“FOREVER IN PARADISE”

By: Alaksandra

Disclaimer: I don’t own Witch Hunter Robin, or Shakespeare’s Tempest. 

Author’s note:  This is post-series and a completely ‘what-if.’  I just got inspired by watching the last episode and couldn’t believe it ended that way.  Any-who, enjoy the story. 

            “... ‘And now my charms are all o’erthrown’…”  Cool fingers gently and tenderly stroked his temples.  Somewhere in the distance the sound of water dropping into a puddle echoed towards him.  “… ‘And what strength I have’s mine own, which is most faint; now t’is true, I must here be released by you’…”  Amon managed to smile at the familiarity of those words in spite of his hammering head ache.  His action caused the cool fingers to pull away.  He heard the rustle of fabric shift away from him.

            “Amon?”  He could hear in her voice anxiety intermingle with relief.

            Amon tried to sit up but his head ache sent him back down to the ground.  He managed to open his eyes only to see Robin a few feet away.  She looked disheveled and exhausted.  There was a gash on her jaw near her left ear that had stopped bleeding.  Her hair was pulled into a low pony tail, and stray hairs still freed themselves to frame her pale face.

            “Where are we?”  Amon asked.  They were in a dimly lit cavity of the collapsed building.  He looked at her right arm and noticed the sleeve was torn away and dark rags were wrapped around her bicep.  Her gaze followed his and she shifted herself around so he wouldn’t look at it.  “What happened to your arm?”  He asked sternly. 

            Robin kept her gaze down.  “We’re somewhere in the factory.  You were hit on the head by a piece of ceiling.  Before I could reach you the ceiling buried you.  I told Karasuma to leave us.  I managed to pull you from the rubble.”  She sighed deeply and looked to Amon.  “We’ve been here for a couple of hours.  I can hear them above us removing the debris.  I guess we just wait ‘till they find us.”

            Amon listened closely and could hear the faint sound of machinery lift the steel and concrete away layer by layer.  “You didn’t answer me, Robin.”

            Her green eyes met his dark gaze.  “Well, I too was buried under the rubble.  I managed to free myself and you.  You have a nasty bump right here.”  She pointed to her left temple.  “Other than that you have no broken bones.”  Robin shivered either from exhaustion or the cold. 

            He noticed she had used her coat to cover him.  This time he forced himself up and ignored his splitting head ache.  He watched as she rested her head on her knees like a desolate creature.  She risked her life to help him.  Amon crawled over to Robin and wrapped her coat around her shoulders.  Amon sat next to her and carefully pulled Robin close to his side with his arm.  She was very startled by this and her mind too tired to understand.  He guided her head to his shoulder so he could rest his chin on her crown.  Robin closed her eyes as warm tears spilt down her face from this emotional day.  Amon closed his eyes as well while he gently rubbed her bare arm in a calming fashion to let her know he understood.

            “… ‘But release me from my bonds with the help of your good hands.’”  His voice resonated in her ears.  Robin gasped and looked up at him with her wide-eyes in question.  Amon couldn’t help but chuckled; his head ache forgotten now.  “You don’t think I know Shakespeare?”

            “That is not what I was thinking.”

            “What were you thinking?”

            “Well, maybe that is what I was thinking, but not in a bad way.  It’s just that you don’t strike me as the Shakespearian-type.”  She dried her tears and smiled.  “Actually, I don’t know what you strike me as.”

            “I see,” He said.  She rested her head back on his shoulder and he returned his chin to the top of her head.  “I could say the same about you.”  Silence returned and both were lost in their own thought.

            “I don’t even know much about you,” she whispered to him.

            “I’m sure Nagira might’ve told you something about me.”

            She shook her head.  “Not much.  It wasn’t until recently did I found out you’re bothers.”

            “Hmm,” Amon thoughtfully grunted.  “You understand we have to get out of here without being detected.”  She nodded.  “We’ll have to go into hiding for an undetermined amount of time.  No contact with anyone we know.”

            “I understand.  Are you still going to be my Watch Dog?”

            “Yes.  I will need to make sure your power doesn’t consume you.”

            Robin nodded her head in agreement.  “Thank you.  I don’t ever want to experience that, but why bother?  I mean, why not just kill me now?  It would be so much easier for you.”

            “I don’t do things the easy way.”  Then to change the subject he moved away from her.  “Are you ready to get out of here?”

            “Yes.”

            As they searched the cavity for an escape route, while Amon thought about his companion.  He remembered the very first time he saw her when they passed each other at Harry’s.  He remembered the emotions stirred inside him at their brief contact as strangers.  The odd feeling never faded and left him the whole day confused by that strange girl.  It was that distraction that allowed him to fall into the witch’s trap that night.  True he was harsh to her that night and on other hunts, but he still couldn’t make sense of his feelings towards her.

            Robin helped him pry open a paneling that revealed a space for them to crawl through.  Actually, they could only brace their backs against one side of it and walk their feet up the other side.  She first had to rip the heavy layered dress off and only wore her dress slip.  Robin put her coat on to cover herself then scaled the open space after Amon.  There was no light above and below them, and no way of telling where it would lead.

            “How’s your arm?”  He called down to her.  Amon didn’t want her to slip so he scooted over so that Robin and he were side by side.

            “It hurts, but I’m not putting pressure on it.”

            “Good.  We can take as many breaks as you need.”  Amon already resolved the issue of what he would do should she slip and fall.  He would follow her into death.  The thought of her being alone scared him.  Maybe that is the reason why he vowed to himself to be by her side forever.  Even if he told her a lie about watching out for her powers, because he knew the real reason. 

            Touko already had known his feelings towards his young partner before he could identify them himself.  He remembered that phone conversation as if it were yesterday.  Then as if Robin knew she was being talked about she appeared by his car with some much needed food.  Amon often wondered if Robin knew he watched over her like a dark guardian angel. 

            It sickened him to arrange that mock hunt in the warehouse only to hunt her instead.  He remembered his finger on the trigger and Robin in his scope.  He had to obey the order to shoot because he too was in a sniper’s scope.  Tears of relief escaped his eyes when she deflected the witch bullets.  Did she know it was him?  Amon hoped not.  He wanted to beg her for forgiveness, but he couldn’t say a word.  He could only promise himself that he would make things better for her.  He didn’t want to believe what Zaizen had told him, but did it really matter that she was becoming dangerous?  No, not to Amon. 

            “Amon,” she breathed his name.

            “Yes?”

            “Are you okay?  You stopped.”

            He brushed aside the dizzy spell that overcame him.  “Yeah, let’s keep moving.”

            “Amon?”

            “Yes?”

            “I’m worried about you.  You were hit on the head pretty hard.  Do you want to go back down?”

            “No.  Listen to me Robin.  If I don’t make it I want you to promise me that you will keep going.  Get out of here.”  Sweat was forming on his face.  Amon was loosing his strength.  He didn’t realize how weak he was from the very beginning.

            There was fear in her voice, “Amon!”

            He smiled in the dark.  “… ‘And my ending is despair, unless I be relieved by prayer.’”

            “Don’t talk like that!  We’ll make it out together!”

            “There is something I want to tell you Robin.  I – uhg!”  The vibrations from above loosened something to fall and hit his shins.  He struggled to keep his footing, and lost his battle. 

            “AMON!!!”  Robin screamed; she knew he had gone into the abyss below.

            “I…love you…Robin.”  She could hear from below.  There was no sound of anything hitting the bottom.

            “Amon, I love you!” she called after him.  “I didn’t promise you that I will get out.”  Robin allowed herself to fall after him.  The air whipped past her, and freed her hair from its purple ribbon.  She couldn’t see in the blackness so Robin closed her eyes.  Tears were violently ripped away from her face.  “I wont let you be alone, Amon, not even in death.”

            “I hope not.”  Strong arms wrapped around her waist as he pulled her close to his body, her arms clung to his shoulders.  “Can you promise me that you will be by my side forever?”  He whispered into her ear as they continued their plunge. 

            “Yes.”

            In the back of their minds they wondered how much longer they had before certain death.  Amon didn’t waste any time and brought his lips down on hers.  Her first kiss and his first true kiss seemed to make time stand still.  At first the kiss was tender but grew into frantic urgency.  They poured all their pent up emotions into that one kiss.  Soon all they could feel was bliss and peace as white light washed over them.

            Robin opened her eyes to see Amon’s face smiling down at her.  She smiled back.  They looked around and found themselves in a garden so beautiful it took their breath away.  Amon Tightly laced his fingers with Robin’s.

            “Where are we?” she whispered.

            “Paradise,” he smiled down at her.

            “Forever-,” she began.

            “-in Paradise.”

            Somewhere in the distance there was a voice calling out.  The wind brought the words to the couple.  “AMON…WAKE-UP.   AMON?”   They looked at each other in question. 

            “That voice,” Robin mused, “sounds familiar.”

            Amon looked down at Robin.  “That is your voice.”  Everything started to spin around them and Robin was pulled away in the blurry torrent.  He couldn’t hear her screams.  He just stood there with his head bowed.  Amon understood what was happening.  He just let everything slip away.

*~*~*~*~

            “Amon?” he felt his shoulder shake.  “Amon, wake up please.”  He opened his eyes to see the steering wheel in front of him.  Amon turned to his left and saw Robin sitting there patiently.

            “What happened?”

            “You fell asleep.” She said quietly.  “You were crying.  Are you okay?”

            Amon couldn’t believe it.  It was just a dream.  “Yeah, I’m fine.  I just realized a few things right now.”

            “Okay.”

            “There is something I need to talk to you about.”

            “What is it, Amon?”

            “My dream, I need to tell you about it.”

            “Okay.”

*~*~ The End ~*~*