castleinthemist | .5th Fantasy Impromptu [Closed to Harth]

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.5th Fantasy Impromptu [Closed to Harth]

She hasn't seen Duo since that day in the common room.

She had helped him with the leather he'd gotten from the fountain, helped him with his hair and he had even given her a small weapon - a knife - to defend herself with out in the castle. It had been a good evening. One she enjoyed. One of the few she actually enjoyed in her time there. She really did seem to like being around him, though she couldn't exactly explain why her mechanical heart always felt so fluttery and light whenever he was around, or why she became so flustered and awkward at the drop of a hat with him.

And suddenly he wasn't there. And she noticed.

Haku waited a while, quietly worrying while trying so hard to not outwardly show it. She didn't want to cause undue panic, thinking that maybe, just maybe, she was being needlessly paranoid. He was sleeping more than usual, or had explored further in the castle and was there, just fine and alive with no need to be worried over.

But when a full day passed she couldn't take it anymore. And that's when she did something foolish.

Taking up the knife that he had given her, she tied her long skirt up and did her hair back in a loose bun, setting off without telling anyone where she was going. She had hoped she was wrong, that she wouldn't get very far and find him safe. Sure he might scold her for going out alone like an older brother to a younger sibling, but she wouldn't care so long as she knew he was okay.

And if she got to the end of the trolley - the furthest she had ever gone - and he wasn't there... then she would come back before anyone could realize she'd left. No harm, no foul. Any shadows? She'd run. Any other sign of trouble? She'd scream then run. In her mind it was a decent plan, for all it's holes.

Quietly she headed out to the bridge, past the stair tower and on to the next level, looking around as the wind brought the scent of the sea to her nose and fluttered loose strands of white hair past her face. She tucked some behind her ear instinctively, pausing to look around and strain her ears to listen. There were no sounds aside from the distant cry of gulls flying over the crashing sea.

"Not here..." she muttered to herself, continuing up the next stairwell. That was when she finally took note of the off-colored stairs that led to the broken domed roof over the building next to the upper platform, above the trolley tracks. She paused and strained her ears once again, but the same silence met her.

What if he was down there... what if he was hurt... ?

"Duo-kun... ?" she called out nervously, then cleared her throat and tried again, actually letting her powerful voice carry for once. "Oiiiiiii! Duo-kuuuuuuun!"

Her voice echoed back at her, but she thought that for a moment, just a moment, she heard another voice calling softly back to her...

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"... funny. She's never mentioned you before," Haku said with noted suspicion in her voice. True, she may not have talked to Toph as much as she talked to Duo or Quatre, but even so she made a valid point.

"I've spoken to her a few times, but I'm new also." He explains, finding an interesting spell and reading through it.

"A month? I didn't leave my room much."

"... give me a reason to trust you, Harth-san. You've walked in to my dreams uninvited and watched as several others broke in to a panic over hallucinated memories and did nothing."

She swallowed hard, trying to ignore how much her mechanical heart was racing. She didn't normally stand up to people like this, but something about the whole thing didn't sit well with her.

"When everyone else is working together you've been on the sidelines. That's not exactly something I can trust."

Hmf. He smirked at her a bit.

"Who says you need to trust me?" He read a bit of the spell, then turned the pages.

"As for my non involvement? That's just it. I tend to be more of a watcher than an active participant. Or at least I am when I actually have people under my employ." He looked back to Haku.

"I have a spell I want to try, Haku. Transmutation. Turn your mechanical body into a human."

"Wha-..." Haku's mouth dropped open, head shaking frantically as she retreated back, any tone of defiance dropped and replaced with fearful crying out. "N-no... why-- ... I don't want to be human! I'm fine just the way I am!"

She inched back on the bed until her shoulders hit the wall behind her, suddenly afraid of what he might do to her if she dared to be any closer than that.

"Leave me alone... please..."

He just stated at her, patiently.

"And yet you were dead and broken a moment ago. Lucky you, getting revived by the grace of our humble hosts and their magic." He started, turning fully to her.

"Yet you do this? Do something for me, and I'll do something for you. I'll find Toph, bring her back. And fulfill whatever..." He reaches over and presses his finger to where her sternum might be. He taps it twice.

"Whatever's in your heart. Metaphorically."

"My.... heart..."

She touched her chest where he had tapped, painted nails digging in to the fabric of her shirt. She felt her artificial heart thudding against her ribs, knowing that her Kokoro unit that gave her life as well as a soul also led to the human-like emotions she had inside.

Human-like. But not human.

Maybe if she was human... those confusing feelings would finally make more sense. Maybe if she was human, she would be stronger. Better. Some one worth existing.

She had lied when she cried that she was fine the way she was. She didn't really believe that. It was just something she tried to say to make herself feel better.

"... all I have to do... is do something for you? That's it?" she asked uncertainly, "... would anyone get hurt if I did... ?"

"More people would get hurt if you didn't." Harth said calmly, the corner's of his lips flat lining briefly, then smiling, reaching over to cup Haku's chin gently.

"I'm a vampire, Haku. Human blood. I don't eat gruel." He said, his hand falling away.

"And if you volunteer? I can heal you."

"A-..."

She couldn't even finish it. The idea was insane. Unbelievable. There was no way--...

But how had Toph died? Even shadows wouldn't have left her like that. And there were no other creatures there that could have killed her. Not with her ability.

Slow as Haku could be some times, she wasn't completely dumb, and the pieces were finally starting to fall in to place for her.

"Ohh..."

The noise was weak, a tremor of a sound that fell from her lips. She shivered visibly, trying to pull away from him but having nowhere to go.

So she figured it out.

"I'll get you what you want. Humanity, security. Protection of you and your loved ones..." He smiles a bit.

"Bare in mind, Haku. This is your chance to rise to the occasion. Protect those you care about by doing something very simple. Further? Once we find Toph and bring her in? My crime would be negated." Regardless of whatever pain he might have caused. He didn't really care.

To say she was afraid would have been a gross understatement. She was terrified. She didn't know how to deal with being human, but he was offering her a chance to do more than she'd ever been able to do for the people she'd come to care about in that short amount of time at the castle. The very thing she craved the most - to be useful.

For a price.

"... wouldn't... it be more beneficial to everyone... even you... if we found a way out of here...?" she stuttered weakly, biting back the desire to simply curl in to a ball and sob uncontrollably. She wanted this nightmare to be over, but her mind knew that it was really just beginning.

"Hm. Of course it would." He said, still watching her from his seat at the end of the bed.

"To get out of here?" To find real prey? Yes. Of course it would be. "And to find a way home. That may not necessarily be possible if we're in another dimension. Be thankful this isn't a hell dimension of legend, Haku." He pauses.

"Or maybe that's exactly what it is. Either way? I doubt we're getting home. So I'll make you a promise. I know it doesn't mean much coming from me, but I won't kill you. If you serve me I'll do what I can to give you the fulfillment you wish so much for. The affirmation."

She still wanted to cry. She was still afraid. But did she really have any room to refuse him? At the very least he was offering something in return. She didn't know what she was getting herself in to, not completely, but her mind continually returned to the people she cared about. The faces of those she wanted to protect but had been too weak to up until then.

An unneeded breath in, eyes closing, all so she could steel herself against the one weak word she let fall from her lips.

"Okay..."

He smiled at that, reaching over to smooth her hair down. Actually, noticing just how wet she was. He grabbed a blanket and drapped it over her shoulders.

"It's going to matter, that. When you're human. Dry off." He said, turning back to his book.

"What do you want, Haku?"

She took the blanket with shaking hands, tugging it over her shoulders tightly, even going so far as to loose her hair from the braid it had been in earlier, letting the silver length fall all the way to the bed. She found it difficult to meet his gaze after that, though.

"... I want... to understand why I feel this way... around some one I hardly know still..."

Hm. He crossed his legs and hunched over his book. He continued to read the details of the spell in this tomb, then looking up at her.

"That boy? The one you were calling earlier?" He asked, turning the page.

He'd have to make an alter, that he had. He can do a few other things with what he had. Should be fine with some of the things he had.

Yes, he could pull this off. He reached over and grabbed his alter and some of the bundled herbs.

"Duo..." she answered quietly, nodding slowly. "The... one with the short hair. Older," came further description after a pause. There were two of them after all.

"Interesting." Harth replied. "Not exactly something I understand well either."

A lie, but a harmless one. She'd have to find that out on her own.

He finished the alter, drawing on the floor with some ash. He finished, reaching over to Haku's forehead to mark her with the ash as well. Finishing, he began reciting the spell. Visually, nothing happened at first, before the herbs dissolved and started mixing together in the air, a shiny smog lifting from it and seemingly at Harth's command, moving into Haku's nose, mouth and ears, even her eyes. It would constrict her throat as it fell down, every particle melding with her machinery, starting to morph it into something else.

She watched him silently, cautiously, wondering what was going to happen next. She almost wanted to ask, but fear kept her lips closed for the moment.

And then it started. The smog curling in to her nose, her mouth, through her entire face, down in to her body where the changes began to take place. At first she felt nothing, but the more it went on the more she began to feel uncomfortable sensations all throughout.

The metal, silicone, plastic and wires began to form in to flesh, bone, veins, ligaments and muscles. And nerves. When the nerve endings started, that was when it became painful. It started as a sharp gasp, but soon enough she was struggling for air, falling over on the bed with a pained, frightened noise. Tears started to roll down her cheeks, hands coming up to the side of her head and digging in to her hair.

She wanted to cry out for him to stop, to take it back, but she couldn't find her voice beyond those plaintive whines and moans.

He climbed back onto the bed, sliding in next to her and pulling her up to rest against his shoulder, holding her tightly and steady. A hand rubbing her back to comfort her. He was at least going to see her through this, indeed.

It didn't take so long, five minutes almost. He waited until he could no longer hear the changes. Was it over? Had to be. "Haku?" He could hear her heart beat, smell the blood inside of her.

It was five minutes of hell for her, regardless of how short of time that was. She spent most of it trembling and convulsing, crying out and unable to speak even pleading words. She felt sick, but she didn't know how to deal with feeling sick, so she just cried more, sobbing harshly with each twinge of pain, each horrid feeling.

But it did pass in time, the cries quieting, the sobs ceasing, even her shaking quelling in to little more than tired trembling. At last, her voice came back to her, rougher and slightly deeper than she remembered it being before.

"I-I'm... okay..."

Couldn't do much for the pain. Maybe he should have put her to sleep first? Perhaps not. He smiled, holding her in an embrace in an effort to comfort and ride her through the pain.

"It seems to have worked." He said, pulling away and smiling at her, his hand at the crook of her neck.

"Now, you best keep this to yourself. The spell, our little deal. I'd prefer the rest of them not know about what I am." Could she feel his grip on her?

He pulled a hand down, his cold hands touching hers, examining her fingers. "I'll keep my word, so long as you do."

Though she was shaking, the shiver at his cold touch was obvious, a weak whimper escaping even though this time she didn't recoil from him.

She nodded slowly, watching his hand moving to hers nervously. Miku would know... the others might take a while to catch on, but it wouldn't take long for them to figure it out either. She could promise to keep it secret all she wanted, but sooner or later it would come out.

She just hoped she could keep them from doing something foolish once it did happen.

"All you need to do is tell them that you fell, your shadow found it's way to the fountain and you were revived as a human." And that's the story. He gave her hand a squeeze.

"Best not trouble them with inconsequential details." There was a bit of a threat lacing those words. Did she know what he was capable of?

She tensed and swallowed hard, giving another nod as her mind raced. She was a terrible liar. Something always gave away what was really on her mind, what was really going on. Her eyes betrayed her more often than not, if her posture or fidgety quirks didn't.

How long could she keep up the charade? She heard the threat in his tone. What would happen if something slipped?

.5th Fantasy Impromptu [Closed to Harth]

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