Chapter 5: Earth

(Trying to get these ten done and out of my way so I can move on to bigger, better fics. :D This is set after Retribution and before the next fic in the series, by the way.)

It had surprised many when the ladies' man Chosen, Zelos Wilder, had announced 'that scruffy ninja' as his one and only hunny. It had surprised them even more when the ninja who'd for so long hated him welcomed this announcement with open arms. Figuratively, of course. A more literal description was that she'd welcomed it with a wide smile and a hand rested reassuringly on her newest and most powerful card, Conicere, in case any of his former hunnies mutinied. They did, as expected, but they could do little more than slap at her in an utterly disgraceful fashion before walking off in a huff. But that's straying from the point. The pair continued to surprise the public, twice more, when Sheena moved in with Zelos, then when they both moved out into a quiet area near Ozette. Some people thought Sheena was the best thing that could happen to Zelos, and some thought she should go back where she came from. But nobody's opinions mattered but the ninja's and the redhead's, and neither of them had a single regret.

It was a day like any other, calm and peaceful. The duo were sitting at their kitchen table, eating a hearty plate of omelets. Ever since Zelos had declared omelets his specialty, it was more energy than Sheena decided worth wasting to convince him not to cook them. At least there was variety. Sometimes cheese omelets, sometimes veggie, sometimes chicken, sometimes sausage, sometimes all of the above. On the one occasion he made a drake-meat omelet, she opted out of that breakfast, having had bad experiences with said reptiles in the past. On this particular morning, it was green onion and cheese omelets, and the pair were halfway finished and eating quickly. Sheena was ravenous, having done a bit of dawn training, and Zelos was eating swiftly so as not to let the ninja outdo him. Basically, they were both fairly focused on their food. So it came as a great shock to them when a blinding light erupted from the dead center of their table.

Both ninja and redhead leapt backwards, Sheena managing to leap to her feet and reflexively drawing her card and assuming her fighting stance, while Zelos, in his haste to escape, tipped his chair over backwards and lay dazed on the floor, rubbing the back of his skull. Then the light cleared, and Sheena heaved a sigh of relief. Standing on the center of her kitchen table was a small furry being, more commonly known as Gnome.

The Summon Spirit looked around a moment before spotting Sheena and stepping to the edge of the table toward her.

"Hey gorgeous, long time no see!" He greeted her, but she didn't take it personally. This was how he greeted everyone. Zelos chose that moment to rise to his feet, massaging a sore spot amidst his hair and muttering mutinous curses under his breath.

"Ah, still hangin' around with this clown? You could do way better, Sheena. But it's your choice I guess." The miniature creature continued, shooting Zelos a disdainful look before turning back to the summoner, oblivious to the death-glare fixed upon the back of his skull.

"Is there a reason you're here, Gnome?" Sheena prompted, her voice level, all the while restraining Zelos with her gaze. He made no more complaints, but muttered under his breath something along the lines of, 'nobody calls my hunny gorgeous but me'.

"What, can't an old friend drop by for a pleasant visit? I'm hurt, Sheena, I really am." Gnome placed a hand over his heart, acting the part.

"Get on with it." Zelos growled, a tone of voice rarely used by the laid-back redhead. Had he not just fallen hard on his skull, and had this not been Gnome he was dealing with, the Summon Spirit who had irked him for longer than he could recall, he would be doing no such growling. But since he had, and since it was, his practiced tone held just a the faintest hint of a snarl.

"Alright, alright! Sheesh, what's got his panties in a twist?" Gnome directed the question at Sheena, but with no answer aside from an expectant gaze, he sighed. "What was I here for? Oh yeah, I just thought you might want to know that I heard some voices calling for help from a cave near my Seal. I figured this would concern you 'cause the voices seemed familiar, and I think it may just be your little swordsman buddy and the angel chick."

"Lloyd and Colette!" Sheena gasped, and Gnome snapped his fingers in realization.

"Yeah, those are the ones! Good with names, you are." He confirms, and Sheena looked to Zelos, who gazed back at her a while. She cocked her head slightly in question, and he nodded. The Summon Spirit looked from one to the other, then back to the first, back and forth through this whole exchange, before chuckling slightly in amusement and confusion.

"I'm gonna scram, you guys and your weird mind-talking's starting to creep me out. Ciao!"

And in a considerably less blinding light, Gnome was gone. And within seconds, so were Sheena and Zelos, their weapons in hand and their path set. Off to rescue Lloyd and Colette. To save their friends.

-----

"I think I hear them," Sheena stated, slowing down slightly to listen. Beside her, Zelos slowed as well. All was silent for a moment, before two distinct voices called out through the canyon.

'Help us, we're stuck!'

'Please, somebody, come save us!'

"It is them!" She continued, glancing at Zelos incredulously.

"Hold on, buddy, I'm coming! I won't let you and my little angel die!" Zelos called in the general direction from which the voices came, and though Sheena felt a deep distaste for how easily Zelos fell back into Colette's old 'nickname', she followed him close when he ran to make good of his word.

This was where they strayed from the path. Gnome's temple was to their right, as ventured the beaten path, but the voices came from a cave to our left and up the canyon wall ever-so-slightly. This little fact didn't deter the ninja or the redhead, however, only made them push all the harder to reach their friends.

Their rush, their fierce determination, their desperate searching, it all came to a screeching halt the second they entered the cave and it's infectious shadows fell over them. Well, for Zelos at least, the halt wasn't exactly screeching, but it was pretty close.

"Llo-"

Sheena cut the redhead off with a hand over his mouth, glancing around her cautiously. "Shh. Don't yell in here. Something... doesn't feel right."

He hesitated a second, but nodded. She slowly removed her hand.

"Y'think it could be your ninja seventh sense telling us that Lloyd and Colette might be already dead?" He asked, but by the panicked look on her face, he regretted it instantly. "Sorry, just a thought."

"Well stop thinking then. This place is creepy enough already," she replied softly as they slowly walked through the darkness. In response to her anxiety, she felt his hand slip into hers, squeezing it comfortingly. Any other time, the ninja would have smiled, but somehow, she couldn't manage that little show of happiness right then.

They continued to walk in silence for a while, the shadows getting thicker and thicker.

"Maybe you could summon Efreet for a little light? This place is starting to give me the heebie-jeebies," shivered Zelos, and Sheena couldn't agree with him more. She nodded, then remembered he couldn't see her, before vocalizing her affirmation.

"Yeah. Let go a second, and take a few more steps so you don't get burned in case it flares up."

He complied, and she heard his footsteps continue when hers stopped.

"Grant me an orb of light to banish these foreboding shadows. Come Ef-"

There was a loud commotion that interrupted her summoning. Apparently, Zelos had managed to run into, stumble over, or trip on something.

'Don't yell, don't yell, don't yell-'

"SHIT, OWWWW!" Roared the redhead, just as she'd hoped he wouldn't do, followed by a pained hissing noise. But more importantly than the hissing noise was the rumbling that suddenly came from overhead. They both sat in dead silence a moment, not knowing whether there were boulders, stalagmites, or both resting above their heads, just waiting to fall and crush or impale a Chosen or a ninja. The rumbling only intensified in the silence.

Whatever it was, it was coming down.

"Zelos, come on, we've gotta get out of here!" Sheena cried, abandoning her silence in a frantic need to get them both out of the cave. Had he not hesitated, but instead ran right to the summoner's side and ran from the cave with her, things might have ended just fine. But he couldn't.

"But Lloyd and Colette-" He started, but Sheena's cry had only made the rumbling louder.

"ZELOS!" She cut him off, her voice desperate. She'd braved demons six times her size without a hint of fear, but the ninja had long been plagued with dreams of walls and ceilings of various places closing in, so she was mildly claustrophobic to begin with. To have the entire cave toppling in on her, that provoked a panic unseen before in Sheena's history. Unfortunately for them both, that one, terrified word was the straw that broke the pack-mule's back. Suddenly the ground itself shuddered violently, and a terrible landslide of rocks and boulders collapsed from the ceiling, with a thundering so loud, Meltokio could probably hear it clearly. She covered her head, but it did little good, as a rock struck her shoulder and sent the already unsteady ninja to the ground. A muffled cry of pain could be heard, but before she could worry about Zelos, another rock fell heavily onto her leg. She cried out once more, drawing her limbs close and whimpering in pain.

But then bad got worse.

With her heightened senses she caught the vibrations and the faint hissing sound of a pointed stalagmite, slicing through the air just above her. Fear seized her form, and on reflex, she called out for the only one who she knew could help her.

"GNOME!"

And suddenly the stalagmite stopped. She felt no more vibrations, and the faint hiss was no longer. Sometime in the past few seconds, the falling rocks had ceased as well, and they made their last settling groans before they too fell silent. She slowly uncurled her limbs, shaking uncontrollably. A hand was reached experimentally above her, and panic seized her form for a few more moments as she felt the razor-sharp edge of the stalagmite suspended six inches above her chest. It was the sort of panic that you get when you are just driving away from your camping spot and you see a giant two-headed dragon strolling into the clearing you were camped at, or when you are leaving your aunt's house and when you get home you hear that the entire town was destroyed moments after you left. The near-death panic.

"Take it away, please…" Sheena whispered hoarsely, and the stalagmite slowly moved to the right, lowering to the ground with a thump. She then tried to rise, but found her limbs wouldn't hold her, so she fell to her knees once more, clearing her throat to rid it of the dust the rockslide sent into the air.

"Efreet, that orb please?" She whispered, and suddenly a ball of light was suspended beside her. Another moment of near-death panic ensued as she saw stalagmites and boulders all around her, some as close as a foot and a half away. The majority of them were five feet beyond her, however, in a pile that reached clear to the ceiling, forming a blockade to any who wished to pass. And this next panic, however similar the feeling was, was totally different in origin.

"Zelos?!" She called experimentally, not too loud, yet not too soft either. A muffled groan was heard from the general direction of the rockade, as she called it in her mind. She crawled over to the rocks, calling again. "Zelos?" Another groan, this one more pained than the last. After a moment, however, a voice came in reply.

"Sheena?" Though it was groggy— Sheena supposed a rock must have struck him on the head— the reply meant that Zelos remained alive and fairly unharmed. A wave of relief washed over the ninja, and she tried again.

"Zelos, you're okay?!"

"…Define 'okay'." Came the reply, and Sheena smiled slightly despite herself.

"You're all… intact?"

"Hold on, lemme check-"

"Your arms and legs and head and stuff, idiot. I could care less what happens between your legs." She replied, cutting him off.

"You will eventually, my voluptuous hunny, mark my word."

Sheena rolled her eyes.

"You're fine," she declared, and received no objection from the Chosen. It suddenly struck her how strange a conversation they were having, considering what had just occurred, and considering they may not be out of the water just yet. "Now we have to get you out. Can you see the light?"

"No, I don't think I can."

Sheena got a lump in her throat. What if they couldn't get him out? What if he was stuck there forever? She wouldn't leave him, she couldn't. Does that mean she'd be stuck there too? Forever? Forever is an awfully long time…

"Hey, wait a sec! I think I can see a little bit right here. Sheena, can you see me?"

The ninja shook her head, sending away all the 'what if's and watching the wall for any sign of Zelos. After a minute, she sighed in disappointment.

"No, I can't see you. Are you sure you-" But then she stopped short. The dirt just to her left was moving ever so slightly. "Yeah, I see you! Hold on, I'll help," she called to the redhead, and she as well began scooping away at the dirt in question, tossing the occasional rock over her shoulder. A minute or so's work revealed something that Sheena, for a second, had doubted she may ever see again. A hand. Zelos's hand.

She grabbed it, holding onto the appendage like it was her lifeline, pressing her cheek to it's soothing warmth.

"Sheena, you're shaking," came Zelos's concerned voice, far clearer now that there was a hole connecting his side to hers. She laughed slightly, as one is prone to do while coming off of a panicked state.

"Of course I am, you idiot, I thought I'd never see you again."

"You can't get rid of the Great Zelos that easily," he replied, his lighthearted tone resumed.

For nearly an hour they sat there, hand in hand. It took that long just for Sheena to recover. Some of the time was in conversation, some of it in a pained silence, for now that the danger had passed, Sheena's shoulder and leg had tripled in pain. She wasn't sure, but she figured her shoulder was broken. Both were bleeding like crazy. But she managed to ignore them fairly well, as ninja training had taught her to do. For a while, at least. Then things started to blur, and Efreet's orb started to fade…

Suddenly, her eyes flew open, and she realized she'd fallen asleep. Zelos's hand was limp in hers, and she figured he was sleeping as well. It must have been daytime by now, and the ninja knew she couldn't just sit there forever. While one hand continued to cling to his, the other started scooping away the dirt surrounding it, each movement of her arm sending pain through her shoulder and all down her back. It took nearly forever, or so it seemed, but the hole through which Zelos's arm was protruding grew progressively wider and wider. Many times the dirt caved back in, only to be cleared away once more. She wasn't raised a shinobi just to give up that easily. And hours later, she was almost there…

-----

When Zelos opened his cerulean eyes once more, the first thing he saw was a familiar pair of hazel ones. And the voluptuous ninja that they were attached to. His voluptuous ninja, his favoritest hunny, his Sheena. He threw both arms around her, knowing full well that he'd likely stain her robe with the blood from the gash on his arm, but not caring one bit. He did care, however, when she gasped in pain at his movement. He recoiled as if scalded, his hands up in innocence.

"What hurts, Sheena?" He asked, his eyes concerned. She laughed dryly.

"Pretty much everything, actually. I was attacked by boulders and stalagmites, slept on a bed of them, then spent hours digging you out. Should I not be in pain?" She attempted at dry humor, but Zelos didn't even smile. He gazed at her firmly, waiting for an answer to his question. "It's nothing really, I've had worse-"

"What hurts, Sheena?" The redhead repeated, this time more forcefully. Efreet's orb came up beside them just then, and he caught sight of a massive crimson stain on the shoulder of her robe. This caused even the redhead to wince. He raised a hand slowly up to her shoulder, gently peeling back the shoulder of her usually violet attire. She tensed up, her hand flying up to grab his wrist reflexively.

"It's okay, I'm just trying to help," he whispered soothingly. "Trust me."

And her hand hesitantly released his wrist, at the same time her gaze left his face. She looked away shamefully, for those from her former village were raised not to show pain or similar weaknesses. Unhurriedly, he peeled back the shoulder of her robe, revealing her bare skin. The Chosen felt her tense up again, expecting him to do something perverted or lecherous. Yet that was the farthest thing from his mind right then, especially when he saw the sickening blue and green colors of her normally flawless skin, and the way her shoulder bulged irritably.

"It's broken, Sheena… Heh, you sure as hell know how to break a shoulder. The last time I saw something this bad was when I broke my ankle in the battle against Yggdrasill. I kept fighting anyways, you remember, and that's probably why it was this bad."

"I... I did use it to dig me through…" The ninja hesitantly admitted, and Zelos swore under his breath.

"That might explain it."

With that, he called upon his healing mana, placing his hand gently on her shoulder. She winced, but tried not to move away from the pain. At last, he called out, "First Aid!"

But not too loudly, for even Zelos learns from his mistakes.

Slowly he watched as the swelling went down, and when it was done, only a faint blue-green color remained. He healed her leg as well, when he discovered it, and then they crawled through the hole back to their side of the rockade. Hand in hand they walked back through the tunnel, and Sheena was all too eager to get back to the outside world. Yet Zelos was in no hurry. Every few seconds, his eyes would drift to her face, to admire her beauty a moment, then to realize even more how right his decision was.

None of his other hunnies would have stayed, would have dug him out with a broken arm, would have even gone. Sheena did. This was the third time she'd saved him from certain death... He couldn't help but think of her as his guardian angel of sorts. Even a mess like she was, she still looked the part, walking with grace and holding a natural beauty unmatched by any other woman in existence. Sheena the Guardian Angel. That name just seemed to fit.

And with that thought, they stepped out of the cave that had tested them so cruelly and into the light of their lives once more.

(Mwehehe, Gnooooooome! –snugs him- This one was longer. I kinda like it. Hehehe... READ AND REVIEW! I'll answer every review I get!)