’s throat. Reason had her fingers wrapped around her airgun, searching the surrounding buildings for more Vampires, although she half knew that the sentries would have spotted them if there were more.
“Where’s your markings?”
“I didn’t want to be shot,” Maacha snapped. “I want to see someone. Is Seraphim about?”
Reason snarled. “What, so you can stab him? I know assassin’s weapons when I see them, girl.”
“And do I have any of them with me now?”
Girl had a point. Reason opened her mouth to speak, but that was about when Dancer and Seraphim arrived. Seraphim strode at her side, head and shoulders taller, listening as she talked but only with half his attention – the rest was on Reason and the prisoner. Seraph was sixteen or seventeen, although he could have passed for older if he tried. There was the same hardness to his face as there was to Axel’s, and Dancer’s, and probably Reason’s own. New Pork did that to you.
Seraphim vaulted over the fence that surrounded the veranda, narrowly missing the small row of cabbages growing in where the tarmac had been ripped free to form a small garden. Dancer took the normal way, opening the gate and following.
Maacha peered at Seraphim, then let out a delighted squeak. Seraphim froze, frowning. His eyes flicked from Dancer to Axel and Reason, then to the girl. His eyed had been dead for months after he and Dancer were held by the Vampires, but some of their old fire had come since then, and this was now slowly turning to curiosity.
“Seraphim!” Maacha called, grinning widely. Axel shifted again, reminding her that there was a blade pricking her throat.
“Do I know you…?” Seraphim asked tentatively, his left hand going to the thumb of his right to toy with a ring that was no longer there.
Maacha’s face fell, and she sat down suddenly, surprising Axel so much he didn’t stab her as he usually would a Vampire making such a sudden movement.
“You don’t recognize me?”
Seraphim shook his head, and Reason saw Dancer meet his gaze. He shook his head; it wasn’t one of the Vampires who had mistreated them before. He would have recognized any of those instantly, Reason wagered, and killed them as instantly.
Maacha glared at him. “My name is Maacha Ezekiel Simons,” she said sullenly, which meant nothing to Reason. Axel frowned as if trying to put two and two together, only to keep ending on five. It was Seraphim’s reaction that shocked her most, though, as he swept easily up to Maacha and dropped to a crouch in front of her, so that his dark, dead eyes met hers.
“You’re dead,” he said quietly.
“Am I?” Maacha ran a hand over herself as if feeling for stab wounds. “I think not. Dad sent me to boarding school the moment you were sentenced to five years.”
Seraphim grinned suddenly, and Reason almost fell backwards off her chair. She had never seen Seraphim grin, not a real grin, since Serenity. It was as though the sun had come out; his face lit up and he was suddenly a lot less threatening. Dancer and Axel looked like they were going to faint as Maacha wrapped her arms suddenly around Seraphim’s shoulders and leaned her head into his shoulder. Axel made to throw the knife, but Seraphim returned the Vampire’s hug with a surprised grunt.
“I thought you were dead,” Seraphim whispered into Maacha’s hair.
“I thought you were – I dunno what I thought. Still in prison? Dead? Living with an aunt or uncle somewhere?”
Seraphim rose. Reason stood up, examining them. Now they stood so close together, it was easier to see then when they had stood apart – they looked so similar that the moment she registered it, everything slipped into place. Maacha and Seraphim were related – siblings? Axel seemed to see it too, and he smiled suddenly, his knife folding and disappearing into his anorak sleeve.
“Family reunion?” Dancer asked. The girl was surprisingly perceptive sometimes, for a former Vampire.
Seraphim nodded. Dancer extended a hand towards Maacha and they shook hands, and it took Maacha only one glance at the ring on Dancer’ binocular rope before she saw the Vampire convert’s significance, and the two smiled at each other.
[Yes, I saw Axel killing Maacha as she hugged Seraphim, too. But that was too overused for me, you know?]
Maacha liked old music from the nineteen-eighties, which was virtually ancient for a lot of people, and crouched on the roof of the Vampire outpost, her AP was humming ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’ by Tears for Fears where it had just been playing Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Streets of Philadelphia’. The wind ruffled her dark hair, and that too-familiar wolfish face was staring out over the city as it spanned away into the distance. She could see the remains of Central Park from where she sat, the grasses starting to break through the crust of ashes and some of the trees breaking into early leaf. If she turned, she could see the wharf, and turning in the other direction brought the Gargoyle Tower into her vision. Turning around to look behind her showed the ghetto, where Castle Smoke stood.
Turning the volume on her audio player down, Maacha rose to her feet. Just looking at her, you could see a striking resemblance to her brother – she was shorter, but only a little, and her raven hair framed a softer more feminine version of his face, with those same dark eyes. She had the same flash of temper in her gaze, but there was less of his danger-aura around her, although she was fast becoming known among the Vampires as a ruthless assassin, though she had made only one kill and assisted in only three.
Maacha swung down from the roof, back in through the window of the top floor, before she moved off down the stairs towards the road. ‘Road to nowhere’ played quietly in the background, the soundtrack for her stealthy descent. As her feet touched the tarmac, she slid her switchblade out of her pocket. She had learnt how to use it from movies, books, and trial-and-error, only the most basic information coming from her memories of Seraphim. He had been too busy protecting her to teach her to do it for herself.
Mina wouldn’t be pleased if Maacha deviated from the orders she’d been given, to remain here and watch, but this plan had been nagging in the back of the young assassin’s head for weeks. She had heard what disobeying Mina could bring – most of all the story of Dancer, which led instantly to the story of the Cigarette-Vampire feud and Seraphim’s capture, torture, and escape. As it was, Maacha was willing to brave Mina’s wrath. She had to see if this Seraphim was her brother. If he was, then surely she could hide behind him one last time, until Mina forgot about her?
Maacha began her trek slowly, but she picked up speed as her feet almost instinctively brought her over piles of rubble and letting her vault over fallen support beams. She was eleven, or around there, and her lean form moved quickly to cover as much ground as she could in as little time as possible. Her stamina had improved since she’d come to New Pork, having to trust her feet to get anywhere.
Almost as soon as she crossed the white stripe on the ground that marked the beginning of Cigarette territory, ‘Beat It’ came on and she whistled along, knowing it would attract attention but not minding. She wiped the Vampire Omega markings from her forehead, glaring at the red stain it left on her sleeve, then shrugging and moving on.
Reason jumped to her feet as she heard Axel and Dancer put up a call outside and dashed out to see what they were bringing back to Castle Smoke. Dancer moved at the head of the group, her binoculars swinging against her chest; the slight glint of the thumb-ring threaded on the binocular’s rope visible even from that distance. Reason though she knew where that ring had come from, but she wasn’t sure – and she wasn’t sure if she was pleased about it or not.
Daisuke came up behind Dancer, his binoculars dangling from his wrist and Axel walking beside him. Between those three, a girl strode. She couldn’t have been more than twelve or thirteen, which meant she’d have been ten or so when the bombs dropped three years ago.
As the scout group swung closer to Reason, the girl looked up at her. Her dark eyes were vaguely familiar, but there were no tribe markings on her face. Even loners had marks on their faces now, the hollow circle around one eye or a filled circle on their cheek. On the other hand, the girl couldn’t be a newbie to New Pork; she was much too calm for that and the fact that Axel dropped three knives, a razor, and a collapsible scythe in front of Reason as he came to a halt indicated she wasn’t unused to battle, either.
Dancer slipped away, probably to find Seraphim. Reason smiled to herself again, then settled down on the deckchair she had vacated earlier. Castle Smoke loomed up behind her, Daisuke and Axel standing to either side of their young prisoner. Axel – tall, dark, and harder than he had been when he got here, he must have been nineteen or so where Daisuke would be seventeen – so many years had passed. Reason herself was almost twenty one now.
“Who have we here?”
“Clandestine – oh, Maacha.” The girl said, then shook her head and removed two earphones from her ears. For a moment, Reason was sure she recognized ‘We didn’t Star the Fire’, btu she could be sure.
“And what allegiance do you hold – yes, Daisuke, go get a drink. Ax, could you stay?”
Clandestine. An alias; probably a tribe member trying to pass through the city unmolested as a loner or newbie. But which tribe..?
“Oh? Uhm, I’m a Vampire but –”
Axel shifted, and quite suddenly had a knife tickling the girl’s throat. Reason had her fingers wrapped around her airgun, searching the surrounding buildings for more Vampires, although she half knew that the sentries would have spotted them if there were more.
“Where’s your markings?”
“I didn’t want to be shot,” Maacha snapped. “I want to see someone. Is Seraphim about?”
Reason snarled. “What, so you can stab him? I know assassin’s weapons when I see them, girl.”
“And do I have any of them with me now?”
Girl had a point. Reason opened her mouth to speak, but that was about when Dancer and Seraphim arrived. Seraphim strode at her side, head and shoulders taller, listening as she talked but only with half his attention – the rest was on Reason and the prisoner. Seraph was sixteen or seventeen, although he could have passed for older if he tried. There was the same hardness to his face as there was to Axel’s, and Dancer’s, and probably Reason’s own. New Pork did that to you.
Seraphim vaulted over the fence that surrounded the veranda, narrowly missing the small row of cabbages growing in where the tarmac had been ripped free to form a small garden. Dancer took the normal way, opening the gate and following.
Maacha peered at Seraphim, then let out a delighted squeak. Seraphim froze, frowning. His eyes flicked from Dancer to Axel and Reason, then to the girl. His eyed had been dead for months after he and Dancer were held by the Vampires, but some of their old fire had come since then, and this was now slowly turning to curiosity.
“Seraphim!” Maacha called, grinning widely. Axel shifted again, reminding her that there was a blade pricking her throat.
“Do I know you…?” Seraphim asked tentatively, his left hand going to the thumb of his right to toy with a ring that was no longer there.
Maacha’s face fell, and she sat down suddenly, surprising Axel so much he didn’t stab her as he usually would a Vampire making such a sudden movement.
“You don’t recognize me?”
Seraphim shook his head, and Reason saw Dancer meet his gaze. He shook his head; it wasn’t one of the Vampires who had mistreated them before. He would have recognized any of those instantly, Reason wagered, and killed them as instantly.
Maacha glared at him. “My name is Maacha Ezekiel Simons,” she said sullenly, which meant nothing to Reason. Axel frowned as if trying to put two and two together, only to keep ending on five. It was Seraphim’s reaction that shocked her most, though, as he swept easily up to Maacha and dropped to a crouch in front of her, so that his dark, dead eyes met hers.
“You’re dead,” he said quietly.
“Am I?” Maacha ran a hand over herself as if feeling for stab wounds. “I think not. Dad sent me to boarding school the moment you were sentenced to five years.”
Seraphim grinned suddenly, and Reason almost fell backwards off her chair. She had never seen Seraphim grin, not a real grin, since Serenity. It was as though the sun had come out; his face lit up and he was suddenly a lot less threatening. Dancer and Axel looked like they were going to faint as Maacha wrapped her arms suddenly around Seraphim’s shoulders and leaned her head into his shoulder. Axel made to throw the knife, but Seraphim returned the Vampire’s hug with a surprised grunt.
“I thought you were dead,” Seraphim whispered into Maacha’s hair.
“I thought you were – I dunno what I thought. Still in prison? Dead? Living with an aunt or uncle somewhere?”
Seraphim rose. Reason stood up, examining them. Now they stood so close together, it was easier to see then when they had stood apart – they looked so similar that the moment she registered it, everything slipped into place. Maacha and Seraphim were related – siblings? Axel seemed to see it too, and he smiled suddenly, his knife folding and disappearing into his anorak sleeve.
“Family reunion?” Dancer asked. The girl was surprisingly perceptive sometimes, for a former Vampire.
Seraphim nodded. Dancer extended a hand towards Maacha and they shook hands, and it took Maacha only one glance at the ring on Dancer’ binocular rope before she saw the Vampire convert’s significance, and the two smiled at each other.
[Yes, I saw Axel killing Maacha as she hugged Seraphim, too. But that was too overused for me, you know?]
