Autumn Leaving 4/7

[Goldberry]

Author's Note: If you have yet to read the first three chapter of this story, you can find them below in the Featured Author's Forum or in my own forum. Happy Readings!



Chapter Four

Adin blinked. “Kill me?”

The white warrior, Zechs, his mind whispered, shrugged, the movement a sleek contraction of muscles, white-blonde hair slipping over his shoulder and dancing in the breeze that touched only him.

“Well, I will if you make it too easy,” he said, low voice rumbling as Zechs suddenly lunged forward, sword flashing with speed and light. Unconsciously, Adin moved to the side, feeling the wind of the other man’s weapon cut the air where he had been only seconds before. Zechs straightened instantly, as if he had never moved, and eyed him with a sort of detached amusement.

“So, you do still remember some things.”

Adin shook his head, bewildered. He couldn’t describe what had made him move. It had been almost as if he had foreseen Zech’s lunge, had been able to read the other man’s mind with the precision of an assassin. An instinct that warned him of imminent danger.

Inherent self-preservation.

Adin couldn’t explain it.

“I don’t understand what it means,” he said quietly, water swishing around his knees. Zechs raised his sword, the tip level with Adin’s eyes, refracted light glittering on the steel.

“It means Heero is not completely lost, as I thought. Now, prepare yourself.”

This time, Adin saw the lunge clearly and moved backwards, avoiding the swing. Instead of straightening to regain balance, Zechs pushed forward, a white flame dancing on water as he pressed his advantage. Water rippled with the warrior’s movements, it sloshed with Adin’s, hampering his movement. Steel sang through the air, the sound sending shivers along Adin’s spine as he kept up his retreat, his breath rasping in his throat as he realized that Zechs really did mean to kill him. The sword was real and Zech’s attacks held all of his strength. He was quite sure how he knew that, something about the way the other man moved, with precision and an exactness that left no room for doubt.

Zechs wasn’t holding back.

A flare of cold anger ignited in a corner of Adin’s mind.

He was defenseless and still Zechs’ sword sought his heart. He was in a strange world, a strange place, with strange people he had neither forgotten nor remembered and he was expected to know what to do? From the moment he had gotten back into his car outside the old Peacecraft Mansion his life had become something out of a story kids told around campfires. His mind whirled with everything he had learned and now this impressive soldier who could stand on water was trying to kill him.

Enough was enough.

In the middle of a side ways dodge, Adin felt a weight settle over him and his mind cleared of all distractions. He felt nothing. No fear, no anxiety, no happiness. His mind was a void and he could do anything.

A smirk crossed his face and Zechs saw it and paused, sword raised horizontally in front of him, water dripping like music notes from the blade. Adin raised one hand, palm outwards and in front of him, shimmering like a mirage, a sword formed. Ornate and deadly, it was like something out of a dream. He thought not of how it had come to be, only of his mission.

With a grim smile, he gripped the hilt and swung the blade upright, letting the sun flicker off the steel. Zechs raised an eyebrow, the rest of his body as still as stone.

“Hello, Heero.”

They moved together like the lightning Zechs was named after, swords singing and hissing in turns as they swung and were blocked. Colors glittered in the air around them, sometimes coalescing into shapes and images that neither man paid attention to. Their focus was solely on each other.

Suddenly, Heero wavered. Adin blinked. Where had the sword come from?

“No!” The flat of Zechs sword came down hard on Heero’s right shoulder, making him grit his teeth as he raised cobalt eyes to meet the other man’s ice blue gaze. “No, Heero. Pay attention.”

Adin disappeared. Heero lunged forward once more. Zechs nodded even as he blocked the blow. “Good, fight me. Keep your attention here. The other does not exist.”

Without words, Heero began to gain ground, shifting to attack rather than defend. Zechs began to retreat forcing Heero to slosh forward through the knee-high water. Once again, in midstep, Heero lost concentration and Adin began to reassert control. And once again, Zechs’ blade slammed against his other shoulder. Heero grunted.

“The time is now,” Zechs intoned, “You must remember, or return. There are no other choices.” He straightened, lifting his blade away from Heero. “Choose.”

Heero met Zechs stare and opened his mouth to reply.

Zechs sword entered his shoulder and hit the bone.

Pain erupted and blood quickly drenched Heero’s shoulder. He looked over at the wound emotionlessly, making no sound when Zechs pulled the blade free again. A moment later he looked over at the silent, white warrior, saying nothing, questions in his eyes.

“It’s the only way. You have no more time. The world will begin to call you and you’ll go back.” Zechs shook his head, platinum mane flying. “I can’t allow that. She still needs you and if I have to, I will stop Time itself to make her happy.”

Heero closed his eyes. “Thank you.”

He felt the world shift then, in the great lurches he had felt before, only this time he wasn’t afraid, or even uncomfortable. The sound of the waveless ocean receded and the music of crickets chirping forced him to open his eyes again. He was standing in a forest now and it was evening. Fireflies floated past him, glinting like the willow wisps of old. Nighttime insects made a chorus of melodies around him and a slight breeze whispered through the heavy tree branches and ruffled his hair as it passed. His shoulder throbbed with pain but he stepped forward, knowing who had called him and why. He walked past glowing florescent mushrooms and flowers that made the air smell of cinnamon, past a trickling stream that flashed silver and white. He was close. He could almost feel her.

“Heero.”

He turned his head, nothing more, as she appeared from the shadows, dressed in a gown that twinkled like stars, white petals scattered in her long sunflower hair. She glanced at his shoulder before lifting blue-gray eyes to his face, a small smile on her lips. He nodded once.

“Dorothy.”


TBC...