Mireille’s eyes were full of menace and her voice audibly angry as she responded, “I will.” Are you happy now, you psycho?
Athena beamed with pride; her work was nearly finished. She moved to kiss her on the forehead, like she’d done with Chloe and Kirika, but Mireille would have none of that; she stepped back and extended her hand instead. Althena paused, and then decided to follow Mireille’s lead by grasping the literal Hand of Noir in a firm, businesslike handshake. From her point of view, this was not a convocation, but rather a transfer of power. Mireille was not a child like the Maidens; rather, Althena saw her as an equal. The businesslike tone continued with her remark: “Congratulations.” From what she knew about Mireille’s sense of morality, the blonde assassin probably didn’t want God’s mercy anyway.
All that was left was for the Three to finalize their status as the True Noir — but first, there was a minor distraction to deal with.
Borne was already starting to move towards the Corsican when she suddenly crumpled to the ground, unconscious, leaving Althena’s not-so-mousey assistant behind her. Apparently, Jeanette had just performed some sort of nerve-based move to incapacitate the much larger woman. Before Marennes could react, Jeanette had pulled out a 9mm Glock pistol and pointed it directly at her head. “Drop it.”
Marennes looked bewildered until she looked down at her hand — she’d already taken her own gun out of its holster without even noticing.
“Now.”
Realizing that Jeanette would probably never have become Althena’s personal assistant if she couldn’t make a shot from less than six feet away, Marennes complied, loosening her grip on her gun and allowing the firearm to clatter on the marble floor. Jeanette strode over quickly and kicked it into a corner before turning her attention back to Althena. “I’m sorry about that, but as a member of Soldats, I felt protecting the Hand of Noir took precedent over tradition.” The silenced gun was now inches away from the side of Marennes’ head, keeping the nun from making any sort of noise that might alert someone outside of the chamber.
“A wise judgment,” Althena replied. “Shall we continue?”
“Wait,” Chloe spoke up, “what’s going on? What’s all this ‘Hand of Noir’ stuff?”
“Do not worry, child. Your questions will be answered, if not by me. Mireille, are you prepared to make your statement?”
“I’m as prepared as I can be with only a half hours’ notice.”
“I’m sure it will be more than adequate.” Althena backed away from the spot where she’d been standing, moving closer to the pit in the center of the room, and bidding Mireille to take her place.
The Corsican assassin took a deep breath, and began: “You’ll have to excuse me if I don’t sound as literary as Althena — unlike her, I’ve only begun to figure out what’s going on myself. That, and I’m already sick of this pseudo-liturgical crap, so I’ve decided to just be blunt and say my piece. You’re probably incredibly confused by what just happened in the last few minutes, and I intend to answer what questions I can. Then you can decide if Noir is something that you really want to be a part of.
“First of all, to clear up any confusion, yes, Althena has just put me in charge of Noir.” Mireille glanced over at her rival for Kirika’s affection, and noticed that she still had a shocked look on her face. “Sorry to disappoint you, Chloe, but there’s a lot of things about Noir that you don’t really understand yet. I won’t go into the specifics right now — partly because I don’t know all of them myself, partly because we’re a bit pressed for time at the moment, but mostly because ultimately, they don’t really matter. Basically, Althena’s been telling you a partial truth; you two are the Maidens of Noir, but you are not the only members of Noir. There is a third person who is supposed to be a sort of guide-slash-protector to the Maidens, and this person has the oh-so-literary sounding title of the Hand of Noir. And apparently, I’m the Hand, which in turn makes me your de facto leader or something like that.” Mireille paused to see how the Maidens were reacting. As expected, Chloe was obviously still in a state of disbelief, trying to figure out some way to prove that what the Corsican was saying was wrong, while Kirika was being very Stoic about the whole situation: she wasn’t visibly reacting, but she was listening intently.
Mireille decided to move ahead with what she had to say. “Second, and perhaps just as importantly, you’re probably wondering why I’d even agree to this in the first place. After all, it was only a few hours ago that we were fighting to the death over Noir, and I was very much against it then. And to be honest, even now, I’m still opposed to Noir, or rather, I’m still opposed to Althena’s conception of Noir. I think this whole ‘love can kill so hate can save’ business is poppycock. But…” Mireille trailed off — in truth, she was still uncertain about why she had chosen to accept her role. “But, my gut is telling me that that doesn’t matter — that Noir doesn’t have to be that way. And the impression I’ve been getting is that Althena doesn’t care if I want Noir to be something different from what she wants. She speaks of Noir in mystical terms, as if its members were somehow infallible. I… I honestly don’t think she’d try and stop me.”
The blonde assassin paused again. She was getting vague in her wording, which was never good when delivering a speech. “But I’m getting sidetracked — the point is, I don’t subscribe to Althena’s opinion that ‘love can kill.’ Not because I think that that statement is necessarily wrong, but because I don’t think Althena really knows anything about what love really is. From what Jeanette told me, Althena was inspired to resurrect Noir after she was raped as a young girl — but that’s not love. It isn’t even a perversion of love; unless the rapist has severe mental problems, it’s an expression of power, and nothing else. She’s never experienced real love, because real love gets stifled by the greed and inhumanity of the world; I suppose that’s the ‘Darkness’ she was talking about earlier. Granted, I don’t have much experience with real love either, for the same reasons, but I do think that it’s worth fighting for. Perhaps I sound like a hopeless romantic, but that’s the best way I can think to explain why I’m going along with this insanity. And make no mistake: I still think this whole business is insane.
“I suppose it all comes down to a question of whether or not you are willing to be a part of my vision for Noir. That’s a lot to ask, since my vision is still in its formative stages — perhaps you’ll take active roles in helping figure out what that vision is. I do know one thing, though. I’ve been a professional assassin for most of my life, and I’ve had to deal with the scum of humanity on a daily basis. Sometimes they were my targets, other times, my employers, and often as not, both. But most of these people have one thing in common: they all take advantage of the relative innocence and naïvété of other human beings for their own ends. These sort of people are the kind of people who deserve to face Noir’s justice more than anyone. Do you agree?”
There was silence for a few seconds, before the blonde spoke up again. “Hey, Kirika, Chloe! I’m talking to you! Do you agree or don’t you?”
It was Kirika who spoke up first. “I… I suppose… at least, I can’t think of any reason why it shouldn’t be so.”
Mireille nodded, and turned to the other Maiden. “And what about you? What do you think?”
The violet-haired assassin turned to her mother figure, hoping Althena would give some sort of confirmation of everything this woman had claimed. But Althena’s face showed no emotion as she prompted her charge: “Answer her question, Chloe.”
Chloe spoke slowly, trying to phrase answer just so: “Um, well, it sounds like a good idea, but—”
“But what? But there are exceptions? Do you believe that some people should be held to different standards, Chloe?”
An easy question. “Yes! People with great wisdom—”
“People like that should be held to even stricter standards, so that they don’t abuse their gifts.”
“That’s not what—”
Mireille interrupted her again. “I know that’s not what you were going to say — I stopped you because you were wrong. And you know what else? I think you know that what you were trying to say is wrong, and you’re just hoping it’s right, because you don’t like the implications.”
“But… but…”
“Chloe, do you agree with what I’ve said, or don’t you?”
Chloe stared at the floor. “Yes,” she admitted. How did this happen? Why is everything going so wrong?
“Good. Now, here comes the real question: knowing what I believe, are you still willing to be a part of Noir? Personally, I’m ambivalent about the whole thing; as far as I’m concerned, either one of you can back out right now, and we can call the whole thing off, and I really won’t care. But understand this: there can be no compromise here. The True Noir is three people — no more, no less. If one of us decides to back out, there can be no Noir.
“The other thing you need to know is that I do not want to be some sort of dictator. I don’t want you to blindly follow my orders, because that would put me in a position where I could easily abuse my power. If you agree to be a part of Noir, it means you will have to think for yourself, and you will be taking responsibility for all of your actions.”
Chloe wasn’t sure what to do. She wished that Althena had made it clearer that she was supposed to listen to the Corsican… but even that would have had its problems, because now Mireille was implying that she didn’t have to follow Althena’s instructions. This wasn’t what she expected; joining Noir was supposed to be an easy choice; she wasn’t supposed to have second thoughts about it! Hell, she wasn’t even supposed to think about it at all!
But Kirika… Kirika didn’t seem to have that problem. In fact, she even gave a slight smile as she gave her response (which was saying a lot, considering how aloof the Japanese girl could be at times): “Yes… that sounds good.”
Now Chloe was really in a bind: on the one hand, she didn’t want to simply give in to the interloper who’d made her life so unnecessarily complicated, but she also wanted to keep Kirika as a friend. Kirika’s quick decision to join with the Corsican was explainable due to the influence the woman had over her, but… wasn’t that supposed to be gone now? Wasn’t that the whole point of the purification? Obviously, either the purification had failed — but that was impossible; Althena had declared it a success. But that meant that Kirika wasn’t being unduly influenced by the Corsican, but if that was so, why would she agree?
Realizing that the attention of everyone in the room was still on her, Chloe reached her decision. Maybe… maybe she could act as a sort of check, to make sure the Corsican didn’t undermine the whole thing. And when that happened (Chloe couldn’t seriously consider the possibility that it might not at the moment), perhaps she would be able to help Kirika oust this pretender and restore Althena to her rightful place. Surely, if anyone deserved to be this “Hand of Noir,” it was her; she’d been the one who’d orchestrated the restoration of Noir, and she’d deserved to see the fruit of her labors.
“I… I agree.” There. She’d said it. Now, hopefully, there wouldn’t be any more unwanted surprises—
“Okay, then prove it. If we’re going to take vengeance against those who prey on others, we can start right now… with Althena!” Mireille said with a glare towards the woman in question, whose face made no response. “She’s manipulated more people and destroyed more lives in her effort to resurrect Noir than anyone I know of — and I’m not just talking about arranging for my parents’ assassination, bad though that was.” Out of the corner of her eye, Mireille saw Kirika flinch ever so slightly when she brought up the deaths of Pierre and Odette Bouquet, but she didn’t have time to dwell on this. She continued, “And I’m not just talking about the way she’s been manipulating my entire life; to focus on that would just be petty. No, she hasn’t only wrecked my life — she’s destroyed yours as well.
“Don’t believe me? Then answer me this: Who are your parents? Or to be more accurate, where are your parents? Do you really think that my parents were abnormal for not wanting their little girl to grow up have no chance at a passably normal childhood, to be doomed to life as a killing machine? Do you think that your parents willingly gave you up to your fate? If you do, then you’re more naïve than I thought. No parent wants that for their child! In all likelihood, Althena’s faction had to take you by force, and your parents were just as brutally murdered as mine. Have you ever even thought about that? Or has Althena been manipulating you so thoroughly that you’ve spent your entire lives without questioning her?”
“I’ve wondered about my parents,” Kirika said, “but that was only after I met you….”
“And that’s just the three of us… I’m willing to bet that she’s directly responsible for the killings of dozens of people, and indirectly responsible for even more — and all to shape the three of us into some sort of avenging messianic cabal. I’ve honestly never met someone who was so callous, so indifferent towards human life. And you know what else? I think she knows it. That’s why she’s willing to hand Noir over to me: because she’s reached a point where she can’t trust herself anymore.”
Chloe was only half-listening to what the Corsican had to say. As far as she was concerned, the reasons Mireille thought Althena was worthy of death were moot — if Althena really did intend to turn Noir over to this woman, that should have been reason enough to trust Mireille. But Chloe still wasn’t entirely sure that that was what had happened. As far as she was concerned, this still might have been some sort of final test….
“Perhaps I’ve been a bit too hasty,” Mireille suddenly said. “After all, I just told you that I didn’t want to order you around. So here’s what I say we do: first, we agree to form Noir… and then, we’ll make our judgment of Althena. Majority rules. There’s three of us, so there won’t be a tie.”
“And if one of us disagrees?” Kirika asked to Chloe’s surprise (not because she didn’t think her friend would not ask a question like that, but because that was the exact phrase that had been running through her mind at the time).
“I don’t know…. I’m not entirely sure where this idea is coming from…. It just… seems right….” The Corsican’s voice was taking on a strange tone; it was as though she was slipping into a trance, yet at the same time, there was a definite hint of panic at her own trancelike speech patterns.
“Shall we form Noir?” The Corsican’s tone had definitely changed — something strange was happening….
“Yes…” Kirika responded, her own voice taking on a similar dreamy quality. “Let us form Noir….”
Chloe wasn’t sure what to make of all this — she knew it was her turn to do something, but within the last five minutes, all of her confidence about the nature of Noir had been badly shaken. She wanted to delay them, to hold out for more time, but she somehow felt compelled to give a yes or no answer… and despite everything that had happened, the notion that she was meant for Noir, that it was her entire purpose in life, had been so deeply ingrained into her psyche that she really didn’t have a choice: “Yes… we shall form Noir….” The voice was hers, and had taken on the same languid, ethereal tones as the others’ had. And the decision, if she was honest with herself, was hers as well, though she was certain that she hadn’t consciously formed the statement she made. Chloe then noticed that the three members of Noir had, apparently without thinking, rearranged themselves so that they formed the corners of a perfect equilateral triangle.
It was also at this point that she recognized her current mental state; it was the same one she’d entered with Kirika when she confirmed that they were the “True” Noir… though she wasn’t certain what that phrase even meant anymore.
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(Posted Fri, 24 Nov 2006 05:05)
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