FicWad

(Chapter 8 Start)

"Sir! Please you should be resting!" Elizabeth said as she tried to stop a staggering
Amadues from walking. From various doorways the initiates curiously gazed on.

It had been the second day since Marcell had brought them to a rickety old house outside a small village. According to him, it was the village that Jericho had been stationed at not to long ago and it would be easier to find him if they followed his footsteps. At the moment, Marcell was out getting food for the group, he had to resort to stealing from one of the stores in town for money the night before and had left early the next morning for food. But that was an hour and a half ago.

Amadues, who had woken up a few moments ago had been quick to grab his spear, using it as a walking stick with only one thought running through his mind. 'I must find, Jericho!'

As he stepped out the front door a fist flew out and hit his temple, knocking him out. As he started to fall, the hand that hit him grabbed the back of his robes, the owner of said hand stepped towards Amadues to reveal Marcell.

"Elizabeth come here and take the groceries," he ordered. As she took the groceries, Marcell readjusted his hold on Amadues. "Idiot, you move too much and you'll reopen your wound. That potion saved you from dying, you have to do the rest. Besides you lost too much blood, you'd probably make it forty feet before passing out."

After Marcell put his friend back to bed he came downstairs. Elizabeth was handing out food to the hungry children. Judging by how much was left in the bags when she finished, they would only last one more day. As the children went back to the rooms they had been sleeping in, Elizabeth spoke.

"We won't be able to stay here much longer. We'll need to find someplace that can help us."

Marcell grimly nodded. "While I was down in the village I saw a castle high on a cliff edge. From what I gathered, it's a school. Perhaps you'll find some aid there."

"You'll?" She questioned looking at him.

Lowering his hood Marcell looked her in the eye, "Amadues and I have to find Jericho...and considering what I know about Amadues, he'll be trying to leave again when he wakes up."

"But we'll be separated only temporarily, right? Once you find Jericho you'll come back for us won't you?" She fearfully asked.

Marcell put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "Of course, now that Myren is gone all we have is each other. That's why we need to find Jericho, despite our rank, Amadues and I are not leaders. Jericho is the only one we trust enough to make decisions. Besides..." He paused as he pulled out Raimond's journal from his inner robe. "...if what Raimond's journal says is true, he will have most of Britain's wizarding society kissing his ass. With that kind of leverage, he will no doubt use it to try and regroup with any Templar that survived."

"Just what is in that journal?"

"The truth of who Jericho really is." Marcell vaguely answered before leaving the room.

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At number 12 Grimmauld Place, Jericho was once again pacing the room with his hood down, he was unaware that Rachel was following behind him. He knew she was in the room though. Ever since she had woken up, she could be found wherever Jericho was. Jericho didn't mind her presence and didn't care that she got to see him with his hood down. After all she already knew what his face looked like. Plus her presence managed to bring a sense of happiness to him, and with his current confusions such things were a welcomed distraction.

'Two days! Two days and I haven't been able to get in contact with Raimond!' He paused in his pacing, Rachel stopped just a foot behind him. 'Just what the hell is going on in Myren?'

KnockKnock*

Raising his hood, Jericho turned to the door, "Come in."

The door opened to reveal Fleur, Rachel ran to her and enveloped her in a hug. Fleur was the only other person besides him that she responded positively to. The young blond woman returned her hug before facing Jericho.

"I came to tell you two suppers ready."

Jericho nodded, walking over to them he kneeled down and spoke with Rachel, "You go ahead and follow Fleur down, I'll be along in a moment, ok?"

Rachel hesitated, but ended up nodding in agreement. Taking Fleur's hand the two left to go downstairs. Closing the door, Jericho stepped into the center of the room before pulling out the mirror from his inner robe.

"Raimond." He spoke, he waited as the mist covered the mirror before disappearing after a minute. Putting the mirror back in his inner robe he spoke to himself, "Still nothing...Raimond I hope this is just another one of your bad jokes..."

"JERRY-KO!" Rachel yelled up the stairs. "HURRY OR DINNER WILL GET COLD."

Jericho laughed lightly before exiting the room. He remembered the first time she did that. The portrait of the late Mrs. Black woke up and started yelling at her. She ended up running to him and cried herself to sleep. Once he put her to bed he waited till night when everyone was asleep. Making his way to the portrait he pulled back the curtain. Mrs. Black was about to start yelling at him, but before she could he thrust one of his glowing swords just an inch from her face. Having got her attention he told her that she would refrain from yelling at anyone and would apologize to Rachel, because if she didn't he would finish destroying the rest of her portrait. Needless to say, Mrs. Black was much more complacent after that.

As he made his way downstairs he took Rachel's hand and let her lead him to the kitchen. He was glad she didn't seem to have any long term trauma from the battle and the loss of her parents. It was times like these when Jericho was truly thankful for the little things.

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Night had fallen and Marcell was sitting in the room Amadues was resting at. He had been there most the evening looking after his friend. Amadues stirred before groggily sitting up. He rubbed the side of his head where Marcell had hit him before blinking a few times and looking at his surroundings.

Looking at Marcell he asked, "What happened?"

"You got hasty in your search for Jericho when you should have been resting." Marcell calmly replied as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Why does my head hurt so much?" he asked rubbing his head some more.

"Because I hit you." Marcell deadpanned.

"You could have lied you know." Amadues drawled.

"Would you prefer "I stopped you from doing something stupid that could have led to you opening your wounds and bleeding to death"?" he sarcastically replied.

"No, not really," he replied irritably. "So what do we do now?"

"We wait. You still need some rest."

"We don't have time to wait! We need to let Jericho know what's happened!" Amadues said as he started to get up.

"Sit back down before I hit you again!"

Amadues glared at him and Marcell glared right back. After a few minutes, Amadues relented. Looking around the room again, he saw his spear resting against the wall, it was then that he noticed Marcell was unarmed.

"Where is your sword?'

"Gone...I had to leave it in Myren when we were escaping. Otherwise that bitch, Amaury would have pursued us."

Amadues grunted in acknowledgement. He made a mental note to pay, said bitch back for stabbing him.

"So right now we are one armed Grand Templar, and unarmed Dark Templar, an incapacitated High Templar, and a handful of Initiates...right?"

"Yup." Marcell answered with a smirk.

"We're fucked if whoever attacked Myren finds us."

"Yup." Marcell's smirk grew into a smile.

"And you're smiling cause you're replaying, you sucker-punching me earlier in your head, aren't you?" he asked with a glare.

"Oh yeah," Marcell's smile was now a full blown grin. "It's one of the highlights of my day and helps me keep my chin up."

"...Asshole."

"Yup," Marcell replied, laughing. Getting up he walked to the door. "Get some sleep we'll start looking for Jericho, starting noon tomorrow."

Amadues grunted as he lay back down and tried to get some more sleep. Exiting the room, Marcell literally bumped into Elizabeth. As he looked at the female Templar he noticed her hands behind her back and she was constantly shifting her weight.

"Something wrong?"

"Ah! Um..." She gasped in surprise before bringing her hands in front of her showing him a silvery color solid orb about the size of a softball in her hand. "...I've been thinking for a while now, and decided to give you my Alomondria Ore. You're a better fighter than me and it will be better off with you."

Marcell's eyes widened in surprise. Alomondria Ore was the metal used to make Templar weapons. It was a unique metal that when combined with the magic of whoever was in possession of it, turned into a weapon or weapons, in Jericho's case, which suited the user. Once combined with the magic it retains the shape of the weapon until whoever put the magic in, decided to pull it out. It was a very precious metal and each Templar was only given one. Marcell had resigned himself to having to find or make a new zanbato, and here was Elizabeth willingly giving away her Alomondria Ore to him.

Taking a deep breath, Marcell gently place his hand around hers and pushed the orb of metal towards her, "I can't take this Elizabeth. It's yours and I would feel bad for depriving you of your weapon."

Elizabeth shook her head furiously before forcefully pushing the metal into his hands. "I never used my weapon until the attack on Myren. Those wizards were my first kill and every time I look at it I hear their screams. I'm not suited for fighting it was the major reason I became a teacher. Besides I'd be dead if it wasn't for you, so if you must, consider this my way of saying thanks."

Marcell's eyes slightly widened as the information sunk in, "Those were your first kill?"

Realization seemed to shine in her eyes, as if the information had just dawned on her. Her knees quivered before they completely gave out from under her. As she was collapsing, Marcell quickly caught her in his arms. The two stood there as Elizabeth cried for the lives she took. Marcell stood as a pillar of strength, rubbing a consoling hand up and down her back. First kills were always the hardest and Elizabeth had never got the chance to get over it until now.

Eventually, Elizabeth cried herself dry. Her head still buried in his chest, she mumbled, "I'm a horrible person."

"No," Marcell said as he pulled her away to look her in the eyes. She had her head aimed down and gently he lifted her chin so she had to look at him. "No, what you did is save the lives of your students, yourself, and anyone else those monsters could of and would of harmed. You did nothing wrong."

"How can you stand it? All the killing?"

"It's easier after the first...but the first ones never truly leave you. You just have to come up with a reason for what you did and live with it. You are lucky you had a good reason."

"How can you say that!? That I'm lucky I had a good reason to kill someone!?"

"Not all of us are so fortunate to kill what we consider evil," He calmly stated. "Amadues is still haunted by his first kill."

"What happened?"

"That...is something you'll have to ask him." The two stood in silence for a moment before Marcell looked down at the Alomondria Ore in his hand. "I guess I better get to work on making my new sword."

With that said, he headed downstairs. Elizabeth stood where she was for a moment, glancing at the room, Amadues slept in with sad eyes.

"Here I am feeling sorry for myself and yet I'm standing with two senior Templar who have probably had it worse than me. I feel ashamed of myself." She said as she turned and headed downstairs to find Marcell. Neither of them were aware that Amadues was still awake, looking at the ceiling with a haunted look in his eyes.

"No one will blame you for feeling the way you do, Elizabeth. Everyone has their nightmares...its just that some are worse than others." He quietly mumbled to no one. It would be a long night for him.

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Marcell stepped outside, into the cool night air. Lifting the softball size ball of metal to eye level, he thought back to when he made his first sword. All it took was a small charge of magic. Taking a deep breath he slowly charged his magic into the orb. The orb started to glow gold, then turned red, and finally black.

'Well that's new.' Marcell thought as he continued to feed his magic into the ball.

The once hard metal started to shift and ripple like a water balloon before it started to lose it ball like shape. The first thing to happen, was it grew into a long, slim cylinder shape, forming the handle of his blade. But that was all that reminded Marcell of his old sword. At the end of the handle a sharp cone shaped spike formed and as the actual blade grew it shaped itself in a flat crab-like claw. However, rather than a smooth razor edge, there was a row of saw-like teeth that went up both sides of the sword and in-between the two finger-like points of the sword. When the blade was finished forming, the black glow from his magic fell off the blade to reveal an obsidian color that seemed to take the shine of whatever light hit it and turn it into an intimidating glare.

"What the fuck?" he mumbled as he marveled at his new sword.

"W-w-what the hell is that!?" a shocked voice spoke from behind.

Turning around he saw Elizabeth standing at the doorway with a look of shock on her face.

"I don't know. I thought it would just turn into another overgrown butcher's cleaver." He answered as he looked back at his new sword. "But this thing is something else entirely...it's more powerful than my old sword."

"What do you-" But she never finished. Marcell had taken one hand off the handle and was still holding the blade horizontally with his other hand and no signs of strain.

"It's light as a feather," He said as he gave it a few test swings with one hand. "That was my greatest weakness before. The weight of the blade made it impossible for me to wield it for long periods of time. But this..." He paused again as he swung it some more. "I could swing this all day and not feel tired."

Stepping a little closer, Elizabeth asked. "How is that even possible?"

"I don't know. I've never heard of something like this happening in Myren," Stabbing the blade into the ground he turned and enveloped Elizabeth in a hug. "I don't know how this happened, but I know that if it wasn't for you, I would never have this magnificent blade. Someway, somehow I will repay you."

Elizabeth hesitantly returned the hug and thought to herself, 'You already have.'

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Early the next morning Marcell entered Amadues's room with his new sword strapped to his back.

"I'm taking Elizabeth and the Initiates up to a school about a half hour away. Once I've dropped them off I'm coming back here and we'll leave to find Jericho."

"And what makes you think I'll wait that long?" he curiously asked.

"You want me to tie you down?" Marcell deadpanned.

"Nope, I'll be a good boy and wait patiently." He replied nervously.

"You better, or else I'll introduce you to my new sword." He said as he turned and exited the room.

Amadues, who had finally got a good look at his new blade yelled out, "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!?"

Marcell had reached the first floor and yelled back, "LONG STORY, I'LL TELL YOU LATER."

Looking back at Elizabeth and the children standing behind her, he said, "Ok, we're going to the castle on the cliff. Go to the bathroom now because I'm not stopping until we reach the castle.

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At number 12 Grimmauld place, an entirely different scene was taking place. Jericho had just finished eating breakfast with Rachel, Sirius, and Remus when someone quickly stepped out of the fireplace. Said perso burst into the kitchen to reveal a panting Tonks.

"Contact Dumbledore, the Ministry is under attack!"

(Chapter 8 End)

Ok, that is chapter 8. I don't know how well I described Marcell's new sword. So give me feedback on that please. I drew a picture of it and tried to describe what that picture looked like so for me its easy to picture what I'm trying to describe. Anyway this chapter served as a break in the action. Next chapter will be the first real Templar vs Templar fight.

For those wondering when Harry and Fleur get together, you still have a while. They still have to get to know each other better. But for your convenience I'm speeding that up as soon as I can.

Also did anyone like chapter 7? Seemed it didn't get reviews as quickly as my other chapters which makes me think no. Anyway. The contents of Raimond's journal will be discussed after Marcell, Amadues, and Jericho reunite and things settle down. There is still two fight filled chapters (though not back to back) to cover so stay tuned.

Anyway, today's chapter is brought to you by the letter R. As in review. (Smiles)