A/N: Wow… I'm so surprised at how fast this chapter got out. All yesterday I just sat at my computer and drilled the words onto the screen. This is one of those chapters I couldn't wait to get out, but I wasn't sure how quickly it would write itself.
..
Bad Dreams
By angelwings1
Chapter 13
As she stepped inside dressed in her preferred robes from the valley, Hitomi turned her face to the line of spectators. From all of the meetings, the dinners, and social gatherings, she had come to know every face inside the large room. With each small step she took, she recalled the sound of laughter and the pitch of their voices. The memories were only faint echoes. There was nothing left to connect her with the jury. She knew they no longer remembered her as the young woman who was polite and wise. To their eyes, she was a totally different person, washed of the clean slate she had gained from lies and secrecy. The only thing they could see was the cursed lines on her arms and the rope that tied her wrists. The persona she was left with was a Mystic.
Numbly, she scanned the expressions for some hint of decision. There was a massive amount of cold distance pouring out of their eyes, but from a handful, especially from the Zaibach emperor and his captain, she discovered a wicked determination. They wanted her to fail. Whether it was because of her fearful heritage or her recent lying, it didn't matter. They were set on bringing her down.
Her green eyes slipped to the end of the crowd, finding the small glimmer of comfort she needed. Millernia, Allen, Merle, and Van watched her expectantly, wanting to convey all their concerns and encouragement to her through the gentle gaze they offered. She could tell by their tense muscles that they wanted to come to her and stand by her in this trial. She could almost hear their screams of devotion.
Unconsciously, she allowed her eyes to linger on the king. He looked so hansom. She hadn't allowed herself before to silently vocalize the thought, but with her impending trial, she gave up trying to hold it back. She loved his hair, how it fell constantly in his eyes and made his wine-colors irises appear bright against the dark color. She smiled softly as a hollow ache took over her thoughts. 'I might never get to see him again.'
The king's hands tightened. He had been fearful of her arrival since Merle had told him her health had deteriorated. Guilt and anger clawed at his heart as he studied her thinning limbs and dim eyes. They had only been separated four days, but with the added three days they had been avoided one another, she had successful escaped his gaze for a full week. How could he not have seen it in the throne room days ago? Four days in a cell couldn't have dragged her health downwards so dramatically. Van and Millernia glanced towards one another and sent similar messages of fear.
Awaiting the seer's arrival in the center of the throne room laid a deep red and gold carpet with flowing designs of suns and gods from Freid's religion. On top of the carpet a pair of simple orange pillows waited, a seat for her and the interrogator, with a heavy bowl made of bronze that was filled with burning incense. The only thing missing from the arrangement was the monk.
Hitomi carefully lowered her knees to the mat, balancing awkwardly with her tied wrists. Once she was comfortable, she sensed the soldiers back away to give ample room for the monk to work his magic. Her nose wrinkled when she inhaled a cloud of incense. She could name several of the herbs burning from her memory of the sleep and relaxation medicine Millernia had given her, but there was distinct overpowering scent she couldn't name. The seer tensed when she heard the heavy footfalls. Lifting her chin and straightening her shoulders, she inhaled deeply and focused all her energy into holding off the symptoms of her illness. Unfortunately, her hands were already shaking when the man stepped into view.
The bald giant standing before her was dressed in yellow and orange wraps with numerous beaded necklaces hanging from his neck and wrists. His face was placid like the clear surface of a still lake. A familiar red dot was painted in between his thin eyebrows and when she lowered her gaze, she met steel indigo eyes.
"Let's begin," his voice grated. She nearly frowned when he moved towards his mat. As he walked, the air shifted and she could feel a wave of energy brush against her. Warily, she reached out with her senses and nearly recoiled in shock at the network of fiber she touched. The air that hung around the monk was constantly shifting, pulling at the light and color that surrounded him. If she concentrated hard enough she could almost see the fibers knitting together and created new shapes and colors over him.
She blinked rapidly and refocused. She had never witnessed anything similar to it. He was drawing on the magic within his body to mold the light into a curtain image. If she wasn't a seer, she would never have noticed the illusion. Her heart sunk in dread as he knelt across from her. There was no way to tell if the man was indeed the one called Plactu, but one thing was certain, he was concealing his true form to the room.
His hand, wrapped with beads raised, in front of her face, and before she could vocalize her suspensions he wrote a triangular pattern in the air. There was never a chance to keep her from dropping into the spell-induced trance.
Almost immediately, the seer's eyes became a hazy gray and lost sight of her surroundings. Van barely noticed he was holding his breath as the monk completed the air pattern and pulled his hand back to his lap. Keeping his back straight and his eyes straight on the seer, Plactu questioned loudly, "What is your name?"
The woman entire body was still like rock, her lips barely moving as she answered, "Hitomi Kanzaki."
Van frowned when he heard the lack of life in the seer's voice.
"Where are you from?"
"From Atlantis, the capitol of the Mystic Valley."
Plactu hesitantly studied the seer, slight curiosity evident in his gaze. The monk firmly wove his hands together with his crossed forefingers pointed to the ceiling. "Why did you hide your identity?"
"So no one would be afraid."
His eyebrow rose, "Afraid of what?"
"Me."
The innocent word sparked a flurry of mutterings through the crowd before the people heard the monk speak again, "Why?"
"People do rash things when they know what I am."
"What do they do?"
"They usually beat me." Van cringed, thinking back to the day he found her bloody in the market.
"When did arrive in Fanelia?"
"Over two months ago."
"Why are you here at the castle?" The air seemed to disappear from the room as everyone waited expectantly.
"My services were requested."
Plactu frowned at the elusive answer along with the crowd. The monk quickly brought his hand into the smoke of incense and wrote several patterns. His beads clicked loudly in the room, echoing off the high banisters. The smoke curled and dance with the current of air he swept over the bowl, and for a heartbeat, it appeared as if the smoke was forming intentional shapes. Once he finished five or six patterns, his hand hung evenly in the curling smoke with two fingers jutting out towards the woman. "What services exactly were requested?"
"The king suffered from nightmares. He asked anyone who could help."
Van's eyes slid close and sighed through his nose as the round of gasps filled the tense air. Plactu didn't slow down as the noise grew, "So the king is ill?"
"No, not anymore."
The reply quickly softened the voices.
"You healed him?"
"Yes."
Plactu scowled, "How?"
"Nightmares are the result of a troubled heart. At first, I tried to teach him how to confront his pain, but while he was under my counsel, I stole his dreams for a time being so he could sleep. When my methods proved to be failing and the meeting grew closer, it was feared the treaty would be jeopardized if the delegates knew one of the rulers signing was ill."
"People get colds and fevers, but that doesn't make them incapable of ruling," he assessed in the stead of the rulers, who were confused. "Why would his illness be relevant to the treaty?"
"Because his illness caused him to hallucinate," she answered effortlessly.
King Aston anxiously leaned forward, "Is that true, Lord Fanel?"
"Yes." With a worn exhale, Van respectfully faced the rulers. Even though their eyes were hard, the young ruler had hope that they would hear his explanation, "Please, understand—"
"But he wasn't healed by the time of the meeting," Plactu voice overtook his, catching the spotlight once more. "So what did you do?"
The question sent a deep shiver down the young king of Fanelia's spine. He had never considered why he had become healed. He had foolish accepted that he been strong enough to fight it off and win back his life. Yet, an inner voice began to whisper a grueling revelation: Hitomi had done something more. His eyes widened and fearfully darted to the seer.
"I performed a Forbidden Spell." Her emotionless voice cut through him and he swayed on his feet. Heavy guilt crashed down on his shoulders as he stared sorrowfully at the frozen woman. "Using a Blood Stone as an amplifier, it creates a spiritual connection between two people to allow energy to be passed to the victim of the illness. In theory, the added energy is supposed to help the victim overcome the illness."
"Oh my God…" Van pushed out the ragged breath, brokenly. "S-She…she…"
Merle latched unto the young king's arm when she saw the expression of fear on her brother's face. There were times when she had seen him afraid, but never so white and desperate as he was presently. "What is it, Van-sama?"
Plactu's dark eyes narrowed on the seer, "You have a Blood Stone?"
"Yes." Suddenly her hand twitched in her lap and the spectators were aghast as the seer's small hand lifted to her neck. Hitomi's fingers tenderly lifted the small red stone from beneath her clothes.
"Her pendant?" Allen mumbled behind the princess.
The monk's face brightened at the sight of the tiny object. Hungrily, he uncurled his palm, "Let me see it."
Her hands unhurriedly swept up the chain and lifted it off her head. Without any resistance, she held out her most prized possession to the monk. Plactu's wide eyes were odd to see on such a normally blank face. The monk reminded the Fanelian King of a starved dog. Eagerly, a hand wrapped in violet beads stretched forward, but as his fingers brushed the smooth surface of the pendant, his entire body shuddered and froze. Life on the mat became nonexistent.
Three seconds… Four seconds… Five… and still neither the monk nor the seer moved. They were perfect statues, staring firmly into each other's glazed over eyes.
The crowd twitched nervously as they held the breaths. Merle's grip went slack on his arm as she voiced the ridiculously apparent question, "What happened?"
..
On another plane of reality, the monk's fingers brushed the stone and a light as bright as all of the stars in the heavens combined flashed between their hands. The momentary burst of light threw the monk off guard and he flinched backwards with a small cry. When he staggered to a stand still, he blinked and met a vast darkness.
"W-What?" he stuttered, whipping his head back and forth in astonishment, "How?"
Glancing down at himself, the monk noticed his clothes weren't covered in shadows like they should be. They were actually bright and stark against blackness as if they glowed with their own internal light. His head jerked up and saw the seer sitting innocently with hands on her knees yards away, her calm trance-like expression still in place.
"What did you do?" he growled, setting his glare pointedly at the strange woman. The seer didn't respond automatically, but her hand did gradually life to point at the monk.
"You are a doppelganger," she accused dryly, eyes still glazed over and distant. "You have many faces, but none of them are your own."
Immediately following her vacant words, he was aware his appearance had transformed as easily as sand passing through open fingers. The doppelganger gasped as he found his purplish-pink skin and scanned his hands for the disappeared heavy beads. "Ho-ow did you do this!"
She blinked. Once, twice, and then the emerald green washed back into her eyes. Her brow dipped forward as her gaze focused on the other occupant of the black cell. He was a creature she had never encountered. His skin was a pasty color, resembling discolored gums, with brown metallic strips winding around his forearms and face. His dark, ratty hair was braided into lengthy clumps with wooden beads as tassels. Creepy, slim hands with abnormally long nails rose as the skinny, naked being stalked forward.
"So you know what I am, now." He hissed. He pulled back purple lips and reveal sharp canines. "Doesn't matter. You'll be dead before you could ever say a word."
His voice was odd to the ears. It bounced and echoed when he spoke, but not because of the room they stood in. His pitched raced over the scale, dipping low and then shooting up high in single syllable. It was almost if his voice embodied the entire scale, probably a helpful trait connected to his ever changing disguises.
The seer recoiled unhurriedly as he approached. "I knew you were masking your identity. I saw how you bent the rays of light to your advantage. I just never guessed you were a doppelganger who murdered the real Plactu."
His eyes checked the space between them. Carefully gauging how far a leap would take him. "Yes. I did kill him. How do you know that?"
Hitomi matched each forward move with her own backward step, "I'm a seer. I have the gift of sight. My eyes can see beyond illusions and witness past and future as if it were present."
Her fingers clenched. "As a doppelganger, you intercepted the real Plactu and sucked the soul out him so you could steal his body."
Hearing her statement, the invisible ground at their feet rippled and a horrendous image of the doppelganger attacking the monk appeared. He screeched at the revealing vision and howled a furious cry. The vision swam and blurred with each rolling wave of dark ocean beneath them, but it was perfectly clear when the doppelganger dropped the lifelessly corpse of the monk and stood with his face. The muscles in the creature's face tightened with rage and his algae green eyes snapped back to the retreating woman. Hitomi didn't flinch.
"Did Dornkirk send you?" She accused softly.
"Yes." It growled, frustrated. "He's tired of your determination to keep silent. He sent me to question you."
"The real Plactu would have sufficed." She croaked, her throat tightening from her weakened state. Her sights stayed fixed on the assassin. She wasn't sure how her luck had gotten her into the warp reality, but she couldn't deny the possible rules woven into the dark universe. It was very likely simple rules, like death, were still concrete in this realm. If so, an attack on her could have fatal consequences, regardless that they were in a dream or a vision or whatever. "You didn't have to kill him. He would have interrogated me and you would have gotten your answers."
"Not the ones he wanted to hear." He snapped.
"You haven't asked anything he wouldn't have asked." She bit her lip when she sensed the trembling in her hands. 'Crap, I'm about to have an episode and I'm facing a snarling monster.'
"Oh, but I never finished my interrogation." He half-laughed. "You rudely interrupted us."
"I didn't do this!" she coughed, lightly. Her hand covered her mouth as she sputtered. Using her momentary lapse of concentration, he anxiously trotted closer. Hitomi frantically stumbled out of reach.
"I don't even know how it happened. Maybe our powers collided and my pendant resonated." She prayed it distracted him long enough to allow her to gain her wits.
His eyes dropped to the stone. "That's a Blood Stone from the Mystic Valley. Those are very powerful."
"Or very weak." She corrected firmly, anxiously rushing through the explanation. "Only the user determines the strength of a Blood Stone. They only amplify and tune a wearer's abilities. In reality, I'm just as powerful with or without this pendant. But without me, the stone is worth as much as a few copper coins."
The doppelganger drooled, totally fixated on the woman's precious pendant. "Somehow, I don't believe you."
..
Merle waved a small hand in front of the monk's eyes. He didn't blink or fidget. Finding no reaction, she flipped around and did the same to the seer. There was no same lack of response. Looking across the statue pair at the king and princess, the she-cat shrugged. "What do you think is happening?"
"I don't know." Millernia leaned over, studying the seer's dilated eyes. "I'm a doctor. I don't know anything about…magic."
The beading sweat on the comatose woman's brow, however, sparked the doctor's awareness. Scowling, she pressed a gloved finger to the girl forehead. The princess tested the fingertip against her thumb and discovered wet residue.
Van's heart thumped when he saw the woman's pensive stare. "What is it, Milly?"
"She's sweating." Millernia commented, giving the seer another once over. "What ever is happening, she straining. It's only been a few minutes so—"
"LOOK!"
The cat's exclamation and pointed finger caused the small group surrounding the red and gold carpet to drop their stomachs. The red drip was weak, but it was rapidly gaining speed and beginning to slip passed the seer's mouth to her chin. Millernia mumbled a crude word, not normally associated with princesses, and began to wipe the blood off the seer's face with her clean white glove.
..
"So what are your questions?" She croaked.
The man fidgeted, eyes flicking between her face and the necklace still in her hand. Torn between his duty and his desire for the stone, the doppelganger hesitated to step closer.
"Were you born under the small moon?" His vocal cords scratched against the air as if it were nails.
Her face scrunched. "What?"
"The small moon!" He snapped his canines at her. "Was the large moon eclipsed when you were born?"
"Not exactly." Hitomi replied slowly, curiously. "I was born the night of the two moons, but it was when the large moon is dark for half the night and then suddenly appears full in the sky at midnight. The Night of the Half Moon."
His wicked smile turned the seer's stomach. 'I think that's the answer he wanted to hear.'
Hitomi slammed to the ground, barely dodging the body thrown in her direction. Straining against her weak arms, the seer frantically got to her knees. She barely got a chance to put the bottom of her foot down, when she was wracked with a violent round of coughing. Her hand slapped loudly against the ground as each wheezing breath racked her ribcage. Acidic bile hit her throat and soon metallic tasting syrup coated her tongue. When she spat out the disgusting flavor, her heart wilted at the sight of red spray across the dark contrast of the floor. 'Crap...'
Fast steps coming from behind her caused the seer to react instinctively and she rolled to the side. Whipping up on her knees, she watched the doppelganger drop onto the spot she had once been and growl. The seer knew she had to get out of the prison before things got out of her control. The seer was interrupted, however, when a cold sensation raced up her spine. Involuntarily, her voice jumped out of her mouth. "Soon, you're life will be snuff out."
He blinked and angrily scowled. "What?"
"You're going to die." She stumbled over her words as she noticed the ground shifting oddly at the creature's feet. "Very soon."
Suddenly, the black floor grew a multitude of arms and wrapped around the doppelganger's legs and lower torso. He howled in distress as he tried to shake off the steel jelly. "No! I won't die!"
"I'm not sure how." Hitomi was so awestruck, by the sight that she didn't notice the wet sensation dripping from her nose. The more he fought the tighter the cuffs wrapped around him, leisurely crawling up towards his neck. "It will be very soon."
His head whipped around, beads flying out in a horizontal arch. Fangs bared, the creature locked a hot glare on her. A claw hand lurched forward. "I'll take you with me!"
Hitomi tried to jump back out of reach, but his hand stretched across the short inches and latched unshakable on her wrist. The seer trembled as the ground hurried to swallow her feet. "No!"
The doppelganger smirked as the floor slipped over his face and stole him from her eyes. With lightning speed, the ground rushed up the arm that held her wrist and enveloped her forearm with a nauseating sucking sound like mud. Tears slipped over her cheeks as she began to thrash wildly. "No!"
Breathing slipped back into a painful wheeze and blood sputtered from her lips as she shrieked. With her lower body already deep in the thick pool, the blackness began to press against her body, pushing the air out of her lungs. White spots began to dance before her eyes and she grimaced as the floor pushed harder on her frail body. Her bones felt like they would break at any second. Cold fingers slipped up her neck and wrapped in a vice over her esophagus. Head rearing back, she tried to scream a final time, but the floor slipped over her face and spilled into her mouth. She suffocated.
..
No one was prepared for the scream that ripped out of the seer as both she and the monk flew apart. A funnel of air shot down between the duo, snuffing out the burning incense, and reeling everyone surrounding them. Startle cries filled the room as the rulers fought to stay on their feet. Millernia and Van frantically dropped next to the unconscious seer. "Hitomi!"
Blood leaked from her nostrils and purple lips, pooling rapidly onto the floor. Her glazed eyes stared blind along the marble as her petite body laid lifeless. Across from her, the monk panted heavily with fear shaking through every limb.
"She's a monster!" he howled, scrambling backwards as far as the confining legs of the crowd would physically allow.
Millernia was hastily checking her vitals, but it was evident from the blonde woman's hysterically state that the seer's health was dangerously unstable. "A pulse, a pulse. Give me a pulse, Hitomi!"
The princess pressed an ear to the unconscious woman's chest and listened intently for the desperately needed thrum. When there was only empty silence, the princess sucked in a sharp breath of air and began yanking recklessly at the seer's robes.
"Milly, what is it?" Van breathed in alarm.
"Her heart stopped!"
A/N: I had expected more to be out in this chapter, but then decided the next portion of the story definitely needed to be separated to fulfill the dramatic impact I wanted. Anyway, this was a really fast update, but the next chapter definitely won't be as fast. I have to go update a chapter on my Samurai Champloo fic, Through Smudged Glass, before I can begin the next chapter for Bad Dreams. I greatly encourage anyone who's seen the tv show to go read this other fic. I'm getting lots of excited reviews for the story.