Title: Last Dance of Chances
By: Aina Song
Fandom(s): Radiata Stories
Genre: Yaoi
Rating: NC-17 (Um… eventually…)
Warning(s): Tonight, on the Warning Channel - Language; Death; Depression; Direct Quotes; Altered Scenes… Slight chance of OOC, major OOC to follow. Back to you, Bill.
Pairing(s): Flau + Jack + Ridley; Jack/Gil
Reviews: Yes, please.
Author's Note: Standard Disclaimer. This story was not written for money. The game had its rules and specific plot points, but just so you know… I intend to break a whole mess of them with this one!
Teaser: What might've happened, had Ridley not survived that blood orc's attack? The Golden dragon will demand a vessel, regardless. Meanwhile, Jack is haunted by dreams of another life, a darker path…
Chapter Thirteen - Ever Yours
The moon had nearly reached the peak of its climb across the night sky. Jack was sitting on his bed in simple white nightclothes, awake and waiting. While the rest of the fort slept, he sat gazing out of his window and watched the stars blink in and out of view around the pale moon.
A soft knock sounded upon the door. It did not surprise him when he answered it to find Gil standing on the other side, one arm folded behind his back.
"Might I enter?"
Nodding, Jack stepped back to let the light elf in, quietly closing the door behind him and sitting again upon his bed. There was a strangely solemn light in Gil's eyes, though the rest of his face remained expressionless, as he brought his arm from behind his back. Across both palms lay the blade he had disappeared all afternoon to retrieve.
Dark violet in color, its ethereal blade seemed forged of the same magic that gave light elves' wings their iridescent shimmer. It was smaller in size than Jack's previous blade had been, but it looked incredibly light and easy to wield. And when he lifted it up in his fist, a familiar tingling shot up toward his elbow as though in recognition of an old friend.
"It is called Jinn," Gil softly revealed, his eyes watching as Jack turned his hand this way and that to get a better look at it. "Every dragon has one treasured possession, even if they never have a need for it, and this was Cepheid's."
"Are you sure I should be the one to wield it," Jack wondered, albeit reluctantly. "I don't want to see you get into trouble for this."
"I alone knew Cepheid better than any other. Even Lord Zane cannot claim such knowledge of our dragon guardian. Therefore, I alone may decide who receives his gifted blade."
Jack stared in quiet alarm as the light elf slowly sank to the floor on one knee. "Gil…?"
"I have held onto this black secret for sixteen years," the light elf confessed, eyes downcast. "And now that the son of Cairn is a warrior fully capable of the deed, I request that he take his revenge upon his father's murderer."
The Jinn was dropped clattering to the floor. Jack sat forward and grasped Gil's shoulders. "W-what are you saying? Gawain told me that Zane's assassins killed my father."
"Jack," the light elf sighed, lifting his eyes to meet the other's stare directly. "I am Zane's assassin. I am, and have ever been, his only assassin."
A dark silence fell heavily between them, as Gil's words sank in. Jack drew trembling hands away and sat back. His eyes stung threateningly as he stared at his friend, and his heart hammered within his chest.
"You…?"
"Yes," the light elf nodded solemnly. "Cairn Russell died by my hands alone." He hesitantly lifted a hand to touch his fingers against the vivid red scar beneath his left eye. "It was your father that had marked me with this…"
Jack's blood rushed quite suddenly from his head, and his skull throbbed numbly. Closing his eyes, striving to keep breath passing through his lungs, he forced his mouth to form the question: "Why didn't you tell me?"
Gil quietly climbed upon the bed, moving on his knees until he sat upon his heels before Jack. "I will not desecrate Cairn's death with a mere apology. And I dare not ask your forgiveness."
A single tear escaped Jack's forbiddance; Gil's eyes - which never missed anything - traced the tear's silent path as it slid quickly down his cheek, passing over the corner of his lips as it fell toward his chin. Jack opened his eyes in time to watch the light elf lift his hand, as though to catch that tear with his fingers. But then Gil dropped his hand again to his side and let it be.
Jack suddenly made a pained sound in his throat, and in the next instant he had lurched forward and was kissing Gil full on the mouth. A quick intake of breath was the only indication of Gil's surprise, but the light elf did not pull away. Gil's hands came up to cradle Jack's jaw, and he tilted his head to return the favor, swallowing the lingering taste of salt that the single tear had left behind.
Jack pulled back a little, his eyes searching Gil's. "Is this all right…?"
"Yes," Gil hissed, moving forward and capturing Jack's mouth in another kiss. He made claim of the human with his mouth; there was nothing gentle in his kiss, only an underlying sense of desperation. Jack's mouth opened under his, and the light elf drank him in. He mined that mouth with his lips and with his tongue, driving into its recesses, calling to Jack's tongue in a primitive mating ritual that seemed older than time itself.
And then Gil rose up on his knees, gently moving Jack with him until his back was carefully pressed up against the wall. His hands crept down until his fingers brushed the collar of Jack's nightshirt, and he broke the kiss to look at Jack with questioning eyes as his fingers toyed with the collar's leather strips. Jack nodded. The strips came loose, and Gil drew slightly away to pull the shirt over Jack's head. And his eyes feasted upon smooth, golden skin under which stretched cords of subtle muscle that had been honed by countless battles.
Gil lightly took hold of Jack's wrists and lifted them up, pinning them to the wall on either side of his head, and then that mouth descended upon his shoulder. The shock of Gil's lips upon his skin was unanticipated, but Jack could not summon the will to protest. And then came the teeth. Jack could feel his skin flush with warmth, even as the light elf nibbled a trail along his shoulder toward his throat.
Jack's heart was pounding unsteadily in his chest by the time those exploring lips found their way to his mouth again, and those teeth pulled at Jack's lower lip. "Jack," the light elf moaned against his mouth, and that raspy quality of before had snuck again into his usually lyrical voice. "Tell me you are not an innocent…"
Jack's eyes flew open, and he stared as Gil drew away to search his startled gaze. Gil let out a very soft groan, "You are."
Sucking in a deep breath, Jack nodded.
"Not even with Flau? Or that other one you mourn so dearly?"
"Flau is like another sister to me," Jack whispered, swallowing. "And I never realized I'd cared for Ridley, until I awoke that morning to find she'd died during the night."
A look of sympathy flicked across those endlessly blue eyes. "Jack… I cannot promise to be gentle…"
Realizing what the light elf was proposing, Jack's heart leapt uncertainly. But, "I don't know if I want you to be gentle, Gil. Please."
After a long minute, the light elf released Jack's wrists and shifted back, straightening to his feet on the floor. "Lie down," he quietly instructed. "On your back."
Jack complied, eyes never leaving the elf as his head fell back atop his pillow. An intense look filled Gil's eyes, and he slowly dragged the nail of one finger down the center of his own shirt. The magic threads binding the cloth together fell apart at his silent command, and Jack stared at the pale sleek chest that was revealed underneath. The light elf did not pause there; he wordlessly stripped of all his clothes, letting them fall to the floor around his feet. And Jack found himself marveling such marble-like perfection. Gil's body, even his sex, was hairless - and yet Jack could not turn his eyes away.
Gil was an embodiment of otherworldly splendor.
The light elf moved over him then, legs straddling Jack high on his hips. He again caught Jack's wrists to either side of his head, and the light elf bent low to let his mouth and tongue taste the very center of Jack's bare chest. Jack gasped, surprised by his own sensitivity, back arching upward as though drawn into Gil's kiss. Gil moved his head, tongue finding and tasting a caramel nub that swiftly pebbled under the attention. Jack choked on a small cry, feeling his nerves become like needles in that one area, and he had to remind himself to breathe.
As Gil switched to Jack's other nipple, he slowly stretched out his legs behind him. His pelvis lowered against the front of Jack's night pants, and Jack sucked in another hiss of breath as Gil ground his hips down against him. Catching his lower lip between his teeth, he slid one leg apart from the other, hooking it over the back of Gil's calf.
Gil lifted his head, blue eyes smoldering, and he moved his hips again. Jack let out a low whimper, bringing his own hips up to meet the friction. The light elf made a noise in response, somewhere between a groan and a fierce growl of pleasure, and he captured Jack's mouth once again, tongue driving in and demanding a playmate. They rocked together, maddening heat building between them as their mouths clashed together again and again.
Jack fisted his hands as the friction grew, wishing he could take hold of the body above him and draw it even closer. Yet Gil's hands anchored his wrists down, with a tender yet unmoving grip. Hips still moving, he grazed his teeth along Jack's jaw to attack his young lover's throat with lovebites.
"G-Gil," Jack eventually pleaded. "Gil… I-I…"
The light elf suddenly stopped grinding, bringing both of Jack's wrists over his head and pinning them down with one hand. Lifting slightly away, he slid his other hand between their bodies and caught hold of Jack's night pants. He tugged them down over his young lover's hips and took Jack's sex into his fist. Jack cried out, pushing himself closer to that touch and begging for release. Gil's eyes watched him as he responded to the hand that pumped him. And Jack, feeling that penetrating gaze upon him, succumbed to Gil's ministrations and with another cry he came - hard and fast and all over Gil's hand.
While Jack gasped for breath, his every nerve singing with aftershock, Gil lifted his hand away. He leaned over Jack, bringing his coated fingers between them, and his eyes were intense with the silent command. And so Jack opened his mouth, flicking his tongue out to taste of his own essence. Gil gave a low growl at the sight, and he touched his own tongue to the back of his thumb. Together, they cleansed Gil's hand of Jack's fluid, a shared task which was strangely erotic and fed fire to the electricity already hanging in the air.
After, Jack was ready for more, and the smooth hardness pressing against his thigh confirmed that Gil was not unaffected either. He at last released Jack's wrists, sitting back on his knees to tug once more at Jack's night pants. Jack shifted helpfully, and the cotton pants were dropped to the floor.
Gil moved over him yet again, his hands and knees bracing himself some inches above the length of Jack's body. "Touch me, Jack," he rasped now. "I want to feel your hands upon me…"
Above his head, Jack's fists flexed uncertainly. But then, slowly, he reached up and let his fingers brush lightly down the center of Gil's bare torso. The light elf shivered at the burning contact, but his endlessly blue eyes never left Jack's as those fingers gained more confidence in their exploration. Jack's brow had become beaded with sweat, and he absently tossed his blond-and-brown strands from his golden amber eyes, all his concentration on fulfilling the light elf's request. He let his hands roam where they would; over shoulders, across pectorals and sliding down the sides of strong ribs, then up again over the light elf's flexed back.
His fingertips skimmed the base of Gil's wings; he felt a pulse of the power that shimmered through them, before they fluttered shyly from his touch. Biting his lip, he heeded his lover's reflex and moved his hands away. He skimmed his touch down Gil's sides and furthered his exploration of Gil's torso. When his fingers very lightly brushed over a pebbled nub, Gil tensed and drew an audible breath through his teeth. Emboldened, Jack pushed up on his elbow and showed all he had learned from Gil's earlier lovebites, nibbling and tasting at Gil's collarbone until the light elf was virtually growling under every breath.
At last Gil's control broke, and he ravaged Jack's mouth, plunging his tongue in and claiming it mercilessly. Jack pulled the light elf down against him, nails digging into the flesh of Gil's back, and he uttered a small whimper when the light elf slowly nudged a knee between his legs.
"Do you want this, Jack," Gil growled against his young lover's mouth. "To feel me inside you? Feel me stretch you, fill you…?"
"Yes," he pleaded, parting his legs wide and arching up into the body crushing down on him. "Anything. Everything."
Gil slid his hand down Jack's abdomen, fingers barely grazing the human's sex as they inched toward the pucker hidden underneath, where they circled with slowly increasing pressure until Jack was left squirming under his touch. "I cannot promise to be gentle," he warned one more time.
"I don't care," Jack gasped, the nails of his own fingers digging into the muscles of Gil's shoulders. "I told you, I don't want gentle. I want you."
His skin burned as though set afire, and the perspiration that had begun on his brow had now crept down his neck to spread its wet beads over his collarbones. Gil dipped his head, tongue flicking out to lap at that saltiness, and Jack swore under his breath. And then the tip of Gil's finger pushed into him, and he repeated his profanity with more fervor.
The light elf did not protest the nails clutching his flesh, instead moving his mouth to Jack's throat and growling, "You invite pain if you resist me…"
Jack gave a jerky nod, his hands at last releasing Gil's arms to tunnel their fingers instead into cool strands of silvery green silk, and he dragged in a large breath as he tried to relax his muscles. The finger pushed further in, then twisted. When Jack could not stifle a sudden cry at the feeling, Gil lifted his head and devoured the human's mouth. Jack clung to him, the mating of their tongues a heady distraction from the finger that assaulted him.
He could not say if he was better prepared when that finger was joined by another, but his back arched to invite their invasion. Gil made a soft noise of approval, skimming his mouth along his lover's jaw to sink his teeth into the lobe of Jack's ear. The two fingers twisted and cut apart, and Jack's nerves were pinched with some pain, but he pushed himself down upon those fingers and almost swore again when they left him.
But then Gil lifted his head, dark blue eyes smoldering and intense as he settled himself between Jack's thighs, his sex nudging against the entrance that had been so hastily prepared for him. Jack's hands returned to gripping the muscles of Gil's arms; he closed his eyes to hide from that penetrating gaze. Gil bucked his hips against him, the tip of his sex pushing past the ring with one thrust, and Jack's eyes flew open again. "Look at me," the light elf demanded, equally breathless. "Let me see what I do to you."
Jack clenched his teeth, but he nodded. Gil rewarded him, remaining still until the ring of Jack's entrance loosened just a little around him. Then he plunged forward, burying all of himself within the hot, quivering body beneath him. Jack cried out, and a sudden shivering of his spine urged his back to arch higher.
Despite all his warnings, Gil's eyes flashed with passion-clouded concern in the face of his young lover's obvious pain, and he let out a strained breath as he began to back his hips away. But Jack made a strangled sound of protest in his throat, and his legs came up and wrapped around Gil's waist, locking the light elf in place. "I don't want gentle," he panted yet again, glaring up at Gil through sweat-dampened strands of brown and blond. "And you're not leaving me like this."
Gil paused for a long moment, but then his eyes sparked with approval and much heat, and he plundered that mouth with his tongue as his hips began to move. A surprisingly guttural sound gurgled up from within Jack's throat, and he lifted his own hips to meet him. Gil rocked against him, thrusting gradually harder and faster, using reserves of strength no other would have been able to receive, and yet Jack did not hesitate to cry for more.
The light elf was most accommodating to his young lover's every request, and every bit as merciless as he had insinuated himself to be. His sex ravaged Jack's insides, finding and impaling that bundle of nerves hidden far within. And when the end drew near, Gil lowered himself atop the human and used the length of his body to increase the heat and friction of their play. Jack swore, his throbbing and neglected sex caught between them, and he did not know whether to beg for release or to cling to the light elf above him in hopes of prolonging the torture.
Gil, realizing his turmoil, growled low in Jack's ear, "I forbid you to resist me. Give me your all!"
Jack tried to argue, "B-but you haven't-"
He roared something scalding and thrust deeper, destroying Jack's restraint. Jack wailed in agony and succumbed to the light elf's demand, his seed washing up between them. His muscles clamped vengefully around the sex still stroking his insides, and Gil at last gave in to his young lover's plea, sharing the moment of release.
After, as all became still once more, the light elf lifted his head and captured Jack's mouth one more time. His kiss was hot and searing, but infinitely gentler now that the fever of their play had passed. Jack tunneled his fingers through Gil's silvery green strands, spending the very last of his energy to battle his tongue against Gil's in a futile fit for dominance. And then Gil dropped his brow again to the cove of Jack's shoulder, and even his glittering wings drooped wearily against his back.
~o~
His dream had shifted again. Those startlingly blue eyes that had haunted him so often - eyes that now he could identify as his lover's - swept so close that his vision was filled with nothing but their steady and unsettling gaze. He stared into those eyes, sinking, drowning, within their infinite gaze.
He could not look away, even as those eyes suddenly changed. Their eternally provocative blue color shifted seamlessly into a penetrating shade of green, and then they became an inexhaustibly patient hue of violet. Lastly, those eyes became like his own, a once-brown tint which now shone like golden amber.
And then, as though from a great distance, he could almost make out the echo of a strangely powerful voice. And though the words were unlike any he had ever heard, his heart raced in ancient recognition.
"Lafya ma quaiha sajek caifout… Lucieh curamu kholsk tem sula…"
~o~
"Jack, Jack, come back to me," whispered another more familiar voice, one that urged him to obey. As though breaking the surface of murky grey waters, he gasped in a great breath and blinked his eyes open.
Gil leaned over him, endlessly blue eyes filled with such stark emotion. Once the light elf realized his young lover was awake, he lowered himself atop Jack and buried his face into the cove of Jack's shoulder, pulling him close. "Jack," he rasped. "My Jack…"
The human carefully caged his arms around Gil's back, knowing much surprise to feel the light elf trembling against him. "W-what is it? What happened?"
"You happened," Gil breathed, turning his head to slide his lips across the side of Jack's throat. "Jack, what did you dream tonight?"
He frowned up at the ceiling, trying to remember. "Eyes… yours, Zane's, even Nogueira's… A-and then a voice. It… It sounded so familiar…"
"Lucieh curamu kholsk tem sula," Gil softly quoted against the skin of Jack's throat. "You spoke it in your sleep. It is ancient Elvish, in its purest form, very different from the dialect shared by my younger kin. It means-"
" 'For I shall placate my felled brethren'," Jack whispered, nodding. "I don't know how I knew that, but I did."
"I might have guessed sooner," the light elf went on. "The wing scars… They are a holy sign, even and especially on a human's back. That, and the fever which has so dramatically altered your coloring…" Gil finally lifted his head, gazing down at Jack with a quietly solemn look. "Jack… Forgive my curiosity, but you were there with her the moment your Ridley died, were you not?"
"Yeah," he sighed, the memory now only a dark shadow in the back of his mind. "I was there."
"By Lord Nogueira's transpiritation, your Ridley received the soul of an elf. But when her body failed her in the end, that transferred soul must have swiftly found another vessel to preserve itself from forever disappearing." Gil's bluer-than-blue eyes searched Jack's of golden amber, "Do you understand?"
"You're saying… That when Ridley died that night, that other soul… jumped, from her to me…?"
"Yes," Gil nodded. "But because yours is a strong soul that needed no rescuing, that impromptu transfer weighed heavily within your being until finally you were taken with fever so that your two souls could at last come together."
Jack stared, "A-and… the wing scars?"
The blue-toned light elf was quiet for a moment, and then asked a question of his own. "Can you think of no reason such a holy mark would claim you?"
His heart racing, Jack struggled to make sense of what his lover was trying to tell him. True, he had not felt entirely himself since Ridley's death, but he had always attributed that to his suffocating grief. Then he had come here to the elflands, for no other reason than some unexplained tether had pulled him in that direction. And lastly, after the fever that had caused his body to react so violently and left his back torn with wing scars, he had slowly begun to feel more at home within his own body…
Without the humans to serve as their vessel, Parsec had warned, the Twin dragons can never awake… But the time of the Golden dragon is close…
And that other soul which had spoken to him in his dream - "For I shall placate my felled brethren…"
Jack's flesh grew suddenly cold, and with trembling hands he drew Gil tight against him once more. His heart thrashed within his ribcage so aggressively he did not doubt the light elf could feel it against his own chest. "Gil," he pleaded. "What am I going to do?"
"Jack…"
"If he wants me, I know I should feel honored. But… Who will I be, once he takes me? Will this," and he tightened his arms around the body atop him, "mean as much to me as it does right now? Will I be allowed to have it again?"
Gil lifted his head, a look of strong conviction filling those startlingly blue eyes. "Hear this now," he whispered, fiercely. "When he claims you, he will see that you were mine first. And I do not intend to forfeit…" - he shifted over Jack, causing the human to cry out as their sexes played against each other - "…this, lightly. My soul mated with yours, as unconditionally as our bodies have done, and even dragons respect the absolution in that. You are mine, Jack Russell, do not doubt that."
Jack stared, feeling his heart leap for an entirely different reason. "Yours…?"
"Oh yes," Gil smiled. "As I am yours, ever yours."