by Jason Krate
He wasn't done with life, not yet!
* * *
ST Charles Cathedral: October 8th, 2063: 9:50 AM
Father Morris was the kindly old priest who maintained the only working church in Brightmoon City, one of the survivors of the destruction of the old world.
He had been in his thirties when it had happened.
So he was one of the few left in the world who knew what really happened that fateful day that the old world came crashing down and today's world became the status quo…and didn't exaggerate the facts.
So imagine his surprise when he got a knock on his cathedrals door this early in the day, and when he opened up the door, he saw who it was on the other side.
It was Rachel Addison.
Normally he would expect to see her on Sundays to pray for forgiveness to god and confess for having to be a prostitute despite being a catholic, or coming in to listen to Kaitlin rehearse with the rest of the choir.
He never would have expected to see her carrying a wounded figure in a hat and cloak, whose blood was glowing bright purple with little hints of red blood mixed within, and whose blood that was dripping on his cathedrals front steps was sizzling like demon spit when it touched the concrete steps.
"Rachel my child, what on…" he said surprised by the sight of the bleeding cloaked figure whose blood was definitely unusual to say the least.
"Father Morris, I need to ask for temporary sanctuary for this man" Rachel Addison explained, "He's wounded, badly. I know you have medical supplies, but is there some place we can put him that won't draw any attention to his being here in your cathedral?"
Father Morris looked at her, and then looked at Baron Knight.
"Follow me" he said to her, opening the door to allow her to carry Baron Knight into the Cathedral.
He led her to his chambers that was way in the back of the cathedral, near the stained glass panoramic window that overlooked the main pews.
"Set him down there on the bed" Father Morris said, motioning to Rachel with his robbed left arm to do just that.
"The table will do fine" Baron Knight coughed, sputtering blood out his mask's mouth hole in the process, "I wouldn't want to spoil the bed of a man of the cloth…with my filthy metahuman blood. I'm amazed you even let me in. A lot of churchmen thought people like me were 'demons', so why didn't you turn us away when you saw my blood burning your church steps and scream and bring up signs to ward off evil?"
"I'm aware of what certain 'churchmen' and people thought of 'your kind' my son, I saw that kind of thinking first hand. If thought like that about people who were born different son, I wouldn't be the man I am now" father Morris said, opening a nearby cabinet and taking out a makeshift first aid kit from the top shelf in the cabinet.
"Do you have bandages, stiches and Iodine father?" Rachel asked.
"You're lucky my child" Father Morris said rummaging through the box and handing her the supplies she was looking for, "ever since the Deathborne siblings and their marauders have taken over my supplies have not been replenished the way the used to be since they don't allow traveling market wagons into the city anymore. This is all we have left."
"It will do" Rachel nodded, thanking the good priest silently.
"Does Kaitlin know you're here?"
"No" Rachel Addison shook her head, "Did you send her home last night?"
"I sent her home this morning" Father Morris corrected, "Last night things got crazy around this sector of the city. Apparently someone murdered Bone Breaker and Silencer, the Marauders were going everywhere, looking for the killer. So my Paladins boarded up the doors and we kept the children and their parents here for the night until things calmed down. I'm sorry if you were worried about her…but this isn't like how it was in the old world where we could phone one another and tell one another this bit of unfortunate information."
"Just as long as she's gotten home safely, that's all I care about" Rachel Addison said, "It's been a hell of a night…and the craziness just has not stopped since then."
"I'll go and see if I can get some hot water going to help sterilize those wounds of his" Father Morris said in regards to the deep gashes seen through the cuts on Baron Knight's longcoat's chest and his right arm.
He turned around and left the room, leaving Baron Knight and Rachel Addison alone in the room.
* * *
Rachel Addison uncorked the stopper on one of the medicinal chemicals in the first aid kit and prepared to place it on Baron Knight's wounds to clean them of the sand that had gotten into them to prevent infection.
"Hold still" she said to him, in a rather stern but caring tone of voice.
One that Baron Knight admitted would have been appropriate to have been coming from a nurse than from a prostitute.
"I don't need help, I've survived worse before in my life and I'll survive this. Just leave me be, I'll be fine" Baron Knight said, stubbornly turning around on the bed so that his back was facing her, hiding his bleeding wounds from her.
"Your wounds say differently!" Rachel scowled, then she leaned over and sternly and firmly placed the wet cloth on Baron Knight's arm gash.
He violently turned around, and Rachel stood her ground as the glowing red eyes of Baron Knight filled her field of vision as he got in her face.
But she showed no fear as she scowled back at him with her own eyes.
"Damn it, leave me alone… that hurts!" Baron Knight snapped.
"If you would let me help you instead of fighting me it wouldn't hurt as bad!" Rachel snapped.
"You stupid five pebble whore, what the hell were you thinking? Running off like that, you almost got yourself killed, and for what? I wasn't lying when I said I would send you home safely. If you hadn't run off like that, this wouldn't have happened in the first place." Baron Knight accused.
Rachel Addison knew that Baron Knight had a point, but she had a point of her own to bring to his face as he tried to blame her completely for his injuries, "Well if you hadn't temporarily hypnotized me to obey and help you out and acted like such a jackass to me at the beginning, maybe I would have believed you when you sincerely gave me your word to take me back to my daughter with no strings attached!"
Baron Knight seemed about ready to say something, but for once, he had no words.
It had been a long time since a woman had ever managed to cut him to the quick in an argument like that.
He wasn't speechless for long, but he was genuinely floored by the truth behind Rachel's words.
He hadn't really given her a good reason to trust him with his attitude towards her during the time they had known one another, but the cynic in him refused to let old wounds be patched so easily.
"Well…maybe so. But let this be a lesson for you as well woman. Your prejudice against metahumans blinded you to the fact that I'm not a murderous monster like your parents told you my kind all were. Maybe you shouldn't be so quick to judge me as a heartless 'Meta-Freak" as it were. Maybe now, you won't be so quick to judge metahumans as heartless monsters who only care about causing wanton destruction... or call me a freak for being a metahuman." Baron Knight pressed.
"And maybe YOU should learn to not let your own prejudices define your choices regarding human beings and not judge people so easily based on THEIR background and them being what they are like THEY had a choice to be what they are as well" Rachel countered, "and also while we're at it, maybe you should not judge me as a person so easily either or call me 'whore' like you know me well enough at all as a person to call me that at all. Just because I'm a prostitute, doesn't mean I'm a slut!"
* * *
Baron Knight didn't want it to happen, but Rachel's words got to him.
He hadn't been around a woman as spirited as this prostitute woman in years, let alone been near one who could almost make him unable to counter in an argument…let alone be able to make concrete points that he'd be hard pressed to think up a way to counter it.
Women.
His daughter Kilari
was like that when she was still alive, something she had learned from both Gwen and Raven.
But even though he didn't want to admit it, Rachel was not only right on her points…but he found himself admiring her spirit.
Maybe he was getting senile in his old age to be admitting he was wrong.
All those years of hating humanity for what it did to his family and friends, and by extension the world they lived in and shared with metahumans, it wasn't something that was easy to push to the side for one person.
But Rachel's current and rather surprising efforts to treat his wounds surprised him.
Especially since she had been totally ungrateful to his first rescue of her, and had made it perfectly clear that she didn't like him for being a metahuman.
So why was she trying to help him?
"Now hold still, this is iodine. It will burn, but it will help until your 'healing power' starts to work again" she said with concern, placing the wet bandage on the wound on his left side.
Baron Knight gritted his teeth behind his mask, the bandage burned like it was on fire, but he persevered through it.
As Rachel wrapped medical bandages around his torso to cover the wet bandage of iodine she had placed onto the gash, she paused, and looked up at Baron Knight.
He was looking away from her, she wondered if he was ignoring her.
But she had to say what was on her mind.
She felt she owed Baron Knight to let him know what she was thinking right now, because it would be the last thing she ever expected to say to a metahuman.
It was her olive branch to the metahuman who had saved her.
"By the way, I just want to say…" Rachel sighed, she couldn't believe she was saying it "I'm grateful that you came after me. Just because you were concerned for my safety. No one has ever done that, let alone done what you did for me. Thank you…for saving my life again, Baron Knight."
She saw Baron Knight's eyes expression change from that cynical glare she had become accustomed to, into a look of surprise at hearing Rachel thank him for saving her.
No one who had ever had prejudice against metahumans that he had ever saved because it was the right thing to do had ever thanked him for it.
He stared at her in disbelief at her sincere declaration of thanks for his brave act in protecting her from the guard drones, unsure of if he was imagining what he was hearing or seeing before his eyes.
A prostitute woman, who was raised to think metahumans were rabid animals…had thanked him for saving her, and was trying to tell him this.
It had been a long time since he had ever gotten praise for heroic actions, least of all by a woman.
A rather….he had to admit, a rather handsome young woman.
If he wasn't married to Raven's spirit, and also not an old man…maybe he would indulge in these strange pangs of interest he was feeling towards Rachel that was spurred on by her spirit and her uniqueness that he saw in her that he admired.
So…out of his own gratefulness for her attempts to swallow her pride and admit he wasn't a monster like she had been taught all metahumans had been by her prejudiced parents.
Baron Knight offered his own olive branch, "your welcome…Rachel."
She looked at him in surprise, "How do you know my name?"
"I have a photographic memory, and that's what the woman at the library called you" Baron Knight answered, "that is you name isn't it?"
"Yeah…" She said, shaking off her surprise, "Yeah…it is…"
"It's quite a name, no doubt a nod to your own family's ancestral heritage" Baron Knight mused, as he gritted his teeth as she tended his wounds.
"What makes you say that?" Rachel asked, giving the injured metahuman a curious look.
"Because it is a given name originating from Hebrew language. It bluntly means…'beautifully ensnaring'."
Rachel tried to say something, but found no words coming from her mouth.
She was surprised by both the Baron Knight's acknowledgement of her distaste for her 'profession' as well as his knowledge on such a subject.
Was he some kind of scholar underneath that mask?
"Minra Moraes…" Baron Knight spoke.
"Huh?" Rachel asked in confusion.
"My name…" Baron Knight answered, "You asked me what it was last night, that's my name...Rachel. Minra Moraes. A name that doesn't mean anything anymore. I don't suppose you have a last name."
"Addison" she answered.
"Hmm…the surname origin of the German origin meaning of 'Eagle', symbol of Jean the Evangelist, was used as a common house sign/totem in German speaking areas… A bird of prey. So your name mean's 'beautifully ensnaring Eagle'… How appropriate." Baron Knight nodded slightly in intrigue.
"Was that a joke…or an actual compliment mixed in with a joke?" she asked in astonishment.
"Yes, I'm afraid it was…I haven't joked in a long time…" Baron Knight grimaced as pangs of pain seared at his wounds as she pressed the cloth down on them, "must be the fumes from that stuff you soaked the rag in. It's must be making me deliriously high or something…"
Rachel chuckled a bit.
"What?" He asked.
"Nothing…Minra…" she said to him, "nothing."
"Did…" Minra asked surprised, "Did you…find that funny?"
"Maybe" she smirked coyly.
He had to admit, the smile on her face that she had been seemingly unconsciously showing whenever she heard him call her by her name again and not by a derogatory term like "woman" or "Whore"…he liked that smile.
She looked pretty when she smiled.
He liked the way she smiled.
He wished he knew why.
The Baron Knight Returns: Chapter 6
* * *
Chapter 6: What's Past is Prologue
* * *
"The Pit"/ Old Brightmoon Industrial zone: October 8th, 2063: 9:50 AM
In the old world, this area was the industrial money center of Brightmoon City.
30% of its population were employed in running the refineries and the other industrial business's that once existed in this section.
Now it was an abandoned wasteland of abandoned warehouses, factories and refineries.
Denth and Muara Deathborne had retrofitted the place into their personal execution center, a place where people who failed to pay the taxes or any other 'slight' against the Deathborne siblings rule were sent and never seen again.
On the inside of the main factory found in the center of the industrial district, was a large chemical basin that the siblings had taken to calling "The Pit"…that was their tool of execution.
Mastermind II had found it, and told the siblings about it prior to their takeover of Brightmoon City from the old lord of the city.
They used a conveyor system to drop their victims into the basin bellow, where they would die instantly and be dissolved within minutes by the glowing purple acidic substance contained in the vat.
And as he walked up the stairs that ran past "The Pit", casually glancing at a few executions being carried out at this time.
He was carrying in his hands a book that had the words "Brightmoon City Time's- Almanac Codex" on its front cover.
He stopped in front of the door leading into the room that he had been told was where he would find them.
He paused in his efforts to knock on the door, when he suddenly heard sounds echoing through the door coming from the other side.
A male voice grunting, and a female voice moaning.
He rolled his eyes, why was he not surprised to find these two at it again.
Goddamn rabbits.
The both of them.
"Denth…get your dick out of Muara! Both of you stop your fornicating. I have to tell you both something very important. We might have a big problem on our hands." Mastermind II said through the doors in an annoyed tone.
When they didn't answer, Mastermind II lost his temper.
He kicked down the door, he didn't have time for this bulls
hit.
He didn't even care that when he kicked the door down he got a good view of Denth and Mia in mid-coitus doggy styled against the wall of the room.
"Jesus Mastermind!" Denth Deathborne snapped, "Couldn't you have waited, I was about to fill sis up!"
