Origins

In the late seventeenth century, in a courtroom in Salem, a child was accused of trafficking with spirits. It was not the truth, only a charge heavy enough to kill her. Years later, when she speaks of it, she still bites down hard on every word.

“I died for being falsely accused of trafficking with spirits, and here you are brazenly walking about with a lich hand.”

“我因被诬陷与亡灵勾结而死，而你却大摇大摆地带着英灵之手四处走动。”TL

She was just a child then, powerless before her judges. It was only in death that she became all that they had feared, and more.

“I was a child when they unjustly condemned me…powerless in every sense of the word. But now in death I've become all that they feared and more.”

“他们不公地定我的罪时，我还只是个孩子……在各方面都无能为力。可如今死过一次，我已成了他们所畏惧的一切，甚至更甚。”TL

They hanged her. Long afterward, a man of the cloth whose trade is hunting the supernatural protested to her that he was not one of the people that hung her. She gave him a single cold reply.

“No. Just cut from the same cloth.”

“是没有。只是一丘之貉。”TL

The man who sent her to her death was John Hathorne. She was wrongly killed because people took her for one of a certain kind — and of that kind, an actual monster gets to run around like the belle of the ball. When she speaks of Lady Geist, her bitterness all but spills over.

“It's unbelievable... I was killed because people thought I was someone like you, meanwhile you're an actual monster and you get to run around like the belle of the ball.”

“真是难以置信……我被害是因为人们以为我和你一样，而你明明是个真正的怪物，却还能像舞会上的焦点一样到处招摇”

When the Maelstrom came for the first time, her spirit was brought back to the mortal plane. Asked by Abrams how long she had been in New York, she answered as briefly as could be; yet the words that followed carried a tangle of feeling she could not hide.

“It was wonderful and horrifying in equal measure”

“既美妙又恐怖”

She is a ghost, and yet she is tangible: she can hold a gun, and she can feel pain. She once asked Kelvin whether he was a wight; some say revenant, he answered. She understood, she said: for simplicity’s sake, she sticks with ghost.

“I understand. I just stick with ghost for simplicities sake.”

“我明白。为了简单起见，我坚持使用幽灵”

Old Friends and Foes

Vindicta and Wesley: If She Had a Father Like Him

Grey Talon she calls simply Wesley. Just before they set out, she told him something she had long kept to herself: if she had had a father like him, she didn’t think she would have died.

He answered that she deserved better. It’s ok, she said.

When Bebop, paging through the papers, asked who had been picking off Hathorne’s associates, her only reply was, “That could be me or Wesley.”

Today is their moment, and very likely the last time they stand side by side. Saying so makes her sad; it makes him sad too.

“That makes me sad.”

“这让我很难过”

Yet on the battlefield each of them has a side to take. When she fires on him she begs his forgiveness again and again, and still she says that only one of them gets revenge today.

“Only one of us gets revenge today, Wesley.”

“今天我们之中只有一个人能报仇，卫斯理”

And when the tables turn and he is the one who brings her down, what he asks is: why did you turn on me?

“Why did you turn on me, Vindicta?”

“你为什么背叛我，薇妲？”

Vindicta and Venator: The Judge and the Judged

Venator admits that he is a flawed man who judges others, and that is why he is willing to work alongside her. She does not trust the clergy, and at first counted him cut from the same cloth as the men who hanged her; yet when he fell, she spoke a word from the heart.

“I respect you, Venator.”

“我尊敬你，诛邪者”

Wesley once tried to make peace between them, saying the two of them have more in common than she thinks. She denied it on the spot: she loves Wesley, she trusts Wesley, but in this case Wesley is full of shit.

“I love Wesley. I trust Wesley. But in this case Wesley is full of shit.”

“我爱韦斯利，也信任韦斯利。但这回他是在胡扯。”TL

He, in turn, looks at her as at someone who has lost her way: her hatred used to be focused, but it has become indiscriminate. And in truth the bounds of her killing are widening. She has said that there are no innocents.

“Her hatred used to be focused but it's become indiscriminate.”

“她的仇恨曾经很有针对性，但现在变得不分青红皂白了”

“There are no innocents.”

“没有无辜之人。”TL

Vindicta and Lady Geist: Accomplice and Adversary

Lady Geist asked whether she was ready to summon a god. She said she was ready for revenge. Then don’t waste your opportunity, the lady warned her.

“I'm ready for revenge.”

“我已经准备好复仇了”

Both their futures are at stake in the same ritual, but the account in her heart has not been settled. Later, when she struck, what she spoke of was Oathkeeper dying with the lady.

“Oathkeeper will die with you, Geist.”

“守誓者将与你一同消亡，盖斯特”

Vindicta, Holliday and Haze: The Outlaw and the Law

In this city, Holliday and Haze stand for the law. She told the former that she does not have much faith in servants of the law; when the sheriff answered that the law has come a long way since she died, she said only that it really hasn’t.

“Forgive me for not having much faith in servants of the law.”

“请原谅我对执法人员没有太多信心”

When Haze invited her to join up, her refusal was about more than an unwillingness to take orders: she has had her fill of state-sanctioned murder.

“I think I've had my fill of state sanctioned murder.”

“我觉得我已经受够了国家认可的击败”

Vindicta and Graves: The Help She Will Not Take

Graves is a young sorceress, and helping the dead is kind of her thing. She offered that if Vindicta needed anything after the ritual, she would lend a hand. Vindicta asked whether she was willing to lock people inside a burning building. No, came the answer, that’s insane.

Then, Vindicta said, she couldn’t help her. Later, when Graves brought her down, what she left behind was still a regret: she wished Vindicta had let her help.

“I wish you'd let me help you, Vindicta.”

“我希望你能让我帮你，薇妲”

Vindicta and Calico: Same Trade, Old Ties

Calico once complained that no one takes contracts out on the Friends of Humanity, because if they wait long enough Vindicta will just kill them for free. Her reply was icy: the economic woes of assassins are not particularly her concern. Afterward, though, she made a point of promising to find the other woman’s familiar a good home.

“Don't worry, I'll find Ava a home.”

“别担心，我会给艾娃找个家的”

Vindicta, Ivy and Celeste: The Brightness She Turns Away

Ivy eagerly declared that together they would own the skies, and she threw cold water on the idea, to her face: they are not friends; when the ritual is over, Ivy will go home to a family, and she will be counting the bodies of the dead.

“Ivy. We're not friends. We are not going on some adventure. When the ritual is over, you will go home to a family and I will be counting the bodies of the dead, so let's just stay focused on the task at hand.”

“青藤，我们不是朋友，我们也不会一起去冒险。仪式结束后，你会回家，回到家人身边，而我会去清点故人的数量，所以我们还是专注于眼前的事情吧”

Anecdotes

Bare Feet and an Old Dress. Abrams asked whether she needed him to buy her a pair of shoes; her whole answer was “No.” When Mina asked whether the dress was vintage, she answered: very.

“Very.”

“非常老”

Not an Exhibit. Dynamo wanted to introduce her to a friend in the history department. She refused, saying she is not a prop for show and tell. She also asked whether it was not at Columbia University that Hathorne would soon be speaking; if the ritual fails, they will be speaking later.

“If the ritual fails, we'll be speaking later.”

“如果仪式失败，我们稍后再谈”

What Others Say. Opinions of her are divided. Abrams says her anger is justified, but her methods aren’t; Pocket declares that she doesn’t want to change the world, she just wants to watch it burn.

“Your anger's justified, but your methods aren't…”

“你的愤怒很合理，但你的手法不合理…”

“You don't want to change the world, you just want to watch it burn.”

“你不想改变世界，你只想看着它燃烧殆尽”

The Test Pilot in the Sky. When she speaks of Deadman Danny, she calls him “the Test Pilot.” He, for his part, has to hand it to her marksmanship: seeing her land a shot from a long way off, he whoops his approval, and even wishes he could put her on the payroll of Fairfax Industries. But once he has brought her down, he talks another way entirely, and tells her she is stuck in the past.

“You're stuck in the past, Vindicta.”

“薇妲，你还活在过去。”TL

Open Questions