Recollections of Strangers (Vash/ABA)

[A.B.A.]

Revenge as my own personal need? Couldn't agree more. She nodded with Vash's statement, deciding it best to keep that tidbit of personal info to herself. She had no false ideas of grandeur when it came to her revenge. It mattered not who was right or wrong, merely that her prey had taken those precious to her, and she wanted closure.

Yet something about Vash's words clicked in her mind. The Guastoian king? Why would he mention him? He spoke so informally of the man, as if he knew Zelos. It was a wide leap of logic, but A.B.A. was one to follow something like that regardless.

"What do you know of Zelos? You speak as if you know him, or are like him. I wouldn't expect a man like yourself to know what he's like at all." She spoke with a bitterness that made her hate of the man perhaps more transparent than she would have cared for.

[Vash, the Angel's Moon]

He shrugged. "I don't really know Zelos. I generally stay away from Guasto... but yes, I am a lot like him, in some ways."

He paused, trying to decide if this person was trustorthy, decidign she was, almost feeling a sense of familiarity from her.

"...Have you... heard the legend of the Moon Warriors?"

[A.B.A.]

"The Moon Warriors? You mean the warriors from Ketalunanox?" A.B.A.'s level of interest was at full power right now. It was one thing that Vash did say he was like Zelos, but if she had any powers of deduction at all she got the feeling that whatever a Moon Warrior was she was looking at one of them.

[Vash, the Angel's Moon]

He nodded. "Lunatopia, to be precise. Many thousands of years ago, according t the legend, Ketulunans fled the moon to live here, on Allorum. With them, they brought remnants of things that Allorum had never seen. With their technology and magic, they created foci for each land's magic to be set in the sky as proof of their goodwill... all but Nerezza refused. To keep these owerful tools dormant, as their countries had wished, a Warrior was bound to each, and so they slumber for eternity."

[A.B.A.]

A.B.A. blinked as her mouth hung open. The strange info had baffled her, and the sheer amount of it had left her trying so hard to comprehend it it was as if all other brain functions had diverted just to that one task.

Finally she closed her mouth, paused and then opened again to speak. "So...the people from the moon, came down to our planet and made moons of power? And now there are..." she stopped and touched her fingers one by one as she counted, "thirteen people that have a moon of power in them, but they're sleeping somewhere? I don't think I understand." A.B.A. looked again with a daze in her eyes at Vash, hoping something he would say would make sense of it all.

[Vash, the Angel's Moon]

He smiled. "Not quite." He looked up, thinking. "The moons are the ones who are sleeping... well, most of them. Nerezza's Black Moon was recently reawakened, and has been active all these years at the request of the Nerezzan people." He paused, as if strugglign to find some way to phrase it so she would understand.

"Imagine that you have... a great power. Now, if people knew you had this power, they would be afraid. So you break it down and send it over a long distance to someone else. Over that distance, the power weakens. You'd be quite tired, and the person on the other end would gain a fragment of the power, but nothing more. This keeps your concentration, day and night, even when the other person isn't using what you're giving him. You have no ability to do anything except meditate, while the other person gains a few useful abilities, but nothing more. Do you understand?"

[A.B.A.]

A.B.A. continued to stare as she tried to process it all. "So, the moons are still around, but sleeping? And there are people who share a link with the moon which makes it so that the moon sleeps as long as they hold that bond right?" She nodded to herself as if thinking she understood at last.

"All the same, what does this have to do with you? Why are you telling me this anyways?" Even more so than before A.B.A. toyed with the hair that ran alongside where her key would be. She had even became aware of it. If he really is this strong... She didn't let the thought finish, too eager to hear what Vash would say next.

[Vash, the Angel's Moon]

He smiled. "I think you've already guessed who I am."

He held out his hands to the wisps, which danced around his fingertips.

"It was called the Angel's Moon, because it's light guided souls to heaven."

[A.B.A.]

A.B.A. watched the wisps that danced through the air ever so softly. She did not know why, but just watching them made her heart feel lighter. She sat in a almost euphoric daze till she realized what was coming over her.

No! Snap out of it! You aren't here to... watch pretty things. You have a job to do, and he's distracting you from it. Velestia is distracting you from it. You know what to do with distractions. She looked away from the wisps with a violent twist of her neck. Pulling the hood over her to obscure Vash's view of her she shifted back to her original form.

"I'm sorry Vash, but I should go. It has been nice to chat with you. I would ask that you might join me on my journey, but I fear your morals would only get in my way." Her voice was slightly deeper now, harshened by her years over Velestia. "Perhaps when my task is complete, I might enjoy your company again. Until then, I fear you are a bad influence." Keeping her head low A.B.A. sat up and began to make her way back towards the crowd of people that covered the festival grounds.

[Vash, the Angel's Moon]

He looked sad, but stood and shouldered his cross-shaped burden. He called out to her.

"Good luck! I hope you find the answers you're looking for."

[A.B.A.]

Only half hearing his fond goodbye A.B.A. dashed through the crowd. As she plunged into the crowds further and further she felt her throat relax once again. It was only as she moved swiftly behind one of the many shops that she shifted back to her original form. She stared back at her callused hands, and found an odd comfort as she stroked them against her own face.

"Damn girl." She slumped against the wall, hoping to fade into obscurity within the alley's shadows. Time had made her forget about how tenacious souls can be. With their memories and knowledge came their feelings and beliefs that tried to worm their way into her mind. Velestia's power was helpful, but her spirit was too soft.

Her mind started to wonder if she had done the right thing with Vash. He was trusting, and sweet. He would have been so easy to lure to this very alley, and she would have felt that thick resistance of flesh against her blade before she claimed him.

So why hadn't she? Were he half as strong as he'd claimed she'd have been easily able to take her revenge on Aya and Nia. She pulled down Paracelsus and stared at her hand, so tiny on his large base.

"Am I weak?" She asked aloud.

"There's no shame in a moment's weakness A.B.A.. Your mind is clouded and troubled by today. You needed time to think on it all, and were comforted by a powerful stranger." His raspy voice tried to ease her doubt.

"A ruler would have been stronger. A leader would have known what to do."

"You know you can't see your brother now. He would not help you."

"I know, but I think I know who I can talk to..." A.B.A. reached deep into her robes and pulled the black rose in front of her. While the spirits of Kain and her father would not be able to answer her plea, it would be their silence that would drive her down a road of greater discovery then their words could have offered her.