Ghost of you (Rich and Eva)

[Richard Romain]

Richard grimaced as he pulled his hand out of another German fighter. His hand had been transfigured into a sharpe metal point but now it reverted back to just being a hand and he flexed his fingers to check their mobility even as he blasted another German soldier off of his feet with a blasting curse, destroying his torso.

Ducking behind some cover next to the only other British fighter, Richard swore a little bit and waited to catch his breath for a moment. He looked around. The guy next to him, while alive, had lost his left arm and the bleedy was just delayed, not stopped. There were another ten dead British fighters but fortunately there were thirty dead Germans in the no mans land between the two sets of cover. Richard closed his eyes before sending some pot shots over the top, hitting a German. He sighed and rubbed his hand against his face.

When did killing become so easy? That's right... back when he was a little boy.

[Evangeline Webb]

Evangeline looked at the battle that was going on, she saw the mound of dead bodies and she hoped that there was something that she could seriously live without she could have seen a million other things that she could have seen instead of this massacre.

Flitting into the German side of the fighting she walked behind them and they did not seem to notice her, they were busy trying to avoid spell fire, calmly she walked into the middle of the fire and she stood there for a moment, over the side of the mound was Richard Romain.

She remembered he was one of the first people he saw kill his family, his whole family was derranged in their ritual that they did. Even if she only saw two of them.

Her hands flipped in the air and she began to take the souls one by one from the bodies, most of them being sent up to Heaven, like they should be, with a small smile on her lips she let her grey eyes light up, at least there would be no pain for them now.

[Richard Romain]

Richard was psyching himself up for another, more powerful attack, and the carnage that was sure to ensue but when he popped his head over the cover he froze.

There, standing in the middle of the battle, was the woman who had haunted his dreams as a young teenager, the woman he'd seen the day he'd been forced to drown two of his sisters. The woman he'd seen when his younger brother had done the same thing. The woman he'd seen waiting when he'd finally killed his deranged family.

His eyes widened in recognition but the Germans only saw him as a target. A killing curse came speeding towards him and he was too late to move. But the injured British fighter took the curse for him, leaving Richard behind the cover with a corpse. He held the young man's body,

"Oh god no!" he cried out before he glanced over the cover, "What are you doing here?!"

He was beginning to panic now. What if he was going mad? What if he had always been mad but it was back to haunt him now? He didn't want to go mad! He didn't want to lose his mind and see some strange valkryie type woman on every battlefield! Scratching his skin to make sure that this wasn't some kind of nightmare,

"Why are you here?! Why are you here again?!"

[Evangeline Webb]

Evangeline almost wanted to frown at the man in front of her, he had just allowed this man to die for him and he was worried about her and what she was doing, she had never done anything to harm him only appearing to him by co-incidence.

Stepping through the bodies, her own turning into a faint hologram before she reappeared on the other side and she blinked at Richard, pressing her finger to the mans chest in front of him and taking the white powder, before sending it up to Heaven with a soft smile on her lips.

She liked it when that happened.

Seeing him scratch his skin, Evangeline blinked.

"What a silly thing to do." she said quietly "I'm not going to harm you, I am here to do my job Richard, which you seem to make harder every day."

Pressing her finger to the man's temple, his body dissappeared and she let her eyes flash a brighter silver.

[Richard Romain]

Richard really did not want this to be happening. He had only just been able to get visions of this woman to stop appearing in his nightmares he did not want to have to try and deal with waking nightmares with her in them as well! He didn't need this! Between a war and a child he needed every second of sleep he could get!

He flinched when she spoke. She had spoken to his parents when he'd killed his sisters, only they hadn't heard her and all she'd said was 'see you soon'. It had been creepy as hell,

"I wanted to know if this was some kind of nightmare..." he whimpered slightly, "Who are you and what do you want? I see you every night when I close my eyes to go to sleep! Haunting me! Is it because of my sisters? Are you some kind of punishment?"

He watched as the body of the man who had protected him disappeared and her eyes flashed silver. He shook his head,

"No no no no no!" he rolled out of cover and dove through the broken window of a shop to hide behind the counter instead, "She's not real... she's not real!"

[Evangeline Webb]

Evangeline was not very happy with the way that Richard was acting, after all it was not her fault that she was having to do what she did and she had to be the one to collect all of the souls from his family when they had killed his sisters.

Seeing him flinch she raised one of her eyebrows and she wondered what he was going to do, he looked terrfied, and she breifly thought if it was because of the mohawk.

"I am Evangeline, I am not here to punish you you stupid man I'm here to do my job so stop being so scared, pull yourself together." she said cooly.

With a slight stab of anger Evangeline followed Richard and asked very confused;

"Why are you running away? I've not done anything to you, quite the contrary, you shoudl be glad to see me, not run away from me. I am very real, it's insulting you think I'm some imaginary figment."

[Richard Romain]

Richard closed his eyes tightly. He was over this god damn it! Why the hell was this happening to him now? He opened his eyes and looked at her when she told him her name,

"If you're not here to punish me why is it that I keep seeing you whenever I kill someone Evangeline?" he asked her with a touch of bitterness, "I know killing is wrong, I don't need someone to tell me that. What kind of job brings you to here?"

He popped up over the edge of the counter to see a brave German soldier trying to advance on him. With a wave of his wand, the man went flying out through the empty window. He wasn't dead though, just knocked out,

"I'm running away because the last time I saw you, you said 'I'll see you soon' to my parents and then I killed them next." he looked up at her with a still slightly fearful expression, "Real or not I don't want you to say that about someone I know and love. But... if you're real then what are you Evangeline?"

[Evangeline Webb]

Evangeline blinked a little, if he was so terrfied by her surely he would have thought to look her up? Apparently that did not happen when you were scared stiff by something and it did her self esteem the world of good to know she was the stuff of nightmares.

With a small sigh she merely turned on her heel and took the white substance off of a nearby body, and it flew up through the ceiling and up into the sky, yet another good soul wasted because of this damn war, she thought bitterly.

"You make the mistake of thinking I want to be here. Also, that's very egotistical, I don't appear to you alone, everyone can see me if they wish to, they just dont wish to."

When he asked her what she was Evangeline kept her emotionless expression and she said quietly;

"I'm a reaper. I ferry the souls of the dead to where they shall come to rest. Which is why you always see me when there is death and destruction, which you do a lot of, so you have seen me a lot."

[Richard Romain]

Richard was trying to come to terms with the fact that his greatest nightmare was not only real but wasn't really the stuff of nightmares at all. It was a bit of a huge change to make it one leap but here he was about to do that exact thing. He nodded a little bit and held out his hand,

"I'm sorry... we got off on the wrong foot. Seems my ignorance guided me through a lot of... hand on." he popped up over the cover and flung two more Germans back, stunning them in the process, "We are trying to have a conversation here! Sorry about that. Basically I wanted to say I'm sorry for misjudging you."

When she told him that she was a reaper, Richard nodded quietly and gestured to the white substance,

"That explains the souls." he admitted before grimacing, "I don't want to be a bringer of death and destruction but it seems to be one of the few things I'm very good at."

[Evangeline Webb]

Evangeline looked at Richard and she blinked a little she hoped that she was going to heard something different from Richard than she was a monster or she was something horrible or something like that, with a frown on her face she ran her hands down the front of her jeans.

Moving out of the way of the fire, Evangelique merely looked on as Richard stunned the men, glad he had not decided to kill them, that would have meant more work.

Looking at his hand she held hers out and touched his own, her own skin slightly greyer than his; "You were very cruel to me. I know I'm not the prettiest but when people run away from you and say you're the stuff of nightmares...even a creature like me has feelings."

With a small sigh, Evangeline looked up at Richard time and frowned, before looking into his eyes.

"You're cheating." she said simply.

[Richard Romain]

Richard fired another couple of stunners over the top of the counter, not really wanting to deal with the attacks right now. This was much more interesting than a battle. Especially since she had seen some of his worst family moments,

"Yeah sorry about that. I know it's not an excuse but for a long time I thought you were.. well I thought I had gone mad and you were a part of it." he admitted sheepishly as he shook her cold hand, "But you're not like that now I see. You're just a person doing their job."

When she said that he was cheating he raised an eyebrow,

"Excuse me? Cheating? At what?"

[Evangeline Webb]

Evangeline knew something that she knew would destroy Richard and she was torn between telling him and letting it happen naturally, and she did not know what was going to be the worst way to let it happen, perhaps it would not happen at all, if she could do something about it...

When he told her that his view of her had changed she gave her small wobbly smile;

"I have seen worse things than your past Richard, but then again I have seen better. I have seen some of your friends deaths also, one Mr. Smith." she said quietly "He kills too much for my liking."

Looking into Richards eyes Evangeline said calmly; "Using a philosophers stone makes death mad Richard, you ought to destroy it, I know the penalty if you keep it, and it's not worth it."

With that she turned and walked back out onto the battle feild, her hint given, there was nothing more she could do.

[Richard Romain]

Richard sent the two Germans flying outside of the store was a banishing charm but lowered it's strength enough so as not to harm them. He was trying not to give her a lot of work so they could continue their conversation after all. The small, wobbly, smile made him smile cautiously in return,

"I'm sorry that you have to see such awful things Evangeline. No one should have to see one lot of deaths, let alone thousands." he sympathised quietly before nodding, "Yes Cobalt does tend to kill at the drop of a hat..."

When she spoke about the Philosopher's Stone and the idea that using it was bad, Richard matched her gaze,

"I know it does... possessing one make death mad, making one does especially and so does using one but..." he bit his bottom lip, "I have to use it. To keep my family with me forever."

He blinked slightly and stood up, stunning the Germans near him as he moved to follow her,

"What penalty?"

[Evangeline Webb]

Evangeline had never had someone apologise for what she had seen, some of them refused to leave her mind and they swarmed to the front whenever she let herself drift off in her thoughts, like that moment, they swarmed to the forefront of her mind and she frowned, driving them back.

"Nobody has ever apologised to me before...it was not your fault Richard, none of it was ever your fault, and if you want to know, they all went to heaven, your sisters." she said quietly.

When he continued to follow her, Evangeline stepped over some rubble and stopped on top of a large mound of building that had fallen in the fighting so she was taller than Richard now, looking down at him.

"Death holds no bounds, it kills regardless of gender, of status...and of age." she added with emphasis "Destroy the stone Richard, or it will take what you hold dearest, and life will not be worth living without it."

[Richard Romain]

Richard knew that the things he were apologising for weren't his fault but he felt that someone had to apologise for Evangeline having to go through all of those terrible experiences. When she said that his sisters had gone to heaven he couldn't help the tears that welled up in his eyes,

"Thank you..." he whispered quietly, "You have no idea how much that means to me... how relieved it makes me feel."

Richard followed her through the battle, ending the fighting around him with some carefully placed stunning spells as he did so. He stopped at the bottom of the rubble pile. She was suggesting that the stone would hurt someone he cared about? He needed to know more,

"Who? Who does it hurt if I keep the stone?"

[Evangeline Webb]

Evangeline was a little bit worried that Richard was going to start crying, she had no siblings so did not understand but she knew that he had always felt guilty for what he was done and that he had regretted it, which is why he deserved to be told this.

"You are very welcome Richard, and everyone else? Yes they went to Hell, where they belong." she said with a faint trace of venom in her voice, even the normally impartial Evangeline realised the Romain family was evil.

Turning to him Evangeline only gave him her sad smile and shook her head;

"I told you, the person you care about the most." she said simply before she continued to walk away "I'll see you soon, if you decide to keep the stone Richard, so I hope you destroy it, I hate it when I have to deal with deaths like those, they arent fair."

[Richard Romain]

Richard had carried around the fear that he'd sent his sister to hell with him for almost eighteen years and to know that they were actually in heaven was such a relief. When she told him that the rest of his sick family went to hell Richard couldn't help but feel righteous,

"They deserve it." he hissed darkly, "That and worse, for what they did."

He shook his head. He couldn't decide who is was. It applied to Briony so very well but at the same time it might apply to little baby Raven as well, and he couldn't have either of them taken from him,

"No!" He cried out desperately, "No you have to take it back! It can't be true! Please tell me that my family won't be made to suffer!"

[Evangeline Webb]

Evangeline stepped down from on top of the rubble, she hated being the one to tell people this but he needed to know, the time frame was limited and if he acted within the next few months he would be able to save his family. She had to tell him.

Now level with Richard, she placed a hand on her cheek when the penny finally dropped;

"I am sorry Richard, you have been through so much, but such is the life of the alchemist who creates new life when it is not meant to be created." she said quietly "You need to destroy the stone, or one of them will die, and I do not want to be the person to take them away from you."

Dropping her hand from her cheek she walked away again her hands in her pockets;

"If you made the stone for your family, to save their life, destroy it for the same reason Richard."

[Richard Romain]

Richard couldn't believe it, the stone was what was bringing his entire family happiness and a long and healthy life, why would it be the thing that caused one of his most precious people to die? He closed his eyes tightly when she touched his cheek,

"Why? Why is it so wrong of me to want to keep my family, to keep my love, forever?" he asked her quietly, "Why is it so wrong that death wants to take my child and my wife from me?"

He swallowed a little bit. So that was it. The ultimatum was that simple, destroy the stone or lose his family. He gritted his teeth and hung his head. He hadn't even used the stone that much,

"How... how long?"

[Evangeline Webb]

Evangeline closed her eyes and she felt as if she was one of the worst creatures to ever live on this earth, she hated telling people things like this but she thought they deserved to know, they could do something about it, stop it if they could.

"It is not meant to be Richard, no man should live that long, Wizards and Witches live longer than mortals anyway, that should be enough shouldn't it?" she asked quietly "Greed, even in terms of emotions, the desire to be with the loved ones forever, is something death cannot allow."

When he asked how long Evangeline sighed lightly;

"I don't know without seeing the child and your partner, but I would say a few months, as soon as possible Richard, power should be nothing compared to that of the love of your family."

[Richard Romain]

Richard gritted his teeth. There was nothing about this is Flamels notes! Flamel and his wife had lived for hundreds of years without anything like this happening, why was it going to happen to him so suddenly? He shook his head,

"I want to be with them forever Evangeline." he replied in a quiet whisper, "Then let death take me instead! Why does it have to come to those who are merely around me?"

He closed his eyes tightly before shaking his head slightly,

"I... I don't think it can be destroyed..." he said honestly, his voice cracking a little bit, "I don't know how... but if this is the only way then I will find a way..."

[Evangeline Webb]

Evangeline blinked a little bit, she didn't think that it was a question that someone had ever asked her before, probably because she didn't do this that often, but she thought that she deserved some leway to tell Richard, since he had been through so much already.

"Because death is cruel and it knows how to best punish those who go against it, killing you would be too easy." she said quietly.

When he said that he did not know how it could be destroyed, Evangeline knew it could be, because of the destruction of the previous philosophers stone.

"Look through Dumbledore's notes, he destroyed it last time, he might have written down how he did it." she smiled lightly "Or you could take your chances and keep the stone."

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