A/N: ch 13, rewritten.
Chapter 13:
"Whoa! How big is this place?" Xahra exclaimed as they turned around a blind corner only to end up at a junction of sorts. They were currently standing in a circular cave like room with at least seven tunneled passages branching off in different directions. "These tunnels just seem to go on forever."
"The catacombs for concealing the jewelstone were constructed in a design similar to a labyrinth," Naomi spoke up. "Only the ones worthy of its power can find the way to get to it."
"Then why do you think Mephistophele would be able to find it?" Xahra cocked her head to one side, observing the teenage commander in the flicker light of the torch held in the latter's hand.
"Because he too is a descendent of the original guardians of the stones." She answered quietly, observing Syaoran who was currently deciphering one of the numerous messages engraved in the stone walls. Helping him speed up the task was Ian. "And it's doesn't really help matters much that he is already in possession of two stones."
"What does that have to do with being worthy of the stone?"
"Only one of guardian descent can obtain it."
"This way everyone." Syaoran called out, his excited voice rebounding and echoing off in the dark tunnels all around them.
"He sure works fast." Xahra mumbled as she followed the rest of the group into the tunnel that Syaoran had vanished into.
"Naomi, do you know why the stones were created in the first place?" the lavender-eyed girl asked as the group walked deeper and deeper into the tunnel system.
"Legend has it that there was once a time when all the worlds were plundered and brought to the brink of annihilation at the hands of a very powerful witch, Naba."
"Doesn't the word mean Heralder of destruction?" Syaoran asked as he stopped next to another carving in the wall to translate the runes engraved in it.
"It does. And it fit her perfectly. She was cruel, ruthless and devastation followed where ever she went." Naomi nodded. "It is said that she worked for a king of some distant world who wanted to rule all the dimensions through her."
"What happened?" Kurogane spoke up, his deep voice startling Xahra a little.
"Well, her powers grew too much for the king to control and she ended up destroying his home world. In fact they were growing so rapidly that the elders feared they would end up consuming the entire multiverses."
"How can magic grow that powerful?"
"According to some stories, Naba had a black seal engraved in her right cheek by the king himself. It was designed to mutate her natural magic into something dark and powerful, only it ended up being too powerful. In the end, the elders created the six stones and gave each one of them to a brave warrior. The six warriors fought against Naba for almost an eternity in separated time."
"Though in the end they managed to seal her powers and trap her outside of time. They say, she is still there, to this day, lost in an eternal slumber, not quite dead but not quite living either."
"So basically, if Mephistophele gets his hands on all of them, you guys would have another Naba on your hands." Xahra concluded just as Syaoran fiddled with some moveable runes in the carving. As the final piece slid into place, the ground began to rumble before the whole tunnel began to sink.
They all struggled to steady themselves as the ground kept on lowering, until they emerged in a cavernous room. The platform that had descended settled on the edge of a precipice with nothing but darkness below. Although from the light being cast in the giant cave from a mysterious source near the centre, jagged rocks could be seen below. A small inscription was carved into the rock face to their right which Syaoran along with Naomi and Ian began to study intently.
"Ian-san, you are the descendent of the line that guarded the earth-jewelstone, right?" Syaoran looked at the blue-eyed native once he had scanned the writing till the very bottom.
"Yeah," the addressed man nodded as he turned back to face the ledge, settling down in a low crouch. "So I guess, the rest is up to me." with that he sprinted forward and jumped, hugging one of the jutting spikes to stop his descent.
"Be careful Ian." Naomi called out as she watched her friend jump from one rock to the other, going lower and lower until the darkness swallowed him whole.
"Shouldn't someone else have gone with him?" Xahra asked quietly as the sound of his grunts as he jumped grew distant until those too were replaced by an eerie silence.
"He has to prove himself worthy of the stone so he must retrieve it alone." Bald answered this time as he leaned against the wall of the cave to wait out his captain's return.
-0-
Maddy climbed under the numerous animal skins with a tired yawn. She had spent another whole day trying to figure out how to make the transmutation circles work with only one successful transmutation. What she had ended up with had not been a sword though. It had been a prong. She had tried replicating it several times but with little success. She had stowed her successful experiment along with the rest of the scraps under the furs in her room.
As she turned on her side, her thoughts drifted to her friend who was currently somewhere far away and wondered how she was doing. Five days had passed by so she would be arriving in less than forty eight hours.
Her thoughts then wandered to the one thing she had been subconsciously trying to decide upon.
Contacting Yuuko for her wish. Even though a lot of her dreams did not make any sense what so ever and were not even distantly related to her, something still nagged her to listen to the advice her brother had given her back in Hanshin. Acceptance of the fact that she would not be returning home for quite some time had wormed its way into her heart. Moping about that would do her little good so she decided on asking Mokona for some way to contact the dimensional witch.
Might as well make the most of this unwanted adventure she had been thrown into. Her mind replayed what little she could remember of the attack that had taken her brother's life and the unnerving dream she had had recently. If she got a chance to talk to the witch, she would most definitely ask her about that dream. Did her brother really make a wish to Yuuko?
Maddy blinked a couple of times before taking in her surroundings. She was standing in an ornately decorated room with a huge window and an adjoining balcony that overlooked an icy landscape. Flakes of snow were drifting down from the grey skies and the cold air seemed to be making its way inside the room, leaving the expensive looking and richly embroidered curtains with a deep shade of blue fluttering continuously. A beautiful woman with golden hair that seemed to have been kissed by the sun itself was currently staring at her in horror with wide, chocolate brown, fearful eyes.
"Why have you come here?" she asked softly, looking directly at Maddy. "My husband did not do anything to you yet you killed him and now you come for my sons? Why?"
Maddy looked at the regally dressed woman in surprise and confusion but before she could voice it, someone else spoke up.
"It's not what your husband did or didn't do," a gentle voice answered the woman but something seemed off. Maddy felt an unpleasant chill crawl up her spine, because for some reason, that voice sounded familiar. She knew that person. But why did they sound so… inhuman? "I just came to offer my congrats… After all you gave birth to such adorable little twins."
"What do you want with them?" the scared looking blond before her stood a little taller now, her small frame standing protectively before two identical cribs with pale silver and blue mobiles magically suspended in the air above them. The woman had her hand outstretched before her, the air in front of her crackling with a dangerous energy.
"Nothing." Was the simple reply but Maddy could not bring herself to turn around at look at the owner of that voice afraid of what she might end up seeing. "At least, personally I don't. But they are important to my master's ultimate plan to take over the universe. And since I just told that to you, you will have to die."
The look on the woman's face was one of incredulity. "What is the meaning of this?" she demanded angrily.
"Well, twins are bad luck, right?" the female behind Maddy answered casually, "and you just gave birth to them," the woman stepped through Maddy, in such a manner that the dream seer could only see her back. A dark, reddish black aura surrounded the woman, making her raven, knee-length hair whip about her body in a strong magical wind.
"No matter what everyone else in the kingdom says, my sons are not a symbol of misfortune." The petite blond bristled in anger as the energy crackling before her gained a more corporeal from, in the shade of a pale silver.
"Well, we can't have that belief spreading around can we now?" the dark haired woman answered in a way a mother would scold a child for stealing cookies from a jar. She raised her right hand and a dark ball of energy gathered in her cupped hand. "And it seems to me, you're going to help me prove you wrong."
"I won't let you harm them!" the regally dressed gold-head declared as she whipped her hand and the silver energy shot forward, towards the other woman in the room.
"Relax, I'm not going to harm your precious little babies." What scared Maddy was not the fact that dozens of black bolts pierced through the silver magic and injured the caster of said magic but the fact that Maddy could almost see the raven-head's lips twisted in a deranged grin even though the latter had her back towards the former.
Faster than the young brunette's eyes could follow, the dark haired woman rushed forward, grabbing the blond by her throat in her outstretched right hand- the one that had previously been cupping the dark energy in it. The captive screamed in pain as the dark magic lashed out at her, weakening her so that her own magic dissipated to nothing.
"Sorry but you have to die now." the assaulter stated cheerfully as she moved out onto the balcony and held the blonde's weak form over the edge.
"Please, don't… do this… to them." the woman managed to get out as her hand uselessly tried to pry the fingers cutting off her air supply.
"I'm not really at the liberty to do as you wish your highness." The dark-haired attacker spoke as she let go, sending the brown-eyed blond hurtling down to her death over the edge of the balcony. "Bye bye now. Tell your husband I said hi." As the screams got drowned out by the howling wind, the woman let out a soft sigh, she turned partially to stare at the cribs, where the wailing of two babies could be heard.
Her hair were still beating wildly around her body so Maddy was unable to see the woman's face, the only thing that she could distinguish however was the intricate black tattoo on her cheek. The one she had seen that Lord Vainington carve into the face of that young lavender –eyed child. But the woman that stood before her did not have lavender eyes. "Guess you runts end up being heralders of bad luck after all. What with your mother committing suicide just now and your father getting killed in an accident? You poor dears, I wonder how your uncle and the rest of the kingdom will treat you now."
The room and the cribs dissolved into a gray mist along with the dark haired woman. The scene was replaced by a void of some sort. The world that Maddy was in now was strange to put it simply. The sky and the earth both were an amalgam of deep blackish green which was translucent yet opaque at the same time.
A gentle breeze played about her curly hair as the space in front of her began to shimmer a light shade of silver. The shimmer turned into a sparkling mist which then condensed into hundred of tiny, beautiful butterflies of the same shade. Although their wings carried a tinge of crimson and onyx.
The butterflies flew in circles around her, brushing her skin in light feathery touches.
"They seem to have a developed a liking towards you." A cool feminine voice spoke from somewhere to her right.
Yuuko? Maddy gasped in shock as the silver creatures left her side zoomed towards said person.
"You seem to have inherited your grandmother's talent." The woman spoke as though she had not heard her.
I was told. The amber-eyed teen responded.
"You wish to change what you asked of me when we first met, do you not?"
Maddy had no idea how Yuuko knew about that but she really didn't care at that time.
Did my brother really come to you?
"It all depends on what you mean by the word."
Did he really make that wish? she asked impatiently. She needed a proper answer, not some dementing riddle.
"I am not at the liberty to tell you that." The woman looked away as she spoke.
I don't care. Just tell me, is what I saw in that dream, true or not? Maddy asked in a forcefully calm voice. It would do her no good if she started screaming. Did he really give up his life for mine? Ever since I saw it, that dream has not left me alone.
"Do you wish to avenge him?" Yuuko asked in her serene mystical voice.
Is that your way of saying yes?
"I did not say anything at all." The wine-eyed woman answered with a cryptic smile.
Argh! Maddy finally let out a frustrated scream. You are impossible!
Yuuko looked up to see something that the other girl could not but she could soon feel that she was about to wake up. "It appears our time is over for now. If you wish to talk to me, ask Mokona."
"Madiha-san, are you alright?" Sakura's concerned voice was the first thing she heard as soon as she woke up.
"Yeah, I'm fine." The brunette answered as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes before sitting up. The furs pooled about her waist as she worked her hands through her hair, pulling them back in a simple braid that reached to the middle of her back.
"Oh, um Fai-san asked me to come wake you up." the caramel-haired girl said as her fingers played with the hem of her shirt.
"I see. Any idea what time it…" Maddy trailed off as her mind registered the fact that she was able to understand the young princess once again. "I can understand you!" she exclaimed as she jumped to her feet in a swift move, wincing slightly as she put the pressure on her healing ankle at a wrong angle but she didn't care much. She could understand Sakura, which meant that Mokona had to be near. Xahra was back!
"Yes, Fai-san said it was because Mokona must be coming back in our range." The princess nodded.
"They're almost here then, right?"
The jade-eyed girl nodded once more.
"Alrighty then, what are we waiting for? Let's go outside."
-0-
The sky was overcast with dark, heavy clouds and the wind howled against their faces as the group of explorers made their way back to Citadel. Around Ian's neck hung the newly acquired earth-jewelstone from a metal chain similar to the one Naomi had. Said girl was leading the group with Bald while the Ian and Red brought up the rear.
Around midday, it began to drizzle lightly but as the day wore on and they drew nearer to their destination the light rain turned into a heavy shower complete with constant hailstones. Ian used his newly acquired jewelstone to create a stone shelter for the group to wait the storm out.
The knowledge of how to use the stone, Naomi had explained when Syaoran had inquired about it, was inside every stone so that anyone who acquired it would be able to use it without the need of training. It had been a necessity at the time of their creation since the original wielders had not had the luxury of time to train since Naba's powers grew with each world she destroyed, so the longer they waited, the more difficult it would have been for them to subdue the witch. Although that meant that anyone would be able to use their powers but Naomi assured them that only a descendent would be able to unleash their true power.
Xahra found it quite odd that hail could continue raining down from the sky for as long as five hours without any chance of letting up. The natives echoed her thoughts, stating that this weather was not natural. So with a signal from the young commander, Red began chanting something under her breath creating a translucent green shield over their heads to protect them from what Bald told the travelers was magically induced rain.
"You guys have magic in this world?" Xahra had been the only one idiotic enough to state the obvious. Kurogane raised a brow at this Xahra merely shrugged her shoulders with a small grin. She couldn't help herself. Everything was new to her and she ever had been the quietest person back at home so it was only natural for her to want to ask questions and comment on anything new for her, which happened to be a lot of things.
Naomi had taken a liking to the lavender-eyed girl, so chose to humor her but just as soon as she opened her mouth to answer, her horse balked with a loud neigh. Her body tensed up as she too felt the appearance of a very powerful being. Everyone else in the little group came to halt right behind her, readying their respective weapons in anticipation of an ambush. Red was still chanting the same words to keep the shield up, but now a new set of words were added to her spell.
Kurogane scanned their surroundings through narrowed eyes same as Naomi whose blade was set ablaze as she moved closer to Xahra, minus the burning sword part. Kurogane understood why she had done that, since out of their entire group, only Xahra was an inexperienced fighter and since the Naomi was responsible for her being there, she was also responsible for her safety.
Ian had drawn his dao swords, Bald had his long katana similar to the one Kurogane had been provided with while Red had her drawn her bow and strung an arrow in it, the tip of which glowed a poisonous green.
"Greetings Commander Naomi," a cool, female voice echoed all around them even though they were in an open forest only an hour's ride away from Citadel.
"Silver." The commander growled in response just as a silver haired woman materialized a couple of feet away from the group. Xahra felt the deadly aura this woman gave off and the world swam before her eyes. For a fraction of a second the world around her disappeared into nothing but darkness, pained screams crying out to have mercy booming in her ears just as images of entire worlds smoldering to ashes in raging infernos flashed before her eyes.
Someone gripped her shoulder, bringing the horrifying vision to an end as she found herself staring into a pair of eyes blacker than a starless night itself rimmed by the deepest yet brightest shade of crimson. Silver smirked at her as she averted her gaze to the meet commander's. "Don't look in her eyes," Kurogane warned quietly as he retracted his hand. She was covered in cold sweat, Xahra noticed, and she her body was quivering.
Just what the hell had that been? All those worlds, those bloodcurdling screams and the insane laughter that she noticed only now had been accompanying them. Silver, Xahra concluded instantaneously, was a very powerful and dangerous, if her vision was anything to go by.
"Acquired a few new friends have we, princess?" The woman spoke in her sweet yet inhuman voice.
Naomi's only response was the deepening of her scowl.
"Oh come now, I'm sure the emperor taught you better manners."
"How about we just skip the pleasantries," Ian growled as he jumped off of his horse and took up a stance at the same time as his commander. "And get down to business?" Bald mimicked their actions not a second later, with Kurogane and Syaoran following suit. Only Xahra and Red were left on horseback, the former unable to control her shivers while the latter regarded the group of men that now surrounded them with a cool, calculating gaze.
"Don't blame me for not trying to be polite," the woman grinned as the deadly aura surrounding her flared to a burning intensity. For Xahra, at least. Even Red flinched at the sheer amount of power.
Naomi disregarded the blaze, with practiced ease same as everyone else. Kurogane felt the chill creep into his bones, like all the other times it did when he went to hunt demons in his home world. This woman he concluded, was not human, as he took in her attractive yet powerful form. He could identify a demon when he saw one, even if it was disguised as well as she was.
"This ought to be fun." He smirked, easily indentifying other disguised onis interspersed with normal soldiers in the group of forty or so men that encircled them.
Syaoran quick to note Xahra's reaction to this strange woman but he too could feel the effects of her presence. His breathing rate had escalated without him being aware of it and his heart was racing beneath his ribcage. But he drew in a deep breath, readying himself for the upcoming battle.
"Since you all seem so insistent on fighting," Silver's tone sounded remorseful yet her expression was anything but, "how about I grant your wish."
What came next was something Xahra was sure she would never forget.
-0-
Maddy was once again perched on the roof their temporary home, gazing at the stars as she waited for her best friend's return. Fai was inside, teaching Sakura just as he had promised although she was not sure how he could teach her a foreign language when the foreign words were just being translated into the princess's language by Mokona.
She saw a group of horses heading in the direction of the house and she scrambled down the vines, taking care not to slip like she had the last couple of times. Sakura had expressed her concern every time she had fallen, but Maddy had just brushed it off with her somewhat comforting grin.
"Don't worry about it, I'm an accident magnet but none of the injuries are something I can't walk away from," she had told the girl earlier that evening when the princess had asked her about why she did something she knew would cause her harm, "or well, limp away from." She had added with a sheepish grin. "But I have never broken a bone and something tells me I never will."
"Why is that?" the jade-eyed girl had tilted her head with a cute yet confused expression.
"No idea." Maddy had shrugged, running her hand over somewhat knobby staff her latest attempts at transmutation had produced. She had worked relentlessly on what little she could remember from her dreams but she was pretty sure she had missed something or most probably unknowingly changed something in the original circle since the one that mini-Maddy had drawn had been for a short sword, not a staff.
Once or twice she had even transmuted her limited supply of metal into weapons she had no idea even existed. But those had been the times when she had tried to transmute without a circle like the three times she had accidentally done before, twice in Hanshin and once immediately after their arrival in this world.
A part of her felt excited that she was able to do something out of the ordinary, in fact something similar to the boy in the stories her grandfather had always told her when she was little. But she was confused at the same time whenever her mind questioned her as to why she could do it in the first place. But her mind drew up blanks whenever she tried to come up with a plausible reason.
All shall be revealed in due time. The voice always echoed in her mind when she tried really hard.
"Oye Fai, Sakura, they're back!" she yelled through the open window before racing across the huge lawns towards the shimmering barrier between the stone pillars that marked the entrance of the property. She couldn't wait to tell Xahra about her powers.
"Hey guys," she chirped brightly as soon as the barrier vanished and Syaoran and Kurogane rode inside followed by Ian, the bald guy and the redhead. Xahra and Naomi were nowhere to be seen.
"Where's Xahra?" she craned her neck past the horses back to see if they were somewhere behind them but the wide stone streets were empty.
"Hey! Where is she?" she asked a little louder when everyone trailed past her without a word, heading towards the house where Fai and Sakura had emerged by the door.
"What's going on?" Maddy tried again as she jogged with the group in an attempt to keep up.
Syaoran lowered his head while Kurogane kept on staring straight ahead with cold, emotionless eyes.
"What happened out there?" she asked in a level voice, surprising even herself since her heart was clenching up in dread.
Once the group of explorers had dismounted their horses, Ian shot an apologetic look in her direction before addressing the two dimension travelers that had accompanied him and the other locals.
"We will leave for the castle two hours before dawn," his tone however was commanding and in control, "You and your friend Fai is welcome to join us if he wishes."
"Mokona, what the hell is going on?" she grabbed the white rabbit like creature from its perch on Syaoran's shoulder. She had figured out what might have happened but was too scared to say it out loud afraid that if she said the words, they really would come true.
"Xahra and Naomi were taken prisoners by the emperor's army." The creature cried softly.
"What?" Madiha laughed in disbelief looking at her companions for negate the bunny's statement. "You have got to be kidding me." she growled when the amber-eyed boy averted his gaze and the ninja said nothing.
"What the heck was your commander thinking?" she yelled at Ian, "taking her with you guys?"
"We are going to rescue them." the blue-eyed man answered her in a calm tone before turning to look at Syaoran, "Our spies have confirmed that the feather you are searching for is indeed with the emperor."
"I'm coming with you then." She declared instantaneously while at the same time Syaoran had declared something along the same lines.
"Syaoran can come along but you are not going anywhere." Ian stared at her coldly.
"If you think I'm going to willingly stay behind, you got another thought coming." She crossed her arms across her chest; her gaze hardening as she stubbornly set her jaw.
"You will be nothing but a liability," Kurogane was the one who spoke this time.
"I know how to take care of myself," she rounded at the crimson-eyed man.
"Maybe it will be for the best if you did not come along Maddy-chan." Fai finally spoke up.
"I'm not staying behind." Maddy told him coldly before she whirled around and stalked inside, brushing past the tired princess who looked at her with concern but the brunette was too angry to notice.
-0-
"The bastard got his hands on her, didn't he?" the man spoke the minute Ian entered the dark room.
"Yes." The blue-eyed man answered.
"Damn it!" the resident swore before he climbed to his feet, his hand reaching out for the sword that was resting against the wall to his right. "When do we leave?" he turned around to face Ian, stepping into the patch of moonlight spilling in through the window, making his green-eyes glow in an unnatural manner.
"As soon as the men are ready."
"Are the travelers coming along too?"
"One of their companions was taken." Ian answered.
"Very well," the green-eyed resident nodded once, the moonlight illuminating his sun-kissed hair, turning them almost silver.
-0-
Xahra threw the stool against the crimson barrier once more, a frustrated cry tearing through her throat as the electricity attacked the inanimate object throwing it back against the wall opposite to the barrier.
She slumped to the ground, angry tears forming in her eyes as she stared at her hands. Silver had taken Naomi someplace else after she had locked Xahra inside this small cell, watching her with a chilling smile all the while.
The lavender-eyed girl shuddered, as the screams she had heard when that woman had locked her gaze with hers' echoed in her ears once more. She drew her knees to her chest, looping her arms around them uncomfortably since her hands were shackled together.
What did that woman want with her?
The handsome coal-eyed man observed her with an unimpressed gaze before looking back at the woman who had brought her here.
"I am pleased that you brought back my half sister, Silver," the man had spoken in a deep, oddly charming voice, "I cannot see why you brought along this weakling?" Xahra was too scared to even get angry as she normally would have because this man, Mephistophele, was just as dangerous as Silver.
"I have my reasons, My Liege." The woman had responded cryptically.
She had not been able to decipher what those reasons might be but as she looked around the small cell, she could help but feel her breathing hitch in her throat as panic began to set in. This cell was too small and Xahra was a claustrophobic…
-0-
"Mokona, can you contact Yuuko again?" Maddy woke up the white dimension hopper in the middle of the night.
"Mokona can." the creature nodded as it jumped on her palm and its jewel glowed before projecting an image of the wine-eyed woman on the stone wall before Maddy.
Yuuko looked at her with a passive face, arranging her light blue kimono as she sat down on her low back recliner. A deep blue sash was wrapped around her waist and her dark hair were pulled up in a high bun. "So you wish to change what you originally asked from me?"
"I do" Maddy nodded, her voice betraying none of the emotions she was feeling as she spoke. Her heart was hammering against her ribcage, thanks to the dream she had had just a short while ago. She had seen her younger self get shot all over again, but this time after she had been raced to the emergency room, her dream had not ended. Instead she had seen what had actually happened and why her brother had died. She had cried for almost an hour before finally gathering enough courage to do what she was about to do now.
Despite the fact that her cheeks had felt itchy and her eyes were puffy and it was an effort to keep them open, she still sat there, speaking with nothing but confidence exuding from her tone.
"In that case your previous price will no longer be sufficient," Yuuko informed her.
"I know that as well." Madiha nodded, "and unlike last time, I am completely willing to pay it as well."
"Very well, what is it that you wish?" the witch asked as something akin to pity flashed in her orbs but it was gone so quickly that Madiha knew her sleep deprived brain had only imagined it.
"For this game to not end before I can avenge my brother's death." She stated.
"Your price will be the ability to remember what you dream."
"You mean I won't be able to remember the reason I am making this wish in the first place?" Madiha growled incredulously.
"That would defeat the purpose of your wish, wouldn't it?" the woman shook her head as a small smile graced her lips. "No, everything you have witnessed so far will remain in your memories but whatever you see from here on, will only come back to you one it occurs in real life."
"Meaning I won't have a chance to change anything even if I see something horrible happening in my future since I won't remember it."
"That's one way to put it."
"Fine." Maddy answered quietly.
"Wake Mokona up," Yuuko commanded her in an equally quiet voice.
"Huh?" she looked down at the rabbit in her lap and noticed that its eyes were closed. "It fell asleep."
"Mokona understood your need for privacy." Was all the witch said as the girl woke up the magical creature.
"Mokona I need you to give this to Madiha." She held up a small black bead which had swirling golden and silver patterns on it. With a Mekyo from the rabbit, the ball was in the brunette's hand.
"Eat that and your price will be paid."
"This isn't poison, is it" she eyed the bead apprehensively, noticing that the swirls were in fact intricate carvings.
"It's a magical chocolate."
Maddy gave the witch an incredulous look before doing what she was told, her eyes widening in surprise when she tasted the bead. It was, just like Yuuko had said, a bead of chocolate.
"You have got to be kidding me." she laughed as she swallowed the piece of candy.
"Goodnight Madiha." Yuuko said as the connection terminated.
The girl looked down at the rabbit noticing that it was looking up at her with concerned eyes.
"I'm fine." She said understanding its unasked question.
"Mokona is sure the boys will bring Xahra back." It said, hopping to her shoulder. "And Mokona will go with them to make sure they don't fail."
"That's very sweet of you Mokona." Maddy patted its head gently as she picked it up and set it down on the pillow gently. "I think I'll go to sleep now." And with that, she turned on her heals and walked back to her room.
She pulled the furs up to her neck, her mind whirling with the information she had received just an hour ago through her dreams. Did she do the right thing? Giving up her ability to remember them? What it her brother came back to her to give her some advice or more information? She wouldn't remember any of that. Or what if she saw something really horrible that might occur in the future and she would be unable to stop it because she wouldn't know about it.
But it was worth it. She decided in the end. She would avenge her brother by finding the one responsible. And she would make them pay because she was beginning to remember. That dream had jogged her clogged memory and bits and pieces of information about things, she never thought she would know were now being processed in her mind at the same time as she thought about Xahra.
Her friend was being held captive by some deranged king. And the male travelers in her group had all decided to go, with Syaoran promising her to bring her best friend back.
It wasn't like she didn't want to believe them but she knew that she had to be there with them. Something was telling her that she had to go to that castle just like the others.
Maddy sat up rubbing her eyes groggily as she heard quiet footsteps outside her door.
"I'm coming too." She said as she pulled on her shoes and emerged at the doorway.
The group of assembled men and woman regarded her neutrally. Red shook her head, "Your friend was a lot more adept at fighting than you yet she was captured. Don't be a fool. Stay here and we'll bring her back."
"I'll just follow you on my own if you leave me behind." She said stubbornly.
Faster than she could react, Ian had grabbed her wrists and put something around them. A strange force pulled them together and when she looked down, she noticed that they had been shackled together by a pale bluish-silver metal.
"What the heck do you think you are doing?" she growled as she tried to pull her wrists apart and failed miserably.
"Let's move out." Ian said as he climbed his horse and turned it around.
Syaoran and Fai cast an apologetic look in her direction before following the man. Kurogane cast an impassive glance at her as he too rode by her. The green-eyed blond with gigantic metal sword strapped to his back observed her curiously as she stomped her feet in anger when she failed to free her hands. The lightning blue stone around his neck gleamed in the moonlight, declaring to the world that he too, was of guardian descent and worthy enough to wield a jewelstone.
"Let's see if we can apply some of my newly acquire knowledge on these bracelets." She smirked lightly when the rescue party vanished through the door.
-0-
A/N: I hope you guys liked the dream part cuz I for one, love it. I can't really believe that a mother would abandon her own children like that. There must have been something that drove the twins' mother to act the way she had. This is my reason for why she 'committed' suicide after their father died.
I wonder what Silver wants from Xahra. And who can guess the identity of the green-eyed blond with a really large sword? (His name was mentioned somewhere in the last chapter.) And what exactly is Maddy planning to do? And what is this newly acquired knowledge she talked about?
Any guesses people? I'd like to know what you guys think. I swear I won't bite, even if you make an incorrect guess. Just, don't hesitate to let me know.
In other words, review! ;) ;)
I put in a lot of effort and time in this for you guys so the least you can do is click on the button below and tell me how much you loved it. By the way I apologize for any mistakes that might be up there since this is not beta'd. If you spot any mistakes or typos, feel free to yell at me but make sure you point out where and what I mistyped so that I can go and correct it.
Till next time.
-Nims.