Here's a new chapter! And I hope everyone enjoys it!
As always, don't own so don't sue. I just borrow them, get them all sweaty and sticky then return 'em!
Break On Through
Yohji's team burst through the Gate Kavin had pulled up. While it was a permanent structure, it still required great skill and a gentle touch to set and control the immense power.
Nagi and Omi had clasped hands and raced through first; the petite brunette's Gift wouldn't be effected like those with true magics would be. A sourceless wind swirled around their bodies and then stopped as Nagi realized who they had almost stepped on.
"Crawford?" he whispered, his face going white at the perfect stillness of the man who had rescued him from a life of horrors. "Crawford!" he screamed, the air around him screeching as it ripped his clothing and tore at his hair.
"Nagi-kun!" Omi yelled, grabbing a hold of his lover and trying to shake some sense into him. "Nagi, we need you to pull it together. You won't do Crawford any good by getting killed." He canted his head to one side. A small smile graced his features as some semblance of sanity returned to the young man's eyes.
Movement caught both boys' eyes. Misshapen creatures crawled, hobbled and slithered out of the shadows. Nagi's face lit up with unholy glee and he threw everything he had at them.
"Die you bastards!" he shrieked, bringing up his power and slamming Ailill's minions with all that he had. The first wave of creatures shattered into a thousand pieces as the whip of his Gift raked over them.
Bits and body parts splattered the second rank, the two boys and the remaining team members as they moved through the Gate. Schuldig stopped as he came through the Gate. The sight of Crawford's lifeless body broke whatever control he possessed and he began using his Gift to destroy the creatures in the room as well.
Not that he was a subtle as Nagi. Oh, no; he stretched his mind out and took over the misshapen beasts and turned them on each other. Then when that didn't salve the gaping wound in his psyche, he used his secondary Gift, Empathy. Waves of emotion swept over the battlefield, causing the non-human combatants to fall to their knees howling, sobbing and screaming to their deaths.
"Ocicat!" Omi screamed at Vanessa, scooping Colby up and tossing him to the woman. The howling child quieted as soon as he landed in the woman's arms. "Get him the hell out of here! Go back to Low Court and they'll protect you both!"
Vanessa looked at her team members, torn between following orders and the need to stay and protect the portions of her family that were fighting. Good sense overcame that desire and she darted back through the Gate to the relative safety of the Elven enclave.
With her and the child gone, Omi turned his attention back to the ongoing battle. Yohji and Aya stood opposite each other with a tall whirlwind of fire growing between the two of them. Barret called up his magics and blades of ice flew from his fingers to impale creatures, not in the heart area, but lower with spectacular results. His eye-shots worked as efficiently as the gut ones, but with more gore and brain matter being tossed about like mud.
Omi took a step back from the shear violence around him. The team had opened (what was it that Yohji called it?) a can of whoop-ass on Ailill's minions, but something seemed to be missing. Where was the puppet master? Where was Ailill? And why wasn't he responding to their attack? Things were just a bit too easy. All the short hairs on the petite blonde's body stood up. They were in deep shit.
Aya stood across from Yohji, blending his power with his lover's, and watched the tall, oaken-haired beauty fight. They instinctively knew how to blend their powers together, but hours fighting mock battles against the Elves had made them both fast and agile. His lavender eyes scanned the shadows, trying to locate the master of all their suffering. Ailill didn't seem to be there. He noticed a slightly taller being slipping into the room, but as he avoided the brawl, Aya discounted him.
He felt something creeping up behind him and whirled to face the latest enemy and what he saw scared the shit out of him. Ailill stood there, his pale face suffused with blood, giving him a high-color, and his hands raised above his head. A thick, malignant power oozed over his wrists and arms. He brought his hands down, aiming right at Omi.
Aya didn't even think, he threw himself between the Dark Elf and the leader of Kritiker. His shields held for most of the blast, until the bastard changed tactics and formed his power into a single, sharp needle, forcing through the protections the redhead had around himself. As the power pierced him, Aya pitched the last of his life-force to his Soulbonded with the thought 'Finish this, now'.
His body slammed against Omi's, knocking the petite blonde to the ground with his body covering him. Omi heard a gut-wrenching scream and then the power around in the room reached a fever-pitch. The whirlwind of fire blazed through all of the monsters who flared up and turned to ash. The petite blonde struggled to get Aya's body off his.
"Aya-kun," he gasped. "You need to move, I can't breathe." A secondary flash of power, a dark malevolent energy washed over them and then Ailill's presence disappeared.
Nagi came over and helped his lover slip out from under Aya's body. He wrapped an arm around the tiny blonde to prevent him from looking at the supine figure on the floor, but Omi knew. He knew what the cherry-haired man had done. His life's blood coated Omi's body and he knew what the cost of saving others like himself truly was, now.
"Aman," Nagi murmured. "He's dead."
"I know, but…" he sobbed.
"There's no use crying now, Chibi," Yohji broke in, his voice wooden and dead. "The bastard knew what the cost would be." His voice broke and he nearly choked on the words. "He left me here to clean up his mess."
A slight figure stepped up to the youngest members of the team. He stood no taller than Omi's shoulder and his face carried no lines, but his eyes were ancient. The old eyes stared at him with a compassion that few of the Fair Folk had shown them.
"Puck knows how to bring them back, that he does," the slight figure spoke to Omi. "You have the ability standing in the midst of your group, that you do."
"How?" Nagi breathed.
"Come closer and poor Puck will tell you."
Aya stood in the garden of his soul home. The last thing he remembered was seeing the wave of power heading right for Omi and imposing his body between the teenager and danger. A wave of pain had overwhelmed his senses and then he woke up here.
If this was heaven, they could keep it. He had already found it in the arms of a certain loud-mouth, over-sexed blonde and he wanted to return to his lover as soon as possible. The scent of cigarette smoke wafted over him, blocking out the sweet smell of the flowers in the garden. He turned his head to look for the cause of the disruption, the stench wasn't even Yohji's brand of smokes and the bitter aroma of cloves tickled his nose. There sat Brad Crawford in his secret place.
"Crawford?" he questioned.
"Don't ask me," he responded, slowly blowing out a lungful of smoke. "There I was, heading for the LIGHT and the next thing I know, I'm sitting here with some old man telling to wait here for what comes next." He canted his head to one side. "Did I manage to get Colby to safety?"
"Almost. He was standing in front of the Gate when we came through. I think that Vanessa took him back to Low Court, but I can't be sure. Things were a little chaotic when she escaped." The tall brunette raised an eyebrow at him. "We were in the middle of a battle against Ailill's minions."
"Ah," Crawford murmured.
"Although at the sight of your lifeless body, Nagi went a little berserk."
"Do you think he'll be all right?"
"Don't know," Aya sighed, sitting down next to the man. "I'm more worried about Yohji right now."
"Oh yeah, the old man said for you to go into one of the rooms. Don't ask me which one, he said that you would know what he was talking 'bout."
Aya surged to his feet and headed back into the house, toward the room where he first found a very naked and eager Yohji. "Thanks," he threw back over his shoulder.
He reached the door to the room and the air pressure changed. The paper door rattled on its track and the rice paper belled and retreated with the changing winds. Something wasn't right and Aya knew that he needed to correct whatever Yohji was doing. He threw the door open and stepped into the middle of hurricane force winds. The once neat and tidy room lay in shambles. What little furniture had decorated the space lay in shards and the futon with all its blankets and sheets spun about. A very wind-blown Yohji stood in the middle of the room, tears racing down his cheeks and his eyes blank with grief.
"Yohji, stop!" Aya hollered, wrapping his arms around the leggy blonde from behind. "You have to stop or you'll burn out."
"Aya?" he murmured, his body becoming limp in the cherry-haired man's arms. "You're gone, you've left me."
Aya whirled his lover around and slapped him hard; hard enough to rattle his teeth in their sockets. "Get it together, Kudou," he growled, shaking him. "You've got a battle to win and right now Kritiker needs you. You can fall apart after it's all done."
"I'll avenge you and then come to join you," he sobbed, whirling around in the redhead's arms. "Ailill'd better watch out, because I've got nothing to live for now!"