Warnings/disclaimers: see part 1 total weirdness here.

Bad Dreams part 6

“Are you sure War’s here? This place is so…peaceful.”

 “He loved it here, he could concentrate on strategy in a place like this, where violent emotions were subdued. Sure, he liked violent, but that isn’t all war is. So Death brought him here,” Tella said softly, there was a note of almost pain in her voice.

 “Death an’ War are lovers?”

 “Have been for centuries.”

 “Where are the other two?” Sai asked after looking around and seeing only Tella and Avia.

 “They can’t travel the same way. There’s no fire lit here, and no water where we are. So Mera and Incenta don’t have anywhere to materialize, Avia and I can manage.”

  “So,” Ryou asked. “Where d’ we go?”

 Avia smiled. “That much we know exactly.” Then she flitted off down the hallway. Rowen sighed.

 “As cute as she is, this whole flitting around thing is getting to me.”

 Ryou reached out to stroke the small of his lover’s back. “We should probably follow her.”

 “Right.” It was Kento who took the lead, while Sai very nearly scampered after his friend. The other three followed, having no real wish to get lost in the stone temple and Tella trailed behind them, watching them carefully. It seemed that Kento was the only one who felt at east. Sai was jumpy, staying in the middle of the group and clutching at Kento’s hand whenever he could. Rowen was feeling nearly suffocated, as they headed down the passage, away from open air. Ryou fidgeted his hand still on Rowen’s back caressing fitfully. Sage shivered. Something was going to go wrong. He could feel it. He was the one who had fallen to the back, observing all the others.  Another set of shivers went down his spine; the place reeked of death. Eventually he let his eyes drift from his friends to the carvings on the walls, and jumped. They bothered him as much as the place itself. These weren’t Buddhist, he was sure. They were violent. Strange, multi-armed women holding dripping heads, gods destroying each other and things…things even a Ronin didn’t have the courage to look at. It didn’t seem quite so peaceful anymore. Part of Sage wanted to go and huddle up next to Ryou and Rowen, ask for comfort from his two lovers, but he knew he wouldn’t. It just wasn’t him; his pride wouldn’t allow it. Rowen and Sai could ask for protection and Ryou and Kento would give it willingly, but Sage couldn’t. It wasn’t how he worked.

 “Sage, C’mere.” The soft plea came from Rowen as the blue haired man reached out for his friend. He had seen Sage trembling slightly, and knew that Halo would never admit it for himself. He smiled weakly when Sage strode up beside him. “Wan’ botha ya,” he whispered, it being part truth, part excuse to hold onto Sage. He felt some of his own tension leave as the blonde’s arm wrapped around him, knew it was merely a unconscious manifestation of Halo’s powers, but liked it none the less.

 Avia lead them down another series of twists and turns, the sharp nature of the maze threatening to loose them at any moment. It grew mustier and mustier as they went, and further away from fresh air Avia started to dwindle and fade, and Tella moved quickly to the forefront of their little band.

 “Get out,” she whispered urgently to the wispy girl. Avia nodded and disappeared.

 “Wha-“ Rowen began, the coughed hackingly. Tella nodded.

 “That’s what. Too much dust not enough air and mold I think.”

 “How old is it down here anyway?” Sage asked. “I thought you said Buddhist temple.”

 “On top it is. But it was built over somethin’ older. A cult of some sort, I think.”

 “A…cult.” Ryou shuddered, pulling Rowen closer to him, protective as the man let out another uncontrollable cough.  “Ro, you alright?”

 “Survivin’,” Rowen rasped.

 “I think we’re almost there,” Tella told them, cold hatred rotting her normally warm voice.

 They most certainly were almost there. A few more turns brought them to a large open room with a large stone altar smack in the middle of it. On the altar was a body that while Tella stayed behind, the Ronins (out of some hideous curiosity) crept closer to see.

 The body on the altar was a young man, barely into his twenties. He was tall and golden skinned and red haired, with a gaping, gory hole in his chest where his heart, ribs, and lungs should have been. Ryo shivered, suppressing the urge to shut his eyes and bury his head in Rowen’s shoulder. The man on the altar was beautiful, gorgeous even, but for the hole in his chest where the organs that were left were mottled and brownish.
 Sai choked. “Pestilence did…this?”

 Tella nodded, staring blankly at the carnage. “Avia hasn’t seen it, only Incenta and I.” Large brown eyes raised from the body to stare at Sage. “This is your job, Halo.”

 Sage looked calmly at the body for a good while, while Rowen could feel him shivering. Then he stepped up to it.

 “Sage…” Ryo hesitated.

 “Don’t worry, Ryo. Just don’t let me die.” The tone was heavily sarcastic, but Ryo’s eyes widened in consternation.

 “Sage!”

 Rowen gripped Ryo back while Sage enfolded the body in a green light, and lost himself into it.

 It was green…Sage jumped. He was inside his own power, it was throbbing around him as well as in his veins, and the signature auras of the rest of the Ronins had vanished. Slowly he turned around, glancing carefully at his bare surroundings. It was green, and that was it. But there was someone else there, he felt it but he couldn’t see whoever it was.

 “Relax, Korin no Seiji…I’m not going to kill you.”

 “Who are you then?” Sage demanded.

 “Your worst nightmare,” the voice boomed. Then it laughed. “No, I’m War.”

 “Oh, so it’s you that’s got a gaping hole in his chest.”

 “Well…yes.” Suddenly the red haired man he had seen resting, dead on the altar was standing in front of him, glowing slightly golden and totally whole. “You’re not quite so tactful in your own mind as outside are you?”

 “Is that where we are?” Sage asked, ignoring the question.

 “Ummm, kind of. I don’t really know how else to explain it,” he sighed. “Gideon would know.”

 “Gideon?”

 “Death, my lover, my better half perhaps I could say. My smarter half at least. The one who will be very unhappy with the world in general if I stay dead. Speaking of which, are you going to fix me or not?”

 “I don’t really know how.”

 “Yes you do.”

 “I…” but War was gone. And there was only green again, green that was slowly collecting back into Sage himself.

 
 The other Ronins watched with wide eyes at the green misty light emanating from their beautiful friend, only to be drawn back into him minutes later, causing Sage to fairly glow. His eyes were shut, so relaxed it was as if he was in bliss from the extra power in him.

 “Now, Sage.” Tella hissed urgently and there was a…bump in the room. Everything seemed to jolt as all that collected power flowed out of Halo and into War. Slowly, carefully, the organs lost their brown, mottled look and the missing ones began to grow back, layer by layer, till Sage was growing the bones, then muscle, then skin back on to the elemental’s body. He stood there for a moment, staring at War at new-opened green eyes blinked up at him. Then he wavered, and blacked out, collapsing back into Rowen and Ryo, who caught him and held him protectively.

 War worked his jaw with his hand for a minute partly rubbing it thoughtfully and partly cracking it. Then he stood and stretched so his back popped. Tella winced.

 “Zhane, Gideon will kill me if I let you do that, you know he says it kills your bones.”

 War smiled, flashing shiny white teeth. “Well that’s just tough for lover boy, ain’t it?” He turned his attention to the Ronins, intending to say something to them when there was another pop in the room.

 “Zhane!”

 War slammed himself around and right into the newcomer without even stopping to think and was wrapped in a welcoming pair of skinny, black clad arms.

 “Zhane, Zhane, I was so scared, love, the only time in my life I’ve wished for a different job, sweet gods, Zhane, I thought I was going to give up without you.”

 “Love you too, Gid.”

 “Zhane…” the name was barely as breath as the black robed, black haired young man that was Death bent to kiss his shorter lover deeply and passionately. A heavy looking plain black scythe dangled from the hand Death had wrapped around his lover’s back.

 Kento was just beginning to wonder just how long the two beings could go without air when War pulled back, a crazy grin on his handsome face.

 “Later, Gideon. I haveta thank the warrior dudes.”

 “Zhane,” if Kento hadn’t known better he would have classified that as a whine. As it was he stood stunned, watching the two elementals. War stretched up a few inches, kissing his lover on the cheek.

 “I love ya, Gid, but you’re so fucking overprotective sometimes.”

 “I was scared.”

 “I’m sorry.”

 “It’s not your fault.” Gideon's face was a mask of pure pain, Zhane grimaced and seemed to almost explode,

"Well it wasn't yours either!"

 “It bloody well felt like it!”

 And then War was back in Death’s arms, holding onto his lover and mate as if the world might very well end around them.

 “Gods…Gideon, I’m so sorry. I’m so fucking sorry.”

 “Zhane…”

 “Boys, this is beautiful an’ I wish we had th’ time. But He’s out there now.”

 War looked up at Tella and there were tears misting in his green eyes. “Avia’s sick, isn’t she?”

 “Everything’s sick!” Tella spat, then she sighed, looking at the ground. “Av’s sick…very sick. And she won’t show it."

 War straightened, his hand still gripping his lover’s but his eyes were dangerous.

 “Then we got work ta do, don’t we? So, Ronins…” he grinned.

 “Don’t do anything stupid, Zhane,” Death whispered.

 “I won’t,” War looked directly at the Ronins. “So you got me back. And now you have to let Famine free.”

 “And then get Pestilence,” Ryou added.

 “Yeah, gotta plow that scary little fucker right back to his hole.”

 “Then weah is Famine bein’ kept?” Rowen asked, brushing his hair out of his face slightly his other arm still holding tightly onto Sage.

 “Wherever that fuck that killed me is hiding.”

 “Desert supposedly,” Sai nodded.

 “Well we’re just stalling then if we stay here, aren’t we?” War was practically hopping from foot to foot. In a flash of green light he and Death disappeared. Rowen pouted up at Tella.

 “Do we have to walk back through that again?”

 “Yes.”

 Ryou sighed and handed a still unconscious Sage to Rowen. “I’ll carry him on my back if you’ll give me a hand getting him there.”

 Kento was about to offer to carry Sage when he saw the terrified, fierce possessiveness in both Ryou and Rowen’s eyes. There was no way those two were about to let their blond lover away from them. He sighed; practically preying that things would go safely. Sai looked at him, eyes full of worry.

 “It’ll all be ok, Kento, really it will.”

 Kento sighed, gathering Torrent against him as they started back out of the temple. “I hope so, Sai.”

 It was stark and dry back out in the desert air, and Avia joined them immediately, flitting around Tella’s shoulders. War and Death were standing beside the temple when they got out of it. War had…not so much changed as added. He was standing tall, or as tall as he could next to his lover a huge broadsword gripped in one hand. He held it far more casually than Death held his scythe, but with power none the less. As if he could cut you into a thousand pieces without so much as thinking about it. The grin on his face was terrifying.

 “Are we going to go kill the fuck or what?”

 Death chuckled, a deep, warm noise, and nuzzled into his lover’s neck, War just growled.

 “We need to save the bloody world and you just want to kiss me?”

 The Ronin’s giggled nervously and Death grinned slightly manicly.

 “Yeah, Zhane, I kinda do.”


Yeah, I know. More cute gay guys...I totally can't resist.
Back to part 5
back to Ronin fics