Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ A Gundam Wing Ghost Story I & II ❯ J's true Nature ( Chapter 19 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

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A Gundam Wing Ghost Story II

10. J's true Nature
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NATAKU – TEMPLE.

Duo couldn’t believe it. They had been in front of the Nataku-Temple all the time and no clue of it. But if this really was the Nataku-Temple, then Heero was still here and could help them to free Ryu's brother and father. He simply would have to try it.

"What's wrong, Duo?" the Chinese asked, concerned about Duo's sudden change of mood.

This one didn’t answer, but got up and pulled the Chinese with him.

"That's the Nataku-Temple!" Duo exclaimed happily.

"So what?"

"An acquaintance of mine, Heero Yui, lives here! He can help us to defeat the priest! Come on!" Duo replied and pulled Ryu into the inner parts of the temple.

"O...Okay, if you think so...!" the latter one stuttered.

Still puzzled about Duo's sudden change of mind, he allowed the braided boy to drag him along.

*

The howling of wolves pulled Heero out of his deep meditation which he had been in. Although he had gotten used to the nightly sounds, it still caused him discomfort, but above all it disturbed his concentration. It remembered him of the time, when demons and ghosts hovered all over the temple until he finally had been able to end it half a year ago.

The young Japanese almost had been killed by a hair's breadth then, just because he had helped this Maxwell to rescue his lover, who had been a *GHOST* of all people. The wounds had healed meanwhile and Heero was often asking himself, what the braided book scholar was doing now, for he hadn’t left the temple since then.

One reason was that the whole country was changing. It was as if a dark presence had found its way into the hearts of the men and changed them for the worse. So it was better to stay here in his self-chosen isolation, far away from them.

Heero sighed and scolded himself for deviating from his original task.

"I should better concentrate on other, more important things!" he murmured to himself.

It was then when he heard strange noises coming from outside. It sounded as if someone was approaching his part of the temple. Thieves?

It didn’t matter. Whoever it was, he must be mad to pick a quarrel with him. Heero grabbed his sword and moved quietly beside the door. Then he waited. The footsteps came nearer and finally stopped. Shortly after, someone started to fumble at the door. Heero tightened the grip around the handle of his Katana and lifted it above his head, ready to strike.

Slowly the door was shoved aside and the unknown intruder's head was first inside the room before the whole body followed. That was the moment where Heero started his attack.

"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH H!!"

The person immediately ducked and held its arms protectively before his face.

"Hey, that's not funny, Heero!" a well-known voice whined.

The Japanese brought his attack to a standstill at once and stared unbelievingly at the braided person in front of him.

"What the...? WHAT ARE *YOU* DOING HERE?" Heero yelled suddenly, glaring at the intruder while putting his sword down. He had suddenly a foreboding, what was awaiting him now.

"Well, that’s not nice. I thought you would be delighted to see me again!"

Heero just raised an eyebrow, but groaned internally. He should have known that life for the past half a year had been too good to be true. Hopefully the braided one wasn’t here asking for help.

"Okay, okay. Was just a jest! But we just happened to be in the area and thought that maybe you could help us." Duo laughed nervously.

"Why should I? The last time when I helped you, I almost got killed!"

"Awww, please, please, please help us!" Duo began to beg.

Heero felt his left eyebrow twitch.

//I hate it when he does that!//

"Fine. Come in. By the way, who is we? As far as I can see you're alone." He said aloud.

"Oh, I've brought a very good friend with me!" Duo grinned and pulled Ryu inside the temple room.

Heero stared at the newcomer. He couldn’t believe his eyes. The Chinese looked so much like the ghost six months ago. Was it just chance or fate?

"Heero, that's Ryu Winner. Ryu, that’s Heero Yui. May we come in?" Duo asked after introducing them.

The Japanese nodded after a moment of thinking and let them both in. He led them to the small table and they sat down.

"Do want some tea?" he asked.

"Yes, please!" Ryu said.

Shortly after, all of them sat down, everyone with a full tea bowl in their hands.

"So, why you're here? Is there a reason behind your visit? Or why you need my help so urgently?" the Japanese finally asked.

Duo sipped once more and then began to tell Heero, what had happened until now.

*

Meanwhile, somewhere far away, a shadow began slowly to cover the full moon and J's procession reached a big temple after a one-day-journey. At every side of the gate were two big bowls with a fire burning in it. Two large, arched stairs, one left and one right, were running upwards to the gate, which was decorated with characters.

Rashid wondered, when suddenly everyone was in a hurry to get inside the building as fast as possible. It seemed as if his suspicions, that something was wrong with the priest, were confirmed. He had had these suspicions for a while now, ever since Mr. Winner and the rest of his family had mysteriously disappeared. So why was J in such a hurry now? Rashid had misgivings that the priest hid something.

He stopped the girl with the long blond hair, who was carrying J's staff.

"Doesn’t J return to the capital or why is he going to his palace instead?"

"I'm sorry but he has prayed for a longer time now and needs his rest!" Dorothy answered, already turning to follow the others.

"What do you mean with that?"

Rashid dismounted from his horse and wanted to follow her, but Dorothy stopped him.

"Please stay here! You're not permitted to enter this holy place as an outsider!" she said and then followed the others inwards.

But Rashid didn’t let them get rid of him that easily. He watched as everyone disappeared behind the thick walls and decided to wait and see, what would happen next.

~*~

J was hardly back in his temple when he felt it. It was like fire spreading all through his body. Now, when it was full moon, his demonic I, resting deep in his veins, became active. The time was near. The beginning lunar eclipse would show his true form. Suddenly shivers ran through his body and J looked at his hands, through which something began to wander.

He felt the spines of his demonic body breaking through the back of this borrowed shell.

"Now my true nature shows itself!" he groaned satisfied.

~*~

Rashid was still waiting outside, when the weather changed from nowhere. Suddenly it was stormy when it had been quiet before. The bearded warrior had a certain foreboding that the sudden change had something to do with the priest and couldn’t simply wait any longer. Slowly he went up the stairs to the gate, opened it and went through. Inside, everything was empty, so he went further.

Behind the palace, everything looked totally different. It was gloomy, a pitch-dark rocky area full of thick fog vapours. He continued his way along a small path, until he finally could recognize the forms of J's sedan-chair and his companions. It was then when the bearded man made an incredible, but very alarming discovery.

Rashid went to one of the young women, just to ask her something. But when he touched her, she slumped over to the side like a sack and Rashid saw a long, nasty wound running from down her back until the beginning of her skull. To his horror the bearded warrior could see into her and saw.........nothing. She was empty inside, an empty human shell. But what could have been inside?

Rashid couldn’t believe what he saw and quickly went to another woman, just to see the same sight. He went further and saw that the rest were also like this. The whole place now reminded him strongly of an open graveyard. But what about J? The sight of those shells had shocked him deeply to the core and he didn’t know what was awaiting him now.

Just to be on the safe side, Rashid took his sword out of its scabbard and slowly made his way to the empty sedan-chair. What would he find there?

The same horrible sight.

"What the hell is going on? What kind of demon is haunting this place?" he yelled aloud, before he saw a slimy track leading away from the sedan-chair down the stairs.

Rashid followed it, jumping down the stairs, but stopped when he was facing the next horrifying element since his arrival........a gigantic pile consisting of human skulls, skeletons and still fresh corpses. Three cocoons were lying behind the pile and Rashid could recognize the forms of three human beings, who turned out to be Quatre and his father and Trowa as well, much to Rashid's astonishment.

Their eyes were closed and they seemed to be deeply in a sort of coma.

"Winner-san! Quatre-san! Trowa! Can you hear me?" Rashid shouted, rushing to them.

But he got no answer. Not hesitating any longer, the soldier used his sword to slit the first cocoon open on the spot. Mr. Winner slumped weakly towards the other, but Rashid could catch him, before he hit the ground. Shortly after, Mr. Winner came round.

"What happened? Where are the others?" he asked.

He stopped, when he saw the pile of bones behind Rashid, but didn’t notice the insect-like creature nibbling at a bone, as if this bone was a snack.

"So many people – dead! Who's responsible for that?" Mr. Winner asked totally stunned.

"The priest. Apparently he's a demon. He's the reason why the people have changed and the land has been overcome by darkness."

"Quatre. Where's Quatre? And Ryu?" Mr. Winner cried worriedly, before he saw his son in one of the other cocoons.

Rashid split the second and third cocoon and freed Quatre and Trowa.

"Quatre, my son, are you alright?" Mr. Winner asked the blond boy.

Quatre was still bit disorientated, but caught himself soon. He was relieved, when he saw that Trowa was awake and well, too.

"Yes."

"Fine. But we should go as long as the demon hasn’t awoken fully. He seems to be very strong and I have no clue how to fight against him." Rashid suggested.

The others nodded and raced towards the exit. The storm outside had been gotten worse and all of them had their problems to move against the wind. What they didn’t know was that the storm was to become their smallest problem.

Suddenly Trowa sensed a strange presence in front of him and stopped. Rashid had also noticed this presence and motioned for the others to stop. In front of them stood the blond girl, who had carried J's staff earlier, and behind the four masked men, who also had accompanied the procession. Although the men's weren’t longer masks, but real demonic faces, as well as the girl's appearance, who wore now long black robes, which waved in the wind, and had a sword in each hand.

"I warned you not to enter the palace of my master! Now you'll suffer the consequences. You'll be the last offering that my master needs to regain his full strength." Dorothy said smirking, a devilish light in her eyes, before motioning for the four demonic warriors to start their attack.

Rashid didn’t hesitate long and tossed one of his swords to Trowa. Both men now each faced one enemy, Rashid the four demons and Trowa Dorothy. And then the fight began.

*

"And now we're here!"

Duo ended his story with these words. He had told everything what had happened until now. His imprisonment, his escape, the adventures with Trowa, Ryu and his family (Luckily he was smart enough not to mention the incident with the missing pants). Heero had remained passive while Duo was telling his story.

Only when the braided scholar had mentioned Trowa's name, a faint trace of emotions had flickered over the Japanese's stoic face, but only for a moment.

//He knows Trowa? I can't believe it.//

"I see. It would explain a lot, especially this darkness that has changed the hearts of the people of this country. The priest must be a demon, a more powerful one than the other ones!" he said aloud, glancing at Duo.

This one knew what the Japanese meant. He still could remember the tree demon Zechs and his demonic sister Relena.

"So what are we doing now? He has my father and my brother!" Ryu exclaimed impatiently.

"And Trowa!" Duo added.

The swordsman looked at them and finally sighed. Then he got up and went to one of the walls, pushing a loose woodened board aside. Behind the board, everything was filled with weapons and other things. Heero took out a small bow, arrows, some daggers, three swords, his portable box with his special sword and some other important things. Then he turned to Ryu and Duo.

"Fine, I'm helping you. But we should hurry. I hope you're good with it." Heero spoke, tossing a sword, the bow and the arrows to Ryu and one sword to Duo.

"Of course I am." Ryu smiled.

It didn’t even last one hour, when they left the temple to rescue their friends and the country from the grips of a demon.

*

In the meantime, Trowa's and Rashid's fight against the five evil spirits had begun. Trowa attacked Dorothy, who countered the strike with her two blades. Soon the clashing of blades could be heard and Trowa had to admit that the girl was an excellent sword fighter. It was hard to be a match for her, but being a trained warrior monk came finally in use.

He risked a short glance to see what the bearded man was doing, before returning to his own fight. Rashid was as busy as Trowa. When the fight had started, he had stormed off towards the four masked demons, which had slowly come to meet him at first. But very suddenly they disappeared. Rashid were surprised at first, but he still felt their presence. He had to be very careful now or he wouldn’t get out of this alive.

He carefully looked around, but couldn’t see anyone. But then......a flash-like movement caught his eye and before Rashid knew what had happened, an infernal pain raced through his left shoulder. It took all his will not to cry out and pass out, when he saw the reason, which had caused this pain. He stared Horrified at the spot, where his left arm had been cut off by one of the demons and which was now lying on the ground, the sword still in the hand.

However, he wouldn’t give up that easily. But just then the next attack came. His invisible opponents assaulted him again and again and injured him with their sharp weapons. It was hard for Rashid, but he still didn’t give up. Although physical weakened because of the blood loss, he managed nevertheless to wound one of them. A few drops of black demon blood hit the ground and showed the bearded warrior where his target was.

He grabbed with his remaining arm one of his swords from the back and threw it at his target. The hit warrior gave a short, shrill scream, appeared, just to disintegrate on the spot.

"Okay. One gone, three more left." Rashid growled under his breath, ignoring the slightly dizziness in his head.

The next of the demon warriors attacked and the bearded man flung all of his daggers, which had been hidden inside his cloak, at him and hit. This one also appeared for a moment and disintegrated.

The last two warriors attacked together. Rashid could recognize their forms as black shadows and fought against them both. It became more and more difficult, because the bearded man had lost a lot of blood in the meantime. But just one strike with his sword was enough to finish them both off.

Breathing heavily, he sank to his knees. Trails of red blood ran down from his mouth and dripped on his armour. He knew that his injuries were too serious and doubted that he would survive this night. But when he could defeat this way, then it would be worth. At least he would die honourably.

A sudden high-pitched giggling caught his attention and he looked up. Right in front of him stood the demon in person. J. He looked different with his wounds all over his face, all signs of his true identity. But the most disturbing thing was the cruel smirk that was spreading all over his features.

"So you've managed to kill my mightiest and most faithful warriors. I must say I'm impressed. But why don’t you try to kill me? I want to see how you fight against me!" he said.

"I'll kill you, you insidious creature, and if it is the last thing I do!" Rashid hissed and mobilized his last power resources, to attack J one last time.

He knew he had no other choice. The demon had used him for his evil work and because of that many innocent people had died. Now he had to pay for his sins and there was no turning back now.

With his last strength he ran up to where the demon priest was standing. But he had no chance. When Rashid reached the demon, a golden, glowing aura surrounded the priest, who had begun to murmur quickly black magic words. Rashid ran right into the aura and it happened – his body decayed to ashes.

And so Rashid Kurama's last fight ended.

~*~

Trowa had his own problems. The blond girl, Dorothy, wasn’t only a more than excellent fighter, but was also stronger than she appeared. Meanwhile she had gotten the upper hand of their fight and the warrior monk had a hard time to counter the hard strikes. Never in his entire life had he fought that hard.

Trowa used his strength to push the girl backwards, but she just jumped in the air to prevent herself from falling and landed gracefully a few metres away from away. She began to laugh loudly.

"Nice move. But I don’t think that you'll last any longer against me. So if you're smart and give up, I'll be gracious and give you a quick death." Dorothy smirked, a mad glint in her eyes.

"Never. Just kill if you want. But I'll never stop fighting till my end."

The blond girl stopped smirking and looked at him strangely.

"If that’s your wish...that's one I will fulfil with pleasure." She replied quietly.

Her eyes drifted suddenly away from Trowa's face and to the two figures, which hid themselves behind the curve of the left stairs.

"And your two friends will accompany you!"

With these words she jumped high in the nocturnal sky, so high that Trowa couldn’t see her anymore. He knew she was still around. The sudden yelling from the direction, where Quatre and his father were, caught his attention and the warrior monk saw Dorothy landing in front of them, both swords raised and ready to strike.

Her face was now like that of a madman and Trowa had enough of her. Quickly, he pressed both hands together and murmured magical spells. Just as the swords raced down towards Quatre's and Mr. Winner's neck, the blades hit an invisible barrier. Dorothy screamed furiously and whirled around, facing Trowa once again.

"So, you're that kind of warrior! Why don’t we continue our little fight and maybe I let them live?" she said, before attacking again.

This time it was more forceful, but Trowa was prepared. Dorothy flew like a flash towards him and swung her swords, planning to cut off the monk's head. But Trowa countered the attack with the sword in his right hand and with his free left hand he grabbed one of her wrists and threw her away from him. The blond girl whirled through the air, her black robes rustling around her body, until she landed, taking again her fighting position.

"Nice, very nice, I must say. That's much more fun than before!"

She reached under her robes and with an elegantly, spinning move of her arm, Dorothy threw a series of daggers at Trowa, which got stuck in a circle around in the ground. The latter one just chuckled.

"Was that everything you can? It seems as if you should aim better the next time!" the monk said.

"Oh, do you really think so? Just wait!" Dorothy smirked and began to walk towards him.

Trowa frowned at this and suddenly heard a crackling from below. The handles of the daggers were glowing and crackling with red electricity, forming a circle around him.

"What the..." was his only answer.

Dorothy chuckled and made a sudden move with her hand. The energy of the circle exploded and somehow wrapped itself around Trowa's neck, arms and feet, forcing him down to the ground and throttling him. He tried to free himself from those magical bonds, but it was impossible. He couldn’t move, couldn’t speak...nothing. Trowa couldn’t believe that he was defeated. The blond girl laughed shrilly.

"So. What do you say now? I've won."

Dorothy took her sword in both hands and raised it in the air, positioning it over Trowa's back.

"And now you will die!" she exclaimed aloud, bringing the sword down.

Trowa closed his eyes in expectation of his death.

But nothing happened.

The young monk opened eyes and looked at the girl. Her eyes were wide opened in shock and stared at the dagger, which now stuck in her stomach. Then she dropped the sword and collapsed on her knees. Puzzled, the monk stared in the opposite direction and got almost the shock of his life.

Heero stood there, Ryu and Duo behind him. He looked grim.

"If I were you I would leave, unless you have a strong death wish!" he spoke to Dorothy.

The blond girl glared at him.

"You can hurt me, you can kill me, but you will never defeat my master! He will return to his whole strength and cover this land with darkness before making it to a part of his new empire!" she spat, wincing as pain shot through her body.

Ignoring it, she began to crawl towards the place, where the priest was standing.

"Shall we kill her?" Duo asked the Japanese.

"No. I don’t think it's necessary. Let's look after the others!" the latter one said and turned to the warrior monk, who was still sitting on the ground.

Taking a deep breath, he stretched out a hand, which the monk gratefully accepted.

"So you're here!" Trowa said quietly.

"Yes. It's been a while since our last meeting......Brother!"

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Tsuzúku -> to be continued...
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Heero to the rescue! And yes, I made him Trowa's little brother. *giggles* Okay, one more part and one epilogue left. I hope you liked this one.

Comments and criticism like usual to:

Terrenis-sama@web.de

Ja ne!

^-^ Terrenis-chan ^.^

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