From: Save Address Block Sender Date: Sun, 12 Jul 1998 16:23:39 EDT Subject: Aftermath Please excuse the messed-up paragraph formatting! ^_^ Thanks! time: right after the battle with the reavers. *** Teri almost threw herself into the water, her eyes glazed-- Stana could see the near-dementia in her friend as Teri got closer and closer to being clean.. Stana would have found this funny, if she herself wasn't still shaking from the fight. Monsters, blood, bite marks in her shoulder, gore splattered all over her face and her one change of clothes-- this was too much, too much for a simple farm girl to handle. college classes and "REAL LIFE" had never prepared her for this-- her fantasy expereince back home had never touched this degree of carnage.. much less spewed it all over her.. She shuddered, and splashed the cold water on her face. More than anything she wanted to go home. Teri had ripped off her shirt, plunged it into the water, and was fanatically scrubbing it. The half foot of lake above her hands was tinged a greenish red from the gore as she struggled to clean her shirt-- Stana noticed the silence and looked up-- and nearly face faulted into the water. She darted a glance over her shoulder, but the two men were engrossed in their own post-massacre activities-- "Teri!" she snapped, but the girl didn't look up, instead focusing wide-eyed on the shirt under the water, mumbling "must get clean" over and over... "TERI!" she reached over and shook her friend. Teri's eyes locked with Stana's for a moment before recognition flashed across her face. "What?" she said hoarsely, her forearms dripping. Stana's eyes flickered quickly to Teri's bra and then back again meaningfully. Teri flushed under the blood--- and the result was barely noticeable. "What's WRONG WITH YOU?" Stana shouted as she grabbed the sopping tank top and threw it at Teri. It hit her stomach with a wet slap. Teri blinked and opened her mouth to reply-- but Stana was already continuing. "The last thing I need is for you to go psycho on me! put your shirt back on. Good Lord give me strength. Where is your modesty girl?!" Teri eyes were still glassy as she held the tank top-- "but.." she dove towards the water, plunged the shirt back in, this time bringing it up to scrub fiercely at her face and neck. "I'm almost done-- almost.." she said, her voice tinged, the shirt rubbing the drying blood from her face- Stana watched, jaw slack as Teri, with frenzied energy, mopped every last bit of filth from herself until she was gleaming clean. Wet, but clean. The girl had gone so far as to stick her head under the water to rinse her hair-- despite Stana's protestation that there might be more of those creatures, and was she totally, completely insane? Teri sat back on her heels and sighed, clean. Then she turned to Stana, the gleam back in her eyes. Stana's eyes widened. She lifted her hands to ward the younger girl off. "No.. no, get away.." Teri's lips curled into a grin. "But you're dirty..." she replied, still grinning... Stana fell over herself backing up, wincing at the pain but grinning herself- "get away from me with that--you're NOT thinking clearly--" she giggled as Teri tackled her and began mopping her face with the sodden shirt-- "Stop it that tickles!" she screamed, still giggling as they continued wrestling and splashing at the edge of the lake... *** <>> ((Stana the narrator thinks Teri the narrator dreams too much)) *** While the two went to clean up (although Shinji couldn't imagine why they would do that with the danger of another attack...), he had gone back to the bodies of the Reavers that lay piled up around the lake. As he weaved his way between the corpses, he carefully observed the slash wounds and broken limbs that marred their already hideous appearances. The slash marks were clean and very lethal, at the most only three or four per monster. His kills, on the other hand, were slightly more. . . brutal. The arms and legs of several were twisted and hanging at impossible angles, to name a few. He was tired. His arms ached. He was still sort of detached. Well, he had wanted training, he had goten it, hadn't he? Smiling grimly, he turned and walked back the way he came. As he was nearing their point of entry, his glance fell upon the two stiff cadavers laying near the water. He stopped and stared with a sort of blank, empty understanding. The hand prints on the chests of the reavers were dark and pronounced against the reddish skin. He raised his right hand slightly and looked down at it. They had gotten in his way. He had had a right to do what he did, hadn't he? They were the enemy. They were evil. Evil. . . his gaze once again dropped to his hand. For the longest time he just stood there, a dozen thoughts going through his head. Evil. Monster. Demon. The last one seemed to stay there, somehow mocking him for something he couldn't understand. "Demon. Demon! DEMON!" the word echoed in his mind. He gritted his teeth angrily. He felt empty. He felt alone, despite that his friends were so very near. Yes, friends, but demons didn't have friends, did they? What was he thinking?! He wasn't a demon! And yet. . . Now his hand felt so very dirty, although in reality it was no less dirty than the rest of him. So very dirty, and so very heavy, too. He held his hand up to his shoulder level, keeping it away from the rest of him, as if it was diseased and he didn't want any other part to get contaminated. He reached the water and immersed his hand. There. Now it should be alright, shouldn't it? The dried blood and grime on his hand fell away, dissolving into the clear water. Clean. Somehow that seemed like a big joke. For some reason, he knew that even if he left his hand in the water till it was shriveled like a prune, his hand still wouldn't be clean. It was dirty. Tainted. Corrupted? He looked into his reflection, a mirror image that stared up at him like some perfect double, separated onl by the thin surface of the lake. He saw the dirt and small splotches of blood on his face. Corrupted. Why did he feel this way? There was nothing different about his appearance, aside from the mask of grime that covered him, and yet he felt different. Not physically, he was tired, but other than that pretty much the same. No, he didn't feel different because something was added, he felt different because something was missing. When he went down, under those murky waves, he had lost something. No. Not when he went down. When he came up. When those two things died. The word came back to him again. Demon. He gritted his teeth and clenched his eyes shut. Why? Why was he feeling this way? WHY DID HE FEEL INCOMPLETE?! A single, sorrowful tear dropped from the corner of his eye and dropped into the water. His double's image was blurred as the tear sent ripples across the glassy surface. Why. . .? * * * "You know what Stana?" the younger girl asked as they both gasped for breath, dangling their feet in the water and watching the now-normal seeming lake. "What?" "Neither of those boys even so much as LOOKED at us.." Teri trailed off, her face perplexed. "Were you expecting something?" She hadn't, at least not directed her way. "No.. yeah, i guess.. Hmm.. Maybe guys in this place are just.. more mature than where we come from." Stana chuckled. "Yeah, guys are pretty infantile back home-- but i wouldnt' go so far as to think they're any better here." Stana remembered one too many close-minded, arrogant snaps from Clip to agree with Teri on that one. "But-- Come ON, two girls wrestling-- and me without my shirt on?" The tank top had long since been re-donned, once Teri had come out of her cleaning frenzy. Stana had stopped her before she attempted to clean her shorts. "Ok, granted-- normally guys would be gathered around drooling over their sick fantasies of multiple women g--" Stana stopped, blushing. "Well, you know what I mean." Teri sighed at the only other possible explanation. Since she had never come across a mature guy who didn't ultimately think with his.. well. yeah. Anyway.. since she had never met a guy who didn't fit the stereotype-- the only other possible explanation to explain why both Shinji and Clip had been so completely uninterested had to be... "They must be gay." Stana face-faulted. "What?!" "What other explanation ist here?!" "Oh come on--" "No, think about it! we dont' knwo what this place is like, or even where we are-- but guys can't be THAT differnet. They wouldnt' be guys!" "There's gotta be some guys out there that have morals and aren't immediately sparked to-- by--" "Have YOU met any?" Stana thought long and hard. "I rest my case." "There HAS to be..." "Well, i too, retain that hope-- but until one comes along, I'm forced to act on what i've KNOWN.." Stana chuckled as she wrung water from her pants. "I hear ya." "So then.." "Does it matteR?" "No of course not. I'm just curious, that's all." "It's a little early to make that sort of prejudgement, isnt' it?" "Wait-- aren't you religious or something?" "I wouldn't call it religion but what's that gotta do with anything?" Teri shrugged. "I don't pretend to knwo the first thing abotu that sorta stuff. I'm just blabbing. No, it doens't matter, and yes, it's early, but i was just being jokingly dumb." Stana grinned. Suddenly Teri's smile faded... Why. . . that question seemed to echo from every direction at once. Teri looked about mystified. Her power only allowed the transmission of emotion, didn't it? But the emotion followed soon enough. A wave of emotion, anger, sadness, and yet also realezation, small but distinct, flooded her mind. Her heart sank just slightly, like the way it might when you find out one of your favorite toys was stepped on and broken. She placed her palm to her chest, drawing Stana's attention. "What's the matter? Are you okay?" she said, seeing the slightly blank stare on her friends face. Teri shook out of it then looked to Stana. "Huh? Oh, uh, no, I'm fine. For a second there I just thought I heard something," she answered. No, felt something was more like it. Something sad, and so very, very alone... "But it's nothing." "Now you're hearing things?" Teri grinned. "Shut up." Stana shook her head. "You're going crazier by the moment!" "Not my fault that I get saddled with this stupid gift and you get that really handsome travelling partner and a talent for alchemy." Stana shook her head at the alchemy reference, not buying it. "Talk about set up and sedate." Teri grinned some more. "Hey, you're welcome to have him. I've never met a more arogant, self- absorbed.." Stana shook her head. "Speaking of which, where IS clip?" "Off to your right," Teri said, without even looking, herself. STana blinked, confused, then followed Teri's directions. Sure enough-- about five hundred feet to her right, Clip was cleaning his blade, lost in thought. Stana turned back to her friend-- "How'd you know that?" Teri looked at stana, and tried to smile. "I can feel him, dummy. He's not too happy either." She glanced at Clip, and her face seemed to soften a bit. Stana noted this, to file away for future thought. This was the last person Teri should get a tender spot for. "I'd better go check on him," She said, standing up. Teri nodded, and remained sitting, her toes still in the water. "Can I have some of that tea, if you have a chance?" Teri asked softly, not looking up. Stana didn't bother to hide her startlement, since the girl wasnt' looking at her. She usually had to force the stuff down Teri's throat-- that she would ask for it baffled Stana. She'd talk to the girl about that, too, if she ever got the chance... Stana sighed, refocusing her mind to Clip. Not that she hadn't been grateful but the fact that he had leapt to their rescue suprised the heck outta her. Probably shocked him too. "Clip?" she inquired gently, watching him glance up startled. His muscles bunched in a way that would have sent him leaping out of the way...if he was in another body. If he had been a Unicorn. "Look-" she stopped helplessly, lost in his hostile gaze. She could see he was tearing up inside, going in two seperate directions. She was afraid to ask how much nearer to true mortality this battle had pulled him. "Thank you." She finally said "I know how much you told me this costs you." That was good, she had tactfully avoided him telling her she couldn't understand his predicament. Maybe she was getting the hang of this diplomacy stuff after all. "I cannot accept your gratitude." he answered flatly "for truly I had no intention of doing what I did." She shrugged "You did it anyway. And I thank you for it." After looking and seeing no fresh injuries screaming for her attention she started to leave. "You are untouched mortal are you not?" Blood suffused to her face at the blatant rudeness of the inquiry. "Not that it's any of your buisness but-" He nodded "It explains much." He didn't seem to happy about this developement. "I knew more surely at one time...now remembering is difficult." How sad this. Two girls trapped out of world, one who hated blood forced into medicine, the other hearing inner voices and emotions, A Unicorn losing himself to a scorned mortal existence, and a boy who was mystery enigma squared carrying some weird karma.... Stana sighed and walked away.