Chapter Text
Gigi was looking down from a building far away, like a sniper about to shoot their victim.
She calculated her shot; thousands of operations to predict trajectory, speed, angle, distance.
Aimed at her target, the bow rose slowly until she could feel the arrow against her cheek.
Pulled the string, took a deep breath, and released all doubts and worries in an exhale as she let the arrow soar through the night sky.
The arrow went right through the heart.
Cecilia went walking out at night, the streets empty, not even a moth was flying in circles around the lamps that lit up the way.
Once she reached the park, she decided to sit down to look at the stars. They weren't as visible in the city as they were out in the open, and she remembered the nights she would rest under the mantle of space, when she lived as a nomad, shortly after her creation, fighting for the sake of justice, a concept defined by her creator as “that which is fair, reasonable, and brings the greater good”.
Her creator had also taught her that she must work for humanity, that all she did was for them, and that the other creatures that she would see were fairies, nymphs, gods, demons, phoenixes, dragons and more. None of them could be seen by humans, but they would often go to them, and one couldn't tell what their intentions were.
She was tasked with eliminating the threats. To not leave a single being alive that could harm the humans, to show no mercy.
As she reminisced about the time in this world, she saw, out the corner of her eye, an arrow. She didn't move, since it would just bounce off.
Or at least, that's what she thought would happen, before the arrow went through her chest.
“Yes, I did it!” screamed Gigi, her voice pitched high enough that the dogs would start barking in the apartments around her.
She ran around, her wings flapping gently behind her, lifting her slightly off the ground.
“Now all I need is someone for her.” Realization hit her. There was no one awake in the whole city.
“I fucked up so bad,” she howled. “My first matchmaking and I only have half of the ingredients!”
But she had to do something, anything to make it right.
As she pondered over her next move, she felt the air tense, and she heard a sound behind her. She turned around to face a woman, who looked mostly human, but now, up close, she realized she had hit the wrong person, if you could even call her that.
It had a key on top of its head that was spinning so fast, it produced steam.
Cecilia searched for the arrow on her back, but she couldn't feel it. It also wasn't on her chest. It had gone right through, but didn't leave a scratch on her. Maybe it had bounced off.
But it wasn't on the ground. It was nowhere.
She felt short of breath, her mechanical lungs filled with a longing for oxygen that was burning beneath her skin. She assumed this was rage, so she looked in the direction the arrow came from, and went towards her attacker.
She heard something akin to a screech, and sprinted through the streets, which grew lighter as she approached a building where you could hear dogs barking loudly.
She climbed the building from the outside, seeing something move in the terrace, not knowing how long she would have before this reckless being would flee the scene.
As she reached the top, she saw a small woman with large, beautiful white wings—each feather carefully preened and glowing faintly, as if an angel had descended from the heavens. She was wearing a white sundress that reached her knees. She was turned away from her, her exposed back curved slightly. Her skin reflected the moonlight, making it appear pale and shiny. On the back of her head rested a small, heart-shaped bow.
The woman suddenly turned around, an expression of surprise on her face.
And then, it hit her.
Her lips parted slightly, her key started spinning faster than it ever had, and her legs went numb. Everything inside of her screamed for the woman in front of her. It was a need, a desire for the woman in front of her. This feeling held no place in her, but she couldn't fight it. She was stunned.
She thought to herself: Why am I unwinding so fast? What is happening to me?
The machine in front of Gigi stayed still, its key still spinning a thousand miles a second, before she collapsed on the ground.
Gigi stared at the body, wondering what had happened.
She managed to whisper, “Oh my God, what have I done?”
She looked everywhere, but there was no one around to help. So she decided to take the device to a secluded area where she could assess its situation and stabilize it—if it was even still “alive”.
She grabbed the apparatus, noticing it was way heavier than what Gigi thought possible. Yet, she was strong enough to fly it to an open space—after all, if it was who she thought it was, the machine would find its way back.
Displacing her thoughts, she landed on the grass near a small tree. She propped the machine in the green dress against the trunk, and grabbed its key.
She knew she shouldn't, that it was dangerous, stupid and selfish, but… she couldn't leave it alone like this, to power down, when it had been shot by her already. Perhaps love was what she needed to change her ways. She started winding her back.
She would fall in love with the first person she saw—be it human, angel, dragon, or…
She had already seen someone.
Her.
The automaton wrapped her hands around Gigi's neck, strangling her. But its eyes were filled with tears.
Cecilia woke up, and before she could register where she was, she saw the opportunity to end the life of a non-human creature. She was raised to recognize and eliminate them in the shortest amount of time possible.
She grabbed the slender neck of the angel, and strangled her. But her vision became blurry.
“What have you done to my eyes!?” she asked, but the angel couldn't reply, instead trying to claw at the doll's hands in a desperate attempt to break free from the tight grasp.
“Let me see you clearly while I take your life,” she uttered, but it only got worse, and she couldn't see. So she let go, since she wasn't sure of who she was attacking anymore, and risking it be those she swore to protect would break her.
But her eyes didn't clear. Instead, she was filled with regret and grief from her actions.
“Why is this happening to me?” she mumbled, her voice shaky.
The creature was coughing beside her, trying to catch her breath. Once her vision had cleared enough to see again, she changed her strategy.
She grabbed her by the wings and started to pull them beyond what they were supposed to, tearing away a couple of feathers.
The angel screamed in agony—her wings tearing apart, her lungs burning, and her decision weighing heavily on her.
But once again, Cecilia's eyes began to flood with tears. She was feeling the pain this creature felt. This had never happened before, she had never experienced something like this.
She had fought angels with all kinds of powers, and took them down to prevent them from harming humans, but they had never attacked her back. Then, this was either not an angel, or this one chose to fight back.
Cecilia couldn't take it, so she, once again, released the winged creature.
Gigi collapsed forward on the ground, her wings splayed out on either side of her. She heaved rapid breaths, before feeling a pressure on her already sore back.
“Don't move,” said the apparatus on top of her. She pressed her knees on the back of the cupid's thighs, cutting the blood flow to them.
“Please don't hurt me anymore,” Gigi pleaded, her legs going numb from the pressure being exerted on them.
“I won't, as long as you stay still, right here” the automaton responded.
“I will, just please get off me, I can't even fly right now.”
“I don't believe that, you can absolutely push through the pain if you want to.”
“I shouldn't have saved you.”
“Save me? Explain yourself.” The doll grabbed her hair and pulled back Gigi's head, her face a breath away from the cupid's, side-eyeing her.
“I winded you back up, Hunter.”
“Haven't heard that name in a long while, little angel.”
“I'm not an angel!” Gigi roared, clearly offended at the comparison.
“Then, what are you? A shapeshifting monster?”
“I'm a cupid, and you just happened to be my target for tonight”
“Trying to get me to fall in love with some beast? That won't work, but maybe your pretty face can keep me company for a while longer”
Gigi struggled pitifully against the automaton's weight, quickly giving up as she realized she was overpowered and exhausted.
Her consciousness faded slowly, as fatigue took over her body, her head still held by her Hunter.
“Please, I promise I'm not dangerous, just let me live,” Gigi begged once more
“That's not true, you use your powers on humans—creatures that have done no harm to you,” Cecilia uttered
“You were my first target.” Gigi's mind was hazy.
“And who else did you shoot?”
“Nobody”
“Then that silly love spell won't work on me”
“You just fell in love with the first creature you saw, dumbass”
“I didn't see anybody yet, and I can't even be affected by something like an arrow to the heart”
The cupid breathed heavily.
“My name is Gigi. And I was definitely the first one you saw—otherwise I would have been dead twenty minutes ago.”
Cecilia was stunned, she let go of the cupid's head, and quickly backed away from her, her knees scraping against the cold, hard dirt. Her key started spinning faster again, as she processed the creature's words.
It couldn't be, she had no weaknesses, no one had found any so far.
Yet this little woman, this almost angelic creature, had managed to find a weakness, and in no place other than her heart.
“You didn't do it, I can't feel anything other than hatred towards you.”
“Then why did you cry when you were trying to kill me?”
“I didn't cry for you, I just felt sorry for the humans you must have put through hell.”
“Only one going through hell right now is me,” Gigi answered.
“Then maybe you could just die already,” Cecilia said quietly.
“I don't want to, I just started my cupid career, so I need to keep going, and maybe fix this issue I made with you”
Cecilia's eyes widened. “You can fix this?”
“Of course, with enough time”
“I don't want to wait, I want this arrow out of me now”
“The arrow no longer exists, it's part of you now,” Gigi whispered.
“So how are you planning on helping me?”
“I will tell you tomorrow, now do me a favour and don't kill me while I rest, or you will live with this feeling forever”
“Hey, what do you mean, you… oh no, you didn't.”
The cupid had fallen asleep on the grass, her blonde strands of hair covered in dirt.
“Guess I have to keep her close to fix this.” Cecilia grabbed her and walked towards a secluded place, where she knew she could keep her until this situation was resolved—and take care of this pest once and for all.