blood red moon
~ a Shadow of Destiny fanfiction
Chapter Four
Eike winced - a rather stupid thing to do, really - and watched as the blade missed him by a distance too small to measure, as he felt himself tumbling back into empty space. Funny, he was sure the wall had been solid behind him only moments before.
The blonde twisted around, or at least tried to, hovering in what he realized was a very familiar nothingness, all of time stretching out around him, spun into the thinnest cylinder of shimmering, twisting threads. If he hadn’t been so scared, so utterly out of his element, he might have almost called it beautiful.
Eike had no chance to stop himself, to prepare before he was violently expelled back into the real world, slamming down hard against the pavement. The blonde groaned, wincing as his fingertips flexed into something soft and cold, his shirt and face already wet with the crushed white - snow?
//What the...//
“Eike?” A touch, at the collar of his jacket, light like a bird. “Eike? Are you all right?”
He knew the voice immediately, though his thoughts were still too jumbled to place a name. He rolled over onto his back with a slight groan, looked up into crimson eyes.
The surprised yelp came out before he could stop it, though recognition came instantly, leaving him with a sense of resignation even though the fear was still rising, refused to let him go.
“Homunculus... I knew it. I just /knew/ you had something to do with this.” Eike grimaced as he pulled himself into a sitting position, preparing for one of the strange man’s smirking retorts, if not something worse. “So, what are you doing this -”
“Silence.” The blonde was shocked, as Homunculus cut him off with a sharp gesture of one thin hand. His eyes flashed, intense in a way Eike had never seen. “Ironic as it may seem, we don’t have the time for this. Are you all right, did she hurt you?”
“What? No... no I’m fine...” The blonde quickly got to his feet, watching the shorter man, well aware of the way the ruby gaze was studying him. Weird, something about this attention, about the way Homunculus was staring at him... something really wasn’t right.
“There was another me. I saw another me, back at - where are we? - and then - wait a minute. How do you know about her? Who is she? What’s going on?”
Outrage was better than terror, and Eike wholeheartedly embraced the sudden anger, prepared to add many more frustrated, useless questions to the growing list. He stopped, as Homunculus’s head snapped up, staring down the street, alerted by some silent signal he couldn’t hear.
The pale girl was walking beneath the arch that swept over the Ruckgratstr, holding the knife so carelessly, glancing up every now and again at the snow that was still falling silently on the town, turning the already cozy town into a picture postcard. Eike watched as she stuck her tongue out, playfully catching a few of the pale crystals, before turning back to them - to him. Her frozen blood eyes were fixed on him, and he took a panicked step back.
Homunculus ground out what sounded like a rather violent curse, in a language that seemed designed only to deliver it. In one fluid motion, still watching the strange girl, he stepped back and grabbed Eike’s hand.
“... not far enough. Brace yourself.”
Eike didn’t have the chance to ask why, before the world once more dropped out from under his feet.
-------------------------
The blonde hit the pavement just as unexpectedly, as time stretched and compressed once more to toss him out into an unknown world, Homunculus nowhere to be seen. Eike slowly pushed himself up onto his knees, too breathless to move further for the moment. He winced as he bent one wrist slowly back and forth, his body soundly protesting the motion - nearly sprained - and glanced around as the stars finally cleared from his vision.
It wasn’t snowing anymore. The buildings all around him still looked quite familiar, though old. Extremely old, and different in the most subtle ways - no engines roaring, no radios playing, and a sense of difference he couldn’t even pin on one specific detail.
//I think... this looks like - but it /can’t/ be. Why on Earth would he send me here?!//
The Middle Ages had always struck him as dirty - not in a bad way, really, but just dusty, crumbling and washed out and much more transitive compared to his own time. Of course, he’d thought all that before he’d realized he didn’t really have a time.
//... this is my time, though. I belong here.//
Carefully, Eike pulled himself up against the side of the well - he’d been dropped a fair distance from where he’d fallen into the snow a few centuries in the future.
//The day Eckart’s wife died, it was snowing... was that where I was?//
Eike blinked again, and again, just trying to calm his racing heart. The rush of adrenaline was finally catching up with him, he could feel his legs trembling when he finally stood up fully, halfway draping himself over the well. It was all he could do to breathe, try to keep his clammy hands from shaking too hard.
//Margarete is here, somewhere.// It may have been important once, but now the thought appeared and vanished in his mind in all but the same instant, leaving no trace. The blonde had other things to worry about, much more relevant... like the creature that had tried to kill him.
//No, she did kill me. Another me, and then...//
Eike felt a painful stab of panic twist through his chest at the barest whisper of a sound, like faint static, and turned to see a familiar form slowly melting into view. He was amused at his own relief, as the tips of black shoes came into view - Homunculus, not that other one, whomever she was - but why did he feel relieved? How did he know the strange man was any less of a threat?
The blonde felt very tired, all at once, turning away before the shorter man completely wavered into view. The head-on collision of past and present - both unexplainable, both holding unbelievable danger - had left him with nothing. Homunculus had used him once before, and at least then Eike had the pretense of knowledge, stability.
“Are you all right?”
Why did he keep asking that question? Why was there concern in his voice? Eike turned to face the shorter man, surprised to see Homunculus standing, arms crossed with one eyebrow raised, obviously waiting for a response.
“I’m fine.”
“Good.” The man turned back without another word, unearthly eyes fixed on the horizon. Eike waited, more than shaken enough to protest but lacking the words, any sense what he ought to say. Long before he’d come up with a solution, Homunculus was speaking.
“Keep moving. Stay with other people when you can, and be careful.” The pale man never even bothered to look his way. “I’ll keep you one step ahead of her, until I can find a way to stop her.”
“Wait. Who is she? Why is she trying to kill me?” Eike turned sharply, “What the hell is going-”
Homunculus was gone. Eike blinked, staring dumbly at the empty air he had vanished into.
“Great. Just great.”
------------------------
Robin loved to bake, savored the warmth of the ovens and the gritty feel of rough flour on her fingers as she kneaded the sticky dough. It was a somewhat exacting task, baking enough for even this small town, but she enjoyed the early workout, the peace and calm of the morning hours. Now and again, she glanced out the store’s front window, smiling at the haze of sunlight she could see, just peeking over the edge of the wall.
A soft knock at the door startled her slightly - visitors already?
“Come in,” she called out, glancing down at the large rolling pin beneath the powdery table, shuffling a half-step closer to it as the door opened, just to be cautious.
Robin watched the stranger enter, immediately, inexplicably set at ease, though he was much taller than she was. He was completely unthreatening - something about the way he moved, cautious, almost timid. Light green eyes warily sketched the outline of the room, landing on her but sliding away so quickly she wondered if her smile had frightened him.
“Can I help you, sir? Please... come in.”
The man stepped inside far enough to shut the door, but moved no further, hovering at the threshold.
“I think I might be in the wrong place...” The already low voice dropped to a murmur she had to lean forward to hear. “The woman, I thought she worked here...” Elegant, long-fingered hands raised slightly, gesturing at shoulder level. “She was a baker... with longer hair?”
“Ah, you mean my grandmother, sir. Aye, she still works here, but it hurts her too much to come down and start so early, when the house is still cold. I warm it up for her, and since I’m going to be taking over the business soon, it seems right proper to get up with the sun.
“Oh... no... the woman I knew, she wasn’t old enough for grandchildren.”
“Well, we’re the only bakery in town, sir.” Robin glanced up, when the man didn’t respond. He was staring at the patterns along the top of the wall, green eyes all the more vibrant now that he had gone deathly pale.
“Sir? Are you feeling all right? Maybe you’d better sit down a moment. Here, I’ll get you something warm to drink.” He didn’t move, and the girl eventually got up the nerve to gently take his hand, pulling him over to the table. He followed without protest, still gazing up at what was only empty wall.
“It can’t be... why would he send me...”
“Sir?”
The tall blonde blinked. “Nothing, it’s nothing...”
Robin pulled a chair out, sparing the stranger a worried, backward glance before disappearing down the hall.
---------------------------
It made no sense, that he should be so shaken, to expect one reality and find it just slightly skewed. Homunculus could have sent him anywhere, any time, why would he expect to go to some place known? Why would he expect the Middle Ages he remembered, and not a similar time, merely shifted a few decades here or there?
//Nothing is known anymore... nothing.//
Eike sighed, slumping forward in his chair until he could lean his head in his hands, everything he had just been witness to piling up, his shoulders aching with the phantom weight.
//So Homunculus isn’t working with that girl, whomever she is? ... and she - she killed me, the other me, and she wants to do it again.//
Had he done something to deserve this? Maybe in his past? Just another moment lost to memory, when he had been the cause of something horrible... or maybe he hadn’t done it yet. Maybe whatever horror he would unleash was far in the future, and that had been the reason for the dream, for the creature chasing him now.
//Punished, for something I haven’t even done yet.//
Worse than that thought, was the question - what might he have done, what could be so horrible, that it would warrant his destruction?
//... and not just mine, but /all/ of the other me’s, every Eike in every other time? All of us, are we still fated to die?//
A cup clinked slightly as it was set by his hand, Eike looked up - there was still worry in the girl’s eyes, thankfully not suspicion, but simply kind concern. He tried to smile, hoping to set her at ease.
“Do you know... a Dana, by any chance? I think she might have lived here once.”
“Um... no, sir. I don’t think so...” The girl rubbed some flour into her hands, returning to her duties. Eike nodded, unsure why he had even asked, whether he was relieved or not that Dana’s future - no, past - was still unclear.
“She may have been here before your time... I’m assuming, then, that you don’t know anyone named Margarete.”
“You mean Lady Margarete, sir? Of course, everyone knows her.”
“Lady..?”
“Aye, she’s the wife of Lord Kerrich, they’re a grand pair, made for each other. They helped us all so much last fall, when the cold came early and the crop didn’t come in? We would’ve starved without their kindness. I’m surprised you don’t know of them, sir... Margarete’s one of our own, born and raised here.”
He didn’t realize he’d been holding out hope, until he felt his heart constrict in his chest at her final words. It was too much of a coincidence, the town was much too small for there to be another Margarete.
//... and it matters either way? Of course she married, you twit. What else did you think she would do?//
“Lord Kerrich is a handsome man, and kind too... they come here often, well no, not /here/, but I have had the honor of cooking for them, and I know they enjoyed it. Oh, they have five children too, the eldest is very handsome... Eike, she called him and the second eldest...” Robin stopped for just a moment, he had almost jumped at the sound of his own name. “Did I say something wrong sir?”
“No, go on. It’s.... nothing.”
“Oh, well... Eike is very handsome, and Hugo too - that’s the younger son. Milady named him after a younger brother, god rest his soul.”
Robin continued to ramble on about the Kerrich estates, the wonderful parties they’d thrown - more on their eldest boy, and she blushed as she spoke of him, hiding her hands in the bread dough. Eike paid less and less attention to the endless stream of words. He’d already heard what he needed to know.
//Of course she married, of course... her life was here. She always was so alive, so happy.//
It hurt. It shouldn’t have, it had no right to hurt- a selfish, stupid emotion, because time had passed here but both Dana and Margarete were still young in his mind, would always be that way. Margarete, sweetly smiling - would she have the same smile now that she had then?
//Silly question... of course she would. She didn’t forget me, though.// It meant a lot, when he was no longer sure how long he’d remember himself. //I still live in Margarete’s memories, if not in my own, and she’s happy. I’m glad that she’s happy.//
It wasn’t really true, though, no matter how much he tried to force himself to feel it. He didn’t feel... anything, except sorrow and weariness, the window finally closing on a silly fantasy he hadn’t realized he’d been holding onto - the two of them, any kind of normal life.
Eike jumped, as Robin’s steady pattering of words suddenly broke off into a strangled scream.
The blonde looked up to where she was staring, sure what he’d see even as the adrenaline seemed to tighten his skin against his bones. The pale girl regarded him from the other side of the window for a moment, before stepping forward - melting through the wall. He felt his body lock up, the instant he saw the knife, still gleaming in her loose grip.
Robin screamed again, pressing herself back against the wall, words swiftly, desperately mouthing what he soon realized were the sounds of the Scripture. Soft red eyes tipped in her direction, her smile taking on an inquisitive edge as she turned back to Eike.
“Why is she doing that?”
Eike stumbled backward, jolting the edge of the table, the teacup toppling to smash on the floor. He stared, watching as the cup spun, and slowed, a pale liquid wave splashing over the edge, hanging in midair as the moment froze entirely. He thought he heard the creature giggle, and time suddenly shifted back into place, the china smashing impressively as it hit the floor.
“He’s trying to stop me, shift me away from here... he’s trying to save you, just like he tried to save the others.”
“Others... you mean the other me’s...”
Eike kept his eyes on the knife, as he slowly backed up, searching for any sort of weapon, anything with a long enough reach to get her before she got him, trying not to panic with those red eyes pinned on him.
“I don’t understand why you’re running. You want this, I /know/ that, you told me so. What am I doing wrong?”
“Wait... what do you mean I told you so? Who are you?”
The pale-haired girl almost looked hurt.
“I’m Dopple... I’m your-”
“Eike! Run!!!”
The voice came from nowhere and everywhere, he heard the baker scream again, eyes flicking all around the room in frantic shock. Homunculus’s voice, but hard and sharp in a way Eike had never heard before. Dopple dove at him, he didn’t even bother trying to get around her in the narrow passageway, and instead went for the next best route, leaping up onto the table and directly through the store’s front window. The blonde grimaced, the thick glass giving unwillingly under his weight, amazed as he scrambled to his feet that it seemed he was unscathed.
//Where can I go... where?//
He remembered the way the creature had appeared - impossibly - in front of him, and moved to the middle of the street as he ran, glancing around every corner, waiting for the next attack. The square, maybe... it was as good a place as any other - but as he turned the corner Eike could see her, moving between the pillars of the city hall, flickering in and out of existence even as he backpedaled, changing directions, every move bringing her closer to him, too close -
Eike didn’t even have the chance to breathe, or cry out as the world vanished again, a giant, invisible hand grabbing the back of his jacket, flinging him out into nothingness.
//... not nothing, time...// He could hear it, the strange hollow howl of eternity, but shut his eyes tightly against the swirl of threads - too much, this was all just too much, too fast.
The blonde brought his hands up just in time, as all at once everything slowed, and he was truly falling. Eike heard the sound of leaves rustling, and a slight sting against his cheek, the snapping of a small branch. He hit the ground, leaves and debris dropping all around him.
Groaning, the blonde forced shaking limbs to hold him, rising to his feet and brushing the dirt off as best he could. He blinked, glancing around - the garden, past the south end of the Marketplatz, still in the town but...
A puttering engine cut through the silence, accompanied by a truly memorable horn blast, Eike turned, saw the barest glimpse of a multi-spoked wheel cross the alley, the running board of a brand-new, very old automobile.
//Where did he send me now, and why-// Eike’s breath caught in his throat, as he heard the leaves rustle from above him. It was a normal sound, he should have thought nothing of it, but the hair was rising on the back of his neck and he turned in a panic, looking up. Dopple was watching him from a high bough.
“I won’t let you take me so easily. I promise you that.” He crouched, retrieving the largest branch that he had taken down with him in his fall, swinging it slightly as she slowly dropped from the tree, floating through the air, landing on one foot like a dancer, her eyes once more fixed on him.
He was no fighter, he knew nothing of how to defend himself, but Eike planted his feet as best he could, both hands tight around the end of the branch - and it seemed to be working, she wasn’t coming any closer.
//Homunculus said he was fragile, that he wouldn’t risk damaging his body... let her be the same way, /please/...//
“Why do you want to kill me? If you tell me, there must be a way, must be something...”
Dopple swung at him then, darting back just before he could strike, pouting slightly.
“I have to hurt him. It’s what you told me to do.”
“Hurt who? Me? Who are you talking about?”
Hands on hips, her expression was classic, a teacher scolding the idiot pupil. “Him... the /demon/.”
“Demon... Homunculus?” The logic was so flawed he nearly laughed, the demon’s countless sarcastic remarks stringing themselves together in his mind. “How will killing me hurt /him/?!”
“... because...”
He might have gotten the answer, had she not found her opening, but instead Eike gasped as she suddenly moved forward, faster than he could react. He brought the branch up, but not quick enough, the moments that followed were unclear until he saw red on her blade and on his own skin, liquid - the blood and pain both, shuddering through his whole body.
He dropped the branch, staggering back, and nearly fell, good arm pressing against a tree to keep himself upright and moving. Eike stared breathless at the smear of blood his palm had left against the tree, as if both arms were bleeding and not just the one.
//Move, move!!!//
Eike was frantic, he’d kept his eyes off Dopple for far too long and now as he turned back he couldn’t see her, couldn’t figure out where she was or more importantly where the knife was - and managed a sharp cry this time as the world was once again wrenched out from under his feet, twisting into a howling expanse of time. Eike grimaced, holding his injured arm close, the chill of this place pushing pain further into the deep wound.
//If I hit this next era with my face again...//
He didn’t notice the change, couldn’t tell when he merged back into reality until he saw his breath fogging against scratched plastic, realized he was leaning, and took a half step back, gazing at the kiosk at the end of the Rudolfstr.
A woman and a man were running away from a giant explosion, and several enormous word bubbles proclaiming both Thrills and Chills - a movie poster.
Green eyes scanned down toward the bottom, to the credits, searching for a date - 1973? He’d never been /here/ before, had he? Eike swallowed hard, unable to brush the slight tears out of his eyes, exhaustion and pain, as every movement jolted his injured arm, and his white-knuckle grip on the injury didn’t seem to be doing much good, blood still a warm trickle beneath, turning the green jacket a sickly brown.
He was shaking too hard to stop now, completely exhausted. It had been strange when he had used the Digipad, but never quite like these violent and unexpected leaps through time. It was all he could do to stand there, forehead pressed against the cold plastic of the kiosk, gasping for air and sanity and the strength to go on, swallowing back the metal taste of adrenaline and pain.
//It didn’t hurt this bad getting stabbed in the back... I swear, if this is another one of Homunculus’s games, I swear to God I’ll kill him. I don’t care what it takes, I don’t care how /long/ it takes... he’ll suffer somehow, I’ll make sure of it...//
He blinked at the impressive violence in the thought, and the familiarity of the words, just like those the girl creature had spoken. Her reason, she said, for trying to get rid of him. It still didn’t make sense, to kill him to hurt Homunculus? ... and why bother, the strange man was certainly full of himself, more than capable of lying to achieve his own ends.
//I thought he was done with me, I thought it was over. The Stone was made, he was created... why is any of this happening?//
“Sir?”
He jumped, at the sound of approaching footsteps, looked up at the young man approaching him warily. “Sir, are you all right? Your arm...”
“Uh... I...” He didn’t know what to answer, didn’t know what to say, not that it mattered. Over the man’s shoulder, Eike watched Dopple melt through the South Gate, and the words that came were dead, flattened by weary despair. “... don’t worry, she’s not after you.”
The man didn’t know what he was talking about - might never know, Eike realized - as he took a step back and met empty air instead of the kiosk that should have been there. It was the most unnerving to fall backward into time, but this return to the real had been very brief, and he was almost tired enough not to notice, eyes flickering closed even as he braced himself for the next landing.
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Author’s Notes -
1. I wanted to make the chase scene one chapter, but I think it would just work better as two.