navy = flashback
"Kizu tsuku koto wa kowakunai, dakedo keshite tsuyokunai tada, nani mo shinai mama de kuyandari wa shitakunai..." Rawnie sang cheerfully as she knelt by a small stream, scrubbing out her mud-stained cloak. "Here we go! Go! Hashiri tsuzukeru dare ni mo..." Dang, this world could really use a good washing machine. "...tomerare wa shinai, mirai wo jibun eto..." She was completely back to her usual self after the event that had occurred the day before, though she'd had to assure Zelgadis several times that she was going to be okay. She hadn't wanted to break down like that, but it couldn't be helped. The visions she got whenever she was touched were terrible...hands reaching out from everywhere and grabbing at her, pulling her apart, dragging her violently away. Scaled hands, golden and mocking, with claws of an unearthly color. Rawnie shuddered at the thought. She hadn't always had those apparitions, no...they had begun about a year before. And they had grown worse with the passage of time. It had forced her to become distant from others, to keep to herself and to push her friends and family away from her. It was harder to stand a touch from someone close than from a stranger, and she had no problem beating on others.
Rawnie shook the thoughts away and resumed singing and washing. "Motto tsuyoku imeeji shite, hohoenderu jibun o shinjiteru omoi sore ga...nani yori mo dare yori mo yume ni chikadzuju..." She paused and peered into the water, staring at her reflection. Seagreen hair now. And yellow eyes. Dressed in a blue tunic. She looked so different now, yet she felt as though she should have always looked like that, dressed like that. It was an odd feeling of belonging and not belonging mixed together.
A purple-haired face popped up beside her reflection, smiling a mocking little smile. Rawnie whirled around and came face to face with the Trickster Priest himself. He grinned at her, his eyes closed as usual. "Thinking hard?"
She blinked. The presence of her favorite anime villain surprised her. "Xelloss. What are you doing here?"
He sat cross-legged in front of her, resting his staff across his knees. "Sore wa himitsu desu!"
"I shouldn't have asked..." she grumbled, wringing out her sopping wet cloak. The Mazoku leaned forward and peered at her face, studying the expression of annoyance. He experimentally poked her cheek with a gloved finger and she shuddered involuntarily. "Don't touch me."
"Something's happening when I do that, ne? It bothers you. Perhaps even frightens you."
"I don't know what you're talking about." Favorite villain or not, she still didn't trust him too much. She'd watched enough Slayers to learn what he was all about. She was confident that she could get around his tricky ways relatively easily, but he was still dangerous. And besides, what did he know about her problems?
Xelloss twirled a lock of her hair around his finger. "I know there's something going on that shouldn't be. What do you see when I...when anyone lays a hand on you? What goes through your mind?"
"Why do you care?"
He smiled. "You don't trust me? Neither do I. But I can help you."
Rawnie hesitated. He's a villain, Rawnie. Even if he's your favorite, he's still a villain. V-I-L-L-A-I-N. And he's Xelloss, for crying out loud. There's got to be a catch. "Why would you help me? What's in it for you?"
"Sore wa himitsu desu! But don't worry," he added. "Nothing bad will happen to you."
"How can I be sure?"
"Mazoku's honor!"
She snorted. "Yeah, like that's worth anything."
"True," he agreed. "But you do want me to help, don't you. You know I can help you. Are you too scared? Are you...a coward?"
Her eyes flashed angrily. "I'm not afraid of you."
"Then allow me to help."
Rawnie searched his face for any sign of falsity, but could find none, as usual. His expression was too well-crafted, too impenetrable to let any such information through. I'm not afraid of him. I've seen what he can do and how he's tricked others. But I'm not afraid. He's always been my favorite...I always thought he was incredibly cool. I'm confident that I can handle his tricks. Besides...I want to tell him. I want to...I need to tell someone. Show someone what's happening to me. Anyone... She took a deep breath. "Okay, Xelloss. What do I have to do?"
The Trickster Priest smiled inwardly. "I need to see what you see and feel what you feel to know completely what's going on. That requires a spell."
"What kind of spell?"
"It's complicated. Basically, this spell allows me to see and feel what you are thinking as long as it is on. You may have a slight connection with my thoughts, but that is all I'll allow the spell to do. I'm sure you'll find no malicious intent towards you."
She paused for a few moments, thinking it over. "Okay. I'll do it. How does the spell work?"
Xelloss handed her his staff, jeweled end first. "Here. We'll use this as the focal point of the spell. Just touch the jewel at the end and say, 'Stone, accept my power and strength of heart. See all that I see and hear all that I hear. Open my mind to you and let my will be shown. I bind myself to you.' Then I'll do the same."
Rawnie gently touched her fingers to the red jewel and drew in a sharp breath as she sensed the power emanating from it. "Stone, accept my power and strength of heart. See all that I see and hear all that I hear. Open my mind to you and let my will be shown. I bind myself to you." The jewel flickered with light for a brief moment, acknowledging acceptance of the spell. Xelloss took the staff from her and repeated the incantation, the red jewel flickering once more. Rawnie suddenly felt an odd, Xelloss-y sort of presence tingling at the back of her mind, hovering around her astral spirit. "Okay...now what?"
"Now this." He wrapped his hand tightly around her wrist, quickly bringing on another of her fits of shuddering. This time, Xelloss saw everything through her eyes. Many hands reaching, grasping. Claustrophobia. Claws tearing at skin and clothing. Terror. Screams in the distance. Xelloss opened his purple eyes with surprise as he pulled his hand away. "Well. That was...odd."
Rawnie pulled her knees to her chest and rested her chin upon them. She could feel him thinking through the spell, though she couldn't decipher what exactly he was thinking about. "You see? You see what I have to go through? It's been like this for a year...a whole year. And it gets worse with time. I don't know what those terrible visions are...or where they came from." Her fear passed clearly over the spell's bond to Xelloss.
He sighed mentally and broke the spell's connection. "I do know what they are. There's only one way to fix this. I was hoping I wouldn't have to do this yet. You're not quite ready to handle the responsibilities." He tapped her on the nose with the end of his staff, softly chanting under his breath. "Time which has long since passed, be called forth again. Memories, break fee from thy bondage and show thyself." The red jewel glowed brightly, casting a beam of light on the girl's forehead. "Powers beyond the black darkness, master of blood that shines, destroy this barrier..."
"Mommy? Daddy? Where are you?" Someone was arguing at the door to the
small cottage. A mob? Four-year-old Rawnie C'Neidara tiptoed down the creaky
stairs from her room, wondering what all the commotion was about. Loud
voices. Noises. "Mommy?" She peered around the banister at her parents, who
were arguing with the strange winged people at the door. "Daddy?"
Her father turned to her, his eyes wide and fearful. "Get out of here,"
he told her. "Go back to your room!"
"Is that her?" one of the beautiful winged people demanded, pushing the
door open wider with a forceful hand. "Is that the child?"
Her father blocked the winged one's way, his arms spread protectively.
"No. That is our other daughter. She has nothing to do with this."
Another of the winged people, this one a strong young male, snorted
derisively. "Your lies are in vain, human. I can sense the presence...HIS
presence in her. She IS the child we are searching for." He pushed her
parents aside and barged into the house, followed by at least ten others. "We
must get rid of her! She is a threat to us all!"
Hands reached out from these odd-looking creatures, grabbing at her
roughly. Their human-like hands became golden and scaled, with oddly-colored
claws. They grasped at her hair and clothing, pulling at her with malicious
intent. Little Rawnie screeched and tried to pull away from their sharp
claws, clutching at the deep gashes in her arms and legs. What was going on?
Who were these beautiful, yet horrible creatures? Why were they hurting her?
She closed her eyes in pain.
There was a brief scuffle, and when she opened her eyes her mother was
holding off the winged creatures with a fire spell and shouting profanities
at them. One moment, her mother was bravely confronting the creatures, and
after a terrifying transition to the next moment, they held her limp body by
the throat. Rawnie was horrified. Her eyes widened with terror as her father
met the same fate, and she did the only thing her four-year-old mind would
allow. She ran.
The winged creatures chased her, yes, but their large size made it next
to impossible to follow her into all the small places she crawled through.
Little Rawnie hid herself behind a pile of overturned rainwater barrels,
hugging her knees and trembling with fear and shock. She could hear the
creatures searching for her, a larger number of them. They were dragons, she
realized. Dragons were supposed to be good and kind. These dragons were not.
They were setting fire to the village, turning it upside down to find her.
She could hear other people screaming and crying and she knew that the
dragons were destroying everything. Rawnie buried her face in her arms and
sobbed, too frightened to move.
A shadow fell over her quivering form and paused there, causing her to
blink her golden eyes and rub her tear-stained face. Rawnie looked up at a
boy at least seven years older than her, a pale-faced boy with long purple
hair and funny slit-pupiled eyes. He looked down at her curiously before
kneeling beside her. "Hey. You okay?" he asked in a high-pitched
pre-adolescent voice. She shook her head in response, her eyes overflowing
with tears. The boy picked her up and held her small form against him,
patting her hair soothingly. He was a stranger to Rawnie, but his embrace was
warm and comforting, and she sniffled and wiped her tears on his shirt,
clutching the soft fabric fearfully.
"Those bad dragons," she'd said. "The hurt Mommy and Daddy. I wish they
were dead. All of them." And the boy had taken her away from the burned
village and brought her to the place where the dark ones lived. They were
both scary and fascinating at the same time, twisted creatures filled with
hate and a taste for blood. She was afraid they might try to do her harm, but
the boy, Xel-chan was what he was called, hid her from them and kept her
safe. Rawnie only stayed there for a few days before Xel-chan brought her to
the big rip in the sky and said goodbye to her. The next thing she knew she
was hugging her new Mommy and Daddy and thinking that they were the real
parents, all thoughts of her former life erased.
Rawnie slowly drifted back into reality with a numbed feeling of shock. She blinked her yellow eyes and lifted them to the purple-haired priest. "You?"
He looked at her. "Yeah, me."
"Oh." She fumbled with the ends of her cloak, not really sure how to take all of this. "Xelloss...why were the Gold Dragons after me?"
"Sore wa himitsu desu!" he replied with a smiling face.
Rawnie growled and flicked a pebble at him, which bounced off his nose. "So you're not going to tell me why you pulled me our of my word, either, right?"
"Right!" He reached out and patted her on the shoulder, smiling his ever-mysterious smile.
Rawnie flinched as he reached towards her, expecting to have the same apparitions as before, but to her surprise there were none. "Nani?" No hands reached towards her, no feelings of claustrophobia were there. She grabbed his hand to make sure she wasn't dreaming. Nope, no more visions. "No way! The visions...they're..."
"Gone?" he supplied. "Of course. They were just pieces of memory."
"I get it...and now that the memory is completed, I'll never have those flashbacks again!" Her relief was obvious, as well as appreciation. Rawnie hugged the priest impulsively, marveling at how much better she felt actually making contact with another sentient being. "Thank you..."
Xelloss smirked as the young girl's arms tightened around him. His plan was back on track, and with better results than he'd anticipated. Should he implement the next part of his plan? No, he decided. Better to wait.
"Oh, great." A sharp voice interrupted the embrace. Rawnie pulled away from the Mazoku and looked up at her super-annoyed chimera friend. "I leave you alone for two seconds and come back to find you doing this with exactly the person I told you to stay away from!"
The Trickster Priest continued to smile. "What's that, Zel-kun? Don't you trust me?" he taunted before disappearing into the air.
Zelgadis clenched a fist. "Damn Mazoku..." He turned to Rawnie and opened his mouth to give her hell, but was interrupted by another voice calling him.
"Zel! Hey, Zel!! Did you find her?"
"Zelgadis-san!!" Several voices. Lina, Gourry, and Amelia's forms appeared over the rise of a nearby hill, running towards him.
He waved to them to let them know where he was and looked disapprovingly at Rawnie. "Oh, and while you were off getting yourself into unspeakable trouble, Lina and the others arrived in Myeria."
"Thank you, Captain Obvious," Rawnie murmured. She stood and shielded her eyes from the sunlight as the others caught up with them. The petite, red-haired Dra-mata Lina Inverse; the blond, dim-witted swordsman Gourry Gabriev; and the super-annoying, justice-loving princess Amelia Wil Tesla Sailoon. Rawnie didn't really know what to say, confronted with so many of her favorite anime characters, all of which were looking at her quizzically. She stuck out her right hand in greeting. "Hi."
The five later dined at a quaint little restaurant in Myeria, one that hadn't heard of Lina's gargantuan eating habits. Rawnie sweatdropped as she watched Lina and Gourry devour platefuls of food. Zelgadis only had coffee, as usual, and Rawnie herself picked at a small dinner of vegetables and fruit. Amelia had paused in her eating to make small talk with the seagreen-haired girl. "So, Rawnie-san...you're from another world?"
"Yep," she answered absent-mindedly, moving food around her plate with a fork.
"Wow, how cool..." The younger girl grew starry-eyed all of a sudden. "Are the people there all true defenders of justice?"
Rawnie almost choked on her food. "Er...not really. Not at all, actually."
"Oh." Amelia sounded disappointed. "Do you miss your world?"
"Miss it? Not really." Rawnie sipped her water thoughtfully. "Well, maybe a little. I like it here much better, though."
"What sort of things do you miss?" Lina asked between mouthfuls, only half-listening to the conversation.
"Well..." she began, considering the question carefully. "Mostly the comforts of technology. Like microwaves and supermarkets and junk food. My Sealy Posturepedic mattress. Electric heating. Air conditioners. Being able to sleep in a bed every night. Indoor plumbing. Those sorts of things are rather nonexistent here. But I can adjust. The only thing I find hard to get used to is the idea of communal bathing. That's just...ahem." She quickly changed the subject. "Anyway, Zel told me about some sort of plan you guys have?"
Lina gulped down her beverage and nodded. "Yeah, we have sort of a plan. Mostly involves giving Xelloss the slip and figuring out why you're so important."
"Which essentially means stay away from him," Zelgadis warned her, not looking up from his coffee.
Rawnie rolled her eyes. "Like you could keep him away!" Sheesh. Xelloss does whatever he wants. They can't stop him. Besides, I really don't fear him. I can take care of myself. I studied his character in depth back home. I think I can get around his tricky methods.
Lina was talking again. "I say we blow out of this town. Xelloss already knows we're here."
"No, we can't!" Rawnie protested. "I have to stay and finish the spring pageant!"
Zelgadis nearly choked on his coffee. "Baka! This is more important than that pageant!"
"Says who? There's only one event left, and I have a really good chance of winning! Besides, we don't even know what's going on with Xelloss yet!" She waggled finger at them, Chichiri-style. "What you don't know can't hurt you, na no da." The others sweatdropped. "Come on," she begged. "I know I can win it! Besides, I haven't had this much fun in a long time! I'm not planning on being serious about anything just yet!"
Rawnie whistled the theme song to Akazukin Cha Cha as she skipped down one of Myeria's main streets, the others trailing behind her and sweatdropping. She still had fifteen minutes to blow before the final pageant event and was basically window-shopping. Lina and Gourry had gotten distracted by a hot dog vendor and claimed they'd meet up with everyone else when they were done eating. Rawnie stopped to look into the window of a tailor's dress shop, noting the fine handiwork that had gone into making the garments.
Someone tapped her on the shoulder. She turned to see a tall, nondescript man looking at her. "Excuse me, Miss, but aren't you one of the spring pageant contestants?" She nodded in response, and the man clasped his hands together with joy. "Oh, good! I've been looking for you. I have a message for you from the judges. Please come this way."
"A message?" Rawnie asked suspiciously. She glanced across the street and made eye contact with her chimera friend, silently requesting backup. He nodded in affirmation and she turned back to the tall man. "All right. Let's go." The man smiled and led her away, through a little side street and finally into a darkened alley. Zelgadis and Amelia followed discreetly. Rawnie looked suspiciously around the alley, sensing the presence of others. Mazoku. At least four of them. She backed away from the man, wondering how she could have missed noticing he was Mazoku. Shoot. I'm going to miss the last event of the pageant.
The man opened his slit-pupiled eyes and reached for her, his hand morphing into an array of black tentacles that wrapped themselves around her arm. Rawnie swore vehemently and severed the tentacles with her dagger, only to find that they quickly reattached themselves. Behind her, Zelgadis had fired up a Ra Tilt and was blasting the other Mazoku while Amelia ran to get Lina and Gourry. Rawnie pulled away from the tall Mazoku, his tentacles wrapping around her other limbs as well. "Shimatta! Let me go!!"
The Mazoku grinned evilly and pulled her to him. "I'm afraid I can't do that. You see, I've been ordered to take you with me."
"Well, I'm not going!" The girl looked to Zelgadis for help, but he had his hands full with the other Mazoku. She started to panic as the tentacles tightened around her and drew her closer to her captor. He was hideous. Rawnie's fear started to melt into anger as she stared at his ugly face, into his cold-blooded eyes. Stupid Mazoku. How dare he try to capture her? How dare he even come near her? She was missing the final event! Or she had already missed it. She had worked so hard to win, and now it was all for nothing. Her anger rose inside her, her fists twitching in response, filling her every thought and rushing through her blood. Stupid, stupid Mazoku. She was close to his hideous face now, his tentacles so tight around her that they hurt. Somewhere in the back of her mind, a pair of red eyes opened, burning with fire. Rawnie focused on those red eyes, their ruby brilliance filling her mind. She was seeing red. She was 'feeling' red.
The Mazoku paused as he saw the girl mumbling something unintelligible under her breath. "What are you doing?"
Her hands glowed red. Her eyebrows twitched with anger. She opened her mouth and uttered a single word: "Die." The result was incredibly effective. The five Mazoku were consumed by a black flame, their screams of agony fading as their bodies were destroyed in a violent display of power.
Lina, Gourry, and Amelia arrived just in time to see this final attack. "What was that?" the red-haired sorceress asked incredulously. She stared at Rawnie, her eyes wide with confusion. "Where did you learn a spell like that?"
The seagreen-haired girl gasped for air, totally winded from expending that kind of power. Was that applause she heard? Yes, it was. She lifter her head and saw a shadowed figure seated atop one of the nearby buildings. Xelloss. "Well done!" he said enthusiastically, clapping his gloved hands. "Looks like you're a lot more prepared than I thought."
"Xelloss!" Lina stared up at the priest, annoyed. "What's this all about?"
"Sore wa himitsu desu!" he answered with a smile. "But now it looks like I'll be traveling with you again, Lina-san..."
Kaltier watched the ragtag group from the shadows, his green eyes glimmering in the dark. He turned away, his black heart thumping in his chest with amazement and appreciation. Gods. Such power. She was most definitely the One. Trichere-sama had been right. But now she was going to be a real pain to capture. Not only because of her power, but the power of the other humans around her. Not to mention that meddling servant of Zelas's. He was going to be a problem.
Kaltier shook his head. No matter what, no matter how, he had to bring the girl to Trichere-sama. It was essential that she be allied with them and no one else. Because she was the One. The chosen. The basis around which they would be centered. The receiver of His power...
The Knight of Shabranigdo.