The Queen's Honor Guard
by Nyohah
II.
Rah Cai Yue landed hard on both feet, the force of his portal shoving him down into the tall, tan grass that eclipsed his crouched form. He stood, breathing heavily from the exhaustion of maintaining the portal, and stepped toward the rest of the honor guard, the wide grass caught underfoot rustling overbearingly in the unnatural silence, the white cloud formed by his breath staining the abnormally cold air.
He released control of the portal to Kei Sa and focused his concentration on the situation after briefly realizing that, although she had no direct control over the gravitational forces necessary to create the portal, she would likely have an easier time maintaining it than he did.
Ahead of him, the eleven other warriors surveyed the area, their faces reddened by the chill. It was too cold, too quiet. Kahn's work, no doubt, suppressing the life of the planet, but surely he had not already won. Where were the Centaurions, the Shokans, the army—
"Where's the battle?" asked Li Wei Yong, his left hand clutching the hilt of his sword in a reverse grip, a gap of glinting metal protruding from the sheath.
Cai Yue closed his eyes, studying the disrupted energy of the planet. "Another portal," he noted, raising a finger to point to the right of theirs, past an area of dead trees, killed, broken, and scattered by a flood decades earlier. "Not far, really."
"Must be far enough," said Ta Lian Shi. "Are you sure?"
"Hush," Nai Do Xian commanded suddenly, raising a hand and creasing his eyebrows. "I think I may be hearing something. It's faint, but it's coming from that direction." He shrugged. "Might as well, right?"
The general nodded slowly. Ming did also, though hers was jerky, her face pale.
As the honor guard headed toward the trees, Cai Yue slid his sword from its sheath on his back, holding it loosely as his side. With a few quick steps he caught up to Ming and paced beside her. "You going to be all right?"
She swallowed, tightening her grip on her double-bladed staff. "I can't hear them." She caressed the tip of a tall blade of grass. "It's as though they're utterly lifeless."
"It's as though the whole planet's dead, Ming." He shook his head. "If we don't pull together to fight for it, it will stay that way."
"I'll be fine," she said curtly, brushing her hand across her forehead to push back loose hairs that didn't exist.
In some ways, she really hadn't changed since they were kids, still taking offense at the slightest things if they even hinted at a scolding of her. Cai Yue shook his head and let her walk away.
Before them, as they entered the grave of gray-parched wood, the bed of grass fell away into a valley, filled with the madness of four full armies slaughtering the members of those they opposed. The clamor of clashing metal, flesh, and rock coupled with the screams, bellows, and grunts of those who fell was muffled, faded to a whisper in a meager distance, swallowed by air that refused to break its deathly stillness for even a sound wave.
The battle was vicious and personal. At first glance, Cai Yue saw a Mandalorian crushed by a Shokan, a mutant of Kahn's army's skull fractured by a Centaurion hoof, a Mandalorian decapitated by a mutant, a mutant eviscerated by a Mandalorian.
He tore his eyes from the horror and looked to the nexus of roiling gravitational energies. The portal he'd detected was in its infant stages, just a small, angry-looking vortex, but Cai Yue sensed an overwhelming will directing its creation and an abominable amount of force built up behind it. He knew immediately it was not intended to slip a few more mutants and Shokans into the battlefield. The portal was meant to let through the evil that would personally secure control of the planet.
"Shao Kahn's coming through that," he said simply.
"Then is there any question what our goal is?" Hua Quy Ling asserted, his gaze on the opening portal.
"If you get me close enough," Cai Yue breathed, stepping forward, "I think I can close it."
"How are you going to do that?" Lan Yiao Nih's remark was based on a firm sense of reality, and solidified the doubt in most of the fighters.
But Cai Yue just shrugged slightly. "I have no idea." He whirled to face the others. "We have to try." He flicked his sword. "I have to do something."
Tieh Chen Yi took a step out of the loose line the honor guard had formed and nodded toward the priest. "I'll help."
Cai Yue glanced sideways, to the ground. He raised his left palm in a halting gesture. "How?"
"Well, your element is just a branch of mine, gravity being an attribute of the earth. I figure that the relationship will give our energies some sort of compatibility. Since the planet isn't doing anything, its energy has been frozen but not destroyed, so I awaken some of it, use it to fuel your psyche, and you destroy the portal." He looked down and spoke more quietly. "...in theory anyway."
Zhen Feng Qui's mouth twitched. "You're starting to sound like Yen Sa," he commented, a faint smile cracking through.
He was ignored.
Li Wei Yong raised both hands and attention was redirected to him. "So the plan you're proposing consists of us shepherding you two to the other side of a valley filled with war so that you can attempt the untested and likely impossible?"
Chen Yi scratched above one ear. "Basically."
The general pulled his sword from its sheath. "Desperation is a dangerous thing."
The Queen's Honor Guard carefully climbed down the incline leading to the valley, painfully aware of their lack of defense and heading for what seemed to be the emptiest route to the portal. It was still filled with and flanked by dozens of enemies, and dozens more allies that needed to be avoided and protected, further hampering their chances for success. However, it was less filled than the rest of the valley, which, conveniently for the honor guard, was so packed with fighting that none of the warriors had the chance to attack anything other than what was immediately beside them. Therefore, they could not worry about the twelve warriors making their way into the valley, no matter who they were and how good they were supposed to be.
Tieh Chen Yi found the descent less complicated than the others did. The smooth dip caused by the river whose flood had destroyed the only trees of the plain broke into a crumbling rock face, then a hill of sliding stones. The earth had been shattered and moved by an earthquake recent enough for him to still feel its repercussions in the earth beneath him. A flick of his wrist wrapped his whip's end around one of the numerous withered roots protruding from the short cliff, and he swung to a lower level with ease.
As he slipped past Lan Yiao Nih, the captain glared at him, then returned to frowning at the battle. He muttered, "We need Kei Sa," then swore loudly as Tempest, having twisted his ankle on a shifting rock, fell into him, pushing the captain to the ground.
"Watch it, old man," Captain Lan said, lurching to his feet and retrieving a wide dagger.
Chen Yi wrapped his whip around his right arm and hopped backward, extending the left to the fallen ninja. "Are you all right, sir?"
"Fine," said Tempest, accepting the help, "no thanks to the cesspit of hostility some call Captain Lan."
Chen Yi smiled slowly, then swung the rest of the way to the ground. He wrenched the whip from the last root it had been wrapped around and with the same motion caught the arm of a mutant above its blade, jerking it backward and tangling the mutant in the remainder of the whip. He saved one Mandalorian's life with the action, and likely numerous others' by cleaving the mutant's throat with his waved dagger.
With a vicious pull he unwound the whip, sending the mutant's carcass rolling across the battlefield, only to be crushed underfoot by a dying, staggering Shokan. As his whip cracked across another mutant's bare, jaundice chest, rending a trail of blood, he heard an arrow whistle past his ear and jerked his head sideways to follow its path. It imbedded itself through a Shokan's eye and into its brain cavity. Chen Yi ducked a swing by the injured mutant, glancing to the other side to see Nai Do Xian crouched at the top of the rock pile, another arrow loaded as he evenly acquired another target.
"Good," grunted the fourth honor guard as he parried another swing and ploughed his boot up and into the mutant's stubby nose above its sadistic mouthful of incisors. The sniper was proficient in hand-to-hand combat, but he would do most good away from the battle, and likely be the one Mandalorian able to fell a Shokan by himself.
The mutant's nose was crushed and several of its sharpened teeth broken but the superficial injuries were mere side effects of the kick's intention. Its neck cracked audibly, and the mutant tumbled to the ground.
Chen Yi heard a thump beside him and watched Rai Cai Yue fling his sword through a mutant's abdomen, spilling its intestines; the priest struck from a low stance, throwing his other arm behind him, then stood.
"Ready?" he asked.
Chen Yi nodded. "How shall we go?"
"As quickly as possible," Cai Yue instructed, glancing at the portal, which became larger with every wasted moment, "but not so quickly as the fools we are." Cai Yue flicked his sword into a guard and dashed toward the portal, glancing continuously in every direction, spying for threats.
"And hope the others find the time to keep our enemies off our backs," Chen Yi concluded, and followed him.
The honor guard did what they could, but their enemies weren't apt to fall back in order to allow the fighters to flank their friends. The Mandalorian army, seeing its heroes make an obvious attempt for the portal, managed to muster a renewed effort through their exhaustion. The Centaurions between the pair of honor guard members and the portal began to herd their enemies away from a path to the portal, even at a greater death toll to themselves. Tieh Chen Yi saw the support and gleaned from it and the ever-closer portal a new sense of confidence. All their allies were behind them: the honor guard, Centaurions, army—
He halted. "Cai Yue!"
Rah Cai Yue jumped, his rhythm broken. He impaled a mutant before turning. "What?"
"Where are the Vyrenchi?"
The priest whirled in search, taking a head off a mutant as he did so. Then both fighters jumped back as a Shokan broke through the Centaurion barrier, heading for them. Chen Yi's confidence dissipated in an instant. He didn't know if the two of them could take one of the monstrous Shokans.
But the Shokan staggered between them, madly waving its four arms, its mouth open as though gasping. Then it fell, no wounds visible.
"It think we found them," commented Cai Yue.
"I was wondering why the Shokans weren't causing more trouble."
"Now is not the time for curiosity. We have a mission."
Chen Yi nodded. "But we are almost there."
The priest smiled and dashed off again. Chen Yi shook his head and followed. Three slain mutants later they stood at the base of a grassy incline that led to the roiling portal. Several other honor guard members had managed to follow them, and began to form a semicircle around them, forming a barrier against attack.
Chen Yi looked up at the portal. "Should we climb?"
Rah Cai Yue shook his head almost casually. "I think we're close enough."
Chen Yi glanced over his shoulder. Behind him, the queen let out a high-pitched, shrieking battle cry that challenged and nearly broke the air's oppressing stillness and whirled her staff. She impaled a mutant on one end, then grazed another's neck with the opposite blade, wrenching the first sideways through the mutant's abdomen at the same time. The blood from the second mutant's jugular splattered Ming's face, and Chen Yi turned back to the priest. "Are you sure we'll be safe? They're getting hit pretty hard back there."
"We don't have time to be safe," said the other, then inhaled deeply and closed his eyes.
Tieh Chen Yi likewise detached his thoughts from the chaos that beset him, pushing his psyche into the earth.
It was still, lacking even the patient throbbing of the stored energy that it painstakingly harbored until the time came to release its fury, as it had in the earthquake that had so recently occurred. Chen Yi could easily stir the dormant energies of a living planet, even mold its wrath to the finest detail, but this planet was ceasing to live. He pushed, pleaded, even tried brute force, but he got no response from the planet. He couldn't even siphon off an insignificant stream; the energy congealed, too massive to be moved at once, too thick to be borrowed from. Kahn's imminent invasion had forced the planet into hibernation, and Chen Yi could do nothing against such power.
He exhaled with an audible moan. "Cai Yue," he coughed. "I'm sorry. I can't get anything."
Rah Cai Yue's face was locked in a grimace, his every muscle tensed as he fought to destroy the currents of the portal. "Give me everything you've got," he uttered, "I don't care if this kills us."
=Because if we fail,= whispered another voice, =everyone else will die.=
At first, Chen Yi thought Rah Cai Yue had managed to form some bizarre link and Cai Yue was hearing the priest's thoughts, but Cai Yue's limbs went slack and he turned to the side.
A Vyrenchi's mental form stood beside them and gestured awkwardly to itself. =We are Acumen,= it said. =We wish we had time to ask permission, Rah Cai Yue, but we must use you as conduit to effectively target portal.=
"Conduit?" whispered Cai Yue, but the Vyrenchi never answered. The priest twitched as the Vyrenchi's energy entered his body.
Then everything flashed.
A split-second later, Rah Cai Yue was a silhouette against the remaining light as a wave of tangible energy rocketed through the valley and Cai Yue fell to the ground, vomiting.
Tieh Chen Yi dropped to his knees and panted, hearing the Vyrenchi's last sound, a final scream.
"I-it's gone." He blinked rapidly.
Ta Lian Shi stepped forward and slapped him on the shoulder. "And it's a good thing, too."
Chen Yi stared at him in disbelief, then shook his head, standing. "No, no. Not the portal. The Vyenchi!"
"Well," said Lian, "I'll admit that's not a good thing. But look what it's done."
Chen Yi scouted the battlefield, noting the empty space where the portal had been, the Mandalorians collapsed on the ground resting, the Centaurions leaping about in a crude victory parade, and the obvious lack of anything else. "They just disappeared?"
"Not quite, kid," said Lian, kicking the fine gray ash that dusted the valley.
"But what about Acumen?" Bitter reality seared through Chen Yi's soul. "He...died?" Vyrenchi didn't die. They couldn't die, could they?
Hua Quy Ling's voice was quiet. "He used the force of his life energy to save the planet. It was his choice. You two were about to do the same thing."
"Though your explosion would have been a little more bloody, a little less brilliant."
"Zhen," reprimanded the queen. "You're not helping."
The tall man raised his hands, palms out in a gesture meant to calm.
Chen Yi shook his head rapidly and turned away. He knew the sacrifice had been nothing but the noblest act, but he couldn't block the anger and sorrow that welled up in his heart.