~ kitten ~
By Alexia Goddess
Chapter Sixteen
"No..." She hissed, her gaze locked on the dark image just beyond the
gate. She managed to tear her gaze away as she heard the safety of a
gun being released. Her eyes flew open even wider as she saw the Gundam
Pilots again. No! They couldn't be here! They'd be killed for sure!
"I think not, young Heero Yuy," Jzaar's voice was low and amused as he
turned, lowering his previously upheld arms, and faced the newest
occupants of the room. He cocked his head. "A former Gundam Pilot,"
Jzaar's voice was amused, that same mocking tone Kitten remembered so
well. Jzaar turned, his chanting paused for the moment. His gaze
flickered towards where Kitten had backed into the shadows.
"You can come out now, little princess," He laughed. "I do not bite."
Slowly, stiffly, yet still somehow with a liquid grace to her movements,
Kitten let herself materialize out of the shadows.
"Kit!" Duo hissed, glaring daggers. She returned his look coolly,
smirked at her scowling onii-chan, and then turned her gaze back to
Jzaar.
"I made you a promise, traitor," She said, her voice loud, clear, and
quite frankly not her own. Though this time, Shini did not have the
slightest hand in guiding Kitten's words. No, Kitten was doing this
herself. And yet, it wasn't Kitten the prankster teenage girl that was
speaking and acting. No, it was Countess Kiticatya, a warrior of her
age, the Shinimejenya Sorceress.
"Ah, yes, I remember that promise," Jzaar cocked his head, as if
enduring a child's tantrum. "I remember it ver well. Have you come to
fulfill it, Shinimejenya Sorceress?"
Kitten's eyes flashed.
"I stopped you once, and I will do it again." She said evenly.
"Ah..." Jzaar's tone was thoughtful, but a vein in his temple pulsed
angrily. "Yes...yes, you did. Quite clever, Claiming the Destruction
Stone without my knowing, making it so that the Stone would obey you
and you alone. Most clever..."
*FLASH*BACK*
Kiticatya stood at the base of a slightly inclined mound of earth,
barely big enough to be called a hill, but on that small hill was the
object and the man whom held the fate of her entire universe.
The hill was in the center of a bloody battlefield that stretched for
miles. Of two armies, there were only, at most, twenty warriors left
for each side, herself included, now all frozen in a time warp that the
monster before her had created in order to seduce her into becoming
host to the most vile creature imaginable.
The girl had been relying on her trump card, the knowledge that
Magamijenya could not be awakened without the prescence of Shinimejenya.
But that backup plan had been thrwarted when Jzaar had revealed that
he possessed the Destruction Stone, and deep within the depths of that
Stone, was the slumbering, Rider form of Shinimejenya. All he had to
do was awaken her...
And since Jzaar held the stone, when Shinimejenya was awakened, she
would be forced to do as he said.
Kiticatya fell to her knees. It was over...No! She would never be host
to that creature! Never! As long as her will held out, there was no
way Magamijenya could pass over. No way... no way....
The
whisper was faint, almost nonexistent. Slowly, Kiticatya looked up...
And looked directly at the Destruction Stone.
The Stone...she had to get the stone! She *had* to! But...but this was
the most powerful living sorcorer ever! She couldn't! But...but she had
to! She *had* to!!!!!
She couldn't jump at him...no, he was too far away, and he was probably
too quick, even with his paunch; his magic would make sure he was to
quick to be caught by her.
She had to get close enough...just to touch it... She could use a
binding spell; it was instant and it bound the two things touching. The
only way for her to let go was for *her* to tell the counterspell, or
for Jzaar to cut off her hand, and then she would be an unsuitable
canidate.
Yes...she just had to touch it...but first she had to get closer...
"Whats in it for me?" Kiticatya said suddenly, and looked up. Jzaar,
who had been studying her closely, smirked.
"Everything," He said. "You would be acting regent of everything
Magamijenya touched. You, my dear, would very well be an Empress of...
well, the empress of just about everything and everyplace."
Something within Kiticatya's mind clicked. She smirked, mentally. This
was her ticket...
She shrugged. "Fine. You win." She added a hint of disgust to her voice.
Couldn't make it look too easy. She rose to her feet. "What must I do?"
She took a step forward.
"Do?" Jzaar raised an eyebrow. "You need do nothing, child." He pointed
to a spot on the ground. "Just stand there, girl."
Kiticatya went up and stood about a foot away from that spot.
"No, a little furthur over."
She moved two feet over. Jzaar sighed and rolled his eyes as Kiticatya
looked at him in confusion. Please let this work, she prayed. Jzaar
stepped towards her, moving as if to correct her stance...
He never got close enough to touch her.
In a flash, Kiticatya had the amulet, the Destruction Stone, in hand,
and was running for dear life. Around her, the battle reinsued: the
time warp had been canceled, and Jzaar was screaming like a fool. I
spared a glance back, and saw that the portal was filled with swirls
once more, as if the gate spell was collapsing...
Ogres and Vamps and Corpises and others she did not recognize charged
at her; so that was why he had undone the time spell! She dodged them
all, her aching limbs screaming. She brandished her sword like never
before, knowing that now *she* held the fate of her universe...
*END*FLASH*BACK*
"Yes..." Jzaar murmured, hate now going unmasked in his dark eyes.
"Most clever indeed." That vein pulsed again. "My master punished me
harshly. Luckily, I was still invaluable to him, being the most powerfu;
sorcorer in the world, let alone on his side." His eyes flashed again.
"You may have outsmarted me once, child, but I am no longer suseptible
to your childish, female wiles. Now, summon Shinimejenay! I know you
can!"
"You already know what I am going to say," Kitten spat through gritted
teeth. "Never. A thousand times, never."
"Yes, I knew you'd say that," Jzaar grinned, but not the apprently
tolerant, amused grins he had always displayed before. No, this was a
full blown insane grin. He snapped his fingers, and the ground began
to shake...and didn't stop...
Until giant stalks of green-blue flesh sprouted up from underneath the
concrete, twisting and growing and covering every surface. A group of
somehwat smaller vines sprouted up around the Gundam Pilots, wrenching
their firearms from their hands and their sides before twining them up
in their green grasps, like flies caught in a spider's sticky web.
"No!" Kitten leaped forward, Dragon Blade held aloft, aiming to slice
her friends free. Before she got more than a few feet, however, she
was forced to turn her attention towards keeping herself free; vines
of all shapes and sizes launched themselves at her, whipping, twisting,
curling and grabbing. She twisted and turned and leaped and bounded
and ducked and whirled and twirled and bent and swayed every way
imaginable till her entire body felt as worn out and limp and tired as
a cooked noodle. It was only a matter of time till she screwed up...
And where was her sister and cousin and them? They should have been
there by now! Could they be...? No! They had to be alive! They had to
be! They had never left her...even when she hadn't wanted them to they
had always followed her to protect her, even unto the brink of death...
*FLASH*BACK*
Kiticatya ran and ran and ran till her legs were passed the unbearable
burning and were simply numb. She clutched the golden amulet, with the
Destruction Stone in the center, to her breast so hard she would
later find an impression where she had pressed it till her knuckles
cracked and bled again.
The sounds of an army at her heels spurred her speed even faster, her
lungs aflame and her eyes watering with tears of hopelessness and
desperation as she ran.
She gave a cry as the worst and most ridiculous thing that could
possibly happen, *did* happen.
She tripped.
She lay, sprawled and broken on the ground, sobbing, pleading. The
ogres and the rest of those vile creatures would be upon her in a split
second. Kiticatya had only one moment to breath a silent wish...
LIGHT!
WARMTH!
HEALING!
POWER!
ANGER!
Affection...
Kiticatya looked up cautiously, and gasped at what she saw, her breath
coming in ragged gasps. She wasn't even laying down! She was floating,
completely naked, her knees folded up to her chest and her arms wrapped
tightly around her knees. Her hair was as long as it would have been
had it never been cut, her skin as soft and smooth and pale as if she
had never left her mother's womb.
She was floating weightlessly in a massive white expanse, with only the
occassional silver or blue whisps of misty smoke to give the vast plane
any sense of depth.
"Where am I..." Kiticatya breathed out loud.
"You are within the Stone, my lady," Kiticatya gasped, jerking slightly
at the sound of a voice big enough to hold the cosmos and gentle enough
to sing an enfant to sleep.
"The...the Destruction Stone?" The girl breathed.
"Yes...yes, my lady." The voice was gentle, slightly amused.
"Then...then you...b-but you can't be-"
"Oh, can't I?" The voice laughed, a sound that seemed to be woven of
moonbeams and starlight entertwined with light itself. Kiticatya blinked.
This was the voice of the goddess dragon of *destruction?* She couldn't
be...her voice was too beautiful...
"Thank you, my lady," The voice seemed almost...humbled. Kiticatya
blinked. Could Shinimejenya re-
"Yes, I can," The voice cut Kiticatya off, mid-thought. The girl's eyes
widened.
"Why am I here?" She breathed.
"Because you were in danger, and this was the only way I could save you."
"But why?"
"Why did I save you, you mean?" Again, Shinimejenya's voice was amused.
"Because...because I have Chosen you, Countess Kiticatya."
The young girl gasped, her mind reeling in shock-
*END*FLASH*BACK*
Kitten was abruptly yanked from the brief, instant-long memory as she
roughly dodged another whipping vine that was at least three feet in
diameter.
Yet this time, she was too slow, and didn't see the second vine that
came out of nowhere and slammed into the small of her back, forcing
her body to arch painfully. Her hands flew open, and her sword
skittered away and was engulfed in the mass of vines. Blood seeped from
the corner of Kitten's mouth and she gasped, choking on her own life-
fluids.
The vine whipped away, but before she could fall very fall, she was
caught up roughly by another vine that came flying towards her. It
rammed into her midriff, and she hung over it limply as the Gundam
Pilots -namely Duo and Quatre- cried out in screaming concern.
The vines tossed and beat and slammed and crashed and rammed the
Xylion Countess to and froe, Jzaar laughing all the while as he twisted
his hands and waved his arms, controlling the movement of the vines,
tossing the Shinimejenya Sorceress like a rag doll, yet still managing
to keep her alive.
She couldn't loose! There were so many...so many lives depending on her!
On *her!* She *couldn't* loose! She-she had a pro-promise to...to
keep...a promise...more than one... Not just the promise she...she had
m-made to Jz-zaar...promises...
Kitten was barely grasping consciousness, which was flickering in and
out like the bright sphere of flashing light she had seen at circuses
and fairs as a child...she used to love to play with those spheres...
those dancing round, glowing balls of light...
Something in Kitten's mind clicked, and as she was being tossed around
like a limp noodle, she somehow managed to raise her torn and shredded
arm above her head, her fingers curling loosely, her entire body
screaming in pain with the smalle effort. Gasping, the strong metallic,
sweet-sour taste of her onw blood in her mouth, Kitten sputtured a
few pain-gasped words in a long forgotten language.
"Kiskateen...kiskateen ya liyan...froshae...mion-mionea..." Kitten then
promptly lost what little hold she had on consciousness, not managing
to stay awake long enough to see the brilliant flare of fiery light
that had sprung up from her fingertips, forming bright, dancing spheres
of bright red, yellow, orange, blue, and pink fire. The fire danced
and twirled among the branches and vines, catching anything and
everything it could on fire.
The fire spread faster than a highly contagious desiese. The vines
shrieked and screamed as they whithered, blackened, and finally crumbled
into piles of ash.
The vines that had been holding the Gundam Pilots captive burst into
violet flame. The five young men managed to get out of the fire before
it seriously burned any of them, but they all sported bruised ribs
where the vines had been slowly trying to suffocate them. Duo was the
most relieved to find his braid mainly unscathed, intact, and still
there.
"Oh, no, KIT!!!!" Quatre gave a yell, and the other four boys' attention
was yanked to nearly halfway across the stadium sized cavern to where
Kitten lay in the middle of a bonfire, limp, bloody, looking completely
lifeless, and surrounded with a blue fire...
Blue fire that was slowly turning silver...
()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()
Kitten slowly, almost cautiously, became aware of the sensation
of sunlight on her skin, the wind in her hair, grass tickling her
skin, birds singing, and the sweet smell of spring perfumed air
carressing her sense of scent.
She slowly, warily opened her right eye slowly, glancing around to find
that she was laying on her back on a patch of slopping ground; a hillside.
Even slower than she had opened the first eye, Kitten opened the other.
Her eyes widened as she saw a bright blue sky dotted with soft,
perfectly sculpted ice violet clouds. She frowned. Purple clouds? She
looked at the sun; it was high overhead. She sniffed the air. It
smelled slightly...tangy...not earth air. Not somewhat metallic smell
of the recycled colony air, either. Where was she?
Only one way to find out, a voice inside her mind told her. Kitten
sat up cautiously, and blinked in surprise when she realized she was
wearing a light, periwinkle sun dress with small spaghetti straps. The
straps were edged in sea green, as was the swooped neckline and hem;
she was also wearing white sandles. On her wrist was her kitten
bracelet from so long ago, and sea green stud pearl earrings. Her hair
went just past her shoulders in soft, gently slopping and rising waves
and curls, and while the main color was still that miraculous shade of
silver, it now somehow looked opalescent, like Shinimejenya's scales.
Kitten reached up and found a small, simple forehead tiara on her brow;
a smooth, round crystal in the center, with two 'strings' of metal
going from each side and going up and disappearing into her hair.
Halfway between her hairline and the round gem were two smaller ones,
one on each side. She couldn't see the color of anything, but she
assumed the color scheme matched her dress; sea-green, blue, and white.
Kitten, utterly confused and bafflebrained, twisted her torso to get a
better look around. It looked as if she were laying on the side of a
hill, in the middle of a vast expanse of a park type area. Fields of
wildflowers stretched as far as she could see behind her, and in front
of her was a wide, deep blue, crystal clean looking lake. On either
side of her were lush green forests.
Kitten stood up, and placed her hands on her hips. Where was she?
She shaded her eyes from the glare of the sun, and looked across the
long, wide field of wildflowers. With her eyes under the shade of her
hand, she could just make out a dark spot. It could be another hill, a
house, or even just a tree. There were a few trees not part of the
forest that were scattered out before her. There was even a rather large
oak only a few yards away from the base of the hill that she now stood
on the very top of.
Kitten bit her lip and scrunched her brow. Why did this place feel so
familiar? Her gaze caught on the large oak, and she frowned. It
couldn't be...
Suddenly trembling, Kitten to a strenous step forward in the soft grass
that rustled with her movement and the gentle brushing of the wind.
Kitten clenched her fists loosely at her side to try and still their
shaking as she took another step towards the tree.
There was only one way to find out if this place was what she thought
it was...
Taking a deep breath, Kitten, several minutes later of slow, cautious
progress, she took the final step and came close enough to the tree
to see what she needed to see...if it was there... That universal
symbol of love; a heart with the two lovers initials within the heart.
Would it be there?
Kitten looked up and down the trunk of the ancient oak... Her gaze
stopped.
It was there.
Kitten fell against the tree, sobbing. Was she dead? How was she here,
of all places? She couldn't be dead... she had so much to do...so many
promises to keep and fulfill...
Her fingers traced the heart, containing hers and Axis' initials,
sniffing and rubbing her eyes. As she stroked the carved insignia,
Kitten remembered...
*FLASH*BACK*
Kiticatya gasped, her eyes flying open. She immediately shut them again
when she remembered where she was; the ogres preparing to bear down on
her, rip her, shred her to pieces...
But instead of the agonizing bit of thousands of roughly sharpened
swords, she was instead engulfed in arms of warmth, pressed to a broad,
solid chest, loud, coarse obscenitie being shouted in her ear even as
the same person who was cursing venomously was kissing her face and head
and hair all over.
Kiticatya only blinked in swirling confusion.
"Good lord, Axis, give the girl a chance to breath!" A voice snarled.
Kiticatya blinked again and turned to the voice slightly.
"Zephie?" The girl breathed as she set eyes on her glaring older sister.
As she looked, Zephra's eyes softened.
Suddenly Kiticatya snapped out of it, and looked around frantically,
realizing that she was no longer in the middle of a blood soaked
battlefield, though she still wore the same torn and tattered clothes
she had worn when riding out to try and warn the captain of her uncle's
army... She had been too late, and had gotten pulled into the fight...
She finally realized whom was still holding her gently, but firmly,
protectively, and the thirteen year old girl who wasn't really a girl
anymore, looked up into the eyes of her cousin's best friend.
"A-Axis?" Kiticatya stuttered, realizing how close he was holding her.
Axis only buried her into his embrace once more, smoothing her tangled
and gnarled hair away from her face, kissing her forehead, ears, hair,
nose, chin...
Kiticatya managed to gather her wits long enough to grab his head and
guide his face to where she wanted those kissing lips; on hers.
When they finally were forced to part for need of air, Kiticatya was
immediately set upon by her sister, cousin, and Kiros; her cousin's
other best friend and future royal advisor.
"WHAT the heck do you THINK you were DOING?" Zion screeched, pulling
his cousin onto her feet and into a tight hug. Axis rose, too, grinning
like an idiot. When Kiticatya had been passed around for hugs, yells,
growls, tears, kisses, scolding, more hugs, and more kissing, Zion
finally grabbed her by the shoulders, looked her in the eye and plainly
and firmly demanded to know why she had stolen his best horse and ridden
off to lord knew where. He also demanded to know why she had suddenly
popped up out of nowhere in a flash of silver fire, why she looked like
she'd been through hell's war, and what the HECK did she have in her
hand that she was clutching like it was her life?
Kiticatya blinked...blinked again, and then finally burst out laughing,
doubled over with mirth and sudden joyful realization that she was
safe, Jzaar was defeated, Magamijenya would never arise, and she was
now in possession of the most powerful object in existence anywhere...
Kiticatya held out her hand and uncurled her fingers and revealed, to
her shocked audience, the Destruction Stone.
*END*FLASH*BACK*
Kitten blinked back tears at the uncannily vivid memory. It had only
been the next day that the palace had been stormed by yet another
army...no, ten thousand seperate armies, each of hundreds of thousands
of ogres, vamps, corpises, Livavines, snavipors, and other creatures
that could only be created by someone whom had seen the underworld.
Hardly anyone survived...
Kitcatya, her cousin, her sister, Kiros, and her beloved Axis had
barely gotten out alive to the retreat position, a fortress deep
within the forest of oblivion. Kitten's gaze now flickered the deep,
lush forest to her left. It still looked the same...
Kitten then looked the dark spot on the horizon; the ruins of Aphradan,
the summer palace, from where all their attacks against Jzaar had been
coordinated, and where her life's most crucial descision had been set
in stone...
Stone...
How ironic, she thought. For it had been the Destruction Stone that
Jzaar had sent that monstrous army after. It had been because of her
that so many died, and because of her that she had held a dying Axis
in her arms, while the battle had raged around them...
She had foolishly worn the Destruction Stone around her throat since
the day she had revealed it to her friends. When fighting, the amulet
had fallen out of her blouse, and a ogre had leaped for it, intending
to slice off her head, and the stone along with it.
But Axis...
Kitten gave a sob and fell to the ground, leaning against the tree.
Axis had leaped in front of her, and had taken the blow for himself...
She sobbed harder at the memory...blood...there had been so much *blood!*
So much needlessly spilled blood...blood...red, red blood...innocent
blood...
Kitten looked at her palm through bleary eyes...
So much wasted blood...all on her hands, that red, red blood...
Kitten's hand fell back down to her lap, her entire body feeling lax
and drained as she sat, staring mutely at the ruins that were on the
distant horizon.
Axis had lived -barely- and had continued loving her, despite her
fullhearted belief that the entire thing was her fault.
It had been the day after the attack, when those whom had survived were
recouping at the fortress Alayan, deep within the forest of oblivion,
that Kitten -Kiticatya, then- had remembered the descision she had made
when riding away from Aphradan, a dying Axis slumped over the saddle
in front of her.
She had to become the Shinimejenya Sorceress, the host to the Dragoness
of Destruction...
So, the next afternoon, clutching the stone to her breast, she had ridden
full out towards this very spot, this very tree, where she and Axis had
carved their initials so long ago...
It hadn't been elivated enough, though, so she had went to the hill...
Kitten looked at that hill now, over her shoulder, and rose to her
feet, keeping a hand on the tree. She remembered what had happened
then. Axis, her sweet, gentle, wonderful, quiet, protecting Axis had
predicted her thoughts and actions, and -with Zephra, Kiros, and Zion
behind him- had ridden out to stop her. At least, the others had
wanted to stop her. But somehow...somehow Axis had known that it was
something she needed to do...
Kitten hung her head.
*FLASH*BACK*
"Kitty! Kitten, no, you can't!" Zion, younger, ran towards a young
woman that was beginning to be engulfed by a bright silver-blue light,
an object not visible from where he was, was cupped in the woman's
hands.
The Destruction Stone.
"Kitty, no!" Another woman, Zephra, was right behind the first man. She
sobbed as she fell to her knees. "No...no, my darling little sister...
you can't do this..."
"I have to." A voice said in both their minds, and the mind of a man
that hid behind a large oak tree, his face and eyes ridden with an
emotional agony so great it was impossible to bear just looking at him
as he gazed at the blonde, sea green eyed woman that was now completely
within the bubble of light.
"I have no choice, my cousin, my sister...my love..." This last was
directed to the man behind the tree. "I am already nicknamed, however
fondly, Shinimejenya by the people. Let me know become the Shinimejenya
for real, as is foretold in the Legend."
"But...but we'll loose *you!*" The older woman sobbed.
"No...no, you won't, sister," They were now unable to see the woman in
the light, as the light had become too brilliant. "I will always be
with you. Always."
Then there was a monstrous roar that could only come from the throat of
a dragon. The light pulsed brighter than the sun, then vanished. When
the woman's cousin, sister, and love were able to look again, they saw
a woman, her hair the color of quicksilver, her eyes the color of
flashing opal sapphires, her skin as pale and smooth as snow. She stood
on a hilltop, a sword made of liquid blue fire in her hands. At her
side, was a tiny infant cat with eagle wings, and a dragon-like snout
and tail.
"Behold...the Shinimejenya Sorceress...." Zion whispered, tears in his
eyes.
"Kitty!" The woman screamed, and rushed, stumbling, up the hill to
embrace the younger woman that was her little sister.
*END*FLASH*BACK
Kitten clenched her fist.
That had been the day her life had changed...forever... Sometimes for
the better, sometimes for the worst. At least Shinimejenya had been
safe from Jzaar for a while...No one ever found out what happened to
him and his like after that final attack. He and the ogres, vamps,
corpises, livavines and such had just simply...dissappeared.
She had lived happily; they all had. Then...
Kitten sighed.
Then those creatures of evil had begun to show up again, and Kitten
had known what she had to do... She found a spell...drank a potion...
had opened a portal, and had leapt into a new life, and into the
arms of a group of young men whom she would come to regard as older
brothers.
The Gundam Pilots.
The sun was leaning towards the south, now; the sun set differently on
Zylion. Kitten rubbed her tearstreaked cheeks, and was struck again
with the question on where she was -was this real? or an illusion?- and
why was she there? Were the pilots okay? What about Zephra and Axis and
them? Was Jzaar defeated? *What had happened?*
The wind blew passed, slightly chilly, and stronger than before. Kitten
wrapped her arms around herself as the wind came again, from behind,
whipping her hair and skirt around her. The wind picked up, becoming
stronger...insistent almost...It was pushing her always in the same
direction; towards the hill. Kitten blinked as a thought struck her.
The moment the thought occured to her, the wind vanished. Kitten
blinked again, and looked around her warily.
"Okay..." She whispered gently. "I can take a hint..." Slowly, though
quicker than when she had approached the tree, she cautiously made her
way through the ankle high, sweet smelling grass towards the hill.
She soon found herself at the top, and -with her hands on her hips and
her lips pursed- she looked around to see nothing more or less than she
had the first time she had looked around. She took another step -maybe
whatever it was she was supposed to see depended on you position- when
suddenly the tip of her sandle caught on something, and she stumbled.
She whirled, cursing, intending to grab the rock that had tripped her
and throw it as far as she could. When she laid eyes on the object of
her anger, however, she froze, and breathing suddenly became shallow
and breezy.
In an amazed daze, Kitten fell to her knees, and smoothed the dirt away
from the object half buried in the hard packed earth. She used her nails
and scraped and dug it free, brushing the dirt out of its crevices and
the golden chain that was still unbroken and intact.
Kitten abruptly burst into tears, torn between viciously casing aside
the object she held in her hands and craddling it close. She looked at
it again through bleary eyes, the object that she had always centered
all her blame on, if not herself.
Kitten once again, in her palms, held the Destruction Stone.
"Why must you plague me always?" Kitten hissed at it.
"Because it belongs to you," A voice chimed, sweeping off the wind, a
voice Kitten knew very, very well.
"Shini?" Kitten rose to her feet, amulet still in her hands, ignoring
the tear tracks going down her face. She sniffed.
"Where are you?"
"I'm all around you, child." Shinimjenya said gently. Kitten winced.
Again, that word, 'child.'
"Why am I here? And what do you mean 'it belongs to me?'" Kitten
inquired, turning about, and around again.
"Just what I said. The Stone has finally found its true master, after
many thousands of years; you." Shinimejenya almost sounded amused.
"Child, there was more than one reason why I Chose you for my Host."
Kitten blinked and opened her mouth, but Shinimejenya cut her off. "You
have a gift, young one," The invisible Dragoness continued. "And had I
not become a Rider within you and hidden that gift from everyone
including yourself, that gift would have been discovered, abused, misused,
and you would have become a spiteful, vengeful, bitter woman."
"B-but-"
"No, child, do not ask anymore, for I will not say anymore. Only know
that I now leave you, though only for now, to take up residence once
again inside the stone that was created to house me." In her hands,
the Destruction Stone began to pulse with silver fire.
"Hold me well, young Sorceress," Shimejenya's voice was faint. Kitten
didn't notice that she once again had tears running down her face.
There was a brilliant flash, in which Kitten's entire body flared up in
a bright sapphire colored flame, her skin radiating power. That power
was tapped, and drained, pulled together into one thick, opalescent
colored vein and sucked into the Stone.
With yet another burst of light, it was all over, and Kitten fell to
the ground, feeling completely drained.
It seemed like an eternity that Kitten sat there, feeling the sensation
of being alone in her own body, her own heart and mind. It was eerily...
lonely. Kitten looked down at the amulet in her hands, which now seemed
to have an eternal light within...
Kitten put the stone to her cheek, letting her tears coat it in glossy
salt water.
"I know what my gift is," Kitten whispered through her silent tears.
"At least one of them. You were my gift, Shini, my friend. Thank you.
For...for everything..."
Kitten looked up to the twin, bright moons that now hung overhead, the
light from both of them making her hair shine a pearlescent silver,
and the tears on her face glow like tiny diamonds. Kitten smiled, and
held the amulet to her breast as she raised her other hand. She twitched
her two foremost fingers, almost in a salute to her home planet's
orbital guardians, and with a tinkling if silver dust, she vanished.
To Be Continued...
Ack! Sorry, that was a depressing one. *sweatdrop* Okay, its official,
there is definately something wrong with my ability to finish a story...
heh heh heh...
Well, at least this means you get TWO more chapters to Kitten (counting
the Epilogue) instead of one, right? Thats good, right? *sweatdrop*
Warning; the final chapter will be short, though. At least, shorter
than this...*sigh* My writing life is a roller coster...*sweatdrops
again* Well, ttyl, peeps! Ja ne!
-Alexia Goddess
By Alexia Goddess
Chapter Sixteen
"No..." She hissed, her gaze locked on the dark image just beyond the
gate. She managed to tear her gaze away as she heard the safety of a
gun being released. Her eyes flew open even wider as she saw the Gundam
Pilots again. No! They couldn't be here! They'd be killed for sure!
"I think not, young Heero Yuy," Jzaar's voice was low and amused as he
turned, lowering his previously upheld arms, and faced the newest
occupants of the room. He cocked his head. "A former Gundam Pilot,"
Jzaar's voice was amused, that same mocking tone Kitten remembered so
well. Jzaar turned, his chanting paused for the moment. His gaze
flickered towards where Kitten had backed into the shadows.
"You can come out now, little princess," He laughed. "I do not bite."
Slowly, stiffly, yet still somehow with a liquid grace to her movements,
Kitten let herself materialize out of the shadows.
"Kit!" Duo hissed, glaring daggers. She returned his look coolly,
smirked at her scowling onii-chan, and then turned her gaze back to
Jzaar.
"I made you a promise, traitor," She said, her voice loud, clear, and
quite frankly not her own. Though this time, Shini did not have the
slightest hand in guiding Kitten's words. No, Kitten was doing this
herself. And yet, it wasn't Kitten the prankster teenage girl that was
speaking and acting. No, it was Countess Kiticatya, a warrior of her
age, the Shinimejenya Sorceress.
"Ah, yes, I remember that promise," Jzaar cocked his head, as if
enduring a child's tantrum. "I remember it ver well. Have you come to
fulfill it, Shinimejenya Sorceress?"
Kitten's eyes flashed.
"I stopped you once, and I will do it again." She said evenly.
"Ah..." Jzaar's tone was thoughtful, but a vein in his temple pulsed
angrily. "Yes...yes, you did. Quite clever, Claiming the Destruction
Stone without my knowing, making it so that the Stone would obey you
and you alone. Most clever..."
*FLASH*BACK*
Kiticatya stood at the base of a slightly inclined mound of earth,
barely big enough to be called a hill, but on that small hill was the
object and the man whom held the fate of her entire universe.
The hill was in the center of a bloody battlefield that stretched for
miles. Of two armies, there were only, at most, twenty warriors left
for each side, herself included, now all frozen in a time warp that the
monster before her had created in order to seduce her into becoming
host to the most vile creature imaginable.
The girl had been relying on her trump card, the knowledge that
Magamijenya could not be awakened without the prescence of Shinimejenya.
But that backup plan had been thrwarted when Jzaar had revealed that
he possessed the Destruction Stone, and deep within the depths of that
Stone, was the slumbering, Rider form of Shinimejenya. All he had to
do was awaken her...
And since Jzaar held the stone, when Shinimejenya was awakened, she
would be forced to do as he said.
Kiticatya fell to her knees. It was over...No! She would never be host
to that creature! Never! As long as her will held out, there was no
way Magamijenya could pass over. No way... no way....
The
whisper was faint, almost nonexistent. Slowly, Kiticatya looked up...
And looked directly at the Destruction Stone.
The Stone...she had to get the stone! She *had* to! But...but this was
the most powerful living sorcorer ever! She couldn't! But...but she had
to! She *had* to!!!!!
She couldn't jump at him...no, he was too far away, and he was probably
too quick, even with his paunch; his magic would make sure he was to
quick to be caught by her.
She had to get close enough...just to touch it... She could use a
binding spell; it was instant and it bound the two things touching. The
only way for her to let go was for *her* to tell the counterspell, or
for Jzaar to cut off her hand, and then she would be an unsuitable
canidate.
Yes...she just had to touch it...but first she had to get closer...
"Whats in it for me?" Kiticatya said suddenly, and looked up. Jzaar,
who had been studying her closely, smirked.
"Everything," He said. "You would be acting regent of everything
Magamijenya touched. You, my dear, would very well be an Empress of...
well, the empress of just about everything and everyplace."
Something within Kiticatya's mind clicked. She smirked, mentally. This
was her ticket...
She shrugged. "Fine. You win." She added a hint of disgust to her voice.
Couldn't make it look too easy. She rose to her feet. "What must I do?"
She took a step forward.
"Do?" Jzaar raised an eyebrow. "You need do nothing, child." He pointed
to a spot on the ground. "Just stand there, girl."
Kiticatya went up and stood about a foot away from that spot.
"No, a little furthur over."
She moved two feet over. Jzaar sighed and rolled his eyes as Kiticatya
looked at him in confusion. Please let this work, she prayed. Jzaar
stepped towards her, moving as if to correct her stance...
He never got close enough to touch her.
In a flash, Kiticatya had the amulet, the Destruction Stone, in hand,
and was running for dear life. Around her, the battle reinsued: the
time warp had been canceled, and Jzaar was screaming like a fool. I
spared a glance back, and saw that the portal was filled with swirls
once more, as if the gate spell was collapsing...
Ogres and Vamps and Corpises and others she did not recognize charged
at her; so that was why he had undone the time spell! She dodged them
all, her aching limbs screaming. She brandished her sword like never
before, knowing that now *she* held the fate of her universe...
*END*FLASH*BACK*
"Yes..." Jzaar murmured, hate now going unmasked in his dark eyes.
"Most clever indeed." That vein pulsed again. "My master punished me
harshly. Luckily, I was still invaluable to him, being the most powerfu;
sorcorer in the world, let alone on his side." His eyes flashed again.
"You may have outsmarted me once, child, but I am no longer suseptible
to your childish, female wiles. Now, summon Shinimejenay! I know you
can!"
"You already know what I am going to say," Kitten spat through gritted
teeth. "Never. A thousand times, never."
"Yes, I knew you'd say that," Jzaar grinned, but not the apprently
tolerant, amused grins he had always displayed before. No, this was a
full blown insane grin. He snapped his fingers, and the ground began
to shake...and didn't stop...
Until giant stalks of green-blue flesh sprouted up from underneath the
concrete, twisting and growing and covering every surface. A group of
somehwat smaller vines sprouted up around the Gundam Pilots, wrenching
their firearms from their hands and their sides before twining them up
in their green grasps, like flies caught in a spider's sticky web.
"No!" Kitten leaped forward, Dragon Blade held aloft, aiming to slice
her friends free. Before she got more than a few feet, however, she
was forced to turn her attention towards keeping herself free; vines
of all shapes and sizes launched themselves at her, whipping, twisting,
curling and grabbing. She twisted and turned and leaped and bounded
and ducked and whirled and twirled and bent and swayed every way
imaginable till her entire body felt as worn out and limp and tired as
a cooked noodle. It was only a matter of time till she screwed up...
And where was her sister and cousin and them? They should have been
there by now! Could they be...? No! They had to be alive! They had to
be! They had never left her...even when she hadn't wanted them to they
had always followed her to protect her, even unto the brink of death...
*FLASH*BACK*
Kiticatya ran and ran and ran till her legs were passed the unbearable
burning and were simply numb. She clutched the golden amulet, with the
Destruction Stone in the center, to her breast so hard she would
later find an impression where she had pressed it till her knuckles
cracked and bled again.
The sounds of an army at her heels spurred her speed even faster, her
lungs aflame and her eyes watering with tears of hopelessness and
desperation as she ran.
She gave a cry as the worst and most ridiculous thing that could
possibly happen, *did* happen.
She tripped.
She lay, sprawled and broken on the ground, sobbing, pleading. The
ogres and the rest of those vile creatures would be upon her in a split
second. Kiticatya had only one moment to breath a silent wish...
LIGHT!
WARMTH!
HEALING!
POWER!
ANGER!
Affection...
Kiticatya looked up cautiously, and gasped at what she saw, her breath
coming in ragged gasps. She wasn't even laying down! She was floating,
completely naked, her knees folded up to her chest and her arms wrapped
tightly around her knees. Her hair was as long as it would have been
had it never been cut, her skin as soft and smooth and pale as if she
had never left her mother's womb.
She was floating weightlessly in a massive white expanse, with only the
occassional silver or blue whisps of misty smoke to give the vast plane
any sense of depth.
"Where am I..." Kiticatya breathed out loud.
"You are within the Stone, my lady," Kiticatya gasped, jerking slightly
at the sound of a voice big enough to hold the cosmos and gentle enough
to sing an enfant to sleep.
"The...the Destruction Stone?" The girl breathed.
"Yes...yes, my lady." The voice was gentle, slightly amused.
"Then...then you...b-but you can't be-"
"Oh, can't I?" The voice laughed, a sound that seemed to be woven of
moonbeams and starlight entertwined with light itself. Kiticatya blinked.
This was the voice of the goddess dragon of *destruction?* She couldn't
be...her voice was too beautiful...
"Thank you, my lady," The voice seemed almost...humbled. Kiticatya
blinked. Could Shinimejenya re-
"Yes, I can," The voice cut Kiticatya off, mid-thought. The girl's eyes
widened.
"Why am I here?" She breathed.
"Because you were in danger, and this was the only way I could save you."
"But why?"
"Why did I save you, you mean?" Again, Shinimejenya's voice was amused.
"Because...because I have Chosen you, Countess Kiticatya."
The young girl gasped, her mind reeling in shock-
*END*FLASH*BACK*
Kitten was abruptly yanked from the brief, instant-long memory as she
roughly dodged another whipping vine that was at least three feet in
diameter.
Yet this time, she was too slow, and didn't see the second vine that
came out of nowhere and slammed into the small of her back, forcing
her body to arch painfully. Her hands flew open, and her sword
skittered away and was engulfed in the mass of vines. Blood seeped from
the corner of Kitten's mouth and she gasped, choking on her own life-
fluids.
The vine whipped away, but before she could fall very fall, she was
caught up roughly by another vine that came flying towards her. It
rammed into her midriff, and she hung over it limply as the Gundam
Pilots -namely Duo and Quatre- cried out in screaming concern.
The vines tossed and beat and slammed and crashed and rammed the
Xylion Countess to and froe, Jzaar laughing all the while as he twisted
his hands and waved his arms, controlling the movement of the vines,
tossing the Shinimejenya Sorceress like a rag doll, yet still managing
to keep her alive.
She couldn't loose! There were so many...so many lives depending on her!
On *her!* She *couldn't* loose! She-she had a pro-promise to...to
keep...a promise...more than one... Not just the promise she...she had
m-made to Jz-zaar...promises...
Kitten was barely grasping consciousness, which was flickering in and
out like the bright sphere of flashing light she had seen at circuses
and fairs as a child...she used to love to play with those spheres...
those dancing round, glowing balls of light...
Something in Kitten's mind clicked, and as she was being tossed around
like a limp noodle, she somehow managed to raise her torn and shredded
arm above her head, her fingers curling loosely, her entire body
screaming in pain with the smalle effort. Gasping, the strong metallic,
sweet-sour taste of her onw blood in her mouth, Kitten sputtured a
few pain-gasped words in a long forgotten language.
"Kiskateen...kiskateen ya liyan...froshae...mion-mionea..." Kitten then
promptly lost what little hold she had on consciousness, not managing
to stay awake long enough to see the brilliant flare of fiery light
that had sprung up from her fingertips, forming bright, dancing spheres
of bright red, yellow, orange, blue, and pink fire. The fire danced
and twirled among the branches and vines, catching anything and
everything it could on fire.
The fire spread faster than a highly contagious desiese. The vines
shrieked and screamed as they whithered, blackened, and finally crumbled
into piles of ash.
The vines that had been holding the Gundam Pilots captive burst into
violet flame. The five young men managed to get out of the fire before
it seriously burned any of them, but they all sported bruised ribs
where the vines had been slowly trying to suffocate them. Duo was the
most relieved to find his braid mainly unscathed, intact, and still
there.
"Oh, no, KIT!!!!" Quatre gave a yell, and the other four boys' attention
was yanked to nearly halfway across the stadium sized cavern to where
Kitten lay in the middle of a bonfire, limp, bloody, looking completely
lifeless, and surrounded with a blue fire...
Blue fire that was slowly turning silver...
()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()
Kitten slowly, almost cautiously, became aware of the sensation
of sunlight on her skin, the wind in her hair, grass tickling her
skin, birds singing, and the sweet smell of spring perfumed air
carressing her sense of scent.
She slowly, warily opened her right eye slowly, glancing around to find
that she was laying on her back on a patch of slopping ground; a hillside.
Even slower than she had opened the first eye, Kitten opened the other.
Her eyes widened as she saw a bright blue sky dotted with soft,
perfectly sculpted ice violet clouds. She frowned. Purple clouds? She
looked at the sun; it was high overhead. She sniffed the air. It
smelled slightly...tangy...not earth air. Not somewhat metallic smell
of the recycled colony air, either. Where was she?
Only one way to find out, a voice inside her mind told her. Kitten
sat up cautiously, and blinked in surprise when she realized she was
wearing a light, periwinkle sun dress with small spaghetti straps. The
straps were edged in sea green, as was the swooped neckline and hem;
she was also wearing white sandles. On her wrist was her kitten
bracelet from so long ago, and sea green stud pearl earrings. Her hair
went just past her shoulders in soft, gently slopping and rising waves
and curls, and while the main color was still that miraculous shade of
silver, it now somehow looked opalescent, like Shinimejenya's scales.
Kitten reached up and found a small, simple forehead tiara on her brow;
a smooth, round crystal in the center, with two 'strings' of metal
going from each side and going up and disappearing into her hair.
Halfway between her hairline and the round gem were two smaller ones,
one on each side. She couldn't see the color of anything, but she
assumed the color scheme matched her dress; sea-green, blue, and white.
Kitten, utterly confused and bafflebrained, twisted her torso to get a
better look around. It looked as if she were laying on the side of a
hill, in the middle of a vast expanse of a park type area. Fields of
wildflowers stretched as far as she could see behind her, and in front
of her was a wide, deep blue, crystal clean looking lake. On either
side of her were lush green forests.
Kitten stood up, and placed her hands on her hips. Where was she?
She shaded her eyes from the glare of the sun, and looked across the
long, wide field of wildflowers. With her eyes under the shade of her
hand, she could just make out a dark spot. It could be another hill, a
house, or even just a tree. There were a few trees not part of the
forest that were scattered out before her. There was even a rather large
oak only a few yards away from the base of the hill that she now stood
on the very top of.
Kitten bit her lip and scrunched her brow. Why did this place feel so
familiar? Her gaze caught on the large oak, and she frowned. It
couldn't be...
Suddenly trembling, Kitten to a strenous step forward in the soft grass
that rustled with her movement and the gentle brushing of the wind.
Kitten clenched her fists loosely at her side to try and still their
shaking as she took another step towards the tree.
There was only one way to find out if this place was what she thought
it was...
Taking a deep breath, Kitten, several minutes later of slow, cautious
progress, she took the final step and came close enough to the tree
to see what she needed to see...if it was there... That universal
symbol of love; a heart with the two lovers initials within the heart.
Would it be there?
Kitten looked up and down the trunk of the ancient oak... Her gaze
stopped.
It was there.
Kitten fell against the tree, sobbing. Was she dead? How was she here,
of all places? She couldn't be dead... she had so much to do...so many
promises to keep and fulfill...
Her fingers traced the heart, containing hers and Axis' initials,
sniffing and rubbing her eyes. As she stroked the carved insignia,
Kitten remembered...
*FLASH*BACK*
Kiticatya gasped, her eyes flying open. She immediately shut them again
when she remembered where she was; the ogres preparing to bear down on
her, rip her, shred her to pieces...
But instead of the agonizing bit of thousands of roughly sharpened
swords, she was instead engulfed in arms of warmth, pressed to a broad,
solid chest, loud, coarse obscenitie being shouted in her ear even as
the same person who was cursing venomously was kissing her face and head
and hair all over.
Kiticatya only blinked in swirling confusion.
"Good lord, Axis, give the girl a chance to breath!" A voice snarled.
Kiticatya blinked again and turned to the voice slightly.
"Zephie?" The girl breathed as she set eyes on her glaring older sister.
As she looked, Zephra's eyes softened.
Suddenly Kiticatya snapped out of it, and looked around frantically,
realizing that she was no longer in the middle of a blood soaked
battlefield, though she still wore the same torn and tattered clothes
she had worn when riding out to try and warn the captain of her uncle's
army... She had been too late, and had gotten pulled into the fight...
She finally realized whom was still holding her gently, but firmly,
protectively, and the thirteen year old girl who wasn't really a girl
anymore, looked up into the eyes of her cousin's best friend.
"A-Axis?" Kiticatya stuttered, realizing how close he was holding her.
Axis only buried her into his embrace once more, smoothing her tangled
and gnarled hair away from her face, kissing her forehead, ears, hair,
nose, chin...
Kiticatya managed to gather her wits long enough to grab his head and
guide his face to where she wanted those kissing lips; on hers.
When they finally were forced to part for need of air, Kiticatya was
immediately set upon by her sister, cousin, and Kiros; her cousin's
other best friend and future royal advisor.
"WHAT the heck do you THINK you were DOING?" Zion screeched, pulling
his cousin onto her feet and into a tight hug. Axis rose, too, grinning
like an idiot. When Kiticatya had been passed around for hugs, yells,
growls, tears, kisses, scolding, more hugs, and more kissing, Zion
finally grabbed her by the shoulders, looked her in the eye and plainly
and firmly demanded to know why she had stolen his best horse and ridden
off to lord knew where. He also demanded to know why she had suddenly
popped up out of nowhere in a flash of silver fire, why she looked like
she'd been through hell's war, and what the HECK did she have in her
hand that she was clutching like it was her life?
Kiticatya blinked...blinked again, and then finally burst out laughing,
doubled over with mirth and sudden joyful realization that she was
safe, Jzaar was defeated, Magamijenya would never arise, and she was
now in possession of the most powerful object in existence anywhere...
Kiticatya held out her hand and uncurled her fingers and revealed, to
her shocked audience, the Destruction Stone.
*END*FLASH*BACK*
Kitten blinked back tears at the uncannily vivid memory. It had only
been the next day that the palace had been stormed by yet another
army...no, ten thousand seperate armies, each of hundreds of thousands
of ogres, vamps, corpises, Livavines, snavipors, and other creatures
that could only be created by someone whom had seen the underworld.
Hardly anyone survived...
Kitcatya, her cousin, her sister, Kiros, and her beloved Axis had
barely gotten out alive to the retreat position, a fortress deep
within the forest of oblivion. Kitten's gaze now flickered the deep,
lush forest to her left. It still looked the same...
Kitten then looked the dark spot on the horizon; the ruins of Aphradan,
the summer palace, from where all their attacks against Jzaar had been
coordinated, and where her life's most crucial descision had been set
in stone...
Stone...
How ironic, she thought. For it had been the Destruction Stone that
Jzaar had sent that monstrous army after. It had been because of her
that so many died, and because of her that she had held a dying Axis
in her arms, while the battle had raged around them...
She had foolishly worn the Destruction Stone around her throat since
the day she had revealed it to her friends. When fighting, the amulet
had fallen out of her blouse, and a ogre had leaped for it, intending
to slice off her head, and the stone along with it.
But Axis...
Kitten gave a sob and fell to the ground, leaning against the tree.
Axis had leaped in front of her, and had taken the blow for himself...
She sobbed harder at the memory...blood...there had been so much *blood!*
So much needlessly spilled blood...blood...red, red blood...innocent
blood...
Kitten looked at her palm through bleary eyes...
So much wasted blood...all on her hands, that red, red blood...
Kitten's hand fell back down to her lap, her entire body feeling lax
and drained as she sat, staring mutely at the ruins that were on the
distant horizon.
Axis had lived -barely- and had continued loving her, despite her
fullhearted belief that the entire thing was her fault.
It had been the day after the attack, when those whom had survived were
recouping at the fortress Alayan, deep within the forest of oblivion,
that Kitten -Kiticatya, then- had remembered the descision she had made
when riding away from Aphradan, a dying Axis slumped over the saddle
in front of her.
She had to become the Shinimejenya Sorceress, the host to the Dragoness
of Destruction...
So, the next afternoon, clutching the stone to her breast, she had ridden
full out towards this very spot, this very tree, where she and Axis had
carved their initials so long ago...
It hadn't been elivated enough, though, so she had went to the hill...
Kitten looked at that hill now, over her shoulder, and rose to her
feet, keeping a hand on the tree. She remembered what had happened
then. Axis, her sweet, gentle, wonderful, quiet, protecting Axis had
predicted her thoughts and actions, and -with Zephra, Kiros, and Zion
behind him- had ridden out to stop her. At least, the others had
wanted to stop her. But somehow...somehow Axis had known that it was
something she needed to do...
Kitten hung her head.
*FLASH*BACK*
"Kitty! Kitten, no, you can't!" Zion, younger, ran towards a young
woman that was beginning to be engulfed by a bright silver-blue light,
an object not visible from where he was, was cupped in the woman's
hands.
The Destruction Stone.
"Kitty, no!" Another woman, Zephra, was right behind the first man. She
sobbed as she fell to her knees. "No...no, my darling little sister...
you can't do this..."
"I have to." A voice said in both their minds, and the mind of a man
that hid behind a large oak tree, his face and eyes ridden with an
emotional agony so great it was impossible to bear just looking at him
as he gazed at the blonde, sea green eyed woman that was now completely
within the bubble of light.
"I have no choice, my cousin, my sister...my love..." This last was
directed to the man behind the tree. "I am already nicknamed, however
fondly, Shinimejenya by the people. Let me know become the Shinimejenya
for real, as is foretold in the Legend."
"But...but we'll loose *you!*" The older woman sobbed.
"No...no, you won't, sister," They were now unable to see the woman in
the light, as the light had become too brilliant. "I will always be
with you. Always."
Then there was a monstrous roar that could only come from the throat of
a dragon. The light pulsed brighter than the sun, then vanished. When
the woman's cousin, sister, and love were able to look again, they saw
a woman, her hair the color of quicksilver, her eyes the color of
flashing opal sapphires, her skin as pale and smooth as snow. She stood
on a hilltop, a sword made of liquid blue fire in her hands. At her
side, was a tiny infant cat with eagle wings, and a dragon-like snout
and tail.
"Behold...the Shinimejenya Sorceress...." Zion whispered, tears in his
eyes.
"Kitty!" The woman screamed, and rushed, stumbling, up the hill to
embrace the younger woman that was her little sister.
*END*FLASH*BACK
Kitten clenched her fist.
That had been the day her life had changed...forever... Sometimes for
the better, sometimes for the worst. At least Shinimejenya had been
safe from Jzaar for a while...No one ever found out what happened to
him and his like after that final attack. He and the ogres, vamps,
corpises, livavines and such had just simply...dissappeared.
She had lived happily; they all had. Then...
Kitten sighed.
Then those creatures of evil had begun to show up again, and Kitten
had known what she had to do... She found a spell...drank a potion...
had opened a portal, and had leapt into a new life, and into the
arms of a group of young men whom she would come to regard as older
brothers.
The Gundam Pilots.
The sun was leaning towards the south, now; the sun set differently on
Zylion. Kitten rubbed her tearstreaked cheeks, and was struck again
with the question on where she was -was this real? or an illusion?- and
why was she there? Were the pilots okay? What about Zephra and Axis and
them? Was Jzaar defeated? *What had happened?*
The wind blew passed, slightly chilly, and stronger than before. Kitten
wrapped her arms around herself as the wind came again, from behind,
whipping her hair and skirt around her. The wind picked up, becoming
stronger...insistent almost...It was pushing her always in the same
direction; towards the hill. Kitten blinked as a thought struck her.
The moment the thought occured to her, the wind vanished. Kitten
blinked again, and looked around her warily.
"Okay..." She whispered gently. "I can take a hint..." Slowly, though
quicker than when she had approached the tree, she cautiously made her
way through the ankle high, sweet smelling grass towards the hill.
She soon found herself at the top, and -with her hands on her hips and
her lips pursed- she looked around to see nothing more or less than she
had the first time she had looked around. She took another step -maybe
whatever it was she was supposed to see depended on you position- when
suddenly the tip of her sandle caught on something, and she stumbled.
She whirled, cursing, intending to grab the rock that had tripped her
and throw it as far as she could. When she laid eyes on the object of
her anger, however, she froze, and breathing suddenly became shallow
and breezy.
In an amazed daze, Kitten fell to her knees, and smoothed the dirt away
from the object half buried in the hard packed earth. She used her nails
and scraped and dug it free, brushing the dirt out of its crevices and
the golden chain that was still unbroken and intact.
Kitten abruptly burst into tears, torn between viciously casing aside
the object she held in her hands and craddling it close. She looked at
it again through bleary eyes, the object that she had always centered
all her blame on, if not herself.
Kitten once again, in her palms, held the Destruction Stone.
"Why must you plague me always?" Kitten hissed at it.
"Because it belongs to you," A voice chimed, sweeping off the wind, a
voice Kitten knew very, very well.
"Shini?" Kitten rose to her feet, amulet still in her hands, ignoring
the tear tracks going down her face. She sniffed.
"Where are you?"
"I'm all around you, child." Shinimjenya said gently. Kitten winced.
Again, that word, 'child.'
"Why am I here? And what do you mean 'it belongs to me?'" Kitten
inquired, turning about, and around again.
"Just what I said. The Stone has finally found its true master, after
many thousands of years; you." Shinimejenya almost sounded amused.
"Child, there was more than one reason why I Chose you for my Host."
Kitten blinked and opened her mouth, but Shinimejenya cut her off. "You
have a gift, young one," The invisible Dragoness continued. "And had I
not become a Rider within you and hidden that gift from everyone
including yourself, that gift would have been discovered, abused, misused,
and you would have become a spiteful, vengeful, bitter woman."
"B-but-"
"No, child, do not ask anymore, for I will not say anymore. Only know
that I now leave you, though only for now, to take up residence once
again inside the stone that was created to house me." In her hands,
the Destruction Stone began to pulse with silver fire.
"Hold me well, young Sorceress," Shimejenya's voice was faint. Kitten
didn't notice that she once again had tears running down her face.
There was a brilliant flash, in which Kitten's entire body flared up in
a bright sapphire colored flame, her skin radiating power. That power
was tapped, and drained, pulled together into one thick, opalescent
colored vein and sucked into the Stone.
With yet another burst of light, it was all over, and Kitten fell to
the ground, feeling completely drained.
It seemed like an eternity that Kitten sat there, feeling the sensation
of being alone in her own body, her own heart and mind. It was eerily...
lonely. Kitten looked down at the amulet in her hands, which now seemed
to have an eternal light within...
Kitten put the stone to her cheek, letting her tears coat it in glossy
salt water.
"I know what my gift is," Kitten whispered through her silent tears.
"At least one of them. You were my gift, Shini, my friend. Thank you.
For...for everything..."
Kitten looked up to the twin, bright moons that now hung overhead, the
light from both of them making her hair shine a pearlescent silver,
and the tears on her face glow like tiny diamonds. Kitten smiled, and
held the amulet to her breast as she raised her other hand. She twitched
her two foremost fingers, almost in a salute to her home planet's
orbital guardians, and with a tinkling if silver dust, she vanished.
To Be Continued...
Ack! Sorry, that was a depressing one. *sweatdrop* Okay, its official,
there is definately something wrong with my ability to finish a story...
heh heh heh...
Well, at least this means you get TWO more chapters to Kitten (counting
the Epilogue) instead of one, right? Thats good, right? *sweatdrop*
Warning; the final chapter will be short, though. At least, shorter
than this...*sigh* My writing life is a roller coster...*sweatdrops
again* Well, ttyl, peeps! Ja ne!
-Alexia Goddess