Nightmares
By: Shada
Disclaimer: This ain't mine, so don' sue me.
Summary: Four years after the comics end, Umi dreams of Cephiro, and wants to go back.
Note: Give me some leeway on this will ya? Let's say, for the sake of my sanity, that because Hikaru is the Pillar of Cephiro, she can send anyone there, no matter how many, or few, people and no matter where she herself is, okay?
Oh, and *whatever* is a character's thoughts.
~*~
"Clef, I . . . never mind."
There was a long pause before the wizened guru spoke. When he did, his voice was soft as he stared down at his feet. "It's okay, Umi," he whispered, "I understand."
*Wait, that wasn't what he said*
Clef slowly turned and shuffled away, his silvery head bowed. For once, he looked his two hundred and seventy five years, instead of merely twelve. Even in her own state of shock, she could feel the despair radiating off him. "No, wait, Clef! Come back," she called after him, "That wasn't what I meant."
*That wasn't how it ended. He thanked me, I could hear him smiling.*
But he continued as if he had not heard her. She raced after him, meaning to grab his shoulder and spin him around to face her, only when she reached him, her hand passed through him as if he were a ghost and not really there at all.
As her astonishment took hold, Clef slowly turned his head. Umi starred for a second until it finally registered in her mind that he had no face, only an endless hole of blackness from which no light, love, or hope could escape. She opened her mouth to scream, but no sound cam out as she stumbled backwards, her mind reeling in horror.
"Umi, Umi, wake up!" A short brunette girl stood beside her sleeping friend, shaking her frantically. The sleeper thrashed around in her dream, her long blue hair tangled around her pale skinned, frightened face. Her sapphire eyes were closed, clenching even tighter in her terror. Long arms were held in front of her as if she was trying to ward off evil spirits.
Her college roommate had been awakened by her violent reaction to an obvious nightmare. This girl's honey brown hair fell just past her shoulders in thick layers, accenting the triangular shape of her face and her wide, dark eyes. Her bronze-tinted skin was a sharp contrast to the ivory of that of her friend. She was about to slap her face or chuck water at her when Umi sat up strait in bed, her face flushed with fear.
"Hey, girl, you okay?" her roommate asked.
Umi nodded, holding her head in her long fingered hands. "Yeah," she said softly, her English with a strange accent, "I'm fine, it was just a nightmare. But thanks anyway Lexie."
Lexie, Alexis, backed away, though she was quite convinced. "Okay girl, I'll take your word for it, but that's the third time this week." She climbed back into her bunk, pulling the covers over her head and muffling her voice. "And it's only Thursday."
Umi forced a smile. "I'm going to take a walk, you know, try and clear my head. See you in the morning."
But Lexie was already fast asleep again. Umi shook her head in amusement, her smile genuine; Lexie could sleep through anything. *Except my nightmares,* she thought bitterly as she changed into jeans and a t-shirt, pulling on a sweater and plaiting her hair into a long braid before she silently left the room.
The college grounds were small, in a crowded city like Boston there wasn't room for much else, so she left the campus and took off for the Commons. There was a small grove of trees near the center that she knew of and at three in the morning there would be no one to bother her.
That nightmare wasn't new, it and ones like it had haunted her for over the past four years. Ever since she, along with her two old friends Hikaru and Fuu, had left Cephiro that last time, these dreams awaited her every time she slipped off. At first she had drunk the potion Clef had given her, but since using it up she had spent many sleepless nights. More often than not, Lexie had awakened her from some of her worse nightmares of Cephiro.
Cephiro, Gods she missed that place more than she ever dreamed she could. There she could be herself and people loved her for who she was, and not for who she pretended to be. Here on earth she had only Hikaru and Fuu with whom she could really talk, and ever since she had moved to the United States they had drifted apart.
Umi had accepted the invitation to attend Harvard if only for the sole reason of getting away from her parents. Sure they loved her, but they had always been more absorbed in each other to pay attention to anything else- namely her. It was their lack of affection that had made her so self-centered, she had finally decided. Without anyone else to think of her, she had had to.
*But maybe that wasn't the only excuse for moving away,* Umi mused, *I couldn't live in Tokyo and keep from seeing the tower every day, and keep the memories from flooding back. I don't see how they put up with it.*
That was it, she couldn't take it any more. Umi jammed her hands into her pockets to see if she had any change for a payphone. "Jackpot," she whispered in Japanese as she pulled a small cell phone in an iridescent blue cover from her sweater. It was three am her time which meant it was- oh it didn't matter how late or early it was there, she couldn't put this off any longer.
"Hello?" asked a girl from the other end of the line, her voice as bright and cheerful as usual.
Umi clutched the phone to her. "Hikaru?" she hissed, "It's me."
"Umi?" Hikaru asked, astonished. "Why are you calling? It can't be more that two in the morning over there?"
She sighed and leaned back into a tree. The bark scratched against her skin, but she ignored it. "I know, I couldn't sleep."
Hikaru sounded far from convinced. "So you called me. Why didn't you take that stuff Clef made you last time we were there, that should help. More than me, anyways. Talking to me usually wakes people up much more than it puts them to sleep."
That wasn't helping. Umi shook her head even though she knew her friend couldn't see her. "That's part of the problem. I haven't been able to sleep properly since we left four years ago. Clef's potion is long gone."
"You want to go back."
She smiled, Hikaru was even more astute than she remembered. "No, I don't want to go back," she said slowly and heard Hikaru gasp in surprise in the background. "I have to go back. Unlike you and Fuu, I left some things unresolved."
A pause. Umi could hear her think it over. Finally, a long sigh came over the line. "Umi, you know I can't just send you over there."
"Yes, you can," she insisted, "Don't you understand, Hikaru, you must. I swear, I'll go crazy if you don't."
Hikaru stopped again. When she did speak, though, there was a certain slyness in her voice Umi could swear wasn't there before. "Unresolved issues, huh? With who, about who, just who?"
Umi sighed softly. "Just someone."
She laughed. "I'm not sending you until you tell me."
"This is blackmail, you know. Something that happens to be illegal in my part of the world."
The laughter grew louder, sounding more and more like the Hikaru she had known four years ago. "And proud of it. So spill."
She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "If I tell you, do you promise to send me back to Cephiro?"
"Swear."
"Promise you won't laugh or tell Fuu."
"Just tell me or you're not going anywhere!" Hikaru yelled.
Umi jumped backwards, banging her head against the tree and wrenching the phone away from her ear. "Look, I don't know what time it is there, but it's three am here and with you being that loud someone's bound to notice something strange." She sighed deeply. "It's Clef, okay, just send my sorry butt over to Cephiro."
She could almost see Hikaru raising her hands in defeat. "Okay, okay, one summoning spell coming right up." The next thing Umi knew, the tree behind her was no longer solid and she was falling backwards through it.
"Oof!" she exclaimed as she landed on her back on something soft, her feet in the air. She sat strait up and nearly bumped her nose into a tree. Looking down, Umi was grateful to see that she still had her cell phone. Sure her parents sent her more money than she knew what to do with (even if they didn't know it) but she was trying to save most of it and didn't exactly feel like buying a new phone.
She glanced at her surroundings and wasn't sure whether she was scared or relieved. She wasn't in the Boston Commons, but a deep forest. And she couldn't see a way out.
"Call us and we will come," a voice echoed from the depths of her memory. Umi breathed a sigh or relief; not for the first time she was incredibly grateful for the Spirits.
She rocked back on her heels, hugging her knees to her chest. "Selece," she whispered under her breath, "I could really, really use you right about now. Not the big robot thingy, just you. A flying dragon." Her voice took on a very hopeful tone. "You do fly, right?"
The words were barely out of her mouth when a strong gust of wind came tearing through the trees, knocking Umi head over heels. Her long braid whipped around, hitting her square in the face. When she finally steadied herself and got to her feet, Umi found herself staring down a long, bright blue snout into a pair of dark eyes as tall as herself.
"You called?" a voice with a hint of humor asked in her mind.
Umi suppressed a grin as she nodded and said, "Yeah, actually, I did. You see, I'm kind of lost and, well, stuck and I was wondering if-"
Selece cut her off. "You were right to call for me, the castle is far from here. Climb on my back, I will take you there." Thanking any gods she could think of, Umi carefully crawled to just behind the huge dragon's neck, clinging as tightly as she could, or dared, as Selece flapped his enormous wings and took off for the castle.
Wind whistled past her ears and whipped her hair in all directions. To make sure it didn't blow away, Umi pulled the scrunchie from her hair, letting the dark blue locks blow free.
Back on Earth, she had often been advised to dye her hair to a more natural color, like blonde or brown, but now she was glad that she hadn't. Here on Cephiro, that felt so good to say, weird hair colors were perfectly normal. Take the head guru, a man with silvery blue hair. Or the crown prince who's hair was so green it looked like someone had sneezed on his head. Umi smiled as she thought of Clef and Ferio. It would be so good to seem them again . . . especially Clef.
*Okay, don't think like that Umi,* she told herself, *He's how old again? Two hundred and seventy, what, nine? Now that's going for older guys.*
But another part of her mind had a different view on that. *Yeah, but Ascot had a crush on me and he was just a little kid.*
Ascot. The boy who had turned himself into a man to impress her. And on her last visit to Cephiro, she had broken his heart, saying the traditional "I like you too, as a friend." Of all people, he would be the least happy to see her.
There was a slight bump and Umi realized that they had landed. Silently, she slid down the blue flank and walked around Selece to face him. "Thanks Selece," she whispered as she hugged as much of the snout as she could reach and briefly kissed the smooth skin. She turned and walked towards the castle, running her fingers through her hair in a vain attempt to remove the tangles. Finally giving up, she simply pulled it back into a ponytail to keep it from getting in her way.
Only one guard stood on duty, but she didn't recognize him at first. But as she drew closer she could more easily make out the features of his face. Before she could call out to him though, he halted her. "Stop," he yelled, "Who are you and what do you want at this castle."
Umi had to fight to keep a strait face. "Have I changed that much, Lantis?" she asked, "After all, it's only been four years. I hope you haven't forgotten me, or my friends, because Hikaru sure hasn't forgotten you."
The mention of the redhead's name stopped him dead in his tracks. Lantis, for that's who it was, looked as though someone had slapped him. He had probably given up on ever seeing the tiny girl ever again. "Is Hikaru with you, Umi?"
"Or Fuu?" asked another hopeful sounding voice. Both Lantis and Umi whipped their heads around to see Ferio walking down the palace steps.
Umi shook her head sadly. "I think it's just me this time, they weren't with me when Hikaru sent me back."
Ferio looked confused. "What do you mean, sent you back. And why weren't they with you."
With a deep sigh, Umi sat of the steps, the two legendary heroes beside her. "I know it sounds mean or impossible, but I miss this place more than they do. That's why I moved away from Tokyo, where they lived; it held too many memories. I begged Hikaru to bring me back, I couldn't stay away any longer without going mad. I don't know what either of them are doing, we lost touch when I moved away a year ago."
"Do you think they'll be coming any time soon?" Lantis asked hopefully.
Umi shrugged. "I really don't know, they could be happy where they are. But they might come," she added quickly when she saw their faces fall.
Ferio suddenly brightened. "I know someone who's going to be so happy to have you back," he said with a knowing grin, one mirrored in Lantis' face. Her first thoughts were of Ascot, but those were quickly banished.
"Oh, who?" she asked, genuinely curious. Neither man responded, they simply stood and each grabbed one of her arms, pulling her to her feet. Umi stumbled backwards as they half-dragged her through the corridors of the palace. *It's rather difficult to know where one is headed,* she decided, *When one is facing backwards.* Just as she was about to fall, she felt herself lifted and deposited on a chair hovering over three feet above the ground.
"What do you two think you're doing?" a familiar voice roared, "Barging in here and disrupting my con . . . cen . . . tration." Clef's voice trailed off as he looked up at Umi who smiled weakly in return.
Clef's jaw nearly scraped the floor as he stared at her. She was taller and most certainly thinner; and that wasn't necessarily a good thing. Her skin seemed more stretched across her bones and her eyes and cheeks were more sunken into her face than he remembered. Still, she was very beautiful.
Umi's gasp of surprise was not much different as she looked up at him through her bangs. He had aged since she had last seen him, in the sense that he looked older. He easily could have passed for twenty, if not twenty-one. Even the horn had been removed from his forehead, replaced by a gold chain draped across his brow. He had grown, too. He probably had a good half a foot on Umi's height, and she was the tallest of the three Magic Knights.
"U-Umi?" he finally managed to stammer out.
Her face broke into a wide grin. "What, do I have to tug on your robe and make fun of you for you to recognize me?" she teased.
Before he had even consciously decided on what do to, Clef had swept her up in his arms, hugging her to him. Umi rested her head on his shoulder. "Gods, Umi," he whispered, "I missed you so much."
She nodded. "I missed you, too. I missed everything, everyone. Selece, Ferio, Lantis, Presea's twin. Hell, I even missed Ascot."
Clef laughed and held her out at arms' length. "Look at you, you've changed in the past four years." He suddenly seemed puzzled. "You look like you've lost a lot of weight, have you been well?" His eyes were filled with concern as he tucked a stray piece of her hair behind her ear with one hand.
Umi immediately switched the topic of conversation to him, noticeably avoiding the question. "I've changed, look at yourself! You've really grown, and I mean in the literal sense."
He smiled, nearly blushing. Umi had never seen the guru look so uncomfortable. "Yeah, well, seemed like Ascot's idea wasn't such a bad one. I didn't really want to look twelve for the rest of my life, did I?"
She groaned aloud. "You're taking tips from Ascot, Cephiro but really be in trouble."
Clef put her back on the chair. "How, why are you back here after so long? And where are Hikaru and Fuu?"
Umi stared at her hands which rested in her lap. "I guess you could say that Earth just wasn't the place for me. I even moved to another country because Tokyo held too many memories."
She sighed. "Guess I hoped America could be more like Cephiro, but there's no place like this. I just feel like I- I don't know- belong here. Last night, this morning, whatever you want to call it, I finally cracked and called Hikaru, really racked up my long distance bill.
"Fuu and her, I don't know how they dealt with it. But they were always closer than I was and they had each other to talk to, work things out with. I don't know if they'll be coming back any time soon, if ever."
Umi looked up into Clef's eyes. "I guess Hikaru heard something in my voice tonight when we spoke because she sent me back with hardly an argument. I didn't tell her this but, ever since we left, I've dreamed of Cephiro and its people every time I fall asleep. Sometimes they're good dreams, but my roommate was waking up more and more to me screaming in my sleep."
Clef looked puzzled. "These dreams of which you speak, what were they about?"
Umi balked, not sure of how to phrase her answer. "The most common one was of when we left the last time," she finally said, "Only instead of saying 'Thank you', you were sad and left. I- I tried to chase after you but you were like a ghost." It felt really weird saying all this aloud, but she needed to get it out. "And when you turned around, you had no face. It was like a black hole." She broke off what she was saying, shuddering at the memory.
Motioning for her to scoot over, Clef sat beside her on the hover chair. He leaned back, deep in thought. "You always did seem more attached to Cephiro than either Hikaru or Fuu, which is strange considering that Hikaru is the Pillar. But sometimes we are born into the wrong life, wrong place." He suddenly turned his head to face Umi, studying her intently. "This dream you told me of, did you have it more than once?"
Umi nodded. "Started about a month ago, why?"
He sat back again. "You care for this place more than I ever thought an off-worlder could, that much is obvious. What I believe these dreams to mean is that you are scared, no terrified, of loosing Cephiro for forever. I think that I was chosen as the symbol for Cephiro for the things that were left unsaid when you departed. Am I correct?"
Blushing slightly, Umi nodded again. Tall as she was, her feet didn't quite touch the ground and she had to jump from the chair. "Thanks for understanding," she said, turning to face him, "But my case of interplanetary jet lag is catching up with me."
He raised one eyebrow in unspoken confusion and she laughed. "I'm tired, it's barely four in the morning my time. Do you know who I should talk to in order to get a place to stay around here?"
Clef smiled and bowed in a most gentlemanly manner. "You're looking at him." He fished through this pockets for something but finally gave up, pointing his staff at the air between him and Umi and mutter a few short words under his breath. He reached out and grabbed a box with a small screen on top before it fell from the air. "It's a map of the castle. Follow it to the blinking light and there you are."
Umi smiled and quickly kissed his cheek. "G'night." She turned to go, but stopped in the doorway and twisted her head around towards him, a mischievous twinkle in her eyes as she tried to look serious. "Clef, I," she began, "Never mind."
He grinned at what was to become their private joke. "Thank you, Umi," he said as he remembered his reply. The halls filled with their laughter.
~*~
There you go, my first Rayearth fic. I have a second one in mind, but I won't post it if this one really and truly sucks. Tell me what you think and I'll put up the next part if you like this one.
Oh yeah, my friends reviews don't count for my poll, of sorts. An' I know who (most) of y'are!