Magic Knight Rayearth Fan Fiction ❯ Magic Knight Rayearth: Medieval Mystery Series ❯ Compression. (Sorry!) ( Chapter 21 )

Chapter 21

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Fuu had slept uneasily, her dreams haunted by visions of a black mashin and fading images of Umi and Hikaru. In her dreams she tried to call out to her friends, but they were always gone before she reached them. At last she woke up in a cold sweat as the sky above her began to turn gray from the approaching dawn. She sighed as she recognized the clearing in the forest, and Ferio. He slept, propped up against a nearby tree, sword in hand. A rather serious expression on his face. Fuu stood up.

"He acts like everything's okay, and yet he stayed up half the night on lookout." She thought as she draped the one blanket they had over him. "He's worried about something, isn't he."

She watched him a moment more before heading into the dark forest to look for firewood. It was damp out, and the sky seemed overcast in the sparse light without any hope of clearing away. The wind whispered through the stiff, yellowing leaves and sent chills down Fuu's spine.

"Umi, Hikaru..." She thought worriedly. She hoped that they were alright. Somehow, the wind didn't seem normal to her, like some will was trying to keep the sun from reaching the earth. The shadows of the wood shifted eerily in the light.

Fuu stopped. It wasn't just eerily, it seemed they were moving deliberately. Something was watching her...

"Fuu backed up against a tree and prepared to draw her sword when she realized the motion had stopped. Perhaps it had been her imagination after all...

"ROOOOAAAARRRR" The bushes parted and something large suddenly flew at Fuu. She jumped to the side just in time, and fell spinning onto her back to look up at her attacker. It was a "thing", with three inch teeth and seven red eyes all lined up across it's face. It dug it's black claws into the trunk of the tree where she had been only seconds before, easily crushing it. Slowly it rotated its round, neck-less head and stared in her direction.

"ROAAAAARRR!"

Fuu scrambled backwards as the thing prepared to attack again. "Shielding...."

"HAAAAAA!!" There was the flash of a blade and a streak of green as the monster suddenly split in two. Ferio landed back on the ground easily as the monster disintegrated into black ash.

He instantly turned to Fuu. "Okay?" he asked worriedly. Fuu just looked on shocked.

"Wh...What was that?" She asked shakily. Ferio assumed that meant she was fine.

"I'm not sure." he said at length, still looking cautiously around the woods. He stopped as he noted Fuu's worried gaze. He smiled and lowered his sword, "But it's dead, so everything's fine." he said confidently, rubbing the back of his head.

Fuu wasn't convinced, and continued to frown as she got up and dusted herself off. Ferio realised his little lie wouldn't work.

"They started to appear sometime last week." he began slowly, "At first, I thought they were sorcerer's monsters. However, there are too many of them...they attack too randomly to be..." He sighed and shrugged his shoulders to show his confusion. Fuu continued to scowl at the ground, deep in thought.

"Could it be..." she wondered.

"It is as you guess."

"Windam!!" Fuu recognized the voice of her rune god instantly. Ferio looked at her surprised, not having heard Windam's voice.

"Then...the box..." Fuu continued. "...we failed..."

"It has been opened," Windam confirmed, "and now the doubts and fears of mankind are taking the shapes and forms of monsters. Now is not the time to doubt yourself, you must re-seal it at once."

"B-but how?" Fuu stammered. She knew the answer at once herself, however. Emerald had told her in the well.

"Then you know what you must do." Windam told her. "Your friends await you at the castle, you must head there as fast as you can."

"Y...yes." Fuu said. Ferio looked on completely confused. Fuu posed one more question. "Windam, are Umi and Hikaru..."

"They are safe, Celes and Rayearth are with them." Windam said. Fuu sighed releif. "I too, will lend you my strength for your difficult task ahead. Be strong, and let your heart guide you."

He was gone.

"Ummm....Fuu?"

Ferio looked at her as if he was afraid she had lost it. Fuu blinked once, shook her head, and smiled at him.

"It's okay," she told him. The hope she had lost in the battle with Zagato was slowly creeping back into her heart and leveling her head. If Umi and Hikaru were alright, she would be too.

"Let's get going as soon as possible." She smiled.

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Hikaru watched the city from one of the castle turrets. The sky was ominously cloudy and appeared to be getting blacker by the minute. Before the city gates a growing line of people from across the land were slowly making their way to the castle in search of aid. The story was always the same. A monster had appeared out of nowhere and attacked a village, killing most of the able men who fought it, ruining the fields, and destroying buildings. Landlords and greedy nobles were refusing to aid the villagers in need, and so, they turned in mass numbers to the capital to seek justice.

Clef had suspected that the monsters were being created by the fears and doubts of the people. They had started small, but had since grown in size and strength. The more unhappy people were, the greater the monsters, the more damage was caused, and all the more woe for everyone. It was a viscous spiral, simply waiting to reach its ultimate climax. Hikaru sighed.

"If only I had stopped them." She told herself, "Then this wouldn't be happening."

"Don't blame yourself."

Hikaru whirled around to find Lantis standing behind her. She froze, realising what she had just said.

"I see this tower is taken, excuse me." He bowed slightly and turned to leave.

"W...wait..." Hikaru stammered. He stopped and turned to face her. He was so tall, Hikaru felt extra short standing beside him. It took her a minute to find the right words. "Wh...What I said, just now...I didn't mean...I mean I would never have..." She couldn't even say it. Killed Zagato? She couldn't say that to Lantis, his brother.

"I understand, don't trouble yourself." He turned to leave again. It didn't matter now. Whatever she said wouldn't change anything. Zagato had chosen his path. If he wanted to be seen as the villain of the world, so be it.

"...Because he wasn't a bad person..."

Lantis stopped.

"...He...was kind." She continued, "I know, I felt it in him. Even when we were fighting, he was honest...He was a good fighter too...And Emerald loved him...you too of course..."

She stared at the stones under feet, ashamed that her words sounded like they were coming from a two year old. Lantis turned again to face her, expectantly.

"I'm just sorry I couldn't bring him back for you..." She said at length, only slightly choked. "I should have...then none of this would have happened." There was a pause, then hastily she added, "I'll make it up to you, somehow, I'll fix this."

"As I said, don't blame yourself." Lantis said, once he was sure she was finished. "Zagato was like that. He always blamed himself for everything, and tried to fix everything by himself. It was his undoing."

He paused, for a moment as Hikaru slowly lifted her eyes to his face. He turned again before she could be sure, but she thought she saw it. Lantis' eyes, a kind, gentle, somewhat sad look was in them. Had she imagined it?

"You have friends, people who care about you. You should rely on them to help you, or you may end up hurting yourself, and them..."

He stopped and went rigid, a hand on the hilt of his sword.

Suddenly an ear piercing shriek cut the air around the castle. They both turned abruptly and saw what seemed to be a black dragon type creature circling overhead. The beast was huge, at least the size of several buildings, with black, putrid wings, claws and teeth as long as Hikaru's arm. They never said a word to each other, but turned and ran down the stairs without looking back.

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COMPRESSION

Chris-san here, I'm sorry to do this, but I have to decided to compress the rest of the story and move straight to the end. I know, I know, and you can all take turns flaming me, however, it has to be done. First of all, having never seen the second season of Rayearth, I have no idea how the characters act or how to appropriately fit them into the story. In fact, upon starting this story, I had made no real plans about how to write the attacks of the three countries (I don't even know their names), Eagle or any of them. I haven't come up with anything since and have just plain run out of patience. I have other fanfics I want to write, a Ranma, an Inu Yasha, and possibly even another Rayearth based one, I'm not sure. However, I want to finish this one first, and so, I am compressing it so I can hurry up and write my wonderful, happy finale.

In short, this is what should happen in the story. Lantis, Hikaru, Umi, Ascott, Clef and everyone beat the bad beast, however the town is a bit damaged. Later in the day, Clef goes to find Umi, but can't. After searching for awhile he finds her down in the town wearing an old ratty dress, trying to help the wounded. They talk, and Umi confesses to Clef about what she saw while she was in the well. Clef assures her that he'll be okay now, and comforts her, telling her that everything that's happening wasn't their fault. Meanwhile Fuu and Ferio journey to the castle. Ferio tells Fuu that he has no memories of this early childhood. He remembers waking up one day when he was 8 or so and travelling with gypsies. Fuu thinks it's odd but doesn't put two and two together at that time.

Somehow, after a few adventures of their own, they both arrive back at the castle to find it under siege from one of the three countries. They enter the castle and use the powers of their mashin to set up a barrier around the castle. Somewhere in there Umi gets around to talking to Ascot and tells him that he's a nice kid who should maybe consider getting some human kids to be his friends too. Ferio starts to remember his life in the castle.

Finally there's a final battle within the castle and the key is at last found. It's hidden in two pieces, one in each of the transmitter gems Emerald gave Ferio. (This would explain why Fuu ended up with Ferio when she returned from the well, and not at the castle.) Upon assembling the key Ferio uses it to seal the box again and send each of the countries instantly back to their homelands. Afterwards, as they all stand upon the highest turret of the castle, Ferio surveys his broken kingdom and uses his will power and the key to restore it back to the beautiful fertile land it once was.

END COMPRESSION

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As the bright light faded away, the clouds began to break and a fresh, clear breeze blew out across the land. The morning sun began to break through the deep black clouds which had covered the sky for ages, sending shafts of light to dance upon the once again green lands of Cefiro. Ferio, exhausted from the great strain on his will power, collapsed backwards into the gentle arms of Fuu, who sat down and cradled his head in her lap. They all gazed in wonder about them, each like a new born, seeing the light of the sun for the first time. They were silent, contented...but, Fuu wondered, was it really over?

Just then, each of the knights heard a voice in their heads say something like this. "Magic Knight, I congratulate you on the completion of your task. Cefiro is safe now, and will be for many, many years to come. I therefore release you from my destiny, and free you unto your own."

As they spoke, the precious escudo gems disintegrated, their shards becoming too small to even be considered dust on the gentle breeze that blew by. The others gazed at them in shock.

"It's okay," Umi assured Clef, "it's over now. It seems we aren't the magic knights anymore."

The three stared at each other a moment, sharing a mutual feeling of true joy at their victory, and a bit of sadness that it was all over. At last, they all smiled, glad that they would no longer have to suffer, or let others suffer under them. From today on, they chose their own destiny.

Still, as Fuu looked down at the sleeping Ferio in her lap, a frown swept unnoticed across her face.

"Prince...Ferio..."

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Continued next chapter...