Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Seed, GS Destiny or Disney. They belong to their rightful owners.
Multi-Pairings include: Kira x Lacus, Cagalli x Athrun, Shinn x Stellar, Yzak x Shiho, Dearka x Mirillia. Sai x OC.
Chapter Twenty-Six – Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?
"You shall not pass me," Shinn growled and the intruder eyed him from head to toe as if he was assessing his strength.
Impatient as always, Shinn charged first. The intruder blocked his attack with his sword, eyes cool, calm and collected. "You're too rash in your actions," the intruder pointed out and Shinn blinked to find the guy had suddenly dropped out of the sky.
Shinn stumbled in the air slightly from the sudden lack of resistance against his sword and caught the intruder flashing his wings back on and whizz past below him.
Swearing, Shinn urged a burst of power into his own fuchsia coloured wings and bolt after him.
Yzak was pacing the floor impatiently when Shiho poked her head out of the door and announced Milly was perfectly healthy and fine but tired.
"I could hear your grumbling from inside the bedroom," said Shiho as she opened the door wider to let the boys in.
Milly was laid on the bed, propped up with a mountain of pillows and eyes tired like her twenty-four hours sleep wasn't enough. She nibbled on a slice of bread slathered with enough honey to make Yzak grimace.
Dearka climbed and sat on the bed immediately, running over her with worried eyes. Milly smiled and touched his wooden arm reassuringly. "You're fixed."
"Yzak fixed my wooden parts so many times that he could probably do the magic circles backwards and blindfolded," Dearka laughed, trying to lighten the mood. "I'm clean and have new clothes too."
She smiled and withdrew her hand. "I noticed." She finished her bread, licked her lips and folded her hands in her lap. "I'm ready for your questions."
Yzak moved closer to the bed and Shiho followed, curious and ready to fight for a right to stay if Yzak wanted to kick her out of the room.
"Who are you?" Yzak barked.
Milly opened her mouth - her lips struggled to make words then shook her head as she gave up after a few minutes of her mouth moving like a goldfish's. "I cannot answer that question. It… I can't make the words come out."
"So Dearka told me."
"You may call me Milly though - that much I could say."
"Very well, Milly. Where are you from? Where did you live? Why were you in that garden where Dearka found you?"
Again she struggled and Yzak pulled a wad of paper, ink and quill from somewhere on his body. "Write," he ordered.
She picked up the quill, dipped it in the inkbottle and moved to the page.
Dearka leant closer, half of him wondering why he never thought of asking her to write but it mattered not anyway, for Milly couldn't write about herself either. Her hand froze and she bit her lip as she tried to force it to move. She strained her fingers and wrist, her arm twitched slightly with all the effort she placed on forcing the words to the page.
The ink dripped from the tip of the quill to the page and that was the only mark she could make on it.
"GHUAAAAAAAAA!" Shinn cried as he rushed his opponent from behind. The white armoured intruder dodged, blue wings pulsing with energy as he spiralled through the air and continued his escape.
Completely ignoring any possible orders of return or to wait for backup (not that he could hear any orders shouted from ground level at this height), Shinn sped after him and brought his sword swinging down on his opponent.
The intruder flipped in mid-air, wings still rocketing him along and snapped his own blade across the air to deflect Shinn's.
Shouting in fury, the ZAFT soldier slammed his sword down again only to be blocked and shoved away so hard that he flailed in the air for a few seconds before he could pursue him again.
He flew at him like a fuchsia arrow, sword ripping through the night air and clashed it against the white armoured intruder's.
Milly's fingers turned white and the quill was all but crushed in her hands as she continued to force her background to be written on the page. Suddenly, a hand touched her writing hand and she wondered if she should relax now.
"Keep trying," Yzak's voice commanded and his fingers positioned themselves a few millimetres above her skin, crackling and glowing magic.
Shiho and Dearka came to peer closer.
Milly felt her body tense and freeze up as she continued to force words out of her hand. Anything. A sentence, a word, a letter, a punctuation mark, a picture, a stroke… Anything.
"Enough," Yzak ordered and Milly dropped the quill to clutch her wrist like she sprained it.
"I'm sorry," the girl apologised and her body relaxed once more now that she wasn't trying to give away information about herself.
Yzak's frown deepened and he pinched the bridge of his nose as he hissed at his thoughts. "You have magical abilities. No. You possess a powerful amount of magic in your system but it's very unstable… where or how did you get it?"
Milly furrowed her chest brows, "I'm unsure. I've never had magic as long as I've remembered."
"You're also cursed. You cannot reveal anything about yourself."
"We gathered that," Dearka remarked drily. "Can you do anything about it?"
"No… the same way I cannot do anything with our own curses, Dearka."
Dearka paused and almost dreaded asking, "Her curse… is it… by the same person as ours?"
Yzak unfolded his arms and his eyes darted towards Shiho, gauging if she should be included in the conversation. The ex-slave girl threw him a glare with her fists clenched at her sides, daring him to walk around the bed and physically throw her out of the room.
"Close the door," he ordered her after a while and Shiho's face was graced with a victorious grin.
Kira parried and blocked blow after blow. The raven-haired boy was strong, he allowed himself to admit that and recklessly talented. Everything about his fighting style was reckless - his sword slashes, his attacks, his speed. Each time Kira fought him off, he charged right back at him like a magenta lightning bolt, crashing against him and shoving him metres through the night air.
He was half distracted to continue this savage sword-fight with the kid - to test his own skills and that of his opponent's.
Then Cagalli's image appeared in his head and he decided that with this kid pestering him like an annoying fly, he was not getting anywhere near home.
It was time to knock the fly out of the room.
Yzak turned to Milly. "How do you know Flow the Wolf?"
The reaction was instant. Milly's hair raised, eyes flared wild and angry whilst her nails dug into the blankets so deeply that it looked like she wanted to tear it up. "She was the witch that sealed me in the tower."
"Why?"
"I don't know."
"Why did she seal you? What made you such a threat that she must seal you?"
Milly's mouth opened to bark and screamed the answer out but her words turned into a series of coughs as her throat constricted. Shiho came to her side and rubbed her back as she coughed and gagged violently.
"I can't say it," Milly gasped as she fought for breath.
"Say what you can, sift through your memories and words. Turn them vague and so none of it reveal who you are," ordered Yzak. His commanding and unyielding stance didn't waver, even when Milly went into another series of coughs and clutched her head in despair.
"She… tried to kill… me…" Milly said, fighting with her mind and mouth, "She wanted my name."
Dearka moved to her knee and placed a hand on it to give her his support. She thanked him with a pained smile before trying for words again. "She wanted to kill… me… but then just as I thought that I was going to die…I think… my magic kicked in and protected me."
"And preserved you until Dearka found you."
"Yes… I think." Milly doubled over, hands clawing at her throat and chest. She wanted to say more, so much more, but she couldn't. It wouldn't let her.
Shinn drew in a sharp intake of breath when his opponent's eyes grew dull and lost its shine like he was possessed. He couldn't even blink when his sword was shoved backwards along with himself. The intruder sprang at him.
There was a clashing of metal as Shinn tried to deflect a blur of blows and sparks flew with each collision.
KLLLLLNNNKKKKKKK
Shock was evident on his face as his own armourized sword snapped clean in half. An armourized sword… in half…?
The intruder's sword gleamed with only a few dents and scratches to show its battle.
"I told you, you're too rash," his opponent stated coldly, his wings aglow with bright energy.
Shinn could only scream in pain was the intruder collide right into him with the force of a collapsing building.
Yzak started whispering something and his hand moved from his side to touch the air about Milly's hair. Dearka and Shiho both felt the girl relax and slump in their arms as Yzak's calming spell passed through her and put her to sleep.
"That's enough for today," Yzak said tiredly and his eyes snapped to Shiho's ones with annoyance. "No questions."
The girl didn't argue and though he didn't show it, he was grateful. He hissed as his scar on his face throbbed slightly - it was getting late.
"Watch over her," he ordered and left the room. Dearka followed, running to keep up with Yzak's harsh long strides.
"About Milly…"
"What I said to Hahnenfuss also applies to you, Elsman."
"Fine. Be like that." Dearka sighed and threw up his hands like Yzak was a lost cause.
He continued to follow Yzak through the castle. "Was it really fine for Hahnenfuss to hear all that?"
Yzak didn't answer him.
"Tch, why is she even here in the first place? A cutie like her stuck with a beast like you! It's like a story, Shiho and the Beast."
Yzak was angry and he blamed his throbbing scar when he blurted out, "Beauty and Yzak!"
They paused in their strides the Dearka laughed. "Beauty, eh?"
Yzak gnashed his teeth, magic uncontrollably angry about his body as he clutched his scar painfully. He kicked at the wooden puppet, knocking him to the floor before storming off into the dark corridors of the castle.
Dearka was still laughing as he disappeared.
END OF CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CriTicAl: I haven't considered Shinn meeting Cagalli…. I'll have to think about it. Thanks
Moi: No, Meer just have identity crisis and thinks she's the Eternal Fairy. Sorry for the confusion. I too enjoy it whenever Shinn (much as I love him) gets his ass handed to him on a silver platter…
No updates next week. Sorry. And no, Shinn is still alive.
KiKi Hayashi