Chapter One: Of Knights and Visitors

Nemesis looked out over the barren lands that had become both her home and her Hell and sighed deeply, the sooty, polluted air long since having lost its vile taste to her senses. She'd been trapped here for a thousand years. A thousand years of non-stop fighting and her heart was heavily burdened by it. It had been far too long since she had seen the sun, or grass or even clean water and she didn't know how many times she had become ill due to having been forced to drink the disgusting water that flowed as rivers here. She shuddered lightly as she remembered the brimstone taste to the Halcio River, the last river to make her ill, and rolled her eyes at her own foolishness.

'You'd think after a thousand years I'd remember that Halcio means 'burnt stone' in their damnable language.'

The tired warrior stood and stretched her arms over her head, ignoring the pain as her joints moved in and out of their sockets as they were wont to do now a-days. She had dislocated just about everything that could be dislocated, broken every bone in her body at least twice and died sixteen times in the past thousand years, so pain was little more than an irritant to her now and the fact that her joints were not very strong anymore despite her rebirths, while disturbing, was nothing that she could fix so she didn't worry about it. She took one last look at the red moon hanging malevolently over the landscape and sighed again. The Gate would be opening soon and she would have to defend it until it closed same as she did every century since she'd come here. Normally it was something that could and would be done by those that the Gate opened to, but since she'd been banished here and her way back sealed she'd taken on the duty as commanded.

She hated doing it, but she didn't have any choice in the matter.

Nemesis took up her long knives and walked slowly away from the place she had been sitting toward her duty once again, her shadow long under the red moon.

BREAKBREAKBREAK

Quatre didn't know what had happened, but he knew that it wasn't good.

The five had been at one of his homes, the one in the outskirts of L3, when an attack had caught them off guard. The mansion itself had been attacked, though not by any military faction, but rather by a fanatic who was upset at Winner Enterprises for something or other. The mansion had been destroyed and the last thing that the blond remembered was being knocked through the air by an explosion, then nothing. He groaned as he sat up and looked around frantically for his friends, sighing in relief when he saw that they were scattered around him and were also waking up. Wufei lay on his back, arms akimbo, and seemed to be twitching as he pulled himself slowly into a seated position. Duo was on his stomach and just seemed content to lie there and groan while Trowa was sitting in lotus position gently poking a cut in his right forearm. Heero was standing with his back to the group and seemed to be surveying their surroundings, gun drawn. That was typical Heero though; even with the war over he was still extre,e;y wary.

"Did anyone get the license number of that truck? Ooh, my head."

Duo's voice snapped Quatre back to attention on the current situation and he looked at the long0haired pilot with a small, reluctant grin. Duo could always lighten a mood, even injured and not knowing any vital information.

"Who are you and what are you doing here of all places? Did you come through the Gate?"

The boys all turned toward the source of the rough, laconic voice and Heero fired one round at the person standing in medieval looking armor. The knight, for that is what they looked like, simply raised a knife that the boys hadn't seen and the bullet ricocheted off into the distance.

"That wasn't nice. All I did was ask a simple question."

As Quatre looked closer at the Knight he could see that his armor was cracked and faded, seemingly barely holding together on his lithe body. There was blood leaking through the edges and the armor itself was covered in what looked to be blood, but not all of it was red. His helmet was also cracked and actually looked to have a fissure in it, right in the side about the size of a fist, while the faceplate kept everything but his eyes hidden. His eyes were what caught Quatre's attention the most. They were the oddest eyes he had ever seen, bi-colored, but not blue and brown as most people with naturally bi-colored eyes. The Knight's right eye was the purest, brightest amethyst he'd ever seen, brighter even than Duo's, and his left eye was green, bright emerald green that almost seemed to glow. He had to admit that those eyes caught him, not just for their color, but for the emotion that he could feel within them. They were full of pain, anguish and resignation.

His space heart hurt just looking at the Knight.

"I'm sorry for my friend's actions, but we don't know where we are. I'm Quatre Winner and these gentlemen are my friends. The black haired man is Wufei Chang, the brunette with the braid is Duo Maxwell, the tallest of us is Trowa Barton and the man who shot at you is Heero Yui."

The Knight looked them over for a moment before nodding.

"Understandable. I am known as Nemesis. You're currently in the ass-end of nowhere in the Netherworld. Best I can figure, you somehow managed to be at ground zero when the Gate opened."

"What is this 'Gate'?"

Nemesis looked at Wufei and raised a brow at his hostile tone.

"The Gate is a portal to different dimensions. Every century it opens to a different plane and the creatures that live here make an effort to flow through it to feast on the inhabitants of whatever world is unlucky that century. I've taken it upon myself to guard the Gate when it opens."

"Then shouldn't the Gate be here?"

Nemesis shook his head.

"No. The Gate is an obscure artifact and very little is known about it, but from what I've gathered over the years is that it will drop whatever goes through it in different places each time it is utilized. My guess is that you all went through together, which is why you are all here instead of strewn throughout the Netherworld."

Before any of the guys could respond there was a roar of rage coming from the South and Nemesis looked toward it, eyes widening and his gestures became hurried.

"We don't have time for this."

The Knight reached under his chest plate and yanked on something there before pulling out a gold dragon charm on a broken leather cord. She gave it to the nearest young man, which happened to be Quatre, and curled his fingers around the warm metal.

"Take this. Go fifty feet behind the Gate, that way, and stand in a circle, shoulders touching. You have to be touching one another or else this won't work. When you're ready, say 'Cherry Hill Temple, Juuban Japan, Sol System.' It won't take you home, but it will take you to the people who can get you home. Got it?"

Quatre nodded and the Knight shoved him lightly, humor glittering in his eyes as he did so.

"I can feel your worry young one, but don't. This will just be another fight in a stream of fighting. I will be fine."

Wufei reacted with derision.

"'Young one'? You can't be older than us, so why are you calling Quatre 'young one'?"

Humor sparked the Knight's voice this time as he responded and Quatre noticed that, as rough as the voice was, it wasn't actually very masculine.

"Wufei, was it? This is my tenth time protecting this Gate. You do the math. Now go, they will be here soon and then it will be too late."

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Nemesis watched the boys hurry to the place she told them to go, humor filling her heart for the first time in too many years to remember.

'Other than the fact that the think I'm male, they're pretty nice.'

She returned her attention to the enemies approaching the Gate and readied herself for the fight to come. She knew that it was one that she could only hold her own in, but that was usually enough to keep too many of the creatures from breeching the Gate and going to places that they shouldn't. She tightened her grip on her knives, the hilts wrapped in thick black leather that matched her hair color almost exactly. She listened as the boys stumbled along, not used to seeing in the red light of one of the Netherworld moons, and smiled as the beautifully gentle voice of the blond repeated what she'd told him to say. The rush of power as the dimensional rip opened and the sigh of wind as the boys vanished took her smile away with them and she sighed again.

'Well, I'll never see them again. I wonder how the princesses are going to react…'

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By the by, I own nothing except the concept of the story and Nemesis. I will do a story that is SM/Naruto; it's in the works and I'm trying to work out some bugs. I live off reviews and lately have been starving, so if you like the story, have an idea for it or hate it and have a reason for hating it please write me a review and tell me what you think. Flames will be read and considered, but please, if you tell me you hate it, tell me why you hate it.