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The dark storm clouds appeared over the small little city. A dark haze gloomed over the walls and streets. It didn’t rain, but it would any minute, but something held it back. The smell of the rain was filling the city. The clouds moved around in the sky, waiting. Waiting for the rain to fall.

Chloe appeared before the crew. Her long black hair was pulled up in knots, it was messy and it was held in place by a barbwire. She had deathly pale skin and dark eyes. She had a large wound that ran from her collarbone, up her cheek and to her ear. She wore black leather knee high boots with a small dagger tucked into one of the boots. She had a black leather skirt that was mid thigh with a metal mesh shirt that knights used to wear under their armor. One sleeve was ripped off. On her arms, she had black leather straps tied around like gauntlets. She had no sword, only a black cape with a hood.

She had helped the crew defeat some vandals and Sinbad had wished to thank her.

“Thank you” Sinbad said

She said nothing and a black crow flew and sat down onto her shoulder, staring at the crew. Chloe’s eyes got darker as she started to see through the eyes of the crow. She said nothing and walked away.

* They are the living, you must not have anything to do with them. Let them go about their business. We have work still to do * the crow said to her in her mind

“She’s got a fighting spirit and a bird, seems all too familiar” Sinbad said as he looked at Maeve

“I’ll send Dermott after them” Maeve said

Chloe walked down the street of the market and stopped. The Crow flew off. Chloe started to hear something faintly. In a flash she was pulled into the memory of the past.

A young girl walking down the same street. Innocent and naïve, she carries a basket full of fruit that she bought. She walks happily as her thoughts think of her lover. But in her thoughts stop when three men appear surrounding her.

“Come with us” one said

“What? What’s going on?” she said worried

They shove her into a dark alley.

“The prince sent us”

“Oh the prince. What does he want?”

“Nothing” the man pulls out a knife and slashes her on her face

The basket falls as she falls back only to held by the other thug. The man with the knife then stabs her in her stomach and then pulls the knife up to her side.

“NOO!” she screamed out in pain The man slashed her throat and the blood flowed out of her.

Then men then left her there and ran off. The girl lay on the ground, crying, not for the pain that was flowing out of her, but for the life of the innocent inside her. The life that was slowly dying inside her. She felt it leaving her. She felt it die before she died herself.

Chloe pulls herself out of the memory. She’s in the alley where she died. The blood still remains on the floor. A shadow appears behind her.

“Do you really think you can take us all on?” he asked

The crow perched itself on the wall and through its eyes she saw who it was. It’s him, number two. The one that helped kill me. The one that held me while the other one sliced me open. Without saying anything she pulled the dagger from her boot and quickly turned around and flung it at him with such precision that it cracked his skull between his eyes.

“I already have. Two down, two more to go.” She said

She looked up and saw Dermott who had seem everything. Telepathically she talked to him

. “Do not follow me. I am on a mission, a quest for vengeance, for retribution. Where I go there will blood that flows like a river.” She said as she walked away

The crow flew down and perched next to Dermott. The crow’s eyes glowed red as Dermott looked into them. A flood of images went through Dermott’s mind.

“I understand” Dermott said as he flew off and back to Maeve, who senses there’s something wrong.

“What is it?”

*Do not persue her. She is on her own mission. A mission that we cannot interfere with. *

“What kind of mission?”

*For vengeance and justice. Sister her powers and beyond that of good and evil*

“Did Dermott find her?” Sinbad asked from behind

“Ah, no, he lost her in the market” Maeve said uneasily

“Oh well, it would have been nice to thank her, let’s go see the Sultan”

The crew made their way into the lavishly decorated palace of the sultan.

“Welcome captain!” Sultan said from his throne

“Thank you for having us as guests Sultan” Sinbad bowed a bit

The rest of the crew bowed and Maeve gave a little curtsy.

“Well, feel free to see the country and tell me what you think of it. My son is out somewhere, but he will be joining us later this evening. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some things to attend to” Sultan walks away.

In the garden in the palace, the prince was walking around admiring the flowers. The crow flew down and perched itself on a nearby tree. The prince didn’t notice the dark bird looking at him. That she was looking at him too. Through the crow’s eyes, Chloe saw him, the prince as he stood there in the garden among the flowers. He looked like an angel.

A man dressed in torn clothes managed to stumble his way to the young Prince.

“I told you NEVER to come here!” the prince yelled

“She’s alive! And after us!” he said

“How can that be? You assured me she died”

“Well she came back!”

“I want no part of this!” he tried to walk off but the thug grabbed his arm

“She’s after us, for what we did to her. She’ll be after you soon!” the thug said as he released him

The young prince walks away and motions for the guard to remove the thug from the palace. Sinbad overhears the young prince.

“Young Prince, I am Captain Sinbad” Sinbad extends his hand

“The famous sea captain. I am glad to have finally met you” shakes his hand

“I couldn’t help but overhear, are you having problems-” Sinbad said

“No, the palace guards will be sufficient”

“The man mentioned that she’s alive?”

“The horse, she was injured and I ordered her to put out of her misery. Apparently she survived”

“Apparently” Sinbad

The crow sits there and watches, as Chloe watches.

“A horse? Put me out of my misery?” Chloe starts to lose it a bit. Her head starts to hurt. A flood of images overwhelms her head. The love and passion they shared. It was all nothing to him? Just a fling? It hurt her, it tore her up inside to hear him say those words that stabbed into her already bleeding heart.

“I love you Chloe, you make me feel alive inside” the prince said

“I do?” replied an innocent Chloe

“Yes” he replied as he kissed her

“NO!!!!!” she screamed out as she collapsed in pain. She started to breathe heavily as she tried to get up.

The Prince had ordered her death. He order the death of her and her unborn child. How could he? What kind of monster does that to his own flesh and blood? He sent those men after her to kill her, and they did, though they didn’t realize that the crow had been watching, and had returned her to the land of the living to seek vengeance on those who had killed her.

The thug had managed to free himself from the guard and started running back toward the prince. He returns to an empty courtyard and starts to look around for the Prince. Maeve and Dermott walk by and see that the thug and Chloe are fighting. The thug pulls out a knife and slashes Chloe across the face with it. The wound bleeds for a second and stops. And magically heals itself. Maeve watches from the side. Chloe wipes the blood from her face and kicks the knife from his hands. He panics and grabs a fallen arm off a nearby statue. He manages to get a good whack at her and she falls to the ground. The thug then raises it above her to strike her, when Maeve runs out and throws a fireball at him, sending him flying back a few feet.

“Are you alright?” Maeve rushes over to her in time to watch the gash on her head heal itself. Maeve looks at it in amazement.

Chloe gets up without saying anything, and runs after the thug. Sinbad and the rest of the crew arrive to see what the commotion was about.

“What happened?” Sinbad asked

“It was the girl again, she was here, she was fighting a man, and he hit her with that” points to the arm.

“Is she alright?” Doubar

“I threw a fireball at him to make him stop, and she, she got up like nothing happened. She had this gash on her head and it just healed itself” Maeve said in disbelief

“Where is she?” Sinbad asked

“She ran after him,” Maeve said as she pointed in the direction Chloe ran in

“Let’s go see what this is all about then” Sinbad said as he motioned for them to follow her

They find her standing over the thug about to strike him with a sword.

“Stop!” Sinbad yelled

“This doesn’t concern you” she replied

“You can’t just kill him” Maeve yelled out

“Watch me!” She said as the sword came down

“NO!” Maeve threw a fireball at her, and send her into the wall.

The thug got up and ran away. The crew ran over to see if Chloe was alright. The fireball had hit Chloe in her chest and singed the metal mesh shirt she was wearing. It burnt into her skin. Firouz touched her neck to feel a pulse and shook his head.

“I didn’t know” Maeve said as she realized she was dead

“It wasn’t your fault. You didn’t know. At least you save a life” Sinbad said as he put his hand on her shoulder to comfort her

Chloe’s eyes then flew open as if she had been thrown back into her body.

“That’s what you think!” she said as she got up.

The wound healed, and the metal hung freely from her shoulders. The crew back away as she walked past them. The crow flew down and perched on a nearby branch. Chloe looked into its eyes and it flew off to find the thug.

“Who, what are you?” Sinbad asked

“Something beyond your comprehension” she walked away and magically flew up the castle wall and landed on the other side.

Soon it was nightfall, and the palace was quiet once again. The sultan ordered extra guards because of Chloe and her rampage through the palace. The crew had returned to their rooms to retire for the night. Maeve was reading her magic books, trying to find out what Chloe was.

That same night the Prince received a present with no name on it. It was a large box and a small box that was wrapped very nicely. The prince opened the small box first and to his disgust found the head of the thug from earlier that day. And in the bigger box was the thug’s head. The Prince was very disgusted by this and ordered his guards to remove it at once.

Sinbad had entered Maeve’s room to see how she was. She jumped up when he touched her on her shoulder.

“Maeve, it’s me”

“Sinbad! I found it!”

“Found what?”

“I know who she is”

“Who?”

“Not exactly who, but what”

“I’m not following you here”

“The bird, it’s a crow. It is believed that the crow is the avatar between the land of the living and the realm of the dead”

“Then she’s….”

“When someone dies, a crow carries their soul to the other side. But sometimes, something so bad happens that the crow can bring the soul back to set the wrong things right” “Set the wrong things right?”

“Yes, she’s dead, but she’s not”

“So by killing those thugs she’s setting things right?”

“I don’t know, but it had to be something that was so great that it weighed her soul down. Something that brought her soul back. She’s here to fix something that she couldn’t when she was alive. Sinbad we can’t interfere. This is some other higher power. A power so great that we can’t get involved”

“So butt out already!” Chloe said sitting in the window

“Who are you?”

She jumps down from the window and starts walking around the room, looking at things, as Maeve and Sinbad watch her.

“My name was Chloe” she said looking around

“What happened?” Sinbad asked

“There was a boy, whom I fell in love with. I loved him and he took my innocence. He took everything away from me. And I came back to repay him for the favor”

“Couldn’t you have sent a cake instead?” Sinbad replied

“He hired those thugs you know. He hired them to kill me because he couldn’t do it himself, the coward. He wasn’t even man enough to do it. He sent them after me and my-” she stopped herself and looked at the two who were listening attentively.

“His blood will wash away all the pain I feel” She said

“You can’t go around killing people” Sinbad said

“My vengeance all I have left. Imagine one day you will lose everything that you ever cared about. Nothing will prepare you for that day, not faith, not religion, not friends, nothing. Now imagine that the person that took it from you was the one you loved and trusted most? What would you do?”

“I don’t know”

“Let me tell you a story. A story of two lovers on the eve of their wedding. The woman, Shelly, was in their home, when four thugs came in, cut her up, beat her, raped her and watched her bleed to death over her wedding dress. The man, Eric comes home and finds his love like this. The thugs stab him and force him to watch his future wife be brutalized by these men, before they throw him out the window and he dies. Now exactly a year later, Eric is given the chance to come back and seek vengeance on those who killed him and his love. He accepts his mission because he knows that they deserve to die for what they did. Because he knows the guilt will weigh down his soul, not allowing him to rest. And because he will be damned to roam the earth alone without his love. So he kills those that killed him. Those that killed his love. And at the end he is given the promise to be with the one he loves, and he is. So captain, what would you do? If they killed your love and you were given the chance to kill those that killed her? Would you? Or would you let the guilt of your own soul damn you to wander without her forever?”

Sinbad is speechless, along with Maeve.

“You don’t see life clearly until you’re dead” Chloe says as she walks out into the hallway, as she spots the Prince enter his quarters.

He sits down on his desk and writes something in his journal, as Chloe quietly slips in through the window and lies down on his bed. The prince finishes what he’s writing and turns around to go to sleep when he sees her.

“You! You’re suppose to be dead!” the Prince yelled out

“I am! Why don’t you join me?” Chloe said

“Guards!” The prince yells as he runs away and out the door

Chloe runs after him, and Sinbad and Maeve come out from the room and chase after the two. The guards come and they fight with Chloe because the prince ordered them to.

“I don’t have time for this!” Chloe slices the guard on the side as he falls over

She runs threw the next guard and slashes her way through to the stairs. The runs up the stairs to the walkway overlooking the garden.

“Your time is up, lover” Chloe said

“It wasn’t suppose to be this way! I wasn’t ready for marriage!” the prince yelled out

“So you killed me? That was your solution?”

“I, I-”

“Shut up! You took away my future, my life, my choice!”

“What choice?”

“Even though I was carrying your child, you never game me the choice of raising this child on my own or letting someone else do it! It was my choice!” she strikes the sword down at him

“You had to be killed. The child would have been damned either way!” he blocks it and pushes back at her

“It was still my choice of damnation!” she pushes him off and away

The sword fight continues, the blades clash as they fight. Firouz, Rongar, Doubar and the Sultan watch from the courtyard below.

“No Rongar, you might injure the prince” Firouz said blocking his arm

Maeve and Sinbad finally make their way up the stairs and find the Prince and Chloe fighting.

“The Prince?” Maeve said

“He’s the one who she’s trying to kill? We have to stop her!” Sinbad said

“Sinbad! Do something!” Sultan yelled from below

“We can’t!” Maeve

“We have to!” Sinbad said as he jumped into the sword fight.

“I don’t have time for this!” Chloe said as she kicked him to the side and continued to fight with the Prince.

“You know I can’t let you do this!” Sinbad jumped back in

“I know.”

Sinbad managed to get her away from the prince, and then the prince charged at her with the sword and thrust it threw her. She fell back a bit but stood up. She looked down at the sword and the blood that oozed out. She slowly pulled the sword out of her and the hole that the sword had made closed up. She looked at the sword with her blood on it and then at the prince.

“You know this is the second time you’ve tried to kill me?” Chloe said

The Prince ran further down the walkway, while Sinbad stopped her.

“You can’t be judge, juror, and executioner” Sinbad

“You don’t know the monstrosity he’s capable of. One day you will understand” Chloe said as she drop kicked him to the ground, and punched him in the face. Sinbad felt dizzy after that and needed a minute for his head to clear up. Chloe got up and picked up the sword and back flipped into the air and landed in front of the Prince.

“Going somewhere?” She asked as she twirled her sword in front of him

“Get out of the way!” he drew his sword and they continued to fight. But finally the Prince managed to knock the sword from Chloe, as he backed her against the wall, he held the sword to her neck.

“Go back to where you were spawned from” pressed it blade against her neck, as some blood trickled down

“You monster! I’m glad the baby’s dead! It wouldn’t have a horrible monster of a father like you!”

“A bastardly child!”

“It was MY child you killed you monster!”

“And now I will kill you”

She stared at him into his cold eyes, and the crow flew down and pecked and clawed at his eyes and face. The crow lashed at him and he backed away toward the edge without knowing it. She grabbed his sword and thrust it through his body enough to send it over the edge. His cold eyes went blank as she let go of the sword. His body fell off and landed in the courtyard. Firouz ran over to examine him, and felt no pulse.

“He’s dead” Firouz

“NO! My only son!” Sultan cried out

The crow returned to Chloe and sat on her shoulder.

Sinbad finally well enough to stand with Maeve’s help manages to walk over to Chloe.

“The Prince, he was the man?” Sinbad

“He was a boy, in a man’s body”

“He killed his own child?” Maeve asked

“Yes, What I did, I did for my child, my child that never got the chance to live” Chloe touches her stomach.

“How can anyone do that?” Sinbad said

“Lives are crushed and destroyed by evil and deceit that people create.” Chloe looking down at the Sultan crying

“Is your mission complete?” Maeve

“Yes”

“What will you do now?” Sinbad

A white light starts to appear, getting brighter and brighter.

“Love is eternal Sinbad, beyond life, beyond death, real love is forever” Chloe said as she walked closer to the light

A small boy appeared from the light, extending his hand to her.

“Mommy?” he said

Maeve and Sinbad held each other, as they realized what was happening. Maeve started to tear a bit, when she realized the little boy in the light was so innocent and would never get the chance to live. Chloe, her eyes filled with tears walks closer to the boy extending her hand out to reach his. As she walked closer, the wound on her neck started to heal. And when she touched the boy’s hand, the wound on her stomach disappeared. It was as if the pain was lifted from her soul. She held his hand and they were absorbed into the light. The light faded and they disappeared. The crow remained on his branch and watched Maeve and Sinbad before it flew off.

“Was she right in what she did?” Sinbad asked

“It wasn’t us that died, and I hope it never is!” she hugged him

“Do you think Chloe is with the one that she loves?”

“I hope so, she deserves it”

“Why do you think the Crow exists?”

“It is neither good or evil Sinbad. It is justice, justice for the fallen”

“Justice”

Author’s note: I wrote this story to meld the two worlds that I live in, the world of adventure in AoS and the world of sadness in The Crow. I hope you liked the story.