Her words left him somehow awestruck, maybe only a little...
He had never been a religious person, his parents never instructed him as a Catholicist or Christian despite his English origin.
That didn't stop him from studying the bible, it was a book that contained an immeasurable amount of wisdom, and even his accursed father together with his beloved mother, impulses him to read it and save its sayings.
But he never believed in something like heaven or hell, he thought those were delusions or conclusions taken by those that wrote those books, maybe the way they described something that they themselves couldn't understand.
But if this place is really hell...
"I know because... I would surely be sent here after my death, do you agree?" She once again showed a dejected smile.
Clearly, she had done things in her life that warranted her a first class ticket here.
"...Yes, but why would you reach such a conclusion?" This place could only be hell, the heat, the surreal occurrences, it only made sense if this place is really hell.
"It could be a parallel dimension, or another time of the earth, or anything… Even an exo-planet with an atmosphere equal to our earth… But none of them would make sense, why would we come here after dying?" She placed on of her fingers on her lips and mumbled.
"You… know a lot…" That knowledge wasn't something that any person would consider straight away, for most, hell is more common than all of these.
"What do you mean? That's common knowledge… Anyway. Even though I know you're a sinner... I still choose to believe in you, what about you?" Her gaze lowered to stare at him once again.
He sighed and thought about her words, he had been betrayed many times and it was always something he was expecting, but quilt wasn't a boy he saved when he was but a child, he technically taught him everything he knows, he and Rose.
His betrayal wasn't something easy to accept, he treated those two like his younger siblings.
…
"What is your sin?" That was his next question, but he didn't really expect her to answer it honestly.
She gave him a weirded gaze, "You should have known my sin, As the French general commander, I abused my authority to overly discipline people that were against me... And to get rid of… Certain people… I committed many sins in my life despite defining myself as a Catholic believer. Even the death of Deputy Salvatore, I had my hands deep in that. " she confessed unashamedly.
Her words however, left him thinking.
'Is she famous? Why does she asume I know her sin? I don't know any deputy Salvatore in France, and if there was a famous Fayette Blanchet in France committig the acs she just described… I'd have slaughtered her before coming here.'
"Sorry but I don't know you at all…" He said neutrally and that seemed to impact hardly on her heart!
"Y-You! Are you leaving under a rock or something!? How can you be French and yet don't know my name?!"
!!!
"…"
He stared deeply at her, many conjetures coursing through his brain.
"Why do you asume I am French? I have gone to France thrice at most, known French well enough to defend myself but that's about it, do I appear French to you?" He knew many languages, and French was one of the ones he used the least.
!!!
Her eyes gaped and she too drew conclusions!
"Y-You… Are speaking to me in French right now… Are you?" Her lips shivered slightly, 'H-How could I have missed something like this!?'
It was his turn to open his eyes widely, even removing his head from her lap!
"No… I'm not… Do you understand me?" He said once again, this time glaring at her with a piercing gaze.
"Yes I do!" She exclaimed.
!!!
Realisation dawned upon his eyes, 'What the hell is going on in this world!?' He touched his neck trying to see if he had some device or anything he hadn't noticed before!
"I'm speaking to you in Mandarin, something is making us… Understand one another despite speaking different languages." He rationalised.
"That's… Ridiculous, how can such a thing happen without we even noticing? I imagined you were French, since I hear you speak it as if you have lived in France your whole life."
"Me too, I imagined you were French with English parents or something, anyway… We have to make sure everything is in order…" He said with a hand on his forehead and she nodded.
"Okay, just to confirm. My name is Fayette Blanchet and I'm from Toulouse, France, it's currently 4th of April, 2355 and we-" She began but wasn't able to finish as Valentine grasped her shoulders tightly!
"Wait, WHAT!?"
"Huh?"
"Year 2355 you said?!"
"Y-Yes… D-Don't tell me… That's not your case?!" Her lips started to shiver again, 'You can't be serious, we fell from this sky the same day!'
"I'm from year 2020" He began, regaining his calm and releasing her shoulders.
!!!
"Oh my god…"
"I think this is enough information for today…" He sighed, not understanding what the hell is going on, but also not in a rush to know either.
He gave her a slight glare and moved aside, a little far from her before once again laying himself back on the floor.
Fayette's response was to lift her eyebrows, but she didn't say anything else, only taking her knife and hugging her legs against her chest, staring at the exit intending to guard the two of them against any threat.
Her mind deep in thoughts.
'Year 2020… Valentine Wagner, could it be…'
***
At some point she finally managed to turn her head towards his figure, she stared at his chest, giving slow and deep breaths.
'He's sleeping…'
As swift as a leaf she stood up without making the slightest sound and walked up to him.
…
Holding the sharp nice in her hand, she stared at his sleeping figure with complication.
'You're the Bringer of Euthanasia, there is no doubt about it!'
That year, that name, this appearance, him being English, that coldness to sacrifice whoever he has to, and most importantly, those skills…
It has to be him!
Her primarily instinct, it's to kill this monster!
But… He saved her, and so far he hasn't shown to be the disgraceful monster he was described as through the years, history always said one thing, but she knew better, higher ups always know, the winners alter history to their own benefit.
She lifted her knife, preparing to stab… But deep inside, she didn't want to.
'You're responsible for more than a million deaths, direct or indirect… That's what's recorded, but… Is that really you?'
Hadn't he saved her life thrice, no doubt she would have plunged that knife in his heart until he moved no more, if that would even kill him that is.
With reluctance and bewilderment she lowered her knife and moved back to her spot.
She needed time to make a proper judgement, right now they're on the same ground and only had each other.
'I'll see for myself who you really are.'
She prepared to guard once again, hugging her legs.
But unbeknownst to her, Valentine's eye opened briefly before closing again.
***
"Valentine, wake up… The rain stopped!"
His silver eyes opened slowly, what greeted him was her pretty face and chest, this time covered with fur.
'I must have been sleeping like a log…'
She moved him up to her lap again and he didn't even notice.
It mattered not, this was an experiment… If she really did nothing to him, he would deem her as someone trustworthy, at least for now.
He lifted himself from her lap as if he had never slept, and stared at the clear entrance of the cave.
"It is not raining anymore, it stopped a few minutes ago, that black cloud didn't disappear… It just moved away. The floor must still be scalding hot." She updated him and the two of them stood up.
He also used some fur to cover his crotch, everything in front of her, she didn't show any reaction.
"What should we do next?" She asked, holding two knives in each of her hands.
"What do you suggest?" He retorted, still staring at the entrance.
"I suggest… That we chart the territory and leave a way for us to come back here if necessary… Our priority should be… To meet people, maybe people that have been here for longer than us."
"We should also leave all our stuff here and somehow cover the entrance… I don't know why but, I think those stones are valuable in a way, while I was inspecting them I had the sudden urge to eat them." Her gaze changed to one of disgust when she recalled where those things came from originally.
…
"We are going to spend the next days charging the territory, follow the air currents to search for the nearest mountain if possible, once we find a better place to settle… We move."
"What about our things?" She inquired, liking his plan.
"We will leave them at the deepest end of the cave, cover them with dirt or hide them underground, if we come back and there are people here, we will see what we do by that time." He picked two knives too and prepared to set off.
"If they're in the way, we can just kill them." She said with a frosty glare.
"Oh?" He lifted his eyebrows at her sudden coldness.
"What? Do you think I'm a saint? I'm not foreign to killing innocents, sadly… If this is hell, we can assume no one that came here is a good person… Rather to risk it to befriend a betrayer, I'd rather just stay with you that I know at the very least won't backstab me… You could kill me frontally if you wanted."
"You're quite more talkative than the first time I saw you…" The two left the cave in tow and frowned the moment they stepped on the hot soil.
The two grunted in pain and retreated back to the cave, it's like walking on lava!
"Shit… Ugh! What do you expect? You were also showing all of us a mask before… It's the most common elite practice to show the most cold and dangerous appearance in front of strangers, had I behaved like that bitch, they'd probably rape and kill the two of us at the first moment."
"…"
"Are we going to… Walk out there like this or wait until it cools a little?" She inquired, not really up for it, but if he decides to go, she will follow.
"There is no time to lose… Take some of that fur and wrap it around your foot, let's just see how far can we reach with this much." He held his ground, not truly scared, not after grabbing a scalding hot rock with his bare hands.
She rolled her eyes and the two covered their legs with the fur, they didn't have much left, planning to use it to make bags and carry some goods.
When the two were ready, they inhaled deeply.
"Where to?" She prepared for the pain.
"My twelve o'clock!" He yelled and the two of them started to run through the scalding hot soil!
…
For the first few steps everything was alright, but a few seconds afterwards, the heat started to deep through!
He kept running resisting the pain, seeing nothing but burned trees around, no people, no animals!
"AHHH!!!"
He heard Fayette yell in pain behind him and turned around only to see her fall on the scalding soil!
'Shit…' He contemplated…
Right now… It's the best time to leave her.
'She's not strong enough, leave her and run, you're better on solo!' The rational side of brain spoke louder like always.
But there was also that other side, faint, yet existent…
'Help her, you have no one else in this accursed land, when you fall, who is going to pull you up!?'
'Fuck…' He stared at Fayette who was still screaming, trying to stand up, but to stand up she had to touched the ground.
Whatever decision he took, there is no time, he ran as fast as possible, the cave was still visible in the distance.
Picking her up In his arms, he yelled, get on my back!
Fayette heed even as he ran, and moved to a more comfortable position on his back, still hissing at her burned body!
When he finally reached the cave, he fell face first inside and she quickly pulled him inside!
"UGHH!! AHHH!!" He hissed at the comfort of not feeling that burning pain on his legs, she took out the fur only to see it technically fuse with his skin.
Writing her teeth, she crawled to another pack of fur they left and placed it on his burned legs.
'This dammed place, it's really hell!!' How she wished to have water right now, but there wasn't any, the thirst is increasing but there is nothing to sate it!
Even to clean their wounds they didn't have water.
She fell beside his hissing body, still feeling pained herself but a lot better than him.
'Dammit, he saved me again…' She bit her lips and stared at his hissing form.
She managed to regard his visage before… He had been contemplating, whether to leave her there… She knew.
"UGH!!" After a few minutes the pain started to dissipate as the regeneration triggered, he still doesn't know how it works, but wounds don't regenerate straight away, they take some time before they start…
"Valentine…"
"…?"
"Do you think, we will make it? T-This place, haha… It's hell." She laughed but it was clear she was in a period of contemplation.
Just walking a few metres away from this cave, had caused them so many heavy losses… Can one even live in this place?!
"Do we have any other option…? I don't know you, but I don't fell like dying before exploring this place enough." He stated and struggled to sit, she saw this and helped him.
Many faces roamed across his visage, some with dear memories, some generated blood feuds and itch in his hand.
If this place is really hell… Can they even live here normally? The odds were minimal, someone from the future was with him right now, does that mean that 'they' could have already passed by here? Or they're yet to come.
"… I'll follow you, whenever you go… I don't have anything else to do." She rubbed her legs in pain and said seriously.
…
"You don't have any enmity against anyone?" He asked as the chance to take revenge was the only thing that truly motivated him to walk on this heaven forsaken land.
"I don't… I already erased all of my enemies before coming here." She stated, a little proudly.
"How did you die then?" He wondered.
"Lungs cancer…" She scratched her head and said simply, "It might not have been as interesting as you expected… I smoke a lot, and well, paid for it."
"…"
"I died at my forties… Married and divorced so I don't really care about that bastard… I had a son and a daughter… I don't think… They're here."
"…"
"My mother died way before and I never met my father… She might have come here at some point… I'm not interested in meeting her, but…"
"…?"
Her gaze turned cold and a crazed smile protruded on her face, "There are a bunch of bastards that surely came here after I erased them and their families from that world… If I can get to kill those cunts again… I'd consider this trip worth it."
Her waist, the place where her tattoo was, itched and she scratched it unconsciously.
He lifted his eyebrows at her words, naturally, she must have such people if she even came here in the first place.
"What about you, Bringer of Euthanasia… Do you seek something?~" She said and awaited his reaction only to frown when he remained neutral, as if he had been expecting this.
…
"You're not… surprised that I know?" she scratched her silky but dirty hair.
"I have several people I'd like to strangle to death."
"…"
"If you were not smart enough to deduce that on your own, I would have left you in that forest, but still… I guess that means my fame transcends the years… what do they say about me?" He rolled his eyes and lied against a rock, awaiting the load of crap that was about to fall on him.
She smirked and lied against the rock together with him, "More infame than fame… Let's see, if I were to summarise it, I'd say… That you're the most infamous homosexual being in history~ Moreover, you're somehow related to Adolf Hitler, he was your mother's great grandfather or something like that?"
…
"What… the… fuck…?"