Yun-qi groaned under his breath as he came back to his senses. The memories of his death at Beryl's hands were still rippling at the forefront of his brain. Pain was boring its way into his skull. Vaguely he was aware of someone supporting him under his arm. However, all he could think about was the fact that he wasn't just the slacker, video game playing Yun-qi anymore. He was Jadeite, King of the East and sworn guardian to Prince Endymion. He'd also died a hundreds of years ago and was now inexplicably alive once more. "What on Elysion is going on?" moaned Yun-qi as he raked his hand through his hair.
"We've been reborn." Nephrite said from beside him. Yun-qi looked over at him. The guy looked like he'd just climbed out of hell. His face was pale and drawn but somehow, Nephrite still managed to give him a dry smile. "You still look funny."
"Ha ha," snorted Yun-qi as he rolled his eyes, "I see you still think you're some sort of comedian."
"Good to see you too Jade." Nephrite grinned. That's when Yun-qi realized that, like he, Nephrite was being supported someone. Yun-qi raised his eyes and sputtered in surprise.
"Kunzite!" he repeated. Yun-qi blinked stupidly for a minute, trying to register the image in front of him. "You're alive!"
"Don't pass out again." Kunzite told him as he pointed accusingly at him.
"I did not pass out," Yun-qi told him with a glare. It quickly withered though. He was too happy and relieved to maintain it. "I am sure glad to see you again."
"And what am I? Rotten escargot?" squawked Zoisite from his other side.
Yun-qi turned his head to look at Zoisite. Nephrite and Kunzite followed his lead. "Oh, you're back too I see."
"Mon dieu!" Zoisite growled, "I swear I will drop you. Some thanks for hauling your fat ass off the ground."
Yun-qi rolled his eyes but something settled into his chest. He'd really missed these three. So much so that he hadn't realized just how much he'd missed them. He could still remember vividly Beryl striking Zoisite, her talons sunken deep into his chest before casting him to the ground. Yun-qi reached up and grasped Zoisite's hand and squeezed it gratefully. "Good to see you safe Zo." he said with a crooked half smile.
Zoisite's scowl immediately slipped from his face. He laughed a little under his breath but didn't say anything. "People are staring." Nephrite pointed out.
"Can you stand?" Kunzite asked him seriously.
"Yeah, I think so." Nephrite didn't wait for Kunzite's say so. He simply stood up, wavering a little on his feet. Yun-qi followed suit. Zoisite's hands clenched around his shoulder subtly, waiting to hold him up should the need arise.
"What did you see in your vision?" repeated Kunzite. The fact that he wasn't wasting time and was getting straight down to business was comforting to Yun-qi when by all rights he, as well as the other three, should be freaking out.
"It was just a flash but I think it was a youma." Nephrite said with a trace of doubt in his voice.
"Youma…" muttered Zoisite, "Shouldn't those things be long gone? The Dark Kingdom should've died out ages ago and youmas with them."
"Yeah, just like us." Yun-qi commented dryly. Zoisite gave his shoulder a shove and sent him stumbling forward a few steps. Yun-qi turned to match Zoisite's glare. Kunzite smoothly put himself between the two of them to keep them from arguing further.
"Youma, Nephrite. Where is it?" he asked, obviously trying to redirect their focus.
"I don't know. Like I said, it was just a flash."
"Well I think it's probably safe to say that it isn't up here on Tokyo Tower." Zoisite quipped.
The sarcastic remark was on the tip of Yun-qi's tongue. He had his mouth open to shoot it at Zoisite. Then Nephrite's hand was over Yun-qi's mouth, effectively silencing that remark. "Very astute Zo," nodded Nephrite. "Perhaps you would like tell us where to find it."
"That's your job starry eyes." Zoisite shrugged. This time Kunzite turned to glare at Zoisite. However before he could say anything, the tower began to shake and shift beneath their feet. Then, everything went completely still.
The few people that were still waiting to leave the tower via the stairs stopped and looked around. Whispers of "earthquake" and "what was that" ran through the crowd. Yun-qi's stomach flipped over. I don't think that was an earthquake, he thought as he bit his lip. Yun-qi looked over at Kunzite, Nephrite, and Zoisite. No, they didn't think it was an earthquake either.
Zoisite frowned and shook his head. "I…" he started to say.
There was a bright flash. Yun-qi hissed in pain and threw his hands over his face to block out the offending light. Glass cracked and shattered over the top his head as the light bulbs burst from the power surge. He felt shards rain down over his head. Pinpricks of pain tore through his scalp and on the back of his arms. Screams filled the air as people rushed to cover their heads with their arms. Another shock rocked Tokyo Tower and Yun-qi had to fight to stay on his feet.
"Everybody! Out! NOW!" yelled Kunzite, pointing towards the door. Tourists screamed as the tower continued to shake. They poured towards the tiny door, pushing and shoving to get out.
"Calm down!" called Nephrite as he started to force his way through the crowd. He grabbed on to the door and held it open to help funnel people through it.
"Zoisite, Jadeite! Make sure no one is lagging behind." Kunzite told them as he started for Nephrite to help him convince the tourists to evacuate a little more organized fashion.
"One perimeter check coming up." Zoisite nodded seriously before turning to Yun-qi, "I'll go left if you go right."
"Meet you in the center then." agreed Yun-qi. He spun on his heel and headed in the opposite direction of Zoisite. Zoisite would do his job and he would do his.
He hadn't gotten more than a quarter of the way around before he spotted someone on the ground. People were streaming around her like she was a rock in a river. Yun-qi grit his teeth and forced his way through the crowd to her side. Her long, straight, black hair made him pause. An overwhelming sense of familiarity surged through him. For a split second, before he got to the girl's side, Yun-qi's heart raced. "Hemera…" he breathed.
He fell to his knees by the girl's side. She looked up at him with wide blue eyes, not violet gray as he'd half expected. Seriously, why had he even allowed that expectation? Yun-qi shoved down the disappointment in his throat. Now was not the time to be thinking about lost lovers. "Easy there," he told the girl as he help her to her feet. "You alright?"
"I...I think so," she nodded uncertainly.
"Good, get out of here then." Yun-qi told her as he gave her a push towards the stairs. He rose to his feet and scanned the area. The majority of the people seemed to have some common sense because no one was lingering. Then again, the tower was still trembling beneath his feet. No one wanted to be on top of a tower that could possibly go crashing down at any moment. Another violent shake rocked the tower and Yun-qi grabbed on to the handrail for support. As he righted himself, that's when he saw it. A figure slowly stalking towards Tokyo Tower, wrapped in what looked like lightning. A bolt arced from it's body and towards the street light. The light went out with a sudden flare. "Dăo méi! It's creating the power surge." whispered Yun-qi, could his luck be any worse?
"Oi! Jadeite!" cried Zoisite as he charged up to his side. "Slacking off I see. I've finished running the perimeter. Everyone's out on my end. What about your's?"
"Yeah," Yun-qi mumbled as he continued to stare, mesmerized, at the figure coming towards the tower.
"Let's get back to Kunzite and Nephrite and get the Hell out of here." Zoisite told him. He wasn't really paying attention to what Yun-qi was looking at. Yun-qi latched on to Zoisite's arm before he could get too far from him.
"What gives?" Zoisite snapped as Yun-qi dragged him back to the window. "What are you doing? What are you...oh merde!"
"Yeah, my thoughts exactly." grimaced Yun-qi as he cast a glance at Zoisite. Zoisite was now standing and staring at the figure with shock and a slack jaw. He raked his hand through his hair repeatedly. "Youma?" Yun-qi asked him dryly.
"Youma," nodded Zoisite in agreement.
"What are you two waiting for?" growled Kunzite as he raced up beside them.
"Tokyo Tower's clear. We should get out of here." Nephrite added.
Yun-qi and Zoisite only raised their fingers and pointed at the figure out the window. Kunzite and Nephrite followed their hand. Their eyes went wide when they too saw the stalking figure coming towards them. "Youma!" whispered Kunzite. It almost sounded as though he couldn't quite believe what he was seeing.
"And we just sent everyone down there with it." Nephrite added in horror.
Any look of uncertainty disappeared off of Kunzite's face. Yun-qi was thankful for that. He needed that. "Then we just have to get to it before it gets to us." Kunzite told them simply.
"How?" demanded Zoisite. His voice raised a full octave. He looked back between Kunzite and the approaching youma before waving his arms maniacally in front of the window. "There's only one way down and it will take us just as long if not longer to get down with all the civilians in the way. Then, even if we do manage to get ourselves between it and them, we have no way of confronting it! Not unless you've got a shiny sword hidden away somewhere on your person. I know I sure as Hell don't!"
"Zo, calm down." Nephrite told him emphatically. Yun-qi was actually surprised that he'd seemed to have acquired some of the authoritative tone that Kunzite had mastered in this present life. Not as well as Kunzite but still it was there.
Yun-qi stared down at the youma with narrowed eyes. He had all his memories flying through his head from another life. If given a sword, he knew exactly what to do with it beyond sticking the pointy end in something soft. Nephrite still seemed to have some of his limited psychic abilities as evidenced by the fact that he'd had a vision of the youma. Those were abilities that you didn't come by suddenly. They had to be practiced and developed. However, not even half an hour into remember a previous life, Yun-qi was dead sure that he wouldn't even hesitate with a blade in his hands. Maybe...he wondered…
"Can we try teleporting?" he asked quietly, eyes still locked on to the youma.
"Wait!" Nephrite sputtered as Zoisite snorted, "What?"
"Teleporting," Yun-qi said again. "Like we used to do when we lived in the time of Elysion."
"Magic takes time to cultivate in a person. You need to practice. We can't just teleport right off the bat! Don't you remember what happened to that Icarus guy from the South? He pulled himself apart trying to teleport." Zoisite reminded them angrily. He cast another anxious glance at the youma. Half his fluster came from the simple fact that it was now just a few blocks away from the tower.
"Think about it," Yun-qi pushed. Now, though, he was only talking to Kunzite. If he could convince Kunzite, then the others would follow suit. "Nephrite has his psychic abilities intact from his last life. He was just as accurate a few minutes ago as he was three thousand years ago. None of us even questioned it. Then there's the fact that I'm willing to bet we're still expert swordsmen. I haven't even touched a real blade in the last seventeen years of my life."
"I follow your logic Jadeite." Kunzite nodded stiffly. He held his chin and stared at the ground, deep in thought. Yun-qi held his breath as he waited for Kunzite's decision. Kunzite looked up. His eyes were dark and his face was grim. "We teleport." he said finally.
"You can't be serious!" Nephrite balked.
"What's the matter Nephrite?" asked Kunzite, "Don't think that you can do it?"
Just like that the gauntlet was thrown. It appeared as though Kunzite still knew how to manipulate and get his men to do something without giving them a direct order. Nephrite straightened up and rose to Kunzite's challenge. "After you my brother Shitennou." he smirked.
"No," Kunzite looked at each of them. "We go together all at once. No one is to be separated. This time...we stick together."
"Not that I'm doubting this plan to teleport thing," Zoisite started and drew attention to himself, "but once we're down there...how do we actually stop that thing? Again, none of us have weapons."
"There are other ways to stop a youma than with blades." Kunzite reminded him.
Zoisite let out a labored sigh, "Yeah, that's just the easiest way."
"We're out of time to talk about this." Nephrite said, nodding in the direction of the youma. It had reached its first set of people.
"Ready to teleport on my count. Three..." Kunzite commanded with pure and simple determination. He, Nephrite, and Zoisite all shifted into position. They all shared the same nervous look. A nervous lump rose in Yun-qi's throat as he pulled the familiar energy around himself. Yun-qi just hoped he hadn't suggested what would ultimately be their untimely deaths in this life. "Two…" Icarus hadn't been a pretty sight when he'd rematerialized after an ill practiced teleport attempt, in any of the five locations they found his body in. "One!"
Yun-qi pushed himself into the energy and out of physical space. He felt Nephrite, Kunzite, and Zoisite all brush past a small place in the back of his mind as they joined him in the teleport.
Thank you to everyone who followed, favorited, and reviewed!
RaquelQ08: I know what you mean when it comes to confusing names. I've read a lot of the Shitennou stories too and sometimes it takes me awhile to remember what each one's name is in that particular story.
gabicg93: Thank you so much! I'm glad you're enjoying it. I love the Shitennou as characters in general!
RaquelQ08: