"Long time no see." [Private: Famine/Heero]

Hastened breaths entered and fled her lungs. The balls of her feet and heels smacked against the antique finished manor floor. Her rushing footfalls echoed. She didn’t stop even when she felt a ‘whooshing’ sound closing in, as if something was flying through the air after her.

In a flurry of bright orange fur and feathered white wings Rita felt herself lurched back by her hood. She only stumbled as the clawed paws ripped the shawl down to get to her cranium raking the pointed nails at the top of her head, ruffing up brunette locks of hair to cut her forehead and scalp. Her frame was yanked and spun quickly; she didn’t know what hit her when she was pitched into the wall with speeds of at LEAST fifty mph, a loud noise of a sharp ‘CRACK’ echoed. She gasped, the air knocked right out of her lungs. Thankfully the shatter had been the wall denting behind her and not her spine snapping in half.

Dazed, revealed sapphire hues blinked to refocus at the sound of the exceed’s startled tone. ‘Dammit…’ She clambered, practically stumbling to get to her feet after the disorienting hit. “That’s not my name, furball--” She bit. Rita Famine had torn the snake eyed hood down over her face just as she heard her former comrade, Heero, turn the corner. She’d grimace beneath the shade of the cloth, azure hues narrowing. Evidentially, she said nothing more when Heero revealed himself; he’d recognize her voice if she’d reply to a thing.

Rita stayed still even when Heero was stepping closer and closer in her direction. Of course he wanted her to tell her who she was…maybe it was his curiosity… or.. could he have recognized the magic properties emitting from her. She’d figured those had all been blackened and covered by the tome tucked under her arm

Her teeth clenched behind her lips, jaw gritting.

She’d begin  to raise her palm to her head, fingers brushing against the surf good would it do to let Heero know who she ace of her hood. Famine instead changed her route; throwing her hand forward without moving her cowl away so much as a centimeter… what good would it do to let Heero know who she was, in this situation especially. The centermost area of her palm lit up with a grungy violet aura. It was then that a black matter seeped up through the floor between them, growing and raising quickly until the space once between them was blocked off by a black, shadowy, wall.

Without a doubt Heero would be able to bust through that… but even a second of a head start was better than nothing. Rita spun around, and rushed back down the still dark hallways of the manor. She’d rely on intuition to take her to the girl… and she prayed that it would kick in fast; she’d have ‘The Golden Salamander’ back on her in no time.


 

Famine felt her heart fly up to her throat as her name, her real name, echoed from Heero’s mouth. She’d stumble with the sudden gust as wall hangings and décor clamored to the floor against the force. She only dared stop when he leapt in front of her path. Still, even with all the time that passed, He still seemed to tower over her height. She almost wanted to sputter his name aswell but instead held her tongue, clearing her throat to swallow down the word.

She curled her fingers up around her hood, leading it down off her head for real this time to rest against her shoulders. She might as well accept that she had been defeated, right. Yes, Heero would reconize the girl… after picking out her diffrences that was. Groomed brunette locks which had once reached all the way down to her hips now stopped at the mages jaw, the front of her hair grown slightly longer on its sides. The side of her neck where her guild insigina had once rested proudly abbeared to be adorned with a burn instead; it was still somewhat red from the Insignia removal. Her seemingly narrower eyes were darker underneath, black circles emphasizing her fatigue. The blue hues slid off to gaze at the door behind him. So... that’s where the rich kid was.

Thoughts as to how she could get through Heero and grab the girl thumped around inside her skull. She listened, hiding all signs of cower at his words, even when his magic began to smother the air she breathed, not leaving a single space of oxygen untouched by his influence.

Her hands clenched up stiffly at her sides, nails burying themselves sharply into her palms as she tried her best to maintain her ‘cool’ composure. In front of him; In front of someone she used to see as family. — No, she didn’t have any of that left, Family. Basilisk Fang was the closest she would get to that now…

“You know who I am Heero, I’m with the dark guild. The one that came for the girl.” She murmured between slightly clenched teeth. -and as for her magic... She didn’t dare stop it’s negativity from seeping into the air around her, even with Heero’s threatening. In fact, it seemed to radiate stronger and stronger off of her.

Her eyes flickered to the ground for a quick moment before glazing back up to Heero. Listening to her words as they came out she couldn’t help but ask herself if this was really happening? She really had become something horrid and vile. The longer she stood there without grinding out a sarcastic or witty comment the greater guilt she felt for this. If only She hadn’t had a hole drilled in her heart and filled it with this darkness, if Only she hadn’t found that book, or been left to fend for herself that day.

“But…” She stammered in a breaking voice. “In all honestly… I”She seemed to half whisper. I, it was as far as she got, trying her best to incinerate the untouched, pure, thought before it could leap from her mouth out in front of him.

Before Famine could straighten her thoughts she felt scales run around her arm as her snake, Ghost, made his way down the tattooed surface. It was then Rita came to flinch as a sharp sting tickled her skin. Her magic energies spiked up out of her body as she turned her gaze down at the small viper, leeching himself onto her wrist by the fangs. Famine’s frame would slightly shutter as its mouth popped away to leave two small holes. She stared as her blood painted down till it was pooling down her hand to fill in the ‘life lines’ across her palm.

“-…I” she murmured again, feeling something poison her bloodstream with every coming pulse. It flooded to her organs, blackening the pit of her heart, her brain. Her subconscious mind opened up to the venom, forcing the truth up and out of her.
“I always wanted…” A sudden, sharp smile stretched her lips up to accompany her tugging voice.

“The damned planet, Fiore, Fairy Tail suffer as I have serving it!” The mage breathed. “Now. Destroy me. That’s why you’re here right…” she muttered as a black blade sculpted itself into her grip. “To protect the girl?!”

"Someone DID do that to me, you think I was living some default with my parent’s before I decided to   walk into some mage guild when I was fourteen?!” The Darkened mage seemed to pant as if the very thoughts strained her breathing, blade trembling in her grasp.  She stumbled back defensively as Heero took a step in her direction. Rita shook her head at the sound of his brief laughter, his words, clenching the blade which rattled in her sweating grip.  “Y-You’re a liar---  it happened to me again—and where were you?!?! Where was anyone?!?!” She cried loud enough to rattle her lungs. Her heels locked into the ground ready to lunge and she felt herself on the edge about to lose it on him, to try and shove this makeshift blade through his heart.

It was then he came right at her, with speeds that could have put a fighter jet to shame. Famine had not a moment to react, the sound of his hand striking harshly across her face, strong enough to snap her head back, all of the other sounds went mute that moment, the full burn of the force washing over the red mark that had formed at her cheek. A brief, pathetic and high pitched cry shuttered from her mouth as he yanked her up by her now short locks to hold her above the ground. She didn’t kick, claw, bit or even attempt to stab him, instead the short blade fell from her grasp, just as it clattered across the ground it dissipated off into the air as her arms hung limply from her side.

Not another word came from either of the two, just an intense silence.
Before she could comprehend Rita hit the ground, body tumbling and skidding across the polished wood floor to hit up against the hall wall. On her way across her floor the  cloth of the garment on her  back caught a loose board or protruding nail. There was a brief sound of a tearing seam, the cloth pulling away from a spot on her upper back. Her hand came to cover the spot even as Heero spoke again, she was unwatching. His words almost felt like an order, demanding she leave with her new teammates. famine wouldn’t move, She wouldn’t fight back either. Really: She had lost, didn’t that mean he deserved to hear what she had stoed away… what she hadn’t stopped thinking about?

“That man…. The one you watched me kill.” She’d begin, still on the floor. From what it sounded like that strike had maybe restored a little sense in her, a little. “I was nine years old when I watched him and his wife destroy my life.” Famine croaked, recalling the memories as she sifted up sorely from the floor, eyes too the wall in front of her. She still sounded so darkened, depressed. “My parents were murdered in front of me... but it wasn’t over… That man I killed, he made my elder sister… stab her, our kid sister that was." She murmured;  Rita’s  tone had fallen to the temperature of ice. "Those people killed mages, collected their children, the ones with potential at least.. Akari couldn’t utilize magic, that’s why she had to die.”

“While I still don’t know why they were collecting and training orphaned mage children they treated us like animals, slaves almost. Woke up on the floor in a barred room every day starved, my wrists shackled to one another. I’d lay for few to wonder how many bruises I’d get from my magic drills that day till they came and hauled me too work. I lived that way for five years.” She almost whispered her words with how quiet she had gone, ashamed.


“Before I did this, before the guild burned something happened to me again. I had woken up from a bad dream that night. Someone was standing over me. I couldn’t move I couldn’t speak. Before I knew it I passed out again.
And when I woke up I was just like it was five years ago, tied, helpless, curled up on the dammed floor. The same man I saw he just came over too me, treating me like some…doll, holding my face, smelling my hair” She paused for a breath, and to mentally prepare herself what came next.

“When I started fighting him back he just grabbed me and the knife. They started cutting me out of my clothes, putting his hands all over me, carving into my skin with that knife till I bled and bled, I can’t remember everything after that.--but I guess that’s a good thing.” Rita had began to sit up on the floor now, her hand falling away from the torn opening on the back of her clothes. There was a mark there, one Heero would immediately recognize as Basilisk Fangs…. The mark was white, only slightly contrasting against her skin, the outside of the emblem seemed red, irritated around the corners by the raw hues, almost like an injury……… it was a burn.

“I got out of there but I was left to fend for myself, taken miles from my home, left helpless. I didn’t know what would kill me first the bleeding or the freezing. I tripped over my own feet eventually over something lodged in the ground. Tome of Famine. I engrossed myself in its magic. I thought maybe if I learned the magic I’d be able to defend myself, keep that from happening to me. Eventually I got like this, no longer enjoyed putting myself to do the right thing, protect the good.” Rita honestly didn’t know what else to do then leave, she cut her bonds, made it seemed like she had died… that felt better then straight up betraying her loyalty…. But that’s what she did anyways.

She’d shutter, turning her head back slightly, her face had become a bit flustered and she was biting into her lip as if to hold something in.“But, listen to the cat. I’m a criminal." she held out her wrists as if waiting for them to be snapped in cuffs.   Her voice sounded wavering, like she was choking on her tears and fighting it… Just like her old self she hated the idea of looking the slightest bit weak…. But now, she was pathetic. Glory had been sapped from her name and she had caved into the evils that had trusted them upon her. “Haul me too the Council or end my pathetic existence here if you would, please.”