1 Note: in the manga Presea didn't die so "Sierra" never existed,
and "Hikari" is Hikaru's dog in the manga. I'm not sure how they handled it
in the anime so don't write me nasty e-mails saying "That didn't happen!
You're making things up again! " Because, if you don't recall, this is my
version of the ending. And because I will track you down and steal all your
spatulas!! Ahahahahahahahaa! Sorry. I'm really hyper right now! Wheeee!!!
(Did I ever put up the disclaimer? If I haven't here it is now: I Don't Own
Rayearth, Anime or Manga. Okay, on with it!)
2 Chapter 7: Remembered Scars
Hikaru looked around, still not recognizing the hall she was walking through. She sighed, Eagle had given her a quick tour of the NSX but she still couldn't remember where she was. Maybe it was an aftereffect of losing her memory, but she still couldn't remember exactly where all the twisting hallways led. It made for an interesting time when she tried to reach the dining hall Turning around another corner, she found herself faced with a now familiar sight, another long corridor.
Sighing, she looked down it, it looked the same as all the other corridors she had wandered down. Deciding it would be useless to try and retrace her steps Hikaru started down the long hall. Walking quietly so that she wouldn't disturb anyone, she continued on her ramblings. She saw several doorways but decided against going in any of them.
Walking down the hall just letting her mind drift often brought on fragments of memory. Last time she remembered walking through a large forest, slightly ahead of two other people. But she hadn't been able to hold onto it and her memory had faded, blown away like a wisp of smoke.
This time she thought she saw the halls of what seemed to be a large building, and she felt confused over something, as though she couldn't understand something she had said or did.
As she relaxed and let the memory continue a voice was almost heard, warning her past self about something or someone. Hikaru gasped as the feeling of being surrounded by fire overwhelmed her and was suddenly gone, leaving her back in the halls of the NSX.
She continued her wanderings, left oddly comforted, although she couldn't understand why. As her quiet trip through the NSX's insides went on she began to worry about getting back. But she didn't want to go back to civilization, as she thought of it, just yet.
Even as Hikaru felt that she should at least try to get back, she felt pulled in another direction. She had left the long corridor, moving on through a series of smaller halls and down a sloping ramp. Instead of turning and attempting to go back the way she had come, she continued going. Trusting her instincts, she took sharp right and continued down a shorter corridor. Before reaching the end of it she took another right and found herself standing in front of a door.
The tug at her mind increased and she opened the doors revealing a small chamber. Hikaru entered cautiously, curious, but not curious enough to risk the wrath of Eagle if she interrupted something important. The room was bare of everything except a small table. While her eyes adjusted to the dim light, she stepped forward, making sure nobody else was in the room.
After Hikaru had determined that, yes, there was no one in the room, she looked closer at the table. On it were what appeared to be some bits and pieces of armor. Looking closer at them she noticed that there was only a chest guard, a back guard, and a glove.
Decorating the armor were several large red stones, looking at the stones set in the armor, Hikaru once again had a feeling of de`ja vu. Looking at herself reflected in the glove jewel, Hikaru could see a group of buildings in a clearing. The smiling image of a woman's face swam up to her and she felt content, almost at peace. The image faded, leaving Hikaru smiling at the happiness she saw reflected in the other's face.
Even though the armor and its sparkling red gems seemed to evoke some of her hidden memories, Hikaru felt she really should leave, it wasn't her armor after all. Turning she was about to leave when the reflection of the light on the bright crimson jewel that adorned the chest piece of the armor caught her eye.
Red, the color of a fire eternally burning inside a huge volcano, the crimson eyes of a huge lion staring at me, measuring my soul. The scarlet color of my blood spilled by a sword stroke.
Hikaru almost screamed as the remembered pain of old wounds flashed through her, instead she held it in to a whimper. But as she dimly collapsed on the floor she thought she heard a voice, calling her back. Trapped between the world of her memories and the reality of the cold metal beneath her, Hikaru hesitated.
Her memories overpowered her fragile grip on conciseness and she slipped into an old battle.
I can't move. I can't move! If I move he'll kill them! But. if I don't move soon then I'll lose too much blood!
Hikaru repeated this over and over to herself as the force of the man's sword stroke split the rocks around her. It wasn't any good, she was trapped. Her friends were already hurt; she couldn't use her magic for healing so the only way for her to help was to act as a shield.
The spirit Rayearth was standing on a rocky ledge over head and a little to the left of Umi and Fuu. Dimly, she heard them as they tried to make her stop shielding them and fight. Another blow hit her, opening more cuts. Before another blow landed, Rayearth spoke.
"If you do not move and fight freely, then you will die." He stated it as one would a fact, cold and logical, he looked down at her.
"I'll.die?"
"Yes. Stop shielding your friends and fight. They might not survive but you will." Hikaru shook her head angrily, tears shining in her eyes as yet another blow threw her backwards, blood dripped onto the rocks underneath her feet.
"No! I won't leave them to die! I'll save them!" she leaped forward unexpectedly, surprising her opponent.
Her sight blurred and she whirled away from the images, torn from the memory of the sword fight.
The grasses of the plain whispered quietly in the wind but the three girls on top of the short, rocky spire didn't listen. Gulping, they jumped all at once, hitting the water of the spring beneath them with a large splash.
Straining to breathe, Hikaru was whirled away from her companions down a dark whirlpool. When she was able to look up she saw that she was lying in a large, dark echoing space. She shakily stood up and looked around.
Hearing what she thought was a footstep, Hikaru turned, drawing her sword. In the light of the flames that sprang up around it she could see the dim form of a dog.
"Hikari?" she asked cautiously, it looked like her dog, but.there was a gleam in his eyes that she had never seen before. She was about to let her sword fade when the dog leaped at her.
Hikaru wasn't quite fast enough when she dodged and Hikari ripped her sleeve, barely nicking the skin.
"Hikari?! What's wrong?" the dog merely howled at her and sprang again. This time Hikaru brought her sword up and struck out first, hitting the dog in the side of its neck. The dog was actually stopped in mid-leap; it fell to the ground, panting.
"Hikari?! Are you all right?" Hikaru was almost going to run up to her wounded pet, but Hikari was once again up and again jumped at her.
This time Hikaru was not prepared for the sudden attack and she fell back, trying to dodge her pet. She didn't move fast enough and Hikari's fangs sank into her neck.
"Why, Hikari? Do you. hate me now?" Hikaru asked as she fell.
Hikari's fangs had missed any arteries but Hikaru was bleeding profusely from where both of the fangs had pierced her neck.
* * * * * *
Eagle had been searching for Hikaru for about fifteen minutes when he thought he heard the sound of boots clicking on the deck off to his left.
The corridors joined into one just a few minutes walk ahead, he didn't have to hurry. But in a few seconds the sound of steps in the other hallway stopped.
Realizing where that corridor led to, Eagle started to walk faster, trying to find Hikaru. Coming to where the corridors joined, he couldn't see her, but he heard the creak of a door being shut. Knowing exactly which door it would be, he hurried after her and opened it only two minutes after she had.
Eagle stopped when he saw Hikaru staring at her armor, reaching out towards it. Before she could touch it tendrils of flame grew up around her, although she didn't see them. The flames burned brighter and higher, surrounding Hikaru.
When she was almost hidden from view they exploded outward, pushing Eagle right out of the door and back into the wall of the corridor. In a few seconds he had gotten back to his feet and was sprinting back into the room. What he saw stopped him cold in the doorway.
Hikaru was fighting a shadowy apparition that twisted and writhed in a landscape of fire. Somehow the fire had overlaid the floor of the room to look like a rocky mountainous terrain; bright swirls of colored flame drew his attention. One was a pair of blue and green flames that flickered behind Hikaru; the other was a huge swirl of red flame to Hikaru's left. Recognizing her spirit he started.
Could her spirit be causing this? By pulling Hikaru back into one of her memories, could he do this, even indirectly?
Eagle watched as Hikaru, the only solid looking thing, besides himself, in the room shielded her friends, who appeared to have been injured badly, from her enemy's attacks.
But. if being pulled into her memories . will she stay hurt in this reality if she gets injured in her "memories?"
He watched as she was hit by another blow, bleeding freely from several cuts and scratches. The spirit shifted, rather impatiently, or so it looked to Eagle.
"I'll.die?" the question seemed to be directed at the spirit, Hikaru's lips barely moved. The sprit nodded and probably added something else because Hikaru suddenly frowned, bringing her sword up into attack position.
"No! I won't leave them to die! I'll save them!" She jumped forward furiously and the scene dissolved in a sudden shift of the flames.
Eagle watched as she leaped into a spring of water with her friends and battled with a large dog that she knew. Crying even as she slashed at it, Hikaru let her guard drop for just a moment. Seizing its chance, the dog rushed forward, sinking his fangs deep into her neck.
Even as she cried out, Eagle decided enough was enough. She hadn't died in any of her battles, or she wouldn't be there, but watching anybody taking such a beating made even his military side wince in sympathy.
Walking straight into the fire, Eagle broke whatever hold it had on her. Drawing back and away from him, the only remnant of the previous blaze was a wisp of smoke curling up over the armor.
Eagle picked up Hikaru, checking to see if the wounds were real. They didn't seem to have remained, the only sign they had ever been there was the blood dripping where they should have been. Under the blood the skin was uncut and whole.
Sighing with relief, he picked her up and began the long walk back to her room, taking care to wipe as much blood off her neck as he could with the corner of his cloak.
I hope nobody meets us on the way, I'd hate to have to explain this. At least she's okay, for a second there. Eagle let that thought trail off into silence as he carried Hikaru through the halls.
* * * * * *
What was that? I thought I was fighting someone. somebody was trying to hurt us. But try as she might, Hikaru still could not recall who she had been fighting or who she had been protecting.
Realizing that she was being carried as her numb brain began to function again, Hikaru sat up. She was quite startled to see Eagle carrying her.
Wha.? Hikaru stared at him, taken aback by the frightened expression on his face.
"What happened?" she looked at him, he looked calmer as he continued to carry her down the corridors.
"You collapsed," he didn't elaborate further and she wondered what had happened that had shaken him up so. Since he obviously didn't want to talk about it she gave up, but she wasn't going to be carried back to her bed like a child.
"You can put me down now," she protested, and he set her gently back onto her feet. "Thank you." She smiled and started to walk back on the direction of her room, knowing that it was a short distance away.
Eagle walked beside her, still looking concerned and preoccupied and she didn't say anything else as they continued on through the NSX.
I won't ask him about it, but. what happened? I don't understand. Hikaru glanced up at Eagle again, concerned over the fact he wasn't even scolding her for wandering off.
2 Chapter 7: Remembered Scars
Hikaru looked around, still not recognizing the hall she was walking through. She sighed, Eagle had given her a quick tour of the NSX but she still couldn't remember where she was. Maybe it was an aftereffect of losing her memory, but she still couldn't remember exactly where all the twisting hallways led. It made for an interesting time when she tried to reach the dining hall Turning around another corner, she found herself faced with a now familiar sight, another long corridor.
Sighing, she looked down it, it looked the same as all the other corridors she had wandered down. Deciding it would be useless to try and retrace her steps Hikaru started down the long hall. Walking quietly so that she wouldn't disturb anyone, she continued on her ramblings. She saw several doorways but decided against going in any of them.
Walking down the hall just letting her mind drift often brought on fragments of memory. Last time she remembered walking through a large forest, slightly ahead of two other people. But she hadn't been able to hold onto it and her memory had faded, blown away like a wisp of smoke.
This time she thought she saw the halls of what seemed to be a large building, and she felt confused over something, as though she couldn't understand something she had said or did.
As she relaxed and let the memory continue a voice was almost heard, warning her past self about something or someone. Hikaru gasped as the feeling of being surrounded by fire overwhelmed her and was suddenly gone, leaving her back in the halls of the NSX.
She continued her wanderings, left oddly comforted, although she couldn't understand why. As her quiet trip through the NSX's insides went on she began to worry about getting back. But she didn't want to go back to civilization, as she thought of it, just yet.
Even as Hikaru felt that she should at least try to get back, she felt pulled in another direction. She had left the long corridor, moving on through a series of smaller halls and down a sloping ramp. Instead of turning and attempting to go back the way she had come, she continued going. Trusting her instincts, she took sharp right and continued down a shorter corridor. Before reaching the end of it she took another right and found herself standing in front of a door.
The tug at her mind increased and she opened the doors revealing a small chamber. Hikaru entered cautiously, curious, but not curious enough to risk the wrath of Eagle if she interrupted something important. The room was bare of everything except a small table. While her eyes adjusted to the dim light, she stepped forward, making sure nobody else was in the room.
After Hikaru had determined that, yes, there was no one in the room, she looked closer at the table. On it were what appeared to be some bits and pieces of armor. Looking closer at them she noticed that there was only a chest guard, a back guard, and a glove.
Decorating the armor were several large red stones, looking at the stones set in the armor, Hikaru once again had a feeling of de`ja vu. Looking at herself reflected in the glove jewel, Hikaru could see a group of buildings in a clearing. The smiling image of a woman's face swam up to her and she felt content, almost at peace. The image faded, leaving Hikaru smiling at the happiness she saw reflected in the other's face.
Even though the armor and its sparkling red gems seemed to evoke some of her hidden memories, Hikaru felt she really should leave, it wasn't her armor after all. Turning she was about to leave when the reflection of the light on the bright crimson jewel that adorned the chest piece of the armor caught her eye.
Red, the color of a fire eternally burning inside a huge volcano, the crimson eyes of a huge lion staring at me, measuring my soul. The scarlet color of my blood spilled by a sword stroke.
Hikaru almost screamed as the remembered pain of old wounds flashed through her, instead she held it in to a whimper. But as she dimly collapsed on the floor she thought she heard a voice, calling her back. Trapped between the world of her memories and the reality of the cold metal beneath her, Hikaru hesitated.
Her memories overpowered her fragile grip on conciseness and she slipped into an old battle.
I can't move. I can't move! If I move he'll kill them! But. if I don't move soon then I'll lose too much blood!
Hikaru repeated this over and over to herself as the force of the man's sword stroke split the rocks around her. It wasn't any good, she was trapped. Her friends were already hurt; she couldn't use her magic for healing so the only way for her to help was to act as a shield.
The spirit Rayearth was standing on a rocky ledge over head and a little to the left of Umi and Fuu. Dimly, she heard them as they tried to make her stop shielding them and fight. Another blow hit her, opening more cuts. Before another blow landed, Rayearth spoke.
"If you do not move and fight freely, then you will die." He stated it as one would a fact, cold and logical, he looked down at her.
"I'll.die?"
"Yes. Stop shielding your friends and fight. They might not survive but you will." Hikaru shook her head angrily, tears shining in her eyes as yet another blow threw her backwards, blood dripped onto the rocks underneath her feet.
"No! I won't leave them to die! I'll save them!" she leaped forward unexpectedly, surprising her opponent.
Her sight blurred and she whirled away from the images, torn from the memory of the sword fight.
The grasses of the plain whispered quietly in the wind but the three girls on top of the short, rocky spire didn't listen. Gulping, they jumped all at once, hitting the water of the spring beneath them with a large splash.
Straining to breathe, Hikaru was whirled away from her companions down a dark whirlpool. When she was able to look up she saw that she was lying in a large, dark echoing space. She shakily stood up and looked around.
Hearing what she thought was a footstep, Hikaru turned, drawing her sword. In the light of the flames that sprang up around it she could see the dim form of a dog.
"Hikari?" she asked cautiously, it looked like her dog, but.there was a gleam in his eyes that she had never seen before. She was about to let her sword fade when the dog leaped at her.
Hikaru wasn't quite fast enough when she dodged and Hikari ripped her sleeve, barely nicking the skin.
"Hikari?! What's wrong?" the dog merely howled at her and sprang again. This time Hikaru brought her sword up and struck out first, hitting the dog in the side of its neck. The dog was actually stopped in mid-leap; it fell to the ground, panting.
"Hikari?! Are you all right?" Hikaru was almost going to run up to her wounded pet, but Hikari was once again up and again jumped at her.
This time Hikaru was not prepared for the sudden attack and she fell back, trying to dodge her pet. She didn't move fast enough and Hikari's fangs sank into her neck.
"Why, Hikari? Do you. hate me now?" Hikaru asked as she fell.
Hikari's fangs had missed any arteries but Hikaru was bleeding profusely from where both of the fangs had pierced her neck.
* * * * * *
Eagle had been searching for Hikaru for about fifteen minutes when he thought he heard the sound of boots clicking on the deck off to his left.
The corridors joined into one just a few minutes walk ahead, he didn't have to hurry. But in a few seconds the sound of steps in the other hallway stopped.
Realizing where that corridor led to, Eagle started to walk faster, trying to find Hikaru. Coming to where the corridors joined, he couldn't see her, but he heard the creak of a door being shut. Knowing exactly which door it would be, he hurried after her and opened it only two minutes after she had.
Eagle stopped when he saw Hikaru staring at her armor, reaching out towards it. Before she could touch it tendrils of flame grew up around her, although she didn't see them. The flames burned brighter and higher, surrounding Hikaru.
When she was almost hidden from view they exploded outward, pushing Eagle right out of the door and back into the wall of the corridor. In a few seconds he had gotten back to his feet and was sprinting back into the room. What he saw stopped him cold in the doorway.
Hikaru was fighting a shadowy apparition that twisted and writhed in a landscape of fire. Somehow the fire had overlaid the floor of the room to look like a rocky mountainous terrain; bright swirls of colored flame drew his attention. One was a pair of blue and green flames that flickered behind Hikaru; the other was a huge swirl of red flame to Hikaru's left. Recognizing her spirit he started.
Could her spirit be causing this? By pulling Hikaru back into one of her memories, could he do this, even indirectly?
Eagle watched as Hikaru, the only solid looking thing, besides himself, in the room shielded her friends, who appeared to have been injured badly, from her enemy's attacks.
But. if being pulled into her memories . will she stay hurt in this reality if she gets injured in her "memories?"
He watched as she was hit by another blow, bleeding freely from several cuts and scratches. The spirit shifted, rather impatiently, or so it looked to Eagle.
"I'll.die?" the question seemed to be directed at the spirit, Hikaru's lips barely moved. The sprit nodded and probably added something else because Hikaru suddenly frowned, bringing her sword up into attack position.
"No! I won't leave them to die! I'll save them!" She jumped forward furiously and the scene dissolved in a sudden shift of the flames.
Eagle watched as she leaped into a spring of water with her friends and battled with a large dog that she knew. Crying even as she slashed at it, Hikaru let her guard drop for just a moment. Seizing its chance, the dog rushed forward, sinking his fangs deep into her neck.
Even as she cried out, Eagle decided enough was enough. She hadn't died in any of her battles, or she wouldn't be there, but watching anybody taking such a beating made even his military side wince in sympathy.
Walking straight into the fire, Eagle broke whatever hold it had on her. Drawing back and away from him, the only remnant of the previous blaze was a wisp of smoke curling up over the armor.
Eagle picked up Hikaru, checking to see if the wounds were real. They didn't seem to have remained, the only sign they had ever been there was the blood dripping where they should have been. Under the blood the skin was uncut and whole.
Sighing with relief, he picked her up and began the long walk back to her room, taking care to wipe as much blood off her neck as he could with the corner of his cloak.
I hope nobody meets us on the way, I'd hate to have to explain this. At least she's okay, for a second there. Eagle let that thought trail off into silence as he carried Hikaru through the halls.
* * * * * *
What was that? I thought I was fighting someone. somebody was trying to hurt us. But try as she might, Hikaru still could not recall who she had been fighting or who she had been protecting.
Realizing that she was being carried as her numb brain began to function again, Hikaru sat up. She was quite startled to see Eagle carrying her.
Wha.? Hikaru stared at him, taken aback by the frightened expression on his face.
"What happened?" she looked at him, he looked calmer as he continued to carry her down the corridors.
"You collapsed," he didn't elaborate further and she wondered what had happened that had shaken him up so. Since he obviously didn't want to talk about it she gave up, but she wasn't going to be carried back to her bed like a child.
"You can put me down now," she protested, and he set her gently back onto her feet. "Thank you." She smiled and started to walk back on the direction of her room, knowing that it was a short distance away.
Eagle walked beside her, still looking concerned and preoccupied and she didn't say anything else as they continued on through the NSX.
I won't ask him about it, but. what happened? I don't understand. Hikaru glanced up at Eagle again, concerned over the fact he wasn't even scolding her for wandering off.