Author's Note: Hmmm...I'm thinking maybe I should put one of these fics on hold for a little bit to get some of the others cleared out of the way. I may end up putting this on hold for a bit since this one I work on least, or am least motivated to work on at the moment.
I won't pause Duet since it's really getting into the plot, Sanctuary will prolly be a 3-5 parter anyway, Duct Tape is a lot of fun for me to write so I want to continue on that one so I dunno. I may not work on this one for a while so kindly don't bug me?
Anywhobers, on that note with Sanctuary, yes it isn't strictly AM, but guys...it's me. There will be AM. I pretty made the pairings clear. AM, KK, SM, ST In other news for anyone who's noticed I have like NOT updated my webpage in a while...lol, well I am working on something for it, but it's taking time. I'll update soon.

I suppose my energy is lacking these days with working all the fucking time and just tedious things like details before Otakon and thus. I'm sure Shin's influence will help.

Oh yea, this chapter is SHORT!!

:: To Serve::

Chapter IV: Mercenary

Staring into the silverly calm surface, clouded images blurred around like smoke as they formed recognizable shapes. Maroon eyes watched the forms take figure as shadowy sillouhettes...one tall, one short....regal auras around both. Tucking a long black strand of hair behind her ear, the prophetess gazed deeper into the pool as the image cleared and the surface rippled as eyes, so rich like cinammon, stared at her burning with a fierce intensity that startled the normally stoic gypsy. And then the pool turned blank. Megumi stood, her lavender and crimson scarves swooshing softly as she heard the loud clank of the shackles around her ankles that kept her in the small room. She was like a bird in a gilded cage, except this cage was rotted and the bird was becoming but a shell of a being. Her will, her spirit was fading away like a flame slowly dying without air. Her visions were as strong as ever, but her heart...it was more than tainting, it was dying. This place trapped her physically and mentally, a gypsy who's blood thrived on freedom. Sometimes she wished she had been given away like The Sadist, for anywhere else was better than this decayed Hell. She remembered her words she had given him about meeting his fate.
The Sadist. She said it more as an honorific than a curse. It was a title he coveted, one to remind the queens he was no mere slave at their beck and call. She had remembered him standing there as they brought her before Yumi years ago, his eyes like chips of ice as she introduced the court to her knew 'sage'. The Sadist, Aoshi, she had seen right away that he did not belong in the foul court, and that someday he would escape. She envied that insight.
She had seen his acts of cruelty, his acts of random humanity, but overall she held a wariness for the man. It was not that she hated or disliked him, but merely that she held no feelings but a slight jealousy that one day he might be free. She looked at the small scar on the back of her hand, remembering the flames that had caused it. She had once had a peaceful life living in a small gypsy village near the mountains, until the day Yumi's soldiers arrived and burned the gypsy village. It was an act of simple spite due to the village elder casting an unpleasant fortune to the queen. She remembered her father leading her the woods as they ran through fire and she had burnt her hand. She remembered the horrible feeling of her father's weight shifting and falling to the ground as the arrow had pierced through his chest.
She had been taken at the age of sixteen and trapped in the court of Queen Yumi ever since. Despite her power, her visions, her accuracy...she had no idea on her own fate.
She could almost hear the birds singing in the distance.

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As the birds chirped overhead in the tall trees shading the dirt forest path, the tall figure with spiky brown hair carrying a large, clothed object walked down the path. He was dressed in white pants and jacket and a red bandana on his forhead. He was completely alone headed towards a palace he had never visited, only going the vague mumblings of a cleric. "To the young queen Misao in the kingdom of Azure, that is where you must go."
The cleric however had been his mentor, a gentle man named Souzou who was wise and strong. "Go Sanosuke, west to Azure. It is your destiny." Sanosuke had merely nodded and left the small village of Sekihoutai and was now walking through the Tokaido Forest to his destination for unknown reasons. It was almost funny really, here he was a mercenary being led blindly by the words of a cleric.
But he trusted Souzou and so he continued on through the forest.
He heard a noise ahead and saw a group of men, bandits, threatening what appeared to be a group of holy priestesses.
"Che, nothing but trouble." he murmured as he sauntered towards the scene the large object he carried swaying.

"Well aren't you just a pretty little thing," one said, his dirty fingers sliding up her neck as the pale girl trembled in fright.
"I think I'll enjoy defiling you and then when I tire of you sell you to the slavers in Hexarc."
"I suggest you take your shit for fingers off the lady unless you want to say farewell to them."
The bandits turned and saw Sanosuke, snarling at him.
"Stupid kid! Get the hell out of here." one gruffly sneered.
"I'm afraid I can't do that. It's nothing personal, but I can't stand seeing a woman being harmed." Sanosuke said sharply. The bandits rushed him, and he dodged their punches easily. "I don't have time for this." Sano murmured in a lament and when they all rushed him he quickly unwrapped the large object to reveal a zanbattou which he quickly used to knock all the bandits unconscious to the ground.
Re-wrapping his weapon, he approached the priestesses who were trying to regain their composure.
"Are you all alright?" Sanosuke asked gently, and they merely nodded and inclined their heads in thanks.
The leader of group, who's robes were slightly different, peered at Sanosuke with blue-grey eyes that almost unnerved him. "You are a wanderer who has lived outside the threads of fate...but the web has been spun...she is waiting for you." Sanosuke made a gasping noise, it was soft but audible.
"Wha..What?"
The woman blinked and bowed her head again.
"Forgive me, kind sir. I am a seer and the words...they just came to me."
"That's fine. Where are you ladies headed?"
"Valstra."
"That's on my way. How about I escort you ladies?"
"Oh, you're so kind! May the heavens bless you."
Sanosuke closed his eyes and smiled politely.
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Red...pools of red crimson. Darkness. It was not an evil, but an ancient. It was the forgotten. The Blood.
Someone...someone was appearing and walking over the red, ripples at their steps. And then it all bled to blue.

Megumi's eyes shot open as she gasped for breath, the heaviness of the vision making her feel as if she had slammed into a wall. Her normal visions only left a slight disorientated feeling, but this...her body ached. The Blood.
That thought made her shudder. She had not heard whispers of that in years. They were of ancient power, created by the dragons to guard the land. Once a noble people, the Blood soon became a perversion of the old ways until they had all but died out decades ago. They had become too greedy, and the damage they had caused was still felt lands that were now dead.
But now...the Blood was calling to something. Someone.
Was it she? Long ago there had been a prophecy seen in a dream web of one who would rule all the Blood and restore things as they should be.
But that was seven hundred years ago. And yet... Megumi had FELT it. A power of the Darkness that was unlike anything she had ever felt before.
Only one other was close to such power....and he was now a slave.
As her body recovered, the word could not be stopped from escaping her lips.
"Queen."
Regathering her shaken nerves, Megumi knew she needed more clarity for a vision of such potential importance. She would have to descend through the the inner webs of her psyche and call out for anyone who could help. It would wear her out surely, but it was a risk she was willing to take.
Every seer, dream seer, and prophet's visions were all stemmed from the inner webs of the psyche all connected in a system so old it's beginning was unrecordable. There were thirteen levels of psychic web, and while the most activity occured within the first seven, the other six were for those of stronger power...and the post powerul threads of web were those of the Darkness, the black webs.
The webs were categorized by colors. White, Yellow, Tiger Eye, Rose, Summer-sky, Purple Dusk, Opal, Green, Sapphire, Red, Grey, Ebon-Grey, and Black. Opal was the dividing line between the light and dark threads.
Anyone who had descended from the Blood was born with a Birthright color, and it was possible to descend a maximum of three colors if an Offering to the Darkness was made. But that was in days of old. The Offerings were no longer made, and most forgot of the webs altogether.
There were some she had met who were of Birthright Rose or even Purple Dusk, but never knew the potential they posessed and thus the power layed dormant. She herself was Birthright Green, and if she had the capability to make an Offering, she was sure she would of ended up descending to Red. But she had been a slave to the courts for too long, and her knowledge was slowly but surely seeping out of her year after year as the vile drugs she was given threw her more and more towards the edge of insanity.
Laying back, she breathed deeply and closed her eyes, descending to her inner web and plucking each thread, calling out to anyone.
'I need help..' she called out to every thread she could, starting from white and finally reaching the Green when a hum responded on the thread.
'What do you need?' a voice called out, a strong but gentle voice.
'I've seen things...in visions and the Blood'
There was no response for a moment.
'She is coming.' 'She? Who is she? All I see is a figure walking upon Red. The Blood'
'It is she, the living myth, dreams made flesh'
'Queen?! But that prophecy was made seven hundred years ago and is now considered by most false'
'The prophecy stands. Seven hundred years is nothing to the Blood, you should know this. You are blood of the Blood'
'Who are you?' Megumi asked. She did not feel any ill ease for her faceless advisor, but she wanted to know.
'I am one who has seen many things and whose time has passed. I now watch and wait for her...for she is who I shall serve'
Megumi wasn't sure how she knew it, and yet.
'You are of the Blood, of the truest sense'
'How very perceptive, child. It makes me content to see a child of the Blood who understands'
'Thank you. Tell me, can you at least give me a name to know you by'
'You may think of me as the High Priestess of the Hourglass'
'Thank you. My name is Megumi'
'Child of the blood, I leave with these words of vision. You who sees destiny will soon meet the key to yours. The one you've been waiting to free you...he will arrive...soon.' Before she could process the words, she felt herself ascend quickly through the webs as her eyes snapped open and she gasped for air.
She could not move, her body was too drained from the webs. Glancing around as best as she could, she could discern that it was still dark, and she was still on the throne room floor alone. With no more energy in her to think, she drifted asleep as somewhere far away a lone figure sat, a pale hand tracing a long, thin finger over a black metal thread that shimmered with gold.
"Thank the Darkness, for she is coming. How I've waited for you, my Queen."
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