~ kitten ~
By Alexia Goddess
Chapter Fifteen
Kitten bit her lip. Or as well as she could when she really had no lips.
She couldn't believe they were actually going to go up against Jzaar!
*Without* her! How could they be so stupid? Was she the only one that
knew of Jzaar's true power?
She stopped.
She blinked her sea green cat's eyes.
Had she been human she would have reeled, perhaps fainted, but she
definately would have given a gasp that would have woken the dead.
They *didn't* know! They hadn't been there...
*FLASH*BACK*
"Ha-HA! Serves you right!" Kiticatya grinned gleefully as she cut down
another enemy. She didn't kill him, just made sure he wouldn't get up
for a looooong time. Her knee length honey gold hair was in a long
braid, whipping around her as she and her four comrades fought and
battled their way towards a large golden gate. A man stood before the
gate, chanting. His chanting grew louder, and suddenly all pretense of
enjoying the battle flew from Kiticatya's mind.
He was getting close...
The girl growled, bunched her legs, and leaped! She landed so much
closer to the man before the gate, but not close enough, and she had
left her comrades, her friends far behind... Suddenly she was scared as
she fought furiously for her life. The closer you got to the the gate
and the man, the better the soldiers! She couldn't hold this up! She
was only one girl! One *thirteen* year old girl! And a terrified one at
that!
Her moves and swings began to faulter, missing her aims and going far
more often on defence than offense...
Kiticatya caught the shimmering of a blade in the sunlight swoop down...
She screamed.
She dropped her sword.
And everything froze.
Kiticatya looked up-
*END*FLASH*BACK*
Kitten -as a kitten- shook her head fiercely. None of that! She couldn't
dwell in the past! SHE knew Jzaar's true power; they didn't! Now she
*had* to stop them!
No...they wouldn't listen...they would just send her back...
"Duo..." She thought. He would listen. No, there wasn't time!
She had to find Jzaar before them! That was the only way!
And she had to defeat him.
Alone.
For her own sake.
She had to finish what she had started, fulfill the promise she had
made so long ago...
Kitten melted into the shadows once more, determination glittering in
her cat's dragon eyes.
()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()
Jzaar grinned, sipping his wine.
The pieces of the game were falling into place...it wouldn't be long
now...
He set down his glass, turned to the large, eternally unlit fireplace
and reached up to stroke a black crystal orb that was in the center of
the mantel. It glowed sickly and dully, before whisps of black smoke
fogged around it, and tendrils of the smoke whirled around Jzaar and
the fireplace.
The fireplaced dissappered.
In its place was a long, dark corridor. At its end, just barely visible,
was a room of enormous proportions. At at the far side of the room, a
small window-like object.
Jzaar strode down the corridor, deliberately leaving the entrance to it
open and revealed. He entered the room. It was dimly lit by an unknown
source, the light glancing off the many facets of the main object of
the room.
Jzaar stroked the large structure, running his fingers over the ancient
dialect that decorated it all over, almost like filagree or design
rather than an incantation. The spell had one main phrase, the most
omnipresent of all the words or phrases on the structure.
And he began to chant...
And as he did, memories of a battle long ago were stirred within him...
()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()
"How many of these things are there???!!!!" Duo growled as he sent
another Vamp to meet his namesake, Shinimagani.
"No way to tell, but we'll battle through as many as nesseccary for the
success of the mission," Wufei said through gritted teeth as he slew
a rather large Vamp. A Corpis came up behind him and grabbed him about
the neck.
Wufei cut off its arms.
Trowa ducked under an ogre's swing. The ogre swung again. Trowa ducked
again. The ogre threw a punch. Trowa bent to the side. The ogre threw
another punch from the opposite direction. Trowa leaned the other side.
All the while his feet never moved an inch, and neither did his firmly
crossed arms.
Then, all at once, completely without warning, Trowa had a gun in hand,
smoke whisping away from its barrel, and the ogre lay dead.
Suddenly...
There was silence.
There were no more ogres, Vamps, or Corpises.
Simultaniously, the G-Boys all looked at each other, rising from
various battle stances and crouches. Together, their gaze flitted to
the unguarded, wide open -from when reinforcements had poured out- and
beckoning.
"Well, we might as well." Quatre pointed out. Heero nodded, and went
forward, and was the first to step inside and be swallowed by the
darkness.
"Glory hog," Duo muttered as he stepped in after him. The others
followed suit.
()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()
Kiros ducked, punched, threw a spinning roundabout kick, shot a burst
of dark green light into the ogre's face.
The ogre no longer had a face.
He no longer had a head, for that matter.
Kiros whirled as Zephra gave a warcry, and he turned, then ducked as
she leapt over him to land on a Corpis that had come up behind the ogre
just as Kiros had killed it.
Off came the Corpis's head. It still lived, but it was no longer a
threat. Still, to be thorough, off came its legs as well.
There was a final thump as the last ogre fell to the floor, dead, a hole
through its chest. Axis stood breathing somewhat hard, palm facing out.
He and Zion nodded to each other, then to Zephra and Kiros.
Five group of patrols down, who knew how many to go.
"This is going to be a looong infiltration," Axis muttered almost
silently. Still, Zephra heard him, and nodded, both hoping this mission
wasn't all in vain...
()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()
The blue gray ball of fluff and fur stuck to the shadows as well as she
could. The human mind guiding the animal from within its own flesh was
tense. Akari, her primative but capable, child-like mind tried to
reassure Kitten, her own little kitty mind 'rolling her eyes.' At human
paranoia.
It had been surprising, when Kitten had been looking for a way to get
out of her 'cell' back at the military compound, when Akari had sat
before her mistress, and began glowing.
Shinimejenya, within Kitten, had laughed, and Kitten too had began
glowing, against her will.
Before she had known it, she was in a Ridder's form, and inside Akari's
conscious and body, the same way Shini was inside her, and the same way
the Companions had been within the Gundam Pilots.
Before Kitten was able to protest or ask questions, the tiny, but
amazingly clever animal had sprinted to a air ventilation shaft, the
slits just big enough for her exceptionally tiny size to squeeze
through. When they had gotten outside, Kitten had seen nine black forms
slipping away.
Akari -now a gray blue color from the prescence of Kitten and Shini-
feeling smug, had trustingly handed Kitten the 'control' to her baby
cat's body, and off they went.
Now here they were, hours later, having successfully and easily
infiltrated the enemy base without detection.
Akari's ears twitched as a peculiar, and sickening familiar sound
reached the animal's ears. Akari, in the back of her own mind while
Kitten was in control, was curious. Both as to what that noise was, and
why her mistress was riven with fear and...hate? Yes. Potent hate.
It made the innocent creature, whom had never known of the existence of
that emotion before, tremble.
Kitten blinked, and mentally apologized to her carrier. Akari calmed.
Slightly. Kitten tried to get her emotions under wraps, but was only
able to still her/Akari's racing heart slightly.
With nothing else to do, Kitten crept forward towards the darkened
doorway where the faint chanting was coming from...
()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()
"What the..." Zephra's eyes widened, her skin turning green in disgust,
as a hideous creature unlike anything ever seen before rose up before
her and the other three Companions behind her.
"Not so quick with words now, eh, Princess?" The...the *thing* rose up
like the cobra it -remotely- resembled, dripping with blood and slime
and other elements the Companions didn't want to name or think about.
The thing made an abrupt and completely sudden, lightning-quick movement
forward, snapping its powerful jaws with elongated canine's, dripping
with vemon. It went directly for Zephra, having not a care for any of
the others; only to kill her, in the most painful way he could...
The Princess, Zion's cousin, leapt aside, scowling and sputtering in
rage. She unsheathed a second dagger, longer and sharper than the other,
slightly curved. She threw it, and it flew like a boomerang, twirling
around like a deadly blade and making a whistling sound.
Braizlyn, in his snake-like form, with tiny, lizard's legs, scrambled
and slithered out of the way quickly as he might. Still, the blade was
too quick, and it did manage to nick his flared cobra's hood.
The creature, Braizlyn, gave a cry more of rage than pain, and burst
forward again, wild in his rage, his attacks random, unpredictable,
badly executed, but dangerous nonetheless. The only thing clear about
his attack was that he wanted Zephra dead. THAT he made quite clear.
"IT'S YOUR FAULT!" Braizlyn raged in his slithering, 'sss'-like voice.
He whipped his tail wildly, and despite her superb acrobatics, Zephra
was caught in the midriff by a random lash of that deadly tail, and was
flung against a concrete wall. Hard. The sound of crunching bone and
split flesh was sickening, and Kiros rushed towards her, only to have
his arm caught in the jaws of the great snake-like beast. He cried out
in agony, his scream as the venom seeped into his blood ringing off the
walls.
"NO!!!!" Zion screamed, his face and voice filled with rabid rage as he
burst forward, oblivious to the danger, now that Braizlyn's jaws were
free, as he had flung Kiros lifeless-looking body aside like a ragdoll.
Zion was jerked back as Axis grabbed onto his arm and whirled him
around, slapped him soundly on the face, and then pulled them both out
of the way of another assault of Braizlyn's poinsoned jaw and spiked
tail.
Both of them dashed down a hallway, a sobbing Zion leaning heavily on
Axis. As they turned another corner, the Crown Prince seemed to collect
himself, and he stood on his own.
After a while it became apparent that Braizlyn had not followed.
"We have to go back!" Zion cried, grabbing Axis by the collar.
"Hush it!" Axis hissed, twisting out of his girlfriend's cousin's grip.
"No, we don't!" The Count growled quietly. "We both know Kiros is dead,
and Zephra most likely as well. Going back would only get us killed as
well."
"I'm not going one step furthur until I know for certain, for myself,
that both of them are dead and beyond revival," Zion hissed back, his
tone, voice, and form radiating princely authority. "You and I know
Kitty would KILL us if we didn't at least do that much! That's her
*sister* back there! And my best friend and advisor! Besides, just
two of us? We don't stand a chance against Jzaar! It would be best to
go back and get them, and get out of here when they're strong again."
"And give Jzaar a the satisfaction of running from him?"
"We wouldn't be running!" Zion hissed. Axis sighed, and slumped his
shoulders. Zion suddenly looked weary, and leaned against a wall.
And fell through it.
"No!" Axis leapt forward. His eyes widened, and he jumped back as a
section of the wall seemed to liquify, leap out, and make a grab at him.
He skipped backwards, but he was too slow, and his cry was eaten up by
the darkness of the halls as he, too, was sucked through the stone wall.
()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()
Kitten was trembling, but from rage, adrenaline, or fear of what was
before her, she didn't know.
She knew this site...that golden structure...that same man standing
before it, chanting...
*FLASH*BACK*
Kiticatya, a short, slender girl dressed in a tattered, torn ground
troop battle uniform, slowly raised from her crouched position, lowering
the arms she had thrown over her head in an instict's attempt to shield
herself from the broadsword that was now frozen in midair.
She glanced around, breathing heavily. Even she, only a mage apprentice
(However much a talented one) could tell what had happened.
A time-freezing spell.
Kiticatya stepped away from the sword and the hideous creature holding
it, looking around warily as she lifted her own blade from the ground.
As she was bent to the ground to lift her sword, her eyes caught and
held on one figure.
"Duke Jzaar," Kiticatya hissed to the short, somewhat chubby man that
stood before the great, ominous wrought golden gate that stood atop a
slight incline of a hill that was surrounded by blood and corpses and
carnage.
"The little Countess Kiticatya Shidazhi, my my my..." Jzaar clucked his
tongue. Kiticatya, through her terrified, confused state, managed to
register that out of the hundred or so warriors -good and evil- left,
onle she, Jzaar, and the sickeningly evil looking swirls of black and
dark gray-silver that swam around within the frames of the gate...
around they swirled, and around, and around, and around...
*END*FLASH*BACK*
And now those same swirls were twirling around and around once more...
within that same gate...that same doorway to chaos.
The memory that seeing that gate again had stirred was still fresh in
Kitten's mind as she abruptly caught the reins to the boiling rage that
had surfaced at seeing the man that stood before the gate once more.
The fiery anger became sheathed in cool icy control, and Kitten's eyes,
via Akari's eyes, glittered menacingly.
'Thank you, little one,' Kitten mentally told her animal host, almost
distractedly. 'I'm leaving you now. Once I am fully out, *get out of
here!* Do you hear me?' Kitten bore down on her tiny host with all her
will, pouding the instructions into Akari's mind. The kitten agreed
meekly, and after giving the tiny, cuddly animal a mental hug, Kitten
closed her mental eyes, and deep within the shadows that hid her from
view, Akari began to glow.
()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()
"Well, at least we know they had to have come this way," Quatre
whispered quietly, his tone filled with regret and sadness, his throat
tight and choked, his chest constricting tightly at the sight before
him. Beside the blonde Arabian, Duo clenched his fists and gritted his
teeth, glaring stonily into space, refusing to look at the corpse
slumped against the wall, neck at an odd angle, arm only a few blood,
shredded remains of flesh and splintered bone.
Kiros.
A few yards behind them lay the stinking, huge corpse of a giant cobra-
like creature with tiny legs, sharp claws, and thick, ominous fangs
dripping blood and vemon that were completely exposed by the thing's
wide open, gaping jaws.
Wufei, kneeling beside the decidedly dead body of the Companion, hung
his head, clenching the right fist, his right lower arm on top of his
right knee. He looked up, eyes hard, and with his left hand, reached
over and closed the wide open ones of the black haired sorceror that
had been a Rider within Relena.
"May you rest in peace, Baron Kiros Rhenalzai," Trowa said quietly, he
being the only one to remember his full name and nobility rank.
Heero, standing behind them all and slightly in the shadows, stepped
forward.
"Lets go," He said, monotone, and without any sign of emotion. The
others all threw a final farewell glance to the warrior they had once
knew as a good friend -now covered in Quatre's black jacket- and
followed the 01 pilot, down the darkened halls.
"Wait." Trowa said, almost inaudibly. Nevertheless, the rest of the
troop stopped.
"What is it?" Quatre inquired quietly.
"Listen." The green eyed pilot said nearly silently. And listen they
did.
"Is that...?" Wufei murmured.
"Someone's talking..." Duo tilted his head slightly. "No, chanting." He
look down a corridor that was perpendicular to the one they were going
down. "And its coming from down there."
"Then lets go." Once again, Heero was the first to move, and the rest
followed.
()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()
She stood in the shadows, practically part of the shadows herself. She
had realized at a rather bad time that she was still wearing the outfit
she had worn to the dinner at that resteraunt, to celebrate her first
full day out of the hospital, only yesterday evening.
It seemed like such an eternity ago...
Kitten, once being fully 'out' of Akari, had cursed vemonously in her
own mind as she realized she was wearing a shin length, *extremely* full
skirted pitch black gown with a second layer of silver, silky
slip-through-your-fingers-type transparent gauze over the top. A
fitted bodice, lined with silver on the hem and double humped -in the
appropriate places- neckline. One thick strap going directly over each
shoulder, then two more hanging off the shoulders.
Not exactly the best thing suited for a battle of the century. While it
would be a nuisance -however minor- Kitten thanked every single one of
her battle and martial arts and fencing instructors that they had
insisted she learn to fight just as good -if not better- in any sort of
ball gown as in breeches and blouse.
Now she stood, practically a shadow herself, in the very heart of the
stronghold of her archenemy, and the enemy of all her people. The man
who was trying to ressurect Magamijenya, the servant of her own
dragoness, Shinimejenya, but the only dragon that was truly evil.
The Dragon of Darkness.
She faintly registered the man's chanting, and knew she had to act...
but the memories stopped her. The terrifying, loathsome memories.
Memories of the events that truly took away the child that she had still
been, and replaced her with a woman that forevermore would know true,
undaunted, solid, black hate and evil.
Kitten would never forget how Jzaar had laughed and ridiculed her, a
child warrior, on that blood soaked battlefield so long ago...
*FLASH*BACK*
"Quite impressive, isn't it, little one?" Jzaar, the man who was the
reason for the death and carnage that surrounded Kiticatya, turned to
face her, dropping his arms. As he did so, the swirling seemed to
intensify, and the golden gate pulsed a black glow, ever so faintly,
almost non-visible.
"If you like things that are capable of destroying dreams and wishes,
yes, I suppose it is," Kiticatya, raised as the diplomat, said. Being
a countess, however, did not keep the venom out of her voice.
"I take it that means you don't like it?" He raised an eyebrow. Kiticatya
growled deep in her throat.
"You pig..." She spat. "You kiniving, worthless, crap-dirty son of a-"
"Quite colorful for such a lovely, well brought up young lady!" Jzaar
laughed, seemingly merely amused. "I wonder where you learned it?" He
said casually, with mild curiosity. He shrugged, leaning against the
gate's frame, the gold of which was continuing to pulse that black
glow...
"Now, child, I will get right to the point." The traitorous Duke said,
businuss-like. "You and I both know that in order for the Great
Magamijenya to enter our realm and stay for any length of time, he
must have a Host." He waved to a woman nearby, on the side of the hill,
several poison tipped arrows burried in her chest.
"She was meant for that task, but obviously she will not be able to
fullfill her purpose. I cannot be his host, however this humble servant
of the Great One would desire to be, as the Great One prefers females."
He looked at me again, and shivers ran up my spine. She knew exactly
what he was thinking.
"Never," She spat venomously. "You filthy, treacherous-"
"Ah, lets not start that again," Jzaar said, laughing, as he raised a
hand. "Come child. You don't honestly think you have a choice, do you?"
"Maybe, maybe not. But either way you know I won't do it willingly,
and you and I both know that unless I am willing, the process will kill
us both. And even if your 'Great One' lives, the energy discharge from
my mental mind and heart rejecting him would shatter that gate, and kill
me. Then you would have no potential Hosts left, now will you? And
second," Kiticatya's expression suddenly turned smug, as she remembered
something she had discovered too late to tell the captain of the army
assigned to prevent the gate's opening, the reason she had gotten into
the fight in the first place.
"Second," She proceeded. "In case you didn't know, is it completely and
utterly impossible to awaken *any* dragon with the powers of destruction
without the lead Dragon of Destruction; Shinimejenya. And," She grinned,
smug. "No offense to your plans, but you don't seem to have the carrier
of Shinimejenya."
Jzaar just laughed.
And laughed.
And as he laughed, while Kiticatya's grin fell from her face, her eyes
filled with dread as He pulled an amulet out from under his shirt.
Kiticatya gasped.
It was a round, wrought silver pendant, the size of an infant's fist.
It was studded with diamonds and pale sapphires, and ice blue cut
quarts crystals. But in the center, capturing and grabbing and holding
without relent was a small gem, the size of a thumbnail. A bright
azhure blue opal, with swirling opalescent rainbow colors that shifted
and twinkled in the light, glowing with a pearlescent, silvery shine.
"The Destruction Stone..." Kiticatya breathed. It wasn't possible! That
gem was a myth!
But there it was...glimmering...around the enemy's neck!
"Ah, I see you know what this little trinket is," He grinned.
"It can't be!" Kiticatya was breathing heavily. "Its not possible! And
even if it is real, it can't really contain-"
"Oh, I assure you, little countess," Jzaar chuckled, the sound sending
icy shivers down Kiticatya's spine. "I can very well assure you that
this little gem does indeed contain the legendary Dragoness of
Destruction, the lovely Shinimejenya you were so smug about." He
suddenly frowned, make his dark, gaunt face hideous and frightening to
look upon.
"Now, my little guttersnipe, perhaps you will reconsider? I will point
out once more, that you are the only canadite."
It was true enough; there were no other women on the battlefield that
were not dead or would momentarily be so.
"N-never..." She gasped, gripping her sword so hard the dry skin on her
knuckles cracked and bled. She paid no notice as she glared with all
her heart, the Destruction Stone glimmering in the sun...the sparkles
dancing around her head and making her head spin and pound...
"Oh, my child," Jzaar chuckled with mirth. "My poor, naiive, innocent
princess. You really have no idea of the extent of my power, do you,
little one? Even after my little time trick? I am the only living
sorceror who can do that, you know."
"Maybe. Perhaps I know your true power, perhaps I don't, but either way
I really don't care, so long as I fulfill this promise that I make to
you here and today; Magamijenya will never rise, not so long as I live."
And she raised her hand, where a deep gash was still bleeding heavily,
and mad a fist, and squeezed. She winced and gasped slightly at the
pain, but continued the pressure, as blood dripped off her fist and
splattered to the floor.
"This I swear, on my blood!" She hissed, releasing her fist and bringing
her hand down with a jerk of her arm.
Neither noticed, as a single drop was flung away, and was borne -almost
as if by magic- to Jzaar, where it splattered against the Destruction
Stone, in the exact middle. Neither did they notice when the stone
absorbed the single drop of blood, and began to pulse.
*END*FLASH*BACK*
Kitten shook her head fiercely to dispell the memory. No time for that
now! She did not know the language in which Jzaar was chanting ceaslessly,
but it didn't take a genius to guess that he was almost done. Already
that swirling was picking up its pace...
Borne by her will alone, the Dragon Blade, cool, sharp, and shimmering
slid into her grip like ice on water.
Kitten took in a deep, silent breath, closed her eyes briefly, then
opened them again. Her face set in a soldier's mask of indifference,
she stepped forward out of the shadows-
"Step away from the portal," A voice demanded. Kitten blinked and
started. She whipped her head around, and her eyes widened. No! Her
mind and heart cried. There, standing in the doorway, was a group of
five young men that she knew very well.
Kitten tore her gaze away from the Pilots, and whirled to stare suddenly
at the golden gate.
The swirls had stopped.
The area within the gate was now as clear and smooth as glass. And just
visible beyond that glass, was a dark, black, ominous creature that
was never meant to exist.
"Megamijenya..." Kitten breathed.
It had begun.
To Be Continued...
Yeah, I know, I said this would be the last chapter, probably. Did you
actually believe me? *sweatdrop* I did. Anyhoo, chapter sixteen WILL
be the last chapter, if not then there is something wrong with my
ability to end a story...
Anyhoo, I ask again, are there any requests or suggestions or ideas for
a epilogue? Anything you wanna see or hear or find out? Anything I've
left hanging you want to know about? Yes, yes, I know, 'WHAT DID THEY
DO TO POOR QUATRE???' *grins evilly* Well, whether or not I tell you
depends on how many reviews I get... *rubs hands together sinisterly*
So what are you waiting for????
*hugs for all* Thank you again! Ja ne!
-Alexia Goddess
P.S. If it hadn't been for that technical mix-up, I'd have over 130
reviews! YAHOOOOIEEEE!!!!!!!!! -Alex
*ALL STANDARD DISCLAIMERS APPLY; I DO NOT OWN GUNDAM WING. THE OTAKU
CHARACTERS AND PLOT ARE MINE, AS IS THE 'KITTEN' BRACELET.*
By Alexia Goddess
Chapter Fifteen
Kitten bit her lip. Or as well as she could when she really had no lips.
She couldn't believe they were actually going to go up against Jzaar!
*Without* her! How could they be so stupid? Was she the only one that
knew of Jzaar's true power?
She stopped.
She blinked her sea green cat's eyes.
Had she been human she would have reeled, perhaps fainted, but she
definately would have given a gasp that would have woken the dead.
They *didn't* know! They hadn't been there...
*FLASH*BACK*
"Ha-HA! Serves you right!" Kiticatya grinned gleefully as she cut down
another enemy. She didn't kill him, just made sure he wouldn't get up
for a looooong time. Her knee length honey gold hair was in a long
braid, whipping around her as she and her four comrades fought and
battled their way towards a large golden gate. A man stood before the
gate, chanting. His chanting grew louder, and suddenly all pretense of
enjoying the battle flew from Kiticatya's mind.
He was getting close...
The girl growled, bunched her legs, and leaped! She landed so much
closer to the man before the gate, but not close enough, and she had
left her comrades, her friends far behind... Suddenly she was scared as
she fought furiously for her life. The closer you got to the the gate
and the man, the better the soldiers! She couldn't hold this up! She
was only one girl! One *thirteen* year old girl! And a terrified one at
that!
Her moves and swings began to faulter, missing her aims and going far
more often on defence than offense...
Kiticatya caught the shimmering of a blade in the sunlight swoop down...
She screamed.
She dropped her sword.
And everything froze.
Kiticatya looked up-
*END*FLASH*BACK*
Kitten -as a kitten- shook her head fiercely. None of that! She couldn't
dwell in the past! SHE knew Jzaar's true power; they didn't! Now she
*had* to stop them!
No...they wouldn't listen...they would just send her back...
"Duo..." She thought. He would listen. No, there wasn't time!
She had to find Jzaar before them! That was the only way!
And she had to defeat him.
Alone.
For her own sake.
She had to finish what she had started, fulfill the promise she had
made so long ago...
Kitten melted into the shadows once more, determination glittering in
her cat's dragon eyes.
()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()
Jzaar grinned, sipping his wine.
The pieces of the game were falling into place...it wouldn't be long
now...
He set down his glass, turned to the large, eternally unlit fireplace
and reached up to stroke a black crystal orb that was in the center of
the mantel. It glowed sickly and dully, before whisps of black smoke
fogged around it, and tendrils of the smoke whirled around Jzaar and
the fireplace.
The fireplaced dissappered.
In its place was a long, dark corridor. At its end, just barely visible,
was a room of enormous proportions. At at the far side of the room, a
small window-like object.
Jzaar strode down the corridor, deliberately leaving the entrance to it
open and revealed. He entered the room. It was dimly lit by an unknown
source, the light glancing off the many facets of the main object of
the room.
Jzaar stroked the large structure, running his fingers over the ancient
dialect that decorated it all over, almost like filagree or design
rather than an incantation. The spell had one main phrase, the most
omnipresent of all the words or phrases on the structure.
And he began to chant...
And as he did, memories of a battle long ago were stirred within him...
()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()
"How many of these things are there???!!!!" Duo growled as he sent
another Vamp to meet his namesake, Shinimagani.
"No way to tell, but we'll battle through as many as nesseccary for the
success of the mission," Wufei said through gritted teeth as he slew
a rather large Vamp. A Corpis came up behind him and grabbed him about
the neck.
Wufei cut off its arms.
Trowa ducked under an ogre's swing. The ogre swung again. Trowa ducked
again. The ogre threw a punch. Trowa bent to the side. The ogre threw
another punch from the opposite direction. Trowa leaned the other side.
All the while his feet never moved an inch, and neither did his firmly
crossed arms.
Then, all at once, completely without warning, Trowa had a gun in hand,
smoke whisping away from its barrel, and the ogre lay dead.
Suddenly...
There was silence.
There were no more ogres, Vamps, or Corpises.
Simultaniously, the G-Boys all looked at each other, rising from
various battle stances and crouches. Together, their gaze flitted to
the unguarded, wide open -from when reinforcements had poured out- and
beckoning.
"Well, we might as well." Quatre pointed out. Heero nodded, and went
forward, and was the first to step inside and be swallowed by the
darkness.
"Glory hog," Duo muttered as he stepped in after him. The others
followed suit.
()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()
Kiros ducked, punched, threw a spinning roundabout kick, shot a burst
of dark green light into the ogre's face.
The ogre no longer had a face.
He no longer had a head, for that matter.
Kiros whirled as Zephra gave a warcry, and he turned, then ducked as
she leapt over him to land on a Corpis that had come up behind the ogre
just as Kiros had killed it.
Off came the Corpis's head. It still lived, but it was no longer a
threat. Still, to be thorough, off came its legs as well.
There was a final thump as the last ogre fell to the floor, dead, a hole
through its chest. Axis stood breathing somewhat hard, palm facing out.
He and Zion nodded to each other, then to Zephra and Kiros.
Five group of patrols down, who knew how many to go.
"This is going to be a looong infiltration," Axis muttered almost
silently. Still, Zephra heard him, and nodded, both hoping this mission
wasn't all in vain...
()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()
The blue gray ball of fluff and fur stuck to the shadows as well as she
could. The human mind guiding the animal from within its own flesh was
tense. Akari, her primative but capable, child-like mind tried to
reassure Kitten, her own little kitty mind 'rolling her eyes.' At human
paranoia.
It had been surprising, when Kitten had been looking for a way to get
out of her 'cell' back at the military compound, when Akari had sat
before her mistress, and began glowing.
Shinimejenya, within Kitten, had laughed, and Kitten too had began
glowing, against her will.
Before she had known it, she was in a Ridder's form, and inside Akari's
conscious and body, the same way Shini was inside her, and the same way
the Companions had been within the Gundam Pilots.
Before Kitten was able to protest or ask questions, the tiny, but
amazingly clever animal had sprinted to a air ventilation shaft, the
slits just big enough for her exceptionally tiny size to squeeze
through. When they had gotten outside, Kitten had seen nine black forms
slipping away.
Akari -now a gray blue color from the prescence of Kitten and Shini-
feeling smug, had trustingly handed Kitten the 'control' to her baby
cat's body, and off they went.
Now here they were, hours later, having successfully and easily
infiltrated the enemy base without detection.
Akari's ears twitched as a peculiar, and sickening familiar sound
reached the animal's ears. Akari, in the back of her own mind while
Kitten was in control, was curious. Both as to what that noise was, and
why her mistress was riven with fear and...hate? Yes. Potent hate.
It made the innocent creature, whom had never known of the existence of
that emotion before, tremble.
Kitten blinked, and mentally apologized to her carrier. Akari calmed.
Slightly. Kitten tried to get her emotions under wraps, but was only
able to still her/Akari's racing heart slightly.
With nothing else to do, Kitten crept forward towards the darkened
doorway where the faint chanting was coming from...
()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()
"What the..." Zephra's eyes widened, her skin turning green in disgust,
as a hideous creature unlike anything ever seen before rose up before
her and the other three Companions behind her.
"Not so quick with words now, eh, Princess?" The...the *thing* rose up
like the cobra it -remotely- resembled, dripping with blood and slime
and other elements the Companions didn't want to name or think about.
The thing made an abrupt and completely sudden, lightning-quick movement
forward, snapping its powerful jaws with elongated canine's, dripping
with vemon. It went directly for Zephra, having not a care for any of
the others; only to kill her, in the most painful way he could...
The Princess, Zion's cousin, leapt aside, scowling and sputtering in
rage. She unsheathed a second dagger, longer and sharper than the other,
slightly curved. She threw it, and it flew like a boomerang, twirling
around like a deadly blade and making a whistling sound.
Braizlyn, in his snake-like form, with tiny, lizard's legs, scrambled
and slithered out of the way quickly as he might. Still, the blade was
too quick, and it did manage to nick his flared cobra's hood.
The creature, Braizlyn, gave a cry more of rage than pain, and burst
forward again, wild in his rage, his attacks random, unpredictable,
badly executed, but dangerous nonetheless. The only thing clear about
his attack was that he wanted Zephra dead. THAT he made quite clear.
"IT'S YOUR FAULT!" Braizlyn raged in his slithering, 'sss'-like voice.
He whipped his tail wildly, and despite her superb acrobatics, Zephra
was caught in the midriff by a random lash of that deadly tail, and was
flung against a concrete wall. Hard. The sound of crunching bone and
split flesh was sickening, and Kiros rushed towards her, only to have
his arm caught in the jaws of the great snake-like beast. He cried out
in agony, his scream as the venom seeped into his blood ringing off the
walls.
"NO!!!!" Zion screamed, his face and voice filled with rabid rage as he
burst forward, oblivious to the danger, now that Braizlyn's jaws were
free, as he had flung Kiros lifeless-looking body aside like a ragdoll.
Zion was jerked back as Axis grabbed onto his arm and whirled him
around, slapped him soundly on the face, and then pulled them both out
of the way of another assault of Braizlyn's poinsoned jaw and spiked
tail.
Both of them dashed down a hallway, a sobbing Zion leaning heavily on
Axis. As they turned another corner, the Crown Prince seemed to collect
himself, and he stood on his own.
After a while it became apparent that Braizlyn had not followed.
"We have to go back!" Zion cried, grabbing Axis by the collar.
"Hush it!" Axis hissed, twisting out of his girlfriend's cousin's grip.
"No, we don't!" The Count growled quietly. "We both know Kiros is dead,
and Zephra most likely as well. Going back would only get us killed as
well."
"I'm not going one step furthur until I know for certain, for myself,
that both of them are dead and beyond revival," Zion hissed back, his
tone, voice, and form radiating princely authority. "You and I know
Kitty would KILL us if we didn't at least do that much! That's her
*sister* back there! And my best friend and advisor! Besides, just
two of us? We don't stand a chance against Jzaar! It would be best to
go back and get them, and get out of here when they're strong again."
"And give Jzaar a the satisfaction of running from him?"
"We wouldn't be running!" Zion hissed. Axis sighed, and slumped his
shoulders. Zion suddenly looked weary, and leaned against a wall.
And fell through it.
"No!" Axis leapt forward. His eyes widened, and he jumped back as a
section of the wall seemed to liquify, leap out, and make a grab at him.
He skipped backwards, but he was too slow, and his cry was eaten up by
the darkness of the halls as he, too, was sucked through the stone wall.
()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()
Kitten was trembling, but from rage, adrenaline, or fear of what was
before her, she didn't know.
She knew this site...that golden structure...that same man standing
before it, chanting...
*FLASH*BACK*
Kiticatya, a short, slender girl dressed in a tattered, torn ground
troop battle uniform, slowly raised from her crouched position, lowering
the arms she had thrown over her head in an instict's attempt to shield
herself from the broadsword that was now frozen in midair.
She glanced around, breathing heavily. Even she, only a mage apprentice
(However much a talented one) could tell what had happened.
A time-freezing spell.
Kiticatya stepped away from the sword and the hideous creature holding
it, looking around warily as she lifted her own blade from the ground.
As she was bent to the ground to lift her sword, her eyes caught and
held on one figure.
"Duke Jzaar," Kiticatya hissed to the short, somewhat chubby man that
stood before the great, ominous wrought golden gate that stood atop a
slight incline of a hill that was surrounded by blood and corpses and
carnage.
"The little Countess Kiticatya Shidazhi, my my my..." Jzaar clucked his
tongue. Kiticatya, through her terrified, confused state, managed to
register that out of the hundred or so warriors -good and evil- left,
onle she, Jzaar, and the sickeningly evil looking swirls of black and
dark gray-silver that swam around within the frames of the gate...
around they swirled, and around, and around, and around...
*END*FLASH*BACK*
And now those same swirls were twirling around and around once more...
within that same gate...that same doorway to chaos.
The memory that seeing that gate again had stirred was still fresh in
Kitten's mind as she abruptly caught the reins to the boiling rage that
had surfaced at seeing the man that stood before the gate once more.
The fiery anger became sheathed in cool icy control, and Kitten's eyes,
via Akari's eyes, glittered menacingly.
'Thank you, little one,' Kitten mentally told her animal host, almost
distractedly. 'I'm leaving you now. Once I am fully out, *get out of
here!* Do you hear me?' Kitten bore down on her tiny host with all her
will, pouding the instructions into Akari's mind. The kitten agreed
meekly, and after giving the tiny, cuddly animal a mental hug, Kitten
closed her mental eyes, and deep within the shadows that hid her from
view, Akari began to glow.
()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()
"Well, at least we know they had to have come this way," Quatre
whispered quietly, his tone filled with regret and sadness, his throat
tight and choked, his chest constricting tightly at the sight before
him. Beside the blonde Arabian, Duo clenched his fists and gritted his
teeth, glaring stonily into space, refusing to look at the corpse
slumped against the wall, neck at an odd angle, arm only a few blood,
shredded remains of flesh and splintered bone.
Kiros.
A few yards behind them lay the stinking, huge corpse of a giant cobra-
like creature with tiny legs, sharp claws, and thick, ominous fangs
dripping blood and vemon that were completely exposed by the thing's
wide open, gaping jaws.
Wufei, kneeling beside the decidedly dead body of the Companion, hung
his head, clenching the right fist, his right lower arm on top of his
right knee. He looked up, eyes hard, and with his left hand, reached
over and closed the wide open ones of the black haired sorceror that
had been a Rider within Relena.
"May you rest in peace, Baron Kiros Rhenalzai," Trowa said quietly, he
being the only one to remember his full name and nobility rank.
Heero, standing behind them all and slightly in the shadows, stepped
forward.
"Lets go," He said, monotone, and without any sign of emotion. The
others all threw a final farewell glance to the warrior they had once
knew as a good friend -now covered in Quatre's black jacket- and
followed the 01 pilot, down the darkened halls.
"Wait." Trowa said, almost inaudibly. Nevertheless, the rest of the
troop stopped.
"What is it?" Quatre inquired quietly.
"Listen." The green eyed pilot said nearly silently. And listen they
did.
"Is that...?" Wufei murmured.
"Someone's talking..." Duo tilted his head slightly. "No, chanting." He
look down a corridor that was perpendicular to the one they were going
down. "And its coming from down there."
"Then lets go." Once again, Heero was the first to move, and the rest
followed.
()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()
She stood in the shadows, practically part of the shadows herself. She
had realized at a rather bad time that she was still wearing the outfit
she had worn to the dinner at that resteraunt, to celebrate her first
full day out of the hospital, only yesterday evening.
It seemed like such an eternity ago...
Kitten, once being fully 'out' of Akari, had cursed vemonously in her
own mind as she realized she was wearing a shin length, *extremely* full
skirted pitch black gown with a second layer of silver, silky
slip-through-your-fingers-type transparent gauze over the top. A
fitted bodice, lined with silver on the hem and double humped -in the
appropriate places- neckline. One thick strap going directly over each
shoulder, then two more hanging off the shoulders.
Not exactly the best thing suited for a battle of the century. While it
would be a nuisance -however minor- Kitten thanked every single one of
her battle and martial arts and fencing instructors that they had
insisted she learn to fight just as good -if not better- in any sort of
ball gown as in breeches and blouse.
Now she stood, practically a shadow herself, in the very heart of the
stronghold of her archenemy, and the enemy of all her people. The man
who was trying to ressurect Magamijenya, the servant of her own
dragoness, Shinimejenya, but the only dragon that was truly evil.
The Dragon of Darkness.
She faintly registered the man's chanting, and knew she had to act...
but the memories stopped her. The terrifying, loathsome memories.
Memories of the events that truly took away the child that she had still
been, and replaced her with a woman that forevermore would know true,
undaunted, solid, black hate and evil.
Kitten would never forget how Jzaar had laughed and ridiculed her, a
child warrior, on that blood soaked battlefield so long ago...
*FLASH*BACK*
"Quite impressive, isn't it, little one?" Jzaar, the man who was the
reason for the death and carnage that surrounded Kiticatya, turned to
face her, dropping his arms. As he did so, the swirling seemed to
intensify, and the golden gate pulsed a black glow, ever so faintly,
almost non-visible.
"If you like things that are capable of destroying dreams and wishes,
yes, I suppose it is," Kiticatya, raised as the diplomat, said. Being
a countess, however, did not keep the venom out of her voice.
"I take it that means you don't like it?" He raised an eyebrow. Kiticatya
growled deep in her throat.
"You pig..." She spat. "You kiniving, worthless, crap-dirty son of a-"
"Quite colorful for such a lovely, well brought up young lady!" Jzaar
laughed, seemingly merely amused. "I wonder where you learned it?" He
said casually, with mild curiosity. He shrugged, leaning against the
gate's frame, the gold of which was continuing to pulse that black
glow...
"Now, child, I will get right to the point." The traitorous Duke said,
businuss-like. "You and I both know that in order for the Great
Magamijenya to enter our realm and stay for any length of time, he
must have a Host." He waved to a woman nearby, on the side of the hill,
several poison tipped arrows burried in her chest.
"She was meant for that task, but obviously she will not be able to
fullfill her purpose. I cannot be his host, however this humble servant
of the Great One would desire to be, as the Great One prefers females."
He looked at me again, and shivers ran up my spine. She knew exactly
what he was thinking.
"Never," She spat venomously. "You filthy, treacherous-"
"Ah, lets not start that again," Jzaar said, laughing, as he raised a
hand. "Come child. You don't honestly think you have a choice, do you?"
"Maybe, maybe not. But either way you know I won't do it willingly,
and you and I both know that unless I am willing, the process will kill
us both. And even if your 'Great One' lives, the energy discharge from
my mental mind and heart rejecting him would shatter that gate, and kill
me. Then you would have no potential Hosts left, now will you? And
second," Kiticatya's expression suddenly turned smug, as she remembered
something she had discovered too late to tell the captain of the army
assigned to prevent the gate's opening, the reason she had gotten into
the fight in the first place.
"Second," She proceeded. "In case you didn't know, is it completely and
utterly impossible to awaken *any* dragon with the powers of destruction
without the lead Dragon of Destruction; Shinimejenya. And," She grinned,
smug. "No offense to your plans, but you don't seem to have the carrier
of Shinimejenya."
Jzaar just laughed.
And laughed.
And as he laughed, while Kiticatya's grin fell from her face, her eyes
filled with dread as He pulled an amulet out from under his shirt.
Kiticatya gasped.
It was a round, wrought silver pendant, the size of an infant's fist.
It was studded with diamonds and pale sapphires, and ice blue cut
quarts crystals. But in the center, capturing and grabbing and holding
without relent was a small gem, the size of a thumbnail. A bright
azhure blue opal, with swirling opalescent rainbow colors that shifted
and twinkled in the light, glowing with a pearlescent, silvery shine.
"The Destruction Stone..." Kiticatya breathed. It wasn't possible! That
gem was a myth!
But there it was...glimmering...around the enemy's neck!
"Ah, I see you know what this little trinket is," He grinned.
"It can't be!" Kiticatya was breathing heavily. "Its not possible! And
even if it is real, it can't really contain-"
"Oh, I assure you, little countess," Jzaar chuckled, the sound sending
icy shivers down Kiticatya's spine. "I can very well assure you that
this little gem does indeed contain the legendary Dragoness of
Destruction, the lovely Shinimejenya you were so smug about." He
suddenly frowned, make his dark, gaunt face hideous and frightening to
look upon.
"Now, my little guttersnipe, perhaps you will reconsider? I will point
out once more, that you are the only canadite."
It was true enough; there were no other women on the battlefield that
were not dead or would momentarily be so.
"N-never..." She gasped, gripping her sword so hard the dry skin on her
knuckles cracked and bled. She paid no notice as she glared with all
her heart, the Destruction Stone glimmering in the sun...the sparkles
dancing around her head and making her head spin and pound...
"Oh, my child," Jzaar chuckled with mirth. "My poor, naiive, innocent
princess. You really have no idea of the extent of my power, do you,
little one? Even after my little time trick? I am the only living
sorceror who can do that, you know."
"Maybe. Perhaps I know your true power, perhaps I don't, but either way
I really don't care, so long as I fulfill this promise that I make to
you here and today; Magamijenya will never rise, not so long as I live."
And she raised her hand, where a deep gash was still bleeding heavily,
and mad a fist, and squeezed. She winced and gasped slightly at the
pain, but continued the pressure, as blood dripped off her fist and
splattered to the floor.
"This I swear, on my blood!" She hissed, releasing her fist and bringing
her hand down with a jerk of her arm.
Neither noticed, as a single drop was flung away, and was borne -almost
as if by magic- to Jzaar, where it splattered against the Destruction
Stone, in the exact middle. Neither did they notice when the stone
absorbed the single drop of blood, and began to pulse.
*END*FLASH*BACK*
Kitten shook her head fiercely to dispell the memory. No time for that
now! She did not know the language in which Jzaar was chanting ceaslessly,
but it didn't take a genius to guess that he was almost done. Already
that swirling was picking up its pace...
Borne by her will alone, the Dragon Blade, cool, sharp, and shimmering
slid into her grip like ice on water.
Kitten took in a deep, silent breath, closed her eyes briefly, then
opened them again. Her face set in a soldier's mask of indifference,
she stepped forward out of the shadows-
"Step away from the portal," A voice demanded. Kitten blinked and
started. She whipped her head around, and her eyes widened. No! Her
mind and heart cried. There, standing in the doorway, was a group of
five young men that she knew very well.
Kitten tore her gaze away from the Pilots, and whirled to stare suddenly
at the golden gate.
The swirls had stopped.
The area within the gate was now as clear and smooth as glass. And just
visible beyond that glass, was a dark, black, ominous creature that
was never meant to exist.
"Megamijenya..." Kitten breathed.
It had begun.
To Be Continued...
Yeah, I know, I said this would be the last chapter, probably. Did you
actually believe me? *sweatdrop* I did. Anyhoo, chapter sixteen WILL
be the last chapter, if not then there is something wrong with my
ability to end a story...
Anyhoo, I ask again, are there any requests or suggestions or ideas for
a epilogue? Anything you wanna see or hear or find out? Anything I've
left hanging you want to know about? Yes, yes, I know, 'WHAT DID THEY
DO TO POOR QUATRE???' *grins evilly* Well, whether or not I tell you
depends on how many reviews I get... *rubs hands together sinisterly*
So what are you waiting for????
*hugs for all* Thank you again! Ja ne!
-Alexia Goddess
P.S. If it hadn't been for that technical mix-up, I'd have over 130
reviews! YAHOOOOIEEEE!!!!!!!!! -Alex
*ALL STANDARD DISCLAIMERS APPLY; I DO NOT OWN GUNDAM WING. THE OTAKU
CHARACTERS AND PLOT ARE MINE, AS IS THE 'KITTEN' BRACELET.*