Crossover With Non-anime Series Fan Fiction / Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ On a Pale Horse ❯ The Reaper ( Chapter 2 )

Disclaimer: As far as Mobile Suit Gundam Wing goes: Bandai has rights. Sunrise has rights. Sotsu Agency has rights. Rally does not have rights; she just likes to play with the characters. It's so much fun. As far as the world of Valdemar and Velgarth go: Mercedes Lackey has rights. DAW books have rights. Rally (again) does not have rights; she just loves dropping confused bishies in and waiting to see how long it'll take them to swim. (Again) it's just so much fun!

On A Pale Horse
-The Reaper-

"Got a question for ya." Simaree didn't bother to look back; she knew he was there before he'd opened his mouth to speak. She was late for class and was really hoping he wasn't going to say a word. Holding back a sigh, she raised a hand and waved the kid over to her.

Alaen had been at the collegium for all of three weeks and he'd already managed to make Simaree regret agreeing to mentor him. What was she thinking? Aside from the fact that their home villages were practically on top of each other they had nothing in common. For lack of a better word the kid was a pest. Not a brat exactly, but he was persistent in the same way a fluffy little lap dog is when it decides that it needs to yap for the better part of a day without pause for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

But then again, maybe she was the problem. Maybe she was the one who needed to improve her people skills.

"What is it, Alaen?" She left off the part about being in a hurry.

"Um..." He pulled the sleeve of her uniform after a few steps of silence. Simaree conceded, turning to look at him. The poor kid looked awful. His face, which was normally pale, was flushed dark crimson all the way to his white blond roots and sweat ran races down both cheeks. There was a slight tremor running through his body and his arm shook as he released her sleeve.

Simaree grabbed his arm and hauled him over to one of the stone benches that lined that side of the corridor. "Sit," she commanded shoving him onto the bench. "Are you all right?"

"Uh...Yeah." His blue gray eyes gelled over in gratitude, before he dropped his gaze to the floor. "Um..."

That um-uh-eh routine was getting really old. "Spit it out already. I need to get to class. I hate Religions, but that doesn't mean I'm gonna play hooky. So, out with it!" She was trying to keep her tone light, but she wasn't sure if she was succeeding or not.

He still wouldn't make eye contact. "I... Uh..."

The older girl took a deep breath and in a dramatic gesture threw her Religions homework over her shoulder. It was probably going to score a zero anyway. She had no clue how the goddess of the Dhorisha Plains was similar to the goddess of the Tale'edras. In the nine-page essay, she had rambled on about free will, the ability to do for oneself and oaths of vengeance. She held up a finger, smiled and said, "Clearly the gods have nothing on you." She flopped down next to the boy and circled his shoulders in a one-armed hug. "Take a nice slow breath." She waited for him to comply. "Let it out." He did. "I'm sorry I was being so cold to you. Can we start this conversation again?"

He finally looked up at her and then he nodded.

"Good morning, Alaen."

"Good morning, Simaree." Oh, good. That was a whole sentence. "Can I ask you something?" That was better.

"You know you can ask me anything."

It was then that he started to cry.

It took Simaree a candlemark to get the kid calmed down. She convinced him to go back to her room with her and despite the heat of the day, he was now bundled in a blanket on her bed. When she held out a cup of water to him he accepted it with only a slight tremor.

"Now, what's this all about?" Simaree asked flipping the only chair in the room around, straddling it and leaning both elbows on the back. "And don't start bawling this time or you'll never finish."

Alaen nodded, took a sip of his water and began. "For the last several months I've been having this dream. But it's not like a regular dream. I have it when I'm awake."

"Like a daydream?" Simaree already didn't like where Alaen's story was heading. A cold knot had formed in her chest just after the word dream had been spoken. Her gift was not foresight but she was not dumb enough to ignore her sixth sense and Alaen had not yet discovered what his gift was.

Alaen shook his head. "No, it's different, more real."

"Okay, what do you see in the dream?"

"Promise you won't laugh." He pulled the blanket closed around his face to hide the blush Simaree had seen spreading.

She reached over and pushed just enough of the fabric aside to make eye contact. "I wouldn't laugh if you tried to force me to. Please tell me so I can help."

"What if you can't?"

"Alaen, if I can't, the Dean can. If he can't, he'll find some one who can. We'll see that you get the help you need." This was important. She knew it was.

Alaen held her gaze for a moment before nodding. He let the blanket fall back completely. "It starts off weird. There's this boy who can fly. But when he flies he kills and he laughs about it. He uses fire and a glowing scythe to destroy whole villages. That's what he does. He flies around from village to village destroying them."

"He's a mage?"

"No, at least, I don't think so. He calls himself a 'terrorist.'"

"Which villages? Where?"

Alaen shook his head. "None in Valdemar. They're different from ours. The walls are impossibly high and there are giant moving statues that defend them, but that doesn't stop the boy. Nothing ever stops the boy. And he's headed here next.

He's given himself a name. It means death. Shinigami."

Simaree had opened her mouth to make a comment but it remained unspoken.

The Death Bell had begun tolling.

The toll of the Bell reverberated through the entire city and it roused everyone in the Palace and its adjoining collegia. Heralds, Companions, Healers, Bards, Trainees and the ungifted alike, young and old all found themselves sprinting through Companion's Field toward the ruins of the Bell tower.

When they got there, they found a lone Companion standing over the body of a boy, screaming nearly incoherently into the minds of every member of the assembly. The only phrase that could be comprehended fully was "Help him!"