Thorns by liahime

Seventeen Rose Memory

Disclaimer: liahime is not the current owner of Digimon... she owns just a severe case of writer's block and an extremely horrid cold. .

-
He drank.

It was too late to turn back, with the golden coin of a sun slipping from a silken sky. He let the potion slide down his throat.

There was no huge bang of thunder, nor any explosion or swirls of light. There was no drama to the potion- he merely swallowed it and let the bottle fall to the ground. He turned, taking his last lucid minute to watch Rika. Her face was a puzzle- confused and angry, and sad. Another emotion was there, mixed in with all the others, left unidentifiable. It was so easy to miss, but once he spotted it, there was no mistaking it- it was there.

Love.

He opened his mouth to say something, but the words died in his mouth as the last traces of the potion was swallowed. Numbly, he stood frozen to the ground, a blank shell of what was once a human being. Priscilla smiled smugly. "Come here."

He walked forward shakily, his eyes blank and expressionless. Blood pounded in Rika's ears, drums trying to block out what she didn't hear. She concentrated on the buzz, trying to ignore what he was saying.

"Who am I?"

"Princess Priscilla."

"Who do you love most?"

There was a pause, and then, the words came- "You."

"Do you know that beggar?" She pointed towards Rika. The thudding increased, speeding up to a fever pitch.

Ryo looked straight through her as if she was a shadow, with eyes cold and lifeless as polished pebbles. He turned back to the smirking princess. "No."

"Very good." Priscilla looked over at the bleeding Rika. "See? When you're as beautiful as me, and as charming as me, you get guys like him. Not by being some stupid barbaric excuse for a princess." She turned to Ryo, drawing him closer to her.

"Does it pain you to see him like this, dear? Don't cry. He'll be much happier with me. You won't have to see him ever again. Don't start to weep, Rika. I can't stand it when people cry."

Her pale eyebrows narrowed her eyes into tiny slits. "But some screaming. Some begging for your life. Some slow suffering and dying in agony. I can stand that."

She smiled beatifically at Ryo. "Kill her."

Woodenly, he moved forward, a doll controlled by her words. Stiff limbs picked up the fallen sword from the ground. She leaped back from a swing.

Priscilla giggled. "Do you want me to tell you what happens after you die, Rika?"

"Enlighten me." Rika growled, pulling one of Itachi's twin swords up fromthe ground. Steel clashed on steel as she was driven back.

Priscilla tittered, sounding like a schoolgirl with a juicy secret. "Don't tell, but my army's right outside your walls right now. They're coming in as we speak, and they'll take over your nice little kingdom for me! I get to be a queen!" She tossed a blonde curl off her shoulder. "Isn't that just fabulous?"

Rika parried and cut forward, keeping the shock from reaching her face. Priscilla continued.

"I'm terribly sorry, Rika, but after all- we win some, we lose some, right?" She smugly stood back.

Rika's sword swung towards her, chopping a mass of curls from the perfect cascade flowing from Priscilla's head. "Right." The golden hair fell limply to the ground.

Priscilla gasped, touching the chopped hair as if it was a missing limb. "How- how dare you!" She shrieked, an unearthly, high sound, wailing into the night. Rika spun around, blocking Ryo's sword. He fought differently now- roughly, throwing himself into the fight with a new speed Rika had never seen before. A sleeve of silk flew off in a blur of metal.

She had to attack him.

There was no choice but to stop him, to kill him-or die.

Could she?

Looking at him, even as he she knew she couldn't.

This is the end, I guess. Fool. You're going to be dead in a few minutes. Dying in some stupid, heroic way, and dying for a fool who doesn't remember you and wants to murder you on the spot.

You're insane.Her mind reminded her sharply. Absolutely, completely out of your mind. Back out now. She ignored it, and kept going. What you're doing is absolutely crazy. Suicidal.

I know what I'm doing, she told it. Completely.

You're going to die. This is suicide. You have to kill him, or die yourself, her mind reminded her. Do you know what you got yourself into here?

She looked at Ryo's face, hard and set, filled with a hatred and vengeance- and sighed. She swept her blade up once more.

I know.
-

A tiny thread of a memory pushed into Ryo's mind

-A redheaded girl picked up a twig, and quickly whipped it forward, keeping it an inch away from his stomach.- Her voice was familiar- as if he had known it his whole life- but he didn't. He didn't know her- he knew nothing outside of Priscilla... His mind returned to the strange dream-like memory.

-"That's likely. But he'd probably beat you, whoever he is."

"I thought you didn't know him." He parried her twig.

"I don't." She countered and made his twig fall out of his hand. "I just know he'd beat you."

He smiled. "I expected you to be different from other princesses, but never this much..." -

Impossible, his mind answered for him. Priscilla is your love. One and only, forever until death. It viciously ripped into him. Remember. There is no other princess.

The girl had every chance to cut into him, to drive him back... and yet she didn't . He slowly walked forward, sword point ready. This is your purpose. His mind whispered to him, sending it's coils into him. To serve Her. To kill that girl.

The red haired girl hovered in his dazed memory, a name dancing just out of reach. He stretched for the word, only to be pushed back away.

Concentrate, his mind told him sternly.

Another thought poked in anyway, reminding him.

-There was a boy- but yet... not a boy- circling around him, cutting in the same graceful way the girl did. Like a cat. -

Concentrate on Priscilla. Concentrate. CONCENTRATE.

His sword rushed up to her throat, centimeters away. He watched her, being pulled more and more from his golden princess to the girl waiting for death so calmly. There was no fear in her eyes- just a calm, empty dignity as she waited for the sword to impale her.

Why this would happen now, he didn't know. How would he even know this girl, dressed in silvery rags with her dirt smudged skin? His heart tugged him in her direction. His mind resisted, pulling it back. He wasn't sure what to listen to. The voice in his ear or his heart?

Which one was right?

The memories kept coming in, pressing into his brain as he locked sword against sword, drowning out Priscilla, flooding his mind. Gardens in moonlight, thorns and ball gowns, laughing and hiding. The two memories in his head fought for control, tumbling and filling his head. There was an annoyed shriek in the buzzing background as his sword slowed. The clouds rolling around in his head cleared and thickened; the drumming buzz crescendoed to an almost unbearable volume, trying to keep him away from his memory. The mysterious girl danced in and out of his clouded mind- he could almost say it-

And suddenly it was all clear.

He looked down at the girl, his sword point relaxed.

Tangled hair, pale skin.. Red blood dripping down from her neck, mixing with tears. She was crying, tears running silently down her face. She stood, staring at him, glaring at him- something so familiar that he knew it as well as his own reflection- but not her name.He shifted the sword awkwardlyto his other hand. Priscilla shrieked in thebackground, telling him to do something-but he didn't care.

He reached, without knowing why, to his own face, and found a tear on his own face, slowly sliding down.

"Rika."

The word came to his tongue, and with it he remembered. He said it once more, letting his sword arm fall to lift her chin up, to brush away a tear in a flood of them.

"Rika."

-
mira-mira- thank you!

DigiChick- thank you very much for reviewing! Glad you liked it

kunoichixxkanna- yay. Glad your computer works now. Thank you!

Lil' Lilo- I'm sorry for the long wait. Thank you for your patience

danchoo- thank you! Very much!

lady-snow- ooh.. I get a profound? Yay!

starof6- you reviewed while I was cramming this..You get to wait the least! In this story... I didn't tell it very clearly. I will try to write afte rsix in the morning and will eat breakfast every day.. Probably.

Anna- I love happy endings too much not to write one... even when it's so annoyingly hard to write one! Thank you!

FAITHful- I am very, very glad you don't mind. I got sick this week, so it took a loong time to get everything typed. Thanks again!

Dolce Saito- ah.. I feel bad. You reviewed last month.. Thank you tons!

GTKari-123- everyone hates Priscilla..I am so sorry for the long update wait.. Hope you like this chapter

AzNAnGeL07- Thank you for waiting so patiently... and for reviewing!

Whitezetsu- of course,that wasn't the last chapter.. (this isn't either.)I require happy endings for this story! By the way.. Good idea with the review-thingie. I'm gonna use that too sometimes.. Thank you!

authoress note:

Holidays are coming.. Along with the cold season. I'm not too sure of what I'm typing here, really. In my tylenol-and-early-morning-without-breakfast daze, I am just writing the first thought that comes in to my head. So it's really bad, hm?

My goodness. I told everyone that I would absolutely try to get this done earlier! And I did... but then.. I caught a cold. Too sick to stay up past 8 PM, and not too sick to go to school...eish.. So I wrote this really fast in the margins of my science papers and Spanish class. I'm sorry it's late again! (and it's short too..) I hope this chapter was okay everyone... (I'm worried! It was shorter and later than normal.. and I'm not clear-headed enough to edit this yet..) please review and tell me what you think and if I should rewrite this chapter or etc... I love comments/ criticism /compliments.. everything... (I need it!.. and I might rewrite this chapter?)

absolutely no idea what she is saying right now..

- liahime