http://clampfix.fanworks.net/re-fix/choices2.txt </head><body><pre>I have never seen anything like it. Cephiro is an incredibly beautiful planet: green forests and stretches of sand beaches curving into shimmering blue oceans, strangely graceful islands drifting midair like so many clouds, and in the midst of the whole amazing landscape is a magnificent three-tiered crystal structure that looks like an enormous crown. I can do nothing but stare in awe until something deep in my stomach gives a horrible wrench and suddenly I am on my knees in the soft dewy grass looking at something which seems grossly out of place in this lovely world. I notice the taste in my mouth, like a long-dead animal, and realize what has happened. "Ma-chan?" asks Tsubasa, his gold eyes going wide. He kneels next to me, worried. "What is it? Why are you sick?" "I don't...know," I gasp, feeling in my small backpack for the Smints I always carry. "It hurts..." I suddenly remember being pulled here with him; I had the same dreadful lurching feeling, as if there was something _wrong_ with what I was doing. As if _I_ was wrong. For what? For coming here? "I didn't feel anything," he says anxiously. His reaction only confirms my fears. What if I am not meant to be here? What if this world did not want me to come with him? Am I going to have to leave? CHOICES, WISHES AND THE LOSS OF HOPE Part 2 By Peregrine Vision "Can you get up?" "Yes." The pain has faded now, but it feels as if it might be back soon. I smile bravely (or so I hope) and let him help me up. The last thing I want to do is tell him what I am thinking. I know Tsubasa. He would only blame himself for coming here. Slowly we make our way to the crystal spires--they are quite close. Tsubasa says that the whole structure is really a palace. However, he had thought we would end up in the palace itself, and cannot understand why this did not happen. "Oh, well," he smiles, and shrugs. "It isn't as if I really know this world so well. I remember Autozam better. Maybe I should take you there next," he adds happily. I have never seen him so happy. His gold eyes have a glow they never had in Japan, or on Earth: He is finally home. I wish this could be my home too. This place is amazing. If he came from this universe it was no wonder Tokyo seemed so oppressive to him. I know in this moment that he is never going back there. Not for family, not for school--not for any reason. If I had to go back, I don't think he'd come back for me either. And I don't blame him at all. He points enthusiastically to the palace. "There it is, Ma-chan, there it is!" he says. "I can't wait to get in. I know they're there...I can feel both of them. I can feel them again!" He grabs my hand and begins to run for the nest of crystals at the bottom of the three spires. As we run he explains breathlessly that there were two entrances to the palace: the main one high up on the center spire, where those who could fly (by magic or other means) entered, and the one on the ground for most of the people of Cephiro, who had fled there for shelter when it was breaking apart. There are two guards in pale-blue lacquer armor at the double portal. They stare at us as we approach: two strange people in alien clothes, apparently unarmed and alone, running toward them at full pelt. They raise their spears hesitantly. "Er...welcome, visitors," says the taller one, a slender man with long brown hair pulled over one shoulder. "What is your business in the palace?" Tsubasa pulls himself upright and takes a deep breath, bringing himself under control. It is not the Japanese schoolboy afraid of the dark who stands beside me now, but the Supreme Flight Commander of Autozam's military spacefleet, proud in his worn cream shirt and dark blue jeans. He bows from the waist. Hastily I copy him. "We seek audience with the Magic Knights," he says politely but stoically. "If you please, we will wait, but we will not be turned away." The shorter guard, a stocky young man with a stubborn face, plants his feet. "It's the decision of the Pillar to--" he begins, but stops at the sound of jingling and rustling and the bang of something on the doors behind him. They swing inwards, revealing- A child, a small boy with purple hair, dressed in layers of white, blue, purple and gold cloth like a magician in a school play. He wears a wide gold band with a large blue forehead stone around his head, and carries a staff twice his height. The staff has what appears to be a skull set with jewels crowning it. He stares at Tsubasa--at the creature Tsubasa has become--with wide blue eyes that seem too old for his face. "Clef," says my love, and smiles. The little boy seems shaken. "W-we had suspected," he says hesitantly. "The Pillar--and Lantis--they said you were coming..." He smiles suddenly, a smile of great joy and welcome. "Come with me," he says. "I will take you to them all. They have gathered in the Hall of the Pillar to welcome you home." Tsubasa squeezes my hand and steps forward. This is when the boy called Clef notices me. "Who are you?" he demands, sounding shocked. Tsubasa and I blink at each other, and it is as if he too is seeing me for the first time. He turns back to Clef. "This is Ma-chan," he says, as if brooking no argument. "I asked her to come with me." "You _asked_ her...?" But seeing the steely look in Tsubasa's eyes, he makes no argument, turning without another word to lead us into the castle. The corridor is a magnificent tunnel of light, with the glow of magical stones set in the walls like esconced torches in middle-age castles. Their brilliance is reflected off millions of facets in the crystal walls, multiplying the brightness of the hallway and, I'm sure, casting tiny lights across my overawed face. It leads straight to the great hall, whose doors, I can see, are wide open. The hall is full of people. All the faces...all the colors…turned to us-no, to him and Clef, staring. Sussurating whispers fill the place to its arching ceiling, climbing in tone and volume..."Eagle...Eagle...?" Until a girl my size, with a fringe of crimson hair round her face, leaps up from the throne and pelts down the steps (red-ribboned braid flying like a sentient tail, a crown-like ornament threatening to fall off her head with her haste, gold-scarlet-cream skirt flooding out behind her) to rush down and throw her arms around him, laughing and crying, "Eagle!!!" And there is a man behind her, a tall serious man in dark colors who follows slowly, almost afraid (if one like him could ever have been afraid) of the golden boy who wraps the weeping laughing girl in his embrace. But Tsubasa-- Eagle--holds his arms out as if to include him, and with what sounds like a sob the man abandons his dignity and lurches forward to enfold both of them in his embrace. Then the three of them together grow still, and the entire hall grows still, until there is no sound but their soft sobs and whispers and laughs, and no movement but the trembling of three lovers reunited after twenty long years. "Okaeri," sobs Hikaru, as she clutches Eagle's shoulders like a child. "Okaeri nasai, Eagle-kun." Welcome home. Eagle's gold eyes look up, blurred with tears of joy, into Hikaru's ruby eyes and the melted ice-blue of Lantis's. "Tadaima," he says. I am home. Taking refuge in my invisibility I shrink back against a pillar partly hidden by the righthand portal, and brace myself against it as I shake with my own silent weeping. It is done. I have seen it finished, seen him home. My purpose and his are both fulfilled, and I have never wanted anything more. He needs no more reassuring. His lovers will always be there when he wakes, and he will fear sleep no longer. I will miss him. I hear a footstep next to me and I look up, ashamed to be caught crying. Clef stands there watching me. "Are you going to send me back?" I whisper. He looks away, towards the tiny circle of three in the center of the hall. Hikaru lifts her head and beckons, and two girls come to join her: a tall slim creature with long blue hair and a delicate blond. Others gather, and soon Tsubasa (I remind myself that I must think of him as Eagle) is surrounded by laughing, welcoming friends. "Do you want to go back?" he asks, without moving his lips or otherwise indicating he's speaking to me. I watch him for a moment. Two strangers in particular, a big rough-looking man and an excited boy in green-white-and-gold military clothing, are hugging him more enthusiastically than the others. He throws back his head and laughs, he is so happy. I could watch him forever. "No." This time Clef looks at me. "Even if you never again get any closer to him than this?" I remember long nights warm under the blankets with his pale head tucked comfortably underneath my chin. I remember trips to candy stores, coming home with 300-gram bags and getting drunk on pure sugar before making love. I remember his soft, tremuluous whisper: "See you when I wake...?" He turns back to Hikaru and Lantis, his golden eyes shining. Hikaru laughs and holds fast to one hand, and Lantis reaches out and smooths a cream-colored lock away from his face, tucks it behind his ear. "I've had my time," I tell Clef softly, smiling. "It's his time now." The child-mage smiles back at me. "I'll show you to your rooms," he says. "I'm sure we can find room for you here. This will be your home now, as well." I laugh softly. "Tadaima," I echo my love. I am home. -end part 2- </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>