Alrighty. I'm sorry for all the spelling mistakes in the last chap. Has to type in WordPad due to a virus in MS Word...
(The Future)
'Awoken, have we?'
Kirra's eyes opened slowly, adjusting to the bright light, slightly concerned by the foreign voice in her head, comforted by the presence of one so like her...
"Marth?" she whispered.
"I'm here."
Kirra looked around, her field of vision blurred, but despite of this, she could still see the outline of her little brother.
"I thought you were dead..." she snarled, "How dare you worry me like that?"
"Hello to you too," Marth replied.
"May I inquire as to where we are?"
"No idea."
"Well isn't that fabulous?" Kirra responded.
"How did you end up here?"
"What do you mean, little brother?"
"I would have thought that you'd have the sense to stay away from them, after seeing me get taken," Marth explained tartly.
"I did it by choice," Kirra replied simply.
"What!" Marth snapped, trying his best to turn his head, but still being unable to, due to the effects of the drug, whatever it happened to be.
"I'm not saying anything more, Marth."
"Whatever... I've been trying to get in contact with Trin. She can't hear me, Kiz."
"What makes you think she'd be able to hear me, in that case?" Kirra asked.
"At least I'm trying!"
"Marth..." Kirra whimpered, and only then, did Marth realise how tired his sister really was. Her voice echoed exhaustion and he could see her out of the very corner of his eye, trembling slightly.
"I'm sorry," Marth muttered belatedly.
Kirra made no reply, and so they stayed in silence. No words needed to pass between them for them to realise the situation was a great deal more serious than they had originally thought. The enemy had taken them, and they would undoubtedly be after Trin next, perhaps even Kurai and Lita...
'Please, don't let them get Kurai and Lita...' Marth prayed silently.
'... As long as they keep their word,' Kirra sighed mentally.
And so, the two youngest children of Ray and Mariah lay in silence, watching, waiting, and listening, for any sign that things had gone in their favour, or taken a turn for the worst...
(Senshi Base)
"Urgh."
Slight eye roll.
"... ouch..."
Frustration.
"Stop it..."
'Okay, this time...'
"Kai, wake up, damn it!"
"Argh!"
Kai Hiwatari sat up, and then fell down again, stiff as a board, from the fright of having Trinity yelling at top decibel into his ear.
"Jesus Christ!" he snarled. "Is the world ending or something?"
"Why do you ask?" Trinity replied, only semi-sarcastically.
"I don't see any other reason why you'd holler in my ear like that," he retorted.
'Oh yes,' thought Trinity, 'That's my adorable, romantic Kai alright.'
"Aside from the fact that it's time for us to get to work?"
"Smart-ass," Kai commented, grabbing her left hand and examining the ring that had been slipped onto her finger the night before. "Don't ask me why I'm marrying you."
"Because it's a pretty ring?" Trinity guessed innocently.
"It should be, for what I paid for it," Kai said coolly, before letting out a string of muttered insults about shifty jewellers.
"Yeah, yeah," Trinity cut through Kai's complaints and stretched rather luxuriously as she slipped out of their bed and into the nearby ensuite. Kai's pupils swung like a pendulum in a clock to match the movement of Trinity's hips as she swung around the doorframe and shut the ensuite door behind her.
'What? Closed doors? I think not,' Kai thought automatically. He wrapped the light blue (slightly stained) sheet around his waist and made his way towards the ensuite and grasped the door handle, attempting to turn it both ways until he realized she must have locked the door behind her.
"Trin..." he cooed, rather acerbically, expecting an answer from her, but instead heard one of the taps squeaking as it was turned on, and water running down the drain.
"What are you..." Kai started, and immediately stopped when Trinity flung the door open and flung her cupped hands at his face. The water that had been contained between her hands drenched his entire head, making his slate hair droop and his face paler than it usually was.
"Heh..." Trinity threw her head back proudly and crossed her arms over her bare chest. "Gotcha."
"Bitch," Kai snarled, but the snarl was quickly followed by a smirk.
"That's your job," Trinity commented.
"You're funny," Kai replied sardonically, pulling his underwear and pants off the floor and yanked them on, nonchalantly tossing Trinity's black g-string and bra to her. "I can't find anything else you wore last night."
Trinity was about to mention that they were the only things she's been wearing when he'd rampaged into their room and shoved the pink diamond ring under her nose. Having waited for the moment for the past ten years, Trinity had immediately agreed, and Kai had literally jumped at the next opportunity he had realized was open to him when he realized that their children weren't actually there to interrupt.
After thinking that, Trin immediately felt guilty. Sure, there were plenty of times she had Kai would have preferred to be left alone and they interrupted, but Kurai and Lita were their children, their own flesh and blood, and were now being kept safe in the past. But she still missed them... heck, of course she missed them.
"Trin?"
"Huh? Oh, sorry... thinking about the kids."
"They can take care of themselves," Kai stated evenly.
"Yeah, of course they can. That's why Lita went into fits of nervous hysteria when she saw the destruction on the battle field," the red-haired woman hissed back, making sure to put an extra sting in her tone of voice.
"Look at it this way; they're safer there than they are here."
"That is true..." she paused, and shut her eyes, trying to control the emotions that were making her feel so unsettled. Love for Kai, stress about another day of warfare. Worry for her children, worry for Emily, who had been like a second mother to her while she was growing up and was still on dispatch in the war and had not been heard from since she had left, and her brother and sister, whom she hadn't heard from for almost a month...
She assumed they were too far away, too busy. More accurately, she hoped that was the case. Nothing had been sent to her about their death or injury. And if they were both gone, it could only mean she was next...
(The Present)
Marth watched with half-interest as his mother shifted uncomfortably and scowled across the room at his father. He was vaguely aware that his mother's recent mood swing towards the negative end of the scale had something to do with his baby brother and/or sister that was soon going to arrive. He was rather happy himself, he wasn't going to be the youngest anymore, and he'd have someone to look after. Hopefully it would be a boy, because he didn't know how he could stand another sister. Marth had a vague vision of Trin and Kirra standing over a wide-eyed, pink-haired baby with a chart entitled, 'Ways to hurt your Brother' and shivered. He needed someone for moral support!
Marth's gaze returned to his mother, who was still sitting on the nearby armchair with her knees drawn up to her chin muttering about his daddy. Marth listened and managed to catch some of what she was saying.
"Mutter-mutter Ray wouldn't know if his mutter was on fire for all the muttering attention he paid to his surroundings."
Mariah suddenly looked away from Ray, who was still rather occupied in his own little world, and glared at Marth.
"What are you staring at?"
Marth sniffed. His mother never talked to him like that. He was her baby, as she had told him on numerous occasions, and if anything went wrong it was never his fault.
"I'm sorry..." Mariah sighed, gesturing for Marth to come over and hoisting him up onto her lap when he did so. She hugged him and he sniffled again. "What's wrong?"
"It kicked me."
"Eh?"
"It..." he pointed accusingly to his mother's stomach, "Kicked me. It must be another girl..."
Mariah wasn't terribly sure if being able to feel it kick was good or bad. After all, she and Ray got rather close at times... and he seemed to be in one of those, 'everything is perfect. I hope nothing changes' phases so he really needed to wait for the right time to drop the bomb...
"Mummy, I wanna go outside and play with Trin," Marth complained, wriggling pathetically in her embrace.
"Off you go, then," she replied vaguely and watched as Marth jumped off her lap and toddled out the front door.
(The Future)
Trinity seemed rather depressed at the current moment to Kai, so he decided to take the job of sifting through the death/missing/injured notices. And there seemed to be a Hell of a lot more than there usually was for these past few days. He slowly began sorting the tickets by their meaning and in turn, their colour; red for death, dark blue for missing, pale pink for injury...
He could remember the past few weeks when Trin had read these instead of him. Her teeth biting hard on her bottom lip, the sharper teeth occasionally drawing blood if she bit too hard, signing the forms with a shaking hand... this made him remember her panic when Kurai and Lita's names had shown up on the Injured list. The notices themselves had a rather stupid design- the Senshi seal, name of the injured and the signature of the commanding officer went on the front, and the signature of the doctor and the description of the injury on the back. He had been peacefully rifling through some recruitment applications when he'd heard the loud smash of glass being dropped from a height, and turned to see Trinity gripping the notes in her hands, having dropped the glass of water she had been drinking in shock. She was shaking violently and her eyes had already become bloodshot from tears. Only after he had calmed her down had he managed to prize the notes from her hands and tell her the injuries weren't at all serious.
She had overreacted in a way that was so out of character for her. To her credit, after all she'd been through, that was the first and only time he had ever seen her reduced to an emotional, blubbering wreck. And considering that when Mariah had read the notes, she'd fainted and had only been caught just in time by Ray, without bothering to read what their injuries were, Trin wasn't doing at all bad.
A note of unusual colour caught his eye under the piles of scarlet, blue and pink notes and he brushed those on top of it away, and picked it up between his thumb and forefinger.
"What's this?" he questioned Trin, without bothering to look up from the note. It had nothing on it but the Senshi logo/seal and the signature of one of the elites...
Trin's eyes flickered up from the forms she was signing hurriedly, and then immediately returned to them.
"Invite of inspection. They want us to come out and visit the troops, encourage them. Or rather, encourage what little remain of them," she added as a bitter afterthought.
"Do we actually have to go?" Kai asked.
"I've ignored the last three."
"Why would that be?"
"Not looking forward to the reception."
"Scared, huh?" Kai asked lightly, and was assured he'd hit a nerve when Trinity snarled.
"Hiwatari, I am not scared." She spoke as if the entire concept of her ever showing any fear was ridiculous.
"Are you sure?"
'Of course I'm not sure. I haven't been sure since Marth and Kirra stopped talking...' Trin thought, but her mouth said, "I'm positive."
"Well, shall we be going?"
"Wait until I've finished this paperwork," she muttered, quickly skimming over the remainder of the files, signing where needed, and shoving it all back into the folders where it originally came from.
"Must go get changed into my ass-kicking garb- meet you back here," Trin smirked, giving Kai's hand a quick squeeze before dashing off down the stairs. As soon as she was sure she was out of Kai's line of sight, her expression darkened and she turned away from their bedroom and towards her parents' quarters- the westernmost wing of the building. (AN: No, that's not a reference to American presidency. It's s reference to Byakko being the White Tiger of the West)
She had to tell them about Kirra and Marth, in case she herself didn't return, and she could swear there was shadows, images of things not really there, following her... she was positive it wasn't paranoia, either. She knew instinctively when she was being tailed, but this time, when she turned around, there was nothing there to greet her but obscurity...
She was being followed by darkness, and it was only a matter of time until it lunged and consumed her...
(In Exile)
Tasha and Keturah watched, half-interested, as Kamali crawled half-heartedly out of ex-Squadron A's tent looking rather downhearted. He had a small piece of white paper clutched in his hand, no bigger than an average business card. He continually stole glances at it and sighed so much Tasha thought he might have been hyperventilating. Keturah's tail swished against the side of the tent and she bared her fangs, anguished.
"What's wrong, Keturah?" Tasha asked in a hushed voice.
'Kintora- Kirra... she threw herself to them in place of him."
'You think it wasn't worth the sacrifice?' Tasha decided it was easier to mentally communicate with the dragon at that point, although it appeared that her last comment hadn't disturbed Kamali from his angst at all.
'Love can have a rather stupid effect on human minds, it seems.'
'Marth once said... he always thought he and his sisters were more human that anything else. After I asked him about the rumours that were always circulating about their family. That's the only thing he ever said in relation to the matter. Do you think he's ashamed of what he is?'
'I doubt it,' Keturah brushed off with a swish of her tail, 'None of them have ever denied it. Rather, they've simply not given the full answer. They want to protect themselves. And their families.'
'As in their parents?'
'As in their children,' Keturah mimicked Tasha, making the dark-haired girl smile. Something tweaked in the back of her mind and she asked, 'Marth has children?'
'Of course not. If he did, I would be informed.'
'Then why did you say...' Tasha started, and then saw the look on the Holy Being's face. A rather sly grin, directed at her.
'It is far beyond my power to toy with the hands of fate.'
Keturah's gaze was making her feel uncomfortable, so she looked at Kamali, who was once again staring at the piece of paper in his hand. Tasha idly wondered what it said...
Keturah's eyes flickered over one of the nearby dunes of sand, and her body heaved in a sigh that even outdid Kamali.
'What's bothering you?' Tasha asked, and the dragon snarled.
'Trinity-Kintora is coming this way. Fool.'
'She wants to know what happened to her brother and sister,' Tasha said, while thinking, I want to know what happened to her brother...
'She will just be captured in her turn. And then they will all be gone and the enemy can put its plan into its third phase. The second has already started but it is out of my control.'
Tasha didn't ask what the second or third phases were. She didn't want to know, either. But somehow, she knew that their survival ultimately depended on whether Marth, Kirra and Trinity remained safe...
(The Present)
Marth strolled through the scrubland that surrounded his home, rather wary of his surroundings. He was aware of every sound and movement around him, yet he was clueless as to why he was so watchful. A small lizard ran past him, across the path and into the long grass on the opposite side, and Marth jumped about one metre back and damn near screamed out loud. After the small reptile had wriggled into the long foliage on his left he tried to calm himself, but he couldn't rid himself of the uneasy feeling you got when you were being watched. The traditional snap of a twig behind him made him swing around. Marth scowled and had never felt so stupid in all seven years he'd been alive.
This whole scenario was starting to turn out like that really bad 50s horror movie he and Trin had watched on TV about rhe giant, man-eating prawn. He turned back around, and felt the chilling grip of metal around his neck.
He twisted around to see the most hideous creature he'd ever laid eyes on; its entire body was dull black, its eyes were set in its skull like a painter had simply put random yellow blotches of paint on it's face and put pupils in the middle, its long black tongue curled around its razor-sharp, yellow teeth one-by-one, and its long, gangly limbs stuck out at odd angles, however it had managed to bend its right arm in such a manor that it was able to grab Marth around the neck.
Marth felt alarm bells going off in his head, warning him that he desperately needed oxygen, but its grip was so strong around his neck that he couldn't breathe. The machine creature brought its left hand down hard on the vulnerable place between skull and spine, and Marth knew no more.
Trin spun around, having heard her brother's scream. Kirra had heard it too, but Lita and Kurai, who were with them, seemed oblivious.
"I heard Marth scream... quickly!" Trin urged. Kirra and Lita nodded and began to follow, but Kurai froze, and his eyes glazed over.
"Kurai?" Lita whispered.
"There is blood that must be repaid," he said robotically, and strode off through the bushes. Trin decided to ignore that strange behaviour for a moment, and concentrate on Marth's location.
"About 100 metres down from here... to the west. Go!"
The three girls sprinted down the hill, until they knew they had come to the right place, due to the spatters of fresh blood on the pathway. Trin followed the blood and turned right, to find a creature that she had not seen for almost seven years standing over her brother, hissing its delight.
"Youma!" she shrieked, causing the creature to look upwards at her, hiss once, and rush off at light speed through the scrub.
Kirra reached down to cradle her battered little brother's head, whispering softly to him, "Baby brother, please stay with us..."
The darkness... it was taking him. Marth felt his limbs whither with exhaustion, and every litre of blood he had in his body was either rushing to his head or oozing out of his wounds on the way there. He became vaguely aware that his sisters had arrived and someone had grabbed his hand, begging him not to go... but he was so tired...
He shut his eyes and let his limbs fall onto the ground, lifeless.
"Trin!" Kirra shrieked, "We have to help him!"
"I'm... trying..." Trin said through gritted teeth, watching her 'daughter' grabs her 'uncle's' hand desperately. Lita snivelled, then stood up, and screamed. Once she had run out of breath, she settled on burying her face into her knees, as if curling into a ball like that would lock out all the problems she was currently facing. Trin opened her eyes and Kirra immediately saw that they were bloodshot.
"I can't help him, Kiz."
"No! Damn it!" the younger pink-haired girl screamed, burying her face in her hands.
"Do not worry."
Kirra's head jerked around violently to yell at Lita, until she saw that the light-blue-haired girl's golden eyes had an unnatural glaze to them.
"It is not yet his time," Lita whispered, in a voice that sounded too old for her seven-year-old body, and she once again stepped towards Marth and clasped his hand in hers.
Marth found the darkness so comforting... why did the light have to penetrate it?
Come, Kintora...
"What...?"
It is not yet your time, little one...
"Who are you?"
There was no response, so Marth forced his eyes open and saw a woman of about 18 years, with light-blue hair down to her ankles, and two golden hoops in each ear. But... perhaps what was more bizarre was the unearthly golden glow of her skin and the blue markings that were tattooed on her cheeks. She reached out to him, extending her palm and he noticed she had a black tiger paw tattooed on her wrist...
Could it be...?
He grabbed her hand, and she smiled...
Marth grunted as he sat up, and then started panting desperately, feeling as though there hadn't been any air in his lungs for a few minutes. Trin and Kirra froze, images rushing through their heads...
"It seems that you have long outlived your time, scum."
Trin turned around blindly, looking for the source of the voice but finding herself face to face with her little sister. Kirra pointed somewhere into the blackness, and Trin squinted, just able to make out the figures in the darkness. Once her eyes had adjusted, she could easily see that it was a young man, with dark blue hair swept back into a ponytail, but many loose strands still hid parts of his face from view. The four golden hoops, two in each ear, jingled against each other softly as he whipped a rapier from its spot at his waist and brought the blade down upon... the same youma that had attacked Marth?
The creature shrieked and disappeared in a mass of dark flames, and the man re-sheathed his blade and turned around to face them.
He blinked serenely. "You shouldn't be here. You have already been destined to be judged by my sister. But then again..."
He swiped at the strands of hair that covered part of his face, thus revealing the two triangular blue tattoos on his face.
"There will be many more of us before your time comes, maybe destiny will cause them to choose you instead. Perhaps... they will have less extreme power but... we are all born to serve the starlight. And we are all capable of keeping you safe."
He swiped his hair out of his face again, seemingly unable to make it sit anywhere else, and this time, Trin and Kirra got a glimpse of the black marking on his wrist...
"Now... go."
The light shocked Trin's eyes as she realized she'd returned to her own world... dimension... whatever it was this time... and saw that her little brother saw sitting up, yanking his hand away from Lita, terrified, and edging towards his sisters.
"Trin... Kiz..." he whispered.
"I have to go and find Kurai," Lita said simply. She turned around and headed into the thick scrub.
"Trin... they... they're..." Marth whimpered.
"I know, Marth," Trin murmured, without breaking eye contact with the place she had last seen Lita. "I know..."
(The Future)
Trinity's immediate surroundings suited her mood. The weather was overcast, with barely any light penetrating the clouds; it was freezing cold, despite the heavy black trench coat she'd dragged out of her cupboard at the last moment, and the small group of tents gathered at the base of the tor she and Kai were perched on looked so helpless and surrounded because of the hills... it very much suited their current situation, as well as her mood. As they had gotten closer to the desolate war ground, she had become steadily more worried about her little brother and sister. She still couldn't feel their presence, and they said nothing to her, dismissing the thoughts that she might have just missed them, instead of them, in fact, being anywhere near here.
So, her worst fears were confirmed, the fears she had just admitted to her parents, who were far more concerned for Kirra and Marth than she could ever be. She understood this pain a little better, perhaps, now that she was a parent herself, but the look of anguish that had shadowed her parents' faces when she had told both her mother and father that she suspected that Kirra and Marth had been captured or killed sent an uncomfortable stabbing pain to her stomach. She soon realized why; it was the first time she had seen looks of utter defeat and exhaustion on their faces, to see her ever-strong and optimistic mother looking devastated, thought not crying, her grief seemingly beyond what tears could say... her cheerful, compassionate father sliding a comforting arm around her mother's waist but still staring at her, his eyes staring into her very soul...
She must have been showing emotion of some sort, because Kai slipped an awkward arm around her shoulders, but moved away a few seconds later. It wasn't in his nature to be the understanding, empathetic type. Just like it wasn't like Marth to be sarcastic and harsh, and it wasn't like Kirra to be serious and affectionate. But what about herself...? She felt completely emotionless... like she was simply a shell for a greater power. But then again, she had felt that way since she had first discovered her power...
She felt completely insecure, terrified of what was waiting for her, and it seemed to be bringing all her worst memories back to hurt her.
'Well, fuck that for a joke. I've faced worse than this and I've come through; they can come at me with everything they've got and I'll still be ready for them...'
"Come on," she said shortly to Kai, who had been waiting semi-patiently for her to stop glaring down at the Senshi camp, and to actually make a move to get there. They were greeted by everyone's favourite repulsive dumbass, Loch, who had the biggest ass-kissing smile on his face you'll ever see in your life, and a tank top which didn't leave much to the imagination and left bad thoughts of really bad transvestites in Trinity's head.
"Hello, Miss Kon," Loch piqued Trinity just by speaking her name, but she nodded regardless.
"What are you doing out here?" she snapped, causing the stupid grin on Loch's face to fade almost instantaneously. "My brother is supposed to be in charge here."
"Yes, well unfortunately I've had to relieve him of his position due to unfortunate circumstances," Loch snarled, lying through his teeth.
"Where is he, then?" Trinity asked, her right eyebrow raised sarcastically. Loch snarled again and said, "I sent him into exile."
"You fool," Trinity hissed. "You know how dangerous it is out there for the Senshi. I assume the remainder of his squadron went with him, too? Except for Lita Hiwatari and Artemis Sazanami, who were either dismissed or injured in the last major attack?"
Loch looked absolutely dumbfounded, possibly because he's exceedingly dumb, and Trinity continued to stare at him while asking, "Where is my sister?"
"In the same state your brother is."
"Zeona and Xao too?"
"Zeona is injured. But Xao is out there."
The scowl on Trinity's face darkened. A few seconds later, however, she smiled at Loch and Kai couldn't help but smirk; he knew that look all too well.
"Well, in that case, I shall have to go out and reinstate their former positions. And seeing that neither Kai nor myself know exactly where you told them to go, you will have to be our guide."
Loch's face paled and he began to swing his arms wildly around him like he was on fire.
"You don't expect me to go out there! It's far too dangerous!"
"Well, think of what my brother and sister have been put through since you banished them," Trinity hissed unpleasantly, before she swept past Loch and towards the edge of the camp. Kai and Loch stood there, frozen by surprise for a few moments, before Trinity turned back around and snarled, "Coming!" She was addressing Kai more than she was Loch.
Loch moved first, striding past Trinity who whispered in his ear, "I expect to see the medical tent after this. And if I find that my troops are being treated unfairly, it'll be your ass that gets exiled."
Kai walked fast to catch up to Trinity, and slowed down once he was next to her again. "I love it when you're forceful like that," he snickered.
"So you should..." Trin replied, a rather dirty grin on her face.
"I don't find you amusing at all, y'know," Kai snorted.
"Sure you don't," she said evenly, before she flickered her eyes back towards Loch. "We'd better hurry up. It's a sad day when that fat-ass is outrunning us."
(The Present)
Mariah slumped into her side of the bed, expecting Ray not to show for a while yet... it was only about nine thirty, after all, and although all three kids were in bed, she and Ray usually managed to stay up a little later, usually being the keyword.
She groaned a little bit, her ankles were throbbing and aching like all Hell, something she'd experienced three times before in her life, and never thought's she'd experience again, let alone wanted to experience again. She wasn't even pregnant enough for Ray to notice and her ankles were about to cave in. That led her wonder how pregnant she was, exactly... five, six months? She couldn't have given less of a rat's ass, either, because the farther away it was, the less Ray had to know.
The kids knew... they had enough sense to keep quiet about it... and Emily knew because Emily never missed anything, and because she was the family doctor. She half-expected to give birth in a few months time and then a few days after that, for Ray to come up and say, "Hey, last time I counted, I'm pretty sure that we only had three kids..."
She was drawn from her thoughts when the door cracked open and the hallway light shone on her face. This light was quickly extinguished, and Ray slipped into the room, looked at her for a few seconds, and then kicked off his slip-on shoes and tugged his shirt over his head, then discarded his pants and slipped into the bed. Mariah knew from much past experience that he really only did that when he thought he was going to get lucky, which hadn't been happening all that much lately, due to Mariah's violent mood swings. As much as Ray was rather different to all the other boys in the village, who generally thought all women were pieces of meat, provided so you didn't have to do your own housework, give birth to your own kids, or do things she'd rather not think about to keep your sex life at a high, he was still a red-blooded male and he wasn't getting the treatment from her that he was used to.
"Hey, Mao..." he said, trying to slide his arm around her waist in a casual way but failing rather remarkably, and Mariah shivered as she felt the child in her womb shift...
'Oh Jesus. Please, not now...' she thought, biting her lip hard as her stomach lurched once again as the child moved.
Ray hadn't noticed yet. His hand was a little too far down for him to really notice, but if he moved even the slightest bit...
"Yes, Rei?" she finally replied, successfully stopping her voice from shivering.
"I know you well enough to notice that lately you've been acting so secretive..."
"Have I?"
Ray hesitated, and then ploughed on. "Yes... and as much as I respect your privacy, what's so bad that you hide it from me?"
Mariah had to admit he had a point there. They had always been so close, shared their deepest secrets with each other, they were friends before they ever became lovers, and had always been there to hear the other out if they had a problem... what made it so different this time? Courage was welling up inside her suddenly, so she grabbed his hand and forced it to rest on her abdomen.
"Wha..." Ray started, until he felt movement and he shut his jaw again with a loud 'snap'. He yanked his hand away and looked at Mariah, who looked unsurprised by his reaction, but was still biting on her lip hard, determined not to cry. She knew, now, that she definitely didn't have his support, so she said a quick goodnight and turned over in the bed, so she was facing away from him. Ray desperately wanted to comfort her, but couldn't bring himself to do it. Mariah had lied to him, for the first time in their entire lives, and he suddenly felt awkward, so he too lay down, with a sigh, facing away from her, and tried to sleep. But neither of them could, and although they were so close to each other in the bed, they had never felt so far apart...
(Don't waste your touch,
You won't feel anything
Or were you sent to save me?
I've thought too much, you won't find anything...
Worthy of redeeming...)
Trinity screamed as Kai was once again attacked, and ran over, reaching out to him, only to be knocked back by another of the large group of enemies that were attacking them. Loch had tried to make a run for it, to save his own hide, but about twenty youma broke off from the pack and took chase, and but a few seconds later, they had heard a blood-curdling scream...
So, the whole thing had been a plot to get to Kai and herself the whole time... and now, because of her delusional little quest to find Kirra and Marth, she and Kai were going to be killed, just like her sister and brother probably had been...
She could feel the blood dripping down from her temple to her cheek, like tears that she would never shed. She had been dazed for a few seconds but she got up again, and watched, as if in slow motion, as Kai copped another swift blow to the head, then the stomach, and fell to the ground, on his knees, completely winded, and bleeding from an open cut across his cheek, that had almost completely obscured his blue tattoos from view.
(Yo he esta-do agui muchas veces antes y regreso
To... break down, and cease all feeling
Burn now, what once was breathing
Reach out, and you may take my heart away)
Trinity once again attempted to reach Kai, but was held back and could only watch as they continually attacked Kai and strips of his clothes were ripped from his body, leaving blood in its wake. The sharp fingers of the youma scathed his chest, leaving bright-red, symmetrical cuts across his stomach, and he was beginning to scream in pain.
Trinity was then grabbed by the throat tightly, and she gagged violently into the face of one of the youma. In fact, this particular one looked slightly familiar...
"You thought that you could beat us, wench," Xan spat into her face, revelling in Trinity's scream as the liquid their creator had used as their saliva burned her skin, "But our master... he always said... that no-one would ever defeat us. We were genetically perfect, compared to you, one whose genetics are that of beast and human... but then again, how are beast and human really different, in the long run?"
Red raw patches were appearing on Trinity's face, where Xan had spat on her, but she made no reply.
(Imperfect cry, and scream in ecstasy
So what befalls the flawless?
Look what I've built
Please don't do this...
It shines so beautifully
Why won't you look at me?
Now watch as it destroys me)
"When our creator thought we were getting out of hand... he tried to stop his partner from producing us any longer. But his partner saw our usefulness... and continued to make us, but changed us to look such as this... so we struck terror into the bravest of hearts... and this is proved on you. You should see yourself, cowering..."
Trinity refused to look away. She refused to see herself as a coward; after all she had grown up with and believed in.
"Not submitting? Well then... let's see how you do without the male here..."
Trinity's eyes shone with realization as she squirmed in Xan's tight grasp to see Kai fall one last time, blood dripping from deep cuts on his face and torso, and watched in horror as the youma simply kicked him down the die of the sand dune they were on top of.
Xan's eyes shone greedily as he looked back at Trinity.
"Now I can see it... the terror... now you are mine."
A sharp, stinging pain emerged on Trinity's neck and she gagged violently once again as the thick hypodermic penetrated the thick artery in her neck, her eyes rolled back in her head, and the world seemed darker...
(I... break down, and cease all feeling
Burn now, what once was breathing
Reach out, and you may take my heart away... Heart away...)
Loch crawled over the sand hill, both of his legs hanging uselessly behind him, but he could see the exiles' tents in the distance. He knew the youma were just playing cat and mouse with him, but he knew the farther he could get, the better his chances. He could see Kamali now, and he reached out pathetically.
"Xao!"
Kamali's head jerked around and his eyes widened out of surprise and horror as his gaze fell onto Loch.
"They're after us... Trinity Kon and Kai Hiwatari were here too... but I think they got Kon..."
A shriek in the distance caused Loch and Kamali to look into the horizon, and Tasha to stick her head out of her tent and watch the scene with surprise, and Loch looked even more desperate.
"Please! They're coming..."
"No."
"What!"
"You never showed any guilt when you sent thousands of people out on aimless missions, and they came back dead! It would be half of what you deserve. And what you did to Kirra..." Loch began to glare at this, "For that, I'll never forgive you," Kamali snarled. Tasha watched in shock as Kamali, whom she had always seen as so gentle and good-natured, turned icy-blue eyes to the youma and then back to Loch.
"Here comes your destiny, bastard."
Loch screamed as the youma engulfed him, tearing strips of flesh off his body, exposing his bones, and Kamali watched the whole ordeal with a grim satisfaction. Tasha went to raise her hand to her mouth in shock, but put it back to her side halfway there, but did not avert her gaze.
When the youma hand finished with Loch, Kamali could see that there were no visible remains left, and turned to him and Tasha. Tasha stood up strongly, ready to fight, and Kamali stood rigid, looking around as if daring them to come closer.
But the youma did not come any closer to either of them; they simply stared at Kamali.
"You can tell her that we kept our word," one of them hissed to Kamali, and then all of them took off at once, in a flurry of black limbs and blood.
As soon as they were all gone, Kamali stepped forward and began to walk out into the desert. When Tasha ran to catch up with him with a questioning look on her face, he said, "Loch told me that Kai Hiwatari and Kirra and Marth's sister were with him. I need to look for them."
Tasha had the feeling that he'd rather be alone, but followed him regardless, completely oblivious to what they might find, and what it would lead to...
