Scars (Part II of J.H. White's Puss in Boots)

Chapter Nine: Visions

Scars barely stopped himself from passing out. He was in control of Spain, or he had been.

How was he still alive? He knew The Master had been killed in the war. Maybe this was a lie. Another test that the SIM had conjured up.

His head suddenly started aching again. Like it had when he had seen Kitty's death. This time, he saw a tower. A tower the color of the midnight sky, fifty stories high. And it was illuminated by a blood red moon in the sky. Why, he asked himself, why am I seeing this?

Then the words came again, crystal clear in the sky above the tower. Those words.

Lu omni elipsor, de flori skala.

Scars gasped. What did it all mean? What was being hidden from him?

He didn't get the answer, but he did fall into another cobblestoned street. There was a crunch on impact, and he swore. He was pretty sure his shoulder was broken. But he didn't bleed.

He got up, rubbing his shoulder. As soon as his hand touched the spot, the pain went away. "What the-" he whispered. Then, he saw a figure running towards him.

As she came closer, he realized it was the mercenary. She was bleeding from the lower abdomen; it looked like a bullet had pierced her there.

"Help!" She cried in his direction. "Help!"

"Okay," Scars said calmly. "You're going to be fine. Come here." She staggered into his arms and he realized then that her voice sounded familiar. He wondered where he had heard it before.

He lay her against the tall edge of a fountain and tore off a scrap of his cape to compress the open wound. She was crying and breathing heavily.

"It's okay," he said. "Take deep breaths; everything's going to be fine." She calmed down a little, but it's a little difficult to be composed when you have a bullet stuck in you.

She looked into his eyes. "Thank you," she whispered. He nodded. Then it just kind of happened; she pulled him closer and their lips met. He closed his eyes and felt euphoria. It was the most beautiful feeling he had ever experienced. Then, as a lion eats a gazelle, the feeling vanished and the visions came again. So clear, so searing.

The tower.

The moon of blood.

The words.

Lu omni elipsor, de flori skala. Lu omni elipsor, de flori skala.

"STOP!" he screamed. "STOP IT!"

A burst of red light came out of his paw, the one with the finger missing, and it struck the mercenary.

She shrieked into the night, and the noise pierced Scars' skull like a dagger's blade. And then she was gone.

Scars opened his eyes and knew what he had just done. He cried, trying to shake her awake.

"Please," he whispered. "Come back. Come back."

He realized that she still had her visor down. He had never seen her real face. Slowly, he lifted it up.

His eyes became slits when he saw her identity.

"No," he gasped. "It can't be."

Kitty's dead eyes stared into his soul.