~~~
"Put me down, you overgrown brute!" Toraneko yelled in the grasps of an enormous and quite ugly beast. It must not have heard her, or, if it had, didn't care. Telex and Tari were in similar conditions, as was Wufei. The Chinese boy was silent, as was Telex, but inwardly, they were shouting as loudly as TN and Tari.
The writer would like to inform her readers that she has a certain boundary in which she cannot elude her own words. Tari often oversteps these boundaries, to the point where she cannot repeat them. This is one of those times.
Simply put, Tari's words will not be quoted here. Let's just say that she was putting up quite the fight and would make many a sailor blush at her words.
Releena, Duo, and Quatre were no where to be found as of yet. However, the silent Shin and Une both knew that they would be encountering them soon enough, along with, most likely, Rem, Waterweed, and Caprice.
"They'll have to go back for Siri and Raine," Shin muttered under his breath to Une. "There are six of them. They need six tainted girls for their sacrifice. We have a little time."
"Very little," Une said worriedly. Something struck her just then. "Why do they need girls who have lost their virginity?"
"Some sort of power is emitted from those who are still pure," Shin answered bitterly. "That power makes the demons unable to touch them. Once that power is released, however..." He let it hang.
"Wait a moment," Telex said quietly. "There are five women here now, counting Releena. Why do they need both Siri and Raine?"
"I think they need Siri for her power," Shin answered as they reached an archway. "The rules are very complicated and very exact."
"Rules?" Wufei inquired, but Shin was cut off as they were all thrown, headfirst, into the dungeon-like room. As the god huffed and wheezed to sit, he began to answer.
"Yeah...demons have a...code they must follow, kinda like a barrier they can't break. Vampires have those kind of codes, too. I'm not entirely certain on the specifics, but I know they can't attack someone who has attempted suicide within twenty-four hours, nor those guarding them. So Siri is safe, for at least another twelve hours."
"Tell us all you know about their code," Tari demanded. "We might be able to use it."
"All right, let me think a moment..." Shin sat down to think. "They cannot break up a heart-to-heart fight between mortals, can't fall in love with a mortal, can't outright kill a mortal-"
"Wait. Stop right there," Toraneko said. "They killed you, remember? And how are they gonna use us as sacrifices if they can't kill us?"
"They have animal forms they can take," Shin answered. "If they are in those forms, they can kill."
"Then the ocelot..."
"And those falcons!" Wufei shouted. "Capri's house was covered with them!"
"Yes, very so," Shin nodded. "Well, anyway, they also cannot interfere with true love. If they kill one, they've gotta kill the other. At the same time, too."
"I've got an idea!" Telex whispered frantically. "They know some of us are in love. Why don't we pretend that we're in love with someone else that we know we're not?"
"Because that also means they've gotta kill us first, Telex," Shin answered blandly.
Telex blushed a little.
"Anything else?" Tari pushed.
"Plenty, but nothing I can remember right off the bat. I know they're pretty similar to vampires when it comes to their code, but I just can't remember the proper way to fully kill a demon, yet keep the body they inhabit alive..."
"Well, try to think of it!" Tari snapped. "'Cause there's no way you're gonna kill Duo or Quatre! Even if Duo is an-"
"Tari!" Toraneko stopped her.
"Sounding like Raine now," Tari muttered.
"Raine and Siri are our last hope, I'm afraid," Une sighed.
"Shin?" Toraneko asked him quietly. "Do you have any idea what Siri's power is? And who the other holder is?"
"I have been unable to determine her full power, no, I'm sorry," Shin smiled feebly. "But I have figured out who the other holder is."
"Who?" came several voices.
"Heero Yuy."
~~~
"This can't be good," Raine groaned, pounding her head hard against the wall. Trowa pulled her away from it, effectively stopping her from hurting herself again.
"No, Raine, this isn't good," I sighed. "I figured out who the other demons were a little too late."
"Who were they?" Heero asked.
"Duo, Quatre, and Releena," I answered softly. "I figured it out in my sleep. I have these strange dreams that I often forget before I even wake up. And then I find them again, most of the time too late."
"Makes sense," Trowa nodded. "What do we do?"
"We go to the dimension where our friends are," I answered, more bravely than I felt. "And we rescue them."
"But Siri, there are only four of us," Raine blanched.
"I couldn't care less if we were a hundred, Raine," I told her, determination plain on my pale, drawn face. "The few people who've ever cared about me are in danger. And so are we, if we allow it. I figured out what my power is, and who the other holder is."
"What? Who?" Heero asked.
"The power of perception, learning, and spiritual gathering," I replied, holding up my head. "And my fellow holder is the same. He stands right here before me, the pilot of Zero, the Wings of the Gundams."
"Siri..." Raine blinked at me reproachfully. "How do you know all that?"
"I don't know," I shook my head. "I just...know. And the scariest thing of all is that now that I know how to use my power, I will not stop using it."
"Let's go," Heero nodded. "We're gonna kick some demon butt."
***
Wufei gave an insane sort of laugh, bitter in his own right.
"Our worse fix yet, and the two people with the most problems are our last hope. How ironic can things get?"
Telex gave a derisive snort and nodded her agreement.
"Now wait a minute here!" Toraneko shouted. "What do you mean, most problems? I agree Siri attempted suicide, but that doesn't mean she's got the most problems out of all of us! And what's Heero ever done to bring you to that conclusion?"
Wufei suddenly seemed quite nervous. And, as the only three people who would understand were either with said person or were possessed, he had no where to turn.
"Yes, I would like to know where that particular analysis came into play," Tari crossed her arms and glared at the raven-haired Chinese boy, who, at the moment, looked about as flustered as he could get. "Wu-man."
Now if that didn't get to him, nothing could.
"Now see here, you impertinent woman-"
"Just explain what you mean," Shin invested upon him. The mohawked god knew quite well that he was taking a gamble at interrupting the justice-and-honor-preaching boy.
"Fine," the boy took a deep, settling breath.
"Start with Siri," Tari hissed slowly. She was not a happy camper.
"I overheard Yuy speaking with her. In the gardens. Apparently she is...no longer pure."
"What do you mean, 'no longer pure'?" Toraneko snarled, upholding her name quite well.
Une's breath, however, had caught in her throat. She knew quite well what he'd meant. Siri had told her almost too plainly what had happened. ...Mother, father's been the worst, I swear it upon all things sacred...
If her daughter could swear such a thing, Une knew she had meant it. Suddenly, she felt very, very ill.
"Her father..." Wufei gulped, pale as the palest ghost. Had Duo been there as himself, he would have been clueless. But the others were not as dense and knew precisely what he spoke of long before he said any words.
"You can stop there, Wufei," Telex swallowed coarse bile within her throat. "Well, I think we found one of the many reasons Siri attempted to kill herself."
"But what about Heero?" Tari asked.
"Yuy's been through too much to tell it all," Wufei said warily. "Yet one thing I can say is this; he was stripped of feelings. I remember something he said to me once, just before he allowed himself to be pulled into the Earth's Pacific Ocean. He asked me..." Telex put a hand on his shoulder.
"I don't think you should continue," she scowled. "I see your point on Siri. No point in telling things over again."
"I, too, think it is best," Shin nodded, followed very quickly by Toraneko. Then, as suddenly as the silence had begun again, Shin slapped his own forehead, as though suddenly recalling something. "I just remembered! The only way to exorcise a demon of this sort is..."
***
~~~
"Uh...Heero?" I said, shaking in silent mirth at his words. (AN-Kick some demon butt, if I recall correctly) "How are we supposed to get to...to the...to the other dimension?" I finally broke down and was sitting on the floor in roaring laughter, Raine beside me. Trowa and Heero exchanged a look and waited for us to finish, which took about...seven minutes and twenty-three seconds.
"We go the same way we went."
"Um...Heero? Shin opened that for us."
"He taught me how."
"Oh."
Within seconds, we were going through the black hole again, riding the proverbial roller coaster that it was.
And landed right in the middle of a group of ugly beasts, about twice the height of a man and three times as wide. Their skin was the color of green parakeets, but these were not cute little Australian-originating house pets. To basically describe what they looked like? Enormous dragons with black bird wings.
"Uh...Siri? Heero?" Raine stammered quietly, not moving an inch. "Was this part of the plan?"
"Definitely not part of the plan!" I snapped back, a waver of panic in my tone.
"What do you suggest we do?" Trowa asked calmly. My eyes widened on bang-boy. How could he be so calm at a time like this?! A quick look to Heero told me that he, too, was the same way. Why weren't they panicking?
"Well, well, well," sneered a very familiar voice that sported an unfamiliar tone. Duo Maxwell stood in the midst of the monsters, quite comfortable. "Look what we've caught in our trap, boys. Two holders and two more sacrifices."
Trowa visibly paled. Well, at least he showed some emotion. Heero was still as passive as if Duo had been asking him to come out and play! Raine was shaking so hard, I thought her jaws would break apart and make all her teeth fall out.
For some reason, however, I felt as calm as a cucumber. I knew I had the answers now, somehow. They would come to me, possibly at the very last moment. But it was as though I could defeat anyone now, as though I held the answer to life itself. It wasn't a very pleasant feeling; more like grimly satisfactory.
"Get 'em," Duo said coldly. I knew this was no longer Duo. His voice was all too cold, all too lacking in emotion and pride to be the happy-go-lucky braided boy he had once been. Wait a minute...where was his braid?!
Before I could inquire on such, however, two of the huge creatures grabbed Heero and me about the waist, taking us in one direction, and Trowa and Raine were headed in another. I had a bad feeling I wouldn't be seeing them until it was almost too late. Duo followed the monsters who were carrying Heero and myself, riding on one of them as though it were some kind of great horse.
The sight of Duo astride the monsters, using them as his own personal slaves, was too much. I had been taught long ago that no matter how ugly a thing is, it's always got something good going for it. No matter what.
"The Yin-Yang," I whispered to myself. "The good is always mixed into the evil." Maybe it was true for demons too. I hoped so. But who was I kidding?
~~~
"To exorcise these type of demons, you must have a Holder of Power play music while another sings," Shin explained carefully to the dumbstruck group. "In other words, either Siri or Heero have to play a musical instrument while one of them sings."
Blinks.
"But neither of them even have an instrument, and I doubt Heero can sing," said the newly-arrived Raine. She and Trowa had been dropped, rather roughly, into the dungeon not too long ago.
"True..." Toraneko groaned. "This is hopeless! Unless one of those two can come up with an instrument they can play and the other can sing, we're basically done for!"
"And how would we tell them anyway?" Telex said sarcastically. "Cups and a string?"
"Actually..."
"I wasn't serious, Shin," Telex snapped.
"No, I realize that," Shin explained. "But maybe I can establish a mental link to them. Who was closest to Heero?"
"Siri," Tari answered glumly.
"After her," Shin waved his hand.
"Duo," Wufei rolled his eyes.
"After him?"
"Quatre."
"This isn't our day," Telex moaned. "We might as well just break on outta here and go tell them!"
"We can't do that, Telex," Toraneko told her. "We have to try. It isn't just our lives at stake here. It's Siri and Heero and our families. And strangers, billions of them, people we don't even know, who don't even know they're counting on us now."
"TN's right, you guys," Tari nodded. "Are we gonna save them or not? I may not have always gotten along with my mom, but I don't want her dead, either. And I'm still waiting for Jim. I don't know about you guys, but I'm gonna give it my all."
"No way I'm losing the friends I've got left," Telex stood up. "I'm with you guys."
Raine looked around. "I've got a lot of family down there who are worried sick about me. I can't let them down. Can't let you guys down. I'm in."
Four hands shot into the center of their usual five.
"For everyone."
~~~
Heero and I were dumped roughly, side by side, in a small, white on white room. Seriously, all white. White walls, white floors, two white bunks, white sheets, white everything. Duo stuck his face against thick glass that exposed the small room to the outside.
"We'll figure out what your power is, children," he mocked us. "And then we'll use it to our own advantage."
"There's no way you're making me do nothing!" I shouted at him, kicking the glass as hard as I could, producing dissatisfying effects. Ouch, did that hurt.
"We won't have to," Duo chuckled. "We'll just get a couple of good men to inhabit your bodies for the times we need them." He turned and left, the cold laughter reverberating off of the long hallway, back into the room where Heero was preventing me from charging at his retreating back through the glass again.
"Siri, calm down."
"I won't calm down, not till I've wiped that stupid grin off his face!"
"Siri, this isn't helping."
"I don't care! Lemme at him! Lemme at him!"
Heero turned me around in his arms and hugged me tightly. The suddenness of it made me stop short.
"Stop, Siri. Please, stop."
"I'm sorry. I-I just-"
"Shh...I know. But this is not going to help. Are you going to be all right?" I nodded, now embarrassed. What had I been thinking? Or hadn't been thinking. He slowly let me go, as though afraid I'd suddenly charge toward the window again.
"What's wrong, Heero?" I smirked. "Afraid I'm gonna run away?"
Siri? Siri, can you hear me?
"Tari?!" I yelped.
"Tari?" Heero repeated. "Are you sure you're okay?"
Yeah, it's me. I'll explain in a minute, if we have time. First I gotta tell ya how to exorcise the demons. Do you happen to have an instrument of any kind on you?
"An instrument?"
"An instrument?" Heero once again repeated.
Yeah, a musical instrument.
"I don't think--Yeah! I do! A harmonica!"
"A harmonica?"
A harmonica?
"Is there an echo here? Yes, a harmonica!"
Okay. Can you play the harmonica?
"Sort of."
Is Heero there?
"Yeah, Heero's here."
"What about me?"
Ask him if he can sing.
I blanched. Heero? Sing? I'd never heard such a preposterous question. But if it helps...
"Heero, can you sing?"
He blinked in surprise. "Sing?"
"Yeah, sing."
"I've never tried before," a slight pink flush tinted his cheeks. It was very, very slight, so much that I would not have seen it had I not been expecting it.
"Uh...Tari, he says he's never tried before."
Silence.
All right, ask him if he can play the harmonica.
"Can you play the harmonica?"
"Yes," he answered, still in surprise. Well, as much as the Perfect Soldier could get, anyway.
"He can."
All right, here's the deal. The only way to exorcise these demons is if the holders of power sing and play a musical instrument together. Pick a song and stick with it.
"How are you talking to me?"
Shin formed some kind of link between our minds. Something about being closest, other than love.
"Oh."
I gotta go. Start getting together a game plan, 'cause Duo, Releena, and Quatre are coming the get us. I think Waterweed and Caprice are coming to get you guys. Be careful, Siri. See ya soon.
"Yeah. See ya."
I explained things to Heero as best I could. How do I say this? To tell you how he reacted? Um...it's not easy to tell you that Heero was very, very surprised. I'll just leave the rest up to your imagination.
After Heero overcame his haze, or looked like it, anyway, I asked him how we were going to put what Tari said into action.
"Hn."
"Heero," I whined loudly. "Don't do that!"
"Hn."
"How are we gonna do this?" I moaned, sinking into the lower bunk of the tiny room.
"I don't know." He was calm. Why was he calm? The proper thing to do at a time like this was to panic! We had no plan, and our only weapon was something I hadn't done in years, and probably he hadn't either.
"I thought you were the great leader of this team," I rumbled out, not even paying attention to what I was saying. "That you knew all the answers."
"I don't," he said simply. "Siri, listen, no one has all the answers. Not even Shin."
"Well...I don't..." I stuttered. "What...you mean...gah!"
"We should pick a song."
"Why's that?" I asked, sighing. "It's not like it'll do us much good."
"I have an idea. What song?"
I thought for a moment. I thought good and hard. And came up with the perfect song. The perfect song for the Perfect Soldier and the Imperfect Loner.
"Pay Attention."
"To what?"
***