Tears of the Phoenix Chapter 2: Reunited� Sorta
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction; the characters depicted do not
belong to Platinum Dragon or War-Ouki with exception of the following:
Megumi (Platinum Dragon), Jay (Platinum Dragon). Please do not sue us; we
have no money in any case.
Comments, Criticism, Insults, Flames and/or Death Threats should be
directed to Platinum_Dragon@usinternet.com and Kawaii_Death@hotmail.com.
Author's Note: This story arc is set in the same 'universe' as Bonds
of Trust by Platinum Dragon (Shameless plug, I know); some of the
references made here won't make sense if you haven't read that story, such
as the 'bond' between Genki and Pixie.
Author's Note 2: This story arc takes place roughly seven and a half
years after the events in Bonds of Trust.
*****
Pixie frowned slightly, looking around, and irritably adjusted the
shirt that she'd 'borrowed.' How DID Holly stand wearing things like this?
It fit well enough, though the pants that she'd grabbed felt almost like a
second skin. But the collar of the shirt hugged to her neck
not-quite-uncomfortably, and the sleeves positively refused to stay
unbunched and loose. The most irritating thing about it was that the
material was just thin enough that it wasn't quite opaque, which, unless
she'd missed the entire point of wearing clothing, defeated the entire
purpose of wearing it! If she'd wanted people to look at her, she wouldn't
have bothered with the clothes, just gone with what she already had.
The confusing part about it, though, was that most of the humans -
with the occasional exception of the men - never looked at her twice. Now
and then one of the younger men would glance at her, and then pause and
look back up. One or two even flashed smiles that would have made tigers
wary, when they saw that she was alone. Pixie kept her face carefully
neutral, passing them by in silence.
She'd been in the human world for about three hours now, she thought;
it was difficult to judge time by the sun because there were so many tall
buildings around, partly blocking her view of it. She'd done her best to
contain her amazement over the marvels all about her, but it was very
difficult to not walk around, gawking like a little kid. Things were so
different here� she'd begun to get an appreciation for how out of place
Genki must have felt in her world. The sheer number of people was
absolutely mind boggling; she couldn't help but feel a bit phobic. Humans
had scarred her deeply, and now she was literally surrounded by a sea of
them. The knowledge that she appeared to physically be a human, and thus,
one of them, was a scarce comfort.
To her surprise, she came to a wide, open area; a rolling field of
grass that led to a forest growing in the middle of the city. Humans
walked along paths; families chatted idly on blankets spread on the grass,
children tossed balls back and forth. Pausing, Pixie checked her sense of
Genki again for his direction. To her great relief, it led her into the
woodland, and away from the human-packed sidewalk. She gladly left the
noisy roadside and strode toward the trees. This, she understood; nature,
growing things.
She made her way along at an easy clip, following the bond's
direction. As she left the sound of the city bustle, she found herself
finally beginning to relax a little. The human world was a little
overwhelming. But, she was beginning to realize, in some ways it was not
so different as she had once thought. Men, women and children moved,
enjoying the silence of the forest after the noise of the city.
Idly, Pixie began to wonder how much Genki had changed from the boy
that she had known. Humans were odd; for years they remained relatively
small, growing, but only very slowly. Then, in about their thirteenth or
fourteenth year, they abruptly began to grow and change amazingly fast,
seemingly becoming fully matured overnight. Genki had been about that age
when he'd left; surely in the seven and a half years that he'd been gone
he'd experienced much the same. Certainly it had happened to Holly; she'd
grown into quite a beautiful young woman in their world.
Pixie shook her head. She'd finished maturing more than two hundred
years before; she could hardly remember how awkward it had been at times.
Granted, in some ways she'd tried to forget about it; she had tried hard to
forget all of her years as a slave. She'd been very successful in some
ways; not successful enough in others. And then, there were some pains
that she wasn't sure she wanted to forget. She sighed.
Gradually, she became aware of the fact that it was beginning to get
darker. She passed humans less and less often, which, she had to admit,
suited her well enough. To her surprise, she noted that Genki seemed to be
coming toward her now, though he was apparently still unaware of her and
their bond having reformed. Pixie grinned slightly, wondering if he would
recognize her as she was. Then she paused a moment, realizing that the
reverse was also true; would she recognize him? She might be missing her
wings, horns and tail, but he would have grown into a young man, completely
different from the child she'd known.
By now night had fully fallen, though to her eyes it still seemed
light enough to only be early evening, even in the darkness of the woods.
Genki had veered somewhat to her right; she compensated, stepping off the
beaten pathway, and let herself be entirely guided by the bond. She was
getting fairly close to him now; maybe close enough to reach him
telepathically, but� there was an odd shimmer to his sense that she'd begun
to notice as they got closer, as if something was trying to interfere with
their connection. Maybe she was just being paranoid, but it made her
decide not to try sending him another message just yet.
As Pixie passed one particularly dense thicket of bushes, she heard
sounds of a scuffle. Pausing, she frowned, curious. She was pretty far
off the path, and hadn't seen any humans for some time now. Deep into the
forest as she was, there was very little light for a human's eyes.
Frowning again, and noting that Genki was still moving toward her, she
cautiously approached the thicket, and spread some branches to look
through. What she saw made her scowl.
On the other side of the bushes, a young, weakly struggling girl was
being held down by three older men, as a forth began to unbuckle his belt;
Pixie immediately identified him as the leader. Some kind of silver cloth
had been placed over her mouth, silencing her beyond small, incoherent
sounds of fear. Her eyes hadn't been covered, though, and they were wide
with terror as she attempted to thrash her way out of their grip. Her
struggles were to no avail, though; there were too many of them and too
little leverage for her.
Pixie straightened, and stepped into the thicket without a second
thought. "Get away from her!" she ordered, summoning up every shred of
menace she'd ever had as one of Moo's Big Bad Four. The one that had been
unbuckling his belt turned to her, startled - Pixie noted the sharp-looking
knife he held in his left hand - and then he smirked, squinting against the
darkness at her.
"Lookie here guys, looks like we've got another cutie wanting to join
us for the fun!" he said darkly; the other three laughed, one rising and
joining the leader. Mentally Pixie prepared to fight, readying the words
of a lightning spell. Just a minor one, she thought to herself; take down
this group's head, and the body would scatter.
"This is your last chance," she said evenly. "Leave now, and I'll let
you live." They looked at each other, and burst into laughter.
"Ah, man, I'm so terrified! This little girl will let us live if we
leave now!" said the leader mockingly, before suddenly lashing out at her
with the knife. Surprise bloomed on his face, though, as she easily caught
his wrist, halting his attack. Planting her foot, she drove a kick into
his side hard enough that she heard a rib pop, and then punched him in the
nose as he grunted in pain and doubled over, sending him reeling backwards.
Recovering slowly, he straightened, one hand held over his shattered nose,
snarling.
"Shit, the little bitch can throw a punch! Don't just stand there,
get her!" he growled. Pixie backed up slightly, watching them warily as
the two men holding the girl sprang up. Perhaps seeing her chance as the
leader paused to cough up a wad of blood, the girl suddenly scrambled away,
narrowly avoiding the leader's grasp. The man turned to her, scowling.
"Well, since you seem so interested in our little get together, and made
our main entertainment run off, I think we'll let you fill in," he snarled.
"Thanks but no, I think I'll pass," she replied flatly, as they began
to spread out slightly.
"Oh, I don't think you understand� We weren't planning on giving you
a choice," he sneered. Pixie gave him a devil-may-care smirk.
"Better think again," she said, bringing her hands up and casting her
lightning spell, as the man nearest sprang at her.
Nothing happened.
Pixie understood immediately her likely fatal mistake. The portal had
made her human, and humans didn't have magical attacks. Desperately, she
tried to dodge back, but it was already too late; she felt the air forced
from her lungs as a knee was driven into her stomach. Dizzied, she somehow
managed to suck in a deep breath as she punched out blindly. Her fist came
into solid contact with a jaw; she stumbled backward trying to clear her
head, only to have a strong pair of hands grab her arms roughly from
behind. The third came toward her, grinning darkly as he saw that his
friend had her.
His expression was short lived, though, as Pixie used her captor's
hold to her advantage and brought her foot up hard, talons extended, into
the crotch of the one before her. His eyes rolled back into his head as he
opened his mouth in a soundless scream; not wasting time as he fell, Pixie
planted her feet and shoved backwards as hard as she could, pushing her
captor back. Luck was with her, and they slammed into a tree, loosening
his grip enough for her to pull free, pivot, and drive a sharp jab into his
solar plexus. Gasping for breath, he dropped to his knees; a double fisted
blow over the back of his neck finished him off. Pausing to wipe away a
few beads of sweat, Pixie turned back to the leader.
She was just in time to see the stone descending on her forehead.
Genki frowned as he reached the park, and looked around. Contrary to
his hopes, his headache had been getting worse and worse the closer to the
park that he got - and for some reason, he didn't think it was a
coincidence that the Stone had been directing him there. It had taken them
longer to get over to it that he'd thought it would; the sun was just
starting to slip under the horizon. In a few minutes, it would be full
dark. Most people had already left the park, and the few that were still
there were moving toward the parking lot. Genki shrugged; that was
probably in his favor. Jay was following not too far behind him, but Genki
wanted to see if he was still going the right way. He pulled the Magic
Stone out from under his shirt; it was still pointing ahead, though even as
he saw it the arrow started veering a little to the left. Whatever it was,
it must be close, and moving on its own.
"Whoa, since when does your pendant glow like that?" asked Jay, as he
came up beside him on his skateboard. Genki winced in spite of himself.
When had he stopped paying attention to things around him? There had been
a time when people couldn't sneak up on him like that.
"It's� a long story," he said after a moment. "Sorta a momento from
some friends I had a long time ago," he continued, as he moved to tuck it
away again. Then he thought better of it and left the Stone hanging free;
hiding it would only make Jay more curious than he already was. Jay
frowned at the glowing Stone with a thoughtful expression.
"Does it run on batteries, or what? We've got a way to go yet," Jay
reminded him. Genki grinned weakly, wondering how to explain away how he'd
gotten it. He was just about to start trying when a girl with an
absolutely terrified expression crashed into him. They landed hard in a
heap on the ground.
"Hey, are you ok?" he asked her, as he got his bearings straight
again. To his surprise, she shuddered and then started to sob
uncontrollably; he blinked as he recognized her from one of his classes.
What was her name? Natti? No, it was Naomi. "Hey, Naomi, calm down, what
happened?" he asked. She started, and looked at him, her eyes wide.
"Genki?? Oh god they were going to rape me and then that girl came
out of nowhere and told them to get away and I was able to get away," she
babbled. Genki and Jay looked at each other, as Genki gently took hold of
her shoulders and pulled her up to her feet with him.
"Slow down a little, it's alright now, your safe. Who was going to
rape you? Where? What girl?" he asked gently. Sniffling, she looked at
him.
"It was Ikari and his little gang. I was walking home, and they
grabbed me and dragged me to a thicket - it's over there, not far from the
path," she said, pointing. Genki wasn't surprised in the least to see that
it was the same direction the stone was directing him in. "They put some
tape over my mouth to keep me quiet, but before they could start some girl
walked up and told them to leave me alone. Ikari tried to attack her, but
she knocked him down in two shots. I got away in the confusion." Genki
looked at Jay again.
"Did you get a good look at her? What did she look like?" he asked.
Naomi shook her head.
"It was too dark, and they were holding me down, until she took down
Ikari. After that the only thing on my mind was escape," she told him.
Genki nodded, as he bent to check his roller blade straps. The stone had
been leading him in this direction; he had no doubts that it had wanted him
to help. Jay was apparently thinking the same thing, having seen the
Stone's arrow, as he gently placed a hand on Naomi's shoulder.
"I think I'll stay here, show the lady to the phones; Genki, you
better see if the other lady needs any help," he said. Genki nodded again.
"Right," he replied, before skating down the path, glancing down at
the stone now and then to be sure he was going in the right direction.
Before long the arrow disappeared, and became the simple red glow that
meant he was all but on top of whatever it was leading him to. It was
pretty obvious what Naomi had been talking about; even without the Stone's
guidance, he could hear angry voices well before he actually saw the
thicket.
"Oh, this little bitch is gonna pay but good!" Genki sped up, spying
a hole in the bushes and aiming for it. As he made it through, he took a
quick stock of the situation; the girl was laying face down, and so were
two of Ikari's gang. A third was rubbing at his jaw while Ikari himself
was holding a rock with a dark stain on it. He was hunching over slightly,
and his face was a bloody mess from his shattered nose; Genki smirked. It
couldn't have happened to a nicer person. Ikari had enough time for a
surprised expression before Genki leapt over the girl and crashed into him
shoulder first. The brute was knocked flat; Genki landed lightly and spun,
driving one rollerbladed foot into the stomach of his partner. Then he
came to a stop between them and the girl, dropping into a defensive stance.
"Hope you mind me crashing your party, Ikari!" he said, before wincing
slightly as the pulsing in his head redoubled. Ikari scowled.
"What is this, Amateur Hero night?" he snarled, standing up slowly
with one hand clutching his side. His other companion labored his way up,
and gave Genki a calculating look.
"Man, fuck it! This bitch isn't worth another beating! I'm outta
here!" he said finally, before turning and stumbling off into through the
bushes. Out of the corner of his eye Genki saw Ikari's other two henchmen
starting to crawl off too, and raised his eyebrow at the bully. Ikari
growled at him, and opened his mouth to say something. Before he did
though, his eyes suddenly went wide, as the Magic Stone suddenly flared
into a brilliant light.
"Holy� What the hell is that!" exclaimed Ikari, as he turned and
scrambled away. Genki spun, and then stared himself. Strange ripples had
begun to form in thin air, and from the center of them a dark sphere
appeared. At his feet, the girl groaned and started to slowly move.
Keeping a wary eye on the disturbance, he bent down and carefully rolled
her over, getting his first good look at her in the light of the Stone.
Her hair was startlingly red - the same red, he thought, as Pixie's had
been. She looked to be about his age and was somewhat pale, though that
was probably due to the ribbon of blood running down from her temple. She
was breathing well, though, so she seemed to be in no danger - well,
ignoring that weird whatever-it-was in the air before them.
Abruptly she took a deep breath, and her eyes fluttered open. Her
gray eyes; eyes that he knew well. He saw them, after all, almost every
night in his dreams. She searched his face for a moment, wonderment in
those gray eyes. Then she slowly reached up, and lightly touched his cheek
with a soft hand. "Gen� Genki� I found you�" Then her hand fell away,
and she passed out once again. Genki found himself staring in shock. She
was human; her horns, wings and tail had vanished, but he'd know those gray
eyes in any face. Then he groaned, as his headache grew impossibly worse.
Slowly, with great effort, he managed to force a single word through it.
"Pixie�" he breathed, stunned.
"Kid, I really wish that you hadn't recognized her." Genki started,
as the headache quite abruptly simply ended, leaving behind, to his
amazement, a sense of Pixie. It was troubled; random images of fire, and
of an elder male pixie and young female pixie being taken away flashed in
the back corner of his mind, but nothing could have made him more
overjoyed. The bond was back� It had come back.
He wasn't alone after all.
Above them, the distortion began to shimmer; he looked up at it,
frowning as the Stone's light began to flicker out. "Who are you?" he
called, instinctively readying himself to fight. The dark sphere at the
center of the ripples suddenly began to grow, brightening. After a moment,
Genki realized that it wasn't entirely circular; it seemed to have a tail
as well. Then abruptly he blinked, as he recognized what - or rather,
who - it was. "Suezo!" The giant eyeball dropped to the ground, something
distant in his expression.
"Master Nightstorm wasn't expecting her to actually find you, even
though he only sent Holly and her here to get them out of the way. He sent
me though, just to make sure; looks like it's a good thing he did, too," he
said quietly. Genki frowned, suddenly wary; something was very wrong here.
"Nightstorm? Who the heck is that? Suezo, what's going on here?" he
asked. The eyeball didn't answer, only began to squint at Genki and Pixie.
Gasping as he suddenly understood, Genki scooped up Pixie, and dove away
from the spot Suezo was watching. A split second later, the ground where
they had just been fountained into a shower of dirt. "Suezo, what are you
doing? It's me, Genki, I'm your friend, remember?" he exclaimed, shifting
his hold on Pixie so he wasn't so off balance.
"I know it's you, that's why I'm going to kill you!" snarled Suezo,
squinting again. Genki dodged away, clods of dirt peppering his back.
What had happened to Suezo that would make him attack them? What had
happened in their world? Had Moo returned? No, Suezo had said some
Nightstorm guy had sent him. Genki dodged several more of the psychic
blasts, before finally stopping and gently putting Pixie down.
"What the heck's gotten into you Suezo?" he asked, as he skated
directly toward him. The Suezo that he remembered had always had trouble
with head on attacks because of his poor depth perception; he just hoped
that it was still true. Leaping, Genki aimed a kick at Suezo's iris.
Just before he connected, the eyeball teleported away, and Genki
sailed through thin air, landing hard. Suezo reappeared, already
squinting; Genki prepared for the blow, but just before Suezo let it fly,
Jay sailed over the bushes on his skateboard and slammed into him from
behind. Genki scrambled up as Suezo tried to recover, and tackled him
again. As he did, the Magic Stone came into contact with him. The Phoenix
flared to life within the stone once again, and the giant eyeball shouted
in pain. Genki blinked, as his form began to tremble. Suddenly, a dark
shadow seemed to split away from Suezo, though it retained his form. The
Magic Stone floated up after it, shining still brighter. The apparition
shivered, and then suddenly burst apart as if it was a bubble.
Genki blinked - that was it. It was a bubble of evil that had taken
over Suezo. The light of the stone faded away, and it fell back to the end
of its cord. Genki stood, watching Suezo warily; Jay was staring at them
both, looking like he'd just gotten his first real look at what Suezo was.
"Ooh� What the heck happened to me?" groaned the giant eyeball, as he
pushed himself up on his tail with his tongue. Unsteadily, he looked
around. "Where am I? Where's Holly!" he exclaimed. He saw Genki, and
hopped over to him, scowling. "Hey you, kid, where am I? Have you seen a
real good looking girl with brown� Hey, wait a minute�" He trailed off,
staring at Genki. At the stone, he realized suddenly; of course he'd
recognize that even if he didn't recognize Genki. "That's the�" Genki
grinned as Suezo did a double take, his eye going wide. "Genki?!?!"
"Uh� Genki� Do you know this thing?" asked Jay slowly. Genki looked
at him.
"You remember that long story that I mentioned?" he replied, before he
skated over to Pixie's side, leaving Suezo staring, his mouth working but
no sound coming out. Jay retrieved his skateboard and walked over beside
him.
"Somehow I get the feeling that it's going to be a lot more
unbelievable than I thought," he said. Genki knelt, and gently got his
arms under Pixie, then rose, cradling her to his body. Jay frowned, as he
looked at the head injury. "Man, she needs to get to the hospital, fast,"
he said. Genki shook his head; besides, he knew that she was in no danger.
The bond would have told him if she was.
"No - she can't go to the hospital Jay," he said.
"But she might have a concussion! That's bad news. My first aid
class covered those by saying, 'Get the hell outta the way and let the real
doctors do their work,'" he said. Genki looked at him.
"You gotta trust me man. She'll be alright, and she can't go to the
hospital." He glanced at Suezo, and Jay followed his gaze. "She's not
exactly from around here, if you get my drift," he said. Jay started.
"You mean she's one of� those?" he asked. Genki shook his head,
grinning in spite of himself.
"No - but she isn't human, either. Just trust me," he said. Jay
slowly nodded.
"Would somebody please tell me what the hell is going on, and where in
the hell I am, and how you're here, Genki?!?" exclaimed Suezo suddenly, as
he hopped over to join them. He looked at Pixie, and then blinked, looking
again. "Pixie is here too? But she's human? Oh, I'm really getting
confused�." Jay looked at him.
"Well� where do we go?" he asked slowly.
"My place. Mom got called out of town for a couple days and Megumi
should be asleep by now," replied Genki, before looking at Suezo as the
eyeball opened his mouth again. "Look, can you just relax Suezo? I don't
know all that's happened, but you're in my world, somehow, and so is
Pixie," he said. Suezo stared at him.
"Your� world�?"
"Ah, Genki, I hate to point this out, but people are going to notice a
giant yellow eyeball hopping around town," said Jay. Suezo started, and
then grinned slightly.
"No they won't," he said smugly, before abruptly vanishing. Genki
grinned as Jay started.
"Finally learned to use your mental abilities, eh Suezo? Come on, my
house isn't far," he said, starting away. Pixie stirred slightly in his
arms, whimpering at a fever dream, but remained unconscious. Genki held
her a little closer and sent reassurance through the bond to her. After a
moment, she stopped whimpering and fell back to calmness, a peaceful
expression appearing on her face. Genki smiled, and skated on.
"Daddy! Sister!" Pixie stretched out toward her family, but it was no
use. They were being dragged away from each other by something that she
could not see, and it held her too tightly for her to get away. Her head
was throbbing, and she felt an immense pressure on her stomach. "No!
Come back! Come baaaack!" She couldn't move; she was unable to reach them.
As her father and sister vanished into the darkness, she became aware of a
distant buzzing; like the sound of many bees.
There was an odd quality to it though, as though she was hearing it
from the other end of a long tunnel, the sound echoing many times before
actually reaching her. But she thought that she must be moving through the
tunnel, because the sound was slowly becoming more distinct. She also had
the oddest sensation, as though she wasn't alone in her own mind. There
was somebody that was with her, yet� Wait - a name pushed its way through
the throbbing in her head. Genki? It meant something to her� Briefly she
saw a vision of a human child, perhaps eleven or twelve years old with
clear brown eyes. Then it was replaced by an image of an young man that
had the same clear, gentle brown eyes. Genki� Was this Genki?
Other images began to flicker through her mind, as that odd buzz grew
more and more distinct. Another human, holding a hand over a shattered
nose. A girl struggling to get away from three older men. A building
taller than any she'd ever seen before. A stone bouncing off a human
woman's head, and a dragon saying something to her�
After a minute, the buzzing became clear enough for her to recognize
it as three separate buzzes, and then became three voices. Slowly she
realized that the weight pressing down on her were some kind of bed covers,
and, if the purring was any clue, a cat that had curled up on her stomach.
Now she remembered - she'd come to the human world in search of Genki, and
had found those men trying to rape that girl. She'd stopped them, but
their leader had gotten her over the head with a stone.
Groaning, she slowly opened her eyes and tried to sit up. A wave of
nausea forced her back down flat; the cat looked up at her curiously. The
voices cut off, and a moment later, Genki's face appeared above her, the
concern in his eyes matching what she could feel flowing through the bond
from him. "Pixie? Are you ok?" he asked gently. For a moment, she just
stared at him, not quite able to believe how much he had changed since
she'd last seen him. He'd grown out of his boyhood awkwardness into rather
a handsome young man. His hair was a bit longer; less unruly. The last of
the baby fat had disappeared from his cheeks. His eyes were still the
same, though; still the same, gentle dark brown that she remembered, always
sparkling with good humor. Funny, she thought to herself suddenly, it's
been seven and a half years� but now, it doesn't seem so long as it did
yesterday. "Are you ok? Pixie?" he repeated. She abruptly noticed that
her cheeks were burning hot.
"Genki� What hap� happened? Where� Where am I?" she asked slowly,
trying to sit up again. The nausea wasn't as bad this time, but still
enough that it pushed her back down. Relief flooded through the bond as
she spoke, and a well remembered smile spread across his face.
"That girl you helped - Naomi - ran into me while I was blading home
from school - literally. I followed the stone to the thicket, and found
you after running off the guys that had attacked you. I gotta admit, I was
pretty surprised when I realized who you were. Then Suezo appeared -"
Pixie sat bolt upright, shock washing away the nausea generated by the
sudden movement. The cat, startled, jumped off of the bed and then glared
at her indignantly. Suezo, here?
"Suezo! But he's-"
"Right over there. The Magic Stone broke Nightstorm's control over
him," said Genki soothingly, pointing. Staring, she turned, to see the
giant eyeball grinning at her sickly from the opposite side of the room.
Not far from him, another human man lounged in a chair, grinning slightly.
"Heya Pixie," said Suezo weakly. She turned back to Genki.
"Where are we?" she asked him, gingerly touching her head where the
rock had hit her. She found bandages there; Genki nodded.
"You've been out for about seven hours now. I brought you to my
house - we gotta keep quiet, my little sister is sleeping in the next room
over. How did you get here? And what happened to make you human?" he
asked, and then paused as she started laughing softly, shaking her head
slowly. "What?"
-What? I was supposed to find you, and yet, you wound up saving me
before you even knew that it was me. Not exactly what I'd had in mind,-
she replied mentally, glancing at the other human. Genki shook his head.
"Jay knows, Pixie. You can trust him, he's one of the few real
friends I have here. I've been telling him what happened while we were
waiting for you to wake up. He's the one that dressed your head wound," he
told her, grinning. She blinked, and touched the bandages again.
"Pleasure to meet you, Miss Pixie," said the young man cheerfully.
Pixie nodded at him slowly.
"What has been happening, Pixie? Suezo told us about this Nightstorm
guy's attack, but he doesn't remember anything after that," said Genki.
Pixie frowned.
"How convenient for him. Much like I was one of Moo's generals,
Nightstorm made Suezo into one of his. Holly, Hare, Tiger, Blue, Golem and
I managed to escape his first attack, but Suezo and Moochi vanished. The
next time that we saw Suezo, he was leading Nightstorm's troops. You said
that the Stone freed him? How?" she asked. Genki nodded.
"Yeah. When it touched him, I saw a shadow separate from him. The
Stone seemed to attack that shadow, and after it was destroyed, he was back
to his old self again. He was telling us about the attack, but the last
thing that he remembered from it was seeing a flare of light. So who is
this Nightstorm?" he asked. She shook her head.
"Nobody knows for certain. We think, though, that he may have been
behind Moo all along. You remember how Moo said that he was Hatred?" she
asked. Genki nodded.
"How could I forget?"
"Nightstorm controls his minions in much the same way. The only
difference is that once they follow Nightstorm, they can't break free," she
said quietly, looking at Genki. He nodded; she'd joined them only after
Genki and his friends had defeated Big Blue and her.
"Until now - the Magic Stone has the power to break his control," he
said. "Suezo is proof of that." Pixie nodded doubtfully; she personally
intended to keep an eye on the eyeball. Genki grinned at her slightly; she
knew that he knew what she was thinking. "Ok� So Nightstorm is the new
Moo. That still doesn't explain how you're here, or how you ended up as a
human. Suezo said something about Nightstorm sending you here to get you
out of the way." Pixie blinked, as Suezo looked at them.
"I did?" he asked. They glanced at him, Genki grinning.
"Yeah, and you also tried to flatten us both, but that was before the
Stone freed you," he said.
"The Oracle - Golem told us about them, and we asked them how to
defeat Nightstorm. They told us that the one with clear eyes would end
Hatred's reign, and that the gate remained open for Hatred's Bane. They
also said that I had to go through. When I got through the Gateway, I was
as you see me now," said Pixie, frowning. "But� if Nightstorm was trying
to get us out of the way by sending us here, then that means that the
Oracle was in on it - and that he knows where Holly and the others are,"
she said, as she turned, and unsteadily began to get out of the bed. At
least, she tried to, but as she started to rise a bad wave of nausea washed
through her head. Only half-way up, she found herself suddenly toppling
forward. Then, just as suddenly, she'd stopped; it dawned on her that
Genki had caught her, and that they were all but nose to nose. For a
moment, they just stared at each other; he seemed more surprised than she
was, if his eyes and their bond was any indication. It came to her again
how handsome he'd grown over their years apart.
The moment passed, as Jay said, "Paging Pixie and Genki, you're needed
back here on Earth please." They both started, and Pixie felt her cheeks
start to burn again. She was able to take a little consolation in the fact
that Genki was blushing too, though.
"Ah� shall we try that again, a bit slower this time?" he suggested
after a moment. Pixie nodded, and - slowly - straightened, forcing down
her nausea. This time, she actually made it too her feet, and although her
head was swimming a bit, she was pretty sure that she could handle it. As
if to give her the lie, her knees wobbled a little, but she stubbornly
forced them stiff again. She would NOT let herself fall in front of him.
After a moment, Pixie realized that she wasn't sure if she meant Jay,
or Genki.
"I'm going to make sure Megumi is still out, and then we can all go to
the Gateway," said Genki, before frowning. "Hey Pixie, just where did you
come through, anyway?" he asked. Pixie started, blinking.
"I don't know - it was in a back alley, but I have no idea of how to
get back there."
----
The Platinum Dragon
"'When the devil finished, Johnny said, 'Well you're pretty good old son!
But sit down in that chair right there and let me show you how it's done!'"
Dragon's Masaki Shrine of Tenchi Muyo - http://dragonsanime.com