Nullus Nomen {Haden}

[becca]

She had come for him.

The man called Haden.

Her killer.

The words echoed in her empty mind, bouncing off the darkness and touching upon the tarp that covered her memories. She could feel them struggling to break free of the stretchy covering. The potion she had taken would only work if she had his blood, and she had stood atop his roof watching and waiting for him to return home. For now she felt now malice towards the man who had killed her, after all she could not remember why or how she had felt at that precise moment. She would hate him if it was fear but she had a feeling she was angry. Just the way Khoua had spoken so fondly about her rage, it was a hint that she didn't exactly control her temper.

She had done what no other Queen had been able to accomplish. She'd had flipped the hiearchy of the underworld so that it was not the Queen who sought the Source's favor it was now the Source that would need the Queen's. She had given birth to a son that had been that Source, that had taken over after her and continued her legacy of ruling the world. She truly was the ultimate evil. A beautiful genius and Khoua had promised her something very special should she succeed this. Something that was under glass in her old bedroom in her castle on Avalon. Something only he had the key too and that was contained in magic glass.

A book.

But she had a feeling it wasn't just any book. It was bound in human flesh and locked with fangs, there was an eye in the flesh and she knew the pages were probably made of ground down bones and written in blood. Philosophy at its finest apparently.

Now she had another question to answer to herself.

Did she want her memories back?

There was no question about the fact that she NEEDED them back but she wasn't entirely sure she wanted them back. That little fact had startled her at first but now she understood exactly why she wanted her memory to stay a mystery. She had never been able to think so clearly before. She wasn't entirely sure of this since she could only remember crawling out of a grave and meeting a man she had a kinship with from day one. But she felt at ease with an empty head, she could think clearly about the things he'd spoken to her without the burden of her past weighing her decisions down.

A sigh rippled past her pale pink lips and she rolled her neck cracking it. Khoua had insisted on discretion since she'd forbade him to come with her on this trip, rumor had already started flying through the under world and around the world about her return. The hidden demons and warlocks and evil kind alike were stirring from there graceless disgraceful sleep. She grinned a little at the thought, a faint upturning of pale lips that made her face which was haunted by the shadows of her vanished past seem younger and more frail.

She turned and her blonde ringlets swirled around her face, silken and smooth after hours in the tub in avalon purifying herself...well tainting herself had given her childish form something more clean to focus on. She recalled Khoua saying she looked like a demonic barbie doll, her eyes heavily coated with blood red eye shadow and thick lines of eye liner that made her bright blue eyes seem all the darker and that much more wicked. She wasn't going for innocent, not draped in a black cloak with the hood up and flared around her beautiful face.

It hadn't taken long for her to remember her powers, not long at all, with Khoua guiding her and a picture of her former self she had quietly rediscovered her shape shifting and in a blink of the eye she was standing at 5'6" in her old body. Khoua had nearly cried, he was overcome and she had patted his head. She smiled a little at the thought and sighed smoothing her hair back from her shoulder. She was dressed as she should have been, under the black cloak she wore a pleated mini skirt, black and red plaid, her naval was pierced when she'd crawled out of the grave so it had been only a matter of slicing in the diamond naval ring with the accompanying glitter and the black tube top that held her ample breasts up was back in place. She stepped on the roof a soft click echoing off of her knee high boots, the silver heels about six inches long adding about three inches to her height.

Then she felt it, she dropped from the ceiling and flamed in to the house. She crawled across Haden's bed and stared at it, she'd found a picture of him earlier and drew it from between her breasts to stare at.

He was gorgeous.

She understood lust but it had been followed with a tightening in her chest and had brought a tear to her eye. She didn't understand but she was filled with the regret of things that could have been, she had no idea why but if she got his blood...if she remembered...she wondered what of him she would see. She heard an exclamation and slowly lifted her head, she stayed on her knees seated on what she knew to be his bed and stared at him, her eyes filled with emotion as she hugged his picture to her breasts. Her pale lips twitched then turned in a faint smile, and the room was suddenly quiet. Her voice seemed to echo loudly even if it was just a whisper.

"Honey...I'm home."

[Haden Mathias]

...he turned the page of the book that sat on his folded legs. His upper half was curved over, his hair falling over and against his forehead and cheeks as he read the fine lines of the frail book in his possession. He turned another page and went on reading; then his eyes darted over to the shadow that flickered to life and back then to gaze at the candle's flame that was being disturbed by the stray breeze that had filtered into his opened bedroom window. His gaze turned to the window, watching as the white lace curtains fluttered slightly before falling back into place, unmoved. It was quiet, so very quiet. This house, at one time, was amazingly noisy that getting sleep was almost difficult, but now it was quiet and he was alone for the night...come to think of it, he was alone, simply put. He closed the book with the snap and all five lit candles went out. Tossing the book to a side, he climbed out of the bed and walked over to the window, staring up into the night sky before slowly shutting it. After all, it was rather cold.

He was going to return to his bed and wrap up for the night but something stronger called to him: that picture of him and Keri taken so, so very long ago when they were together and so, very much in love. He missed her, he missed her so much but she chose to be an Elder than to be with him. If she had turned it down he would have done the same and lived out his life as a witch with whitelighter blood with an actual family...God! Why was everything so damn messed up? Why couldn't they just end up an elderly, married couple still as crazy about each other as they were from day one? What ever happened to the wedding they were planning? What hap- No...he couldn't. He reached out to the picture, touched her cheek then slammed the picture down on its face and walked over to his bed, climbing in, knocking the book he was reading down on the floor.

"I'm not bitter." He whispered to himself as he turned on his side, glancing straight ahead at the wall. "I'm not." He went again, rolling on his back, his hand behind his head, the other placed on his bare stomach, his sights now on the ceiling. He breathed out loudly and closed his eyes simultaneously as his mind started to drift. Just thinking about her brought images of her into his mind. It was almost like he was watching some black and white home movies and him and her and their children, them at their most intimate moments, their saddest, their best and their worst and they've certainly been a healthy mix of all and considering all that relationship had been through, it was good they stuck strong but thinking about it now, he couldn't fathom a plausible reason why they had parted...it was like...it just happened so fast for him to even get the chance to yell "What? Wait a minute!"

He rolled back on his said, opening his eyes to glance back at the plain, ordinary, off-white painted walls. Not thinking about her was a task much easier said than possible to execute but he's had a rather good distraction or two. The coming of the Charmed Ones, Patience and her blood thirst, that battle and the horrendous catastrophe that followed. Innocents aware of magic, innocents making attempts to hunt down witches; getting organized and such...it was all a downhill spiral and the top was getting further and further out of reach as the days passed and as the situation escalated into far worse. The Unfathomable. And that wasn't the worse part...a warning has been given for this whole mess to be cleaned up and honestly, he didn't want to know what they would do, all he wanted was to make sure nothing drastic would come as a result. But the question was: how to get a grip on this situation...and the next is: what of this witch running for president? If he got into office, his true nature still a mystery, they maybe he could bring an end to these modern day witch hunts...he'd have to work on that...not like it'd be difficult...it should be a cinch...

...and he was out. Nodded off to sleep and diving right into a rather interesting dream. If he'd been awake he would have blushed if he could but dreaming that he and Keri were having sex right there and now...it was...it was wow. But sadly, that sweet dream turned into a nightmare when Keri disappeared, then the whole scene and he appeared in this white space, standing on solid, white ground and there was Keri, right before him. Her hair was blowing with a non-existent breeze, her eyes were glistening with light he couldn't experience and her smile...it was just dazzling...and then the small gap between them started to space then with the blink of an eye, a blink he was completely unaware of, she was so far away but he could see her, she was crying, reaching out to him, calling out to him and the sucker wasted no time and ran after his woman, she needed him. Oddly, as he ran, the distance between them wasn't as wide as he had thought. He knelt down beside her falling, whimpering form then he picked her up and dropped her just as quickly as he got to his feet. He was looking down at a corpse...her corpse...Becca's.

He backed away slightly, looking about the white world for some answers but decided he'd only know if he found out for himself. So he, cautiously, approached but froze some inches away when the corpse moved, its head looking up at him, whispering: "Honey...I'm home." He gasped, his eyes flicked open and he sat him...and his eyes nearly rolled back into his heads when the corpse from his dreams was there...on his bed...whispering to him. "Wh-..." He began, not sure if he was dreaming. He fell silent and looked at her silently, checking to see if, like a dream, she would disappear and that be it...but the longer he stared, the more it seemed she wasn't going anywhere. Not a dream! He orbed out from under his sheets to stand beside the bed, looking at her dressed in just a pair of long, plain, grey pajama pants. "What the hell?" He exclaimed, and he wasn't happy.

[becca]

"It's a pleasure to see you too Mathias."

The girl slowly crawled to the edge of the bed allowing the glamor to fade away from her body, she returned to being the beautiful little girl she'd started out as on the roof, the leather faded away revealing a black dress that brought darkness to her beautiful blue eyes. Her blonde hair spilled around her face neatly in curls as she lowered her lashes and glanced up through them at the man. His blood was the last thing she needed to reclaim who she'd once been, the man who'd killed her. The evidence was hugging her throat in the form of a scar that was mostly hidden under the frilly neck garter she wore to hide it. The locket that hung from the make shift locket was ancient, it was a gift from Mashadar back when she was truly sixteen, and within it was a picture of Aiden, Lissa, Sahari and Cristos. Naturally of Aiden and herself as well.

It was now to her a gift from Khoua as a reminder of where she'd come from, of what was inside of her and what her duties were to her people. This place was in chaos now that the true hierarchy was in shambles. She wrapped her arms around the poster at the corner of the bed, she molded her body against the carved wood as her innocent blue eyes watched Haden as he fidgeted in his shock, seeing him so baffled and weak had brought a smiled to her lips.

"You know Mathias, since I'm pretty much running on second hand stories here why not be the one to give me a name?"

She had not had a name, nor had she allowed the name Rabecca to grace her thoughts as her true name until she was sure. But for now until she could return the favor and slit Haden's through it would be sufficient for him to name her. For now she'd gone by Nullus Nomen, Latin for No Name. But it had just been a thought that had been fleeting even though she caught herself sometimes referring to herself as Nullus. Sighing she spilled from the bed and was suddenly holding Haden's hand lifting it to her face.

"You recover to slow Mathias I expected more from the man that killed me."

She nuzzled his hand as she held it to her face. For some reason the warmth from his fingers and the brush of his soft yet firm skin was so much of a nostalgic thing, she wondered if before he and she had been lovers, the thought was enough to draw a warm blush to her cheeks. He was gorgeous, she had good taste. But she'd seen Aiden's picture and there was no doubt in her mind that no matter how many beautiful men had been in her bed only one had left with her heart and soul.

She thought upon that for a moment and wondered if Haden had ever been in love with her, she'd heard that he had come to the dark side...no not for cookies...but because she had saved his life after nearly killing him and the darkness of her stolen island of Avalon had tainted him to the point where he had no choice but to become evil.

Another thing bothered her, she didn't know if she quite liked the word 'Evil' it was so juvenile when she'd listened to the story of her life she'd gotten the impression that she was merely trying to right a long term wrong done to her and her people, that she was merely trying to make a world in which her family could live on the surface and be happy and comfortable rather than grow in a decrepit pit, and even now thinking of it infuriated her.

She had come so close only to die by his hands. Flames spilled down her fingers and she felt him jerk away from her as she shook her head.

"Forgive me, I've not yet come in to complete control. Khoua promised that it would not take me long, after all I am a genius."

She glared up at him out of innocent childish blue eyes with the anger of a Queen trapped in a child's body. She narrowed her eyes somewhat and stared up at him. after all she was filled with a woman's scorn the likes of which hell hath no. But she was incredibly good at keeping her cool, with a quick twist of her body her silver athame bit in to his arm as he attempted to pull away once more. She drew the knife back and ran her tongue over the bloodied steel. She would need a vile of his blood for the potion and she knew she could get it. But first she needed questions answered.

"Tell me Mathias, did it kill something in you to slaughter a woman while she gave birth? Did you feel anything...you hypocrite...when you stood over my children and tried to kill them?"

She rolled her eyes away and paced back towards the bed a narrow thought in her mind to blow up the whole room. But she stilled the fires coiling around inside of her and waited to hear his answer. She had needed to hear these things, had needed to know the truth and she had not been alive to understand nor to ask. She wondered if he'd been the one to seal her in that tomb of good magic, she wondered if he had put her on good avalon or if it had just been an accident. She wondered a great many things but felt that she would not get the answers she sought with out a great persuasion.

"Tell me...what I need to know Mathias, for you must sense it as I do. Things are coming, chaos, anarchy, there will be nothing you can do to stop it. If you help me, maybe I'll help you out. I mean, no one else can take over this world but me."

Her lips parted in a chiming laugh, like the wind through bells so beautiful and so painful to hear. It was the laugh of a child corrupted, the laugh of pain that was still beautiful, she glanced over her shoulder once more.

"Tell me what I need to know Mathias. Tell me."