*Sorry I haven't updated. I've had finals, now finally they're over! ^.^ And I'm having carpel tunnel which is causing me pain in my wrist which stops me from typing as much. But I don't care! *whines* nothing can keep me from writing so there! ha! That shows them what I can and cannot do! *sticks out tongue at doctor* Okay I'm better. So anyway here is chapter four I hope you like ^.^*
Chapter 4 Washington
"No, way!" all three whispered, falling back in their chairs.
"I was right then," Fuuchou sounded somewhat smug.
"This isn't possible," Kojishi put in.
"We were, are, from Earth, and there was a terrible war," Fuu began their story.
§§§~~~
When they finished there was a long pause before anyone spoke, "Well?" Hikaru asked.
"Well…" Fuuchou sighed, "Well…"
"Um…" Kojishi's eyes were only now regaining their original shape.
"I can't believe you kept this from us," Mizuuma spoke up where she had been silent the whole story, "That's who he is?"
Umi nodded, "You were right; he wasn't for you."
"But I thought that you…" she looked away.
Umi touched her daughter's shoulder, "No matter how much I loved him I will always love your father, for being him, for being my savior, but for giving you to me too."
She was extremely quiet before she looked up into her mother's shimmering blue eyes, "Thanks."
"My pleasure," Umi laughed and wiped her tears away.
§§§~~~
She threw some clothes into a bag and slung it over her shoulder. She fastened a small dagger to her ankle and looked around her room before turning back to the door. She almost dropped the bag when she saw who was at the door.
"What are you doing?" Fuuchou asked.
"Leaving," she mumbled and walked toward the door.
"Leaving? Leaving where?!" she sounded horrified.
"Fuuchou some people are trying to sleep, just because you stay up and read all night doesn't m…" Kojishi trailed off when she saw the scene, "Um…did I miss something? Because I'm pretty sure I did."
"Mizuuma's running away!" Fuuchou shouted.
"Sh…" Mizuuma hissed, eyes dark.
"What? Why?" Kojishi questioned.
"It's not forever; I just want to go to Earth, to find my roots," she told them.
"But…but…but…" Kojishi stuttered, horrified.
"It's dangerous! You heard what our parents went through!" Fuuchou said what Kojishi could not.
"I know that," Mizuuma glared, "I'm not stupid! I just…I just have to see; something will be missing if I don't."
Fuuchou stayed quiet for a while, "Then I'm coming too."
"No…" Mizuuma began.
"You're not going to change my mind; I'm coming," she crossed her arms.
"That goes double for me!" Kojishi put in, and Mizuuma went with them to their rooms as they packed.
When they were ready they all linked hands and closed their eyes as a glow surrounded them. Light purple rose from Mizuuma, blowing her hair slightly, pink elevated from Kojishi, pulling up her braided hair, and a light greenish yellow came from Fuuchou, swirling her hair. In a flash of color they were gone.
§§§~~~
"You need to face your past; you can't keep running from it. I decided to help you along," Yukito appeared in a flash of white before her.
"What?" Umi asked.
"You'll see in the morning," he smiled gently at her, "I'm glad you told her."
She took his hand, and they were walking beside a creek in the forest, "Why didn't you come before?"
"Because I couldn't, I tried, believe me I tried, but I never could. There's a reason now," he told her softly.
"And helping my broken heart wasn't a reason?" she glared, "I almost killed myself, if it hadn't been for Cephiro I would have!"
"Don't you remember?" he asked softly, "My duty is to Cephiro; I can only communicate with you when Cephiro is in danger."
"Cephiro is in danger?" she whispered and looked deep into his eyes as he nodded.
"There's trouble stirring here; someone knows about Earth, someone who shouldn't. You three will once again don your armor."
"No," Umi whispered, "I don't want to ever feel that against my skin again," she looked down, "Every time I look at it even I feel sick. That's how I lost you."
"I know," he touched her face as they stopped, "But Umi you have to, for the good of Cephiro, for the place I called home, you have to. I am no longer there to protect it, so you have to."
She closed her eyes, "Okay," she said softly, "For my love."
He smiled and bent down to kiss her. Before their lips could meet she woke; tears streaming down her cheeks. She startled Clef who jumped awake and looked around. When he saw her he took her in his arms and whispered in her ear, so she would stifle her sobs.
"What?" he asked when she tried to choke something to him.
"He's done something with Mizuuma, something to try and get me to go back to earth," and suddenly the severity of the statement hit her.
"Oh God," Clef mumbled, "He wouldn't…"
"Mizuuma!" Umi screamed and jumped from bed, running down the hall at full speed. She threw the door open and found the bed empty. She sunk to her knees and sobbed, "Damn you Yukito," she muttered into her hands.
Clef looked hatefully at the ceiling as he held her shoulders, "Gods I wish I had power where he was; I would teach him a thing or two."
"We have to go after her," Umi stood, "There's no way that we can't. I'm going after her, after them, because I know that they're gone too. I understand now. Something is going to hit earth while it's vulnerable, and we've got to be the ones to stop it. I've got to go get Hikaru and Fuu, now."
§§§~~~
"Persea, we need armor," Umi told her, and Persea looked startled as she was woken from sleep.
"You need what?!"
"Armor," Fuu repeated, "The girls have gone, and we need to get them back. We need armor."
"Okay," Persea summoned it, and they donned it before putting it all in their gems, so they wouldn't be conspicuous on earth.
"We'll be back soon," Ferio assured them.
"Selece give me strength."
"Rayearth give me courage."
"Windam give me wisdom."
Blue, red and green light overtook them all, and they were gone.
"I can't believe they just split like that," Ascot said as they watched the Magic Knights leave.
"I know, it's hard to believe, they're so responsible; something must have been driving them," Kuu nodded in agreement.
"I hope they're okay," Satoru looked worried.
"They'll be fine," Maseru tried not to be angry at the disruption of his sleep with all the commotion.
"They're strong," Persea assured him.
"They are, but I wonder what year it is there. It could be very different from the place they left," Umi's mother looked down.
"It could be, but it could be the same. I just hope they don't end up in the middle of a battlefield," Hikaru's mother shuddered.
"I don't think that's where Clef would let them land," Caldina laughed slightly.
"Well let's get some sleep," Lafarga suggested roughly, and they nodded in agreement.
§§§~~~
They slowly opened their eyes and looked around. All three jumped at what they saw; all around them were people shouting in a foreign language, slowly, as they willed it so, everything was converted, "No more war! No more war!" they waved signs and had paint all over their faces.
They stared around them in wonderment.
"What's going on?!" Kojishi shouted over the noise.
"I don't know!" Fuuchou shouted back.
"Hey! Newcomers!" a girl with long blond hair and a piece of colorful cloth over her head touched a boy on the shoulder. He turned, and his breath caught when his eyes met gold. He managed a weak smile.
"Hi! We're not from around here! Do you think that we could find out what's going on?!" Kojishi screamed over the noise.
He managed a small nod before the other girl nudged him and snickered softly, "Right," he smiled, "Uh…Follow me!"
They nodded and followed him some ways, passing huge white buildings before they finally arrived in a quiet place. They stared up at a huge man sitting on some sort of throne. The pillars were huge and white in this palace, it was homey.
"Wow," Mizuuma whispered.
"Amazing," Kojishi mumbled, craning her neck to see further.
"That is a very large man," Fuuchou pointed out.
"Hello up there! My name's Kojishi!"
He stared at them with a curious expression.
"Well that's rather rude," Mizuuma huffed, "I mean; she's being polite, and you don't even have the courtesy to respond?! Even if you are bigger than everyone doesn't mean you are better than them," she glared at the man, "Kings," she muttered under her breath, "Really, you wonder why we don't have them."
"Are all people from E…around here," Fuuchou fixed her error, "Are they all that rude?"
He stifled a laugh behind his hand.
"What's so funny?" Mizuuma demanded, glaring.
"You act as if you don't know you're talking to a statue," he wiped a tear, "Now that was good."
"That's why he's all gray?" Fuuchou inquired, and his jaw dropped.
"You really aren't from around here; that's Abraham Lincoln, the president who freed the slaves."
"The what?" Kojishi pondered.
"Slaves?" he sounded irritated.
They gave him black expressions.
"People that are forced from their homelands to new countries and made to work for free. People that are whipped and beaten for mistakes? The American Civil War?" now he was just plain annoyed. How could anyone on Earth not know what a slave was?
"How sad," Fuuchou whispered.
"People here do that?" Mizuuma asked, no wonder her mother didn't want her here.
"They used to but not anymore; hey how old are you anyway? And where do you come from?" he tried to change subjects.
"Two hundred sixty-four," they all chorused.
"What?!"
"We were all born the same year, weird isn't it?" Kojishi laughed, "Our parents are that close."
He smiled, "You sure are pranksters, sure I dig it. You don't want me to know how old you are," he grinned at Fuuchou, "But will you at least tell me where you're from?"
"Ce…" Kojishi began.
"Japan," Mizuuma interrupted quickly.
"Cool! Come to protest this war so Vietnam doesn't end up like Hiroshima huh?" he smiled, "Righteous."
"Uh…protest? What are we protesting?" Mizuuma questioned.
"Where's Vietnam?" Fuuchou inquired.
Her accent's cute, but it's not Japanese, he thought to himself, or anything oriental for that matter, "Vietnam is a country in Asia that's fighting a civil war, and we've gotten involved. I don't think we should be," he explained.
"Oh," Fuuchou looked down, "Yeah, war is a very bad thing."
"So you want to protest with us?" he inquired eagerly.
"Sure!" they all responded, and he grinned and led them back to the place they had come from.
§§§~~~
"Where are we?" Ferio looked around the place they had landed in wonderment. The sky was bright blue like in Cephiro, but the buildings were so strange. Huge and white, every place was like a palace.
Hikaru and Umi looked at each other before answering, "Washington D.C."
"Washington?" Fuu asked, "I didn't know it looked like this; it's amazing," her English was rough, but it was good enough to get a response.
"The central of the American government, it's hardly amazing; it's the center of death," a girl behind them with long blond hair and a piece of cloth on her forehead told them, making them turn. She looked at their clothes and laughed slightly, "You can tell you're not from around here. That's weird, you're wearing the same stuff the other three were wearing not too long ago."
"Other three?" Lantis tried to keep his hand from going to the sword at his side that was hidden beneath his cloak.
"Get close and get arrested," Hikaru muttered to him, and he nodded.
"Yeah, three young girls wearing the same get-ups you have. How strange. They said they were from Japan, but those weren't any Japanese clothes I know of."
"What did they look like?" Fuu persisted.
"Oh one girl had real pretty long purple hair and blue eyes, another had dark hair and red streaks with bright red eyes and the last, my friend took a liking to her," here she laughed, "She had golden eyes and golden hair, quiet, like him."
Ferio growled deep in his throat, and Fuu tensed, "Ah," she whispered.
"Where are they?" Clef inquired, trying not to sound too forceful.
"Protesting," she answered and pointed toward the White House gates where thousands upon thousands of people were screaming and waving signs.
"Oh my God…" Fuu mumbled when she saw the sea of people.
*Hey are you liking this? I hope so! *grins* if you like my writing you might like this story I've been reading and watching develop; it's going really well. It's Magic Knight Rayearth 3 by Yunari-san; Thunder Knight. I'm really liking it so far, and I'm very picky about my stories.
Stupid fanfiction.net! grrr…when I was finally ready to update it stopped working oh well. It's working now so it's all good. Oh by the way! The age of the three girls I just pulled that out of my hat, so it's not actually true to Cephiro or anything. Until next chapter!*
Tori:
"She's been everybody else's girl
Maybe one day she'll be her own
And in the mist there she rides
And castles are burning in my heart
And as I twist I hold tight
And I ride to work every morning
Wondering why"
Tori Amos, Girl, Little Earthquakes