Winged

By EvilBunny   

            Disclaimer: nope. Not mine. But the following e-mail address is: evilbunniesrock@hotmail.com send me reviews(or post, posting works too)! Pretty please?

            Quick explanation. This is the same story as flightlessness, but from Releena's POV. So it starts at basically the same time, and continues on to the same ending. You can read it as a stand alone, or go find flighlessness and read it first. I would have just added this to it, but NO, can't work out how to do that since I classified Flight. as a one-shot all those ages ago. Gaah. If someone can help with that, please, do so!

The rain beat steadily down upon the think green canopy that swayed high above her head, slowly dripping through. One drop broke through the intertwined branches to splash against the bare skin of the girl that lay sprawled amidst the overgrown grass. Releena lay face down in the dirt, her limbs splayed about her. She rested one check full against the ground, and slowly breathed in the clean scent of wet earth and water-soaked forest, barely aware of the droplet that traced a spidery path along her calf.

Golden strands of hair, dirty from lack of washing, drifted past her shoulders to pool about her. Even in its unwashed state, the hair seemed to shimmer in the shadows. Small eddies of the violent wind came down from off the walls of her sanctuary to play in the patterns her pale strands made amidst the grass. The wind drifted along her cheek, and mixed with the white feathers which lay to either side of her head. Two massive wings rose from her back, to fall on either side of her, as if too heavy for so slight a girl to lift. Where they broke from her back, a mass of scars, old blue to angry red, sat in angry evidence.  Caught between the delicate quills, water droplets sat glistening in the fading light, looking for all the world like decorations of some elaborate masquerade from which she had forgotten to remove her jewel studded costume. Lying in the last of the day's light, she seemed a fallen angel, a forgotten gift; her shallow breathing was the only evidence that she still lived. As the last of the sun's rays slid past her eyes, dragging a curtain of shadow behind them, a light hazel peeked out from behind the dark lashes.

            Once again unable to sleep, Releena stared at the blade of grass that lay barely beyond her nose. Always elusive, even when sleep did come it only brought nightmares and memories to haunt her rest. She shifted slightly, trying to ease the weight of her wings into a more comfortable position, and let out a hiss as the movement sent pain shooting along her back. An angry red welt lay along her spine, nestled between the old scars and fading bruises from countless previous operations. Countless except that she could remember each and every one. Whatever they'd done this time refused to heal cleanly, but she refused to take their drugs. A small act of rebellion, but the only act they allowed her. She had tried them once, surrounded by the pain she'd given in to the temptation of a senseless oblivion, but instead found herself trapped in a swirling world of dark shadows and remembered, half-hidden pain, unable to escape. Even months after clawing out of that maelstrom of unconscious horror, the small white pills beside her meal sent shivers through her. Now she simply took the medicine and hid them under a convenient loose flagstone. She doubted that they would really care about her refusal to take their drugs, but the idea of being forced to take them kept her cautious. Better not to draw attention to her refusal at all.

            Releena gave a shudder as yet another drop of cold rain dropped onto her neck. She needed to move deeper into the overgrown mass of trees that had once been a private garden, before she got any wetter. She refused to even think about returning inside unless the cold became unbearable. Even though two doors, a flight of stairs, and multiple layers of insulation separated her from the experimental holding cells, she still felt as though she could hear the screams through the wood and stone. Pain had left its mark, engraving itself on every fiber of the building and spending time in the castle plucked harshly at her soul. During the few months the cold drove her inside, Releena climbed high into the rafters, creating a nest of blankets as far from the tainted floor as possible.

            As full darkness began to roll across Releena's solitary brambles, she slowly pushed herself up. Kneeling, her arms fully extended before her, she rested, before finally sitting back onto her haunches, sweeping her wings back behind her.  The wings rose up to either side, acting as a natural frame. Fully extended, they almost grazed the lower branches of the tree above her, before closing clumsily along her back. She stood slowly, arms outstretched to keep her balance, and walked lightly amidst the heavy trees and overgrown grass before settling beneath an old oak. Curling herself amidst the massive roots, she draped her wings around her for added warmth. There would be no moonlight tonight, as heavy clouds boiled across the sky. Through the leaves, she could make out the small lantern light hanging above the garden door and underneath the steady patter of rain, Releena could just make out the faint click of military boots moving along the catwalk; the sentry was making his rounds.

            Though secure behind her greenery, and already hidden by the shadows, Releena shrank closer to the tree behind her, holding her breath, her heartbeat a shade quicker than before. She stayed motionless until the measured paces had passed her, and faded away. A light breeze traveled down through the branches, and wafted gently against her cheek. Slowly, she closed her eyes, hoping that if she just rested a little, and drifted into a wakeful sleep, she'd be alright. She could still hear the measured tread of the sentries at each passing of the guard, but still the nightmares came.    

            "Christine was crying again. Tears poured from her eyes, salty river whose dams were broken, they split over her cheeks to fall onto the floor. Torture sobs ripped from her throat and two raw wounds lay open on her back. Releena stood, helpless to ease her pain; for there was no hope to give. Still, Releena reached out to her, to offer what comfort companionship could bring. As her hand reached Christine's shoulder, the smaller girl convulsed with a sharp cry, white feathers now crawled from the cuts along her shoulder blades, pouring out tinged red from blood.  The feathers cascaded down, and kept coming and coming and now the pain exploded in Releena's own back. She felt them falling, and dragging her downwards. She lay curled on the floor, eyes wide, watching as Christine slit her wrists, unable to move. Christine's body fell beside her, already lifeless, and her dead eyes met Releena's, staring, and the blood spilled out along the floor, coming towards her, creeping and sucking along the cement."

            Releena jolted awake. She lay still, breathing in great gasps of air, one after another. She hadn't even known that Chris had committed suicide until days after the fact, when she overheard the doctors talking. That was when she'd realized that out of all of them, only she had survived. All the other children from the orphanages for this experiment had died, from one reason or another. She, however, had been a complete success; a near-perfect melding of bird DNA and human. Lucky her.

            A soft rustling came from behind her, and to the right, from somewhere along the wall. Someone was in her garden. A convulsive shudder grasped her, the spasm twitching her wings out and nearly unfurling them to an outstretched position. They had come for her again. They had come for her again; for more tinkering and tests.

            As her feathers began to settle, and the shadows of her nightmares cleared, Releena listened more carefully to the furtive sounds coming from around her. The intruder walked in near silence, only the occasionally small rasp of thorns against clothing and faint rustle betraying his presence. Combined with the still steady rain, only a girl so used to this solitary garden would have distinguished his progress from the wind. The guards would never have made such an effort at caution. They knew she had nowhere to run. Nor would they already be at the end of the garden, for the walled area had only one door.

            A moment of indecision followed; should she stay hidden in the depth of the tangles, or venture out to investigate the intrusion. It had been so long since she had seen another person who wasn't affiliated with the mad schemes that gripped the entire castle. Perhaps this was finally her chance for escape. Releena's lips curled in a faint smile at the idea. That was a dream she only had when she was awake, and she thought she had long ago suppressed it. Even if she ever found someone with the ability to help her, with her luck they wouldn't. Releena glanced down at the wings whose ends now trailed about her legs. The doctors had successfully separated her from the rest of humanity. Three failed attempts at escape had also made it clear she couldn't get out on her own. She'd never even made it far enough away to give her any hope. There simply wasn't anywhere to run; the entire countryside cowered under the experimenters control. Also, one more failed attempt and they'd told her they'd wipe her mind. After all, they only wanted her modified body, and they couldn't have her damaging herself by trying to escape. Still, obviously the dream of escape wouldn't die.

            Releena rose gingerly, and retraced her steps out of the thicket. If this intruder could give her hope for release, she would have to risk it. She could hear him slowly making a tour of the perimeter, surely searching for something. He would arrive at the door soon enough, she would wait for him there.

            The metal door gleamed before her, and Releena stopped behind one of the large trees that ringed the clearing by the door. The stealthy sounds slowly grew nearer as the unknown figure approached, but every few moments Releena would lose the sound and beat down panic. What was she doing? She should be deep in her forest sanctuary, hidden, protected from whatever had wandered in. Finally she heard the sounds come to a rest only a few meters away. The Unknown had reached the door at last, and would vanish through it in just a few moments. Releena could feel the presence through the tree, and unable to resist the urge to know, snuck a peek. The look was brief as thought, a mere twist of her head around the trunk, barely long enough for her eyes to focus on the boy silhouetted in front of the door. Unruly brown hair fell about his face, and he held himself with the calm assurance found only in those who have no doubt in their own abilities; the look the young trainees tried so desperately to achieve. Crouched in the darkness, in rain-soaked clothes, he still exuded a sense of strength and carefully controlled danger. Quick as her look was, in the second she stared at him he already began to turn towards her. Releena ducked back behind her sheltering tree, her heart thumping in her chest so loudly it drowned out every other sound. If he moved towards her now, she wouldn't have even heard him. Desperately she tried to get her racing heart and quickened breathing under control, hoping that still falling rain would hide the soft explosions of air from her lungs. She could feel him searching for her, searching the darkness where she had stood. Gripping her fingers into the bark before her, she pressed her cheek against its comforting roughness, closing her eyes. She fought to move forward and every muscle sang with her desire to step out and meet those eyes that quested for her, to discover what was behind them and what he wanted. And if he would help her. She had no doubt that he could, in the two seconds she'd seen him, Releena was already convinced there was nothing he could not do.  But if he would was another question. He had obviously come here for reason, and that reason was just as obviously not her. Fear of rejection battled with hope. She scrunched her eyes tighter, she didn't think she could bear being trapped here forever, or ever forgive herself if she let this one chance pass her by.

            Releena's eyes snapped open as the soft sound of a closing door filtered through the night air, and she bolted from her place of concealment to find the space where he'd stood empty her shadow the only one falling in sharp relief against the bright metal. She'd lost her chance. Despair rose like a wave, ready to crash over her. It was almost easier to try and pretend that he had just been a dream, a vision brought on by lack of sleep and high-strung nerves. The hope still pumping through her veins with each too rapid heartbeat was almost painful. Hope that he'd come back out of that door and save her.

            Any number of things could go wrong with her half-formed plan, as everything hinged around the unknown motives and capabilities of that one boy. He might never come out of that door. He could be killed, join the enemy, or even simply exit out of any number of different ways. Still, Releena realized she didn't believe he would do any such thing. She already trusted him, trusted he would come back for her.

            The damp leaves about her feet shifted as she slowly sunk back into a sitting position behind the tree, curling her toes into the moss. Gingerly she arranged her wings to either side, both to block the wind and to try and keep her raw back from rubbing against the rough bark. She didn't know how long she had to wait.

            -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

            The dark ridges of the oaken trunk rasped against the tender skin along the base of her wings. They never let the wounds fully heal; always trying to understand why she'd been the only one to survive the wing growth. She was still the only one. Shivering, Releena drew her legs up and wrapped her arms around them, resting her cheek against the cool skin of her knee. She wished they would just give up. Sometimes she even thought they had. They'd leave her alone for weeks, with only the appearance of her meals as a sign that she was not wholly forgotten. But they would invariably come back to her whenever some lull in production, or inconvenient question sent them back to the problem of flight. Once, between the pain and the drugs they pumped through her, she'd overheard that a second test group had all failed. All dead except the one girl, whose body had completely rejected the avian DNA. Releena truly was the only survivor.

            A drop of water fell onto her face, and gently slid down her cheek. The rain had already found her, and where one drop fell, others would soon follow. Releena let out a sigh, and hoped that the mysterious young man would return before she became thoroughly soaked. She peered around the tree once more, glaring at the metal door, willing him to come back out. Briefly she debated waiting for him inside, but the bare room behind the door could furnish no hiding places. She leaned back against the oak, only to look back around again seconds later. What if he managed to slip by without her noticing, disappearing before she had a chance to speak with him? Nervously she fingered the edge of her tattered dress. Would it be easier to simply sit where she had a clear view of the door? But that would put her in plain view, not only of him when he finally arrived, but also of the guards. The habits of secrecy were still too strong, and Releena resettled herself against the tree, her hearing alert for the faintest sign of her hero's return. At least he needn't worry that she might drift off to sleep. The chance that she had waited so long for thrilled through her. Finally, finally, she had a real chance for freedom. A real chance to wake up from her nightmares.

            But she wouldn't have that chance if he never came back out, she thought impatiently, letting out yet another sigh. Anything could have happened to him. Releena closed her eyes, and tucked herself tighter into the protective arch of her wings. He had to come back for her, he just had to.

            Another drop fell onto her head, burrowing into the honeyed strands. Above her, the skies were finally beginning to clear, seemed she wouldn't be drenched after all. Not like that would matter if he didn't come back. Why couldn't she have just spoken to him when she'd had the chance? If he never came back, she would lose her chance, her only hope.

            As the clouds dissipated, Releena turned her face upwards to the sky. The moon had not yet set, and she stared blindly at its surface, praying for this hope to be true, and in the absence of sound, she heard the soft sound of a door closing. Without thinking, she stood up and stared towards the door. There! Brown hair, confident stance, he stood outlined once more before the door, standing motionlessly, staring out into the dark. With a jolt she realized he was searching the garden for something. For someone. For her.

            Suddenly his gaze swung towards her, and he lifted up his hand. He had the most beautiful eyes she could ever remember seeing. He spoke, and she let the words flow over her. Calmly, she listened to him proclaim her imminent destruction, and only then did she realize he held a small handgun pointed straight towards her heart. Gently she stepped out from behind her shelter. Perhaps he knew what she only feared, that her only freedom lay in a bullet embedded in her chest. Perhaps that was the salvation she sensed in him, a release from the prison of her warped body. The one escape she'd never had the courage to take, was that what he brought her?

            Releena stood before him and could feel every blade of grass against her feet, each solitary velvety piece, and the soft dirt beneath her toes, saw each drop of water on each green leaf. The boy faced her, silent and grave, impassable, strong. His blue eyes called to her, and she stepped further from the protective shadows. If he was the last person she would ever see before her soul fled, she wanted to remember every detail, to let him know she was grateful to leave at his hands instead of dying alone, surrounded by her jailers.

            The pale moonlight now shone, casting delicate shadows among his features, adding a subtle luminance to his skin. He stood, her dark angel, her deliverance. Hesitantly, she took another step. Around her, the garden the night, all seemed to be slowly fading away, the soft silvery tones of shadows growing gray and unimportant, her eyes were full of him. Still, her body clung to the only world it knew, and her skin felt alive to every change in the air. A gust of wind crawled along her skin, teasing her hair from behind her ears, and drifting along her arms.

            The boy spoke again. Releena watched his lips form each word, form her destiny. From where she stood, she could almost see her own reflection in his eyes. As he uttered the last word, the echoes it made still sounded in her heart. But as she stood there, the heavy tread of marching feet broke through the almost magic stillness. The guard's patrol was back, they were coming. Panic bloomed. They were coming and she was in the open, they would see her. They would see HIM. She couldn't let them. They always took everything that was hers, everything she loved. She couldn't let them have him too.

            Releena grabbed his wrist, and fled deeper into the garden, the only place of safety she had. Even as her feet beat along the well-known paths, and her ears strained for any change in the rhythm of the footsteps along the catwalk, Releena knew her heart pounded for quite another reason. She could feel a warm sensation all along the hand that loosely held his wrist. He was real. She hadn't slipped into some waking dream, finding solace in madness and surrendering reality for a gentler insanity. He was real. She held that thought to her, felt the never articulated fear that lived within her, that she would forego reason and escape into her own mind, unable to deal anymore, fall awayfrom her heart, disintegrating to dust.

            Gratefully Releena sank into her favourite grotto, kept dry by the intricate weavings of leaves above their heads, and she tugged him down beside her.  He knelt silently, so close she could feel his warmth radiating all along her right side. So close to him, she couldn't help but hope he hadn't truly come to kill her. He'd brought hope with him, and she wanted to cherish his presence as long as possible.

            Suddenly shy, she focused her attention on the guard passing above them. The boy hadn't shot her, and she knew he'd had the chance. Now unsure what his goal was, she felt insecure about where she would fit in. After all, she was the remnants of an experiment, leftover pieces. But she could feel his breath fanning against her cheek, and as she turned to face him, she saw his eyes, dark with emotion, staring at her back. She knew what she saw, knew the strangeness of her wings. But he wasn't staring at the unreal whiteness of her plumage, simply at her shoulders, where the scars ran heavy and thick. He seemed so lost, and so angry, staring at the marks etched in her skin, that Releena felt the last of her wariness vanish. Here sat someone who cared; whom she could trust. Slowly, she began to speak. She told him of the operations, of the other children, of pitiless guards and doctors deaf to pleas for help. And all the while she watched his eyes, watched the emotions sweep across them; anger and determination, but never pity. Yes, he would be the savior of them all. He had to understand that.

            'But you're here to finally stop them, aren't you?" she said. "You'll put an end to it all."She knew she was right. Even though he might not be able to save her, even if she was too far gone, the castle would never be the same. He brought change with him like a storm, the experiments, the pain, the altered-soldiers; he would wipe them all away. Burn away the fear with his fierceness. 

            But he was standing up, moving upwards slowly, moving away from her. For a second time, without thinking, she gave in to her instincts once again, and wrapped her hand around his wrist. Her fingers stood out against his skin, a band of white against the dark tan of his arm and she almost lost herself in the pulse she felt right under her thumb, but she couldn't let him leave. Not now. Not only for herself, but to protect him. There were rules about this castle, you couldn't just be found out late at night. Disappearances were normal, common even, but if they saw him now, if he reappeared, the alarm would be raised in no time.

            She knew she couldn't restrain him physically, but maybe she could offer information, something to keep him with her. Speaking quietly, she slowly drew him back down beside her. She spoke steadily, tell him everything she knew of the castle's defenses and secret passages, anything she thought he could use in its destruction. Living in the shadows of her trees, she heard more than would be suspected, more even than she'd realized. Under his quiet gaze, she recalled overheard conversations of guards on duty and glimpses of reinforcements. She even told him the information from the walls in the operating rooms, numbers from the charts that she'd read while trying to stay conscious. As she poured out words, she filled herself with his presence. She hadn't spoken for months except to scream or beg that she almost felt amazement that she could chatter now so surely. He sat barely a foot away from her and as she spoke, she watched him; watched one hand play with the long grass by his leg, strong fingers that never broke the slender strands. That was his only movement. Even in her grotto, he kept almost perfectly still, as if wary of anyone who was watching. Only the barely visible rise and fall of his chest, and the toying with the grass betrayed him. She could almost imagine she felt his breath each time his chest fell, and inhaled softly, trying to capture a small taste of him.  

            Marching feet of the patrols came and went, and Releena kept talking, smiling slightly if she even noticed. The urge to hide, to curl up into a tiny ball and disappear was gone. Releena felt calm. She felt safe, a sensation she hadn't known since her parents' death. Calm and relaxed, she accepted that the future would come, but not yet. For now, she would just sit here, in the night, and he would sit next to her.

Dawn light finally began to filter down past the ramparts, lightening the sky and bouncing off the dew that had gathered in his hair, glistening sleepily. She'd spoken for hours, and her throat had begun to complain. Muscles in her cheeks ached too, unused to prolonged speech. One of her legs had fallen asleep, and she shifted, trying to unobtrusively bring it back to life. The slight movement brushed her wings against the bark, where the feathers caught and tugged, pulling sharply. Releena grimaced. The damn things could never give her even a moment's peace.

A movement across from her caught her attention. The boy, who had been so still through out the night, had stood up. Abruptly his crisp words rang out in the dawn stillness.

"My team needs to know this. Wait here." Then he was gone, striding through the undergrowth before being swallowed seconds later by her garden, sinking into the dawn shadows with hardly a ripple. Releena stared at the place where he had sat, waiting for the fear, the panic, to return. After a few moments, she stood uncertainly and began to stretch muscles cramped from long hours of stillness. She felt the same warmth and serenity as when he was near, and for the first time in far too long, she felt sleepy. Not exhausted or drained, just a sweet heaviness in her limbs. He'd told her to wait until his return, and she knew he'd come back. Whatever he was here for, he hadn't finished it, and already she knew he wouldn't leave a job half-finished.        

The oak tree that had sheltered her earlier that night lay directly beside her, and Releena sank gratefully between itsw gnarled roots. She would just rest a little while waiting for him. With the intruder no longer consuming all her attention, the garden slowly came alive around her. The small birds that had woken with the sun flitted through the upper branches, and Releena knew that they would soon attack the wet earth for their breakfast. Fearless, they went through their daily lives, unaware and uncaring of the atrocities beneath their little feet. Bravery comes so easily to the innocent. Releena absently watched one robin drenched in dew as he fluffed his feathers before taking flight to another tree. Feathers he was born with on wings that were natural. The shy courtship of young sparrow couple caught her attention, their care-free overtures, sweet and full of promise, filled the air. As rays of sunshine filtered down through the leaves, the glade come alive with light; sparks thrown from leaves still crowned with last nights droplets. She'd forgotten how beautiful this place was. As she closed her eyes, she could still feel the light caressing her face.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The shadows had changed. In fact, they had almost disappeared. The warm light of late morning slid over everything, and seemed to gather around the seated figure directly before her. He'd come back. He faced away from her, but she still felt the draw of him, the comfort his very presence brought. From the force of focused attention he had leveled at the small computer he had seated in his lab, he'd clearly sat there for quite some time. He'd been with her all morning while she'd slept. The fresh light revealed the rich brown of his hair, and danced along the strong muscles of his back and arms. Releena traced the light's path with her eyes, reveling in his reality. She still almost half expected him to fade away at any moment.

As if sensing her gaze, the young man glanced in her direction, but didn't speak. She wanted to hear him speak. To have him vanquish with the words the last lingering suspicion that he was merely a cruel hallucination. She had so much she wanted to know, but instead asked the only question her still groggy mind could formulate.

"How long have I been asleep?"

The reply was prompt and brief. "About three hours."

A thrill ran through her. Three hours? She had slept through an entire three hours, safe and free from the dreams the always plagued her. She hadn't slept like that since her days in before her arrival here, in the orphanage. No, that wasn't true. Even in the orphanages she had often fallen asleep with tears in her eyes, and awoken no more refreshed than when she had finally drifted off. She could dimly recall the sensation of awakening secure and satisfied, and although she knew there would be no pancakes with syrup today, suddenly mornings that were a joy to wake up t no longer seemed laughably impossible.

Releena yawned in contentment, stretching her arms above her head and filling her lungs with the garden air. The muscles along her shoulders twinged in warning from this unexpected movement, but Releena ignored them for the sheer novelty of awaking rested and refreshed, reveling in the new sensation. Midway through, as she opened her eyes, she met the young man's gaze. He sat looking at her quizzically, and Releena fell back with a jolt into the awareness of the great white wings that rose to either side of her. Caught with her arms outstretched and her mouth open, she sheepishly returned her hands to her lab, and asked him haltingly if here was any other information she could give him.

"No." Was the only reply that rumbled out of his chest. Idly, Releena wondered how the rumble of his speech would sound with her ear pressed against him, his hand absently running through her hair. She wanted to know, wanted to feel everything he did. With a jolt, Releena realized she had given her heart and soul to a boy who's name she didn't even know. She smiled at her own forgetfulness.

            "I just realized I never asked you your name." She said, trailing off wistfully. She hadn't realized she'd spoken loud enough to be heard, until she saw him tense. Baka. She hadn't meant for her wistful desire for a glimpse of his identity to be voiced yet. She didn't want to push him. Trust could come later. She couldn't expect him to sense the same faith in her that she had in him. Honestly, it wasn't that important. She would simply find out later.

            "Heero Yui."

            He'd answered. Releena took the name and wrapped herself around it, hugging it close. The taunt muscles along his back still did not relax, but he'd still told her his name.

            "My name is Releena Peacecraft." She quietly replied, but that didn't seem enough. She felt he deserved so much more than simply her name, she wanted to show him that he'd given her back the world. "Thank you for fighting to free us." she added. It wasn't nearly enough, but it was the best she could do. The exchange complete she felt his attention return to the laptop, and contentment return to her. Satisfied, Releena felt again an unaccustomed drowsiness. After a brief struggle to remain awake, she decided to take advantage of the calm Heero seemed to bring with him and crawled beneath some hanging ferns. Out of the sunlight, the dark green leaves closed around her, and what light remained made shifting patterns on her skin as the wind blew. A stray feather from her back stood out beside her in sharp relief against the dark earth and before drifting off, she fixed her gaze on Heero, her eyes drowsily peering out from behind the foliage. But the novelty of sweet sleep beckoned, and she gently succumbed.

 ----------------------------------------             -------------------------------------------------------

            Colours and warmth. Butterfly wings and weightlessness. Releena swam in beauty and light, flitting from abstract joy to the concrete sensation of being held and wanted, her wings nothing more than an insubstantial shimmer. Soft music slid like liquid about her, trailing around her angles and wrists and coiling about her waist. She hung suspended in happiness, eyes open and peaceful, as about her images danced by in the swirling mass, peaceful and joyful all at once. True harmony. Time had no meaning, but slowly, so slowly she barely noticed, the liquid strands that hung about her began to thicken, to tighten. First around her wrists, then her ankles, then all the rest of her, hardening and grasping at her. Gravity began to reassert itself, she felt the suddenly binding cords biting into her skin, crawling about her neck. Even her wings were bound, and they, they were no longer a shimmer, but again the dead weight of reality, now covered in this viscous substance, unable to move. Her hair fell forward into her face as the gravity pulled her, but through the pale, obscuring haze she could see the colours were gone, replaced by the grey of the catacombs beneath the castle. Screaming would be useless, she knew this, but still she felt the scream building in her throat, each breath a choking battle as she fought to keep it down. A sudden staccato noise broke her suffocating stillness, as her bonds, now brittle and weak, shattered around her and she plummeted downwards, wings trailing uselessly behind her...

            ..to awaken back into greenery. Releena kept her eyes on the leaf canopy,  trying to calm her breathing. Slowly she refocused on the garden around her; someone was looking at her. Heero. He gestured for her to be silent, and she instinctively obeyed. As the beating of her heart slowly receded from her ears, Releena became aware of the sharp blasts of machine guns coming from a distance and the hurrying of military feet. Had the attack begun? Heero replied to her questing gaze only with a nod, and calmly walked towards the nearest wall. Releena watched him go, realizing only as he leaped up to grab a hold of the catwalk and swing himself atop it that he meant to leave. He couldn't LEAVE, not without her. The world narrowed onto his retreating figure, and Releena stood, shaking off the remnants of her dream she ran to the wall. Old, crumbling stone offered a wealth of hand and toe-holds, but as she hastily began to climb, she could feel her wings pulling behind her, trying to dislodge her. Each movement was a careful juggle of weight to keep her from falling backwards into her prison. She'd lose him for sure if she had to start again.

            Finally she clambered over the ledge, finding Heero alone like an avenging angel over two crumpled bodies. He'd already taken care of the guards. So easy. He would have escaped so easily, and she'd been trapped so long.

            From above the loud beating of a helicopter came closer, the air from its descent almost enough to push her off her feet. When the kicked up dust had calmed, a rope ladder had appeared in Heero's hand; Releena had been too busy trying to keep her wings still to have noticed its lowering. Now she kept her eyes on him, willing him to take her with him. He was her rescuer.                 

Heero stared back with a fierce intensity, but remained motionless, like a statue made from living flesh. When he suddenly held out his hand, she stood staring dumbly at the upward palm for a moment before reaching out her own hand to his, caught off-guard. As her hand settled in his, his strong fingers curled about her wrist. There was no going back. For a brief instance she felt a crippling fear. With all her pain, all the changes, and most obvious, her unavoidable wings, could she truly reenter the outside world? But Heero had already pulled her against him, releasing her hand to grasp her around the waist. The ladder took a sharp leap upwards, and as her feet left the ground, Releena let out a gasp and clung to the boy who already held her securely, tucking her feet beside his on the lowest rung.. Too much like her dream, she again felt the pull of gravity as she seemed to float in the air, and burrowed her face in his shirt. But this time, he was the one who held her up, and she knew he would never let her fall. He held her safe inside the protection of his arms, and as they went higher, Releena closed her eyes and concentrated on the steady beat of the heart just beneath her ear.

Authors notes: there should be another part to this written up fairly soon, continuing along this story. (fairly soon probably being quite a while, but not as long as between Flightlessness and Winged.) If you find any inaccuracies between the two, please tell me and I'll try and be good and fix them. But please, tell me what you think!