~ Kitten's ~ Angel ~


sequel to 'kitten'


by

Alexia Goddess






Chapter Seven
Tenshi no Ittou







It was surprising how time flew by when you knew that if you didn't
hurry, time itself would vanish.

Thus, within a week, the troop of warriors that consisted of the Gundam
Pilots, Axis, Kitten, Zion, Angel, and occassionally Relena (she did
have a son to take care of!) had everything they needed to create a
homing pendant powerful enough to scan the entire solar system, a task
that -according to Axis- would normally have taken almost a full year;
the internet was a very, very useful thing.

In the meantime Relena declared the arrival of the Gundam Shinimejenya
DragonRage to have been a test for all the scientists and Preventors
that had been assigned to work on figuring it out. People accepted this,
and it was put into storage, with the highest available security
protecting it, as it was Angel's only way home.

Duo had once asked how she could go 'home' if the future as she knew it
was to be erased, blank once they succeeded. Angel only shrugged and
walked away. Time was confusing, and since Angel seemed reluctant to
share how she had figured out how everything was supposed to happen and
when in order for things to work, the former Gundam Pilots along with
Kitten and Axis simply refrained from thinking about it too hard. Kitten
once said she had enough headaches and stomach aches in the morning
without having to suddenly become an expert on phsyics.

On the day of the completion of the amulet, Angel disappeared for
several hours, and no one knew where she had gone. When Duo had wanted
to go look for her, Kitten had simply told him to let her be, then had
promptly run for the bathroom, face suddenly green.

Young four year old Sirius had heard the exchange, and, prussian blue
eyes wide, had quietly tip toed away from the door, then ran down the hall.
He had to find the pretty lady; everyone was worried about her.

Sirius liked the pretty lady, just as the Dragon Lady had told
him he would, though for some reason she had been bent on ignoring him.
That was okay. Sirius could tell the pretty lady had hurts on the
inside. Dragon lady had told him that, too, but Sirius could see
without having been told that the Angel lady hurt on the inside. So it
was okay that she wasn't very nice all the time. That's what his mama
had always told him. Sometimes when people had owies on the inside,
they did things not so nice, and that he had to forgive them.

So Sirius forgave the pretty lady for not being nice to him, and
decided he wanted to help her make her hurts go away.

It was with these thoughts in mind that Sirius peeked around a rose
bush in one of the Sanq Gardens to see the pretty angel lady sitting on
the edge of the big fountain. Sirius's young mind missed the irony of
the fact that the fountain that Angel sat at was made of a dancing
angel carved from marble.

The pretty angel lady was looking at a spot on the ground, in front of
a white rose bush. She had tears running down her face. Remembering his
promise to himself to help the pretty angel lady make her hurts go
away, and remembering what always made his mama feel better when she
cried, Sirius ran out and threw himself at Angel.

Angel shrieked, completely caught off guard, as she and the little
bundle of whoever it was that had attacked her fell backwards into the
fountain pool. She came up sputtering in rage and confusion as she
shook her head wildly, her hair coming loose of its braid and falling
in wet waves all around her. She looked down to see who had tackled
her, and drew in a sharp breath.

"Sorry, sorry, it my fault!" The litle mimi Sirius was apologizing in
hurried four year old grammar, something that normally would have made
Angel crack up. But the resemblence between the four year old Sirius in
her lap and the adult Sirius she missed... It made her heart freeze
suddenly, and she glared coldly down at the child as she dumped him out
of her lap and into the water. She pulled herself up, climbed out of
the fountain with as much dignity as she could muster, and began
wringing out her hair.

"What do you think you were doing, you little rodent?" She growled at
the boy. Sirius, sitting in the water, looked down at his hands in his
lap, underwater.

"Sorry," He murmured, then whispered something else.

"What was that?" Angel snapped. Sirius looked up at her with watery
eyes.

"You were sad," Sirius explained in his child's voice. "I wanted to
make your hurts go away. Mama say you hurt inside. When I hurt inside,
mama gives me hug. I thought if I give you hug, it make your hurts go
away, too."

"Nothing you or anyone could do would make *my* hurts go away," Angel
spat after a moment of startled surprise. Even as a child, Sirius was
still so...Sirius. So insightful and caring. Yet this child would be
forced to become a war general at age twelve...because of her...

"Only if you don't want them to." Sirius spoke up firmly, his voice
shattering Angel's reverie.

"Excuse me?" She demanded, wringing out her shirt as best as she could.

"You say no one can make your hurts go away, but that not true." He
insisted in a childish pout as he stood and scrambled out of the
fountain. "The only way for hurts to not go away is if you don't want
hurts to go away."

Angel was quiet for a minute, shoving aside wonder at this little boy's
big heart and bigger understanding.

"I don't," She said after a minute, turning away. "I don't want them go
go away."

"Why? Do you like having hurts inside?" Sirius tipped his head to one
side, honey brown hair dripping water into his eyes.

"No, I don't like it!" Angel snapped.

"Then why don't you want them to go away?"

"Because I *deserve* it!" Angel roared and whirled on the little boy,
eyes blazing. Sirius gasped and stepped back, eyes wide. She grabbed
his wrist and dragged him to the spot before a white rose bush, the
spot she had been staring at earlier with tears in her eyes.

"Do you see that spot?" She growled. "Do you SEE IT?" Sirius nodded.
Angel knelt before him and grabbed his face, looking into his eyes.

"That's where your mama is going to die in seven years because of a
monster that comes out of me! ME! She's going to lay there, dead,
surrounded by her own blood because of ME! And I'll just stand there,
right THERE!" She pointed to the spot where she had been sitting, right
in front of the fountain. "And I'll just watch as the monster that
came out of me tries to kill everyone I love! My friends, my teachers,
and your mother, everyone except your daddy and uncles and my mama and
papa will be dead because of me! *ME!*

"Don't you get it, kid? I got your mother, my mother, my father, my
friends, my uncles...I killed them! In the future they're all dead
because of me and something I brought into the world with me! I
*deserve* this pain and so much more!"

"NO!" Sirius suddenly lashed out and smacked her; a four year old hit
a war commander. He then threw his arms around her and hugged her
tight, sobbing into her shirt. "No, no, no, no, no!" He yelled. "You
*special!*" He said as he continued to hug her. "God gave you change to
*change* things! You *special!* You an Angel! You came back to save us
from the monster! You don't deserve to hurt inside! It not your fault!
You *special!*"

Sirius pulled himseld out of a shocked Angel's arms and pulled something
out from underneath her shirt, the ring Angel had kissed for luck before
transporting herself back in time... A ring that resembled a blue opal,
with swirls of rainbow brilliance, set in white gold. He held it up
in front of her face.

"See?" He said. "You have Twinidy ring! You *special!* Dwagon lady tell
me so!"

"D-Dragon lady?" Angel breathed. "What dragon lady?"

"In my dreams," Sirius said softly. "Just before you come. She tell me
Angel lady gonna come, with Twinidy ring. She tell me, and mama tell me
afterwards, too, that you hurt inside. Dwagon lady tell me to help you
make your hurts go away. She said to be your friend. She say you
special."

"And you are special, my darling daughter." Angel whirled, standing at
the same time, to come face to face with the woman Angel had missed the
most. Kitten, her mother.

Kitten enveloped Angel in a tight hug, and Angel hugged her back.

While they embraced, Sirius smiled and wiped his eyes. He had helped
make the pretty Angel lady's hurts go away, at least a little. No
worries; he would be her friend until all her hurts went away. All of
them.





*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*




"When I was little, my mother, your grandmother, had a necklace I loved.
I would sit in her lap and play with it, let it catch the light and make
rainbows." Kitten stood facing Angel beside a chest at the foot of hers
and Axis's bed. "But rather than give it to me as everyone expected me
to, she took it and cut off a piece of the pendant, and had it melted
down with other metals to make a matching pendant. She then took part
of the new pendant, before it was done cooling, and used it to patch up
the bit she had taken off hers. The metal had been cool enough to slid
back into the place, so that the second pendant was still whole. Our
necklaces were made from each other.

"When she gave it to me, she said it was a way for us to forever stay
together. I treasured her words for the rest of my life, even when the
pendant was vaporized when Shinimejenya entered me for the first time."

"Bummer." Angel said. Kitten laughed.

"Yes, it was, but the lose of that pendant isn't the reason I brought
you here." Kitten knelt in front of the chest and unlocked it with a
key she pulled out of her shorts, and lifted the lid as Angel sat beside
her.

Kitten unfolded the flaps of velvet that engulfed the contents of the
chest. When they were parted, Kitten saw that there was a black, silver
trimmed gown inside; the dress Kitten had worn during the Battle of
Shinimejenya. In the corner of the chest was a cat's collar, with a
silver nametag bearing the name 'Akari,' with a picture next to it of
a mischievious looking white feline. On the picture were the words
'Rest in Peace, my friend.'

On top of the dress was a photo album, and two long black velvet
bracelet boxes. Beside them and the photo album were two swords, wrapped
in black velvet.

Kitten lifted the swords out of the chest and laid them in her lap, then
took out the photo album and twin bracelet boxes.

"Take a look at this," Kitten handed her future daughter the photo
album. Curious, Angel did so. She found pictures of a young teenage
girl, no more than seventeen, smiling brilliantly at the camera from
her piggy back position on Duo. But there was a shadow in her eyes...
The Gundam Pilots were so much younger! Heero's eyes were hard and
cold, his face so expressionless it sent shivers down Angel's spine.

The next picture was of Kitten fencing with Wufei, then of Wufei
striding angrily towards the holder of the camera with a sword in hand.
Angel chuckled. Must have been Duo...

Another picture of Heero standing behind Kitten, arms reaching around
her to adjust her grip on a pistol. Again, the next picture showed
Heero showing anger at the holder of the camera, this time by pointing
a gun at him, and Kitten bent over, laughing in the background.

The images went on thus, until the scenery changed to that of the
Sanq Palace. A younger Relena and a girl recognized as Dorothy Catalonia
were occassionally included. Pictures from the pranks the girls had
played on the boys during Kitten's first day at the Sanq Kingdom made
Angel laugh harder than she had in years.

Angel caught her breath when she came across one picture. It was of
Kitten, Relena, Dorothy, and...Zephra. Angel's fingers glided gently
over the image of her believed to be dead Aunt. She'd never seen a
picture of her before, but she knew who she was anyways. Forcing her eyes
away from the image of her mother and aunt and friends in bathing suits
on a sunny beach, she turned the page.

Angel came across one picture, one that had apparently been taken by a
hidden camera, of Axis and Kitten kissing shyly. This was seemingly the
last picutre take for quite some time, for the next imge was of a much
older Kitten. Angel frowned and studied the image of her mother closer.
No, not older... The shadow was still in her eyes, but it was a different
shadow. It was a shadow of dark knowledge, not of dark secrets as it had
been before.

Angel realized with sudden understanding that this picture had to have
been taken after the Battle of Shinimejenya.

Kitten was standing, looking sweet in a white skirt and cream blouse,
holding a portfolio, in front of a collage application office. Her
shoulder length silver tresses blew in the wind, and she still had the
single long braid coming from behind her right ear to fall to her waist.

The collage photos that followed were few, but funny and sweet, taken
during the time that either the G-boys, Dorothy, or Axis had visited.

The next several dozen images were wedding oriented. Kitten trying on a
wedding dress, Relena a bridesmaid's dress, heavy with child. Kitten
and the girls having their hair dressed, Axis and the G-Boys at an
arcade. Kitten on Duo's arm, stepping past the double doors into the
chapel, a look on her face that said she knew what a big step she was
taking.

The ceremony, the reception, the limo that took the newly weds to the
shuttle to Mars, their honeymoon destination...

Angel suddenly realized that she had learned more about her own mother
from this little book than she had in her few years as a child with her,
or the week at her side. The times from these pictures held a piece of
Kitten's heart that she'd never been able to see. A piece that had been
captured by the year with the Gundam Pilots as her older brothers and
guardians, when she had lost her memory to her own want to protect her
fiance, sister, cousin, and best friend.

Angel felt a pang of pain at having never known Kiros or her Aunt
Zephra. Along with the pain came a twisting sense of guilt... She
swallowed it firmly as she handed the book back to Kitten.

"Why did you show these to me?" Angel demanded, unnerved by the amount
of emotion she was feeling, an amount she was unaccustomed to.

"To help you better understand how much *this* means to me," When she
said 'this' Kitten pulled out from the black velvet cloth wrap one of
the swords that was sheathed in a long black leather scabard with silver
decorations. Angel widened her eyes at the sight of the hilt; a large
silver dragon, its wings forming the hilt guards, the tail wrapping
around the top of the blade.

"The Dragon Katana..." Angel breathed. "You always talked about it...
the future you, I mean. It was lost in some battle or other, you never
went into details; it was too painful, I guess. You talked about it like
you had lost a best friend."

"Well, we've been through a lot together, this Blade and I." Kitten
looked down at it with a small smile. She held it out to Angel, who
took it gently. She slipped it out of its scabard, its silver length
shinning in the light of the settig sun that shone through the white
lace curtains and open window. She tested the edge by draging a hair
over it; the hair split as if it had originally been two, neat, clean,
and instant.

"I remember when I was a baby," Angel found that a voice that sounded
exactly like hers was talking, that her lips were moving, yet she didn't
remember ordering either to act. "You used to let me run my hands over
the hilt of this sword. I loved playing with the light that glanced off
the eye gems. You never took it out of it's scabard around me, but I
didn't care. It was the dragon I liked. That was up until I turned
seven..."

Angel abruptly regained control of her vocal cords and stopped, swalling
harshly.

"It's okay, you don't have to say anymore," Kitten told her gently.
Somehow, her saying that made Angel's tongue loosen, and she looked down
at the hilt she was fingering.

"It was my seventh birthday party," Angel began in a tone that Kitten
knew marked the start of a tale that was long and painful. "We had it
in the rose gardens, on the east side of the Palace. It was a fairy
tale theme, and you and papa had dressed up like a knight and sorceress,
and I was in a pink princess gown, complete with a garland of flowers
in my hair. Relena was the queen, Sirius a prince, my uncles knights
along with papa. My friends came as princesses, princes, knights,
dragons, or fairies, even an elf queen.

"We had a cake made to look like a castle, and the decorations were
beautiful, all creams and green and pink. You looked so beautiful, mama.
All in pure sparkling white and gold. Your hair was silver again. You'd
stopped dying it, and it went down to your thighs. You wore the Dragon
Blade at your side, just as I'd asked. You even let me hold it,
pretending to be a warrior princess, but it never looked right on me.
It was yours and yours alone. You looked so regal! Like a goddess come
down to make merry with friends. I remember wanting so, so badly to
grow up to be just like you. That was my wish when I blew out the
candles, to be like you, to be a hero, to be beautiful, and that we'd
all be happy forever...

"It was kind of cliche." Angel laughed bitterly. "The moment I blew out
the candles, it was like the sun had gone out with them. Darkness fell.
At first everyone was just curious, intrigued. They teased me that
maybe I had magical powers after all.

"Then the pain started. You were the only one not panicking, oddly.
You took me in your arms and started giving orders. Only once they had
been carried out did you let yourself begin to give in to the pandemonium
that had suddenly gripped everyone at the party.

"I don't know what happened then. All I know is that it felt like
something had blown a hole through my chest from inside me. I must have
blacked out. When I woke up... All I remember was seeing you, standing
over a fallen, dead Relena. She was covered in her own blood...in the
middle of a red pool. These dark...things were swooping around. Everyone
except you, papa, my uncles, and Sirius were laying on the ground...

"I remember looking at you and feeling a fear so intense I thought I
would die. You had a this look on your face, mama...You had the Dragon
Blade out. It was covered in blood and dark ooze. You held it so
deftly, with such experience. You glowed with a dark sea green light.
Your eyes flashed... The Trinity ring on your hand was flashing, too.
You gave this...this *yell* this cry, something that sent chills down
my spine. One of the black things rushed towards you, and you slashed
through it without any emotion on your face, no emotion except anger...

"I blacked out again. And when I woke up....I woke up in a bomb shelter,
my head in your lap. You were bruised. You had a cut on your cheek.
Your hair had been cropped to your shoulders. You, and everyone else,
looked like you hadn't slept or eaten in days. Everyone was asleep,
but the TV was on. I watched it, watched the carnage that tore across
the land. I watched it until the reporter himself was torn to shreds
by one of the dark creatures. I closed my eyes when it turned on the
camera man, but I couldn't block out his screams.

"When I opened my eyes again, the screen was blank. Everyone was still
sound asleep... It was then that I slowly realized what had happened
when I had collapsed. It was just this...knowledge that was suddenly
open to me, a putrid flower of death that opened inside my own mind.

"I couldn't handle it. I got up, and I ran. I just ran." Angel didn't
notice the silent tears streaming down her face, nor did she notice
that some time during her story, Kitten had taken her hand.

The sun had set long ago, and only the moonlight and stars illuminated
the room.

It seemed an eternity before Angel continued, but continue she did.

"When I finally collasped, crying, in some sort of graveyard, I remember
I didn't stop until I heard this...growling. An eerie rumble, like a
sorrowful ghosts' howl. It was awful. I'd never been so afraid. It, the
dark creature, towered over me. I couldn't even scream. Then there was
this sliver of silver light that slashed right through the beast. It
fell, then disappeared in a puff of dust, and there you were, Dragon
Blade in hand, glaring with a fierce hateful gleem in your eyes at where
the monster had been. You set the tip of the sword on the dirt, and
held your hand out to me. Your face was so...so emotionless. I took
your hand, then that seemed to change. You pulled me into your arms and
just started crying. When you looked at me again, your face was so
full of love..."

Angel choked and swallowed, then sniffed. Kitten handed her a tissue
she retrieved by reaching up and behind her to the box on her desk.
Kitten brushed a strand of tear soaked chocolate brown hair out of her
future daughter's face, tucking it behind her ear.

"Afterwards you were never without it, that Dragon Blade. Never let it
or me out of your sight. You were so good with it... I think the only
reason it didn't become permanently stained with blood like other
swords did was because of its magical properties. I guess after a while
it became an icon of death to me...a symbol of a part of you that I'd
never seen, that I wish wasn't needed." Angel looked down at the very
sword she'd been speaking of, running her fingers over to all too
familiar creases in the Dragon's wings, the contours of its snakelike
body.

"But seeing you again, before you became Warrior Princess has...well,
reminded me, I guess." Angel smiled softly. "Reminded me of times when
we would go outside just for the fun of rolling around in the grass on
a sunny day. And now, sitting here, I think I remember why I liked the
Dragon Blade in the first place..."

"Why?" Kitten inquired in a gentle voice.

"Because it reminds me so much of you," Angel looked at her future
mother with tears in her eyes and a smile on her face. Kitten reached
out and hugged Angel tightly.

Angel, after a moment, self consciously pulled away, rubbing away her
tears and avoiding Kitten's eyes.

"Now," she said with a little sniff. "What did you bring me here for?
Was it just to show me the Katana?"

"Partially," Kitten admitted. She seemed to hesitate slightly for a
moment, before lifting one of the long black velvet bracelet boxes in
her lap and opening it. Inside was a small, centimeter wide strip of
silver metel that was an inch and a half long. From each end of the
strip of metal were two short chains, which clasped together on the
inside of the wearer's wrist. On the strip of metal, impressed into
the silver, a few residual flakes of black sparkly paint still remaining,
was the word 'kitten.'

"Your bracelet!" Angel cried, eyes wide. "After the first attack,
you salvaged it from what was left of the Sanq Palace, and never took
it off, except to let me try it on to cheer me up. Oh, it's good to see
it!"

Kitten laughed at Angel's wide eyed expression, so like her when she
had been Angel's age.

"Then you'll like this," She said, and handed Angel the other long
black velvet box. Angel, eyes wide, took it somewhat hesitantly. She
opened it, and let loose a rather girlish squeal. Like a starved cat,
she tore the bracelet out of the box and had it on her left wrist in
seconds. She held it up to the brief moonlight to admire the thin,
centimeter wide, inch and a half long pale gold metal strip. From each
end came strong pale gold painted chains that met to clasp together
tightly and securely at the inside of her wrist.

On the gold strip, deeply impressed into the metal and filled with
sparkling dark green ink was the word 'angel.'

For the first time in several years, Angel was the first to initiate
a hug with another, and wrapped her arms tightly around her future
mother.

Kitten, laughing as Angel pulled away, then pulled the other sword,
still wrapped in its velvet covering, into her lap. "One more." She
said, and brushed away the folds of the velvet covering. Angel gasped.

Laying on the black velvet, in Kitten's hands and held up to Angel was
a long, slightly broad sword, sheathed in dark, hand worked brown
leather with wrought gold fashionings. Cautiously, as if touching a
holy relic, Angel reached out and took the blade from Kitten's hands.

The wrought gold of the hilt was smooth and cold to the touch. The
balance was perfect, heavy enough to assure you that you held a real
weapon in your hands, but light enough to fly through the air with
the guidance of an experienced hand.

But the shape...the hilt was a work of art. An ethereal creature
resembling a human woman had her arms upstretched, up the handle of
the hilt to hold a green stone set deep into the top of the hilt. Her
wings flared out to the sides to form the hilt guards. Her flowing
silk gown weaved around her legs, which lay gracefully against the cool
pale silver-gold of the blade.

On the reverse side was an elongated ten point star, the top most point
and the bottom most point stretching upwards and downwards farther than
the others.

The angel sword shimmered under the starlight, and seemed to hum in
Angel's hands.

"She's beautiful," Angel breathed. "What's her name?" She asked this
last while drawing her thumb over the edge of the blade. She hissed as
the flesh of her thumb splot even before -according to normal eyesight-
her finger reached the edge of the blade; the sword edge was sharpened
so finely that the VERY edge of the sword was invisible.

"She's yours to name," Kitten told her. "You've bled on her; she is
yours now and forever." It was true; blood flowed from Angel's thumb
falling to land on the white-gold sword where it seemed to be absorbed
into the very metal of the weapon. Angel blinked in surprise, but then
remembered her mother in the future had once told her that magical
weapons did that.

Angel stood, as did Kitten, both with katanas in hand. Angel gave the
blade a wave, and it sang as she slashed it through the air, giving off
an eerie whistle, like an angel's mourning song.

Holding it out before her, letting the moonlight glance off the very
tip, so it looked like the sword was piercing a miniature star, Angel
spoke.

"I dub thee...Tenshi no Ittou."

Kitten smiled, fingering her own Dragon Katana. "Sword of the Angel,"
Kitten murmured. "Perfect."

Kitten reached over and closed the chest, then, smiling, held her hand
out to her future daughter. "Come," She said. "The Lunar Eclipse is
tomorrow, early in the day. We only have tonight to prepare. The others
should already be assembled. Let's go save the world, ne?"

"No, mother dear," Kitten blinked at Angel's cold words and tone. Her
eyes widened and she resisted a gasp as Angel's eyes went cold. Ice
cold. She turned thoes eyes on her future mother. She smiled darkly.

"No," She repeated. "We're going to save time itself!"





To Be Continued....



I know it doesn't seem like it, but this is linked to the plot of
'Kitten's Angel.' Thank you all so much for your support! *tears* I
couldn't have done it without you!!!!!!!!!


-Alexia Goddess




*ALL STANDARD DISCLAIMERS APPLY; I OWN NOTHING PERTAINING TO GUNDAM
WING SAVE MY OWN CREATIONS (ANGEL, KITTEN, SIRUS, SHINIMJENYA,
DRAGONRAGE EPION, ECT.) AND THIS PLOT. 'KITTEN'S ANGEL' IS (C) ALEXIA
GODDESS, 2002. ANY UNAUTHORIZED DUPLICATION AND/OR USE OF ORIGINAL
PROPERTY/IDEAS IS SUBJECT TO LEGAL LAWSUIT. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED*