Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 Fan Fiction ❯ Lady Knight Saber? ❯ Mourning and Awakening ( Chapter 2 )

Lady Knight… Saber?

Disclaimer: Neither Protector of the Small, nor Bubblegum Crisis 2040 belongs to me, and I make no money from this work of fan fiction at all.

A/N: This takes place after Lady Knight, but is an AU for BCG.

Tobe held on to his mistress' glaive, the only thing he had left of her.

After the arrival of the mages and warriors to deal with the killing device, his Lady had thrown herself between him and the monster's tail, taking a bad wound, then disappearing with the metal freak into the portal that had brought it. Master Salamin hadn't been able to figure out yet how the killing device had arrived yet, or where Kel had gone.

It didn't matter to Tobe; he knew she had to have died. He had taken the weapon and held it, held it as tightly as he could, and no one had been able to make him let go yet. At his feet sat Jump and on his shoulders several sparrows, to his back, Peachblossom and Hoshi. All of them felt broken. They were unified in their sorrow, and afraid that if they left that spot, they would not lonely loose their Knight-mistress, but each other as well.

A hand gently rested on Tobe's shoulder. Turning, he saw Lalasa, the young woman who had been taking care of Lady Kel before he got there. The blond boy's chin trembled. So far, he hadn't let himself cry yet, because crying would make it real. The despair in the other woman's eyes hurt him nearly as much as his own loss.

Blinking, he stared, as other people gathered around him, saying nothing, and they all looked to the black marble monument erected by Master Salamin in memory of the woman that had touched so many lives.

He could recognize so many. The King and Queen, there to remember the young squire with the guts to tell them a law was wrong. Lord Raoul, and Buri. Daine the Wildmage. Neal, Yuki, the princess and prince. The King's own, complete with horses. The children that had followed Kel even though she had tried to find them homes. Commoner and noble gathered together, not caring if they bumped one another, because she hadn't. In the distance, a scream shuddered the air, as a pair of Griffins, with their young, one half grown and the other covered in down, landed. They bowed their heads in memory of the one that had saved their fledgling. More, people that Tobe had never met arrived. All there to say goodbye to the protector of the Small.

Tobe couldn't help it- he broke down and cried. He sobbed into Lalasa's skirts, still holding the glaive. As if his tears were a catalyst, more tears fell from the crowd, and the Griffins keened. Jump howled, the birds screamed, and the horses neighed.

How long this went on, no one could remember.

"Tobe," said a voice, and he looked to see Neal beside him.

He sniffed.

"What do you want now? Kel freed you in her will. The other children will be going to Mindelan, with Kel's parents. Ilane decided that she would teach them in the spear, or glaive, like Kel was doing. You could go with them. You could stay here, and work with the horses. Stef the hostler needs an assistant."

"You could come with us," Raoul commented softly. "You would always be welcome with the Own, you know."

"The Riders would take you when you were old enough," Buri added.

"I don't know if ye would be happy in a dress shop," Lalasa said, back straight. "But you would be welcome there too."

Tobe stared at them all, wide eyed. Jump nudged him with his nose.

"I," he young man swallowed hard. "I don't know," he said softly. He could feel the polished teak of the glaive under his fingers. It seemed to give him courage. His shoulders straightened. "I'll go with Lady Ilane and learn t'use this pigsticker here, and then come back later. Someone needs to take up where Lady Kel left off, after all."

The elegant, white haired woman Tobe had seen in the background paced up to him. "I'm sure Kel would be pleased," she said. Ilane smiled. "You will always be welcome in my home, Tobe."

Things went quickly after that. The horses had decided to go with Tobe, and Jump with Lalasa, saying through Daine that she needed looking after. Tobe felt overwhelmed- but while he had lost his mistress, he had gained a family. He could finally see how Kel had seen the world. He owned it to her to keep going, for her sake.

~*~*~*~*~

Leon McNichol stared in surprise as a young woman seemed to drop from the sky- in front of his helicopter.

"OH MY GOD!" he yelled, because something was dropping after her-

"Is that a boomer?" Asked Dailey, gaping.

"It doesn't look like any boomer I've seen before," Leon shouted, before getting on to the radio. "Tonight's already seen two rogues! We gotta beat the Knight Sabers there!"

"What about the girl? Dailey yelped urgently- in time to see a green hard suited figure seem to launch from the closest building to catch her, before landing on a nearby rooftop, and launching into the air again.

"Oh, shit, I think we are going to get upstaged again," Leon sighed, and dove the helicopter down.

~*~*~*~*~*~

"What the HELL is that?" Nene squeaked, her boosters making her dodge out of the way of the falling thing.

"No idea," Priss answered, charging the metallic object. It lunged, and she blocked with her arm, before smashing her knuckle bomber into its side. "Its not like anything I've ever seen before- but its not as tough as the usual boomer. In fact, I'm not reading a core," she muttered, confused.

"I got the girl, but she's really badly hurt. We need to get her to the hospital," Linna answered, "it looks like her back is lacerated, and who knows about internal injuries."

"Abort that," interrupted a voice in their radio frequency. It was Sylia's. "She may have something to do with-"

Nene, watching the boomer-thing suddenly lunge at Priss, fired her nails at its head- and a scream issued as a white fog came from the hole. The three Knight Sabers stopped and stared in shock, as the screaming continued and took the form of a human male- before dissipating into the crowd of onlookers.

"HOLY SHIT!" screamed Nene, trembling. It had screamed like a damned spirit. There was something wrong- and she was desperately afraid that they would see something like that again.

"Get back to base, and bring the girl with you," they heard.

"But, Sylia-"

"That's an order, Linna," their leader replied, and they nodded, though Linna paused. She looked down into the pained face of the unconscious woman in her arms. Absently she brushed the hair from her face.

"We'll take care of you," she promised softly, and leapt away.

~*~*~*~*~

Kelandry hadn't expected to wake up again. When Blayce had hit her in the back, she had honestly thought she would die, because she had known of people dying from spinal wounds. If it didn't kill her- she didn't think she wanted to wake up. She believed she would be crippled for life because of that.

There was an odd sound, vaguely like chirping, that pulled her back to wakefulness. Nari, she thought. Nari, the sparrow queen, must be trying to wake her up for something…

Green hazel eyes fluttered open, and she promptly shut them again, when sunlight stabbed at her eyes. Squinting, she opened them again, and waited for them to adjust to the harsh white light.

Something emitting light brighter than any flame was over her head, reminding her of the crystal mage lights that had been used on occasion in the Palace, in magic workrooms. Swallowing hard, her eyes widened and she tried to sit up, fearing that she had been taken prisoner and was going to be the latest of the Killing Devices.

For the first time in her life, panic seized the normally calm woman. She couldn't imagine letting her soul be use to power a killing device, but she didn't think she would be given a choice. Then, as more sensation began to filter through, she almost screamed- because she realized she couldn't feel her legs.

NO, nono no NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"I see your awake," murmured a pleasant female voice, in heavily accented Yamani.

Kel's eyes snapped to the face that came into view, white rimmed and dilated. She couldn't move her arms. They were restrained. She was helpless, for the first time in her life, totally, completely, helpless…

"We don't know how you were injured, but we should be able to make repairs to your spine, but we will need information on how you seemed to drop out of the sky like that," continued the silver haired woman. Kel didn't hear her, but instead darted her gaze around the room, looking for something, anything she could use as a weapon. Maybe she could get something sharp and-

"You are safe," the silver haired woman repeated, slowly, and the words slowly percolated through Kel's panic stricken mind. Kel licked bone dry lips, breath slowing down.

"Where am I?" she croaked, trying to swallow.

"Safe," repeated the other woman, who reached over and poured something clear into a glass, then thrust a bent tube of some kind into it. Kel tried to sit up, but then the woman depressed a raised nub on the side of the bed, causing it to elevate and incline, shocking the poor Lady Knight. Then the tube was presented to her mouth, instead of the rim of the glass.

Kel blinked in confusion. What kind of magic was this?

"The straw, put it in your mouth, and suck," the woman said in a talking-to-children type voice. This annoyed Kel to the point where she did so, awkwardly inhale the sweet, fizzy contents into her mouth and swallowing.

The drink was good, rather like fizzy wine without the alcohol, and did a lovely job of easing her sore throat and mouth. The glass was quickly emptied, and the refilled.

"How long was I asleep?" Kel finally asked, falling back against her pillow- one that she now realized didn't seem to be stuffed with anything she was familiar with, feathers, moss or straw.

"A few days." The woman gave her a penetrating look. "How much do you remember?"

Kel closed her heavy eyelids, trying to think. Now that she was clear-headed again, she realized that she was someplace totally alien to her. While the woman spoke Yamani, or a similar dialect, she was dressed in a manner that would seem indecent back home. She remembered going through that portal, and hearing Blayce go after her, falling…

"I remember fighting the killing device, then being injured by it. Then I went through the portal that brought it there. Then falling, and I woke up here, that is all I know."

Kel's eyes fixed on the older woman's face. "Who are you? What is this place? Are you a mage?"

Surprise rounded the other's eyes. "Mage? No," she shook her head, recovering quickly. Kel admired her self possession. "My name is Sylia Stingray… and you are?"

"My name is Lady Knight Kelandry of Mindelan."

Sylia's eyes narrowed in thought. "Pleased to meet you Kelandry… and I think we have a lot to talk about."

~*~*~*~*~

Sylia sat in her workroom, rubbing her chin in thought.

This was one truly bizarre and unexpected development.

Kelandry, if she was to be believed, was a warrior from another world, one that sounded, as Nene would put it, like an RP game come to vivid life. The frightening part was that it all rang true.

Sure, they had the 'killing device' itself as proof, made of crude materials, no circuitry in the least, and with bones shaped like humans but so much larger as to be another species entirely. Those could have been created- what convinced the founder of the Knight Sabers were the small details.

She hadn't missed the shock and panic in Kel's face when she hadn't recognized the very lamp above her head, or that she had no idea what to do with her straw. The bed moving made her look like she was going to have a heart attack.

From the scans on the woman, her paralysis was reversible with modern medicine- healing agents to re-grow the muscle and micro circuitry or grafts to fix the damaged nerves. She had plainly lived a hard life, with many old scars and well developed muscles. Sylia smiled faintly- Kel gave Linna a run for her money when it came to being an Amazon goddess type.

The White Knight Saber tapped her nose in thought. Kel's reactions were too genuine, and too sane for her to be lying or mad. However, she was totally outside of the Knight Saber's equation. Could she afford to help her?

"Sylia," said a voice, and she turned to look at her eternally younger brother, Mackie.

"Our patient is awake, and while she seems to know a little more about the contraption than she is letting on, I think she is trustworthy," Sylia began.

"But you don't know what to do with her," he finished.

"I don't think there is a way for us to send her home. I know almost nothing about inter-dimensional portals or magic at all."

"I don't either," Mackie admitted. "Then what? We can't just turn her out- she would be helpless."

"I need to think more about it," Sylia sighed. "Much, much more…."

Mackie nodded and left.

To be continued!