She stopped halfway down the stairs, clutching at her bleeding leg with her uninjured hand. She growled under her breath as the blood oozed between her fingers. The light from the room she was trying to get to shine around the corner. The murmur of voices had been the predominant noise until the overpowering roar of the cavern's collapse overtook the conversation she was hearing parts of. Then, as the noise ceased, it was replaced with the sound of fast and heavy footsteps.
Ebony cursed violent before heaving herself to her good leg and hobbling down the stairs. Once she got to the door, she would lock those fools out and by the time they got in, the money would be in the bank, she would be gone, and the Rabbit would be dead. She smiled at the thought of the precious sum just waiting for her to sink her claws into and at the sheer luck that had handed her the opportunity.
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'That office is supposed to be off limits.' Ebony growled to herself as she practically flew up the stairs. She had just returned from purchasing two little girls, both with flouncy red curls past their waist. They had been fairly cheap, though Boss never turned down an offer from her. It was probably because he was afraid of her quick temper, hearing of its terrifying wrath from his fellow slave traders. Ebony had returned in a good mood to say the least, throwing the two girls in her parents' wing of the mansion, then striding off to see her brother about her find, like she usually did. But Anthony was not in his usual place. She entered the public study where her grandfather's old colleagues would gather on their days off to smoke, drink, and debate. Ebony was accustomed to seeing her brother resting in a still relatively padded chair, pipe in mouth, book in hand. But today, he wasn't there. She went on a search of the entire floor but didn't find him. And that's when it dawned on her.
She burst into the office through the partially opened doors, fuming at her sibling's insolence towards her. Anthony's head popped out from around a corner. He was smiling.
"You'll never believe what happened today, Nee! Our luck is finally changing!" Ebony crossed her delicate arms over her chest, crystalline eyes glazed with anger.
"What do you think you're doing in here?" She hissed. Her tone didn't deterr his mood at all and he bounded around the corner, his dark suede vest and black pants covered in dust and fuzz. Ebony looked him over head to toe, all the while never losing the intensity of her glare. But then her eyes caught something interesting, one large envelope and an open book clutched in Anthony's hands. "What is that?" She questioned, moving closer.
"That's the best part. I was down in the study, like normal, leafing through some books, when I decided to look on the higher shelves. So I retrieved a ladder and went up to the fifth shelf. I went through at least twelve books, when I reached the thirteenth, there was something poking out of the top. I was curious so I opened the book and there was this envelope." He hurriedly handed it to Ebony, who took it with hidden enthusiasm. As she opened it, Anthony continued his explanation. "It's grandfather's will! He left his entire estate, including all of his savings and profits of the Songbird Corporation, to us!" Ebony's eyes lit up, shimmering like water, as she paged through the document. She smiled a great smile and resisted the urge to jump and down. She looked to her brother excitedly.
"That makes us millionaires, Anthony!"
"Billionaires, dear sister, billionaires." Anthony whispered. He flipped the book in his hand around, showing Ebony the entire record of her grandfather's bank account. She giggled, pressing her hand to her mouth, then grabbing Anthony's shoulder and giving him a big kiss on the cheek.
"What are we waiting for? Let's get dressed in our finest and head to the bank!"
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"I'm sorry. Could you..please?" Ebony let her forehead drop to her palm and she rubbed furiously at the offending headache. Anthony sat beside her, mouth agape and blanky staring at the bank teller and the lawyer across the desk from them.
"We're terribly sorry, Mr. and Ms. Songbird, but according to your grandfather's will, in order to receive the amount said you have to present his two children."
"His two children are dead, you imbecile. Our parents and uncle died years ago, what kind of arrangement is this?" Ebony snapped. The bank teller leaned away from her outburst, looking at her as if she were a sand worm in a beautiful pink and white dress, not a beautiful woman.
"Not your father and his brother, Ms. Songbird. If you would have taken time to read the fine print, so to speak, you would see here that Mr. Songbird requests his two missing children to be presented to receive the money." The suave lawyer smiled graciously at Ebony. It did nothing to sway her savage nature. She stood up rapidly, swung her skirts away from her legs and stormed out of the office, Anthony trailing like a dog with its tail between its legs.
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"What children? What kind of joke is this? He never meant for us to have that money, he was just toying with us! That bastard, I'm glad he's dead!" The white-haired beauty stormed around the study, throwing books left and right, occasionally pausing to tear out pages and rip them to shreds. Anthony ducked one book as he sucked at the end of his pipe, smoke leaking from between his sickly red lips.
"Something's amiss. Grandfather was adamant about his company continuing, even after his death. We were the only suitable heirs at the time. Something tells me that he wasn't mocking us." Suddenly, Anthony started, nearly dropping his pipe as he took off running for the office. Ebony cried out in shock and quickly pursued, running out of the study, down numerous hallways, and up a flight of secret stairs. It was only a few minutes before they reached the forbidden office. By the time Ebony reached the doorframe, clutching it as her chest heaved with the physical effort of running, Anthony was already digging through her grandfather's undisturbed desk.
"Have you gone mad!? What the hell do you think you're doing, you little worm!" Anthony glared at her over the top of the desk, not pausing in his ransack of every drawer.
"Didn't grandfather keep a journal or a diary, some sort of personal log book somewhere?" Ebony blinked blankly, regaining her breath. She placed an index finger under the round curve of her bottom lip.
"I think so. I thought I saw him writing in it once. If it's in here, it's most likely behind the mirror." Behind the mirror, there was a secret cabinet, one that Ebony had managed to find by sheer luck and a little sneakiness. Anthony lunged from the floor to the mirror behind the desk, throwing it open on its hidden hinges and digging in the cob-webbed space. His eyes lit up as his hand hit something. Anthony pulled his arm slowly from the space, both he and his sister holding their breath. From the shadowy abyss, he clutched in his hand a red leather book with the embossed title of 'Journal.'
(*)
Ebony gritted her teeth as she finally triumphed over the stairs. She practically fell through the heavy metal door, gripping its handle to keep from tumbling head over heels. Anthony, her dear, dear Anthony, leapt from his place on the couch at once, rushing to help her. By the time he reached her, she had already managed to close the door and was placing the heavy locks in place.
"Nee..Oh, Nee what happened to you -"
"Shut up Anthony, before I decide to put another hole in that pitiful head of yours. Is this process nearly finished, Mr. Baker?" Mr. Baker looked positively stunned, sitting on the couch with his devices whirring before him. The earlier, more elegant, version of Ebony Songbird was gone, and it gave him quite a shock to see her grabbing her brother's gun from its holster and pointing it at his head. "I asked you a question, you piece of lawyer scum, now answer!"
"A-a-almost! Just a few more minutes! Please don't shoot me!" He held his hands up defensively, shaking with fright.
"Stop trembling you oaf and get going! It won't take them long to get here. They want her." Ebony motioned with the barrel of the gun to the still sprawled out Meryl. Her breathing was coming in heavy rasps as she struggled to Meryl's side, pushing away Anthony's helping hands. As she kneeled roughly to the floor, Ebony reached down and grabbed a handful of black hair, yanking the abused woman's face from the royal blue carpeting. Meryl let out a small cry of pain and opened one eye enough to see the lawyer jerkily taking something and putting it into his machine, then bending his head to some sort of lens piece.
"Did you hear that, you filthy little rodent? By the time your cavalry arrives, you'll be nothing but a heap of freezing flesh and bones." Ebony all but slammed Meryl's face to the floor once more. But Meryl didn't utter a word, just let out a small cough. She moved her neck painfully to look up blankly.
"Why do you hate me so much?"
"I've told you already."
"No. That can't be it. All this hatred, all this toil, just for money and the claim that you're finally completing a dream? No, this is more personal than that, Ebony." Meryl slowly rolled over so she lay on her back and was now face to face with her injured captor. Ebony was glaring profusely, her bleeding leg staining the beautiful carpet. Anthony watched apprehensively, hand resting on his empty holster, eyes resting on his gun in his angry sister's hand. If it was one thing Anthony had learned, it was never give his sister a weapon when her mood was soured.
"I-I- I have the results." The lawyer quietly said. It was at that moment that Ebony and Meryl's eyes met and Meryl understood. And it was the moment that there was a large bang on the door and a rather large dent had formed in the metal.
"Meryl! Meryl are you okay?!" It was Millie, bless her heart, and where there was Millie there was Wolfwood and where there was Wolfwood, there was Vash. But even that thought did nothing to lessen the burden on her sore shoulders. Ebony turned around from Meryl, standing with difficulty, and limping to the lawyer.
"And? Don't keep me waiting, Mr. Baker." Another gun shot, another dent in the door.
"It's a positive match. This girl is your grandfather's daughter." Ebony's eyes narrowed with her evil smile and she motioned to the papers laying beside Mr. Baker's ancient machine.
"Fill them out, and step on it. I want her to be dead as soon as possible." Mr. Baker wasted no time in digging a pen out of his pocket and scribbling out the appropriate blanks. Ebony turned slightly, looking first at the door and its two sentinels, and then at Meryl. "It's all falling into place." She growled happily. Taking aim, Ebony rapidly shot the two rats, their heads exploding like balloons in a spray of red. Anthony screamed in shock and anger, pulling at his hair and looking accusingly at his sister.
"Those were my Rats!! I can't believe you shot them!! Do you know how much money and training-" Anthony's mouth hung open mid-sentence as Ebony turned irritated to him and stuck the cold barrel of his gun against his teeth.
"Keep talking my darling brother but I warn you, I'm not in a generous mood as of late."
"Meryl! Meryl please say something!"
"If you hurt her-"
"Shut up, you annoying beasts! That door is reinforced steel and bullets won't pierce it very easily. So, the way I see it, is you have two options. Either sit there, shoot at the door and waste you bullets, or leave. It's that simple."
"The paperwork is done, Ms. Song-" Mr. Baker had barely looked up from the documents when Ebony turned the gun on him. She didn't hesitate, the instant his eyes caught hers she shot.
"Meryl!!" Meryl closed her eyes. Behind her lids she could see him. She saw Vash smiling, something he rarely did genuinely, and she in turn had to smile at the thought of him and his sea blue eyes. She felt moist droplets on her face, most likely blood from the most recent death. Could she let it end like this? Could she just allow Ebony to blatantly take out her childhood suffering out on her, when she had, at least in her personal opinion, suffered more? She felt Ebony's prescence over her and was just about to open her eyes when the resounding gun shot filled her ears.
(*)
She was standing beside him, not talking, not even moving. Just staring at him through a haze of black hair. Somewhere in the strands he could faintly see flashes of gold. Her beautiful grey eyes were looking at him intensely and he wondered what she was trying to tell him. Suddenly, she fluidly stepped to the side, the wall behind her coming into view. He wiped a stray piece of blonde hair from his eyes and began to take a closer look at the bricks that made up the wall.
"Vash! What the hell do you think you're doing! If we don't get this door down quick, Shortie's in big trouble! We don't have time to fool around with a wall!" Wolfwood was preparing his rocket launcher, Millie hiding behind him, when Vash pushed against one brick. The whole wall began to shift and change, mechanical whirring heard in the background. He looked up to her, but she was gone. He looked around confused when Wolfwood and Millie pushed past him into the new tunnel.
"C'mon Mr. Vash! Hurry!" Vash nodded dumbly and followed, but turned when he heard some sort of odd whisper. She was standing in the doorway, still as always.
