The Haunt (Abel)(Ended)

[#PI077A "Adia"]

(A few months into the future. It's winter now.)

Adia woke up again in that field. All around her were vast and distant meadows, as she got up to look around from the breezy field of grain and various other crops. It was this dream again... but what was it? Was it a past that she never knew? Was it a future that she hoped to see? Perhaps it was something else, an afterlife; Jonathan had said something about it once, he called it... Heaven.

She had very little knowledge of the topic, just a few inspiring things that her former master had told her. She looked in the distant, out into the all present light, and heard a voice say that name she was unfamiliar with, "Ashley," it said. She felt that the voice was calling her, but Adia was unfamiliar with such a name. Just as she went to take a step forward in the beautiful landscape, the dream ended, and she woke up.

Out here was much better, life now was much better in general. As she yawned and stretched awake, she heard the last words, the last orders she received, "Bring back its head... or die out there..." It had been days... she would never find that damned remnant, but without it, she was certainly not going back to Arcis.

The mountains seemed a forever away from where her journey began. She felt alone... but at the same time, she felt guided by something, or someone that made her feel a little less alone. Perhaps it was God as Jonathan told her of long ago, or perhaps it was just that her own present ambition comforted her.

She sat up from her spot on the ground and pulled out a map from one of her cargo pockets. She had once had nothing but a ragged set of thrown out clothes, but now, she was supplied with a military uniform. The map was hand drawn, by herself, and it only showed the landforms that she had been through. It was to find her way back.

She took a sniff of the air, and sighed, "Water," she said aloud, "I can't smell a single thing over it..." As she spoke, a gust of wind blew by, and snow dusted around her and rolled by and through the mountains. She was high up, and it was cold. She wrapped her hands around herself and rubbed against her thinly layered clothes, "It's so cold..." she whispered, "But that... that monster... its up here somewhere," she reassured herself, and began walking, trudging through the snowy landscape.

[PS113C "ABEL"]

Abel had now spent a long time out here in the wastes. He had come out here with nothing but the clothes on his back and his own body to rely on.

Truthfully, he would not have survived on his own. If it were not for that Remnant who saved him, he would have died in the first few weeks.

At that time, the heat had been unbearable, but now it was the cold that threatened to kill him. This time he was more prepared however.

In addition to the dress shirt and slacks he was wearing when he escaped, he wore over it a military uniform he had stolen from a soldier back in the city. He had needed to help escape the city. Over that, he had since scavenged a black sweater and a long brown winter coat in the following months. He had spent many days searching in preparation for winter. The coat and sweater were worn and dirty, but most importantly they were warm.

He wore the uniform and military body armor over his normal clothes, and the sweater over that. The winter coat over that, with the sweater's hood pulled up over his head. Basically he looked like a homeless man, and basically that was what he was.

Still, he felt he could not return to the city just yet. He was out here searching for something. He needed a story.

In his home, he had suffered and learned little of the world. So he only knew his own story. It is a dangerous thing to go on just one story, especially your own. He needed information. He needed to understand the world before he could decided how it should be changed. It was clear that things couldn't stay as they were. He couldn't just let his people go on as the slaves of humanity. He had to do something... but what?

He had wandered the wastelands looking for an answer. Recently he had began to hike among the mountains. He wasn't sure what kind of story he would find there, but just climbing the mountains would be an experience in its self.

He let out a long visible breath as he stopped to look out over the scenery. The view from where he was standing was almost indescribable. The wastelands were both beautiful and ugly at the same time. Inside him he felt a joy he couldn't quite place and a sorrow that seemed to follow him everywhere he went.

The wind picked up, but he was too lost in his thoughts to pay it any mind, despite how much the cold pained him. The tail of his coat and danced in the wind around him and his darkened figure stood amidst the pure white snow. Knowing the world could be so beautiful and yet had become so ugly, filled him with dread, but also reaffirmed his determination and resolve.

[#PI077A "Adia"]

As Adia walked, she came over snow covered ridge and looked out over it, seeing the dark figure walking through. She took a few sniffs of the air, and then sneezed. She shook her head and shivered before rubbing her hands against her nose to try and warm herself up. "This cold is really taking a toll on my senses," she muttered, and decided to go on and investigate the figure in person.

She jumped from her spot and ran through the snow, slipping and sliding with every other step. Once she finally got to the bottom of the ridge, she stopped to catch her breath. "I can't smell," she began complaining as she hyperventilated, "I can't breath... I haven't felt my feet since I started up this stupid mountain... how am I supposed to track or do anything?"

She then started up again, this time jogging towards her target a bit slower than before. The snow must have been at least 20 inches high off the ground; and to make matters worse, the wind in the mountains pushed the snow around making dunes of snow that were almost waist high off the ground.

As she forced her way through the white, powdery, barrier, she finally got to where she thought she saw the figure, and looked around. "I know you're out there!" she cried out, "I'm not stopping until I find you!" As she finished talking, a huge gust of wind blew through; if she wasn't nearly buried in snow already, it'd have blown her right over. She threw up her arms to shield her eyes and face.

The wind didn't stop for a whole 30 seconds or so, and when it finally did, Adia had accumulated a small dune around herself. She shook and dug herself free before looking around for the figure again, "I'm lucky I woke up as soon as I did," she whispered, "Too much longer and I'd have been buried alive."

[PS113C "ABEL"]

The distinct sound of steps through snow triggered some kind of instinct, deep inside of Abel. Out here, he had to be weary of remnants who did not have their sanity like the one he was lucky enough to be saved by. He was very much prey, and probably wouldn't have survived if he hadn't listened to instincts like these. It was too dangerous to run away on the mountain. One wrong step, and you'd be tumbling off a cliff.

He had to fight the urge to run away blindly, and instead took cover behind a rock formation. Suddenly he heard screams. No, not just screams. It was a woman calling out. But speech did not necessarily mean intelligence or sanity. It was not an animal Remnant, at least.

He decided that if he were to find a story up here, it would be from this woman.

He didn't know if she was talking to him, but who else could she have been calling out to? He made his way towards the voice, still half afraid. Despite the fear of possibly being killed or captured, he felt like running away wouldn't accomplish anything. His muscles complained as he trudged through the snow, but he knew they could handle this and much more. His body was his strong suite after all. Most New Children had some kind of great ability to call upon, like controlling the elements or something similar, but for him it was simply a greatly enhanced body. That and a good singing voice.

That being said, and even though he had become accustomed to this harsh environment, it still tested his limits and called for him summon up all of his resolve. Still he seemed to be faring better than the woman he found before him. She seemed to be struggling a bit. She had just burst out of some snow that had quickly piled up around her.

He was standing on a ridge above her position, a short distance away. He stood tall, and with his feet firmly planted to resist the strong winds.

He heard her speak to herself, but just barely. He couldn't make out everything she said, not enough to respond.

"Good day!" He called out to her, deciding it was the appropriate greeting, despite the situation.

[#PI077A "Adia"]

Adia froze for a moment, and then turned around. She looked up at the figure and couldn't believe it. Did her would be prey just offer himself to her? "Good day?" she said, "Not really... no..."

She then began to climb back up towards him, slowly, struggling through the snow, and the ice that covered most of the ground beneath. After a few slips and nearly tumbling down the hill, she reached the top where the figure stood.

Her uniform was unmistakable, though tattered and torn. It bore her identity number on her shoulder patch, right over the flag of Arcis. The uniform was full white, making it clear that they knew there would be snow when they sent her out. She looked at him and sniffed the air around him, finally getting a clear scent. "A New Child," she said, panting a bit, "Not quite what I was looking for... but you'll do... Identify yourself... rogue..."

[PS113C "ABEL"]

"Oh... I suppose you have a point. Eh, heh," Abel chuckled in response to the woman. He was just thankful he wasn't huddled in some makeshift shelter, trying to avoid a blizzard.

He was planning to help her up when she began climbing, but as he came closer he realized that she was wearing a uniform... though different from his stolen one. Hers was all white. Some how she knew he was a rouge, but he contemplated lying and saying that he was a soldier too. After all she was out here, how strange would it have been for him to also be here. Of course the fact that his uniform wasn't the winter version (he assumed she was in a winter version) would be difficult to explain. It'd be easy to explain his extra clothes. After all, as she had pointed out the day was not so nice.

He continued to smile at her, even as she spoke to him in her commanding, seemingly threatening tone.

"You're right, I'm a rouge," He decided that answering truthfully was the way to go. Although he could have lied, he decided that he didn't want to do that kind of thing, because lying was wrong.

"I escaped from my master and the city to live for myself," He said to her, still smiling. His voice was still pleasant, but not exactly cheerful. He wasn't bragging... it was more like he was confessing, but he didn't feel guilty for his crimes.

He understood that as a soldier she would probably try to take him, or maybe even kill him, but even so. The simple facts remained, he did not want to lie, he wanted to trust people, even soldiers, and he did not want to hide the fact that he had achieved his freedom.

At the most he could even inspire her to achieve her own freedom. At the very least, he might be able to get her story and add it to his growing collection.

[#PI077A "Adia"]

Adia contemplated the situation. There was no way, whatsoever, that she was going to be able to carry him if she knocked him out or tied him up, not to mention that she was not at all adapted to combat in these mountain blizzards. "Please make this easy," she said, "Just come back to Arcis."

As she talked, she looked around, and hoped to find a remnant or something that she could kill and pass off as a remnant. A head would be much easier to manage than an entire body. She couldn't do that with him; that just wouldn't be the right thing.

"I won't kill you," she said, "I haven't got a reason to... if you escaped from Arcis once... you could do it again... just help me out and come back with me..."

[PS113C "ABEL"]

He listened to her request, and at first he wanted to immediately refuse her. He resisted the urge, and continued to listen with his weary smile.

From what she said, escaping almost sounded easy. Of course he knew it still wasn't. Plus an unruly element like him, would probably be killed. Defective products are easier disposed, not repaired. Then again, being 'repaired' would have been a fate worse than death.

He could have told her these things in his defense. He could have whined to her about his life as a slave, as a the toy of pleasure for anyone who could afford to pay his master. But he didn't.

"No..." was all he said at first, still smiling. Perhaps he might have seemed cruel right now, but that was not his intent.

"I could tell you how bad it was for me, back there... but you already know," He added.

"You have seen it... through you're own eyes. You have felt it... with you're own body. You're a New Child too aren't you?" He explained further. He wagered she was a New Child, because he doubted they would send out one of their precious humans into the wastelands... alone of all things. Whatever mission they sent her out on, was it worth her life? He also assumed that she had suffered like him... perhaps wrongly tough. He was basing his judgment on the only stories he knew, and that was quite limited actually. He only had his own experiences to go on, and that of people like him. The same story in different versions. There is danger in only one story. Right now he was biased against humans and society. He assumed all of his kind suffered like him, but maybe they didn't... maybe they did not need to be saved.

However, Abel could not understand that at this point.

"If that's so... then why? Why should you go back to? What would you go back to?" He asked, aiming to find at least her story, and perhaps make her take a serious look at it as well.

[#PI077A "Adia"]

Adia groaned a bit when he said no. Of course he wasn't going to make it easy. She didn't listen very well to what he said after that, but started listening again when he talked about her not going back. She laughed a bit at him as he said that, thinking to herself "It's funny... a month or so ago... I totally would have not gone back..."

She pulled out her obsidian dagger and rolled her head around, popping her neck as she stretched and prepared to fight. "Look," she said, "I don't care. I'm sick of having to find my own food and water out here... forget shelter... you're just a meal ticket to me... Now... you can come with me, and maybe live... and if you die, it'll be quick. If not, I'll fight you, and kill you that way, and you can die slowly from your wounds and the cold."

[PS113C "ABEL"]

Abel was disappointed in her response, so much so that he noticed he wasn't smiling anymore. It must have happened when he started asking her for her reasons why.

Her answer wasn't very descriptive, but she had in fact told him her story with just those few words, and he understood it more than he thought he would. As bad as it was back with his master, she had fed him and gave him a bathroom and a bedroom. It may have been a bed he was changed to, but it was a bed.

So she was not a mindless robot slave. She was a person just like him. He smiled again at this thought, even as she raised her dagger and threatened him.

"You do as you must... as will I..." was all he said with a smile. Despite his gentle nature, he was strong. And from the looks of things, he was better adjusted to the environment.

He did not enter a fighting pose, as he did not know any really. He was naive as well, and you could say he was underestimating her, but whether or not he'll have to face the consequences were still unclear. He simply stood calmly, proudly, as he had done while they were talking. He was only a few steps away, but those steps would be hard pressed trudges through the piled snow.

Physically he was probably stronger, but she was probably trained as a soldier. She also had a weapon. It would be brute strength vs skill. Which would win?

He did not run, thinking he couldn't escape, and he did not want to attack her really. He simply concentrated on her, watching for the slightest movement to betray her next actions.

[#PI077A "Adia"]

Adia raised a brow at him. He was odd, the reason for his actions didn't matter to her, just that she needed a way back into the city without what would not be death, but certainly some ridiculous punishment for failure. His words said that he was giving in, but his stance said otherwise.

He was taller than her, or so it appeared at a glance; and that was really saying something, considering that she was nearly six feet tall. She moved forwards a bit, and then moved forward more, quickly, to gauge his reaction.

After his initial reaction, she moved in, leaping up towards his head, her left arm hooking around where his neck would be if he stayed put. "Capture first," she thought as she went for the attack, "If I can't... then I go for the kill." With her knife firmly grasped in her other hand, her feet swung forward from behind her, ready to use her momentum to pull him down from behind.

[PS113C "ABEL"]

She had feinted before charging, and each time Abel had reacted but stopped himself before betraying too much.

He had ended up only just noticeably shifting his weight onto his left leg and twisting his slightly shoulders each time.

His usual calm stance had been broken by her movements, and it would have been clear that he was indeed actively trying to resist her.

But the trade off was that he was ready for when she did charge forward. The knife was a short blade, and it did not add much reach. Abel believed that his long legs would be able to reach her first in a trade off, and had been waiting for her to enter his territory.

When she began lunging towards him, he also sprang into action.

His upper body began to noticeably twist like before as he shifted onto his left leg, digging it firmly into place. But this time he did not stop there. His powerful muscles brought up his right leg with tremendous force. As he did, he dragged up a spray of cold snow, some of which trailed behind his leg quite beautifully.

He brought his right leg up high, and as natural result of a frontal kick like this his upper body leaned forward to maintain his balance. Horses had a naturally good sense of balance, partially due to their particularly good subconscious sense of where their body and limbs were with out having to visually confirm that position.

Abel had come to rely on his natural abilities like these in order to survive out here. And this kick was a by product of both his naturally good balance, as well as his naturally strong legs, but it was still amateur at best in terms of form. His brute power was what really made it fearsome.

But even as he executed his frontal kick, his opponent's arm came hooking around behind his neck. It threatened to drag him off his precious balance, and with only one leg firmly planted he would not be able to resist. He silently cursed at himself for not paying enough attention to her left arm. He had been too focused on the knife, but he really had reason to be.

She had managed to close the distance between them, with her sudden lunge, and even if his kick were to connect it would be an awkward impact. His reach really worked against him in close quarters and it would cost his attack some of his great power, and if his attack couldn't stop her, she would surely take him down.

[#PI077A "Adia"]

During her attack, she kept track of her moves, and planned ahead for the next ones; as her mind raced through the possibilities, she thought “Long ranged, melee opponent, keep in close, and avoid being knocked away. Grapple a weak point, and throw him off balance. If he doesn’t go down, charge in quick, and stay in close; if he does go down, hit weak points: first, a blow to the abdomen, and next, go for the throat.”

As she had leapt forward, her body followed, and leveled out high above his kick. Her left arm caught onto his throut, and she pulled hard, swinging her relatively lightweight body around him, and pulling hard in the process. As he went down with hard thud, she bounded back up, dusting up more snow, and giving the both of them a blinding snow screen from all their movements.

“After a temporary disablement,” she continued planning out, “use a visible and immediate threat to force opponent into submission.” As she came down on his chest, she drove on knee into his gut, and another right to his side. All at the same time, she thrust her right forearm down into his throat as hard as she could with her length of arm right before her elbow. She then quickly pulled her knife up over his face and held it point down over his eye, only a couple inches away.

“Did you know,” she said to him, "That obsidian blades are sharp and strong enough to lop a horse’s head clean off in a single blow? Imagine just how quickly I can drive this dagger into your brain. If you try and kick me again, I’ll take your foot off.”

[PS113C "ABEL"]

From his perspective, he was standing one moment. The second, he was on the ground. He didn't remember falling. That was how hard he was taken down. He just knew that he had been slammed into the cold snow. The snow had cushioned him very little from the frosted hard ground of the mountain underneath it. The pain and cold had seized him up and even though his instincts told him to flee and put distance between them with a quick roll away, his body was unable to respond in time. His body lifted up just slightly, enough to be knocked back down by a strong knee to his gut and her forearm pressed against throat.

He grimaced in pain, despite his desire to maintain his poker face.

Thankfully, she did not finish him right there and then. She instead threatened him with some thing a bit long winded, but from everything that was happening he didn't pay attention to what she said much. He was focused on recovering from the pain.

'Che... not as bad as when the clients liked it rough,' he thought to himself. If anything his body was capable, he could not shrug off this kind of damage instantly, but a lesser man would have been knocked out cold. She had chosen to simply hold him at knife point, he had the time he needed.

By the time she had finished speaking he was able to look up at her, straight into the eyes. She did not have his arms pinned down before she choose to taunt, and that would be her down fall. His second best attribute, right after stamina, was his speed, and his strength was also above that of the average for New Children. So he wagered he would be faster than what she threatened him.

With out betraying his actions through facial expression, he knew he had to act. He was still in pain, but he could handle this much at least. His arm shot up with great speed to catch her knife wielding arm by the wrist and hold it there with crushing strength. He was betting his life on this wager, but did so with a calm confidence that was a bit frightening even to himself. Still, he could not simply let her kill him, he couldn't go back as a slave, and so he could only move forward.

[#PI077A "Adia"]

Adia frowned as she saw him grab her arm, “He’s not giving up,” she thought, “What a drag….” “You’re strong,” she said to him as she tried to jerk her arm free. She then slid he knee down his body, slowly letting up pressure until she felt her knee hit the cold snow between his legs. “But not strong enough!” she shouted as she rammed her leg into his crotch.

“Stun him,” she though, “and then pull free, while safely grabbing the weapon with a free hand.” After she nailed him, she dropped the knife and jerked back from his grip, shooting her left hand over to grab the knife before she rolled off to the side of him, ready to jump up. “He won’t be happy,” she thought after that, “If he gets up, be ready to chop limbs; if he stays down, go for the throat.”

As she scrambled to get onto her feet again, she slipped on some ice, and crashed down onto her knee. When her leg hit the ground, a loud series of cracks and pops sounded off as the snow seemed to begin to fall into the ground. “Shit,” she thought to herself as what was apparently a huge ice plate had broken free from the ridge, and was now slowly beginning to slide down the mountain.