Fushigi Yuugi Fan Fiction ❯ In Dreams ❯ Chapter 4 ( Chapter 4 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Disclaimer: I own no Fushigu Yuugi Characters, Places or Ideas.



Jennifer looked around herself curiously. She was in a dream, she knew that much, but usually her dreams were of fantasy worlds that she had created or read about, never something like this. She was surrounded by black marble, and in front of her was a matching dais. There were tapestries covering most of the black marble walls. All of them seemed to be lined with white satin, which greatly contrasted with all of the black things that were present in the hall. She looked up on the dais and saw that now there was someone sitting on a throne that she hadn't noticed. She looked closely at the person and admired his black robes, which were also lined with white satin. "I see that you do not recognize my Hall from when you were last here." The man spoke with a deep and amused voice. Her eyes widened with his words. Of course, how could she forget, this was the Hall of Kaelar, somewhere in the realms of the gods. Black was the color that represented him and the white was the color of mourning. Meaning that the inhabitants of the tapestries were past followers who had died. He laughed a little at her surprise.

"You are here because you doubt that it was my will that sent you to the place that you know as the Universe of the Four Gods." She nodded mutely and he continued, "Know that I did send you there and that you are my one and only Seishi. As you know, you are my only follower in that world because of that, I could not grant you a powerful gift with which you could complete your task. The only power that you have is the ability to sense the other Seishi. You know who and where they are. I gave you this because I believed that it would help you be able to keep as many of them alive as possible. You guessed correctly when you said that I believed in preserving life above all things and that your task was to keep the Seishi alive." He paused and looked down at her fondly.

"When the summoning of Suzaku and Seiryu and all that went with it had originally ended, they came to me with a request. They wanted me to devise a way to keep as many of their Seishi from dying an unnatural death as possible. Time does not affect us as it does you mortals, so I agreed with too conditions. One was that Suzaku end his feud with Seiryu, for it was him that started it and kept it going, even though it is hard to believe. The second condition was that Mark be born as a brother to the Seishi Amiboshi and Suboshi, but in your world." He smirked at her a bit, "You see, I haven't been ignoring you or your pain, I sent Mark to you. I knew that you would need someone to care about you and to help you overcome your pain. I also knew that if Amiboshi hadn't resembled Mark, you never would have trusted him, let alone any of the other Seishi.

"But there is a condition for you as well," he sighed a little before continuing. "You must help both the Suzaku Warriors and those of Seiryu. Otherwise, I have no legitimate reason for having you there, and it would seem as if I was backing out on part of my deal with the two gods. I have no more power than they, and even less when I manifest within their world. Please do this. You are the only one who can." He looked at her imploringly. She had never thought that a god should look at a follower like that, but this was Kaelar and he wasn't a typical god. He cared more for his people than most, thus Mark.

"But... Why me? Why can't it be someone else?" She didn't know why, but she was on the verge of tears, standing here, in front of her god.

"Because you are the only one who I believe will be able to save all of the Seishi. At least, all of the Seishi that can be saved." He said the last part a little more quietly than the rest and she made a note to remember that when she woke up. Kaelar was leaning a little off of his throne and toward her, as if he were fighting the urge to embrace her, which, being that it was Kaelar, he probably was. "I have seen you. I know that you can. You are saving lives you are creating peace. No one else would have understood the importance of Amiboshi being told of his brother's acts by either Suboshi or Tamahome, themselves. Anyone else would have just went out and told him. Please Jennifer, will you do this for me? For them?" He gestured behind him to where there stood three groups of people. One was the Suzaku Seishi; with all of them bloodied and dying, but for Tasuki and Chichiri. Another was of the Seiryu Seishi, all of them bloodied, with none left standing alive. The last was of all of the together, with the exception of two glowing shadows hovering above them. One with a red ambiance was Nuriko, but the one with a blue ambiance had a shadowed face and the images faded before she could discern who was missing from the crowd of Seiryu Seishi, the only one that she remembered seeing was Ashitare.

She looked back at Kaelar, tears actually running down her cheeks. "I will. I'll do it to save them." He nodded, satisfied.

"Then I'll leave you to your dreams," the black hall began to fade, "But do not forget, little one. Even before I preserve life, I make the necessary fights fair to all sides." Before she could puzzle through the meaning of his words her dream flashed to a scene with a dragon sweeping down upon a helpless village.



Jennife r woke up early the next morning. She got up to relieve herself and then made her bed. She sat cross-legged on top of it watching Miaka sleep and listening to her mumble the names of various kinds of food in her sleep. Jennifer tried to think of a way to word what she had to say. She had to tell them that she had to stay behind and wait for Nakago and Suboshi and that none of them could stay with her. She was having problems because she wasn't sure that she wanted to be left alone in her own mind. When the sun first began to show through the un-shuttered window Miaka finally began to stir. Jennifer had sensed some of the others, namely Chichiri and Mitsukake walking around for the past half hour. Miaka yawned and looked over at her curiously. Jennifer only shrugged and Miaka pulled some clothes on before leaving to get something to eat.

The others woke around that time and followed Miaka's path down to eat. Jennifer just sat on her bed, trying to put her hair into some semblance of order. She got up at one point to make her task easier by stealing Miaka's brush. She was still smoothing it down when Amiboshi poked his head inside the door. "Can I come in?" She nodded and he came in and sat on Miaka's still messy bed. He sighed a bit before he spoke, "I had a dream. Mark knows. But he doesn't understand. He thinks that it's his fault that you're gone. The pain he felt when he realized what had happened, it woke me up, which, of course, sent him right back to sleep. I think that Suboshi believes that it was I who was in pain and that he's only going to try to get here faster." He didn't notice that a small crowd was forming on the other side of door. Jennifer could only see Tasuki, but she felt the others' presence.

"We have to leave as soon as possible, I'll tell the others, but I wanted you to know first, just because of what it was." He moved to get up and she turned away from him and toward the window.

"They are already in the city. You should all leave with as much speed as possible." He seemed to not understand the meaning of her words because he just kept moving, but Tasuki's very loud gasp from the door and the sound of the slap that Tamahome gave him to shut his mouth showed that they understood what she meant. She turned back to see Amiboshi facing her again, eyes narrowed, his arm reached out toward the partially opened door.

"Are you saying that you aren't coming?" He turned his head slightly, as if he thought that he had heard wrong. Jennifer's mind flashed warning signals that he was acting strangely, but she couldn't guess how or why. She narrowed her own eyes but answered in an even tone.

"Yes, I am. Kaelar spoke to me last night and told me of my task. He said that I had to save the lives of the Seishi, all of them." She heard Tasuki gasp again and then start cursing. That started a fight on the other side of the door which led to everyone falling into the room with them. Tamahome untangled himself from the mass first and stared at her with evil looking eyes. She only stood up in her best pose as a Drum Major calling on all of the authority she had ever wielded. She looked him straight in the eyes and without fear. She knew what he was going to say and she had half expected it. She had only hoped that Amiboshi wouldn't be present when it did happen.

"I don't care what your god said, I don't care that he's Amiboshi's brother, I will NOT let you save my families murderer. If he is destined to die, then he deserves it and more. Amiboshi came back, but where is my family?" Tamahome was screaming and the others were shrinking back in fear. Amiboshi was looking at Tamahome with wild eyes and Jennifer could tell that he couldn't believe what he was hearing. His eyes were as wide as Jennifer was sure that hers had been when she'd first arrived in this world. The others were slowly backing out of the door. They knew that it wasn't place to be there anymore and that they didn't want to get involved in what was about to happen. Jennifer wished that she could just slink out too, but she knew that her place was here.

"What did you say my brother did?" Amiboshi growled out the words and Jennifer was suddenly hit with the side of Amiboshi that she had never seen before, but had vaguely knew was there, just chosen to ignore: the protective older brother side. He was looming over Tamahome now, which would have been entertaining at any other time because Tamahome was actually taller than Amiboshi, but given the current situation, it was terrifying rather than funny.

"I said that he murdered all of my family in "revenge" of your death. He killed every last child. They are all gone. I am the very last of my family. Jie-Lian was only five years old and he slaughtered her for no reason. You were still alive. You came back. But where is my family? How are they going to come back now?" Tears were now pouring down Tamahome's cheeks and Jennifer mentally cowered in fear. The look of a primal need for vengeance that was so evident in Tamahome's face was equally matched by the anger and denial in Amiboshi's. She didn't know what she was supposed to do, only that it had to be something, and before they came to blows, because if that happened Amiboshi wouldn't make it out alive. She threw herself between the two of them. Amiboshi backed up as fast as he could, but Tamahome didn't move, he just continued to glare.

"Stop it Tamahome! If you kill Amiboshi, or if Suboshi dies, then Nakago will live. That is, unless you're willing to give up another Suzaku Warrior. For every Seiryu that dies so must a Suzaku. Right now, because of Nuriko's death, the scales are not yet balanced. If you kill Amiboshi or Suboshi, then they will level out, allowing Nakago to go free. That's why I have to wait here for them. I need to save Suboshi and Tomo's lives so that I can take Nakago's when the time comes. Trust me. And if you can't, trust in Suzaku because it was he who petitioned to Kaelar for aid for his Seishi. I don't make the rules, I just follow them." Tamahome relaxed and then kneeled on the ground in shame, with tears still falling down his face.

"I'm sorry Jennifer, and I am sorry to you too Amiboshi. I just... It's so hard. I can't help it sometimes. And now Miaka is all of the family that I have left and we can't even love each other until she summons Suzaku." Amiboshi came behind him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"It is alright. I understand. You have a right to be upset. I know what it's like to lose family; I just hope that I don't have to lose any more." He looked up at Jennifer and she unexpectedly flushed at his words. She didn't know why, just that she felt connected to him in some way... Maybe he knew how she had been feeling about Mark just before she had come. She blushed even more at the thought and then focused on what was in front of her. The scene was symbolic and a major turning point in the events that were to come. They had finally passed the first hurdle. Hopefully they would be able to pass over the others as well.



Mark tossed and turned in his sleep. All that he could see was a hateful glare being shot at him with a challenge that he knew he could never survive. His dream vision cleared as he saw Jennifer standing in front of him again. The man who had been glaring at him moved to the ground and spoke words that Mark could not understand. He felt himself go over to the kneeling man and speak some wprds in reply. He looked up into Jennifer's eyes as he spoke the next words. As they passed his lips he felt a familiar wave of love go out to the girl of his dreams, or Mark's reality. Mark's sleeping form reached out to her, but met only empty air as the dream faded into darkness once more.

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"Sorry about the short chapter, but I wanted to get some explanations in and I also wanted to thank all of my reviewers. Bronze Dagger, iloveredheadswithfangs, and Ryochan8. I really appriciate all of your support and getting reviews does make me type faster. Or rather, stay up later to type longer. Any questions please email me!"
-Tk.DuVeraun