Desination, Part 3 (a behind the scenes UT#296 tie-in)

Destination Part 3 (UT#296 tie-in)

    Liu Xi couldn't help but realized that Exu was right as she awoke hours later. At least she thought it was hours later - with no clocks and no sunrise, only darkness, it was difficult to tell. He was right about her being able to maintain concentration even while asleep. Or perhaps it was his fault.

    Exu wasn't simply asleep when she awoke. He had been lulled back into unconciousness by the pain he was in as well as the warmth of the fire and Liu Xi being close to him. His temperature had come down a little, at least from flirting with the danger zone - the food and the hot bandages she wrapped his wounds in were doing their part helping fight off infection.

    And more importantly, she hadn't faded into oblivion.

    He was right. She started to feel a rhythm to the gentle pull trying to disintegrate her body. Sometimes she would need to close her eyes and concentrate on it. Other times the pull would be so weak that her own will to live kept her solid. It worked not through strength but persistence, because at some point she knew it would wear her down. When she would be starved, dehydrated, and tired, she wouldn't have the strength to resist anymore.

    "Whatever you're doing it's working." Exu whispered cryptically when he awoke. Liu Xi was awake and sitting up but still next to him. The fire was raging atop the altar - she even managed to keep that alive while she was alseep somehow.

    "What's working?" she asked.

    "I'm not losing blood anymore," Exu told her as he moved around to find a more comfortable position atop the makeshift bed of torn pieces of clothing on a stone floor. "And you seem to be whole for the moment."

    "Don't say that," she replied coldly as she furrowed her brow. "Don't remind me. I don't want to have to think about it...it makes this harder."

    "You're better suited to it than I am," Exu said just as he got comfortable and leaned back against the folded fabrics that made up his new pillow. "You're female. You're used to struggling to function a few days a month."

    She turned around and stared at him. "Shut up," she said, sounding disgusted. She thought a moment before finally asking, "If I am so well suited then why do you have no trouble?"

    "I told you, the secret is not to think about it," he repeated. "I'm just saying it's easier for you to learn because--"

    "Don't say that again." Liu Xi warned him.

    Exu sighed and looked up at the ceiling, remaining silent.

    "Do you know why I ask you about the Parody Master?" she asked quietly as she served Exu a bottle of water.

    "You told me, because you want to go home with some intelligence on him." He started sipping the water slowly.

    "It's not the only reason." Liu Xi frowned sadly and looked at him. "Because I feel...frightened that you and the Parody Master know all about me and I know nothing."

    He nodded once, and sipped some more water. "I can understand that."

    "So will you help me?" she asked.

    Exu thought for a moment and sipped a little more water. "First I have a little job for you. There is some metal on this clothing."

    "Metal?" Liu Xi asked.

    "Yes." he nodded. "This is going to be tough so bear with me. If I'm going to survive this you're going to have to sew me up."

    "Excuse me?" She looked worried, her voice sounding small as she suspected what he meant though she was unsure.

    "This is your chance to get back at me for everything I've done to you," Exu replied with a sly smile. "The wound on my chest is too big to heal on its own. I need you to make a needle and stitch me up. And since we don't have anaesthetic--"

    "No." Liu Xi shook her head quickly, sounding panicked. "No, I can't do that."

    "Trust me, it won't hurt much more than the giant hole I have now," he told her. He stared at her, telegraphing the pain he actually felt through his eyes so she could see it...until she finally relented and replied with a simple nod.

    Liu Xi's hands were shaking when she transformed a simple decorative pin from one piece of clothing into a small, narrow, sharp needle with a threading hole in it. She then began pulling dark thick threads off of other clothing and burning it slightly to keep it sterile.

    She brushed her own hair back and hovered over Exu for the longest time before gently and carefully pulling back his bandages. She could see him wince because some of the fabric had stuck to the wound. Blood began pouring out again as she disturbed the delicate scabbing keeping the life fluids inside his body.

    "I'm going to be sick," she complained quietly as she moved the needle closer to the large wound.

    "After you're done if you don't mind," Exu said. He cringed and gritted his teeth as Liu Xi pushed the needle through the edge of his skin and began pulling at it gently. It hurt, a lot...and he almost cried out. But he refused to because he knew that would only discourage Liu Xi from doing what was needed.

    It didn't take nearly as long as Liu Xi thought. She had to overlap the skin in some parts of the wound to make a decent seal, but it worked. She noted that blood was still seeping through the seam, soaking the synthetic threads taken from random clothing.

    At that point she looked at the needle again, and then at Exu. She has an idea to stop the bleeding from draining away the life that she worked so hard to restore within him. "I'm going to...burn you," she whispered, her hand still shaking. "To stop the blood." She sounded absolutely shaken by the whole experience.

    The needle touched the seam in Exu's skin, and the tip was red hot like a soldering iron. He gasped that time, which made Liu Xi hesitate. But unlike the sewing, she could visibly see the blood stop, and she kept going. Once she was done she put the needle on the burning altar to keep it handy, and began soaking a cotton shirt in water to clean up the rest of the blood.

    "Rest if you need to, Exu," Liu Xi told him as she gathered up all the blood contaminated supplies and threw them into the fire.

    Exu smiled weakly, his brow still dripping with sweat. "You would make a beautiful doctor," he gasped. "You probably saved my life."

    "I still feel like I'm going to be sick," she admitted. "But I'm afraid if I do something bad will--"

    She silenced herself suddenly as she heard a rumbling outside, and then the distant howling she heard once in a while from outside seemed much closer. With a wave of her hand she extinguished the fire on the altar and plunged the interior of the templed into complete darkness and quiet.

    "It's the hero feeders," Exu whispered.

    "What do we do?" Liu Xi moved closer to Exu so she could feel he was nearby. She didn't want him to be eaten, nor to suddenly realize she was the only one left.

    "What we're doing now," he replied. "Wait it out. If we attack one it will call for others. We can't fight them all."

    "Can they smell us?" Liu Xi asked quietly.

    "Thankfully the fire you set prevents that." Exu smiled, though he knew she couldn't see it.

    "But it knows there was a fire," Liu Xi pointed out. "It probably will look to see who set it."

    "It can't come in here."

    She finally relaxed once she realized that the creature outside couldn't simply go through walls. She hoped it wasn't strong enough to push open the heavy stone door either. "Why does this temple have such a heavy door?"

    "This room wasn't originally for hiding and sleeping," he replied. "People would drop off big items made of gold and silver, so the door would have to be opened by a lot of people for security. I guess the door didn't work so well because that stuff isn't here anymore."

    "So much for no honor among theives," Liu Xi whispered. "A few must have worked together to clean the place out."

    "Kind of gives you hope, doesn't it?" Exu asked quietly. "People with nothing in common but an ugly past working together for a common goal."

    Liu Xi stared at him through the darkness but said nothing. She knew exactly what he was implying.

    "Light the fire back up, it's getting cold in here."

    "The hero feeder will find us!" Liu Xi protested quietly.

    "With the fire burning, it will know there is a fire," Exu told her. "With no fire it will smell us. Or at least me, because of the blood. I guess you could leave me here and run away if you have to."

    "I won't." Liu Xi sounded determined, and that burst of emotion bled through when she re-lit the fire in a sudden flare of heat. "I don't want to fail."

    "Do we have plenty of supplies?" Exu asked her.

    Liu Xi quickly looked over the inventory of cans, boxes, water, and clothing material she picked up earlier. "For a few days, maybe a week. Maybe longer if we don't use much."

    Exu nodded. "We need to start conserving now." He groaned as he changed position. "Because we're under siege. Hero feeders win because they're patient. They'll wait for all eternity if they have to for someone to open that door."

    "We don't have forever," Liu Xi pointed out. "We will either starve to death or fade away first."

    "They know that too, Liu Xi." Exu noted. "Before that happens we have to figure out how to either fight or elude them."

    "We will be rescued," Liu Xi insisted. She listened quietly to another howling noise - as close as the last, but no closer. "They are staying away?" she asked herself.

    "They're just watching," Exu explained. "As I said, patient. They have all of eternity."

    She sat silent for a moment, watching her own perpetual flame burning atop the altar, thinking. The only thing she could come up with was, "Something is keeping them at bay," she noted. "It's not just the door."

    "Sharp as usual," Exu smiled triumphantly. "It's you keeping them at bay, and your friends. The fact that we haven't been devoured already means they haven't given up on you."

    "I don't understand." Liu Xi shook her head.

    "Hero feeders are here because everything here is obsolete. Things that aren't relevant to the Parodyverse and its stories. As long as your friends are at home talking about you, and you're at the center of your own story they can't take you."

    "But they can take you," Liu Xi noted passively. Her eyes saddened and she repeated, "they can take you."

    Exu nodded sadly. "Because the Parody Master can replace me at will. I've been rewritten so many times, the current incarnation of me is of little consequence to the Parodyverse. Liu Xi...you're unique, there is only one of you. You're so rare that you can't be replaced."

    "Exu--" Liu Xi began to say in a soft voice.

    "The way I see it," he interrupted her to continue, his voice beginning to sound hoarse, "You have two choices. You can leave me here and try to escape on your own...or you can murder one of those people in suspended animation and return me to full strength, so I can fight the hero feeder."

    "We'll be rescued," she repeated again. This time when she repeated that, she started to understand that it was the hope of rescue that kept them both safe, not just her. "And I will bring you back safely," she added with more determination.

    Exu stared at the fire as Liu Xi spoke, noting that it seemed to remain steady. Her concentration was improving. The stones near the altar were starting to give off a comforting heat.

    "Get some rest," she told him softly, her voice sounding emotional yet confident. "You need to heal."

    "What will you do while I rest?" he asked.

    She shrugged and began sifting through the remaining coats and clothing. "I think I need to make better blankets," she said.

    "Did you think about why I'd want to help you survive long enough for a rescue when your friends will probably just lock me up?"

    "I have been thinking about it," Liu Xi admitted. She gave him an amused look, like she knew why and found it funny.

    Exu looked hurt for a moment before he closed his eyes and leaned back, intent on catching up on some rest.


TO BE CONTINUED?

-- Story written and copyrighted (C) 2006 by Jason Froikin, and may not be
-- reprinted without permission.
-- Liu Xi Xian, Yuki Shiro, Lara Night, Chiaki Bushido (Psychic Samurai) (C) 2006 by Jason Froikin, all rights reserved
-- All other characters property of their respective owners

Post By Anime Jason Sat Nov 25, 2006 at 01:39:32 am EST	Subject Desination, Part 3 (a behind the scenes UT#296 tie-in)

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