FicWad

Chapter 11

The wind whipped around the sky warrior's armored frame as her winged stallion soared through the blood stained clouds, spiraling upward. They began to surround her much like the waves of Neptune once had; only unlike then, the air coursed through her being and energized her.

The bursts of air rushed past the wind entity's ears at a dangerous pace, as if like she was being sucked into the vortex of the sky. It formed words in her mind, battle cries. It ran across her skin like friendly caresses of old friends patting her on the back, helping her upward, pushing her onward.

The voices of the wind were old friends. It was lost companions and allies who had died in the name of blood soaked missions when she had being allowed to live on. It was an admired older brother telling his sister that he loved her for the final time on the last day she seen him alive. It was a cerulean haired woman who had wept surrounded by an adolescents embrace, unknowingly giving pathway to her fate. It was the heart wrenching whisper of an angst-ridden lover, telling her to return alive and to be careful. The feel of the kiss still lingered on Uranus's mouth, the taste of sweetness from tear dampened skin which had lovingly caressed her own before they had parted.

And this battle had more significance then she could have ever imagined, for now it was also for the soft spoken maiden who once had the glassy look of tears that weren't allowed to fall. It was for the now freed anguish of unspoken torture trapped within the sea maid's eyes that churned much like the waves their self, that had matched Uranus's own. It was for the soft smile that the warrior was given despite the throat chocking fear of the unknown and the ill-fated chance that her lover might not return. This fight was to make sure that, that smile remained on Neptune's face, forever; to return peace and order to a lost cause and spend immortality with her lover forever by her side as King and Queen.

She took in gulp fills of air as she breathed, a smirk crossed her features. It was a rare look of a martyr before their last mission, the anticipation of the fight of the long over due showdown, which began to make her heart race. She began to feel the darkness of her opponents energy mix through the wind and her senses sharpened considerably. Off gray eyes searched the horizon and endless sea of clouds while still she soared through the air.

The hair on the back of her neck rose on end; this was it.

Sword already drawn, she flexed her grip as if testing its presence once more. She murmured into her stallions ear words thickly coated with the growing urge to fight and the swell of anxiety to end this once and for all.

"Get ready."

Anyone else wouldn't have been able to hear it from the roaring wind but her stallion did and snorted in reply, thrusting its powerful wings once more, carrying them closer.

Suddenly, the air seemed to completely change and was stuck frozen, as is holding its breath. All the energy was focused in this condensed space and moment. Off to her right was a horrible crack of lightening that illuminated the sky and eerie dark gold mixed from purpley blood red clouds. She grabbed the reins and turned her horse in that direction just in time to feel thunder with sent a rumble through the heavens ripping the clouds apart.

Across the horizon at a distance away, the parting clouds revealed a mounted figure on a winged war horse as black as the darkness surrounding it, like dangerous velvet. The figures lips twisted into a sort of smirking smile.

"So you came. I was surprised you weren't dead."

Uranus just kept her eyes locked on the warlord and the shifting darkness radiating from him with a cool glare of hatred growing within her chest. Every fiber of her being trembled with energy as she wanted to rip him to shreds; she gripped her sword so tight, her knuckles turned white. But the churnings of the waves below the heavens warned her to think before she acted and so she kept her mind and senses on top of all else and not to make a mistake in brash actions. So she just smiled, as if she held a sort of secret. Her eyes lost most of their previous torment. Before, she was just as a loose thread to be plucked or left alone, life didn't matter. Now she was woven into something and knotted securely with such a bond, the man wondered if even he could break it apart.

"There's something different about you." He said slowly looking the determined strong winged form over intensely, taking in each feature, studying each crack or flaw, shield or defense. Like a calculator punching in the numbers to try and come up with a sum to get an estimation of what was to be expected. But his mental searching was blocked by some other form of magic he had not expected or sensed in their last encounter. It was like a netting of energy surrounding the woman warrior inside and out, a woven pure magic almost as strong as his dark. He smirked and licked his lips in a greedy fashion.

"Yes." He concluded again with a glimmer in his eye, the other being previously wounded and covered by a leather bandage from sight. If it had been uncovered there would be a crude faded line from where a blade sliced over the flesh. He touched it a bit while he wondered, as if it still hurt him. "And once I find out what it is, I'm going to enjoy taking it from you."

"Like Hell you will." Uranus coolly replied pleased to see her work had blinded the man long ago when she slashed at him with his own dagger. The next thing she said she tried hard to keep her mocking tone to a serious nonchalant, as if making conversation to a distant friend on the street. She intended to add insult to injury.

"What's the matter? Is something ailing you?"

The warlord dropped his hand from his wounded eye and took up his stallions reins instead, the beast in turn pawed at the air and snorted; foam dripped from its mouth and its eyes were red and glowing. Man and horse were filled to the core with evil energy, mere puppets for the evil. He acted like her words and mannerisms didn't affect him at all but he was enraged. It was going to harder then he thought to beat her, he hadn't expected the surviving heir of Neptune and the woman of the winds, to bind together. He hadn't expected the wench to live at all, either of them.

"Enough. Let's just get this started, shall we?" He spoke finally through the metal of his armors helmet as it clicked down into position. "Jousting style? Like two proper knights should?" He laughed a little. "Considering I am a powerful sorcerer and you a mere woman, its anything but proper isn't it? I was always one for role-playing myself."

Transparent gold light shimmered in her hand as Uranus formed a helmet slipping it on; armor appeared over her robes as well as old anger soared to mix with new. She let his comment roll of her skin like water. "It was always a game for you wasn't it? Some type of sick twisted game."

The dark knight laughed. "Half the fun is what will happen when I win. You were always such a hard prize to attain. I've been after you for a long time; how wonderful it will be to see you weak and helpless when I break you down beyond repair. I almost succeeded once."

She swung her sword in a loose circle as if loosening her arm. The blade sang an eerie song of war stories and anguished battle fields. It had known of blood and hate before. "Then come and get me."

"My pleasure, M'Lady." He mocked as he kicked the black horse into a gallop, its rider hunching low to balance and steady, his sword like a lance. Uranus smirked a little and readied her own sword before taking up the reins; with a signal the strong horse galloped and beat its thick wings. The wind picked up and pushed her forward, she concentrated on her target. With a horrible clang of metal their swords met their intensions. Uranus sword merely tapped its opponents shoulder but placed in such a way that it would jolt the rider enough that there was a chance they would be dismounted.

They got ready again, she shook out her sword arm bit getting used to the impact before they charged. She concentrated on her target again, wondering what he was truly up to. This was too simple; knightly tournaments just weren't his style. Surely he hadn't started all of this and planed it so meticulously to just end it with a simple duel as this. Himmelskoenig's ear pricked forward mid charge, the atmosphere changed as a growing mist creped in. One minute she saw her target the next they were in a sea of mist again.

"What a coward using trickery." She muttered angrily trying mentally commanding the wind to blow the fog back. Something within her whispered to try something different. The symbol on her forehead glowed a moment teal before returning to gold, and the fog began to churn and move like waves, collecting to crash and collect again till it no longer blocked her. The war lord had stopped to collect magic, using the fog as a distraction to gather power to him and catch her off guard. She tugged the reins in his direction and charged the horse forward to slash at him.

"Haruka, he's below you. That's a decoy!" A soft voice in her mind warned, but it was too late to stop. His image rippled puffing into smoke as it distorted and tore under the blade's edge.

"Scheisse!" Uranus swore angrily under her breath as she kept her stallion from rearing. She looked down just in time to see the real warlord below her and a gathering of energy that fed of the darkness spiraling in her direction. Using magic he created a mirror image of himself and somehow Neptune knew which one was real and had she not told her, by the time the knight would have known the blast would have taken her at full force.

The blast only really tapped her shoulder but Uranus faked a blow and fell back as if demounted from her horse. He turned around and followed its mistress, whose wings were tucked back, diving into the lower cloud clad sky. The war lord smirked pleased, sure that his magic was true and perhaps that he had won. But a battle cry behind him made him gasp as he turned to find the winged knight holding up her hand as a golden orb formed there, the air thick and distorting from the waves of her energy. In a strong voice she provoked her magic.

"Welterschütternd!"

The heir of the wind lowered her hand into a down ward thrust as the orb rumbled across the sky like horrendous thundering electric. Her enemy's war horse reared in fright as the blast took him by surprise. Uranus began to create a strong whirl wind to act as a shield readying for the next attack while the warlord collected himself and wondered silently how much longer this battle could be, and to what extent.

A figure contained within a shifting world of cerulean teals and sea greens stared anxiously at the surface of the sea above, watching and waiting, scarcely breathing. Her eyes were blurry from the threat of tears and the way her eyes were unfocused, lost in present memories which lingered so close to reality but like thorns they pricked her heart because she knew that was all that they were.

'She said she loved me for eternity. '

Neptune held a long soft feather in her hands touching it with her fingers. Haruka had given it to her from her own wing some time before the bonding on one carefree after noon. It had been one of the few times they had forgotten the threat of the evil. Neptune smiled in memory.
It was one of those rare moments when the sun light had managed to filter through the thick foliage of vanilla and weeping willow trees of Neptune's surface. It was pleasantly humid, instead of the moist chill that was the usual atmosphere. Two beings were enjoying the weather and the pleasant relief that the water gave. Well technically one; that which the element belonged and the other who was still uneasy around the waves in which she had previously intruded.

A winged figure was stretched out letting the sun on her wings, its mermaid companion surfaced elegantly from one of her appreciated dives to escape the heat and waved to the stubborn winged form that choose to sit on their rocky perch once again for that day.

"Oh come on my winged one," she began with a playful teasing in her voice. "The water's calm today. It's not going to hurt you; I promise."

Uranus's feathers pricked and ruffled in defense.

"I simply don't feel like getting wet. I know very well that the waters not going to hurt me. I'm stronger then that. I was only caught off guard that one time." Uranus scoffed.

"Ah, I see. Well you're going to bake in the heat. It's not often here that we have so much sunlight. It feels so much better in the water."

"I'm fine, thanks." Uranus was enjoying the warmth, even though the heat was making her begin to sweat. The sea maiden sighed a little and swam up into the crater like pool in the rocks surface since the tide was higher then usual that day. Laying her head in her arms, she watched as salty drips fell from her fingers like tears with no particular pattern. A young orange, golden feathered Gryphon circled in the air before landing beside the droplets attracted by the movement of the water.

Neptune had thought they were getting closer the other day but now the distance between them had been felt again, had she been wrong? Haruka changed like the wind and the moments leave just as fast. While she thought, her hand petted the young small cat like bird creature that made a purring type of clicking noise. Uranus scoffed at this.

"Spoiled parakeet." She muttered watching the scene behind half lowered eye lids for once relaxed, and slightly drowsy from the sun she missed so much in the mist of Neptune. The awkward distance of the moment gone, her mermaid companion smiled a little knowingly and turned her attention to the jealous winged form beside her. To Uranus's surprise she reached out a damp hand to run through the inside of her wing. Her hand felt refreshingly good against the heated feathers, despite herself Haruka smiled pleasantly and her wing shuddered. As if caught she blushed and acted like Neptune was doing something completely barbaric; after all she was petting her.

"Pray, Mermaiden, what are you doing?" Uranus asked trying to act annoyed but Neptune just smiled and scratched the outer edges of her wings which distracted her from sounding anything but truthful; and truthfully, it felt good. Ignoring the question Neptune just continued to pet her gorgeous wings, taking advantage of the unusualness of the day.

"I saw you before dawn; you flew as if you were going to leave but you returned. You're still here."

Uranus's eyes softened a bit but she tried not to let it show as much.

"I wasn't leaving for good. Yet." She added the end as a second thought; she didn't want her to think she was going to stay and then break her heart. "I have to keep my wings from getting stiff and being in one position for long doesn't help."

"I'm glad you're still here." Neptune admitted and moved closer resting her head on the Knight's lap feeling her leg muscles tense from the new way in which she was touched, as of late pleasantly gentle. Uranus found her self running her fingers gingerly through the sea maiden's teal waves and curls. Her hair was surprisingly soft despite years of salt water and rare days of bleaching sun, as this day. In turn, the mermaid found her own hand which dropped from the dark hued wings to move along tanned skin muscle toned calves down to the toes; admiringly. The venerable knight yelped snatching her legs away like as if she were bit and looking to her with mixed expressions.

"I'm sorry. Did I do something wrong? It's just that I've always wondered what it was like to have what you do. You're a gorgeous creature."

Uranus looked to her and struggled for composure again but instead found her self wanting to sooth the maiden's concern back into placid. How could she make her understand?

"My legs are very sensitive to touch," She finally blurted out assuming that the mermaid would understand the terms she used. "I'm... ah. ticklish."

"Ticklish?" The maiden mocked testing the word on her tongue as if it were foreign.

"Oh I think I know what you mean..." She reached up and gave the already startled knight a quick but direct kiss, the urgency of results from her experiment and the innocence of her manner shinned in the mermaid's eyes and she pretended not to notice her companion turn three shades of red as she blushed fiercely.

"Ticklish! ?"

"Um. err. No, that's something else." Haruka stammered in defense as she heard her laugh and smiled then thinking she should more often.

On impulse she slid halfway into the salt watery pool and picked up the mermaid in her arms sitting her onto her lap. The water made her lighter then she was and to Uranus it was nothing at all to do so. It was Neptune's turn to blush then but as if it was natural to do so she wrapped her arms around her neck and tucked her face into the nook between Uranus's neck and shoulder.

"I'm really going to miss you."

Uranus couldn't really understand the love she felt from her and admittedly, that she felt for her. Love had never been in play before in her life till now. There was a tugging feeling in her heart. The moment was paused and both were quiet, the gentle clapping of the waves the only sound until Neptune felt Uranus's arm shift and her wings shutter a little. She looked up surprised to see a beautifully long and soft looking blue hued feather like the sky, handed to her.

"What's this for?" She asked awed holding it gingerly in her hands, running her finger along the soft airy edge.

"It's for you. To remember me by" The next words were spoken so softly that she could barely hear them but she did. "You have been so kind to me; it's the least I could do."

"But won't it get ruined? The water will." Haruka ran her hand along the length of it and blessed it with magic so it would not loose its beauty or form in the water. It glowed golden for a moment before returning back to before.

"Dip it in and see."

Neptune hesitated a moment before doing what she said, she was relieved to see the water roll off in droplets. She hugged her happily feeling like she acquired a wonderful, precious gift. After a moment she felt the hug return with growing strength.

"Thank you; I don't know what to say. This was so nice of you to do." She said sincerely.

"It was nothing... I loose feathers like that almost every day. I don't mind, really."

Neptune took one of the white small calm shells from a bracelet Uranus never noticed before and handed it to her in turn.

"For you...now I have a part of you to remember, as you have of me. The sea will always be with you now"

Little did she know just how much it could be in the future as she said those words.

Uranus smiled after a moment too touched to be anything but humbled and tucked the shell into the small compartment in her belt. She deiced later to try and string it onto a piece of cord somehow to wear it around her neck, she was constantly exploring the island and thought she found some twine from a previous source anyway.

"Now then", the knight began returning the moment back to the previous, "It's hard for me to believe you are that naïve. You knew exactly what you were doing didn't you?

Neptune smiled knowingly and shrugged a little.

"I suppose I know some things more then others."

Almost as curiously as Neptune petted her wings, Uranus touched her hand to the Mermaid's fin. Her hand pulled back a second later surprised; intrigue crossed her features more then anything. The maiden noticing her mistake, gave her a playful warning.

"Be careful, I'm more dangerous then I look." She reached out for her hand to check on the wound from her delicate yet dangerous scales. The knight smirked batting the offer away which strove to mend even the tiniest of wounds, including the one she just received.

It was hard to believe such a gentle creature being any type threat. But she figured even the tamest creatures had defense mechanisms. Neptune smiled a little at her stubbornness and placed her hand back on her lower half again.

"If your brush back against the scales, they cut you." She slid her hand along her tail in a downward motion. "But if you move with them, then it's fine."

Uranus smiled letting her teach her, even though she had figured it out. As soon as the error happened she knew exactly the right way. It was as if something clicked within her.

"I know." The knight admitted looking to her. There was something in her eyes that made Neptune's heart quicken but in an instant it was gone. Like as gentle and refreshing as a tame wind; and also as quick and distant as a passing breeze.

"I wish this day could never end."
Michiru smiled in memory,running the tip of Haruka's feather across her cheek. Happiness filled her heart as she remembered the time spent with her gentle eyed warrior. Then, as the sky above roared from thunder again, reality reminded her of the danger and present predicament. Her tears of happiness were frozen by the tears of sorrow. Her heart was caught in-between both emotions. The feeling of unknowing froze their fall against her cheek. It was if she was numb, torn inside and somewhere in between.

She lay down against the cool sand and closed her eyes concentrating on the fight. The bonding had allowed her a connection to the winged knight and the sky which she could tell from its roaring winds, was still deep in battle.

Her hand dug into the sand as her jaw clenched.

"Haruka. I wish I could help you fight! I am worthless here; I want to be with you by your side."

Her loves promise echoed faintly in her memory to remain under water as it was safer and Haruka must have also known she would have tried to help and wouldn't have been able to concentrate on the fight knowing Michiru could be in danger.

"I will wait for you then. I have faith in you. Haruka, I love you."

The finned maiden curled herself into a ball; eyes closed and listened to the elements around her.

How much longer?
Hours had past and the fight had lingered on, broke apart, and then went strong again. Both fighters of this two person war were sore and tired, in some cases wounded but none showed their fatigue, honor and pride being too much for either of them. During a thrust of her sword, Uranus's blade caught something around the war lord's neck and it lost slack as she brought her sword back. It snapped against her blade with a clean metal like noise and was flung a few feet away, a glowing orb dangled on it.

It was a type of necklace, an amulet, which had been concealed by the folds of the war lord's tunic and armor but throughout the fight the movement caused it to be pushed up and dangled dangerously free. Uranus didn't realize it then but things clicked together as she saw it snap, when seconds in the fight had slacked, the warlord had risked the time to protect the necklace. She had never given him the full chance to so, and his hand dropped for defense reasons.

He gave one look to her to see if she paid it any attention but his urgency kept him from acting calm, he dove for it but she was too fast. In a gust of wind and she had rolled and snatched it up her wings carrying her a few feet in the air out of his reach while she expected it. Her eyes were cool and calculated, chilling, as she looked down to him her mouth set in a slight frown. He glared up at her fuming with anger but concealed it in all but a horribly red aura. She had figured out what it must have been even before his urgency for the item provided the conclusions.

"You were using their life energy. Their souls, their powers!" She trembled, chilled to the very core. "You..Bastard!!"

Suddenly she snapped, her raw anger over decades, all the unneeded blood, tears and pain swelled in her and she began to attack him with a relentless amount of blows, some magic and some with her blade. With his source of power weakened considerably, he could just block; a grimaced was set on his now graying form.

A calm voice in Haruka's mind brought her back to reason and she touched the ground again and took a few steps back from the man holding his possession in her hands. Neptune was right, that wouldn't solve anything, what she was about to do would hurt him a lot worse then any wound could.

With a satisfying 'crunch' she broke the orb in her hand, the shards of glass falling delicately through her fingers, glittering against the sandy wind blown terrain like newly fallen blood. The trapped light escaped and swirled around her freely; voices filled her mind and made her breath catch in her chest as she closed her eyes painfully. Those voices had been so new in her mind even though they had been gone so long. The light healed her before returning back to its master, cutting into him from the inside out; breaking down his magic till he was nothing but a mere man. She watched, his screaming something horrible and wonderful at the same time. She could no look away.

All the people though decades he had killed for his cause, all the people he manipulated and used, were now free. Like a leech he sucked off their life energy all this time to increase and build upon his power. Now he was just a man, a wicked man with a doomed soul.

She was almost smiling as she walked up upon him and threw the now worthless, rusted chain at his feet and he lay on the ground, his life on a delicate balance.

"Their souls are free now, free from you. All this time...I'd kill you now if you didn't deserve the torture that holding onto life brings you."

Truthfully, she was surprised he was still alive, taking away the energy which consumed him should have killed him; that meant there was another jewel somewhere on him. She used this time to search for it out of the corner of her eye while she talked.

"You're not such a powerful lord now are you? No, you were nothing but a coward."

The man smirked a little grimly and wiped a small stream of trickling blood away from his nose with the back of his hand, he met her eyes. For once she didn't see only the evil there, or his masking anger. She saw pain, a soul gone mad from deep pain and a natural wretchedness which like a seedling, just needed one thing to cause it to germinate and grow within him.

"Your mother was just like you; a Free, independent, beautiful spirit, but untamed. She promised her heart to me. She promised the throne to me! I had been a solider for the Uranian army then, fighting for her damned kingdom. And when I returned, she had been married. She promised me the heir of Uranus, she promised me her children...!"

Seeing Haruka pale slightly, he continued like a murderer on their death bed.

"It had been the night she borne you."

His voice lingered as if keeping some sort of secret. Uranus felt her blood turn to ice as he said this; she snatched his sword from its sheath and looked toward the jewel at the end on the bottom of the hilt. It glowed fiercely with dark blue swirling power, flecked with gold; she felt slightly sick. The man continued his story, lost in his own confessions and the state of a man on lingering on death. He didn't make an attempt to keep her from taking the sword either; he was lost in the past.

"It was easy enough to get in. When she suddenly fell ill, your father was too preoccupied with her sickness to properly focus his attention on the kingdom. He needed help, and so hired me unknowingly. The very cause for his dear wife's death, she was pregnant of course, the effort of labor took all she had though." Uranus listened spell bound, she could do nothing but that, all with a mask on her face. "They blamed her death on you, but if I hadn't had made her sick she wouldn't have died. If your father knew her as well as me he would have known her spirit was too strong for something as child labor to kill her. He laughed coughing blood. "She should have married me..."

When Uranus found her voice again it was surprising calm and calculated, she was beyond anger or spite. She was relieved of all the pain and guilt of being the cause of her mother's death. And she just wanted this nightmare to be over, she knew he wanted her to lash out at him but she wasn't going to do that. She was going to torture his soul by giving him a seemingly easy death.

"With you will end these immortal wars. With your death, their spirits will be set at peace at last. I will live happily and build up this kingdom to its glory again, as King, and your name will never be spoken with fear again. No, never uttered again."

With that, Haruka smashed the bottom of the hilt against a rock, shattering the glass as light poured out; clearing the gloom and the evil with it. It rushed past Haruka as a warm, strong, yet gentle wind; which was scented like morning glories, and filled Haruka's soul with reassurance. It had been the flower of Uranus, long before she was borne.

The Queen of Uranus's spirit which was so new and odd to her daughter swept up and joined the wind above them. The roaring of the winds calmed considerably. The heir of Uranus looked down as the body of her enemy faded, as did all of his possessions. She uttered a prayer in Uranian for all that had been wronged by him, and walked away slowly across the terrain. The hope of her future, burned now within her.

Finally her soul was truly able to love freely.