Another -5 may '13
Disclaimer: G-boys are not saru's... and saru already forgotten the details of the anime too.
Warning: hmmm... cliffhanger?
chapter 19
...the light always bewildered him. He always felt so miserably unhappy and so exaltedly happy at the same time when he was under the light;
...bright and confusing lights... warm and sharp...lively and aggressive lights.
While the dark calmed him, yet left him felt bereft in its clutch.
...cold, unchanging, accepting darkness that was never judgmental nor feeling.
in the dark he could be less human, and no one would condemn him.
in the dark he could feel less, and he would never judge on himself.
...yet,
what was this light breaking his wall of darkness?
its clutch was so peaceful he'd want to turn it into chaos...
make a mess out of it...
rupture its serene facade and make it scream,
...make it scream his name...!
make it beg for him to stop-
"DUO! Stand your ground!"
The bark pulled his plunging mind back to the surface; he blinked a couple times and felt the water running down his side of chin and pooled on the hard surface of the stone ground. Ahh...great, now everyone's watching me drooling over the demon's face; he thought... but then again, STAND how, Treize?! He looked up acidly from the ends of his eyes to his older cousin up on the fifth terrace; if he could stand up, did Treize think he'd laze around sprawling on the floor showing his unprotected back to the whole world?!
A knowing light chuckle brought his mind back to the stone ground; Duo narrowed his eyes to the person standing behind the statue-like demon... Why is Myrica here?! Why is she on that side? Why the demon...?
A popping thought made his eyes tear up; so all of that time... she was targeting Heero, right under his nose too...! And while Heero was unconscious... what would she do if Heero wasn't unconscious back then, beat him up into submission? ...but right now, Heero was submitting to his seal... Myrica's target was Odin, it seemed; and he'd let himself be used to capture Heero... from Odin...! He'd snatched Heero from Odin, only to let someone else took him away...!
-No! That's not right... Heero let him do this... Why?
...to teach him a lesson? Is that it, Heero? ...but I was-
Sha-cliink.
The sharp sound jerked Duo and the thought that he was now showing his unprotected back to the whole world made a shiver ran up his spine, albeit his body was currently feeling numb. He turned his eyes to the hitmen standing on the far right side of the girl; it didn't seem like Myrica's attacks inflicted damage on them, their movements were organized... even up to the smallest motion it almost seemed unreal; like they were dancing in sync. They had their weapons out with only making a single sound... how humane could that be? Now Duo felt an icy claw crept up his spine.
"Hmph!" Duo could hear the girl scoffed.
"...Puppets of Raggfurnac! You're so confident with your hands, aren't you?" Myrica said silkily, Duo could picture her grinned condescendingly showing one of her fangs.
Raggfurnac? Treize frowned; they're the underground band of lawless mercenaries doing their work behind the curtains, right? Either way, secrecy should be their motto... so why are they doing this in the open? -ah, no, wait... she put them in the open! He turned his stare to Myrica; breaking their motto is the same as asking all of their members to target her! And everyone who witness them, too; so... He glanced at Odin; she wanted you to be targeted too?!
'Kitten... find me their leader!' Treize ordered his familiar in his mind.
'I can't!' the-cat answered in the man's mind as well, his tone wasn't as slurred and melodious in the mind-form; with a stern voice of a male teenager. 'That is one battle I wouldn't want to intrude...!'
'Why's that?' Treize asked, testing.
'For once, the demon wouldn't let me in.' the-cat stared widely at the demon's head, back to back with a grinning Myrica with her tail waggled leisurely around them. '...he allows this; he couldn't use his own hands to deal with the perpetrator, so he used other's...!'
Treize frowned deeper. Heero would go that far to teach Duo a lesson for attacking his Contract...? But then again, a demon's Contract is the demon's whole world, after all... And what's that about he's filing a formal complaint about Odin if he'd go this far for stating whom he belong to? Wouldn't that just state that the demon saw him as a tool; General or not... or was it because he was a General? Because he was Odin's General, the man's superior...? The demon was stating that even his Contract's superior was nothing but a tool? Odin let him do that? Or was it his payback for putting his demon in danger in the last outing incident?
Treize glanced again at Odin whose attention wasn't on him at the moment; it's true that he didn't know the man's past and origin. His late father, the previous General, had introduced the man to him as a Commander under him; for all he knew, Odin had been a Commander since forever... that meant, since before he was born; what if the man had been there even since before his father had been born too? What would that implicate...? He thought the palace men had feared Odin for his austerity, sometimes his conflicting childishness over matters; but what if they'd feared him for something else entirely? Something like...
Treize stared down at the 9 men with their weapons out; he narrowed his eyes darkly.
-...his peers?
10 years ago... that was when he took over his father's job because Master was just allegedly chosen to be the next King, since the King was currently on his death bed. The King and his right-hand man, the Internal Affair General, both lost their lives in a sequence, almost in the same period of time. If someone had designed that... who'd execute that design from behind the curtain...? 10 years ago was also when Odin returned from his outing job for the last time; his father had usually assigned Odin to do certain jobs that would take years to finish; some controversial jobs that he wouldn't have allowed to be done. 10 years ago... the last job his father had assigned Odin ...was to take over the Aurilathan's land that bordered this Kingdom with the demon's kingdom, right? And knowing how strong-willed those Aurilathans were, they'll fight to their last drop of blood than surrendering their land.
...that's where she came in! Treize stared at the grinning Myrica looking excited like she was a child playing her favorite game with friends. The expression on her face reminded him of Odin's when he felt excited too, that daredevil's smile of mischief... as if one who'd defy all reasons and logics for the sake of sheer excitement.
A crack of loud thunder that shook the ground jerked Treize out of his train of thought.
Duo was gritting his teeth trying to move anything besides his trembling lips.
Heero was standing unmoving like a statue with the ends of the pickaxes now looking like some giant semitransparent scythes placed around his neck.
Odin didn't seem like he'd move a muscle with those things around his demon's neck.
The soldiers down on the stone ground looking baffled as to whom they should point their weapons to, or whether their efforts made any difference at all.
The Auri girl broke her grin into a wide leer.
-and a heavy rain suddenly came crashing down on them.
And there was the significant unending hiss as the rain hit the 9 men and their weapons, white flame-like aura wafted from them as their weapons shone; notably screamed verve-crystals in their wake. The soldiers murmured and looked discouraged witnessing how bright the white aura was; they had verve-crystal weapons training too, and knew how hard it was to master even the small crystals that were barely flicker out their lights when they were used without using special equipments, let alone using them as hand-weapons... some verve-crystals with a light that strong, could easily take down the Palace if not the whole mountain entirely when they blow up. What kind of skilled men could operate such power in their hands?
The 9 men activated their crystals, making shlink sounds each time a light-blade appeared in the air around their bodies; they were uniformed, a thin lamina of white light, a band of halve a disk with each ends transparent to invisible. The width of the band was around 40-50 cm, just the right width to cut through the thickness of a human body; while its circular width seemingly could be manipulated as the user's wish, and also maneuvered in the air weightlessly.
The surrounding soldiers gasped together and took a step back, glancing at their comrades and nodded their agreement. If the Palace Demon was to be victimize here, even if it was just a wound; the war will be triggered. For better or for worse, they wouldn't let that happen; most of them had their family in the King's City, and that meant they wouldn't let the Palace took the brunt of those hitmen's verve-crystals too. If the King's City lost its Palace, it would be the first to be taken over by the war enemy...!
Taking out their verve-medals, they put them into the slots in their swords' handle; though it was called a verve-medal, it was nothing like what the hitmen used, those raw combustible crystals in hands; the soldiers' medals were just usual metal medals with a small bead of verve-crystal in their center. And its merit was just to enhance the weapon's traits; iron medals to enhance iron swords, steel medals to enhance steel shields...only simple augmentations as that. But they still arranged themselves in a battle formation; the ones who could operate their medals as shield at front, the ones who could use them as long ranged weapons were at the last rows, the ones who were trained to do short ranged fight waited behind the front rows to charge when they got their opening. First, they waited to see who the hitmen target was this time.
"Oh, pleeease!" the Leader said in the middle of his men; "...you're just like small children with matches in hands thinking to take down a fire-spitting Hydra with your game!"
"Hehhe!" Myrica laughed, "I don't hate determined children...!"
The Leader scoffed, "Let's see how much you can not-hate about these children, Aurilathan!" With that, 3 disks flew to the soldiers, repeatedly making ringing sounds as they leaped in the air with ever-changing directions so fast that the soldiers thought they saw more than 3 rolling-lights dancing towards them.
The Lieutenant cursed under his breath; he was one of the middle rows, and he could picture it that his twin swords could cut through the light-disks, only to make them parted and double their number since his swords were not equipped to fend off such material; and they're going to be mince meat in only seconds count. He took a fast glance at Duo at the ground floor, recognizing the boy's horror in his eyes; he wanted to give Duo a parting smile, it had been a short endeavor; he was just feeling remorseful about not being able to carry it to the end, to at least safe-guard the boy out of this peril.
"...run...-" Duo could only gasped it out; knowing what ran through Cail's mind as their eyes met, the man's lips had yet pulled into a smile, ...and the glow of the leaping disks already covered his vision of the man's face. With a hitched breath, Duo closed his eyes; there was something written in his karma that his luck would devour other's luck that was close to him, the Mother in the Covenant said; how he wanted to not belief it...
A series of splash sounds and a wave of surprised yelps later; Duo opened his eyes again when he thought he heard a clear melodious whistle in the air, and his face felt there was no rain poured down on him anymore eventhough he could still hear the sounds of the heavy drops hitting the grounds somewhat faraway. He felt the shift in the air and knew the hitmen were surprised too. He stared at the soldiers and saw the light-disks were embedded on a thin wall of water, formed from the rainfall that cleared a circle from on top of him and the ones on the stone ground as if marking a battlescape; and the water wall was gaining thickness as the heavy rain was still falling from the sky above. Like a circular wall connected the clouds and the grounds, clearing a hole in the dense rainfall.
"AHAA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAA HAHAHAHAHHAAHHA...!" Myrica laughed exaltedly; "THIS IS GREAT! DEMON WINGS ARE BEST USED TO FIGHT UNASSUMING FOOLS LIKE YOUUU...!" she shouted triumphantly, delighted to see and sensed how surprised the hitmen Leader was; then shouted in anger, "I LIKE BOISTEROUS CHILDREN THAN AN OLDMAN PLAYING WITH DEADBODIES, YOU COWARD!"
Deadbodies? Treize glanced at the hitmen; ah, that's why he didn't feel it in his ward... so the leader was a necromancer! "Duo is still inside...!" he said levelly at Odin.
Odin glanced at the General from the end of his eyes; he was actually making a battle-pout right now, for not being able to join the fight knowing that the erected water wall wouldn't let anyone in or out. "...'can't do anything about that!" he growled.
On the ground, with an insulted che, the Leader let his men drove their disks towards Myrica; the girl welcomed the attacks with a happy grin. Her crystals which had absorbed the demon's wings once again opened up their crystal wing-blades, counteracting each disk's leaps in contrasting flaps with their ever-changing movements.
The witnesses murmured their discouragement; what they witnessed wasn't a humane-fight they could intervene. The trails of white lights leaving afterimages in the air, and the wing-blades sprouted from the girl's scythes multiplied each time the attacks gained more speed; it had come to the point where the witnesses' eyes got blinded by the bright battle, and all they could here were endless chinks and flashes.
The girl's victorious cry broke the witnesses' trance, she got her pickaxes held horizontally in the ends of her extended arms; the wing-blades spread fully splashing beads of leftover water from its surface into the air looking almost like a slow motion scene... the hitmen pulled their disks back with a bewildered poses, and in a click, launched themselves back at the girl; their raw verve-crystals turned into more weapon-like forms... sword, dagger, scimitar, machete, battleax, lance; with common and unusual forms, varied in sizes, multiplying the attacks of the disks that rained down on her. Myrica lifted one of her feet off the ground and swung her right hand; and after that, their fight was too fast for common humans' eyes to see.
Duo stared wide-eyed at how she fought, so that's how she took on the beasts that night, he thought. His ears picked up a nice sound between the endless battle-sounds, like a melodious breeze or a hum; and as the hitmen thrown one by one from the shining twister, he could hear it clearer that it was a song. Myrica was singing...!
...'cause your hands are cold on my face,
and I don't like to see how much you shivered in drenched clothes,
but I like the way your eyes lit up upon seeing my person...
CRAAASSH!
A loud thunder-like sound jerked everyone in surprise, except Odin and the stilled demon; the hitmen thrown scattered around Myrica at various distances. There were water-pillars stood near her, coiling in themselves up to the sky; crackles heard from them as they brushed each other.
"...thunder?" Treize asked in confusion.
"Water's life-force." Odin answered flatly; "...that's what the Factory took from the spring water to make verve-crystals. They take too many out of the water and the water will die; though it'd still be water in appearance..." Odin left his words at that.
Treize's frown darkened. That's what the Factory-sickness was about, wasn't it? Somehow he knew, in the back of his mind, but to actually make a difference in reality took more efforts and time; politics were a drag in real life.
So... find me a reason why I shouldn't meet you under the rain!
Myrica smiled, pointing the pickax in her right hand to the nearest hitman who was pulling himself up and with some sickening sounds, wriggled his body to put his broken and dislocated bones back into place.
I baited your promise and feed on your hope,
twisting and bending it to my needs.
but I know your heart is even colder than the icy waters;
so find me a reason why I should meet you under the rain...!
for I know the parting words left unspoken in your mouth,
and yet I love the smile you give me one last time-
Treize blinked a couple of times, his dark eyes cleared significantly; he knew this song, it was from one of his favorite plays. "...The Rain Wielder!"
Odin gave a derisive snort; "That brat can wield anything...!" and added with a knowing tone, "You have to subdue that tail, first; it's the eye that could see through everything. Every sound, every breath, every smallest water bead in rain and even the head of the winds; it even has its own consciousness to be able to wield anything, substantial things or not... The creature standing there is what your father feared the most from a beast-clan up north; to be able to wield a human's mind is even worse than the strongest weapon a human could make...!"
-I'm off to battle now,
and your last smile is MINE...!
With that the water-pillars broke into small beads filling the air to every directions; Myrica pulled her now normal-formed pickaxes to the ground and cry out a lament song, and the next thing happened was beyond the humans' imagination... all the water beads shot out towards the water wall like bullets, penetrating every standing object in their ways.
Duo watched in horror when the hitmen struck by countless droplets, and their bodies turned like meshes until their forms ripped to liquid entirely; the wet sickening sounds reached his ears from all around him, and the crystals fell from their users' disappearing hands with clinking sounds as they hit the ground; and all he saw after only seconds count were red water coiling and turning lazily in the air just before the water wall-
-and the demon's eyes focused back with bright awareness...
-and the water wall crashed inwards, and he had to fight to breathe since he was still lying face down on the ground.
And as he tried to cough out the water that entered his mouth and nostrils because of the force; eventhough his eyes were stinging too... he saw a lone figure in a wind-like cloak standing in the spot where the 9 hitmen gathered before. The figure was hunched as if having a heavy burden on his upper back, the wispy clear cloak was visible because of the water weighting and sliding down from its surface.
So, the water droplets didn't hit him... because of his cloak? The Leader's face was covered by the drooping hood, and Duo jerked when eyeballs popped out on its surface randomly; four, seven... eleven... more eyes with varied sizes popped out and rolled until they all focused on him. And as the cloak was of clear wispy substance, it looked as if the eyeballs were floating in the air from a distance.
Duo was still shaken by how easily Myrica wiped out her opponents; he wouldn't go that far as to literally dissolve men into red water, opponents or not... at least he thought he wouldn't! -but that's probably only while his sanity still intact. And his mind focused back to the situation he was in when he heard the fallen raw crystals on the ground activated with a long flashing sound and pulled up to float on their ends as if being controlled by invisible strings.
-and the bright shining crystals' light bloated into crackling balls.
-and that he realized those crackling balls could explode anytime and take out the whole mountain of the Palace.
-and that everyone gaped in surprise and couldn't have enough time to prevent it... and everyone was stilled except for the demon who tore his way off the seal-blades.
-and the light balls shot out to join and self-destruct together, and he could feel it's weight above his back, and Treize's shout reached his ears calling out his name in horror, and the world turned to bright white with a loud popping sound...
...and as the weight of the light crushed him in his white-washed world, he could see the demon's face staring at him with wide eyes; almost looking worried... or probably it was cautious...?
And like its sudden start, the end came suddenly too with a blunt-ending hiss, the weight and light disappeared into the spread seal he still had on the ground. He heard the gasps of surprise from the witnesses and was pretty sure he heard the sounds of some butts hitting the grounds too, and then it turned eerily silent leaving only fast heartbeats and labored breaths for his ears to pick up.
Duo blinked and rolled his eyes to see around as much as he could with his unmoving body; to the cautious looking demon, and bewildered spectators trying to catch their breaths, the wide-eyed Myrica who was almost gaping, and to the wet Leader gritting his teeth in his clear-figure. He realized they were all paralyzed with surprise or relief, but all looking baffled enough he'd found it funny.
Then Duo's grin bloomed slowly until it turned to a leer; he understood what happened...
"Oooohh... I'm sorry for the surprise...!" he narrowed his eyes to the Leader who seemingly thought he was a sitting tied-duck a moment before; "But I have to inform you that my seal wasn't a weapon-negating one; ...it's a weapon-devouring seal!" Duo said pleasantly; and since the Leader didn't witness the process, the man might have thought that the seal on the ground was to seal him since he was petrified on its center and all.
"And thank-you for teaching me a lesson too..." he chuckled, "...this weight is the life-force in the light, right? Like that verve-crystals in their light-form... I could just devour it too!"
Duo's wide-staring eyes looked less humane; and the spread links of the seal floated up from the ground, first from the straight ray-parts squirming up like some waking roots off the soil; and then the circular loops folded inwards budding to the center like a closing flower, turning into a compact dark sphere covering Duo's body. He was grateful that Heero was tearing his way out of his seal-blades, or else he wouldn't be able to do this to free himself, fearing that his curling up links would crush the demon's body in their wake; eventhough they looked like links they were actually nightmares, anyway...
-yes... that's what he couldn't admit before; his power... was his Nightmare.
And his hands... were his Nightmare's claws.
So, that could only mean that his Nightmare was himself... That what his Nightmare desired was what he wanted; and what he wanted now was...-
Not over three seconds later, the compact sphere dissipated into black fog; and Duo stood with a victorious leer on his face, an unholy darkness shading his eyes. He was holding a big black scythe with both hands behind him while the black fog swirling lazily around his body, caressing him; and some small black balls floating around. "...but my darkness is not the kind of darkness that could be penetrated by light!" he licked his wet, slightly dripping lips, slowly; "Well... maybe there exists the kind of light that could penetrate it; but not the natural light, I tell you!"
"So... scythe for scythe, balls for balls?" and Duo chuckled low at his -somewhat- joke; "...sorry; should I say 'eyeballs for eyeballs'...?!" he purred and the black balls rolled and their surfaces opened to reveal that they were eyeballs.
An inhuman screech reached Myrica's ears made her tail squirm and wriggle uncomfortably until it disappeared, fleeing the fight. The demon frowned in discomfort for his ears could pick it up clearly; some howls and neighs from afar told them that even the animals in the distance could hear that sound too. Odin glanced around and knew the normal humans could only felt it as an oppressing presence in the air, but his attention was focused on Duo; he didn't think that the boy's talent was to copy other's arts... he should withdraw his demon before things got out of hand. Right after he finished thinking it, Duo's eyes snapped at him, daring him to call out to the demon again; Odin narrowed his eyes at the promise of vengeance in the boy's eyes, and he knew he couldn't do anything else; so he pulled his head back a little, cueing that he wasn't going to use his claim over the demon for now. He reined his fighting-presence in when he saw Duo caught the cue as the dark fire in his eyes dimmed a little.
"...heheehheheheehee..." the Leader chuckled and pulled the attention to him again; he then laughed like mad and spread his arms, fanning the wispy wet cloak away from his body.
Myrica blanched when she saw what was inside the clear cloak; faces... dead faces contorted in various levels of pain, overlapping and some even melted together like some disfigured blob a drunk-baker made in his oven; raw skins, some even skinless... and their eyes were staring-
"I have more dolls than I need with meee...!" the Leader yelled, and his fingers made a multiple pulling motion, like he was truly controlling his dolls using invisible strings tied to the end of each finger; and pulled out several of the bodies out. Three... five... -no, if anyone used a head-count then it should be around twelve, if a half-head was to be considered as one.
"H-...ugck...!" Myrica held her retching reflex halfway up; the putrid smell suddenly invading the air was too much for her sharp nose to handle.
The still gaping spectators made a wave of discouraged voices as they witnessed the appearance of the new dolls the Leader used now; some disfigured almost spider-like mix of limbs and heads and crushed-together bodies, some disfigured centipede-like joined body-parts with several heads melted together into a globule, some more disproportioned creatures that were no longer could be classified as humanoid-looking; but generally they all had long limbs with pointy spike-looking ends. They were covered in somewhat fusty liquid that boiled when the rain hit them and wafted even more foul-smelling gas.
Myrica retched and disguised it as a cursing, pulled her hair around her face as an adequate cover but her knees were already losing strength.
"Sing..." a calm level voice said from behind her, and she remembered that the scythes of her pickaxes were not around the demon's neck anymore, and just realized how heavy they were as those scythes were currently kissing the ground at the sides of the standing demon.
"-hu?" she glanced passed her shoulder and realized that the demon was freed from the seal-blades too.
"Sing." Heero repeated. "...woodsong." He realized the true nature of the Leader's art, it was poison; he wasn't a necromancer but an Insidio... those so-called dolls he was using were living humans... at first. Brushing the surrounding with his senses, he knew the soldiers who fell on their butts were not only because they felt relief that their knees buckled; no, they were already poisoned and soon, while the attention was centered to the new set of dolls the Leader pulled out, the poison would turn them into his new -supply of- dolls. So while everyone was oblivious to that fact, he should deal with it without anyone knowing.
He glanced at the still laughing Leader at his far left; this was probably the man's plan from the beginning, the exploding verve-crystals before was supposedly his last resort... so somehow, there's a chaos element among them making plots backfired and haphazardly reversed. Yes, he knew what that chaos element should be, it's grinning with delight almost drooling over him as he stared it back... that darkness that was shading Duo's eyes and spreading its claws in his body.
"...-I... I can't think much right now!" Myrica said somewhat swaying on her feet; her ears picked up some more butts hitting the grounds as she spoke.
"Any woodsong is fine; I got it from under the ground." the demon said silently, keeping his eyes to Duo and ignoring the disfigured dolls going berserk as they lashed and tumbled over everything; he figured the Leader should find it harder to control those things' movements with their impractical mechanisms, they were just some creepy dough to scare witnesses and buy some time until his poison take effects, after all... and not that tame as his previous hitmen dolls too, it seemed; those hitmen dolls were probably some opponents he met somewhere who were supposed to take his life but then ended up in his clutch.
Myrica tried steadying her heartbeat and sighed, feeling the demon's wing-blades furtively penetrating the grounds from the scythes in her hands; she knew those wings she took from the demon were water-elemental... so, water...ground...woodsong; she thought she knew what the demon expected to hear, and opened her lips-
-my sixth-lined Father buried a seed in his father's grave,
and it sprouted, and it grew, and it bloomed to shelter his head.
My fifth-lined Father buried a seed in his father's grave,
and it sprouted, and it yawned, and it drooped to shelter his bed...
-CRAASSH
Myrica jerked as the air stung, as if crippling her brain; she tried glancing behind, actually knowing it was Duo's power licking the surrounding, meaning to reach the demon and not actually trying to fend off the disfigured dolls although it worked like that somehow... Her left knee buckled and she heard more butts hitting the grounds somewhere; she hissed and tried closing her eyes to ignore the dolls' lashing and the stinging air crackling with black lightning that was Duo's possessiveness that had yet woken up as assaults. She thought she didn't want to wait what kind of assault Duo would lash out when he intended to do it...
-my forth-lined Father buried a seed in his father's grave,
and it sprouted, and it stretched, and it spread to shelter his roof-
"-WAAAAGH!" a horror-filled scream broke her concentration and she snapped her eyes open to a flailing soldier in the clutch of the spider-like doll; he stabbed his sword between the creature's mouth so the thing couldn't chew on his right leg, while his comrades were in a losing fight with the creature's limbs with their weakening strength... but they'd probably blame it to their fears. She panicked a little, thinking that her song wasn't doing anything right now; it was after all just a nursery rhyme and not some grand aria. While thinking that, and realizing that she was mostly propping her body weight with the pickaxes' handles, she closed her eyes again and kept singing.
-my third-lined Father buried a seed in his father's grave,
and it sprouted, and it roused, and it sat to shelter his grove...
Some more panic-filled commotion sounds reached her almost numb mind; she tried ignoring them while a little part of her brain wondering what the oldman and his superior were doing up there besides watching their men fallen prey to the dolls.
Then, in the back of her mind; she felt Duo's condescending snort as his lips were still leering. As if he was enjoying what was happening; and she knew that he was going to move now-
-my Father's father buried a seed in his father's grave,
and it sprouted, and it crawled, and flourished to shelter his land-
She picked up her tempo as she felt Duo's arms raised with the black scythe crackling with raw power above his head; she at least had to get to this part of her song...
-my dear Father buried a seed in his father's grave,
and it sprouted, and it climbed, and it stood to shelter his men!
A loud rumbling noise answered her after she finished that line, she fell to her knees when the ground shook violently; and some reds came out breaking the stone tiles as white crisscrossing walls stood up circling that court. Some inhuman screeches reached her ears and she looked around to see the disfigured dolls were being seized by some tentacle-like red-sprouts pulling them into the ground. The clutched soldiers were thrown down randomly as the dolls' limbs broke and their bodies dissolved and sucked by the sprouts and returned to the earth.
Duo's delighted grin froze on his face; he had yet brought down his scythe to attack, but his targets were missing almost simultaneously. His hands itched to pull that scythe down to anyone, and his eyes landed on the clear-figure of the Leader looking petrified by the sudden happening. He gritted his teeth and hissed at the bewildered man, somehow knowing he'd lose that one target too; the black eyeballs around him locked onto the man and closed and turned into two-pointed spikes, and with just his intent he launched them at the standing man while swinging down the scythe in his hands.
An unimaginably strong tug stopped his scythe halfway, and he widened his eyes as his shooting spikes popped into black fog that shot back into him... and he realized his possession over the field had dissipated as his black lightning was not in the air anymore; and he looked up to see there were red sprouts clutching at his scythe handle from the ground behind him...and his scythe melted into black links again, slipping from the curls of the sprouts and fell back onto him... seeped into his body.
-and somehow the rain had stopped to a very light drizzle; and the boiling dark clouds above cleared, having poured out their content down; and rays of light penetrated the thin layers of clouds and illuminated the court and its baffled occupants as the air turned calm.
Myrica blinked her disbelieving eyes several times, looking up at the dignified white trees stood in front of her with their trunks mingled with one another in a crisscrossing manner that almost seemed unnatural, making diamond-like holes in between, with their bases arching high from the grounds like gates that in fast assessment someone would be reminded of a coliseum; and the red leaves made a canopy high above the Palace buildings making a sudden dense woods in the court as seen from afar.
"-saa...-" she tried to move her tongue correctly; "...Sanctuary trees...!"
And the trees rained down clear-colored pollens that caught the sunlight color and were glistening in the air.
-...and everyone took deep breaths in their calmed surprise; and no one spoke for some time.
And the sprouts stilled when no one pose danger on their grounds anymore and bloomed clusters of white flowers on its ends and along their lengths with long stamens drooping and swaying in the breeze spreading its calming fragrance.
Duo blinked at the somewhat fairytale-looking scene in front of him that suddenly materialized; his minds cleared and his eyes focused at the stilled demon standing unmoving like a part of the beautiful scenery... like he was from a wholly different world.
"-Duo...!" A shout called out to him, "Catch the leader...!" He looked up and saw Treize pointing down, though he still looked a little baffled himself.
Duo turned his eyes to the Leader and just remembered what they were doing a moment ago; and hunched his back as he moved his feet to run towards the man, right hand clenched at his hip ready to throw his hand if needed -although somehow he knew the current field would annul any form of threat. A sharp wind hit his back and he reflexively turned his face behind, and he widened his eyes at the large black claws of a great-crow suddenly appearing behind him; and everything happened so fast that he didn't even have the chance to grit his teeth or say a curse-word... and in a blast of wind the Leader was gone from sight.
"CRRROOOOW...!" the-cat howled sounding almost angry and flashed in his smoke-form after the flying bird with the Insidio in its tallons.
Treize could only gasped clutching the balustrade watching his familiar's departure, but instantly looked down again and his eyes focused on the still kneeling Myrica looking melancholic at the standing trees. "I'd be grateful if you would take my invitation for some briefing, Miss...!" he said sternly.
"-what...?" Myrica jerked from her trance at the authoritarian voice and just realized that the soldiers had already closing her escape routes; "Oh-shoot!" she cursed as she sprang up to her feet again, taking some more deep breaths as much as her lungs could take while assessing her surrounding... focusing her senses at the still light-headed soldiers that were circling around her but somehow made a clear path for Duo's sight -as they probably leaving Duo's front for him to claim, and the confused-looking Duo gaping in his uncertainty watching the proceeding, and the scowling Odin with somewhat smug face up on the terrace, and an angry General at the oldman's side, and the General's three bodyguards ready to launch some magic-fueled weapons at her from the General's side... and the fact that there was still an unmoving demon stood behind her-
She grinned mischievously and pulled her pickaxes from the ground and crossed it behind at the demon's front, satisfied at the angry scowls and curses thrown at her knowing no one would do anything for the time being. "ALATAAA!" she shouted, and a round bright light flared in front of the demon and widened itself, making some kind of a gate with flashes of golden lightning shot out from it to close around their bodies like embracing hands... and Duo jolted in alarm, his other-mind screeched in his brain 'she's taking the demon with her!'; and he shouted desperately...
"MYRICAAAA-!" ...begging her not to take the demon away; and the bright light engulfed her and Heero's figures and brightened for only seconds span until the soldiers had to close their eyes; and Duo gasped when the light exploded, thinking he wouldn't see anyone in that spot afterwards, but stopped short when the said demon was left standing there alone...undisturbed.
The soldiers made surprised murmurs but instantly broke their circle to search for the missing Auri girl; and Duo was standing some paces in front of the demon breathing heavily, trying to calm his heart and mind.
The demon let him stare unblinkingly at his figure for some more time, waiting the boy calmed his breathing; and then turned away from him.
"-Heero!" Duo called out reflexively with concerns, remembering that the demon had forcefully torn his body off his seal-blades and felt guilty for it.
"Duo! Return to your chamber!" Treize's voice carried an unspoken ultimatum; and he stilled looking up at his older cousin, recognizing Treize's anger on his usually smiling face; and his crazy-excitement died entirely when he recalled that he'd deliberately ignored his cousin's direct order... and in front of so many spectators too. He sighed long and stared at his feet; conceded. His shoulders sagged and his other-mind mocked him about the outcome of all that... that there's nothing gained; only regrets...and unspoken feelings... and the real things he'd wanted to convey to the demon were still left hanging.
Duo gritted his teeth; "Heero...!" he tried calling out again, pleading to the demon to let him say his reasons; but the demon's back said his attention wasn't focused on Duo right now. And without a reaction to his calling, the demon jumped, using the crisscrossing trees as his footing, and landed on the balustrade in front of Odin.
"You're hurt." the demon said almost as he landed, squatting so his face should be at Odin's eye level; while his right hand reflexively sought the man's left end of lips and brushed the already clotted blood there with his forefinger.
Odin reflexively licked the small broken skin and sucked his demon's forefinger into his mouth, a winning smirk tugged at the other end of his lips...
-and Duo felt broken on the stone ground, wishing he'd gone as told so as to not witness that; and a careful hand of the Lieutenant pushed his shoulder gently, whispering his name softly in a calming manner. Biting his lower lip, he walked inside the building in fast strides; feeling anger welled up inside him but this time there was nothing he could vent it out to... and the wind in the corridors felt icy on his heated skin, and his eyes were hot and stinging; and with an angry growl he wiped the tears from his eyes with the back of his hand and he pretended he didn't hear the Lieutenant's footsteps trying to catch up to him from behind.
A flutter of white cloth caught his sight from the corridor on his left as he passed a junction; the black-hooded Lady in pooling white dress stood as if waiting to catch a glimpse of him passing, and Duo thought he saw her smiled... and the long corridor was somehow wriggling under his feet, and the light assaulted his eyes with vengeance, and his head felt times more heavier... and he welcomed the blackness that greeted him when he closed his eyes.
"Master Duo!" Cail ran and managed to catch Duo's body as it fell backward; "...Duo!" he called out again when he realized the boy was unconscious; after checking his vital signs and so far found no external wounds, he carried Duo to his room.
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thanx for reading
saru's note:
whoaaa... all those is one scene, hu? (just realized when saru didn't need to go back up to edit the scene-breaker mark)
oh, anyway... just realized this too when checking the last chapter, but oops... did saru mess up in the hitmen counting? -innocent face- oh, well, just pretend nothing's wrong, okay? (catslapped!)