HOME | DD

Description
Such a pity, that those so young have had to fight such bloody battles. I wish it had not come to this, to a point where I fear for the students' physical and mental recovery. I pray to whatever holy power that can hear my plea: Allow those who can't be saved to forget this war. No one should have these memories...not even Cody and me.

Her silver hair caught in the breeze, revealing slender and delicate looking shoulders from beneath their natural shroud. She gazed over the bleak grounds that had been transformed, some she feared beyond repair, by the ferocity of the recent battle. Moist eyes studied every painful detail. Where there were once flowing streams and flowering fields now were pools of lava and steam that rose from a blistered and scorched earth. The only thing in sight that had been left unmarred was the Academy, an ancient seeming place that time had never touched. Maru felt down to her bones that the Academy was in even more danger than was apparent. The Path was nothing if not thorough, and stubborn.

"Lady Maru?" a deep masculine voice broke her away from her thoughts. She turned and gave the boy, no, the man who addressed her a brief smile. She thought back to when she first met him, and the impatient cocky youth he had been. His nature had at one point led him to walk a darker path, where he seduced her students and fought against the magi of the Academy. Quite different was he now, with eyes that looked as though they had returned from the caverns of despair and a body that was scarred with mementos from his battles. Looking at him, she knew that even after his physical wounds were healed the scars on his heart would be forever with him. For a moment she felt a pang of regret for her part in his involvement in this whole business, and almost despaired.

As always, he knew her thoughts. "You know I would have chosen this for myself even if I had been given a choice." His eyes were bright, determined now, showing he possessed a faith in her that she had long since lost in herself. "And you know I would have given anything to fight by your side."

She turned away, avoiding his eyes. "Knowing that does not make these battles any easier on my mind." In response he stepped to her side and lightly draped a powerful arm over her shoulders for comfort. She moved so he could hold her in a tender embrace. They remained silent for a moment.

"We will beat them." His voice wavered a bit, but she could hear its edge. She dared not argue.

"Have they informed us of when the next challenge will take place?" Her eyes met his steadily.

He nodded. "Kori just told me. This evening, sunset."

So soon? She thought to herself as she nodded absently, then rested her head on his shoulder. "You weren't too harsh with her, I hope?"

Cody smiled, glad for the reminder that she was still the same Maru he had fallen in love with; always caring about everyone, even the enemy in their camp. "Of course not, love. She's been a good person, her origins aside. You know I got over that weeks ago."

Maru sighed, and he felt a thrill at the pressure of her body against his. He considered kissing her but she spoke before he could act on the impulse. "Any word about Simon?" Her voice was soft and if Cody hadn't known better he would have mistaken her tone for that of a wistful lover grasping for information of their beloved no matter how grim it may be. That argument happened some time ago.

"He is well, all things considered. Faia's fireballs didn't hurt him too severely and his wounds are mostly healed. He will be there this evening." Cody began stroking her hair in an unconscious gesture of affection.

Maru broke his embrace and backed away, forcing him to drop his hands back to his sides. She stared off into the distance, distracted. He knew she was worried but there was also something else she was thinking about, and he didn't like it. "Is it about Kurosu?" he asked quietly, doing his best to mask the anger and annoyance he felt as he waited for her response.

"You know I never tried to hide anything from you," she said softly after a moment. Now her tone was that of a wistful lover, and it stirred the resentment buried none too deeply in Cody's heart. He turned and walked away, willing himself not to say anything he might regret or didn't really mean. Maru was hurting enough as it was, he knew, but that knowledge did nothing to quell the emotional flames of rage and hatred and jealousy that threatened to consume him. Not quite knowing why, he went to look for Kori.

            *                      *                      *                      *                      *

Maru watched helplessly as Cody walked away. She wanted to call out to him, to say everything would be all right, but she couldn't and had to bite her lip to keep the tears from falling. He didn't deserve the pain she was causing him, not even a fraction of it, and she willed herself not to cry. At the same time, she reasoned with herself: how could she have known that Kurosu would come back? Quite simply, she couldn't have, but it had happened anyway. And the feelings he evoked in her she could not deny.

Ah, Kurosu… Almost of its own volition, his image appeared in her mind.  His smiling face, always seeming to be hiding some personal amusement in his thoughts, long ash colored hair tied back neatly at the base of his neck, his trimmed, impeccable goatee, his body as he leaned over her…  She shook her head, tears again threatening to fall.  It had been so long since she had lost him.  So long…and yet not long enough.

Her mouth tightened into a bitter smile.  No, not long at all…but long enough for things to have changed.  Maru thought back to when she first "met” Kurosu, when he was still truly young and just coming into his full powers as an Ado'Magi.  She had watched him, from her home in the 5th dimension, saw where his life would take him, the paths he would choose.  That was her purpose in those days; to watch, but never interfere.  Until she saw the day that the galaxy would forever change, and change for the worse.  A day that would forever haunt her as she realized that she had no choice but to demand the Council of Elders to intervene.  And when she found the moment of time that would allow the simplest change, in effect when she first began watching this man called Kurosu, she knew what had to be done.

It had taken everything, every favor she was owed, some she had begged, supporters she persuaded, even blackmailed, but finally she made her petition to the Council.  When they moved to dismiss her without even hearing her full plea, she threatened them with their own destruction should they fail to act.  In the end they had agreed to give Kurosu a choice.  The price she paid was that she must be the one to deliver it to him and never again return to her home, her family, or her friends, no matter what his final decision.

Kurosu, after hearing Maru’s seemingly fantastical tale but believing in her none the less, made his choice and time erased itself.  It was the first and only time her race interfered so directly with the universe’s course of events but she knew it was what needed to be done, despite the costs.  Indeed the only comfort she could take was in the knowledge of having done a good deed for the universe.  That and, in his gratitude, Kurosu promised to train her as his apprentice so that she might use her now far limited powers to become a magi and fight the evil she had so far only been able to watch impassively.  After a time she began to get used to her frail, humanoid body, and became his most apt pupil.  Apprentice, friend, confidant…and then, almost suddenly, his lover.

Maru smiled at the memory, forgetting for a moment her current settings as she became lost in the past.  There had been a battle, and she was gravely wounded; Kurosu had feared mortally.  She had told him there was no fear of death in her and that she would gladly give her life to the fight against evil.  His response was never forgotten.

“Maru, for all my teaching and counseling, you seem to have missed the most important lesson.  The reason we fight the darkness is so that the good may live!  And of all the good people in this vast universe, you are the one I wish to live the most.”

And just like that, she felt the joy of being loved as well as the fearful and stomach twisting realization that she loved him back.  He leaned in, ignoring her cuts, bruises and mixture of fresh and drying blood, and when she did not push him away, kissed her deeply.  It had healed her spirit to a point where she knew she was not threatened with death.  Over the weeks of her recovery she slowly let down barriers that she hadn’t even known existed within her and learned of the depth and hopes of her love.  When she was finally completely healed, both body and mind, Kurosu had shown her the physical side of his passion for her.  He had been gentle, and slowly she came to understand everything about him, and he her.

The years had gone by, neither of them forgetting that their first duty was to the galaxy but always they put each other second.  The Ado'Magi, the Great Ones, had become extinct over time and replaced by the magi, but that was because the galaxy no longer needed them to defend her.  Life, in general, was good.  Until the day they first knew of the existence of a new evil.

The warning had come from an old friend, one that still kept in contact with Maru despite the prohibitions of the Council.  He could only tell her that a massive force was approaching the galaxy, and that the power of the Ado'Magi would be needed again before the battle could have any hope of victory.  For the second time in her life, Maru felt a compulsion to do everything in her ability to fight evil no matter the cost to herself.

She had used her power to create an island within time, one that would house the Academy she would administer and teach at with the intent of training new magi into becoming as powerful as the Ado'Magi of old.  Maru had left Kurosu then, with little regret because she knew that this work would be even more important than what she could even hope to accomplish with him.  Both were saddened by the separation but neither resented it.  Their first duty was to the galaxy.

As the years went by in the outside world, Maru did not know what became of her lover until years after the fact.  Her island had not only kept out evil personified, but also any news that might adversely affect her teaching.  Somehow though, even before she heard the tale from one of her students, Maru knew that Kurosu was no longer roaming the galaxy.  His presence had…stopped.  Not vanished, no, but had held still for far too long.  When she learned of his battle against the dark wizard, the end did not come as a surprise.  Kurosu had been lost, but it was a death that would be forever remembered, and honored.  Maru missed him, mourned him, but knew that there was nothing she could or would have done differently.

Now, somehow, Kurosu was alive.

It was not even two moons ago when the first emissary of the Path had made their appearance to the magi of the Academy.  Their accusations were great, and their suggested remedy insulting.  The Path was an alien culture, one that put much faith in fate and destiny, and were ruled by the Lord and Lady of Chaos.  Though Maru did not think they were the evil her friend had warned her of she knew there was no way to bargain with them.

Maru thought back to her first encounter with Lady Hateshi and her daughter Kori.  They had accused the magi of being weak and unable to fight the evil of the galaxies as they had in the past.  It was the Path, they claimed, that now had the sole right to the Power of the universe so that they could achieve their full potential.  Maru suspected that if they had come as allies and not enemies there was much the two cultures could have taught one another, but the time for wishful thinking was through.

The Path believed that there was only one great Power in the universe and that both they and the magi drew from it.  Maru knew this to be at least partly true, but wondered why it had never been a problem in the past.  She also faced a difficult decision regarding what should be done since the Path had demanded the destruction of the Academy and the end of the magi to remedy the "problem".  They were not evil, but could the magi merely step down after so many years and legacies?

Her students, none of them fully trained, had come to her side without hesitation.  “We are going to be the strongest force for good this galaxy has ever seen.  You can’t take that away from us, not without a fight.”  That had been Ryu, one of her oldest students and one of the last surviving members of the royal family of Jupetin.  Of course, her bold statement was just what the Path had wanted to hear.

They explained their concept of a Challenge to Maru, and what the two sides would be risking on the outcome.  Teams were declared, separating those with the least experience from those that were trained on both sides of the camps.  Simon, having been in the room when Hateshi first materialized with Maru, had been tagged as an Observer.  Maru still thought that concept odd since it meant Simon would spend his time in the Path’s camp, studying any training or practices the Path conducted while the Challenge was taking place.  And Kori, the Path’s Observer who had been with them since that first meeting, seemed more interested in helping them than spying on them.  It was a puzzle Maru didn’t have the time to figure out.

During the first week of the war, for that is really what the Challenge was, the magi had held their own against the onslaught of the Path.  But the constant days of fighting, of the mini-challenges the Path presented to them, were slowly eating away their fighting spirit, and their meager energy.  Indeed, they had only narrowly escaped alive from their last encounter and the meager blessing of it had been the fact that only two contestants had needed to participate.  None of her students, she knew, would have made it.

In her mind’s eye she revisited that battlefield.  The crystal caverns had been terrible and she had not expected Cody or herself to make it out with breath still in their bodies.  The Path had truly outdone themselves and it was enough to cause her hope to waver.  But just as she had been about to give up, to lay down her weapons and accept her fate despite all of Cody’s insistence that not all was lost, the voice spoke to her.

       “Lady, surely you remember what I have taught you?”

She and Cody stopped dead in their tracks, reaching out with the remains of their power to find this being who invaded their very thoughts.  “Who are you that claim to be a teacher?” Maru had cried out to the empty air.

       “I am disappointed, beloved.  Has it been so long that you have even forgotten the sound of my voice?”

Cody’s ire had been instant.  “Who are you that addresses Lady Maru so informally?  Show yourself, coward!  Fight me like a man!”  But by then Maru had guessed the identity of the being who spoke to them, and she winced at Cody’s tone and the justified anger that would soon come.

“No, beloved, I have not forgotten.”

She had spoken softly, hoping for some reason, that Cody would not hear the words.  But his battle senses were on full alert, and how could she have expected to fool him for long?  His sword arm dropped towards the ground and he whirled on her.  “You…you…”

She hid her conflicted feelings.  “Hush, darling, and I’ll explain.”  But she need not have bothered.

        “Darling?!  Who is this boy, Maru? Is he…no…”

The voice trailed off and Maru turned towards the empty cavern once again.  “It has been a long time, Kurosu.  I thought you were lost.”

Suddenly, he appeared out of the very emptiness that had seemed a shelter when she and Cody had first stumbled wearily into it.  Same as she remembered him, with long silver hair and piercing eyes.  But he was not whole, she could sense that right away and almost gasped at his weakness.  Her memories of him had never been anything but of his strength.  “What…happened?”

“It is a long story, beloved, but one I hope I can tell you soon.”  He drew closer to her as he spoke, his eyes drinking her in.  “I could not believe it was you they sent to this dungeon.  And I thought I would never find you, so large as it is.  But I have and now…” Kurosu reached out, and caught up one of Maru’s hands in his own.  “Now I have my bright hope again.”  He smiled, reached out to touch her cheek…

“THAT’S ENOUGH!”  Cody was suddenly beside them, pushing Kurosu away from Maru and stepping between the pair, glaring at Kurosu in a mixture of anger and wariness.  “Lady, how do we know this is not some sort of Path trick?  He could be one of them in disguise.”

Maru peered around Cody's bulk to look closely at Kurosu, her exhaustion and conflicting feelings disabling her ability to make a rational decision.  “I…Cody…I don’t…”  He whirled on her a second time, meeting her eyes with his own, tortured ones, trying to grasp what she was feeling but at the same time refusing to accept the full truth.  His anger redoubled.  “We’re leaving.”

He said it with such a calm voice that for a moment Maru thought he might only have been pretending to be angry.  But no, for the next thing he did was to grab her up in his arms and run from the room.  Outside the cavern they met with some of the creatures they had been hoping to lose in the empty cave.  Instead of sparing the time to destroy them he passed them by, his only focus on leaving this place that had become a legacy of betrayal.  The creatures began to give chase.

She shook her head, trying to forget that part of the memory.  They had escaped the crystal caverns, but things had become…difficult between them.  Cody now knew who Kurosu was and why Maru still loved him.  He was trying to be rational about things but both of them knew that something would have to be decided soon.  Would Maru leave him for the chance to once again be with her true love?  Or would she stay with Cody, whom she suspected of being her one and only soul mate?

This, on top of the war, was giving Maru a headache.