http://clampfix.fanworks.net/others/iris4.txt </head><body><pre>Heyla! This is the fourth part of a six part Clover 'fic which takes place about two and a half years after the end of Clover 2. This part contains many *spoilers* for Clover, and might be a little confusing to anyone who doesn't have a solid background knowledge of the manga. The 'fic also contains borderline yaoi content (it's not too explicit, but it doesn't really fit under the umbrella of shounen- ai), as well as containing liberal helpings of both angst and violence. Thou hast been warned. :> Heartfelt appreciation goes out to Kristin, for valiantly wading through a much earlier draft. :) Previous parts of this 'fic are available at: http://www.crosswinds.net/~sunshine60/basement/cpage.html Comments and suggestions are welcomed. Jonna ******** Previously-- Gingetsu and Kazuhiko approach their destination, with the goal of rescuing Lan from the people who've kidnapped him. Iris, one of the residents of the building where Lan is being held, reveals to him that she is a fellow Three-leaf of the Clover Project. She professes to know some of the details concerning the project, and promises to tell him a little about its history. ******** Clover Iris by Jonna Coombs Part 4 of 6 posted October 6, 2001 ******** DISCLAIMER: The characters of Clover do not belong to me, but instead are property of the wonderful and extremely talented manga group CLAMP (and their associates). This is a work of fanfiction, and is posted for non-commercial entertainment purposes only. ******** Lan stood alone in the shade of tall evergreens, one hand splayed against the much darker background of a living tree. It was beautiful here. The air around him was cool and fresh, and heavy with the scents of earth and pine. Beneath his sneakers, a rusty layer of shed needles lay in a rich carpet over the ground, while above him stretched a thick canopy of branches. This grove of trees was only one small piece of a much larger domain, a glassed-in nature preserve that surrounded him on all sides. The place was artfully arranged and immaculately cared for, a haven of green that seemed designed to make those who visited feel contented and at peace. If Lan hadn't been a prisoner here, he would have liked it very much. He listened to the gentle murmur of the wind in the trees, knowing that what he heard wasn't a real breeze--just a stirring of air by huge fans located high above in their framework of metal and glass. Using magic, he reached for, but couldn't touch, the electrical circuits that powered those fans. The dome that shut this place off from the outside formed a complete barrier. Even the electronics built into it were sealed beyond the limits of a Clover's powers. The rough bark of the tree trunk pressed intricate patterns into the surface of Lan's palm. The bark had grown in layers of complex and chaotic shapes that flaked off like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle if he pressed down too hard. Earlier, in another section of the gardens, he had come upon a stand of white trees where the bark had peeled back from the trunks in strips, showing pink underneath like the inside of a shell. A little farther on there had been a small clearing in the midst of a grove of willows, where flowers blossomed freely in every color imaginable. Beyond that he had found the glass wall that marked the edge of the dome. He had searched along it, looking for a way to escape this place--because for all its peaceful atmosphere, for all its exotic wonders and painstakingly cultivated beauty, this place was not the place where he belonged. The exits were obvious, he had found at least two of the huge gates that were set into the wall of the dome. But he quickly discovered that the sturdy iron and glass doors were ones that he couldn't use magic to open. His kidnappers had locked them with a deadbolts and padlocks, and Lan didn't have any keys. So he waited, having no other choice, listening to the sound of the wind. Waiting for Iris to complete whatever task she had been called away for, so that she could come back, and explain to him why he was here. "You look lonesome," someone purred, from very, very close by. The intrusion of that familiar voice caused Lan to look up immediately. There was a man standing barely two paces away from him, a man wearing a jacket of the Azurite military. He was very tall, a centimeter or two taller than Gingetsu, even, and equally as broad. But while Gingetsu's quiet presence radiated safety and calm, this man was just the opposite, oozing threat. Lan stared at him, thinking numbly that Barus had always looked smaller when translated into pixels on a computer screen. Lan swallowed, and recovered his voice. "I'm waiting for someone." The comment earned him a delighted smile. "How about that. So am I." Barus' eyes, shaded behind the circular lenses of a pair of sunglasses, glinted with an anticipation that was profoundly unsettling. "Perhaps we should wait together." Cold was beginning to invade Lan's stomach. He had done jobs with the Secret Colors Battalion often enough that he was very well aware of the White Leopard's reputation. With great difficulty, Lan forced himself not to look upwards. There were security cameras built into the glass dome, he was certain of it. But the heavy screen of pine branches blocked the view from above as effectively as it blocked the sunlight. It was very possible that no one even knew Barus was here. Barus took a step forward. In almost involuntary response, Lan took a step back. The Azurite officer crossed his arms, having the gall to look hurt. The fabric of his jacket hardly whispered with the motion. How could someone that big move so quietly? "It only makes sense," Barus insisted. "If we're both waiting, don't you think we should keep ourselves entertained?" He took another measured step forward, and Lan retreated again--not realizing that he was being herded until he felt the unyielding bark of a tree trunk at his back. Lan placed his right hand flat against the surface of the trunk and shifted his weight to step to the side, preparing to bolt. He hadn't realized how fast Barus was, or how far he could reach. A hand caught him roughly by the front of the shirt, twisting the fabric tight and shoving him back against the tree behind him. A second hand clamped itself beneath Lan's chin. "Don't go so soon," Barus murmured happily. "See, the Prince hasn't arrived yet, and I don't have anyone to play with until he gets here." Pushing at Barus was like trying to move a wall, and the fingers fisted firmly in the black cloth of Lan's T-shirt couldn't be pried free. Desperate, Lan drove his knee upward, only to have the other man effortlessly block the attack. "Cute." Barus stepped inside the arc of Lan's legs, effectively foiling further attempts. The solid weight of the man's body pinned him back against the tree, and Barus lowered his face until it was barely centimeters away. "But really, you're no challenge at all." Strong fingers dug painfully into the corners of Lan's jaw, and his throat closed over a small noise of pain as his clenched teeth slid apart. He writhed, trying vainly to escape as his assailant leisurely took possession of his mouth in a bruising and invasive kiss. This man was much stronger, strong enough to take anything he wanted by force, and Lan was helplessly unable, on his own, in this place, to do anything to prevent it. Barus was not quick, nor was he gentle in his exploration. When at last he drew back again, both of them were breathing hard. He shifted his hold on Lan's chin, pushing it back to glide his lips along the young man's bared throat. The muscles there quivered and contracted with reaction as Lan swallowed hard. He felt Barus smile. Those slimy lips found and traced his collarbone, then worked their way back up the side of his windpipe. The grip on his shirt loosened, and a hand pushed up beneath the fabric to touch skin. Lan flinched, fighting back nausea and panic. "D-don't..." he managed. Barus chuckled deeply beside his ear, and stubble scratched along the side of Lan's face. "Come now. Who do you think took care of you while you were sleeping? The trip across the border was long and boring, and I had to keep entertained somehow." The wandering hand became more adventurous. "Actually, this is all familiar territory to me." Lan's exclamation of disgust was muffled, his breath stopped beneath the advance of that cruel mouth. <I don't...I can't...can't let this happen....> Lan closed his eyes, summoning his magic and casting out blindly for anything he might be able to use in his defense. He had the sinking feeling that his own magic wasn't going to be enough to save him. There was nothing within this prison that a Three-leaf's powers could affect, and each time he tried to reach beyond the walls of the dome, his magic was rebuffed by the thick, impervious glass. <There.> He almost missed it, the traces were so faint. It was the tiniest of signals, the buried pulse of an electrical current. Not above him, but below. There were rooms far underneath the dome, shielded by thick layers of rock and concrete. If he reached, he could just barely touch the circuits of alarms and lights and computers with his thoughts. Fear lent him strength, and he wrapped his mind around those interconnecting wires, to rip them free of their housings and drag them up through the stone. A strong wave of Clover magic, with Iris' 'presence' laced all through it, smashed through that desperate contact, shattering Lan's power. The recoil of that gathered magic caught him unprepared, and his body spasmed in reaction as if jolted by an electrical current. "Barus!" A woman's voice intruded, cold and sharp. Iris. Barus chose to ignore her. "Barus!" Louder, and closer this time. The words that came next were frosted with ice. "Unless you want to single-handedly sabotage everything that we've accomplished so far, I suggest that you release him right now. Or have you forgotten that you have other work to do?" The big man paused a moment, appearing to consider. Then, because he could, he trapped Lan for one last, lingering kiss. Before drawing away, he allowed his breath to trace with deceptive softness against the side of Lan's cheek. "Don't miss me too much," he murmured. "We may get to play more later, after all." The imprisoning hands loosened, and Lan staggered to the side, away and out of his reach. With a single, mocking nod in Iris' direction, Barus turned on his heel and sauntered off into the trees. "Why," Lan asked shakily, after he had gone, "Why are you cooperating with him?" Iris looked off in the direction he had gone, her expression betraying deep feelings of guilt. "I'm sorry," she said. "He won't be staying here much longer." She turned to Lan and bowed apologetically. "I've been a poor hostess, to leave you waiting here so long. Is there anything you need?" Lan shivered, his skin still flushed and crawling with the memory of that man's touch. "Some running water would be nice." Iris led him to the bank of a small stream, a flow pumped quickly over smooth stones to generate a current. There she left him in privacy, while Lan spent a long time trying to wash the clinging taint from his skin, the foul taste from his mouth. When at last he felt less dirty, he stayed kneeling beside the stream, his thoughts as unsettled and turbulent as the surface of the water. He sensed Iris walk up behind him. "You were going to tell me," he reminded her, "why I've been brought here." "Yes." She knelt on the side of the streambed beside him. She was wearing a tan cardigan sweater over her violet sundress now, and had on matching fingerless knit gloves. She set a lit oil lantern down on the ground nearby. It was getting to be late in the day, and it was already growing dark beneath the trees. White daisies grew in the long grass here, and Iris reached out to cup one of the blossoms between delicate fingers, gently caressing the soft petals. She was silent for a very long time, as if pondering what to say. At last, she asked, "Lan, what's the difference between Wizards and Clovers?" He blinked, taken a little off-guard. He hadn't expected the change in topic. Taking on faith that the question was leading somewhere, he answered almost automatically, "A Clover has more power." Iris gave a small smile. "For us, that's true. Three- and Four- leafs certainly have more power. But," here she tilted her head to the side to study him, "what about a Two-leaf. Do you truly believe that a Two-leaf Clover would have more magic than a single Wizard, or would they both be equal?" Lan took a moment to think about that. He had never met a Wizard in person, but he was always aware of them when they used their magic individually--as he was aware of Gingetsu's magic, within a certain limit of distance. Against the combined power of the Parliament, a Two-leaf wouldn't stand a chance. But against a Wizard acting alone? Lan suspected that it would be a pretty even fight. "A Two-leaf and a single Wizard are nearly the same." Iris didn't stop there, but pursued that question with another. "What about a One-leaf? Would a One-leaf Clover be equal?" "No," Lan said at length, thinking about the only One-leaf that he had ever met. Oruha hadn't had much magic of her own at all. "A One- leaf doesn't have a Wizard's power." Iris allowed the satin petals of the daisy to slip free of her fingers, sitting back on the grass and drawing her knees up to her chest. The freed blossom bobbed a few times on its stem, then stilled. "So," Iris said, "haven't you ever wondered why Two-leafs and One-leafs are called 'Clovers'? Why not call Two-leafs 'Wizards' and One-leafs 'Sorcerers'?" She looked down, digging the toe of her sandal idly into the smooth stones at the stream's edge. "In addition," she continued, "The power of a Sorcerer is not so rare. A new one is discovered every few months. Why aren't these Sorcerers also called 'One-leaf Clovers'?" Lan was silent. Within the shelter of his limited existence, forbidden contact with the outside world, he would have to admit that he had never had a reason to give the subject much thought. Into the quiet Iris spoke, her words like pebbles tossed into still water. "Lan, have you ever heard the term 'genetic engineering'?" In response, ripples of surprise. "Genetic engineering?" Iris nodded, her gaze drifting away, out across the grass. "It's when someone tampers with the program that makes up another living thing. A human being, for instance." She was silent for a long moment, her gaze focused on the growing darkness beneath the trees, giving him time to absorb and comprehend her words. "The Clover Project was a collaborative effort between countries to study the natural changes that allowed people to be 'Wizards' or 'Sorcerers'," she said at last. "The scientists of the project studied the genetic code of the people who had these powers, compiling a list of keys they believed were responsible for the ability to use magic." Her gaze came back to study his face. "It was a harmless enough goal. Actually, it was a very useful one, since it allowed them know what to look for when testing children who might have a talent for magic--especially those children whose power was latent and not yet developed. "It would have been fine if they had just stopped it there. But the temptation to apply their newfound knowledge became too much for them to resist. As a result, the Clover Project became an experiment in human evolution. "Individuals with no traces of magic anywhere in their family history were hired to provide the materials for the creation of human embryos in test tubes in the laboratory. The embryos that were produced--also carefully screened to ensure the complete absence of any pre-disposition for magic--were then altered. Their genetic code was re-programmed, additional data spliced in to confer abilities that never would have developed without artificial interference. "Surrogate mothers were necessary to bear these modified children to term. The mothers were chosen carefully, and given exorbitant amounts of money. The money was a bribe from the government to prevent unpleasant questions from being raised, and to ensure that the women would be willing to abandon their children when the project decided it was time. Most of the women deserted the children as soon as they were born, cradling their paychecks as they left. Many didn't even bother to give the newborn infants real names." Iris brushed her thumb across the surface of the glove covering her right hand, tracing on its surface the outline of the Three-leaf mark underneath. "Instead of names and families, we got these. Numbered and tattooed like lab animals, creatures in cages to be watched and monitored through each and every stage of development. Placed into ranks by the number of leaves we possess. The numbers weren't assigned as a ranking of power, though ironically when they tested us they found that it seemed to have worked out that way. The number of leaves actually signifies the number of mutations they made in each one of us. It just happens that all the genetic alterations are cooperative, working together to increase a person's magical power." A little farther down the stream, a bullfrog croaked, and then another. Lan became aware of the high drone of cicadas from the trees above. "There were more of us in the beginning," Iris continued. "There were labs in each of the three countries involved in the project. But the groups were kept apart, and shielded so that they couldn't sense each other." She gestured up at the dome in the fading light. "Like this place. The dome was built by ordinary people, then the glass was bespelled by the magic of a Four-leaf Clover. Nothing gets through. No Major Waves, no Minor Waves, no Clover magic. The alternative is to go underground. Even a Four- leaf's power doesn't penetrate very well through a kilometer of solid rock. "This dome was created by a Four-leaf, but not the one that you know. He was from the first generation of Clovers that the scientists produced--like myself, and your friend the Two-leaf." Even amidst his internal turmoil at trying to sort out so much new information at once, Lan still caught her use of the past tense. <He *was* from the first generation of Clovers.> "What happened to him?" Iris' dark eyes grew very sad. "He fell in love." She shifted her position, smoothing the folds of her dress around her ankles. "Things were different at the beginning. The Clovers of the project were allowed much more freedom. Everything was part of the experiment...and so when a Four-leaf of the project fell in love with a Two-leaf, it was encouraged rather than forbidden. I guess the Clover scientists were curious to see what would happen." Once, the Parliament had almost refused to allow Lan to stay with Gingetsu, on the grounds that two leaves plus three leaves equaled five, a level of power they could not counter. Not directly. But a Two-leaf and a Four-leaf together would be worse. Two plus four equaled six. That amount of combined magic was hard to imagine. Iris glanced over at him, taking note of his expression. "It wasn't as much of a power imbalance as you might think," she said. "Really, the power of a Four-leaf is infinite. How do you add to infinity? For a Four-leaf to fall in love with a Two-leaf is no different than a Four-leaf falling in love with a person with no magic at all." "What happened to them?" Lan asked. Iris sighed. "She...wasn't well. She was frail even as a child, and in adolescence the problem only became worse. The doctors tried their best to help her, but they couldn't fix what was wrong. She became very ill and eventually died. "Something in the Four-leaf snapped. He hadn't been a particularly well-balanced individual to begin with. It was his lover who calmed him, who was his compassion and his conscience. Who was his happiness. Without her he had no other life. He had nothing left at all. "So he filled that void with grief and anger and hate. If not for the project, I believe he would have turned those terrible emotions inward on himself, and committed suicide. But the Clover Project itself provided a convenient and much more suitable target for his wrath. Those people, they were the ones who had created the woman he loved--and they were the ones who had failed to save her. The sole purpose of his existence became a crusade to wipe out all traces that the project had ever existed. To destroy everything and every one, down to the last brick, the last file...the last body. Up to and including the other Clovers." Iris was silent a long moment, then bowed her head forward in sorrow, her dark bangs falling forward to cover her eyes. "People do terrible things because of love." Lan thought of Suu, who had faked her own death in the hope that she could one day be reunited with the man that she loved. ...Thought of Gingetsu, who had placed the key to his life in the hands of the Parliament so that a lost little boy could find a home and happiness--and continued to use his life as a bargaining chip every single day so that the young man that the boy had become could keep it. ...Thought of A, who believed that love was worth killing for, because he understood it only enough to know that living without love would make existence unbearable and meaningless. <It doesn't have to be that way,> Lan wanted to say. <People shouldn't have to make those kinds of choices.> But what right did he have to say that, when his own choice made out of love had robbed him of several years of his life--and worse, caused Gingetsu to suffer as well. He stared down at the grass, lost in a momentary surge of guilt and misery. "How did they stop him?" he asked. Iris closed her eyes. "That was partly my doing. My fault," she said softly. "There is only one thing that is a match for the power of a Four-leaf Clover. Another Four-leaf Clover." She shook her head. "The only other Four-leaf that I knew of was a four year-old girl, an innocent child. She was the only hope for any of us to survive. So I transported her directly to the place where he was, to a room full fire and fresh corpses. She was hopelessly outmatched. A four year-old doesn't stand a chance against someone who is nearly twenty. But her appearance there halted him, made him hesitate...and that was enough. Enough time for a government sniper to put a bullet through his heart. He fell to the ground right at the child's feet." Iris drew in a shuddering breath. "Not even a Four-leaf is immortal." When she spoke again, her voice was subdued. "That was the end of the Clover Project as a far-reaching and country-spanning endeavor. The governments involved decided to pick up the pieces as best they could. They separated the Clovers, and hid their existence from each other to the best of their ability. And swore they would do every thing possible to prevent such a thing from happening again. From then on, the Four-leaf was to be kept in isolation at all times, and the Three-leaves were forbidden contact with anyone outside the project who might influence them in ways not approved of by the government. Any freedom beyond that could only be bought at a terrible cost." Her dark eyes flickered up to rest on Lan's face. "But that, you already know." Lan looked away from her, gazing down at the surface of the stream. His own thoughts were just as unsettled. He wasn't quite sure he understood everything yet--and the part of him that followed all that she had said rebelled against accepting it. Everything the Clover Project had done.... "Why?" He asked her at last. "Why did they...." he couldn't finish. "Why did they create us?" Iris' mouth twisted in a bitter smile. "Why do you think? The perfect way to provide security for government files. The best tool for espionage when collecting data on an enemy's secret projects. The ultimate override for offensive or defensive electronic systems deployed in times of war. There are hundreds of reasons that could be used as persuasive arguments. How else could the governments involved in the Clover Project justify the expense of the science involved?" Lan shook his head. "But the ones that were most powerful, they kept locked up. Why would they put so much effort into creating something, and then fail to use it?" "They didn't expect their experiment to work so well." This time it was Iris' turn to look away. "Or maybe they did. After all, it's the nature of humankind to create weapons which it fears to use." <Weapons.> Lan felt sick at her words. He had never thought of himself as a weapon. To realize that someone had engineered him for that purpose, had altered what he *was*.... The fingers of his right hand curled tightly against his palm, and he suddenly found it a little hard to breathe. Without the interference of the Clover Project, he wouldn't have all this magical power. In fact, he wouldn't have any magic at all. Instead he would've had normal childhood, away from the doctors, away from the labs. He would've gotten older at the same rate that other children did, without experiencing two years of advanced aging which made him twenty-four instead of sixteen. He would've been able to lead an ordinary life. He probably wouldn't ever have been born. He brushed his free hand across his eyes, noting as he did so that his fingers were trembling. It was too much to absorb all at once, too much to try and make any sense out of it all. If Iris was actually being honest with him about the Clover Project and what it really was. Iris was watching him. Softly she said, "I have no reason to lie to you, Lan." <Do you have a reason to tell me the truth?> He avoided her gaze, to prevent himself from saying the words out loud. "The Two-leaf that you live with," Iris said, momentarily distracting him from those thoughts, "he must be very important to you." Lan raised his head to look at her, but her gaze was turned away from him now, off through the trees in the direction of the wall of the dome. It was nearly too dark to see anything beyond the circle of light cast by the soft but steady glow of the oil lamp. "He's coming here, you know. To rescue you." Lan's breath caught in his throat. It was selfish, so selfish of him to feel that flare of hope. It was selfish for him to wish Gingetsu to put himself in danger for his own sake. Another thought occurred to Lan, and that hope abruptly guttered into fear. "How do you know?" Iris' mouth twisted in something like pain. "It was unwise of the Parliament to send him," she murmured. "He is a Clover, and a Two-leaf at that." Her expression hardened, and she met Lan's anguished gaze with firm, unflinching resolve. "All Clovers can sense those with an equal number of leaves or below. Because of that, we already know exactly where he is." ******** Waiting had never appealed to Kazuhiko very much. It was one of the things he missed least about being in the army. One would have thought, after all his years of military service, and his three additional years of freelance investigative work, that he might have grown used to waiting by now. But he hadn't. Ironically, his problem at the moment was that he *wasn't* in the army any more. Despite the fact that he was wearing a uniform, a precaution against being hit by friendly fire, he was a civilian now-- which meant that he hadn't been assigned a task to keep him busy. The spacious conference room that had been chosen as their temporary hideout was already being guarded, with a Secret Colors soldier stationed by each of the two doors. The remaining member of the small group, the Vice-Captain who was Gingetsu's second-in-command, was standing at the edge the large oaken table that filled most of the room, carrying on a murmured conversation over a secured com channel. Gingetsu and the three other soldiers of this little raiding party had already gone on ahead, following a path parallel to the one the group had originally intended to take. The change in plans had come shortly after their entrance into this large and sprawling compound, when they had found the hallways empty, and found all of the rooms silent and dark. Kazuhiko had been in places like this one before. Usually, no matter what hour of the night it was, people would be working late and guards would be patrolling up and down the halls. The grounds outside had been crawling with guards. But the inside of this place was deserted. It felt like a trap to Kazuhiko, and he knew that Gingetsu had reached the same conclusion. Kazuhiko positioned himself strategically by the doorway leading out into the main hall, and called up a schematic of the corridors outside the room. The network of blue lines covered the left lens of his pince nez. Lan's younger brother had finally come through with the map. He'd also been inactivating most of the automated security systems from afar-- disconnecting alarms, door locks, and traps, and inserting some sort of loop program into the video feed of the security cameras to cover up their movements. Kazuhiko still couldn't figure out why that creepy kid was helping them. He certainly didn't envy the Lieutenant who was their contact back at base, who was being forced to argue with A at every turn. Kazuhiko moved the map field of view forward a few hundred meters. Several corridors bisected the one just outside the conference room. However, if they followed the hallway straight, it eventually would lead them to their goal: the large glass dome that formed the heart of this complex. The gates into the glass dome were part of four cylindrical towers, each maybe ten stories tall. Kazuhiko wondered why they didn't bypass the gates altogether. A high-energy laser could've easily carved through the outer wall of the dome, and spared them all the trouble of running around this maze of offices and labs and corridors. But, since they weren't, Kazuhiko figured there must be a reason. Gingetsu didn't take unnecessary risks. The Vice-Captain ended transmission on her com, and motioned to the soldier guarding the far door. Gingetsu's group must be nearly at their destination. It was finally time for them to leave. The corridor outside the conference room was just as dark and silent as before. The small group moved carefully, spread out at intervals of about two meters. Their progress was slow since they had to check each empty room before moving past. As they crossed another four-way intersection, Kazuhiko slowed. "Vice-Captain," he said, quietly enough that the sound carried only to the woman directly in front of him. "I see it," she murmured back. The shadows in the hallway before them had started to resolve into boxy shapes--filing cabinets and office furniture that had been moved out of the rooms to stand against the walls. Kazuhiko once again consulted the map. This wasn't good. They had been anticipating an ambush, but not here. Gingetsu's group would already have passed beyond this section of corridor, moving on to where it widened and met the entrance to the ten-story tower ahead. The Vice-Captain spoke a few words into her communicator, and the Secret Colors soldiers flanking them stopped where they were. She nodded at Kazuhiko's gloved right hand. "Create a shield until we can get under better cover." Kazuhiko nodded and pulled off his glove, summoning the large, feathered shield. As he stepped forward to move to the front of the group, the hallway in front of them abruptly lit up in a deadly volley of light. The Vice-Captain fell back in time to get under cover of the shield, and the soldier in the rear dove forward and managed to escape with just a shoulder wound. But the soldier in front of them didn't make it. "Move forward to those cabinets *now*!" the Vice-Captain hissed, swinging her gun out beyond the edge of Kazuhiko's shield and sending back covering fire as they ran. From the yells of pain and the sudden decrease in the barrage of laser light, she hit at least two of them. It gave them enough of a respite to make it to the nearest stack of shelving. Kazuhiko let the shield dissolve and used the modem to summon a gun. "Vice-Cap...." the warning was cut off as the soldier in back of them took a laser beam from behind. He was hit twice more as the Vice-Captain caught him. Two enemy soldiers had come in behind them, and were now occupying the intersection they had just passed. "Don't look," the Vice-Captain said to Kazuhiko. He barely had time to close his eyes before a flash grenade lit up the inside of his eyelids with searing red light. The moment the light died, the Vice-Captain surged around the first row of filing cabinets, gun blazing. Kazuhiko took the other direction, dodging laser bolts from the blinded soldiers as the modem on his hand morphed into its sword shape. The two soldiers standing in the corridor intersection weren't able to continue firing for very long. Kazuhiko quickly re-joined the Vice-Captain amid the laser fire of the obstacle course in the hallway. "Where's Gingetsu?" he asked. They'd put down four more enemy soldiers. Kazuhiko thought there might be three left. Another one fell as the Vice-Captain answered, "Not responding." "Damn." The air in the hallway had gone up a few degrees from all of the energy blasts. Kazuhiko hoped the sprinkler system wasn't about to kick in. "They seem to be falling back." "If they decide to leave, let them go. Whoever's in charge already knows that we're here." Kazuhiko grimaced. "If they don't leave, we'll be in trouble. It won't take very long for their reinforcements to arrive." "You're right." The Vice-Captain glanced at the top edge of the filing cabinet she was crouched behind. "Time to go up." At her count, she and Kazuhiko vaulted onto the top of the cabinet and leaped across to the next one. The advantage of height and the element of surprise allowed them to take out the last of the enemy soldiers. Quickly, the Vice-Captain recorded coordinates so that the Wizards or A would know where to collect the fallen bodies of the Secret Colors officers. Kazuhiko moved with her, but paused long enough to inspect one of the lifeless enemy soldiers. None of the soldiers here were wearing the heavy armor of the Azurites he had been expecting to see. Instead they were wearing much lighter gear, blue uniforms with an emblem on the front--a purple flower on a field of green. Kazuhiko was disturbed rather than reassured. If their enemy wasn't the government, or the Azurites, who else was involved? As he rose to his feet again, he heard a noise from another one of the fallen. Kazuhiko turned in time to see a soldier who had been lying on the ground only a few moments ago straightening up with his left hand against the wall for support. His right hand was raising the muzzle of a particularly nasty-looking energy pistol, centering it on Kazuhiko. Instantly Kazuhiko activated the modem on the back of his hand, raising it as light coalesced over it as if in slow- motion...realizing with a sinking heart that he wouldn't be able to create a weapon before the other man's finger tightened around the trigger of the gun.... The man's shadow shifted behind him. There was a flash of light on metal and then the painstakingly slow flare of the gun. Kazuhiko flinched as the band of intense heat blazed past his shoulder, slamming into the wall behind him with an echoing crackle of thunderous energy. A wash of disturbed air left in its trail brushed across his face like a sun-warmed breeze. A muffled screech and the clatter of metal jarred from nerveless fingers caused time to resume its normal course. The enemy soldier stared in disbelief at the meter's length of steel pinning his wrist to the wall. His gaze tracked the length of the blade, to the hand that held the hilt, and then to the owner of that hand. Gingetsu stared back at him, his expression impassive. The enemy soldier's features contorted with pain and fury, and he reached with his left hand to his waist, drawing a second gun for a point-blank shot at the Lieutenant Colonel. A bolt from Kazuhiko's gun caught him in the chest a single heartbeat after the backswing of Gingetsu's sword engraved a permanent line across the man's throat. The soldier toppled backwards to the ground, very, very dead. "Took you long enough to get here," Kazuhiko groused. Gingetsu frowned. "We were delayed." Kazuhiko noted that his group now numbered only three, and refrained from comment. Gingetsu looked over at the Vice-Captain. "The entrance ahead has been sealed off. We'll take the second door in to the tower." "Understood." They re-traced part of the path that Gingetsu's group had followed. Kazuhiko saw the door they had originally been going to use. It had been completely blocked off with sheet metal and welded iron girders. From the look of things, the barricade had been constructed quite recently. With their current equipment, it would be impossible to try and go through. Farther down the hall there was another set of doors, and beyond that, another cluttered hallway that was scarred with laser-fire and littered with bodies. At a quick glance, there looked to be about fifteen soldiers. A few were dressed in the heavy battle armor of the Azurite military, but most wore the uniform that Kazuhiko had noticed earlier. Four or five of the dead soldiers didn't appear to have been killed by guns. <Delayed, he says.> Kazuhiko shook his head to himself, surveying the carnage. <No kidding.> They didn't pause there, but continued on, following a curving hallway that went around the outer wall of the central glass dome. It wasn't very long before they arrived at the second entrance. Another communication with home base, and another brief battle of wills with Lan's uncooperative brother, and the electronic lock on the door's keypad blinked to green, the door sliding open. A large semi-circular room lay beyond. The room had no windows, just a single door in the wall across from them. From the size of the room, it appeared to take up half of the bottom floor of the tower. It also seemed to be empty, except for a couple of unmarked boxes and some desks scattered with no apparent purpose around the white tile floor. Kazuhiko frowned. He was beginning to develop an intense distrust of office furniture. The Vice-Captain and one of the Lieutenants stationed themselves in the hall, guarding in both directions. The other Lieutenant dove into the semicircular room as Gingetsu and Kazuhiko covered him from the doorway, and he skidded safely to a halt behind one of the desks. Carefully he checked behind all three of the desks in the room, without seeing any evidence of hidden enemy soldiers. "What about the boxes," Kazuhiko murmured to Gingetsu. "Explosives?" "No," Gingetsu replied. Kazuhiko knew from past experience that Gingetsu had some method of detecting electronic explosive devices, so he didn't question the answer. When the Lieutenant carefully checked the boxes, he found that they contained nothing but papers. Gingetsu and Kazuhiko stepped into the room, and the Vice-Captain and the remaining Secret Colors officer took up their places by the door. The Lieutenant in the room moved across to the far door with its blinking keypad lock. Kazuhiko moved forward slowly, tracing his left hand along the wall as he went. When he was about halfway across the room, he stopped, and turned towards the painted white surface to look at it more closely. There was something wrong with the walls.... The floor suddenly shuddered and rocked beneath them. Kazuhiko had to fight to keep his balance to avoid being thrown sprawling on the tile. He looked over at the doorway where the Vice-Captain was standing, then let out a curse as he saw the hallway beyond it rising quickly, the opening replaced by a wall of grey cement. "The room is going down...." "Move!" Gingetsu commanded. All three of them sprinted for that closing gap, but none of them made it in time. The Vice-Captain's worried face disappeared as the gap that had been the open doorway became replaced by row after row of cinder block. They were descending at a rate of maybe half a meter per second. From somewhere far below, Kazuhiko could hear the faint whirring of heavy machinery. Because Kazuhiko was listening, he caught a small sound that instantly made him turn away from the doorway to look across the room. Tiny slits were opening in the far wall, and he glimpsed a flash of light off something that lay just beyond. On instinct he lunged, his shoulder striking Gingetsu squarely in the chest, causing them both to tumble to the floor behind one of the metal desks. Several energy beams criss-crossed the space they had occupied. The hapless Secret Colors soldier who had been left standing by the area where the door had been fell to the ground in silence, killed instantly. The wall behind him disintegrated like tissue paper under the force of the blasts, revealing that it was made of nothing more than painted fiberboard. "Rats," a familiar voice called out cheerfully. "I missed." "Barus," Kazuhiko muttered through clenched teeth. "I just knew we were going to run into that guy sooner or later." He shifted to get his knees under him, and bit back an exclamation of pain as fire lanced up his right arm. Gingetsu noticed immediately. "You were hit?" Kazuhiko shook his head. "Not really." He fumbled at the sleeve of his jacket. There was a blackened line burned across the sleeve just above the wrist. He rolled back the fabric to reveal an equally blackened line burned deeply into the flesh of his forearm. He flexed his fingers. Fortunately, everything was still functional. It made him a little lightheaded with relief. "If one is going to get shot, I suppose a fake arm is the best place. Ow. Now to shut off the damned pain sensors in this thing." "Hello again, Prince," the voice spoke again, slightly muffled by the wall which formed the flat portion of this semicircular room. Apparently whatever was on the other side was part of this moving platform, too. Kazuhiko bet that the paneling and the door over there were both heavily reinforced from the other side. "It's been a while. Why don't you come out where I can see you, and we'll have a nice little chat." Kazuhiko hissed in an annoyed breath. "Don't call me by that name, Barus." Barus only chuckled. "That's what I like about you, Prince. You're as energetic and predictable as always. But you realize that you don't stand a chance here. Give up now, and I'll go easy on you. I may even let your annoying friend live, too." <Go to Hell.> Aloud, Kazuhiko replied, "We're only here to get back what you stole. If you're smart, you'll give up now and get out of *our* way." From across the room, there came the sound of a long-suffering sigh. "I was really hoping to play 'Tag' with you today, instead of 'Hide and Seek'. But, if this is the way you want it...." The air suddenly filled with laser light, the beams slamming into the meager cover of the desk. Kazuhiko braced his back against it as the piece of furniture rocked under the force of all that energy. It wouldn't take those beams very long to chew their way through the metal. Kazuhiko activated the modem on the back of his hand to form a feathered shield between the two of them and the surface of the desk. Gingetsu looked the wide shield up and down, then glanced over at him. "Could that get us over to the locked door?" Kazuhiko risked a look at the far door as colored beams of light ricocheted all around them. "In this heavy fire? Maybe. Where do we go once we get there?" He felt a shudder run along his arm as a bolt came through the desk and hit the surface of the shield. "I suppose it's either that or stay here...and this furniture won't last very much longer. Wait...." His mind churned rapidly. The fake walls of the room were blocked by real walls of cement, so there was no way out to the side. Kazuhiko glanced overhead, at a place where the ceiling had already been sheared away by laser fire. Up was not an option either. The true ceiling was over a hundred meters above them, a circular roof that was bisected by several lines like wedges cut into a large pie. <This isn't a tower at all. It's a missal silo.> Kazuhiko winced as yet another bolt slammed into the front of his shield. "What do you suppose is beneath the tile?" Gingetsu wedged the tip of his sword into the seam between two of the tiles. The floor beneath the ceramic square he pried up was made of steel. "...The moving platform itself. So much for that idea." Gingetsu said nothing. As Kazuhiko looked on, he focused on the polished silver length of the blade. The sword *shimmered*, becoming more 'real'. It was as if it had suddenly developed its own aura, its own presence. From his position on one knee on the floor, Gingetsu slashed the blade downward, driving its edge deep into the metal of the floor, a fountain of sparks boiling up from the point of contact. Twice more, Gingetsu swung the blade down in vertical cuts...and on the third cut, a triangular piece of steel a meter long on each side and at least five centimeters thick fell away and tumbled into the darkness below. Kazuhiko drew a deep breath, feeling faintly stunned. He'd never seen *that* little trick before. He'd always thought it was impressive that the delicate-looking blade could pierce through two layers of heavily reinforced metal armor as if it were rice paper. Gingetsu took a small flashlight from the pocket of his jacket. The intense beam of light shone briefly on the cylindrical walls of the silo, then lanced downward into the dark. The light was diffused too much by the distance to be able to see the bottom. After a moment, Gingetsu let the flashlight drop. It was a very, very long way down. Kazuhiko shifted his position. With the Azurite's lasers still raining death on them, they couldn't stay. But things didn't look good for their survival if they jumped. Kazuhiko glanced over at the Lieutenant Colonel and asked casually, "You wouldn't happen to be able to sprout wings and fly, would you?" Gingetsu *looked* at him. Kazuhiko shrugged defensively. "It'd be awfully convenient right now if you could." More and more of those laser bolts were hitting the surface of the shield, and Kazuhiko wasn't sure how long even *that* would hold up. As he shifted to brace it more solidly against the energy impacts, he saw Gingetsu reach into another pocket of his coat, removing a long steel spool wound with what looked like black thread. Microfillament wire. "You saw the access door?" Gingetsu asked. Kazuhiko nodded. About fifty meters down...twenty-five meters by now, there had been a metal door hinged to swing inward from the open space. A ladder ran along the wall beside it. They could make it down there, but their timing would have to be pretty good to get through the door before the platform caught up with them. Somehow Kazuhiko doubted that there was enough clearance between the wall and the moving platform to fit a full-grown man, and that was a messy way to die. Gingetsu was already reaching down through the large, triangular hole in the floor, securing the end of the wire to the thick metal supports of the platform. The wire was very thin, and in time the strand would cut through the metal itself--but it should hold there long enough for the few seconds they needed to reach the door. Kazuhiko had to remind himself that the stuff could support the weight of a full-grown elephant if it had to, it ought to be able to support his weight without any problem at all. Gingetsu borrowed another flashlight and a second spool of wire from Kazuhiko's field supplies, and studied the interconnecting supports below the floor for a moment or two before lowering himself down and underneath. Kazuhiko swung his legs over the edge of the opening, still holding the shield, and hoping that the force of the beams wouldn't knock him through before it was time. The hand not forming the shield reached down to take one of the secured spools of wire that Gingetsu passed him. "Count five seconds," he heard Gingetsu say from below. He closed his eyes, bracing himself, counting them in his head. When he reached one, he deactivated the shield as he simultaneously dropped through the hole in the floor. It probably wasn't very pretty or graceful, but it was effective. Tethered by the arc of the wire Kazuhiko swung just wide of the ladder, close enough to grab onto it and pull himself up. Gingetsu already had the door open, so Kazuhiko climbed the few meters up to it and pulled himself into the stairwell beyond. They arrived safely with several seconds to spare. As the platform with its phony walls dropped past them, they could hear an angry shout, and a few last blasts of laser rifles. "It sounds like they figured it out," Kazuhiko remarked. He looked around at the landing they were on. Below it was a set of stairs leading down. <Let's hope it doesn't go to the same place those guys are going.> The stairs went down for maybe five more stories, terminating in an unlocked door with a single window in it. The metal-lined hallway beyond was empty. Here even Gingetsu paused. "We don't have schematics for this." Kazuhiko snorted. "Well, that might be a good thing. The ones we've been given so far doesn't seem to have been very accurate." He looked around. "I doubt that a radio signal would be strong enough to contact anyone on the outside. We could probably find some networked computers around, though. We can override security ourselves from there." Gingetsu nodded curtly, and together they slipped out into the hall. They went maybe ten steps before Gingetsu motioned for Kazuhiko to halt outside a closed doorway. Rather than opening the door, he pressed on the metal paneling right beside it. A metal plate pushed in and slid up, revealing the monitor of a video intercom. "This is part of the main system?" Kazuhiko asked, keeping a careful watch in both directions of the empty hallway as Gingetsu's fingers moved over the keypad. "Yes." Gingetsu took out the coil of wire he'd used before when he'd contacted the Lieutenant back at base, and plugged one end of the connector into his visor. The other end was a match for a socket next to the keypad, and Gingetsu uncoiled the wire a bit further and moved to plug it in. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," said a voice from the intercom speakers. The blue screen of the monitor burst into static. It lasted only a moment before the static was replaced by a two-dimensional image--a video picture of a young man. Kazuhiko recognized him immediately. The image was an exact copy of Lan. Or rather, a past copy, a duplicate of him as he had been in his mid-teens. The boy smiled, and Kazuhiko knew that there was no way anyone who had met Lan would ever confuse him with his younger brother. Lan's eyes had never looked so cold. "Did I surprise you?" A said pleasantly. "Where's the Lieutenant," Gingetsu asked him. "He's dead," the boy pronounced. As if to prove his point, he wiped a spatter of blood from his cheek as casually as if it were rainwater. "I told him what would happen if he got in my way." Gingetsu had gone utterly still. Kazuhiko's hand dropped to Gingetsu's sword arm. "Let's go," he said quietly. "He won't," A stated with confidence, his gaze focusing fully on Gingetsu as his dark eyes lit with an unpleasant glow, "because he knows. He knows that he can't fight me." A smiled, and his voice became laden with vicious satisfaction. "From now on, you'll do exactly as I say. Because there's no one left to help you. And I'm the only chance you have of finding C." ******** <==========}-----0 The CLAMP end of the world fanfiction page: http://www.crosswinds.net/~sunshine60/ sunshine60@crosswinds.net 0-----{==========></pre><p><a href="./">Back</a></p><p><a href=http://www.dreamhost.com/donate.cgi?id=216><img border=0 alt="Donate towards our web hosting bill!" src=https://secure.newdream.net/donate1.gif></a></p></body></html>