Chapter 49 - Iron Fist
By Cille
REBELS CRUSHED
BLACKEN SYNDICATE COWERS BEFORE OZZAL'S MIGHT
Libra Holmes read the glaring headlines, and the triumphant article that followed, with horrified eyes and trembling hands. So, the rebellion had failed, and the remnants of the Syndicate had been pushed back into their base. The rest of the country had waited with bated breath to see what would come of this brazen challenge to Ozzal's dictatorship, and now, if this admittedly biased news account was to be believed, it was all over.
The past week, and even the previous two months, had been harrowing for the citizens of Orly. All eyes were on that small patch of the Enbeforlocke Woods, or at least as much of it as the state-controlled television broadcasts would show. As much as they tried to live their lives as normally as possible, under the watchful eyes of the city's police force, they all knew that the future of their country was being decided at that very moment.
Libra had stayed in her bookshop, despite the potential danger. She knew there was a chance that the government was aware of the covert meetings that had gone on there, but she would no more leave her books alone than she would leave her children without a mother.
Of course it had been over a month since she had heard from her own daughter, a thought that came to her often and which she tried not to let get to her too much. Quetzalxochitl was a strong woman and had reliable colleagues, as far as Libra knew. Surely she would be able to handle anything that happened to her, even if she had somehow been targeted for her relation to the owner of Ghost's Book Shop...
The shop itself had been for all intents and purposes closed for weeks, and Libra hadn't had any visitors in a long time. She just stayed holed up there, occupying herself with cleaning and other busy work, finding solace reading her beloved books, and hoping that everything would be okay.
But now, this proclamation in the Orly Review felt like a fatal blow to everyone who had quietly put their hopes in these brave rebels. If the Blacken Syndicate really had been crushed, who would be left to stand up to Ozzal and her corrupt regime? And how much worse would things get for the ordinary citizens?
As if to answer her fearful questions, a harsh pounding on the door startled her. Without even waiting for an answer, the intruders kicked the door in, not even trying the doorknob to see that it wasn't even locked. As she stood up, frightened, two men barged into the shop.
"Are you Libra Holmes?" one man barked at her.
"I... y-yes..." she stammered.
The man nodded at his associate, who strode toward Libra and grabbed her by the arm. He began pulling her to the door as the other man gave the shop an appraising look.
"What... what are you doing?" Libra asked, still terrified.
"You're being taken into custody," the leader said curtly.
So it was finally happening. She mentally chastised herself for leaving the baseball bat in the back and not having time to go get it. But as the government agent dragged her outside, she realized that it probably wouldn't do her any good anyway.
But that didn't mean she had to just go quietly. She began struggling as furiously as she could. "NO! You can't take me! I won't leave my books!" she screamed.
"Shut up, you old hag," her captor said, trying to keep her under control.
"LET ME GO! I WON'T LEAVE MY SHOP!" she shrieked even louder.
The other agent came out of the shop. "I didn't find anything incriminating in there. Let's go."
"Urf..." his partner answered, still having some trouble with the struggling woman. "You take her then, she says she won't leave her books."
"Is that so." The man's eyes narrowed, and then he grinned. "Well I think we can take care of that."
He turned back to the shop and pulled something out of his coat. "I think it's time for a good old-fashioned book burning."
Libra went motionless and pale as she realized what he planned to do. As if in slow motion she watched him uncover the flare he had pulled out and strike the end to light it. The flare fizzed to life, and the man drew his arm back and took aim at the open door of the bookshop as Libra opened her mouth to scream.
But then he stopped, as if his arm were fixed in place.
"What the hell," he began, looking back at his immovable arm. But even as he tried to wiggle it awake, a slow freeze began to spread from his shoulder through the rest of his body, leaving a very confused-looking statue holding the still-burning flare.
"What the..." The other man loosened his hold on Libra, who was just as bewildered as he was. Thinking quickly, she took the opportunity to dart away and run toward the door of the shop.
"Oh no you don't," he said, grabbing at her arm as she fled. But he found that his legs were frozen in place, and the same slow freeze was creeping up his own body.
"Is that any way to treat a nice old lady? Your mother would be ashamed of you," a chiding voice said. Libra and the agent both looked down the street to see a handsome blond man in a light-colored suit approaching them.
"Who the hell are you?" the agent growled. The newcomer just smiled at him and pulled something out of his pocket as the freeze finished working its way up the man's body and head.
Libra watched apprehensively as the blond man removed a cigarette from its pack and held it up to the flare to light it. Taking a puff, he made a blech face.
"Who... are you?" Libra asked tentatively.
He looked at her with a pleasant smile. "Oh, you wouldn't know me. A friend asked me to keep an eye on you," he said in a charming British accent. "I guess it's a good thing I happened by just now."
"Yes... thank you," Libra said, still a little dazed by what had happened to her.
The man knocked on the frozen head of one of the agents. "Well then, now that these nasty fellows are out of the way, I suppose it's time to get you to someplace safe."
"No, I won't leave my shop," Libra said firmly.
"So I heard. You do realize you're a sitting duck as long as you're here, right? And my timing may not always be so impeccable."
"I won't do it. As long as my books are here, so will I be."
The man sighed. "Well... Nowhere did warn me about this..." He thought for a few moments. "Well then, I suppose we'll have to get creative. Do you have a back way out of your shop? Or food and supplies if you're going to be stuck there for a while?"
"I can manage," Libra answered.
"All right then, I'm going to have to ask you to trust me a little bit. Go into your shop, stay away from the door, and ignore whatever you see or hear out here. All right?"
Libra considered this, still a little nervous, and glanced at the two frozen government men.
"I'll take care of them too," the blond man reassured her. "I just need you to trust me."
She looked at him, and nodded. He had come to her aid, after all.
He escorted her back into her shop and closed the door behind her. She moved toward the back of the room, uncertain about what would happen next. For a minute or two it was silent, and she wondered if the man had left.
Suddenly she heard crashing sounds around her door, and through the window she saw her Ghost's Book Shop sign come thudding to the ground. After a few seconds of silence there was a crackling sound outside, and smoke started curling through the cracks in the door. She started to panic and rushed forward, wanting to protect the books closest to the door, but then she realized that the door itself wasn't actually on fire. Remembering the man's words, she calmed herself down and stayed where she was.
Something black started sweeping across her window, leaving a trail of soot and obscuring the light coming in from outside. In a flash she realized what was going on. Her rescuer was trashing the front of her shop, making it look as if it had been burned out. With any luck this would ward off any further attempts to search for her there. She silently breathed a prayer of thanks for this man and the friend who had sent him to help her.
And then, once the smoke cleared and all was silent again outside, she settled in for her indeterminately-long isolation.
**********
Elsewhere in the city, Trunks was reading the same article and doing some guilty soul-searching. After joining the Order of Glass on his friend Hill's insistence, it hadn't taken long for him to chicken out and go AWOL - especially when things with the Syndicate started heating up. He'd always felt bad about letting Hill down, and he hadn't even been able to bring himself to contact his friend and fess up about ditching. He'd just slipped out one night and laid low since then.
Of course he hoped that the Syndicate and the Order would be able to pull things out against Ozzal, but he didn't want any part of it himself. And he might have still been a little bitter about having his pub wrecked on their account.
Reading the article about the rebels' defeat just reinforced his feeling that it was a good thing he'd gotten out when he did. If he'd stayed with the Order he'd probably be dead by now. Unless the army's idea of battle involved throwing down at DDR, which he doubted.
He could sense that things in the city were already starting to get more precarious. He remembered what things were like during the riots and the government crackdown, and he shuddered to think that the same thing could happen again - only worse. So he'd have to stay out of sight, hoping that the bad guys had forgotten about his existence and that Hill would still be around when he was ready to come out and say "I'm sorry."
**********
Traffic was slowed to a crawl as Sarah tried to make her way across town to work that morning. The police presence on the streets had been noticeably beefed up, and she had already gone through two checkpoints that had seemingly been put up overnight.
She tried not to let the apprehension show too much as she looked around her, but she couldn't help feeling that the city was a scarier place than it had been the day before.
She also couldn't help thinking about her boyfriend Bruce, as she had done many times since she had last seen him two months ago. He had told her he was going to be away for a while on a big landscaping job, but she didn't expect him to be gone that long. Could he have somehow gotten mixed up in this Syndicate business? Was that even possible?
Trying to shake off the feelings of dread, she turned on some music on the radio and did her best to drive casual.
**********
It had been several weeks since the GAR Street Bar had suspended its operations, mostly on account of being raided by government thugs and smashed all to hell. Fortunately well before that happened, all of the valuable alcohol, girlie posters, and weaponry had been removed to a safe stashing location, so there was very little left for the G-men to find.
Watari had seen all of this coming from the time his regulars stampeded out of the bar looking to take on the armies of two countries. While he was sad to see the bar close down, he felt better knowing that it was going out in a badass blaze of glory. Besides, after all of his regular customers stopped coming around, he really wasn't making enough money to stay in business.
He still passed by the place from time to time, just to check in. He couldn't stay long, though, knowing that those G-men would love to get their hands on the bartender who had overheard so much incendiary conversation.
On this particular day he found one of his former patrons standing on the sidewalk with a motorcycle, looking wistfully at the boarded-up bar.
"Kino! If you've come for a drink, I'm afraid you won't be able to get one today," Watari greeted the youngster.
Kino turned to him. "No, I know the place has been closed down. I'm sorry to see what happened to it."
"Eh, all good things come to an end. Speaking of, have you heard the news today?"
Kino nodded. "Yes. And I think it's time for me to continue my journey."
"Where are you headed?" Watari asked.
"I don't really know yet. We'll just see where the road takes us. But I'd like to observe what happens here from a safe distance."
Watari smiled. "That seems wise. Just watch out for those checkpoints."
"We will. You should be careful too. They'll be coming for you now," Kino warned.
"Oh, it wouldn't be the first time," Watari said. "I know how to disappear when I need to."
They nodded respectfully at each other and went their separate ways, knowing they would most likely never see each other again.
**********
St. Maria's Cathedral stood as a bastion of relative tranquility within the tumultuous city. While a dark cloud seemed to hang over the citizens of Orly, a ray of divine light seemed to rest upon the old stone church.
Priestess Leah Nafah had held fast to her faith over these last several months as the city and the country spiraled toward madness around her. She tried to believe that, in spite of all of the travails and hardships, God would preserve his faithful people and allow goodness to prevail in the end. She took it as her mission to be an emissary of his light to the dark world around her, and to do whatever she could to help the least fortunate among the people of Orly to persevere and remain hopeful.
Among her charitable endeavors was the establishment of an orphanage for children whose parents had been either killed in the unrest or arrested by Ozzal's regime. She knew she ran a risk providing sanctuary for the children of so-called enemies of state, but she was confident that the Lord would protect those who sought shelter within his gates. Plus having mystical divine powers didn't hurt.
She also owed quite a bit to Father John Sadar, even though she had not seen him in a very long time - not since the encounter with the psychotic assassins of the Echelon and their subsequent change of heart. The ink symbol he had left on the floor of the cathedral had not faded a bit, even after being trod upon thousands of times since then. He had promised that the mark would prevent those with ill will in their hearts from ever entering the cathedral, and it remained true to this day that none of the government agents, thieves, or rabble-rousers that had ever approached the sanctuary had ever passed through the doors.
The other memento he had left her that day had remained close to her heart as well. She still wore the glass cross beneath her robes, and it frequently reminded her of the enigmatic man of faith. She had thought of him often since hearing about the outbreak of war in the countryside, as her intuition told her that he must have gotten himself involved more deeply with the rebellion since she had last seen him. She had felt strangely troubled in these last few days, and hoped that the tremor in the divine Force was not due to some terrible misfortune.
On this particular afternoon she received a visit from Marie Mjolnir, a teacher at one of the city's schools. As usual this meant new arrivals for the orphanage. Marie had also brought the startling and disheartening news of the end of the rebellion. She left the priestess with a warning to be careful, and a prediction that "you're gonna be getting a lot more business."
As she ushered her new young charges to the orphanage facilities behind the cathedral, Priestess Nafah knew that her prayers would need to be especially fervent from now on. There was little doubt that the country was entering its darkest days yet. She just hoped that through some miracle of divine intervention, they would all be all right in the end.
Chapter 49 author's notes:
Recurring characters:
*Michelle Ozzal - Mike Lazzo
Libra Holmes - Ghost_of_a_Librarian
*Chief Quetzalxochitl "Q" Holmes - Q_chan
*Jude "Nowhere" Hill - fool_on_the_hill
Trunks - Trunks378
Sarah - herself
*Bruce Herman - bherman
Priestess Leah Nafah - inuyashafan213
*Father John Sadar - FurionTassadar
November 11 - Darker than BLACK (the blond man who helps Libra)
Watari - Death Note
Kino - Kino's Journey
New characters:
Marie Mjolnir - Soul Eater
*Characters marked with an asterisk are mentioned in this chapter but do not have an active role in the story.
REBELS CRUSHED
BLACKEN SYNDICATE COWERS BEFORE OZZAL'S MIGHT
Libra Holmes read the glaring headlines, and the triumphant article that followed, with horrified eyes and trembling hands. So, the rebellion had failed, and the remnants of the Syndicate had been pushed back into their base. The rest of the country had waited with bated breath to see what would come of this brazen challenge to Ozzal's dictatorship, and now, if this admittedly biased news account was to be believed, it was all over.
The past week, and even the previous two months, had been harrowing for the citizens of Orly. All eyes were on that small patch of the Enbeforlocke Woods, or at least as much of it as the state-controlled television broadcasts would show. As much as they tried to live their lives as normally as possible, under the watchful eyes of the city's police force, they all knew that the future of their country was being decided at that very moment.
Libra had stayed in her bookshop, despite the potential danger. She knew there was a chance that the government was aware of the covert meetings that had gone on there, but she would no more leave her books alone than she would leave her children without a mother.
Of course it had been over a month since she had heard from her own daughter, a thought that came to her often and which she tried not to let get to her too much. Quetzalxochitl was a strong woman and had reliable colleagues, as far as Libra knew. Surely she would be able to handle anything that happened to her, even if she had somehow been targeted for her relation to the owner of Ghost's Book Shop...
The shop itself had been for all intents and purposes closed for weeks, and Libra hadn't had any visitors in a long time. She just stayed holed up there, occupying herself with cleaning and other busy work, finding solace reading her beloved books, and hoping that everything would be okay.
But now, this proclamation in the Orly Review felt like a fatal blow to everyone who had quietly put their hopes in these brave rebels. If the Blacken Syndicate really had been crushed, who would be left to stand up to Ozzal and her corrupt regime? And how much worse would things get for the ordinary citizens?
As if to answer her fearful questions, a harsh pounding on the door startled her. Without even waiting for an answer, the intruders kicked the door in, not even trying the doorknob to see that it wasn't even locked. As she stood up, frightened, two men barged into the shop.
"Are you Libra Holmes?" one man barked at her.
"I... y-yes..." she stammered.
The man nodded at his associate, who strode toward Libra and grabbed her by the arm. He began pulling her to the door as the other man gave the shop an appraising look.
"What... what are you doing?" Libra asked, still terrified.
"You're being taken into custody," the leader said curtly.
So it was finally happening. She mentally chastised herself for leaving the baseball bat in the back and not having time to go get it. But as the government agent dragged her outside, she realized that it probably wouldn't do her any good anyway.
But that didn't mean she had to just go quietly. She began struggling as furiously as she could. "NO! You can't take me! I won't leave my books!" she screamed.
"Shut up, you old hag," her captor said, trying to keep her under control.
"LET ME GO! I WON'T LEAVE MY SHOP!" she shrieked even louder.
The other agent came out of the shop. "I didn't find anything incriminating in there. Let's go."
"Urf..." his partner answered, still having some trouble with the struggling woman. "You take her then, she says she won't leave her books."
"Is that so." The man's eyes narrowed, and then he grinned. "Well I think we can take care of that."
He turned back to the shop and pulled something out of his coat. "I think it's time for a good old-fashioned book burning."
Libra went motionless and pale as she realized what he planned to do. As if in slow motion she watched him uncover the flare he had pulled out and strike the end to light it. The flare fizzed to life, and the man drew his arm back and took aim at the open door of the bookshop as Libra opened her mouth to scream.
But then he stopped, as if his arm were fixed in place.
"What the hell," he began, looking back at his immovable arm. But even as he tried to wiggle it awake, a slow freeze began to spread from his shoulder through the rest of his body, leaving a very confused-looking statue holding the still-burning flare.
"What the..." The other man loosened his hold on Libra, who was just as bewildered as he was. Thinking quickly, she took the opportunity to dart away and run toward the door of the shop.
"Oh no you don't," he said, grabbing at her arm as she fled. But he found that his legs were frozen in place, and the same slow freeze was creeping up his own body.
"Is that any way to treat a nice old lady? Your mother would be ashamed of you," a chiding voice said. Libra and the agent both looked down the street to see a handsome blond man in a light-colored suit approaching them.
"Who the hell are you?" the agent growled. The newcomer just smiled at him and pulled something out of his pocket as the freeze finished working its way up the man's body and head.
Libra watched apprehensively as the blond man removed a cigarette from its pack and held it up to the flare to light it. Taking a puff, he made a blech face.
"Who... are you?" Libra asked tentatively.
He looked at her with a pleasant smile. "Oh, you wouldn't know me. A friend asked me to keep an eye on you," he said in a charming British accent. "I guess it's a good thing I happened by just now."
"Yes... thank you," Libra said, still a little dazed by what had happened to her.
The man knocked on the frozen head of one of the agents. "Well then, now that these nasty fellows are out of the way, I suppose it's time to get you to someplace safe."
"No, I won't leave my shop," Libra said firmly.
"So I heard. You do realize you're a sitting duck as long as you're here, right? And my timing may not always be so impeccable."
"I won't do it. As long as my books are here, so will I be."
The man sighed. "Well... Nowhere did warn me about this..." He thought for a few moments. "Well then, I suppose we'll have to get creative. Do you have a back way out of your shop? Or food and supplies if you're going to be stuck there for a while?"
"I can manage," Libra answered.
"All right then, I'm going to have to ask you to trust me a little bit. Go into your shop, stay away from the door, and ignore whatever you see or hear out here. All right?"
Libra considered this, still a little nervous, and glanced at the two frozen government men.
"I'll take care of them too," the blond man reassured her. "I just need you to trust me."
She looked at him, and nodded. He had come to her aid, after all.
He escorted her back into her shop and closed the door behind her. She moved toward the back of the room, uncertain about what would happen next. For a minute or two it was silent, and she wondered if the man had left.
Suddenly she heard crashing sounds around her door, and through the window she saw her Ghost's Book Shop sign come thudding to the ground. After a few seconds of silence there was a crackling sound outside, and smoke started curling through the cracks in the door. She started to panic and rushed forward, wanting to protect the books closest to the door, but then she realized that the door itself wasn't actually on fire. Remembering the man's words, she calmed herself down and stayed where she was.
Something black started sweeping across her window, leaving a trail of soot and obscuring the light coming in from outside. In a flash she realized what was going on. Her rescuer was trashing the front of her shop, making it look as if it had been burned out. With any luck this would ward off any further attempts to search for her there. She silently breathed a prayer of thanks for this man and the friend who had sent him to help her.
And then, once the smoke cleared and all was silent again outside, she settled in for her indeterminately-long isolation.
**********
Elsewhere in the city, Trunks was reading the same article and doing some guilty soul-searching. After joining the Order of Glass on his friend Hill's insistence, it hadn't taken long for him to chicken out and go AWOL - especially when things with the Syndicate started heating up. He'd always felt bad about letting Hill down, and he hadn't even been able to bring himself to contact his friend and fess up about ditching. He'd just slipped out one night and laid low since then.
Of course he hoped that the Syndicate and the Order would be able to pull things out against Ozzal, but he didn't want any part of it himself. And he might have still been a little bitter about having his pub wrecked on their account.
Reading the article about the rebels' defeat just reinforced his feeling that it was a good thing he'd gotten out when he did. If he'd stayed with the Order he'd probably be dead by now. Unless the army's idea of battle involved throwing down at DDR, which he doubted.
He could sense that things in the city were already starting to get more precarious. He remembered what things were like during the riots and the government crackdown, and he shuddered to think that the same thing could happen again - only worse. So he'd have to stay out of sight, hoping that the bad guys had forgotten about his existence and that Hill would still be around when he was ready to come out and say "I'm sorry."
**********
Traffic was slowed to a crawl as Sarah tried to make her way across town to work that morning. The police presence on the streets had been noticeably beefed up, and she had already gone through two checkpoints that had seemingly been put up overnight.
She tried not to let the apprehension show too much as she looked around her, but she couldn't help feeling that the city was a scarier place than it had been the day before.
She also couldn't help thinking about her boyfriend Bruce, as she had done many times since she had last seen him two months ago. He had told her he was going to be away for a while on a big landscaping job, but she didn't expect him to be gone that long. Could he have somehow gotten mixed up in this Syndicate business? Was that even possible?
Trying to shake off the feelings of dread, she turned on some music on the radio and did her best to drive casual.
**********
It had been several weeks since the GAR Street Bar had suspended its operations, mostly on account of being raided by government thugs and smashed all to hell. Fortunately well before that happened, all of the valuable alcohol, girlie posters, and weaponry had been removed to a safe stashing location, so there was very little left for the G-men to find.
Watari had seen all of this coming from the time his regulars stampeded out of the bar looking to take on the armies of two countries. While he was sad to see the bar close down, he felt better knowing that it was going out in a badass blaze of glory. Besides, after all of his regular customers stopped coming around, he really wasn't making enough money to stay in business.
He still passed by the place from time to time, just to check in. He couldn't stay long, though, knowing that those G-men would love to get their hands on the bartender who had overheard so much incendiary conversation.
On this particular day he found one of his former patrons standing on the sidewalk with a motorcycle, looking wistfully at the boarded-up bar.
"Kino! If you've come for a drink, I'm afraid you won't be able to get one today," Watari greeted the youngster.
Kino turned to him. "No, I know the place has been closed down. I'm sorry to see what happened to it."
"Eh, all good things come to an end. Speaking of, have you heard the news today?"
Kino nodded. "Yes. And I think it's time for me to continue my journey."
"Where are you headed?" Watari asked.
"I don't really know yet. We'll just see where the road takes us. But I'd like to observe what happens here from a safe distance."
Watari smiled. "That seems wise. Just watch out for those checkpoints."
"We will. You should be careful too. They'll be coming for you now," Kino warned.
"Oh, it wouldn't be the first time," Watari said. "I know how to disappear when I need to."
They nodded respectfully at each other and went their separate ways, knowing they would most likely never see each other again.
**********
St. Maria's Cathedral stood as a bastion of relative tranquility within the tumultuous city. While a dark cloud seemed to hang over the citizens of Orly, a ray of divine light seemed to rest upon the old stone church.
Priestess Leah Nafah had held fast to her faith over these last several months as the city and the country spiraled toward madness around her. She tried to believe that, in spite of all of the travails and hardships, God would preserve his faithful people and allow goodness to prevail in the end. She took it as her mission to be an emissary of his light to the dark world around her, and to do whatever she could to help the least fortunate among the people of Orly to persevere and remain hopeful.
Among her charitable endeavors was the establishment of an orphanage for children whose parents had been either killed in the unrest or arrested by Ozzal's regime. She knew she ran a risk providing sanctuary for the children of so-called enemies of state, but she was confident that the Lord would protect those who sought shelter within his gates. Plus having mystical divine powers didn't hurt.
She also owed quite a bit to Father John Sadar, even though she had not seen him in a very long time - not since the encounter with the psychotic assassins of the Echelon and their subsequent change of heart. The ink symbol he had left on the floor of the cathedral had not faded a bit, even after being trod upon thousands of times since then. He had promised that the mark would prevent those with ill will in their hearts from ever entering the cathedral, and it remained true to this day that none of the government agents, thieves, or rabble-rousers that had ever approached the sanctuary had ever passed through the doors.
The other memento he had left her that day had remained close to her heart as well. She still wore the glass cross beneath her robes, and it frequently reminded her of the enigmatic man of faith. She had thought of him often since hearing about the outbreak of war in the countryside, as her intuition told her that he must have gotten himself involved more deeply with the rebellion since she had last seen him. She had felt strangely troubled in these last few days, and hoped that the tremor in the divine Force was not due to some terrible misfortune.
On this particular afternoon she received a visit from Marie Mjolnir, a teacher at one of the city's schools. As usual this meant new arrivals for the orphanage. Marie had also brought the startling and disheartening news of the end of the rebellion. She left the priestess with a warning to be careful, and a prediction that "you're gonna be getting a lot more business."
As she ushered her new young charges to the orphanage facilities behind the cathedral, Priestess Nafah knew that her prayers would need to be especially fervent from now on. There was little doubt that the country was entering its darkest days yet. She just hoped that through some miracle of divine intervention, they would all be all right in the end.
Chapter 49 author's notes:
Recurring characters:
*Michelle Ozzal - Mike Lazzo
Libra Holmes - Ghost_of_a_Librarian
*Chief Quetzalxochitl "Q" Holmes - Q_chan
*Jude "Nowhere" Hill - fool_on_the_hill
Trunks - Trunks378
Sarah - herself
*Bruce Herman - bherman
Priestess Leah Nafah - inuyashafan213
*Father John Sadar - FurionTassadar
November 11 - Darker than BLACK (the blond man who helps Libra)
Watari - Death Note
Kino - Kino's Journey
New characters:
Marie Mjolnir - Soul Eater
*Characters marked with an asterisk are mentioned in this chapter but do not have an active role in the story.