The Good Fight

[Nox]

Bas was a trip. He supposed this was as good as any excuse to laid. He had a feeling that he'd done it before, though he didn't have any girl's numbers in his wallet that he wanted to call. He looked up at Aria sitting across from him as he lay on the cold wet ground. He grinned at her "Care to join me?"
The others had left, he didn't want to move.

She frowned at him. Nox nodded and put his head back on the ground. "That's okay. I don't wanna move. That hurt like hell."


Nox watched as Aria reached for his arm. She lifted it up and turned his palm facing up. "I expected you to bare the mark too. The way you fight."


Nox sat up, her hands still holding his arm. He looked at her, those green eyes spoke volumes but he couldn't read them anymore than he could read her mind. "Marked?"
He sighed. "I don't remember much since waking up in a full body cast after a plane crash."


She tilted her head, like the puppy that couldn't quite understand what you were saying. It was cute, maybe Bas was right. Though this one, looked far more intense than what he wanted. If only he could remember his mystery girl. She spoke and from the look on her face he hadn't been listening, oops. She repeated herself. "So you have no idea what this means?"


Nox laughed and shook his head and fell back. Ouch. "No clue. No clue why I've this power. Who this mystery girl is in my head. Or why I keep seeing a woman being mauled to death by claws and jaws but I can't see them. She has the same mark you do on your arm. The snake biting it's own tail."


She started tapping away at her wallet. She didn't say much, but she flipped through screens and smiled. With a deft movement she went into holo mode. "This you?"
In mid air floated a holo pic, a pretty old one too, his name floated next to it with a bunch of other stuff next to it. He barely understood what half of it meant but one word caught his attention - "field hunter".

He looked at her with questions marks in his eyes. He grinned as he could see the images in his head. "Looks like me, that's my name. What is it?"


Aria smiled. "Your 'public' file in our database."
She put magical quotes around public. "What any hunter can look up to see who they are working with. Your name, your specialties, your kill ratio. And your current mission."
She shook her head then laughed. "Says here you've not had a mission in over three years. The American system isn't always up to date nor do you answer to the Regus like we do."


She spoke in riddles. His head hurt. "Girl speak plainly. I need a drink."
But she kept reading and then a frown creased her forehead. "What?"
Nox sat up and pulled the wallet from her small hands and read where she was looking.

It was a mission report from the looks of it. He only understood half of what it said. Hell hound? The image of the woman flooded into his head. The memories with it. He was 16. His mother was packing the car after they'd finished a mission. He was too busy to notice, he replied to her question with little understanding of what she said. Screaming, blood. He was 16 all over again. He'd watched the images before without understanding. It had fueled the fight. No wonder why. He'd watched his mother be killed by a hell hound. Still that word meant little but his mother, he'd watched and he did nothing. He knew he was crying, he didn't care.

Aria took the wallet from him, he nearly snapped at her before remembering she was helping. It hurt like hell. She spoke softly, and held his hand in hers, it had a strange calming affect on him. "There was nothing you could do about it. You can't see, touch or hear a hell hound unless it's claiming you."


It was like she read his mind. "How do you do that?


She smiled, Nox thought she needed to do that more often. "You aren't the only one special around here."
He looked at her again with questions. And then all of a sudden the most overwhelming fear coursed through his body. He was 16 all over again watching his mother die again. And just as suddenly as it had come it was gone. "I can tell what you are feeling, I can make you feel something else."


Holy shit! This world was a whole lot stranger than he could imagine, and he lived it every day. He fought monsters. She wasn't making things up, he knew it. It felt like home. The fight, the weirdness of it all. It was all right. She smiled at him. "Your parents were Atharim, Nox. You and your sister followed them. You probably came to Moscow to be initiated into the fold proper. Your family has been Atharim for generations according to the file. This is what you do."


He barely heard half of what she said, his mind raced at the word sister. She knew exactly that and she showed him a picture. Nox covered his face with his hands, he'd been pining for his sister. But yet that knowledge didn't change the excruciating need to find her. To be with her. And the sudden realization that she'd not found him. His hopes were dashed. Was she on that plane? Did she die? Did she not want to find him?

Aria stood up and held out her hand. "Let's get out of here. We'll find your sister. But you need a drink, and I need to get cleaned up and make a phone call. We can finish this tomorrow, when you've collected yourself."


Nox took her hand and she helped him up. They parted ways once they reached the surface. Nox started down one way and she went the other, they'd exchanged contact info on the way up. Nox turned around. "Hey Aria. What's her name?"


Aria turned around and smiled. "Aurora."



Edited by Nox, Oct 1 2014, 12:58 PM.