Summons Anthy ran as fast as her legs could carry her, her chest heaving as she fought to get air in her lungs. Her violet hair flew out behind her like a banner, her delicate dusky skin torn and bleeding. She was certainly a sight: a badly clothed young woman running barefoot up the rocky mountain path, brambles stuck in her hair and thorns caught on her flimsy red dress. The red of the dress did little to mask the blood from a thousand cuts and bruises. She had stains on her dirty face where tears had run tracks along her cheeks. With a panic, she snatched at branches and wind raped trees out of her way as she climbed ever higher. There wasn't much time, she had to hurry! Already she could hear the baying of hounds. Gasping and sobbing in pain and exhaustion, the far-too-slender girl grabbed ahold of an outcropping of rock and hoisted herself up along the now vertical face of the mountain. She was almost there, if only.... Horses hooves sounded below her, and the shouting began as they caught sight of her ardent flapping cloth. No, not now! She was so close. She wouldn't have much time if they were this close behind her. She tried to move faster, fingers aching and beginning to bleed. Suddenly those slender fingers slipped off of her next handhold, and she dangled dangerously by one arm. Her feet scrabbled in the air to connect with the rock wall, as she gave a startled cry. Another, far more cruel cry came from below. "We've finally found you, Anthy! I'll see to it your filthy witch's hide is severely punished for your disobedience and insolence. You will be MINE tonight, his majesty has promised it!" A man on horseback rested coolly in the saddle, licking his lips in sadistic anticipation. Flipping wavy vermilion hair over his broad armored shoulders, he signaled his armed forces to split and begin heading up the mountain passes. They'd get her...she had nowhere to go. She was trapped and would soon be shrieking for her crimes. It filled the man with a sick sort of pleasure. The girl struggled, her teeth gritted against her terror and desperation. Finally she was able to get back her handhold after several wild lunges, and shaking she continued her ascent. With that heavy black armor, those soldiers would have a hard time following her up this way. They'd have to go up the longer paths. It bought her some time at least. She pulled her tired hurting body over the top edge of the small cliff, resting for a moment on her back. Her gasps and coughs were muffled slightly by the rushing, roaring wind. To her right, the mouth of the cave yawned like the maul of a beast. Darkness, blacker than anything natural, was all she could see inside. Anthy climbed to her feet and unsteadily moved toward it. But before she could walk into the entrance, a shimmering green forcefield flared into existence, and stopped her as completely as a stone wall. She doubled over slightly in pain, clutching her nose and forehead. Wincing she craned back her neck. There...the sigil...the crest of the Ohtori royal family was carved in stark relief from the mountain face. It stood out like a warning over top the opening of the sacred cave. A smaller version of it graced a strange handle, jutting out at the side of the cave opening. Was it a handle to 'open the door' to the forcefield? Recalling the ancient texts she had secretly poured through for years, the dusty scrolls of diagrams and incantations she had managed to glimpse in between her duties at the palace, she cleared her mind in meditation in order to summon her power. Almost as if another spoke through her, using her vocal cords and burning the words into her mind, she spoke. "Rose of the Noble Castle, I call you in the name of my ancestors..." Raising a blood soaked hand, damaged from her treacherous climb, she wiped it across the rose shaped relief on the top part of the ornate stone handle. The red smear made the rose blaze a brilliant red, as if giving it life. Acting on intuition, the girl with the emerald eyes kneeled so she was eye level with the handle and gently wrapped slender hands about it. "Taste of my blood, and know I am of true birth. Hear my summons...know my heart...grant me rightful access to the home of the Guardian!" She rested her forehead against the rose sigil, as if bowing in some kind of prayer. Like a stamp, her blood came away sticky on her skin when she lifted her head again. For a moment she crouched there, unsure of what to do next. Had she messed up the ritual? Did she forget to do something...what was left? A rumble sounded from within the rock's core as bits of chalky debris rained down on her from above. Frightened, she cowered against the door handle, but quickly jerked back in surprise. The stone...it was hot. The rose symbol was still shining red, but oddly it seemed shinier than before. Anthy lifted fingertips to her brow, only to discover the imprint on her forehead was gone. What on earth? She leaned closer to peer at the door handle, and watched in fascination. The handle was cracking. Chips and flakes of stone fell away, revealing shining perfect metal work underneath. As the stone skin sloughed off, a burning white light outlined where it was attached to the mountainside. And then it began to lift out of the wall! Pushing outward with a metallic rasp, Anthy stood spellbound as its true form revealed itself. Hesitantly she held out her hands to take the slender, beautifully crafted sword. The steel was as polished as a mirror, and her own bedraggled face gazed up at her. This handle...was a sword handle. Was this the key to let her in? Moving to stand before the cave opening once more, remembering sharply that she was pressed for time, she took the gleaming sword in hand and touched the tip to the forcefield like a magician's wand. The forcefield flashed brighter and then winked out of existence. A grin of dizzy happiness broke out on the girl's face. She had done it! Now to awaken the Guardian before it was too late... With a forced resolve, she stepped into the belly of the beast. Using her hand along the wall to guide her, she shuffled forward and winced now and then as a sharp pebble stabbed upward into the tender meat of her feet. She continued walking into the pitch darkness, her heartbeat sounding too loud in her ears. The wind roaring past the lip of the cave opening could no longer be heard. As she moved deeper, she became aware of the sound of running water in the dark up ahead. Was it her imagination? There seemed to be a faint glow shining up ahead. Hurrying faster, Anthy shakily made her way into a stone carved shrine room. Strips of prayers and incantations fluttered idly on crisscrossing ropes like the webs of an insane spider. The room was choked with them. A circle of water, bubbling from an unseen spring, circled a suit of armor standing immobile in it's dead center. The girl halted before it. It was...beautiful...and deadly at the same time. She gazed upon a shining white armor covered in thick plates and wicked spikes on the shoulder guards and arm guards. The helmet's face mask was reminiscent of a stone golem, or maybe the craggy face of a demon. Shadowed eye holes stared back at her intently, as if peering into the witch's very soul. Mustering her strength, and trying to quell that knot of fear that tightened in her gut, Anthy lifted the sword and began hacking and slicing at the ropes in her way. Even in her inexperienced hands, the mystical sword sliced as cleanly as a hot knife through butter. Tattered prayers from priests long since forgotten, crumbled and fell to the floor, to be trodden on carelessly. She kept going through the maze, straight through the water, and up to the crest emblazoned armor. Now that she was closer, the dark skinned girl could see it was a full head and a half higher than her, and bulkier as well. Truly the armor of a great warrior. Strange mystical glyphs and patterns swirled and ran across it's polished white surface. They were embossed in the finest silver. Her eyes followed the complicated pattern up one arm, across the shoulder, and down to rest dead center of the breast plate. The intricate web had formed a grand design in the center...a stylized version of the rose seen on the outside of the cave. The rose crest of the Ohtori family. But something was missing. Peering even closer, she noticed tiny mechanical gears and locking devices in a gaping hole. The core of the armor was gone. Looking up and seeing odd mushrooms growing along the walls (the source of the room's lighting) she plucked one and used it to illuminate the hole. It was a roundish keyhole. She needed the mechanical key to activate the Guardian. Boot scrapes from behind her at the cave's opening sent ice through her veins and her brain reeling in panic once more. They were here, and now the cave was open! She was out of time, she had to hurry up the procedure. Fumbling under her garments, she produced an oily cloth wrapped about a chunk of metal the size of her fist. The footsteps were running now. Nearly dropping it in her haste, Anthy tore off the wrapping, revealing a three-dimensional, stylized, metal rose. She paid no heed to the metallic projections underneath its bottom or stop to look at the hair thin details crafted on it's petals. She had already gazed at it lovingly hundreds of times. Leaping to her feet, she began slapping it against the metal breastplate, making clinking noises. But her hands were shaking too badly to line it up properly, and it wouldn't fit in the slot. "Anthy! I've caught you now, my lovely witch!" An iron grip snagged her by the hair and wrenched her head painfully backwards. She distantly felt her fingers click the rose into place as she cried out in pain. Her body was flung onto the rock floor of the room. The lovely green haired general stood over her, a sneer contorting his otherwise handsome good looks. "And what have we here? Dabbling in forbidden black magic, I see? Entering a forbidden holy place, and tainting it with your dark sin? His majesty will not be pleased." He moved forward to grab her by the arm, dragging her up to force her bodily into him. She whimpered and made to struggle, but suddenly they both halted. The sound of rotating gears and clicking parts sounded behind them. Both he and Anthy turned and looked on as the rose in the breast plate slowly turned in it's slot, as if by an invisible hand. When it had painstakingly completed one full rotation, a grinding metallic sound came forth and echoed about the room as the rose seemed to creak into the chest. As it disappeared slowly from view, a door slid down hiding the key from view. The panel had a silver worked rose, a flat design identical to the key upon its surface. Seamlessly, the edges of the panel magically fused until it was a solid breastplate. A whir and a hum, and blue lights in the shape of eyes flared to life behind the face mask. The Guardian had awakened. General Saionji wasted no time drawing his sword and snatching Anthy up by the throat, holding his blade out as a clear threat. "What have you done, she-devil! What evil have you brought forth?" The armor took a creaking step forward, then another one, steam hissing out of the joints in the legs and neck. It went robotically to one knee, heedless of the sword pointed at it. A muffled low monotone voice resounded from that frightening helm. "My lady...I am yours to command." Anthy gave a gasping cough, feeling bruises being imprinted in her neck as she vainly fought her captor. Choking out a desperate cry she managed to get words out, "P-protect me!" The green haired black knight shoved Anthy into the wall and flew forward with sword lifted high. "I'll kill your familiar! And then I'll make you PAY!" With a bellow of rage he brought the sword down, only to have it jerk to a sudden unexpected halt between a pair of gauntleted hands. With clicking gears, the armored figure in white stood from it's kneeling position, only slightly shorter than the shocked general. The general himself was pressing down with all of his strength, trying to force his enemy to the ground. But to no avail, the figure bore up with no effort. Anthy fought a wave of nausea, and pulled herself to a sitting position. The sword...had to get...the sword... With her fading strength, she picked up the Holy Sword, and gave a sloppy toss in the Guardian's general direction. Shockingly, the slow hulking form snapped an arm out faster than thought and caught the sword fluidly. It was far different from its earlier movements, and this was not lost on either the witch or the grunting black general. With an uncanny speed, it shoved back the green haired man, and came to a fighting stance with sword at the ready. The sword and knight seemed as one...each a perfect compliment to the other. The scowling black knight lifted his own sword offensively. "Get back demon! I'll send you back to hell!" He lunged forward, steel whistling with power and nightmarish speed. Years of harsh training and combat fueled by hate powering that strike. Sparks flew as it was smoothly parried, and the man was sent stumbling. Turning his foiled strike around into a cutting arc, he was blocked again by that shining then blade. He gave an enraged cry and began hacking and cutting at the silent moving armor, sparks lighting up the dim cavern. Again and again and again they met, before the Guardian's low even voice broke through the silence. "My lady...shall I eliminate him?" Anthy came up out of her haze, having been so preoccupied by watching the two powerful fighters dance and whirl about the room. Temptation seeped into her, but instead she painfully shook her head as she spoke. " N-no, you mustn't kill him! He is one of the king's generals...we can't insight his wrath with his death!" The room spun as her head gave a nauseating throb. The masked clockwork armor gave a crisp nod to itself, and faster than the eye could follow stepped into it's opponent's lunge, Twisting skillfully to avoid the blade, it brought the hilt of it's own sword down on the surprised man's neck. A grunt, and a stumble, then he was down with his eyes rolled up in his skull. The sound of him crashing into the ground reverberated about the damp walls. Kicking the body away, the armor moved over to where Anthy cowered, looking suddenly fearful at the thing approaching her. Seeming to sense her unease, it stopped a bit away from her and once more fell to one knee. "I am ready to serve you...my Princess."
Back to Just Like Clockwork Index - Back to Revolutionary Girl Utena Shoujo-Ai Fanfiction