Magic Knight Rayearth Fan Fiction ❯ Magic Knight Rayearth: Medieval Mystery Series ❯ Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3... ( Chapter 18 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Chapter 18

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The floor gave way, and Umi found herself falling, down, down, down into impenetrable darkness. She opened up her mouth to scream, but no sound came out. Suddenly the air became thick, like water, and she gasped, unable to breath. Instantly she broke through the surface of the water, finding that what she once thought was down, was actually up.

Thunder crashed, and a giant wave swept her up. The sky was dark, and Umi could tell she was in the middle of a huge ocean storm. She went under, and came back up again only after being slammed against something hard. She coughed and gasped in pain at the same time, but by the rocking underneath her, and the feel of the boards against her bare hands, she guessed she was on a ship.

"Trim the sails! All weight to port side."

Umi recognized that voice! It belonged to her father...

"Come on you lazy-asses, or would you rather swim home!"

"But captain sir! The storm's too great to ride through! Our only hope is if we turn around and ride with it!"

"What? A breeze like this?" was the reply, and then Umi thought she heard him say, "Previa..."

"Previa," she thought, "that was my mother's name."

"Camero!"

Umi blinked. She was home now? But how? The scene had changed so suddenly…

"Hang on m'am, the baby's coming."

A bunch of maids were gathered around a woman who was in the midst of giving birth. Umi didn't recognise her, but somehow...

"Where's Camero?" she demanded, "he promised he'd be here. He promised he'd be home! He will be home!"

Umi watched as the mast cracked and fell, taking half the ship and all the rigging with it. Her father continued to fight the storm, fighting with his entire being, but it was hopeless. Nothing could be done..."Previa..."

"Ahhhhhh!" Her mother screamed in pain. Something seemed to be wrong, people were dashing here and there and everywhere, someone had fainted, Umi recognised her nana. "Hang on missus, it's almost here, you're baby's almost here!"

"Camero..."

"Previa..."

"Missus, here it is! Here's your beautiful baby girl! She's perfect, she's absolutely perfect! Here, give her a name..."

Umi watched as her mother cradled her in her arms for the first and last time.

"She is perfect," her mother whispered, "Such blue eyes, just like the ocean..."

She slowly sank back into the pillows, the life draining out of her and running into a puddle on the floor.

"Missus, Missus!" Nanna cried.

"Nanna..." Umi's mother whispered, "take care of my daughter...of my beautiful...Umi..."

"Previa..." Umi's father whispered.

"They loved each other so much, but no matter how hard they tried, they were separated..."

"Celes?" Umi asked, surprised.

"No matter how much you love someone, you will lose them in the end." Celes said.

Umi watched her father walk up to a small, simple grave that stood on a cliff overlooking the sea. With wild, tortured, disbelieving eyes he sank to his knees and cried.

"Papa..." Umi whispered.

"He never forgave himself for it." Celes said, "To this day he is miserable, unhappy, travelling the world because he cannot bear to remain in the village of his beloved. Why do people bother living with so much pain?"

"Papa...Mama..." Umi cried, tears flowing from her eyes. "Is that why you never stay Papa? I hurts you that much?"

Umi barely noticed when the ground beneath her began to soften, slowly rising up around her like thick black liquid. Umi wasn't sure she cared, "Is that true? Papa, Clef...is it true we always lose the ones we love? Maybe Celes is right, why do we bother living?"

"Thank you for this afternoon, Umi."

"Clef?" Umi stopped, "How? How could you smile back then? Your heart must have truly been broken by Presea's death, and yet you smiled at me still, why?"

The scene changed to the crypt of this afternoon.

"Presea," Umi heard Clef's thoughts, "You're smile always got me through the toughest times, and I know you hate it when I'm sad." he prayed, "I'll live like you would have wanted me to live, happy, and trying my hardest. That's why you loved me, why you helped me..." he slipped a ring of her finger and put it in his pocket, "...and how you'll help me still. I won't forget you Presea. You'll be with me always...

"Clef..."

"Umi! I'm home!"

"Papa! Papa!" Umi watched her five-year-old self run up to give her father a hug. "Papa! I've missed you!"

"I missed you too Umi." was the answer. "I love you."

The inky blackness was almost up to Umi's waist by now as she suddenly looked around her.

"NO!" She yelled, "Stop it!" The blackness just continued to swallow her up. "STOP IT!"

"I can't give up right now! Hikaru and Fuu need me! Papa needs me! I know I make him happy, that's why he didn't give up! And Clef didn't give up either, because he still has his memories of Presea that keep her alive. As long as he keeps everything she taught him, and teaches it to other people, a piece of her is still alive. We can't give up, for their sakes!"

The darkness was, by now, up to her neck and Umi had to struggle to breath.

"No!" she screamed, "I won't die! You won't kill me!!!"

"BLUE WATERSPOUT!"

A shaft of blue light broke through the endless blackness of the sky and streamed down upon her. Her feet touched solid ground, and the inky blackness spun around her, cleared, and then fell away like regular water. Umi looked down in shock to see she was wearing her armor once again.

"I...I passed..." she said in disbelief, "Yeah! Hang on Hikaru-chan, Fuu-chan! I'm coming!"

*~*~*~*~*

The second Fuu had stepped into the light, she had felt herself rising, faster and faster, until she seemed to be going faster than the wind itself. It was wonderful, exhilarating, she didn't even see the object as it came out of no where and hit her in the face.

"Stupid Wretch!" Louis yelled as she flew back, landing sprawled on her back. Fuu gasped in pain and clutched her face.

"You're absolutely useless!" He came at her again, and Fuu rolled to one side.

"Too slow dung beetle!" He kicked her hard in the back and she rolled even more. Slowly Fuu pulled herself up to her feet.

"People are such rotten beings." she heard the voice of Windam. Suddenly a green light surrounded her, and Fuu found that she was armed with her sword."

"Bitch!" Fuu narrowly dodged Louis' next attack as he swung at her with all his might. "You stupid skank! Whore!"

Fuu was getting tired from all this running around. Then she heard a chilling cry...

"Look out!" Fuu cried. She jumped between Louis and a shadow that was attacking him, easily slicing it in half.

"Don't order me around," Louis yelled, punching her again, "You worthless daydreamer."

Fuu fell to the ground in a daze, her head spinning.

"Magic Knight!" It was Windam's voice again. "Prove yourself worthy, kill this evil being."

"Kill Louis?" Fuu repeated, getting to her feet.

"Yes, as a knight, your job is to save the good by killing the evil. Destroy him, and prove yourself."

Fuu sliced another shadow and dodged another attack by Louis.

"But..." she miss-calculated and got another good hit by Louis. She was slow pulling herself back up.

"If I do that..." She said aloud, "then Helga-san and Bertha-san will be sad..."

"They are evil too, remember how much they made you suffer? They didn't care."

"About me, no," Fuu replied, "but they both loved Louis dearly, and I know he cared about them. Just because we didn't get along, doesn't mean I have the right to kill him...Look out!"

She dove and pushed Louis out of the way of an attacking shadow, it skimmed her shoulder and left it cold and stiff.

"Then why don't you just let him die? You're hands would not be sullied. His worth would be judged in the afterlife."

"I don't believe in the afterlife..." Fuu said as she fought, "Once we die, all that is left of us are the memories others carry of us. If they remember good things, we are remembered as good people, if not, then we are seen as bad." She sliced through another shadow.

"However," she went on, "how people see us can change at any time, with every action we do. As long as we are alive, we can change."

"Louis could still change," Fuu said, "and I would never be able to live with myself if I simply left him to die...Oh no!"

A shadow flew at Louis, and Fuu was too far away to stop it.

"SHEILDING WIND!"

The shadow disappeared harmlessly as it struck the green barrier, and in an instant, so did all the others. The illusion of Louis vanished, and everything was silent. Fuu doubled over and rested her hands on her knees, breathing hard. She thought of Ferio...

"I couldn't leave him to die...because I'm stronger than that."

Suddenly a green light exploded from the ground below her and solidified into her armor as she felt herself being propelled upwards once again. Her wounds vanished and she smiled.

"Does this mean I passed, Windam?"

"With flying colours," came the response.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Hikaru had stepped into the light, and was instantly engulfed in a wall of flames. They whipped around her so suddenly she felt she had to close her eyes, and when she opened them again, they were gone.

The scene before her had completely changed, the sky was red in the evening light, and the earth smoldered and burned below her. The smell of burning flesh hit her nose, and from somewhere, a man screamed his death cry. Hikaru had never seen a place like this before, yet she knew it in an instant.

"A battlefield..." she whispered, and then looked down to discover herself armed and prepared to fight. Uncertainly, she gripped her sword and took a step forward.

Hikaru couldn't remember how long she wandered through that hell. It seemed like forever in an instant. Bodies strewn everywhere, hacked and mangled, or peaceful and sleeping. Several times she found a man who was just about to die, and all she could do was hold his hand as he took his last breath. Before long she was tired, sore, tearstained, and bloodstained.

"What's happened here? Who did this?" she asked once.

The reply seemed to come from a voice in her head. "Man did this."

"Why?"

"For power, for money, for god." Said the voice.

"But, why?" she asked again. "Animals never fight over money, or god, and they never kill this many. Why do we?"

The voice didn't answer.

"But not all people are like this!" Hikaru protested. "Some people are good, kind, giving. Not all people are murderers."

"Go, look over there."

Slowly, weary and as if afraid of what she might see, she walked around the bottom of a cliff and saw two men.

"Please, Please don't kill me! Please!" begged one man, "I have a wife, and kids. Please!"

There was a sound of metal against metal as the other drew his sword, and sliced cleanly through the man's neck.

Hikaru stopped. That style, she'd seen it before, and she was almost certain she recognized that figure, even under all that armor. It was one she loved, one who had held her when she was just small...

"F...Father...?" Hikaru gasped in disbelief. "Father, how could you? How could you just kill an unarmed man?"

The figure turned suddenly and walked towards Hikaru. It was her father, but a younger version of him, and his eyes...his eyes weren't his. They burned with such a terrible, bloodthirsty fire Hikaru found herself unable to move...

"Father.." she said as he came closer, "Fa...ther..."

He walked right through her, without even seeing Hikaru. She was like a ghost. The one she respected and loved most didn't even see her. Tired and confused, she sunk to her knees.

"You see." Hikaru opened her eyes to find Rayearth standing before her. "All humans, no matter how great they seem, all have an evil core. A core that cannot be destroyed, or defeated, a core that causes all the suffering and pain in the world."

Hikaru watched the figure of her father as it faded into the wrinkles of heat on the horizon.

"Are we really like that?" she wondered aloud, "Are we really all, evil?… … Would the world have been better off if we had never come into existence?"

"Perhaps," Rayearth said darkly, "You said yourself, animals never kill this many. They only take as much as they need. Humans are different, taking and taking, without ever giving back. They are never satisfied, always greedy, and usually it is their own kind that suffer because of it."

Hikaru sat there, unmoving. As much as she hated to admit it, he was right. Everyone had evil in them, everyone, no matter how good they seemed.

"So then, let us rid the world of these useless pests once and for all." Rayearth boomed suddenly. Hikaru looked up in shock as people of all kinds appeared before them. Their faces were gray and pale, expressionless and without hope.

"What…what are you going to do?" Hikaru asked, a knot forming in her stomach.

"If humans cannot escape the evil within them, better to kill them all before they cause any more harm to this world." Rayearth said flatly. "Will you go first or should I?"

"N…No!" Hikaru gasped getting to her feet. "You can't kill them! You can't just kill them all!!"

"Why not?" asked Rayearth. "It is easy enough, they are feeble creatures. One taste of my breath and they will harm no more."

"No!" Hikaru yelled, placing herself between Rayearth and the line of gray humans. "I won't let you!"

A strange smirk played on Rayearth's lips.

"So you wish to share their fate, foolish human." He said, and drew a deep breath. Hikaru braced herself.

"ROAR!!"

"ARROW OF FIRE!!"

Hikaru attacked with all her might. The spell flew forwards, clashed with Rayearth's flame and stopped it where the two met.

"I am impressed at your ability…" Rayearth praised, "However you are forgetting that I am a god, and fire is my being."

He attacked again, and again, Hikaru tried to neutralize the flame. However this time her fire did very little against Rayearth's great magic, and she found herself being pushed back by the force. In the last instant, Hikaru's wall gave way, and she found herself momentarily engulfed in flames. She screamed as the fire scorched her clothes and scalded her body. It was only and instant, but its heat was enough to bring Hikaru to her knees. Instantly she dug her sword into the earth, determined to stand again.

"Why do you struggle so hard?" Rayeath asked, "Don't you understand? The world will never be a perfect place as long as human beings exist. We must destroy them in order to attain paradise."

"Paradise?" Hikaru gasped between breaths. How? How could she fight him? Everything inside her told her he was wrong, but how?

"Yes," Rayearth said, "A paradise of harmony, where nothing takes in hatred, nothing dies in vain, a world where everything exists in perfect balance."

"Paradise…" Hikaru thought. Rayearth frowned and prepared to attack again.

Hikaru's spirit sparked as she found her answer and attacked with renewed strength, this time using her sword. She grimaced as the blade stopped at a barrier of flame surrounding the God. It licked at her face and hands as she pushed forward, not willing to give up. The tip of her sword began to glow red from the heat, but still she held on.

"That's not paradise," she growled, "A paradise without mercy, or faith, or hope, or love? Animals don't feel like we do, they need us to show them emotions like love and happiness. That's why pets can be so faithful, because without us, all they would know is existence."

Almost all her sword was red by now, but she continued to fight the flames.

"We don't always give in to the evil," she yelled, "As long as there is love and hope, I will fight the evil within myself, and everybody.

"I won't give up." She screamed, "I won't GIVE UP!!"

"CRIMSON LIGHTNING!!"

The blood red snakes of electricity branched out along the barrier, until Rayearth was completely surrounded. Then in an instant, they leapt to the center, straight into Rayearth. There was a loud bang, and a brilliant light as Hikaru was thrown backwards. She hit the ground hard, and quickly lost consciousness.

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