The stairs were lit well enough, but it still didn't make Keiko feel any
better about the situation. Cursing her bad luck, and carefully (yet
quickly) moving down the stairs as fast as she could, her mind thought
back to when she first arrived on the Gold Island...
17th Century (Gold Island)
What compelled her to climb the mountain to the castle she still isn't
sure about, even to this day. She had a vague notion of looking for work
with the royal family, or maybe just checking out who ruled the island
and if she would be welcomed there (kind of a meet and greet the
landlords) but what she came to when she reached the top wasn't too
welcoming.
Apparently while everyone in town still thought of the castle's
inhabitant as their monarch, nobody bothered to tell Keiko about her
current "status" as cursed. So, when Keiko first ran into her in her
bedchamber, she nearly went into shock when she came into the presence of
a gigantic snake! Apparently she had been cursed, and to break said curse
one had to stay three nights in the castle and suffer the torments of
these evil Black Dwarves (dark necromancy counterpart of regular Dwarves
who mined into the Earth not for riches, but for forbidden magicks and
knowledge buried in the dreamscape that all have forgotten and thought
lost forever) in total silence.
But, mind you, this was IF they could in fact speak to each other and she
could tell Keiko this. However, after the initial shock wore off, the two
found that they could NOT speak to each other, neither knowing how to
speak the other's language. So, writing Keiko off as doomed, the cursed
princess left Keiko to her own devices and as night fell the Black
Dwarves came upon Keiko in the huge dining room (which she converted into
a sort of base camp to stay the night).
They were expecting someone they could torment, instead they found a
rather rude, bad tempered Japanese woman in their "domain" who couldn't
be rid of her "visitors" fast enough. With a frustrated yell, the first
dwarf that spoke to her tried to cut her head off--- only to find itself
being ripped in two by her as she spun out of it's way and hacked it down
with her katana blade. The rest of the dwarves followed suit, and ended
up just as dead.
Now the princess never bothered to check on her new "guest" in the
morning, so she had no idea what happened that night before. When the
second night came, more dwarves came--- and more of their numbers
perished. On the third night a small army of Black Dwarves launched an
assault on the castle to bring Keiko down and cut her head off--- in the
end, the princess was shocked when the last of their numbers stumbled
into her presence and gasped "The curse is broken--- but did you have to
find somebody--- so frisky---" (dies in her presence much to her dismay
and shock).
Now she was supposed to have taken the Water of Life to Keiko next and
restored her to full health, but obviously as she returned to human form
(and started running through the halls looking for her) she only found
dead Black Dwarves and nothing more. In the castle's chapel she found
Keiko, alive and unharmed, and fell upon her kissing her madly. Keiko,
already worn from the fight, only looked on in disbelief,
"Awfully friendly people in this kingdom---" she noted with a slight bit
of confusion.
* * * * * *
Suddenly Keiko reaches the bottom of the stairs and nearly plows right
into Sakura/Tomoyo, her flashback getting in the way of her train of
thought to the point that she nearly ran over the two while walking.
After brief apologies she got the story about what happened from them---
or, just what they knew. In short it went something like this---
"Well, Sakura was already a little nervous when we started down the
stairs---"
'Nervous must mean 'scared out of her mind' in Tomoyo-speak.' Keiko
thinks to herself.
"---well, before we knew it something came up and gave Sakura a slight
fright---"
'Probably threw her right into Tomoyo's arms screaming like a little
baby---' Keiko thinks, a slight smile etching across her features.
"What?" (Sakura blinks) "Nothing, Sakura, nothing... so you were saying,
Tomo-chan?"
Tomoyo - "What are you smiling at?"
"Nothing. Nothing nothing nothing. Now go on." ('I'm really not all that
dumb enough to tease you in front of Tomoyo like SOME people'---
somewhere out there Nina's sneezing right now) Tomoyo started talking
again, "Well, it was just Mr. Terada dressed up like a ghost to scare us
and..."
Keiko - "Ok. That's enough. I know what's going on now---" (pulls out
cellphone) "Dammit. Hello? Rebecca? I can barely hear you--- yeah, the
defense system is trying to jam us--- listen! The self defense system is
on "Serenity Mode"! Repeat, it's sweeping everyone out in "Serenity
Mode"! I'm going to the shrine to shut the mode down and trigger the end
result, you better come down here--- yeah, yeah--- there's a manual
switch--- hello? Hello?" (closes phone) "Let's go, and we better go
quickly."
As the three head deeper into the shrine, Sakura asks the obvious.
"What's "Serenity Mode"?"
Keiko - "It puts the holy back in holy ground around here, in a sense if
you think quiet empty spaces equals holy and all." (stops) "As much "fun"
the idea of a test of courage was, why did they have to pick sacred
ground on which to go around playing pranks on everyone? Lord knows I
preached that to them from the moment the trip was planned to an hour
before we came up here but did they listen? Nooooo!" (starts walking
again) "The shrine's systems automatically took the teachers horseplay
(and all the screaming no doubt) as disturbing the shrine's serenity, so
it began scooping everyone up with teleporters and storing them in the
shrine's teleporter buffers. We just have to go down, and advance trigger
the end result (free everyone) to make everything status quo again."
Tomoyo - "So is there a catch?"
Keiko shrugs, "How so, Tomoyo?"
Tomoyo - "Any problems?"
Keiko stops for a second, thinks, then quickly says "No." ('unless you
count the fact that maybe the system is malfunctioning and it might start
purging everyone into cybernetic oblivion while in suspension as a
problem, then otherwise no.') "Nothing at all."
Finally, after a minute, they reached the inner chamber. The chamber was
a huge circular room. The entire lower half was taken up by a gigantic
pool of water. Hovering over that pool, connected by a bridge, was a
floating shrine dotted with lights. The shrine was a distance away so the
three couldn't see any details of the shrine from where they were
standing. All around them, carved into the ceilings, were hieroglyphic
type images. "What are those?" Sakura asked. "Dragon history written in
visual form," Keiko answered, one hand sweeping in a wide arc noting the
huge panels set into the ceilings. "Depicted on all these panels is the
long history of the Dragon culture. It goes from the beginning to the
date this shrine was put into the sky."
"The shrine must have gotten nearly everyone. We haven't passed anyone on
the way here."
"I know, Tomoyo, I know..." (a chill passes down Keiko's spine) "...that's
not a good sign."
A loud scream turns everyone's attention to the shrine. "CHIHARU!" Before
Keiko can react, they're already running across to the shrine. "Damn!"
------ The two run into Chiharu, Rika & Naoko on the huge shrine platform
in the center of the chamber. It was lit in an errie manner by the light
spheres students dropped off, but that seemed strange--- the girls were
in an awful panic and it took a little bit of effort to try to get them
to speak. "Everyone disappeared!"
"We know! We know--- where's Keiko?" Sakura thinks out loud, trying to
comfort Chiharu. "Everyone's disappearing!!" In a flash of light, two
discs (above and below) form around Naoko and close, teleporting her away
in a whoosh of sound and light. "---oh no--- Rika! We have to get you two
out of here before---" (another flash and teleporter effect later and
she's gone, seconds later light envelopes Sakura/Chiharu but only Chiharu
vanishes. "They're--- gone?"
"KEIKO!!" Sakura screams, only to realize--- "She's gone too! They're all
gone!" (she grabs Tomoyo and runs back the way they came) "We have to get
Rebecca! Let's go back the way we came!"
"Ok!"
Seconds later another light and teleporter flash.
* * * * * *
Rebecca hits the bottom of the stairs running full out, heading straight
for the shrine.
As she makes a turn she runs right into someone, barely avoiding
colliding into them. "!!" (catches her footing and spins about) "Sakura,
I--- TOMOYO!?!"
Tomoyo was crying, distraught. "Sakura! Everyone's gone!!"
"Uh boy." Rebecca mutters in distain.
* * * * * *
Meanwhile, back topside...
"Do you like to watch?"
With a slight 'hmph', Ms. Mitsuki directs her attention upwards on the
shrine's fa‡ade towards the voice. "Your watching too, aren't you."
"I'd only make things worst if I was in there." Catherine admits, jumping
down to Mitsuki's level, "The shrine will see my presence as a threat and
go into a worst defense mode than the one it's in now."
Ms. Mitsuki - "Even if you're a Raven?"
Catherine - "It doesn't differentiate between rank and status, it just
knows when a "hostile" power has made an appearance, and I won't be any
good to them if I go in with powers nulled out by the defense spells."
(she mutters in disgust as she leans against wall near doorway) "That is
why I'm just standing out here cooling my hells with you, I'm just here
to wait for the results of the situation and see if I have to "Save" them
or not." (looks at doorway, and the remains of the door) "Nice. You
always blow holes into grave doors for fun romps in dimly lit tombs, or
is today ancient burial desecration day?"
"Actually..."
* * * * * *
"Sakura's gone! Sakura-chan---" Tomoyo gasps, tears flowing as she
finishes her story. "Calm down. You have to calm down---" (sighs) "---do
you have the key?"
Dimly Tomoyo nods, holding it out, "But I can't use it---!"
"It doesn't matter, don't worry." (Rebecca notes) "You don't need to use
it. Still, it'd be nice to have it just in case." (her eyes dart about
the room taking everything in as she looks about) "Let's go. We can
trigger the result by directly linking into the teleporter buffers on the
shrine itself."
As the two begin walking they talk.
Rebecca - "I don't suppose if this is an appropriate question or not, but
do you feel anything? A Clow card perhaps?"
Tomoyo shakes her head, "Sakura's the sensitive one. I'm just in the way
at times, like now."
"Don't beat yourself up over it. Just tell me what you feel---"
"Funny." (Tomoyo sighs irritably) "That's exactly what Mr. Lazarus told
me when..." (falls silent as she focuses her thoughts) "I feel as if
something's out there, but it's more like the feeling I get when Sakura
feels a card than the feeling of the card itself. I'm just too nervous
and scared to say for certain whether it's a card or not."
Rebecca pats Tomoyo on the back, "Don't worry about it. We'll get her
back." she whispers, her hand checking her guns in their sheathe as she
stops just short of the shrine entrance. "Ok, where's the bridge?"
"Sakura dropped her sphere. It shattered and the spark started a fire
that destroyed the bridge just a few minutes ago."
Rebecca - "And the bridge is several hundred years old of dry wood so it
went up like kindling. Yeah. Well we don't have to worry about being
snatched up at least because I'm wearing a teleporter inhibitor (I
usually carry these just because they're shaped like--- well, they're
multi-taskers, and we'll leave it at that)..." (blushes) "...as long as your
near me it'll provide some protection for us from the teleporters because
they give off a good sized "bubble" of defense against teleporter locks."
"You're sweet." Tomoyo whispers. To that Rebecca blushes a little, "Heh.
Trinny says that a lot, but I can't believe that..." (blinks, shaking off
the thought) "Never mind. Let's see what my Seeker says about what's
going on up there." (as she speaks she draws her Seeker out of it's
tesseract pocket and holds it forward). "Alright, old friend, show me
what lies hidden in plain sight."
A powerful beam shoots out of the sphere, and another into Rebecca's
forehead as it scans the shrine. Long seconds pass before the truth is
revealed. "Thought so. The shrine is set up with a built in teleporter
platform in the center of the shrine. That's where the girls were
standing when they were teleported away, right?"
"But Sakura---"
"It has long range teleporters too but they take longer to charge than
the platform teleporter. It should be easy to access the buffer and
trigger the end results. Wish we had more light---" (stops) "---we do!"
(holds out sphere) "All this needs is a strong light charge and it'll
glow like a high wattage light bulb!" (looks at Tomoyo) "Alright, charge
it up."
"?"
"Nina put in her files that you have a "light" ring! Charge this up."
"---I---" Tomoyo stammers, fidgetting under Rebecca's gaze. "Did you
leave it back in the shrine?"
Tomoyo - "N-n-no... I left it home..."
"Your kidding." (Rebecca sighs) "...your NOT kidding..."
"Sorry."
Rena holds the sphere up and taps the Seeker against it, "Alright, old
friend, power boost." (in a few seconds the sphere is filled with enough
energy to glow strongly) "OK. Let's go."
"How'd---"
"The Seeker just used it's energy to power it's light absorbing ability
so it'd glow stronger."
"That's so cool!"
Rebecca only nods her head, thoughts already rolling, 'Must be worried
out of her mind to start rambling like that. If she even thinks about
Sakura right now she's probably going to go catatonic so I better keep
her thoughts off of Sakura.'
"Let's go." (with that she jumps down to the water) "WAIT! Re---?"
"There's a barrier between us and the water, remember? That means---"
(Rebecca taps her foot on the barrier) "---we can walk on water. Let's
go."
As they begin crossing to the platform, a question arises. "Can I ask you
a question?"
"Sure, Tomoyo." ('Anything to keep your mind off of Sakura')
"Why do you keep calling your Seeker "old friend"?"
"Easy." Rebecca moves her Seeker so Tomoyo can look at it closer,
"Seekers are partially sentient. Not enough to qualify as a life form,
mind you, but they have rudimentary sentience all the same. Enough, for
instance, to know who's holding it, and if the person is supposed to be
using it or not. It can actively choose what to scan to be of the best
use to the user, as well as not work at all if the person it senses is
not the regular "user" it's used to serving. As for me? I'm just used to
calling it "old friend" because it's a damn sight better than "Hey, you!"
don't you think?"
Once they're across, Rena pops open a hatch and begins to work on the
systems beneath, she quickly takes something out and tosses it to Tomoyo.
"Here. One of my teleporter jammers. It'll keep you from being whisked
away."
"---" (Tomoyo smiles as she holds the long, tube shaped object with two
curved in just such a way ends in her hand) "It's vibrating."
"That means it's working and not it's attracted to you in anyway..."
Rebecca says, "Don't say it! I know you know what it looks like and... well
skip it."
Tomoyo - "Why do you want to take Fly from Sakura?"
"Because it hurt Trinity. Nothing nifty or fancy to my reasoning there,
mind you. It's all for vengeance, and nothing more. Shallowest reasoning
ever, yes, but that's it for me."
Silence. For long seconds only the sound of the clik-clik of Rebecca
working could be heard, and the soft humming of the teleporter jammers,
then--- "A week before I showed up at your school, I was called into a
meeting with the Goddess of Judgments. She told me I couldn't let my
bitterness eat away at me, that they needed me to shelf my illwill
towards Fly because they needed me to watch over Sakura because there was
an--- anomaly concerning the Clow cards running rampant. She wanted
someone to investigate, and Keiko already said no, so I was picked."
Tomoyo - "What kind of anomaly?"
Rebecca - "You've already heard the story no doubt from Mirra, right? The
one where Mimic accused her of stealing Clow Reed from her, right? Nina
filed that into a report after she heard the story from her."
Tomoyo - "Right."
Rebecca - "What if I told you there's a historical book in the Central
Hub's Dimensional Linear History archives with TWO conflicting entries
which concerns Clow Reed and the dimension your from?"
"Two?"
Rebecca - "And in one of those entries not only is Mimic mentioned often,
but she's also listed as the mother of Clow Reed's children?"
Tomoyo gasps, "But that'd mean..."
Rebecca - "Mimic's claims might not be as crazy as they seem at first. I
know, I know, of course bitter me I was more concerned with savaging Fly
so I agreed to anything just as long as I could get near that card... only
now, upon reflection, I'm beginning to see why everyone is so worried
about this "anamoly"." (brief silence as she regathers her thoughts)
"According to the histories there's a second "history" very few people
know about (an alternate reality if you will) where Clow Reed made mad
love with Mimic often, and bred lots of children with her (passing his
lineage onto them while neutralizing the "event" from ever happening at
the same time)."
Tomoyo - "What event?"
Rebecca stops, and realizes she said "it" out loud. "Er... nothing... it
doesn't matter since it's already neutralized and a "non-event" as it
were. Nothing concerning Mimic that's for sure. Anyway the point is that
I was sent to "check" on this, and see if I could catch up with Mimic
and--- negotiate with her. Of course I botched it, yeah, because I stuck
to Sakura more than attempted to find Mimic until it was too late and she
tried to harm Mirra. Long story short..." (sighs) "...I know, I know, too
late. According to our records Clow Reed is a rather eccentric bird. So
for him to suddenly shack up and fall in love with one of his own
"creations", and start making babies with her? Something unnatural must
have compelled that, we're thinking Darke Raven influence, or something
worst..." (sighs as she continues to work) "Mimic's powers are awesome, but
the grief and rage of being betrayed by the one she thought of as her
lifemate is worst, hence her unending rage and violent behavior towards
you three. If it worked out it would have been beautiful, but it didn't
and the bitter fruit of their coupling is going to haunt us for awhle I
bet."
Tomoyo - "It must have hurt her so deeply... just wanting to be loved by
Clow Reed only to be betrayed like that."
Rebecca - "When it comes to the fractured love lives of the rich and
powerful (be it movie stars or mystical powerhouses) it's best for us
normal people to stay out of the way and only read about it in tabloid
newspapers." (looks at Tomoyo briefly and blushes) "Present company
excluded of course since you are making love to the most powerful
sorceress from your universe and all (and what a coup to get to nail such
a hottie in bed night after night just so that loser Syao)..." (hisses)
"Maybe I better wipe your memory before we leave here." Suddenly
teleporter disc appear around her. "What's going on?"
"The shrine must have found a way to lock in, Tomoyo! Here!" (pointing at
a circular device) "Come here and pull this!"
"---but---"
Rebecca - "NOW OR WE MIGHT NEVER COME BACK!!"
Quickly Tomoyo jumps forward, grabbing the device, and wrestles with it.
"TOMOYO!!"
"I'm trying! I---" With a final tug the device comes free and the
teleporter effect stops, sending the shrine into silence. Suddenly, from
all around, a voice booms out.
"Oh. How nice. Company. And me without my welcoming committee---" (the
computer sighs irritably) "---what can I do for you?"
Tomoyo - "Where's Sakura?"
"Sakura--- oh, you mean the strange girl with the micro mini pom-poms on
her head." (Tomoyo giggles at the thought of Sakura's hairstyle) "She's
fine. In fact she's giving me indigestion from all the worrying she's
doing about a girl named Tomoyo--- guess that's you because I sure as
heck hope it's not that old woman next to you--- she has cold hands!"
Rebecca - "Who're you calling an "old woman"?!?"
"No need to get all testy, you should really try to foster a sense of
humor." (sighs) "There, I sent them all back downside to the cabins. All
you need to do is go downside, and give her the kiss of true love and
she'll wake from her slumber and into your loving arms--- I'm thinking of
becoming a romance writer in my spare time, and I have a lot of that
these days considering, what do you think of my first book being about a
young couple like you and micro pom-pom head girl?"
"It's nice." Tomoyo remarks with a smile. "I'm sure she'll be tickled
pink by the compliment."
Rebecca sighs, "You sound like that computer from Courage the Cowardly
Dog, you know that?"
"Hmph. Everyone's a critic. Well, as much fun as THAT was next time have
your class go screaming through someone else's holy ground. You don't see
dragons running through a Shinto shrine screaming their heads off--- do
you?"
"---no---" (Tomoyo)
"Then there you go. I'm going to write my book, you won't feel too bad if
I just teleport you all away and call it a day, will you? Now there's a
couple of good lasses, so off with you." (teleporter effects envelope the
two) "And it's as if I can't counter those little gizmos. Give me some
credit why dontcha---" (the room is empty again) "---and people wonder
why I try to cloak myself everytime one of those annoying classes comes
to visit--- I wonder if Heroes is on yet?"
* * * * * *
"So what was the purpose of that story again? I seem to have missed the
point." Keiko was not in a terribly happy mood, lying out on the beach
sunbathing as everyone sits around and takes notes of what happened. As
before (with Erase and the last test of courage) nobody remembered what
happened (the shrine purged short term memory as it sent everyone back),
and Keiko/Rena didn't like being one of those who "forgot" everything.
It kinda irked them especially since each one was certain she said more
than she should have last night. In fact the only two who had any fun
that night was Sakura/Tomoyo (after she went to Sakura's side and kissed
her, they lovingly cuddled then went into the woods and--- well, I guess
that's the subject of a lemon story one of these days, but for now---)
"Yeah, what was the point of that story anyway?" (Rebecca)
Naoko - "In the end they found the shrine's old teleporter system and
used it to get back to camp, but I can't remember if we did that or
not--- guess we did. It's just like the shrine and the hidden exit."
Keiko - "Hidden Christians."
"What?" (everyone turns to look at Keiko who elaborated) "The shrine
where you had your previous test of courage? I read up on the site.
Apparently there was a hidden "box" beneath the shrine used to hold
Christian artifacts for religious ceremonies and the "secret entrance"
was used to foil those who tried to catch them during their secret
ceremonies. The entrance caved in years ago during a reality quake, and
during a sea quake in reality so both the secret exit in reality/here are
no more."
"So once again it wasn't a ghost story, Keiko?" (Tomoyo)
"No. I thought it would have been fun to use the teleporter system, but I
wish I remember what happened."
"What a relief!" (Sakura, who also didn't remember a thing from last
night EXCEPT the heavenly lovemaking between herself and Tomoyo, which
was the highlight of the whole trip). "But I know some really good ghost
stories I can tell tonight!"
"That's alright---" (Sakura pushes Naoko on to a game of beach volleyball
while Keiko watches) "Never mind." (with a sigh she leans back into the
sand and stares at the sky) "What are you thinking about, Keiko?"
"Nothing anymore, Eve... just admiring the clouds."
Eve - "You told me about how you came here, and saving the princess, and
one day you left--- but why? Why did you leave? Weren't you happy with
the princess of the Gold Island?"
"I'll tell you that story one day." Keiko whispers, rolling over to gaze
at Eve, "I'm happy enough with my princess lying next to me here."
Eve - "Flattery gets you out of everything."
"I guess." With that Keiko rolls over, up onto a sitting position, and
right up to her feet. "Enough lounging! Let's see if we can get in on the
game!" And, with that, she drags Eve to her feet and pushes her to the
beach volleyball game that was just about to start up.
* * * * * *
Gold Island (17th Century)
Lying in bed, Keiko rolls over and cuddles herself into her blankets,
feeling their soft warmth hold her tight as she falls slowly into "rest".
Her beloved laid next to her, dreaming, as the sound of lovers in the
distance rocked Keiko to slumber thinking of her own lovemaking with her
beloved only a short while ago.
In her bed, in the royal chamber, she was happy, and content with her
"bride" and her life. And in the distance, above in the tower bedchamber,
the Prince of the city of Judgment was making love to the Queen of the
Gold Island--- Keiko's wife--- while another woman slept unknown to Keiko
disguised as her beloved--- the two sworn to betray Keiko's faith when
the time was right---
---and that time was only a few days away--- But that is a past Keiko
doesn't want to think of--- yet. "I'm happy enough with my princess lying
next to me here." Keiko Yamanaka
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