FIC: Audition (1/1)

[kangeiko]

TITLE: Audition
SUMMARY: So, I figure that there were several candidates in the running for the starring role in Rambaldi's games... (John Mellencamp song titles alias500 challenge - Factory)

*




The monastery wasn't much more than a ruin, held together by stained windows, chipped paint and the sheer strength of will exhibited by the three remaining monks. The oldest one looked up from scrubbing the stone steps to glare at the interlopers emerging in single file from the car.

"This is it?" The littlest girl looked around disdainfully while the elder two scowled over at her. "It doesn't look much like a church."

"It's not, it's a monastery. Eyes down, Katya!" One of the elder girls, hair properly bound and hidden beneath a headscarf, reached over to sharply box the little one's ears.

Katya ducked easily out of the way and ran to the other side of the car. "Uncle Valyo, we're in the wrong place! We can't stay in a monastery, we're girls!"

A tall, thin-haired man climbed out of the car and grabbed hold of Katya's hand. "Quieten down, kitten." His eyes sought the old men kneeling on the steps; very respectfully, he bowed. The hand at Katya's back forced her head forwards and her eyes down. "Brother Dmitri. I'm Valek Derevko. I sent word on ahead of our intentions."

The oldest monk slowly straightened from his task. "Yes," he said, voice hoarse, as if unused to speech. "We received your telegram. It was noticed."

"Noticed? By whom?"

"By those in the village. By the farmers. By the Patriarch. It is not often we receive telegrams."

"Ah." Valek frowned, worry flitting plainly across his face. In Valek's grasp, Katya squirmed with embarrassment to see such emotion on an adult's face.

Dmitri took pity on the three girls, their guardian's unseemly display of emotion notwithstanding. "Do not concern yourself, Valek. It is of no consequence." He raised a hand to rest it on Katya's head, where a wayward curl had slipped past the green headscarf. "You are the youngest, Ekaterina Alexandreiivich Derevko? You are the one here for the testing?"

"Katya, Brother Dmitri," the girl supplied and managed a very proper curtsy. "I, um - I think so," this, with a puzzled look up at her sisters. They shrugged - what were they to know of it?

Valek 's grip on Katya's shoulder loosened and he pushed her forward a little, sending her stumbling into the monk's outstretched arms. "We don't have much time, Brother. May I ask how long it will take to check her?"

Dmitri shrugged, tucking Katya beneath one arm easily. "I have no say in the matter. She will be recognised by the hourglass, or not, depending on what was foretold. We were not issued with a timetable, Valek. Merely instructions. Now," he gestured abruptly towards the main building, "Katya and I must go inside and begin. You must wait out here, with the other girls."

Valek nodded, and caught the other girls' hands, tugging them back towards the car. Dmitri turned back to the building, where the other monks had straightened from their scrubbing and waited expectantly.

"Uncle Valyo?" Katya asked hesitantly. The monk hissed impatiently and tightened his hold on her, dragging her back up the pathway. Katya's eyes widened in alarm as the monk's hands, unnaturally strong, twisted through her tunic and into the soft flesh of her arms. Something dark on the back of his right hand caught in Katya's peripheral vision; some sort of painting of a circle, or an eye - something vaguely familiar, in any case - etched high up on his hand, near the wrist. The thick black hair there almost obscured the white scar running across it. "No - Uncle Valyo, I don't want to go alone!" Her voice rose, progressively higher with each word, her pupils contracting with fear. "Ira, Eli, don't leave me!" Her sisters, hearing the panic in her voice, moved forward despite their uncle's arms holding them back. The eldest one was caught and easily restrained, but the middle sister - ah, she kicked their Uncle with all the venom a child could muster and ran back up the path.

Dmitri hoisted Katya up into his arms, easing quelling her struggles and freeing a hand to grab Irina's wrist and twist her arm behind her back. "You want to stray with your sister while she's tested?" He demanded angrily. "You disrespectful, horrible little girl; fine, you stay with her. And you - you can be tested too. See if that wins either of you any respite." The other monks came to help; one grabbed Irina and pulled her up over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Dmitri gave her rump a solid smack as she was carried away. "See if Rambaldi will like your ilk any better!"

*

fin

Comments

[kakodaimon.livejournal.com]

Sorry for the annoying question, but I'm so curious - what's going on in this story? Could you explain just as much as a non-Alias-watcher would need to grasp what's going on? If not, no worries.

[kangeiko]

Irina Derevko (the middle sister) grows up to be a KGB operative. She's sent to the US where she's told to marry an American CIA agent and bear a child. She then has an affair with another agent and has his child. Those children turn out to have been foretold by a fifteenth century Italian philosopher called Milo Rambaldi, who predicted the end of the world - or, rather, would bring it about - and the children's roles in it.

What I found interesting is that, although there was a reasonable certainty that a Derevko would bear the two children, I don't think that irina's name is actually explicitly mentioned by Rambaldi's followers. So, I think that it's reasonable to wonder if Irina and her two sisters were all in the running as the new Mary...

(We also know that Elena steals one of the children, and hates her two sisters - and that Katya has a strange loyalty to Irina despite everything else that happens between them...) My icon is of Irina, btw...

[kakodaimon.livejournal.com]

Yikes. And I thought Alias was a gritty realism-style spy affair.

[sunshine-queen.livejournal.com]

Ohh, this was interesting. Great job!

[kangeiko]

Thanks! Glad you liked it. :)

[joylee56.livejournal.com]

Ah, the Derevko sisters; sweet, demure and obedient - not.
Rambaldi really had no clue what he was letting himself in for did he?

[kangeiko]

Hee - too right! :)

[waking-epiphany.livejournal.com]

Oooh...a bit creepy and sinister...I love the idea of the 3 Derevko sisters (well, 2...Yelena's too slow) waiting in line to serve Rambaldi. Great!

[kangeiko]

Thanks, I'm glad you liked it!

2...Yelena's too slow

She makes up for it later... why bother carrying the baby when you can just acquire it later...? :)

[thechosenone47.livejournal.com]

Nicely written. It gives us a glimpse into another world where Irina and Katya might have been the two children...

[kangeiko]

Thank you, I'm so glad you liked it!