A/N: My computer crashed... literally. I lost everything.
Forget the Sheena-Raine-Sheena-Raine format. I was so depressed when I lost my chapter I couldn't felt I could write it again, so I made this chapter- and it's probably better this way anyway. And now I have a pen drive so I can make backup copies of all my stuff. Hooray for me. Hooray. Yargh. It's not very long tho. I tend to make long chapters and drag everything out too long. Maybe I should start writing my fanfiction a little more condensed?
Oh yeah- and Harley DOES have red hair!
Colette- "I Promise" by Stacie Orrico. (Have I already given her a song?)
OoOoOoOoOo
We're living in this world, growing colder every day, nothing can stay perfect now I see.. the world is black and hearts are cold and there's no hope, that's what we're told. And we can't go back, it won't be the same forever changed by the things we've seen.
The dummy awaited punishment with a resigned silence, propped up in the woods that bordered Mizuho. A goodly distance away, Orochi exhaled slowly as he let the throwing stars slip into his hands. Then he tensed- he moved- the stars flew d-thunk-tunk-dunk-tunk-tunk! and he jumped, backflipping and running and dodging imaginary retaliation even as the storm of stars rained down on the unfortunate dummy.
Orochi listened for each satisfying smack of metal chopping through wood, letting his senses take over his body so that his higher mind wouldn't torture him with thoughts of... well, just about everything, really. He didn't grow tired, in fact he became even more energetic and moved faster, finding a soothing release in the knowledge that this aspect of his life at least he had lost none of his control.
d-thunk-tunk-dunk-tunk-tunk!
Thoughts of Sheena and honor and duty plagued his mind. Mainly Sheena.
He loved her. He... had loved her, and now, desperately, he wanted to try and remember why he had asked for her hand, almost a year ago.
D-thunk-tunk-dunk-tunk-tunk!
But something had changed when she came back from Flanoir with that girl- that traitor Urashima's sister, pardoned by the new Chief of Mizuho and prevented from sharing her brother's punishment. She returned a changed woman, and Orochi had slowly come to realize that this colder, sadder Sheena was not the Sheena he fell in love with. But no matter, it made no difference now. He had made her promise herself to him as he promised himself to her and her alone. He would make himself love her, for honor's sake, and go through with the wedding and help Sheena produce a proper heir for Mizuho.
Even though the thought mortified him. For some reason, it felt wrong- almost shameful- to think of Sheena as a woman, though there was no denying the fact that she was a beautiful one. He couldn't help but think of when they were younger, when she would hold his hand and call him onii-chan... she was like a sister to him again. It had taken all his courage to accept her hugs and kisses this past year, signs of her affection.. but each one was a slap to the face.
D-thunk-tunk-dunk-tunk-...
The silence of that last missed star made him snap back to reality. He had been in mid-air and mid-flip when he made the shot; when he landed, he saw that the miss was not because of any lack of ability on his part.
Kuchinawa stood in front of the ravaged dummy, the star tightly clenched between pale fingers. He tossed the star back to Orochi, who caught it without a word. A strange, manic grin lit up his brother's face- he no longer wore his traditional red clothing.
"...Brother."
"Brother?" Kuchinawa said, as if tasting the word for the first time. He shook his head then and pushed his lank black hair from his face, his eyebrows shooting up. "Heaven help me, you're really good at that, ain't'cha?" He nodded to the dummy. "But how good are you with moving targets?"
"You should know the answer to that, Kuchinawa." Orochi was emotionless. He reached for more stars.
"Do I really?" Kuchinawa seemed amused. "I guess I must have forgotten. Boys, please take care of this."
At first Orochi didn't understand, but then he felt someone close behind him. He whipped around only to meet a huge, callused fist square in the mouth. He reeled back- another mistake he realized too late when a booted foot slammed into him and he was sent back to the first attacker. The giant man held him in a crushing bear hug as the second attacker, a Mizanese man, readied a silver needle.
"Urashima," Orochi managed to gasp. "You...traitor..!"
"It's a little late to notice that, don't'cha think?" Kuchinawa said, and threw his head back, and howled with laughter.
"Hold him still, Alex!" Urashima said, trying to insert the needle.
"I'm trying," Alex, the giant holding him, grunted with effort. "He's a stubborn bastard."
Orochi never tore his eyes away from the laughing figure of Kuchinawa. "You're- you- you- you can't be doing this...!" He bucked wildly against Alex's beastly strong arms. "You... you're not...!"
"Me," Kuchinawa agreed quietly. "Me, me, me, I'm not..."
The older brother shook his head, closing his eyes but unable to stop seeing that lurid grin lighting up the exile's face. "Kuchinawa!" he cried out, as close to pleading for his life as he could ever get. Urashima plunged the needle deep into his arm. Orochi fought even then, wrenching away and making the needle snap off inside him. He made a small groan of pain and tried to break free. Eventually the struggles became sluggish... eventually they stopped altogether.
"You're right," the man who looked like Kuchinawa said, leaning down to pull Orochi's head back by his hair with one hand. He gave the shinobi a good shake and when there was no response he let his head slump down, his chin resting against his chest. "I'm not Kuchinawa. Alex, please take our friend someplace comfortable and out of the way- we don't want anyone seeing him for a good long while."
The tall, foreign man nodded... but not before pressing two fingers against the back of Orochi's head. Whatever he saw in the mind of the blue-clad ninja must not have been good, because as he carried him away, Alex was frowning deeply.
OoOoOoOo
Yuan's eyebrows shot up. "That's an interesting claim to make, Zelos."
"B- but it's true!" Zelos said, his voice cracking on that last, strained word. "It's true, it's true! She is pregnant!" He shot up to his feet and ran up to her, shoving his face close to hers until their noses bumped. "Are you? Are you really pregnant, Colette?" he asked her, clamping his hands on her shoulders. Colette could only gape, but apparantly that was all he needed because he shot away from her, reeling around the Great Tree and pulling at his hair, screaming at the top of his lungs.
"YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRGH!" Zelos screeched, running in mad circles. "HOLY FREAKING FLIPPING FLYING MOTHER GODDESS MARTEL ON A POGO STICK! COLETTE IS GOING TO BE A MOMMY! HOW COULD I HAVE BEEN SO BLIND? HOW COULD WE AAALLLL HAVE BEEN SO BLIND OOHHHHHH!"
At that last, soul-bearing utterance Zelos swooned and fainted flat on the grass. Sheena, giving out a small cry, ran to him, certain that this time he was seriously, honestly distressed and it had tipped him over the edge. But when she kneeled next to where he was splayed face down on the grass he lifted one hand and fluttered it in a shooing gesture.
"Go 'way. I need to get over my heart break," he said. His voice was muffled by the dirt.
"Idiot," Sheena hissed, more upset at her own reaction than anything else. She looked over to where Colette, Kratos, Lloyd, and Yuan were standing, and then back to Zelos. "What in the name of Martel makes you think Colette is pregnant, Zelos? Did the spirit from the Great Tree tell you?"
"No," he said. "I just sort of put two and two together. Ooohohhhh..." he moaned again into the ground and thunked his head against it a few times. "My darling, innocent Colette was violated by that sword-toting, back-country, uneducated hillbilly!"
The chief of Mizuho slapped the back of his head. "Don't call Lloyd a hillbilly! He's her husband, and you shouldn't be so surprised... assuming you're even right!"
He ignored her, pounding his feet and legs against the ground. "Lloyd, you bastard!" he yelled out. "Don't you know I'm the official de-flower-er of the group?!"
Lloyd, helpless in face of the accusations, looked to his father for help. Kratos could only clench his jaw and shrug, saying, "Well, we couldn't keep it a secret for long."
Sheena's eyes widened, looking towards the tiny blonde angel. Colette struggled with herself for a moment before walking up to reach for Sheena's hands, squeezing them tightly in both of hers. "Um," she said, her throat constricted and blinking back tears. "Would you, um, would you like to be the god mother?"
OoOoOoOo
Harley opened his eyes, expecting to see the night sky.
He saw the roof of his tent, and sunlight poured in through the partially opened entrance flap. He tried to get up to find that there was something heavy on top of him. Looking down, he found a head full of mossy green hair resting on his chest, and tiny doll-like arms draped around him. Mesha was asleep on him, the way cats do when they find a human they decide to be friendly with.
He wriggled for a moment, trying to find a way to get free without moving Mesha, before giving up and flopping back down again. He sighed, wanting to go back to sleep but a frightening bubble of anxiety was welling up inside him, demanding that he do something now. He gently turned on his side, letting Mesha slide off of him as he got up on uncertain feet that were learning how to walk again. He watched her slow, sleeping breathing for a few moments, wondering how in the name of Martel she had gotten there. She was still wearing the dress from when-
(blank)
-last night. Harley put a hand to his forehead to fight off a sudden headache. He had fallen asleep in his own clothes too, that was good. Maybe nothing had happened. Trying to remember what had happened-
(nothing)
-trying to remember where he had put his bandanna,-
(check under your pillow)
-he grabbed it, holding it in one tightly clenched fist. He rarely ever took it off. It must have somehow fallen off last night when he-
(there's a bruise- how did you get that bruise? You-)
-tripped.
Harley stood up straight, tying his bandanna around his head as he turned to walk outside. Behind him, he heard Mesha stirring and she said his name, once:
"Harley."
He faced her again. Her eyes were wide open, two emeralds staring blankly at the tent wall as she curled into the warmth of the spot he had lain, hugging herself. "We've been asleep for a long time, haven't we?" she said, her voice small and sad. "Too long."
"Yeah," he said, running a hand through his spiky red hair.
(days- gone. and "now I" )
"Now I'll go check on the Professor." Harley said, backing out of the tent and looking around for Raine. He found her quick enough- that orange jacket attracted the eye. She was sitting out in a patch of sun, her arms wrapped around her knees. She heard his footsteps, or somehow felt his prescence, and looked over her shoulder at him, unsmiling. Wordlessly she checked the time on a large man's watch that dangled from her delicate wrist.
"It's almost noon," she said, standing up and walking to where their Rheiards were sitting, waiting patiently to be flown. "We should leave soon."
"Where to now?" Harley asked, a sense of hopelessness in his question.
Raine stopped. "I don't know," she said. "I suppose that's up to you. I have no where to go."
OoOoOoOo
Sheena mentally checked off her problems. Problem number one, was, of course, that she had to get married sometime next year to someone she felt no attraction to whatsoever. Sure, Orochi was hot in his own way, but he was Orochi. He was like her brother, and his brother was still missing and a threat to society. So was Urashima. Alex Sage did a disapearing act without giving any satisfactory answers to any questions, Colette was pregnant, Raine still haunted her waking thoughts. She didn't know what Matias wanted from her or if he could really be trusted, Pandora was giving her mixed signals, Lloyd got Colette pregnant, the world was in some form of peril, marrying Zelos didn't seem like such a bad idea anymore, her summon spirits weren't fully obeying her orders because apparantly she was changing on a biological level, her grandmother's memento that kept her from getting sick was actuallly a broken, but still powerful, ex-sphere...
She stared out at the ocean from her vantage point on a hill near the Tree. Even without the nine heroes, the Great Tree found ways to protect itself. In the reunion of the worlds a chunk of land bearing Yggdrasil broke off from its continent, drifted out to sea, and stayed in silent seclusion from the pollution of the newly born and still confused world. Rheiards didn't work near it. Sylph were ignoring her summons, Gnome was no where to be found, and the boat that had brought them here had left while they were talking to the spirits the Tree had shown them and wouldn't be back for an hour.
The only thing she had going for her, she thought, was that Kloitz was still safely behind bars and wasn't likely to grow a new hand any time soon. Kratos had made sure of that by neatly hacking it off at the elbow.
"Sheena!"
When Colette tackled her it set off a chain of events that would lead to the destruction of the earth.
Not really. Things weren't quite in that stage of despair yet. What did happen is that Sheena's carefully maintained balance was effortlessly shattered- Colette had a bad habit of doing that to her- and it was only through sheer luck that they weren't sent tumbling down the hill. Good thing, too. Three years ago they would have been breathless with laughter, but now that Colette was pregnant she was fragile on a whole new level. Sheena let her head flop back onto the grass and found herself looking up into sky-blue eyes blazing with energy. Do you know I used to dream about moments like this, all alone? Even though I'm over you, it still hurts to know it wouldn't have worked simply because I'm a girl, too. It hurts to know that. I feel more alone than I ever have, more than when Grandpa died.
"Hi sweetie," she said instead.
"Sheena you have to see this!" Colette said, the words bubbling from her lips almost too fast for even her motormouth to convey. "Yuan and I- cause Lloyd was with Kratos and Zelos is still like catatonic- Yuan and I found these flowers in this valley thing and it was just... beautiful. It's every color you could ever imagine, and it was every flower- every flower ever- and a lot of the ones I recognized aren't even supposed to be in season!"
"No way," she said just to feel like she was contributing to the conversation.
"Yes way! C'mon, let's go see them together! C'mon, c'mon!" When Sheena began to decline the offer, Colette would have none of it. She leapt to her feet and tugged at Sheena's hand. "The boat won't be here for an hour anyway! What's the point in worrying about something you can't change?"
Sheena groaned and grumbled a little but eventually agreed, but only if Zelos would come too. She didn't trust him alone by himself, and knew that his chatty nature would more than make up for Sheena's moody silence. But I'll try to act happy for your sake, she thought as Colette zoomed off to see if Lloyd would come along this time. Shaking her head, she looked for Zelos and found that he was, in fact, still catatonic. He was splayed on his back, absently staring at the sky with his mouth ajar.
"Not... fair..." he croaked.
"Get over yourself, Zelos," she said when she was close enough, squatting beside his prone figure. "It's not like you ever actively persued Colette. You were always preoccupied with Lloyd."
"Still not fair."
Sheena rolled her eyes and made to leave. "Well, when you get over yourself you can come join us. We're going on a noble, epic quest to pick flowers- Colette's idea," she added. When he made no response, Sheena gave up. But when she began to walk away, his hand flashed out and snagged her ankle. For the second time in five minutes, Sheena lost her balance and was pinned down by a friend who could have been more than a friend.
"Ow," she said. "Zelos, get off. You're heavy."
"You are affected by this," he said, ignoring her words. "More than you let on. If I so much as wink at you, you beat me up, but now you just ask me politely to get off when I push and hold you down?" He gave her forearms a small squeeze to drive the point home, one of his knees uncomfortably wedged between hers.
"Cripes," Sheena sighed. "You must be really bent out of shape if you're starting to play mind games with me again. I notice whenever you feel insecure it gives you pleasure to inflict the same feelings on others, so this really doesn't bother me as much as it should... not anymore." She tilted her head to the side and shifted under him so that she was more comfortable, and smiled. "Get off of me."
I sound like Raine, Sheena thought dizzily.
"Ouch," he said, sitting back on his heels and allowing Sheena to prop herself up on her elbows. In spite of herself, she felt a great relief. Something dark and dangerous had just passed between them, she knew. But that was what happened when the tension built up too much, as it was doing right now.
"I don't play nice when I'm pissed," was Sheena's only defense. "So do you want to go pick flowers or do you want us to be catty with each other all day?"
Zelos's eyes grew ridiculously round and moist. He grabbed her hands and held them to his heart. "Anything, as long as I'm with you, darling!" Sheena made a noise like she was going to be sick, but Zelos didn't stop at that. "And speaking of flowers, we know Colette is already spoken for and unicorns want nothing to do with the Professor, so now there's just Presea and maybe..." he grinned as Sheena tried to smack him.
"Come oooooooon," he wheedled. "I am a good and loyal friend. I deserve to know details, like...like..." he struggled for a good question before arriving at: "Who held the whip in your stormy relationship with the Professor?"
"Please tell me that's a figure of speech, or I'm going to be forced to do something I might not regret."
"OK OK, then how about: how many times did you get to smack dat?"
A few minutes later when Zelos and Sheena met up with Colette, he had a large red welt on his face but Sheena seemed to be in a markedly better mood, so neither Lloyd nor Yuan decided to comment. Colette of course was asking him if he was all right. He told her he had fallen down but assured her that Sheena caught him... with her fist.
"In any case, let's go pick those flowers!" Zelos said.
"Yeah!" Lloyd agreed. "I'll make a necklace for you, Colette."
Yuan crossed his arms and tried his best not to say anything too scathing. "As long as Colette won't be alone this time, I'll pass. I'll wait for the boat here with Kratos."
Colette latched onto his cape. "What?" she cried. "But you were having fun, weren't you?"
"If he wants to leave, let him leave," Lloyd said, annoyed.
"Hmmm," Zelos said loudly, arching one eyebrow. Of course no one paid any attention to him. He started to say it again, but noticed that Sheena, who had been quiet the whole time, was paying attention to something else entirely. He blinked and looked to where she was gazing and saw that a lump had formed in the ground a few feet away and was growing larger. Soon everyone else noticed it too, but only Sheena saw it for what it was.
Sure enough, after a second of silence, a loud pop! could be heard and Gnome exploded from the ground, letting a shower of dirt cover everyone except Yuan, who pulled his cape over his head at the last second. "Wooo-eee!" Gnome said, shaking himself like a dog. He was in the form of the bipedal mole they had first met him as, and he twirled his shovel like a baton before using it to salute them.
"Well, all I have to say this was fun while it lasted, babe," Gnome said to Sheena. "I'm so sorry. Please don't hold back."
Then without further warning he charged at Sheena, swinging the shovel at her head.
OoOoOo
A/N: Yay, Yuan's trying to be nicer now! He's back on the path of remembering who he is! And it's all thanks to Martel... and Colette. I love having people chase after Sheena... she deserves love! I'm beginning to think once I'm done with the RUNAWAY series I'll work on some Shelos. In other news, Lloyd gets a minimal role here, just like in RUNAWAY. He stole the spotlight in the game, now it's his turn to be a supporting character. It's funny. When I started RUNAWAY I hated Colette more than anyone else, and now she's become one of my favorite characters! So that's why she gets more lines than Lloyd. Lloyd gets to say a total of sixteen words in this chapter.
And what is this? Gnome turned against his master? Has this foreboding 'change' in Sheena finally occurred? Just what is she changing into? And why the heck isn't there any Matias in this chapter? Because in the next chapter he gets to spill his guts- to Presea! And there's a shizophrenic jester girl! OK maybe not! But maybe yes! Because I've been known to say one thing and do another thing entirely so don't be surprised if the next chapter is about Alex, or (fake?)Kuchinawa, or Mesha's mother, or cheese or something. And yeah. Other stuff happens too. I haven't thought of it yet. I'll work hard at that, though.
Find out next time on "Who In The World Likes Cliffhangers?"!
3847 words. If there are typos or incomplete sentances, bite me. I wrote this in only two days.