(AN: and now, finally, the best part….)
-x-
The stuttering memories flashed before Lin's fading eyes, moving like shades of another realm. Wavering in and out of focus, the recollections of her past were ethereal and shadow-like. She felt a leadenness take hold of her legs, gripping each muscle with claws of icy chill. Death was coming quickly now.
It was worth it. The warrior thought, looking back on her struggles, trials, and pain. It was all worth it just to meet her. To love her, even if it was only from a distance.
The chaos of battle roared, ebbing and flowing in utter madness only a scant hundred yards to the west, but Lin felt far away. She was merely another corpse, ignored and forgotten. Another nameless face, struck down in battle while fighting to rescue her homeland from invaders and protect her Queen. Her life meant nothing now. All that remained were dancing shadows of what was long gone.
Her heart felt heavy with the meaninglessness of it all.
Fingers twitched, the sensitive tips of each digit growing stiff, coated with her drying blood. Her eyes fluttered closed momentarily, trying to block out the wails of the dying and the reek of decay on the battlefield.
A sharp intake of breath, and a touch on her shoulder brought her back. Her eyes snapped open, gazing up into the fair face of her one true love.
'She's here.' Lin rejoiced internally, her slowing heart skipping a beat 'She came to stay by my side.'
Her cracked, bloody mouth struggled to twitch into a crooked grin.
The Queen's countenance had aged handsomely over the years. Fine lines at the corners of her eyes had etched themselves deeper, mirroring the gentleness of her laugh lines, and telling of a woman who always remained ready and willing with smiles.
Her auburn hair fell long, past her shoulders to the middle of her back in rippling waves, held out of the way by a tiny golden circlet adorned with rubies. The semiprecious stones glinted sharply in the waxing sunlight of the breaking dawn. Skin that had once been pale and creamy in her youth now showed the telltale signs of spotting and age, but her eyes were unchanged. They were exactly as Lin had remembered from that day upon the banks of the Quinhuai.
Alena's eyes were a blue as clear as ice on a northern sea, sharp, keen, and crackling with intelligence and wit. Kindness and generosity rested heavily in her crystalline irises, coupled and kindled by that guarded spark that still burned like an ember of long forgotten hope. For a moment, Lin lost herself in the familiarity of that gaze.
"Oh, my dearest." Alena whispered, cradling the warrior's head in her lap. The fine silks whispered softly against Lin's cheek. Tears brimmed, falling like water from eyes like limpid pools. 'Everything will be all right, I will get the physician. He will bind up your wounds…" The words of meaningless comfort fell stalely from the Queen's lips, and the warrior met her with a resigned stare, cool and steady.
The faithful protector was too far gone. They both knew it. It was only a matter of time.
"Do not…grieve for me, Alena." Lin's voice rasped out hoarse and hitching. Rusty colored saliva sputtered at the corner of her lips. "I have died an honorable death."
The Queen's eyes grew red-rimmed, and her face screwing up in anguish. "Oh, my sweet…Please…Do not leave me yet. Please. We promised that after the war was over, and the King stepped down from his throne that we could live together. Please. Stay with me a moment longer-" Trembling fingers combed through ebony locks, brushing them with tenderness and care.
"I have loved you for all my lifetime." Came the breathy whispered reply "And I shall love you for a thousand life times more…look for me when the stars are in the heavens, and remember our promise we made…for I will always be with you…" Lin's voice cracked and died as the last vestiges of oxygen crawled out of her collapsing lungs, and her slowing heart thudded to a stop, content to beat no more.
The tears of the Queen flowed freely, as their lips met for the last time.
-x-
Aurora lay on her back, hands folded behind her head, and blew a sigh out her nose. Azure eyes of crystalline blue watched in bored fascination as an errant lock of her auburn hair fluttered with the force of her exhalation. The dark hardwood of the apartment flooring was cool on her skin, and a slight chill seeped through the fabric of her shirt to play upon her spine.
She turned her head, gazing up at the tanned face of her girlfriend, whose attention was claimed by the dusty pages of a book.
"Mulan…Do you ever think about past lives?" asked the princess, curiosity amplified by the stillness of the afternoon.
Mulan grunted an unintelligible reply, her eyes still trained on the parched pages of her tome.
Aurora wrinkled her brow in thoughtfulness. "Do you think people ever get reincarnated? Like souls in a different body?"
Mulan smirked, shrewdly realizing that the day's period of silent reading had drawn to an end. She flipped the book closed, tossed it haphazardly upon the end-table, and turned to watch the princess splayed out upon the floor.
"I suppose it could be possible." The warrior said with a tilt of her chin. "There's an old legend from my land that says that the spirit can never pass onto the otherworld unless it has found and joined with its other half. Why do you ask?"
Aurora rolled, flipping onto her stomach, and propping herself up on her elbows to gaze into the face of her warrior. "I dunno. It just sounds kind of awful. Not being able to die; just stuck reliving everything."
Mulan shrugged, tipping her head thoughtfully to the side. "I don't think so. It means people are allowed to continuously find each other. Forever remembering and rediscovering the best things they love about one another….It's a promise that no matter how far apart or how long the other has to wait, fate will always bring them together. Lifetime after lifetime."
The princess's brow furrowed as the words hung heavily in the air. Her forehead wrinkled, and her mouth drew itself into a thin line.
Lifetime after lifetime… thousands of years….
Something about the phrases seemed to jangle in her skull like discordant bells, stirring something deeply hidden and long forgot in the misty annals of her mind. Her eyes grew detached and distant as if seeing something far away. The clarity of her crystal blue irises misted over with a hazy thoughtfulness as her mind probed, searching for some memory that danced dream-like out of her grasp.
There was a distinctness about this moment, she thought. A feeling of déjà vu, coupled with the sense of the spiritual. Her soul itself suddenly felt far older and far wiser than she had ever known it to be.
I give you my heart, dearest. For it has always been yours.
"Yes…I suppose that's true." Aurora murmured; her voice soft. "It's lucky we didn't have to wait that long to find each other, I guess."
A rare sad smile graced Mulan's tanned cheeks as she leaned over to place a soft kiss upon her princess's forehead. "Even so, I would find you. I've loved you a thousand years, and I'd love you a thousand more."
-FIN-