Habits Die Hard

By Katana

 

Disclaimer: Blah. I’m lazy. Get that through your head. (^^;)

 

Part VIII

“I-I’m sorry Eowyn,” Link stuttered. “I’m really sorry…”

“It – it was you! You were the one that – attacked me and – Moriko! You killed Moriko!” Tears welled up in Eowyn’s eyes. Her voice, however, was full of hatred. “How…how could you Link? How…why…Why would you, of all people, kill someone? Huh? I’m waiting for an answer Link!”

Link looked down at the floor. His eyes were half the size they normally were, and his face was red from shame. “I’m…sorry Eowyn,” he repeated.

“Sorry isn’t going to cut it this time!” Eowyn yelled at him. I don’t think I had ever seen her this angry before.

“Aren’t elves supposed to be peaceful?” I thought. Eowyn shot me a dirty look.

“Don’t think I didn’t hear that, Tiger girl!”

Woah. I was used to her calling Link ‘Tiger boy’, but Tiger girl? What was up with that?

“Eowyn,” Amara said, coming up to her. “Calm down. C’mon, this isn’t like you at all!” She put her hands on the elf’s shoulders.

Baaaaad mistake.

Eowyn cranked her neck around. Her eyes were glowing in eerie lavender light, which sprouted out at the sides like fire.

“Get your hands off of me!” she shouted, closing her eyes slightly. A lavender aura surrounded Amara’s hands and lifted them from Eowyn’s shoulders. Then, the elf grunted, causing the magic to slam Amara into a wall.

“What the…Eowyn!” I yelled, taking out my sword. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

Now she looked at me, straight in the eyes. She was smiling in an insane kind of way. “Nothing Katana. Everything is perfect.”

From the corner of my right eye I noticed Sis, messing with a cord. It was the poison powder bag.

“Alexia! Don’t do it!” I yelled. “We can’t kill her!”
“We have to! It’s the only way out right now, unless you feel like dying!” She quickly dipped a long, sharp dagger into the mixture and threw it.

“Pretty crappy aim,” I said as the dagger easily whizzed by Eowyn’s head.

Sis smirked. “Heh. Guess again.”

I looked just in time to see the dagger whiz pass me. It was headed straight for Eowyn’s back, right in the area that her heart was. I think…
I was right. The blade easily sliced through Eowyn’s robe and flesh, ripping through tissues and blood like water.

I heard Eowyn gasping. She turned around, giving me a glance of the damage.

The dagger had just barely slipped through a slot in her rib cage. It tore right through the skin, through blood valves, and her heart. The tip was pointing out, squelched in blood, which was pouring from Eowyn’s chest in a dark purple, almost black color.

I winced, but within an instant I was right next to her. Link was there too, and he ripped the small blade from the elf’s back. She gasped again, and I started crying. Franticly, I tried to call on the magic, like I had done outside just two hours before. I felt the energy flow through my arm, but I couldn’t concentrate long enough.

“Here,” Link said, pushing aside my arms. He rolled up his sleeves and placed his hands just above the area where the dagger had gone in.

A soft green light slowly flowed from Link’s hands to the wound. The light filled into the cut like a piece of cork, then became solid. The flesh was restored.

“L-Link,” I said as he flipped Eowyn over, checking her breathing and heart rate. “When…where did you learn to do that?”

Link sighed. “I’m always the stupid idiot, you know? Getting in the way, being the clumsy fool…and I never have time to let myself shine.”

He was going way off track. “Uh…Link? Hello?”

“What? Oh, hmm, sorry. Yeah. Shesshomaru taught me how to use them.”

“Shesshomaru?” I repeated. “Him? Why?”

“I dunno.”

I rolled my eyes. “Ya know Link, for a demon, you’re very…”

“Un-resourceful,” finished Sis. I nodded.

Link sighed and stood up. “So, what now? What do we do after elfie here has gone berserk?”

“Well, we need her to get better,” Amara stated weakly. I suddenly noticed just how powerful (and deadly, and destructive) Eowyn’s magic was. Amara was covered in scrapes, and a long line of blood was dripping down her neck. “And, it wouldn’t hurt to get her some medicine. So, Kat – chop chop! Use some of those herb-y thingies and make her better!”

“Hey – wait! I have no idea what effect this’ll have on elves! I’ve only used this stuff on demons before! And seeing as how demons out number any other creatures in our group by two, I don’t think –“

“Kat, you’re not making any sense,” Alexia said. “Stop jabbering and give Eowyn some of that crap, alright?”

I muttered swear words and sat down on my knees. I quickly took one of my powder bags from my chest belt and snapped my fingers. “Cup of water. Fast. Now!”
“Huh? Oh! Right right.” Link scurried to the half-empty cupboards, grabbed the wooden ladle, and ran outside. I heard the pump going, Link yelling from being splashed by ice-cold water, and the door opening again. He frantically handed me it. I took it and mixed in a handful of green powder from the belt.

“Wooh, that reeks!” Alexia said, clutching her nose. Link and Amara did so as well.

“Of course it does! All good medicine smells bad!” I shouted. I inched it closer to Eowyn’s mouth. Small amounts of it were splashing over the sides. Sweat began to creep down my brow as my grip on the handle tightened.

Carefully, I poured the murky liquid into the elf’s mouth.

“(cough cough) Ugh! (splutz) (cough) Geez Katana, what is this stuff?” Eowyn sat up, coughing out the liquid.

“Well, I never knew it healed demons but woke up elves,” I replied, slightly astonished.

“Healed – what? Katana?” She sat up, but quickly fell to the floor again. “Ahh…why does my chest hurt so much?”

“Eowyn? Are you sure you’re okay?” Alexia asked, going up to her.

“What do you mean, am I okay? I’m just fine. But why does my chest hurt?”

“You…you don’t remember anything?” Link asked, his voice more astonished than mine had been moments before.

“Well, I remember telling my story, and going up to you, but…that’s it. I kind of blacked out, I guess.”

“Well, if you really want the low down…” Konjoh’s sudden voice made me jump. So, he had been alive and well during this whole ordeal.

We all took our turns telling what had happened. With each violently replicated act of Eowyn’s attack we did, her eyes grew wider and wider. 

“I did…what? And you-“ she pointed to Alexia, “Did what?”

“Hey hey, it had to be done! It was kinda a do-or-die situation,” Sis replied, waving her hands around.

“Sorry,” Eowyn began, but was soon cut off by Link.
“Nah. I…I really should be the one apologizing. Uh, again. Especially what I did to Moriko,” he said. “If you really want to know, that wasn’t me that killed her. What I mean is…What happened was…” He sighed. “It wasn’t me. I was being controlled.”

“Controlled?” Konjoh repeated. “Controlled…? What kinda excuse is that?”

“It’s happened before,” Link replied, his voice touched with graveness.

“Wait – Link!” Amara said suddenly. “Just an hour ago or so, you tried to come in here when we were, you know…and then you suddenly snapped out of it. I bet you were being controlled then!”

“Who can control people?” Eowyn asked, sitting up, much despite protests from myself, Link, and Alexia. “Few people, ah, creatures, know the art of controlling living beings. Naraku cannot unless the person has a Shikon jewel shard within them. Elfin kind do not control people for their own sick little mind games.”

“You know that power that Naraku told you about?” Konjoh asked. “The ‘know all’ thing? I can really see how that works.”

“Shuddap,” Sis said, clapping her hand over his mouth.

“And the only person I personally know that can control people is Moriko. …But she’s…dead.”

There was a brief moment of silence as Eowyn’s face turned sad again. The peace was soon broken by a chilled voice.

“That’s what you think.”

The voice made my body freeze. The six of us ran outside, Eowyn dragging along, clutching her staff. We all looked around.

There was nothing but us. Trees, yeah, water, yeah, bugs, yeah, everything besides a demon – yeah. Then the voice spoke again.

 “Eowyn…damn. I thought you had died. How stupid of me to think that you would.”

My ears pricked up at the voice.  I relaxed myself and tried to concentrate on where it had come from. But I couldn’t find it.

“You were always a coward,” the voice said again. “I was the one that stood up for you against Naraku. I took your faults and blamed them on myself. Boy did that backfire on me.”

There was a movement in a nearby tree. The next thing I knew, Eowyn was breathing heavily. I turned around, unsheathing my sword.

“Mor…Moriko,” the elf managed to stutter. “Is…is it really you?”

The demon almost matched the description of Moriko Eowyn had given us earlier. It was girl, and she had shoulder-length white hair with ears sticking up from it. Her eyes were a frosted yellow, which gave me the creeps. She was wearing a vest much like Konjoh’s, except hers was a little longer and buttoned up. Attached to a belt that went from her upper left hip to her lower right thigh was a large and long sheath. It was dead black, trimmed with silver, and etched with characters I didn’t recognize. She wore baggy khaki-colored pants that were scrunched up at her feet.

“Yes. I am. And you, Eowyn, are about to die.” She was holding a long blade up to the elf’s neck. Moriko pressed it lightly against Eowyn’s skin, causing it to bleed.

“My are you frail,” she said, grinning and bearing a long fang. “You always were. Especially after Naraku’s spell…you were sick for three days.”

“Moriko,” Eowyn muttered, “Why…what’s wrong with you? Why are you doing this to me?”

“Hnnn. I suppose you have the right to know why you’re being killed just before you are. Yes…it was because you – you ran away after that demon brutally slaughtered the person I was. You didn’t do a THING to help me at all!”

“But if you’re dead, then…then how come you’re alive?” Eowyn was having trouble speaking. The pressure from Moriko’s blade was getting to her head. I could tell she was getting dizzy. Her face was almost an ivory color from the cut-off blood circulation.

Moriko smiled in an evil kind of way. “The power of the Shikon jewel can do marvelous things, you know?” Her left shoulder blade suddenly started shining a translucent lavender color, much like Eowyn’s magic except darker. “Thanks to this little shard and Naraku, I live again.”

“You idiot!” Alexia yelled suddenly. “You think we’re going to stand by, watching you kill our friend, and not do anything?”

“Not really. I never expect much from mongrel creatures like yourselves. The wolf human – nothing interesting about her.” Amara scowled as Moriko said those words. “The dog demon friend isn’t dog in any way. He’s pure wolf.”

Konjoh snickered. “Glad somebody knows,” he replied, unsheathing his sword.

“The boy over there, Link. Ah yes, Link…I’m going to enjoy killing you.”

Link’s face turned angry. Anger I had never seen before, or knew he had.

“And you and your sister. Mixed breeds. Mutts.”

My grip tightened on my sword handle, causing my knuckles to turn white. This demon was just asking for it…

“So just sit back and relax. Your – friend – will be gone soon enough.”

“Not a chance in hell!” Link yelled, running at Moriko. Both of his swords were out.

Something about him seemed different. Link had never looked this way before. His entire soul and being was concentrated into his attack. Somehow, this was not the idiotic Link I knew.

Moriko grinned and threw Eowyn down. “Hmm. You might be worth a fight after all.” She whipped her blade around a few times, then pointed it at Link. “I was going to kill you last, but if you insist, I’ll do you in first.”

“Heh. Have fun,” he replied, furrowing his eyebrows together. While he was still smiling, he looked fully prepared for battle.

“GO!” Moriko yelled, jumping from the ground and flying towards Link. He yelped but quickly ducked out of the way. He then swung his left sword in a complete circle, hoping to somehow nick Moriko. When they didn’t work and she came back at him again, he jabbed swiftly with his right.

Moriko’s eyes widened in shock as the jabs became light, and the light became needles that shot at its target.

“You’ve learned…some neat tricks,” she said, clutching her right shoulder. It was bleeding pretty badly.

“Not just tricks. Uh…” Link scratched his head, making the rest of us fall over. “They’re…death tricks! FWA HAHA!” He then charged at Moriko in a full frontal assault.

This was it. The battle was Link’s. Or so I thought.

 

 

Oh, so sorry! Did I do that? *gets rotten pineapples thrown at her* OUCH!!!

Yup. That’s it. The rest is up to your imaginations. ^_~

Yeah right. Like you think I’m going to let you do that. Tune in for Part 9 of Habits Die Hard! And remember –

“It needs to get real much better”!

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