blood red moon
~ a Shadow of Destiny fanfiction
Chapter Two
“I think I’m here to destroy you.”
Homunculus’ eyes narrowed, but true to form he refrained from taking even a single step back, doing his best to calmly study this strange creature even as he prepared for her opening strike.
He would have known her, had she been a demon, anyone he had feuded with before. She would have introduced herself by now – there were customs, conventions to be followed – she was not an old enemy. The pentagram engraved into her pale, naked shoulder said as much. Of course it unnerved him, but at the same time it spoke of something much more interesting - something undeniably human in her creation.
//... her eyes are like mine, but there is no other stone. How is that possible, then, I wonder?//
Homunculus was still waiting for her to strike, so that he could counter, and return with a killing blow of his own. Instead, he watched as her gaze shifted from him, to the pillar at his right, the still-shattered window beyond...
“It’s very pretty here. Very pretty. I think I like it.”
He blinked, completely taken aback by her sudden shift in mood.
//... enough.//
Raising a hand, Homunculus quickly chanted a simple enough spell, to reduce whatever this creature was to cinders and ash.
It was a bit unnerving, the way she quietly watched him cast – not lifting so much as a finger to stop him - and he found himself weaving extra cantrips into the spell, increasing its strength twofold, then four...
He closed his eyes, just for a moment, on the final word, comforted by the expected rush of power. White sheets of pure energy like bolts of silk slashed through the air, sweeping toward her with the swift skill of a bird of prey, curling around her, and tightening...
He smiled, almost unsatisfied by how easy it had been, not really a challenge at –
Homunculus gaped, watching the spell dissolve as it touched her, quickly reduced to a powder-fine shimmer of raw energy that glimmered and died as it fell to the floorboards. Crimson eyes met his again, though there was no trace of malice in hers, not anger or hatred... or perhaps even understanding.
//... madness. What is this madness?//
The djinn hadn’t felt actual fear for several incarnations, much longer than the current Earth had existed... but even he was beginning to be mildly disturbed. The feeling of unease peaked sharply, as he heard the siren’s song of time, moaning perhaps a bit more discontentedly now, and watched as the girl-creature tipped her head – was she listening too? Impossible, she couldn’t be...
Before Homunculus could blink, he felt her reach out – and snap a thread of time.
“I like it... I like the way they sing, and shine behind my eyes...I like them... they’re so pretty.”
The words were almost a chant, an eerie song, and Dopple giggled, turning in a slow circle, her arms outstretched and eyes closed. The djinn finally did take a step back, one motion of retreat, but less out of alarm than the sudden, /painful/ feeling of another thread snapping, and another...
Homunculus fought not to wince, crimson eyes widening in shock as yet another thread dissolved with a sharp cry, a string wound too tightly finally snapping, the echo vibrating jarringly up his spine. The pale creature seemed completely at ease, still smiling to herself, as she continued her destruction... another thread, and another...
“STOP!!!”
Dopple paused, and swept around to stare at him, curiosity sparkling brightly in those merry, frightening eyes.
“Hm?”
“What do you think you are doing?!” He adamantly ignored the edge of panic in his voice.
The pale creature tipped her head inquisitively once more, watching him blankly. It could have been confused for an innocent gesture, except for the power raging behind the red eyes, a mirror to his own, but without limits, restraints, or – he was sure of it now - any measure of sanity.
“You can’t... you can’t just /break/ the threads like that! You must be careful! If you... don’t you move carefully, you could unweave /time itself/!”
Homunculus was comfortable in his power, quite enjoyed it in fact, but was well aware of the universal laws that were vital to his own existence, the limits he should not pass. All his alterations had been careful, exact, the decisions of a skilled artesian, not the butcher before him now.
The djinn felt his jaw set in determination, a compromise for refusing to wince again, as an unsettling spark of interest touched the girl’s ruby eyes.
“I know that. It’s my purpose.”
“Your /purpose/?”
“I can do only a few, on my own. I need to harness more power, and...” she paused, a speech not quite memorized, searching out the words. “... destroy time, I think.”
“Destroy... time? ...but that’s /madness/.”
“It’s my purpose.” The words seemed in a way mechanical, the girl could not argue, or elaborate on the point, only reiterate what she knew to be truth.
“Why...” The djinn did his best to speak slowly, rationally, if only to ease his own mind. “Why do you /want/ to unweave time?”
Homunculus wished, more fervently than he ever had in all eternity, for nothing more than a large rock and the power to wield it well, wanting with every facet of his being to simply strike this creature down and be done with it. He stood his ground, his dignity would allow nothing less, but he did not do so with any sense of security.
“Silly... to destroy you, of course.”
“Destroy me.”
Dopple nodded brightly, as if he had finally found the answer she had been leading him to. He found himself staring at her hands, and the space around her, suddenly aware of his realm as he hadn’t thought to be for an eternity. If she had been constructed as he, though, so frailly, and that appeared to be the case, of course destroying him physically would have been impossible.
“Destroy me... by destroying time?”
“It seemed easiest.”
The concept of his destruction certainly wasn’t a new one, or rare. All of those who had woken him almost surely had wanted vengeance for what the price their wishes had exacted - of course, he had left none of them alive, to even begin to imagine that sort of revenge-
Homunculus blinked sharply.
“Who created you?”
The girl didn’t seem to notice he had spoken, hovered past him, to walk along the edge of the column laying lengthwise and broken, like an ancient, toppled tree. Her arms were stretched out, like a tightrope artist – a child playing pretend. Dopple smiled, staring into what remained of his shattered window, faces and fragments of the past and future rising and falling in a tumultuous storm. He tried to follow the shifting sea, to see if any of the faces she called up were at all familiar, but there was no pattern, only the same, unapologetic madness.
“... they’re like little toys. It’s so wonderful, they’re just like toys.”
Homunculus frowned, as he thought he heard her giggle. He might not have disagreed with her on that point, but this still wasn’t getting him anywhere.
“Who created–”
“It isn’t enough.”
“What?”
Long, white hair flowed around her shoulders like sea foam as she turned, a tide caught up in the jags and sharpness of her ruby eyes – had they been that clear before now, that focused?
“I don’t think, now that I think... it’s not enough, is it?” She chose each word so carefully, like a little girl searching her mother’s jewelry box, holding onto each glittering gem, each word in absolute adoration. “He said I had to /hurt/ you... that I had to find the thing that you needed, the thing that made you happy... and take that from you first. You had to suffer, before I made you hurt, before I killed you.”
The djinn smirked slightly at the innocent assumption of whomever had made this creature, that there was something in the world, in time, any time, whose loss he could not look beyond. What could words like need or happiness ever have to do with something like him?
He realized with a sharp shock – moments too late - that his thoughts had taken a different turn, pondering the question in a way not apt for the peril he was facing, and they had betrayed him. Beyond the broken window, a familiar face slowly appeared, one he remembered too well for his own peace of mind. The only person he had bothered to remember, the only figure who plagued his thoughts still, a ripple in the otherwise placid sea of eternity.
Eike.
//Damn it!//
Irritation and anger sank into him, cutting deep, that he would even think of the man as a weakness, as important enough to be a weakness. He certainly didn’t need the man, he was in no way crucial to any kind of plan... but it was also true that he was... interesting?
The fact was more important than it seemed, when living out of time often left the world an indistinguishable blur. In an eternity he found quite meaningless at moments, Eike was one of the only things that, for whatever reason, he found it worth paying any attention to.
... and he finally noticed, forever forgetting that he could ever be in a position of vulnerability, that Dopple was watching too. Watching the figure in the broken window, and smiling.
“... I see.”
“No! Wait!”
The djinn already knew it was too late, watched her form dissipate even as she leapt forward, off the pillar, reaching for the thread of the past, that would take her to Eike. Homunculus didn’t hesitate to follow, to stop her, never pausing to ask himself why.
------------------------
“Luke... wake up.”
Eike grimaced slightly, as someone tugged sharply at the edge of his jacket. Half-awake, he could already tell the room around him was unbearably loud, unexpectedly so – lord, if he had fallen asleep in the bar one more time they really /were/ going to start wondering about him. Not that they didn’t have good reason to, even if they didn’t know all he knew, or how much he didn’t know –
“Luke! Wake up, you silly boy, or you’ll miss it all!”
The voice was strange, female but husky... and, Eike realized, clad in silken French, quite beautiful-
- but no one here spoke French.
Eike jerked up from the table, immediately wincing against the painfully bright lights, the entire room awash in a haze of cigarette smoke and movement, swirls of color and sparkles more than his eyes could follow, people everywhere... this was not the Bar Zum Ei.
“Poor dear, are you confused again?” A slim hand playfully teased at a few strands of his hair, and when the woman spoke again, he realized she was no longer talking to him, but to others nearby.
“He gets this way sometimes, he has these spells. Once when I was young, he went raving mad for an entire month! Can you imagine, a month! He didn’t even know his own name!”
//Be damned... to the endless night of youth.// The words were a soft murmur, come and gone like most of the phantoms of his memory, vanished well before he could begin to question them.
A silken, confident laugh, as if his confusion and fear were a thing of delight and wonder, a whimsical curse. Eike looked up then, the world sharpening to focus as if a vital lens had been turned, snapping into place. Gray eyes, shining ebony ringlets – as soon as he knew her name, it faded, and he nearly screamed as it was lost to him.
Eike kept searching her face, vaguely noticing the other details, where he was, the circle of others around the table. Dancers were on the massive stage across the room, flinging their skirts in a wild routine, the audience roaring with delight. He himself was wearing a suit, more expensive than anything he had even imagined owning before, but as he looked down at the knotted gold cufflinks, the pale stripe on a sleeve... heaven help him if it didn’t feel familiar.
The woman with the charcoal eyes was watching him, as his eyes finally came to rest on her once more. She took a drag on the cigarette in a long, jet black holder, perched between her fingers as jauntily as the top hat on her head. She wore little else, her dress more like a corset than anything, clothing the color of midnight from head to toe...
“Why do you stare at me so, Luke?” A gloved hand rested on the space between a diamond choker and her low-cut top. “I’m flattered, of course, but I was rather hoping you’d like the entertainment. After all, this is your birthday celebration...”
“B-birthday?” He moved away, as she reached out again to caress his cheek, feeling more like a pet bird than an equal, a bauble no different to her than the rings on her hands.
“Of course, darling, what other day would it be?”
Eike could see the faces that surrounded them around the small table much less clearly than hers, more in pieces than as any detailed whole – a hat here, a fancy crevat there, lace ruffles at the edge of a sleeve. They were all smiling at him, but it was with a vacant interest, indulging the same “him,” that, once again, she wasn’t talking to.
“It isn’t really his birthday, but this is the day mama found him on the street. I inherited him, you see... all these years mama’s been dead, and I don’t think he’s aged a day. He fancies himself some sort of scientist, sometimes.” she smiled, even though he was scowling. “Did I say something wrong, Luke darling?”
“Why are you calling me... my name isn’t...”
“Oh it isn’t?” The woman took a long drink from her champagne flute, the angle of her hand catching her rings and the pale liquid in the same light, cold and hard... “So, who are you today?”
“No, no... /none/ of this is right.” He stood up, hoping to banish this false reality with the movement, though nothing changed. “I have a life, I have a home. I don’t belong here.” It was the weakest of weak arguments, he had no friends, no close ties, and a place to sleep was not the same as a home, not at all. This strange, uncomfortable place, it really was as good as any other to him.
“Of course you belong here, Luke... you’ve been with me since I was a child. Mother left you to me, so that I could take care of you.”
He saw her sway, stepped forward without thinking as she fell forward into his arms. The face that turned up to him had the same charcoal eyes, but a few more lines, as if she had aged ten years in the blink of an eye, and she was so pale...
“I’m your little Michelle... that’s what you said when I was dying, and you held me just like this. I was so worried about you, Luke. I had no children, no one who could look after you. Where would you go, what would you do when I was gone? Innocent... you were always so innocent.”
“This can’t be real.” Eike looked around, gaslight and cobblestone and a style that would be only costume now. “I’m not a part of this... this isn’t my – I don’t belong here!”
The words broke whatever spell had brought the crowded hall to him. Instantly, Michelle vanished from his arms, as did her friends, the dancers, the world. He turned, and quickly turned again, but there was nothing behind him, nothing around him but darkness.
“You don’t “belong” anywhere... not anymore. You were fated to die for a reason, you know. if he’d been thinking at all, he would have seen that too. It was too dangerous to keep you alive, to do all he has done, even to save himself.”
He turned again at the soft voice – it wasn’t Michelle, but echoed, a familiar sort of echo.
//Homunculus’s voice... the first time I heard it... but this is not his voice?//
Eike watched a figure step forward, the shadows melting away – //her eyes aren’t gray// – pale, the woman’s entire body delicate like a dancer, a doll and as pale as a moth, a dusty, brilliant white from head to toe – //her eyes aren’t human// - all except for her eyes.
//Red eyes. She had red eyes.//
Eike stepped back, as she moved toward him, resisting the urge to turn and run only because he was afraid to take his eyes off her, afraid of what she might do. He was afraid, afraid of her and of whatever promise he knew she held hanging invisible in the air, a scythe above his head. Homunculus may have unnerved him, but this creature, whomever she was... this was different, and much, much worse.
“Who are you? What do you want?”
“I’m an avatar. I’m just the façade.” A hand touched the pale chest, the gesture an imitation of Michelle’s, and he shivered at the memory. “She... when you truly meet her, in this body, she will be the one to kill you.”
“Kill me?”
Compared to the ageless, timeless eyes that met his, Homunculus was a child, or less... Eike fought back a shudder, wondering yet again just who he had been, and what he might have tampered with. What power might he have sought, and how far beyond his comprehension – even if his memories had been intact - had things actually gone?
“He thinks too highly of his own abilities, all his kind do. He has made dangerous concessions, both for your life and his own... too many.”
“His life and mine... Homunculus, you’re talking about Homunculus, right?” Eike wondered if he was babbling, but was much too terrified to stop. “It was only one day, though... just that one day he changed, and Hugo...” He didn’t really want to point this creature in Hugo’s direction, but he was not nearly self-sacrificing enough to take the blame for this, to stand in front of this creature and accept the responsibility. “Hugo was the one who was trying to kill me. I didn’t know what was going on. How can you blame me for just trying to stay alive?”
“I understand, I know that this is not your fault, not really. Any hubris that led you to release the djinn, to create the Homunculus, you have long since paid for. Perhaps, in a way, this is even your penance, this new being, this doppleganger... to close the loop upon itself, and end what should have been finished long ago.”
“What are you... but I didn’t! I didn’t create the Homunculus!” Eike sucked in a sharp breath, as he caught a glimpse of something gleaming in her hand... a knife, no, a pair of shears... shears?
//Atropos, one of the three Fates, she carried shears.// Amazing, out of everything, to remember such a useless scrap of myth. //She’s the one who cuts the thread of life, the one who can’t be swayed or defeated... or reasoned with.//
It didn’t mean he couldn’t try.
“I gave Wagner the stone, but /he/ was the one who created Homunculus. I can’t let you kill me over...” He paused, trying to remember her exact words, even as he kept backing up, to put any distance between them. “... wait, what did you mean, “long since paid for”?” He stopped short. “What do you know? Who was I? What do you know about my past?”
The creature paced closer, steadily, eternal wisdom waiting within tranquil red pools, and peace, at the edge of those twin blades.
//I don’t care... I don’t want to die!//
“You’ve had more than your share of life. It is time to sever the thread.”
Eike watched the shining stiletto of metal rise in her hand, didn’t bother to block or dodge – there was nowhere to run – and could only feel a frustrated, impossible anger. He was lost, lost in time with no memories to guide him, now hunted by a power who all but wore the face of his enemy.
//... but Homunculus was never really my enemy, was he?// In comparison to this threat, he was almost a friend.
“So then, who am I? If you’re going to kill me, you can at least tell me! Who am I? Tell me!” He braced himself for the pain, ready to scream the question with his dying breath, fists clenching as the blow fell.
“Why are you doing this?! Who am I?! Tell me-”
-----------------
“-who I am!!!”
He shouted, and it echoed, and Eike blinked sharply, staring at the cracks in the paint on the wall opposite his bed.
//Dream. Nightmare. Breathe... just breathe.//
He noticed he was covered in sweat as his cell phone rang again – that was what had woken him, just before that creature had slammed her weapon into his heart and –
Eike shuddered, quickly reaching for the phone, grimacing as he fumbled with it, his hands still shaking slightly.
“Mm... hello?”
“Eike?” The voice was more hesitant than it had been in past calls, though he still recognized it immediately.
“Mr. Eckart, hello.”
An uncomfortable pause, when this man had been one of the only people Eike had thought to call a friend since... since...
He pulled his mind quickly away from the memory of long-dead Parisian girls who played with his hair and called him by names that were not his own.
... and perhaps they still would have been friends, he and Eckart. Strange as it sounded, it was a little easier to forgive someone for trying to kill him when he’d already been dying all day. The man had made his own discomfort clear, though, that his own actions had greatly shamed him, and Eike was someone he would much rather forget. It made the current call all the more confusing.
“Mr. Eckart, is there something I can help you with?”
“Yes, Eike... well, you know the owner of the photo shop?”
//Several generations of them, actually.// “Yes?”
“Well, he was cleaning through some old boxes, and discovered... one of the walls appears to have been built /after/ the rest of the structure, and there were some boxes behind... Maybe it would be better, if you just came over here.”
“All right. I’ll be right there.”
Eike hoped it was something complicated, a large batch of slides that might need cataloguing, some project Eckart might ask for his help with. Anything to get his mind off the pale afterimage of the girl who appeared whenever he closed his eyes, whenever he let his attention slide, even for a moment.
He shivered as he pulled on his jacket, the look in those eyes - //just like Homunculus, you know// - God yes, he knew, but the dedication, the chilling clarity in those eyes was nothing like the pale man’s usually flippant demeanor.
If Homunculus had wanted him dead, Eike knew he never would have had a chance. If this dream had really been some sort of a premonition, if something like /that/ really wanted him dead...
He prayed Eckart had something that would keep him busy for a very long time.
------------------------
It had to be Hugo. Wagner’s son, he was the one responsible for all of this, for creating the psychotic creature he was chasing after now. Homunculus knew there were so many paths, threads of time that fractured out from the day he had saved Eike’s life. Endless futures existed, including at least one where he had lured the boy to a trap with the false image of his father, and consigned him to... somewhere?
At the time, the djinn in that future had neither the energy nor the ambition to bother sending the human boy anywhere but /away/... but really, who could have imagined such a result? He would have assumed – any Homunculus, at any time - that the child, despite his keen intellect, would have been at best completely helpless, and certainly not capable of something like this.
It was the only thing that made sense, though, that in one of those futures Hugo had been taken to a suitable place, where he had somehow managed to create a creature to enact his revenge. He’d always been obsessed with destroying Homunculus, clearly, and perhaps Dopple already had the instinct to go after Eike as well, his appearance had simply brought back the memory. It wasn’t as if the blonde had ever been one of Hugo’s favorite people.
//An irony worthy of the Greeks, that.//
Homunculus couldn’t help another smirk, remembering Eike’s ever-present righteous indignation – no matter which timeline, or the result - each time the djinn had done something that had bumped against the blonde’s inflexible moral code. It was a sweet naivete, really, there weren’t even many other people – in any time period – who had been quite so uncompromisingly noble, and this noble man had created one of the most misguided souls the djinn had ever seen.
Humans were unendingly amusing, if nothing else.
Homunculus could match Dopple’s pace as she moved along the strands of time, but try as he might, he could not overtake her. She was amazingly swift and strong, though so strangely inattentive, distracted so easily, like a child.
//A child that could destroy time itself.//
No, this creature was far from innocent, or harmless, and though that insanity was a weakness Homunculus could exploit, he still needed a plan. He needed time.
//Another irony for the ages.//
It didn’t help any that they had already passed the time he had “seen,” the fuzzy image of Eike just after the events that had originally brought them together. The window served as his looking glass and portal through time, a visual metaphor, and when it had been “smashed” it had merely rendered its measure of time unstable, not the portal itself.
Instead of moving, then, to the Eike that had been visible in the blur beyond the cracked panes, Homunculus could see they were moving further back, /much/ further, given the extent of Eike’s unusual life span.
It was a dangerous alteration. The closer they came to the beginning of Eike’s – actually it was Wagner’s, now – life, the fewer branching-off points Homunculus had to work with, to reconcile a new, unbroken thread back to the present, should Dopple succeed.
//I will not let that happen. I will not.//
The djinn was not about to go through a repeat of that long day again, to ensure his creation. No, this had already gone too far.
-------------------------
“I understand how fond you are of the boy, Katherine, but really... university?”
“I know it sounds foolish, I really do... but he thinks so differently than I do, so much more quickly than me, or his brothers or sisters,” A soft, embarrassed chuckle, “Heavens, even his father doesn’t understand him half the time. If there’s any chance at all, that we could give him a real education... just think of where he could end up, what wonders he might bring to the world.”
Homunculus heard the soft conversation as he dropped gracefully to the grass, boots making no noise at all. The two women were quietly conversing in a sunny alcove beyond a small arch, a small meeting area surrounded by the rest of the estate. One quick glance around left Homunculus a bit surprised, they hadn’t traveled years, or decades, but /centuries/ back.
A soft cry quickly pulled his attention away from the sunny courtyard. It was too quiet for either woman to hear, but he quickly followed the sound around the corner, to a slightly larger area... to find Dopple, the girl standing over a seated child with her hands on her hips and her head cocked to one side, the mix of frustration and disappointment plain on her face.
It was easy enough to recognize the youth, even if Homunculus had never seen him as a boy – the long, blonde hair was a dead giveaway. He froze for a moment, bracing himself for Dopple’s attack, for Eike – Wagner – to die, for the threads of time binding him to existence to dissolve – damn it, /no/ he would /not/ be trapped in the stone again!
Homunculus held his breath through the fated moment, furious disbelief slowly fading as Dopple didn’t strike, only continued to stare at the child.
“Where is he?” She finally snapped, stamping a foot in irritation.
“Who?”
“The one you were looking at in your mirror... the one who you think about! The one who means something to you!”
Homunculus could only gape, as he realized what had happened. Amazing, that this creature could be so poorly constructed, to understand some things so easily, but others not at all. It had been built and trained to destroy him, given detailed, specific orders on how to read him, on how to deflect his attacks, on what to understand about him. Yet it couldn’t tell that the child before it would grow up into the man it was supposed to destroy.
//Hugo... I was almost impressed.//
Still... while Homunculus knew he was powerful and strong in the confines of his own domain, in the physical realm his body was still quite weak. The djinn assumed Dopple was very much the same, but the odds that she would damage herself to hurt him were standing in her favor, a risk not worth taking. As it was, seemed to be at the edge of a temper tantrum at any moment.
“I don’t understand... no no no, this doesn’t make sense at all.” The girl was now chewing at the end of a pigtail, red eyes focused sharply inward. Homunculus saw the young Wagner start to speak, or perhaps simply move away, but kept him where he was with a piercing glare. Thankfully, the boy followed the silent instruction, and said nothing.
“I don’t understand. He’s supposed to /be/ here.”
//You weren’t built to understand. Such a small detail, but it must be infuriating. You must be able to feel Wagner’s presence, his place in time, but if Hugo didn’t know how to build you properly, to remember to add something as simple as understanding the change from youth to adulthood.//
He felt a moment of something approaching pity, for this bizarrely deformed creature, given strength but sparse direction, unimaginable power but control severely limited by the designs of its maker.
“I’ll go back, then... he’ll know what to do, how to fix me. He’ll tell me who I have to kill.”
Dopple looked up at him only once, eyes troubled, haunted, and then half-skipped backward, vanishing in midair. Homunculus smiled, her confusion, thoughtlessness and unease the perfect weapon. Now was his chance, to follow her back down the one thread of time that had caused so many problems, and to rid himself permanently of her, and of her creator.
The djinn paused, just for a moment, the thread the pale shadow walked upon fixed clearly in his mind – no need to rush, not anymore – and really /looked/ at the world around him... and at the boy...
A small toy lay unnoticed in Wolfgang Wagner’s hands... an airplane, of parchment and whittled wood, still too heavy by far, but the theory was sound enough... the ground around him littered with many previous attempts.
The boy was already quite brilliant, obviously dedicated to his studies, and hungry for the knowledge. The green eyes now watching him were more calculating than afraid, too intrigued to be fearful. The djinn frowned at the quiet emotion that intruded on his contemplation... or perhaps it had been there all along... a whisper of... regret, perhaps? A feeling of loss, that he had replaced this keen intellect with something forever inferior, that he had crippled such a mind, less out of necessity than sheer spite...
//Regret? Guilt? ... from you?! A demon?!//
He quickly sneered, shoving the thought aside, glaring at the boy still staring up at him.
“I’m not doing any of this for /you/, you know.”
The protest was vehement, meant only for himself, as the boy who watched him vanish never understood what – or who - he had seen, and had all but forgotten about the strange, sunny day well before Homunculus would ever come back into his life.
----------------------
“Eike... it’s good to see you again. I’m glad you could make it here on such short notice.”
“... not a problem, Mr. Eckart.”
It was almost amusing, the way the other man treated him now, always careful not to move too quickly, never making the blonde walk in front of him into a room. He still did it, months after Eike himself had stopped jumping at shadows, looking up from time to time whenever he left a tall building, or when he heard footsteps behind him, no matter what their speed...
//Of course, you still won’t go near that kiosk by the gate, and every time you hear a car screech...//
Thankfully, he’d had no reason to return to the tower near Eckart’s home. The deaths had been almost morbidly scaled, each one memorably worse than the last... if he’d had to fall again, like that, to see the pavement rushing up at him and know...
//Eike... come on, focus. There’s no use in acting crazy, at least not until you can’t help it anymore.//
It was a sickening thought, bringing too many memories with it and he could do nothing but avoid thinking about all of them.
“What was it you had to show me, Mr. Eckart?”
“Well, Eike... I know we’ve discussed it before, but are you sure you’ve never had any relatives in this town. Maybe someone who moved away, long ago?”
“No, not really. I don’t remember my parents, you know that, and I don’t really know that much about my extended family.”
He wondered if Eckart assumed he meant he was adopted, or a foster child, and not that he really didn’t /remember/ his parents... didn’t remember his childhood, or anything past the last few years. Memories fell away like snowflakes brushed from the corners of his mind, a blizzard of chaos, constantly changing, the years recycling to nothing, only to begin anew...
“Well, when they were searching through the house, they found this. Oleg figured you’d want to take a look at it. I must tell you, Eike, the resemblance is uncanny.”
It was the missing link, really, the picture he was handed. It explained everything, but not in a way that made any sense at all. Eike stared at it in silence, well past what would have been considered polite, but he couldn’t quite bring himself to care, to take the time to think of something to say. He kept staring, trying to find the one flaw, a difference that would make it false, that would make the obvious impossibility untrue.
It was a simple picture, perhaps even a bit ugly, done not by Karl Franssen but his father, a painter the apprentice had obviously surpassed. The composition was lacking, the colors unimpressive... but the details of face and figure were perfect, there was no mistake.
Long, blonde hair. Green eyes.
//Kill me, for creating the Homunculus? ... but I didn’t create-//
Wolfgang Wagner, portrait of a young scientist – J. Franssen
//I did. I /did/ create...//
Eike wondered how he could still be standing, still be staring at this picture and... staring, god no matter how many times he went over it, it was all the same, all so terribly /real/...
“Eike? Is there a problem?”
Eckart’s voice was coming from far, far away... it might as well have been moving through centuries.
“... it’s me.”
//I’m Doctor Wagner.//
=====================
Author’s Notes –
- The dream sequence/flashback was inspired by Moulin Rouge, which I watched /again/ this week on DVD. I love that movie.
- Yes, no big surprises in this chapter... I’m just having too much fun to stop now.