Hello!
Thank you to all of you who reviewed: deppforever07, Silvermane1, Furie, Jjinks, DangerSpud7, Kracken l.w, JustAWeirdo, Indi-Scarga, moonpixi, and Vwolf Youjutsu.
I'll list those of you who got the element/person match-ups right at the end, so it doesn't spoil anything in this chapter!
Moonpixi: Good point. Virinia is a more formal version of Virginia. When Devron was attempting to be formal, he used a title (Lady) and her more formal name (Virinia). Shina is only used when she is acting as a Shinigami, otherwise Virginia is used. And Kitten and Death will almost always call her Shina. Hopefully that makes sense to all of you who were wondering.
And I tried to explain it in the last chapter, but perhaps it wasn't done well. When Virginia had her circle, magical bonds held them together. When her circle died, those bonds broke. Because her spirit had grown use to the bonds, the lack of them threw off her internal balance, which affected her physical body. She was entirely un-stabilized. So she began to weaken slowly, both magically and physically, in effect, killing her slowly over about nine thousand years. Even though the members of her circle have been reborn, so much of her magical and physical health has been damaged that it is no longer repairable. Thus, she is dying.
BTW, I apologize for the last chapter. It wasn't very well written because I was in a rush. Sorry.
Also, I have pretty much the entire last chapter written, but I don't know how many chapters there will be in-between now and then.
Disclaimer: Let me check… ummm… nope. I don't have any documents saying I own Gundam Wing.
Enjoy!
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Shinigami
Duo woke up. He found himself in bed, wrapped up in several warm blankets, in his room.
What happened?
Dou heard the door open, and shifted slightly to see who it was. Quatre. He looked worried, but smiled happily when he saw that Duo was awake. He shut the door behind him and came over to stand by Duo's bed.
"Duo! You have no idea how good it is to see you awake! How do you feel?" He said, joy evident in his voice.
Duo winced slightly. "Not particularly great. I'm still very tired, and I think I'm going to have a headache soon. What happened? The last thing I remember is all of us on the beach, right after that girl – Eileen? – left us, the Shinigami dropped by, and I snapped at all of you. Then I find myself here. How did that happen?" He asked.
Quatre sighed softly. "You passed out. Heero carried you home. Duo, why didn't you tell us you were so tired? An immortal we met almost immediately after your collapse told us that you were completely exhausted. You should have stayed home and slept if it was so bad!"
Duo shrugged as best he could in his position. "I didn't think that I was that tired. Actually, it only got to be that bad when Eileen walked by. I felt extremely tired, as though she had sapped what energy I had left from me."
Quatre frowned. That did not sound good. "Duo, do you even know if that's possible?"
He blinked sleepily. "I think it is. I seem to remember something like that, but I'm still to tired to bother to try to sort it out."
"Then get some rest, Duo."
(Space)
Virginia was watching Heero. It had been a few days since she had begun to teach him how to use some elementary magic. She had been intending to just teach him how to shield, but she had found that Heero learned very fast, and one thing had led to another.
She was in the process of teaching him how to use Sight.
Heero shook his head. "It's not working. What am I supposed to see again? And how am I supposed to See it?"
It was really amazing that it was one of the simplest things that he continuously failed at doing.
"What you See is energy flows. Each flow will be blue, red, yellow, green, gray, purple, brown, black, or a combination of them all. The color tells you which element the flow is affiliated with. For example, when done properly, you should see me, and then See blue energy with touches of the other eight flowing through me. And I've told you how to see it several times."
"Try it again." He ground out.
She smiled to herself. He really does not like not being able to do something, she thought. "Anchor yourself to the ground, then collect yourself together so you're not all over the place. Then just touch the core of your magic and you should See the flows."
This time, she used her own Sight to watch him. "You're not anchoring yourself very well, and your centering is not going well either. You are still sort of all over. It's close, but far enough off that it is keeping you from connecting to your core, thus keeping you from Seeing."
He frowned. "I thought my anchoring was pretty good."
"You're not – your actually connecting, but you're not becoming one with it." She replied.
"How do I do that?"
She smiled slightly, and began to sing softly. "Feel the rain on your skin. No one else can feel it for you, only you can let it in. No one else, no one else can speak the words on your lips. Drench yourself in words unspoken, live your life with arms wide open, today is where your book begins, the rest is still unwritten."
He glared at her. "Stop speaking in riddles." He snapped. Then he tried again.
His centering and anchoring was so far off she was surprised he didn't just fall over.
"Umm… how about we try this again later. You've been trying very hard, maybe you're just to tired to do it properly." She suggested.
"Can you do it if you're tired?" Heero asked her.
"Well, yes, but I've also been doing it for a long time, so it's more of a reflex than conscious thought, which is what you have to use." She replied. "Actually, you've been doing remarkably well. You caught on to shielding and projecting very quickly, and you're pretty far ahead of most other beginners as far as centering and anchoring goes."
She guessed from the look on his face that "remarkably well" was not good enough for him.
"Well, how about we take a break anyway? I could use a good snack. Do we have the ingredients for cookies or brownies? I could make some." She said grinning.
"How on the Earth and Colonies would I know? I never cook." He asked, a little confused as to why she would ask him.
She winked, and began to head towards the kitchen. "Well, you could be a closet eater."
(Space – a few weeks)
Eileen was back in her Hall, looking over her many demons. They were all under her control, waiting for the command to begin their assault.
"It'll never work."
That damned devil again…"And why not?" She sighed. "Because you're going to stop me? I think not. Not even you can stop a demon army of this size."
"It won't be me. The Eldest has her own plans in place, and her own spells. Many of them have been in place for millennia, which is more than I can say for you."
"Age isn't everything. Look what it's doing to her. She is nowhere near the strength she is rumored to have had."
The devil looked at her incredulously. "You think age has done that to her? Just how dumb can you be?"
"Of course age has done it to her. You don't think she did it to herself, do you?" She laughed. "You are the idiot."
The devil sighed. "So be it. You are the biggest moron I have ever seen. I'm not even going to try to correct you – I've realized you're a lost cause by now. So go ahead, try to take her down. The only way you'll succeed is by going down yourself." And with that, he disappeared.
Eileen seethed. "Come back, you coward! I'll never need to stoop so low as to give up my life to take down an enemy! She is dying!"
She heard his voice one last time, before his presence faded completely. "And that is why she'll win."
Eileen shrieked in anger. "How dare you! I'll show you! All of you! Arise, my army! Kill the Eldest and her circle! Fly!"
The whole area was instantly filled with the sound of beating wings.
(Space)
Duo had been feeling much better. He had gotten well rested, and the dreams hadn't come once while he was recovering. Once he was better, they had started up again, but not with the intensity that they had had before and not as often.
And Virginia had made those delicious caramel blondies…
I should really try to look through some of those memories to see if there is anything useful in them, he thought. Who knows what I may remember?
"Duo."
Duo turned around at the sound of his name and almost collided with Trowa.
"Yea, Tro? What's up?"
Trowa was silent for a minute, and then spoke. "I was wondering if you noticed that Heero and Virginia have been spending a lot of time with each other lately."
Duo shrugged. "Yeah, I noticed. Didn't think about it too much. Why?" Duo grinned suddenly, full of mischief. "You don't think they're… you know…?"
He suddenly felt his braid being pulled. "Baka. Get your mind out of the gutter. She is only helping me with something." Heero snapped, then walked away.
"Well," Trowa said, "that's more than I've manages to get out of him. Before it was just 'nothing' or 'none of your business'."
Duo simply smiled slightly. "It's probably nothing. I'm sure she can take care of herself."
(Space)
Duo had been shifting through his new memories for a little while when he came upon it. A memory of the white haired girl, making someone forget who both Duo and the girl were. She had done it so that the person would not give them away, and because war called for all sorts of things. Though it was not the war that caught Duo's attention.
It was the spell the girl had used.
Something…
He almost had it. There was something else… almost as though he had seen it being done before, or maybe something like it…
Why can't I remember?And then it hit him; the barrier that had been preventing him from remembering broke.
She had done it to him.
And not in the past life.
Virginia!(Space)
Duo ran through the house, trying to find their houseguest. Finally he found Quatre.
"Quatre, where's Virginia?" he gasped out.
"Dou! What's-" He was cut off as Duo grabbed the front of his shirt.
"Where. Is. Virginia?" Duo hissed.
Quatre looked at him in surprise. Duo was normally rather even tempered, he wondered what must have happened to make him so angry.
"She and Hero went down to the beach." He managed to get out.
Duo dropped him almost immediately and ran out of the house.
(Space)
He found them on the beach, Virginia up to her knees in water, Heero watching from the sand. She seemed to be trying to explain something.
"VIRGINIA!" Duo shouted.
Heero turned to look at him in surprise. Virginia simply looked at him, as though she knew everything.
Duo knew enough to know that she pretty much did.
"Not me, Duo. Save your energy." She said, her voice almost emotionless.
That stopped Duo. "What?" He cried. She wasn't making any sense. "What are you talking about?"
"What on the Earth and Colonies is going on?" Duo turned to see Wufei, Quatre, and Trowa running towards them.
Duo saw the water begin to move around her. Her hair turned to brown and braided itself. The water moved up, changing her clothing to black.
The others stopped, staring at her in shock. Heero, however, did not seem very surprised.
Out of the water besides her grew a scythe. She walked towards Duo. About 10 feet away she stopped and tossed him the scythe.
"Not me, Gami." She whispered.
And all of hell broke loose. Literally.
(Change point of View)
Heero watched Virginia "transform" into Shina, and give the scythe to Duo.
"Not me, Gami."
Something told him to guard. He pulled out his gun.
Wings and inhuman shrieks filled the air.
Demons!Heero knew they were all going to have to fight if any of them were going to stay alive. Shina could only give them so much warning, thus she had give Duo the scythe. He knew he had to kill as many demons as possible.
He found himself killing many, many demons. At some point, he nearly ran right into Shina, who was using a whip covered in thorns to fight.
"How much more ammunition do you have left?" She shouted over the noise.
"I don't know exactly, but not much." He shouted back.
She shouted a word, and the space around them was suddenly clear of demons as she pushed them back. She held out her hand, and fire formed a sword.
"Use this when you run out of ammo!" She said, tossing it to him, and again the world was reduced to wings and the cries of the demons.
A few more minutes, and his gun stopped firing. Instantly he switched to the sword, and started to cut down the demons.
He saw all the others to at different parts of the fight. Duo was wielding the scythe and becoming worthy of the title of "Shinigami." Quatre, Trowa, and Wufei all had different weapons as well, which he assumed Shina had given them. All of them were fighting for their lives.
At another point, he saw what he assumed to be a devil asking Shina something. She nodded, and he disappeared.
/Do not kill the devils/ came her voice into his mind.
He sent back a wordless reply of affirmation. He figured that Shina must have given the devils permission to fight with them.
He saw other Shinigami fighting, too. Everyone was trying their hardest to kill the demons.
He wondered at the irony that most of the people fighting could use magic, but didn't.
Wait. I can use magic.
For just one moment, he stopped fighting.
Anchor… Center… Touch…Screams went up as demons burned. All of them, not just a few.
Just a little more…
The remaining demons that hadn't fled turned to ash.
Heero looked around at the devils, Shinigami, and pilots. He realized he must have been using Sight. Every one of them glowed, but eight stood out. He saw Virginia, who was mostly blue, and Duo, mostly yellow. Gene was with two other females, one who glowed every single color and one the glowed mostly brown. Gene himself glowed black. Quatre glowed mostly gray, Trowa mostly Green, and Wufei mostly Purple. They all had little bits of the other eight colors mixed in. He knew without looking that he was glowing mostly red.
The nine Guardians.
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So, how was that?
Actually, I think that the last part was a little rushed, but I have never done a battle before. I hope it was OK.
Congratulations to Furie and Jjinks, who guessed the elements and pilots right. Good job also to Indi-Scarga, who mixed up two of them. And also a good job to all who tried!
Anyway, I have drawn pictures of Kitten, Death, Virginia, and Devron (the devil), and I hope to scan them into the computer and post them on my photobucket account next week. I'll put up the address when I have done so for those who want to see.
Bye!
DarkLady